{"id":820042,"date":"2026-07-23T03:45:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:45:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/820042\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T03:45:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T03:45:28","slug":"hogan-the-return-of-the-lemonator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/820042\/","title":{"rendered":"Hogan: The Return of the Lemonator"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was an announcement that caught everyone by surprise, though maybe it shouldn\u2019t have.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Toronto Argonauts announced that defensive end Shawn Lemon had signed with the team, his second tour of duty in Double Blue after playing for the team 2016-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just thankful,\u201d Lemon told Argonauts.ca. \u201cI\u2019ve always loved playing football in Toronto. I\u2019m just thankful for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Argos found themselves in search mode. Injuries in successive weeks to Jeremiah Ojo and Andrew Chatfield Jr. meant the team had to find a defensive end who was not under contract anywhere and preferably had CFL experience.<\/p>\n

Lemon checked both boxes.<\/p>\n

Not only did the native of Charleston, South Carolina have over a dozen CFL seasons under his belt, he was a free agent. As a bonus, he worked with Argo defensive coordinator Greg Quick for his last two years in Montreal, where they won the Grey Cup in 2023, then reached the final last season.<\/p>\n

But Lemon remained a free agent until this week. He was confident the phone would eventually ring and wasn\u2019t slightly surprised when the call came from Toronto.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all timing,\u201d he said. \u201cMe and (Argo player personnel director) Jim Barker have been in contact every week, and I have a relationship with Coach Quick; we\u2019ve talked every week. I was just staying ready and waiting for an opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There are people skeptical of the move, and with reason. Lemon isn\u2019t 23 years old anymore. He\u2019s 37 and played his first CFL game in 2011. His odometer is filled with city kilometres, not bolstered by long, easy drives through the country, but he believes he still has a lot of road to travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of gas left in the tank,\u201d he said. \u201cMy body feels fresh. I\u2019ve been fortunate to not have a lot of surgeries. I\u2019ve had some time off through my career as well. I feel great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Those times away from the sport weren\u2019t by choice. He had an extra long off-season before signing with the Argos on Tuesday and didn\u2019t play in 2024. The CFL suspended him that season for betting on league games while playing with Calgary. He was reinstated a year later.<\/p>\n

Those down times, combined with him knowing he\u2019s much closer to the end of his career than the beginning, have made him appreciate the sport even more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the game of football,\u201d he said. \u201cI know what I can do when I\u2019m given the opportunity. I just want to be a leader and lead these guys by example, be the best version of myself, and just be a good teammate and come in and help an already great front. I know how to get to the quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no question about that. The University of Akron product has 103 career sacks over 157 games, adding six in the playoffs, and three more in four championship games.<\/p>\n

Lemon\u2019s last Grey Cup appearance is a recent one. He was signed in 2023 by Montreal, almost three years to the day prior to his putting pen to paper with Toronto. The Alouettes were 2-3 and had lost three games in a row when he arrived in Quebec, almost exactly the same situation that the Argos find themselves in now.<\/p>\n

His presence added a needed boost on the field, a veteran presence in the locker room, and helped the Als turn things around. He recorded nine sacks in the regular season, added three more in two playoff games, then another in Montreal\u2019s Grey Cup win over Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

What can he bring to the Argos?<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThe same thing I added to Montreal,\u201d he explained. \u201cIt was a similar kind of team, but they didn\u2019t have a lot of older guys who have been around the league. I just want to lead by example and get the camaraderie off the field. It translates to on the field. I just want to be a true pro and be the first guy in, and the last guy to leave, and bring my knowledge of how to get to the quarterback.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lemon has been splitting his time between Montreal and Maryland, spending time with his family and working out every day, hoping for an opportunity like the one he has now, dreaming he can replicate the similarity with his 2023 season by winning another Grey Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was an announcement that caught everyone by surprise, though maybe it shouldn\u2019t have. On Tuesday, the Toronto…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-820042","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\/820042","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=820042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}