A football journeyman is finding himself at the centre of a new reality dating show out of the U.S.

Premiering this Thursday on We TV, former Saskatchewan Roughrider Stevie Baggs, best known for his aggressive pass rush, is suiting up to impress 18 lucky ladies in Match Made in Heaven.

Baggs, 34, has been on the move over the past decade playing for 10 different teams including five CFL teams and five teams in the NFL. But these days, he's not looking for a new team, he's looking for love.

"Now I finally have some sustainability. Things are going well in Atlanta and when the opportunity came I said 'Hey, what the heck. I'm single right now, [let's] give it a shot,'" Baggs told CBC Radio's Afternoon Edition.

Undercover mother

A special twist on the show has to do with Baggs' mother. While she plays the role of her son's advisor on the show, she also does some undercover work, to make sure the women vying for her son's heart are for real.

"My mom was undercover as a production assistant and so she's cleaning up and doing stuff behind the scenes and these women, they had no idea that my mom was my mom," Baggs said.

Stevie Baggs played with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2008. Over his career he's played with five CFL teams and five NFL teams. But by far the hardest part for the former linebacker was picking and choosing which women stayed and which ones got the boot.

"You know, you're not talking just anyone here, you're talking about women who have children, women who are professionals, these are extremely successful women," he said.

"It was very difficult, because when you connect with a woman who has a lot of the qualities that you'd like to built something with, but you don't have the amount of time to built it, then you have to make a sudden decision. I think my background in football helped me with that."

Baggs said one of his friends was a producer on the show, and after the showrunners pitched an ex-football player for the show, the rest is history.