Speaker 1: Well we are here.
Speaker 2: Welcome everyone live here from the Gray Cup. We're here
Speaker 2: in Vancouver. I got Jason and Andy here, Evan, we'll
Speaker 2: touch with all that. Let me set the stage here
Speaker 2: live today Media Row, Gray Cup one eleven in Vancouver Downtown.
Speaker 1: Please like and subscribe huge guest list today.
Speaker 2: You guys know we do this every year. I got
Speaker 2: my Cogan already standing by with the argos. Dave Nailers
Speaker 2: coming by. We've got Greg Sarah Tello. We've got Ron Peterson.
Speaker 2: A lot of activity here.
Speaker 1: I think my MIC's okay, were up and sounds weird?
Speaker 2: Andy and Evan, Uh sorry, we had a couple of
Speaker 2: most as the Bregford ship.
Speaker 1: We got Andy and Jason here.
Speaker 2: Evan was supposed to be here in the route. He
Speaker 2: will be flying here. We'll see him tonight. Jason, Andy,
Speaker 2: how are you guys doing?
Speaker 1: I'm doing good.
Speaker 3: Read It's great to be here at great Cup once
Speaker 3: again and now ready for a great show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll do already ask you how many times have
Speaker 2: you guys been on the slide behind you yet? But
Speaker 2: you see Family Fund activities here. We'll set the stage
Speaker 2: non activities here before we bring our first guess in
Speaker 2: Andy it.
Speaker 1: Last night, Andy and I we spent time with the
Speaker 1: team tech corners.
Speaker 2: Dorothy's stand by here and Jason's girlfriend as well, and
Speaker 2: he you haven't played in Vancouver.
Speaker 4: I have to say I never thought I'd be broadcasting
Speaker 4: in front of a obstacle course, but you know, there's
Speaker 4: the first time for everything, right. I absolutely love being here.
Speaker 4: Been wanting to come to Vancouver all my life. I'm
Speaker 4: not excited to be here, and to be here for
Speaker 4: such a fantastic event.
Speaker 1: I love this festival. Yeah, it's like I said, so
Speaker 1: said the stage kind of fluid today.
Speaker 2: Everyone knows I posted the guest list already a lot
Speaker 2: of activity here. Yeah, we got Evan excuse me, Jason,
Speaker 2: Andy here, My Coogan's coming by, Jared Davis, Dan Ralph
Speaker 2: pull this Fluid, we'll see what we do. Jim Mullen
Speaker 2: stopping by. We finally got nail or schedule to just
Speaker 2: all if you're watching this oppit. In fact, I'll put
Speaker 2: time codes on so you can jump around that Baker's
Speaker 2: standing vibe and it should be fun today. Little Fluid
Speaker 2: will be here for about two and a half hours.
Speaker 2: So hope you guys enjoy. Jason, you guys were walking
Speaker 2: around today, a lot of activities. Rainy today, was sunny yesterday,
Speaker 2: but we got ziplines, we got the Bailey Funds in here.
Speaker 2: What do you pretty spectacular? I know we were in
Speaker 2: your hometown last year for Hamilton.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's definitely a step up from Hamilton last year.
Speaker 3: One thing that stands out, and me and Andy were
Speaker 3: talking before the show is the amount of zip lines.
Speaker 3: I got a couple of zip lines down here inside
Speaker 3: and then outside in the rain. You got a couple
Speaker 3: down there across the harbor. And it's a really cool
Speaker 3: experience just seeing everybody out. It's been a great turnout
Speaker 3: so far, and yeah, I'm really looking forward to seeing
Speaker 3: how the rest of the weekend goes.
Speaker 2: Andy, we went through the team headquarters last night. We
Speaker 2: were at the Atlantic Schooners. We were at the VC
Speaker 2: Lions Dead, We went over to a lot of alcohol
Speaker 2: is consumed.
Speaker 1: Did you have fun?
Speaker 2: Why did you make Team Edwar as your first time?
Speaker 2: We were Rick Campbell walking around. I think we'll talk
Speaker 2: about that today. Rick Campbell's feature be SIGNEDO McAvoy. Thoughts
Speaker 2: on what you've seen so far?
Speaker 4: Well, first of all, to Jason's point, where's our zipline.
Speaker 4: How can we don't have one coming down to the booth.
Speaker 2: We couldn't get that away and bring the guests and
Speaker 2: bring Mike Coagan in with the zipline. That would be
Speaker 2: I would like to see that. Yeah, But no, really
Speaker 2: lovely city. Just a lot of activity.
Speaker 4: Again, just the throngs of people that I've seen in
Speaker 4: the last twenty four.
Speaker 1: Hours and all the different jerseys.
Speaker 4: Like I said, I don't think I've really been quite
Speaker 4: to an event like this. I've been to a lot
Speaker 4: of conventions where a lot of different other niches sports related.
Speaker 4: I don't think I've quite seen the camaraderie like I've
Speaker 4: seen here with all the different fans, the different jerseys,
Speaker 4: the different kinds of people. I cannot count on my
Speaker 4: hand the number of times that someone said hello to
Speaker 4: you and Dorothy last night.
Speaker 1: I mean just just streams of people.
Speaker 4: I mean random people that I think I tried to
Speaker 4: keep up with, you know, your whole media exposures and
Speaker 4: everybody you talked to in the kit and media sphere.
Speaker 1: But I did not expect all the fans that said
Speaker 1: hello to you last night.
Speaker 4: I was really taking it back by that, and that's
Speaker 4: really just a really warm feeling to have in an
Speaker 4: otherwise cold and rainy city.
Speaker 1: That's the beauty of Great Cup.
Speaker 2: Man, No, it's really been nice and like just even
Speaker 2: to the center stage here, there's two halves of this
Speaker 2: convention center. This is totally unique this year to be
Speaker 2: C were at the McLaren Gills auto row here, a
Speaker 2: media row. I'll give the plug sponsor here when we
Speaker 2: bring in Mike Hogan. But they've put all this on.
Speaker 2: There's field goal kicking and there's been plenty of bounty houses.
Speaker 2: There's an indoors zip line, there's outdoors zip line, you know,
Speaker 2: compared to even the last year in Hamilton. And I'll
Speaker 2: tell you the team parties last year in Hamilton were often,
Speaker 2: I mean really spectacular, but just a lot more this year,
Speaker 2: I think Amar Doman and the rest of BC, right,
Speaker 2: I mean, Jason, can you speak to that just and
Speaker 2: you've been obviously more Great Cups than Andy and I
Speaker 2: have just the breadth of activities.
Speaker 1: We have going on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think just like the way I would describe
Speaker 3: it is they spared no expense for this Great Cup.
Speaker 3: I mean, you know, look at the halftime show, what
Speaker 3: they go out for Sunday. I'm sure Jonas Brothers weren't cheap.
Speaker 3: You know, there's just so much to do and it
Speaker 3: really feels like when you walk around. We took the
Speaker 3: train here from our airbnb, like just seeing the advertising
Speaker 3: and the presence of the Lions and the Great Cup
Speaker 3: Festival this week in Vancouver. It's really a special time.
Speaker 3: And this is actually my first time going to Vancouver,
Speaker 3: and I'm very impressed.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 2: I see Jamie and I sure already he's not off
Speaker 2: for a love that Jamie and I sand I should
Speaker 2: be fun here. Maybe Dorothy can started getting Mike Cogan
Speaker 2: over here. She's payned attention. We'll bring him on in
Speaker 2: a minute, Like I said, like and subscribe, get us
Speaker 2: over four thousand subscribers, trying to give away. I saw
Speaker 2: Dustin with Royal Retros last night. He was at the
Speaker 2: CFLPA party. We went by Andrew Pearson was there, a
Speaker 2: lot of CFL players, friends of the show. But Dustin
Speaker 2: is going to be given away a custom CFL and
Speaker 2: UFL jersey to any of our listeners when we get
Speaker 2: four thousand subscribers.
Speaker 1: We'll do a couple of those.
Speaker 2: But it was nice to catch up with him last
Speaker 2: night as well, just because I mean the last time
Speaker 2: we saw Dustin and everyone knows oryld Retros if you're
Speaker 2: in the any of this alternative lea, that was Birmingham,
Speaker 2: what three years ago?
Speaker 4: Yeah it was no two years ago, but almost three
Speaker 4: years still. Yeah, the last time we saw him, we
Speaker 4: were trying to film our set up through a potato
Speaker 4: essentially without how many people were in the area. I
Speaker 4: remember the the stream. The stream was really fun. It
Speaker 4: was great though, and I love meeting Dustin h I
Speaker 4: love I mean, Rural Retros is obviously a fantastic just
Speaker 4: set up with all the different kinds of jerseys and
Speaker 4: outfits that they have on that site. And he was very,
Speaker 4: very charming last time we got to talk to him,
Speaker 4: so I'm excited to see him again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so we're gonna bring it. Let's bring in by
Speaker 2: Coging here, Let's bring in our first guest. We'll get
Speaker 2: him in talking to Argos. I think we're gonna have
Speaker 2: some overlap today, so let's bring in the heavy hitters
Speaker 2: while we can. Mike Cogan here ready early, let's get
Speaker 2: him situated. We're live for the McLaren Custom Grills Radio row,
Speaker 2: we're broadcasting the only officially licensed CFL barbecue grill.
Speaker 1: To see him, purchase grills.
Speaker 2: Go to McLaren Customgrills dot com and this week only
Speaker 2: using promo code CFL get ten percent off your McLaren
Speaker 2: The custom grills really appreciate that. Mike Cogan, first guy
Speaker 2: I had scheduled for the stream, and then number one
Speaker 2: on here. We had to have the voice of the
Speaker 2: art goes on here, Mike. I don't know if the
Speaker 2: is the matchup. Maybe we wanted right on paper. We
Speaker 2: got the Argos here, circumstances Shaq Kelly and everything aside.
Speaker 2: What is your take on in this, I'll hold you
Speaker 2: in my court.
Speaker 1: I think it's just two really good teams that are playing.
Speaker 5: If you look over the last five years or at
Speaker 5: least post COVID, the Bombers have been the tom on
Speaker 5: the team in the West. The Argoles have been to
Speaker 5: five or four straight Eastern Conference finals or Eastern Division finals.
Speaker 1: So I think if you have.
Speaker 5: The two best franchises at this stage, Montreal Saskatchewan trying
Speaker 5: to get a little bit closer, but you know, I
Speaker 5: think these are the two teams that maybe didn't deserve
Speaker 5: it from start to finish this year, but finish strong
Speaker 5: at the perfect time.
Speaker 2: What do you make of it? Maybe Andy, you have
Speaker 2: a question of this, What do you make of this? Yeah,
Speaker 2: there was so much going in with Chad going obviously
Speaker 2: into the offseason, going in, sat out, came in, took
Speaker 2: a while, really was playing excellent even in the in
Speaker 2: the playoff game. Obviously gets hurt, right, and then we
Speaker 2: see Nick Arbuckle come in.
Speaker 1: Thoughts just with the team.
Speaker 2: I mean, I have to imagine it's been a roller
Speaker 2: coade here and I just can't imagine like what the
Speaker 2: locker room is feeling at this point.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and then you know the true leader of this
Speaker 5: team is went McManus and went and went down. He
Speaker 5: was on the sixth geam as well, So you lose
Speaker 5: out on the defense. Chad's not in, Frankman went down
Speaker 5: for six games. Like there's been so many injuries during
Speaker 5: the season. Yet now everybody's healthy aside from Chad Kelly
Speaker 5: and Quincy moj you know of the guys who would play.
Speaker 5: So it's like, I think there was ninety seven percent
Speaker 5: availability of players before the Kelly injury, which at this
Speaker 5: time of the season is stupid. So they've been they've
Speaker 5: been good at the right time, they've been healthy at
Speaker 5: the right time, and all the momentum's going in the
Speaker 5: right direction for someday.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: That actually perfectly leads into my question, which was, what
Speaker 4: is it that really holds this team together? They've gone
Speaker 4: through so much stripe as you alluded to, injuries, players
Speaker 4: leaving in free agency, quarterbacks. It's McManus and then any
Speaker 4: other particular players or coaches that have really held this
Speaker 4: team together.
Speaker 5: Yeah, the coaches really are business like, like, very professional,
Speaker 5: and the goal is always one to know. They don't
Speaker 5: like if you went in in the middle of August
Speaker 5: and aside from Labor Day, he said, who are we
Speaker 5: playing in three weeks?
Speaker 1: Ninety five percent of the guys would have no idea.
Speaker 5: They know who they're playing that week. And that's been
Speaker 5: the approach. So it's okay, this week Winton's not here.
Speaker 5: If you don't think he's not going to be there
Speaker 5: for six more, he said, Okay.
Speaker 1: He's not there. What are we gonna do to make
Speaker 1: up for that? And here's our game plan, here's how
Speaker 1: we're going to do this.
Speaker 5: So it comes from Dinwiddie down and if you want
Speaker 5: to throw another couple of guys in there at Deavars
Speaker 5: Daniels will be the top of the list. He's a
Speaker 5: guy who really assumes the leadership role.
Speaker 1: Along with along with Winton and on special teams is
Speaker 1: Jack Desar. He's the guy.
Speaker 2: I got a question that maybe Jason have one for
Speaker 2: you just to follow up with that, Let's talk coach
Speaker 2: Dinwiddy just being able to manage all of this, right.
Speaker 2: I know they gave out the co coach in the
Speaker 2: year awards and all of that, and obviously spotlight of
Speaker 2: Corey Bason and everyone else that way Jason Muss, but just.
Speaker 1: The mentality to be able to do that.
Speaker 2: We've talked a lot, you know, fans critical of Dinwitty
Speaker 2: in the past with the argos right really see nothing
Speaker 2: but you know, like unjustified the.
Speaker 1: Right criticism and that regard wages for him to be.
Speaker 2: Able to kind of manage data. What do you make
Speaker 2: of that that maybe Jason have fallen.
Speaker 5: He's earned the respective his players, right. So I talked
Speaker 5: to Nick Arbuckle about leadership role and he said it
Speaker 5: starts with DINWIDDI he said, we all kind of a
Speaker 5: team takes on the personality of its of its boss,
Speaker 5: in this case the head coach, and Ryan Dinwoody is
Speaker 5: hardcore football, one week at a time.
Speaker 1: Here's your assignment. Let's go out and do it.
Speaker 5: Let's go out and execute, and if we can do that,
Speaker 5: we should win because the talent's there.
Speaker 1: Now, it's all about the execution. So it trickles down
Speaker 1: from Ryan, is the way you got? Yeah, so you
Speaker 1: mentioned the adversity that this team.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, we had representation here this week, I mean obviously.
Speaker 3: So my question is, so you mentioned the adversity that
Speaker 3: this team's went through this year, and they're gonna be
Speaker 3: facing the ultimate test of adversity after losing their quarterback
Speaker 3: last week. So my question is, can Nick Buckle, I guess,
Speaker 3: have his Nick Boles kind of moment in the Great Cup.
Speaker 1: There's already been one Saint Nick? Why not? Too right?
Speaker 5: And it's not like a lot of people have compared
Speaker 5: this to Dinwidi situation when he came in in two
Speaker 5: thousand and seven, right when he came in started his
Speaker 5: first game in a break up as a backup.
Speaker 1: Our Buckle has a lot of.
Speaker 5: Experience compared to where it didn't when he was in
Speaker 5: his career. So this isn't the same thing. This is
Speaker 5: an experienced backup who became a starter, who became a backup,
Speaker 5: who became a starter, and is now a starter again.
Speaker 5: So I don't think there's a In fact, I know
Speaker 5: there's not a guy in the locker room that doesn't
Speaker 5: have one thousand percent confidence that Nick Arbucklem can get it.
Speaker 1: Done on summer.
Speaker 2: I guess I have a fall up to back because
Speaker 2: I was talking and obviously I'm you know, I do
Speaker 2: more of this than you guys are the smart football
Speaker 2: people obviously, but like you know, the camera Dukes wasn't
Speaker 2: any of it that that we went immediately to our Buckle,
Speaker 2: that that was kind of the decision that we're I mean,
Speaker 2: I'm just curious your thoughts on.
Speaker 5: That he initially went to Dukes. In the last game
Speaker 5: of the season, they gave Kelly the night off, Duke's
Speaker 5: got hurt. Our Buckle came in and in three quarters
Speaker 5: through for I think three hundred and seventy eight yards
Speaker 5: and a couple of touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Oh who just won the job?
Speaker 5: And Campbell was in the next game, Kelly had to
Speaker 5: come out of the game because he got a helmet
Speaker 5: to helmet on a slide and.
Speaker 1: Then our buckle had to go on again. So he's
Speaker 1: he's been in three straight games due to injury. I
Speaker 1: can't ever remember that happening.
Speaker 5: So he's got he got some very much needed reps
Speaker 5: and he looked great in the game against Montreal.
Speaker 1: So all is good.
Speaker 5: Like it's nobody's got any doubt at all that it
Speaker 5: can get this done.
Speaker 1: I got one more and then we'll go back whoever
Speaker 1: wants Chad Kelly.
Speaker 2: Obviously it's been a story kind of off and on
Speaker 2: through all of this, right and even going into the
Speaker 2: league and then obviously getting hurt. You know, maybe the
Speaker 2: interceptions right last year and all that and then all
Speaker 2: this stuff. I guess do you rinse and repeat going
Speaker 2: into the next season. I mean, whatever happens this in
Speaker 2: the game and all that. But I just, you know,
Speaker 2: for Chad here, like it's just been so much over
Speaker 2: the last three or I I don't know, like how
Speaker 2: do you what is your advice to him or what
Speaker 2: are you looking for? Because I have to imagine you
Speaker 2: would really have to do a hard stop and kind
Speaker 2: of like, okay, we're going forward to getting now with
Speaker 2: him as the team in regards what happens.
Speaker 5: Without sounding try. He's QB one, right, I mean, he
Speaker 5: signed a long term deal for a reason. He was
Speaker 5: playing as well, if not better than any quarterback, no
Speaker 5: disrespect Bowl.
Speaker 1: At the end of the season he was lights out.
Speaker 1: We know what he gonna do.
Speaker 5: He's gonna be if he's able to go, and the
Speaker 5: prognosis is good from what I'm told, they'll reassess it
Speaker 5: at twelve weeks.
Speaker 1: He should be ready. I don't know if it's the
Speaker 1: beginning of the camp.
Speaker 5: I don't know if it's early in the season, midseason,
Speaker 5: but when he's healthy, I assume unless something ronically changes unexpectedly,
Speaker 5: he's gonna be QB one.
Speaker 1: I'll have a fall prevention.
Speaker 2: But I'll toss to Andy here because I got a
Speaker 2: lot of big What do you got for Mike?
Speaker 1: Well?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Back on the quarterback conversation, one of the things
Speaker 4: that was really remarkable to me last year with Montreal
Speaker 4: beating Winnipeg was Cody Figaro really kind of transcending past
Speaker 4: what people had always kind of thought of him, and
Speaker 4: he really took that last drive and pushed past all
Speaker 4: the narratives that he ever had and overcame. I think
Speaker 4: some demons in that process in winning that game. Do
Speaker 4: you see Arbuckle having to do something similar where he'll
Speaker 4: have to transcend as a player tomorrow. Do you think
Speaker 4: there's gonna be a lot more help and more of
Speaker 4: a committee by approach in terms of tacking Onnipeg.
Speaker 5: If you've got five talented receivers and a thousand yard
Speaker 5: running back, use them.
Speaker 1: If you've got a great offensive line, use it.
Speaker 5: If you're the coaching staff, you can't do some of
Speaker 5: the things that Chad Kelly does because nobody else in
Speaker 5: the league has that arm. So I don't think there's
Speaker 5: any doubt they can get it done offensively. You'll just
Speaker 5: have to be a different way through some great Paul
Speaker 5: deep balls in practice this week, so you know that's
Speaker 5: still there. But you know, is he going to throw
Speaker 5: that roll out cross body dime from the sixty five yards?
Speaker 5: I don't know if has that in them, but him
Speaker 5: throwing deep is not a surprise to anybody.
Speaker 3: I got something, you got some first, Yeah, absolutely, so
Speaker 3: Winnipeg obviously a hell of a team, five straight Gray Cups.
Speaker 3: What kind of challenges do you think they present to
Speaker 3: Toronto tomorrow for great football team?
Speaker 5: They have a pedigree quarterback. They've got the out standing
Speaker 5: player in the league at running back. They've got a
Speaker 5: really good offensive line, fantastic receivers, the defense is always
Speaker 5: in position. They're both hungry. They have spectacular coaches. Other
Speaker 5: than that, they don't offer anything. You know, there's a
Speaker 5: solid football team. So they're there for a reason. They've
Speaker 5: been five in a row for a reason. Nobody takes
Speaker 5: Winnipeg lightly. Ever, even when they were zero and three
Speaker 5: or whatever, the record was two and six, nobody took
Speaker 5: them lightly. And they're playing their basketball right now, so nobody.
Speaker 1: They're just a great team.
Speaker 2: I was making an eyeball fay, we've got Paul Off
Speaker 2: the least walking by this is. These are the things
Speaker 2: you get on the radio where I just think it's
Speaker 2: funny all the back and side.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 2: I guess two quick questions. So the first off, yeah,
Speaker 2: what what did you make to Winnipeg?
Speaker 7: Slow start?
Speaker 2: Right? Obviously, it was kind of like, you know, the
Speaker 2: demon's dead, we don't have to be under me.
Speaker 1: Somehow Palpa team returned, you know, Star Wars. What did
Speaker 1: you make it? That slow start? Really felt like they
Speaker 1: never faltered.
Speaker 5: I thought there was a chance that maybe this was
Speaker 5: father times year and he is undefeated because Claros is
Speaker 5: in his mid thirties, Stanley Bryant's his late thirties, Big Hill,
Speaker 5: all these guys who are closer to forty than twenty, right,
Speaker 5: so at some point it's.
Speaker 1: Got to give whatever reason.
Speaker 5: I captured the Fountain of Youth at mid season and
Speaker 5: just lights out after that.
Speaker 1: So they're there for a reason, and they've done all
Speaker 1: the experience in the world.
Speaker 5: They're just you can't say anything badly about the organization.
Speaker 1: Is not much to say.
Speaker 2: One quick one for me and then we'll toss. We
Speaker 2: got a Darrel Davis standing by. What was your reaction
Speaker 2: to the injury with chat Kelly? Now, candidly, we were
Speaker 2: getting ready for a party. Our sink had clogged, Dorothy King.
Speaker 2: I was running downstairs watching the game. Dorothy goes here,
Speaker 2: So I got the cfl plus laptop on the island.
Speaker 2: I've got my head under the stake and I look out,
Speaker 2: I mean the group chat. I'm like, what the hell
Speaker 2: does happen like? And I then I literally I had
Speaker 2: to rewind everyone. What was your reaction of real time
Speaker 2: to that? I know, I think it was Hodge. She
Speaker 2: spoiled the news to far Han and we've been kind
Speaker 2: of hurtling this. Where were you at and just curious
Speaker 2: your reaction because it had to be traumatic.
Speaker 5: Broadcast booth of Montreal's at about the twenty yard line
Speaker 5: where he was not. He went down head first, go
Speaker 5: for the first now, and he got up, okay, fine,
Speaker 5: and then he started lifting. I went, okay, something happened
Speaker 5: and then he went down. I went, did he get that?
Speaker 5: Looked like it was an achilles the way he went
Speaker 5: down right, just put no weight on it. And then
Speaker 5: when he got up and then sat down again. I
Speaker 5: didn't see from my angle what had happened to the lake.
Speaker 5: My color boys did and he said, that's not good.
Speaker 5: And so I never saw the replay of the of
Speaker 5: the angle of the injury until I got home, and
Speaker 5: I want, that's not good. So I knew it was serious,
Speaker 5: but I didn't know it was like that other than
Speaker 5: what Ben Grant had said, because he the monitor was
Speaker 5: closer to him and I was still trying to survey
Speaker 5: the field to see what was happening.
Speaker 1: So I knew it was bad. I didn't know what
Speaker 1: was happening any as are you guys And then we'll
Speaker 1: bring in Darryl.
Speaker 4: What do you think the biggest key is to winning
Speaker 4: on Sunday?
Speaker 1: Don't shoot yourself in the foot, and that's the both teams.
Speaker 5: Let me cliche when the battles on the line of
Speaker 5: scrimmage and don't turn the ball over.
Speaker 2: There you went on, Yeah, we appreciated Mike Kuggin. Here boys,
Speaker 2: the argos, thanks for coming by first one on. We
Speaker 2: got Darryl Davis coming in here. We got Daryl Davis
Speaker 2: coming in here. You guys want to do together? No, okay,
Speaker 2: we're bringing Darryl here. We got Jamie I said, my
Speaker 2: nanke you Mike. You appreciate it. Guys again, like to
Speaker 2: subscribe here in we got Darryl shaking hands with Mike Cogan.
Speaker 2: Like I said, stacked line up today we're rolling through
Speaker 2: ten twelve minutes a player a person year. We got
Speaker 2: Brian Scott coming on. Later, we got Dave Taylor. Who
Speaker 2: were you excited.
Speaker 1: To see the day? Jason?
Speaker 4: You know, it's always exciting when we get players on
Speaker 4: the show.
Speaker 3: So I gotta say Brian Scott, especially the unique season
Speaker 3: that he's had, really looking forward to asking him some
Speaker 3: questions being a part of both of these teams at
Speaker 3: different points of this season, so.
Speaker 1: I have to go with them. You know.
Speaker 2: We have Anthony Miller chiming in the chat that slide
Speaker 2: and the background is the perfect other four of the
Speaker 2: Reids Washington commanders after losing Street two straight games and
Speaker 2: how his VC Lion Seeds would end up all downhill.
Speaker 2: Thanks Anthony. Maybe one of these years we'll get Anthony
Speaker 2: in the Great Eifel. We have Daryld Davis here. Darryl,
Speaker 2: I send a lot of messages, think that a lot
Speaker 2: of emails back, but you're here. It worked out time, Darren?
Speaker 2: How hell are you?
Speaker 1: You send me emails? Okay?
Speaker 8: Oh sorry man, I'm doing great. I'm a little saggy.
Speaker 8: Did you know what rains on the West Coast? I'm
Speaker 8: from the Prairies, man, it doesn't rain much. So this
Speaker 8: is fun to walk around. I keep hoping I'll grow.
Speaker 1: What's your takeaway today? Here?
Speaker 2: We thoughts as was gonna be here? I wanted ask
Speaker 2: to be here, obviously following shortt Atasa Jason and he
Speaker 2: under that. But what is kind of your thoughts today?
Speaker 1: Here? Win a bag drade. You have twenty twenty two redecks.
Speaker 8: Well, Winnipeg knows how to get here, don't they. They've
Speaker 8: the Bombers have played exceptionally well when that's mattered. They
Speaker 8: started very slowly. The Riders started hot, had a huge
Speaker 8: skid in the middle when they went seven games without
Speaker 8: a win and then one four the last five.
Speaker 1: So I thought they were really hot.
Speaker 8: The way they beat the BC Lions, they looked to
Speaker 8: be the team that was gonna make it. But Winnipeg
Speaker 8: in that situation just is so relaxed, does all the
Speaker 8: right things. And the rough Riders just under first year
Speaker 8: head coach Corey Mace and everything that went with them,
Speaker 8: they weren't quite at that level. I think they'll be better.
Speaker 8: Nobody almost nobody wins in their first year coaching a
Speaker 8: new team. So the rough Riders next year have a
Speaker 8: second head coach who's gotten better, a guy they believe in,
Speaker 8: and a lot better better roster than they had this year.
Speaker 1: And I'll ask Cory mass otherwise if you have a
Speaker 1: question what he got. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Actually, in regards to Saskatchewan, what's been some of the
Speaker 4: biggest differences between this team and the team the last
Speaker 4: year is where they've really faltered down the stretch. But
Speaker 4: this year obviously kind of holding it together in the
Speaker 4: late parts of the season.
Speaker 8: It's a great question because they are a different team
Speaker 8: this year. Craig Dickinson last year was a we like
Speaker 8: Craig Dickinson from Afar, who cares if media likes him, right,
Speaker 8: But the players had fallen out of respect for him.
Speaker 8: He just didn't seem to have the command for the
Speaker 8: team and you could see it on the field that
Speaker 8: they they weren't responding to him anymore. Not that he
Speaker 8: totally lost the locker room, but there was just so
Speaker 8: much disbelief. The first thing Corey Mace did and he
Speaker 8: did not bad enough Craig Dickinson or the preceding regiment
Speaker 8: before him at all, but he came in and demanded accountability.
Speaker 8: Remember Miles Brown got suspended, Deontay Williams got suspended.
Speaker 1: They were front and center afterwards, they met.
Speaker 8: Everybody said that they apologized to the media, to their teammates,
Speaker 8: to the fans, to everybody in the schedule.
Speaker 1: And that's what Corey Mace does.
Speaker 8: He's accountable to himself, to everybody in the organization, everybody
Speaker 8: in the province, everybody who.
Speaker 1: Follows the football team.
Speaker 8: And I think that maturity is what made this team
Speaker 8: way better than it was under Craig Dickinson and under
Speaker 8: a lot of coaches before that. So so that's what
Speaker 8: he's brought and that's why I think they can handle
Speaker 8: the situation and I think why they're even going to
Speaker 8: get better going forward.
Speaker 1: You got something, Jase, Yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 3: Darryl, first of all, great to have you back on
Speaker 3: the show after last year.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about Trevor Harrison.
Speaker 3: The season he had so obviously missed some games again,
Speaker 3: you know that's kind of been a theme of him
Speaker 3: the last couple of years, but if you pro rate
Speaker 3: his stats over the course of a season. I was
Speaker 3: saying on our show a couple of weeks ago, he
Speaker 3: might have been the mop of this league.
Speaker 1: But he's thirty eight years old.
Speaker 3: Does he have what it takes to get this team
Speaker 3: over the hump and into a great Cup? And if
Speaker 3: he's not the quarterback of that team next year, do
Speaker 3: you see anybody else landing?
Speaker 8: So oh, that's a huge question. What a packets at is.
Speaker 8: Let's go with thirty eight. He'll be thirty nine next year.
Speaker 1: You're right. The way he played at the end of
Speaker 1: the year was great. The way he played at.
Speaker 8: The start of the year was great, but he's missed
Speaker 8: nineteen games with two different knee injuries over the last
Speaker 8: two years.
Speaker 1: So is he worth it? He's making almost five hundred
Speaker 1: thousand a year.
Speaker 8: The players love him, these teammates love him, the community
Speaker 8: likes and the coaches like him. Is there somebody better?
Speaker 8: Well at the moment, maybe not. He fit the role
Speaker 8: so perfectly for a long time. But you have to
Speaker 8: get younger, you have to get better. You probably have
Speaker 8: to get cheaper a little bit too, so that all
Speaker 8: the familiar names come out, right?
Speaker 1: Can they go after tray Ford? Can they do?
Speaker 8: They go after Vernon Adams Junior? Do they go after
Speaker 8: David Alexander? Those are three names you just throw it
Speaker 8: right away. And does that make them better?
Speaker 9: No?
Speaker 8: Maybe maybe he does, maybe he doesn't, But it positions them.
Speaker 1: Better moving forward in the future.
Speaker 8: Right, So I think that they might like to make
Speaker 8: a change, or then again, maybe Jeremo Day the general manager,
Speaker 8: and Corey Mays the head coach, and Mark Muller the
Speaker 8: offensive coordinators, say, you.
Speaker 1: Know what, he's doing a great job. Let's just live
Speaker 1: with them.
Speaker 8: But that doesn't set up anything for the future because
Speaker 8: we saw Shape Patterson back up step in. He was okay,
Speaker 8: But I don't think he's really a bona fide CFL
Speaker 8: starting quarterback looking for me, And.
Speaker 2: That's Shape Harrison. What draft pick was he in the USFL?
Speaker 2: He was number one overall, one number one draft pick
Speaker 2: in the USFL. Shape Patison, Yeah, famously. I say it
Speaker 2: every week on our show. Trevor Harris is my age.
Speaker 2: He is one month older than I am. And the
Speaker 2: fact that he is playing professional football in any sense
Speaker 2: of the word is pretty in Sandy me. But like
Speaker 2: you said, it's it's not setting up. There's no future there.
Speaker 8: That's true with wake up in the morning ready and
Speaker 8: playing touch football, contact football, tackle football.
Speaker 1: So it's amazing what he does.
Speaker 8: He's in good shape, he looks after himself, and he
Speaker 8: works out tremendously hard. But that one season, you know,
Speaker 8: last year is only a spring me, but two years
Speaker 8: ago was major surgery for it. So the fact that
Speaker 8: he got came back and played at a pretty good pace.
Speaker 8: But he also can't run the football, and other teams
Speaker 8: know that, and we all know in the CFL you
Speaker 8: have to be able to run the football as a quarterback,
Speaker 8: right even if he don't run it very often, which
Speaker 8: he didn't, he has to be able to as part
Speaker 8: of the threat. So and rid As we were just
Speaker 8: talking about going forward, I don't know what they do.
Speaker 1: They're only going to have one quarterback then, and I think.
Speaker 8: They have to deepen that resource a little bit and
Speaker 8: find somebody who's able. Maybe maybe Jack Cole and the
Speaker 8: Notre Dame quarterback who's third string on their on their
Speaker 8: depth chart look pretty good when he played just a
Speaker 8: little bit, and he seems to have caught on. But
Speaker 8: how do you know, but it might have the clear
Speaker 8: space for him and get somebody else on top. Not
Speaker 8: that we wished the worst of Triper Harris when he
Speaker 8: came to Regina. I've been watching him for years thinking, boy,
Speaker 8: there's a guy who doesn't seem bony all the time.
Speaker 1: No, he's not.
Speaker 8: He's like that constantly and I really gained a lot
Speaker 8: of respect for him over the over the last couple
Speaker 8: of years. But is he still good enough? He's never
Speaker 8: won a Great Cup as a starting quarterback. To me,
Speaker 8: that still might be the number one knock against him.
Speaker 1: So I have more general questions about the lead.
Speaker 2: You guys have any other things to ask specific we
Speaker 2: want to talk about, because then I want to rotate
Speaker 2: I want to get a little bit more about Randio
Speaker 2: that do you have anything else that's ask well.
Speaker 4: Actually, as we're talking about potential quarterback options, if you
Speaker 4: do bring in someone like tray Ford, do you think
Speaker 4: the staff at this moment it is going to have
Speaker 4: the resources to put a round tray for it. Because
Speaker 4: I think that's what have been one of the biggest
Speaker 4: complaints that I think, at least from our end and
Speaker 4: from other people, that it's time in Edmonton.
Speaker 1: It never seemed like they really gave him a fair shot.
Speaker 4: Do you see Saskatchewan maybe going that way or do
Speaker 4: you think they'll do something more traditional.
Speaker 1: I guess someone like David Alexander a great great point
Speaker 1: to look at.
Speaker 8: I thought Edmonton had surrounded him with pretty good running back.
Speaker 1: Lewis a pretty good receiver.
Speaker 8: I think that that top end talent is better in
Speaker 8: Edmonton than it is in Saskatchewan.
Speaker 1: Is a j o Let done? I think he is.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a tough thing to say.
Speaker 8: He's their high price free agent and I don't know
Speaker 8: if he had one or two good games, but can
Speaker 8: he do it?
Speaker 1: Game?
Speaker 8: After games, so they probably need a new running back.
Speaker 8: Their offensive line. People have criticized it, but they had
Speaker 8: sixteen different players on that offensive line, and I think
Speaker 8: they've solidified a lot of those spots when you look.
Speaker 1: At Logan Furland, Peter Godber at center, the.
Speaker 8: Trevion Tate, the guys they put and Trevor Reed who
Speaker 8: played eighteen games at left tackle as a rookie. I
Speaker 8: think they put in place a very good offensive line
Speaker 8: to protect whoever is there a quarterback great point in
Speaker 8: having to upgrade, I think and running back right, I
Speaker 8: Raquel Armster the ain't coming back. They had scraps at
Speaker 8: the end of the year. He's not a good person
Speaker 8: to have him a lot, so he's not coming back.
Speaker 8: I don't know if they bring back ajo Let they
Speaker 8: probably will, but they probably need another running back. They've
Speaker 8: got great Canadian receivers, can't Shaefer Baker right, Sam Emmilin
Speaker 8: is good, Candian Dale Duncan Buzzby the draft pick they
Speaker 8: took good Canadian receivers.
Speaker 1: Mitch Pickton can fill in anywhere. Their Americans aren't quite.
Speaker 8: As good, right, uh Keishawn Jacks Johnson got pretty good
Speaker 8: at the end, so they're going to have to find
Speaker 8: whoever they bring in some high end talent, which would
Speaker 8: make it more appealing for Davis Alexander or at least
Speaker 8: more appealing for a trade for to come to Saskatchewan.
Speaker 1: I guess that's a quick fall up and I want
Speaker 1: to rotate.
Speaker 2: But like, yeah, because why they you would have to say,
Speaker 2: way exceeded expectations this year, right, first.
Speaker 1: Year the Rogers didn't. Yes, well yeah, but.
Speaker 2: Then like you're saying, Okay, we got the Trevor Harris,
Speaker 2: we got the Ahl, we got all these issues now,
Speaker 2: so like is there a falloff next year?
Speaker 1: Like is this the honeymoon period.
Speaker 2: Where you kind of have a lot of good pieces
Speaker 2: there already Corey Mays can come and like, I just
Speaker 2: curious how you navigate that.
Speaker 8: And I have a bub they brought in some good
Speaker 8: ones around that. Let didn't have a good year because
Speaker 8: he was hurt and I think he's worn out. Harris
Speaker 8: has missed games, so they're still he can play quarterback
Speaker 8: in the league if they have to go with them.
Speaker 8: The offensive line is great, but they also got like
Speaker 8: jamiir Thurman, right, Mikah Johnson who looks like he could
Speaker 8: play another six to seven years, hasn't even great this
Speaker 8: in the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: An All Star again C. J.
Speaker 8: Reeves, a great outside linebacker, coverage linebacker, Roland Milligan and
Speaker 8: junior the best defensive player in the league.
Speaker 4: How is Roland Milligan junior not for MLP discussion? Like
Speaker 4: he should have been on the ballot?
Speaker 8: Yeah, he could have been both right, Like you know,
Speaker 8: he won Special Teams Player, Outstanding Defensive Player and outstanding
Speaker 8: player for the rough Riders.
Speaker 1: Nobody.
Speaker 8: I don't think anybody's every time that usually guys don't
Speaker 8: want to play special teams. He wants to play everything.
Speaker 8: So I think reed, and answer you the question they
Speaker 8: have that will they have a drop off? No, I
Speaker 8: think they're going to find out that maybe some of
Speaker 8: those high priced guys they didn't need them, and they've
Speaker 8: developed a few. But you can always find Ryce. Shiver's
Speaker 8: the old Hall of Fame general manager who knew personnel here,
Speaker 8: and half the guys in the Hall of Fame are
Speaker 8: probably recruited by Roy Shiffer says, you can find a
Speaker 8: running back anywhere. So I think that there are some
Speaker 8: around who will really help that football team if they
Speaker 8: go that way.
Speaker 1: But I don't see a drop off.
Speaker 8: I see with Corey Mace Mark Mueller their second year
Speaker 8: in the organization, I see it a bit of an
Speaker 8: upswing as opposed to a drop off.
Speaker 1: Let's do a couple more here. Dan Ralph was supposed
Speaker 1: to come. I haven't seen it yet.
Speaker 9: Again.
Speaker 1: He just call me. He doesn't know what building he
Speaker 1: was in the wrong. He's coming. That's fine. We can
Speaker 1: bring in Rick Early. He's a Toronto guy. He's lost.
Speaker 2: More general thoughts here, obviously, Randy and BROSI uh, stepping down,
Speaker 2: getting at whatever. Curious your thoughts on that, and kind
Speaker 2: of you know, we were talking on the way back
Speaker 2: last night to the hotel, like, I don't know what
Speaker 2: you want from another commissioner coming in, but I'm just
Speaker 2: curious your thoughts.
Speaker 1: I see smiling, all right. Well, they want.
Speaker 8: What they want is somebody who does everything that all
Speaker 8: nine owners, all nine representatives want, and you can't do that.
Speaker 1: The teams that are success are the leagues that are successful.
Speaker 8: And even the NHL, Gary Bettman is making money right
Speaker 8: because one guy is in charge Major League Baseball NBA.
Speaker 8: They put one man in charge in the CFL. The
Speaker 8: problem is, and I've been to thirty seven great Cups.
Speaker 8: There have been twelve different guys I've seen stand up
Speaker 8: there and give the state of the league address, and
Speaker 8: every one of them gets ripped apart in the end
Speaker 8: by these nine owners.
Speaker 1: And they're not all owners, some of them.
Speaker 8: Are community own teams, but nine governors who just want
Speaker 8: everything their way. They should let somebody be in charge
Speaker 8: and make those decisions like it's his project. And I
Speaker 8: know they say the commission doesn't have any skin in
Speaker 8: the game, it's not. He's not a part owner of
Speaker 8: any of the teams. So let but put him in
Speaker 8: charge of it like it is his team. Give him
Speaker 8: a seven and eight year contract. They're so scared, they
Speaker 8: they're so gunshot because they've hired so many people who
Speaker 8: don't do the right thing that if they do find
Speaker 8: somebody and maybe Mark Kohen was the right guy, put
Speaker 8: him in charge and give him a twelve a fifteen
Speaker 8: year contract and let him run it. And if you
Speaker 8: really do have to fire him, they still could. But
Speaker 8: give him that much authority. They didn't give Randy ever
Speaker 8: you that much authority. They never will in this league.
Speaker 8: And that's why they keep shoving guys out the door.
Speaker 2: I see Dan Ralph coming in here. We'll get him
Speaker 2: on here just a minute, and I know a couple
Speaker 2: of different convention sets where to go ahead.
Speaker 1: I'll have a fobby.
Speaker 2: Do you have anything you want to talk to Daryl
Speaker 2: here about Randy andything else they got to fall about that?
Speaker 4: Is there something that you believe that Ambrosi did well
Speaker 4: during his tenure? For example, as you mentioned the ownership thing,
Speaker 4: there's a lot of stability now in some of the
Speaker 4: ownership groups that there wasn't there when he first came
Speaker 4: in to mar Doman. Obviously pure Carl Pelado, Obviously Edmonton's
Speaker 4: stabilizing their ownership. Those are things that I think of,
Speaker 4: but I'm not sure if you see it the same way.
Speaker 8: Exactly the same This ownership group that's probably never been stronger.
Speaker 8: You still wonder a little bit about Toronto with MLC,
Speaker 8: what's gonna happen with the Argonauts? But there's they're there
Speaker 8: and they've got the finances to do it. So that's
Speaker 8: the irony, the twisted irony of this and Randy Ambrosi
Speaker 8: brings together maybe the strongest group of owners this league
Speaker 8: has ever had, and then they push them off the door.
Speaker 8: Can they find somebody to deal with all those guys.
Speaker 8: I don't know, but that that's the one thing he did.
Speaker 8: But I keep pointing at so many bad things like
Speaker 8: the globalization.
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's gonna work. It's an interesting fot.
Speaker 1: He shouldn't have pinted his hopes on it.
Speaker 8: And I keep saying it doesn't take a genius to
Speaker 8: figure out why he's out the door.
Speaker 1: It's all about genius sports.
Speaker 8: He gave away ten percent of revenues for CFL ventures
Speaker 8: to let them come in as beat and be partners.
Speaker 8: And how bad was was Genia Sports to we didn't
Speaker 8: have stats for an entire year. You don't know anybody
Speaker 8: who puts in place something like that. And this totally
Speaker 8: falls and explodes in this in his face. I think
Speaker 8: that's why, as much as why Randy Ambrosio's gonna work as.
Speaker 1: Any And we'll get Dan here to say, I'll let
Speaker 1: you got that even filling it here.
Speaker 2: I appreciate the game and up be I mean, is
Speaker 2: that indefinite the revenue share in that way?
Speaker 1: Like I mean, now it's whoever comes in. They're stuck
Speaker 1: with that, right sort of. Yeah, they've got a contract,
Speaker 1: and I don't. I haven't seen if it's a lifetime
Speaker 1: contract with Genius Sports. I hope it isn't. But he did.
Speaker 8: I remember when he came in and said, how much
Speaker 8: did they pay for this? Oh, we gave them an
Speaker 8: ownership stake in it, so that could be perpetual. And
Speaker 8: you know, if they finally do get the CEEFL making money,
Speaker 8: I know it's flat. And that's another one of the
Speaker 8: reasons that franchise value hasn't improved, and that's why Randy
Speaker 8: and Rosie is out too.
Speaker 1: But if it ever does.
Speaker 8: Improve, which owner wants to give up ten percent of
Speaker 8: its profits to somebody who actually ended up hurting the
Speaker 8: league for two or three years.
Speaker 1: All right, let's bring Dan in here, Darryl. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much.
Speaker 2: As just check out my note scene. He's coming out here, Darryl.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it.
Speaker 6: We are.
Speaker 1: We gonna see it the suite you hanging out. I
Speaker 1: don't know, maybe I'll see what I do. It's gonna
Speaker 1: see you guys.
Speaker 2: Thanks having Darrel. Appreciate it, Dorothy. Maybe we can bring
Speaker 2: Dan in and then we'll get the.
Speaker 1: Ricks on next year we got I were kicking him out.
Speaker 2: We got Dan Ralph Canadian press here went to the
Speaker 2: wrong convention set it.
Speaker 1: That's okay, it's confusing.
Speaker 10: I said a lot of things, Dan, How the heck
Speaker 10: are you this four years in a row? What's going
Speaker 10: on in I couldn't be better? Great week and the
Speaker 10: only thing bad is the weather. But we have no
Speaker 10: control over that.
Speaker 1: So all good.
Speaker 2: Uh, just to continue and then we'll get back to
Speaker 2: the game here. Maybe Andy has a question about that,
Speaker 2: but curious your thoughts. We were to Sago with Daryl
Speaker 2: about Randy Leavin, the legacy that we're straddled now with
Speaker 2: the Genius Sports Gble adventure and all that didn't work out. Like,
Speaker 2: here's your thoughts here, as we're weak and he's stepping down.
Speaker 11: Well, I think, I mean he was.
Speaker 10: He was in a no win situation because he promised
Speaker 10: to double league revenues and and that was going to
Speaker 10: be a really, really tough sell and uh, ultimately I
Speaker 10: think that's what cost him, right. I mean, the governors
Speaker 10: need money, and they want money. They expect money, they
Speaker 10: expect certain revenues and when you don't deliver, you can
Speaker 10: be the nicest guy in the world, but you know,
Speaker 10: these guys need money, they want money. They expect money
Speaker 10: and they were promised, and unfortunately the reality is that
Speaker 10: there was a shortfall there.
Speaker 2: I'll tells to Andy after this, given the how hamstrung
Speaker 2: the commissioner of the CFL is compared to other leagues,
Speaker 2: is that unfair expectations where hey, we want this, but
Speaker 2: you're not necessarily in the position. Yeah, it is.
Speaker 10: I mean I I equate it to the owners want
Speaker 10: somebody to save them from from themselves, right, They want
Speaker 10: somebody to fix their problems. And the problem Randy has
Speaker 10: is that he's got nine different entities pulling him nine
Speaker 10: different ways. And you know, you keep your supporters at bay,
Speaker 10: you keep your detractors even closer, and the guys that
Speaker 10: are in the middle, you really got to try and
Speaker 10: a pease them. So I think if Randy could be faulted,
Speaker 10: I think he tried to He tried to gain consensus
Speaker 10: from all nine owners when basically all he needed was five.
Speaker 11: I mean that's a you know, I mean, that's it's
Speaker 11: not a bad thing for him to be.
Speaker 10: But I think in the at the end of it,
Speaker 10: he just tried to please too many people instead of
Speaker 10: trying to please a majority that.
Speaker 1: Andy, you can continue without or switch to the game
Speaker 1: kind of wherever you're looking.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, to continue with that, I just wanted to
Speaker 4: know what do you expect or maybe hope for the
Speaker 4: next commissioner line to do in terms of handling the
Speaker 4: dynamic with the ownership and the board of governors.
Speaker 10: Well, the next commissioner in two years has a new
Speaker 10: television agreement to negotiate, so there's an opportunity there. The
Speaker 10: problem with that is as soon as you get a
Speaker 10: new television agreement, the collective.
Speaker 12: Bargaining agreement can be opened between the players in the
Speaker 12: league because there's a revenue sharing modeling that so if
Speaker 12: all of a sudden, the new commissioner hits the bullseye
Speaker 12: and really you know, brings in some more TV money,
Speaker 12: and the players are going to say, okay, we want
Speaker 12: to share of that too. So the good news is
Speaker 12: there's labor piece for the next four years, it can
Speaker 12: be reopened.
Speaker 10: But I think the TV deal is probably the biggest
Speaker 10: opportunity that the new commissioner will come because the deal
Speaker 10: south of the border and in Canada both expire at
Speaker 10: the same time, so then you you have the opportunity
Speaker 10: to renegotiate both both deals.
Speaker 1: I gotta follow up and then we'll go to Jason.
Speaker 2: Yeah, can you let anybody in the world know that
Speaker 2: the CFL Plus in America.
Speaker 1: Is just a disaster.
Speaker 2: I mean, if I got people on the stream, is
Speaker 2: it on Plus? Is it on Sports Network? Like, no
Speaker 2: one knows what the hell is going on? And then
Speaker 2: you get in there and I, you know, I know,
Speaker 2: I just I saw Rash's tweet. I know everyone has
Speaker 2: thoughts about him otherwise, but you know he's talking. Oh,
Speaker 2: Randy says, it's working. I go, you have all these
Speaker 2: Canadians sitting there. No one in this room is actually
Speaker 2: using that service, so you're talking and neither of mine neither.
Speaker 2: So it's been it's like we might as well be
Speaker 2: talking about the Mars landing at this point.
Speaker 1: That's how connect regards.
Speaker 2: So just if you could let me, you know, let
Speaker 2: anyone in the world know then that I sat through
Speaker 2: the whole Genius Sports Statistics snaff foo.
Speaker 1: No, I don't.
Speaker 10: I don't use Plus. I was at the CFL Awards
Speaker 10: banquet and they were they were streaming it on Plus.
Speaker 1: Jason, what do you got Maybe we can transition to
Speaker 1: the game. This is painful.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I wanted to talk about the twenty twenty sixth
Speaker 3: Great Cup, which was recently awarded to Calgary, and uh
Speaker 3: and Rosie said a few years ago, when Calgary last
Speaker 3: hosted the Gray Cup, this will be the last Great
Speaker 3: Cup'll ever host at McMahon.
Speaker 1: But here we are in twenty twenty six, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be hosting again here. Yeah, what do you think the
Speaker 1: future holds for football in Calgary.
Speaker 10: I think there'll be some refurbishments to McMahon, won't be
Speaker 10: a brand spanking new facility. I was also told that
Speaker 10: Calgary's proposal for twenty twenty six was very solid, So
Speaker 10: there might be stadium shortfalls, but maybe there are other
Speaker 10: avenues that they can make the experience a positive one.
Speaker 10: This one here, they've gone all out and it is
Speaker 10: it's a little I mean, this is the first time
Speaker 10: I've been in this area of the Convention Center, but
Speaker 10: it's it's impressible they've done.
Speaker 11: They've done a really magnificent job. And you know, Winnipeg's
Speaker 11: got a.
Speaker 10: Big act, tall tall act to follow next year, and
Speaker 10: I suspect in two years time Calgary will too. So
Speaker 10: I mean, let's let's keep an open mind that the
Speaker 10: stadium is what it is. Hopefully they can fix it
Speaker 10: up to make the presentation. If anybody's thinking there's gonna
Speaker 10: be a brand spanking new stadium, I got swamp playing
Speaker 10: in Florida.
Speaker 1: That's going cheap.
Speaker 2: Let's side the game real quick, and then Dorothy, maybe
Speaker 2: Dorothy can get Rick here if she's paying attention, they
Speaker 2: always have her standing by, and then that she gets
Speaker 2: busy talking to Dave Taylor over here with it.
Speaker 1: Let's talk game real quick.
Speaker 2: Obviously not necessarily the matchup we want, with Jack Kelly
Speaker 2: being out and everything else.
Speaker 1: What do you make of the game, and then maybe
Speaker 1: you guys have a followupable road take us.
Speaker 10: I've had a chance to think it over. Initially I
Speaker 10: thought this is Winnipeg's game to lose. Now I'm starting
Speaker 10: to sway a bit and think that Toronto has more
Speaker 10: than a puncher's chance against this team. You know, the Argos,
Speaker 10: as we all know, started the year without Jack Kelly.
Speaker 11: They were five and four. Included in that was a
Speaker 11: win over Winnipeg.
Speaker 10: And then when Winnipeg was on a roll and had
Speaker 10: one eighth straight, Toronto went into Manitoba and one. Both
Speaker 10: games were tight, Both games were not aesthetically pleasing. I mean,
Speaker 10: the margin of victory was five combined points, but the
Speaker 10: Argo defense got twelve sacks and force nine turnovers. And
Speaker 10: if as good as Winnipeg is, if they can't protect
Speaker 10: the football, then I think Toronto hangs around.
Speaker 11: And the longer Toronto hangs around, the more they believe.
Speaker 1: Jase last things for Dan here. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 3: So you know Winnipeg if you look back at the
Speaker 3: track record, Yes, they've been in the last four at
Speaker 3: Great Cups, but Zach Clearis hasn't played too well in
Speaker 3: those games. So do you think a third loss really
Speaker 3: damages the legacy of this Bluebombers team?
Speaker 2: I do.
Speaker 10: I think so the same way I think if they
Speaker 10: win it, we can sort of put the monikor on
Speaker 10: them that they maybe are the most dominant team over
Speaker 10: that stretch.
Speaker 11: But to get theirs, I mean, it's a huge accomplish.
Speaker 10: I get it, But you're in it to win it,
Speaker 10: and if you don't win it, then everything you did
Speaker 10: to get there I think. I don't want to say
Speaker 10: is a waste or but I mean I think the
Speaker 10: players will tell you it's it's unfulfilling, right. So I
Speaker 10: do think if they win it the two things. One
Speaker 10: they avenge a two thousand and two loss to Toronto.
Speaker 10: Two it's their third and five and three. I didn't
Speaker 10: realize this until I got here this week, but Toronto's
Speaker 10: eight to zero against Winnipeg and the Gray County so,
Speaker 10: and Toronto's won the last seven trips of the Great Cup.
Speaker 1: So to me, there's a lot there.
Speaker 10: And I think with a win, Winnipeg erases all that
Speaker 10: stuff that I just said about Toronto, but they think
Speaker 10: put a stamp on that.
Speaker 11: We are still the most dominant team in the league.
Speaker 1: Well, Dan, thank you, will bring Rex, Sarah Tell and next.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Dan, It's always good to see it. Well, let's bring
Speaker 2: Rick in here. Rix Aarrah Tell, a long time present
Speaker 2: of the program. Let's say we're again, We're alive from
Speaker 2: the McLaren custom Girls. As I'm breaking my life up
Speaker 2: top here opening things I should be opening.
Speaker 1: We're at the McLaren Grills media row here.
Speaker 2: I appreciate them. And the Lions had this stuff. Rick,
Speaker 2: we were so we were just talking at breakfast. Okay,
Speaker 2: first off, how are you?
Speaker 1: What's happening?
Speaker 2: So Jason and I were just talking to brunch about
Speaker 2: like you see people on zoom and then you see
Speaker 2: them in real life, and what do we expect?
Speaker 1: Or like, any you look awesome, you look trim, you
Speaker 1: look fly. Not that I didn't think you were a
Speaker 1: cool guy, but like, holy cow, you look great.
Speaker 13: Thanks brother, I'm trying to keep up with you. Man,
Speaker 13: you don't go for yourself, y'all pick your coverage. I
Speaker 13: see over here and uh yeah, we're we're we're soaking
Speaker 13: it in man. By the way, what a great city.
Speaker 9: Uh.
Speaker 1: I think the NFL. I was just talking to Rob Peterson.
Speaker 13: I think the NFL is dropping the ball with all
Speaker 13: these international games and you're not coming to play a
Speaker 13: game here?
Speaker 1: Are you kidding me? I mean, this is fantastic. I've
Speaker 1: been oroughly impressed. So people know you.
Speaker 2: You've been on before, you know, All Access Football and
Speaker 2: everything is GOATI now you were with the Elks and like,
Speaker 2: could you just way, what do we got going on now?
Speaker 2: Busy guys with if I can't even keep track all
Speaker 2: the time, what the heck's going on now?
Speaker 13: Well, you know, All Access Football dot Com is probably
Speaker 13: the best way to keep up with everything that's going
Speaker 13: on right now. But uh, you know, listen a lot
Speaker 13: of there's a lot of whispers out there in regards
Speaker 13: to what's gonna happen with the Edmonton Elkso I here,
Speaker 13: so you know, listen, I'll tell you this. That team
Speaker 13: is built to contend. This is not a tear down situation.
Speaker 13: I mean you saw it. You saw when we were
Speaker 13: rattling off that. In fact, I put the Leak podcast on.
Speaker 13: I don't even listen. I listened to the Marquest. Sometimes
Speaker 13: I want to throw my shoes at the monitor, but
Speaker 13: only because I respect you guys.
Speaker 1: But you know I was. I was tuned into the
Speaker 1: CFL podcast.
Speaker 13: They were talking about Kenny Elks making run to the
Speaker 13: Great Cup, and that's how good we were playing. So
Speaker 13: I don't think this is a teardown job. I think
Speaker 13: this team is on the brink of contention. I think
Speaker 13: when you look at the games that we were in,
Speaker 13: we lost it due to a bad play here or there,
Speaker 13: and I think, you know we're ready to ruck.
Speaker 1: So we'll see and y'all I know where you want
Speaker 1: to go.
Speaker 4: So here. So it's unfortunately we didn't cross pass early
Speaker 4: this year. I went to Edmonton more Unfortunately we lost
Speaker 4: to this gentleman's team.
Speaker 1: Believe I had an incredible game.
Speaker 4: But more and more importantly what happened during that game
Speaker 4: was Trey came in and I felt this just rush
Speaker 4: of momentum from those crowd. The energy level just changed.
Speaker 4: And how do you feel when you watch Trey in
Speaker 4: person and on tape? What do you see from him?
Speaker 1: What kind of assets do you think he brings to Edmonton.
Speaker 1: He's a playmaker.
Speaker 13: I would just liken him to a point guard because
Speaker 13: of his ability to improvise. I think a lot of
Speaker 13: stuff is off structure, and some of it's by design,
Speaker 13: some of it's not. But I think, you know, those
Speaker 13: are traits you can't teach, and so I think what
Speaker 13: you saw and what you felt is basically what we
Speaker 13: saw and felt was that he needed to be the
Speaker 13: starter because he jumped started.
Speaker 1: You know, even though McCloud played well.
Speaker 13: I don't know if that was the issue, but you
Speaker 13: could see even the players I thought there was there
Speaker 13: was an extra pep and those stuff. That's just and
Speaker 13: I'm watching from afar because I'm not there in season
Speaker 13: on the field in person, but I'm watching the footage
Speaker 13: and I'm watching on TV, and you can sense that
Speaker 13: and you can feel that and I think, you know,
Speaker 13: Trey's got a right future ahead of him, he really does.
Speaker 13: But you know he's got to stay healthy, I think
Speaker 13: first and foremost, and you know, whether it's in Edmonton
Speaker 13: or or somewhere else.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's going to be the face of this
Speaker 1: league for a long time, isn't it wild?
Speaker 2: Just and all the time with all the alt leagues
Speaker 2: and stuff, and here McLeod and the plays argos and
Speaker 2: goes to place in the UFFL comes back. It just
Speaker 2: the journey kind of all these guys go on now
Speaker 2: with just how interconnected all these leagues are and all
Speaker 2: the different affiliations you've had over the years.
Speaker 1: I mean, it really is a different.
Speaker 2: Time, at least I'm not as old as experience as
Speaker 2: a lot of people, but it feels like it's a
Speaker 2: different time kind of in the football atmosphere right now.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 13: I was thinking about during the COVID when McLoud was
Speaker 13: trying to make a NFL comeback because he actually only
Speaker 13: needs three games for his NFL pension, And that's how
Speaker 13: I got introduced to McLeod Bethel Thompson. I was so
Speaker 13: impressed and there was no doubt in my mind after
Speaker 13: that workout that this man can be.
Speaker 1: A backup in the National Football League without a doubt.
Speaker 13: And I think I think the NFL is sleeping on
Speaker 13: some of the talents in Canada. And I won't go
Speaker 13: too far into that because I don't want.
Speaker 7: To let them in on that right now.
Speaker 1: But you know, it's funny how everything, like you said,
Speaker 1: comes back around.
Speaker 13: And when he said he wanted to come back to Canada,
Speaker 13: you know, I said, you know, maybe we should entertain that.
Speaker 13: And I was thinking about how how you know, working
Speaker 13: in the CFL is just really a relationship thing and
Speaker 13: a connection thing. And what a great speech by Nick
Speaker 13: Anderson the other night, and I was just telling the story, like,
Speaker 13: you know, we were sitting in the bleachers at the
Speaker 13: Senior Bowl and Coach Jones was telling me about this
Speaker 13: linebacker he's trying to recruit from from Elaye Nick Anderson
Speaker 13: and I can't get a hold of this agent. I said,
Speaker 13: agents right there, and we called him over and like
Speaker 13: basically the dal was done on the spot. And you know,
Speaker 13: just the team building of the CFL experience and having
Speaker 13: a year under the belt. Man, I think like with
Speaker 13: our leadership, we're we're in position with great.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you have to be tremendously proud of Nick Anderson.
Speaker 4: Did you believe that he really had the capability to
Speaker 4: get this award this year?
Speaker 1: I mean, he really was outstanding.
Speaker 13: So so so we're sitting We're sitting Coach Jones office
Speaker 13: and training camp with g Roy and myself, and you know,
Speaker 13: I'm sitting there, I'm like, listen, Nick Anderson might f
Speaker 13: around and find out and lead the league in tackles, and.
Speaker 1: They just kind of start laughing at me. I'm just
Speaker 1: telling you what to see, guys.
Speaker 13: And sure enough, I think he did right him and
Speaker 13: Niles and that's the best linebacker unit in the CFL
Speaker 13: as far as I'm concerned. But you know, he is
Speaker 13: the CFL Sam Mills and I know he has NFL aspirations,
Speaker 13: and I think, like that's what we want our program
Speaker 13: to be. And any free agent player that wants to
Speaker 13: come out and play for Edmonton, we are never going
Speaker 13: to hold you back from an NFL opportunity. If you
Speaker 13: want to go out and you get that opportunity, We're
Speaker 13: gonna let you go there because we understand that's gonna
Speaker 13: help us to prove the next player and that's what
Speaker 13: we want to do.
Speaker 1: We want to be a springboard.
Speaker 13: We obviously want to retain talent, but we also want
Speaker 13: to have the elite talent, the talent that we deam
Speaker 13: is capable of playing in the National Football League.
Speaker 1: I think we got quite a few of those guys.
Speaker 2: As a matter of fact, I'll ask a fall but
Speaker 2: then maybe Jason, we talk Everton anything else. Just curious,
Speaker 2: you know, going in now being a part of the CFL,
Speaker 2: experiencing all of that jumping. I just thoughts and kind
Speaker 2: of because it's been really kind of a unique, crazy
Speaker 2: year for you and being able to come into this
Speaker 2: new position. Just curious your thoughts here of obviously all
Speaker 2: your experience out.
Speaker 1: Of the year. Well, Canada never disappoints.
Speaker 13: I mean I've loved every city I've been too, I
Speaker 13: would say, you know, having gone through the process now
Speaker 13: because I started talking to the these guys, I mean
Speaker 13: I was officially brought on board in January, but we
Speaker 13: started talking about this.
Speaker 1: Right around this time.
Speaker 13: Because now I see when, uh, the urgency was there
Speaker 13: last year at this time. Now I understand it because
Speaker 13: between now and May, when we report to training camp,
Speaker 13: that's basically.
Speaker 1: Where my role, where my value lies.
Speaker 13: You know, because once we go to training camp, there's
Speaker 13: only so much tinkering we can do. And I thought
Speaker 13: Giroy made some magical moves bringing in Tevin Jones. Sean
Speaker 13: Oakman ranked the tank eliminating some of the bad apples. Okay,
Speaker 13: I thought that was really the difference of our culture.
Speaker 13: But between now and May is basically where my value is.
Speaker 13: And we're gonna start recruiting, and you know, have these
Speaker 13: announcements made and and and get I mean, the work
Speaker 13: hasn't stopped, right, but you know, you need.
Speaker 1: Clarity to move forward, and I think that's where we're headed.
Speaker 1: Thing you got anything about Emond, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3: Just to build off of what we've talked about about
Speaker 3: the Elks roster, where do you think the areas of
Speaker 3: improvement are for this team going into next year?
Speaker 13: Well, you know, I thought the offensive line stepped up
Speaker 13: their game this year, you know, and that is something
Speaker 13: I want to see continue to improve because the game
Speaker 13: is won in the trenches.
Speaker 1: And so I think that.
Speaker 13: Noah Taylor has an opportunity to step his game up.
Speaker 13: And Elliott Brown I think is as good of a
Speaker 13: pass rusher as there is. But when you talk about
Speaker 13: the CFL. You need to create pressure, you need to
Speaker 13: win in the trenches. And I'll tell you what our
Speaker 13: secondary We need to look at ourselves in the mirror
Speaker 13: and stop making nucklehead, which plays earlier last.
Speaker 1: Question for you will bring on Jamie and I here
Speaker 1: I thought on the game. You know, who do you have?
Speaker 2: It's an interesting matchup here, So let's talk about actual
Speaker 2: break up here before we get out.
Speaker 13: I think it's going to be a competitive game. I
Speaker 13: think it can come down to whoever has the ball last.
Speaker 13: And you talk about Nick Arbuckle is mister adversity. He's
Speaker 13: built for this moment.
Speaker 1: I do believe.
Speaker 13: All the adversity that this man has dealt with throughout
Speaker 13: his career has prepared him. You know, you talk about
Speaker 13: preparation meets opportunity. I think he might bring some of
Speaker 13: that big Nick energy. And I'll tell you what, man,
Speaker 13: this this game is gonna.
Speaker 7: Go down to the wire.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a very competitive BOK.
Speaker 13: All the pressure is on Winnipeg, right, so I think
Speaker 13: Winnipeg is feeling the pressure. I think Toronto comes in
Speaker 13: here a little bit more loosey goosey, and uh man,
Speaker 13: I'll tell you it's gonna be fun, but I'll be there.
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 4: So you're saying that Toronto is basically gonna have a
Speaker 4: statue of Nick Arbuckle outside of Demo fielding about two
Speaker 4: month time.
Speaker 1: Is that what you're telling me? It is gonna be Oh,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. We'll bring in Jamie and I here.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Rick, appreciate it. Rick there, tell
Speaker 1: everything else. Appreciate this a selfie real quick before I
Speaker 1: get out of here. So don't mind me on the line.
Speaker 1: It's all doing here. This is a fluid situation. Outstanding
Speaker 1: does workout.
Speaker 2: We do a good job. We tried this for every
Speaker 2: year four. It's a little different than we were in
Speaker 2: the back of the the bar here in Hamilton the
Speaker 2: first year. There we go, Hey, you got it, there
Speaker 2: we go. Thanks Rick, Let's bring in Jamie and I.
Speaker 2: We got Jamie and I with the green zone again.
Speaker 2: Reminder here from the McLaren Custom Grills Radio row, we're
Speaker 2: broadcasting the only officially licensed CFL barbecue grills.
Speaker 1: See and purchasing grills.
Speaker 2: Go to Mclarencustomgrills dot com. This week is a problem,
Speaker 2: but CFL to get ten percent off, Jamie and I
Speaker 2: here with the Green Zone.
Speaker 1: We've been talking to the sweet A lost a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks. We have a question here from Ken.
Speaker 2: I think you can hop in two years ago Mosaic
Speaker 2: basically stole out. I would disagree with that. There was
Speaker 2: a lot of empty seats. Hamilton last year added seats
Speaker 2: and neutral sites. Why are there so many tickets available tomorrow?
Speaker 14: Well, Vancouver has always been a softer market for the
Speaker 14: for the Canadian Football League. All the major cities happen
Speaker 14: when it comes to Great Cup ticket sales. The smaller
Speaker 14: markets they have a bigger season ticket holder base, so
Speaker 14: those are eating up all the time by season tickets,
Speaker 14: buying their Gray Cup tickets beforehand.
Speaker 1: So there's a smaller supply out there.
Speaker 14: In BC, it's a bigger supply and it would have
Speaker 14: been sold out if the Rough Riders or BC Lions
Speaker 14: would have been in the Gray Cup.
Speaker 1: But it's the Winnipeg Blue Bombers again, and I think
Speaker 1: there's a little bit.
Speaker 14: Of Even Winnipeg fans who have traveled to four consecutive
Speaker 14: Gray Cups are going okay, do I have to travel
Speaker 14: to a fifth? So that that is a lot of
Speaker 14: the reason on why now I don't know how much.
Speaker 14: It's a lot of seat I've went on the map.
Speaker 14: There are open seats, but I think it's still gonna
Speaker 14: look pretty full for game day on Sunday.
Speaker 2: We'll go to Andy here this second than Jason. They
Speaker 2: just candid thoughts on the game. They know, little little lackluss.
Speaker 2: You're here with the Nick Arbuckle ble right or are
Speaker 2: you feeling I think we've did that some heavy lifting
Speaker 2: this week, trying to make this maybe feel a little
Speaker 2: bit bigger.
Speaker 14: I've talked to Nick Arbuckle on a few occasions on
Speaker 14: the show when he was going in as the Outawa
Speaker 14: Red Blacks quarterback.
Speaker 1: This week I talked to him again. Nick Garbuckle is
Speaker 1: a great story.
Speaker 14: Nick Garbuckle had like, if you listen to his interviews,
Speaker 14: if you listen to who this guy is and how
Speaker 14: he is built, you're cheering for Nick Arbuckle to have
Speaker 14: that trophy in his hand. It's hasn't been an easy
Speaker 14: path for Nick Carbuckle in his life. Hasn't been an
Speaker 14: easy path in the Canadian Football League. So as much
Speaker 14: as it is kind of disappointing, it's dot Chad Kelly
Speaker 14: in the argos against the but Nick Arbuckle is a
Speaker 14: story to root for for this year's Great Cup, at.
Speaker 1: Least it is for me.
Speaker 7: What do you got to have it?
Speaker 4: Someone we haven't really mentioned today on our podcast is
Speaker 4: Brady OLIVERA. Obviously tremendous season last year, didn't win the
Speaker 4: MLP this year he does.
Speaker 1: Do you think he has something to prove?
Speaker 4: And how much do you think this really matters to
Speaker 4: him as somebody who kind of was in the shadow
Speaker 4: of Andrew Harris previously in the previous Great Cup wins,
Speaker 4: but since Olvera took overstarted.
Speaker 1: They haven't really had that moment yet. Do you think
Speaker 1: this means a lot to him? Yeah?
Speaker 14: This is similar to like a Darien Durant, you know,
Speaker 14: and who was the quarterback and he wanted to win
Speaker 14: his own Gray Cup. I know he's not the quarterback,
Speaker 14: but for Brady Oliver EA, it matters to him that
Speaker 14: he's going to be the lead back on Sunday and
Speaker 14: try to finally get.
Speaker 1: Something that's near and dear to him. He's a Winnipegger
Speaker 1: right like he's from there.
Speaker 14: Now he's the double winner of the Canadian and Most
Speaker 14: Outstanding Player and what better would it be to cap
Speaker 14: that off as maybe Great Cup MVP and winning the
Speaker 14: Gray Cup for his hometown as the lead back for
Speaker 14: the Winnipeg Blu Bahmer. So absolutely, Brady OLIVERA is one
Speaker 14: of another guy. Man, did you know what this guy
Speaker 14: does in the offseason?
Speaker 1: He goes and save dogs around the planet. Like, this
Speaker 1: guy is one of the nicest dudes you'll ever meet.
Speaker 14: So another person that I love in the canad I
Speaker 14: loved some of the a lot of the people in
Speaker 14: the Canadian Football League and Brady Oliver is one of
Speaker 14: those guys who I can root for ease them.
Speaker 1: Well, I hate him because BC can't cat him and
Speaker 1: can't man it him. And I just heat this run?
Speaker 2: Was it last year in the finals. He's just running
Speaker 2: down the field. There's like five lions just clean on
Speaker 2: him trying to So I do not share your set
Speaker 2: of it, Jamian.
Speaker 1: Do you not like dogs? I like dogs. We got people.
Speaker 2: We got full of babers here at the sciiting we're
Speaker 2: living life here. But no I I yes, Ray over,
Speaker 2: I talk about the awards he got, how impressive that is,
Speaker 2: And then.
Speaker 1: We can go to Jason, Well he shouldn't have won
Speaker 1: one of them.
Speaker 14: It should have been Roland Milligan Junior most Outstanding Player
Speaker 14: of the Year in the Canadian Football League in my
Speaker 14: probably bias opinion being from Saskatchewan, but when I look
Speaker 14: at what Roland Milligan did that this year, it was
Speaker 14: an outstanding season. First guy since Hall of Famer Willie
Speaker 14: Plus to get twenty special teams tackles and lead a
Speaker 14: defensive category which he did in interceptions like that is outstanding.
Speaker 14: That is rarely seen in the Canadian Football League. So
Speaker 14: I think that storyline got kind of downplayed. And yes,
Speaker 14: eighteen hundred old like yards from scrimmage, yes, four touchdowns,
Speaker 14: like he's the most outstanding Canadian. Absolutely my goal would
Speaker 14: have went somewhere else for the most Outstanding Player award,
Speaker 14: but Roland Milligan junior didn't come out of the West.
Speaker 1: So I didn't have that option. We just had a
Speaker 1: comment here.
Speaker 2: They're talking about, you know, going to Winnipeg next year
Speaker 2: and I go and I'll watch Winnipeg falls off next
Speaker 2: year and that it will be to continue that Jason,
Speaker 2: what do you have for Jami?
Speaker 1: And they will stargeting Dorothy's attention. We'll get Rod over
Speaker 1: here soon. Yeah, just to build off what we were
Speaker 1: talking about with the awards.
Speaker 3: Do you think the way that the CFL does the
Speaker 3: nominees for the awards, doing this East West nominations, it's
Speaker 3: a little bit outdated. And then maybe we should do
Speaker 3: what I was hearing about on the Three Down Nation podcast.
Speaker 1: To pick o hell.
Speaker 3: I don't know, just pick the three best candidates of
Speaker 3: the whole league, regardless of division.
Speaker 1: There's so much idea.
Speaker 14: I've been talking about this for ten years or more,
Speaker 14: but of going the NHL Awards, right, NHL Awards, you
Speaker 14: vote won, two, three, four, five, your first year, second
Speaker 14: or third, fifth, they tally you all those are different points.
Speaker 14: The top three point getters are the nominees. The voting's done,
Speaker 14: they already know who won. They just announced the top
Speaker 14: three vote getters, and then you're highlighting an extra player
Speaker 14: a great Cup week every single year. Now, that's a
Speaker 14: financial burden on the league because they'd have to fly
Speaker 14: another person in. So that's probably a little less appealing
Speaker 14: to the league to go to three and have more
Speaker 14: people you're paying hotel rooms and flights for.
Speaker 1: But I like it. I like the top three.
Speaker 14: I think it makes sense and highlights more players, and
Speaker 14: then there would be an opportunity for maybe vote splitting
Speaker 14: for offensive players where.
Speaker 1: We'd have a little bit more.
Speaker 14: There's only been one defensive player to be the MLP,
Speaker 14: and that was Solomon L.
Speaker 1: Mimian, So I don't think that's right.
Speaker 2: Well, it feels like the NFL too, or the MVP,
Speaker 2: and it's always a quarterback. I mean, it's hard to
Speaker 2: especially again, defensive player, even though.
Speaker 14: I look at the defensive players in this league and
Speaker 14: they get I don't want to say disrespected, but it's
Speaker 14: it's always a bias towards offense because some people say
Speaker 14: they have their own award, they have the most Outstanding
Speaker 14: Defensive Player awards, So it's not the most outstanding offensive
Speaker 14: player of the league. It's the most outstanding player of
Speaker 14: the league. But I do like the verbiage of these awards.
Speaker 14: I like the outstanding instead of valuable, because if you
Speaker 14: went to valuable, ninety nine percent of the time you're
Speaker 14: getting a quarterback. Outstanding opens for running backs, receivers. Solomon
Speaker 14: el mimi in a decade ago for a most Outstanding player.
Speaker 1: Award, Andy, what do you got? And we'll start moving
Speaker 1: that rotation here.
Speaker 4: Something that really stood out to me last year watching
Speaker 4: the stream in Hamilton. As you sat on the set
Speaker 4: and you said about Saskatchewan, how much culture do you
Speaker 4: really have if you won four Great Cups in one
Speaker 4: hundred years?
Speaker 1: And that really stuck out to me.
Speaker 4: Can you talk about what is the best aspect of
Speaker 4: Corey Mason as a leader and as a coach this
Speaker 4: year really kind of bringing in and sort of transforming Saskatchewan.
Speaker 14: Accountability is the one word I think Corey Mase has
Speaker 14: brought to this organization is accountability because he holds himself accountable.
Speaker 14: He's the first guy to say he did it after
Speaker 14: the West Final. He said it was a bad game plan.
Speaker 14: He didn't use those words, but he said it was
Speaker 14: a bad game planner.
Speaker 1: That's on him. He's got to be better. He'll take
Speaker 1: some bullets.
Speaker 14: But when a guy in training camp right away, in
Speaker 14: training camp, Bruno LaBelle didn't run a he goes late
Speaker 14: for a meeting and he was dragging the bag back
Speaker 14: and forth a couple of times as a discipline. Accountability
Speaker 14: and you've seen it. They're all accountable, even to the media.
Speaker 14: They're a lot more open when they make a mistake
Speaker 14: to talk to media and be open to the fans
Speaker 14: about it.
Speaker 1: And when you have an account accountability. The accountability issue
Speaker 1: was an issue in Saskatchewan.
Speaker 14: Now that's no longer the case, and I think they
Speaker 14: all hold themselves accountable, which is beginning to grow a
Speaker 14: winning culture.
Speaker 1: Like they have in Winnipeg and like they have in Toronto.
Speaker 1: You guys have anything else will bring Rod in thoughts
Speaker 1: on the game? Then who do you think comes out?
Speaker 14: I'm going with the upset. I'm going with the upset.
Speaker 14: I'm going with Toronto. You got Wyn McManus, you got
Speaker 14: Laura Melane. I like Ralph Holly in the middle. You
Speaker 14: have playmakers on special teams and Jenering Grant. You have
Speaker 14: playmakers all over the offense. I like Kadeen Carry. Match
Speaker 14: up against Brady olivera quarterback and receivers is where I
Speaker 14: give the edge to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. A lot
Speaker 14: of the other stuff I'm given to Toronto. Argonau's it's
Speaker 14: just up to Nick Arbuckle to be okay. If Nick
Speaker 14: Arbuckle's okay, the Argos win.
Speaker 2: Jamie, appreciate Rod's destroying our sat. We're bringing Rod beers
Speaker 2: in there. Appreciate it, Jamie. We'll see you later at
Speaker 2: the Sweet I appreciate it. We have Dave Naiel are
Speaker 2: standing by here, a lot of good guys coming. Like
Speaker 2: I said, like and subscribe, give us up over four
Speaker 2: thousand subscribers. Give away a couple of custom jerseys here
Speaker 2: from Gustin with row Retch when we get four thousands,
Speaker 2: So please like and subscribe, join the channel.
Speaker 1: Do all that, Rod, I was on your show yesterday.
Speaker 2: I might have been feeling the effects of the FRC
Speaker 2: suite and everything Thursday night. I was a little I
Speaker 2: was a little tired there, but we got through it.
Speaker 1: I did your show. You're hearing that, Rod, how are
Speaker 1: you doing?
Speaker 15: That's why you had alcohol on your breath? I wondered
Speaker 15: if I was thinking. I didn't want to say anything.
Speaker 15: But since you brought it up, your wife, your wrangler,
Speaker 15: fell asleep on the job.
Speaker 1: She's visiting too much. I know she's too chatty. No
Speaker 1: such thing.
Speaker 15: So yeah, you brought garing bearing gifts. There's no way
Speaker 15: that I could repay you, so I'm not even gonna
Speaker 15: try it.
Speaker 1: Well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Rod's here a long time before, one of the first
Speaker 2: Canadians we ever had on the show, Big Merger and
Speaker 2: all that.
Speaker 1: What do you make of all this, we're here you
Speaker 1: Great Cup week, and what do you think? I'm pretty
Speaker 1: blown away, to be honest.
Speaker 15: I've been too multiple Great Cups in Vancouver, twenty eleven,
Speaker 15: about twenty five, twenty eleven, twenty fourteen. I think this
Speaker 15: is the seventeenth Great Cup in Vancouver. Do you read
Speaker 15: the game notes free.
Speaker 1: At the game?
Speaker 2: I haven't yet.
Speaker 15: I don't rely on me to do that. I don't
Speaker 15: know about you guys, if you've been to a Super
Speaker 15: Bowl before. But last year in Vegas, the Lions people
Speaker 15: were there. I saw them and they were writing down notes.
Speaker 15: This is a carbon copy of the Fan Fast out
Speaker 15: of Kevin Embert. The NFL called it, but this is
Speaker 15: very similar Radio Row a little smaller, but the fan
Speaker 15: fest all the same stuff.
Speaker 1: So that's pretty cool. Excited about you think? I don't know.
Speaker 1: How do you feel about the league right now? Randy Stepan?
Speaker 1: Now what do you think? A general welfare thoughts? And
Speaker 1: they're gonna end it well? As you know, I don't
Speaker 1: work in the league anymore. So not that I don't care.
Speaker 1: I'll always care, but I'm not worried about it anymore.
Speaker 15: How could you look around at this this week and
Speaker 15: think that this league's in any way trouble, but people
Speaker 15: do want to talk about it, and they say, what's next,
Speaker 15: you know, with the next commissioner. I fully believe they
Speaker 15: don't know who it's going to be. But what I
Speaker 15: hear is that expansion is on the horizon. They want
Speaker 15: to get to twelve teams. The expansion revenue, you look
Speaker 15: at your crack and you're wearing their lid. The money
Speaker 15: that comes with an expansion franchise will infuse a lot
Speaker 15: of money into this league, and I think it's going
Speaker 15: great places.
Speaker 6: I do.
Speaker 15: You wouldn't love the league if you didn't believe in it.
Speaker 15: The league's right, and the product has always been unbelievable.
Speaker 1: That's fine.
Speaker 15: It's the business end, and from what I understand, things
Speaker 15: are looking up there, so the product will always be
Speaker 15: good anyway.
Speaker 4: You got ron from our perspective, just as overall football
Speaker 4: fans and following all the leagues, the word expansion is
Speaker 4: maybe the hottest corporate but buzzword that there could be.
Speaker 1: Everybody just loves to smash that button.
Speaker 4: But as far as the realistic options go in Canada,
Speaker 4: and I thought it was interested that Randy and BROSI
Speaker 4: kind of broke down how it wouldn't really be much
Speaker 4: of an option to go in America at the moment.
Speaker 4: Where do you see the realistic possibilities in Canada. I've
Speaker 4: got some intel Quebec City for sure.
Speaker 15: I mean, they're ready to go and they love not
Speaker 15: just football but Canadian football in Quebec, so I think
Speaker 15: you can put that down as one of them. I
Speaker 15: hear winsor. I don't know if you guys know, I've
Speaker 15: never been there. I've never been to the Troit school there.
Speaker 15: Oh yeah, So they tell me that's a huge NFL hotbed,
Speaker 15: but I think the potential owner has a lot of
Speaker 15: money windsor would be another. And then there is talk
Speaker 15: of Europe, but I don't really want to go down
Speaker 15: that road. But as you say, people love to talk
Speaker 15: about it, and for the last few years, I'm like,
Speaker 15: let's not even talk about it because the league doesn't
Speaker 15: want to expand, because that was the last thing i'd
Speaker 15: heard that they don't. But things change and now they
Speaker 15: do want to expand, and it's being led by Larry Tannebaum,
Speaker 15: the president of MLSC and the Argonaut's owner.
Speaker 1: He's the god that's leading this. It's a man that
Speaker 1: he's the most powerful man in Canadian sports. So I
Speaker 1: kind of feel if he wants to get this done,
Speaker 1: it'll get done. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I wanted to talk about Randy and Rosie's legacy
Speaker 3: as CFL commissioner. You just talk about the things that
Speaker 3: you felt like he did well and some of the
Speaker 3: things that were kind of this shortcoming.
Speaker 15: Well, I'll tell you I've seen him speak a couple
Speaker 15: of times here this week. This morning at the Athletes
Speaker 15: in Action breakfast, which I didn't see you at RED.
Speaker 15: It's a God centered event. Nothing you hate God or anything.
Speaker 2: But.
Speaker 15: Obviously from the Mrs So I was on there. I
Speaker 15: saw him at the Legends luncheon yesterday, the alumni event.
Speaker 15: Let's remember he's alumni. I mean, he's I like Randy
Speaker 15: read and I got into this yesterday on my show
Speaker 15: A rash can we say hates him for his own reasons,
Speaker 15: those aren't my reasons. And when I hear Randy speak, I'm.
Speaker 1: Like, he's a good guy, he's a player, he's a lot.
Speaker 15: I like Randy, and I think that that job was
Speaker 15: impossible to be successful at. You know, there hasn't been
Speaker 15: a good commissioner since Mark Cohen, which was the last
Speaker 15: time they expanded was on Mark's watch. So anyways, Randy's legacy,
Speaker 15: I things can end up being he transferred got the
Speaker 15: stable ownership into that VC Edmonton.
Speaker 1: That will be his legacy. But that's not a lot
Speaker 1: to hang your hat on. He tried.
Speaker 15: I'll give him credit for having the balls to try
Speaker 15: Global two point zero.
Speaker 1: I didn't like it at the time. It flopped, but
Speaker 1: at least he tried.
Speaker 15: I'm not gonna, you know, throw a guy under the
Speaker 15: bus or trying something and it didn't work.
Speaker 1: He thought we need to expand outside the Frenchy's borders.
Speaker 1: It didn't work. They didn't expand on his watch. That's
Speaker 1: his legacy.
Speaker 15: I'd like to say that there was more, but he
Speaker 15: is in a tough job because the owners run this league.
Speaker 1: Shit, that's what it is. That's the commissioner.
Speaker 15: From what I understand, Roger Goodell runs the NFL. That's
Speaker 15: the sense that I've been told. Probably gets his direction
Speaker 15: a lot from the owners.
Speaker 2: But it's more so this year in terms of and
Speaker 2: I think it was an article that came out, you know,
Speaker 2: with Brandy stepping down or getting you know, all the
Speaker 2: Allison a lot of it started back in twenty twenty
Speaker 2: with the failed COVID season. Sorry to begin is that
Speaker 2: you're understanding of just okay, we didn't do that. I
Speaker 2: think we really set the league back years right those
Speaker 2: next two years after COVID play was down and attendance
Speaker 2: was down, riding his dig until now to really kind
Speaker 2: of get back to I think where it was. Thoughts
Speaker 2: on that, and I mean, I know it's the agent
Speaker 2: history now, but really set the stage for where we're
Speaker 2: at now.
Speaker 15: I should actually mention I sat at the Legends luncheon
Speaker 15: with Randy who was at my table.
Speaker 1: I tweeted a photo of it so I could.
Speaker 15: It's probably where it started, and this Randy needs to
Speaker 15: wear this. He went to Parliament Hill and met with
Speaker 15: that Standing Committee basically asking for COVID funding, which in
Speaker 15: Canada read you wouldn't get it.
Speaker 1: Well mind, you probably got Biden checks too, like everybody
Speaker 1: in America.
Speaker 15: But Trudeau is handing out money to everybody, and they go, Randy, there,
Speaker 15: what do you want?
Speaker 1: Randy? As I say, how about one hundred and fifty
Speaker 1: million dollars? They laughed at him.
Speaker 15: He didn't have a business plan. That's on Randy and
Speaker 15: then he said, well, we'll take thirty. I don't I
Speaker 15: don't even know if they got that, So that that's
Speaker 15: where it started. And then the fact that they didn't
Speaker 15: play at all was probably the owner's decision. You think
Speaker 15: Randy didn't want to play. Of course he'd want to play,
Speaker 15: but they couldn't find a way to play. And we
Speaker 15: all know the CFL is not a major CANDI nor
Speaker 15: and pro league, but it's a pretty big pro league
Speaker 15: and they're the only one that didn't play out of
Speaker 15: all of those, so that is but that's not it
Speaker 15: maybe started there, but the fact is that they're not
Speaker 15: making money to the degree that the owners want is
Speaker 15: why they're looking for a new commissioner.
Speaker 1: Fall up here, we'll do a couple.
Speaker 2: We'll get Dave dave on because he's stand bys on
Speaker 2: his phone now, so that's good expectations.
Speaker 1: So yeah, the owners want more money.
Speaker 2: Want Whenever I'm talking with Dorothy last night, we're walking
Speaker 2: back and we're kind of prepping for the show, and
Speaker 2: I go, you know, you look at like the Cowboys
Speaker 2: eleven billion dollar franchise, Commanders sold right, seven billion dollar franchise.
Speaker 2: Obviously the CFL is not. But like you know, it's
Speaker 2: it's it's you know, it's not even closed, it's not
Speaker 2: even in the same world.
Speaker 1: And I just like, what are the expectations.
Speaker 2: I just feel so far offensive, you know, the Board
Speaker 2: of Governors wants whatever.
Speaker 1: I don't know even if that's possible for the next commissioner.
Speaker 15: I think it is possible. They need to change the
Speaker 15: way they do things. I mean, I was in before
Speaker 15: you and I even met. I was very deeply involved
Speaker 15: in this league. Read I was sitting in league meetings
Speaker 15: that the commissioner was in and he was saying, we
Speaker 15: need we need to go dark for six months in
Speaker 15: the offseason. I'm like, did he just say that? And
Speaker 15: I saw it and it wasn't Randy. It was a
Speaker 15: predecessor to him. And so they need to be everywhere.
Speaker 15: The NFL is everywhere, and like I'm everywhere, and I
Speaker 15: was at Super Bowl and I picked up stories there
Speaker 15: that Jerry Jones didn't want to play. That's why the
Speaker 15: Dallas Cowboys aren't playing any global games. You don't want
Speaker 15: to But nobody knows that because that's not reported. But
Speaker 15: Jerry's like, I want to make as much money in
Speaker 15: America as possible. They're like, thanks, Jerry, but we're gonna
Speaker 15: go play in London, in Germany and Brazil and you
Speaker 15: can stay home if you want. All that extra money
Speaker 15: went into the caut It's not because Jerry's not a genius,
Speaker 15: my god, he's not. But expansion, it's getting bigger being everywhere.
Speaker 15: They need to be a lot of help in the
Speaker 15: marketing end, and.
Speaker 1: I think it could happen. I don't think it's too late.
Speaker 1: You're seeing it here with BC.
Speaker 15: You know, a huge increase in Antennan is I'm major
Speaker 15: kicking the nuts that they're not in the game.
Speaker 1: But it can be done.
Speaker 15: But they need to change the way that they think.
Speaker 15: And I good luck to the next commissioner if he's able.
Speaker 2: To do that. My favorite tweet from last night, and
Speaker 2: he was talking about the Mike Tyson fight. They're like,
Speaker 2: as most people to go to Dallas, you know, they
Speaker 2: went and saw an event. Eighty thousand people left disappointed,
Speaker 2: just like they do the Cowboys. That was great and
Speaker 2: he thought, anything you want to go will be two more.
Speaker 1: We'll bring on day fair Well.
Speaker 4: Little Ben diagram there because one of the Jonas brothers
Speaker 4: was actually shown at the game or at the boxing
Speaker 4: match last night and now he's coming over here for
Speaker 4: media today, So kind of funny with that. But yeah,
Speaker 4: in terms of the ownership commitment, Lamar Doman was really
Speaker 4: very adamant yesterday about being really committed to this whole thing.
Speaker 4: I think he really sees this as not just his time,
Speaker 4: but generational time beyond him, of being able to have
Speaker 4: his family involved in this for many years to come.
Speaker 4: Do you get the sense overall that more owners in
Speaker 4: the CFL are feeling that much more committed? Is this
Speaker 4: the strongest CFL ownership has ever been?
Speaker 1: Wow, that's the narrative they would like put forth.
Speaker 15: And I see no reason to dispute that local ownership
Speaker 15: is important.
Speaker 1: Montreal's Alouettes are owned by Quebec lore. You know where
Speaker 1: they're from.
Speaker 15: Quebec Edmonton was bought by a major heavy construction operator.
Speaker 15: I live in Miami where the Dolphins are owned by
Speaker 15: a guy from New York and it doesn't go over well,
Speaker 15: you know, and the Dolphins are not a great organization, so.
Speaker 1: Local ownership was key. They oversaw that. I think I
Speaker 1: do think they are in a stable squad, and to
Speaker 1: be honest, it's the.
Speaker 15: Elephant in the room that you guys probably won't talk
Speaker 15: about and I haven't heard a lot of talk about
Speaker 15: it here, but the Saskatchewan rough Riders are like a
Speaker 15: weak link in the whole thing, which nobody's ever set.
Speaker 1: But they're not making money.
Speaker 15: They're not in the Gray Cup, but haven't been for
Speaker 15: over a decade, so who would have Well, what a
Speaker 15: PEG's the only other community on team now, but they're
Speaker 15: in the Gray Cup. But I guess it doesn't take
Speaker 15: much to get Saskatchewan back if they need to start.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I want to build off of that with Saskatchewan, Like,
Speaker 3: I just want your thoughts on their season this year.
Speaker 3: Would you classify it to success? Obviously it was a
Speaker 3: bit up and down. You had that skid in the
Speaker 3: middle of the season, but they were able to finish
Speaker 3: strong and obviously they didn't get what they wanted they
Speaker 3: lost last week.
Speaker 15: But your thoughts on Saskatchewan season, it's all perspective, that's it.
Speaker 15: However you want to look at it. I would say
Speaker 15: it's pretty successful. And Corey Mace to take a team
Speaker 15: from where it was as a rookie head coach to
Speaker 15: where they finished up hosting a home playoff game.
Speaker 1: And losing probably is a better job than Jason was.
Speaker 1: But I can see why Jason won.
Speaker 15: But there's a case to be made why Corey Mays
Speaker 15: should be coaching here for what he did in his
Speaker 15: rookie season. Forget about the seven game win. The skid
Speaker 15: shouldn't matter, So that that kind of answers your question.
Speaker 15: But the other thing is they haven't been in a
Speaker 15: great Cup in over a decade. The stadium is nowhere
Speaker 15: near full at all. They do have their problems as well,
Speaker 15: and their quarterbacks contract is up, so it's not like
Speaker 15: they're going into next year on a huge wave of momentum, you.
Speaker 1: Know, And that's not idea.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's kind of almost just a bit surprising to
Speaker 4: me as an outsider to see so many Saskatchewan fans
Speaker 4: and yet when I watched the games, like you said,
Speaker 4: you'll just see like rows of empty seats, even during
Speaker 4: like major games. I find that a bit surprising. Is
Speaker 4: there any reason for that or particular reasons?
Speaker 1: Oh? Yeah, they consciously have broken the tie with the community.
Speaker 1: I've seen it. It's not like they used to do.
Speaker 1: They don't have the community involvement and it's a different place, guys.
Speaker 15: I mean, I was the voice of the team for
Speaker 15: twenty years, and I'd never really left saskatchewand like most
Speaker 15: of the people there, and all I'd heard from the
Speaker 15: football people was this is just like Alabama, this is
Speaker 15: just like Mississippi.
Speaker 1: I didn't really get it until I went to Alabama Mississippi.
Speaker 1: I'm like, Oh, I get it.
Speaker 15: It's all there is here, That's all they care about, right,
Speaker 15: But they fractured that relationship with the fans.
Speaker 1: Consciously. They've tried to be the Dallas Cowboys, I e.
Speaker 1: Make money. You don't need to win to make money.
Speaker 1: They just forgot half of that. They're not winning championships
Speaker 1: and they're not making money either.
Speaker 15: And now once you get behind that eight ball, I
Speaker 15: would think it's pretty hard to come back.
Speaker 2: Well, Rod, thank you so much. Appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 2: I got Dave standing by, busy I running around.
Speaker 1: Appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Rob heres and thank you so much. Safe travels back
Speaker 2: to Miami. Dave Naylor TSN Insider coming on. We've kept
Speaker 2: Dave standing by, who's been back and forth, but we
Speaker 2: got him on. Dave said he'll make time, happy to do.
Speaker 2: We don't have far Han this year. Normally far hanted
Speaker 2: Naylor come as a co pair, but far haunts the
Speaker 2: child who's playing football today.
Speaker 1: Loser.
Speaker 2: Ah, we're gonna talk CFO expansion in the States here,
Speaker 2: but first off, thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 1: Next for standing by. First off, how are you doing.
Speaker 7: I'm good. You know, it's a it's a week that
Speaker 7: sometimes feels like it last forever and goes by quickly
Speaker 7: at the same time. I don't know how to describe
Speaker 7: Great Cup week. But we'll wake up tomorrow, we'll do
Speaker 7: the game, my twenty seventh Great Cup. And I think
Speaker 7: this has been really positive when the weather hasn't helped
Speaker 7: a little bit. Obviously some of the turnout in the
Speaker 7: rain and touch and the Lion's not beating the game,
Speaker 7: But I mean, I still think you feel really positive
Speaker 7: vibe just throughout the entire week.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's my question.
Speaker 2: Obviously, Google League and Ugly in here right, huge family Zone,
Speaker 2: Zip Liones, everything going on tomorrow really came out and
Speaker 2: a lot of money and time and energy spent by
Speaker 2: the BAC lines.
Speaker 1: How big of a failure was this season for them
Speaker 1: on the football field.
Speaker 7: Well, I think if you looked at where they were,
Speaker 7: you know, first five weeks in the season where they
Speaker 7: were even after ten or eleven weeks, and the additions
Speaker 7: they made, you know, past the middle of August to
Speaker 7: try to make sure they were here. And I'm talking
Speaker 7: about Matthew Betts and Nathan Rorke, and they admittedly went
Speaker 7: over the salary cap, which is not illegal in the
Speaker 7: league if you're willing to do it and pay the
Speaker 7: fines and that you can do that. But unquestionably that
Speaker 7: was the expectation. And you know, I think really where
Speaker 7: it got away from him was when they had that
Speaker 7: game in October at Saskatchewan and it basically winner gets
Speaker 7: home field playoff. They didn't win the game. You know
Speaker 7: that that to me was where the Lions season really came.
Speaker 7: And look, I think with and I say this with
Speaker 7: all due respect to Nathan Rourke, but I think it
Speaker 7: would have served him better, the Lions and Vernon Adams
Speaker 7: better if he just played it out in the National
Speaker 7: Football League, you know. And I would think that if
Speaker 7: Nathan knew how this was all going on hold with
Speaker 7: the game back, I don't want to speak for him,
Speaker 7: but I think, you know, I might have done things
Speaker 7: different and just said, hey, I'm gonna come back in
Speaker 7: the offseason. I thought when you saw Nathan down the
Speaker 7: stretch of the season, he just seemed kind of mentally fatigue.
Speaker 7: And I think that comes from being on five teams
Speaker 7: in twelve months, you know, in two different lakes.
Speaker 4: Yeah, in regards to that, I agree with you. It
Speaker 4: seemed like it seemed like it was VA's team from
Speaker 4: the get go, and then the chemistry kind of got
Speaker 4: messed with. But the other thing about the VC that
Speaker 4: I point out a couple of weeks ago that kind
Speaker 4: of surprised me is just sort of the lack of
Speaker 4: physicality that the team had. And this was especially so
Speaker 4: considering they brought in Matthew Betts, they brought in Christian Connington.
Speaker 4: Were you surprised by kind of how soft they were,
Speaker 4: especially with like run defeated defense or just in general.
Speaker 1: An offensive line too.
Speaker 7: I wasn't because I've been listening to my colleague Baronology,
Speaker 7: you know, screaming my ear about it, you know, the
Speaker 7: whole second half of the season, as everybody was talking
Speaker 7: about quarterbacks and who should play, and you know, as
Speaker 7: a VA or is it Nathan and that he was
Speaker 7: talking about defense, you know, and and that ultimately doesn't
Speaker 7: draw as much attention as a sexy quarterback controversy does.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I was kind of surprised to see that.
Speaker 1: And you know, it's funny, was it was.
Speaker 7: A weird year for guys coming back from the National
Speaker 7: Football League, right Like Nathan Roar came back, didn't go
Speaker 7: so well, Matthew Betts came back, didn't go so well,
Speaker 7: Austin Matt came back, didn't go so well, and you know,
Speaker 7: and those are all guys that I don't think have
Speaker 7: you know, like we've seen some times wore young guys,
Speaker 7: they're really hungry in the CFL, they go to the
Speaker 7: National Football League, they come back, that dream is dead
Speaker 7: and they're not the same player. I don't think those
Speaker 7: any of those guys fit that profile.
Speaker 1: You know, at all. So it's it's even more surprised.
Speaker 1: I think they're all more likely.
Speaker 7: To be Adam big Hills, you know, came back to
Speaker 7: the National Football League and there's a better player than
Speaker 7: they ever were, and they were good before they left.
Speaker 7: That's how they got there. So it was a weird
Speaker 7: year in that regard, you know that and that having
Speaker 7: that presence especially, you know, there was just a way
Speaker 7: where they won that touchdown Pacific game, and it felt like,
Speaker 7: are they gonna lose again this year?
Speaker 1: Evidently yes, go for yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3: So obviously we're here in BC and there's a lot
Speaker 3: of rumors about what's gonna happen with this team's you know,
Speaker 3: Rick Campbell's situation, the GM situation. Then we have what's
Speaker 3: happening in Edmonton and they're vacant GM and head coach positions.
Speaker 3: What can you tell us about those two situations.
Speaker 7: Well, the Lion's line and messaging, and this comes from
Speaker 7: the very top of the organization you're talking about president
Speaker 7: ownership level. Is that they will begin the discussion about
Speaker 7: Rick Campbell's future next week. And then they gathered the
Speaker 7: information and you know that my Mar's been out of
Speaker 7: the country. They're running a great cup. I think that's true,
Speaker 7: but I think it also means that they could still
Speaker 7: know where this is trending, even if the decision hasn't
Speaker 7: been made, and if they do go a different direction.
Speaker 1: Now people are playing this is how we do it right,
Speaker 1: You look for clues.
Speaker 7: I mean, I think ed Hervey's going to be the
Speaker 7: GM in Edmonton's my fault, you know, the ty Cats.
Speaker 7: He doesn't seem to be not conducting business on that
Speaker 7: behalf of the tay Cats until this is a resulting.
Speaker 7: And so you know, ed Hervey already hired Rick Campbell
Speaker 7: once NBC, right, and there seems to be a repatriation
Speaker 7: of Edmonton people with Edmonton history in Edmonton. So you know,
Speaker 7: I think a lot of this is speculation, but I
Speaker 7: think it's intelligence speculation. And I sometimes say, we get
Speaker 7: into this time of year, there's a very thin line
Speaker 7: between reporting and predicting, you know, like you'd like to
Speaker 7: see people that reporter prediction, I can tell you, right,
Speaker 7: So I think that line, you know, trying to be
Speaker 7: clear about that line. A lot of this is I
Speaker 7: don't think any of this is done. But if the
Speaker 7: dominoes fell that way, I don't think it surprised anybody.
Speaker 7: You know that's that, you know, two weeks from now,
Speaker 7: Rick Campbell's the head coach at Edmonton and Ed Hervey's GM,
Speaker 7: and I don't I don't think that would surprise a
Speaker 7: lot of people.
Speaker 2: Just curious your thoughts on Rick in general. I mean,
Speaker 2: obviously VC is my team. I support, I appreciate everyone
Speaker 2: that's done. You know, I can separate down out of
Speaker 2: work for the team and and and you know the
Speaker 2: criticisms Rick and even the McAboy, right, And like you said,
Speaker 2: we've known these issues. It's been very similar issues the
Speaker 2: last couple of years going into Winnipeg, being unable to
Speaker 2: stop the run, being on physical, all those things. So
Speaker 2: I guess just like overall thoughts and to help what
Speaker 2: Rick and Neal have done here and they just it's
Speaker 2: just so frustrated to me as a fan to kind
Speaker 2: of like, no, we can see these issues and it
Speaker 2: feels like they're not being addressed. They brought in Nathan,
Speaker 2: they had nothing to do with the eighty percent of
Speaker 2: the issues that the team was having outside of that.
Speaker 2: So to me, I'm just curious kind of your thoughts
Speaker 2: overall of kind of how this has gone. Well, I mean,
Speaker 2: it's I'm just on the quarterback thing.
Speaker 7: I think it was logical that when when a guy
Speaker 7: like Bernon Adams, who has as much commitment to that
Speaker 7: team from the off season on, loses his opportunity, you know,
Speaker 7: your best case scenario is that not all the locker
Speaker 7: room is going to be on board for that.
Speaker 1: And that's not a knock on date.
Speaker 7: It's just like they rode with me a you know,
Speaker 7: from the off season on, and we know what a
Speaker 7: team first guy he is. It's very, very difficult to
Speaker 7: make that kind of switch midseason and not have it
Speaker 7: flow overflow into other aspects of your team, you know.
Speaker 7: But I guess I don't really have an answer for
Speaker 7: you why that, Because it seemed like the Lions teams
Speaker 7: are trending the right direction. They're trying the right direction.
Speaker 7: Last year, you know, you had some holes and things
Speaker 7: to address, and earlier in the year, I mean, look
Speaker 7: at some of the things that have happened with this
Speaker 7: team positively. I mean, justin kin with a backup in Saskatchewan.
Speaker 1: Let the league of receiving.
Speaker 7: You know, I thought Williams stand in particularly the first
Speaker 7: two thirds of the season.
Speaker 1: It was a real nice presence that they hadn't had, right.
Speaker 7: That was one of those things, you know, who can
Speaker 7: we give it to that can get us three yards
Speaker 7: when we need it, but could also get us thirty
Speaker 7: every once in a while. And they brought him in.
Speaker 7: So it was then And you say, you mentioned me
Speaker 7: coming to bats every once in a while. Football, you
Speaker 7: look at the organization, you go, they aren't a lot
Speaker 7: of good players, but somehow they're not a great team,
Speaker 7: and that that was kind of the line like I
Speaker 7: had of trouble going personnel wise and saying, well, that's
Speaker 7: allows the player that's allowed. Of the player, Barron could
Speaker 7: do it maybe better than I did, would be watching
Speaker 7: them up close and plays closer attention to them. But
Speaker 7: it doesn't strike me as a team that on an
Speaker 7: individual individual basis on either side of the ball had
Speaker 7: like extring weaknesses and personnel. It reminds me a few
Speaker 7: years ago in Winnipeg when they had like individually the
Speaker 7: guys in the secondary were great. I remember talking to
Speaker 7: the GM Kyle Walton's like, we love all our guys.
Speaker 7: Second your individually, they just don't play out well together.
Speaker 7: And that's that's kind of frustrating.
Speaker 2: Well, it's it's kind of like the Jets this season,
Speaker 2: and obviously Rogers isn't very different, you know, but all that,
Speaker 2: but just they here, We've assembled every great player in
Speaker 2: the world and everything, but none.
Speaker 7: Of us play who he mean, there's just no Remember
Speaker 7: twenty years ago the Philadelphia Eagles dream Team. Remember what
Speaker 7: happened to that tho was when they had Michael Vick
Speaker 7: and the dreamy and uh, you know, like awesome one,
Speaker 7: be awesome one. They signed all these guys and don't
Speaker 7: look how they did. You know, it's not it's not
Speaker 7: that kind of game.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Vince Young did not foretell a prophecy there he
Speaker 4: thought he did, but to stay on the quarterback for
Speaker 4: a moment. Obviously, Bernond Adams was very open about the
Speaker 4: very real possibility he will not be here in BC
Speaker 4: next year. I know this is always a compliment his
Speaker 4: team was, so it certainly it certainly was. How do
Speaker 4: you see the quarterback market shaking out of? This is
Speaker 4: a conversation every year, but it really seems like there
Speaker 4: gonna be a lot of movement.
Speaker 7: I think it's really interesting because a lot of years
Speaker 7: it's been like, are there gonna be enough quarterbacks and
Speaker 7: backup quarter quality backups to.
Speaker 1: Go around the league? And this year we kind of
Speaker 1: have a glut and I haven't.
Speaker 7: Seen that before. And I should say we have a
Speaker 7: glut of a players with a really high floor. We
Speaker 7: don't necessarily have a lot of players with a high
Speaker 7: seal in the league this year, but in terms of
Speaker 7: guys that you look at and say, yeah, that guy
Speaker 7: could be a starter in the league.
Speaker 1: That guy could be a solid number two.
Speaker 7: I think one through eighteen next year we could have
Speaker 7: better one to two combinations across the league than we've
Speaker 7: ever seen. And somebody is the product of younger players
Speaker 7: getting to play. Not not proved for everybody to be
Speaker 7: a starter, But you look at it. Everybody said three
Speaker 7: months ago, well, when they trade BA, they got to
Speaker 7: trade in the East Division, they got they can't trade
Speaker 7: within the division.
Speaker 1: Where would that be?
Speaker 7: Ain't going to the ain't going to Toronto, Ain't going
Speaker 7: to Ottawa, like going to Montreal, and you're not going
Speaker 7: to hand like.
Speaker 1: The only one of those situations we're not pretty certain.
Speaker 7: About is Montreal, where they may have to make a
Speaker 7: choice and they is there a way for them to
Speaker 7: keep both guys. I talked to Dannyvijoch at the end
Speaker 7: of the day, it's like, yeah, there might be, but
Speaker 7: we're very cognizant of not wanting to get into one
Speaker 7: of these situations where there's a weekly conversation about who.
Speaker 1: Are starting quarterbacks.
Speaker 7: They you know, they kind of see what went on
Speaker 7: on the West Coast and maybe we don't want to have,
Speaker 7: you know, two guys with similar contracts that have them
Speaker 7: been beating against each other after the week of practice. Now,
Speaker 7: so I think they're going to go one or the other.
Speaker 7: But then you go, okay, so Ba's moving somewhere. It's
Speaker 7: going to be in the West, probably gonna be Calgary.
Speaker 1: I mean, the PJ.
Speaker 7: Walker contract that they signed is friendly enough that you
Speaker 7: could have him and somebody else. It's basically a playtime
Speaker 7: deal with you know, two hundred thousand base leave some room.
Speaker 7: I think Saskatchewan. I think they're satisfied with Trevor. But
Speaker 7: life is about options, you know, and if that's that's
Speaker 7: an option, they can certainly go there. And and Edmonton,
Speaker 7: I mean, how do we predict until we really know
Speaker 7: who that coaches. But maybe if it's or Campbell, you know,
Speaker 7: that makes a Vernon Adams move. Does he pull at
Speaker 7: Jordan mccimick like there's you know, there's possibilities there, right,
Speaker 7: So I mean, I think Bernond Adams is gonna be playing.
Speaker 7: I would probably handicap him Calgary, Edminston's Saskatchewan. You know,
Speaker 7: it's a likelihood. But it was a little awkward where
Speaker 7: you know, Lion's management is not acknowledging what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: This offseason and Nathan mark Is, you know, like he said,
Speaker 1: I know where I'm gonna be next, you know, so
Speaker 1: that means spurted out of taking a beat it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting for sure.
Speaker 3: So my question is just overall, you look at the
Speaker 3: season as a whole, what is the biggest storyline up
Speaker 3: this whole season?
Speaker 7: Is the big I mean, it's hard to get away
Speaker 7: from the Bombers, you know, the zero to four start
Speaker 7: and the finish right that to me, and I think
Speaker 7: it was just almost and then this was maybe just
Speaker 7: a sense of the parody of the league was just
Speaker 7: how many teams went on either good runs or bad runs,
Speaker 7: Like you know, Saskatchewan went seven winless. You know, Ottawa
Speaker 7: nearly lost like what their last seven, you know, and
Speaker 7: they were eight three and one in one point.
Speaker 1: You have reliances who were five and oh you have
Speaker 1: Saskatchewan it was five and oh.
Speaker 7: So it was a weird year of streaks and again
Speaker 7: and Edmonton, you know, and again the streaks of not
Speaker 7: getting beat by thirty but getting beat by less of
Speaker 7: a touchdown. You know, it just kind of made it
Speaker 7: hard to sort of separate the teams, even though the
Speaker 7: records in the standings were very distinctive. You look at
Speaker 7: it and said, but there's three walk off.
Speaker 1: Losses there, right, that's not necessarily defining for your team.
Speaker 7: But I think it's hard to get past the Bomber
Speaker 7: thing when you think of what they've accomplished and to
Speaker 7: get off to an Owen court start with those home
Speaker 7: losses and looking nothing like they did. And you know,
Speaker 7: Michael Shay the other day, you don't need a need
Speaker 7: jerk solution if you know why the things are happening
Speaker 7: are happening. And one of the things that I talked
Speaker 7: to when I did the coaching interview this week, you
Speaker 7: mentioned one thing more. You know, he talked about the injuries,
Speaker 7: he talked about guys not participating preseason, and he also
Speaker 7: talked about that there were also some mistakes. They were
Speaker 7: making the same mistakes more than once. Right, they say that, hey,
Speaker 7: you make mistakes at football, but you got to correct
Speaker 7: them and you can start making the same mistakes becomes
Speaker 7: a little bit different. Turnovers, those kinds of things. But
Speaker 7: to me, the Winni Big Blue Bombers are the story
Speaker 7: of this season.
Speaker 2: I want to tell we'll do this Saint Lewis thing
Speaker 2: before you get out of here, I promise, but you know,
Speaker 2: I want to get your thoughts. We talked a lot
Speaker 2: obviously Randy today and everything. Your thoughts on you, Lany's,
Speaker 2: Randy's legacy.
Speaker 1: And all of that. Kind of your thoughts is, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know, where do we move next to this league? Well?
Speaker 7: I think unfortunately, two things that will remember is is
Speaker 7: he had two really hard, two really big initiatives, neither
Speaker 7: of which came to really the fruition that people hope.
Speaker 7: One was expansion, which is a tough nut. You know,
Speaker 7: I know he said on the.
Speaker 1: Stage the other day he thinks the tenth team is
Speaker 1: in Canada.
Speaker 7: Boy, I'll tell you, trying to finance a CFL suitable
Speaker 7: stadium in a market that does not have a team,
Speaker 7: I mean, I won't use the word impossible, but I
Speaker 7: hope nobody gives me that challenge. I mean, I just
Speaker 7: I think it's really really hard. Outdoor stadium construction in
Speaker 7: Canada is really difficult, and when you're talking about the
Speaker 7: standard what's needed for a CFL team and the economics
Speaker 7: of the league, I just don't know if it's doable.
Speaker 7: I don't know if you'd ever get there. And I
Speaker 7: say this would respector Randy's efforts. I don't think we're
Speaker 7: any closer today than we were the day and office.
Speaker 7: The other one was CFL two point zero. You know,
Speaker 7: the theory was that if you got players from around
Speaker 7: the world playing in our league, you can create audiences
Speaker 7: in their countries. To why it didn't, I didn't really.
Speaker 7: I was willing to suspend disbelief out of the gate.
Speaker 1: On that one.
Speaker 7: I was like, Okay, it's outside of the box. I
Speaker 7: don't really see it. And you know, now I was
Speaker 7: thinking about the other day. I was like, there were
Speaker 7: ten Canadians playing in a second tier German soccer league.
Speaker 7: When people watch that on streaming, you know, like, and
Speaker 7: I'm when I say second tier, I'm not trying to
Speaker 7: be disreging Cee a Bellot to a global audience as
Speaker 7: a second tier league, right if they know the national
Speaker 7: football so you're gonna show them something else. I think,
Speaker 7: you know, it's kind of unfortunate that those two major initiatives,
Speaker 7: neither of them really helped the bottom line of the league.
Speaker 7: But I think he look, three owners came in on
Speaker 7: the right that was important, and two of them were
Speaker 7: the exits of Bob Wetnall and David Brailey, who were
Speaker 7: like absolutely for better or words, there was a bit
Speaker 7: of ball, but we're absolute pillars of this league, you know,
Speaker 7: for a quarter of a century, and you replaced them
Speaker 7: with Pierre Carl Palado and a Mark Gong check Mark.
Speaker 1: I think where the game is right now.
Speaker 7: You know that the tweaking that they did, I think
Speaker 7: it's produced a very very compelling product. You know, that's
Speaker 7: not an issue that anybody's going to have. And you know,
Speaker 7: and I the genius sports thing, we don't really understand it.
Speaker 7: It's digitization of our How.
Speaker 2: Frustrating is that, like we're three years in now, we
Speaker 2: don't understand what's going on.
Speaker 7: Well, it's basically to you know, give the league data
Speaker 7: that it can use for broadcast and gambling and look
Speaker 7: at it hasn't brought the returns that people hoped, but
Speaker 7: it's also.
Speaker 1: Was promised to be more of a long term thing.
Speaker 7: And you know, Randy certainly, when he's challenged about it, says,
Speaker 7: you know, I believe the things that I've made foundations
Speaker 7: for will bring returns to the leagues in the future.
Speaker 7: So you know, all those things again, I think there's
Speaker 7: a bit of an assumption that the league was always
Speaker 7: going to survive the pandemic, I mean, not necessarily. There
Speaker 7: was a reason they got into bed with the exbl
Speaker 7: and for you know, as much as I reported about
Speaker 7: how far that was down the path, you know, in
Speaker 7: conversations I've had subsequently, including this week, it was a
Speaker 7: lot further down the path, and even we were reporting
Speaker 7: and we were getting criticism for.
Speaker 1: Reporting that it was further down the path that it was.
Speaker 6: And I.
Speaker 7: Think got with Duane Johnson, they got into com like
Speaker 7: with him as a participant.
Speaker 1: They got into how do we change the field, how
Speaker 1: do we do this?
Speaker 7: Like they were they were creating a hybrid game between
Speaker 7: the Canadian and American football, and they were deep into
Speaker 7: those conversations about what the game would look like. So
Speaker 7: you know that was not fantasy, and I know they
Speaker 7: never it was. You know, we're talking about talking. They
Speaker 7: weren't talking about talking. They were talking about where the
Speaker 7: outbig the field should be, and that's what they were
Speaker 7: talking about. So you know, that was real and I
Speaker 7: and I you know, I've taken a lot of criticism
Speaker 7: for this, but I'll double down on it and clarify
Speaker 7: a little bit. I never said they should merge with
Speaker 7: the XFL. I said they should explore this bullet, that
Speaker 7: they should walk down this path and see where it
Speaker 7: leads them, and ultimately they decided it didn't lead them
Speaker 7: where they wanted to be.
Speaker 1: Okay, it probably made the right decision to give it.
Speaker 7: What happened to the XFL, But you know, I think
Speaker 7: that that you know that, and Brandy's made the point
Speaker 7: that the conversation with the XFL did allow him to
Speaker 7: give him some leverage to get some things done on
Speaker 7: the internal business of the league that he might not
Speaker 7: have been able to get without having that. So it was,
Speaker 7: you know, it was a bit of a it did
Speaker 7: turn into a productive element for it. So again, give
Speaker 7: them a check mark. The leap got through the pandemic,
Speaker 7: you know, So that's that's another one. So most commissioners
Speaker 7: got some excess, we got some check marks. But I
Speaker 7: mean I've covered like seven full time commissioners and two
Speaker 7: or three interim guys as well, and they've all basically
Speaker 7: been shown the door for the same bottom line reason,
Speaker 7: didn't generate enough revenue for the teams.
Speaker 1: And I think, you know, there's an interesting point for
Speaker 1: the league.
Speaker 7: Do you want to bring in another commissioner in five
Speaker 7: years be showing him the door because he couldn't tell
Speaker 7: your bicycle faster than the last guy, or do you
Speaker 7: want a new bicycle and my new bicycle. That's when
Speaker 7: we get into the conversation about, you know, fundamentally changing
Speaker 7: the league and what that might mean and how that
Speaker 7: might happen.
Speaker 2: Right, so let's see this, and then we got Timmy
Speaker 2: Clippe excuse me standing by Utah Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: Right, we've seen the XFL.
Speaker 2: The only one of the really only I would say
Speaker 2: success is you know, it's funny that we talked now
Speaker 2: about the XFL CFL talks and my thoughts on the
Speaker 2: league and other ship versus now and but I was
Speaker 2: an attire on things thin and I'm pretty disappointed right now.
Speaker 2: But you know, we've we've seen that, you know, captivated
Speaker 2: the audience in Saint Louis and Europe. Proponent of the lease,
Speaker 2: exploring that, figuring out maybe do we move to Ceabo
Speaker 2: tea the thoughts on that here.
Speaker 1: I don't think that they will immediately.
Speaker 2: Adopt a three down game and you can't just play,
Speaker 2: you know, plug and play like they did back in
Speaker 2: the day.
Speaker 1: But thoughts on that.
Speaker 7: I'm one of the few journalists here who lived through
Speaker 7: the US expansion era. In fact, my kids exist because
Speaker 7: of the US expansion era. I met their mom in
Speaker 7: an airport on my way to a Memphis Mad Dogs
Speaker 7: for Maha Barrakudiski. I always tell my kids, so he
Speaker 7: would be really grateful for the US expansion era. Without it,
Speaker 7: you wouldn't let you wouldn't be, it wouldn't exist. And
Speaker 7: there were a lot of interesting lessons about that, and
Speaker 7: I think I got to put some context on the
Speaker 7: US expansion era of the early nine mid nineties.
Speaker 1: It was driven completely by crisis.
Speaker 7: They never would have done it the way they did
Speaker 7: it if they weren't like running for their lives. And
Speaker 7: you can talk to people like Larry Smith and John
Speaker 7: Torrey who can walk you through some of the risks
Speaker 7: they took and some of the things they ignore because
Speaker 7: you know, the check cleared man, you know, like that
Speaker 7: was that was where the league was living. So first
Speaker 7: thing I think if you were going to expand to
Speaker 7: the US, the time to do it is when you're
Speaker 7: not in a crisis, when you don't have owners around
Speaker 7: the board of governor saying you know, I'm out of
Speaker 7: this league in a year. If we can't think and
Speaker 7: you're not so, I think, you know, you can do
Speaker 7: it more by design and strategically than with you know,
Speaker 7: the trying to outrun the grim Reaper, which is what
Speaker 7: they were doing in the early nineties.
Speaker 1: And Baltimore was unique. You know, Baltimore had a huge
Speaker 1: anger of the National Football League, and I think it's
Speaker 1: reflective of what is in Saint Louis now.
Speaker 7: And you know, when Baltimore had an opportunity, I mean
Speaker 7: they were selling season tickets and.
Speaker 1: Enter the gate.
Speaker 7: They had a thing at one time called the Indie
Speaker 7: Challenge where they were trying to get their season ticket
Speaker 7: number over the Indianapolis Colts, the team that had left.
Speaker 7: I don't think they did it, but they probably generated
Speaker 7: some interesting some more season tickets just by people trying
Speaker 7: to get there.
Speaker 1: And you had people leaned in on it and they
Speaker 1: basically said, that league left us.
Speaker 7: This league's serving us, and we don't care for three
Speaker 7: down football, we don't care for playing in Saskatchewan.
Speaker 1: We're in.
Speaker 7: And again I haven't been to Saint Louis, I haven't
Speaker 7: talked to anybody, but I think if I was to
Speaker 7: answer the question why is Saint Louis so much more
Speaker 7: successful than all the other alternative football markets. It's because
Speaker 7: that spirit that existed in Baltimore in the early nineties
Speaker 7: exists in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: And Reeve and I disagree on this.
Speaker 7: I think if you if they were part of the
Speaker 7: Canadian Football League, I think people are going to do
Speaker 7: what they did in Baltimore, want to show up and
Speaker 7: cheer for their football team, and cheer professional football and
Speaker 7: don't care if you punt on third down or if
Speaker 7: you know there's a rouge or a or a no
Speaker 7: yards penalty. I think the league needs to do a
Speaker 7: better job of educating this American fans if it ever
Speaker 7: goes down that road. But you know, I just came
Speaker 7: out on a radio in any one day someone said,
Speaker 7: you know, the UFL might not play out in twenty
Speaker 7: twenty five, and I just said, if I was a CFL,
Speaker 7: I would try and pick off Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: It's a ten team and the.
Speaker 7: Other issues can come up as competitive If you can't,
Speaker 7: you can't mandate Canadian players look thirty years ago, yet
Speaker 7: have ten Canadian starters and the teams for the most
Speaker 7: part held row now it's seven, and I think we
Speaker 7: all know the quality of those seven compared to the
Speaker 7: quality of those ten, you know, compared to the generation.
Speaker 1: I don't think you necessarily have a competitive issue with that. Well, Dave,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Thanks for my thanks for the patient
Speaker 1: and annual read. This is an annual right good, It's good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dave's that by here, we're texting, we got anything on.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it, Dave. Thanks for spending the time. We'll
Speaker 2: see you later on.
Speaker 7: Hey, thanks very much, and it's see your next breakup
Speaker 7: and winn bag.
Speaker 1: But we'll be DM well, I'm sure, yeah, we'll be there.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to Saint Louis. What the UFL kind of
Speaker 1: collapses in June. I'm sure we'll talk there.
Speaker 2: All right, let's get timid Cliffe in here, who wants
Speaker 2: to hop off for this one?
Speaker 1: Real quick? Okay, we'll get Jason out. Andy's on.
Speaker 2: We're doing the line change here, Tim and Cliffe here
Speaker 2: dabbing date Naylor like I said, guys like and subscribe.
Speaker 2: We got the alright, excuse me, We've got Tim Clippe
Speaker 2: coming on, Brian Scott's coming on. I think we got
Speaker 2: Matt Baker and then Dorothy will close down. I see
Speaker 2: Jim walking by too. Let's get ah, Well, let's get Jim.
Speaker 1: In the minute.
Speaker 2: He's coming there for like he's coming on. Well, we'll
Speaker 2: Jim's got to wait a minute. But let's get them
Speaker 2: on here. Let's get the moment we're tracking with Dave
Speaker 2: the other bayway like and subscribe, join the channel.
Speaker 1: Let's do all the good things here. Come on in, Fellas.
Speaker 1: We got Cliffey. Here, we got Tim Capper. You can
Speaker 1: use that. I'll hold Tim's for him.
Speaker 2: Come on here, get on there, yeah, Tim, Now, welcome, gentlemen,
Speaker 2: the Outlet's Fight Day Podcast.
Speaker 1: We're here. We were really give my hand shake you.
Speaker 4: Let's as the joke we always say is shake my hand,
Speaker 4: right the guy on the airplane, I want to I
Speaker 4: want to shake your hand.
Speaker 2: You know, we really were hoping for a Montreal BC
Speaker 2: great Cup. Really would have just combined all of our forces.
Speaker 2: We are both so well here, what are your thoughts
Speaker 2: on this? And then in Toronto kind of the you know,
Speaker 2: the big upset in the game and that crazy place.
Speaker 1: I don't know, Yes, we can call it an upset.
Speaker 9: I guess I am kind of biased, but I mean
Speaker 9: It's just that I look at the result of the
Speaker 9: game based off what happened, is that it's more than
Speaker 9: gave them the game than Toronto winning the game in
Speaker 9: my opinion.
Speaker 1: But I mean, it's it is what it is.
Speaker 9: Toronto's here at the Great Cup, and whin it. They's
Speaker 9: here at the Great Cup. So I mean, not much,
Speaker 9: really much what I can say about it. It's disappointing,
Speaker 9: it really is.
Speaker 16: That's real, absolutely really just the mistakes aren't made in
Speaker 16: the first quarter, the fumbles not just from Frajaro but
Speaker 16: also Walter.
Speaker 1: Fletcher as well, the giveaways.
Speaker 16: I mean, there's just Montreal just dug themselves a hole
Speaker 16: that they simply couldn't climb out of. They certainly tried
Speaker 16: like hell to do so, but they just weren't able
Speaker 16: to get past those mistakes.
Speaker 1: And hey, credit to Toronto.
Speaker 16: Despite Chad Kelly getting injured in a horrific way, Toronto
Speaker 16: still did what they had to do and they got
Speaker 16: the w.
Speaker 1: So that's why they're here and that's why the elements
Speaker 1: are watching the game on TV.
Speaker 2: I want to get your thoughts the Cody Davis, Alexander
Speaker 2: Ry and and obviously you guys tracked the team way
Speaker 2: more than I do, especially this year. I've just been
Speaker 2: out to launch immediately a lot, doing my best to
Speaker 2: kind of keep track of everything. But what's going on there,
Speaker 2: you know, it feels like it's too much of a
Speaker 2: good thing. I'm just curious your thoughts on that and
Speaker 2: what's gonna happen.
Speaker 9: I've already said it multiple times and would have been
Speaker 9: here at break up around the pod this past week.
Speaker 9: I've never expected to have a quarterback controversy on my
Speaker 9: fingo card for the Alouetz in the offseason.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be very interesting and and you know, especially
Speaker 1: for those whoppen.
Speaker 9: To watch the Alouetz post game, you know, state of
Speaker 9: the Press conference at the end of the year, just
Speaker 9: the answers alone coming from Danny Mack and from Jason
Speaker 9: mossa seen, in my opinion to be very telling. Javis
Speaker 9: Alider to me, whether he was brought you know, whether
Speaker 9: even though he's not a Canadian kid, he's still a
Speaker 9: homegrown talent in my opinion, because of how he was
Speaker 9: brought in by Danny Mack and he's waited his time
Speaker 9: and he has you've seen in the four plus games
Speaker 9: that he started this year, even though you have four
Speaker 9: wins and then won in relief, the guy really deserves
Speaker 9: a shot.
Speaker 1: How is this gonna play out this offseason?
Speaker 9: It's gonna be very interesting if you'd be curious to
Speaker 9: see what type of decisions that they make, whether they
Speaker 9: Ouski won or they get rid of one and then
Speaker 9: we signed another.
Speaker 1: But that that's that will be one of the for
Speaker 1: the season. Curious your thoughts.
Speaker 16: Yeah, it's gonna be a very interesting situation, even if
Speaker 16: you go by the body language and the answers to
Speaker 16: the questions from both Cody Fichardo and from Davis Alexander.
Speaker 16: They both want to be the man, and David Alexander
Speaker 16: has proven that he can be a starter in this
Speaker 16: league and win games in this league. Codif Fiardo obviously
Speaker 16: brought a great Cup to the Alouettes, so I mean
Speaker 16: he definitely deserves that consideration as well. So just based
Speaker 16: on that alone, I don't know if you could really
Speaker 16: do like a one A one B situation and have
Speaker 16: them live harmoniously together.
Speaker 1: It really does sound like both of them.
Speaker 16: Want to be the man in Montreal, and it's gonna
Speaker 16: come down to a simple matter of Okay, who are
Speaker 16: the alowettes like the organization like Danny Moss Jason or sorry,
Speaker 16: Danny machoja Jason Moss.
Speaker 1: Who are they gonna go with?
Speaker 16: Are they gonna go with the guy that brought them
Speaker 16: the Great Cup or the guy that they've basically nurtured
Speaker 16: from day one to eventually be the future in Montreal
Speaker 16: and Daves Alexander.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a very very interesting offseason. There's no
Speaker 1: doubt about that.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna let you ask a question. I'm gonna tuck
Speaker 2: out here real quick before we our home. Stretcher running out,
Speaker 2: So why don't you give a question?
Speaker 1: I'll let you. Guys just want to right back in.
Speaker 4: Yeah, as you guys alluded to, Davis Alexander was obviously
Speaker 4: the best kept secret in montreal Land. You guys were
Speaker 4: on him before anybody else was. But as you also mentioned,
Speaker 4: Richardo has clearly proven himself. He's won a Great Cup.
Speaker 4: He's almost kind of in a way that, it seems
Speaker 4: to me, at least from my perspective, he's the spiritual
Speaker 4: leader in a lot of ways because of his attitude,
Speaker 4: his his camaraderie, the way he presents himself. Do you
Speaker 4: think that gives him more currency in staying around or
Speaker 4: do you think at the end of the day that
Speaker 4: Montreal might be okay with cutting their ties in that
Speaker 4: way because you said Davis Alexander is the product of
Speaker 4: the team.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 16: We were talking about the future of the Alouettes. That's
Speaker 16: the direction you're happy be looking at it. Again, I
Speaker 16: don't want to take anything away from what Cordy from
Speaker 16: Journal's done.
Speaker 1: I mean, he's proven himself.
Speaker 16: I mean he's he's shown the love to Montreal and
Speaker 16: Montreal has showed him love back to him. Getting that
Speaker 16: great Cup win definitely has cemented him among those.
Speaker 1: Quarterbacks as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 16: I mean, it was just the one year, but still
Speaker 16: for what he was able to do, and that that
Speaker 16: warrior mentality that he has definitely speaks volumes and people
Speaker 16: do love Cody Frijardow with Montreal, There's no two ways
Speaker 16: about it. But what David Alexander was able to do
Speaker 16: this year stepping into a relief when Cody got hurt
Speaker 16: and performed admirably, I mean argue, but you can say
Speaker 16: five to zero as a starter and the team rallied
Speaker 16: behind Davis Alexander two.
Speaker 1: But when Cablin Nevis came in and relief for Cody
Speaker 1: Vijardo the first time.
Speaker 16: He didn't exactly have that same oopft Dave Alexander did
Speaker 16: when he stepped in it against Saskatchewan, won the game
Speaker 16: there and just kept on going. And also to the
Speaker 16: body language too for Daves Alexander when he was watching
Speaker 16: that Eastern Final, like you could tell it in his mind,
Speaker 16: He's like, I should be out there.
Speaker 1: That's gotta be me doing that.
Speaker 16: And that too, I think maybe has played a lot
Speaker 16: into how he feels and how he how he sees
Speaker 16: things going forward, like he's he basically said, I gotta
Speaker 16: see how the rest of this league shapes out, like
Speaker 16: once free agency gets underway and what's out there for me?
Speaker 1: And I don't blame one hundred percent. You got to
Speaker 1: take care of you. I mean, as much as all we'd.
Speaker 16: Love to have Davis year and I think keep down
Speaker 16: Yellows organization wants to do whatever they can.
Speaker 1: To keep you as Alexander in Red and Blue.
Speaker 16: But ultimately it's gonna come down to, uh, you know
Speaker 16: what happens in free agency, Like a lot of Donald's
Speaker 16: gonna be falling once the very Cup gets handed out,
Speaker 16: but it's definite gonna.
Speaker 1: Make for a very very interesting offseason.
Speaker 2: I've got some of the game here. We'll speak in
Speaker 2: Jim before I got bro. I think Brian Scott's coming
Speaker 2: here in the middle of plot here at the end
Speaker 2: of the thoughts on the game of who do you got?
Speaker 9: I even though you know we did, you know from
Speaker 9: the East, it's like, you know, I want to to
Speaker 9: the r is to win and stuff like that. I mean,
Speaker 9: it's like I'm kind of going into the game as
Speaker 9: a go team CFL type of thing because I just
Speaker 9: hope both teams have fun exact that he and nobody
Speaker 9: gets hurt. I'm curious to see what what type of
Speaker 9: game this is going to be? Uh what which Toronto
Speaker 9: teamber are we going to get? I mean, as I
Speaker 9: said earlier, is that I don't think Toronto won the
Speaker 9: game as much as they were given the game. Uh Toronto,
Speaker 9: you know, even though the Alves had six turnovers, they
Speaker 9: only lost my two.
Speaker 1: So I think it really goes to show, you know,
Speaker 1: was it the Olves that that gave the rs the game?
Speaker 1: But you know they did.
Speaker 9: But in my opinion, I could be totally wrong, but
Speaker 9: just my looking at the line itself, and I know
Speaker 9: the line can be very misleading. I honestly think Winnipeg
Speaker 9: is not I don't think it's gonna be even close.
Speaker 9: I think Winnipeg is just gonna win this win this
Speaker 9: game going away.
Speaker 16: Again, You're talking about both teams that basically came in hot,
Speaker 16: like really hot, at the right time. I mean, you
Speaker 16: can make the argument that both Winnipeg and Toronto they
Speaker 16: did what they had to do to get to this game,
Speaker 16: so both have a sa an equal chance. But not
Speaker 16: having Chad Kelly in the lineup is definitely gonna make
Speaker 16: a big factor. There's no question about that. I mean, Zach,
Speaker 16: they always say go with the most experienced quarterback, and
Speaker 16: Zach Clarro's easily has a lot more experience than what
Speaker 16: Nick Carbuckle does.
Speaker 1: I definitely think it'll be a good game no matter what.
Speaker 16: But I mean, I I've said before and I said again,
Speaker 16: I don't see how Winnipeg lose this game. But we
Speaker 16: also maybe said that a little bit last year and
Speaker 16: year before. Anytime Winnipeg's in the game, they absolutely have
Speaker 16: a fighting chance. But I think a lot of pressure
Speaker 16: is on them too, because I'll just talk about dynasty
Speaker 16: with Winnipeg Goo Bombers. They won their first two Great
Speaker 16: Cup games, you know, in the in this time period.
Speaker 16: Then they lost the last two Great Cup Games. So
Speaker 16: now the pressure's on. If you really want to be
Speaker 16: conservative Dynasty, you gotta win on Sunday.
Speaker 2: I go one more here, I'm detection Bryant Sky here directions,
Speaker 2: give one more question for that.
Speaker 4: We'll bring in Jimullen Well to that too, because at
Speaker 4: least again from my effective last year, I think you
Speaker 4: guys were probably definitely not favored in that game, and
Speaker 4: I think it was wonderful to see so and like
Speaker 4: Gerardo really transcend and step up in such a crucial moment.
Speaker 4: Who does that player have to be for Toronto if
Speaker 4: they want to have a chance of winning this game.
Speaker 16: I'm gonna say Kadeen Kerry. I think he's proven himself
Speaker 16: to be a true leader on this Argos team. I mean,
Speaker 16: Chad Kelly would obviously be the guy, but I mean
Speaker 16: Kadeen Kerry went to mcmannus. Those are two guys that
Speaker 16: I look at as their leaders, like those are the
Speaker 16: guys that are gonna pick the guys up by their
Speaker 16: their pads.
Speaker 1: And say hey, let's go. This is a championship game.
Speaker 1: It's winner go home.
Speaker 16: I fully expect those guys to be the ones that
Speaker 16: are gonna rally the troops like that fire under East everybody.
Speaker 16: So if you were asked me, I'd say either Carry
Speaker 16: or McManus as far as the go to guys that
Speaker 16: really fire everybody up.
Speaker 9: No, I was gonna say the exact same thing here.
Speaker 9: We'll come down a couple of things. I think in
Speaker 9: Toronto's able to uh really control the running game.
Speaker 1: I mean they're great on the Winnipeg's side obviously too.
Speaker 9: But as we've seen, especially last week with thee alo lets, Uh,
Speaker 9: these special teams can make a huge difference. And I
Speaker 9: would not be surprised if if if Toronto's special teams
Speaker 9: make it, it's a huge statement and keeps him in
Speaker 9: this game.
Speaker 1: That's true.
Speaker 16: They got Lamla who kicking field goals, Jener and Grant
Speaker 16: returning kicks as well. I mean, yes, special teams could
Speaker 16: play a very big factor for Toronto.
Speaker 4: Jeneerian Grant's like Devin Hester of the CFL.
Speaker 1: I mean, he why do teams even bother kicking it
Speaker 1: to him? Like anybody? It really blows my mind. He's incredible,
Speaker 1: It really is. He absolutely is, and it's kind of
Speaker 1: funny too.
Speaker 16: He's also got a little bit of motivation as well,
Speaker 16: considering he's a former Winnipeg Blue Bomber and now he's
Speaker 16: facing his former team for the championship. I mean, he's
Speaker 16: already going to break up ring with the Blue Bombers,
Speaker 16: but now he has a chance to add one as
Speaker 16: an argonaut, just as a reminder, like, Hey, I used
Speaker 16: to be with you guys.
Speaker 1: Now now I'm here to beat you, so go.
Speaker 16: If that doesn't motivate you, if you're a player that
Speaker 16: doesn't motivate you as well, then I don't have to
Speaker 16: tell you. All right, let's see the swap here. Let's
Speaker 16: bring in Jim.
Speaker 1: Jason can come back on Brian's Texan he summer. We'll
Speaker 1: get it going. Next guys.
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. There we go, There we go, next, guys,
Speaker 2: Jim Tech. We're texting guys here like and subscribe me
Speaker 2: and bar the the adventure. We'll see you guys. I
Speaker 2: appreciate it. Let's get Jason. Let's get Jim in.
Speaker 1: We got a longtime friend he's been sitting around here.
Speaker 2: And then we'll we'll get brian On, We'll get Matt,
Speaker 2: We'll get we'll get Dorothy and then we'll get out
Speaker 2: of here.
Speaker 1: Should we get Jason's back to Mullens here, Jim, how
Speaker 1: are you? I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 14: Hey, we're doing video. Look, Hey to advertised. That's where
Speaker 14: I'm going. You're vice president of That's good.
Speaker 1: Talk about how busy you are?
Speaker 14: I now, I am very busy, not only with the IPAF,
Speaker 14: but of course we have Great Iron Nation on TSN.
Speaker 14: It's on every Thursday and Friday in the afternoons. It's
Speaker 14: all about college football and how it relates to Canadians
Speaker 14: in college football, whether we are talking about U sports
Speaker 14: or whether we are talking about Canadians in the NCAA.
Speaker 14: And Nathan's little brother has given us some great stuff
Speaker 14: to talk about this year.
Speaker 2: I'm curious your thoughts, obviously Vancouver here and everything else.
Speaker 2: Thoughts on the Lions season and not being here.
Speaker 14: A tremendous disappointment, especially after the start. I'm glad to
Speaker 14: hear through the rumor mill that there are changes coming
Speaker 14: to the Lions front office. If we are to believe
Speaker 14: those rumors, and why not, there's a good escape plan
Speaker 14: for coach Campbell, if he chooses it to Edmonton, looks
Speaker 14: like you're trying to put the band back together in
Speaker 14: Edmonton from the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties, and he's
Speaker 14: the scion of that. Of course, you Campbell winning five
Speaker 14: breakups with the Eskimos back in the day. So Ryan
Speaker 14: rig Maiden is if he steps up as a general manager,
Speaker 14: I believe that is a healthy upgrade in this organization.
Speaker 14: And they're talking about reconfiguration, then who steps up as
Speaker 14: the head coach? If you look at CFL teams these days,
Speaker 14: guys with guys that are coaches and general managers.
Speaker 1: It's too much for one guy.
Speaker 14: And it's not just the amount of work that's involved
Speaker 14: for one guy, but it's the relationships that you have
Speaker 14: in the dressing room. You cannot be a player's coach
Speaker 14: and then as soon as that season ends, turn around
Speaker 14: and then start to negotiate with these guys, we're starting
Speaker 14: to cut them before their bonus is got in. You
Speaker 14: can't balance the two. Either you've got to be a
Speaker 14: black hat.
Speaker 1: Through and through.
Speaker 14: That's hard to do with the modern athlete, or you
Speaker 14: got to separate the jobs. So if the Lions are
Speaker 14: separating the jobs. I think they're doing the right move here.
Speaker 4: Go for I was gonna say on that note, I
Speaker 4: know the season didn't go the way that the DC
Speaker 4: Lions expected, but how have you felt about the overall
Speaker 4: presentation here in Vancouver.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's fantastic.
Speaker 14: It's a giant upgrade from the last days of the
Speaker 14: David Brayley era. You know, there was management that needed
Speaker 14: to go on with the estate. They were working on
Speaker 14: a fairly small budget. We understand all of those things.
Speaker 14: But Amar understands sizzle, but he also understands state. He
Speaker 14: understands that you need to beyond the presentation. You need
Speaker 14: to do the things in the community to build the
Speaker 14: football community. We're about five hundred and seventy days after
Speaker 14: SFU have quoted their program up on Burnaby Mountain. He's
Speaker 14: still there making proclamations if we're bringing this thing back.
Speaker 14: He's still there with half a million dollars to put
Speaker 14: into the program, right, He's still there supporting all those
Speaker 14: things in the grassroots community. And the one thing that
Speaker 14: I saw in the last Lions game that I was
Speaker 14: at was a lot of kids in the stands and
Speaker 14: a lot of kids in the stands wearing minor football jerseys.
Speaker 14: And that's part of the evolution that needs to go
Speaker 14: on with a team in a league that is completely
Speaker 14: driven outside of your salary cap being covered by.
Speaker 1: Your TV unit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I wanted to talk about the Canadian content
Speaker 3: in the CFL. Now, I believe I saw that this
Speaker 3: is the first time we've ever had the leading rusher
Speaker 3: and receiver be Canadian. Can you speak about the importance
Speaker 3: of Canadian content in the CFL right now?
Speaker 14: Well, you know what, It's not just Canadian content in
Speaker 14: the CFL. It's Canadian content and football. When you take
Speaker 14: a look at some of the leading performers in the NFL,
Speaker 14: whether you're looking at uh at a guy like Chase
Speaker 14: Brown with Cincinnati, whether you're looking at John Metchi and
Speaker 14: in Houston. I mean I could start going down the list.
Speaker 14: There is a long, long CHEWBA Hubbard is having a
Speaker 14: great season this year.
Speaker 4: Oh, I dropped him off my fantasy team. It's the
Speaker 4: biggest regret I made so far.
Speaker 14: Well, look, you know what I mentioned, Nathan's little not
Speaker 14: so little brother, Curtis Roord.
Speaker 1: I first met Curtis when we were.
Speaker 14: Handing out the Cornish Trophy to Nathan and somebody taps
Speaker 14: me on the shoulder and I turned around and it's
Speaker 14: this larger version at Nathan as a teenager with this big,
Speaker 14: geeky smile. Hi, my name is Curtis, and he's shaking
Speaker 14: my head like like you could tell that that that
Speaker 14: he had the frame that Nathan didn't have right and
Speaker 14: that he had to grow into it, you know, watching
Speaker 14: his development at Ohio and then watching him turn into
Speaker 14: what he has turned into with this ten and zero
Speaker 14: Indiana team. That's another testament to Canadian talent. And even
Speaker 14: more so than Nathan. You spent a senior year in
Speaker 14: Canada playing high school football in Canada at a Catholic
Speaker 14: school in Toronto, So unlike going through through an academy
Speaker 14: process that a lot of Canadians do these days, leaving
Speaker 14: home in grade ten and grade eleven. This is a
Speaker 14: kid that, even though he did spend some time in
Speaker 14: the States, came back to Canada, was the MAC player
Speaker 14: of the year and now has probably upgraded enough through
Speaker 14: that system in Indiana where he is going to be
Speaker 14: a late round draft pick. Right That's where we are
Speaker 14: in skilled positions with Canadians. One of the conundrums for
Speaker 14: the CFL though, is all the best Canadians are played
Speaker 14: in the NFL that.
Speaker 1: Never used to happen before.
Speaker 14: We have about four or five or a dual passport
Speaker 14: holder or something like that there.
Speaker 1: I think the number is up to twenty three.
Speaker 14: It might be around twenty four that are on NFL
Speaker 14: rosters right now, and so that then has an impact
Speaker 14: on the rosters of the Canadian Football League. But as
Speaker 14: you guys point out, look at the top performers in
Speaker 14: the CFL, I still think that the ratio needs to
Speaker 14: exist though, because there are guys that didn't get exposure
Speaker 14: to coaching, that didn't get exposure to training, that need
Speaker 14: to get in those first two years. Brady Oliver is
Speaker 14: a good example of that. Even though he played at
Speaker 14: North Dakota. I went down and saw him play in
Speaker 14: North Dakota as a sophomore. A guy that was quick,
Speaker 14: a guy that had trained hard, a guy that hit holes.
Speaker 11: With purpose, but he.
Speaker 1: Didn't have that patience.
Speaker 14: He didn't have that step, he didn't have those moves
Speaker 14: get he didn't give those half hits up to defenders.
Speaker 14: That's something that he needed to learn in his first
Speaker 14: couple of years in the CFL and that comes with
Speaker 14: that pro level of coting. So I think that's what
Speaker 14: you're seeing with this group of Canadians in the CFL.
Speaker 2: I got one more question. We'll bringing Brian Scott. We
Speaker 2: got them standing by, Just curious your thoughts. Going back
Speaker 2: to Nathan and the Lions here. Obviously not the ideal
Speaker 2: situation coming in and we've talked a lot today about
Speaker 2: and everything. Is it enough for him to reset in
Speaker 2: the off season, you know, coming in here halfway through
Speaker 2: and all that. What do you make of his feature
Speaker 2: because the Lions made a huge, huge investment.
Speaker 1: That commitment down.
Speaker 14: Well, you and I had a side conversation about this,
Speaker 14: sending messages back and forth when he was available, right
Speaker 14: and you know what my perception was at the time,
Speaker 14: he should still try to find another NFL camp, run
Speaker 14: that thing out, and then come in fresh to a
Speaker 14: CFL camp. The opportunity was there for the Lions to
Speaker 14: grab Nathan, sign him to a contract and a great
Speaker 14: Cup year. I don't blame them for trying, but I
Speaker 14: think in terms of the football process, he'd been with
Speaker 14: too many teams and too many situations, and the kid's
Speaker 14: brain was frying quite Frank he had actually shown something
Speaker 14: better than what the record indicated to. He was pulled
Speaker 14: out of a game at halftime after putting together a
Speaker 14: convincing drive. A total head scratcher. In my opinion, I
Speaker 14: think he was great between the twenties. Right as soon
Speaker 14: as he got into the red zoner at his back
Speaker 14: to the goal post, he was prone to mistakes of
Speaker 14: that offense and plus that pass protection was just awful
Speaker 14: this year with the Lions Steam and they didn't take
Speaker 14: advantage of William standback. But in terms of having him here,
Speaker 14: why would you not want to have him here? Nothing
Speaker 14: against Va?
Speaker 1: You know, I love Va.
Speaker 14: You know I love Va and what he brings, and
Speaker 14: I love what his evolution has been as a person
Speaker 14: and as a quarterback and as he approaches the game.
Speaker 14: But when it comes when it comes to Nathan, you
Speaker 14: got star power there. You got twenty twenty two. He's
Speaker 14: going to put twenty twenty two back on the field again,
Speaker 14: and he's going to have a brother in the NFL,
Speaker 14: and that's going to bring star power into the stands.
Speaker 1: Why would you not have that?
Speaker 14: And that's where that marketing money that they're paying him
Speaker 14: on top of the salary kicks in right. When Curtis
Speaker 14: Rourke is third or fourth in Heisman voting, when he
Speaker 14: gets drafted into the NFL, when he shows up with
Speaker 14: the family, when he brings teammates with him, that just
Speaker 14: amplifies what Nathan Burke is doing on the field, and
Speaker 14: that's what people go for. You gotta have this guy
Speaker 14: in this and you gotta have a guy in this
Speaker 14: town that says I want to be here, and that's
Speaker 14: what he's saying.
Speaker 2: Well, Jim, I appreciate that. I thanks for hanging around
Speaker 2: here waiting and making the time. Things you guys will
Speaker 2: bring in. Brian Sky here coming up next and that, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, I hope miss a personality. I hope he
Speaker 2: does more interviews next year. Nathan Wurk, we'll see. It
Speaker 2: wasn't the best home coming here.
Speaker 14: A little snappy. By the way, when you get into
Speaker 14: arguments with Dorothy. She's wearing the Huskies uniform. Do you
Speaker 14: have to bow down to watch it?
Speaker 2: That's good, right, break and Bryan's guy here at Toronto.
Speaker 2: Argo's quarterback. Our lifters will know him from the spring
Speaker 2: lead the US and Feil everything else.
Speaker 1: Ryan Scott, what's brother? It's only been three years, we
Speaker 1: got the grip back. We got here. Guys, Ryan, it
Speaker 1: has been a crazy year for you. How are you doing.
Speaker 1: Are we live?
Speaker 7: Yeah, we're live.
Speaker 3: Everything's good man. Nice finally meet you. Yeah, props to
Speaker 3: you man. Uh known you for a long time. It's
Speaker 3: fortunate to be here, which is so Yeah.
Speaker 2: What's the bit you you're here, you got brought back,
Speaker 2: you know, you with the argos, go with blombers, come
Speaker 2: back here.
Speaker 1: What's going on here? How are you feeling and what's
Speaker 1: going on in your life?
Speaker 4: Everything's good. I'm extremely happy and fortunate to be here.
Speaker 1: My parents are here.
Speaker 4: So just just taking in every day, all the little
Speaker 4: moments that I get to, you.
Speaker 3: Know, spend on my teammates and uh yeah, just happy
Speaker 3: to represent her on on the city.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, just super grateful to be here. Just Hererus
Speaker 1: thoughts here today.
Speaker 2: I mean we've tracked you all the way through everything
Speaker 2: and been a part of the show since SPAGINNI. I
Speaker 2: mean being here now you'll on the roster of a
Speaker 2: great Cup team and it being in the CFL now
Speaker 2: and kind of.
Speaker 1: Experience all that. What's it been like.
Speaker 3: It's been good man, you know, as as you know
Speaker 3: just playing in the Spring League since twenty eighteen in
Speaker 3: the USFL, which Spring Leak kind of turned into the USFL.
Speaker 1: You know, it's been good, man, It's been an adjustment.
Speaker 3: I've never known anything but being a starting quarterback like
Speaker 3: my entire life, and then coming up to the CFL,
Speaker 3: like adjusting to that role. But I think everybody does that,
Speaker 3: you know, like Vernon does that, McCloud did that. Pretty
Speaker 3: much every starting quarterback up here kind of goes through.
Speaker 1: That period of their career.
Speaker 3: So I'm just taking it in and embracing every step
Speaker 3: and just doing whatever I can to help the team win.
Speaker 3: And you know, it's been good for me to like
Speaker 3: take a step back and like look at it from
Speaker 3: a different perspective, a different role, and yeah, I'm loving it.
Speaker 4: I love Brian. I had the pleasure of watching you
Speaker 4: two years ago in person in Birmingham the opening game
Speaker 4: that you guys played Stars versus the Breakers, and I
Speaker 4: just remember just seeing you swing it around. Yeah, despite
Speaker 4: the fact that a guy like Davin Bellamy was like
Speaker 4: breathing down your neck every other Oh my goodness.
Speaker 1: That man is a monster.
Speaker 4: But can you talk about what was it like getting
Speaker 4: that development that professional football development a guy like Bart
Speaker 4: Andrews and being in the USFL before coming here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, honestly, I think, yeah, first of all,
Speaker 3: the thanks for coming the game, watching me, and supporting me.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that.
Speaker 4: But yeah, for me, it's been a journey. Man, it's
Speaker 4: been a blessing.
Speaker 3: Just coming from a Division III school and then playing
Speaker 3: in the twenty eighteen Spring League against Johnny Mantel, who
Speaker 3: used to be my screen saver at one point.
Speaker 4: You know, I was in college as a true freshman.
Speaker 4: Johnny's my screen saver.
Speaker 3: Fast forward four and a half years, I'm playing him
Speaker 3: and we won the game, you know, And so it's
Speaker 3: just been it's been an incredible journey. I'm super grateful
Speaker 3: and blessed and yeah, but I think the Spring League
Speaker 3: and the USFL really gave me that confidence that like,
Speaker 3: I could do it, man, and I could do it.
Speaker 3: I've professional level, it doesn't really matter who I'm going against,
Speaker 3: and just uh just kind of gave me somewhat of
Speaker 3: a name just because I come from such a small school.
Speaker 3: You know, I have little trouts and NFL camps and stuff,
Speaker 3: but just being able to go out there play games
Speaker 3: lead a professional team.
Speaker 1: Uh was awesome. Thanks for watching.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and yeah I did get my you know, helmet
Speaker 3: knocked off versus. But I mean USFL was a was
Speaker 3: an unbelievable experience for me. Just getting drafted the first round.
Speaker 3: Fox Sports took, you know, really good care at me.
Speaker 3: Having the jersey and the Hall of Fame and the
Speaker 3: football like that was something you know, brought my family
Speaker 3: to tears. So it's one of those things that I'm
Speaker 3: just always gonna be grateful for. Yeah, thanks for coming
Speaker 3: on the show, Brian.
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolute, oh yeah, yeah, Yeah, it's a great.
Speaker 1: Player for us.
Speaker 3: My question is, what are your overall thoughts on, you know,
Speaker 3: coming up to here in the CFL, What did you
Speaker 3: know about the CFL prior to coming up here, and
Speaker 3: what are your impressions of Canada as a whole. Yeah,
Speaker 3: so I signed up here in two twenty nineteen, but
Speaker 3: to play for Edmonton. That Rox Sunderland, who's now kind
Speaker 3: of a good friend of mine, like trying to get
Speaker 3: me to come up and introduce me to CFL, and
Speaker 3: then COVID happened, so I had to opt out of
Speaker 3: my contract and then played in Spring League. But dude,
Speaker 3: I can't say enough good things about the league, and
Speaker 3: it's been really nice for me to read as you know,
Speaker 3: like you know, we're the Philadelphia Stars, but we were
Speaker 3: at Birmingham where.
Speaker 1: I was on the Generals and we didn't have a city.
Speaker 3: So for me to just be a part of a
Speaker 3: city like Toronto and get to like meet people at
Speaker 3: the games and to go to restaurants and go to
Speaker 3: certain places and make relationships with real people within that city,
Speaker 3: it's been really cool for me.
Speaker 1: So it's been a it's been an amazing ride for
Speaker 1: me year as well.
Speaker 2: I got two here, So we talked a lot. We
Speaker 2: had Dave Naylor on earlier and he's been on the
Speaker 2: show back you know, years ago, talking USFL and all this,
Speaker 2: and it's almost like the CFL they wanted to make
Speaker 2: it hard for Americans to come up, right, especially quarterbacks,
Speaker 2: and it's really this learning process and you know, it's
Speaker 2: it's their game and they protect all that and we
Speaker 2: have all of our you know, I have many thoughts
Speaker 2: all that, but just curiously that coming down and especially
Speaker 2: as a quarter back and trying to learn all that, Like, uh,
Speaker 2: did you feel bad? I mean it's okay to say
Speaker 2: or and I mean, I want to get like it
Speaker 2: almost feels like you got to kind of go through.
Speaker 1: That right to pass it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're not lying, you got you kind of got
Speaker 3: to earn your stripes, right, and that's how they kind
Speaker 3: of protect the game up here, and I respect that,
Speaker 3: you know, I think, uh, you know.
Speaker 4: Everything happens for a reason. I truly believe that.
Speaker 3: And you know, like I said before, it's just been
Speaker 3: a it's been a great process for me to kind of.
Speaker 1: Have that role of not having to be the guy,
Speaker 1: not having all that.
Speaker 3: Pressure all the time, and and uh, kind of see
Speaker 3: how I want to do things when I do get
Speaker 3: that opportunity again and kind of take it by the
Speaker 3: you know, take the bull by his horns and go
Speaker 3: for it.
Speaker 2: But yeah, Dave Miller is a good dude too, So
Speaker 2: I gotta follow up what you got, Ivy, I got
Speaker 2: one more.
Speaker 4: What I find so fascinating. Last week obviously a bit
Speaker 4: tumultuous for Toronto obviously with Chad being in the game
Speaker 4: getting hurt unfortunately, and then Nick coming in. But I
Speaker 4: was wondering, was there anything that you were able to
Speaker 4: kind of like tell them or in parts of them
Speaker 4: because you played Montreal over the season and you absolute
Speaker 4: ripped against them for a few minutes. In fact, probably
Speaker 4: played some of the best quarterback against them in the
Speaker 4: entire year. Is there something that you were able to
Speaker 4: kind of impart to them or let them know about
Speaker 4: what to look for when you were out there as
Speaker 4: far as against that defense, because Montreal defense.
Speaker 1: Is obviously very legit. Yeah, not really, man.
Speaker 3: I think I think most importantly, we just go through
Speaker 3: our rules at quarterback and whatever the defense gives us,
Speaker 3: we're gonna take it and appreciate you saying that.
Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, read the CFL game is so.
Speaker 3: Much different, right, and I think the biggest thing from
Speaker 3: a quarterback perspective is only having three downs instead of four.
Speaker 1: It totally changes your dealing and with coach part Andrews.
Speaker 3: As you mentioned before, he just kind of let me
Speaker 3: go out there and spin it now, you know, like
Speaker 3: God bless him.
Speaker 1: I was throwing at.
Speaker 3: Thirty five or forty times a game and you just say, hey,
Speaker 3: here's the plane, you fly it, and you know, we
Speaker 3: had a lot of success doing that, so he trusted
Speaker 3: me with that. So but yeah, it's been good. We're
Speaker 3: just going out there prepared and doing what will we
Speaker 3: do and you know, hope for a good result.
Speaker 2: I got a couple of quick USFL spreing week except
Speaker 2: for you go and then we'll bring out we're on
Speaker 2: the show out here pretty quick were they were doing
Speaker 2: the USFL, we have the United by Football right behind
Speaker 2: the scenes and all that.
Speaker 1: And it was one of the episodes and I I
Speaker 1: kind of equated it to.
Speaker 2: Like you're on Survivor or Big Brother and you kind
Speaker 2: of get in trouble and you gotta call a house
Speaker 2: meetian almost and kind of and you had the house
Speaker 2: right the players and people because they were all living
Speaker 2: and you can kind of get your own and you know,
Speaker 2: you're bringing in the wide receivers and all that. Just
Speaker 2: it was a really just entertaining episode of like reality
Speaker 2: TV to watch, right, and obviously they spin it whatever way.
Speaker 2: Curious what was it like like just being a part
Speaker 2: of that and then like living it and then I
Speaker 2: don't know if you watch should just because that's another
Speaker 2: side you don't normally get, right, especially like even in
Speaker 2: the CFL.
Speaker 3: Right now, Yeah, I think that was kind of cool,
Speaker 3: right because we were all in one hotel, But yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean it was called United by Football, right, yeah, right, yeah,
Speaker 3: it was.
Speaker 1: It's like a fever trade now.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, I think that was really cool for me,
Speaker 3: read because we had that Generals championship team in twenty
Speaker 3: twenty and I didn't play in the Spring League twenty
Speaker 3: twenty one. I was doing a couple of NFL workouts.
Speaker 3: I just I didn't I didn't want to play in it.
Speaker 3: But here comes twenty twenty two, and I told those guys,
Speaker 3: you know what, like, if I'm gonna come back and
Speaker 3: play like, I want all you guys as many as
Speaker 3: you guys as possible to kind of get back on
Speaker 3: that team. And when we were playing, you guys call
Speaker 3: us the Spring League All Stars. I don't know if
Speaker 3: you remember that, but we had a bunch of the
Speaker 3: guys in the Spring leagu who had success. So for me,
Speaker 3: I think the greatest, one of the greatest joys in
Speaker 3: that entire process was being able to grab some of
Speaker 3: those guys from the General's team.
Speaker 4: And Martin just trusted me to say, hey, like, this
Speaker 4: guy's good, this guy's good.
Speaker 3: And you know, let's uh, you know, let's bring these
Speaker 3: you know, guys who might be done with football that
Speaker 3: want to get another shot. I didn't play it on
Speaker 3: a big stage, so I take it like Jordan Sewell
Speaker 3: and coleburn was done playing and Jordan Moore and a
Speaker 3: lot of those guys that are my good buddies to
Speaker 3: this day.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that episode was it was it was cool.
Speaker 3: I mean, it was like and of course they kind
Speaker 3: of spun it a certain way, but yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: the USFL, like it was a great experience for me.
Speaker 3: I can't say enough good things about the league and
Speaker 3: Fox Sports and stuff, so.
Speaker 2: A lot of time for me and maybe you guys
Speaker 2: have anything, well, bring got Matt. I you know love
Speaker 2: Brian Woods, right, and we all love riding and everything.
Speaker 2: And I've joked a lot on the podcast like he
Speaker 2: basically put together the Spring League that like with cardboard
Speaker 2: in the scarage, right, we were at a football goba,
Speaker 2: just like thoughts now looking back and obviously everything now
Speaker 2: with the USFL and how they've expanded all the different things,
Speaker 2: but were really all started from that brain trust and
Speaker 2: just kind of him figuring it out. And I think
Speaker 2: you could have you know, we talked a lot out here.
Speaker 2: You could have elevated the Spring League and kind of
Speaker 2: done that in a way versus everything they did with USFL,
Speaker 2: and that's a whole different story, but just thoughts on
Speaker 2: guy coming from that and just the experience.
Speaker 1: And kind of what that was.
Speaker 3: Like, Well, you're not gonna hear me say anthing bad
Speaker 3: about that, you know, because without that, I don't know
Speaker 3: where I'd be at.
Speaker 1: But I think it's it's kind of cool.
Speaker 3: I tell guys this, like if you look at the
Speaker 3: UFL now or the USFL XFL, I feel.
Speaker 4: Like I was there like old Testament, you know, it's
Speaker 4: like now it's the New Testament.
Speaker 3: I was there, like, you know, when they were trying
Speaker 3: to put together a spring football league, right, and there
Speaker 3: was a lot of talent. I remember in twenty eighteen
Speaker 3: read when I was there with Johnny, we had ESPN
Speaker 3: there every day and we had thirty scouts NFL scouts
Speaker 3: on the field every day.
Speaker 4: So it went from that to turning into like more
Speaker 4: of a TV.
Speaker 3: Promotion deal instead of guys just getting scouted and going
Speaker 3: straight to PAMs.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 3: So I saw it kind of transformed. And then in
Speaker 3: twenty twenty it was on Fox right where we met.
Speaker 1: But it's been cool.
Speaker 3: And then you know, I did the USFL and I
Speaker 3: jumped to the XFL. And the only reason I did
Speaker 3: that was strictly, you know, financially for my family, you know,
Speaker 3: And it was one of those things where I really
Speaker 3: didn't want to, but it was just like I had
Speaker 3: reached the age where I needed to start kind of
Speaker 3: putting that into perspective, like, hey, like I got to
Speaker 3: do this for a living, right.
Speaker 4: I played in the Spring League twice for no money,
Speaker 4: trying to just put myself out there.
Speaker 3: But so I made that jump and then now I'm
Speaker 3: here in Toronto and it's been It's been a great
Speaker 3: learning thing for me here in the CFL.
Speaker 1: So definitely loving my experience. And we'll see what happens.
Speaker 4: Anything else, Andy will let Brian get out of here.
Speaker 4: What's been your favorite part of the Great Cup festivities
Speaker 4: so far?
Speaker 3: Gosh, dude, I haven't even had very much time, so
Speaker 3: busy with meetings, probably sitting here.
Speaker 1: With you guys. What's a little bit, you know, going
Speaker 1: through the journey.
Speaker 3: And I've never met this guy, you know, I was
Speaker 3: there when he was doing like a little woman in
Speaker 3: his house and just seeing him kind of flourish and
Speaker 3: being at the Great Up. You know, it's been cool
Speaker 3: to be a part of your journey too. Man, I
Speaker 3: appreciate you following you and uh, you know, just I
Speaker 3: feel like I'm a part of the spring football you are,
Speaker 3: you know, for the rest of my time and career.
Speaker 3: And I owe a lot of my success and just
Speaker 3: getting my name out there to guys like you. You
Speaker 3: guys and just people that kind of stuck with me,
Speaker 3: supported me and saw me on a smaller stage and
Speaker 3: said hey, this guy can play, you know. And John
Speaker 3: Murphy I owe him a lot, you know, he kind
Speaker 3: of paid attention to those leagues, and he paid attention
Speaker 3: to guys like you. He said, hey, Brian Scott can
Speaker 3: playing out here. I am, you know, so making a
Speaker 3: living and supporting my family and stuff like that. So
Speaker 3: just appreciate you and appreciate all the people that supported
Speaker 3: me along the way.
Speaker 1: Really means a lot.
Speaker 2: Last one, what's the locker room mentality like right now?
Speaker 2: I mean a lot of practices and walkers everything. What's
Speaker 2: the team feeling like?
Speaker 1: We're locked in? Man, guys are excited.
Speaker 3: I think why I like Toronto so much is I've
Speaker 3: built such amazing relationships with these guys on and off
Speaker 3: the field. Like I said, I wasn't the starting quarterback, right,
Speaker 3: So I kind of got to do some things with
Speaker 3: the guys that I don't have to be like that
Speaker 3: force of Hey, guys, we gotta run this route with
Speaker 3: this depth.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hey, let's go. You knowing, you're like, let's go.
Speaker 1: Let's go do something fun together.
Speaker 3: So part of that's been really cool for my growth
Speaker 3: as a football player. And I wanted to, you know,
Speaker 3: forget this time period.
Speaker 2: Yeah awesome, Well, Brian, I appreciate it, man, God, blast
Speaker 2: appreciate it.
Speaker 4: That's good.
Speaker 1: Let's bring him mad here.
Speaker 2: Then we got Dorothy's longtime friendship, Brian Scott, you know
Speaker 2: you have a fan in us forever.
Speaker 1: Here we go, and then we got Dorothy's oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: All right, let's bring him Matt last one here, round
Speaker 2: and out. Then we'll bring in Dorothy close the show
Speaker 2: as always.
Speaker 1: Man, could be a busy week here.
Speaker 2: Every time I see your kind of hang that's good.
Speaker 1: Let's the week been like for you, Matt?
Speaker 17: With the line been that, it's been a nice balance
Speaker 17: site say read and good to see you guys as well. Yeah,
Speaker 17: as you know, here at Radio Row for pretty much
Speaker 17: the last three days, taking care of Moje and Giulio
Speaker 17: and our Punjabi broadcast team helping the festival. Kind of
Speaker 17: kind of an all hands on deck week, so just
Speaker 17: kind of being around and being seen and interacting with
Speaker 17: fans and hitting the Lions den.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's been been a good balance of working fun.
Speaker 2: So I think there was a lot of expectations when
Speaker 2: you know, VC got awarded the Great Cup, obviously with
Speaker 2: Tamar and everything.
Speaker 1: Everyone. We talked to Dorothy that's been to bour Gray.
Speaker 2: Cus walked yesterday, which is an awe, especially even up here,
Speaker 2: and she was talking about the outreach and the you know,
Speaker 2: the marketplaces and the digitous sales and kind of all
Speaker 2: this other stuff. How do you feel they kind of
Speaker 2: living up because I think it was high expectations going in.
Speaker 17: Yeah, definitely. And it's funny the cycle of this whole
Speaker 17: thing has kind of been awarded this game in November
Speaker 17: twenty twenty two, the week the Lions beat Cal in
Speaker 17: the Western Semi go fall short in Winnipeg the next week,
Speaker 17: but I said, okay, we're coming, We're on the rise.
Speaker 17: Same script last year, so I say, okay, this year
Speaker 17: we're gonna get the Western Final at home and stay
Speaker 17: here for the Grape Cup. But uh yeah, we can
Speaker 17: do a whole other two hour stream on what went
Speaker 17: wrong this season. But but I will say once you
Speaker 17: kind of come out of that, once you sort of
Speaker 17: get over the hump and see firsthand how this festival is.
Speaker 17: All the concerts I saw fifty four forty last night,
Speaker 17: Canadian Rock and Roll Royalty for me anyway reads just like, yeah,
Speaker 17: we should have I should have invited you to the
Speaker 17: Gallop dinner.
Speaker 2: Next time I realized we could have gone, I was
Speaker 2: looking at my thing. I'm like, I actually could have
Speaker 2: gone to that.
Speaker 1: I was not dressed. I don't think my crack and dress.
Speaker 1: I think I specifically approve your credential to include it.
Speaker 17: So anyway you're you're hanging up with You're hanging out
Speaker 17: with all the big shots at the f r C suite.
Speaker 1: So but before we this gets too off the you
Speaker 1: really have to learn to separate it. Yeah. I can't
Speaker 1: sugarcoat it.
Speaker 17: It sucks that I'm not more busy this week, but
Speaker 17: the special aspect of the Great Cup Festival, it's still
Speaker 17: great for me and.
Speaker 1: He can't top it.
Speaker 4: What's been the most exciting part of this festival so far?
Speaker 4: And also setting up for it.
Speaker 1: Just uh yeah, it's it's hard to pick just one.
Speaker 17: Like I said, concert series, just just seeing the fans,
Speaker 17: just seeing everyone come together. For me and seeing a
Speaker 17: lot of the great Lions fans that we know only
Speaker 17: know by their X and Instagram handles, it's nice to
Speaker 17: see that the real people are still here. And seeing
Speaker 17: all the alumni that's big for me, Like seeing the
Speaker 17: likes of Paul McCallum, g Roy Simon hanging around the
Speaker 17: Lions Den.
Speaker 1: That's a very good part.
Speaker 4: Well, I was telling him, I mean we should. I
Speaker 4: was trying to twist his arm to get us a
Speaker 4: zipline to come down to our studio. I mean, this
Speaker 4: is impressive having the ziplines yeah, on the whole place.
Speaker 17: Haven't done it yet, but the lineup for that's been
Speaker 17: packed the whole week. So and when this we were
Speaker 17: in this same well, we were in the other convention
Speaker 17: center building back in late February. I want to say,
Speaker 17: when they announced the kickoff of the festival what it
Speaker 17: was gonna be, and the zip line was the big hook.
Speaker 1: People have been talking about the zip line the whole time.
Speaker 1: That's all.
Speaker 17: That's how it's all dort but for nine months since
Speaker 17: this was first sort of brought together and it's paid off.
Speaker 1: Because like I was saying, it's it's lined up around
Speaker 1: the corner, Jason, you got it. Yeah for sure.
Speaker 3: So you're a colleague. Carolyn Cody won an award the
Speaker 3: Fall Awards. Can you speak about her contributions to.
Speaker 1: All this and which he's meant to the organization. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Carolyn's brilliance.
Speaker 17: She's got to be like an eleven year employee now
Speaker 17: and a neat story. Kind of started at an entry
Speaker 17: level position and it's worked her way up all this
Speaker 17: talk about, you know, the Lion's break and being bolstered
Speaker 17: under Amar Dolman and of course Dwayne Venora President. Her
Speaker 17: fingerprints are all over that. When it comes to the
Speaker 17: digital marketing, the game day presentation, which read is seen firsthand,
Speaker 17: she's all over that, and she bleeds the colors as well.
Speaker 17: That's not always the case with people in these type
Speaker 17: of positions, But the Jane Mobby Award, that was a
Speaker 17: real highlight of the week for me seeing that, and
Speaker 17: of course a marketting the Commissioner's Awards, so seeing everybody
Speaker 17: recognized for the work that's been done here.
Speaker 1: And yeah, that Carolyn's well deserving of that. Absolutely.
Speaker 2: Well, what I liked about that was and I caught
Speaker 2: part of than the speech that got shared. It was
Speaker 2: either from the CFL account of the DC Lions. I
Speaker 2: can't remember talking about the empowering women to be in
Speaker 2: there and you know, to kind of grow that more
Speaker 2: in that way, which I think.
Speaker 1: Is super important as well.
Speaker 17: Yeah, we have several women in key positions of course,
Speaker 17: history with Tanya Henderson, the first full time a female
Speaker 17: coaching staff member, just completed her third season and she's
Speaker 17: sort of risen up now assisting with she has her
Speaker 17: own position group basically that she works with. And yeah,
Speaker 17: we've talked about Carolyn. I think of someone like an
Speaker 17: Arlene Stuart Irvine, very high up in the ticketing department.
Speaker 17: She's a twenty plus year employee. Carol Longmere was the
Speaker 17: She also won the Mobby Award in Hamilton in twenty
Speaker 17: twenty one or Director of Finance, So broken a lot
Speaker 17: of barriers in that regard and that's something we can
Speaker 17: be proud of.
Speaker 1: I got one last one. You got any? Yeah, for sure?
Speaker 1: Who do you like in the game tomorrow? Well, I
Speaker 1: can't I can't make predictions right here.
Speaker 17: I won't do it for for various reasons, but I
Speaker 17: would not count out the Toronto arghahuts.
Speaker 1: I just just watching them, seeing them, it seems a
Speaker 1: little loose.
Speaker 2: Well, they're playing because they don't have any of them.
Speaker 2: I mean not they don't have any play but they are.
Speaker 2: They have the ability to play for the winn to
Speaker 2: pay Blue Bombers.
Speaker 17: Hey there he for a fifth straight year, and they
Speaker 17: seem like they're on a mission the last half of
Speaker 17: this season. But I think it's gonna be a close one,
Speaker 17: like it like it was two years ago in Regina.
Speaker 17: Are we gonna see two block field goals in a
Speaker 17: span of ninety seconds?
Speaker 1: Again? I don't think so, But I expect this to
Speaker 1: be a good one. That's that's my prediction. Last one
Speaker 1: for me.
Speaker 2: Obviously, we've seen the work done here with the Lions.
Speaker 2: You know we're going to Winnipeg next year, then the Calgary.
Speaker 2: Do you think that the extra work done here is
Speaker 2: that gonna raise the bar now for a lot of
Speaker 2: these other teams to go, Hey, okay, we gotta kind
Speaker 2: of keep this momentum going.
Speaker 17: Absolutely, that's always kind of a goal when you host
Speaker 17: this event. And I'm sure Winnipeg is a really good,
Speaker 17: great Cup city. I've not been to a great Cup
Speaker 17: in Winnipeg, but I've heard you'll see how much of
Speaker 17: a presence it is there. Smaller city, a little more
Speaker 17: tight in the downtown core, You're gonna see great Cup
Speaker 17: stuff everywhere. But absolutely, I guarantee you the oaks there
Speaker 17: and when the Stampeders are taking notes this week, because
Speaker 17: this will be hard.
Speaker 1: To talk, well, Matt, I appreciate it.
Speaker 2: Thanks for you and Mike setting us up here at
Speaker 2: the McLaren Grills the radio row if.
Speaker 1: You take the mic here.
Speaker 17: I just want to say I'm proud of the fact
Speaker 17: that you're still doing it. I know I always reference it.
Speaker 17: Twenty twenty one in Hamilton, remember the the the Winston
Speaker 17: Church Hill pup.
Speaker 1: What was the pup called? George George Hamilton. Yeah, it's close.
Speaker 17: Uh, we're Dorothy was there and I was there and
Speaker 17: we're figuring out internet and all that stuff. But it's uh,
Speaker 17: it's good to be on it, good to be a
Speaker 17: part of it always. Uh my door's always open.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a lot smoother this time around. And the hotspot
Speaker 2: Li Fi in the corner of the bar and all that,
Speaker 2: so I appreciate it. Matt, We'll see you, thanks always, Yeah,
Speaker 2: thank you.
Speaker 1: He and the Lions and Laire.
Speaker 2: Let's bring Dorothy and last right there and then the
Speaker 2: final starry or we're gonna be out of here about
Speaker 2: two hours twenty minutes.
Speaker 1: That will be good. I think we did. I think
Speaker 1: Darren Bobbing was messaging me. I did not see it.
Speaker 1: So that was the love. Got everyone else in. Look
Speaker 1: at that.
Speaker 2: We got everyone else in. Hope everyone enjoyed the stream,
Speaker 2: like and subscribe. Dorothy, are you got great?
Speaker 6: It's been busy, it's been really good, beautiful day. Yesterday
Speaker 6: we were walking around and yeah, it's been good. Bussy yesterday, you.
Speaker 2: Remarked to me, you know, I'm provoked kind of as
Speaker 2: we were walking around, how excited it amaze you were
Speaker 2: kind of the outreach and community building and everything else
Speaker 2: going on here.
Speaker 1: What's your thoughts at the festival? Yeah, I think it's
Speaker 1: been awesome.
Speaker 6: I mean they're really involving lots of families, like probably
Speaker 6: everyone said, zip wines and climbing wall and everything, so
Speaker 6: I think it's really trying to get the younger set,
Speaker 6: you know, track and tracking the CFL so yeah, I
Speaker 6: think it's been good.
Speaker 1: I'll do this. Matt was like eating the microphone alltern
Speaker 1: back at that level there.
Speaker 2: And you got anything right after there were just right
Speaker 2: anything else here where. We're getting out of here soon,
Speaker 2: but then it's always good to get door on the omosphere.
Speaker 4: Dorothy, are you gonna be getting on the slides anytime soon?
Speaker 1: Or what's going on?
Speaker 6: I mean, it's looking pretty fun back there, so we'll see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Maybee point we kneel overs on.
Speaker 2: Some kid pulled one of those balls and it pulled
Speaker 2: and it looked to me like that structure was going down,
Speaker 2: and I, oh, so it was fine and reinflated there.
Speaker 6: But that Jamie, sorry, Jamie, And I said that yesterday
Speaker 6: someone was kicking football and it almost came right over here.
Speaker 4: Like it hit the edge of the net.
Speaker 1: That's what I thought when we first started the show out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's a there's probably a bit. The camera's pointed
Speaker 1: this way.
Speaker 2: The bounty houses all the other's field goal kicking, there's
Speaker 2: the indoor football field, there's basketball shooting and all sorts
Speaker 2: of stuff. Anything else. Any other thoughts here we round out.
Speaker 2: We'll get out of here soon. I would like to
Speaker 2: give a formal prediction, but we should probably do that.
Speaker 2: This was the casual time of deal. Let's give our predictions.
Speaker 4: We've we talked enough, haven't we. You know, as it goes,
Speaker 4: my initial reactions and thoughts usually changed during the course
Speaker 4: of the week. I initially when the Chad Kelly injuries happened,
Speaker 4: I thought, oh boy, there goes their chances if even
Speaker 4: if Toronto makes the game. Listen, I mean, this Toronto
Speaker 4: team has gone through lot of adversity. They fought their
Speaker 4: butts off to really get here, and I cannot underestimate
Speaker 4: that coaching staff. I can't underestimate the talent in the
Speaker 4: locker room. I can't underestimate the fact that they did
Speaker 4: this despite losing all the players that they did last year.
Speaker 4: I give them a real chance in this game that
Speaker 4: I know this. If you're talking about metting spreads nine
Speaker 4: to nine and a half, I think they absolutely cover that.
Speaker 4: Having said that, well, I do think there are going
Speaker 4: to be some mistakes made by Winnipeg. I don't think
Speaker 4: there's gonna be as many as Montreal made. I think
Speaker 4: Toronto can take a halftime lead. I think Brady Olivera
Speaker 4: is not only going to help Winnipeg win and complete
Speaker 4: their dynasty. I think he's going to become the eighth
Speaker 4: CFL player all time to win MOP and then win
Speaker 4: Most Outstanding Player MVP of the CFL breakup.
Speaker 1: I really believe that.
Speaker 4: I think he's gonna help drive the nail and the
Speaker 4: coffin in the fourth quarter. I think it's gonna come
Speaker 4: down to Nick Carbuckles trying to save them at the
Speaker 4: end of the day. And I don't think it's gonna
Speaker 4: have enough for this team because I think WINNI bak
Speaker 4: they've had enough. They've lost two years in a row.
Speaker 4: They want to complete this dynasty. They want everybody to
Speaker 4: run off to the sunset and you know, click their heels.
Speaker 4: But I think this is their time. I think it's
Speaker 4: finally going to happen. I gotta take Winnipeg in this game.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna say by score of twenty seven to twenty three.
Speaker 1: Jason, what you got?
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, I think that Toronto is a bad matchup for Winnipeg.
Speaker 3: We saw them win the season series against Winnipeg this
Speaker 3: year to nothing, and I think that they just always
Speaker 3: find a way to muck up the game, kind of
Speaker 3: similar to the Pittsburgh Steelers. You know, maybe they don't
Speaker 3: get the best quarterback play every week, but they always
Speaker 3: find a way to stay within the game. And I
Speaker 3: think that's exactly what they're gonna do in this game.
Speaker 3: They're gonna run the ball, They're gonna play very good defense.
Speaker 3: I think it really comes down to the fact, can
Speaker 3: Jake Cresna and the boys up front really get pressure
Speaker 3: on Zach Klaris and really rattle them early in this game.
Speaker 3: I talked earlier in the show about how Claris has
Speaker 3: generally struggled in great cups. If they can really rattle
Speaker 3: him early, it could be a completely different ball game.
Speaker 1: But if Winnipeg can.
Speaker 3: Protect up front, I think there's a big plays to
Speaker 3: be had against that Toronto secondary.
Speaker 2: Dorothy, you're playing out early, missing the game, Dorothy, thankfully
Speaker 2: helping wrangle all the guests and everything to that.
Speaker 1: Here obviously your room for Winny Peg here, your team. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's right. And didn't Kelly break his ankle? So that
Speaker 1: was really bad. That was very scary.
Speaker 4: I'm not lacking at that, but yes, that's just I
Speaker 4: don't know.
Speaker 1: So they got their backup in right, So we'll see,
Speaker 1: we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 13: Well.
Speaker 2: I appreciate everyone and anything else from you guys. We'll
Speaker 2: get out of here. We've talked two and a half hours.
Speaker 4: I guess my prediction is that I'll go twenty three
Speaker 4: to nineteen Winnipeg.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's gonna be low scoring. I think
Speaker 2: Toronto's gonna be I liked it when Brian was talking
Speaker 2: to where they have a lot less stress to play, right,
Speaker 2: I think I feel like the expectations. I do think
Speaker 2: teams are able to go out and play spoiler there
Speaker 2: a little bit. I see that a lot with hockey,
Speaker 2: where you have a team that comes in and you
Speaker 2: know they it feels like you're able to play a
Speaker 2: lot more bulleyball and free just because they don't have to.
Speaker 2: There's a lot more pressure on win effect. Yeah, well,
Speaker 2: I appreciate it. Thanks, everyone like and subscribe. Hopefully we'll
Speaker 2: share this again tomorrow before the game. But I appreciate
Speaker 2: it as always. I think we did a good job.
Speaker 2: All right, We'll see everyone next time, and safe travels back.
Speaker 2: Dorothy's flying out tomorrow. We hope everyone gets some safe
Speaker 2: and we'll see you guys next time.
Speaker 1: Thanks,