NFL veteran Covington comes home and signs deal with B.C. Lions

The past few years have been the biggest test of Christian Covington's faith, emotions, drive and sanity.

The Vancouver native was an NFL regular in the first seven years of his career, playing in over 100 games with Houston, Dallas, Denver, and the L.A. Chargers.

On Sunday Night Football, in November of 2022, Covington joined a parade of Chargers who left the game against the San Francisco 49ers with injuries. But the defensive tackle didn't know it would be his last game in the NFL — for now.

He missed the final eight games of the season, and the Bolts cut him loose. Covington signed with the Detroit Lions, and was released three months later, returning to the Chargers on the practice squad.

But no game time, no active roster. And the seismic change was hard for the 30-year-old to adjust to.

“It was humbling,” he said Thursday over a Zoom call.

“It was a test on my mental state. ... I took that as a challenge to test myself to see how much I really love this game at the end of the day.”

There were plenty of long talks with himself, God, parents Natalie and Grover Covington, and in the end, long talks with the B.C. Lions, too. As the months went by, the NFL Draft came and went, the 6-foot-2, 280-pound lineman looked at his options, and kept coming back to one: coming home.

The Lions and Covington made it official Wednesday. He was signing with the Leos.

“That fire, that passion has never gone away,” he said, adding he has shed 35 pounds and is down to his high school playing weight. “The opportunity presented itself for me to be able to play in B.C. and I wanted to take full advantage of that.

“I'm glad I'm here. I'm ready to work. I am. I'm hungry as ever. That's really my biggest thing. I have so much football left in me.

“This is not me, like, `Oh, I'm finishing my career in the CFL, this is the end for me.' No, I'm still going. I'm only 30 years old. I am motivated. I'm determined.

“I just know that football is not done with me and I'm not done with football.”

The timing is perfect — perhaps even poetically serendipitous.

The off-season saw the B.C. Lions lose their record-breaking sack machine in Mathieu Betts to the Detroit Lions and tackle Steven (Stove) Richardson to retirement. The defensive line suddenly looked young and untested. Covington fixes that, with the team expecting elite play and veteran leadership from him.

But he also returns to the league that his father starred in during his playing days, a sparkling career that sent him to the Hall of Fame. Grover Covington won one Grey Cup in his career, leading his Hamilton Tiger-Cats to a dominant 3915 win over Edmonton in 1986, his three-sack, two forced-fumble performance earning him defensive MVP honours.

The site of the game? The same as this year's — B.C. Place.

“You spin that however you want to spin it,” Christian said with a laugh. “I just think that timing is perfect. I didn't plan it to be this way. God is good in that regard.

“The pressure's on, right? ... He's

thrilled to have me in this league. He's thrilled I'll be able to play in front of my hometown, to be able to go back home here. I know what this means to him.”

Covington's arrival isn't without consequence. It directly resulted in the release of D-lineman David Menard on Thursday, a move lamented by co-GM and director of football operations Neil McEvoy.

“It's just unfortunately salary-cap wise, but we do have to find the room,” said McEvoy. “And David Menard will be that individual to start that process, which is too bad because I love David. He's a B.C. Lion. When I think of the B.C. Lions, that's the face that comes up. So, bittersweet.”

McEvoy was in the war room in 2015 with Wally Buono and Jeff Tedford when they drafted Covington in the fifth round, 43rd overall. He was the top prospect available that year, but the Texans had taken him in the sixth round of the NFL Draft the month before.

The pick B.C. used came via a trade from — and yet another coincidence — his dad's old team, Hamilton. It only took nine years and 106 NFL games, but the Lions got their guy.

“It worked out exactly as we thought it would,” McEvoy joked.

“A couple months ago when he called and said this is something he might want to pursue, obviously he wasn't ready yet. And he wanted to wait for the NFL Draft to finish that process. We told him from the get-go, `Don't commit to something until you're 100 per cent ready' because professional football, as he knows, is not easy — regardless on what side of the border you're on.”

“Man, he sure has been great to talk to,” added head coach Rick Campbell.

“He's definitely doing it for the right reasons. That's not a guy you want to try to talk into doing it. It was definitely him wanting to do it.”