Tommy Stevens enjoyed his first year with the Saskatchewan Roughriders so much that he made sure to get a deal done so he did not need to go to CFL free agency.
"I told [Corey] Mace during exit interviews that there's nowhere else I want to play, there's nobody else I want to play for," Stevens said on the SportsCage. "If I'm not here, I'll be on my couch. So I was like, let's find a way to get this done."
Both the Riders and Stevens did not waste time, it was announced on Friday, December 5 he signed a two-year extension with the team.
The six-foot-four, 245-pound quarterback suited up in 14 games for Saskatchewan during the 2025 regular season. He was primarily used in short-yardage situations as he rushed the football 50 times for 183 yards and five touchdowns. Out of 36 times the Riders needed a first down in short yardage situations, he converted 33.
"I felt like, honestly, this was a down year for me, really. If you look at some of the stats and what I've done in the past, I'm coming off a 10 touchdown year the year before," Stevens recalled. "I'm still hungry, I still feel like I have a lot to prove. Incredibly grateful, I'm glad for the opportunity, I'm glad that the organization believes in me."
Stevens has been in the CFL since 2022, he initially started with the Calgary Stampeders. He stayed with the Stamps until 2024 and left for Saskatchewan in free agency.
"I'm thankful for the memories that I made at that place, but we lost to Calgary at home (24-10), and then we went to Calgary, and we got beaten there (32-15). If we had a low point in the season, that was the lowest part of the season. I remember looking across the sideline, I remember seeing them celebrate like they had won the Grey Cup. I never for a second did I think, man, maybe I made the wrong decision," Stevens said.
"Maybe I should have stayed, that never crossed my mind ever. I knew being with the Riders, I knew being with Corey Mace, and I knew being with all my teammates here, I knew that this was the perfect place for me — I loved what we were able to accomplish."
The Riders finished the 2025 CFL regular season season with a record of 12-6 and finished first in the West Division. Saskatchewan carried that moment to the 112th Grey Cup, where the Green and White took on the Montreal Alouettes, which they defeated 25-17. That win for Stevens got him the first Grey Cup in his career, and he tied the record for the most touchdowns by a Rider in a Grey Cup game with two. The other two Riders that Stevens shares the record with are Geroy Simon and Kory Sheets from 2013.
"I had an idea of what it would be like, I'd felt overall, I don't necessarily know the support, yes, passion, I'd felt the passion from Riders Nation all year. I was able to get a sense of what this really meant to the city of Regina, but the entire province," Stevens said.
"For a guy that didn't grow up in Regina or grow up in Saskatchewan or really know a whole lot about the place until I got here, I had an idea of what it would be like. I had my sense of it from the season, but it was above and beyond even my expectations, man."
Besides reflecting on the season and Grey Cup, Stevens, who is from Indianapolis, Indiana, detailed one off-season from 2023 which made him cautious about Canada’s winters.
"In the 2023 off-season, I stayed in Calgary. I remember asking some of my buddies, my girlfriend, and my family, all that, I was like, 'Hey, how cold is it going to get out here?' I didn't know that this was a thing, I didn't know that it got more than negative 20°F. I thought that was extreme, right? So they're talking about negative 40," Stevens said.
"I'm like, 'Man, is this Siberia?' I didn't know it got this cold. I didn't have a winter coat, I'm going to double up on hoodies. I'm like, 'Hey, if I was stranded outside, hypothetically, how long would I have?' I don't know, 20 to 30 minutes. 20 or 30 minutes! What do you mean?"
Stevens also added another story about the severity of Canadian winters in 2023 and plugging in his car.
"They're like, 'Hey, why don't you plug your car in?' I'm like, 'It's not electric, that's why I don't plug it in.' What do you mean? They're like, 'No, plug your car in, your battery's going to die.' I'm like, 'OK.' I didn't know that was a thing," Stevens explained.
"I guess I'll have to go buy an adapter. Like, no, dude, you have one. You have to dig in there and find it. I was like, what? This is all very confusing to me. I didn't notice a thing."
