‘I was leaving a higher responsibility that I felt like I had’

HAMILTON — Kenny Lawler didn’t leave the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for a bigger pay day or a better opportunity.

For the star receiver, it boiled down to one main thing: disrespect.

“Y’all signed Dillon Mitchell before me. Who wouldn’t (feel disrespected)?” Lawler shared with the Free Press on Thursday in a one-on-one chat inside Hamilton Stadium.

“I didn’t know that I was going to be leaving Winnipeg. I always thought there would be light at the end of the tunnel at the end of free agency that we’d get something done but nothing got done and nothing ever got figured out.”

Now a member of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Lawler said he didn’t receive a contract offer from the Bombers until a day before free agency opened at the start of February. His agent only had two brief conversations with Winnipeg, where the club was more focused on gauging the market value for a receiver of his calibre.

For Lawler, there was a more personal issue that needed to be addressed.

The two-time division all-star from Pomona, Calif. — who moved his family up to Winnipeg — had been doing some work on the side helping the city’s grassroots football scene before running into a roadblock.

“It’s not that (the Bombers) didn’t want me to do it — they wanted me to do it under them. They closed my work permit,” Lawler explained.

“I have my own business where I go and run camps and I was starting to do that and was getting momentum and when I had to get my work permit closed it was like, ‘hmm, why is this happening?’ You know what I want to do, I live here in Winnipeg, the full year, and if I am going to be taking a pay cut, which I was doing when I was in Winnipeg the whole time, I’m going to need something else to be able to supplement that. It’s not that I need it, it’s that I want to be able to start it so when I’m done with football I can still live where I’m at and transition right into something else and someone wasn’t seeing that.”

When asked who, specifically, wasn’t on board, Lawler responded with: “I think that’s a question you might have to ask them. And it probably wouldn’t be to anyone that you could probably get an (interview from).”

Lawler was also involved with Recruit Ready, a local youth football development program with experienced coaches like Bombers receiver Nic Demski. Out of all the phone calls Lawler had to make, the one informing Demski that he was moving to Hamilton was the toughest.

Lawler helped the Bombers win back-to-back Grey Cups in 2019 and 2021 before signing with the Edmonton Elks in 2022 on a contract that made him the highest paid non-quarterback in the CFL. After going 4-14 in Edmonton, Lawler took less money to rejoin Winnipeg in 2023 and fully intended on finishing his career in blue and gold.

“Nic is really like family to me. He’s a guy that’s had my back, a guy that I work with in the off-season, and during that time we were knee-deep helping Recruit Ready and he was with me throughout the whole free agency and understanding that I was hearing nothing throughout the process,” said Lawler.

“Me and Nic were holding onto that faith, and when it came to the point where I had to tell him I was leaving, it was like, ‘Damn. I’m not going to be playing with you anymore.’ And now it gets deeper — it’s like, ‘what about the kids we’ve been coaching?’ I love them, and they love me. Those kids were getting better every day, and to be leaving that, it was hard because I saw a lot of those kids as my sons, and I want the best for them.”

Lawler added: “It was a really, really hard conversation because it was not just leaving Winnipeg, I was leaving the kids at Recruit Ready, I was leaving a higher responsibility that I felt like I had.”

Waiting with open arms was newly hired Ticats GM Ted Goveia, fresh off a decade of working for the Bombers as an assistant general manager. One of the key selling points was that they went above and beyond to ensure Lawler and his wife, Myanna, that their son, KJ, who is on the autism spectrum, would have the best resources possible. Lawler greatly appreciated the support his family had in Winnipeg, especially from Whyte Ridge School, and wanted to ensure they’d have the same thing if they moved east.

Lawler inked a two-year deal with the Ticats on Feb. 4. The Bombers signed Mitchell, who has 11 grabs for 85 yards in five appearances, in January after he was released by Edmonton.

“(They helped find a) great school for my son. I always know I have support here in this building with this organization. If they don’t have the answers, they’re going to find it,” said Lawler. “And, to be honest, that just makes me play that much harder when I know everybody’s got my back. Me, personally, I wanna play another 10 more years and I believe I can. I’m still going to be doing what I want to do off the field and people here love that.”

Lawler has rewarded the Ticats — who currently own the top spot in the East Division at 7-5 — in a big way for their investment. Through 12 games, the 31-year-old has already set career highs in receiving yards (1,047) and touchdowns (10).

He’ll have a chance to add to those impressive numbers Friday night when the Ticats host the Bombers (6 p.m. CT).

“I haven’t told anybody else this, but I’ve never been one to think you have to go out and get the highest paid receiver in the league because I think there’s so many good receivers. But after seeing what he’s brought to our team, he’s been worth every penny,” said Ticats head coach Scott Milanovich.

“He’s got championship pedigree and (brings) intensity in the locker room pregame. I think he’s brought a little urgency, just a little bit of expectation to win.”

His Winnipeg tenure ended on a sour note, but Lawler has no regrets about his second stint. He still has a ton of love for his former teammates and coaches and has chalked it up as a learning experience on the business side of pro football.

Hamilton is now home, and he couldn’t be happier.

“It’s got nothing to do with the guys that I was going to war with, it’s got nothing to do with the coaches. It’s just more so I look at life like how I look at football when I’m analyzing film. You gotta learn from it. That’s all I look at,” said Lawler.

“Why was I so naive to think someone was going to help me with something other than football? That’s how they really felt, like certain people all they really cared about is, ‘Kenny, as long as you’re good at football, we’re good. We don’t care about what you want to do elsewhere.’ There’s totally 100 per cent genuine people here.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca