Quinn Magnuson’s hope and even expectation was his son, Leif, would be selected higher in the CFL Draft than where he was chosen – the sixth round, 45th overall, back in 1993.
Just because that plan looks like it’s nearing a reality, however, doesn’t make it any more remarkable to him.
Magnuson, a Saskatoon native and former Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive lineman, was stunned when a friend sent him the CFL Scouting Bureau’s rankings for the 2027 draft earlier this month.
There was Leif, an alumnus of Saskatoon’s Bethlehem Catholic High School and fellow O lineman at Cal Poly, slotted at 10th – right on the cusp of the first round.
“It blew me away when that came out,” Magnuson said in an interview with Voice of the Roughriders Dave Thomas. “I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ There’s some great names on the list.”
Leif was like his dad in that hockey was their first sport. Magnuson’s uncle – Leif’s great uncle – is the late Keith Magnuson, who played 589 NHL games for Chicago.
However, they both incurred a significant roadblock in that they were big for their age. Smaller, faster players were skating circles around them, and they grew tired of it. They wanted a sport where they could use their size and physicality to their advantage.
“We were both really big kids on skates, and we weren’t allowed to use our body,” Magnuson said. “They wouldn’t allow body checking until, when I was young, it was 12 and, as soon as he got to 12, they switched it to 13 on him.
“We both ended up in football and that’s really why we moved away from hockey.”
Magnuson’s goal was to just play for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies or Saskatoon Hilltops. When it became clear he could achieve more, he sent VHS tapes to American colleges.
He wound up at Washington State, was selected by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the draft and played four years in the CFL with stops in Saskatchewan, Ottawa, and Montreal.
Thankfully for Leif, he lives in the digital age and didn’t have to gather bulky takes, envelopes and stamps to send to possible recruiters.
According to Magnuson, his son was the best football player in Saskatoon by the end of high school and got 14 offers to NCAA Division I schools. The six-foot-four, 285-pound lineman spent five years at the University of Arizona before transferring to Cal Poly in 2025.
“Both of us had a little bit of athletic ability even though we were big kids and we played multiple sports, but we were both also late bloomers, too,” Magnuson said.
Magnuson always felt as though Leif could be selected in the first three rounds of the CFL draft if he played college football in the United States, while showcasing some athleticism and proving he wasn’t injury prone.
The CFL teams always crave Canadian offensive lineman, too, because of a league requirement to have 21 National players on an active game roster. That certainly works to Leif’s advantage.
Still, now that the draft position is approaching actuality, it’s become a little odder to fathom.
“When the No. 10 (ranking) came out, it was almost a bit surreal because he’s on that same list and now he’s got an opportunity to go first round or second round next year,” Magnuson said.
