Flag football and the 2028 Summer Olympics aren\u2019t proving to be a distraction for quarterback Nathan Rourke.<\/p>\n
The CFL\u2019s top Canadian and outstanding player last season has started playing flag football to acclimate himself with the sport should Canada qualify when it debuts at the Los Angeles Games. But he\u2019s doing so with the B.C. Lions\u2019 approval.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey know (flag football) won\u2019t take away from my (CFL) preparation,\u201d Rourke said recently. \u201cI do this on weekends for a couple of hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t do it without their blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last season, Rourke became the first Canadian quarterback since Russ Jackson in 1969 to win both the top Canadian and outstanding player awards in the same season. He joined Jackson, Brady Oliveira, Jon Cornish and Tony Gabriel as the only players to win each honour in the same year.<\/p>\n
Rourke, of Victoria, established career-highs in passing yards (5,290, most ever by a Canadian), touchdowns (31), rushing yards (564, tops among quarterbacks) and rushing TDs (10). B.C. (11-7) finished its regular season with six straight wins to take second in the West Division.<\/p>\n
After dispatching Calgary 33-30 in the West Division semifinal, B.C.\u2019s season ended with a 24-21 road loss to eventual Grey Cup-champion Saskatchewan. That defeat drastically tarnished Rourke\u2019s lofty individual accomplishments.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s always the case and always will be,\u201d he said. \u201cThe season is a means to get to the playoffs and that\u2019s where you make your strides of determining what kind of team, what kind of player you want to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly there\u2019s plenty of work to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
And for Rourke, there\u2019s no better place to start in 2026 than by cutting down on his interceptions. Last season, Rourke and Winnipeg\u2019s Zach Collaros were tied for the most picks at 16 apiece.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had too many last year,\u201d Rourke said. \u201cMy goal is to be in single digits \u2026 I don\u2019t want to continue to give our defence short fields to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
B.C. led the CFL last season in offensive points (31.1 per game), net yards (430.2) and passing (325.4 per game). Receiver Keon Hatcher was tops in targets (145), catches (102), yards (1,688) and yards after catch (611) while adding nine TD grabs and running back James Butler was third in rushing (1,213 yards, 5.3-yard average) and tied for first in rushing TDs (11).<\/p>\n
But gone are stellar offensive lineman Jarell Broxton (free agent, Winnipeg) and receiver Ayden Eberhardt (free agent, Ottawa) who had CFL-best 19.3-yard average per catch.<\/p>\n
\u201cEberhardt and Broxton are big losses for us on offence but we\u2019ll find ways, we have to,\u201d Rourke said. \u201cWe\u2019ve still got a really good receiver room with Hatcher, Justin McInnis, Jevon Cottoy and Stanley Berryhill III and we\u2019ve got James and Zander Horvath in the backfield so we\u2019ve got some really great weapons.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to figure out who\u2019s going to be the guy up front or in the receiver room but that\u2019s what training camp is for. That\u2019s what\u2019s great about pro sports, the opportunity to compete every single day and earn your spot regardless of how many seasons you\u2019ve played or what you did last year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rourke heads into training camp with a full season under his belt in head coach Buck Pierce\u2019s offence. Instead of learning new schemes, Rourke will be able to build upon what worked — and fix what didn\u2019t — in 2025.<\/p>\n
He hopes that helps B.C. finish atop the competitive West Division and host the final rather than be on the road for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying that\u2019s why we lost in the West final last year but it doesn\u2019t make it any easier,\u201d Rourke said. \u201cIf we could host that playoff game and get a bye late in the year, that would be a huge get for us and be very helpful.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery game will be tough but that\u2019s what makes it fun and we\u2019ll be doing some good things if we\u2019re able to host that second game.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s sustained success Rourke is chasing with the Lions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why you look at people like Zach, (Hamilton starter) Bo Levi Mitchell and (Saskatchewan\u2019s) Trevor Harris,\u201d Rourke said. They\u2019re guys who\u2019ve have incredible careers and sustained success, which is why they\u2019re great players.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I want to be a great player and to win championships, I have to reach that level of sustained success and do it over multiple seasons. Who cares about one? In pro sports, if you\u2019re not great every year, your job isn\u2019t safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 9, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Flag football and the 2028 Summer Olympics aren\u2019t proving to be a distraction for quarterback Nathan Rourke. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-594102","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\/594102","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=594102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}