3DownNation: Maven Maurer embracing life as first openly transgender pro football player

Written by J.C. Abbott, 3DownNation

15 years after retiring from the CFL, Maven Maurer finally got the opportunity to be her true self on a football field.

The longtime Canadian fullback was one of several players in attendance when the B.C. Lions inducted their 2000 Grey Cup championship team into the Wall of Fame earlier this year but the moment carried even more personal significance. She stood near midfield at halftime with long hair flowing over the top of her team jacket, wearing a plunging halter top and flared pants. As her chosen name was announced over the loudspeaker for the first time, Maurer stepped forward and with fresh orange nail polish, raised a hand to salute the crowd of 20,000 fans as a transgender woman.

“I really feel like that has been almost the final piece, so to speak. Words don’t even do it justice,” Maurer revealed in an exclusive interview with 3DownNation. “Just being able to be there, I feel like it almost reconciles the past with the present. I wasn’t able to fully enjoy and fully savour those moments that are truly special in the football world and I was able to appreciate this. I was able to really soak it in. It was so healing.”

At the time, nobody in attendance at BC Place seemed to recognize the historic moment. To date, just 17 former professional football players have been acknowledged as members of the LGBTQIA+ community, with former Montreal Alouettes’ defensive lineman Michael Sam standing alone as the only openly gay CFL alumnus. No former player in either the NFL or CFL had ever publicly come out as transgender — a person whose assigned sex at birth does not align with their gender identity — until Maurer did so with no media fanfare.

It was a moment that almost never happened. Despite formally committing to attend the September 13 game in Vancouver weeks prior, Maurer didn’t purchase her plane ticket until the day before the event. Her decision on whether to go changed day-to-day as she fought back fear over what her reception would be and grappled with uncertainty over whether the Lions would actually follow through with honouring her chosen name. Most importantly, she was worried about how her old teammates, many of whom were unaware of her transition, would react to her.

Photo Credit: Jeff Vinnick, BC Lions.

“I think the biggest thing was, what are my teammates going to say? Am I going to be accepted? The whole reason why I kept on playing football was having that family, having those brothers,” Maurer said, fighting back tears.

“Those two worlds, it’s almost like we were going to be in the same place at the same time. It was very uncomfortable leading up to it. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but then I ultimately decided that I’m not going to let fear own me.”

What she found was near-complete acceptance from the men she once shared a locker room with — a life-changing moment nearly 50 years in the making.

“I want to let those guys know that it really means everything,” Maurer said. “There’s no way another person can understand.”

Known as ‘Mike’ for the duration of a distinguished professional career that lasted 13 CFL seasons, Maurer played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, B.C. Lions, Ottawa Renegades, and Edmonton Elks. Over the course of 152 games, the six-foot, 230-pound bruiser racked up a whopping 168 career special teams tackles  — good enough for ninth all-time in CFL history. She added 758 all-purpose yards and four total touchdowns while suiting up for two Grey Cup-winning teams, earning the Most Valuable Canadian award in the 2005 championship game.

Despite those accomplishments, the native of Saskatoon, Sask. struggled to find satisfaction in life. Personal accolades, team success, or improved contract status never seemed to fill a void that left the fullback constantly scrambling to find the next challenge or distraction. Retirement didn’t make that easier and she admits that mental health has long been a battle. Thoughts of suicide had even crossed her mind, staved off mainly by a desire to see her daughters reach adulthood.

“Without getting too dark or depressing, I was always going to take my first exit opportunity. I had fantasized about sacrificing myself to save someone else, all those kinds of things,” Maurer said.

Photo Credit, David Friederich, BC Lions.

“I really kind of thought that once my kids were grown and adults, I was gonna go off into the woods and not come back. I was just gonna walk away and see how long I could survive. That’s just where I was — I didn’t know what else to do.”

That changed shortly after the COVID pandemic when a near-death experience left Maurer struggling for survival for several hours. In those uncertain moments, she found herself begging and pleading with God to live, promising to make changes if given another opportunity to break out of a cycle of personal turmoil. In exchange for life, she believes she had to learn a lesson of self-acceptance.

And so, at the age of 45, Maurer pared down her intense physical training regimen and cut out frequent distractions like video games. In their place, she began to engage in practices she had previously avoided, like meditation, journalling, and therapy. It was during one particularly powerful guided meditation session that she says her egg finally cracked — the metaphor many trans people use for discovering their identity.

“I never wanted to look within and part of me didn’t know if I could handle it. There was a lot of shame, a lot of guilt,” Maurer said.

“Everyone has that room in their house that you just throw stuff in that you’re going to deal with later or you don’t know what to do with it. It might be just a closet or whatever, but that room is in your mind as well. Once I opened up that door, a bunch of past experiences and a bunch of memories that were suppressed all came flooding back.”… CONTINUED.

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