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He lived his ‘dream’: Chris Getzlaf retires as a Rider

Jan 4, 2018 | 12:50 PM

Chris Getzlaf said he got to “live out his dream,” as he announced his retirement from football with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

Getzlaf, 34, spent most of his CFL career with his hometown team, winning two Grey Cups with the green and white in 2007 and 2013.

He described the 2013 Grey Cup in Regina as the “highlight of my career.”

Getzlaf’s was named the Most Valuable Canadian in the 2013 Grey Cup. While that remains a top moment, he has many other great memories from his 11-year career, including his first chance to start against Calgary.

“I got to go in and I ended up scoring a touchdown with a minute and a half to go – it was 60 yards or something with a minute and a half to go and it allowed us to go ahead and eventually win that game,” he recalled on Thursday.

Getzlaf is ranked fifth all-time for the Roughiders with 5,694 receiving yards and sixth all-time with 37 regular season passing touchdowns.

The team did not re-sign the Canadian receiver after the 2015 season, so Getzlaf joined the Edmonton Eskimos in 2016 before returning to the Riders briefly at the end of the 2017 season.

He got a little bit emotional as he was surrounded by friends and former teammates at his retirement announcement including Weston Dressler, Dan Clark, Brendon Labatte and Paul Woldu.