{"id":97405,"date":"2025-08-26T03:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T03:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97405\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T03:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T03:52:13","slug":"show-that-i-belonged-saskatchewan-roughriders-joe-robustelli-explains-his-focus-for-2025-cfl-season-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/97405\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Show that I belonged\u2019: Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Joe Robustelli explains his focus for 2025 CFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was one goal in mind for Saskatchewan Roughriders’\u00a0receiver Joe Robustelli<\/a>\u00a0leading into\u00a0the 2025 CFL season.<\/p>\n

“To show that I belonged on the field,” Robustelli said on\u00a0the SportsCage. “I think last year was more of a development as a player, learning the game. I came to this training camp feeling comfortable on the field. When I was given the opportunity, I was gonna be able to go out there and make some plays —\u00a0I feel like I’m doing that.”<\/p>\n

Through eight\u00a0games, the six-foot-three, 220-pound receiver has started with the Green and White,\u00a0he’s made\u00a028\u00a0receptions for 377\u00a0receiving yards and two touchdowns.<\/p>\n

The Riders won in Week 11\u00a0against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 29-9.\u00a0Robustelli finished the game with three receptions for 36 yards and one touchdown. For his\u00a0touchdown celebration, he did ‘The Griddy.’<\/p>\n

“I promised one of my really good buddies, little brothers, that I’d do it for him,” Robustelli explained. “I happened to score this week when I told him I would, so I’m a man of my word and I had to hit it.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Everything happened for a reason, and Robustelli’s football career has had a lot of twists and turns.<\/p>\n

“In my freshman year of high school, I did play tackle football, but that was the last year that I played. I was 14 years old at the time, and I remember talking to my dad about it.\u00a0I was four-foot-11,\u00a0I was really small,\u00a0I wasn’t really playing [and] I was used to being one of the better players on my teams,” Robustelli\u00a0explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I was like, you know what?\u00a0I think I’m gonna hang up the cleats and [my dad] was like, listen, I promise you this is gonna be one of the biggest regrets of your life. Being a dad, I’m sure that probably killed him, but he was right because I took\u00a012 years off.\u00a0I would have been playing throughout high school, who knows where I’d be right now. I am extremely blessed to be where I am right now,\u00a0I’m super happy with where I am, but I took those 12 years off, which is wild.”<\/p>\n

This year, the Riders\u00a0receiving group has dealt\u00a0with injuries to\u00a0Kian Schaffer-Baker<\/a>, Samuel Emilus <\/a>and Shawn Bane Jr. <\/a>Those injuries\u00a0meant the Green and White management had to trust\u00a0players from the\u00a0practice roster.<\/p>\n

“Last year our roster was so deep. This year we pretty much had everybody the same,”\u00a0Robustelli said. “I’m sure the GM\u00a0knew that they were fine because they’ve seen what we were able to do last year on the practice squad. They were like: ‘Listen, anything happens, we know we’ve got guys who can come up and make plays.’\u00a0That’s why they brought us in\u00a0and that’s what we’re gonna continue to do.”<\/p>\n

During his time on the practice roster and active roster,\u00a0Robustelli\u00a0continues to\u00a0enjoy\u00a0learning from veteran quarterback Trevor Harris.<\/p>\n

“You ask him as many questions as you want and he’s gonna tell you what it is and it’s always gonna be the correct thing,” Robustelli explained. “Coach [Marc] Mueller always says the same thing,\u00a0they’re two peas in a pod. They’re both so dialed in\u00a0and what they’ve got going on with this offence is incredible.”<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan hosts\u00a0the Blue Bombers\u00a0on Sunday for the annual Labour Day Classic game.\u00a0Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk and Wes Cates\u00a0bring you the pre-game show at 2 p.m. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder\u00a0have the game call at 5 p.m. Listen and watch\u00a0our comprehensive coverage on\u00a0the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network.<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was one goal in mind for Saskatchewan Roughriders’\u00a0receiver Joe Robustelli\u00a0leading into\u00a0the 2025 CFL season. “To show that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":96141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,56140,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-97405","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-saskatchewan-roughriderstrevor-harrissamuel-emilusshawn-bane-jr-marc-muellerkian-schaeffer-bakerjoe-robustellicfl-2025","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97405","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=97405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/96141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}