HEENAN TO THE COLTS
620 CKRM has learned former Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive lineman Ben Heenan has signed with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts. The SportsCage broke the news late Tuesday afternoon and the signing was later officially announced on the Colts’ website:
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Heenan appeared on 620 CKRM’s SportsCage on Tuesday evening and here are his comments:
ON GETTING THE DEAL DONEBH: It’s been a crazy few days here and it’s just been insane. I’m just thankful for the opportunity.
ON THE LAST TWO MONTHS
BH: It’s been pretty busy. Took a few weeks off after the season to gather my thoughts and make a decision on which direction we were gonna go. We’d been approached by a few teams at the end of the season to go down for some workouts and then it snowballed into January and as soon the workouts were over we had a pretty good idea what was going to happen.
ON AN NFL WORKOUT
BH: It’s kind of funny. It’s usually a two day deal by the time you fly down the night before and then in the morning you go through physicals, x-rays, MRI’s, bloodwork and the whole nine yards. Then you get the workout in right around noon and the majority of them were pretty quick. Maybe 15 or 20 minutes with one of the personnel guys or the offensive line coach. You do anything from going over top of the bags, individual work, pass sets, run-blocking basics, from their perspective they just want to see if it’s what they saw on film.
ON THE COLTS’ WORKOUT
BH: I think I felt pretty good coming out of all the workouts. The first few maybe not so much because I didn’t know what they were looking for or if I was doing things right but we got some good feedback after the first couple and then from there the majority of them went well and I had a good feeling about it.
ON SIGNING THE CONTRACT
BH: That was probably one of the shorter things once we narrowed it down to a couple of teams. The Colts were the one team that really stuck out through the whole process. Once we had an offer from them it really didn’t take too long to hammer one out.
ON HIS 2014 SEASON
BH: Going through 18 games there’s always going to be bumps and bruises and I think that just happens with football. I wasn’t fighting through anything that probably anyone else wasn’t either. To be able to play the full 18 games, that mattered to me the most. I think I progressed from 2013 but not necessarily at the level I wanted to be at but football is an evolution of what you can do as a player and it’s about adding more tools to the toolbox.
ON CELEBRATING THE SIGNING
BH: No, no. In my eyes the only thing I’ve earned is this opportunity. There’s still a lot of work left to be done and I’m just looking forward to going down there and being able to contribute in any way possible and work my butt off.
The Colts are very progressive when it comes to CFL players. Hope this works out but if not Ben, come on back.
Freeman has panned out better than Indy ever dreamed he would. Maybe Heenan will too.
He will make it.. may take some time but the Team will help him develop into a full time O Lineman.. Good for You Ben. Nice to see Young people succeed….
Good luck Ben, hope you kick ass. Bigger salary means some nice new machinery for the farm there. Sucks that their season starts right in the middle of combining though. Rod I've got to get this rant off my chest. The CFL has all the potential in the world to be a top notch league with well paid players and stadiums/bars/man caves packed full of devoted fans. But yet in this great country some (who won't be named, they know who they are) think that the CFL is a bush league. Others don't care about it cause they have no… Read more »
Pulling for Ben to stick with the Colts, he is at the right age to at least get a few more looks if he performs well at camp.
Will be missed here big time, struggled at times last year like everyone else, but like he said it's an evolution and he is only going to get better.
Best of luck Ben!
Dustin in Regina
If he can play in the NFL, then that would mean that the CFL is better than the NFL because he struggles in this league. If he was able to get a contract down there – his agent should be in the Hall of Fame.
I'm with Dubya on this one. Last summer coming home from Nova Scotia we stopped for the night in Sudbury and went out for dinner at a sports bar. I knew there was a CFL game on, yet all they had on was U.S. college games. I asked the manager if he could put the CFL game on one of the T.V's. He said I was the first person that ever asked to watch a CFL game at his bar. He gladly put it on.
Heenan will be back in the cfl by labour day. He's too slow for the nfl.
I agree with Dubya about the CFL TV issue. I only have over the air free TV so I can watch the NFL on CTV on Sundays and the NHL on CBC, but I can only see a CFL game if I wander over to the 4 Seasons – which I'll do for Rider away games. I gave up cable TV over 20 years ago because there is so much crap on it and because I used the money saved from a cable for Rider season tickets, and I can see the good stuff on DVD's from the public library.… Read more »
Heenan will not be back in the CFL – ever. He is talented enough to stay on the Colt's roster. All the best Ben, thanks for the memories.
That's what people said about Chick and he's an all star. Heenan is too slow to be an all star.
The Colts would be wise to snap up Brett Jones too.
3 year contract signed by Heenan, he's not coming back.