Last month, Tristan Jackson seriously wondered if he was done with football.
Released in December by the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Jackson spent six months patiently waiting for another CFL club to call. He even took matters into his own hands, giving Ottawa Redblacks head coach Rick Campbell a shout but no contract was forthcoming.
That is until last month, when Ottawa added the five-foot-eight, 185-pound defensive back to its practice roster. On Wednesday night, Jackson thanked the Redblacks for the new lease on his football life with a 75-yard punt return that broke a 20-20 tie and led them to a 30-20 road win over the Toronto Argonauts.
"Scoring touchdowns and helping this team win, I need to do that," Jackson said. "They brought me here, they believed in me.
"I was sitting at home three weeks ago, nobody wanted to give me a chance. I have to show every team in the CFL they should’ve given me a chance."
Jackson was appearing in just his second game with Ottawa when he scored the third-year franchise’s first-ever special-teams TD.
"That will be good for my kids when they get older," Jackson said. "They’ll know their dad had that first return."
Playing football certainly beats Jackson’s off-season gig of working in the Alberta oil fields. But it still means being away from his six-year-old daughter, Kailyah, and one-year-old son, Caleb.
"That’s hard, that’s very hard," Jackson said.
Ottawa not only has a proven returner in Jackson but a nine-year defender who appeared in 115 career games with Edmonton (2008-10) and Saskatchewan (2011-15). Jackson registered a club-record 1,167 kickoff return yards with the Eskimos in ’09 and helped the Riders win the 2013 Grey Cup.
This season Jackson has 10 punt returns for 142 yards, his longest being 85 yards. Jackson said he felt obligated to come up big after allowing Lirim Hajrullahu’s punt to bounce on the BMO Field grass before picking it up.
"I should’ve caught the ball in the air so I told myself I had to make a play," he said. "The guys were telling me they (Argos defenders) were over-committing to the middle.
"When I looked up I tried to get to the corner but they were pursuing real hard. I cut back and my guys gave me a couple of great blocks. I broke a tackle and it was off to the races from there."
Jackson actually broke four tackles as no less than six Argos all had a shot at bringing him down.
"I can’t take it all myself, the guys up front gave me great blocks," said Jackson. "I have the easy part, I catch the ball and run."
The Redblacks (3-0-1) remain the CFL’s only unbeaten squad with all three victories coming on the road. The last time an Ottawa franchise began the season with three straight wins away from home was 1976 when the then Rough Riders went on to capture the city’s last Grey Cup title.
After reaching last year’s Grey Cup game — losing 26-20 to Edmonton — this year’s goal, naturally, is to win the CFL crown.
"When you play football, regardless of the goals and accolades, you just want to win," Jackson said. "The ultimate goal is to win the Grey Cup and we’re just one step closer.
"We still have a long season ahead of us. The win feels good but we just have to get back to work and get ready for the next game."
And that will be a big one for Jackson as Ottawa visits Saskatchewan on Friday night. It will be Jackson’s first trip to Regina since being released by the Riders.
"I am looking forward to playing those guys but I’m not mad at (Riders’ coach/GM Chris) Jones," Jackson said. "That’s just the business part of it.
"It’s like if you have a house and you want new walls, you paint them and that’s what he did … I’m still playing football so let’s go have fun."
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NO PASSING FAD: Quarterback Trevor Harris enjoyed a record performance against his former team.
The Ottawa quarterback completed 28-of-31 passes for 392 yards in the Redblacks 30-20 road win over Toronto on Wednesday. It was Harris’s first game against the Argonauts, who he spent four seasons with before signing with Ottawa as a free agent.
Harris’s completion percentage of 90.3 was a CFL record with a minimum of 30 pass attempts. And through four games, Harris has completed 104-of-126 passes (82.5 per cent) for 1,475 yards and nine TDs with a passer rating of 143.3.
Harris had a CFL-high 33 TD strikes last season with Toronto, compiling a 9-7 record as the starter while incumbent Ricky Ray recovered from off-season shoulder surgery. Ray holds the league single-season records for completion percentage (77.2) and passer rating (126.4).
But last week’s top passing performance belonged to Edmonton’s Mike Reilly, who threw for 465 yards and two TDs in the Eskimos’ 20-16 road victory over Winnipeg.
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HOME WOES: Home field continues to be anything but an advantage in the CFL so far this season.
Last week, all four road teams won their games, boosting the visiting squads’ record to 12-3-1 this season.
Ottawa (3-0-1) is the CFL’s lone unbeaten team with all three of its wins coming on the road. That includes a 30-20 decision Wednesday versus the Toronto Argonauts.
Toronto, Hamilton and B.C. are all 2-0 on the road. However, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, Winnipeg Blue Bombers , Argos and Ticats are all 0-2 at home.
B.C., Calgary and Edmonton are the lone teams to win home games this season.
