Collaros finds himself at career crossroads Roughriders quarterback should be enjoying the prime years of his football career, but instead he’s in training camp trying to prove he can remain healthy through an entire season, Dave Naylor writes.

Dave Naylor TSN Football Insider Follow|Archive

Football can be a cruel game.

Few understand that as well as Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Zach Collaros, whose injury-riddled career appears to have arrived at one of those crossroads that are so common in this sport.

At age 30, Collaros should be approaching his best years, which may still be the case. But after what was supposed to be a comeback season following a trade from Hamilton, he’s once again gearing up to try to prove he can remain healthy through an entire season.

“Going through the injury thing is tough but I always try to think big picture,” he said. “We were born in North America, we got a lottery ticket. I’m not in Afghanistan right now. I have a hard time thinking past that… I’m lucky. I have two parents who love me and did everything for me. I’ve got a lottery ticket to get to where I’m at.”

Collaros’ situation is hardly unique in the sport of football, where players often prove their worth with their talent and work ethic but struggle to stay on the field. Other CFL quarterbacks of recent vintage have gone through similar things, including Travis Lulay, Buck Pierce and Drew Tate.

His challenges in Saskatchewan last season followed a series of injuries he’d sustained during his four years in Hamilton, beginning with an ACL tear in September of 2015 when he was playing the best football of his life. His career has been a struggle since, even when he’s been healthy.

He started Hamilton’s first eight games in 2017 before losing his job to Jeremiah Masoli when the team got off to an 0-8 start. Last season in Saskatchewan he played in 14 games and suffered two concussions, throwing just nine touchdowns against 13 interceptions.

“I feel like I’m behind the eight ball. I want to be the guy, I want to get to that point,” Collaros said. “But I feel like the last three years has kind of stunted my intellectual growth in sports because I haven’t learned anything. I’ve learned a lot about myself.

“There’s a lot of self-doubt that creeps into your mind and I think I’ve learned about myself that I can have a goal, there will be some self-doubt, but ultimately I’m strong enough in my mind to overcome those things and understand that if I trust the right people, I’m a strong person and I can work my way back from those kinds of things.”

Working his way back from things has never been the hard part for Collaros, who loves the physical and mental preparation side of football almost as much as playing the game itself. A self-described football nerd, he studies teams and players not just in the CFL, looking for clues or wrinkles he can incorporate into his own game.

“I like working,” he said. “The off-season drives me nuts because I train and then I can only watch so much film on my own.

“I love stuff about the philosophy of the game, I like to be challenged. Anything I can find about Bill Walsh, [Bill] Belichick and those guys and any of those great quarterbacks, I eat that stuff up… I could sit here and talk football forever.”

His confidence got a boost when Saskatchewan opted to bring him back for this season following the one-year pact he signed before last season.

It was especially gratifying after the way last season ended, with Collaros watching in street clothes with his second concussion of the season as the Riders fell in a home playoff game versus Winnipeg in which they had just 100 passing yards.

The injury that ended Collaros’ 2018 season came via a helmet-on-helmet hit delivered by B.C. defensive lineman Odell Willis during Saskatchewan's final game of the regular season.

He participated in some practice before Saskatchewan’s home playoff game against Winnipeg two weeks later, but knew he would be unable to play – even as the team tried to keep it a secret.

“It was horrible…gut-wrenching, all those cliché things,” he said. “I really had a hard time sleeping that week, just because you did training camp together, you fight through the season and then to not be out there in the biggest game, you feel like you’re letting people down. Especially when you have an injury that people can’t see. That’s been the hardest part with the concussion.”

That sense of letting his teammates down first surfaced after he took a hit during a pre-season game against Calgary that left him feeling not right.

“I said I was fine …but did I feel like myself? No,” he said. “I think guys should take care of themselves but from a competitive standpoint, I’m in a new situation, they named me the starter. I want to go out and prove myself and I’m going to play.”

That’s just what he did for the season’s opening week against Toronto. A week later against Ottawa he took a pair of jolting hits, the second of which stunned him badly and led to him be placed on the six-game injury list.

“In that moment, I knew I could be jeopardizing myself down the road,” Collaros said. “I’d never felt that way in a game.”

Football is a sport that forces players into making choices. The parameters and the knowledge that goes with those choices may have changed, but it’s always come down to weighing the risks against the joy of the experiences.

Collaros understands that there may come a day when that balance shifts for him. That leads to the inevitable question about whether he’s ever asked himself if it’s worth it; whether it might be time to step away from the game he loves so much.

“I mean you always think about what you’re going to do afterwards but I love playing. I love being out there. I love the challenge of it every week,” he said. “There are not many feelings like that. I’m not close to being done unless I have to be. And I don’t feel like I have to be until someone tells me I can’t do it.”