Armour backed out of his verbal agreement with the Alouettes and opted to sign with the Calgary Stampeders on Monday.

Contract details were not immediately available.

Armour spent last season with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and became a free agent at 12:01 ET on Saturday. Edmonton, Montreal and Calgary were all interested in the six-foot, 225-pound linebacker, who had registered 84 tackles in 2007 with Hamilton.

"We believe JoJuan Armour will add a physical presence to our defence," said Stampeders coach/GM John Hufnagel. "He plays with great instincts and you can usually find him around the ball."

The Ticats opted to let Armour go to free agency because they're planning on starting a Canadian - likely either Ray Mariuz or newly acquired Jason Botterill - in his spot.

On Saturday, Armour had reached an agreement with Montreal on the two-year deal. Two days later, though, Armour had done an about face and signed on with the Stampeders.

The acquisition of Armour is a solid one for Calgary. He's an every-down linebacker who finished fourth in the CFL in tackles last year, yet is quick enough to stay in the lineup on passing downs. He began his CFL career with the B.C. Lions in 2004 and spent two seasons there before being dealt to the Ticats.

Before coming to the CFL, Armour spent time in the NFL with the Oakland Raiders ('99), Jacksonville Jaguars ('99) and Cincinnati Bengals ('99-'03). He played his college football with the Miami University (Ohio) Red Hawks, where he was twice a Mid America Conference defensive player of the year. The Red Hawks were 32-11-1 during his tenure there.

Armour is the second defensive player the Stampeders have signed in as many days. Calgary signed defensive back Richard Karikari shortly after he was released by Hamilton. The move re-united Karikari with Calgary defensive co-ordinator Chris Jones, who was Karikari's coach when the two were in Montreal.

Also on Monday, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers re-signed guard Matt Sheridan as general manager Brendan Taman was successfully able to land all three of his biggest free agents. Tackle Dan Goodspeed re-signed Friday while rush end Tom Canada returned to the East Division champions Saturday.

"Matt Sheridan has been a big part of this team for some time now and we are glad he will continue to be for the foreseeable future," said Taman. "He has demonstrated his football ability time and time again since joining our football club."

The six-foot-four, 356-pound Sheridan has spent his entire seven-year CFL career with Winnipeg. The Bombers selected the 30-year-old Montreal native in the sixth round (40th overall) in 2000 CFL Canadian college draft out of the University of Manitoba.

Sheridan was a starter last season on a Bombers offensive line that paved the way for Charles Roberts to rush for over 1,300 yards and register a league-low 27 sacks.

One player of note who still hasn't signed is Reggie Hunt, who helped the Saskatchewan Roughriders capture last year's Grey Cup. The prevailing talk is that Hunt will sign with an East Division team for more money than Saskatchewan can afford to give him.

A popular notion is that Hunt will end up with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. That's because the Bombers are expected to move linebacker Cam Hall back to safety - where he played in college - to replace the departed Kyries Hebert, who signed this off-season with the NFL's Cincinnati Bengals. That would leave the defending East Division champions with a vacancy in their linebacking corps.

However, that possibility would appear more remote now that the Bombers have committed six-figure contracts to Goodspeed, Canada and Sheridan. Taman said last week that if he was able to sign Goodspeed, Canada and Sheridan, he would likely have to re-tool his roster in order to fit all three under the $4.2-million salary cap. Adding another high-priced player like Hunt would only make Taman's job that much more difficult.