Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca
The giggle alone spoke volumes.
Ricky Ray is cool, collected and efficient, both on the field and during interviews. The veteran quarterback is almost as well-known for his friendly but button-downed approach to answering questions as he is for his hall of fame statistics. So it was noticeable when the Toronto Argonauts’ starting quarterback punctuated his answer with a little giddiness.
“That just makes things so much easier, mentally,” Ray said of the confidence he now has in his surgically repaired shoulder, laughter coating the sentence with an air of welcome relief. “Because you’re not getting out there every day feeling that pain and going through that.
“So that’s been awesome.”
“It was tough the last couple of years where you go out and it just doesn’t feel good everyday and you’ve got to fight through that,” said Ray over the phone from his home in Redding, Calif. “It feels good to just go out and throw again.”
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Ricky Ray drops back to pass in the Eastern Semi-Final vs. Hamilton (Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca)
Throwing is something the 36-year-old veteran is doing much more of these days, beginning his off-season regimen about six weeks earlier than ever before compared to the pre-surgery days. It’s a process that started out with Ray firing a baseball a couple of times a week back in February. That’s something he’d usually only be getting to right about now. Instead, he is already whipping footballs at his brother, Zack – a former high school quarterback – a couple of times a week.
A hundred balls or so, Ray says, every three days. Start with the short patterns, work up to the 45-yarders, then work back to short stuff, but this time with an urgent zip on them. He’ll up the frequency when April comes around and then plans to begin throwing every day during the month of May.
“So far this off-season it’s been feeling really good,” said Ray, pleased that he might be on the verge of feeling completely like his old self. “The pain just from throwing, isn’t there.”
That is something Ray hasn’t had the luxury of for more than two years. When he walked to the sideline on that August night in 2013, Ray was at the beginning of a long, unwelcome stretch where he felt uncomfortable and unsure.
“That’s where it originally started,” he said, beginning a tour through the chronology of his shoulder woes. “I had a tear in my teres major (a muscle in the back of the shoulder). But I also had a little nick in my labrum and a little bit of rotator cuff fraying. That’s what we got from the MRI then.”
It was decided that rehab would be the way to go – it often is as doctors usually prefer not to opt for surgery unless necessary – and Ray came back for the 2014 season at less than one hundred per cent. “It didn’t respond the way I wanted it to,” he said.
He performed well, nevertheless, being named the East Division’s Most Outstanding Player. After the season, surgery was indeed deemed necessary and Ray had the rotator cuff as well as the labrum in his throwing shoulder repaired.
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He didn’t see action last year until coming on in a relief appearance on Oct. 25. As the season ended, Ray started three games, his shoulder still in a post-surgery weakened state.
Now, with the 2016 season drawing closer, the veteran pivot is feeling much more confident.
“At this point I feel strong. I feel like I did – before the injury – going into a training camp.
“I’m interested to see how it’s gonna feel once I get into training camp and throwing every day. The wear and tear of just the football season. I’m really interested to see how it’s gonna react then.”
Ray’s off-season progress has him feeling optimistic about that. Pain-free throwing, taken for granted before he first injured the shoulder, has returned to his existence. He does not underplay the value of that, having been without it for too long.
“Before, when I threw when I’d first come out, it’d be pretty sore, pretty painful until I got it warmed up,” he said. “Now, when I come out and throw, I don’t have that same soreness when I’m warming up. So that feels like it normally did before the injury.
“I just come out and get warmed up and there’s not that pain that you gotta get through as you’re warming up. I’m so happy for that because I wasn’t sure if that was gonna be something I’d have to deal with for the rest of my time playing.”
As March turns to April and Ray continues to increase the number of his throwing sessions, he will also keep up his efforts to strengthen the shoulder with exercises designed for him by the Argos’ medical staff.
“I’m so happy for that because
I wasn’t sure if that was gonna
be something I’d have to deal with
for the rest of my time playing.”
“Pre-hab,” Ray calls it. “You’re kind of doing things to prevent injury.”
On that front he reports good news as well. “Before, it was painful doing that stuff, too. Now, I can really push it a lot harder,” he said.
With growing confidence and comfort, Ray is looking forward to concentrating on just the football stuff in 2016. There has been change and he will go into the season without a former partner in crime, receiver Chad Owens, with whom Ray had built a considerable passing yardage magnetism. The Argos, though, are deep in talent at the receiving position.
“It’s gonna be interesting to see with these young guys – who I really didn’t get a lot of time with last year – how it’s gonna play out in camp and who’s gonna be that replacement for me,” said Ray.
So that’s a question for Ray. Who will emerge as the receiver that just clicks with him?
If there’s uncertainty in that, it’s probably a good bet that Ricky Ray will take it over wondering when his shoulder was going to feel fine again.
The giggle told us he’s done with that.