Lions sophomore Rourke handling national pressure in breakout campaign
Published
What a difference a year has made for Nathan Rourke and the BC Lions.
By the midway mark of the 2021 pandemic-shortened season, the Lions were 4-3 and the then-rookie Rourke had spent most of the season on the sideline as Michael Reilly's understudy.
Fast forward a year later, Rourke has led the Lions to a 5-1 record, has earned top performer of the week three times and leads the league with 16 passing touchdowns. Being one of the few Canadian-born starters, he has learned to balance the pressures that come with being a national quarterback in the Canadian Football League by living in the moment.
"I understand the significance [of being a Canadian QB] and stuff, but I really just want to focus on the present moment and being there for my teammates here and now," Rourke told Dustin Neilson of The Neilson Show on TSN Edmonton 1260. "I think that stuff - a lasting legacy if you will - is stuff you think about after you're done playing...there's Canadian quarterbacks coming after me and so hopefully this will be less and less of a deal."
While their record may say otherwise, it has not been smooth sailing for Rourke and the Lions' offence as they were bit by the injury bug early in the season, losing CFL All-Star Bryan Burnham. While detrimental in the moment, Rourke has been amazed by the way his teammates have risen to the occasion.
"I think the guys have done a phenomenal job being able to step up when guys have gone down," said Rourke. "We really - in that Toronto game where Bryan went down initially, Scarf (Jacob Scarfone) was able to come in and get some valuable reps for us without even really taking any practice reps at that position throughout the duration of the week of practice. It's those types of things where guys are locked in and they're learning the playbook even if they're not practising and they're learning multiple positions just because you never know what's going to happen."
More adversity struck when in pursuit of the top spot in the West Division, the Lions fell to the reigning CFL champion Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Week 5, leaving Rourke with a lot of takeaways.
"We got down 21-0 in the first quarter and we really couldn't rebound after that," said Rourke. "I think we learned as a football team that against a great team like Winnipeg that you can't really put yourself in that type of hole and expect to be able to crawl out of it pretty easy. We got into another hole this past week against Saskatchewan and showed ourselves that we can get out of it."
Taking a moment to reflect on his title of the starting QB of the Lions, Rourke discussed how being in Vancouver has allowed his game to develop.
"I'm a big fan of the weather here," said Rourke." I grew up in Ontario so the winters, shovelling the driveway and doing those types of things were never something I was crazy about and so to come out here and to be able to be on the field in the offseason year-round even though sometimes it'll be a little rainy I think, in my opinion, that's a lot better than all the snow and stuff...it's really a blessing to be out here."