"We love being in Winnipeg. I love the fan base." | Bighill finds home in ManitobaThe good folks at the Canadian Football Hall of Fame likely haven't started sculpting the bust for Adam Bighill just yet, but they are undoubtedly planning room for it.
Bighill - who officially put his name on one-year contract extension with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers today - will have a spot in the hallowed shrine someday, and still has years left to build on a legacy that has already seen him saluted as the league's Most Outstanding Defensive Player three times and be named to the CFL All-Star Team six times.
It's a legacy that goes so much beyond all the tackles, sacks, and interceptions he?s piled up in a nine-year CFL career, the last three with the Blue Bombers.
The 33-year-old product of Montesano, WA is a full-time Winnipegger now, having built a home here - literally and figuratively - with his wife and family while growing his many off-the-field ventures, including a career in the financial planning industry.
All of those things, and more, led him to re-sign rather than testing CFL free agency. Bighill listed the important decision-swaying factors as playing for a great organization, doing what's best for his family and his career, and his love of his teammates in the Blue Bombers locker room.
"There's always the feeling of comfort and knowing what to expect," he said Thursday in a media conference call. "I mentioned all the great things, but there's also the comfort of knowing how green your grass is as opposed to looking elsewhere. There's that sense of comfort knowing you don't have to adapt and adjust and go through a different process of acclimating somewhere else.
"We love being in Winnipeg, we've loved it since we've been here. All those factors tie in. As you guys know, I'm building a business here based out of Winnipeg... I have clients across the country from B.C. to Ontario, but Winnipeg is the base of my business and so that's another factor as well.?
Bighill said he told his agent Dan Vertlieb of his priorities and what it would take for him to leave Winnipeg before contract discussions with the club began to get to the number-crunching stage. He conceded that he didn't feel he maximized his potential value - a point that wouldn't have been confirmed unless he had tested the market - but, again, his decision is just as much about quality of life as the numbers on a contract.
"For me, it's not always about maximizing my value in the open market," he said. "There's a lot more that goes into it for me that I've already mentioned with the reasons why I chose to come back and the factors for me coming back.
"I do like being in Winnipeg. I love the fan base. I love the community. I love being a big part of this franchise. And so, maximizing value... I put a lot of value into those items is what I'm saying as opposed to contract dollars in some respect.
"So, no, I didn't maximize my value, but I didn't feel the need that I wanted to."......
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