Coming up this week on the Mark Cast, Well, is it true?
Is it actually true? Is the XFL actually thinking about moving on and pivoting?
Shut up? Shut up? From Vegas reports coming out say the XFL
is thinking about moving the Vegas Vipers to Arizona or Nashville. What is going
on? We break it all down, crazy news week, Then big time
interview guests already scheduled before all the craziness. This week Randy Ambrosi, now
friend of the podcast, CFL Commissioner coming back on the show for a third
time. We talk CFL plus in America. We talked about Randy Ambrosi's legacy,
the Edmonton alex picture. QUI am Moore. I try to get up.
I try to serve our governors in the most honorable way I can.
I try to be someone who the fans would have respect for in that I'm
clearly working hard to make our league as big and powerful as can be and
do all of that in a way that brings, you know, brings credibility
to who I am as a person. Then Paraffino joins us, not only
talking about the XFL Vegas vibrus news, but we have XFL and USFL to
the NFL watch list, which players stuck on rosters and practice squads after the
final cuts. This week we have you covered. It was good to see
that there wasn't a lot as much can cannibalization on that front. That a
lot of these coaches and player personnel people value the experience of these guys,
you know, not only playing in a game, but also being in football
shape. So if they are air quote coming in to be a camp body,
they can provide that good look and there's more values to give you your
time and effort versus this guy versus a college kid who might have been a
seventh round, sixth round pick, got his head all big because he got
his seventy thousand dollars signing bonus and then didn't put in the rest of the
work for two and a half months. And then two outstanding and CFL player
interviews this week, Lady for Gerardo now friend of the show, Montreal Alouette's
quarterback and joining us for a fun chat. And then Stephen Dunbar, junior
of your now no longer winless at home and you know, and then Eternity
the Edmonton O Stephen Dubbar joining US wide receiver. There should be a good
show. I hope you guys enjoy liking subscribe. Hey guys, welcome to
the Mark ass read here at crazy newsweek, busy week and both with work
and the XFL stuff, watching you the waiver wires, players getting signed,
all that stuff. Thanks for joining us. Hey guys, future read here
with a little breaking news update. Just have this video put to bed,
edited, ready to upload. Got done running on the treadmill. Found out
the XFL had sent out a letter today photoed here just because you don't want
to see me right now on camera from Jason Gannella, the senior president of
ticket sales for the XFL. The letter states, quote, following feedback from
you, our fans, players, and local partners, the XFL has determined
that the team will not return to play at Cashman Field for the twenty twenty
fourth season. We appreciate your support and patients. As the league reviews all
of our options, we will provide information on a new home for the Vipers
as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please call. So
Obviously, Pat and I recorded our conversation earlier today. All of that still
stands. Talking about the potential national relocation or the Arizona relocation, but certainly
more smoke now with this fire about Vegas. Whether they play somewhere else in
Las Vegas the Vipers do, which obviously we went through all of that last
year with why they can't play at UNLV and White Legion Stadium and all of
that. This really speaks to me that the Vipers are done in Vegas.
I thought it was odd that they option to start selling season ticket pre sales
back in April. I believe like they did. Seemed weird timing. Mike
has also Mike Mitchell, who obviously has been report reading all this all along,
he put out on his Twitter feed a very similar message that was sent
to the actual XRAFL team members themselves that you know, the rest of the
staff. They're basically letting people know we have informed the public today that they
we are not returning. Let me see if I can pull that up and
says team today, we inform cashman Field we will not return to the building
for the twenty twenty four season. Following feedback from fans, players and local
partners, we have determined that it is in the league's best interest to find
a new home for the Vipers. My other takeaway with this, and I'll
put the screenshots of all of this, but obviously give Mike Mitchell lots of
credit for his fantastic reporting. They're keeping the viper's name in here, so
obviously that that speaks to you know, Pat and I talk in our conversation,
you'll hear coming up, you know, do we have the National Vipers?
We have anything else like that? But interesting, like I said,
a lot more smoke here. Certainly seems like the Viper's time is done.
Check out Pat and I's conversation. I've posted a shot as well on the
YouTube channel, but just obviously wanted the date this here late in the day
on Thursday, about six o'clock Pacific. Getting this all to bed here for
you guys, Hope you enjoy the rest of the episode. Hope you enjoy
Randy Ambrosie and I's chat and then Pat and I deep dive on the Vegas
situation and then talking all of the XFL and USFL signings to NFL rosters and
thanks guys, have our big time interview. Randy Ambrosie, commissioner of the
CFL, recorded that late last week we had pushed out the episode early before
you know, the CFL games last weekend, so it should be good fresh.
I know Randy's been making the rounds this week, curious to see which
publications write up certain podcast episodes and which one's done. We'll see. I
think Randy was really good. I hope you guys enjoy. I think getting
a little familiarity with Randy at this point third time on the show, I
think it's fun. I think Randy had some good answers talking about his legacy,
what he hopes that, you know, to be remembered as as a
you know, the CFL commissioner. All of that should be good. I
guess I really appreciate Pat joining. We were already kind of tracking the whole
XFL and USFL player signings to the NFL, and then all the Vegas Vipers
stuff came down, which, like I talked about with Pat in the episode
or in our interview, just weird timing with the report coming out from the
CBS reporter and then it was like Mark had the article ready to go,
but Mike's been talking about it forever, so I don't know. I've had
messages set my way to something is certainly awry with the Vegas Vipers. We
will see what comes out of that. And they really appreciate the Montreal Alouettes
and the Edmonton Elks making players available this week. Super appreciate Cody Bijard coming
back on. I said, it's good, you know, Cody and I
kind of got through all that stuff last time with the blocking and everything on
Twitter, so it's great just to be able to sit chat football, chat
Cody's life and kind of all that stuff. Really appreciate that. And then
that Stephen Dunbar is joining from the Edmonton Elks, you know, big time
a couple of weeks for them, and he's doing good and trays looking good.
So lots of excitement there. I hope you guys like and subscribe.
Still trying to get to three hundred subscribers. I think as the rain begins
to follow behind me here, I think we're slowly quickly transitioning out of the
summer season for the mark Ass. I think we'll be moving inside at some
of the interviews inside this week and some out. But as the rain is
following, I think I was needless to say the summer season has ended here
for the mark Ass. We'll get back inside the home studio. Hope you
guys enjoyed the episode. Lots of work this week, no, you know,
no NFL this weekend, last kind of weekend, So maybe we'll get
to get a little viewership bump here before I kick off next week. Still
trying to figure out what we're gonna do next week with the big NFL kickoff
on Thursday, So I guess subscribe. We'll see you next time. Well,
here we are back for the third time now on the podcast. We
have the commission of the CFI mister Randy and Rosie. Is it fair to
call you friend of the show now? Three times? End of the show?
Yeah, Brett, surely I thought were I thought we already decided that.
Well that's good. I'm excited to have you here mid season checkpoint.
You know, we had you on after kind of the post with the other
leagues and then the cbastad last year. A little more smooth sailing right now.
How are you feeling here halfway through the season, Well, you know,
candidly, really excited. It's been a great, great year so far.
Look if we kind of go back to, you know, before the
season started, new ownership in Montreal, Pierre Carl Palado and the excitement that
he's brought to that market. Uh, you know, we've we've got the
season up and running that the football has been incredible. You know. One
of the things that we often forget that it isn't just three down, but
it's all three phases of the game, and one of those phases that's been
firing on all cylinders for us as our kicking game. And you know,
we've had a lot of we've had a lot of scoring on our on our
special teams. The special teams element of our game, and that's one of
the things that makes us fun, fast and exciting is something we're very,
very proud of. Something. You know, we've talked about quarterback concerns,
right and obviously we have league here in the States now that we're talking about
a lot of injuries, everything going down. We've had a lot of kind
of crazy scenarios. We had crumbsanity and everything else. Are you surprised with
you know how much these guys have been able to step up now, I
mean, it's it could have been a far worse situation. Well, you
know, it's it is part of the reality of sports. You know that
injuries happen, and injuries the negative side, as you take a young young
athlete and somebody that's performing at a high level and they get knocked out,
and of course you never want to see that, and we want to get
them back as quickly as we can and get them back healthy. But the
flip side of that has always been that it gives somebody an opportunity and your
next stars begin to emerge. And and really that's what we've been seeing is
these young players who have been given a chance now and uh, and they
start to perform, you know, and this has gone this cycle, it's
it's I'm not going to sing you the theme song from the Lion King,
but the cycle of life here. I feel like there's maybe we should have
Taman and Pumba on and have them, have them sing along with us.
But this is how it works. And and you don't know where your next
superstar comes from, but it often, always, it almost always, maybe
all too often comes when somebody gets hurt and somebody gets a chance. And
and look, a famous example of that that we all you know talk about
is what happened with Tom Brady, right. It was an injury that resulted
in him getting his shot, and he went on to having I understand a
pretty good career, pretty good for this thing you talk, you know,
kicking and all that, you know, exciting play. What are you most
proud of this season? You know, I got the email and all the
demographics raup and did your impressions all that. What are you because you know
it was a rocky couple of years, or just kind of getting through everything
that had to happen. Well, I think what I'm most proud of is
our board of governors and our presidents and how they've all we've all rallied together
around you know, really making investments in the league and you know, build
holding a foundation for the league's future. I think when you come through a
difficult time, you know you can you can argue you can go one of
two different ways. You can pull back or you can move forward. I'm
most proud of the fact that our governors and our presidents have really chosen to
move this league forward. And you only have to look at, you know,
the investments we're making in this social digital platform, the work that's that's
going on and and and having that kind of set us on a path to
creating a new generation of fans. And then you know the results of that
our twenty five to fifty four demographic, you know, up twenty nine percent
year over year. Well, that doesn't just happen. That happens when you
do all the heavy lifting in the background. You know, I'm really I
am really excited to be part of the league and and a part of a
group of governors who are committed to the future. That's to me, that's
the thing that makes me most excited. Reading through the comments of the CFL
article that had all the kind of the press release stuff, I understand,
you know, TSN necessary partner right pays, you know, covers a lot
of the expenses for the league. People still upset about, you know,
like the broadcasts are dated or we want to see you know, we were
tired of the panel. We just had Milk Stegel on this week. So
I'm not you know, I'm not tired in the panel, But what do
you you know, in terms of like changes of that to kind of revamp
that, because I do agree with you know, the waggle and all of
that. You guys are making strides, So how can the TV broadcast kind
of mirror that? Well, look, there's always a conversation going on with
our partner at TSN about how do we take that next step together? And
we do you know, I think, look, I have to say they
have been a great partner for the league and there's not a there's not even
a part of me that isn't proud of our relationship with them. You know,
I think this is what we do. We we work at getting better.
This is what this is what the whole world of sports is. You
work at your craft and you look for opportunities to get better. You know.
One of the things that I think we can be proud of is that
we're doing. You know, it's one thing to it's one thing to kind
of poke somebody and say, you know, do more, but it's better
to do more yourself, and then, you know, and then create an
environment where everyone wants to raise their game because what they're seeing is so positive
and so encouraging. Look, this is what's happening around our ownership table.
You know what we have Amar doman joint and Amar kind of just creates such
a level of energy and we all feel it when when Amar enters the room.
But it's not just Amar, it's so what's going on in Toronto and
what Bill Manning and Chris Schufeld and Michael Clements and the whole organization are doing.
There's a lot of momentum in Toronto. It's what Pierre Carl Palado.
But then you have to say it's John Ruddy and Roger Greenberg and Ottawan what
they're doing. And then you think of Bob Bob Young and Stelco and Scott
Mitchell and matt Ethnick and what they're doing. It's contagious what Winnipeg is doing.
What Wade Miller and Mike Pile their board of their board chair are doing.
What's always been going on in Saskatchewan, you know, with Greg Yule
and Craig Reynolds and their board and their team looking at you know, John
Bean in Calgary and Calgary Sports and Entertainment. We we're pulling each other forward.
So what that does is it creates It creates an environment of excellence.
And nobody's going to say that we got it all figured out. I'm not
making us I'm not making a case for perfection. I'm making a case for
a group of people that have committed to the future. And I think when
you do that, everybody around us will seek ways to do to improve their
craft. So I've got nothing, but I've got nothing but compliments. I
think we're all in this together, and that's what I love about a partnership,
and what I love about the partnership with TSN. We are with them
and they are with us. Obviously the elephant in the room here you are
listing off and people working on all the different teams. Obviously Victor quee and
kind of that departure, and he'd been on the show bunch, friend of
the show, how big of a you know, Edmonton struggling with momentum this
year. Obviously they got their first win and we look here for the home
win against Ottawa, but what kind of what kind of gap of the departure
of his because it seemed like there was at least some momentum going energy in
Edmonton. Yeah. Look, you can't get me to say anything but great
things about Victor. My experience with him was just so positive. But look,
I think they're board led by Tom Richards. You know, they felt
like they needed to make a change and I respect that. Look, there's
work to be done there, There's work to be done everywhere, but in
Edmonton. The one thing I'm not going to bet against is I'm not going
to get bet against that organization. I'm not going to get a bet against
that city. You know we can with it is the city of Champion and
it had it had that title. It has that title, it has that
reputation for many good reasons, and I know what that city is capable of.
So they'll do the work. They'll they'll and as you said, there's
some momentum there. They've got to win, you know, they've got to
win under their belt. Now. They brought Rick Lawlisher in, and Rick
is a this I think it's an understatement to to say that Rick is a
highly highly regarded season season veteran. And Rick will do a lot there and
then they'll set themselves on a path for long term success. So, you
know, Edmonton is having a bit of a down moment, but that down
moment is on the heels of a generations of remarkable success. What would be
your message to the Edmonton tam base. I'd say, you know, you've
been they have been a family. That city has supported the you know,
the Edmonton Football Club for generations, and I'd say, you know, stick
with them, support them because that city's brought a lot of it's brought a
lot of great It's brought a lot of joy, a lot of joy to
that city over the years, and you can just go back and chronicle all
the amazing players that have added value, how much that team is added to
the community. I just say stand by that team because they're not very far
away from coming back and they'll continue to make that city proud. In terms
of Trey Forward, his performance not only just as a Canadian, but as
someone that's you know, worked well last year coming into this year, seeing
his success in Edmonton really curious your thoughts on that. Yeah, it's exciting.
You know. Look, I was asked earlier about our you know,
about the Canadian talent in our league, and I don't think the Canadians have
ever been better. In fact, I know they've never been better as much
as you know, every generation thinks they're the best generation to play the game.
But this generation of Canadians are truly remarkable. And he's an example of,
you know, the development of the Canadian talent in the game of football
is quite fantastic. And look, we got a lot of Canadians playing in
the NFL. A young man named Nathan Rourke who put on quite a show
for all of us last year, you know, is putting on quite a
show in the NFL. And what it is, it's just evidence. It's
just evidence of a football It's a football country. Okay, we're knowing for
hockey, but it's a football country. Got a lot of great athletes that
are playing the game. And these great athletes are now are now you know,
on the CFL stage, not just as great Canadian players, but as
great football players. And that's the thing that really excites me. And we
continue to see developments in our you know, junior football, in our college
football, and certainly in our amateur football ranks around the country. That's really
exciting in terms of, you know, growing the game in America. I
live in Seattle here, I've been utilized in the CFL plus this year.
I want to know a feedback. Have you gotten positive feedback? I know
the numbers, we don't do all that with CBS Sports and all that,
but I'm curious as I speak with a lot of Canadians and they go,
well, on paper, this is a really great deal, right you get
all this, They go, I live through this every day. It's it's
challenging, right that you can't stop the games. It's not on demand.
You know that not all the games are available on there. What has been
your thought of the CFL Plus in America. Yeah, you know what,
I think it was the right first step. That that's what I like most
about it. It was the right first step. It was it was created.
The opportunity to do it was created because we have a great partner in
CBS Sports who showed us a pathway to working with them and doing something new
and innovative with with with CFL plus. You know, as we negotiated that
the terms of that deal, we see if with the CBS Sports, we
didn't have a lot of time to implement the full strategy. So we took
a really smart first step and where are many steps to take? In fact?
You know what, in some ways that's our story. It's it's it's
that iterative, you know, take a step, improve it, take another
step improve it. I think that's going to be how this is going to
work. But you know, look, we're glad we've done it. It's
not the destination. It's a step in a long term process that we ultimately
believe will pay very handsome dividends for us. Look, in the end,
why watch us? Because our game is fun, fast, and entertaining.
And I don't think we should be shy to say that when you look at
all three phases of the game, that we have perhaps the funnest, fastest,
most entertaining brand of football in the world. We should be proud of
that. I'm not arguing best. I'm talking about entertainment. I'm talking about
athletes that perform. I'm talking about a game that is fun to watch.
That's what the CFL is all about. And we're just so excited about what
we've done and the future we have ahead of us. I just yeah,
in terms of, you know, utilizing more advertising on there. You know,
I'm sitting watching you know, generic hip hop rap video songs over like
Black Live. I just I think there's work to be done. A couple
here. I'll get you out of here. I promise. We've had obviously
the expansion talks the last two years, and both times you've been on the
show. Is there any reason to feel here at the middle end of August
that were any closer than we were two years ago and you were on here.
Yeah, you know, look, it's a great question, and I'll
answer it this way. I think for during my time, I think we've
been advancing towards this. We've certainly the board, the board you know,
has made a commitment to expansion as a priority. That's a formal you know,
that's a formal commitment. I think for a long time we were moving
the ball, you know, in the right direction. I feel like we're
in the red zone. I think there's an opportunity to do this now.
And there's a lot of things that are positive. But here's the thing about
the red zone. And you know this from your from your you know,
very seasoned perspective, just because you're in the red zone doesn't mean you score,
right. You tend to score more often when you're in the red zone,
but you don't always score. And this is the challenge we have in
front of us, is to take all the good all the good work that's
been done, all the momentum touchdown Atlantic this year was a blockbuster success.
It wasn't a little success. It was a blockbuster success. And to take
that now and find a way to cross the goal line and score. That's
what we have in mind. That's the mandate I have from my governors,
and that's what I'm working towards last question for me here, I promise you
know, in terms of expansion, this would aid to that. We were
talking on one of our pregame shows a couple of weeks ago. You know
the long history, all the commissioners, everyone that's been involved in this league,
and God William, the CFL exists for another one hundred and ten years.
What would you want your legacy to be as is a commissioner here for
a long period of time. What would you be proud of to be known
as for being you know, you're whatever you've done for the CFL. Yeah,
you know what I mean. Honestly, I think it's a very interesting
question. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about that. You know
what I what I want to do is I want to go to work for
the governors. I want to go to work for the fans. I want
to be somebody who is just works hard day in and day out and make
do everything humanly possible to take this league to where it to where I've always
believed it can be. And and it's a great game, it's a great
league. I still feel like we got another gear or two that we shift
them. We step on the clutch and we shift that. We can you
know, we can sling shot forward. Uh, you know, legacies and
talk about legacies. That's for other people. That's for other Maybe the pundits
can spend some time on that. For me, what I'm gonna do is
do what I do every day. I try to get up. I try
to serve our governors in the most honorable way I can. I try to
be someone who the fans would have respect for in that I'm clearly working hard
to make our league as big and powerful as it can be, and and
do all of that in a way that brings, you know, brings credibility
to to who I am as a person. I think if you do those
things, some days, somebody's going to talk about your legacy. I don't
expect it will be me, because by that point, what I'd like to
do is I'd like to just play a lot of golf at that stage and
have fun with my family and friends. Well, miss everybody, I really
appreciate it. We'll see you up in Hamilton. We have all of our
things books, so we'll see you up there. Gray Cup. Should be
fun. Yeah, we'll come again and watch, you know, watch our
games. Have fun again. Love the fact that you're following us and show
from the rooftops, funnest, fastest, most entertaining brand of football in the
world. As thank you so much, sir, take care by now,
thank you great to talk to you. Thanks, I appreciate it. Okay,
by now, Well, Pat, it's been a hot minute here since
the USFL days and we had you on talckeying what was that preseason staff?
We have Pat back here with Sarge. His dog might type in a little
bit. That's okay. We're keeping an eye that, Pat Raffina, How
are you doing. I'm doing well. I'm gonna try to mute my mic
as much as you can. I guess seventeen year old dog here and uh,
I mean he's he's kicking you know, he still thinks he's fourteen.
He still thinks he's four. But if you hear him in the background,
everyone, I apologize for that. That's okay. Living lives here, Welcome
back. Everyone XFL needs to talk about Obviously, we were gonna have pad
On to do the NFL cuts for the USFL and the XFL. We have
the XFL Vegas Pipers potentially relocating. Kind of weird situation this week. I
have thoughts about that. So we'll get that off the top and then welcome
back all the other XFL podcasts that are now talking XFL news here when you
know, we've been here every week. But this was a bizarre story.
And this came out the August what was that Tuesday. We're sitting there and
it was this guy, Dennis Dodd, who for some reason has blocked me
on Twitter. I don't I've never interacted with the man at all. He's
a way he works for CBS, tweeting out hearing more of us about the
XFL's Vegas Vipers relocating. And you know, we all have known and Mike's
talked about it in the group chat, and we've talked about it, you
know, for I mean even since the beginning of the season. Hey,
this isn't a good situation. Whether they're doing that, they're doing you know,
it's a season ticket pre sales. Now, that's kind of weird,
and it was weird to me that then like eighteen seconds later, Mark had
this article out, you know, exclusive whatever, talking and that they're looking
at Nashville, they're looking at Arizona, stay outher consideration and basically crediting Mike
because I don't think Mark has any firsthand knowledge of the situation at all.
What did you make of this? Because it really seems like it came out
of the blue here and just and then it was like here's info dump.
I mean, it's the only like parallel I can think about it is it's
kind of like the leak we had with like the Houston Stadium, where it's
like this something comes out and then we all like you know, we're all
just kind of like talking in our circles about it, and then it becomes
true. I don't like cashman Field. I don't think many people did you
know. I know there was the thing with the un the UNLV Stadium and
then Allegiance Allegiance Stadium about how that would have been the more appropriate venue.
But I mean, hindsight is twenty twenty and maybe things were said behind closed
doors that don't come to fruition. If you work in business, how many
deals starting to happen and then don't because reasons untold? But I mean going
to Nashville to me is just kind of a I don't know, man,
Nashville is getting pretty congested, and you know, someone who was recently in
Nashville a couple of months ago. I mean, it's semi locals to me,
you know, a four hour drive for me, so I'd probably go
down there. But I just feel like the Vegas and I don't you know,
we hear all the sports betting that comes up every five minutes with the
XFL, it just kind of seemed like a match made in heaven. And
re correct me if I'm wrong. I believe it was the Vegas franchise was
the like they all had a franchise, right, like the Rock had San
Antonio, Danny had to or I know, wasn't this Jerry Cardinals franchise from
what you know we talked to Yeah, Mike Mitchell had said back Jerry was
the one that really petitioned for that, but he was the one. And
to me, it's odd because you really lose your West Coast flavor then,
right, and we know that we know the USFL is in Memphis, right,
so that's odd as well, you know, getting like you said,
getting congested there. To me, we I had been hearing Vegas, you
know. Besides Mike, I had been getting messages back is whenever Andy and
I did that, Like the XFL's road Path to the off season. Whenever
we did that show, I woke up getting messages of like, hey,
hearing Vegas, hearing Rod Woodson's going to be out hearing kind of all of
these things, and I was like, oh, that's interesting. Okay,
you know, like what's kind of figure out what's going on here? Obviously
the Rod Woodson thing came down, right, he's no longer there, and
Levin's is brought in as the coach. So you know, if if it's
one foot over the other, you know, when one shoe's fallen and now
the other one. What I what I don't like about this is like once
someone that's non XFL talks about it, like oh, Dennis Dodd talked about
it, like now okay, now we can talk about it. We're like
Mike's been saying this for months, like literally for months. So I mean,
I'm glad that now it's it's a you know, it's out there and
people are talking about it and in Arizona State, and I don't know if
that's any better or worse. I've heard the facilities there maybe aren't this good.
I think Max's messaging me that that's what I don't like is like we
that's why I champion our own media. And then like Mark, you're like,
oh, Dennis talked about it. We can like this is a story
though, Yeah, I mean is it? But isn't that the case though?
Like you know, personal example, was I broke the thing about like
the AJ McCarron thing right like his passing yard or passing touchdowns and Denucie passing
touchdowns and then you know, Florio's retweeted my thing or something, you know,
like everyone and then like even something more minor is like when XFL news
Hub did their MVP, which the XFL you know, proper did not do
an MVP, and you know, everyone's saying like it was funny because I
was I met someone new today earlier and they were they brought up the XFL
and I was like, yeah, you know, I do work with them,
and he's like, yeah, A J. Mccaron won the MVP,
and I was like he didn't, he didn't. He's like, what do
you mean? It was like that was like the website like I write for
I work with, we like named him the MVP and it grew legs and
you know, I'm pretty sure a lot of people think Bonn Hutchins is actually
is white because of the picture that got tweeted the round of the AI version
of Mike Mitchell, which I've talked to people in the league about, which
they thought that was kind of funny because they're all, like, you know,
they they they thought, you know, we got a lot of traction
up at that news hub, which you know, pretty I'm pretty proud of
and whatnot. But yeah, I mean it's kind of just like, hey
man, this thing's been going on, mister Dodd. I appreciate you,
you know, recognizing this. And you know, I'm not saying that like
the XFL is gonna petition the MLS as far as becoming that fifth cog and
like American National Sports, because I mean the MLS has been around god knows
how long. But if if if the XFL, or the USFL, or
if any spring football league we made the joke right, the QFL in twenty
and twenty thirty six, the Quality Football League. You know, if any
of these spring football leagues, you know, get their footing and like start
making some moves and whatnot, like you know, you're gonna have your air
quote grassroots movement, there's been doing this all the time, and like,
I just hope that those people, you know, don't get forgotten along the
way. Yeah, I mean, if you're gonna do it, do it
now. The national thing, like I said, feels odd just because of
obviously USFL, you know, not only having a team there, but Hubbing
one, you know, having a hut there, and we don't know kind
of what that's gonna look like next year. The Tempie thing is interesting.
You know, we talked as well. Houston, right, the TDCU they're
doing renovations, so they're probably gonna have to move to Rice Stadium, right,
So like that's gonna change. I think it's fine to me. This
isn't the end of the world. I thought it was weird when they announced
it was like on April Fool's Day. Hey, we're doing preseasons for the
Veiggest Viverse for next year. And I'm like, do you guys know what
day it is? But I mean, if you're gonna do it, do
it now. I can't imagine, you know, shout out the six three,
five hundred people in Vegas and went to those games. But I don't
think you're losing them massive more than just like, hey, this didn't work,
and we're we're adapting now. Yeah, And like I liked that the
USFL is in, you know, a separate market. I liked that the
XFL is in the separate market because something that we've talked about in nauseum with
the people of Birmingham is like, hey man, you're asking these people you
can make and they you know, they did in twenty and twenty two.
They made a lot of those games very affordable, free for like you know,
all that stuff you're asking me to give you ten saturdays in the heat
in Birmingham. Like there, you know, Tennessee is a big stage.
I believe Memphis in Nashville an hour and a half, two hours from each
other, they're gonna be people in that middle ground. They're like people from
Nashville who moved to Memphis and vice versa, who just love football because you
know, they like football in the South. You're kind of expecting them to
hold that, you know, hold that back, like compete with that,
you know, bag and I know they don't really care about each other in
some senses. You know, obviously it's a competition, but you know,
I just feel like that dilutes your market, Like you want to be the
most the coolest team in Tennessee. Okay, great, Like instead of you
know, having sixty three hundred people go to your game in Vegas, now
you have forty six hundred people. Because like, you know, you got
people who are in Memphis that want to go to Memphis games because they love
five minutes away. But they're only going to Nashville games because they love you
know, they just happened to be national residents. I don't know, I
just I don't like that. Like competition is great, but I just feel
like it kind of it dilutes both both markets for them. So I mean
I think they both stay away from from New York or you know, until
the New Jersey Generals go there. But I mean, I'm not against Arizona.
I know a lot of people want to want to bring back in a
West more West Coast team. I'm not against it. I don't think LA
is the right move right now. Maybe San Diego. Yeah, I was
just looking on here, I was Google and just trying to figure out,
you know, because obviously they're not playing in Nissan Stadium, so I kind
of trying to figure out because right the as you mentioned in the article,
that is, like you said that there's a weird Spring football like condescension where
like you live in the market, like you need to go support it because
you have it, Like you know what you were talking. We've had that
the Birmingham and like Seattle got a lot of that this year where it's like
why like you people like you live in Seattle, like you need to like
and people were even criticized even like I gotta work, I got a wedding.
I we have cracking tickets to cost three times as much as these tickets
cost and they're in the Stanley Cup playoff run. Like people have obligations,
so it's hard. And it really is like you know, if Nashville or
Arizona, you know, if you're getting this thing, then you do feel
like, okay, we were obligated. Now we got to really support that,
and like we didn't decide that. It was like Birmingham, you know,
we're we're putting one in Detroit, like Detroit, you need to you
know, you need to go out of this support. Maybe Detroit was like
hey, we didn't even want that, like maybe you know, And that's
why I always liked the idea of the US hubbing everyone and then like awarding
teams out of like maybe markets that felt like they deserved it more. Any
thoughts you are, are we higher or worse on the potential Nashville locations or
tempi with the ASU facilities. I'd like them to stay in Vegas, you
know, kind of cleaning up a little bit. I think brand continuity is
very important. I I'd like that. You know, they brought back the
Air Quote Vegas franchise from two thousand and one, but I mean it'd be
it'd be a su like bring back the hot Shot. I think the hot
Shots did pretty well. Salt Lake is another market. I'd love to see
one of these leagues going too, and then follow that up. You know,
Nashville is kind of kicking down like to four. You know, I
would almost rather see him go back to Tampa than Nashville. I've looked on
here. I was just kind of curious about this because we did that.
We didn't have a thought when they announced the Vegas Vipers. Arizona does in
fact have vipers. This is the home we're doing right now, and so
does Tennessee. So they would find with either the Tennessee Vipers or the airstone
the Vipers. At least we know that. I don't know the Arizona thing
is cool. I guess I think I don't like crowding the East coast there.
I like having a little bit more West as presence in the US of
all. I think already really struggles with that. Yeah, I mean,
I think I think I want to say people are afraid of the West Coast.
I just think, you know, like like I think Andy said a
couple of times, it's like la, like the Rams have trouble filling their
tickets and they won a Super Bowl and whatnot. Like I just I think
San Diego would be the next like, you know, would be up there,
San Diego, Salt Lake, Tempe. I mean I'm not I'm not
too giddy about Like, I'm not too giddy about like what's the word I'm
looking for about the East coast slowed up or the West coast slowed up.
I mean, I'm in Saint Louis, so nothing really changes for me.
I might have to go to the Nashville Nashville game, which you know,
it's another area to look at them whatnot. But I mean I'm not I'm
not too giddy about it myself. Yeah, I think though does it does
it? It would actually not really jerk around the conferences though, right,
it would say, you know, they would stay in the north, Yeah,
if they kept the Arizona. Yeah, they gotta keep they gotta keep
Arizona for that. Otherwise things do get a little more convoluted. I think
if you bring Nashville into that, I don't I would get rid of the
divisions. We've talked about this and we were flamed, and then look how
the playoffs worked out, and now it's like, hey, you know,
maybe we have the right idea all along. I mean, you're still a
flight, right, I mean, so you're you're adding that in. It
really makes Seattle the outlier on the West coast if you do pull the Vegas
one, Like if you're just looking at the map of like the reach of
a league, it does really make Seattle's kind of the outlier, which we
are already. I mean, I'm kind of used to that when we get
to like concert tours and bands come to town and like we'll go to you
know, we'll go to la or we'll go to Portland. We don't necessarily
always make it up to Seattle. So I get that, But it's interesting.
It's just weird that this like just became news all of a sudden.
I guess, yeah, I mean, it is what it is. You
know, Seattle is on the tippy tone of the of the country. You
know, some people call it Southern Canada, you know, so no called
it something can but I just did. And cool, right, I hear
my entire life that one for anyway, But let us know, you know,
like I said, I think news is going to be coming out.
Like I said, we kind of I had had the whole Woodson thing kind
of like, hey, I don't know if this is happening, and then
that obviously came down the Vegas thing here. So this is exciting, good
you know, good off season exit, all news to talk about here.
You know, it's a good week too. There's no NFL football on this
week's THEFL hasn't playing another weekends, so maybe we'll get a little a couple
more a couple more hits on that. Do you have anything else on the
Vegas viper situation? Not really. I mean hopefully hopefully this all just kind
of comes out and and you know just kind of you know, evens itself
out and whatnot. I mean brand continuity goes a little bit of away with
me. You know, I think I talked about it at one point it
was like I met people who were in the Ozarks who didn't go of Valhawks
games in twenty twenty three because they were afraid they were gonna leave. It's
like, you know, like, you know, I think Vegas is obviously
more of a transient down. But are we gonna you know, do I
want my heart broken again? You have something coming to Nashville, you know,
I don't know. I guess my last note on this would be I'm
surprised that San Diego wasn't in the mix, just because that kind of originally
that's been a floated out idea. They have the stadium there. Andy Murray
is kind of champion that with the MLS and they play rugby and kind of
everything else. That right there, that steal steel Head or whatever that whatever
that's called there, that to me, that seems weird. And I saw
a lot of comments on there about it and about that not working out,
So I about what people question, like, well, why didn't they want
to go to that? I'm just trying to look up with the name of
that stadium, snap Dragon stadium I knew was some of the nest So I
don't know if that gives any pause as well, because that would keep to
me, San Diego makes the most sense of anyone because you keep the wet,
because you don't have to worry about Arizona. We we keep the conversation.
It's kind of all that stuff. Any thoughts on San Diego, I
mean it's got a good pedigree with the fleet. You know, you can
bring back the fleet, you know, San Diego Vipers has a nice little
coast to it. Maybe change up the color scheme, bring it back to
that. You know. Something you could do if you want to get a
real goofy is because there is marine aviation out there. They do have like
it's like the I think it's like a viper is like a helicopter nickname or
something like that. I'm pretty sure it's like the a the ah one Zula
viper or something like that. So that'd be pretty cool. You have a
helicopter on the side, you keep the vipers, you know, and then
on the other side's a snake. We used to put vipers on our helicopters
when I was in Afghanistan. I thought that was pretty cool, so you
could do you could yeah, there you go, Hey read I have in
one of those, by the way, not high. I just did the
thing actually around, but I have done that. It is terrifying. Yeah
yeah, but I mean you could do that, you know, and then
that that's something you can do me or mare. A lot of the this
is silly unrelated, but a lot of the testing in R and D for
these helicopters was done in California. It's not a crazy thing at all.
So yeah, I mean that's a some useless knowledge for you on that front.
But I mean, you know, we'll see. I'd like to see
something come back to San Diego football wives for them. I don't think the
Aztecs jazz as many people up as we think. You know, No,
and I think too this would be funny because the vibr is because the battle
Hawk was originally that was that was a plane, and they put in more
of the you know, the history is more of the battle Hawks into a
bird like that was originally like a battlet like that was supposed to be kind
of a military plane. So it would be interesting to have a both of
these. But no, I mean, I think I think people deserve it.
I think, you know, San Diego, like you said, I
think deserves that, so it would be good for them, and like I
said, kind of keeping that East Coast right. It's just weird to me
that that wasn't brought up in the thing. To me, unless stadium negotiations
there and Andy has sacked at nauseam like they're taking anything. You know,
they're trying to book out that stadium, like I don't know if it's just
full whatever. To me, that makes way more sense than Nashville. Nashville
feels like the outlier. I like Arizona or San Diego, keep it West
Coast, keep it, keep it all right, so original bringing on here,
we're talking that we have the big cutdown days Tuesday and then the waivers
and everything. Now we're finally I mean, this is still fluid and people
are gonna get still get cut and brought on and throughout the year, but
we kind of at least have a clear picture right now who is making it.
Then XFL and USFL those keeping track. XFL had one player be signed
a stick onto the roster. We had a couple on like the injury reserve,
right, and then we had two from the USFL do on the rundown,
who made the lawn for the practice quads and whatnot. We do main
roster first, because there's Brandon Aubrey, right, you have Brandon Aubrey,
You have Lebrin lebron Ray, and then you have Cavante's Hurban from last year.
I couldn't find anyone else. I might be missing someone, so if
I did, apologies on that. But this is going into twenty twenty,
into twenty From the twenty twenty three class, this is who remained. They
still have a decent amount of the us OF votes, still have a decent
amount of guys. Uh, you know, continuing from last year. Mike
Abban, athlete Abernathy who spend time with the Packers and Falcons. He's on
the practice squad. You have DeMarcus Gates, he's on the practice squad still
with the Bears after getting caught. Alex A. King Blulu he's on the
practice squad for the Commanders. Dominique Davis he got to the practice squad for
the Bengals. And these are guys who, outside of Vaking Bulu, all
showed up in a regular season game. Zuber is kind of a weird one
because he he's on the there's a couple of guys who got put to the
injured reserve. Last night checked, Isaiah Zuber was still on the injured reserve.
So, I mean last year, and I'm digging into my memory bank,
I believe we had twenty eight total players who got signed onto an active
roster or practice father. We're on the injured, we're on an NFL payroll.
At one point at the season, I believe twenty four was the high
water mark. Usually we coasted around that nineteen to twenty one, like throughout
the eighteen weeks and whatnot. Towards the end of the year, you had
a lot of elevations. You had long snappers, you had like James Morgan,
you know, did a quick cameo. You had you know, Case
Cookis brock Miller. So there's still plenty of time for more guys to get
looks as injuries come up and whatnot as well. And then you add into
you know, obviously you have a new layer of competition. That number is
gonna you know, it's gonna be cannibalization of both groups, which is pretty
expected. Right, Like we saw over one hundred players around a hundred you
know, one hundred, one hundred and two. Maybe because another guy who
got signed was Devin Ross, who you know, played with the Michigan Panthers
in twenty twenty two transfers over to the to the XFL, got drafted in
the supplemental draft I believe by the Brahmas. Gets cut by the Brahmas late
late training camp or you know, right when training camp, brought by the
Panthers and then got put on injured reserve in like week three. I don't
think he recorded a statistic and he just got signed by the Raiders to their
practice squad after working out with them that Monday or something like that. Well,
how does that happen? Who's the head coach of the Oakland or LA
that Las Vegas Raiders, Shosh Daniel? Where did Devin Ross spend a lot
of practice squad? And you know NFL training camp was New England and like
twenty nineteen. Does the USFL or XFL really make or break a guy like
that? I don't know. Is it the relationship? Probably? You know,
so you're gonna have guys like that who might be air quote lesser known
players that you're like, oh, how did this guy get signed over that
guy. It's like, well, he that's his college coach, that's probably
why, or she's you know, college assistant was with that person. So
that's something to keep keep tabs on as time goes on throughout the off season.
In my opinion, it's interesting to me, like I don't know,
because I this is the point where we get kind of these questions of like,
okay, so it's just worth it? Right? You know, one
guy from the exit Wheeland, right made it on and then obviously the two
of the USFL like is it worth it? Was all of this and the
numbers and the player forty four and kind of all that. Where do you
stand with that? I mean, it's always going to be worth it for
a specialist because it's pretty simil right, so like punters and kickers and all
that stuff. I think it's always going to be pretty pretty similar as far
as is it worth it. I can't answer that question because I'm not Tino
Ellis, I'm not you know, Bend Nucci, I'm not any of these
players. Right. You have like a guy like de Nucci, you know,
chip on the shoulder, all that, you know, all that,
you know, all that underdog stuff, right, the poor Man's Baker Mayfield,
I think at this point, especially with the player fifty four Mantra or
excuse me, well, actually yes, the player of fifty four Mantra with
the show, I am willing to grasp that Bend Nucci's brand is pretty on
point right now. I'm willing to bet that financially he is doing pretty well.
So when you have the opportunity, in my opinion, and I think
the XFL and the USFL, you know, are trying to do this a
little bit more. And I think the USFL did a really good job in
twenty twenty two, and then I feel like players took advantage of it in
twenty twenty three, like Boogie Roberts and Scooby and whatnot. When these guys
and and Magoo and Victor, you know, but when these guys have the
ability to be on a platform and essentially becomes pseudo celebrities in some sort of
sense, I always think it's worth it anything that derives more traffic to who
you are, whether it be you know, brand deals, whether it be
you know, playing opportunities. It's to me, it's more than football.
And I don't mean it like, oh, it's just a game more than
football. I mean, like it puts more eyeballs on you, so people
know who you are, and like it allows them to have more opportunity,
whether it be on the field or off the field. As far as getting
more opportunities and jobs and whatnot, we've seen here like obviously Betty Ben getting
cut then sticking around on the practice squad. Magoo as well here right with
the pack. Do you see like I mean, you know immediately it's like,
oh, like Benda Nucci back to the XFL and that Like I think
Ben's gonna chill on the practice squad and be happy, Like I don't see.
I I see Ben. The XFL was the one time, like I'm
gonna I'm doing this once and I don't see Ben returning. And I think
Ben doesn't. I don't want to say he doesn't get back to the NFL
with without the XFL, but I I think he goes from being that workout
guy to Okay, we have two quarterbacks on our roster. We signed Ben
da Nucci. We're good, as you know, like I think Magoo obviously,
I mean the USFL is what brought Magoo back to the NFL. He
was just a cambody all that stuff, you know, spend some time on
and off practice squads, elevate, you know, deactivate guys like that.
You know, they're back, they're back in this bad boy, They're back
in the fold. They are rearing to go, and they probably could do
what Garrett Gilbert did and extend their career for another four years, which for
a guy like Gilbert, he made about two point five million dollars doing that.
With that being said, I could see, depending on what happens with
Alex that he would come back to the USFL for two reasons. One,
if he goes to the NFL plays there for two seasons but is only on
the practice squads, so he's making four hundred k over those two years,
but doesn't get that shot, he's still going to be hungry. And he's
also a celebrity in Birmingham at this point. You know, for Ben,
someone who's played in regular season games, has you know, and Alex could
have off the field you know, income coming in. But for Ben,
who might be it's like I'm an NFL starter or bust. If he doesn't
get an opportunity, he might see that football is on. You know,
football is you know kind of done in that part, so you can either
play in the XFL, and I think he's got a bit of an ego,
you know, so I don't see him doing that. You know,
you'll always get your one office in my opinion, like a j McCarron,
maybe a Josh Johnson that just kind of want to play football because fiscally they're
good and you know, like they can they can quote take that pay cut.
But yeah, I mean those two, you know, those two guys
being the poster children. As far as for the QB class, I think
I think, you know, we would more likely see Alex McGoo back in
you know, the XFL or the USFL versus Ben DiNucci on either one of
those leaks. I you know, I always pay attention, like you know,
this is for what it is. This is a large platform for the
world that we are in here, you know, you know, peanuts compared
the way the NFL and all that stuff. But like I always paid,
like you know, Ben had been on the show, we'd interacted, I
met him in think, you know, like if I try to like follow
someone on Twitter, like kind of I pay attention to like who is following
people back or who is he engaging with people like Ben was always like you
know, this is me, like I'm not, I don't know. Then
to me always felt like a half step above kind of like what was going
on here where maybe you're getting a little bit more interaction with you know,
a lot of your Birmingham Stallions players or breakers or you know, we're talking
with the Vipers guys or whatever. That was always kind of my my view
with that in terms of overall numbers, surprise, beet or worse. You
know, we've had this the XFL is earlier and they have the upper hand
or the usfls Like, did you make anything about the timelines and how the
numbers panned up? I think the timeline definitely bodes well for the XFL something
that and if anyone listening, could you know, kind of educate me on
was that? I wish I kept more tabs on was were there XFL players
released when the USFL ended? And I remember when we came on the show,
when I came on the show before we went through to roster and we
were like, okay, it's like and Mike did it as well. It
was like twenty four available spots right, and then USFL guys once, like
you know that last week in July, first week of August when the OTA
injuries started coming, or like when we saw guys, for example, you
know, Seattle have a couple of guys come in their uvfa's, you know,
twenty twenty three guys uvfas, and then like as soon as you know,
their OTAs were over, they signed Levi Bell of Michigan Panthers and Jordan
Ferguson of the Memphis show Boats. Like immediately they cut these young kids and
then brought up the you know ingranted Bell is a Bell is a is a
excuse me, Bell is a true rookie. But now he's got five or
six games under his belt. It's a little bit more season than you know,
someone else and whatnot. So you know, it was cool, not
cool because these are people's jobs. It was it was good to see that
there wasn't a lot of candida as much candid cannibalization on that front. That
a lot of these coaches and player personnel people value the experience of these guys,
you know, not only playing in the game, but also being in
football shape. So if they are air quote coming in to be a camp
body, they can provide that good look and there's more values to give you
your time and effort versus this guy versus a college kid who might have been
a seventh round, sixth round pick, got his head all big because he
got a seventy thousand dollars signing bonus and then didn't put in the rest of
the work for two and a half months going in the training camp, which
happens in terms of I was looking at the articles here, you know,
and again this is fluid right now when this was supposed to you know,
seventeen from the XFL, twelve from the USFL to the practice squads. To
me, like you said, it's kind of negligible at this point, you
know, it could just be who you know and the time. I think
a lot has been made of and even on this show, you know these
timelines, I don't know. To me, that feels like a negligible different
seventeen verse twelve. A might making too little or too much of that.
Yes, and no. The thing that the thing that the XFL has is
one there's the body recovery. And two they can go too. They can
go to a mini camp. They can go to those rookie mini camps.
Like, you know, the bulk of these rookie mini camp workouts happened during
the USFL season. That's, you know, from the xfl PR standpoint.
Even though it doesn't really mean anything, it's a great tweet. It's a
great content engagement. Anytime any player I've ever talked to, you know,
it came to you know, like Lavert Hill goes to these two workouts.
But then all of a sudden, I did an interview with Lavert Hill.
I get a couple more views here and there. You know, my stuff
spikes. They're stuff spikes. Like it's good for content engagement. So I'm
not against them, like championing these workouts and whatnot. But at the same
time, it does get you. Those workouts do get you in front of
these coaches and whatnot, in players and all that goofy stuff. Then it
keeps you, It keeps you in the cycle, It keeps you in the
circuit as well. To me, and we talked about this, I guess
it was last week when we were kind of getting ready for this and even
Greg Parks was on here and he had an interesting because we've talked the whole
time about like marketing in the league and like what should the league's vision be?
And Greg had the good point of like, well up until now,
right, the XFL doesn't have a lot of history, right, like the
Vipers, you might not have any share after you know whatever, But like,
you know, really relying on this player fifty four, you know,
the Rocket, like hoping here in year two, three, four, five,
you you start relying more on the history of these franchises versus just that.
I think if they did not realize that now, I think now they
do, right, I think for literally every interview of the Rocks done.
Yes, you know, like opportunities are great and they can sick, and
we gave these players the opportunity. That's all we can do. But you
know, seventeen on the practice squad, which clearly is not nothing to see
us that and that's a good income for those guys, but that one guy
make it onto the roster like it just a puncher and he's a punch Yeah,
yeah, you would be retweeting his punts like every Sunday. It's hard,
you know, it's hard, And that's why I don't want to pooh
pooh and opportunities, you know, that's all anyone can ask for. And
that's all these players and obviously you're they're not playing in the XFL for free,
so I mean, you know, they're getting paid, and they're getting
exposure and table there's a many things. I just that's why ninety nine point
nine nine percent of your marketing you can't all be about we get players in
the NFL when it was one special team. As puncher, it's hard,
yeah, and I believe they know that. But at the same time,
like you know, it's kind of like I don't want I don't want to
put this in a negative connotation, but when you're starting a business, sometimes
you gotta work with clients you don't want to, right, And not that
working with the NFL's a negative thing, but sometimes you gotta, you know.
I I would think, in my opinion that I would be more pumped
about Jordan TEAMU hitting ten thousand career passing yards in the XFL because that shows
longevity and that show hey, we're here. You know, you know,
you know we're here. We're here. Get used to it, right.
I think some people can see that Montro was going off of but you know,
and I think the USFL started doing that, especially once the lawsuit,
like or the court case or whatever it is. And that's something I really
liked, was like, you know, they were posting like granted, there's
the connotation of the modern record and whatnot, and I appreciate the clarification at
this time, but in three years, the USFL is still kicking those modern
records. Jim Kelly, Like you put a stat board up there, and
you're gonna have Case Cooks next to Jim Kelly and those are all that's great
content. That's that to me means so much. And like thank you to
Mark Thompson for scoring fourteen touchdowns in eight games, because now we have a
graphic with guys who have career statistics and whatnot. Like I think a tweet
of like, you know, Jim Kelly passes or Case Cooks passes Jim Kelly
on the all time USFL passing thing, you get Jim Kelly to retweet that.
I'm sure Herssel Walker will retweet something if he gets passed over. You
know, he's active on the Twitter. If not, I'll go to his
you know, I'll go see him when I see him at the gas station
next time I'm in Atlanta. I'll make sure he knows I'll talk to his
pa. But you know that being said, like I think the obviously the
USFL has the extra season, they have three plus years. We didn't see
a lot of that, like with the stuff I was tweeting out and I'm
hoping now we get a little bit more, you know, like our league
and for both of them, like our league, our players, our history,
Papa John's yeah, better football, rail foot fall, real fan threal
pro through all that stuff. Yeah, I just I hope because I you
know, I don't know, and we obviously had had our friend you know,
with the USFL last year, that was you know, people really pumped,
like, oh man, we got fifty one players signed and all this
stuff, and then you know, the death settles and it's Kamante Turpin's left,
and you're like, what were your you know, as someone that was
not familiar with the world before the USFL last year, like what was what
were their expectations you know, going into like how many players were actually gonna
make it? And with Gamante Turpin has left and by god, he had
a phenomenal season and All Pro and kind of all that stuffle, like you
know, you're it goes away very quick. That excitement, Yeah, and
it does. And something I wish and this is me being very very petty,
but something I wish they highlighted was a gentleman named Mitch for Brownie.
He's a long snapper. He only played four games last year, but he
had five tackles as a long snapper, which some long snappers don't get five
and two years. He was like the top tackling along snapper in his four
game stint. Does anyone care about that graphic? Probably not, but I
think that's that's still content and still tweet. It's someone other than Kavante Turpin.
Maurice Alexander had a reception last year. Maurice former Stars, you know,
gets his first career reception, you know, like little stuff like that,
and then the guy and then something. Because you know these back end
roster guys, especially the ones I talked to, they follow these leagues.
You know, they know that like football isn't coming up as much as they
might want it to. So for them to get a few extra Twitter followers
because you're showing them out their Instagram, they're they're millennium, they're you know,
they're gen z. They care about that stuff. You know, the
millennials are on their way out of this game. You know, we're pretty
conceded and whatnot in social media, but this new one is a little bit
more up there. I think that shows that this league is like championing these
leagues or championing their players and whatnot, like you know, like, hey,
you didn't forget about me, like I was an inaugural guy. You
know, Like I think that's something to be taken into account personally. And
maybe that's just me being really petty and whatnot, but that's something I wouldn't
want to see. And I think it's good offseason content, you know,
because like you know, you can only see like a graphic of like Nick
Tiano works out for the Bills or like, hey we signed this player type
thing, one last thing for me here. We'll wrap this up soon.
I USFL has obviously put out and we showed that the random Aubrey graphic.
You know, those with their Twitter feed XL hasn't tweeted out like congrats Dan.
I'm making the you know, to the to the packers so interesting there.
You know, they're tweeting that back to school stuff and Labor Day,
so that's interesting. And again, like when it comes to kind of expectations
of what this league. You know, we have a lot of like we're
talking about the showcases that's coming up here, and we tweeted that out,
I guess last week, you know. But it's interesting none of this like
none congrats we got a player on, So that to me is interesting.
This all because they just tweeted labor they sail here an hour ago. So
interesting that the x bel hasn't you go? Was that number not as high
as they thought? I would imagine? So yeah, I mean that's that's
that's not like, I mean, they could be making the graphics now,
I mean the USFL. I love the USFL graphics. Well, I mean
both of them that like. To me, that's that's pretty on point.
The Aubrey one I liked a lot. I mean, they did a lot
of good stuff with Turpin. They're signing one were pretty cool as well.
I wish they had the graphic where they it was like we've had ten twenty
thirty because I like that a lot last year as well, especially during the
summer. I'm usually pretty busy, so it's like, okay, I have
nine guys they said to announce ten. What's going on? Type thing?
I did like the XFL's graphics when guys were getting workouts as well. I
thought that was kind of cool. Just really curious to see, you know,
if they're going to do a graphic, what I would do if I
was the XFL is, I would make like a team photo, you know,
of them like sacked and whatnot, like they're players, and like I
would put the number seventeen or whatever the number is. I'd probably do that
next week before you know, before the game on Thursday, Week one kicks
off, because these rosters are going to change a lot, and I would
think that would be a pretty cool tweet if they did that, like seventeen
players on practice squad going into week one, you know, like something groupy
like that. Yeah, I'm just looking on here. I just don't see,
you know, just a lot of like we we had to hear that
switching about you know, fifty player or whatever. Yeah, I don't know,
I would have done something there. Like I said, it could be
at the point where it's not maybe what they expected. So I'll be curious
to see. I wish I could be in those rooms, I really do.
Yeah, And I mean like I mean, if you if you know
numbers, don't liars don't figure or numbers don't lie. Liars figure right or
whatever the thing is, so you can make statistics the say whatever you want.
Right. So, Like one thing I like champions with the USFL last
year was amount of money made. So like those twenty eight players made eight
million, almost nine million dollars collectively. Right, So I'm like, okay,
that's nine million dollars because of the USFL. Like you put it back
in there, like that's something that like if one of these leagues is lesser,
like as far as players signed, you kick it back. It's like,
well our players, you know, you put the graphic out and you
say, like twenty two million dollars made because you know, Turpin Turpin is
gonna give you a little bit more. I wish I wish, I wish
you brought it. They kind of embraced some of the twenty twenty stuff players
a little bit more. I feel like it's been kind of infrequent. Have
we seen like I mean, like Heineke could have got a couple of retweets.
I feel like last year there was really nothing. I'd like, Yeah,
I mean I'd like to believe moving forward where you know, because you
got the people. I mean, I'm sure there's people in the XFLO didn't
know Taylor Honeke even exist, like was on the battle Hawks. Well,
and to your point at the beginning of the conversation, does Heineke get that
shot with you know, with Washington because of the XFL or because he knew
Rivera Backett with the Carolina and Scott Turner, Yah, Scott Turner was eoc
which I mean, you gotta do what you gotta do. Like, I
don't think it's a bad thing to retweet Taylor Heineke if I'm about blocks,
because you got people in Atlanta caring because you work out a little a drug
deal with that and you say, hey, Atlanta Falcons, can you you
know, retweet that you could do what we have him first type thing and
him you know, chucking the beers and whatnot, especially if he does that
with the Falcons, they could be like, oh, we've seen this before
the marketing major over here, I do. Oh. The last thing I
was gonna say was when when they were showing those you liked, when they
were showing the numbers of those like ten players signed, because you might have
nine because otherwise than like you're driving to a gig and someone tweets at you
a question like how many players got signed? And you respond and then you
have people like actually, actually it was that whatever. I do my best
to keep track of this stuff. I don't always know. I try,
I try, I work, Pat works, but we got a lot going
on. But anything else Pat will get out of here. Nah. You
know, congrats, you know, I feel like I feel like we probably
of the hundred players would probably have four that probably will watch us, you
know, but if you you know, I congrats to everyone you know who
worked out for an NFL team that went to Showcase, that went to the
Great Camps. Congrats to all the players who are trying to make it happen.
You guys have had way more NFL workouts than anyone that news Hub combined.
That is very true where I like that. I was just watching this
morning Charles Barkley like hate talking about Skip Bayliss about people like you know,
Skip talks like he knows all this, he's never played anything. So there
you go. Yeah, congratulations, shout out. You have more more than
any of the news Hub and that probably that discord as well, probably more
tryouts than any of those players, so I appreciate it. Pat, Well,
we'll figure out a big episode this week with Randy Ambrosi and everything else,
so we'll figure out what we're gonna do next. But I hope you
guys are subscribed and we'll see you next time. Well, the man of
the hour here back on the show, Cody fjar Though we talked with you
kind of leading into the season. Now we've been the way through. How
are you doing, sir? Doing well? It's team six and four.
Can't complain. Yeah, I've been a lot of positives. Obviously a tough
game last week, but a lot of positives this year. For sure.
It's been Yeah, it's been weird watching you. You're you know, Montreal
Outlets, my team of the East. You're watching you, you know,
new colors, new kind of everything. What's it just personally? What's it
been like here halfway through the season? You know, honestly proved a lot
of things to myself that I can still win in this league because everyone knows
how it ended last year in sask and not winning a game our last seven
or eight games or whatever. It was so to be able to go out
into to lead our team to some victories and to be sitting in second place
in the East is a good feeling. Obviously, we want to be in
that first spot. Everybody does, and everyone wants that bye week. But
we've played some really good teams our roster. We haven't forgot that. A
lot of people picked us to be ninth in the CFL to start the year,
and so looking at our roster, we are young, pretty inexperienced,
but we're finding ways to win games, and I believe we haven't played our
best football yet and the best is kind of yet to come. And you
don't want to be on fire early on in the season. You want to
be fired on fire towards the end of the season. So that's that's what
excites me. It seems like it's you know, it takes time, and
obviously you know you have familiarity with coaching everything, but you know, coming
in kind of assembling all the pieces, has it come together better than you
had hoped? Absolutely? I think the culture that Danny and coach Moss are
building is the reason why we've won so many games early on in the season,
Because if you looked at us on paper, you would read a lot
of names and be like, who is that who is that. A lot
of first year players, a lot of guys that were kicked off their old
team or their old teams just didn't want them anymore anymore. So kind of
a band of misfit toys that are coming together and playing some collective football.
And uh, you know, we're playing some good football teams here these next
couple of weeks and we'll really have a good measure of what our team is
and where we need to go. But it's not going to happen overnight,
and it takes time to build a tradition, to build culture. But the
fact that we're here sitting second in the East with the team, just the
whole overhaul that we did in the offseason with this team makes you feel like
we're doing the right things here. Yeah. Tough, you know, tough
loss here last what was it Friday? You know, crazy there, Winnipeg
Loud. What's it like kind of playing that rabbid? You know, we
I saw the BC Lions going there a couple of weeks ago and not do
well either. It's a difficult place to win. What's it like playing there?
Yeah, it's just very difficult, and obviously the atmosphere is tough.
But that's been the best team in the CFL the last three years and dominance
in the CFL. You know, if you look at their record, I
think they're eight and two or nine and two right now, and they're playing
at a high level. Their defense is veteran, very experienced. Just a
tough place to go in there and win, and you know, no excuses,
but we obviously didn't. We had a short week, didn't have any
time to practice, and when you have a young roster, you need time
to work out some of those kinks, work out some of those things throughout
practice, especially when you're going against the three time. You know, they've
gone to three Great Cups in a row. So the scheduling didn't do us
any favors, but we also laid a goose egg. Personally, I think
I hold myself to a higher standard. I hold their offense to a hired
standard than what we've displayed last week. And so the good news is,
I know we're gonna be a ton better. We have a full week of
prep going into this BC game, and we're just excited to kind of watch
that bad taste out of our mouth and be back home in front of our
great fans. Well, it's because BC's had a couple you know not.
I think they're trying to get the taste out of there as well. Really
curious to see what the magic's going to look like because both of you guys,
I think have something to prove this weekend. Yeah, that's a great
point. I think they've lost their last two and so they're gonna be extremely
hungry for a win. Everyone knows that Vernon used to be here, and
so I know that might be a little bit bigger game for him just because
he's back in his old town. But but to tell you the truth,
if you look at the standings, you know they're second in the West and
we're second in the East, and this has a lot of implications moving forward.
And so we know that they're a great football team. We've played them
already at their place and they have got the best of us, and so
we want to defend home turf and we know that they're going to come in
here and give us everything they got and I hope that they understand that we're
going to do everything we can to protect our home turf and get a big
win in front of our incredible fans. How are you feeling coming back right
shoulder injury here the last couple of weeks. How are you feeling now?
Yeah, feeling great. After the game, there was no setbacks. I
think we did the right thing of resting me. Obviously I could have gutted
through it, but everything that we talked about last year with my knee injury
and talked with coach Moss, we didn't want to have the same thing something
linger the entire season. So the fact that I was able to go out
there and finish the game and not have any setbacks was huge, which makes
us make me think we made the right decision. But you know, going
off of two weeks no practice and then a full week of no practice going
into a Winnipeg place, it was just a tough thing. But as a
veteran quarterback, you have to go out there and you have to get it
done, and unfortunately I wasn't able to do that. So that's why I
know this week I'll be much better. I'll be more settled in. I
won't be thinking about the injury, whether it's going to hold up or not.
You know, all those uncertainties that you go into into the game.
You kind of have in that first game and then after you play that first
game, it's like, Okay, it's back to football, So I know
I'll be much better, And that's what I'm excited. I'm excited to just
sit the field again and just feel like myself and go out there and move
the offense down the field and finished with seven points in the red zone.
We've seen this year obviously injuries with you, and obviously you know it was
only going down in term of is everything else having a backup like halib Evans
for you, Like, how is important is it to kind of have that
cohesi quarterback room that you guys have. Well, I've been on the CFL
long enough to understand you have to have two great quarterbacks to win in this
league. Just about every year the starter goes down for at least a game,
and that's every team, and I've seen that the year after year after
years. So you have to have capable backups to come in and play.
And the fact that Caleb came in and played well in a short time and
won us two football games, so that we weren't looking on the bottom of
the standings looking up, you know, we maintained our position going into this
tough stretch. Of which was Winnipeg BC in Toronto back to back, so
being able to have to win the games that we believe that we can win
and then compete against the top teams in the league. But I'm so proud
of him and the work that he put in. It's not easy being a
backup quarterback in this league. And I've been a backup quarterback in this league.
You kind of sit around and sit around, and all of a sudden
you get called upon. You got to go do everything that the starter does.
And so I was very impressed with the way he handled himself and the
way he's worked all year. And I know he had a little bit of
a chip on his shoulder playing his old team in Ottawa, and sometimes you
need that little extra added motivation to go out there and perform well. And
that was the hell of a victory. And like I said, going to
and Oh, with all the injuries we've had, not only just me at
the quarterback, but just our entire team. We've had a lot of injuries
this year. I think we had somewhere around sixteen guys on the six games,
so we've had the injury bug a little bit, and we've found ways
to win games through it exciting here, you know, with Montreal new ownership
coming in, have you been able to kind of experience or kind of take
benefit of that just kind of fresh perspective coming in. Absolutely. I think
it's hard for me to compare because I obviously have never been a part of
this program. But from what I've talked to the veteran guys who've been around
this program, the team is really making the players feel like the emphasis and
the product. And anytime you get that, you feel wanted, you feel
rewarded, and you feel like you want to do everything you can to win
as many football games as you can. So they've done a tremendous job from
the top all the way down to making us players, you know, the
most important thing in the building, and you don't really get that everywhere in
professional football. And that's what I respect most about this organization is truly making
us And even when we have a bad game like we did last week about
with Winnipeg, nobody hit the panic button. The coaches didn't yell at us
any harder. Management didn't come down and clear the locker room out or try
to sign a bunch of guys they believe in us, and they keep telling
us that they believe in us, and they're they're really showing that. And
so when you have the backing of the management, it really makes you as
a player feel good and make you want to put in that extra work to
make sure we get it to where we need to go, which is winning
a great gun. And in terms of just you know, making the move
going into the season, you know, we had talked to when you were
on here before, you know, kind of not I'm happy, but wanting
to get out of kind of Saskatchewan and everything going on. How are you
feeling now, headspace and everything kind of you know, is it has it
worked out as you have anticipated? Absolutely? I mean just to be a
starting quarterback in this league. I told you guys, I think going into
this I didn't even know if I'd have an opportunity to be a starting quarterback
again, and so I'm just so grateful for that. I don't know how
many years I have left. Nobody really does in professional sports. So I'm
going to cherish every moment I have, and even through the butt whippings like
last week, just being able to be on the field with my guys.
You know, you sit out two weeks with an injury, and even the
losses, you know, they hurt, but the fact that you're on the
field again and you're playing a sport that you love is truly incredible. So
we're at the point in the season now that there's no bad blood, no
negativity towards SASK. You know, obviously throughout the offseason there's a lot of
media build up, there's a lot of hype, there's a lot of articles
that come out. We're at the point now where we're so entrenched in the
season that it's kind of gone our separate ways. It is unfortunate that I
was injured for that game, and it was actually my hundred CFL game as
well, so there was a lot of meaning behind that game. I was
SASK, but I wasn't able to play it, but happy the team got
to win, and a lot of guys came up to me after the game
and kind of gave me that one was for you. And so it just
makes you feel respected and appreciated from your brothers in the locker room. A
couple more, Harald, let you go. I appreciate your time. Are
you enjoying you know, Montreal and everything? I mean, New environment,
whether you like you know about where you're staying, not day difference from where
I was in sask And don't get me wrong, I love sask and I
love the football aspect of it, where it's football twenty four seven. But
sometimes being able to just be a normal human and not be that a list
celebrity is nice. Where you can go out to dinner and just kind of
lay low or you know, there's a lot of great food spots here in
Montreal, and I don't think I've even scraped the surface of how many food
places I can go and eat, but it seems like every place I've chosen
has been extremely good. And a lot of people talked about, you know,
the facilities or the fans here, and I haven't seen that, you
know, I feel like this is a professional atmosphere. I've felt the love
through our fans even when we've been winning, when we've been losing, our
game days have been rocking. So a lot of uncertainty that I've kind of
had going into the season just because I didn't know we're answered fairly quickly,
and so I'm extremely happy to be where I'm at and hopefully I can be
you know, the quarterback for this organization for the long haul and set ourselves
up nicely and win some playoff games and hopefully hoist that great cup over our
head. Yeah, that was gonna be my last question. You know,
obviously Saskatchewan known right, you know, rabbitous fans and all of that,
but yeah, Montreal is no slouch as well. And they show up and
they've got the horns and all that kind of stuff. What have you made
of that? And are you pro airhorn here in Montreal? I'm extremely pro
airhorn. I was definitely against it playing here because it was just annoying and
loud and it made it hard on opposing teams. But that's how we get
our fans to get involved and it makes it tough on the opposing team.
So any chance we can get And now I love the horns going because I'm
usually on the sideline when I hear them going crazy because our defenses out there,
and like I said, the fan base has been truly incredible and they've
came out to our games. We've had three games that have been delayed because
the lightning, and two of them are home games. Another two were in
the rain in home and our fans stuck around, made it loud for the
opposing team in the rain, and that just goes to show that there's a
lot of passionate football fans here in Montreal. It just kind of gets overlooked
because it's such a big city. But when you see those fans on game
day wearing jerseys, wearing Montreal gear, it truly makes you feel like,
yeah, this is professional football, and so I appreciate them very much.
They've been very welcoming to me, and nobody sit the panic button when we've
lost games. You know, sometimes you lose and sask and it's all about
football and you can kind of feel that pressure. You can feel that because
people start talking, people stop you and talk about the loss. But here
it's it's been a warm, welcoming and they've really opened up to my family
and so I'm extremely blessed and happy to be here. Well, Cody,
I appreciate your time. You're busy week here, my heart. They'll be
touring this weekend watching the Lions and the Aulettes, but means a lot.
You got a lot of people cheering for you, and I really appreciate your
time to them. Absolutely. Always great to catch up with you. And
appreciate chatting me on the show. Awesome, a bone chance and then we'll
have a good game this weekend. Thanks man, I appreciate it. Thank
you. Okay, Well here we are coming off a hot couple of weeks
now for the Edmonton football team. Stephen Dunbar, how are you doing,
sir? But I'm doing good man, blessed tank of player. What are
you doing today? That it was practice or what's going on? And headed
into the weekend? Yeah, man, yeah, yeah, I finished with
practice. Man, got back from the facility not too long ago. Probably
just kind of hang out right now, look over, look over the game
plan and just kind of, you know, contained to prepare for for this
big game we got coming up this week. Different vibe here the last couple
of weeks with everything going on, we finally got a couple of victories under
our belt. How are the guys. Man's morale is different, you know
around the building of course, you know, we got a couple of ways
and you know, it's just a good feeling. I think it was big
five teen to realize that you know, we can win, you know what
I mean, and you know and how that feels and what it looks like
to prepare to win. So yeah, the demarella is a greater around the
facility so far, and now as the challenge and not get complacent and continue
to keep working towards you know, getting better. Yeah, what was kind
of the messaging? Obviously you guys had the big you know when you get
Tamilton a couple of weeks back, but then having to win at home here
over the weekend. How was that? Man? That was great? You
know, actually we hadn't had a win there in the wild. Uh so
I think it was big for our organization. Uh, big for the city
to finally, you know, get a get a win in front of our
home crowd and uh, you know it's it's kind of a goal, I
think, I know, uh, as our team just to kind of get
you know, this this city behind us and understanding that we can be a
really good football team. What's it been like so far this season? Because
Rocky is to say the least, what's it been like for you here at
in Needmington? Man, it's been it's been rough. Man. You know
you're losing it. It's always kind of tough. But other than that,
man, we we we got a good group of guys on our team,
and you know, we stuck together throughout the whole, you know, the
whole adversity and of just losing and putting in work and I seeing the results.
So it's you know, it's like I said, it's been tough,
but you know, I like the guys I play with, and so it
kind of makes it, you know, easy to come to work. Yeah,
talking about that good camaraderie in the locker room even with everything going on.
Yeah, man, I think a lot of the guys, uh,
you know, Jay like each other. You know, we hang out,
you know, even when we were not going a football facility. We go
grab food, we hang out, we kick it all the time. So
we were rationally kind of friends on the side of football. So it kind
of makes it cool to you know, you know, come to work and
be all the work with guys that you actually like. Yeah. I think
a lot of the guys will say the same thing, you know, well,
because I mean, you know, a few years back Edmonton, you
know, and this was even probably before your time there, but was kind
of known wasn't quite the happiest place to come to work. So it's good
to hear morale and locker room and everything's good. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, it's definitely. Uh the culture are definitely shifting. So uh
we had trade four Lon preseason. Was excited to you know, talk with
him obviously now he's getting you know, the tremendous success and start. What's
it likes having him kind of leading you guys down the field? Man?
Yeah, it's great, it's great, guys. He has a different type
of spark tour offense our team, and I'm just happy for him. And
he's been through a lot this year, a lot of ulson and nas throughout
his career basically just you know, trying to find itself. And I mean
it's cool to be a part of him kind of blossom into the player that
he's that he is and who is becoming. And I'm excited. I'm excited
for him. I'm excited to see kind of what he takes the rest of
the season and in his career moving forward. What do you view you how
how do you view what he adds to your guys' offense? I mean,
he's not having going to manas you know, it's it's I know, it
gives you know, defenses a lot of headaches of how they you know,
they find you know, how explosive we are on the outside in the perimeter,
and we got a great back and you bring the tray forward and now
it's like, okay, you know what we're gonna do. You know what
I mean. I think that's the element that's very kind of brains to our
offenses, Like, Okay, we got we gotta plan and stop with all
these guys. But then it's like, Okay, now we gotta figure out
a way to have a tray, you know. So I think just about
him being able to be in at the present, it opens up. It
opens up the door for you know, everybody to have, you know,
their opportunity to make plays as well. So yeah, he's dynamic man.
So it's you know, it opens up everything. You've had a good year,
you know, regardless of kind of the success of the team, and
now everything's kind of coming together. How have you stayed motivated to keep performing
here with everything going on? Uh? I just believe in consistency, man.
I'm not really too attached to the outcome of things. I'm a big
process guy. I just believe that, you know, if you stick through
to the to the things that you set out to do, you know,
when you started, and you kind of you know, a lot of essent
flows of things happening to go on, and you just stay consistent that againstally
you end up on the other side of it. And I just kind of
kept that mindset throughout the year, man, just standing assistant on my routine,
standing assistant with what I bring, you know, to the team,
and on a day to day basis, and just being who I am regardless
of what's going on. And yeah, it's helped me out. Man.
So in terms of you got the coaching staffer, you feel like they're taking
care of you guys. How do you feel like it works alongside kind of
players and coaching, Man, I think it's really good. I think,
uh, we gotta you know, we gotta really good players coaching. Uh
Chris Jones who likes to make sure that we feel good on game day.
We got a bunch of coaches, especially on the offensive side of the ball,
that deep this side of the ball, that really uh players or were
farmer players, So they really understand kind of the you know, the life,
the mentality, that mind set of things that we deal with on feel
and also kind of how we think, you know, while we're out there
on. The things that we're looking for is is individuals and as a as
a our friends and we connect you know in that way. You know,
even you know just even like just you know, just man and man person
a person. We actually have you know, conversations all the time between our
cools in the players and you know it's cool. Like I said, a
lot of those guys are former players, so you know, conversations are easy
when you're trying to you know, tell them what you're seeing out there on
game day or if you're in the meeting room and you're wondering, you know,
while we're doing a certain things, while we call it a certain thing,
it's easy for them to talk to us. So yeah, man,
it's it's it's it's a double environment in there. Man. In terms of
Edmonton is a whole you know, kind of historic CFL franchise. Does that
you think about that, you know, City of Champions and everything they call
it, or I mean, how do you want to kind of carry on
I guess that legacy up there? Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean
how can you come here and look over the facility a little to stay in
and you heard up at all these great cups that they've won and all the
success they've had in the past, and you know, it's kind of like
you know, you you know, I first got up here and it's almost
like, you know, the city is almost looking for that, you know,
that team again. You know what I mean, that organization again to
get by it's the support like they did all those years before. So obviously,
you know, as as a player who's coming here and establishing a new
home here, you know, you obviously want to do that for it,
you know, for the community, for the fans, and you know,
be to be the person who you know, gets that train rolling. Do
you like Edmonton's you like Edmonton is a city? What do you like to
do there? Yeah, it's cool man. I always took peple ask me
all the time, like it's it's it's not like a big, crazy,
big city like I like, I from the Wallands. I went to school
in Houston, so I've done the whole big, big city thing. But
it's it's like I said, it's good enough. Man. You got places
to go out to eat. You know, it's a little couple of places
to you know, if you want to go out have a drink a field.
Definitely good for that. They have parties, festivals and all type of
stuff going on, so it's like it's kind of that happy meeting, you
know what I mean. Yeah, I spent that like a week and a
half in New Orleans years ago and that was probably five days too long.
Yeah, yeah, that did me. And there are too many trips on
Bourbon Street. Yeah you're looking for it. I mean we got you know,
Edmonton winner coming up here. It's one thing to be in augusta beautiful
summers. What's it like they're playing on the cold, But it comes around.
Man, I heard that this the one is said brutal Man. It's
gonna be my first time kind of experience in the firsthand. But I mean,
you know this is prime football. You know, this is kind of
where where you know, it's like that wall, you know what I mean,
coming into the winter after liber Day, it's when the season kind of
gets doll for it, you know what I mean. As far as a
competitor, you know, you look forward to it, you know what I
mean, you see whoa who's gonna who's gonna play well when it's you know,
when they are when when when they're not playing healthy, when it all
excited about the season. My things aren't really going they thought it would go.
You know, it kind of when those kind of people that came a
crowd kind of rise to the top. So just when a few years up
here, I've noticed, you know what I'm saying, after Labor Day,
it kind of you know, it's like when the real season it kind of
kind of kind of starts. Well, you guys are coming in your own
here going into Calgary kind of big divisional game, and obviously you guys are
not out of it really statistically here with everything and how the West is all
right? How are you guys? How are you getting up for the game
this weekend, because it really would be important for you guys to kind of
ride that momentum. Yeah, man, Like, I mean, it's obvious
that you know, our destiny, our destiny, isn't it kind of handsfield?
You know, we just gotta do we have to do and and we
can kind of we write the story of our season, you know what I
mean. So, I mean, obviously it's it's playing as day that the
opportunity is there. But I think the message is to take it one day
at the time. I'm play at the time, one game at a time
and just kind of be in a moment because if we get to ahead and
it's like, you know, it does no good for us, you know
what I mean? So I think the message five team is just to kind
of stay focusing on what we at, where we're at, you know what
I mean, and actually definitely right in this momentum. And I think,
uh, Chris Jones told us that after the first game, it really take
in how this feels, you know what I mean as far as just winning,
and you know, right, but this is this is how this feels.
This is what it feels like, like get used to it, Like,
know what it is that you did to prepare to do this and allow
yourself to continue to keep going it. And that's got to be the focused
five team, you know what I mean. So I guess my last question.
You know, you talk about coach Jones and you know there's been a
lot of media stuff lately with God, you know, you gotta get rid
of him or whatever, Like even through all the adversity you guys have been
through, has he been able to kind of keep you guys like all locked
in or you do you do you feel that or you like on board with
him and what's going on. Yeah, yeah, I'm yeah, one hundred
percent on board with him. I think everybody on our team, coaches and
players and support staff or or standing behind him one hundred percent. Uh.
I think I believe in him. I believe in the staff that he's that
he put around us. I believe in the team and he put together.
Uh. And like I said, it's just a matter of but coming together.
We had a really young team, a lot of guys the first year
see if for the first and your second year see players, And I just
think, you know, it was you know, it was a lot of
obstacles that we had to go through. We just was we just had to
really find a way to to to figure out how to win, you know
what I mean. I think guys are maturing, Guys are understanding, you
know, what it is or it looks like to win and how you win
up here. And yeah, and I think you know, obviously schematically and
and and and coaching and culture, all that stuff got a jail and work
in the same direction, you know what I mean. So it takes time
sometimes even get that, you know, right out of the gate. Sometimes
teams take time to kind of figure that out. And I think we just
had to take a time to kind of figure it out. I wasn't a
Christian, you know, Chris Jones actually see the head guys, he's on
to take the brunt of it. But you know, it's it's an organizational
thing. As a hope, you know what I'm saying. Everybody got to
buy and everybody like it. You know, you know, it's it's difficult
to get, you know, a whole organization. We're staying direction. So
oh, like I said, I'm excited to see what we're doing moving forward.
And like I said, you know how it goes when you when you're
losing, everybody got something bad to say, and then one it's like,
you know, I can never happen. Well, good luck. I lived
and died through the last couple of games you guys have had, and you
the Winnipeg that week and then everything over the weekend. So I wish you
guys luck. And I got a lot of friends up in Demonton, so
good luck whenever that. Yeah, I appreciate you having me on the show
Man. Thank you, huge, special thanks to you all the guys today.
One over the CFL offices, Lucas everyone for making that Randy and Brozie
available. Really appreciate that. Him taking time on the American podcast. I
remember the first time Randy came on, it was one of the three down
It was like the Rough Necks or the on the Rough Decks, the Red
Blacks podcast was like how like how could Randy Ambrosie go on in the American
XFL podcast. Well here we are, you know, three three guest appearances
later. Really appreciate that. Thanks, Lucas. Like I said, everyone
over the CFL offices commissioner and Brosie everything with that Pat you know, making
time tracking all the players and it was a busy week like our group chat,
which is crazy trying to keep up, but okay, who's signed.
Okay, they're like, you know, they're way, They're back on the
practice squad. So I hope we did good. I know that's still kind
of a fluid situation. I think Patton, I did as good enough job
as we could kind of getting you recapped on all of that special thanks because
I for Jardo Francis everyone over there, and then hernon over with the Elex
getting Stephen Dunbar and all of that. Super appreciate it. You guys,
Like I said, I can subscribe, enjoy the episode this weekend. Real
real football coming next weekend next Thursday. Very excited for that Mariners are in
the playoff, punt commanders are going to be playing. It really had time
to be alive here. Crack in preseason starting soon, so I hope you
guys enjoy a likeing. Subscribe Seed next time, Bex