Harris `ultimate team player' as Edmonton tackles cap

Not the first time QB has restructured his contract to help with club's finances

There are Canadian Football League quarterbacks who chose to spend their time in 2020 getting involved in things like public disputes over getting paid promised bonuses, for example. Then there is Trevor Harris. It doesn't take a wolf of Wall Street to recognize a trend toward clubs trying to aim closer to the bottom of the salary cap than the top of its $4.75 million to $5.35 million range, as the league looks to rebound from an entire season cancelled by COVID-19.

But the Edmonton Football Team's franchise quarterback took it upon himself to go above and beyond the call of duty and play his part in tackling the economics head on. While he remains signed with the club through to the end of 2022, Harris has restructured his contract with the club, and not for the first time, either. Since signing on as a free agent ahead of the 2019 season, Harris is the biggest ticket on the team, having originally signed in the range of $525,000 annually.

“He did that last year, during the 2019 season and, again, unprovoked he came to me at that time,” Edmonton general manager Brock Sunderland said over the phone while visiting family back home in Montana.

Coaches who were with Ottawa have also mentioned Harris did the same thing there multiple times.

“That's Trevor in a nutshell, that's who he is. He's the ultimate team player, he cares about having success on the field more than the individual salary,” Sunderland said. “And him knowing that our organization, due to COVID, we're lowering our budgets across the board on every level, reached out to me and said, `Hey, what can I do to help? I want to make sure I have the best people around me that we can have and I'm willing to do what I need to do to help the team.'

“It didn't surprise me because that's who he is. He's done that forever and he told me when he signed in 2019 that if we ever need help or there's ever somebody out there that you really want to go after and we're at the point where we may not be able to afford him, `Come to me and if it's someone that I think can help us, I'm happy to do what I can to help the team.' So, we're very fortunate to have him.”

It's allowed Sunderland some wiggle room while approaching a long list of would-be free agents, and provides stark contrast to the picture painted of Harris by former Ottawa teammate Antoine Pruneau in 2019, before the Edmonton quarterback faced his old club for the first time.

The Redblacks safety had publicly called into question Harris's leadership abilities and effectiveness as a teammate in a newspaper article by veteran Postmedia football writer Tim Baines.

“That whole thing, and I like Tim a lot, but Tim was here that day and I approached him and said, `Hey, I think you were way out of bounds and I couldn't disagree with you more about the context of that article,” said Sunderland. “And I still disagree with it wholeheartedly. That's not who Trevor is and I think that was some sour grapes from the other side.”

Harris was on pace to lead the league in passing before an injury to his throwing arm held him to 13 games in his first season in Edmonton.

But it was the playoff performance in Montreal that has Edmonton fans agonizing over having to miss an entire year before seeing him play again. Harris set CFL playoff records with 22 consecutive passes on the way to an overall completion percentage of 92.3.

“Yeah,” Sunderland said with a sigh. “Freakin' 2020, man.”