had signed a contract extension<\/a> that will secure his services through the 2027 CFL season.<\/p>\n\u201cThere\u2019s only one place I wanted to be,\u201d Schaffer-Baker said on Tuesday, \u201cand that was in Saskatchewan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even though it took a while to get here.<\/p>\n
Ideally, the former University of Guelph Gryphons pass-catcher would have made his professional football debut a few weeks after being selected in the fourth round (30th overall) of the 2020 CFL draft.<\/p>\n
Alas, COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the 2020 CFL season.<\/p>\n
And a delayed start to a shortened 2021 campaign.<\/p>\n
The year\u2019s first training-camp workout was held in a bubble-like environment on July 10. As a point of reference, the 2025 Roughriders\u2019 fifth regular-season game was imminent on July 10.<\/p>\n
Whereas the engaging Schaffer-Baker has been a magnet for fans who share in Rider Nation\u2019s celebration of a 2025 Grey Cup title, he was largely anonymous in this part of the world when he first donned green and white at Mosaic Stadium.<\/p>\n
That would soon change.<\/p>\n
A Regina Leader-Post headline from July 24, 2021 read that \u201cSchaffer-Baker looks like a playmaker.\u201d That assessment was offered 13 days before the Roughriders, without the benefit of a pre-season game, played host to the B.C. Lions and thereby ended a 21-month intermission.<\/p>\n
Schaffer-Baker had to wait a little longer. He did not appear on the active roster until the Roughriders\u2019 third game of 2021. He quickly made an impression, catching four passes for 64 yards in a 23-10 victory over the visiting Ottawa REDBLACKS.<\/p>\n
Playing in 11 of the Roughriders\u2019 14 regular-season games, Schaffer-Baker caught 47 passes for 563 yards and two touchdowns en route to being named the team\u2019s Most Outstanding Rookie.<\/p>\n
It was quite an ascent for someone who, barely a year earlier, was waiting out a global pandemic at home in Mississauga, Ont.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t know what was going to happen,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI had to get a job at that point. But I just kept the faith and kept working every single day. That\u2019s what has gotten me to this point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once he did arrive in Saskatchewan, there was a new world to navigate in another context.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a different time,\u201d Schaffer-Baker said. \u201cWe had to wear a mask all the time and get swabbed up the nose every morning. I was sneezing for the first 10 minutes every day, walking in.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou didn\u2019t know what was going to happen during that process. You didn\u2019t know if you were going to make the team or what your role was going to be. You\u2019re really just trying to carve out your identity during that time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn\u2019t really hit until that first game. It was COVID, so I didn\u2019t see anyone the entire time. But at that first game, the crowd was rockin\u2019 and that\u2019s when I fell in love with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just knew this was going to be my place forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those sentiments were as prophetic as, well, the Leader-Post headline.<\/p>\n
Schaffer-Baker was named the Roughriders\u2019 Most Outstanding Canadian in 2022.<\/p>\n
In the 2024 Western Final, he caught 12 passes \u2014\u00a0the most by a Roughrider in a playoff game \u2014\u00a0for 162 yards against the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers.<\/p>\n
When the Roughriders returned to the Western Final in 2025, Schaffer-Baker scored Saskatchewan\u2019s first touchdown in a 25-17 victory over B.C.<\/p>\n
The Corey Mace-coached Roughriders were crowned Grey Cup champions eight days later at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat has been a dream from the first day you walk in here,\u201d Schaffer-Baker said. \u201cIt had been a long time since we\u2019d got one \u2014\u00a012 years \u2014 and a long wait.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s something that the whole province deserves \u2026 all of Saskatchewan. I remember Coach Corey just saying in a video that it\u2019s not even about himself or so much the guys in the locker room. Obviously, we wanted to get the job done, but it was for all of Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was for all the people who have believed in us and who have had our backs from Day 1. Just going out there and proving to them and proving to ourselves that we\u2019re the best, you\u2019re faced with that test every single day.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re faced with that test every single day: \u2018Are you going to be the best?\u2019 I believe it\u2019s still our time and we\u2019re going to keep rolling with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Until the summer of 2021, Kian Schaffer-Baker had never spent as much as a millisecond in Saskatchewan. Now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422533,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-422532","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\/422532","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=422532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}