Rene Paredes has spent 15 seasons turning Calgary’s nervous silence into a familiar celebration: snap, hold, kick, points.
At the end of this season, the Stampeders’ surest foot is finally stepping away.
Paredes announced Tuesday that he will retire when Calgary’s 2026 campaign ends, closing one of the most consistent careers in Canadian Football League history. The 41-year-old has two regular-season games remaining, with his final scheduled appearance at McMahon Stadium coming Oct. 17 against the BC Lions.
“This wasn’t easy, but I’ve made the decision that this season will be my last,” Paredes said in the team’s release. “Playing for the city of Calgary has been such an honour, and I cannot wait to finish the year strong.”
Strong would be one way to describe it. Ridiculous might also fit.
Only a few weeks before announcing his retirement, Paredes drilled a career-long 62-yard field goal with two seconds remaining to lift Calgary past Ottawa 40-38 at McMahon. It was the 13th walk-off field goal of his career, because apparently a farewell tour still needed one more moment of absurd accuracy.
There is symmetry in the distance. Paredes introduced himself to the CFL by making a 50-yarder on his first attempt in 2011. Fifteen years later, with retirement approaching, he stretched his personal best another 12 yards.
Between those kicks sits a career built almost entirely in red and white.
Calgary signed the undrafted Concordia product as a free agent in 2011. He never left. Paredes is the longest-serving active Stampeder and ranks second in franchise history in seasons, games, points, field goals and converts. Only another legendary Calgary kicker, Mark McLoughlin, remains ahead of him in several of those categories.
With two games remaining, Paredes has made 649 of 740 field-goal attempts, an 87.7-per-cent success rate. He has converted 547 of 578 extra-point attempts and added 59 singles for 2,535 career points.
Those totals explain his longevity. His biggest kicks explain the trust.
Paredes has appeared in 15 West semifinals or finals, making 33 of 39 field goals. In five Grey Cup appearances, he is a perfect 11-for-11 on field goals and has converted nine of 10 extra points. He helped Calgary win championships in 2014 and 2018.
Pressure never seemed to change the operation. The crowd became louder, the weather became nastier and the consequence grew larger. Paredes took his steps, watched the snap and swung through.
His finest statistical season came in 2013. Paredes made 39 consecutive field goals, setting a CFL record, and connected on 54 of 57 attempts for a then-record 94.7-per-cent rate. He scored 213 points and was named the league’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player.
That season was not an isolated spike. Paredes became the first CFL player to record four seasons at 90 per cent or better, then kept going. He now has seven such campaigns and is on pace to add an eighth before retiring.
His durability was just as remarkable. Paredes played 247 consecutive games from his 2011 debut before an injury kept him out of Calgary’s 2026 opener. For a specialist whose job can turn unforgiving after one miss, he provided the Stampeders with nearly a decade and a half of uncommon certainty.
Born in Venezuela, raised in Montreal and educated for a time in Miami, Paredes returned to Canada to kick at Concordia. His path to Calgary did not include a draft-day spotlight. It ended with six all-CFL selections, six all-West honours, eight team nominations for top special-teams player and 12 seasons as a captain selected by teammates.
Off the field, he also trained as a Calgary firefighter, adding another uniform to a life built around service and preparation. That chapter made the veteran kicker a rookie again, but the habits travelled easily: show up early, trust the people beside you and stay calm when pressure arrives.
That last number says as much as the kicking statistics. Specialists can live on the edge of a football roster, but Paredes became part of the club’s spine. Coaches changed, quarterbacks changed and championship rosters aged out. Number 30 kept arriving, kept preparing and usually kept splitting the uprights.
There are still kicks left. Calgary remains in a playoff race, and Paredes has never missed a post-season in which the Stampeders qualified during his career. A final run would offer the obvious ending, especially with the Grey Cup being played in Calgary this November.
Football rarely follows a tidy script, though. Paredes knows that better than most. Kickers live with strange bounces, sudden gusts and games reduced to one swing of the leg.
Whatever comes next, McMahon Stadium gets one more regular-season chance to salute him Oct. 17.
For 15 years, Calgary asked Paredes to finish drives.
Now he gets to finish one of the finest careers the franchise has seen.
