Wynton McManis feels he was always destined to wear black and gold.<\/p>\n
The veteran middle linebacker met with reporters Thursday, a day after signing a one-year deal with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The move came after McManis spent four seasons with the archrival Toronto Argonauts, helping them win two Grey Cups over that span.<\/p>\n
\u201cI grew up a (Pittsburgh) Steelers fan, and for me, I always wanted to wear black and yellow or black and gold,\u201d McManis said, a trusty toothpick in the side of his mouth. \u201cCome to find out, I wasn\u2019t meant to be a Pittsburgh Steeler; I was meant to be a Hamilton Tiger-Cat.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to feel weird. I feel like it will be right at home for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The six-foot, 220-pound McManis registered 62 tackles, four sacks, two interceptions and a force fumble in 15 regular-season games with Toronto. The 31-year-old American\u2019s arrival certainly fills a need for Hamilton after Canadian middle linebacker Devin Veresuk signed this off-season with the NFL\u2019s Indianapolis Colts.<\/p>\n
Hamilton (11-7) finished atop the East Division last season before losing 19-16 to the Montreal Alouettes in the conference final. The Ticats haven\u2019t won the Grey Cup since 1999, the CFL\u2019s longest championship drought.<\/p>\n
McManis, twice a CFL all-star, was slated to become a free agent Tuesday but hit the market early after being released by Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of felt I was a little comfortable in Toronto, honestly,\u201d McManis said. \u201cNot in a negative way, but just for me needing to grow and needing to chase greatness.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust talking on the phone with Petey (Ticats cornerback Jamal Peters, a former teammate of McManis\u2019s in Toronto) and some of these players \u2026 they\u2019re kind of at the same point in their careers that I am \u2026 to where \u2018Let\u2019s win, let\u2019s get this done.\u2019 Making the decision wasn\u2019t easy, but it\u2019s something I felt I had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
In McManis, the Ticats get a three-time Grey Cup champion (2018 with Calgary, 2022 and \u201924 with Toronto). They also have a productive player who has 390 tackles, 52 special-teams tackles, 16 sacks, nine interceptions and four forced fumbles while scoring three defensive touchdowns in 100 career regular-season CFL games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll bring excitement, passion, communication, leadership,\u201d McManis said. \u201cI don\u2019t necessarily see myself as just a vocal leader, I\u2019m a day by day, every day, every time you see me, every time we come into contact, we\u2019re about building something, about connecting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about making sure we\u2019re all on the same page. I like being around like-minded individuals, I think that\u2019s what carries us to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n
More importantly, McManis doesn\u2019t have to uproot his family to continue his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy wife was all in on it; she understands it\u2019s a business,\u201d McManis said. \u201cMy son is all-in also, he loves saying Tiger-Cats now.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo not have to move your family, that\u2019s big as well. Hamilton is just the perfect spot. A nice home, family environment, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re for.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour Day will certainly have a different flavour this year with McManis facing his former team at Hamilton Stadium. But McManis said he won\u2019t bring anything extra to games versus Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Toronto should be the only team in the league that\u2019s worried about what\u2019s coming,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McManis already likes what he sees in his new football home.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust going into the lockerroom and seeing every seat is facing each other, that\u2019s big to me,\u201d he said. \u201cI think that makes a lot of sense when you think about this sport and how we play this game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just trying to bring what I know, what I know works and helps win games.\u201d<\/p>\n
McManis also reunites with Ticats quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, who was the starter when the two were teammates with the Stampeders. And with the \u201926 Grey Cup being in Calgary, McManis can\u2019t think of a better place for Hamilton to end its championship drought.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guess that would just be the perfect story,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wynton McManis feels he was always destined to wear black and gold. The veteran middle linebacker met with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-461499","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\/461499","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=461499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}