Roughriders’ championship season was a work of art

Trevor Harris talked about a painting after posing for pictures.

Inside the Legislative Building on Tuesday, the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ starting quarterback — the Most Valuable Player of Sunday’s Grey Cup Game — was presented with a gift.

“They presented a painting to me upstairs that was absolutely unbelievable,” Harris said. “Seeing that painting brought tears to my eyes.

“The painting was of me holding the Grey Cup with the confetti falling. Belinda (Kriek), who is from South Africa, painted it. I think she painted it from 9 p.m. last night to noon today.

“It’s going to take another day or two to dry.”

There weren’t many dry eyes in Rider Nation after the Roughriders defeated the Montreal Alouettes 25-17 at Winnipeg’s Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday.

Harris enjoyed a banner day, completing 23 of 27 passes for 302 yards and directing three touchdown drives. His completion percentage (85.2) was the best in Grey Cup history.

Before entering the Legislative Building on Tuesday, Harris was part of a large-scale public celebration that included his address to a crowd that revelled in a “one more year!” chant.

“I appreciate you guys so much for making this moment special,” said Harris, 39. “This is your moment as well.

“We’ve always had the best fans in the league and now we have the best danged team to match you guys. We thank you so much.

This is our fifth title, but something we’ve never done is go back-to-back, so let’s go ahead and start talking about that.”

Harris, a CFLer since 2012, signed a one-year contract on Dec. 6. He has yet to decide whether to return to the playing field in 2026.

“Anytime that you’ve got Corey Mace here and the leadership that we’ve got with J.O. (Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager Jeremy O’Day) and (Assistant GM) Kyle Carson and (Player Personnel Co-ordinator) Larry Dean, you’ve always got a chance (at repeating),” Harris said.

“We’ll kind of see. I’ll sit down with J.O. at some point, probably this week, and then I’ll talk to my wife and kind of just go from there.

“It’s not a physical deterioration thing. I’ve said for a long time that (retirement) won’t be for a physical reason, but we’ll kind of see how it goes.

“This sure is awesome. It has been really, really breathtaking to see what this means to the city.”

Breathtaking and, at times, hard to process.

“I still feel like I’m dreaming,” Harris marvelled. “There have been times when I’ve been like, ‘Wait … have I woken up yet?’ I kind of flick myself to make sure that I do have pain receptors and that this is not a dream.

“It’s truly remarkable, just seeing the billboards across the city.”