Preemie baby becomes CFL's best player

League's most outstanding player Chad Owens was born a month and a half early weighing three pounds

Chad Owens holds up the CFL's Most Outstanding Player Trophy Nov. 22.
Photo by Colleen De Neve / Calgary Herald

Toronto Argonauts slot back Chad Owens made miracles happen on the field this season en route to winning the CFL's Most Outstanding Player award. But the Grey Cup champion's life could also be classified as a miracle.

Here's an article by Postmedia sports writer Bruce Arthur detailing Owen's journey from premature baby to CFL great:

When asked why he is who he is, Chad Owens goes back to the beginning. It is the morning of the CFL awards, and he is about nine hours from being named the league's Most Outstanding Player, and is being asked why he pushes so hard, why he can't stop himself, and why he writes down impossible goals every year and tries to span the distance to reach them. So he tells the story.

"Not a lot of people know, but I was born a month and a half early, premature, three pounds," says Owens, sweat coating his tattooed arms after practice at the Rogers Centre. "You know, my mom was having complications, and the doctors asked my grandmother, do you want to save the baby, or do you want to save your daughter? And of course my grandma said, save my daughter, she can have more kids. This is the story -- I don't know how much of it is truth. But dad said he came in and said, save 'em both, and so ... we both survived."

"I think that just stuck with me, you know? I've always been the smaller guy, I've always had to prove that I can play with the big boys, I can be here, you know? That's my gift and my blessing from God, that I'm able to persevere. So that's where it comes from."

Read the full story here.