Well, good Monday or Tuesday morning here everyone on the Mark houts Happy fourth
of July if you are in the United States, celebrating that Happy Canada Day,
a long weekend if you are friends up north. That interesting interesting that
week here. I had a lot of trash shock has been said here.
I did not skip Bayliss. I'm very close to skip Bayless. My hat
into the trash last night, but I still have it on today here after
a little bit of an interesting game here, I don't know if it lived
up to what we expected, but it certainly lived up to something. Nonetheless,
Jason and Evans standing by, We'll bring them on. I'll kind of
preview the show here. We'll get in everything. Jason, you know a
lot of smack talk for me at least, you know your lack of a
quarterback and struggling games, and you know Evan's kind of a BC Lions fan
with me. We're eating a little bit of humble pie today. How are
you doing, Jason? I'm doing great right. How are you? I'm
sharing evan welfare check? How do you feel today? I feel good.
Wasn't here last week, but excited to talk about the three games. It's
a bit of a lesser slat because I'm Calgary. Hamilton's sketch went all to
buy obviously, but yeah, it should be good. It should be good.
Yeah, BC fans a little bit of you know, just made the
day. But we'll get into that. I don't know if this guy has
followed anything else. I decide everything up, We'll do BC and then the
Winnipeg game. And then I was saying before we got on here, Ottawa
feels like a lifetime ago. I do have this article Jim Mullen share in
front of the show. We were going back and forth last night about our
BC Lions woes and then Mariners with a thrilling six six to what was it
six to five win here in the ninth any But there's three down Nation article
eight ways you feel like cfl is leadership is failing the fans. So I
think we'll get into that in the end of the show, because you know,
normally we get like four games for the hour. We have the three
this week. But I didn't want to say and I echoed this sentiment,
and I saw a lot of people echoing this. Rashmadani friend of the show
here, I was sitting there Thursday of the long weekend, no CFL games.
I was sitting there Sunday of the long weekend, no CFL games,
Jason, this, okay, we have a three team buy it's a long
week, Like, what do you make of this? And because like there
was nothing else going on this weekend. I mean, I know there's like
regional baseball and stuff. Yeah, I just don't agree with how they scheduled
this week. Maybe it was due to something like the stadium ability at availability
at a female field, but at the end of the day, I'm pretty
sure this games should have been on the Sunday honestly, because you know,
when you only have three games on that week, it doesn't really make too
much sense. Thank goodness, we didn't have a Thursday game this week because
it would have been stretched even more thin. And then it was just kind
of a disjointed week with the whole rain delay on Saturday as well. So
I mean, it was just weird week for the CFL schedule. Yeah,
it was weird. I went back and watched and we'll get into it.
I had some notes on kind of the delay, but I went it was
my birthday on Saturday, and I went back. It feels like that game
existed in the vacuum. I sign nothing about it. I'm like, oh,
okay, there was like a rain delay. Okay, Winnipeg, you
know, beat the snot out of the Alouettes. Okay. And I went
back and watched and there they had they preempted it, and there was kind
of all that stuff. Evan, did you I know, like we're sitting
here, we're in our best life Monday. You know, we I have
to work today. I have a wedding today. But you know, a
lot of people are off today. But that's not necessarily the case for these
Canadian viewers here for the long weekend. Yeah, I mean it was definitely
a weird slate and the weather delay didn't help things. Um. Yeah,
I thought it was very a bit too spread out. Obviously, again,
given you know, the long weekend, I feel like you should have just
had Friday, Saturday, Sunday done, or even like a doubleheader or something
on Canada Day, maybe on Saturday. I don't know if that's just a
thought, but yeah, I'm sure it looks like it's going to return to
normal in week five because there's you're back to a four game slate. So
yeah, and if you're listening to this, it's just a rashmanniss. Why
have a Canadian professional football game up against nothing else on the sports calendar on
the Sunday of a long weekend, the beginning of the new beginnings. The
other thing I just wanted to know, and I don't need to play this,
but shout out. I thought Rod on his show Friday did a good
job friend of the show talking just about a lot of the grassroots stuff that
Rod and if he feels like the CFL used to do and kind of failing
to do now where he's sitting there, He's like, we have three teams
on the bye week, it's the Friday of a long weekend. No one's
calling me to come on the show, no one's calling to promote anything,
and just you know, why is that happening? Just kind of the state
of the CFL here. So I just thought that was interesting, but it
really echoed to me. And we'll get into this year maybe later in the
show with kind of the leadership and everything that, you know, maybe CFL
fans are a little whatever disenfranchise right now. Jason, overall, for the
three games, what did you make just kind of you know, top level
of you here. I think it was pretty sloppy overall in the three games.
I just didn't think I was that, you know, the Friday game
was pretty rough, the Saturday game was pretty rough once it got going after
the rain delay. And then the Monday game it started off very good,
but then I mean, unfortunately Toronto kind of just took away with it when
it ran away within the second half. That is, yeah, Evan,
Yeah, kind of your very thousand foot view here looking down. Yeah,
I mean, you know, it was the Toronto BC game was obviously the
best, but even that one got out of hand really quickly, and you
know, really wasn't entertaining after probably second quarter, you could argue. So,
yeah, I don't know, just a pretty boring slate. I guess
you would say this week nothing, nothing too exciting. I guess we'll get
in here, we'll start with kind of the marquee one and we'll kind of
move excuse me, move our way back here. You know, VC Lions
big hype tier the Monday night. For the record, and I posted this
in the chain. I don't count the Argos and the Argos having the week
one buy, I don't count them as the same level of undefeated as the
VC Lions. We kept having a snatchup of like, you know, the
two undefeated teams. VC Lions played three games. Argos are on the bye
week next week as well, So I just I, you know, play
the same number of games. Call it that, Jason am I am I
out of line in that I think that the Argos need to prove something else
here before they're the true champions of the undefeated. Yeah, I agree with
that, because, yeah, like you said, they have that weird thing
going on with the two buys in the first half of the season. Actually,
I believe someone said to me that they have three buys in the first
half of the season and then they played like ten games in a row to
end the year. But yeah, just a weird situation going on with the
Argo schedule and h yeah, I wouldn't weigh it too much as being like
a true undefeated team so far, even though they look like the best team
in the league at this one of the season. Yeah, if you wanted
to know. Mike Mitchell, he left his notes. He said, show
notes, our guys are the bass Hamilton better than that leads to Ottawa and
Edmonton. The next few weeks so that is your you know, Mike's I
think doing the parade today. I think Mike's very excited about that. Evan.
In terms of expectations going into this game, I think they were high.
I guess I think we have a lot to talk about here. I
don't know if they met the expectations necessarily. What were you looking forward to
in this game? Just a close game, honestly. I mean, these
are two very high powered teams on both sides of the bolt. That's obviously
what makes a football game, you know good. You could even argue bringing
special teams too, obviously an important factor, but especially you know, offense
defense. It was just a very you know, very highly talented matchup,
I guess you would say, And it left up to the hype probably,
you know, in the first quarter it was tied at one point, you
know, kind of a back and forth. It was like seven seven and
fourteen fourteen, But then Vernon through you know, a couple picks, probably
more than he should have, and Toronto just kind of pulled away. We'll
get into more of that and what I think about that performance specifically later,
but overall, in terms of the matchup, I just think, you know,
it was. I was really expecting BC to win, even though the
game was in Toronto, and it did look like that was, you know,
plausible for a while, even when you know, Vernon was still kind
of turning the ball over like in the first half, I was like,
okay, like they can still kind of pull themselves out of this. But
by the third quarter, you know, all hope was lost. So yeah,
this is yeah, Jason, go for it. I was gonna say
it's a kind of a misleading story score line because I thought that the defenses
actually did play very well in this one. It's just a bunch of turnovers
caused the score to be and a big special teams touchdown, but the artist
caused the score to be a lot higher than I was expecting. Well,
that was the thing. It felt like in the beginning that Toronto couldn't score
on offense at all. It felt like that either BC they came down,
they scored early in Toronto, we kind of sopped them, and then we
had the big the punt return, and then it really felt like kind of
that was that it kind of been raveled from there. I guess my big
question, we'll go to both you guys, we can go to Evan.
First, Vernon Adams here six interceptions in the game, I tweeted, I've
watched twenty four weeks in XFL and USML football. I've never seen the quarterback
and throw six interceptions. I guess the CFL record is seven. I think
Matt Dunnigan did as well as Jim Mohan told me a couple others. Evan,
did did Vernon Adams lose this game? Or did they trying to argue
that to win this game? Yeah, that's a great question. I have
to lean towards Vernon Adams lost, unfortunately, because I still feel like without
the turnovers, BC would have won or at least made it extremely close.
Just again, given what went on in the first quarter before you know,
the turnovers really started coming out. But yeah, I've put in my notes
I said this was a very Jamis Winston esque performance. And I mean that
in kind of a good in a bad way, because if you look past
the interceptions, if you take away that six interception number, Vernon Adams had
three hundred eighty eight yards and three touchdowns. You know, he was nearly
averaging ten yards an attempt, you know, pretty much right on the money
there. So yeah, if you take away the turnovers, I mean,
he should have easily won this game. But when you you know, when
you're giving the ball away six times to the other team, especially three you
going to the same player Robertson Daniel um gets, it gets pretty tough to
win. And clearly, you know, I mean you just look at the
score and that's all you really need to know. And again, yeah,
it's a bit misleading on some fronts, but you know, it's it's just
a shame because Vernon in this game, I feel like had so many good
plays on offense that got overlooked because he was given the paul to the defense,
you know, so many times. Jason, same question, do you
so? I what was the question? Did Vernon Adams lose this game?
And then they're trying to argue that to win this game? Okay? Yeah,
sorry, um yeah, I do believe that Vernon lost this game for
them. I think, especially when you looked at late in the fourth quarter,
it looked like they had a lot of momentum pards a comeback when they
were down by um I think they were down by seventeen points at one point,
and then they cut it did eleven and then I think they were driving
in there, and that one big interception that I don't know what Vernon was
seeing on that play. I think that was the absolute killer, because I
really do think they had the chance to come back in this game. So
I think there are some of these picks that weren't his fault, and then
some of them were obviously his fault. But I mean, when you throw
six interceptions, it's kind of unacceptable. Kind of reminded me of a game
that Peyton Manning had years ago when he played against the Chargers, and I
think he too, like five interceptions, but also through four touchdowns and was
just kept on coming and almost won the game anyway. But anyway, yeah,
Vernon I think lost the game for the Lions overall. It was hard.
It was before that I had my tweet ready, before I was about
to turn my hat in the trash when they were down eleven points going there
at the end and five interceptions and if the game had ended or you know,
the argus had round at the clock. Turning the ball over five times
and only losing by eleven points is pretty remarkable, I think if you if
you really look at it. But to me, it felt like I when
I was in college. I was a little bit of a casino and I
we had a casino by our college we could go because it was an Indian
casino. I would go a lot, and it's kind of one of those
things where you start losing and then you're going, like you throw more good
money after bad, right, and you really need to know to walk away.
And it felt like Vernon just kind of spiral there and it was just
he was so lost even he had I think he had a big completion that
can Hatcher near the end of so I'm like that was still in triple coverage,
Like I'm glad Kean is in the phenomenal athlete that could catch the ball,
Like I don't know if that was still a great throw or decision to
make. It just felt like he was so rattled and you saw him on
the sidelines, Evan, they're you surprised that we didn't see a Dan Evans
out in here, even just to kind of give Vernon a break at the
end. Yes, Yes, I definitely am. And I'm glad you brought
that up because it just seemed it gets to a point where you know,
even if there's only you know, you hit the three minute warning or whatever,
or even maybe halfway through the fourth quarter. I mean, Vernon again,
in my opinion, minus the turnovers, had a very good game.
But you know, if Dan Evans just comes in and manages for a bit
and doesn't turn over the ball, even if he's not throwing as many yards,
you know, completing as many passes, that's kind of what you want
at that point in the game. You just need someone to come in,
you know, manage keep the deficit, you know, close, so you
can at least try and get back in it. Because like you said,
you know, there was a time where they were down by eleven and Vernon
had thrown five and then you look at the score when Vernon throw six and
it's like, well, they all do add up, even if again,
he had a great performance. So yes, long story short, I do
think Dane Evans should have come in at some point what point in the game,
I don't know. I didn't watch the fourth quarter of that game personally,
but you know, I'm sure there was a time where he could have
come in. Yeah, I had the tweet here, I guess just share
this So I'm talking about the argos by here. Yeah, the argos have
the buy. They started the season play three games. Excuse me have another
buy? So pointing out in terms of the Chad Kelly ev it, Jason,
I know this is and I said this last week as well. He's
kind of getting the Nathan work rub here, like this is our savior.
Now we're talking about this guy all the time. I saw the attendance not
great for the Argos. I think it was like twelve and change, which
I would hope you would want a bigger for Markie matchup on the on the
long weekend and all that. What did you make of Chad Kelly. I
think he started slow, like you said, and I think that was the
big missed opportunity for BC in this game, because you know, they were
moving the ball really well in the first half, whereas Toronto couldn't get anything
going, but a couple of big plays really turned it around for them.
But Chad Kelly in the second half, you saw the confidence start to grow.
I mean, he can make some amazing plays out there, extend plays,
really tough guy to bring down in the pocket. So I think that
he definitely has the potential to kind of go the Nathan Rock route and have
that kind of a season this year. Maybe not in terms of the sheer
numbers of it, but I think in terms of the talent out there,
I think Chad Kelly is really showing why everybody believed in him to start the
season, or why so many people were high on him to begin the air
Evan thoughts on Chad's performance, Yeah, had in my notes here I literally
said, Chad Kelly has no issues keeping this Toronto team on track from their
Gray Cup win because there was a lot of questions going into the season.
You know, Okay, great Chad came in late in the Gray Cup,
you know, pulled off the victory. It was a thriller, it was
great, great story. You know, that's what you want to see.
But the reality is then MBT leaves and Chad has to now you know,
replace him for a full season and possibly many more seasons to come. Looks
like Chad is going to be the new franchise quarterback there for a couple of
years, assuming everything goes to plan. He doesn't get picked up by the
NFL, doesn't get injured, whatever, But he's ready every week. He
just I mean, he so far. Like you know, we had that
discussion. I think it was two weeks ago. You know, it's Chad
Kelly the best or most important player in the CFL right now, and you
could really make the argument that he is at this point. Again, I
know, maybe this is recency biased. Not every team played this week,
you know, you had three on a bye, But still I think Chad
Kelly being the quarterback of the Toronto Organauts is I mean, that's a difference
maker. Like they really could go back to the Great Cup. And I
know we had talked about this matchup in particular possibly being a Great Cup preview
for one, we're in Hamilton. But yeah, I mean long, long
story short there. Yeah, I think Chad is great and if he stays
on this trajectory, that team is going to have no problems well and especially
just you know, we've talked about this before with the CFL East here.
I don't see a world where the Argos aren't at least in the finals there.
And you know, maybe the Alolettes really tuned it up here and come
on, and they didn't. I didn't think they played terrible in the first
half I saw against you know, Winnipeg here kind of coming off there.
You know, they're butt whipping and wanted to do all that, but yeah,
the Argos are so good and the East is so bad to me.
Here, the one thing I just to point out as well with this aj
Aliolette. And I know we've been talking about him before, you know,
fourteen for seventy, but he was on the sidelines a lot getting worked on,
and I'm kind of afraid of if he had been full go the whole
time, I don't know if BC would have been able to stop that as
well. Right, it felt like BC when he was in there was kind
of churning in and doing not as a standout performances last week where you kind
of have the hat trick of touchdowns. But Jason, what did you make
of that? Aj? And they seemed like there was we had Mizelle was
on the sidelines to some injury bugs, especially AJ here because I knew we
had such a good week lass week. Yeah, I think aj Aletta has
looked excellent to begin the air, so I think that having him healthy going
forward is such an important thing for the Argo's offense. But I think that
I think Andrew Harris came in got a lot of work, but it wasn't
the same when he came in. I definitely agree with you there read.
I think that Olette just brings a different level of physicality and shiftiness. I
think that Andrew Harris doesn't provide at this point of his career, and I
think that he's kind of the key to that Argo's offense. I think going
forward and what we've seen so far this season, haven't you anything else they
adds on Ajum, I would just say that, you know, I kind
of thought Andrew Harris would be the top rusher on this team. I understand
that he's old, but I still feel like he would give, you know,
a bit more juice. But so far they haven't even really needed him.
I mean, in this game, he had what three carries for nine
yards, and he hasn't really done a lot this season. Outside of that.
I think he's had maybe a touchdown or two. But aj is the
guy clearly, and they don't have a problem with him, and you know,
he's he's been rolling so far. He's one of these players that's um
sort of on the come up. And there's a couple of guys like that.
We'll talk about later with some other teams, or at least I want
to talk about. But yeah, I agree he's been great so far this
season. A couple other notes where I had I don't I'm not the biggest
Glenn Suitor guy. I know, kind of hit or missign here he was
really worshiping Jack Kelly and he's he's he's not following the rules, like he's
breaking the rules, like he's just tune whatever. And then there was like
a weird scrum at the end where they had really delayed the game about you
get two three minutes while they were kind of it was like the police officer
kind of ticketing everyone and he's like this, that's not tough, Like you
need to be tough in the game, like this, this isn't the way
to be. Don Jason, Am I the only one that is add on
Glenn. It was really when I turned on the game, like, oh
my god, we got Marshall Ferguson and Glenn Suitor here. I'm like,
this is really good. I don't know how I feel about this. Yeah,
I thought they were very obnoxious. Honestly, yesterday, I think that
one of the big things with Glenn Suitor is he like and I'm all for
like talking up the Canadians in the league, but he goes out of his
way to mention it like every two minutes, and I think that that kind
of drives me crazy. Same with Marshall. Really, I think that,
I mean, it's good to mention that as an aspect of the game,
but I think just the frequency in which it was mentioned drives me crazy.
And I didn't really notice as much the Kelly thing, but yeah, definitely
the Canadian thing is something I noticed quite often with some of these commentators.
But I think that Suitor is probably the worst offender of that. Well,
and you had you had Jim Kelly there, right, so you had Chad's
uncle there. And I've said before, I'm here in the alternate world where
the USFL pays up to get Chad Kelly to come play there, you know,
the football landscape. I think it's very different right now. I mean
clearly for the Canadian Football League as well. But so they kept talking about
Jim Kelly and the Buffalo Bills and like it's like it's okay to you can
like both of NFL and the CFL, Like it's okay, it's okay.
I'm like Glenn, like you're like the last person that is like ever or
should be, Like it's okay to like he is sech a pro Canadian and
it's great pro Canadian, pro SAFL anybody, what's okay, Like if you
want to watch the NFL, like that's okay as well. I just thought
it's kind of one of those things where you're like, hey, I'm okay
if you do that, Like that's why if you if you keep saying it
so much, it's almost like you're not a heare with it, evan,
not if you have anything to add, but any thoughts on Gland or anything
else, not really. I mean I don't pick up on this, you
know, commentator stuff as much as other people do. I will say there
definitely is a push for the whole pro Canadian thing, and I think that's
great, right, But with all sort of commentators, that's you can only
bring up something to a certain extent. And this happened in the XFL,
you know, when they talked about the NFL and in the USFL too.
There was a lot of repetition. But ultimately, yeah, I mean,
if you're bringing up the same thing so many times, it just gets boring
and then you're just sitting there like all right, man, like let's calm
down a bit. You know, like you've got other things going on in
this game, like maybe talk about you know, vernon six interceptions or something,
and you know how that affects the flow. I don't know. Yeah,
yeah, Glenn's also yeah the one like I said, it's okay to
watch this, but I'm gonna poop poo on the XFL or any other American
leagues and stuff on there. We'll get out, we'll move on to the
next game. I just had comments here at Denzel checking in poor BC Lions
yesterday. You know, uncle Denzel is a big fan of the CFL out
here Andrew Murray, good morning, Happy Independence Day, Marsin. Hey,
I enjoyed the game yesterday, James Henderson checking in. I was very surprised
by the Lions. I guess they're time with the top last of the week.
I don't know about that. I guess we'll do that before we get
out here. Gary says Evan agree with you can never comes six interceptions,
you even really close to fourth quarters a testament to that. And then Andrew
says a worse chasing painting through six interceptions and just two dds, but lost
because there was a missfield goal to win. That my team never makes it
easy. So I guess before we move on to the next game and we'll
go Jason and Evan. Cause for concern here with the Lions or is this
just like a freak performance by Vernon. I just think that you're going to
get these games from Vernon from time to time. I mean, just that's
the natural course of his career. He's going to have some very good games
and some very bad games, and I think he was just due for one
against a very good Toronto defense here. I picked the Argos to win on
my channel, so I'm not overly concerned with the Lions. They moved the
ball very well in this game against a very good defense, so I think
it just cut out the turnovers. I think they'll be okay. Evan,
same question to you, Yeah, I mean again you take away that turnover
Callum. I think everything else was about the same. You know, receiving
corpse still looked great, especially with Kean Hatcher coming back into the lineup.
You had, you know, big play to Justin mckinnis, a lot of
great takeaways. Matthew bets On defense had two sacks, so you know they're
still on the right trajectory again, it's as long as you, yeah,
don't throw the ball to the other teams six times, like you're gonna be
just fine, Like you know, there's no problem there, all right.
So moving on here we have the Winnipeg Manchildwitz games. Like I said,
so this is my birthday, I come back. I got this all recorded
on my food bo to watch weird weather delay Jason? How long was this?
Because I kind of ended up fast forward and through the PAMO because it
came on and they're talking and it didn't seem like they really acknowledged it first.
How long if a rain delay was this? So it was supposed to
kick off at seven pm Eastern time and didn't start until eight forty pm Eastern
time I believe, So yeah, an hour and forty minute rain delay huge,
So that ended up pushing it for it was interesting, so they it
was on the CBS Sports Network. I hadn't recorded, and then they ended
up pre emptying it with like the Portland NWSL whatever soccer match. So I
went on the CBS Sports Network. Unless you haven't recorded, there's no on
demand on there, which is kind of frustrating for me because I know the
CFL Plus games don't have that right if you're watching them on your browser,
but I would hope that the CBS Sports Network could put those on you on
demand on that I did have my notes here. I'm sad that they really
made Marshall work all weekend. Like I think he's the low man on the
toe of the Paul. I'm glad he had to wait through the weight in
the rain toilay there to kind of call the game. Are we fans of
the Red Outlets jerseys this season? I'll go Jason and Evan. Yeah.
I love them actually because I think they I think they stand out compared to
the other jerseys that we see in the league. I think that, yes,
Calgary has red jerseys, but I think they're different enough from them that
they're a pretty good jersey in my opinion. Is it like a throwback or
is it the homage? Like what is the story behind this? Jason,
Well, I'm not too sure about the story behind it or anything like that.
But I mean, they've always had red as part of their color scheme,
but they never made that their primary color. So I think it was
just a natural thing that teams do. They kind of switch around the primary
color of their jerseys. So I think that's what they're going for here.
Yeah, I knew altern jersey, Evan, any thoughts on the jersey seven?
That's probably I said you for you, I mean a bit, But
like I still liked and I honestly like a lot of the jerseys of the
CFL this season. I know, BC sort of has like the gray,
you know, in the black. I love that with the orange, like
the ones they wore in Toronto last night. Those are probably my favorite.
And then Toronto's jerseys too, you know, they're new ones that they unveiled.
I love those. So you've got a nice kind of collection here in
twenty twenty three. Yeah, it's such a it's such an easy thing to
do to kind of like get be a popular fan base a little bit there.
Anyway, so long rain delay, we come in. It was interesting,
you know, like I said, I'm watching the first half of this
game. Montreal was keeping it close, you know, and they're going into
the half, okay, they're down ten zero, and then then I finally
flip on because I knew they lost the game, but I flip on and
you know, one field goal here at the end. Jason, what was
the storyline of this game for you, because it felt at least close as
from what I was watching that the Montreal was at least playing decently in the
first half. Well, to me, this was a throwback game for the
Winnipeg Blue Bombers. You know, when they first started be being this really
good team. They started being this team that could win with physicality, the
running game, their defense shutting teams down, and that's exactly what they did
in this one. Winnipeg's offense, passing offense specifically, could not get much
going in this one. Besides, maybe Dalton Shane had a pretty good game
in this one. But I think that they won this game with their defense.
Willie Jefferson showed up had a couple of sacks in this one. That
was good to see from a guy that had a pretty down year in terms
of production last year. So I think they won with the running game.
Brady Olivera ran the ball very well once again despite having that reported injury.
So I think this was just a throwback win for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and
they didn't allow the Alouettes to get anything going. Evan thoughts on this one,
Yeah, I would say, you know, great bounce back defensively for
Winnipeg after they gave up thirty points to BC the previous week. I think
they really needed that as a confidence boost. And then yeah, what else
do I have here? Yeah, Jason touched on a lot of the points,
especially with Brady Olivera. I think it was a slower Dave m zac
Colaros in the passing game, but you know, Olivera stepped up and that's
sort of good I think for you know, long term success and health if
you can kind of rely on the ground game more and kind of give Colaros
some you know, time off or time to rest of them. He still
had two touchdown passes, but you know, I think like they were throwing
the ball a lot early in the season. I mean it was just you
know, left, right and center all over the field. But now that
you have kind of Brady Olivera with an expanded role again, Yeah, even
with you know, the whatever injury he had that was reported, didn't seem
like it bothered him with one hundred and twenty yards, So that was good
to see. And then on defense, there's a guy Abu Dharmley Sware,
the quarterback. He was tied for the team leading tackles with Alden Darby,
I believe, and I just wanted to point him out as someone who I'd
like to see more of down the stretch. Very unique story from him.
Played with the Potsdam Royals and the German League and then eventually went over to
a rookie minicamp with the Cincinnati Bengals last year. I think, so definitely
someone that I think could have an expanded role with Winnipeg, and this was
kind of the first time to me that he really stood out, so I
just wanted to point that out as well. Yeah, the Olivera thing is,
you know, I mean we obviously saw Andrew Harris there for years,
and Olivera was kind of always at number two, really coming in here really
on his own. Jason, how impressed are you with Brady here throughout was
it four weeks of the season. Yeah, I'm just incredibly impressed with him
because I think going into the season he's a guy that I wasn't super high
on his upside. I didn't think he was that great last year despite having
a thousand rushing yards. I think just his usage was really high. But
I think this year he's really established himself as one of the better running backs
in the league. I could catch the ball to the backfield as incredibly well
rounded player, can run inside the tackles, outside the tackles. So I
think he's just a great running back that they covered in that offense and as
a key part of that team going forward. He did have right, I
had to know the mind. He had one fumble, which I thought was
like, that's pretty rare. I don't see. I don't view him very
much as a as a fumbling guy. Jason, do I have that note
correct? Honestly, I actually missed the first part of this game, so
maybe I missed the fumble. Yeah, it's weird because I wouldn't it show
it on the stat line here. But anyway, yeah, I have my
note for that. Austin Matc had a really weird OPI call. I thought.
I thought some of the calls in the first half were weird that way.
I did have a funny thing too, just talking about Winnipeg defense.
This Willie Jefferson coming in. They had it was like a face mask and
it like turned his helmet sideways and he was like completely blind and still just
still just going out, And I thought he was good. Evan we talked
about kind of the bounce back Winnipeg defense. Good to see anything else I
known on that, Um, not really. I mean I feel like it
was just a very collaborative effort. I think Ricky Walker on the Blue Bombers
had a nice game with a sack and three tackles for loss. But other
than that, yeah, just a very collective effort. And you know,
holding a team to three points, you know, no touch downs. That's
an accomplishment in any game, and I know that's sort of not necessarily a
standard for Winnipeg, but you know, I think there were a lot of
questions after their loss to BC last week, and you know, this might
have not answered all of them, but you have to keep in mind,
you know, the weather delay I think affected performance for both teams, so
it might not have been perfect. But I liked the law of what I
saw from that. Yeah, I have. Yeah, Austin Mack had the
weird OPI call, and then there was another call like they had a defensive
on Montreal and then they came back and they had an offensive because very hard.
I don't I watched football now, and I'm certainly no expert on this.
I don't know how you're supposed to defend balls, and I certainly don't
know it that. It was just a really long one with Austin Mack two.
They were kind of took it out. It felt like they were kind
of beating themselves. Oh and then Drew Wala Tarski here on his first TD
really getting almost like shoved out of the stadium. I felt very dangerous.
They're kind of getting shoved by the defender. Jason, you have any other
thoughts on the game itself? We can talk Montreal and Winnipeg here kind of
like future looking, but anything else on this game, No. I just
think it was a very workman like performance from the Bombers. They just went
in, had to bounce back, and they got the job done. Wasn't
pretty, but I think yeah, like you said, I think the rain
delay kind of took a lot of steam out of this game, and I
think, as someone watching it kind of took a little bit of excitement out
of the game as well. So yeah, I definitely agree with you there,
Evan. Anything else, how do you feel here? I guess how
do we feel about Montreal moving forward? Because I would like to have the
East be at least somewhat competitive this year, and I don't know if the
Red Blacks are going to do that, and Hamilton's kind of jury is still
out. How do you feel about Montreal moving forward? Yes, so despite
them only putting up three points in this game, I still am a firm
believer in the whatever we're calling it stays on to Cody Fajardo, and I
do think the Alouettes they could be a dark horse Grade Cup contender. I
dare I say that too early, but I think again, just given you
know where the East is at right now, I really think that they could
slot in behind Toronto and then just a couple players on the Allouette side that
I want to talk about, um kayon Julian Grant, um I know,
is someone that we've talked about in the past. You know, I spoke
about his potential before, but he's already living up to the hype here,
you know, a month into the season, and it's really good to see
that. I think he was drafted in twenty nineteen, so he's someone I've
had my eye on, you know, the whole year, and to see
what he did in this game, you know, makes me sort of,
I guess, reassure my you know feelings about him. He's a phenomenal player
with phenomenal upside, and the same goes for Austin Mack. I know we've
talked about him too at several points on the show this season, but you
know, I really think he could be, you know, sort of the
next great you know, CFL receiver with multiple All Star appearances. You could
be putting him in the top five, you know, maybe by next season.
And I don't want to speak too early, right I understand we're a
month into you know, however long the season is, eighteen or I guess
twenty one weeks eighteen games in the regular season, and you know, you
can never speak too soon, but I mean, so far, you know,
he has the NFL pedigree, he has sort of the I don't know,
just big playability. He's got really everything you could ask for. I'm
definitely gonna study his game more, go back, you know, over some
of the tape. But my kind of final thought here, at least from
the offensive side in Montreal, which is what I really wanted to touch on
today, is um KJG and Mac. That's like, it looks like Montreal
has just found the perfect replacement for Gina Lewis and you know, Jake Winnicky,
which was a big question going into this season. So I think it's
it's really good to sort of see that, and especially in that Winnipeg game.
Again, I know they didn't score, I know it was kind of
a weird night with the weather delay, but a lot of positive takeaways there.
Really if you're Montreal still hopefully the background no this year, I'm meaning
myself off. My neighbor has decided the mother their line at nine thirty three
on the holiday holiday tis Days, So you know you can't you can't beat
it on that, Jason. And then we have a couple of comments.
We'll get to the last game and then we'll do the list here. But
any like how we feel in Montreal moving forward, because I think Winnipeg it
is what they thought they got whooped. I mean you can comment on that
too. What do you make of these teams move for? What did we
learn here? Well, I think, to echo Evans point, I think
it's very very good signed for Montreal that the receivers have stepped up filled those
roles that were vacant on paper to be going into this season. So I
think that's huge for the Alouettes. One thing with Cody Fajardo, and why
I'm a little bit hesitant to say I'm all in with him, is he's
still taking a lot of sacks. He holds the ball, holds the ball
too long, in my opinion. He had a really brutal red zone interception
when they were trying to come back in the game and they had a chance
to and I think William Standback also had a big fumble as well. So
a couple of turnovers really hurt the Alouettes down the stretch in this one.
But I think overall it's still a strong start to the season for them,
but I think we just need to see a few more weeks of data from
them. We have a couple of comments here Scott's checking in late Argos our
American's CFL team. I don't even know if the Argos are a candidacy.
I would start Jodi and Viga Argos fan check and argos it is fun to
watch. And then we have a comment here at Shaking Now the CFL doesn't
market Austin Mack to the big do Oio State University fan base. I don't.
We've had conversations for years on here where like, do these leagues need
to market more than the colleges and the people go to Like, I don't
know how much that does if you're a CFL fan, or like if I'm
an American Ohio State fan, like, oh, I'm gonna go watch I
don't know. It's kind of the global draft to me, like, oh,
we got a kicker from Norway. If I live in Norway, I'm
gonna watch the CFL. Jayson, do you have any thoughts on that,
like the marketing of the CFL, Like, let's really tap into like the
American college just in in terms of marketing. Well, I don't know how
much it had moved the needle in terms of getting additional fans to watch the
league. But it definitely can't hurt to put up more information specifically about the
American players that are coming into the league because a lot of people just don't
know that these guys played at major major university. So yeah, I definitely
don't think it hurts, but I don't think I'm skeptical about how much big
of an impact that could make. And then we have this is breaking news,
Elks trade Kevin Francis to the Red Black for twenty forty four fourth round
pick according to the three Damn Nation. I don't know if that's they just
got a commed that I'm here. I don't know if that's breaking news.
Talking the Elks on here at this game feels a little bit like a fever
dream to me. Back last Friday on here we had Edmonton the Battle of
the you know, Ottawa was the second longest not winning at home streak on
here, Evan Ottawa finally puts it away twenty six to seven. We'll get
into the Jareddegies of it all, But what did you make thoughts on the
Red Blacks finally getting the home victory? Yeah, well that's what's kind of
funny here is you know, the Red Blacks get their you know, first
home victory and x many games over the team that still hasn't won at home
and even more games. So that was a bit. Uh, you know,
it's happy and sad at the same time, right, I'm sure it's
definitely happy if you're an Ottawa fan and you were at that game. Um,
but yeah, you know, this game, to be honest, really
don't have any takeaways from it, especially not many on the Edmonton and side.
We'll get into that later with the Jared Dougie or I hope I'm saying
this last name right, it's Daggy, right, I think Max, Yeah,
I bet I better not screw that up. I think I've called him
four different names at this point. But anyway, Uh yeah, So for
Ottawa, UM, the one player I really want to talk about is Demontre
Tuggle of the running back. UM. I think it was interesting. You
know, yeah, he had seventeen carries for one hundred and twenty six yards.
But the more interesting storyline I think is that he's another Ohio player sort
of slowly breaking out in the CFL or someone that might have a high upside.
And you know, the other guy that went to Ohio was Nathan Rourke.
UM. So you know, it was interesting to kind of see that.
Definitely a great game for him, you know, happy for him and
his performance. I want to talk about Tyree Adams again quickly. UM.
I thought he had a modest performance. You know, he maybe he could
have had a couple more yards through the year. I think he had one
hundred eighty five passing yards um. But in terms of you know, completion
percentage and yards per attempt, those were spot on. I think they're definitely
building something with him again. You know, whether it's long term or not,
we'll see. You know, we still got to find out, you
know, how well and missoul he can play when he comes back. You
have to keep that in mind as an Ottawa fan. But I think at
this point, Tyree Adams is a solid backup option and you're definitely gonna take
him over Nick Arbuckle because you know, we saw how well that experiment went
at the beginning of the season. And that's no hate to Nick Arbuckle,
by the way. It was just an unfortunate stretch of events there. But
the last thing I really want to talk about for autow up that's you know,
I think something that's gonna get overlooked is they had two cornerbacks Keen Bailey
and I'm doing kind of combining for six tackles for loss, which I think
if the defensive back position to have those kind of numbers is pretty impressive.
Just sort of something that stood out in the stat sheet, not necessarily something
that you would have picked up on during the game. But yeah, overall,
I mean, this was definitely a game to Ottawa needed a gat.
I know it's against Edmonton. I know they're not the strongest team, but
Ottawa really needed to win like this wre they could just go out in front
of a home crowd and just have a good time again, you know,
because there hasn't been a lot of that for this team and what feels like
a while. Yeah, Jason, do you take anything away having a flyer?
I mean that, do you take anything away from Ottawa winning this game
because it was against the alex Like, what do you make of this?
I mean, you gotta take some positives out of it. I mean,
you know, the thing is, like the last time they won a home
game was also against Edmonton. So I think they've won like two home games
in the last like four years, and they've all been against They've both been
against the Elks. So take that for what you will. But I think,
um, you know, Tyree Adams provided a good spark for the team.
I think that he allows them to run a little bit more of you
know, versatile offense because of his legs. I think you can get outside
and now run some bootlegs and whatnot, and that kind of puts additional pressure
on the defense. So it kind of opened up their playbook from that perspective,
and I think that also opened up the running game as well. So
I think Tuggle played really well in this game for them, like Evan said,
and then I think their defenses actually look very good through three games this
season. Against Montreal week one they looked good, and then against Calgary they
look pretty good for the most part. So definitely some positive signs in Ottawa,
but I think they'll need more from their offense going forward if they want
to consider themselves true contenders. But like you said, Evan, it's up
to when Missoli's back, I think. And we still have no time.
I know there was the big notes here coming out to buy, but as
far as I know, there's still no timetable and when he's coming back,
right Jason, Jason, No, okay? Yeah, good, okay,
And so anyway, so no timetable on that. I have some notes here.
You know, we had the big kind of daggy you know he's coming
out. Okay, what are we gonna do here? In nineteen thirty three,
according to Morley Scott on here it looks like Cornelius is back taking the
ones for the Alex I have tweeted here. In the definition of insanity,
Evan, what do you make of this, We're going back to Cornelius again.
Yeah, so Jared Deeggie definitely came down a bit, you know,
back to Earth. I would say, you know, after he kind of
came in the other week and had a nice you know ending to that game,
and everyone started asking a question, you know, hey, maybe his
Jared the guy going forward? He was, you know, again, this
was a game where you know, he turned the ball over too much.
If you can look past the turnovers, I think he did all right,
Like it was definitely better than what Cornelius had offered him previous weeks. So
I'm still surprised, yes, as well, that they were going back to
Taylor Cornelius. I think, you know, yeah, like it didn't work
out with Jared, but you know you could put in like Trey forward,
and I know Kyle Locks has gone now, but maybe you try getting another
guy or even well, I mean Khalil Tate's more of a short yardage option.
I know they signed him, but it wouldn't even hurt for him to
get it. I mean, at this point, it's such an experiment,
you know, and I mean we can talk about this for a while,
but I just feel like there's so many things there where it's like, you
know, you can only plug so many things in, you know, to
fill so many holes, and it's like, I just don't know how many
holes there are, Like it just seems like there's a lot of trial and
error, and it seems like this team shouldn't be at a point where there's
that much trial and err And it's very frustrating because every week you want emman
to get better and it just doesn't seem like they're heading in the right direction.
It almost seems like they're regressing. And that's a problem. It's a
problem if it doesn't gonna get if it doesn't get fixed, soon, might
start costing people some jobs. And um, you know, I love Chris
Jones. I think he's a great man. But at this point, I
mean, if they can't hell, if they don't win a home game this
year, I'm sorry, but that's someone's got to go at that point.
I mean, you know, right now, I think at the rate they're
going at, you're looking at, you know, a possible four win season,
and I think Andy had brought that up in our chat, you know,
saying that that's almost a ceiling because you could really say, you know,
three wins even and I don't know, maybe that's being a bit harsh,
but like what else do you have to show for it? You know,
it's it's a real shame. And I'd say right now, they're in
a worse spot than Ottawa. I know, were just broke their home street
too, and they've had their own struggles and they're down some players. But
I mean, man Edmonton, like every week it's just like, I mean,
I can't imagine what it's like to be an Elks fan. I really
can't. I have this tweet here. I thought as well, this through
that Monte Chris Jones built this team. Chris Jones hired his assistance, Chris
Jones shows who go all in on Cornelius. Chris Jones is the highs that
responsible for the current stay that this Alex football team is time to move on
from Chris Jones. I remember too with Rod when they when they hired Chris,
it was before they brought in Victor Quee and there was like this,
well like, how do you hire the head coach at GM before the president.
I think we're seeing maybe a little bit about you know, disruption here
now. Jason what do you make of this is the overall well for a
check on the Elks. Oh, it's just such a circus in Edmonton.
Like I mean, now they're pretty cornelius back in. It just doesn't make
sense. If you're gonna make that switch, you gotta let a guy that's
making his first career of sefball start at least have a couple of games to
get it right. I mean, if you really believe in the guy,
and now you're showing that you don't really believe in the guy to get it
right, and you're going back to a formally that you know that won't work
in Taylor Cornelius. So it just drives me insane. Like I said,
what I would do is just put Trey forward in there trying to make some
kind of option run heavy offense at this point, because you know, I
just don't think this team can run the ball. I think the offensive line
is also a huge problem. And I think that you know, it's just
just a complete circus at Edmonton. I really don't know what to make of
it at this point. It just seem like, like Evan said, the
regressing, Yeah, Gary here has a I won't pull it up right now
because it we'll cover all this. In my opinion, o line is the
starting point. It doesn't matter who the quarterback, receivers or running back is
if the line isn't working. This is interesting too. I had a tweet
here from Chris This go out situation is really fascinating. The whole business might
need new ownership and governance model. It's possible the idea of community owned has
actually destroyed under the way of traditions, story history and volunteer board. I
don't know. I think when I talked to Victor Queet two years ago,
I felt like it was a very different Victor Queet than I talked to you
this year going into the season. Evan, anything else on Victor of the
Elks kind of like I think it was. I think it was a situation
where he came in, had a lot of excitement and ideas, and I
think there is a lot of things that you have to deal with there in
terms of kind of this whole lineage of everything, and we can't disrupt too
much and we gotta keep people happy. Any anything else on the Elks here,
right, I mean, there's really two sides of the situation. You
know what we've discussed a lot on this show is on field performance. You
know, you're talking about you know, Jared Dagy, Taylor, Cornelius,
Gino Lewis, et cetera, et cetera. But the other side of it
is kind of behind the scenes, right, It's what you don't see on
the field. It's you know, fans not being in the stands. You
know, you haven't won a home game and X many this point, you're
talking years, you know, which is just staggering. I know there was
the COVID year and everything, but you know, you're you're talking about an
ownership group that came in very excited, you know, in a coaching staff
that came in very excited. Chris Jones again, all the assistants, everyone
that he put together. Everyone came in really excited. And that excitement has
quickly disappeared, you know, and for good reasons, because it's just there's
so much I want to say misfortune, but I feel like a lot of
it. You know, it's just it's it's poor construction, it's you know,
I feel like this whole again. Love Chris Jones, great man.
I think he's from Tennessee, so, you know, a fellow Southerner.
That's fantastic. I love Chris Jones, but yeah, you know, as
a coach, you can only have so much loyalty towards a player. I
know we're shifting back here from the ownership sort of to the on field play.
And that's fine because I can only talk about, you know, the
ownership so much because I only know so much about it. Right as fans,
you're only seeing a lot of the on field product. So I'm gonna
go back to that for a minute and say, you know, you can
only have so much loyalty towards a guy like Cornelius before you kind of just
have to realize, like, if I don't pull the plug or switch something
soon, you know, this could not only cost my job, but everyone
else around me. You know, the whole domino effect could fall pretty quickly
if you don't start making drafts and changes. So it's kind of weird to
see Edmonton. It's like you made the right step putting in a guy like
Jared Diggy, and I know he didn't have the best performance, but then
you immediately go back to Cornelius as if nothing happened. And I'm with Jason
on this. I think at this point, you know, tray forward is
like it's just screaming tray forward. You know, that just seems to be
the top option in my opinion. Now that you've let go of Kyle Locksley,
it would appear that you have more trust than the guy like Trey Ford,
and I really liked what I saw from him last year, you know,
before he got injured. So I just yeah, I don't know.
I mean, there's so many questions here, but it just doesn't seem like
again, there's just not really any answer. Like it almost seems like you
never want to speak too soon. You never want to speak too early.
But I was saying in week one, it's like you just have this ominous
feeling that like the season has almost gone the waist already, and you never
want to say that in such a long season. But at this point you're
you're kind of just playing to get things done and to move on to the
next thing, which in week four is oh, that's that's brutal. That's
all I'll say about it. Jameson, I was flashing some tweets and here
I have years up here. Every week. I think the oxy Robot they
might be still might not be their Alsa, Chrissena Constable kind of with the
gross Britney face. Any other thoughts on those comments, and then we can
look forward. Yeah, So, one thing I wanted to say, and
what drives me nuts about this, is that they had the confidence to start
Prey Forward last year as a true rookie over Tylor Cornelius. Cornelius I believe
was the fourth fourth string quarterback to begin last season, but they won't start
him now. I just don't get that. So um, you know,
just confusing all around from the Elks and how they've managed their quarterback situation.
I think that Chris Jones, I think it's just a situation of him wearing
too many hats there. He's the GM, he's the head coach and the
defensive coordinator, and that also makes it more difficult, Like the one tweet
was saying to get rid of them during the middle of the season. Here,
So let's move forward here and then we can kind of hit this three
down thing before we get out. I think we'll go good time lice here
and then I gotta go. I got a fourth of July wedding here today
looking forward here, who is it? Okay? Some Montreal's and that you're
playing BC here Edmonton Thursday night going into Saskatchewan. We have Calgary at Winnipeg
Ottama going into Hamilton, and then Montreal at BC evan game here. You're
looking forward to thoughts here as we kind of recap this, I would definitely
say BC Montreal. It seems like a kind of a bounce back game for
both teams, you know, given that they both lost, and given the
potential on both sides there, I definitely think that'll be a good way to
wrap up the week. And then a game that I would say it has
some potential is Calgary Winnipeg. Calgary is still a team I believe in.
I would not put them over teams like, you know, a Saskatchewan or
again in Montreal, even though they're another division. But I feel like Calgary,
you know, maybe they come off to buy, maybe Jake mayor you
know, does some things better, and maybe they give Winnipeg run for their
money, because again Winnipeg, you know, we're not counting Winnipeg out yet.
Obviously they have been essentially a dynasty here in the past couple of years,
going back to twenty nineteen. But you know, at this point,
like Calgary could give them a run for their money. I mean, they've
been playing slower football again. I know they played in a game that had
a weather delay and that might have caused some issues, and the week before
they kind of just crumbled. But it would be nice to see, you
know, a close Winnipeg Calgary game, especially in Winnipeg too. I think
that'll be a good one. Jason, are you worried about now a red
hot out of a red Lights team in Hamilton? Well, I'll be picking
the Red Blacks to win this game, That's that's for sure. Yeah,
I just don't have any confidence in the tire Cats at this point. But
I mean, maybe they got together over the bye week they figure out magically
how to score touchdowns. But at the end of the day, I just
you know, I'm looking forward to that game. I'm gonna be at that
game, but I just don't have that much confidence. I don't have that
much excitement for that game, although I will What I will say, what
would provide some more juice to that matchup is if Jeremima has always suddenly made
his season debut at Hamilton has returned to Hamilton. But it doesn't look like
at this point based on reports, I've seen that he's super close to returning.
Yeah, it's it's hard. It's getting to the point in the season
here where it starts becoming a little more lopsided, right, I mean the
first couple of weeks and okay, what's going on, you know? And
I understand the CFL seasons and marathon not a sprit, but we are kind
of discovering kind of who these teams are at this point. I would like
to see BC really kick the snot out of the Montreal Aloettes here, just
to kind of bounce back and kind of show what they're app but obviously love
Cody and kind of everyone over there. Yeah, Winnipeg, I think that
would be a good one kind of Friday night this Edmonton. I just don't
know if they can get right here going in the Saskatchewan. I think that's
going to be tough for them. Any other thoughts you guys have we and
kind of hit this list real quick in the last five minutes before we get
out of the eight ways CFL fans leadership is failing them? Anything else from
either of you guys before we do that. I was just gonna say that
Jake Mayer usually plays really well against Winnipeg based on its early career here,
So I think that that could be a pretty fun game on Friday night.
So we have this here. This is from Matthew Ross and I, like
I said, Jim Bull and it kind of shared this earlier in the week.
I had this book tomorrow because I'm like, well, we've got,
you know, three games kind of get into this, and so he had
he had posted on CFL you know, on Twitter and on Reddit here things
where CFL fans feel like leadership is failing them. And I want to see
if we don't need to like do a deep dive on all of these.
But you know, talking like grassroots, developing the grassroots, you know,
working with Football Canada where Football Canada has an agreement with the NFL now and
kind of trying to figure that out, and the Urashimadonni just got signed onto
the board of Football Canada. You know, technology, we're doing the stats
and kind of all that stuff. Evan, where would you say that you
feel like CFL leadership is failing its fans right now? They had to ask
you. It's a great question, you know, and this is really a
great discussion to have here at the end of the show, I leaned towards
promotion, and not necessarily I mean promotion of the product, but really it
originates with diversifying the product. And I've you know, I've talked about that
with certain people before where the CFL has unfortunately fallen behind in areas where you
know, I guess like fan engagement, you know, it just a lot
of it seems almost recycled. And what I mean by that is, you
know, the XFL and the USFL. Again, those are completely different products,
so I'm not really trying to draw comparison here, but those are also
football leagues operating in the United States, and you know, like the XFL,
like I don't know, it seemed like they made an efforts in with
the USFL to sort of you know, bring in new concepts and you know,
kind of make it their own unique product. Like there was always something
again unique about it, and the CFL is definitely unique. That's not really
the point I'm getting at here. The CFL in terms of their teams and
location and really the history is what makes it so different. But I just
feel like, you know, every year, it's there's just less and less,
like the number of in person fans is dropping off, the viewership is
dropping off. I feel like, you know, the league like kind of
ending their relationship with ESPN to stream the games to ESPN Plus. I feel
like that Ultimately, I feel like that wasn't a great idea because now your
TV option of CBS Sports Network, which just isn't as accessible because they used
to have a lot of games on like ESPN two, which a lot of
people had. Now you're streaming through CFL Plus. I do like the CFL
Plus, um, if you want to talk about promotion and positive areas,
I think you know them sort of expanding CFL you know, to a broadcasting
stage at least for the games that aren't being aired on CBS. I think
that's a good step in the right direction to grow international viewership. But ultimately,
you know, a lot of the product just seems so you know,
old and used. It's like every year it's the I want to say,
it's the same thing. I mean, they bring in different players and this
and that, but ultimately it's like they just really need a brand refresh.
I think that's what they really need, and I don't know where that starts.
Again, this isn't necessarily my expertise. You know, I only know
so much about the ins and outs of I mean, I know decent in
that about how football leagues work, but there's a lot about this that runs
deeper than that. So ultimately, I think, you know, you're just
looking at just finding more ways for fans to be interested again, you know,
whether that means bringing in different names or I think a lot of people
at this point, and I've discussed this too, it's just expanding the Canadian
talent, you know, make it more. There's sort of this hodgepodge right
now where you have some good Canadian players, but then a lot of the
guys that get talked about are Americans, and some people don't like that,
and you know there's a lot of the pro Canadians who can't deal with that.
So I think maybe you're looking at, you know, bringing in more
Canadians and taking pride in sort of the Canadian football development. I mean,
you brought up football Canada earlier. I mean, you know, you want
to bring in maybe homegrown prospects. It was a big deer, big deal.
Excuse me last year when Trey Ford, you know, was drafted,
a Canadian quarterback that had starting potential. I know we just talked about the
Elks before, but I feel like, you know, the league, if
they capitalize on that homegrown talent, you know, that could draw in more
viewers from their own countries who are already tied into again the universities, you
know, U sports programs in Canada, things of that nature. And I
know I'll end this with saying that's a controversial topic, and I understand that,
you know, bringing Americans to that league definitely diversifies the talent pool just
because of their background. I mean, look at a guy like Austin Mack
who played at Ohio State. You know, you don't really have that in
Canada. So again, it's a it's a controversial topic. I would still
like to see Americans in the league. So maybe what I'm getting at here
ultimately is you change the the import rules again. Um, but I don't
know. That's I've already talked a lot, so I'll just leave it at
that. That's good, Jason. Before we get yeah, what do you
want to see here? Someone you followed the league, you know, you
you cover the league every week? What would you like to see them?
How? How are they familing the CFL fans. Well. To borrow a
line from my good friend on social media, Todd Maugie, this league has
to act like a professional league just to do the simple things right, and
that would really change the perception I think of the league. I think that
something as simple as having your statistics correct, of having live updated statistics,
I think that's important, um you know, having um, you know,
just good infrastructure around the league. I think that's important. To the tech
thing, I think is absolutely huge in terms of being able to reach new
fans and have data accessible to fans. I think that is super important.
But I think the league just needs to do the simple things better because I
think there's certain areas that they just don't do well and I think that has
really plagued their reputation. And I think, um, you know, going
forward, there's uh, there's a lot of issues we could talk about,
and they get into a lot of these in this article, but I think
a lot of it comes down to um, you know. I think transparency
is a big thing as well, because the league is kind of a sixth
month a year league, or however however many months long the season is.
Because in the off season, it's pretty dead around the CFL and not many
people talking about it. The league needs to find a way to keep themselves
more relevant during that time. Maybe it's uh, you know, holding more
of a more press conferences or something like that, or you know, just
being more open about what their plans are. But I think at the end
of the day, there's just a lot of problems plaguing the CFL, and
I think that um, you know, just being transparent and um, you
know, acting more like a professional league is a big thing. I don't
think I was very clear there, but acting more like a professional league is
very important. I think it's interesting. And we obviously deal with this a
lot with the XFL and the USFL and I think all these other leagues,
you know, and to lump the CFL in there, which I know that
they don't like. And I was talking with jam And last night about this,
and I said, you know, I understand the CFL is not an
alternative league in their mind, and nor should it be, but just in
terms of kind of the greater landscape, it is, right. I understand,
it's you know, it's primary football and everything in Canada. I understand
how that I deal with this with the XFL and the USL. Like I
said, you know, everyone looks at the NFL and it's like, well,
that's we need to act like that, right, like we need to
be and you get maybe a little bit more standoffish sometimes. And we had
the whole thing this year with the USFL and like we're real football for real
fans, and like we really know what we're doing. And then they come
out before the championship game and it's like we're baffled why our radians are down
this year, and you're like, well, because you kind of acted standoffish
and like an a whole all year in terms of you know, this is
our league and this is what we're gonna do. And it's the same with
the CFL. I think, like embrace more of the grassroots, embrace more
of you know, the content creators, like you know Jason and like the
cf perspective guys, and like you know, the three down Like I you
know, the NFL doesn't need to play ball with anyone because they're bigger than
anything in the entire history of the earth where anything else besides that, I
just I wish that they would would lean more in. And I've said that
the same with the XFL I think the XFL needs to be more CFL than
NFL in terms of let's get fans out to the communities, let's get people
work in, Let's do fan events, let's do local trade shows, let's
kind of do all this stuff. Like I said at the top where where
Rod was kind of momentum that they don't do that anymore. And I don't
know if it's lack of funds or lack of carrying or lack of resource.
There's a lack of time, but yeah, it's hard, you know.
And I talk with some of the CFL teams and Okay, we only want
players to come on during the bye week, and certain teams like well,
we only want people to come on during whatever. We can't do a during
training camp. But then during the season it's too busy. It's like,
you know, you gotta you gotta kind of you can't don't hide this in
the bushel basket. You know, you kind of gotta get the step out
here. So that's kind of my two cents, Evan, anything else from
you, we'll go to Jason. We'll get out of here. Like I
said, I gotta go. We gotta wonderful for the July wedding here today,
So anything else for you Goving? Yeah, Sometimes I wonder how different
the landscape would be right now if the CFL and the XFL kept their partnership
in place. Um. I know there were some talks about, you know,
potentially having a XFL team maybe in Toronto. You know, whether that's
really to the Argonauts. I don't know if that might really piss off the
Pro Canadians, So I won't. I won't go into that too much,
you know, at the risk of being bullied or something like that. But
no, I mean, you know, look, it's a very complex issue.
That's that's the bottom line here. There are many issues, you know,
playing in the league. It's not just one glaring problem that we're all
you know, dealing with their looking at um And I do think the league
has time to turn it around. I think the one, you know,
great part about this product is if you can get fans engaged and can get
fans to follow along. You know, it's a twenty one week season,
and I keep saying that every show. I'm like, oh, twenty one
weeks, twenty one weeks, but like that's a long time. I mean,
you're going from you know, June to November, you know, in
the Great Cups in November. That's a long time for football. I mean
you're looking at those are you know NFL numbers? So yeah, I mean,
if you can get fans to kind of commit to a team and you
know, it's really something to follow along, that's what the CFL has the
advantage over leagues like the XFL and the USFL, where it's only a ten
game regular season. There's a lot more time to sort of you know,
be a fan or you know, engage with the product and really you know,
follow along, and there's so many more things that could happen. It
makes it more interesting on that front. And that's a part two that I
think the league could really capitalize on. So that's my two cents as well.
On top of the whole. I don't know what I was talking about
before, even I guess it was sort of the you know, the import
sizes, things like that, you know, developing more Canadian talent. I
think all those things would definitely be a step in the right direction. Find
on that for me, will that Jason. I just saw this here Curtsy
farhamology. Looks like Missoli is starting practice to there so that is exciting here.
Good news for the Red Blacks, good news potentially for your matchup.
There was that the Friday matchup, right, Ottawa coming in there. But
any of the thought any other thoughts from me, Jason before we get out
of here. Yeah, the last thing I'll say about the whole um,
and this is more of an overarching problem with the league, is that I
think there's a lack of lockstep with the all the nine teams. I think
that not much comes from the CFL front front office itself. I think a
lot of it is just due to you know, a lot of the things
in terms of engagement promotion is up to the teams themselves, and I think
that's a big problem. There's less of that league led uh you know,
initiative. I think that's a that's a big problem. I think there needs
to be more centralization in the league in terms of the leadership. Yeah,
that's you know, I it's tricky. And that was like when we come
into the kind of the all the XFL talks and kind of learning to have
all of the works, and you know, Ambrosie is more of like at
the whim of them and trying to balance kind of all that stuff. It's
interesting because you know we talk in the XFL, I'm like, or the
USFL, Hey, we want to sell off all these franchises and do whatever.
I'm like, it's hard then, and then you got to deal with
you know, it's easier when you kind of have central ownership there of kind
of you know, managing all of this. And you know when the XFL,
I like, if they can't get social right where it's one office kind
of doing it all spread out, you know, good luck. Then when
you kind of have you know, eight or nine or whatever different kind of
individual franchises, we will get out of here. I appreciate it. Check
out, you know, Jason does is like, you know, the kind
of the previews going into the weekend and it kind of the instant reactions and
all of that stuff. I hope you have fun at the game this week,
Evan. I appreciate it. I don't know if we mentioned on the
show, but Evan, we'll be joining us at the Gray Cup as well,
and Jason's going to be there in Hamilton and I'll be there, so
it should be fun. We'll figure that out, like and subscribe and we'll
see you next time. Pix the betting nine nine h