Chris Matthews, former CFL top rookie, NFL playoff star, returns to the Blue Bombers
Wide receiver signs 3-year deal in Winnipeg, hopes to retire a Bomber
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have a potent new offensive weapon this season: Wide receiver Chris Matthews has rejoined the team where he started his Canadian Football League career.
The Winnipeg Football Club announced Friday it's signed the receiver to a three-year deal. Matthews, 29, originally played in Winnipeg in 2012, when he was named the CFL's rookie of the year, and during an injury-abbreviated season in 2013.
"My ultimate goal is to retire as a Winnipeg Blue Bomber," Matthews said Friday in a conference call from Los Angeles with reporters.
"I want to my name to be up there with Milt Stegall and Terrence Edwards," he said, referring to two of the greatest receivers to play with the Bombers over the past two decades.
At six foot five and 228 pounds, Matthews proved difficult for CFL secondaries to cover during his original stint in Winnipeg. He made 81 catches for 1,192 yards during his rookie of-the-year season. He also scored the first touchdown at Investors Group Field.
Matthews only played four games for the Bombers in 2013 due to a foot ailment. He joined the NFL's Seattle Seahawks the following season and made a splash in the playoffs, recovering an onside kick in the NFC championship against the Green Bay Packers and scoring a touchdown in a Super Bowl loss to the New England Patriots.
Nonetheless, Matthews couldn't crack the Seahawks roster in 2015. He spent three seasons with the Baltimore Ravens, playing sporadically, before returning to the CFL late in 2018 to play four games with the Calgary Stampeders.
After the Stampeders won the 2018 Grey Cup, Calgary released Matthews to allow him to look for NFL work. He said his agent wound up speaking to every CFL team before he signed a three-year-deal with Winnipeg.
"I know in football eyes I'm old as dirt, but in regular life I'm still a young man," he quipped."I'm a fresh body. I feel like I have years to come. Hopefully I can stick it out with Winnipeg until I retire."
The signing immediately upgrades the Bombers' depth at wide receiver, a position where the club was perceived to be thin heading into the 2019 season.
Matthews said his experience may help younger teammates.
Matthews said he'll report to Winnipeg as soon as the league reaches a new collective bargaining agreement with the Canadian Football League Players Association.
That agreement expires on May 18. On Thursday, the players' union said it will instruct its members not to report to training camp if no deal is reached.
Due to provincial labour laws, players in Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton, Ottawa and Toronto would have to report to camp. But players in Vancouver, Regina, Winnipeg and Montreal would not be forced to show up to camp.
The first preseason CFL game is slated for May 26.
- With files from Devin Heroux