Saskatchewan Roughriders fans can make it hard for opposing teams to communicate and Jake Maier has firsthand experience from his time with the Calgary Stampeders.
"It's different, man. From a quarterback perspective, if you look at the other side of the ball, you see the different moving pieces, CFL defences are moving constantly as it is, whether it's loud or not. You can feel and see the confidence of the front four and how revved up they are. You break the huddle, you've got Scoop [Malik Carney] waving to the crowd, you've got Mike Rose and Micah Johnson waiting for their moment. There is an added confidence in my opinion when you play in those hostile environments, the defences can move, they're able to get their timing down there, they get in a good rhythm," Maier said on the SportsCage.
"Then, you run the ball on the road in Mosaic, you get two yards. Anywhere else, it's OK, we've got two yards, whatever. We go two yards again, you're like, well, that's not really that big a deal, but you can feel the energy on every single snap. We get home, we get a sack or we force an incomplete pass, when you hear the crowd emotions, see the handshakes, chest bumps, and the energy from the defence — the game within the game, man. That's why you want these home games."
Before his time with Saskatchewan, Maier started his CFL career with the Stamps in 2021 and stayed there through 2024. The Green and White traded for Maier on December 23, 2024. He officially signed a contract with the Riders on January 9, 2025, ahead of free agency beginning in February.
This season, the six-foot, 200-pound QB suited up in 18 games for the Green and White, two he started. The 28-year-old completed 64 percent of his passes for 617 passing yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions. The games Maier started were in Week 4 against the B.C. Lions, a 37-18 win, and then in Week 20 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a 17-16 loss.
Initially, Maier had little CFL knowledge when he first heard about the three-down league halfway through his college football career at UC Davis [2017-2019].
"I was not really familiar with Saskatchewan at all. The movie Grown Ups, you remember the scene? I don't know if you guys have seen Grown Ups. They're like, 'I'm from Saskatoon.' You hear that and you're like, OK, that's a place in Canada," Maier said.
"I didn't really know too much about the CFL until I was midway through my college career. They're like, 'Oh, you're on Calgary's negotiation list.' I was like, 'I don't know what that means.' I still don't know what the negotiation list is — 10 or 30 guys — but then you can come off. Once I found out about that, I looked up nine teams and learned pretty quickly. I was like, 'OK, Saskatchewan's kind of like the mecca of the league. There's an argument for a couple of other spots, but I learned pretty quickly how much it means here.”
Maier credited his dad for getting him to play football in high school in California.
"I was a baseball player growing up. It was one of those things I got to high school, my dad was like, 'Hey, you need to play football. It's mandatory. We've held you out as a youth.' He was like, 'You have to play football.' He wanted me to play basketball. He wanted me to play anything, everything, and it was my first day at freshman tryouts," Maier recalled.
"They said, 'OK, DBs over here, linemen over here, running backs, receivers, and quarterbacks over here.' The receiver line had 20 guys, the quarterback line had two. I was like, 'I'm just a probability, right?' If I want a chance to make a team, at worst, I'm going to be the third-team quarterback, I can handle that. I started throwing the ball that day and I threw it like a baseball for the longest time. Eventually it was like, 'OK, I think I can actually do this.'"
The Green and White host the West Final against the B.C. Lions on Saturday. Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk, and Wes Cates bring you the pre-game show at 2:30 p.m. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder have the game call at 5:30 p.m. Listen or watch our comprehensive coverage on the 620 CKRM Co-operators Rider Broadcast Network.
