{"id":332624,"date":"2025-12-08T15:40:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/332624\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T15:40:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T15:40:12","slug":"saskatchewan-roughriders-ol-jermarcus-hardrick-wants-to-play-cfl-football-until-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/332624\/","title":{"rendered":"Saskatchewan Roughriders’ OL Jermarcus Hardrick wants to play CFL football until 40"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Reuben Polansky\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 pending free agent offensive lineman Jermarcus Hardrick would like to play three-down football until 40 years old and perhaps beyond.<\/p>\n

Hardrick turns 36 on May 30, leading into the 2026 CFL season. His former teammate, Stanley Bryant, appears ready to play left tackle for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as a 40-year-old next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe usually tells me something, gives me hints here and there. That usually starts around January, so I\u2019ll know something about him.\u00a0Check back with me in January, I\u2019ll have something for you,\u201d Hardrick told 3DownNation during Grey Cup week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do want to try to get to 40, if my wife and kids will let me.\u00a0I want to play until they tell me not to show up anymore. Once it\u2019s over, it\u2019s over.\u00a0You can go to the YMCA and play basketball; I don\u2019t think I can go pass block anybody at the YMCA after, so I\u2019m gonna keep playing until they tell me not.\u201d<\/p>\n

The six-foot-four, 315-pound right tackle had doubts about his career continuing after he suffered a season-ending quad injury in 2024. That setback happened against the B.C Lions in Week 6 and caused him to miss 13 regular-season games plus two playoff contests. Hardrick did not think about playing to 40 during his injury rehab process.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I did not. I was thinking about, \u2018Will I be able to pass set again?\u2019 Because\u00a0I couldn\u2019t even bend my leg and get the range of motion.\u00a0It was so much mental,\u201d Hardrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing Stanley doing it,\u00a0somebody I look up to, and he\u2019s shown me the way.\u00a0The recipe\u2019s not messed up,\u00a0I\u2019m gonna keep adding my own flavour to it, but he showed me the recipe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hardrick has changed his offseason training routine to focus on pliability and longevity. He focuses on bending and maintaining strength. For example, if he\u2019s doing barbell squats, it\u2019s not four sets doing lower reps and heavy weight, instead three sets with 10 reps and medium to light weight.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the offseason, I used to be a meathead, \u2018Let\u2019s get as strong as I can.\u2019 Probably show up to camp sore.\u00a0Now it\u2019s about the less sore I can be, but can I bend?\u00a0Can I go ass to grass with a squat at any time of the day instead of\u00a0being sore? It\u2019s not being sore all the time. Can I bend when I want to? But still maintain it,\u201d Hardrick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI do spin class. I have done yoga, but I do a lot of spin class,\u00a0a lot of stretching, and I chase my kids a lot. I\u2019ve got three kids who play sports, very active.\u00a0My wife is very active; I work out with my wife. My wife leaves school, comes home, she knows I\u2019m like a dog, as soon as [the kids] get out of school, I\u2019m ready to run, I\u2019m ready to play, even though I\u2019ve worked out twice when they\u2019re gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wife Samantha, son Jermarcus Jr., along with daughters Santana and Lyla, help Hardrick stay in shape. His family had a say in moving to Saskatchewan after a seven-year run in Winnipeg during the offseason leading into 2024. That will be the case again as the Batesville, Mississippi, native contemplates his decision as his contract with the Riders is set to expire in February<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to continue to stay in Sask,\u00a0I\u2019ve got nothing bad to say about Sask.\u00a0I love O\u2019Day, I love Mace, I love the team, I love the field in Regina, I love to go to Safeway or a Co-op, and\u00a0they\u2019re talking about what happened at practice,\u201d Hardrick said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething you dream about when you\u2019re a kid. What you dream about when you\u2019re a kid, you\u2019re playing all these games,\u00a0you\u2019re watching TV, you\u2019re picturing yourself there, and then one day it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Head coach Corey Mace and general manager Jeremy O\u2019Day have been vocal in their praise for Hardrick. He earned $218,700 during the 2025 season<\/a> in Riderville, which maintained his status as the highest-paid American offensive lineman<\/a> in the three-down league for a second straight year. That said, his price tag has gone up after winning his first CFL Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman award in 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know how much it meant to me until I played with Stanley.\u00a0I went to his award show four different times and saw how much the league covered it.\u00a0Stan is somebody I looked up to and wanted to be like, so when Stan started winning them, I\u2019m like, \u2018I want to be like that one day, I want to win one,’\u201d Hardrick said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hard work I put in, but there\u2019s guys in front of me to show me how to be a pro. I didn\u2019t do it alone. Quarterback\u00a0got the ball out, I got good teammates, running back chips. It\u2019s a one-guy award, but I promise it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one player can win a Grey Cup<\/a>, but if Saskatchewan wants to improve its chances for going back-to-back in 2026, re-signing Hardrick would provide a Yoshi-level boost.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Reuben Polansky\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 pending free agent offensive lineman Jermarcus Hardrick would like to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-332624","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\/332624","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=332624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}