Winnipeg Blue Bombers star slotback Milt Stegall ended months of suspense and announced this morning that he will return to play the 2008 Canadian Football League season. It will be his 14th with the Bombers.
Stegall has often joked that the only guarantees in life are death, taxes, trouble, Milt Stegall will always be on time, Milt Stegall will always look good and Milt Stegall will always be in shape.
Winnipeg Blue Bombers general manager Brendan Taman and chairman Ken Hildahl are surrounded by reporters and photographers as they listen to Milt Stegall announce his return for another season today.
Six days past his 38th birthday, Stegall has added a seventh guarantee to that list: Milt Stegall will be a Blue Bomber again.
He also revealed he will be a father for the second time.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush, we decided I'm going to come back and play another year," Stegall said this morning via telephone from his home in Atlanta during a league-wide conference call in the Bomber boardroom, which was packed with local media.
"There was some developments that came about, with some business opportunities and secondly, one that trumped everything, my wife is pregnant right now. So there was a lot of things that had to go into consideration as far as making this decision."
While appearing in the 2007 Grey Cup championship game but coming away empty-handed, Stegall said the final decision was "from the heart" and made with his wife Darlene and young son Chase.
"I always say I think we have a great chance to win a Grey Cup. Coach (Doug) Berry and everyone there, they've put together a great team and a great atmosphere and I want to be a part of that.
"The things that arose caused me to take a while to make this decision but we put some things in place that there's a great possibility that my family will be with me in Winnipeg this year."
Stegall said he believes he'll know when the desire to keep playing has left him and that time has not yet come.
"When football leaves me I'll be able to make a smooth transition," he said. "There's only so many opportunities you get to have an occupation, a job like this, to be around great guys in a great organization in a great city."
In true Stegall fashion he proceeded to apologize to pretty much everyone in Manitoba for taking the time he needed to make such an important decision.
"So I want to say I'm sorry for the fact that it took too long, to the organization, to the coaches, to Brendan (Taman) to Ross (Hodgkinson), everybody on the board, to Lyle and all the fans in the city," but there was a lot of things that came into play that my wife, myself, my agent and my son Chase, we had to weigh everything. But everything looks positive and in the right direction so we decided to play another year.
Taman, the Bomber general manager, said Stegall, has signed a one-year-plus option contract. He may not be the highest-paid receiver on the team because of the financial wrangling he had to do to get Stegall's salary in under the CFL's new cap.
"From a football point of view, I still think he's one of the best receivers in the league," Taman said. "He's great in the locker room which will never be replaced...and he draws a lot of people's interest in the football club."
Bombers receivers coach Bob Dyce said Stegall will both his skill and mentorship to the club.
"When Milt and I met at the end of last season after we came back from Toronto, I told him that I hoped he came back because I definitely feel he can still be an outstanding player for this team," Dyce said.
Stegall was signed as a free agent by the Bombers in 1995. Last July 27, he broke the CFL record for career touchdowns when he eclipsed the 137 total held jointly by George Reed and Mike Pringle. He now has 144 career TDs and holds several other league records, including most career TD receptions.
He has never won a Grey Cup with the Bombers and suggested all of last season that he was 99.9 per cent sure he would retire, but always kept that tiny sliver of hope open for fans who have come to love him. He has said it's become increasingly difficult to come back every season and be away from his wife Darlene and his son Chase.
He has been dubbed the Turtle Man because of his rock-hard abs as well as the Touchdown Beagle, Quatre-Vingt-Cinq and Chocolate Milt. Among his most memorable catches are a game-winning, last-play, 100-yard reception in Edmonton over the Eskimos on July 20, 2006.
He has been awarded the Order of the Buffalo Hunt, given a key to the city and the street formerly known as Arena Road was renamed Milt Stegall Drive this past season. Other CFL records he holds include most TDs in a season (23 in 2002) and most yards per catch in a season (26.5 in 1997).
He was named the CFL's most outstanding player in 2002, was named, with quarterback Khari Jones, the top passing/receiving tandem ever in the CFL and was voted No. 15 in the CFL's Top 50 players of the league's modern era by TSN.
Stegall joked with the media that he wouldn't go any farther than just saying he'd playin in 2008, referring to his last season's comment that there was a 99.9 per cent chance he'd retire.
"I'm taking it day by day, I'm not giving you guys any ammunition. Every day I wake up in the morning, I'm gearing up, I'm going to play football that day."
Taman joked he'll have to make some financial adjustments to incorporate Stegall's expanding family.
"I'm going to have give her (Stegall's wife Darlene) some flowers now so that will have to go under the cap," Taman said, smiling.
--with files from Chris Cariou
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