{"id":344018,"date":"2025-12-14T04:58:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T04:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/344018\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T04:58:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T04:58:09","slug":"bo-levi-mitchell-sticking-to-year-to-year-thought-process-on-retirement-despite-two-year-extension-with-ticats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/344018\/","title":{"rendered":"Bo Levi Mitchell sticking to ‘year-to-year thought process’ on retirement despite two-year extension with Ticats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym\/RFB Sport Photography<\/p>\n

Bo Levi Mitchell may have signed a two-year contract extension with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats<\/a>, but the veteran quarterback isn\u2019t committing himself to anything beyond next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019d be lying if I didn\u2019t say it\u2019s probably going to be a year-to-year thought process,\u201d the 35-year-old acknowledged on Friday. \u201cI\u2019ve talked with (Brandon Revenberg) about this. I\u2019ve talked to guys on other teams. I\u2019ve talked with Milt (Stegall) about it during some of those Grey Cup weeks, just kind of how he knew. I think mentally, at the end of the year, you kind of have a feeling of, \u2018Do I want to get hit anymore?’\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow you end your year has a lot to do with how you want to play the next year. I ended the year very healthy, mentally very strong. It just felt like I could have went out and played the next week, whereas a lot of times you\u2019re kind of dragging at the end of the year, and you\u2019re on that race of recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mitchell has been frank about contemplating retirement<\/a> for the past several offseasons, going so far as to suggest that he regularly contemplates riding off into the sunset<\/a> if the Ticats were to break their quarter-century Grey Cup drought. However, the 13-year CFL veteran remains at the top of his game<\/a>, leading the CFL in passing the last two years and being named a finalist for Most Outstanding Player both times.<\/p>\n

The past two seasons were the first and third most productive years of Mitchell\u2019s career. That, along with support from key voices in both his personal and professional life<\/a>, made the decision-making process easy this time around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew pretty quick when I got done with the year. Talked to (my wife) Madison; she could see it. I talked to my oldest brother, Pat; he could see it. My mom, everybody,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201c(Ticats\u2019 CEO) Scott Mitchell walked by, Kenny Lawler\u2019s family all walked by, and they\u2019re like, \u2018Don\u2019t let this MFer (sic) retire.\u2019 They used some choice words to make sure I understood how much they valued me. It was awesome to hear that, obviously, from one of your best players, and the guy that signs the cheques.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two Mitchells negotiated the new deal primarily amongst themselves, a process that the quarterback said only took between four to six text messages to complete once it got underway.<\/p>\n

After injuries marred his first season with Hamilton, the Katy, Tex., native has played the past two seasons at a discount. Even after a contract renegotiation last offseason<\/a>, he topped out at $374,800 in 2025 \u2014 sixth most among CFL quarterbacks<\/a>. As the league\u2019s top available pending free agent, he had the leverage to claw back every dollar he\u2019d lost out on if he tested the open market, but didn\u2019t even consider it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh no, that was never a possibility. It was Hamilton or nothing,\u201d Mitchell insisted. \u201cThe decision was not whether or not I want to be here \u2014 I want to be in Hamilton. I\u2019ve grown to love this place very fondly over the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say that Mitchell didn\u2019t receive a tidy raise, however. While he declined to reveal exact numbers, the five-time all-star compared his contract to that of Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 QB Trevor Harris<\/a>, whose recent one-year extension will pay him $455,300 in hard money next season and a maximum $509,300 if all playtime incentives are reached.<\/p>\n

Not only are the two passers close in monetary value, but they also shared a similar philosophy when it came to what they wanted from the deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrevor and I are in a position that we\u2019ve played in the league for a very long time. If you do that, and you\u2019re halfway decent with money, you can make a good living. I think we have the ability to maybe not try to ask for top dollar every single time,\u201d Mitchell explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why, the last two years, when the performance fell in \u201923 and the injuries, I was totally okay with taking a lower contract to stay here, to have that ability to play with this organization, and last year as well. Obviously, Scott Mitchell and (president of football operations Orlondo Steinauer) felt like they got value those last two years, so they reciprocated that to myself this year a little bit, but just back up into the normal aspect of starting quarterback money.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike Harris, who reflected his year-to-year decision-making process in the length of his contract, Mitchell felt that it was important to lock himself in with the Ticats for multiple seasons.<\/p>\n

Even though either side could elect to make 2026 the end of an era depending on the result, the structure sends a message to both pending free agents and season-ticket holders looking to re-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a one-year deal doesn\u2019t show to the fans, to other players, a lot of continuity,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cBut the reality is, they\u2019re always one-year deals for the most part. Just now, they have my rights for that next year, the contract\u2019s in place. That gives security on both sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both the team and Mitchell understand that security is merely an illusion in professional sports, where nothing is guaranteed. At least for now, that illusion will serve both of their goals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym\/RFB Sport Photography Bo Levi Mitchell may have signed a two-year contract extension with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344019,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-344018","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\/344018","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=344018"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344018\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}