Bert Faibish
Ticats.ca
In the world of professional sports, the Canadian Football League remains somewhat of an oddity. In stark contrast to leagues that see players holdout of training camp for an extra $5,000,000 on a $40,000,000 contract, players in the CFL are generally here because they love to play the game.
However there comes a time when your love of the game meets the reality of life, and an opportunity presents itself to lend some stability to what has been an existence lived from contract-to-contract, with the only certainty being next week’s opponent.
After working as a volunteer firefighter in the Hamilton area for the past two off-seasons, Sandy Beveridge was offered the chance to join the department full-time, an offer that was too good for him to pass up.
“It’s obviously a day of mixed feelings for me, but I’m excited about the opportunity I have,” said former Ticats safety Sandy Beveridge.
“I’ve found a new love in firefighting after I did it as a volunteer for the last year and a half and I knew it was something I wanted to do once my playing days were done. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon,” he said.
Sandy worked his way onto the Ticats roster in 2003 as an undrafted free agent, the pro equivalent of a walk-on.
His hard work and determination solidified his place on the team, and made him a fixture at the safety position for eight seasons, playing in 105 regular season games and amassing 124 tackles and five interceptions.
“Not being able to play football anymore, something that I’ve done since I was five years old, that’s tough,” said Beveridge. “It was a hard decision for me to make, I’ve made a lot of good friends here at the Tiger-Cats, not that I’m going to be losing them but I’m going to miss seeing them everyday.”
It seems fitting that Sandy should transition into a job that will see him serve the community that he has been an active part of these last eight years, it’s nothing new to him. In addition to his time as a volunteer firefighter, Beveridge has been an ambassador for the Ticats in the Hamilton community, making over 450 personal appearances and donating over 1500 hours of his time to various worthy causes. It is a role in which he feels comfortable.
“To be able to help the community on a day-to-day basis, to be there everyday and help people when they’re in a time of need, that’s a pretty good feeling,” he said.
