Age is only a number: Former USD standout Logan still going strong
Like a lot of his turns carrying the ball at the University of South Dakota, Stefan Logan's path to more than a decade as a professional football player did not follow a normal route.
Raised by a no-nonsense set of parents in Miami, Logan was taken on as a project at USD as a 23-year-old freshman in 2003. He went on to leave the school four years later with just about every meaningful rushing record the Coyotes have on the books.
Then as a 26-year-old rookie undrafted free-agent, the 5-foot-6, 170-pound running back/return specialist again defied odds by following a season with the British Columbia Lions in the CFL with four seasons in the NFL, first with Pittsburgh followed by three more years with the Detroit Lions.
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Perhaps most unlikely of all, at age 36 Logan is still on the field and still collecting a paycheck returning kicks and punts in Montreal, where the Alouettes open their 2107 season this week. He had a 23-yard kick-return average for the Alouettes last year and a 13.5 average on punts, returning one 86 yards for a touchdown.
His positivity was a distinguishing trait at USD with teammates. It has since manifested itself in sustaining a career in a sport that rarely honors its elderly with roster spots, even in Canada.
"I've had a motto for a long time, I even have some shirts that say it: 'Age is only a number,'" Logan said Tuesday after practice. "I've never believed you should limit yourself. I don't worry about how old I am. It's all in the mind. I stay focused, I take care of my body and I know I'm going to be fine every year."
Logan, who was the first North Central Conference running back to ever run for 1,000 yards all of his four years, is in his third season with the Alouettes as a kick and punt returner, also putting in occasional shifts at running back.
As a comparatively tiny return man, Logan would be conspicuous at any level of football played by adults. Add in quickness, an instinctive feel for the game and a surprising amount of straight-line speed for someone in their mid-30s and you have a crowd favorite, even in a limit role.
"This game is about entertainment," he said. "I like to entertain people. The game is not about the accolades, it's about entertaining your fans. I've always wanted to be the guy who, when fans saw my uniform on the field, they're going to be on the edge when I get the ball. They think something big is about to happen. I love that about this game."
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The legend of Stefan Logan began when the John Austin-led Coyote football program got a videotape of the unknown running back tearing it up as a sophomore in high school. He'd gotten into enough trouble to lose his football privileges at Jackson High School the next two seasons, then spent the next five years working at a supermarket and helping his father tend to corpses at the University of Miami med school.
The videotape he and his father put together was enough to permit him to show up for camp that first year. Playing under Ed Meierkort the following three years, he finished with 17 school records at USD, including all the big ones. For three of those seasons, his quarterback was Wes Beschorner, a record-holder in his own right who would become an assistant coach for the Coyotes and is now quarterbacks coach at Rice University.
"He's the fastest guy I've ever been around," Beschorner said. "I have never seen anyone faster with a football in his hands – I still can't name a player I've seen who has a burst like Stefan does."
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Logan was seven years into his career – with the four NFL seasons now behind him – when he realized his skills were such that he was going to be able to keep playing. He's since taken on a role in his career where proving people wrong is part of the package but not the only one. There can be higher sources for staying motivated.
"You hit double-digits and you start hitting some milestones," he said. "I realized at one point that I wanted to play for a long time. I wanted to be a role model for the younger players as well as the older guys who can still get it done if they can convince themselves to do it."
That latter has never been a problem for Logan, a workout nut in the offseason.
"It's a very physical game but you have to be mentally tough to keep playing it," he said. "If you can convince your mind you can do it, the body is going to follow. The mind is strong and it's big."
Leaving the NFL definitely led to a pay cut – the average CFL salary is a little more than $90,000 a year – but, true to form, Logan moved on without a dip in motivation after leaving the Lions, where he was working under a two-year $1.64 million deal that came with an additional $500,000 bonus.
"People tend to remember the negative things and forget the positive," Logan said. "I'm not like that. Look at Colin Kaepernick. He's been a starting quarterback in the Super Bowl, he's thrown a lot of touchdown passes – and all he's remembered for is expressing his personal beliefs by kneeling for the national anthem. No one remembers anything else. I don't think of my time in the NFL negatively – I know all the positive things I did while I was there."
The positive attitude has been there for a while. Though he didn't know anyone on the team when he got to Vermillion, he evolved into a vocal player with the Coyotes.
"He's an extremely positive person," Beschorner said. "Just an outstanding teammate whose attributes were his positivity, his energy and his truthfulness. Stef always cut through all the whatever you want to call it and gave it to you straight."
He still does.
"Give my Coyotes a shout-out," he said at the close of the interview. "That's home for me. They gave me the opportunity to showcase my talent when a lot of people thought I was done."
Follow Mick Garry on Twitter at@MickGarry.