Saskatoon long snapper Jorgen Hus retires from Riders after championship season

Jorgen Hus first started long snapping at St. Joseph’s High School when he was in Grade 10.

On Thursday, the Saskatoon product retired after 177 CFL games, which culminated in a Grey Cup win last November.

Read more:

• Regina Pat Canadians surrender three goals in the third to lose in OT at Telus Cup
• Mike McEwen reflects on Rock League debut and reunion with former teammate Colton Flasch
• Regina’s Brooklynn Dieter heads to U19 Wrestling nationals

“It’s a pretty surreal moment. You play your whole life for this moment and to be here, it goes by in a flash, so it’s crazy,” Hus said.

“I started playing this game 23 to 24 years ago with my brother in the backyard and on the street running routes. Fast-forward 23 years and here we are, leaving the game as a Grey Cup champion. It’s pretty wild.”

Hus admitted he started thinking about retirement two years ago.

“I knew we had unfinished business here. I loved what coach (Corey) Mace has done with this team and the culture and everything. I knew we had a really good chance at winning. It wasn’t too hard to want to come back last year. During last season, I knew it probably was going to be my last year,” Hus said.

After playing football for the St. Joseph Guardians, he joined the Saskatoon Hilltops and eventually the University of Regina Rams as a linebacker and member of the special teams unit.

Riders general manager, Jeremy O’Day, recalled one of the first games he scouted after he retired from playing, himself, was a Rams game that Hus was playing in.

“I remember coming back into the stadium and saying, ‘The Rams have a heck of a long-snapper.’ I don’t know if it was a good thing or not that I pointed out the Rams had a really good long-snapper, but it was really evident Jorgen was good at what he did,” O’Day said.

He was selected 31st in the 2013 CFL draft by Edmonton, but tried his luck with the NFL’s St. Louis Rams, Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs.

The Riders traded Cory Watson for Hus’ rights in May of 2015.

“A very astute general manager named Brendan Taman traded for Jorgen. If I recall correctly at the time, there was some questions from our fan base and maybe from (media) of why we were trading a starting Canadian receiver for a long snapper,” O’Day said.

He played his first game with Saskatchewan on June 27 of that year.

Jorgen’s career would see him become the longest-serving member of the 2025 Riders’ roster.

“A word I would (use to describe Hus) is underappreciated,” O’Day said. “I think I have a little bit in common with him where the position I played if you did your job, no one would pay attention to it. If you didn’t, everyone knew about it. Fortunately for Jorgen, he did his job very well and I don’t think there was a time anyone talked about him. I think that speaks to the consistency and accuracy in which he snapped.”

In addition to his work on the field, the team said Hus has also been an active ambassador for the Saskatchewan Roughrider Foundation, regularly visiting schools around the province to discuss topics like literacy and mental health with students.

“Cindy (Fuchs) and I had a trip up to Nunavut in 2015 and we went to a youth detention centre and we had some really powerful moments there,” Hus said. “You skip forward a few years and you go and are doing some mental health stuff and I’ve had this girl reach out over social media asking if I was still doing these presentations. I talked to her at a school about not giving up and she was going through some stuff. She told me she made the provincial team. That was incredible. That brought a tear to my eye.

“There are stories like that from almost every winter and offseason. It’s pretty cool the impact we can have.”

Hus was the winner of the Jake Gaudaur Veterans’ Award in 2024, which recognizes the Canadian CFL player who best demonstrates the attributes of Canada’s veterans, including strength, courage, perseverance, camaraderie and contributions to their communities.