One of the best teams in the Canadian Football League is going to be without one of the best players in the league over the next two weeks.
And it is a crucial couple of weeks for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, who won’t have all-star running back Andrew Harris on the field after the 32-year-old Winnipeg native was suspended for two games for testing positive for a banned substance.
The CFL’s leading rusher in 2019 says he never knowingly took a banned substance, adding he is “in shock and disbelief at the news.”
WATCH: Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ Andrew Harris speaks about testing positive for a banned substance
The two-game suspension is an automatic penalty for any first-time offender who violates the league’s banned substance policy.
It means Harris will not play in Winnipeg’s back-to-back heavyweight tilts against their arch-rivals from Saskatchewan — on the Labour Day weekend and in the Banjo Bowl the following weekend.
The 8-2 Bombers are already without starting quarterback Matt Nichols, who is on the six-game injured list with an upper-body injury.
With the streaking Roughriders — winners of their last five consecutive games and just two wins behind Winnipeg — coming up on the schedule, the next two weeks could see a dramatic shift in the balance of power in the CFL.
If the Blue Bombers can split their upcoming two-game series they will have dodged a big bullet.
Sweep the series and Winnipeg will have proven that they are Grey Cup ready.
Get swept by the Riders and it’s a whole new ball game in the west.
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