Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Canada high
Former UM QB Jacory Harris likes the CFL.
VERO BEACH — At 3:09 p.m. on a sun-kissed April afternoon and in the shadows of nearby high school baseball games, Jacory Harris stepped across Roy Campanella Boulevard and onto Field 4 at Histhe toric Dodgertown. Without pads or helmet, Harris walked toward a cluster of footballs and picked one to warm up with before his first spring camp as a Montreal Alouette.
Harris, the former Miami Hurricanes quarterback, wore his familiar No. 12 jersey. But this one was royal blue and advertised a French-Canadian sports gambling company on his right shoulder. He found a throwing partner, and they began spinning spirals 10 yards apart from each other.
Montreal’s spring camp began Harris’ fifth season in the Canadian Football League, an unlikely destination after finishing his Miami career as the school’s all-time leader in attempts and completions, and second in passing yards and touchdowns. But with a genuine smile, the Miami native said he loved playing north of border.
“It’s very different,” Harris said, “but I will say it’s funner. It is. It is. It’s fun. Everything about Canada is fun.”
Living in Canada is fun. Harris takes the good with the bad, like when he swirled into unintentional doughnuts while driving through the Toronto snow. Socially, it’s the small things that make a difference to Harris, especially “coming from where I’m from.”
“It’s very different, but I will say it’s funner. It is. It is. It’s fun. Everything about Canada is fun.” Jacory Harris
“Culture-wise, Canada is the best place to be,” said Harris, 26. “I love it. To be honest, nothing [negative] about the U.S., but the people aren’t like Canadians. Canadians, people walk on the street and people say hello to you. ‘Hi! How you doing?’ ”
Harris tells the story of his best friend from high school visiting him in Canada, to watch Harris’ Hamilton team play Montreal. His friend was freezing, so someone lent him a coat. The kindness confused him, because “This person’s being nice, there must be a reason.” He tried to warm up with hot chocolate, but his card was declined because he was traveling. So the clerk gave it to him for free.
“He was like ‘Yo, in America, this would have never happened,’” Harris said.
The CFL rules are fun. The field is both longer (110 yards plus two 20-yard end zones) and wider (65 yards) in Canada. Goal posts are on the goal line. Twelve players play at a time. Offenses only have three downs. Pre-snap motion in Canada is a ballet of multiple receivers and backs running directly at the defense.
Harris didn’t know the game when he first arrived in Canada. His footwork and his delivery were built for the American game. His thinking was grounded in a “regular football mindset.”
“Once I learned it and seen it in the game, I’m like ‘Man, this is like playing street ball,’” Harris said. “Getting paid to play street ball.”
The Alouettes jersey is the third different one worn by Harris in the CFL since last playing for Miami in 2011. He previously donned Edmonton Eskimos (2013) and Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2014-16) uniforms before signing a two-year contract with Montreal in February.
When the CFL season starts in June, Harris is not expected to start for Montreal. Instead, he should compete for secondstring snaps behind former North Carolina quarterback Darian Durant.
Harris, the former jewel of the nation’s top-ranked recruiting class in 2008, isn’t supposed to be toiling in the CFL. The Miami Northwestern star appeared destined for more, but has only attempted 23 passes in his four years in the CFL.
The CFL can be viewed by some as football purgatory. Players may long for a more southern locale in the NFL, but few players get the chance. Canadian football is there when a veteran cannot bring himself to retire. It’s there when a fresh-faced college athlete yearns for an opportunity.
It’s a league where former five-star recruits and small-school Canadian prospects mesh and jostle for depth-chart position. It’s not unlike the NFL in that respect, but the interactions come with less money, less fanfare, less glory and less notoriety.
CFL teams operate with a salary cap of around $5 million for an active roster of 46 players. Miami Dolphins Ryan Tannehill and Ndamukong Suh will make nearly $40 million this season, or, factoring in the current currency conversion rate, more than the entire nine-team CFL combined.
“The players come up, and they know the money is not exceptional,” Alouettes general manager Kavis Reed said. “The money is good, but not exceptional. So their focus is about the passion and love for the game and the competition.”
The CFL can also act as a football haven. Strip away the lavish contracts and extra resources, and all that’s left is football. Players have to love the game in order to accept the organization’s parameters and embrace the league’s culture.
“If they come up here with a certain attitude, like ‘Man, why am I up here? I shouldn’t be here. I don’t want to be here,’ we’re going to see that and we’re going to get them out of here,” said Anthony Calvillo, Montreal’s quarterbacks coach and the CFL’s all-time leading passer. “You have to enjoy the game.”
Cameron Wake used the CFL as a launching pad on his way to becoming a Dolphins cornerstone. Former Dolphin Ricky Williams spent a season in Toronto while he was suspended by the NFL. Chad Johnson cameoed in Montreal after his NFL career ended.
Harris never had a NFL career to build on or escape to. He wasn’t drafted. In 2012, he worked out at the Dolphins’ rookie minicamp and signed briefly with the Eagles, but was cut less than two weeks after signing. In 2013, he latched on with Edmonton’s practice roster, where Reed was the head coach. Four years later, the pair has reunited, with Harris saying Reed’s presence in Montreal was part of what contributed to a “no-brainer” decision to join the Alouettes.
Reed said Harris has shortened his throwing motion since his Edmonton days and sees him “starting to really become that guy that can be that next guy.” On the April afternoon in Historic Dodgertown, Harris’ delivery still mimics his Hurricane days.
It’s smooth and elegant, with the ball floating down the sideline and zipping over the middle. At one point, he wows onlookers with a 55-yard touchdown pass through double-coverage, a flashback to some of his 70 TD passes in college.
When someone mentions Hurricanes in the CFL, Harris is quick to rattle off a list of names. Last year, there was Jeremy Lewis in Hamilton, Bruce Johnson and Shayon Green in Winnipeg, Kacy Rodgers and Tommy Streeter in Saskatchewan, and Joel Figueroa in Edmonton.
Nearly eight years later, Harris still holds a special distinction: He is the last Miami quarterback to beat Florida State, a 2009 Labor Day victory over the Seminoles. Harris failed twice more to top the ‘Noles. So did Stephen Morris. Brad Kaaya lost all three meetings.
So Harris’ heroic performance — the deep balls to Travis Benjamin, the teardrop to Graig Cooper and the premature Heisman Trophy campaign — sticks out as Miami’s last victory over the ’Noles. The game is arguably Harris’ zenith with the Hurricanes, when he passed for 386 yards.
“I would love to relive it again, but that’s never going to happen,” Harris said. “So I can just sit here and reminisce.”
Harris and Miami didn’t win a road game against another Top 25 team. Randy Shannon was fired after the 2010 season and Al Golden inherited a self-imposed bowl ban in 2011. Harris also left Miami as the school’s all-time leader with 48 interceptions thrown.
Harris is still a noticeable presence around the Miami program. He watched the Hurricanes’ first spring scrimmage this year. As he rehabilitated a shoulder injury last year, he attended Miami’s home games. He still works out at the school and lives in South Florida during the CFL offseason. He approves of coach Mark Richt, who will enter his second season in the fall.
Harris said he doesn’t watch the NFL much anymore, preferring to stick with college football and the CFL. To him, college and CFL games are more fun, more unpredictable. NFL offenses have grown too homogeneous and indistinguishable.
Harris said some former CFL players that moved on to bigger paydays told him they would have never left Canada “if the CFL just paid anything close to the NFL.” Harris feels the same way.
“In the NFL, yeah you’re going to get paid, but you know what they’re going to run,” Harris said. “You know what they’re going to do. You know what’s going to happen. It’s way more exciting up here.”
Canada’s excitement has reeled Harris in. But a return to American football remains entrenched in the back of his mind, not ready to give up NFL dreams but not prepared to desert living in the moment.
“Whatever happens happens,” Harris said. “If it doesn’t, I’m comfortable. I have fun out here. I love the coaches. I love everything about the CFL. If that opportunity ever presents itself, it’d be something to look at.
“But, man, as I’m getting older, the CFL is a great place to be.”