The road to 1,000 yards didn’t come easy for Dedrick Mills.
A year ago, the Stampeders’ leading rusher was enduring one of the hardest times in his life.
Following the unexpected deaths of a family member and a friend in the spring of 2024, Mills found himself in a dark place and needed to take time away from the team.
“I got into a little trouble last year,” said Mills. “It really made me sit back and look at what I was doing in my life and made me ask, ‘What could I change? What could I do better?’
“It one of the worst times of my life,” he said. “I was spending everyday drinking, smoking and partying. I kept telling myself, ‘Things aren’t going right. Every time I turn around, there’s always a problem – I’m late, I’m this, I’m that. I’m like, ‘What can I change? What can I do?’ ”
It wasn’t until Mills met his now fiancée Jasmine, to whom he proposed three weeks ago, he was able to find his footing again.
“I met my girl during that rough time, and she really grounded me,” he said. “There were certain things she wasn’t going for and if I wanted to be with her, I had to stop certain things and just cut all the dumb stuff out.
“And that’s what I did, because I really liked her, I was falling in love with her. The love that I have for her made me want to be better. It made me want to do good, so I started off with getting close to God, number one.”
Mills says the spiritual work he’s done has helped him to where he’s at today.
“God’s always there,” said Mills. “He’s always that light at the end of the tunnel for me. I can ask Him a question and sometimes the answer might not always come right away, but I just know He’s working. I can feel and see things around me that’s showing me the answer, so I just give it all to Him.”
Mills has also leaned on teammates Malik Henry and Dominique Rhymes and used team chaplain Rodd Sawatzky and mental performance health coach Matt Brown as resources during his healing process.
Henry shares how proud of the person Mills has become over the past year.
“Dedrick, he’s from Georgia so I consider him like a brother to me, somebody that’s close to me that understands home,” Henry said. “He was just somebody that I wanted to take under my wing and help him out.
“It’s been good to see that accountability from Dedrick. I think he lacked a little bit of accountability last year and then this year seeing him have a thousand-yard season and be as good as he’s been, is just a testament to all the work he’s done.
“He’s surrounding himself with good people, people who have the best intentions for him.”
Henry, who has been dealing with his own battles over the past three years after suffering back-to-back season-ending injuries, credits Mills for riding through the tough times with him.
“I would say even some of the hard days, the days that I didn’t feel like doing stuff, he motivated me to do it,” said Henry. “He got me up, het got me out the house and did it with me. And vice versa.
“Dedrick is one of the most caring people that you can meet. He’ll give you the shirt off his back if you need it. He’s just a really good dude, and I have much praise for Dedrick.”
It comes as no surprise that Mills, who’s infectious laugh can be heard from over a mile away, is such a dependable and loyal friend.
But behind his positive attitude and welcoming smile is 28 years spent overcoming adversity.
He draws upon these lessons to be the best possible teammate and friend that he can be.
Mills grew up in Georgia as one of four boys in a single-parent household and didn’t meet his father until he was in Grade 11. From a young age, he used football as an outlet to clear his mind from his personal troubles and would toss the ball around with his brothers.
It didn’t take long for backyard football to turn into a professional opportunity for Mills, who in Grade 9 earned the starting running back job for the varsity team at Ware County High School.
He started every game in his career with the Gators, rushing for 1,211 yards and 22 touchdowns as a senior.
“It allowed me to learn so much and it gave me a lot more opportunities to start as a freshman,” he said.
“I got my first offer from Georgia Tech in ninth grade which is why I stuck with them and went straight to Georgia Tech out of high school. But I started getting offers from nearly every school in the country from that point on.”
In his first year with the Yellow Jackets, Mills dressed for nine games and recorded 771 yards and 12 touchdowns and was named the MVP of the 2017 Gator Bowl.
But his first stint in the NCAA was cut short.
“When I got to Georgia Tech, I had a mishap,” he admitted. “I failed a few drug tests and they kind of got fed up with me, was done with me and kicked me to the side.”
Mills enrolled at Garden City Community College in Kansas and again, his life took a turn.
“Once I got there, I fell into a depression because I broke my collarbone the second week I was there,” he said. “I feel like that’s probably one of the worst times in my life because I really struggled. I didn’t talk to any family for about almost a year.
“I lost a lot of weight. I went probably from 240 or 230 to about 180. My mom and family didn’t recognize who I was when I came home or when I FaceTimed. So, it was really tough around that time.”
Feeling hopeless and alone, Mills was close to giving up on the game.
But right when he thought it might be over, he was given another opportunity.
“Then, Jovan Dewitt, the linebacker coach at Nebraska, he came to the junior college one day and wanted to sit down and talk to me,” Mills informed. “He gave me a nice long talk. At that point my grades weren’t as good, so I was on the verge of getting kicked out of the school, too.
“He just gave me a talk and was like, ‘Hey man, I need you to pick your grades up, and me personally, I just wanted to extend my hand and let you know we want to offer you.’
“From that point on, my life kind of changed as far as getting that positive energy back. Somebody believed in me again, so when I got the chance to go to the University of Nebraska, I took full advantage of it.”
Mills played 18 games over two seasons (2019-20) for the Cornhuskers and tallied 1,141 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns during that span. He was an honourable mention all-Big Ten in 2019.
He took advantage of the sports psychology unit at Nebraska and made an effort to talk with their team about anything that he was struggling with mentally.
“If I had a problem, I was able to go sit down and talk with them about me, my family or anything I’ve ever been through in my life in there, stuff that was always haunting me,” he said. “I had an opportunity to go sit down and talk and actually get a lot of stuff off my chest.”
Following his collegiate career, Mills signed with the Detroit Lions of the NFL in 2021 but was unable to make the team’s final roster after training camp.
After spending almost a year waiting for his next chance to play football, he got a phone call.
“My agent called and was like, ‘Hey man, we got an opportunity somewhere, do you want to go play in Canada?’ and I was like, ‘Mm… yeah sure, why not? It’s still football, I love the game, I still want to play, and I don’t want to get a regular job right now you know so yeah, let’s go play football.’
“So, I signed that contract and I moved up here May 12, 2022, and since that point I’ve been up here.”
Dedrick Mills is over 100 rushing yards on the day!@oktire #LDWeekend
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Four seasons into his CFL career, Mills has found peace in his life and has crossed the 1,000-yard mark for the first time as a pro in the process.
“It means a lot,” he said. “I admit this right here means a great deal to me because it’s a goal I’ve been chasing since I’ve been in the CFL, since I’ve been a professional. I’ve been ready to get to those one thousand yards and now that I’m here, I’m aiming higher.”
His new goal is to reach 1,500 yards and 10-plus touchdowns. He currently sits at 1,035 and eight touchdowns with four games left to play in the regular season.
“We’ll get the job done and I’m going to do that with my team, because that’s who helped me out every week,” said Mills. “They come out here and block, they’re aggressive for me, and I give that same fight back which is why I run the ball the way I run, because we’re playing for each other’s families.
“That’s another reason why I had to change my ways because I’m playing for somebody else’s family, and I don’t want to be the blame or the reason why we didn’t make it.”
Of course, Mills’ ultimate goal would be hoisting the coveted Grey Cup trophy at the end of the season and he’s confident the Stampeders have the team to accomplish the task.
“One of my goals is always going to be to make it to the Grey Cup every year,” he said. “We just have to lock in.
“We got a few guys back that we needed, we got (defensive lineman) Lorenzo (Mauldin), I’m glad we got him. We got (linebacker) Marquel (Lee) back, key pieces that we needed on the defence.
“Even just this week in practice I’ve seen a difference. I felt a difference out there with them being on that side of the ball. I feel like we got the team, we got the pieces, the calibre of players that we need to get to the Grey Cup and win.”