Trevor Harris doesn’t want to endure a Dad’s Night Out of the lineup.
“If it’s up to me, I’m going to play,” said the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ No. 1 quarterback, who is listed as a game-time decision for Friday’s home opener against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
“I feel like I’m good enough right now today, but I guess we’ll see what it’s like tomorrow and make sure that they’re good to go and make sure they’re good with how it looks and we’ll go tee it up and play the Blue Bombers.”
Harris, who is nursing a hip injury, used “they’re” in reference to the CFL team’s training/medical staff and Head Coach Craig Dickenson.
“We’re hopeful that he feels better in the morning and is able to play, but we felt it was the best way to designate him as a game-time decision, because it truly will be (a matter of) how he feels tomorrow,” Dickenson said on Thursday. “Does he feel like he can play effectively and move enough to protect himself?”
Ultimately, whose decision is it?
“The Club’s,” Dickenson responded, “but he’s going to be heavily involved, because he knows his body better than we do.
“The training staff will have some input on it. He’s going to have a lot, and then I’ll have the final say.”
The final play created all the uncertainty.
Harris was hurt on the Roughriders’ last play from scrimmage in Sunday’s season-opening, 17-13 victory over the Edmonton Elks at Commonwealth Stadium.
“Sunday night was pretty awful,” he recounted. “I could barely sleep. Monday night, it was the same thing.
“I came in here Tuesday and didn’t feel great, but as I moved around, it started feeling a lot better. Then I went out on the field and threw a little bit and it didn’t feel good, so we kind of backed off. We’re just trying to be smart.
“Yesterday, they were just like, ‘You’re doing nothing. We’re just going to get you on the treatment table for a long time,’ so I got a lot of treatment yesterday.
“Throughout this week, I’ve been treating it on the ARP (therapy) machine that I have at home, so it has been really, really helpful.
“It’s just about really turning the corner to the point where you actually start to feel like, ‘OK, I can do everything.’ Once that happens, and if that’s tomorrow, we’ll be able to give it a go.”
Otherwise, Mason Fine will be bumped up to the role of starting quarterback. Shea Patterson will continue to dress as the Roughriders’ short-yardage quarterback.
“(Fine) understands that you strike when the iron’s hot in terms of taking your shots when they’re given to you,’ Harris said. “You don’t force shots.
“I think a lot of times, you get yourself in trouble against a team like Winnipeg with a great defence, and really in this league in general, when you try to take shots when they’re not there. I think he understands when to do that.”
The when will be on Friday if Harris is unable to play in the Roughriders’ home opener, which has a Dad’s Night Out theme to coincide with Father’s Day weekend.
Harris got a sneak preview when his family arrived from Ohio earlier this week.
As challenging as the past few days have been physically, Harris has derived considerable comfort from the presence of his wife, Kalie, and three sons (Trenton, younger brother Trace, and newborn Tripp).
“They got here Monday,” Harris said. “I was in quite a bit of pain and my six-year-old and my three-year-old were asking me to do the Hulk smash, where I kind of pick them up and throw them on the bed. I was like, ‘Hey, Daddy can’t do that right now.’
“But they don’t know any better. They think you’re 10 feet tall and bulletproof. They’re kids and you’re just Dad to them. It’s a really refreshing thing to go home and just be Dad.
“Having my wife here, and Tripp, has really been special. It has been a nice week to go home. The house actually doesn’t smell just like a guy lives there. It smells good.
“She makes the house a home and there’s dinner right when I’m home and she’s got three kids there. She’s amazing and it’s really nice to have them here.”
Especially in time for his first Father’s Day as a dad of three.
“Father’s Day is a day that I get to celebrate with my kids and think about how amazing a gift it is to be a father and also to recognize my own — one of the best to ever do it, Tom Harris,” a proud son said.
“I’m just thankful that Father’s Day is a good day to recognize the dads out there who have spent time raising their kids.
“It’s great to have a dad.”
And to be one.
“It’s kind of funny,” Harris continued. “Sometimes I look at my kids and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh. I have kids?!’ I still feel like a kid.
“For new dads, just make sure that you understand that life is more about your kids now than about yourself.
“That was the biggest thing for me, having a kid. I always tell people, ‘You’re not ready to have a kid unless you’re ready to put somebody else’s needs before your own.’
“When the baby’s hungry in the middle of the night, he’s going to start crying, he’s not going to think, ‘Oh, Dad needs sleep.’ They’re going to cry. So just make sure that you’re ready to surrender some of the things that you want to do.”
In a football context, that might be playing time.
As much as the ultra-competitive Harris wants to play on Friday night, he understands that there is a process to follow.
“I’ve got a list of four questions that I’m going to ask myself (during the day),” he said. “As long as the answers to those are right and they tell me I look all right, we’re going to give it a go.
“But you never know until you wake up tomorrow and see how it feels.”
What are those four questions?
“The main one is to make sure that I can protect myself,” Harris said. “The next one is to make sure that I’m not putting the team in a compromised position.
“Those are the main two. The others are more about certain sorts of feelings and mobility and whatever it is. We’ll go from there after we answer those questions.”
