Slimmer version of Shane Richards reports to Toronto Argonauts’ training camp

Shane Richards is a different man at the Toronto Argonauts’ training camp.

The hulking six-foot-eight offensive lineman reported to Toronto’s camp Saturday weighing about 290 pounds — some 60 pounds less than what he weighed at the end of the 2019 season. His transformation is even more remarkable given Richards, who was the first player taken in the 2019 CFL draft, said he weighed between 250 and 260 pounds last December.

After suffering a left groin injury during his senior season at Oklahoma State, then hurting his right groin after making his first CFL start in Toronto’s ’19 season opener, Richards felt he needed to lose weight and improve his flexibility. The 26-year-old native of Kingston, Jamaica, who grew up in Calgary, said the combination of diet and adding boxing to his training regiment helped him shed the excess pounds.

“That was the thought process of it, drop weight so I could improve my flexibility and then build back up to a proper base, which is roughly around 310 pounds,” Richards said during a videoconference Tuesday. “I’m not far off, there are just little things I have to tweak with my diet as far as protein and carb intake.

“And I’m also dealing with the practices we’re doing right now and how much I’m burning and how much I need to consume to gain (weight). That’s what we’re playing with it right now.”

Richards’ weight has fluctuated from 320 pounds (upon entering New Mexico Military Institute in 2015) to as high as 370 pounds at Oklahoma State. He reported to Toronto at about 325 pounds in 2019 but didn’t lose weight during training camp as he anticipated.

And then he got hurt. So when the 2019 season ended — Toronto missed the playoffs with a 4-14 record — Richards began experimenting with various diets to find one that worked for him.

“I went vegan for a little bit, I went vegetarian for a little bit,” he said. “I didn’t do keto but I did all of those things to kind of get an understanding about how many calories and how that could affect my body.”

And when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, resulting in the CFL cancelling its season, Richards began boxing.

“I found a correlation between it and offensive-line play — particularly with striking, punching, moving your feet, the mental aspect of it and moving around a ring,” he said. “You’re playing in a box literally the entire time, which is the offensive line’s world most of the time.

“It kind of played into what I wanted to do as far as my movements and athleticism.”

But the physical demands of boxing resulted in Richards dropping too much weight.

“I went down to 250 to 260 pounds, give or take,” he said. “I jumped on the scales and said, ‘Whoa, this is not good.’

“That was around December and so I adjusted it from there to start regaining weight.”

That meant a return to the weight room and resuming traditional strength movements such as the bench press and squats. And although Richards figures his current strength level is at 90 per cent, he admits to having had some concerns about how his weight loss would affect some elements of his game.

“It was the biggest thing in the back of my mind … as far as taking on bull rushes and different stuff like that,” he said. “You can still win those situations and those kind of blocks if you use proper technique.

“I’m trying to lean on my technique more now … and allowing my strength to do its thing and just focus on what I can focus on.”

Ryan Dinwiddie, the Argos rookie head coach, said Richards’ weight loss was something the player himself initiated — not the club.

“You can tell he’s focused on coming in here and trying to be a better player,” Dinwiddie said. “We’ve been moving him from guard to tackle, he’s trying both spots and has shown improvement but we still have a long way to go.

“I’m not going to say he’s arrived by any means, he’s still wet behind the ears. But he’s willing to work and he’s trying to get better and that’s all I could ask for.”

Toronto’s offensive line is a crowded one. The club added veteran Canadian offensive linemen Philip Blake and Dariusz Bladek in free agency and took Regina’s Theren Churchill and Western’s Dylan Giffen in the first and third rounds, respectively, of the 2020 CFL draft.

Also, ’19 draft pick Eric Starczala is in camp after returning to Guelph for that season.

Richards acknowledges competition is the name of the game during training camp. However, he’s worrying more about himself and his preparation.

“You’re here to compete and you’re here for a job and you have to fight for a job,” Richards said. “But at the same time, if you focus on all that you probably end up losing anyways.

“If I wasn’t the person I think I am and the player I think I am, I wouldn’t be sitting here.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2021.

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press