Alabama Football: Trent Richardson signs to play in CFL

Former Alabama football running back Trent Richardson signs to play in the Canadian Football League for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

A far cry from being selected third overall in the 2012 NFL draft. According to ESPN.com, the Roughriders announced Tuesday that Richardson would be taking his talents to the Great White North.

“At Alabama, Richardson ran for 3,130 yards in three seasons with 35 touchdowns. He also had 730 receiving yards with seven touchdowns.” He was also third in the voting for the 2011 Heisman Trophy, which was won by Robert Griffin III.

One would think that those facts would support a bright future in the NFL. Instead, Richardson struggled. Listed at 5-foot-9 and 230 lbs, the Florida native spent only four seasons in the NFL. The Cleveland Browns drafted him in hopes that he could be the saviour on offense, but he was gone to the Indianapolis Colts after only two seasons.

Richardson carried the ball 614 times for 2 032 yards and 17 touchdowns in those four years. That total only averages 3.3 yards per carry, compared to his 5.8 yards per carry for Alabama.

Those numbers, when one understands the situation, are not all that surprising. Cleveland has been a disaster for decades. The team’s management continues to draft players to be quick-fixes, instead of structuring a slow but methodical approach to building a competitive team. They also play in the same division as some of the top defensive NFL teams of all time, the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens.

How was Richardson going to run the ball when the Browns offensive line couldn’t block a cold, let alone a top-ranked defense?

The Colts also seemed like a bad fit to highlight his talents. Indianapolis has been a throw-first team since Peyton Manning was their quarterback, and not much has changed even today. Richardson was brought in to provide a running game merely by his own merit, to give the offense a running threat to keep defenses honest while playing the pass.

Richardson was more of a second thought being on the Colts than a priority.

Now 27, Richardson wants a shot at redemption, and he believes that playing in the CFL will give him a chance to show other NFL teams what they missed in him.

However, that desire was not always the case. According to Mark Inabinett of AL.com, Richardson almost allowed his love for football to die inside him:

"“It got to the point where I had that itch so bad I had to stop watching football […] When I say stop watching, I stopped watched ‘SportsCenter,’ I stopped watching anything that had to do with sports — unless it was Alabama football. I can never not watch that […] but I always had that itch when it come to wanting to be on the field.”"

Inabinett added that “Richardson hasn’t played in a football game since Aug. 30, 2015, when he lined up for 16 snaps in an Oakland Raiders’ NFL preseason game against the Seattle Seahawks. He ran for 19 yards on five carries.” Three days later, he was released. He signed with the Ravens last year, but an injured hamstring and knee “required surgery” and dashed any hope of a comeback.

Or did it?