Shaq Evans has been playing the waiting game.
As the CFL, like other sports leagues, waits for the green light from health officials to announce a possible starting date for the upcoming season, all the Saskatchewan Roughriders‘ receiver can do is wait.
“It’s been crazy like it’s been for everybody,” Evans said from his off-season home in Los Angeles. “Just not knowing what to do, it’s tough to work out how you want to because you can’t be around a lot of people, so you can’t really get any routes in right now. But you know, I’m doing what I can.”
Evans has continued his off-season workouts, with some modifications. But for a guy who gets paid to catch footballs for a living, there’s no doubt it’s been tough.
And with the CFL announcing the delay of the start of the season until at least July, Evans is aware that he, like other CFLers, could be without a paycheque come June.
“It’s tough but you just try to do your best to make it work,” he said. “Hopefully, you have family looking after you or looking out for you and people in the community looking out for you because this is the time for people to come together because really that’s all we can do.”
Evans, however, was quick to shrug off his problems, knowing there are bigger things to worry about right now amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is serious, what we’ve got going on, and we’ve got people really suffering,” he said. “My problems are minuscule compared to a lot of people. People’s family members are dying and things like that so, it kind of puts things into perspective.”
“Our problems as athletes are nothing compared to people actually really suffering. We may be losing our season but we will get it back eventually. There’s people losing their businesses and it’s going to be tough for them to bounce back at all.”
Last season, Evans was named a CFL All-Star, after leading the Roughriders with 1,334 receiving yards. This season, he’s hoping to build on those numbers with a new Riders playbook, introduced just two weeks ago by newly hired offensive coordinator Jason Maas.
Evans and the rest of his offensive teammates meet regularly, via virtual meetings, to learn and discuss the playbook.
“Even though it was a lot of information, my head was just blown up,” Evans said. “I was so excited after we got off the call, like man, I can’t wait until it is time to play. Whenever that time is, I can’t wait to actually execute this on the field.”
In the meantime, Evans is also practising patience, in the hopes that the work being put in right now will pay off once they do get back on the field.
“We’ll put up numbers that will be remembered in Saskatchewan for sure,” he said. “As long as we put in the work mentally and physically as much as we can.
“We want to get back to football as quickly as possible, but the main thing is to get the world healthy first. Football and sports are on the back burner right now because lives are being lost and families are being broken apart.”
Questions about COVID-19? Here are some things you need to know:
Health officials caution against all international travel. All international travellers returning to Saskatchewan are required to self-isolate for 14 days in case they develop symptoms and to prevent spreading the virus to others.
Symptoms can include fever, cough and difficulty breathing — very similar to a cold or flu. Some people can develop a more severe illness. People most at risk of this include older adults and people with severe chronic medical conditions like heart, lung or kidney disease. If you develop symptoms, contact public health authorities.
To prevent the virus from spreading, experts recommend frequent handwashing and coughing into your sleeve. They also recommend minimizing contact with others, staying home as much as possible and maintaining a distance of two metres from other people if you go out.
For full COVID-19 coverage from Global News, click here.