If the Calgary weather hadn’t been comfortably into the 20s on the Celsius scale, you’d have sworn members of the Stampeders secondary were ready to do some snowmobiling at Tuesday’s practice at McMahon Stadium.

Or perhaps that they were set to pull a piping-hot pizza out of the oven.

Yes, a few Calgary defensive backs looked a little odd with those big gloves on their hands (as demonstrated after Tuesday’s practice by cornerback Dwight Anderson in the photo) but there was a method to the fashion madness.

“There’s a purpose behind it,” nodded defensive backs coach Corey Chamblin. “We’ve gotten a couple of penalties for holding and grabbing. So we’re trying to train the guys to use their feet more than their hands.

“Even with jamming and re-routing (opposing receivers) we want guys to concentrate on their feet more than their hands. With oven mitts on, you can’t grab cloth. That’s basically what it is. Hopefully it’ll do the trick.”

It was a lesson learned, it seems.

“It’s punishment for when they watch film and see holding,” said John Eubanks, one of the DBs who was forced to don the gloves during practice. “The refs are pretty strict about that and the coaches don’t want it to be a costly penalty. It actually happened yesterday. They got a picture of it, so I can’t deny it.’’