Collaros details Grey Cup finger injury, decision to return to game

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This article was published 19/11/2024 (308 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

ZACH Collaros appeared to be fighting back tears as he relived his internal debate on the sideline during Sunday’s Grey Cup.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback had cut the index finger on his throwing hand earlier in the game and was preparing to re-enter the contest after numbing the digit and receiving five stitches.

Moments before he took the field again, Collaros wondered whether he would be hurting the team by playing through the pain in a one-score game — a difficult process emotionally for an elite competitor, and one that requires him to be fully honest with himself and his coaches.

“In talking with a lot of the guys afterwards, the thing you’re dealing with mentally is, ‘Am I being selfish to want to go back in here? Even though I don’t feel like I can necessarily help to the best of my ability,’” Collaros said during Tuesday’s end-of-season press conference.

“On the other side of that, ‘Am I being selfish for bailing on the guys?’ So, that was playing out in my head, to be quite honest with you. That 90 seconds, 120 seconds of throwing the ball with Drew (Wolitarsky) and Chris (Streveler) there, it was like s—t, I don’t know if I can keep on throwing. I thought I was as honest as I could be to (offensive co-ordinator Buck Pierce) there, and (head coach Mike O’Shea) said, ‘Yeah, go.’

“Again, Osh (O’Shea) has played at the highest level, in the biggest games, and he understands moments like that and how much you put into it, how much you care for your teammates. So, he trusted me and I appreciate that. He knows my heart was in the right spot. I don’t think I was being selfish. … I just wanted to be out there with the guys, and I think I can help.”

Collaros was intercepted on each of the ensuing three drives, including one that was returned for a touchdown, which squandered the Bombers’ hopes at a third title in five years and led to a 41-24 loss to the Toronto Argonauts. He finished 15-for-30 for 202 yards with no touchdown passes and four interceptions.

Collaros confirmed the severity of the cut, which kept him out of the game for four offensive plays.

“I don’t know exactly how it happened. There’s a laceration, a cut, a pretty deep cut. You know how you have the little lines in your fingers? Well, in my pointer, it was just a pretty deep cut and I looked down after I threw a ball to Keric (Wheatfall) and it was just kind of open,” he said.

“I could look inside my finger. It was weird.”

Collaros could not confirm if there would be any residual effects that hinder his ability to throw the ball, but noted he has feeling in the finger and that the movement “seems good.”

Collaros’s second interception of the game came on the first play in his return to action, in what was viewed as a head-scratching play-call by Pierce, who didn’t waste any time testing his quarterback’s injured digit by dialing up a deep shot.

Though Collaros defended the play call, noting it was a viable concept for the type of coverage Toronto was playing, the ball was severely underthrown, which would become a trend for the remainder of the game.

“I appreciate the faith that Buck has in me. So, if you ask me to throw the ball, I’m going to throw the ball. I want to throw the ball, so I’m not going to argue against that,” said Collaros, who warned the Bombers’ receivers that his passes would be underthrown for the rest of the contest.

“Was I having a hard time gripping the football? Yes, but in those moments, you’re in the swing of the game, you’re feeling the game out, you’re adding to that feeling of what Toronto has been playing all game long and how they’ve been playing the run, they’ve been playing the pass, and at that point in the game, I thought it was appropriate to call plays that were called.”

The noise around Collaros’s future with the club has only increased with each Grey Cup loss. In a profession where players are judged by their most recent performance and how they perform in the biggest games, it’s tough to ignore the quarterback’s combined stats over the last three championships — 48-of-76 (63 per cent), with zero touchdowns and six interceptions — and wonder if his best days are behind him.

While some are already calling for the team to move on from the former Most Outstanding Player, there’s a chance he makes the decision for both parties and retires this off-season.

Collaros, who will enter the last season of his three-year contract in 2025, did not rule out the possibility of hanging up the cleats, though, it seems highly unlikely.

It’s a conversation he needs to have with his wife, Nicole.

“It’s something that we have talked about in the past, throughout the season, so we’ll figure it out,” he said.

“I really don’t want to make it a big deal. I want to continue to play. It’s just a lot, going back and forth, with three kids and all of our family not here. That is most of it. It’s not easy.”

If not this year, the end of next season would make a ton of sense for the quarterback to step away, with Winnipeg hosting the 112th Grey Cup and the Bombers potentially trying to bring back the same nucleus for one more run.

In any case, it’s easy to sense that the end is near for Collaros. Perhaps he senses it too, which made his decision to re-enter the Grey Cup that much more painful, and coming up short again that much more numbing.

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam