‘It definitely was tough’: Riders’ Lauther overcomes early-season injuries

Saskatchewan Roughriders kicker Brett Lauther didn’t get off to the start he wanted following an all-star 2018 campaign.

The 28-year-old kicker, who was a CFL West Division all-star in 2018, had to battle the injury bug early this season.

“It definitely was tough, having that first year and then wanting to come back to repeat,” Lauther said earlier in the week as the Roughriders prepared for Saturday’s clash with the Edmonton Eskimos (2 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).

“I dealt with two or three different things with the injury and some other stuff with my eyes. I’m even still dealing with some stuff now, but at the same time I’m just trying to push through and make field goals for the team.”

Lauther was forced to miss five games in 2019 due to hip and groin injuries. He was fairly private about the issue he had with his eyes, which he described as “a type of pink eye with a few other things mixed in” that affected his vision for two to three weeks.

“I wasn’t at practice and the hardest thing was I couldn’t even be in daylight. It felt like I was in prison,” Lauther said. “I couldn’t look at my phone to watch a movie or anything like that, so it was mostly just listening to podcasts or anything to pass the time and just wait for this to pass over.”

But Lauther made his return to the field and has hit some big kicks for the Green and White, helping them get to within one win of finishing in first place in the West Division. The last time the team accomplished that feat was in 2009.

“I felt like I got two or three different things at once that were out of my control and then to finally just get back outside and be around my teammates again, it felt really good to be back,” Lauther said.

The Truro, N.S., product has come up big a few times in 2019 for the Roughriders. Lauther has connected on 30 of his 35 field-goal attempts, which is good for an 85.7 per cent success rate.

Lauther has also been clutch in the final moments of a few games to help Saskatchewan earn some hard-fought wins. That included a 26-yard, walk-off game-winner in a 19-17 victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Sept. 1.

“It was something that I’ll never forget, especially doing that at home and in the Labour Day Classic,” Lauther said.

“It’s just funny how me and (punter Jon Ryan) talked about (hitting a game-winner) that week just randomly as a joke and then a few days later there’s three minutes left and he’s saying it’s going to happen again and then we go out and do it. It’s pretty cool.”

That game-winner ended up with Lauther, Ryan and a few other Roughriders running the length of the field to celebrate with fans in Pil Country in the south end zone. Lauther even found his way into the standing-room area.

“At the start, no one really realized (I was up there) and then at the end it just turned into a mosh pit so I was just trying to get out of there,” Lauther said. “But it was definitely a lot of fun. Maybe we’ll be back up there again someday.”

While his other game-winners didn’t have the same sort of celebration attached to them, his leg has been key to the Roughriders’ 12-5 record.

He hit a 39-yarder against the Montreal Alouettes with 25 seconds left to give Saskatchewan a 27-25 win on Sept. 14.

And more recently, Lauther hit a final-play, 43-yarder as the Roughriders beat the Eskimos 27-24 on Oct. 26 to put Saskatchewan in position to win the West Division and host the West final.

“It was just a situation where we’ve been in it a few times and we know every game’s big so we weren’t trying to put any extra pressure on ourselves,” Lauther said.

While Lauther has helped kick his way onto the Roughriders and CFL, his dream wasn’t always to become a football player.

According to Lauther, the only reason he started playing football was because he got the days of his hockey tryouts wrong when he was 15 years old.

“Some of my buddies were playing football and I had no clue what it was. I ended up going out and the kicker at the time just left the team and they told me to give it a try,” Lauther said. “Then I started playing receiver and some quarterback after that.”

While he originally joined the Saint Mary’s University Huskies as a wide receiver, he said his coaches offered him some advice on his position choice.

“I played my first year just playing receiver and then they told me to take kicking a little more seriously,” Lauther recalled.

After two years at Saint Mary’s, Lauther was taken in the seventh round (53rd overall) of the 2013 CFL draft by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. In his rookie season, he dressed for four games and hit six of 10 field-goal attempts.

In 2014, he spent the entire year on the practice roster.

After the 2014 season, Lauther didn’t land on another CFL roster until 2018.

“It was tough. It really tested me as a person and I grew a lot as a man and just worked a lot of hard jobs but also wanted to train and stick with it,” Lauther said.

“I felt like I could (kick in the CFL) as well if not better (than others in the league) and I didn’t understand why I wasn’t getting the opportunities even though I worked so hard and felt like I was a good teammate.”

He spent those three years away working as a bartender and a roofer but still managed to find time to hone his craft.

“I don’t feel bad for myself or anything but there were some tough times and it kind of drove me,” he said.

He got another shot in the CFL with the Roughriders in 2018. It wasn’t the first time Lauther was with Saskatchewan — he tried out but was released by the team in 2015.

“It’s a funny way how it works,” Lauther said. “I just kept trying to prove that I was persistent to the coaches and consistent and knew what I could do and confident in myself and then eventually it paid off.

“Getting the opportunity to play last year after that much time off was more than enough, so everything now is just gravy.”

The Green Zone pre-game show begins at noon.