Calgary Stampeders QB Jake Maier was a recent guest on The MarkCast. He talks about his nickname ‘The Mayor’, playing in his first CFL game, the pandemic year, and more.

Maier talks about adjusting to the CFL and what it was like in his first season in the CFL.

“It wa like a marathon. You come from high school football where it’s like ten games and then you get your playoffs…. College football is a little bit more than that, but even in a shortened season where it was 14 games… it takes a lot of mental toughness and just mentally allowing yourself to work week for week, flush what happened last week, learn from it, and now we have to move on.

You can’t get too high, get too low. It’s really a mental grind, I would say, but I love it. It’s like you have to experience it to find out. Hey, is this for you? Can you handle this? Is this what you enjoy doing, waking up every day. And the answer is 100% yes, it’s cool to be kind of in that marathon. I’d like to think of it and just continue to challenge yourself to get better.

then hopefully you’re playing your best football in October, November, and I felt like we did that as a team. I really do. There’s a couple of things that ball just didn’t bounce our way a little bit at the end. We played a highly competitive road playoff game and we were a couple of plays away, and that’s how football is.”

He also talks about adjusting to the length and grind of the CFL season.

“As quarterbacks, we have it the easiest in terms of just the physical toll that’s on us. I can only imagine, like our offensive line, our guys in the trenches, defensive linemen, linebackers, they’re putting their bodies and their health on the line, week in, week out.

This year is 14 weeks. Next year is 18 weeks plus playoffs. Now you’re looking to make the Great Cup at 20 to 21 weeks of football, which drags on to about six months of the year.

When you factor in training camp, it can be grueling. It definitely can. So you do your best to manage yourself properly. And like I said, quarterback wise, we have it easier than most of our teammates.”

Maier talks about his decision to resign with the Calgary Stampeders.

“I love the team, I love our coaches, and I love living in Calgary. We’ve traveled on the road. We’ve gone to different places, and obviously, we’re only there for a weekend. But there’s something special about Calgary that appealed to myself and my family.

We’re very comfortable there. We’ve been there for six months, and you kind of know, like, okay, these are the places to eat. These are the roads to take. This is where you can do this, do that. So I think people sometimes forget that everyday life plays a huge role because at the end of the day, we are all people, and we want to wake up in the city that we are proud of and feel comfortable in. So that played a big part.”

He talks about his off-season, future in the CFL, family, and more. You can listen to the full interview here.