Harris: ‘I just wanted to be able to celebrate with my teammates’
Trevor Harris stood in the cramped space of the visitors locker room at Commonwealth Stadium, eyes a little reddened and just a little moist.
Around him, a quiet disappointment, with a little undercurrent of anger, was palpable. The REDBLACKS had just lost the 106th Grey Cup presented by Shaw, by a score of 27-16 to the Calgary Stampeders.
There was that vibe of disappointment and anger detectable in Harris, too, as he spoke softly, his jaw clenched. A bit of something seething just below the surface. He was taking this hard.
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“We didn’t earn it,” he said. Then he pointed the finger at himself. “I didn’t earn it.”
“It’s hard, man,” he said. “It’s really hard. I pour so much time into this and I love these guys. I just wanted to be able to celebrate with my teammates.”
For Harris, the disappointment of losing the Grey Cup game came with extra velocity of a fall from the high of a personal best game just a week ago, when he threw six touchdown passes in Ottawa’s romp over Hamilton in the Eastern Final.
Coming down after that kind of success and jubilation must have made the disappointment of the evening even more pronounced.
“This day just wasn’t that day,” Harris said.
In the Grey Cup game, Harris was collared with three interceptions, and only one touchdown pass to his credit, against a Calgary defence that kept the REDBLACKS’ offence from really getting into a groove, outside of a play here or there, really.
Two of Harris’ picks came late in the game, with the 32-year-old pivot having to force throws into coverage, the clock draining away on the team’s hopes. “Those kinds of things happen when you’re trying to play catch-up,” said Harris.
For the former back-up to legends like Ricky Ray and Henry Burris, a win in this Grey Cup game would have allowed him to escape those shadows completely, carving the beginnings of his own championship path.
This was, however, already a season in which he dispelled the notion that he couldn’t meet the moment in big games. The Eastern Final performance was one piece of evidence in his favour. Two other big October games against the rival Ticats were too. Harris has that bit of personal satisfaction to lean on during the off-season, but he wasn’t feeling it in the immediate aftermath of this particular loss.
Nope, no personal satisfaction over the bigger picture was bubbling to the surface, not for Harris and not for his teammates. Not now, anyway.
“There will be,” he said of the possibility of taking stock and feeling proud of the 2018 season. “There’ll be time for reflection on that.” The implication was clear: Talk to me another day about that.
“We’ll be able to look back on this in a few days, a few weeks, whenever it is, and be able to press forward,” said Harris, looking around the room at his teammates. “And hopefully we can keep the band together and come back here and finish this thing the way that we deserve to.”
Asked if he thought the REDBLACKS let the game get away with giving up too many big plays to the Stamps, Harris was philosophical.
“In any given game you can point to three plays, right, and make a huge swing,” he said, dismissing the notion that he’d be likely to talk about it in further detail.
What he did say, though, was something that reflects the bitter disappointment that pro athletes most always feel when they’ve journeyed long and hard to get to the point where they are oh so close to attaining the ultimate goal. The hard work has not been rewarded and that can take a harsh toll in the immediate aftermath of a big game loss.
“It’s not for a lack of preparation and not for a lack of heart,” said Harris proudly. “Not for a lack of determination.”
Then, he repeated: “We just didn’t get it done tonight and it sucks.”
In the deafening silence of the Ottawa locker room, Harris was speaking softly but it was evident that anyone anywhere near could hear his hushed tones, and he let his mates know that something positive was in evidence, even in the still-fresh sting of knowing that the opposition was sipping champagne in a room just down the hall.
“I couldn’t be more proud to play for this organization,” he said, with some stoicism. “To play with this group of guys.”
New chapters were written for Trevor Harris this season. The last one, though?
Not nearly the ending he was looking for.
