{"id":620319,"date":"2026-04-22T04:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/620319\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T04:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T04:32:16","slug":"cfl-coaching-not-on-near-term-radar-for-retiring-legend-adam-bighill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/620319\/","title":{"rendered":"CFL coaching not on ‘near-term radar’ for retiring legend Adam Bighill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Neil Noonan\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Adam Bighill was a coach on the field for much of his illustrious CFL career, but don\u2019t expect him to be doing it from the sidelines any time soon \u2014 at least not at the professional level.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old, who announced his retirement on Monday after signing a one-day contract with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers<\/a>, wouldn\u2019t entirely dismiss the possibility of a coaching second act during his farewell press conference<\/a>, but made clear that it wasn\u2019t the current plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether I\u2019ll be coaching professionally, I don\u2019t know. I wouldn\u2019t say anything\u2019s ever off the table, but I will say that the amount of work that goes into coaching can\u2019t be understated in terms of preparation and the time it takes,\u201d Bighill said. \u201cNow, just imagine the time that I take to prepare as a football player; that\u2019s what I do in my business, managing money. You can\u2019t do everything that you want in the world, because your limiting factor is time. I am putting a premium on my family, too. I\u2019d say coaching at some point in the future could be possible, but it\u2019s not on my near-term radar now, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future Hall of Famer does have a desire to wear the whistle, just not in the CFL. He has long been involved in coaching at the amateur level in Manitoba and intends to keep taking a hands-on approach as all three of his children make their way through the system. His eldest son, A.J., is currently playing up an age level for a 14U tackle team, while his daughter, Leah, and younger son, Beau, compete in flag football.<\/p>\n

Not being present to coach their teams was the toughest part of Bighill\u2019s final CFL season in 2025. He had the full support of his wife, Kristina, and all three kids to pursue a last hurrah with the Calgary Stampeders, but found the distance difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cA.J. was in tackle football last year, and I wasn\u2019t able to be there coaching him and help guiding that team to success. We lost, I think, a close semi-final game. I\u2019m just competitive, so I\u2019m saying, \u2018Okay, well, if I\u2019m there, can I make sure we win the entire thing?’\u201d he grinned. \u201cI don\u2019t want to miss those opportunities with my kids. I don\u2019t know how guys do it, come up here and they\u2019re away from their families, and then they\u2019ve got to go back. This was something that I always took for granted that I never had to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bighill\u2019s competitive fire is unlikely to ever be sated, but he has nothing left to prove as a player. In 196 regular-season CFL games, he\u2019s recorded 951 defensive tackles, 72 special teams tackles, 50 sacks, 15 interceptions, 14 forced fumbles, and one touchdown. He is a three-time Most Outstanding Defensive Player, a six-time CFL all-star, an eight-time West Division all-star, and a recipient of the CFLPA\u2019s Tom Pate Memorial Award for outstanding sportsmanship and dedication to his team and community.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s left an indelible mark on the fabric of the game thanks to his incomparable versatility, which allowed him to cover like a safety, tackle like a linebacker, and rush the passer like a defensive end. However, success wasn\u2019t a foregone conclusion when he first arrived at B.C. Lions training camp in 2011.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing a reporter and interviewer says to me is, \u2018We\u2019re surprised you\u2019re here after this first game. We thought you would have been an early round cut.\u2019 I was just shocked that that\u2019s the first thing that they had thought about when they saw me, because that\u2019s not how I saw myself. I saw myself as going to be one of the best who ever played the game,\u201d Bighill recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I\u2019ve helped revolutionize the CFL in terms of what you look for in a linebacker. When I came in, I was too short and too small and undersized, and now you look at the league, they\u2019re looking for more guys that can do what I\u2019ve done, and it doesn\u2019t really necessarily matter on height.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even after 15 years in professional football, there were teams that reached out to the three-time Grey Cup champion this offseason to gauge his interest in jobs both on and off the field. Nevertheless, he knew early on it was time to call it a career.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing the best and spending so much time and sacrificing so much to be there, you do fall short in other areas. I don\u2019t have to do that anymore, which I\u2019m ultimately happy about,\u201d Bighill said. \u201cI had opportunities to keep playing and opportunities to coach, but being away in another city for four or five months without my family, this isn\u2019t something I was willing to do. It\u2019s bittersweet, but I\u2019m at peace knowing that I can be done on my own terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even if CFL fans won\u2019t get the chance to witness him mentor budding linebackers or call defences, Bighill has no intention of being a stranger. Winnipeg is his home now, and he\u2019ll always be around, cheering from a box instead of barking orders in the box.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to be far away from football,\u201d he insisted. \u201cI\u2019m a treasurer for the CFLPA, so I\u2019m involved with the CFL Players\u2019 Association, and therefore I\u2019m going to be around the CFL a lot. I think we have a good relationship here with the Bombers organization where we will be around. Me and my (business) partners, we have a box here at the stadium, so we will be at the games and supporting, and we have tickets and all that. We are Bomber fans and a Bomber family.\u201d<\/p>\n

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J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league’s Global initiative.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Neil Noonan\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. Adam Bighill was a coach on the field for much of his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,62376,22070,22936,49,48,7028,521,522,520,7579,527,2002,1705,82,22073],"class_list":{"0":"post-620319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-3down","9":"tag-3downnation","10":"tag-adam-bighill","11":"tag-blue-bombers","12":"tag-bombers","13":"tag-ca","14":"tag-canada","15":"tag-canadian","16":"tag-canadian-football-league","17":"tag-canadianfootballleague","18":"tag-cfl","19":"tag-coaching","20":"tag-football","21":"tag-league","22":"tag-retirement","23":"tag-sports","24":"tag-winnipeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620319","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=620319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}