Taylor Shire
Regina Leader-Post
With five sacks in his last five games for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, defensive end Shane Ray has found his footing back in the CFL.
And after not playing a game for nearly three years, it’s as much as he could have asked for.
After being a first-round NFL draft pick by the Denver Broncos in 2015 out of the University of Missouri, Ray won a Super Bowl in his rookie season as he chipped in with two tackles and a forced fumble in the championship game.
He went on to play 49 games over four seasons with the Broncos, racking up 94 tackles and 14 sacks, before a lingering wrist injury left him searching for a new team.
After a stint with the Baltimore Ravens in 2019, Ray took some time away from the game to get healthy before making his way to the CFL for the first time in 2021 with the Toronto Argonauts.
In his second season, Ray was part of Toronto’s Grey Cup championship before he tried the NFL one more time with the Buffalo Bills (2023) and Tennessee Titans (2024).
Then in January this year, Ray made his way back to the CFL with Saskatchewan and this season, he’s been a key part of the defensive line.
As Ray and the Roughriders get set to visit the Calgary Stampeders on Saturday, we sat down with him to learn more about his journey:
Name: Shane Ray
Position: Defensive end
Number: 5
Age: 32
Height and weight: 6-foot-3, 255 pounds
Hometown: “Kansas City, Missouri … born and raised.”
When did you get into football?
“When I was like five or six years old. So I’ve been playing football for 25 years.”
Other sports growing up?
“I ran track and (played) football. That was really it.”
How did you first get to the CFL?
“After I had got released from the Ravens, I was still injured and I took two years to just kind of take off from football and get healthy. And then I did a workout and (John Murphy) was there, who was the assistant GM for Toronto, and he just offered me a job. And I just jumped at it. I took it. I wanted to play football, so I just came up here.”
How did you end up in Saskatchewan?
“(Riders head coach Corey) Mace was my coach in Toronto, so just keeping that relationship that I had with him even when I was back in the NFL, working and stuff like that, we’d have conversations and just stay in touch. He would check on me and things like that.
“And then it just got to the point where after I left Tennessee, I just still wanted to play football. I was looking for opportunity. Mace gave me one, and he just told me about the team here, the locker room, the guys that were here, and I said I wanted to be part of that.”
Biggest adversity you’ve had to overcome?
“Probably my injury in the NFL. It took me a really long time to get back healthy and to overcome that and even to fight back into football after that. I think that was the biggest challenge that I had to face.”
If somebody gave you the floor for five minutes, what would you talk about?
“Life. If somebody gave me the floor, it would be the moment to just encourage anybody who I felt like was going through something hard, that they felt like they couldn’t get through. I feel like I got a lot of moments where, in my own personal life, where I thought like this was over, you know, it was done. But I just continued to work. And it always works out, even when it doesn’t look like it.”
Favourite football memory?
“Honestly, man, I would say it have to be winning the Super Bowl. That was just second to none. Having that experience, the team that I was on, the guys that were in that locker room — it was incredible.”
Hidden talent or other hobbies?
“I make music in the off-season. I like to write. I like to make music. I write short stories. I was published in the ‘Anthology of Young Americans’ when I was like 10 years old. So, writing has always kind of been like something that I’ve done.”
Any other jobs besides playing football?
“I had a job in high school where I was working at an Indian restaurant. It was like an Indian Chipotle almost. So I was like making tikka masala and stuff like that. But my high school coach ended up telling me to quit that job.”
What would you be doing if you weren’t playing football?
“I’ve got like three jobs I think I would want to do. One would be coach. Two, I would want to be some type of entrepreneur, as far as owning my own business or in the stock market. And (three), I would want to get into real estate.”
What else would you like people to know about you?
“I’m just a guy. I just enjoy being around my guys. I enjoy coming to work every day in a good environment and just being myself. I like to have fun, joke around with the guys, talk a little stuff. I mean that’s really just me. I try to stay even keel throughout my day.”
tshire@postmedia.com
