Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver Rob Bagg stiff-arms a Winnipeg Blue Bombers defender during the 2016 Labour Day Classic (File photo courtesy of the Saskatchewan Roughriders)

By CJME News

Looking Back

Rob Bagg reflects on his run with the Roughriders

Sep 18, 2019 | 4:09 PM

Given his workout habits, chances are very good that Rob Bagg is going to be the fittest real estate agent in Kingston, Ont.

The former Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver announced his retirement Tuesday after 11 CFL seasons. An unsigned free agent, Bagg spent the first half of the 2019 season preparing to play before deciding to move on from football.

He recently got his real estate licence and is set to embark on a career with a brokerage in Kingston.

“I’ve been training hoping to maybe get a call up by any (CFL) team in Ontario up until about three weeks ago,” Bagg said Wednesday during a conversation with The Green Zone.

“I’m still in great shape and feel great, but as soon as I signed on with the brokerage, I felt like it was appropriate to focus my energy and efforts there and then try to close the book on football.

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“While it was a bit of an emotional struggle, it just felt like it needed to be done and that the timing is now.”

Bagg made the announcement Tuesday on Twitter in a post that generated responses from current and former CFL players who had played with or against Bagg.

“(The response) has been overwhelming, to be honest,” Bagg said. “(I’m) just reminded of all the amazing relationships I’ve been fortunate enough to develop over the last 10 years — and the feeling is mutual (for) every single player who reached out.

“I can’t express how much that meant to me and I’m truly appreciative of all the bonds and the brotherhoods that I’ve been fortunate enough to experience.”

Bagg joined the Roughriders as an undrafted free agent in 2007 out of Queen’s University. He earned a roster spot that season, but turned it down and returned to Queen’s for his final year of university eligibility.

He returned to Saskatchewan in 2008 and once again won a spot on the roster — and that time he stayed.

He spent the next 10 seasons with the Green and White, but knee injuries cost him all of one season (2011) and most of another (2012).

It looked like Bagg had suffered another serious knee injury during the 2013 campaign, but appearances proved to be deceiving. He missed just one game.

When he was in the lineup for the Labour Day Classic just two weeks later, the Roughriders faithful at Mosaic Stadium enthusiastically welcomed him back.

“The response that I got from the fans when they announced the opening lineup that day, it just reaffirmed to me — and (it’s) a feeling I’ll never forget — that persistence pays off,” Bagg said. “Other people respect you more when you’ve gone through the mud and not quit.

“I take that lesson with me daily, to be honest, and remember that regardless of how crummy things get, if you continue to push, continue to work and continue to believe, you don’t know when, but you will be rewarded for that.”

Bagg personified that outlook throughout his CFL career, having realized the plights of others were worse than his own. He used that as motivation to help drive himself to overcome hurdles.

He dealt with adversity in the 2018 season as well, suffering an ankle injury in training camp, getting cut and returning to the team only after filing a grievance with the CFL Players’ Association. He played in just four games and didn’t catch a pass.

Bagg hit the free-agent market in February, but wasn’t signed. That eventually led to Tuesday’s announcement.

The 6-foot-0, 195-pounder finishes his career with 364 catches for 4,705 yards and 24 touchdowns in 143 career regular-season games. He also won a Grey Cup with the 2013 Roughriders.

That title was the culmination of a building period for a Saskatchewan team that featured the likes of Bagg, quarterback Darian Durant and receivers Weston Dressler and Chris Getzlaf.

Bagg noted that the receivers pushed each other daily, on and off the field, and that was partly responsible for an atmosphere that helped the team reach three Grey Cup games in a five-year span.

“It was incredible, just the whole experience of being able to grow with those guys not only as football players but also as people,” said Bagg, who counts Dressler and Getzlaf among his closest friends.

“To experience the lows that came with losing in the Grey Cup games earlier in our career (in 2009 and ’10) and then to be able to, with a lot of the same guys, right those wrongs and win in 2013 was just an incredible experience.”