{"id":532696,"date":"2026-03-13T02:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T02:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/532696\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T02:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T02:00:08","slug":"former-cfl-player-cameron-ontko-dead-at-33","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/532696\/","title":{"rendered":"Former CFL player Cameron Ontko dead at 33"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>            <a href=\"https:\/\/3downnation.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Cameron_Ontko_2017.jpg\" data-caption=\"Photo: Arthur Ward\/CFL.ca\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"696\" height=\"425\" class=\"entry-thumb td-modal-image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Cameron_Ontko_2017-696x425.jpg\"   alt=\"\" title=\"Cameron Ontko\"\/><\/a>Photo: Arthur Ward\/CFL.ca<\/p>\n<p>Former professional football player Cameron Ontko has died at the age of 33.<\/p>\n<p>The six-foot, 235-pound defender played linebacker in the Canadian Football League as a member of the the Calgary Stampeders in 2015, B.C. Lions in 2016, and Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2017. He recorded 32 total tackles over 29 regular-season CFL games.<\/p>\n<p>The native of Cleveland, Ohio announced his retirement in March 2018 <a href=\"https:\/\/3downnation.com\/2018\/03\/25\/former-riders-linebacker-retires-citing-health-risks-posed-football\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">citing concerns for his physical and mental health<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ontko started his collegiate career at the University of Wisconsin before transferring to California Polytechnic State University in 2012. He recorded 257 total tackles, 15 tackles for loss, seven pass knockdowns, two sacks, and two interceptions over 35 games with the Mustangs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCal Poly mourns the loss of former linebacker Cameron Ontko,\u201d his alma mater wrote in a statement. \u201cOur thoughts are with his family, friends, and former teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVery sad to hear of the passing of (Ontko),\u201d wrote John Murphy, who worked in Saskatchewan\u2019s personnel department during Ontko\u2019s tenure with the team. \u201cFrom Cal Poly to NFL and CFL, met him several times along his path to pro football, great guy, energizer bunny-type personality and on the field, just praying for everyone that knew Cam and his friends and family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Arthur Ward\/CFL.ca Former professional football player Cameron Ontko has died at the age of 33. The six-foot,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":532697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[208749,166835,166836,49,208750,208751,48,7028,521,522,520,21190,428,527,171546,6376,208752,82],"class_list":["post-532696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-208749","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-ca","tag-cal-poly","tag-cameron-ontko","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-dead","tag-death","tag-football","tag-linebacker","tag-ohio","tag-ontko","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532696","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=532696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/532697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=532696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=532696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=532696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}