Naaman Roosevelt is ready for a new experience

Naaman Roosevelt is headed into the great unknown.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ slotback is to appear in a playoff game Sunday for the first time in a professional football career that comprises three seasons in the CFL and five in the NFL.

“After winning a championship in high school and winning a championship in college, I definitely want to win a championship here,” said Roosevelt, a product of the University of Buffalo who missed the CFL playoffs in each of his first two seasons with Saskatchewan. “I’m ready to go.

“I know everybody is going to be watching. I know that when I’m back home, I watch the playoff games. I know every player in the league is going to be watching, so that’s exciting.”

Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones confirmed Thursday that Roosevelt will play Sunday, when Saskatchewan faces the host Ottawa Redblacks in the East Division semifinal (noon, CKRM, TSN).

The veteran slotback didn’t play in four of the Roughriders’ final six regular-season games after suffering two concussions in a little less than three weeks.

Roosevelt sustained the first concussion Sept. 24 in a game against the Calgary Stampeders. After sitting out Saskatchewan’s game Sept. 29 in Ottawa, he got a clean bill of health and played in games Oct. 7 against the host Toronto Argonauts and Oct. 13 versus the visiting Redblacks.

But he suffered his second concussion in that latter game and spent the final three weeks of the regular season on the shelf.

“It’s definitely frustrating,” Roosevelt said of returning to the lineup and then getting hurt a second time. “It’s like, ‘What do I have to do to not get hurt?’ But some stuff you just can’t avoid …

“I could have come back a week or two later (after the first concussion) and something still could have happened. It wasn’t too early. Now I just have to make sure I’m careful. I’ve got a new helmet just to be a little safer, so I feel like I’m ready to go now.”

Roosevelt said his old helmet was “an old-school one.” Now he has gone to a larger helmet that provides more padding and — he hopes — more protection.

“I’m still going to play the way I played, trying to make every catch and going across the middle to make plays,” Roosevelt said. “It’s just making sure I keep my head up, don’t try to run somebody over and do too much.”

Roosevelt’s return to the lineup gives the Roughriders a good problem: They have too many starting receivers.

Chad Owens played in Roosevelt’s spot for three games and provided a spark for the Saskatchewan offence. With Roosevelt back, the Roughriders will have to sit an American receiver — and that could be one of Owens, Bakari Grant or Caleb Holley.

“We’ve got to put our healthiest guys out there, guys who are veterans (and) who have experience,” Jones said. “That’s what we’re hunting.”

The potential mixing and matching doesn’t concern quarterback Kevin Glenn.

“Any combination that (the coaches) put together will be nice for me, for the quarterbacks and for the team,” Glenn said Wednesday. “They’re going to do a good job of putting the best possible squad that we can on the field, given the situation of Canadians, Americans, who’s hurt, who’s not, special teams — all that kind of stuff plays into it.”

The Roughriders face a dilemma at tailback as well.

Internationals Shakir Bell, Cameron Marshall, Trent Richardson and Marcus Thigpen all took snaps at that position during Wednesday’s open practice, as did nationals Kienan LaFrance and Greg Morris.

After Thursday’s closed practice, Jones suggested the medical report will help determine the Roughriders’ choice. That may not be good news for Marshall (knee) and Richardson (ankle), both of whom missed games down the stretch.

“We’ve got a lot of guys who want to play, No. 1, and unfortunately a couple of them have nicks and bruises and are not quite 100 per cent,” Jones said. “When we have one American tailback spot, we’ll go with the healthiest body.”

One tough decision already has been made.

Jones said guard Brendon LaBatte, who injured his left leg in Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Edmonton Eskimos, won’t play Sunday despite working out with the Roughriders on Thursday. Derek Dennis, who missed Saskatchewan’s final three regular-season games with a back injury, will replace LaBatte against the Redblacks.

Like Dennis, Roosevelt had to watch the Roughriders from the sideline in the closing weeks of the regular season — and that didn’t sit well with him.

“It was hard seeing my team out there working hard,” Roosevelt said. “They were doing their thing, though, so I was supporting them while doing my best to get back.

“I was working hard with the trainers, running, doing routes and doing what I needed to do to get back on the field. They did a good job of making sure I was ready.”

And, as a result, he’ll get to play in the first post-season game of his CFL career.

“This is the first time I haven’t booked a flight home (by this time of the year),” Roosevelt said with a grin. “I don’t know when I’m going home — and it’s great not knowing. We’re going day by day and week by week now, so I’m excited.”