Calgary Stampeders rock star Dedrick Mills 'a whole lot better' after enduring tragedy in 2024
Best friend's death, off-season surgery now behind team-leading rusher in his bid for 1,000-yard campaign
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Dedrick Mills is running with life again for the Calgary Stampeders.
And with the kind of spirit that brings him immense joy.
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Calgary Stampeders rock star Dedrick Mills 'a whole lot better' after enduring tragedy in 2024 Back to video
Yes … the off-season did wonders for the Canadian Football League running back in his pursuit to reconnect with God and happiness after a tragedy ripped out his faith and his heart 14 months ago and injury threatening his performance in the 2025 campaign.
“It was very emotional,” said Mills, gently recalling the car crash that killed his best friend and his cousin in spring 2024.
“I was just going home after last season and taking care of the things I needed to take care of — clearing my head and getting my relationship right back with God and stuff like that,” continued Mills. “It just helped me out a lot. So right now, I came here with a clear, level head and ready to go.”
Just ahead of last year’s Stamps training camp, Mills’ friend Ronnie Adams and cousin RJ Merritt were back-seat passengers in a vehicle that crashed on a back road in Ware County, Georgia.
They were returning home from a party in a neighbouring county, when the driver lost control on a winding road. The vehicle hit a pole, and both Adams and Merritt were ejected.
Mills said high speed contributed to the tragedy, with neither victim wearing a seatbelt.
“Ronnie was a guy I grew up with,” said Mills, who bears a necklace around his neck with Adams’ photo on it. “He was a guy I was around every day. When I go home in the off-season, that’s the first guy I’d stop by and see.
“So it was a very emotional for me, because he’s always been with me — for college visits from high school. We both ended up in a JUCO together, but he ended up just stopping playing football. And I was trying to beg him, ‘Just stay, just stay, you with me.’ You know … everybody’s path different. So his path wasn’t school.
“But that was mine.”
While Mills was able to keep it together through training camp as the team’s projected No. 1 backfield starter in the days after the tragedy, it wasn’t long into the 2024 calendar when he suddenly left the Stamps to return home, missing a handful of games and setting in motion questions about his future in the CFL.
“I didn’t get a chance to really grieve and get over it, so it kind of took a toll on me towards the middle of the season,” said Mills, again of the deadly crash.
“I had to step away for a little bit — lost my faith a little bit. But I had people here I can go talk to. Having those people around me as a good support system like (team chaplain) Rodd (Sawatzky) and (mental health/performance coach) Matt Brown and those guys. So I could just sit down and talk to them and call my people back home and just making sure, checking on everybody and just having them tell me if things made me feel a lot better. And then, I was able to get my relationship back with God by having one-on-one sessions with Rodd.
“It just helped me open my eyes up to see a different side of life.”
The native of Waycross, Ga., was in a better place coming back and managed to run the rock for a team-high in rushing for the second straight season.
But then came another hurdle — this time in the face of injury — which meant off-season surgery on his wrist and more questions moving forward.
Yet he came out the other side of the winter in good health, both physically and mentally.
“I came back stronger than ever, man,” declared the 28-year-old Mills.
“So in the off-season, I put my head down, stayed to myself, just focused on myself and got my mental right, so I was going to be able to come out here and play the game and not have to worry about anything else, worry about family or all the rest of the stresses that come with people’s life.”
It shows in his early returns of the 2025 CFL season.
Already, the former NCAA Nebraska Cornhuskers star has scored four touchdowns — three more than he had last year — to highlight two games counting 122 rushing yards on 30 carries and 30 more yards on three catches.
So he’s well on his way to reaching that 1,000-yard milestone running backs have on their minds, after two previous seasons rolling up 923 and 802 carrying the ball — the former amid all that tragedy and injury.
“It’s always the goal is to get 1,000 yards, man,” Mill said. “So I’m just putting my head down, taking it one game at a time and just perfecting whatever the coach has called, whether it’s run or pass. I mean … I’m always ready to go.
“V.A. (Vernon Adams Jr.) opens it up — he opens it up a lot,” continued Mills, of having a mobile quarterback now at the Stamps controls. “We got opponents that want to play low on us, so we go deep. And then you got the guys that want to play us deep, and then we just run the ball.”
Mostly, the run responsibility falls on Mills as the consensus starter for the Red and White.
But Stamps GM/head coach Dave Dickenson says pounding the pigskin with success isn’t the only aspect of Mills’ game that is making him a rock star.
“He’s doing a nice job,” said Dickenson, of his 5-foot-10, 227-lb. battering ram. “He’s picking up blitzes and finding ways to make the team better.
“The running back position is one of the strengths of our team, and I think he’s obviously the leader.”
Leading once again with the life and spirit that put him in this position in the first place.
“I’m a whole lot better,” added Mills. “I’m just ready to go ball-out.”
SHORT YARDAGE
Mills and the Stampeders (2-0) try to make it a three-game winning run with Saturday’s home game against the incoming Ottawa Redblacks (0-2) at McMahon Stadium (2 p.m., TSN, CHQR 770 AM/107.3 FM the Edge) … WR Erik Brooks steps in at starter for injured WR Reggie Begelton (leg), while rookie C Chris Fortin gets the call under centre in place of injured C Bryce Bell (shoulder) and LB Micah Teitz shifts over to start in the middle spot in place of injured LB Marquel Lee (bicep). The weak-side starter where Teitz was lined up is LB Jacob Roberts … Coming onto the roster for the Week 3 battle are FB William Langlais, RB Eno Benjamin, OL Rodeem Brown, LS Jason MacGougan, DL Miles Brown, DL Cedric Wilcots II and LB Nicky Farinaccio … Others coming out of the lineup are OL George Idoko, OL Tomas Jack-Kurdyla, LS Aaron Crawford (knee) and DL Shaun Peterson Jr.
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