Elks franchise QB Trevor Harris delves further into The TB12 Method to prolong CFL career

Photo courtesy: Edmonton Elks

Trevor Harris has delved further into The TB12 Method to lengthen his CFL playing career as long as possible.

“Trying to play until I’m 67 is well within reach,” Harris said with a smile.

He was obviously joking about quarterbacking in Canada past the age of typical retirement north of the border, but the 35-year-old believes there are many years ahead for him on the football field.

After the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 three-down season, Harris focused on becoming a certified nutritionist and personal trainer. He has both certificates and showed up to Edmonton in remarkable shape for training camp.

Part of the preparation included another trip to the TB12 Performance Center. Armed with increased knowledge from his studies, Harris was able to ask more precise questions on his visit to the place made famous by the man with the initials on the front of multiple locations in the United States.

“You see Tom Brady, not that you’re going to just model everything that you do off him, but the dude’s 43 and he’s winning Super Bowls, and they’re projected to win more Super Bowls, people are picking them to win Super Bowls,” Harris said.

“He’s doing something different because what he’s doing is unprecedented and I just want to be able to do that for my teammates.”

Brady focuses on pliability and flexibility by softening and lengthening the tissues in his body. He’s only suffered one injury that kept him out of games so far in his NFL career, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament when Kansas City Chiefs’ safety Bernard Pollard put his helmet on Brady’s left knee in the first game of the 2008 season. He’s been healthy and played in every game since, aside from his four-game “Deflategate” suspension in 2016.

Winning Super Bowls has been the impetus for Brady launching his facilities, complete with full training regimens and eating programs. His book The TB12 Method: How to Achieve a Lifetime of Sustained Peak Performance has become a New York Times bestseller with Brady’s ways unveiled for anyone interested.

“My first year I went there they told me, ‘You and Tom are pretty similar in the way you guys approach things and the way you guys like to do things.’ A lot of the drive and motivation they said that they felt was pretty similar,” Harris said.

“They go through in pretty fine detail. They have you walk on treadmills and go through the data analysis, they have you bring your grocery list and the things that you eat every day, the workouts that you do and why you do the workouts you do — they ask you a lot of questions.”

Harris has yet to meet Brady or have the chance to talk to him, but the body coaches at TB12’s Performance Center want it to happen. If Brady’s time in New England hadn’t come to an end, which led to him signing in Tampa Bay, the meeting would’ve happened, but it wasn’t to be this year. Regardless, Harris learned a lot in the extended off-season.

“I have so much confidence in Trevor. He’s so unique and he’s always looking for an edge to make him better. In 2018, it was some brain training stuff that he brought to Ottawa, which was phenomenal,” Elks head coach Jaime Elizondo said.

“You get to figure out how you did because there’s no better litmus test than going out there and playing against some of the best athletes in the world and some of the best football players in the world in the CFL,” Harris said.

In 2019, Harris missed five games due to a right throwing arm injury. He returned to complete 36-of-39 passes for 421 yards in the East Division Semi-Final win against Montreal. That performance allowed Harris to set two CFL playoff records, completing 22 consecutive passes and 92.3 percent of his throws.

Following multiple East Division Finals, Harris is taking aim at winning an elusive Grey Cup championship as a starting quarterback.

“He’s going to look for an edge as long as he possibly can, whether it’s preparation, film study, or how he takes care of his body,” Elizondo said.

“I don’t know if he can play to 67, but I’d say probably 65, 66 or sure.”

Justin Dunk
Justin Dunk is a football insider, sports reporter and anchor.