Veteran player Charleston Hughes plans on wreaking havoc on all the other CFL team’s offences like usual, but he’ll have a familiar face with him this season on the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Micah Johnson and Hughes used to play alongside each other on the Calgary Stampeders.
This off-season, Johnson, who was a free agent, joined the Roughriders. The two defensive linemen are excited to be back together.
“That was probably the worst part of the deal, having to re-join Charleston, but other than that, everything’s cool,” Johnson said jokingly at training camp on Tuesday.
“We’ve been getting all kinds of tweets and stuff, people talking about ‘whose jersey should I get now?’ … but it doesn’t matter as long as you’re supporting Rider Nation,” Hughes said at Griffiths Stadium in Saskatoon.
Last season, Hughes took the league’s sack title with 15. Johnson was only one behind him with 14.
Hughes, who’s entering into his 12th season, hopes he or Johnson claims the title again this season, but he’s mostly hoping it’s him.
“Yeah, it’s going to be quite the race. We got a couple of bets already flying in the air right now about who’s going to lead the league in sacks. You never know, hopefully, it’s somebody from our team and that’s all I really care about,” Hughes said.
“We’ll see. Sacks are funny though. They are one of those things that sometimes they go your way, sometimes it doesn’t. Some luck is actually involved in it so I don’t think my focus is necessarily on the sack numbers, but just being able to produce and do things for the team,” Johnson said.
The Roughriders play their first 2019 pre-season game in Calgary on May 31.