Tommy Nield<\/a> is just the 10th player to catch at least one touchdown pass in each of his first two starts with the Green and White.<\/p>\n\u201cThat\u2019s an incredible stat,\u201d Nield said with a smile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just grateful to have the opportunities I\u2019ve had these last two games to get two starts. I just want to keep building off it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nield, who missed six games with an ankle injury, first suited up for the Roughriders on July 25 against the visiting Edmonton Elks.<\/p>\n
He was elevated to front-line duty the following week in place of Samuel Emilus, who was placed on the six-game injured list (knee).<\/p>\n
Nield\u2019s first two receptions as a Roughrider came on the same possession \u2014 a nine-play, 79-yard touchdown march against the host Montreal Alouettes on Aug. 2. A 26-yard catch and a 13-yard major were separated by five plays.<\/p>\n
Most recently, he caught a 26-yard six-pointer from Trevor Harris in Saturday\u2019s 29-9 CFL victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Mosaic Stadium.<\/p>\n
In so doing, Nield joined an exclusive fraternity of Roughriders with a TD catch in each of the first two starts.<\/p>\n
The team record of three was established by a future Riders legend, Weston Dressler, in 2008.<\/p>\n
Nield has an opportunity to tie Dressler\u2019s mark when the Roughriders (8-1) face the Calgary Stampeders (6-3) at McMahon Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n
As it stands, Nield is part of a 2-for-2 club that also includes Holland Aplin (1952), Mac Speedie (1953), Rhett Dawson (1975), Daric Zeno (1985), Prechae Rodriguez (2010), Anthony Allen (2014), John Chiles (2016) and Bakari Grant (2017).<\/p>\n
Speedie, as an aside, is the only former Roughriders player in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He played for Saskatchewan in 1953 and 1954 after starring for the Cleveland Browns from 1946 to 1952.<\/p>\n
The Canton, Ohio-based shrine also displays the Hall of Fame bust of defensive lineman Andy Robustelli \u2014\u00a0formerly of the Los Angeles Rams (1951 to 1955) and New York Giants (1956 to 1964).<\/p>\n
His grandson, Joe Robustelli, is currently one of the Roughriders\u2019 starting receivers \u2014\u00a0along with Nield, KeeSean Johnson, Dohnte Meyers and Dhel Duncan-Busby.<\/p>\n
Nield, 26, spent his first four CFL seasons with the Toronto Argonauts \u2014 earning Grey Cup rings in 2022 and 2024 \u2014\u00a0before signing with Saskatchewan in February.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t take him very long to make a positive first impression.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s outstanding,\u201d Harris said of the 6-foot-3, 203-pound McMaster University Marauders alumnus.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbout three or four days into training camp, I asked the coaches to let me get some reps with him, because he\u2019s just done such a great job understanding his depth and timing and how to win in certain routes and understand leverage.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s one of those big-bodied guys. He has great hands and he\u2019s just a tremendous guy, too. Getting some reps with him in training camp ended up paying some dividends here when he ended up entering the starting lineup after he came back from his ankle (injury).<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a guy who we\u2019re very fortunate to have and he\u2019s doing a tremendous job.\u201d<\/p>\n
That was evident on Saturday, when Nield held on to the ball in the end zone while absorbing an impactful hit from the Tiger-Cats\u2019 Mack Bannatyne.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could see out of the corner of my eye that the safety was coming over, so I knew I was going to take a shot,\u201d Nield recounted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose types of plays, you\u2019ve really got to lock in on the football and be secure through the catch point and know you\u2019re going to take a hit. You\u2019ve got to squeeze the ball any way possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Having succeeded in that regard, Nield incited a thunderous reaction from a sellout crowd of 33,350.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou kind of black out for a second,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can\u2019t even hear the noise because you\u2019re so fired up. You\u2019re just excited that you made a play for the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was incredible. I\u2019ve never played in front of a crowd like that. You could feel the energy the whole afternoon. It\u2019s truly amazing being on the field and having that many people supporting me when I\u2019m out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 No. 83 is also No. 10. Tommy Nield is just the 10th player to catch…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-85975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}