In what will surely go down as one of the feel-good stories of the year in Ottawa sports, REDBLACKS’ quarterback Jeremiah Masoli got his first CFL victory in 999 days on Thursday night. Masoli led Ottawa to a 31-29 victory in Calgary, where the Stampeders hadn’t lost all season.
Masoli completed 27 of 35 passes for 254 yards and a touchdown and saved his best for last. Down by a point, Masoli engineered a last-minute drive into field goal range, with high-pressure, long completions to Jaelon Acklin and Bralon Addison. That got the REDBLACKS close enough for Lewis Ward to hammer home a 51-yard field goal as time expired.
Ottawa has now hit the midway point of the season with a 6-2-1 record. But Masoli has been a spectator for most of it, pushed into action for his first start in over a year after an injury to Dru Brown last week.
So for now, while it may be just one game in a fill-in role, it meant so much more to Masoli. After a rotten run of injuries, Masoli was just happy to be out there playing the game he loves again.
“I mean I could cry just thinking about it,” Masoli told TSN after the game. “I’ve been through a lot, but with my boys here just having my back, it means the world to me. I made some mistakes tonight, but everybody kept patting me on the back and saying keep going. So I just appreciate my team.
“I just want to give a big shout-out to my parents, my wife, and my two kids. Thank you.”
Masoli’s story has been one of resilience, rising up from one major injury after another. In 2019, he was regarded as one of the truly elite players in the league but tore his ACL with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, missing most of that season because of it.
Masoli got a fresh start, signing on to be the quarterback saviour with Ottawa in 2022 and gracing the cover of our July-August issue that year. But Masoli lasted only four games due to a season-ending leg injury on a cheap, late hit in Saskatchewan. He tried to come back a year later for Ottawa, but in his season debut, without taking contact, he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury.
So when the game was on the line on Thursday, and Masoli needed to scramble to buy some time to try and nail down his first-ever win as a REDBLACKS starter, he was thrilled that his repaired legs held up so nicely.
“I know I’ve definitely been working hard to be able to use those legs. It felt great tonight. Obviously, I’m still a little rusty and want to have some of those throws back. But yeah, just trying to get it to the playmakers like Bralon and those guys did everything else.”
With Dru Brown’s injury not believed to be serious, it’s possible Masoli may be back on the sideline for the next game. But he’s not thinking about that right now, nor is he spending too much time on the thought of his incredibly long journey to get back on the gridiron.
“Yeah, right now, I’m just kind of got my head down with the team in terms of just accomplishing our goal. I’m so thankful for the journey back. But right now I’m on a boat with all these other guys, and we’re trying to reach the Grey Cup. So it’s not as easy to just kind of sit back and reflect when we’re trying to work and get better every week.”
If you had to pick the biggest reason why the REDBLACKS have struggled so much since 2018, it would be the lack of production (and health) at the quarterback position. Now with Dru Brown, a healthy Jeremiah Masoli, and last year’s starter, Dustin Crum, Ottawa probably has the best QB depth in the CFL.
