As the Saskatchewan Roughriders take on the the BC Lions in CFL action in Regina, SK, June 13, 2026. Photo Electric Umbrella/Liam Richards
Visit James Vaughters’ Instagram page and the initial description is “Footballer/Creative Director.”
On the line below: “Model.”
On jamesvaughters.com, the 32-year-old Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive end is described as “a multi-disciplinary artist, excelling both in athletics and the visual arts. His passion for art is rooted in his love for architecture and fashion. James firmly believes that art serves the purpose of satisfying our fundamental human needs, while simultaneously inspiring us to look beyond our personal experiences.”
Football, as seriously as he takes the sport, is not mentioned in the bio. But there is a reference to “art,” which is all-encompassing.
“Football is an art,” Vaughters said after the Roughriders practised at Mosaic Stadium on Tuesday.
“People assume that athletes are athletes and artists are just artists, but if you say ‘martial arts,’ there’s ‘art’ in the name. Ballet or other performance arts, are they an art? Even in terms of acting or studying a script to get ready for a performance, I think that football is as much ‘art’ as any of those things I just mentioned.
“Sometimes I wonder why people treat athletes (differently). Even if they’re not really academically stellar, why would they feel like that makes you unintelligent? It’s a matter of focus.
“I would consider physical mastery a form of genius, in and of itself. No one was asking Picasso what E = mc² means, even though he might have known. No one even talked about it.
“Football players sort of get that label of being sometimes uneducated or sometimes less intelligent than others. I don’t understand. Are they comparing us to other college-educated people or are they comparing us to other artists? I see football as an art.”
Those are the words of someone who graduated from Tucker High School in Georgia after starring in football and track and field.
He also was exceptional in the classroom, earning a scroll-like list of academic accolades. To cite one of many, he was a finalist for the Watkins Award, presented to the United States’ top African-American scholar/athlete.
Hence his acceptance into Stanford University, one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions of learning, where he earned a degree in political science in addition to starring for the Cardinal football team.
After graduating from Stanford, Vaughters began his professional football career in 2015. His resume includes 27 NFL games (and 2½ sacks) and 75 contests in the CFL.
The 6-foot-2, 259-pounder registered his 28th CFL sack — and his first as a Roughrider — in Saturday’s season-opening 31-27 victory over the visiting B.C. Lions.
“Football is something I love,” Vaughters said. “My entire life, it has been important to me to be as good as I can possibly be at it — especially being a standout high school player.
“All you hear is ‘potential, potential, potential, potential, potential,’ and then there have been some of the setbacks I’ve had throughout my career.
“You know so many people who say, ‘If this would have happened, I would have played pro ball,’ or who watch TV and say, ‘I should be out there.’ I never wanted to be one of those guys, so I wanted to do whatever it took for me to give myself every opportunity to make good on my experiences as a a football player.
“I think there’s stages when you become jaded with the game. You feel like politics is the reason you got cut or things like that. I never wanted to end up feeling jaded, so it’s a matter of pushing through that.”
Push he did, while spending time in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers (2015), New England Patriots (2015), San Diego Chargers (2016), Chicago Bears (2019-21), Atlanta Falcons (2021) and Pittsburgh Steelers (2022).
With Chicago, he registered his first NFL sack — toppling none other than Tom Brady, then of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, on Oct. 8, 2020.
In the CFL, he played for the Calgary Stampeders (2017-18, 2023-24) and Winnipeg Blue Bombers (2025) before signing with Saskatchewan as a free agent on Feb. 10.
Vaughters enjoyed an auspicious debut with the Roughriders, sacking B.C.’s Nathan Rourke on a second-and-six play that began on Saskatchewan’s nine-yard line. The sack forced B.C. to settle for a fourth-quarter field goal that allowed the Roughriders to maintain the lead (21-20) in a hard-fought, down-to-the-wire contest.
With that in mind, Vaughters was asked lightheartedly: “Was the sack a work of art?” He laughed.
“I think I’ll leave the whole sack artiste thing to Flo (Orimolade) in Calgary,” said Vaughters, who is preparing for Saturday’s matchup with the Stampeders at McMahon Stadium.
Looking at Vaughters’ entire, varied resume, one wonders how he finds time to pursue all his interests.
“When you have a six-month off-season, you have a chance to figure out what you’re passionate about outside of the game,” he replied. “Whether it be architecture, whether it be art, whether it be fashion, whether it be a whole bunch of different things, there’s always more you can learn.
“When I went to college, I wanted to major in architecture and I wanted to major in art history, but I didn’t feel like I had the prerequisite knowledge to have a context of what I was learning, and it made it harder to learn.
“With a six-month off-season, you have so many opportunities to learn different things outside of things that you want to learn that could apply to different industries.
“I feel like when the time comes for me to stop playing, I’ll have a really unique point of view that can be the difference between getting a job or not getting a job, or actually enjoying the job that you get or not enjoying it as much.”
One suspects he will be able to write his own ticket or, to put it in architectural parlance, design his own blueprint.
“There are people who think that architecture is art and there are people who don’t,” Vaughters said. “But think that the idea of a very practical creative space and a space that has a lot of utility, I always found that was really interesting.
“It’s almost like being an artist. It’s like an applied art, the same way it would be an applied science. I think that part about architecture made it interesting to me.
“I’ve read modern architecture textbooks, front to back, and I think it’s really interesting when it comes to three-dimensional space versus looking at a canvas. It’s almost like an art that you experience just because you have to.
“If you want to go to a museum or if you want to go to a public building, you have no choice but to experience those spaces. I think we experience those places a lot better when they’re made in a thoughtful way.”
Consider Mosaic Stadium, which is known for its aesthetic quality as well as its functionality as a football venue.
On the HKS Architects website, Mosaic Stadium isn’t described strictly in technical terms. Instead, it is “A Mosaic of Natural Beauty, Environmental Stewardship and Civic Pride.” There was far more to the process than erecting bleachers, installing pipes, etc.
“I think I notice the difference between walking into a building that doesn’t have a lot of light and walking into a building that has a lot of plants inside,” Vaughters said.
“You walk inside a building that interacts with its environment rather than imposing on its environment, or there’s even the concept of compression and release and all these other architectural concepts.
“Even if you don’t think about them, I think your body actually feels them.”
