William Stanback, who spent most of his career in professional football in the CFL amid two unsuccessful NFL tryouts, announced his retirement April 8 on his Instagram account.
Stanback, 31, played five of his seven CFL seasons with the Montreal Alouettes (2018-19, 2021-23).
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“I leave the field knowing I gave it everything I had,” Stanback wrote on Instagram. “The dream doesn’t end here — it just evolves. Thank You Football.”
Stanback finished his career with one season playing for the BC Lions (2024) and one with the Ottawa Redblacks (2025). Stanback retires with 1,003 carries for 5,589 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also caught 189 passes out of the backfield for 1,749 yards and seven touchdowns.
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A Long Island native, Stanback played collegiately at UCF (2013-15) before he was dismissed from the program as a junior. He transferred to Virginia Union (2016) but was not chosen in the NFL draft.
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Signed by the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent in 2017, Stanback played with the Packers in the preseason but was cut on Aug. 28, just before the regular season began.
Stanback got one other NFL tryout, with the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020. In a 2024 interview, he explained the tragic circumstances that led to his release.
“My parents passed that year, so I missed a lot of time during training camp,” he told CFL.ca. “When I did come back to training camp, they released me like two days after. I didn’t know what I wanted to do.”
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The tragedy was compounded by losing both his mother and father nine days apart.
“My dad had bladder cancer. It caught up to him really fast, and he didn’t have time to fight it,” Stanback continued. “And the nine days? Well, we told my mom. She was developing dementia, so she didn’t really know what was going on. My father’s name is Billy. So, she kept saying, ‘Where’s Billy?’ Me and my brothers kept trying to explain to her what was going on and what happened. And one day, it just clicked and then she went into cardiac arrest. She had a heart attack.”
"I know my parents is looking down at me like, my damn son did it."
William Stanback dedicating the Grey Cup championship to his parents ❤️ pic.twitter.com/V1mUczdHna
— THE SHIFT (@theshift_sports) November 20, 2023
Stanback was an all-CIAA First Team running back in his final year of college. He later helped the Aloulettes win the Grey Cup in 2022, scoring a 32-yard touchdown in the 28-24 win.
Stanback retires as a two-time CFL All-Star (2019, 2021), a two-time CFL East All-Star (2019, 2021), the CFL rushing yards leader in 2021, and the winner of the Terry Evanshen Trophy (East Division’s Most Outstanding Player) in 2021.