HEENAN RETIRES UNEXPECTEDLY
REGINA – Ben Heenan, the first player taken in the 2012 CFL draft, announced his retirement Thursday.
The six-foot-four, 316-pound offensive lineman made the stunning announcement in a release distributed by his agent, Dan Vertlieb.
Heenan, 26, had signed with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts following the 2015 season. He attended the Colts training camp and was injured but later rejoined the club’s practice roster in November. Heenan was waived by the Colts Thursday morning.
Heenan, a native of Grand Coulee, Sask., was selected first overall in the 2012 CFL draft by the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He played three years with the club and was the starting right tackle on the Riders’ Grey Cup-winning squad in 2013.
Heenan started 46 regular-season games with Saskatchewan before signing with the Colts in February 2015.
“My achievements in football simply would not have happened without the outstanding people I have had in my corner, and I will be forever grateful to everyone who helped me play the game for as long as I did,” Heenan said in a statement. “I look forward to seeing what life has to offer after football.
(The Canadian Press)
That is quite the shock!
Did his knee not recover?
Thank you for the memories. Best of luck in future endeavors.
Did not want to play for Jones and Murphy but is to nice a guy to say so and so he retired.
Look at some of his earlier comments if you do not believe this.
Go find them. Copy and paste them here with the publication they originated in and I'll believe your BS.
If someone doesn't want to play for Jones and Murphy then I wouldn't want them on my team anyways. Clearly that person doesn't want to be held accountable for their own actions.
Sorry to hear this…best of luck, Ben!
LA
OMG, guys, Roddy had lunch with Bruce Franklin and is keeping us in suspense by not announcing his name….oooooo, ahhhh, we should all be amazed by his connections…..especially someone like Bruce who's a bigger unapproachable ego maniac than Roddy.
What relevance does this have to anything, other than to demonstrate you're a jealous, pathetic, needle d1ck coward?
He retired to go home to the family farm you annonomous idiot number 4.
>>Did not want to play for Jones and Murphy<<
He's not even a Rider you fricken No brainer Anon #4
Ben is an Indianapolis Colt!
He loves everything about the SK Roughriders. Read the post!
His Injury and being on the practice roster has everything to do with his decision.
It's unfortunate but it's Ben's decision to retire
Reginald of Regina
This was just a matter of time. He's just too slow to compete at the pro level.
WRONG… Again another no brain comment. Even if Ben was eventually cut from Indianapolis. Which he was not! He was well on his way at a young age and would have been a star Olineman in the CFL. What is wrong with some of you people. Is it a lack of brain cells or some kind of feeble attempt that you know more about football than everyone on the Colts and Riders.
Ben Heenan was waived by the Colts yesterday. Here is the link to an article that mentions it:
https://horseshoeheroes.com/2016/04/07/colts-sign-wrs-josh-boyce-brian-tyms-waive-og-ben-heenan/
While I agree that the first poster should shut up, if you're going to be critical of another person's football knowledge, take six seconds and do some research.
Agreed Heenan still had a career in the CFL.
Dear Saskatchewan Corn Cobs,
At the tender age of 26 it won't be long before the good ole boy Heenan slips back into his playing tights on behalf of the REDBLACKS of Ottawa or the Calgary Stampeders. He's just ready for the Roughriders.
Shush… Tiffany Lizee on the tube, gotta go.
He's just not ready for the Roughriders as they enter prime time 2016+
Ben is a good friend of mine. He retired to come home to Sask because it is the only place in the world that makes sense right now…what with Brad Walls ass whooping of Cam Broken this week.
Suck it NDP ers
Here is what I think, and I am going out on a limb here: In one year time Ben will either get the itch to play football again and suit up as a Rider in the new Stadium, or he will not get the itch to play again and will stay retired for good. We have seen it happen before!
Wow what insight. He is going to stay retired or come out of retirement.
what kind of odds can I get in Vegas for that?
Even though your comment is stating the obvious. At least it's not ridiculous and made up like Anon #4 or some of the other BS that was written. However writing that Ben is either going to stay in football or stay out of football is a waste of time.
So Ben retired because Brad Wall won the election – LOL. Yep, I bet that is it!
Farming trumps football
There are quite a few Doug Feckers where I work!
People forget that these guys, in many cases, play a violent, physical game from the time they are seven or eight which in Ben's case would be eighteen years in the game.
Maybe he doesn't want to hit 50 facing a knee or hip transplant, and enjoy life with his family. Whatever the reason, thanks Ben for your Rider years. You can look back on your career with pride, knowing you played top-notch ball with the best of them.
Who is that high pitched whiner arguing with Toronto sports guy that was on your radio show. Awful!
He lived every Saskatchewan boys dream… retire from professional sports early to run the family farm.
When you retire from farming you retire a multi-millionare.(more so in the Grand Coulee area). When you retire from football you have a pissy little pension and the body of a 60 year old. Smart move Ben.
Farmers never really retire. They might pass off management to the next generation but they'll help out till they die. Guys like Ben do it for the lifestyle, not the money.
He was actually released from the colts yesterday guys. go look on their twitter