While seven Canadians must be on the field at all times in the Canadian Football League, there is American talent that makes its way up north of the border. On Sunday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders took down the Montreal Alouettes in a 25-17 victory that featured former Green Bay Packers on both sides.
For the winning Roughriders, the former Packers on the team were defensive tackle Micah Johnson and safety Benny Sapp III.
Johnson was Kentucky’s Mr. Football as a prep, earning Under Armour All-American
honors. Staying in-state for college, Johnson was a first-team All-SEC linebacker for the Wildcats before joining the NFL as an undrafted free agent. The Packers were his fifth team in the league, joining the practice squad in late 2012 and staying on the offseason roster in 2013 on a reserve/futures deal until May of that year.
That was his last stop in the NFL before going up to Canada, where, at 37 years old, he was just named a CFL All-Star for the fifth time this year as a 255-pound defensive tackle. Fun fact: Former Packers receiver Keon Hatcher was just named to his second All-Star team, too, in 2025.
This was Johnson’s third Grey Cup victory.
Sapp was on the Roughriders’ injury list for this game, so he didn’t get to play in the Grey Cup, but was a preseason favorite for the effort he put up in his rookie season of 2023. As a rookie, he was brought up from the Packers’ practice squad and wound up playing in five regular-season games. After he was released by Green Bay at roster cutdowns in 2024, he later signed with the Atlanta Falcons that December. Back in June, he was released by the Falcons, leading to him going the Canadian route.
On Montreal’s end, there are three — yes, three — former Packers in their secondary. The one Green Bay fans might remember because if Kabion Ento, the converted receiver to cornerback, who was with the team from 2019 to 2022. Ento was named an All-Star for the Alouttes in 2024.
Another Montreal cornerback, Don Callis, was signed to Green Bay in 2024 after a successful tryout at the Packers’ rookie minicamp. He signed with the Alouttes in April.
The final former Packers in the Montreal secondary is safety Marc-Antoine Dequoy, who is actually a Canadian national. Green Bay signed Dequoy straight out of the University of Montreal, making him just the second Canadian to be signed to an NFL team on draft weekend in NFL history, back in 2020.
The Packers dipped back into that Canadian pipeline recently, when they signed quarterback Taylor Elgersma from Wilfrid Laurier in May of this year.
After Deqouy was unable to make Green Bay’s initial roster as a rookie, he went back home and signed with the local Alouttes. Since starting his professional career in Canada, he’s earned two All-Star honors (2023 and 2024).
