The start to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 2025 season is still weeks away and yet Zach Collaros has already suffered his first sack.
The Canadian Football League announced on Wednesday — the first day of rookie camp — that Winnipeg’s starting pivot will be suspended for the June 12th home opener/season opener against the B.C. Lions ‘for failure to respond to Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) officials for an off-season drug test.
‘CCES personnel attempted to contact Mr. Collaros twice by phone, once by text and once by email over a two-hour period. He failed to respond within 24 hours. In consideration of extenuating circumstances, the CFL has reviewed the situation and has suspended him for one game.
‘Mr. Collaros has never tested positive for a Performance Enhancing Drug under the joint CFL/CFLPA Drug Policy.
‘Moving forward, the CFL and the CFLPA have agreed to enhance contact protocols for off-season testing of players.’
Collaros suspended one game for failure to respond to CCES officials for drug test
And here’s where the frustration levels are at peak levels for Collaros and the Blue Bombers. Collaros said he missed a call and text message in the moment from a number he didn’t recognize adding, “I didn’t even realize it had happened until weeks later when the PA (CFL Players’ Association) reached out to me. I went back and looked and there was a call there and a text message there as well. I said to the person that called me, ‘this is an honest mistake. Have him call me back and we can do the test today.’
“I’m a big believer you’re in control of your own destiny, so I take responsibility for it. It’s my life, right? I would hate to preach it to my kids every day to take accountability for things, so I take accountability for that. However, the acknowledgement of a flawed method of getting into contact and that they’re going to go change it… that doesn’t sit right with me.
“Through this process as we were trying to find ways to resolve this and not have it come out publicly and not have there be a suspension I said, ‘Hey, I’ll play the first game, but you don’t have to pay me. Fine me. You can change the rule, and I won’t say ‘boo’. But somebody was pretty adamant about moving forward with this.”
The Blue Bombers issued their own statement on Wednesday and as it is up to the club’s discretion, allowed Collaros to participate in Day 1 of rookie camp along with the other pivots.
The club has issued a statement regarding Zach Collaros ruling. pic.twitter.com/med6nNOZOj
— Winnipeg Blue Bombers (@Wpg_BlueBombers) May 7, 2025
Collaros wondered why, as is the case in other leagues, why there was no system in place in the offseason where a player misses a call from a drug-testing agency why the club or agent wasn’t contacted in order to help with the process. That protocol, it would seem based on the league’s release, will be altered going forward.
That does nothing for the veteran pivot now, though, and for a team that will now be without their starter for their first game. It’s also a subject that has caused him enormous stress over the last few months.
“It’s something we’ve been talking about now for a while,” he said. “I’m looking forward to moving forward with it but I’m obviously not happy about it at all. The last few months have been very frustrating as well as — ‘agonizing’ is the wrong word — but just trying to think about what the right thing is to do here. Do we go to arbitration? Do we accept the one-game (suspension)?
“From a reputation standpoint and more so loving the game of football and all it’s given to me and having always done it the right way, to be even associated with a suspension like this even though it’s not for failed drug test… I’m older now but there’s a lot of kids that looked up to me when I was back home and in college and here as well. You do it the right way, you don’t want people — especially children — to think you do it the wrong way. That was the hard part for me to swallow.
“… I’m disappointed, obviously. It’s not a great way to start the season, to start training camp. I feel like accepting the one game was a way to make it less of a distraction and allow for us to move forward.”
The Blue Bombers could turn to Chris Streveler — who filled in for Collaros last year in one start in a win over Ottawa — and was back on the field on Wednesday after suffering a serious knee injury in last year’s Banjo Bowl. The other options are second-year pivot Terry Wilson and Shea Patterson, who was 2-4 in his six starts replacing Trevor Harris with Saskatchewan last season. The other QB in camp is rookie Chase Artopoeus of Tennessee-Chattanooga.
“As usual — you know where my thoughts go, I’m sure I’ve said it enough — it’s concern for Zach and making sure he’s OK,” said head coach Mike O’Shea after practice. “I think, to a man, everybody on the team is at some point probably going to feel a little pissed off at what’s happened to him. Everybody is going to have his back. This is the cards we’re dealt, and we’ll just move forward.”
O’Shea added he doesn’t believe Collaros bears any responsibility for what happened, adding this on how the protocols were initially set and how they’ve been subsequently changed now: “In any business, in any system where there’s a gap in the process, I mean, everybody gets frustrated with that. They agreed to fix it and I’m sure it will be fixed.
“… All I know is we’re going to have a great group of guys that rally behind him and then will work their asses for him.”
‘OTHER’ QB NEWS: This from TSN’s Dave Naylor on Blue Bombers 2025 second-round draft pick Taylor Elgersma:
According to an @NFL source, the @packers are expected to offer a contract to former @Laurier QB Taylor Elgersma. Elgersma attended mini-camp with the Packers last weekend and had been planning to attend @BuffaloBills mini-camp May 9-10th. #NFL
— Dave Naylor (@TSNDaveNaylor) May 7, 2025
FYI: The Collaros news dominated the first on-field sessions on Wednesday, obviously. Some random quick hitters from the rest of the day: New QB coach Jarious Jackson was not present at Day 1, with O’Shea indicating, ‘he’s got a personal issue and is excused.’… DB Trey Vaval did not practice on Wednesday and Quandre Mosely, another DB, left the session on a cart with an undisclosed injury… O’Shea on the interview draft pick Jaylen Smith had with the club before they grabbed him in the second round of last week’s CFL Draft: “His interview was impressive. He had a lot of energy. He’s very bright and bright-eyed. It was a good process. It was great talking to him, and you felt better when you’re talking to him. It just felt like you were going to have a good day.”
NEXT: Day 2 of Rookie Camp goes Thursday morning at the field beside Winnipeg Soccer Federation South (211 Chancellor Matheson Road) from 10 a.m.-12:15 p.m.
