Stampeders repeat gets bettor odds
There was a time when football camps were fuelled by testosterone, sweat, Gatorade, hope, harangues and beer, in no particular order. Of late there's been an unlikely addition to the mix ? chocolate milk.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders, for one, have adopted the brown moustache approach to training, using chocolate milk as their drink of choice to replenish players' reserves during two-a-day practices leading up to this week's opening of the CFL regular season.
Various studies in recent years have pointed to the recuperative values of the laced moo-juice and it received a famous boost when swimmer Michael Phelps mixed up a milky instant breakfast brew between races while winning his six gold medals in Beijing.
In any case, the Roughriders need to pull out all the stops if they are to return to the form that won them the Grey Cup two season ago, while overcoming the reigning champion Calgary Stampeders.
The odds makers at bet365.com have made the Stampeders the clear-cut favourites to repeat, rating them at +170 (bet $100 to win $170) followed in order by Edmonton (+350), B.C. (+450), Montreal (+550), Saskatchewan (+1000 and so much for chocolate milk of bookmakers' kindness), Toronto (+1,100), Hamilton (+1,400) and Winnipeg (+1,600).
Note that, once again, the power appears to be centred in the West. Downtrodden Winnipeg might belong out there geographically, too, but competitively the Bombers definitely fit into the mould of Southern Ontario ? the Argos and Ticats combined last season to register only seven wins against 29 defeats. That's a winning percentage of .241, otherwise known as ugly.
All four Western teams finished last season with winning records, with Edmonton crossing over to knock off Winnipeg in the Eastern semifinal. The Eskimos went on to lose by 10 points to the Als, aborting what would have been an all-Alberta Grey Cup in Montreal.
With this year's Cup scheduled for Calgary, the prospects of such an all-Alberta final are good, at least by the early portents. But the CFL schedule is long and notoriously open to upset; no fewer than seven different teams have won it all in the past 10 years and there has not been a repeat winner since the Argonauts in 1996-97.
Still, there's talk of the "D" word in Calgary and nobody is taking it lightly.
"This team has an opportunity to do something that teams dream of doing and that's hopefully forming a dynasty," quarterback Henry Burris declared the other day as he signed a four-year contract extension. "That's what a lot of guys in this locker room talk about and we're going to work our butts off until we can make that happen."
Whatever Burris is being paid (his earlier deal called for $350,000 per season), he has earned it. But he must also fit into the Stamps relatively modest salary cap of $4.2 million (the Jays' payroll, for comparison sake, amounts to more than twice the entire CFL's).
"As a player, you always want to get your market value and whatever that might be," Burris said. "My No. 1 issue was to make sure we could retain everybody. We've built something special here. To keep the core intact was definitely important."
Calgary has retained 37 of the 46 players who finished last season, its entire coaching staff, plus former quarterback and now coach Dave Dickenson.
The Stampeders open their schedule on Wednesday at home to the Alouettes in a Grey Cup rematch. It's the back half of a Canada Day doubleheader, following Toronto at Hamilton.
In both cases, believe it, the winners will milk victory for all it is worth.
There was a time when football camps were fuelled by testosterone, sweat, Gatorade, hope, harangues and beer, in no particular order. Of late there's been an unlikely addition to the mix ? chocolate milk.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders, for one, have adopted the brown moustache approach to training, using chocolate milk as their drink of choice to replenish players' reserves during two-a-day practices leading up to this week's opening of the CFL regular season.
Various studies in recent years have pointed to the recuperative values of the laced moo-juice and it received a famous boost when swimmer Michael Phelps mixed up a milky instant breakfast brew between races while winning his six gold medals in Beijing.
In any case, the Roughriders need to pull out all the stops if they are to return to the form that won them the Grey Cup two season ago, while overcoming the reigning champion Calgary Stampeders.
The odds makers at bet365.com have made the Stampeders the clear-cut favourites to repeat, rating them at +170 (bet $100 to win $170) followed in order by Edmonton (+350), B.C. (+450), Montreal (+550), Saskatchewan (+1000 and so much for chocolate milk of bookmakers' kindness), Toronto (+1,100), Hamilton (+1,400) and Winnipeg (+1,600).
Note that, once again, the power appears to be centred in the West. Downtrodden Winnipeg might belong out there geographically, too, but competitively the Bombers definitely fit into the mould of Southern Ontario ? the Argos and Ticats combined last season to register only seven wins against 29 defeats. That's a winning percentage of .241, otherwise known as ugly.
All four Western teams finished last season with winning records, with Edmonton crossing over to knock off Winnipeg in the Eastern semifinal. The Eskimos went on to lose by 10 points to the Als, aborting what would have been an all-Alberta Grey Cup in Montreal.
With this year's Cup scheduled for Calgary, the prospects of such an all-Alberta final are good, at least by the early portents. But the CFL schedule is long and notoriously open to upset; no fewer than seven different teams have won it all in the past 10 years and there has not been a repeat winner since the Argonauts in 1996-97.
Still, there's talk of the "D" word in Calgary and nobody is taking it lightly.
"This team has an opportunity to do something that teams dream of doing and that's hopefully forming a dynasty," quarterback Henry Burris declared the other day as he signed a four-year contract extension. "That's what a lot of guys in this locker room talk about and we're going to work our butts off until we can make that happen."
Whatever Burris is being paid (his earlier deal called for $350,000 per season), he has earned it. But he must also fit into the Stamps relatively modest salary cap of $4.2 million (the Jays' payroll, for comparison sake, amounts to more than twice the entire CFL's).
"As a player, you always want to get your market value and whatever that might be," Burris said. "My No. 1 issue was to make sure we could retain everybody. We've built something special here. To keep the core intact was definitely important."
Calgary has retained 37 of the 46 players who finished last season, its entire coaching staff, plus former quarterback and now coach Dave Dickenson.
The Stampeders open their schedule on Wednesday at home to the Alouettes in a Grey Cup rematch. It's the back half of a Canada Day doubleheader, following Toronto at Hamilton.
In both cases, believe it, the winners will milk victory for all it is worth.
