Despite earlier limp, Harris ready to run Friday

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This article was published 23/06/2016 (3391 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Andrew Harris has declared himself 100 per cent. You can exhale, Bomber fans.

Fans have held their collective breath since Tuesday, when the Bombers’ new running back hobbled off the field with a limp late in practice. Prospects looked grim at a practice 24 hours later when Harris appeared without a helmet or pads, holding a clipboard instead of a football. Doomsayers expected Harris would be written off for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers Week 1 meeting with the Montreal Alouettes.

But it was Harris, arguably the centerpiece of a new-look offence, who breathed the biggest sigh of relief on Thursday morning.

Before the Bombers took to the field for their pre-game walkthrough, Harris was put through the paces, eventually passing all relevant tests and being declared fit to lead the team on Friday, his first opportunity to play for his hometown CFL team.

There’s a lot riding on the 29-year-old this season. Upon his broad shoulders, fairly or unfairly, is the weight of a 25-year drought of silverware for the Bombers. Harris, who was raised in Winnipeg and starred with the Oak Park Raiders before heading out to B.C., said on Thursday that people close to him have compared his role to the one NBA star LeBron James endured when he returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers a few seasons back.

“I don’t think we have quite the Cleveland drought, but it was funny. After Cleveland won there was a lot of people who mentioned that to me,” Harris said, moments after mimicking LeBron’s pre-game ritual of throwing powder into the air. “I’m from here, there’s a lot of expectation and, again, I put the same expectation on myself and the same pressure on myself regardless of the situation. It’s all you guys (the media) and my family that raise it up.”

Harris won’t prepare differently than he did during his days as a member of the B.C. Lions. He’s acutely aware of the recent losing history of the Bombers, as are others, including veteran receiver and fellow newcomer and showpiece, Weston Dressler.

“Just knowing the history, the past few years here and the way things have gone, you’re definitely aware of it,” said Dressler, a veteran Saskatchewan Roughriders receiver until he was hired by the Bombers during the off-season. “This is a different locker room from last year, a different locker room from five years ago. It’s a new team, and we’re excited about the team we have now.”

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Dressler and Harris share a common ground with several others on the Bombers new, and expensive, offensive squad: they’re excited for what is to come from a group that is both a work-in-progress and one expected to immediately produce, given the depth chart.

“In order to win a championship, you have to improve week-after-week, no matter how Week 1 goes,” Dressler said. “We’re confident we can put some points on the board early in the season, but the big thing will be improving along the way, too.”

Added Harris: “For us, it’s a little bit different because, obviously, we have a new offensive coordinator, some new pieces coming to Winnipeg. We’re just excited to get out there and fly around for real. You go through the preseason and to me, it’s football, but it’s not the same as regular season … it’s a different calibre. This one counts in the win column, so it’s a big one for us.”

scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @scottbilleck

Scott Billeck
Reporter

Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade’s worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024.  Read more about Scott.

Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.