Antoine Pruneau is a former

Canadian football Canadian football, or simply football, is a Sports in Canada, sport in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete on a field long and wide, attempting to advance a Ball (gridiron football), pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposi ...

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

who played for eight seasons for the

Ottawa Redblacks The Ottawa Redblacks (officially stylized as REDBLACKS) (Canadian French, French: ) are a professional Canadian football team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The team plays in the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL ...

of the

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(CFL). Prior to being drafted into the CFL, he played Canadian Interuniversity Sport (CIS) football for the

Montreal Carabins The Montréal Carabins () are the men's and women's athletic teams that represent the Université de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Teams play at the CEPSUM Stadium and at Winter Stadium (Montreal), l'aréna du CEPSUM, located at the Uni ...

University career

In university, as a member of the

, Pruneau was known as a versatile player. He played defensive back before switching to

linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the line ...

for his final year, and also served on special teams. During the 2013 season, Pruneau scored two special teams touchdowns; one on a kickoff return and the other on the return of a missed field goal. Pruneau was named to the

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and 2013 second All-Canadian Teams by the CIS.

Professional career

The Ottawa Redblacks were impressed by Pruneau's speedand athleticism at the 2014

CFL Combine The CFL Combine (formerly known as the Evaluation Camp or E-Camp) is a three-day program in which athletes from Canadian universities and Canadians in the NCAA are scouted by general managers, coaches and scouts of the Canadian Football League ( ...

, and they selected Pruneau in the 1st round of the subsequent draft, 4th overall. In his rookie year, Pruneau saw much playing time on both defense and special teams. He was named the CFL's Canadian player of the month in October. He finished the 2014 season second on the Redblacks with 69 tackles while also contributing 11 special teams tackles and 2 quarterback sacks. Antoine Pruneau was nominated by the RedBlacks as their best rookie. Over the next two seasons Pruneau continued to be an important starter for the Redblacks defence (despite being briefly benched in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

due to poor performance). Following the 2016 season Pruneau and the Redblacks agreed on a contract extension, keeping him in Ottawa through the

2019 CFL season The 2019 CFL season was the 66th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it was the 62nd Canadian Football League season. The regular season began on June 13 and concluded with the playing of the 107th Grey Cup in Calgary on Novem ...

. He was named a CFL East All-Star in

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

after totaling 65 defensive tackles, eight special teams tackles, four interceptions and one quarterback sack. Pruneau played in 13 games for the Redblacks in

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

, contributing with 50 tackles. Immediately following the close of the 2018 season Pruneau agreed to a three-year contract extension. Pruneau suffered a foot injury in Week 13 of the

2019 season Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' Dici ...

- at the time of the injury he had played in eight games for Ottawa that season, contributing with 25 tackles, one interception and one forced fumble. Following the cancellation of the 2020 season Pruneau returned to the Redblacks for the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, in which he played in 11 games, finishing the season with 35 defensive tackles, five special teams tackles, and one interception. Pruneau and the Redblacks agreed to a one-year contract extension on February 21, 2022. He played in all 18 regular season games and recorded 18 defensive tackles and 13 special teams tackles in a back up role. On February 9, 2023, Pruneau announced his retirement He finished his career having played in 122 games with 374 defensive tackles, 74 tackles on special teams, 10 interceptions, four sacks, four forced fumbles, and one defensive touchdown.

References

External links

Ottawa Redblacks bio

CIS player pageRedblacks say goodbye to Hill, open door for Pruneau

Ottawa Citizen The ''Ottawa Citizen'' is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. History Established as the Bytown ''Packet'' in 1845 by William Harris (journalist), William Harris, it was renamed the ''Ci ...

, 5 Aug 2014
Pruneau ready for prime time with Redblacks
Ottawa Citizen, 29 May 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Pruneau, Antoine 1989 births Living people Canadian football defensive backs Montreal Carabins football players Ottawa Redblacks players Players of Canadian football from Quebec Canadian football people from Montreal