A cornerstone player is poised to celebrate a pair of milestones.<\/p>\n
Offensive lineman Jermarcus Hardrick will play in his 150th CFL regular-season game when he lines up at right tackle for the Saskatchewan Roughriders against the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Labour Day Rematch will take place on the 10th anniversary of his first game with the Green and White.<\/p>\n
Back then, he couldn\u2019t have imagined everything that would transpire over the next decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I played with three teams in three years, I didn\u2019t think I was going to get to 50,\u201d Hardrick said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll never forget telling my wife, \u2018I don\u2019t know if this is made for us.\u2019 I look up and it\u2019s 14 years later.\u201d<\/p>\n
The former University of Nebraska Cornhuskers standout had NFL stints with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints in 2012 before spending the following season with the Arena Football League\u2019s Utah Blaze.<\/p>\n
He signed with B.C. in 2014 and suited up for the Lions in 12 regular-season games and one playoff contest.<\/p>\n
Released in the spring of 2015 when the Lions decided to reduce the number of Americans on their offensive line, Hardrick returned to the arena circuit and had a short stay with the Tampa Bay Storm. Then Canada came calling, again.<\/p>\n
Hardrick signed with Saskatchewan on June 17, 2015 and, just two days later, suited up for the pre-season finale.<\/p>\n
He soon became one of the Roughriders\u2019 final cuts.<\/p>\n
But that wasn\u2019t the end of his story. In fact, it was merely the beginning.<\/p>\n
He resurfaced with the Roughriders on Aug. 20, 2015, joining the practice roster.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-4, 315-pounder was activated for the 50th Labour Day Classic, played on Sept. 6, 2015, and helped Saskatchewan defeat Winnipeg 37-19.<\/p>\n
That was his first of eight games during the Saskatchewan 1.0 portion of his career.<\/p>\n
The following year, he signed with the Blue Bombers and became a mainstay in the Manitoba capital. An All-CFL selection in 2021 and 2023, he was named the West Division\u2019s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman during the latter season.<\/p>\n
Looking to bolster the offensive front, the Roughriders made it a priority to sign Hardrick as a high-profile free agent in February of 2024.<\/p>\n
Limited to five games by a quad injury last year, he is now preparing for his 12th start of 2025 \u2014\u00a0a milestone(s) appearance at that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can remember the first one (with B.C.),\u201d he reflected. \u201cI can remember my first game in Sask. I remember the first one in Winnipeg. Now to think 150 \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember my wife made me a plaque when I hit \u201950 of \u2019em. I thought that was something. I was very happy about it. I was very pleased. And now we\u2019re at 150.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of credit to coaches. A lot of credit to a lot of vets showing me how to be a pro. A lot of credit to my wife, my kids, for letting me be free, letting me be a kid, letting me live this life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m being a little selfish up here doing my thing. She\u2019s at home (in Lincoln, Neb.) raising the kids and I\u2019m playing a kids\u2019 game.\u201d<\/p>\n
And a big game on Saturday \u2014\u00a0against his former team. It seems fitting, considering his connections to the Roughriders and Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I would have played it here,\u201d Hardrick said of the 150th game. \u201cIt\u2019s going to be hard to celebrate it when you can\u2019t hear anything. It\u2019s going to be hard to think of 150 when they\u2019ve got a great defence over there and a great crowd.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just hope we get that win and I can probably celebrate a little bit more, but 150 doesn\u2019t matter if we don\u2019t come home with that Banjo Bowl.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A cornerstone player is poised to celebrate a pair of milestones. Offensive lineman Jermarcus Hardrick will play in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123780,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-123779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}