Now in his fourth season in the Canadian Football League, former Loveland standout Ayden Eberhardt is on pace to have his best year yet.
The LHS alum, who guided the Red Wolves (then the Indians) on an improbable run to a before walking on at Wyoming, has nearly 500 receiving yards six games into an 18-game schedule for the Ottawa Redblacks.
But there was a time, albeit brief, his future in football after college was in doubt.
Following prep success which included more than 3,000 yards of total offense his senior year, Eberhardt walked on to the Wyoming squad. That was where he moved from quarterback to wide receiver and impressed the coaching staff so much that he was .
He played for the Cowboys through the shortened COVID year in 2020 and was looking forward to the 2021 season. But halfway through it, he tore his ACL and meniscus.
Then, a month after his surgery for that, he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes.
“It was just kind of like a 1-2 punch straight to the gut,” Eberhardt said. “I gave myself a week to kind of say, ‘This isn’t fair. Maybe this isn’t for me.’ After that week, I was like, ‘Alright, I’m done feeling sorry for myself. What do I really want to do?’
“Football has always been a part of my life, starting in kindergarten or first grade, or whenever you start flag football. And it’s just been something I’ve loved for forever and I didn’t think that I could walk away from the game. I still felt super determined to get back.”
That determination helped him get through his knee rehabilitation and his diabetes diagnosis with the lifestyle changes that go along with it.
Once he felt strong and confident enough to get back into football, his agent called and told him the BC Lions of the CFL wanted to sign him. His agent told him he should accept the opportunity.
“At that point, I was obviously always one for like, the NFL and all that kind of stuff, but them reaching out right away, I was like, ‘You know what? Let’s do it. Let’s just see what happens,’” Eberhardt said. “I still wanted to play football and looking back, I want to say it was a make-or-break time for me. I could have gotten other opportunities after that for sure, but it was awesome to be able to go up to BC.”
He went to training camp with the Lions and found himself among another 60 or so rookies looking to make the team. After two preseason games, Eberhardt made the roster.
That first season was mostly a learning experience. He spent most of the season on the practice squad except for a couple of games when some receivers on the main roster were hurt.
More importantly, it gave him an opportunity to learn and adjust to the rules and differences between the Canadian and American games.
“It was a good year for me, I think, learning-wise because I was learning about the CFL,” he said. “That first year it was really nice to, obviously, get the game experience but kind of in general be able to practice every single day on the differences and get more and more comfortable with the differences in the game. It was a great environment for me to be in, and I truly loved that first year.”
In his second season with the Lions, he started every game, catching 41 passes for 639 yards and scoring a pair of touchdowns.
What he learned in his first season clearly showed in his second. He knew what to expect and what was expected of him. He knew the daily routines from meetings to practices.
Even with a year behind him, he considered his second season another learning experience.
“The game started to slow down a bit towards probably the last five or six games of that second year,” he said. “It was really cool to be able to be in it. I knew what the meetings looked like. I knew what the whole practice week looked like and obviously what a game looked like. But to actually be in it was awesome.”
He got some postseason experience in his second year as well, which carried into his third season where he continued to improve. He caught 45 passes for 863 yards and scored four touchdowns.
The game slowed down for him even more, he said, while his production increased.
After that season, his contract with BC was up and he eventually signed with the Redblacks, who he is currently in his first season with.
“I just felt super comfortable with their system and kind of where they saw me fitting in with them and the receiver room,” he said. “We’ve got some great receivers in Ottawa right now and I think it just felt like a great fit.”
Six games into the season, Eberhardt has caught 33 passes for 469 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns.
The Redblacks are 0-6, but he believes there is plenty of time to turn things around. And he has no regrets about joining the CFL when other opportunities could have come his way.
“I think we’re in a tough spot with our team at the moment,” Eberhardt said. “Once we get some wins under our belt, I think we’ll just keep rolling. It’s not going to happen at the snap of a finger, but we’re getting really, really close. But I couldn’t be happier with my decision of being in the CFL. I think it’s a great game and it’s super exciting.”
