Stampeders sign former Ticats’ long snapper Aaron Crawford

Photo courtesy: Alex Lupul/AlexLupul.com

The Calgary Stampeders have signed veteran national long snapper and Medicine Hat native Aaron Crawford.

Crawford made his Canadian Football League debut with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2013 and has 107 combined games of regular-season and post-season experience including Grey Cup appearances in 2014 and 2019.

“We welcome Aaron to the Stampeders,” said Stampeders president and general manager John Hufnagel. “He is a player with local roots who has a good deal of experience and provides us with excellent depth on special teams.”

Crawford was selected by Toronto in the sixth round of the 2012 CFL draft and he attended training camp with the Argonauts in 2012 and with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2013. He spent time on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ practice roster in 2013 before joining the Ticats.

“I’d like to say, it’s a blessing being able to come home to Alberta,” said Crawford. “It’s been a long road back. Absolutely surreal to be suiting up for the first professional football team I ever watched live. I cannot wait to make the most of this opportunity to represent my home province!”

In 98 career regular-season games for Hamilton, and in addition to being the team’s long snapper since 2014, he has 23 career special-teams tackles.

Prior to turning pro, Crawford played 13 games at linebacker in two seasons at Saint Mary’s. He recorded 55.5 career tackles for the Huskies including eight tackles for loss and added 3.5 sacks, three fumble recoveries and two forced fumbles and was part of Saint Mary’s Atlantic University Sport conference championship team in 2009.