Scott Milanovich wants Bo Levi Mitchell back with Hamilton Tiger-Cats

Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym/RFB Sport Photography
Scott Milanovich is not one to mince words; he’s direct and to the point, which was exactly the case in his exit meeting with Bo Levi Mitchell on Sunday.

The 35-year-old gunslinger has an expiring contract, and Milanovich communicated exactly how he feels about the walking Canadian Football Hall of Famer’s playing future.

“I let him know how much I appreciate him, I let him know that I think he can still play, not just for one more year but probably for a couple more years — if his heart’s into it and his family’s behind him. That’s where it comes down to, his and his family’s decision. I made it clear to him that I wanted him back, let’s put it that way,” Milanovich said.

“I have to have discussions. This is the day of exit meetings, so I’m talking with Scott, talking with O, Scott Mitchell as well, and those’ll happen over the next couple days. I think we all have a mutual understanding of what we all want. I gotta have discussions with my wife, my girls and decide what’s best for us as a family and myself,” Mitchell said.

The two-time Most Outstanding Player has worked hard to produce a career renaissance. He’s thrown for over 5,000 yards in back-to-back seasons, leading the league in that category plus passing touchdowns, and even looked spry running the football when needed the last two years. Mitchell rushed for his first TD since 2015 from 14 yards out to prove it in September.

The Katy, Texas native credits Marcellus Bowman, Hamilton’s strength and conditioning coach, for reinvigorating his mind and body. According to Mitchell, the former Ticats linebacker had him working out “every single day” entering the 2024 season, and his body responded. That schedule was tweaked while preparing for 2025 as he worked out one day, rested the next, worked out, rested the next and so on. Again, his body responded.

“I’ve asked a lot of people, ‘How do you know you’re done?’ A lot of them tell you that you don’t want to get hit anymore, or you don’t love the grind, you don’t love the working out or whatever it is. Honestly, for me, it was pain. Five, six years in a row, I was in pain every single day, and it felt like I was mitigating pain to get to a game where I was going to come out with more pain,” Mitchell said.

“It was hard because I wasn’t able to pick up my girls or play with them or do something I wanted to do. Year after year, that wore on me until I got with Marcellus, and I was able to change that. That’s where that mental aspect of all that changed. All of a sudden, I started to feel great going into every day, and my body didn’t hurt every day.”

Mitchell has gone so far as to impart his newfound knowledge on young quarterbacks around the CFL — his teammate Taylor Powell, Davis Alexander and Dru Brown, he named specifically. He took it upon himself to talk to Alexander and Brown during pre-game warmups when the Tiger-Cats were playing against them.

“I told Davis, ‘You post your videos deadlifting 495 pounds, I couldn’t do that if my body asked me to right now.’ I told him, ‘Be careful, it works for a long time, but you gotta always take care of your body the right way and listen to your body,’” Mitchell said.

“Same thing with Dru Brown, I was talking to him privately. I had to learn to stop throwing so much in the offseason. I tell Taylor that all the time, he posts videos of cool, crazy, off-angle throws, and I was like, ‘You can’t do that anymore in the offseason.’ As an athlete, you learn to change, deal with things differently, train to get you back here in the best way possible.”

The six-foot-one, 210-pound QB once had a goal to try and catch Anthony Calvillo for the CFL’s all-time career passing yards record. Mitchell has 44,319 passing yards in his career, which ranks eighth all-time, and his rejuvenated mind and body could allow him to keep adding to his total.

“Taking off the pads last night, for some reason, didn’t feel like the last time I was going to ever take the pads off — that doesn’t mean that I’m not, that doesn’t mean that I am, I have to talk to my wife and have those discussions,” Mitchell said reflecting on his feelings after Hamilton’s 19-16 East Final loss.

“I love the grind, I love the film, I love the studying, I love the hours — everything. When I took the pads off and the cleats off last night, it didn’t feel like the last time, but those are discussions I have to have. As a player, I’ve always dreamed of going out on top. So to be so close to it and fall short, it’s tough.”

Mitchell noted there were no contract extension discussions with the Ticats during the 2025 CFL season, but it seems as though if he’s going to play football in the new year, that most likely happens in Hamilton.