{"id":954936,"date":"2026-11-02T00:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T00:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954936\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T00:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T00:46:12","slug":"dakoda-shepley-announces-retirement-after-cfl-nfl-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/954936\/","title":{"rendered":"Dakoda Shepley announces retirement after CFL, NFL career"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Canadian offensive lineman Dakoda Shepley has announced his retirement from professional football following the Toronto Argonauts elimination from the 2026 CFL playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was definitely my last year,\u201d Shepley said on Sunday while cleaning out his locker. \u201c1,000 percent. I thought last year was, but (I wanted to) go out on my own terms rather than go out on an injury, play a solid year of football, and try to win a championship. Is what it is, and that was it for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy body feels worse than its ever felt. Getting beat up week-to-week, managing injuries, shoulders, back, ankles, knees \u2014 everything hurts right now. In a month I\u2019m sure I\u2019ll feel fine. It\u2019s pretty violent on the line of scrimmage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shepley signed with the Argonauts last offseason after personally calling the organization to express his interest in a contract<\/a>. He made 16 regular-season starts and also suited up for the East Semi-Final, which Toronto lost 25-22 to Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

After earning over $1.9 million USD in the NFL, it surprised many to see the Windsor, Ont., native return to the CFL. He now has other things pulling him back down south.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe plan was to do the NFL and then be done. That\u2019s where my head was at when the season ended last year. I had the opportunity with Toronto to come up here and play,\u201d he said. \u201cThat being said, I have a newborn at home, an eight-month-old, and my wife back in Dallas. Priorities have shifted, and I feel like I can\u2019t give the attention that football needs that I\u2019ve committed to all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old was originally selected by the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the first round, fifth overall, during the 2018 CFL Draft. He attended training camp with the New York Jets<\/a> that same year but was waived after the preseason.<\/p>\n

Shepley signed with the Riders in 2019<\/a> and played 18 regular-season games that year, becoming a full-time starter at guard. He helped Saskatchewan finish first in the West Division with a 13-5 record as Cody Fajardo<\/a> became a star at quarterback. The six-foot-five, 290-pound blocker opted out of the 2020 CFL season to pursue the NFL<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That move paid off for Shepley as he spent parts of six seasons with the San Francisco 49ers<\/a>, Seattle Seahawks<\/a>, Dallas Cowboys<\/a>, and Indianapolis Colts<\/a>. He dressed in 16 regular-season NFL games: eight with Seattle, seven with Dallas, and one with San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Shepley was paid $285,000 CAD to suit up for his final run with the Argonauts. That included a $5,000 travel bonus, which allowed him to return to Dallas regularly and visit his young family. However, the money is no longer worth the separation from his child.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was another thing that I don\u2019t think I could have prepared for, my wife and I, when we made the decision to sign here, because it really was a joint, a collaborative decision. It wasn\u2019t just me. I don\u2019t think we were prepared for the new emotions and feelings and everything that comes with having a new baby, especially the first one. It was tough, but we made it through,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey made me a really nice offer, and it\u2019s tough to turn down a bunch of money, regardless if football\u2019s involved or not. Obviously, you have to travel. We mulled it over for so long, and you can\u2019t say no to it. Having the opportunity to go out on my own terms and play a good, full season of football, get that under my belt, was nice. But it was tough. It was tough in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Football insider, reporter and analyst.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Guang Quan\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. Canadian offensive lineman Dakoda Shepley has announced his retirement from professional football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":954937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,100127,22069,49,48,7028,521,522,520,13268,181541,7236,1721,527,2002,514,1705,45083,55574,24373,82,3302],"class_list":["post-954936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-argonauts","tag-argos","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-cowboys","tag-dakoda-shepley","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-football","tag-league","tag-nfl","tag-retirement","tag-riders","tag-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan","tag-sports","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954936","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=954936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/954937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}