On a regular basis, Riderville.com will profile Saskatchewan Roughriders players as they prepare for the 2024 season. Today, we focus on fullback Bruno LaBelle, who has been a member of the Green and White since 2022.
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Growing up in La Belle Province, Bruno LaBelle aspired to play football at the NCAA and professional levels.
Mission accomplished.
After playing for the University of Cincinnati Bearcats, LaBelle spent time with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals in 2021 before signing with the Saskatchewan Roughriders the following year. He has suited up for 29 games over the past two seasons.
“Overall, I’ve loved it,” LaBelle, 26, says of his experiences with the Green and White.
“I love the CFL as a whole and the organization here is awesome.”
LaBelle’s love of three-down football was fuelled when he was a youngster in Montreal, during the heyday of the Anthony Calvillo-quarterbacked Alouettes.
“It was great,” LaBelle recalls. “I went to a lot of games with my dad.
“Montreal was all behind the team. People were going to games and it was a big thing in town. Obviously, the Canadiens were first, but football was really big.”
With Calvillo calling the signals, Montreal won championships in 2002, 2009 and 2010. Most recently, Montreal is abuzz over the Alouettes’ championship season of 2023.
LaBelle, meanwhile, is preparing for his third season with the Roughriders, who selected him in the third round (20th overall) of the 2021 CFL Draft.
The 6-foot-4, 248-pounder was chosen after catching 20 passes for 150 yards over four seasons at Cincinnati, where he was deployed as a tight end.
In 2019, he made the American Athletic Conference All-Academic Team en route to earning his bachelor’s degree in communications.
Although LaBelle grew up in a French-speaking home, he made a quick transition to the English-dominated environment in Cincinnati, attaining a goal in the process.
“I started following college football early in my teenage years,” he says. “College football was really my dream.”
Then it became a reality.
“I had an opportunity to meet a coach back in Montreal who took a couple of guys every year and brought them down to the U.S. to try to earn a scholarship through different recruiting camps,” he says.
“Cincinnati offered me a scholarship pretty quickly, which was amazing.
“We went to the Peach Bowl in my senior year and, overall, it was a great experience.”
So was the stint with the Cardinals, who signed him as an undrafted free agent in May of 2021.
“There’s a little bit of a ‘wow!’ factor when you first get there,” LaBelle says. “But, at the end of the day, I felt like the window of opportunity was really small and short, so I had to really focus on that and not necessarily on being in the NFL.
“I was trying to make the team and all that, so it was really a business opportunity.”
LaBelle remained with the Cardinals until mid-September of 2021. He signed with the Roughriders shortly before their 2022 training camp was to begin.
He then immersed himself in making the transition from tight end to fullback. The latter role requires more versatility because he can line up as a fullback or on the line of scrimmage.
“It’s a fun game,” he says. “There’s a different responsibility, a different role, but overall I love it.”
The camaraderie is a major part of the equation.
“The bonding that you have with your teammates has been the coolest thing about being on the team and being in the locker room,” he says.
“To play professional football, it’s a blessing. I’m really fortunate to be here and to have taken the path that I did.”
