He almost hung the cleats up.

But after a conversation with his mom, linebacker Warren Long knew he wasn’t ready to say goodbye to football.

“After I got cut from the (New York) Giants, I had to do some soul searching back home, at my mom’s house,” he said. “I’m not going to lie to you, I was almost ready to give up on it. I was going to look for jobs, I was going to be a financial advisor in San Francisco. My agent called and said I had to make a decision – the CFL is waiting.”

At Northwestern, Long played three years at running back, racking up 517 yards and five touchdowns.

Prior to his senior season, in an attempt to get a great football player on the field more often, his coach decided to move him to the linebacker position. The small (5-foot-11, 212 lb.) but speedy backer would have a solid season, recording 21 tackles, while adding one sack and two forced fumbles.

“Luckily I’m athletic, thank God,” Long chuckled. “Otherwise, I don’t think I would have been able to manage. The biggest thing for me was learning the defence. Zones, alignments, fits, all that stuff.”

“My speed has always been an asset. It helped me in college, the NFL, and even back in high school. It’s always been an asset that I can rely on.

And he’s now trying to learn yet another defensive playbook.

“This is my third time in the past year coming into a new defence,” said Long. “They’re not leaning on me too much, because it’s not training camp. It’s my second day here; I’m still figuring it out still.”

Luckily for Long, he already has a great understanding of what the offence is trying to accomplish, so he can utilize that knowledge on the other side of the ball.

“As a running back, they always tell you to bring the ‘backer to the blocker’,” Long explained.

“So if the running back is pressuring me one way, it’s for a reason. I can read those hints, get off of any blocker and take away the running back’s lane. I can bait him.”

But before he can start hunting running backs on the field, he’s going to have to get used to his new surroundings and the unique rules that accompany it.

“This is my first time here. It was a shock to see the snow because it’s only October, but I’ve seen snow before, I’m no stranger to it,” Long said, referring to his days at Northwestern.

“The Canadian game is different, man. Coach was showing us a play where they had punted it into the endzone and a guy punted it back out. That through me off, I was like, ‘Is this rugby?’”