Trevor Reid feeling blessed to have opportunity with Riders

Trevor Reid feels grateful to be able to play professional football in 2024.

“It’s a blessing,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders offensive tackle said.

“I just want to keep proving to them I can be the guy for the job.”

The 24-year-old Reid is set to start his fourth CFL game on Thursday when the Riders host the Toronto Argonauts.

Kickoff for the game is set for 7 p.m. and the Green Zone’s pre-game show starts at 5 p.m.

Reid is also thankful for his time at Georgia Military College.

“I feel like if I didn’t have that, I would be dead or in jail right now. I’m blessed,” Reid said.

Reid described his home town of Griffin, Georgia as a small country city. He didn’t play football much throughout his life, with his first full year of the sport coming in Grade 12.

“The thing that brought me back was just being violent. You can be violent on the field; you can’t do it outside of football. I just want to be violent and I want to do this and make it work, especially with my size and height,” Reid said.

But Reid said he wasn’t in the best position to succeed coming out of high school, so he ended up going to the military college.

“I went there because of my grades and my character. I wasn’t too good of a student. I wasn’t in class too much and was a knucklehead really. I feel that Georgia Military brought me back together and made me be responsible and take accountability for my actions,” Reid said.

He played two seasons of football at the college, and was named a NJCAA first-team all-American in 2019.

This change in his attitude and views on life helped the offensive lineman eventually reach Lousiville where he played for the Cardinals.

Reid played three collegiate seasons at Louisville from 2019 to 2022, starting all 13 games at left tackle where he helped the offence average 210.2 rushing yards per game. He then started 11 games in 2022 and again helped his team lead a potent ground attack, averaging 200.6 rushing yards per game. Over 24 starts, he only allowed five sacks in 646 pass-blocking snaps.

While he went undrafted, Reid signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent last year.

He spent rookie camp there before being released, but he said he managed to learn some things from hall-of-fame-calibre talents like centre Jason Kelce and tackle Lane Johnson.

“I (learned) a lot from Kelce. It taught me that you shouldn’t know just your play – you should know every guy’s play throughout the line,” Reid said. “I was there for a short amount of time, but they taught me a lot.”

He spent another training camp with the Atlanta Falcons, but was once again released. After that, it was his uncle Charlie Clemons who told him about the opportunities that come with the CFL. As a linebacker, Clemons played two years in the Canadian league with his time split between the Ottawa Rough Riders and Winnipeg Blue Bombers before his NFL career.

“I was home after I got cut, and he was like, ‘Hey, I have some connections. Maybe you could go to Canada and play football,’ so he started calling people and I ended up down here,” Reid said.

It was Paul Jones, the Riders’ assistant general manager, who was the connection that brought Reid to Saskatchewan. Jones was with the Bombers as the team’s director of player personnel and assistant general manager while Clemons was there.

Reid said Jones told him to come to a tryout, and that eventually led to Reid signing with the Riders in December.

After a strong showing in camp, Reid emerged as the team’s starting left tackle.

Now, four games into his CFL career, he said the best is yet to come.

“It’s a blessing. I just want to keep proving to them I can be the guy for the job,” Reid said. “I can do way better.”