Troy Fleece/Regina Leader-Post Saskatchewan Roughriders kicker Brett Lauther (12) celebrates kicking the game winning field goal in overtime during the CFL West Division semi-final at Mosaic Stadium on Sunday, November 28, 2021 in Regina.

Taylor Shire

Regina Leader-Post

Despite being released by the team, Brett Lauther’s time with the Saskatchewan Roughriders hasn’t necessarily come to an end.

But it could be ending soon.

Although the veteran kicker was let go in February after eight seasons with the CFL team, the 35-year-old has continued to work for the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation, regularly doing mental wellness and literacy presentations in schools across the province this offseason.

 “I think it’s something that, since I’m still getting to do, it’s awesome,” Lauther told the Leader-Post after spending a few days visiting schools in the Swift Current area last week. “It’s so rewarding. I think it’s one of the best things — if not the best thing besides winning for the club — that the team can do, getting out to so many different areas of the province.

“The amount of kids over the years, and doing so many schools every off-season, and the teachers and how awesome everyone is in this province, I think that would be probably one of the things I miss most, along with being in the locker room.

“But I’ve also got a little bit of time to still cherish the last couple weeks.”

Since taking over as Saskatchewan’s kicker in 2018, Lauther had been a mainstay on the Roughriders roster until his release earlier this year, which was announced publicly a few days after he found out.

That was because the Nova Scotia product was busy organizing, and playing in, the Roughrider Foundation Winter Classic, a charity hockey game Lauther started in 2023 which raises thousands of dollars for the foundation.

“I actually had asked if the team could not announce the release until after the game, so it wasn’t a distraction to the weekend,” said Lauther. “We’re there for the hockey game and tried to raise money for the kids even though I found out a couple days before.

“I think they put the release out the following Monday so just another big thank you or tip the hat to the club for doing something like that, which they didn’t have to do.”

In fact, Lauther — a veteran of 114 regular-season games and eight postseason games with the Riders — doesn’t have any hostility against the team that cut him just days before he was due an off-season roster bonus.

“Nothing is shocking at all,” said Lauther, who had previously signed a three-year extension in 2024. “I just got the call and it was what it was. The decision was made. And for me, there’s no ill will or hard feelings or any animosity.

“I got a bit of time to reflect for the first time in my career about everything and all the good times. So I just turned it into a positive as much as it was tricky at the start, just because, not only football-wise, just so many people I consider family, good friends, all the schools, so many things kind of given to us over the years here that you’re going to miss and kind of have to quickly realize that aren’t going to be there anymore.

“I’m so lucky to have played football, and then not only played football, but played for the best team in Canada to play for and been a part of Rider Nation. I was the holder of the jersey that I was privileged enough to wear for a few years.”

Ending on a high

While last season ended on a high with a Grey Cup championship, as Lauther hoisted the trophy over his head for the first time in his career, he knew there was a chance that game was going to be his last with the Roughriders.

After making 22 of 34 field goal attempts (64.7 per cent) in the first 12 weeks of the 2025 season, some fans were calling for the team to bring in competition at the position.

While the team eventually brought in two other kickers, Campbell Fair and Michael Hughes, Lauther connected on 17 of his final 20 kicks (85 per cent) to end the season, while also dealing with a back injury that forced him to miss two games.

“I don’t specifically have anything that happened and I felt it,” said Lauther, who first felt the injury during Saskatchewan’s Week 15 game against the Montreal Alouettes, on a rainy night at Mosaic Stadium. “I just kind of had like maybe some general back tightness starting in the second half of that game, and then it progressively just kept getting worse.

 “I think it was just a combination of a few different things, being older and the torquing, twisting and kicking for the past 20 years kind of caught up, and it led to some problems.”

The injury continued to limit him down the stretch and into the playoffs, where he rarely kicked in practice.

“It was a lot worse at some times, and sometimes it would get a lot better, but it was something that I never dealt with in my whole career to that severity,” said Lauther, who was dealing with a herniated disc and a small fracture, among other things. “And this isn’t me trying to do this to talk and make an excuse for the play or anything. At the end of the day, I was out there and I was playing, and I was healthy enough to play, but you know, it was a lot tougher than any other year.

“I just wanted to try to get out there each and every week. And I knew we had the team to do it and wanted to be out there and be a part of it and was lucky to be able to be stuck with for the whole season with (head coach Corey) Mace and the coaching staff to get that chance.”

In the end, Lauther — the team’s most accurate kicker all time at 81.9 per cent — was healthy enough to kick in the playoffs, going 4-of-5, but ended the regular season with a 72.2 per cent success rate, which is the lowest mark of his career.

“I’ll never let myself, in professional football, ever get comfortable,” said Lauther. “I’ve kind of been around long enough to see everything.

“But obviously, the season I had last year for sure, I thought this could be more of a reality. I was definitely hoping to get healthy, get back out there and try to get back on track and compete in camp and stuff too. But it’s a business. The team has tough decisions to make all the time, and I definitely respect everyone in the building and the choice they made.

“I feel like a lot of people were making a lot of excuses for me — and you know, I appreciate them trying to do things like that — but at the end of the day, you’re responsible for your kicking and it wasn’t good enough. And obviously, that’s what led to where I’m at now.”

Jeremy O’Day, Saskatchewan’s general manager who has been in the team’s football operations department since 2011, ultimately decided to make a change at the position for the first time since 2018.

“Very difficult,” O’Day said last month. “He’s been a very good player for us for a number of years. And then aside from the fact that he’s a good football player, he’s excellent in the community and excellent in the locker room.

“Tough, difficult decisions that you have to make. Obviously, they’re not decisions that we take for granted or that we make snap judgment on, and we felt like we gave Brett opportunities and stuck by him for a long time, and ultimately, at the end of the year, you’ve got to evaluate and see where you feel as an organization.

“It was a tough decision. Brett’s a pro, just a class act. He made a lot of big kicks for us. I think when a player has a down year, people tend to forget about what he did for us in the past. And through some of his challenges or his struggles, when he missed some, we remember that and gave him the opportunity to kick out of it, but unfortunately, we decided to go a different route and ended up releasing him.”

Career journey

After being drafted by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats out of Saint Mary’s University in 2013, Lauther played four games for the Ticats in his rookie season, going 6-of-10, before ending the year on the practice roster when Hamilton lost the Grey Cup in Regina to the Roughriders.

Lauther continued on with the Tiger-Cats, spending the 2014 season on the practice roster behind Justin Medlock, before becoming a free agent.

He had a brief stint on Saskatchewan’s practice roster in 2015 before joining the Toronto Argonauts.

After few opportunities in 2016, he was back on the Roughriders practice roster in 2017, released again, before being picked up by Edmonton.

In 2018, he was back in Saskatchewan for a third time and ultimately won the kicking job in training camp before going on to be named a West Division all-star that season for making 90 per cent of his field goals.

In eight years with the Roughriders, Lauther made 295 of 360 field goals while also going 10-for-10 on game-winning kicks.

And even though he won’t be wearing familiar green and white next season, Lauther is motivated to play in 2026 and hopes to sign with another CFL team.

“It was tough news at first, for sure. I wanted to take a little time to process everything, not make a quick rash decision or anything right away, and took some time away,” said Lauther. “I kind of evaluated everything, talked about everything, and for right now, I think it just made sense that the fire was still burning a little and to get back out there if possible.”

He does admit there was a period after he was released where he considered all the options on the table in terms of what would be next.

And unlike the last time he was looking for a kicking job in 2017, he has a wife (Jill) and a six-month old daughter (Townes) to take into consideration this time.

“That’s why I wanted to kind of take some time away and not make a quick, rash decision,” said Lauther. “For the first time, I wasn’t making a decision on my own.

“It was kind of the first time really to like fully reflect on everything and just see like what’s on the table and hear stuff without making a decision or leaning any way.”

In the end, his family is serving as his motivation to return to the field, while he also doesn’t want his final season to end the way it did, at least personally.

“Obviously having a daughter, a family, other stuff is always the number one thing,” said Lauther. “And then personally, I think a little more just with my play last year.

“I think that I’m a lot better than that, than what I showed and was able to do, and trying to get back out there and have a better season wherever it might be, if I do get an opportunity would be motivation for sure.”

Leaving his mark

As his chapter with the Roughriders ends on the field, his work off the field will soon come to a close as well after first working as a player ambassador when the Roughrider Foundation was first formed six-and-a-half years ago before serving as the leader of all the other players for the last two years.

“He’s reached thousands and thousands of students in this province,” said the foundation’s executive director Cindy Fuchs. “I would guess that he’s probably been in every corner of the province.”

While Fuchs knows players come and go when it comes to the football side of things, not having Lauther — the CFL’s 2023 Tom Pate Memorial Award winner, which recognizes sportsmanship and contributions to the community — as an ambassador leaves a bit of a hole on her team. However, she’s grateful he was able to stick around this off-season.

“He stayed so that we wouldn’t be caught without having players go to schools,” said Fuchs. “He felt so passionately that he wanted to finish that off and be able to do as much as he could for the kids like he did the last six years, and that was really helpful to us.

“We have other players, of course as well, but he also mentored all those players … He taught them how important it is to give back to the community where you’re playing and so he’s hoping that they carry on that legacy.

 “Wherever he goes, whatever he does, I guarantee that man will give back in some way or another. It won’t always be as a player, but he will be giving back to his community. He’s just that type of person.”

What’s next

On top his work with the foundation, Lauther is still serving as the CFL Players’ Association vice president; executive elections are being held this week in Ontario.

In the meantime, he’s also been working with the University of Regina Rams kickers during their indoor offseason workouts.

For Lauther, the offseason recovery process and time with the Rams has allowed him to fully heal his back.

“Back to normal,” he said. “I’m in a much better place right now than I was the last couple months, that’s for sure.”

He’s hoping that will lead into a new opportunity in the CFL, because as mentioned, he doesn’t feel done just yet.

“Definitely trying to just see what’s out there,” said Lauther. “A couple teams kicked tires right away to see if this is like a retirement or are you still going to try to play … Kind of at this point just doing what I can do and control, and that’s just kind of getting ready to try to potentially play this year and let my agent kind of handle the rest.

“And who knows if you get an opportunity or whatever again. I spent a number of years trying to get another opportunity, thankful for the one with Sask. And you know, now I might have a chance to get another one, but sometimes they don’t come along either.”

Before he leaves, Lauther wanted to express his gratitude to the province where he was considered a fan favourite.

“Just a big thanks to all the fans all over, all the teachers, all the kids everywhere,” said Lauther. “Everyone in the organization.”

“Some really cool moments over the years I’ll never forget … So if anything, it was more gratitude to, J.O., (president) Craig Reynolds, Cindy Fuchs, coach Mace. Even the coaches that brought me in here, like Chris Jones and Craig Dickenson and everyone before that gave me an opportunity. There’s so many people to thank.

“Without those guys, I definitely wouldn’t have had the opportunity to live out a dream and do what I’ve been able to do here.

“For me, it’s just one last big thank you to everyone in this province.”

tshire@postmedia.com

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