The former Huskers kicker is now with the Ottawa Redblacks

Strictly because of the origin of his birth certificate, a certain number of odds were already stacking up against Brett Maher when he arrived in Winnipeg in the summer of 2014.

Maher, with his playing days at Nebraska done and a couple of NFL looks not panning out, came north of the border in search of starting a professional football career in the Canadian Football League.

The CFL’s import ratio rules force teams to be strategic where they dress their Americans. On a game-day roster of 44, no more than 20 players can be of “international” designation. It’s not true in every case, but skill-position roster spots are largely populated by Americans while teams generally like to use roster…