Harris: I’m looking forward to trying to rip that down Former Bombers’ star relishes chance to take on Big Blue By: Jeff Hamilton Posted: 7:00 PM CST Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2022

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REGINA — Andrew Harris is no longer with the Blue Bombers but is incredibly proud of what he helped build during his years in Winnipeg and remains in awe of what they continue to achieve without him.

Now a member of the Toronto Argonauts following a messy and public breakup with the Bombers in February, Harris will line up against his former team on the CFL’s biggest stage in the 109th Grey Cup Sunday.

While it’s an opportunity to build on his own legacy — a resume that includes three Grey Cups, five all-star nods and three league rushing titles — Harris also sees it as a chance to stop the Bombers in their tracks.

“It’s very impressive that they’ve continued to do what they’ve done and they seem to just keep getting stronger,” Harris said Wednesday, following the Argos practice at Mosaic Stadium. It was the East Division representatives’ first official workout ahead of Sunday’s championship game.

“It’s amazing. But on the flipside I’m looking forward to trying to rip that down.”

Harris smiled as he spoke, but it’s clear he still holds some animosity toward the Bombers, even though he claims to have moved on. The 35-year-old running back didn’t hold back his disappointment immediately after his departure from the team with which he spent five terrific seasons, claiming he had hoped to be back in Winnipeg in 2022 for a chance at earning a rare three-peat.

The frustration was justified; after all, Harris played a pivotal role in the Bombers’s back-to-back titles in 2019 and 2021. Winnipeg had other plans, though, opting instead to re-sign running backs Brady Oliveira and Johnny Augustine.

The writing was on the wall for Harris, who also claimed he made several attempts to contact general manager Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O’Shea, only for them to go mostly unanswered. He then signed a one-year, $165,000 deal with the Argos, making him the top-salaried running back in the CFL.

“It was definitely a roller-coaster of emotions. I was able to come out here and form some new relationships and networks and come together with a band of brothers and get to the same stage that I would have been if I would have stayed with Winnipeg,” Harris said. “I’d be lying to you if once I signed with the Argos that I didn’t have this date, the Grey Cup, circled in my mind.”

The Bombers have remained mostly quiet about the Harris situation. Walters and O’Shea have each called it an ugly and unfortunate part of the business in professional sports, and still have a great amount of respect for Harris as a person and player.

There was more to the story, including a loss of trust by O’Shea after Harris seemed to coast through 2020 when the CFL shut down for the season owing to COVID-19, only to return out of shape for training camp the following year.

Harris was injured early into training camp and then again later in the season, limiting him to seven games in 2021.

“We’ve already covered that,” O’Shea said Wednesday when asked to relive what happened with Harris. “This is pro football and decisions are made and transitions happen, and teams are different every single year. That doesn’t mean that as a head coach you stop caring about the person that you’ve been around for a long time.

“Andrew was a great leader on our team, besides being a great player and one of the best all-time in the history of the CFL.”

Many of Harris’ former Bomber teammates were disappointed by the move, left fuming he wasn’t offered another contract. Now, there are just as many in Toronto that are thrilled with how things played out. Perhaps no one more than Argos quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson, who said Harris has not only inspired him to be better but has helped take the entire team to a new level.

Bethel-Thompson watched as Harris chewed up yardage through the first eight games of the season, showing off his vintage violent approach to carrying the ball, bowling over would-be tacklers with an energy unlike any in the CFL. But he was even more impressed with how Harris worked his way back from a torn pectoral muscle he suffered in August, an unfortunate event that had the CFL’s active leading rusher fighting bouts of depression, requiring surgery, and putting his season and career in serious doubt.

Harris returned for the East Final against the Montreal Alouettes, chipping in with a team-high nine carries for 42 yards and a touchdown. He also had one catch for 30 yards, as the Argos rallied late in the third quarter to carve out a 34-27 victory.

“We know what this means to him. You don’t go through that type of strenuous, day-in-day-out rehab, with not a lot of hope. You don’t approach it so vigorously if he didn’t want to come back so badly and it didn’t mean so much to him,” said Bethel-Thompson. “As a player, you got to be a little bit disrespected by (what transpired with Winnipeg). He epitomizes everything that it is to be a champion, and it would be great to put him back on that podium.”

Harris faces another crossroads Sunday. At 35 , he knows he only has so many miles left on him, and the prospect of retirement looms large at the end of every season he plays.

Just days before the big game, that decision can wait. Much like last season, Sunday’s result could factor in on what his future holds. It’s another chance at redemption, an opportunity to prove his critics wrong — a mindset that has defined his brilliant 12-year CFL career.

“I’ve done a lot and capping this off, there’s really not much more else I could do,” Harris said. “There’s a little bit of riding off into the sunset that goes along with that, too.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

After a slew of injuries playing hockey that included breaks to the wrist, arm, and collar bone; a tear of the medial collateral ligament in both knees; as well as a collapsed lung, Jeff figured it was a good idea to take his interest in sports off the ice and in to the classroom.

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