Switching Sides: Jefferson excited to return to Regina for LD Classic

Willie Jefferson has been around the Canadian Football League long enough to understand fully and completely how this is going to unfold.

Yes, from the very first moment the veteran defensive end steps onto the Mosaic Stadium turf in Regina on Sunday afternoon in the 55^th annual Labour Day Classic during Mark’s Labour Day Weekend – nattily attired in his white Winnipeg Blue Bombers #5 jersey — the boos, catcalls and insults will rain down on him like a month-long monsoon.

Oh, and he’ll be loving absolutely every nanosecond of it all.

“It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be really exciting,” began Jefferson after the Bombers completed another practice on Thursday. “I’m anxious to get out there and see all of my old fans and just be in that stadium and see the atmosphere.

“It’s always a great time of the year, a great facility to be in for the Labour Day game. It’s going to be fun to watch us run around on that field and make plays.”

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Jefferson’s first 10 games as a member of the Bombers have been simply superb. He’s been everything as advertised – x10 – as a disruptive, game-changing defensive force. And the fact he is doing all this in blue and gold now will undoubtedly make him a target come Sunday.

Jefferson reiterated again that his decision to sign with the Bombers during free agency in February was ‘simply business’. He had been a disciple of former Edmonton and Saskatchewan head coach Chris Jones, and when Jones left for the Cleveland Browns, Jefferson opened up his options as to where to sign.

“It’s mostly business,” said Jefferson. “With me being in the CFL for as long as I have been, I’ve always been with Coach Jones and when I left for the NFL and came back the reason I chose Saskatchewan was because of Coach Jones. So, when he left it left me with a decision about how I wanted to pursue the rest of my CFL career. I made the decision to come here and it wasn’t all about the money.”

Jefferson said he has already received calls, videos and texts from former Rider teammates this week and he expects the banter to crank up even further come Sunday. And he won’t be one to shy away from any of it.

“I talk throughout the game,” he said with a grin. “Sometimes it’s aggressive chatter when it’s towards the other team, sometimes it’s just jokes if it’s in between plays when the referees are getting situated or during TV time outs.

“Sometimes it’s friendly and sometimes it’s a lot of chatter. I’ve been playing this game for a while so you have to know how to approach the game. If I’m having fun out there, I’m going to talk and have fun. But if I’m in a serious mode and I want to talk serious, I’ll talk serious. I can go back and forth.”

There’s much more at stake here than just staying atop the West Division and bragging rights between two prairie rivals. Both Jefferson and Riders defensive end Charleston Hughes, you see, are certainly in the discussion for the CFL’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player award.

Hughes tweeted earlier this month that if he wasn’t the league’s top defender that the voting was rigged – he did include a laughing emoji with the tweet – and then earlier this week, days after Jefferson’s incredible work in the win over Edmonton, commented on how his lead for the quarterback sack title had shrunk.

And Jefferson makes no secret he’s not just following along with this top defensive player discussion, he’s actively working to chase the thing.

“When Charleston made that first statement he had the momentum to say that,” said Jefferson. “He had 10 sacks, forced fumbles, tackles and everything. But that was then, this is now. He’s still the sack leader, but guys are coming up on him on sacks, guys are coming up on him with the tackles and making other plays.

“That award isn’t given to you at the middle of the season, it’s given to you at the end of the season. You’ve got to finish out the season and put in your work and keep grinding.

“Right now, if it came down to the Most Outstanding Defensive Player it would be either him or me. He has 10 sacks, I have eight. He doesn’t have any picks, I have two picks. We’ve both got a lot of forced fumbles and he has more tackles than me, but at the end of the day it’s about who puts the most plays out there, who puts the most effort out there and what decision the CFL makes.

“We’ve still got eight-nine games to go.”