Shaw fired up to play in front of RNation
It felt real for Kenny Shaw. Wearing an Ottawa Redblacks jersey for the first time on Wednesday, he was doing photo and video shoots for Mark’s CFL Week, with flames shooting up around him.
Talking about it a bit later in the day, Shaw, who signed as a free agent with Ottawa last month, laughed and said, “It was hot. I was thinking, ‘Please don’t let me be the only guy to catch on fire.’”
With 1,004 receiving yards on 77 catches last season with the Toronto Argos, Shaw is anxious to show what he can do in Ottawa. But he’s not putting any pressure on himself.
“I am excited. It’s a new chapter for me. But I don’t take it as a challenge,” he said. “I take it as another opportunity, another blessing. If you think of it as a challenge, it might mess your head up. You can’t think, ‘I’ve got to fill those shoes, I have to be perfect.’ I want to just be myself.”
Being himself will lend itself well to a fan base that’s crazy about the Redblacks.
“Before I signed, the first two minutes I was talking to the coaches and I heard about RNation, I was fired up,” Shaw said. “The fans are a big part of why we come to work, why we do what we do.”
With the departure of 1,000-yard receivers Chris Williams and Ernest Jackson, the Redblacks are certainly happy to have Shaw and his former Argos teammate Diontae Spencer wearing Ottawa colours in 2017.
“(Shaw) does everything pretty well,” Redblacks GM Marcel Desjardins said. “He catches the ball well, he’s a good route runner, he’s fast, he can handle returns. Some guys who are a little more slight of frame aren’t as interested in going over the middle and making those tough catches. He’s more than willing to do that.”