When life gives you Lemon, grab him
Argos’ new defensive end had career year with Stubler, Calgary two years ago
On the grand scale of weird things happening in the CFL — and there may be no grander scale in all of sports — the plot twist that Shawn Lemon’s career took this week won’t register as an all-timer.
On Saturday, two days after the Toronto Argonauts had downed the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Regina, Lemon was traded to Toronto, the defensive end’s stay with the Riders coming to an abrupt end just six months after he had signed with the team as a free agent.
He saw limited action in the Riders’ season-opening loss on Thursday, amid rumours that the Riders were shopping him.
Lemon didn’t have to move very far, at least initially. The Argos spent the past week in Saskatchewan, practising at the Riders’ venue, Mosaic Stadium, through the afternoons, in prep for their Thursday night meeting with the B.C. Lions in Vancouver.
So when he wasn’t practising on his former team’s field, he got to spend a few more days in the house he shares in Regina with his fiancée, the two having moved out there prior to the start of training camp at the end of May.
She is handling the logistics of the move, Lemon said from the team’s bus on Tuesday, on his way to the airport. He’s handling the football side of things.
Lemon’s situation was strange, but in a league that has had the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Ottawa Rough Riders play for a Grey Cup, or seen teams draft dead players (that happened twice in the 1990s), it’s not on the Mount Rushmore of CFL oddities.
“One thing I’ve learned to realize in my professional career is that nothing seems to surprise me at this point,” said Lemon, who has also called Winnipeg, Edmonton and Calgary home in the CFL. “I was thinking about so much going on with learning to play (a new defence). I wasn’t thinking about anything else.”
Argos defensive co-ordinator Rich Stubler should make Lemon’s transition to a new team a smooth one. He coached Lemon in Edmonton in 2011, and in Calgary in 2014, where Lemon had a career year, with 26 tackles, 13 quarterback sacks and eight forced fumbles. That year opened up the NFL door for him, though stays with the Pittsburgh Steelers and San Francisco 49ers didn’t work out.
“When he became available here, it was a no-brainer for us to pick up a good pass rusher,” Stubler said, adding Lemon would get into Thursday’s game in B.C. “He’s an immensely gifted player.”
Whether he didn’t fit in Riders coach and GM Chris Jones’ defence is irrelevant to Lemon. He’s reunited with Stubler and defensive line coach Kit Lathrop from his time in Edmonton and says he’s ready to show his dominance in the CFL for another year.
After four days with a high potential for awkwardness in Regina behind him, Lemon is moving on with his new team.
“One thing about me is I’ve always embraced playing with a chip on my shoulder,” he said of the trade. “It’s definitely a good thing for me going into the season right now.”