Shai Ross (born September 17, 1993) is a Canadian former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

Amateur career

Ross first played

in his senior year while attending Dakota Collegiate. After graduating, he then played major junior football for the St. Vital Mustangs in 2014 where he was named an all-star. He was then invited to play for the

Manitoba Bisons The Manitoba Bisons are the athletic teams that represent the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The football team plays at Princess Auto Stadium, the soccer team plays at the outdoor soccer field on campus, track and field te ...

in 2015, but instead chose to play in the

Canadian Junior Football League The Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) is a national Canadian football league consisting of 19 teams playing in five provinces across Canada. The teams compete annually for the Canadian Bowl. Many CJFL players move on to professional footbal ...

for the

Okanagan Sun The Okanagan Sun are a Canadian Junior Football team based in Kelowna, British Columbia. The Sun play in the seven-team B.C. Football Conference, which itself is part of the Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) and competes annually for the nat ...

in 2015, where he played in the

Canadian Bowl The Canadian Bowl is the championship of the Canadian Junior Football League The Canadian Junior Football League (CJFL) is a national Canadian football league consisting of 19 teams playing in five provinces across Canada. The teams compete an ...

that year. Ross then joined the Bisons in 2016 to play

U Sports football U Sports football is the highest level of amateur play of Canadian football and operates under the auspices of U Sports, Canada's governing body for university sports. Twenty-seven teams from Canadian universities are divided into four athleti ...

where he was a

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

All-Star at

kick returner A return specialist or kick returner is a player on the special teams unit of a gridiron football team who specializes in returning punts and kickoffs. There are few players who are exclusively return specialists; most also play another positio ...

that year. He played two more years with the Bisons and finished his university career having played in 22 regular season games and recording 73 receptions for 1,197 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Professional career

Edmonton Eskimos / Elks

In the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

's Western Regional Combine, Ross finished first in four of the six testing categories and impressed scouts enough to earn an invitation to the National Combine. Among the top prospects for the 2019 CFL Draft, he finished first in the Broad Jump and Shuttle Drill and in second place in the Vertical Jump and 3-Cone Drill. He then attended mini-camp with the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

, but was not offered a contract. Ross was drafted in the fifth round, 40th overall, by the

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at Commonwealth Stadium. The E ...

and signed with the team on May 15, 2019. Following training camp, he made the team's active roster and played in his first professional game on June 14, 2019, in a win against the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: ''Les Alouettes de Montréal'') are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has disbanded twice and been re-established thrice. The Alouettes compe ...

. He played in five regular season games in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

, where he was utilized as a kick returner and had one punt return for 20 yards and two kick returns for 48 yards. He finished the season on the team's injured list. With the

2020 CFL season The 2020 CFL season would have been the 67th season of modern-day Canadian football. Officially, it would have been the 63rd season of the Canadian Football League. It was originally scheduled to begin on June 11; on April 7, the start of the ...

cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by SARS-CoV-2, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Most cases over the course o ...

, Ross did not play in 2020. In anticipation of the

2021 season 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, he signed a contract extension with Edmonton on February 1, 2021, through to the 2022 season. He again made the team's opening day roster and recorded his first career reception in the first game of the season on August 7, 2021, against the

Ottawa Redblacks The Ottawa Redblacks (officially stylized as REDBLACKS) (Canadian French, French: ) are a professional Canadian football team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The team plays in the East Division (CFL), East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL ...

. In the following week's game, on August 14, 2021, he scored his first career professional touchdown on an 11-yard pass from

Trevor Harris Trevor Harris (born May 31, 1986) is an American professional football quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was signed by the Jacksonville Jaguars as an undrafted free agent in 2010. Harris has a ...

against the

. He played in all 14 regular season games and recorded 27 receptions for 369 yards and four touchdowns. In

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

, Ross played in the first two regular season games, but did not record a reception. He was released on June 21, 2022.

BC Lions

On June 23, 2022, it was announced that Ross had signed with the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division (CFL), West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions playe ...

. He became a free agent after the 2022 season.

Personal life

Ross has a daughter who was born in 2015 while he was a member of the

, but was able to fly back to Winnipeg in time for her birth. His brother, Alex Taylor, was selected by the Eskimos in the 2018 CFL Draft and the two were teammates in

. Ross gained notoriety in 2021 through a viral video which showed him dunking an

Oreo Oreo (; stylized in all caps) is an American brand of sandwich cookie consisting of two cocoa biscuits with a sweet fondant filling. Oreos were introduced in 1912 by Nabisco, and the brand has been owned by Mondelez International since its me ...

while performing a backflip. In 2022, Ross filmed another video that went viral of him doing a backflip while holding a barbell.

References

External links

BC Lions bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ross, Shai 1993 births Living people BC Lions players Canadian football wide receivers Edmonton Elks players Manitoba Bisons football players Players of Canadian football from Manitoba Canadian football people from Winnipeg