This article was originally published in the Hamilton Sports Group (HSG) 2025 Community Impact Report. The full report can be viewed here.
As he talked to the star-struck kids he and his teammates were teaching at the FirstOn the Field Flag Football program, Kenny Lawler knew exactly who he was looking at.
“I saw me,” he said. “That’s why I do it. It may be a different level than the U.S. in terms of the amount of training and facilities, but the athlete is still the same; the want, the hunger, the skill, the desire to learn.”
From the very day of his arrival, Lawler has embraced the Ticats’ multitudinous outreach and social initiatives in the extended community, highlighted by his commitment as a central ambassador for the Hamilton Sports Group (HSG) Foundation, which he knew was arriving imminently and wanted to partake in.
“Kenny is a humanist,” says Amanda Heeren, HSG’s Manager of Community Partnerships and Player Relations. “He is just so kind and genuine and will always have a sincere conversation with people. Sometimes I tell him that with our tight schedule we have to leave an event and he says, ‘It’s okay,’ and wants to stay and talk.”
Heeren says the pulse of HSG’s charitable foundation, which club executives would like to evolve and expand into one of Canadian sport’s largest, “runs through almost everything” the Ticats and Forge FC do in the community, including outreach programs that predated the foundation or that also have some sponsorship funding.
The overarching ethos of the HSG Foundation is showing up for the community that shows up for the Ticats and Forge by using sport to create access, opportunity, and shared pride in Hamilton.
There have been very few, if any, players of Lawler’s skill and pedigree who have had the immediate impact in their first Ticat season that Kenny Lawler has had on an entire community, both inside and outside the game. He’s an ambassador on a grand scale. As befits an athlete with such long limbs and a vice-like grip, he has wrapped his arms around Ticat Nation, the local autistic community, food insecurity, homelessness, the HSG Foundation, and teaching and encouraging football players of all ages and skill levels.
He’s enveloped the entire city, really, and all that started even before he hit the field for his best-ever season. Lawler made the All-CFL team, led the league with 14 touchdown receptions—more than double his previous high in a stellar seven-year career—and churned up 1,443 receiving yards, second in the CFL and 42 percent more than his second-best yearly total.
“It means a lot for the athletes to go into the community for causes that are close to our hearts,” Lawler said recently. “I was just dropping off my son at school and there was a group of kids who came up and were kind of in awe and said, ‘Hey, are you Kenny Lawler?’ It’s like a superpower and you want to use your superpower for good.”
KJ Lawler, the 8-year-old son of Kenny and his wife, Myannah Jacobs, is autistic, and Hamilton’s education system was one of the reasons he signed here as a free agent last year. He advocates for more resources in the classrooms, and he and Myannah donate their time to support programs. One of his most poignant moments of his debut Ticat season came on a crisp October afternoon in a game against Calgary, in which he wore a highly noticeable pair of cleats tie-dyed in pinks, reds, and oranges. The Ticats and Autism Ontario brought 200 people for the game that was played in honour of them.
It’s like a super power and you want to use your super power for good.
“I know Autism Ontario was working with the team and with our son on the spectrum. It means a lot to me because this game of football has given me a platform,” Lawler said. “For a long time I used it just for football, but growing up and maturing, it can be a voice for people who are not heard. A voice for people who come from hard backgrounds who just need some motivation or inspiration. I knew going into the season I wanted to do something special. I just want to be able to share the awareness, share the experience, and maybe help people who are going through the same thing. And all the interviews and the cleats go a long way.”
“The cleats were customized by Clint McFawn (@McFlys.sr_CustomDesigns), who does a lot of cleats. I call him Marty McFly and let him go with it. They were going with the rainbow theme and he came back with the tie-dyes, which also had an infinity sign on them that is the new logo of Autism Ontario, and it represents that community.”
Kenny Lawler’s custom tie-dye cleats, designed by Clint McFawn (@McFlys.sr_CustomDesigns) and featuring the infinity symbol of Autism Ontario, were worn during the 2025 season to raise awareness and celebrate the local autism community.
He was also part of 2025’s Try Flag Football collaboration between Autism Ontario and the Tiger-Cats, an annual on-field participatory and learning event.
“It was a great camp,” Lawler says. “Throughout our journey, there really haven’t been a lot of events that are specific to the autism community, and it was great to see that things are going in the right direction. I knew it was one thing I wasn’t going to miss; with tons of families here to help share the game of football.”
Autism advocacy is not the only local cause Lawler champions. He and Myannah will be volunteering at St. Patrick Church on Victoria Street, which provides a daily lunch and safe gathering space for unhoused people or those who are dealing with food insecurity.
He pays forward the coaching he received growing up, much of it from his father, Kenny Lawler Sr., by signing up for Ticat clinics as often as he can. He says his overwhelming desire to help out was inspired by his mother, Mary, who often held down two jobs to help her family of six kids.
Going into the season I wanted to do something special. I just want to be able share the awareness, share the experience and maybe help people who are going through the same thing.
Lawler also emerged as a leader in the fight against hunger, headlining the team’s Purolator Tackle Hunger Campaign, which has led the CFL in donations every season. Over the summer, he visited Living Rock, helping to unload a truck of donations from Hamilton Food Share, and toured the youth resource centre. Fans rallied behind Lawler, filling trucks with over 265,000 pounds of food at a local grocery store.
“All our players are stars,” Heeren says. “But Kenny has that special ability to bring people together, and can carry an event. In all our initiatives, he’s happy to participate wherever and whenever. He never acts like it’s an inconvenience and never has a sour look on his face.”
Lawler shares that he had to use food banks himself earlier in his pro career when he was on practice rosters and entry-level contracts and is thankful they were there for him.
“It’s definitely a big thing in my heart and my wife’s heart as well,” he said. “The work that’s being done at Living Rock is unbelievable, not only in providing the food but providing necessities of hygiene and even clothing. The food goes a long way and they do it in a humane manner. There’s a sense of dignity in it.”
That sense of dignity courses through all HSG Foundation programs, Heeren says:
“Across the board for our organization, one of our core values is respect for all. No matter what, people deserve to be treated with respect and kindness. Life is hard: we’re all a lot closer to using food banks than we are to being like Jeff Bezos or somebody like that.
“You would think when you become a professional athlete everything is so easy…but for Kenny to go through such adversity and be able to come back stronger…what a great role model for the kids.
“He said he sees himself in those kids, but maybe those kids can also see themselves in him.”
Support Autism Ontario: Bid on Kenny Lawler’s custom 2025 tie-dye cleats, designed by Clint McFawn (@McFlys.sr_CustomDesigns), in a silent auction supporting Autism Ontario. All proceeds help fund programs for the local autism community. Place your bid here.
