Riders’ Shepley shows skills on football field, the big screen

Dakoda Shepley’s journey to becoming a professional football player has been filled with twists and turns.

The 24-year-old’s first passion in life wasn’t even a sport at all — it was music.

“I’ve played the drums since I was three years old,” the product of Windsor, Ont., said after the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ practice Saturday at Mosaic Stadium. “My earliest memory that I can think of is my dad bringing in my first drum kit with the bass drum over his shoulder.

“Music was my first passion and it continues to be on the side of everything that I’ve done in my professional career.”

With his dad owning a recording studio back home, music continues to be the thing Shepley leans on throughout his life.

But like many other Canadian kids, the call to the hockey rink was too much to ignore. Shepley laced up the skates when he was eight years old and continued to play until he was 16.

“I think (at 16) I must’ve been like 6-foot-7 on skates so I was certainly an enforcer,” Shepley said, “the guy they send out there to set the tone with the first big hit and set the tone for the game.”

But his hockey career came to an end after he broke a hand during a fight, opening a door for football to become his sole focus.

“Luckily I didn’t need surgery but the surgeon game me a lecture on how I’d be way more successful being a football player,” Shepley said. “From that point on, I just kind of dropped hockey cold turkey.”

Shepley admitted that, before making the choice to focus on football, he wasn’t the best teammate on the gridiron.

“I was introduced to football in Grade 9 and I was pretty wishy-washy,” Shepley said. “In Grade 10 I got kicked off the team because I broke my hand and was missing practice. I was a flaky dude just for that reason alone.”

That newfound focus on the sport would eventually turn into a scholarship opportunity with the UBC Thunderbirds. While there, Shepley won a Vanier Cup in 2015 after helping the Thunderbirds defeat the Montreal Carabins 26-23.

It wasn’t just football that would become a focus for Shepley while in Vancouver. Another unexpected door opened for him one day.

“The first movie I was ever in, I was an extra in a Hallmark film,” Shepley said. “I was just sitting in the locker room and a production team came in and were taking photos for a set. I asked them, ‘Hey, are you guy’s filming a movie?’ ”

Dakoda Shepley in full movie makeup as Omega Red. (Dakoda Shepley/Instagram)

Shepley was asked to be a part of that film and, in doing so, was added into a database filled with extras for movies. While he has been in a few films, the biggest one was in the Ryan Reynolds-led Deadpool 2.

“I got cast as an extra in a movie that was called Caribbean Blue and I was trying on a prison jumpsuit and I’m like a movie called Caribbean Blue and a jumpsuit didn’t add up. There was some artist rendering of the main characters in the movie and sure enough there was Deadpool on the wall,” Shepley said.

Shepley was cast as the villain Omega Red, who can be seen in the background during the prison scene of the movie.

“It was wild,” Shepley said. “You get to see a the inner workings of how a movie is made and that kind of stuff really interests me. I (majored) in English and creative writing at UBC and screenwriting is something that I’d like to be a part of later on in my career.”

But football is where Shepley finds the most success. After his final season with the T-Birds, he was invited to attend training camp with the NFL’s New York Jets.

“It was awesome,” Shepley said. “You get to be around some of the best players in the NFL and some Pro Bowl guys … It’s really cool to learn and become friends with guys that you watch on TV.”

But while he was in New York trying to earn a spot with the Jets, then-Roughriders head coach Chris Jones had his eyes on Shepley. Despite the fact it was unknown if Shepley would ever play in the CFL, Saskatchewan took him in the first round (fifth overall) of the 2018 draft.

“I was in the midst of (organized team activities) with the New York Jets so when the draft was actually happening, I was at practice and meetings for the day,” Shepley said. “When my name did get called unexpectedly high, I was in the showers and I came back to a missed call from Coach Jones. I called him back and he said, ‘Hey, we picked you up,’ and I’m just so thankful for that.”

Shepley eventually was cut from the Jets and his journey to his home country began.

“I was going through a lot of workouts with various NFL teams and it came to a point where I could keep trying — I had options to potentially pursue a down-south career — but I made the decision to come up and play with the Roughriders and get my career started in Canada,” he said.

Shepley joined the Roughriders’ practice roster late in the 2018 season for one week before returning to Windsor. He signed a two-year contract with a player option in March.

During training camp, Shepley showed off his mean streak. He got into a few scraps during the camp.

He said he has always had that sort of attitude and wants to use it to help the Roughriders’ offensive line.

“It comes with size; people expect it of you,” Shepley said. “A big thing of mine is not wasting my potential and living up to expectations, so if they expect me to be the mean person out there and I’m not, then I feel like I’m letting (the team) and myself down.”

Shepley has been thrust into a starting role at right guard following a knee injury to Dariusz Bladek. Shepley will make his second straight start against the Toronto Argonauts on Monday in the Riders’ home opener.

Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. The Green Zone pregame show will begin at 3 p.m.