Veteran CFL receiver DaVaris Daniels retires from professional football

Photo: Reuben Polansky/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

Veteran CFL receiver DaVaris Daniels announced his retirement from professional football on Tuesday on social media.

Some people find their purpose. Mine found me. Football has been in my blood since day one. This game took me to heights I always imagined and tested me in ways I never anticipated. I am forever humbled by the fact that I got to experience every bit of it.

I have felt the highest this game has to offer and I have felt what it’s like to lose it all. But through every setback I found perseverance. I found gratitude. Nothing in life is ever promised. And through my faith I can see clearly now that God was preparing me for what was about to come. Things may not always happen when or the way you want them to — but he is always right and he is always right on time. I came out the other side grateful. Grateful to be on a team. Grateful to compete. Grateful for every single day I got to play this game.

To the city of Calgary — you brought me back to life when I needed it most and I will never forget that. To the city of Toronto — thank you for embracing me and making me feel at home. To my teammates, my family and every single fan who rode with me through this journey — I felt every bit of your support and I am deeply grateful. And above all, thank you to God for never letting me quit.

As one chapter closes I step into what’s next carrying everything this game gave me — character, perspective, resilience and a gratitude for life that I never could have found any other way.

💍💍💍

— 80​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Over 125 regular-season CFL games with Calgary, Edmonton, and Toronto, the 33-year-old recorded 444 receptions for 6,609 yards and 43 touchdowns, averaging 14.6 yards per catch. He won three Grey Cups during his nine seasons north of the border and earned the three-down league’s Most Outstanding Rookie award with the Stampeders in 2016.

The University of Notre Dame product had a career-best year for the Argonauts in 2023, garnering an East Division all-star selection. He registered 52 catches for 1,009 yards with eight touchdowns, crossing the 1,000-yard mark for the first and only time in his career.

The native of Vernon Hills, Ill. had stints with the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots in the National Football League prior to coming to the CFL. At his Fighting Irish pro day in 2015, the six-foot-one, 201-pound target recorded a 4.53-second forty-yard dash, 4.35-second shuttle, 6.81-second three-cone, 13 reps of 225 pounds on the bench press, a 39.5-inch vertical, and eleven-foot, one-inch broad jump.