TORONTO — Chad Owens and S.J. Green came into the CFL wanting to prove they were good enough to play at the professional level. Instead they wrote their names in history.
Owens and Green started their careers together on the Montreal practice and will now be reunited again in the 2024 Canadian Football Hall of Fame’s induction class. The duo will be joined by receiver Weston Dressler, cornerback Marvin Coleman and defensive end Vince Goldsmith in the Player Category. In the Builder Category were coaching legend Ray Jauch and one of Canada’s greatest proponents of touch football, Ed Laverty, who will be inducted posthumously.
“When I got to the Canadian Football League, I just wanted to play football,” Owens told Henoc Muamba and Donnovan Bennett in this week’s edition of The Waggle Podcast. “I just wanted to prove that I’m good enough to play at the professional level.”
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At five-foot-eight and 180 pounds, the pass-catcher/returner became the first player in professional football to hit at least 3,000 combined yards in three consecutive seasons. He put it all together for a near-perfect 2012 season when he was named the CFL’s MOP and helped the Argos capture the 100th Grey Cup, setting the pro football record for combined yards in a season in the process.
It was a only a couple of years before that fateful season that Owens realized that he was indeed good enough to play at the professional level. Or maybe a lot more.
“After that 2010 season with Toronto, I just felt, ‘OK, I’m really about to do this year. I got the confidence. I know I can do this. Let’s keep getting better.’ And that’s exactly what I did.”
The accolades back it up. Two Grey Cup wins (2009, 2012), four CFL All-Stars (2010-2012, 2014), one CFL record for most all-purpose yards in a regular season (3,863 in 2012) and one Most Outstanding Player Award (2012).
Owens was named a CFL All-Star four times in his decorated career (Geoff Robbins/CFL.ca)
Green also joined The Waggle Podcast to talk about being inducted as part of the Canadian Football Hall of Fame’s Class of 2024, reflecting on what it means to be forever immortalized in CFL lore.
“It feels amazing to be a part of elite company,” said the three-time Grey Cup champion. “For all the work and dedication that went into trying to be the best that I could and it’s all coming full circle for me to be inducted to the Hall of Fame.
“I don’t know if there was a point where I truly recognized that I could be one of the best,” Green told Muamba and Bennett. “It was more so the process in which I approached it every day. Control what I could control to put myself in a situation to be successful. Trying to do the right thing is putting in extra work and watching the film or being a good teammate. All the little things that went into being what made me who I was, it was just part of that process.”
Green was named a CFL All-Star twice (2013, 2017) and an East Division All Star eight times, while accumulating over 10,000 yards and 60 touchdowns during a historic career. Despite the gaudy numbers, neither player was focused on what came after their playing days.
“When you’re in it, you don’t think about the end,” said Owens about his mentality during his playing days. “You’re not thinking about, ‘I want to be a Hall of Famer.’ The only thought process is ‘I want to be a better version of myself this year. I want to outdo the last year, I want to be the best receiver, I want to be the top return guy again,’ whatever your personal goals are as a player while you’re in it.”