Trevor Harris can’t help but wonder “what if …?”
The Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback, who suffered a serious knee injury on July 15, said Sunday that he would have been able to return to the practice field leading up to the CFL playoffs.
However, the Roughriders were eliminated from post-season contention on Saturday, when the Toronto Argonauts won 29-26 at Mosaic Stadium.
“I didn’t sleep very well last night,” Harris said during the Roughriders’ locker-room cleanout. “I laid there, just kind of a little bit in tears, because I worked so hard to try and get back. That way, I could make myself available.
“I don’t know if I would have been able to play in the West semi-final, but the doctor told me, ‘I think we’d be having an awkward conversation about you playing in the West final,’ which would be really miraculous.
“They told me initially it would be six to eight months before I’d be ready to play, so we were on a nice pace. At the same time, you don’t control the outcomes in life. You always just control how you respond.
“My response was to just work hard every day and be there as a resource for the guys. Unfortunately, the outcome that we wanted didn’t work out, so it’s all about the next response.
“And so we respond with greatness this off-season, just working and getting ready for next year.”
The Roughriders won three out of their first four games with Harris as the starter. In the fourth quarter of the fifth game, he suffered a tibial plateau fracture of his right knee during the fourth quarter against the visiting Calgary Stampeders.
Always a superbly conditioned athlete, Harris immersed himself in rehabilitation, which will continue during the off-season. He has one year remaining on his contract with the Roughriders, who signed him as a free agent on Feb. 15.
“I tell people not to tell people their plans, because I think God laughs a lot of times when you tell them that,” Harris said, “but my last play can’t be me getting carted off the field.”
At the same time, the 37-year-old veteran of 11 CFL seasons understands the realities of the business.
“They’re all one-year deals,” he said. “If they just say, ‘We don’t want you,’ they can cut you with no repercussions.”
That said, Harris would love another opportunity to quarterback the Roughriders, especially because his first season in green and white was cut short so suddenly.
“Physically, before the injury, I felt as good as I have in the past six, seven years,” he said. “I think I was running around and moving around better than I have in a lot of years past.
“I did a lot of stuff last off-season to kind of work on the arm strength and, unfortunately, as I was finding my footing in this offence four or five games in, (the injury) happened.
“I think I’ve got plenty of years left as a Tier 1 quarterback, in my own opinion but, again, you just never know what the future holds.”
Assessing the 2023 Roughriders, Harris sees the makings of an upper-tier team.
“Look around this room,” he said. “We have good football players in this locker room. We don’t have a bad roster. We have a top-three, top-four roster in this league.
“We have talent. The guys are in here. It’s just about us making the recipe complete. It’s just one of those things.
“I think they’ve done a good job of putting the right guys in this room. I guess we’ll kind of see what happens from there. Those are things that are above my pay grade.”
