Winnipeg Blue Bombers Extend OL Stanley Bryant
Long-time CFL offensive lineman Stanley Bryant is staying with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for another year. The team announced Bryant had agreed to a one-year contract extension to stay in Winnipeg.
The Winnipeg Sun reported Wednesday that Bryant did take a slight pay cut to return to the football team. That was a decision that Bryant didn’t mind making.
“I know I have to sacrifice things at my end to have the team that we need, to be capable to get to a Grey Cup and win,” Bryant said Wednesday via The Winnipeg Sun. “I have no issue with that. It comes to that point in your career or anybody’s career and you have to adjust to that and that’s fine with me. I want to have the best team we can put out there.”
the 🐐 returns.
— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) January 16, 2024
We've signed @MyHumble_Self to a one-year deal.
📝 » https://t.co/dHiA59mdgX#ForTheW pic.twitter.com/ueB6Eu0gsz
Bryant has had a hall-of-fame-type career in the CFL that began in 2010 with the Calgary Stampeders. He was named a CFL West and CFL All-Star for Calgary in 2013 and 2014 and helped the Stampeders win the Grey Cup in 2014.
In free agency in 2015, Bryant decided to join the Bombers starting a near-decade run with the team. He has added five more CFL All-Star and six CFL West All-Star selections to his resume, and the CFL named him the Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman Award four times. He helped the Bombers win two Grey Cups as well in 2019 and 2021.
For Stanley, it was knowing he was still at the top of his game that helped his decision to return in 2024.
“It’s basically just knowing that I can still play the game,” Bryant said on a Zoom call Wednesday. “As I was thinking about it and contemplating it, someone said that ‘Football is the only sport that you can’t continue to play once you’re done.’ Basketball, you can go out there to the YMCA and shoot around. Hockey, which I don’t play, I’m pretty sure you can go out there and get to a beer league and move around and things like that.
“But football, you can’t just go out there and play once you’re done. Once I heard that, it made sense to me and made me think longer and harder. You still feel good, you still feel like you can play, so, why not continue to play?”
Winnipeg has brought back eight players from the 2023 roster and still has 28 players who are pending free agents.
Winnipeg Brings Back All-Star Willie Jefferson
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Anthony Miller has been covering professional spring football since 2019 including XFL, USFL, and CFL. He was a local news reporter in Texas before transitioning to sports. Other sites he writes for includes College Football Network and NTZ Network.