![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783590790_152_indicator-big.gif\")
<\/p>\n\u201cIt got to the point where I was, OK, I\u2019m gonna go to receiver and instead of handing it off, he\u2019s gonna throw it to me. We were doing that for a while and then it was kind of like, no one\u2019s really getting us better.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I was, OK, I\u2019m gonna go play defence.\u201d<\/p>\n
He played it so well at the University of Waterloo that the Winnipeg Blue Bombers selected him in the second round of the 2022 CFL draft and Ford became a league all-star cornerback in 2024. With Edmonton last season he had a career-high 56 tackles along with two interceptions.<\/p>\n
This season he and the rest of the Elks defensive backs have become ball hawks with a league-high 16 interceptions, all of those coming in the last seven games.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe pays attention in the film room, so he understands route concepts, and when he\u2019s playing, he reads route concepts based on what he\u2019s seen on film,\u201d Elks defensive backs coach Aaron Grymes said of Ford. \u201cHe\u2019s got some God-given ability and he puts himself in position and he\u2019s not afraid to attack the football when it\u2019s in the air. He believes he is the receiver and our motto is, if it\u2019s up, it\u2019s ours. And he lives that motto every single play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ford says when he sees a pass into his area he doesn\u2019t even look at the intended receiver, he pretends the quarterback is throwing the ball at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then I go get it the best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the same mentality the rest of the Elks defensive backs have taken under Grymes\u2019 direction. Four of the five starting backs have at least one interception this season, including three by JJ Ross who returned one 85 yards for a touchdown against Toronto in the Elks 42-12 win last week.<\/p>\n
Against Winnipeg, however, the Elks\u2019 defensive backs will be facing quarterback Zach Collaros, who throughout his CFL career is averaging less than one interception per game. Grymes isn\u2019t worried that his DBs may be overly aggressive in search of a pick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want these guys attacking the football every single play,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we have to be ball aware.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attack the ball, he adds, whether it\u2019s in the air or in the opponent\u2019s hands but be aware of the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou err on the side of always attack the football,\u201d Grymes explained. \u201cMaybe this time we just want to make the tackle on the play because of the situation in the games. Let\u2019s just get off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Elks defence has been exceptional at getting off the field. They have created a league-high 31 forced turnovers, including nine fumble recoveries, and those have been converted into 105 points.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 20, 2026.<\/p>\n
John Korobanik, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt got to the point where I was, OK, I\u2019m gonna go to receiver and instead of handing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-865361","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\/865361","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=865361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}