The first time Charleston Hughes worked for Chris Jones, things didn’t start out well.
Jones was the Calgary Stampeders’ defensive co-ordinator in 2008 when Hughes attended his first training camp with the CFL team. The Stamps cut the rookie defensive end at the end of that camp, but an injury to another player helped earn Hughes a second chance.
Ten seasons and 99 sacks later, Hughes is an established CFL player — and one who’s in great demand. As proof, consider that the 34-year-old product of Saginaw, Mich., was traded twice on Friday.
First, Calgary sent Hughes to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for a pair of draft picks. Then the Saskatchewan Roughriders — who now employ Jones as their head coach and GM — acquired Hughes from Hamilton for quarterback Vernon Adams Jr.
Hughes is looking forward to being reunited with Jones and to helping the Roughriders, but he’s also driven by the desire to keep proving himself. That was created when he was released by Calgary a decade ago.
“There were a lot of components that made that happen and I realized that,” Hughes said Wednesday at Mosaic Stadium, where he was introduced to the Regina media.
“After being cut like that, it makes you a different type of football player where you know what it feels like to get sent home. When you get a second chance at something, you know that you’re going to do whatever you can to let it not happen again.”
That motivation was evident to the Stampeders’ general manager at the time.
“A week (after cutting Hughes), this guy came back, he was mentally prepared, he came out and showed what he could do,” Jim Barker told CFL.ca last May. “He had the experience from training camp and he has been on the field now (ever since). Those things happen.”
After rejoining the Stamps, Hughes wanted desperately to prove to them that he could play in the CFL — and he wanted to prove that to himself as well.
“After being cut one time, it’s like, ‘Oh man. Was I not good enough? Do I have to do something different?’ ” Hughes said. “You’ve got to think what that is and ‘What can I do to be better? What is the advantage somebody else has over me?’ You have to try to attack that and be the person that you need to be.”
Since conducting that self-evaluation, Hughes has led the league in sacks three times (2013, 2016-17) and has been named a West Division all-star six times (2010, 2012-13, 2015-17) and a CFL all-star four times (2012-13, 2016-17).
Over his 10-year CFL career, the 6-foot-1, 246-pounder has registered 412 tackles, 99 sacks and 23 forced fumbles.
Last season, Hughes had 41 tackles, 19 quarterback pressures, 11 sacks, two tackles for losses and one forced fumble in 14 regular-season games. He added five tackles and a sack in the post-season to help Calgary reach the Grey Cup game.
Hughes won Grey Cup titles with the Stampeders in 2008 and 2014.
In his mind, he has proven himself — and then some.
“I’ve done way more than what even I believed I could do,” said Hughes, who played four seasons (2008-11) for Jones in Calgary.
“Year in and year out, I’ve always gone back and reviewed film to try to see, ‘What can I do to be a better player on the field? What can I do to improve from the previous year?’ Every year, I think that’s what gave me the advantage over everybody else, even going into my 11th season.
“You know what? I’m happy, and it’s not over yet. I’ve still got a lot of years left to play and I’ve got a lot of improving left to do. I can improve just as much as anybody else.”
Hughes was planning a snowboarding trip to Banff when he found out he had been traded to Hamilton. He never expected to play anywhere other than Calgary, but realized a move to Hamilton would take him closer to his hometown and would allow family members to see him play.
“But only being there for 30 seconds was a taste of reality,” he said. “It was like, ‘All right. I’m over that. On to the next.’ ”
The next stop is Saskatchewan, where he joins what he considers “a Grey Cup-contending team.” On Wednesday, he got a tour of the Roughriders’ facilities at Mosaic Stadium and was impressed by what he saw.
Hughes noted he felt rejuvenated after seeing the weight room, which he called “a big upgrade” over the facilities the Stampeders had when he arrived in 2008.
“When I first came to Calgary, (the weight room) was a shed on wheels,” he recalled with a grin. “We worked out and lifted weights in a shed with one squat rack, one weight bench, two treadmills — only one works — and a box TV in the corner. So going from that to this is a good thing.”
- Linebacker Jeff Knox Jr., and cornerback Kacy Rodgers II — both of whom were released by Saskatchewan last week so they could sign NFL contracts — have joined teams in that league.
Knox has re-signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, with whom he went to training camp last season. The 25-year-old returned to Saskatchewan in September after being cut by the Bucs and played eight games with the Roughriders in the regular season.
Rodgers, 25, signed with the New York Jets — the team that employs his dad, Kacy Sr., as defensive co-ordinator. The younger Rodgers played 25 regular-season games with the Roughriders over the past two seasons.
