Blue Bombers re-sign Milt Stegall
Veteran slotback Milt Stegall wants one last crack at winning a Grey Cup and making CFL history.
Stegall, 36, re-signed Tuesday for a 13th and likely final season with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
"Never say never but, more than likely, this will probably be it," Stegall said. "Me coming back next year [2008] after this year, there's basically no chance of it."
Stegall, one of the most explosive receivers in the CFL, led Winnipeg with 79 catches for 1,269 yards and seven touchdowns in 14 games last season.
Stegall is just two touchdowns shy of breaking the CFL record of 137 shared by running backs George Reed and Mike Pringle.
"Milt knows how to get open," Blue Bombers head coach Doug Berry said. "When he gets open, he certainly has plenty enough speed to get the job done."
"Milt is nowhere near finishing," Berry continued. "At the end of the seasonâ¦I was sitting in the airport with Milt and I said 'Milt, I know you're going home now, I just want you to know where I am coming from [and] I do believe that Milt Stegall still has game.'"
Stegall has played 170 games since joining the Blue Bombers as a free agent in September 1995, but has yet to win a Grey Cup.
"The team is headed in the right direction to make something happen," he said. "The fact that they brought coach Berry in and they brought some talent here, [so] this is the best situation I've been in, in a while."
In recent years, Stegall has weighed each new contract over retirement based on what is best for his family.
His wife, Darlene, and two-year-old son, Chase, live year-round in Atlanta, where she runs her own business.
"We had to make sure that my mother was able to come down [from Cincinnati] for another year to help out with my son," Stegall said. "The money is not a factor.
"If I make $1 million, that $1 million will be gone one day. But if I get a Grey Cup ring, that's something you cannot take away from me."
With files from the Canadian Press