LOCKER-ROOM BLOG

BURRIS: Next year is here

February 20, 2009

Before looking ahead, please allow me to take one last peek at 2008.

When I think back to last year, the highlight of the season for me was having my wife Nicole, my son Armand, my parents, Nicole’s parents on the stage at Olympic Stadium after the Grey Cup receiving the MVP of the game.

After that, it was the reflections on the season. Going on the ice at the Saddledome with the Grey Cup and being on Hockey Night in Canada? That was huge. I wish I could have the video of that because I still haven’t seen it. Even people in the U.S. saw it and they’re telling me, “That was a heckuva speech you gave. We were so excited for you guys.”

But with the new season on the way, the time to look back at 2008 is starting to dwindle.
This off-season been different because we have achieved something. But I tell you one thing that hasn’t changed — that hunger is still there. We want to do something even more special than we did this past year. You hear that echoing with each of the guys I talk to — the guys who are here in town, the guys who are back in the U.S. training and getting ready. They don’t this to be the end of the dream. We want that dream to continue on into the ’09 season.

We know it’s going to be tough, but guys are training that much harder because of the size of the challenge that we’re going to face.

Because of what lies ahead, I scaled back a lot of my off-season activities. I talked to my wife about it and she saw the same things that I was seeing. I did a lot last season and by the end, I ran into a wall. The best solution to that is that we’ve got all these little things going on on the side and it’s time to nip that in the bud because my No. 1 responsibility is to be a quarterback and to lead this team.

Right now, mentally, emotionally and physically, I have to prepare myself for another grueling season and the only way to do that is to get rest. I do have a lot of responsibilities, both for the team and in this city — visiting schools, doing things in the community — but at the end of the day, the thing that people expect me to do is to show up and be a quarterback. I want to be able to survive every game and if I can’t do that, not only am I cheating this city and my team, but more importantly my family at home, too.

There are other family considerations. There’s a second child on the way, so I’ve got a lot going on this off-season. The last thing I want to have is Nicole taking both the future quarterback — our son Armand — and the new one we’ve got coming. I can’t have her juggling two at a time, so I’ve got to make sure I’m there. We are far away from home and we don’t have that support system like most people do. For me to be there and be able to spend the time with my family, to spend day after day with my little guys, that’s something each and every father would love to have and I’ve got to take advantage of it when I have that opportunity in the off-season.

As far as the serious training to prepare for the season, I’ve already started. Now is the time you’ll probably start to really see the difference — I’ll start to back on the pounds and starting taking 5,000 to 6,000 thousand calories a day. I’m starting to get into the training hard because I want to come in a little over 220 — maybe between the 220 and 225 mark like I was last year — and be ready to go. It’s a battle out there and last year it felt great to be in that position with the added bulk. I want to maintain that position.

Welll, that's all for now. Talk to you again soon, Stamps fans.

Henry Burris, #1

Burris bio

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