BC Lions all-star offensive tackle Jovan Olafioye is back in the province to play in the CFL, but the athlete can’t find a house to live in. How very #vanre.
Call it greed or rash inflexibility, but the five-time All-Canadian finds himself trying to rent in a landlords’ market. Since Olafioye wants to stay for the six-month duration of the CFL season, rather than an entire year, he says he’s having a hard time securing a lease and landing a home suitable for his young family.
“I know a lot of people take that for granted,” he told the hosts of the Starting Lineup on Sportsnet 650.
“Me just having my family up here is the biggest thing for me in being settled. Having my fiancée here and my kids here, they’re just waiting for me basically to get a place. Not having them up here, it’s hard. But this is my job and I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do.”
To help him out, Starting Lineup hosts Perry Solkowski and James Cybulski brought Olafioye on to their morning show and made a pitch for the three-time West Division nominee as the CFL’s most outstanding lineman, an honour he won in 2012.
“Do you smoke,” asked Solkowski. “Do you have pets?”
The answer is no on both accounts. And Olafioye, who has a four-year-old daughter and eight-month-old son, wants to be close to a Skytrain station so he can commute to the Lions’ practice facility in Surrey and maybe even downtown to games at BC Place.
“B.C. has always been a home for me and this is where I wanted to be,” said the Detroit native who first signed with the Lions in 2010.
The minimum salary in the CFL for 2018 is $54,000. Olafioye had a reported salary of $200,000 when he was cut by the team in 2017 as the Lions shed costs under the salary cap. He played last season with the Montreal Alouettes.
The six-foot-six, 235-pound lineman has a few perks to help sway a landlord to sign that six-month lease.
“I can throw in season’s tickets. I can throw in some swag. Just help me out.”
The Lions travel to Edmonton to play the Eskimos Friday night at Commonwealth Stadium.
