Here is a padded stat: One piece of football equipment has been close to Mitch Picton for the better part of a decade.
A pair of shoulder pads, first worn by Picton early in his accomplished tenure with the University of Regina Rams, has now been stored away for another off-season.
“I started wearing them in 2013 or 2014,” the Regina-born receiver recalls, “and I still like wearing them.
“They’re broken in. They feel really good. They’re nice and light. They’re really small. They’re comfortable.
“It feels like I’ve got nothing on (the shoulders), so if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
OK, some fixing is required.
“There’s one strap that kind of ripped on them this year, but that can probably get sewn back on,” Picton says.
The shoulder pads are a thread to the first event of any description to be held at Mosaic Stadium.
On Oct. 1, 2016, the Rams and University of Saskatchewan Huskies were featured in the stadium’s first test event — a Canada West football game that the home side won, 37-29. Picton caught two touchdown passes in that game. The quarterback was his cousin, Noah Picton.
The following year, the Roughriders selected Mitch Picton in the fifth round (37th overall) of the 2017 CFL Draft. He returned to the Rams the following season before joining the Roughriders.
“I got here and tried on some different shoulder pads and it didn’t feel quite right, so I have to give a shout-out to Bob Thomas, my old Equipment Manager at the U of R,” Picton recalls. “I said, ‘Hey, Bob, I need to grab my old pads,’ and he said, ‘No problem.’ ”
The arrangement was eventually cleared with the Roughriders’ Equipment Manager, Gordon Gilroy.
“There was a little bit of a disagreement when I first brought them into the room,” Picton says with a laugh, “but I brought him in some ice cream and stuff like that, so I think he has opened up to them a little bit now.”
What if the day does come when new shoulder pads are required?
“Maybe it would feel a little bit weird putting something else on now,” Picton says. “Once you get used to something, you like to roll with it, and that’s what I’ve done with those. If the day comes when I need to switch to a new pair of pads, I’ll try to break those in as best I can and go with that.
“Maybe there will be a time if they really start to break down or something like that and they become unsafe but, right now, I think they’re still in pretty good shape. I’m going to keep wearing them and kind of ride it until the wheels fall off.”
