Coming up this week on the Mark Host, Well, here we are officially
over one hundred XFL and USFL players have signed NFL contracts leading into the season.
And in the words of an infamous Toronto rap hip hop superstar, they
went zero two one hundred real quick. I don't dare try to sample that
song and infuriate the YouTube copyright strike gods here this week. But you know
what I'm talking about here, Drake, zero to one hundred XFL and USFL
signings. We have Greg Parks of XFL board joining the show. We have
preseason grades for the players who's most likely to wind up on NFL rosters and
more. It's impressive and it's a number that if your XFL leadership you can
sort of hang your hat on. You can use to recruit the next batch
of players who don't make NFL rosters this training camp, or who were tryout
players at rookie mini camp in May and never signed and they're looking for getting
foot it back in the door, and the XFL can say, hey,
look, we've got all of these players from twenty twenty three that were signed.
We've got all of these players who received NFL tryouts, and you know,
if you want to get your name back in circulation, this is an
avenue you might want to take. And then early episode this week to make
way for all four CFL game previews, we have Milt Stiegel joining the show.
Longtime friends, CFL Hall of Famer, Gray Cup Champions and now I'm
part of the CFL podcasting circuit as well. What is going on here?
Milt Siegel gives this thoughts on everything CFL Week twelve. Definitely good for them
to get that first victory, but they had to make a major move within
that organization, and unfortunately it had to be victor, you know, And
I wouldn't be surprised if something else happens later on a year in off season,
because changes have to be made when your team is planned like that.
And then Alexander Hollins from your America's CFL team, the bc A Lions,
joining the show. Coming off at tough loss last week, how are they
going to bounce back at home against Hamilton? Should be a good show.
Liken subscribe. Hey guys, welcome to the Mark ass read here back on
a little bit of a regular schedule, a prerecorded but Thursday throwing everyone off,
But these Thursday CFL games really throw a wrench in my plans. Should
be back on a normal podcast schedule. Next week, I think we will
have a really really big guest, even bigger than Milt Steagel, you know,
a longtime friend of the show, CFL. I'll fame Blue CFL Hall
of Famer, a great Cup champion, all of that stuff with the Blue
Bombers. But should be a good show and next week this week as well,
great Parks joining us. We are running down everything from the XFL and
USFL signings to the NFL officially one hundred plus players this week. Very excited
to see that we've had, even like Brian Hill, friends of the show
all the way back in the NFL alumni academy making way. Auntie Roster's really
excited to talk with Greg about that. Greg's been great grating the players,
talking about their performances. Who's most likely to stick here once roster cuts happen
next week, so we'll be getting Greg's thoughts on everything involved with that.
And then, like I said, Milt Stiegel joining us. Lots of talking,
lots of fun with Milt. He's always up last year getting his extended
thoughts and you know why is Milt joining the This is our Milt Now is
a CFL podcast or who would have thought? But really excited to talk with
Milt about all of that. And then, like I said, Alexander Hollins
joining from America's CFL t of the BC Alliance Good Show this week, like
I said, back a little bit more prerecorded, relied heavily on the live
shows here during my busy wedding schedule that is winding down, so we should
be getting back to more of the traditional Friday slave. I don't think the
CFL does many Thursday games here in the fall with football and everything, so
should be back to normal here pretty soon with the Fridays, if not that
next week, entirely here through the end of the NFL season. But I
guessid big show and next week I think I just emailing back and forth corresponding,
but should have a great interview in the can for that, and then
we will see what other sh against we can get into. I know the
cutdown for the NFL next week is the twenty ninth, so we will be
able to kind of do a full deep dive into who made the rosters here
with the XFL and the USFL through waivers and all of that. So hoping
in a Pat Referino if you're listening, or maybe Evan or we could take
teamap We'll figure out whoever wants to do that. But look on that for
next week. Hope you guys enjoyed the episode. Get us up to thirty
five subscribers like and subscribe, Thanks so much. Well, we're back here
dog days of summer talking XFL offseason. First off, poor one out for
Terry Funk. Sorry to hear that we have Greg Parks here. I saw
you were posting about that today as well, So that's no good. Yeah,
I mean, seventy nine years old. Man, if that's a long
life for a guy who's had as many bumps and has wrestled the kind of
matches that he's wrestled throughout his career for as long as he did. I
mean, I think he wrestled into his sixties and so seventy nine is all.
That's a long time for a guy who's putting his body through what he's
put it through. And I mean you just look at all the different eras
that he's wrestled in, all the different places he's wrestled, all the people
he's wrestled all the styles he's wrestled. He could hang for with Rick Flair
for sixty minutes, and he could wrestle in ECW your garbage matches and stuff
like that. So what a talent. He was just a shame passing away
today at seventy nine. Yeah, well I saw that. It's really you
know, it's one of those like, oh yeah, I guess he's still
you know, because some of these guys get up and Rick Flair and all
that stuff, but not enough too much wrestling. Today. We're talking XFL
combined now officially this week. I think it's one o one now by the
time, because I like, I get sent the thing and then I post
it from like the agent or whatever, and then THEFL post Salem book.
Okay was that Okay, yeah, that's the same. But I think we
have one hundred and one now combined between the between the XFL and the USFL
here, so of course drake zero to one hundred thoughts on that. I
mean, I think that's a pretty test amount of like testamount high number.
I mean, I'm pretty surprised. It's a good number. I can't say
that I went into this saying Okay, if they get fifty pit players signed,
that's a good number. And if they go above that, that's great.
If they get below it, that's failure or whatever you want to say.
I never really had a number in mind. I didn't really know what
to expect. The last time we had something like this, you know,
in twenty twenty with the XFL, it was during the pandemic, so you
didn't have a lot of players going in for tryouts the way that you do
with players now. You know, the USFL had a lot of guys signed
last year, but now it's the USFL and XFL, and we've just not
had two leagues of this level basically competing to get their guys signed into the
NFL. I really didn't have any kind of set expectations for how many players
would get signed to the NFL. I think the number they're at for the
XFL, which is I think sixty two or sixty three at this point,
not started counting differently. If you notice in their press releases, they're counting
the number of contracts signed now, so the guys who signed and get released
and then sign again Jocquez, Patrick Tomasi La Lelay, they count twice so
they're no longer counting the number of players signed, so you've got to kind
of count that yourself. So that's been a little difficult. But it's over
sixty I guess we'll say you're right, sixty three sixty six contracts. We've
had three double ups, okay, so that's I mean, that seems like
a good number. And I've been keeping track of posting every once in a
while on on social media, you know, the percentage of players who finished
the season on active rosters who are being signed. I think we're closed to
you know, we're over twenty percent of that. The number of players who
received tryouts, we're well over one hundred of those players, and I think
we're well over twenty five percent, probably closer to thirty percent of players in
the league who have received tryouts. So it's impressive and it's a number that
if your XFL leadership you can sort of hang your hat on, you can
use to recruit the next batch of players who don't make NFL rosters this training
camp, or who were tryout players at rookie mini camp in May and never
signed and they're looking for getting their foot back in the door, and the
XFL can say, hey, look, we've got all of these players from
twenty twenty three that were signed. We've got all of these players who received
NFL tryouts, and you know, if you want to get your name back
in circulation, this is an avenue you might want to take, because it's
getting to the point where if you know, and if for each player is
different, but where you have quarter at least a quarter or more of the
players at least getting looks, tryouts, you know, and then you know,
bending you know, like funneling down. I guess in this nineties,
you know, I could wallow on a practice squad for a year, you
know, and yeah, you're making significantly more money than you're going to be
making the XFL. But if you want to play with the XFL or the
USFL, like, hey, let me go do eight ten weeks, I'll
get a look. Like I think having the USFL gone through two seasons now
the XFL, like it is, it's becoming that like we are a viable
thing that I think a lot of agents should start kind of veering their players
into sure, And I think that's really probably what the hesitation was at first.
Agents and players wanted to know, is this viable. Is this going
to sustain itself? I don't want to get caught halfway through a season like
has happened before, and you know, all of a sudden the league shuts
down and I'm left kind of holding the bag. So I think agents and
players wanted to see that this model is sustainable and they want to see results.
They want to see how many players are getting NFL opportunities. And once
those boxes are checked, you don't. I mean, those were the two
main I think hold ups. So without those there, I do wonder if
you're going to see an even higher quality of player enter into the XFL and
USFL this year. Yeah, so it's it's so as we say, sixty
three and thirty eight or yeah, sixty three and thirty eight for the USFL.
So I have, you know, I always have like when my post
we well, how many does the USFL have or how many you know,
because that's like another one of these like you know, stick measuring contests or
whatever. But I think it was fifty one pre when the NFL kicked out
last year. Obviously they signed more guys into the season. Gavante Turpin,
you know, obviously being the one for the Cowboys, and we did the
All Pro. There was a couple of injuries that stopped a couple of the
other players from kind of making it. On how in terms of and this
is just whatever, like what would you consider a successful number retained into the
season from the XFL USVEL combined here? If we have a hundred plus,
well, I'll count practice squads for that, because I think the number of
players who are going to make an active roster out of training camp is is
going to disappoint people quite frankly. You know, I've been tracking them on
XFL board the first two weeks of the preseason. I've been listing some of
the notable performances, good and bad, of XFL players from twenty twenty three.
And you know, I've been I've been keeping tabs on the athletic and
on local papers of what the beat writers are saying. They're putting out projected
fifty three man rosters every week, you know, so I'm kind of scouring
those, and unfortunately, you know, it does not look like very many
XFL or even USFL players are going to make initial fifty three man rosters.
I think you're going to have quite a few that have the potential to make
practice squads. Practice squads are sixteen per team now, so they're gonna keep
a lot of the players they cut at cutdown day, and don't forget,
you know a lot of the players who are cut are going to be subject
to waivers, so another team could pounce on them if they like what they
saw in the preseason. So they may not make the team that they're on
right now, but they could be claimed by another team and make their fifty
three man rosters. So there's a lot, a lot of roster fluidity still
to come. But out of that hundred, you know, I would say,
if you're looking at I would say thirty to forty practice squad players out
of that hundred, I think is is reasonable. And then of course that
number changes throughout the year as injuries hit active rosters and players are called up
from practice squads and and players you know, practice squads churn every week,
so you'll have that number increase throughout the year. And the other thing about
being on the practice squad at one time, being on the practice squad meant,
you know, you could we're kind of wallowing there until you either got
released or you got signed to the active roster, and that didn't happen all
that much for some players. The rules since twenty twenty has been that each
week a team can call up to players from the practice squad and not have
them count against the fifty three man roster. So being on the practice squad
today is a lot more valuable than it once was. You have a lot
higher probability of playing NFL regular season games. So even if someone signs with
the practice squad, it's not just like kind of stash them there and forget
about them. If you're an XFL fan or a USFL fan following them,
you gotta look every week because your guy could get called up to play in
that week's game. I have up here, and I like, I've been
very busy with CFL and weddings this year. I'm sure this has existed for
a while. I saw in one of their press releases. I think it
was last week that they have this this XFL dot com slash XFL dash to
Dash NFL, which to me is phenomenal. Here listed in order of all
the players, the teams, the announcements, positions, kind of all that
stuff I was looking. USBL doesn't have that, I know, Stefon over
at newsroom kind of has his little one that's a little more herky jerky,
but at least is worthwhile if you're wanting to kind of track that. I
wish you had it by day, but you can sort by position and all
of that. So goodpers the fond and all that, because before I just
kind of assumed like a pat raffino where someone's like keeping tails about this stuff,
all these numbers. But so we check that out because like anytime I
post, I get people questioned like, oh, it's like jakor Pearson signed.
Yet You're like, well, you know, he hasn't. That's weird.
I think it's weird that he hasn't got signed. He's been very vocal
about that online. But when there is if when we look at the numbers,
this is where I get into the problem of solely building the XFL around
like this is this is our dream is to get players in. This is
all that matters is you're probably not going to get that mini to actually stick.
And so when your entire league is built around that, I do that
is where I have a little bit of on bridge without any thoughts on that.
You know, I get why they go that direction because they probably think,
you know, that's not for us necessarily. It isn't one way,
because it's basically telling us, hey, this is the kind of level of
player that we have, This is the kind of level of play that we
can produce in this league. We're worth watching. Because the one thing that
would turn a lot of people off of these secondary leagues is they consider it
minor league or football that's not very good. But if you're the XFL and
you can point to say, hey, we're good enough that the NFL signed
sixties some of our players, you know, that's a pretty good testament as
to what our quality of play was. So that's kind of for the fans,
I think, and I don't think they spell it out that way,
but that's kind of my impression of it. But it's also for as we
talked about the players and agents. You know, if you can plaster this
all over your social media. You know, a player gets cut from the
NFL and he doesn't know what to do, and he's scrolling through social media
and he's seeing these posts by the XFL that guys are constantly getting signed.
I mean that's going to plant to set in his head that oh, maybe
I should consider this. So, you know, I think there's that aspect
to it as well, and ownership has been good about saying, look,
we want guys to succeed, we want guys to move on to the NFL.
I think there's some head coaches. Ant Beck might have been one who
said, my goals to have my roster turnover completely every year, like I
want everybody to go to the NFL. But the other thing they've they've kind
of couched that in is but if you don't make it to the NFL,
we provide you a way to make money and make a living playing football,
even if it is not at the highest level. So there is that aspect
of it too. It's crazy to me, you know, it would be
nice to see these leagues kind of evolve into like we were having the conversation
today even where we have Trey Lance right and they were announced he's going to
be the you know, the third string and he's upset, and you know,
Sam Darnold beat him out, Like what do you do if you're Trey
Lance? Because I don't know if there's a lot of teams lining up right
now. The guy, you know, I think he had four starts for
the you know, the forty nine ers last year, Like you know,
I would admit like to envision a world where, like Trey Lance and we
were talking about in the chat, like go to the XFL for a year,
go play ten twelve games, show you have and I bet you know
we have cuered on last year when it was with the USFL, he was
saying the same thing where he's that you have Colin Koppernick if he really thought
he could play, come do you know a season of the USFL show everybody
in transition that over did not view it as a step down, but to
view it as like, here's the way where I can actually get reps as
opposed to just kind of being that unknown, if that makes sense. And
Trey Lance is a unique situation where he just does not have a lot of
game tape. You know, he's he did not start much in college.
He has not really had a sustained opportunity in the NFL due to injuries and
other situations with San Francisco having you know, a bevy of quarterbacks that they've
been able to choose from a good problem to have in some ways, but
he just hasn't been able to show that he can put that ten to twelve
game stretched together to show other teams that he's invested worth investing in. Now,
the XFL would be a bit of a gamble, like I mean,
because we've seen that performing well in the XFL doesn't guarantee you an NFL roster
spot. I mean, you talk about jack or Pearson, leading XFL receiver,
Jordan Williams, leading tackler in the XFL hasn't signed, you know,
Aj McCarron has probably his own choice, but one of the top quarterbacks in
the league hasn't signed. Jordan tam With, the XFL offensive player of the
year, just signed, you know, two games into the NFL preseason.
Peter Tomallpenno, the defensive player of the year, signed after the first preseason
game. So these guys are getting into camp late, which is putting them
behind the eight ball to make the team. But they performed out of their
minds in the XFL. So I do understand the hesitancy from that point of
view that playing in the XFL and playing really well doesn't itself guarantee you a
shot in the NFL. Are you surprised? And we were having this conversation
as well that, you know, with the XFL being so much earlier,
and there's been so much about the timeline, and you know, the USFL
says it's the baskers, our players can go right into camp, but it's
too late because it's already July. And you know that we were even seeing
people with the defenders saying, God, if they weren't in the chamship game,
they had already have guys going in. You know, a lot of
these signings, even just the last two weeks have still been a lot of
XFL guys, even with USFL guys available. Are you surprised with the numbers
and how they've kind of panned out in that way? Again, I guess
I didn't really have expectations. I did think the XFL would be would have
more players, just because I think, you know, looking at the rosters,
and again I don't watch the USFL, so I can only go by
the players that I see as being part of the league, it does seem
like the XFL has a slightly higher caliber of player in it, So I
guess it doesn't surprise me that they have more. But again, like you
mentioned, that lead up to training camp, that a couple months had start
that they got. I mean, they were able to put dozens of players
in rookie mini camps for these NFL teams and even if they were not signed
right after Rookie Mini caamp, and many of them were, but many of
them, you know, the teams that are looking for replacements now have those
guys on file that were in their rookie Mini caamp, those XFL players,
and those are the players now getting signed to their roster, even in late
August. So it's an advantage to uh, certainly for the XFL to have
those players in those rookie mini camps at a time when the USFL is is
having their season still going on, not only to get signed after Rookie Mini
Caamp, but to just be in front of those coaches and those scouts so
that later on in the summer or even in the fall, if they're looking
for a player at that position, they're going to remember you from rookie minicamp.
Let's bring him in. He's got some familiarity, We've got some familiarity
with him, and sometimes, uh, that's how guys get signed. It's
just that familiarity. Are you surprised some of the guys that we haven't seen
signed, like Pierson I said, you know, I commented Earler, I
mean, he's just anytime anyone get signed, he's quote you know TV,
Yeah, wait are you are you surprised some of these guys that we would
expect with these slam dogs? I mean, Tim who finally? Did you
know? That was kind of like the I guess what to me when of
the overhanging wines where you surprised some of the ones they have him been signed
with Tayamu, I wasn't because he's I think he's a pretty known quantity at
this point. He's a guy who's been for a couple of years now.
He's like one of the last arms signed in camp for the last preseason game,
and then he gets caught. He's he's not new to this, right,
He's he's been through this cycle before. So you know, he's done
it in the XFL in twenty twenty, he did it in the USFL in
twenty twenty two, he did it in the XFL in twenty twenty three.
I really don't think there's much he has to you know, there's not much
more he can show, and if NFL teams aren't interested in him, at
this point, they just might not be interested in him in him. That's
the sad, cold, hard truth of the NFL. Pearson. You know,
his biggest drawback is his size, And no matter what numbers you put
up in the XFL, it's not going to grow you four or five inches,
and and so measurables are still still a big part of the NFL.
You talk, You hear about this with Bryce Young when he went number one
overall. Oh, he doesn't meet the height requirement, and so much of
the pre draft discussion was about his size. And so the NFL is still
skittish about taking a chance on guys, even the bottom of the roster,
guys who don't meet those size requirements. I don't think anyone has had more
workouts than Jack or Pearson. I think he's up to seven workouts that he's
had with NFL teams. So he's getting these opportunities. His size or something
he's not doing in these workouts is not translating for these teams. So I
did think that he was going to finally get signed at some point, and
I think he is to me the biggest surprise of who hasn't been signed yet.
Yeah, I mean that like he said, that to me is one
of the you know, I hope and pray and want on these players.
It's just hard and it's you know, you get caught up in, like
we said, kind of the marketing of the leagues and this is what we
want. It's the league of opportunity, but it's not. The window of
opportunity is not you know, not equal for you or me or anybody else.
Every you know, the XFL can say, look, we're getting We're
giving you the opportunity. Everything else is up to you. That mini camp,
try out, that signing late in camp. That's all on you.
Now we've given you the platform. Now you have to take the next step.
So you know that, that's kind of what they can say to shield
themselves from whatever criticism comes their way of not enough players making active rosters or
whatever like that. So, who, I have your article here, I
pulled it up before when you were mentioning that off the top. I wanted
to do this last week preseason one, and then these CFL Thursday games have
really thrown me for a loop when trying to get these episodes out. Who
has stood out to you this week or kind of in the NFL preseason in
general, we can kind of open it up to that. I think the
biggest performance came last week, which was Nico Lalos, who had three sacks,
four tackles for a loss. I think he had a knockdown. You
know, that was late in the game, fourth quarters. So he's going
against guys who aren't going to make the team for the other teams, so
you kind of have to keep that in mind as well. But as far
as statistical performance, I think that was probably the best you had. Josh
Johnson, who did not have a great first game for Baltimore. Uh,
he had a really nice game on Monday night against Washington. And you know,
Baltimore sadly their twenty four game preseason win streak was snapped, so you
know that there you go. So you know, Ben Denucci had a good
first game. I don't think he had as good of a second game.
You know, the specialists are a little behind Parker Romo seems like he's behind
in Detroit. Dan Wheeland, UH, punter for the defenders, seems like
he's behind Pat mcdonet, O'Donnell in Green Bay. Other than that, you
know, there's been some guys who've gotten some sniffs with first and second teams
in preseason action. Kobe Smith with the Giants who played for the Brahmas,
is played a ton of snaps. He's gotten some second team first team work
in the preseason. You look at a guy like Willie Taylor. He didn't
play the first game for the Jaguars, but he played late in the first
quarter with some second stringers on Jacksonville's defense. So I don't think that's apropos
of anything. I think that's more of, you know, mixing things up
and mixing packages up, the coaches and just giving guys an opportunity and seeing
what they look like playing with guys who are going to make the team even
if they don't. But you know, there haven't been a ton of standout
performances. Abram Smith has looked okay at times in Minnesota. You know,
Verus Hector had a really nice first game first week of the preseason with the
Jets. Caused some interior pressure on the defensive line. But you know,
no one who I can point to and say this guy has made the team
because of his work in the preseason. I just haven't seen that yet.
Well he even had, you know, with all of our CFLs stuff.
We have the Nathan Warke and they you know, they track that like you
know, the Messiah's walking down the street, you know. And I tell
you as a Jaguars fan, that's Jaguars fans reaction too. If you go
to the Jaguars website, there's a mailbag every day that the editor of Jaguars
dot com does and the last week has been three or four questions every day
about is Nathan Roorke gonna make the team? Why isn't he second string?
Because Doug Peterson came out after their game this weekend and said, no,
there's no competition for second string. It's gonna be c. J. Beathart.
So it's either gonna be Nathan Work getting cut and probably try to get
signed to the practice squad, or he makes the team as a third string.
But there's been a lot of Jaguars fans who've just fallen in love with
Nathan Rourke. Well, I know, but that's that's the thing is you
can have you know, you're you're saying, there hasn't been a ton of
stand that performances, and you can even have a stand on that performance like
Nathan Work And yeah, I mean that they he's had, you know,
two games back to back and Patrick Mahomes is quote tweeting and look at this,
and you know, because people said like yo, and Mahomes does this,
the internet dies, you know, because they are twitter breaks and here.
But you know, you do all of that and then he still doesn't
have a spot. I mean, it's it's disconcerting for me as someone that
spends in an ordin amount of time kind of talking about all this stuff.
Yes, as someone who's spent in an inordinate amount of my last two weeks
watching preseason games from start to finish, me too, But you know,
their preseason game is just a small slice. You know, we don't see
what goes on in the meeting rooms. We don't see what goes on on
the whiteboard when you know you have to answer questions from a coach and a
meeting. We don't see what goes on in those joint practices that happen,
which coaches are now saying are more important for evaluation purposes than the preseason games
themselves. You know, we don't see what goes on day to day at
practice. What are their habits like, what are their study habits, what
are their practice habits, like, you know, how are they performing in
practice? So the preseason games are just such a small slice of the overall
evaluative picture that coaches take into account when they make these cuts. So it
is hard to make it any broad based, sweeping generalizations about the chances of
player has when you are just sitting down and watching them in a preseason game.
But you know, if they are doing well in meeting rooms, if
they are doing well in practices, if they are doing well in those joint
practices, you hope they pop in the preseason games too, because that would
just kind of really complete things and cement their roster status. Yeah, I
think last year was it. S Traveler kind of got crazy during the preseason.
I mean he was a CFL guy too, kind of that CFL or
the preseason Darling and I think Nathan Work, like we said, kind of
has that. But I don't know, is that Are you surprised there hasn't
been anything any standouts this year? I mean it, I don't know.
I wish that there would be something that we'd have a little bit more like
you used to write about right now. Yeah, I agree, I thought
that I thought there'd be more players with more buzz in training camp than there
is now. You just don't hear Kim Butler had it a little bit in
OTAs, and then he came into training camp and was dropping passes and was
not was not meeting the expectations, and he ended up getting injured and just
waved injured. So he's got put on i R for Pittsburgh. He'll probably
get released with an injury settlement soon and be a free agent. I think,
you know, that was probably the closest I would say to someone who
had some really positive momentum in OTAs in the spring, but he just wasn't
able to carry it over into training camp and and probably was on the outside
looking in for a roster spot had he stayed healthy. Do you blame you
know, just NFL politics here. I mean it feels I don't want this
to be like a depressing conversation. You're about the state of this, you
know what I mean, like healthy of it. I mean that's you know,
we get on the high when the season happens and when all these players
are getting signed, and that that is a good thing and we should celebrate
that, but we also have to understand that there's a reality component that goes
with it that it's very difficult to break into the NFL. You know,
they have you know, I've heard personnel men say, really, there's only
about three rosters per team that are really up for grabs in the preseason.
And when you think about that and think about the ninety man rosters, it's
like, man, three spots and all these guys are getting signed. So
the reality is there just are not a lot of real spots available when you
carry over so much of your roster from the previous season, when you sign
a bunch of free agents, you have draft picks, you had college free
agents, and now you have this other avenue the USFL and XFL that players
are coming in. You can't fit them all in, and so cut down
day is a sad day across the NFL for players. Coaches don't enjoy that
process. Fans don't like seeing players they saw shine in the preseason get cut,
and certainly XFL and USFL fans are not going to like seeing all these
players cut. But that's just I mean, that's the reality of the business,
especially now next week kind of everything combined. You used to be kind
of the scale down process, right. A couple of different cut downs.
Everything's going on the twenty what is that the next when twenty nine, it's
gonna be a blood bath. I mean, it's gonna be not a fun
day. I don't imagine. No, it's not. But again, you
know you're gonna have The next day is always the most fascinating for me because
that's when waiver claims get put in and you get to see what teams want
players from other teams that were cut, and then you know the domino effect
from that is, if you're claiming three players on waivers, you have to
cut three players who initially made your fifty three man roster. So imagine that
conversation player thinks he made the roster and is on the team for the first
week, and all of a sudden, the team claims a player two,
three, and they gotta cut more. So I think the saving grace is
going to be the practice squad. I think we're gonna see a lot of
players get signed to the practice squad and they're really one snap away from from
making an active roster, so that that's the saving grace. I think of
the cut down day blood bath, as you so eloquently put it to anyone
like you said, I'm kind of glands in through your notes here while we
talk, you know, special teams a lot of I think that's always kind
of the place to look at here with these with these all football guys,
any realistic people that you would at least say, you know, had twenty
dollars to bet on, that you would think would be you would be seen
here next week, actually make the roster. I think bend Nucci has a
real shot to be Denver's third quarterback. That's the name that really stands out
to me right now. I just read an article from someone who covers the
Steelers who says that, you know, the battle of the long snappers,
We've got Christian Kuntz who was with the Renegades in twenty twenty and Rex Sunahara
who was with the Brahmas in twenty twenty three, and somebody refer to that
as a dead heat. So it sounds like Sunahara's got a shot at unseating
Christian Kunts in Pittsburgh for the long snapper job. Really, other than that,
it is really hard to see. You know, there are a couple
of guys who, you know, if injuries happen, because a lot of
what happens at cutdown days, you get a lot of guys who get placed
on ir or who get waived injured who you would have maybe thought we're going
to make the team, and that could open up a spot or two on
the roster. But really, Denucci is the one that stands out to me.
I think he's got a shot if Denver keeps three because they've only got
three quarterbacks in camp, so if they keep three quarterbacks, it's gonna be
Deducci. And the new rule this year rewards teams for keeping three quarterbacks by
allowing them to keep a third quarterback active on game day in case the first
two get hurt, So there it doesn't incentivize teams to keep that third quarterback,
whereas in the past half the teams in the league have CPT two and
half the teams in the league of CUPT three. So alize Mac with Tennessee.
I know he didn't play the first game. I'm not sure if he
was nicked up for that one, but he actually started last week and he's
a guy who I think has a possibility of making the team as a tight
end in Tennessee. So I guess if I had if I was foolish,
foolish enough to put money on this. Those would be two or three names
that I could see cracking the roster. Finally, kind of here we'll wind
this down, but interesting will be, you know because obviously the XVEL players
retaining these rights, they come back. We've done the what was it called
the college No, that was the USFL as a college draft. The XFL
did the rookie draft, and then we're gonna have the supplemental Draft in the
fall and then the I mean it's it's gonna be a stacked low of the
guys here are trying to get through these XFL rosters. I mean, thankfully
that's good, a lot more spots, but I mean even that, I
mean, if you're going back to the XFL and they brought in other guys
but they're retaining your rights, I mean, there's going to kind of be
some battles there, and maybe it's the same politics as the NFL. Will
we have these guys last year and they kind of get first come. Yeah,
it's gonna be a similar situation. They're gonna be guys, good players
who get cut from the XFL, and we've seen that happened this past year,
and they've gone to the CFL, they've gone to the IFL, they've
gone to the USFL. You know, it's it's a it's a good market
to be a football player in because you do have a lot of options even
if your first choice or second choice is not there. So, yeah,
the XFL, what they've done is they've made a lot of opportunities for teams
to acquire players. We had the rookie Draft, we had the XFL Combine,
and then we had the sort of allocation of players. After the combine
two teams, we had this bizarre draft slash, don't call it a draft,
where the XFL teams acquired rights to players. I'm not sure what qualifications
went into what players could be claimed, since you had players coming out like
Anthony Gordon saying, wait a minute, I'm claimed, I'm retired, like
what. So I don't know what basis they went and claimed these players on,
but they did it en mass and as you said, they'll have a
draft this fall. I'm not sure that they've officially announced a date. I
know October November is probably what we're looking at for that, and then I
would assume nothing has been made official about this but I would assume January again
as training camp starts for anyone whose USFL contract expires, anyone who you know,
late to the party NFL cuts who want to join the league. So
they have made a lot of avenues available for XFL teams to accumulate players onto
their ninety man rosters this offseason. You have to imagine a lot of those
players are going to be in the NFL. I mean, there's still players
who were claimed in the rookie draft way back in June who are getting workouts
in the NFL right now. So there's a chance that some of these guys
get signed and are on teams, and you know, you're gonna have some
guys who get claimed who don't report. They choose to go to the USFL,
or like Anthony Gordon, retire or just not play in a spring league
in twenty twenty four, So you know, not every guy who's been claimed
or who's been draft is gonna up to camp. And I think that's why
they've kind of expanded the rosters to ninety. They know that if they're only
taking sixty to seventy to camp again, there's going to be a handful of
players on each team who who probably choose not to report one they don't need
to be you know, they're not paying for that, like the yeah,
I mean you're on the team. You know, they're not like on the
roster. I mean they have your rights. That's really I guess what it
means. You're not really on a roster in the same way that you're on
an NFL offseason roster. You know, that's it's the same verbiage, but
it's very different in terms of especially pay. It's so funny. In the
CFL they have like the neglists and negotiation list where all the teams and there's
numbers, but they can this is the same thing like claimed and if you
ever come up to Canada, like you know they get first rights or whatever.
And Edmonton that just they're like one to nine. Just when their first
game last week, they had on for years Chack Kelly was on their negotiations
list, and then they had traded to Toronto as part of a trade like
the year before. Then Chad Kelly comes up and he's like a rock star
on So you know, I like this. I like the n eggs list
and the negotiations and all that, but anything else we get out. I
mean, like, this is why I like, I would like more marketing
just also about what the league is of itself, because yes, this is
wonderful and we champion all of this stuff, but you need to give these
players a home because a lot of them are going to make it, and
I think that hopefully that comes with time. There we can rail on the
marketing, and we did and for good reason, but really they didn't have
a There's not a lot of history to draw from. If you are like
the ownership and you don't want to acknowledge two thousand and one, and you
don't really want to acknowledge twenty twenty either, Like you're starting from scratch.
There's really nothing to hang your hat on other than literally what your league does,
which is give opportunities to guys to go to the NFL. There's no
history to these franchises that you can market the players. They don't have a
history in the XFL. Many of them don't have a really strong NFL history
that you can market. So hopefully as time goes on, as the years
go by, the XFL continues to sustain itself, it makes its own history,
and then that becomes your marketing arm. And maybe you don't put the
kind of marketing that they're doing now, which is almost solely hey, we're
putting guys in the NFL. Maybe you kind of tamp that down a little
bit and you focus more on who you are and what you've done throughout your
history and what you're going to continue to do. I think that's a really
good point. I think that's really smart. I know that last year with
the USFL, a lot of the people kind of behind the scenes, they're
like, oh, this is awesome, like look at all the players,
you know, and then reality hits and it's Kamanti Turpin, you know,
the desk settles, and yeah, yeah, I'll be curious this year,
you know, with Danny and everything, like when we yeah, it's great
right now, and Rocks tweet and player fifty four got signed and all this
stuff, and it was just like, of course he's tweeting that. But
then you know, come next week or the week after, like, oh,
okay, so now we kind of actually know the economics of this that
we because I don't know if they even know right now. Yeah. Yeah,
And I hope that they champion these players throughout the NFL season. If
they make teams, if they make plays, you know, if if they
make practice squads, you know that that is something that fans can say,
Hey, I saw that guy when I was in Saint Louis, when he
was a linebacker for the BattleHawks. Now he's in It's almost like, I
know, people don't like to consider it minor league. I don't like to
call it minor league, but it's a lot of the same mindset as a
fan where if I go to, you know, a minor league baseball game,
a lot of those guys I don't know, right, but I watch
them and then you know, if I see them play a major league baseball
game on TV and I hear a name, I'll be like, oh,
I saw that guy back when he was with this team. And so nobody
wants to call themselves minor league. No one wants to call attention to that.
But I think a lot of the mindset that the fans have justifiably,
so I'm not saying it's wrong. I think it's a great mindset to have
is to hopefully track these players, you know, as they were a battle
Hawk one day and now they're a Miami Dolphin or something like that. I
mean, that's cool and that should be something that is championed by the fans
and by the league. Well, I mean that's why I have my watching
commanders had on this. We had to cover it so much with Heiniki and
everything kind of during that because we you know, we didn't have anything to
podcast about. I'm watching Committee. At that time, it was the football
team games every week. And now, I mean, obviously I'll follow Heimiky.
You know, I can't sitting now I'm in Atlanta Falcons. Yeah,
I can't. I can only go so far. But like, but that
was why it was because of all that was to here was someone that we
we followed his story and so yeah, I mean I can't be the only
crazy person out there. No, you're not not at all, Greg.
I appreciate it. It's late on the East Coast to go hang out with
your family. I appreciate it. I'm making the time back at school,
Dorothy eight. We've spent the last couple of days setting up her classroom.
They're moving schools, so we're you know, starting from the bottom there as
well, zero two, one hundreds. So it's been a lot of work.
But you guys do good work, and I appreciate all you do at
your thinking the youth of America. Thanks. It ain't easy, but it's
rewarding. I appreciate the Well here we are back here, busy summer.
Here, we're CFL. Now we have fellow CFL podcaster and we can all
them now on top of you know, Hall of Famer and great cup within
it all that melt Stegel, How are you, sir? I'm doing great,
man, loving life. Everything is great, happy, healthy, and
that's all that matters. Man, hopefully saying with you, it's good.
It's good. Yeah. So what spawned the podcast? First off of we'll
get to the thoughts on everything else with the season. Yeah, Davis and
I we've been brain storming for like the last two or three years talking about
you know, we wanted to do a podcast, and as you know,
everyone has a podcast, but you know, we just wanted to do something
different. When we're on the pen and we only have so much time to
talk. So with the podcast, you can get out more information, you
can say different things, you can almost spread your wings. So that's what
we're doing. We're just trying to build it up and see where it can
go. So we're excited about it. Where it's in its infant stage,
but we're having some fun with it and hopefully continues on for many years to
come. Well that's good. Yeah, No CFL and lots of voices,
And obviously I get I get that all the time because like we'll have Farhan
and Naylorn and stuff, and it's the same thing you get. They get
two and a half minutes on a TSN hit and it's like that we need
to kind of flush this stuff out. What do you make here? We're
what week eleven here? What do you make of the CFL season or week
twelve? Oh my gosh, I'm behind. Yeah. No, it's been
crazy. You know that you got the top the top dogs with BC Toronto
and of course win it peg. But now you see some teams starting to
catch up. Saskatchewan they've played some decent ball, Montreal who has been a
surprise to many. Of course they're gonna get their first challenges upcoming week,
but they play some decent ball. And then we have the Elks who finally
got their first victory. There is a god, right, but you know,
it's been some disappointments to Hamilton, who's hosting the Great Cup this year.
I mean, I think it's safe to say they're the worst team in
the CFL right now. It's a bad place to be in Ottawa. Who's
almost won so many games but almost means nothing. That's like saying I'm almost
pregnant. It doesn't exist. So it's a roller coaster right like most CFL
seasons, And you know, we're excited about it. Labor Day is coming
up in a couple of weeks, and we've seen some young quarterbacks display some
good talent, So I'm always excited about what the rest of the season's gonna
bring. Yeah, a lot of big movements this week with the Alex obviously
they're hosting this weekend. But you know, with all the Victor queeze of
it all, and now we have Rick being appointed this kind of the innerium
president CEO. What did you make because you know, Victor has been on
the show a bunch and it kind of seemed like that all came out of
the blue here of hey, there's a big schism there in the organization.
Yeah, you had to put a plug on someone you couldn't stand pat.
I'm sure they would love to do it, to have done it to some
coaches, but you know, the way things are structured with the operation caps
and guarantee kind they couldn't do that. So they had to do something.
You're you're you're trying to get fans back, and if you continue doing the
same thing getting the same resemblance, they're not going to get any fans back.
I mean, it was definitely good for them to get that first victory,
but they had to make a major move within that organization, and unfortunately
it had to be victor, you know, And I wouldn't be surprised if
something else happens later on the year in off theason, because changes have to
be made. When your team is playing like that. Let's hope they continue
winning games, because that's not only good for them, but that's good for
everyone in to CFL. So but when you're losing, moves unfortunately have to
be made. Yeah, I mean it was already talking, you know,
like privatization of the team here in the off season. It could be big
kind of landscape shifting kind of movements here, right. Yeah, that that
I'm hearing that still may be in the work. You know, I'm sure
the community doesn't want that has been a community own team, i think since
its existence but you know, when things aren't going well, you have to
open up all the doors and listen to everyone who's behind those doors. I'm
sure there are some some big money guys in Edmonton or an Alberta who would
love to own the help now, so they have to listen to that they're
losing a lot of money because a lot of money has not been being generated
for years. They had money stocked away that they could chip at, but
now that chipping has been a lot more than what they've expected. So they
have to make sure that they do their due diligence and open up all the
doors and as I alluded to, see who's behind those doors and see what
they're saying. Now that we've seen Trey play, you know, for Edmonton
and obviously played really well in the loss and said they didn't go for it
hard enough, and then obviously winning here last week, I mean, I
think, you know, I know, the salary cap and all that,
but I made the joke that Chris Jones should be fired just out of spite
here at this point that it's taken them this long. I mean, what
do you make of it took so long? And Tray seems like everything everyone
thought he was going to be it well, I mean, I understand what
you're saying, and I've heard from reliable sources that he just was not getting
it done in practice. If they thought he would have gave him a better
chance of winning another two guys, they would have put him in there,
and I've heard that from a very reliable source. But he just wasn't getting
done. And right now he did get it done. He's won one of
his two games, and hopefully for their sake and everyone else that they hopefully
he can get it done. But he just wasn't getting it done. If
Chris Jones thought putting Tray Forward in were getting a better opportunity to win with
the way they've been losing, I'm sure he would have did it, There's
no question about it. But he wasn't getting it done. But I'm sure
he thought to himself, Chris Jones, I have nothing to lose now.
My guys aren't getting the dusk, so let's see what he can do.
And he's fortunate to get that first victory. But Chris Jones is not a
position or he wasn't thinking to himself, I'm not going to play this guy.
For certain reasons, We've heard people stay for certain reasons why he wasn't
playing him, and all that is false. He wasn't planning because he felt
he wasn't going to give him that best opportunity to win. But now he
knew, hey, what do I have to lose. Let me give him
opportunity. And he was able to win him a game, and hopefully he
can continue playing well and win him some more games. Were you impressed with
trays two outings so far? I mean, I know we've seen him before,
but this season, I was impressed with the second outing. I mean
the first outing. And I know people some people are gonna say, well,
he played well enough for them to win. No, he didn't.
If you played well enough, they had to win the game. What did
they do in the second half. You know, he did well in that
game against when they won the game. But now he has to continue that.
You know, you have to continue that. He's won one game.
I need to see consistency. I need to go out there and play better
and better and develop and develop, and then we'll start saying, Okay,
maybe he could be the starting quarterback, but he's won one game. I
hear so many people saying that he needs to be their starter for the rest
of the year. Let's see what he can do in this second game.
I'm happy for him. He went out there, he's been itching to play.
He did well, but let's see what he can do in upcoming games.
Yeah, because the first game where they fell apart against Winnipeg my conspiracy
and I know that Hamilton this is kind of trash right now. But last
week with the rain delay, you know, maybe if they played the whole
game, maybe Edmonton doesn't win, because it really felt like they came back
from that rain delay and it was like, let's get you know, let's
kind of get done with this. We've been sitting around for an hour and
a half. I'd be curious that that game was played kind of over its
initial sixty minutes of that. How that would have panned out, You never
know, You never know. You just don't know. It's unfortunate that we've
been having a lot of delays this season, and I'm sure Edmonton looked at
it like, hold on, what's going on here. We're playing the best
we played and this happened. You know, Let's get this game go on,
Let's finish this game. We need to get a victory under our bill,
but you know, you don't control mother nature. As part of the
game, everyone had to suffer through it. But they were fortunate. They
came out and they kept the ball rolling and they and they got a victory.
Now they're gonna try to do it again. Now they're gonna try to
get their home first home victory as the Elks, which has never happened before.
So it's not gonna be easy task. They're gonna be against the Ottawa
team who's hungry, who knows they have enough talent, at least they think
they do where they could have won some games. So I'm really looking forward
to that game. Yeah, I think Marshall Ferguson needs to be banned here.
I think they're like every every time he shows up. So we're seeing
here Winnipeg right at the Thursday game. I think we're gonna get this out
tomorrow preview all that Montreal looking good right, certainly contending in the East with
Cody and everything else. Are you impressed? I know he's been injured,
but like with Pale Evans everything, what have you made of Montreal here?
I'm impressed. I'm impressed They've won four in a row since the Lemonader.
Sean Lemon has been there. But gotta pump your brakes a little bit because
you look at the teams who they've beaten. They've beaten I think Saskatchewan,
Hamilton's, Ottawan, Calgary, and now they're about to play the big dogs.
They have four straight games against the big dogs, beat Winnipeg, BC,
Toronto and Toronto. And now we're gonna find out if they're able to
stay on the porch. You know what they're saying, if you can't hang
with the big dogs, get off the porch. Now we're gonna find out
if they're able to stay on the porch because they're going to be tested now
they're getting Cody back. That defense has been planning out of their minds since
Sean women has been there, and he's been telling him he's been a leader,
but a leader saying all this stuff can only go so far. They
have to continue to produce on the field. They've been doing that in these
first four games, but now these next four games, this stretches were going
to really test them because they're playing their upper echelon CFL teams and we're gonna
see what they can do with it. I think Cody or not Cody.
I think Hilario's coming back this week. You know, he had a couple
of weeks of the Drew Brown experience. One was significantly more impressive than the
other. What have you made of his performance? I mean, it is
what it is. You know, he's a young quarterback only in the second
year. He was thrown into that backup row and he lit it up against
Edmonton. But then when you're a starter, when teams have time to prepare
for you, when there's pressure on you, when you're young, it's different.
It's not the same, you know. I think in the future he
could be a quarterback that a franchise to possibly depend on. We don't know
that yet, but it's time. It's just not gonna happen over not A
lot of people were expecting him to duplicate what he did in that first game
against Edmonton, but that very rarely happens because it's a total situation when you're
expected to go out there and doing everything. When Edmonton he wasn't expected.
No one was expecting him to go in there and do those things he did
against that second game, he was expected to do it, and there was
a lot of pressure and he didn't perform, So hopefully it gets another opportunity
to be a starter in this league. Well, it's similar, like you
said, I mean, you seem to be hesitant on all of these,
you know, with Trey and even like Dust and Crum, we kind of
have the crumbsanity for a couple of weeks, he's falling back down. You
feel that. I think CFL is still like quarterback starved. And then we
see a little bit and it's like, oh my gosh, we start going
crazy. You think we need to take our time. Yeah, and all
TV it's my job, our job to pump him up. They can go
out there and have one great core. Isn't the next Bill floating, the
next ward move, the next Damon Allen? But we all understand it takes
time. Quarterback is the most difficult position in team sports. It gets no
more difficult. You only have to know your job. You have to know
what everyone else on the offense is doing. You're trying to figure out what
people on the defense is doing. You're trying to avoid getting hit by two
hundred and eighty five pound defense in who's faster than you. So there's a
lot going on. It doesn't happen overnight. Very rarely do we see a
Ricky Ray who steps in right away and has success not only short term,
but long term. So we have to pump the brake breaks on, you
know these guys, give them time to develop, because it's not an easy
task stepping in and being a professional quarterback speaking, and not just a quarterback.
But he's certainly faltered here. Jake Mayer not really having the most wonderful
season. A lot of expectations. I think I had them on preseason last
year, like I really want to hit your riot here because bo Levi and
all that. What's going on with Calgary, I don't know, and it's
been a bad situation and I don't I don't want to say this, but
it's almost like they lost faith and Jake Mayer. The only time that offense
is productive is when they're running a ball. There's been times a couple of
games ago, late in the game they were down like I think seventeen eighteen
points about five or six minutes and they're still running a ball, like they
don't believe anyway. They got rid of bo Leave by Mitchell saying this is
our guy, and he seems to be going backwards. He doesn't seem to
be getting any better. We saw that first year he stepped on the scene.
First three games, you know, three hundred over three hundred yards never
happened for it Wickie. Second year he's you know, he played pretty well.
They said bo lee by Mitchell down saying you are a guy. And
then he comes into this year and it's not happening. He's not looking good
at all. And it's crazy because he's leading the league in passing yards,
but it doesn't feel that way. He hasn't been playing well. His team
can't depend on it. Hopefully he can get out of this slump, because
we've seen some some some some great things out of him. But as far
as this year goes, it's looking real bad and I don't know how it
gets any better. Do you attribute because it seems like the play calling for
Calgary is a little you know, it's a lot of short passes, a
lot of check that. I mean, is it is it just all of
Jake? I mean blaming the staff over there? Well, no, it's
it's never always on the quarterback. But you know, as the saying goes,
when things are going well, the quarterback gets more credit than these nerves,
and when things are going bad, it gets more of the blame.
I mean, receivers are dropping balls. I think this is the first year
Dave Dickason hasn't called any offensive plays. I know, if I'm correct,
it's steal his offense. But he's not calling the plays. I could see
in the near future him saying, Okay, I gotta take these ringbacks.
I have to be in total control if it's not working out. So there's
a plethora of things that are not going their way. But the bottom line
is it's it's it's always almost on the quarterback because you're the one who's touching
the ball every single time, and when things aren't happening, the pressure is
on you to get it done, to go out there and make it happen,
regardless of what your receivers are doing, gardless of whether the plays are
being called. When you want to when you want to be a great or
good quarterback, you go out there and make it happen, regardless of the
circumstances. They're facing Toronto and coming off inexplicably their third bye week here,
and they're guys to go wrong. It's feeling like, you know, like
you said that mean Montreal here has got a couple coming up against Toronto,
but I mean, you know, these are big tests for Toronto as well,
and especially without the buyers. How impressed are you with them and Shaq
Kelly and everything else over there? And pressed very impressed. They've They've been
playing some great football. They have the one lost the Calgary, but besides
that, they've been rolling. And I'm not looking beyond any of the teams
they play, but I'm really looking forward to that Toronto Winnipeg game. You
know, the two top MP candidates. But let me get back to what
they're doing right now. Yes, they have a tough task. Anytime you
play a professional team, it's a tough task. But what they've been doing
over there has been spectacling. And it starts with Chack Kelly. It's hard
to believe, you know, this is basically his first year starting in the
league. The way he handles the offense, the way he handles adversity,
the way he command thinks. And then you have the great running game with
all that, and Andrew Harrison, that defense, They're they're flying around.
Ryan Dinwoody, good buddy of MINS. I talked to him and even when
I talk to assistant coaches and everyone, they just said, the atmosphere that
Ryan has created is second to none. Yes he is hard, nos,
Yes he expects greatness, Yes he's Yes, he's gonna grind him, but
he also likes players to be relaxed and enjoy themselves. So they're rolling right
now. They are the top team in the league right now, and it's
gonna be tough for anyone to beat him if you're not on your a game.
Well it's crazy too, because I mean he's kind of always been under
the gun, coming in with the COVID year and having to kind of figure
that out. And I think he's had a lot of criticisms. I know
Mike Mitchell, who writes with us, you know, has covered a lot
of that where he gets a lot more criticism for whatever reason. And here
he seemed to have built this winning culture that you know, even last year
Gray Cup and know you had Winnipeg coming in and Toronto kind of bootstraps and
fighting on the sidelines, were able to get everything done somehow, or you
know, they were kind of able to end it up together. It just
seems it's good for him. I mean, it's good as we talked with
him the media day last year, very impressed with them with it. Yeah,
and you talk about that criticism. One thing about Ryan Dinwiddie, And
we see coaches, we see players do this all the time. Once they
start getting criticized, they they're looking for excuses, they shy away from it.
That's never him. You know, there are a couple of times early
in his career where he made some mismanage, some time and time management and
he said, it was all on me. It was all on me.
I made mistakes. He never shies away from it when it's on him.
It's on him, And that's impressive and you have to respect that. And
you know, if the over coach like that, who's not gonna shy away
from it, Who's gonna take the blame when it's on him? You know,
eventually he's gonna have success. And now you see it happening. Now
you see him orchestrating a great performance weeknd and week out. Now you see
guys who respect and love him will go out there and do anything for him
because they know he has the best their best interests at heart. So it's
exciting. It's good to see him having success. It's good to see success
in Toronto because we know it's a tough market to play in and right now
they're doing some great things. And I think everyone in the GTA, everyone
in our terra, was definitely excited about about what's going on in Toronto with
Hamilton's here. You know, I think people thought it was a bad case
scenario. Last year We're Saskatchewan hosting there, you know, the gray cop
and didn't even make the playoffs. I mean, this has to be even
worst case scenario this year. Hamilton and just you know here, we're gonna
bring a bow Levi and we're gonna steam roar. I mean, what have
you? And I know he's had injuries, but it didn't look good when
he was in And now Powell's not really kind of doing anything here. What
are you making of Hamilton's ah Man, I don't curse, so I can't
say those things. But it's it's you can see it all over Orlando staring
iur space. You could just see the frustration that he's going through the pressure
that he's under. I mean, they get rid of their offensive coordinator and
that wasn't the problem. But you like, as I mentioned, with the
elks. You gotta put the blame on somebody. Bringing in Scott Milanovich is
it's not gonna make that big of a deal you have. He's had some
success, but I mean, shucks, I could call the players in there
and it wouldn't make that big There's a lot going on within that organization that
they have to try to resolve. And a good thing about it, they
still have a chance to make the playoffs, and once you get in the
playoffs, you never know what can happen. But right now, it's just
not happening. It's not happening on all three facets of the game, offense,
defense, or special teams. And you can see the coaches they're they're
frustrated. Everyone is just frustrated, and the fans are frustrated. The most
important people in the CFL. When they're frustrated, when they're not showing up,
that's a big problem. So they still have time. You know,
we're at the halfway point. They still have time to try to resolve some
issues. But it's gonna take a lot. The quarterback situation, they're down
to third for steering quarterback. They can't get it done. They're gonna try
to rely on Butler to run the ball. But they have a lot of
problems that they got to try to iron out and hopefully they can do those
and make it to the playoffs. It's not it's going to be a tough
offseason for the Hamilton Tire Catch. Yeah. I mean the decline they've had
in the last three years, even since we've been covering the league, to
be almost there and then last year and kind of, you know, completely
fall off. Do you see wholesale changes coming for the tight Cats? If
sin Hower everyone can't get it together wholesale I don't know if that's the right
big big changes maybe, And I don't know if those two mean the same
thing. I don't know, but there'll be some changes. There'll be some
changes, yeah, because you can see they're on the decline now, they're
getting worth you know, as the years calling on, as the last year
they've been in the Great Cup. It's on the decline and you can't continue
if you're on a decline and trying to do it get out of that decline
with the same individuals. Let it be coaches, that it be players.
You gotta make some changes. What those changes may be, I don't know.
I don't think. I think Orlando is is safe, but I could
see some other coaches, some other major players on that team being let go
because you know, as as I mentioned, fans aren't going to keep coming
back. If you bring back the same things things, you're gonna get different
results about through my BC Lions had in the trash get bayless style here after
our lost last week against the scatchwin like because I just said, like,
you know, these are the games that you need to win. I mean
I've seen this last year we were in BC, we beat Calgary, We
go into Winnipeg, you know, rourk and everything, and you know you
got all the you know, how are many people that holds fifty thousand people
screaming whatever? I g Field. I just I feel like I've seen this
before. We needed these are the games we need to win. BC has
had a couple of big, you know, big bad losses this year along
with their dominance. What did you make of that? Like Dollar Galla just
running circle? I mean we've made a doll Galla look like he was Patrick
Mahomes out there. I just didn't understand it. Yeah, that defense was
not what we expected, was not what we've seen and Ryan Phillips has really
had this defense balling out. Of course, they had the game against Winnipeg,
but I actually think this last game against the Scatchwin was their worst game
because they weren't and there's sometimes their teams are gonna just be able to be
better than you, but they weren't aggressive. They seeing that they thought that
they could just step on the field and make it happen, and that's not
the case regardless who you're playing. So that was a big disappointment. They
could have really put a stamp on where they thought or where they think their
season could have been going. But now they took a couple of steps back.
So it is professional football. The good thing about it you another opportunity.
But that right there was not a good performance. Shout out to that
quarterback Va he gave. He showed me something in that game coming back after
being injured. He was basically on two wonky legs and he was still out
there making some great throws, some great plays. But it was definitely a
letdown by that defense, who at one point was the best defense in the
CFL. So let's see if they can bounce back on the upcoming weeks.
Yeah, I just I couldn't figure it out. And I know Ryan actually
filmed his wedding many years ago. Oh wow, law circle that this whole
world is. But I just had to figure he had to have been strangling
next on the side, like you're like, all right, where the donut
boys, we're coming out and right, like these are these are the wins
you need to stack because at the end of the year it's going to come
down to you and win the bag. And like you have to take it
where you can get them here. I just didn't understand coming out and just
you know, they've had a couple of these games now where like you know,
Campbell staying like you know, rinse it off and they're like, no,
you need to remember this because you needed These are the ones you need
to hold on to and you can't. Yeah, without a doubt you have.
You can't let situations like when you're supposed you're playing teams, you're supposed
to be everyone's expecting you to. You gotta win, you got you gotta
find you gotta win nine out of tend them. Now every now and then
you have a slip up, but you gotta win not out of tend them
and to lose in the fashion which stay lost, where that their offense was
scoring points and the defense couldn't stop them. Emulous jumping all over the place
like he's Lebron James is dunking on folks. You can't let those things happen
against teams you're supposed to win again, So it's a learning lesson. Hopefully
they learned their lesson. I'm sure Ryan Phillips is gonna drill it in their
head. Every time you step on the field, you gotta come with your
egg game. Otherwise these things happen, and hopefully they learn a lesson.
Are you tired on the panel of talking about the Elks home at Lucy Streets?
Now? Are you really tired? I'm tired, But we have to
talk about it. I mean, we would do everyone a disservice if we
didn't. It's part of my job, definitely. I's be so redundant.
It's it's it's it's like brushing my teeth. You know, you do it
two or three times, and that's what we're doing every week. We're talking
about it. Let's hope they can get a resolved and we can move on,
But if not, we have to continue talk because it's a big story.
The fact that they, like I said, the last time they won
a home game, I think I had here. The internet wasn't around.
I even think you were born. You were so young then. So it's
unfortunate that they have every as long as they don't do it, don't accomplish
it. We have to gettin and when they do it, we're gonna hack
it up. We're gonna talk about it. But if they don't soon we're
gonna continue talking about the fact that they haven't been able to do it.
Yes, I see their tweets go out there, like you know, tailgating
the last time the Elks won. It's like a picture of the last supper
or whatever like. But I mean, just to kind of round out the
conversation, you're Ottawa coming in, you know, really struggling and Trey looking
good, getting more familiar. I mean, do you think this is a
week? And what do you make of this matchup? We've been saying that
for a while, this is the week. We say that every week.
This is the week. I'm gonna say it again, this is the week.
But it's not gonna be easy. Tabs. As you you talked about
Ottawa, they are a hungry team. They're they're trying to stay in the
playoff race. They feel they had a good guy for good enough quarterback and
crime they can't get it done. They feel that they've been oh so close
and so many games and now it's stopper for them to get over the hump.
So it's not gonna be easy tasks, but it would be good for
these Elks to get it. It'll be good for Trey four the garden and
play again and and and get some of those fans coming back into the stands
and and getting it back to what Edmonton used to be. As I alluded
to, it's not going to be easy task. But as we've been saying
every single week, this is the week the Elks will get their first home
victory as the Elks, and we're all excited about it. Just to finish
this up, and we tied a lot of their quarterbacks. But yeah,
obviously that's one of the things turn over here at the end of the season,
you know, depending what happens with Bo And I've seen obviously seeing Trevor
Harris go down in Monzoli, Like what do you make in here of the
next swath? You know, we got the dust and crumbs of the world
and trade forward like, is this the next era? Are we seen?
This is going to be usher? Then? Yeah, it has to be,
you know, at the quarterback position. If our quarterbacks aren't playing well,
this league is bad. I know some people like to say they like
to see defensive shutouts. No, we don't like to see low scoring games.
This meant this game is meant to be a high scoring game. So
we got to get some of these younger guys developing. As you mentioned older
guys, you're getting injured, bolieve, I'm Mitchell, Trevor Harris, We've
seen Cody take something, even Zach. These guys are getting older. We
don't know how long we have left. So we got to get some of
these younger guys to continue playing well. It's good to see Chad Kelly playing
well. We know what his final destination. We know he wants to go
to the NFL, and hopefully he gets that opportunity. But if he doesn't,
hopefully can stay around here forever. Dust and crumb tray for all these
guys wouldn't even continue planning well because our quarterback position is the most important,
more important than the GM. The head coach anyone else. We have to
make sure they continue well and hopefully these young guys continue playing well for this
year and years to come. Well, Mill, I appreciate your time.
I mean, this feels like it's been a good kind of balanced back season
here coming. You know, we had COVID and then it was kind of
coming on for that and everything feels like it's back up to speed here.
You feel good about the league here moving forward? Yes, I do.
I do. You know viewership is up. Of course, we have some
stadiums where the fans aren't showing up, but I think we can get that
fixed. Would resolve in other situations. But I'm excited about It's been some
crazy games. There's been some boring games that would be a lot if I
say there hasn't been, but there's been some sighting games in the CFA,
and everyone involved is excited about it. More fans, more younger fans are
tuning in, and hopefully we can get that young viewership tune in even more.
So. We're excited second half of the season, looking forward to it,
and looking forward to another exciting Great Cup which will be coming up in
November. We'll be up there. We have our flights books. We'll be
in Hambleton. So I appreciate that your time today, it means a lot.
So thank you for everything going on. Yeah, and also thank for
all thank you for all you do. You support port us a lot,
you support a lot of leagues, but you give a lot of love to
the CFL down in the States, and we're all thankful for all the things
you do for us. Well, you appreciate it. Hashtag paper plates.
Do we have the backstory of that? Did? I ask you? You
have? And millions of people have. But there's only two people on the
earth who knows what that means, and that's me and my older son.
The person who sleeps next to me every single night even doesn't even know,
so I can't tell you and see that. No, So there's only two
human beings. So maybe when I die and someone writes book, I'll let
him know what's going on in So we got a hundred years before I die,
So there we go. Take care. I appreciate it all, right,
man, you have a good one. Thanks a lot. Well,
here we are coming off a big game over the weekend. We'll talk about
you know, not a great win loss, but a good game for you
regardless. Here we have Alex Hans. How are you doing, sir,
I'm doing pretty good? Man? About you? I'm good. We'll talk
about it. I called the BC Lions America's CFL team, So I hope
you co signed that. You guys are representing all of America when you go
out and play. How do you feel. I feel pretty good about that.
You know, it's good. It's a good thing to feel about.
So we've had on vernon preseason. I think you're the first Lions player we've
had on during the season. What's the vibe like? What are you guys
like this season? What's the locker room? What's it? You know,
how are you guys doing? Lock of doing? Great? Man? You
know? Good record? Win the record? We seven a three right now,
you know, I mean those games we lost, we you know,
we wish we could have done a lot more better. But so the end
of the day, you're gonna win something. You got low song, But
you know, I feel like this locker room is great. You know,
we love each other and we love playing for each other. We trust each
other and it's all that really matters. Well, I've always liked about you
guys in the wide Receiver Corps. Is it feels like it's like a team
effort, right, and no one feels the need to kind of have to
be the superstar. Yeah, we've had Lucky on before, and we've had
Keen and all like talking about just kind of your guys' relationship and how you
guys operate. Honestly, what I think about this reciper room, I feel
like we all are superstars to this offense. You know, you just never
know when a guy can have this breakout, this breakaway game, or have
the big play. You never know. And we have a stack receiver room,
which is very good to have. All of us are very talented.
We all have our own strength. We just put them all together, you
know, just kind of makeing one big superpower and you know it kind of
makes it a hard thing to stop when you Once we get going and executing
very well, then we're a very good group because you you know, I
can imagine and I've of course never been been to start playing professional sports like
you guys, but you know there could be jealousy and animosity or hey,
who's getting more touches or whatever. It does seem like get this as long
as we win it doesn't matter who it is. It could be your night
one night, it could be lucky as night one night, it could be
kind of across the board. No, it's no jealousy. Actually actually,
you know, it's kind of like friendly competition for all of us. You
know, you know, we always gonna be like who're gonna get a ticket
box? So when we say that, I was like, who's gonna score
a touch down? Or who gonna outwork me? Or you ain't for outworking
me. It's always competition. So we do that in pract then and game,
you know, first place, some guys tell you each other like,
hey, you win't for that outwork medidation. So that's how that's how we
do it. We can we compete, but we're not a competition with each
other, you know, if that makes sense. So we just work hard.
We just work hard as individuals and we work hard as a group together,
and we all just feed off each other's endergy. You know, anybody
make a big play or first down or tough catch or whatever, we feed
out that. We feed out one another and we just keep it going,
keep it going and make big plays. Coming in obviously a short stint last
year, coming in now full first kind of full season with the CFL.
What is it like playing up in Canada, playing with you know, the
different field, the rules. How are you kind of a customizing why?
Just as well too and not? But last ye, when I first got
here, you know, you gotta get used to the waggle. You get
the head start run, you can work down the line of scrimmags. Now
I first got here, I'm like, man, what is this? It's
not this is not how football goes. But you know this how it goes
in the CFL. And once I got used to it and getting that time
of down with the quarterbacks and everything, things that they got like a lot
better for me. You know. Now as you can see now I've been
making a lot of plays from the offense for the team. And yeah,
so maybe the clicking up talk about Vernon like I said that, Yeah,
we've had him on the show friend and you know he was from Tacoma.
Here we you know, we're like twenty minutes apart. And as the crow
Flies locker room leader. What's he like? What do you like about him?
VA? Man? He he's real chill. You're joking around every now
and then, but I'm always joking with him, have him laughing and stuff.
So, Vieira, you know, you're a really good dude. Man.
I love that dude. So I love joking with him all the time.
I've big fun of him every day. So, and that's just how
you just want to do. But he's a great dude on and off the
field. He's just a great person to be around. Well, even when
he was going through and obviously the injury and coming back where he was off
a couple of weeks here, you know, he's getting watered for the old
line and he's walking around and hyping people up. At me, it seems
like he's really kind of invested all in this season to really be a part
of it with you guys. Yeah, yeah, he's really invested. You
know. You know, what is he what is he playing or not?
You know, when he plays, he's obviously he's investing. He's a quarterback.
But when he wasn't playing, he's just keeping guys up, keeping guys
motivated. You know. That's and that's him on and off the field,
you know. So, and that's a good thing to have from a quarterback.
It's just thing to have him any type of player on your team.
You know, you want to have a guy like that, you know,
to motivate you and no matter what happens is just keep you up uplift.
So that's that's r the half. When I look at your guys' receivers,
you and everyone, it just seems like there's so much depth. You guys
are all so talented in so many different ways. You know, you've said
you feel like you have a great receiver room. Do you attribute that to
you like scouting or like how did? It? Just seems like you guys
are the wealth of resources right now for being able to kind of put points
up on the board and run the score up. What do you attribute that
to? Man? Uh? You know, not to make you sound easier,
easier said and done, but you know, we just put in the
work. That's it. We just we just we just put in the work,
man, And the results showed on game that you know, that's it.
We used to put in the work. You work hard, you gonna
get good results. Coming off. Wasn't the most spectacular game here over the
weekend. I was, you know, I had my hat and you're kind
of throwing it in the garbage. I was very sad as a how do
you guys internalize a tough game like that. It was a tough gampus.
Yeah what we lost about five points? Yeah, we lost about five points.
And then you're gonna have some of those games old coasters that you should
have won though close nail by the games. But in spite of us losing,
you know, I love the way to our team just fought. We
fall to the clock says zero, and that's what that's what we love.
Like those were safety we made, they could be fixed. There's a lot
of mistakes made in all phases of the game, obviously offense, defense and
special to teams, and we're gonna correct off and we will correct those things.
But I just love the way we fought together as a team. You
know, no one point to finger, nobody. We all took the air
just like man. You know, like I said, you win some you
lose something. But at the end of the day, I just love the
way that we fought. To the clock says zero, and all that a
matter. You know. I any day I played played for anybody, to
play with, anybody who's gonna who's gonna fight. So that's why I love
playing for the team. We love playing for everyone. This team, all
the players in this coach staff, because us as a unit, we're gonna
fight to the end. I'm always curious to kind of check after the games,
you know, kind of the post sound and they post see a Rick
a little bit of his talking you guys, Coach Rick in the locker room
and y'all listen to Vernon's post game and things. Uh does that resonate with
you? You know when Coach Rick and you guys had the tough loss before
the the argos talking okay, we need to watch this move on. Do
you do you appreciate the messaging that you guys are getting in the locker room
kind of win or lose? Yeah, yeah, and yeah I want to
lose. You know. Coach Rick always will have something something positives say.
You know, even even with the losses that we had, you know,
it's always some good. It's not as bad as I always seen, you
know, and you know the things Coach Rick say and what he does and
how he coaches us and what he does was you know, that's a coach
that you want to give your off for him. And he used to play
a coach and so all the things that you be saying, our right things,
obviously, and yeah, that's it. So uh, once once he
said something, you know, there's nothing else to be said. You know,
Vernon, we talked to you know obviously. But in the game,
got Sea performance put up four hundred and fifty I think plus yards and you
had to score multiple receptions. Just a Gotzia performance all around from him.
Does that inspire you? What do you look at you know, when you're
looking at him on the field, and what does that make you think?
I'd be like, man, it's too good, lucky. I'm glad he's
out quarterback, you know, but nahva, he just he just make plays.
He just he just make play anywhere in the field. You know,
he's gonna he's gonna always put the ball and a great spot for the season
of the catch. And that's what he does, and that's what he and
that's what he did. And so, like I said one moment ago,
we all wish we could have done something a little bit better to come out
with that win. And like he feels like this too, because we talk
I talked with him also, But he's gonna do what he gonna do.
Is regardless, you know, vi't gonna make play. So that's what he's
gonna do, and that's what we expect him to do, and he expects
himself to do that, and that's what he'd been doing for us. Every
game he played, maybe he made big plays. He talks about how,
you know, kind of competition at work and a lot of the guys that
who and the other receivers, who do you kind of have competition with the
day of the game. What's kind of relationship with everyone else there in the
room? Everybody? Everybody, everybody, everybody, everybody competes with each other.
It's not just one or two guys. Everybody so is near hats,
uh like it has like hats doing practice day hats from a I'm coming for
you. I'm coming for you right there only I'm coming for you now.
I was. I was, and I was like, oh man, okay,
let me let me see you try to comfort I gotta I gotta make
sure you know you don't give me the young catman. Uh, first play
for the first play of the game out of the SADAS game, just McKennis.
He was. He was like, we're gonna get a ticket my first
We're gonna get the first cat. So we're gonna do it is. We're
gonna do that. So we always compete with each other, you know,
friendly competition, but it's fun. It makes us compete a lot harder,
you know, and we just love doing it, you know, and what
makes it fun for us? And we just love playing with each other.
It'd be so much fun, you know, undefeated at home right this season?
What's it about kind of the atmosphere there and we've had the maron in
the past and talking about kind of trying to build the culture there. What
is it like playing at home? Great atmosphere, great fans. They always
come to your home. They loud, going crazy, you know, that's
what we love. And they show a lot of support. And you know,
like you said, we're gonna defeated at home, and that's what we're
gonna continue to try to do. Protaket home, So we're gonna trying to
come out with the win. Hamilton coming in there, they're struggling, you
know, they're they're not having the greatest season. How do you guys,
you know, you don't want to sleep on anyone and everyone, you know,
it's they're all we're all you know, you guys are all professional,
But how do you approach kind of the game this weekend. Uh yeah,
like you said, you don't want to step you don't want to step with
nobody will take no team for granted or take them lightly and very easy,
you know, because at the end of the day, it's still a football.
We still got a quard team player. You still got to go out
there instecute because that's wh who're gonna win a game between the instecute the most
and when it matters. So that's what we're gonna try to go out there
and do execut in many players just popping you to come out with the win.
You're not gonna take them lightly at all because they still do a lot
of good things too. Finally, what do you kind of work on?
What do you do when you're not playing, when you a bye week or
when you're not kind of at practice. What are you gonna go do you
like tonight? What do you do in your spare time? My spare time
listening to music. Every day, every day I listen to music. I
love music. Music is life. Life is music. But besides that,
I go for walks, I just beet chilling on the roofs I watch the
sunset. So I like stuff like that. You know, I hang out,
hang out, hang out with through the teammates, go get sneak together
that nothing too nothing too crazy. What's in your what's on your way?
It's not even what's in your disc player anymore, but what's on your phone?
What are you listening to? Like a lot of R and B,
the old school music. You know some'm slow, Yeah, I'm slow.
Yeah like that because Matt, Yeah, sitting there sitting on the rooftop listening
slow jams, watching the sunset. That's good. Yeah, yeah, it's
great. You know that's perfect. Well, Alex, I appreciate it.
I hope you guys go off this weekend get a bounce back. I'll be
watching cheering on here by the American's CFL team. Appreciate your time to that.
Thank you. Really appreciate all of our guests today. Greg Parks making
time back in school and taking time late at night to schedule and record his
piece here talking all of the players signing to the NFL roster, is really
excited about that. And then, like I said, Milt Steegel making time
balancing all his TSN duties and family commitments and work and everything else. So
really appreciate mild and Alexander Hollins really appreciate Matt everyone over at the BC Allions
for getting that coordinated. Like I said, should be a good shown next
week if all goes well. Otherwise it will pivot as always and figure it
out like a subscribe. Enjoy the CFL games this weekend, keep an eye.
Lots of news will be coming down next week following the NFL roster cuts.
So best of black to all of the players signed, whether you're from
the NFL, whether you're from the XFL or the us Welt, best of
luck. It's gonna be really tough, and you know it's really hard to
make it, and especially come from the spring leagues and all football and kind
of all that stuff. So well, wishes from the show for all of
you them, and I hope you guys have a great weekend and Banks has
always see you next time.