Today Sean Fleming is the Senior Vice President at Price-Waterhouse-Coopers. He started in April 2001 while he was a player with the Eskimos and retired from football after the 2007 season to concentrate on the business full-time.
“It was becoming more and more difficult to juggle two careers. As you climb up the corporate ladder there’s a lot more pressure for you to perform and focus on the long term. It got to the point where I thought it was starting to affect me on the field and off the field as well. And I’d always held the view that you want to retire a few years early before they show you the door. It was the right time.”
A Burnaby, B.C. product that played college football at the University of Wyoming, Fleming came to Edmonton in 1992 as a first round draft choice. He retired as the Eskimos all-time leader in points with 2,571, field goals with 553, converts with 713, punts with 1,264, punt yardage with 52,957 and kickoff yardage at 69,973.
A three-time Grey Cup champion who played in the game five times during his career, Fleming was named Most outstanding Canadian in the 1993 Grey Cup game.
“I believe that being on the Eskimos Wall [of Honour] is more than accomplishments on the field. It also reflects how you conduct yourself and represent yourself in the community. I hope that when the next generation of players look up in the stadium and aspire to be on the Wall, they will see it’s more than about putting on a jersey on game days.”
This year the player’s names and numbers have been moved down to field level.
“It actually makes the stadium look a lot more modern. Granted, it’s for advertising, but they did do a very good job of it. I think the banners they added in the concourse were very sharp. I didn’t hear any issues from any of the Wall of [Honour] members. The stadium looks great. I think it was a positive all around,” said Fleming.
Fleming is an interested observer in the careers of former teammates Ed Hervey and Jason Maas.
“Knowing those guys from the locker room and becoming good friends with them, it’s been interesting to follow their careers since they retired. You always knew Jason would become a head coach some day. He was like a second offensive coordinator when he was with Danny Maciocia. And as far as Ed was concerned, everything about Ed was about winning. That was his focus. He was all about intensity and passion. I’m really looking forward to seeing how things turn out with Jason this year.”
With trips to five grey cups and three Grey Cup rings, everything turned out well for Fleming.
“I think over the course of my career, during playoffs I performed quite well. There were some really good games for me whether it was a Grey Cup or a Western Final in Calgary where I felt very satisfied. But most of all with my career what I was most proud of was just the longevity with just one organization. From my point of view that was pretty important. And I think saying that reflects well on the Eskimos organization because it was an organization you wanted to play for.”