In the gruelling world of professional football, Larry Dean’s bumps aren’t limited to the field.
The other day, for example, Dean was sitting near the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ locker room, patiently conducting a post-practice interview.
Every teammate who walked by, without exception, fist-bumped the veteran middle linebacker — yet another sign of the manner in which he is regarded on the team and, for that matter, across the Canadian Football League.
“I always hold Larry in the highest level of respect,” fellow linebacker Micah Teitz said.
“I can’t use enough good words to describe Larry,” Head Coach Craig Dickenson added, lauding Dean’s “wisdom, high character and leadership.”
As for quarterback Trevor Harris, he was conducting what was originally intended as a brief, walk-and-talk chat with a reporter regarding a different matter while en route to the dressing room last week.
Then the line of inquiry turned to Dean. Harris, himself a universally respected Roughrider, stopped in his tracks.
“The word ‘leader’ is thrown around too much,” Harris began. “There’s only a few great leaders — and he’s an alpha, and he’s a leader. To me, those two traits have always separated Larry.
“He sets a culture on a team. Leadership, in its simplest form, is influence, and he has so much influence while using so few words.
“You know what you’re going to get from him every single day. You don’t have to guess what you’re going to get from Larry Dean in terms of his attitude, his effort, his play on the field.”
Harris, an 11th-year CFLer, was introduced to Dean when the two players were on opposite sides.
After spending time in the NFL with the Minnesota Vikings (2011 to 2013), Buffalo Bills (2014) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2015), Dean ventured northward and joined the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2016.
He spent three seasons in Hamilton before signing with Edmonton (in 2019) and Saskatchewan (2021). Along the way, Harris always paid attention to where Dean was located, on and off the field.
“He has always been a guy who I’ve always sought after,” Harris said. “Every season that I knew he was free, I was calling him and I was saying, ‘Where are you going, man? You need to be on my team,’ because he’s one of those guys who sets a culture and he’s a great influence in the locker room.
“Honestly, there’s nobody in the league I’d rather have at middle linebacker than Larry Dean.”
His accustomed high level of production is merely one facet of the story.
A three-time All-Star, Dean registered 101 defensive tackles for the 2022 Roughriders. He has carried that momentum into 2023, as evidenced by the fact that he has 37 tackles — the second-highest total in the league — after five games.
His third tackle on Saturday, when the Roughriders lost a 33-31 nailbiter to the visiting Calgary Stampeders, enabled him to become the 41st CFL player to hit the career milestone of 500.
Talk to Dean about his own statistics and he will downplay them. But if the numbers pertain to students’ marks or graduation rates, he is happy to talk expansively.
In fact, Dean volunteers information that cannot be pleasant to discuss, such as details about his childhood, his family, and some of the hardships they endured and overcame while he was growing up in the Swift Current-sized Georgia city of Tifton.
He is so revered in that community that a “Home of Larry Dean” sign is visible to any motorist who approaches the city from the north, south, east or west.
The signs are partially a reflection of athletic excellence, but there is so much more to the equation — thanks in large part to the Larry Dean Foundation Inc.
“It is geared around the young kids, trying to motivate them with school supplies,” Dean said. “We do some back-to-school drives, giving them school supplies and giving them everything that they need so they can be excited about going to school.
“I’m not too far-removed from going to school and remembering the feeling of not having, so that made you want to withdraw or be too bashful to ask for help or to just shut down. I feel like that’s part of the problem.
“The young kids, the young boys, we give them haircuts. I always go by the motto, ‘Look good, feel good, play good.’ I feel like that was one of the big things. You get the kids haircuts so they can go back to school feeling fresh. They have school supplies so that they can be attentive and be ready to participate in whatever is going on.”
It seems like a small thing on the surface, but no detail is too minute to escape Dean’s attention.
He is that way in a football context, endlessly poring over video to look for anything that would provide the slightest edge.
On many a day, Dean is one of the first people to arrive at the stadium, and among the last to leave. The extra work takes place outside of the spotlight — where Dean is most comfortable — but the rewards can be evident on the field.
“The first time we played Calgary this season, he looked at me and told me what the play was going to be before it happened,” Teitz marvelled. “He’s constantly getting these little keys. It helped me and we made the play together, for no gain.”
Applying that dedication in a non-football context, Dean has helped youngsters make so many gains. Some of the kids who once reminded Dean of his younger self are now, in or have graduated from, college.
He, too, took that path, proceeding from Tift County High School to Valdosta State University to the National Football League.
That is quite an impressive ascent for anybody, but particularly for someone who was once homeless.
“I look at it as kind of twofold,” said the proud son of Larry Dean Sr. and Charity Reed. “My mom and my dad, they were separated. They never were married. My mom, she had it harder than my father. She was a felon. My mom spent time in a federal penitentiary.
“When she got out, it was kind of hard on her, having three young kids. With a felony, she couldn’t really get an ideal job, so she had to work at a lot of burger joints.
“At times, we had to get assistance from the government. Sometimes we might have ended up in homeless shelters and sometimes we were just homeless, so I know that end of the spectrum.
“But then, on the other side, I lived with my father and my stepmom. I’m a Junior, and with my dad and stepmom Diane, I saw a different side where I didn’t have to worry about those types of things.
“I didn’t have to worry about where my next meal was coming from. I didn’t have to worry about how I was going to get to school or get home from school or what I was going to wear to school or things like that. I just was able to be a kid and be in a child’s place and just worry about grades or football or basketball or whatever chosen sport was in season at the time.
“So I can talk from a wide spectrum, because I’ve been from the worst of the worst to what I consider the best of the best. I feel that’s what makes me super-relatable to everybody, because I can speak from many different facets of life.”
He also seizes every opportunity to speak up for Tifton, which has produced two other pro football players — receivers Rashod Bateman (Baltimore Ravens) and Malik Henry (Stampeders) — in recent years.
“I look at it like I’m an ambassador for my city, so I always want to make my city proud,” Dean said.
“My merchandise, the Champ Juice apparel, has the area code 229 because that’s just me paying homage to that city, to my town. It’s well-received and I definitely appreciate it, for sure.”
What is the origin of Champ Juice?
“Two of my former teammates from the Minnesota Vikings, Joe Webb and Mistral Raymond, came down to my city for a football camp,” Dean recalled. “I used to put on a football and cheer camp.
“I was giving them a tour of the city, showing them my old stomping grounds, how I grew up and where I come from. They were like, ‘Man, you made it out of here?’ At that time, there wasn’t a Rashod Bateman. There wasn’t a Malik Henry. It was just me.
“They said, ‘You made it out of here. You’re a champ. That’s what we’re going to start calling you.’ So that’s how the name Champ came about.
“As far as the Juice part, that’s what I bring to the field. I’m always energetic. I’m always terming it. ‘Bring that juice! Bring that juice!’ It’s the energy.
“We put it together for the fans so they could feel a part of it. We made the Champ Juice apparel line and made it into a brand.”
The merchandise — available by visiting champ-juice-llc.myshopify.com/ — includes T-shirts, hoodies, shorts, socks, wave brushes and even an air freshener.
At the centre of it all is a contemplative, soft-spoken person who, in defiance of football chronology, remains at the top of his game even though he turns 35 on Aug. 7.
Dean’s excellence is especially remarkable when you remember that he lost two full seasons. The 2020 CFL campaign was cancelled due to COVID-19. The following year, he suffered a torn Achilles tendon — “what some people considered a career-ending injury” — during a pre-training-camp workout.
Dean disregarded the projections of “some people.” Instead, he listened to the doctors, training staff and other professionals. And he listened to his heart, while applying the Champ Juice mentality toward a lengthy, and ultimately successful, rehabilitation process.
“Everyone was terrific with the mindset and knowing what I wanted to accomplish — to get back to the calibre of player that I was,” Dean said. “Everybody worked tirelessly, because I know I bugged them 24/7, just asking questions and probing and wanting to know.
“But, yeah, we came through.”
Chalk up another victory over the odds.
A very small percentage of people who lace up the cleats make it to the professional ranks. Fewer still enjoy a long, decorated career.
Moreover, the path from Tifton to the pros is not well-travelled. But it is navigable. It is possible. And, as the four signs that bear his name will confirm, it will always be home for Dean and those who are dearest to him.
“I have a great relationship with my mom,” he said. “Whatever it was, we fixed it. We’re on great terms.
“My dad is like my best friend. With my stepmom, I hate to say ‘second mom,’ because she’s just like a mom to me.
“There was my late grandmother, Hazel, who everybody knew in the city. She’d say, ‘That was my baby!’ She was instrumental in raising me and in the upbringing of the man you see today.”
The man — the Champ — also speaks proudly of 10 siblings.
“It’s a blended family,” Dean said. “How we were raised, we didn’t say stepsister or half-brother or anything like that. You are my brother or you are my sister. That’s how we see it. Everybody knows everybody. Everybody’s together. Everybody’s close.
“I have 22 nieces and nephews. We have a big family and family is very important to me. We don’t always agree or see eye-to-eye but, at the end of the day, we’re family.”
Just one question: With 22 nieces and nephews, plus 10 brothers and sisters, doesn’t the fine art of buying Christmas presents become rather complicated?
“That,” Larry Dean said with a laugh, “is a whole other article.”
