Wynton McManis Brings Winning Pedigree, Leadership — and a Toothpick — to Hamilton
Wynton McManis is bringing a lot to the Tiger-Cats; the pedigree of a lifelong winner, a big-time personality full of confidence and can’t-miss humour, and the much-needed asset of tackling consistency. He’s also bringing some small pointy sticks.
McManis’s visual trademark—and longtime companion—is a toothpick. He is one of the handful of athletes in pro sports who can be immediately identified with the constant presence of a toothpick, along with soccer legend Billy Meredith, former UFC champion Benson Henderson, and baseball Hall of Famer Dusty Baker.
It’s a subconscious self-therapy habit; a constant familiar presence that helps many athletes focus and pacify themselves amid the hectic mayhem of their profession.
“It goes all the way back to my childhood,” McManis said today, just after the Ticats announced that they had signed the two-time All-CFL linebacker and three-time Grey Cup champion, after his four stellar years with the Toronto Argonauts.
“I’ve got pictures of me as a kid with a toothpick in my mouth. It’s stuck with me. It’s really comfortable and, it’s like peace of mind. I’m always thinking so much, moving around so much that it helps me calm down, almost like those fidget spinners you see everybody with today. Mine is a toothpick and, long before the [fidget] spinners, it just happened to also look cool along the way.”
Landing McManis as the fulcrum of the linebacking corps aggressively attacks an area where the Ticats definitely needed positive growth, especially with the departure of Canadian Devin Veresuk to an NFL opportunity. Despite significant improvement as the 2025 season progressed, with a completely different starting trio (short side, or WILL, middle, or MIKE, and wide side, or SAM) than the one that opened training camp, the linebacking crew still needed to evolve, as the CFL’s rankings against the run game indicated.
“Maybe I can be that piece that helps get us over the hump.”
There is a definite positive evolution—maybe even revolution—with McManis’s arrival. His addition, Reggie Stubblefield fully healthy at SAM, the experience gained by Braxton Hill, Kyler Fisher and Canadian Ryan Baker last season, plus some intriguing off-season signings of new CFLers strengthens the Ticats defense. All that, coupled with another year to acclimate and adapt to defensive coordinator Brent Monson’s systems, and a leap forward seems in the cards.
McManis has played both middle linebacker and weakside linebacker but he’s most comfortable in the heart, where he’s spent the most time and can have more impact.
“I probably prefer MIKE now,” he told Ticats.ca, “I enjoy the play-calling and the communication that comes with being a MIKE, making decisions. WILL is a great position too, you’ve got more free range. I just feel like I can affect the game more at MIKE because you can’t cut me off from one side of the field. At MIKE I can get to the boundary and I can get to the field.”
As well as anchoring the middle of the defence, McManis brings his renowned extroverted identity and sense of humour to the locker room, and to the community at large.
He doesn’t lack for confidence and his personality is definitely outgoing.
“I’m a fun-loving dog,” he laughs. “I love to laugh and I love to make people laugh. And I’m very competitive too, so everything kind of turns into a competition, having fun and loving what you do.”
McManis was on the wish list for a number of teams, but the Ticats had already been predicted as his destination by some CFL insiders.
“It’s just the nature of the business,” he said. “This is something that people expected. I feel good, I feel blessed. I’m ready for the next step, ready to keep progressing.
“The situation felt right here, everything surrounding it. I talked it over with my wife and the Ticats felt comfortable. I like the trajectory of the team, and the way they’re going.”
He knows a few current players well, including quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell with—whom he won the 2018 Grey Cup in Calgary—and boundary cornerback Jamal Peters. Peters and McManis won a Grey Cup together in Toronto “and we’re very close. He’s worked his tail off the past few years and he’s excited I’m coming.”
“Maybe I can be that piece that helps get us over the hump.”
It’s happened before. When he arrived at Memphis University as a starting freshman in 2012, the Tigers had gone a combined 3-21 in the two previous seasons. In McManis’ junior and senior years, they shot to 19-7 with two bowl appearances, including a win over Miami.
But it reaches further back than that. Although he was born and raised in Memphis, McManis’ roots are in Mississippi where his grandfather still lived. In Memphis, McManis’ high school had just opened and was not going to have a competitive football team, so the family moved to Mississippi and he played for Olive Grove High School, which had good teams but had never taken the state title.
“Olive Grove had always been known as a sports school but couldn’t get [there],” he recalls.
With McManis at outside linebacker, where he was named second-team All State, and doubling as No. 2 quarterback, Olive Grove won the 2011 Mississippi State Championship. Going 17-0 along the way to the championship, he exploded for 13 tackles in the final. McManis recalls, “the other team thought they won on a field goal but there was an offside penalty, they had to kick it again and missed.”
Echoes, in reverse, of the Saskatchewan Roughriders “13th Man” Grey Cup loss in 2009.
Then, of course, there were those combined three Grey Cups, and a plethora of post-season games in Calgary and Toronto.
Offensive coordinator Jarryd Baines and head coach Scott Milanovich can expect some good-natured pressure from McManis to design a play for him to unleash a pass on offence.
“Definitely,” he says. “I’ve always thrown the ball in practice, hoping I’ll get another chance.”
“I’ve always thought I was a quarterback at heart.”
