{"id":466993,"date":"2026-02-11T01:23:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466993\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T01:23:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:23:07","slug":"tiger-cats-upgrade-special-teams-with-super-mario-alford","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/466993\/","title":{"rendered":"Tiger-Cats Upgrade Special Teams with “Super”-Mario Alford"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is still early during the free agency period for 2026 in the CFL, but on the first official day of signing free agents, the Tiger-Cats have made an effort to upgrade their special teams. Last week, the Tiger-Cats reached agreements with National wide receiver Tyson Middlemost and National defensive end Kene Onyeka, and today they were both officially signed. Middlemost and Onyeka<\/a> were both signed by the Tiger-Cats due to their potential to play active roles on special teams.<\/p>\n

In addition to signing Middlemost and Onyeka, the Tiger-Cats also signed Global punter Fraser Masin<\/a> just before the official start of the free agency period. However, after the period, Hamilton continued to add players who could become key special-teams\u2019 weapons. The next special-teams\u2019 player that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats<\/a> <\/a>have chosen to sign on the first day of free agency is return specialist Mario Alford<\/a>.<\/p>\n

During Mario Alford\u2019s seven-season CFL career, the American wide receiver has primarily been a kick and punt return specialist. Alford started his CFL career with the Toronto Argonauts<\/a> in 2018, but the Argonauts struggled to find a role for him due to his lack of size. However, despite his 5\u20198\u2033 and 180-pound frame, Alford did catch 7 passes for 57 yards and 8 kick returns for 177 yards. In addition, Alford made up for his lack of size as a kick returner with his elite speed and quickness, which made him a dangerous weapon in the open field.<\/p>\n

In 2019, Alford was signed by the Montreal Alouettes<\/a>, and while he did catch 1 pass for 14 yards during his career in Montreal, he returned 22 kicks for 437 yards and 26 punts for 496yards. In addition, Alford returned 3 punts for touchdowns for Montreal. During the 2022 season, Alford was released by the Alouettes and then signed by the Saskatchewan Roughriders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Alford spent four seasons with the Roughriders, playing in Saskatchewan from 2022 until he won a Grey Cup with the Team in 2025. During that time, Alford played in 61 games and returned 256 punts for 2,787 yards, along with 4 punt-return touchdowns. In addition, Alford also returned 165 kicks for 4,124 yards and 4 additional returns for touchdowns.<\/p>\n

For more football content, check out Football Scientfic<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow me on X: @AaronSauter7<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is still early during the free agency period for 2026 in the CFL, but on the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":466994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-466993","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\/466993","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=466993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/466993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/466994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=466993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=466993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=466993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}