The old saying is, “You can take the boy off the farm, but you can’t take the farm out of the boy.”
This off-season, Saskatchewan Roughriders returner Mario Alford is going back to his roots as he gets ready for the upcoming season.
The Most Outstanding Special Teams Player in the Canadian Football League (CFL) in 2022 joined “The Professor” Don Hewitt and Sean Kleisinger on Tuesday’s edition of the SportsCage.
During the winter months, Alford says he spends most of the time shuttling between North Carolina, Georgia and West Virginia.
When the former Mountaineer is back in West Virginia, he spends time working on the farm.
As many farmers in Saskatchewan can attest to, Alford says farming life, is a busy life.
“Being on the farm, there’s always something to do, you always going to get work done, it’s never a day where you can rest on the farm.”
One notable difference in the farming lifestyle in West Virginia compared to Saskatchewan is the landscape, especially the elevation according to Alford.
“The farm, there are a lot of hills. ” He added, “It’s really not flat land at the farm, so when you got cows that get loose, so you’re trying to bring the cow into the cow pen at the same time, it’s just hard man, they just don’t want to do what they suppose to do, so many different ways to go, so they give me a run for my money for sure up and down those hills.”
Chasing cattle sounds like ideal training for a player involved in special teams, but Alford is hopeful to have an expanded role on the Roughriders offence this season. New offensive coordinator Kelly Jeffrey has indicated there will be a role for the 32-year-old in the green-and-white offensive scheme in 2023.
“I definitely want to be out there in some offence.” said Alford.
He added that his presence on the field is enough to cause problems for opposing defences.
“When guys see me in the game they know something is up.”
One move that the Riders made in the off-season that could allow for more offensive snaps for Alford is the signing of wide receiver Shawn Bane Jr. Saskatchewan also have the option of using running backs Jamal Morrow and Frankie Hickson in the return game if needed. The majority of Alford’s offensive stats in the CFL came in 2018 as a member of the Toronto Argonauts. Since that time, the returner has played primarily special teams with Montreal and the Roughriders.
With the Grey Cup festivities taking place in Regina including the player awards ceremonies, the Roughriders added some sizzle to the celebrations by announcing a new contract for Alford just prior to him winning the Most Outstanding Special Teams Player Award. He was happy to take care of the contract details early in the free agent process.
“It make you feel good and make you feel like worthy of wanting it.”
After an amazing debut in Saskatchewan in 2022, Rider Nation will be waiting to see what Alford can do for an encore in his second season with Saskatchewan.
