NLL defenceman La Roue looking forward to donning football pads at CFL combine

Sam La Roue is getting another chance to be a football player.

The six-foot-four, 220-pound receiver figured he was done in the sport after the Western Mustangs lost 51-31 to Wilfrid Laurier in the 2024 Yates Cup. But on Friday, La Roue, currently a defenceman with the National Lacrosse League’s Halifax Thunderbirds, will don the pads again at the CFL’s invitational combine.

“Towards my last season at Western, I realized it (football) was probably going to be over and I’d kind of come to terms with that,” La Roue said Tuesday. “But that last game against Laurier was a bit of a struggle for me in terms of wrapping my head around that was going to be my last experience playing football.

“It’s exciting to have another opportunity to put the pads on again and go compete on the football field.”

La Roue, 23, of South Surrey, B.C., will be among 80 players at the University of Waterloo’s Feridun Hamdullahpur Field House chasing a spot in the CFL’s national combine March 27-29 in Edmonton. Last year, 11 invitational players were selected for the national event.

On Friday, participants will be tested in the 225-pound bench press, vertical jump, broad jump, 40-yard dash, three-cone and short shuttle. They’ll also don pads for positional work and one-on-one drills before representatives of all nine CFL teams.

La Roue isn’t going into the combine with specific results or numbers in mind.

“At the end of the day I’d just like to show my athletic ability,” he said. “Now, I probably won’t be in the same spot as a guy who’s had a full off-season of football training … but we’re in season now for lacrosse so I’ve been in an in-season workout routine over the past four, five months.”

La Roue enrolled at Western in 2020 but that season was cancelled due to the global pandemic. He played for the Mustangs from 2021-24, first as a quarterback before switching to receiver while also playing special teams.

During his time in London, Ont., La Roue was part of a Vanier Cup-winning team (2021) and two Yates Cup champions (2022-23). But he learned to juggle more than just football and academics while at Western.

La Roue was selected in the second round, No. 19 overall, of the ’20 NLL draft by the Buffalo Bandits. He spent three-plus years with Buffalo (2021-24, playing on championship teams in 2022-23), then was dealt to the Ottawa Black Bears (2024-26) before Halifax signed La Roue to the practice player list last month.

La Roue has appeared in 15 career NLL games, registering five assists and 22 loose balls.

Although La Roue has been away from football since 2024, he said similarities exist between it and lacrosse.

“There are parallels regarding how you move your feet and body and play defence in lacrosse to being in a blocking position in football,” he said. “I think why I was successful playing special teams — especially the return game — and blocking as a receiver (at Western), a lot of that was due to the skill I developed playing defence in lacrosse and being able to take away angles.”

Five seasons of pro lacrosse have also taught La Roue some valuable lessons.

“I’ve been in a professional locker room for the past five years,” he said. “I’ve kind of developed that maturity aspect from being around men who have kids versus a college locker room.

“I’ve been able to kind of develop what a rookie would typically go through … I’ve been able to work out those kinks, if you will.”

Playing pro lacrosse is a grind. The overwhelming majority of players work full-time during the week and either practise early to mid-week or each Friday after flying to the city where they’re slated to play the following day.

Then after each game, they return home to resume their work week. For La Roue, that means heading back to Toronto where he works as an associate at a financial advisory firm.

“It’s a bit of a grind but it’s a great sport,” he said. “I do think (lacrosse) will gain some traction in the future because it’s such an entertaining game to watch.”

La Roue is eligible for the ’26 CFL draft on April 28, but isn’t thinking that far ahead.

“No, I’m honestly just taking this as an opportunity to put the pads on again and compete as a football player,” he said “Getting drafted would be awesome and going to a camp would be great, I’d love that.

“But I’m not focusing on that, just more on what we’ll have going on Friday.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2026.