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<\/p>\nThey have been the same Stanley Bryant talking points and questions posed over the last several years, especially on the occasion of the future Canadian Football League Hall of Famer \u2014 a man who has already secured a spot on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Ring of Honour \u2014 signing his annual one-year contract extension:<\/p>\n
What fuels him or keeps him motivated?<\/p>\n
How long does he want to keep playing?<\/p>\n
What\u2019s it like lining up opposite defensive ends 10-15 years his junior?<\/p>\n
Did he ever think he\u2019d play this long?<\/p>\n
What might life after football look like?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a wash\/rinse\/repeat cycle for the veteran left tackle dating back to 2017 when his first contract with the club was about to expire and then him signing a series of one-year extensions year after year after year with the club he\u2019s called home since 2015.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll get to some of those answers in a moment, but first a thought on the secret to his dominance as the most decorated offensive lineman in CFL history \u2014 a theory thrown out by the man himself, especially with him turning 40 this May:<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the last three, four years I\u2019ve been saying it\u2019s a year-to-year thing for me,\u201d said Bryant from his offseason base in Charlotte, N.C. \u201cI think this year will also be the same thing, just a year-to-year thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I\u2019ll be the big 4-0 in a couple months. But I could be like Benjamin Button, though. I could reverse the aging and get younger and younger. So, we\u2019ll see how that goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Later, when he was asked about constantly having to field questions about his age Bryant grinned and brought up his Benjamin Button analogy again:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s cool. I deal with it. Like I said, I\u2019ll be 40 in a couple months, so I\u2019ll be looking for something from you guys. May 7, by the way, so put that in your calendar. But like I said before, I could be like Benjamin Button. You ever seen the movie? He gets older and then he gets younger. You know, it\u2019s like a reverse. So, instead of 40, I can be like four, but like an adult, mature four. You get what I\u2019m saying?<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, my body will be good and things like that. But, no, answering the age issues is no issue. I think it\u2019s a good thing that I\u2019m able to have this conversation and be able to play at the age of 40. You never know, it can inspire someone to want to continue whatever they\u2019re doing. It can be football, it could be, I don\u2019t know, wanting to be an accountant or whatever they want to be at whatever age they\u2019re at now. It can inspire them to want to continue to do it and get to that milestone.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Bryant has manned the left flank for the Blue Bombers since 2015, suiting up for 234 games in his CFL career including his first years with the Calgary Stampeders from 2010-14 before coming to Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
His 200 regular season games played with the Blue Bombers is the sixth-most in franchise history \u2013 and has started every one of them.<\/p>\n
He said he took his time after the season to contemplate whether he would return but his hunger for the game, his love of the offensive line group and the team\u2019s camaraderie, plus his still solid level of play had him itching to return. A further testament to that is he\u2019s already back in the gym, a development he said is earlier than usual for him.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s that and\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t leave some of my guys hanging, like Paddy (Neufeld) and Zach (Collaros) \u2014 I still want to go play with those guys and compete and go out there and try to win games and Grey Cups.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just loving the game of football \u2014 the camaraderie, the guys you meet, the coaches, administrative staff. It\u2019s just the whole thing in totality that you\u2019re going to miss when it\u2019s gone. Someone told me before that football is one of those things that once you\u2019re done you can\u2019t it play again. Basketball, baseball\u2026 you can go join an intra-mural league and have fun with your buddies, but football is one of those things you can say you\u2019re going to go out and play once you\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bryant pointed to the 2019 Grey Cup \u2014 the championship that ended a 28-year drought for the Blue Bombers \u2014 as one of his career highlights. The lowlight, he said, came in 2024 when he collapsed on the field with what was called a viral infection.<\/p>\n
\u201cSorry everybody had to see me throwing up and stuff like that,\u201d he said Tuesday with his usual self-effacing sense of humour.<\/p>\n
Bryant said he\u2019s got friends and family in North Carolina who keep him humble and so his legacy \u2014 his place among the most-decorated in CFL history \u2014 isn\u2019t something he spends a ton of time on in reflection.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Interestingly, what keeps him lining up at his spot after all these years is more than just the mano-a-mano battles in the trenches.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is football, but there\u2019s some things you guys don\u2019t see,\u201d he explained. \u201cLike the road trips, the hanging out outside of football, just being in the locker-room, the ups and downs, all the emotions that we experience throughout the season. And it just brings guys closer or separates guys.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to have lifetime friends once I\u2019m done with football. I can\u2019t count on my hands how many guys that I know I can stay in contact with once I\u2019m done with football. So, football brings a lot. And once you\u2019re done, I feel like you just going to miss that stuff because if you\u2019re done, you\u2019re not going to be able to just, week-in, week-out, see them as often as you could every day you sit with them in the locker-room.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019ll be one of those things that you have to make an adjustment to. But of course, I will miss all those things. The camaraderie, mainly, and just going to war with those guys each and every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for what his next chapter might me \u2014 his life after football \u2014 that decision isn\u2019t at Bryant\u2019s doorstep quite yet. He\u2019s already the CFL\u2019s active leader in starts at 233 and his climbing up the league\u2019s all-time games played list, currently at 44th.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a plan,\u201d he said with a grin. \u201cI have a thought process of what I\u2019m going to do, but I can\u2019t tell you that until I\u2019m done.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when it was suggested the ETR on that \u2014 estimated time of retirement \u2014 could be five years from now, he chuckled and then added:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn five years, yeah. I\u2019ve got to get on that Top 10 list of most games. I\u2019ll work my way up.\u201d<\/p>\n
FYI, here is the audio from the full Bryant media conference, for those who want to listen:<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They have been the same Stanley Bryant talking points and questions posed over the last several years, especially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":438114,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-438113","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\/438113","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=438113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/438113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/438114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=438113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=438113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=438113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}