Surrey-raised Jesse Lawson is among five offensive lineman signed by the B.C. Lions this week.
The six-foot-five Lawson, a seventh-round draft pick (62nd overall) of Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2020, attended Sullivan Heights Secondary while playing minor football. Lawson later played for the University of Carleton Ravens.
On Thursday (Dec. 16), the Lions announced the signing of linemen Lawson, Tyler Packer and Matt Guevremont, and the re-signing of David Knevel and Andrew Peirson.
Lawson, who turns 26 on Dec. 28, lived and worked in Ottawa for six years while studying psychology and law at Carleton. The Roughriders released him last July, just months after he signed a rookie contract with the team, and now Lawson is “home” with the Lions.
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With the 2020 CFL season cancelled due to COVID-19, and no games played by Lawson in 2021, he’s still looking to see action in his first pro-football game.
The last time he hit the gridiron for a meaningful football game was with the Ravens in the fall of 2019, in a playoff loss to Guelph Gryphons – more than two years ago.
“Yeah, it’s been awhile,” Lawson said last February, in a phone interview with the Now-Leader. “That was my last game with Carleton. We got knocked out of the playoffs that day, and it was a bit heartbreaking. We were down the whole game and then we came back in the last little bit, and then we ended up losing off a blocked punt. That ended my university career, so that was a bit of a stinger.”
As a kid, Lawson played with White Rock Titans Minor Football before joining Langley Rams of the Canadian Junior Football League. At Surrey’s Sullivan Heights, he didn’t have the chance to play for the Stars school team, which got off the ground in 2018, after he’d graduated.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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