Will Ford back with Bombers

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This article was published 27/02/2014 (4563 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the few bright spots of the Bombers 2013 season will shine again in blue and gold this summer.

Running back Will Ford, one of four Bombers named to last season’s East Division All-Star Team, re-signed with the club, the Bombers announced today in a release. It will be his third season with the team.

Ford had been on the free-agent market since Feb. 11 but, after changing agents this winter, was able to hammer out a new deal with the club in the last few days.

And for Ford, the chance to stick with the team that gave him a chance – he first came north to the Toronto Argonauts in 2012 before joining the Bombers that July – was huge in his decision.

“It’s the opportunity,” Ford said Thursday from his offseason base in Greenville, S.C. “Since I came to the CFL a few years ago Winnipeg is the team that gave me the chance to revive my football career. I want to be playing for the team that gave me that chance. It’s just a good fit for me and I’m happy to be back.

“You go to a different country, you don’t really know anyone… I was lucky that I knew Chad Simpson when I got to Winnipeg, but everything was still all so new to me. The fact that they just gave me that opportunity was big. I’m back playing ball and doing what I love. That’s a blessing.”

Ironically, with Simpson hurt last season it was Ford who stepped in to grab the starting tailback chores. He finished the year with 594 yards rushing and two touchdowns. The tailback’s most electrifying dash, a 70-yard scamper against Calgary in October, was the longest by a running back in the CFL all season. That tilt, he ground out 156 yards on 14 carries.

Then there was his 98-yard kickoff return in the 2013 Banjo Bowl and the second kickoff return for a touchdown four weeks later, which made him just the seventh player in CFL history to return two kickoffs for a touchdown in a single season.

The sum of that performance earned him the Bombers’ nomination for top special teams player, and two CFL Special Teams Player of the Week nods during the season.