Trevor Harris went longer between starts than my rebellious 1973 Mercury Montego.
At age 28 — by which time he had been under contract to six different teams in four leagues over five seasons — Harris finally quarterbacked a professional football team from the outset of a game.
That was on Nov. 7, 2014, near the end of his third CFL season with the Toronto Argonauts.
And here he is now, as the marquee member of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, having just started his 100th game of Canadian professional football.
As preoccupied as he always is with the here and now, Harris nonetheless took some time to appreciate the milestone and the preceding journey.
He knows, only too well, that it wasn’t always this way.
Harris, now 37, once went 1,812 days between starts.
After starring for the Edinboro University Fighting Scots, Harris became a football nomad while experiencing an inordinate amount of bad luck, coupled with unavoidably unfortunate timing.
At one point, he flirted with the idea of packing it in as a player and fuelling his passion for the game by going into coaching.
But he persevered and now, all these years later, is especially appreciative of the 100 starts because he knows how elusive the first one proved to be.
“In 2010, I got cut from a team in the NFL,” Harris says of his time with the Jacksonville Jaguars. “I bounced around the United Football League and the Arena Football League.
“I actually took a coaching job and God wouldn’t let me sleep. Forty-eight hours later, I had to call the coach and say, ‘I can’t do it. I need to keep playing football.’ ”
Or start playing football, in a sense, because he was cast in a backup’s role for a seemingly interminable period.
After signing with the Argonauts in 2012 — the same year in which a rookie pivot named Zach Collaros also suited up for Toronto — Harris served in a support capacity for nearly three full seasons before being elevated to front-line duty.
In the 2014 regular-season finale, he threw two touchdown passes to help Toronto defeat the Ottawa REDBLACKS 23-5.
Until that Friday evening at the Rogers Centre, Harris had not started a game since Nov. 21, 2009.
And what a game that was!
In an NCAA Division II playoff classic, he threw for 630 yards and five touchdowns and ran for two other scores — albeit in an 84-63 loss to the West Liberty Hilltoppers.
Had he been inclined to rest on his laurels or the least bit boastful, he could have said, “In my last start, I threw for 600-plus yards,” but he is not of that fibre.
He is the antithesis of a self-absorbed “me” guy — preferring instead to be consummately team-oriented — but the protracted wait for an opportunity nonetheless exacted a toll.
“It was five, six years and, a lot of times, you’re going through the washing machine of pro football,” Harris reflects.
“I was like, ‘This isn’t for me. I need to put my feet on solid ground and stabilize myself if I ever want to have a family and raise kids and whatnot.’
“It was just one of those situations where I finally did get an opportunity, and praise God for that.”
But, oh, was his patience tested before that opportunity materialized.
“I’ve been on a team that folded in the middle of training camp,” Harris says. “I’ve been a part of a league that folded during the season. I’ve been part of what they thought was a players’ strike, so they cut the entire team on our way to the first game and played with replacement players.
“I’ve been a part of the NFL lockout. I was going to sign with the Buffalo Bills, but then they couldn’t sign me because of certain rules with the lockout.
“I’ve been through quite a bit of stuff — and, shoot, a couple of strikes or player lockouts or whatever it was up here — so I’ve been through it all.”
Now he gets to savour the other end of the spectrum.
The “S” on his Roughriders helmet could stand for Stability, considering that he is entrenched as his team’s No. 1 quarterback after so many years of upheaval.
Once uncertain about what the future might hold regarding a family, he is now the proudest husband (to Kalie) and father (to sons T.J., Trace and Tripp).
One trip stands out when Harris reminisces about his early days as a starter.
An injury to future Hall of Famer Ricky Ray cleared the way for Harris to open the 2015 season as the Argonauts’ primary pivot.
He responded by completing 24 of 27 passes for 347 yards and three TDs as Toronto downed Edmonton 26-11 on June 27, 2015 in Fort McMurray, Alta. At halftime, he was 14-for-14 for 189 yards.
Harris followed up eight days later with another eye-popping performance — in his future home base of Regina.
At historic Mosaic Stadium, he completed 30 of 38 passes for 267 yards and four scores as Toronto outlasted Saskatchewan 42-40 in double overtime.
“That was a fun one,” Harris says with a smile. “Playing on the road in Saskatchewan, you know the fans and crowd are going crazy. I think that’s when you realize that there won’t be a moment that’s too big for you. If you can come here and play on the road and perform, you know that the lights will never be too bright.”
Neither will some of the sports writers — guilty as charged — but Harris endured them, too.
“My idea when I got into the CFL was, ‘I’m just going to play well enough to hang around long enough and they’ll have to give me an opportunity at some point,’ ” he says.
“So every day was (spent) trying to build myself into the person who was good enough to hang around long enough. And finally, it was, ‘Well, I guess we’ve got to play this Harris kid …’
“Once you get the opportunity, you try and kick the door down and go play well.”
Mission accomplished.
Entering Saturday’s home date with the Calgary Stampeders, Harris is only 231 yards shy of becoming the 19th CFL quarterback to throw for 30,000 in a career.
Twelve of the 18 quarterbacks above him are in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. Two others — Bo Levi Mitchell and Michael Reilly — should be mortal locks for enshrinement.
Of the top 60 passing-yardage producers in CFL history, only Harris has fashioned a career completion percentage exceeding 70.
Harris leads the way at 70.6 per cent, followed by Ray (68.2), Dave Dickenson (67.5) and Collaros (67.0).
It is an interesting sidebar when you consider that three of those precise passers — Harris, Collaros and Ray — all played their first game as an Argonaut in 2012.
It was Collaros, now of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who texted Harris last week to offer congratulations on (and ultimately inform him of) his 100th CFL start.
“I did not know that,” Harris says. “I was like, ‘Man, I’ve started 100 games up here.’
“I’m thankful for each and every one that I get to start and, God willing, I’ll get to start 100 more.”
