\u00bb Maven Maurer\u2019s journey about embracing your own path amidst Pride Month<\/a>
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Former CFL player Maven Maurer says living authentically has allowed her to fully embrace life as she shares a message of hope during Pride Month (Steven Chang\/BCLions.com).<\/p>\n
But overall, Maurer \u2014 who played under the name Mike during her CFL career \u2014 simply says she\u2019s blessed for the life she gets to lead now that she can fully live as herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all the lead in the movie that is our life,\u201d Maurer told CFL.ca while driving from Edmonton to her home in Jasper, Alta. \u201cWe can\u2019t pay attention to some extra if they don\u2019t like our movie or our character. That really doesn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll that really matters is whether or not we\u2019re being authentic to ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking back, Maurer realizes she lived a life that was far from authentic to her true self. The two-time Grey Cup champion played 13 CFL seasons primarily as a fullback and as a special-teams player with stops in Saskatchewan, BC, Ottawa and Edmonton. Nicknamed \u201cThe Wolverine\u201d, she was a ferocious open-field tackler and earned Most Valuable Canadian honours in the 93rd Grey Cup in 2005.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome trans people kind of erase their past, and I didn\u2019t want to do that,\u201d said Maurer,\u00a0now 50. \u201cI did a lot of cool things as Mike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Off the field, she competed in mixed martial arts and reported to Edmonton\u2019s training camp in 2007 with a roadmap of cuts and scars from throwing and chopping wood for Wolverine Tree Felling in Regina.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, I think he\u2019s better off cutting down trees than getting into one of those octagons or whatever they call them where someone is trying to take his head off,\u201d former Edmonton head coach Danny Maciocia said at the time. \u201cI think it\u2019s safer to cut trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully, he knows where the tree is going to fall. Unless a tree falls on him, I wouldn\u2019t be overly concerned.\u201d<\/p>\n
In early 2020, Maurer realized she needed to make big changes in her life. Through therapy, she found the courage to follow through despite all the unknowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes I compare it to The Shawshank Redemption,\u201d she said. \u201cEveryone has stuff to go through. Everyone has a mile of crap to go through. Tim Robbins, at the end there, he had to crawl through the sewer pipe for a mile and then there was his freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n
In pursuit of freedom, Maurer started on hormone replacement therapy in 2022 and underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u00a0feel really good about my body, and about how I\u2019m moving through the world,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u201cI\u2019d like to transition into helping more people. That really fills my cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis last year has just really been a lot about living fully and experiencing things and just living life.\u201d<\/p>\n
That life includes working as a train conductor, spending time with her family whenever possible and taking in the beauty of the Rocky Mountain playground outside her door.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot everyone\u2019s going to love you or like you,\u201d she said. \u201cBut there are people out there that do. Find them, and once you find them, then it just makes everything so much easier and so much better and more fulfilling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since attending the 2024 BC Lions Wall of Fame ceremony for the 2000 Grey Cup championship team, Maurer regularly encounters people who thank her for sharing her story and receives similar messages of gratitude via social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo many people have told me that I\u2019ve helped a loved one or themselves by being visible and that it helps give them strength,\u201d she says, fighting back tears. \u201cIt far outweighs any of the negative feedback that I get. We just have to shift our focus on those positive things.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s so much love.\u201d<\/p>\n
And as Pride Month draws to a close, she offered this advice to anyone who is struggling:<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want other people to realize that they\u2019re not alone,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are loved, and they are worthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should be able to live their best life, whatever that looks like.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regardless of what it used to look like before.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Maven Maurer story does not come with a fairytale ending complete with \u201crainbows and buttercups.\u201d There are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773124,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-773123","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\/773123","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=773123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773123\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}