Roughly six months into retirement, Marc-Antoine Dequoy is back competing for a football championship.
The 31-year-old safety is with the Canadian men’s team that’s in Duesseldorf, Germany, for the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) world flag football championship. Dequoy announced his CFL retirement in February following five seasons with the Montreal Alouettes.
“I was just done playing football physically,” Dequoy said. “When you sign a CFL contract, you sign up for 18 games and I knew my body wouldn’t let me make that commitment of a full off-season, training camp and 18 games.
“For me, it was about being true to the sport. If there’s any hesitation, the risks increase two, three times. I’ve been playing at one speed all of my life until the end and that’s when I realized it was probably time.”
Still, the six-foot-one, 195-pound lle-Bizard, Que., native didn’t immediately take to flag football.
“Coach LaPolice (Canadian head coach Paul LaPolice) called me right after and asked if I was interested,” Dequoy said. “I told him right away, ‘I just retired, this wasn’t on my mind.’ I have to take care of myself, take time with my family and just go through the process.’
“But I did my research over the next few months, talked to friends who played flag football and decided to give it a try. I played a few games, I had fun and was able to compete.”
However, Dequoy had to step away from March through May to co-host the television show Avec ou Sans Cash (With or Without Cash). Dequoy and co-host Éléonore Lagacé travelled to 10 cities across the world and a coin flip determined which one would get $1,500 a day to explore each locale or $150, with segments detailing how they utilized their budgets.
“It was towards the end of shooting in May, (CFL) camps were starting and something inside of me was missing,” Dequoy said. “Not football necessarily although I did miss it, but it was more the competition … so I called coach LaPolice and said I’d be willing if they still wanted me. I really enjoy it.”
Dequoy was twice a CFL all-star and played in two Grey Cups, winning in 2023. But flag football presented a totally different challenge.
It’s played on a smaller field (50 yards long, 30 yards wide with 10-yard end zones) with five players per side. Defensive players can neither contact a receiver nor hit a ball-carrier.
After years of getting his feet under him and going through offensive players, Dequoy admitted initially those old habits died hard in the flag game.
“It happened once, I almost went in for a shoulder hit,” he said. “The ball had been thrown and I went through the guy, which you can’t do, but I’d say the worst thing is when you’re rushing the quarterback.
“I’m so used to not cutting my feet and going through contact and you can’t do that in flag. There are some plays where you probably have that (hitting) inside of you a bit but you realize it’s not the same sport.”
And then there’s the matter of grabbing an opponent’s flag.
“It’s truly the hardest thing for me,” Dequoy said. “I’ve got better but it’s something I’ve had to keep working on … you see guys dropping their hips and they’re moving and twisting so that’s been the biggest thing.
“Of course, I’m still learning the rules but I’d say I know 90 per cent of them. There’s still some where I say, ‘Oh, OK, I didn’t know that,’ but the rules aren’t that bad, it’s the flag.”
Canada was to play three preliminary-round games in Germany. But that was reduced to two when Nigeria withdrew its men’s and women’s teams Wednesday because of travel visa issues.
Nigeria was to play in the same men’s group as Canada, Austria and Japan. As there wasn’t enough time to choose an alternate squad, the remaining three were awarded wins.
Canada will play Austria on Thursday and Japan on Friday.
The top-two finishers in Germany will secure Olympic berths. If the United States reaches the gold-medal game, then the top-three teams will advance as the Americans already have a spot in Los Angeles as host.
“Everybody who’s going to the world championship right now has one goal in mind,” Dequoy said. “It’s win, of course, but finish in the top-two or three to qualify for the Olympics.
“I’m sure it’s really different from past years where they’d say, ‘Let’s go get a medal.’ Here, it’s ‘Let’s go get a medal,’ but the reason we’re getting a medal is to go to LA.”
The world championship isn’t the last Olympic qualifying event. But failing to qualify in Germany would mean participating in next year’s IFAF continental championship and then the final Olympic qualifier series in 2028.
“I’d say every athlete has, at least once, thought about the Olympics,” Dequoy said. “The Olympics were always that top of the hill, that standard of greatness in sport, it was always the summit of everything.
“My sport was never there so I thought I’d get that with the Grey Cup or something else. But now that there’s something actually similar to football as an Olympic sport, for me it’s truly a dream and blessing the sport exists at the highest level.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2026.
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press
