I used to put out an annual CFL preview in this space, and while I stopped doing that, I do still follow the CFL closely and still believe it's the best professional football league next to the NFL in the world. I try to get into the U.S. spring football leagues, and Lord knows I advocate for them in this space, but I just can't get super into them.
At the moment, the CFL is about 2/3rds through their season, and the name of the game seems to be parity this year. While the defending champion Montreal Alouettes are 9-1 and look head-and-shoulders ahead of anyone else in the league, and Hamilton is flailing at 2-8, everyone else seems capable of beating anyone else.
Consider the 3-7 Edmonton Elks. Not a good record, but those three wins came in their last three games, and all were by decisive margins. Indeed, they have a positive point differential despite their record. They seem to have figured something out and it's hard to bet against them right now.
Yes, I am talking about betting as I so often do, but before I get into that, let me tell you about the big current story in the league.
Nathan Rourke is back in the CFL. He set the CFL on fire in 2022, well on his way to breaking season quarterback records before an injury derailed him. The ascendency of Rourke was particularly important to Canadians as Rourke is a native Canadian, and there have not been many Canadian quarterback success stories in the CFL.
But Rourke chased an NFL dream, spent a year as the third-stringer for the Jacksonville Jaguars before heading to New England late in the season and spending this year in the camps of the Giants and the Raiders.
Players occasionally make successful switches to the NFL from the CFL, and knowing that, it's a bit of a puzzler to me that a guy who looked far-and-away like the best QB in CFL cannot hang on to a third string job in the NFL. Now he's back in the CFL and has immediately been installed as the starter for his old team, the British Columbia Lions.
This makes me feel for the Lions' incumbent QB, Vernon Adams, Jr., who you might remember from his Oregon days. He was having a fine season, but Rourke is Rourke, so to the bench Adams goes. A similar thing happened to him in Montreal, where he got hurt and lost his job to Trevor Harris while he recuperated. He can't catch a break.
With Rourke named the starter, the Lions were immediately made favorites by the sportsbooks against Winnipeg, the team that has been to four straight Grey Cups (winning two) and, while starting the season slow, seem to be turning it around. Heading into this one, they were coming off a 25-0 victory over ... the Lions.
I bet on Winnipeg, figuring that maybe Rourke needs a little more time before being a superstar again, and I was right as the Blue Bombers won, 20-11. Rourke was atrocious, particularly in the first half.
I'm riding a similar sentiment this week and targeting another returning star quarterback. Toronto Argonauts' quarterback Chad Kelly is the reigning CFL Most Outstanding Player and was 15-1 in his 16 starts for the Argos last season, but was suspended for the first 9 games of this season.
Nevertheless, the Argos are favorites against a Saskatchewan team that I'm bullish on. That game is on Thursday, and on Saturday, those Lions travel across the country take on 5-2-1 Ottawa, and again the sportsbooks are still drinking the Rourke kool-aid and installing BC as favorites.
So I've placed moneyline bets on both underdogs, Saskatchewan and Ottawa, and the good thing about taking two underdogs at plus-money is that only one needs to hit for you to profit. Thank me later.
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