David Friedrich/BCLions.com
The Maven Maurer story does not come with a fairytale ending complete with “rainbows and buttercups.”
There are still hard days for Maurer, the first former player — in the CFL or NFL — to publicly come out as transgender.
While she calls the response from the football community “phenomenal,” she lost a few friendships along the way. And she’s fully aware of the social media vitriol often directed at public-facing members of the trans community.
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Former CFL player Maven Maurer says living authentically has allowed her to fully embrace life as she shares a message of hope during Pride Month (Steven Chang/BCLions.com).
But overall, Maurer — who played under the name Mike during her CFL career — simply says she’s blessed for the life she gets to lead now that she can fully live as herself.
“We’re all the lead in the movie that is our life,” Maurer told CFL.ca while driving from Edmonton to her home in Jasper, Alta. “We can’t pay attention to some extra if they don’t like our movie or our character. That really doesn’t matter.
“All that really matters is whether or not we’re being authentic to ourselves.”
Looking back, Maurer realizes she lived a life that was far from authentic to her true self. The two-time Grey Cup champion played 13 CFL seasons primarily as a fullback and as a special-teams player with stops in Saskatchewan, BC, Ottawa and Edmonton. Nicknamed “The Wolverine”, she was a ferocious open-field tackler and earned Most Valuable Canadian honours in the 93rd Grey Cup in 2005.
“Some trans people kind of erase their past, and I didn’t want to do that,” said Maurer, now 50. “I did a lot of cool things as Mike.”
Off the field, she competed in mixed martial arts and reported to Edmonton’s training camp in 2007 with a roadmap of cuts and scars from throwing and chopping wood for Wolverine Tree Felling in Regina.
“Well, I think he’s better off cutting down trees than getting into one of those octagons or whatever they call them where someone is trying to take his head off,” former Edmonton head coach Danny Maciocia said at the time. “I think it’s safer to cut trees.
“Hopefully, he knows where the tree is going to fall. Unless a tree falls on him, I wouldn’t be overly concerned.”
In early 2020, Maurer realized she needed to make big changes in her life. Through therapy, she found the courage to follow through despite all the unknowns.
“Sometimes I compare it to The Shawshank Redemption,” she said. “Everyone has stuff to go through. Everyone has a mile of crap to go through. Tim Robbins, at the end there, he had to crawl through the sewer pipe for a mile and then there was his freedom.”
In pursuit of freedom, Maurer started on hormone replacement therapy in 2022 and underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2025.
“I feel really good about my body, and about how I’m moving through the world,” she said. “I’d like to transition into helping more people. That really fills my cup.
“This last year has just really been a lot about living fully and experiencing things and just living life.”
That life includes working as a train conductor, spending time with her family whenever possible and taking in the beauty of the Rocky Mountain playground outside her door.
“Not everyone’s going to love you or like you,” she said. “But there are people out there that do. Find them, and once you find them, then it just makes everything so much easier and so much better and more fulfilling.”
Since attending the 2024 BC Lions Wall of Fame ceremony for the 2000 Grey Cup championship team, Maurer regularly encounters people who thank her for sharing her story and receives similar messages of gratitude via social media.
“So many people have told me that I’ve helped a loved one or themselves by being visible and that it helps give them strength,” she says, fighting back tears. “It far outweighs any of the negative feedback that I get. We just have to shift our focus on those positive things.
“There’s so much love.”
And as Pride Month draws to a close, she offered this advice to anyone who is struggling:
“I just want other people to realize that they’re not alone,” she said. “They are loved, and they are worthy.
“They should be able to live their best life, whatever that looks like.”
Regardless of what it used to look like before.
