The Toronto Argonauts have signed American receiver Mark Pope.
The 26-year-old garnered significant media attention in 2022 during his brief stint at Jackson State University, where Deion Sanders was the head coach. In a team meeting that was shown on Coach Prime, a reality television show about Sanders’ coaching journey, the NFL legend called Pope a “poison” and openly questioned whether or not the receiver should be dismissed from the program.
Sanders eventually had his players vote on whether Pope should be given another chance to remain on the team, which they declined. The intrepid head coach honoured the result of the vote and cut Pope on the spot.
The receiver took to social media to address the situation in a post that he later deleted. According to Pope, he “never disrespected anybody” at Jackson State and had never previously been accused of being a “cancer.” He claimed he was injured in practice with the Tigers before he officially enrolled at the school, causing him to briefly leave the program.
Once healthy and back on the roster, Pope claimed he wasn’t given any reps in practice “for no reason at all.” He admitted this caused his frustration to boil over as he stated, “F*** this s***, I’m ready to go home” to an unidentified party. This was supposedly what led Sanders to consider cutting Pope from the program, though the receiver made it clear he still felt grateful to Sanders for the opportunity to play at Jackson State.
The Tigers won the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) championship in 2021 and 2022 before Sanders left the program to become the head coach at the University of Colorado where he remains today.
Pope most recently played at the University of Massachusetts in 2023, where he caught 33 passes for 420 yards and one touchdown in 12 games.
The native of Miami, Fla. began his collegiate career with three years at the University of Miami. Pope caught 52 passes for 680 yards and four touchdowns with the Hurricanes.
