The Ottawa REDBLACKS announced today that the football club has signed national defensive lineman Luiji Vilain to a three-year contract.<\/p>\n
Vilain, 28, was acquired by the REDBLACKS last week in a trade with the Toronto Argonauts, which sent Vilain and the 31st overall selection in Tuesday\u2019s Canadian draft to Ottawa in exchange for the 23rd overall selection and a 2027 second-round pick.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can say I\u2019m extremely happy to be back home representing my city, my community and the REDBLACKS,\u201d said Vilain.\u00a0 \u201cOttawa is my home, it\u2019s where I grew up. It\u2019s where my family is. I always knew that I would play in the CFL at some point in my career, and deep down I always wanted it to be Ottawa, so for that to happen it\u2019s honestly a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wake Forest product played five games over two seasons in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings (2022-23) and Carolina Panthers (2023), posting four total tackles. Vilain also spent time with the Cleveland Browns (2024) and Dallas Cowboys (2024-25). The 6\u20194, 250-pound Ottawa, Ontario native was originally selected by the Toronto Argonauts in the third round, 25th overall of the 2021 CFL Canadian Draft after splitting his collegiate career between Wake Forest and Michigan.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Le ROUGE et NOIR d\u2019Ottawa a annonc\u00e9 aujourd\u2019hui que le club de football a sign\u00e9 un contrat avec le joueur de ligne d\u00e9fensive national Luiji Vilain, valable jusqu\u2019\u00e0 la saison 2028<\/p>\n
Vilain, \u00e2g\u00e9 de 28 ans, a \u00e9t\u00e9 acquis par le ROUGE et NOIR la semaine derni\u00e8re dans le cadre d\u2019un \u00e9change avec les Argonauts de Toronto, qui a envoy\u00e9 Vilain et le 31e choix au total du rep\u00eachage canadien de mardi \u00e0 Ottawa en \u00e9change du 23e choix au total et d\u2019un choix de deuxi\u00e8me tour en 2027.<\/p>\n
\u00ab Je peux dire que je suis extr\u00eamement heureux d\u2019\u00eatre de retour chez moi pour repr\u00e9senter ma ville, ma communaut\u00e9 et le ROUGE et NOIR \u00bb, a d\u00e9clar\u00e9 Vilain. \u00ab Ottawa est ma ville natale, c\u2019est l\u00e0 que j\u2019ai grandi. C\u2019est l\u00e0 que se trouve ma famille. J\u2019ai toujours su que je jouerais dans la LCF \u00e0 un moment donn\u00e9 de ma carri\u00e8re, et au fond de moi, j\u2019ai toujours voulu que ce soit \u00e0 Ottawa, donc que cela se r\u00e9alise, c\u2019est honn\u00eatement un r\u00eave devenu r\u00e9alit\u00e9. \u00bb<\/p>\n
Le joueur issu de Wake Forest a disput\u00e9 cinq matchs en deux saisons dans la NFL avec les Vikings du Minnesota (2022-23) et les Panthers de la Caroline (2023), totalisant quatre plaquages. Vilain a \u00e9galement jou\u00e9 pour les Browns de Cleveland (2024) et les Cowboys de Dallas (2024-25). Ce natif d\u2019Ottawa, en Ontario, qui mesure 6\u20194 et p\u00e8se 250 livres, avait initialement \u00e9t\u00e9 s\u00e9lectionn\u00e9 par les Argonauts de Toronto au troisi\u00e8me tour, 25e au total, du rep\u00eachage canadien de la LCF 2021, apr\u00e8s avoir partag\u00e9 sa carri\u00e8re universitaire entre Wake Forest et le Michigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ottawa REDBLACKS announced today that the football club has signed national defensive lineman Luiji Vilain to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-633582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633582","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=633582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}