There’s a bitter rivalry simmering between Saskatchewan Roughriders special-teamers Alexandre Chevrier and Alexandre Gagne.
It isn’t evident on the football field, but rather inside the apartment they share in Regina.
“We both cook, but I think I’m better,” Gagne says with a laugh. “I’m the guy trying to find new recipes. He normally uses the recipes he has; he’s not that much of a new-stuff guy.”
On the field, each player seems to have found a recipe for success in his first full CFL season.
Entering Saturday’s game against the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Gagne is second on the Roughriders with nine special-teams tackles, two fewer than Chad Geter. Chevrier is tied with Sam Eguavoen for third on the team with seven special-teams stops.
Gagne has played in nine regular-season games in 2018 after being a healthy scratch for the first game of the regular season. Chevrier, who spent the first two games on the practice roster, has appeared in eight regular-season contests.
Gagne and Chevrier were linebacking teammates for four seasons 
with the University of Sherbrooke Vert et Or, so they’ve played together before. This season, they’ve teamed up again to try to take down opposing returners — and without any hint of a friendly competition.
“Of course we want to be the first guy to make the tackle, but there’s no rivalry; we’re more happy for each other,” says Gagne, a 26-year-old product of Saint-Hubert, Que. “We don’t talk about (a competition); it’s just a normal thing where we’re trying to push each other to be better.”
“We don’t compete to see who can get more special-teams tackles, but it is always nice to see another French guy have a lot of tackles,” adds a chuckling Chevrier, a 25-year-old from Pointe-Claire, Que.
Ah, yes — the language.
Both players are bilingual, so there aren’t any communication breakdowns between them and their coaches and teammates. But Gagne and Chevrier have been known to speak French to each other on the field, whether in regular conversations or in celebrations after one or the other makes a play.
“Sometimes we communicate in English and then we’re like, ‘Oh man, that’s weird. We can talk to each other in French,’ ” Gagne says. “It depends on how it goes. We normally talk to each other in French, but when there are other guys with us, we speak in English.”
“For us, it’s easier to talk in French,” Chevrier adds. “The guys look at us like, ‘What are they saying?’ but it’s good.”
They’re also trying to share their knowledge. Gagne notes that backup quarterback David Watford wants to learn one French word a day and former Roughriders cornerback Kacy Rodgers II tried to pick up a word a week in 2017.
Gagne’s time with the Roughriders began in the spring of 2017, when he was invited to a tryout camp in Dodgertown, Fla., as an undrafted free agent.
“We brought him in just to see what he was like, and he did everything we asked of him,” special-teams co-ordinator Craig Dickenson recalls. “We asked, ‘Who can snap?’ He raised his hand. We asked, ‘Who has played linebacker?’ He raised his hand. We asked, ‘Who’s willing to play fullback?’ He raised his hand. The guy was just a phenomenal, versatile player.”
The 6-foot-1, 230-pound Gagne impressed the coaches enough at the tryout camp that he was invited to the team’s mini-camp and, from there, to training camp. He was released after camp, but eventually was signed to the practice roster.
He appeared in one regular-season game last season and made one special-teams tackle.
“I was a little bit disappointed not getting drafted, so I’m taking pride in my journey — going from the tryout camp to mini-camp to training camp and then being on the PR,” says Gagne, who had one special-teams tackle in Sunday’s 31-23 victory over the visiting Bombers. “This year, being able to play every game, it has been pretty special.”
Chevrier was selected by the Roughriders in the seventh round (55th overall) of the 2017 draft. He attended training camp, but went back to Sherbrooke for his final season of U Sports eligibility.
He returned to Saskatchewan’s camp this season and earned a spot on the practice roster, then made his regular-season debut June 30 against the Montreal Alouettes.
“He’s similar in terms of work ethic to Gagne, but he’s more of a late bloomer,” Dickenson says. “We felt like his arrow was pointed up and, once we got him up to speed with what we were doing, we felt like he could help us.”
The 6-foot-0, 217-pound Chevrier had his finest statistical game of the season Aug. 25, when he had four special-teams tackles against the B.C. Lions.
“You always want to be better, but I think I’ve done well,” he says of his season. “I got off to a slow start because I was on the PR for the first two weeks, but I try every week to compete, to do my thing and to get the job done.”
Dickenson has been impressed with the diligence shown by Gagne and Chevrier, noting they’re in the building early every day to watch film and stay late every day to meet with him. In Dickenson’s mind, “they’ve grasped what it is to be a professional football player.”
That’s music to their ears.
“It’s nice to hear because I’ve worked so hard to get here,” says Chevrier, who would have worked for his dad’s excavation company if football hadn’t panned out.
“All my life, even when I played in university, I’ve had to prove to other people that I deserved to be there and that I’m a good player. I’m working hard and people are noticing.”
Now he and Gagne have to maintain that standard.
“We have to keep our routine, try to polish everything we’ve been doing and do extra work because we’re in the pros where everything goes a little bit faster,” Gagne says. “Basically, we have to keep doing what we’ve been doing because it has worked for us.”
