Carter makes his best case for a job

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This article was published 22/06/2013 (4583 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

GUELPH, ONT. — Full marks to the kid. He grabbed the opportunity by the throat and did everything he possibly could to choke it into submission.

But whether 20-year-old Winnipeg Rifles receiver Brett Carter did enough in the end to survive CFL cut-down day, we won’t know until today when the Bombers release their final training camp cuts.

“I don’t know if I did enough. Hopefully,” Carter said Thursday night in the silence that was a Winnipeg Blue Bombers locker-room following a 52-0 pre-season loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

“I put my heart onto that field today. I tried my best to do as much as I could to make the team and get a paycheque. But was it enough? You never know what they’re thinking.

“Hopefully it was enough. And if not, I’ve just got to work harder and maybe I will have opened their eyes enough to get an invite to next year’s camp again.”

With three more catches against Hamilton to go along with the two receptions he grabbed versus Toronto last week, Carter finished his first ever professional pre-season with five catches.

Only one other player — Doug Pierce — had five catches for the Bombers in the pre-season.

Still, Carter has an uphill battle to make the 46-man Bombers roster that will be announced today. Head coach Tim Burke made clear last week that for as much as reporters would like Carter to pull off a Cinderella story and make the team, it’s much more likely Carter will be overwhelmed by the numbers game today and be cut.

That doesn’t necessarily mean we’ve now seen the last of Carter, however. In addition to the 46-man roster, the Bombers will also likely put a couple players on injured reserve today and place as many as nine players on the practice roster.

While a lot of players have no interest in the low pay and drudgery of hanging around a CFL practice roster all season praying for a miracle to actually play, Carter says he’d jump at a practice roster spot if the Bombers were to offer him one today.

“Oh definitely. I’d do that for sure,” said Carter, who sounds like he’s already given some thought about how that might mesh with his ongoing studies at University of Winnipeg.

“I’d do that and then I could also still go back to school. I think I could do both. Pretty sure.”

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca