Visit James Vaughters\u2019 Instagram page and the\u00a0initial\u00a0description is\u00a0\u201cFootballer\/Creative Director.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the line below: \u201cModel.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On jamesvaughters.com, the 32-year-old Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive end is described as \u201ca multi-disciplinary artist, excelling both in athletics and the visual arts. His passion for art is rooted in his love for architecture and fashion. James\u00a0firmly believes\u00a0that art serves the purpose of satisfying our fundamental human needs, while simultaneously inspiring us to look beyond our\u00a0personal experiences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Football, as seriously as he takes the sport, is not mentioned in the bio.\u00a0But there is a reference to \u201cart,\u201d which is all-encompassing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is an art,\u201d Vaughters said after the Roughriders practised at Mosaic Stadium on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople assume that athletes are athletes and artists are just artists, but if you\u00a0say\u00a0\u2018martial arts,\u2019 there\u2019s \u2018art\u2019 in the name. Ballet\u00a0or\u00a0other performance arts, are\u00a0they an art?\u00a0Even in terms of acting or studying a script to get ready for a performance,\u00a0I think\u00a0that\u00a0football\u00a0is as much \u2018art\u2019 as any of those things I just mentioned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I wonder why people treat athletes\u00a0(differently). Even if\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0not\u00a0really academically\u00a0stellar, why would they feel like that makes you unintelligent?\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0a matter of focus.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI would consider physical mastery a form of genius, in and\u00a0of itself. No one was asking Picasso what\u00a0E = mc\u00b2\u00a0means, even though he might have known. No one even talked about it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball players\u00a0sort of get\u00a0that label of being sometimes uneducated or sometimes less intelligent than others.\u00a0I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0understand. Are they comparing us to other college-educated people or are they comparing us to other artists? I\u00a0see football as an art.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those are the words of someone who graduated from Tucker High School in Georgia after starring in\u00a0football and track\u00a0and field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also was exceptional in the classroom,\u00a0earning a scroll-like list of academic accolades. To cite one of many, he was a finalist for the Watkins Award, presented to the United States\u2019 top\u00a0African-American\u00a0scholar\/athlete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hence his acceptance into Stanford University, one of the nation\u2019s most prestigious institutions of learning, where he earned a degree in political science in addition to starring for the Cardinal football team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After graduating from Stanford, Vaughters began his professional football career in 2015. His resume includes 27 NFL games (and 2\u00bd sacks) and 75 contests in the CFL.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-2, 259-pounder\u00a0registered his 28th\u00a0CFL sack \u2014 and his first as a Roughrider \u2014 in Saturday\u2019s season-opening 31-27 victory over the visiting B.C. Lions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is something I love,\u201d Vaughters said. \u201cMy entire life, it has been important to me to be as good as I can\u00a0possibly be\u00a0at it \u2014 especially being a standout high school player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAll you hear is \u2018potential, potential, potential, potential, potential,\u2019 and then there have been some of the setbacks\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0had throughout my career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know so many people who say, \u2018If this would have happened, I would have played pro ball,\u2019 or who watch TV and say, \u2018I should be out there.\u2019 I never wanted to be one of those guys, so I wanted to do whatever it took for me to give myself every opportunity to make good on my experiences as a\u00a0a\u00a0football player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think there\u2019s stages when you become jaded with the game. You feel like politics is the reason you got cut or things like that. I never wanted to end up feeling jaded, so\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a matter of pushing through that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Push he did, while spending time in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers (2015), New England Patriots (2015), San Diego Chargers (2016), Chicago Bears (2019-21), Atlanta Falcons (2021)\u00a0and Pittsburgh Steelers (2022).\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Chicago, he registered his first NFL sack \u2014 toppling none other than Tom Brady, then of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on Oct. 8, 2020.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the CFL, he played for the Calgary Stampeders (2017-18, 2023-24) and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2025) before signing with Saskatchewan as a free agent on\u00a0Feb. 10.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vaughters enjoyed an auspicious debut with the Roughriders, sacking B.C.\u2019s Nathan Rourke on a second-and-six play that began\u00a0on\u00a0Saskatchewan\u2019s nine-yard line.\u00a0The sack forced B.C.\u00a0to settle for a fourth-quarter field goal that allowed the Roughriders to\u00a0maintain\u00a0the lead (21-20) in a hard-fought, down-to-the-wire contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With that in mind,\u00a0Vaughters was asked lightheartedly:\u00a0\u201cWas the sack a work of art?\u201d\u00a0He laughed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ll leave the whole\u00a0sack artiste\u00a0thing to Flo (Orimolade) in Calgary,\u201d said Vaughters, who is preparing for Saturday\u2019s matchup with the Stampeders at McMahon Stadium.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking at Vaughters\u2019 entire, varied resume, one wonders how he finds time to pursue all his interests.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you have a six-month off-season, you have a chance to figure out what you\u2019re passionate about outside of the game,\u201d he replied. \u201cWhether it be architecture, whether it be art, whether it be fashion, whether it be a whole bunch of different things,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0always more you can learn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I went to college, I wanted to major in architecture and I wanted to major in art history, but I didn\u2019t feel like I had the prerequisite knowledge to have a context of what I was learning, and it made it harder to learn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a six-month off-season, you have so many opportunities to learn different things outside of things that you want to learn that could apply to different industries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like when the time comes for me to stop playing, I\u2019ll have a really unique point of view that can be the difference between getting a job or not getting a\u00a0job, or\u00a0actually enjoying the job that you get or not enjoying it as much.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
One suspects\u00a0he will be able to write his own ticket or, to put it in architectural parlance, design his own blueprint.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are people who think that architecture is art and there are people who don\u2019t,\u201d Vaughters said. \u201cBut think that the idea of a very practical creative space and a space that has a lot of utility,\u00a0I always found that\u00a0was\u00a0really interesting.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0almost like\u00a0being an artist.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0like an applied\u00a0art,\u00a0the same way it would be an applied science. I think that part about architecture made it interesting to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve\u00a0read modern architecture textbooks, front to back, and I think\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0really interesting\u00a0when it comes to three-dimensional space versus looking at a canvas.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0almost like an art that you experience just because you\u00a0have to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you want to go to a museum or if you want to go to a public building, you have no choice but to experience those spaces.\u00a0I think we\u00a0experience those places a lot better when\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0made in a thoughtful way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Consider Mosaic Stadium, which is known for its aesthetic quality as well as its\u00a0functionality\u00a0as a football venue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On the HKS Architects website, Mosaic Stadium\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0described strictly in technical terms. Instead, it is \u201cA Mosaic of Natural Beauty, Environmental Stewardship and Civic Pride.\u201d There was far more to the process than erecting bleachers,\u00a0installing pipes,\u00a0etc.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I notice the difference between walking into a building that doesn\u2019t have a lot of light and walking into a building that has a lot\u00a0of plants inside,\u201d Vaughters said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou walk inside a building that interacts with its environment rather than imposing on its environment, or\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0even the concept of compression and release and all these other architectural concepts.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you don\u2019t think about them, I think your body actually feels them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Visit James Vaughters\u2019 Instagram page and the\u00a0initial\u00a0description is\u00a0\u201cFootballer\/Creative Director.\u201d\u00a0 On the line below: \u201cModel.\u201d\u00a0 On jamesvaughters.com, the 32-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743336,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-743335","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\/743335","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=743335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}