Well, here we are Happy Friday everyone special live episode this week. Coming
off of a cabin season here Cottage season. Been on VACA this week watching
the XFL Combine and getting ready for CFL Week eight, so I figured we
would do a live show today. Luckily, Andy Murray gracious enough to find
time in his busy schedule between working and watching the Combine and everything to come
on, so we will do kind of half XFL combine. What do we
think thoughts? I watched a lot of the post combined interviews with Miss Garcia,
with Bob Stoops everyone else, so we'll talk about that. And then
Andy has been chomping in the bit to talk CFL, so we will get
that as well. Andy, how are you doing. I'm great man,
It's so good to be back. And also congratulations to you for escaping from
the woods. You made it out, so you get you're a little sabbatical
there and did well. It was good. Yeah. Our my father in
law, Dorothy's father, we rent a house out. It's really easy,
but you know how it is. Sometimes getting back from vacation is as tiring
as you know going on vacation. But we're back. I was excited.
Jason Hussey and Evan joined us on Monday. We did the CFL and all
that, and then obviously we'll do previewing today. Excited because we don't always
get to preview on Jason does his CFL previews as well over on his channel
if you want that. But we'll get Andy's thoughts. Andy, XFL combine
this here. We did our offseason charting. XFL needs more offseason content.
What did you make up the combine? I mean it's the second football related
combine we've watched this year so far, including the NFL one, so we've
gotten quite a bit of that. And honestly, as far as the idea,
I think it's great. I think the idea of having this sort of
setting where you have new talent that's potentially coming into the league, you have
players who are working out with all the coaches, you have interactions with the
standing coaches, league executives, you have some of the media personalities involved there
with obviously with sam Acho being able to interview, but everybody can kind of
rope around. I think that is a great idea. As far as you
know certains of the technicalities of it, I mean, you know it's not
going to be a really nice, posh studio show kind of thing. I
wish it was a little bit more of that, of course I would,
But you know, for what they have and what they've done so far in
their first year iteration of the league, I think it's a welcome thing because
last year all we had was, you know, some of the reporting on
the showcases like you did in Arizona with the guys, and it was not
really you know, it wasn't live content. Right, this is full live
content for two straight days. I mean, that's that's outstanding. That's more
than I I would have expected coming out of the season. Two months out
of the season. I did not think they'd be doing two full days of
this on YouTube for everybody to see. And also interactions with the fans,
all the giveaways, the trivia. I think that was also great. So
as far as just giving us something to really latch onto at this point in
the year, when it's been two months since the season ended, I think
it's tremendous. Yeah, I give kudos, and I've I've kind of gone
back and forth and I've had time to digest this. You know, we
were on vacation. I pull it up and you know, it was very
overwhelming. I was surprised, like how many people were on there. I
think when I tuned in there was over eight hundred people live and commenting.
That's all great. I've gone back and forth because it originally I was very
down on it. I thought, hey, this maybe, like you said,
wasn't as Paul, but you know, but then I've sat here this
week and like, what else do we expect? Right, Like the NFL
combine is boring by all you know accounts anyway, right, and here we
have this live thing. You have the interactions. I thought they were great.
That that Sam was great. They got a little Marky Mark and the
fun bunch a little bit when they were talking with miss Garcia and oh,
you know, thank you so much, and they like you're the host like
you were you know, you're with XFL here like this isn't you know?
If I was there, I would be like, you know, kissing the
ring like you you know, you work, you work for the league.
Here, let's not whatever. But my only critique would be handheld NonStop for
you know, three hours, two days was a lot. Let's get a
stationary, let's have I don't know if it's Matt Barry. I don't know
if it's you know, stormy, if you want to have heard you like,
because it's it's really hard to maintain. And I know this just from
we do live streams, and you know with weddings and stuff like, it's
really hard to have NonStop handheld. I know we have like two cameras,
we're kind of switching back and forth. That would be my only thing from
a techno standpoint, because I do I don't do it to the scale of
this, but you know, if I could look at something to go,
I could probably replicate that that's not a good thing. But I thought that
the content was great. I thought they were awesome. I thought it was
really cool. You know, hey, we're live here day two. Look
Danny Garcias, you know, talking to the people right now. Like I
thought that was cool, you really felt in the moment. But that would
be my only thing, Like let's get a home base and then we can
keep going back and forth to check in on Salm and kJ and not have
them have to carry it the entire time, because I cannot imagine in whatever
how hot the temperature was there, how sweaty and hot they were going live
for two days. I mean, kudos to them, tremendous effort. I
was very impressed with that. Yeah, great point there, especially with the
weather. Obviously, we're used to the NFL Combine being in a nice air
conditioned venue. Even though it's late February early March, it's a lot colder
in Indianapolis, so it's nice, temperate inside, and there's not a lot
of weather conditions to deal with there, obviously, and as opposed to this
case when it's it's nice and toasty down in the DFW at this time of
year. So I think that's that's a good point. You know, just
give him a little bit of a break. I give him props for running
around so much, you know, dude, that and this this sort of
almost Blair Witch project project, as level of handicam it could be done,
you know, dulled down just a little bit. I agree. Maybe you
get you know, get a steady cam in there or something, or at
least have some more stationary items to work from. But overall, like I
said, I'm impressed that they were able to keep up so much and be
able to interact with all the different kinds of individuals. I mean, you
just saw so many different people involved in the league, you have to be
at least happy, especially getting the new coach in there. Blevin's getting talked
into him was great, and that's you know, putting a face and a
voice to somebody that you may have not really heard from very much in the
past unless you followed him very closely. So getting him involved and getting him
into the fold was great too. I'm sure there was a lot of notes
from the management meeting they had last week that we were able to trickle out.
Obviously, I think that the timing on that was really well done as
well. So yeah, I think going forward you want to have maybe you
know, a couple more cameras, have kind of a stationary setup where people
can kind of toss back between that and then maybe Acho or somebody else and
maybe another personality to kind of go roam around and talk to different people.
You want to have that, right, Just those two different dieconomies for covering
these kinds of events. But again, seeing the people who were involved,
I have to be pretty happy with who we were able to get at the
end of July, and just I'm looking here at the number as i'm here,
you know, thirteen thousand for the stream Thursday half that, you know,
five point eight for the for the I guess for the Thursday. They
have both of these titled Thursday to twenty six and Thursday to twenty seven,
So I don't that would have been Wednesday the twenty six and Thursday the twenty
seventh, but you know, January that kind of how and I thought he
was get the kJ sales? Like how did he get do we hear the
story on this? Because I watched a lot of it, but obviously I
didn't watch every second, Like do we get the story of how he was
involved? Because obviously Sam and he's been on the broadcast. How did kJ
get that? Do we know? Great question? I was not able to
ascertain that. I don't know exactly how he was able to accomplish that role.
Good for him, though, I mean, I know he's been involved
as a player, and we've seen him on the field, but see him
kind of interacting this role. I wonder if maybe that's something he's transitioning into
full time, you know, does that mean he's not gonna be playing I
don't think that's the case either. I haven't heard anything about that, but
he certainly seemed very very gregarious he had a lot of great energy. He
was just very involved in the entire production of it. So maybe this is
sort of like a transition thing for him. Again, it's gonna be interesting
to see. We obviously know about the slew of ESPN layoffs that happened the
previous month and some of the content shifting around as well. Some of the
individuals were not kept on just the larger you know, the larger sports portions,
but also a couple of the XFL people didn't get to stay on too,
So maybe they're kind of trying to groom some future stars or notable personalities
to put into place later on once they started sort of figuring out what their
strategy is going forward with ESPN. So I'm happy for kJ. I think
that was a really good role for him, But I don't remember hearing about
how he got that role exactly. Well, let's vast vacs kJ said on
the stream. We talked to Eve as a social media director how he could
be more in Zelma content. They came back with him with this. I
think it's great because now if you're you know, if you're a Defenders fan,
you're watching that. I I like one thing I thought Fanketow Football did
really well, you know, and they did lots of things well and they
did some things not so well. But it was like, how can we
brand and market these players and give them opportunities outside of football? Right?
How can they use their time in Fanketow football to kind of elevate their stock
is as a mark of the athlete and stuff like this is really good because
he was, you know, for all intensive purpose is one of the faces
of the league here in the last two days along with Sam. I thought
that was great. I just like I had this article pulled up. They
had, you know, this was sent out ahead of time. Peter Warren's
one of the statfires like you know, nine players to watch in the XML
combine with a lights a little bit more like, okay, we have you
know, who who are we like seeking out? You know, when I
was on it's like who's the chat one? Talk to eight, talk to
eight, talk to nine, go talk to eighty seven. You're like,
okay, okay, okay, I just just a little bit more like,
hey, let's try to hit these couple of people. But again, like
I kind of I was a little critical about it, but then I'm sitting
there. I'm like, you felt like you were there, You felt like
you were at chalk Ta. You were kind of walking around. You mentioned
and I heard this and I had to go back and check because I didn't
want to. I didn't want to give unnecessary, you know, hardship here.
But when they were talking with Levin's Jim Haslet was there, right,
And they were talking with Jim and they said, hey, you know,
what are you thinking? What are you gonna do with quarterback? And didn
you chis going that you're going to be in Deniver And he goes, uh,
and I love to coach Haslet, he's our coach or this house Dragons
goes, We're set at quarterback. We have Harrison. Uh, we have
our three string quarterback. He's good. We have Harrison Frost and Montes Sweat.
And I said, I didn't know that Washingt commander and Montes Sweat was
involved. Uh, you know, Jim, that's a little terrifying. I
understand that. You know de Nucci, Uh, you know is was you
know the primary qb. Uh. You know Stephen Montez right dressed for every
game. Harrison Frost was there. I thought that was very terrifying. You're
going into the XFLC Dragons off season, the coach Haslet didn't know that.
Hazlet is the stereotypical example of the old school defensive coordinator in that if he
runs the football team, he worries about his side of the ball, and
then whatever the offense does, he says, that's your jurisdiction. I don't
not involved with that. I don't care. Just don't mess it up for
us. That's very much his whole mantra. It's very old school traditional in
terms of how he runs his operation, and that obviously was the case with
the Ducci last year. I kept making several different jokes in the variations of
well di Nuci just turned the ball over again. I think Hazlet's probably sharpening
his knives getting ready to take him out behind the wood shed after this,
because he always was just so upset. Obviously, he literally said after a
game on national television, I'm going to kill you after the game after he
had one of the most hideous performances. I think it was against San Antonio,
So I'm not surprised. That's kind of Haslets, you know, his
his mantra towards offense, and yeah, I mean, hey, good for
Monty Sweat. I'm glad that he's able to play quarterback apparently, and he
plays for a different team. Kudos to him. Yeah, I thought that
was a lot I had here too. They were talking with I thought was
cool seeing I like seeing like Randy Mueller. I like, you know,
I like seeing some of the guys like you know, we know the DPPs,
but getting them, you know, kind of getting their spotlight. He
was talking about them being able to do a more just selective job this year
in terms of I think they were in panic buyer mode last year of like
okay, we gotta get you we have to field these teams. You know,
we have to get x number of players. Where they said, you
know, this year, and this was echoed a lot, like you know,
we can we can really meet with these guys and talk with them and
interview them. I thought that was nice, and I just I thought it
was neat seeing that they had David Diakman on as well. He's really active
on Twitter and social media. Like I like that we could, you know,
like you said, Blair Witch, like we're kind of walking around like,
oh, here's Dave Dan, Like, let's go talk with him for
a little bit. I like that it felt a little bit more alive that
way. I think so too. Yeah, let's like again like MTV reality
show, you know, just like okay, camera crew's gotta run over here.
Oh wait, hey, can we talk to you for a second,
like just really run over and sort of pursue people in the moment, but
almost like I guess, like a less glamorous like Hollywood stars act kind of
thing, right, Um, like, oh look it's so and so let's
go talk to them, you know. But um, it's good to see
coach Wade Phillips. It's good to see a coach Soups. It's great to
see all the again, these hosts of characters involved again and just be able
to put personalities to the league again. Like you were saying, it's just
important to keep that connection for all the fans to kind of latch onto.
I mean, I'm going to remember players from last year and coaches from last
year who are no longer with the league, but I'm just gonna remember them
so prominently. Like to Ducci, you know, it's just a guy that
I don't really forget about, even someone like I'm sure the expelled want me
talk about this but like coach Rod Woodson, I'm gonna remember Coach Rod Woodson,
Like you know, he really got put in front of us. And
it's stuff like that that I think gives you context and also give you something
to revert back to or reference in the future when you start talking about results
or how someone reacted to a certain way or kinds of things like that.
That's how you sort of build your personality, you build your mantra, and
you build your your league because now you have things, and you have notes,
and you have personalities to latch onto. I had some notes here.
They they posted in the media portal. They did some more formal interviews,
kind of media scrums with everyone. Afterwards, I had some notes. They
talked with Danny and Hines Warred, Bob Stoops, and then Wade Phillips one
interesting note, and then I had some quotes from Danny. You know,
obviously chairwoman and owner I wanted to get into. But one of the local
reporters asked about what her connection was or kind of what she was able to
translate being a professional athlete into running the league, and I thought it was
you know, and we've talked about before, like we know, kay,
you know Danny Garcia, you know, obviously met The Rock you at University
of Miami ride and they were in the weight room together, and she's a
professional bodybuilder. But I thought it was interesting, you know, seeing her
off the top of the stream day two addressing the you know, addressing the
athletes, that she really is able to put herself in that psyche of being
a professional athlete in the way that like no offense to like Vince McMahon or
someone like you know, Vince portrays to kind of be an athlete. Vince's
is not you know, Vince touris quad walking to the ring, is here
at the World Rubbot. So I thought that that was cool to me.
That gives a little bit more like validity. But just I reson resonates more
to seeing her address kind of like talking to the troops. I like that,
and I know that The Rock does that as well. And I mean
The Rock is an athlete in this zone the way, but I like that
we're Danny Garcia, you know, had just retired from professional bodybuilding kind of
do all this. It just feels a little bit more like I get you
guys. I don't know if you you know, we've talked about them at
past but I thought her talking about it doing the post and seeing her on
the stream kind of resonated with me. I mean, it's something for her
to relate to, and it's something that she can use as a connection to
the players, because You're right, she knows what it's like to put in
the hard work and the dedication to be a bodybuilder. She knows the struggles,
she knows the just the work that goes into having dedication and trying to
make a name for yourself, trying to make a brand for yourself. She
really knows what that entails, and so she's trying to do the same thing
for the players too. I believe she's trying to get them to have their
own identity, their own brand in a lot of ways. But a lot
of that involves hard work, and it involves opportunities to do so, and
she truly believes that. I know it comes through her spirit. I can
tell how much she cares about it. I don't think it's it's fake or
any sort of mantra giving off that she doesn't care about it. She really
does. And I like that a lot. For somebody who owns the league,
I think you should and that's awesome. You know. McMahon, to
his credit, I think he cared too. I think he just had a
little bit more ego mixed in and not saying ego doesn't it mix in with
There's other individuals too, you know. I'm sure The Rock and Danny both
have a little bit of that as well. But Vince was much more like,
Hey, I got the pockets to do this, so I'm gonna do
it. You know, I'm gonna walk around and show, you know,
show off my guns. It's like, okay, cool man, you have
every right to do that. And you know, ultimately it did end up
being for a good cause. It just came from a different angle. But
with Danny and The Rock and even The Rock a little bit too, being
able to show this humanity of we were at this point before we had this
happened to us and this is where we got after all this time and all
this hard work. So I think it is extremely relatable. It's kind of
like we talk about player coaches. I mean, this is like player ownership,
right, This is kind of how it feels, and it's uncharted territory
for a lot of people, but it's really but it's I think it's very
engaging and it's very humbling in a lot of ways for these players to be
involved with this and be able to kind of relate to this. I think
that's why some of them do gravitate towards the Rock and Danny. So I
had some quotes here. I wanted to get into with Danny first and then
we can do because I thought hines Worth had a couple. If it was
said by any other person and I read this quote, I would think it
would be very alarming. But Danny looked very excited in the post event interview.
I just thought, like you could really tell like I'm I'm in miss.
They asked, you know, how did you feel about season one?
We said, we're extremely pleased and yo, she said, I was.
I don't want to say, but it's and we're in year one of a
startup leak. There's a lot of colleges. We can look at our rules,
health safety player success over one hundred players to NFL camps, thirty one
that have been signed. We could look at the play quality that was on
the field, and I thought this is interesting, And we could look at
our radians, our raidings are compared to our other competitors who are out there,
we did a really wonderful job. And I don't remember a lot.
You know, obviously talking to USFL on there, AXTL doesn't mention USFL a
lot. I thought that was interesting for her to purposely say, we can
look at the radiings of our other competitors who are out there, we did
a really wonderful job. Any kind of things strike out to you. I
mean, she sparingly mentions it, and I really think the last time that
she prominently mentioned it was when you asked her about it in person last year
at almost the exact same time in talk to our stadium, and you asked
about putting teams in hubs and putting teams in their own home markets. She
made that quipable like, well, we're putting our teams, you know,
on their own home markets. So you know, she that's but they don't
get too much into the weeds with that, especially like Russ Brandon is very
careful to talk about stuff like that, you know, Julio is like really
careful about saying stuff like that. They're really they're not trying to kick up
as much dirt as much as the USFL does sometimes and trying to compare themselves
to the XFL. I think the XFL just says, this is our mission
statement, this is what we're doing. Of Course they're going to compare themselves,
you know, ultimately are I mean, you're in the same space,
competing for the same players at the same talent, all of us the same
time. Of course you're going to compare yourself. The CFL does it all
the time too, and they're not quite as aligned as everybody else. But
I mean, ultimately, at the end of the day, you have players
that you have to compete for. So of course they're all looking at each
other through their window blinds. But it's a matter of which one of them
are talking about it to their neighbors openly out in the field or in their
front yard, telling people how much they don't care for their neighbor, you
know's it's different attitudes with that. So I think for Danny, I'm not
surprised that she sparingly mentions the US develoor any other leagues, because I do
believe she is solely focused on what they're trying to accomplish. But when they
do have something they can kind of champion, of course, they're going to
take that opportunity and say, hey, look this is what we did.
Because you should. At every angle you should. You're going to have to
try and jockey for position and for attention from other people and notoriety to make
your brand known more than the other competitor. They asked about wanting to have
more of a grassroots feel to the league, and Danny said, we want
to be relatable. I think that's interesting as well, and we've talked about
that in terms of kind of the bde that the USFL has sometimes and wanting
I just I like that quote, like, we want to be relatable.
We purposely want this to have kind of a grassroots feel. Anything on that,
well, I guess, do you feel like the XFL is relatable?
I do? I mean, I do? I mean, do you I
do? Sometimes I think they get a little too glitzy for their own bridges,
and sometimes they're a little tone death. But not not all the time,
but I do think they're a little bit. I get I think it
was. To be honest, I thought twenty twenty was a little more grassroots
if if I'm being honest, I thought just because Vince McMahon, that's his
that's his thing. He's just like, he's like the every people's entertainer,
you know, every man's every man's billiare exactly that's that's how he pitches himself.
So maybe it's just when I'm comparing it to that, maybe that's why
it doesn't feel as grass roots. But it is more so than trying to
flex on every other person who doesn't believe in your product like sometimes other leagues
do. And so I think this is why it's important to establish that identity.
I mean, and also just again, at the end of the day,
I will say, as much as they try to be relatable, at
the end of the day, you do look at Danny and the Rock and
say, well, you guys are in pretty nice positions in your lives.
Obviously, it's it's hard to relate a lot to that. I mean,
you try to relate to it in terms of their early years, of course,
but we've moved far past that era, so I think. But I
do think it is important to focus on other individuals, right the players and
some of the coaches who are getting their opportunities. That's where you can get
more grassroots. That's where you can get more reliability, and that's where you
can get people who really believe that they have a shot to do something special.
You know, it's saying like, look, this guy had been toiling
around here for so long, and now he has this chance to be a
head coach or would be assistant coach, or to be involved in in this
way. Well, this player never really got this opportunity. I never had
really a shot to play, and now here he is, he's got a
starting position here. It's it's sort of if you keep the focus on that,
then you keep it grassroots. And I do think I will say the
combine in the showcases do give me much more of that feeling too, where
it's just anybody has a chance. Anybody has a chance to come in,
they work out, they have a chance, and it's all about them.
And if someone doesn't show up, like if a player no shows, that's
on them, right, That's that you had your chance and you didn't take
it. Okay, Well you know that's that's like a job interview. If
you don't show up to the job interview, you know you're not giving yourself
an opportunity. Also, you know, to relay back to like having kJ
sales on there, I thought, you know, it feeling that helped it
to me feel a little more grassroots, where hey, we got players on
it. It's not just you know, you want the NFL and it's you
know, it's eyes in and you know you got Kurt Warners on buy and
we're all suits and ties and we're here. You know. I like that
kJ and Sam kind of sweating their lives away, you know, stumbling around
chatt Stadium. They asked about changes after the season, Danny said, we
looked at what needed to change. We made change its structurally within the organization
so that we could be very fine tuned for execution moving forward. In relation
to obviously, you know, laying off some of the marketing people. But
this is what I this is now what we've talked about this before. As
we went through our first season, we realized we could go to a more
seasonal model. So we staff up and we staffed down. We didn't actually
need that many individuals all year round. We will continue to respond in that
way, will make sure there's no discrepancy in the quality of the the deliverables
to our athletes to play on our fan experience. Well, you know,
look a lot of leagues do this. I know the XFL is not unique
in that way. There's a lot of teams that hire for seasonal employment,
right you know, if you're working in ticketing, or if you're working in
sales, or sometimes if you're working as an av staff or something in an
arena, you're going to get part time employment with an entity like you know,
baseball team. Like I mean, I've seen I've seen ads for my
teams down here, and it's all seasonal employment, like, hey, we
want you to work with these games, and then once you're done, you
know, you'll be on your way go find something else. So that's not
too different than what I've seen in the past. I think it's more of
just can they stay structurally sound in terms of what they're operating and how are
they able to get content out. Clearly, they've done a good enough job
so far in the first couple of months to get a lot out that they
weren't able to last year at the same time, so they are at least
able to execute that. It's just a matter of can you have some of
the teams operating and keeping them in the fold or you know, communicating with
the head office of the staff. I think that's something they're still trying to
figure out. But obviously they had to cut a lot of fat because they
realized that their budget may have been a little bit over what they wanted it
to be after the season ended and they had to make some adjustments. So
and that's gonna be a process. How many people can you keep on?
Who can you keep on? How important is it to keep on some of
these individuals really, And that's that's part of any league. I think it's
just the fact that they're trying to figure that out is maybe the part that
feels a little unsettling because most other leagues know exactly who they need and what
they need and when they need it because they've been around for so long,
so that that I feel like it's going to be a little bit rocky for
that part of it for a little bit at least. And that's just something
they're going to have to figure out in the next coming years. It struck
me that Danny at least felt um, you know, and said to me
the correct things of like, well, you know, we lived through this
now we know, like we didn't know we thought maybe whatever, I will
say, you know, between doing the combine, we have the you know,
the eight one thing coming up. I think they've done a tremendous job.
And you know, this is a really slow time of year, right
you know, for you know, NFL's getting in and CFL. You know,
we didn't even have XFL on the show last week. You know,
we we led with CFL. And so I think considering all that, I
think they've done a very good job right now. I mean we we pounded
the table and said we want to see some offseason content. I will say,
so far, I feel good. And to me, what I liked
even better was talking with the interviews where they had with Stoops and with with
Hines and with Wade Phillips. Football people are are still working a lot,
you know what I mean. And so yeah, okay, maybe we're we're
scaling down. We don't have as many you know, game day you know,
experienced managers were iver you want to call it for that, But I
do feel like from the football side, they're working tremendously hard right now.
I mean they just obviously did the showcase and everything else or the showcases in
the combine, but at least where it matters, it feels like the people,
like you said that they're keeping those people. You know, I'm on
board right now, and I think that that matters. The talent accumulation is
the most important part of this entire operation, and they've done a great job
of that. They did a great job last year, and I think they're
doing a really good job this year still being able to maintain all that.
I really want to see who's going to stay and what players are going to
be still be there next year. That's that part kind of excites me the
most, is all right starts seeing familiar faces and people to latch onto from
the previous year. Obviously, we want to see people go and do well
in the in the NFL, But are we gonna be able to get some
of those familiar faces like a kJ Sales for example, or you know what
happens to some of the quarterbacks. Are they going to come back? Like
is Dark King going to come back at some point? Or is he just
going to be on a practice squad floating around forever? And those are the
kinds of things that I wonder about. As far as getting an identity built,
Obviously, the USFL had that a little bit this past year and it
worked to their favor. Someone like Alex Mgoo got so much more notoriety and
now here he is at Green Bay Packers camp signing autographs. You know,
that's incredible. And he was not in that position at all last year.
I thought he was very pedestrian his first year and second year he took leaps
and bounds. He was much better. And that's because he was able to
stay in the system and build upon his resume and really work and focus on
his craft. And then once he came around, I mean, he proved
me wrong when he got When jay Mark Smith went down, I was like,
ah, I don't know, man, the still staling seems kind of
in trouble. And he came out like Gangbusters. He was awesome. And
that's something that a lot of There might be other players under the surface who
you may have not been impressed with last year, who suddenly take that leap
in development. You go, oh my god, and where did this come
from? And you are going to have that hopefully happened next year and just
sort of building on that. That's something that's really important for all leagues.
Honestly, all leagues need that, and that's what the whole point of this
is. It's not just the new guys coming into the guys who were there
before, and how had they continue the trend upward. We have a couple
of comments here, let's just check in. The Jersey King is saying,
how do you guys like the combine? Obviously we were talking about that.
Go back at the top, Hailey, check it in. Here are c
Dragons, you know manager And I think she was down at choc Ti or
at least helping kind of manage all of that stuff. She's comment so trying
to give the fans of excellent content as we can, try to keep the
hype going. And then we have comments. And I tweeted about this this
week. I was on vacation. What was it the XFL Central I think
account posted about, you know, the LA Wildcats trademark being being trademarked by
the XFL. I already tweeted all of that out. But the LA Wildcats
has been trademarks since I believe August or was it August or December? And
then it went lie But of twenty nineteen, this is just like paperwork transferring
it over. So I know that that got a lot of play. I
think it was sent to me and then I was sitting by the campfire that
night, and I'm like, what, you know, like fifty thousand impressions
later, like was it going on? So no, I do not believe
that anything with the La Wildcats is involved with eight one. Mike Mitchell already
reporting I think my internet cut out there, Mike Mitchell already reporting that eight
one's going to be in this season. Ticket sales going on sale. So
Mike, Mike already reported on that. So that's that's kind of confirmed.
So the eight one thing will be exciting. But yeah, the La Wildcats,
I don't know, do you have anything to stay with that? Because
it was such a non story that really blew up. I'm like, this
has been trade like you, it's these it seems like, and not that
I'm any better, but these amateur kind of like internet saluts going down on
trademark databases. That's what I was under the impression too. I thought that
trademarke had already been common neared and it was already in the system, that
had been reported by a couple of people, like it got over like a
year or two ago, that that that had been already in the system.
So I was surprised that people were reacting so this really too, because I
thought it had already been around. But the idea of the Wildcats coming back
isn't fascinating one because one, I think it runs anti to what the league
has going right now, which is saving money and putting a team in LA.
I don't think it would just be saving them a lot of money as
far as structurally goes. I mean, you could go back to digging the
Health Sports Park if you were trying to put a team there, but I
don't know if that's the most viable option. I think it's just something to
hold on to as far as they're building their identity and their brand. If
they're going to hold on to that for the time being and tell fur their
notice, that's you know, that's all on them, that's fine. But
I don't know if that means there's going to be any movement. I agree
with you. It's been in the system for a while and it's not something
that's going to change drastically all of a sudden like this doesn't pretend to things
that are going to change in the future, at least not that I'm aware
of, And I don't think it really changes anything. Yeah, nothing in
the time being. I mean like I said, I'm here. This is
uh. It was filed in August twenty nineteen August fifteen, published for opposition
May twenty six, twenty twenty, just transferred over and the original LLC here
is basically changing their uses. They're eliminating a lot of their uses, so
they're just kind of moving stuff over. So it's exciting. But again,
like people, you know, I don't know, I don't think you can
change cities that much and do one. Yeah, Hailey's corroborating here the xblup
handles for some of the teams twenty twenty. Yeah, that's all it is.
So I just I, you know, others post videos and I guess
try to capitalize on a lot of that. I don't try to do that.
I don't try to do a lot of that click baby stuff on here.
So that's why I try to kind of do that. Um anyway,
So that's a couple of other quotes I had. I thought with heinz ward
I and to me, I don't know if this is people that are covering
this at the combine and not having watched the season a lot, but they
were asking, like, you know, the Brahmas were not good and so
I would say, like, how are you guys going to be better?
Right? Where it was? It was, well your former NFL, you
know, superstar and what do you think here? And what's it feel like
coaching? And like it was a lot of those kind of things. I'm
like, how do you you know? How would you fix this season?
He blamed injuries for a lot of it, and he said I'm going to
get things turned around. This was the quote, And I have another quote
to transition to the other coaches. This is a direct quote from Hines Warp.
I don't care about wins and losses because I know I'm a winner in
life. Now we know Hines and like Hines is, you know, very
famous individual. Like if you had heard that from many other coaches, not
knowing the individuals whose math back came out, if that is an alarming quote,
what do you think about the quote I don't care about wins and losses,
going to I'm a winner in life. Well, I'm glad he doesn't
care about wins and losses because the fans really do. So that's nice.
Higns Also, I don't think he cared about it very much in Batman when
he was running around field was blowing up and vain was causing mass destruction,
so clearly he didn't care about it in that film either. No, I
look, that's an odd quote to have, especially considering what they went through.
I understand he's probably frustrated because they just had terrible luck this past season.
I mean, every quarterback on the roster kept getting hurt, read Senet.
It's a real shame he got hurt because I thought he had a chance
to do something with them and maybe helped turn their season around. I mean,
between them and the Renegades, I don't think they were that dissimilar in
my opinion them the Renegades were very on the same pathway of Okay, defenses
are great, they have a special teams player that's really good. Our kickers
really good. I mean John park a Roma was awesome. I know he
missed that final kick of the season, but if he makes that kick,
they go into the playoffs instead of the Renegades. To think about that,
you know, they were not that far away. So the Brahmas just weren't
able to get that break like the Renegades did where they got Perez and they
caught fire. So I mean, for him, I'm sure it's a lot
of frustration. But that's such a weird sentiment to it does matter. At
the end of the day, every other team in this league, and everybody
talks about this league is people care, players care, They want to win.
This isn't just some like side stop. I mean for me, okay,
maybe for a few of them it is. Obviously, Denucci was very
you know, gun home about getting back to the NFL, and some of
them are. But a lot of people care. This is a livelihood,
and this is something that a lot of people care about. They want to
win, they want to do well, they want to compete. I cared.
I thought about that every time I watched the Guardians. Anytime they lost,
I just thought, man, that's that's a shame, because they really
are putting in the work, in the dedication to all. Buckley cares about
this. You know, he really wants to your players win bonuses. I
certainly care whether you win or financial the incentive trade. I mean, you
know, well, he's on the gravy train, but it's his own gravy
train, not everyone else. No one else is on that, so yeah,
exactly, It's it is bizarre, it's it's it feels a little tone
deaf. But again if I if you said that anywhere else, Yeah,
he gets he gets flamed. I mean the media eats him alive for saying
something like that bigger role. So I think he's still trying to figure this
whole coaching thing out. Jason Hussey checking in here. We haven't gotten the
CFL yet, Jason, So cover your ears. What is here? Hailey?
Check fun fact I'm an extra and the dark Knight rises in the football
scenes. So now we know where they got the Now we know where the
Brons did get their uniforms from. That is incredibly small world on that.
Uh. And the other thing that the quote we had from Hinz and this
relates to Stoops and Way and then we'll kind of round out this portion the
conversation less you have anything else. He's talking about, you know, getting
guys to the you know, the the NFL, and he says, I
don't want a ten year career guy in the XFL. We have talked a
lot on here, and you and I and I have with a lot of
people like you need to have some like not like not everyone, so you
know, and I was doing the mat so there's like fifty guys right per
roster. We had injuries and all that, but you know, four hundred,
four hundred and twenty five guys who through the XFL on hundred people have
gotten you know, camp visits and thirty one signs so far, and we
had a couple of guys that got cut that weren't actually signed, so maybe
that number is actually higher. But you know, if twenty five percent of
the guys that played in the XODL get a look, that's a lot of
people that didn't. And that's fine, but you need to embrace like that
side of it too, Like you have to have guys that are going to
play in your league for any sustin at the time. What do you make
about I don't want a ten year career guy in the XFL. I mean,
is he going to be around in ten years? That's my other question.
That's that's that's really that's the thought I have. It's like, well,
maybe he says that, because quite frankly, I don't know if he's
gonna be around that long. But I disagree. You need to have continuity,
You need to have faces to relate to the CFLs going through this right
now, where like, look, people are already talking about this season as
great as someone like Chad Kelly or Dustin drum and how electrifying they've been.
People already talking about their next opportunity the NFL. You just lost Nathan Rour
who you desperately needed as far as quarterbacks stability this season, and you're already
talking about guys who aren't even at that level, who are already potentially going
to be moving on. I mean, that's disheartening. As the franchise.
You want to keep those guys around. You want to have those kinds of
players to build off of, because you don't get a lot of people like
Burnon Adams Junior or bull leave By Mitchell, you know, being able to
stay around forever, being prominent in their role. I know, you know,
people get de made about how effective VA is, but like, you
need that kind of stability. But soule he's hurt. You know, Souli's
career might be over and he at least had some sort of consistency and prominence
to his role in the league. You need to have people who stick around.
You need to have guys who play vital roles in their community and also
in just having a face to look to and I absolutely believe you need to
have ten year players in this league. I don't and not everyone can.
And some people, you know, again, end of the day, some
people just want to play. I know, everyone says, and I know
Pat Raffino posted about this yesterday because there was an injury the Joe Burrow about
his calfe injury and he said, well, one of the people they could
call upon immediately, you know, And it was a photo of j McCarron.
But look, Ajian McCarron. His whole point of being in the XFL
was to play in front of his sons and he got to do that,
and he probably wants to keep doing that. If he goes to the NFL,
maybe he's another shot to play, but there's no guarantee of that.
And some of these guys just want to do that. They just want to
get out there and they want to fall out. And I give them tremendous
props for wanting to do that and not just trying to say and collect a
paycheck. I get it, you know, some guys do, and there's
nothing wrong with that either, But you need to have ten year players,
right. I don't agree with that sentiment. At all. Every league needs
to have identity, and every league needs to have people that you can latch
onto if you're gonna be able to build your brand and your style. And
again, some guys just maybe prefer that, you know. Yeah, he
had the other quote here, So this is going on to Stoops here,
Bob Stoops. He said, you know, they're asking Wall players going to
the NFL getting all these times he goes, We're all for it. This
is what this league is all about. Uh, you know, and and
to just to echo that again, like that can't be what this league is
all about. It can be a good portion of what this league is about.
It could be a majority of what this league is about. But it
can't be when when you have a you know, seventy five percent churn rate
of guys and aren't making it on there and it's just the practicalities have it
with building a football team. You know a lot of the quotes were also
talking about like from all the players and you were and everyone like, it's
so much easier now that you know, we at least have some foundation and
that's going to continue. But it just can't be with all it's about.
He had a quote he ex expecting offenses to be up to speed from day
one. Wade Phillips said he expects football quality to be enhanced in season two
just because of the continuity of all of that we've lived through USFL season two.
Do you share those same sentiments then, just by nature of like in
them coming back now that because USFL is slow starting out, Yeah, I
mean it is a bit of a slog as far as like getting all of
your pieces together and everybody trying to get out of the gate. I again,
I don't think there's a lot to be said about how much people need
to get all their players together and how just it's going to generate trying to
generate interests. It's just going to take a while. And this is something
with competing interest now, how it's going to take especially you know, the
USFL has to think about this too, as far as what players and continuity
they're going to have and how are they going to get people to latch onto
them and continue to keep interest in their product. I mean we saw this
past year. Obviously, one of the biggest names we were looking for this
past year was case Cookus and the Philadelphia Stars. Well, um, they
flamed out. You know, the offense didn't stick and Case got hurt.
You know, he got banged around, he got stacked a jillion times,
and it didn't ever come to fruition for them. So it's kind of like,
well, now, what like that? What have we looked for now?
So you need to have the ability to have something to look to when
you're coming back out of the fold. You know. In the CFL this
year I was excited for because there were there were some names that I was
familiar with, people that players that I'd finally been following for a while.
And we're able to look up at toy at every step at every team,
and that's something that again every team needs to kind of work on and be
able to establish their identity and moving forward. I just think it's going to
have to take some time to get all of that together. So I've not
I don't know. I think the NFL again needs their their messaging needs to
be a little bit different, especially from the coaches just saying like, well,
we're trying to send all the players and we're trying to get rid of
everybody, and it's like I don't really want that either. That's not what
I look for. I want guys to get chances of course at the next
level, but I don't expect them all too by the way. You know,
like, what what do you think about someone like Austin Prowle? You
really think Austin Prowle is gonna be latching onto an NFL team anytimes soon,
no offense. I think he's going to be an XFL player for perpetuity from
here on out. And if it means him, we're working with his dad
on the Saint Louis staff. Great. Also, I like that. That's
good. That's a good story. And he if he does well and he
plays well like he has in the past, and he has a role to
play, and then what's wrong with that? Yeah, I just there has
to be some sort of balance, sir, and I've I've talked and we
had Greg Parks on and kind of the you know, good to go back
to Vincent, the ww that you know, that NX team model, you
know, that was when NXT with it was at its peak. It was
always known that the ultimate goal of the you know, of the NXT was
to develop the guys, get them up to the main roster where they could
get the you know, the big million dollars checks, but you have to
make a compelling product in the meantime. And so I just I wish the
coaches, I wish more, you know, And like they're talking on the
live cham releasing the interviews, I saw it was a lot of like,
yeah, we're getting our next crop to go to the NFL. It's like
I would like you to get your next crop to help win win games as
well. Like I get I don't care who wins the x cull champ.
You know, I'm not like see dragon, like it doesn't matter to me.
But I just think for the for the health of the league, you
have to also winning also matters, and having Hines Wards saying well, I
don't I don't care about winning as long as we get these guys on and
we had to quote from back to last year. You know, if every
single player for my team went to an NFL roster, that would be successful.
Like yeah, yeah, and I I like, I agree with that
because I don't care. But for the for like the legitimacy of the league,
you have to value you know, winning as well on that well,
Like I mean, if you're a college coach, like the college coaches run
around saying like, yeah, I can't wait to get these kids out of
here, Like, yeah, I don't. That's I still remember a press
conference back in the day when Pete Carroll was at USC and Mark Sanchez announced
that he was leaving the school and early he declared for the NFL Draft early,
and Pete Carroll walked out of the press conference because he was so upset,
thinking like I could have you know, had you come back, and
we could have made a run in a national title, and now they can't.
Like they college coaches very much care about winning, and they know very
well that. Okay, I understand the circumstances are different because kids have to
move on eventually, but I just, yeah, this this like almost gun
Hoeness about like, yeah, I'm trying to get you the hell out of
out of our league so you can go on to do better things. It's
it's an odd sentiment, and I don't think the USFL really feels that way.
I know they champion it sometimes when a player gets signed, but I
don't hear the coaches being like, yeah, obviously we're trying to send everybody
off to the NFL. I think they to me sometimes the USFL coaches care
maybe give off the mantra at least that they want to win. Now whether
or not they execute that vision very well is up for debate, but they
obviously have They have the intention I think of trying to win in most cases,
but it's hard to say. I think everybody's in it for different reasons.
It's kind of the same thing with the players. The coaches seem like
they all have different reasons for why they're in there. What their skin in
the game is. Is it, you know, just trying to coach again,
is it trying to be successful in that league? Is it trying to
send players off to another league? It's it's not really sure. The CFL,
obviously it's all standard. It's like we're trying to win, trying to
win the Great Cup, end of story, no other debate. Well,
that's also like, like I didn't like Marshall Ferguson's comments here on the XFL
is it week one or two where he's like, well what is this?
I'm like, this is a week week two of an up start? Actually,
you know football league here, Like I've seen CFL worst play Week seventeen.
Well, you tell me who the Edmonton Elks are Marshall, I want
to hear that story. Tell me, tell me about that team Will James
this year the CFL, because I don't want to keep you forever. I
know you need to work any other thoughts combine and any other thoughts combined.
Like I said again, presentation wise, I'm fine with it. I do
want them to scale up their production next year next time they do this.
Now, do we get another one of these? I don't know. I
don't think so. I think you're just gonna do showcases and then we'll work
our way towards the draft eventually. I don't know if we really need to
have a second combine one one one is good enough. Really. I think
the timing is great though that will say, like you were mentioning earlier,
July is a good time to do it because there's nothing else going on.
If your baseball team isn't in it, you don't care. The only other
things that are going on really is like WNBA, which I watched now a
little bit more these days because there's certain players that I follow. But I
mean, the summer is kind of a scourge. There's not a lot going
on besides maybe the occasional PGA event. Or a tennis event. It's a
it's an open realm for content. Obviously the CFL we watched religiously, but
even then during the middle of the week, there's not really much going on.
So I think for them it's a great time to do this. It
really is. And right before training camps start, before the NFL starts kicking
back up, I think it's a good time for them to do it.
So more of this just maybe you know, make some schedule, some production
adjustments going forward, and maybe get some other individuals involved with this. Yeah,
to recap, because we probably had more people watching now than we did
that started the show, like, you know, a plus effort. I
was thrown back at the beginning, tuning in, like wasn't quite sure what
to expect, and that having lived through it and it kind of processed it,
I think this is a good fit. I don't think. I think
there's like a juice versus the squeeze of like how much you know, we
could scale up another thousand fold and get you know, are you getting tempers
at more engagement? You know? Like I thought they did good. The
numbers looked good for me, I thought, having as lively of a chat
I thought helped it feel alive. You know, we get chat here with
our you know, peanut viewers compared to what they had, and you know,
it makes it feel like more, you know, than you're just sitting
here talking into a vacuum. So I thought that was good. Like I
said, I just at a stationary next year, Have you know, have
whoever it is, have you know maybe have you know, I don't know,
Like Sam was good walking around. You need someone, like I said,
like get Matt Barry or someone just sitting there and we can just bounce
back and forth, bounce back and forth, and that would be good.
Um, Mike says, I hope they live streamed the draft on YouTube as
well to fading the gagement. I'm cool with them not simply you can do
it so if you know, you know, you know, I'm I'm happy
to kind of carry that Mattrau and then Hussy's chat in here. I hate
to side with this as some fans like one of these out leagues and not
the others and field they need to crap on it whenever you get the chance.
Oh yeah, football, football, football and any other combine. And
we're gonna preview CFL Week eight here real quick, well not real quick,
you know, fifteen minutes worth probably. I can't wait to see some of
these guys potentially be on the field next year. I want to do more
tape study and kind of look back at some of the things that they've done
in college. But overall, a lot of research to be done, a
lot of things to be done, and big end like this isn't going to
be all the players, obviously, There's still many more that I think are
going to be in the fold. Who knows, we might get some surprise
names. I'm curious too with all the free agency news obviously with a lot
of players who haven't been signed yet, keeping a close eye on some of
those names too, as far as what players don't end up being brought back
in the NFL if they don't sign during this year, if some of those
guys end up being in another league, who knows, you know, there
was obviously a guy like from our Tavis Bryant, for example, who showed
up in the XFL, didn't really do much, but there's a there are
going to be players like that still floating around who might end up coming back,
or Brett Humley or something of that nature. We are going to see
it. I think we're gonna see more guys like that too, but not
too many, because again, the XFL does a really good job of balancing
saying, hey, we know you're a veteran, you have good chops and
you've been around for a while, but we also want to give chances to
people who haven't had a lot of them either are really young. So I'm
very curious to see how the training camps and the free agent lists shakes out
too in the NFL in the coming months. Yeah, talking here, Yeah,
Gary's agree and as they have my preferred leagues on tickdown to anyone,
Yeah, Max says, because Hailey Sanchie doesn't think people to be interested,
we'd be interested in feel analyzed draft Irean players and they announced the picks after
they actually did the draft. I guess it's hard to do a live show
with the resources available. Yeah, I guess. I mean Rick, Rick's
been on here a bunch, and you know, give us the list.
Rick knows all these guys, or get Evan, you know, get us
on. You know, we know these It's hard to do the big dump
that way. I at least, you know, if we knew when it
was going to be. Like I said, I had emailed in and I
said, can we get on the zoom call? Can we get on?
Can we get some of these players and start making notes and stuff as opposed
to just this freak out like oh it's all happening here. But anyway,
um, good stuff. Like I said, shout out all the players have
got the opportunity I think two hundred plus right, and shout out Sam and
kJ and everyone and like everyone the ESPN and Haley all the other people involved
in that a lot of work with that, So just we appreciate it.
You know, we were on here pound in want offseason content. So CFL
Week eight here, you know, Hussey and I have been obviously doing our
weekly recaps. Tonight we have Hamilton's and Ottawa, you know, Dustin Crumb
sweeping the nation here for the CFL andy. What do you make of this
because I you know, it's a couple of weeks ago. This isn't that
exciting of a game. Bows coming back? Right? Bows on? I
think I saw him activated, So this is gonna be Bow versus Dustin Crumb.
The game we didn't know we wanted, you know how that trailer for
that new Willie Wonka movie dropped and how they're trying to come out with another
one with the people and all that. Yeah, okay, well, if
if Crumb was a Wonka bar, he Crumb did allumptious because he's been nothing
but sweet for this Ottawa team. I am enthralled by Dustin Crumb. I
love his play style, I love what he's done. I was so impressed
by him against Calgary because they took away his legs, they started spying on
him, and he just started dropping bombs down the field. That guy has
so much talent to him. I'm really really excited for him, and I
am so happy for Ottawa. This team has been in such a dirge as
far as notoriety, as far as success, as far as not being able
to win at home. They've won back to back home games after they're just
horrendous home losing streak that they had had for you know, years plural and
for them, I mean, it's awesome. I think Ottawa has a real
chance to now get into the playoffs, which I did not think it was
going to happened even before the season started, but especially two weeks ago when
it just seemed like their entire world had crumbled, no pun intended, and
it seemed like it was over. But that come back against Winnipeg because has
just completely jumpstarted them. They're exciting. I don't think they get into another
overtime match this time around. This game, I feel very confident in them
taking I look Hamilton, Jason would tell you first obviously that they're having a
lot of struggles. Their defense has just been gradually going down further and further
and further in terms of efficiency. A guy like Simony Lawrence can only do
so much, and I know he's getting up there in age too, so
I this secondary for Hamilton has just been tested and has not really shown up
in a lot of context. Ottawa is just really getting their stride, especially
offensively. It's really exciting to see all these things developing them for them.
And I like Bob Dice, I like there, you know they're they're a
coach that they they hired. He's really I just think he seems like a
very players oriented coach and he seems to really get a lot of these players
and a lot of their personalities, and it's very exciting for this team.
They just feel like a young, upstart team in a lot of ways,
and it's I'm just I'm thankful to finally see this kind of come to fruition
for them, especially after all just the horrendous injuries they've had happened to them,
the bad luck they've had. I see Ottawa taking care of business here
pretty easily. I don't know. Yeah, Bo didn't look good before he
was hurt. Now we've handled this. Was it? Was it tire Taylor
True with the third string for Hamilton Taylor Powell coming back? Yeah, I
don't know. I mean I I kind of thought Crum was a one trick
pony here and then obviously, you know, being able to do it against
Winnipeg and being able to do it against who is it against Calgary here,
I'm going back here. There was a long way the last week. It
was a long week ago here. But no, I mean, this is
exciting, Like I like this. You know, we had the nighthan work
of it all, and you know, kind of everyone knew that, Okay,
he's gonna be whatever. People I knew, you know, you knew
he was going to be good. You know how good he was going to
be here, We've had, you know, injuries, everything lead to this.
I mean this is a movie here at this point I said week one,
when crime came into relief that you know, if it was a movie,
he would have made that tatdown at the end was tackled shot here ended
up doing it, taking them to overtime, and all of that after should
be sid me. Is this the game of the week, I suppose so.
In terms of the matchup the quarterbacks, I mean, Hamilton's desperate.
They definitely need to get a win, like they're they're in trouble. This
is this Eastern playoff picture. I know the other teams in the division besides
Toronto a little bit weak, but they need this desperately because it's very much
a difference between if their second or third, and potentially they could be last
if things don't go well. If Montreal somehow ends up winning, then they
could be looking at the basement here if they're not careful. But I would
say it's not the sexiest matchup, but I do think it is at one
of the most vital matchups of the entire weekend. So as far as the
East standings go, yes, it is something that they have to be.
They have to be cognisant of what could happen to them. If they don't
tiecats don't get there's things together, It's going to be a rough second half
of the season. The first third has not been very kind to them.
We'll leave, I Mitchell, I don't know. He's just like you said
at the beginning of the year, you said it before the season started.
I mean, his physical tools have deteriorated and he's been hurt, and I
don't know if he has it anymore. And also this receiving cord just is
so frustratingly inefficient. This team cannot punch it in in the red zone,
like they just keep having these instances where they cannot score in the red zone.
I thought Matthew Schiltz has played the best out of all the quarterbacks.
He just had a lot more bravado. He attacked down field a lot more.
But even then, even with him, they still couldn't get it done
in the end zone. I remember that game. I think it was against
not Toronto. Who was it? There was Montreal When they played against Montreal
at home. I thought that was a really lost opportunity because they just could
not put in the end zone. Montreal scored touchdowns and Hamilton's scored field goals.
That's kind of the story of their season. I very much did the
same thing happening this weekend, where the Red Blacks will be able to punch
it in and Crumb will be able to work some magic. The tiger Cats
will probably get end up kicking field goals and ultimately that's going to end up
in them dropping another one of being two and five. Yeah, I don't
know this the tie Cats Red Blacks series, the big division game Friday night.
That excites me. Looking here Saskatchewan going and this is the big what
is it? The touchdown? Atlantic here owen or five five? And note
Toronto here we have Mason Fine coming in, Trevor Harris going down, season
ending. I don't uh, I don't have high hopes here for the saskatch
from our friends day is this? Is this the upset of the sense it
would be, especially considering how an f their offense was last week, and
also as far as a coaching matchup goes, this is a huge mismatch.
Craig Dickinson is going to be in big trouble this season because he did not
perform very well last week. That third down decision when he went for it
he got it, and then he didn't go for it when there were five
yards out from the end zone and decided to kick a field goal after burning
time on the clock and then being down seven. Was that was extremely negligible.
I cannot believe that happened. That being said, Saskatchewan still had a
chance in that game because the offense for BC had just kind of run into
a rut. The one thing that Saskatchewan has going for them is Mario Alford.
That guy is electric. When Sean White went out for that field goal
to go up ten to kick it to make it a ten point game for
BC, and he starts lining up and I'm seeing Alford in the end zone.
It's less than a minute left in the game, and all I'm thinking
is if this doesn't go well, Alfred could run this back and he could
tie the game. After all of that, despite how poor and inefficient Saskatchewan
had been, they still had a chance to be in that game. And
Alfred is really their calling card. But against Toronto, I imagine they're going
to neutralize him and I don't think they're gonna have a lot of options,
And this is Skatchewe defense is just gonna get worn out by Toronto's run game.
Chad Kelly has been playing outstanding. He's I think he's getting better and
better every week. His his accuracy, his rapport with receivers has been awesome.
Davante Cox has been great. I love Angio Hollett is just awesome.
I mean, he's kind of a man crush like he's he's he has to
be one of the most marketable players in the league in my opinion. And
this Toronto team, I mean, this is gonna be this should be a
walk, and this is not really much. There's not much scatch one can
do. I mean, and also the travel distance Scatchewan had to travel to
BC, back to Skatchewan and now all the way to out the Halifax,
Like that's rough. That's travel schedule, travel schedule. Toronto doesn't have to
go that far obviously, And so um yeah, I mean this is this
should be a walk for Toronto and not really much of a matchup to look
forward to. I mean, it's great camaraderie, it's great for the league
playing out there and having this whole situation. But I imagine, I mean
two weeks ago you were looking at Trevor Harrison at above five hundred squad against
an undefeated Toronto team and it looks like a pretty decent matchup, and in
two weeks it soured pretty quickly. Yeah, I don't. I don't know.
Here in Toronto seems to be Rolland who are they playing next week?
They're at Calgary, I mean Ottawa, I mean Ottawa week ten, but
that's at home. I don't. I don't see a game where Toronto loses
here for a long time. They're back on a buy in week eleven.
Then maybe then they get banged up. Maybe that's it, you know,
they go on their buy and then they came back. Like I mean,
I see Toronto making a making a big run here, especially like you said,
with the travel and everything. I don't know, does a touchdown Atlantic
do anything. I mean, I know that this is always supposed to like
show we're doing the expandion. I think Hodge had posted today like sites that
we can use for futures, Like I kind of tired talking about this,
you know, with the experision, any thoughts on that and trying to get
that that area of the country you know, excited. I mean, this
is DejaVu because Jason did a great thing yesterday where he posted a video of
kind of detailing the history of the Touchdown Atlantic Series. This has been going
back since since the eighties. This has been an idea from the league for
quite some time of putting a team out there and putting a tenth team,
and it has never come to fruition because of one reason or another. It's
Randy and Rosie's mission statement to make that happen. I don't know how viable
it isn't happening. Would I love to have it? Yes, absolutely,
I mean having a tenth team would solve so many problems. I can't believe
they didn't have Toronto playing the first week because at being nine teams and they
left them off the schedule. Your first game of the schedule should have been
Hamilton at Toronto, first game of the season, like no uses, that
should have been your Thursday night matchup. And it said we had to wait
till week two at the end of the week on Sunday night for that.
That's ridiculous. And this whole nineteen thing has always been really weird to me.
That being said, trying to force, you know, Nova Scotia's hand
into trying to fund a team here. It's hard to publicly and you know,
encourage people to fund a team or put resources into building a team when
not everybody is going to utilize that resource. You have to kind of play
your own hand. And unfortunately, I don't know if the league has the
resources to do that or is willing to do that. So for them,
I mean, it's a nice series, it's cool, but it's got to
at some point push cups to shoves. Something has to change here, and
something has to be done because they can't keep playing this game of chicken forever
because people are gonna get freshened and fed up with it if they haven't already.
Something has to change, you know, I don't know what like it.
Should they just have the mantra like you know the Vegas Vipers and Rod
Woodson saying, well, we'll playing a parking lot, it doesn't matter,
you know. Do they just take that mantra with them and just do that
instead, Because I don't know what's going to get it out there. If
you can't just wait around for the perfect venue and be able to have the
perfect situation, maybe you're just gonna it's gonna have to be a makeshift situation.
You're just gonna have to eat it for a few years. I don't
know. It's just like I don't know. I always feels like we just
kind of get bored on here and we go forward with this, and you
know, like it's kind of like the XFL expansion talk, like with the
trademarks, like, oh, how can we pop how can we pop some
impressions right now? Like let's talk about it. Amazing it is our quarterback
Greggs giving find a long leash as riders or I don't. I mean,
I don't think they have any I don't think they have many other options there.
Craig h You know, if if you were cool with Mason fine,
you wouldn't have gone down and got Trevor Harris. Like so it's really hard
now to be like, well, you know, we're he's fine. I
mean, I don't know, you mentioned Cody last year, you did all
this stuff, and then now to be kind of in the same position you
were, it has to feel I don't know, that has to feel upsetting,
right if you're the Saskatchewan rough Rider, like team building, I hear,
you know, we really thought we were going to make a run and
they had such a pitiful last year and missing the playoffs and hosting the Gray
Cup in Regina and kind of all that coming back out on here. M
Hussey had a comment about Dave Evans throwing four interceptions and giving me nightmares this
week? What do you make of this? Is this a trap game from
the BC Lions BC at Edmonton here where this would be last number twenty one?
This would be the record breaking, right because they've tied the record now
at twenty would be the record breaking at twenty one? All right? Read
listen, I think it would be. And I'm an insane man in some
respects so badly want to pick Edmonton to come in with the upset here for
a couple of reasons. One, I like David Evans, but he's not
that great of Evan upgrade and not having Va around I think does alter the
offense a lot. It's going to be a very low scoring, sluggish game
in a lot of ways. But I can't in good con at pick Edmonton.
And here's why. Last week, in my opinion, Chris Jones did
what I thought was comparable to a fireball offense. And here's why I know
everyone's up in arms about Trey Ford. I know everybody's incredulous about the start.
I know everyone's just you know, losing their minds over you know,
what is it Maurice French who got released from the team this week at you
know a lot of the creative control differences with how he handles players. But
here's my point about it. You just watched game tape of the Winnipeg Blue
Bombers failing miserably to contain Dusted Crumb in his legs because one they didn't put
a spy on him, and two they're an older defense, like they can't
chase after running quarterbacks. I've seen the one Kilee seal for Winnipeg this year
is they cannot stop quarterbacks who run. Va gave them trouble and Crumb gave
them trouble. Now Here you are with Taylor Cornelius, who we all know
has been less than enviable as far as a pastor. But one of his
assets is his legs, and a couple of times he got out he made
some big plays with his legs against Winnipeg. Did they go back to that
at all after he made a big play with his legs? No, they
continue to try and throw the ball around and pretend like he was a seventy
percent completion pastor, and he was not, and he has not been and
he will not be. I don't understand why Chris Jones decides to make fetch
happen when clearly all you have to do is put Trey Ford into position to
use his legs and use his assets, get out there and make Winnipeg earn
it. That was extremely negligible to me. I cannot believe that they not
find a way to get any sort of mobility packages, RPO, anything to
get their quarterbacks to run against that Winnipeg defense, which is old and running
down like it is. It's just that it's an Achilles heal for them.
They clearly did not do enough tape study or it was just some sort of
some sort of forced idea of what they were going to run on offense.
To me, that was extremely negligible. I don't think they would have won
the game, but they would have given Winnipeg a run for their money.
And it said they just folded and quit in the second half like they usually
do. So I can't trust this Edmonton team at all until further notice,
and Chris Jones has completely lost me. We have a little bit of breaking
news year, I have pulled up but this was shared over Mike Mitchell in
our chat. Gregor Parks sharing it here, but uh, it was it.
Michael Bandy being signed to the Denver Broncos would be and we gotta get
we need to get like because right, isn't this thirty two because because like
Fago and the other one they were they were like cut before this they were
kind of on the rosters but not but unofficially officially thirty four players here assigned
to the to the NFL. Here any any comments on this? I saw
it coming into the chat Mike and sent it over too. I mean for
Bandy, you know, I think he ends up in the practice squad again.
Obviously he got a lot of burn with the Chargers last year and was
sort of an emergency option after all the injuries that they had to their wide
receivers. You know that someone else like Bailey Gaither is getting looked out by
the Chargers this week. But my comment at the time was, well,
there's no room for him, but maybe there would be a room if something
happened. Of course, I don't want that to happen. I don't want
any more Charger bide receiver injuries, So I very much prefer that doesn't happen.
But you know that's the case for someone like Bandy, He's just gonna
have to wait around until something happens. You know, if Sean Payton likes
you, that asks nast to be in something, right, So I think
good for him, you know, kind of keep away, keep around Hinton.
It's a shame that he's not able to be around. He's a multi
faceted option. We obviously saw him play quarterback that one game when the Broncos
had no quarterbacks because of COVID, And for Bandy, I mean, that's
a good opportunity. We'll see. He's probably gonna get a lot of preseason
burn now and I'm not sure what his familiarity with their offensive scheme is.
But that's good. That's a good sp for him to be in. And
you know that's gonna be the reality for a lot of these players who are
signing in this lad it's just gonna be okay, Well, something happened,
we need somebody else. Who do we know? Oh we know this guy,
he played in this league. Oh he has this tape. You know
we have we have information on him. Again, the end of the day.
That's all it is about, right, It's just having information all these
players to be able to pass it around and be able to use these analytics
and the models and say, okay, we can go call this guy.
So yeah, good for baby. You gotta like, I mean, not
that Burrow is injured, but you gotta like Herbert going out getting his bag,
you know, kind of in this you know, pissing contest back and
forth, and then Burrow going out and kind of getting hurt. I mean,
I hope that that's not a serious injury, but you know it's crazy
to think that they were kind of doing this hold out back and forth and
then you know, obviously Herbert gets and then Burrow coming out. Let's get
here, final thoughts and then we can wrap up if there's anything else.
Calgary at Montreal, Cody, So it's good. I like, I like
my boy Cody. What do you make about the alouttes here? He's been
fine. I mean, I think he's got more stability in his life now,
he doesn't have to worry about being chased down by people in the grocery
store anymore. So I think for his sanity, it's good for him.
But as far as Montreal overall, I'm not crazy about them. I just
don't think their offense is run as efficiently as I would have liked, and
I'm not really big on them as far as what they've been accomplishing on that
side of the ball. I still can't believe, speaking of Mario Alford from
earlier, I can't believe they let him just go to Saskatchewan like that.
To me is insane that they let Mario Alford walk because that's such a weapon
they have on your team. As far as Calgary goes, I mean,
look, Jake Mayer stats wise, obviously had to bear a good game last
week, but the thing that still gets me about him is he still just
throws picks that really hurt his team. The turnover margin for Calgary is not
good because of his negligible decisions, and their defense is kind of getting pounded
on. I mean, they've given up a lot of points in some instances,
and they've got to be careful what where they're going forward because they just
have not really been able to have like a pass rush or really been able
to kind of get any sort of pressure under these quarterbacks. I mean,
again, Crum just absolutely dice them up all game last week, So for
them, I mean, this is kind of a must win. But at
the same time, Saskatchewan is also falling apart. So for Calgary, they
might look out and still get the third slot in the West because Edmonton is
just in a black hole and Saskatchewan is trending downwards. Says Calgary might look
out ultimately in this season, but they're you know, they still have to
win games if they're going to expect it to the crossover. Really, what
you're looking at here is crossover potential now right. So here, if you
look at the standings, you know what's going to happen at that bottom tier
with the East. Now, the East is much more even in terms of
who has wins and who doesn't, So somebody from there is probably I mean,
they might just stay stay put and kind of have their spot. But
who's going to do the crossover here? It'll be interesting since Calgary is kind
of floating around and I think they just have to win enough games. But
clearly I said it before the season started. I said, I don't I
think they're not gonna be as good as people expected to be because I think
I don't think they've been able to replenish their talent, and that's clearly been
the case so far. The rest of the league has outpaced them. You
know, Blue Bombers are always good. Lines have been great. You know,
Ottawa's revived themselves and are gonna started just you know, steamrolling people.
So it's kind of for me. Calgary they have to fix some of their
issues. I don't know if they can fix it defensively. Offensively, they
just need to stop turning the ball over and may or need to stop throwing
picks. Yeah, mad chatter commenting here and I just needed it. There's
someone like me and here. Well, you were asking about Alex McGoo.
We talked about mcgu off the top of the show getting signing the autograss over
at Packers training camp. So you know, I mean, we're doing other
thing. I can't I can't control the chat too much on here. Mike
has a question in regards to the combine our comment players gonna be added the
upcoming draft or individual teams you make an offers to the players they liked.
It was my understanding that they were going to be part of the first supplemental
draft and then there'll be the second supplemental draft. That will be kind of
not like leftovers, but anyone else NFL players, especially as kind of anything
with that. Am I correct in that understanding? Andy, Yeah, it's
all calendar related. So it's all just players that are coming out of the
showcases and the combines, and then following that anybody who's been a roster or
got onto an NFL roster and then becomes available after that will be the supplemental
draft following that. So it's kind of like what the USFL did a little
bit, although this case, obviously, since we're in the middle of the
NFL season, there's potential for a lot of transition, a lot of change,
you know, because this is going to be in the fall, and
then it's going to be a winter for the second one, so it's sort
of all this transition going on. But yeah, I mean, the first
one is just going to be all the players that come from these showcases and
the combine. Yeah, and you know, I we had our big talk
with I'm sorry, it's like we have our big talk with Russ a couple
of weeks ago that for whatever, whether it was time, you know,
timing and anything else going on, I didn't perform super well. So you
want to know about the XFL offseason. It was what forty minutes or whatever
with Russ talking kind of all that stuff and getting his thoughts. So that
was all on there as well. Anything else we'll wrap up here soon.
Anything else on the games, like I said, might I have a fear
Trap game here circled with the BC. But anything else from this week Obviously
Blue Bomber is on and buy here after taking care of business against who did
they beat demolishing in Edmonton. I think we're going to see a lot of
status quot this weekend. And it's funny to say status quo with Ottawa in
terms of winning, but that's kind of where we're at with them right now.
I think they hold pat Toronto is gonna be fine. BC. I
think we'll be okay because I just don't trust Edmonton. That Calgary Montreal game
is gonna be really weird. Some some stuff's gonna go down to that game.
I can see that getting really out of hand and just being really wacky.
So that might end up actually being the most entertainment taining game of the
of the entire weekend. Maybe the matchup we look forward to the most is
the outaway game, but I that Calgary games just reeks of weirdness, so
that could be end up being the most wackiest matchup. But as far as
drastic trend setting or anything, I don't think there's gonna be anything different.
Your dividual leaders are going to probably both win and Ottawa. I think we'll
continue to ascend and be about five hundred, whichuld be at this point of
the season. It's tremendous. So I'm looking on here. I just on
my Fubo. The Saturday games are both going to be on the CFL or
a CBS Sports network whatever, But at the game tonight I think should be
free on CFL plots if you want to watch a game tonight, if you
want some more football content after the XML combine and all that, I think
there should be a good one tonight. Bo coming back And like I said,
with Dustin't crumbing and anything else, Andy, we did good here,
we did. I appreciate you know, it's kind of a weird week and
the combine and you know, hours of live content to go through. Anything
else you want to get off your chest before we get out of here,
Well, thank you for having me on. I've been shopping at the bit
to talk about CFL. Every time I watch you and Jason and evan't chop
it up. I just want to desperately jump on and say something, you
know, be like that road caller. But I appreciate you having me on.
I'm excited about some of the other showcases. And I mean, we're
getting into NFL training camps. We're gonna see some of these players that we
know out in the preseason games soon. We're gonna have some real familiarity with
some of these players. I will be at a preseason game myself in two
weeks. I will actually be at a Raiders preseason game, so we'll see
if I have any familiar faces to observe in that game. So this is
really exciting time for people that we follow in, players that we've been you
know, religiously watching for the last year or so. I'm you know,
football season never ends for us. It might be starting up for a lot
of other people, but for us, you know, the role out continues.
Yeah you know, I mean you got to keep doing it on here,
you know, no weeks off, and it is interesting. It's exciting,
and like I said, I like having the CFL stuff right now.
I wish that performed a little bit better. You know. I don't know
if that's a demographics thing or if it's a you know, candidate thing or
whatever. But the season has been good. I still think there's problems to
be had. We had C Simmons on we're talking like, yeah, it
was the greatest weekend of CFL games? Was that two weekends ago? Like,
there's still a lot of glaring issues here where I think a lot of
CFL people look and they're like, oh, look see like they're great,
Like we're fine. It's like, well, you know, you just happened
to be the dust and crumb is like the second coming up Michael Vicker or
something here, like we didn't you know, we didn't know going in.
You know, so things change and it's good that it worked out. But
I think there's stuff like that u XFL retweeting now, oh that's good.
Oh that's talking about kJ sales on here they're tweeting out Marquette King's new songs.
So yeah, I mean, let's like I said, the best thing
to FCF did was help get these guys you know, doing their own streams
and everything else. So that will do it. I said, we'll be
back Monday, Hussey and I and Evan I assume at nine am Pacific,
and then I got to figure out next week here could be you know,
another dry week post XFL combined. We have a Thursday game here BC at
Winnipeg, so I'll kind of throw a wrench in things. We had the
eight one announcement on Tuesday, Like I said, it'll be cool, but
Mike Mitchell already reporting the season tickets going on sale, So I don't think
we're getting full season, single game ticket schedule here in August. That feels
very early. I do think, well, hopefully we'll get that earlier this
year. But you know, it's something to kind of make weights here.
Andy anything else, keep on fucking man. I hope the weather's treating you
well, and I hope your baseball teams play playing better than mine. Well,
I'll tell you we just said we had we had to come from behind
victory there against the Twins, and then you know, Julios hiting again.
We're going to Arizona tonight and then we will be Socks are coming into town
on Monday, so we will be there for the Socks game Mariners at that
So yeah, Hopefully that was it. The Friars are doing all right?
Is how it is aboard mission? Man, it's not happening. I appreciate
it, I appreciate Haley stopping by. Everyone else, appreciate Andy, and
we'll see you guys next time. Thanks,