CFL team conducts hilarious signing announcement

Many teams across leagues have proven creative at announcing signings. But one of the most creative ones to date came from the Canadian Football League’s Winnipeg Blue Bombers. On Wednesday, they first simply posted “SOON” and a photo of a fur coat and cowboy hat.

ꜱᴏᴏɴ. #ForTheW pic.twitter.com/fnM8GMvwap

— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) January 31, 2024

For fans of the team or the CFL, though, no further information was needed. That’s the iconic fur coat (from his girlfriend’s mother) and cowboy hat quarterback Chris Streveler wore during his famed otherwise-shirtless Grey Cup parade celebration in 2019, which he was proud of hanging onto afterwards. And yep, absolutely, the team followed this shortly with the announcement that Streveler was returning to their roster (with their graphic even including a photo of him at that parade):

https://twitter.com/Wpg_BlueBombers/status/1752727491079295036

Streveler played with the Blue Bombers from 2018 to 2019, serving largely as a backup quarterback to Matt Nichols and then Zach Collaros (and he’ll be returning to back up Collaros again here). But he was often used in packages meant to shake up defensive looks given his ability as a runner. He completed 86 passes for 1,134 yards (with 11 touchdowns, five interceptions, and a 61.4 percent completion mark) in the 2018 regular season and 156 for 1,564 yards (with eight touchdowns, 14 interceptions, and a 66.7 percent completion mark) in 2019, but ran for 441 and 726 yards (and 10 and 12 touchdowns) respectively those seasons.

And in that 107th Grey Cup (a 33-12 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, and Winnipeg’s first Grey Cup victory in 29 years), Streveler went three for three on passing attempts for 39 yards and a touchdown (the Bombers’ only passing touchdown on the day). He also rushed nine times for 30 yards. So he was an important part of the victory, not just the parade.

Since 2019, Streveler has had a variety of NFL stints. He spent the 2020 season with the Arizona Cardinals (then led by another former Bombers’ QB, Kliff Kingsbury), and even got mocked by Boomer Esiason at one point. He briefly showed up on the Baltimore Ravens’ practice squad in 2021. And he had stints with the Miami Dolphins (offseason) and New York Jets (in-season) in 2022, even replacing Zach Wilson for one game that year, but was cut by the Jets this past preseason after an injury.

Now, at 29, Streveler is back in the CFL. And he’s back with his old team. And kudos to the Bombers for finding a great way to announce the return of this Grey Cup parade legend.

[Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Twitter/X]