{"id":453880,"date":"2026-02-04T19:08:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453880\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T19:08:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T19:08:09","slug":"canadian-quarterback-tre-ford-chose-hamilton-tiger-cats-over-b-c-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/453880\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian quarterback Tre Ford chose Hamilton Tiger-Cats over B.C. Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Michael P. Hall\/OUA<\/p>\n

Canadian quarterback Tre Ford wanted to sign with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats upon his release from the Edmonton Elks and the feeling was mutual in the Steel City.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeams reached out to my agent. I had phone calls with some GMs and some head coaches, I thought they were pretty good phone calls, they were pretty\u00a0productive, but I\u00a0 knew I wanted Hamilton to work out location-wise. Get the opportunity to work with (head coach) Scott (Milanovich) and Bo (Levi Mitchell). It was an ideal situation,\u201d Ford told 3DownNation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Location was important to Ford because he\u2019s a Niagara Falls native and played U Sports football at the University of Waterloo. Hamilton sits slightly closer to his alma mater than his hometown but both are around an hour drive away. His wife, Anika, hails from Sudbury, Ont., which means the Ford family, which includes two young daughters, can be in Ontario full-time.<\/p>\n

\u201cTalked a little bit to Montreal as well as\u00a0B.C., and [Hamilton] were the top three. I was really intrigued by B.C., they have an amazing coaching staff, and the talent level on their team is phenomenal, but the toughest part about B.C. is they have\u00a0Nathan Rourke, who is a young and super productive quarterback,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe opportunity to play in the future didn\u2019t look great over there, unless\u00a0Nathan went to the NFL again or \u2014 you don\u2019t want to wish it on anybody \u2014 but if you had\u00a0an injury, then you\u2019d get the opportunity. I feel like it\u2019s more beneficial\u00a0for me to go learn from Bo for a year or two, and depending on what he decides to do,\u00a0try to take over the reins from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ultra-athletic QB<\/a> wasn\u2019t sure what free agency was going to have in store for him. He was leaning towards the Ticats but saw three quarterbacks, Mitchell, Harrison Frost and Jake Dolegala, on the roster and did not know if Hamilton would be interested in him based on sheer numbers at the position. However, Orlondo Steinauer and Milanovich made it clear the 2021 Hec Crighton Trophy winner was wanted in the Hammer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cBo is super productive, but he\u2019s getting older.\u00a0At some point, he\u2019s gonna retire unless he plays until he\u2019s 50. Getting the chance to have a fresh start, learn behind a guy like Bo and get the\u00a0opportunity to try to become the next starting quarterback for them is super incentivizing,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cScott told me I gotta go compete, nothing\u2019s\u00a0going to be handed to me, which I think is the best way to do things. I\u2019m\u00a0going to try to go in there in training camp, earn that quarterback two position. Then hopefully, when it\u2019s my turn to take over, be able to lead Hamilton to a Grey Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old flashed his potential in Edmonton despite constant change and turnover during his time with the franchise. He had three offensive coordinators through four seasons with the Elks: Stephen McAdoo, Jarious Jackson, and Jordan Maksymic. The Double E defence was also the worst in the CFL by a wide margin during his five starts in 2025, prior to Cody Fajardo<\/a> being installed as the starter<\/a>, which ultimately led to Ford becoming a free agent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually didn\u2019t hear from them until the day\u00a0they released me. They called me, \u2018We\u2019re gonna make it public.\u2019\u00a0Knowing the situation and extending Cody, I wasn\u2019t oblivious to what was going to happen. I knew what was coming and then they gave me a quick phone call before the release<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ford indicated there were no conversations with Edmonton about potentially restructuring his contract and staying in the Alberta capital as Fajardo\u2019s backup. It\u2019s an idea he thought about on his own due to relationships with people on the team and owning a house in the city. After some consideration, however, the six-foot-one, 192-pound passer felt starting fresh with a new team was best for his career and his goal to become a professional starter.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I understand, [Scott] does see me as a starting quarterback and being able to take over when Bo is done. But nothing\u2019s going to be given, you got to go out there, compete and show improvement. The more experience I can get, the better I can get. Hopefully when my\u00a0name is called, I\u2019m ready to take over,\u201d Ford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe will be judged based on what we see in the meeting rooms and practice, as well as the way he performs in the games,\u201d Milanovich said in a statement. \u201cBo Levi Mitchell is our captain and unquestioned starter at quarterback. Tre will have a great opportunity to learn from him and compete for our backup quarterback job. I look forward to helping him become the player that he knows he can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milanovich has tutored elite quarterbacks in the Canadian Football League, Anthony Calvillo, Ricky Ray, Zach Collaros, Trevor Harris, Cody Fajardo, and Mitchell among them. Ford called him a \u201cguru for quarterback coaching.\u201d The University of Waterloo product is prepared to be coached hard by Milanovich who munches tape for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks during the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough coaching\u00a0is necessary, especially at the professional level. Being a professional, you have to understand the coaching, the tips, and advice \u2014 everything is not directed at you as a person, it\u2019s directed at you as a quarterback. Nobody\u2019s taking personal shots at anybody, it\u2019s about becoming the best football player you can be and best football player for the team\u00a0in order to go out there and win games,\u201d Ford explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cTough coaching is going to happen,\u00a0everybody needs to be okay with it. You have to understand your situation that you are a\u00a0football player, they\u2019re your coach, they\u2019re trying to make you better. They\u2019re not taking shots at you as a person, they want you to improve as a football player.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are fond memories for Ford in Hamilton. He started his first career CFL game there on Canada Day in 2022. Edmonton came back from a 22-9 deficit to steal a 29-24 win as the dual-threat QB completed 15-of-26 passes with one touchdown versus one interception and added six carries for 61 yards.<\/p>\n

Those good vibes should boost Ford\u2019s confidence as he starts anew with the Tiger-Cats.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Michael P. Hall\/OUA Canadian quarterback Tre Ford wanted to sign with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats upon his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453881,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[166835,166836,901,42019,49,48,7028,520,23752,13264,77213,3801,15655,184919,171512,55638,186503,82,43334,167300,13410,168682,158304,173384,47621,96877,184920,174757],"class_list":["post-453880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-alberta","tag-bo-levi-mitchell","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-cfl","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-elks","tag-elks","tag-hamilton","tag-hamilton-tiger-cats","tag-hec-crighton","tag-orlondo-steinauer","tag-oua","tag-scott-milanovich","tag-sports","tag-ticats","tag-tiger-cats","tag-tre-ford","tag-u-sports","tag-university-of-waterloo","tag-usports","tag-warriors","tag-waterloo","tag-waterloo-warriors","tag-yeg"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453880","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=453880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}