From football to bobsled. For one member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, that’s how his off-season has played out.

Jay Dearborn, a defensive back with the Roughriders, will be a brakeman on the 4-man men’s bobsleigh team at the Olympics in Beijing. He will be with one of three Canadian teams in the bobsleigh event at the Winter Games.

Dearborn, who is from Ontario, signed with the Riders in 2019, after initially being cut during the preseason due to an injury. While rehabilitating from the injury, he started dryland training for bobsledding.

The Riders called him back to the team in 2019, and he played in 14 games in the 2019 season. He then appeared in eight games this past season.

Shortly after the season ended for the Riders in the West Division Final, a game Dearborn missed due to a shoulder injury, he was off to training with the national bobsleigh team. He was then selected for the Olympic team Thursday.

While he is in Beijing for the Olympics, which run from February 8th to 20th, Dearborn will also become a free agent. He hasn’t decided as of yet if he will re-sign with the Riders.

There are three other members of the Olympic bobsleigh team with ties to football. Sam Giguere spent eight seasons in the CFL, and Shaquille Murray Lawrence, a former member of the Riders' practice roster both made did the cut.

The third former football player to make the Olympic bobsleigh team is Ben Coakwell. The Moose Jaw native was a running back with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies and has been part of the Olympic bobsleigh team since the 2014 games.