Another mysterious disappearance of a Ticat player. Defensive back Carthell Flowers-Lloyd had a great rookie season in 2023 for the 'Cats and was a special teams tackling demon and rookie of the year candidate. The last we heard of him he was issued a league suspension by the CFL, with no explanation on why he was suspended on Oct.23/24. Is he still suspended by the league? Facing a lifetime ban? Just wondering what happened to the guy.
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Spontaneous combustion ? Abducted by aliens ? Entered into the witness protection program ? Pissed in the wrong guys cornflakes ? No one really knows and it seems like nobody is talking ?
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The “abducted by aliens” theory sounds like the most plausible.
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There’s, certainly, a story there, which nobody has talked about openly enough for fans, it seems, to have any idea what it was. Sad, and strange, not only because he was a standout player but, also, because he came across, in interviews, as a very likeable young man.
I believe all CFL player suspensions are, officially, called 'League Suspensions," even in the more common situations where players are suspended by their team, rather than by the league. I say that noting “League Suspension” is the transactions listing even for players who don’t arrive at training camp at their scheduled time, when it could be through no fault of their own.
We don’t know if Flowers-Lloyd was suspended by the Tiger-Cats, or by the CFL. As for where he stands, today, I’d think with his keen interest in trying to get to the NFL, he’d have been a TiCat on a 1-year + option contract, signed in May '23, which would have expired in February, this year.
If there’s one person to ask it would probably be Steve Milton
He might be able to give us our best guess.
Milty is always had a Keen Eye
If any of you go to camp give him a shout he might be able to let you know something
I probably won’t make it to camp this year too many other priorities. I’m hoping it’s a productive Camp though
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I know in interviews with him early last season ( Eat em Raw pdcast maybe?) he said he expected to have a bigger role on the defense in 2024 and that never happened.
He’s in the Witness Protection Program with Seth Small.
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I believe he put a late/questionable hit on Shiltz in the last home game vs Calgary. Never saw him after that but that was likely the reason for the suspension. He seemed ideal for the SAM linebacker job but didnt get that coming out of camp last year. Great special teams player, you’d think someone else would have picked him up this year.
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Last year I remember them trying him at linebacker in preseason and a little during the season but he didn’t do well, I think he got torched a few times in the argo preseason game in guelph. He also didnt stand out as much on special teams.
But that’s the thing. He hasn’t been released which happens to players that the team has moved on from. He’s still suspended and hasn’t been been moved from that list when he was put on it in October of last year.
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If Flowers-Lloyd did something that caused the league, rather than the team, to suspend him, he still would become a free agent when his contract expires, which I believe it, likely, did this past February. If that’s the case, and he was now offered a contract by any CFL team, I expect it would be accepted, by the league, unless whatever caused his suspension, last year, was something so bad that it would ban him from CFL play for a certain number of seasons or life.
Minutes after posting the above, I found transactions list proof that the TiCats did release Flowers-Lloyd, as they did all other players whose contracts expired, on free agent day, February 11th:
“2025-02-11 HAM FLOWERS-LLOYD, Carthell DB A Stony Brook DEL No Entry”
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Thanks for the update ottawacat. I missed the released transaction in February. The mystery has been solved. CFL was released.
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I wonder why he was released?
Wasn’t he sIMONI BACKUP
Well with Simoni retiring I guess they figured he no longer needed a backup .
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Completely different positions too. Simoni was WILL, and CF-L was DB/SAM.
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He doesn’t seem like that type of guy. His Instagram page shows that he has a nice-looking young family. Including a new baby in January.
Just speculation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s found a better, more stable career to support his family. Maybe he’s just moved on from football.
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Could be that it’s not worth coming up here for league minimum, especially with a new baby at home. But he always seemed like a guy who had a real love of the game. He posted something back in February to the effect of “Let’s get this show on the road”. Would have likely been at the start of free agency. Maybe he’ll turn up in the UFL next year if no CFL team comes calling.
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Looks like he has been training youth athletes in the hammer since January
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Looking back at Carthell’s '24 season, he was on the injured list for the team’s first 4 games, played Game 5, in early July vs. BC, then back on the injured list for 6 more straight games before suiting up, again, on Labour Day. He then played the following 2 games, before being suspended on Sept. 23rd.
If his suspension was over nothing more than, in some fashion, just quitting, I’d think his most likely reasons for making that decision to give up receiving his paycheque, when he did, would be injury frustration, disappointment in not playing more than on special teams, and / or family.
It remains strange, to me, that as far I know, nothing about his suspension was, or has since been, said publicly by the player or the team.
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My research shows he missed the first 4 , then played 11 of the next 12 and then was suspended on October 23rd at the very end of the season. I could be miss-reading the game logs though.
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