Riders give Blake Sims another chance at football

Blake Sims is glad to be getting another chance at football after signing with the Riders last week. 

“It’s a great place here. I’m glad to be here,” said Sims.

“It’s a great team, great community. Hey, what are the better places to be?”

Sims was added to the practice roster after veteran quarterback Kevin Glenn went down with a torn pectoral muscle that will keep him out of the line-up for at least another few weeks. 

Even though Sims was part of two national championship teams in Alabama and won the SEC title as their starting quarterback last season, he has yet to find a home in professional football. 

Sims never got a chance in the NFL but did sign with the Argonauts during training camp. However, he was released nine days into camp. 

“It was a learning experience. I don’t think it was nothing bad. When you learn from something, I think you can always take something positive from it. I never thought anything bad about it,” he said. 

There was a time when Sims wondered if the phone would ring again. Eventually it did and it was the Riders on the other end.

Now, that brief time in Toronto is helping Sims as a member of the Riders.

“Just how the game is, get the feeling of the ball and just how the offence operates in all types of ways,” he said. 

Even though Sims admits he never heard of Saskatchewan until recently, his adjustment into the team’s locker room has been an easy one thanks to a few teammates that have been through what he has.

Right now, all of Sims fellow quarterbacks were playing college football in the United States around the same time.

Brett Smith was in Wyoming, Tino Sunseri at Pittsburgh, and Keith Price in Washington. 

“We talk about it all the time. We talk about the good games that we had, the big games and what stadiums we like the most,” said Sims. 

Sims has talked a bit about Alabama losing to Ohio State in the first ever college football semifinal last year as the war stories get shared.

“We talked about when (Sunseri) played Ohio State. I talked to Keith about when he played Baylor (and Robert Griffin III). We’re having a lot of good conversations, we’re bonding very well,” he said. 

Now, the four of them hope they can find a way to get their current team back on track. 

JGasson@rawlco.com
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