Episode Podcast Transcriptions 3 of The Markcast® podcast talking about the CFL, XFL, USFL and other “alt-football” news, stories, insights, commentary and more!!!

Episode transcriptions 3 of The Markcast®. The Markcast® is a sports-centric podcast, covering the CFL, XFL, USFL and other alternative football leagues. Tune in for the latest CFL, XFL, USFL and alt-football news. Episodes are listed in the order they were recorded. *Please excuse any spelling or typographical errors.

Episode 78 - Is It Spring Yet?

Welcome to the show. It's Friday. Once again. Another mark cast. Ready to go? Good morning, everybody. Hello? Can I interest you in some NFT? No, you may not. I have no desire. To sign on that train. Wow. That was that. Well, we'll talk about the end of the show at the finger, Joe football, that that came in as a little bit of a delight in my, in my life for the. I really don't want to talk about the NFTs, but I mean, I guess it's. Unravel the end of. The MFT mint chain blockchain. In theory and whatever with the fan controlled football. All right. Well, we got coming up this week. Yeah, it's. So we have our big breaking, you know, USFL leads, contract information. Thankfully that came down tonight before Paul got home, which is, we appreciate that. So USFL sent out. Player contracts. We kind of have all that stuff. I already formatted the shows from the CFL we're going to, and then we'll come to the USFL after the break. We were talking to the mayor, Jake mayor of the Calgary Stampeders. Jake is the one that came in for bowl Levi last year when he had this bum. You know, foot ankle. Jake's great. Jake's going to be like the future QB in Calgary or wherever he wants to end up, but he's back in Calgary this year, you know, happy to have him back there. And then Christina, Constable is coming on. I've been trying to get Christine on for a long time. She's a great writer analyst with cfl.ca. You know, rights for the league. And that just has tons of good stops. I've I mean, I've been trying to get Christine on for probably six months. So she's finally opened up her schedule and we really appreciate her coming on, so good stuff. Cool stuff. Also a. You know, the usual you were, you were texting me earlier. Like thank God. There was some USFL news. So we have that coming up as well. So we'll talk about that. After we talked to our guests. Anything else you want to plug before we get going? Yeah, a friend of the show. I got my James Wilder Jr. Autographed. Sweatshirt. If you guys, you can hit him up on Twitter, James, you know, got me one of these for a, you know, for thanks for coming on the show. These are great. It's so hot right now. I've been running around with all that are breaking news. I didn't want to put it on, but it's phenomenal. It's autographed by James. Hey James. Up. And then I had a story. We've talked a lot about Victor qui you know, with the Edmonton Alex coming up, you know, the new president CEO, all that. We had, there was an interaction I saw on Twitter this week, Victor, you know, multi-millionaire president of the Alex, basically talking to another guy on Twitter being like, Hey, where did you get that Edmonton? Like Twitter banner, you have, it's really cool. And the guy's like, oh yeah, I know I've had it for one time. We were just like, yeah, I want to make some more of these. Like we need to do more of this. And I just thought it was so cool to have the president of a team, like interacting with a fan on Twitter, being like, Hey, where'd you get that fan art? Like, we should make some more of that. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to work on that and get some. More, I decided there was such a cool breadth of life. Literally. It's his first day on that first week on the drive here, Victor queen. So very cool. Also. I mean, are you a Washington commanders fan by the way? I well, I am y'all I, you know, I'm watching football team fan. Yeah. We have Taylor Hideki, all that. Do you have any takes on this? Cause it came out the Washington commanders. I seen a lot of CNN. San Antonio, a F marks and stands coming out, being mad about it. I guess that was their slogan. Hashtag was take command. That's Washington commanders and the Washington football team. Do you have any thoughts on that? That's the AAF that was in business for like four weeks. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, no, I'm serious. I'm serious. I am too. I am very. I drew about that. I listened to maximum. Okay. Let's say the Kentucky wild cats were before the Arizona Wildcats. They're going to Sue them too. And been all p****d off that Arizona's using name Wildcats. Dumb you were around for four weeks. Dumb. I said, if there were 20 people making the decisions for the Washington commanders, less than 1% of those people, wasn't one of those people probably knew that the AAF slogan was taking me. And by less, you mean zero. Y there, what is there? Anyway, and then this asks about news could drop any time we're talking about this. We're going to, you know, air this episode, but you know, if you're listening to this and actually I'll news, Your boy reading might be on a, it might be on a, a, you know, a live stream at some point that talking about if we ever do get this news, I dunno. Realize that I am also home from work tomorrow. Nope. We could both hop on. That would be interesting. Yeah. I, we, this could be Friday. It could be Monday. It could be two weeks from now. It's kind of like a bomb. All right. Cool. That being said, we're going to move on to the news of the week. First things first, my Toronto Argonauts shout outs. They we've resigned. Quarterback McLeod, Bethel Thompson. Naylor's reporting it's for $400,000 hard money. That's probably going to be last contract in the CFL. He's 33 years old. Any thoughts? This was a mix this week because we all love McLeod. Everyone is dreamy. He's a good face for the league. He's a strong worker, all that, but there's been a lot of like, well, they are guys are just throwing a lot of money at a mediocre quarterback and I've. It was weird. It's like, we love McLeod. We want him to get paid, but then we're making fun of the Argos for doing that. I decided it was a weird dichotomy there. Pick, pick, pick, pick one. You can't do both. It's like the sweating guy, the meme, the button, you got to pick one either. You're happy. Whereas a mediocre quarterback, which one is going to be, you could have, your mind was solely who I think is not as good. What's going to be, well, we have a certified German. I. I mean, no, I think it's great from a God. I mean, he's, you, you need to sell, you need to sell the team. Do you have a face of the franchise? You have someone that management really believes in. So I think it's great. Yep. Next story. My homie, my boy could deep Kerry. Former CDL prospect at the university of Arizona running back. Signing. Resigning with the stamps. According to her report. Port from the mailer. That it's the biggest contract for American money back since Ricky Williams, shout outs to Khadim caring. A great kid. I used to cover when he was in high school. Big shout outs. If you deem, you know, I'm, I'm very, I'm very like passionate about my Arizona guys. You know, like my Arizona Wildcats tonight, men's basketball just whooped up on that UCLA ass. So I'm kind of gloating a little bit. It's been a bad day for LA area basketball, the Lakers, just one. Lost the game to the Inglewood Clippers. So it's been a bad day for LA based basketball teams. I'm just kind of like on an Arizona high right now. So shout outs. Khadim Carrie grabbing that bag up there in Calgary. Do we have any idea on how much that money is? I the highest, cause of course the contract than ever the money, you know, it's always reports that come out it's that we never released any of his staff. Dave Naylor is incredulous about the fact that they need to release these dollar figures. Right. Yeah. Think of how much off-season speculation there is in every other league with like, Ooh, can they afford this guy? Can they afford that guy? Can't do that. And CFL, we have no idea. Look at is how I'm going to open up the pocket book for Carlos Correia, or are we going to go with the, you know, like Andrelton Simmons in the Bronx? You don't know. You don't know, we play this game all the time. And we, we, we are very versed on our, our, our luxury taxes, our salary caps, that kind of thing down here in America. And they just, it sucks to. It felt isn't just as open because then that would allow a lot of people that are insiders. Like Nayla. And Jamal and, and these other people to kind of guesstimate where everybody stands and turn of reassigning people and they can kind of like make more educated guesses. They just open up the transparency. So. I'm sure it's going to be a great contract for Khadim happy for him. Moving on. Yeah. Speaking of a running back that might not be getting contract and you Harris, right? He was the big, you know, mop and all that with that. The blue bombers they've yet to come back with them. They're resigning. You'll all these different guys, right? Winnipeg, Adam, big Hills of the world. Kenny Lawler might be moving out. We were talking about [unknown]. [Unknown] coming up here, but Andrew Harris still isn't going to be signed yet. I have far Han says it's like they say that way. There's been no formal contract negotiation so far. You know, Andrew Harris was hurt, came back. I heard again, didn't really hit it out, but you see this quote here. They said that. Basically coming out of the COVID season, Harris was immediately distracted and in his preparation wasn't necessarily all that it needed to be. [unknown]. G alleged that led to some frustrations in the building. There's a belief may have contributed to injuries at force him to miss a large portion of the season. Hmm. I mean, he's like there, I mean, it's him and it's him and I'm blanking on, please. No. Hey, hang on. Also on the blue bomber note, they've agreed to a two year extension with national receiver drew we're alert. [Unknown] we'll artsy. Hopefully I'm pronouncing that right. Six foot 2, 225 pound. Receiver out of the university of Minnesota is returning to them for the fifth season. In 2022, you started all 14 season games in 2021 and played in the final and the great cup. So congrats to him. Radio live air. I always read. I knew, oh, it's a Brady over. He's kind of their other, he's like their number two running back that you could slot into that. Number one, if, if Andrew Harris doesn't come back, he played a lot with Harris was out also blue bombers. Resigning wide receiver, where she Bailey for the 2022 season. Yeah. Well, see, here's the thing. So they're reassigning him and that was kind of what they needed to because Kenny Lawler was there, outstanding guy. And now BC Alliance, this is reported. The latest coming that day have offered according mill, right to Kenny Lauder to come over to the lions. Now, have you remember, like he Whitehead was on the show a couple of weeks ago, like. Y head was getting 2 0 5. They made him the highest paid wide receiver, like BC is like buying a gray cup and I'm here for it. A lot, because they're not America's CFL team. But it's cool that they're buying these players up and trying to load up and trying to win something. And I mean, if Winnipeg is not resigning their key elements, their key players. That that, that division, the west division is going to open right up. It's going to open right up. Well, the interesting thing is because you have Nathan Rourke, right? Who is so much less. Costly. Yeah, Michael Riley was right. So you go from Riley, who was the highest paid quarterback. He retires, I think Nathan works on like an 80 grand salary, right? Thai. I mean, it gives you so much more CA again, Except people want to talk about with all these kinds of so much. Like, oh, we have $600,000 to spend on why receivers, because you're only paying a hundred thousand dollars for the quarterback. I mean, it's a great different. Great to know what those numbers are specifically, what those numbers are. Also BC lions have signed Canadian receiver, Javan co-PI coat lawyer. I should say. Cody Cody coat lawyer. Cody, I'm sorry. I'm seeing the second T is looking like an El to me. Stigmatisms kicking in fierce. To your contract extension through the 2023 season. He was scheduled to be a free agent on eighth, and that's not going to happen now. Yeah, I, again, BC making moves, I talked with Christine about this coming up in our interview as well. I said, if America had the CFL team, they would also try to buy a gray cups. So that. That's not American civil team. I, this is interesting. So yeah, Vernon Adams has resigned with Montreal, right? So that kind of opened up some Matthew Schiltz was kind of the, the key backup there. He is expected to hit the free agency. And then they're also signing Dominic Davis. I had these two flip-flopped here, but Dominic gave us who was on the red blacks is coming on to back up for Vernon. Interesting moves. Montreal has been kind of quiet in the off season so far. Oakland red blacks are battling for veteran free agent quarterback. Jeremiah. Masoli interesting that he would be a target of a bidding war, but let's keep going with. I mean today. I mean, you have, you know, And the Elks have already given Nick Arbuckle, you know, Contract, right? Like he's already on, why do they need. I don't know. Yeah. Christina talks about this and you know, Chris Jones, he gave him a hundred thousand dollars signing bonus and Nick Arbuckle, right. He's coming in. He's still cause Mazzoli is more of that mobile quarterback. Right. And then Sean Burke, who is the star of the new red blacks behind the AR. Docu series right there, kind of doing that hard knocks thing. He also has his eyes. I'm a Zoe. It is weird. Let go without any cause at all from Hamilton. And now is the. Prettiest girl at the dance with these two other teens. Remarkable. On on some negative news, I guess, former writer, John Ryan, accusing Randy and Brosy of trying to destroy Canadian content. After he was being replaced by a global punter interesting stuff. He goes on to say the way the rules work right now with Andy are both Rambo. Randy, Ambrosie trying to destroy Canadian continents. How they bring these global roster spots. If you employ the global players. That gives you an extra Canadian spot as well. League minimum right now is 65,000 in CFL. And you can actually play the global players. Less than the league minimum. Ryan explained. Interesting. Former Seahawk. Right? Super bowl champs, John Wright. Yeah, he says I'm not crapping on the global players. We had three of them. I absolutely loved them. But it is odd that you're like, well, you know, and I'm sure John Ryan is not cheap, you know, 40 years old coming in and you know, very 10-year player, but you go home, we're going to get rid of him. We got caught. You. Cheaper global guy, and then we can sign another Canadian. So it's business though. It really is business. John. It really is business. Roughriders giving a quarterback, Cody Gerardo, a $170,000 signing bonus in exchange for a small pay. Cut next season. Because you can just snap catch a break. Cody comes back, takes this team to. To the left lab cannot catch a break. But yeah, he's going to get 4 67 and hard money max. 4 85. They're trying to free up some money. Right? They got at Gainey. That whole thing coming out there. Remember, we've been talking like Saskatchewan. They are trying to buy a grey cup cause they're hosting the grey cup and we've had Glen Souter talk about that before that he is actually encouraging them to cheat and pay over the salary cap to ensure that they have have a Greg up there in rider nation. Okay. Moving forward. Moving on. I should say, let's see here. I lost the document. Great. And the ed Gainey is kind of a fan favorite. He is stepping down from the riders, the he tweeted out. He said, thanks for everything rather than the nation. People were asking and they go, well, are you coming back? What's going on? He goes, that's how much passion I have for the game. Unfortunately, I feel like it's not the same. It's the same reason why I'm not with the riders anymore. It's kind of weird. It is weird, kind of weird that you have a player. The guy loved the game. Somebody I'm not with this team anymore. Yep. That's bizarre. You know, but here we have yo. Given Cody at bay. They're trying to resign duke Williams. That's kind of the other story I have in here. Duke was the big wide receiver member they brought in with. Cody was b******g and whining. They didn't have enough talent to catch his ball. So they brought in and do glams. So, you know, let's get ready to add Ganey. Let's resign, duke Williams. We're making Cody take a pay. Cut all these little micro transactions, but writers, that's something weird there. The ed Gainey is stepping out like that. That's a lot. Alex offensive lineman metal, Donald retiring after nine seasons in green and gold. He is, he was their longest serving player and it's finally announced his retirement. So happy trails to him. 130 regular CFL games. That's pretty good. Regular season. No regular, no CFL game is regular. It's a regular season. And. David Letterman supporting Dorothy's Winnipeg blue bombers were Rocky in the rock. And the, I guess the two. As they call it north of the border, we call it a beanie here. It's a tube there. He's rocking that Winnipeg blue bombers. So does the Dorothy have any thoughts about that? I just have to say, I mean, this is do anything for you. It's exciting now. Is that it. Or is. It's always going to be great to me. I love David Letterman. I think he's great. I think. There's David Letterman, the stereotypical like that. He is the CFL's customer. We need to get younger people. I could see that. That's a fair point. That's the target demo. All right, we're going to take a break. You're going to throw to a re talking to Jake Mayer and Christina, of course. Thank you for finally coming on the show and we'll we'll to. We'll check it with them. We'll talk to them and come back. We're going to talk some USFL, some XFL stuff. And I got a little bit. You know, we got a little kind of related story that I added late to the document to the document here. We're gonna talk about two kind of related XFL. You'll see what we're talking about here in a bit. Good. All right. How do you pronounce her last name, Constable? Constable. Alright, Thanksgiving. Jake mayor and Christina Constable for joining us here on the mark has stalker to read. Talking to some good old CFL stuff. So would that being said, are you are CFL stuff is pretty much over at this point. Remove the USFL now. Yeah. So this came out today. There had been all this, you know, Really quiet this week. Right. We had the big Birmingham announcement last week and all the coaches and all that stuff. People really want player contract information. So they sent out some of the contracts tonight, you know, that south skinny, that leaked to the media. So I'm crazy. Dean UFL news on Twitter. You know, he does the FCF news as well. He compiled all this. I was messaging people and he just did the way better job kind of collecting all the information. So I want to make sure that he gets a credit. You. You SFL news on Twitter. So this all came out. Training camp, you're going to get $600 a week. Practice squads. You're going to get $1,500 a week. If you're on the active roster. You're going to get $4,500 a week. 10 Weeks. So 15 grand practice squad, 45 grand active roster. And then you get Winnie bonuses. I have a question. Yes. Right here. There's a note that says room and board paid for by the USFL and free tuition. The bonus talked about. I started thinking about this recently and wondered. At what point? Is all of that taxed. The stuff they're getting for free. That's a good point. Are they going to get taxed for the free tuition bonus? Because technically they're receiving some kind of financial benefit. And the government could come and be like, Hey, we're going to tax you on the income that it would pay to go to school. I don't know. That's a good question. I think that there. There, there, there are some people that are going to have their attacks. Tax people busy. Figuring out exactly. You know? Hey. This, this, this free tuition thing, it actually is taxable. We're going to take some more of that money that you got when you're active, or if you're on the practice squad. It's not a lot of money after all those taxes come in. Well, I mean, you obviously have to opt into that tuition and then you. You have to have that. But this is good. This is, I will say this ad a lot of the messages, like, well, what do you think about all this? Yeah, because we have been negative about USFL. People said. Right. This is very good. These are very good. I mean, obviously we want everyone to get paid more clearly, but like 45 grand for a 10 weeks with preseason. I have some numbers down here. We'll get to the comparisons. This is very good. This tells me that the USFL wants to compete as a serious league, right? And the money that they're saving, doing the bubble, getting the free hotels, having everyone in the same city, all that stuff. I don't know if that what the coach is right at that transition to getting better coaches than maybe they would've gotten before. But this definitely is a very serious paycheck. I think for a lot of these players, I think the players that I talked to you today were very excited about the money that was involved in this. Compared to XFL. The average salary was $55,000. The quarterback. Quarterback number one could get up to $250,000. The biweekly, biweekly paycheck and the XFL on average was $2,080 and there's victory bonuses and all that stuff figured in as well. Yeah. So you figured yeah, 45 grand. It could go anywhere up to, I think it. I think it topped out like at 54,000, the player I was talking to with all the wind bonuses and all that. In comparison with CFL. So if you're playing 10 games in a USFL, you know, 45,000. CFL is 18 game season, right? 21 weeks, you're getting 65,000 Canadian or 51,000 us. Right? So you're, you're going to Canada, you're having a second home. You're doing all these things, USFL that hotel, you know, you're taking care of room and board. You're paying for a lot of that stuff in the CFL. Obviously they have stipends, right. That you can negotiate, but. You see, it's a competitive. Yep. It definitely is. And Naylor's tweeting about that specifically saying that. That he doesn't see anybody like the stars of the CFL going to the USAA. But, you know, the average CFL. Salary, according to Jamal and our friend of the show is 95 to $98,000. I'm assuming Canadian with hefty playoff bonuses. Yeah, Naylor says E. You know, you're not like you said, not losing stars, but maybe new incoming talent. You're not gonna, you're not gonna fight that them coming up across the border. Right. They might just, why would I, why would I go up there if I could to stay in Birmingham? Exactly. Darrell Johnson said, he's looking forward to competing with the XFL. He came out and said that, and then April kickoff he's he's trying to there that April kickoff is basically trying to avoid a head to head the head, to head with the XFL, but there's going to be some weeks at, toward the end of the XFL season where they're going to be going up against the USFL. It's going to happen. And he's looking forward to that competition. I just say, yeah, this came out is weird this week when he said that. Cause we are all assuming that the salaries are going to be a lot less for the players, but now if they are playing. Fair salaries. Right. And that's really going to force the ex develop to open up their pocket book to so. True. And then they showed a USFL. No problem. I'm sure you watch that one. Yeah. The U S value that we had. We had tweeted this out, that we had got the information that they were going to have a commercial that was going to air during the, the Rams Niners game that got, you know, 50 million viewers, right. That at Hartman was, was quick to point out on Twitter. He is that, you know, XFL executive. It was like the guys at dinner at the restaurant that the people have like the call sheets on their arms. And then they have like the call sheet that the menu is the call sheet. And then like the players Tran. The chef's transforming the players and it's like, you got football on the brain. Very good. Very good. Commercial. I thought it was attention grabbing and it said USFL kicking off. It actually had a voice, none of the other promos before then it had. It was this text. So. Cool stuff. On a related note to XFL and CFL news, former. Former Hamilton head coach and former EXFO Houston roughnecks had coached June Jones. Recently turned down a, a job offer. Not recently, this happened weeks ago. And I don't know if we talked about in department. We did. Hmm. I remember was talking about it. Yes. Okay. You can talk about it now. I just, I just, I, I saw, I, I guess I saw an old article pop up on my feed, like on my little email alerts that June Jones, I don't remember talking about this. Yeah, they, he, they were going to give him only two years and he said that wasn't acceptable. And they were dictating who could be on a staff and stuff like that. I was going to be like, well, the head coach normally makes those decisions, but if we've already talked about it, we can move on. That's okay. Oh, your favorite? Yeah, this was interesting. The fan controlled stuff. You know, they they're building the arena. We, I think we've talked about that before, right? Th that USFL we're still in that we haven't even announced our schedule yet. And fangirl football is like, well, we're building our own f-ing arena. There was a drama this week with the jerseys. They came out with the season two jerseys for the season one teams and people complained because they, they were all really ugly, but basically only enough wild ACS people complained. So they changed that they're going to go back and change the wild days has, but none of the other ones. Wow. Interesting. And their NFTs went off without a hitch. Right? I'll wait. No, they didn't. Yeah, it was, I heard, if anything, the positive note would be that there was so much interest in the NFTs that it crashed the system, right. That they couldn't maintain it. But you could also say. You know, you're, you're asking people to invest a lot of money at that point. I mean, that's something that. You need to weigh on you. That's people that don't. Did to buy these things through your league, and that's just not going to fulfill. What happened? Do we know what happened with any of that? They were trying the free mints weren't working and they were paying for some things and they were getting charged and it wasn't going through. And so, so Rob came out, you know, he did say like, we were shutting it down. We're trying to get, we're going to make everybody whole, but it's one of those things like. I would just do a season two first. I would just like get through. They're trying to like get into the weeds with all this stuff. And it's only, it's only a way to make money. And it's not working. It's not working. Just focus on. Focus on keeping consistent rules week to week on your. Football. Sorry, but. This is ridiculous. I'm sick of talking about these people. I just, when they started to build in the arena last week, I was very shocked. I'm like, wait, if you've been doing since last February, I was very concerned with like, I want to talk about these people. I really am. I'm sorry. I am tired of talking about these people. Well, I will accept that, but at least we're not doing game breakdown with right now. We used to do so, right. All right. We're going to lend that on that note. I'm just I'm so. This just exhausts me every time we talk about it. It's like, and there's people that defend this tooth and nail, like you can't see what's going on. I'm just so tired of seeing these people. I'm sorry. I'm just so tired of seeing them. I'm I'm done. I'm done. I accept that. Well, that being said, we want to thank you again for joining us again, like, and subscribe, share the podcast out with your friends. If you've got an audio, do that as well. We're everywhere. Anywhere you can get a podcast, you're going to get the mark cast. You can also get it on YouTube where we, we have, you know, some giveaways coming up. When they get that surprise subscriber count. Up. So please leave us a review, leave some comments reads, always active, trying to talk to you guys as much as possible. So again, like, and subscribe to this podcast. And yeah, we will see you. Next week. Thanks. That was quick. I tell you that it was going to be quick. Yep. This week on the mark cast, couple special guests. We have Jake Mayer from the stamps. We have the mayor, Jake. We've got the mayor. We also have Christina Constable coming on from CFL that CA. And then a lot of CFL transactions, some USFL contract details, leak. And we're going to talk about, you know, What else were we gonna talk about? We have all the facts. Football and MTV ASCO stuff. That's always fun. Yeah. Our big leaked contract detail player pay all the things we've been waiting for came out right before we recorded them. Very glad. Very appreciate us about working. XFL is not working with our record schedule cause. We don't know when the hell that news is coming out, but at least USFL is giving us freaking news when we need it to record on the black house. That is true. And on that note of CFL transactions, again, I'm very happy for my boy. Khadim carry getting that bag. The highest paid American running back since Ricky Williams, the big thing for deem shouts to him, Well, I'm excited today. We have Kristina Costabile from CFL. That CIO he's actually at least CFL that comp how are you doing today? I'm doing so well. How are you? Thanks for having me. It's good. Yeah. Good to connect here. You know it, after the season, this is the stuff I like. I mean, I tell people, you know, the games and everything, but it's all of this like arms race, right. We're trying to acquire all the talent. How has everything going for you? It's good. Busy. As you can imagine, like you were just saying there's lots of talent out there trying to resign for free agency. We're what, like four days out now. And even no days a week, it is anymore. But it's going well. It's exciting. This is one of my favorite times of the year to just cause Regency is fun. Mostly because it's kind of like a guessing game for all of us, like where people are going to go, are they going to stay? Are they going to leave? And then it also just leads right into combine season, which is one of my favorite things to wear. You know, the younger prospects you have CFL aspirations are really kind of put in the forefront for us. So this is like my favorite part of the off season, like the February, March. And then it's kind of like a lull until you're waiting for a training camp to start in. May. What it's kids. As fans, right. You can look at all these moves and oh, we're going to win it all. Or we're, you know, like we're. We're killing there, there, we're thinking of that. You know, like I'm, you know, BC lions, right. That's, that's our team America's team. And so like, you know, I see the work that they're doing and like Nathan Rourke and we're. If you're like, oh, we're just going to be unstoppable, but then we have fans. Oh, well, you know, your online is still crazy or you guys are still, you know, spending money on that. So. It's fun to be able to brag right now. Sure. And what's cool about this time of the year too, is like, Games aren't won on paper. Obviously we know that, but you look at a roster like that, and you're talking about BC and you're looking at all of these receivers that they've already signed and there's rumors going around that they might even offer to Kenny Lola. Like you're looking at all of these things and you're like, wow, they're going to be amazing. And then I love when, like you actually hit the field and if it pans out. Awesome. But sometimes they hit the field and you're like, oh, this is why football is not played on paper. Yeah. As a Washington football fan. Now the commanders here in the NFL, they have the very much. And designations, but oh, our defense is going to be number one and it was like 31st. So yeah. There's a lot of stories. I want to get your thoughts about. But obviously you have a pulse of what is, you know, maybe driving the most traffic or most important. What is high on your radar right now of storylines that you're tracking. I think most of it is right now because the re signings of players, fans and, and myself included is you're wondering, are we gonna get our favorite players back? I know this morning, Dylan wind resigned in, in Hamilton. And I know that was a big piece that not only the front office there wanted, but also the fans, he was a fan favorite. So for us, and for me, especially, that's what I'm looking at next week. I'll look at the guys that are going to be changing teams, but. Rumors are always swirling. There's reports about so-and-so maybe going here, maybe going there to me like, nah, I don't know what's happening for that just yet, but when it's the guys that are actually resigning. Are there teams and kind of what that means. Moving forward. That's kind of where my focus is until at least next Tuesday, when the free agency period opens at noon. It's just it's it's good for me. Right. You know, we hear a lot about, okay. You know, CFL and teams, retaining players, right. Players wanting to be, but I see a lot of, you know, fan favorites, good hardworking players being resigned in these places. I mean, it feels good to me seeing that, right. That maybe. Are we transitioning more to that if keeping guys around that can help sell tickets and sell jerseys and kind of sell all this stuff. Yeah, exactly. And I think I've noticed this. Maybe it's not a trend, but maybe it's just like my blind eye here, but I've noticed this year, a lot of guys who have been signing two year deals. Which I know in the past, we've kind of talked about, which is why when the CFL free agent list comes out, it's like 300 guys because a lot of guys are signing those one-year deals. So to me, I like the fact that I've seen a lot of these players that have resigned in the last month or so. Signing two year deals, not only for the fans, because then they'll want to go and support their teams and ticket sales. But it's also for merchandise. Like I know I've seen guys be like, I don't want to buy a. I don't know, Chris traveler, Jersey, and then he goes somewhere else or whatever it is. And then he goes to the NFL, but these guys that are committed. So their actual teams. With that number and that name plate and not Jersey. I think that's awesome too. Not only for the league as a whole, but also for fans, because even myself, I'm a sports fan too. And I don't want to buy a Jersey of somebody on, on any team for any sport. If I know that he's not going to be there for at least a couple of years, So I think that's been really good that I've kind of noticed that a lot of these guys have been signing two year deals instead of the one years that we've been kind of prone to seeing in the last few seasons. Yeah, because it's hard. I mean, especially, you know, Me as an adult. Like I can go by a jury to be, you know, if you're like kids watching, right. These kids that we want to attract and you're like, God, I'm going to spend, you know, a hundred dollars or whatever, you know, it. You get these players and then yeah, the end of the year, they're moving on it, you know, it's hard to, I mean, we love the brands, right? We love the teams, but yeah, you gotta, you gotta have the players involved as well. Yeah, exactly. And I'm the same way. And I need for me to like, I've become like a CFL fan. So if I'm getting, I don't know if somebody's Jersey like Kenny Lawler in, in BC or. Winnipeg, sorry. And then he goes to sign and BC me is like a CFL fan and like a Kenny Lawler fan. I would be fine with that. But if you're just a bomber span and you bought that Jersey after he had the year that he had, and then he goes somewhere else. I totally understand why that would be a little bit disappointing. And as you mentioned too, if, if you're a kid that, you know, saved up all his points for, for the year and spent it on that Jersey, it would be kind of disappointing too. If he had had moved on, if he had gotten into Jersey already. Top of the list of things I'm curious about we're big McCloud, Bethel Thompson fans, right. You know, Paul, my co-host who's team is Argos. You know, We came out earlier this year, called him the king of the CFL, and then he kind of, you know, It didn't have the best start of the season. Came back, ended really strong. I've seen. People are excited that the Argos have resigned McCloud, but then I see a lot of like, well, like he was overpaid or they shouldn't have, he shouldn't be there. They should find some of those. Where do you land on McLeod and kind of, it's this weird dichotomy. Am I alone in seeing that? Yeah. For me, I think it was a great signing for Toronto for a few reasons. One, since Ricky Ray retired, I don't think that they've necessarily had a face to their brand in the quarterback position. Anyways, I know that they had. You know, James Franklin there for a bit, obviously Nick Arbuckle was in for a little bit, but I don't think that they had that like marketable face of someone who like is true Argonauts football. And to me and BT is that I think that he fits in with the culture that Pymble is trying to create. I think that he obviously has the on-field product. We've seen him. He led the league and touchdown passes in 2019. Like he was, I think, six in passing yards last year and he didn't even play all of the games. Like he's the guy on the field. He's the guy off. Off the field and even just hearing from some of the other players on social media or whether it be an other. Interviews, they all like ride or die for MBT. So I think that he is that guy for Toronto and I love the signing. I think they need one starting quarterback, not this one, a one B. That works for some teams, but I don't think it worked in Toronto between him and Nick Arbuckle. Obviously they shipped our buckle out, but I think having just the one quarterback. As like, okay, MBC, you're going into training camp. This is your team. I think that's going to be good for the franchise, but it'll also be good for him. Cause I don't think he's gone into an Argos training camp as the number one quarterback. Maybe he was there as a competition. A few of the years, but having him as that number one guy, I think is going to be great for the Argos. Cause obviously they, at the back end of the season, he was really good. I mean, minus like the second half of the Eastern final, where the whole team kind of fell apart and Hamilton. Was able to come back with Dana Evans behind, behind center. I think that NBT has shown that he's good for this franchise and good for the organization. So I'm really excited to see what he can do this year. I think that he's going to help them remain competitive. For the top in the east. Well, we, you know, we talked about the face of a franchise. I mean, McLeod. You know, my heart. And the cloud owns a good piece of my heart here, you know? Someone tonight. I, you know, handsome, man. It's good to see him, you know? See it in that way. You know, speaking of Evans, Dan Evans, EO. Mazzoli Lily, you know, I I've heard right. Edmonton, he's bouncing around. He's going to Ottawa. Thoughts on Rizzoli's destination. Yeah. So I thought a lot about this, even like before the rumors were coming out. I don't know why I had like a weird, strange inkling that he was going to Ottawa. I think the Sean Burke connection is, is very obvious. But maybe I'm like even stretching here, but I'm just thinking back in 2019 with LAFCo is the office of coordinator in Winnipeg. He had that one, two punch of like Zach hilarious. You could throw Chris traveler who could run. And Jeremiah to me is a little bit of the best of both worlds in one quarterback. So you can get somebody who maybe it's a different system in Ottawa, but he still likes that kind of quarterback. Perhaps that's somebody that LAFCo can kind of lean on because he knows the skillset of Missoula that he can run and he can also throw. But I wouldn't be surprised to see him signing in Edmondson. We all love Chris Jones and he does some interesting things with his defenses, but also his offenses. So I wouldn't be surprised there, but I have a feeling he's going to be in Ottawa, which I think the red, black spans should be super stoked about that because I'm a big Jeremiah Masoli fan. I love a mobile quarterback. So I think that I think he's going to Ottawa, but again, this league is so weird and you think, you know something and then two seconds later, you don't. But yeah, maybe auto. I think that's kind of where my, my thought processes. Speaking of Ottawa this behind the R right. This web series that they debuted, I assume you've gotten a chance to watch it. I was, I think I just, it was shared like, right. And I just happened to see it right on Saturday when it was out. But. Tremendous. I mean, my, my opinions on it. What were your thoughts on that? And, and, and the new way to engage fans and kind of this behind it's like a hard knocks. See, I mean, it is what it is, but it's what do you think. I loved it. First of all, I love that kind of stuff as I'm an avid sports fan and also as a casual sports fan, because it's, you don't know those things that are going behind the scenes, you know, they're happening, but to actually see and hear the conversations, I thought it was so well done. I think I sent out a tweet that I could have watched like six more hours of that. I was so disappointed. There was only seven minutes. I was like, give me more. But yeah, I think they did a really, really, really good job. And I would love if like other teams did similar things if like their front office was open to allowing cameras in to, to listen in on those conversations, because it was, it was great for me who loves the lead, but it's also going to be great for a casual fan who just. Maybe stumbled upon it. And you're seeing the fake cause what I like is seeing the faces behind the helmet. And I think that this is going to be a really great opportunity. Obviously the first episode is about Sean and the GM. Role, but as they move forward, it's going to be a really great way to market the players who are behind the helmets, because unlike the MBA, for example, like the MBA you're there, you can see your face, but football players are wearing helmets and it's really difficult to market those players when they're actually playing the game. So when you can get. These kinds of things off the field. I think it's great. For the league and, and also for these players who obviously want to get their names out there as well and market their own brand. So I'm very excited to see the next episode. I'm so sad that it's only once a month. I want to do more than that, but it was really, really well done and I really did love it. Yeah. I've thought the same thing I thought. A good length. I agree. As someone that does video, I'm like. That would be, I would like it like every other week. Right. But. I'm like, God, that's a lot. It's like you have to, yeah. We're recording this. As you're going through. Value was a great light because I remember years ago really having this tuned into me that, like you said, the marketing. It is the hardest sport to market the players because you do not see their faces. It's the only sport you look at baseball and soccer and basketball, everything else. It's so hard to market. Individual, you know, it's this mishmash of everyone running around. Right. It's really hard for the casual fans. Yeah. I think it's tremendous. I think it's phenomenal. Yeah, I'm very excited to see moving forward. And even like, you look at the NFL, which is still football, but they're on such a big grander scale that those are still, but even still you think about like an entire NFL roster, a casual fan might know three of those players, the quarterback, and maybe like a star receiver. So it's the same thing. So I am really excited. I'm I can't wait to see their next episode, which I guess will be the next Saturday and this month, which I'm. Speaking of Edmonton, right. You know? I it's. It's kind of like the going from worst to first, right? Yo kind of some issues there last season. Now we're bringing in Chris Jones or bringing in Victor qui right. You know, we're resigning everybody building this culture. Maybe we get them azole. It thoughts on Edmonton and just really seemingly turning things around here pretty quick, at least on paper, like you said before the season. Yeah, it was. Without, like, obviously not knowing to seeing the guys on the field. I think. Chris Jones is good for the CFL period. He's obviously a incredibly intelligent coach, but I also think that he's another marketable guy that, you know, people either love him or love to hate him, which obviously drunks out conversation. But I think having some, you know, fresh blood, if you say in, in the front office with Victor, I think is going to be really great. I've already seen him. Really engaged on social media, you know, talking to fans and tweeting people easy to tweet at me. Like it's, it's really cool to see somebody in that high of a caliber of a position, really engaging with the community, which I think is kind of what Edmonton is all about. And it's one of those things too, where this leak, we've seen it a million times where. Team will be at the bottom of the standings and the next year they're at the top. So I think they're already on their way. I know that they free react, Nick Arbuckle with the new contract. And if, if they bring in Mazzoli, that's another one, two punch. James Wilder, I think is also a good one as well. He's obviously one of the better running backs in the league as well. So I think that they, the potential is all there. It's just a matter of kind of finishing those last little bows if you will, or the cherry on the top of the cake, but they're building it and it's coming. And I really like what they're doing, and I'm very excited to see how things shake out this year. I will talk about the, in the show here tonight with Paul when I record. But like I was on Twitter the other night, like you said, Victor very interactive, right. With everyone. And I saw he had tweeted at someone like, Hey, Really cool. Edmonton, Twitter, bah, you know, photo, whatever banner. And he's like, yo, where did you like, where'd you get that? And the guy was like, oh, I've had it for awhile. And victory was like, well, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make some new ones for us. Like, you know, let me know and I'll send it over. And I was like, that is the coolest thing to have someone empower care, right. Care enough to go online. Hey, where did you get your Twitter things like, that's awesome. Like, I want that. And I just thought, you know, you would never get that sort of interaction. Emmy NFL. Right. And that we hate comparing all these things like that is what the CFO needs to lean into is people in power that can actually spend five minutes, like talking with people online and interacting. I just thought it was the coolest little interaction that spoke a lot to him. Yeah, for sure. And like, I maybe like the other guys, like around our league aren't as tech savvy, that also could be the case. Cause like not everyone can do social media. I definitely understand that, but you're right in the sense that that is what makes one of the things that makes our league so special is that people in power are so accessible. Our players are so accessible. You've seen it, I've seen it. All of our players are always all over social media, talking with fans, like I've even seen some players like asking about like free agency. Like where do you, like? I think, I think it might've been really Jefferson earlier was like tweeting about where Jeremiah was going to be going and then asking fans to like, Come in like to me that that's like the special thing about our league is that because we are so close knit and small, everyone can kind of chat with everybody and we are also accessible. So that that's really great. And I do love that Victor's making those banners like that's so cool. Like what other president is going to be doing that? And oh, I have one more thought just on moving. I would think before we move on. Do you know, stuff like that. And forgive me, the, the video guy that did all that, that. Ottawa. It's auto team videographer, but like, That costs no money. I mean, you have someone that's already like on, you know, staff are partially, right. You know, you freelance without like, These things like that, it's just the time and effort. Right. You're already having someone come in and kind of do that work. So I just, things like that, Victor, all these little things that. Don't cost any money and just, it means that it shows. I shows the effort of caring and really trying to, you know, do something different. Cody in Saskatchewan, right? Gotcha. When I always say it wrong. A lot was made this week of his, you know, taking the restructuring a little bit, whatever. I mean, this Cody, is he the answer in Saskatchewan moving forward? What do you think. I think so. I think he's proven himself enough. I know some people say, you know, he can't get it done in the big games, obviously losing into a Western finals in a row, but. I think Cody is a, an excellent football player. And B he's a team player. Like that's what this restructuring is like. It's not a selfish move. Boldly. Financial did the same thing earlier this year. It's a team player. And I think Saskatchewan is all in with Cody. And I think he's like right there. You know, like those are like he's right there to making the next step and getting to a great cup. I mean, two Western finals in a row is nothing to scoff at. So I do think he is, he obviously is really well liked by, by the writers in Jeremy O'Day. But I think that he is. That guy, he's a leader. I know he's a locker room guy. He's really big in the community. So I think that he is. Their future moving forward. And if they get a few of their pieces back, I know there's obviously like every other team have a lot of pending free agents, but I can see them doing well. Again, this. It's just scary. Seeing all the moves when the pigs making. It's like, well, no. Yeah, well, Well, I have, I, I saw somebody say, oh, look at our, look at our coffee mug. We have the, whatever. I'm like, okay. You know, there's never, before I let you go. You know, are you surprised with the aggressiveness that BC has been making in the off season? Right. Getting. Presumably for Nathan work. Right? I know there's like rumors, Trevor Harris is going to come in. What do you make of kind of this aggressive nature that BC is having in the off season? I like it. I mean, obviously after Michael retired, you're going to have a big chunk of salary open. And Nathan, I know hasn't played a lot of games, but the ones that he has he's looked good. And obviously the organization has a lot of faith in him. If they've already called him the starter. And if they can get a vet like a Trevor Harrison in the background there to kind of lead him and teach him things. And then also just spend all that money on your other players. I know they were able to get, earn them back. Obviously they had that big deal for lucky. And then the rumors are swirling up swirling about Kenny. I love it. Be aggressive, bringing all the weapons that you think you need, especially that tells me that you believe in your quarterback, who's making significantly less money than Michael was obviously. But that tells me that you believe in him. Cause you're not rushing to spend a whole boatload of money to get another QB. You can actually take some of that money and spend it on some of the other pieces. We talked about the old line that definitely needs to be addressed as well, which maybe that is in the works right now. But the receiving Corps, at least. I think they look great and I'm excited to see how they pan out. I know that Nathan has been a big, everyone's a big fan of him in that locker room. And I know he's one of those guys we've heard, it shows up early, stays late. He works as if he is the number one and that's all you can ask for. Right. And if he's putting in the work and we've seen what he can do that last game against Edmonton, he looked amazing. So I think that that's, I like that they're being aggressive. I would always be aggressive if I was a GM, I'd be like trying to get everybody. But I really like what they're doing for sure. Yeah, I'm just, and I don't know, you know, where a Mar Domin came in here mid last season right now. This is like, are we, is that the edict? Right? Hey, we want to be aggressive. We want to be a player. I mean, I don't know. Right. But that certainly feels. I mean, I think it has to be at least, you know, it's a non-zero connection there of him coming in last season, moving into this season. Like, Hey, we really want to like make an effort to be competitive and be in the mix and be. Relevant, you know, I think more than anything just to be relevant and, and, and not be out of it by the end of the season. I know, and it's tough too, because I feel like last year they were so close. Like they down the stretch, there was some games that they had lost that were just like one or two plays away from being wins. And so they are right there. And so I think if you're being a little bit more aggressive right now and getting those last little pieces that might set you over the edge, why not do it? That's this is the time of the year to do it and having new, like Omar in there as well as new ownership is obviously great as well for the marketing side of the. Of the team as well. It just feels like there's a lot of people right now. They're involved in these teams that are really, really care and really making an effort and really like, you know, working on deals and working on signing to we're gonna, I just, I liked that as a fan being like, wow, I mean, You know, it's sport, right? It's more, but it's nice to be like, man. I mean, they really like, they're going for it here. They really, they really care. I would feel good if I was a fan. Any bill, why don't you go last question if. Why if he was making moves any team, if you were a fan of that, you maybe you're like, Hey, what are we doing here? Maybe aren't doing the moves that I need to be doing right now. I just feel like Montreal has been kind of quiet. I don't know if that's like, you know, maybe they're just waiting a little bit and then doing a surprise attack, but I was kind of wondering that the other day I'm like, what's Montreal doing, like, I know that they didn't have as many free agents. They still had a lot as maybe some of the other teams, but I'm kind of curious what Montreal is going to do over the next week, at least until the free agency period opens. Maybe they're trying to go out and get a few other big guys who are upending FAS, but I haven't really heard too much about Montreal. That's my biggest question, mark, for sure. Right now. Exactly. I was thinking the exact same thing. I was. I'm kind of going through the map in my head and kind of go on the cross. And I'm like, yeah. I mean, you know, we got burned and Adam's back on, you know, I mean, that was obviously a big a lockup for them, but it didn't seem like since Vernon and I guess. You know, we, we had Jeff Reinbold. Will rise in an amputee. It could be. I mean, we had, I felt like a couple, like a month ago. It was very high on Montreal now. I'm like, there. Yeah. What have you done for me lately? Yeah, exactly. And that's very much what this league is all about. We all know this. Well, thank you. You've been so gracious with your time. We kind of rapid fire through everything here, but it's a good week.

Episode 77 - Is This USFL?

It's Friday morning. You're watching this either on YouTube or you're on your podcast player. Welcome to the mark cast, where you get all your alt football news, even though the CFL's not all football here in America. Unfortunately it is. Of course I'm Paul. This is read. Neither one of us, our name mark. Just so, you know, That's heavily. It started every show. We do Richard though, for real, has a voice. About Kevin. That'd be a four and he's good now Richard's got it. It's for the mark has a, this is kinda my big D energy episode ideas. We were really going for it this week. We already had James Wilder set up, you know, recently just worked out timing wise, recently resigned this week with Edmonton running back. All-star writing back for them. Eddie steel was already scheduled to come on as well. Edmonton, Alex. Former defensive tackle. He does all the analysis and stuff about CFL. Now. But then we had the big USFL announcements or Roy as Johnson's going to come back on every, he was the one that hallowed the TV network deals and all that stuff. And then Sam Shorenstein coming out of nowhere. I was talking with him about XFL rules because of the whole, you know, Kansas city, Buffalo, lots of, you know, rural debates. Sam created the rule book. What do you think about getting the XFL real creator on this week? Paul? Really cool. Really good. Get all things considered, especially the Jews. Did you ask him, are you going to ask him about the technology that was patented, that he came up with? Did that come up? So we're, it's a pretty, it's a pretty focused interview, right? It's, it's pretty, Sam's got a lot of, you know, Fights Stokes in the fire right now coming up. So we're, yeah, it's a pretty focused, but I think if you're into like really nerdy. Football rules. And like, how is that all developed and, and different alternatives for the NFL? It's a little different than the end of the interviews we normally do, but I'll tell you, I adore it. These heads going to be spinning, but if you're into like nerdy football talk, that's for you. Awesome. I like it. Subscribe to the show. Of course. Share it out with your friends and family. Anybody who would like it. We got a lot of big stuff coming up. We got players apparently from Calgary, the BC lions Winnipeg. I'm going to reach out, see, cause the Argos follow me on Twitter. I read still p****d about that. I'm going to reach out and see if I can get anybody from Argos to shop and hang out with maybe some, maybe some MBT, some McLeod who knows. We'll see. Yeah, I really I'm. We're working all the phone lines right now. I'm telling you like big gas coming up. Big Winnipeg gas, big, big BC gas, lots of good stuff coming up. So yeah, if you were making a, we're making a stand here, so. Very cool stuff. I guess four years ago on this day. Exhale 2020 was announced. Yeah. I was 20, 20 weeks. It was, I missed the day by like one day when I tweeted it, I was so mad, but I big, big guy with kind of viral on the Twitter was Vincent man in 2018 saying that we are going to focus on fan. Fan first football or whatever the hell he said. And he looked old. Danny looks older now. I mean, he left, I was surprised. Jerry, he's going to die in that shared by that chair. I mean, the WB. Chairmanship, like he's going to die there. And Nick, con's going to take it over and who knows where they're going to sell to, but. Moving on. We do have some alternative football coming up and that's the USFL. And today they finally named their final two head coaches. One, we speculated about being Jeff Fisher. He's going to coach the Michigan Panthers and the new Orleans breakers have hired. Larry fedora. The former head coach at the university of Southern Mississippi. And UNC. Yeah. So Fisher was the big one that seems to have gotten the most notoriety, right? I mean, he's, I think they said he was like the sixth winning this coach in NFL history or something like that. I mean, crazy. You know, when you, when you coast for 22 seasons, this seemed to be definitely got the most fanfare. Do you have any reaction to Jeff Fisher? Finally get you. That was the rumor, I guess, was it last week? That feels like forever ago. We were talking about that last week that we suspected that he might be the another head coach that they're hiring and sure enough, you know, We followed the smoke and found the fire, basically. Ah, Jeff's a good coach. He's a good. I guess instructor, he's going to be a great fit for this. I don't think he's an NFL caliber caliber coach, despite the fact that he did it, you know, for 22 years. It's interesting that he coached for both the Titans and the Euler. I'm sorry, not the Oilers, the Titans, the Titans are the Oilers. The Titans and the Rams given the fact that the Titans of the Rams were the ones that played in the super bowl that gave St. Louis that title. Before they moved back to LA. So it's interesting that, you know, he coached both those teams, both those franchises. And now of course, it's going to USFL. Larry fedora always was a name that people were throwing around when like, When I was falling, it was on a football religiously. Everybody was talking about Larry fedora, being the guy to replace John Mackovic at one point. And. Sure enough, like you kind of, you know, had it had a little bit of a burnout. So now, now it's good to see them get another shot at this. Yeah. So Connor, full Connor full kind of, we've been talking a lot online. Connor used to do a lot of stuff for new south, kind of before we got involved in all this Connor put a lot of this in perspective. I'm trying to get him involved with the show a little bit. He. Got to get him out of the retirement. You know, when the exit, everyone holds the USFL coaching standards now to the exit felt right. Like we envisioned like John Hayes, wasn't this 20 year NFL coach when he got brought into the exit felt right. Like he was a tight end Scouts, you know, mark Trestman you had a lot of these, so. You know, Connor gave this pretty strong marks. I mean, Connor said about a, B plus on this, you know, you have the big names and Mike Riley, Jeff Fisher, obviously bar Andrus. You have been in the system before, but I think. I would feel pretty good about this. I feel like, except for Kevin. I think we have, like, I think we have seven competent, right? Like motivated. Skip Holtz was at the big announcement. We're going to talk about skip Holtz came across as very excited in his press conference that he gave on Tuesday. So like, I think you have guys that want to work, so. We'll stuff opening. Game's going to be the General's taking on the stallions 6:30 PM. April 16th. Reed is planning on potentially being there. I'm not going to, I'm not going to commit to it right now, but we'll have some more announcements coming up in the future. But Reed is starting to kind of figure things out to see. You know, about setting up shop and doing a live show, doing all that fun stuff that you know is for grey cup weekend. Of course. And now reads looking into getting that all set, set to go. Tickets gonna be $10. And children under 15 they're in for free. So it's going to be great. It's a great family atmosphere clearly. Down there in Birmingham for the opening opening game. The the. Critique was so they came out and they said, this is going to be the most fan friendly. I didn't say this. Someone is going to be the most Stanford like football and someone tweeted. He goes, yeah, I got to fly into the game. It's $10 and take my family, man. I got a. I said, well, you know, that's. Yeah. Your van found this on Monday listener, you know, van, the man, our number one fan found this on Ticketmaster. We all tweeted it. And then five minutes later it was taken down. So clearly they weren't expecting it to be found yet. It's the kickoff weekend is Easter Saturday. Interesting. Easter. Yeah. I mean. I'm not, you know, I'm not a man of the cloth anymore. I went to Catholic school, but like, I tell you. Cause they're talking about games, you know, Saturday, Sunday games. Do you play games on Easter Sunday? I just can't imagine that. Yeah. I mean, I guess you're going to, I guess you're going to. I guess, I guess. We know yet six 30 on that. They're also going to simulcast it. This was all announced in that big Tuesday, presser Fox and NBC. This hasn't been done since a Superbowl one. So they're really trying to. The feedback I've gotten from this is they're really trying to pad the numbers because you have an X number of people. They're just going to have it on Fox all the time. And then you have an X number of people that are going to have it on NBC. You know, you just have your TVs on, well, let's let simulcasts, it's like, we're like base minimum. We're going to get like 600,000 viewers on this. Do you, do you like the simulcasts idea? I do like the simulcasts idea. There's a lot of like sharing going on between NBC and Fox right now. It's very interesting. Like. When it comes to wrestling, and now this there's a lot of, you know, Synergy between these two competing networks when it comes to wrestling. And now USFL, I liked the idea of them simulcasting and maybe. Maybe they'll just have two different sets of commentators. One will do like kind of lead by pro stallions. The other RevPro generals, maybe. I don't know. I'm just going to throw some ideas out there. Let's see what sticks. Yeah, listeners. Aqua's already actually asking me about that. Like, are the different networks going to have them? I said, well, you have to imagine that like Fox is going to have their Fox broadcasters, right? Like, like maybe Kevin Kugler. Right. They did the spring league before I maybe have Kevin come back and then obviously NBC has theirs. A couple of quotes, Pete Viveka with NBC sports, you know, having two broadcast networks combined starts not beans unique, but represents our commitment to radio. We want spring football to succeed. Eric shanks. He was at the Birmingham thing. This is the first game played in any new league is historic and having UFS ELLs you, I can't speak USFL is inaugural game simulcasts makes it even more. So it's rare when two competitors can come together. So like, they're really trying to play this up. Like this is monumental, like earth shaking, whatever. Cool stuff. So apparently now we've got a voicemail. Yeah. The voicemail now, I don't want to wait for the end of the show. We'll be seeing you back. We should've just played this. This is Richard over rail. Richard wants to say, he's got his comments about, and then this will segue us into the rest of the U S of all conversation there. Hey Mar case this. Richard. I got to say, I see all the people excited about. USFL. Now I'm thinking about Birmingham and $10 tickets. You know, I know. Site about because I'm like you still two coaches down, you still haven't say how you going to get your players. I mean, you know, Not going to try out for whatever it is they doing. And I mean, people can inside of God, I'm like, I want to wait to gameplay. I'm more excited when two to three weeks to see what the rock got to say. You know about the SFL. I'm really more excited about that. I know people happy. They talking about a rock might be an owner. And they're going to sell on the s**t. They need to go ahead and do and start tomorrow. Because, you know, considering this kind of stupid. And so Richard's not sold on this. And then you see this note here about Airride taking potential USFL ownership, not, not. Not a stretch for a rod. Of course he is. Aiming to become the, becoming an owner of the Minnesota Timberwolves that I suspect. I suspect we'll relocate soon. And you should be happy about that. You should be happy about that. You read. I'm suspecting the timber rolls are going to move soon and it's going to be like the karmic retribution for a rod. Leave in the Mariners. And we'll leave it at that, but it's cool to see a rod get in the mix with ownership of different teams. I don't know if you know. Hitching your wagon to this. This situation is the best, but. It's going to be interesting to see if, if, if a rod comes through and actually becomes an owner here in the USFL. Yes, gene Holmen. He has the presidency of Bruno event team. He was on the three man front they're tired. This is, they had all this press this weekend at Birmingham. He was talking. And I talked with Roy about this right. Roy's interview is coming up. Once we get done with this USFL stuff. They really want the USFL to be similar to an MLS ownership. Right. And you can speak on that. Cause I don't know any, but right. The idea is that the central hub, but then how does, how it MLS applied to the USFL? I mean it's, it's. The way I understand the MLS. Franchise model to be as like you own the team and you, you. You really do partake in some profits, but ultimately like there's some things that you have to go through. It's it's it's low. The NFL was the NFL. It's like Jerry Jones owns the Cowboys. Right? And the NFL's official drink is I believe it's Coke. And Jerry Jones can can say no, I I'm. We're putting Pepsi in at. At cowboy stadium. Those kinds of decisions are fair, but there's a lot more strict decisions when it comes to MLS franchises. Where they have to do a lot more. Jumping through hoops simply because soccer is such a bigger sport globally than football is. So that's why, you know, MLS. Pulls it in and kind of restricts their owners from doing too many things that NFL owners and MLB owners can get away with. So this would get away from the whole 1980s. Like Trump wants to take on the NFL, right? I mean, this would be a way to allow ownership, right. And Brandy and, and branching out, but not take on another, like, Yeah, exactly. You know, the MLS. Model's really great. It's been really thriving as of late, when they started the major expansion era. Where, you know, like 15, 20 years ago we had what, seven, eight teams. And now there's almost 30, some odd teams. So I think there is 30 now. So MLS is booming. This is a great business model to kind of model yourself after and it's going to be it's good. It's going to be interesting to see how long this goes on, especially when everybody's doing spring football. That's when the big that's that's when you know, the rubber meets the road, for lack of a better term. To see. Who's going to survive and who's going to thrive. And who's just gonna be honest. I'm going to be realistic. Some of these leagues. Are not going to make it. Past a certain point. Yeah, I mean, does XFL try to do this too? Roy has a lot of insights coming up cases. Ryan's been talking with Eric shanks, kind of, you know, candidly about some of this. So Roy, make sure you check out Roy's interview talking about that. But the thing with the, a rod was that. That gene was in the meeting with Eric shanks and they were talking about like, oh, he, they were at the MLB all-star game. They're talking about. You know, getting ready for Birmingham and all of this. And Eric goes, yeah, the guy sitting behind me, we've been talking to the owner operator in New Jersey. It was a rock. They want high profile, people like that involved with their franchises. I mean, that's, that's crazy. I think they really have to given, given like, you know, I'm going to, I'm appointed out, given the like, you know, stigma that is attached to the spring league right now, they need more people that are high level high profile sports people. Involved in the USFL to make it. Bible. The interesting thing to Holman was talking about the Fox NFL DNREC is Fox is heavily involved in the, you know, the USFL and how the Fox gives so much money to the NFL because of the way their broadcast deal works, that the NFL is pretty like fi you. Roger Goodell and Eric shanks are like super close. So like the NFL is definitely going to keep an eye on the USFL and they're certainly not going to like maybe prop them up, but they're not going to get in the way. They're not going to worry about competing. They're going to worry about like Eric shanks, you're your property's taken care of. We're not going to get in the way, which I thought was interesting in the way money is flowing with these TV deals. Yeah. I'm I'm, I'm, I'm excited to see how this all pans out, how it's presented, how it looks. That's what I'm more excited for to see like everything, you know, how the draft goes. What kind of players are available after the USFL drafts? Are there going to be any names you recognize from XFL or they're gonna be the names we weren't recognized from CFL. Be interesting to see. Yeah. But my last note here on the USFL before we get to, right. So they have 3000 people in the poor though. We've seen this query that on Twitter and stuff. He thinks there's going to be at least five or six solid names, right. That you're going to know in each team, which is good. Right. You don't want to get a lot of whatever. My note for this. We're still waiting to find out what these players are getting paid. Right. It's spring league, didn't pay whatever. So if you're doing a base like 50,000, $50,000 salary, right. Which XFL was about that? If you, where they got all your incentives and stuff, it was like 55,045 players because you have 38 and then seven practice. So that's 45 slots. Eight teams. That's $18 million just for player salaries for the season. It adds up really quick when you're like, when you. That's why the spring league didn't pay players. I mean, it adds up really quick when you're on a $50 million investment from Fox. I mean in a similar way. Like when you're, when you're like, when I've budgeted movies before, and I've looked at like actor salaries, even the minimum, like it starts to build up pretty quick. You're like, holy cow, my, my salaries for my actors are like now in the six figure range, it's like, Okay. I got to move some money around and make this work, but yeah, it adds up really fast and it has a really fast, and obviously NBC is paying for part of the broadcast. You know, Fox is earmarked 50 million. NBC's paying some of that. We don't know what that is. So, you know, it's 50 plus, but just, you know, you're paying coaches, you're playing staff, you're paying players. They're not paying for this stadium, but you know, 50 million is going to go pretty quick here. Awesome. Awesome. Let's looking forward to seeing, you know, everything unfold. Of course, the player meeting. Not a draft player meeting coming up soon. And then April 16th is the kickoff. So we're gonna do is we're gonna take a break real quick. Come back after, after a break. Reid's going to talk to Sam, Roy, James, and Eddie. Like the four Musketeers. More CFL news to follow after the break. Just keep it tuned right here. To the market test. That was good. Yeah. All right. Oh, I point out I have my Edmonton Alex hat on when we come out of the break. We'll come back to the show. Want to thank our illustrious panel of guests for this week reads going back to the three hour shows, I don't know what's happening, but there you go. Sam, Roy James and Eddie. Thank you for joining us here on the mark cast. Looking forward to, you know, Possibly talking to you. Maybe more often, especially Sam, once everything starts really going to be great to have them on at least once a month. Very knowledgeable guy, great stuff from Sam. So with that being said, we're moving on to the CFL. I noticed you have your Edmonton Alex hat on. Are you going back that way? Because you've been on this. BC lines is America's CFL team, but why are you wearing an Edmonton dog sat? Well, we did. Very evident heavy today. I wasn't blaming it on that. I will tell you, James Wilder is the nicest man I've ever interviewed. I live in, if you get a lot of nice people, we've had, this is no disrespect. Like the Dave Campbell's of the world where I Peterson Jamal and you know, all the Alaska far homology. Jay's father really? Isn't. I. I said in the interview, I said, you know, I really been on the BC thing and you're really, you're making me give pause. He goes, well, why do I have to do the, get you back with Edmonton? I said, well, you can't pressure me, but now, I mean, Michael Riley has retired all of this there's chaos going on right now. And Reed's heart. It is definitely chaos. 36 year old, Michael Riley. Calling it a career. Of course. A native of Kennewick, Washington. I didn't know that either. But he is retired following 11 seasons. Of course he was the BC Edmonton. Three 34,000 passing yards, 182 touchdowns, 105 interceptions. Just a great career hats off to Michael Riley, happy trails. To a healthy. Retirement. Yeah, he's going to be a firefighter. He's got his, he went and got a bunch of certifications during the off season. Right. Remember? CFL didn't play in 2020. So Michael Riley went off. We never forget that, but he went off and. It was interesting to speak. There was a big debate this week on rod Peterson showed that. Like as Michael Riley, a hall of Famer. And like, of course people are immediately like rod you're high. I go, I think rod is still just mad that they, the cracking beat the four of the Panthers on Sunday. That's really what I think. I think he said that buyer can't give VC Alliance any credit. You got to live. This one thing to yell at this thing go, man, you went on Twitter and you're like adding them. And he's just like, He did it on the show. He on the show, he said, Grakin row a fathers' draw. So I got one over on him. Wow. Very cool. Nathan Rourke, apparently. As has been named officially by default, the starting quarterback in 2022. Because, I mean, they don't have another quarterback right now that that's starting. That's capable of starting, I guess. And yeah. You know, Riley retires. So by default, Nathan Rourke is your starting quarterback, depending on what happens this off season. It's going to be interesting to see. Yeah. You know, you know, for your Nathan work fan, I would definitely next year, you subscribed to the mark ass. That would be a good idea. If you wanna think about that. The idea is. Where there's smoke. There's fire. Rick Campbell has a lot of history, whichever Harris, they spent time in Ottawa, whichever Harris is still on the market because, you know, he got traded from Edmonton to the Al wets. He got let go because they resigned Vernon. Farhan thinks they're really going to put Trevor Harris in BC because the main reason is, is because your boy, Jeremiah wants too much money. Ms. LA I'm surprised. I'm not surprised. I don't know why, like he's asking for my, like, I mean, he's asking for money because like, I guess, you know, he's the guy, but. Is he the guy? Is he the guy or is he just like, is he, is he. As. Easy. Tannahill like, that's my question. Is he Ryan Tannehill? Like he just seems to be a stop gap. He doesn't seem to be the guy. Well, he's asking him, like, he's asking for money. Like the guy apparently. Yeah. People. So people love Trevor Harris. I'm, I'm fine with Trevor. I, you know, it's really, it's going to be hard, no matter why it's replaced Michael Riley, you know, big personality and, you know, beloved in the league. Trevor. I got to get to know Trevor Moore. I, but yeah, they, they think they could pay him one. This is on far hon he was with the sports cases. We used argument. You could pay Trevor like 180 and then incentives to get up to 300,000. But Jeremiah would want at least 400,000 showing up. And obviously he couldn't. Yeah, they gave Dana Evans that money and Hamilton. So that's insane. Yeah. So on a Reed's former Edmonton Elks that he's wearing the hat for, they have hired their president and CEO, Edmonton, native Victor. I don't know how to pronounce. Victor qui they've named the board of directors has named him their new president and CEO. Seems like it's already off to a good start. It's. I guess this guy seems super friendly. Super open already right up on him today. To get prepared for this. And I'm, I'm, I'm excited for all the Edmonton fans. They seem to have the. A guy that's willing to listen. He's super charismatic, super gregarious. I mean, really wealthy has made a lot of money is very successful. Ha has already talking, like, yeah, we gotta listen to the fans. We got to listen to the Cinco. There's like, I mean this, I mean, Everything is making a really strong case that they're pulling back, but this is exactly what they need, you know, get let's get James while they're back in there. Let's get some, we have a story coming up here. They've got some new, new, old players coming back. We got Chris Jones. We're really, you know, we're revitalizing this Evans. I don't want to say make Edmonton. Great again, but we're, we're revitalizing them. He launched a C. The one championship. It's an MMA promotion back in 2010, and it's now worth a current valuation of over a billion dollars. So he clearly knows. Clearly knows how to build a brand and what brand needs more rebuilding than the Edmonton one right now, because. There was a dark season for the Elks. And with that being said, he did say that his PR he's promising to listen to the fans and the stakeholders of the team. He says my role is to allocate the right resources in the right places so that the team can achieve success in every person's respective area. A big part of that from. From starting out as to spend time listening to everybody. Stakeholders alumni, the board sees the token note ticket holders fans. He's being inclusive of all these groups and it's going to be great to see. You know, he told that to Dustin Nelson on TSN. 1260. North of the border. Yeah, I love it. Very happy. We also, you know, we thought obviously he was wild there. He's coming back. The other, that was kind of the big story Monday. And I was like, wow, this is great timing that we have. And swather con there was a lot made in the season about James while they're being vaccinated. You know, Casey was not. James had a really good. In his, in his interview, a lot about that, but he's going to make sure all that's taken care of and he's. I think he's really excited to be back. And like I said, he comes across very, very friendly. And I think James is really excited to, to see what Chris Jones and everyone in Edmonton can, can do for him. So. Edmonton signing old, old players, veteran players. I shouldn't say all just veteran players. Derrius Bowman and Manny Arsenault have both signed to be Edmonton. Elk's next season. Wide receivers. And as also Caleb, Holly too. Apparently that's not, that's not in the headline, but Caleb Holly also signed. The other was this Mather. I will get John Hodge had good. A joke this week. Cause he has guys, we're all part of like the 2013 to 2015. He's like, oh the 20, the 20, 22 17 Alex you're making around that, like the 2014 gray cup. Because I mean, these guys. Boldly retired in 2019 is making to come back to the age of 36. That is, you know, a little up there. I am 35. I couldn't imagine going into the CFL. Arsenic. He was in the, you know, he's 34. He was in the Frisco fighters at the end, our football league. So. I think the idea is you're bringing back veteran guys to help, like right. That culture that we've talked about so much with the Edmonton, you have guys that know right. How to act and perform and behave, you know? Carrie yourselves in the CFL. So. Free agent negotiation window opens up January 30th, which is Sunday interesting at noon Eastern. So. 9:00 AM. We might start getting some 9:00 AM Pacific. We might start getting some news about potential free agent signings. There's already, you know, they say negotiations are beginning, but trust me, people behind the scenes agents are already kind of feeling things out, seeing where their players land. And it's going to be interesting to see if anything pops off right off the bat. Yeah. The red blacks are running this viral social media thing right now, teasing some big, like free agent acquisition, kind of like a hard knocks. I I'm captivated like this stuff. Now that we've lived through the season, like in MOCAD Bethel Thompson shows I've been in Ottawa. Like I'm going to lose my mind. I mean, it really does matter now that we've. Maybe it's Antonio brown who knows. CFL. I mean, they're really doing good red blacks, kudos. Learn to color grade your footage a little bit better, but really good job on the presentation. Just annoyance. Like I'm seeing that so many times. I'm like you guys aren't even putting lots on that thing. Incredible. We're getting too in the weeds for people that aren't understanding what we're talking about. But anyways, that Clara doesn't think it's the best interest for any CFL player to sign a long-term contract. I think for right now. Right? That's what he's saying. The way the CBS, the CBA is set up right now, it makes it difficult for people to sign long-term deals. I think the players would like to, but I don't think it's our best interest to do so, to be honest. Huh. Well, it's interesting. He says. You know, we do the one year thing. If I'm doing well, you're going to want me to have more money. If we do a multiple year thing, I'm either going to want more money in year two, or you're going to cut me if I'm not playing good enough. Because I'm like, I mean, you know, that's a valid point, but not all of us. There's heck Clara said they're like highest paid quarterback, you know, of the, of the year here. I mean, it's one thing when you got paid to say, guys, don't worry about it. Stan Peters, restarting all-star receiver, Kamar Jordan a was set to become a free agent on the eighth. He caught a 53 passes for 767 yards, four touchdowns. And he was a west division. All-star. It's good to see some, you know, veteran receivers getting, you know, resigned with, with Calgary. I kind of keep going. What. Because, you know that often on season, it's going to be interesting to see who's throwing passes to them. But it's going to be interesting, you know, we'll see, we'll see how the stamps do next season. And it's good to see. Veterans coming back. And keeping things. Even keel for now. There's not major turnover. Yeah. If you're interested in Calgary, I would tune in next week. Yep. All right, there you go. Red blacks have released most outstanding, special teams, player, Devante, Dedman to pursue his NFL opportunities to buy the Packers. Couldn't use the special teams help. Aaron Rogers. I've never been happier. I think that her been happier at the bar than watching the Aaron Rogers lockout, having lost into 13. Never been happier. I have so many Packers friends that were just like devastated, but then they were like, well, this comes with the territory of having Aaron Rogers as a quarterback. I mean, after winning the one super bowl, people were like, oh, green bay is not going anywhere. And then of course they didn't go anywhere. They stopped going after that. I yeah. Divide the assigned with Miami. They let him go. I was actually trying to get him on the podcast. I'm like, well, there you go. I say he's, he's out with Miami. They're excited about that. This one's a big deal. Brandon Banks in the mutually partying ways. I mean, they're releasing him right with the Thai cats. Orlando. Steinhauer had a big heartwarming. Note that he released tonight about this. Brandon. You know, with, with the mop in 2019, never really got everything back in, you know, 20, 21. We'll be curious to see where he ends up. I just worry if like that blue, you know, he's played a long time. It's going to be that, that you have to watch that because it's like, was that just a year off where the pandemic kind of took him out of his flow and maybe next year? He goes somewhere and kicks total ass. That might be, that might be the story there that's coming out of them, letting him go. Yeah, chase Claypool. He's having surgery. He's Canadian. He was with the Steelers. So he was out for probably the season. And then this last thing everyone's sided about Chris traveler going back to Canada, right? Like they want him in all the way they want them ever. Yeah. Try it with the jets. He remember he was like, Kyler is backup, backup. For Arizona. I, I, you know, I don't know if the jets know what they're doing. I don't know if they know what they're doing. I mean, they've got two top 10 draft picks this year. They've got an opportunity to really build a young core. That's going to do something. But the poor jets fans they're so they're so down bad them in the giants fans. It's. It's a bad time to be a New York football fan. With the jets and giants, just, you know, Giant should have never taken that photo on that boat. Just going to say it right. They were on the thing, celebrating. They've been like nine and 82 since they took that photo on that boat. It's just been really bad. It's just been really bad in New York. So hopefully, hopefully this, this turns out in the jets favor. I'm not mad at the jets. I'm not, I don't have any ill feelings. Feelings of ill will. Once of my family members are jets fans. So best of luck to them. So now in FCS story. I was going to tell him this story about the thing last night, you were involved in this. I just thought this is interesting. Yeah. Didn't. And they invite us. Yeah. So everyone is talking about, oh, USFL is like 80 days to kick off. You know, we, at that time we only had six coaches announced and then Patrick, these tweeted, they, their FCF is building in arena for their season, which I don't know why that wasn't built since they haven't played since last. You know, April. But almost February. I'll be there. And so I retweeted Patrick, cause I think FCF must, you know, block us or me this or whatever. I retweeted Patrick and I was like fans worried about FC air fans were worried about USFL. FCF is like, hold my beer. And that's w I. I don't understand. I go, well. I have people everyday messaging me. Like, aren't you worried? Aren't you aware that Dre FCS like F it, we're still we're building the whole, I go, it's fascinating. Maybe you guys, I mean, maybe that's the secret. Maybe you have it all figured out. I'd love to hear more about this. Maybe this is the NFTA cells. Maybe this is where the. They're making money off NFTs. But you actually hold in your hands. Yeah. Patrick said, he goes, you guys are more than welcome to come to the opening game. I said, we will. Where the USFL is kicking off the same day. You guys are kicking off. You know, we should do then. You know, we should do. If everything works out, why don't you go to USFL? At all go to FCF, that'd be across why don't we do that? And then I can sit down with Patrick DS and we can have a discussion. Rationally and maybe we could be on the same page and be friends again. We're both Tucson boys, me and Patrick Deezer bolt, Tucson boys. We should both hate Kevin someone's same. We're both Tucson boys. You know, like we should hash this out. Me and me and Patrick should hash this out. I will come wearing my Toro's Jersey just to like, let you know, like, this is a peace offering, the small branch. Just realize that our criticism isn't because we hate your product. It's because we want it to be better. Well, we have an open invite. We can basically just message him and shop. Might be that might be the move. It might be the move where you go to USFL all go to FCF we'll tag team it from both locations. That might be the move. There you go. Quite a, quite the teaser for the future. We'll see what happens. All right. Thanks again for listening. Of course, like, and subscribe to us on YouTube on your favorite podcast player, leave us a review. Leave us a voicemail. Plenty of ways to get in touch with the boys were very active on Twitter. If you don't know, now you do. Just, you know, any thoughts that come to your head if I don't get around to you read? Definitely well, cause he's very active on the app. So with that being said again, thank you for joining us. And we'll see here next week for another big show of the mark cast. Well, I think that'll be week after next XFL staff, but that week is going to be the week that is. Going to. Dude, if we, I think, I think honestly, if, if everything goes to plan, I should do that. I should go to FCF. I should go to FCF. You go to USFL. We'll do a live show. Okay. Across at. That would be insane. That would be cool. That would be like, look they're on location. People would f*****g tune into that. They totally would. I think people attended. He f*****g killed. Patrick, these. That's what I think would happen. I would bring them on the show. Be like, dude, can you take a f*****g joke? Yeah. He seemed better than, than the cell rock doesn't. Yeah. So Rob doesn't f**k around. Yes. Kind of a stick in the mud. I got a quick second. You're good. Oh, you're good. All right. Promo. I got a little bad, cause they're gonna take. The airport. Oh, I have everything ready for you. This week on the show, is this USFL, let me guess. The graphic is the, the guy holding the butterfly. Is this USFL. Is that the graphic that we got going on read? No, it's the astronaut looking at the planet and it's the spring league and he goes, it's always been the sprinkling. And the astronauts like. Then there the whole time. What. Is it always been there. Clever. I thought it was gonna be that. I think you've already done the butterfly though. So. This is a brand new one. We appreciate the artwork that Reed throws out. We've got a huge show this week. We've got Shannon, Sam Schwartz team, the creator of XML rules. On the show. Yeah, Sam, we were bringing them out. You know, bringing them out of the closet. Sam has been, you know, working in slave. Can you not. Okay. No. Sam is great. There was a lot of debate online about the overtime rules for the Buffalo, Kansas city game. I said, XFL has the best overtime rules of all time. So we're going to bring Sam on to discuss. We're also breaking down all the crazy USFL, you know, the, the coaches and the first game Roy Johnson was on location. We have Roy on the show. Very cool stuff from Roy, looking forward to hearing all that he's got going on and apparently. The nicest interview reads ever been a part of James Wilder Jr. Resigned this week of Edmonton. Talking to read. Yeah, I. This is point in my heart strings for wanting to be the official team of the mark has nothing, nothing official yet. Also Eddie steel friend of the show, he's friends with a rock. Well, we'll let that slide. But Eddie steel is on the show as well. A lot of stuff to talk about a lot of stuff to digest. We have to the final two head coaches. In the USFL, Jeff Fisher, Larry fedora. Or if you haven't heard now here, we're going to, you're going to break that down. We're also going to break down opening weekend, all the stuff that's going on with you as a fel. And a player transactions and the season from ex CFL as well. So we got all that coming up. This week. All right here. Let's get this going. It's fun once we do these ones now we're like old friends. It's not as yet. Well, Roy, we have Roy S. Johnson here. Oh. Sorry about that. It's like. Did I make him. I think that big recording thing came on and I hit it and it led to leave meeting. So. Okay. But we have Roy S. Johnson on here from aol.com. I'm telling you I'm almost crazy enough. I almost did fly to this press conference thing. I just thought it was gum was a beautiful day. It was sunny. It was a little crisp, but even, even our friends from LA. Had a good time and thought it was a nice, nice day to be in Birmingham. Well, so we had the big finally, you know, it's been going on for four months now. We had the big official Birmingham USFL announcement. Overall thoughts before we get into anything specific, how was everything. It was a great moment, I believe for, for the city, for the league, you had a spirit in air. Of excitement and cooperation, which is, can be unique for a city like Birmingham with so much historical distrust among entities. You had city council members, county commission. Members you had state senators, you had state legislators or. You know, members of the house. And all in the room, all excited about this opportunity to be a platform for this new and unique. Sport clearly not sport, but clearly football is popular in the south. Birmingham always ranks among the top cities in terms of interest in football. So everybody's like, Hey, this is a kind of like the perfect marriage. And of course we will see maybe yesterday, well maybe, maybe Tuesday was the wedding and that. And we'll have the honeymoon. Up until April and then of course, It kicks off in April and we'll see how this marriage endures. So we, you know, we had the big press release come out. This was coming. Delayed right till 11, there was this weird, they couldn't cause we were all watching the streams. Right. We had a, you know, everyone was on Facebook and you do. It was a weird, they couldn't stream the first four minutes at the press conference, like D. Was there any secret, like Illuminati that I. I get meaning, I mean, what, it was very weird how they handled that and then it all finally came going. Well, that that's how it, you saw it on your end. I mean, none of that came through in the Rome. Before the event started there, people were just walking around. A lot of people were meeting each other for the first time people had been on the phone, they'd been on zoom for months. They may, some of them may have met at dinners. I had really never met anyone other than a couple of people associated with the venture, even though I was writing about it for the last six months. So I. In the room, you didn't get a sense of any delay. People were just milling about having a good time, introducing themselves to each other, talking to each other. And just seemingly again, excited about this, this opportunity. I saw some photos. Of football's ride. I saw some photos of helmets. Any, any sort of remarkable this you saw from any of the accoutrements that were in the room? No. I mean, I've, I've been to more than my share of press. Sports events in the last 40 plus years. So it's pretty hard to, you know, surprise me or over glitz me. So, no, I mean, it was. It was fine. I mean, there were footballs, the, the stadium was pristine. They had the USFL logo on the big screen and the background originally kind of wanted to do it outside. But with the weather, you never knew how it was going to work out. Big, beautiful led screen behind the stage. So they had the step and repeats that a couple of different places where people could take photographs. So nothing out of the ordinary about what you would expect of a, an event essentially grounded and not just one. But two major television networks. So given all that, it was pretty low key. But, but it was, it was clear that this, this was a new game in town. The announcement that came out, that they would be Simon, Simon broadcasting, right? The, the first game we know we don't, you know, we don't know if there's any other games the first weekend. I mean, I. I have a refundable hotel and then the $10 tickets booked for this game. So we'll see. Well, first off, I guess, are you surprised that no other games were announced for the first weekend? Not necessarily. I mean, it's, it's not till April, so they wanted to give. The Birmingham, stallions and Birmingham. At least that stage for that day. I mean, you've got the New Jersey generals. Probably one of the most well-known teams out of the USFL, as well as the Birmingham style. And so I'm not surprised that he full schedule was not announced. From a marketing one-on-one you want to roll things out, right? You don't want to blow it all on one day. So from, from a media standpoint, I mean, we want it all. We. All right now, but from a marketing and rollout standpoint, it makes sense to release the schedule at a later date, which creates another wave of coverage. I mean, they have 80 days, so there, and there's. I would count. There's probably more than 80 things they need to announce. So I understand. W would you be surprised to learn that. Our, our listeners had discovered the listing on Ticketmaster the day before. And then like two minutes after we tweeted. And they was deleted on Ticketmaster. That that is, I'm sure they thought there's no way in hell that anyone that's going to find the stigma master listing within the next 24 hours. And then lo and behold, Nothing surprises me. Of course. People who were passionate about it. We're going to find it. Most of those things are actually up. Before they're announced just to give themselves some time to work out any glitches. So I'm not surprised that a fervent USFL fans went and found the link and tried to buy tickets because they had to have it up just to make sure that when they announced it, they didn't want that thing to crash. So it was probably up at least 24 hours before they announced it just so they give themselves a chance to work out any kinks that were there. So tell me about, yeah. Now that we're on it. So the first game, how big of a deal is it to you? That NBC and Fox sports are both Simon broadcasting. This first game. I don't know that was a dumb one. That was, that was a special one. I been around again for four decades in sports. I do not recall that happening. I mean, let's, let's face it. Most networks are very competitive, right. Especially when it comes to two sports. So you don't see a lot of cooperation among the major networks. Certainly. Competing networks have some of the same sports, obviously, NBA. NFL. So they will broadcast their own. They'll have their own package. Their own portfolio of games. But I cannot recall. Ever being seen a sporting event, a major sports event or any sports event. Simulcasts on two major sports networks. So I don't know unless I'm wrong. I mean, that's, that's, that's got. Gotta be pretty big and fairly in ingenious. It's worth trying, right? This is a league that is going to try some things. They're they're going to be. The rule. Things that they try. And as much as the NFL has been distant. You know, in silence about whatever it feels about this. I think there'll be watching closely and there's probably discussions about trying some things. That ultimately may find their way to the NFL. Some, some tweaks, some rules, things that may occur. So I, I wouldn't be surprised if they go out of the box in a lot of different ways, because why not? I mean, this is spring football, have some bonds put some. Extra buttons. Say that green button over there. What does that do? Let's push that one. See what, see what happens. So it should be fun for viewers. Standpoint, just because they're probably going to be a lot of bells and whistles and, and a bunch of other things that they throw out there for their broadcast to make it interesting. It was interesting to me is that you had a great article come out this week, talking about, you know, it was like the deal that almost didn't happen, right. With the, you know, the USFL, a lot of people, you know, city officials yesterday talking about, you know, we really kind of had to be convinced to do this or Fox was really patient or we really, you know, we almost blew. It kind of was. The feeling that I got watching it. It's weird though, because even when we were waiting for this Birmingham announcement, It wasn't like we heard, oh, USFL was talking to Cleveland or USFL. So I'm like, I mean, it seemed like USFL was kind of all in, on making this Burmese thing thing happened. Like, I don't know if they had a backup plan, had this, not have all come about. Yeah. I've asked that question many times because there were, there were rumblings for us. Does that. They were talking to other cities. There were rumblings that they were looking at other venues, even in Alabama. Whether it was in mobile or Montgomery, but I was never able to verify any of those. So I've never. Shed light on them, because at that point they were just rumors as. As, you know, until you're able to get some on the record validation. So I think you're right. You use the term all in? I would say 98.9. Per se in, which is all, but all in. They, they seemed convinced from the very beginning that Birmingham was the right place to do this. And they showed the patience of job in weather. Let allowing Birmingham. To work itself through its own misgivings, his own. Lack of trust or a spring football product after being burned seven times before this is the eighth times almost trying to bring split spring football here. So. Fox sports seem to be understanding. That this was new and unique. For the city in a space where they had been burned before. And, and you're right. They just kind of held on and held on. And allow the city to work itself through its own machinations, to get to the point where everyone is seemingly cited and persuaded that, Hey, this is the right thing to do, and it's the right place to do it. Because it's hard. I mean the average age, right. Of the people on the stage yesterday, speak air on whenever, you know, Speaking of was. It more older, right? You know, I mean, [unknown]. The mayor is, is very sharp dressed. Right? That was one of my takeaways was how sharp dressed the mayor was. But for the most part, they there's a lot of like more older people that you're trying to, like you said, that have been burned before. Like, okay, now wait, what is this? Okay, what are we doing here? I mean, Our. I guess. W w are you surprised that this all worked out? Again, it is hard to surprise me. I wouldn't have been surprised if it had thought on apart because other opportunities have been lost here because of the city's inability. To get out of its own way for city leaders to, to not be able to put their differences aside, their misgivings aside. To, to make it happen. The most obvious one was at least I believe it was 2018 when major league baseball proposed putting a major academy here, its youth academy here. And it only has a handful of, I believe it's six or seven in the country. And because certain residents objected to it and a specific city council member objected to it. Ultimately it fell apart. It was a huge opportunity that I thought the city would never recover from. I mean that may never see a major league baseball come anywhere near Birmingham, again, because of its experience, trying to bring, trying to bring something positive to the city. So. Here we are. Four years later, and the city gets through that through its early works its way through that there any early trepidation and finds a way to make the deal happen. So that's progress four years ago, this probably would not have happened, but here we are in 2022 and it came together. The, when they announced the first game tickets, $10, right? Real. I mean, it's like free, I mean, right. Let's be, let's be honest here. You. It's 10 bucks a ticket. Kids under 15, get in free. Are there because the fear was we're broadcasting these games on TV, right. We really only need the audience to make it look like a football game. Right? I mean, we're not make your break on ticket sales, but obviously they want to get some money. Some concessions. Is there enough people in Birmingham you think are going to fill that stadium? Two, three times a weekend for $10? Well, I don't know if they have to fill it. I mean, billing is a pretty big, big ask, but as far as 45,000 people, so I would emphatically say no. What I will say is when the iron. Well, I was here. They got significant support on days when the weather was not a factor. So if you can get 5, 6, 7, 8, 10,000 people. In a stadium that the, the, I have no doubt that the stallions. We'll attract an audience. It'll be interesting to see is if people are just so thirsty for football, that they will come see a game in which the city had. They, they as spans don't have any vested interests. But maybe there's some players there that they wanted to see maybe. Relative or something, they just like football so much. They don't care what the uniform color is, what the logo is. They just want to go see it. But also there is a, a thirst here for just going out. And enjoying the day. We have the Birmingham barons here, which is a double a baseball team. And, and so for those games, you'll get. Six seven, 8,000 people who just want to be outside. Enjoy the day. Drinks of beer, have some, you know, have an outing with their family. Lot of young families here. Who have embraced even the Birmingham squadron, which is the G league team, you know, one step you had guys who were like, half-life. A stutter step away from the NBA and it's really good basketball. I've gone to a game. So I've had more people in surrounding suburbs come up to me and talk about the squadrant, just because they're basketball fans and they, their kids play basketball. So I think the, the combination of being a football crazy place, also a place where in the spring, it's a spring. Everybody wants to be outside. The stadium is brand new. It's like a new car. Everybody wants to ride. So $10. Parking downtown is a little crazy, but you can overcome that it's it would be a nice day to be outside. And so you got all those factors working in their favor. And we'll just see what happens. A lot's been made was made during the press conference. You. Birmingham's the host for the USFL this season, you know, we are the home where. You know, the central hub, all that. And we've talked before and you know, right. You know, the goal to move everything out. I'm already seeing, you know, rumors of like MLS type ownership and people taking. You know, moving these teams and stuff. I mean, have you heard any of that or what do you make of, of, okay. We do this season, but then really it is. This is just a bay this season, right? I mean, it's really, how do we move it to the next step? The term that Eric shanks used in our conversation was this was an incubator. Right. So this is an incubator for a product that could grow in a lot of different ways. And certainly one of those ways is based on that soccer model, in which a, an interested party in another city may say, Hey, we'd love to have that. In our city. What may have happened is, is a number of things for, for a year or for next season. They may not even have to move that team to the city full time. They may give them time to work on a stadium agreements, work on sales and things like that, and still have the team be in Birmingham and maybe play just a couple of games. Three or four games in the new city, the following year. And so w. The key for this, it was like, everybody relax. We just box boards for the most part to make decisions. Based on information that they have at the time information, they may not. Have now, and they. A franchise could move. It may not move. It could still be in Birmingham next year and yet have a partner. And Chattanooga for instance, and, and maybe play two or three games there to test it out, but still be here. A lot of different things can happen. I would tell people. We have to avoid speculation because I guarantee you no decisions have been made regarding how they're going to evolve the league. They're going to play, wait and see, get through the first season and then see what transpires. Because the idea that. I guess here's my question. So everything has been set for this year, right? I mean, how long the agreement goes through. So would the fear be. We got to, okay. Now we've got to renegotiate this whole protective stadium and all this stuff next year. I mean, right. Cause this is only set. No, it's the three-year three three-year commitment. Okay. That that's my understanding of that boxes committed 150 million. I've written that several times over three years. Okay. So I believe everyone is really looking at this as a three year commitment. Could could things blow up? Absolutely. I mean, anything can happen. But. At least it seems right now that this is a three. Year, incubation process. So I didn't get any sense that Fox NBC, all the interested parties. We're all committed to the three-year process because they, they they've been trying to figure out a way. To create a spring football product and they believe they've found a formula, not just in the incubation. Model. But also on the time period. Right then. Then, you know, they want to start right after the masters. So there's been a month or two of no football to, to. To create a little thirst for football and, and really the primary products at that time are NHL. And then later NBA playoffs, which take a little time to grow into grabbing a big audience. They usually grab local audiences in the first few rounds. So they believe they have a window. They have a model that keeps costs at a minimum. It doesn't put pressure on them for ticket sales, as you mentioned. Before, I mean this ticket sales go to the Birmingham Jefferson civic center. They don't go to the USFL at all. So none of the revenue generated locally at all, goes to the USFL. The USFL Fox is getting the opportunity to use the stadium rent free. But in and in exchange for that, they have booked 37,000 room nights, which I understand will be essentially paid for by the end of the season. So there's no lag in that. The. Hotel. Association here, the, the Sheraton and the Hyatt art star, the Western art static. About that 37,000 room nights. I still in the middle of the pandemic. Is a g*****n, so, and there's a $3 per night. Room. Tax on top of regular sales taxes. So you can do the math. I mean, that, that in and of itself is significant. All parking. And as I mentioned, concessions and ticket sales. Go to the civic center. To help offset. The cost of putting on the games. Last question from me any, you know, we, we saw the presser, you know, I saw there were some other, you know, interviews and stuff, any, any good little tidbits, any kind of off, off stage stuff, any little you're brushing the shoulders, anything going on, anything interesting to share. Well, of course the star in the room was Reggie Bush and people were excited to see him. They're people who are football fans, just people who were on social media. We have. Are our reporter who took a selfie. Greg Garrison took a selfie with Reggie Bush and posted it on Facebook and said, when he told, when he showed, when he showed it to his wife, she said, oh, is that the guy who was married to Kim Kardashians? She had no idea about his book. There's football history. So if there was some brushing shoulders, And star in the room. It was, it was Reggie Bush, but, but for me, the fact that the, the, the big dogs were in the room. I mean everybody who played a significant role. Who mattered was in that room? Focus. I mentioned state Senator state. House of representatives all five of the Jefferson county commissioners. Most of the city council. You had the mayor, you had the mayor's leadership. Team you have the heads of two major sports network. In the room along with other members of their team. So the fact that everybody was in the room. What's significant to me and seemingly a commitment that everybody is on the same page. We're going to try to make. This work and with a unique simulcast. Launch. It really says everything's on the table. To have fun. Be excited. Oh, and the horse was there. I had the horse. They had a horse in the room too, but not in the room, outside the room, but the style. The Birmingham's diet was right outside. So you had the big dogs and this diet. What else do you want? Right. Did you get a father with a Stein? I did not. I did not get his photo with this. Diane R Reggie Bush. You know, maybe I'm at the stage of my career where, you know, it's cool there, but I, you know, I'm good. I, and I would be remiss if I didn't ask skip Holtz. Right. We have the, you know, the big head coach. The feedback I got online was people thought that he was, seemed very excited. Right. Very invested because you never know. Right. You get some of these coaches, you bring him in. Where he's kind of the focal viewing right. Of this is I'm the coach of the home team and all that. Any takeaways from him before I let you go. I've never met him before he was extra. Totally enthusiastic. I mean, he had fun. He was wowing the room. He had a moment. As you saw when he announced that Reggie Bush would be signing and, and you know, that was, that was a fun moment. But interestingly, as I was walking to my car, He happened to walk up behind me, didn't know who I was and was just still saying, wow, this was going to be fun. This is going to be fun. And he shook my hand. Hey, no, this is, this is really going to be puzzled. He was still excited as we were walking out of the arena down some stairs towards the parking lot. He was still walking fast and still seem genuinely excited. We'll find out if he can coach. If you can coach NFL caliber players or players who aspire to be in a bell caliber, but he clearly seems like he clearly excited. About the opportunity and it's going to be good for the media because he's not boring at all. Well, there you go. Well, Roy, I appreciate that taking some time I knew, I said when you're back amongst the living here after the video, I mean, and not that there's not other news stories that Birmingham covers every day, but I mean, clearly this is the most important story. Absolutely. I'm sure you got other stuff going on, but no, I appreciate it. So. Well, this is exciting. We have, there's been a lot of talks about, you know, NFL rules and over times and everything else. And I said, well, let's bring in the godfather himself and the XFL Roebuck, Sam sports scene. How are you doing today? Awesome. Thanks so much for having me on, well, this is good. We, you know, we missed the whole XFL before, you know, all the involvement of that. You know, we were the dummies that started podcasting after the rock got involved. So. This is the first time we're ever talking. It's really great to connect. What have you, what's going on in your world besides this? And I want to dive into some of your thoughts about all this officiating, the rural stuff. Yeah. So again, thanks for having me on. I love the passionate fans, even the guys you were posted my time with the XFL. I think that anybody kind of supporting the spring football world is awesome. You're passionate, the most passionate football fans. I know. So, you know, I helped consult the XFL during the sales process. And then after that, I worked at a company called Gridiron football, which was a youth sports. Company. Non-contact flag football company. And then I've considered your consulting now for the past, about six months with leagues teams and networks on how to innovate in sports. You know, we all have our lock and our team had pretty much Greenfield to innovate it. However we wanted. At least for the fans perspective. And so it gives me a unique understanding about how to interact with leagues teams and networks. So that's pretty much what I've been doing for the past, I guess, six months now. Well, and it's, you know, I've listened to you talk before, and it's fascinating how much. You know, we talk about these rule changes and over time, or, well, they should do this and they show you that and it so much more goes into it. You. The hours that you guys spent watching and simulating and planning. I mean, What, how much effort went into making the XFL rule book for those? Maybe they don't know. Yeah. So I got hired on. June, 2018. And we didn't finalize the rule book until the second week of training camp. 18 months later. Right. And that, that was due to, we wanted to get it right for our players, fans. And coaches right. And that's, that's really how much work went into it. We looked at line by line, every single rule, the rule book of myself and Brian Kilmeade and asked why on each one of those. And then we went through and. Went through and had a complete predictive model based on all the data that would affect it. So, you know, what we are really trying to do is understand why we had these rules. And if we were to make a rule change, no, why we're making the rule change. And then what does the data tell us about what make it so it's, it's, it's a cyclical process. Everything. That my team did is we wanted to have data. Expert test data, expert tests, all combined in a cyclical motion. So they're all on speaking harmony and not saying one trumps the other, all of them inform each other as we're doing different things. So we tested the rules six separate times with different organizations. And we did different types of studies. So we did two different teams with different coaching staff is over a three-day period, right. One practice with each until our final game. We played a half and that was, that was great. And then we did a longitudinal study of two. Three day sessions. Right? And so what makes football unique is you don't see the same game. Each week because people steal and learn and over time they change how they do things. So we saw, we did three days, two weeks later, we came back into three more days to see how the coaches adapted to the rules. We did a long, another longitudinal study where we did. 14 Practices with the spring league for games, TV, test. Pretty much. We're about 90% of the technology we're going to use during the game. During that game. Or during those games, huge for us in terms of what does our model save versus what did our tests other test games say versus now we're doing live everything. Big time stuff. And then we did two more tech tests, largely due to a technology that we want to integrate as well as. We couldn't get our punt rule. Right. And so we had to keep testing the part where we had a rule that if it didn't test. Twice. Positively in a row. So if we did it. If we couldn't see success with it in two separate testing sessions, it wouldn't go into the game. Right. So just because it worked with the, your called football guys. We're not assuming it's going to work with our guys, just cause it got into like different things. So that's, that's how we kind of approach it. And it was a really comprehensive research study. I probably interviewed. 50 People or not 50 or a hundred people. Over the time showing them rules, doing zooms with them. And it was funny because after one of our all hands right before training camp, I got pulled into the PR person's office and goes. You mentioned, you talked to a reporter about a. Data journalists about the rules. Like how many of you talked to. Probably a hundred and they're like, Wait, we're not supposed to do that. I was like, oh, no, like. I don't, I don't care what the rules are. We have to actually get this out there. People have to see this. I can't just assume our room's going to solve this problem. Well, and that's the point is, is, you know, we watch this game right on Sunday. You know, we watched Bill's cheese. It'd be all, they need to change the overtime or they need to change the, you know, it's, it's this knee-jerk. Knee-jerk reaction and what my point is is, you know, Thousands of hours are going in, that you guys are pouring it, you know, it's not as simple as just, well, they need to buy the whole final OT or whatever. So, I mean, what did you think, you know, watching, I know we talked before we recorded. Thoughts about the Cowboys 49ers game. Right. And then obviously thoughts about the bills cheat. So where do you want to start kind of with your weekend thoughts? Yeah. I just, you know, A knee-jerk reaction and the Twitter furcation of, of viewing sports is. A lot of people solve for the SIM symptom and not the disease. Right. You know where I have arguments over different things we can do with overtime and you don't want to just solve. Okay. We saw something bad and now we have to fix it. Right. You really want to sit back and digest. It don't want to spend reject the big knee-jerk reaction we saw was OPI and DPI being reviewed two or three years ago. Now. Right. We saw the saints lose the NFC championship game because of that play. So now we're going to add OPI DPR. If you went to it. Well, no, now you can review. You should review every penalty because why this specific county, and then they're not consistent enough. They don't want to overturn it because now they're going to have to open Pandora's box. So what did we do? We took time realize there they're down their shortcomings and said what really happened in the saints ramps game. And it was that there was a penalty within the last five minutes. The saints could never recover from. It handed the game, you know, over time. You're going to play. 17 Games a year now in the regular season. You're going to have calls go your way and the other way. Likely over time, it's going to be 50 50 on the bad calls for you. Some teams, some fan bases think Mo more others than not, but most over time it will. But in that moment of the game, the last five minutes in a very clear. Sellout DPI, you could not solve for the saints that no recovery where they could have in the first quarter. Yeah, it's a bad call, but they can recover from it. So that's why we did it last five minutes. Don't solve. Okay. This is what we saw. Dive deep. Look at first order. Second order. Third order effects. So when you look at over time, What fans don't see is they don't see warm ups by the players. Right. They don't see that. Travis, Kelsey probably got to the game three hours early to do warmups. And then when a wear and tear on his body, he just, they just did. 12 Plays in the last two minutes of the game. But we don't want as an organization, whether it's the NFL or XFL 2.0. Is a players to get hurt player safety. Fans don't realize 95% of the rules are about player safety. You can't jump off sides, not because the unfair advantage, because you could hurt a quarterback if you're past the alignment stuff. So there's, every rule has an, a player safety component. And when you're making rules, that comes first. And our fans even told us that they said, don't make the game more dangerous for players. That's why you don't have things like the scramble from XFL 2001. Right. You don't have those things because you can't make the game more unsafe for players. There's legal reasons for that. And other things. That's why we have this overtime that wants to get done quickly. Right now the NFL has, that's what we have the option to get out after one series. I don't agree with fan saying, well, you could have got to stop. No of the coin. Toss has shown that it's 10 to one, the team who gets the ball first in the playoffs, you know, why. Cause good offense is go to the playoffs. So good offices can score. And we also saw in the last two minutes that they were scoring in 13 seconds. So it is a problem. That's why we went with our mini game format. Do I like mini games? No, this is a Mario party. This is football. But we went with the mini game two point conversion shootout from the five-year line instead of the two yard line. Because we thought that that would give both offenses the right to be able to go. Now you have player safety issues with college overtime, everyone says let's do college overtime fairness issue at 62% win rate. If you get, if you go first or second on offense. Right because it's gaining information. And then also player safety, the seven overtimes that they had, which LSU in tech. Hmm. Makes it so it's unsafe for players. Th those games are already three and a half hours with cause of the band. Now you're going to ask the players to be on the IM. On the field where shoulder pets, they have school. These are professional athletes. So like, if you can't do all the things that fans would want because not a video game. And so when you go to a straight mini game format that we had. It gives opportunity. We got to every round out. Under a minute. So we had five rounds. If it was tied up for five rounds, we did one round. So you're adding a minute part and only apply per. Right. So that way we're not having player safety issues. You don't think you'll get to 10. We saw college football get the 10 over times this past year. Too bad off offenses, but. We would likely not get to that, but at the end of the day, Shoot up for my only gets a 10 place. Right. And so. As a lead, you have to balance player safety. You can't just say fans want to see more. You're seeing guys drop like flies and. You might not see the injury in that game. So I can't say, Hey, there's all these overtime injuries. You'll find the injuries next week. You'll find the injuries weeks after because guys have aware and tear on their body when they're at their lowest performing. Well, that was, I mean, even on, I was watching a lot of, you know, like good morning football and stuff this week and they're talking about, oh yeah, we'll just play the whole quarter. Right. Play the 10. You know, and Chris Carter is on there and he's saying. There's not one game ever in my life at the end of four quarters, I was like, yeah, let's go back out there and play another 10 minutes. You know, even if it is, you know, five minutes extended on that, it's hard. It's hard to balance that fairness. And also. Did you take into account that the safety, like you said, oh, a hundred percent. And like we train for 60 minutes, right? Th that extra time is extra time, but you train around a 60 minute merrier. You have that feeling for it. And as a player, you don't want to just keep going out there and get pounded on. I think that. And what's really interesting is I saw people making the argument. Well, You're not guaranteed for both teams to ever get the ball and football. But you are because one team gets a start of the game and one can get to the half. And then when you go to the NFL rule book, there are restarting. The game is what they say. I don't know if you noticed that button. And overtime and playoffs, they continue playing more quarters after if there's tied after one, a 15 minute period. So. If they say where we've starting the game, when you restart the game, both teams get the ball. So that's the thing that just doesn't make sense. You know, we had a thought. Have a coach Harbaugh, Jim Harbaugh, my college coach. He had the thought of what if you just never had a quarter end, right? Cause, cause it's interesting. Fans don't realize this, but you have to have a half start. You have to half starts. You have two half ends and you have to co R and then you have two quarter ends. Right. You change, how you operate at half Penn's a quarter it's quarter ends. You continue playing, but you flip the field. You Riverside, the field. So we thought, what if it's just a quarter end on the fourth quarter and not a half end. And you just continued playing from that point. We have a stoppage normal TV timeout and flip the field and go. It ended up ruining a lot of end game scenarios. Because. You now had no pressure in the two minute drill. If it was a tie game. Because we want to see that high intensity. Now, if there's 30 seconds left and it's tied and you're on your own. You're on your own 30. There really is no two minute drill. It's just about scoring. So you'll lose that frenetic nature of the end game. But that to me is the fairest way you do sudden death from. And do a quarter change. It's just a little bit different, but you lose some of the stuff that fans want. Right. Well, you lose. Yeah. You lose that 13 second drive down with the cheese. If they know, oh, well, if we get to the 50, we're just going to end the quarter and then we'll come back. Yeah, you totally lose. You lose the last, what people liked about the last three minutes of that game on Sunday. Right. And that's where you have to kind of balance it and research it. And you know, what we did differently than other startup football leagues is. We didn't say things and expect them to work. Right. Other startup football leagues had a 32nd play clock that worked the same way as the NFL is 42nd play clock. Well, they didn't ask them solves. What, how long has it taken NFL team to get the ball snapped? 6 31 seconds. So your average play is going to go over in that. If you have NFL coaches, NFL play Colin strategy. Your, your average play in your startup football league is going to be a delay game. That's where our play clock was. 25 seconds. Start on ball spot. With a designated ball spotter that always spotted about seven seconds outside. The two minute warning, four seconds inside the two minute warning. Why because I wanted 32 seconds to be my clock because I had. NFL pro style play callers. That's the different math and the different research that we did versus other teams. Our average, we wanted to have a play every 23 seconds. Cause we need that buffer because NFL has that nine second buffer on their play clock. We wanted a similar type buffer. We were at 23 seconds to a 32 second play clock. It's the same nine second buffer. You know, and just, it makes the game more exciting to where if you're able to be able to do the research, because one problem we found on a non ball, spotted stark clock. When you go below 40 seconds is. Plays a 30 yards or more. The old line can't get down there. Fast enough to get the ball spot. We had about eight delay games in our first test game with the 25 second play clock because I'm plus 20 plus yard plays the old line. Doesn't get down there. Fast enough. So that's why we said let's add the ball spot that gives them time to work. We're never moving faster than the players can move. Well, and then I saw you had tweeted about that too, where, because there was a whole confusion with the Dallas 49ers game of, okay. Where's the ball spot at. Okay. Now we're going to where it's shore up and now we're challenging the spot. Okay. Now the spot smooth, decent. Well, we just had someone that, I mean, is it. Working with these alternate leagues, right? Spring football. You know, the opportunity to improve, like you said, improve, like that is something very easily done, right. That could be moved into the end about me. Is that talk about that in the ball spotting and being able to apply that. Yeah, Vince was ready to spend the money on it. We had, we had 10 officials at our games. Right. So we had, we added the center judge, which is what college football has for an eighth official. We had the unnatural replay official on every game. That was our ninth official. And then we had the ball spotter, which had no flag responsibilities, but it was almost like our, our, our official and training. Right. They officiated like some CAA games or some me Acker Swhack games. And they were just, they were pretty much cross country runners, but what they didn't have is like the umpire spots, the ball. For a team he's behind the play. In the NFL because they wanted to make. For player safety. Out of that. The where the linebackers are and for his safety. And so now he's behind the play and he's watching for penalties. And then he runs up to spot the ball. Versus our person doesn't have to watch for penalties. They can fall the play the entire time. And so they can run up and spot the ball. They can see that they're running the draw. I think that we were going to do. That would have been great is, you know, how fans could hear the play calls. I was going to have the officials hear the play to calls. So if the officials could know that they're running a draw. The officials can then look for specific things on the play. Issues. They don't have to look for specific issues and they can also know, Hey, ball spot has got to get up there and spot the ball. This is not your traditional play in 14 seconds left. The official's job in my opinion is to make sure the game runs safe first and runs smooth second. And that's why you call certain penalties. So you don't see issues. Right. When we weren't calling people for fighting, we slower. Why do we see more fighting? Right. And so we had to start flagging more. Now. It's just like the NFL. If they have a ball spotter that can know the plays coming. And they can now adjust for and get down there faster. We also have the stoppage, we stopped the ball for every play or stop the clock for every play inside the two minute warrants. Full stop for out of bounds and incomplete, but also football ended in the field of play. Five seconds when we're off the clock after ball spot. So 12 seconds. How'd I get to 12 seconds. Well, average player. Time to get a play going. It's 12 seconds in two minute warning. It, it all, it all ties together. So we would, we would run those. Those simulations, we'd run practice games to try and get down to those situations. So we could see more football. I don't think everyone other than 49 strands want to see the Cowboys not going to chance because it was no guarantee. They still had to go score. Yes. We would have liked, we would have liked to see one more play. I guess we don't want to see the game go on technicality because the center and Dak Prescott didn't know how to operate that. That one end game mechanic correctly. Well, I, I was pretty happy. I'm sure. There's a lot of anti Cowboys fans. Very happy. Yeah. Now at this point in the interview, I'm sure my wife's listening and her head is going crazy with all these numbers, but it's fascinating, right? I mean, it's kind of one of those things, if you know, you know, But what you're saying is an innovation like the ball spotter and the exit Val. Gets away from that game end game situation with the raft, running down the field, trying to fight his way through the center, through Dak, you'll get the ball spotted. We have that already taken care of. These are little things that is it. Is that a money thing that the NFL, I mean, is that why they don't have. No. I mean, it could be any sorts of things. Why would you ever have an official without flag responsibility? No, one's done that before. Right. We hadn't, we had them not watching it. It was just an innovation that you need from a, to have a lean method to be able to do it. Right. Like we were a startup league. We didn't have any specifics on what official had to be or what they, what they needed to be. And so we were able to think of something right. Dean Blandino, who's probably the best guy in football. I know the smartest football guy. He, he hadn't, we hadn't thought of that. Right. But I'm priority. Does it? But we want, we were so meticulous on our play clock that we had to have it. Right. Getting the same amount of NFL plays the NFL and. And two hours and 45 minutes. Was very important to us and that meant play clock. I'll never forget my first time. My first day, I got a job. If I re-imagined the game it's. I mean, he's a bunch of cool stuff. Oh, we were talking to Amazon and Netflix. I'm not going to have commercials. I knock out 45 minutes of commercial load and I get from the three hour and 15 minute game to two and a half hours that Vince wanted it to start. Oh, that's super easy. I don't have to change any play clock rules. We can do everything the same. And then all of a sudden it's like, no ESPN and Fox are in. They want commercials. And now I have to create a predictive model. That was like, oh crap. Like we have to get that. And why do you want play count? You want to have all the same hundred 56 plays in that as the NFL, because your only chance to predict scoring, because fans want the simmer scoring. Is this have a plate. It sounds redundant, but the only chance you give scores during a play. Right. So you need to maximize the number of plays you have. There's other things you can do on the officiating side that we've seen the NFL do from calling more DPIs and less offensive holdings. That can manipulate the scoring as well. But if you don't want to manipulate the. The officials you need to have high plate counts to manufacturer. The normal scoring. So that was like a big issue. Then we had a guardian tackle. It's it's, it's fascinating to me. So, what would you do then? Do you think that that shootout OT? I mean, do we think that that is, is the solution? I mean, what, what would you, if you. I liked that I had, I had time constraints as well. Right. So when you talk to the guys who signed the contracts, They're saying if you're not out in three hours where. We're changing the channel, right? If whatever we have following you, we're changing the channel or changing it to that, the Heidi game, right? The Oliver just always referenced. So, I don't know, the NFL has the NFL is the biggest juggernaut. So I don't know if so they might not have to just shoot out what, what you do need to solve for is you need to make sure. No kicking game. And here's the problem with kicking game in. And overtime is. The team that go, if you do, like everyone gets a shot type of game plan. The team that goes second. Has so much more advantage because they have information gained. Right. And what I mean by that is. If you, if the first team in college over 10 kicks a field goal, the team the second, their first fourth down. Or if they score a touchdown, the first fourth down, they don't have to go for a field goal. They know they have to go for it. So they get an extra down. Right. Versus if, if it was flipped, you'd have to kick the field goal on your first fourth down. If you go first. So you never have the shot to go score a touchdown. So if you do it the same way, like in overtime in the NFL, Your fourth down is so much more valuable when you go second, then when you go for a first, so. You don't want to add two different scoring mechanisms. Right. So touchdowns two point conversions, wherever you want to call it, you need to do ends on tries to be able to make it. An equal thing. So that. Y team going first and second doesn't matter. I've seen one thrown out that I kind of like that's a first and 10 from the 10. Series. Alternating series like that with no kicks. So that you have to go for it. And then you can only go for, to gain cause no kicks. That adds an element that I'm. I'm a little unsure about, but how many plays you're adding to the game? Right. It doesn't matter who goes first or second new don't need a coin toss. We didn't have a coin test at the start of the game or the end game. We just had the home team get the ball. Right. And go second or go second and both, and the halves and, and overtime. That's just a cheeky thing to get rid of choice. Right? And so I think that one's interesting what I don't like as spot and choose. That seems to be a really. Invoke one work, the team who wins the coin toss or the home team, they get to choose the spot where the overtime starts and the other team gets to choose. Whether they go with the ball or not, in my opinion, you're going to end up always choosing around the 25 26 yard line. If you're the team that's going that choose that. That has to go first to choose on the spot because that's the place where it's 50, 50 chance. Or else, if you say, if you back yourself up and you're giving yourself a negative chance, cause then the other team gets to choose whether to go or not. Like I don't, I don't know. I think that that end game it's such a, it's a such a rudimentary thing that you wouldn't have a solid solution or it would just end up becoming like the same thing we have right now. Right. And also it's like, it's something, a new mechanic. That I don't think is that interesting to fans, right. The spot and choose. They love innovation and strategy, but really like. That's not something that's happened in the game before when we did our overtime or our kickoff. The only reason why we got rid of the surprise on side was because you elect to go for one and two, and that changes the rules in NFL overtime already, or I'm sorry, extra points. So that's why we were comfortable doing an election kicking deeper onside kicking. For our kickoff. Right because there was already an election mechanic. In football, I think a spot and choose mechanic. Is a brand new thing that I think would take some time to get over. And also you're still having sudden deaths and a team might not get it, but you had the agency to choose the spot of the field. I don't know if that's that's exciting to me. Yeah, I think it was the spring league this last in may, I think. Cause they did that spot and she is, I think it was like how mommy and Jerry Glanville. I tried the spot here and now like never trying to explain it and then try to, I mean, you're watching it and you're like, I I've watched every game of this, you know? The season, like, I don't know what's happening right now. I can't imagine what, you know, the casual, I was like, what's my wife thinking, watching this, like, I don't understand what's happening right now. Yeah. And that's a tough one, I think. And I think we all can understand the two point conversion shoot. Now the problem is with two bucket, we're gonna. Again, we talked about this before. The call is. We are a success driven sport, right? Baseball. You're you're a hall of Famer. If you're, if you're successful a third of the time. At bat, but in football, if you're an offensive lineman, you you're successful in 90% of the time. You're a bad offensive line, man. Right? You need to be a higher echelon. And so I think that. If, when we tested it, We had a couple sessions where it was four to three. After five rounds. And I was like, yes, we did it. Like, we're great. There could have been a session of one to two. We had. After five rounds. So you're watching a lot of failed placement, a five-year-old line. That's bet football. Or it could be good defense, but it's going to be construed as bad football because you're. Not successful. W where it that's the one downside. I think also you don't get the drive in R and R XFL shootout. Which I think is a big part of football is about the drive. But I think that at that point in the game, it's also like the teams couldn't figure out who could score better. So now we're going to just make it about scoring. Right. That's why we're in overtime, the score. So let's make it about sport. And that's the trade-offs right. You're never going to have a perfect thing. You also have to understand. Our sport is a bastardized version of rugby. Right. And it wasn't an intention to do all these different things. Write the forward pass wasn't intended when we started these rules and now we're seeing. The issues that come with forward, pass FordPass made the game safer. Right. That's why they instituted Teddy Roosevelt's son. Gets lifted off the off of the Yale football field. And so Teddy Roosevelt says we need to add forward passing it right. That's why we have it in. And so there was never an intention to have a player facing away from this tacklers. Right. I don't know if anyone's watching this or people watching this can see this, but. You're now quarterback here and player here catching the ball. Normally, if it was just all everyone moving forward, you're faced each other. Now you have people not face each other and they can get hit. That's what makes the game dangerous now? On the forward pass. So that's why we have all this forward pass rules and mechanics. Right. And so. It starts with, this is our bastardized version of rugby. And that's where now we're now we're here trying to argue over overtime. Right. It makes the game great because no game has been changed more than football. But it makes the game also hard because there is so many patches to the game. Well, That's true. I do you realistically think that this is going to, they're going to move forward, changing anything here with, I mean, I know the chiefs had the whole uproar. Because they were on the other side of it back. And was it 2018? I don't know. I think that, I think that. The NFL will have proposals for it. And the rules committee will take a look at it. I don't think it's, I mean, we. That could arguably be the best football game. We ever see, and it was decided on that overtime. There's another universe with a coin toss goes the other way, and maybe the bills went as well. But I don't think that they're going to be mad about people talking about their game and it just, it's a really hard thing to solve if you're gung ho on keeping the drive in the game. You're going to have a tough time changing the rule. If you care about player safety. That's just the one thing that makes it really difficult and they have a lot of smart guys in the NFL putting these things together. So I think I'm sure that there'll be able to figure it out. I'll ask him. I mean, I could talk to you for 18 hours, but my last question for you today, just to be cognizant of your time. Are you amazed still that the NFL hasn't adopted the XFL kickoff? No, because it's such a radical change. I think that for us, we had to make a change to some of the rules that. That the NFL ignored our guests not ignored, but th the reason why the NFL doesn't like. Want to change it is. So basic to their game, and there's so many different things. And when you try something as radically different as we do with the kickoffs. That's going to take way more time than just. Oh, we saw work in a spring football league for five weeks. I think that they've taken a look at it. They've they've adjusted to it. I don't know if that they care as much about the meaningless plays going away. Right. So they had 62% meaningless plays because of all their touch backs. And we had, I think, 7%. Maybe let's plays on our kickoff. So that's great. That was a big factor for us. I don't know if they care about that. They still have the one point kick conversion. They still have a lot of things where it's a pretty much automatically have the fair catch on or not fair cash. We had the fair catch on pump, but they have their. Punk rules to give another 60% of meaningless plays from fair catches to add a balance of just grounded balls. Or down balls. So I don't know if they actually care as much about getting rid of me in this place, because I think they've done an okay job of getting rid of the injuries on kickoff. Right. We see a lot, we see a big one, the Arizona Cardinals, one. That was a tough one to see, but because of so many touchback, there's less injuries than they used to have on it. And I think that's their measure for success, not the meaningless place. And obviously for the XFL at wish, just shortening the game, right. Getting rid of those meaningless plays or was it, it. It was the same 4% of the NFL's action. And I had a KPI of 15% of our game would be action. Right? So you're watching the three hour game in the NFL and 11 minutes is football. Right. And we wanted it to be of that 11 minutes. You know, we want all of that to be plays that matter towards the game. Right. Players running around with the ball. Not an untimed down. That has no meaning. Like a touchback kickoff. Right. We're ending up in the same spot. So. We changed how we did the rules. So that we could make it a play that was safe. So that we didn't have and not having meaningless play. So we did. You know, had more plays now ran more time off the clock. Yes, because we're. We had, I guess, eight less un-timed down says 56 game clock seconds. Which is. About four minutes of total time added to the game. Or like true time. You can do like a three seconds for every minute of the game. A few play clocks. So when you're watching the game, one minute of game clock is like three minutes of real time. It's more towards the end of the two minutes and the first half. And then sometimes in the second half, if it's a close game. So if you're ever watching a game, you can, your wife asks you how much time is left in the game. Just do that math in your head, how much game clock time is left, plus 12 minutes for half time. If she's asking the second quarter, which I'm sorry. Cause it's gonna be awhile. But yeah, I think that, I think the NFL will take a look at it. I've talked to the NFL about it. They've I've sent them in the video, the clips, all the data that goes along with it. I think that they're going to have to take a long, hard look at it. I think it's what's best for the game. But we'll say. We'll see him. I say, w I think we deep dive in all this. I really appreciate it. He said, won't get someone to do and we'll get you going here. That'll be good. Well here. I'll get going here because I don't want to take up too much of your time, but. Well, I have, I dusted off my Edmonton football team had today. We are. We are getting wild. We have James Weill Jr. On how are you doing? What's up, baby? How you doing? I'm doing well, man. I'm down in Florida. So. I'm enjoying the weather is a little. We're in the sixties today, but I'll take it. Edmonson around 30 right now. So. Well, this is exciting to you. We were talking you. I just resigned you as a BC lions fan on that. Really happy that you resigned with Edmonton. But congratulations out what went into the, you know, what's it like to resign and what went into that process? We'll be honest with you, man. I've never been a free agent before. And it was a little scary. I was a little nervous. But I was gonna, I was gonna test it out. You know, Edmonson, they didn't have anything in place at the time. And you know what the GM and head coach. Position open. I had an idea that they might be a chance that they might have. Go get Jonesy. Chris Jones. I'm sorry. And that's the type of guy that, you know, everybody in the leaves wants to play for. I mean, he's respected around the league. And when you see the gods, that's already known coming back and signing. I mean, that's what it was. And then he flew down the top of the come see me. I never had a GM actually like, you know, come. Come face to face. It's usually all over phone, over zoom. So I'm like, Hey, this is, this is real man. He shot me the goals that. He wants to happen. I was a big piece of the goals and it all made sense for me. So I'll be there early man numbers. I'm going to go. I'm like, man. It's a June yet. We're still in January. So there's going to be a hard six months. Well, and that's the thing. I mean, you know, there, wasn't a lot of bright spots with Edmonton last year, right? In terms of people, I would say you were one of the exceptions, right? I mean, How does drawing year certainly ran through a lot of the BC games. You know that we played, what was the year like? What was the year? Like for you. Man, I'll tell you, man. This year was probably the one most challenging year. For me personally. 'Cause one. At the time, you know, I wasn't Bakst. So I couldn't do things at all. Like it was from the stadium. Back to my home. No team events. I couldn't build chemistry with a lot of the gods. Some of the guys, you know, towards the end of the season, I'm. Finding out. What about their own. And their stories and it was just, it was different. It was different. And then of course, like you said, I'm having a stone campaign running the ball. Behind our old line. But the team not having success, man, it's hard to be excited about that. When, when you're, you know, when you're losing. Just as a competitor. You know, you can run for 500 yards, but if you lose, it just doesn't feel the same. So. It definitely was a roller coaster, but I think, I believe the right pieces are in place right now. For us to do some big things. Yeah, I didn't want. You know, get too much into that, but I mean, obviously coming back again now, riding. And doing the vaccination and all of that, I know that you had posted some things, right. A encouraging, right. People that like. Anything you want to share on that? Yeah. I know for sure. Everybody has to be comfortable. And somebody in that field find a doctor in that field that you can trust, maybe a family doctor that you can trust and, you know, let them, what I was doing for me was I was astounded. You know, research my own facts and stuff. You know, this thing is coming out. I didn't know too much about it. And you're trying to do your research versus somebody who, how we live for football, how you live for podcasting right now, they live for. This that's their field. And. Find somebody you trust, they'll give you all the information you need. And, you know, you go with what you're comfortable with at the time. Once I. Gave some things to me that I didn't know about and me being able to keep other people more healthy. Like I said before, it was more kind of selfish of me. Knowing that me just thinking about me and my family. Hey, I'm going to be good. I'm healthy. I'm going to be good. Versus. You know, some people out there that struggling, some people that lost their lives and stuff. And I had teammates come to me. You know what I'm saying? They have family members that. That's been through it. So, you know, it's just more kind of protecting everybody else in. And being able to get out in the community. I want to get out in the community too, man. That was. That was different for me. I'm always out in community. I'm always engaging with fans. Not being able to do that. That's up to, so it doesn't really want to kind of come out and get everybody to follow suit. Hopefully, man, I know that I'm a leader, a leader in the community. Hopefully some people can follow suit. With their gut. You know, hopefully they can go. Find a trusted doctor. They're not charging you money to just get information, you know, information is key. So you get that information and if you feel right, if you feel comfortable, It was right. But doing it definitely helps the community out. I know, cause I mean, you are, you're at your vocal presence. You're a big personality, right? Both on the field. You know, the way you speak right. The things. Are you confident in being able to come back to Edmonton this year and really help, you know, translate that right into, in the on-field right. Leadership on the field leadership among the team. Oh, yeah, no, for sure, for sure. Because I think we. I think our team, I mean, it's going to be a lot of. You know, different faces and stuff like that. But I think our team was the number one team, or we had the highest players that wasn't back. I think we have the most players not Bakst on our team. And I'm obviously, you know, me, I'm always outspoken. And I was one of the guys who was kind of standing firm on standing firm on, you know, not being Bakst, but like I said, being able to get the resource that I've. That I've had that I didn't have time to research myself. It gives me a different outlook of. You know, Others out there. You know, you can't just think about yourself, especially the position that we're in. We have to all help each other out. You can't be. You can't be, you know, self is just thinking about you and just you and yourself. I think that was the biggest piece for me. Like I said, I believe that. I'm healthy and stuff like that, but you got to think about the others. I mean, those are others that I could. I could be good and I can, I can mess up so many other people, you know, just being around. And, you know, that's something I don't want to do. Like I said, I'm always a people's person. I like to be around people. So I did what's right. And hopefully we can get a lot of people following suit with me being able to come out outspoken. And there's a lot of people that, you know, look up to us. You know, football players and stuff. And. You know, there was a lot of people DM-ing me when I wasn't getting back saying, Hey man. I'm not going to be vaccinated. So maybe you get those guys that could turn over and say, Hey, you sent it. I'll do this. I'll help the community. Well, you know, why not? So, I mean, I'm always on, I've never been the hog. And always been vocal about no, what I got going on. So hopefully that can help the community out a little bit. Exciting really times for Edmonton right now. Right? Obviously with coast Jones coming back, you know, a lot of excitement there. And then this week, you know, you come back, we have a new president and CEO, right? A lot of signings even yesterday. You know, are, are you talking with the players on DM? I mean, is there a lot of energy and excitement? I have to imagine. I mean, I know a lot of teams are resigning their valuable players right now. Right. Bringing people in, but he does seem like a lot of good science for Edmonton. Yeah, no for sure. We got some good guys coming in, but we've got some like hall of fame, caliber. Coming in and we got great young guys coming in as well. Like I said, players want to play for Jonesy, man. I'm very excited to see how this free agency is going to go. Because, like I said before, he has the juice and he's a competitor and he loves to win. And I mean, that's the biggest thing. You want to have a coach who knows what they're doing. And they love to win. And I mean, his track record shows for herself as well. So I mean, just in the first couple of days, you see these signs that we have, and honestly, I kind of expect more. Us in the players, around the team. We're definitely talking, you know, a lot of people start hitting me on when I saw it last weekend. Every new guy that comes in, we're trying to reach out to them and let them know, Hey, this is what we're building. We're building something special. Let's get this brotherhood started now. Let's not wait until may, when we all meet up in Canada, you know, so. I mean a lot of alleges even from, from Edmonton's pass. Right. Coming back in a lot of Indian psych. And I know that you had talked about in the past with the WWE write about some. It's almost like WPI. We're bringing back in some of the legends. Any of the reasons signings that are. They're getting you excited for Edmonton. Yeah. Like I said, Matt and I met. The player was, yeah. Man ma Manny, Manny coming in. And man, I was down with many in Texas, too. Seasons ago and Bowman suit. I mean, these are veteran guys, like you think of the gameplay. I mean, fans don't know, but I'll explain to them, you know, to the fancier, I guess. You think of just the gameplay, but the presence alone. The presence of loan and the leadership man, you think, oh, these are all grown men leadership. They'll be their own leaders. This is not true, man. It's a certain way to be. A great bet. There was a lot of football players, but to be a great bet. Successful. Great bet. And they know they know what it takes to win gray cups. We got a lot of yards now on that office, man. And I'm getting excited rings. We have a lot of rings on the offense that gets me excited, that's experienced. And I've always said that experience is the best teacher. So I feel like we have a lot of experienced guys now. And once we get these draft picks in and get some younger guys now, It's all gonna fall in place. Were you sad to see coach Elizondo go? I know that. A lot of excitement. You know him coming in. I, any thoughts on that? I was, I mean, it was tough. It was tough, man. When you have a season like that, it was tough. You know, I, I was close with him. But at the same time, I'll text some of the coaches that you. They have new jobs. Now, a lot of other coaches actually have new jobs now, but that's the businessman. That's the business. One day you could see somebody even with players, you can be so close with players. And then the next day you see a big garbage bag in front of their locker. That's. That's the name of the game, man, it's unfortunate, but I've always done great with guys like that and keeping great relationships after the football lifestyle, I've been in touch with a lot of those coaches, man. And. We got zones in now, man. And I mean, I'm just looking ahead. I mean, now that's a friendship with the old coaches. That's no longer a coach player relationship. And now I have a friend here and a coach player relationship with Jonesy. Chris Jones. I'm sorry. Y'all don't know him as. That's okay. You know, goals for you going into this year? I know that you had said, I read some of the quotes. You had unfinished business, right? You wanted to return back to Edmonton. What are, what are your goals for the season? Man, the first thing, the first goal is the team goal. We have to get the gray cup, man. We have to get the gray cup. And before the season even starts, I have goals to do so much community to work in the community. That's one thing that, like I said, I just love to do, and I really believe our fans, man. Fans, we owe it to them. We had. Wasn't no Windsor one way in, at home last year, it was. It's no big one and look, no one's at home. No one's at home, man. We owe it to him as. I definitely want to get my face and let them know that we do appreciate them and we didn't give them what they needed to see. Especially don't season ticket holders. So I want to get back there early. That's my first goal to kind of let them know, Hey, we do appreciate you guys. We have a new, we have a new cuisine going on right now. We have some big goals and I'm behind it. And I believe it. And if I didn't believe it, I wouldn't be moving back to Canada in the snow from Florida early. I gave you. I know that you're a new CEO, right? Victor has been very vocal, right. In terms of being involved in the community, be involved with the players. Have you guys had any reaction yet? Not any, not, not in person yet, not over the phone yet. Over social media. Yes. But we will get all our talks going with a lot of the capital's that's on the team, man. And being able to figure out what goals we need to do in the community, what goals we need to do to attach the fans and what we need to do to, to win. What we need to do to bring a great cup back to the city. That's when another main piece, man, it has so much history, so much tradition there at. And Edmonson. And we just kind of have to bring that back and I think we're going in the right direction. Bringing back some key guys, some guys that's in the city that knows about the cities and gods that's. Always been a part of the double E and I think we're moving in the right direction. I would say. You know, anything. We bring these players on ripe. You know, the fans love you guys right in the CFL, more than anything in terms of that connection. You know when you're not on the field, right. When you're not wreaking havoc running through everybody. The stuff that players should, that fans should know about you. I know that you got your sweatshirts going out, you know, doing some good. In the off season. But what do you, what seems while they're junior doing when you're not, you know, wreaking havoc? When I'm not, when I'm not on the field, man. I have my Wilder sports academy. Yeah, my own business down here in Tampa, Florida, that I'm training kids from ages five on up, and I'm I have my clothing line. What's yours with. Yours is in the mail as we speak. Yours is in the mail. As we speak, we have all my clothes in line going on. And then of course, man, That's my time last season. I didn't come up with the family man. So. Just kind of catching up with the kids and actually being, not being their coach, but actually just being a dad to be able to show up to their games, practicing. I got five Cubs and then I got five little kitties I got to attend to. So they keep me busy. You know, they keep me busy from morning to night. But most of this time now training and my businesses and. Just trying to get that time that I missed with. With the family. Well, Hey, I I'm excited. I I'm still not, you know, my, I was originally an Edmonton Alex fan and then I kinda got scorn with everything. So we kind. I'm not saying I'm back all the way. I am feeling pretty good about the Edmonton thing. We have Eddie steel coming up on the show as well. Today. We're going to talk. About everything. So I I'm telling you, you know, Edmonton is slowly working their way back into my heart. What can I do to help? What can I do to get you back on board? This is, this has been very helpful. We're going to try to engage you with some more Edmonton. Players. And I think this is good. I think, you know, Edmonton's working through a rebuild. I think having good faces like you named from the past. Chris Jones. It seems like all signs are pointing up right now up north. I mean that, so, oh no. Well first sir. Well, let's make sure we keep the dust off that hat. And we'll be good to go. Awesome. I appreciate your time and best. Like this season and take care. So, yeah, I'm good to go whenever you are. Cool. Well, I'll hit record here and then we'll get going. And I'm going on. Cause I backup recording on that. Well, I have my Edmonton. Football team had on twice today. You know, we had James Walter Jr. We have Eddie steel on how are you doing? I'm doing excellent. It's awesome to be here. Chatting with you tonight. I look forward to this. Yeah. So, yeah, we connected, you know, I guess a couple of months ago now, gray cop. You were unfortunately there with a rash, but it was actually nice to meet you and get to know you. How was the grey cup experience for you and how was kind of the, you know, wrapping up the CFL season? Yeah, it was a pretty awesome experience. And to see how things operate on the other side of the fence. You know, having been a player, I see how guys operate. From that perspective, but being around with all the media personalities and, you know, lots of guys where, you know, throughout my career in the CFL, I would read a different articles and I would see them on TV. And I knew a lot of names, but it was really neat to put the faces to the names and get to meet people. And. One thing that really stood out is just the camaraderie amongst the guys. You know, I thought. It might be a little more. Like cat, like type of an atmosphere because ultimately, yeah, you're all there writing and giving your opinions on the CFL. But you know, a lot of guys want to break stories first and. You know, everybody has an ego, no matter what industry you're in and you want to be the best of your job, but I found it to be a really nice. Group of guys and just the way they, they fellowshipped amongst each other, it was pretty neat. And. Surprisingly, a lot of them knew who I was. I didn't think that they would really know me per se. You know, of course they followed my nine years in the league, but they were really nice and welcoming and coming up to me and, you know, just greeting me and welcome me to the, the media side of things. So. It was pretty cool. And yeah, just watching the wrap-up it was a, quite a game. I mean, Winnipeg they're there. They're fortunate they're in that wind, but it was a heck of a game, a couple of questionable calls there with Hamilton. I mean, everybody's looking at that the special teams play where they're returner took a knee instead of ran it out and gave him up that point. And you know, it goes to overtime and Winnipeg dominated in overtime and they are there. They are back to back. Yeah, well, it's a, you know, and it really seemed like, and I'm glad we have you on, because there's a ton of CFL staff, you know, all the transactional, everything, that's the kind of stuff I like. I mean, the game you were watching the game and all that, but this is kind of all the media staff we can talk about. It seemed like Winnipeg last week, right. You know, we're resigned and players are building the roster. Now your former home, Edmonton is like, you know, hold my beer. I'm you know, we've got Chris Jones, right? You know, they did the week starts James Wilder resigning. Bringing back, some other legends that were kind of before my time. Right. Or earlier on an eminent, what has struck you this week about all the moves that Edmonton is making? Yeah. I think one of the biggest things, because a lot of the talk is there. Chris Jones has gone out and signed some older players guys who have been out of football for a little bit. I think what he's really trying to do is just reset the culture because there was so much going on here last year. It's been well-documented. I've had my fair share of opinionated comments in terms of the culture and just. Where the ship was being steered in what direction? So I think he's just trying to bring some guys in who can Sue the over locker room. Veteran presences. Who've been very successful in this league. And you, of course are going to have a ton of young guys that Chris Jones brings up for camp. That's kind of his Mo is to bring a lot of young guys who aren't overly familiar with the CFL. So when you have these types of veterans in the locker room, it helps them. A they lead by example and B they're essentially like coaches out on the field and just helping these younger guys find their footing and, you know, get comfortable and acclimated to CFL ball. I mean, it really does seem like, I mean, and I know it's kind of this, what have you done for me lately? But at least this week, I feel very bullish on Edmonton and the move. We have a new president and CEO. I mean, there's just, it just feels like there's a lot of. You know, it was a little Rocky last year. It just seems like there's a lot of good, I'm a big fan of good vibes, right? It feels like there's a lot of good energy going into that. You know that, that football house right now. Yeah, and I mean, Any energy. Ah, that's opposite of what was going on here last year is going to be positive energy because it was toxic here, man. Under the previous regime. So I feel very bullish as well. I'm a big Chris Jones believer. He coached me for out of my nine years in the CFL had a ton of success personally, and team wise under him. I know what he's about and the expectations and the standards that he has for guys. So I'm really looking forward to seeing the product on the field because. They were pitiful. They were terrible. Last year they won two games. Didn't win a single game at home. And that's just unacceptable. And I know he's going to turn it around. Might not turn it around and win a great cup in his first year, but he's proven. And he has the track record. I mean, in 2013, We went, we won five games in Edmonton. In 2014. Chris Jones comes in, we win 12 games. The next year we win 14 games and we win the grey cup on the way to the great cup. We won 10 straight games and the year. Then in SAS. Saskatchewan the next year. They won five games. He took over a bad team. The next year I came there. Which would have been 2017. We won a 10 games, 2018. We won 12 games. So he's proven he can take teams who aren't successful, turn them around and have some success. So, I guess it shouldn't be as a surprise. The aggressive moves. It seems like he's making kind of out of the gate. No, not surprising at all. Not surprising at all. And it's going to get crazy. Just watch because free agency here is coming down the pipeline. I think because there's this legal tampering period where I believe it opens up on Sunday where you can start negotiating with other teams, even though you're still under contract for one more week. So there's going to be some deals being made. I know it, and I don't know if he's just going to make like huge splashes, but he's definitely going to add to his arsenal and it's going to be an arms war. Come free agency. A lot of, you know, jokes are made about, you know, the recycling's right at. Derrius bull man. Yo Manny R. I know. I'm terrible. I'm silly American. But like you said, you feel like they're more of a question. Do you subscribe to any of that? Like, oh, it looks like Edmonton's going for the 2013 grade cup again, or whatever I saw. Yeah, I saw that. It was pretty funny. I was just talking with my pops about it. It was pretty funny comment. I think it was the John Hodge. She says the, the 2022 Elks are competing for a run at the 2014 gray cup. This is pretty witty. It was a good one. And yeah, you can't deny like football is a young man's sport. You bringing in guys who are a little bit older, they have that experience. With the dairies. He hasn't been in pro football and you know, what is it going to be almost three years? But the talent, it doesn't go. It's just, some of your abilities might start to go, but the towel is still going to be there. I don't know if he's even. Coming. He's not coming to be that perennial thousand yard receiver that he was in his prime. We all have a shelf life. I realize that. But there is a role to play. And even if it's just like the guy say that mentor, coach type of a role. Bring that presence in the locker room. There's something to be said for that, because culture is a big thing and you can't all of a sudden just create culture. You need to make culture in established culture and especially a winning successful culture. And right now, Chris Jones is burning guys who have that pedigree. So you need to start somewhere. You can't just bring in a raw crop of Americans and young Canadians that you draft. They need to. To see how pro football is done in the CFL and they need the leaders to follow. The resigning of James Wilder this week. I mean, you know, I've anything going on with Edmonton? You know, something on the field that seems like the success of last year, right. Was. You know how well he did any surprises, all of them locking him back up for another year. No, not really. He was one of the few bright spots and I know there's a history with Chris Jones and James Wilder, myself and James wild there back in 2017. It's playing in Saskatchewan and we were playing Toronto in the east vinyl. So we were the crossover team from the west. And we were up three points with a couple of minutes left and it was a third and five play. And Ricky Ray, the quarterback for Toronto at that point in time, James, while they're on a wheel up the sideline and he made a spectacular catch on us. And that was pretty much the nail in the coffin because had they not have converted that third and five, we would have went to the grey cup. For sure. So, yeah. There's some familiarity with James and he's a dual threat. He can catch the ball, he can run the ball and he has proven last year that he can still run the rock pretty hard. So I think it'll be a really good addition for them. You know, the announcement this week of Michael Riley retiring. Right. You know, I think that that was expected. Thoughts from you, you know, with the Edmonton and all that. Yeah. I mean, it's been, well-documented hell of a teammate, one of the best teammates that I've ever had. And it's not just because he was a good leader in the locker room, but it's how we lead. By example, if this play. Me as a defensive tackle when I'm sitting, watching the offense, from my perspective on the bench. And you see Mike Riley selling his body out, taking the hits. Never slide and just given his body up like quarterbacks, do he's running headfirst for those first downs, taking a pounding. That inspires you when your quarterback is going to sell himself out like that for the success of the team. Man that gets the juices flowing and that makes you want to play that much harder. So he's a warrior. We all know what kind of warrior Mike was. I mean, the proof is in the pudding, a couple grade cups under his belt. Three straight 5,000 passing yards, seasons, 11 years of pro ball in the CFL. He's pretty much done it all. So yeah, it's, it's nice to be able to go out on his own terms. He's made some good coin over there in BC for the past couple of years, too. So set a record for the biggest contract and a CFL. A long time. So, yeah, it's nice. And I think it's been well-documented too, that he's got a really nice career. In the fire force. With life after football also. And that's, that's a nice little career to fall back on. He could do media if you wanted. So the sky's the limit for him. Yeah, I wish him nothing but the best and yeah, just success and post football life and enjoy that family. He has. A lot was made this week. A friend of ours show, Rob Peterson, you know, even I think he was, I think he's bitter cause he was coming off. RCL cracking, sweat the 40. Twice. So I think that he was just kind of in a grumpy mood. Yeah. This whole, like Michael, rally's not a CFL hall. Hall of Famer. Can we just kind of put that to bed? Yeah, you know, And I love rod too. I'm hopping on his show tomorrow morning, actually. And. Rod's good for a hot take, you know, that's, that's what he's new. Tori is for, I think Mike is going to be a CFL hall of Famer. When you put his numbers up compared to some other greats, like a Dave Dickinson, who is well known as a great quarterback in the CFL Mike's numbers are. Actually superiorly or better, like it's almost not even close. So, yeah, Mike Michael, be a hall of Famer. Rods. Again, people talk and you know, and Rod's got fixed skin. He doesn't care what people say, and that's why he's having the success that he's having, man, because you need people like that and you need people. Out there to get people thinking and talking about different things. So he's good at his job. Well, when you're on there, you just remind him that. Yeah. Did you. And if you didn't, did you see this pat McAfee and making fun of the CFL today and all of that? I didn't what happened. Oh, Well, I three down was sharing it and it was talking about, you know, the accent Val and the CFL, and basically the whole, you know, carnival league of the CFL and all this. It's just more of that. But I just thought when like, You know, I don't know if we're sharing it to try to embrace it. It seemed like it was a lot of like clickbait and the other. I was just curious if you had any thoughts on that, because that was kind of what was on my Twitter feed a lot today. Yeah. I mean, man. And you, you get these guys and they're always making fun of the CFL and saying, it's like a feeder league, this and that, but. I've played with some studs, some All-Americans from the Stanfords and USC. And Notre Dame's the biggest of the big schools I've played against the top. Dogs played against a lot of household names that were in the NFL. That ended up in the CFL and. The talent level is. Not that big of a gap. You got your superstars in the NFL. Absolutely. And they're like one of one in the world. But other than that, like there's so many athletes that are such quality athletes that could be playing in the NFL that aren't. And vice versa. I mean, the NFL, it's a, it's a different game. Like you got these defensive linemen who are 340 pounds and like they only can play two. At a time and they're only good at stopping the run. Whereas in the CFL, you gotta be able to run and you gotta be able to move and cover space and you gotta play the run and the past always because. More often than not, it is a passing league, so you gotta be in shape and it's just different types of athletes. So when I hear guys, you know, cracking on the CFL, It irks me a little bit, but at the same time, you know, talk as good for the game. And, you know, pat, McAfee's got a huge widespread audience. And if he's talking about CFL, that can't be a bad thing. You know, any pub is good pub as they say. Right. So, but yeah, I don't like how people crack on it, you know? McAfee a punter. He had some good success. John Ryan, a punter who had more success than Batman. The fee ends up in the CFL to finish his career right back home. So, you know, what does that say about the CFO when you get studs like that, that are still coming and they want to be a part of the league. Yeah, I just, it's funny to me now having, you know, cause you know, our story getting into this through. You know, we're discovering all of this, but now having lived through a season and you know, truly now seeing these off season moves. It is like very exciting to me. Very heart-stopping right. When, you know, cause like I know the players now I know the quality. I know that we're, you know, when you're not following it, you're in there. Like my wife couldn't care about any of this stuff until we follow it. Right. But then you're like, oh wow. Like brand new banks is, you know, is. As is leaving Hamilton. Huge earth shattering news. Right. But yeah, if you're not. If you're not paying attention to it, it doesn't matter what it is. It could be the bachelorette. It could be the CFL. It could be the, the evening news. Right. You're just, oh, okay. Whatever. I don't, it's not as big of a deal to me. Yeah. I thoroughly agree. And I mean, we all know down in the states, their coverage is way, way, way deeper when it comes to sports, when it comes to football. I mean, you got all the networks cover in the NFL covering college ball, where up here, you know, TSN is the right holder and their games are only shown on TSN. So you are somewhat limited. So then of course it comes down to money, right? The money talks, you got so much more. Money involved down south. So that's a huge thing too. Do you and circling back to the Edmonton of it. Do you think? So, you know, obviously Michael Riley stepping down, you know, Nathan Rourke named as the starter. A lot of talk. Okay. We're bringing in the veteran, right. It's Trevor Harris. Is that make sense? You know, former Edmonton, right trade on that 70. Does that make sense for him to wind up in BC? Yeah, that's what I'm hearing a lot of talk of is Trevor Harris. Yeah, it makes sense. Just because you do need that backup someone who's quality. 18 Game season up here, rarely does a quarterback go and start every game of the season, just because that's a long haul. I'm a big Rourke fan though. Based off the small sample size we saw from him last year, man, kids got an arm and he could slang it. He throws a tight ball. So I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does. He will be the guy out there this upcoming season. So it'll be interesting to see what they do in terms of backup. Maybe. They can't come to a contract agreement with Trevor Harris. But, yeah, they're, they're going to have to do something to bring in a backup because you don't want to throw all your eggs in one basket, especially with a kid who's as young as he is and doesn't have the experience, but. Yeah, they'll, they'll do something for sure. Yeah. I've been reading a lot of like, well, you know, With his, and you know, we're going to bring in some. I always worry about that. Right. You know, you have like someone like Makonnen. I'm not though Thompson. This is like, why was never really, I was never really sure that it was my spy. You know, you always feel like you're playing over your shoulder and I fear, like it makes sense. I. I mean, you can't just go all in on this. Yeah, that's quite the drop to go from Michael Riley and highest paid quarterback. Right. Yeah. So it's that? Yeah. Yeah. You're right. I mean, I get what you're saying is you, you don't want someone having to look over their back, but at the same time, you don't want someone, especially that young to be to complete. And think, oh, this is my job. It doesn't matter because I think he's only like 23, 24 years old. And like, it's easy to get that attitude and to almost get too cocky. Cause you know, you've got it made. So still got to go out there and earn it and yeah. Having, having a good veteran behind you is never a bad thing. Cause it keeps you sharp. Def definitely. And then obviously you have the brand and bank thing today, right? You. You know, figuring out what's going on. It seemed like that was kind of the last big, I'm kind of looking at my list here of, you know, it seems like this, this week was crazy in terms of like a lot of urgent. It thoughts on that. And where does he end up? I mean, obviously didn't have a stellar year, last year, right. Coming off of 2019. Yeah. That's. Just goes to show you pro ball, man. It doesn't stop for anybody. He's been there for. It's like seven, eight years now had a ton of success there in Hamilton. He was the mop. Most outstanding player back in 2019. And just like that, boom, a couple of years later, the team is moving on from you or you're mutually moving on from each other. But pro football doesn't stop for anybody. And we all have a shelf life, not saying he's at the end of his life in the game, but you know, it's, we always need to go to new pastures and see what's out there. You will have a good opportunity somewhere. It it's a matter of getting the contract and the money. Right. And what team wants to give them the money. But yeah, he'll be somewhere. I bet. As he gets older, he'll probably want to go to a more established team. Someone who he has a better shot at. Winning with, I'm just throwing this out there. I don't know if it'll fit and what the numbers look like, but I could see something in Calgary, even, maybe just adding that little speed threat. They got. [Unknown] they got Kumar, Jordan. Just another weapon for believer. I wouldn't be overly shocked, but that's just my opinion. That's good. I like that. I like that thing. I saw Milt Steagall tweeting that he's training to come back to the CFL, making fun of. As that is that inspiring you at all? That's not the cleats. And we're, we're rallying all the old legends. I was talking with some people about that too, because I was a Chris Jones guy, you know, I, he kind of brought me to some of the different teams he was on and we have a good relationship, but no, I'm done, man. And I'm at peace with it. I have no desire to put the cleats back on. I'm in a good role in life and a good season in life right now. Got a good job. And yeah, that ship has sailed and I am totally at peace with it. No. This last thing, I was like watching the video. What is happening here, like, oh, okay. I get what I get. It's kind of one of those. The good still play. Cause he's a workout warrior. Or two and he's probably in great shape still. Well, Eddie, this has been great. I'm glad that you know, that we could connect and kind of get to meet and spend all that time. And then now having you on. And they just really didn't have them working out a great week with all this Edmonton staff and who knew. And sometimes. I'd rather be lucky than good, but I think we like to have this week.

Episode 76 - There Will Be Blood and USFL Football

Hello. It's more than. It's Friday morning. I was going to say it's morning, but it's Friday morning. I need to put the day in there right now. Welcome to the mark cast. Once again, your weekly spot. For all football news outside of the NFL. Hello. Lots of, we have. I think I, when I tweeted the promo this week, it's a very eclectic show. We have a USFL news. We have obviously Seattle XFL. Mike. Hennessy. He was with the, you know, he was AFL coach for a long time. So we're really, we're really highlighting all of your alternative football leagues here this week. So very true. And we also have Derek Dennis on the show, correct? Yeah, Derek Dennis, you know, we've been talking about Derek for a long time. Yeah. So Derek is recently resigned with the Calgary Stampeders. We talk a lot about that. Derek's a big advocate for like players and looking out the collective bargaining agreements are coming up all that sense. That Derek's a good guy to talk to you about that. And then Mike Hawaiian, this. It's [unknown]. NC. Did they. Double aides is silence. It's just silent. He is a former USFL quarterback with the Washington federals. He played in the, for the Ottawa, rough riders. Remember when they were a thing and then the Toronto Argonauts and that he was in a. AFL head coach hall of fame, head coach for years. And I just it's teaser. I did ask him whether he thought about fingers for football. So that, that is a good to ask the hall of fame. Arena football league coats, like have you heard about this thing called finger drum football? Very good stuff. That's coming up here after or USFL, it looks like a big USFL block. Then we're going to get into first lot of USFL news. A lot of it. Yeah. It's alive. So just a couple of quick notes. I am where my Dallas. Cowboys WrestleMania Jersey in, in commemoration of the Dallas Cowboys losing when we went to WrestleMania, remember when we went to WrestleMania and I thought the biggest fraud was re. Roman reigns, but it was actually the Dallas Cowboys of the season actually. He was probably the guy that dies in us. Fraudulent to. And then the title of the episode, there will be blood and USFL football does call me Daniel Plainview. Just call me Daniel Day Lewis. We have a feud. I think this is a good gimmick for our podcasts. When this came up this week. Listener Harrison said this over. He goes, Hey, did you know that Colin coward is going to be covering USFL news like weekly now? Like during the season, I go. That's it you're coming into our realm. Yeah. Do you think that's a good gimmick? I think that's a good gimmick for the pocket. Okay. I think it's better than opening the can of energy drink. I do think that, so I think of every week we tweeted about our blood for you, that conquer eventually they're going to be like, these guys have something wrong with them. As long as you leave joy out of this. Cause joy. Joy's a queen. It is calling. Eat call. Yeah. Colin. I've listened to a lot of Colin coward lately, and that is I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you've had to listen to this guy that this is a guy like back in 2005. He was like, Oh man, that Arizona, Utah state game is going to be a trap game, Arizona. They're going to lose the first round, just like they always do. And then they win against Utah state. And then he's like, oh, Arizona is gonna win the whole thing. And I'm like, Dude shut the F up. You were just saying, they're gonna go out in the first round. Now you can't say they're gonna win the whole thing. You're an idiot. So, yeah. He was like, oh, I'm not, not many of my friends are Hollywood friends. Like I'm, I, I don't like high drama people. I'm like, you seem like the most high drama person I've ever met. Like, and subscribe. We're getting close to our giveaway, but yeah, big USFL drama today. We everyone knows they had the four coaches that were going to be announced. Did you follow any of this? I know you were working. I was super busy with work today and I did it. Wasn't able to follow it in this. Well, I woke up at 6:00 AM to a press release that was sent out because that's a good time to send out their press release. 6:00 AM Pacific. That they were going to announce the four coaches today on their herds. So that seemed normal. You know, we tweeted out everything and people got excited that USFL tweeted it out, all that stuff. Colin even started the show. It said at the bottom, like Colin and joy to announce the four remaining USFL. God coaches, because later in the show they're doing the announcement next week in Birmingham, right? That's all official. Now they're coming out Tuesday. Halfway through the show. They go, Hey, we're getting outs to coaches coming out. But even column was like, well, I guess we're going to do this in waves now. So they announced skip Holtz and Kirby Wilson. I don't know if either of these gentlemen I've read a lot about them. But needless to say there was no other coaches. Very weird. What is going on? Like this is. If you say you're going to deliver something, just do it. Don't have assets. If you, if you, if you're not ready with eight coaches, don't advertise eight coaches. Cause you advertise date coaches, you only gave four, then you're advertising for you're only announcing to. This is a mess. This looks like a mess. The optics are, this are not good. They're not good. It was bad enough last week or whatever, three weeks old, we had the gene Chizik thing ride. And like he came out and said, okay, well maybe that contract wasn't ready yet. Whatever. But it was very weird to have. And the other note about this and we'll get to it coming up that I tie the Haley was on another podcast this week. I had been talking about Jeff Fischer, who is another, you know, he's like an old, former, he was with the Titans, right. Coach, really prestigious career. So. In the beginning of the con coward segment, they go, they're going to announce the four coaches and then Jeff Fisher is coming up in the show. So everyone thinks, oh, they're going to announce the forehead coaches. They're going to announce Jeff Fisher. He's going to be on the show. They even talked about Jeff Fisher and like an interim head coaches that had found success because they're talking about rich [unknown] and all that. When they dropped it to two coaches, Jeff Fisher then was never on the show. And like they had teased that he was coming on. Th th they had to have like, been negotiating with them. For, for a spot. And then it fell through and then they just robbed the idea of having two coaches. I don't know. Yeah. So, yeah. So skip Holtz is your Birmingham stallions coach. They were. I sat a prestige. They're calling this down. They'll like the most prestige of these teams, right? Cause it's in the home base is skip Holtz. Is that a procedure coach? I mean, his dad was a great coach at Notre Dame, but I mean, other than that, you. You know, I don't, I don't think, I think Skip's been getting by, on his name, not necessarily his abilities. You know, I D I, I think that he's kind of a mediocre coach. Like he has some success and for some programs that's great, but for others, like, you'd never see skip holds coaching a Clemson or, or an Alabam, or even an Auburn. You just, you know, He has a coach. No. You'd never see that. You'd never see that kind of guy, but it's good that he's getting another shot. Here with some, you know, some pros and we'll see what he does. Yeah. And then Kirby, Wilson. He is going to be the Pittsburgh modelers. I will never not. I keep on these felt Pittsburgh, B U R G. I never put the age on there, but he's, this is his first head coaching experience. He was writing the backs coach with, you know, the Patriots, the Washington football team, Tampa bay. Pittsburgh bikey. I mean, he's had a resume, but never, you know, 23 years in the league, the first head coaching experience now. Congrats to him. It's pretty cool that he's getting a shot here and maybe, you know, maybe it's a situation where someone sees what he's doing here. And he gets a real shot at the NFL or maybe college, college coaching job who knows. Yeah. So anyway, that that was kind of the thing. Just, it just, this was the first like sign of panic today. I've seen with a lot of people online where they're like, whoa, they tweeted. And then like they deleted the Instagram posts. They left the Twitter stuff up there. I had mark reach out to, cause I didn't want everyone to reach out the USFL back. What was the deal? They kind of just said it was sorry for the confusion, right? They didn't obviously have a good explanation. I wasn't trying to hammer down, but. I mean clearly as something happened here. So obviously they're joining the bar, Andrus, Todd Haley. We know this Mike Riley, Kevin Sumlin, your favorites. We have a quote from Brian Woods, which is this weird here. Filling two more head coaching positions. Isn't every huge step for this like, feeling like we're, that's a huge step. It's like. There's a big step. Like we fill, do of the position. We should be filling all eight. When you say you're gonna fill a light. That's where this is. Doesn't look good. Yeah. And skipping and Kirby, we'd secure to us. The professionals you like the coaches already announced have decades of experience. Just we're still waiting for that. Like, Rock out name, you know, I think Mike Riley is probably, would you say Mike Riley or Todd Haley would still be the premier? I think Mike, Riley's the name at your leg? That's the good name. Todd Haley's okay. He's better than mediocre. He's. He has coached the NFL, but I mean, It's kind of bounced out when you get two good names like that, and you get someone like Kevin, someone, it kind of balances out to where it's like, eh, It's still kind of pedestrian at best. Because Kevin someone's so bad. So. I have some more thoughts about USFL. When we get down to it. Ah, they, they, as I mentioned before, a. Todd Haley. He was on the extra points podcast this week, talking about. Moose Johnson was the one that had reached out to him to get, get involved in the USFL. Again, he was dropping the Jeff Fisher name, which made a lot of people think. Okay, well that makes sense. Jeff Fisher, I would think that that would be a big hire for the league. Right. He had coached 120 some odd games. You know, over the years for Titans, the interesting thing here is they say, where will the USFL players come from? And this is called. So where the players will come from. It's been very interesting to me. I can't get into all that right now, but we'll be able to fill the roster. Well, Okay. I there's lots of guys, especially in the springtime, the one that played football and won an opportunity. And I think that was great about it. That's. I know he just got hired. I don't want to like, you know, whether it be. Well, It's going to be good. It's interesting. And then he went on to address the text. He sent it to Antonio brown after his meltdown with the temp. Is that really fair to say it's a meltdown. Cause there's like some back and forth. Some, he said, he said stuff. And you know, the thing about the Antonio brown situation is that Antonio brown is accused, basically accused Bruce Ariens of misconduct. And then we see Bruce Ariens slap it around one of his players. A week later and it's kind of given Antonio brown. Some credit to his argument that, so to say that it's a meltdown with the Tampa bay Buccaneers. Is a little bit premature. I want to err on the side of caution and kind of give Antonio brown. The benefit benefit of the doubt here, because optic from a, from an optic standpoint, again, Reus Arion slapping around one of his players. Kind of puts more weight. On Antonio brown site, in terms of that disagreement. Yeah, I do want to see the quote here. He, but yeah, he said I was in the preliminary process of deciding to take this job. I know, I knew this was somebody that I cared about for a long time. And it was going through obviously a lot of different things. So it was a reach out to let them know that I was continuing to support him. I did not have a contract in hand, basically. It seems like Todd Haley is playing this down. Yeah. You know, we've been trying to recruit them for the USFL. And it could be. He taught it. Haley could have. His, his motives might be, might've been altruistic, but. Maybe there was a little bit of like a secondary reason. Like, Hey, maybe he might be interested in playing for, you know, USFL. I just, this speaks to me that Todd doesn't know these people, right. The USFL people. And I, well, I, again, I have a comment here when we talk about the live stream coming up, I just. They would not like you reaching out to Antonio brown and having all this trauma. I can't imagine that's something he fingers off football I'd want. I cannot imagine knowing what I know about Brian and the, and the team that I've dealt with so far with USFL, they would definitely not want. I don't think they want this. No, definitely not. Moving on though, on to the next topic. Former CFL general manager, Jim pop has been named USFL director of player ministration. He sent, spent over two decades, two decades as general manager of the Montreal wets. And several students have said, coach. During that time as well. Yeah, I think this is a bit higher. So I reached out to USFL cause this wasn't the official, they had just tweeted. This was coming from a couple of different accounts. Of course there's no like releases for any of this stuff. And I go, Hey, like what is his role? Cause I don't, you know, what does this mean for you as a belt? They said. His chief responsibility is going to be overseeing the draft monitoring player transactions on a team by team basis. We would be responsible for maintaining the lead database. To monitor player transactions in season, keeping USFL teams informed of all player movements within the league. I initially during the off season, he'll assist in national scouting effort. So it's like a GM, cause they're not all going to have team GM's right. He's like the GM for all the teams, which makes sense. I do like this higher when you're trying to like, keep it. And then a bubble. We don't need eight GM's no, we don't. Not right now. Maybe when, you know, The teams get actually located in the cities. They, they belong and then we can do that. But until then, Yeah. Speaking of that, there. They're set to make an announcement next Tuesday at protective stadium. Apparently this might be the moment where they say, okay, we're going to do it here. Officially. Yes. So this is sort of Jonathan pap. Kick that that is. So, and so of course, As I'm talking to USFL about this and I go, Hey, like, are you guys going to stream this? They go, no, we're not going to stream it. I'm like, oh, of course you're not going to stream it. Of course not going. But because, and this is not like these are the same. And I know it's a different team now with Brian and some of the guys that I had dealt with back when we were doing spring league stuff. But it's the same mentality, like, well, of course we're not going to stream it. Why would we stream it? Well, luckily the news w V T M they're going to stream it on their app, right? Because luckily, local. I go, I go, never underestimate the power of local news. Being able to like painting on local news. I mean, anything you see on like a website that's like viral that you click on Facebook or Twitter always normally originates from a local news source. Just letting you know. So they're going to stream it. It'll be on the app. It's going to be 10:30 AM Eastern time on Tuesday, seven 30 here. So, you know, keep your look out for that. But I'm like, guys, that is such an easy thing to stream, even if it's going to be a nothing 15 minute, like, Hey, we're going here. Works. Anything to draw attention to put it on your website to drive to. I just don't understand why you wouldn't just set up a freaking cell phone and run a mic to it. It's very odd to me. It was weird. And it is definitely weird. Mike Pereira discussing the us develop officiating on. The Greenlight podcast. He said there will be a rules committee of almost one. What does that even mean? Almost like he's a rule. I get all lives and dies by him because he is like their chief rules officer, but there's not going to be, because again, we're like bubbles, small time. He said, but you see a couple of these rules here. Roughing, the passer is going to be reviewable. Passing interference is going to be a 15 yard penalty of the saw was over 50. And I was like, basically, they're getting rid of that. Like, It's at the spot of the foul, like in the NFL, it's more, I call it. Yeah, that makes sense. Okay. I mean that's. Those are cool. Cool. I mean, I do like the spot files on Basadur appearance. I am a fan of the spousal ambassador parents. If it's like 40 yards. Yeah, I like it. 'Cause I mean, If, if you, if you were supposed to catch a 50 yard pass, If you're on the, if that pass comes from the 15 and you're supposed to catch it. At the opposing 45 and you don't because someone interferes. Guess what. That should, that ball should be at least be there. It should be at least be there. So. This is just a funny quote. So mark, actually, I didn't, mark went back and listened to this. He wrote this thing and they're basically talking about, well, this Mike prayer target well, where you're going to see some different technology in the, in the U S developed, you may see the sticks go away. I'm a fan of tradition. I love to see that 75 year old guys going out there with the sticks where there's going to be lasers, we made the actual measurement itself will probably go away. Basically the time that you seem like spot laser as, and all, I kept thinking, reading this whole thing is Austin power. Dr Eva. Like I want fricking sharks with the laser beans on his head. That's that's. Yeah, that's kind of what it gives you the idea of the impression. I think there's like some kind of laser technology that goes into that. The yard line that we see now. There are some kind of it's it's the same technology they used at the NHL back in the day. These they're like people having a hard time following the puck. So what they did was they put a glow on the puck. The same technology used to put the glow on the puck. Is the same technology use to use that, to show you where the first down marker. So. Anyway. So this thing that they need, the ideas are going to be using some new technologies potentially in the USFL that won't go to the NFL cool stuff coming up after the break, we're going to talk to, Reid's gonna talk to Mike coinci and Derek, Dennis. And then some CFL and exfil news right after this. There you go. I can not pronounce that guy's name for the life of me. Oh, Hennessy. Oh, oh, Oh, I see. Oh, Annecy. That's. Kosho all right. Welcome back to the show. I want to thank Mike coinci and Derek Dennis for joining Reed. Talk about. There, there, there are situations there scenarios, everything we're going to that. Very interesting stuff from Mike there, especially specifically about that. Football. Interesting. Interesting. I decide here, hall of fame, arena, football guy. I was like, I got to know. I got to know things about the. So speaking of Derek, Dennis has CFL his league that he plays in the blue bombers have agreed to terms on extension terms on extension with the CFL's most outstanding player is that Claris. This just came in. I had a whole story about how they were negotiating with him and all these numbers and everything. And then ripe tonight. There you go. That's a good thing we recorded at this time sometimes. Cause this just came in Zack Collaros. The assigned for one year extension. So. Winnipeg is bringing back everybody. I'm very scared. Pretty much. A new survey indicating. And the age discrepancy regarding CFL making possible NFL style changes. Of course, we're talking about probably three downs here, three downs and four downs. Yeah, this came out last week, right after Friday, the ledger right there, the big Canadian thing. The drama with this is of course only 1500 Canadians were surveyed. Right? How do you get a census of the, of the country? It to me, these are like purely clickbait and that's kind of why I wanted to talk about this, but, you know, basically there for the 15%, that would be, you know, they would lose interest if they did it, 12% would be increased. It's. You know, you're never going to get anything for this, but this got a lot of clicks and a lot of drama online because people, you can use the numbers either, which way. Right? We jumped around here a little bit. We probably should've put this next to the exact Clarence thing, but the blue bombers have extended the contract of most outstanding defensive player. Adam big hill. Very cool. This is exciting. Also, I have been talking with Adam big hill. I, he is a star, you know, Phenomenal football player. And I've been talking with this people. I think he's gonna be on the podcast here in a couple of weeks. So I, he is from Montana, Washington, which is right in my backyard. He went to central Washington university. I said, this is incredible. There you go. Shaq Evans has resigned with the rough riders. It looks like it's going to be an extension. Does it say when it ends or just another, another year? The next year he was out for a lot of the season. He had a broken leg early on. Brought him back. He also this story, I put this in here and Derek, Dennis and I talked about this a lot too, is him wanting the longer player contracts. Derek had a lot of thoughts with that in his interview, as well. Talking about that, you see the quotes he had here. Yeah. You know, he noticed the first year in league in 2018 guys. Literally move like puzzle pieces. It's crazy. All over the league of dude will be traded. In the middle of the season, go back to the same team. I've seen it all. So I definitely think longer contracts. Should definitely be a staple in the CFL at some point. And it's something that happens with longer contracts is more money's paid. So sometimes it's harder to move those pieces. If you have a longer contract with more money being paid, like if you believe in someone so much, you give them a six year deal. Guess what? No team has taken on that six year deal. And I, and, and I liked the idea of like, you know, if, if you are a franchise and you make a stupid decision financially or make a great decision financially, you should have to stick to that. And it seems like. There's not a lot of teams that are. They just go one, two years and you're done. That's where the Carson Wednesday, like the Eagles were crippled and now the Colts are crippled. Like it's like you've crippled all these franchises now with this horrendous contract until Derek cargoes to India, and then the Las Vegas transfer, Russell Wilson. And then, you know, then in these not so crippled. Carson Wentz has to be probably the big, like. If it weren't for Tim couch, Carson Wentz would be the biggest first number one draft pick bust. And I told this guy I used to work with and I'm like, it's going to be a bus situation. When the backup quarterback from the university of Arizona comes in and wins you a super bowl. That should have been assigned. That should have been a sign. On those CBA notes, future Canadian football hall of fame, defensive. And they're already saying he's going to be in the hall of fame. He's a future hall of Famer. John Bowman believes the CFL's upcoming con collective bargaining period. We'll go a lot. More smoothly than past negotiations. Yeah. So the other reason this is in here is John Bowman also just got signed this new defensive line codes for our America's BC lines. So it's exciting with that, but yeah, this is getting contentious because this is coming up to expire and may, you know, I mean, we all know about that major league stuff that's going on right now. And so. I is it, oh, there was something coming. I really need to talk about with, at Tampa bay, getting turned down for like playing games in Canada or what was that? Basically? The idea was that in a few years, Tampa would split their home seasons between Montreal and Tampa, because no one goes to the Tampa bay rays games. No one goes. No one goes, no one go. They shouldn't have put a team there. No one goes. So we're theory is. The race of Denver won a world series. No. It's the box. Okay. Okay. We've been the nit and lost the light and he's won a Stanley cup multiple times. But the Tampa rays. Went to the world series of loss to the Dodgers. Yeah. So that was interesting to say the least, because. That I'm telling you if they don't get that situation in there in Tampa fixed. That they're going to lose that team. No one goes to the Trop. It's a dump. It is a dump it as a bad, it's a bad area. It's a bad stadium. And if you don't this. The Tampa bay. If they don't get fixed. It's going to be the Nashville res. Or the return of the Montreal expos is one of the two. One last spring 2019 here, they had 97% players voted in favor of a strike. Do you see this on the collective bargaining? That's insane to me. That's a. That's massive. Where they just talking about the CFL, not the tablet. When you'll need 66%, you get 97. That's that's overwhelming. So. Speaking of Montreal, it's been almost months. Elowitz have released Trevor Harris and he still thinks he's a tier one guy. And he won't rule out return to his past team. Hmm. Welcome back to Edmonton. I, you know, this is stuff I don't know where Travis is gonna end up. He was on broad show. Rod is a big Trevor guy. I mean, obviously we have burned in Adams on a couple of weeks ago, we are burning. Adam stands and burn. The Adams is taken care of now, but. You know, it's like musical chairs with the CFL. There's only nine teams. So, you know, like Claris is there, but Levi's here, you know, we got burned in. What's going on with Toronto with McLeod that, I mean, E. That deck chairs on the Titanic. Eventually you got to kind of find somewhere to go. That's a bad metaphor, but you got. Yeah, I do read blacks are securing their offensive line and they pay big bucks for Jacob Ruby. He could see $30,000 signing bonus to join the club. 114 K base salary over the course of next year. And he's also going to earn 12 K and housing money and yeah, it's, I mean, that's big money for them. We look at those numbers like, oh man, but that's big money for them. That's how I put this in here. So you would see exact, cause I mean there's a line in the NFL are getting like 50 mil, right? I mean, this is like, Yeah. I mean, you get it. Yeah. I V I V of as contract is like insane. And Buccaneers. So anyway, he's one of the highest paid. We 200,000 is the highest pay for Jamal Campbell with it. I mean, that's still big money, but that's not anywhere near. Yeah, no. Ty Katz pay. Dana Evans has contract number for 2022 and 2023. It basically says that Hamilton's going to keep him in place and that's, that's going to interest. That's interesting for Jeremiah Mazzoli to say the least. Yeah. I just thought this quote was interesting because he said he, you know, he was looking at a lot of the top guys in the CFL, whether they done, he did amazingly, you know, he felt really. High value on himself. You know, the, the, what he's put in the workees, but then it was a fair number of him. For 17. W, you know, guaranteed or whatever, four, 17, and hard money with all these tiny buses and then max out at four 50. So, you know, it's a good, I think Naylor have reported this kind of before. It's not like a Lee quarterback money, but it's still like, we really care about you with our franchise. Paul Graham has decided to remain at TSM following AI. Oh, did I script. I skipped one. I'm so sorry, Glen. Sooner wants the rough riders to load up on Playmakers to try to make. Home gray cup. He says, push the cap. You got to load up this year for your Saskatchewan. If you were ever, if you were ever in a year where you were going to push the cabin, push the restrictions and maybe pay a little bit more of a fine for going over this year to do it because of course. Regina is hosting breakup. Yeah. Cedar's basically the saying it's okay. The chief he's basically. Propagating like cheating. Okay to be the Patriots. Now, now as far as Paul Graham goes, he's remitting at. TSM following his job interview with Edmonton Elks. Yeah, he was, he's a vice-president saver. TSN he had interviewed for the presidency there. Obviously Chris Jones has been there as the head coach and the general manager, and they're still trying to figure out the president and CEO of Edmonton moving forward. Eddie steel is coming on the show next week. He's covered, you know, covered everything for Tim for a long time. So he might have some good. Insights on that. Going back to Glenn sooner now. With Cody. It was hard to layer some of these stories today. I was trying to find that through a read has never been a line producer in a newsroom that's clear as day. Sorry. Because this relates to gun suitor. I, yeah, I don't know. I got. I'm joking. Cody fraternal firmly established as a starter in science through 2022. Glenn suitor sees Trevor Harris as potential alternative. To. Tony journo and says, Paxton, Lynch's not good enough for CFL. Yeah, he says it wasn't a vaccination thing. He just. Maybe he was good enough to make the team, but yeah, Glen, I mean, senior was dropping bombs this week. Basically, he says [unknown]. Jar though he's still, I would think Cody should be, feel pretty safe in Saskatchewan another year. God knows, but I, I, if Trevor Harris took over for hay for. That would really be mind blowing to me at someone that falls. This is the one I was at for, this is the one I wanted to speak about because I am. A big fan of this kid and I am so happy that he's getting a shot to actually play quarterback. [unknown]. A little tape from the university of Arizona. Let me just say the last time someone made the NFL that, that play at the university of Arizona happened to win a super bowl championship. Besides that Khalil Tate. Tate, his sign with Edmonton Elks. He's of course six foot tall is 216 pounds. Kahlil came out of nowhere, his freshman year. Tore it up in seven games and had people saying the H word in Tucson, Heisman. That's what was going on with Kaleel Tate. Of course there was a change over in coaching. Rich Rodriguez left. And then Kevin flipping some Lynn ruined him. It's all connected. See how it's all connected. See. See how this is all inner wheeze. Okay. There is a part. I don't know if you've ever seen a history of violence. At the end, William Hertz shows up as the main gangster, right? Yeah. And he's trying to kill someone. We won't say who, because even though the movie's been out for like 20 years with. I just won't spoil it. And pardon my French here. But this is what I thought. When I saw what clear tape. Became under rich, under. How do you f**k this up? Yeah. Pardon my French. This guy was a star. He was on the cover of sports illustrated. He was being mentioned as a Heisman candidate before the season started. And Kevin Sumlin ruined him. They, we were worried that he would leave Tucson after his sophomore year or junior year. And he ended up becoming an undrafted free agent that played wide receiver. That's how bad Kevin Sumlin is. He grew into this man, so I'm glad he gets another shot. North of the border. Edmonton, you got a good kid. Take care of him. Again, people ask why all these leagues matters because they're all, I mean, look at this, Kevin, someone here without talking about it's all related. It's all related. All time. Just a quick note here by in Burnham. I pro fire hall. We talked about Brian Brendan last week on the podcast. Cause obviously like he Whitehead got his big $200,000 deal. Just wondering what's going to happen with him. If he goes on the free market, if there's going to be enough money to make him happy. He might be signed for less now because. You can only have, you know, It's only so much gap space. So some of the cab space. Toronto Argonauts linebacker, Dexter McCall. Dick's from a coil has announced his retirement. He was. Only 30 years old. And of course he played five games to Babach see how it all ties together. That's why I have that here. One other note, how it all sides together for a former CFL QB Marcus Brady. He's going to be the head coach to the tribal. The shrine bowl is ran in part by Eric Gallico. Now, who is the former XFL director of player personnel. And this is interesting that, you know, you know, the tremble it's like for the Shriners. I always think about coal Boozer. Remember we raised the money for the Shriners hospital. It's all connected. Anyway, Marcus Brady is going to the shrine bowl. That's just a lot of stuff about the shrine bowl. If you care about that. A writer's defensive back. Coach Richard Kent is hired by ELs light's big Kings as defensive coordinator. Good luck to him across the pond. Yeah, I would leave Saskatchewan to go that's Vic. I mean that. That has to be, it has to be an upgrade for Richard Kent, but again, it's all connected because the alpha exist and they're also taking talent from the CFL. On XFL news. We were thinking that rock was going to do something massive with the XFL on the man and cast, and it ended up being. Not so much. Yeah. One quick note, pep Hamilton turned down the Carolina Panthers OSI interview. I also would not want to work for Metro. I just think that was the right thing though. He didn't even take the interview. Yeah. Why wouldn't you, why would you take that interview? And that there's no faith there that guys, Matt rule, I'm surprised that rural still hired. I just don't after the sheer, you're not getting seven years map. I'm sorry. I just couldn't believe that you wouldn't even, I mean, good for pat, like he must feel good with the Houston. You know, with Texans, but like, I just couldn't believe he wouldn't even take. And obviously pat former DC, the vendors. It's it's gotta be, it's gotta be a toxic situation. That's why pap is like, I don't want any part of that. So, Back on the rock down. Now I'm going to now I'm getting now I'm the one out of, out of order. Yeah, this, I mean, I watched it. Thank God I wasn't. We went to the cracking game. It was a day off. It was a lot of daily drinking happening today. We have within the position where I had to like live tweet, anything like from the. It was after 11. After 11. Yeah, our, our, our, our reservation. We're sure that I'm 45. I can assure you that. But so the rod came on. I just, it, it made a lot of sense. I know they have their plans. I know everything else, but it really made sense to like mention ABC or mentioned ESPN or mentioned these things. If you're going to be involved in that, he had a couple of quotes about paying the bills and taking care of family, but he said two to three weeks is when the announcements are going to be. So that's obviously that week between the playoffs and the super bowl. That's when all of. We're lucky to have a lot of the handshaking and announcements for the original XFL. So really seems like that's not, are you surprised? He didn't say anything on like I am. I'm shocked that that's the perfect time to get the message out there about the ex-felon you dropped the ball. I don't know why, but I mean, like he tied that, you know, I mean he taught, but I just think everyone was waiting. Everyone was waiting. I mean, even like. Even XFL, certain next level podcast for waiting to do their episodes live after the show. And I, I was like, oh, I'm glad we didn't. I didn't have to do that because nothing. And then the last thing here, it's the story that never dies. XFL that we're talking about. The dome of America's again, Fox two is reporting that they're, that. We've talked about this. Katie Radcliffe. And they're telling them that they've been in contact, but no agreements are in place. It just seems like I never get this from any other, I never get this from LA or Houston or Seattle, like. Everyone in everyone in St. Louis knows exactly who is involved in everything and can speak all about it at any given time. And I just don't believe that I see a lot of people tweet, right? Like. Runo Reagan played for the battle Hawks. He's a radio host, but like he'll tweet. I'm like, you can't all know everything that's happening here. But if you can't, they can't, but like what else they're going to talk about? They don't have an NFL team anymore. Where else they're going to talk about when it comes to football. Yeah. And it's also really obvious. We've talked about this. Like it's the most obvious story, so I'm going to say anything and people are going to believe me and it's not just him. It's just a lot. But like, I just see this every week and it was like, oh, did you know that they're talking? And I'm like, are you. Because it'll add a lot of it will be, and then I'm done. I know we want to go. It's just, there'll be a lot of like local news reporters that are like, oh, this would be fun to talk about. And I'm like, are you even on Twitter? This is all anyone's talked about for the last six months, but they're like, oh, Hey, guess what? Like they rush to news. No, it's not fresh news. Like you you're, you're, you're just finding things to talk about just to like drive listeners or hits on your website. Like. This is a, this is like, this is ongoing. Like, and this is happening every it's not just happening in St. Louis. The problem is Willis has nothing else to focus on. And this when it comes to football. So that's why everybody's talking about their. So. That being said. Want to thank everybody for listening. This has been the mark cast and yeah, we appreciate all of your listeners, please. Subscribe to us on YouTube. Get those numbers. Numbers up because we're going to give, be given away something. When we hit that 2000 mark. All the gray cup merchant. Remember you can always leave us voicemails. What's the website address for that? Smells this week, the mark has that calm. [Unknown] voicemail. I think people were too shallow shocked about the lack of USFL news. Thanks again to Coachella for coming on. Derrick Dennis. I know dear. I just, we're getting some more CFL guys. I love this getting the, the, the guys that are really passionate. And now that we're in the off season, I hate bothering CFL players in season and dealing with all that stuff, but getting a good swath of guests here. I feel good. I think that's good for our brand visibility. So very cool stuff again. Tune into us every week and subscribe to us on your podcast player. If you're taking us around we're back on. We're back on a what it was we're back on Stitcher. [Unknown] now. So anybody that's got an Android phone, you got us on Stitcher. If you're not listening to us on Spotify for now, let's do it on Pandora or Amazon or whatever the case may be. You got us everywhere. Again. Thank you for all for listening. And we'll see you here next week. Good job. All right. Promo. This is quick. I knew we'd fly, dude. I, I, I scrubbed all this stuff way down. And stuff. There we go. All right. And the audio is great. Hey, I rebooted my computer right before. I asked for coats. This week on the mark cast, there will be blood. And he was a football. USFL football, but maybe not all the coaches, maybe not all the coaches. This is, yeah, we. We are been shell shocked with, we were promised for, we got two coaches. We are any blood feud with Collin coward and the herd. TV show, I guess. Radio broadcasts to. Lots of USL stuff going on. We are breaking down all the head coaches. We've also got Mike [unknown] from a former USFL quarterback and an NFL head coach. He joins the podcast. And then you're a friend of mine, Derek, Dennis, formerly resigned with the Calgary Stampeders star offensive lineman, talking a lot about like CFL business, whether we need to be doing, heading into the collective bargaining agreements. Derek is just a wonderful gentleman and has lots of good thoughts on that. We're gearing up for the USFL to make the big announcement in Birmingham about playing at that stadium. We all know what's going to happen, but they're going to make it official very soon. We're gonna be talking about that. We've got some CFL player news, some things I'm really excited about one Khalil Tate from Inglewood, always up to no good getting a deal. North of the border. I'm excited about that. And I'm also excited to crap on Kevin Sumlin. That's all coming up this week. Oh, we got one more thing though. XFL news. Well, I mean, actually, We're talking about the rocks wet fart on Monday night football with the Manny Kath. I know that what was the bigger of wet fart, Eli Manning or the rocks? Well, I am really excited today after. He used to play it up with all my emails and requests. We have coach ho Mike Hohensee here. Former USFL player, former CFL. Arena. You know, hall of fame, right? Football coach. How are you doing today? First of all. I'm doing great. I'm doing great. I've been married 29 years. Got three kids. I'm still involved in football in some way. I got a son playing college football. Yeah, I'm getting ready to turn 61 years old and I wouldn't rather be anywhere else. So this is good today. Cause I think people like hearing ESMI. USFL staff. You know, I, I, we, we can get your thoughts on this new. I know you're not following it a lot, but I think even just hearing things, you all yeah. That, that vibes with kind of what I think. And then also just, you know, the value of having these, you know, all football leagues. Especially with the AFL that you've been involved with for so many years. How did you get involved in it? You were with Washington federals back in the 83 and 84 season. What was that like? Oh, my goodness. That was. That was right out of college for me. I had. I played in the hula bowl. With Dan Marino and then, you know, A month later, all of a sudden here I am in training camp in Washington, DC with the Washington federal. Is that an extremely quick. You know, my, my agent says she gets a new league. They're paying good money for kids. And I came out the year of the quarterback back in 83. So it was tough. You know what I mean? All the great John Elway, you know, that class right there. And I was in all kind of the middle of the. Middle of the road. Type of kid. You know, I had some talent. I did have a. A lot of wins in college. But I did some good things and I did. Washington federal took a shot at me. You know, reading back in. And it's interesting now, too, because I, me and especially our listeners sat that I think you connect with as well online. We're big Washington football fans, right. And with the Redskins and now all this stuff. And I was reading a lot this morning, getting ready for this, about the questions they had of going into Washington with the USFL, you know, competing with, with the Washington team that just won the super bowl, right? Like two months. Or is it 30 days or whatever before. What was it like playing in Washington. And, and did you. I guess makes sense. Playing in that market. Yeah. Initially, you know, we had, we had a training camp. Down in Florida, so we didn't get hit right away. But once we got there, you know, is this business as usual? I was a rookie. You're always trying to kind of, you know, take the, take the calls from everybody else, especially some of the veterans. And what we're supposed to do. You know, we really didn't have any issues in Washington, DC. You know, going, going around town, going to it's going to clubs and bars. To restaurants, things like that. We really didn't. Take any flats from any of the Redskins. It was a good town to be in. A fun environment to play in, you know, I mean, what, what was that like? Like we had, we've talked to like former XFL players back from like, oh one and you got to get like, wow. You know, sometimes it was a wild time. See, I mean, What, what was it like? And, and how was, how was the league run? I mean, was it, did it feel, I mean, obviously you're coming in as a rookie. I think, I think it depends on where you were. You know what I have in my, in our situation here, we don't, we. I thought we have to challenge the kids, buddy. I think we had a lot of maturity. You know, I was a rookie and. I didn't think we had great guidance from some of the veteran. Football players, if you will kind of, you know, Giving us some idea of. You know how to ask you a routine, things like that. It was a tough environment. As far as that goes, this was my. First experience with pro football. And, you know, I remember one of our, one of our games. You don't sit in there and. You know, someone's smoking in the locker room and I'm. All I'm fan of the smoke, trying to see what coach is. Putting up with the board at halftime. I can't believe this is going on. So I think it really depends on where you were and you probably get different opinions across the league. So obviously going into the USFL out of college. You're just happy to play. Right. You know, you're happy to be involved in this. Having spent your life in football now, looking back and seeing. You know whether USFL was right, knowing that you were trying to relaunch or re-imagine it this year. W was that a good experiment to do back in the eighties? I mean, Talk about the worthwhileness of that while, you know, If you just look back at some of the names, Steve young, Jim Kelly, Doug Williams. Reggie white Herschel Walker. I mean, you know, there's smaller, famous right there. So pay it off for some people. And you know, for me, it gave me a chance to meet our head coach Ray Jaak. Okay, who was one of the guys who was the founders of arena football? As well, and he brought me into Rita football and I was there for 29 years. You know, I was the arena football guy, so good or bad. That's what that's what happened and had a great career in arena football. So I think it was good for me. I had to grow up quick. You know, because I didn't have, like I said, I didn't have a lot of guidance. I had to figure some things out for myself. And I think that helped me along the way is especially in my culture, understanding. What some of the young players are going through initially when they get out of college. You know, we cover all these leagues. Right. You know, CFL acts have helped us develop and we get a lot, you know, now the USFL is coming back. Right. You know, April we're launching. You know, we're expecting the city announcement next week. We've all been tracking this. We get a lot of yo who cares about these leagues. Right. You know, why are they doing this again? Why are they trying to another? But then the ratings just came out today. Dallas Cowboys 49ers had 50 million viewers, right. For wild card. Highest. Yeah. So, so you see why people are trying to do it. What do you think about these alt leagues continuing in the spring football landscape? I think it's great. First of all it keeps football going. Dick, you know, we talked about what the opportunities were for some of these great hall of fame players back in the early days. There's probably a lot of great coaches came out of that league as well. In front office, people is just extra jobs for people out there trying to pursue their dreams. And who are we to downplay? Anything that somebody tries to put out there. Now you got to put a good product out there. Well, I think you got to give it a chance. You know, there's a lot of people out there with good ideas and aspirations. And there's plenty of unknown talent out there. That's just waiting to get developed. When you got brought into the original USFL out of college, what was the lead time as best you can recall from kind of getting in. Because here we are. We have four head coaches announced of eight so far for the USFL they're kicking off. April 16th. Training camps are starting May 21st. So, you know, and we still have four head coaches too. Higher here, right? Where June 19th or January 19th. So, I mean, Is that from your experience as a coach? Does that jive? Does that seem like the lead up time? It doesn't. You know, but it's, you know, Hopefully people that are in the front offices. Right. And hopefully they're hiring. And they're getting out in the communities and they're spreading the word and they're going to have the foundation set. So when the coach gets there, he has everything he needs. And now he can surround himself with great coaches and players and. And so forth and hopefully you already got some great individuals in the building when you arrive that are willing to listen. And to support you when you get there, because obviously, you know, a tie time is short for these people and they want to do a good job. Because a lot of these people might be. This might be the last time, the last job they get as a coach. And for some of these guys, it's the first time. So you've got that dynamic working where some people are just trying to get a little bit extra cash on their way out. If somebody is looking for something to do for the next 50, 60 years of their life. So I think it's very important right now that if they don't have a coach, whoever's in that building. Whoever's in charge of that market is doing a great job in doing their due diligence. Yeah. When you're in the arena, coach. You know, obviously you have some guys that are playing in there, right? Full-time, that's what they do. You know, this is their passion. And then you have other guys, right. That maybe are trying to get into other leagues, right. Coming back down again, you know, you have a lot of maybe turnover right. Year to year. Does that affect how you. You know, deal with players and put together the s***t, you know, it's not like you got the same 53 guys coming back the next year, right in the NFL. Let's build on. It's kinda tough to compare a Rita football and outdoor football. You know, we're dealing with eight kids. We gotta, we gotta teach them a whole new sport, basically. You know, you may still know how to throw it and catch it a block. Your taco. But you got to learn the nuances of the different rules. I think there was a hundred something different rules. The football. That those great talented players had to learn. Before they could be great, talented arena football players. No, I don't know how different or what they're going to try to do with rule changes on the new USFL. Oh, but if they keep it. Close to what the reg. The outdoor game is right now and they can put a good product out there. What a great feeder system for the NFL. You know, for not only just the players, but good young coaches that looking for an opportunity. That just, you know, don't know how to get their foot in the door. You know, I was that I was that kid. I was lucky. I got my first go-to job in Washington, DC. Johnny always dad was the head coach. He got called to the old world football league. Out there. And I was sitting there as an assistant on the phone or with the guy who owned the team. And he hung up. And, you know, you took this job. Do you want to be that goats? I'm 28 years old. And without any big advice. You know, was I ready for it? Absolutely not. But we figured it out. I surrounded myself with good people. And they gave me an opportunity and I was ready for it. You know, emotionally anyway. And energy wise it use. And all of those things that come with being a new coach. And again, the most important thing was I surrounded myself with good people. People like to trust. Is there enough, like you said, bringing in these players, teaching them this new sport. And then when they're trying to maybe go back out, is there. Is there enough similarities? I mean, how does that translate them back? The other way, people are trying to get taped and trying to get experience. But. What football? I think, I think it did. You know, with the arena football. You know, you still have to be able to throw the blocks, thought quarterbacks left the arena football league, better quarterbacks. Then when they got there, I mean, the game was just faster. I mean, look like, look at Kurt Warner. Okay. The game slowed down for him. When you went into the NFL. He's wearing a jacket. You. He's awesome. He's a guy that all of us ambulated rooted for. As he went and he took all the great qualities that our league had to offer him. And it wasn't all good. Okay. But he took all the great qualities and took it into the NFL and made the most of them. What do you think of the. Negativity that some of these, like I said before you, oh, they're doing this again. I can't. Because I see every time on Twitter, they know I, Hey, you know, Rock is coming out, talking about XFL, whatever on Monday night football, you got. Well, I can't believe they're doing that again. I can't believe, I mean, what do you, what do you say to the critics of these. Jessica, it's not the NFL. It doesn't matter kind of people. You know, what if their son needed a job? What if there's thought is that aspiring coach? And also, this was the only opportunity he got. He goes out and does a great job. The right person sees him. Now, all of a sudden that guys. Bella check yours live. Because Belicheck wasn't Bellacheck when he first started out. And he had to develop into that dynamic coach and those types of things happen. You know, I'm not, I'm not going to put it on anybody. I mean, if someone wants to give it a shot. Great. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. If it works. Fantastic. Okay. But I'm not going to sit there and criticize it. I'm not going to be the guy that ends it. For everybody else. That's trying to live out their dream. Who are we to do that? I think that's ridiculous. It's one of those things, like, like we said before, It's John's for everybody, right? It's jobs, the arena workers. I. I mean, granted, this USFL is all going to be in one stadium right now, but it's still, you know, it's still, you know, they've, we've gone back and forth with the reporters that are covering it in Birmingham. And they're like, well, it's 40,000 hotel room, right. Nights over three months. I mean, that's money and jobs. You know, who are we to fight that? That's what I don't understand if it's not affecting you. Okay. Then just leave it alone. Let them go do their thing. I mean, most of the people that end up being famous and rich and all of those things, we didn't know nothing about them for a long, long time. And then, you know, they, we saw the product of their opportunities. And how they took advantage of them. And that's what we ended up seeing when we see a lot of these superstores. Do you think. Arena. These other leagues. Do you think that they attracted different? Like you said more diverse coaches, right? We're getting people into might not be getting the shot. I mean, Just the competitiveness. I can't imagine. Right. You know, they're there, like right now in the NFL, you know, there's eight spots or whatever. We're trying to fill it by a million different qualified people. It's just, it's expanding that pool right. Of jobs and opportunities. Thank you about all those guys that are on the fringe, in the NFL. We're getting our kids that are coming out of college. That probably won't make it in the NFL, but they might get into training camp. And all of a sudden this league appears. That was me. I got that opportunity to fail, to succeed, how to deal with both of those. And I ran with it and I'm still running with it at 61. So who. The possibilities are endless. For these young men and women and women. What a great lead to, to experiment and give these people an opportunity to see if they can do it. If they don't, they don't, they still have the pressure of going out there and putting a good product out there. And winning. It's not like they're just being given a job. And say it don't matter what you're doing. Okay. Or how are you doing. They're still going to have to produce. We say you. [Unknown] from USFL the, into the CFL, right in 85. What, what made the jump there? Because it was Washington moved down to Orlando, right? What was what. Drew you to the CFL. I just got a call. You know, my, my time in the, in the USFL, I. It was like the third year out. And I just got calls with somebody up there to come to training camp. I went up to training camp. I was up there for a couple seasons and then moved on. What was it like learning? I mean, it totally different game that way too. We talk a lot with, you know, American players. I mean, talking about that. Yeah. It's tough. You know, just being in a different country. Was different for me the first time I had crossed the border stall. You know, you go from the USFL, you get, you get into the arena football league, then you go up to the CSL. You know what I mean, three totally different things than what I was used to and what I had dreamed of. You know, I wanted to play pro ball and I did. Okay, maybe it wasn't the NFL. As long as I'd like to, but I got a chance to play. I lost your video. Oh, there we go. Or we go, there we go. Do you. The respect, you know, and we're talking with Derek, Dennis. One of the CFL. All-stars just got resigned with the stand Peters today on the show. You know, talking about. You know, maybe the lack of respect rights. CFL players get versus, you know, people playing in, in the states or. You know, reading the play. I mean, w what do you say to that? Because at the time, There's guys in the NFL. And they're playing it. You know, so, you know, you can't go out there and John is trying to please everybody. Cause you ain't, I don't care who you are. Who's the, who's the greatest player of all time. Go ahead. What's coming. What's the first thing that comes out of your mouth. Tom Brady. Not a lot of, a lot of. For some reason. Okay, so you ain't going to please. Nobody. You go out there and give your best, your best efforts, man. Show up with sincere efforts and wanting to do a great job for everybody around you and for the organization to be a great teammate. All of those things. And you're probably going to have a pretty good experience. In your program. Snogging. It'd be pretty successful as well. But you ain't going to please everybody. You know what I didn't learn. You know, I was a young coach. I wanted to please everybody. And I found out real quick, it wasn't happening. So I wanted to make sure I pleased the people in the building. And then I realized warning. Wanting to please all them. And then I was going to please everybody that wanted to be there. Okay, because in arena football, not everyone wanted to be there. Just like you alluded to early on. So we had to sell those guys. And make them fall in love with our sport. And that's when we started creating whole families in our sport. And then all of a sudden Kurt Warner. Jumps down at Martin lake. Okay. Because it fell in love with our sport. And the people are in and had appreciation. For the purity of competition. And that's why he's in the hall of fame because he didn't try to big time. Nobody. He was the best where it was and took steps from there. It's interesting. Yeah, we talk all the time about it. Do you feel like you were the players? Not that any player doesn't work hard ever, but when you're like an arena and you're like, you're proving yourself or like you're in the U S about like, I gotta earn my spot here. I mean, the, there is there a lack of. You know, there's no complacency, right? Because like I got to earn every snap here. I mean, what, what do you see when you see the players? Yeah. You know, you're going to see all of it. You're going to see that hungry. And everybody. Focuses on right now. You see, oh, that guy loves the sport. And then you can see a guy out there who's big time and everybody okay. And he ain't helping nobody. And that guy's going to be a cancer to the organization. And you got to either figure out a way to remove the cancer or treat the cancer. Okay. We're still successful where you get rid of it. And you move on because there's too many good people, usually in an organization they're trying to do the right things. And I don't want to be the guy that keeps letting that other guy in effected everybody else's experience. And I don't want to hear about it. 40 years later. Curious your thoughts on this? So in theory, right, USFL, whatever 2.0 is coming out this year, XFL is returning. In February. So in theory, you're going to have two competing spring leagues, right? We get a lot of questions about, you know, Quality of talent, right in the players. Right. Spread across NFL CFL arena. All. Do you worry more about the quality of players or the quality of staff and coaches or both, but what are your thoughts? He can have all these different leads competing to do year round football. You're right. It is both. You know, we, you've got to have quote, I've been around horrible coaches. I've been around unbelievable coaches. And coaches still make a difference. And I've been around good players. That are lazy. I've been around. Borderline players that get the most out of themselves. Okay. And that's where you got to go find your coaches that can deal with the thoroughbreds as well as the overachievers. If you do that, then you've got a chance to put a good product out on the field. But if you don't have kids, you got kids dropping the ball at the time. Where you got your quarterback over 300, bouncing the ball to a 10 yard stop. That's going to turn the channel real quick. So you better have dudes that can go out there and play. Okay, coaches. Coaches coach. Players play. All right. Put them in a good position to succeed. And then they got to succeed. That's my opinion. Do you think there's enough colleges having enough players now that can fill this many leagues theoretic? I mean, and we're just assuming these are all sticking around, but just in an ideal world. Yeah. I mean there's there's good. College football. You know what I mean? And that's, what's going to happen. It's not going to be the NSL by any means. Okay. But it could still be good quality football. With the right type of people and dealing with the community and building relationships through the sport. Intertwining it. And you never know what's going to happen. Okay, but you, you. You got to go out there and get good people. That's where it starts. I. If you start taking shortcuts, man. I think you're just going to go out and get the talent. Now, all of a sudden that guys in the newspapers were all the wrong reasons. And if it was going to say, well, That's what I thought was going to happen. Right. Yep. When you. And we'll, we'll wrap up here. I won't keep you till I win. When you were, you. Leaving the USFL. Right. And you know, obviously you're a younger kid at that point, right. Yeah. You hear the league is shutting down. Did you think, oh, that's a shame. Does that that's too bad. What were your thoughts when the USFL went away? It sucked. It sucked. I mean, it was a proving ground for me. And my next step was going to be somewhere. And all of a sudden that disappeared. And then. You know, that's kinda what happened with the Rita football, but 29 years later, All of a sudden your sport goes away. It's different, you know? If you're just your team folds. There's other teams, but when your sport goes away, That's devastating. So many families across the country, around the world. Yeah, cause it's not just, I would say it's not just the players. It's all the, it's the families and where they're living in the staff and the people that are taking the tickets and selling the tickets. I mean, it's. And all the sponsors and all the sponsors, you did deals with an Alison they're left holding the bag. You know what I mean? All those relationships you've worked so hard to build in your communities with your sponsors, man. And all of a sudden they're gone. You know, and then they were sincere. Relationships. And the sport goes away. That's extremely difficult. On both ends of that. And I don't think that's talked about enough. Do you have any interesting, funny or. Yeah. No. Where these stories from your time in the USFL. Well, just, just probably one that other people have probably heard what Ray Jaak, you know, we had, we always had some pretty boisterous practices. We have some characters out there. And we had a fight one day in practice. And coaches are trying to break it up. All of a sudden you hear a gun go. And it's. Let's go jock with a starter's gun, shot it up in the air and we're in the middle of DC. Okay. Real great neighborhoods. So. You didn't know what was going on. And, you know, we found out later that this was something he's done in other training camps as well. Just something to break up the monotony and it came from a guy that you just, at the time, everyone was so serious. And that was a real fight that was going on in the Lebanese. He brought in. Just became a little bit. More relaxed if you will. And some people might say a little too relaxed by the results of our season. But I thought he did the best job he could with the people he was dealt. Yeah, it wasn't, it wasn't the best, but you know, It's hard. W when you're, when you're starting that first season, I mean, you're going to have one, I. Sure. Even the CFL after their year off. When the bag came out this year, ran the table over everything. It's hard to get momentum. Starting from zero. Right. You know, if you've had a year lay off. It takes a pretty dynamic people. And at every level, and a lot of times what happens is sometimes you only got one dynamic person at one level and the other levels of searching for what to do. Okay. And there's just not enough people there to get it done. And that's kind of what happened to us in Washington. Last question before we let you go, you are an arena, you know, all fan right. Have spent your life. There, this is almost just for my own personal curiosity. There's a sport right now called fan controlled football. Right. And on your radar at all of any kind. No, no. Not as the head coach. I just mean that just knowledge that it exists and that it is. Yeah, no. Yes, I've heard. I've heard it. You. I really don't. There's so much going on in my life that I'm not really going there yet. And when it really becomes a thing, if it does, obviously I've got a son who's still playing football has got two more years in college, probably has aspirations to play further. You never know. Yeah, no, I don't mean SEI as, as. I just meant more. Are you aware that this exists? Because we got. I am aware. I am aware. Okay. Can I, my wife asked me what is that? I said, I don't know. They talk a big game. I figured if anyone in the world that you, as a hall of fame, And the coach. Wait, wait, we know one way or another. If it was good. You know what the IVIG can make that work. I think that's remarkable. I think that the players and coaches under those kinds of circumstances, I think that's daunting as far as that task goes to make that. It is my cohost. It wouldn't be remarkable. Paul likes that word. They wouldn't be remarkable when they got that. Coach hope. Thank you so much. This effort, you know, putting up at the time and it just said, Crazy life, you know, CFL and USFL and arena. Well, we have Derek Dennis here. I am very excited for this. We've talked a lot online, gone back and forth. I know that your friends, you know, And a lot of people on. You know, online and everything else. How are you doing today? I'm doing good, man. I appreciate. Well, absolutely. So I want to, I don't want to talk a lot of Alex. I have one. Funny story before we get too much into anything. But congratulations. On the resigning with. Calgary. Yeah, I appreciate. What did it mean to kind of go back home? I mean, that's where you really made your career and major name and, you know, Sandy and all that stuff. So what was it like to go back to Calgary? It was a good feeling to know I'm getting a chance to go back to the place where I pretty much started my CFO career. And be able to kind of add to that legacy. And as a player. And I always feel like to have that shot at the like, Ultimate goal, which is like all afraid. I'm considered what are all time greats? So it was good to have one place where, you know, most successful. Consider your resume. So. I just wanted to have opportunity to keep. I think that has an opportunity to give me a bronze blush one day. So my funny story for you. And so. We famously on the pockets. We. BC lions fans, right. We call a BC lions, America CFL team. And I came to that realization because I was in Edmonton elk sky that they, I picked my team in the off season. You know, we were all the XFL had never covered any of this stuff. I pick Edmonton, they get the new name. It's all this excitement. And I'm sitting there. I'm on vacation in Hawaii was the second week of the season and I go. I've picked Edmonton. All they've done is, is disparage the XFL. You know, they had their little comments with all this stuff came off. They have lost to the red blocks at that point. And then they had upset our friend, Derek, Dennis, and I said, I really don't like them. That's three strikes. They're out. So you are actually part of the reason why we are now the BC lions fan. So there you go. I've done. It probably had more to do with proximity. Cause I know you're a bigger Seattle Seattle guy, right? So I figured. Easy, easy team to get to. Cause at least it's not a far drive. At least get to a home game and get a chance to experience. Green city like Vancouver. To, to find out that I was part of that reason. I'm flattered. I guess, I guess I have a little more. Influence. Well, no, I mean that, you know, we didn't have a lot of friends back then in terms of the CFL community. At that point, we were just working our way in and I said, I need to have a Derek's back on this. And I said, I wasn't going to deal with it. So I am. What was it like watching the CFL season last year? You know, at home, right? I mean, not, not participating. What was the season like for you? There was a lot of, you know, is it entertaining enough or the games. W what do you think of anything? I think my perspective probably. I mean, I did get to some of the games. Just didn't feel like it had. Of like my earlier years. CFL. And I remember like, 2016, which was like my really. My first year in. It was like exciting games, like every week. And. Even. Having. With the NFL. I had this year, like where it came down to the end of the season on weather. Certain teams and finishing first place or. You know, certain teams. The home game for the playoffs. Knows a lot more. I feel like alarm more storylines. A lot more drama. And my first couple of years, And the league, as opposed to. And I'll bring some of that had to do with COVID and having to come from the cancel season and just try to get back into the swing of things. I expect things to probably be a little better. This coming season where. You know, looking like we're going to have a full training camp and be able to play. And games and all that stuff. Right. A lot of this stuff. Does that does affect the games. Aren't important. And I know like NFL players. They can't afford to get. They're preseason games. Really all the info did was take a pre-season game and put it. So. We honestly. I think it was good for young players to get a chance to get some filming. I get more eyes on them or it gives them more film to use for. No other opportunities. It's good for the veterans to be able to take how'd that time. Window that there used to have. With training camps and preseason games, to be able to get themselves reacclimated to. So. All that stuff. Probably played a piece into. Some of the games. I think there was a lot more. Unknown or young players or rookie players in the league last year, too. I think that kind of affected the play because it wasn't so as many veterans as used to having. I think some of that is due to. From the last CBA making rookie salaries go up in. It's kind of what I saw when I first got into the NFL when they own. Put rookies on a captain. Ricky's became cheaper and then you saw a lot more veterans. Become an expendable because teams will look at it. Like, why would I pay this guy? A hundred and something. Gail and NFL million dollars when I could just pay this rookie. Could be half as good. And half the sheet and be able to kind of keep more money in my pocket type of thing. So. And my honest opinion, I feel like. Kind of meshed with the plate a little bit too, as well. Because I having never stepped foot at all in any realm. Any field of play myself. I have to imagine that the excitement of the game is purely the fans. I mean, the players, you don't care about that you care about winning, right? And performing and doing your job like. You don't care if the score was 30 to 33 or. If you want three, zero, I mean, it doesn't write a win is a win. And I mean, I have to imagine that's a lot of just the fans and the media kind of trying to talk right. Yeah, absolutely. I think a big majority of it is the fans, right? The end of the day. We, as we, as football players are entertainers as well. Right. The game of football. It's such a big commodity and it makes a lot of money is because of the entertainment value of it. Right. Fans want to be able to see points put up. They want to see ends on dances. They want to see hard hits. They want to see all that stuff rolled into one. Right. Only like real football purists. They get excited for like a defensive game would have scores. It's like nine to 12 and they're like all this game. Full of great defense, right. But. Defense may win championships, but they don't sell tickets. And that's the honest opinion. This, the flashy skilled positions, you know, like. That's what I grew up. How are, how are acclimated to the game of football? Was our group. Watching the Randy Moss's. That's my era of NFL. So. Just wrestle selves, man. So I think having great skill players. Being able to have good defensive plays, but also having good offensive performances. I think it's just, it's just part of the equation now to make the entertainment value go up in that. That's what shell, this will make some money. Now, forgive me if you've answered this question 10 million times, but I know my wife will be listening to the interview at this point and going this Derek guy is so nice. Why is his nickname? Bone crusher. So actually a couple of years ago, I did. The reason why my name is bone crusher. It's a nickname. I got in high school. So when I was in high school. I have this super huge Afro. And. It was just people know there was a rapper by the name of bone crushing. So me being the biggest kid in high school, and I had an Afro. The kids. It will be funny. So like, like, oh, like say. He was like bone crusher, the rapper, right? Cause he was a big guy who had a lot of hair. And that was just naturally how the name started. And then I remember the first time I played a game of football. My junior year of high school. I actually, I had two nicknames. So before that people was calling me. All right. I got the bone question nickname. Went to prep school. And when I went to prep school. A lot of the kids when they finally like was on the football team, saw me play. And they was like, oh, like, I think. I'm not sure who was in practice. I was like first game of the year. I ended up hurting somebody and. And like, and like breaking the ankle or like do fracture in that. Trump crazy. And the kids is. Oh, he's the bone crusher for real. And then it just kind of stuck and they just kept calling me to blown crushes. And then when I got to college, my college coaches. It was cool that I had a nickname like. A bone crusher. So they will call me at whenever I dig. I ended up breaking a few legs in college, too. So it just kind of stuck with me. Like every time people would call me a bone crusher and then I was go out. And hurt somebody. And then all of a sudden it was like, oh yeah, he's really the bone crusher. So that's kind of just how it stuck with me. And then when I got to the pros, I just kinda kept running with it. And I was just a way for me to differentiate myself and kind of make myself stand out. Cause there's offers alarming. You don't get a lot of attention. A lot of football fans don't pay attention to the trenches. Right? And my mind, I was my way of kind of bringing the teaching to me as, Hey, I'm also a really good player. You should pay attention to me. I have the entertainment value. I was a big skill on Nielsen. Fan growing up. So I used to mimic a lot of the stuff that I do is kind of mimicked off. Stuff like people that I idolized growing up. So I was like a big. Kill no. Charles Barkley fan. A lot of my personality comes from my idols that I watched growing up. So I just kinda found a way to just. You know, make my own little alter ego type of thing. And. You're not kind of threw in with the dyed hair and all that and all that stuff. And it just kinda took, it, took her to the monitor. So that's really how it started. So. Do you think kids for years, it's always been, you know, the, the airline doesn't get enough respect, right? The games one in the trenches. It does feel like even with some of the recent CFL resigns you're coming back, I know that a Winnipeg rad, I saw one of their resigns say. Are we finally, are you guys getting the credit that you deserve, right. Both monetarily and kind of in the, in the public perception of how important it is to have a strong offensive line when it comes to the game of football. Yeah, I think, I think. If you just look back at the history of football most. Good football teams always had really good offers. A lot of play, whether it be guys that you knew or guys that you didn't know. Right. But. But to be honest, Okay. All. How good your quarterback is or how great your running. How good your receivers. All right. They need people to block. Throw the ball right. When I play a 7 0 7. 1111 And 12 and 12 racial. I think. As I knew the game of football games, always wanting to trenches. Right. So, yeah. Defense, defense wins championships. You know, all offense. You know, get you, get you far, but if you don't got good defensive line play. It's not really much you can do with the other guys. Right. So good DBS. Get a chance to get pigs because you got a good defense alarms. Pressure and forcing a quarterback into Aaron's roads, right. Good. Good. Big explosive offensive plays happen when you got good blocking quarterbacks and. Touch he's able to see the field is able to get the guys who are open, wants to play, develops, and able to have him. Racials. It's all intertwined together. And it always starts so far. You talked before about how you think it's hard, you know, Offensive. Especially the two. That personality, right? Give their names of their. You are very vocal online. Right? I mean that in a good way. Right? Always, you know, we, I just saw you talking over the weekend, right. About we're going into the bargaining agreements ride in players and getting sponsors. What do you, you know, as someone that has played both sides of the border, right. Seeing how it kind of goes, what do you think is the biggest issue for players here? Kind of coming up in the next, you know, as we approach this bargaining agreement, as we approach the next year, obviously, You know, money and the CFL business. I mean, there's a lot of different ways you could take that, but w what weighs on your mind? I think. Again, always in bargaining agreement, especially for, for us as players. We have to be able to push the needle. Right. And I think if you look at the history of. Sporting unions and what they were able to get from there, from the big corporations. I always say the reason why you see an NBA players have so much power over their futures and what happens to them and being able to determine where they go and where they play in. How much they make. It's because they, they went on strike. A number of times. And they kind of force the owners to be like, Hey. We are the product we are, what brings in the money. We are. We'll put bombs in the seats, right? So, no one's coming to see you most. Most people don't even know who the owners are, unless they're hardcore fans. You know, It's the casual fans, right in casual, the popularity of the NBA globally. And these players being able to market themselves and being able to create names for themselves outside of just wearing a Jersey. Part of reason for the girlfriend MBA. I think. The transition that you saw when you saw a legal at the NBA? Kind of progress was Michael Jordan, right? They got. Talent that was just gone bigger than the sport. Bigger than anything. And it was a global icon, right. With everything sneakers. The sneaker industry. Michael Jordans. The game of NBA change because of Michael Jordan. So that's that type of stuff. Yeah, granted, we are CFO players, probably not going to be able to. We're not there yet. But you always want to keep pushing the needle for the future, right? And as a player who's involved in the business. Whether it affects me or not. I want to be able to come back 10, 15 years from now. You know what I did, it's kind of the same feeling I got from college. Right. I went to a school like temple university, but when I got there, That's probably one of the worst college teams in the country. No one watched them play. Was always getting the boy. And always hope. And I was part of that transition to help turn it around. People started taking serious. And now they got a nice facility there because I was part of that early transition to help start people start taking temple shoes. Right now we got 10, 15 guys in the NFL as opposed to having none. When I got there. Because we have kind of changed that. That mindset, that tradition. And kinda, it's still something that the future generations. On our use and take the elevator. Rachel, I think, yeah. We as players today may have. A little more than what players in the past. I seen with the CFL. Is that what players in the past had? I mean, you think about it were. Gosh, 30, 40, 50 years for moves. It's not too much different. Right. It's kind of assembler. So my thing is always trying to find ways to push the envelope and get people thinking, get the wheels turning right. I think. The CFL has been kind of stuck in that. If it's not broke, don't fix it type of mindset. As opposed to usually a league like the NFL. I was just found ways over the years to grow and evolve and change, to get bigger and bigger and bigger. And that's what great Briggs. Big bids, right? And I feel played for complaining that they don't get most of the money that the NFL makes. Right. But they get paid really well. So it's always people be like, oh, what are you guys complaining about? You guys get paid well, like, yeah, we make millions because the owner's been. So that's. It's always the idea that there's more money coming in then. And we're helping bring, generate that revenue. Then we should have a bigger piece of the pie. I have the mindset. So I just feel like in terms of what CFL players. Support money, like all aspects. Like we even pushed stuff for players who play in the league and then, you know, may move on to other things. Saw a lot of programs and things in place that's helping alumni players be able to kind of make that transition and improve. Right. So that's things that we need to focus on. As a union and I hope. You know, that's going to be part of the talks. This time around. It's the foreign waves to help make the players better, whether it's on the field off. Can you rub your ear? Mike's just. Vinyl. And it just was really honest with you. It's fine. It's probably, it's probably just rubbing. Yeah, it's okay. It's been, whatever ages is. It gives, it's just weird. You. W with the CFL where, you know, a lot of the guys are going home. Doing things in the off season, right. Training. But obviously it's not right. You're not making, you know, like you are in the NFL where you can sit there and say, I'm training the next day, you know, six months to get ready to go. I just don't know. Does that. Sticking the players' heads, right? Like we got to build this or are you away? And then you're coming back and then you're playing again. I mean, isn't always top of mind trying to turn that, make sure everyone's looking out for each other in that way. I have no idea. No. I mean, it has to be. Again, our union is a little more unique. It's. Because we have a lot more on. In a sense, like international. Things that we have to deal with as opposed to like the NFL where their international content is not as high as us. Right. We have American players. We actually. And now you're starting to incorporate global players into the mix, right? So where do all, everybody fit into this equation to be able to have. One unified stance when essentially a lot of different things affect us. All right. Canadian. And players don't have to deal with. With the. With the. I'm losing my train of thought with the. With the money, what we call a. Conversion rate and conversion. Right. Convenient players don't build that. American players also have to deal with possibly taking care of two homes. Right? If you have a home here in the states. But you have to pay for a place to live for six months while you're in Canada. Right? If you've got family kids. Right. You gotta be able to make sure that they're taken care of while you're up there doing what you need to do. Right. So, There's a lot of things that kind of play into it, that sex, different members of the union. And I think always trying to find some type of unified stance. Desktop. Kind of helping the game elevate. Becomes a challenge, right? I'm not going to say it's easy. I would be lying if I said it was easy, but. I think. If we could find a way. To crab, like maybe five or six sticking points that are like really important, that helps. Everyone has a whole. And then find out other ways to help, you know, A set of programs or something in place for certain. Players, whether it be American or Canadian, that kind of helps to benefit them. In a positive manner. I think that kind of solves some type of progress. Right. But again, You know, you've got to pick and choose your battles and you also have to find out what what's. More pressing to get on the list. And then what needs to be addressed as you go along through the years, right? So I think if every time we had a bargaining agreement, I think it's always like every three or four years. If you could add one thing to it to make it better. We can better make it better. I think that that helps. I think the biggest thing too with why. It's always so hard to get certain benefits from it. It's because. The CFL is a leak has not grown in the sense of fan base in a sense of marketing dollars in the sense of sponsor sponsorship dollars. And just the games. It's just not growing. Right. And that's because. The NFL is just so widespread. That you're going to have a real time, hard time. If you can't find a way to just attack your own niche market. Kind of like what. Happened with the XFL, right. So it wasn't trying to be. Hayward. NFL's a little brother. Kinda more like, Hey, we're, we're different brain. Football, but it's still football and we're going to give you some, some fun entertainment. And the time in a windows where you don't get that same NFL excitement, right. I think there's ways to get it done. The fact is, do people want to get it done or do they want to try to get it done? That's always the question that you run into. It does kill me. It's it's this Eva. And we're, you know, I'm a CFL fan now. I mean, we've been to. It's a great gift this year. I mean, I feel like we're, I can speak, but you hear all the time, like, you know, we're knocking PD with the, with the NFL, right? Like we're different. We're doing anything. But then last weekend with the wild. The wildcard games in the NFL. There were a couple blowouts and that's partially just cause that too many teams in the NFL playoffs. Right. You got a lot of these [unknown]. But all I saw online was all these people. I'll CFL games. You're better CFL cancer. I'm like, you know, No way. You're saying they're all year saying, like these are different things we were doing there. But then that's all I saw with, well, if they had the CFL rules in the Dallas Cowboys would have been able to play the, the, the, the. It's funny how, like, they don't want to compare. We don't want to come here with, and we want to compare as much as we can. When we think of the win, the argument. You know, it's odd. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's something that you see with. And I think that I had this discussion with somebody a couple of days ago. And I said some of that I think has to do with like the Canadian people's mentality of. Having this inferiority complex when it comes to American things, right. Because. I remember a couple of years ago, I made a tweet. When I was watching. Was, it was a TV show. I forgot. The police show with Terry crews in them. Right. And Terry crews made a joke saying like, oh, he had a buddy who doesn't like to see because he had a 10-year career playing a CFL and it was like, oh yeah, that's awesome. He was like, yeah. The us Canada theirself. So it's easy to have a 10-year football career. Right. Something like that, like right. Stuff like that kind of sticks out. When you look at how to American media portrays. Canada and Canadian people. And I think a lot of them have this kind of inferiority complex. It's kinda like we have to show Americans that we're just as good or better type of thing, right. Instead of just. Kind of saying, this is our thing. We'll be, do you notice. This is how we are. I always tell people, man. Canada's a great time. Full of great people. It's a great time. I think it's like a, just a smaller version of the UX, right? Because it's not as. As in a sense of why he's not. A lot of markets, not a place to live because Canada is such a big country, but the Northern part of the. It's really like kind of uninhabitable in a sense. So. Not being able to build more cities, right. America just has more. I just kind of covered all their land and build more cities. So of course it's more people, right. But I love Canada as a whole man. It's not one city. I don't enjoy being in every city has its own uniqueness to it, which I think is awesome. You know, you go to Montreal. You get that fridge. Canadian field with things, you know, you go to Vancouver. You get more of like, you know, they have a lot of like Asian flavor and stuff like that, that you get, you get introduced to Calgary has a nice mix of, you know, different people. Toronto's reminds me of like a smaller version of New York city is. Just a big melting pot where. You could go to any section over there and kind of get a lot of world culture. I think Canada is. Like as a whole is an awesome place. I think a lot of that just comes from the mindset of them thinking like we have to show, you know, I saw somebody tweet me that was like, You know, you Americans always come up here. So arrogant. So cocky about then I'm like, in my honest opinion, I don't really think. I mean, I could be wrong. Maybe some people are. There's always a few rotten apples that kind of spoil it for the bunch. Right. So. I think that's a lot of what it is, right. The voices on social media. Are probably a minority in a sense. But it seems like it's so loud because the social media right. The 20 people who feel the same way as tweeting about it all the time, it's going to feel like, oh, everybody feels that way. You always going to see people. They're also people who enjoy, enjoy, just enjoy football, right? Want to enjoy football. From all different angles. And I think that's really how it should be Julie. But then you have those people who want to, who may have that little infuriating. Pretty complex. And want to compare and want to compete. And want to show that they're better. So I think that that's where a lot of it comes from. And I just, I think it was last week or the week before the Simpsons had the thing where they were making fun of Winnipeg and the players. And we were talking about on the podcast, we got so many comments, like, well, the writer from the same sentence is from, from Canada, so it's okay. I'm like, okay. Okay. I mean, it. You can't pick and choose when it's okay to be offended. It's not going to be a vendor because I see a lot of things all the time where it's like, Hey. You watch any Marvel movie where like Ryan Reynolds is always making like funny quirks. But because he's from Canada, everybody thinks. It's so good. Oh, it's okay. He's from Canada. He can make fun of us, right. But if somebody who's not from Canada. It makes those same jokes and it's like, oh, who are you to say those things about. It's always like that. So before we let you go, A lot's been made, you know, we're getting with the, with the bargaining, with the players, I think. We're going to record the show tonight. I think. Chuck Evans was talking, you know, today he got reassigned. You know, talking about extending player contracts right. More than a year, and I've read into it, you know, and that they had changed the rules to try to incentivize more veterans to come back. But now it's kind of across the board, they sound a lot of players to, you know, shorter contracts. Pressing issue for you when you're looking at kind of all the different things that the players are discussing here heading forward. I mean, I would say it's kind of the same thing. That I've been talking about for years. I've always felt like long-term contracts should be more, more, more of a staple in NSF. Like a N. And the oddity, right? Because in that. All actuality. The CFO. Even if you sign a two or three-year deal, it's really, it's like a psych, a college scholarship. It's one year renewable, right? After your one year, if they decide they want to go in a different direction. They decide they want to spend money in a different place or no, whatever the case may be. Right. They can always get rid of that contract. You get no money from it and that's kind of the end of it. Right. That's kinda like what you see what coaches right. When they decide they don't want to coach anymore, they cut them. I still get paid as. The players don't. So. I think. What needs to be put in place? It is kind of the thing that I talked about on my Twitter space, where we need to find some type of established salary cap where it can't go low internet. It can't go higher. Like what you see in NFL. I think it needs to be some type of guarantees and contracts, which will cause GM's to be a little more cautious about who they give long-term deals to and be a little more strategic about how they put the rosters together. Like you see an NFL, right? You see guys get big contracts. And those guys get two, three years to kind of play through those contracts because if GM just cuts the moose, well, now you get a salary cap hate, you know, You got dead money against the cat that you can't use. So it's going to be harder to put your team together. So when you start to commit to these long-term contracts to play, or just not to force you to really think about. Is this really worth it, right? You gotta be, you gotta be a little more smarter about it, a little more strategic. So. I think guarantees are something that needs to be explored and it doesn't have to be large. I know sometimes people get guarantees and they think like, oh, these guys want the whole contract guaranteed. Like, no, if you give me a two year deal, At least in year two. If I make it to January 1st, instead of giving me a roster bonus, or if I make it to December 15th, like NFL has like different dates where you hit it and you get certain bonuses and guarantees. So if I signed my name on a dotted line, Or for this contract at. If the contract is worth 500,000, at least, you know, It's a hundred thousand over this guarantee. Right. So if any point you get rid of me, I at least get something out of it. Right. Or, and then, and then you kind of add more, more the roster bonus dates like January 1st or February 1st when you get an extra 20,000 or 30,000. Right. So. I think if you start to structure these contracts like that, You'll see guys. Being in cities longer, you'll see teams be a little more strategic about who they give these deals to. And then also you got to factor in the ratio, right? The ratio is something that a lot of people was a touchy subject. And those people love to say, to see and CFL stands for Canadian. Right. But. Honestly, I feel like. For my tourist reasons. Right. A lot of the Canadian players that are really good. They come from places in Canada that played four down football. Right. A lot of the guys that I know who are Canadian. The content guys like Jawan Breschi. Or Alex Singleton or Derry. Derek black like diesel guys who played high school. Football and college ball. In the states, right? Even though they have that Canadian monitor who's guys who grew up playing us ball. All right. So my thing is, I feel like the school. Ratio. And today's football is not, it doesn't need to be as heavy as it used to be. Right. Because there are enough players out there who are good enough. You're saying even, gosh, CIS we're able to go to the NFL. And be around, I think university of Alberta had alignment. Oh, Donald's Donald something that came out a couple of years ago. He's been on practice. With the cultural a lot of years, right? I played with a guy like Dan protocol complete four years in the NFL before he came back up to Canada. Right. So. Honestly, I think. I got like Andrew Harris. I think Andrew Harrison's. The ratio. He's a good, he's a good football player. You had a ratio may have got him to look because he didn't play. Just because of the football structure in Canada. Right. Well, you think about how many of these go football players. You look at the NFL. There's tons of Canadian players who are really good, who are playing in NFL. Most of them. Someone will come from CIS. Played high school ball and college ball in the states. They just wanted that opportunity to be put in certain places where they're seen right. You've seen it now in college football. Tons of Canadian kids who are stars in college before. Anything about the John mechy? The linebacker from Penn state. No, these are guys who grew up in Canada, but they're really good football players. For Hubbard. These are. You got a lot more guys nowadays. And most of that comes from. Growing up. Watching the NFL or watching the CFO. Right. I think. The ratio. Yeah, it may have been something that was needed. 40 50 Years ago. But today, I think if it's. It's kind of mute, right. If everybody, and I think that's kind of why they're exploring the rule changes too as well. It's kind of like everybody's playing the same form of football. Well, then now you're kind of helping the content get better for football as a whole, right. As opposed to saying, oh, we're unique. We're different. I mean 95% of the world plays for football. You go to Germany. He's playing for football. You. You go to Australia. Football you go to China. They're. Playing for our football, like everybody's fighting for. For our football. So. I think that's kind of where I was kind of thrown off with. The CFL 2.0 thing. Cause I'm like. You're not going to bring the CFO game to Germany. It's not going to have, you're not going to bring it to Mexico. They're already playing for now football because. NFL has just stopped here. Everybody's going to have, it's going to have that strong hold on the game of football. So. I think that's kind of the reason why they're exploring a rule changes. It's kinda like. Maybe we just need to get on par with the rest of the world so that we can grow and be bigger. Right. I think some. With the rock, right. I think he's actually trying to get teams in Mexico and Canada. When Mexico comes gets started up, right. He's trying to make it global international rights. For down, it's pretty much global and international. And essentially making it. To where players have to changeable universal rights. You may have, you may. More CFO players go to the NFL. If we're playing. I've heard it from NFL Scouts. Were they. Kind of, don't put a lot of stock into CFL film because they feel like it's hard to see how it translate right. In the sense. So you'll always see defensive guys get that shot because in their mind it's like, okay, you can do that on a bigger field. You may be better on a smaller field. Right? But you don't see a lot of offensive guys get that shot and the NFL, because they just feel like watching CFL all offenses, it's hard to kind of equate what it is that they doing and the NFL. So I think all those things. Intertwined. What is what kind of see. Visited right now and all. What you see the direction of what I think the delete leases. Are you in favor of rule changes like that? I am. So I would say. If the game doesn't need to change because of this fund is entertaining. Right. Boy. If you constantly thinking about this younger demographic that's coming up and I think now is probably. The tougher console with the NFL. Nickelodeon and showing these walk or games and season games when they Colonia. Right. So now. I think there's genes, right? If you, you already got parents who want to influence their kids. Favorite team they all right. So. How much cooler it is. If your kid's Arizona Cardinals fan. That you could get him like, you know, Ren and Stimpy with slime. Arizona car and also something funny, right? The kids want to wear the stuff. Not even grow up to be fans. And then that's how the NFL is going to grow with. It's market even harder. Right. So. I think. The biggest thing is just sitting down, putting the brains together. And figuring out what's going to help the game grow. Right. And I think I'm more open to rule changes. If it's going to help the game grow right. I'm not open to rule changes. Cause it's just, it's not thought out. It's just. Kind of half-assed. Just throw it out there and like, okay, maybe this is going to help, but they don't really think it out. Right. It shut down and they really try to figure out what it is, is going to help the game, bro. And help us build our brand. I mean, I'm not opposed to it. Right. What do I think it needs to happen? I don't think it needs to happen. I think you can grow the game just as it is. You just, haven't done a proper. Well, Derek, I appreciate you coming on. I hate to say I won't be able to root for you this year. In Calgary. As, as a BC fan, but I lose. You don't got to worry about nobody. Nobody worried about DC. I had that may be true with. I appreciate your time and making the time and coming on. I appreciate it. I appreciate the time.

Episode 75 - USFLTs

Welcome to the Markcast. Let's again, Friday morning. We'll hope you guys had a good week. I know I did. How about you? You're doing great, Paul, I feel like I'm racing rich besides yeah, I saw that clip. I thought that was like, We're in between commercial breaks. You're doing great, Paul. You're doing good. We gas each other up between breaks. You know, we got. We gotta, like, you know, Keep the, keep the morale going. And even we pushed through some, you know, We get really excited about some stuff. I'm really amped about some stuff. We pushed through and, you know, we talked to each other during commercial breaks. It was a good meme that you showed today. I liked that. I liked that a lot. What are the Chevrolet? Welcome to the mark cast. A lot of things going on this weekend is read. Always says, jam pack, shell, read what we got on tap. Well, I was inspired that that'd the episode, you know, we're talking a lot about fingertip football coming up. I think that they might have one over. Dorothy my life with. [Unknown] she's a big Steve Aoki fan. But I just thought it was a funny plan words, USF LTS, you know, we're talking USFL. How's USF. We're going to make money. We're talking. And if these coming up, I have some props here for the intro to. We'll come up here in just a second, but a big show. We have star BC lions, resign, wide receiver, lucky Whitehead. Courtesy of Matt baker and the BC lions. So I imagine that imagine that we have a thank you to Matt and the team. A CFL team asking us to have a guest on couldn't. Believe it. Yep. I mean. You know, we give you crap about use, continually saying they're American CFL team, but in this case it worked out. It was worked out. Cause, you know, you're, you're gassing them up and then all of a sudden we're able to get that great interview. BC lands for grabbing that. Anything else gone. So, yeah, so lucky comes on because the big deal is lucky. Just resigned, like a huge mega contract, big star wide receiver. So lucky comes on. We have a friend of me at the show. Danny Austin, Daniel, Austin of the Calgary sun Herald. Danny comes out. Danny has. I think Danny had a late night, last night, Danny was looking for his coffee and a lot of backlighting issues of you wanted to like, like some edibles and struggle, light effects. Like when you're watching Danny Austin's. And it's a little while, but daddy's got a lot of good info. We're talking all about, you know, Jake mayor, I believe I Mitchell and the Calgary, you know, all of that situation, Derek, Dennis, who's going to be on the show next week. Danny talks about Derek Dennis. So lots of Calgary stuff. And then we have Paul Reese coming on. He is a author of the United States football league blood. He's a U S a FL a historian. You as a mark show a little while ago, talking about like, what is USFL, but now we thought we were having at teams today. Or coaches today, right? Paula, that's kind of why I said, well, I don't think we can record early. We still don't have coaches. We have a lot of other things that I researched today. So it was good that we're doing this, but. We talk a lot about that. Like, wow, this is getting dangerous down. So Paul, a great, great showing by Paul. It was, he was really good, but yeah, three really good guests to that. Cool stuff. Like I'm subscribed. Of course. We always said every show. I've got a giveaway coming up soon, we hit 2000 subscribers on YouTube. So, and that would be some of that Greg. Media. Good status. We'll not purchase. Acquired. In Hamilton. Yeah, we can also now do, if you listen to us on Spotify, if you are on your phone, if you go to the mark house.com/review, Spotify will now let you do reviews on there. If you're using the mobile site. So they just sent me an email, maybe they will for warehouse two. Like you can't do it on a desktop. So literally if you typed it down on a desktop, it just doesn't show up. But if you go to the mark house.com/review, Leave us a review anywhere, but if you have a Spotify now I know we have a lot of Spotify listeners that wanted to do that. Also, we have a new Zilla flavors. I felt like I'm carrot top with my, my props. We have a new, a white peach. And then there's a tropical punch. I ordered the white peach, and then this is non-sponsored Paul. Remember that time when we were, when we had manscape everyone manscape was like our. I find this nose, hair trimmer. Thinking. Oh, it's, manscaped like, this is the worst nose here at Schermer I've ever bought in my life. It doesn't cut. And I went on the Amazon reviews and everyone said the same thing I did like, oh, it's, manscaped like they do, you know, the, all the staff like they can do. It doesn't cut it all and all their reviews. So lots of negative complaints about that. So. No. I know I. I have like an ear and a hair, your hair and those term. Ear in those hairdresser and there we go. And it doesn't cut. Just move this little ball really quickly to stick it in. Like that's weird. Cause like I'll check out from like, I didn't cut anything. Yeah. It's interesting. We have voicemails coming to the end of the show, just a couple. And then we, we are podcasting about podcast today. So there has been a lot of stuff going on about this Jim minnows podcast. XFL stuff coming up, even if you've, even if you've, this has been floating around this week, this, this executive with football operations, with the XFL, the podcast. I have my own tanks and I'll be curious to hear politics. So XFL stuff coming up after the break, after our guests. I just thanked him for that. Very cool stuff. All on tap. Stay tuned for the guest. Not about the middle of the show, then, you know, we'll go from there after the guests drop in and talk to read. First things first, we're gonna talk some CFL stuff and it's kind of related to the NFL to. Canadian Katherine ratio. I believe it's right. She has requested to interview for the Minnesota Vikings GM job. So. That's that's, that's pretty impressive. I just, you know, There's been a lot of, there's been a lot of light chatter these days about women getting these upper echelon jobs. In Miami. Their director of baseball operations is a woman and rightfully so. My New York Yankees have hired wrinkle. Rachel Belk. B***h I'm pronouncing it correctly. As the new single aid. But. Turret part bonds. I believe it is. I am terrified. Yeah, terpenes. She is their manager. Their manager manager, like she is the Aaron Boone of, of a single 18 and she probably will manage better than him. It's a lot of stuff going on with women getting these upper echelon jobs. And to that point, like, There's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of blow back, but. [Unknown] like these women are very talented and qualified for these positions. Yeah, what's cool about Catherine that she spent time in the CFL. She was also with the XFL. You know, a lot of just different. And she's only like 39, right? I mean, it always says here the 33. She, I thought she was 39. It doesn't matter her age. She's a female, but just tremendous, like experiencing many years. You know, with, like I said, with the CFL and then with the XFL as well, so exciting for her. Obviously we've had a lot of the Texans coach today. Just got, let go to see, you know, Different, you know, Across the NFL. That Hamilton is potentially going to be the FC of the Texans moving forward after his work with the Davis mill. So there you go. It'll be interesting to see if you know, If you have eventually get some other shot at, you know, a head coaching position there. Onto the CF belt out Hamilton. Decided to resign. Dana Evans to 2023 season. He was scheduled to be a free agent, just a few weeks. Orlando stent. The president of football operations. So as we are excited that Damon's family have chosen. And stay in Hamilton for the next two seasons. He's not just an outstanding quarterback when I announced that. Being his work ethic and authentic leadership skills, make him someone that teammates naturally appreciate. Yeah. Dave Naylor reports at the high 3000 low 400,000 offer. Not quite Dave calls it, not quite like elite quarterback money, right? Like Michael Riley is like more like 750,000. But the issue here is Mazzoli will obviously have to take far less if he is staying. And there's been a lot of blood back rank, his Dane looks good and Mazzoli was the one that, that one than the gray cop. So yeah, there's a lot of. I would put more faith in Dane as well. Right. I think. I think gains proven more upside, but you Mazzoli carry them for a lot of last season. So it's interesting to see that they've gone head in with him, probably knowing that they don't have enough money for. Yeah, both of them at that level. And again, we, we touched on it earlier. Lucky white had resigned. With the BC lions. Where he's got an interview with him coming up. Through a two year. A two year contract extension and throughout the 2023 seasons. So he's good to go for a couple, couple seasons there. Yeah. Getting to that a hundred thousand this year, 205 next year. I think there's a couple, I like, you know how they do it. There's a couple of incentives and all that, but it puts him as the highest paid by receiver. Good for lucky, you know, certainly earn that. It's still at questions. And, and he talked about this, like we assume Riley's going to be back. We don't know that, like he says, Mike was definitely my guy. I'm so grateful for him. Yeah, we're hoping that they retain, but, but even if you have Nathan work there, you know, does BC go through a rebuild year? I don't know if you're paying 200,000 to lucky to go through a rebuild a year with Nathan works. So I think they. Some points to me that Riley stay in there. If we're spending 200,000 on the wide receiver, farm, highest paid. Wide receiver, according to far, our friend of the show. Now the highest paid receiver. The CFL with a $200,000 year salary, roughly. Give or take. They've also. They've also resigned a, their longest serving defensive player, defensive back, TJ li. For one year contract extensions for the 2022 season. I just scheduled again to be a free agent on February 8th and Justin dunk from three down nation, a report of the news on Sunday. Yeah, I, he. He, they also asked TJ about Brian Burnham, right. Coming back. He's kind of one of the other, he's a little elder, a wide receiver for that, you know, the lions like. Are you going to have both burn them and lucky, you know, aids gift is just so hard with the CFL cause they have such a tight salary cap. I've tried that, you know, you're paying your quarterback, you know, we're paying these players, you're trying to spread it out. So obviously they're trying to get Brian Burnham back on. I know Katie Stevenson, longtime listener of the show. I'm sure. He's excited for lucky to come up. You know, lots of curiosity about if. Brian Burnham is coming back as well. I don't want to ride bikes, have signed Canadian offensive Lemmon, Jacob. To your extension, to your contract, I should say. Through the 20, 23 season, of course. The Elk's released Mr. Ruby here in August due to breach of the COVID protocols for misrepresenting his vaccination status. We talked about that earlier in the show. Ruby said in the statement, he's excited. He's extremely excited and proud to be an Ottawa red. Black eye. One of the things Shawn Burks. Burke and the coach Paula police for making this decision an easy one. Well, I think it was easy. One because I don't know if anyone's else with a sign yet. I'll be honest. Yeah. I mean, he did this pendant to me. Look at Antonio brown before all this asked me. We had Tony brown lied about his vaccination status as well. I mean, he got to return to the, to the box, right. And he was only a three game suspension where they basically blacklisted. I Jacob Ruby for the entire season. So, you know, I mean, I think he did his time. Yeah. Raining CFL set king AC Leonard Sunday. Two eight year extension with the Roughriders through the 2023 season. He's a six foot, 2, 250 pounds. Was it a lineman? Sorry. I'm having trouble seeing tonight. Alignment. And of course. He had the CFL SAC title last year. Adding 41 defensive tackles to a career high, 11 sacks, 11. 11 Games, one sack, a game on average. Yeah, exciting too. So Derek, Dennis you'll remember, we've talked about him in the past. He resigned list and Peter's this week pivotal. Podcasts had that news. Derek is going to be on the show next week. We'd already planned out. I said, wow, that really worked out good timing wise, Derek is going to be returning to the stand Peters. Daniel Austin. And I, I can't. Yeah. I don't know it that's like my smarmy name, Danny and I talk a lot about Derek, big signing, parent. Derek's a little bit older, right? Returning. You know, being an offensive lineman in the CFL is a tough position. I Derek's going to be on next week. So obviously, you know, Stay tuned for that, but, but good to see him. He was part of that whole Edmonton thing and got released, but they wouldn't let him go and all that stuff. So he's, he's back. Kira more resigned. One year, $120,000. The Atlanta Falcons though. Dip in there. I've been there. Their checks and their money across the border. Signing former CFL defense back Deondra Alford. He was the most sought after player in the CFL for NFL teams, his off season. He's he's a 24 year old. It was started all 14 games for the Winnipeg. Winnipeg blue bombers. So clearly Winnipeg's got some rebuilding to do on the defense. Yeah, they all say. And last meeting the budget stuff here. So there's something Braden Lena's. He was with the, the. With the blue bombers as well. And then also they were working out Kenny lager as well. So is his crazy, like, they're really a, the Falcons really? Megan and push. I give him back into the CFL, but as they, Kenny Lawler hasn't signed yet, but he was working out this week. I think Tuesday I have that here. So it's just interesting to see like one team in particular, you know, the XFL had that with the Panthers member. They had a lot of guys does the answer, seeing how certain teams seem to be more amenable to working with, you know, not all league or the CFL, but it is weird that the Falcons would target that many players from one team. Definitely the Edmonton. I've signed American quarterback. And American linebacker model Thomas. For contracts. It doesn't say how long the contract service. I probably signed them maybe one year, maybe two years. The answer is, think about Matthew Thomas Matthew Thomas was with the ref. The battle Hawks for a cup of coffee back, you know, in the XFL. So that got, I, I know we had writers in the, in the CFL news hub group that were asking me about that this kind of Locksley, he had kind of some history back at night, 2019, they called it like terroristic threats. Like he got arrested for driving under. Marijuana, you know, allegedly all these things, but it seemed like he's got. You know, I, it's weird. There's a little bit of weird stuff going on there, but you know, Edmonton never went to deceased. The design. Got to keep being St. Justine and empathy. So there you go. Very cool. And some bad news, some low news to that report here now. Canadian football hall of fame player, longtime coach Don Southern passed away in Ohio at the age of 85. First report by the Columbus dispatch. He played briefly in the NFL before. Paul VIN career in the CFL as both a Vincent back and a kicker, he played eight gray cups winning for you also went three as an assistant coach. Yeah. So anyway, I, I, there was a couple of CFL guys passed away this week. A couple of 'em. You had a cup of coffee. This seemed to be the most another one, but there are a couple of those. I always like to just, if I see them float around and obviously our condolences on that. All right, we're gonna take a break, go to some commercials, come back. Real. Talk to lucky Whitehead, Danny Austin. And Paul REITs all next, right here on the mark chest. Can you just send me your audio? Yeah, it was just glitching. I just didn't want to stop reset anything. If you could just send it, I'll match it up. I just, I just figured that would be easier. Perfect. So I'll preface this because this is all interesting. Intro in at all. Welcome back to the show. Want to thank our guests? Lucky Whitehead, congrats on the contract. Call me, get that bag, Danny Austin, of course Paul's wreaths. All joining us. We got a great guest coming up next week. So stay tuned for that. What else? What else is happening? Outside of the CFL though. Yeah. So this is interesting. So this XFL staff, and I want to get your take on this ball. So. Saturday night. It was discovered from listener max at Jim monos. He is the he's the senior director of football operations recently signed with the XFL. Right. He just got brought in at the end of December. He has a podcast. It's not a very, I don't want to, like, I don't like to like subscriber break with the I 200 subscribers. Right. I mean, we're just. It's called it, but you know, they got like 150 listener. It's not like a huge. But it's weird because it's like, it would be like if Danny Garcia had like a secret podcast, right? Like he's like one of the Dre. And, and what's weird to me is he was signed. It ended December, and this kind of went unknown for two and a half weeks, which I was trying to explain to Dorothy, like we know the second and you shirt is like put up on the shop with USFL or any of these things. And it's, it's bizarre to me that this podcast with exists for three weeks now. I mean, it's existed for a hundred episodes, but that. This guy does his podcast. He's talking about the XFL. He's talking about getting hired by the [unknown]. So we tweet all this stuff out Saturday night, it's kind of made the rounds right. You know, other shows and things, and people have commented on stuff, but I never actually listened to any of this till today. So we're getting ready for the show. And he's talking a lot, they're talking a lot about like, try to get Antonio brown on, you know, jokes like, well, you know, I was asking like Russell brand, like she, you know, should we. Brianna Tony brown on there talking about like, they want to do. I had hard knocks, but on steroids, right? We want a mic of the people we want to show this. The one quote that I pulled and I want to play it, and I want to get your opinion of this. And I think we're either going to have a lot of stuff to talk about or not a lot of stuff to talk about, depending on your reaction to this clip, Paul. So this is from the podcast. If you want to go, it's the go long. Podcast. And it's also on YouTube, but you could go like Spotify, whatever. It's like 36 minutes into the most recent episode from this last weekend. And the first voice you're going to hear is Jim. The second voice you're going to hear is Tyler. And they're talking about. Like rule changes to the XFL kicking, and then they're going to transition into some stuff that I want to get your thoughts on this policy. I'm going to play this and that, and hopefully this'll work it. I brought up. The other day I brought up. First the second quarter, any touchdown you score, you have to go for two. Well, because it changed the whole game. Right. For both everybody. But. You know, the counter that is, we might just use what the XFL had two years ago, where you can either go for one from the three yard line, two points from like the five or three points from your 10, which is fine too. So first off and there's terrible background noise. Like this is it's literally. At a sports bar what's happening? It is it's literally then. I'm watching it, somebody it's them sitting at, they have like one, it's like a tabletop mic. It's kind of a cool setup. But anyway, so, so first off they're like debating. Okay, what are we doing with. Extra points, but anyway, it's stuff like that. We have to eliminate all the kickers. Get rid of him. Settlements Siberia. I think we're all kind of on board for that. Right. At least see how it goes. Loop bills, the bills have done it. They don't punt. And put it in two games. I will say though, I think that the NFL treats itself. So this is Tyler. USAA as the USSR with, I mean, They, they, they, they, they treat information of. Anything that happens behind the scenes. Any, anything with Xs knows? By and large there's exceptions. Like it's the nuclear codes. So. You're talking about giving people insights. They want to know what's really happening behind the scenes. They deserve to know what's happening behind the scenes. If you. If you give them that somehow. With this product. Covered wise, anything. As you're saying. No. I think there could be an audience for that, a huge audience for that. I don't know. We have to at least try to be different, but. Like we talked about. We were, this whole thing started by. I don't think one player. Oh my God. I think it's more about the right coaches in product. We'll do a good job. W. We're going to figure it out. I know, I don't want to get you into trouble. No, there's no trouble yet. We really don't have a lot yet. I just think that there's an opportunity. Like we are. When I tell you where it ground level we're at ground up. What was the point of that? So there was just no coherent thought there. It was just like two guys that were overheard talking at a coffee shop. Yeah. So the idea is, so they're talking about, you know, the, the idea of rural kicking in and changes. It seems like. You know, Jim has been bouncing around the ideas, right? Like, Hey, maybe we want to, earlier in the conversation they had tied to, Hey, maybe we don't want to. Do you extra points for the first two quarters of the game, either bounce around ideas, right? Cause Jim is with the football operations, but then they come into this idea and they're talking about, you know, giving coaches access and, and, and title goes, I don't want to get you in trouble, like talking about anything. And Jim goes, Well, there's not really anything to get in trouble. Like we don't really have anything right now. Like we're really starting at the ground level. And when I heard that. That's interesting to me. And I know that Jim was just brought in a couple of weeks ago, but it's interesting to me that the director of football operations. It's like, we really don't, we're really starting with nothing right now in terms of like building the football ops side of, of the XFL. If that makes sense. It makes sense. It just doesn't. It just doesn't. This is. Very aimless. Like, if, if your, if your decisions as an executive. Art as pointless. Does your podcast focus? You're in trouble already. Like that was just like, I sat there with it the first 10 seconds. I didn't want to hear that. That that interview anymore. And it got even worse because it's just like, it seemed like he had no idea. About what he could do. So honestly, what it sounds like. But does it, does it. Because it scared me and, and I don't, you know, Aye. I know I've upset, lesser max with this cause he has any there's any reason to be upset right now, but is it scary to you that we're January 13? And the director of football operations said like, well, we, we been kicking around doing like, maybe we still do the XFL original points, or maybe we do something else. Or maybe we do that. I mean, I just would've felt like from a, from a world-building those things would've been set in stone. Right? I mean, I know we, I know we're a year out. That's where my confusion is. I don't see any probably right now, but. They've got to get in a room for a week, 40, 40 plus hours and get some things figured out. Bottom line. Because if they're they're aimless right now, they're just don't know what they're going to do. And I don't think that. And to his credit, Vincent man, all the people he had underneath him, I think they had a game plan figured out about what they're gonna do with extra points and all this stuff. Long before this, this point. On the launch of 2.0. I want to assume that right. Is that, is that wrong? Well, I just, I know that Sam Schwartz seen that they work with a lot of these rules. There had been talks about eliminating all the kickers and not doing kickers with all and, and, and, you know, that's why we did the extra points is we don't want to have the place kicker. Cause then we can save money and just have the buncher. But. Then, you know, to be buying this league now and then seemingly. Like, okay. We're rewriting the rule book, right? If we're moving to cities where we writing the rule book, whether we buy. The logos. The trademarks. All of the jerseys. No, I didn't say. I don't know. I don't know what they bought. Like, like if you're gonna throw everything out again, like you just start a new. Just starting football league. Yeah, I know it just to me, the, that could be exciting or not the idea of the granddaughter. The other things are exciting. Right? The Mike DOB, the showing that the meetings, the showing the behind the scenes. You know, getting people involved, showing how the Xs and those all that does that. Do any, does that add the excitement to you? Are you going to be watching that? I don't know if I'm going to be watching that. I mean, if it's like, if it's like hard knocks on steroids, like they promise or they're thinking like, yeah, that would be interesting. That'd be watched. Like, that'd be great, but I mean, This is all fine and dandy right now. Like this is all great in theory, but in practices are going to pan out. We'll see. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. So talk about, you know, potentially working with the NFL to test some technology. That's interesting. Riding in the spring league was basically that for the XFL before, right. Testing out the rural kicks and stuff. It also did seem like I listened to part of the episode earlier a couple of weeks ago where he got hired. And it does seem like they have a good idea of who the coaches are because at the end of the show, they're like, well, you're going to be really excited to see like who we have coming up in the coaching room. Like maybe we could get some of them on the podcast. So it seems like in a. You know, we are also a podcast where you can hear the words. So I don't want to lie. Podcast brag, but he did seem like Jim had a good idea of like, at least the people that were on the list. Either hired or very close to being hired, but it just was interesting to me that here we are December 13th and we're at the ground level of, of building the football operation side of the excellent. We'll see what happens. Jeez. Speaking of XML. Former defensive. Defender's head coach pep Hamilton. Interviewed for the Carolina Panthers, OSPI job. Hmm. It's gonna be interesting to see. Of course he's been mentioned also in Houston. So it looks like he might get a gig here. Out of all of this after all this. I think Pat's going to get paid. It's just a shame, you know, he had to go from DC and then have the chargers. Last year I made me look at. You got to Herbert that's, you know, on top of the world. Right. And then. When his, when his head coaches and screwing things up, let's be honest. I'm not. Timeout do Derek Carr was like, you done F this one up, man. You saw him when he call the time out and he had that. Yeah, PJ's being resigned by Caroline did this. I mean, PJ, I think we are done with the idea that PJ is going to be. Yeah. They've got him. They've got him pegged in as a backup and even then maybe not a backup it's it's, it's troubling to say the. Former defenders for defenders quarterback behind Cardell Jones, Sharman. Tyree Jackson scores, his first NFL touchdown. Let's there's this last Saturday. Yeah. So they've converted it into a Thailand with the Eagles. The thing I've seen, a lot of this go in the back, he was also a, Andrea is ACL at the end of the game. And so he's out in that for the remainder of the season. So it was kind of like good and bad. Cause I saw a lot of like diary Jackson's scored his first touchdown, but he also, he was dealing with a back injury, had just come back and then. Obviously that is bad, but you know, Tyree, he's a big, he's like six, eight. He's enormous. He's a huge man. And they've have a site in. Eagle's converting quarterback, former quarterbacks to wide receiver. I named [unknown] named better combo. I a couple of notes. It's a dead Whaley. He is the senior vice-president of the XFL. He was scouting talent alongside CFL and USFL scout to the call-in Gridiron showcase in Fort worth. I, Ryan Roberts is also tweeting about this, how they had 2018 NFL teams present CFL, XFL, USFL. So like XFL is on the move. I have a note down here later on that USFL, a player agencies, right. Are like sending in their lists for, for the USFL, for the drafts, or we're getting ready for the player selection meeting and all that stuff. Also, we made the last jokes about the NFL draft is technically called the NFL player selection meeting. Okay. I made fun of that a lot. But if you Google, like NFL drafts is actually like, yeah. I felt player selection when he also knows the drought. So. Moving on here. What do we want? Are we going to next time? I'm kind of lost. Then the last thing about XFL, and then we'll go to the USFL. There was a reason article in the St. Louis post post dispatch. Talking about the, you know, the battle Hawks. And remember, we don't want to get into proprietary information about the battle Hawks in St. Louis, but kitty Ratcliffe. She is the president of the St. Louis. Convention and visitors commission, and she had a quote. We love to having the battle Hawks here, we have the XFL returns and we would love to have the leagues back here for the fan to enjoy it. So needless to say, the red carpet is rolled out for the XFL. Should they actually choose to go back to St. Louis? All right. Let's move on to the different league now. Of course, we mentioned the top of the show. No new head coaches announced. For the USFL. They promised all eight coaches. Last week. The the, yeah, the idea was that you would do four and then four, the idea is it would that gene skid stick, whatever, which we're going to talk about. You, you got. Ah, maybe they're still looking for the eighth coach. Let me look it for all the little good for coaches. 5, 6, 7, and eight. Who knows. Who knows. Yeah. So he's returned to the tar heels. Not as the head codes in the us. I remember we talked about that last week that Jean was rumored to be in it. Then he came out and said, no, They just had a quote here, whereas like I'm getting to the point, my life, I've got one more shot left in me. Yeah, I've turned down a lot of jobs and I just wanted to go where I was comfortable. That's the days, you know, you're some of these elder coaches it's like, do you want to go try this star? That bleak? Paul Reese. And I talked about this with the coaches that they could attract in the USFL. Maybe some minority coaches, maybe some younger coaches, maybe some women, you know, like. What's some of these old Cressy white guys might not be ready to like hop back on the saddle on some of these, you know, experimental like spring league USFL step. They got a place to play now, apparently because the Birmingham city councils approved the USL. USFL usage of Legion field. And they've also said they're going to provide up to 500,000 in, in kind services for the use of the facility. Yeah. Roy sent this to me as well that, you know, they, he added the official announcement is going to be expected by the end of January, you know? Paul. And I talk about that too. You know, it's a lot of stuff, but they're finally, I think all those hurdles are approved. I could have seen that be the announcement today as well. It could be tomorrow. It could be Monday, but presumably, you know, we all know that that is what's happening. So Antonio brown after his antics the other day. It has been connected to bolts. At USF L N FCF, of course, half CF just wants to get anybody. Who flames out in the NFL because. Because you're not wrong. You're not wrong. Yeah. Th did you watch any of this video podcasts with him? The which one? Tony brown one. Yeah. Where he was on the, on the full sand podcast. I saw bits and pieces. Yeah. Yeah. The. This is wild to me that, that Tampa bay head coach Todd Haley, like literally had texted Antonio brown and said, you know, come to the USFL. You know, I have money, whatever. Antonia sitting there Ivan. And then of course, Bob Manary just is on the podcast, which is crazy. Bob Manary is one of the team owners for the FCF, which we're going to get to. I, and he's like, well, no, like don't I just come, you know, come to the FCF. And then Tony was like, F you like, I'm not, he's like, no, just come as a coach for basically, it's like, please just come to our league for one second. Please I'll pay you, like, please, this. Well, you know, We'll roll out the red carpet. Like we just want Antonio brown. So, but according to Kevin Seifert, They're trying to sign him as a coach in the MCF. So I guess it worked. I don't know what the purpose of this is other than Naval his behavior. Even further. There's something wrong with Antonio brunch. I'm not saying it's like, I'm not stigmatizing him. I'm like, there's something that needs to be fixed or something needs to be worked on. And in this case, like, Giving him another bag. Before he kind of figures this stuff out and I suspect that that hit from birth. Like seven, eight years ago has constantly bothered Antonio brown since then. And, and, and we're not helping him get possibly to help he needs. There's some people that argue that he's being a narcissist, but. At the end of the day, like, Maybe it's a combination of both, but if you treat one, maybe you could treat the other who knows. But just, you know, using his name. To promote your league as kind of, I don't know, it's kind of, it's kind of dirty. It's kind of dirty. It's being a dirty. Yeah. And I have a, I have a comment here at the end of the show about that, about FCS that you do want to read the headline there. We'll speak in a dirty. FCF raising $40 million. In a series. Series a funding. From Anna Maka brands and Delphi, digital, and yeah. And if. Yeah. They do also, ah, You're appealing. Your football is doing that FTS. So I saw a lot of, cause, you know, Elf is kind of like be elite, right? We don't cover it a lot. Right. Rip Josh Davis was kind of our elf insider. But that was kind of like the premiere. Okay. We're not, you're not in all the Springfield. You're better than that. You're the year. But it was cause it's good football and good. I know she is not. And he's like, they're adding NFTs do it's like, no, like I saw our eye XFL red. It was like, no, like what's going on with that. But yeah, FCF added at $40 million. So I have to wonder like, Yeah, those 25, I think it was like 2,500 people, a piece that pay it like $150 to own part of the team. Well, this, you know, you got 40 million now I'm going to care a lot more about what this 40 million is going towards. And I am with that 25 grand is going towards or whatever. Also in the interview, throb came out and said that they were not profitable yet through year one. Which is interesting because a lot of their time buys like in the new NBC this year is a time by that they're going to be on peacock. A lot of people don't know that they think, oh, FCS on peacock. That's it. That's a time by. But anyway. So they're coming back. They, they claim they have enough money for seasons two, three, and four, which just because you have money for four seasons. You know, ask the, the Olympics, you're asked world junior hockey. You're asked a lot of these things. Like, I wouldn't say they're guaranteed for four seasons, just because they have the money for that. Right. No. Marshawn's like optimistic that they're going to, they're going to be around for two or three more seasons, but then again, like we were expecting a second season, six months after the first season ended not didn't happen. So there are still concerns. There's still concerns, especially as NFT thing. Like. This is dumb. This is all dumb. You sell them like. They both the lie to their, you know, original owners, right. Marshawn lines and all that. They still boast the 10 million total live views on Twitter, which we've talked throughout before. But now, so they're bringing in this board ape yacht club, that's an NFT group. And then there's gutter, cat, gang community. There are the people that I have the monkeys, right. We've tied about this. But some of these names that they're bringing in. They're interesting. And so you have Jamal Anderson coming in former NFL legend. You have Cynthia Freeland from the NFL network. You have. I TKI. And Rondae barber coming in. You have Steve Aoki coming in at which I told you, Dorothy is. He goes, I might have to get on this SEL thing. If they have Steve Aoki. Steve Aoki has amyloid 2 million Twitter followers. Yeah, that's astounding. But anyway, they're going to do a nine week season, April 16th. We've already talked about this, you know, eighteens, they call them pro stat or pro caliber players from the NFL CFL and NCAA programs. No, they don't put on there like XFL, even though there's going to be guys that had been presumably had been the XFL. And then yeah, they have the goat from our Shaun here. We've talked about this, this April 16th kickoff. It's this astounding to me. Yeah. I don't, I, you know, They're kicking off. You can off the same day as the USFL. They're doing that for petty reasons. Clearly, clearly, clearly. Everybody reasons. And yeah, I just, you know, they're not competing, it's not football. And this NFT thing is just. Like, it just feels so dirty. It really does. I just don't. I don't know how you are selling NFTs off this thing. I just thought tonight before we got on his email Elliot and one of the guys from the Cowboys, they're sounding like wearable MFCs. Now I might go, you mean close. I could call it wasn't wearable NFT at the cloth. Well, what's next. Does this mouse going to become an NFT? Is my keyboard going to be. There's a microphone can become an NFC is any tangible thing. The whole point of an NFP is not, it's not tangible. You don't pull it in your hands. They did already sell the Antonio brown, leaving the stadium with like all that. They sold that. And then at the end, I tweeted them again. You. Fingers on football. I had to be like, damn it. That was, that was our thing. So stupid. I did. Yeah. I have one note with fingers and football. Before we leave, I got very close to San Diego city. This week. Fingers are a football app has started bullying people on Twitter. We all know. So. If you guys weren't aware. It's a Bailey that used to run the XFL stuff. His company has got hired now to help run the FCF staff. So even though we don't acknowledge XFL, we're going to hire the social media guy that kinda like revolutionized the, this whole like football, all this stuff. So we were bringing Bailey. But it is, it's like bullying people and they're like, I saw this was sending me this week. Like people bullying, right? Like. I like Twitter. Follower checking like, oh, well, I'm going to take our 23,000 followers to your sex. I said be collective. Let's d*******g. Stitch battery. I said, I didn't tweet it, but I said the collective ownership of your, everyone that owns all these teams now is about 17 million Twitter followers by like Steve Aoki and Greg Miller and all these people. You have had a year's worth of national TV coverage, right? You've had $40 million coming in. You've had being on sports center, all this stuff. The fact that you only have 25, whatever it is, 25, 20 6,000 Twitter followers. That is astounding. Yeah, that is what is astounding to me is that you are a professional league that are rivaling right now. The USFL that hasn't even kicked off in terms of Twitter followers. And you're, you are a online football brand. Like you are a brand that plays on Twitch and you do not have. But you don't need to be. So if it's Bailey, if it's people that work with Bailey you'll need to be, and if you guys see that don't, I don't think that's appropriate. I don't think it's appropriate for an official football league to be bullying people that are like. Critical of the prog of their, of their game or whatever. Like I think you can be critical and not have to bully people on that. So that's what they did with us. You. Like Patrick. I didn't want us doing our podcast anymore. They didn't care about anymore. Even if we're given a positive coverage. They didn't care if we were critical of one or two things, they're just. Oh, you're just haters. No, we're, we're not haters. We're just trying to like point out the flaws here and you're in your. Product. So we have, we have two voicemails real quick before we go. One is from Steve and then we have one. Phillip Ramirez is having a crisis of consciousness here, but we got to see if Steve's this short, real quick. Hey guys. Just a quick question. Do you think once the XFL starts, we'll see players that play in two different leagues, such as the XFL two USFL or CFL in the same year. And as bad as Steve's audio quality was, he was still better than the gym on this podcast. That's true. I mean, maybe, maybe like a crossover between XFL and CFL, but I'm not sure USFL or this crap. FCF the stuff while I'll have a crossover, because you know, the season starts right about, at the same time. The CFL starts. So you might get a little bit of blend over from CFL to XFL, maybe a little bit, but other than that, It depends on the contracts. It really does. Depends on their contracts with two leaks. USFL is really late. It's really late to get out in may and get in the training camps in the CFL started in June. I mean, that's a really tight. Paul said, I think you're better off XFL the CFL maybe, but I still think you're going to, they're not going to want that you played. It's like when WWE has a rock and you're like, well, he's going to be making the movie in six minutes. We don't want him wrestling right now. Like, are you going to sign a CFL guy? Like, are you guys having lucky Whitehead? If you know that he's playing three months of XFL. Probably not Phil Ramirez, is it? He's probably the longest time Houston roughnecks fan. And there's been a lot of challenge on the podcast lately that they might be. I have hypothesized that they might be leaving Houston because of the gamblers and all the other sets of Philips, having a conscious of crisis. Guys this conscious. Hey guys, fill up here the first time, long time. Love, you guys love the show. Keep up the good work. I hate to beat a dead horse, but can, can you guys please explain to me. The reasoning behind. Brian Woods in the USFL, a guy who created a football league from his garage. Your words, fill up. Is going to outdo Redbird capital, Danny Garcia and Dwayne, the rock Johnson for the city of Houston. I just, I don't get it. I don't understand how. He's going to make those, those guys tuck tail and run and leave the city of Houston, just because he created, he's bringing a football team to Houston. I mean, they're not even here next year. They're in Birmingham, Alabama. Who's to say that the, the roughnecks are going to outsell now draw. The Houston gamblers and make them have to leave to San Antonio. That's all I'm saying, am I a Homer? Yes, of course. I'm a Homer. I love the roughnecks. Good football went to the opening day game with LA the wild cats, me and my daughter. We sit, we watched every game. You know, she knew PJ Walker, camp Phillips. You know, it was daddy daughter time. I just, I don't, I don't get it. Just tell me what I miss. I know I'm missing something. I don't get it, but anyway, thanks for the time. Goku go. Stroh's. Go rough necks. Go red wings. Rough him up. Thanks. And I'll talk to you guys later. Bye. You lost me. I go straws that are duty Las Vegas. Sorry, Phil. That is the owner of the misprinted illustrious XFL. Mark has hat. If you want to know how far back Philip goes, Philip is the owner of the Ms. But you lost me and go stress. I don't think, I don't think the roughnecks are going to go into where. I think they're staying put. I do. Watch. That's fine. I agree. Mark, Mark Perry. And I, and is any of your [unknown]. That we believe that there's enough crossover between the executives of the XFL and the USFL that they're like, okay. Actually value. Take St. Louis. We're going to go that Birmingham. Okay. XFL. Okay. We're going to go to Houston. You're going to go to San Antonio. I think there's enough crossover there that they're not, there's no way. There's two teams in Houston. Right. I just don't think you're going to have the gamblers and the tax ends and the, and the roughnecks and like, You said that, that. So that's my thing is I just think that, and mark. Backs me up. Th there's enough crossover with the executives there. I don't think they're going to do it. I'm not saying that like the gamblers are F R I. Our risk for the roughnecks. I just think that they're like, we're not going to deal with this. We don't want to no headache. We'll go to San Antonio. We want that city anyway. No way, shape or form. So it'll be interesting to see when things start rolling out. Hopefully soon I'm allowed questions still have to be answered. We're still, we're playing the guessing game here and we appreciate all of you joining us. Joining us along. The way, of course, many ways to get ahold of us. Subscribing, like share the podcast out to your friends who might be interested. We always appreciate that listenership. And anything else you want to say before? Before we had no, before we head out. No. They should be. They said February, you know, week or two, we should have some good news coming out. So. All right. Thanks again for listening. We'll see you again here next week with more of your alt football news and. Oh, cause there they don't come in terms of all football. So. It fell as well. We gotta throw that in there. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next week. Can you keep recording so I can have for the promo, is that okay? I was going to. Thank you. I appreciate it. This week on the mark cast would read, says jam-packed episode. He's not playing around. He's not effing around as the kids say, or as ISA. Reed, who do we got on tap? Crazy show we are podcasting and about other podcasts talking about the exit valve. Getting into the inception versus there, we have lucky Whitehead coming up, a star, BC lions, Y receiver. We have, you know, friend of me, of the shell, Daniel Austin, and then we have all Reese we're talking USFL. We didn't get the head coaches that we thought we were getting, but. Lots of concerns, interesting thoughts and stuff there. A lot of moves. Players recycling and the CFL that we're chatting, we're talking a lot of XFL stuff. And of course the name of the episode is USFL. T's. Of course, it's making fun of this stupid idea of that. The NFTs are coming to FCF. Yeah. Well, you know, we've been wondering, how is the USFL going to make money? Maybe, maybe we do some us develop these. I think we're going to patent that trademark that I think, you know, I think we're, we're doing the Lord's work there. We're we're trying to figure out how this resurrected league is going to make some money. So there you go. Cliche there for your use of the Lord's work. We also got a little bit of NFL news and, and also we're talking all this stuff for the XFL. We're podcasting about podcasting. Just wait to hear this podcast. Not ours. But this podcast, we feature in our show. A lot of staff. Going down the rabbit hole here. Why drop me into the, a weight, dropped me into the bathtub and get, wake me up. Wake me up Leo. This is insane. It's all this week. Right here on the mark cast. I should do a different. Let me just say, cause you, I want you to say that that was good. How you intro that step? Yeah, we have an exciting show. We have CFL teams reaching out to us to feature their players on them. Like the BC lions whip. [unknown]. It's Al. Edit it together. That'd be good. And he said, yes. Kian. And so. Oh, there you go. Well, I am tremendously excited,12D75 big resigning for America CFL team, the BC lions, lucky Whitehead. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. Can't complain about. So, you know, obviously you've had a pass, you know, you played for Dallas before, you know, America's team, right. They call it Dallas Cowboys America's team. We have dubbed the BC lions America's CFL team. So it's only fitting that you're carrying on, right. The brand here with a, in the CFLA. What do you think about us in the BC lions, America CFL team? Ah, I love it, man. I let. Stadium. It's been, it's been definitely a blessing for myself. You know, making the decision to. Come to BC in 2021. It's been. It's been very fun. You know, and. I just held that we can build and. And start starving. Some games. How has the, you know, the Aussies in here, the holidays, everything you said, you're in Florida. How is everything going before we talk about football, personal life? How are you doing? Oh, I was going great. I've been good. I've been with my dogs, my family. The holidays are great. Backtrack, but yeah, mentally. Fairly Grasso. I've been great. There had to have been a significant interest. Right. You know, coming off the season. Yeah. There was a lot of, you know, where's lucky. Is he going to go back to BC? Is he going to go? Any thoughts ever of going anywhere then back back with the black and orange. No, I was. I'll probably just wait, waiting. It was as far as. Start negotiating. I, I had asked some offers from BC. Yeah. I mean, I was just sitting on. Didn't really want to. I start negotiating that's one. You know, took time off time away from football. And just, you know, relax for a little bit chill. Now we started negotiating. And I'll comment. It was a quick. Quick response. As far as their interest in me. My access to coming back. So. I mean, it was a no brainer. Like I said, I love the city. I love planning. I don't. But all I want you going to form, sir. Pretty sick. But yeah. I mean, I love like my team has been graves. Coach has been great. So just, you know, it was all around. It was just critic for me. It was a great, great system. Obviously reports out, you know, friend of the show, father-in-law's he write talks, you know, the significance of the contracts, the offered you, you know, making you, you know, highest wide receive right now. What does that mean? Just in terms of. Their interest in you, right. You know, wanting to be a part of that, you to be a part of their team. And how does that make you feel? Now has been great. So bless it. You know, just to, just to have that. You know that. That interests. I mean. I'm showing that they want me back as much as I want it to be back. What was amazing. But yeah, I mean, It's going to come with a lot. I mean. I've gotta be like, I. Pair for that. I am prepared for that. And, you know, I've just looked forward to. Just the. Getting back out there to train and camp. Flying around. Picking up where I left off in 2021. It's cool. You know, we track right. A lot of these leagues, right? CFL, the alternate leagues, you know, w we just had Vernon Adams on the show last week, you know, guys who have gone through these journeys, right. Played in different leagues in different teams and working to get here. You know, Vernon's getting the lots of support behind him with the outlets. Right. It seems like, you know, w with the cash and everything else, right. That they're making. Right. A effort to get you, you know, to put you in the best position possible. Right. You know? After going through so many teams, so many leagues, you know, all this work to get to where you are in that. How does that feel? You know, Succeeding in that way. Yeah. The man has been a Jeremy. Yeah. It's definitely been a journey. You know, just here from. Oh, teammates. Current teammates. Just their excitement. Yeah. I mean, just hearing that. You know, I deserve it. I felt like I deserved it. You know, Like my son, my road, hasn't been as straight. At my bumps have my ups and downs, but a sped forward. You're not coming out. You know, Victorious. Yeah, man, this I had, I had the RMS. I mean last season. Signed the one-year deal. And I kind of had a bet on myself. And it definitely paid off for them. And I'm blessed. The season, right? Obviously you having the, you know, the injury, it felt like BC kind of had some momentum. Right. You know, you, you went down. Talk about the injury rehabbing from that, you know, we've seen the x-rays we, you know, seeing the photos and your tweets and what was that like going through. It was tough. I want to try to. Get myself. 48 Hours. You. And I mean to, to kind of flush everything, but it was, it was really hard, especially out the season I was having. You know, it was. It was a little dark for a little bit. And. And I had to self talk my way out of there. And. Find the positive and that was being around my teammates as much as I could. You know, just talking our family back home. It was definitely tough. Just. On the sideline and watching those games. It was not fun. So to see that, but. I wanted to be out there as much as possible. Hey. Yeah, it's okay. We can hear the doctor. That's all good. Yeah. Maybe it was Monday. I got two puppies behind me. Play fire all day. But yeah, it was, it was definitely, it was. It was a struggle. So I was trying to get, I was trying to get back out there. As fast as possible. So yeah, I ended up coming back in three weeks. And. I just have to deal with the paradox, covered it out with a pad and. We have what it was, what it was, but I had to get back out there. You talking about betting on yourself, right? You really had to go out last year. You know, the way the CFL is, right? You. These shorter contracts, right. You know, moving around a little bit more. I stressful as a player. I mean, obviously now, right. It paid off and you're getting this extended offer, but what is it like having the, like this it's all on me here. It's not a gamble, but it is right. All right now, I will. It was only, like I said, it was definitely a. I wasn't really a gamble. I know what I have to do. I know what I was capable of doing. But I just had to, you. Obviously display that. Weekend and week out. Can it be. Our number one. Can he be that Playmaker weekend a week out? And, and not just have returning. You know what I mean? Just, can he be our number one receiver? Our, our next guy got. I mean then. That's what I wanted to like display. Every time I got out there and I mean that I was the best. And. Up until that like, Up until that injury. I was displaying that. And. It was just like, it was, it was unfortunate. But. I'm definitely trying to. Build off of it. And I got her. Obviously, I got to show more. I got paid more. You gotta, you gotta do more. Yeah. Obviously, you know, resigning going through these conversations, right. There's been talks right. Of what they want the team to be like next year. Right. Whether we try to do with the lions. You know, Didn't end the season in the, in the, kind of the best route. Right? I mean, obviously we want to get to Edmonton at the end, but yeah, it was a struggle kind of there the last couple of weeks. Focus for the team moving forward. I mean, what are the conversations and building processes like now? Yeah. It was hard. Just not knowing whether. If we could even make the playoffs, it was toddler. We're still in the hunt, but we just couldn't win those close games. Those are definitely tough. But she's a controversy. The character around the room. You know what I mean? God's, didn't give up. God's wasn't really quit. And he was still trying to fight. Find a way. And at the end of the day, it was definitely a great note to end the season on the land. We're both coming in. At the back end of the, yeah, I mean, in the league, As far as record. But it was definitely. Good for us to, you know, finish that one out strong. Something to build off of and just seeing the guys that's, you know what I mean? Either sticking around or. Who should, who should be a part of that next? Our next journey. Do you sense? A lot of optimism moving into 2022. Yeah. I'm slowly looking around just to see what's what's next for us as far as who we're picking up. What's going to be like the. The final roster going into camp. But at the same time, I, like I said, I'm excited. You know what I mean to meet. You know what I mean to see my old teammates that resigned. With an extension. Gaza still on the contract, new guys coming in. And try to build something special. Now president of football candidate, Jim Molan will be upset. You didn't wear the propeller hat today, but I think we have an ultimately equal hat, right? We have the, you know, the rubber ducky bucket hat. Talk about, you know, fashion choice. It seems like, you know, even coming in with that, you really resonate with a lot of fans, you know, they talk, oh, the CFL can't market stars, right. Or who it. He, you are someone that you're very recognizable, very well-known right. Both on the field and off. Talk about all that. Yeah. I'm kinda like a. Ah, I won't say really flashy, but like, I kind of like stand out. You. I mean, I want to do. It's kind of different. Some, some. Somebody wouldn't do I want to do it? You know? I mean the propeller had I been wearing that since college. I just randomly ordered it off of Amazon one day. I thought it was cool. So I was wearing it. And I was aware of what, like. Straight up outfits, like I'm going to the club and next thing you know, it's a propeller. So like that was the focus, right? It was. That was just my thing. And I like, I still have one of my chart. I have a suit. That I just have around. But yeah. I don't know. I just like different stuff. I got to this. Crazy book bag with a whole bunch of graffiti on it. The rubber does. I have actually bought this while I was in Kamloops my first time. And Karen was at training camp. What's a store and I look at this bucket. It's kinda cool. Everyone has a plain black bucket had a light, but like this. Whatever, just a little logo on it. I was like, man. By this little rubber duck you have, but I just, I like to do things definitely. Stand out a little bit. And what I think is a great about it is it stands out off the field, but then you can back it up, you know? I mean, there's lots of, you know, we just lived through the Antonio brown stuff, right. I mean, there's lots of guys with, you know, It's one thing to stand out off the field, but to be able to back it up right. With plan. I guess talk about that. Being able to kinda, you know, walk the walk, but then, you know, show up and do what you need to do. For sure. Now you got to have that confidence. You know, lost. Some type of swagger about yourself. I bet. Display that. I mean it very well. I'm not, I'm not ashamed. I'm very comfortable. Well, who I am. Yeah, I mean, I like to have fun. Joel, you know what I mean? My teammates, my company, but it's a time. So like when I get. Obviously I can wear this hat. I can wear my propeller hat and a. I can show up to practice with. But when I put my helmet on and we have between those lines. That's a different, that's a different ball game. I go into a different focus. And I'm able to switch that gear. Like I'm able to switch that. Yeah. I mean, some, some people not allow. Not able to. Yeah, I. I mean, they take things too seriously or they play too much. You know, it's a fine line between it and, you know, As I got older, I figured that out and I know how to channel. Do you enjoy as being more of one of the fan favorites, right. Especially if the lions, you know, across the league, getting that extra attention, you know, people online and people, you know, a lot's been made this week. I can't remember. Someone was complaining about getting autographs in Saskatchewan or a Winnipeg. I'm building the show. We're going to talk about this. I mean, do you enjoy that, that the CFL fan appreciation. Yeah. No doubt, man. I enjoy it because like you grow up, you don't. I mean this for myself. I didn't. I haven't experienced this. Like football has always been my thing, but I didn't. I don't have my male hero. As far as the football play, I didn't go to football games. I had my own football games, like little league. Was my thing, right. So I was a little live football. We did hospital middle school, obviously travel league. But I didn't get to go see no. Michael Vick. I didn't get to go. I mean, I didn't have to go to the NFL games. So to meet no. Most special player. So like some kids just. When I get the experience that it's just a different. I mean, it's a different ball game. And, you know, you just never know whose life you're changing your nose. Who's gone through something. You know what I mean? So I'll try to just. I'll walk around with a smile on my face. Probably 99% of the time. Yeah. What I mean. And. I enjoy what I'm doing. So. Just for somebody to write. Let me get an autograph. Right. You can only take a picture. I've tried to get as many pictures or autographs that I can just because. We don't know. You know what I mean? It's just, it's just uncertain. And I'm blessed to be where I'm at and. For people to just say, Hey, I'm a fan that's that's love. And. Is this something to look back for it, like back on. When I get older. You said you didn't grow up idolizing a lot of the players. Who, who do you, I mean, it's just internal growth, you know, I've wanting to be the best. I mean, you always hear all, I base my game off there, so I look after. W what do you do then? I had a couple of players like. When I got older. That I would like, I wanna my game to be like around that. Just because of their stature. So like Beyonce. Dante hall. Was was, was one of my favorites. The Sam Jackson. Because those are smaller receivers that bid. Or do the, do what? As far as receiving or catch apartments. You know what I mean and returned games. So those are guys for myself. It was just like, Okay. They're really fast and they're really successful at what they do. I mean, and. As I got older, I was really fast. And I got really good at what I did. And I just had to figure out how to keep growing and keep getting better at what I was doing. Goals for the future. Now you're moving on. Obviously, you know, you've got the bag now, right? They call it, I mean, Now now. You know, what are you trying? What are we trying to accomplish here? I heard that Mr. Domin wants to hold. Host the gray cop, I think in a couple of years, I mean, there are we, what are we looking at here? Coming up for the lions? Yeah. I was, I got my personal, those. I hit most of them. You know what may last year. Got my team goals. I would. I'm trying to break some records. I've seen. I was looking in the record book. I was talking. You know what I mean, writing some things down. But yeah. It would definitely just be nice to start. You know, just, just clicking, winning games, get friends in a stance. And definitely, I would love to host the very cup you. And then bring her back to BC and. Yeah, I'm just trying to. Be better than I was last year. It'd be honest. And I mean, I think I was okay last year, but I can, I can definitely do better. Hopefully we get a full season. That would definitely help in. And just to stay healthy and just. Pass on a button ball. Yeah. I mean, obviously we named it, you know, an all star only playing in 12 games, you know? I think he did more than just good. Any any of those goals you want to share any of those bullets bulletin board? You know, records, you're trying to break. I'm trying to. Looking ahead. 2000 All purpose. I would definitely say that. That's very doable. And. I don't know what their return. Record is in like a season. So if I can break that, that'd be built to. Well, there you go. Well, I really appreciate that. You know, having a VC Alliance, reach out to estimate, you know, get you on. I really appreciate that. Like I, you know, it's one of those things that we reach out to a lot of, you know, players and staff, it's nice to be asked, you know, It's like when you're dating or whatever. It's nice to be asked. I just have to be the one asking. So. We really appreciate it. We're obviously huge BC lions fans here on the podcast and obviously big fans of your work. So. Best of luck for the season. And I'm glad that. Everything's coming together. I mean, it seems like, you know, the guys that deserve it are getting what they want, you know, getting what they, what they need to succeed right now. So I think it's been good. All right. We'll get on it here. You ready to go? Well, we have my arch rival. Nemesis Daniel. Austin joining us on the VOD guys. Danny, how are you doing? I'm good, man. I mean, I feel like we're over the nemesis. We were, we wouldn't have assesses. I dunno if that's how you pluralize nemesis, but you know, during the spring 2021. And, but I was so honestly I was so happy to meet you. Great cop. And hang out with you and the wife, I believe. And ultimately I have said, look, I didn't love the way the XFL stuff was reported in Canada. I think I maybe put some of that on you guys because people were going on and talking about stuff that I don't think they really knew. I think as men. We admit when we were wrong and I got nothing but respect. And honestly, I think it's so cool that you guys are down there doing what you do and supporting our league and, and. Shining a spotlight. So, you know, it's an honor to be here talking to you, man. And I'm a. I'm glad I got to meet you in. We got to bear the hatchet a little bit. Yeah. I got the hangout. Got the spin. Great kept together. Ah, this is exciting because I, you know, we've lived through. CFLC his analysis. And when we're in the off season, I have genuine questions, right? When all these things come up now, cause I'm seeing, you know, you guys and everyone reporting stuff. First off, you know, Derek, Dennis, I going to be on our show next week. Exciting. [Unknown] with Calgary. I talk about how big of a deal is that for the San Peter's. I mean, I think it's big. So like, Yeah, I guess for people who don't know, I am the beat reporter for the Stampeders. We should probably get that out there. So. Calgary's sending here. Exactly. So, yeah, so I've been, I've been covering the team since 2016 and 2016. Derek Dennis was the most outstanding offensive lineman signed with Saskatchewan. The next year didn't have a great year, came back to Calgary for two more. And he's just like, he's just been an all-star he's, you know, arguably I think that his past is quite possibly the best left tackle in the league. If he's not he's right there. The conversation, the question mark, and, you know, he'll be able to answer, answer. Some of the financials. I'm sure. I'm not sure he's going to go into full detail. He hasn't played since 2019, right. He actually is a guy who went into free agency. I reported on it at the time he wanted to be. Sort of an a level pay me like a, pay me like a one pay me like, you know, a star and the Stampeders. I mean, there was no hard feelings, but they just, they wasn't in their budget and they let them walk. And I don't know that the offers came and free agency. So he actually went exile. I was with the New York guardians. Didn't play in a game because COVID. Came in and unfortunately messed with that league. And I do say, unfortunately, because I think that league was doing good things. And then sign with Edmonton. Didn't want to play with them. So sat out the year and that was back. So, I mean, the question is this guy turns 34 during the season. He's had some knee issues. He says he's fully healthy. Look, if he's back in, is it still capable of playing at the level? He is. That's a huge signing for the Stampeders. I wouldn't be surprised if they're still trying to have a guy like Yukon, Bree Williams, who wasn't starting. Left tackle this year, also in the mix, just in case injury issues, which they both had. But luck if Derek, Dennis is the player who he was in 20 18, 20 19. Solidifies that offensive line in a real way. Assuming they get the other guys resigned. It could be huge. I mean he's and he's such a character. He's a great guy. You guys are gonna love having him on the show. He's honestly, one of them. One of the best guys and it is. I think he understands the media landscape and he understands that. You know, You got to show a little bit of personality and he does that. So he's a fan favorite here, but it could be a really big size. Yeah. We're seeing a lot of these players and in quarterbacks. And I want to talk about the quarterback stuff too, but. You know, we're seeing the light of these guys get paid. Right. You know? Dan Evans just came out. Right. He's got his big, but then what does that mean from azole? I mean, I guess it's just so much different than like the NFL where the salary cap, right. There's just so much less money to go around when you have guys that really deserve to get paid or want to get paid to be where they want to be. Right. And I mean, coming, I like going into the 2019 season, the two big. Well, it's the three big really quarterback signings were bullied by Mitchell. Stay big money contract in Calgary. Mike Riley left Edmonton the biggest money contract. NBC and then admin tenant. Responded by signing Trevor Harris. Well, None of them will want to play off games. Unless I'm completely crazy. I. Don't believe that Edmonton or BC have made the playoffs. Right. So, so that's where you find this balance where when you are trying to, to, to pack those things in. Look, the quarterbacks are always going to be the bag. Headliners, but I don't always know that you want to be paying that much of your tap in the CFL. It's not the NFL. It's not, I mean, it's not any other professional sports, but you do need that quarterback, but it's honestly like I'm kind of happy and I know we're going to get more into detail. So I'm kind of trying to avoid jumping into the quarterback question. But the more interesting part for me with the CFL is stuff like the Stampeders signed Jake mayor. Obviously that's huge, but. Getting Reggie megaton back, getting Trey Roberson back. Those are NFL guys they've left the Stampeders. That's 2019. They're being paid a lot of money. So where is that money then going to come from? Where are they looking and saying, okay, we're going to pay a little bit less for that left tackle. I doubt that they're paying less for the left ankle, but you know, so it's that, it's that juggling act. I will say that. Historically the stampede was a, probably done a better job with that than anyone else. If you haven't followed the league for a long time. They left. They traded away a guy like Charleston Hughes. Just cause I thought he was getting towards the end and they, you know, they had already made replacement at the time. And Jared Davis. So they drawn Hoff Nagel. The stampede is president of GM is famous. For letting guys walk. Right before, like right when they're still, they're still producing. The right before. Which is why a guy like Derek, Dennis in his mid thirties being brought back offensive line. You and I both know. Oh alignment like that, that takes a toll on the body. So, so it's interesting. I don't know if I fully answered your question, but. We talked about. What I'm interested in. As you know, we might as well tell, I somehow have lost a pot of coffee. So if I come across as distracted, I just have no idea what, like I made it, I brought it over to the computer and it's gone. So very weird, very weird. And Charleston Hughes, you know, then. And he was like, oh right. Or he wasn't picked up again by the Argos, right at the end of the season. Am I making. He was ultimately, yeah, they released him. And we'll see you. That's gonna be very interesting because Charleston did not have. A great year. In 2021. She is a big money guy, right? Like Charleston. He is. I'm pretty sure he's got more sacks than any active player in the CFL right now has been a top, top, top defensive end. I think that we all had questions. Going into 2021 about how the Argos were going to afford all of these guys. They traded away Arbuckle, which obviously saved a fair bit of money, but yeah, I mean, Charles when. Is he going to get another contract? I think it's going to be one of the big stories going into for agency, because you want to see guys who have given so much to the league, go out on their own terms, right? So I want to talk about. This Calgary quarterback situation is confounding to me. So, you know, we. We haven't lived through the bull Levi, right. Legendary status. Right. But he is in the room. I mean, I, I know him as someone that trashed hypey XFL right. Got hurt. And was it weak to right with his ankle foot? You're not hurting, we've won, but played in week two, a. Fractured fibula. Which is sort of upper leg. I can go into the details of why that's not as big a deal as people made it out to me. But yes. Yeah. And then, and then we bring in, you know, Jake mayor. Right. I mean did phenomenally, right. I mean, really did a good job, you know, played well at, you know, the team didn't win a lot, but it didn't seem like he ever put anyone in any position right. Where it was on him yet. He threw a four-pack through whatever. So now we're back this season. We restructured both contracts. I mean, where are we at now? With what's going on. And then Tommy Stevens, right. Got signed as well. Yeah. So Thomas, I would let St. Thomas Steven does what he is. He'll be competing for the third stranger job. Basically with the bow restructuring, let's use a lot. Didn't play every game. You hasn't played every game in 2019 or 2021. The stats have come down. Ultimately, I think teams are realized. You don't want to. As we were saying, pay your quarterback that much, but Bose restructure, this is not the first time he's restructured his contract. Oftentimes it'll be like, oh, they'll move bonuses forward so that they calm at the end of last season. Under the cap, but yeah, I mean, effectively. I should have the numbers in front of me, but they save a minimum. I believe of $40,000, no matter what, on his previous contract. And then the. A bunch of the other money is tied to how much he plays. Not tied to, you know, Tufts downs and under Sampson's. But literal game time. That allowed them effectively to, to keep checking their. And I think that's important because Jake, we asked Jake, I asked Dave at the end of the season, do you want to be starting in 2022? And he was like, well, that's obviously. Like Locke. Obviously. When he resigned in Calgary, he said luck like, and it is it's the best quarterback room. In the league, Dave Dickinson. You know, Star in this league and his day. Mark Newark. Yours is a great quarterbacks coach. Don Hufnagel was also a former coach. And then you have Bo, so he felt Jake ultimately felt like locked in 24. I'm going to have time to be a starter. The best thing for my development. Is to continue growing in that environment rather than go to. Let's be honest. I think I'm allowed to swear like a s**t show team. And then you're the starter, but you put up terrible stats and you don't develop and you might even regress. So I think that was his thinking. But I don't know if he resigns a bow has more than a year. Left on this deal, right? So I think that this, what, this really allows the Stampeders. To do his luck, but was going to be the starter next year. They have concerns about his shoulder. She is, has concerned about a shoulder he's acknowledged that. But you think you might have the quarterback of the future in the dressing room. So you're going to get that better luck. And then ultimately it allows you to make a decision on Beau's future at the end of next season. But it's, it's a bit of a coup for them. I didn't think they were going to advocate. Keep Jake. I honestly, like, as you said, I mean, First quarterback and CFL history to throw for 300 yards in his first three starts. I will also say that, like the stamps didn't dumb down the playbook for him. Like, they were like, they, they put him in and he was ready to go. He wasn't perfect. I think he went one and two. In, in, in those games and you know, that's okay. It. It's worth knowing, I believe Bo ended up with a winning record this season. So for all of the people who are criticizing Beau, he actually had a better winning percentage than Jake. But it takes 24. So. And I get. I mean, I don't know. I covered both those warriors that you refer to, man. He was so good. And I still think she has it. And to the people who may have only seen him at the CR or the people who kind of jumped on him and decided he's done. This is a guy in his thirties had shoulder surgery after the 2019 season Heidrick, our 2020 canceled. Comes back. Has a groin injury and can't really practice and training camp. There should not be an expectation that athletes are always able to perform at their highest level. We have to look at those other circumstances and how they contribute to performance. And everything was against Bo. This year, he had a really, he had new receivers. It was a tough go and he's still got them to the playoffs. So I would just caution people, writing the bully by Mitchell. Obituary. He's not done yet. He's not done yet. But you think this, it might be as last year. I think it might be his last year in Calgary. I think that. I think that's success in the CFL at quarterback is really, really difficult to predict. I would point you to Cody for Gerardo. I'm not going to name names, but I was on, you know, Saskatchewan radio stations before the 20, 21 season. And I was just like, I don't believe in Cody for Gerardo. And they were like, look at the numbers. How can you not. And I said, I just, I'm just not sure. I don't think he's beaten any of the top, top teams in the league. Let's see him do it. Now people are all down on him. I actually think he's probably better than. People. Our Caribbean credit for it, but I look at a guy like Zach. I mean, you see, and I know, you know, the history a little bit here, but like you guys see Zach Clara's alright, man. He's won two great cups. In a row. He was almost out of the league three weeks before the 2019 playoffs. And no one thought he could do what he's done in the last two years. Now, he's back. He's a hall of Famer, all of a sudden he's, you know, Arguably the best quarterback in the league. Like Mike Riley, they. The lie and Simon over $700,000 has been held to make the plan. Quarterbacks success is hard. So I think getting more time with Jake. But everything I saw from Jake Mayer and those. Three games and then sort of Amy. In relief at times, suggest to me that. He's a starting quarterback in the CFL. And if you think you might get. Even after this year. You might get two years with Bo maybe three more years. He might get eight or nine with Jake. You have a loyalty to the guy who won you two great cops, but how do you make that calculation? I don't, I don't know. I'm not speaking for the stamps, but I can see those things last year. I don't think you were surprised. Cause I heard you speak. I think even on rod show about, you know, people were down on Calgary, slow start, right. You know, what's going to happen. World's collapsing. And then you said, I don't know if the book's written on this yet, you know? And then. Here. They came in, destroyed BC. You know, we were supposed to be at that game. Got. Detained at the border. You know, It really went on a run for it. I mean, Is this resilience of the team, right? Coming back at me. What accounted for that late run that Calgary hat. I mean, I'll give you all of them. I'll try to do this rapid fire so that I'm not taking up the next tournament. First of all, they were never as bad as they locked. They should have been in Toronto and. Lauren about what a fractured fibula. Could even carry, I think had one fumble the entire year. This is like the story with the Stampeders. All year, it was like one bad thing would happen and they would get punished for it and they would lose. And arguably the game against Montreal. Like they were never that bad, but they were the youngest team in the league. So it was always going to take time for it to develop. They had absolutely no pressure. Early in the season. From the, from the defensive line. But defensive line went from like last in the league in sacks. I think third or fourth by the end of the season. And that, that really is the key a guy like Mike Rose. Defensive tackle. Absolute stud might be in my opinion, he should be talked about among the best defensive players in the league. Derek Wiggin, one of the best Canadian tackles, like, so the defensive line really, really stepped up the defense, in my opinion. Was honestly, it was right there with the bombers. I think it was the number in my opinion. The bomber stamps and tie gaps should have been talked about the same way. In terms of their defense. I think that they were the three best defenses in the league. People sketch Swan may take umbrage with that. And it's why the key now for the stamps, forget for agency, it's getting everyone resigned because they were young. You did this. This, this development, there were low, there were little other things. They were never that far off. And then I honestly think that like, My line going into the season was. No matter what else is going on. They have Bo. And Bo just wasn't early in the season, able to perform at the level that he was supposed to. So you weren't stealing those wins because it does have your quarterback. And once he kinda. Saturday. And he had a few bad ones. Near the end of the season too. But once he kinda, once they figured out what they had on him, and once Dickinson figured out how a place to run with him, What to do. They were at a much better team, but ultimately like I do really believe. Football like. You know, you never want your football team in the NFL to be planning his best game at Thanksgiving. You want them to be building and growing and, and, and the stamps did that. And then got. Got into the playoffs and. Play the Saskatchewan team that like. I do not understand how the Stampeders lost that game. They missed one, three field goals. They fumbled a punt. They allowed their only kicked return Tufts down with the entire season. All of that happened. And the riders still need a double overtime to beat them. Like the stamps were right there and Saskatchewan played Winnipeg pretty, pretty tough. I think it'd be, look at the playoffs this year. West semifinal Calgary probably should have one said discussion at one. West vinyl, Saskatchewan probably should have one instead of Winnipeg. I think the gray cop, the Thai cats probably should've won instead of the bar bombers one. Right? Like football's sometimes it's about as much about your mistakes as. It is what you did, right? And the stamps just made a few too many mistakes. Yeah. You know, Kneeling down. At one point different than the gray copy now. We're in the press room. And like, it's so hard when you have both coaches saying this was the right decisions. The right decision. We know it was not the right decision. That's insane. No, it's not, I don't want to say insane, but like, Obviously he should have run it out. Try to get to the 30 yard line. He had the space to do it. Yeah. And anyone that game. Like, I want to talk. I don't know if it's micro or macro wants like a larger sense now. We were together, you know, Ambrozy, I don't want to talk like the four downs and all that stuff. Cause I think that that is a little pie in the sky, but in terms of, you know, actual changes next year, right. And bringing in genius sports, working on marketing, right. We're going to prophesy. What, what struck you, or didn't strike you about the abs seemingly large changes right there that are coming to the league and attempting to kind of move on from whatever that was talking with the XFL. Yeah. And I'm still not a hundred percent convinced that those talks are. Dead and buried forever. Right? Like I, I don't know my opinion on that was always that those conversations were being lad. Effectively by the Argos. I mean, I think we all sort of. Understand that now. Argos are. Are owned by maple leaf sports and entertainment may believe so sports and entertainment. Bell which owns TSN like, I, I just think that we can see, sorry, if, if battle. Is an on an XFL merger. It's not done if they wanted, it doesn't matter. Like they are the biggest financial stakeholder and type of TSN. So I just don't think that the XFL talks will ever be fully off the table unless this league. Ultimately is able to stabilize. The markets in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. And I'm not saying the. Montreal and Vancouver are particularly unstable, but I do think that we see that there is an issue. And trauma. So first of all, yeah, I would never say that the XFL talks are, are fully done. There's smart business people involved on both sides. And if the business cases there, and there was an existential crisis in the CFL where survival was at stake, of course, that I will go back and revisit that. I just, I don't doubt that for a second. Man. I like the genius sports thing. I thought was. The way that it was presented was asinine. Aye. I like I was sitting there and I was like, just tell us what this is. Just tell us what. Sports is because here's the thing. If you like, I'm not, I don't understand it. All completely, but like one of my best friends works in, in data analytics, right. Data analytics is how it's not its audience. It's on-field product, it's everything. So of course the CFL needs to be embracing that. And it sounds like sort of genius sports is bringing that data analyst. And my understanding is some of that is going to be. Actual end game stuff. Like it's not just how you engage with your audience. Most teams already have. Contracts with data analytics forums to deal with audience. That could only be good. Right? I. That can only be good. So like by and large, that's why I'd never understood. The way that it was presented to us was I was sitting there and I was like, all of us are going to agree that this is a good idea, but why aren't you telling us what the idea is, right? Like, it's hard to give it a thumbs up when you don't. Th they won't explain it. So look, I ultimately think that the league surviving 2021. Was the point they got through that is everyone deserves a pat on the back. We saw, I mean, Oh, man. I don't know what it's like at the states, but like it's crazy that two days after gray cup Omicron just blew up. There wouldn't have been a great copy that happened a week earlier. They would've had, I mean, or at least it would have been no fans in the stands. And I don't think in media, we would have been doing any in-person. So like full, full marks there. I do think. I think the offense will rebound a little bit. I think that like, People are so quick to jump and say, oh, scoring's down. Yeah, there were some bad games this year. There were some games where I was sitting there beating like, Like, what am I doing with my life? How is this where I'm at? But ultimately like you get those two preseason games back. You you've got potentially an influx of talent. That sometimes happens sometimes doesn't and I think that that part fixes itself, but the larger issue with the CFL is always going to be that it is losing the younger audience. That is true, where I am in Calgary. Attendance has been slowly going down. It's great that Winnipeg. Saskatchewan. Hamilton can sustain or are doing really, really well. I think Ottawa comes back quickly, but in the bigger markets, like. You've got to figure out a way to be engaging with the audience and people want these one step. Oh, do more tick talk like no, man, like that's not, that's like that might be a piece of it. A very small. But I think that there is right now a perception. I'm a non-football fans. I'd like, you don't need to pay attention to the CFL and. There are markets in Canada where, you know, we don't re like there's maybe one person covering the team. That's a Canadian media issue. We've been hit so hard financially over the last decade that we've just lost people. But if you're a fan of one of those teams or you might be a fan of, you might be considering going to one of their games. You don't even know who the players are. That's really, really hard. So I ultimately think that. It, it's not just, it's not marketing us. It's messaging. And it's why like, having guys, like you come in and like, And talk about it is so important and having Derek, Dennis, I mean, Derek dad was going on to your show. People are going to get to know Derek Dennis that might, you know, that can drive interests, but it's, it's just, you need more content and you need more connection. And I don't know where that comes from. And you know, certainly I'm doing my best here in Calgary, but. You know, You don't always know if it's, if it's getting anywhere and, yeah. So I don't know if I'm answering your question, but. I like ultimately believe that with the CFL. The product needs, the product needs to sell itself on some level. And I don't know that. Is it a perfect job this year? But you also need people selling. And I just, I w I, I do think that we need more of that. And hopefully. You know, when we're allowed full stadiums across the country. When we have a full schedule, all of that, hopefully there's a little bit more money that's directed towards that side of it. It's just, it's hard. You're telling us some of those games. Like I remember there were some of those like Tuesday games. Yeah, the red blacks, I guess, Alex. There's like 6,000 people in the sand. Like, I don't know, is anyone watching this? Are we, it says exactly where the vacuum, but, you know, it's, it's like, And we're dealing with this, you know, with the USFL and everything else. We have these other leagues CFL. Yeah, do more outreach with these. You know, the NFL does need to talk to anybody, but a lot of these other leagues, like I do, you. And I'm really glad that like, they, you know, obviously gave us passes to come up and cover all this, but like, you should be doing that a lot because you don't like, I would like, again, in terms of like, you're not okay, you gotta pick up the ugly girl at the dance, but like, I mean, I would take anyone that was talking about the CFL at all right now. Just in terms of like, Kind of getting the message out there. So, yeah, and I mean, like, you know, I've covered Deanna child, look, I've done full seasons is not a child beat reporter. Like that is a bigger beat that gets me more engagement, like more, all of those things. Man. I prefer the CFL, like. And Lewis and I prefer the CFL is the player is like, they're, they've got these amazing personalities. Like they, you know, they are incredible athletes. And I think like it's often what I like the American perspective on the CFL Canadians have this thing where it's like, oh, well, these guys aren't in the NFL, so they can't be good. Meanwhile Americans are like, oh, I didn't go to Alabama. I still supported my college football team. You know, like I, I reckon. American seem to recognize it. Like these athletes are pretty freaking amazing. I, and I. I don't know how to convince Canadians. That they're wrong. That just because I'll use soccer, like you got the premier league, you've got LA Liga, you got the Buddha's later, right? Like. The Syria to the big four Italy, Spain, Germany. I mean like the fans in Sweden. Still support their Swedish premier league. Right. Like, it's not. The fact that it's not. Arsenal and Chelsea and man city doesn't mean that like it's. Lesser or less. Like valuable. And I, I honestly have found that, that I don't know how to convince Canadians that like, know the fact that this isn't the NFL. That's not fully the point. It's still amazing athletes. Who a lot of these guys, like I think about a guy like Reggie bagel. Like Roger Angleton was ready to go. Be an NFL. He played in NFL games. He might not have been coming out of college. Trey Roberson was a quarterback in college, needed a couple of years in the CFL before going to the NFL. You and I both know. Not everyone's ready yet. The exact same age. 20 To 23. I wasn't ready to be a reporter at 2223. You know, like he's still. No kidding. But, you know, and like, so I think that it's so easy to make the salad, but it sometimes falls on deaf ears and. It's why I appreciate the American perspective because I'll talk to NFL reporters down in the states. Who are obsessed with the CFL? Do they, they love it. And, and there's no reason why Canadians should have this. It's weird, whether it's an inferiority or superiority or inferiority complex. Yeah, I mean, I guess my last point would be like, At least the CFL. For all of its holes, eight. They do carry themselves. And I've told Dorothy this before. I think that the CFL media is, is sometimes better than what the CFL deserves. Right. Cause you guys all, like, it only matters as much as we care it to matter. Right. If it doesn't matter, then. That's true of sports in general, but yes. Yeah, but. That's. I mean, I have someone that's watched wrestling for 30 years. Right. It only matters because we pretend that that belt mattered. You know, it doesn't really matter unless it matters. So. I think the CFL. At least. Has that right? And this, you know, hundred year lineage and all of these champions and all these stats and all these things and the media that really values that. Right. And places value on that, but it is hard like, It's like that. I mean, to me, that is like the biggest issue I had with the CFL XFL thing is I'm like, I know that we have six months and you guys have a hundred years, but it's the same idea of like, we really care about this thing. And other people are telling us it's not good enough. Right. The mentality is still there. I know that we don't have nearly the. No, no, no. And the mentality is there and it's addressing. I mean, not to unpack that too much, but like I never said the XOL isn't good enough. What I was worried about was that Canadianness that I think makes the CFL special, no matter what. And I think you understand it cause you've been up a couple of times, but like, no matter what, like what 40 million people, you guys are 350. We will lose. You know, like the American market will be more important. No matter what, so no matter what, we will lose the Canadian ness of the CFL. And that's what I was like. No. The inherent value for someone like me is that this is our one. True national sport that we have, that's just our own. And I was like, I'm, I just don't want it to get swallowed up. No one should ever upset. Look the XFL. Sorry, if you also, because I fell in 2020, man, that league was, was doing a lot of things really, really well. And there'd be nothing better for the CFL than getting some of their marketing people. And some of it was so innovative and I think that's important. Sorry. That's just a side note. But anyone who said the XFL wasn't good enough. That was the wrong. Yeah, I'm being a Dick and pretending that everything I say is right, but like that was, that was the wrong argument against the XFL merger. Oh there, this has been good. I appreciate you coming on. Even with a sands coffee, hopefully you can drive that down and, and, and, and the battery lightness. It's weird. But it's been good. It's. [Unknown] you're here even just on this zoom call. We have way. It's good. It's good. We finally. I've got you on and we're talking, you know, actually. Time man. Yeah. Football, which is exciting. It's awesome. And honestly, like the next. The next month should be interesting. We got free agency coming up and then it sounds like in my neck of the woods, there'll be having sort of GM and head coach meetings and mid February. So. You know, COVID permitting. We'll be there and there should be a lot of stuff coming out. Cause it's going to be, it's going to be, I think this season is going to be more interesting than last season. I think that like, A lot of teams look. Like a lot of teams needed last year to almost get ready for this year. Yeah. So it should be a fun one. Survive. And I think was the goal last year. I mean, I mean, I guess it's, we just have to do this. We got to get. I don't think we gave enough credit to them for, for making it happen. And that's the players. That's the management that's everyone, but yeah. Honestly, I know your listeners don't care, but like you can tell him, I spent like five minutes. I have a very small apartment. Whereas my French breasts, this is so weird. I will send you on your way. I appreciate you making the time today. You're going to be good. You're going to be good here. I'm going to hit record here and. Alright, I got a roll on a couple of different things. Well, we have Paul Reese here, a USFL historian author of a book on the USFL, a good person to talk to you today. Kind of all the USFL new USFL. How are you doing today, Paul? I'm well, we're good at. I was expecting a little bit more USFL news today. You know, we had our big Colin cowherd news drop last week with the coaches. I just thought there's no way they don't do this. Yeah, the same thing this week, we do the other four coaches. Just generally overall thoughts from you first off. You know, how did it into now? We are midway through January. How are we feeling about this new USFL? You know, I really feel like they're, they're kind of behind. So they haven't announced at the coaches, as you mentioned. We had the drop last week on. On four of them. And we still don't officially know. We're the single site. Is going to be. I mean, everybody knows this. Yeah. Apparently the last kind of public hurdle in Birmingham was, was cleared earlier this week, late last week. But they still haven't announced anything. So there. They haven't sold. One ticket yet. Regardless of how important TB is for this matcher. It's not going to look great if you don't have anybody in the place. When even just. You know, we've talked a lot in the past. You know, accident fell 2020, did a good job right in the cities, you know, team presidents and staff and all those, you know, working well. Right. Seattle was good in New York. Even just having a couple people in Birmingham saying, Hey guys, this is coming in two months, you know, get excited for, we have this coming up. I mean, even if you're not going to talk about the Pittsburgh Maulers or whatever, just getting the people in Birmingham, excited. Yeah. I mean, it's just been. It's been odd. How wide it's been that you here we are. After the new year. Now you can understand particularly around the holidays, but you know, things were a little bit quiet, but then you would expect kind of a ramp up almost immediately after that. And we just haven't seen that. And it. You know, the other kind of, part of this is because they are doing a single site yet they've named other locations. What does that look like this first season? Do they do anything in those locations? Do they. At least introduce the team or the head coach at some point. In those markets or is it all just going to be Birmingham based? And if so, I guess there's a lot of those questions that are. R yet outstanding about this league. Yeah, we put in our episode last week and on Twitter, we w one of our listeners, max is very interested in all of the seven. We kind of posted the list of like, you know, things we don't know yet. Right. Okay. So even, even if we have four head coaches, Offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, obviously the players, you know, how much are people going to get paid? How wrong, you know, I mean, there's, there's just a myriad of, and I just thought. If you do just a little bit every week, you know? Okay. This Thursday it's coach's next week. It's okay. Then we finally announced Birmingham we'll hit next. Now I might go, Hey, now we've missed another week now. These are just a finite amount of time because I, I hate to be the, the, you know, I've always tried to quell people's right? Like this is the spring league with, with different paint. Right. But it is getting to the point where I'm a little, it seems odd. And, you know, what. Part of it. I think that it is not, I think you're exactly right. But. What makes it seem even more odd is contrasting it with the last spring effort, which was the XFL. And, you know, we knew PayScale. We had kind of this rollout of coaches and, and team identities, and it was all well ahead of the game. And so contrasting. It was the last thing that we saw. It seems like it's way behind. The, and I want to get into more USL. The. Concern has been brought up, but at least with a lot of the writers and people that we work with this week, that. Right. XFL pushed to next year. You know, everyone kind of knows that now. So now. If this comes out this year and lays an egg or doesn't perform or doesn't, whatever. Right. It's just more and I'm. I try not to be the XFL Homer. Right. We try to kind of look at everything, but. Add another fuel to the fire of like, oh yeah. There's spring football. So you look at this and nature. I mean, that's, what's concerning now is we have another venture that could potentially rise and fall like BA Abby, you know, it just, it doesn't help the argument. No it doesn't and, and because we're coming. On the heels of, you know, the AAS. Failing. Eight weeks into it season. The access all having to call off the final half of that season due to the COVID crisis. And. Then, if you have, you know, the single sites set up that. Doesn't work one way or the other, you know, whether it's because it, it doesn't end up looking good on TV or, or whatever. It really does feel kind of like a third strike. The odd thing to me though, is that. More than at any time in the last 30, 40 years. You have multiple groups that want to do this and, and groups with money, you have the Redbird capital people with the. The XFL. You have Fox sports with this USFL? I think that. These larger more well-founded. Well funded organizations. Are seeing some kind of an opportunity here. In particular with being in on the ground floor with ownership of a, of a sports property. Will we will that result in some patients. I don't know, but it is a little bit heartening to see the groups with money are multiple groups are willing to take this chance now. Y even this week, I saw that they came, they always do it every year. You know, the hundred top broadcasts in America, right on TV. I think 79 of them were football. Right. And so, you know, I tweeted a Mike, this is why we still try to do spring football because you have all people. Why are they turning? Because eight out of 10 of the most highest watched programs on TV are still full. Being major league baseball was even in any of them. You know, don't tell my co-host Paul. And NFL ratings were up 10% this year. Every, I mean, if you. Have been looking at this over the last four or five years, everybody, you know, At the NFL. You're going to bottom out. Like everybody else, like everybody else on network television. Really as you're going down. You know, the NFL is one of the stalwarts, you know, live sporting events. Still seem to have a place on network TV and for driving a what network TV is trying to do. But inevitably, that's going to go down well, instead of. It went up by double digits this year, 10%. That is, that is not a small thing. So, I mean, it's a spring league can figure out a way to capture even a small percent of it was hat. And it's what everybody's been trying to do. It's easier said than done. But again, that's, that's going to be tempting and tempting for real money to look at and say, boy, if we, if we can establish something and hold it for a while. The. We will lose money in the short term, but the asset value is going to skyrocket. As someone that, you know, lived through us, a valid. I at a young age, right. I, I listened to your interview with Margaret, you know, lived through that, you know, here you run a site, you know, preserving, you know, video and historical, you know, right. With you as a dollar, have written a book on it. Did you ever really think that you would be on multiple podcasts within months talking about the USFL in the year 20 21, 20 22. It's crazy that even the league has that kind of staying power. You know, especially in the public consciousness, I mean, Let's let's be honest about what Fox is doing here. They have no ties whatsoever to the former USFL. They believe that there is value in. In that name? And in the team names and that's why they went with USFL. The why they're going with team names that the USFL had used. And if. It's a lot of it is because of guys like me who have such a fond memory of this league. That they're hoping to trade in on. That nostalgia. Do you agree with their assessment? That there is enough? Name recognition and enough people that still are, I mean, do you, do you buy into that? It's a value add to me, but it is not a driver. It's one of those things that. May help hook some 40, 50, 60 year old guys into this where maybe they wouldn't give a spring league a chance. Maybe they didn't give the XFL or a at the chance. And they might. Be more inclined to check into this. But you're going to have to present a good product. On TV and on the field. In order to keep them engaged. It just a weird, I remember when they came out and you had Steve Earhart write, wrote the forward to your book, you know, When they all this came out and we had Steve on and he's like, no one has reached out to anybody, you know, they haven't. And you would just think if you're going to go through the work of acquiring all of these trademarks and doing the cities and doing the logos and do it like that, you wouldn't have, you know, whatever handful of guys are still around, come on and advocate and do. Promo videos or social media. It's so weird to me. I completely agree. You know, Carl Peterson, a long time GM of the chiefs who was the GM of the USFL, his most successful franchise, the stars. You know, why don't, why don't you get. If your intent is to honor the old USFL by using the name by using the team names again. These guys should be involved. It shouldn't be an end around. Sneakily grabbing the team names and some version of the logo. You know, if there's something that's been off putting about this new effort, it's that. That they kind of tried to work around these guys rather than working with them. And these, these were the guys who made it happen last time. And it's not. I mean, you know, we talk about, you know, management and, and Brian and everyone else, but I mean, you know, ultimately this is a Fox sports venture, right? This isn't like, you know, we're you and I are sitting there, Hey, we're going to try this and we're going to, you know, make some t-shirts or we're going to, you know, sell right. Relicense you'll video. I mean, this is, we are putting this on national TV for a national audience. Yeah. Yeah. And Fox has ownership. You know, They're the driver on this, regardless of who acquired the. The IP on it. Fox owns it. So it's going to be their name on the product and they're going to drive every decision. So I, you know, I certainly hope that they reexamined the decision to just work around some of the guys who, who did this the first time. And instead see what they can do to fold them into the product. When they Dale Johnston, right? He's like the exact VP of talent. I can't remember his title. You know, one of the hires app. He was doing an interview a couple of weeks ago at right after they came out with the city names. Right. Cause you know, Pittsburgh and all the, you know, this first kind of swath we have. And, you know, The interviewer said, you know, I really thought you guys would target non NFL markets, right? Like obviously St. Louis with the XFL, but like San Antonio. You know, Oakland, right. Things like this. And I get geographically what they're doing. And his response was, well, you know, these were the trademarks that we had. These were the cities that we acquired. Right. These were the ones that had like the most. Staying power. And I thought. To be basing cities in 2022 off of the decisions that were made writing 19 82 3, in terms of where does that seem weird to you? It seems absolutely weird. To me that any part of where you. Choose to locate a franchise would be based on obtaining a name. You you pick your best markets. This is a hard enough business. Sprinkler. Paul has proven that time and time again, this is a hard enough. Business without tying your own hands on market choice and, you know, And you mentioned two great markets. St Louis and the XFL and San Antonio. And AAS, you know, What can you do if you go into non NFL, mark, it's only been talking about a non NFL market in. In Birmingham, of course. But, you know, so many, so many already have NFL teams and yeah. I absolutely do believe that. You need a mix of major markets, which likely already have NFL teams, but you also have. I think there's also opportunity in non NFL markets. And I hope the league did not tie its own hands just based on the intellectual property. It could. You know, register. Yeah. It is. I mean the world. And I just can't imagine, like, even, you know, and obviously it's the bubble season. But once we move out, I can't imagine even the Vipers coming back in the XFL now, and obviously we're waiting on those announcements, but. We have the Tampa bay, right? Like. Champions of the world. And then two months later they're like, oh, we're going to go watch the, I just can't. You know what I mean, certain cities work, right? Like Seattle, maybe there's enough staff where we get excited. You know, we had good attendance there, but I just don't think all those Margaret's when you have an exceptional football team and then also trying to support that spring league. Yeah, you know, in. It's why you have to do your research on the market. Tampa. It was a little bit of. More of a slog there for the XFL, then maybe it wasn't Seattle. You know, both NFL Marcus, both with a successful teams at the time. And yet, you know, one kind of works well and the other. Yeah, it was pretty Giphy. So you, you know, Like I said, it's just really hard to find these markets hard to identify. There's a lot of research that goes into it. So just. You know, basing it even partially on what names you can register. It seems, seems odd. Why do you think the USFL back when you fell in love with that? When you know, The people right. What was it about that? That that really spiked, that, that interest that people had. So, you know, Young man, just getting into football. Here you have an additional 18 weeks of regular seats, more than 20 weeks total with the post season of professional football coming right on the heels of the super bowl. So your football fandom didn't have to take. A half year break at that point. You were able to roll right into a brand new season. Brand new teams and identities and players to learn. In the, and I can't stress this enough. The original USFL was a major leak. It competed for the best available talent. Nobody. And any of the big four sports has been able to establish a competing major league since the USFL folded. Hasn't happened in baseball, basketball, hockey, or football. You. It really has become because of television money. Too expensive to even try. And that doesn't mean that, you know, these. You know what you would have to consider as kind of a minor developmental league level. Leads are fun to watch. I enjoyed all of them, but they're an entirely different animal than what the original USFL was, which was. Taking NFL first and second round draft picks with. Picking former MVP's off NFL rosters, which was grabbing a Heisman trophy winners right out of college. Which grabbed. You know, if. Hall of Famers. So, you know, it. The USFL was so different than, than what we've seen develop. That to expect that same kind of interest in success is probably not going to happen today anymore. But it doesn't mean that what they're trying to do today with these spring leaks, can't be successful on its own level. You say it's because it's too success or I too expensive now that compete. It's too expensive to compete. I mean, you look at what all fence of lineman. Make, so the, the, the original Michigan Panthers in 1983 started out one and four. They're owner went out and signed three NFL offensive lineman. I don't think any of those guys cost them over 50 grand, maybe 50, 60 grand a year. Now how many millions of dollars. Would that be. Just for your offensive line. That is that economics in the spring because of the revenue that's available. Just will not support that. It's just hard. And even with the coaches that came out right. You know, We have some retread thrive. Me bar Andrus, E. You know, had success in Europe and then with, obviously with the XFL and the spring league, you know, you have. Kevin someone, right. You know, some of these guys that maybe didn't leave on the best of terms, but like they were talking about gene Chis, Nick, or whatever coming on. And it seems like there was a lot of interest there and then it came out. Where they had announced. You know that he was coming there was the leak that he was coming. And then he got, you know, Going back to North Carolina, right? So you have not only are you competing against the NFL, right. For talent in terms of staff, riding coaches, but you're also going to be the beginnings of college teams, because why would I sign. For a six or, well, I guess it would be, you know, eight weeks plus why would I sign for a 16 week gig? And then meet you then I'm not working in may. I could go work in North Carolina and work the rest of the year and probably make substantially more money. Right. You know, I do hope we still have, as we've mentioned for the coaches openings available, I do hope they signed, you know, maybe an up and coming offensive coordinator. And it doesn't matter if anybody's heard of them. That's that was Steve Spurrier coming out of duke. When the Tampa bay bandits hired him in 1983. I think it's also maybe an opportunity for maybe a minority hiring guy who inexplicably has been, you know, on the wayside. So I hope we do see some of that. These leaks present a lot of opportunity. And so I hope that, you know, it's not just about. Finding the best guys that we can afford. I hope that they do look at some other factors when, when naming the head, the rest of the head coaches. I think that's a great point. I mean, especially, there's been a lot of conversation this week, right? Brian Flores, right. Being, let go. And in Miami. And it's like, We have so many, few minority head coaches, right? Did it feel like he didn't? I think the San animate ride is that he didn't get a fair shake. Maybe you had a winning record. And so. God, if we could start incorporating some more of these guys in and get more name recognition, yo get more females involved. Get more everybody. I mean, it would be nice. And just like the old white retreads again. Yeah. And. It's all about opportunity and. You know, I think that. Hopefully the league sees that and not just okay. Here's. Here's guys you've heard of. Okay. But, you know, they they've all been fired or, you know, 10 years away from the best job that they had or. And, you know, and maybe some. It's an opportunity for them to. To show what they can do and get another chance, which, which is great, you know, but maybe some of the guys who haven't had, you know, such a great chance or haven't had their chance yet. Take a little bit of an early flyer on you guys. So I. And I hope that that brings maybe some, some diversity. In offenses that we see on the field. You know, not just in, you know, Not just in diversity personnel, but diversity in what they're willing to do on the field. You know, the chances that they're willing to take, the kind of offenses that they run, maybe they're kind of defensive. The special teams plays. So, you know, These new leaks are a tremendous opportunity for new ideas and for new people to get a start. I'm doing the math. I'm looking at my calendar here. So we have, right. We're doing draft player selection, the 22nd, 23rd, right at February. And then they're saying that training camps March 21st. Right? So it's like. I mean, we're kicking off April 16th, you got three and a half, four weeks. I mean, it's like what. That. And I think that that is probably the problem that some of these head coaches that they are encountered right. Is it's like, you're going to pay me what, and then I have four weeks to like, get, you know, And I think that's why like bar Andrus was a really good hire because he had done the spring league, but it's, you're not going to get everyone that wants to do that. Unless like you said, it's someone that maybe was overlooked and is looking for an opportunity to really stand out. I mean, that was. What the exit felt was like for PJ Walker and Taylor. Hi Niki. Right? Maybe this could be also for some of the staff and coaches. Yeah, you certainly hope so. And I think it, it really does as we kind of started off this conversation, talking about. It behooves the leak to move on it. So that these guys can get their staff in place. That is oh, pretty short. Training camp. And we kind of saw how that burned the XFL, especially making a national TV debut when. Some of the product on the field. The first couple of weeks look shaky. I mean, I think we even saw that a little bit in the NFL this year with the reduced pre season, those first couple of weeks. Greene. Green bay looked like it thought it was the fourth preseason game when it opened against the saints this year. And then they went on a tear. It wasn't even the same team that we saw the rest of the year. So having that time and especially with none of the guys. I played together before. Is going to be important. I mean, even the CFL suffer that this year. Right. And they have that. And they never really got it together. I mean, some would say that towards the, I would argue that they never really hit that full stride. This has been great. You know, weird week, right? I mean, we're, we're kind of in this flux, I think you have good insights. Any other thoughts? Concerns. Or maybe positives before we let you go on this. So, you know, when I look at what the USFL is doing this year with the single site setup, In a year when everybody else is playing in hallmark, it's essentially. I hope it's not throwing away a whole bunch of money on necessarily, and that I keep coming back to the United football league. Which came out when they, when it launched it launched a test season. Test season for outdoor football. Which is being tested. Every week and has been for decades. At the high school, college and professional level. Why do you need to run a test season? Well, I, I guess I w I would like to know what was well, Y a single site. It seems like a missed opportunity to me. So if the ratings tank, because nobody in the whole markets or any markets really has much of an interest in it. What does that look like? Going into next year. Don't you. Come into next year with a strike and unnecessary strike against you already not dimension. How many millions of dollars in the hole? I don't understand. The single site set up. I mean. It's an evolution of about what Brian did with the spring league, you know, and trying to get that. But when your. And I've gone back and forth about this. And I've even talked with mark, you know, that you've interviewed with when he was on our show a couple of weeks ago. The spring league on Fox was pulling in 400,450,000 viewers when they were on Fox. Right. Some of the games were on like Fs. S one or whatever. That's fine when you're not paying the players. Right. When. When it's basically like it's survivor, right? We have a bunch of people that, you know, we're not paying really, and they're coming in. I am terrified to see whether these. You know what the players are getting paid. If that's ever announced, and then how much higher the stakes are for the ratings when you have a ton of player expense going out than when it was, because that to me is the biggest difference between this and the spring league before. And we get, when we, when you look at the original XFL and how tied it was to the radio, oh, you're going to the season end. NBC's our partner, you know, this McMahon arm-in-arm with. With NBC. And then as soon as the ratings tank, NBC cancels their program. That's what television does. So, you know, Do we see the same kind of thing with Fox? If this doesn't start off the way that. They think it's nice to come in with all these lock, the expectations. I don't wish them. He'll we'll. I just don't understand. The approach. How late they have been to getting on so much of this. How. How there is almost this transition from the spring league, which wasn't really a pro league at all. To what they're doing now. I hope it works out. Okay. Every I, yeah. And I've talked to that. You. I mean, I've emailed the media people, you know, I've said like, you know, Anyone that could come on and they say, you know, we're, we're working through announcements. We having, so I think there, I mean, Except for maybe announcing coaches this week. Cause he didn't have the eighth one locked in because Jean, she isn't. I stepped down. I mean, I think there is a plan. I just don't know if it is a good, a good plan. Yep. So there's always a plan. You know, it's just. How good is it? And do you have enough people with implementation? And it seems like there. So far, it's been pretty slowly rolled out. Paul you killed it. I've added this to this gray. I appreciate your insights. And hopefully when we get to kick off. We can do a check-in. I, you know, I assume we're getting kickoff. I mean, I don't doubt that this will, this will feel the play. I think so I think one way or the other, you know, they have too much skin in the game at this point. Once you go public, I mean, it is Fox. So I can't see them just letting it die on the vine for some silly, small reason. I think it's going to go. Well, well, again, I appreciate your time. Paul Reese, author of the United States football league. It's on Amazon. You can go pick it up. And then obviously USFL side.com with a lot of the historical stuff.

Episode 74 - The XFL’s International Love

Good Friday morning, everyone. Welcome to The Markcast. The premier place to get your USFL. That's what we’re leading with today? Your CFL. Your XFL. And whatever that league is that Reed owns the rights to that league as well. And then we actually have MLF B news today. We have, we, we have a Fang or show football tidbit at the end of the show. This is gonna blow your mind. Okay. I'm looking forward to it. A great show coming up with Vernon Adams. The aloe it's quarterback and read, you found out some interesting stuff about Vernon. Paul do you notice? Anything different about me. You got the braces off as a tooth staying put, is it all good? So, this is still a fake tooth. I have a clear retainer. I have to wear a 23 hours a day, except for a leg, literally, except for like right now. And I do the podcast and then I have to put it back in. But I embraces free for the time being that very fatty about that. When do you, when, when is it everything? Everything done done. February, we're going to do gum surgery and then probably another. Few months after the it's still a long process, but when the braces are gone, so. Over under you'll have it all done before grey cup next year. Oh, well, yeah, but it'll be a year cause I broke the tooth in April. So it'll be probably about a year process to get it all. So the title of the show is the XFL international love. Yeah. [Unknown] thumbnail. I was going to do a whole bed. I was going to text Paul. I have Pitbull on the top of the empire state building with the XFL. We're talking about some XFL expansion stuff. Here's what I'm going to say. We have our big Vernon Adams interview. I know everyone's tuning in for that. All of our CFOs. We are leading with USFL and XFL. So if you are like read, I cannot even stand D to hear about the XFL I'm going to timecode everything you can. Vernon's great. About twenty-five minutes. Brandon's a great interview. We have all your CFL staff, but just, this is the order of the show today. We got to go. The world gave us a new USFL head coaches today. It's given us training camps has given us a XFL and Mexico's a speculation. So there's a lot of stuff going on. Cool stuff. And it's funny that like, It's called international love when like someone internationally slid in my DMS the other day. Right. Like romantically or professionally. We're friends. We're chatting. There's some chatting going on. I won't say where it is. I won't say where she is. There's some chatting going on this. Back and forth going on. Well then cool. And we all, it's a new year. New, what is it? New year, new me. All the time, new year, new me. Anyway, so please like, and subscribe. We're still doing our grey cup giveaway. We have added a ton of subscribers this week. Once we said that Brendan Adams was coming on the show, I think we are going to have even more subscribers now with all this USFL stuff. I've approved about 80 people into the USFL Facebook groups here in the last day, since all this stuff. So. Please describe me. And that's it for a rundown today. USFL XFL Vernon and NCFL stuff. Very cool stuff. Loaded show of course the big thing that happened this, this, this morning. Well, yesterday morning, I should. Right. Is that only four of the eight head coaches are announced. And let me. Before we get into that. Let me just say this. I saw you tweet out. That's the only reason you watch Kalin Colin coward is to get these coaches now. But joy. Taylor's also on the show and she's great to look at. Joe. Well, Joy's house so much more pleasant to listen to you and insightful and like has educated tags. I mean the whole, the whole bend of it. I've never watched as much con coward as we have with this. Yeah. It came out. USFL said that they were going to announce that coaches, we are now officially on the media release. We're part of all of that for the USFL. So they said that we would get part of the teams. So we got, we got the four teams. They also officially announced a hundred days. Don't kick off. We had talked about the April 15th, Friday kickoff looking like April 16th. Now a listener van on his Android phone said it was. Sunday, but I think that was like an Android. Y'all sometimes countdown. It's like saying it's like the next day. And you're like, no, it's. Like van got very confused van like rebooked flights and sat Navan. It's it's it's April 16th. Where we're going. We're going to go that, and there is a new countdown timer on the USFL website too. So you can, at any time of any second of the day, you could go onto USFL, two.com and see that got them. Very cool stuff. So four of the head coaches were announced out of the eight. First, first and foremost, the New Jersey generals have hired Mike Riley. Formerly of, we know from Oregon state as a pack 12 fan myself, I had to deal with Mike Riley a lot. He really took Oregon state and brought them up quite an quite a few levels. And so much so that when he left in 98 to go to, and you're missing one here, he actually went to coach the San Diego chargers when they were in San Diego. That's where he, he left Oregon state to go to San Diego, to coach in an NFL franchise. And then he came back to Oregon state after. You know, flailing out. As the chargers had coached great resume for him. He's won two gray cups. I'm sure our Canadian fans would be great. Great to bring that up. You know, he's, he's pretty much coached everywhere. He was, you know, with a San Antonio commander commanders and the AAF. It's just it's. It's great to see my, get another chance. I think he's a great, fantastic coach. What he did at Oregon state. It's very hard. To not only convince kids to come to Corvallis. It's also hard to recruit against Phil Knight and the Nike money that goes into Oregon. And Mike Riley did a great job at Oregon state. So it's a good ad for, for the USFL to get a guy. Like Mike Riley. To sign ups and that's a great hire for, for Brian. What's in his crew to get that. That level coach. It's just it's weird because, so there was no like Bob stoops, there was no Kevin Gilbert. Th there was a lot of chatter this week that there would be half the teams would be XFL coaches, all this stuff, right. You don't have your Jerry glam bills, right? You don't have your, how mommy's, you know, have your June Jones. You'll have a lot of the guys, whether that's good or bad. I would, as a busted. Glanville coming back in for an 18 time. Like I would much rather let's see what Mike Riley has in the tank. He was also, and I kind of forgot this in my haze stream. Cause we didn't. We live to through the original XFL 2020, we didn't cover it. He was the OCA, the XFL dragons. He missed the season because of personal reasons. And then the season ended. So we didn't like. Remember Jim Zoran was like play calming and be in the coach and didn't know how many points, extra points where he was like, oh, we're going to go for three. We're going to go for three. Sorry. I don't know my bunch about Bart Andrus. So I can't really speak to that. I, you know, it's clear that he did coach in the spring league, so they've already got some familiar with them. Some familiarity with him. He was with the Argos for a season. I don't know much about Bart. I don't know where you know, what his pedigree is, but it looks like a solid hire. Maybe, you know, Not quite the resume of like a Mike Riley or someone that's coming up that we're gonna talk about the second. But you have anything to add to that? Yeah. So Bart was with team nine. So that was that extra XFL team member. There was the original. What's good about Bart is I think a lot of these coaches. Maybe people that were asked and that we've done a lot of chatter with some of the people that you would imagine that done chatter with online. You're offline, like in, in the, you know, messages and stuff. I think when the coaches found out like, oh, we're going to have five weeks to get ready. And like, maybe this is what the salaries are. We don't know the salaries, you know, maybe you're getting people that are okay with working for a little less and working with a little less time. So if you're like Bart Andrus and you've done the spring league and you're like, oh, I kind of get that. I can get a team together in the month. Maybe you get Bob stoops and he's like, why are you. I can't Bob's like Southern, right? It's like texts. Oh God. Yeah. I'm not going to do that. So I could just see. You getting, maybe not like the big, hot shot. I mean, We'll get through all the names. And then I want to see what you think is the biggest name. Anyway, bar is good because he's good with that. The quick turnaround with like the XFL and the spring lake. So, yeah, it hasn't been been. Had been confirmed yet is. The rumors that gene Chizik from Auburn, most notably from Auburn, that the, he was the head coach there. I believe he's wanting national championship. Yep. That's correct. He's won a national championship as a head coach at Auburn. That was with cam Newton. So gene Chizik is rumored to be the head coach general manager of Birmingham has been confirmed yet, but his Wikipedia page pretty much has confirmed. But he's going to do it. Yeah. So they, that came out today, ESPN league or yesterday, you know, wherever you're listening, ESPN came out and they said it was going to be gene. It was going to be Kevin Todd, and then Bart. They didn't have Mike on there. And, and during the day Jean tweeted, cause he was tagged in all these tweets and I'm sure he woke up and was like, what is happening? And he basically, he came out and he was like, You know, we we've been talking nothing's finalized yet. So the joke today in watching the Colin coward show is because it was so late in the show that there was actual jokes being made like, well, where are we waiting on Jean to sign the contract? Like, is this why we've pushed this? Like, we've gone to our two, we've gotten everything. Cause there really did seem like Collins. Like, Hey, let's talk about baker Mayfield again, let's talk. And we're like, we've done three segments on baker Mayfield. Like, why are we doing? But it really seemed like they kept pushing it. And even when they did the announcement, it wasn't a full division. It was two north. Coaches. Where you would think I, you would just announce the north of it. These are weird teams. Like why are we announcing New Jersey Philadelphia? Birmingham or. Gamblers. And then Dan it's like, it just doesn't, it's just weird. It seemed like Collin was a little thrown today too. Like he was on his phone a lot during the show, like maybe getting notes, like, Hey, we don't have gene yet. Maybe that's the point, maybe like. The other four haven't officially agreed to terms yet. Possibly. One of the ones that did agree to terms is a. My arch. Jeez. When I saw you tweet, I I'm glad you have takes. Yeah, I saw. You go back and forth on Twitter about this Kevin Sumlin. I know Ms. Kevin rumbling. Look. Alcoholism's. I shouldn't be poking fun at this, but. Literally, this guy took a paycheck. In Tucson. To drink and not give a s**t. Pardon? My French about coaching the university of Arizona Wildcats. It was a stop gap feature. Like he was let go from Texas tech saying him. And Arizona not being a prominent football school, always hires these retreads until. I don't even know. Until recently is a good thing. Cause Jedd fish. Down there in Tucson. He's got the great he's got. A great atmosphere and environment for the school that no other coach has really had for forever. I've been following university football, Arizona football. Since I was a child. Dick Tommy really wasn't as friendly with the media. When Dick told me left. They brought in this guy named John Mackovic was real a*****e. I'm sorry, I'm being really vulgar tonight, but. John Mackovic was terrible. And then they brought in Mike stoops to replace him. Mike stoops got Arizona closer. But. Didn't quite get them there. Then they hired rich Rodriguez. And rich Rodriguez had he given, been given more time? And it wasn't, he wasn't like when he got fired, he got fired for me to issue, apparently that. That wasn't completely accurate. Like he got fired without, you know, All the facts coming out. And sure enough he's probably should have been terminated. So because they terminated native terminated him late in the year. They had to rely on retread and Kevin Sumlin to come in. And we all were in favor because we knew what Kevin, someone did a Houston at university of Houston. That was his first. And coaching gig. Was being the head coach at Houston. He did great things at Houston. Didn't do quite great things and em, but everybody thought, well, Kevin Sumlin will come into Arizona. And he'll bring in a style that we haven't, you know, we haven't dealt with it. And we're like when Kevin, someone gets hold of the [unknown] tape, In Tucson. Kevin, someone's going to make him a Heisman winner. Because he was already on the cover of sports illustrated. We'll take was, they were talking about how he was going to be the first person in university of Arizona history to be like a real Heisman contender. And his numbers, like he was like, people were worried he was going to leave school early. But what Kevin Sumlin and I believe it was no Elmo. [Unknown] it was offensive coordinator. What they did. To kill a little Tate was just despicable. They ruined him. And now he's playing wide receiver, probably. I don't know if he's still playing wide receiver for the Eagles. But that's where he went. He was drafted by the Eagles Eagles to be a wide receiver. As opposed to being that type of Michael, that player that's, you know, dual threat that we saw. I mean, You go back and watch old Kaleel Tate. When he was under rich rod system, you'll be blown away, but Kevin's Kevin Rosalyn. I ruined him. Ruined. Any Goodwill the fans had in Tucson. And I am just worried that he's not going to take this seriously. Because they already got a check. He's set for life. He doesn't care. And I'm worried about anybody who's fans of the Houston gamblers. Having a coach that doesn't care. That's my big takeaway from this. Well, I saw comments that people in Houston is specific and I don't obviously know all that Baxter that buddy's like people in Houston don't really love him, even though he coached. In Houston, right then. This isn't like, oh, we're going to bring in Jim's Orin right to Seattle. I was like, oh, we love Jim's already. I mean, it's not as cut and dry there. Again, I don't. I didn't live through all that. Like you did right there. There are coaches that coach. Because they want to make a change in the bag. And getting the bag is a secondary. Benefit. Nick Saban, probably a good example of that. He gets a big back. What he wants to coach kids. [Unknown] money. Yeah. Yeah. Saban wants to coach kids. That's his primary reason to do it. He wants to win. Kevin, someone just wants to get a flipping back. He doesn't care about changing kids' lives. And that was going to deal with adults and he's never coached adults. That's the thing. That's what urban Meyer ran into. Like you can mold children that are 18 and you can teach them how to be scummy people like urban Meyer is, but then now Kevin, someone's coming into a situation where he's dealing with grown adults. Who have played at college level. And they're not going to quite take to his, if he's going to have adjustment period and. This is a, this is a terrible hire, Brian. It's a terrible hire. I'm going to, I'm going to flat out say this is a terrible hire. I don't think Kevin, someone deserves to be around any football program, whether it be high school, college pros, anything he's a terrible coach. And now you're going to give them another shot at this, whatever. I heard this last game was like 77 or something I've seen. I've seen a lot of common. That was embarrassing as an Arizona fan. When you lose to that school, Arizona state Tempe normal teachers, college, 70 to seven, you should never coach a gang in your life. Again. And it's b******t. I'm sorry. I just, I can't believe this guy got another chance. I can't believe it. As we get backs that we have. We've got hang maxes. I hope we get some Paul hotcakes on these coaches. Evan rumbling. Is it a tiny Haley. I've also heard mixed things about him. Cause I heard, you know, Todd here, I, and I'm looking at his staff, right. We have, you know, He was with New York and Chicago and Dallas five receivers coach. And then he was the head coach of the chiefs. Wasn't great. There. He was with the Steelers. I know listeners, Zach, wasn't a fan of him there. And then he was with the coordinator with the Browns and they got fired by week eight. You gotta be doing something bad to get fired by the Browns. Back in 18 and we get. Right. I think he was scapegoated in that situation. That's pretty inaccurate. Thing that happened. When it comes to it, like, you know, I think that was, that was, was that the hue year. That was, I believe that was when he was coaching Cleveland and they were looking to scapegoat people because Cleveland wasn't doing what it should be doing. Cleveland's a mess. Todd, Haley's a gray, gray, Gregory offensive coordinator. Head coach not sure. It's like. Who's that guy. Who's that guy that I hated. Norv Turner north Turner. That one guy. I hate a lot of people, north Turner. I don't hate them. Nor. I just strongly despise him. Norv Turner was a die. Who made Troy Aikman, Troy Aikman that an offensive line that Dallas had during those, during those magical years. Norv Turner was a guy that was Troy Aikman's quarterback, coach. And it kept moving up. Yeah. It's the Peter principle. You get promoted to the highest level of your incompetence. That's what works. We saw that we see that in corporate America, there are people that get jobs and you're like, well, how did they get. How did they get that job? Peter principle, you get hired. He promoted to the highest level of your incompetence. It's a true thing. So Todd is a great offensive coordinator. Head coach not sure. Not sure. So you think Mike, Riley's a slam dunk, the other three. Yeah. Bart is a little odd, right? Cause you. I mean, he was in NFL Europe. I mean, he's had a good pedigree over there. People will say, I, that bar address stands. That will say also there are people that say they, he's not a big enough name, but I guess I think fitting in the system is more important there, but you think that Mike Riley's the only good of these four. I mean, you know, like if they, if they actually got gene Chizik I think that's a good hire for them. Okay. I think gene Chizik, if he's actually confirmed, he's going to do it. I think it's a good hire. I think Gene's a good hire. I think Mike, Riley's a good hire. Kevin Sumlin is just the worst thing. And Tom Haley. Yeah. I mean, he could do good. I'm not going to knock it completely right now. But. Kevin someone is going to just my God. So w so the three were still what he says again. So Gene's Jessica isn't confirmed, but that would be for this Diane. So the Maulers Genesee and the modelers Panthers act teams, the Panthers, and then breakers, which is your team. I mean, if you don't forget that. So that we are waiver that I love this, that we have this quote from Brian with, you know, today as the monumental day, new USFL. Yeah. We hit a hundred days with. He's talking about the coaches. They all share believe in high quality, spring football, and we are honored to have them lead. Their respective teams is here. Exclamation boy here, we can't wait to hit the field. Excavation way. That's the least Brian Woods thing you could do ever imagine. Brian being like we're asking. The field. Like Brian. It's like a cheerleader like that to me. You think he's out there like Ron? I don't, I don't ever, I mean, I don't, I don't ever get that vibe. Yeah. I was like, Brian never talked to an exclamation point. Brian's like, please don't include me in your article anyway. So that is the coach. Is we, I would imagine a Colin coward redox next week. I would just imagine they. They announced Wednesday again, but we'll see it. We don't know yet when they're going to announce the other ones, but they are out there. The tell Brian to call me, I got to talk to about this. A USFL training camp starting March 21st. Player selection meeting. I assume that's the draft is February 22nd. Yeah. It's even in the thumbnail for the area, for the episode tonight, it's like the exit or the USFL draft. Because I tweeted it, Eric who's like the, the EVP of whatever I go, not he's EVP of like Fox and you just felt, I go, not one person ever said, I want to watch the player selection meeting, or I want to read about the player section. I want to read about draft, even if it's not a draft, it's called a draft. Yeah. The draft. You don't have to like. Change how the wheels invented. The pay attention to care about your product. Just call it a draft. This is so weird. [Unknown] Kevin, someone. Yeah, we got all this. So mark, we're all on the personalities. Now mark got this memo. So training camps are going to begin Monday, March 21st. I even though the USFL. There's been so much crazy stuff. The last few days, I can't even fill everyone in on this. Like the USFL has tweeted two different times, like different calendars, circling. Circling. Dates and being like a. Yeah, March 21st, like we're kicking off, but it's like the April calendar, but then it's showing like a Wednesday and say like, [unknown]. The social media people with the USFL are crazy. Dre cams are going to begin. March 21st players will be employed directly by the USFL. We know that there's going to be eight teams in a 10 week season. This is interesting and players will be employees and receive base compensation as well as wind bonuses. That's very similar to what the XFL did, right? If you win a game, you get 1200 bucks or whatever. Right? What do you think about this? Each team is going to have a 38 man roster and seven practice squad. People. Okay. That's what. It is very small. You're talking about basically. Will you talk about like squads and teams or like. You know, 11, 11 was that. Basically. Two teams and then defensive unit with some additional defensive players. Essentially. Okay. That's then that's then I wonder if they, I wonder if they chose that low of a number, say money. Because they know they're going to be competing in draft pools with the XFL next year and the CFL this year. I wonder if they said, okay, let's just carry 45 men. 38 Play in seven. Our practice. Let's just carry that low number. Cause we're we're we're now in talent pools. With these other spring football leagues and the CFL of course. Okay. I'm. I'm gonna drop this for you right now. I was going to say this later in the show. So how many days, the way that we say the USFL was from kicking off a hundred. Okay. Guess who also in that. That they're a hundred days away from gigging off. Oh, Very true. Football and that today they're a hundred. So facial football is kicking off the same Saturday, the USAA, I mean, I could scream into a wall. And the thing is, is there like, and the worst part about God. They're so frustrating because the worst part of it is like, we're not even football anyway. They don't. Why are you starting on the same day? The USFL is starting. If you're not. You're going to get the same players. You want the sample? I mean, I'm like you guys. I'm like that is insane. Even less. So people are talking. I have a list here coming up about the things that we don't know about the USFL. We know even less about facial football and they're kicking off in a hundred days. Wow. Anyway. They, the players must have played two years in high school. There's going to be the draft. We talked about that real quick. I know. Open trial. It's at all, anyone that's going to be involved in the USFL. They're going to talk to your agent or they're going to reach out to you directly. There's been a lot of markets, people emailing. I get people messaging, you know, trying to send tapes in. You have to go through your agent. They'll talk to your agent, all that stuff. Breezing through this stuff. The one cool thing the USFL is doing is they are going to, if you go through a couple of specific colleges, these strategic education, Strayer university and Capella university, I believe they're both online academies, you know, accredited. They will help pay for your schooling because they're trying to get younger players. The XFL did this with Kenny Robinson with about a Hawk that was pointed out. But the point I got about this is like, if we're going to be doing little benefits, if I, if I'm the XFL or the USFL, it's like, if you're working at Facebook or Google, right. And they're like, oh, we have better snacks. Like we got better snacks. We're going to pay for your insurance. We're going to give you an Orca passes. Like. What little benefits can we do to get you in our league? I like this idea. What do you think? I like this idea a lot. It's actually a really good ideas. Like a lot of these players just think they're going to go to the NFL. They don't finish school. And now they can, but I mean, at the same time, like there are so many players that can go back to school. At the school they were originally rolled in and they could. Let's be honest. These players, if they flame out in the NFL, they go back to college. If get their degrees. They're not really going to pay for anything, either in those situations either because there's going to be boosters, gonna be like, I remember that one guy that. That was great for us his freshman year. And then he went the NFL flamed out while he's coming back to school. Boosters are going to cover it. I mean, We know what's happening in college called sports. And I think another thing that might change this in terms of people, in terms of this being a drawing point, Let's say. Where a kid can go one freshman in college, I can go to USFL. And I can make money. And get a degree from Capella university. Well, now colleges allow you to license your name, image, and likeness. So you don't necessarily need to jump to the pros right now. You could, you can necessarily great. Be a great player. Stay in college all four years. And still make plenty of money. Licensing your name, image, and likeness. So that might be in a short term, that might be a short-term benefit to the USFL. But in the longterm, in this. N I L thing really starts going off for colleges. It might not be as much of a draw. We're okay. I'm going to go get a degree from Capella university and playing. Pro league. As opposed to I'm going to go. To Alabama. Yeah. And get an Alabama degree. Because better than Auburn one. And get an Alabama degree. And I'm going to go win a national championship two out of the three years on playing and get a degree there. And then I'll have a better, and then I'll have a better chance at the NFL. So in the short term, I like it in the longterm. If that's how you're trying to draw kids. To maybe not consider college and go to the USFL. I'm not sure that's as much of a draws you might think it is, but I like the idea. I like the premise. I like, I like the drawing power of giving kids. And I say kids, even though they're adults, they're younger than I am giving kids an opportunity to get a college education that they might've skipped out on. Believing an agent and going to the NFL or trying their luck, you know, somewhere else. Yeah. I just like incentivizing people. I liked benefits. We got, we have better benefits package. Belmont state we're going to get through this. We're spending on things because I just, I have so many. Ideas about this. It's good. So, Oh, yeah. I'm just helping you. Yeah, I'm good. But I'll talk forever. Belmont stakes is moving the Fox sports eight year deal. W we're only going to this. Online sports, betting sports, betting, USFL, all these things. Fox. You know, listeners, Seth, they think, you know, this is more fuel on the fire. That Fox really has a lot of ammunition to make this work. Again, it's not the league building though that we want, they just they're like we have a TV show, we have coaches, we have football. Right. But like all the people that are wanting to see the USFL want that league building Fox is like, no, but we're going to have sports betting with horse racing and with football and with fantasy, like we don't need all that other stuff. But it is good that they're getting the, you know, Very true. Do you see these logos real quick? This is north south logos. I'm going to put them on the thing that they took the time to tweet those out. This is our north division logo. It's an end in the meth. That's pretty graphic graphic design is my passion. It's so basic. Y'all some basic b*****s over there at the USFL. I'm telling you. Before this last thing before we move on from the U S develop listener, max and I put together this list tonight. I was like, Jesus. And, you know, Reed's got a point. So, and I am supportive of all these leagues except, you know, I'm teasing. Ah, But these, so today, Th, this is what we right now you're like read Paul, whether we still need to learn about the USFL before April 16th. Confirmation of the host city of Birmingham for more of the coaches, three more of the coaches who the players are, where the players are getting paid, what the coaches are getting paid, how long the contracts are for what does non-compete look like? What are the covert protocols for players, staff, and fan. Dates times and networks for games, international broadcasters. If any commentators are they on the radio? How has the player selection process going to work? Do you have the team front office personnel get hired coaching staff, who is the offensive coordinator, defensive coordinator, et cetera. Who's doing the stats. Who's doing the insurance. What are the rules? What are the referees doing? Uniforms, sponsors, fantasy football partners. If we have missed anything, please let me know. That is the list on my Twitter that we currently don't know about. The U S about. Hm. That's a lot. That's a lot of stuff that they needed. Iron out. But we have four and a half, five head coaches. Wow. All right. The XFL, do we have time? Let's just go on XFL. I'll throw it. Why not? Danny Garcia tweeting 365 days away from training camp. The rock is sharing a video. Somebody on Twitter is probably talking about, about that. And then the XFL, Instagram and Twitter shared the video as well. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. The government. Yeah, so we are at 365 days away from training camp. It's going to be January 3rd, Tuesday, according to Danny suites. I just a really funny story, Paul at the XFL shop is down right now and it's password protected. So there's kind of been an ongoing thing. Listeners, Jake Henry, a lot of people we've been like trying different passwords, right? Like, you know, Mexico, we're going to talk about Mexico coming up, you know, like Dwayne, the rock Johnson, right? Yeah, whatever passwords you would think of, like, what is the XFL locking the shop by, right? Is it, you know, password 1, 2, 3. So. Jake Henry. Today tweets that you guys, they took away the injure password box. Like they must be getting ready to launch the shop and someone went on there and they go, no, they literally went into the code and hit it on the website because they were so sick and tired of people entering passwords, because I'm sure they were getting some sort of like air message. Guarantee. Yeah, that seems about right. If there were like how many times did Jake Henry try to answer the passwords on the shop? Crazy. Okay. So the big news about this is a and the title of the episode XFL is international love. So the XFL posted, they had the controller job posted last week. We reported that's the money person for the XFL. Listeners Seth discover the new job on indeed. It is for a ticket's operations post. And what is interesting about this? It's the senior director of ticket operations talking about building, managing the leaks ticket operations, all that stuff. Overseeing technology and operations for the league teams and venues domestically and internationally. Internationally. Yeah. And so we'll, we'll continue going down here, but so that's point kind of a keeping that there. And mark said that that piqued a lot of people's interests, right? We've rumored, Mexico city. Mike Mitchell has said that on the podcast, Mexico city, Toronto, London. They, the excavator has also closed at least what I've seen closed down the controller job opening because it showed like how many applicants they had and it had like 70. So I imagine they were like, we got enough. But the 0.2 of this story is that the XFL has a filed Marc saw and that they had filed in Canada too. But I think that was like an older trademark as they were, the games are on TSN and all of that. But they have, as of November filed a trademark. To sell merchandise broadcast services. In Mexico and it was filed November 18th, 2021. Hm. Interesting. Do you think, do you think that they're looking to put a team in Toronto? Are you talking Mexico or Toronto? Both. Well, this to me seems more like pointing to Mexico longterm. Okay. I mean. I have to say I do. Mike Mitchell even said on thing he goes, he goes, I think it's really weird that you had some merchandise in the country with no team. Unless there were already going to put a team there. Well, and so I, cause I said, so my tweet was, so the whole story behind this was, you know, we're going through all the Washington football staff and everyone's trying to figure out is that the commander is the admirals, whatever. So Josh Gruden, who's a lawyer posted. He goes. You know, The trademark is probably applied already in a country that shares with the U S it's they're all in like a pack. And he said, you know, the us is, is public. You can, anyone in the us like, you know, we own the mark as trademarks. They'd be able to get searched the Mark House. And it would say re. Paul on this. But so clearly, right? If you're the Washington football team, you don't want them to know that it's going to be the Washington suck, stupid team name or whatever it gives. It's not the route. It should be the rebels. So you're going to go, like I trademark that in Malaysia or whatever, the, the sister thing, and then you can transfer it in. Cause they're all connected. So again, listen to Jake Henry got on, and that's how we discovered all this was just cause he's like, well, I'm going to go search other countries right now. Like I never even thought about that. So we found these and it seems weird that it's November, that they applied for this in November for broadcast, which obviously you're going to air games, but then clothing and scarves and hats and all that other stuff. Will they apply for this? If they didn't already have a deal in place? Or maybe there they've got 13 talks with a deal for Mexico. I mean, you, you know, it costs them money to apply. I mean, and obviously people like you, and I know they were like, oh, this is no big. You know, you could apply for this. It's no big deal. Right. But it just seems weird. It seems weird that you would do that. I, I feel better about Mexico than I do Canada with kind of everything else going on. Right. A lot of hostility up north, not as much down south. On the note of the XFL, we talked about a huge accident earlier. For a Brown's head coach. And we said that he might've been the, the. They might escape go to Todd Haley when they should have probably gotten a few Jackson. That's what I was thinking about. Since he's the new head coach at Grambling state university, big job. Eddie Robinson was there for years and years of legendary coach at Grambling state. Hugh Jackson's their new head coach and he's happy there. He is not going to the XFL. But the point was is that the XFL had reached out there already where we just learned five. Hey go to today for the USFL, one of them, which the paper might've signed today. We don't, you know, Jean shit's gear. I can't say that [unknown]. Jet-skis. I mean, this guy, XFL is already recruiting these coaches. Now, the other thought we saw on the thing tonight is cause the XFL we're presuming, you know, February, whatever for no, for the arbitrary reason for the coaches, are they waiting until the NFL black ma or. W red Monday, whatever they call it, where they fire all the coaches. And then as the XFL again, to see if Matt Nagy gets, let go is not Nagy going to the XFL. Well, he's going to be like, oh, anyway. That's entail. Like, are we seeing that rule is not Rogan to be cruising the dragons? Oh, God. We met real coaches dragons. You might need to change teams. You know, he's going to screw it up. But I'm just saying. Do you think that the XFL might be waiting to see which NFL coaches are available this year? Yeah. That's fair. Let let the USFL shoot their loan and hiring these retreads and not saying Mike Riley's a retread, nor is Todd Haley. Kevin Ramond definitely is let the USFL make dirt mistakes by hiring people like Kevin. And then hire the good people that are left over and going, okay, well, we're going to bring in, you know, I mean, my naggy and rural aren't really good coaches, but they, they would be better than the big name. They'd be better than some of the coaches that the XFL brought in. Last time I. Let's see let's. I mean, Bob stoops is good. That was a good hire. Darren Jim Zorn. Negotiable. Dean Jones. June Jones, good coach, probably a little bit of a retread at that point. And then, and then, you know, you got. You get you. You get people like. I don't want to see. I don't want to see Jamie Elizondo back. Well, he was OSI cause it was under transmit Trestman was, but he was a CFL. And I'm worried that you know, that they'll look at his pedigree now, always it had coach let's bring him in. I don't want to see him in the XFL. I think that he's a toxic coach. Oh, you want to bring him on and talk about it? We can. I thought they've got a jealous. We could just start off by saying, Hey coach, do you know the reason you're the reason Reed is in an elk stand right now is because some of the culture that you. Contributed to Coachella Zonda. Okay. I'm just gonna throw it out there. Do it stared, Dennis is confirmed to come on the show here in a couple of weeks. Begin. Edmonton and the culture. And speaking to the CFL, we're going to take a break. We're going to talk to a re is going to talk to Vernon, Adam Adams. Basically his neighbor. We found that out. We're gonna talk to Vernon Adams Jr. Quarterback for the Montreal Elowitz, then we're gonna come back and we're gonna talk more CFL since we're already. Heading that way with the Vernon Matt Adams interview. That's coming up right after this. Great segment Paul Gray. That was good. That's good. I always gray, but that's what we need. This, this is good. This is really good. We're going to Blake. There's not a lot of CFL. We're going to blaze through it here. That was really good. I'm glad you were. I'm glad you appreciate it. That was really good that. I really appreciate that. That was really good. I turned it on today. That's good. Cause it was Kevin Sumlin and that's good. Well, Kevin, someone gets you out of the bed every week here. That's going to be good. Welcome back to the show. Thanks to Vernon Adams for chatting with Reed. I'm still kind of like, I'm still kind of coming down off being angry about this whole Kevin rumbling thing. Like it's, it's seriously bothering me that anybody gives him another chance. I would say we were saying in the break. I mean, that's not a break. Then in our fake edit right there. That might have been one of the best thing Ms. Paula era. Yeah. All over that. I mean, you know, but if you agree. I give a, give a thumbs up, give Paul some kudos in the, in the chat. I thought that was a great, I thought that was a good rant. I re I had a little bit of hot take there going on. I was, I was throwing out some flames, so. So to speak. So, yeah. Cool. CFL news now, steel Stelco holdings. I'm going to say. Stoke holdings. Like if there's an extra Ian, there still Goldings has executed agreements. With the current owners of the Hamilton sports group for 40% purchase. In the Hamilton tiger cats and for Jeff C apparently, or Jessie, and then the lease of Tim Horton's failed. This is good. I mean, Bob young had kind of come in, you know, he had kind of rescued the, the team from bankruptcy back, you know, years ago. And you know, Bob is getting older and aids. This is a good way for Bob. I think to transition out, Bob is still the majority owner right now. And they said, this is an overdue union of two Tamar Hamilton icons with style. Because the 110 plus year history and the tie cat's own history dating back 150 years. It's just, I think, you know, years now, Bob's going to start stepping back, you know, until he's no longer, which is fine. I mean, he's the caretaker, but Bobby even said, I watched the whole, they did a really nice like zoom announcement with him. I imagine if you could have done that on the podcast. The past has been trying to get him to come on. But he, you know, he said like, I wanted to be the caretaker, but like, ultimately I want to be a fan. Like, he's like, I'm a fan of this team. And I want to go back to being able to be a fan of the team, which I really respect. And I think that Bob came across tremendous with all of this. I think it was good. I like the idea of him, you know, returning to his fan status. And it feels like he, he was doing the CFL favor by taking care of this team. Is that, is that a fair conclusion? We can draw at this point. Yeah. I mean, he calls himself the caretaker lovingly that he, that he kind of rescued this team and has. You know, built it back up in Hamilton's. I mean, there are power. Returning to Calgary next year. The mayor, Jake Mayer. It's coming back to the stamps. Yeah, we have. So this is breaking news. We have a lot of Calgary. I think Danny Austin's coming on next week. I think I've got all this lined up. Danny's been covering the flames, getting spanked by the four of the Panthers this week. It was like, really not good. But I think he's going to come on because we have a lot of stuff we're talking about. Jake Mayer is returning. I am a big Jake Mayer guy. I have not lived through the last, you know, half a decade of the believer I Mitchell love. I know that believe I Mitchell, is it. You know, perennial, CFL, favorite, everyone loves bow. I know Jake is Beau wasn't that great this season and people know ours are anyway. And the bow is kind of in this whole like contract renegotiation where he's due a hundred thousand dollar bonus. And, and their, yeah. January 15th is when he's due to collect this. Cause he signed this four year deal back in February. So they're trying to figure out. We have Jake Mayer. Right. We've resigned him. He's the young rookie. And then we have a Levi Mitchell, this do all this money, and then we've just signed Tommy Stevens. And the American quarterback. So it's like, what do we have going on here? You see that we have three, like there's a lot of quarterbacks here. I. The writing seems to be on the wall for about Levi. Yes. The writing's on the wall for him. If I'm believe I I'm calling my agent being like, Hey, can you give me a trade? Can you give me a trade? Can you, can you get me out of this? I saw someone hypothesized believer to Toronto. I would, I would definitely sign up for that. Did you take about Levi's your franchise quarterback? Well, I mean, they're only down to what. McCloud. At the time we have McLeod. You have a cloud? I would take my God. It's my, and I have a story coming up here about Michael Ryan, healthy bowl. Levi Mitchell. Might be an upgrade. Whoa. I think that might be hotter than the given someone might be an upgrade. Mike, I'm saying Mike. I mean. Look, look, look. His win-loss record. Believe I Mitchell's 180 4 games. In the time that he's been under snap, 84. He's only lost 22 games. Ty twice. He wins, you know what. What's the percent on it. He wins. At the time he wins more than 75% of the time he takes snaps under center. That that's not a bad thing to do. That might not be a bad thing to do. Do you know anything about Tommy Steven seventh round selection by the new Orleans in 2020? I don't know. Yeah. It seems like the big thing, you know, bringing up the American. I, I think he has got a trainer. I mean, I don't know. I mean, do we want that the pants? I mean, he would, if he, when did the, when did the scenes have in 2020, right? What is he competing against Jamison and taste them? In new Orleans in 2020? Yeah. He was still with, he was still competing with drew. But drew was that, but I mean, he was with Jason was there cause James was still in Tampa. Awesome. Note James was in. Danville is in Tampa. What is he into 2020? Yeah. No. With E R he's at T yeah. Cause he. He was already in. I spent two years there. He was already in new Orleans. What I'm saying. So if Tommy can be that Jamis or taste them, taste them is not even a quarterback. I mean, he's not casing. It's not quite. Not really. No. He's a Wildcat quarterback. We can call him Matt. No, he's not a quarterback. And James isn't much for quarterback. Jamie's steels crab legs, but it doesn't quarterback. I don't know that that's. You know, the saints. I mean, That's that's another thing I'm thinking now is like the saints need a quarterback and there's chatter. At this weekend is going to be the last time that Russell and Pete are going to be together. Is. The sand's going to throw. Their future draft. And because the Seahawks need BRAF picks. Right. They made a bad decision by getting Jamal Adams. So can the saints throw their draft picks to try to get Russell Wilson? Finish out his career in new Orleans. That's an upgrade from James. That's an upgrade from taste them. They've got a better offensive line. Russell Wilson on the saints. Would excite any new Orleans fan? Oh yeah. So I mean, that, that that's in that camp too. I know that van lists a super van van that we've had for you. Number one fan ban. I asked me what I thought about Russell's answered any and Russell's like, you know, I want to win plenty of Superbowls here in Seattle. That was a political answer. He is. You know, he cares about how he's viewed in the community. He's giving a political answer, but make no mistake. One of these two people. If not both. We'll not be in Seattle. No, no. In the next two months. Maybe, maybe not the next two months, but by the time the season starts either Russell or Pete, or maybe both of them will be gone. And my money's on Russell still. Oh, tell him. It will compete on that. He has a big contract right now. So Alawites had a couple of these, a couple of news. I've talked with Vernon about this. Cause obviously these effective for any quite a bit, it worked out good timing wise as Andy Coveo. He is like the legendary macho quarterback. He took them to a gray cops. One three and they had Jeff rival. Jeff had had tweeted this week. He was stepping down from the Thai cat special teams. There's been some, was it because of that whole one point, remember they gave up the point, we're still talking about the one point and all that, but anyway, so, but I think this is like huge for Vernon. You bring in this legendary quarterback, you have to work with him as the coach. They call them the pivots coach up there in the CFL. And then Jeff rival. I mean, Al lats are really making a push here to be very, very competitive next year. I mean, to me, We're almost there. They were almost there. Yeah. With a backup Trevor Harris traded quarterback. Mitzi's I mean, this to me is, is good. Really good stuff for the outlets. Yup. The Elks of redone, the quarterback of a contractor quarterback, Nick Arbuckle. Who was originally signed under a four. 2022 Under the previous GM. It's the same salary. But it includes a hundred thousand for assigning bumps when you're doing. Well, it's interesting because, so they've resigned him, right? Because the previous GM, but then we have Chris Jones here saying like, we still need to find a quarterback. Like I'm talking to guys, I'm talking to guys with NFL experience. I basically like Chris Jones really isn't sold on their car buckle and I don't know. I don't know if Nick Arbuckle is long for the Alex, he said, we're going to look at what we have. First. I just got off the phone with a guy about two quarterbacks that are on the streets. One of them with NFL background and one of them without. They also, this is the interesting part of that. It gives me pause. Last time Jones was in Edmonton. His quarterback was Michael Riley, Paul, and apparently there is stuff going on on the west coast right now. And I, if Michael Riley. Goes to Edmonton to end his career, which we make sense, you know? All that we have, Michael Riley leaves me to go to Edmonton. That is going to be dark times. It would be, especially since you left Edmonton to come to BC. I mean Riley, where from. I mean, it's all, you know, it's like, I get it. But I'm just saying selfishly, I would be sad about that. Chris Jones. Starting to Bolton board material already saying he doesn't see Cody. Jarno as a passer. You know, what's going to happen is Cody vagina is going to open up a can of whoop ass on the August one time and throw for like 400 flipping yards. And then maybe you'll see them as a pastor, Chris. Yeah. I thought that was good. The last thing here. We have just a couple of voicemails where we go. Did you see the blue bomber is on the Simpsons? I didn't, I saw the photo, but I didn't see the one hour, you know, Yeah, they, they, the Springfield Adam's dominated their opponents. 42 To three. Well, and then it was Adam Schefter is like they're visiting team. And they're going to go and try their luck. Canadian football league. But here's the thing, CFL fan it's like, oh, that's so funny. It's like, they're making fun of you. Yeah. Like when we joke about when we're not even joking about you not making fun of you, we're not like to your. You know, we're not B rating. You, we're not downplaying you, but when we, when we make. Comments about like the viability of your league and we're commentary show that like covers things from a, from a perspective of opinion, we still cover things journalistically. When we do it. Critically and honestly, without like malice. We get flamed. So why don't you guys hate the Simpsons? Because they did it with malice. They were making fun of you. A couple quick voicemails here before we go. And then we'll get out of here. This is good. So based off the coaching announcements. By the U S. Well, who do you think has the best. Team. Just by having the coaches so far. As listeners to ax act, make sure you say your name next time so we can. Zac. Again, it's gotta be Riley. Riley's the right guy right now. For the GI for the generals. With Jim with gene Chizik being close. Second, not even close second, but just a second. We have one firm. I don't think Steve has left a voicemail for it. This one's a little lengthy, but it's, we'll get there. Paul and Rita happy new year. I played it for you guys between the CFL, XFL and USFL. I'm hoping for more, as Reed would put it jam packed episodes. Something I'd like to comment on. When you had your show with Mike Mitchell, who is in my opinion. Somebody you should do maybe a monthly special episodes with, because he's so great and knowledgeable. Is of course, lots of talks about using this leak as a jumping pad to get to the NFL. And I know you guys will understand. Is that I think it should also be known that it is okay if your career. Peaks in easily eggs. It's okay to be a Zack Calero. So Vernon. Adam's or to. Paul's distaste at Jeremiah Mazzoli. Having legends. He knows all that stuff. Is great for marketing and should be greatly celebrated my opinion. Best of luck in the new years guys, and go bombers, go to peak baby. Well thief wash it. The two Peters at three-peat. Yeah. Yeah. Now, so what do you think of, I mean, that it's, you know, like I, and we typed with Vernon about that, right? Like, Vernon's worked really hard. He's really content like in the CFL, right? I mean, when you give up that like, well, I'm not going to go to. I mean, I'm happy here. I'm happy being the whale in the, in the pond. There are a lot of people that, that are comfortable with that. A lot of people are comfortable with that. I mean, I personally for me, like the biggest amount of growth you can do is when you step outside your comfort zone. And I, that that's a cliche. I know it's a cliche, but at the same time, it's so accurate because like, In terms of like my career moves would come into LA, like the biggest amount of growth happened when I got here. You know, If you've already been to the show. And you just want to like end on your own terms and end winning. And you're just like, oh man, it'd be great to win a championship. And you might not get a chance. Like, let's just say, let's, what's the worst NFL team right now. What's the worst. Milton Jaguars. Okay. Let's just say the G let's say the lions. I mean the number one pick two years in there rather Jaguars could be. Right. So let's just say the Jaguars. Do you want to be the starting quarterback for the Jaguars? Or do you want to be the starting quarterback for say Hamilton and potentially be in the running to winner? When a grey cup won the championship? And you're, you're like 32, 33 years old. What would you want to do? Well, the NFL pays more. That's the problem. That's true, but let's just say that you're not going to be the starting quarterback. Yeah. The starting quarterback. For Hamilton. That's why, like, I think PJ Walker, if I was PJ Walker, I would like to be a star in the XFL. Then be the third or second string quarterback in his. Even that. Because it seems like they're going to pull someone in randomly. Instead of playing PJ because Matt rule doesn't want the flip he's doing there. Yeah. We should bring, we should. When Matt rule gets fired because not if it's when, when that rule gets fired. We should bring Sheena on and talk about it. Okay. What went wrong and why didn't he, why didn't he rely on PJ more? Here's the last one. I think Dan's loved the voice mother getting the mark has.com/voice. Now these are great, but I don't think Dan or Steve has left them before. I really enjoyed your, your latest Marc cast. That was great. Talking about the USFL and the. The XFL and the, and the fan controlled football in the CFL is really good stuff. Thank you. My question is, what about. And it speaking to your guests, you know, comment about opportunities for everyone. What about the MLF B how is that going? Do they have money? Are they actually going to be able to play after all these years? And any other legs that might be coming up. For example. The MLF as opposed to the MOF bay or are those just pipe dreams? I know the MLS B is actually. Publicly traded. So it's not a pipe dream, but. You know, they're not going to get off the ground if they don't have 50 male, at least. So, anyway, that's my thought. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks, Dan. You have a comment on this? Yeah. So MLSP actually tweeted, I believe it was yesterday, the official account. Cause there was some confusion on this cause a fake account was tweeting last week, but this is the verified, you know, MLSP. They share today that air, this week, they have a $5 million like fund. I wrote it down here. It was a $5 million equity purchase term sheet to fund the 2022 season. Fox's committed 50 million to the USFL this year. They are a hundred days away and we are very concerned that the lack of information we have, same with fantasy football. I would be even more concerned with. MLB with 5 million and we know nothing about them right now playing this year. Right. Like you could, I couldn't have said a better. But, I mean, that's just so that, like, I, again, I would, if I was rolling, I would roll with fangirl football, honestly, before I would go with MLSP or ML. But I mean that like, They're going to put a product on the field this year. We don't know and all that, and whether they're going to pay, but I do think if fingertip football, I would trust a lot more than, than MLSP right now. Yeah. We had a major issues up both in terms of financial, I mean, And to that point, like USFL has some, you know, I know Fox is bankrolling, and I understand all that. But. They still do have that. Cloud. They still will. Until they pull off a successful season without any issues whatsoever. Paying everybody feeding everybody doing everything they're saying they're doing. They have to fill those commitments and then all of a sudden. People start forgetting about what happened the spring league. Both times now, because there's two things now that we we've, we've been around to see. So. It will be interesting to see. And I, you know, as much of the crap on the FCF here, Read is right. We do, we do suspect. They, you know, that's, that's a more sure thing right now. Is FCF. Even though, even though the rod. The owner is tweeting screenshots of their video game, which has field goal within it, even though they're a league that's. So ridiculous. So Rob tweet, he tweeted screenshots of like the, you know, it's like the bait. I'm sure they're just like assets that they're using, but I'm like, you're a league that famously doesn't care. If the football, why are there field goalposts? In your video camp. I'm very fair question. Like Vegas or football, both on the players. No kicking. I'm done. Maybe they're going to add kicking this time. Maybe I'm going to add kicking. I don't know. Anyway, thanks for joining us again. Great episode, a jam packed up. So I want to give. I think for an anatomist junior for his time talking to read. Oh, you guys should go grab some drinks. Sometimes some frothy beverages. If he drinks, I don't know. [Unknown] screen right down the street from you. And yeah, I want to thank you for joining us and one again, subscribe to our podcast, share it out to your friends. Anybody you think would like it. We appreciate all your listeners. Of course we could give away is coming up with that 2000. Mark will start giving us more items away until then, please subscribe, share the podcast, leave a voicemail, all these different ways to get in touch with the boys. Of course, we're always active on Twitter. Reed sends me every single Tweety tweets out. It's you know, sometimes I'm in the middle of working like another tweet from radical. But, you know what I'm saying? Like, We're we're very interactive with our, with our, with our fans, with our. With the listeners. And that was saying, our fans were saying, fans of the CFL stands the expo fancy. If USFL. We're always interactive. We're always here to take your questions and please reach out to us by any means. And we appreciate all of you. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you next week. That was good. Good job. All right. We got to kill this promo and take it home. Take it home. USFL hobbies. Obviously. Vernon so good to, I mean, I think people are going to be really stoked with Vernon to. It's not super long. I'll send it to you. We just had like 20 minutes. Yeah, I think, I think we'll have Danny Austin next week. I think, I think that's going to be the hatchet variant. Oh, you guys aren't buried it kind of, oh yeah, no, it's fine. Quick second here. Sorry, I'm laying out all the f*****g things. All this here. Awesome. Well, Senator right now. Yeah. Because it needs to convert anyway. And then here is this. Oh, my God, man. That's all the text. How long is this interview? It was like 22 minutes. It's not too bad. I was like, it's looks really short compared. Yeah, or, I mean, yeah, and I just, he's a big enough name that I didn't, we didn't need to deal with anyone else this week. I mean, we had, I had more people f*****g retweet and comment on the tweets with him than we have any guests in like a month. So. I was just like, f**k it. That's good. Like I told Dorothy, I'm like, if we have someone like that, like I'm not going to f*****g stress about. As you shouldn't like, if we can do 20 minute good minutes with him then by and f*****g, you know what I mean? Then? And try to find a bunch of people to do. This is episode 74, right. Before the XFL is international of. I was self. Yeah. I'll send you that you're going to die. I forgot. That's it going? Yeah, man. Samoan s**t. Oh, that's good. Do you know her. She is. She is sexy as f**k. She's in Australia though. Well, how'd she find you? She's just like, you're so funny. And then she came into space and then she was like loudly and turned off. That's how she, and she found me and she was like, been chatting me up. I'm like, okay, well, this is interesting. Wow. All right. Come on. I'm a computer center responding. I'll just do the promo. Oh this week on the mark cast. I get fired up because we're talking to USAA Volk coaches. And why Brian Woods probably made the worst hire. Out of any coach that he could ever bring in. No spoilers. Spoilers. We. This is a doozy. This is a DC. If you, we have USFL, we have all the head coaches, training camps, the list of things. We still need to learn about the USFL before they kick off on April 16th. What else do we have going on Paul? We have slight XFL news, but. We have a big interview. We have a big interview that Reed does with Vernon Adams. Yeah, Vernon comes on the show. I found out he's actually like my neighbor. He lives 20 miles away and it is it's. Vernon's great. We're talking all about the Anthony Kavio hire, we're talking about Jeff Ryan bowl, going to the outlets. We're talking to all about, you know, Vernon's journey back to becoming the face of the franchise in Montreal, a real good interview. And then I do think it's good XFL stuff. We might be moving to Mexico. You know, the Mexico dragons might be a thing. Viva Mexico, you boys lack Maaco. Super troopers. Yeah. You should, whenever we cover the XFL going in. To Mexico, you should use that as the thumbnail for the episode. I'm just going to throw it out there. I'm just going to make that suggestion. I hopefully you deliver on that. We're also talking about, we're also talking about CFL stuff. You know, we do talk about Vernon AMS. We do talk about CFL stuff, some wrapping up of the things, some, some, some bolts and board material already going back and forth between some teams. Getting ready for next year. We'll discuss that as well. And what else do we have? Do we have anything else? If, if my Riley goes back to the VC Alliance, I might not be able to look at myself in the mirror anymore. So it would be my score in lover. That is so sad. If that happens to you anyway, that's happening all this week. Well, I, this is a long way to go. To someone that's probably about 20 miles from me right now. Vernon Adams. With the module outlets. How are you doing today? Man. I'm good, man. Thank you for having me. I had no idea. We were Ty, I assumed you were in California somewhere else. He said, no, I'm down. I said, I could've just driven to your house, but this is fun. You know, nice. Get huge. Get Worksighted. These are all things I've heard this week, right? Since we announced. You were coming on. I think people just want to know how's everything going. How is life? How is the holidays? How is everything. Yeah, man. Like I said, man, just thank you for having me on, first of all, shout out to everybody who sent in questions and, and things like that, man. Life's good man. You know, I'm in the CFL for everybody who don't know, you know, I'm still in the CFL going on my seventh year with Montreal, but it's good, man. You know, going into the off season, I just signed an extension a few weeks ago to. 2023. So I'm just excited to get my arm back strong. I broke my arm last year. Non throwing shoulder and, you know, I'm just rehabbing it and just, just getting the better every single day. Yeah, and it just works out. We have some good outlets news. We'll we'll talk about that. Luckily, all kind of came out before we got on today, but, you know, Holiday's good. Life's good family. Everyone else. I mean, how is it going outside of the football for you? Oh yeah. Outside of what everything's called. Good man. Got the family to kiddos. It's wifey. Just got back from California, visiting my family down there, spent my birthday in new years down there. So, yeah, that was good, man. We blessed, man. And just, just trying to do what we need to do to stay safe and stay out the way. Yeah. I mean, and you know, talking about your shoulder and everything, you know, obviously, you know, tracking everything and, and the season last year, What was it like to have to kind of, you know, go out. It felt like you Montreal obviously, you know, continued. You know, to find success. And I want to talk about that too, but you know, having to, to not be able to play right. Have to be able to sit out like that. I mean, what was that like personally for you? It's tough man. As a competitor. I mean, everybody wants to be out there and make plays and help their team. However they can, you know what I'm saying? And I could have went a different way about it. You know, I could've got hurt and, you know, let the depression sneak in on me and could have went back home and just kinda just kinda locked, just lost focus on the season, you know, but I chose a different approach. Just stay around and. Help the younger quarterbacks, as most people know, Trevor Harrison, veteran quarterbacks. Greg kept champion came in and did what he was supposed to do, you know, leave throughout through the rest of the season and pick up the younger guys. And I learned from him as well. So, yeah, I chose that approach to stay in Montreal and just still be a voice, a leader off the field. You know what I'm saying? And help any way I can, because I know if I would've got away from it, like I said, I wouldn't let the depression sneak up on me. It would've just been bad. You know, guys get hurt and things happen all the time. Mentally. Yeah. Because, I mean, you're such a distant, you know, one of the phases of the franchise ride in one of the strong leader is, you know, doing TV interviews, right. Reporters things. I mean, it's. When you go down, it's like, oh my God, you. It's like break glass in case of emergency kind of situations. What did you make of, of Trevor Harris coming in and the guys, you know, the rest of the guys on the team. You know, carrying it as far as you guys did today. You know, to the semi-finals right. You know, Trevor, he's a very experienced leader, you know? Just, he always did the right things, man. Obviously, as quarterbacks were always in early and late and, you know, I just, I was just always watching him. He came in right away. He didn't wait to like, try to step into that leadership role. He knew he was coming in to be a leader. And just to help this team out is as much as he can. And he didn't overstep any boundaries or do anything like that, man. He just, he just showed me a different way, how to prepare. I've had hall of fame quarterbacks above me before. And, but no one has really grabbed me and said, Hey VA, this is how you do it. This is how you do it. And that's when we want to get into ACN. I think he's going to help me a lot with that. But Trevor, he kind of, I kind of watched him and saw how he watched film. I saw how he prepared. I saw how he lifted weights and took care of his body and took a few of those things away from his game, you know? Bring it to my next year. What's cool about the CFL is kind of that, right. We saw the same thing, believer, you know, got hurt. Right. But you'd see him, you know, on the sidelines. We, Jake Mayer, you know, with the clipboard talking, you know, taking notes, I mean, Because it would, like you said, be really easy just to step out or I'm done, or I'm going to not deal with this right now. And I just think it speaks a lot for a, you know, the character of the players, right? Like you, and then also just the comradery you guys all have kind of just going through everything, the CFLs. Yeah, definitely. And then, you know, My players on the team. They know, I care about them more than anything, man. I do events outside of football, you know, where I bring all the players together, you know, whether it's let's go get eat. Let's go to bowling alley. As flying to Seattle and have a little mini camp, whatever, you know what I'm saying? I take care of my guys off offensively and defensively and they know that. And I think that's what they respect me as well. Because I guess most QBs don't really do that. They don't really connect with the defense and stuff like that. I like to, I want to bring everybody together and just our locker room is fine. It's funny. Like any other locker room and yeah, I think. It's just about respect. They respect me, I respect them. And I'm always determined to earn that respect each year. Going through the resigning, right? Getting the extension, you know, here going into next season. You know, CFL, it's so uncertain, right? A lot of these players and the quarterbacks and all this have, what does it mean for the franchise and the team to say, you know, you're our guy we believe in you we're going forward. How does that feel? It feels amazing, man, you know, to, to just have a team that wants you, you know what I'm saying and trust you in. And. Honestly, I've never really had this feeling up until last year when I signed my first big contract in, you know, it just, it just, it just motivates me to keep working hard for the city of Montreal to really. Just try to bring back their ultimate goal, which is the great cup. You know what I'm saying? So, yeah. I love my trough, where there was the first team that gave me a real professional shot. And I just want to keep getting better each year may have learned from, from different guys, different players, different coaches, legendary people in. I want to, I want to elevate my game, man. I want to be a great cup winning QB. I want to be a hall of fame, QB. Yeah. Yeah. I want to talk about your journey. We have a question later. We'll play about that too, but you know, looking up, you know, cause we've tracked you all year, but looking up your backstory, you know, no idea you went to Eastern, right. With. I went to Gonzaga, you know? Right down the street, you know, we didn't have football. And then I, especially going to university of Oregon, my mother is a huge duck, Stan. Cause you know, there was never maybe. But, you know, going through this, this journey, you know, here are this long world, we going to end up talking to people that are 20 miles away, but talk about your journey and getting to that point now where you are anointed, you know, the face of the, of the 20, I guess, 20, 22 alphabets moving forward. Right. You know, and I think everyone who really followed my career, they know. I wouldn't change my journey for anything, man. I love the ups and downs about it. Just everything that it took, you know, I'm one of the shorter quarterbacks, you know, I'm probably, I think. I'm like the second shortest quarterback behind Tyler. Kala Mary and all the pro football, you know, and. Ages. They've always told me, no, you can't do it. You can't. You can't do it. You. Too short. You know, then Russell Wilson came out and I came out out to him. And now you see short Johnny Manziel bedroom. You guys that are shorter getting chances, you know what I'm saying? So it's just, it's awesome to see. And. You know, obviously as an American everybody's dream is to be in the NFL, you know, MBA, but. I'm playing pro football man. Taking care of my family. I'm a starter, you know, I'm I'm, I'm I'm loving life, man. If the NFL came in. Okay, cool. You know, it had to be the right opportunity and right. Everything. Cause right now, I'll be knocking on 30 turned 30 next year. So. You know, I'll love where I'm at, man. I love to see a feeling it's just so fun games, different. Pointed at the university of Oregon. What was that like? I mean, obviously now, and we have, you know, Quarterbacks coming out. I mean, it's becoming known right as, as a destination. What was that like as part of your steppings. Oh man. Going to Oregon from Eastern was, was crazy. And even Oregon to now, like Oregon is just on another level. It's like professional. Facility, just new uniforms, every game, just. Whatever you think organized. Is 10 times better. Like, cause that's how it was on my visit. I went to Oregon on the. Hi, it is. Just looking at everything and just, it's just amazing, man. The fans feel Nigel. Community. Everything is great. Coming back off the off season. Right. You know, obviously the year off with everything going on. You know, getting everyone back together, getting back on the field, what was that like? And what was it like having to take that time off? Man. It was, it was excited. You know, everybody missed each other and we was ready to get back on that field and to have fun together. But it was difficult at times too, because some of the players didn't play for two, three years. You know what I'm saying? Maybe four years in or so some guys have to get their legs back. Some guys didn't get their legs back until middle of the season. And then they hit the ground running. You know what I'm saying? So. It was tough. Being away from your receivers for a few years, you know, we had a couple of mini camps, but you still got to have that chemistry and things like that. It was tough, but I, and I think everyone will say that it was a down year for the offenses. This year. But what I was really excited about about the Montreal, our offense was we were pretty much in first place in. All categories, you know, during the season and ending the season. But the only thing is that doesn't translate to wins. And so for us, we need to translate that to wins. And so we, we, we keep our fans happy and all that stuff. So, yeah. Yeah, well, speaking of that, right? We have these big announcements coming out. I'd seen the reports right at the Anthony could be always coming in as the, they call it right. The pivots coats right into Theo. Yeah, we're learning this. That's the QB coach. Right. Legend of the game. Right. You know, multiple gray cups, all that. What does, what was your reaction and what does that mean to you? It was exciting, man, to have a, a hall of Famer, three time grey cup winning champion. He's a legend in Montreal. You know what I'm saying? It's exciting to have them back in. Some people don't know. I had them as my QB coach, my rookie year. My rookie year. He was my QB coach. And then second year, I think. Oh, see music head coach for a minute, I think. But that was like his rookie year as a coach. You know what I'm saying? So he was still learning how to translate from player to coach and things like that. But now he's seven years out, you know? And I'm just excited to see his growth and I'm excited for him to. Expand my plate. Just get me better. You know what I'm saying? To get me to taking that next step to. You know, I want to get to that bowl nearby. I want to get up there. You know what I'm saying? Get. So I'm just excited to work with him and him to elevate my game. I mean, I would take it is a huge compliment that, that all this, you know, to bring in tools and coaches and things to help provide. I mean, to me, that would speak a lot to right. We're we're going for this. And they have belief in you. I would just, I would be over the moon about that thinking someone without much expertise was coming in to kind of help. Elevate with this already. Right? A good position. They have gone. Absolutely. Like his resume, man. It says it speaks for itself. You know what I'm saying? It's just. I don't think I've, could've learned from a better one. You know what I'm saying? And he's a CFL guy, so like we're bringing in the NFL guy that kind of like, yeah, obviously, but he's a CFO guy. He's played the game. He knows the game. He. He knows how to reduce this. And the weak spots and things like that. So I'm just excited to, you know, get on the phone with him. And I get this thing rolling. We also saw Jeff Reinbold, right with it had announced that he was, you know, 70. From the tie cats. And there was, you know, I speculate yo. Are we going south, right? We're announcing USFL coaches today, as we're talking about all this announced that he's going to the outlets, I assume as the special teams, although I don't, they didn't know that I saw, they said that they were at bringing them into the team. But talk about that and bringing in coach Reinbold and the, do you have any PA I mean, past experiences with him? Ah, that's a great gig, man. I was in training camp for Hamilton in 2018. Just for training camp. And easily the great dude, man. He's a great dude. Every time I seen him in. When we played these guys, it just always shook his hand. And I just loved the way he does things, especially teams, group. Is always one of the best, especially these last few years, always one of the best man. So I'm just excited for him to get over here and. Coach up our guys, man, in. Limit some penalties and get some big returns with our guys and yeah. Let's do it. I'm excited. It seems like, you know, we have a team like Edmonton, yo coach Jones is out here announcing. We have like a new Nick Arbuckle deal, all these things, you know, teams that really maybe need some more off-season work. We're Montreal. Right. I was almost there. Right. You know, now we, we flip a couple of switches. It seems like they're really making the big push here. They'd be competitive at least. You know, from the outside, I'm seeing here in, in 2022. Exactly man. We want to put the best foot forward. Each year, man, I'm a winner man. I've never in my life had a losing record in my life as a starting quarterback. You know what I'm saying? So I don't, I'm not, I don't like that losing some, I don't like that. Seven and seven that tide, I don't like that. And I want the best coaches, the best players. I want the best people around me who want to win man, our owner. He's a winter head coach, the winter GM. Present all these guys are winners. When we're putting the people into place. We going to be good, man, everybody, you know, some people are saying this and that. We, we got a win right now. Right now it takes a building process. You know what I'm saying? And I think that's what we're getting to. We're getting the right people around. We got the foundation set with pretty much the offensive guys that all been here for the last few, few years. We just ready to get this thing going, man. I'm excited. We have a couple of voicemails here for some of our listeners. I will see this might spur in a little bit of conversation. The first one here is from Jason. I read in Paul. This is Jason from Hussey's huddle on YouTube Vernon. I'm such a big fan of your game. My question for you is what was the hardest part of your journey to becoming a full-time CFO starter? I know you took you awhile to get your feet under you in the CFL, and I'm just curious how that journey was for you. Yeah, Jason. My journey has been crazy, man. My first three years I was traded. You know, three times within my first three years, but each of those years I was in Montreal at some point. So that's why I tell people every month. For seven years. But the reason why I was traded a lot was because I wasn't a pro quarterback. I wasn't coming in early, staying late. I wasn't doing all the proper things I was supposed to be doing as a pro quarterback should be, I was more acting like just an athlete or a wide receiver coming in whenever, just not saying the why receivers do this, but I'm just saying, just coming in. Just a whatever, doing whatever and not really being focused. And so that's why I got traded around, but teams knew that I had the talent. But they knew I just wasn't ready up here. So that's why they, I didn't really get cut. I just got traded around, but the journey has been crazy, man. I'm glad I came to Montreal for my last stop or my last stop. Yeah. And you know, my GM back then [unknown]. He told me, Hey man, this might be your last shot. So I would really take you serious. And that's when I really in 2018. Ticket serious and took that next step. Let's get well, you know, I mean, They talk about it all the time. And you know, people, you know, we get these kids drafted out of college and it's, it's not just the skills, it's everything. It's the mental, it's the physical, it's the person. I mean, it's a. We are different people at 21. And we are at. You know, 29. And then I am. And it's, it's weird, you know, like we see, you know, the Trevor Lawrence, isn't everything now. And it's like weird. That's asking a lot of someone coming out of college. Here you go right. You know, run the team. Exactly. And that's why I used to be real critical of rookies in the NFL and like, Those first round rookies and stuff until after my rookie year in Montreal. And I was like, Wow. I guess a lot going on that I need to know hot reads, coverages, different things checks here. Just. Just more than just playing football. This isn't college anymore college, at least in Washington, I was the best player, myself and Cooper cut with the best players on the field. We just played, you know, just play. But when you get to the pro level, you know what I'm saying? And you want, if you can just start getting, getting it up here. I think Evan here has a question about Cooper cups. I think. This is a question for Vernon Adams. A big play VA. You know, The great Montreal. It's quarterback that has made it all to this podcast. I'm so happy about that, but my question for you is how was it playing with Cooper cup? Cause I know you guys were together at Eastern Washington. I don't know how long you guys were playing together for, cause I know, you know, you, I think. I left in 20. 2015. And then he stayed until 2016 if I'm not mistaken, but obviously. You know, Cooper's developed now into one of the best receivers in the NFL. I'm a huge Rams fan. So, you know, I couldn't be happier for him. And receivers of bubble as he was red shirt and he would just. Come to work every single day, like come to practice every single day and just get better. And he used to get better compete all the time. Man, if he lost the one-on-one rep, which I've only saw like three times in his three years being there. He told their corner to get back on the line and I'm doing the same route. You be like, VA, let's go. I'm doing the same. I'll get back on the line. And then he'll beat up. Like. It was just, it was just crazy. Amazing top competitor. He's a Christian man. He's just a great dude, man. And I loved playing with him. He made me look better than what I am. Man I say it all the time and just. Great dude, man. Yeah. Let's go. We got two more. We got one from T-bone here. Hey Vernon. What's something you've always wanted people to know about you, but you never had the chance to share it because nobody ever asked. There you go. That's a great question. You know? I know, I don't really, I don't really have much, man. I'm really low key, man. I like to be to myself. I'm a family dude, man. I don't have much, man. I'm super low. I just, I just hang out at the house. I go work out, come hang with the fam. Check a couple of naps throughout the day and that's it, man. I'm low key. Yeah, no. No, no, no. [Unknown] secret. Yeah. I'm crazy. Last one's from Kyle. Kyle's one of our longest listening fans and Kyle has also been a huge outlet. He's won prizes. I've had to figure out how to ship things to Montreal. So Kyle is, Kyle is a good guy. Awesome. Eh, what's going on guys. Read Paul happy new year, 2021 was great. 2022 is going to be a bang. Definitely starting off with a kick having VA on the show. So, Hey Vernon, I got a question for you. I'm a Montreal or actually, and I've been following it and obviously the out of the wet, since they've been back. You know, since 96. And then, you know, I'd say we got really lucky with the quarterbacks that we had, whether it was Tracy ham. Most recently. Well, you know, Al Anthony Cal. Vilo what a great tenure that we had with, with Anthony. As our lead quarterback, we had some amazing seasons, you know, multiple great cups, but even if you know, they didn't actually win the great cup. There was plenty of winning seasons, you know, where it was a blast being as that personable and, you know, just being around the team. It was great. You know, so my question for you is this. How does it feel, you know, to come in and, you know, be the quarterback after such a sexy, successful tenure with, you know, with a QB what's that pressure like, and how does that feel? You know, so, and it was thanks for your time. Let us know. And even more pressure now with that. That could be Vienna. Being in the same room with you, it works out. I love the pressure. I've always said I'm not hurting from my coach, coach junior Adams. Who's now at Oregon. He always told me pressure is a privilege, man. Not everybody gets the. Deserves. This pressure, not everybody gets this opportunity to begin this spotlight of pressure. You know what I'm saying? So. I love it. You know, I know what they did. I know what those quarterbacks have done. You know, And now I want to do is do my best to try to equally or do better. You know what I'm saying? I'm not them. I'm my own quarterback. You know what I'm saying? Everybody. You know, everybody's different. You know what I'm saying? You got to think the talent level was different back then as well. So you just everybody's different, but I'm working, I'm working to be where he's at and now I'm glad he's with me to help me get to where he's at. You know what I'm saying? So. There's pressure, but you got to embrace it. And I embrace it every time, man. And it's just it's I'm blessed, man. Yeah. We'll go well, Vernon, I, you know, I guess. I'm kind of my neighbor now. We've discovered today, but thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate it. I mean it a lot. I, I think it's exciting things for the outlets. For you, it just feels like a lot of good green arrows here pointing up. So I really appreciate you coming on today. Yeah, man. Thank y'all for finally have me. And I've been watching y'all for a minute too. So. Fans on Twitter and stuff like that. So, yeah. Thanks for having me.

Episode 73 - The XFL/CFL News Hub Crossover!

It's Friday morning. There's nothing going on. No CFL, no XFL. Wait a second. There was something right. I'm going to happen or did we talk about that already? Did we talk about what we talked about? The video that rock was on CNBC. We have follow-up about that today. Yeah, no, but we have a lot of news. I was putting together the shell. But no, a lot of CFL stuff off season notes. And then we have obviously Mark Perry, our commander in chief coming on today. I've thought that was a good spot. You know, I've been on mark show before. He's never been on and I just thought kind of year end. We got some voicemails for us to play. We have some voicemails for mark. People are using that. I, Paul, I did what you asked that you can go to the mark house.com/voicemail and leave it. Look at that nice little shortcut. I thought that was a good idea. So I did that. I've updated the graphics. It's all good to go. How was your Christmas? Really boring. And, you know, I, I got, you know, Nidia came over. We went to see Spiderman because she hadn't seen it yet. So that was cool. Other than that. Just nice. Chill. How about you? Yeah, I watched a lot of football. We watched the matrix. At Doherty. And I watched that the other night, that was a trip. I don't look up though. I, I mean, that is, I don't see a lot of movies anymore. Best movie I've seen in. I couldn't tell you. I thought that movie was phenomenal. Really don't look up. Some people are saying no. And some people are saying yes. Yeah. I'm just, I just, for my two sands, don't look up Adam McKay, right. Stepbrothers and all that. It's. Yeah. It's a beautiful movie. I mean, maybe it was the drinks, but it was, we, we really enjoyed that. I thought that was good. I'll have to check that out. The one that I saw was best film of the year for me, it was Kona. Children of deaf adults. You're already displaced that she said it's gave it the thumbs up. She's listening to Joni Mitchell. Now is that related to that movie? I don't know. I think the song is in. 'Cause she been there, but it's, it's not, I don't know. Anyway. There we go. Ah, Merry Christmas, like it, subscribe. I just put a new channel trailer together. Paul, I sent that over and Paul gave it the thumbs up. I like it. Subscribe we're over. We're at like 16, 25. Now when we get 2000, we have all of our gray cup merchandise for giving away. So please like it. Subscribe XFL stuff, obviously on the horizon here. USFL CFL, no FCF news this week, but I'm sure they'll pop back up from time to time. I'm sure they will. They'll they'll either have a new season ready to go or delay. It's it's, it's one of the two. Of course, John Madden passed away this week. One of the send to consult, consult condolences to his friends, family. His colleagues, everybody that ever worked with John Madden. A true pioneer, true. A legend and a great brain of the game, man. It's it's, you know, even though, you know, he's up there in years, it still feels too soon to lose someone like that. So, Recipes to John MAB. Yeah. I just put through that, then they're figuring out. We might have thought this. You know, I know it's that. So. All right, so let's get on with the show. Ah, in CFL news. Ottawa red blacks, punter Richie Leone is making a, made an appearance on six, 1200. The drive TSN 1200 is drive. And found himself faced with the question of the day concerning the. Excess of player, movement and CFL since the inception of one-year contracts. Yeah. He's. Where she's going on. This is, I figured you'd like this, cause he says were. They're tying about the one-year contracts are talking about the marketing. We're trying to fix the game. What's going on. Richie Leoni is a big fan favorite. He said they do absolutely nothing. He rips the league for lack of cool content either. Has I think it's up to the big brains at the league office. If you want to call it the big brains to figure out what to do. I mean, look at a guy like me when I signed a couple of years in. Otherwise, absolutely good. We need guys to do that, but the league needs to change it. It needs to be more beneficial for us. That's fair. I mean, we've, we've discussed how much, they're not marketing to the general public and using social media to their advantage. I mean, that's stupid video of the guy dunking. The upside down went completely viral. We had more stuff like that. People might get more interested in their leak. Easily. Yeah, we live in an age where, where it doesn't cause too much. It's certainly not difficult to produce content. There are seven year old boys and girls that make Tik TOK videos to go viral and we can't even get anything out there that school he found that, you know, obviously frustrate makes something cool. Guys, I challenge you on that. I just think it's interesting, like. I, you know, the pieces are there if they want to grab them. Right. I mean, the CFL, they, they, they did do Ottawa. Did some cool, like when they announced the season this year, they remember the Wasatch from like the screen, not the scream movies, but the scary movies. Remember when they all did the WhatsApp. Like Ottawa did a whole thing about that. They're trying. The commercial. Yeah. I mean. And they're drying. But, you know, it's. You have talented guys and girls like in the offices there. It's just hard though, where there's no. And that like, is that a commissioner Ambrozy role? Like. Trying to kind of gain that goat. You know, I get so fragmented all the teams like you have the Argos, right. They do a really good job with social media. You know, we have obviously Matt baker with BC lions, but then like, I don't know, like I never see Edmonton post anything. So. How do you culture situation there? We have Edmonton. It's coming up in the culture to have social media presence like that. So, Speaking of the Argos. The released star defensive in Charleston, Houston. Hughes. He signed a two year contract with them in February. He had one year left on it. We're the 145 grand in hard money. And he was released. See how that works the whole two year contracts. Yeah. I mean, that's the thing they talking about this. Oh, he signed you a two year deal. A lot of money. Well, we just got, he didn't play a lot this year. He was a healthy scratch. A bunch of the games. I think I have the number on here. I think he played in, in sick. Nine get you played nine games with it, with the Argos this year. He, you know, Could this could be it for him. Right? 38. He was a big simony. I think he's close to, it was close to breaking the sax records. So there was a lot of movement on that, but there you go, you know, to your contract, caught him in the off season. Who cares? I go back to baseball model. Like it, they can choose to tend to your contract if, even if you're like, For years in on a nine year deal, they can choose to not tender your contract. This happens in MLB too. So this is nothing new. It's just, I think it's more amplified because it's the B. They're only doing one or two year contracts that seems, and I think it's more amplified the CFL right now because it's just like, you go play somewhere for one, one. One year and then you're done. Yeah. And it just seems like there there's a lot of moving people. So. Elk's releasing a former off outstanding offensive lineman. His name is Derek had Dennis he's a 33 year old. He originally signed as a free agent January, but decided to step away from football and then, you know, Requested a release release, or a trade from the team. A week after signing his contract. Yeah, Derek member, we've tracked out this a Derek's going to come on the show here in a couple of weeks. I've been talking with Derek and then also I'm just going to put it out there. Vernon Adams, I think we've got him signed up to come on next week. We kind of teased that, you know, previous week Vernon's been traveling. So I think Vernon's of your, you know, you have questions for her and I think that's a big get right CFL, you know, star quarterback. Derek Dennis is going to come on to here in a couple of weeks. He was the one that really wanted to get released. They wouldn't let him go. He tweeted, like it was one of those like release. What was it like free OBJ, right. With the Rams or with the same kind of thing. Right. I, Derek Dan it's like free Derek Dennis. Now he's, he's gone and now he can. I tweeted, maybe he should go to the USFL. Possibly. I mean, He wanted to be traded a weekend for, he signed this contract. Clearly he saw something in that first week. He was like, this is bad. This is very bad. And I mean, this rolled out throughout the course of the season, we heard a lot of problems about. You know, people not getting vaccinated that were in higher up management positions. You know, Jamie Elizondo. The list goes on. You know, he probably did it like a week there and was like, this is really bad. I got to get out of here. It's like arrested development. I've made a terrible mistake. In, in hopes to promote and encourage a positive working environment. The Edmonton Ellis. Officially named G. Roy Simon Deroy Simon. Hopefully I'm pronouncing that right. As assistant general manager to play a role under general manager, head coach, Chris Jones. He joined up in tin after sending, spending the last seven seasons part of your BC lions that are not America's CFL team. He was most recently the director of global scouting and the United States regional scout. Yeah. Edmonton trying to build back up. I have another story here. Oh, I think I didn't. I think I didn't copy and paste it correctly. We we have, I'm going to skip down here. Oh, I did do this right. I added this story twice. I'm sorry about that. The other thing about that is. Jockey with that. Ian Murray, who is the Alex board chair? This is down on page like five. I think Paul, I messed that up. They're just talking about, you know, it's going to be a five, six year bill to like really kind of rehab the Edmonton Elks thing that obviously they've lost a lot of. A season ticket, right. Support, a lot of fan support, things like that. And he was interviewed on, on TSN 1260. You know, it's not going to be an overnight fix bringing GRI on, you know, Got a new coach, Chris Jones, all that stuff. It's all going to kind of build this, you know, the trust back up with the team. So. It's it's incredible. What one year under the wrong people did for this, this franchise. It's incredible how much damage was done in that one year. So, Because Chris Jones went to become head coach of the Elks. Of course, the Argos now have to fill the position of a defensive coordinator. And. Let's see here, who they got. They got a contract with Corey Mays who spent four seasons. With the, with the, let's see the. And then before that he was with the Buffalo bills, rest, Brandon, with the memory, the whole XFL, they, all these people are connected, all these, all these labs and whatever, but yeah, he is coming in to replace Chris Jones, you know, big shoes to fill. Right, Chris. Now is with Edmonton, but I lots of times with the San Peter has lots of time with the Buffalo bills. Six six years as a player in five is coaching with the. With the, with the Stampeders or there you go. Gr general manager, Jerry Jeremy O'Day from the rough writers, said that a. You know, he's, you know, there was a total six. Writers players that were lost a torn. Achilles tendons during the course of the season. Of course, maybe that was a reflection of the short. Preseason they had where they weren't able to get up to speed quite the way they wanted to. And he, you know, he said that we probably matched or went ahead of the amount of Achilles that I've seen in my whole career. In one year. It's not a real common injury. You might see one or two a year, and this was a lot different than the number we had. It's about reattaching it and starting the rehab on it again. Six. Went down. This. Could all be, you know, because of conditioning and trying to get up to speed in terms of getting ready for the season. And they, they, they, he has had like his end of the year address. And so that was brought up again, cause that was like a major preseason thing. So it's kind of rounding out that conversation. I don't. Good luck. Good luck with this first name. This is tricky. BC lions. Isaiah. Isaac. [Unknown] okay. The BC lions have signed a pair of key depth players for the 2022 season. American offensive lineman, Phil Norman and national linebacker. Isaiah. I miss him. I need to pronounce her on that. That baker help us on that. Yes. They've also confirmed the extension of American veteran American wide receiver. Dominic rhymes. BC lions making some moves here. Yeah, reassign a bunch of people, you know, busy lives. A big rebuilt to, I mean, it wasn't like the Edmonton cultural issue there, but it is a lot of issues on that team that they really need to figure out here. So I'm glad that they're, you know, doing all that. In light of Orlando, Stan hour, possibly going to UDaB didn't end up doing that. They've given him a new title to Hamilton. He is now the president of football operations and their head coach. Yeah. So you're like, wow. I wonder why he stayed. Oh, there you go. Probably. Hey, well, you know, Keep you here, right? We'll give you more power, give you more responsibility, give you more money. And yeah, cause it really did sound like, I mean, that was getting picked up everywhere that he was going to go to the university of Washington. So anyway, there's a press release here, if you don't want to talk about it. But anyway, oh, I had a, Steinhauer getting more, get more power there. And during the grey cup game, that's 10 hours, unfortunately lost with this Hamilton tire cats. They made a decision to take a knee and it's been highly debated by fans ever since. Outside of Hamilton as well. Apparently the special teams, coach and Orlando, Stan. And our lockstep and both. We're cool with what happened with taking the knee. Yeah. You know, they gave up the point. You know, on the kickoff, you know, took the Rouge. I, he was on rod show. Jeff Reinbold. He's like they're special. He's really popular. Special teams go to he with him. Yeah, we're lockstep and everything. There was no problem. I mean, this that's why they lost the game, you know? Cause the field goal at the anti the game, whether wine. But it's interesting that people are still talking about this. I mean, obviously it's the CFL off season, but you know, it's like the 13th man back in the day. I mean, that's kind of why they lost the game and that's why that game will be remembered the a hundred and eighth grade cup. So. Speaking of Canadian rules in football. Did you see the Ravens? The bangles had 12 players on the field. Yeah. Do you get a kick out of it? Yeah. I mean, and it happens, you know, sometimes, you know, you don't, you have the right personnel and you don't break the huddle correctly. And then all of a sudden you have 12 players on the field. Yeah. It's an unfortunate thing. This was a laugh a minute. I saw this go on. Over CFL to where they said, oh, I think they plan the Raven. But he was interested in this both teams. I mean, that's pretty boneheaded. Yeah. Obviously. Exactly. People just weren't. I don't think the people were there, like during that. During that day during that weekend, people kind of, you know, I saw a lot of stupid things go down on Christmas and the weekend. So it was just like, it was just par for the course. But just speaking of the Ravens, you know, Josh Johnson came in and did respectable for them. Right. I think they scored two TDS. But when you lose, when you, when your defense gives them, I think it was 41 points. Like it's very hard for Josh Johnson that. Like, I mean, Yeah, that's very true. And, you know, there's a chance that Lamar Jackson might not go again this week. So I guess he was hobbling like in that they say he came back to practice and he was hobbling on the sidelines. And maybe that is, I might need to shut them down for the rest of the year. I mean, you know, depending on how your, how your fortunes favor out in terms of playoff seating and playoff race. It might be just. Better to just sit him for the rest of the year and see what you can do. In other aspects, can Josh leads you possibly to, you know, conference semi-final. Who knows, who knows? Or they get air tower highly. I mean, he's, I didn't cattle highly. He's got a new job after this. Yeah. Whenever his contract's up in Baltimore. I mean, I think he has proven himself to be. A capable starting quarterback too. So definitely. I saw this and I thought all of our Canadian friends, the. I H S the international. The juniors, the hockey juniors, right? This is what this is. They canceled due to COVID 19. The cases are out of control. We just set a record here in the United States. Well yesterday with over 440,000 new COVID cases because everybody's getting tested. Because I'm a chronic thing is spreading like wildfire. So they didn't cancel the remainder of the world, juniors hockey due to the pandemic. The international ice hockey Federation. It's interesting. Just the reason I put this in here is they release the CFL schedule a couple of weeks ago and everyone's going crazy. And it's like, this is written in paper right now, or it's written in pencil. Whatever the saying is like, this is. You know, I mean, we can say CFL or gray cop or all these different things, but like, you don't know, we own that. And so it's just something to keep in mind in the back of your head. I mean, this is everyone's, they're playing. I mean, they were interned and met with all this was going on and just something to keep in mind as we move forward with all these lakes XFL. That's why they presumably kicked the 20, 23 is. You have maybe a little bit more time, right. To figure out all this stuff. Yeah. We've had a year and a half. That's crazy. I'm hoping that like, after the holidays, After we see the wave from the holidays, cause P everybody's traveling to go see their family. It's been two years. They're just like, we want to go see our family for Christmas. This thing is stupid. Let's just do it. People are just not, you know, and the CDC is changing the guidelines. Now you only have the quarantine for five instead of 10. So it's just like, you know, I want to see what this wave does after the holidays. And then if it goes right back down, Really low then I think that we. I don't want to say we're past the worst part of it, because God knows. We've all said that time and time again. But. I'm hoping this wave is. Potentially the last way. Folks just get vaccinated, please. Please. All right, coming up right now. We're gonna take a break. Do some commercials come back. Reid's going to talk to Mark Perry. Well, it's the same s**t you got. Lively conversation. I'm excited. I'm excited to get mark. I, you know, we don't talk shop a lot. We're not like mark and I are just sitting around like talking about XFL stuff all the time. I'm really curious. Plus he said he was fascinated by what. FCF is doing lately. So I really am going to have to want to hear about that then. Hammer him on that. There you go. We want to hear about that. Stay tuned. We'll be right back. Hang. Yeah, you're good. Ready. Welcome back. Thanks to Mark Perry for dropping in and. Spending some time with us here in the markets. Of course we do provide our podcast available right there for Marx, you know, XFL news hub. And I think that we're going to start being pushed out on CFL news, have this law, the mark. And I've been talking about that cause. I think the idea was always like there would be another sister or whatever podcasts that would go on the CFL news hub. And. You know, it's hard. So I think mark and I were talking about that, but I think we're going to be included in that kind of that family. And we're already with those riders and everyone else. So that'll be good to kind of be on both sides of that. So, and again, you know, that's, that's, we just solely provide a podcast to help beef up the XL news hub family. Again, we don't work for mark. We do our own thing over here. So with that being said, the big news last week, of course, the rock showing up on CNBC. More stuff about the rock now. Jeez. Well, so he, he posted his video, right? He boasted the editor 2 million views, right on the clip, you know, as of when we got the article and all that. If I just spent, you know, I shared a clip of it. Our view has got 18,000 views. I mean, it has nothing to sneeze. For our Twitter account. We also crossed 3000 Twitter followers. Thank you very much for that, everyone. But yeah. Anyway, just, you know, that. I, we laugh about this, right? Like, well, they can just turn on the marketing, but Jesus, I mean, you get 2 million views on that 15 second clip of the CMB. I mean, There's reason that people say it. Like you can't just turn it on. I'm hesitant about that too. I don't know if I believe all of that, but. I mean proof's in the budding, so, yep. Very true. There's lots of chatter right now about the battle Hawks coming back. Yeah, this. So this has come out. It's, there's a lot of like infighting going on on Twitter right now. We're trying to stay out of a lot of it. There's there's reports out of K S D K news in St. Louis. They're one of the local stations that like the convention center is talking to the. They're trying to get the leases back together. Cause you know, they're going to announce all this year coming up. And it's this whole like rush to everyone, state being their claims right now. Like, I want it to be known that we, you know, that we predicted that or we sit out or whatever. And so. Yeah, Brenna Reagan. He is a former battle Hawk player, and then he is a host of an afternoon show there. So he's tweeted out like the battle Hawks are coming back. I've heard from people. So, I mean, it's one of those things, like, there's no way that the battle Hawks wouldn't be coming back to St. Louis. So like, but it's all these. But to me, it's all these people wanting to stake their claim. Like I was the one that said to like how the receipts. But it's one of those, like, it's the most no-brainer thing that would happen anyway. It's the world's worst secret. Yeah. In terms of XFL, like we all assume a no. The battle Hawks are going to be in St. Louis. That's the one constant we can, we can say for sure. The battle Hawks will still be there. It's just the captain obvious thing. Yeah, but anyway, so there's just, there was a lot of stuff came out, but, you know, we cried because we, it came to us because we mark wrote the article and we, and we retweeted it out and there was a lot of like, well, you got like, you're stealing our content or people are taking, I'm like, [Unknown] well, and also, yeah, we always say everything. I mean, the St Louis, the KSDK like they, you know, they have reporters working. I mean, everyone has reports where he, it's just one of those, like, Like I said, it's the world's worst secret. We all know what's coming. If they don't come back, that would be the news. If you're the one person that's had it, like the battle Hawks are coming back and then they don't come back. Then you look like a genius. But it's just weird. It's just this week I tweeted today, like, everyone's are going to be right about something. Like, let's all just get along because there's, this seems to be a lot of drama right now, all the time. Speaking of. Your boy, did you see this? Your boy is back in the knee. You're just trying to be relevant here. Sharmane Jones, a better known as Cardell Jones to those who don't get it. He wants back in the XFL. Interesting. Now keep this. Longtime listeners aerial short time listeners don't know back. I think it was like episode four or five. We did one of our. What the hell is it called? The cameo? We did the cameo trick and we got Cardell Jones to call into the Marc house. And I told him, yeah, it was a great go back. I tweeted the link out, like episode four or five. Cardell Jones blocked. Everybody on everything was like very anti XFL. That was the feedback I got was like, oh, Cardel blocked you guys. Just because he doesn't want to deal with any XFL. Well, now that the rock is involved, No one wants to deal with it. Cookie's coming back around. Well, see the power of marketing from the rock. Huh? Interesting. This is totally Mark Perry. When he wrote the article, he goes, this is totally like a plant. You know when like people call TMZ and they're like, I'm going to be at the airport this day. Like, come ask me about you guys, Cardel Jones. Like, doesn't mention the USFL at all. He's like, oh, I could be back in the NFL or the exit foul or, yeah. You know, I think they're like launching some other league right now. I'm like Cardell, you know that like, you know, if you're an all football player, like, you know, the USFL is a thing. Yeah. I get game across is so petty. Like, yeah. I think like, I think there's another league coming out. I'm like, you just clearly hitching his wagon to XFL or, or NFL at this point. He clearly. He clearly is hitching his wagon there and maybe. Maybe some of his concerns about that other league are brought up from the concerns that we've voiced about the spring league happening. Cause he knows the same players. Cardell's not stupid. He may be shy. He may be soft as toilet paper. But he's not stupid. Like he pays attention. He talks to people who have dealt with. With dealt with Brian was in the spring league. And probably has some apprehension about that as he should. The interesting thing about it was cause it was like the guy was interviewing him like on zoom. And so you could hear the guy's questions and he's like, So like, do you want to coach in this new league or decided yesterday? No, I want to play. He wasn't even the questions weren't even like, oh sir, are you going to see that? It was like, so how do you want to be involved in this new XFL? Like, oh, I want, he goes, oh, I mean, this is just the last quarter of this. He goes, Just a few things. But now it's personnel guy. He's talking about the XFL. I know there's going to be involved in the front office. They're pushing some sort of combine this thing in July, but who's to say the NFL won't come calling before, then it's like, okay, Cardel. Because they've called with everything going on. They've called with all the COVID issues and all the quarterback injuries. They've already called you cartel. They're not going to call you. If they have a cold, you already cartel. I'm not going to do it. If 35 year old Josh, Johnson's good. How well this card they'll do the 35 year old Josh Johnson is getting called. Like you get the same cry though. Jones is. 29. They're calling 35 year old Josh Johnson and not 29 year old Cardella drugs. Some paint. Take a hint. Anyway. That was, that was interesting. The exfil is trying to patent Sam Schwartz, teens, coach player communication system. That he helped create for the XFL in 2020, they filed a patent with the us patent office. The applicant is alpha opco, LLC. Of course, being the NFL's LLC operating name. Yeah, this is credit to listener max maximum at this long. I liked it. You know, we always give credit where we, we can. Max was looking at independence. What's interesting about this is. Sam Schwartz scene is not involved in the new XFL Sam Stuart's scene. It's not involved. I mean, you USFL, I think Sam Schwartz, he would really like to be involved in either league. If you're someone like him, that's really passionate about this story, that thing. And I don't like this cause it's like, well, we're stealing. You know, we're taking your idea, but not the man. You got, I mean, I get it. To a point. I think that there might be some legal challenge that, that he might be able to file here because there's, you know, there's some new, you said that like when you create something and you're on the company dime and you create something for the company. Normally in your employment contracts, it says that becomes property of the company that becomes intellectual property of the company. The problem here is, and I'm not, you know, I'm not patent copyright lawyer, man. We might want to get someone on the line. One of the way back on. Let's get you. Let's get him back on and let's, let's talk about this. It'd be a great idea. I would interpret that potentially, because this is a new LLC. They can't necessarily patent that right off the bat. There's going to have to be. There should be some legal challenges since this is a new LLC and not the existing LLC that takes place. Right. Well, if they buy is like, maybe if you acquire it. Might be acquired in the assets for the bankruptcy, sell to. But I got the ideas in there, right? Like if we acquire like, well, we get bought out, right. When idea though. It's an actual technology that he developed and actually had, so it exists. In, you know, in an electoral property sense, it does exist. It can be considered part of the assets and maybe. Maybe that's their, their, their claim is that it was part of the assets given to us. Bought by us in the bankruptcy. So therefore, if it's an asset of the old XFL company, it can be an asset of ours. Since we picked up all the assets. From the bankruptcy sale. That might be the way around it. That makes a lot of sense. And it's just interesting here. Cause they wrote this out. Yeah. So the difference with the exit valve people like what's going on. Yeah. You get the players because the play clock was so quick. So you needed to be able to have the coaches. And they're bringing that, that it says sporting event, television, broadcast equipment and systems, particularly for football games, picks up, live audio from the teams, coaches for inclusion in the broadcast of the game, thereby greatly enhancing the viewing experience for television viewers of the game. The audio feeds can include always on microphone pickup for me teams, head coach, as well as offensive and defensive play calls that are radio from each team's assistant coaches to players. On the field. That doesn't even seem like something you can patent. We let me know. It depends on, did he develop a frequency? You know, like, did he put it on different frequency? Did he actually wire the things together himself, the prototypes, and then there's a lot of questions to be asked about, but I I'd be interested to dig into this. And see what's going on. Maybe we could get our, our copyright slash patent. Attorney. I remember it was named, but. His name. It's on randomly. We found them randomly. I was doing a Google search and he was the first one that replied to me. And my want to reach back to him and see what he thinks about this. I'll send an email out. The last point about it. I just feel bad for Sam because I would like Sam to be brought back and not, yeah. I would like him to be included in this, of course. Speaking of more XFL news, Jordan Tamminen is signed with the Panthers to join PJ Walker. It's interesting. Basically, he signed with the Panthers and they're not gonna play either one of these guys. That's what I'm, that's what I'm reading. Yeah, Darnell is starting this week. I heard it's just ridiculous. What does Matt rule doing? I don't know. Matt rule is. I mean. He said he released, like he has a plan. It's like a seven-year plan. Your plan is walking out the door. There's no, there's no seven year timeframe for head coach the NFL. You get it done within the first three years, if that. Unless you're urban Meyer. You get it done the first three years and you're done. Like, if you can't get it done, you're done. There there's talk. Now that. That that peak might not come back to the Seahawks. And he gave the Seahawks their first, you know, Legitimate. I mean, you can talk about the Pittsburgh. Till you're blue in the face, how that was screwed over. But. You know, he, he, he provided the Seahawks with our first Superbowl win and almost was moments away from a second one. Another talking about moving on from Pete. So the, what have you done for me lately? Stuff in that head coaching room, does it give you seven years map? It gives you three tops. If you're lucky. The Pete's decision to throw that ball. The, the, the chorus that, that had over the last seven years and like Richard Sherman, all those guys losing faith in him is astounding. About one. I mean, this is like destroyed the CX franchise for years. I'm I'm gonna I'm. There was a stat that someone provided to me. That kind of made sense, but I didn't look at as many, there was a stat that was provided me. Provided to me, my friend that watches this crap religiously. Watches. He's like a big stats guy. He actually said that Marshawn Lynch had less than 4% chance. Of getting a gain. With two or less yards. In those situations during the course of the year, like a 2% chance that he would actually get it, but it's the flipping Superbowl. And I say this about baseball, and I'm going to say it about football. There are special players in these games. And when those players get on an activated. In certain, in certain facets, they do things that weren't necessarily capable of doing before. Do I think Marsha would have made it. I do. I do. No doubt. I think Marshawn would have taken all 11 Patriots players and the reps that helped the Patriots in the end zone with them. But. We can't go back and play. Because you sent me that like 25 minute Richard shirt, I. Or I read the whole eras. I read the whole article where it was like re I, they, they never had the faith in Pete again, like ever, like it was all lost that the second that was that anyway, that that completely destroyed. And I think, I think between that and the salary stuff, like. They didn't beef up the offensive line. They were lucky to even get there without offensive line. That offensive line was trashed compared to the year before. And then, you know, that, just that B, that was the beginning of the downfall. Yeah. So last question, and then we do have a couple of voicemails for you before we leave. Do you think the USFL co produced by NBC not co-produce, but you know, NBC's caring, right? Half the games. Do we get the NBC Superbowl ad for the USFL? That'd be cool. If you let you know, I'll be able to talk about serve their purpose to boost peacock. Yeah. I mean. There's a crazy thing that Vince. Believes that after the contract is over with USA network. Nobody who's going to pull all your stuff off the, off the peacock. Already. Y and just own it again. I don't know where they go, but they, he believes they're going to pull their stuff off of peacock. So peacock is going to need some content. And if you've ever tried to watch any WWE programming on the peacock, It is a nightmare to watch. You can't like fast forward. You can't find anything on that, on that, on that. Network. It's terrible. Like they, they. I don't know what they, what they were thinking when they sign up with that. So, All right. A couple quick voicemails before we go. We have a Christmas gift, our Christmas wishes from Jen, and then a couple more real quick for you pump. And remember the markaz.com/voicemail. If you would like to leave a voicemail. Yup. Jen has a little dead air here at the beginning. Hi. Hey Reed. We're just going to pick on splitter. I was like, Hey, let's go ahead and eat. Oh, Let's speak for it. There you go. At the holidays. Thank you very much. And then we have one from oh. This is okay, Richard though, for real Richard. Remember when that, when the hat from my little Richard. We are the mark Kath. None of us, none of us are named Mark Richard. Colleen. And again, Richard, it's readable. Hey, mark and mark. This is Richard. You know, Twitter over real. Sorry about that. Anyway. I'm calling today to not. Ask questions. You guys are asking my question and I appreciate it. You're here to say our really appreciate everything. Y'all do. About giving us the inclination about the leaks, you know, The USL and I'll just want to tell, okay, I got. I have a great new year. And please, please, please keep up the fantastic work because without you guys. Us fan. We don't know anything without y'all. So just, just want to say thank you and really appreciate it and have a great new year. Thanks, Richard. I thought. That's nice. Very nice of you, Richard. We appreciate it. I do more real quick. This is from Adam. I did a call for predictions, like whether your XFL, whatever predictions, Adam, Adam, sending one, Adam was very nervous about hearing this voice on the podcast. Hey there. I just want to let you guys know that I think the Seattle dragons to stay in Seattle, because for once they have the most, they had the most ticket sales. And he gets hard XFL in 2020. And I think they're say, cause they have the most popular fan base. So. I'm actually using a warm, a snap back tomorrow. Just for good luck. So Brady God, that's Seattle dragons. Stay and keep breathing. Fire, Brady God, the theology. It's just that I, I don't, I honestly think that's one of the teams that's for sure. They're looking at, they looked, they had to look to the financial Smith. That's going to work there. I'm sh I'm sure they're going to stick around. Last ones from listeners act. Paul Zach found out today. I don't want to break any HIPAA stuff, but maybe something that's going around maybe got around the Zack. So I'm not trying to break any HIPAA laws, but Zack wrote rather the same with a couple of, yeah. I have one from mark that we're going to play during his interview too, but here's, what's that. Hey guys. Zach. I just wanted to say thank you for all the hard work. You have done this year. And wish you the best of luck. As we head into the new year. Thank you, Zack. And feel better as that, cause Zach's a little under the weather right now. If you know what I'm talking about. So, yeah. Hopefully, hopefully it comes through it soon and, and beats the stupid thing. So whenever he's fighting, we'll get into specifics, but whatever's going around that he's got, well, we are we're, we're sending our well wishes to him. Zack. All right. Happy holidays from us. Hopefully you guys had a great Christmas. Have a good new year. Keep it safe. Again, if you're going to, if you're going to do substances, whether it's marijuana, whether it's alcohol and you're out about take public transit, call an Uber, call a cab. Don't be on the roads. Don't endanger yourself or anyone else during this new year celebration, please. That's all we ask. There you go and please like, and subscribe, check out our new channel trailer video. We were really proud of that stuff. Read worked on it. So definitely. Subscribe share the podcast among your friends and also we're. You're available wherever you get audio podcast too, you don't have to watch the YouTube challenge. Pulls up on your. On your apple podcast, Google podcast, your Amazon audio. Wherever you get your podcast. We are there. So with that being said, I want to thank you guys again for watching you guys and gals for watching, and we'll see you here next week. Yep. Happy all of this. There you go. Hang on. You're good. Well, Andy Dalton. All right. Cool. We've found it we've added like five new subscribers since they put up that trailer today. That's where you go. Some guy on Twitter was like, I never listened. He's like I had no idea. You guys had so many guys he's like, I've never listened to your show. I'm like, okay. Diff s**t, like figure. Like I had no idea. You guys had so many good guests on there. Okay. There you go. All right. This week on the mark cast, we've got CFL end of year business wrapping up a lot of moves. A lot of players being, let go from their contracts. A lot of players being re-upped. A lot of like front office moves around Edmonton. We'll talk about all that. Yeah. We're dragging CFL. We have CFL news hub and XFL news hub editor in chief. Right. Mark Perry coming on our, our, our host site. We talked with mark about XFL staff, CFL staff, and his fascination with fan controlled football. I don't really know I'm going to have to dig into that. Also, we're going to talk XFL. We've got the, you know, the rock put out the clip, it got 2 million views. A lot of people are interested in the XFL. And the technology behind the XFL. There's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes in terms of legal stuff that we were getting into. In terms of patents that they've required and maybe not acquired we'll we'll, we'll determine that. And we'll, we'll get back to you on that. We've also got news about movement in the NFL. There's been a lot of movement player movement. The NFL will talk about that as well. It's a fun end of the year show. We've got some voicemails and well-wishes, you know, we're building traction on YouTube again, and then we're going into. It's all excitement going into 2022. That's interesting. Yeah. Anyway, so that's something, but, well, we'll have to talk about the accident. The job thing too. I didn't even see that. Yeah. Okay. Well, there we get law. I'll hit record here. This will be fun though. I mean, we've never really talked about any of this stuff. So. Yeah. All right. Well, what is up my friends, we had. Yes. The invasion we have Mark Perry on not your namesake, the mark hassle, though. There is some confusion about that. Ah, Yeah. Thank you for coming on the show, mark, how are you doing good. I'm doing great. We're closing out the new year. And I thought this was a great idea to have the family guy, a Simpsons crossover. And I said, I am a family guy, diehard fan. So I have to be the family guy side of this. That's good. Yeah. We have family guy barging in the door of the Marquez, but this is good because like, I think people think that we just like sit around and like BS about. We really don't. I mean, even the, even the, the chat that we're in, like the new sub chat is a lot of like, oh, Hey, do you see that? Do you see? It's not a lot of like, prognosticating, right? Like, well, what do you think is going to happen with all that? So I think this is a good spot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, and I think, I just want to point out before the show starts, this is how far back that I've met Reed. Does this look familiar? Well, that's what that was going to say. That we've actually been in person together. One time at Walters at the exit fell kickoff back. That's right. That you were huddled in the corner trying to do the live show. And I came in and I said, I, you don't know me, but you know, I listened to the show and you're doing very good. It's yeah, it's been, it's all full circle. And now who would've thought that we're together and dying by going into the grey cup next year. So it's crazy. Yeah. And so, I mean, it's just to point out is you never know. And one of the things that I've been told by people from the XFL and the USFL is that this world that we're in is very small. And they all know each other and they all travel in the same circles. And that just to keep that in mind, as you. For some of those out there. Who, you know, tend to hates on sometimes. Just remember, like, this is a small world out there and the USFL and XFL, they're all watching. They're watching it. Yeah. Anyway, but yeah, I had given. I've listened to van van silt van road in the voicemails. Last week. So the van is still van mark still has your hat. So there we go. We're all. I just did real quick. I wear this. So this is my running hat. And I am, will be wearing this as me and my wife go to Disney. And January 9th to run the Disney marathon. So I will be wearing this hat. Well, there you go. That's it. So first off, I guess the news just came out because Paul and I got done doing the main portion of the show. XFL has officially posted their first. Job posting. So why don't you fill us in on that? So be it basically Jake Henry of course. Pine this out because, you know, we were just discussing that. That's all he does hit refresh, refresh, refresh on some of this stuff, which is awesome. And that's the, one of the things I love about this XFL community. But basically it is a finance guy in New York, but the job actually could be. Remote. But they would prefer in the tri-state area. So it kind of gives you an idea that potentially, you know, there could be the XFL. Taking up shopping at Redbird capital. Building cause they're in New York, too, where we saw that picture with Danny, the rock and Jerry. Cornell with the Hulk. Thing. And I was wondering, where did that whole come from? And actually we found out that it was from. Inside that building it's Redbird capital. So maybe that's and this is the first job posting. I mean, it's a couple of days before the new year. I didn't think we would see anything until January, but something that Mike Mitchell had talked about on your show, which was a great episode. He's full of information. Is, you know, these guys are, they're all in. And something that I mentioned that my podcast was like, if you were to take a tally of the USFL hires versus the XFL people hire. You see that the XFL has hired a ton of people. And they're keep going. I haven't seen any USFL job postings or hirings, except for the initial couple of guys. When the league started. Yeah. So there's so many different ways that we could go with all this and I want to get into, cause I listened to your show as I always do, but this week about your fascination with the FCL. So I want to get into that. Okay. Okay, here's me, but it won't we'll we'll table that till the end. I guess USFL, right? Cause that's the first and foremost here. I mean, realistically, how, how are you feeling about this? Cause like I said, this isn't things that we talk about every day image. So, I don't know, like, what are you bullish on the USFL? Whether we thinking. I am. It's a battle of two different types of business plans. You have the slow build. Brian Woods, you know, Fox element of it. And then you have the XFL coming right out of the gate, just like benched it. The question is who is going to last longer. Unclear. It sounds to me from talking to people around the USFL. One people start to talk to people from the USFL. They get a sense that these guys are all in, and this is this. They have a big vision. This isn't. The USFL, you know, this isn't the spring league anymore. And that D that Fox is really into this stuff. And one of the things I didn't realize, and I saw it in an article somewhere like streaming.com or something like that. Where they mentioned the Fox. Betting app. As part of the, one of the reasons why. The Fox is so into the USFL. And I thought I was like, that is. That is a good point. I didn't think about the fi. It's like. Sped Fox sports or something like that. So that plays a role. So they are serious about getting involved and really at the end of the day, it's a battle of two business plans. My thing all along is I just don't know who. I don't think these two leagues could survive, going head to head. For T can you, do you think that the XFL. And USFL. Could survive going 10 years at the head. I mean, the question is, I think it's the staff and the coaches, guys think there's enough player talent. Right. I think there's enough college, you know, in like we've talked, you know, D two. And I'm not, you. I went to Gonzaga. So I'm not the biggest like college football kind of guy, but I think that there is. Enough of that, but it's coaches, right? It's quality coaches and trainers and staff. I mean, it's not just that. You know, like Danny and the rock, whoever owns it, right? I mean, there's 500 people that are going to be associated with the league. And it's finding, I don't know. I mean, they're not going to be competing time-wise, which I think is good. I think that the April USFL actually is a lot better than the February XFL. Yeah, I agree. I was hoping that the XFL would move. I mean, and we know from being at that first game, the first couple of games in DC, it was freezing. And I was like, just play. W why are you so concerned about what major league baseball and just get away from March madness and then you have. Go head to head with baseball. You'll be fine, especially if they're on strike. So I think that was a good move by the USFL. It's just, I think the XFL, it, it kind of feels like they're just sticking with the original plan that Vince and Oliver luck and Jeffrey P*****k. Developed. Which is weird. That's weird to me. Like it's weird. And even when they came out with the thing, the February thing, was it two, three weeks ago, I was really surprised with that. I'm like, oh, we're just like, cause we'd, you know, I mean a million years ago now when Paul and I started the podcast, you know, our first episode was like, well, you know, they're going to start it in February and they're going to run it back. And then the CFL and everything else has happened. And now they are just running it back, depending on, I mean, depending on the cities, but it's weird to go that far just to be still the Sunday after the super bowl. Or Sarah. Yeah. But I think the initial run is to play it safe. And that's why people are like, oh, there's going to be 10 teams. I just, I would. Wouldn't be a no big moves. I think it's like, Hey, let's. People within the XFL during the time. Of the bankruptcy stuff were telling me that, Hey, the lights are ready to be turned on at any moment. Like. It's somebody could buy it, flipped a switch. And as all systems go. And I think, I think. Do you know what that you too, doesn't like us to say, played a factor in that. And kicking it to the can to the curb or a little bit long. Punting, I should say. And then the whole CFL thing also, I think that was a good. Exercise and a good worked in their benefit to kind of push things aside because could you imagine trying to launch. The XFL right now in February with every, all this craziness going on. It's just the it's weird. I don't know. We, we were talking. With all this, you know, bringing this up, back up in the new cities, in just. I don't know if it makes enough of a, of a movement, if they're just like, well, the eight teams are back or, you know, and then I think we, I talked with Mike about it, like, Hey, well, it's not Houston at San Antonio now, does that move the needle enough? That it's just. We're like you said, we're flipping the switches back on. Yeah. I think so, one of the interesting things about being part of this stuff from the beginning was. Fans were interested. Get really interested. And involved when it comes to cities and team names and uniforms. Then they're interested in the draft and then they're interested in games. So to tease this out for a while, I think is, is good. If the XFL just says, Hey, we're going to do eight teams to start off. However next next year, we're bringing into. All those people will still be sucked in. They'll be ready to rock like. They'll still be in, if you just tease that out there. And I think it makes sense if you're doing television and you're doing a big. You know, behind the scenes show that Mike has kind of talked about. And you're doing that. Why would you want to also include expansion in your first season of television? All you need is just the lead coming back. And season two. The T's of the new to new cities is enough to carry you in season two. That's why I was like, I think I think eight is fine. I mean, the cities were, were great. I mean, I especially like St. Louis. I think you got to start the season off and St. Louis is the first game and let that sucker fill that re that arena fill. And then, you know, LA was kind of ma. And the Vipers. Houston. And I also really think that the USFL and XFL, like, again, they're small worlds. There is no doubt in my mind that they talked and they don't want to go head to head with each other in the same markets. Was it surprising to you as it was to me that Mike Mitchell said that within the last year and a half, there was a point where they were thinking about not bringing back the XFL visit. As someone that podcasts about it every week, I was like, oh wow, this is terrifying. And again, we were on the brink of I Tony soprano, the gun was pointed, you know, and they didn't pull the trigger, whatever, but I mean, was that surprising? Though, because that was something that Mike and I discussed. At the time. We were talking about. You know, stuff was going on with the CFL. And then we were having a conversation and. He was kind of telling me what you guys. You know, he filled everybody in later. From my conversation with him back then, it was like a 50 50 thing. And I was like, oh, there's no way that they're going to do that. And then, you know, the. The. Kind of just forgot about their Houston roughnecks logo or the, the DC defenders thing with the Washington football team and all this stuff. And I was like, based on that, plus my conversations with Mike, I was like, I wonder if something is amiss here and then they, you know, they tried to go with the CFL thing and then that didn't fall. And then, but in the beginning, the whole thing is could they get a TV deal? And that was my fear is that for some reason, They couldn't get a TV deal. Maybe behind the scenes, we'll find out like with Fox coming in and being able to land something with NBC that, that all of a sudden flipped the switch. And now, you know, others are like, oh, well, if they're going to do it. We need something now, like how did that all play into it? But yeah, there was a little, my conversation to him. He was, I would say he was more negative than positive when it came to. If the XFL was going to continue, but you got to remember that was a time when Jeffrey P*****k was, was transitioning out and that we found later that he had kind of been out of the loop for awhile. Kind of moved on in his own direction. Like, I mean, the guy was working. Crazy hours all to get this bankruptcy and then to get to the rock and Redbird capital and Danny Garcia. So he was kind of phased out and then it was kind of like who's, you know, who's in charge or who was, who's going to be the person. And they had kind of paused that search. So it was in flux. And I don't blame them for taking a step back after the CFL stuff. And being like, okay, are we going to do this or not? So who knows maybe the USFL gave them the nudge that they needed. I mean, I don't know. It is. And I, that was going to be, my question was. With this big deal, right? With the NBC Fox and all of that. I just, with the question, the accidental TV deal it's like people are spending, you know, Netflix is giving Martin Scorsese, you know, $350 million, you know, go make a five-hour movie. Like we. You know, people are just it's so content driven right now, right. WWE, you know, billion dollars right. For this. And no one is watching the web right now. I mean, you know, they're watching AEW and everything else, but like, The. I'm like, you can't tell me that they can't. Get, you know, whatever for a million viewers a week or with these. I mean, that to me was always, but I guess that wasn't always a given or they were shopping around. It just seems weird. Yeah. I mean, I, I think the rocket Danny Garcia could go to any television network and streaming service and be like, we're just going to film the rock, just drinking his tequila and Zola. For half an hour. Do you guys want it? And they'd be like, yes, yes. We'll take it. That's why I was, that's the part where I was like, It would blow my mind that they weren't able to land some kind of major TB deal, especially with the idea of this league being kind of a 24 7 league. And, you know, year round content. But I am sure people were willing to do deals with them. It's. It's giving them the money that they wanted. To do it. I think that was the key. Like everybody was like, yes, we'd absolutely do it. Are we going to give you $200 million for three years? Maybe not especially given this climate, but. Live sports. Is it, what else do you got? I mean, honestly, does anybody out there and you can leave a message in the chat you want. Is. Do you even watch regular, you know, ABC NBC Fox programming, or is it all streaming? For me, family, guy and sports. That's it. I don't watch NCI. Europe and NCI, Switzerland, wherever, you know, And all that stuff. Or our network news. I mean, even ESPN, I mean, there's talk about, you know, Disney ditching ESPN. That's a huge. Thing that's been out there that's been talked about for a while. I mean, could you, so the landscape is changing and the rocket Danny Garcia, I've got content. Somebody has got to pay for it. It's weird. You know, looking at both these leagues. Right. And I've my favorite metaphor I've said about this is right. Is XFL is like the matrix, right. And we have layers of layers and layers, and I just, we just saw the new matrix and that's a horrible movie, but oh, it is. Yeah, it's really. Oh, really? But then, yeah, like, did you like, like matrix, did you like when they were in the cave in the matrix? There's a lot of like we're in the cave. Oh, gotcha. It's not a lot, like Kung Fu is up. But, you know, but then you have the USFL that's like caveman, right? Like, you know, we're, we're, you know, football, whatever, but it does seem like both of these teams I'm torn because it seems like the USFL, like you said, they're all in. They have, you know, people. The Fox people are very vested. They're running the ads and all of that. But then we have like this shop and the website, it doesn't compute right with the, what they seem to be projecting like that to me is the most alarming that I gets two minds. I'm. Is this the same company, right? Is this Brian Woods like selling these out of his basement? Like, it's very weird. Yeah, I think, especially in it, even to tie into the CFL, it's like people always complain about the CFL and that the marketing. Because they don't have any money. To hire people to do any marketing. Even though it would be easy. You could probably get an intern to do it for free. For whatever reason. And that's a critique. I think even in the USFL, we look now we basically, all we know is that there's five people. So I don't think, and if they're trying to do a shoestring budget and trying to do things on the cheap, now I I'm with you with the merge part. Cause it's like, dude, that's an easy. Money right there. You could give a couple thousand dollars to some. Web company and they could spin you up a nice, you know, site, but I mean, they don't want to buy all the merge, you know what I mean? Right. This second. So like I get that part. You know, maybe it will change as the league gets closer because the other thing is, is like us nerds are all into, you know, Everything that's going on now, but we're really a fraction of what the audience will be when the games start to play. I mean, I remember the buildup to the XFL. Where it was, you know, it was a huge spike in traffic. It was like one of our biggest monsters when they XFL had a strap. And when they announced teams and cities and all that stuff. And then it was kind of like dead and even training camp. I was like, oh, Where's all the interest. And then man, it's like a week before the game started, it was like through the roof servers crashing. Like I was crashing at that game. You know, and I was, I was kept rebooting it cause it would get a comeback. I finally figured out everything that was wrong with it. So I think. They know that too. So right now, is it worth. You know, going all in. With some of this merge and. You know, marketing stuff. Wait until you're ready to go in April. I think you could see a new store. You know, March. April time, you know, before, just before the season starts, maybe they kind of, they they're just kind of like. Hey, little, little, make a little money off of this. Maybe we'll go big or maybe they just keep it small this year and wait until next year after. You know, it's done and then maybe they can get a partner, like we assume. That the rock and, and. Under Armour, we'll do something with the XFL. I think it's just a budget thing. I think there's just not a lot of resources that they're putting into that even though that's an easy win and cash in your pocket. I was just looking here while you were talking. So because Richard, our listener Richard one that, you know, he won his beanie from our giveaway last week. So I ordered my USFL hat and I was order 1002, right. Because they start. This is the secret. If you run a small business, never started your invoice, right. With one you started with like 677 or whatever. So they don't, you know, your customer. Yeah. So ours, the hat I bought was 1 0 0 2. And I presume one was like a test order. Cause I know that XFL newsroom, he, I think it was three. So the hat I bought Richard Monday was order basically ordered two 15. So is that. It's a shocking, you are not that less than 250 people have purchased USFL merge in the last month. I mean, that's. Especially if. If the, if you know that those places, I couldn't imagine the XFL did, did those kinds of numbers when they announced their, you know, I'm sure the XFL was thousands and thousands and thousands of pieces of merch. Is it cause it's yeah, it's order basically it's order two 15. So that means if I was whatever it, you. And I'm in there too. Probably in the two hundreds, cause I ordered a hat like a week or so ago. So, you know, so I'm just saying, I mean, it is interesting with that. In the whole USF elevate is weird. Like cause when Brian came on our show lately, it feels like forever ago. It felt like he laid out a lot of this stuff, right? He did. He did. I mean, and, and like, I, I have posted out it again and again, like, you know, like we don't understand. I'm like, well, he literally just laid it out 20 minutes driving in his car whenever he did that interview, like. Really weird now, but it is all coming. Do you worry about that? Jump from year one to two. That's the part, the one thing with the TV business that we've seen, especially if this is considered like a TV show for them, which I, I think it's more of a. Then just the TV show because they have the gambling app, but I mean, the value in getting people to jump from draft Kings or any other of these platforms to their own platform is. I mean, I've talked to people in the gambling business and they're like, it's easily a hundred dollars to $200 a person easily. To, you know, to acquire. Oh, yeah. The cost of acquire. They're willing to spend $200 a person. To bring them in. So that in itself to me is a huge. Thing, but. What if you know, the guys who are in charge now decide to leave and go to Netflix, or, you know, that's, that's the part. That concerns me is like, everybody's all in who works for Fox now. And I assume that they've been here for awhile. What if the powers that be upstairs decided they want to. You know, the ratings haven't been good and they're ready to like get rid of everybody. Then the USFL has gone. Like, so that, that. Means to me that it's fragile, but you could argue that the XFL is fragile too. Redbird decides, Hey, we're done with this and we don't want to do it anymore. Like the same thing could happen. But I, it it's really gonna come down to, I think they'll do fine. I think the ratings would be good. I think everybody will be happy. It's what's going to happen after year one. If we're going to be in a hub city again. Then I'm concerned if they're like, all right, we're going to go out to, to D like their plan is to at least two different cities. And if they've said that they're going to add teams. Then I think we're good science. So I think they'll make it through the season. It's what happens. Post-season is really going to be the key because now you'll also have the. To compete with the XFL. And their players. And here's some actually I just thought about now, if you're on a shoestring budget and you and I, and I have heard. Whether, you know that the USFL will pay its players. Well, I have heard that. Well, let's say if they're on this shoestring budget. And there's not a lot of revenue coming in. No, there's no ticket sales and there's no. How are they going to be able to compete with players when the XFL comes on? And they have, you know, this programming and they've got merged from, you know, Under Armour there. And there's a, there's a ton of revenue coming in because we know the XFL. Was profitable. Despite what anybody says, I come from very. As bad as inside as you could. The XFL was profitable after even five weeks. And it was just, you know, there was tweaking or whatever, but there was absolutely going to be a season two. They were already planning it. Like everything, everything was good. Like they have the business model that will work. And they were making money. And year one. So that's going to be. How are they going to P w comply players? I mean, you need season ticket revenue and you're not going to I'm. Hey, I'm going down to Alabama. For a weekend to check out these games. I mean, I've already kind of laid out the plan for the year with my wife. I'm like, there's gonna be a lot of football. So get ready and she's like, Hey cool. A nice trip in a nice hotel. She's good. So, and she likes football too. So. So how are they going to make a lot of revenue off of. When it comes to. You know, ticket sales. And merged like. That's that's the year two part. And that's why I'm like, Find for year one, year two. Concern. I'd be curious to see how it goes. Because, yeah. I mean, like you said, a couple things either, you know, USFL, abandoning ship, right. Cause a lot of that's been made to like, oh Danny and the rock when all the CFL stuff was going on. Oh Danny. And the rock, they can just walk away tomorrow. Right? He only spent $15 million, you know, plus the data or whatever, but with the USFL. Cause I'm thinking about this too, as we talk, because you know, there's been a lot of questions. Well, how are they going to do this? I'm like Bryan Woods did it like three times with cardboard and duct tape and you know, did it. Like you said they weren't paying the players. Right. And half a million viewers on Fox is good when you have free talent. Right. Because the idea. You know, reality TV, right? Which sports. I this, the USFL feels like it's a mix, right? It's kind of sports. But it's also like, it's really cheap to produce big brother. Right? Cause we don't, you know, you'll pay. So now we have a football, even if we're paying the players, you're losing that one benefit of having like cheap talent that we don't have to pay for it. So. I don't know. I am concerned. I think that the radians, we have to be probably substantially bigger. Right? I mean, I'm thinking through this as we're talking, I mean, realistically, what. For. What is that 450,000 a week. I mean, that's not going to fly when you're paying full staffs and stuff and players. Unless they, this, they have people that were lined up to. By a stake in the league and one ownership and are willing to put in money. And maybe this first season also is like a show. Like, Hey, this is, this is the product that you'll get. It's hard to convince somebody who's never seen your product. To invest in it. But after the first year they could be like, Hey, this is what we put on. This is what we have. Why don't you invest a hundred million dollars in buy a franchise and, and. Started going. I mean, who knows? Yeah, I just, I, I w. W talking through that, I, I worry a little bit more because like I said, there were, there were no expectations for the spring rate. Right. It's like, we're not marketing it. We're just putting it on. We don't, we're not even doing interviews. You want to talk to our players. I mean, yeah. It was like crazy time. We were trying to like track down, like, can we, you know, try to get cold Boozer or trying to get like Stan on the show, trying to get coach them on me. Like it was like pulling teeth to get them, you know, I'm like just pick, pick an availability, just say we're doing interviews from four to five and just we'll hop on a time. But. The inability, it seems like for them, the one in the market, but now. There's just so many more eyeballs. I wonder the USFL. If they just called it the Brian Woods football league, if that would have been. Then having these expectations. Yeah. I think something that Mike had said too, is that there's a lot. You know, these there's other players in the game now. And. You know, trying to build this league up and they're all in. So I, I. You know that. I think, I mean, for us, I've said before that the spring league kept the lights helped keep the lights on. During a dark period where there was nothing going on and there was interest. Anytime those games were on, especially if they're on you. If they were on regular versus cable, whatever the deal was. I mean, it was when it was on Fox, even if it was like a two o'clock on a Saturday on Fox. I mean, traffic just goes. Just shot up and it was people looking up to players. But yeah, I mean, getting the stats was in a spreadsheet after the game and all that stuff, but I think like if you're trying to do the shoestring and build it. The idea for them is like, well, yeah, now it's going to be low, but in five years, We'll have a staff and we'll be able to pay. It's like just a slow growth, which is what he explained on his podcast. So all these moves make sense. Based on what he said on your show all those months ago, which was it's, it's a slow build and that's their business model. Yeah, I just, I think Coleen at USFL is the problem. Cause you're just, you're setting expectations. Yeah. I mean, people are still, I mean, we haven't heard. You know, when the, you know, we all know Alabama will be the, the spot. So we haven't heard anything about that. I mean, we're getting close. And I think it's a problem because people, like you said, aren't. As excited as they are about an XFL team. Coming to St. Louis or New York. Because they know they can go see them, or this is like, okay, cool. But, you know, It's going to be a lot of wait and see when it comes to the USFL. If you had to plant your flag on, cause obviously we know the USFL team cities, right? You. You know, we're Southeast, it's weird. It's a lot of NFL things. I think you said on your show, you the Houston, right. And necessary move for the XFL. Any other obvious ones that you would, you would replace here as we get ready for this announcement, which is coming soon, which is actually very exciting to think that we're actually getting. You know, You talking about the XFL T yeah. Yeah. I mean, I really believe, because again, this is a small world. The day. There's no doubt in my mind that they talked to each other and said this, what do you want to do? What w this is what we're doing was what you're doing. Let's stay out of each other's way. There's no way that if the roughnecks. And the gamblers were in Houston. I would help either one of them. That's why people are like, I can't believe that USFL didn't put a team in St. Louis. XFL was not given up that ground. You mean matter what. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But I, I, based on, you know, what we know about San Antonio, which was that San Antonio was being talked about during the XFL season. And the assumption was that Dallas was going to move to San Antonio. At the time, but now that you have the Houston aspect of it, you don't have Oliver luck involved anymore. What do you mean? You know, Houston had training camps. Houston had the championship game. They were playing in a college stadium. Somebody pointed out somewhere. Talking about the, the different. Oh, what was it? The different size of the markets? You know where Houston is bigger market than San Antonio or something like that. I mean, the market size is something that you could get. And market. So, I mean, you want to be in there, however, And I think they did well. I mean, I never heard anything negative about Houston. Maybe now that Oliver luck's not involved, they don't want to, they don't want to deal with Houston. That's why it makes San Antonio. And Houston. To give them maybe even a whole new look. Because of all the litigation or not litigation, but the trademark issues. So Houston seems likely. They XFL was not in Orlando because the AAF was there. The exits. The XFL was not in San Diego because the AAF was there. And the AAF was there while they were paying all these people to do all the research and come up with the logos. So that's why they stayed away from that. So now it's open ground. I mean, LA was kind of ma I'm not a big fan of the LA sports market ever. So I think sin. San Diego would be a great move. They could get that same energy. That's St. Louis Scott. I think you would get the same energy in San Antonio. And you're not playing in a college stadium that you could play. In a dome. And then. I'm always sketchy about Florida as a sports town. I don't think it's very strong and baseball. Even with Tampa bay and Brady. I'm sure that clearly that helps you win in the super bowl. Does that translate for the Tampa bay Vipers and, and I think Orlando. Would seem to be a spot and you can bring Spurrier back perhaps. And have him in Orlando. Then I, then that's it. I cannot see Mexico. I cannot see Canada. I think. The, the chatter that p****s everybody off about the XFL and Toronto, Toronto moving Argos. I think that. Was done. Once genius sports came into town for the CFL. Every, if I'm a CFL on, if I'm the Toronto Argonauts and I can't wait to jump. So the XFL I'd have still have to see what happens with genius sports. Before I do anything. So I think. So. You know, I just don't think the XFL wants to. When you're trying to survive that first year, do you really want to throw on two new teams, even though it's exciting as it would be put a team in Mexico? I just think you play it safe the first year. And when the rock says new cities, Nu teams. I think that's what he means. Now. He also said, if you saw his Instagram post. He said. There was two other things. New alignments. And there was another one. New alignments and new innovations or something like that. I'm looking here while. That's what it was. I think it was new, new, new innovations and new alignments. To me. What could possibly, what would that mean? Other than, I mean, yeah. New, new city, new, a new broadcast partners, new teams, new cities, new innovations, new alignment, and much more. New alignment. Like. What do you think that means? Well, Mike had written about being with the NFL and all that. I mean, it's weird, right? It's how are you? You know, do you want to be a development league, even though you are a development league, calling yourself a development league? That's like when you were talking about Tampa. Especially now with the Superbowl, like how do you go watch the box and then be in the same stadium? Right? How did you opt for that and be like, well, we just watched Tom Ray, like, we're going to go watch. Clinton flowers. Right? We're going to go on. The other thing about the, I just real quick, before I forget about Houston. One of our longest time listeners fill Ramirez. Diehard he's I know he listens years. I said, I think you might be a little sad. Cause I think if they don't bring the roughnecks back, I think, you know, you have a lot of like diehard Houston guys and girls that will be like, whoa, you know, ground shaking. Yeah. And you can't. I mean, like I said, I don't think they can compete, compete with the gamblers there. Do you want to put three teams in Texas? I don't think that's a good idea either. Yeah. You mean? Dallas Houston and an add San Antonio. Yeah. It's like crazy time. But now that you say it alignment. I think that could be, I think that might be your NFL. Clue your NFL network that would make sense. Aligning yourself. With the NFL. That would make sense. I don't know if I'm the NFL. 'Cause I watch, I watch good morning football every day. I'm a big NFL network guy. Like, I mean, I don't, I mean, they program all year, but I don't. I mean, it is a rough programming. You know, mid February on. It's still about you get to training camps and, you know, I mean, obviously the draft and all of that, but you know, it, there was a couple of months here where if I'm the NFL network, it's like, wow, we could have, that's a lot of, you know, It's a simulcast or shell or whatever. I think that that makes a lot of sense. Cause it is dead when you are the NFL. ESPN can cover whatever NFL network. Like, what are we doing here? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That, that would. That would make sense for them. And that would be great for the XFL because they're tapping right into that. They're right in the face of that mark and I know a. There were AAF games on the NFL network. It is before paid. I think there was, I think there were some, you know what I mean? Like Saturday at two o'clock kind of deals. I think, I think there was an, I, I don't recall what the ratings were, any of that kind of stuff. Maybe that's what he meant by new alignments. I mean, what else, what else could that mean? To me? Alignment was like, well, As you know, DC defenders in a different division, like there's only eight teams to pick from how can we do this? So that would kind of make some sense. But, you know, we saw the Easter egg from Danny Garcia with that. The pamphlet. And then on top of the pamphlet, But it's interesting too, is that a lot of the, we haven't really seen any mainstream coverage of the XFL. You know, it's not like a, you know, when the rock was on TV, I mean, there were some outlets that covered what he said, but it wasn't like ESPN was talking about it or, you know, they started good morning football. Not that they would ever. Yeah. Unless they're partnered together, which would be huge. I mean, we've talked about before, you know, is, is Fox sports going to really talk about the XFL when they own the USFL? Is ESPN care about the USFL. If they are partnered with the XFL. So if you can get ESPN and you get NFL network. You're you're good. I mean, as much. You know, getting NBC sports is a great thing for the USFL. NBC sports had the NHL. And I think the NHL begged. I mean, they got paid, but they really wanted to get back into eat with ESPN because the NFL, the NHL wasn't the same. They were hot property when they were on ESPN and then they moved to NBC. I mean there, you know, hockey is, is big here. With the capitals. But I mean, It wasn't on my radar at all. You know, Once they left ESPN. It's weird when you talk about the mainstream. I want to get into like, anger about, you know, getting credit for stories or anything like that. But it is weird. It's like with this all USFL stuff, like, you know, w w I will be talking like TV ratings, all that, and then there'll be like, you know, Joe blow from the sports business journal writes, oh, Hey, the a, this is my story of the day. And I write it is frustrating. Cause I'm like, we live this every day. Yeah, and I get it right. I get that's part of it. Like who gives a crap about, you know, whatever, cause we can be out, but it is, it does get tiring sometimes. And you're like, I live through this all the time and you know, Kevin, whatever with ESPN gets to come on and oh, Danny Garcia said whatever, you know, 10. Yeah. It's, you know, But I've heard from people, especially when it comes to our site. XFL news. I mean, you've seen with, you know, your podcasts and the success that it's had. That there is. We are very important. Too. This space because anytime we get it wrong, or we say something like these guys hear about it. If we were to go on, if I was to go on Twitter right now, if 10,000 followers, which is a nice little accomplishment, And we can, and I said, The XFL is going to open up. Training camp in Hawaii. Yup. I guarantee you, I would get a phone call. Within the hour. Being like, what are you talking like? This is not even what, like, you know, Because they would get inundated with messages and, and. At questions and whatever, and that goes for the USFL to. So I think. And they know, and we know. We've kind of. Have a nice partnership with all these leagues. That you know, we play. An important role. Because we're the ones that are touching the, the audience that is hungry for this stuff. And if we went away, They wouldn't be able to tease these things. Us nerds would be like, oh my God, did you see the USFL? What? My daughter's boyfriend is college and I use my kids. I got six kids. Blended family. You know, from middle school, all the way into college. And I always ask them what they're, where they are with stuff. And, you know, some are more on the theater side. But one daughter's boyfriend is into bedding and wherever we talked about the XFL and he had heard about that she was on the phone with them. Just yesterday. And I said, Hey, ask him. Because he's watching all the games and they're betting and he's like, yeah, I want some money last week. And now he's all happy. I said, ha ha. Has he heard anything about the USFL? And he was like, Nope. I mean, those commercials were on. You know, but he can do a Google search and go USF bell news. And then we come up and then he can go, oh, okay. Like here's the commercials or here's, you know, the people that were hired. That stuff is really not out there except for USFL stuff is on Fox sports. That's it. It's weird. I couldn't believe that the tech crunch thing, they were tech check that whenever. Steven. Yeah. Yeah, that like, That got like 150,000 whatever impressions on that. Like from our just, you know, cause listener max, you know, had, had screen recorded it and like, you know, texted it to me like via Android to. You know, and it's not Andrew. He couldn't tech, whatever. It was like the worst quality video MIT's that. And I couldn't believe. I mean, it was the biggest thing that we've ever tweeted. Right. And it was just rock. BMI news is coming next month. And I was like, holy s**t. I mean, like if this. If that is any indication of like the interest of all this, I just was, it was like, cause we've been doing this for, you know, 74 ever. I mean, it was the first tease. I'm like, oh wow, this actually could give some traction somewhere, you know? And it shows you the power of him. I mean, we wrote an article that was three days later and 2.3 million people had watched that. 22Nd clip. On. YouTube. I'm a no on his Instagram. Dude's got 250 million followers. All my kids follow him on Instagram. So, I mean, and, and that's the power that he has. That is so different. Than anything we had before. Now, let me ask you this. If you were, if you had a choice. With your leagues, would you rather have a league football league run by Fox sports? And let's just say like, just Fox sports in general. League run by Vince McMahon. And all of her luck, we'll throw them in there. Or a league run by Danny Garcia, the rock and Redbird capital of those three. Which one would you choose? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's. There's a lot of intangibles having Fox there. I mean, I will say that, but again, but you're one of. You know, there's Flay the programming, right. I dunno. It's like the whole WCW when they were with like TNT. Right. And it's like, they're just a TV show there. Right? Like they don't care about. The lives, you know, that was the whole thing that Vincent man hated was there. Like, you know, TNT can afford to dump millions of dollars into this. Right. And I can't, I mean, I certainly wouldn't want Vince, but I do, you know, I think the passion is there with Danny and the rock ride, and we've, we've obviously been critical about the silence, but then we hear like, well, we want. We don't want to be silent, you know, it's killing us that we can't waste out to me in the rock, brought up the XFL himself on that show. I mean, they didn't even know. Talking about tequila. Yeah. I mean, that's why I was, I was like, why didn't I put that on to watch? Because they was like, he was like a set him right up. He was like, Hey, is there anything else going on? And he's like, well, actually there is. The XFL is coming back and all those little, and then to put it out there on Instagram and throw in a couple more things. Was was huge too. And it that's one dude, one dude making an Instagram post. Or saying something. Blew up your Twitter. You know, it was articles for us. I mean, other mainstream news picked it up. I just, I be so interested to see when they unleashed this thing. The power that they have is, is. At one of the interesting things. I don't know if you caught the full interview on CNBC. But they had mentioned about him as an entity. Going public. And I was like, that's crazy. That he could be like a billion. I mean, he's already rich now. But to his, for his brand to go public. Yeah. And to me, I was like, whoa, that's like a person that's like, you know, Back in the day, thinking that Michael Jordan would go public. I mean he's he's on that level. And to a. Even think about one person brand going on public, but everything he's touching. And all, you know, your little friend with the twice failed league and his sign back there. You know, saying that. Well, what do they know about. Creating a football league. What did he know about tequila? Whether they, Danny Garcia knows about fashion. And you know, that they just jump in and, and, and they've had success wherever they go. And everything that I have heard from Danny Garcia. In particular because she's the chair woman. Notice that the rock isn't the chairman of the XFL. She is. Chairwoman. This is very personal for her. And this is like the biggest thing she's ever done. And the most challenging things she's ever done. And she's done a lot. So, and she didn't know anything about television or producing movies or any of that stuff. She was a finance person. Before all of this. And so. To have that kind of drive and the talent that they have behind them. I just think. The sky's the limit. Well, you, she sat in that Foundr right there with the Nathan. I was like, why are you? Okay, let's go on the Foundr podcast. But they were like, yeah, it was all 28 years of my professional life has been building towards this, just with all the, yeah. But that's the thing is it's not, it's not a rock love, right. Or a Danny love. You know, this, all this. You know, with CFL and otherwise it's all these critical. You know about that, but it's, it's just having the power to open those doors. Right. And make the calls. Like, I, I watch a lot of shark tank and, you know, Mr. Wonderful on there. Right. He, he gets a lot of deals cause he's like, You just need. Like you need one phone call made and you know that if you, you know, if you hire me. They will ask. They will pick up that call. Right. Whereas if, if it was any number of anyone else trying to make that deal, and I think that is a power with that, right? Yeah. What do they know about anything they don't, but they know that they will answer the call when they make that. And that is, you know, it's. Invaluable, right? Yeah. And I was stunned. I was shaking when. They are now. Cause I, I thought about going to. When they were making the announcement about who purchased the XFL. I thought about traveling to a. Where the. The state that. It was part of. That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Traveling the Delaware to be there for that. But then, you know, Everything was going on. I forgot what it was. But then when they came out and it was like, yeah, the rock and Danny Garcia. I was like shaking. I was like, The rock bought the XF value. I couldn't believe it. I couldn't. I couldn't, I was stunned. And then to learn all about his, her story. And then I'd heard about Jerry Cardinel before. And I've known that name in the sporting world for awhile. And then I was like, whoa, this is, this is crazy. But then. Nothing happened. Until the CFL stuff started rumbling. Well, I don't want to hold you till, I mean, I can talk to you forever. I do want to do a little CFL here, and then I have a couple of voicemails we needed to play before we let you go. I don't want to, you know, you've been, I don't know how long you want to stay out, but it's been, you know, it's four 50. Ah, The the, the negativity, right. It's weird to me. It's always been weird to me. The CFL thing. Where they've lived forever as non yet non NFL. Right. And, and, and getting that slight and then here, you know, and then there's, [unknown]. XFL USFL people are anti USFL, X of what people like. It's so weird to me. I've never gotten that. And that's why, obviously we all try to cover all of this, but like that you, you know, you care about this one second hand league, you know, whatever words, but I'll know. But not that other one, like, I don't like. It's like, but that's the same. It's all the same. Even what I'm saying. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was a whole. Juni journey and definitely blindsided because the CFL was always on my radar. If the XFL and AAF weren't going to work, but the problem was, I didn't feel like there was enough pole. From the United States into Canada. To generate any interest. I mean, I did the Google trends research, trying to see. You know, when things would happen, but just the fact that the Dave and talk to each other. Brought in, you brought in. May I brought in CFL news hub. A lot of our fans came over and started watching the games. I started watching the games and yeah, I got a lot of. You know, a minority of people, a lot of people were excited to have us come in because they want more people. To. Cover the league and I totally enjoyed the CFL. I liked watching the games. If people were to ask me to do the deal between three downs and four downs, I would say. Sometimes I love three down football. Sometimes I hate it. It's a 50 50 thing. Sometimes I'm like that worked out perfectly. It was three downs were able to like get a lot of action. And other times I'm like, dude, I'm so sick of seeing these guys punt. This sucks. So I'm always in the middle of when it comes to the CFL, but the first year of. You know, I was covering the CFL was, I mean, Just a lot of heat on certain circles and you could, there was things like you can say, and you can't say, and, and if you said something wrong and I would always be like, yo, I'm admitting, this is the first year. Into this thing, like, I didn't really, but, you know, with the XFL and the AAF, there was never like, A lot of people hate the XFL people. Yeah. We were all just like, cool. There's a spring football. And I saw what I was assuming going into the CFL was like, cool. There's more people that want to work. We promote your league. We help bring United people from the United States and Canada to give you another source. Of talking about the CFL. And I'll say this. I listened to a lot of CFL podcasts in the beginning. Just to try to get an idea of what's out there. And who's saying what? And a lot of it was Harbage. A lot of it was got guys that would like talk to the other guy and he'd just keep laughing about everything that other guy said. And I'm like, he's not even funny. And it was like, not really like the quality just wasn't there. And I was like, cool. Like this is a good market to come in. You came in. Your guys' show to me is the best CFL show out there. Interviewing all those people. Very interesting. You guys are pros. You know what you're doing? That helped the CFL. There's no doubt it helped to CFL, but it was also shocking. Too. Put stuff out there. And just. There was no like juice behind it, where like, when the XFL was going, I could put out a post on YouTube and it would get instantly, you know, like 500 views, especially when the. As the lead was going, I could put out anything. And because there's not a lot of people covering it. Like we did. You do that same thing in the CFL. It's just not the, it just wasn't there. It was just a very weird learning experience, but that we're still all in. For CFL in year two. I mean, there's announce it now on your show. I saw a lot of people complaining that the CFL phone app sucks. Well, we are coming out with the CFL. News hub phone app in January. So that will be there for people to download. And, you know, I've talked about the fantasy thing I'm trying, we'll see in the new year, I'm might bring on some developers part-time if you know, See if you're a C-sharp Microsoft developer and want to make some money on the side. Message may. Marked up Perry or just podcast at CFL news hub. Dot com. And you want to work on a fantasy football application? I think that's something that the CFL league is missing. Big time. I was disappointed with their CFL stuff. The CFL fantasy part, which is. We draw. I remember talking to Oliver luck twice. I've met Oliver luck twice. Both times. I always asked him like, So who's doing your fantasy football stuff and he's like, well, we're going to come out with an announcement soon. And then it never happened. And I was like, oh my gosh, that is such a, you have no clue between betting and fantasy. Are so important. To the overall enjoyment of football. You pick out all these bowl games, you think anybody knows. The. Your Brony ball, two teams plan. They don't know the players. They hardly know the coaches, but they're interested in the. You know, gambling aspect of that's what they want to do. Yeah, the CFO things weird, like I've never worked harder in my life. Really. I mean, and I've, I've ran my own business rate years now. Like I've never worked harder. Right. And, and I do, like you said, and I mean this in all like sincerity. The, yeah, the lack of traction sometimes that like, you know, because we would have shows this year and they're, you. W B. We'd have three people or whatever on talk and CFL stuff, you know, mid season, you know, we're right in the thick of things, I'm like, This is probably not going to be a very highly watched show because there was no, you know, our show works better when there's competing, right. Where there's XFL things or there's USFL or whatever, but like, For all of the. Drama, everything for all of that energy. And then like how these episodes come out and be like, you know, 300 views. And you're like, Okay. You know, I mean, and, and, you know, and it's a labor of love and we go up and I'm glad that our live showed, you know, did as well as they did. Right. That was, you know, Great. But like, if that is what is the most frustrating thing to me is I'm like, you guys need to put your money where your mouth is thing. Cause there was a lot of like, you know, F you get out of here, like we care and all this stuff, but then. No, one's watching the content. Right. You know, and especially even now after the CFL season, and obviously there's more XFL stuff in the news now, but you know, our ratings are up doing off season moves and XFL and all these other things then covering, you know, the outlets in week 14 against the red blocks or whatever, you know, Yeah. It's that, that was, that was an interesting thing. And I will say this when it comes to, there's a lot of debate in the CFL world, three downs versus four downs. Anytime you mentioned, it's like, In the XFL world that's mentioning. Johnny Manzell or Tim Teebo or Colin Kaepernick. It's a cheap it's. We call it in the wrestling business, a cheap pop. And you can get it any time when you throw in that wing thing. I'll say this, no matter how you, what you feel about it. It's really gonna come down to if genius sports. Goes to the owners in the CFL. And says you're losing. A hundred million dollars a year because you are not playing for down football. I don't know what will change. And that's it. That's that's that's no matter what you feel. I mean, that is such a shock to the system to change that. Because I didn't even realize from listening on your podcast, like that affects youth football. And it affects. I mean, it affects the whole history of the whole. Yeah. Record books out. Yeah. That's why, I mean, I don't think they'll ever do it, but it is. It was literally a mallet. It's like having an 18 game NFL season now you're like, well, how do we track? A thousand yards. Russia means nothing. Now, if you have 17 games, Barry Sanders did it. What? It was like 13 games. Yeah. And it meant something. And so. But it will be where money talks. And if they're like, you are losing all this kind of money because you're not for down football. And here's my other thing. And again, I'll catch heat for this, but whatever it's. It's it's the facts. The XFL. And USFL, they ex. Let's take the USFL, for example. If Fox sports. Wanted a football program. That they thought we would succeed and give them the ratings that they could've easily. Approached the CFL and said, Hey, we love your product. Let's put it on American broadcast. You don't have to spin up a league. You don't have to spend, you could easily have given the CFL. $10 Million a year. I mean, I don't know what the numbers are, but if this. The Fox was willing to spend 50 million to start their own league. Yeah. I think they could have gotten, and I don't know what the contracts or whatever, let's just say in general in hybrid. Yeah. Hypothetically. Given the CFL. 10 Million. If they thought it was. A worthwhile thing, they would have done it. And that's the part where I'm like, I think it's missed out. That part concerns me, like why. You know, why did these, why did the XFL, I mean, the XFL talk to the CFL, cause I think they wanted to have a bigger league. Because that's more games and more gambling and more areas you're touching and merchandise. A lot of sense to me, the 16 north south super league, whatever you want to call it may. It made a lot of sense to me. Yeah. But then, then the, so the USFL goes out and starts their own league. And then. The other thing with the CFL. Is the. That they're not on regular broadcast television. Like how is the gray cup not on CTV, right? Is that what it is? How is that even feasible? I can tell you from personal experience. The difference between a TSL game. Even an XFL game on Fox. Over the air. Versus ESPN. Versus [unknown]. [Unknown] or whether it was on like Fs two and you're like, I don't even have this. Yeah. Right. It was night and day for the traffic and the same thing with the CFL. It was on ESPN plus the site wouldn't really do anything on ESPN to the rare games. It was. Traffic shot up. So like, Those are the things that concern me, but I, I, I enjoy. The CFL. I think they're in a good spot with genius sports. As much as people are like, eh, I think genius sports is more important to the CFL. Then the gambling part. I'll throw that out there. Well, yeah, I don't think, and the revenue share lists. What revenue share. Are you telling me that the Saskatchewan Roughriders have a surplus of $10 million to spread across the team? Well, maybe it's 50 grand. I mean, how much are they really sharing? So that's what I. You know, and genius sports as Dave Naylor said on your show, right? That they have a 10% equity in. They didn't. Did they? Didn't the CFL didn't pay them? No, they gave them 10%. Yeah. Yeah. That's a, that's a big. That to me is huge. Even compared to the gambling aspect of it. Cause they're going to be able to tie the two together. Well, I just, I guess that I, I think traction it's like, and I want to get into this tangential football thing before we go. It's like that. Right. It's the same thing. Like, I can tell you from looking at our YouTube numbers, like nobody watched FCF season one. Like I know that because I know that like the second we talked about CFL, you know, we gained a thousand subscribers, right? Like, No one was watching FCF except you know, that 45, 50,000 people it's the same with the CFL. Like you said, with the sports betting, like if there's no traction there for people to watch to Google. You know, again, don't watch my stupid Facebook, Google CFL news hub, or whatever. Like there's no traction for them to bet either. And that's, what's scary. Yeah. So. But, I mean, I, I. As much as heat as I got in the beginning. I mean, I thoroughly enjoyed the CFL and. And I can't wait for season two to start. You know, with the draft. And I said, you know, we're going to bring back the CFL news hub podcast. Wednesday nights at eight. 9:00 PM. Part of it was schedule. I got, like I said, I got six kids and, you know, Carving out a time that's consistent and you know what? It's like putting the work in, getting all this stuff ready. It's not like you just flip the switch. You gotta like. Get things ready. And then there's posting, you know, all that stuff. So I'll say you, I mean, you see the numbers. I mean, you see a CFL. Weekly show numbers versus, I mean, but that's the thing too. I mean, you can look at that. I wanted. And now we have to play these voicemails. The. So you seem to be very in, on finger. So football season two. Yeah. Okay. So here's, here's, here's why, so the, and this is a. To part. Kind of a personal thing. I kind of like. Every ball. Remember Josh Davis. He passed away and he was heavily involved with the fan control football and working with them. Fan controlled football. When he passed away kudos to fan controlled football, they were outstanding. To his family. So right then and there. My loyalty to them was like, Hey. You know, they were good to my guys, so I want it to be. At least promote them. It gives, I mean, you play the ads on the show. Yeah, I know because, but, so, so that was so that's part one. So they kind of really, they were great. I mean, they were just so good. I mean, messaging me and what can we do? And all different people from fan control. They were really great XFL. We were talking about this in our chat. I mean, if you look at the XFL is timeline. You know, they talked about John Madden passing away. They talked about Rosa. Brandon Danny Garcia and their fourth tweet was about Josh. So. So that was, that was part one. And the other part that kind of ties all, especially during that time period was. Josh, his mom reached out to me. And she said. Thank you for letting my son shine. And that really kind of like. Struck a chord with me and, and really cause I'm a faith guy. I mean, I talk about my faith on, on, on the show. And that really hit me because what is the purpose of XFL news hub and CFL news hub? It's about giving people opportunity. To shine. I mean, You know, the writers. I mean, Mike Mitchell is like a. Famous. Yeah. Guy and our circle. I mean, you are, I mean, people did people recognize, I, somebody came up to somebody, emailed me and was like, I think they, they thought I was you or something. And they were like, oh, I I'm, I, I met you at the grey cup. And I was like, nah, I was at home watching it. It was probably read. But, you know what I mean? Like people especially watch out once. As this XFL USFL stuff starts to take off. You'll see that thing it's like, basically. Giving people opportunity. And I look at the, you know, hub football. We just had one of our guys go to a hub football event. Covering that because I get so many messages from players saying. I don't have an agent. I was division two. I mean, I get them. I mean, I get maybe 20, especially as things starting to crank up, like I'll get like 10 to 20 a week. Yeah. Just asking like where, where can I begin? And I say, okay. Either hubbed football's one. I mean the spring league was one. Hubs football and fan controlled football. You can go and try out there. And there's an opportunity for you there. Now. I would like to go check out a fan. Fan controlled football game in Atlanta. I'm Eric. I'm a bit. I'm a old school doge coin holder. You know, mining crypto. I mean, I'm a technology guy. I was one of the first people actually to ever do a pro wrestling podcast and you can look it up. So I've been doing pocket. I mean, my daughter is seven she's 16 now. And I was doing my start of my wrestling podcast before she was born. So it gives you an idea how long, and then I've been in and out. You know, sold my wrestling site and got into the XFL and all this other stuff. So it's it's about opportunity and these guys were, were good. To Josh's family and they were good. And it giving players an opportunity now. If I hear players try out for the league and there's negative things that happened to them. Like we've. We kind of hear these things and then guys will complain and then, then they're like, oh no, it wasn't actually that bad. Like that kind of stuff. Yeah, absolutely. If it turns out to be something bad, But I'm interested. It's. It's a good third level type. I think you have the, you know, basically you have the NFL, you have the XFL and USFL right here. I would probably maybe put the XFL a little bit higher at this point. And then there's like, you know, The fan controlled football, I think is the third league. And. Given guys opportunities to kind of play. The fact that they, whether they're paying or not, whatever the deal is with the NBC. Peak being on peacock, I think is a good thing. The fact that they were able to survive after just being on Twitch. And the NFT space intrigues me. I'm really curious to see how they play that. I think they could be. That could be potentially really innovative. I know the NFL. We'll probably by next year, we'll have NF that NFT space. So that's kind of, I think it's kind of cool and different. And so really it's, it's like, you know, the same thing. With CFL news hub. And anybody know what the elf is and everybody calls it. Elf poor guys, elf European league of football. We cover that too. Because I feel like. It, at least in the CFL, they have the whole global initiative. So we're like, let's cover the elf. The four CFL news hub because some of those guys yep. And Josh was one of those guys that would interview. Players in the elf and ha ha put them on my show. To give them opportunity. So I I'm all for, you know, fan controlled football and I'm giving them a chance and making, just helping them. Promote there because there's so many players that listen to, I, I look at the, the Twitter thread alone. And it's like, you know, DB from some D two school or they'll send me their videos and I'm like, What am I supposed to? Yeah. I can't help you. You. You know, I would, I kind of point them in the right direction. Some of my stock answer now is check out hubs football. We have a great relationship with them. Fan controlled football. I mean, good relationship with them as well. And you know, it's just about giving guys opportunities. I watched some of it, but. Last year, but I didn't really, you know, It will be. I'll be interested to see what if they can pull out something really cool when it comes to the crypto space and their league. I've been intrigued by that myself. Let's put it that way. It's just hard. They're just so like smug about it. I just wish that they, like you said, we, you know, we have these layers of, of leagues and teams and all this. And like they come out and they're like, We have a million views, you know, on Twitch. And like, I just wish that they. You know, and like acknowledging the other leagues and acknowledging you. Like, cause they'd some the other day and they're like talking about spring football and I'm like, Is it the spring football leagues that you acknowledge or you don't acknowledge because like, Pretend that XFL isn't a thing, but yet your w your MVP was one of the XFL quarterbacks, or like now you have players that are going to elf in like, journey, right. Your star of this year is not playing because they're like, so you, you don't want to acknowledge these EAs, the. You'll live in a vacuum, right? You said before with we're all in this circle, like they don't exist in a vacuum, but they like to pretend that like, They're the only thing it's very weird. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, and we've actually, you know, learned. Over the last. A couple of weeks. About, you know, dealing with how is the best way to deal with the public. And I think these guys will learn as time goes on and. You know, when it comes to that stuff isn't necessary. No, you know what I mean? Like promote your league and. That's what people want is that positivity. And I think, you know, guys like. You know, the rock is brings up positivity. I think they'll expect that. And. The USFL will too. You know, but yeah. Twitter spirits is assessed pool at times. And don't, you don't want to add to the cesspool just. But I don't, I don't retweet any of that stuff, but when it comes to, you know, player tryouts or the league, or some of the things that they're doing behind the scenes, like I'll definitely promote that out and I'll see. I mean, I'm, I'm up there in LA. I'll get an NFT and see what the deal is. I'll explain to you. And Paul how it all works and why that's beneficial or why. The fancy shoes. I mean, they way you gotta get your whole. The guy's holding a different football. I don't know. I, you know, Twitter, I have the monkey with the eyeballs falling out, or I have the monkey without a skull or. It's very weird. All these other theaters are very hungry. It's it's new thing. Like I got, I, cause I'm always, I've been a technology person. So anytime there's new technology, like doge coin came out, I was mining doge coin in 20. I think it was 2013. 2014, like when it was a fraction of a fraction of it. I mean, I built my sir. I built the computer in minor. And so, and so when the NFT space and I've known about it for a while, Started to grow and especially when it comes to sports. So I bought some NFTs for run the MBA, so they have an NFT thing and. I explained it to people. The one thing I will say this, and so I got, I, I might've told this story before. I'm like, I don't think I have. So when it comes to NFTs and people are like, ah, get it, like, what's the big deal with NFTs? Like, why would I want that? My kids would say the same thing. So one of my daughters is a huge flash CW fan. Loves the show. Posters the whole thing. And, and I was telling her, I was like, oh, you know, you could do this with it. And then it's like, why would I, I could just take a screenshot of that, like, blah, blah, blah. Like, it doesn't make any sense. I was like, well, Yes, you can also take a screenshot of the Mona Lisa, but you can't sell them on Risa. Like you can't sell that screenshot. So owning it, you actually have ownership and it's verified by them. The blockchain so you can sell it and, but you can't sell it. Picture on your computer. But you can show it on, you know what I mean? But anyway, so I said to her, well, I said, well, what if I could offer you? If they were going to sell the first 30 seconds. Of the flash is first episode. Would you, would you buy that? Would you want to own that? And she's like, oh my gosh. Yes. Yeah, so. I was like, would you pay a thousand dollars for it? If you were one of. 20. Or, you know, even a thousand people who own that, that one clip, would you do that? And she's like, oh my gosh. Yes, I totally would. So it's, it's, it's, it's a kind of collectors thing. I mean, I would I buy beanie babies? No, I would do nothing with beanie babies and they kind of disappeared. We have my kids were into. What was the other. Not garbage, garbage pail kids was my Jenner eighties. No. What was the dogs via pawns, like magic cards, Pokemon, you know, a lot of that. Oh, no. What was. Oh, my girls all collected it and it lasted for like a year or two. And I can't remember them. There were like little plastic things, and now you can, you couldn't get them anywhere, but. Anyway, it's kind of like the collector's thing and, and what's nice about NFTE is it's like, If you were to create an NFT. You and I. So let's say if we had an NFT. When you walked. When I was doing that live stream with Connor fault and you walked behind me. And I made that into an NFT and said, Hey, I'm going to sell, you know, A hundred copies of this for a thousand dollars. Two people and they're like, oh yes, the first time mark and Reed ever met. This is, I want that. And there'll be, that might be one or two guys that would pay a hundred bucks through it. There's some hardcore fans out there. If they were able to sell it. So number one is that they would own it. Yes, I could screenshot it, whatever, but I can't sell it. They could go on the market and then they could sell it. One of the nice things about NFTs is, and for content creators. Is that if you sell that. Item. The content creator gets a kickback. So if you were to paint a picture and you sold it at a gallery for $200, And then that person took that picture and sold it for a thousand dollars. The original person who made the painting gets no cut of the action. In the NFT space. The original creator, which makes this whole totally a different paradigm shift. Is that the content creator will always get a cut. Anytime that object is sold and that makes it so different now. And so interesting for these leagues because I mean, I was thinking about the NISL like, Whatever that. Name image likeness. Yeah. And people are like, oh, well, you know, that's going to impact, you know, how the USFL is going to sign people or the XFL, we're just going to sign people. And I was like, actually, this is really going to take things to another level. Because. Let's say some guy from Alabama, who's a wide receiver sign. And I'll deal with some car dealership. And he is projected to be drafted in the sixth round of the NFL and be some practice squad player. If I invested a million dollars into your name, image, and likeness. I don't want you to go to NFL. I want you to be on TV. Yeah, I might be like, you need to go play in the USFL. That changes the paradigm of how that works and what these leagues could do is say, and I think the NFL will probably do it. And with, but they'd have to agree with the players association, but the USFL and XFL should jump on this first. As you could go to. You know, if you wanted. I mean, we won't use Colin Kaepernick or I don't know some. Oh, a quarterback. That's a decent one in college and you can be like, listen. I can we'll do we'll you'll come to the XFL or you come to the USFL. Dickie Trevor Lawrence. But you could have. The say this happened. Two years from now. You could have went to Trevor Lawrence and been like, listen, You come to the XFL, we're going to do NFTs with like videos and every time the NFT is sold, you're going to get a cut of the action. He would be like, or you can go to the NFL, like we'll give you whatever the minimum salary is for the NFL. But we'll give you all the now granted the NFL could do it too, but let's just say that the, these leagues, so it's a whole new revenue generation. Thing for sports. That's never been out there before. And, and I think it's really innovative that fan controlled football is jumping on it. Cause it's smart. Cause they need. They would need that kind of revenue. It just, how the, if they can execute it well, is the question. Oh, well, well, To see now. See, I you're, you're honest. That's good. That's good. Yeah. All right. We got a couple of voicemails here real quick. Before we let you go. We have a super fan of the show of your show in mind, Zach, Zach is a little under the weather right now. So. We're hoping to Zach feels good, but we have, Zach has a message. He was. When I posted the promo, he w he, he messaged me. He's like, holy crap. I can't believe I'm like, I hear we got. Zara, here we go. Zack. Of course now it's buffering. We will do that. Quick question for Mark Perry. If all three leagues were to merge. How would you go about deciding who America's team was? Oh, it's very simple. It's still DC defenders. You see defenders. No matter what that is, that is America's team. And. That's that's it. That would be. I mean. And I know you guys have talked about this before. I've talked about it before. I just can't see the USFL and XFL running side by side for more than five years without merging. I just can't. I can't see it. I think the word merge is in the vernacular because of the CFL stuff. I think that is. Y. I don't think that that. I think if those talks hadn't have happened, I don't think we will be talking merging any of these links right now. I think. That put this in. You. It mind planted and you know, everyone. Yeah. I mean, And they could just let the other one run out. But I mean, the five-year. There'll be so fascinating to see where the CFL. XFL and USFL RN, five years from now. I think if you go back, I think there's an early read review of week and review that says something like the accident of the dragons or America's steam or something. If you go back, I think there's, there's probably whether it's our, we got one. Kevin's a longtime listener. Kevin's from Australia. All right. Hey guys, it's Kevin hope you're doing well. As a big XFL fan and a very, very casual CSL follower. My question is in regards to the XFL and CFL merger talks. Do you guys believe that? These talks were. More trouble than what there was. Yes. With the XFL, the CFL talks. Push back the start of the season. And it also brought on more criticisms and more questions from the CFL community. Reid has a. Probably has an idea of how I feel about the CFL community. And for the CFL, the XFL toll. Influenced in so many ways with Toronto. Potential teams moving and the potential rule changes all that. Do you guys believe that these talks. Well worth it. And should it, should it have happened in the first place? Thanks. Guys. I think, I think it was absolutely worth it. I think it was worth it for the CFL because. They were kind of status quo. This kind of force them their hand, the whole, the owner's hands to be like, okay, put your money where your mouth is. What do you want to do? I think the XFL laid out all of the, the ideas. That they, you know, they basically through every single angle at the CFL, I think the CFL, it gave them an opportunity to learn. I don't think genius sports would be. Involved with the CFL. If the XFL wasn't wasn't there. And I think in the long run, I think that helped. Push. Forced the hand of the owners. Along to really take a look in the mirror and do something about that. I think, I think it helped the XFL because you don't want to put a league going on with everything that's going on right now. I think it sucked. And that we were all hoping for it to come back. But if you're trying to start a, a, a football league. Especially. I mean, even, I just couldn't even imagine. I mean, The logistics that are going to happen for the USFL and they're in a hub city. They XFL. I mean, and with the. Things that's going on with the NFL. I mean, you saw Jordan time. It was now. PJ walkers backup, backup back, whatever the, I mean, it's just been nuts. Josh Johnson played for the jets. Then two weeks later I was playing for the Ravens. So I think in that aspect, that help. Yeah. I mean, we, we, we were getting rumblings that there was some kind of talks. Before it became official. And we didn't believe it. Cause we get stuff comes in and people are saying stuff. And. If I get something that's juicy, I will absolutely reach out to Mike. As my guy and we had gotten something two weeks. That was pretty juicy. And I was like, You know, I can't, I can't. I can't be like this, this random dude. But then it came out and I was like, wow. That's that's a, that's a ballsy move. And I, my fear that the reason why the XFL did it. It was because they couldn't get a TV deal at the time. That's what I was fearful of. Cause then, and then when the talks dropped, then I was like, well then. Cause that's the benefit for the XFL. Is. To increase your base. So you have more teams and it's an easy win, but it was a very difficult thing. To accomplish when the li the rules are so different. And the, and the amount and the time of year they play. I still think, and I threw this out on my show. I know that the timing of the, of the leagues and, and, you know, one starts here. And one of let's just say, for example, they both wind up finishing at the same time of year genius. Sports says, you know what really, you should be done by labor day. Like, don't try to play games into November because statistically, this is what we found. You'll make more money. And league's like, oh, okay. If they played simultaneously, you potentially could have a CFL and XFL game played. And my, my theory, the way to do it is if you were to have them play a championship would help both leagues because it would generate interest. It would force CTB to put that game on. You would say, Hey, this is your game and it's going to be on CTV. It's not going to be on TSN. So that would help the CFL. It would generate interest from both leagues, but you, you could play CFL rules. Why not have, could you imagine if let's say my DC defenders. We're playing my Hamilton tiger cats and, you know, the. Mike O'Shea law. They lost. In the championship game and. And then he came over and worked with the DC defenders coach. To prep the team and they got two weeks before they played each other and Toronto. And a champion, you know, a global championship game or the reverse was like, you know, DC defenders. Beat the LA Wildcats and. You know, the head coach. What's his name? That was the head coach of the LA Wildcats. Oh. Melissa Moss. Then went and helped the CFL team in the United. You know what I mean? They trade code, like it could work and it would be something that would really generate a lot of interest in both leagues. So I don't think that. And that's just, you know, super fantasy football stuff, settle down. CFL fans. I'm not like a hundred percent serious. I'm just saying it it's plausible and it would be kind of fun. And I hope that in the future, They try to do something together, but I understand the CFL side. It's like, yo, you guys. You guys haven't done anything. So we're not going to. Change our whole business. For a league that doesn't. Hasn't finished one season. So that totally makes sense too. Yeah. I mean the best thing, I think the CFL. I mean, our podcast too was also a beneficiary of these docs by. The CFL definitely gave him the most. I mean, just in terms of, I think that the XFL was probably going to do whatever their plan was. Anyway, MIQ. You said, I think it, it stuck a fire under their butts and got them to kind of figure out the stuff they needed to, you know, kind of be, oh, we got to clean house here. You know, we got guests coming over for dinner. We got to pick up everything. Like, I think that years of just like. Rust and wear and tear or whatever had kind of built up. So yeah. Last question from Paul. Hi, I'm just wondering about the USFL. Do you think that with their focus on younger players, that there might be. An artificial age limit. Attached. Just like to know your thoughts on that. Because you had, you had been talking about that. I think I won a year episodes about the Brian Woods and he was on the zoom call and all of that and talking about how they're going to target. Players like right out of the transfer for a little ride, basically not getting like the Johnny Manzell. So they're seven years out of the league or whatever. Yeah. That's that was, that was an interesting thing that he had put out there. I was surprised now. I mean Manzell is. I haven't heard if he's playing in fan controlled football or, you know, if the USFL is calling, I do find I've found it so interesting that, and I even wrote about this a little bit bad Cardell Jones. Getting interviewed by TMZ sports. It's nuts. And the fact that they never now TMZ is owned by Fox. How the fact that that TMZ reported did not ask him about the USFL strike that. I found it so strange, however, The reason why it might've not have been brought up. As I thought about it later was because the USFL said we're not interested. Because they're not looking for those type of players. So I think an and I've always said, like, I think there's absolutely need for a spring football league. Anybody suggest that a college football is. As is all you need as a feeder system is incorrect. Tell me how you were at the age of 22 versus the age of 26. I was a completely different person. So give these guys a chance to grow up and mature and play and get some good coaching, you know, high level coaching, and they could easily jump back in the NFL at 26 or 27. We've seen, you know, quarterbacks. Playing until their forties. So I absolutely think it's a necessity. And I think, I think going after those player transfer portals, I mean, there. Is an opportunity to make more money than just your salary. If you got the name, image and likeness stuff going on for you, if there's NFTs shirts, one of the weird things about the XFL was that they weren't allowing the players to have their own jerseys. I'm like, you know, how many PJ Walker jerseys would have sold? And we had to kind of make our own firm and get them shipped in from China. So if the USFL provides, those gives those guys an opportunity to make some money on the side. I mean. The name engine. Image and likeness helps the college football game. And that we would have been interesting to see if that wasn't the case and the USFL and XFL were positioned where they were, how. What impact it would have had on college football. And I still think they will. And I did find it fascinating that not only the players, they were looking for younger players and not the retreads looking to cash a paycheck, but also Mike Mitchell had said too, like the younger coaches, which I was really surprised about. Well, I, Cardell is still waiting on that. I fell call. If you listen to the interview. And we had said Paul and I on our show. I said, if, if 35 year old Josh Johnson played for two different NFL teams this year and 29 year old Caldwell Jones. I was not calling at all that tells you. Yeah. Yeah. It tells you, I think what we need to know about that. And I'll just say this about him. I mean, and we, in the article, I talked about the curse, the first two weeks, 200 plus yards, two touchdowns, each game look fantastic. We were chanting MVP. Then he went to see Sonic the movie, everything tanked. But. From what I heard from people inside of the DC defenders is that they were always, and I, and I met Terry Jackson and he is a huge guy. I mean, he's six, seven. And pep Hamilton. And they were already at that time wanting Tyree to be their starting quarterback. So that gives you an idea of that. I was told that from that point on when Tyree came in and he didn't look that great against St. Louis. But they barely won. He ran it all the time. It was like, The running game. Yeah. But they, but the idea was that the DC defenders wanted him to be the quarterback for the rest of the year. So Cardel, I mean, if. They didn't. If DC didn't watch it and pep, Hamilton's a fantastic coach. And there was things where I, you know, I heard. Stuff about potentially Cardel. Having issues on the sidelines and kind of whining and whatever. I mean, you got pep Hamilton. I would love, I don't want to see a guy get, lose his job. Yeah, we use the Texans, but I would love to see him lose his job with using Texans and come back to DC because I think he was, he was a great coach and could have really done some big things there. So yeah, Tyree Jackson was supposed to be the guy going for the rest of the season, who knows if they would even gotten rid of Cardell Jones, they did get rid of. Was it, one of the guys used to play for the Ravens and he played decent and all of a sudden he'd like disappeared. I was a safety. Oh, yeah. I. All of a sudden they like cut them. And I was like, wait, he was starting. And he was good. So, I mean, Cardo might not make it, so I don't know, but maybe it might conspiracy theory, especially the fact that TMZ and yup. And Fox is that. Maybe he did reach out to you, Isabelle. And they did. They didn't want them. I agree with that. I think that that's probably true. Well, mark, this has been a superstar. I think it's the longest. Every we've done. I, we certainly cleverly. Yeah, we will. We, Mike and I did an hour eight last week. We're at an hour 30. So I think this is Paul is going to see this audio clip and be like, why this happening? But I think this was good. We, we tackled a lot of stuff year, end hit on all this stuff. And, and so I appreciate your time and hopefully, you know, I knew it gets all ships sail in here in 2022. I think you, should I sell you buckle up? I remember when the, I was super excited when the super bowl hit and we saw XFL commercials for the first time and the site was blowing up. I think January and February are going to be off the charts because we have USFL XFL news, and then throw in CFL. I mean, they're not too far off from starting their camps. I know everything is late. It's good. I like that. Like CFL ended really late. So now they're picking back up. You know, it's like it's way less of an off season, so that's good. Yeah, so. You all football fans buckle up and member, don't take this too seriously. This is fun. This is supposed to be fun if you're upset and you're one of those people that get p****d off at stuff, then go read a book or something. This is fun. Remember sports is supposed to be fun. It's not that serious because at the end of the day, And I've said this story before I was there watching the Ravens win the Superbowl. And this was fantastic. You know, Joe Flacco, Ray Lewis, his last game won the super bowl. My life was the exact same. The next morning I had to get up and go to work. Just like everybody else. So. It's sports is just fun. Remember folks? It's fun.

Episode 72 - Team XFL or Team USFL?

Welcome to another episode of the mark cast. Good Friday morning. Hopefully, hopefully you're recovered from all your gray cup partying. If you were up in north north of the north border. If you were probably north of the border, you might want to get checked for the crime. Dom a crime. That's the thing now. The streets. I'm a crime. With also it's Chris. It's also Christmas Eve. Happy Christmas Eve or, and this is our big Christmas gift today. I, I, we tweeted this week. We have Mike Mitchell coming on solo gassed really long. I went an hour and eight minutes with Mike Mitchell. I went longer. I edited it down, but it is our Christmas gift to our listeners. We have lots of XFL news. We have lots of USFL staff. So we have Mike Mitchell on answering voicemails. I got a call. I actually did like a call and got everyone to the voicemails. And so we have a lot of listener feedback today. It's a good, it's a good thing. Very cool. We've got a giveaway coming up also. Next week when we got coming up next week. Yeah. So I was going to say, so, you know, please. And subscribe. A lot of the work today, everything doing the, obviously we're recording Christmas Eve, Eve. Working on the good guests next week, Paul would a current CFL quarterback do anything for you coming on that. Come on August. Well, we could have a current, he listens to the show could have a current CFL quarterback coming on the show that has been in the news lately. So. Looking forward to seeing that potentially happen. Of course. Moving on with the show, the biggest news, the thing that went viral. The thing. The blue up. The rock was saying some things. The rock was talking. This is interesting. I was at my dentist today. I was getting my, my gums looked at were slowly working on getting my braces off now. I ended up, of course now the, now that I've gotten the approval to get my braces off, the orthodontist is on vacation till January. So now. We know we are in a holding pattern. So the rock was on the CNBC tech. Tech check podcast today, listener max sent this over and he was asked about the XFL and he said we're a little over a year away from watching. Our professional football brand that realize you with Danny Garcia, Jerry card. Now he says, we should be maybe within the next month or two months, we're going to be announcing our broadcast partners, which is exciting. And then also he said new teams, new cities, and very, very excited about that. So that is the part I think that is getting the most attention. I mean, I've come back to the thing that like, I feel like they should move LA out of LA. But, you know, we'll see what happens. I, I don't think they'll expand behind and beyond. I think eight will be the still the number. I don't think you're going to add any more teams, but it'll be interesting to see. Exactly. Which teams move where. Yeah. So we obviously, and this worked out well, timing wise, I wanted to do, obviously we'll do a little banter on this right now, but then Mike, we'd miss. Luckily this all came out before we recorded with Mike today. So besides obviously getting all your voicemails, we talked with Mike about it. It's interesting. You know, like St. Louis coming back, Mike was mentioning, you know, maybe some seeds that we would assume like Seattle may or may not be, you know, trying to kind of get the gauge of that. You know, Mike says, obviously that the international expansion is still big. Right. You know, Mexico is still high on the border. It just depends like. You know what they're all getting the mind, but, you know, I think they, they, they want to go pass a, I was telling Mike, I think if his name has come back and it's like eighteens, but Houston's in San Antonio, that doesn't feel exciting to me. Right. Like, I feel like we need to have like some cataclysmic shift here. Yeah, that'd be, I mean, you keep St. Louis where there are, but I think. You might, you might the other 700 for grabs in my opinion. Yup. Vipers are definitely. A potential candidate that will move. It'll be interesting to see. You know, which teams actually do move. Cause I don't think they expand beyond. I just don't see that being viable right now. The interesting thing that I saw comments today was if they're going to move the cities, what is the point of like, if you're going to acquire all these licenses and rights and make all these purchases, but then you're going to move Houston and you're going to move Dallas and you're going to move LA like. What is, you know, what, what did we buy the league for that? I mean, I kind of get both debates of adamant. I get we've debated in the past, you know, you're acquiring this fan base, however, fragmented it is at this point. Like you roll with that at all. I don't really know. I don't know what the right decision is. Hear about more about that with Mike Mitchell coming up at the end of the show. What I want to circle back right now, those will CFL we'll we'll wrap up our business with the CFO for the season. The Edmonton. I've hired. Chris Jones is their general manager and head coach for your contract. No, this is, this is big. You know, Chris Jones was famously with Edmonton before led them to a grey cup back in 20. 15. And then, you know, laughed, went to the NFL, was coaching at a high school earlier this year, before he got hired back by the Argos to be their defensive coordinator, obviously leaving the Argos now and going back to Edmonton to, to have both the GM and head coaching job, the joke has been like, well, he signed this four year deal now. Is he going to stick around again? Cause he left before. Like it's one of those, like. Fool me once kind of things. But, but you know, obviously Edmonton needs a shot in the arm. This is something that's certainly going to help them with that. Pardon me. They definitely need a culture change up there. The culture change that they instilled just didn't work out. So it'll be interesting to see if Chris Jones in the second 10-year does anything of that. Of course. I guess a. You know, he faced questions from the media about it, and he said he can't do more than just tell you what he's going to do. And he thinks it was coaches can tell you that. He says he's going to do something. That's what he's going to do. A lot of cliches going on in there. He says also all you do is tell them what I mean. And when I say. This is just so many cliches of this quote. He signed a four year deal. In order to try to show the fact that this is where he wants to build a legacy. Cause again, it's it's w. When you leave, when you abruptly leave, you move right. You he's had like seven different jobs in the last 10 years. And so then when you. When you signed back now, and he's saying he wants to build a legacy, you just, you're going to have a lot of questions to that. You're going to have a lot of questions. Are you here to stay, you know, think of all the changes. Edmonton made in the last year, bringing in coach Elizondo and all of that, you know, obviously they're all gone now. So it's tumultuous there. Chris Jones is a proven winner though, right? He was there in the past. And I think if you're an Edmonton fan, you, I think you have to feel good about that. And especially him having the GM kind of that dual role, which seems to be more popular in the CFL kind of deal. I think it's, I think it's fair for Edmonton bands to kind of, kind of also have that trepidation, that kind of like. Please don't hurt us again. So. Speaking of GM hires, the red blacks have announced that Sean Burke will become the second general manager in franchise history. He comes to Ottawa nearly 15 years of the, with the Hamilton tiger cats. Most serving as most worse recently serving as a senior director of player personnel and co-manager foot operation football operations. For the runners up last year. Yeah. Yeah. Right back. Same as a, you know, Like, oh, they're GM earlier this year and not having the best track record. I think they ended the season like to. Was it two and two and 52 in 14. I'm doing the math. But yeah. Him coming in. And the OSA group is excited about that. Metro excited to experience the passion that Sean brings in, you know, coming from the Thai cats, he was several key roles there. Assistant GM director of football, operations, football administration, and director of community relations. He also spent three years with maple leaf sports and entertainment. So, you know, kind of the bouncing, all those things, you. It seems like a good, a good head. You know, he's kind of carrying on that legacy that DCR Dan left in, you know, in Ottawa and kind of carrying on that flame and, and trying to, you know, them in and Edmonton are the two. Leagues that really need to rebuild here in the off season. So. Teams that we need to rebuild that leagues. You said league. The teams that need to rebuild. We were co. We were like, there was some concerns and some questions raised about a Hamilton's head coach Orlando. Going down to Seattle, to Reed's neck of the woods to go be the defensive coordinator, university of Washington. Fortunately for everybody involved the university of Fresno state, apparently. They're not hiring a Orlando Stan hour to be the head coach. I mean a defensive coordinator at UWA, they got a UDaB they got different people. To do it. Looking at what is it? Will an eye Jolie. William Ingle and check morale, a book brought over with head coach. Kaylyn Deborra and. I, where did they, they're going to have a joint defensive coordinator. Sometimes happens. It feels. I don't know if like I. I agree with that comment. I like, I think there should be one defensive coordinator, one offensive coordinator. And sharing those responsibilities. You're going. You might get some bickering. I don't know, I've never believed in the two coordinator kind of thing. And sometimes. You know, sometimes when the head coach becomes a co-op offensive coordinator, coach. Co defensive coordinator sometimes that relate, you know, causes some issues. So it'll be interesting to see how that works out for a UDaB up there. Yeah. BC lions promoting a Ryan rig made into assistant GM and dredger, but also a shout out today to Nikolsky. I just saw this before we came on, he was on our live show. You'll remember, two weeks ago with Darren bombing, he just got hired as the lion's videographer official lines videographer. He's moving. I yeah. So, I mean, that's, to me is, I mean, obviously this is exciting, not from a football personality point of view, but a friend of the show, Nick Kuwalski being hired as the official lions videographer. I think that's astounding. So. Awesome. Good, good work, dude. Congrats to you. That's cool. I would do that. I mean, I don't live in BC, but I've equaled a vehicle job. It would be Matt baker that would have been. The CFL is fine. McLeod Bentall Thompson for inappropriate on-field incident with a camera person. Apparently he had an incident with a camera person following an Eastern final. But the amount of the vinyls also not disclosed because the CFL never discloses these types of things. He made contact with a cameraman at the completion of the game. Does it say, what kind of contact did he had or watched it? Like, it was one of those, like he was losing kind of walking over to do the handshakes and all of that. The camera guy was cause he kind of pushed him away. McCloud came out in the, in kind of the post press conference of afterward the economy. I had a really sincere apology about it and he said, you know, I know they're trying to do their job or whatever, because that's the thing, right? Like, Football players only make the money they do because they're on TV being filmed by the people that filmed them. And I know as someone that also works with the camera and this have people tell you, you know, not to do things and not to go places, like we tell them my sports with video cameras. And so if there's no television contracts, there's no contracts for you to play football. So. It kind of reminds me of his incident. Like at the end of the Colorado game, there was Colorado game against UCLA. I believe up in Boulder. And the head coach of the Colorado, Carl Darell shoved a cameraman's camera down. And then had to apologize for it. Calm down. We're not there to like, People are there to do a job. People that are there to do a job we need. To simmer down. Well, that's the thing is, I mean, he was like, he just, it was the post post game. Like he's walking, you. Like you see every camera guy, like following the losing quarterback to go do the handshake. He's like get away. But tempers are funny because you see here, Chris Edwards E he was the one that kinda got into that. Jumped into the stands. He got fined as well. He's suspended. Six games. Which is like weird to me, cause like, okay, let's say Chris Edwards gets, let go. Let's say he gets picked up by Hamilton's. Then he has to serve a six game suspension. We picked up a Hamilton. If he gets. I'm just making that, but you know, like if. You got signed by. If Sean. Yeah. With Ottawa comes in and he goes, we want Chris Edwards. And the aides, and that's a weird thing to get to where like post-season suspension that go into effect next year. Damn. I don't know. I think that's what it would be. The video is the video is like, Great. You didn't expect to see something like that, you know, at, at a CFL game, those Argos players just seem to seem to be out a little bit out of control. So. Ah, Chicago bears working out for CFL players, including grip. Lex returner, Devante, Deadman. They held a workout today for four offensive CFL players. Also, also, there was a Edmonton ALK. Quarterback Taylor corny list. Stampede stamps, receiver and return specialist Maliki. Malique Henry. And reference. Receive a branded Linnaeus. So hopefully, maybe somebody gets, let me put somebody who got picked up for this. Well, the bears aren't doing anything. So. Well, that's the thing it's kind of interesting. Is it. You know, w when, when hides leads with this story, it's, you know, Devante, Deadman. That's great. But I say, yeah, it's also a former XFL where Taylor couldn't utilize. And then the bears signed Ryan Willis, which is pretty crazy to their practice squad. He was with all this USFL spring league staff. He was led the Lyman to victory with Stan Bedwell last season. As remember he was like the assistant quarterback that was on the podcast, but I'd get for Ryan Willis going on to practice, got to be at bears are kind of in a, I mean, Matt Nagy is getting fired, right? I mean, This is like, Leerom Harris. Lou is back with the Carolina Panthers this time. We've got to get this guy on the podcast. I went there on the Vegas. With the podcast, we've talked about them all the time. The life of a caregiver. I mean, like you're an esta, all these carriers, we have met mangles of the world or Nestos like, I just couldn't imagine like, you know, live and die sign on sign, but he was. Zane Gonzalez got injured from the Panthers. He got signed again. Panthers. Aren't doing anything right now, but good for him. Keep getting some rats. You getting some eyeballs? I think Matt rules on his way out to really? Yeah, well, but he's like he's two year or two of like a three year deal. I think he's done. And he's done. I think he's done. This candidate has been completed. Yeah. It has been a complete failure. CFL teams were revealing 10 negotiation list names on list. Jordan taboo. He was with, he was kind of on the Washington. He was on the practice squad with the whole Garrett Gilbert this week member. And cause high Niki was out because of the VAD. Gary Gilbert got the call from the practice squad. They lost, but he was the AAF guy, but it Ima was on their practice squad and he got, let go, Mike Mitchell was saying now, but he's on there. CFL does that weird like negotiation. So it's like, there are, it's like, you can't talk to anybody, but there's not, they're not committed to him, but it's like, you can just like claim it. Claim it like they can't, it's weird. Yeah. Speaking of quarterbacks. The CFL. The Los have released. Trevor Harris, you know, They acquire them via trade from the Elks. And now they released him. We have the big bone that's coming. Yeah. $300,000 off season bonus. So they resigned for announced junior year through 2023. You know, It could be interesting here in, from Vernon Vernon coming up here could be answer seeing, kind of hearing what Vernon thinks about all this. So I just, that, you know, My piece, I'm just sticking around here for the next couple of weeks. If you're hearing a Vernon feels about being retained by that Montreal, I Elvis. Nick Lewis. Canadian football hall of fame receiver was on the Rob Peterson. He wasn't too enthused by the prospect of owners, seeing their pocketbooks projected by leaves. New model of horizontal governance. Particularly given some of the business decisions that we're making in process of claiming poverty. He says at the end of the day, I think the revenue share should be between the players and the league. It shouldn't be, but just between the different teams. Interesting. I don't disagree, but that also doesn't happen. Right. I mean, like in the NFL or the NFL, this profit sharing. Right. But they don't. I mean, the players get like a small percentage, right? They get, I mean, Oh, Am I am I lying? I mean. You know, It's a feudal system. It really, I mean, yes, the players are getting paid good salaries. I'm not saying they're not. But like, The only way you can, you can. I feel the only way you can really be a professional athlete and make it work afterward is if you put away like Marshawn put away. Is money. It's been a dime from this contract stuff. He was very smart with his money. It's just like, cause like after you're done, you're not getting royalties on your you're like this being sold, you know? You're not receiving royalty checks from, you know, the NFL network, replaying your game or ESPN replay again. You're not seeing any of that. So. Hm. I mean, it's not going to change. Yeah. I mean this revenue share and they get Ambrose. He had no details about any of this when he announced that. Because again. Saskatchewan. If they make $300,000 a year, Argos are losing 10 to 12 million a year. So how do you, how do you revenue share between those. I don't think you can. You know what I mean? Like what you take a percentage of that doesn't mean anything. It's a drop in the bucket, but that's a huge war chest, right? The Saskatchewan is able to maintain same with Edmonton. Same with Calgary. You have these players that these teams that, you know, have this money set aside. Well, there's going to get wiped out. So it'd be like, He brought it up on the live show. You know, That we did two weeks ago. Yep. That the smaller area teams that needed help from the big. Big cities. Are now the pendulum swung in their favor and now they're richer and they're not kicking back in. It's. That's the first thing they need to address is like these, these community led teams that were hurting. Now are fine and doing really well. It's the other side it's hurting. And there's no, there's no re you. You know, reciprocation of how much help they got. Years ago. And you want to share with the players too. Fascinating. Yeah. The most interesting thing is that the, the smallest population teams make the most money. I mean, it is the weirdest thing in the CFL. Like you would think for sure, VC is rolling in money and it's like, it's not something. President of the CFL, PA Solomon LMN, L L. How does that mean? The M L Aminian. He says that there needs to be more certainty for CFL players to sign multi-year contracts. Basically. I mean. I know in American baseball, they can choose to non-tender you, even if you've got a contract, like that's here in here in America, this is like, This is not. It seems like it's the, the, the idea of releasing players that you've signed a multi-year contracts was way more prevalent in the CFL than any other sport. I noticed that I was like, wow, they just release players, left them right to this. The multi-year deals. I see that. But. The certainty isn't there for any professional athlete that gets those longterm deals. Anyway. It's just that the other teams don't want the other teams pay so much more money for their athletes here in America. But they won't, they couldn't afford to cut a player. Or non-tender then, because then they'd be paying a lot of money out of pocket regardless. So the only reason why they do it in the CFLs cause. A little salary is already low. They're not taking that bit of a hit. To pay out some, a little bit of money on this contract. Is this hard? Is this frustrating? You, you just wish there was a better. You know, situation going on. It's so hard to build. Cohesion on the field. To get the fans. Yeah, this thing, you know, we're cheering the fans they say on here, you have the Jersey switch every year, the names of the jerseys. Why would you ever buy a player Jersey? Right. Knowing. It's like the quarterback, you would never like. You just, you there's very few, like I'm a BC lions fan. Every VC Alliance players, I would feel comfortable picking up. Right. No. There's very few. Argos players I'd be, I wouldn't feel comfortable picking up a McClard Bethel. I was just going to say that. I just like the whole thing with like American football teams is that we. Have a good idea. That these players that we have, these franchise players that we will buy jerseys for, like the Tom Bradys and the Russell Wilson's. These franchise players, we buy these jerseys for we'll stay in place for a long time. So we don't have to keep buying a New Jersey every year because that's just not. Maybe that's a good business model though. Maybe, you know, You're going to keep buying jerseys. We're just going to keep releasing the player that you buy a Jersey from, and you have to buy another Jersey. More money off you. Maybe that's a good. Maybe it's maybe they're thinking already, they're thinking like they're thinking vertically instead of horizontally, what am I, what do I know? Before the Jeff. The CFL should consider everything except changing the number players and downs. According to Glenn suitor. He had some broadcaster and retired, defensive back. Yeah. A lot of the conversations last week with Tim Baines on the show about this, I don't know. If loss and all the live shows have, did I get, did we get your thoughts on the potentially moving to four downs as a way to incentivize people to watch the CFL? We didn't, but I, I. I'm of two worlds there. I'm like, if you, if you do four down football, Do your diehards just go, well, I don't want to wash it anymore. Your die-hards your people that are driving your product right now. Do you want to alienate those people right now? Part of me says, it's the kind of person that goes, well, I'm not going to watch this crap anymore. But they're right back. Ah, in front of the TV, you know, the next Sunday it's like, and I hate to get political, but there were a lot of people that would call him Kaepernick, kneeled, and no one did anything. There are a lot of people are like, well, I'm not gonna watch this damn sport anymore. And guess what? The very next Sunday, they're in front of the TV. Watch the damn sports. So. I would hope that that would, that would be the case. I don't want to call anybody hypocrite. I would hope that would be the case. That even if you gripe a little bit, you're still watching. Canadian football. When it comes on, I would hope. One just side note on this. I was listening to Darren. That was with Nick on our show a couple of weeks ago, he was on rod show today. And. A lot's been made about how great the CFL game was this year. Right? How good the championship game was, how good the playoffs were. And they're like, we'll see, like there's no problems with the CFL, like we're back. And Darren was saying, you know, The people that were watching the gray cop or the people that are watching the plastic, there's your diehard fans. It's the people that were watching all year that may be tuned out when things weren't exciting that maybe aren't curing the back end that like you were, we're always focused on. Like, we'll see. That was a really good game. Whether people talking to me, I was like, yeah, but the people watching the game, aren't the people you're trying to attract. And you're trying, you're trying to people that aren't watching the game. And I just don't know if moving to four downs, whatever do that. I just don't think one extra Canadian is incentivized to watch the CFL because there's four downs. That's not a marketing thing. You got. The whole problem is the marketing. Changing the four downs is not going to fix the marketing. But like, you're just gonna be like Canadian football the next down. Like it's not gonna fix the marketing video game. God. All right, we're gonna take a break, Mike. Mitchell's coming up right now and then we'll come back with some USFL stuff. Welcome back to the show. That was a lot. Mike Mike, within this work today, Mike. Put in this work. We talked a lot afterward too, but yeah, our eight minutes of Mike Mitchell content, you know, I hope you enjoy that. Yeah. Christmas gift from us. And we did all your questions. Richard L for rail, when the giveaway we picked his comment is the best one. And it's a Richard already knows, but DME we'll, we'll hook you up with some. USFL merge from the shop. So cool. Speaking of USFL, they've dropped three different promos during NFL games on Fox. I dunno, I have not seen any problems yet. You haven't seen any of them. They've not everything. I've been watching much TV. I've been stuck in the word. Yeah. So, so these came out there a little 10, second things. What's interesting about it is they started playing on Thursday night football last week, which if you've been tracking any of that Thursday night football, like it's moving to Amazon right next year. And so this is kind of the last that Fox is going to have, like that huge mega game that everyone's going to watch on Thursday. The wine is showing like you're kicking the spring football ball. The second one is talking about spring football, and then the third one, a lot of people are saying, you can hear Gus Johnson and then I'm not a big college football guy, but apparently that is a big get to have Gus Johnson involved in that. Yeah. So he it's his voice in there saying like, so here we go. And like I said, I don't, I don't watch college football like that. Listeners Seth pointed out last week. There's a night football got 11.3, 2 million viewers. So that is a tremendous amount of people that could potentially be seen. The. See in the USFL for almost right now, they're talking about where there's complaints online, the USFL wasn't marketing. Well, there you go. Well, they've already passed a hundred thousand followers on social media. It's they're doing something right. Yeah. And this was interesting. So Connor full Connor used to work for news hub. Connor's covering like NASCAR and a lot of racing. Now he was talking with Robert. Get lib on quitter. See, what not leap Gottlieb. God. I can't forget. He's the executive vice president marketing for Fox sports. And he was saying, I asked him, why are you putting the, the, like the USFL social media handles, you know, things like that in your commercial spots. He goes, ah, the primary reason we just want football. Viewers now, knowing that the USFL is coming in April awareness, building not engagement at this time, these are very quick spots, simple and clean is often the best way to land your message. I don't know if I agree. Part of the, part of the whole pro the whole idea of like awareness building is social media. Like they're not, they're not getting it. Well, it's weird to me that we have Danny Garcia talking. We Mike and I went into this, but she did this whole podcast interview last week. Talking about their multi-layer 360 degree approach and they're going to be on all these platforms. And then you're like, Hey USFL, why aren't you putting your social media stuff on the, we don't need it right now. It's just interesting. It's just two different sides of the coin. I'm not saying one is right. I'm not saying one is wrong, but it's, it's two interesting sides of the coin. One is one is definitely not. Forward-thinking. You can, social media is just, isn't four engagements for audience building as well. Other like c'mon. I agree. I agree. This is interesting. Wal-Mart you can hit throwback, USFL, merger, Walmart. I'm going to put this tweet out. The thing I put today, I learned that Walmart has USFL merged. USFL CFL. XFL Scouts to attend the tropical bowl combine. It looks like a lot of, a lot of Scouts there to check. The talent. But essentially players that aren't going to the NFL or might not make the NFL. They're getting checked up. Yeah, this is something, I mean, Scots are going to be around XFL Scouts around before USFL. They had spring league Scouts, but this gets a lot of traction, like, oh my God. They're like, there's like, yeah, they're going to be that way. That's what he that's disgusting. Every year. These are the things that people talk about that way. And he's going to be there. You guys developed people are going to be there, but it's exciting. It's okay. I saw I'm making 60 hires in our football operations department. A lot in the, in a lot of names. I'm here. So, yeah, this. This is a terrible way. I copy and paste, whatever. They're bringing back a lot of former XFL people like rest Julio. He is going to be part of the group. I w. Previously mentioned that Wally, as the director of football operations, Jim [unknown]. I've I've added a lot of these people on LinkedIn. We're connecting on them. This kind of goes in line, right? We're bringing up the TV deals, we're bringing up the new cities and new all of that stuff. This is a lot of the football player side of things. So, you know, certainly like we said, we're going to be scouting the players. We're going to be hiring the director of player, administration and officiating, and we're going to be doing all of these things. Together Mike Mitchell had on here, the. Some of these names. Aren't familiar with men who have followed audit leads in the past where Stelio had been with the XFL and the AAF before Bobby Monica, I is returning as he director of equipment and then brand Campbell. He was kind of the football technology person before that he is coming back. So it's a lot of these, if you're worried about the XFL, not feeling like the old XFL, they're bringing back a lot of the team. That's good. Another league that you know, that we cover from time to time here at fan controlled football, 2.0 season kicking off April 16th, 2022. Just like the 2.0 season was kicking off in August last year. Right? I feel I miss this. Like they announced this last week. I totally, like, I saw this online and I thought, did I miss. Well, they announced it in the Twitter space. Paul. Twitter space. I mean, So, I guess. You would give you better, better results. Announced. NFT. I just thought that was weird. Cause I saw that and I'm like, I thought they were kicking off in February, so I guess they're kicking off in April. So that means they are directly competing against the USFL because the U S Val is going to be playing on Fridays and Saturdays. And they're also going to be very much competing for players. Cause I would have thought the benefit of launching in February would be you get sign some of these players before they went to the USFL. Right. But now that they're both competing at the same time, Right. Cause I thought, oh, they're going to like. Cause you gotta be signing players now, right. To going. In February. It's funny to me. It's it's funny. And then I listened to her staff. When the listener saplings, it tweeted the week. So they tweeted this out flare flare networks, reimagining pro football for the modern digital world through our new partnership with FCF. I have this partnership marries together, the cutting edge in live sports e-sports and blockchain to bring a fan experience that was never possible until now. So then it says tweets. Honestly, I think most fans have been demanding more blockchain. I just yesterday I was telling the Marc Katz. If I don't get some blockchain with my CFL, USFL and XFL, I was just going to die sarcasm. It would treat how the blockchain works with sports stats. [Unknown] that has to do with like, we're buying the NFTs, right. It's securing them. Right. The blockchains are securing the NFTs, I guess maybe that's what they're doing. Yeah, the NFTs you're like, oh, I want that highlight. I want to buy it for like 10 grand. Yeah. Or I want the different shoes for. It's a big thing about avatars. It feels like world of Warcraft to me, where it's like, I'm going to have my avatar have like, It's not even like an avatar thing, it's just like a piece of art. Yeah, I don't get the entity. I've seen these Twitter things. I'm like, say everyone has a monkey, but they're all just different. Yeah. Right. They're all just like. But there's all these types of entities. Like you could essentially, if you wanted to. You could essentially take your Mike Mitchell interview that you just did. That's an hour long and make an NFP of that. Swear to God. Max would buy it. [Unknown]. When are you going to say, why? Why would I pay 10 grand for a slightly different monkey head with like the eyeball falling out versus like the headband? You know what I mean? What do you do with it besides like it's your Twitter profile, but do you like, what do you do with it otherwise? It's like a virtual trading card. It's so. I think that I think Bitcoin, all this stuff is really cool. S**t. Like, I'm cool with that. But like this NFT thing, I was just like, wait, what. I'd be like, oh, you have this one of them. One of a kind piece of art. I'm like, oh, I just screenshot it now. It's not one of the guides. Well, that's the problem is. Yeah, YouTube TV. Can I disable like you can't screen record on your iPhone, like wildlife. Whilst watching YouTube TV. They need to figure out how to do that. Like disable screenshots. Friend of T's right? Like, am I have, it's just wild. I just don't I've seen a lot of these monkey heads around it. I just don't understand why there's no viable. Hey, what are you kids in your crazy NFTs? Doing? I hogs and crap. It is right. I mean, it is that right. And I get. It is. What do you, do you play with the POCs? Like, no, I gotta just keep them in my sleeve. Right. This is why pokey one glacier. We never, we never play. Like I collected the whole star wars fandom, man. This is how the whole trading card set. I never played it. I just had all the cards. With like, you know, like now they put me in, in south McQueen. I'm a Dala. It's a wild. I love it. I don't know what it's about, but it's great. It makes for some better. So it'll be interesting to see how blockchain gets involved with the FCF here. I'm going to check this out. I really am gonna look into this. Patrick, you got me for once. [Unknown] all right. I want to thank everybody for Michael Mike Mitchell for joining us earlier in the show. Like, and subscribe to our podcast, sharing up to your friends and family, please, please, please. Of course. When we hit subscribers, certain subscriber numbers, we do giveaways. So, yeah. Please share out the podcast, get everybody in. We're covering everything. USFL, XFL, CFL. And these FCF guys, I guess, too, that are coming up with NFTs for their crappy football product. So yeah, we just crossed 1600 subscribers. So we're almost, we're, we're moving to 2000. We just hit 1600 today. See how we have our big gray cop. I have all of our CFL Mertz ready to give away. Yeah. And Richard gets his shop USFL. That was like a bonus giveaway. Cause I didn't want to devalue our 2000 giveaway. Again, The place to leave a voicemail is. Speakpipe.com/marquez. It's on the screen. You might want to say, you know, the mark has to, you might want to. You might want to like, make that little thing that you do where you like. Mark has.com/merch. Mark has.com. Slash Coreen, Paul. [Unknown] I thought now. I call read ball. Okay. Yeah. Mark has that concise voicemail. Speakpipe.com/mark Hass. The graphics have been built. So. Very cool stuff. Thanks again for listening. And we'll see you next week. Christmas Christmas. This is, we didn't really do too much Christmas. Crazy for the Christmas, but you know, Then we do sweaters last year, too. I think we didn't. I had a hat, but then Dorothy headed. I filmed when I filmed my Mike Mitchell interview, I had my hat, but now. And I had the diehard. Yeah. Now I have a machine gun ho. I remember that now I remember. With our Christmas episode. That was great. With Paul's worked all day. We're good. We've done it. Thanks everybody for listening and we'll see you here next week. Okay. Romo. Hang on. Oh, we got to leave with the XFL. Am I going? Are we going to put your popped? If we do a little bit of this. It'll be fun. Are you at by music? Yeah. Okay. No, but I have. I'll fade it down real quick though. Why should we just play the whole time then? Because I won't put my art music on it. Yeah. Let's put the whole time. We'll be we'll get played on YouTube. Oh, wait, we can't get, cause I played it on the thing. Hang on. Hang on. Oh, I got, I got an idea. I got an. Around it. Okay. Cause I don't, we can't get, cause it's in the intro of the thing. Ah, let's see. I worry about that. I don't, I don't want to get flagged though. Cause we're going to get too many views on this to cover. Okay. We're going to get, yeah, sorry, because we're going to get I can't. No problem. I can't risk it because I'll wake up at like two in the morning and it will be like, Yeah. Sorry. All right. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Hey this week on the Christmas show the mark askers the show. We're not really. Festive. Cause we both been working a lot, but we've got, we've got a Christmas gift for you. We've got a Christmas gap that we have. The rock is talking that new, you. We have a Christmas gift. The rock is talking new XFL cities. The rock is talking new XFL teams. And we have just lucky enough that we booked XFL, insider Mike Mitchell already to do an hour and 10 minute interview this week. So we have a lots of stuff to talk about. You couldn't have planned that any better. If you try, it was like one of those happy accidents that you just plan. And then all of a sudden. It happened the same day. This was probably the best, best luck we've ever had on the show. Cause I'm like, we're on the show though. Little news breaks after we record, but this time it broke before you record with Mike Mitchell. That was great. That was great to hear. We've got some CFL business. That's wrapping up a new GM head coach in Edmonton. Oh, I, well, we'll finish this and I'm going to say something else for that. I'll edit this together. Yeah, we're talking yamaka. What'll Thompson's big, fine pushing the camera, man. We can't be doing that. And Paul and I both work in video production. It's a testy subject. It's close to home. We've also got some USFL news. The promos that have been going around. I haven't seen him read shames me for that very disrespectful to shame, a busy, busy person for not watching TV. Very. Disrespectful. We'll let it slide. At this time. Yeah, I would rather be lucky than good. And I think we were both this week. We'd say it's jam pack show. Well, this is our holiday gift to our listeners, to our viewers,g/ to everybody. We have XFL insider friend of the show. We have Mike Mitchell, Mike Mitchell. How are you doing today? I'm doing well, happy holidays you read and thank you very much for having me on. Yeah, I would, I would rather be lucky than good sometimes. And we booked this and I, and I meant that during the holidays, I said, Mike is a big enough guest. We can cover a lot of, you know, a wide swath of things, as opposed to trying to track down a bunch of people over the holidays. And then breaking news before we get into all of our listeners submitted voicemails. You know, the rock basically blew up the world today with, you know, the announcement of. You know, potentially new cities, new teams, so things. So I guess, what was your, what is your take on, on Dwayne? The rock Johnson's. He interviewed today on CNBC, before we get into all these voicemails. I think it's amazing. I think we knew this was coming. We know that this is the time of the year now where you're going to start to hear big announcements. You're hearing it from the USFL and that's building up with baby steps. And now with the XFL, we knew that we'll come January, February. It's go time. You know, and so they they've, you know, there was a time there a few months back. I don't know how to too many people knew about this, where there was reconsideration of whether or not the XFL was going to be brought back or not. And I knew that once they press the go button and say we're all in, they're all in, that means all in means financially. And so, and they understand the risks and everything involved and what they're trying to do and what I've written about for so long now in. XFL news, hub.com. They have a grand vision of things they're looking to be global. They're looking to do multi-dimensional content, content distribution. And they're trying to do a lot of different things that are new age that are, you know, with the future in mind. And so say here, Dwayne, come out today, which I was, you know, as you know, I was working on Intel for this show. And so I was hoping to be the first to let everybody know that an announcement was coming on, their TV partners, emphasize partners. Broadcast partners. And so Dwayne going out there on CNN CNBC and telling everybody that within the month, two months, they would be releasing new teams, new cities. That's another thing I've chronicled for quite some time over at XFL news, hub.com. The changes around the margins, where that that's inevitable for the XFL and the direction they're headed in. And now the, this is fascinating. We're entering around here with alternative football. Where you have the USFL on the horizon would Fox and NBC. That's a next level package right there. Hopefully they do the right things by, by the players and coaches and football and all that. And then you have the XFL with Redbird capital partners, Dwayne Johnson, Danny Garcia. There's a lot of egos involved here. Read these people are not used to failing and don't want to fail. Eric shanks is a heavyweight. And Fox because of the XFL. Interestingly enough, Fox snooped around purchasing the XFL out of bankruptcy in 2020. And they eventually didn't obviously we know the story now. Red bird rock, Danny did. But Eric shanks is a heavyweight Fox is a big deal. They see the opportunity. They saw the success of the XFL. They think spring football is viable, they're going in and they don't. Shanks is not used to failing. Foxes is like I said, there, there are heavyweight in the industry and shanks is as well. And then you got the rock and Redbird capital and Danny, and, you know, we see the success that the rock has had in his movie career and his. And Tara mana tequila and everything else that he's attached to his successful. And that has a lot to do with his drive and ambition. And then Danny Garcia is a tremendous business person. And she has that same drive and ambition. And then Redbird capital. I mean, All you have to do is do research on them and see how successful they've been. They're used to winning. So to get into this kind of field where let's be honest, these leagues have lost so much in the past. And they're almost guaranteed to fail. And so, and so to take this risk, they know the risks that are involved. They realize that this is going to take a lot of heavy lifting, a lot of financial commitments. And a lot of long-term patients. But they're ready to go all in. They're not going into these endeavors. It would be it shanks and Fox and company, or a red bird and rock. And everybody else on that side, they're going into this thinking big. And thinking about winning big. I think this is going to sound crazy. This will probably age poorly. I know. But. I think this is going to work. I think we're finally good. I think the environment now we have this crazy thing hovering over us. It's COVID it's not going away. Unfortunately. So that's a big factor. Why the XFL is coming back in 2023. Why they didn't come back in 2021 or 2022. It's a big factor. Why, although it's more financial on their end, that USFL is in a hub setting. So we don't know what, what, what's the next chapter in this crazy pandemic? Deal. We've got going on. But. I think that both those entities see the viability. And I think for once there's a real shot here that spring football will work and we'll stay. I think there's a, because. Live content live sports content has become so valuable. 'Cause it's DVR proof. I think, and because of the viability we saw from BAF and the XFL, how good the players were in those leagues of quality, you can have how many good players there are out there that get overlooked, like the Tyler Huntley's and the Taylor Heinicke easel. We'll kind of find a way through the back door to get in, but they are such a small percentage of the players to do. I think there's a market for this. And the expectation level is not that high. You know, it's not like it's not like the old days where you had to be on the end, deliver five, 10, 15 million viewers out of the gate. These networks are happy. If you deliver a few hundred thousand live viewers every week or 500,000 or a million or more, maybe. In the XFL case that the AAF did a little bit of that. So, so I think we got a shot here. I think this is a, for any poor people like you and me and many others who are listening to this, watching this. Who are proponents of this concept? I think we have a legit shot that this might actually work out. The question is, can it work out with both of these leagues together in the same field? We're going to find out it's going to be fun. It's the battle we were expecting from the AAF and the XFL, which would have been fascinating to see them fight over talent and players and coaches and all that were, we might get that with the USFL and XFL. And in 2022 is going to be a fascinating year for both of these, just to see what moves they both make. Well, it's fascinating because we're seeing, and I think we talked about this last time we, Ron, but we're seeing. Two different versions of the same thing, right? I mean, W we're ultimately, we're trying to launch a successful football league. We have one taking the year, you know, I listened to Danny Garcia on the. Y. Why is she going on the Foundr podcast? Come on the market. But, you know, talking and multi-dimension all then streaming and all these things. Right. And I think we've said before we have the USFL, which is like the caveman, right. It's came in versus the matrix. And so, you know, one of these, maybe both that. You know, we will get to see both of them live out in real time, which is a tremendously exciting, you know, obviously for. Fans of spring football, but then obviously just us talking about it on the podcast. So, you know, it's interesting, I've talked to some people in the last week that were a part of the XFL in 2020. Just to gauge their opinions on what they feel about the USFL. And surprisingly, what I've gotten from people higher up in the XFL is that they're very bullish on what the USFL has planned. Now, I know you made mention of the caveman thing and that could still be the case because right now they're not a fully fledged league going into markets. And that's for a reason, they're hoping to sell their franchises and make a lot of money off of that. And this is Fox's opportunity, actual big network to actually own their own league, get all the money from advertising. Get all that. So. We'll see how that goes, but a lot of people are surprisingly bullish on the USFL and they think this is. They feel the XFL is in for a dog fight. Now we'll see. Money talks. You know, when it comes down to talent and players and all that, we'll see what type of product the USFL produces they have to do right by the players and coaches. And it feels a little bit like the AAF. Because of the rush nature of, you know, here we are, April is when their season starts, they got to Roundup teams quickly and get them on the field. Hopefully the quality doesn't suffer. They need to lore people in. I know con. From what I've heard, contract's already being put out to coaches. One other thing that I've heard recently, talking to people who are hoping to be in the USFL coaches that is, is that the USFL is looking to have a whole new clean slate with their coaching staffs, this coming season. They don't want to resemble TSL. Their coaching steps they had there that might leave some of the guys like the, how mommy's and others. Out of the mix, which would be a shame I'd like to see them part of the USFL, but it sounds like shanks. And company wants to go with different coaches and have a different field in the spring league. They don't want to feel like even though this is going to have the same hub setting. They don't want to feel like this is just the spring league with USFL put on it. You know, which kind of feels that way. I can see that argument a little bit. So they're going to have to do some big things and make the correct moves. In order to. This is, I don't mean this, the disrespect Brian Woods in any way. I don't know him personally. I, I respect his journey because I know he he's deep down. He's a football fan like you and I, and he wants to see this concept work and he truly believes in it. But nothing about the USFL needs to resemble the spring league at all. You know, from a financial standpoint or the way they took care of their players and coaches and all that. So we'll see, we'll see, it's going to be interesting. They have some interesting and fascinating people. I mean, listening to Gus Johnson and Joel Klatt Brock you word was supposed to be a part of the broadcast would be fun. With the USFL, they have a real chance. It's great for the players to be on NBC and Fox. And to get that exposure we saw with the XFL, they were only around for five weeks and the tape those players got. What was immeasurable guys in the sea, it felt like Dietrich Nichols and Shawn Oakman and others excelling, trace, and de crude. The list goes on and on. And then you've got, of course guys in the NFL. We watch it every week with the spring league guys sprouting up. I'm watching the Browns game. I see Michael Don at guard. Smashing people up just like you didn't play us last year against the Steelers. I'm watching Gary Gilbert who did a respectable job. I think on three days, notice. Of coming in. I know they didn't win Washington. Of course he's replacing Taylor Heineken, XFL guy. Unfortunately, Jordan Tam. We've got released earlier today. So we'll see how that goes with him, but that was kind of interesting to have all those XFL and AAF. I have quarterbacks on the same roster at the same time. But we see it all through the league. There's over 30 guys right now, over two dozen players in the NFL right now. They're a part of the XFL. We see Josh Johnson, how well he played when he was thrown into duty. So, and the XFL was only around for five weeks. These were brand new coaching staffs, brand new teams, still learning each other, still learning the rules of the league. And for them to produce that amount of talent in that limited amount of time is very impressive. So if the USFL and the XFL can actually last, that would be tremendous for these players, because then you'd get to see a full body of work for them and open up other avenues for them, help them extend their procreate. So I'm excited about that aspect. But so many players getting opportunities. And then in the upcoming future. I have one last question then we do. I think. Now because we get, I mean, we get, we can talk all day. I don't need to figure out. [Unknown] it is interesting that you say. Because I that's always, in my theory, he said it, the USFL is the spring league. You know, it, we are no longer the jouster. Esther's right. We are the stallions, whatever. I it's interesting to me, I've had even last night, you know, Harrison, one of our longest listeners. You know, Are you worried about this? I go. Brian did the spring league, like out of his basement for three years? Like, do you really think now with, I mean, not. I mean, I'm being facetious, but like, I know. All, but to have all the, you know, the skills and the money and the talent that Fox has, like they, they did it. And I was even telling Dorothy about this, that, you know, even, even the San Antonio one that shut down. They flew everyone back to Orlando and finished that season. They didn't have to do that. They didn't have to give the players that game. I mean, And I don't know. You know, now obviously we have the lingering lawsuit, right. With Indianapolis and. You know, there's, there's two sides to every coin. But, you know, they didn't have to do any of that. So it is just funny. They made the people are sitting here, you know, Jane Oaks, I know a and. Well, what do we think? I'm like Brian did this with duct tape and cardboard. Like I think we can, I think we can facilitate an 18 bubble fees in here. Yeah. Yeah, you know, It's it's hard to shake the reputation of spring league. I liked the spring league. I covered it. I covered the games, you know, I reported on the ratings. I did game recaps, all that I wrote about the players in the league. So I root for those leagues to succeed and exist always, but it's hard to shake the reputation. You know, the spring league had, you know, being kind of like rinky dink. And so, but you, you have to. Because Fox is involved with Eric shanks. And I know somebody who was involved in the early stages of the XFL back in 2018 before. People really knew about, you know, the Oliver luck hires and all that stuff. Doug Whaleys and optimum scouting. I know somebody who's assisting, I can't mention who that is, but as assisting the USFL at the moment, Higher up guy marketing guy. And he's getting involved because he believes in Eric shanks vision here, and it's no secret. And it's really easy to read the tea leaves on this one. Why Fox is starting. You know, with baby steps, because a lot of these leagues. They bleed so much money in the early going that they drown immediately. So, so they're trying to not go all in at first, spend hundreds of millions of dollars and then see no return in sight. They're trying to make sure that they can cut expenses early on and build up their profit margins with sponsors and all that selling franchises, all that. It's an in unique strategy, start small, build big. It could work. And you know, you, you, the only reason you don't doubt it is because of shanks. If you're thinking about, I hate to say it this way, but if you're thinking about the woods aspect, It's understandable why some people would have trepidation. And stay negative things about it last night, but you got to keep thinking about the Fox aspect of this. There. You know, you have to think about how to assess why Eric shanks has been in his field. He hasn't run a league before. But you have to respect that aspect of it. And this is a little bit of a different animal. Hopefully it's a completely different animal. But it's a little bit of a different animal than the spring league was. So it's going to be fascinating. I'm so excited that there are all these pop strong entities and corporations that believe in this concept and that. They're dwelling them. Try to make it work. And so, you know, because it looked for a while after the AAF died. And then unfortunately the XFL would COVID that perhaps this concept could be dead for a long time, unless the NFL decided to run their own. Spring lake, which they did way back when with teams in Canada and everything else. And that didn't really work out for them, but maybe 2021 is different. Timeframe for all that, but anyhow, but I'm happy that, you know, I can not just, I understand the J Noakes and other people who have doubts about it. And I get it, you know, you have to prove at first, a lot of these leads still have to prove themselves. Let's face it read. Even if, you know, we hear the broadcast partners with the XFL, even if they announced coaches and players and all that. And we get all excited about that. Even if they get to the field and start playing games, we're still going to be sitting there going fingers crossed. These guys, hopefully they make it through the year. And hopefully they stick around. So until we see that we have to see that first. With the USFL with the XFL before we completely believe it, but I'm, I'm excited that they're going to try. I love it. That they're getting up to the plate and they're going to swing for the fences. Go for it. Did you say that there was a time when they weren't going to go forward with the XFL again? Was that buried in your first answer between yeah. Yeah, a little bit. 2021. And now. Or be sure, I'm not saying I'm not saying that they weren't going to move forward, but there was consideration, there was a timeframe we would consider whether or not they're going to move forward with the property. It wasn't there wasn't a timeframe where they said we're not. But there was, there was, they did weigh everything before they get it. Now that they have the executive team in place and they have that all, obviously it's easy to see. They have everything lined up. And they're ready to go. They announce what they're. They announced every division that they have set up their executives that are in specific divisions there. And then, and now we're here. You. Obviously the broadcast partners coming up in a month or two and, and everything else. And so there was a time where red bird and everybody involved had to look at all the different angles. COVID is a big factor in all this, you know, it's a. You know, the XFL is going to be looking for several multiple revenue streams. I mean, that's what red birds all about. And so, you know, They're not going to be just like gate driven. But they wanted to make sure that there there's a chance for the live gate to be a part of it. And at least we don't know where we're headed with this crazy COVID stuff. We'll see. But hopefully by 2023, when they get on the field. The world's got a little bit of a better handle on things and, you know, we'll see you science catches up and. And, and, you know, w we're getting there a little bit, so we'll see what happens, but, but yeah, there was a time where there was, you know, the reflection reassessing whether or not to push forward completely with this. Once they put that executive team in place. Once they made their announcements, once a Jerry Karnail went out there and said, We're going to be hearing news. With an increasing crescendo. You know, all these big announcements that were coming there's no going back now. So, so there was a time too, with a lot of the XFL supporters felt like, you know, we're a little worried, like why aren't we hearing anything? Right. Why isn't there transparency? Why? Maybe they're not coming back. And there was a lot, I got a lot of that from people. Like, I don't think so. I don't think so, Mike and I'm saying no, no, no. They're planning on the plan telling you, I'm telling you. So a lot of people like us moved on at a CFL and figured out, Hey, this might be, this might be our league that we cover, you know, Us to see if on Newshub and all the great work you guys did during the past seasons we're covering the CFL. It's awesome. You know, I want to say this. You know, I appreciate all the entities that exist out there that cover these leagues and you can see how many people appreciated your coverage of the CFL, our coverage of the CFL. So many people reached out to me that never watched a CFO before read my articles and got into the Toronto Argonauts and all that. So I think that's really cool. And I think a lot of people on the Canadian side saw how open-minded we were and how, how pure our intentions are in terms of our love for football and for the existence of these leagues. So. These leagues have a hard time getting. Mainstream media to follow him. Even the CFL has been around as long as it has gets ignored and its own country. And so people appreciated you read and Paul. For actually covering the CFL, bringing on their coaches, their experts, and all that, and bringing attention to the league. They really appreciate it. And it was awesome to see a great cup. I was a little jealous. I couldn't make it. So, and the, the league itself was so forthcoming and so helpful handing out Prudentials and giving us access and all that. So I just wanted to throw that in there. I think. But I think it was really cool. What took place? You know, during the CFL season. Yeah. I said, ah, You know, the, the, the premise of the episode today is it's. Throwback a Twilight throwback. Right. We had team Edward, the team, Jacob, back in the day. And so I said, you know, are we team XFL or are we team USFL now? Right. I think that Jacob would be the XFL, right? Like the new hotness. Right. He's coming on. Edward writes the USFL coming back, you know, the vampire I got. I mean, I thought it worked pretty well. But that was the thing that killed me about all the CFL Cephas I'm like, you know, all the stuff that you guys have gotten for years about, you're not the NFL, you're NFL light. You're not like it's all the same. I don't want to go down this too much. But, you know, but it's all the same. Right. And even people that are like, well, I don't want the USFL, you know, we have listeners, right. Well, I don't want that to succeed. Or we don't I'm like, or, or I want alternate football, but, but you know, but not that way. And you're like, well, these are jobs for players and coaches and staff and concession workers and stadium people and marketing people and social media people. I mean, these are a lot of people involved in this, right. And so, you know, just because you want it the way the XFL is doing it, or the way the USFL is doing the other, I mean, ultimately this is just. Yeah, giving the spotlight to the players and the staff and the coaches that are trying to work and get taped. Right. And that's why we root for these leaks. You know, we root for the CFL to be successful and to be popular and exists. I've been a fan for decades. So, and then we want the USFL exists, the XFL exists and to thrive and survive. Ultimately for those reasons that you just mentioned. So that's what we're in this floor. And I think that it's genuine our passion and our love for it. And, and we're, I'm excited. I'm excited that so many people are interested in this. So it's going to be fascinating. The CFL angle with the USFL and XFL is interesting because I've had CFL players have reached out to me and said that they're interested in coming back to the states and they hope that these leagues come up. If you guys, several guys who starters and CFL team. So that could be an interesting thing. I know the CFO fans. Seen this movie before they've heard this song before. With these, with these leagues, possibly sprouting up and taking talent away from them. So they've seen how that movie's ended before, but it's a viable thing to look into into the future in terms of whether or not the USFL XFL could take away some talent from their league. You know, so, you know, the ratio prohibits a lot of Americans from going to Canada to begin with or making Canadian roster. So if a USFL and XFL are viable and exists, that's going to be another avenue that's good for players and coaches. By the way, if you're, I know if you're waving a flag, a flag for one of your league chosen leagues, there. Maybe it's not so great for you. But it's great for the players and the coaches to have those options. And hopefully they sprung up. They spring up in there. They're strong. So we'll see. All right. Preface here. Really? This is the long promise. Now I'm going to tell you, Mike, we have 12 voicemails. Got it. The overwhelm of it. I love it. You, I will be here as long as you want to be here. Let's do it. I understand that you also have time since. I just want you to keep that in mind in, in answering some of these, right. Just keep in mind there. There's. Right. Cause we get. Yeah, we could do 10 minutes. You get what I'm saying? So what we're going to do, and at the end, we're going to file the voicemails. We're going to answer them. And then you are going to pick a winner and we are going to S I, they get to their choice of USFL merchandise from the USFL shop. Not, not the $60 cruise shirt, et cetera, over price, but like the ugly beanies or the sweat pants. Right. Or like they, you know, it looks like a dreadful. So we're going to give that at the end. So we're going to answer, pick the best question. You got to pick the way that it doesn't have to be the best. It's up to you, you decide. So there they get to be. Now you. So we're going to play these. We're going to go first off. This is a long time listener, Kyle, Kyle's going to start us off and then we'll just, we'll we'll walk through these. We'll see how we're doing. All right. Hey, what's going on guys. Read Paul hope you guys are having a great week. Happy holidays to you guys as well. Great idea for letting us ask you a question to Mike while he's on the show. Hopefully this is going to make the air cause I got a great question. So Mike, if you're listening. You know, All spring leagues, whether it was the, a, a for USFL or XFL, a lot of these leagues have this persona of being a developmentally, you know, League where players can. Showcase their stuff, whether they're young players or. Our old players, basically giving players another opportunity, you know, and we've heard it in the past through interviews and our players will talk about the opportunity that they've been given. To help bring them to the next level without actually saying the NFL it's often looked at as if they're meaning, Hey, you know, we're given an opportunity here. Hopefully they can make it to the NFL. So my question to you is this, do you think the XFL can change that persona? For the players for the players to not necessarily want to come to the league to make it to another level, but to come to the league and to remain in the league, you know, and to showcase their S their, their capabilities, you know, from within the XFL, you know? So do you think the XFL is going to be able to change that? Let us know what you think. I would also add coaches as well. Right. Players and coaches. Thoughts on that. Tremendous question by Kyle. I'll say by default, these leagues are always developmental leagues. There are avenues for players to get into the NFL NFL teams Scouts to get an opportunity to see players that didn't get a chance quite to make it onto an NFL roster. By being in these leagues. So I've never been a big proponent of leagues labeling themselves selves as developmental leagues because that, eh, It paints you, it labels you as a minor league. So anytime you can treat yourself like your minor, then that's the, you know, the. What you're going to receive in return. As far as is a overall question of players seeing the XFL or the leagues like that as a destination. That's, long-term where they're not just using it to get back into the show. So to speak. I think that requires the XFL existing and surviving for a lengthy period of time. Whereas, you know, in the past, these leads haven't lasted very long, obviously. And so like, Because there's such a small percentage of players that make the NFL every year, according to NCAA, at 1.9% of all Constable players make the NFL. There's always going to be an avenue for a great number of football players to extend their pro football careers. If a league like the XFL exists for a long time. So there'll be, they'll come at a time. Or if the XFL USFL are viable for five, 10 years, where players will go coming out of college, while if I don't make the XFL, I can't wait to make. I, if I don't make the NFL, I can't wait to make the XFL. I at least I can have a long pro career in the states. Or wherever. Playing in the XFL or the USFL, it'll be something in the future where players will go, Hey. I would love to be in that room. The generals. Mike we, your, your headphones came on. I think your Bluetooth. Diet. Interesting. Oh, I am I losing you? We got it. Oh, boy, I got you now. All right, let's see. What's going on here. I got it. I can, I can hear you now. So, sorry. I was okay, well, I'll cut all this. I can't hear you originally. Can you hear me now? Mike, check one, two check, check, check. All right, let me see what's going on here. Testing testing one, two. Yeah. I can hear you. I still can't hear you. I think your headphones died. Hello. Yes. Check one, two check, check. Oh boy. I can hear you. I can hear you. Jacquelyn too. Hello testing. Yeah, I can hear you. Can you, I think your headphones died. Oh, okay. So should I just, what should I do here? What do you think? But can you hear me now? I can hear you. I can hear you now. It's working. Ah, hopefully this works out. I'm so sorry, bro. It's okay. I think your, your Bluetooth just disconnected on your headphones. I can hear you. We'll see what happens. I'm sorry. My answer was pretty long there, so I guess we gotta go back into it. Okay. Okay. I apologize. I'm here. We're here. We'll get through it. Let's do it. You want me to redo that? Answer the call answer. If you want to, you. I'll try to redo it. Cause we got cut off in the middle of it and I'll try to, I'll try to shorten it. I know it's going to be hard. Okay, here we go. Great question by Kyle. I'll say that if the XFL or USFL can actually last and be around for five or 10 years, you get to the point where players in college. We'll actually aspire to be in the XFL and USFL. And these entities haven't been viable longterm options in the past. So the avenue has always been, let me just get to the NFL and there's no question at the end of the day, these leagues are by default developmental leagues. So there's no need to label yourself as a developmental league because that's basically what you are anyway. And any time you label yourself as a developmental league per se. You're putting a minor label on you. So you're going to be treated like you are minor. So I would, I would suggest that these leagues lasting will create a whole new world where players actually see the XFL and USFL as longterm options and aspire to be in those leagues, depending on how those leagues are run. If the XFL is innovative, fun league, great for players, coaches pays well. Players will aspire to be in that league. These leagues need to be around long enough for that to become a reality. You know, when they're in the early stages, you're not paying like NFL teams pay and all that. So. Eh, you know, you got to remember, they're only 1.9% of all college football players make the national football league. So you talking about over 98% of college football players that never get an opportunity to extend their pro careers in most, mostly in the United States. So there is, there's going to be a lot of players that will love to see these, these leagues S survive and thrive, and you have to get to that point. First, you get to that point, then we'll live in a reality where. We're college players aspire to be in the XFL USFL or whatever. Yeah. Also. Pain, right. Like we say time before, you know, pain and mark, I think has said on his podcast, you know, that he's heard it, maybe you've he has heard through you, whatever that the us valley is going to offer. Hopefully competitive. Right? You know, pay it. It's really hard though, right? I mean, that was the big thing with the XFL. The one thing that I felt it was so interesting in Danny's interview with the founder was they were asking and she goes, well, You know, Dwayne. You know, when did the NFL couldn't cut. It, went to the CFL. Couldn't cut it. And then if the XFL where they've existed, he went, he. I've gone there. I'm like, you are really setting up your hierarchy of where, like I thought that was a. Really not a good soundbite. You know what I mean? Of like, well, you can make it here and you could make it here by we're going to be that third string. I did think that was worrisome. Yeah, I guess she was going through the history of what the rock went through. Right. But I think I'll say this, you know, if the XFL was around when the rock didn't make it into the NFL. He may have considered the XFL depending on what kind of league it was, if it was just in a startup where nobody. They weren't paying much. And all that. And they weren't unsure about what channels or what networks are going to be on. Who's backing in all that. If the XFL was a viable entity, when the rock didn't make it to the NFL, I think there's no doubt. That he would have, he would have stayed in the states. So I, I guess I get the wording and the way the pecking order worked and the way she was saying it. Cause she was just going through his history. But, and I know CFL fans might get angry at me with me at this, but I think if the XFL is around and exists, there are going to be players that consider the XFL before they do go on to Canada. So it depends on pay. It's a, you know, that's the, the bottom line at the end of the day. But if you have an opportunity to play in the United States on ABC Fox, NBC all that. To have NFL Scouts actually come to your games. If you're playing an NFL style game, that more translates to the national football league. Then you'll see more. You'll see more players decide to play in the states with the XFL and use of film. All that. All right. We got one Richard L for real Richard Al Humphrey here. Coming at you. Hey Marquette, this is Richard. Building on tour that Richard. Oh, for real. I heard that you had Mike Mitchell on the show. So the question I have for today is that. Do you think that the USFL or the SFL can get former NFL player to be the coaches? And when do you think the USFL is going to start doing the drafting? And do you think the timeline that is. L the storm. You know, today has shown. They really gonna keep their word or you think it might be, you know, just a roof. Richard that was like eight questions. I appreciate that. I love it. I love Richard by the way. He's a great follower of these leagues and does a great job. I don't know. Reed. Can you. Okay. Are you having visual issues on your. I don't know what's going on here. What the hell is going on with this thing that is weird. That is weird. It's like someone's interfering with my a. In fact, you have a built-in webcam. No, I have a, I do have a built-in webcam, but it's so old on this CA on this. On this computer that it's, you saw the quality of my first appearance with you guys. What's better. Oh, we'll see what happens both. Okay. So let me. Reese restart. Richard's answer, you know? This is crazy. Thank God. We're not alive. Yeah. Okay, here we go. All right. Excellent question by Richard. There. He's a great follower of these leagues. Here we go again. Fiddle your cable. All right. There you go. I hope. Don't breathe. Yeah. Like. All right. Jesus Christ. Okay. Alright, here we go. This is f*****g crazy. I don't understand. Sorry. That's good. I'm home. I got nothing. We've got time. Great question. Oh, here we go. And try it again. All right. Great question by Richard, a lot to unpack. I love his suggestion of players turning up. I got to do this. I got to start over. Okay. I've been thrown off completely. I've been thrown off completely. All right. Great question by Richard, a lot to unpack there. He's a great follower of these leagues. I appreciate his passion for the XFL and other leagues like this. I like his idea of players, turn coaches. That's a little bit of outside the box thinking, as we've seen with Deon Sanders, he's made quite an impact. On Jackson, state and FCS schools and bringing attention to that. And I would love to see, you know, some contrasts with the XFL coaches. And or USFL for that matter, because I think sometimes a lot of these leagues have a lot of the same. I hate to use the term retreads, but they have a lot of coaches that are older legacy coaches that have been out of the loop for a while. They're looking to get back in. And I think there's value to those types of coaches too, but you'd like to see. Different play calling some new, fresh thinking just as a contrast there. So I wouldn't mind, you know, way back when Isaac Bruce tried to be a part of the St. Louis. F team. And that would have been interesting. And we've seen now the Eddie, George and the Deion Sanders and what they're doing Deon, especially, he's done just such a tremendous job. You see them getting the top recruits in the nation now to come to his school. So that's awesome. It's a new age. It's a new era, for sure. So I'd love to see that. I'm trying to remember the other parts of Richard's question. So we'll hopefully read, I apologize. I can't recall everything he threw in there, but I liked that suggestion by Richard. I think it's a possibility. You know that the rock will look to Iraq and red bird and others will look towards potentially Loring former players into the league, as you know, to take on a CEO type position. That's kind of what Dion's done. And Jackson state he's got Dennis Thurman. He used to be a part of the, a F and other leagues. And he's got him there as a defensive coordinator. So you could see more of a CEO type player turn now coach coming into the league and being a part of the XFL. I wouldn't mind seeing that a couple of spots. It would be cool. You know, you were talking about retreads. I was trying to find my Jerry Glanville sunglasses. I don't know what you mean when he's talking about you have, it's like some of these coaches coming back again. I, you know, Jerry's going on. You know, eight years. Jerry's a legend. There's no doubt about it, but you, and, and it's nice to have a couple of guys like that, you know, a part of the league that, you know, it not only brings notoriety, but you know, it's like fun, throwback and all that. And those guys still have the hunger. I. Glenville. Ah, I forget how old he is, but the guy said. He's like, it's pretty awesome. I hope I have the same energy. What if I get, if I'm lucky enough to reach that age? So, but it's cool to have coaches like that, but you know, you want to see some, some fresh faces, some new guys, some outside the box thinking. You know, you never know, maybe Joe Brady coaches in the XFL or some somebody, somebody just, you know, Even a player coach, like Richard mentioned, I would like to see those types of coaches involved in the league. All right. We all wanna hear from Adam. My question is for Mike Mitchell for this Friday's Christmas special. I have two questions. My first question is. Aside from talking about expanding. Or emerging within the USFL or XFL. What is it? The Canadian football league. Look outside of Halifax and expand within Canada, such as Quebec city, London, Ontario. Or even the fastest growing city in Canada. Colona burst. Colombia. A second question. Is why can't the Canadian football league forces hand in its television contract. Forcing Belle and TSN to put the big games and the playoff games, the great cup games on traditional network TV. Roger's national hockey league. Within after the first few years of their agreement with the CBC. They extended that contract immediately, knowing that without CBC the TV numbers would not even come close. To what they're getting now. Thanks a lot for taking my question guys. Merry Christmas, happy new year and all the best. So we have CFL expansion and then we have, why doesn't CFO get more money for their TV ratings? Yeah. I got to tell you, it was very intelligent question there by Adam happy holidays to you. Thanks for giving me that. I agree with both sentiments there, they should. You need to expose your product more. So why would you limit it? To a pay services and all that you want. Your biggest games, your playoff games, your great cup on free television. I'm totally in agreement with that. Why would you limit that? As far as expansion goes, that's part of the problem with the CFL is. There are only a 19 league, right. And then, so when you look at it, you know, the. They limits their profits. So it limits the, the, the, so the more teams, the problem is you add on expenses. When you, when you expand. And you have your fingers crossed that your new ownership groups can deal with handling all the finances and resources that you're going to need. So I think they do need to expand. You want to, you don't want to go too crazy, but adding a couple of teams in those areas that Adam mentioned makes complete sense for the CFO. I love to see them go to 10 and then eventually to 12. And then go from there. Th the league has to be strong enough. And its foundation to be able to handle expansion. They can barely right now. You know, they're talking about revenue sharing. And basically you have a few teams that are making a lot of revenue for the league that that would have to hold up the other teams that you would think in the big cities would be making the most money in the league. And so it's kind of a strange. Dynamic that the CFL has going there, but hopefully their new revenue models will help them expand and grow. The business model has been flawed for quite some time with the CFL. That's nothing new. I'm not saying anything revolutionary there. Anybody looks into it does research on it can see that. And so they need to do a better job as a league on the whole, you know, they're so live gay driven, but that's like a 1985 model. We're in the year 2021. So they really need to, you know, work on fantasy football, continue to work on gambling. And, and continue to broaden their horizons and not be so limited in their thinking. And so then that's kind of the story there, but that's how I feel is a great question. Now. Love it. Yeah, you can't have. Tenting, you got to have even got to have even division. So you gotta have, you can't have five and four. I agree. Ah, this long time listeners, Zack. For you though. I can never pronounce that. Hey guys. I just wanted to know if you were. Involved with any of the. Three leagues today. Just pick one. Knowing everything that we know. What would you. Like. Like, like, what would you say. Can make sure that your league is the one. That succeeds over any of the others. So wait. Basically. Yeah. Back to the question you think. Exact very much Jackson longtime listener. You know, If you had to pick a dog in this fight. Right. You know, obviously we, you know, we try to cover this. On biasly as possible, but if you had to pick a dog USFL, XFL, CFL, What do you feel the strongest about here moving forward in the next five years? Ooh, that's an excellent question. And I tag team Zach and I tech. So I like, I like it's a good tag team. Well, thanks Zach. For the question. If I had to pick a dog at this moment, I would say the CFL. If I had to pick a dog. For the future, I would say the XFL. With the USFL now, far behind because of the Fox aspect. Because it's tough. I think. All three have putts. I know this sounds like a diplomatic answer, but I think all three have potential. The CFL's been around for a long time. The quality of the product on the field is excellent. I've always felt that way. I've always enjoyed the CFL. So I don't see issues there. I see issues on the business end for them. So whether or not they can wake up and make the right moves that remains to be seen. There are a lot of flaws to the CFLs game. Off the field. The XFL. I have a lot of faith in Redbird capital and Dwayne Johnson in Danny Garcia. So that's a good bet. And the USFL has a chance they're just starting out. So you can't measure up to league. That's been around as long as the CFL has, but the it's. So I think all through it sounds crazy and sounds foolhardy on my part, but I think all three can be viable. If I had to pick one. CFL now long-term XFL. I was still, we kicked around a lot of ideas and all these merger talks. I still think the CFL XFL mega 18 team league. I still believe that that was, that was the battle. I have anything we came up with with the cross continental, you know, nine north division and the south division and all that stuff. We have one from the now. The. The service that we use. Caps out your voicemails at a minute 30 and Donald Mitchell used every single second of it. I love it. I think he gets cut off at the end of this. Does he relate it is he related to me. [Unknown] he brings all the stuff in the question. Good morning, mark Hass. It's the 21st of December. So happy. Winter full sustain. You guys do a fantastic job, covering the CFL and all the other leagues. For. Mike Mitchell, this is your long lost cousin, Don Mitchell. I'm one of those. White haired older folks. Who seemed to be the only ones populating the CFL stadiums these days, according to the talking heads. Throwing shade. But the funny thing is when I was a youngster back in the eighties. These same. Conversations were being held. Too many old white hair guys in the stands. Scoring's not good enough. Play is inferior. On and on and on. So in your mind, is the CFL in any worse danger than it was? Pre. 2000 Than it is now post 2000. And what. Is your thoughts on this idea? Of changing the rules. Personally, I think the rules are just fine. We just need. To allow our players to play. And offensive coordinators. To get a little more brave. Love your show guys. Keep doing what you're doing and I will see you in Regina. For gray cop 2022. And we also just, we officially booked our Airbnb for vagina. So there you go done. What do you think about that? Changing the rules. Haven't got your thoughts on the four downs and all the other stuff that came out from grey cup. I'll jump into that, but does Donald get excluded from winning this contest? Because he's related to me, if you're a long. Yeah. I think one of my friends and family. You worked for McDonald's corporation, you can't win monopoly, right? I like it. Yeah, that's true. I like his, I like his opinions there. Good job, Donald. As far as the CFL, the way I look at it, people tend to look at this from a negative standpoint. I tend to look at it from a more positive, I think there's room for growth with the CFL. I think the CFL already has a nice base. It just needs to get to the next level. And it has nothing really to do with inferior player, all that other nonsense. That to me, the play was an inferior this year. There were reasons why maybe scoring was down. You know, you had a two year layoff. These teams weren't together for a long time. You had all the COVID issues that happened. I do agree with him. He made a point towards the tail end there. I think the play calling needs to improve. I think there needs to be a little bit more innovation evolved there. I think more teams in the CFL need to consider going forward on third down, especially when they're near midfield and entering into territory there. I think as far as. As for downs three downs. It would be fascinating to see what the CFL game would look like. Would four downs just maybe, maybe I'm a glutton here and. A little bit of a troublemaker. It would be interesting if they CFL had their own developmental league. Be fun to see them implement that and just to see what it would be like, what it would look like. But personally, I would keep it as three downs. I do have a pet PVR, and I have discussed this in the past with guys, like shout out by the way to Ben grant from. X's and Argos, it's a wonderful podcast that covers the CFL. I discussed this with him in the past and perhaps I'll get some heat for this. I, if I had to choose one thing, I'd keep the dimensions, all that I would move the goalpost to the back of the enzyme. And for several reasons, number one, CFL teams have issues in the reds. Don't they have a lack of variety on plays. You're not going to run any mesh plays into the post. It takes longer for players to clear the, that goalpost area. You know, so that play plays take too long to develop because of that obstruction and. In the end zone. I understand that this would move field goals back, but you'd have more teams going for it. So instead of, you know, trying for a, you know, teams right now in the, in the Canadian football league, if you get stopped in the 40 yard line, it's a 47 yard field goal. But if you move the goalpost to the back-end, it's now all of a sudden, a 60 yard field goal, they're not going to attempt that. So I understand that creates that it's also a player safety thing. Not only does it open up play calling in the red zone, but it's also a player safety thing having that there. So, and then from a visual standpoint, I think if you move the goalpost to the back end, that does see, it would look so beautiful. You know, it, it would open up that end zone and really show off the great 20 yard ends on the CFL. Has, could you imagine, I hate using the, what if this was in the NFL to excuse what could you imagine if in the NFL they had 20 yard end zones. I would Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers and play callers feel about having that much space to operate and score. So that's my one thing. If I was changing anything, perhaps you can do something similar to the XFL kickoff, which I thought was awesome. But from a player safety from a scoring standpoint, you saw it in the playoffs. How teams struggled? I particularly so in Toronto, against Hamilton. Teams struggled in the red zone area scoring and how limited people were there. And I think play calling is a big factor. Like a lot of the CFL coaches need to be a more aggressive. And go for it more on third down, I think you'd see more scoring in the league and more excitement, more drama. Like I said, the CFL has room for growth. If they take the right steps, I think it's already a great league. And yes, that gray haired comment about every generation complains about the last and blames the older generation for any of their issues. Like, so you see that with television and all that, you know, people tend to ignore the 50 plus. Crowd. And all that and or they tend to blame them for the product, for the product being lane. So you're always looking to appeal to the younger crowd and to draw them in. They need, the CFL also has to do a better job marketing and reaching out to, you know, and getting feedback from. Kids in Canada who are involved in football and all that who have interest in sports and to, to rope them into it as well. So there's a lot of different layers to this, but I don't think the CFL to me, like I said, room for growth with the Canadian football league, they can be so much better than they are. So really the business side of things, where they need to, they need to figure it out. They're behind when it comes to fantasy football, they behind, when it comes to gambling there. Been behind when it comes to marketing and promotion they're behind when it comes to promoting their own players. So they need to catch up. You know, they got a lot of catching up to do as far as the product on the field. The CFO's a great league. It's fun to watch. So that's my opinion on it. Sorry for rambling there, Donald and, and just like you, I had a very lengthy message. So. Yeah, that's good, Kyle. Kyle had to, we played one of Kyle's. Vincent has to, we're going to play one. We got 24 and then we got 12 seconds. We'll do the 24. We'll see what Vincent has to say, because I want to get through all these before we let you guys watch. Oh, sorry. I now. Vincent. And say we broke it. Here we go. Hey mark asked Vince grow here. XFL question. Out of the two dates, which do you think is going to be further apart from the original 2019 plan? In 20, 22. Do you think the coaching announcements in February. We'll take place close to February 20, 22. Or do you think the team announcements is September? We'll take close to September, 2022. Thanks, bye. I've visited have like a baby cry. Background insight. Take care of. I've I've your offspring here before, but now I'm glad we got a question. We have two of them, but what do you think about that? TV dates, all this I'm all thrown off with the timelines from before, you know, I'm with you on that too. I feel the same way. I think people are going back to the old calendar a little too much and going, well, this has to be the date. This has to be the date. I mean, the XFL is in a better position than USFL is. You're going to be getting a lot of USFL news all at the same time, but they only have a few months to go here before they set everything up. Training camp players, how they're going to allocate players, all that stuff. The XFL has more time. I don't stick to specifics. We know now, at least from what we saw with the meeting at red bird. That the league's planning showcases in June. You presumably you'd have all your coaches and everything lined up by then all your teams announced by then. So you're not going to move forward to player showcases without all your teams being established. Like you heard from the rock today and we're going to be getting the teams and team, the city names and the team names and all that. Coming up very shortly. We're talking about January, February. And w w by the same token, we'll get the broadcast rollout and lay out. And what that's gonna look like. That's going to be fascinating. And then from there, you'll start to see them hire coaches and everything. As far as specific dates. The timeline we all know is February's kickoff. Right? So in 2023, so they got a year in rock, mentioned it today on CNBC. They got a year and change to, to, to, to get that all set up for kickoff and we're going to get it's good. There's going to be a lot of news as far as when it is March, April. There'll be plenty of it. The people remember if you follow the XFL back then it took a while for all the coaches to get hired. I remember when they only had three or four coaches hired and people were like, wait a minute, but what's going on here? Who's going to coach in St. Louis. So it took a while for them to line that all up. So it might. You don't expect all eight at once. I mean, it could happen. But you might, it might be staggered a little bit. The key is getting everything in order. By the time you get to the fall, when you start putting all these rosters together and getting ready for camp and all that. So we'll get it in, in due time. I think XFL vans by now, these guys like me that have been around since 2001. You should know a little bit about being patient. I waited 20, almost 20 years for the XFL to come back. And we've been very patient. You only had five weeks of play and we've been patient waiting towards 2023. So the dates, not that important, they have to have that all set up the USFL. They're pushing it. They, they need to, they need to get on it and I'm sure they have plans again, ready to announce coaches and all that. So, and they're going to, they just got to move quickly. Yeah, it's one of those. It's hard. I just, cause you're not seeing it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It is hard. It's hard to see that it's hard. And I do. That was weird. I do think it's also interesting now where. Hmm. My thing is like on, do not disturb. That was really weird. You know, it's one of those things like. Now I got to see it every day. It's one of those things that, you know, just because you're not seeing it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. It's hard. It's usually an hour. We have Danny like posting stuff on Instagram, right? Like back, maybe two years ago, that would have been a press release, right? Like XFL training camps to launch June, whatever. And now. This is the way we are now. We. You know, we post that on Instagram and I can Easter egg. So it's weird to even like, you know, Putting the timelines together, you know, trying to lay one on top of the other, but also they're just announcing things far differently now than they did two years ago than they did with Vincent Oliver and all that. That's exactly the case. And the fact that they're heading to new cities, not all. With the fact that there are heading to new cities with some new teams. You know, they have to announce that first, before they can get to all the coaches and all that kind of stuff. So it all in due time, it's all going to be set up and structured. You get the broadcast package deal, where the teams are going to be playing that's key. That's vital. All the new merch that's going to be involved. And then, so, and then from there, you know, you gotta put all the teams together and then get a scout players, draft them all that. I think the timeline will be similar to the last XFL in terms of when players are drafted, when they're signed, when camp takes place, that kind of thing, that that's all going to be ironed out. They have a time for that, and they have a plan for that. We have a. Voice not hear from your friend and mind, Jake Henry. Okay, take it away. Hey guys. Just thought I'd ask how soon into 2022 will info about teams be reviewed. It has to be relatively soon, right. Especially after reading the bios for the football ops hires. Yeah. Thanks. So he is referring to the XFL, I assume. Right? Because we still need that information. The USFL. And we still need a little bit infant. I'm going to assume your Jake's a great fan. I'm going to assume that his question came before today's news. Right? So now we know. We now we know January, February on that end. Jake's awesome. By the way, I'm surprised that wasn't St. Louis related. I know in his heart, in his mind, he wants to know if the battle Hawks will be back. I've been told every indication that I've been given is that St. Louis is going to be part of. The XFL in 2023. If they're not, if for whatever reason, they had a change of heart, it's a foolish move on their part and they are the XFL I'm was surprised that the USFL did a journey into, to be honest with you. St Louis and San Antonio, that would have been a direct shot across the bow. For lack of better term. So that opening is there for them. And I, and I think St. Louis without a doubt is going to be part of the XFL. Otherwise Jerry Cardinel and Danny Garcia and Dwayne Johnson need to just fold up shop right now. If they make a different decision on that one, I understand you've got to line up venues and business arrangements and all that would be extremely foolish for them to go otherwise. And I haven't heard anything otherwise. And saying that USFL didn't go to St. Louis, right? Insane. I understand why they're doing Birmingham because obviously they're there. Right now, everything they're doing is cost-related. Yeah. So Birmingham, they found a great partner willing place. That's willing to, to, to put some finances. And help you out. In the early gone. And that's a great deal for both sides. It's a good marriage, but yes, St. Louis. St Louis and San Antonio. If you're following these leagues. She follow the AAF and you follow the XFL. Foolish not to consider both those markets after what they just did. In the Alliance and why obviously was St. Louis the battle Hawks were amazing. So it was awesome. Yeah, it just crazy to me that you were just calling the team names, anything, right? It could be the Seattle barracudas. I mean, it could be whatever. And so it was like, you don't just. I would just call one of the teams St. Louis, just to like, yeah, because they're in Birmingham anyway. Right. It doesn't matter. Right. Exactly. That's. Their decision, I suppose. You know, w from one of the things I've heard, you hear a lot of things right now with a lot of the USFL players and coaches, they're all giving me all kinds of information. There's some people that think that entire TSL teams are gonna just be transferred over. That kind of thing. I've heard that one, but there's so many different theories. There's so much, everybody's got different information. As far as that goes. But. One of the things I heard with the USFL is that, you know, they already have potential ownership groups. In mind. For their franchises now, whether or not, and they got to iron that out. I mean, they're still waiting to announce the Birmingham deal, but I think they have an idea. Brian Woods attempted this. I understand this isn't completely Bryan Woods leak. But he attempted this with the FX AFL to sell off his franchises. And he had ownership groups that he was trying to work with. To iron that out and really work out. But I'm sure Fox has an idea. And that's the whole point of this upcoming hub season. Is to showcase the league so you can sell the franchises, sell the league itself to sponsors and all that. So. Give me a fascinating to see how that all pans out. I have three more busting through. We got the van here, van van, the lifetime listener van, the man, he. He manages the XFL dragons group on Facebook. Little kind of session. I'm just going to say it's all kinds of. Kind of defend. I can't even say that word. My braces condescending. Condescending nature with van a little bit with his calling you an insider, but I will say that this is a fascinating question. I think this is a fascinating question. I'm really interesting. Interesting. How about asking your insider? How does the current. And contracting interact. CFL USFL and XFL. In my world of. Player with significant. Income would differ from playing in Canada. The lack of exposure would diminish the value of the NISL. I'll have one. One is projected salary for CFL players. I know that they took a protracted salary in 2021. Is it enough to pull players north? Playing on a CFL roster would cost. And our policies. Whereas season accent. And transform onto an NFL practice. Water team roster. The current. The current us. And what also happens from playing on a national team or practice squad the same year. What's your comment. I do things first off, I, they, they did say I, and that Brian or Brian Johnson in that interview said that they did give him on the USFL schedule, right. With them potentially being able to hop on the camps. So I would say that they also kind of base their schedule around that. Right? Sure. Like when, when is their, their season scheduled to end in June, at least presumably in this first go round. So it does leave an opening there. There are a lot of different reasons for the timelines of these leagues. I'm not going to get into the whole histrionics about this, but there's a belief system that if you start right after the super bowl in February, not only do you have a better opening for players to latch onto the NFL moral, our players would choose to play in your league. But also there's a belief system in terms of viewership that in the months of February and March, you have more people that are at home. And that there are that we're, you can expand your viewership that way, like in the Northeast and all that people that are, you know, Watching television during those times they aren't outside. As they are in may and June. And what have you, so you have less of the pie there. So there's a lot of different factors there. I think. What was that gentleman's name? I apologize. Was van. Yeah. Okay. It was a very good question. You know, a lot of good stuff in there. Tidbits in there. He mentioned, he made mention of I'm sorry. I lost myself there for a second. Okay. Well, the idea that people, right, if you're starting to get paid NIR, right. You're trying to get paid to play in college. Right. And so the idea is. All right. That is correct. Thanks. But then the idea is, and I get that too, where it's like, well, and that's this whole USFL CFL ethic. Yeah, XFL debate is like, if I can get paid relatively the same amount of money to be in the states, I'm not going to go to Canada. Like, I mean that. I just, I think that that is why we are discussing all of these leagues together. Yeah. He's talked about timeline, whether players would choose the leagues based on timeline and he's talking about NISL and I L has changed the game. Has changed the game for college players for universities. Now you see in the players choosing, you know, Jackson state because they have a nice NISL and of course, that exposure and all that. And so I think that could factor in Canada has always had those issues of whether or not they can entice American players to come over, come north of the border, so to speak. And the N I L could factor in, could be another layer. Another factor it's also changed the game a little bit when the XFL was coming out. Part of the plan that they had longterm was to entice college players, to leave college early, to play for them. And now that college players can be compensated for their image and likeness. There's less of that. Urge to go ahead and turn pro immediately. So I think I'm not saying that's going to hurt the XFL us. So they could still get players from that, that window, just like the XFL had Kenny Robinson who was drafted into the NFL was in the transfer portal. And so I think the NFL could be a factor. I think as far, in terms of Canadian teams, Canadian players, American players might consider not going to Canada. If they can make more money here in the states and play in the states. The key to that is these leagues like the XFL USFL proving their viability first. And their scale of pay. So I, you know, the CFL numbers, I know they're going for a new CBA and there's going to be some changes there. So it's hard to say. I know players didn't make as much this year as they would've made back. In 2019, there were some American players who play in the XFL. That played in the CFL. They weren't too happy with the amount of money that they got this past season that reached out to me and talked to me about that. As well as for the asset, the insider thing noticed, by the way, this isn't about me, but I don't label myself as an insider. I'm on. I'm pretty humble guy. I'm uncomfortable. Anybody calling me an insider? I I'm, I'm lucky enough to get any information on this stuff. So I just brought it up there with a player, brought me some information there, but I think the points there by van are very interesting ones. The timeline, whether or not. You know, we're, we're thinking about that whole NFL thing. Whether guys will consider playing in the XFL rather than USFL because of the timeline, whether the guys will consider playing the XFL rather than the CFL, because of the timeline, that's certainly possible. I like, I meant, I mentioned briefly there. February and March are two months that a lot of these leagues get started. I know the weather is a factor, but the weather is also a factor in terms of people being at home. Because come spring months, April, may, June, July, people are out and about on their summer vacations and doing their things. It's the whole CFL that people don't watch in the summer. Cause they're, you know, they're farming and they're on their vacation homes and then they can apply for. I've heard all of that. Were you saying that the player was upset that they went from the XFL to the CFL? We're getting paid enough. Yeah. From. The XFL. And any of them mind you now? It wasn't like the XFL was breaking the bank there. But, you know, pay was much different and w. This individual is hoping to be back in the states, hopefully getting in out of a workout, getting opportunity. Or maybe in the USFL or XFL, you. It just enjoy their stay. There played really well. This particular individual, just, you know, the money wasn't. You know, great. These for him. Entry-level guy, you know, some, some of the guys in the CFL, you know, a lot of American rookies this year were very impactful at great years. But, you know, The money is what it is when you know, and that entry-level spot. And if you're not accustomed to being in Canada, you know, you have to. You know, you have to weigh that. Yeah, you got to have two different, all that stuff. All right. Last two, we got Kevin Kevin's from Australia. You'll notice the accent. Hi guys, this is Kevin Long timeless, another shower. I have two questions. The first one being. What major changes do you think the XFL will consider now that we kinda have a better understanding what the USFL is trying to be? And how they're operating. And my second one's a little bit more general. Out of the USFL and XFL, who do you think has the advantage when it comes to being the more. Successful spring football league in the longterm. Thanks guys. Happy holidays. Yeah. W what's the boardroom and rubber think about all this USFL nonsense. What's that. What is the boardroom in Redbird there at red bird. Yeah. With the whole statute, right. When they're sitting there and they got. Yeah. Wait, what did they do? They make. Of the Brian Woods is in the, and the [unknown] of the world. Yeah, I think there's a respect there because obviously the whole Fox involvement, but I know. That the two leagues are operating from different mindsets. The USFL is thinking start small and build big X. XFL. Perhaps matching the Hulk. There is thinking about starting huge being a right out the gate. So we'll see which one wins out there, but I think there's respect level on both sides and, and they realize that they exist in the space. Now might be a little bit different because the XFL season will start in February and then it'll just end as the USFL is starting. But it's going to be fascinating. See these two leagues operate and compete for coaches and players and how that's all gonna work out. So some people are out there. Who've gotten in my year and told me that they don't think that both leaks good. That there's enough. Football talent. To, to, to sustain, but I don't agree necessarily with that, but I've forgotten that viewpoint from people. So could they cancel each other out eventually could one canceled each other out. These are the questions that we had during the whole Alliance run that we never got to live, and we're going to. Live with this upcoming. Battle, so to speak. I lost one day. I can't remember Dan, let this one. I can't remember why. He asked him this one, I remembered most of the other ones. So let's see what Dan says. Last one for today. Hello, Mike. Go Argo is just wondering. What do you think the odds are that the CFL XFL talks restart within five years? Thanks buddy. That's a good place to end. That's a good place as any. The voice talks coming out again. Well, he scored a point with me with the goal Argos part. I think it's possible that the two leagues can maintain a friendship. In the future. As far as, I don't think they're going to go as far as they were, they broke off, obviously, you know, I think, you know, they, they were close to getting engaged. And, and perhaps setting a wedding date. What they, you know, they, the ring was ready. But the CFL got cold feet. A lot of their people there got cold feet. And so that put an end to it, their vision wasn't the same. They couldn't line up correctly. So they had totally different visions. And then you, you CFL is a unique dynamic with different ownership groups there that makes it kind of hard to have one single minded vision. Everybody. There's a little bit of warring going on between those ownership groups there, the way they feel that things should be handled. So I think it's possible. It would be in the best interest. Of both leagues, if they maintain some sort of relationship. You know, maybe in the future marketing or promotion, the rock has ties obviously to the Canadian football league. It would be nice if they did something together, marketing. But for the moment, I, I don't think we're going to see what we could have seen. How close were they? Really working together. Very close. You know, they, they entertain so many different options. Did this. They just called the nine ownership groups. Couldn't get on the same page. A few different ownership groups. The business model. Maybe an aspect that will just read. They wanted to maintain what they're doing. We don't want it to. So in terms of alternate rules, I think. I don't know if it was spanning that that asked this, but the one thing I want to want to mention, I know. Your audience got now, hang on. Let your audio buffer. We're almost out of here. We've been on forever. I'm sorry about all this read. It's good. It's good. I've kept you on forever. It's all good. Yeah, I just wanted, I think he mentioned van mentioned something about rules. Let me ask you though. And I wanted to mention Sam Schwartzman. Okay. There's answer that. Rounded in that because it cut out when I was, how close were they to working together? The CFL and XFL will very close. Like I said they were close to getting engaged. They just couldn't get all nine ownership groups to agree to move forward. I think they, there were some aspects of the XFL and what Redbird had planned that. Really a rang well rang true with them. And then I think the CFL is actually with genius and other things is actually moving forward with some of the ideas they picked up. We'll talk in Redbird. And, but I, I think it was just very difficult for them to get everybody on the same page. And, and w as far as the CFO goes and they didn't want to relinquish some of the things, they didn't want to make any real changes. To their overall product. They were scared of alienating people in Canada. And so I think you can pretty much guess which ownership groups were onboard and which weren't. There were a few on the CFL side, they were really intrigued. And I think a lot of those business things, the CFL's going to try, but in terms of the on-field stuff, they were reluctant to make any changes there. I think van was it re mentioned something about rules. I just wanted to mention this big thing with the XFL is whether how much it's going to resemble the league. We fell in love with in 2020 in terms of innovation and the roles. And one of the big issues with the, that I see with XFL 20, 23, is that hopefully they can capture, this is the omission of not having Sam Schwartzstein on. As far as being part of their brain trust for the rules, this coming season. I'm not saying that the people that the XFL hired aren't fully capable of working on technology and strategy and innovation and analytics and all that. They certainly have a strong team they put together, but I think Sam Schwartz. It's such a phenomenal job. And put so much care and thought into it, into the XFL and the rules. That it's a shame that he's not going to be a part. I do know that there's some people within the USFL that have interest in Sam Schwartzstein. It's not everyone there. But that would be the person I would look towards bringing into the, fold into my executive team if I was running one of these legs. But obviously I'm not in that position. But I just want to mention Sam who did a phenomenal job with the XFL rules and his innovations. And, and it's a shame that he's not going to be a part. It looks like it at this point, unless there's, there's some kind of change. It looks like that same Schwartz. Scene's not going to be a part of the XFL in 2023 or in 2022, as we move towards 2023. Last question for me. CFL XFL. We just had the voicemail you've written in the past. NFL XFL. Right. You know, with the, with the Danny habit, the Easter egg and all that. Higher chance of which happening. In the next five years. I think there could be relationships with both. I think the NFL one could be a stronger one. In terms of marketing and promotion. You got to look at who the, well, you know, you got to look at Redbird capital, who they have connections with and they have connections with the NFL. With NFL players, as far as association goes, And with NFL partners, we're broadcasting, streaming partners, all that. And you look at Kevin LaForce and Jerry Carnell and their relationships with Dallas, Cowboys and others. I think it's very, it's a strong possibility and I know that this is something that's on the table for them. For them to work with the NFL in some capacity. To get the stamp of approval from the NFL would be fascinating. Being on NFL network or any of that stuff would be fascinating. And we saw that with the AAF. So I think. I think there's a chance that the XFL could remain friendly with the CFL and do some promotion here. Oh, here and there. But I think with the, I think the ship on, you know, you never know what could happen, but I think that ship has sailed for them to have an alignment, so to speak. And I think there's a better chance of the XFL having some sort of arrangement. With the national football league, whether that'd be marketing promotion, otherwise. Yeah. I don't know necessarily that it will be some type of developmentally, because as I mentioned earlier in this conversation, these leagues are developmental leagues. Why the fault anyway, because it gives NFL teams the opportunity to see players that. You know, they haven't been. I haven't had the opportunity to see on with their teams getting game action. So the XFL affords these players that opportunity. So I think it's funny if they were, if the XFL were to work with both. The CFL and you want to be good partners in this landscape. I mean, nobody needs to go to war with each other. So it'd be cool. If these leagues would, would be partners with each other, I've seen. I've seen the suggestion of the USFL working with the XFL. I think this funny. I mean, I think he's PA anything is possible. I, you know, but, but yes, I do think that the XFL could do something with the NFL. I think that's probably more likely than the CFL part of it. Lisa. Of any significance. In and. I in March, 2030, I'm going to do an oral history of the CFL X full-time. I think. I wouldn't be a fascinating, we'll do a two hour documentary. We'll have enough time. We'll have fath well doc, where they will do the oral history with Mike Mitchell, starring Emmy. They will do a talking head. We'll do the whole thing. We'll do a 30 for 30 of the rise and fall of the CFL who is winning, who is winning the merits. And I have to let you go. This has been forever. I don't know how long we've been on this call, but thank you so much for your time. I'm sure everyone is very appreciative. We, you know, we have Kevin in Australia. We have van, we have Dan, Jake, Henry Vincent. I'm trying to think of people that haven't won gifts before. Right. Kyle has won something before. Richard. Oh, for real would be a good one. Richard, Richard don't want that. Zach's one things in the past before. Zacky one thing through the best. So who, who are we voting? I have before we go, I would say Vincent, I would say Richard. Oh, for real. Or I would say I, Kevin. All right. That Kevin has gotten stuff from Austria or Dan, who do we got. As much as I want to pick Donald because of the namesake and the Australian accent guy was awesome. I forgot his name. I'm sorry. And was it Kevin? Kevin. Great question by the way, Kevin, you know, all great questions. I'm going to give it to Richard. I'm going to give Richard a shout. He's such a, he's such a loyal follower and supporter of these leagues. It's such an awesome guy who has awesome opinions. You know, and he listens to your work, reads my work and he's just awesome. I'm glad people like him exist in this space. So w what are we giving them again? What are you giving them again? The DME, you get your choice of mercy. USFL shop. So there you go. Get you, get your generals beanie or get your stallions. I want some sweats. I think we, I think we, Richard go for real and some of those, ah, Awesome sweatpants they have, but Richard sent me a DM we're connected on Twitter. Mike Mitchell. Thank you so much for your time. Truly doing the Lord's work. I don't know how long your max is. It messaged me. He's like, are you still talking with Mike right now? Arguing like right now. So thank you all so much again. Merry Christmas, happy Kwanzaa, happy new year,

Episode 71 - The Grey Cup, or There and Back Again

To the mark cast trade down to fade down there. Perfect timing. Welcome, mark. Has everybody. It's post gray cup weekend. And why do we have an arrow growing out of your head by the way? Well, so yeah, so call me a Bilbo Baggins. I was to the grey cup and back again, I thought it was really clever title this week. It was either that or Randy Ambrozy being evil, Kermit, trying to destroy the CFL game. I have all my new emerging Knights, so I have my, my gray cup media pass. You'll see here hanging in front of the Marquez. I have my twice failed league. The other Raj that we took a photo of, did you know, I got like 23,000 views on Megan. [unknown]. She's being that tie that Randy and prestige. I saw the, I saw the engagement you got on the tweet. That's great. And then William gave me this wonderful gray cup hat. So I have my gray cup hat. And then I, yeah, so we're, you know, we're, we're sprucing it up. We're making some things I want to say before we get going here, you know, a good show. We need subscribers. I have a ton of stuff for a giveaway. Cool. There you go. So we were almost at 1600. I want to hit 2000. So guys. You know, CFL staff, we have a lot of off season. You know, we have Tim Banes on today. We have ed Tate talking had ad was at the blue bomber celebration last night. And then Tom may enact coming on to talk about. The state of the CFL and all that. But Paul, I'm going to show some of this giveaway stuff that we have. So this is all of my media swag bag stuff. So we have the official Tim Horton's. We have two of these. The. These were, you know, the commemorative edition. If you want any of this stuff. We have a facial gray cup. Tuques. I like how he doesn't ask me if I want anything. This is like, oh, we got some good. Well, you can be part of the giveaway. We have an official. CFL grey cup. Masks. Because I'm a Cron is a thing. Yeah. And then we have this, this is, so we have like to have all this stuff we have. And if Paul wants one, you know, we can figure that this is like in the official gray cup. Like a coffee mug, but it's really nice. It's like cold steel press. So please like, and subscribe when we get to 2000, Paul might want one of these, but we have like eight items for the giveaway because Dorothy and I have like two of everything. Okay. Fair fair. Which one would you want? What, in terms of, do you want the two? Do you want the scarf? Oh, you like a scarf? You're a soccer guy. I'm a soccer guy. Yeah. Well, they don't call them scars. They call them. Oh, they. They call us and the Canadian. No, don't they call it in soccer. They call it the on call or the scarf. They call it a. It's the scarves up, like the Sounders. Yeah. Okay. I didn't know if they had a fancy name for itself. Anyway. So like, We'll converse. And then, you know, we'll, we'll, we'll have a tag, but I promise I won't take everything people. I promise. I won't tell you everything. But yeah, CFL off-season and we have big USFL stuff today. We're breaking on the TV deal and all that, but yeah. Anyway. Bilbo Baggins. I'm back again from Canada. I wish I would have been again, we had a, I had some issues with when it came to. Getting time off work, add some things. I was throwing my direction. So I'm, unfortunately couldn't make it, but I'm definitely gonna make it next year. I know people are like, oh, it's. But it's Regina. It doesn't matter. We'll go. We're still going. Oh, Dorothy is like all in Dorothy's all in on this. It's going to be exciting. It was really fun. I will say my biggest takeaway. Everyone was a delight, Danny Austin, you know, A delight, Raj, we, you know, I have my sign, we did the photo. The only, I did not see John Hodge the whole weekend. He didn't hang out with anyone that we were wet. And then I only saw dunk literally like the first hour I was there. And then as Dorothy and I were leaving the elevator, leaving the stadium, right. Like he was working. So dunk was around. I didn't have a chance to say hi to him. Cause he was filming stand-ups. For like his knee. Cause you know, he's like a weekend reporter, but I don't think Hodge was at the grey cup, but the point is like every single person we hung out with, I never saw them. Do you think that through. That is weird. Yeah, that's weird. Like, I think that's weird. All you saw all the people we hung out with. Especially bearing the stuff with. Danny Austin. I mean, That's key. And you, you know, The Eros actually took a picture with you. That's key, Danny and Danny Austin. Last year, the cigarette. That's how the bar don't tell anyone. Well, we're on a podcast that already. I mean, yeah, Danny, Danny had a very heartfelt apology. He goes, when I come on your show, I go, you're not coming on my shop. Wow, your big timing him. Yeah. And I come on my, your show. I'm still going to make. We could have like a joke, an ongoing joke. I'm like you just assuming you get to come on the show now. Maybe. I'm waiting for that fall back. I did give the, any a follow and I'm still waiting on that fall back. So, because he hated on us for awhile. He did hate on us for a while. It's good to see that. We've patched everything up with Danny, because we're not trying to make enemies here, despite what someone might say. We're not trying to make enemies here. We're just trying to cover your game while we're trying to do. Expand the audience. So anyway, but yeah, big show ed. I talked about that tid Baines. I just got done with him talking CFL, gray cop and all that kind of stuff. I were talking. The Vernon Adam staff coming up here in the, in the show. Do. And then Tom may enact to coming on. People are really excited, hearing his thoughts about the genius sports deal and in the state of the CFL and all that stuff. Cool stuff. So do you have a good time? It was, yeah, it was, it was really fun. Like I said, everyone was a delight, you know, I was texting with rod Peterson and he goes, well, you know, I heard it was like one, 1000th of like the people that would normally be there I go. I for me, I'm not a big crowd guy. So it was, it was the right kind of number for me. Weather really couldn't be better. I mean, it was windy, but it was like everyone was a delight. William we tailgated in front of the Thai cats game. Mark. When the Villa listeners today. I had like a whole, it was like, I'm like, you're going to the Steelers game, tailgating in the parking lot. It felt very industrial. Hamilton's a very industrial town. I mean it's it's, it seems that way. And it was like, just seeing, you know, some of the, I guess, surrounding issues. I got really depressed because I couldn't go. So just like looking at photos of the surrounding communities. Oh, man. I wish I would've gone. Cause it's like, it's cool to see different things like. The only time I've been to Canada is just to go to Vancouver. So going to a different city in Canada would be cool, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm glad that, you know, it looks like you did a lot of. You had a good time and we had a good show. We had a great show. Great live show. I think we should do more of those live shows in the upcoming future, because I think there's a lot of engagement. There's a lot of ways, you know, a lot of people love the live shows that I, that I could tell. So I think we're going to do a lot of that. A lot more of that coming up here in the future. Yeah, I think we've benefited from some good SEO before. And views on the gray cup live show. I think part of that was people looking for illegal streams of like gray cup games, like during, during the thing. The numbers are numbers. If the CFL can brag 8 million viewers for the gray cup. We can claim for. And viewers for our lives. Yeah, but that's not bad for a couple of knuckleheads from America and Dorothy, my wonderful wife coming. I've been braving the cold with us. I think I feel pretty damn good. About 4,000 live views for our live show at a bar in Hamilton. It's not bad at all. So with that being said, we're moving on to the show. Of course. I don't know if you. Want to talk about this tweet here before, after the CFL stuff? Yeah, just real quick. Did you follow any of this this morning? Travis hunter. The. It was happened yesterday, but yes. I have been following it. Quite some time. I mean. Th there's, there's a groundswell right now. The Travis hunter thing is. Is cool for a HBCU, historically black colleges and universities. Oh, there's a big groundswell right now where a lot of these top athletes are going to HBCU. It's kind of bolster that, those, those talent levels. And I mean, that's, you know, that's what we're talking about. When we talk about like, can the CFL compete with NFL? Like Kelly, try to get some money. They bring some NFL talent in. All it takes is somebody giving the CFL a chance with their talent. That's basically yet. And, you know, Th this kind of stuff where a big number one overall recruit is going to a historically black college university. I think it's happening in the college game too, where there was one basketball recruit that's deciding to go to a HBCU. It's great to kind of see that. People are trying to do, make their own paths to get where they need to go in that hats off to Deon Sanders. He's built in hell, a program down there at Jackson state. So cool stuff. Very cool. Oh, yeah. So this came out, I'll put the tweet up the rock tweeted. I have a comment on this dude, but yeah, I mean, this is why we cover the all football leagues is you get. You know, it seems like in the NFL, right? Unless you got like a D one school or wherever. I mean, I don't write college football. Rarely rarely do you, are you able to break out if, I mean, even being in the D one AA or an FCS as they call it? It's really hard to break into that pro game. And every once in a while you get someone that comes in, I mean, Look at Carson Wentz, he went to a one AA school and. He's kind of a bust right now. Let's be honest, but, but there are the Steve McNair is a good example of someone that went to a lower division school. Broken had a hell of a career. So it's possible. It's just, you know, it's good to see these under, you know, It's good to see these, this, this is what we, this is why we do what we do is to just cover smaller leagues. That aren't getting the attention we think they deserve. So, yeah. Anyway, so the rock tweeted, he goes, yeah, I've seen this bid bull disruptive decision by Travis hundred congrats coach prime coaching staff and Jackson state. Myself and our XFL 2023 is watching closely. Does the Rockne, the Grammarly on his tweets? Shouldn't it be the mice. Myself and XFL are watching closely or the team. Yeah, our. It myself and our active El team are watching closely. He is watching closely. It should be R yeah. Rock needs. Grammarly on his tweets. He was too excited. Anyway. At least you send me the birthday. Shout out last year. I'm not mad about it. Anything that rock tweets out. So. Would that being said, let's move on. The gray cup happened. The blue bombers came back 33, 25 to capture the a hundred eighth grade cup. Back-to-back champions for the blue bombers. I can't, I guess it's kind of a surprise. They had to come back to whim in overtime, but nonetheless Winnipeg, the team that kind of had everything unlocked the entire season. One, not as smart as it was crazy. I mean, we really, there was a palpable, I was there with Matt baker and Moje from the BC lions. And we were watching at the club level at that point. Cause like we had press passes and then we kind of walked around and we were in the stands and we were in the Congress until we finally ended up. Cause it was, we could watch it inside, like through the glass. Right. It really felt like Hamilton was gonna win. I mean, it really did. It felt like the momentum they were coming in. And then they can see that the point on the Rouge, but then they were going to come down. Modes. And I actually went out and we were filming on our phones because we thought they were going to get that final touchdown at the end. And we were like, ready to go. Cause, I mean, the crowd just went, it went bonkers. And then obviously they sell it for the three, which tied the game to go to overtime, but tremendously exciting game. And it really did feel like Hamilton was in it. And I was really afraid that it wasn't going to, I thought was going to be a blowout. So it was going to be a bond in terms of Winnipeg winning. Yeah. I just thought they were going to wipe the floor with him. Well, you know, Mike Mitchell did tweet out that he predicted Hamilton would win. And I was like, you might be onto something here. And I. I, it felt like there might be an upset and they got so damn close. To pulling the upset. I think that, that, you know, it's kind of a moral victory when you, when you picked Hamilton and they got that close to pulling the upset. You kind of be like, well, I saw something in Hamilton and clearly. They knew something too, but it didn't just quite, it didn't quite pan out for them in the end. Yeah. I think Mike in our group chat was like, had his tweet ready to go. Like I predicted him. And he with Eva's ready to go. I have, they want. I did you see? Clara. Not right now. I that doesn't feel any sympathy for. I guess Lucien and overtime. As he shouldn't, he's got, you know, You handled the. They, they hold their. They're heroes that when multiple gate breakups, like. Like deities, like they do with bread, heart too, you know? The Canadian people love their, their heroes. So why should he care about what Hamilton feels like? He's easy, you know, he's a great cup winner. Yeah, we were going to do that, like the post media staff with the overtime in the game with Solei, and then we were down there. It was like 11 o'clock. We had to fly out the next morning. They were like, we have to like, get back to our. It took us an hour to even get an, that was horrendous, trying to get the Uber is out of the stadium, but yeah, we were all set up for their Orlando cause they were going to bring in the losing coaches first and Dorothy and I were like, we gotta get out of here. Like we're never going to, we were never, and we, we still missed our flight. I mean, you know, We were at the airport two hours early and we still missed our flight. So. Anyway, so we didn't do any of the post-op, but we had the opportunity to do that. Just got one more question about that. When's the next time you're looking forward to taking a COVID test by the way. Yeah, we, I mean, we're clean, like. We are we. We had the rapid task before everything we had to test, obviously the flight into Canada, we had to testify out and then we did. Yeah, that was, I said that on the live show, literally I walk into the room and Dave Naylor is there doing a COVID test, trying to get into the state of the CFL. And I'm standing next to Dave inhaler doing a COVID test. I'm like, this is incredible. It really was like incredible. I'm standing next to Dave Naylor. That was probably one of the highlights of the weekend. Justin Trudeau congratulate in the CFL honest, successful season. And it was a successful season. Did you copy paste this from an article because they have bad grammar to. Justin Trudeau issue, the follow follow statement, not following, but follows. The years Greg couples have special matchups since the Canadian football had to make the difficult decision to cancel the 2020 championship due to. The COVID pandemic. He will health guidelines and efforts to make the great KIPP festivities. It's possible. It's been heartwarming to see Canadians all ages, come back together to take part in one of our country's favorite traditions. And they've wanted to congratulate Winnipeg. On winning and Hamilton for hosting. What do you think of them getting the gray cup in here? Right. As everything is, is shutting down and then Ontario, again, it's crazy. I mean it. Look, I don't want to get too political, but at a certain point, we're just gonna be like, we have to live with this. We can't keep shutting everything down. Every time. There's a, there's a spike in a new variant. It's it's it's endemic at this point. We've got to stop shutting everything down, and I hope that this doesn't shut sports down. I know we have a lot of problems with the NBA right now. A lot of people are out with, with COVID. Because the protocols and ports leads are actually looking at reforming the protocols. Like if you have, you know, double backs or triple backs, And you get a positive test. After you've already been sick. Like they're, they're looking at ways to change the COVID protocols. And I think it's about time because it's like, look, man. No, no one ever. And I'm not equating this to a cold, but I'm saying like the chances of you going to the hospital, getting really sick with COVID. If you're triple Bakst and I've already had it maybe very, very, very, very, very, very, very slim, very slim. So at this point, like, We have to live with this. We have to live with this, like a thing that's going to exist for the rest of our lives. And we can't keep shutting down. When there's a variant that's causes by can just enough's enough. And I hope that the, I hope that there's no issues. With Canada going forward, but I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm fearful that there will be. Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, Calgary, that flames. You know, had to postpone, I just saw Washington football has like half the roster is. As I got on the reserve list right now. We live with a Chicago bulls. The same thing was Chicago bulls. Like they, they had a big COVID outbreak and then all of a sudden there's seven nets players that were out against the Raptors and the other night because of the COVID, you know, it's like we have to readjust these COVID protocols now because this is not going away. So. We see the ratings here. So this, you know, it came out. It was like 2.7 million. They announced Friday or Sunday. And then they air, I guess it was Monday. Sorry. And then they incorporated in the RDS numbers. Cause it was like TSN and RDS is French speaking. You know, TSN. And so at 3.1 million viewers, For the gray cup. They were hoping to hit at least three. And then it, they claimed this 7.9. What's some or all of the game. Is this. FCF. It's going to say, this is very FCF. This seems like. Someone turned on a TV and just had it on the background, or like turn on a TV and automatically went to the game, as opposed to, it seems like. You know, The numbers are kind of inflated. I think you see me really inflated. Yeah. If you look at the trend here, you know, The beat, you know, the big ones back at ya. Pre 20. 2015. I think they were hitting like 6 million, but you had 3.6 in 2019. So it is like, You know, 3.6 to 3.1 million. I don't. We talk a lot about streaming EOC. They said streaming was at 75%. Well, we don't know what that means. Did that go from 20,000 streamers to 30,000, whatever that would be like that, you know, we don't have a total number, a percentage doesn't help. And we don't know the total number. Very true. It's you know, the date. They've posted the ratings for the last five years here and nothing, nothing out lasts. Like it just seems like. Like almost double, almost double just seems weird. It just seems like a big number considering like, oh, that total total number. Yeah. That's that's BS, but this, but the 3.1 versus 3.6, I mean it's down. 500,000 Viewers. All right. Moving on Orlando, Orlando, Steinhauer refuses to address the university of Washington speculation after gray cup loss. He says he's happy where his feet are. He was in line to take over the role of with, with university of Washington, for Dorothy's Alma mater as the defensive coordinator. But he's just not, he's not commenting on that. And he's just talking about, you know, focusing on, on where he's going in Hamilton. Yeah, my, I guess it would be my. Father in law, I guess, because it's Dorothy sister's husband's dad. Or is the sister's husband's dad. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So he, I, it made the Everett Herald and he goes, Hey, I think one of these. Guys this company, everyone. I mean, he texted that's where I got one. I mean, we have other articles about this, but I mean, it may be ever Harold, that will then assign our. Is that it. I mean, I guess that's a bigger paycheck than being a head coach in the CFL. Yeah, it is. Especially at a D one. Power five school. Yeah, it definitely would be a bigger paycheck. And. You have to understand, like, you know, you get, you get a paycheck, like let's just save $300,000 Canadian, right. It's like two 60 us, you know? If you get. You know, if you get a $300,000. Us coaching salary, which defensive coordinators make more of that more than that in the college game, these days, like. Nearly seven figure salaries for coordinators these days. So it's, it's it. I mean, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't blame him for taking that spot. I wouldn't blame it at all. He's from Lindenwood. I had no idea he was from one new to Washington. So, I mean that. As a UDaB alum too, is that. No, I don't think so, but he knows. Caitlin. [Unknown] new head coats there. He was on the coaching staff in Fresno with them. So. Yeah. He went to Western Washington. No worries. That makes sense. Yeah. North in that valley dam. So, yep. So he's, you know, he's been looming around that border for a while. The Canada border. It'd be interesting to see if he actually, you know, Heads to a UDaB one of the most surprising things at the weekend. Did you know that far hunt? He lives in Linden, Washington. Now he lives in the states. Well, that's what, that's what you were talking about. The live show. Like he lives in the states, but. Commutes to vent to him for work. I'm like, God bless you, man. Okay, sound wants to play high school football in the states. Very cool stuff. By the way. How, how, how was meeting all those people? I just, I, I. I should have asked him before. Well, I mean, we talked about in the live show a little bit, that it was literally every person that we've talked to in the last year was in one single hotel. I mean, it was like a single. Yeah. Again. I mean, they got, we were all, you know, tested and whatever, but I mean, it was like 35 people in this one room and you're like, holy crap, this is every single person that we've like seen on TV or the radio or read their papers. It was, it was very remarkable. Speaking of Hamilton tiger cats. It will be gone. They've got some key free agents, you know, the, the, their head coaching situations up. Up in limbo and now Masoli and Dana Evans, both. Our pending free agents and it doesn't look like. The tire guys can bring them both back. Yeah. I mean, trying to fit in this, our cab, and this is obviously Collaros. I have a couple of notes here. All these different free agents. Yeah, he's got to get him locked back down in, in Winnipeg, right. That that's huge. And then Vernon Davis. Being extended. Today, we just got this before. Along with. Vernon. Why did I type that number in Davis? And Adams, I'm sorry. And then Eugene Lewis, both God extended. I always do that. I always have Brendan. I don't know why. Who is Vernon Adams? Vernon Adams. Yeah. Vernon Adam, that's a good question. I don't know. Burdens verdant Adams Jr. Is the football quarterback. That's it though. It is where that, why do I hide Brendan Davis? I always get. It's like a football player as well. I'm trying to think he's a tight end. I. I always do that. He was. Title for the Niners. That's right. Vernon Davis was tied in for the night. We're in Adams and Eugene Lewis are going to be resigned. The issue with this is I did you ever, Harris is in. Montreal right now. Right. He was filling in. Right. And so I was talking with Tim Banes about this coming up, you know, does Trevor Harris go to Ottawa? Does he go to the BC lions? Maybe? Is Mike Riley not coming back? I, I. I said, I couldn't imagine. A world where my fo have an Edmonton Alex quarterback camp. To the BC and was the credit back there, which really be the world's colliding. That might not be his fault. The watch McCall the. Culture culture. Edmonton. We've got to bring that culture. It might not be his fault that, you know, he's, he's coming to your team. Like. You can't hold that against him. You can't hold a culture against him. It becomes the quarterback. And we see anyway, so yeah. Hamilton is trying to figure out their quarterbacks for an Adams got resigned and then Clara us, you know, they've got to get that locked down. So. Duke Williams and the rough riders have mutual interest in contract extension. It'll be interesting to see what happens there. He signed with them in early October, following a three-year stint with the bills and a he's. He was Cody Gerardo's favorite target. Favorite with a you of course, making 26 attaches for 448 yards in two touchdowns in six outings. So. I'll be interesting to see if they do extend him. Yeah. I mean, he was the one where, you know, Cody kind of threw a pissy party and then they said, Hey, let's get you some more target. And they probably didn't do Williams. I am. So this is exciting. Former groom. Best mate videos, my way videography company, we all know him. Ryan Phillips. He has been promoted. He was the defensive backs coach for the lions. He has been promoted to the defensive coordinator for the BC lions. Very good stuff. Jeremy O'Day. Day says the writers don't plan to have any vaccinate unvaccinated players in 2022. Did everybody on the same page? My Brooklyn nets will also testify getting everybody on the same page. Not that easy. Not that. Yeah. I mean, cause now there's all these travel restrictions going in. So it's going to be one of those things. I mean, there were some rumblings in that behind the scenes where. Like Winnipeg, how the guy, they didn't make it to the gray cop because he wouldn't like, I couldn't imagine getting that far. Could you imagine, like going to the Superbowl and being like, you know what, I'm going to sit this one out. Yeah. I, I I've decided, you know, the vaccine is just so important that I don't get it, that I'm going to sit this one out. It's so weird. Yeah. Toronto Argonauts have released the following statement regarding their release of a vice-president of predator personnel. John Murphy. It's this fall. It's an organization's internal review of the post-game incident of Sunday, December 5th. Of course, the Hamilton, Toronto desktop that we saw the video for the arguments decided today that John Murphy vice-president player personnel has been terminated effective immediately. Suspended after he took part in that altercation and then a, an internal email out we'll send out days later saying he was done. Yeah, we kinda miss cause like that'll happen in the west final or the east final. Sorry. And then, you know, we did like the USFL bonus episode and then we did the live show. I mean, it kinda was all in like the MOCAD Bethel Thompson going, like, we kinda missed a lot of that big news just because of the way the shows lined up by John Murphy officially gone. He was really instrumental in a lot of the signing ceremony. Pinball is there as the GM, but he's a little bit more of like a face. Like I'm just I'm the public face right. Of the league where I think John Murphy was actually doing a lot more of the player. Signings and scallions and stuff, but yeah, finally officially gone. So. Yeah. There's no room for like homophobic slurs. I'm sorry. And like beating up fans. Very true. So you added this to the thing. I don't know how to equate, but I saw this. The other day yesterday on Twitter, where the cowboy has changed their logo. Reflect like, you know, Coordinating with the Mexico market. That's basically what the NFL is doing now. And they've designated. That Canada's teams for the NFL in this international marketing initiatives are the Vikings and the Seahawks. So Eros gets his wish about his, his beloved Vikings being one of Canada's teams, I guess. Yeah. I mean, I just think this is where also I did laugh cause at three down the article, they put out bright because you know, a Raj is like VFS with donkey and all of that. So that the photo they paired. Kurt cousins. I go in, what world would you pick a bit? Kirk cousins over Russell Wilson. Bern. That's such a burn, but I mean, right. Like that is absolutely like, oh, we want to give a rush a little like, cause a rush is a huge Vikings guy. Yeah. But he hates Kirk cousins and they should every Viking. He hates her cousins. He doesn't like him at all. No, he's. He's been a very, he's been a very loud critic. I mean, as every Viking Stanford, one of my really good friends. If I can stand and he can't, he's like, this is got to get rid of cousins. This is ridiculous. So you put the one polarizing figure in Minnesota right now. Besides head coach Zimmer. Because everybody wants his head too. So it's like you put these, put this one, polarizing quarterback as the face of this article. I mean. To be fair. Everything's not rosy in Seattle, either with Russell we've, we've speculated on this before. So. There's not really a good choice here. I thought it was interesting. Yeah. The movie cause. You know, the NFL is expanding. We got team soccer in New Mexico, Brazil. I just thought this was remarkable. We had the Canadian teams there. You got the Seattle Seahawks. Maybe they could be working with. You know, the BC market even more. Oh, this is not an America's CFL team though. This is not the American. We're not going to bring up. Oh, wait. No, no, no. Here we go. Are the Seahawks Canada's NFL team. I think so. I assume you have to say that now. Now they are actually officially, the Seahawks are officially Canada's NFL team. You can say that you can say that one of two. And by the next go has like a list. Yeah. That's not to be expected. Cause I mean like they're really, they really love that Mexico market. Every time they go play in Mexico, it's. It's pretty popular. The American game is popular in Mexico. So there's just a list of Mexico teams. Like you can't. Of course the Raiders. Of course, the Cowboys, of course the Cardinals. Cause they're close to the border. It was interesting to see that the chargers didn't get any love on this list though. It was weird. I thought it was a typo because China and Australia are both the Rams. And I thought, oh, they must've, that must've been the type of that. One of them was the chargers. And this makes no sense. Like the Rams have three countries. Why wouldn't you give the chargers? I don't know, I looked because I thought, oh, that has to be a typo that they put the Rams twice. There's a lot of charges fans in like the Baja area of Mexico, because it was closest team to them when they were in San Diego. Yeah, there you go. Chargers to XFL confirmed. Maybe. Maybe. I'll see if the all stars were announced, the teen breakdowns, of course, Winnipeg had 11, obviously Hamilton had four Montreal. I'll reach a three. BC Ottawa, Toronto, too. 16 West division 11 east division and four national. What is it for now? Canadian Canadian. Okay. No, no. This guy's phone Roughriders. Wow. Hey, terrible. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And cam Phillips has UN decided to resign with the team. They didn't see what this is. Does it say the contract specifics? But, you know, they need to be more transparent. And so congratulations to him for. Are you hoping with the Toronto organists? He was XFL. So that's why this. Here's what we're gonna do. I think we're gonna take a break, go to our guest real quick. And then we come back. We're gonna talk about USFL stuff. Other tidbits. Yeah, I just hadn't put that in the thing. Cool. Stop. No, that was, I just didn't. I forgot that they had that in there. Oh, all right. Welcome back. I want to thank ed Tate, Tim Bains and Tom man, Nick. Man neck. Yep. Oh, there we go. I got it right. I got it. All right there. I'm I'm very proud of myself. Want to thank them for their time and talking the post. CFL. Postseason basically. And we're where things are going from here. So moving on. Yeah. Just to hop on this. So USFL this week officially announced what we've known for a month now. It's always funny like this, you know, and. You get these like sports business journal. You know, we had Roy on the show like a month ago, he had the proposal in hand and he's like, well, there's going to be eight games on this or 12 games on this, whatever, really not the TV proposal, but now it's official. So I guess now people care about it, even though if you listened to our show, you knew this like a month ago, but they finally announced like the TV deals that we've known. Very cool stuff. To see. They're going to have a Fox sports going to carry 22 of the 43 games of 12 on Fox itself. [Unknown] NBC sports is going to be the other 21 games, eight on NBC nine on the USA network and four on peacocks. So. Good. Good little span of like TV time. This league is getting. It's going to be interesting to see where XFL lands after all of this. I'm assuming this is a multi-year deal. Yeah. So we have some quotes down below here. Yeah. Big standouts. It is multi-year there. It says. So we have a quote from John Oran of the sports business journal that says the deal runs for three years and involves a rights fee. And then there's a quote from spore. The. [Unknown] that a source with insider knowledge, did the deal characterize the dollar figure as significant. So wait a couple of different. You have. A couple of different things. So first off this significant rights feed is going into, this is obviously good, right? If you're the XFL, right. And you're trying to figure out your TV deal for 2023, the idea that there's going to be nine games on USA network, which hasn't really carried. I mean, they had WWE, right? I, I, Mike Mitchell was saying like, back in the eighties, they had that. I got all football kind of thing, but to have sports back on USA network, and then obviously on peacock with four, I would, I would've seen me. You'd have easier time to slot games on peacock than the other ones, but, well, I, I do believe the reason that I do believe also if I'm not mistaken, is that. Did hockey is hockey coming back to USA network because that's why they moved in XD as they claimed that hockey was coming back to USA network too. So that's why they moved. And X T off that, that battling with AEW is because they were getting hockey cause. NBC had shut down all of their. Not all of their, their regional sports nets are still in place. Their national one was shut down. So they were using USA as like, kind of like, you know, Place to show. Sports stuff. That's why you get some games on USA network from this USFL deal. Yeah, there was some comments online, like, well, why would one network. Like sell content to another network. I guess I might cause money. Yeah. That's funny. And that's the thing, like people don't understand, like what, what, what, what TV channel was scrubs on? And. No. And it was on NBC. Okay. But ABC produced it. This happens all the time where. Like a TV. TV studio will produce a show like NBC, you know, I guess what. NBC was. Was. They ordered the Mindy project, the Mindy Kaylyn show. They ordered that. And then after like one or two seasons, they cancel it and Fox is like, well, we're producing it anyway. We'll just put it on our air. This happens all the time where, you know, different studios and different companies will, will produce something and then just sell the content or, you know, Licensed to content elsewhere. This. It makes total sense. Yeah, a couple of other notes. We still haven't announced the Birmingham of at all. So they, they said, this is in the press release. They go, where are the games he played in the inaugural season of the USFL? All eight teams will play in one location, which will be announced soon. In the future, the USFL expects teams to play in their own markets. I'm like these. There must be in mark had a story this week with news hub that they're still trying to finalize financing there. I mean, it must be the only reason they haven't officially announced, but I don't get what the big secret is with that. Like, we all know it's Birmingham, but they haven't, that's all from leaked people and not from actual prince William. This is concerning that they haven't. Nailed down all their financing, given that we're like, Months. Let alone weeks away from this. Listener max is very concerned. About marketing. I go, well, It's the week before Christmas. I think January, I think January three, big, big marketing push. Right? What does that first Monday after the new year, like the third or the 10th, I think it's like big on Fox promoting us valuable. You're not going to waste marketing dollars right now, headed into Christmas. Nope. Definitely not so. The other oh, I just had a couple other notes. We'll get into the TV deal. Oh, w they had a quote for. So this was in from streamable. They had. We haven't heard much about the, so this was their article. We haven't heard much about the USFL it's rebooted, but CFO, Stephen Thompson offered some insights. Mark has in this a little bit. We want to get your thoughts on this. During the UBS global TMT virtual conference, he was asked about the USFL and how things were going. This is what we think it's an absolutely consumer demand for spring football. It's not meant to be a competitor to the NFL obviously, but series a few purposes for us. One is they built another store that sporting property for us in the spring. The other piece is that we own it. And so the benefits have, we don't rent the asset. We rent virtually all of the other sporty businesses so that we have the rights for it. We will own this. If it is successful, it will become a potentially a very, very lucrative asset for us. Lastly. It is another asset that becomes quite interesting for us from a sports betting perspective. I mean, it's, it's kinda smart where, you know, you have so many companies now that are producing content and to actually, you know, own your own content and never have to license it because, I mean, it's like you license content after a certain amount of years, you can't use that license anymore. It's it's, it's very similar. This kind of model where they're owning the content is very similar to what record companies are doing now. Like for example, Sony just paid $500 million for Bruce Springsteen's catalog. The record business, as we know it, as we grew up knowing it is changing to where now the record companies are getting more into licensing songs, as opposed to distributing and, and. And producing songs. Now, they're just like, we're going to license your songs out. You know, we're going to pay you this amount of money, but this is basically the same thing. In a certain way where they're just like, we know we're going to buy the content outright. And no. And not have to pay you any fees to license this stuff. So it's kind of, it's kind of a new business model that some of these TV companies are going into the energy of things that we had our big interview last week. Remember the sports Betty and with. With ed. They've got. Kevin. What the hell is his name? From last week on the show. But he was talking about sports betting. And what was his? I am. For a second, because I'm going to feel like a terror. Not a problem. Okay. Adelstein there you go. We had, you have ALS. I'm not speeding. Talking about sports bay. But the article about this tiny about the USFL was basically saying how sports betting is so lucrative that Fox in the USFL could basically be creating this just to drive people, to like the Fox sports betting platform, because they get so much either, right. So much revenue or whatever off of those deals that they have that basically, you know, besides the TV viewership they're trying to get with this league, that the sports betting component of it, which Jeff talked about last week before I went to Canada, which is why I have my brain fog. I mean, they really could be creating this league, like just to be able to leverage more sports betting with the Fox platform. That's that's a very smart. Also aspect or angle to look at as well. Neil Stretton of inside the league.com hosted four guests on zoom this week. And Brian Woods was on that. Apparently he dropped some information on how they're going to approach players. It's going to be a contender for players. Either, either enter the transfer portal and others who are at least three years removed from high school graduation. The USFL will not be the place for six to seven year veterans looking to cash. A few last checks for cycling on a pro football. Look, I mean, if you're saying you're only if you're putting the market saying, okay, we're. We're limiting to, if you've been out of high school for three years, like the NFL does that too. If you really want to get people to your league, Brian, you're gonna have to bring that three years down to. Too. Maybe one. I like the idea though of it not being like the Johnny Manzell shell, like FCF is like, I got like a spring Josh chord, then let's bring Johnny Manzell. I mean, I liked the idea that we're going to build. I need to let that we have a, so that is good in a younger place that way, because even the AAF, right? Like they had man cell, I mean, he's been in like every one of these leagues except the XFL. So I like that aspect of it. Yeah. This round table was weird. It was like agents. They had a scout agent from like the 49ers on there, but I was surprised that, you know, wrapped in legal turmoil right now. Brian Woods was on this. Brian in reach. Out to us. After our big interview, we had last week with Jack and Mickey talking about the spring league stuff. He wanted to make sure it'd be lawsuit. Is against the spring league. Which he is the CEO of it is not, it is not against Brian Woods. Okay. I mean, I mean, I think, I think we're dividing rabbits as well. Purpose would say splitting hairs. They're suing the S they're suing the spring league. I mean. I know legally. Semantically speaking or suing the sprinkler. Okay. We'll leave it there. Well, I guess we are finding the candidate I dropped out for as he at my mom's house, like at six in the morning. Cause we were trying to get to the airport and I had a missed call from Brian Woods in my heart. Like for us. I was like, oh my God, I got. So I texted him. I'm like, okay, let's defer this, let's tax it because I thought he was going to be living. He was like, Hey, can you update this? I mean, he was actually like pretty nice about it. Again, he's always been great to deal with and it's like, you know, these kinds of legal questions. It bothers us tremendously because we like Brian. And we like, you know what we like what he's trying to do. It's just like some of these questions that have come up. I've been concerning for us. So a USFL low though, looking for a VP of communications at a director of finance. If you're looking for a gig. It looks like a temporary prob probably a temporary position for now. Maybe it might be permanent, who knows, but they're both those jobs are based in Birmingham. Yeah, but we're not announcing that we're in Birmingham. We're publicly hiring people that come to Birmingham to work on this league, but we're not. And Xcel news, of course, your boy Taylor Heinicke he'd lost. I think he was pulled to the end of the game, cause it just didn't have it that. That game. Even his elbow to elbow. So yeah, it looks like. Taylor was, it was kind of having the issues and to that point, Jordan Tammy has been signed to, to the Washington volt team, to its practice squad off the jets. No, not off the jets products. I'm sorry, I'm mixing up stories now, but he's been signed to the practice squad for a Washington. So it's going to be interesting, like. Both battle Hawks quarterbacks. For the Washington football team. Well, this is interesting because Kyle Allen is on the COVID list. And so when this article came out, They posted. They said it's like Steve corral walking back into the office, like my, my, my, the Terence table or whatever it was tables. How the turntables have turned. Yeah, because now we have a hierarchy as managers, but yeah. Hi, Nikki. I think it said that the thing like he had at, yeah. He's nursing an elbow problem with I'll put him on the injury report. We did like, yeah. Michael Parsons is like a force of God. And it really made the Taylor Nicky's life. We're living now. But we watched the game in Hamilton. I was sitting at a restaurant and they put literally the TV turned onto the game. I thought I meant to be here. PJ. Wasn't great. Cam benched again, again, we kinda, we kinda, we've kind of. We kind of griped and said, Hey, maybe, you know, you should have. Rote road, PJ is as far as you could. He wasn't great. Again, all quarterbacks have down days. It's not, you know, it's, it's, I don't think it's indicative if he has another bad outing, maybe it might be, but it's it's I don't, I empathize because like, PJ has a chance here to like, Do something special and like have that Taylor Hideki type of effect. On the Panthers and it seems like there. You know, you pay cam that much money they're sticking the cam, no matter what. And it's. It's frustrating to see for a guy like PJ. Yeah. You know, give the guy a week or two at first team reps. Give him give him a couple of weeks. I mean, that's the thing, is he. I cause I get these people online. Like, why are you different? You know, like. Cam Newton needs. You're defending. I'm like, well, Yeah, PJ hasn't like give them the team for a couple of weeks. That was the whole McLeod bell, the Thompson thing with the Argos. I give the guy, the team. Give him some time put your faith behind even they would McCloud. I mean, they almost made it to the grey cup. Like you'll give PJ the team for a couple of weeks and as opposed to like herky jerky, Kaizala, he's back in, he's out. He's back in. Josh Johnson. Off the jets practice squad and being signed with the Ravens interesting stuff there. Of course. We were, you know, we're sitting there going, well, maybe Josh is going to get an actual shot here in New York, but you know, Zach Wilson's back. They also have the Mike White experiment. I don't know where that stands right now, but yeah, it's, it's cool to see Josh get another chance somewhere else because. The jets aren't quite giving them the chance. Did you see that fumble? The zag Wilson have read this, threw the ball in the middle. I mean, this is like, that is an experiment that needs to be done. I mean, Zach, well, he's like, well, we're running routes. I didn't really run in college. I'm like, wow. That's. You're running. That's. That's what practice is for. We're talking about practice as Alan Iverson said, practice. 13. You're running routes. You have interrupt. Come on, come on, Zack. You get it together. That should concern every jets fan. I mean, not like you're not concerned enough being a jets fan the last 10 years. That should concern you if like he's saying week 13, we're running rounds. I haven't run before. It's like, what are they doing with the coaches? Like, what does. All right, Robert, we need robbery. What are we doing? All right. Again, thanks for listening to really again, please subscribe. Like we've got some giveaways coming up. Of course. Reed's going to give away. All of this great, some of this great merchandise that he got for his time up in the gray top, we're going to discuss what he's going to send to me. Wink, wink. But it was, it was great to see one again, think ed Tate, 10 Banes and Tom man. May enact from, for joining us today on the mark cast. Yep. Thank you again. All right. Again, ex. Oh, sorry. What's the, what's the merge. Khan slash merch.com/march. Please buy some merge support your boys. And we'll see you here next week. Thanks. There you go. Cool promo. This week on the mark cast. Reed he's back. He's back from Canada. They've let him go. They said, go back to America. You stupid American and he's back. He's got a great cup hat. Read, how was it? Yeah, I'm calling me Bilbo Baggins I'm to the gray cup or they're back again. We're back. We are breaking down all the gray cup fallout. We have Tim Banes on the show. We thought the Winnipeg blue bombers, big victory party they had on Wednesday, we talk. I get ads, insights and all that. And then we have Tom main neck from the sport market on, and we're reacting to the state of the CFL address and the big genius sports deal. They ran the Ambrose. He talked about 87 times during the. Media conference. I headed the grey cup. Great news about ratings, maybe inflated a little bit for the grey cup game, but also there's a lot of free agent market speculation going on right now with, you know, gosh. Who all's free agents. You know, we're talking with Polaris, we're talking like Masoli, we're talking. All these people that were just in the gray cup are now notable free agents as the CFO. We're gonna be talking about that. Where else we'll be talking about a little bit of a USFL news slipping in the radar. There. You know, haven't got. Quite gutted decision on whether this is happening in Birmingham or not. We just going to assume that that's the way it's going to be. Yeah, breaking down the TV deals, talking to TV networks and the schedule, which we've known already, but now let's get this finally public knowledge. That's why you need to listen to the markets that you already know. All of these things when they become public knowledge, though. And of course, we get a little bit of XFL news imagine what you could do with the rest of your roster. Oh, that's true. That's true. All right, we'll get them right here. Okay. Whoa. As official now. You're going to record me. Wow. Well, we are back here with my good friend, Tim. I just saw you in person not many days ago. How are you doing you're back home and how is life? We progressed to good friends now. Right? We were. We're just friends before. Acquaintances now we're good friends. You see that's what a great couple do for you. I was, I was texting with rod Peterson. I said, I got to meet all these wonderful Canadian. I said, you guys are a lot nicer than I thought you were in. From what I saw online, you guys were a lot nicer. Person. I actually really in real life, we're a bunch of D bags, but we were, you know, being Canadian and, and Haas. Pittable as we are. We put on this. Facade that we're really, really nice people. Then we go back to our real lives and we're miserable. You know, all that kind of stuff. Not Canadian people are great. Of course. We're all great. Well, this is exciting because Tim's going to come on and want to do a little grey cup festival recap, get thoughts on all that stuff. I realize we're probably going to have tin back on again. As soon as we have a red, black GM announced. You said that, I mean, that could be any time now, right? I think they really want to move along that road quickly. There's another, at least one more team looking for a general manager right now. So if you want to get your guy. You've got it. You've got to act quickly and I think it could happen. It could happen in the next few days, the gray cup being over. Technically teams do not have to give. Permission to speak to employees until seven days after I expect the red blacks are already talking to. People from Hamilton and Winnipeg this week. And I think we'll move along that path and we'll have a decision. I would guess. For sure before Christmas. That's exactly what we might have to have our first ever back to back cast on here. I don't think we've ever had anybody that would. The real let down for the people who are listening. Guaranteed. I tell you that. And then a big news today with Vernon Adams getting extended in IA Montreal, obviously. Trevor Harris that leaves a large contract there that is likely not to be picked up in February. Do you see. Any movement for them. I know we have Caleb Evans and we were talking offline. The Chris traveler of it. All in Ottawa, but. That's a big decision that needs to be made. I mean, do you see. Obviously they got the good, the GM in place first. Right? I. It's just a lot of pieces there that audible really needs to work through. With Trevor, he still wants to play football again. I can't imagine any scenario it's it's in Montreal, unless he agrees to drop his big signing bonus. He's going to have do it in a month and a half or so. So Trevor's going to have to find another place to play. Could he play an Ottawa. He was certainly a good quarterback here, but that really is going to be up to. The new general manager coming in, because if they're ready, burnt bridges with previous management, obviously a new guy in charge is going to have his own thoughts. They, I believe we're going to want to go with a starting quarter with a proven starting quarterback next year. And, and certainly Trevor Harris will be an option. And one of the Hamilton quarterbacks is going to be an option. I can't imagine. A scenario where both of those guys stay with the Thai cats. So there are going to be options, but who knows what happens in BC? Does Mike Riley accept less money and stay? Maybe VC's looking for a quarterback too. So it really, really with so much free agency. And I expect a lot of movement this season. It really, really is going to be an interesting off season. No question. You have a lot of teams right now that really needed to make things right. Right. Edmonton too. Like, we really got to figure this out. We got to get down with the irony of ironies. If Trevor Harris. I dumped the Elks, went to the Alliance and they have Trevor Harris came in with, with our quarterback. I mean, I know Mike Riley had done that. You know, From everything before, but that would be remarkable if I. I knew that Trevor Harris is my quarterback for BC. I don't know if I'm ready for that. Nothing surprises me in this league. Nothing really, nothing. So, what did you make of, I guess, first of all, grey cup experience, right? You know, media step biggest, I guess, takeaways from you. We can talk about Ambrozy. We could talk about, you know, that. Crowds everything. What, what struck you? I think this struck me. The thing that struck me really, because I'm mobile all about not just the grey cup game, obviously there's a lot of buildup and, and. And, you know, I'm around the players every day. Well, certainly being around the players every day was a bit different. Because that was something that a lot of the reporters had not experienced this season. So all of a sudden we're being tested every day. And we're having access to football players. So that was different. But I think for me, the gray cup week. Is. I mean, Superbowl is a game and there are some events leading into a gray cup. Is a week. Maybe not quite a week, it's four or five days leading into a big game. And it really, really is a grand. They call it the grand national drunk. And some of us don't take it that far, but it really is an experience that like no other in my mind, you've got nine teams. People with their faces colored up with. They dress up and polar bear costumes is the gray cup fund police. There's this whole group of fans that get together and you see some of these people year after year. It really, really is a celebration. So what was good about this week was we had some of that despite a pandemic. We, we had some of that experience, not to the same level that we're used to. But at least it was kind of as a sign that. You know what we CA we are going to go on living. We are going to, we are going to have some fun. And there were some of these parties going on. Again, it will be really, really good to see the whole grand experience. Hopefully next year. Because it, the game really is the week. It is a week it's about much more than a championship football game. What struck me too is just obviously all the things happening this week now with the NFL and the NHL and, and, you know, shut downs in Ontario, I've got. I mean. CFL really kind of lucked out here. If we're looking at trying to, you know, I, I think the NFL is trying to have a come to crisis right now. Are we rescheduling these games here in the last four weeks of the season and the meat CFL, and everyone has to look and be like, we really got this done. Really by the skin of our teeth here. I mean, It, it was successful, but just in terms of the timeline of everything happening with, with, with cases going back up. I think for sure. I mean, we've seen you're right. If that came ahead and happened. Last weekend. What would have happened this week? Because the provincial government put down. Put down guidelines were arenas and stadiums, half capacity. So that it was a record crowd at Tim Horton's field in Hamilton of 26,000 plus. If that legislation had to come down a week ago, they would've had to. Have 13,000 people there in certainly a lot less. Experience. And for people. Who out there who don't know, like we're. This province, Ontario has been really, really strict as far as, you know, really pushing get up and get your vaccination. I think. Double vacs rates are over 85% for people over 12. We go into a store and you'll probably notice that you got, you had to put a mask on. If you go into someplace. Into a restaurant. First of all, they're asking for proof you're double vaccinated and you got to put a mask on. So there's a lot of care being taken. There were a lot of precautions being taken and yet we're pushing back. We're getting pushed back now and, and we're seeing things like half capacity. And who knows what's in the. Upcoming weeks. Certainly there are there there's an advisory not to travel. So I really, really got to hope that by the time next football season rolls around that we have a full. CFL season and fans are able to get the full experience, but the pandemic, obviously we're, it's a moving target all the time. I mean, let's get rid of this thing and get back to doing things the way we did. In terms of the actual grey cup game. D. Did ed. Did Hamilton. Lose the game. We're there at the end or the Winnipeg. Yeah, come back and win the game. Maybe a combination of both. I mean, I try, I think about certain plays in the game. I think about the, they get down in there first and first and goal from the five yard line. First playoff run up the middle and I never really, I never liked that play. But I've seen it work for them. They've got a really good running back and, and you're always trying to, it's like a chess game. You're trying to out-think the defensive coordinator. And the defensive coordinator maybe is thinking, well, they'd never run up the middle on us. So we're going to have, we're going to put this kind of coverage. So I never like it when it works. Like. I grudgingly say good call. I didn't like the call on, on a first. Down from the five yard line and the second down, you'll look at. I'm watching the past goal. Jayla Nochlin. When was the intended receiver. You're watching it go towards him and, and. I haven't. The scene, the definitive evidence, but I think the defender got a finger on it. Maybe. And you look at how close that ball was to being completed. If that ball is completed in the final seconds of the game, I mean the place erupts. Did they lose the game? People are critical of the conceding, the single point. But people that other people in the football world have defended it saying, you're going into the wind. You need that field position. You need to move the ball up. If he gets tackled on the 10 yard line. And you've got to move basically the length of the field about 25 yard line, 25 yards could be critical. So it's tough when you give that up because you could, then you could say, well, we've marched down the field. We got the field goal and we tied it. We would've won the game. Sure, but they could have scored a touchdown to from the, from the 35. And it. It. I don't know. I mean, I would prefer him not to have given up the single point, but that wind. You were there that that win was huge. They were going into a huge wind and I, they figured at the time that the field position was critical. So there are things you certainly have to look at Winnipeg hanging in there. Bouncing back. So I prefer not to look at it as one team lost it. I mean, I just, I have to give credit to Winnipeg. For really, if we're going back to back. Certainly two years ago, there was no question. Who was the better team? They, they put a thumping on Hamilton. This year, you could look at Hamilton and say, you know, great effort, value, and effort. Great fan support. It's always wait till next year, right? When you don't win. And, and the other thing is there were seven teams that would have loved to be in that game. And, and weren't so Hamilton got themselves into that position. I'm sure it's a really, really tough one for people within the organization. Well, and absolutely, you know, You have these rumors about, you know, coach Steinhauer, you. Potentially moving right to. To the university of Washington, which historically school, which you would be very excited about. You know, and like we talked before with Ms. Ali and Evans, I. You know, it's hard enough to keep together a winning team, right? Like, okay. When they pick one, let's keep them together. It's even harder. Right. Where you, you got as close as you could, you didn't win. I mean, look at the Seahawks. Right. And we have the one year and then the next year where you kind of faltered and then they could never get it together again, you know, it's hard. I mean, do you. What, what do you think Hamilton does moving forward to kind of, I mean, I guess we gotta figure out what's happening with, with coaching staffers, right? It's really tough to stay. To say it all starts with Kojo. And what happens with him and it's, it's kind of a trickle down effect. You know, if he stays, he probably the two coordinators probably stay. And you probably see at least on the coaching side, you'll probably see a very similar staff. On the player side in the CFL, like I said before, there's going to be a lot of movement. And the one thing in the CFL, if you get other leagues, if you're a major league baseball team, if you're a national hockey league team, there's a really strong core group you got going year from year. And if you build a young group of players, you can build around that. It's tough in the CFL when, especially last year. In the middle of a pandemic guys, we're signing one year contracts. So you're seeing. Three quarters of each team. Potentially gone now, certainly each team is going to identify its it's five or six core players. And they're going to build their tribe and build their team around that. They're going to identify guys that they need on their team. And then they built, but it's, I think it's tough for fans. It's tough to build. Our relationship with a team. When. You've got players coming and going to buy a Jersey. And that guy has gone into years. That's tough. And really if the CFL is the worst culprit, I mean, you buy it at least in the NFL and, you know, Russell Wilson is going to be around for a few years. You know, Tom, Brady's going to run for several years. And then maybe you'll change themes, but in the CFL, I think it's really, really tough to build up that or that relationship in the identity. In terms of you. The state of the CFL ride and we have all the things for the four downs and all that came out. But we're Randy and Brosy, you know, commissioner hadn't been seen for so long, right. Comes out. Does the state of the CFL, you know, answers, media questions and things. I mean, was that a good showing? Did you feel. You know, confident, seen him. We hadn't yet been able to ask questions for a long time. And how do you feel like he handled. Yeah, cause there's a lot of stuff to talk about and a lot of sense to figure out. I think he handled it as best he could. I think he has to be really careful when. When you're the commissioner. Pretty well of any league. I mean, you, the, you speak for the owners. So would Randy have liked to say some other things? I'm sure he would have. I think, I think. In that position. He's always going to be very careful and guarded. And so it's not like you're going to get state secrets. So when the media is asking him questions, he's being careful. Yeah. So we talk about four downs and three downs. And there was talk that the CFL is open to changing some of its rules and regulations. Really in my mind, the untouchable is the three down. I didn't never, ever. Y you're not competing with the NFL. Why would you ever go to four downs? Because if you do that, the, all of a sudden you narrow the field. And you shorten the field. It's just, it's just that. Don't touch this. Thing in, in Canadian football. Another thing that might be on the table is the number of, of Canadians. They, right now they currently have to start seven Canadians. In my mind on touchable too. I don't know whether they think that way. But. You've got such a. It would just be demoralizing, I think for, for Canadian university football to. The thought that there are going to be less Canadians. And for some fans too, for some fans, it doesn't matter. Put the best product in the field. But that's one of the things that makes the Canadian football unique is, is the Canadian player presence. And some of them are very good players. It would be a shame to. Do a way with our ratio. Or, or. Less than the number that are required. Yeah, I, you know, we obviously go back and dealt with all this stuff and, you know, the changing rules and all this. And I think back then, I think a lot of people always eat, you know? Yes. Change it, you know, add the down and do that. And I agree with everyone now that I've talked to, including you, where. Just being a watered down version or slightly dissimilar for Amy, it is the uniqueness of it. I think obviously, you know, scoring was down this year, right in players coming off of, you know, rest and not being able to work out like they would be. At the, this adding a fourth down. I thought the first half of the grey cup was pretty snooze Fest. Right? I mean, luckily the second half really picked up and we had a lot of back and forth, but, you know, does, does adding the extra down spice up the first half of that game. No, I don't think so. I mean, is this one of those things where, like you said, it's just going to be a lesser version of something that people already know and how do you, how do you sell that? I think one of the great things about the three down football, there are some really, really good American players. Just good players period, but especially in United States. That are not, cannot play in the NFL because maybe they're a defensive end and they're a little too small. That guy can play in the CFL. Not because it's his, side's going to be okay. Maybe he's a little faster. Like there, there there's size things that go on that keep guys out of the NFL. And those guys come up, come to Canada and they could be really real they're good football players, but maybe their body type is not exactly what the NFL was looking for. You go to four downs and again, maybe the guy's body type is not right for. For Canada either it's there or just things about the game that are, that are so wonderful and unique and. I mean, I loved it. I loved that the NFL, but I love the CFL to. Yeah. I've really come around on it. And just, and not that I ever thought that that was the answer, right. I mean, That I, again, I just don't, if marketing is the biggest issue for the CFL, and then you change this and then it's like, okay, well we're marketing this, you know, it's the NFL, but north of the border, like. That doesn't help the marketing issue either. You know, it doesn't help the offensive issue. It doesn't help the marketing issue. It doesn't help really any issue that people have had with the CFL this last calendar year. The marketing thing is you need to see more players or more people in the stands that look like the guys on the field. Like. CFL. Not even sure. Four years ago maybe had this slogan. Diversity is strength. It's a strong slogan. Because you've got guys of all colors. Nationalities. Religion. There's just so much going on out there. And the guys that are watching the games or guys like that with that color skin and, and an old like me. So how do you appeal to the younger demographic? And how do you bring in people from different countries? How do you bring in people with, with Asian, you know, w with Asian roots, how do you bring in P E you've got to figure out a way. Because finding old white guys like me. To come to the games. We're only here for so long. You've got to, I think Ottawa has actually done a really good job bringing in younger people, because I think in particular with younger people, they want it. They want an experience when they go to the game. It's not just about the football, it's what hanging out with friends and all that has got very large concourses. They've got the complex has bars and restaurants all around it. Too many of the stadiums, it's like you leave the stadium and you're in the middle of nowhere. So the CFO, I mean, it's really going to have its hands full. I'm not sure that the rules are the place to start. I think you've got to figure out a way. To bring in younger. And a more diverse crowd. I think Gary, and then I think incentivizing people to stay with their teams, like you said, with longer contracts, building their rapport, both on the team and with the fans, because you'll look at Winnipeg here, you know, they care. Largest carry over right from, from 19 to now, obviously it was a success. I just don't. I couldn't imagine coming in with the new regime every year and you're like, Hey, what's going on? Okay. Yeah. What is, what is the locker room culture here? What is the hierarchy of, how am I dealing with this? How am I, you know, plus the play on the field, it's just gotta be impossible. And like you said, Having the CFL as an alternative and, and, and making that just another place that maybe if my body type isn't perfect, right. That I can't fit in there. That's certainly not the answer because that's why we cover these alternative leaks, right. Is to give. All these guys. You know, chances that they couldn't get it, you know, in the big one. I think people are surprised when they watched the CFL. At really how good some of these players are because you think of it and you think all these guys are NFL rejects or like that. It just immediate comes to mind. They're not good enough to play in the NFL. And, and they really are. And sometimes it is just body type. And sometimes these guys go on and get a chance, a. Alex Singleton. I think one of the top talkers in the NFL right now. These guys get an opportunity in the NFL. The CFL is a door. The open the door opens for them. Sometimes they get to the CFL, they get there's more film. And they get seen and, and it becomes obvious that th that there. They can play at another level. They can play in another league. A league that's considered to be a higher caliber league. So for some of these guys, they look at it as a springboard and it can be a great springboard for sure. Any other. I mean, I talked to this all day. Any other big takeaways, anything. About the week about the weekend, about moving forward. I mean, you're going to think, have your plate full here with right. Hopefully good team coverage and me talking to actual football staff here, coming up with Ottawa. But any other takeaways before I let you go? I think that the other thing that came up is where's the offense. Because again, when we watched the CFL, I mean, the way it's structured with like the last two minutes could be an eternity. I mean, there's, there's more, there's less time between plays. The ball stops on first downs until it's spotted. Like, so you can get an awful lot of plays off and we've seen great cops, like, you know, games in the thirties and forties and it's back and forth. So like you said, the first half. I don't think the wind at us any favors, like when was, I think. About 50 miles an hour. So that's a tough wind to go a tough wind to throw into a tough wind, to have off offense when you're certainly when you're throwing into it. So you rely on your ground game heavily. But I think overall the scoring has been down in the past couple of seasons. It's not even just a pandemic thing or shortened training camp or whatever you want, whatever they want to blame it on. I think they really do have to figure out. Fans don't want to see everybody to goal. Yeah. Defense great. Would like to see a great defensive game. I'll tell you what, I'll take a 35 32 game. Over a 10, nine game any day because you get excited. I mean, it's not, it's great when your team makes it Saks somebody or intercepts. Yeah, but I'll tell you what I want to see is that ball going to the end zone for touchdowns. You want to see those great defensive plays lead to touchdowns. So. Yeah, do they have to figure out a way what's. Why is there not more? Re-offense. I don't know. I talk. I don't know. It's. It's one of those things. Yeah. I think if it, if it's my eye, cause I, I watch most football agnostically. Right. I don't really care. You know, just covering, you know, except for like maybe the Washington football team, they could win three, zero, and I would be happy with that victory. Right. But otherwise for the, for the common man or woman watching the game, we, yeah, we need to have, you know, You know, incomplete passing, complete pass punt, you know, back and forth isn't necessarily. Isn't going to move to Macy. It's all the time. No. So we have, we've got a lot of things we have to hope for. We have to hope they don't touch certain rules. Don't touch the three and four downs. We need to get rid of the pandemic so we can have full, full stadiums. We can have a full training camp. The wishlist is kind of, it's pretty big. I've already, I've submitted it to the guy in the red suit and hopefully comes through and you know, there's a lot of things we want to happen. We want things to be normal and we want our football league. That is so wonderful. We want, obviously we want it to hang around because. It's not a given. I mean, Another conversation, but what happened? Toronto? Organize. Do they want to be there? Do they want to be in the CFL, another conversation. Well, we have this, my baby have to have this be a standing invitation now that we're such good friends and we're, you know, drinking buddies and. The rest of it. Timmy was a delight meeting, never went up there. I mean, you know, everyone could not have been more delightful and I really appreciate all your guys as hospitality and yeah, we'll have to, when red, black, when. Hopefully we'll, we can slide in to your DMS with all that info drops and we can get you on for a few minutes and next we'll be besties by next gray cop. You never know. Well, I mean, this is like, I. Dorothy is already talking like, oh, Regina them. Okay. Are these invested. We'll be rocking. It it'll be rocking. It'll be cold, but it will be rocking. It was I, yeah. That wind made it cold. It wasn't as cold as it could have been, but that wind made it really cold. When we were walking around. And one's not Regina though, where. We're close. I, we might do two minutes on that before we get into all the blue. Yeah. Just, I just need to acknowledge that we, you know, say. Sure. All right, let me do this. And oh, cool. All intro here, but yeah, I appreciate you coming on. Well, we have ed Tate here with the blue bombers. First off. Thank you so much for coming on. How are you doing today? Really good. It's been. Crazy a little run here. Hasn't it for, for people in Winnipeg and bombers fans has been a lot of fun the last few days. That's for sure. Well, I, yeah, it's been busy, but you know, winning kind of cures, all, all ailments, right. Absolutely. There was a moment during Sunday's game where I was writing the other. I would their outcome too, right. Because it was, you know, again, that's going into overtime and I kept thinking to myself, Man, if this doesn't end in the right way, what a colossal disappointment on what has been a really fun season. So I was happy. I didn't, I could spike that edition of the story. Let's put it that way. Yeah. Well, and I want to get into all the blue bar stuff. Of course, in typical. So add in typical mark, fast cast fashion. We, whenever we record, it could be 10 in the morning. It could be 10 at night. We always miss. Whatever the news does yours. Of course, today we have the CFL schedule, literally the second Paula and I hang up the call. CFL schedule comes out. Have you had a chance to process any of that yet? You know, obviously it's all team specific, but I just, since we have you on and I wanted it to acknowledge that, yes, this did come out to that. Yeah, we, I got the. An advanced copy yesterday. So we could have something on the blue bombers website today. So I've had to take a peek at it and particular the bomber one. I think, you know, providing the latest outbreak, doesn't sidetrack everything again. It looks like a regular CFL schedule. There's 18 games again. Three by weeks for every team. And. The the great cup's going to be played in November instead of December. So there's some things there that look very familiar to fans across the league. For the bombers. There's the games that everybody wants to see the labor day classic and Regina, the banjo bowl a week later here in Winnipeg. You know, there's, if there's always a few things in there. That can get coaches upset, like the bombers play three road games in a row. And there's one short turnaround where they play in Toronto. And then I think it's five days later in Vancouver. So it's, you know, that's two games squeezed into a short. Timespan that are at. Well, you know, almost one extreme of the, of the CFL map to the other, but Hey, there's 18 games. That's what everybody wants. That's the main thing. Yeah, man. I have to imagine this as a little E in pencil right now. I mean, you know, God willing, everything happened. The other exciting note is the gray cup is going to be on November 20th, which is actually like a host Paul's birthday. So. You know, I, you know, if all goes well and, and we're able to make our trip back again, up to vagina. We will be celebrating Paul's 44th birthday up there at the, at the breakup. I had beautiful. I don't see I, so I didn't get to see you guys in Hamilton because I was with the team when we were in, still in tier one, locked down, but I don't see any scars on you. So it must've been a decent, a great cup. Yeah. So now, yeah, I want to talk [unknown]. The ed would have come on the show, but you're a very important person. Yeah. I was trying to kiss during these. Well, what I said, well, cause he's like with the team, you know, all these things, so. What I mean. The craziness, I guess I don't even know where to start. We had the big celebration last night. Right. And ID feel, I guess let's start there. How, how did that go? How did that go? Well, you have spin. Like two, three days of parties. And when I picked basically like for me, it started right after the game. By the time I get back from Tim Horton's field to the team hotel. In Burlington. It was already rock and they were, they had to set up for a post grade cup party that bled into Monday. When we flew back, it was pretty crazy on the plan. A good, crazy. And then Tuesday. The team, from what I understand, what out to a local establishment here and a. It might've been sunrise before they get out of there. So that's good. And then that kind of bled into yesterday Wednesday, which was a lot of fun. It was cold here. That's not going to shock anybody, but they had about 7,500 people here at the stadium a night. Because we couldn't do a regular parade like they did in 2019. It was a sort of a, the next best option, I guess. And I think the diehard fans got their moments to see their, their players, their fans, their, their favorite players. And. It was good. Yeah, I saw it. I mean, like Zack Clara's came out, it looked like a WW II entrance, right. Smoke and carry the gray cup. I mean, It's hard. You want, you want to do that parade? You want to do that victory, but I think it's a fight. Is that right? The fans got to celebrate. You got to see everybody, you know, people felt appreciated, right? I mean, the players a, how do you think overall it went. Yeah. So the interesting thing is in 2019, the team had broken a 28 year championship drought. And so the parade, this is before the pandemic, the parade down Portage, Romania, iconic intersection here in Winnipeg, and then down to the forks. It felt a little more organic or more, I don't know what the word is, but fans came out of the office buildings and just, you know, made arrangements to be there, to, to line the streets. And they're tossing beers to players. Up on flatbed trucks. So, you know, run a note and grabbing guys and high five, and I think. Maybe a little bit more. I felt more real last night had to be more choreographed by the team just because of the social distancing and all that stuff. So. It was still fun. I think 2019 will be more memorable for me because of the circumstances around it, that it ended the drought. I saw just lots of fun photos, videos, lots of. You know, fan interactions. I saw coach helping even to pick up the stadium afterward, picking some off the field, which I mean, just speaks obviously to the character, right. Of the organization and everybody there. Just. To have this for so long to win a 19, to go through everything, to come back. I mean, it really has felt like this two year journey. You know, never really getting to, to celebrate really fully in 2020. What has it been like for the players? I mean, you're in the locker rooms at, you know, I saw during the, you said that I think you tweeted. I have champagne in my laptop, or I can't remember what the tweet was, you know? I experienced it as this, with all the players. What does that meant for them? It's pretty special. So there's, there were a lot. One of the reasons this team did repeat. Is that there were a lot of returning players. So a lot of these guys had experienced it in 2019. And to see them again, celebrate with special, but there's always so much turnover in the CFL. There were a lot of new guys that hadn't done it before hadn't won before. And to be in the locker room with them was pretty special. Then I think of a guy like Michael couture, who was this? The starting center in 2019, he started all 18 regular season games. And in the fourth quarter of the final game, I suffered a leg injury and missed all the playoffs. So he was at the great cup in 2019, but not in uniform, but he was this past Sunday. And so for him, it's a special moment. You know, Each season seems to be independent of the other. That's it. Again, with so much roster turnover. It meant that there were enough guys in that dressing room that were experiencing it for the first time. That meant that there was nothing to muted about the celebration. Let's put it that way. The plane ride home. I, I saw it. Yeah. Was it. Vacherie boys, right? Thinking on the plane. Rawkus atmosphere, right? To be part of, like you said to me, many days at parties, he put our listeners viewers just in, in, in your shoes and kind of going through that journey. Well, so Monday morning came pretty early for a lot of us, right. That had been up the night before celebrating and the players, especially, and we had a charter plane back from Hamilton to one, a pig. The people on air Canada by the way, were amazing for being tolerant. But. I. The way it's set was set up was that the first 13 or 14 rows were staff, the coaches, you know, doctors. And then, you know, people in our department, the content department, video people, and then from the role behind me, right to the back of the plane was a players. And we weren't. I mean, they had champagne for us when we boarded, they had the plane all decorated. And then from the moment we took off, I heard someone at the backseat tarps off for this flight and you look around and everybody's got their shirts off. And that continued to the whole flight and they called. Someone from about. In the rows ahead of me to go back there and that guy had to go back. He had to take his shirt off to go back there to talk to them. And I said to Riley, Myra, our video guy, there's no chance in hell. I'm going back there because I'm not taking my shirt off. If I have to hold it for two more hours, I'm not going back there to the bathroom. I'm not going back there to talk to anybody because nobody needs to see me with my shirt up. It was fun. Just a blast. I you, we mentioned before about the game, right? Having these two different drafts. I mean, Exciting game. You know, we were there watching with, with some of the, you know, Matt bakery and crew. I thought that the first half was a little sleepy, right. It was a little slow to get started. You know, we, a little used to that this season with some of the CFL games, you know, we were, it was good. Like we were still getting our feet rat, walking around the stadium and stuff, and then. It really felt like Hamilton, how to God's on his chance of winning that. I mean, As someone that, you know, you've been with the team all year. I mean, seeing that and like having them be the underdog, right. Having to come back, it's not a common spot for them to be in. No, it wasn't. And, you know, If you start to worry. As the, the bomber guy that's writing a story is that, you know, was there some of this fallout from what had happened in the Western final when they turned the ball over six times, you know, they're just not sharp as it, except the worst time of the year. But when they were trailing in the fourth quarter, Again, I'm starting to write the loss story because you just have to be prepared and have something ready to go with a minute to games over. But when they, when Nick Demsky scored that touchdown and they had their wind at the back and you were there, the wind was much more of a factor than maybe it showed up on television. But when, when Demsky scored that touchdown, I thought, wow, that's the momentum right there. And they really seem to feed on that. There were some huge plays after that too, though, right. To protect it for, to, to stop it from being a Hamilton, when that played by Dietrich Nichols at the, in the end zone rate at the end of the game. Not going away that pass, it would have won it for Hamilton. I think that one's going to stand out for me, maybe even more than what happened in overtime for the bombers, because that saved their season right there and allowed them. To play the heroes and overtime. It was, yeah, it was crazy. Cause we were out, you know, we were kind of in the club level at that point where you could see the game here are the announcers, but obviously not hear the crowd. And we all, everyone in our section I'll win outside. Cause it really did feel like, okay, Hamilton's going to come down here and they're going to score and to, and to be a part of that. I mean the nerves, right. That they had. I mean, I just couldn't, you know, it was. I just can't imagine being a part of the team and covering that and watching that well, So, you know, I was a newspaper guy for 29 years and you learn not to get invested in the result one way or the other you're cheering more for a blowout, right. So that you have your. You can write it the way you want for deadline. So. That's nerve wracking in itself and then being with the. Team now it's completely changed. So as soon as the game ends, I'm packing up my bag and run into the elevator to get down to the field and. I go to jump on the elevator. I got my credentials. There's a guy in a Hamilton gear. That's working the elevator. And I said, can you take me down to field level? And he said, well, just wait. I gotta, I gotta hold this elevator for the bomber coaches. And then they piled on in front of me and buck Pierce. Our offensive coordinator looked around at me and he's like, He's dumbfounded. And he said like, can you believe what just happened? And. I think that was a feeling for a lot of people. Even through to the celebration on the field. There were a lot of people that a. They didn't know what to do or a good, like we just won. Right? Like it was it kind of, you hit you in the face. Stanley Bryant. I wrote it with this the other day, Stanley Brian, when I got down to field level, he's kneeled down. In the end zone with his chin on his chest. And I thought that looks like a guy that's just lost the game. And I walked up to him and said, Stanley, are you okay? Are you all right? And he said, I can't believe what happened. And then. Two minutes later, he's up on the stage being the first player to get to. The trophy from the commissioner. So just a wild scene and it honestly, it did take a lot of people a long time that night, too, for it to really sink in. What was cool for, for us is obviously, you know, an American podcast covering it. The ending was really authentically CFL. Right. You know, with the overtime, with the defense, I mean, it, I was catching up on our NFL highlights, you know, coming home the next day, having me, that was the lead story on sports center was either with Scott van pelt was, you know, here, this is the best thing I saw today, you know? Cause it's, it's such a unique thing in the CFL. I hear this, you. It's a gray cop and it goes down to, you know, over time and they, the first team scores, and then you have to be able to seal the game without our defense. It's just a cool. You know, we, we talk all this now for downs and everything else. Right. That's come out this week. I mean, this is something that is authentically CFL that I think speaks to the strength of that game. The ending was, was spectacular. Wasn't it? I like to CFO's overtime format and, you know, even forcing the team to go for two, if they score and the other team has to match. When, when Hamilton won the toss. Before overtime really they're in control, right? Because they get to try to match whatever Winnipeg did. And then that switched when. Darvin Adam scored the touchdown and Rasheed barely got the two point convert. It really put a lot of pressure on Hamilton. They took a penalty. On first down there, set them back and it was a great finish to. A good CFL game, you know, so people will call it a classic. I think the ending was a classic, but as you mentioned the first half, I think the wind just had some, so much of an impact. People were playing at the teams were playing it safe and we're playing the field position game. And that made it a little bit slow, to be honest, the first 30 minutes was kind of a snoozer. Yeah. It just was weird. Having just had that Patriots game, was it last week where the wind was such a factor and then to have this. Just to have both of, you know, not that that is nearly as important. This is a great cup, but just to have these two, you know, that was a prime time game CFL. He did have the wind and the weather plays such a factor where it's not really visible, right. It's not like snow. Okay. I can see the snow. I understand. It's. And it didn't even look windy unless you were looking at like the rest pants, but then you're, you're standing there and it's a palpable, I mean, it's a Bowman Shelene push. Right? Absolutely. So even the flags at the top of the goalpost didn't seem to be blowing like they weren't sideways or anything. But when you talk to the kickers and the guys that were on the field, It was pretty dramatic. The, the bombers kickers, Sergio Castillo, you had a great day. He could have been the MVP. He was five for five. And you know, I've kicked a couple of kickoff singles that were critical on the game. He told me it was worse than when I picked the week before and the Western finals, just because it was so cold and. It's hard to get a read on the wind when it's swirling a little bit and it's minus whatever it was here in Winnipeg. So he handled it very well, but it did impact a lot of things. Like I think that's part of the reason why. Hamilton conceded in, played for the tie late in the game is that they were worried that their punter was having an atrocious second half. Was going to be able to even punt the ball 25 30 yards into that wind. And it would have given one to pick the ball back and really good position. So. I mean, there's so much to digest about that thing. That game afterwards, there's so many little plays within it that were critical. At least from, from this address, people will be happy to go back and look at it instead of being cursing about. Loss and the biggest game, right. I'm sure you've answered this, the Eli, and this is a topic of discussion, but you know, giving up that point, right. Hamilton giving up, giving up the Rouge, you know, leading to the Thai. It's one of those things, like we're watching that and you're like, oh yeah. Okay. Cause we're kind of talking, watching the game, but then you look back and you go that well, that was the swing of the game there. Right. That's what it came down to thoughts and thoughts from you on that. In the moment I watched it and I got it. Although there were some people to the left and right of me in the press box or young, or what the hell are they doing? Right. And. You know, I heard Rolanda Stein hours explanation the next day. Michael Shay concurred with the decision to give up the point, just because. If they don't get the ball up to the 20 or. Far out and, or take a penalty on first down there, they might have to concede a safety or punt again into the wind. That was way more. Serious in a mate maybe showed on TV. So I kind of understood the strategy of it. And. You know, in a lot of ways, it wasn't a factor because it got the field goal to tie it. The field goal would have won it if they hadn't conceded, but they were in a position still to win the game. And over time. You know, they had the opportunity to just like the bombers did and yeah. Although those are the plays that. We'll have a coach being second guessed forever. Right? I mean, people in Hamilton are going to have to eat that one for a while and it's going to haunt them. Moving forward now, you know? Winnipeg gov carries all these guys over, you know, comes back back to back, you know, Collaros right. It needs to be locked down again. Moving forward. I mean. Obviously, we're going to take a little bit of time here. Right. And. Yeah. Instead of moving forward. I mean, what's next for the team? Well, man, it's a. You know, you barely get to celebrate this thing. And then you look at the list of free agents and it's incredible. And this is the thing. This is my bone to pick what the league is it the. There's just been so much roster turnover, particularly in the last 10, 15 years, but even more so lately because of these one-year contracts, the players don't like him. I don't think the teams like community, cause it's hard to market players. It's hard to have continuity fans. Fans love this team. And now you're looking at a long, long list of free agents and there's no chance in hell of keeping everybody. There's rumors about Michael Shay, the head coach being, you know, alert to other teams. I'm sure assistant coaches are gonna get looked at too. That's the hard thing about this league right now is that. You know, people are talking about a three-peat, but I really wonder what this team will look like next April or may when we get to training camp again, because. It was a couple of things. It's no. Free agency and all those guys are going to chase the opportunity and you can't deny them the chance to, to cash in on it. You know, when your window to make money in this sport is so limited. If you get a chance to make money elsewhere. You know, go for it. And the other thing is, is, you know, they've won two championships now. So the first one you were building to the, this. Championship team and you got it done. And then the message after that, through the pandemic was, let's keep this together. We've all had to bite the bullet here and let's go at a chance to repeat. They did that. So now you have one too. And, you know, maybe the drive to, to get three. Isn't this appealing to some guys who want more playing time. I want more money. You want to change your address to be closer to home. All those things are factors. And that's what makes it so hard to even repeat in this league? Let alone win three. I mean, nobody's won more than two in a row. Since Edmonton from 19 78, 82, they won five in a row. That's the Warren moon teams. And this is a big reason why. It's hard to repeat. Cause the roster is just change over so much. Yeah, it's hard to keep everyone. And especially when, when you've won, right? Yeah. Then you're even more incentivized. Okay. Maybe this coach, you know, someone wants to get that coach without a coordinator at that player. It's I, I just had Tim Baines on and I'll, I don't know the order. These will go, but we were talking about that. Where is it harder for Hamilton having not one. To get back to the dance again, or is it harder for Winnipeg having one and then having all these players, you know, be sought after? Yeah, it's a great question. You know, I would have to take a closer look at Hamilton's lineup. I know. You know, the other thing that I didn't mention is it, retirement might be a factor in some of these things rates a lot of these guys. You know, if you're in your early to mid thirties and you took a bite in 2020 without the league playing, and then you took another bite with a pay cut to play in 2021. You know, whether you lost twice in a wrong, a great cup, like Hamilton. Maybe it's just, maybe it's just time. Right? And you, you, you don't want to go through. All the training and all, all that stuff for some more heartache, maybe it's driving more guys to come back. I'm not sure, but. It's going to be interesting. Those are the two teams that keep an eye on because other teams are always teams that are rebuilding or looking for an extra piece. But it's the team that wins and the team that loses in the championship that I studied the most in the off season, because it kind of. It gives you an idea of where they're at as an organization, right? Are you really chasing three in a row, which I think they are in Winnipeg. And or are you guys going to splinter off and go everywhere? And then in Hamilton, I was all kinds of rumors about their coaching staff too. And they could look even more different than Winnipeg next spring. Well, as. I don't want to keep you too long. I know it's been busy. I appreciate you taking the time and I want you to go and take a nap or go take it out. You know, siesta or whatever after all this, but any final thoughts before we go? I mean, I know it's been just a whirlwind, I mean, season of course, but especially the last week now is it's Thursday. Well, you know, I was on with you guys before and I make no apologies for raising, waving the flag for this, for this league in this game. And I love it. And I appreciate you guys covering it. I'll see that first and foremost, it's really cool to see some guys in the states that are so engaged in this. Kudos for coming up. I guess I'll end with this, you know? There were so many people that doubted whether this thing could ever get done. Right. Whether you could get a season and that this is a gate driven league with it's all kinds of works that it has. I just salute the league for getting it done. You know, it might not have been as pretty. And I know the league is getting kicked around a little bit for the quality of play. There's a lot of examinations about. Where we go from here. I just, you know, I'll, I'll make it simple from my purchase. I salute everybody for getting it done with all the testing and the COVID protocols. To finish the season on time. And to have a, you know, Kind of a cool way to end the game with a going into overtime. I'll take it right, because there was a time last year where we weren't where you were wondering what the future of this league. So I'm just happy to see that. We got it in and it ended on a good note, especially for bomber people. Yes actually. I said, yeah, winning wedding here is all ailments. It makes it. Well, thank you so much for coming on the, I hope we can talk again in the off season now, I understand he wanted to have some news breakup week. But it makes it feel smaller. Like you don't get the full impact anyway, that's just my personal, yeah, no, I totally, I agree. And it's man act, right? Yes, man act is perfect. Yep. Okay. Because we, we. On every corner. I was the guy. I hope I remember. I hope I get all that correctly so that. That's good. Okay. No problem. Well, I am tremendously excited today. We have Tom Mann act on. All of this stuff came out last week. You have the state of the CFL commissioner. Ambrozy everything before the big break up game, all this business football, all these stuff. And I thought of literally not a single better person in the world. I mean that to bring on this week to kind of get our heads wrapped around this, then you. And sharing your expertise. How are you doing today? Doing great read as always. It's a pleasure to be part of the, the mark cast that you've had a pretty hectic couple of weeks yourself, like all, you know, key Canadian football stakeholders that, but it's a pleasure to see you again. It's good. So this, you know, we were, we were there and. Commissioner Brosy came out and we had the state of the CFL. And I guess, you know, the main things that came out, we had a profit sharing, right? Announced profit sharing for the league. We had the. The genius sports deal. And then I guess subsequently from the great cup, we found all the TV ratings and stuff. Where do you want to start? What is the most exciting thing or interesting thing to talk about for you? Well, all three of those we can get to. And I think those are probably that's the podium, probably a big football business stories coming out of the a hundred and eighth grade cup. But maybe even just start off the grid with you on the mark cast with the fact, imagine if the gray cup was one week later and it was only scheduled for Sunday. Imagine if current Ontario rules impose as of 12:01 AM. Saturday morning, we're in effect for Hamilton's Tim Horton's field. And, you know, I wouldn't want to be the Hamilton tiger cat or local breakup organizing committee account executive, having to call people who bought their gray cup tickets months. And in some cases more than a year ago, To say, I'm sorry. You're you know, like that it was from. The Avengers, you know, you're, you're one of the two unlucky ones you're gone. The person sitting beside you will still be able to go. Just imagine the narrative and the missed opportunity that that would have been for the Canadian football league. It just shows you the timing is everything. This is the last time I think we'll have a great cup in, in December. I think we'll go back to that third week, fourth week in November. But back to the point let's, let's, let's start with the, probably the single biggest sport business story affecting the Canadian football league, at least in Randy Ambrose's minds. And that is what you were referred to. The genius sports partnership. This is very intriguing. Even though the league has mapped out all the details. You know, I know genius sports well enough, and I know the partnerships that it has with the national football league and other leading leagues to know that it is going to be a real positive for the CFL. There's just no question about that. And the CFL needed at the league level and with its nine member franchises needed more in the way of analytics. Data management debt. Openreach platforms and genius sports will be able to bring that to the table. But read, you know, the single biggest thing that, that stands out to me about the genius sports deal is. National football league winds up becoming through the evolution of the deals. I'm a part owner of the CFL it'll have. Yeah, it's a really small amount 0.5% equity in the revenue arm of the CFL. And it that's interesting, that comes about, of course, because the NFL has its own deal with genius sports. The NFL will be owning 5% equity. Ingenious sports global and a genius sports in turn will earn 10% equity in the CFL's revenue producing arm, the commercial arm of the CFL. So essentially for the first time ever, the NFL has skin in the game with the national, with the, with the CFL. And why? I think that's important is our last couple of chats. At least the last, the last chat that we had, we talked about XFL. We talked about USFL. And with all due respect to Dwayne, the rock Johnson and the ex the XFL. And of course the USFL, which announced. It's own TV deals this week. Neither of those two leagues is anywhere in the category of the NFL. And I actually think that's the most fascinating thing for CFL fans. What does that mean? To see greater marketing collaboration. And, and I don't mean the Seattle Seahawks in Minnesota Vikings having domestic rights in Canada now, I mean, at all levels of the game that could wind up being the most important aspect of the genius sports. The deal. It's usually just a quick tangent. Cause yeah, we, we talked about that on the show, the, you know, the Seahawks, right. Being able to mark it in the different countries and for a long time now I've had the joke. Cause BC lions are our, my team, the BC lions are America's CFL team. And now with BC Hawks rights, whatever. I think it's fair to say the Seahawks are Canada's NFL team. You know, it's such a, it's such an interesting, and I think you've put it perfectly. It's such an interesting. Thing to do two things first acknowledge the fact that in Western Canada and in British Columbia, in particular, the Seahawks for years have had a very big presence. They've done player appearances. They've. They then caravans. They've talked about the possibility of Seahawks games at BC place in Vancouver, and certainly the marketing footprint to the NFL. Seattle Seahawks is geographically the biggest in the NFL. It includes not only Washington state, but Oregon, Wyoming. Idaho Alaska. And of course, British Columbia and the Yukon. This just makes it national. The Seahawks thought a lot about this, and they certainly already have a big investment in BC and Western Canada. And. Now they're going to have the rights to basically along with the Minnesota Vikings, do a lot more marketing nationally. And it's interesting because on the sport market over the last few years, I've talked about the Seahawks being the top. Like consistently top three. Favorite NFL team in Canada. When you measure the television. And audiences. Along with the Pittsburgh Steelers, the new England Patriots and the green bay Packers. You know, those are the ones who've tended to have more TV cumulatively along with the Seahawks than anybody else. Now, the Seahawks will have an opportunity to take that to the next level. I will say, from a CFL and Alliance point of view. There's probably one hand clapping, you know, because they like the idea that football will have even more investment, but I'm sure that they're concerned. And some of the other CFL franchises are concerned about what does this do? With respect to the ongoing and palpable migration of young fans. To the NFL product. When getting back to the, to the genius sports, you know, talking about the analytics, right? Talking about the data, that way. I've had a lot of people. We have a lot of. Listeners that really research Redbird. Right. And they thought that part of the whole XFL CFL talking had to do a lot with the work in analytics at red bird is trying to do. And now they're getting involved in hockey, right? With the. The penguins I believe. And so is this with CFL now being with genius in like, they're kind of, you know, they have the ownership now is that CFL kind of taking those talks to the next level, but then having ownership in it now, cause they're like genius is investing in their league. Like we don't have to share this work that we're doing with the XFL anymore. You know, it's interesting. I mean, first of all, I've always said that the CFL odor of any of these leagues XFL USFL, the CFL is the one that's got the strongest legs and that's, despite all the wards, you know, all the challenges, some of the repercussions of going dark in 2020, despite all of that. And again, migration of a lot of young fans too, for down football. The CFL still has history on its side. It's got heritage on its side. It's worth a lot more because it's got more than just a team names. Which is essentially what the XFL is. This. You know, just a very limited infrastructure of database. That's what the XFL is. Now. Red bird, you correctly mentioned knows where to go with that. Certainly a big opportunities there, but I think the CFL now has some independence from that. And I do think with all due respect, the Redbird genius is the leading entity, the leading organization, when it comes to this stuff that we're talking about, mining data, to make sure that your promotion is going in the right place. And I think it's going to be very. Both like refreshing, but also humbling for the CFL to go through this because it will show what it has to do to reach younger fans and it'll help the CFL get to those younger fans. So from that perspective, you know, the CFL, I don't think every needed the XFL. That's my personal opinion. I do think the notion of collaboration is still an interesting one. But I think there's so many moving parts there. You got to go with what you know, and that is the CFL being a longstanding Canadian institution and tradition and the grey cup 108 presentations later is even bigger than the CFL. I mean, the great cup as a brand is even bigger than the CFL. You don't want to settle for anything than second best. And I do believe genius sports is the best at what they do. So will it happen immediate impact? I think so, but will the full gravity of the database mining the fan engagement protocols, again, just much more strategic alignment of where you're advertising, who you're selecting for your halftime games and, and. And from some of the, you know, video music accompaniment. How else do you define the CFL experience to make sure that for 18 to 30 fours, it's a good Friday night out. Those are all the things that genius sports will give the CFO much more capacity in my view. Then it's ever had before. And I think the interesting thing is what it does to the TSN and RDS partnership. Because they've got to be welcoming this. And, and for all that, we've heard the talk of maple leaf sports and entertainment, really thinking the XFL was sexy and, you know, wanting to partner that way. MLSE and the top executives there who have realized how much of a challenge it is to make the CFL. Relevant in, in, in, in Toronto. They have to be heartened by the fact that they'll have these analytics and this data mining company with them. I think it helps everybody, all boats float with the CFL, excuse the Argos pun. There. But the, I do think it's as significant a deal that way. I don't want to sound like a broken record or a skipping CD or a faulty MP3 file, whichever your, you know, your context is. But I still think the biggest question mark and the biggest intrigue for me is what does this mean for the relationship between the NFL and the CFL? And I'll tell you, it's ironic that the. The NFL announces its international home marketing territory. Just a few days after the gray cup, they certainly didn't want to spoil any defender before the a hundred and eighth grade cup in Hamilton, but they did it afterwards. And. Certainly on the one hand. Okay, this is incursion. And for sure it is, but we're also in a free market economy and the best leagues. You know, operate with, you know, that, that understanding of a free market economy, NFL, of course the antitrust legislation, they've had it on their side over the years. But I do think watch what happens. If it leads to more collaboration, more discussions between the CFL and the NFL. I do think the two leagues can work together more effectively, whether or not both are playing for down football. Or whether the CFO continues to play with three down football or other rule adjustments to align itself more with the American game. The thing that, to me, it is interesting, you know, getting their hands right on these analytics on this data. We talked a lot over the summer about [unknown]. Right in the single game sports betting. And it's like the idea of having access to something. Right. And then knowing what to do with it. Right. Like the CFL now. Okay. We can do single game sports betting, but do we know what to do with that right now? Okay. We have this data from genius. Are they. I mean, I think the CFL has had to known that they've had the market to younger people for awhile now. So, I mean, I don't know why. What is getting this more? Day-to-day like you said, You know, fine tuning. Advertising spends. But, I mean, what, what are they actionable stuff? Can we expect them to actually do from this. Well, you know what? I think that remains to be seen what they do a lot of though. Reed is exactly what you just said. They'll, they'll align marketing and messaging with audiences that are predisposed to it. They will not waste money. Marketing uphill, so to speak. There'll be very, very focused. And as I said, that will help the CFL. That'll help the current nine member franchises that will help TSN and RDS it'll help major corporate partners of the CFL. Everybody will benefit from this more strategic approach to target marketing. And I do think as the oldest fan base in Canada, The CFL needs that alignment to make sure that it's replenishing it's, it's replenishing, it's departing fans with new fans coming, you know, through the. Through the pipeline. Here's one thing that has occurred to me over these past few days. And listen, I, this is not meant to be a paid political announcement, but I'm a Mongo's who believes that the Vanier cup, as an example, should be held during the grey cup festival. I really feel strongly about that. I've seen it twice now in Toronto. And in Vancouver, BC place, and it was such a perfect fit playing the venue cup as the Canadian university, a championship, the youth sports championship. On a Friday night leading into the gray cup on the Sunday. I think it's, it makes so much sense. Both short, mid and longterm marketing because you're promoting some of the Canadian faces that you'd hope would be in the CFL for years to come right now, a lot of fans hear about those names for the first time at the CFL draft. And so if you go a little bit further with that and create year round partnerships between the CFL and youth sports and youth sports football. Along with community college football, along with Canadian junior football league, along with possibly a high school championship, you could have a week long celebration of all of these national championships, the full vertical of football in Canada. And that is where I think genius sports in other ways is going to go. They're going to talk about how do we leverage at the grassroots level, the people who care about us most, how can we get word of mouth marketing from, from people who are ardent lovers of free down football and art and lovers of the CFL. And so, again, that concept of a grey cup festival. I think that's one of the strategies that comes out of the partnership with genius. Sports is building a stronger pipeline to people who care about the sport. So that you can have more of a chance to position it as something that's cool. And we saw again last Sunday at Tim Horton's field. A great product from the opening kickoff to the end of the overtime, the Arkells in between, it was all solid stuff and I will give the CFL and the Arkells credit just as a quick sidebar read. I actually thought the way they opened up, you know, in the end zone they're walking forward on the field was one of the smoothest openings. That I put, you know, even the best Superbowl of entries. Would be in tight, tight company against it. So, you know, full credit to the Arkells and the work that they put in on that side. But that's the kind of stuff that I think genius sports will do is make the CFL much more strategic. Keep Randy Ambrozy as commissioner focused on where the leak and get the biggest return for investment. That's not a criticism of CFL 2.0, because there is a problem in the urban centers of the CFL, but it is about like doing the right. Things first. Building a stronger base and then maybe working out from there and to Mexico and Europe and other countries. And as a sign that yeah, because we traveled the WrestleMania a lot. Right. And that is something that they're so great in doing, like you say, with the Vanier. Cup is, is building this weekend experience right. In having all these accompany in advance, right. That all kinds of support, that main event right on, on Sunday, which is a great cup. When you talk about, you know, building this pipeline up. Some of the conversations we've already recorded today. About this talk of like four downs or whatever. Right. It kind of came out over the weekend. Makes me feel even more strongly, right. That that is the wrong way to go. Especially if you're trying to incorporate in the college games right. In the high school games and having the CFL still resemble. Right. All of that, as opposed to say, well, no, this is going to be four downs now, but maybe everyone else is going to be right. Keeping consistency with cotton. Some of the major core rules. Right. You know, It's such a fascinating conversation read, and I think we could take hours on the mark cast. Having discussion on the rules of the CFL in particular. You know, three downs versus four downs. I personally think the, the import American slash Canadian rules and regulations are arguably even more important. I do think a collective bargaining agreement that leads to a system whereby CFL players. Aren't changing the jerseys as often as they are their underwear. And you know, it's not making like, think of it 40 of the 48 players at the a hundred and eighth grade cup are technically going to be free agents here. And when you have that kind of turnover, it doesn't make it easy for the fans. So just ways to have longer term contracts. With some of these players, I think would be important on your question of freedoms with the four downs. I know how polarizing that discussion is. I know how proud a lot of CFL fans are, and they'll swear by the rules and the product of the CFL and prefer it to. You know, NFL football or any of the other American levels of, of football, but keep in mind here in Canada, some of the jurisdictions have gone to four downs and, and it's not as if four down football is foreign. I think it's the single biggest existential question that faces the Canadian football league. Is it the CFL because of three downs. Or is it the CFL because of, you know, other elements and, and I know that that's over simplifying, but I think it will be a big question. And I, and I do think you can get closer to the NFL or any of the American leagues. Without necessarily abandoning, you know, three down football. But I do think it's going to be an interesting thing to watch because I think you either have to be in my opinion. All in, in Canada with three downs and then a understand what that does to develop a certain kind of player who can find a hole in the NFL as we've seen more and more Canadians. Finding jobs and, and, and excelling, including Lauren, your. For new tardies, as an example from, you know, two years ago with the Kansas city chiefs. So I expect that it'll continue to be a big discussion, just like whether the earth was flat around way, way back in the days of Copernicus and, and, and, and others. And it's not going to go away and there's no single fix to it. I think. CFL fans. If they had a choice between the down and keeping this level of professional football in their home market, they would choose to find a way to keep, you know, Professional football. Keep the rough riders and Regina keep the bombers and Winnipeg, et cetera, et cetera. Having said that I know a lot of people feel very, very strongly. That you know, three down football should be here to stay. Without taking up too much of your time. Cause this has been fascinating discussion so far. Do you want to hit on the revenue sharing yet before we let you go? Big announcement there. Right? We don't have a lot of details yet. And even when pressed on it, you know, in Brosy and even with the genius sports, you know, th these are decisions that are outside of, kind of my purview. W thoughts on that and trying to balance out. I mean, we even had discussions on our live show from Greg over the weekend, you know, Balancing 12 million in loss on the Argos with 300,000 profit from the rough riders. Well, you know, that's the big thing. Like I have to admit. Out of all the stories coming out of the gray cup, that's the one that's going to be tested. Fastest and, and, and, and foremost, and that is how do you sell. Revenue sharing for any period. Longer than the short term to teams like the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the Winnipeg blue bombers and the Edmonton Elks. Those three fully community owned franchises and they're the green bay Packers. Each of them have the CFL. Small markets, relatively speaking to the Montreal, Toronto and the Vancouvers, but certainly robust. Markets, the biggest markets on the commercial side of the game. Just witness television audiences. You look at all the numbers north of 800,750,000 in almost every one of them. Either the Winnipeg blue bombers or the Saskatchewan Roughriders, especially the rough riders are there. Last game of the regular, sorry, the, the playoff game. Calgary against the Saskatchewan was over a million. That was a attribute to just how strong that market is. So now you asking these community own teams to potentially subsidize. A, you know, a team like the Toronto Argonauts who are owned by the richest sports and entertainment company in the country. And one of the top five in north America. You know, that can last for a short period of time for the love of the game and for the good of the game. Because the rough riders and the bombers have to have other franchises to play against in order for that to be a league. But I think it's going to require elegant salesmanship, some fancy footwork. And I also think there has to be a pathway to it not being required anymore. This can't be ad nauseum, because imagine some of the issues around the Argos, as an example, maybe not spending to the max of the CFL. As salary cap. Trying to take the revenues in, but, but not really doing what they need to do. To improve the product. Oh, absolutely. You. Having the. Rules in place. Right. Or making sure you know that yeah. That the revenues for back in the league and not taken out. It's going to be something. And I just, I wish, I guess it's one of those things that. You know, you don't get the details, but it's like, how do you, how do we analyze it? Right. Except just, it leaves people with a lot of questions when you don't, when you don't provide the details. Well, yeah, and that this may be just our closing comment as the fire alarms and the phones are going off here at. Mark. Central. The. I do think that, and this is just based on my experience in professional sport over the years, the best media announcement is one that is. Definite like, you know, basically saying here are the details, not to say that there isn't room for a feature considerations type release from time to time. But I do find that the genius sports deal. Would've had even more impact to people beyond the geeks, like you and me kind of thing. If it had been laid out in proper fashion, you have some of the top journalists in the country not understanding what Randy Ambrozy was trying to present. And it's just because he wasn't able to provide anything, but the macro outline of the deal and, and, and on things like, you know, the other issue that you just mentioned in terms of revenue sharing, what does it mean? What are the terms? I think that. The needs to be a better job of tying up those loose ends before you going to market with them. 30 Seconds on TV. Great cop ratings. Before I let you go. Yeah, very, very quickly. We'd. I mean, I was both disappointed and surprised. I thought on the basis of the Western and Eastern divisional finals. That it was tracking to go well, north of 3 million, maybe to 3.2, five, 3.5 million, but it winds up with TSN and RDS being a at 3.1 million, the lowest rated. Grey cup in history. Ever since 2010. When the, that February of 2010, when the new Orleans saints won the Superbowl against Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts, every super bowl since then. It has become Canada's biggest television event each year up until 2010. It was the gray cup and the great cup was doing 6 million, 6 million in change. Now those numbers are only held by the Superbowl, especially in a non SIM sub years. Where you've got everybody focused on the Canadian television channels. You've got typically seven, eight, 9 million. That's for the Superbowl. The CFL now is sort of one, half to one third that, so there's definitely some disconcerting numbers there. But the environment has changed so much. There's more people, more young fans watching the NFL in 2021 going into 2022. Then there were in 2010, that's for sure. Well, Tom, you've been so gracious with your time. I so appreciate it. And. Everything going on and taking the time today. I thank you so much. I, like I said, I couldn't think of a better person to come on and kind of give some, you know, A really deep analysis about this really neat. So, thank you so much for your time. Hey, always a pleasure to read and to you and the Markcast.

Episode 70 - The Markcast Invades Canada!

We're here. Reid's making sure it's streaming finally. Hopefully, oh, there we're getting some people that are moving over now. See, that's good. There we go. Sorry about that guys. For some reason I don't know what happened. We weren't able to get the YouTube link to work that we had scheduled. For some reason it was going all, but it's there now. Oh, cool. Yeah, it's good. We're good to go. So welcome to the show. It's I, a third live show that we've done. So it's cool to be here. It's our third live show cause we've ever, I, we did one, one to the stream stuff. We're doing the stream again. The Reed's just making sure everything's going. It is great cup weekend. Of course I am not in Canada. It's work things come up. Couldn't make it re holding it down and is, you know, working with technical issues, but it's great. Kept weekend. I wish I could be there. I really wish the Toronto <inaudible> were there, but of course we took the L last week to Hamilton. I don't know what would make field goals for touchdowns. That makes no sense. But as Chris, what happened, it field goals the entire time and never going for the pet ground. And it was really frustra Not gonna lie. We're almost there, Paul. Okay. As far as the other game goes, that was a heart that was, you know, Winnipeg was, was definitely, definitely the favorite all year long to be here at this point in Hamilton in. So yeah, it's gonna be a great game, a rematch of the last great couple that was played of course, 10 years ago between Hamilton and Winnipeg, the tiger cats with with solely maybe playing who knows. It's terrible, but that's me. And I think Reed now has got everything figured out and fixed. So welcome to show That Paul, I will tell you when my first CFL media experience is getting a COVID test standing next to Dave naer. I, I felt like I was really in I feel like I'm official now. So do they are gonna, are they gonna give you citizenship after getting a COVID test with Mr. Naer? Well, I have my I have my official CFL media badge. And so I'm good to go. I'm gonna wear this. I'm gonna bury this, bury me in this when I die. Really you, you wanna be buried in that? I do. Your wife is there with you in the background running around doing Erin's for us. So we appreciate her, her help and her support and yeah, it it's she'll have to make sure she fulfills your final wish of bearing you in your breakup media cred. How are you doing there, Paul? How's your how's this LA LA's a Balley 55 degrees outside. So yeah, I'm freezing, but probably a lot warmer than you. I'm just kidding. My, my heater's down at my house, so I've gotta get it fixed. And Shane says welcome to Canada. Matt Clement says, it's looking good. It's clear. And KJ wants to know what kind of fans you've been seeing around town. What kind of other fans, of course, your BC lion fan, have you seen anybody else wearing jerseys that maybe not one of the two teams that are playing? We got a lot of TACA. We got a lot of Argo, a lot of Argo support. Some BC Alliance. We went to the spirit of Edmonton last night. So obviously a lot of Edmonton, they brought the gray cup. People were taking photos with the gray cup. So that was fun too. Cool. And you took a photo with a great cup, you and you and I Did. I took a photo with my name on the great cup fan base. That's cool stuff, man. It's very cool stuff. So we got a loaded show as re like say a big show. We got a lot of guests coming through, stopping by, hanging out. Of course, Dave nailer far Han's gonna come in. And and, and I just can't, you know, there's a lot of people on this live show as we get ready for great cup 20, 21 here in the late month of December. Yeah. What kind of access do I have? We're gonna be there no field, but we're gonna be in the press box. So that's exciting. We're gonna be there there, I guess they're assigning seats. So we'll get to find now what our seats are. I think they're gonna let us know today obviously to go tomorrow. So, Hey, can you go out the field after the game, or is it general field whatsoever? I think we're gonna be, I think we get to do press stuff after the game, so that'll be exciting and get to interview some of the players and stuff. I will say, and I've officially bury the hatchet with friend of ours, Danny Austin, Danny Austin. Cool. And I hung out last night along with many CFO credentialed reporters. They have a suite, a private suite at the hotel nearby. And so we all drank till till very late, had many, Many beers, many, many beers. Did, again, I I've, I have Paul and I've discussed why I wasn't able to make it up to Canada. There were some work things that happened, so I wasn't able to to come up. And actually I lived in Seattle in salt lake for years. So I'm, I, I'm very familiar with cold weather, but when you move down to LA and seven years after you moved down to LA your blood kind of thins out, and you're not as tolerant of cold weather as you were maybe seven years ago. So yeah, that's why I'm not there because I had some work, things come up. I wish I could have been there. I'm really mad that I'm not chair is empty and I'm, I'm disappointed that I'm not there, but we're gonna have a great show regardless. And we got a lot of guests coming up, so I'll definitely you ready to bring on our first guest? What do you think? Yeah, let's do it. I think we're ready for our first guest baker. Dorothy, There we go. Matt, I, Matt, there was an option to have Putin sliders this morning, but I ended up having chicken sliders instead with Buffalo sauce. This Matt baker, we have Matt baker from the BC lions coming on. Matt. Why don't you put your headphones on, on there? And you could sit in this chair to Show Matt That on. That should go. Yeah, Paul's not. So we're gonna look at the camera this way. I think Matt's in the camera. Wow. A lot of BC lion stuff going on here. I, I don't know if I can handle this. I dunno if I can handle all his BC lion stuff. I, I, I take it. Matt believes the idea that BC lions or team, which they're not, but I believe, I think I'm, I'm pretty sure he believes that. I can't hear, I can't hear him. Yeah. I, you won't hear yourself. This here, Paul. I can't hear him anyway. Can't hear You can't hear him, Jack. Yeah. You should be able to hear him. We'll just bounce the mic. Okay. there we go. That better technology here, but, but props to read and you for all you do in the setup here, of course the lions are America's CFO team. Unfortunately when Reed started that movement, the team went on like a seven game losing streak. So it wasn't exactly great karma, but Well it's because they're not America CFO team. Maybe if he didn't say that, maybe then we wouldn't, you guys wouldn't have gone to the seven game losing streak. Well, We're starting a movement here in Hamilton. There's a lot of good lions fans here that we've met. And we're starting the movement. Who do you root for Paul? I forgot. I don't even know I'm An Argos. Okay. I'm an Argos I can hand I can. I can, I can handle that. You can tolerate that. Yeah, I can handle it. Love the Argos. Love going to games at Bemo field. The fans that do show up are great. No different than BC. Really. Everyone likes to harp on attendance. But the fans who show up are out so good for you guys for doing all This. It's it's, it's good to be there. At least half of us are there and re I can't hear you still. Nope. It's interesting that that's not working that way, but Well, there we go. Anyway, so they asked how much free swag have I had for Matt. Matt has given me no free lines swag yet this year, as he was provided by one of our, I had a package for you when the gate you were supposed to come to the game and what happened, he couldn't come well. That wasn't his Fault. That wasn't really technically his fault. Like maybe 10%. So I wanna know from Matt, what have you made so far of all the events here? I know it's a little smaller than normal, but you know, still a lot of crowds and stuff going on. What's it been like so far for you? I think it's been fantastic. I mean, you know, we were prepared coming in all the talk about it being scaled back. Normally Paul every team is represented here with an official team party. Normally like the lions have the lions down the right have Ryder outside of spirit of Edmonton. There's no specific party. So we knew that going in, but I say it's been fantastic. All that being said, I mean we had the awards last night and then shout out to Jordan Williams, Bo LA Cumbo for winning their hardware. And I, they had I went to the Easter in social hall after the awards, that place was hopping. That, that to me for a couple hours last night felt like a normal breakup. It is scaled back Hamilton being what it is. There's not much hotel space. So a lot of people who are here are staying in the suburbs. Some might even come down from Toronto for the game. It's about an hour drive. So it's definitely been different, but I've, I've had a blast this week. What, what was the CFL awards like last night you had the players there, the CFO awards what was that like? And talk a little bit about the players and the lions that won and Zach Calero and everybody else. Yeah. A bit of a, I was part of the quote unquote media lockup. So what happens is we show up at six o'clock, we get handed the winners and then the show starts that. So that's what, what that does that allows all the reporters and everything to get their stories ready. And then once they're announced on the show, they bring 'em up one by one. So that was a cool experience. Just kind of seeing them behind the scenes access, what they do, the photo shoots, posing with the trophy and our two guys, I could, all the guys were, but our two guys, I was paying extra attention to. Those guys were just happier than heck. And guys, yeah, we, we may have had a rough season, but you know, there's hope on the horizon with a couple solid pieces there at linebacker guys switching positions and all that. So some excitement for me at the awards. Definitely. I wanna know, what's it been like just Hamilton fans here, right. Being loud, Bo we're in their town. Right. A lot of blue bombers fans coming in, you know, a lot of cheering in the bars and stuff. Any animosity, anything going on between the fan bases? Yeah. Well, the, it, the CFL it's, it's a family, right? So, you know, right behind us, we see Saskatchewan fans, we see Hamilton fans, we see Winnipeg fans, of course, you know, they're rivals when the games are actually going on they're is some trash talk between fans and they there's some little bit of friendly banter going on, but that's what makes the league special is that everyone supports one another in that regard, cuz it is a small league and it, it, it brings that family feeling. But Thai cat fans, they're into it, man, like this, I'm curious to see the, the exact number. Yeah, go ahead, Paul. There's a guy behind you with a very boisterous yellow hoodie that says Hamilton's printed all over sleeves and stuff. So Yeah. Or show it out, show an we'll shout an O wewe to that guy there. But what, yeah, it should be, it should be O wewe is the tiger cat chant as an Argo fan. You should know that, but the one in the yellow is actually Michael he's the co-owner of the bar. We're here at the George Hamilton and so Michael has graciously set us up here and so yeah, don't be making too much fun of the sweatshirt. I'm not making fun. I, I am just saying it's very, it's very bold. It's very bold sweatshirt. And I, I dig it. I dig it. I like the whole print all over the sleeves. It's great. I see Kyle's in the chat. Welcome Kyle. Thanks for coming Jenna in chat, we wanna thank Jenna. One of our long time listeners, probably one of our first listeners, definitely one of our first listeners. Hi Jenna, thanks for tuning in here on our live stream. So Matt Paul What are you looking? What, what are you thinking? Some of the keys to tomorrow's game are, I know BC's not playing, but well, Yeah. I mean line of scrimmage, right? I mean, you know, one of the reasons Zach Calero won the outstanding player last night and was up there with Michael O'Reilly in the passing lead all years because they kept them upright. They kept them in the pocket and you saw how they cleaned up at the ORs. And on the other side of the ball, Willie, Jefferson Jackson, Jeff coat, you won't find a better defensive end tandem. The key for me, if Hamilton has any chance at an upset here, they're gonna gonna have to exploit that battle one way or another. So if you're asking me what the big key is that's definitely that In the trenches, it's gonna be one in the Trenches you think? Yeah. I mean, it's gonna be I haven't checked the, I think I just, Dorothy actually just showed me the latest forecast. It's gonna be, it's gonna be hovering near freezing temperatures. The wind is always actor at Tim Horton's field because you you get the right off the lake Ontario, so you get the wind and all that kind of stuff. So I'm not sure how much leeway there's gonna be for these two quarterbacks to air it out. So that makes it all that more important. I want Matt to give a little behind the scenes here. We had a fun night last night. We, we hung out with some of the CFO media. I want you to describe. And cuz I just learned about this. I want you to describe kinda what was going on last night, whether we have fun doing, You're talking about the FRC suite, right? Okay. So for those who, the football reporters of Canada, that's that's an age old tradition where the media who come from all over, no matter who's in the game to cover the game you know, they organize a hotel suite every, and it's basically a hotel room you can stop by and, and drink basically. So we were there like, luckily it's on my floor at the other end of the hall. It wouldn't have kept me up by it. It's convenient for me. And then, so I walk in last night, you know, there's the usuals usual older, you know, writers who still do a great job. Like Dar Davis runs the whole thing. Farhan LAE was in there. Steve Simmons from the Toronto son, great cup veteran. He's in there. And then it look res here it's like Reed, when did you join the football reporters of Canada? So it's basically a, a hotel room where guys just CBIS and have a couple cocktails and they even ordered some pizza last night. That was great. So yeah, that's what Reid and I were up to. Was it Putin favorite flavor pizza? No, it was some of 'em was, oh, was it a Mo was very upset that there was vegetarian pizza Bo was very upset. It's just Paul, it's weird to walk into a room and literally have every single person you've been talking to for the last year online, literally all in one room, literally every guest of the podcaster the last year was standing in that room. Yeah. We, you were talking about it. It's basically basically we could have done a round table in there last night. So yeah, it's funny how that works. Well re why didn't Reed think of that? He's well, he's gotta be resourceful. He thinks of Everything. Reed thinks of everything. Reed is so prepared. I'm telling You, we barely got the live show going today. So I we're we're, we're gonna count our blessings. We're counting our victories. So we've talked about the game, we've talked about the buildup. What do you think about Zach winning mop? Yeah, kind of hit on it a bit there. Well deserved. I mean considering who we was up against was it stand back? He was up against, I can't even remember. So yeah, typically a quarterback is gonna get the nod over a running back almost any time. So Hey, you know, it's a, it's a credit to just how Winnipeg is built as well. I mean, very balanced team solid in all three phases and the continuity is what helps him too. So I'm happy for Zach. I mean, this was a guy before he got traded to win AEG. The one thing holding him back was the injuries. I mean, he had a concussion history made it to a couple of gray cups with Hamilton one with Hamilton. I think it was just one, just that classic example of a guy who was a good service little quarterback, but the one thing miss thing from his resume was that gray cup and lo and behold, he, he lands in a pretty good situation and that's a pretty good storyline as well. He's facing his former team again in the gray cup. So you know, I think it was the strength of their defense and the running game that got them the championship in 2019 guys. But he's played a much larger role in their overall success this year. Darren's got comment. So Darren Workman says super bowl needs to pick up this type of festival here in the us. I'm sure they do. It's just a lot price here to probably go to the super bowl than it is no Guys, but no, no, I I've. I've been to five super bowls was lucky enough in my previous job to go work five and yeah, unless you know, somebody or unless you've got a bunch of Benjamin Franklin's in your wallet. Yep. Did I get that? That's that's the hundred dollar bill Benjamin Franklin. So there you go. See, I got, I got, I know my American money it could be festive at a super bowl. The difference is those, you know, the comparables, the people who are being festive, like those regular blue collar type fans, they're not getting into the main events. Right? So that's what I tell people. Anyone can have fun at the gray cup you'll fit in. Doesn't matter who you cheer for. Doesn't matter what your background is. You'll find a good time here. Even if you don't love the game. When are we gonna get Mr. Omar? Doman on our show. That's I think listeners really wanna know, Wow. The OnAir request. I guess I have to come through. Hey, well, I'll have my people contact as people we'll see if we can't scrape something together, We, we would appreciate a lot, lot. There's a lot of, of good. There's a lot of good vibes around what he's been doing. So we'd love to talk to Him here on the show. I mean, I have some Ideas I would like to run by him. I'm just saying, I'm an idea. I'm an idea. Guy seems like he's open to ideas. We got some cheers going on here. Paul, can you see all that on the camera? That's excited. Are, are there Hamilton fans cheering with Saskatchewan fans here? Is that what I'm seeing? Is that what I'm, that's What you're seeing. Yep. Now is S You, you could walk into any great cup week establishment, Paul and it's Skittles. There's colors of every team in here. So that's just gets back to what we're talking about. I, I think it, it seems like it's more, it's, it's more of a friendly, friendlier rivalry between CFL fan bases than, you know, the sports we have down here, cuz we're, you know, cocky, arrogant Americans and we're kind of, kind of get a little bold with our sword takes. So it's nice to see everybody cheering and having a good time back there. And again, I wish I was there. I'm so bad up not, but Hey, We're next year, man. Book your room. We're we're gonna do that. That's that's a guarantee this time 110%. Reed's like, yeah, sure, Paul, but yeah, we're gonna do it. We're gonna, we're gonna do it up next Year. Hey Paul, can I steal, read for three minutes? I have to interview him. I gotta get this America's thing going. I don't know if you're planning this live stream for the next hour, but all right. Get we're life for an hour and a half. I mean, I can, you know, you, you could put someone else on with me and then you could borrow re but that's up to read. Reed's reads the captain, Go through his agent. Okay. I Think we're locked in here for a minute. I appreciate it. You know, you could You read if you, if you need to do that with him, put the owner of the bar on and I'll talk to him and thank him and let's let's let's get, let's get some stuff from him. Let's advertise for Him. Michael's walking around here. I'll get, I'll get him. Why don't you go track down? Yeah, we'll go track down. Michael. Yeah, he's in The yellow. See, I'm just trying, I'm trying to like, I'm trying to be resourceful here. I'll talk to, I'll talk to the homeboy and then you could do, you could do your stuff with Matt and you know, we'll just do it live like bill O'Reilly said We'll just do it live. We'll do it live. We, we barely got this off the ground where we're going. Paul, have you been tracking a lot of the social media and stuff here since we've been gone? I mean, what's been going on I have not been, sorry, just, you know, you, you, you, you understand my work issues right now. So you know that I I've been up to my neck and work and haven't been too active as of late with everything that I've got on my plate, but there's our homeboy right there. I see him behind you in the big Hamilton sweatshirt. What's what, what have, what have you been seeing that you need to point out? So of course everyone's on social media saw rashes on tight shoes that was popular. We've got about 22,000 views. Oh yeah. On a RA's untied shoes at a Randy and bro press conference. So that was a proud moment of mine. And then obviously the photo with Danny, Danny apologized, we're going viral with that. That's exciting. We went to a Thai cat concert last night, which was remarkable, a Thai cat. They had a cover band and doing like electric Alou and kind songs. And so we were at a Thai cap bar. We've had, we're collecting all of our wristbands and you can see on the YouTube from all the different bars and activities That we've been going through to go with your pit bull wrist bands that you constantly wear eight years cruise. But no, the rash was good. You know, we were at the air and bro state of the CFO address. We're gonna have some questions for Randy later. And so that's exciting. We're gonna have Michael hear from the bar, Michael, if you wanna go ahead and put on these headphones so that you can hear Paul now. You're not gonna hear yourself, but you're gonna hear Paul my cohost on the other side. Why don't you say hi and tell us where we are, How you doing Reed. Welcome to Canada. Welcome to Hamilton OS wewe you're at the the George Hamilton restaurant brewery, which is the oldest public house in Hamilton built in 1851. Cool. And we'll let Reid go do his thing with Matt here. And I'm gonna talk to you solely and we're that's, that's how we're gonna, that's how we're gonna stretch this thing out. Perfect. We'll be right back. Here you go. So it's just you and me and your, your name was Mike, right? Yes, sir. Okay. Who have I got Mike, great establishment. You have there? I wish I was there to, to partake in person. How long have you owned this, this fine establishment. We've been open almost nine years now, open Almost nine years. How are things? And I, I hate to bring this up, but you seems like you're thriving now. How are things for you through the Pandemic? It's been, it's been difficult, but we're still here and some aren't, so that's a, that's, that's a good thing right there. So you're, You're above ground. I mean, that's, that's something that, that a lot of people Can't say, and, and Hamilton's going through a bit of a Renaissance right now. You can see all the cranes outside. So I think we're on a good quarter. We're here to stay Very cool stuff. What's it like what, what's it been like for your business this week in particular? How, how have you been doing business wise? Like lot of, lot of people just coming in drinking, How are you doing? They, they are, and you know what many people, many Canadians, and of course Americans, they don't know like that, the tradition of the gray cup and, and what it does, it brings together are Canadians. Right. And I don't, I can't think of another event that is, is as Canadian as the gray cup. We, we, you know, for the last two days, I I've talked to people from BC, from Regina, from Newfoundland they're they're here from everywhere. Right. And you don't, I can't think of another sport. I can't think of social event and their, a concert where, where you have this type of gathering. Very cool. What, and, and now let's, let's, let's switch gears. What are you looking forward to tomorrow in this game? Well what am I looking forward to? I'm looking forward to personally a tiger cat win. Yeah. I, I, to be honest, I, I don't terribly mind personally, the, the the team it's, it's more the coach. I don't know if you know this or not, but Mike Oche he, he did play for the TA hats at one point time. Wow. Back when I was younger and he, he left us twice. So I, I, I have a long memory. So As do I, it seems like, seems like we're right along. And I'm a little bit, I'm a little, I'm a little bit salty right now. Cause I'm an Argos guy. So ah, seeing Hamilton be there when, when I feel the Argos might mighta should have been there. It's kind, it's kind of a, it's kind of salt in the wound right now, but well, I, I, I'm still glad, you know, we, we, I'm still glad we have a great cup. All things consider with everything that we've been up against You. You're, you're, that's very true. I I'll tell you ho hopefully the rivalry between Hamilton and Toronto gets a bit stronger. We started the in, in Ontario, the regional, the regional system is called go transit. And we have, we have I can walk up the street here. Now I'll hop on a train and I could be at the, at the BMO field in Toronto in, in 45 to minutes to 50 minutes. And it's, it's it's a good way to travel these days and it's, hopefully it brings it brings the some strength. Okay. Let's, let's get back to the game here a quick second. What do you think would be the keys for Hamilton to actually, cause, I mean, we're talk, we've been talking about how good Winnipeg is all year. They've been a beast, they've been a monster. It goes us saying, what do you think Hamilton needs to do to pull that upset? Well, I think last week was proven you know, we were able to, our defense showed up and I think, I think that's required for tomorrow. And I, I think if our defense shows up, we will do just fine. Very cool stuff of, of, of course we have the 13th man surrounding this win bomber team. And I, I think that that will play a factor as well. We can be quite loud here. It's it's interesting. You say the 13th man. Cause I like, I was like, wait the 13th man, because Seattle has a 12th man, a and M has a 12th man. Of course you guys have a 12th man on the field. So they're, you know, that's right. The fans are the 13th, man. It kind of makes sense. So Mike want thank you for all of your time and thank you for letting us allowing us to set up shop in your venue. Looks like a great venue. G George real quick, before you go, G George in our chat says you make some trip, terrific craft beer over there. So he wants to compliment when you craft beer selections. That's fantastic. Thank you very much for the Compliment. Appreciate that. So there we go. Mike, from the spot we're setting up in the George Hamilton bar. Wanna thank him for his time. Wanna thank him for his venue? Wanna thank him for his location? And it's gonna suck when when Hamilton loses, but Hey, Hey, you know, Hey, I got, I got a pull for the, I got a pull for the team. That's playing the rival, right? We're coming on LA hot. We have Dan Ralph friend of the show, our Canadian per us all favorite. Dan, you gotta come close to me. You, you Screwed, you gotta cuddle. Dan, you gotta cuddle. Go ahead and put these on. You're not gonna hear yourself. You're gonna hear Paul Paul's on the other end of the thing. Why don't you tell us who you are and say hi. Oh, we know Dan is Dan Ralph Canadian, Preston, Toronto. Hey Dan. Good to see you wish I could be sitting right next to you. Cuddling with you and Reed, but apparently that's not in the card for me. Thanks to work. So yeah, We, we, we get in a lot of trouble right Now. <Laugh> I dunno. Canadians are pretty friendly. You might let it slide. Yeah. But, but We are COVID we are, COVID insensitive. That's right. There's a lot of COVID sensitivity. That's what stopped read from going to the BC game about a month ago. So, Dan, what, what are your thoughts of what's been going on this week? How's it? How's it been going for you? Oh, it's been good. I mean it's been busy, but that's strike up week and plenty of stories to write about, which is always good and plenty of people to talk to, which is always good. Very cool. Reed. Do you have a question? Yeah. Dan, I wanna talk to you. We were at the state of the CFO address, right? With commissioner a Rosie one. Did the questions that you had for him was talking about the CFO 2.0, right. The global expansion. I thought that he kind of no sold. Didn't really answer the question. What were your thoughts overall on the state of the CFO address and how arose handled that your question I'll be honest with you. I, I wrote that he was long on promise and short on specifics and the 2.0 was one of many things that he didn't provide a whole lot of answers to. So he, he, he talked about, you know, that they've they've incorporated revenue sharing, but there were no specific details. He was asked about how much money this deal with genius will maybe projected the CFO. Again, he, he had no no answer for that. Like I said, he had a lot of, he was long on optimism, long promise, very shirt on specifics. To that point though, following up on that what do you think he could have said or done to give you some, you know, some solace in that, in what he's playing, what his plans? Well, I mean, quite, just maybe come up with a few projections and I just got the impression, he, he really wasn't on solid footing with all this stuff. And either that's a thing with his handlers, or maybe if things are in the, in the communication business or communication stages now say so, but to come out and say, well, I, I don't know you are the CEO of that organization. You are the person that people like me are gonna look to for answers. And when you don't have those answers, I don't think it shows very well. Yep. You, you were trying to provide answers in public. You're trying to provide answers and information to the public and you're not getting those answers information. That's frustrating. Pretty much. Yeah. As, as someone who's also, well, I mean, I mean, he was asked, can you, can you unequivocably say they're gonna be playing in the league next year. He didn't answer that either. How do you, how do you not answer that? Well, maybe cuz you don't know. I don't know. I'm I'm I don't know. I mean, to me it was an easy thing to answer. Just yay or NA Do you think that maybe he's toying with the idea of CFL and XFL merger still or is that I, I don't know. I'm curious to see where the XFL is going with with the newly We've lost audio at this point. So I'm gonna go ahead and I'm gonna go advance right now. Okay. Wow. Somebody's having fun. No, I, I, I don't know what's going on with the XFL and the spring, you know, another spring entities down south. So I don't know where the status of the XFL CFL talks are. I mean, that's one thing he seemed to answer quite quite eloquently, but it was the same answer we got back in April when the decision was made that the two sides would would no longer be talking. I wanna know. What do you think of this genius sports deal, them coming in as a minority investor in the league, right? Owning 10%, presumably with the other nine teams of a, of the revenue arm of the CFO. I don't even know what that means. Well, we don't, but I mean, it it's everybody's going into the bold new unknown in Canada because we've just recently allowed single game sports wager. And everybody wants to, to get on that platform. There seems to be, people seem to take, there's a lot of money involved there. I, I don't know, I'm 60 years old. I'm not the person that they're trying to attract. I'm not the demographic they're going after. So I'm, I will be honest with you. I don't sports bat. I don't know much about the whole platform, but I do know as soon as single game sports wager came and everybody began clamoring to that as a, as a potential revenue stream and I would expect the CFO would do the same. Well That's got and to, and a follow up to that, that's gotta, that's gotta be a situation where they have to provide information on how much revenue that actually generated for the CFO, because that's been our big knock is like how much revenue is C will be really gonna generate for this league. They should provide answers as to how much revenue it Actually did. Well, just gimme an idea, you know, I mean, cuz I I'll be honest right now. I don't know. And nobody seems to know and, and if you don't know, say so, and then just say, you know, but I mean to say what he said, when, what we have projections already, what we're not gonna tell you really. Yeah. Interesting. I mean just this, we all know this league needs money. It, it lost between 60 and 80 million last year by not operating. I'd be, I, I don't think I'm going on a limb by saying the vast majority of teams this year, lost money operating even, even with a 14 gain schedule. So just projections and then, and just couch it that way that this is what we think now. Maybe it's a bold prediction. Maybe it's our projection. Maybe it's a, it's a projection that's under the radar, but at least, you know what, give us an idea. We have a question. Did Anne Brosy address expansion to the maritime? It's funny I had that on my notepad, but I only got two questions cuz that was gonna be my next question to ask them why is that so important? Well, because it makes Canada whole, it makes the CFO whole in that it makes it a coast to coast league. And from, you know, you've got all regions represented. It, it balances out east and west and you don't have to worry about this crossover thing anymore. We don't have to worry about if a team folds in the east, we take one of and put it in the like we used to, it just, there's a sense of wholeness that makes the league in Canada. That's the good news. The bad news is this has been discussed now for the last 40 years. And in my humble opinion, we're no closer now than we were 40 years ago. A follow up to that real quick though with all the financial stuff that's going on, don't you think that's probably what's hampering their issue with expansion Well that, and they need a stadium in in Halifax or in the Maritimes. And there really isn't. There isn't a, I don't know, but I, I don't think that there's a plan, a, a real solid plan there to get a stadium done. Anytime soon can't have a team without a stadium <affirmative> and the provinces are, and, and the powers that be there haven't haven't started construction as far as I know, on, on a, on a venue. Got it. The, the question that I had to and bro coming out, he puts on a good face. Right? I mean, he really says like he has good things, but then when it came to genius sports, when it came to the betting, when it came to how it just, it always seems like, I don't know, that's above my pay grade, but if you're the commissioner that kind of, that is your pay grade, right? Yeah. And that's what I was alluding to that you're the CEO and the face of this organization. You're the people that people like us come to for answers. And we're not getting answers and we haven't received answers for the last little while. And you know, and if you don't have the answers, then you know what, at least give me a reason why you don't have the answer, but don't talk around it. Don't, you know, spend five minutes and, and hope that I somehow get lost in what my original question was. So that I don't ask an, an, a follow up Question a follow up question. That maritime thing is Spartan wants to know. Why do they want to expand to Halifax when mocked on? Is it monk on yeah. Has been hosting all these games. Should they focus on that instead of Halifax? You mean Moncton? I, I'm sorry. Yeah. Hali Halifax is the it's the, it's the biggest city in the Maritimes. It's, you know, there was talk when, when Halifax was, was trying to trying to host a Commonwealth. I can't remember if it was a Commonwealth games, but they were gonna get a stadium built there because it was the biggest city. And it's, you know, you could, you could do Moncton, but Halifax. I mean, the thing is when you go to the Maritimes, you're going to be like Saskatchewan, you're gonna appeal to an entire region. And so Moncton was they had a facility there. They could do it. It was only a 45, I believe a, a, a, it was under 10,000 seats. The, the plan was to get a bigger stadium in, in Halifax, get a seat, you know, a season or a, a stadium that sees 20 to 25. And you could have a parcel land there to build it too. So Mon you know, I mean, Moncton, Halifax do it in the Maritimes, but you gotta have the facility first. We had a question here. Do you think this CFO should move to an April to September schedule? No. <laugh>. Why is that up? I can't imagine having going to cover training camp in April, I can't imagine players being crazy about about playing in win. I mean, we're playing a December breakup. We have unseasonably warm temperatures today in Hamilton. I can't imagine playing football in April and Canada. I can't imagine having training camp in, in March to get ready for an April season. I, I just, I don't see the logistics to it. I mean, like I said, I'm a traditionalist probably from that perspective. So to me, if you wanna start it in, in may okay. We can talk the weather's better. You know, you can play, you could start playing football in may, April and, and start preparing in, in, in, in in March. I mean, unless you have training camps down in down south, I don't know, and stuff, any, any questions in the chat let's see. Well, Kyle Kyle wants to know when can we expect a new commissioner? <Laugh> I mean, that's a, when can we expect a new commissioner? I don't know. That's a good, I don't know. I mean if, if we, if we take Randy's at his, at face value, he's got the full support of the board. And he's you know, and, and he's doing well. Let's not forget he's doing what the owners want him to do. He's employed and paid by the owners. So if he's doing that and he says he has their, their their support. I mean, I, I gotta take him at face value at breakup right now. We haven't really had a whole lot of time to start, you know, doing a check about where do you stand with the commissioner? So maybe after breakup that's when we start answering that question I got my Dan here and then we have our next guest lined up. What do you think about the exploring the rules here in the off season? We're gonna talk with nailer far on about it, but you know, looking at four downs, looking at rule changes, what do you make of All that? Well, I think they have to look at something and I think the there's been some very valid points this year, that the level of play has been less than, than what it has been. So I think when that happens, you have to look at everything. I'm not a fan of the four down game up here only because the three downs is what gives the Canadian game is a identity. And some of the rules are, are uniquely Canadian, four downs. I think all of a sudden you're gonna get more people thinking that it's, that's, it's NFL north, and I'm not sure that's a cell, but I think you ha you do have to look at everything. All right, Dan, thank you for your time. We appreci you joining us here on the mark cast. Again, such a pleasure. Thanks again for for All right. We're gonna bring in our next guest here. It's gonna be Darren bombing and Nick Kowski from bonfire sports. We're gonna get, 'em all situated here. Nick, can you go ahead? We're live. Go ahead and sit here and you can put those on Darren. Go ahead and come here. I know it's a little not you and that we're, we're doing the best we can. So Darren's good on him. So you're, you're gonna hear Paul. You're not going hear yourself, but everything's going good. And unfortunately, one of our microphones is going down, but we are live Darren as someone that Braves through our last live show. What do you think of everything going on with the great cup so far, it's Been a good week, you know, like everyone kind of wondering, what's it going to be like? I remember talking to, you know, the, the Canadian football league has exceptional support staff and exceptional media relations people in Olivia Pula. I call him he's op is his nickname. I call him the real mop. He is phenomenal. And Lucas Barrett and everybody else gay home. And the list goes on and on. They've done a great job organizing things and, and keeping things running smoothly because it like, it's all kind of new and wild and different with all the COVID protocols and the testing. And, you know, like when I saw you the other day with you and Dorothy came in, it was like, you know, gotta get tested, gotta get your wristband, gotta go through all these procedures before you can even just get there to do your job. So the fact that that's all gone smoothly and we've been able to interview players and there hasn't been any even minor snafus huge hat tip to the Canadian football league for clearly a ton of organization that they did. But, you know, look at the, look at the vibe going on here. People are, you know, having some, having some beverages and enjoy, and we got a great game, a fantastic matchup coming up on Sunday. I'll add that. There's also a sense of normalcy to it. I know you were telling me when we were at media day, we had face to face interactions and granted you're wearing masks and the players are eight feet away from you, but you're still, you're socializing. It's, it's face to face. It's not virtual. So that's also been F and there's really been, it seems like really no hiccups from the CFO. Like there's been, we were just talking zero COVID positive tests for the media. So that's a good sign too. Yeah. For anybody. So like, I think it's gone really smooth so far. And like, like I, I give the, I have kudos to the league. Like it was a big hurdle to overcome with getting the season council in 2020, and they really came back strong this year. I want, yeah, go for it, Paul. There's some questions in the chat about from John Burns specifically, he says, what's this crap about the commissioner in Fort downs on a longer wire field? Does he hate defense? <Laugh> I love defensive football. I know Nick's an appreciator of, of good defensive football as well. Is it a widespread appreciation, maybe not, you know, what's popular in the sport. It's tons of passing yards and rushing yards and, and points and touchdowns, but the four downs thing like I've used, I'm a purist. I've always been a Canadian football purist. I feel that the rules, the play clock, the field, all of those trademarks of Canadian football compared to American grid iron football are important to our game. If you start going to four downs, it's going to change everything more than dramatically. Like it's going to be a paradigm shift in how teams are, are constructed and built. It it's really, I can't even imagine it's almost like a night terror or a dream. Almost if, if, if that's the decision they go, the more people I here's, the thing, the more people I talk to, the more, the valid, I kind of sense from it, all that it it's an actual consideration. It's a real thing that might happen. It's not just some suits in an ivory tower somewhere saying, you know, here's our numbers. Here's the, the dollars, here's the bottom line, here's our audiences and all this marketing and data, you know, we gotta go to four downs to, to be a relevant football league. We're playing in the 108th championship in Canada. And yeah, it used to be the, the Western rugby union and university of Toronto and whatever it was, but this is a historic longstanding league. There are strong roots under all of the, you know, things and in shortcomings that people talk about Canadian football. But I, I really wonder what the weeks ahead will, will bring in, in regards to that, A follow up to that real quick, sorry. A follow up to that real quick. There's a lot of people that push back against four downs and say, they'll stop watching the CFO and stop attending games. Do you think that's a long term declaration they're making, or you think they're like, they'll be back, they'll be back Anybody that says, you know, if you don't like it, stop watching it. Like, are you really gonna curate a good audience doing that? Are you gonna curate a fan base? No, to me, like, I've been addicted to sports my whole life, right? Like I just love watching and, and playing and, and, and engaging in it all. Football is football, you know, I'll watch college football on Saturday. I'll watch NFL on Sunday. I'll watch, you know, Canadian football all, all throughout the summer and, and fall months. I don't care what it is. It's, it's a great quality game. It's different from the NFL, which I, it almost adds to the appreciation kind of like what I, I touched on earlier. That's what I like. Nick's a much younger man. So his perspective on this would be interesting. I think the majority of that argument, or that push for the four downs too, it comes from more so the nont true fans of the C, but more like the NFL fans who are like, oh, the NFL is a SP product. So why wouldn't the C NFL kind of mimic it, but you're right. The, the three downs, the, the 12 player in the field, the Rouge, these are all things that have made the CFO, what it is for over a hundred years. And if you're getting away from that, you're kind of losing your identity. And I, I, I mean, I don't think this is gonna happen in the near future at least. I think players are on the same side as we are that like I saw ch Robson today. He said like, no, I vote, no, like straight up, you NAS the thing you, and very clear of what he feels about that. So I feel like the players are on board with keeping this. There's no reason to change it. Like there's, yeah. Scoring was down. Offense was not as dynamic as we've seen it in years past, but I think there's other options. And other routes you can take to fixing that it's like, there was, for example, like this straight up quarterback play wasn't that good this year? Is that that a, is that a four down thing? Like if they have an extra down, am they gonna make the play? If they're not even playing good to begin with. Right. That's, that's a very, very solid point. And I think the reason why people think people have the opinion that the NFL's a superior product is because there's more money to go into players and they can afford better athletes that can perform at higher levels, no disrespect, but that's, what's going on. You know, if, if you could afford to have like, you know Tom Brady come play in the CFO, you'd see a lot better quarterback play. If, if people that caliber played in the CFO, if there were more money going Players that's happened before, like in the 1950s, the Canadian football league offered more money, offered more 12 months stability with, you know, employment opportunities for guys. You had, you know, like rose bowl, MVPs and, you know, Heisman trophy candidates, Kenny plain legend in the Canadian football league. Sixth grade cups, four wins in 10 years. He was a DB, a punter and a quarterback university of Iowa rose bowl, MVP. He comes to because they were paying better. And now he's got 24 grandkids in Winnipeg who are, you know, born and bred Canadians. Like that's the beauty of the game in bringing people in. But it, I, I agree with you. It is about spending money on the athletes, but it's also all of the logistics and resources behind it in the combine and broadcasting, having all those cameras, that production quality it's, it's just such a bigger punch in the 21st century. When you have, you know, TSN does a great job. They have AK, they, they, they do good things, but you got Fox and ABC and ESPN. And B's like, all of them are competing with one another and the envelope all the time with personalities and unique broadcast offerings. And then you can throw in fantasy football and corporate sponsorship and, you know, all of that it, it builds on it all. That's why people are attracted to the NFL, cuz it's right there in their face. The CFO, in my opinion, is marketing is the thing that maybe lacks a little bit in, you know, it's always, it's very, it's a very Canadian idiom, right? Like, you know, we're not as good or it it's, it's almost like people openly admit it. But a Canadian thing is secretly kind of deep down inside it's can we, can we compete with the big boys? Like, you know, no, it's not ESPN, it's not the NFL draft, all of that. And I don't know, I, I think it's more perception than anything because I know for a fact, the people that come into the CFL as fans or media members that didn't know about the league say five years ago, once they're embedded in it and absorbing it and appreciating for what it is, they see how fantastic a product it is, how unique a dynamic of the media, the fans, the athletes, the coaches, that community, how, how unique and, and valuable that is The way I view it too. Is the Tom Bradys, the Aaron Donalds, the Tyra kills. Yes. If they were in the CFO, no question. They would dominate no question. But I think that the lower level players, the non elite players in the CFO or the, the elite CFO players, they would, it would do fine in the NFL or even like the average CFL player could do fine in the NFL too. I think a good example of this is Winston MCMA. He was in the Sam Peters in 2019, not many C fans know who Winston MCMA was. He was a rookie 2019. There was a first time starter in 2019. He made the new Orleans saints this year made their roster. And a lot of that is depending on what the saints are looking for, for the personnel. It's not like how you're about talent, but if he's 50 the team. Yeah. Cavan, Campbell's another good example. He was a backup on the Montreal, a he's he got a touchdown last week for the chargers, but could even start in hou Alex Singleton is winning, you know, player of the year awards in Philadelphia for the Eagles and yeah, the, the talent is there. It's sometimes just opening your eyes to it. David AMAA learned like he had never seen a football until he was 19 years old. Like never seen a ball right. Came to the university of Manitoba to study environment sciences from Nigeria. And where is he now? Well, he's collecting monstrosity paychecks as a great defensive for the new Orleans saints. Now you're getting Scouts coming to Canada from green bay, from new Orleans, from Los Angeles to see the talent that is here in Canada. And I think it starts with the Canadian football league. Yeah. It's a lot of guys that have played in, in NCAA, elite football and the quarterbacks of all thrown for, you know, 6,000 yards. And you know there, there there are 10,000 yards in their NCAA careers, but it's almost just because the Iris is so small on the Canadian football league, not enough or the right people don't see it. What, what is the one thing then? What is the one thing the CFO can do? And main mainly to grab our younger friend over here, his generation's attention, because we've heard a lot of, we've heard a lot of like hot takes about a video game. What is something, what is the one thing that the C do tomorrow to start growing the fan base? My first thought I'm gonna give two thoughts. My first thought is more direct engagement with players. So you got a guy like Willie, Jefferson, such an entertaining character, put him on a billboard, put him on commercials, get him out there. So young kid to like, who's this funny guy that's good at football and he's, and then you see his highlights. And he is like, oh my God, he's, he's a great player too. And I want his Jersey. And then that's how you get the fans that may, maybe aren't fans because their parents are fans. That's kind of my first thought. My other thought is, and we talk about this off air, but it's fantasy. I think, yes, the CFL has fantasy, but it's a daily, it's a weekly league. You're picking your own rosters. You're not playing for any cash, which doesn't have, you don't have to, but it helps just helps with the incentives, like look at fantasy football in NFL. It's a huge reason. How do you Have a fantasy football draft when there's eight quarterback start every week that's issue, right? Like an 18 league. You know, we, we all make jokes about like, oh, you're an 18 league all, can you rats on your fantasy football championship, right? Like eyes to the back of your brain rolling in your head. But those are challenges that aren't gonna be able to be fixed unless you start putting teams in, you know, Monkton and red deer and bene and you know, wherever else or, but you know, right now there's bigger fish to fry for the Canadian football league, The, the counter I'll go to that as this six team league where you have six quarterbacks is better than a zero team league that doesn't exist. So you don't have to go like eight. Yeah. Eight's pretty much impossible, but you see, you can go six. That's better than nothing. I dunno about you guys. But like when, when I have my fantasy football drafts with my buddies, it's, it's an event it's fervent. It's like, you know, are, do you really, do you really want the, that tail back? Or are you gonna like, wait, wait your record back. Like, I don't know if you could do that in the Canadian football league, just with the way the rosters are constructed and the way offenses are run. But again, when I say there's bigger fish to fry, like I recently turned 40. So I'm, I'm officially not young anymore. Congrats. But thanks by the way. Yeah. but I agree with you, the personalities in the Canadian football league are unique because these are guys that like Willie, Jefferson could play in the NFL and they know they can. And for whatever reason, they don't, you know, they're 27, 28, 29 years old. Well that window's closed. I'm playing in the NFL because they got guys coming outta the SCC that can do similar things. And Willie lets the personality come out. They know that their brand is what provides them opportunities. Once they're playing days are done. Not, everybody's gonna be Adam big ill to be one of the best players in the league. Maybe the best player in the league at 34 years of age, it's just too rare. So I think they need to do a better job of that. These guys are cool guys. Yeah. I'm 40, but they are cool. They're cool to you. I know that. And you know, you, you're closer to 20 than I am to 42. I was just Showing you yesterday Being 42, man. Not wrong being 42 at all. Why was the showing you yesterday too? I was like, Hey, look at Nick Taylor's Instagram story. Really? Jefferson. Like this is some cool behind the scenes stuff. Like that's from the actual players is doing it because he wants to put it on his Instagram. He's the league isn't telling him or making that content or creating it or showing it to the fans. Like that's something that you kind of have to seek out out for if you really wanna find it. And that's content that I find cool. It's like, yeah, but it's there will Jefferson and all the Darby dancing in the back room. That's fun. They, it just cool to see it's engagement. You get to learn about the players off the field more and That's what you want. I don't know why there's fear in that. It's almost like they're, there's a level of, of intimidation that it's gonna take away from the full well, if nobody's interested in the athletes, there's, they're not gonna be eyes. Aren't gonna be on the game on while in this case Sunday evening. So here here's the thing. There was a fantastic game. Winnipeg made a huge upset in the 2019 great cup. And this year it could be the complete opposite. It could be exact same thing. These two teams are gonna put on a very entertaining product and I hope people on ESPN two are watching. I hope people are, are watching across the globe because it's a great game. And it's got a lot to offer. I gotta say this real quick. I gotta say this really quick, quick. Thank you, John burn, sending a super chat through no one drafted he's he wanted to point out no one drafted Warren moon in the seventies, the NFL draft the, the Edmonton team that says redacted, the Edmonton redacted said, we'll take him. And you know, the rest is history there. All right. We got our next guest lined up. I wanna thank you guys so much for coming on and sharing your time. Yeah, it Was really good to be with guys real Quick predictions. Real quick predictions. Real quick predictions. Who are you taking tomorrow? Oh, I know. Nick's got a, a good prediction. You go for 20, 21 Winnipeg. I'm going the weather looks good. I'm gonna say 31 19 Winnipeg. Okay, there you go. All right. We got our next guest coming on here. We're gonna have Farhan and Dave nailer coming on. Thank you guys so much, Darren. It didn't blow up this time. We did it. It was Good. Thanks guys for your time. All right, we're gonna get them situated here. Paul, do you wanna a van for just a second while we get 'Em situated? Sure do. Thanks again, John, for the super chat, we really appreciate it. Supporting you know, Reed's effort to go out to Hamilton and cover this again for those who haven't listened. Like I had some work issues that had to come up that came up and I could not make it up there, but I definitely will be up there. I definitely will be up there next year for sure. Up in Regina. You Farha, I'm gonna, Paul, I'm gonna rotate the camera here A little bit. Not camera let's get far in. It's good to see Farhan hanging with Reed. There we go. So guys, you're, you're gonna hear Paul. You're not gonna hear yourselves, but we're ongoing. You came from, just live on TV. How's it going? It's windy out there, man. Like we were supposed to do a hit down on the field at Tim Horton's field and it is blowing so hard. It's a, it was a safety console. So they shut everything down. We're doing stuff in the press box. I mean, it's grown from one end to the field, to the other. It was like that on game day. I mean the, the difference between win and against it'd be as much as you could imagine a football game. Yeah. You like, if you were a special teams, coach, you would never kick deep. If the wind was in your face in this, everything would be on side. You could kick it up in the air and everybody would absolutely freak out. So yeah, all of our, our tripods and everything, nothing can stay down. Apparently I'm told that like little dogs here have actually been flying because the wind has been so strong and it's only gonna get stronger. So tomorrow's not gonna be that bad though. I'm told. So It brought my memory back to 1994, a game Las Vegas at Saskatchewan. And it was windy like that. And Vegas decided like when they were deep in their own territory, that hunting was futile. So they tried field goals, line drive, field goals, like from their own 20 yard line. And you know, teams had to return them, but it was better than kicking the ball up in the air. You don't see that very often, but it <laugh>. If they're playing today, we might see one of those. It's Gonna be fun. I wouldn't wanna be a quarterback throw this, but I, to be truthful, it's not that cold because you know, you were at the west vinyl last week. And even in Regina the week before that it was legitimately cold. I remember Zach caller's face basically freezing at the end of that game. He wanted to get off the field. It's actually pretty warm. The wind not was standing. So Hey, Canadian football, if it's this temperature in the middle of December, I'm in, Right. So I got it. Question here. This obviously the good timing come out last night with you. Guys' tweets rule changes in the off season. Lots of interest about this. What did we, what did we know what we Reported? Yeah, I think a lot of people assumed that the conversation about significant rule changes was always tied to the XFL. And that may have been where all the legwork was done. The, I think they did a lot of wet legwork on possibilities during that time. But even though that ship has sailed for now, right? I think when you combine some of the legwork they did with the product this year and the defensively trending game, and frankly the entertainment value not being up to standard. And then, you know, there's just, sometimes it feels like it's time for a league to make a change. I think there are people in the CFL that think that now is the time, or at least now is the time to consider serious dramatic change to the game. I don't know if it'll happen this season, but I know it'll be considered. Yeah. Look at, at the end of the day when this guy tweeted and he basically wrecked our night because when the rest of the night people were all over us on social say, yeah, well, do you mean you can't change our game from four downs? And you guys heard all of this when the XFL talk was happening and look from, from the position of the people with the league who also love Canadian football. I think the business of them or the business to them is more important and it, it kind of should be. And it, it certainly is for me. So we're not saying that they're gonna change the rules tomorrow. We're just saying that all things are on the table. And that's the most important thing because scoring was down this year and offense was down and it, you know, these trends, weren't all because of COVID. They started really in 2017. So the leagues gotta address that, but they're also trying to address the issue of getting younger fans. Maybe there are some fans that just connect more with four down football, and there's gonna be a decision to be made that, do you take that chance of trying to potentially grow the game and getting some new fans at the expense of alienating who you've got? So I don't know what the right answer is. I'm not married to four downs. Here's what I hate. One, two punt hate that. There's a way they can fix that. I'm in well, you know, And the, the, the CFO has talked so much even this year about the demographics and anybody who's around the league can see when you look into the stands, right? This league, I'm 54, I'm an Argo season ticket holder. I look around my section, I'm on the younger side. Okay. That's a problem. And I, and I don't know the answer to this question I'm gonna pose, but I think it's worth asking if we're really trying to, to grab the younger generation and the kids and people who are gonna be lifelong fans. Is it possible that we are not speaking their language when we use three down football, because they learn the game from Madden, right? They, they watch NFL in college and then you show them this other game. I, I, I, again, I don't know the, I'm just saying we need to consider that that's part of, what's making it so difficult to connect to those younger fans. Christina Dos, sorry, go ahead. Sorry. Real quick, Christina Dotson. Thank you for your, your super chat. We appreciate that anyway, right? I'm sorry. No, that's okay. You know, for me, I, I like, I look at it and it just disappoints me that people are willing to just sacrifice the league over the rules, right? Like that bothers me the most. And it bothered me during the XFL discussions. I just think that if you're remotely progressive, you should put everything on the table. You know, we talked about this yesterday. That what if it were to happen that you tried it for a year? Like this notion of trying it in the preseason is nonsense because the starters barely play in the preseason. Now you're gonna have inferior players that barely understand the motion and the wide field to begin with. And now you want to try to use them as the Guinea pigs. That doesn't make a lot of sense. And I know there's some people that believe once you've done it, you're never putting the genie back in the bottle. But look, what happened in the NFL with instant replay, they used it for a season on pass interference. The coaches in the football ops, people hated it. And they said, okay, we're not doing it anymore. And that's a significant change. That's not a rule change, but instant replay. And using that technology again, I, for me, I never thought they would ever stuff that Janie back in the bottle and they did. So maybe you try it. You don't like it. You assess it. You do it in a meaningful way. Who knows? The Only thing I think that, sorry, sorry. I think to that point though, the past interference, the reason why it failed in the NFL and the en replay is because they, they didn't know when they could use it or when they couldn't use it to determine whether there was a past interference call. That's why it failed. Cuz there were a couple games where it was clear, there was past interference And they didn't use It and they just kind of blew it off. And that's why they just kind of went away, did away with it. Yeah, it was strange because it's actually one of the, you know, the Canadian football league has actually become pretty good at using the industry play for, and, and it look, there were some growing pains here, right. But they saw it through and I'm, I'm actually personally stunned given what's at stake in NFL game and how critical a bad, poor MIS past interference call can be that they don't have it. I'm, I'm surprised they didn't stick with it because it is really beneficial when you have it and it works Properly. So I think as much as anything though, I think people looked at how it was applied, but also what it did to game flow. And is it worth it? You know, and I'm of the opinion on, on the topic of something like replay, I don't think they should allow anybody in the command center to ever slow down a play more than 50%, like seriously, because, and I know technologically, you can, but if you have to slow it down by more than 50%, it was not clear and obvious and that that's the standard for everything, right? So like just like that, no, that's not good enough. It's gotta be clear and obvious. I shouldn't have to slow it down that much. So I think our colleague, Dwayne Fords uses the line when they start playing the game in slow motion, we can start officiating, slow motion. <Laugh> I wanna talk about genius sports. Why, you know, they're like the 10th team now, right? They own 10% of the, I mean, what did you, I think it was over under 57 to genius. Sports was said in the state of the CFO, what do we make of this whole new Thing going on? I think it's significant. And, and I look, we've all seen different CFO marketing initiatives come and go. And I think some of us are maybe a little jaded, but just learning a little bit about genius sports, you know, company that works with 400 different leagues and teams they're based in London, in England, their technology for marketing market research communications analytics on the game is technology that frankly, the Canadian football league couldn couldn't afford on its own. And it's a unique, this, this model is the first of its kind where you basically cut genius sports in for a 10% share of league revenues. And of course you got nine teams. So they've got an equal will share. They have the same stake as the teams do when it comes to league revenues. And this is a model they're going to sort of audition with the Canadian football league. And if it works, they can apply this to all other kind of places where they can help raise leagues up, take equity in them. So it's a lot riding on this for genius sports. There's a lot riding on this to the CFO. And I, I do think this just a significant bit of news. I, and, and I, you know, we talked about the league's challenges, becoming marketing and, and relevant. I think they think genius sports can really help them get over that hill. I hear People talk to me about marketing all the time. I'm not sure what it means. You know, marketing to me when I grew up was, you know, put up a billboard and put up a scoreboard ad and things like that. Well, that's not what marketing is anymore, right? So I'm not sure what that's supposed to look like. And when people, my age and above complain about a lack of marketing, it's because they're expecting to see those outdated models because that's what they look at. So here, this is about data and it's also about targeted reach and not just targeted reach to watch games, but to gamble on games. So, you know, if you are a player that's here and you played at Clemson, they're gonna find a way to reach people at Clemson who knew what your name was. And now you can bet on that player's games and, and that's an overly simplified version of it, but that they're gonna take the data and they're gonna run a deep. So even people who might not watch Canadian football, so a potentially bet on Canadian football, and you're gonna find different ways for kids that might potentially be new audience members to see it, where they consume their social media, whether it's TikTok and Snapchat and so on. So bottom line is, is that we've had executives that are a lot smarter than, than Dave and I that have looked at this that have been jaded by the process as well. And they're viewing this as transformational. So I'm curious to see what it's gonna look like, you know, in the next couple of years and what kind of an impact it's gonna make. But the fact that they've now got incentive to implement it as genius sports, because they've got that equity piece and understand they don't own 10% of the teams it's league revenues that they're gonna get the piece of, I think this is, this is the direction to the way of the NFL does business, right? The NFLs we all know for, for <laugh> 32 of the greatest capitalists in the world within their own body. They're very socialists. You know, they share revenues, right? They, and they're, they have these massive arms that are divided equally. This moves the Canadian football league a little closer in that direction, right? Between the revenue sharing piece. And now what they're doing with CFO ventures with, with genius sports. And that's what we've been saying for years. Well, the NFL has always been one entity. The CFO has traditionally operated like nine teams and they gotta start acting more like a single entity, at least on the business side. Did you have something? So to that point about the whole gambling thing. Yeah. We talked about that earlier. I wanted to get your takes on, when will you expect to hear how single game betting financially vetted from the financially benefited the CFO and what do the numbers look like if to avoid scrutiny about single game betting being the silver bullet that saves the CFO? I don't think it's gonna be the single silver bullet. I think it's gonna help. I think I'm gonna draw on it now between legalized gambling and legalized marijuana. And you know, when this first happened, everybody thought if you get in on this, you're gonna get super rich and you know, wow. So they're gonna open up this market and it's gonna be legal. And then all of a sudden it seemed like everybody was jumping in and the market is so watered down that nots getting rich. I, I think some of that is gonna happen with the legal gambling market because there's just, there's so many places to turn. And so many places buying for your attention, all that said once it matures and settles down Farhan. And I tried during the summer to put a, a number on that, I'm trying to remember what we came up with. I think they, 20 million is what we thought it, That the impact was gonna be close to 20 million eventually. Right. And it's you, it's not that you're gonna get that money as a percentage of any bets that are wagered, but you're talking about sponsorship deals and things like that associated with betting and data. Right. Which genius is certainly gonna be a part of. So, you know, it's gonna take some time for it to roll out because in Canada, every province is gonna regulate this differently. Right? So for example, in British Columbia, they've got the BC lottery Corp and they're trying to do as much as they can to run it through that, but they get money out of it, right. Which isn't necessarily beneficial to the same level for the BC lions is what could happen when they open it up in a place like Toronto and, you know, an Edmonton, Saskatchewan Winnipeg, where you control your venue, you could bring in vetting parlors and vet, you know, places to bet in games. So it's gonna be different things for different teams. And that's why revenue sharing, which has also been added is going to be so important. So it's, it's not gonna be the silver bullet, but if you can get to 20 million and it's 2 million a team that does change things, I think it also, there may be sort of non monetary benefits, at least that come in the form of immediate monetary returns. I mean, just anecdotally we've asked ourselves a lot, how many, like we CFOs had a pretty good year on television. And if you put it in the context of other major sports properties, like the NBA and the NHL major league baseball, CFO's been holding its own out of the pandemic very well. And again, back to what we earlier said, not cause the game in fantastic this year, right? So when you put it in that context, we've asked ourselves how many people are watching cuz they got a prop be on the receiver. I mean, I certainly know people, you know, in their thirties that have CFL viewing parties that were not watching CFL games before this, you know, so I don't know what that factor is and how much it matters, but that's the other side of it. I think, you know, that can come like Paul, what do you Got? Just reading a lot of stuff in the chat. There's a lot of people going back and forth about like the video game to increase, you know, the footprint. I wanted to ask a question because it was brought up earlier about you know, league revenues there there's constant talk about league revenues, but there's also talk that people want to expand and include the marathons. What are your thoughts? It's been a, I mean, I I'm old enough to remember the Atlantic scooters of 1984 that was supposed to happen, right. A conditional expansion team. They had the financing piece for the stadium done conditionally on. Nice. The last thing that happened was they, they approved 20 million to the stadium on them finding a new location. Cause the proposed location was one they didn't think was the best. So basically they were back doing that when the world shut down, you know, there was supposed to be a game in July of 2020. And I remember the principal saying, they hope that by the time that game was played, the franchise is already awarded. You don't need to, you know, now I just think we are into mystery time. I don't think anybody thinks that it can't happen, but what are the priorities of the province? What are the priorities of the city? What are the economics of the CFL? There's a lot of stuff that has to be figured out to be able to put sort of accurate projections down on whether or not this is viable or Not. Yeah. The owners that we're involved in that process before are still interested in bringing a team there, but it's not out front burner for them because as they mentioned, we all under understand the world has changed and there was some feeling amongst government that, you know, you could view the stadium two ways you could say, look, this is gonna be a, a money pit that we just can't afford, but you can also view it as a stimulus for job growth. Right. And yeah. And, and so if it gets seen that way, at some point, I think this is all gonna still be on the table. But you know, we went to breakup the last time and, and I think they had a naming party if I'm not mistaken. Right. I mean, it, this was all systems go. So obviously we're not at that point, but it'd be nice if we could kinda unite the league coast to coast at some point. But obviously it's still gonna take some time. Whereas two years ago it was a done deal. It was just a case of win. What, what, where, where would you put the team? Would you put it in Halifax or somewhere Else? You'd have to put it in Halifax. It's just a case of where. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, It's that, that's where it's gonna go. I mean, it's, that's the biggest city in the Maritimes. You know, they, they can pull from outside that area, but you're gonna need a city of that size to sort of get the commitment. And you know, they looked at places like Monton, you know, that the problem with that is that they just found on the sponsor level, you know, you get to Bill's paint shop pretty quickly, right. And you can't really drive major league revenues off of businesses like that. John Burns, thank you for another super chat. Another $5 from John Burns. He wants to know with the new variance. When will we, when will we be free of COVID in Canada, 10 day quarantine in the us, in the NHL 14 days. Should the XFL and CFO, just go ahead. I'll ask my, I'll leave that one to my colleague who works in Canada and lives in the us. There you go. <Laugh> Yeah. If everybody had my status would be good. You know what? We just saw the COVID numbers. What, what was it? 1500 in, in yesterday. In Ontario. So yeah, with this new variant, I mean, it's, this is our world. So I, I don't know that it's gonna change anytime soon we saw December one, the borders were supposed to pretty much open at that point. As far as testing, you could go down and back for 72 hours and not have to test as long as you were fully vaccinated. And I know on the us side that got walked back a little bit. So, you know, to try to predict this thing, cause we certainly thought 1820 months into it that we would be past it. And who knows, man, get your boosters. S that's what I'm doing. I'm getting my boosters that big <Laugh> I'm three in too myself. I've got my booster already too. So yeah. Well I wanna hold our guests too long. We have one more standing by here. I wanna thank you guys so much for coming far. I, I, I have one last question and it's are we drinking again tonight that the, the suite that was awesome. The football reporters of Canada suite known as the FRC suite is one of those unique things about Canadian football. Every time we bring somebody who's never been to it, they say, they say, sorry, hold on a second. There's a suite it's open 24 war seven with unlimited beer and liquor and wine. And it's free for the members of football reporters in Canada and their friends. Yes, its it didn't matter. I'm getting, I, I am both. I'm a friend and I am a, I am a, we are all TV guys. When I was a newspaper guy, I might have gone hard on a Saturday night and pulled off the game on Sunday as a TV guy. I gotta be a bit of a got down Saturday night, but Sunday night in the wee hours, I will see you at the FRC suite Sometime. That's the date far on <laugh> Yeah. Tonight. Not so much, but Sunday night, no, we also have our TSN rap party that tends to go for a little bit. But after that, yeah, I think the time generally happens On Sunday night after the parties, the after parties. And we'll do it. Thank you guys so much for coming on and taking the time and running from live hits and everything else. So I appreciate it. I think it's super cool that you brought the podcast and came to the great cup we've been talking needed Is yeah, no, it's a lot of fun. I'm glad. And, and hopefully people in the states should looking at this and got Dar Davis coming up next. So he is the grand PBA, the master of the FRC suite. It's actually his room. So take good care of him if you want Him to let you in. I will. Thank you guys so much. I appreciate it. You Really enjoyed meeting your wife clearly. You're better half. Yeah, clearly you're better half. It's what I always tell him. I'm like if you guys ever, God forbid I'm I I'm siding with Dorothy on this one. So <laugh> thanks. Thanks for all of, all of what you've done and thanks for stopping by numerous times on our podcast. We definitely appreciate all your insight, Dave and far our, Our pleasure. Thank you guys. All right. Dar Davis, we'll bring you up here Dar <Inaudible> thanks everybody for your super chats. We really appreciate it. Help kind of offset the cost of Reed's trip up there to Hamilton. That's great. Yeah, I we're, we're getting darl up here. Any other comments in the chat field Producer, Dorothy is getting our next guest up. So we want to thank everybody for tuning in, on our, on our chat, growing those super chats our way. We definitely appreciate it. We appreciate everybody, you know, appreciating the live shows as well. It's been great to kind of yep, exactly. Christina says behind a, behind a great man is a great misses and yeah, I echo that. Chris wants to know if Hamilton's working out. I don't know if that's working out It. You guys can see more behind me right now. It's a pretty full belly here right now. A lot. You've got the big, closer here. Dar Davis coming on. I promise you the collecting Dar came early cuz we didn't know what nailer and far Haun schedule was going be. You won't hear, you'll just hear Paul when he talks to you. So go ahead and sit down and we're just gonna why don't you who are you? What's going on here? How are you doing Darrell? Good. Great. How are you? It's good to see you again in the daytime right after. Well I guess it was daytime. It was about 4:00 AM this morning. Did you stay in the room that late? Yeah, I was there till about two 30. That's the latest I've up in, in quite any time. Me Too, but this is great up. So you gotta play in pain, right? A lot of early mornings, a lot of late nights. That's how it works. So it's a festival. There's a football game. Yes, but it's all a Canada getting together. That's what makes it so much fun. So Paul, we wanted to bring on Dar Dar you know, covered Saskatchewan Canadian hall of fame reporter, like our friend Dan Ralph. I wanna talk about some of this revenue sharing and you know, we were at the state of the CFO address. You tweeted out, got a mixed, you know, needless to say mixed response from Saskatchewan fan base about so kind of explain the issues here. Well, revenue sharing has been was used in the Canadian football league years ago and some leagues still use it, right? Because there are always teams, rich franchises, poor franchises. So how do you do it? A lot of teams, a lot of leagues have used salary caps to balance things out to make sure that the competition is fair, but that doesn't always help the teams that are losing money. So what the CFL used to do is the big market teams that had stadiums that could fill 30 or 40,000 people would make money. And the Saskatchewan rough writers who had a stadium with 18,000 and not very much corporate support, they would, they would only be able to draw the 16,000 people and would lose money quite often. So how did they bounce it out? Well, the Toronto Argonauts and their big and the Montreal alls and the BC lions would take some of their profits and share it among the teams like the Saskatchewan rough riders it's switched around over the last decade or so now the richest teams are the community owned teams, Edmonton Winnipeg, and Saskatchewan are the three remaining community owned teams. And they're usually the most profitable. Why I, well, they're in market. It can sustain it, I guess. And people feel like they own the team. So they buy tickets. But now that they're so profitable, the rough rider fans don't want to give that money back, even though they probably saved the riders years ago and they're looking and thinking, well, the Toronto orts are owned by a conglomerative companies. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> that own bell Rogers, the two, the biggest corporations in maybe the entire world, they own the Argos. And they're going to receive money from the community, owns Saskatchewan roof riders. That's a poor people in Saskatchewan who buy tickets for the Saskatchewan riders. Now that Paul, yeah, during this, during the course of the week, you know, and Brosy had a lot of comments about stuff, but he did a lot of like no comments about things like he didn't quite give specifics. No, really any criticism of that. And what are your thoughts about what, what answers he did not provide? That's that's typical, Randy, Ambros, it's typical of a lot of the commissioners over the years. This is my 10th commissioner. I think I've heard give that same type of speech. Some of them are better politically. They, they know how to say something, give you a little bit. The only, the only number that arose gave us yesterday was what 39 games had global players and more than one global player. And you're thinking, oh, that's not much of his stat. How much is this gonna make you from gambling? How much would you have to revenue share? Are you going to give the players a raise? He talks around that all the time. Right? He thanks us. He's very gracious. Thanks for coming. Thanks for asking the question, but absolutely true. He never gives us real facts. The, the writer, the, the entire CFL likes to keep his books closed. They're very secretive. We don't even know what the players make in terms of an actual salary there. Occasionally you find out that Michael wi makes 750,000, but nobody else, how so? That's the way the CFL is always operated in the dark, keeping the, they think we're mushrooms, right? Throw, throw all this manure on top of us and keep us in the dark. And that'll, that'll keep us surviving. So it's horrible that it happens that way. You expect more from the commissioner we're used to it. So not, you know what happens right away because he doesn't tell us anything. What happens all the reporters spurry around and find out the truth from other sources. And that's why it's always fun. It's like a cat and mouse gave at the great cup. Well, what Killed me was, and bros couldn't even confirm that nine teams were playing next year, Danny Austin. Now our friend, he was our fo on the podcast until last night. Danny asked, you know, do you have a commitment from nine teams to play next year? And he said, well, we're playing next year. And we have nine teams in the league, but he couldn't really say It was bizarre. I know. Why don't you just come out and say, yes, nine teams will be there, but politically it's tough. He did say something that was interesting. Maybe you both noticed this too, that at one stage he said, I have the support of nine governors. And I thought I've never, I don't think never heard a commissioner say that. And I don't know if it's true. It's one of those things that you think, well, there are probably a few governors who aren't in his corner, but he seems to think nine governors are on his side. And if they are, then he must be able to believe that there are going to be nine teams playing this year. We hope there are, you know, I don't see any signs of anybody pulling out because if they survive this year, I think there are gonna give next year a try. So he should have said, as you guys alluded to, yes, there's going to be nine teams. And if it both, if something goes wrong, big deal. Well, at that time he thought there were gonna be nine teams at this time. Well, maybe there's only seven. Paul, do we have any questions from the chat? Lemme check a look, take a look at the chat. There's a lot of going back and forth about the, to the rough rider in the nineties. They're talking about that right now. They're talking about healthcare right now and milk and cookies. That's all. That's, that's the gripping stuff going on in the she right now. Yeah. What do you think about, you know, the rough riders being bailed out and now them, you know, among other teams having issues now of quote unquote bailing out at the big, Yeah, it's funny that you're right. The rough rider needed the, the money. It was a loan actually from the NFL. The NFL gave the gave teams the CFL, a huge loan that allowed NFL teams to sign CFL players one year earlier than usual. They didn't have to play out their options. Excuse me. So that's what kind of saved the rough rider and sure enough, but that was NFL. My, and as we talked about in the eighties, the revenue sharing, the Toronto Argonauts probably saved the Saskatchewan rough writers earlier in the eighties. So now if you want a 19 league, they have to share, they're going to have to, I, I'm not in big in favor of the rough writers have built themselves a solid franchise. They're making money. They know how to do it. And they're talking about sharing those practices throughout the league. Well, maybe you should share some money and just get these teams on a solid footing and make sure that they all move forward. But how many leagues do you hear say, well, we hope they all break even next year. That's a pretty low bar To him. That's how he came out. Paul, You don't hear Roger Goodell saying like, oh, well I have commitments from Jerry Jones and 31 other owners to play in next year. You don't hear that kind of talk either. I wanna think John parents real quick one, think John Burns real quick for his super chat, his third of our chat. He said maybe the, maybe COVID COVID influenced the commissioner's answer. Maybe <Laugh> oh, this is a good question. They says, MLSE can't pocket the money. They would have to account for how some of that money is spent. Any more details on that? I mean, again, we don't have details, but what would You presume? Yeah, well, of course they, they couldn't just pocket it, but maybe it's say maybe MLE MLSE, doesn't put as much into the Argonauts in terms of marketing. So there are different ways to, to get that money in hand, right? So there are a lot of different ways to implement revenue sharing. I wish he would give us, as we said, he doesn't give us details. I wish he would give us details on what they're thinking about in revenue sharing. If, if one team says, listen, if we lose 10 million, we subsidize us a little bit. Yeah. Okay. If you lose that much money, then we'll give you some, so give us a line. Otherwise it's just fearful, right? Everybody says, oh geez, all the writers' profits are gonna be eaten up by these other franchises. And that's not a good way to approach. My other question was, you know, if, if the rough riders are making, let's say 300,000 a year MLSC is losing 8 million a year. That's a lot. I mean, this isn't like a, you know, one let's move from column and column B. I mean, this is multiple columns, a to equal One column B. Yeah. And what, what are the rough rider gonna do without that 300,000? Maybe they had some plans for it, right? They, they are a community team, community owned. So they like to give back to the, to minor football and amateur football and all the people who are helping them. They they're very, they're very community oriented. So that 300,000 might be better spending Saskatchewan. And it's not gonna get the Argos outta debt. You know what? They have very rich owners. They should be able to get themselves outta debt. Why not just get it started with a good find good bank role and say, let's go, let's see if we can get things started, promote the team. We talk a often about that. We talked a lot about one of the things that I wish Randy ABRO had of talked about was how are they gonna diversify the crowd? How it going to it's an old white crowd, infl games and the Edmonton El chairman spoke about that and angered the old white guys, right? Like me, who said, well, we've been supporting you, but they have to diversify their crowds. And that's one of the things that with the, whatever the league makes, if they're gonna revenue share, use a project, use that for a project that might get your crowd to be more diverse and more coming to the games. Any Other things that they could do marketing wise to expand the audience There? Well, didn't we hear all about genius yesterday. <Laugh> Let's thoughts on that. I wanna know your thoughts on that. I have no idea what genius is after it's over. We just got tired of hearing it over and over. There are a betting app, aren't they, as you know, there's small. The weird thing is that somebody who's somebody been doing the NFL apparently owns a percentage of genius. So I, this, this isn't research I've done. It was recorded in this suite. So, but I, I trust the person who did it. He's a business reporter who was writing about it. So that allows all of a sudden you can share information back and forth. So now maybe because genius is going to take an equity stake in the CFO, maybe the NFL is going to have a small shake in the CFL and they can share some of the information. And the mostly it's betting information that they'll be chain that they'll be sharing, right? All the algorithms and everything. It's another typical Randy on bro thing that says, Hey, this is a great idea. Tell, and then we say, well, tell us about it. Oh, I can't. And there you go again. So is it gonna be a good thing? I don't know. We've heard this every year. We hear some sort of partnership and the next year we don't hear about the partnership. So we don't know how it went. I, they love operating in darkness and I think that's still a problem with the Canadian football league. And it's one of the things that's frustrated me. You know, I don't know, 35, 40 years of following this league is how little they will share with you. They're like the Canadian police services. So different from the Americans, the Americans, you phone, and they tell you who's charged what happened. The local Canadian police services tell you nothing. And I think the follows that policy Video game, video game, video game. That's what I say all the time. Yeah. I was gonna say we have a comment from a P Alberto Sanchez in the chat. He wants a video game. <Laugh> I wonder who that Is. Anything else before we let Dar go Real quick, do what, what are your thoughts on the expansion? The 10th team they're talking about setting up shot, maybe in Halifax. Oh, Halifax have the, a perfect spot. It it's a great city. And it makes a coast to coast. They've talked about it for years. Once again, I've been only been covering the league for 40 years, I think. And it seems, it seems like every three or four years we hear expansion is gonna be the secret. It always comes down to there. Aren't people like Jerry Jones in Canada who say, I'll give, I'll pay a billion dollars for a football stadium. You know, the, the, the, in Hamilton, Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, Regina, we have brand new stadiums, but they're way cheaper than the big ones. They're 200 million, 300 million. And so they they've low cost them a little bit, but Halifax can't even get one of those built. And until you get a stadium built, that's gonna hold at least 25,000 people. And the Halifax city council and regional council say no way, you're not gonna have a football team as great as it would be to have a 10th team in the CFL, especially on the east coast. It's not gonna happen for a long time. I wanna get predictions on a game before we Let you go. Oh, I thought Winnipeg was gonna walk over Saskatchewan last week. And that turned out to be one of the most exciting games I've watched in a long, long time is still the better team. And I don't, I don't know if you found, have you found anybody to say Hamilton's gonna win? I think it's gonna be tough. Yeah, I think so too. You know, Winnipegs won it before they returned almost their entire team, but the big question mark, and you'll hear everybody talk about it this week. The hometown crowd I saw in Reina at 2013, how that team motivated by the crowd in Saskatchewan, they were the last hometown victors. I think that can really help Hamilton. And maybe there is an upset in the making, but not being a big vet. I'm still, I would still bet the Winnipeg blue bombers to cover the spread. Well, Darrell, thank you so much for coming on. Am I gonna see you tonight at the week? Oh yeah. For a while, right? Well, yeah, we'll go late night tomorrow, right? That's so far Honda nailers. And thank you so much for coming to closer, Paul, any other breaking news comments we wanna do before we get outta here? I know, yeah, the spar Spartan nitro. I know that EA is not known for innovating every year with EA sports. The ma the Madden release that you get for EA sports is solely a roster update. That is all you, you are paying $60 for at the lowest tier. Then you give you different tiers of Madden games. So I understand EA does not innovate at all. And it would be nice to there's there's, there's there's room there for someone to come in and go, Hey, maybe I could do a video game with CFL teams and do things that people clamor for online. Listen, to listen to the fans. I mean, you make it enjoyable for the fans. You're gonna grow the game. And we've always said that CFL needed a video game. We we've said that for months upon months, upon months, that CFL needs a video game. They need to get that younger crowd and, you know, integrating some social media storylines with that CFO video game. That'd be great to like expand on it. So yeah, can't, can't echo that enough. Frozen Delta wants to know has great cut festival, met your expectations, read, You know, it's been really fun. I know that they say that it's paired down, but Paul, it really few Dorothy and I were talking last night. It really feels like when you go to WrestleMania, right, you have the auxiliary, the ancillary events, right? That like the other promotions, you know, we have the spirit of Edmonton event. We went there last night, there was concerts to listen to the Thai cats bar had a concert. We went to and I mean, that was just Friday night, right? So now gather day getting in. And you know, there's a lot of other, you know, events here at the bar. So it's, it's really fun to see everything alongside of the actual. And then obviously you have the CFO sponsored events, like the great cup fan base and the, you know, the parties and things are throwing at the convention center. So it's been a lot of fun, Very cool stuff. I'm glad you're having a good time up there. I wish again, you hearing all these stories and hearing about all this stuff really, really bums me out that I couldn't join you. But again, war We, Dick heading out. We got Darren. Thank you guys. Thanks. Guys' coming everybody. Everybody's everybody's saying goodbye and we appreciate all of their time. We appreciate all. Let's get Dorothy on here for two seconds to say hi before we go, let's get Dorothy on here. Producer extraordinaire. Let's get Deion here. We, I am gonna have to use a facility break here when we get off. So we're gonna, we're gonna limit this a little bit, but we got Dorothy here. Put those on. So you're gonna hear Paul Much better host than I could ever much better calls than I could ever be. Dorothy has joined us here on the mark. Hi. Hi, Paul, how are you Doing? Good. How are you? Dorothy? Good. I'm so sad. You're not Here. I am sad. I'm mad and sad at the same time simultaneously. Yeah. Merging. Oh John Burns sends another super chat again. Thank you for all the super chat today. John Burns. He's he's looking forward to asking lion fans. Why they're at the gray cup. Are you looking forward to that? You know, it's a celebration of teams across the land, right? Yeah. We got another O wee wee chat here. Yeah, it's gonna be, but I say go Winnipeg. <Laugh> yeah, that's right. Dorothy has adopted Winnipeg as 13 because the UW yep. The, the whole UDub kind of kind of parallel there. So Dorothy's definitely pull Winnipeg Reed. What are your predictions? I think Winnipegs are gonna get it. I can't imagine a home crowd, even in Hamilton cannot weigh just how dominant. I mean, Saskatchewan had six turnovers against Winnipeg and couldn't win. So, I mean, Winnipeg gave the ball off six times. I think to two, I think was the ratio. And if they still came out on top, I really, I just can't see anything. I'm a big Dan Evans fan. I I'm supporting him. You're right. And, and we've, we've tracked him a lot on the podcast and I'm glad that he's getting the start as opposed to Misso, but I think it's a hard, hard hill to climb for Hamilton. Dorothy's getting a lot of fans in the chat, by the way, re read you married up according to some people in the chat. So people are happy to see Dorothy the reeds better half, come on, rocking a, rocking, a dragons Jersey of all things, which Is, yes. I know. I felt like a loser cause I don't have a a Jersey. So I need to get loser. Some, some merch here I Keep in mind. Dorothy is also an accredited member of the CFO media. Now I want never to be forgotten that Dorothy Ciro is an accredited CFO media member. I I'm so glad. I'm so glad that you have a capable co-host out there with you that I don't, you know? Oh my gosh, Paul, we would never replace you. Paul. I know on Was what, what was, what speak up. I'm speaking up just fine. If you can't hear it, it's not my problem. Somebody's asked me to speak up in the chat. Oh, I was gonna say, I keep doing this, like go dog, go dogs likes, But that's you could do that for Winnipeg now too, But Noah, Noah's what I'm doing. So I everyone's like, why do you keep doing that? Be doing, I know what you're doing. Someone wants you to fix the camera read. Well, you know, it's the end of the show. It's the end of the show, like to the camera, we had to go a little bit wider cuz you know, we had three guests come on for a little while. So we had to like change the camera angle. So there we go. Now we've got to in the center. Oh my gosh. Something we'll get, we'll get a Jersey. I have a hat here. William, I don't know where it went. William dropped off a hat for one of our we'll grab it after William dropped off an official gray cup hat. Paul he's the same one that got us, the Argos Jersey and the mark Jersey I'm wearing. So yeah. William stopped by the show and got us one of these I'm sure that I'm sure if Dorothy turned around, that's a nice hat. That's a very nice hat. I'm sure. If Dorothy turned around behind Reed and asked one of those gentlemen behind Reed right there to ask them, can I have your Winnipeg Jersey? They'd give it to her. They'd give it To her. We'll we'll get, we'll get Dorothy situated out. <Laugh> Jenna says hi. I see oh, Dorothy, did you freak out when re blew 400 on the gray cup fan base to put my name on there? It was Canadian. Wait, what was the, what? The trophy we took photos with yesterday. It was 400 Canadian. Oh, Oh. <Laugh> so two. And the people taking the photos were like, oh, is your name on here? Two? I was like, I don't think so. <Laugh> should have been the mark cast. Really? You spent $314 and 33 cents us, by the way, 342. And it was worth it forever on there. I will say that we were at the spirit, the Edmonton bar last night. And they had the gray up there. You could take photos and the fan base was not there. I was like, I thought that was the whole deal. The Fri this was the first time I had seen it outside of the unveiling. And it wasn't on the fan base. That's weird. Right? Cause it's like a base of the trophy goes on and they just had it on like a bar stool with a, with a apron of over it. I'm like, I thought I've been swindled. Well, yeah. Oh, we made friends with the, we were at Rochester. We made friends with the people that run the spirit of Edmonton. So it was really fun because they were, they were like giving us free admission and drink tickets. And I was Like, yeah, we got comped a lot. Last night for we got Is Great. Two bar comps. I will say walking into that reporter's room. You, we, I, Paul, just imagine this. And I want the people in the chat to just imagine, cuz we're told like, Hey, we're gonna go to a bar. We're going back to the hotel room. So Danny Austin paid for our Uber, right? So we're up $30 on Danny Austin now. And we have Dan, Annie Austin and Jamie I Dorothy and I, and then Ian, a friend, who's also a media member. We go back to this room, Tim baes Steve Simmons, Farhan nailer, Steve Milton, Ted Wyman. Tim baes. I said, I mean literally every single media person that we had on the show in the last year was standing in a hotel room. It was, it was absolutely insane. It was really fun. It was really fun. Everyone's so nice and welcoming. And it was just really fun to like, you know, you watch a show every week, but then like to like see people face to face, you know, I thought it was cool. So, and yeah, just hear more about who they are and their families and stuff. I thought it was really cool. My oh yeah. Darren was there and Nick was there. Yeah. Sorry Paul. My question is is Reed drinking before 10:00 AM? Cuz he gets a big, he gets, he gets has issues. If you drink before 10:00 AM. No I have not drank today yet. Cuz I was a little hungover last night, Jim, Jim Molan, our friend was throwing me shade in my DMS. He said he's we, he left at two 30. Jim says he's been at that party until 6:00 AM. Where, where Is Jim? Why didn't he show up today? Our old friend, Jim Jim is Jim is taking a personal stand against a gray against traveling to the gray cup this year. It's all we say. Okay. Okay. I was gonna say no, Paul, he has not been drinking before actually. I had a Caesar. Do you know what a Caesar is? I had a, is that a Canadian drink? Is that a, I've never, I'm like, I'm like an aspiring alcoholic and I've never heard of the Caesar thing for, Well, it's like a bloody Mary except for Clamato juice, which is like a sounds. Yeah, I know. But I almost bloody Mary, I almost ordered a bloody Caesar and they were like, don't say that it's just Caesar. I'm like, okay. Somebody wants your opinion of Canadians. Dorothy. I think they're so nice. They're so friendly. They're really polite. My mom's side of the family is actually from standard Alberta. So I'm part Canadian. Yeah. Oh look, Dorothy is Canadian. Will you accept Reed as one of your own? Now that Dorothy is there's, there's some, there's some Canadian roots that Reed is married into. Can you guys accept him as a Canadian, as an honorary Canadians stop giving him so much crap, please. We just wants to be part of your group. I still have Family in standard and Alberta. So there you go. Very cool stuff. I'm gonna say before we get too many people dropping off the chat. We'll head out here pretty soon when I'm gonna repost the video afterward. Obviously we have the NFU with the live stream link ahead of time, right? So the one that we've posted, everyone transitioned over. But if you see the video online after this, please like, and share it. I'm gonna post it again after, I mean, OB you know, we're just gonna post this, but I just share it around you. Thank you for the super chats. This has been a ton of work, Michael, at the bar, setting this up with the stage running internet that didn't really work. So we're hot spotting off my phone. Dorothy, ran to the store order to get this cable because we had to, it was, you know, we were down to the wire, getting all this going. So I really appreciate everyone sticking with us and I hope that it was enjoyable and everyone could hear everything. So we've had one, one More, one more super chat real quick. John burn said, Dorothy is waving on queen queen Elizabeth. I'm sorry. I missed that. I Sorry. Sorry John. Sorry, John. But Reed probably really needs to, to the, to the, to the men's room right now, it looks like he's been doing a little squirm for a while. So we're gonna wrap the show up. We think everybody for listening. Thank you again for your super chats. We definitely appreciate it. And thank you, Dorothy. And all of our guests for showing up, throwing out the Winnipeg, w we're gonna call it the Winnipeg w this weekend we Got like, and subscribe. We got our, you know, leave it through review mark guys. I got, see, I got all these banners. That's not bad. Look at that. Paul, Paul, I wish you were here. Wish you wish I was. I wish I was there. I wish Paul was here. We appreciate everyone hanging out 28 people. Now, I think we had max 35 throughout. I really appreciate everyone sticking new Jenna. Thank you. Frozen Delta, Wade, and everybody Zach's even on. Thanks Zach saying hi Americans know who queen Elizabeth is. Geez, come on. We're not that we're not that dumb. We're dumb, but we're not that dumb. I'm like addicted. Now I can't get off. We keep getting chats. I know Canada's missing Paul. I'm missing Canada, for sure. For sure. I will be there next year though. I hell are guys. We'll be at the game tomorrow. We'll be in the press box. I'll be posting photos. And then I'm trying to figure out what we're gonna do next week. I think I've been reaching out to some old people doing some more reacts of the state of the CFO address and kind of what we're thinking about that. So Tom may neck, the people remember he was on a while ago. We might try to get Tom on to kind of crunch the numbers on this business stuff. So I'm waiting to hear back. Very cool stuff. Thanks again for tuning in again, leave us a review at mar.com/review buy some merch support Reed's venture re Dorothy's venture out there to the great white north. And yeah, we'll be here next week with a non-live show, but maybe, maybe this might be a thing that we start doing even more regularly with these live shows because they seem to have great participation for the fans. We, the chat's been going all all, all all morning and we appreciate I'm saying morning, cuz it feels like morning over here, but we appreciate everybody coming in all the super chats again. Thank you for everything you've done and we'll see you here next week. Bye Reid. Bye Dorothy.

BONUS Episode - How Can the NEW USFL Make Money? Grey Cup 108 Preview

Hey guys Reid here. I just wanted to give you an update on what we have going on today. We're heading north to Canada, to Hamilton to cover the gray cup this weekend. But in the meantime, since we're going to be pretty CFL heavy here on our. Episode this weekend, we're going to do some USFL stuff today. We have Jeff Edelstein coming on. He is talking about sports, betting the USFL in Birmingham, how they could potentially make some money that way. I know there's been questions about how is the USFL going to make money without people in the stands and TV deals and stuff. So we talk a lot of sports, betting and fantasy with the USFL. Jeff's a really great interview that way. Then we have Mickey Shuey coming on. Mickey is the reporter that kind of broke the whole spring. Spring league. Lawsuit with Brian Woods. We get an update with Mickey. He's been talking with Brian Woods. We talk about where that lawsuit is, is kind of heading and what's going on with that. And then I do talk with Greg. Danette Greg is the director of the gray cups. So we're kind of segwaying into the CFL coverage here. We talked with Greg he's in Hamilton. We're kind of prepping for the gray cup this weekend, kind of the activities that are going on, how they help to kind of grow the gray comp and the Canadian game moving forward in the future. Greg great to get him on and kind of get included in that. And then as a final reminder, We're going to do our big live show this weekend. Saturday, it's going to be noon Pacific. It's going to be 3:00 PM. Eastern local, Ontario time. We're going to be a B George Hamilton. Restaurant and brewery in downtown Hamilton. So if you are in the area, Please come by. Say hi, we have some guests already announced via the Twitter at the Mark House. Dan Ralph Canadian hall of fame reporter is going to be on the shell. They'd nailers going to be on the shell. A lot of other former friends and guests of the podcast are going to about all of this anyway. So I think we'll do all that on the show. we have Jeff Edelstein here today with a sports handle and us bats. We're talking a little sports baddie. We're talking a little USFL, what time they will be of great interest to our listeners. How are you doing today? Jeff? I'm good, man. How you been? We're good. This is any chance we have right now to talk USFL with someone I'm, I'm curious, you know, your article came out last week. We're talking that the title of this episode is going to be, how will the new USFL make money? Right? Because a lot of concerns have been done with, you know, Limited attendance, right? We're in Birmingham, TV contracts, all that. So this is of great interest to me. And I assume our listeners as well. How did you get involved in, in covering this piece and working on this story? Probably because I'm a little bit of a degenerate daily fantasy sports player, quite frankly. And yeah. You know, when the XFL was playing, you know, two years ago I was playing the daily fantasy sports with it, you know, because I love football. Right. And I, I enjoy having a little money on the games. It was something fun. And. I kind of followed. You know, The AAF when they would, that was around that. I followed the XFL a little bit when it was around. And so, you know, with the USFL starting up. I figured, you know, I'm sure that as long as there's DFS contests being offered, I was going to play them. And also I am. Old enough to remember the original USFL. Go generals. You know, and so, you know, there, there, there is a little bit of like, You know, for people who are you. Probably like, you know, We'll have a certain age, right? There's a little bit of, you know, childhood that, that comes back with the USFL for sure. You know, so I'm definitely rooting for it to succeed without question. Yeah. So that was my interest here. I used to work in news too, and I'm trying to figure out like, you know, with did someone. Suggest this story to you, or did you, you kind of put the pieces together. You said this new, how did you hear. Cause we're still trying to gauge, right? Like how big of a deal is this new right. Rebrand realize. How did you discover that? Like, oh, the, the USFL is coming back in 2022. You know, probably just, I started on Twitter at some point. I'm sure. You know, like, I'm sure it'll just pass, you know, pass by my news street at some point. And then as soon as I saw it, I knew that I definitely wanted to write about it. And, you know, we, we cover the gambling industry. You know, from soup to nuts, really. And for me, I think that. You know, all these leagues in the past. You know, the last years they've struggled out of the gate, you know, It's a felony and obviously both you'll cut a full loop before they even had a chance to get a full season. I think the one thing that is different this time around for the USFL? Well, two things really jump out at me. One is the fact that Fox sports owns it. Right. You know, Fox has, you know, Fox bet has, you know, they have their own. You know, branded. Sports book. So that's going to help. And the other thing is that. I, you know, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but when the AAF launched, I think there were three states that had legalized online sports betting. Then with the XFL. I think there were eight or nine states. By the time the USFL kicks off in the spring, I think there might be up to like half the states in the nation might have legalized online sports betting. So I think it gives the USFL a little bit of a leg up. Now of course. Just because it's legal at sports, but it doesn't mean people are going to be betting on it. But I think it does give them an opportunity to really. I mean, if I was running the USFL, I would certainly be leaning heavily in to sports betting, leaning heavily in daily fantasy side of this. To try to get people who enjoy gambling and who enjoy football and enjoy daily fantasy sports. Together again in the spring because Lord knows we love doing it in the fall and winter. Well, yeah. And so, and those numbers match up. I was rereading your article this morning, they'll seem to be. And that was what was shocking to me as well was we've covered a lot of the CFL then passing legalized, single game sports betting up there right now, before that I'm sure, you know, more than I, but you don't like it had to be a parlay and now you can do whatever. So we tracked a lot of that because here's the CFL been around 108 years. It's still trying to figure out how to maximize revenue, get more revenue. So it would make sense, you know, in the states as well that maybe if you had. Had a league that wasn't as established as the NFL. Neat. You know, trying to figure out any additional revenue stream we can have, I guess the, the jump in numbers from. You know, we're the AAF to the exit felt now, I guess I never realized it was, it wasn't as legal in the states. I thought it was more across the board that you could do it. No. I mean, again, you know, it was just, you know, 2018 was when, you know, the, the law, the Supreme court overturned the possible ruling. Which allowed for sports betting, you know, New Jersey jumped in immediately. Pennsylvania was next. You know, and then, you know, but it's been a kind of a long torturous process for a lot of states and you have to remember. No, not legal in Florida. Still not legal in California. Still not legal in Texas. About to be legal in New York. You know, those four states combined is like broccoli, you know, nearly half the state. Out of the country. You know, so it's still like obviously a big growth space, you know, the legalized sports betting. And again, I think, you know, now will legalize sports betting. Like, you know, will it increase the revenue of the USFL? I mean, not directly, but certainly indirectly because the more people that watch the games, you. You know, the more they can charge for commercials and, you know, All the USFL needs to do as far from where I'm sitting is get through this first year. They can get through this first year without folding, like the other two leagues did that. I, I, you know, then I think then they're on the right path, you know, and again, by leaning into the gambling aspect of it and really by. And I don't know what their plans are with this. But if I were them, that's. That's the route I would take. Because it's probably, you all know. Interesting point. That has been underreported right now. Right now. You. No major league baseball is, you know, players are locked out right now. Well, the spill over to spring training probably will spill over to the regular season. Maybe. You know, All of a sudden the major league baseball is going through this labor problem. And, you know, people who normally would like turn to baseball to like get their DFS or sports betting fixed. Don't have it. You know, the USFL is, you know, sitting right there. You. Ready and wait for them. And the idea to where they're launching you when the XFL they've leaked. Now their timeline of 20, 23 will be in February. Right, right. After the super bowl. Yeah. You ended up competing a lot with like March madness and things kind of in the later part of that season where the USFL coming in, kind of after all of that, I mean, except for baseball, it's a pretty wide open, right? In terms of landscape of, of. I don't know. I mean, is baseball, the hottest Paul? My co-host would be mad that. But I don't know baseball is the hottest, like we're betting on it the same way we do like the NFL and football. The NFL. Is the clear leader when it comes to, you know, How much money people are wagering. And then usually you find. In March, you know, during the NCA tournament, the numbers spike again for sports betting. Yeah. Those are the two big ones. But again, people. You know that people very much, obviously clearly enjoy betting on football. People are well versed on how to do it. Right. And so again, It just leaves the USFL with. Little bit of like this wide open lane. Where there'll be the only football in town for those few months. And, you know, It will give people the opportunity to waiter and the other smart thing with us. It seems to be doing. And there's probably lines up pretty well with the idea of a sports betting angle. Is that, from what I understand, at least it appears. There will be four games a week, but they'll each be standalone. So you'll be able to, you know, If you want to watch all four games, jewel. And you'll be easily able to do that. And again, there there's a direct correlation between, you know, televised sports and people who. Bet on sports, right. You know, you're not going to get that many people betting on some, if they can't watch. Well, and you said it's something that people know again, just going back to the CFL and them trying to encourage, you know, More. I'm not watching the CFL. Okay. I don't know what that I know. Where they're playing NFL rules, right? Not that, that is the be all end all, but like, I know this game, I kind of understand. You know, the core mechanics, right. Of what makes a good. I'm running back and what makes a good players that I need to pick up. It's a little more with where the CFL. Is the same, the same game, but it's really not. I mean, there's a lot of micro kind of differences between the two. Sure. The three downs, his extra player. The Rouge, which I still, I, I, you know, I know my CFL, but not, I still don't understand exactly the Rouge. You know, I'm not there yet. But yeah, no. The USFL has that. You know, it's going to be, you know, typical American football and, you know, You know, to make money. For them is just to survive that first year. And I'd leave into that sports gambling. Lehman with DFS. And I'd also lean into the, you know, the, the be able to reminisce for people of a certain age to be like, Hey, you know, cause the USFL, you know, For people who weren't around to witness it. It was huge for the first two years. It really, I mean it rude eyeballs and it drew top talent. The Ozzy. Honestly, this version of the USFL is dot, going up to the top talent I talked to, I was like, We go in there, but I mean that original. You know, League was fun. You know, and it really, it really provided a Joel. No again, I. I, if I were, then I think they are leaning into it, obviously, because, you know, All of the teams are the same team names as they were, you know, back way back when. I don't know. We'll see. We'll see. Do you. And we've debated this, obviously on the show, the last couple of weeks. We have a, there was a sound bite with Daryl Johnston's one of their, he's like the EVP or whatever of the league talking. And. Yeah, the question was, well, you're not targeting, you are targeting MFL cities, right? Where the exit foul did more of the, you know, St. Louis and whatever, you know, obviously there were some carry over. And his response was, well, these are the kinds of the trademarks we had. These were the old names, and I wondered from a 20, 22 league basing cities in ideas, right off of properties that were established back in the eighties. I mean, do you, what do you think about that as someone that covers the sports landscape? Like, well, that was a good scene that we chose back in 82. So we're going to do that in 2020. I mean it's a 40 year difference in terms of what major cities might draw more viewership. That's true. I don't know how much I have to worry about in this first year of being. They announced Birmingham as the host city yet, or no. This is all preserved. Yeah. We're, we're still waiting on that. So, I'm not sure that it matters on first year. I, you know, I think. It's going to be hard like for fans in Philadelphia to. Really get behind the stars when all their games are in Birmingham. But again, I do think that like, this is going to keep costs down, obviously by playing everybody in the same city. And. My dog agreed. You know, it's this one. This is one mail lady. That's it. So substitute mail person, dog does not care. Sorry about that. That's okay. What it's like legit reset. I'll clean it up. The ones made a second until he shuts up. That's why all this clean it up, you can keep going. I just made myself a note. Yeah. I don't know how much it matters that first year. Right. Because I think she. Needs to survive and keeping costs down. We'll work out. Wouldn't shock me if they survive the year. And like going in there and going to 20, 23. And the Philadelphia stars become the, you know, the Delaware stars. You don't, you know what I'm saying? Or, you know, the, the. You know, the New York team ended up. You know, playing him, you know, Cincinnati who knows, you know, I think right now, it's just. As drowns and said, those are the trademarks. They have them, they're using them. They're leaning into the, you know, the Romanism, you know, the reminiscing part of all this. It's hard. It's hard to say whether or not. Like. I mean, are they really going to play in giant? You know, I'd met life stadium in 23. That seems. It would be impressive. Right. It would be. It would be an impressive feat. But, you know, I just hope they get through 2022. Honestly. You know, I wasn't getting through 20, 22. And put a good product on the field. Right. I want to see them. Really, really, really take advantage of legalized sports betting. I really, really wants to even take advantage of daily fantasy sports. And I, you know, listen. You know, the NFL can talk about being the most popular league in the world. And you know, the billions of dollars you franchise is worth, blah, blah, blah. Take fantasy sports out of the equation. And the NFL is not what it is today. Right. Take sports budding out of the equation. The NFL is not what it is today. There's no question in my mind that that's true. Football. It just lends itself really well. The Ford spending and daily fantasy sports. And for the USFL to succeed. They're going to have to really, really, really, really embrace it. Do, when it comes to a new league like this, and we talked earlier about obviously, you know, similar rules and stuff. If you're having the mix of players where maybe we know some right for maybe, you know, maybe the CFL people that came back to the states are playing in USFL, or we knew him in the exit or whatever. I mean, does that, do people worry about that when it comes to the fantasies? Have you. Does it take a little while to get into that? If it's like unknown players, like totally unknown where it's not, oh, I know Derek, I'm going to draft Derrick Henry. I know that he's going to run. Yeah, there's going to be, there's certainly going to be like a. You know, It's talking to go like this, you know? It's a slower path up. But. There's plenty of people who. Will. Be advocating for the USFL on there. You know, websites on their Twitter feed, you know, there'll be plenty of people who listen for. For every person. That writes a gambling column. We're writes a daily fantasy sports column. That's probably 10,000 people that want to do it right. And so, you know, when things like this happen, there's always the opportunity. For. Quote unquote amateurs, right? To, you know, start their own websites, start their own Twitter feed. And, you know, I'm seeing people very quickly gain relatively big followings. Covering Nishi sports, right. And this definitely qualifies. So I think once it gets going, I think there'll be plenty of information out there for people who want the information. Right. And again, it is a question of like, how much do you want it? Right. You know, how many, how many people are diehard enough football fans, and they're going to watch. You know, a lesser. You know, a lesser version of football. You know, the XFL. Did not. You know, COVID torpedoed. And obviously that really destroyed. I mean. Excitingly. It was an exciting game. It seemed a little bit more like grounded pound football. You know, I, you know, I haven't seen the rules for the USFL. I hope that the game is wide open. I hope that they encourage things like conversions and going from our fourth day on it. You know, Kick off with blah, blah, blah. Yeah. So I think if they put a good product on the feeling siding product on the field, And if they. You know, do everything in their power to get, you know, the gambling part, portion of America interested in it. They haven't shot. I really believe it. I think a lot was made and I just, I know cause Mark Perry, he's, we're hosting on XFL new Sabbath. And he's a big fantasy daily sports guy. A lot was made that the XFL really didn't steer into that too much with the fantasy. That first go round, which seemed odd and, and mark was kind of building. And I know that that was always his goal was to run, you know, XFL fan, they see through the website and to do it again right. When they come back was that. Shocking to you that the XFL, when, when steer into that more as a way, like, Hey, we're trying like anything we can do to get, I mean, hire two guys to build, you know, it shouldn't be. It is hard, but it shouldn't be that hard there. I, to build those things into a league and I mean, does that say anything to whether the USFL, right? I mean, I'm conjecturing here, but I think, I mean, I guess being up and dancing around a little bit, the USFL would be stupid. Not completely and whole heartedly leaned into daily fantasy sports. And Dell and sports betting, their broadcast should be littered with it. Their Twitter feed. We'll be littered with it. They should be partnering with every gambling site. And daily fantasy said that they, that is willing to partner with them. They should give it away. Right. And to let DraftKings and FanDuel. You know, and Caesars and Ben MGM. And let everyone promo the crap out of it. Right. Just give it away. Let you. Because that is listen. It's not, I'm not breaking news here. That sports betting is, you know, growth industry. And, you know, clearly on the rise. For any leak to not lean into it. You're shooting yourself in the foot. You know, you're starting you're, you're starting down the eight ball. You're you're you're putting yourself in a position to fail. Right from the get-go. So hopefully the USFL knows this and sees. Listen, it goes with it. And again, being owned by Fox sports. That leads me to believe. That they know. This to be true. Yeah, just, and just kind of my last question, you kind of ran out of this conversation cause just a lot's been made of. You know, it's in Birmingham, how many people were actually going to go to the games? Right? Are they. And a lot's been made that this is more like you're producing the reality of reality TV show, right? I mean, you're, you're producing content here, right? It's not so much like you need fans in the stands, right? To, to make it appear as though it's a football game. Right. But ultimately if you're producing it for the TV viewers, right. And because of that, you're producing that for potentially, you know, sports betting and fantasy players to be, you know, giving them more incentive to watch. It doesn't necessarily matter if you have 5,000 or 20,000 people in the stands. Right. It's it's the viewership across the country. I'm just wondering, like we've said, you know, if I'm in Philadelphia or Seattle, do I care about the new Orleans breakers game? I don't know. And that's what we're going to find out. Not this year. You won't, I mean, that seems impossible, right? Because you know, there, there there's no home teams, right. But. I think it's again, more important for them just to, you know, It doesn't matter if the fans are in Philadelphia or they're in Des Moines, or if they're in Seattle or if they're in Los Angeles. Just start your, I mean, you know, your water. And places where they can bet legally. It's really what it comes down to. And, you know, I probably, you know, any advertising dollars that they have probably wouldn't waste them right now in California or Texas. Right. I'd probably like gambling. Spend time in states where this stuff is legal. And she seems to have anything else before I let you go. This has been interesting. Go generals. Well, Jeff, I appreciate it. I think this is going to be fascinating to watch here as we continue I imagine this with the USFL, we'll probably do better than our big live show in Canada, just because of the way our listenership, but really enjoys this sort of stuff. So. All right. And it's the Indianapolis business journal. Correct. Cool. Yeah. And I watched your one with mark and everything. And so yeah, we been. Eh, it works out that sometimes we like, oh shoot, I was going to have him on or whatever, because we're always trying to like book gas around each other. And it's like, oh, you got whatever said this. Somebody get. Well, we have Mickey Shuey here with the Indianapolis business journal. I Mickey's also been on accidental news help. We can review talking about this USFL stuff. So now we have an update we're working on. This, I guess, lawsuit involving Brian Woods and the spring league. First off Mickey, how are you doing today? I'm doing well. Thank you so much for having me. Did you ever imagine going down this rabbit hole of. You know, what is it? Business, lawsuits and everything else that you would be involved in the USFL and XFL podcast. Well, I mean, Every day brings something new, right. So, so certainly wasn't on my, on my list of things I ever expected to do, but, but happened to be here. And talk about what we know and, and frankly, what we. At this point. So let's catch everyone up to speed. You know, before we get into maybe any new details going on, what is your understanding of the situation thus far involving Indianapolis and the spring lake? So as your, as your viewers may know the. The spring league. Earlier this year. Hosted. Several of its games, games in Indianapolis as part of an effort to, to have it seasoned. Splitting their season between Indianapolis and Houston. So they hosted six games in Indianapolis and stayed at the crown Plaza union station. Right downtown, actually just about a block from the, from Lucas oil stadium. The games were held. But in the months that have followed. They have not yet paid. That our deaths on. On both the stadium. And the rooms for. The for the hotel. So they're currently facing about $1.4 million of lawsuits. About one point. One of that is 1.1 million of that is from the. Hotel another tutor. 30 Some thousand is from the, from the capital improvement board, which owns the stadium. And then there's a smaller amount about 35,000. From Butler university where the. Spring league held practices and a few other ancillary at events. This is fascinating. We've we've covered this all through. You know, we were involved when the spring league was in San Antonio last November at this point, and they had their big. You know, bubble season and they have the outbreaks and there was a. Claims that players were being fed properly or lots of different things going on. You know, we have Ryan Woods on the show back then. It is interesting how like history repeats itself because you know, I I've posted this a lot in the USFL groups. And people say, well, this doesn't, you know, Does that, does that mean anything to do with the USFL? And, you know, our belief is always, you know, we're Brightwood CEO of the spring league now is involved in a very similar role in the USFL with Fox. You know, with another football league, this is why this all matters. Right? This isn't like someone that owned a restaurant and then, okay, whatever. Now I'm going to give you, I mean, this is someone that was in, in management, in one league now coming to another league, do you. With all this USFL stuff coming out as well with Brian. I mean, do you, does it seem alarming that this stuff's coming out now considering he's being placed in the, in a management role, in the new league as well? Well, to me, it's above my pay grade to say whether something's alarming or not, but, but based on the facts in front of us, I mean, Certainly. There, there are ties between the leagues between Fox having a role in both. The USFL and its partnership in minority stage. In the spring league. I I've had the, the opportunity to speak with. Brian a couple of times. And, and, and I think you would probably agree that he's, he's very passionate about what he does. And, and really for him is just. Like. It seems to really come down to the financial questions and. And it seems like there's other investors in these leagues, but. But where that money goes and why these bills aren't being paid is kind of the, the question that's at the top of my mind. So whether it's for the spring league or for the USFL. I think the question really is. Or the. Or the funds there for this to be successful. And that remains to be seen. Brian. And, and we'll talk about this here a little bit in a moment, but what Brian has indicated that he wants to pay off these debts to. To the city and into the hotel. But. He really hasn't yet given any. Any indication as to what that process looks like. It's interesting because in, in your original article, which was, you know, shared with us by one of our listeners and then really went kind of viral, right. Which is how this all started, because I don't think. You know, tracking the staff and we obviously have kids that. Well, look at these things online and trying to pass that line, but this was something they went. Pretty viral for us. And what was alarming to me was in the article, it said, you know, Brian Woods had been corresponding, I think, via email and said, yeah, I'm going to be closing on the large amount of money here coming up. And that money will be used to pay right. The remaining debt. And we all assume, okay, well that would obviously be something to do with Fox USFL ride, acquiring things, you know, bringing them in whatever. And it seems weird with all this progressing with the USFL, like you said, that. The these funds still haven't been paid and the data is still outstanding. Yeah. So Brian has not been willing to share much about the current financial state of the spring league or, or himself. And that's understandable because. You're kind of limited in what you can and can't say. When you are in the middle of lawsuits and litigation. So fully respect that, but, but really there's a lot of questions that remain to be answered about what the viability of the screen league is moving forward. And. How, if at all that affects. The viability of the USFL and, and. Roll on that. So, so now we're up to date here. You've, you've corresponded with Mr. Woods. Cause obviously, you know, we're trying to get, and that's what we did back with the San Antonio staff, you know, tried to get all sides. So what kind of new information do we have now? So he has acknowledged. To me that they. That the spring league. Is aware that it's being sued. And they are. As of last week, they were working to get some, some council set up. Some legal counsel set up for. To deal with the situations they they've indicated. They want to get this matter. Taking care of quickly. I. I have not yet spoken with. Mr. Woods yet this week, but, but he had indicated that there, there may be a possibility that it could get wrapped up. I relatively quickly. So at this point there, as I said, there's still some lingering questions about where things stand, but he, he did acknowledge that he's frankly, a little bit embarrassed by the situation and that. That happened at all. But, but he wants to get it taken care of. Quickly and. As you can understand a, probably a little bit more quietly than, than what's happening right now. You cover a lot of business, right? Staff, real estate transactions, things like that. Something that has been ongoing since, you know, may at this point. Right. And then. Correspondence and things back in October now, we're in December. Is that a normal timeline for length of. Still owing money on something and working towards the resolution. So Tiffany. Really the, the city has not had a situation like this, that I've been able to come across. In my research. And, and the. The documents that we've seen. Had two dates of. June to August of. When they needed to be paid. Of when these bills needed to be paid by. So I think it's rare that this happens. It's unfortunate when it happens. But. It in business. There's always going to be situations that pop up. From time to time. Somebody having money issues. I mean, It's it's as. As much of a given as the sun coming up. Every day. And study setting in the evening. So it, again, it's unfortunate when that happens, but, but when it does, it's significant because Indianapolis is a city that's known for. Taking risks on big events. I mean. The city hosted the entire NCAA men's basketball tournament earlier this year. And pull that off with the very few hitches of. If any. So the city is known for its commitment to sports. And when something like this happens, the question needs to be asked. I think. Why did it happen in it? And it really just, it seems like a combo of a bad luck. And, and based on the interviews that I've. I've conducted maybe some. Lack of. Research done on the league ahead of time, because. As I pointed out in the story running Friday day. They could have done. Google search and come across a couple of these issues that you've touched on. And that had been written about in the past. What we've never gotten. And obviously the USFL is different now with, you know, presumably going to be paying players and things to come in. You know, the spring league never paid their players, right. It was a pay to play. Some people got the waivers to come taking care of, you know, I think there was a small amount of money. You know, to some of the outstanding players, you. Th that to draw them in, but I never understood where the money went. Right. You know, we're on Fox where, you know, we're being advertised. There is viewership, right. You know, anywhere in the, in the Mayle season. You know, 300 to 500,000 viewers, you know, a game, right. Depending some of the, you know, the Fs two games, but I just never got. And like you said, you know, where is this money going or where does it end up when it's not being paid? Presumably the hotels and stadium would be the most significant right fee of anything that was incurred by the league right in their time in Indianapolis. I mean, where, what other money would be spent there? You know, except for coaches, right in equipment. Right. And really, I mean, As I said. Brian was not willing to really talk about finances of the league. Which again is his prerogative. But, I mean, if you think about it, If there's 450 players in this league. That each have to pay that $2,000 fee. The not mine. I'm just going to go way past that's about. $900,000. Oh, that's coming in on top of whatever they're getting from a TV deal, whether it's just kind of trading goods and services in that case, I don't know. But, but there's really not a lot of money coming in from the. From the participants in this model. And especially this year, there really weren't a lot of fans because of COVID protocols. Especially here in Indianapolis. Very few fans attend. The games. I don't have specific numbers, but. But Mr. Woods himself. Acknowledged that, that there really were very few bands who went to the games because the games were. Marketed. All that much. So. So there's not a big pot of money there in the first place. It will be interesting to see though. What approach the USFL shakes and, and how they, and how they handle paying players and, and generating revenue. Moving forward. What was most interesting to me when you talked with mark was kind of your, and I mean, this is all the flyway, like really didn't even know this was going on, like in the city because of how minimal of a deal it was. Right. You know, Just like, wow, like this you are, and you said like, I'm someone that covers the sports, be it like all these things. And I didn't know this was going on here. Weird, you know, no marketing, we've heard various theories that, you know, they didn't want the market cause they wanted to be able to prove the value of it on its own. Right before we deal with this. Yeah, it just weird to me. All of this whole situation. Any other weirdness of this that strikes you from anything else you've uncovered. I mean, you, you kind of hit on the head that it, it, it was strange. To come across this lawsuit or. To have my colleague forward. This lawsuit and prompt me to write about it because. Yeah, it did come out of nowhere. I, I covered the full men's basketball tournament. I've covered indie car and the NFL. And this is a sort of thing that in typical years would probably have caught my eye. If there was any sort of marketing for it because. I mean, I like to think I'm, I'm good at my job, but frankly, it's readers who are letting us know about some of these things. And and say, Hey, what is this what's going on here? And we didn't really have anything like that happened this time. I'm still a little bit perplexed as to how that happened and how these games occurred without it. Even being, being up on my radar, but, but in any case, it's. I think. The most. Intriguing part of all, this is. That. You and I. Wouldn't be able to get a hotel room. Anywhere really without having our credit card and. Oh, they're paying, paying in a posit paying in full. Or having our car on file so they could charge us. As soon as we leave, but then an organization, whether it's this organization or, or any large group. Can go to a hotel and say, Hey, we promised to pay you this money at some point. And seemingly didn't even have to put down a positive that's. That's really the most intriguing part to me about this and, and in targeted people, that's how the business. And works. It's just not something you think of that often. So, so just kind of thinking it from that perspective. It's really interesting that, that, that is able to happen at all. Do you any insights into why that happened in this particular case? I mean, obviously Lucas oil and all that, you know, everyone's been talking to you or at least in the last, since we any indication why they just took the good word of this. Well, Lucas oil. They did have to put down a $75,000 deposit. And, and they paid that no problems. And in talking with a source. Familiar with the deal. They did some, some research, but there were really. As this person put it. No, no red flags that went up. For this situation. So certainly. Conventions and convention centers have different criteria that they look at than perhaps you and I do or, or. Followers of these leads. Do. But. I mean. Indianapolis has built a good reputation of, of bringing in strong events. And by all indications, they thought this was going to be just another event. And there weren't going to be any problems. So, so yeah, I mean, it just, it's one of those things that fell through the cracks. And, and I think it's left the city with a little bit of egg on. At space, but, but in the grand scheme of things, $1.4 million, isn't. Gonna make or break the Indianapolis convention center. They have a strong reserve. And I'm sure the hotel will be just fine too. They're not going to want to have to absorb that. $1 Million. Loss if they have to, but. But I don't expect that that's going to have any long-term detrimental impact on them. I guess. Yeah, that was be my last question. Before I let you go. How significant of a fee is 1.4 million for the operating cost of the convention center. You said, I mean, Not a drop in the bucket, but not something that's going to cripple them. Yeah. I mean this year, the convention center had a budget. I want to say around 130 to $150 million. I mean, and that was operating with a deficit just because of pandemic. Related. Expenses. But it's. Again, it's not going to cripple them, but it's still significant in the fact that this happened at all. And, and, and I can tell you that people aren't exactly thrilled that. Good. This is happening. But they're also not. Aye. I would be surprised if anybody lost their job over the situation. Okay. Well, Mickey, I appreciate your time today. We'll keep you up, you know, keep us up to date with everything going forward and, you know, hopefully we talk again in the future when. And then at. That's a good comment. Well, I'm excited today. We have Greg Dennett, the director of the grey cup festival. We're getting ready to come up to Hamilton here. This will air kind of as we're hitting the road, how are you doing today? Read, I'm doing great. The, the gray cup officially arrived back in Hamilton this morning and the first time since 96. So a great kickoff to our grey cup week and a ton of. I get stopped to come is their hometown voice. Hopefully bring this one home. Yeah. I want to talk about that first off. I mean, obviously you, you know, you want to be an unbiased, right? You're working, you know, whatever, but I mean, it's got to feel good to have Hamilton here representing at-home being a part of all this. I mean. A hundred percent. I grew up here and it's the last time we had the, we raised the trophy was 99. The last time we hosted was 96. I won't give away my age completely, but I was in high school for both of those. Those wines. So I just, you know, you can the excitement and the s*******t palpable. And I think that comes from just everybody being incredibly excited and this opportunity to. To win a championship at home. Doesn't it doesn't happen very often. I think we're the first team. For the last time was 13 with the riders there when they got to do that. So it's been a few years since someone got to do that and hopefully. Hopefully this year, that's what happens. So. Yeah, it seemed like right. You know, once Hamilton kind of progressed on, you know, tickets finally, you know, There was a few lingering tickets sold out. It seems like excitement really is an all time high, just in terms of the Hamilton buzz kind of going into it. Yeah, the games sold out. And I mean, again, you know, With the fact that, you know, we are still in the midst of a pandemic has fantastic response has been incredible, not just in, in our city, but across the country. And in terms of people coming to the game. But yeah. You know, our tie, our tie cast organization has an incredible season seat holder base and, and they've shown up at a great level. And then now, you know, the, the people who were kinda. Waiting to make sure the hometown boys are in the game. They jumped in very quickly, obviously Sunday, to your point, we sold those last few hundred tickets to get us over the hump and sell the game out. So it was pretty incredible. How much pressure is it? It's, it's been a weird season, right? Lots of protocols and things. This being the first real let's get everyone in how fun, I mean, just not pressure, but just like we, you know, we want it it's everyone coming together finally. Right. They have the excitement. I mean, how much pressures it's really deliver a, you know, a quality event for everyone coming? Yeah. I mean, That is. From from stadium too, too fast, you know, or Dre cup week as we're calling it. This year is that, that is really the number one objective, right. Is to first and foremost, we've got to make a, a safe environment for everyone. And then second of all is putting on, on the world-class events and, and the events that are synonymous with grey cup. So obviously with a modified gray cap Fest festival or gray cap week, because of the fact that the pandemic was impacting our season throughout. We had to go that road, but at the end of the day, those. Those key events that a expand and make the great, the game great like coaches conference and media availability, and the commissioner will do his student league for both the media and. And the fans. So all of those are master going on and then, you know, When I took this job two years ago, a. The. The team parties. At every grade copper kind of the heart and soul of a great cop. Anybody who goes, it's just a. An incredible. Experience where. People in nine different sets of colors from head to toe show up and get along. Great. And have a fantastic time and consume a few beverages and, and really just, it really is the coming together of. Of the nation. I, you know, As someone who's had the privilege to go to 10 to 12 red chops, I would say the team parties and the grey cup as a whole, or it's just a great sense of Canadiana because people do wear their. Their colors. From head to toe and, and as a generally modest country, we don't always do that, but a great cop. Everyone does that. It's a really fun. Exciting experience. As I've said to everyone who hasn't had the opportunity to come to one of these yet in our city. You just, you gotta come out and you gotta check it out because it's such a fantastic, it's just different, but it's such a good difference. So, We've got those great events that are gonna make the fans have a great experience leading into game day. And then I think, you know, the game day experience that has been put together from the shop and social interested T to the, to the halftime show with the Arkells and the Lumineers and. And K Flay is a pretty amazing. Conclusion to the game day and end of the week as a whole. Yeah. I want to talk about the kickoff to you. I want to talk about the music stuff, but. Does any, when you guys are trying to put this together promote, and obviously Hamilton is getting the grey cup ERI, all that, everything, Greg hub and everything again in 2023. Yeah, so much has been made, you know, growing the CFL game. You know, most of our listenership, it's probably, you know, 70, 30, right Canadian to us, you know, where we have the majority in the U S. For people, they are, are discovering the CFL. Now through past talks with the XFL different interests in alternative leagues, besides the, the NFL. Does that give into to embrace that too? What do you guys do to help that overall arching message of. Mission of trying to kind of grow the CFL game. As it is needing to continue now kind of in the future. Yeah, I, I. You know, it starting with that foundation. Of of those key events, right. That I just talked about and I, with what we've. With. Where the world has been this year. This was, this was what we needed to do to ensure that when we come back in 23, we've got some pretty, we've got some pretty nice cards up our sleeves for 2023 in terms of events and experiences that. Are not only gonna make. You know, they don't really showcase Hamilton. So again, You know, read, have you been to Hamilton before? No. We're going headfirst in there. Okay. Here we go. I love it. Cause the, you know, the Hamilton that you would have seen in 1996 compared to the Hamilton and the it's two completely different cities. So, what we're trying to do is we're trying to showcase, what's amazing about the city of Hamilton and, you know, we've got events that we had started down the path of planning that have now been we'll we'll pull back out in 2023. So we've got those key events. But then, but then you also, you want to grow the game and you want to make right. Part of it is, is building on the successes of previous grade cops. So, you know, one of the things that happened in Calgary was Eastern social house. So instead of that, Argos and the Ty cats and the owls and the red blacks all play in kind of smaller hosting, smaller parties. We all came together to host a bigger party. That's kind of what we got at Hamilton this year, we've got an Eastern social hall and a Western social hall, and both of those events will prominently. Feature the two teams playing in the game. However, I think that's a model that can help us drive a game going forward. And then, you know, like I think as we go into 2022 in Saskatchewan and come back here in 2023, As you know, Those fusions of. Food and culinary and music. I think that continues to grow right. The, the fusion of sport and music. And that's what we're going to look to do is continue to grow that. So it becomes an experience. And people go to the counter, the gray cap here in Hamilton in 2021. And they go, I'm going to go to Regina because I was so much fun. And then we'll come back and that's how we kind of build out layer upon layer to, to grow the game. Across the country as, as the game moves around. As Canada's largest annual sporting event. So we have, you know, American listeners don't obviously the, the easy equation is to. Superbowl, right. You know, just the end of the season. Right. You know, the top two teams playing against the head there, but, well, we've been told ever since we got involved in all the CFL staff is it's different. It's a whole week. It's a celebration. It doesn't matter what team you support everyone. I mean, weather. Eh, what are the key differences you guys try to highlight? Right. And go, and this is why this is a more inclusive, a more exciting event, you know? Where the Superbowl is, you know, $10,000 calm and, you know, sit in the back of the state. You know what I mean? It's a little more party, fun vibe. It is the, you know, I I, my, my buddy Vince, who runs the convention center here, I started every morning asking him. If he's got enough beer for the week, because yes, there's a, obviously it is to your point. It is just, it is a. It's a party. And it's, but there's, there's a sense of closeness that I think it hasn't. You know, it's not overly corporate. It is. It is people from all walks of life. Come together. And they get in a room. And again, it doesn't matter if you're wearing. You know, I prefer to not be wearing blue and gold this week, but if you are so, be it. But if you were on black and gold or for you're wearing double blue or you're wearing. You know, rider green. You know, you just share. To share stories. And then as you go to gray cop after gray cop, it's like now you've got prime. And as you see every year, right? So that is, that's what it is. It's a sense of community. And I, I, I, again, I haven't been fortunate enough to go to a super bowl. But I can say that one of the best parts of Dre cop week. Is that. There's this sense of national community. That is people who, you know, and friends who you see once a year. And I think we saw that last year when the pandemic, how does not have a great cop. Was was that loss of that sense of community and the excitement now for this year with everybody coming back, it has been incredibly noticeable, not just in our local market, but across Canada here. When it comes to booking the music gas, right. Our cows. We're pretty well-known right with the Ty cats, right. The theme song and kind of all of that stuff. Coming in Lumineers. Like my wife is incredibly excited about that. Right. I said that when they announced that I said if as many people in Canada listened to the, the Lumineers as my wife does, and then. That's it. That's obviously a good tech, but I want to talk about Steven Lee Olsen. What you're made of is such a pivotal song for the CFL. When they were announcing all this. I say, it's going to be a crying shame if he's not involved in all this. I mean, talk about all the different musical acts and kind of how that all came together. Yeah. Hey, it's a, it's an incredible, it's an incredible process. And, you know, with, with everything going on and it was such a unique year, I mean, as much as sports and entertainment. You know, the music industry has been incredibly impacted by the pandemic too. Right. So just not at a whole. Other layer of complexity this year, but you know, it kinda, as we. I think one of the things that happened was when we modified the gray top, just as the excitement is drawn. We kept adding an attic. Right. And I think so if you had, have asked anybody in Hamilton, when we got the great hotbed, who should be the halftime. Act. In, I guess I was 2018. The answer probably would have been the Arkells. I mean they're Hamilton boys. They're probably. There. I don't, it's probably inarguable at this point that they're the biggest rock band in Canada and making ways with their songs on sports casts across north America. So that made sense. The Lumineers get was, I mean, to your point, my wife and your wife were going to get along because they are. They are equally as excited. I think both Arkells and lumineer. Luminaires or are to have a. My wife's five favorite bands. So that's fantastic. And you again, Steven Lee Olsen. The connection with the song, you know, you can't watch a CFL game without hearing it a few times. And then, and then our great partners is Sirius XM. We've added the tailgate. Which is happening from one to four on leading into kickoff there. So fans can come in, they can listen to and sorry, I'm just, I know he, he just wants to let me just. The top of the country competition winner. Avaya mighty and the truth. And again, the trues. Though a Halifax ban. Consider. I should say Audi span. I'm not sure they're from Halifax. The truth is they consider Hamilton to be their home. So, you know, they're getting to set tie into that local, that local, but bands that are have a national and international impact. So that's kind of how it. All came together. As in terms of the, you know, the outside events, obviously the gray cup is kind of the highlight, but the commissioner Ambrozy right. State of the CFL address, the unveiling of the grey cup fan base, which we are a part of. As the podcast as well, we got involved in all that kind of back whenever that was months ago. But. You know us. As someone that's obviously a fan of the league too. That has to be so much has happened with the CFL in the last year. Right? What are we doing in the future? That has to be a key highlight, right? For media and fans. Like what is the, say the CFL, what is the vision moving forward? Do you want to talk about that and just. How B I, to me, that just seems like a really big moment and the pivotal part moving forward. Yeah, I think, you know, you kind of touched on it there. What, what makes this league great is that the commissioner sits down with 500 to a thousand fans and answers their question in open forum. So again, You know, the media. The media part of that state of the league is I think a traditional professional sports league kind of initiative where we're, where that address of where the league is funding to go. But then. You know, I think one of the great things that Randy has done is a. Get out there and talk to the, talk to the fan. So whether with this fantasy, the league he did is Randy road, road trips back in the day. And it really. You know, it is that communicating with the fans and, and bring, you know, understanding why, how they want the game to grow. And I think that's a huge part of what the CFL is all about is listening to our fans. So I think to your point, that event is just a great way for. For fans to have that opportunity to speak their mind. I mean, I think Brandy's usually gotta get some softballs, but is it usually gets a question too. He's got a, he's got a Dodge, but, but those are, that's an important thing to. Have transparency in your league. And I think Randy does a great job on all of that. Last question for me just as a fan yourself. I mean, where do you wanna see the league progress and where you want to see the gray cups keep going? And where do you want to see things grow kind of in the future? It's a good one. I mean, it's a, I. So I'm a, I'm a Hamilton boy born and raised. So you see that 25 years of grown up again, what that grey cup festival was 25 years ago. And I think, you know, In 23 while we're going to get to do. I just think is, you know, making it more and more. You know, Some were some, you know, continuing to grow that base of where people want to come. Across the country and experienced this. Because when you do that and you create platforms that allow. All groups within the local marketplace to participate in it. Right. More inclusive. That's that's incredibly important. And again, I, we, again, I'm I'm I keep referencing everything we had planned in. Or that will will do in 2023 that I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep in my back pocket for now, but, but I think that's it. Again, I, you know, More and more that, that, that integration and music, and, you know, I think everybody hosts in the gray cup in my role or any other role. We all support when the home team is in the game, though, again, as a Hamilton guys prefer the Thai cast to be in there. So when it's out west, I support a Thai cats. Western final. I think those are the big things continuing to grow the game. I know we got, we got a lot of things in the hopper that our income come down in the next few months coming out of this season. But. Turning it into a week long celebration of our country, our league and our communities is, is what we're going to continue to try to do. So. Well, Greg, it's a busy week. I'm sure. You know, I said the trophy flew in today. I know it's a busy week. I appreciate you taking the time to sit down and talk in that we're excited to be up there. And finally, we've heard about this all year, so we're going to be a part of everything and I'm very excited to see what you guys have to offer. So well, read a, a pleasure to meet you. I'm excited to have you. Have you here in Hamilton and as per grey cup tradition, when you get in town and we run into each other.

Episode 69 - The XFL Cinematic Universe

What's up, what's going on. It's Friday morning. Welcome to the Mar cast. We are your hosts. We are here. We are chilling. And we are plotting our way to get into Canada. We're trying first off, Paul Paul is back. Has power. We were going to record earlier with all the actually worked out good because we have all the XFL stuff go crazy. And so it actually probably worked out better than I could kind of process this and get everything together now, but it is a late night recording. So we will do our best. We might be a little brief on some things tonight, but yeah, I appreciate you hopping on after work, Paul. I'm glad that my Internet's back up. I'm glad my power's back up. Apparently there was an explosion. At our apartment complex down the street. And that's what knocked me out for the better part of a day. So we're back. We're online. We're ready to go. Yeah. So we are trying to pull our way into Canada. We're still. It's frustrating. I mean, obviously we're going, we have tickets and all that, but we're still waiting on our media stuff. I was going to name the episode tonight. Like in route to the gray cop, I was going to do planes, trains and automobiles, maybe you and I is John candy. And Steve Martin. But instead, now we're going to do the XFL say the amount of universe, because a lot of XFL stuff came out today at night. We have a lot of CFL stuff tonight, but I'm just feeling a little. You know, I'm feeling a little bit, whatever. So that's where, that's where I found that last night. That's why, if anyone wants to know why we're talking to a lot of CFL, we have an XML done now. Well, there we go. So on the show tonight, we got Bob Irving, who is the voice of the blue bombers. Huge get for Reed. He's retiring after 47 years. Yeah, Bob's gray. We talked about his retirement. We preview the west finals, all that I've been hounding Bob since like the XFL talks to get him to come off. It's been like six months trying to get Bob on. I'm glad you finally got him. I think this last name, Andy Blaylock. He is the grey cup TV director. He is directing the west final this weekend with Winnipeg against the scotch one. He is also directing the gray cups. So I think Andy is a pretty good person to talk to you about this kind of stuff. So Andy comes on, we talk a lot about, like, there was a lot of questions. We even got voicemails for Andy, which we encourage. Dot com. Kyle left the voicemail. We had a couple of people that ride them. They don't understand that we're trying to produce a podcast, but Andy is great, but he's literally going to Hamilton next week to do the crack-up. So. Very cool stuff. Also, we have the known Gridiron nation round. Crown. It's a crowded grocery store. I'm sorry, round table. Jim Mullen Gord, Randall and Mike Hogan. And thankfully not there. I suppose social media guy. So there's that. No, this is good. Cause I, you know, they produced the shows every week. They do a lot of youth sports. They do a lot of college stuff. And this was kind of the big plan anyway, and then we got Bob and we got Andy, but so we, we kind of plugged them all together. It's not crazy. It's like a 35 minute, but you got three people talking and sharing a lot of knowledge. And then I obviously kind of host, but it's, I think it's a good lively. We try to keep it not like super overwhelming in terms of previewing stuff. Big show today. Gearing up for the CFL. Western Western conference finals, Eastern conference finals. And then of course the gray cup. Happening. Just around the corner. Yeah. Okay. Cooking notes here on. I did the math last week. Remember we had the whole USFL $60. T-shirts where you making fun of all that. We have Printful accounts. So I went on to see. It's actually $17 and 50 cents is the cost for the USFL to produce the $60 crew fitted shirt. So just when you, you know, and then I believe they add shipping it out as well. So it's $60. The cost of that is 1750. We don't need to talk about the five and three sports that have a note, but. We'll get to our big XFL. I will say, we're going to Canada next week. It's going to be gray cop central next weekend. We're going to figure out all that stuff I am going to, and I was going to talk with Paul about this and then the power and stuff. I have a couple early interviews next week. I'm going to do USFL heavy. Mickey, they did the whole breakdown about the lawsuit and all of that with the spring league, Mickey has a new update. He's talking to Brian Woods next week. Mickey's going to be on, I have another gentlemen as well, coming on to talk about sports betting and the USFL. And then I believe we're going to have Greg who's the director of the grey cup coming on. So I'm in a pre-package that maybe Paul can add that to the MP3 feeds. You know what I mean? But we'll just. Before we go, cause it's going to be Canada central all the way up to the gray cups. So that will be, I think we're going to post that on Thursday before we fly out. I'll do a little YouTube thing. So look for that, but I'll, I'll plug that as well. Who will stuff. Cool stuff. So. That's happening next week. Got a bonus episode. Apparently. That's that's what's going to happen. The title episode. The XFL cinematic universe. I don't know what that means. Read is probably going to tell me what, explain that to me. Yeah. So this came out today. Paul had no power, all this burned down. So Danny Garcia and I sent Paul did the link here, so you can follow along. I'll post the video or the photos on the YouTube. We have an official XFL launch date. February 18th, 2023, this all came down. We talked about the rock. Flying to New York and Danny and all that back on October 4th. And basically in that meeting, Jeffrey P*****k was still involved in all that. They are. If they had a, you can see the picture is here. They have countdowns for when the combines are going to be when the camps are going to be. And then when the kickoff is going to be, so I've already had people messaging me, like, is this legitimate what's going on? I mean, this is the owner of the company. This is the owner of the league, tweeting this out or Instagram. So I believe that this is the plan we are marching with right now. February 18th is a Saturday. That makes sense. It's the Saturday after the super bowl will be. January 9th is a Monday. For when the camps would be very similar schedule to when the XFL was before and then June combines are that middle Saturday in June, just like they were before. I think it was like June 20th of that, of that summer before. Does any of that strike you now that we actually kind of have a timeline here, Paul. Is that years or months? Months away. Well, I see that. Yeah, though. I've. We did not. Cause now we know. It's been 20, 23 all on I are you surprised that with all this back and forth and all the CFL and all the everything and the USFL that it's basically the same schedule. The original XFL had back in 2021 months, brows. I just thought that they would have like, I think the April USFL thing actually makes a lot more sense that mid I would do like April 1st, but I'm surprised that they're doing that early. Seattle's cold, new York's cold. If we're doing a lot of these similar markets. I mean, people are used to watching football and cold weather anyway, man, it doesn't, it. That's that's irrelevant to me. I think it's relevant to a lot of people that are going to go see these camps. I mean, it was really cold in DC when it went. It would have been nice to have a jacket. So moving on. Oh, no. So we have a couple of, so we have the photo of the, of the countdown and then also you see the photo of the rock. So it's kind of the reverse angle. You see seven of the eight mannequins, of course. Like it's like, do they do this? That's why we say the Marvel cinema. Like it's like all these east res J Noakes where the whole article about this, they, I was really inspired. You know, Danny driving the Easter eggs and you know, what's going on. And it's like, even in the Instagram, it wasn't the main image. The main image is like her and the rock and like, The whole thing and that if you swiped over, then you saw the XFL stuff. So you're like, if it's one of those, like, is she doing this intentional? But I do. I feel like this is Danny cinematic universe, but the Houston roughnecks mannequin is not seen in the photo. Well, I think that's because the, the. Possibly the trademark issues that were going on, maybe they're, they're going back to the well with that, I don't think they're gonna move the team out of Houston because they had the original dub. Not the original about the 2.0 version had such a good rapport with the city of Houston. I don't think they're moving them out of there. But it's going to be interesting to see what they do with the roughnecks. Cause I think, I think the reason you didn't see them in that picture is because of the. The copyright issues. Is it a bad crop? Like did she not have an iPhone 12? I did she and I have the wide angle, like, was she stuck on that? On the, just the normal wide? Could we not get it? And it's just one of those, like Danny, you're killing us with this. With a lot of the little nuggets and everything else. I thought that was clever. I thought the cinematic universe, Jay wrote a very nice article on XML, new south about all of that last note. If they run the normal season, they're going to be finishing up right in the middle of April, which is when USFL. If it happens to be 2.0 is going to be so like, they're not going to compete. Really in terms of like TV landscape, but in terms of coaches, players, all that stuff, I mean, it's clearly gonna, you know, you can't go from one to the other. Right. Okay. I mean, I think it's good. I think it's smart also for, for bands too. You know, they don't have to. It's not like it's. Football war like the Monday night wars, you know, where you have to choose which lead you're going to watch. They're kind of putting them in a way where you can, you. You know, watch XFL. Playoffs start going. And you're like, well, I don't need to pay just to use a phone right now because you know, it's week one, week two. And then you get into the bulk of the, you know, the playoffs of the XFL it's over. Then you go back to the USFL and watch that until. I mean you're on football. Doesn't sound like a bad idea. Don't ask. Raj. He might not leave my life. He might not like that might not like that. But it is, it does work out because you presumably come out of the super bowl. You go right into the XFL. Then you have the USFL and that leads right into the may June. If they're moving the CFL up earlier. It really would be we're talking year round football, which seems like a lot. The other thing. Do you oh, coaches and things, you know, prognosticating. If the, if the combines are in June, Mark news hub today, we were talking to you a February, March kind of get the teams in order. Same way they did before. When pep Hamilton was hired, I guess, before. They did not have a TV deal yet. So we're still in, I hated going back and looking at all these old timelines and things, you know, like what did they do before? But now it does seem like they're very much following the same blueprint that they were. The first time, which is weird. So if it's not broke, don't fix it. Well, I agree. Do you think that they pulled the trigger on February because USFL did April does have nothing to do with it. I don't think it has anything to do with it. I think they were just, I think this was probably all the way, always the approach. I want to, I w I'm assuming. Just going to assume. Yeah. And. And if you're in case you're curious, all the math on these numbers is done from that meeting was on October 4th. So when you see like 587 days or whatever, those are all from October 4th. Which, if you do the math with them all today, So. Cool stuff. All right. Last question last week, do you think it's weird that this came out and it wasn't like a press release? Yeah, it is. It is weird. But, I mean, I guess that's the way people do it now on social media likes Marcus Stroman announced that he was going to the Chicago Cubs on social media. So it's just the way people think things are, people are doing things these days just releasing it on social media and just, you know, let the internet have a field, but. Okay. Sorry. There you go. That's the last question. All right. This week's games have semi-final of course, Eastern semifinal Hamilton taking out Montreal 23 to 12 members when Montreal was. Ahead looking to secure home field advantage. Now they're out Hamilton. I was going to travel to Toronto next week. This week, I should say Sunday. And then a Saskatchewan was a last minute field goal over Calgary. The stamps. Beating them 33 to 30 to get them to the final against Winnipeg. Where they'll probably take another health. Yeah. Hamilton era is sorry. My child really fell apart. I talk with Bob Irvin about this as well. Cause we recorded earlier this week, so we get a lot of post. Analysis about that, that last minute, like double overtime field golfer, Saskatchewan. I pretty remarkable. Also Cody for Charla had a really a heroic performance, I would say. In the west finals really kind of willing his team. Later that night when Lamar Jackson was playing, I said, Lamar Jackson was doing his best. Good. You can drive the impression. Cause Cody looked the light, Lamar running down the field, kind of joking guys. You're giving Cody a lot of love when he blocked you. I don't know what's happening with that. I know, I know we're working on it. So with that being settled to move on to some CFL news. The blue bombers have teased a possible return of Andrew Harrison, his practice video. Apparently he was heading out for practice in full gear. He hasn't been on the field since. Mid October. It'd be great to see him back. Michael Shay that had touched. The middle about is availability. I'm still saying it's too early. What do you think? He came back, rocking a mean mustache. He came back like it was one of those. You know, like if he, if you're on the bench for a couple of weeks and you grow the beer JMT yet. Bye. This big food. Mustache. That was the most remarkable thing to me or something like what happened to Andrew Harris, but you know, you want all your horses. I mean, when the pigs been resting and we've been resting and it will be interesting to see the rest versus Russ debate here with Winnipeg coming up this week, because they haven't been playing at full strength. You know, since in like a month now, basically. Very true. The city of Toronto is getting behind the Argos ahead of these final, the mayor John Tory tweeted out today. We raised the argument's flag at city hall. The CFL east division final Sunday. He's also pleased to proclaim December 5th as Toronto Argos day in the city. Yeah. The other thing about this, he goes, After finishing the season with a record nine wins. The problem is that it's not a record for the Argus at all. They've finished better than nine when 17 different times. And they said that actually. John Tory was the commissioner. Back when, when. When all of this happened, so this, you know, the Argos, I will say R w. Mike Hogan came on this week. Are those are killing it with the social media right now. They're selling out the stadium they've opened up CD and that they normally never do because of the, you know, the, the popularity. So. I really hope the Argos take this because, eh, you know, not that we don't like the Thai cats, not that they are not your team, the Argos, but yeah. Yeah. Interesting. D did he play, did he pay attention when he was commissioner of the CFL? I, I, you know, In this question. The question. I'm going to breeze past this because I really want to get your take on the red blacks. I know there was all the drama this week with peripheral and all that. And there was, there was an incident where he got arrested and then he got released. I know this is not the podcast. I'd be like break down my criminal activities or not, or whatever, past judgment. So just, I hope we can get all passed out in the Roughriders, but I had a big write-up about that, but I would much rather get your take about the red, black. Changing their logo to the Roughriders colors and basically breaking social media. Why would you do that? So at the red flax, there, there, there. And here they decided the only way they would officially declared themselves unabashed report is at the Roughriders. They did a poll and they said like, oh, you know, who do you think we should support? And the people voted the rough rider. So they changed their logo to green and people lost their ever loving minds about this so much so that they had to change it back. They had a pole and that. Option one. And then people are p****d. Is that what I'm. Well, it would be like, if I, if I change the, like when I, right now I have Taylor, hi, Nike is like our avatar for the Marquez. It's just like a joke. Like the fact that people are so sad about a social media avatar and like the Twitter account for the red black is astounding to me. I mean, obviously they have a V you see all the notes I put here like this, he did rivalry and them not allowing them back in the league. And then Greg cups they've lost and all this kind of stuff, but. It's just, I, people lost their minds and like three down did an article. They had it, they had to take the whole thing down. Weird. Only in the CFL. I write, I. I mean on social media too. Like this would never, like, if, if that happened on the street, no one would care. Like heaven forbid the red flags have a little bit of fun. Their team's not in anything, giving them support to the rough riders. Like. I mean, they got people talking, but he was like, people were vitriolically mad about this. Haven't you seen anything that like leads you to believe that this completely well within the realm of possibility? CFL fans being vitriolically mad about something. Wow. That's that's true. This year. This is interesting. So at the end of it, it was like the midway point of the Calgary Saskatchewan game last week. Duke Williams. So Sean lemons like threw a punch and Sean lemons got ejected from the game, like midway through going into the halftime. So he is accusing duke lemons. Ah, our duke Williams of. I've spitting on him. No, one's like seen any of the, you know, there's a lot of cameras, right? No, one's seen any of that, but so Lemmon says he felt disgusted and disrespected and so duke goes. John Lemmon, you know, they have the footage, my guy, no need to lie. Nobody feeling sorry for you. They received a fight back. He tagged him on Twitter in that, I mean, this is getting. He, you know, curious to see if Sean lemons comes back right. Like next year, if that's kind of the end of his, of his legacy in the CFL, but Calgary certainly could have used his help in the kind of the second half of that game. I mean, I think maybe like don't let review. And if there was actually spinning going on, they might allow lemon back in. But if there was no spinning going on, it might be, it might be the end of the road for him. D. Have you heard it because there's, there's this going on? And then some hockey player, I guess a bit another hockey player, that's kind of like in the news as well right now. I didn't hear about that. Rod's been tired. And on about that on the NHL, how are you handling the, the mob shut down? Are you doing okay? I mean, it's only been like less than 24 hours, Rob. Manfred's an idiot. So, I mean, what else are we going to do? Like we just. Like. I mean, this is not a good time for baseball. In terms of the lockout, there was a, there was an article that came out to prove the baseballs using two different balls. Depending on what they wanted to happen in games. So it's like they wanted a, you know, they had a primetime game on where. It was two teams that weren't offensively. Good. So to speak. They would roll different balls out. That were juiced. So the offense would. Would climb. Apparently this was like a big, like, I don't know exactly the blow by blow detailed by detail. I haven't looked that much into it. I just saw that there was an article that came out. That said that they were using two different balls are in the course of season and they were different weights. And it's, it's just interesting that like, I have, I have finally gotten over the fact that the Astros cheap. I know why they're there title wasn't taken away as. Because if you take the 2017 title over the Astros, the red Sox cheat in 2018, you can't take two. Consecutive years away would it would ruin the sport of baseball, but all these things that Manfred is doing, like for example, this lockout, the two different, the two different sizes of baseball. The different weights of baseballs, I should say. Oh, what else? I mean, where, where, where to keep going with this, this crap that's going on with Manford. Oh, the a, when you start extra innings. Over the last two years. Especially getting start with a runner on second. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't even know that. So stupid. Like we already have enough problems in baseball as it is. I'm going to say this it's going to be very controversial. Take analytics is ruining the game that I grew up playing at every single level. And now you have all this crap on top of it. It's just it's. It's hard. It's really hard to steal. Stay in love with the game. That I've grown up playing since I was like six years old. It's hard. Well, I was going to, I was going to do that in our appreciate, I didn't want to get a check in on you because I did see a lot about that today. I've seen a lot of your, you know, your baseball posse on Twitter. Very upset about that. So, We all are upset about this. This is nonsense. You know, it's, it's just, it's more it's. What's what. What does it say? What did I say? Par for the course for Rob Manfred, he just doesn't. This is like, if you don't want to be the commissioner of baseball will be the commissioner of baseball. Maybe he has fallen to John Tory. He's not paying attention. That's another thing here. It goes, well, I'm more than that. Ah, okay. This is interesting. So we have a survey that came out. That Canadians don't want the NFS, speaking of things that they love or don't love Canadians don't want the NFL in Canada, unless the CFL continues. I don't see why there. Can't be both. Yeah, so this hit me. So of course I saw this come out. I, you know, I don't just read the article. I read a lot of the comments. The the issue is there was only 1500 Canadian surveyed. It seems like a small sample size. It's like a small sample size. It also seems like, you know, the breadth of, you know, we have planes, we have cities, we have urban areas we have suburban years is. He seems like maybe that was indicative of like the entire national. And where did they get these 1500 people from? Can you, can someone tell me, like where they in one city or where they spread out all over Canada? How did they get in touch? These are things that need to be taken up. Like if you go and you like. Get 1500 peoples, but you learn to write 1500. Yeah. Okay. 15. 1500 People and you. Call everybody in Toronto. That's your 1500. You're going to get, you're going to get some skewed results. But if you call like, you know, 200 over here in Calgary and 300 in Winnipeg and 200 and Saskatchewan or Regina, what do you what's. What are the likelihoods that some of these, these numbers will be different. I just, I'm curious to know where they got their sample size from. Oh, exactly. Dr Randy though, baby. Which is a way to win. It seems like university of Lethbridge, sociologists. That was kind of the feedback I got online with it. You know, of course. Homer nation is like running with us, right? Like, yo there's, I mean, this bruise that the Canada Canadian. I use it. I think both can exist. I think it really depends, but they said you're like 11% said they would support if they, if they met the demise of the CFL, which was up, I guess they did the survey back in 95, which seems like a really long time to wait. 18% Said that they would always support Canada getting an NFL. If the CFL continued 16% indicated they did not want the NFL to come under any circumstances. And 55% were ambivalent, not an issue. People that are ambivalent the issue one, the pole. Yeah. That's the majority right there. People don't give a crap. The, yeah. So this is where you got to read the kids. Th the, the headline on the article is new survey indicates Canadians don't want NFL in Canada, but yet 55% of the people were ambivalent to the issue. That's clickbait. That's a clickbait headline. Like there was a clickbait headline that came out the other day. It was like a asteroid going to hit earth. And then you look. Two steps away from the original. She just steps away from the tweeted articles like, oh no. It's from this site, you click on that site. You pull it up all of a sudden it says, oh no, it'll enter Earth's orbit. We'll be still be 2.5 million miles away. Okay. Clickbait. We haven't had a clickbait article. We're going to talk about coming up here. Calgary Stampeders. I I'm going to be really curious here. We're getting into the end of the season. You know, everyone's losing money, right? People didn't fill the stadiums as much as maybe they thought they would. Calgary's. Stan Peters are according to president general manager, John, John Hufnagel. They are financially comfortable. I heading into the 2022 season. He says, obviously it's not like a Bonanza type type of business, but you want to save your bills for a rainy day and we're still on schedule for that. They sold an average of 23,000 people per game. But many didn't redeem the redeem, their tickets. You could see they were still getting the money for that. They just like the attendance issues are down. So. One thing to say about that ag of the heart Harkness wink. We're going to be financially comfortable. Eat on the unit. You don't buy. I have Nagel. Oh, by any of it. I don't want to be skeptical, but like outside of Winnipeg or like these teams that had great attendance, like. How are, how are some of these teams still financially comfortable? I don't know. I don't think the Argos are, they had crappy attendance all year. And even if you had season tickets sold and the people didn't show up, then you have no merge. You have no consent. You have no concessions, you have no beer. You have no, you know, I mean this all, so yeah, you're getting the $50 for the ticket, but you're not getting right. You're not getting any money, like actually in the stadium spending. I, this is the article they're coming up to 3 million, the Ontario government for this great cop. Which I presumably are attending. And then the 20, 23 1 that they have, this is interesting. So this is a quote lie. I pulled it. They said studies had pegged the economic impact of all the activities from the gray cup and surrounding events between 80 and a hundred million dollars. Okay. I don't buy that. At all. Canadian dollars. Select what? 60 to 80 million Americans. I don't by that. I mean, please comment. I, you know, and, and I know that this year, right, the event schedule is not up to snuff. Josh has been, you know, obviously helping kind of, you know, just set expectations of what's happening. What's not happening. I appreciate all that. Josh McGhee, our. Listener, but like, I don't, I just can't buy it. It's a hundred million dollar boon for the city. That's hosting the great cup that weekend. I could buy it in a. In a pandemic. In a year that they're, well, first and foremost, the great cup is being played late. And a normally does. Right. Yeah, no, that second of all, like. A year with a pandemic. And this pandemic. But like, there's no way this is going to even get $80 million because people, people might not go because of the pandemic. You get this, do. I'm the CRA I'm a Cron variant out there who knows how bad that is. Sounds like a bad cold. But who like our people are. Are people going to go on a 10 or people are going to spend the money that they're spending. Are you going to spend money because they haven't been making money that much, that much, these last two years. I don't know if he, I don't know if you're even a scratch 69. But, I mean, not even this year, I just meet in a normal year. I can't imagine that it's a hundred million dollar Boone for a week. You know, I mean, we don't know. We are new to this, despite, you know, We're new to this. We don't know exactly how many millions of dollars. This, this will give and local economy. And honestly like they might be going on old numbers here. This, these that 80 to. 80 Million to $100 million range that he's throwing out, by the way, $20 million is a big range to throw out there. It's like, oh, well, I could, you know, my paycheck's going to be either, you know, $1,000 Or $20,000. So this isn't just the emergency. So this is an article from February 26, says WrestleMania could have 170, a hundred, $5 billion economic impact in Tampa. Okay, well that. And I'm sorry. But at that point, like, I believe that. I have a hundred mil, I guess, I guess. Cause WrestleMania you're probably practicing in the same. Okay. Okay. I'm. I'm I'm here to learn. I'm here to learn because I mean, you w when you talk about a WrestleMania weekend, you're not talking like. You know, a great cup is one flipping game, and then all we have. But they have all the stuff around it. I get it. I get it. But you're talking about like WrestleMania weekend. If you've never been in a WrestleMania weekend. In person, like not, not the. You don't, you just have the WrestleMania, which now two nights, instead of, instead of one, you have all the little in. He shows on the side and all little conferences, we can get all the autographs and you pay for that too. You have your hotels, your food. He was drinks. I buy $175 million for resume. And I do not buy 80 to a hundred million dollars for a great cup of specially during a pandemic. Well, no, but I think this isn't normal years, I think we're getting hung up about the pandemic part, but I guess you can do stuff as well. I mean, I, again, I think I, I mean, I'm coming more around to the numbers now that I see that WrestleMania is 1 75. So that's. On a normal year, not this year, it's not going to make 80 million, but in a normal year, I don't. I still don't think that they do like. They do like festivals and music and they do performances and stuff. I mean, they do stuff for great cup. I mean, if this is Canadian dollars that we're talking about 82 and I'm not knocking the Canadian exchange rate does not want me doing. What I'm saying, like if it's 80, a hundred million dollars Canadian dollars, it's like what? 65 to 82 million. Dollars are dollars, then I could buy it. Yeah. Canadian dollars. I can buy it. Okay. Speaking of, I. I am excited about this because we're going to be that. Speaking of, so the Arkells is going to be at a grey cup halftime show. They also announced that the Lumineers are joining now, which is, you know, the luminaires. I mean the Luma news, that's a big band. Well, they had one head maybe. Well, but I tweeted, I said in our Cal's life, my tweet, I said, if the loo, if people around the world listened to the Lumineers, as much as my wife. This is a very big gift for the gray cup. But Steven Lee Olsen who sings what? Yo man. He's doing the kickoff. All is right in the world. That's all I wanted this whole time. There you go. So the guys evenly all said, I want to get evenly, all sound the podcasts, even after their breakup. What Joe made up. He is that he is going. Going to be played on. Please stop that. This. That's okay. Let's. That's your NCFL. This is a phenomenal story. So I chased Claypool. He's a Canadian, right? He plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers. She's a pretty good, he's a pretty good, I. He's doing really good this year. So they got beat by the bangles, right? 41 to 10 horrendous loss, you know? Arthritic Ross Lisberger. So they were interviewing him in the post-match and he emphasized he needed better practice habits. And he said that we have music and warmups and that, so that's fun. People are dancing, having fun. So I think maybe music would make practice a little more fun. And at temple I played a musical. Practice. And people were not happy so that we, I had some other quotes. I had to leave it. But Mike, Tom, when, you know, Mike, Tom went like, it's no BS. Claypool plays the why that, and I'll let him do that. All formulate the practice approach. And I think that division of labor is appropriate. The Steelers are a mess. Oh, they're terrible. I was talking about this night. They're like the next cause we watched the saints games. They're like the next saints, like drew Brees, lath. Rothers burger's gonna leave. They have no backup plan at all. Oh, I know. Oh, I mean the same. The saints are going to trade for a quarterback. And you know who they're going to trade for. So, Yeah, he does get her. But when a big blue bombers aren't, you know, they're inducting Bob Irvin ring of honor hall of fame. So they're doing that before the gray cop. I talked all about that with Bob Urbian honor with you. I've got to point that out on. Only with you. And then Brian Williams announced today. He is a 50 year broadcaster with TSN. He is retiring as well, and they're going to celebrate his retirement in advance of the great cup this year. Lot of retirements happening up there, north of the border per Rob Vanstone low attempts to the Roughriders. Semi-finals. Apparently a 24. 0 0 1 Is the lowest for writers home playoff game in the post Taylor field expansionary. I don't mind Rob, but like the super specific, it's not 24,000. It's 24,001. Mitchell Blair. He's another writer. He wrote that the fact that the mosaic is not sold out today, she showed the CFL. They have to do a massive job in the up season and the off season, getting people back. So it's just good to see, like, you know, this is still hammering on. And that's too. That's like that kind of helps. Add more fuel to the fire, like 80 to a hundred million dollars. Keep going. This came out. I just want to address this. You've seen a lot of the click baity stuff about this as well. Damien Cox wrote an article this week. He is one of the Toronto media, like a Steve Simmons that maybe is a little down on the CFL. He wrote an I R called talking, like if the Argos play right in the east finals, it. Will this be their last game in the gray cup, because by they're going to the XFL or whatever. Are they. No. But like, so here's the thing. Canadian writer writes about it. And then I saw a lot of, and you, I know you saw a lot of like XFL media bashing about this. Yep. What do you want us to do? Like the. The us sides are going to pick this up. That's why they do this. I mean, that's why like Damien did this article. You're not, can I ask a question? I just need to ask a flipping question right now. Is it only. Okay. When, when Canadians criticized anything. And when, when Americans criticized something, then there's a problem. Is that is that, that seems to be what I'm feeling. Cause that. That exchange on Twitter between someone who's a CFL fan who lives in America. And that I have blocked all of his accounts. We probably have some more out there. We won't get into that, but. But like, It seems to be okay. When all these CFL people, mainly in Canada. See anything negative and they can get away with it. But the minute you critique someone. And you're American and you haven't been following the CFL, like our friend. Then all of a sudden, like you're being accused of clickbait and further in narrative, that isn't true. It's like. We're all allowed to have opinions and we're all out of have perspectives based on the information that's provided to us. So why is one group of people allowed to criticize things? And the other one isn't. I would agree. Again, a similar setting that it was made this year. When three down wrote the article about this, the CFL having an entertainment problem. Which was a really well-written article, which was very fair. And I talked with Mark Perry about that, right. With new SAB and he goes, I would be absolutely murdered online if I wrote that article and like, You would be? Yup. So, anyway, I think just there was an article that came out about the Argos and all that, you know, really seems unlikely. It just seems more like Toronto. We clicked that, Hey, people are actually paying attention to the CFL right now. So I want to get some clicks on. I that's the point of a podcast is to try to get views of a website. Like we're all trying to get stuff. Everyone's trying to get clicks. People don't like their podcasts from. You can't stop him from that. Last couple knows. We're going to get out of here. Chris straggler signed to the practice squad of the Ravens, which is great. He was let go last week from the Cardinals. That was great. And then this was remarkable to me. So the CFL lesson, I find those top 10 million viewers. They beat both the NFL early. And late games by 723,000 and then 672,000 for the late game. And the east one, which really was not a great game. Ah, it's still 684,000 for the early game with Montreal versus Hamilton. So, I mean, that is tremendous. Viewership I think around the board and the fact that the, the west game beat everything. And then the east game was competitive with the NFL, I think is great. Good work. I that's all I got to say, I got to give you a pat on the back and if my. Soundboard was working. I'd give you a little applause. Okay. Well, all right, coming up, we're going to take a break real quick. Come. Back a. Ray's going to talk to worse. Esteemed panel of guests. Probably going to be another two hours a podcast going away right here, according to, you know, this whole panel about Mullin and Randall and Hogan. And then read of course. So who knows how lunchtime they'll be there, but when we come on the other side of the break, we're gonna talk about. USL USFL stuff. And some other. Situations regarding the USFL and XFL, we have a little more XFL. We're XFL to. That was good. So I'm stopping the record in between breaks now. And I have everything ready to send you. Welcome back. One of the things, all of our guests, Bob Irving, shout outs to you. What a great career. Ah, congratulations. Happy trails and the best of luck and return. Yeah, Andy Burke is a great interview. And then the panel, I thought the panel was lively. You know, it didn't get too out of control. I got a little worried at the beginning when we were talking, but it was good. It was a good. No. I emailed Rachel Roy Johnson about this with a USFL staff. I still am amazed that they haven't announced the Birmingham like aspect of it. Right. Like we know the teams, we know kind of whatever I emailed Roy. He goes, he doesn't know what the deal is. He goes, it's really slow moving and he doesn't know why they haven't gotten that far yet. But I have that question in my mind today about that. So I, I took the Liberty to do that. So. On that note similarly related. This is big. Wow. The crown Plaza in, I guess Indianapolis. Yeah. Lucas oil stadium and the CIB, which I assume is the Indianapolis business association, whatever commerce, I don't know. They sued. The spring league for nearly $1.4 million. Of unpaid bills. Yep. Okay. I'm not here to like, Receipts. But I have to, I have to bring them my receipts. I had I've had concerns and I like Brian Woods. I think Brian's a great guy. I think he's, he's passionate about product. I don't think he's malicious. I hope, I hope that. But I had concerns when they announced they were going to do the USFL. Brian was in charge of it and Brian was going to own it. I had concerns then. And I kept saying that every I've said that once a week about the food thing, about how they treated the players, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You. And the players had to pay to play those. Merchandise. The outstanding costs on merchant. You know, there's a lot of things that may be. Ah, what. What the hell is going on over there. So. This only helps. This only hurts. The idea that you want people to believe in this product. Do you want people to believe that this, this USFL thing is going to work this time? But. Even though this isn't the USFL that's being sued. It is. The CEO. Of your current of your new league being sued for his old venture? It's not a good look up. From Optus. The standpoint, this looks horrible. And this is probably why the reason Fox had to come in and go, well, Let's just own it. And Brian, you can run it. And then we're good. Like there's no questions. I agree. I got a lot of, well, first off, there's this one crazy. I mean, I, I have this sent to me and I, it went crazy. I will say I've thought it was mark had Mickey on this week. Great interview. Mickey's the making shoe is the one that wrote the article about this. Like I said, at the top of the show, in case you missed that. We're going to do a follow with making this week. He's talking with Brian and he's got basically like part two of this, right? This is like ongoing Sega coming out. This went crazy. I got a lot of pushback. This doesn't have anything to do with the CFL or the USFL. I say the exact same thing. Paul does. Yeah, the same questions we have with like rest branding coming into the XFL, right. With maybe his checker past. Similarly here, especially when it's a CEO of a, of a new football venture. Dealing with legal issues and not paying bills from a previous football venture. Like it, you know what I mean? This is like apples to apples, you know, across the board. Injured anything about this? You have a point. That just kind of like dawned on me, like maybe the suit was coming and they knew it was coming to my Fox, took over. Like it wasn't just like a situation where Fox is like, Let us run this, then they must have known this was coming. Well, it's weird. So, because they've gone back and forth. I mean, obviously this was back in may. And so they said. According to this you Brian Woods. So the hotels, GM and mid August. He expected the outstanding balance to be paid by the end of the month, he followed up with a phone call. Is that individuals that with an email outlining the plan for payment to Springleaf planned on this is a quote closing, a significant capital raise in the next two to three weeks. Accordingly. We have a using these proceeds to pay the Crowne Plaza iron before October 15, for the balance. That's me is like Fox money. Right. And that's why I just can't figure out. Like, if, if you know, obviously this is moving forward, right? I mean, the USL is kicking off why this wasn't paid for you. And I mean, like if, if Brian got you. If we got the money and we transferred over why this wasn't taken care of. I don't like, I don't want to think the worst of Brian. He's not handling some things very well. That's all I'll say. And if it's malicious, then. That changes my whole opinion, opinion about him. And now I will own that, but. He seemed pretty straightforward other than not never giving you the helmet from the spring league, he seemed pretty straight forward to those. Every time we've dealt with them. And this is just, this is concerning and. You know, just adds weight to my concerns that I've voiced for weeks now. Yeah, I get in and people ask me, I didn't bother reading ads or Brian. I just figured once legal stuff is brought out of windshield. Once lawsuits are brought up. Right. Same thing with dealing with the Lucas oil stadium people. They're not going to talk right there in the middle of an ongoing lawsuit. Right. You. You're going to reach out. I'm glad that Mekhi is reaching out and kind of got that going. So at least we will have a little bit of contact with him at that point. I just figured, like it's not. He's not gonna talk to us about this right now. Right? Let's be honest. Yup. On that note. [Unknown] trademarks are habit added, including the blitz and new team logos. Interesting. I'm going to put this photo up, you see kind of the four. Eh, handball mark put together this graphic, but we've got like the hand bolt and the man wearing the mask, which is non there. Are these like, is this hand and the bolt, is that like a real one that was back in the day? Well, so I have a thing down here too, that we'll get to that with these logos. These are just new. Basically they're cleaning up. Like now all the old USFL merge that was like the old logos are now like replaced with the ones that they own the trademarks too. And we can actually put this up right now. You see. Down below here, how they've changed. I think this, this is interesting that sports. Logo. Ah, dot net, but this together, you can see like the original logos back in the day and then how they've updated them. Oh, yeah. Well, oh, you're down there. Yeah. Sorry, I skipped ahead there, but you see, so like it's one of those things, like we're, we're kind of re-imagining things. And then like we own these now, right? I could see why, how they get around the ownership issue. I'm sorry, this graphic about these weird. Do these logos look like they were done by my flipping. Nice man. Some of these are not good. I'm sorry. It's just distracting to me. Wasn't good. I think, well, part of that too is just for trademarking. I mean, they can go in and like let's and glamour those out. I mean, those are like, you know, it's like when you file a patent, right. And they draw the iPhone out and they're like, this is what the iPhone is going to look like. And then. Yeah, it's just to get the Baton. The. Oh, they, the USFL had a black Friday deal. And I said, that was my hypothesis was that they had $60 shirts so that they could actually discount them for black Friday. That was pretty funny. It should be charging like, which is what 40 bucks. Yeah, should it be. This interesting, just USF on these ROAS outta here, they put together a list of you see the most popular teams right now. I just think it's interesting to kind of engage where people's interests are. Pittsburgh is number one, Michigan, Philadelphia, Houston, new Orleans, Birmingham, Tampa. New Jersey in that order. New Jersey only has about 2,500 followers on Twitter. Pittsburgh has 7,100. So you kind of see the range there. I mean, I think it's good interactions so far for teams that don't exist. I think, you know, Hm. You think, oh yeah. Any surprises. No, not really. I think, I think that Jersey thing is adequate. I. The previous owner of the Jersey generals kind of, you know, I wouldn't have called it the New Jersey generals. I would've gotten completely away from that name and that location. I would've completely not, not chosen that there was so many other options they could have pulled beside the Jersey just, and this isn't political. This is just like, Yeah. I would have to stand point like that name is a little bit toxic these days. So I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have touched it. Yep. I got away from that. This is interesting. So this came out the iron bowl, which was right. The Alabama Auburn. Massive ratings at 55%. But if you look here, the, they had 17 million. I see yes, forest report. It was the second most watched regular season game. Since 2019, the peak audience is 17.3 million, including average at 10 million, which is at 55. Birmingham proved to be the top market with an eye-popping 53.7 you're 88 and 76. Share of all households that were actively watching. Birmingham loves football. And that's why that's, that's why this stuff is going to work down there. Like the Birmingham loaves or football. You know, we can't swing a dead cat Burnham. Well, hearing someone say roll tide. And I like on that note, like, I don't think there's much to be like, Like they're saying, oh, was down last year. No one was watching these sports last year because no one felt like they mattered. Still be like, oh, it didn't play full season. So does this championship really matter? So no one really watched and. To be honest with you at Birmingham, 76 share is not the most impressive sheriffs seen in my life. It's true. Seattle used to be when the Seahawks. Our share when we worked at our station in Seattle. Our share for that. That day was 98.7%. That means like the number of TVs for be able to just, that means like 76% 76 share, right. That's like a hundred TVs, 76 out of a hundred, there were watching the game or whatever it was. And it's like, it's great when you get that, like, if you get like 10, you're doing really good. But 76 and the 98.7 that we got when we were at Seattle, like it was. Those are good numbers. When Seattle went to that super bowl, right. But he was like the division. One of the Superbowl. Yeah, but. That it was like the local game, like the Seattle game. It wasn't a super bowl. It was like the. Use the Superbowl. That they got at any point. Okay. Okay. It was a Superbowl. So. A couple of quick notes. I just want to get a thousand of these. We get out of here. Thoughts on cam you can get bands from PJ Walker. Good. Like. Why did we waste $10 million on cam Newton? Why? Why, why did we get all in love with cam Newton? Right. All of a sudden, just cause he had one good game. But he didn't even have a good team to win. PJ led that team to win that, that day. But cam got all the headlines. Very disrespectful. The PJ Walker. So she ended up posted some stuff. She ended quick longtime listeners. And though she, and then she's our beat reporter in Carolina. She had a quote from CA. Coach rule because she goes with. Why, you know, why'd you put PJ in Indiana wherever he goes. Well, we, because we weren't protecting the quarterback. Oh. So it's cool to get PJ. That's what I said. Do, why is this guy coaching? But I said, I go, okay, so let's put PJN cause you're not protecting the quarterback. That's where it would be. I mean, it's up to the quarterback. Like, like maybe they're not pretending cam wound. Cause they're not. They don't like cam Newton. Also they're aligned socks. So that's not an excuse to me cause I PJ get hurt. Yeah, it's just stupid. I have overcoats. I'm buried. Why is Matt ruler, head coach the NFL. Cause he rebuilt temple, right? It was not the one that he rebuilt and. I mean, that's why. Right. I mean, how many coaches from the college game have come the NFL and won a super bowl. I think too. I think too. Urban wants to be three. Oh urban, they went in the NFL. No. He's not one of the NFL. You see my, my. Hi, Nikki hat. I thrilling game Monday night. Hi, Nikki beat Russell Wilson. We have now. Hi Nikki and the Washington ball team. A former spring league football quarterback. B the a, B. Tom Brady beat cam Newton, and now has beat Russell Wilson. And do you think they can be re Derek Carr? I think, yeah. Do you think you didn't Washington is 500 by the end. By the next time we talk. Yes. I think they are, but. You're not winning that vision. Well Cowboys. I was really hoping for a helmet as last night. It was interesting that. So I finally got a tweet back from he who we will not be named because my one tweet about Taylor went really viral about him winning and all that kind of stuff. And. It is. It was still the same twice field, twice failed leak stuff. And I was like, Hey, we're going to be in Hamilton. Is SportsNet pain for your per diem? Or do you want to come stay with us? Our Airbnb, I thought. Really funny. We'll do a clap back. It just like. Do we're trying to be cool. Who's field legally. That's it's so on original Eros, get new material, man. Also a three down today in covering the XFL stuff. They called it be twice revived league, which I thought was a very interesting change of tone. Thank you. Three Homer nation. I'm happy that they did that for us. Any thoughts on Bob stoop? Going back to, I mean, you, you follow the college stuff, going back to the sooner stop gap situation. Going to go and he's just going to do one game and he's done. It's just weird that he's doing the game. That must mean. That must mean that like Riley's taking his entire staff to USC. Well in the middle of the season. Well, it's not really the middle. Well, yeah, it isn't the middle of season. Oh s**t. Last no. The European league of football is adopting the XFL kickoff rules for 2020. Let's kick off rules. A great. I think those kickoff rules are great. Emphasize safety. I liked them. You weren't getting their heads taken off. Although that stuff is kind of fun to watch. But anyway, there you go. Late night show, we got everything and I appreciate you sticking with us. Yeah. I appreciate. Read having rev everything ready to go. Right. When I got home plugged in where. And we, we went with it. So a, would that being said. Want to thank you all for listening. Hopefully this week, we get some good results. Argos advanced into the gray cup. I hope probably playing Winnipeg. Let's be honest. And yeah. You know, gray cup. Coming up just around the corner. So check us out. We doing a lot of stuff leading up to that and yeah, we'll see her next week. Yeah. Look for the bonus episode. Sorry, look for the bonus episode Thursday. And then we are going to figure out the time that works now that if no one else or if not us, but everyone else will have media credentials. So they'll kind of know what they have to cover and not. And then I'm thinking Saturday is probably going to make sense sometime during the day to do the live show, like. We're going to fly in Thursday night. Get our feet under us Friday. Right. And maybe kind of figure it out. And then I would think like Saturday is a good day to like, you know, noon, Saturday or something. I would just, but I'll post everything everywhere. So you'll know. We will definitely stay in touch with that. And look to hear, to talk to you next week. There you go. Thanks. I. I signed to make sure that prototype. Yeah. We have with us. Expo. So this week on the mark cast, XFL news first read XFL news. First. What? Well, we have an official kickoff date as per league CEO, president owner, Danny Garcia. Probably not all those titles are accurate, but we have a kickoff date for the XFL and we have combined dates. We have camp dates and we actually have a conceivable timeline for 2023. Are those months or years away. If we're good, we're coming in hot with XFL. We also are previewing the east and west finals that we have a large swath of interviews. We have coming up. The legendary Bob Irving. Right. Yeah. Yeah. We talked with Bob about his retirement, 47 years in the, in the game covering the blue bombers. We tied the Andy [unknown]. Andy, it will be directing the west fly though. He will be directing the gray cup. We will be alongside Andy in some regard in Hamilton. And then we have the crown grid, iron nation podcast, or round table. On the podcast with Jim Molan, Gord, Randall, and Mike Huggins gets a little crazy, but we're previewing both the east and west. We have all your CFL stuff too. Very cool stuff. Also also, we're going to talk a little bit about the USFL things that are going on and, and another big news story that came out. Like I think right after we recorded last week. This lawsuit dropped on a CEO Brian Woods. And yeah, I just appreciate you taking the time. Oh, my pleasure. Oh, good. Yeah. You look way better than when he came on and it was all back then. All right. Well, let's get. All right. Well, I am thrilled today to be joined by a legendary broadcaster in the CFL community. Bob Irving, how are you doing today? I'm doing fine. Read. We're all here in Winnipeg, looking forward to the west. Division final this weekend, Sunday against the Saskatchewan Roughriders. They won the semifinal game yesterday and the Winnipeg Saskatchewan rivalry. It goes back many decades. It's one of the best in the Canadian football league. So this west final is a really, it's a promoter is green. Yeah, and I want to get your thoughts a little bit on the games as well, but first off, you know, thank you for taking the time. I know a overwhelming response, you know, we, with you announcing. You know, stepping away at the end of the season, what has it been like for you the last couple of weeks? I mean, just outpouring of support from everybody. Well, it's been very nice. It's been a little bit overwhelming. I have to say I, you know, The radio station at work for formally announced my retirement. I guess about 10 days ago now we thought there should be an announcement so that I don't just disappear. And then everybody wonders. I went. Because I've been around for almost 50 years. But, you know, it's been, it's been kind of nice. Lots of people have come out and. Congratulated me and said very nice things. And so it's been, it's been busy and nice. And now I'm just looking forward to the game. My what will be my final game on Sunday and. Like I say, it's the kind of game that a. You know, if you can't get excited for this one, then it is it's time you packed it in. So I'm really fired up about it. It is remarkable that, you know, and I have listened to your talk with ed Tate before, you know, with the blue bombers and that. You know, you've maybe thought this decision was coming. It is crazy that, you know, when they paid this team that you've been so associated with, right. For nearly five decades now. The run of a lifetime, right. Having this wonderful season. Right. Dominate. What has it been like tracking them this last, you know, whether we at now week 16, 17. Well, it's been fun. It's been as enjoyable a season, I think, as I've ever had, because you know, they won the grey cup in 2019. Then 2020 was canceled. And that was a real downer because we knew they'd come back with a really good team. And then as it turns out, they brought back most of the players from 19 for this season. So I think we all knew those of us close to the team. We knew that they were going to be good. But we didn't know how good. Right. So they get off to a two and old start. Then they lose a game in Toronto and lose quite badly. And they're two and one, and then they reel off nine wins in a row and there. Basically outscoring teams two to one or more, and every game they win. So it's been a magical season. They lost their last two, but they were meaningless games in the standings. I'm convinced data finished 13 and one. At at non-being for that, but 11 and three. Is as good a record. Percentage wise as a blue bomber team has had in. Well, since 2001 when they were 14 and four. So yeah, it's been a magical year. It really has. Now all they have to do is finish it off the right way, because if they don't, you know how that works right. Well, I know it's, it's weird, you know, and I think the way the media landscape is, is shifting right where, you know, in the years to come with, you know, streaming and everything else, but where you, you know, with the radio, the broadcasting had been so associated with this team, right? I mean, so many fans of this team have. The league you. But especially if the blue bombers, knowing your voice, write your call along with some of these. You know, life, you know, people remember. You know where I was when this happened or that having, what is it like for you to be associated with so many of those cool sporting, you know, memories. Well, it's really cool. It's certainly one of the highlights, I guess, of my career is when people come up to me and there's one game that they replay my. Call on more than any was game in 2006 on the, the bomber scored a touchdown, a hundred yard touchdown pass in the final play of the game to win a game in Edmonton. That for all. Intents and purposes was lost and they've been replaying that a lot, but moments like that. Our fun to remember. And when I hear those calls and there's, there's a few others. You know, the kind of run together after a while. I have to say, cause I've done between eight and 900 games. So. There does tend to be, you know, people say, what are you, you know, what's your favorite game? Well, that's pretty hard to pick out a favorite game or a favorite moment, but. Yeah, I've been thinking a lot about the, the time I've been doing the games, all the different coaches and the good moments, the not so good moments. You know, there's a lot of my memory bank is full. Let me put it that way. It is. I mean, it's because it's so cool. I mean, sports the way our society is and the way we remember and live through it. And, you know, these calls and these moments exist, you know, for years and years where aids is so ingrained in the way that we, as a society kind of operate then just to have, you know, you associated with those memories forever. I just think it's a really cool thing, right. As a broadcaster, Well, there's no doubt that it is. I've had, I don't know how many people come up to me and say they grew up with my voice on the radio and they remember listening by the campfire. One of the kind of funny stories was told by a former premier of Manitoba. At an event I was at a few years ago and he said during the summer, when the bombers were playing in it, if you were in a campground somewhere in Manitoba and we have tons of camp grounds here, If the bombers were playing on a Friday or Saturday night. All you could hear was the radios blaring in the campgrounds when people are listening to the game. And so my voice was resonating through the Pines all over this campground and yeah, those things are. Kind of fun to hear about that. You know, again, I'm, I'm the guy who was lucky enough to be doing those games. It could have been anybody else, but it just happened to be me and to be associated with one team for so long. You really get close to that team? It's impossible not to develop. An affinity for them. And so, yeah. There's just been so many wonderful moments and, you know, in particular, 2019, when it all came together in that memorable, great cup win. And that's what I'll always cherish because it was near the end of the line for me. But. More than that. The people in charge I have tremendous respect for now. And it took a while. I mean, they've been building since 2014 and the first two seasons under Michael Shayda head coach would kind of tough. But Wade Miller, who is running the program now stuck with it because he knew he had, he knew he had the right people in charge and it's difficult to be patient. In pro sports as you well know, but he was patient and it paid off big time. I been inducted into the ring of honor this year, right? I was reading by the formal ceremony is going to be taking place before the game, right. This weekend. Right. That's right. Yeah. They're going to unveil a banner. That was one that caught me off guard last week. I sent the Wade Miller. I don't deserve this. I think it's, you know, for players and coaches and I do believe that. Now I don't mean to be ungrateful because I'm very grateful that they see me in that light. And so I'm proud and honored that they would, that they would see me that way. And yeah, the ceremony is going to be just before kickoff on Sunday. But, I mean, it speaks to, like I said, just kind of, it's all part of the legacy of the program. I mean, as much as a coach or a player is, you know, the people that are broadcasting, this, that our, our, our storytelling rights, everyone watching me, especially for as long as you've done it, to have someone for so many years be associated. I mean, you can look at other broadcasters and say, You know, for this decade or that time or whatever, but to be, you know, span nearly five decades associated with one franchise. Well, and the barbers are a big deal here. Read. They're woven into the fabric of this community. They've been in existence since 1930. So they're almost a hundred years old. And it's important to this community. What this football club does, you know, when they play a game and they win, everybody's got a smile on their face and when they lose. You know, people are grumbling and why did they do this way? Didn't do well. You know what? That's like, it's, it's not unique to Winnipeg, but you know, this is a smaller city, just under 800,000 people. And this football club has been a very, very important part of the, of the makeup of this city. And so, again, It's been my good fortune. To be the one who is, I guess, more closely associated to it in the media than anybody else. I want to talk a little football. I want to talk a little, you know, recap here. We're recording this earlier in the week. It's going to air. You know Friday, but I want to get a thoughts on the games over the weekend. You know, I saw some of your tweets about the Trevor Harris and the turnovers and things from that first game. I kind of takeaways from that. And then I want to touch on the west semi-finals law. Well, the Eastern semifinal, which Hamilton one. You know, Montreal probably I'd played them in many aspects of the game, but as you will know, when you turn the ball over, it's just deadly and football. And Trevor Harris had two fumbles costly fumbles. The first one changed the entire. Complexion and momentum in the game. And I'm not blaming Harris. Hey, stuff happens right. You know, it was a snowy day and cold and. The ball is tougher to hang on to ball security though is so critical in weather like this in particular. So those two turnovers. Pave the way for Hamilton to win and beat Montreal. And most people thought Hamilton would come out of the east this year after what they did in 2019 when they were 15 and three, and they've had an up and down year, but now they'll play in the final and Toronto. And then the game yesterday and Regina. Or Sunday and Regina. Was a classic Western CFL playoff game at went to overtime. And we have these little mini games in overtime. It's not like overtime in the NFL. It's a little different here where you start at the other team's 35 yard line and try to score. Back and forth, but it went to two, what they call mini games and one Calgary's field goal kicker missed a field goal. And then Saskatchewan's all you have to do is make, is which you did. So 33 30 was the final and it was just a knockdown drag him out. It was a beauty of a game and I know the bombers would be sitting back and. Reveling in it because the two teams are beating themselves up. Right. And there, one of them is going to have to come in here. It'll be Saskatchewan next Sunday. Yeah, I really, you really felt for the Calgary kicker, right? Pinedo. NEDA right. I mean, you really found it and you could just see. Ah, cause I, you know, I was clued watching both games all day. I mean, You need to see, you know, he would miss someone and then he was like, holding back tears. He'd come out. He'd get wine. I mean, even earlier in the game before they got the overtime, Well, he missed three of eight. He made five, but he missed three. And during the season he made 44 or 48. He's one of the most successful field gold tickers in the history of the Canadian football league, his percentages up around. 88% Career. And so you has this. You know, almost hard to explain date and the conditions were good. The playing conditions were good. But he missed three of them, including a, well, it was a 47 yard, or I think the one he missed an overtime. So it certainly, wasn't a gimme. And I give Dave Dickinson that Calgary coach, a lot of credit and he said, Hey, this guy's made a lot of big kicks for us over the years. There's no way we're throwing this on him, but. Played a huge role in the outcome of the game. And you're right, that the shots on television of him, he was in anguish. He really wasn't. You have to feel badly for the guy because he said such a wonderful career. And I don't know if he's going to be back next year or not. It's been around a long time, but it'd be a horrible way for it to end for. Yeah, it just. I haven't really seen holding back tears because people watch all, its pro athletes is all these things. I mean, they're human beings and I just couldn't imagine going out there and yeah, just wanting to go in a hole and cry for a minute just because. All that pressure. Well, you know, being a kicker in football is really one of the loneliest jobs in the world. You may be called on once again, once a game to do something. And it could be the difference between winning and losing the game. And so the pressure on those guys is excruciating, and I know it's funny. A lot of the former bombers that I know, kind of looked down their noses at kickers. They don't consider them real football players. They understand how important they are, but you know, they scoff at whether or not they're actually. Quote, unquote, real athletes, but I'll tell you when it comes to deciding a game, they play as big a role as anybody. And when they make it. They're heroes, but if they miss a key one, there, the one person, the one person who will make the difference between winning and losing that we can all see it's visible to us all. And so for Rennie Paradis is. The way you say his last name. It was a. It was a down day for sure. I looking here and I think that first game, obviously the snow and everything. Played a factor, but when it came to the second game, it really felt like Cody for Jara though, I know there's been the back and forth this year, you know, he's been taught, you know, That the teammates and we need to have more people making plays, but it seemed like he finally was like, I've had it. You know, I'm taking this on my shoulders, I'm running the ball. I'm. You know, really felt, and even bow came in with a lot of energy. Did you feel that that added, it felt more like a playoff game? Yeah. Then the Hamilton one a little bit. Well, for sure you. You know, athletes. At this level always say that, you know, they play there as hard as they can play every time out. I believe that, but there is an extra bit of juice that comes in and a playoff game. I don't think anybody would dispute that in any sport. And I thought bowl Levi was Sharpie through a couple of interceptions, but he also puts some great plays together at the end of the game when it mattered most. And for Gerardo. I'm a food journal fan. There are some fans in Saskatchewan who aren't as high on him as, as others might be. But I love the way he plays because he'll do anything to try and win. He's not, I'll say this. He's not the greatest passer in this league. But he takes off and runs with the ball and he puts himself in peril. He don't take people on, he doesn't always slide. He's a courageous player. And so I, I have a lot of time for Cody, for Gerardo and. I know a couple of the games, not in 2000, 19, so much, but a. I guess it was 2019, he would escape the pocket and really give the bombers nightmares. And that's the one area where. Yeah, you can throw a real scare into you because if he breaks contained, he's able to run, run very effectively. And he did that yesterday and that played a big role in Saskatchewan winning the game. It just seemed like he really was playing with a chip on his shoulder in a good way of like, I'm like, we're going, we're doing this. Like, I've been frustrated all season we're here. It really, I could just feel that through the TV, watching the game on full. Yeah. He plays like that all the time. Right? He does. You know, he. He's fearless and he's tough. And, you know, I think he puts a lot of pressure on himself from what I can see, because when things don't work out, he's very despondent and really takes it personally. But yeah, yesterday he was going to will that team to victory. And do whatever was required. And I referenced this passing, but when they needed a drive at the end of the game, when they were down, he put together a 75 yard drive and he threw some beautiful balls. So. He played very well yesterday and now he's going to be a big, big. Factor in this game, kind of the west final coming up on Sunday. Yeah. So now I really wanted this as you know, so we're evolving building to this. I want to get your thoughts on this now, because you know, the west all year we're BC fans, you know, I've been cheering all of these different things. It's always felt like whoever is there is going up against the, you know, just the bus saw, right? Yeah. We're walking into the, the pit in star wars or whatever, you know, we're walking into the, you know, whatever, right. And so I wonder what is this gastro Juan's chances? And I didn't say that right. Cause my brain or whatever. What are the Roughriders chances against the blue bombers? Realistically, here on Sunday. Well, they're going to be big underdogs. I dunno what the betting line will be. I would think eight, 10 points. You know, the bombers didn't lose a game at home all year. You know, they ran rough shot over most of one. I think it's 17 or 18 games here at ag field, which is their home stadium. They beat Saskatchewan twice this year and beat them quite handily in Regina and then back here. So Winnipeg is going to be an overriding favorite. The bombers are healthy. The one question is about running back. Andrew Harris. Who's been. Key to their success in recent years, we'll know about him. Probably not until game time, maybe, but otherwise there. Unbelievably healthy coming off a bye. Saskatchewan has a chance. Of course, I can go back to 1989 when a 16 and two Edmonton team got beat by a nine to nine Saskatchewan team. In the west final. So you can't rule anybody out, but. I think. The bomber is going to have to give this game away. If they're going to lose it, let me put it that way. I really believe that they're going to have to turn the ball over and do things that are uncharacteristic for them. To lose the game that could, that happen. Of course it could, but they're, they're heavy favorites and they should be heavy favorites. Could Saskatchewan, when, of course. But I don't like their chances very much. Do you worry? Do we worry that, you know, rest versus Rast and having the bi-week and you know, resting the players before and we're protecting Zach [unknown]. And doing all these things and not really, I mean, obviously you don't want to risk anyone getting hurt, but not building that momentum the last couple of weeks, while there are different ways to look at that and you can make an argument, you know, It's a good either side. Should they, should they have played the regulars more in those last two games? Certainly the last game in Calgary, they were up. Nine, nothing was six minutes to go. And if they'd left, Some of their frontliners in, they'd won the game, but Michael Shay wanted to give the backups a chance to play in a pressure situation because he thought it would have value down the road. So I don't think. That having the by and having lost those last two games will have any impact. I really don't. If they lose the game on Sunday, then somebody will bring that up for sure and say, wow, they shouldn't have taken their foot off the gas. You know what. I mean, those are the second guesses that will happen, but no, I don't believe it will impact them at all this bomber team. Just so singularly focused. On week to week, game to game preparation, no nonsense, all business that I don't see anything disrupting that incredible focus that they have. And, and a week off, I think will only help them because they got healthier. Is that a, a coaching that has gotten them to that point is that the players they've acquired me. What is it that causes them to have that. Well, it's entirely Michael shade at coach and his mantra to them. And he surrounded himself with. Leaders veteran leaders who have adopted that approach. And then pass it on down to the other players, to the point where Mike rarely has to say anything to the players. And he's not a guy for big speeches anyway, that's just not his style, but he's developed what we'd like to call in sport. You've heard it a million times, a culture here where the leaders kind of keep everybody in line and you either. Fit in here or you're on the road out. And so, you know, it's a team that really self governs itself. With the league, the players, who are the leaders, making sure that everything is being done right. And that all comes from Mike though. He's established that. That culture here and it's, I. I tell you, it worked very well at the end of 19 and it's working beautifully right now. Walking into the game Sunday, you know, getting ready to call, right. Your. Have you. Are we just taking it day by day? Have you given any thoughts? Like what that's gonna feel like, you know, Personally. Well, I think more and more about him. Cause people ask me about it all the time. Now. So I'm, I'm thinking about it for sure. And I know I'll think more about it when we get closer to game time, but as I tell people, you know, I'm just ready to go. You know, I've done this for almost 50 years and. And I still enjoy doing the games and I know I'll miss it, but. I'm 71 years old and it's time to move on, you know? My wife and I have other things. In summers that we'd like to do it, including me playing more golf. She's standing off in the background here. But no, it's, it'll be kind of a, I don't even know how I'm going to feel at the end of the game. I. I've thought about it and I'm not sure I should during the game. I think it'll be fine. But when we do our post game show, and then we're at the end of that, and I know that. You know, the finality will kind of. Set in that. I don't know. I'll see. But like I say, I'm, I'm ready for whatever it is. I'm ready for it. And let's get on with it kind of thing. Last question for me. Thank you for spending the time that you have. W where are you going to be watching the grey cup? Are you going to be at home with your wife? I mean, what, what is the plan for watching Winnipeg potentially here? Go back to back. Yeah, we'll all be in the Hamilton. I'll be at the grey cup. We don't have the broadcast rights for the game. That's owned by TSN on a national level. So we can't do the game. Our station CGO. We can't do the game, but I'll be there covering this would be my 49th grade cup game in a role that I've attended. I've attended every one. Since I arrived at Sea-Doo B in 1973. So I'll probably be in my hotel room because if the bombers are in it, We will do a post-game show immediately after the game, which we would have to originate from. An offsite location, which would be our hotel room. So that's probably where I'll be. If they're, if they're in the game and I'll be silently cheering, I've told people this before, when I broadcast a game I'm as objective as anybody could be. But I hope the bombers when every time they play. And this is one game in particular. If they're in it, that'll be hoping against hope that they win. Well, we, we will be in Hamilton as well. If we, if our passionate choose to cross, you know, I, I hope we get, say hi, but I really appreciate your time today. I know that our listeners, it will mean a lot to hear from you. Any final words, anything else before we let you go? No, I just, I've had a wonderful time doing what I do. I've had a very satisfying career. I have no regrets about anything I've enjoyed every minute of it. And. I'll cherish that tell the end of time. And now. I'll set my own schedule every day of every week of every year that I'm still alive after this is all over. Bob, thank you again so much for your time and putting up with my nonsense so that was great. Yeah. Made the connection for. That's good. Well, I am excited today. We have Andy Bukos here. He is. I've been looking at your Wikipedia era, your LinkedIn page this morning, and kind of prepping and everything. And extensive at 34 year career here. At many different events. First off, how are you doing today? I'm doing well. You caught me when I have a little bit of downtime getting ready for football this weekend and next weekend. Yeah. So Andy is, is the TB director, the CFL on TSN. Andy did the Saskatchewan right west semi-finals last weekend. Andy is traveling to Winnipeg this weekend, and then we'll be in Hamilton for the gray cup. So I needless to say quite. A good swath of games in high profile events that you've been involved with and will be involved with coming up. Yeah, I've. I've been fortunate in my years at TSN to get to work on a lot of stuff. This is. Great cup. I want to say 11 out of 12. I took one year off. I used to do the. The pregame and the halftime. And then I kind of took one year away from it and then came back as the game director for, and this will be my sixth year as the game director. And I do the world juniors. It's a. That's always fun over the holidays. And I, you know, I got, I did lots of I D. I've done a bunch of stuff. I don't. But I mean, that's exciting and it doesn't necessarily need to be, you know, CFL related. But what is, what would you say is one of your proudest moments in terms of TV broadcast being involved in. Well, that's funny because my proudest one of my most memorable, and I would say, you know, I was very pleased with it is covering the expos. And it was when David Cohen was still in New York and the expos played in Baltimore on a Saturday. And then we had to go. Sunday to New York and it was jumped on a train after the game and get to New York. We were, we were doing the game and it was the day of the British open going extra. Extra holes with Padre Harrington. So our game was pushed. It wasn't pushed back. We were still doing the game, but it wasn't, they didn't join us yet. Well, they joined us at about the fifth inning. And I remember asking John Russon our stats guy said, Hey, has anybody been on base? He's like, no, I go as anybody. Like anything like any, no, no expos at all. He goes, Nope. So suddenly we realized. You know, we got a perfect game in front of us and the first five innings nobody even saw. So, you know, you start getting a little nerd, like everything you do is magnified, right? Because now you go. You know, now there's so many more eyeballs that may have. You know, now back then internet was still a new thing. So, but you know, people that are flipping by and all of a sudden realize, Hey, it's a perfect game. Now that to me was, it was one of those fun things. Cause you. You didn't expect anything of it, David cone versus the expos. And you went, yeah, this. There's this gonna be. You know, I can't say what I want to say. It's going to be a beating. And so next thing you know, it's not just a beating, but it's a perfect game. So that that's one of the most memorable. You know, there's some world juniors. That come to mind. Some, actually some curling events that come to mind. And obviously the gray cups, the Ottawa one. Especially because. You know, it was our first one was snow. So, well, it's, it's cool to me. And I'm, you know, someone with a broadcast background. Just all the other people, you know, they, they don't necessarily get all the credit. Right. I mean, I'm always the one behind the camera right back in here. Yeah. We have, we're going to have Bob Irvin on this week as well talking and just all these memorable sporting moments. Right. And we had Chris Edwards on your producer counterpart, but where you're a part of this, the way that we, you know, look at sports in our society, you're part of this moment in history that you captured. And that is how people remember it playing. Now, this is how you guys capture that. Right? Talk about that in just, you see. You know, and we've been in gotten engrossed and all this CFL stuff over the last year, but all these moments over the years and knowing like, oh yeah, I was there for that there. I remember that. That was a cool thing. Well, you know, it's funny because. When anything, when you first, you set out to tell the story, And whatever that be. If it's a. You know, if it's a Cody for Gerardo struggling and remembering last year in the west vinyl, when he hit the upright. And how do you tell that story? And then you, and, and that, to me that day, I mean, The easiest thing to do is find the guy celebrating. But it's the, it's the angst on his face. It's the, it's a team losing it's, you know, it's playing a double overtime at a world junior hockey game and losing the pictures of the teams that have lost. I find are always. I mean, celebration shots are great and you can't go wrong with those. But the emotion of losing a game, you know, a one-off like a gray cup or, or a world juniors where you, you know, it's not, as, it's not a series are the ones that are the most memorable for me. That's that's how I always remember them. It's just, it's weird. Cause it's like, we, you know, you look at sports and you look at these people like, you know, bigger than life. Right? All this. I mean, I remember w was it one of the early we watch NFL too, but one of the Ravens games earlier this year, I think they were going against the chiefs and. At UC Harbach like yelling at Lamar Jackson, right? Like, do you want to go for it? You know, you see him like making that decision real time. Right. And it's so just. You know, dictates the game, right. And that was the director and the production staff, you know, capturing those moments and you're able to like live that back. It's just, it makes it feel so much more real than maybe it would be on TV. Yeah. I mean, we, you know, when you go into a television show, you always have. I mean, it's not like a film where you can have storyboards and create, you know, you just sort of, you want to put the camera people and their assignments in the right position to succeed. And that's always challenging on it. Probably football would be the most challenging if you're doing it with like 12 cameras when you're doing it with 40. You know, you probably have a pretty good coverage of the whole place. When, you know, when you start doing it with 12, you gotta, you know, guys have four or five different assignments and it's not, we don't travel. A ton of people. We travel a group of people. As far as camera people, but we've over the nine years and we're fortunate because it is only nine. It'd be nice to be 10 for sure. Over the nine teams in the cities that you go to, you train people and you get them up to speed. But, you know, when you're able to capture something like that live like the coach freaking out. And, and, you know, any interaction with players and all that. That's, that's just great because that's what people want to see now, you know, I'm a fan of the game and, and that's, that's the hardest thing for me. I think. Only once in my. Years of doing this. Did I sort of sit back and watch because you don't have time? I mean, honestly, I remember saying to our producer, John Heinz, we're doing a Montreal game. And, you know, it was Travis, Lulay playing for BC back then. And he, he made some great paths and I just said, wow, he is really good because you never really. Sit and think about that because you're always looking at, I mean, you're looking at. 12 Monitors in front of you. And assuming that the guy doing the play by play is doing what he's supposed to do so you can see what else is coming. And it's so, you know, we, I, most of my career was not in live production either where you're always, that is one step ahead. You know, you always have at least one step ahead, you know? Okay, what's coming up next. What am I getting cued out? What am I getting this guy that you're almost not even okay, that's on now. I got to go to the next thing. You know, you're not even really even able to. I think it was when we had Chris Edwards almost saying that he has to go back and rewatch the games. After just to see, like, you know, How did that feel? Kind of in the real time? Yeah. I mean, we we're fortunate now that everything's on demand, so it's easier to rewatch. We, back in the day we used to record it would record our inner calm and we'd find out I'm, I'm kind of a. I kinda know right away. If, if I didn't like something, I'm like, you know, I'll leave the game and go, oh, why did I do that? Why didn't I do that? And, you know, so I think we're are. Our own worst critics. Now people would argue that no, they're more critical than we are, but they don't know the situations. Right. So I would say watching back games is very important. You know, we, we learned a lot from them. Understanding. You know, I'm watching the NFL. I mean, We're not fooling anybody. We watch a lot of football and, you know, the amount of stuff that the NFL has and to their. You know, at their disposal is different than the CFL and you know, so that's why, that's why the playoffs and the gray cup get magnified, because we are able to add things to. You know, Cover the game more. Is there anything specifically about the CFL. More. Turnover's back and forth the size of the field. Anything that makes it more challenging or unique to, you know, to, to cover it in direct versus, I mean, obviously hockey things different, but just the, the, the way CFL is laid out. Well, the field, the field being wider is a challenge for. I guess your game cameras, because you'll find that in the coverage and an NFL game, it's so much more compressed because the field aspect, right. And, and guys in the CFL, first of all, the motion, the amount of motion you want to try to get to the game camera early enough to see all of that. And there's times, and I'm not gonna lie. There's times that. You know, you fall in love with a closeup and you're late getting there and that's not fair to the viewer. And I understand that. And we try to concentrate on that. And, but I think the wit. Would be the biggest thing to link doesn't really kill you because it's just, it's 10 more yards of play. The 20 yards in the end zone are, are interesting because it is deep. You know, so there is a little more, and the upright being where it is. Obviously a. The Regina. A stadium and Saskatchewan Roughriders probably didn't want that up right there when he hit it. And didn't go to the grey cup. You know, In 2019. That's always a challenge as far as for like, when we bring in a spider camp, they now have to deal with. An upright being there. So they can't really get to where they want to be. But overall that, I mean, everything else is same, one more player, but that doesn't really matter. You got the two and outs sometimes can be difficult when you're looking for people and you don't. And, you know, you're trying to find a player coming on or going off. But everything else is the same. Yeah, because I just think. Yeah, we're. You know, they, the quicker, we a little bit quicker play clock. Right. You know, moving everything. It is hard to like we're showing the replay, we're trying to show the next thing. And like you said, it's not fair to the viewer. Sometimes I get that because we cover a lot of like, alternative. Like we cover these. This internet football and stuff. And it is like, you know, they're doing all these kooky trying to. We had to watch the game. We got to see the heat. We got to see everyone line up. We got to see what's happening. So it's that weird balance. Yeah. The one thing I did learn early on and I've always kept it in my head is don't a. Don't just assume that the viewer knows what's happening. You got to show them what's happening and you can't always, and you, you gotta be fair to the sport. You can't, you know, like if you're covering figure skating, a closeup of the person skating when it's all about skating. It makes no sense. So, you know, in a football game, when they break the huddle, you want to see where guys are going and, and that's. You know, I, again, it's, it's a fine balance and you're right. The play clock is ridiculously fast. You know, I know that a lot of guys that have gone and worked down in the states and done some games and come back, go, wow. What a. What a difference? Like it's an eternity. And I said, yeah, it's a, it's a big deal you can get in. You know, to replace a cool graphic five closeups, and you're still got 10 seconds on the play clock. And then the CFL you're like, you know, a play happens. You go to the receiver for two seconds. You go to the guy that threw the ball. You're getting a replay. If you want two or three Lux, if you get. Lucky enough to get a second or third luck, you better get to that ball. At the, at the line of scrimmage, because there's nothing else you're going to do. So it's just training yourself and it's hard to do because you want to, you want to push the envelope, but it's, you've got to find that fine line. What have you, and obviously, like you said, constantly shooting on the games, but what have you made that the CFL season? This year, you know, coming back there, we talked with Chris about it as well. You know, the entertainment value where all the games up to snuff, obviously the west fine it's the semi-final was, you know, phenomenally entertaining. But what have you kind of thought so far? General thoughts? Well, I mean, the fact that they played is great. I know that a lot of people. You know, thought they should've played last year. I'm not, I don't. I don't know if they could have, because it is such a fan based league. As far as the games, I was very nervous about the start of the year, because without playing so much, like if you're a football player and you've trained all your life, you're probably still doing some sort of training. That that I felt. Was a no brainer, but I was surprised at how many people retired. From the league. And, and so the games. Some of them were great. Some of them were like F like us, you know, like I'm like, there's a lot of guys. Kicking the they're missing stuff. And who would have thought that you had on the west find all the guy that was money all year for Calgary. What I've missed three. So. You know, The games have been there have been some dogs. I'm not going to lie. And those are harder to do. You know, because you want to make them entertaining. And that's, that's the thing is it's you gotta, you gotta try to entertain and it's, you know, In the best way to entertain this, to have a good game. It's easy. Yeah. You know, it's easy. If it's a good game. Well, it's not you. We watch a lot of wrestling and that's always, the thing is like, You know, wrestling and they still have this problem with, you know, boring things. It's like you have the opportunity to be, to book everything, right? We're, we're a sporting, you know, if we could book everything, it would come down to a double overtime, miss field, go kick every single time. Right. And if you want some of these games and obviously the NFL is guilty of it too, but you know, there'll be, why do you think will happen in the CFL? Down 17 points with three minutes left. This could barely be the craziest last three minutes I've ever, I understand that happens, but it is funny, like 70 announcers sometimes really trying to, you know, it's heavy lifting. It's not, it's not easy. Yeah. I mean, I, I. That's where they earn their money. Right. It's to do a. 12 Yard curl. You know, and, and to tell a straight that and explain that. Versus a, you know, a 41, nothing game that they have, like you've kind of run out of things to talk about. And, you know, I don't know. You know, and, and shooting. I mean, that's the glory of that. And my job is you still have to shoot the game. So even though it's a blowout, you're still covering the game. I find that for the announcers, that would probably be the toughest thing is, is covering a blow up. So we joke that, do you. As a director, do you interact as much with the talent or is that more just Chris's job? The, in terms of the on air broadcasters. What we do. I mean, I don't, you know, I let the producer do a lot of it. You know, if we're going to a certain shot of somebody, I'll let them know and things like that. But he breaks down graphics and replace for them. And I'll do the live portion of it. So if it's live. You know, if. If Glenn Suter is talking about a player, usually I'm hoping that I'm thinking along the same lines as him and I got that player on the screen as he's bringing up. You know, as he's discussing it or I'm foreshadowing and you're, you know, you're trying to. You know, they're talking about the defense, you're trying to get a idea of the defensive coordinator and just stuff like that. So, you know, I'll, I'll I'll pipe in a bit, but I don't, I don't talk to them to the extreme that the producer, what. Going into this weekend in terms of, you know, all the Winnipeg and everything all year, you. Just this absolute dominant performance. Thoughts on this matchup. I mean, obviously you're going to be, you know, with the headset on and everything else, but thoughts about the game. Well, I mean, I've been fortunate to cover an awful lot of labor day plastics or banjo bowls and, you know, Right now I think the forecast was there's possibly flurries. And so now it's just amped up because you know, people usually say that the CFL doesn't go until labor day. Now this year was a little different because of the. The time constraints and stuff, but I would have to say that this is a labor day banjo bowl on steroids. You know, like people are going to be going crazy. It's. You know, it. For Winnipeg to go back to back. If they win two, two, To even get to the great cup. I'm not saying that they're winning the grey cup, but. To even get to the grey cup is awesome. I mean. You know, you talked to any team. And, and it's more that like, It's funny. Somebody said, you know, the rookies get there and they think they're going to get there every year. So I think about it and I go, what if, when a peg makes it again? Like the guys that started there in 2019, and they're still there going, well, this isn't that bad, but as the guys that were there, Prior, right. How, how many years they went? And, and how, how long it took. And then if, if it's Regina. You know, or Saskatchewan, you look at a guy like Dan Clark, who's the center. And he's gonna probably. He'll he'll be fairly emotional because I mean, they made it there, you know? A few years ago. And, you know, he was also part of the 13th man, too many men like, so to get to a gray cup, You know, is going to be awesome. And I think the environment and Winnipeg. Much like the environment. And Regina is going to be great. I think, I think that the game should be awesome. I have no prediction because, you know, I just don't know. I just, I enjoy. I enjoy Kevin and both teams. I, I think that it's going to be good and, you know, hopefully the viewers entertained. So we've talked a little bit about the crossbar, right? I mean, it's like every week that this has brought. I mean, truly it's remarkable that something, you know, it happened two years ago. Right. They still brought up. So you were also part of the 13th man. Yeah, I was actually, I didn't do that game. I was part of the pregame group, but I was there for it. Yeah. What was. Y, you know, and my wife will be watching this and saying like, you know, what is happening here? But. Walk me through a little bit of that. Cause I do think that's also brought up almost as much as the Cody crossbar thing. Well, I mean, somewhere in that, on special teams, they missed a guy. They, I guess at one point they discussed going for the block and then they realized, you know, The guy that sits, goes to the end zone for the return. You know, went to the, went to his usual spot. So somewhere in that, you know, understanding. There was one extra guy, you know? You know, you got, Hey, wait. There's there's 13 guys. Not 12. You know, so the flag is thrown after they missed a field goal. Well, guess what? They tack on five yards and they get to kick it again. You know, the, so to go from the pure emotion of he missed. And, you know, this is awesome. We just want to, oh my God, what just happened? You know, you see it on the faces of the players and in the stuff that was captured by Paul Hemi, who was directing that game. And you just go. You know, that's, that's an incredible moment. And one that. You know, a lot of people that when they talk about great cops, remember that moment. So. So the Cody thing. Is it surprising you that that's still brought out somebody. And it was it when the labor they gave this year, he hit it again. It was one of the high, it was one of the. I think this is a surprise either that still brought up so much. Well, here's the thing I don't know. I mean, it's hard to tell if that ball would have been caught. Right. And so that's the first thing that goes through my mind as, as a, as a viewer fan. Person that directs the games. My first thought, looking at everything was wasn't that going to be high anyway? Right. But. Am I playing devil's advocate or is it just my opinion? Because everybody's entitled to an opinion. So I think that, I think it was. It's kinda like a, an angst for them. Like they, they want to. You know, it was the 13th man until they want a great cup. Now it's the crossbar till their winter grid. You know what I mean? It's, I'm not saying it's an excuse, cause I would never say that it's, it's just in their head. Memory now, I don't know if it's more the players. I think it's more the fan base. I think players, you know, he could probably throw, I don't know how many footballs he could throw to that spot and probably not hit it every time. Now I have seen. Quarterbacks have fun. And you know, Mike, Mike Riley, Michael Riley was one of them who used to play a game with Travis Lulay and they'd try to hit the upright back when they were both together and BC the first time around and just things like, like I've seen quarterback strata. Pick off the upright from like 40 yards out 30 yards out. So. You know, what are the odds? I just, it's just, what are the odds? I don't think, I hope we don't see it again. At least not in the near future. Cause I, you know, that's kinda a bad break. You know, but it's like a. It's like a ball hitting the spider cam. Cable. Right now in this case, It's a it's it's a redo. But in, you know, because it's not part of the field. Yeah, right. It's an added feature to covering the game, but as far as, you know, hitting an outbreak, if you, you know, that upright is 20 yards deep in the end zone, and it's never a problem. So we had a couple of questions here and I want to play a voicemail before we go. They are though and Gord both in and they posted, I go leave voicemails in there. If we want to leave it on Twitter, I'm like, you know, we're trying to produce it, trying to produce a podcast segment here, but. They talk about using the spider cam only for the playoffs. It seemed like, and they call it the, in, in the states here, we call it like the eight K camera as well. Right. It's not, you know, it's the really. Hi depth of field, but yes. Yeah. With the eight K or it's 4k. It's like, it's not, it's like a, you know, it's a DSLR DSLR. Yeah. Yeah. So the spider cam. This year, I think it was. It was, maybe it was over when you had the playoffs. I think it was like, 1617 Games. So it's roughly 20%. Now. You know, if you. You know, we would love to see it on every game, but I financially, I don't know if that's going to happen. To have it on once a week would be great. At least. If you watch NFL. And it's very funny because it's, it's very noticeable. If you watch an American college game. Or if you watch an NFL, like a third level Fox game, what do they, I think they call them sea games. Where they don't have one. And so. You know, like the Buffalo bills don't get one. Unless that's a big game. So when you think about. You know, I would love to see one because as a fan, I think, and I've played Madden, you know, so I get it. And if that's what it takes to get a bigger audience, I think that, I mean, I would personally support that, but. I'm not the guy that pays for it. And so, you know, I, I know what it brings. It's a. It's a game changer. And so task spider on more games would be ideal, but it's great that we have it this year. We had it for. You know, 20% and hopefully going forward, it increases. Now, as far as the, it's funny that you brought up the depth of field. So I know Fox calls it a megla Dawn or some fancy name like that. We haven't really come up with a name. It's the same setup. It's a Sony DSLR. With with on a, on a Ronin stick and a, and a gimbal. And it. I think we had a fifth last weekend and Winnipeg in Saskatchewan is a 50 millimeter lens. And we're debating whether to go. You know, smaller, we want to find a happy medium, and I I've watched the CBS and Fox games. And we said, you know, when it first got introduced where like, Does that work as a live camera? Cut. Like, is it too jarring too? In your sequence of celebration? Go to this camera. That suddenly everything is blown out except the guy. And so we wanted to, and we kind of, we kind of watched a lot of Monday night football because they found a happy medium that I personally liked. So when we, when we wanted to start bringing it up here, I said, let's, let's kinda emulate Monday night football. And the way that they. I don't fully blow it out. And ESPN is partly. Part on us anyway, but they don't fully blow it out, but they do enough. That it's noticeable. But you can still capture it. And I, and from all the. All the input I've gotten. And from the guy that's running it, every, all the input he's gotten, everybody loves it. The players are all over. It's hilarious. So I will, yeah, I never interrupted gas. We'll say it is a little jarring sometimes, and it is, it's one of those. And I know in the NFL did it too. It's like, The focus sliver it's too thin. It's, you know, it's like a 1.2 or something you're trying to buy. And like, it's just even, I, they, they're still showing replays of like the super bowl from last year. And like, you see Antonio brown on the sidelines and you're like, it's in focus. Yeah, where it sits too. So it's hard I get is it's a cool, but yeah, I saw a lot of CFL people riding on Twitter about that and I go, oh, well, that's been part of the NFL for like maybe the last year, year and a half. And they go, oh, I, you know, we don't watch the NFL. We don't even know that. And I'm like, Welcome to the world. I mean. Like we don't like it also, or, you know, there's also a criticism. Some worry about that. We have before we let you go. Thank you so much for your time. We have one voicemail from Kyle. Kyle has a question about youth sports and kind of directing whatever. You'll see causes a little bit for character too. So we'll, we'll play this voicemail. It's about 20 seconds and then we'll see what she's at. What's up guys. Paul what's up. I hope you guys are having a great week. I'm still working on, on my feet there. I'll make this simple and sweet. Hey, Andy special guests. I got a question for you. Do you feel like you sports the national championship bandaid? The cup has its place along with the gray cup week. And should the CFL include the venue? With the gray car venue. To help alternative football growth, especially at the youth sport level. Let us know. There you go. So that's a great question now. Ah, you know, when I started at TSN, TSN covered a lot of youth sports back then it was called CIU and then it went to CIS. The Vanier. And I've gone to Vanuatu cups. You know, in here in Toronto and. The thing about the veiny. NEA is it's awesome. Like it's, it's a great game. You know, I went, it was a. It was U U of S Huskies plan. And it was Brett Schneider playing Western, and it was a great game. I don't even remember the year, but I remember some of the people on it. And then, so I think. And one of the most memorable venues and recent history. Would have been one that actually Krista Edwards produced when we were in BC. For a. For the gray cup and it was when CIS or well, then it was CIS youth sports and the CFL decided to play the van gay. On on a Friday night. And play the great cup on the Sunday. And it was, it was a great game. It came down to a field goal for the wind. You know, it was very memorable and. I thought that would become the norm. And, you know, the way TV rights work here. You know, people bid for them and they, you know, they expect that they're going to be able to put more games on for them. And that's how you know, and that's how the product gets sold. So unfortunately it hasn't had. It hasn't had the luster that it did that night. And I would love to see it back on. On a Friday night of the gray cup. I think it, I think it showcases Canadian town at its best. I think it's very important to. An audience to understand that because a lot of the Canadian guys, unless you follow you sports, And you and your CFL fan, you don't even know of them. Until they get drafted and then you go, Hey, like, Where'd this guy come from. How come I didn't watch these games? And I don't even know. I mean, we used to have CHCH cover a lot of games here. And then, then your local cable would cover Mustangs games in London where I grew up. So it was available. Is it. As readily as available as it should be. I don't, I don't feel it is. But. But I think that the [unknown]. It should definitely be, you know, in gray cup week. Well, there you go, Andy. I appreciate your time. I know you're busy. We went longer than I anticipated, but I appreciate you hanging out in the answering a couple of questions as well. No, we had that. We're excited. I think it's going to be a good SWAT, the games this weekend and the gray company. Everything else. Thank you for your time. Oh, you're very welcome. And I look forward to possibly meeting you. And Hamilton well, Well, yeah, we'll see where I sit. We're we'll, Okay. [Unknown] combined. We're going to all right. You guys all. Shave off now. Well, I am very excited today. We have the whole gang from the crown grade, our nation show. On TSN army of Jim Molan Gorge, Randall, and my Cogan. And I figured. I do a lot of round tables in my wedding planning podcasts. I believe it or not, but we never do it in the. Yeah, the mark has, since I figured we gal you on and then Paul won't freak out. Cause we have like six interviews this week. We can kind of combine this all into one. So thanks for you all for coming on. I will just start with Jim Howard. How are you doing today? And then why don't you just say hi. Well, I'm doing great. I'm disappointed that Paul isn't here, he's gone into hiding. He knows that the Seattle Mariners are building a champion. That will absolutely stop the New York Yankees. And future seasons. You see a storm, a mounting behind me there. We're I guess we're Gord, I guess, out here on the coast or waiting for the third. Of the atmospheric rivers to roll in. We actually had the power knocked out here twice. So. This afternoon. So if I drop out all of a sudden to. It's because of BC, hydro, nothing else. Okay. Gordon. How are you doing today? I'm good. I'm in a slightly drier part of town. I think we've already seen the, the third wave of the atmosphere river and there we're waiting the fourth read you're down in Seattle. Right. Are you seeing much of this? Because we've had like, I like feet of rain in the last week. A lot of wind right now, a lot of wind, we have this antique lantern that hangs outside of our houses and blowing a lot, a lot of wind going on how? Yeah. It's blustery here too, but yeah. Otherwise, otherwise doing good. Yeah. I haven't lost power yet, so. Hopefully that that holds up. Mike a how, how high and excited are you right now? Argo's getting into hosted east finals here. Oh, glad to be representing a province where we're still playing football. So that's, we're happy with that. And 38 degrees Celsius. Sunny got the pool open today. It's great. Hey, we've got high school football out here. That's going until Saturday, so many lines. So little time not going there. By, by the way, for those who don't know, I am representing all the vanquish teams of the Western conference. I got my finance hat on. I got my Randy Troutman. Who's in the college football hall of fame, by the way. I'm wearing the Edmonton Alex. Alcohol, the infamous everything. Yes there. There we go. So we'll do our best to kind of keep this on track today. I bet I'm going to be fine. I think it would be a little more banter than just having, you know, kind of doing individual interviews and everything else. And obviously we all have our BC lions hats on representing our fall in. America's fallen CFL team. So that'll be good. Jim first off. Thoughts coming out of the weekend. You know, the semi-finals. I think that the west game was obviously a little more exciting. And then the east, right with the double overtime and all of that. Any broad thoughts, you know, now that we're a couple of days removed from that? Well, the last game was fun. The west game was imperfect and, and sometimes. The CFL is at its very best when it's imperfect and you're in the middle of close games. I know a lot of people gross on a boat, a starting quarterback, throwing four interceptions and getting a win out of it. Big deal, found a way to win. Found a way to get to the next level, found a way to help the CFL in, in a week stage two games. In, in a final round that they really need like really core rivalry games you can't outside of Edmonton Calgary. I actually think. The two, the two rivalries that really stand up here. Our Winnipeg, Saskatchewan and Hamilton, Toronto. And I'm glad we have them in this week and I hope they can provide Canadians and people all around the world. Some damn fine entertainment. Gordon we had you on earlier this year, you know, lots of talk this year about the kind of the games and the quality of the games and the entertainment. Cause all that stuff. What did you make of a kind of those two match-ups you. Culminating kind of this whole wonky 20, 21 season. Well, I think the Eastern final, I'm not overly surprised in that. Once you all had been kind of all the tile all season and susceptible to laying a bit of an egg every, every so often. So you knew that there was always kind of that possibility that they flopped. And unfortunately it came on the biggest stage, but. I agree with Jim, the level of chaos in that Saskatchewan Winnipeg game. Was was ideal. It made it a lot of fun. And I mean, I, as you know, we spend most of our time call. We're in the college ranks. And that's in a lot of cases. What makes the call drinks so fun? Is that, that imperfection, that level of chaos. And so that was, that was outstanding. You know, kudos to coding for Gerardo, like, like Jim was saying, like, he, he found a way. To contribute to his team and to, and to give them what they needed to get over the top and whether it was with his legs this week, or, you know, he's been more effective with his arm in the past. I thought that that was that bodes well. And, and frankly, Calgary didn't play any better than they did. So there's no, there's not really a lot of, lots of grouse about as Jim put it. Mike, you know, with the Argos sitting there, right. Waiting in the wings, you know, Hamilton, the ones coming out, coming in is that. In terms of rivalries. Jim touched on that to best case scenarios, right? For really selling this east finals. W what do I hope for, from not necessarily from an on-field perspective, but from an off-field perspective, I've been dying for this. To, to get a one actually, where we can get Hamilton and Toronto playing in the Eastern vinyl for. You know, two or three years in a role where both teams are good. And it Stokes the rivalry even more. You know, we've got a, a lot of folks coming down, the QEW from Hamilton for these final Eastern vinyl. And we're pumped about that. I think it's going to be just a spectacular atmosphere and maybe that's what it needs to, to kind of get more people involved who are sort of that perimeter fan that doesn't come down a lot. We're hoping we get them in the building on Sunday later, like hell for the Argos. And we put on a show for them. That's ideal. And they keep coming back. We know that like our fans have a very large, very loyal fan base. We're trying to get there. And, and the way that we do the ADOS Pymble Clemens says. We do that by being boring and by being boring, he means we do the right thing all the time on the field and off. And so people come to expect that. So I think we took a lot of steps this year to, to become a boring team. As it were, and we're starting to see the benefits of that. Jim, what do you make of the Argos? We, I think we talked last with you kind of pre-season right. Schedule, I think breakdowns or whatever. What do you make of just this run that they've gone on? No. They brought some fantastic athletes in, at the start of the season and through free agency. And I think Ryan Dinwiddie as a head coach has been a work in progress. Quite frankly, we've seen some ups and downs with him. I hope that doesn't catch up with him. His level of inexperience as a head coach. In a game that's as pressured packed as a, as an Eastern final. McLeod Bethel Thompson has been a bit of a roller coaster ride as well, but there's mentioned. Shining spots. I like DJ foster. I will love curly. Gittens Jr. Got to say his name, a number of times in our old college show for a number of years. Canadian receiver. That that brings a lot, you know, And in terms of entertainment it's been uneven, but then again, the entire league has been uneven. I think the X factor going into this game, believe it or not comes down to the toe of Boris, but he's got the longest range in this league. He's certainly looked like the strongest place, kicker in a game that you're playing in December, usually late November, it can come down to a toe and you know, that's why I kind of give the Argos the edge in this game because he might be the X-Factor. Gore do you view the Hamilton moving on a lot of giveaways, right from Trevor Harris, right? Alwin. It seemed to kind of fall apart a little bit. You give it more. Who did you give the edge to in that game kind of coming out? Was it more that the outlets giving you the, where it was at Hamilton, really rising up? Well, I don't think it's justified to take all the credit away from Hamilton. You know, they, they played, they played a clean game. They took care of business, do what they needed to do. Right. And, and. You know, Hamilton has had to adjust a little bit this year. You know, Brandon Banks has not been the game breaking town that he, that he was for for many seasons past that they were kind of relying on. They've leaned more heavily on the run game. They've cycled through multiple quarterbacks again this year. And, you know, they've managed to find a way the weather at all ends. And come out as one of the, I would say to be honest with you from beginning to end the season, probably the most consistent team in the Eastern conference, ultimately, they didn't get that, that top seed the Argonauts did, but I think the highs and lows were definitely a lot more volatiles for the Toronto Argonauts. Then they work for the Hamilton tire cats this year. And. And so, you know, full credit Justine, this is basically this qualifies as a dynasty. And the CFL, you know, this is a, this is a team that has, you know, they haven't yet. You know, put together those multiple championships, but this is as consistent a team since Rolando Steinhauer has been in charge there as, as there's been in the CFL. And so, you know, you can't count them up. You know, along the Stein hours, a fantastic coach. Do you, I'm seeing his name tossed around and bandied about. Her, you know, jobs down in the states again. Because he's done such a fantastic job, especially in your neck of the woods need, I, I heard him tossed out with the, the university of Washington. DC job the other day, but you know, this is a fantastic coach. He's going to have his guys ready to go. I'm, I'm looking forward to seeing what they put out there and, and that added use of having, you know, the stadium packed. And I think that this is that's the biggest positive coming out of these match ups. Jim kind of alluded to it a little bit, but we're going to choose venues that are going to be juiced for this that are going to be packed. You know, it was disappointing to see some empty seats and Saskatchewan this past week, but that's not going to be happening in Winnipeg this week, as it sounds like they're already sold out and Mike you'll know better than I will, but I believe that Bemo is already sold out too. So. That's going to be first and foremost, what the CFL needs here is, is bombs and seeds creating that atmosphere that you want in a conference championship. Yeah, Mike them opening right. Opening up some of the upper stands. Right. And we talk about, we were talking before we got going here, just. It. All I see right now is Argos on social media, promoting the living hell out of this game in a good way. Right. I see a lot of things that I think other teams could be doing. Right. And so w what do you attribute that all to right now? Well, I do want to Kirk order one thing you can't be a dynasty when you haven't won a championship in a year. That starts with a two. So the takeouts are not a dynasty. I'm going to underscore that, but. I mean, yeah. People complain about our market. And I think we have the best social media team in sports period. Full stop underscore. Certainly as good as anybody else. You know, we're getting out there, we're getting the message. If you've talked to people who sit in the stands, you know, I'm up top, but I've heard countless times this year, that our demo is getting younger, that we we've got more young people. Coming in and this wasn't going to be a oh, M LOC just bought the team. There goes the light switch. Now we're going to fill up the building. We have the lower bowl and upper east upper west bull sold out. When I was selling tickets in the upper east bull for. Duck for the first time in 2017. He's final. So yeah, we got a few days left to try to sell it out. We're we're hoping to get there and hopefully we will. So. You know, it's changed it. We're we're. We're trying to be boring. We're trying to do the right things or. Pinball says, and it's going to reflect. And I think when you see the atmosphere and some of the cows will fan, see, see what's going on on Sunday. She'll she'll they. You know, pop over from the NFL. They're NFL fans first to see what's going on in the Canadian game. I think they're going to like what they see on the, on screen. Jim a lot was made of attendance last weekend, right? I mean, even frankly, the shout Rob van sale and they override peers and talking about like, Too much. Made about that, not enough just to ride them out made of the attendance issues. Ah, I thought, I think maybe a little too much. And Saskatchewan, I mean, they've only had one playoff sell out in new mosaic. It had been a long time since I had a playoff sellout in, in old mosaic. I don't know why there's a trend in Saskatchewan when the playoffs kick in, especially if it's a semifinal, because it's so hard to. Too, within that week, turn your staff around and, and sell all those tickets from a standing start for seven days. It's always the, the, the Western final or the Eastern final. It has that two week buildup that can create that outcome. Right. Some teams do choose to include the potential of a playoff ticket in a season ticket package. I don't think they do that in Saskatchewan. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong. So, you know, yeah. It's slightly disappointing. You know, Hamilton. There's a bit of a draw in that market right now in that they're trying to sell gray cup tickets. Right. I believe they, that they have about 2,500 of those left and they aren't cheap. So if you're going to challenge somebody in Hamilton to make a choice between game a or game B, and you've got the big game or potentially the big game sitting in Hamilton, waiting for you, you're either going to hold your money back and wait for that big game to see if your team's in there, or you've already spent your money on it. And you're going to make a choice to stay at home. And watch it on TV. So as much as I'd been critical from time to time about attendance, And some of these places. Across the CFL, I think in the case of the semifinals. It's okay. Everybody can settle down a little bit. I was surprised that you, I mean, we got our gray cop tickets on like the presale, but then it seemed like they've shot up quite a bad. I mean, I know it's it's Canadian, but yeah. I'm like, oh, wow. I. That's quite the, it's like 3 99, right. For some of the tickets, it seems. Is that half the cause they don't have the right. They normally have. Another additional Bleacher ride. Is that what I've been told? No. Over the last 15 years, there's been a big. Arkin in gray cap ticket prices. So you know what you're paying right now? Isn't that much out of the ordinary from the last couple of seasons. Gordon. What did you think? Speaking of Saskatchewan, you know, the Cody for jar though. So much isn't. Isn't made this year. Right? Because he's been critical of himself critical of the teammates, you know, social media, all these kinds of things. Felt to me, like he finally, after throwing all the pics and sandwiches like FN, I'm running this, I'm like, I'm going for it. I'm taking this. What did you think of his performance really felt like willing this team to victory. I think, you know, I, I think all the way back to week one when they opened the season and a little bit of insight that I think it was Glen suitor on that particular broadcast. Gave us to Jason losses, playbook on the offensive side of the ball for them and, and just how complex it is and how he, and [unknown]. Kind of worked together each week. Moss basically throws everything at AFA Gerardo. They work it out in practice and they pick the things they think are going to work on a weekly basis. And one of the problems with that is that you've risked being overwhelmed and never quite perfecting everything. And, and so not to take anything from Jason Moss, I think he's, he's an outstanding coordinator in this week and all those ideas. I mean, there's some fantastic stuff out there, but I do think that every so often when you're throwing new stuff out there each week, You're you're, you're running based on feel that can sometimes backfire on you. If the other team seems to have the answers in Calgary, seem to have some answers or fajita wasn't quite hitting things, or maybe he just wasn't quite feeling things on game day, the way he had been in practice. But yeah, I mean, it's, it's a nice luxury to have, right? When, when you're a quarterback and you're struggling to throw the ball down field, to be able to see seams and make up some hay and help yourself out. With your legs. And when you get into the cold season, you know, it's not the worst thing to be able to have that ground elements in your back pocket. If you absolutely need you. There's, there's a, a more than fair chance that we're going to see snow either this week in Winnipeg, or if they get that far, you know, a couple of weeks from now and Hamilton. And so, you know, that that's always an added element that makes the ground game that much more important. And, and they've got, they've got running backs to help out with that too. So I, I do think, like, I think if they were to go back to the drawing board this week, they're probably going to want to lean on the running game a little bit more than they did this past week. And that's always a difficult call for Canadian football teams to make because of the three down game. You know, coaches want to throw the ball even more so than you see in the states. But I do think that that's something that they'll want to kind of recommit to this week, because I'll tell you what. The team on the other side will commit to the Ron. You don't have to worry about that. Hey, Winnipeg weather read before you go. I did look it up just before we came on. For Sunday, minus nine Celsius at kickoff it'll drop to about minus 11 or minus 12. Snow showers throughout that, by the way, for you American folks that 17 dropping down to 14. Throughout the game. So. When you ask about spring football and Canada, just about the same weather at the start of its spring football season. If it were to ever happen up here, 36 degrees and sunny on Sunday. In Toronto. There you go. I'm kidding. I think we're plus plus three. So it's not, it's not supposed to be a bad day. Or for the sun first week of December. So, you know, the gods are smiling on us. No fog there. It's not going to be a two-part game. No, I think we're, I think we're safe on that one. Oh, I do want the two game total point series to come back though, because, because. People look it up. The 1986 Eastern final is the greatest comeback. Of all time and it's between Hamilton and Toronto. [Unknown] Hey, go read, read. They're going to make us feel young again. Go back, go back and watch this man. A 26 point come back with three quarters. Left him. In the second quarter. Joe Kroll is one of his great players. So. I can't hear yet. Anyway. Grayness of by Bailey and how they used to use nail guns to keep grip on the ice. Mike I wanted. Speaking of, you know, Cody, all these kind of things. I don't think we've had you on sense. McCloud was kind of anointed right in the face of the Argos and all of that. We've obviously talked to a lot of other Argonauts. You know people about that. Thoughts on him, you know, really becoming the face of this franchise going in and a lot of the marketing, you know, and then on the field really kind of taking the Argos by the helm. That's awesome. You know, I didn't get them. No Nick all that well, but you know, there's not a guy in that room. Does a love Maclovia. At the tops of his. His leadership skills are vastly underrated. And I think it's the most under. Interesting guy. The CFL. Is his post-game or post-product those news conferences are legendary. So he's got that. It factor and he just continues to get better and, and he's embraced the system. You know, he's got a strong arm. A very strong arm and he's got now. The guys around him and it was nice to go to practice. And look at the receiving Corps being completely healthy for the first time aside. You know, Basically. Got everybody back from the beginning of the season and it looks, it looks like a healthy group, you know, he's, he's just got those intangibles. He's found so many ways to come back. Even against Hamilton. This year in the Thanksgiving day. You threw for over 300 yards in the second half. To come back. So he's, he's, he's just got that. The intangible when he gets on a roll. Is really, really good. So I would think that what Hamilton wants to do is not let them get on that rule. Because if he does. Some good things are gonna happen to the guys and double blue, but he's just, he. You know, even our buckle, it was a, an open competition. I. He beat Nick out. To the extent where Nick was built. So, you know, let's, let's, let's on NBT. It was a. It was a very, very even competition. I think coming out of camp. There were a couple of changes made where we're match starters and electrical. Took over the Macklin. Yeah. And that was that it was Mac. And he's been, he's been our guy for the last couple of months. So this is. He's a better quarterback than I think a lot of people, even in this market, give them credit for. Jim. You know, with the Jeremiah Mazzoli, right. You know, came out, got injured, right. Coming back now. I don't. It didn't play that phenomenally right last weekend. I mean, what do you, what do you make of this natural with Hamilton going in? Well, I think I counted up the number of starts that Jeremiah Mazzoli had over. About two and a half years. There's only 16 games. I mean, The ability to put him in and stay with him. I was on another podcast saying, you know, why wasn't he. Yank for Evans in this situation. And that it's like the guy needs upstairs. To get back up to speed and, and. And feel that authentic. And get his timing down. I think in, you know, In large part. That's what it was. Toronto. Last time trying to connect on some long passes. I have some confidence in him. If he does things early. I mean, he needs to do things that are going to give him confidence early in that game. If not, if this thing starts going sideways. It could get ugly in a hurry for, for the Hamilton tiger cats in that position. Gordon. What do you make of the other side? With. Saskatchewan kind of barely getting by, right? The double overtime, all this flakiness. Going into Winnipeg, right? I mean, yes, it was like a huge win and all of this. Right. Very exciting. But it wasn't like me dominated going in. Right. We have Winnipeg here waiting. What do you make of that? Well, I, I love this Winnipeg's squad. I mean, you know, they, they won last season. And, and are looking to have the weirdest back-to-back great cup championship teams in, in league history. But you know, the, one of the things that I love about this final four. There's a couple things that I love about it. Number one, we talked about kind of the marketing aspect of it. And, you know, Jim was just talking about Jeremiah. I'm a solely, that's great for those American dealers that your turn in because you get a great, oh, Hey, remember that guy. And then you get guys like Shane Rayshawn open on the other side in the Western conference. The other thing that I love about it, I got applies to both conferences is both. All fourteens left are probably the four best offensive lines in the league. And, and Montreal's probably next, so no disrespect to them, but I love that's my position group. I love seeing, seeing great units on that side of the ball. And, and these are teams that have had excellent offensive wine units. Going on for years, it seems. And so for Winnipeg, I think what I'm most interested to see is how their run game shakes out because that's been on the offense. That's been the core of their offensive attack. I even without Andrew Harris the last little while. Pretty old verus golden. Well, another Canadian running back and even Johnny Augustine, their third string running back. You know, filled in last week with a, with a really saw or two weeks ago with a really solid performance. So I'm interested to see what they're able to do in the run game and on the end where they really stand out for me, that's the best defensive unit in the CFL, my opinion. And. And first the Scatcher and they're going to have to be able to hold off that pass rush. And, you know, Willie, Jefferson and Jackson, Geoff code excelling as always, you know, Adam big hill and the wind back and core behind him. At the top of their game. So that that's an interesting matchup for me. And one guy, I would love to see what he can bring to this game, because it feels like he's still getting his feet wet a little bit as duke Williams for the rough riders. That, that to me could potentially be an X factor because this is a guy that I don't think that anybody's forgotten, but he was a star in this league before he went down to the states. And so if, if he's starting to get warmed up, that could potentially be kind of a hidden weapon X factor for the rough riders on the road here. Read. I just want to bring up one point about the running backs of the Winnipeg blue bombers and why I love them so much is that they come from three distinct development paths for Canadian players. You got. Andrew Harrison. I came out of junior football, never played university or college football. Brady Allavara who went to North Dakota, went down there, saw him play fantastic guy at the college level at that S F C S level. And Johnny Augustine was a standout in the youth sports level in Canada. So you've got all of these different paths that take Canadian players. Into a position. What that's a skill position that they can star at. That's one of the reasons why I find that backfield and Winnipeg so compelling. Well, and don't forget, Sean Thomas Earlington in Hamilton, who should be a factor there. The former university of Montreal stud. So if I'm Canadian personnel guy start drafting, Canadian running backs, guys. And then I saw it right. Blue bombers posted, I think today that Andrew Harris, right. Kind of teasing that he's going to be back in the lineup. I mean, how big of a deal is that him coming in? I think he'll be on a pretty hard pitch. Karen, if he does come back in. Now I, you never know, like he's, he's a very strong-willed guy. He's the type of guy that would probably insist on, on carrying the load. But as the, as we've seen, they have competent to better than competent. Backup running backs in the room. So I think if you do see him, I'm expecting, it'll probably be in a part-time role. I get his feet wet. And if they assuming they make it through. Be able to lean on him a bit more in a couple weeks time if that's what they want to do, but I, he may or may not still play at this point in time. I would be surprised now that he's practiced. If he doesn't at least suit up, but I would expect him to be on a pretty hard b***h count. But yeah. When you were talking about the backups, because right now with the way the rules set up, When you've got a guy like Harris, and you want to designate that position as a Canadian spot, you need that guy behind him. And they don't, they, they prove this you're they got not one, but two guys behind him all over his flashed. He looked really good early. And then, you know, Augustine, you know, we saw we could do it well. And kind of thought, boy, if he gets a shot at the next level, and they're going a couple of games this year where he got the shot looked fantastic, including the last time out. So yeah, that's one. And they've got several strengths, but because they've got a feature buck and heroes. And they want to run the football behind that really good offensive line. The fact that they have depth of Canadian talent at that position. Bodes well, and it just shows the need for, you know, For teams to find out backup. Who can step in if they want to go Canadian, you don't need one. You need two. And if teams are willing to commit there's there's jobs, aplenty for Canadians in this league. Jimmy had a comment. Oh, no, I was just going to say the, the comparison between the three bags. As well. I mean, when you look at Harris, he's kind of a bruising style, even for his size. All of Vera is, is surprisingly physical. For his size, even though he can slash a bit. He can survive. Vinpac Augustine. Is more about speed making the burst being elusive. So, so, you know, within that staff of three, they can throw you some change ups. But I'm what I'll just do was a wealth. He was really good early. And then he bulked up and maybe bulked up a little bit too much. And it took away from some of that speed and. And elusiveness so he lost some weight. And became a better Bach. I mean, I think some guys just have that pressure that, oh, I gotta go pro I gotta be bigger. Th that wasn't necessarily the case with him. And he's, he's looked really good. Well, that's part of the changing math for Canadian running backs too, right? I'm sure. Part of the thinking in bulking up was, you know, most Canadian running backs when they go to the league. He come HVACs. Yeah, right. I mean, and, and fortunately, that's changing because I remember a generation ago. You know, a decade ago. You know, a guy like Jamal Lee comes out of the college ranks, having ripped up youth sports and ends up having to become an HVAC and a bit player in the, in the pros. And so hopefully that, that stereotypes changing just as hopefully a few years down the road from now. The stereotype book, Canadian quarterbacks continues to move in the right direction. The positional thing as well. Got caught on this a couple of times historically. Well, they are Jesse Lumsden. If they wanted to take them out to bring in an American back and they had to switch an American offensive lineman. So Lumsden would come in with an American offensive lineman and the American back and the Canadian offensive lineman would go off the field as a tandem. And, and, you know, right now, W w with Earlington. John L Don Jackson. That kind of messes around with what they want to do in terms of the ratio, because they don't have that guy who can be the same level as Sean Thomas Earlington right now. So. That's a little bit problematic in terms of juggling the ratio and. As caused Hamilton. To try some different things. Including the. Taking advantage of the rule about having a Canadian replaced by a veteran American. Well, but as we've seen in covering our college showed there's the ability to, to create that depths. If your player personnel department goes after it. And I don't think enough has been said when it comes to the Winnipeg blue bombers. About their player personnel department, about Danny McManus, about Ted good-bye about some of the other individuals that have been involved in that department going out. In into those free agent camps, going to the NFL camps and, you know, they lose a receiver, they find another one. They, they build up Canadian talent at, at key locations. On the roster that they have been the most. Nimble group. I think out of any front office. In the CFL, when it, when it comes to an earthing that talent and finding replacement talent on the fly to. I think they, they, they seriously do not get enough credit. And that job's more difficult than it's ever been. Right? Like the NFL rosters are larger than they've ever been. If you're looking specifically at national talent, more Canadians are going south of the line earlier on in their careers and have more eyeballs on them from the states. You know that there's, there's more startup leagues giving you a competition on that side of the line to. You know, they're having to dig really deep. To find some of these talents and unearth these gems that maybe would have been easier in a generation past. And that's not just for Winnipeg. That's the entire league. You know, that, that player, personnel job finding these, these underrated talents that can transition up here, I think has never been more difficult. And I know for Vince Maggie and John Murphy and Alex Russell on our Columbus, it's been frustrating to not be able to go down and see the NFL live. You know, go down to camps. And under the training camp, but a practices. And to talk firsthand with, with the guys. You know, make sure that your face is seen down there. I know it's been, it's been frustrating because it's an easier way to go and look at a guy alive. And get some of those intangibles. And to be able to see how they practice with their teammates. And just a little minor things like that. We can go a long way. So it's made a tough job, even tougher, not having access to. Not only the parole caps. And the NFL, but the NCAA camps as well. And you'll want, makes my life tough. My cat having access to my room when I'm doing one of these things, I apologize for. I want to before, I don't want to go on, we can go on obviously forever about this, but you know, to be respectful of everyone's time and, and everything else. Before we go, I want to get kind of major storyline going into the weekend. I feel like except for the whole Saskatchewan thing, I really don't want to get into that. Right. With the peripheral and all that. And there hasn't been. Like the most juice, right. Kind of going, I mean, I know these rivalries are established and all that. I've seen a lot of people posting online, funny memes and stop it. In terms of like the, the actual camps and the teams, not a lot of you got, I mean, like a rivalry kind of stuff going on. So what is kind of the one major storyline that we should be tracking kind of going in? You could pick either game. Going into the weekend. We'll start with Mike. But other than the obvious storyline. It's a unique one in this league. This is the fifth time we've played Hamilton. You'd also. So for coaching staffs, what do you show that's new? You know, what concepts are you going to show that the other team hasn't seen a million times already? So I think that's the challenge for both teams. And you know what, when it comes down to it, you know, Hamilton's a big play team. And they seem to win the games where they have the most big place. So I think if, if we use an Oregon. Organization Gunn. Can have our guys create more big plays, whether by turtle, I don't even mean scoring plays. I can mean a turnover or a big sock, or just those big plays, the momentum shifts, a big pump return. If, if we can have more big plays that a big play team. I really liked our chances. Grow by about you. I think in the Western game, my big storyline on the field, what I'm looking at is how that Saskatchewan offense is able to carve out points against the Winnipeg defense. I think that wouldn't pay defense is exceptional, probably the best in the league. And we talked about Cody [unknown]. Struggles last week, if you're Saskatchewan, what kind of balance are you going to try and approach this game with? What's Jason Moss got up his sleeve. I think this'll be the third, maybe fourth time. That these teams have played this year too. So it's not a whole lot different. You know, what do you show that's different? I think he's got the depth of playbook to be able to do it, but can he get for Gerardo ready to go and to be able to execute that at a high enough level, or do you start putting some wrinkles in try to establish the ground game more? How do you, how do you carve out those points? And I think the other storyline that I always keep an eye on when micro stays in a big game is, does he overwhelm his, his love is undying while those special teams play, you know, It was a running joke for awhile that Michael Shay loves kicking more than any other coach in the game. And I think in recent years, he's, he's evolved beyond that. I'm. I'm always keeping an eye out for whether he lets that get away from him as the former special teamer and special teams coordinator. He is. As you know that about you. Let's see, two things more editorial has the clock finally struck midnight on a group of talented yet aging, Hamilton tiger cats. This is a team that's always been ranked at the, at the top of the list for the last couple of seasons has never broken through for one reason or another. At times they have shown their age this year in a very odd year. Is this. Is this their moment where they, where they finally move forward into a gray cup. And, and, and finish the deal or is this time to move on and for the Winnipeg blue bombers. Is this the game where they find a way to win. And take that step to actually becoming somewhere along the line of dynasty. Is that, is this a team that can win three gray cups? Certainly they've got the horses right now. There's a lot more change in the CFL than back in the old days with the Edmonton Eskimos, putting. Five gray cups together. A one-year contracts have seen to that rival leagues have seen to that. But, but is this Winnipeg team? Something of a dynasty that we're seeing formed before our eyes. We've seen some very strong teams in Western finals. Find ways to lose after being rusty for a couple of weeks. So, so that's my question. Are the bombers off to a dynasty or are they like that? 16 one-on-one Edmonton team. Yo, those many years ago, I think it was 89. The found a way to lose to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Before we go get your game picks at Gordon. Who do you have in both? I got Winnipeg in the west and I we'll get chewed out next week when we're shooting our episode. If I don't pick the Argos in the east. Mike. And. He can't pick the other game. He's not allowed to pick me up. I'm just going to sit back and enjoy it and, you know, should we. We'll be fortunate enough to be in Hamilton in the first game of the afternoon. I'm hoping for the most physical draining. And the history of the CFL. In the second game. That's good. And Jim, take us home. Well, one of the things I really liked to do behind the scenes of our show is knowing Mike as much as possible. So I've got a Winnipeg. Coming over from the lesson. And us. Awesome. Holy Makena. The Tiger's going to eat. Double blue RA. I'm sorry about the size of your AUSkey. This has been a lot of fun. I appreciate y'all making the time and coordinating schedules to have everyone busy. Come on and do this. I really appreciate it. Argonaut's dot CA. For tickets, argonauts.ca. We want to see you with these. Eastern vinyl. Are you paying for my airfare? No. But you can sleep in the backyard.

Episode 68 - The USFL vs. XFL Civil War

Hopefully you guys had a happy Thanksgiving. It's Friday. It's time for the mark cast. Welcome to the show. It's a happy American Thanksgiving. I already, I, when I posted the teaser on Facebook, I would say I put the American flag and I got a lot of it's, you know, it's not Canadian Thanksgiving. I. No, that's fine. But also Facebook was created in America memoirs. Dr. Burke. So I'm just kidding. Yeah, happy American Thanksgiving. Hopefully. Yeah, we had. So we're going to get some, we have ton of us, of old news and all that. And then the CFL. Yeah. Really easy to get CFL people this week because of obviously the Canadian, you know, but I have my, my hooks out for some good, our USFL guests. Coming, you know, in the, in the coming weeks after that, but we have all the info today, but just in terms of. Interesting people to talk to. So cool. Sanchez former CFL stand Peter and. Edmonton Montreal and BC player. He's also won three great cup cups. He's joined the show morally Scott, Edmonton Elks. Play by play announcer on a six 30 C H E D, probably coming on to talk about all the craziness happening in Edmonton right now. And Luke Mullinder CFL analyst for six 20 C K R C K R M. And the rough riders also joining Reed. This fine afternoon. Yeah, Davis, you know, he's with the TSN he's with the Milt seagulls. Of the world. He's good. Morally Scott. Yeah. We were like, well, we'll just get you on the show. And then it ended up the Edmonton blew the world up this week. So that was good. And then Luke's great. Luke is a really passionate, really great interview. I mean, I know people listen to Luke all the time on the air, right. I'm doing the. Analysis. I can't talk with my braces, but I really passionate, you know, talking about rough risers, kind of heading into their playoff games this weekend. Can I ask a question and. I might be getting completely off track here. We're going to lead with the USL vile this week. And I don't think we should be, but that's neither here nor there. Okay. I think we should be talking about CFL playoff football, but that's just me. I agree. Well, I don't, I disagree because I. Ah, they will be the analysis of the teams. They announced the teams, they announced the logos. They announced a lot of things. That way I feel like interest is high right now for USFL. Okay. I respectfully disagree. I think we should be talking about CFL playoffs, but that's what we're going to start off with. We're going, especially to talk about this. The smirch. This merged. So USFL is putting out a couple of things. Yeah. So we have our. Preface here. So we have our XFL guessing game. I thought this is really fun. I played, he got it. So before we get down. So we all know the XFL store is coming back in 2022 with the new teams and all that stuff. So, if you go to my Twitter, I have a questionnaire that you can fill out, kind of like pick your spot on the calendar. And if you pick when they were. Yeah. When the store comes live, I'm going to send you a piece of merch from the shore. I thought we have like 25 people have already filled out ball. It's very good. You have to be subscribed to us. You have to be following us on Twitter, but I thought that was really fun. And then speakpipe.com/voicemails. I, Jenna has a voicemail, a really nice one that we're going to listen to today are Richard L for real, just got one in like literally as we logged on here. So Richard, we'll see if we get to yours or not. We'll see how we do timelines. You don't be kinda cool too, is to use that SpeakPipe that answering machine basically to, if you have questions. Yes. A guest. Or for us, please leave a message. Yeah, I always post the guests. You know, a couple of days before when we kind of have everything lined up and yes, I, I try to encourage that on Twitter, but yes. If you ever have any questions for us, I'll play. I mean, I can play it right for the guests. They can hear your voice. We can do it on the show. But yes. So moving into this USFL stuff. I will tell you. The, you know, whatever concerns you want to have a bit, the USFL, this merge situation is the most alarming thing about this league. So far with the bullet. Yeah. Like I'm serious because these hats have come out. I'm going to put this stuff up, up here on the YouTube. I have everything screenshot. So these hats that came out, they have $60 long sleeve fitty cruise shirts. The hats are 25, but this is as Paul knows very much so because I did a lot of pain in the butt. Printful when we were trying to get all of our merch, like this is reminiscent of like you and I sitting there trying to figure out like, Well, what looks good on this one? Like, let's add it to the store. Okay. Let's get a different stock image. Okay. Let's get, I mean, this is like scary time. Yup. And holy cow. Like even the fact that they have like, okay, it's the Printful models, right? I mean, this is, these are like the stock room. But we have some that are like the normal image. We have some that are like, you know, The different gentlemen, right? There's different VA. Like it doesn't as bad as the XFL shop was at times and not having, like, they never always have like all the authentic jerseys and all the right sections or whatever, it was never quite right. This is terrifying to me that we have this amount of money going into this. And like, this is what we've come out with in the last three days. Like, I don't think that if you are a league with that many resources behind you, you shouldn't be using drop shipping. The cell merchandise that's. That's another thing like you should, you should have. Some kind of DTG person, that's buying these things in bulk and you're not buying these per cost. That's, what's driving the cost of like that's $60 for a long sleep. Fitted crew that's insanity to me. And that would go down. If you guys. If the group would like approach an actual garment vendor and get these things, but button bulk. So you can bring the cost down for everybody else that wants to actually buy one of these. I don't know who would want to buy that all over print beanie by the generals. But. I think the Luchador mask. They're really bad. And this is, I'm not trying to be like, we have USFL people that like follow us on Twitter now. Right? Like hopefully, you know, presumably might listen to at least the intro of the show. This is scary. This is like end of world situation stuff. And we're like, we're getting ready to launch this league. And yes, we're using like woo, commerce and print full to do this. And it's someone sitting there dragging logos onto these predesigned templates and trying to print these hats. It's very, very scary. Speaking of hats, I brought out my XFL black Friday hat today. We seem to miss that one. But he was a year ago today. We got our famous infamous that XFL black Friday. So, yeah. Cool. All right, so let's move on. Let's get the show going. Let's start with the USFL TSL stuffs. The names and logos were released this week on the cowherd show. Yeah. Do you, are you calling coward fan? I am not. And it's just like, His takes are just some kind sometimes so ass and I'm like one year he was talking about how like Utah state was going to upset Arizona in the basketball tournament. And then when you talk state didn't win. He's like I'm taking Arizona when it go all the way. And it's like, bro, you just said they were out last like two days ago. Now. Now all of a sudden they're going to go all the way. They would have a Villanova. Hadn't cheated them, but that's another story for another day. So, yeah. Yeah, this, this to me, obviously. It's great. Right? Fox property Fox owns, you know, USFL they're using, you know, Colin show on Fs one. That was great. Right? I like the synergy of that, doing that. The one problem that we, I encountered online that Mark Perry brought up is like, You're not going to have a lot of NBC and CBS coverage for a Fox owned property. Right. Which is just something to keep in mind. Right? Like what you get from [unknown]. Swan or Fox, you're going to lose in that, but. Like it was such like an afterthought in the three hour show. It was buried like at 10 45, the show runs, you know, like nine to noon. No presence from the USFL, like right. Brian Johnston, someone could have been on there, Brian Woods, someone talking about this stuff, it was just kind of presented matter of factly. Right. And I just didn't like that even with in, I hate being the Homer, but even with the accident fell, doing that live stream, having that little pre-produced videos, right? Like were the dragons coming from the sea? You remember that? And they were like, where are the Dallas renegades? Like, and it was like, just stock foot. I mean, it wasn't like that. Spielberg, whatever, but just like presenting them on the board, like calling dad and being like these are the teams. I think spring football is a, is a good idea. It felt a little flat to me. I did not see the announcement, but I, you know, I did see like bits and pieces of it aware Colin was just talking by himself. There was nobody else to kind of help him in. I completely agree with your assessment, that they should've had someone on here. To help them. And back to this mercy thing, like the more that I think about this merge thing, and I'm like, why are they using drop shippers and Printful and stuff? I just, I get a bad feeling. I get a really bad feeling. Yeah. So we have the teams. I have some notes down below here, but your teams, you know, your north division, Michigan Panthers, New Jersey generals, Philadelphia stars, and the Maulers. We have the Birmingham stallions. Houston gamblers, new Orleans breakers and Tampa bay bandits. We have a soundbite. I've pulled up here in a minute with Brian Johnson. Who's kind of like the exact VP talking about why they picked some of the cities and stuff. I'll be really curious to get your thoughts about that, Paul, but looking at these logos and I'm going to put them on just as we talk about them for a minute. Do any of these strike you, you know, Michigan Panthers? It's a lot of reds and I dunno, it feels like a lot of these Lois feel very similar to each other. There's a lot of reds. I mean, the breakers is the one that deviates from any kind of red in their logo. Wow. Yeah, you know, So, yeah, Michigan Panthers. A lot of these have lineages, right? Like to the previous USFL. So down here, you know, Mike Mitchell was talking about. The. The initial USFL champions, you know, where the Panther is? The NFL has the Panthers. With the USFL K then better. Why not? The Memphis? Showboats bringing out some of these other names, right? You know, Birmingham stallions, that was a popular one from back in the day. Everybody knows that new journey. New Jersey generals when it comes to Trump. But, you know, like the band-aids is kinda neat again. The Tampa bay thing is weird to me, except obviously you have the old USFL ties. Yeah. That's about it. Do you think it's odd that there is a Pittsburgh team and a Philadelphia team? No. There's a close to each other. Well, I mean, the stars are close to the generals technically than, than the Pittsburgh team. Okay. Well, I mean, they're all, so I have a map. Pregnant women that we have the quote, we do have a call from Brian Woods. I will love to see, like I said, have Brian on call-in show. He says, we're excited to take the next major step in development of the new USFL. USFL president of football operations, Brian Woods. These eight teams formed the core of our initial league membership and will represent an exciting brand that professional football coming into spring. Leo look forward to this art by inaugural season. I do. I don't know. I do know. There's no west coast teams. There's no. You know, there's no west coast teams. None. No Vegas. The Oakland thing is weird to me because if I remember right, Oakland was a big part of like the initial USFL, right. But I don't think it really even matters because I mean, they're all playing in like a hub. So like the city names are a formality for me. Well, and I got a lot of feedback about that, but I said, but the plan is in year two and three. Right. We're moving these out. So I'll put the map up here. I'll remember. So, you know, I, I kind of, cause I like to visualize this, so this is just, you know, cause you hear like, okay, where's Detroit again. Okay. Where's whatever, you're obviously they're clustered over there. I get that right. I get that for the bubble. I get that for travel. But then in terms of like TV viewership, I mean, I guess you're going to have everything be east coast times. You're not going to have to worry about that, but it is weird to me that Houston is as far west as we go. Yeah. I mean, like I said, Vegas would have been a great one. Oakland there's so many other USFL franchises. That may be kind of like. Drug up. You know, like, like the Memphis showboats, that will be in a great one too, but it's just like, it's just. It's very just Southern and north Eastern. And there's not much of the map covered other than two strips. That's what I'm looking. I'm looking at two strips. And, and we'll play the Sierra club here in a minute, but it's, you know, I get right. I get it. It's easier for that season one, but I. If you're in a bubble anyway, you can call them whatever cities you want. You can call them. The Seattle bay can still play in Birmingham. And then when you're moving teams, I just don't know how you're going to entice any west coast viewing audience, except obviously people in spring football. I come in into this. If you like, I also have the XFL map here. You kind of see where they're at, you know, presuming this is why we talk about the XFL USFL civil war, right? The title of the episode. Yeah, them coming back to Tampa, kin Tampa support, like the bandits and the Vipers. And. They can't even support the race. So how can they support the Vipers in. The bandits. Well, you know, and like the question you're like new Orleans, I don't know where they like. Because I w when I posted it online, I got a lot of like, well, these city, this map doesn't matter right now because they're all playing in the bubble. I go, yes. But when they're moving out in year two and three, it will matter because unless you're going to change and then it's going to be the Oakland Maulers it matters. Right? What the cities are called. I, where would they even play in new Orleans? I mean the saints play down in the dome. They're not going to play in a Caesar's. It's not in Mercedes-Benz and where it's a Caesar's. I don't got to play in the dome. You don't think is a USFL in year two and the play in the dome. I mean, that's just like a 70,000 person. I don't think they should, but I mean, where else are they going to play? Exactly. You can play at LSUS field, they could play it like, you know, they could play different places. You're going to LSU. Yeah. I mean, my, my Ms. Reported. You know, like some of these cities have been named. Right. Presumably because they have some idea of interests with everybody. Why this matters is these are going to be the cities moving forward. You're not going to change the name and year two. I'm going to play this club with Gerald Johnson. I think that this is going to be insightful too. It's a little bit of a long one, but this is. It's basically like an 11 minute soundbite cut down to three minutes, but I do think that you'll have some interests here in this fall. The first question proceeding. The answers from the guest air from the host is why isn't San Antonio included kind of in this initial rollout. And then he's going to talk about them moving forward from there. This is Darryl Johnson. I Johnston. Executive vice-president of a useful. Do the San Antonio gunslingers are one of the teams from the USFL. We're hoping we're hoping to have success this time. And be able to push this. The season to season three. And hopefully. If that starts to happen, we can, we can bring back some of the other franchises. There were a part of the USFL. And, and San Antonio, because of the response that we had with the. The commanders down there. I mean, they have been the envy of. The XFL. Yeah. Even the talk with the NFL now. And I can't imagine, as we move out to the west, You kind of look at it, how the structure of that league is going to be right now. It's for Northern and for Southern. We really haven't. We've got Houston. And we've got a new Orleans. So, you know, San Antonio can be a fit. The big thing will be the geography of the team. So as we start to slide. I'm going to be pushing for San Antonio, same as like what the Alliance with the XFL, which you were all also a part of, it seemed like the teams that did the best with corporate sponsors, ticket sales and merchandise. We're football, hungry cities that also. Did not have an NFL team in them. And when I look at the NFL cities that have the original late here for the rebirth of the USFL, you're in a lot of NFL cities, I thought that maybe the new spring leagues would try to avoid that. You know, when, when Fox. Purchased the rights to the USFL. They got everything. They got. You know, the city, the colors, the logos. The mascots. So it, it was best for them to stay. You know, true to what the original. And, and we've gotten a lot of positive feedback and people are excited for the fact that, you know, you're going to get to see the camper bay bandage. And the Houston gamblers and. You know, the teams that they remember. You know, on the first go around with a USFL. So there's more than this, but what do you think about that? That basically like, well, we bought these properties like. This is what people remember. This is where we're going back. Like is that, that to me does not make sense. In 20 21, 20 22, like base the cities that you want to play around. It doesn't and I mean, like, If we're being honest, like new Orleans didn't end up in new Orleans at the very end of this. I ended up in Portland. Yeah, Portland breakers. I mean, you know, and you have other teams like the express and the Denver gold, like these teams that, you know, Weren't considered to be added because. I don't know. To far west, I guess. I don't know. But the idea. You could have fixed it. You could have fixed it. I mean, If you could put Houston and San Antonio, LA and Portland in one. Or even Portland, Denver, LA, and San Antonio. And one thing, the new you fix your problem, where you have this whole big swath of geography, you're not taking control of. It just seems weird to me that like, well, these were the cities back in 83. So these are the cities we're going for in 2022. I, that just seems that it is a one disconnect. It's the same thing with like the CFL where they're like, well, the nineties expansion didn't work. It's like, well, okay. Yeah. But there was also like 40 years ago. I mean, it's just there, whatever 30 years, I mean, it's just a long, just the base TV markets and things off of decisions that were made back in the eighties. It seems very odd to me. And I mean, the Houston gamblers ceased to be a. Team after they were going to merge with the generals. Like this, just like there's some, there's some other teams. That would have great. You know, Support in the cities that they picked up, they picked like, you know, St. Louis for a franchise, even though St. Louis didn't have a franchise, the first go round. You could have put the bulls there. You could have put, you could put the showboats there. You could've put the Panthers there. You could have done anything. To get. St. Louis a team and, and, you know, increase your, increase your profile. I think they they've, they've missed a big, big opportunity to kind of. You know, if, if we're talking about a USFL USFL, XFL thing back and forth between these two leaks. The USFL had a chance to jump on markets. That the XFL kind of owns right now because F XFL owns the St. Louis market. They do. And you had a chance to put a team. In a market, but not in the markets and supplying in a bubble in a market. And then Eve the team. And you could have helped kind of push the XFL ownership of St. Louis out. But then you dropped the ball on that. Got the ball now. Yeah, I here's the second part of this, because this is talking about the time of year they're going to play. And I thought this was interesting as well in terms of working with the NFL. There is a little bit of that there, but that does force you into Philadelphia. Pittsburgh. The Michigan team will play. Probably out of Detroit. We are in a lot of cities. I think the way that we have everything structured so far, this. It's fine. You know, going to one host city and minimizing the expenses coming out there in year one. And. And really concentrating and focusing on the product of the, of the quality of football and the quality of the football players. And that's once we leave. You know that that host city and the teams go back, you know, That'll give him a year. You know, over a year to kind of build the excitement for those teams. Arrive into the host cities. We're not the traditional calendars. That were used the last two years. You. That weekend after the super bowl, we're actually going to push you back. We'd run some analytics. And we've we think we've found a better window. That gives us a little bit more time. You don't have to get this up and running. So, you know, That'll be helpful. Number one. To make sure that we get this done the right way. You know, organizing everything and launching it. But number two, I think the other important thing is, is just as you pointed out, moving forward, you. Empty year two. There's this window that we've selected, that we feel is a real downtime in sports and making the calendar friendly. So if guys do. Catch some NFL eyes. It's time for them to get into a, into an NFL camp. It'll be a little bit tighter fit. Then it was for the Alliance or the. XFL, but it'll still provide them the time. You know, to get into an NFL camp. There you go. What's up with, I will say it was either me, you know, the big thing with the XFL. Again, hate being the Homer. Having the team presidents, having the local people there, working with the communities, doing the giveaways, doing the signs, doing the events, doing the things that they did. That is how you build a local fan base? I don't think, well, they're going to have a year and a half to get excited in, you know, Michigan. Because we're playing. I don't think that that. But we don't know where we're playing. That was scraped. It's scary to me when he was like, well, presumably out of Detroit, that's terrifying to me. Yep. Are you just you're you're assuming that you're going to have ownership and interest there, then move that team. That, to me, it just seems very backwards to me that they have how they're building that. So. I, we need to pick our teams. So who are you picking for your eight? We're right to change if they come out and they say like, the best coach in the world is coaching for someone else. But right now, who is your team? I'll pick the breakers because they don't have red in their logo. Why not. You're going to fake the breakers. Well, and we had good times in new Orleans, you know, we went and thought that, you know, WrestleMania there and that, that was good. I am based on a fan boat. It came down to the Michigan Panthers, which I was very terrified about. And then the Houston gamblers, I'm a gambling man. I think we're going to go with the Houston gamblers, even though the G doesn't really look like a G. But yeah, we've been to Dallas. We've been in San Antonio. Maybe we can go to Houston here, coming up. I'd be interested to, well, I dunno, that's Houston. Real quick. This is interesting. We have to go through all this mega mental set, but the USFL. They the USFL news on Twitter ranked the, the logos that they have and based on the fan votes. And he has. Yeah, like quite a following, like 2000 followers. So Tampa bay was voted number one, Michigan to pay. I don't get that Michigan one Pittsburgh. Maulers I get that. It kind of looks like Thor's hammer Birmingham. I think the style he's just have a lot in the Stalins that Philadelphia stars. New Jersey generals, Houston, and then you're in new Orleans breakers. So we are to our two teams at the bottom. Bottom of the back. Oh, well, that's fine. I'm not mad about that at all. So I'm Mike Mitchell broke down all these different locations. And he has some very solid points about weather in those Northeast markets. During the spring, you. No, not this year, of course, but afterward. It's going to be interesting to see how attendance plays out February, March during the time that they need, you know, they want to put fans in the seats. Those, whether in those in like Michigan and then the Pennsylvania and New Jersey area, it's kind of still really tough to go up on. You know, go through during those months. I mean, they were talking about, there was WrestleMania happening in New York in April, and they were talking about how the weather might play a factor of the snow might play a factor in April, out of WrestleMania. So. Same problem happening here. Yeah. So basically, yeah. And the basically Birmingham's the only non NFL. I just think that that's so weird that that was the rationale was well, sorry. Sorry. I hit my keyboard. Well, those are the ones that we owned before. And so that's what we're going to go back to. I just seems weird. Mark Perry had this one last tweet. I'm like screaming at mark already in my head. At Mar pair ex-felon newsletter, the USFL has north and south division. So the XFL had east and west is putting it out there at merger at some point. Stop it. Stop it. I don't wanna hear that word anymore. No. We there's so much right now, just because that all came about with the XFL and the CFL. This is not a mergeable thing right now. We need to stop. We really need to stop. Yeah, let's just table. Any mentions of mergers. The time being we're drinking. An acquisition. I said, what was it at American Salem or murders and murders in executions? Yeah. We like it. Anyway. The break right now, we're gonna throw it to break. Give us a, get some commercials. And David Sanchez, Morley Scott, Luke, Mullinder coming up. After this. There you go. I'm surprised you don't want to leave with. Yes. I mean, I didn't. Okay, welcome back. Welcome back. Hopefully you enjoyed those little chats about what's going on, Edmonton, all the craziness. They're going to talk about that here in a second. But of course it was the final week of the regular season in CFL. Edmonton beat Toronto, 13 to seven. Because basically Toronto, probably just like we already won you. There's no reason to play our players. Auto beats Montreal 1918. That was surprising Montreal. Yo. [Unknown] was playing for the home, the home birth of the, of the hosting home. That was scary. And now they needed to go to Hamilton. For the Eastern semi-final coast Hamilton, a beats assess. 1 24 To three. Calgary over Winnipeg, 13 to 12, because probably when. And play other players. And then a BC. It's Edmonton and their second game that week 43 to 10. Yeah. That was all the reschedules with member. They have the outbreaks and all that, but that was great. Cause that's like BC is last thing, right? Like last game of the year. I mean, they just absolutely. This month, the living at south. I mean, it really was like a remarkable game to see, I know that Edmonton was on the road a long time, so that wasn't, they weren't playing that full strength, but yeah. We're going to come back to this story because the big story, I think this week that we need to focus on is, is the ALCS. Firing, basically everybody. Okay. And we saw, we kind of felt it was coming because it was just like every week there was something bad. We were talking about Edmonton every week. We're bringing something bad up. Like the guy didn't want to get vaccinated. You know, Elizondo is letting go of players. That they probably could have used during the course of the season because they didn't fit. Club culture. Well, The club culture they wanted is gone. It's gone. And everybody's out. It's good. I mean, it's not good. And I talked with Morley about this. I mean, obviously we don't want anyone to lose their jobs, but you had season ticket holders, basically rioting and saying like, we will not re up for next season. If these people are still in charge. Yup. So, I mean, W when you're. W when you fan driven league and you got 22,000 ticket holders, season ticket holders only like 8,000 are going to the games that scary. Yeah, those are people that like. Yeah. You already paid for your season tickets and you're not going cause your. So disappointed in the product, on the field. That's the culture. Jamie Elizondo wanted. And now that the culture that he wanted is no longer there because he's no longer there. Wally bono is agreeing to consultant, advise and hiring a new general manager with the ex. Decision expected to be named before the end of this year. So a little over a month. I did see a tweet online that said. You know, the CFL we're trying to build like young, we're trying to get new coach coaches and new staff, you know, all these new ideas, all this. At like maybe a 71 year old interim GM that, you know, coach via. You know, not a million years ago, but you know, long time. Maybe we should have brought in some more youthful people. But it sounds like he had done this before. Right? He had been. He had been part of the outlets and consulted with them, but he is awaiting this coach. I mean, I get all this. I would have brought in potentially some other younger ideas to, to, to find. I think, I think all he's going to do is go, it's going to find new GM and that's. He's not going to be in any power play here. It's just a temporary thing. No, but like, if you're trying to find a young voice, would you hire a 71 year old man to do that? I don't know. Who knows, who knows that guy's tapped into. So. Ty cats on her Bobby on calls this season, the very best in league history. The CFL was criticized for its state of vaudeville product or in the 2021 season for the Hamilton tire kids owner, Bob young, isn't having it. He says you have a backwards. 2021 is easily the very best season in the long history of the CFL. They've survived, not only a two year global pandemic, it has come out the other side stronger. So, this is an issue, sorry, we're working on this. This is developing news. Because I had reached out to the Thai cats a weeks ago and said, Hey, you know, we're coming up to Hamilton and we'd love to have Bobby Young on the show. What kind of hoops do we need to jump through? Could we talk to someone? Never responded, never responded, never responded. So then with Bobby on came out about this, I tweeted it, you know, Mr. Yang from our verified account and said our podcasts would have been a great place for you to kind of share these views and we're talking. So he's going to let me know. I sent him some links to some episodes. He's checking them out. I mean, obviously we're on holiday break right now, but he's going to let me know if he's interested in coming on next week. I would love to have Mr. Young come on. Happy to share the voices and opinions, especially of team owners in the lake. Very cool stuff. CFL, PA desiring more continuity and parent player contracts under the new CBA. It's exp it's set to expire in May, 2022. What's you know, That's that's, that's a big thing. If contracts. Collective bargaining agreements expire. There's either a strike or there's a walk lockout. And. If, you know, Bob young says 20, 21, I was one of the best. And Lee history, then you don't want to follow it up with something like this. That's going to potentially cause a work stoppage. Yeah, so there, we're getting the idea here. You. Th they're trying to get longer contracts. Right? We've talked about this before, both with coaching staff, but especially with the players, right. Building some continuity. Year over year, right? All these players basically back in 2014. They were permitted to sign one year. Contracts if veteran players were, and that kind of. Because there's always issues with like players. I'm wanting to go back to the NFL and there used to be a rule that you had to be here so long. And now. Basically, it's like everyone's on one year deals. It used to kind of be the exception and now it's the norm. And so they're, you know, they're really trying to build these, you know, Winnipeg is successful because they carried over most of their players from last year. Why these other teams like Edmonton riot? Argos are the exception. They brought in a lot of free agency, but you know, trying to build that continuity year over year. But yeah. The CF LPA is really pushing for that with the new collective bargaining. Very cool stuff. Hopefully they get, hopefully they get taken care of a little bit more than the players side. Financially. I would love to see them make more money, but that's just me. Arizona Cardinals are released. Quarterback Chris straggler. According to. Gumbo over at 98.7 Arizona sports. The news came after Cardinal's claimed quarterback trace McSorley off the Baltimore Ravens practice. Ron's roster. He spent two seasons. With the Cardinals, 17 to 25, 1 41, 1 touchdown. He made a little bit over 600,000, his first, then all season it wasn't slated to collect almost 800,000 this year. That's a lot more than the CFL. A lot more than the CFL. That was called as Cowboys have released Canadian place. Kicker [unknown]. Zulu Ru. Drought, how dry Lu. The five foot 11, 205 pound address for one game while his airline was out during Duda. COVID-19 protocols. Even filling a generous. And he went perfect on his converts and kickoffs in a route of the Atlanta, Finland. So of course. They did not do good against the Cowboys. It's traveler was weird. A lot of Arizona, the fancy and really happy that he was let go. I'm like he was your third string backup quarterback. Kyler Murray has hurt all the time. Like, I can't imagine this traveler was like, You're five foot six calmer. The Canadian football league has unveiled east and west division all starts at 21. Season. The blue barn was the chorus leading all teams with 15 all-star selections. Hamilton, even though they have to, you know, they're not number one seed in the east. They've left. Police division all sorts of 10. A total of 14 national players were selected. Yeah. Yeah, R I just put the list here as. You could hit our boy MacLeod belt, the Thompson. The homie from Tucson fellow homie from Tucson can even carry on the list. Shout outs to him. A lot of good players here. I would love to see these two teams play a little like inappropriate. That might be interesting. We actually really good. Zach Clara there, Kenny Lawler's here. Like if I had it, this has gotten me. This is Amy. You know, we've, there's been criticisms of that. Value this year at some of the games is that this is a stacked list of towel. When you look at these, see, I would agree. I think we should do an all star battle of that. Definitely TV ratings for the final weekend of the CFL had very little drama attached. Apparently the Elks and Toronto Argonauts. Average 167,000. Ottawa Montreal 325,000. The, the second Edmonton match of the week against BC lion, 348,000. Hamilton and Saskatchewan 408,000 and Calgary, and went back 400, 9,000. So. It's tough. Right? There's not a lot of drama there. This weekend. They're playing Sunday games, both of this MFS, the next three weekends, they're all annual, including the gray cup. And Mike was th this was put together by Mike Mitchell. We just talking, like, I think they're going to get smoked in radians, right against NFL this weekend, even with the semis. A friend of the show. Josh was messaging me this morning. There's still tickets available for both of the semi-final games, both in Hamilton and in. It's in Calgary, right? It's in. No, it's in Saskatchewan. Sorry. It's at. There's still tickets available for like all these games, but I do think they're going to get smoked with the radiance and that's not good. Completely agree. Moving on to the XML news behind a key and PJ Walker. I just want to talk a little bit about this. Do you have any thoughts? I mean, you know, people. I saw people on Twitter saying, hi, Nike is not the answer still. It's like, well then what is, what is the answer for this year? Tell me what the answer is for this year. And Washington. I have my, oh, I met in, in the David Sanchez interview. We're sitting there mid interview. He's like, is that a Taylor high-key Jersey? I'm like, yeah, you guys will like, what's your connection? I'm like, well, he's accidental and all that. David Sanchez. Big Taylor. Hi, Nikki mark. While yo. Why wouldn't you be. This made me mad that cam Newton in his loss got more highlight film on every single NFL show I saw then Taylor, hi, Niki did in his win. Yeah. I mean, isn't that so frustrating. I mean it is, but like at the same time, it's like the story about cam. He got drafted by the Panthers. Got let go. You know, They didn't feel like he was the right fit. Got, let go, went to new England where they thought like he was going to be. You know, He was going to turn around that. Like not even turn on the franchise, but keep that franchise afloat from all super bowl appearances. Don't like that didn't work out. I got released. Didn't see him going anywhere, but then back to the Panthers, it's a good story. But there is a lot of disrespect, not just being heaped on Jaime Kiba, PJ Walker in this case, it's crazy. PJ Walker started the game. In which Cam's like ripping off his door as he's yelling, I'm back to the camera. Like, but you're back, but you didn't start cam if you were really back cam you go to start that game. But they didn't feel comfortable. You starting that game after you'd been out. And PJ Walker led them to that when, and there's, I just think there's been more disrespect on PJ Walker in terms of cam Newton. And then Taylor hierarchy. Well, you even sent me the clip where coach rule was asked, like, did you think about bringing in PJ Walker at the end of that game? You know, the second game where they lost and he said, well, no, you know, cam had gotten this out far, whatever, Mike, okay. I mean, PJ. Got you. That far last week. And he took him out for cam like. W what's. I don't do play. Don't you play the players that give you the best chance to win. Isn't that the rule in that. You shouldn't be like beholden and say, Cam's gotta be in there no matter what. No, I don't like that. I don't like, and I just. Like I said, just. Someone winning, you know, cam came out and did the whole touchdown and then ran to the 50 yard and it's like, and then you lost, like, normally you would make fun of that. Right? You'd be like in wrestling when they, when they flux. When you lose like that? No, in wrestling, when the good guy like waves to the crowd and then he gets rolled up and then gets pinned. You're like, oh, look at that dumb guy that did that. Like, what is the difference where cam goes out, does this big celebration and then lost you lost you. Don't flex when you lose. You just don't do that. Ah, hi, Nikki. We've talked about this online guide. He might be Russell Wilson this week. I'm very, very nervous for Monday night football. I'm not doubting any mic. Of the Seattle is bad. So it was really bad. And I mean, I've done this. Not just bad, like in terms of like, They're personnel I'm talking about, like their future is bad. It's really scary. They gave up their draft picks for Jamal Adams who hasn't done Dick. I mean, Vince Wilfork has the same amount of interception. Big old Vince Wilfork has a cm out of interceptions, Jamal Adams as first career. Figure that out for me, but you got to safety. It's supposed to be making interceptions. Has the same amount of intersections of Vince Wilfork house who was a defensive line. It's just wild to me that Seattle, you have so much of this player that is clearly past his prime and there was. You know, Worth that amount of hype, I guess. I don't know. Just a couple of class things, Oakland A's right. Moving to Vegas, potentially to talking to the band about Oakland market. Yo. We've maybe moved the wild cats, their s**t, the USFL thing about Oakland, but I mean, that's the 1 billion. I mean, this is going to be big time. If the Oakland moves to Vegas, I think Oakland is moving. I'm not sure if it's a Vegas, but I do think the athletics are going to move. Then they obviously settled the NFL thing. Right. Did you track any of that 700? $90 Million against cranky. I did not track that, but I it's. It's interesting that like, That settlement. Basically absolves all of the other teams from playing, paying that legal fee. That's all on crunky to pay that 790 million. And it should be, and it should be, cause he said. If he was able to do this, he would pay for the legal cost and he should pay that sonar $90 million. Got it. That's a lot of money. I mean, he's worth billions. Right. But. It's a cracked on my. And this is interesting. Goldman Sachs is brought in to negotiate the NFL media deals. Amazon is in talks about acquiring 49% of the. I am not surprised about this at all. And I'll tell you why it's like. This is the next step for these over the top streaming services to get live sports. You watch wait and see when the WB comes up for their. They're renegotiation for their rights fees, whether they endure to have their contracts right now with Fox and NBC. You're going to see Amazon. You're going to see. Apple TV. You're going to see these streaming services go after this content. You're going to see them pay big money for this content that might not be worth the money that the bank for. Just outbid NBC from getting it just a bit outbid, Amazon from getting these over the top streaming services are going to get the, going to get in the live sports. And, and, and if they've got the money they're going to, they're going to take it off of your. Regular over the air. You're not gonna be able to watch. You know, Thursday night football on NBC. You're gonna have to watch apple TV. You have to pay 9 99 a month. To watch apple TV, if they get the rights to the NFL. So these over the top streaming services are definitely a. It's going to be interesting to see. If they make, if they make a dent in terms of like making bets. I just hate that we all like jumped ship and we're going to like cut the cable. And now all the cable companies all have their own streaming services. And then we all subscribed to them now. Which eventually like is going to drive our prices up higher than it was when we had the cable. That's the funny thing is like I saw him, I was like, wait a second. We're all cutting the cable. These. Companies that distribute content are gonna be like, well, we need to go over the top and we need to get on apple, TV and Roku. And then we'll have the pigs. You. We have to pay subscription fee for our content now because we're not getting it from the cable companies. So you end up paying more in the long run. It's interesting to say the least. A couple of quick voicemails before we go, Jen. Jana. I got her Thanksgiving and then Richard will play these, get out of here and speak pipe.com/marquez. If you want to leave us a voicemail, Jennifer, I'm really glad to hear from Janet took her a couple of weeks to get a call line, but here's Jenna. Jenna. Bri happy Thanksgiving. USFL news. I don't know by now. You both picked your teams, but. The Pittsburgh, Malia is going to drop the hammer on everywhere. Wow. They're just being the eighteens, I guess. My question would be if there were expansion. Would you both prefer 2.0 style names or would you prefer some with a 1.0 needs to make a comeback? Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing some of the one point. That would be cool. Well, Everyone take care. Enjoy. Enjoy your day. Bye. Very nice, Jenna. Thank you. At 1.0 teams definitely, you know, dent. We talking about Denver gold LA express. Yeah. Well, I think, do you mean the XFL stuff? Like, do you want to see like the demons. Ah, like the Hitman. They were very offensive names. The XFL. Like point on the answer. Very offensive. That might be, that might be fun. To see the Hitman come back to see, you know, what was the last. Yeah. The maniacs. Yeah, that'd be good. I like, I would like to see that happen. Like bring back, you know, Las Vegas. Definitely. Would kill. I think I just fell would kill Las Vegas right now. That's just my opinion, but I would love to see these, these 1.0. Well teams come back. That'd be cool. Thank you for wishing us happy American Thanksgiving. I appreciate that. Eh, this last one, Richard, it's really short. Richard. I didn't preface, I didn't pre look at it. So you drop an F bomb or something. I never planted with smells again. Hey, mark. This Richard. I got one quick, hard new coaches. And when you going to start looking at play. And they only got like five months left. For the so-called season's supposed to start. So the question of the day. I'm going to get things to go. I think Richard left that like from the Thanksgiving table. Literally seeing that the day of like, oh, I got to leave a voicemail for the markets. When do I think they're gonna start hiring coaches for 20 23, 20 22. Oh, Good question. I get DMS all the time right now asking them like when tryouts are. I don't know. We don't know. Do we know there's not going to be that long of a runway, April 15th, kickoff, March early March training camps. You know, I would say late January. I mean, I would say right, maybe right after the super bowl USFL does that. I mean, Femi Marcio. Yeah, they it's gotta be in January. It's gotta be in the NFL season. Cause there's no way you announced that at the end of February. I think what you do is you wait until the week in between the AFC and NFC title games before the super bowl, you do it that week. You roll out all your stuff that week everybody's already football. Crazy. Nothing is going on. Football wise, you roll everything. You're doing that. Flipping week. So you are taking all of that attention that is going, you know, that normally would go to the Superbowl. You're taking that attention. You want to wait, there's another football league here. Let's pay attention to this for a week or wait for the super bowl. There you go. That's the way you solve that problem. The issue you're going to have in speaking of the XFL USFL, civil war is all the cause they're also going to be doing their year long rollout. So you're going to have all the XFL, like, Hey, guess what? We have coming up, competing with the USFL going right now. It's going to be interesting because you're going to have like the year from now announcements and then the we're starting next month announcements. So. Hmm, good questions there on the line again, you can leave us a voicemail line reads got the address, right? Or was it speakpipe.com/mark cast, mark. Leaves a voicemail. If you have a question for a guest coming up. Feel free to leave it there too. It's a great way to talk to these guests that, that Reed is working very hardly. We're working very hard to get on the podcast. And it's your way to speak to them. So, yeah, definitely. Man, just leave of question. For any of our guests and I'm sure Reed will get around to playing that for the guests. And you can follow all of her stuff on social media, real announces. It's going to be on the show. So it's, it's very timely to get your questions, questions, and not only for us, but for our guests. Yeah, I get an email. The second it goes in. So let me know. Cool stuff again. Review us over on the mark house.com/review by some merch. We appreciate your time. We appreciate you listening, like, and subscribe. To our YouTube channel, our Facebook pages, all of our social media, just like, and subscribe and keep following us, interact with us. And we appreciate. All of our, all of our viewers slash listeners. Thanks. And would that being said. We'll see you next week. Hopefully you guys had a happy Turkey day. And we will talk to you a. We're leading up to the playoffs here. We'll talk to you next week. About that. See ya. There you go. Cool. All right. Promo. Verus one. Let's get back in line with the field goal at the end. So Nagy has his job for one more week. I think Maggie's gone. I don't like negative. Well, he's gone, no matter what. Yeah. All right. Ready? This week on the mark cast, the USFL has announced team names, and apparently that's what we're talking about. Big time. It was a big debate on the show. Do. Do we lead with CFL or do we leave with USFL? We have it all. It's all time coded. We have all the interviews. We have everybody else, but yes, we were talking to us about team names and then we're also talking CFL semi-finals with a loaded slate of guests. David Sanchez. Yeah. Morally Scott, you know, with Edmonton, Alex, we're talking all about the nuclear breakdown of that franchise. Definitely. Interview, I'm looking forward to listening to also look Melinda from the rough riders and the C K R M. Yeah. So we've got you all set. We're previewing all of the CFL matchups, we're talking USFL. We're making fun of the merge where the ranking, the logos were picking our teams. Lots of fun games this week. Lots of going on. Of course, we got to talk about a little, a little bit of XFL news. We're gonna talk about PJ Walker. We've talked about. Taylor. We're talking about cam Newton as well. Looking at rock and the Jersey and yeah. Also. Some potential. Legal situations regarding, you know, Oakland moving. All here recording. Except that. Oh, there we go. All right. Well, this answers. Thank you so much for coming on today. I appreciate it. We're working our way through the TSN TV panel. We had a friend of the show Milt Steagall on a few weeks ago. How are you doing today? I'm doing great. Yeah. Got the beanie honest. It's a little, it's getting cold out here, but yeah, we're, we're all good. Yeah. Thanks for having me, bro. Yeah, we're getting ready for Hamilton. I've been getting lots of messages from listeners in Canada saying, okay, it's this degrees today? Or it's that degrees today? You better. We're packing lots of claws. Are you getting excited to, to kind of round out this season? Yeah, it's sort of a quick fake volume. Here's it's really low. Is there a. Is there a way to turn yours up or is it my, I have mine on max on the computer. Maybe it's the volume on the, you sound good to me. So as long as you can. I could barely hear you. You might need to turn up your speakers. See my speakers on backs. I already was doing it. If you go into the zoom. Yeah. It's probably this zoom speaker maybe. Yeah. Yeah. If you go into zoom because I I'm monitoring it from my end for the record by obviously I want you be able to hear me. So if you, that Mike, in the bottom left, if you hit those arrow, The little, the zoom. Yes. Audio setting, and then you hit that and then you should be able to crank. You grow better? I don't want to be squinting a. No. That's good. Well, And I, cause it's, you know, it's, yours is separate than mine, so. So. Are we getting excited to round out the season? How's it going? Started again. Yeah, sure. Well, I'll just cut out. So I just sure. We'll just start over. We have David Sanchez here. I'm so excited to be talking. We're getting into the semifinals here. W working our way through the TSN on, you know, on TV. CFL panel. We have friend of the show Milt Stegal on a few weeks ago. How are you doing today? And how has the seasoned men thus far for you? Oh, no, if that sounds good, you're running, you're running through this. You're running through the GSM panel. But a good I'm excited. It's playoff time though. That's obviously what we're all waiting for. And I think the best part of it is because of the whole. COVID and, you know, being off for a season, the fact that we, we got the season in. Oh, it makes it, at least it makes me more. Appreciative of this and it's not going to be. You know, the same gray cup as we're used to. So that festivities. It was, you know, somethings aren't going to be there, but it's just going to be nice to see everybody again are a lot of folks again. You know, kind of celebrate getting through the season and back on a field. I'm excited to see everyone. We haven't been, the panel has been in studio the whole time, so we haven't got a chance to get out to stadium. I'm excited. It's a good time of year and then Christmas went after. So how could. That's gonna be a good December. I know it's there. And I guess that we've, it's, I've been told it's getting cold. We've you? We found our listeners tell us, you know, it's this degrees today, you know, bring your jackets and things. We're excited. You know, So much as to made the season about, you know, the entertainment of the game, right? Some people have said this, the season is, is maybe lacking a little bit. Bob young just came out and said, this is the best CFL season ever. I think the truth probably exists somewhere in between. Where do you come down on? Just the quality of the game and everything this year. Is that a tailor? And a key Jersey. It is. Wow. But is there a connection between you and salmon? He is a former NFL player now, and my team is Washington football team. And so we, and we have beaten Tom Brady now, and then we have been cam Newton and I'm a Seahawk fan. And I think we're probably going to beat Russell Wilson this week, too. So this is very exciting. Pretty good. Okay. I'm a big Taylor on. To be fair. I think he's a. I think, I just see it's just such an athlete and I love watching them play. Yeah, he's enjoyed to watch. Original question. I think. Look, you, you don't argue with the caretaker, the caretaker. If he says it's the best year ever. Then maybe he has reasons for, for that. In regards to, you know, maybe just because we didn't know, we would even have a season and the fact that, you know, we kind of managed to pull it together and. And get a full season in that's a. That might be his reason in regards to the quality of the play on the field. It's definitely, definitely was not the best season. It definitely was a. You know, no off season and a bunch of quarterback injuries and the kickers stuck. It wasn't the best season. That's for sure. But. Yeah. It is what it is. Yeah, I can't remember. It was one of the Fridays and I was working in and I was going to watch, I pulled the game up cause I have to watch a lot on ESPN plus kind of on demand because of my work schedule. Yeah. I remember I was turning it on to dry foam and it just got to halftime. And Kate was like, ah, And this is your first time ever watching the CFL. Like I'm sorry. And this is not your introduction at that. Wow. I, it was, it must've been some game with Ottawa. Right. You know? Just just assuming, but it's been a weird, you know, I spend a week talking to smart people, kind of previewing these games and then sometimes it just doesn't always end up. Right. I mean, it's just weird. Is that frustrating for you guys trying to cover it on the panel and, and you're trying to kind of like spin, spin yarn sometimes and say like, well, this is maybe better than it was or worse than it was. If you listen to us, we, we, we say. We call it out is if a game's stuck up. We'll we'll leave it up by saying that game stomp cause no, no problem with that. Our, our bosses and, and our producers tell us to be honest. So we don't try to, we don't try to sugarcoat it. And the game sucks. You'd. Like you say you heard. Irrigate say it. It's in me. We'll, we'll save. It's such a stuff. There's been some, some good games. There's been some games that stumped and. You know, when you're watching the I'm a, I'm a sports better. So. There's always, there's always, it's always interesting to me because there's always some, some fantasy. Implications or betting application. So, but yeah, I wouldn't, it definitely hasn't been. That hasn't been the best football and then in regards to execution and, and, and I think a lot of that is because of the quarterbacks and a lot of it has to do with the off season. A besides Winnipeg Greg. Cause obviously that's the easiest storyline and thankfully they're not playing this weekend. We can talk about maybe some other intriguing things. What storyline has surprised you the most, you know, Calgary coming back with the believer. I have a Saskatchewan finally kind of getting things, right? What. You know, from a sports narrative and watching these, these teams, what has impressed you? Oh, impressed me. It's Winnipeg for sure. I mean the most. The storyline that's been surprised me the most. Originally. Edmonton for sure. I had them. I had them to win the grey cup. I mean, pretty seasoned because their, their roster was. Outstanding. Paper. That would be what surprised me the most. There's there. Look, if they would have been a 500 team or. You know, very snuck in the playoffs or that. That would have been a surprise from looking at their roster, but the fact that they were as bad as they were. And everybody got cleaned out after a year and, and, you know, You know, arguably the worst team in the league. That was a shocker. And Winnipeg. The dominance of winter break. Really shot. I didn't, I didn't think that Zack Collaros. I was going to make it through the year. Play play. Every game has to be healthy. That that to me is a surprise. I look, I. I said, they're not going to make it. There's no way this guys can play a full season. He's not. He's not healthy enough. And. And. And it just won't happen and they didn't have a backup. I didn't believe in Winnipeg at all. I. I was dead ass wrong and they've been dominant and their defense is one of the best ever. Or, you know, amongst the best. Yeah, those would be the two. Polar opposites and probably the biggest shock. And in this season, What do you make of Edmonton kind of cleaning house here this week? And basically just saying we're starting fresh. Wow. It looks as though. Over here. From the P the people in Edmundson and, you know, From fans and to alumni. And I just think it was, they were at the point where it wasn't, there was. It wasn't a get fixed and I, and I think you have to, it was probably just a good move to just rip the bandaid off. Now. I think. It was, there was so much bad publicity and, and. And. The situations there. When it comes to, you know, The history of the team and some of the moves they. Just all that stuff. I don't think it was, it was fixable, unfortunately. So forget about the football standpoint. Because I think Brock Sunderland. I had assembled a pretty good team. So from the Jeep where the GM's job is to is to get talent there. I think he had talent. Whether or not that Talon was. Playing at there. I think a lot of those guys let them down. And the day, you know, there'd be a. Read. It's pro football and guys, you're gonna get, you're gonna get cut and you're gonna get fired if you don't have success, especially when you have, you know, guys who got paid a lot and the expectations, whatever they, I think they reached a point of no return. As an organization, as a team. They had to just get rid of those guys, because I don't think that the community was, was backing them anymore. That's obviously a problem. Yeah, someone that's obviously played for the team. You're right when the gray cup with the team. I mean, what is that? He just, that's all I've heard lately is, you know, Th the negative kind of just perception surrounding anatomy. It kind of, I guess, began with the name change and then coming into the season. And we still have people about all that said, but just knowing that this dominant, right. You know, for years franchise now is maybe one of the more struggling ones in the league. It's a weird turn about, yeah, well, I don't know how, what you think in XFL wise. I know you're an expert at all in all football leagues or you follow them all. But one thing. Different. And like I said, USFL, xFi, I don't know the turnaround. I think it's probably similar to CFL. At the NFL takes, the NFL will take time for our organization to rebuild. The CFL. They can, they can rebuild in six months. So it's not all doom and gloom and what happened to at once proud of it to the franchise. And now they're in shambles and where we go home. Eric's. I'll tell you where you go from here, you hire, you hire a GM. You figured out who you start, quarterback is you get some good Canadians and next thing you know, You're a top of the west. So you're battling with someone else. That's just as simple as it is. So it's not, yeah, it is. This year is a write off and it sucks. But for the franchise, they just need some Goodwill there. The people feeling good about who they hire. And then really it's this. There's no rebuild. Right. Like I said, he grabbed a good quarterback and I think they think they already have some and are buckling. Possibly Cornelius. And then, then you grabbed some, make sure your Canadians are solid and you go from that. Do you think Arbuckle survives all this? Yeah, from what I've heard and I don't have the specs on it, but I believe its contract is. Is a, is all in base salary. So. There's nothing to lose. He's not. Because the off season and money. Oh, I'm so excited to extension, but you keep him when you got a battle for the job. The guys, the guy has shown that he could play football and, and. At a high level. So maybe, maybe it just wasn't a fit in Toronto and maybe you. And whoever else comes in, maybe. They find something, but I think he's, I think he's a gamer. He has shown. He has shown in his contract, lends to him, to him, be in there at least get an opportunity. Looking ahead at these two kinds of semi-final games, a obviously the Alawites right. You know, former team of yours as well. Go into Hamilton, weird kind of last weekend where it was all this speculation. Okay. Who's going to be able to host the game, whatever. You know, Al let's get blown out and then we're like, oh, well that took away. Thoughts on that and then heading into the match itself against Hamilton. Yeah, most of it all kind of played that one. On the fence they wanted, they wanted to win the game, but they want the rest of their guys. That's a, that's a slippery slope. So I don't, I'm not putting too much into it. You know, the matchup this week. In Appleton. This is going to be a good one. I think they, I think that, yeah, well the one the game in Montreal. I want to beat them pretty good in the first game and then became the much, well, one of them was a crazy comeback Hamilton. Probably should have won that game. So yeah. I chose a confident group and got a good, a good, a good vibe to them. In regards to, you know, their belief and. I don't know. I mean. Hamilton has gotta be favored in, in the game just because of their experience. And the fact that our home, but I, I think it's going to be look in the east. Any three of those teams could go to the gray cup and I wouldn't be surprised. Like, I'm not, I don't think any of us would be shocked if a bunch of y'all. And once you I'll beat Hamilton and then beat Toronto, I wouldn't be shocked. And if. The animal to Toronto sat there. With home field and snap, whoever came in, I wouldn't be all that shocked. I mean, it's, it's a. The east is wide. It's really wide open. And that's why I'm getting what y'all at. Plus plus 800 or whatever the odds are, or yesterday is a really good bet. Anyone who's who's in an. Who's looking for action. I think that's a, that's a pretty good play. I think I saw them yesterday. I plus 800 plus 900 to win the grey cup, which is basically they, you know, you can, you can hedge your, you can hedge your bet. If you win one game, you can hedge and have some good. So good opportunities, but it's wide open. The west is a whole nother deal, obviously. Yeah. I mean, I, I, we liked the Argos right there. Kind of want to our teams as well. You. You know, they just, how well they've done this year, putting everything together under McCloud. And obviously with new codes and witty and, and, you know, here they are sitting first in the, in the east. Can we get the details on why the Argos are your team? I liked, I liked what's the background here. The Argos become one of your teams. You're in the west coast. Oh, so well BC Alliance or my team that's America CFL team. That's what I've deemed the visa. Okay. And. You know, Paul, I have my cohost. Yeah. We did a lot of MLSE talk, but the accent fell on everything and the Osteon. And so we have. Yeah, we have a lot of listeners that, you know, You're in bed with MLSE and the whole. XFL movement is your thought process. We did. We talked a lot of Argos. We tracked MOCAD Bethel Thompson through the spring league and the off season last year. So that made a lot of sense. When he came up, we called him. The king of the CFL back in week two. And then he had his big stumble, but now he's really done well. So, I mean, I think our two baths, we have a lot of Toronto merge that's been sent to us from listeners. So yeah, Toronto is one of them, our teams. What have you thought about them? Cody by calling the cloud at the top. The king of the CFL, you lost all credibility rig. I think he's turned around. I think he's doing pretty good right now. He's a leading quarterback in these. It's just not the king. He he's a baller. Nothing else. And it's been cool to see. Plus we've had like literally every single person that Toronto Argo staff on our show the last few weeks. So. It's been good. W w how have you thought that they've done this year so far? Exceeded expectations. You know, you have a. You have new quarterbacks? You have a new, a new head coach. You, you know, They flipped the boat, 80% of their team. So, you know, I think. The expectations where they would be near the bottom of the east, not, not winning it and hosting, hosting these finals. So, yeah, I think they've been, they've been excellent. I think they've. Yeah. I'm surprised to be honest, they w I liked the move. So the moves they made, they got a bug. There's a great example read, and we talk about, you know, how fast you can turn something around roster wise. And then when we talk about the Elks and. I am the doom and gloom. Look how fast, like is what sign. There was one on side. You know, 25 Veteran players that all made their roster and, and flipped it up completely. And it's a whole new team and they were able to do what they did. So, yeah. I'm a big fan, similar to you. I. You know, I'm close with a lot of guys on that. Crew and. Team and staff. And then I do that. I do cheer for them. Like. Obviously, I have a lot of people on all, all teams, but yeah, I think their story's a good story that. The reality is, is. We all want. Toronto, which is the quote unquote center of the university of Kent, the Canadian universe. To, to be successful with helps it helps the league. And. And they've had their struggles. So I, to me, it's, you know, It's a good story when they do up. I get into the other side of here before we let you go. I talking with the west. To me, a little more of a coin flip. I mean, I feel pretty good about Hamilton going in, but obviously you've dissuade, you know, you've given your. You know, made me ponder that a little bit, but we have Calgary and Saskatchewan. A little bit more. I will be the favorite to me. If I had to pick one team that would come out of the east, that the animals will probably be the favorites. But, yeah. Okay. Oh, So you say, how am I going to. So w we have, you know, bowl Levi going up against. For jar though, again, you know, we, we have a mix pass with Cody for dry that we've made fun of him in the past and we've gotten he's. He's blocked us on social media. We didn't try to get all that going. Can you tell me, what? Can you tell me? What, how you made fun of them? I got to hear the kid. Just throw that out there. I don't know what. What'd you make fun of Cody. So there was an article that came out of that. He used chicken McNuggets in place. I've curse words. And I, I said, isn't that funny? That's why people make fun of Cody online. I didn't even tag the man didn't even take the man in the post, just tweeted it out. And the next day we were blocked. So I actually, we did that. We did a book cameo with Cody. I hijacked it and we did, this is really fun. You might enjoy listening to our podcasts. We do a lot of different fun things. But we had a, we've done it in the past because we are the mark CAS. So we had Cody. Congratulate our friend mark for getting his cast taken off. And then we do a bunch of like splicing and editing into it sounds like he listens to the mark cast. Very nice that you might enjoy our show. You might want to pass this along. Tell Matt down again, and you, they, you guys might get a hoot. It's like a pregame show for the pregame show. The McNuggets and the curse words I could, I'm already chuckling to myself, so I'm sure I would enjoy it. Yeah. So, so what do we make of this? What do we make of a, you know, a bowl Levi's back, right? Calgary's back. They were like two and five and everyone thought they were done. And now here they are. They're. You know, in the semi-finals. Well, I think they, they, they got a. They have a coach who's as good as anybody and Dickie and. And a pretty sharp, offensive mind and a quarterback who's, who's been at mop and a great cup champ. So, I mean, it's, it starts and ends with that. If you have, if you have a quarterback that in, in. Clutch situations. You think that gamer. And you have. Coach that, you know, I think his scheme can scheme up in, in, in a one game spot. They have a really good defense as well. So this is, I think that, you know, I think Calgary's. You know, we've got a shot. That's the other team. That's the other team with long shot odds that, that I like is Calgary. They are a long shot. But I liked them because they have, like I said, they have a quarterback that's. We have a quarterback that is. You know, an MVP caliber and, and. And when he's playing well, obviously not now. And they have a defense. Over the last two months with right. We have visitors. My wife. I think she's doing a Peloton. That's okay. We'll get you out of here soon. So, who are you taking between that? Between the Saskatchewan and Calgary? I'm not giving you picks in the beginning of the week. There's a lot of the way it works. This isn't gonna air until Friday. So you're saying. Okay, you can keep it under wraps. Yeah, I'll keep your thing. We're not going to blow up the internet with my picker. Gosh. I honestly, I honestly don't know. I can give you a lien for that. I still have to make a pick and I haven't made a pick yet, and I haven't decided yet. My my early lane early in the week. I probably. Hamilton's at home. So I probably lean, I won't say that. That's side at home. We'll talk about the east right now. I'm a Montreal guy. That's, that's my team. So I'll probably by the end of the week. I wouldn't be surprised if I sway over and, and cheer, cheer my hours. But in regards to the west, it's I like Calgary for that, for that reason. And. In the semi, I think it's, you know, like I said, it's, it's, I just, I like what, you know, On the road and stuff, but I like, I have some trust and I don't know why I do cause he hasn't looked good boat. Well, hasn't looked great. I don't know why, but I just, I believe in. In a big game. I just feel like he's, he's a gamer. And as a chance to get done, their defense has been real damn good. And I think been under, under appreciated. That's good. I do you feel, I, I talked with a lot of people that feel that whoever wins in the west is kind of going into the buzzsaw that is Winnipeg here. Like they're kind of the walkers in the north that are waiting. Yeah. Yeah. I think. Yeah, it's gonna be real tough for whoever, you know, for Saska cab to get through. And then you have the whole COVID situation where. Traveling. There's going to just probably going to be guys on both those teams who aren't available, obviously that doesn't affect the Winnipeg because they're, they're. They're at home, they'll have to travel. So there's. There's travel restrictions on guys who aren't vaccinated. So there's that to come into play. There's the. Yeah, I just, the weather. We went to phasing, Nicole to sack, and I would have pigs. Would it be legit? So yeah, I can give you a west vital pick right now. Three weeks in advance. If you want to give you a gray cup pick. It'd be pretty. It'd be pretty easy, but we'll see what happens. That's. That's why the play, the gap football is different than baseball and basketball and hockey, where you play a best of five or a best of seven. And usually usually at the end of it, the best team wins. That's not the case in, in football. That's the one you. You know, a block putt. Block punt or a kick return to the house. And a tip ball. And next thing you know, the Winnebago blue bombers are going home. So, so let's just, let's just see how it plays out, but I'm excited to, I'm excited to let it all play out. Yeah. I mean, and obviously the last couple of weeks with Winnipeg, you know, arresting people and everything, but, you know, back when they were playing full strength, you know, the Argos were really the only ones that. Had really any, you know, got the wind over on me. It was like the Russian got cut right in Rocky and you show that they're vulnerable. And so it does seem if anything, that storyline is kind of at least what I'm hoping for. At least it's a competitive gray cup. I mean, we're, we're going all the work up there. We're traveling and we're doing all the things. I hope that it is not Winnipeg, you know, 45 to zero or whatever. That's good. It's going to be a great week. I look forward to. To meet you guys up there and seeing, yeah, I'm glad. Glad you're able to come. In town, it's going to go away. It'll be fun. Well, I thank you so much for your time coming on the, you know, the week of Thanksgiving, I appreciate it. And hopefully we won't spoil any of your pigs. When this episode airs and it should be good that later this week, I think we're all. Okay. Oh, he's got to make sure all my stuff's turns off here. And it's Melinda, right? Melinda. Yeah. Okay. I just, and I always. I interviewed a lot of wedding vendors too. And I'm like, okay, how do I say it? Yeah. Well, I am excited today. We. You were busy with work stuff last week, it was well worth it. I feel like now we're talking Saskatchewan Roughriders going into the semi-finals. We have blue Melinda here. How are you doing today? I'm good, man. You know what, when it comes to just sort of the topic of conversation. As a former player to win. It's Wednesday. So today's day one, right? A lot of those guys walked into the 9:00 AM meeting. Excited about excited about. You know what the game plan is, what the strategies around their, their various positions are, you know? Where the, where the opportunities may be, but more importantly, you know, right now you're, you're excited to be with the guys because this is sort of the time. This is where we're all the locker room comes together, right? Because, because none of the incentives exist, you know, you're not, you're not out there worrying about individual accomplishments anymore because you know, as much as you want to talk about team success and it's about the team, it's about the team. You know, during the season, there are still things that you want to, you know, individually you want to, you know, to do. And I'm here. It's just about moving on, right? One. And done. Let's go get as many checks as we can and let's go get us a ring. Yeah, good. I'll always made this week with Hamilton and Montreal, kind of going back and forth, some trashed hockey, you know, friendly rivalry kind of stuff. And, you know, basically they were reset now, you know, home field advantage or who's in the standing it's, everyone's kind of reset. Now we're going into the playoffs. Does that as a player. How do you change that mindset? Now? It's like, this is, I mean, this is for real now. Not that, not all this stuff matters the whole time. You know, it's, it's funny because what happens is, is only a few players actually understand that. So right now teams need to lead on their events. You know, the guys that have been there before and, you know, you spend a lot of time. Especially as a veteran, you've been there. You know, bringing the young guys along right. And bringing the guys who may not get it. They don't have to be young, but some guys just haven't gotten that. Some guys have, haven't been on team before that of one of the things. So, you know, you spend a lot of time during the year, bringing those specific people along. And I think that, you know, Now where, where every moment is magnified, right? Like when second and second and six. Right on the three yard line in a, in a, in a. 1414 Game with three minutes left on the clock. And the regular season, that's the situation. What in the playoffs? The situation is, oh, man. We could probably, we could be going home if, if we're not successful, if it right. Defensively or offensive. That right there, that alone. The B. The presence of a sudden stop. And professional sports changes the entire game plan. And I think that, you know, when. When it comes to the CFL playoffs and this, this catch-all rough riders, you know, they're going to have to lean on the guys that have been there before, because again, you're not going to be. You're not going to spend the entire game up by, by 10. You're going to be in. In moments and situations, especially in that fourth quarter where you're down, right, or where you need to stop, or you need a string of drives together. And time moves really slow. If you're on the other side of that. That the, the potential result. So right now it's about the guys that have been there. And, and, and them helping, you know, And caring. That's why. When I talk about it in the off season. You know, resigning the core guys. That's why guys like that or someone sport. And that's why you get your court eyes right now. Cause they've been there. And there the guys need to lean on. And then when the, when the adversity is the thickest. It's interesting. So I think that, I mean, maybe I'm wrong. I feel pretty good about Hamilton going into the east. I know that we, and we've done other interviews today talking, and I want to get your thoughts as well, but with the west. It really seems like it's this even match, right? We have Calgary really picking up steam bowl, Levi, you know, Cody and Roughriders always get. But then you're still going against Winnipeg in the next week. Right? It's like, whoever gets out of that, you're still kind of in the bus. What are you making of the west division playoffs right now? I think the west is why I don't. I don't subscribe. I think. Winnipeg is a really good team. I don't subscribe to the, to the narrative Bo that they're unbeatable. I think that. Calvary and Saskatchewan. Last time, Calgary and Saskatchewan or Winnipeg. And the last time we saw sort of a playoff game in Saskatchewan, it wasn't the great copy. It was the Western final, right. And the crossbar, you know, everybody makes a motion. But you really got the feeling though, that that game was, was the great cop. I think the same way about, I think I look at this as the. The, the, you know, Calgary is, is, is like you said, they're, they're playing at a high level. They seem to be operating on, on efficient cylinders, but Saskatchewan, to be honest with you. They can be covered. If there's any team that understands what Calgary is about and how they can have success. It's the Saskatchewan Roughriders more importantly. It's it's it's it's the coaching staff. Jason Shriver's doesn't get enough credit. Jason Shriver's since he's been a defensive coordinator in this league has done a fantastic job. One of the things that Jason Chivers has also picked up on is how to, is how to make believe on Mitchell. Uncomfortable and, and, and really put him in a position where, you know, turnovers can, can create massive opportunities for, for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Jason Chivers is going to come with a game plan. That does not cater to believe I'm Mitchell strength. I'm, I've been always surprised in the past that more teams don't just copy what Shriver's and Chris Jones have done against bullying by Mitchell in the past. I think that there's a. There is not necessarily a blueprint, but there is a way that you can, you can figure out, you know, and for me, Once you got to realize is, is between the hashes, right? This is between the ashes. And there's like a seven yard box. So take the hashes and then look, look at this like seven yard box. Or six yard box. If you take, if you take the hashes and you create a six yard box from line of scrimmage, six yards up. If you take that away from Bowlby by Mitchell. You're going to have chances. Cause then he's going to have to. He wants to throw long. But he's not, he's not a, he's not a cowboy man. He's a guy that likes to throw jabs and then fro hooks. You know, and if you just get them to just get out there and have to throw hooks the entire game, that's where the turnovers come on, come in. And that's my opinion. But I think that, I think this has Gacha when can beat the Calgary Stampeders. I don't see this as something where. But again, everything's going to have to work, right? Because Calgary is playing at a really high level. And, and when I say everything's going to have to work, I think that you look at the offensive side of the ball. You can't turn the ball over and you need to be able to dominate the line of scrimmage this game. That's that's traditionally, I've played in this league for a long time and now I'm on the side. You know, Nine year career, which meant nine years of playing the Calgary Stampeders. And then, you know, the media side of things. Hit him in the mouth. One of the more physical games. Right. But if you can not physical Calgary. You got a good shot of winning that game. Out physical Calgary on that offside. Offensive side of the ball and then forced to be bullied by Mitchell to have to just throw deep the majority of the time. Don't let them don't let them, don't give them the first six yards. Are you surprised that they bounce back? And I know everyone says long season, it's not how you start. It's how you finish. But they, Calgary went from really could have been a forgettable season. Right? All the injuries and everything coming back here. I mean, they're in the playoff. Semi-finals. Yeah. And I'm not surprised at all. You know, the. Those who are waiting for the Calgary demise are going to be waiting for a very long time. I'll tell you when to start. We're really looking at galleries, the mys the minute Hufnagel and, and, and, and they've Dickens and walk out of there. Then you've got to shop. As long as Hufnagel is there. Job's not going in. And that's why, you know, you spend so much time, especially in Saskatchewan, right? Soon as calorie loses two games that are all, yes, that's all the forum. They're done. I didn't no, no, no, man, if Hans bear, they're going to be a good team and they're going to be playing at a high level when it matters the most at the end of the year. And it's why they've had the sustained success that they've had. It's why they're one of the top organizations in the league. And that's why they will always be one of the top organizations in the league. As long as the half Maples there, you know, running the ship. On the Saskatchewan side, you know, a lot was made earlier this year, you know, Cody wanted more weapons getting frustrated, you know, we had, we made funds and episodes. We, you know, it's called you the man in black, you know, he kind of. He was wearing the black hat for a little while. Really seems to be jelly. Now, what do you make of that? Did they finally just get all the kinks worked out? I don't think they have the king fork that I think that. I think the duke Williams was a huge signing for them. I don't know, like I've said this before. I don't know what they're paying Dubois, but he's worth everybody. You know, the, the riders have struggled when it comes to, you know, manufacturing, consistent big place, right. Anything 20 plus yards or over on the offensive side is considered a big play in my eyes. And those just haven't come. Consistently throughout the year. I think the duke Williams gives them a real. He, what he's given them is, is he's given him a big play guy. More importantly, he's given them a tough player. Like, Duke's the type of guy that. That could play off that could play defense. Right? I wouldn't say that about any of the other wives. Siefers. You know what I mean? It just is what it is. Don't get your feelings hurt. It's just the truth. None of you guys could be a linebacker except probably right. So, so. So you got a lead on him. Right. But calendar is going to know you gotta leave him. And I think that the potential that some of the other guys, right, like I think that Shaq Evans, for instance, asked. The big game, but in order for Shaq to have a big game, they got to stop. They gotta, they gotta really find ways to let him loose, right? Like none of this five yard dig round type of deal consistently ride stopped giving them. You know, instead of like figure out a way to get them down for you, right. Let's get them in some situations where it's funny, they got a jump ball situation to shack last week. That he should have come down with and, you know, and I pointed it out. She should have caught that ball. Right. But at the same time, too, part of me is also saying, well, that's what also happens when you don't give them those opportunities consistently. Right? You know, what I mean is is, is your timing. Your timing just isn't, isn't where it is. It's not as sharp. And you know, now you're relying on just, you know, A little luck, a little bit more than you normally would in those situations because you're not putting them in message. So I think now you've got to, if there's any time to cut it loose. So the Saskatchewan Roughriders offensively mows it. And, you know, shack. Jack needs to be a big part of that in order for them to be successful. A lot was made of this last week. You know, it was weird, right? Hamilton, Montreal, who's going to house, you know, My child loses right to Ottawa. Yeah, the weekend and that jockeying for position was kind of gone, but. A lot with me, especially in NESCAC. Katchewan loss, you know, are these players. You know, I know we're not playing everyone and we're sitting in some people in bed, but like, are they playing? Like they want to be here. I feel like maybe SIU, Tweed, some staff. I saw some other comments online. What'd you make of that? You've got a want. You've got a want or you've got to understand. The major of the beast. For instance, I thought it was, I thought it was a mistake. Not, not having Cody out there and he's playing a half. Why because I didn't feel that. The offense was, was clicking at a hundred percent. I didn't feel like they were as cohesive. I didn't feel like they were as in sync as they probably could be going into playoffs. And. I looked at that game as another opportunity. To a. To to get there. I think that. In those situations. You've you've got to understand as a player that you're you're in one of the biggest you're in one of the coolest job interviews in the world. This is an awesome, like that's, you know, when they call athletes pro athletes, the one percenters. Both that game last week was one of those situations because you spend all week hearing everybody talk to you about all while, you know, it doesn't mean much in. Oh, yeah, really. Because every single time you're out there on the field, you're you you're interviewing for a job. That's the. It's why coach Trestman. Mark Trestman was so good in the three and football. He talks about honoring the game. You know, you have an opportunity to take advantage of every single rep. And I felt like. Last week, instead of understanding the job opportunity. Right. And the job interview that you're always in, in professional football, every single rep is, is an interview. I felt like that wasn't, that could have been focused on a lot more. And I felt like there were some guys that were really disinterested. In aspects of that game and. And when that happens, you. You not only. Risk putting yourself in a situation where someone's going to get hurt. But more importantly. You stall the momentum. That you had going for you heading into the playoffs. I think that, you know, that game could have been approached a little bit more. I energetically if that's a word from all, not just the team, not just the players either, but from the coaching staff and from the organization as a whole, I think that there could have been. More energy put behind. That game to where, where you could've come away, really feeling good about the next step, which was going to be Calgary. Instead what you, what you got. Was was having to ignore what just happened. Don't worry guys. You know what? It's cool. That game didn't matter. We're focused on Calgary, whereas it could have been men. It doesn't stop. We just went in and pounded that team and we're, we're we're we're on up. Right? So, so there that. That's sort of where I looked at it as, as, as, as a missed opportunity. But more importantly, when those things do creep in those feelings of something, not being as important as, as. As it may have been if we were in a different situation. That's when you need the guys who were out there reminding guys, Hey look. At the end of the day, this is also a job interview. And you've been doing this job interview for like 14, 15 weeks and it never stops. Period. Well, that's the thing. I mean, we just have an article today in the show, you know, talking about. We're reworking the player contracts right. Coming into this bargaining in the off season and, you know, working for longer contracts right now, all these players are on one year deals and it's like, you know, whatever happens this year, maybe you're going to be somewhere else next year. And like you said, that. Visibility other people are scouting. You, other people are seeing that stuff. And like you said, they giving that effort, no matter kind of what the stakes in the game are. I think, yeah. It's like a job interview. Like you said. Again, We can just get the film doesn't lie. Right. It's almost alive. You know, you have to a. That's going to be that's that's your resume. That's right. Like. And that's what people in the. You know, civilian life as, as, as it's called and locker room is it's tough to understand, right? Like people, people, Hey, you know what? You have an interview to be a. To be a banker. This job opening, and you've got to call back, well, you know what you do. Figure out, you know, Hey, well, you've already figured out the best way to word your resume, right? To make yourself stand out. Right. And now you're going to figure out, okay, well, what am I going to say? What am I going to, what am I going to position? What am I going? What are the, what is the foundation I'm going to personally stand on in this inner. And football. Therein. You can't manipulate a resume in football. Right. I can't be like. You know what. I took out the garbage at Tim Horton's for seven straight years. Right. That's what I did. It's important. I can't in football. I can't say I was the. I was the cleanliness director. For 10 importance for seven years. You know what I mean? Like I can't manipulate in football. What you are on film is what you are. There's no manipulating that. So if you're a guy. For instance, one of my problems that early on in my career, if you're a guy that's having problems playing with your pad level low, You're a guy that has problems playing with your bad level. Can I manipulate that? Cause we see it on film. So that's, that's, you know, again, like that's, that's the film doesn't lie, men lie, women lie numbers don't need that as film. Right. So that's the opportunity that you always have as a professional athlete is to create a resume. That's actually. Truthful. Right. And those that's a big task, man, because what's on film is what's on film. And if you go either way, Aye. Obviously, you know, being the analyst covering Saskatchewan. Going into this game. Are you able to have a. You know, favorite and who do you, think's going to win objectively. Yeah. Almost a statue. That's fine. Nine years of mine. My career not liking Calgary. It's not going to stop on the media. So I'm going to be objective. And I'm going to call a spade, a spade. So if so-and-so's not getting a block and Calgary gets a sack because of it, then that's on so-and-so. I'm not changing that. Yep. But in my heart of hearts. Yeah. I want some statue in the wind, man. You know, that's, it's. You know, the, and, and the reason why is because the community here just rallies around the team so much, you know what I mean? Like we're, you're literally the crown jewel. It was funny. I was in a meeting today. Today. And I was, I was, it was with my CEO. And, you know, I'm, I'm the vice president of the Canadian red cross here in Saskatchewan. And we were talking about sports and we were talking about the CFL in Saskatchewan in general. And he said, you know, it's funny because. Why don't y'all the aloe wets. They play in McGill stadium. But there's nothing about their home stadium. That's theirs. Right. Like those are soccer lockers. And where you go, you know what I mean? Like it's not conducive that locker room setup. Isn't conducive to a football team. It's not theirs. But then when you look in Saskatchewan, That's stadiums for the rough riders. They say, oh yeah, it's a multi-year event Plex. No, it's not. It's the Saskatchewan football arena where this has Gacha Ruff Ryders play. And the reason why it exists is because of community and the success. This has catch-all rough riders have had since probably about 2005, 2006. So. That's why I'm pulling for the riders because the community is so engaged. And football. And realistically it's given me opportunities. Why would I not pull for the team that I like Luke? Mullinder isn't a color commentator in Toronto. Right. Luke Mullinder and Toronto, wasn't a bully prevention ambassador for the Canadian red cross. As Luke Mullinder wasn't signed. Right? Like, so yeah. I'm calling for Saskatchewan. I've always wanted, I always want scratch and win, but man. But I don't think they're going to win. I'm going to let you know. I think he played terrible yet. He played terrible in the spades in Spain. You have to be. It's okay. To, to be low. It's a two, it's a one team of when, but I'm still going to be as objective as ever, or at least I hope to be. On the, on Sunday. Well, absolutely. I mean, we get that a lot, right? Where if we criticize, you know, the CFL or we talk XL. It's like, well, you, you can criticize and still support, right? It's not. Look, here's the deal. You're never going to make everybody happy. I'm not going to sit around. And try to think of ways to make somebody happy. Reason why that is, is if I make that one person happy, there's three people behind that person that don't like, what I just did. So I'm going to be me. Right. Fat guy, former athlete, baldheaded loves cheeseburgers. That's the guy I'm going to be, you know, I'm not going to try to be anybody else because, because somebody has a problem with, with, with something that you're going to do, it's just the way. The world we live in. And social media is set up to where everybody can have an opinion on something and. That's why. You know what people who don't agree with, you have a lot of access and have an opinion that they can amplify. You know what, honestly, it's a good thing too. All right. Good and bad to that. So now that we know this has got, Sean's going all the way to the gray cup, going to land right on. I real quick, I do want to get your thoughts on the east, right? Hamilton Montreal, kind of, you know, obviously I didn't go into and against Toronto. Quick thoughts on that before we let you go. So I think Hamilton is going to represent. The actually. I think Hamilton's going to win the Montreal game. I do. Patrick level's is going to have to have to be accountable for, for, for, for guaranteed. And he's not mark messier. Don't do that. Don't don't guarantee you that. I think Hamilton is going to be Montreal. I think as long as they're, they're responsible with the football, I think that as long as their offense, doesn't go out there and turn the ball over there. They're going to be fine. Hamilton. Is. Hamilton's better when you look at the coaches. They're one of the most well coached teams in the league and that's, what's going to Tommy conduct and it's not just Orlando's timeout. It's Tommy Candell it's it's Jeff. It's Jeff Ryan bull. You know what I mean? Like they've got some, a great staff and that's why I think the, the interesting matchup is going to be them versus Toronto. Because. Toronto with Chris Jones is a different Toronto team, right? They've always been capable of throwing interceptions, Toronto offensively. But with Chris Jones, they're capable of taking the ball back then. I think that again, You know, Hamilton, Hamilton needs to be able to avoid turnovers, whatever quarterbacks in there. So I think that's going to be, but you know, again, I'm not sold on Winnipeg. I'm not, and it's not just because I sit in Saskatchewan. I think that any team in the playoffs is beatable. And if you don't have your a game, you know, on, on any given day, any down in distance, then there's opportunity there. Right. And one of the things that we do know is there are weaknesses in one infection. Right. I mean, it was all throughout the year. You knew that. You know, their gender, their kicking game. Wasn't as good as their defense and offense. Right. So again, and you're always, and here's the other thing, man. You're always one injury away. You're always one injury away from looking real different out there and having a team take advantage of that. Well, Luke, this has been, I, well, I've been excited for this cause I feel like this delivered, I feel like I've heard a little bit. Chris's criticism this week and maybe the CFL isn't doing enough to promote these games. I think that you have done a lot to. You know, excited ever about this right now. I mean, not in terms of speaking passionately about it. And I mean, I think this is exciting. I appreciate your time today and, and kind of giving your thoughts and it's been really fun. You know what man? It's the CFL. I'm not, I'm not, I'm worried about the CFL man. I they've given me also. The league has given me all sorts of opportunities. I feel so blessed to be able to be a part of the league. As a player, but now also on the media side, I'm worried about. We've got to figure things out on the business from. We've got to figure out a way to get better coaching in here. Like for instance, you know, you don't want a guy like Jason Chivers to be the last break, young up and coming coach. Because if you who now pays a lot of detention and it's funny, I w I would challenge anybody else. Point out some young guys, other than Jason shavers and buck piers, right. That are so there's a lot I'm concerned about in the Canadian football league. But it's probably why I'm really looking forward because, because just like any other businessman and just like a football game in general, man, it's not about what's ahead. It's controlling what you can control in the moment. So let's just all, all enjoy this play officer here, man. We're all jacked up. It's not going to be minus 40. Which is good. So yeah, let's roll, man. I'm excited to go riders. Well, we will be ready in for the writers and sometimes friend of the show. If you're dry, there will be. Ram as well. And I think it should be a good time. So thank you again. I mean, I was just going to be excited to talk to you about the semi-finals and whatever, but. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, actually, I have stuff to talk about. So. All right. Well, let me hit record here. And I appreciate it. Well, I've excited today. We have morally Scott here originally when we booked this, we, you know, we assumed maybe Edmonton would be out of the run-ins and we thought, well, I guess we can talk some, you know, semi-finals now we actually have a lot of stuff to talk about with Edmonton. How are you doing today? I'm doing good. Thanks. Thanks for having me on the show. It's been fun to watch you the last week and a half, you know, Edmonton had all their road games. It was like the traveling gnome. I would see your photos everywhere and, you know, videos walking through this app. What's it been like the last 10 days or so? On that road trip. It was, it was interesting. It was, you know, it's not what football is about, really, because you're not supposed to play that many games in that few days in football, they play once a week for a reason. Right. Because it's a very demanding sport, very hard in the body. And to play three and seven days. And then, you know, in the CFL, they have a lot, I know NFL. They go Sunday, Thursday a lot. And they go Monday, Sunday. On short weeks, but the CFO has a few of those short week dates, but not like this, nothing like this. And I think it was really something that no one's gone through. Since the fifties, but in the fifties it was in the playoffs and there were you. They were playing in the same city. And it was, it was a lot, obviously the game was a lot different. I don't think the physical part of the game was as high back then. But yeah, it, it was, it was hard on the players. I mean, they would land, they would go from one city to the other. They landed in the second city and immediately they went to a big ballroom where the team had a 15 or 20 massage therapist set up with tables and the players just walked right in and, and they worked on their bodies and. And they drank a lot of water and ate the right foods. And that was all they could really do. I mean, another thing, you know, people talked about a lot on the trip is the fact that, you know, it's three games in seven days, but they never got to practice. And practice is such a very important part of football. Football is all about the reps in practice, right? And they never got to practice. For a week. So for two games, they played without a practice and that's just unheard of and football. And I think that paid a toll as well. And I think that final game in DC, whatever 43, 40, 43 to 10 or whatever the score was so way too much to wait until a little from the Elks perspective. But I think we saw how it shook out. And I, and I think looking back on it, what did you expect in that last game? I mean, you can't really be surprised that it happened the way it happened. They got a win, which is good to end the eight game, losing streak time and get some positive vibes going into the, into the end of the season as, as they all head home for the off season. Yeah. I, it was, it was good. We were at the cracking game Friday, we came home. I was tracking the BC lions. Yeah, that's my team. That's America's team. The VC lies. And so we. [Unknown]. I mean, at least he was good to end the season on a high note that way, because BC has also not had the most tremendous. Second house. So, you know, it was at Edmonton's expensive and I will take a 43 to 10 victory. Any day of the week. Yeah, for sure. That's a big score. I mean, but you did a, the lines did beat up on a pretty T. Pretty fragile team at that point, for sure. Physically and mentally I think worn down just because of what they'd gone through. But. They got their paychecks. That's what it was all about. Right. It was either a play that game in the middle of the week against Toronto or not get the paycheck for it. And. They chose this and I don't blame them for choosing that way. And, but they had to suffer the consequences, which was three games in seven days. Oh, I'm glad, you know, God, everyone got their say, if you got home, everything worked out. You know, obviously all the news came out this week with Edmonton, you know, really starting from scratch. Again. I remember months ago, having your broadcast part, you're Dave Campbell on talking about, you know, The rebrand and the logos and kind of the excitement. There was a lot of positive vibes going into the season. I mean, what has just the last wet four or five months of your life been like, just in terms of that kind of so many. Yeah, so many positive vibes after they, they, they unveiled the new logo and the new name. Everybody was pretty happy. And then two weeks into the season, they're Owen too. And everyone's going after two losses at home and everyone's wondering all, man, what's going on here. And then they came back. They, they, they won in Vancouver against the lions to, to go to one and two, and then they had their COVID outbreak that shut them down for a couple of weeks. And. They ended up going to Calgary. To win in Calgary on labor day, which is something they haven't done in a decade. And, you know, it's funny like that game to me. Nothing continued from that point. That should have, I mean, They'd won two in a row. They survived the COVID scare. Trevor Harris had thrown four touchdown passes in the game. He led the league in passing yards at that point. And about three or four weeks later, he's gone. Traded and not playing loses his job and things. You know, the. We heard on, on a locker cleanup day before he was fired Brock Sandeman was saying the bus ride home from Calgary, you sinking, I'm sitting in on the bus thinking. We got to go now or two and two, we won two in a row. Trevor's really fire and everything's going well. And they never want to gain until November. Like that was labor day and they didn't win again until mid November, which is just ridiculous. No one, no one saw it coming. No one saw it coming. It shouldn't have happened. This is a better team. And you know, I know the old saying is you are what your record says you are, but this wasn't a three and 11 team. I mean, they had personnel that should be better than what they were, but they had a lot of guys have off years. A lot of guys have bad years. And they just. As for some reason, they just didn't become a team this year. They just didn't become a team and play together as a team. And I think that really showed and for whatever reason, they just win the tank after winning those two in a row and just could not swim their way out of it. It seemed a lot was made. And again, you know, we're, we're kind of coming into the CFO and out, you know, trusting with other people have said that when, you know, the seasons started, Elizondo came in, you know, it seems like a lot of players were cut. Right. We have like the Derek Dennis's right. Th th the upsetness and all that, you know, the culture change, right. Kenny Stafford. Right. Was that. Is that where all this kind of started with letting go of the wrong people and. I'm not sure about that. Excuse me. I think the culture change comment from Jamie Alisando was more to say something, to get the media, to stop asking him questions because, you know, he didn't want to talk about why giddy Stafford was released and he kept getting Nast in three or four times. And he just said he wasn't a cultural fit. I think he just wanted to say something. I think that got overblown a little bit. Maybe it was the wrong choice of words to use because it, it did throw some shade on Kenny Stafford, who, who I like, I've always liked. He's been a good soldier for the organization for a lot of years, won a grey cup here, played a big role. In, in a winning the grey cup that season. And yeah, I just think that that got overblown a little bit, but I think more than anything, there was a bit of a. Disconnect in the dressing room. And I think it started with the vaccination process. Because a lot of the leaders. A lot of the star players weren't vaccinated at the time. And I think that created a bit of a problem, especially when they had to sit down, you know, for two weeks and risk losing a paycheck. Or more if they didn't get it under control during that week, before the labor day games. So I think that's where it started and I, you know, it just grew from there. And for whatever reason, this team, as I said earlier, just didn't become a team. They just couldn't they just couldn't get on the same page. I don't even know if they're in the same book at sometimes. Right. So it was a, it was a very difficult season. In the time I've been, I've been broadcasting apps games, which was 11 years now. I've never seen this kind of disconnect with a team and it shouldn't have been that way considering they had to spend. So much time together. Right. And, you know, everyone talks about bonding as a team and spending time together. All they could do is spend time with each other at the stadium and then go home. Right. That was pretty much all they were allowed to do for the most part of the season until they eased some restrictions. So it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And I don't know if we'll ever figure out what happened, unless there is something that happened behind the scenes that someone's going to tell us about eventually. But it, to me, it's just a. It's just a weird season. It's going to have a lot of question marks for a long, long time. Obviously, we don't want to see anyone lose their jobs. Right. Get fired. You know, we want everyone to be, but is this, you know, with the season ticket holders and the, and the fan base and everything. I mean, was this the right move to really just start from the bottom. I think it was the best move for the fan base. Not totally convinced it was the best move football wise. T two gun, all three of them at once. Cause that's, I, I don't know if there's ever been a professional football team. That's done that, like fire their president, their GM and their coach all at the same news conference. Right. I don't know if that's ever happened before. And it really puts a lot of pressure on people who are running the franchise now, not only to run the franchise correctly in the off season and. To hire the guys who are going to be the replacement. So it's going to be difficult for sure, but I have never seen an fan base so upset and. And talking with their wallets. I mean, They had a 20 22 23, 20 4,000 for their last three home games announced. But there was, you know, anywhere from eight to 12,000 fans at the games, people who actually bought tickets, didn't go. And that's gotta be a sign that something's wrong, right. The the, the rollout. With some of the things that happened with the fans at the start of the season with, you know, they implemented a few new things like electronic ticketing and the clear bag. Access, you know, you couldn't bring any duffel bags or anything in that weren't clear that didn't go very smoothly. They laid off a ton of staff during COVID, which everybody did, but when they came back. On the limited number, they couldn't get back to the fans. Fast enough. And fans were, you know, getting upset. I mean, I got probably 10 emails from fans saying, Hey, can you help me? I can't get anyone to answer the phone. I can't get anyone to return my email. I can't get anyone to tell me how I get my tickets. And, you know, CFL is an older fan base and a lot of them are still using flip phones. Or no phones at all. And you know, they introduced an electronic ticket to a program which is commonplace in sports. Now it's not, it's not new, but it was for the first time it was activated in Edmonton. And people without smartphones are going, what do I do? How do I get in? Right. And they just couldn't get answers in an uptime. And I think that the board of directors. Then had people reaching out to them. And I just think the amount of complaints. Throughout the season was a big part of, of why the change at the president role was made. And, and the fans were so against the GM and the coach. You know, every, every Facebook post, every tweet, the response was just fire the coach or the GM. Why are these guys still here? Let's get on with this. Right. So, you know, throw in the name, change with some people will never get over. And it just led to. Too much fan irritation. And you know, it's the lifeblood of your franchise. If you don't have fans, you don't have a team, right. Especially the CFL where it's a gate driven league. So, you know, A team that you know, was averaging in the, in the last five years, 30,000 plus a game. All of a sudden they're down in the low twenties of. Of paid and under 20 in actual and something had to be done. And, and I don't know if it was, you know, I feel bad for Jimmy Elizondo, especially because, you know, he just, he just got up. He just got a raw deal. He just didn't. He just, things just went the wrong way for him. You know, he's a first-year coach made some mistakes, obviously. He's got a bit of a track record. That's a good one as an OSI, but as a head coach, he still had to learn like all first year head coaches do, but I mean, he had a short training camp, no preseason games. He couldn't hold meetings. You know, he had to use. You got hired late. So those things that coaches do in December and January, he didn't get due until February and March. And so that puts them two months behind in preparing. The, the, you know, he couldn't, he had to inherit the staff of the old coach because they couldn't make changes to the coaching staff because it was so late in the year. You know, there's special teams, coordinator leaves. A month before camp starts, they hire another guy. They have to fire him three weeks into the season. And it just, it just, just nothing went right for him. The COVID shut down. He couldn't have a meeting with his coaching staff in person until day one of training camp. The COVID protocols, forced zoom meetings, especially with so many players on vaccinated. So yeah, it was just, just everything went wrong for them. And, and, and I think he's a better coach than, than he showed this year. And I think he'll be a pretty good coach. I hope someone will give him another opportunity at some time, because I believe. He deserves it. Yeah. I don't think that he was the, the issue, right? Yeah. I think, and especially with the tracker he's had, and hopefully the connections he has. With that the people like you were saying about people. I remember seeing even Twitter posts about people winning things like, oh, I got a hundred dollars off from this store, the Edmonton store and not being able to redeem it or not. Yeah. Not ever having anyone get in touch that way. So I definitely know. Yeah. I mean, I get it. You, you love all these people, but then, you know, you're trying and it just snowballs too. Right. And then they don't win a game on home field all season long. Right. And. And as Alan watt put it, who is now the interim COO a guy who's been around the franchise since 1980. He said, you know, if you lose all your games at home, all of a sudden the hot dogs cold and the beer is hot and everybody gets upset about everything. And every little thing bothers you even more. And it just. It just steamrolled from there. You know, and they just couldn't, they just couldn't stop it. The fan, the fan unrest. By the entire fan base, I think was just too much for the board of directors to look at. I mean, if you have Twitter, you can see the fans are upset. There's no doubt about it. And Twitters. Please don't take your, all your positions from Twitter, right? Because that's certainly not right. But if you have Twitter or any kind of social media, you could tell. The fans are upset. I want to know what was it like that press conference when all this came down, like you said, they have all this. And I know that. I actually should go watch the whole video now about it, because I'd rather what was that like, kind of experiencing that. It was, it was kind of surreal to think that, you know, I think we were all expecting changes and, and I think it, it was a little easier to take it the news conference because they put a release out a couple hours earlier that said they were what they were going to announce. Right. That basically said they'd fired the, the three guys. So. We knew it. And if it would have been announced, it would have been much more of a shock that's for sure. No doubt about that, but they, yeah, it was, it was surreal because it is sweeping changes. I mean, you've heard of sweeping changes, coaches and GM's have been fired, but president, coach, and GM, it just it's, it's unheard of. And. And it's just effects. You know, every aspect of the franchise. I mean, it's not like, okay, business is good. We got to fix football or football is good. We got to fix business, they got to fix everything and they fired everybody. And I think that that is what. Caught everybody by surprise, even the people who wanted these guys fired. We're probably surprised that all three of them were fired. I think a lot of people would have been happy if it was just the GM or just the coach or just the president or whatever. But for all three to be fired was a pretty bold move. And I think a lot of people were surprised by. Last question on this. And then I do want to touch on the semi-finals. Bringing in why I want a right to be kind of the interim GM right. In. That means, is that, is that weird? Is that normal? Me talking? To me through that. Well, I think the situation is because there's so much that has to get done this month. And, and I, I don't know, he's not really the interim GM. He's going to advise football ops and what they have to do. The Elks have an assistant GM and. I don't know his status moving forward. Of course, that will be decided by the new general manager, everything. So I assume that, that he's Bobby marriage doing a little bit more right now and, and some of the other football staff, but what they need to do more is. Get a GM in place. As quickly as possible because there's some things you can do before the calendar year ends that will help you on your salary cap next year. Like you can resign players. Now, if you have leftover money, the rule is if you have leftover money for the 20, 21 season on your salary cap, you can use that net to sign a player. Now give him a. You know, if you're going to pay him a hundred thousand dollars, you can give them a $30,000 bonus if you have it. And then you only have to pay him 70,000 next year. So only 70,000 to the capital of a hundred thousand. So there's a way to, to save money, but you gotta have a GM in place to do that. So I think that's why they brought someone on board who can get through the list and say, okay, these five guys should be on your short list now. I've interviewed him. I think these are the five guys. You should talk to you, talk to them and let's all make a decision. I think that's more than anything. And frequencies coming in February. So there's an awful lot of scouting that has to be done in preparation that has to be done. Like 80% of the leagues on one-year contracts. So free agency is just a mammoth undertaking right now. First, you got to figure out who you can resign on your own team, who you want to resign on your own team and who you want to go after on other teams. And. And wait and see of other teams, sign those guys before you get a chance to, to make them a contract offer on in February when free agency hits. So they need a GM in place. You. As soon as possible. That's why they're kind of doing a backwards. Usually it's, you know, you hire the president and he hires the GM and the GM hires the coach, but they're going to hire the GM first and the president, which is such an important hire, especially now for this franchise that has to do so much work with the fan base. They're going to take their time, make sure they get the right guy for that. And that's probably won't happen until mid January. You just have to, like you said earlier, you know, the, the lateness with coach Elizondo. You know everything last year. You just hope that that doesn't repeat itself this year. Right? I want to give yourself a chance, right? You got to give yourself a chance to be successful and they kind of, you know, and you know, they, they didn't do it on purpose. I mean, Scott Milanovich quit. Right. He quit. You know, in late January and a week later, the hired Elizondo, but I mean, there's work to be done when you hire a new coach, right. You got to lay the ground base. And I think that Milanovich knew he was probably leaving and he was. He was doing some interviews and trying to get another gig. And so a lot of that stuff might've fallen. You know, under the radar with him and then Elizondo has to come in and change the things that were set up and set it up the way he wants it. So there was so much to do and he just didn't have enough time. Yeah. Looking forward here, you know, weekend. Exciting games, even if none of our. Ideas are involved in it anymore. Which of the two match-ups is exciting. You the most in terms of the west show down to the east now they're both pretty good. I think, I mean, they're both, both. Divisions have, have good match-ups the teams are close. I think I'm calling for an upset in the west. I think, I think Calgary is peaking. I think there. You know, they've got it together in the last half of the season, Saskatchewan struggled a little bit, especially offensively. They haven't been able to put up a lot of points. I mean, they struggled to beat the Elks and back to back games in the last two games. Second and third, last games of the season for them. So, yeah, they they've got some issues and you know, a lot of times you can wipe the slate clean and come out and play great in the playoffs. We'll see. But I think that's going to be a pretty good matchup. You know, going into Saskatchewan is going to be a great atmosphere for the game, for sure. But I like to stand Peter's chances. You know, if, if bullied by Mitchell can, can play. Well, I mean, they're better at the top. End of the quarterbacks is. You know, Calgary wins that battle if they're both playing at their best. So I think Gallagher has got a pretty good chance for an upset. That'll be a good game in the east. I mean, that's two pretty even teams. They both. You know, They finished virtually. The almost the same record. So, you know, Hamilton's probably got a bit of an advantage. But we'll see, we'll see what Trevor Harris can do with Montreal. You know, it looks like he's probably going to get the start. And he had a great playoff game in 2019 in Montreal with Edmonton. Where he just was outstanding. So if he can find that magic again, maybe Montreals got a better opportunity, but I think Hamilton is a better team all around. Both teams have good defenses, but. I think Hamilton has a better team around and they've got home field advantage. And I think that might be the difference. Yeah, I, I still. I still. I don't know what Montreal is. Right. I felt like early on and then they've stumbled. And with whichever Harrisonville. I just don't. It just seems like a big stretch that they're going to really make it the next three, you know? Ticks here to get, I don't know. I just, that it seems like a lot from it bringing in a new quarterback on a mid season like that. Yeah. I, I, I think you're right there. They're probably of the six teams. In the playoffs, they would be probably the sixth team. I'd pick to win the grey cup, but you never know. Right. It just takes, it just takes Trevor Harris, a quarterback and receiver to all of a sudden get hot with each other and, you know, and. And when you, when you football you is they, they have a really good defense. That can win you games as well. So, so we'll see. It's it's. I think they're both going to be really good games on Sunday. I want it before we let you go. So a lot was made, you know, we had some weird match-ups here, right. You know, Toronto earlier in the week. And I was resting people and when they pack and all that. A lot was made about the Saskatchewan game. You know, maybe comments that the players. I'm gonna talk with Luke. Melinda is coming up here in a little bit about it too. You know, maybe the players weren't playing, right. Like they really wanted to be there. They weren't playing the way you hear. We had Edmonton. You know, voting and doing, traveling, doing all this, playing all these games and all these, you know, days. Did you have any thoughts on that? And kind of like at the end of the season, these games don't matter as much for certain teams, maybe we're not going to play all the way. Yeah, it was, it was weird because at the end of the day, nothing really mattered in the last week. Right. Once Edmonton was officially eliminated and, and I mean then, then Montreal loses to Ottawa, which nobody thought would happen. And yeah, it was, it was a weird week. It was a weird week. It was, it was, it was good for a lot of players who don't play because they got a chance to play and it was good for teams to rest guys. You know, I'm, I'm, I'm always. You know, on the line with that. I don't know if, if resting a player, especially, especially in football is good. I think it was good for Winnipeg. They, they arrested Collaros for a week. Of the week before and then played them a little bit in the final week, which is good. So you kind of try to keep them sharp, but still, you know, protect them a little bit. I think it's pretty difficult because football is all about rhythm, right? It's all about rhythm and reps and doing it and doing it in day in and day out. And I think when you sit down a quarterback for a game at the end of the year, sometimes that can backfire for you and we'll see, we'll see, you know, And, you know, in cold weather is going to play a factor. If it gets cold, I'm not sure what the temperature is going to be in Hamilton, but the Prairie's are pretty frosty today. So I know it's going to be a, it'll probably be pretty chilly in, in Regina. On on Sunday, although it's supposed to warm up a little bit, I guess, over the next couple of days, we'll see. But, and, and you know, it's going to be a hero, right? Someone's going to step up and do something that you don't expect. And. It depends which team that guy's on. Yeah, I'm excited. I think it's going to be an enticing weekend. I think both games around, I think, you know, There's been criticisms in this year, some of the CFL games, you know, maybe it's not the most entertaining. This. You know, I get it. People talking playoffs were going strong. Who, you know, just, if you had to put before we let you go your call, your shot, who are we seeing? And the Greg cup is pretty easy to pick Winnipeg. But I think calories got a chance to upset them. I really liked. The stand Peter's makeup. They're experienced. They got enough guys that have been around long enough to, to know, to have the experience to playing in those big games. So I think they have an opportunity. To upset Winnipeg and I mean, all the pressure's on Winnipeg, right? There's no like, like. The stamp Peters are in the position the bombers were in, in 2019. Going on the road for the playoffs. No one expects them to, when they. They got an, a role they played really well. And we talked earlier about bringing a quarterback in late in the season. They did that and it worked out very well for him with Claro. So yeah. It's but pressure's on Winnipeg's so we'll see how they handle it. So to me, it's. I probably say Winnipeg, but I think galleries got a chance. And in, in the east, I think Toronto. I think Toronto will, will win these. They're just, I think they're just so much above. The other teams and if McLeod, Bethel Thompson has a good game for sure. And their defenses from proved so much with Chris Jones since he's arrived. So I I'll take Toronto in the east and. When a big slash Calgary in the west, if, if I had to put my house on it, I'd put, I I'd say Winnipeg, just because, but I got, I got a soft spot for Calgary this year in the playoffs. I think the games are all going to be terrific. It hasn't you, right? It hasn't been a very entertaining season this year. It hasn't been a lot of fun to watch the games because they just have not been what they've been in years past. But they get a chance for a pretty big finish here with the last, with the playoff games, the last two games in each division and then the gray cup. So hopefully, hopefully they'll finish up strong. Yeah. I mean, we're going to be in Hamilton. So I just, I hope it's not, you know, 40 to zero or so. I just, I hope, yeah. Winnipeg, if they're there, I hope they're some, some semblance of a, you know, a competition mat, because I am scared that it's going to be like cold in the snow. We're going to be sitting there when the pay is going to be up like five scores. Well, I'm I'm where are you from? You're Seattle, Seattle. So that's not bad. You're used to the damp air, right? Hamilton Hamilton, it can get cold, but it also, I mean, we were, we were in Ontario, you know, a week ago and it was plus three Celsius. So it was saying, you know, there are still, there were still orange and red leaves on the tree. So it was still, it was still pretty nice. Meantime, it's minus 10 back in Edmonton. So. It can be, it can be pretty nice. It can be, it can be workable. In Hamilton. So I think you'll have a good time and you're gonna meet a lot of great people. CFL week. I don't know how restrictive it's going to be this year, but a CFL week is just a fantastic week for CFL fans. You have to do something though. I'm going to tell you right now. You have to get to the spirit of Edmonton room. Yup. Make sure. And go there early because you might have such a great time. You'll just stay there for every night. It is, it is the best spot to go. Come gray cup weeks. So make sure you get there early. Okay. Well, I've only thank you so much for coming on. This has been finding out that we were going to just kind of amp about the season, lots of news this week. I appreciate it. And your safe travels and taking the time to come on. Yeah, anytime. Glad to do it. I happy to be here and not happy Thanksgiving. Yeah, happy. I have the American Thanksgiving. I already posted our episode preview online and I got a lot of Canadian saying it's not, I go, I know that's what I say. It's American Thanksgiving. So it's just football day for us on Thursday. That's all. Well, and then we thank you for that. And it resembles not. The most appealing the football matches this year, either for. Sadly that one thing, the bad thing about American Thanksgiving is you've got to watch the lions play right. I will I, as a recent convert to the NFL as well. I'll never understand that, but yes. That is one of our legacies.

Episode 67 - The USFL Is BACK!

What is up, everybody. Welcome to the mark cast. It's Friday. Happy early birthday, Paul, last year we recorded. If you remember on Thursday and your birthday was Friday, I padded the whole big sign and everything. Because today, it's just really funny. We're doing a lot of USFL stuff today. We're leading with USFL. It's called episodes called USFL is back one year ago today they have the whole shut down in San Antonio. With the spring league. We had Brian Woods on, we had kept jumping. Incredible to think that that was one year ago today we were in this very spot. We discovered the genius of poop, Maine. A year ago. Today. People. Yeah, people will. If you don't remember in the TSL before that's, you know, the USFL now, There was a, was it on Reddit, right? Or it was, it was on Twitter, someone or no, it was Instagram. It was someone they pooped main on Instagram was the one that released off. We're talking to all the snack about the spring league. And that's when we had the big, they got shut down and they had the big C outbreak and we have Brian Woods on that's when we met Brian Woods. That's when he promised us our [unknown]. Jerseys that we still don't have our member and I gained balls and helmets. It was ever. He'll beat. They're not doing anything with that stuff. Now he can just give it to you. I know. I know, we'll talk about that anyway. Yes. So we are, we are leading with USFL today. It's not every week that you have a new spring league officially announced. We still have a lot of CFL steps. We have Jeff Pearlman. This is our big interview. This week, Jeff Pearlman. He wrote football for a buck, the crazy rise and crazier demise of the USFL. So Jasmine on I've been working with him literally since June. He just finished a book. Ah, so we're going to all the CFL staff. We're going to talk now, we're going to talk to Jeff. Then we were going to have Luke Mullinder on he's with he's pharmacist's katchewan he does her play by play. Luke is also the, in his real world is the vice-president of the red cross in Canada. So he's a little busy this week with all that like BC stuff going on. So Luke's going to come on next week. We have a big show and then we have Dave Dawson with sports spectrum. We're talking to all the CFL staff and then Aaron. I crawled back. He's with TSN ads. So we're talking some CFL, fantasy sports, Betty, and I mean, he's with TSN 10 50 Toronto. So like just kind of general CFL step two. So we still have. CFL stuff, a lot of stuff going on. Definitely a lot of stuff going on. I'm looking for, to the Perlman interview. You said that was going to be good. I'm definitely looking forward to hearing what he has to say. Spicy. If you, if you're a little hesitant, I like listener. Max is very hesitant on USFL. If you are questioning any of this stuff. Perlman. If we've got some good nuggets coming up here in the Jeff Roman interview. So. Very awesome stuff. Let's. Let's let's keep it moving though. There's a new podcast review from Edmunds 2 0 6, somewhere, someone up in Reed's neck of the woods. I guess. Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Edmond. I didn't even put that together yet. I didn't even buy that. He got it. I great lessons with plenty last, I appreciate that. The markaz.com/review also. Yeah, please like, and subscribe. We have all the USFL staff, a lot of work going into this. I think I have a big Winnipeg blue bombers gas coming up next week heading into that whole thing. So. Please like it. Subscribe and yeah, they just, I, I thought that was good. A good review came in. Very cool stuff. Here's the interesting thing that I saw here that I wanted to discuss because you put it on the Google doc. I saw it. I was like this. It's very interesting. Yeah. You want to talk about the social media for the Toronto Argonauts? Apparently. Well, no. So congratulations. I'm glad that your team followed you back. That's great. My thing is just in general, I was actually going to do a list this week of like how many different media people that we've talked to from all the teams and like who follows us in, who does it? Cause right now it's the BC lions for me or for the mark asset account. It's not even me. Yeah, so it's great. But I think like Toronto of anybody should follow all of our accounts because we've, we've had like 18 people from the organization. I mean, we had Adam Gus. That that, that PA and. I know Paul has the CFL stuff. Yeah, no, I'm glad. So congrats. Paul got the follow, but the Argonaut should be following all of our accounts. Okay. I will see what I can do. I want to talk to you, like push. I don't want to push it too much. Well, here's the thing I want to, I want to have like an in-depth convo with like someone that runs a team, social media account, cause like all talk with people or I'll be seeing people online, like 26 followers, one of which is the CFL I'm like, why does that person with 26 followers, like. Why was the CFL, like we're going to follow them, but not these people that spend like 40 hours a week. I don't want to like Debbie downer. It's interesting. I think maybe that that person that got followed by the CFL, might've been doing social media for them, like as an intern for like maybe three weeks and then like use that count to fall and we give them more clout, you know? Cause everybody's cloud changed. Twitter is out of control. Yeah. So I will say, so this is a big announcement. We haven't actually talked about this. We have our preface and then we have all our USFL stuff. I promise. I feel like I am officially over a rush. Yeah. Wow. And, and w because we were going to have, we're going to do the Thanksgiving show next week. I got a lot of pushback from that. I have a big surprise guest. If it all works out, I think people are going to be over the moon about. When Taylor, hi, Niki, beat Tom Brady this week. I tweeted at the Raj. I said, Hey, look at this. You know, radio silence. He's on there complaining about Kurt cousins and the Vikings. I mean, he's on Twitter, right? He's tweeting live as were. I go, I'll rush. I want the same energy. If you're going to track me down on a Sunday and like, make fun of me for Taylor. Hi, Nikki. Not whatever the end zone. When Taylor high-key beats Tom Brady, I want the same energy bath. Like, wow. That was cool. Or like, yeah. Oh, I saw your tweet, whatever, but if you're not going to ever take it on the chin, it there's no good for us to have him come back on and have it be, I just realized, like he's never going to be got that way. And so it's not even worth our time. No, I, I completely agree. It's like, it's, it's the one way street with him. Like he just says things and he doesn't like. Acknowledge a point. Anything it's great for debate. And it's called the Lex Luger syndrome because apparently Lex Luger is students. Just talk and talk and talk over you to the point where you stopped trying to even give an opinion. But it's so infuriating at times where like I wanted, I wanted to break out and be, you know, Because I'm kind of a container as jerk on Twitter. I wanted to snap and go. And just throw it back at him. Like the guys takes just trash sometimes. And the fact that like everybody up north of the border was like, you know, About how great. How great. He took us down. Like he didn't address anything. He just kept saying the same catch phrases over and over again. And that's what he does. He just like, he has no new material. He has no new material. So I'm, I'm in favor of this. I don't give a crap if he's on the show or not. Better off. I'm just kind of the same as you, because like, I. I thought Taylor, hi, Nikki had a really good moment this week and I thought that could have been used for some lively debate and it was kind of shut down. We had put in our official breakup media requests, we did all that. You ran. And we did, it was good because I wanted to get in because it did that. I wanted to be, if it's a first come first serve, I want us to be in. We were all, you know, we're waiting to hear back. The will now. So anyway, hopefully the cover, all the great cup stuff. And then we'll, let's skip this other stuff. They, Greg hub has some good merge coming. I hope we can pick some up that up there in person in Hamilton, because it's like $45 for a hat plus like $22 Canadian shipment. It's like $67 Canadian shipping to get the flapper mat. Yeah. Sorry. So leading with the USFL staff. So, you know, they came out this week, announced. Sunday, they got a new verified USFL account on Twitter. So we kind of anticipated stuff was coming in. Remember they had that wonky. Like all this speaks to like, something is weird here. Cause they had like official USFL. It wasn't verified. They had like 2000 followers. Now they're official at USFL. They updated the website Monday night, they had some new logo or graphics and stuff. And then we had sports business journal here, and then we had the press release from Fox. Do you see the sports business journal stuff? Yes, I do. It is a Fox sports announcing today. At a new Lee reconstituted us the United States football league USFL we'll kick off in April. And his name and executive team leap led by co-founder Brian Woods, who had been. CEO of the spring lake. He will be president of football operations on our him. R three veterans, Fox employees, Darryl Johnston, as executive VP of football operations. Fox sports rules and Alice, Mike prayer as head officiating and Edward Hartman as executive BP and business operations apparently followed. The mark has to count on Twitter. He left. Position at Fox Corp to become Fox sports, senior VP digital partnerships in wagering, wagering, all the big. All the big things now, wagering, wagering, wagering. So it's going to be interesting to see how these three get together. I guess my, my question is like, This doesn't sound like Brian Woods is part of the ownership team anymore. Yeah. So in, in, down here, In the thing. Yeah. So they originally, they had Fox as a minority. Equity stake owner. Now the S this is very much, and we've had this reported from Ray Dre Johnson on the, on the podcast before, as well as Dylan Smith, that Fox very much owns this outright. You know, the, the belief with us and the writers and everybody talking to us, you know, Brian Woods brought this idea to Fox. Brian is now a Fox employee, but Brian is still very much involved in this. So, but. You know, Mike Mitchell and others have said like, Fox. Controlling the money is probably a better outcome here than there's unsubstantiated. There. Confirmed reports, but like people from the spring league back in may are still waiting on paychecks. So it's kind of one of those things like. It, you know, it's good to have Brian as kind of the figurehead, you know, maybe the brain trust going forward, but maybe having Fox running the business, you know, owning it, maybe will settle some investors minds a little bit more if they're trying to like grow it out from that way. That's very valid because. That's very valid because I'm thinking about how. How were there were concerns about the spring league? How kit. How the kids for lack of better term kids. To me, they're, you're, they're younger than I am. The kids weren't getting meals, the kids weren't, you know, being taken care of. So a lot of the concerns that we had voice on this podcast about how the spring league was. Barely running as it was. You know, those kind of alleviates those concerns that I had now that you've got a company behind it. And I think also there's a, there's a, there's a, probably a really good chance. That the reason Fox owns this was one for legal purposes. Because, you know, there's, there's been a lot of questions that we brought up. About trademark ownership and stuff like that. So now you've got a legal team behind you that can actually go to court and argue with these things. You've also got a situation in which. Fox is now not paying anybody for the content. Yup. They own the content outright. And in this game, in this day and age, how people are selling off their rights to their music albums for streaming services, stuff like this in this day and age. Content is everything. If you have content, somebody's going to buy your content. And then who knows, you know, who knows how far that goes? So. This was probably a situation where it may have been those two things factored into also be alleviation. You know, alleviating the minds of investors after the spring of. Stuff happening. Yeah. Yeah, so there was questions and it was Brian. So going to be involved, we know that. Now the other thing, you know, there's been a lot of concerns about the payment of players are payers getting paid member in the spring league. It was more of a pay to play. Yeah, I cannot imagine the Fox own entity on the Fox broadcast channels, you know, not. Paying the employees, right. I mean, I just, I, I, we don't, it has not been officially announced yet. I just, I cannot imagine that Fox owns this and doesn't do that. They, they haven't come out and announced the Birmingham staff yet. We all know that they've said the, the, the city is still to be named the press release when a little bit more. They said there's going to be eight teams, two divisions, north and south. We've known this. Play between March and June. I believe we had the timeline on here. Mid April through mid June training camps as we've sat there, going to be at the beginning of March. And then the kickoff is going to be April 15th. That Friday is kind of what Roy. I reported on that. The games are going to be on Saturday and Sundays, which are good. I mean, again, this is very much a spring league going on with that. We have a couple of quotes here from Eric shanks. You see that? Oh, yeah. He says we are extremely fortunate to have this extraordinary team of experienced executives. A lot of ease going on there. To guide the USF new USFL development as. We've moved forward toward launch this spring. From Eric shanks. He also says I'm confident, Brian, Darryl, Mike, and Edward have the passion experience and commitment. We need to get the job done. So come April, we will offer a compelling high quality game, professional football. That fans will embrace. And I'm hoping, you know, everyone that if you're a longtime listener to the podcast, you'll know that we had our qualms with the spring league, kind of the media behind it and getting maybe the information we needed. Interviews. So Gerald. Darryl Johnson was already online. You know, engaging with fans, someone was criticizing, oh, you need to have all these business. You have all these football people, you need business people. He's already responding. You know, it's football first and faded the a of AF. A F an exit Val had mitigating circumstances. Like he's already engaging with them. Right. We've already had. Air. Edward Hartman. Interacting with me, right. Following us back, going back and forth with connections that way. So I feel good about this. I feel good that they are. I have questions. Jeff Perlman has questions coming up about, you know, the websites and the merge and kind of the timelines, all those things. But I think that some of this and them interacting with just like random Joe's on, on Twitter, and then obviously following our accounts. It is a good sign right there. Maybe there'll be a little more forthcoming with the media stuff. Definitely. Definitely, definitely. Also some of the tweets that were coming in here. Seth collector football. Lessons. Two's you master. So Seth brings up a good point here says, cause they at Dan Kaplan just announced that there's a six year deal, right? For $2 billion for premier league. Are you following, are you tracking any of this? I know. Well, so it's a six years at 2.7 billion. They're getting about 400,000 per game. And that was about what the spring league was getting easy day. With says, trying to draw there. Okay. Well, first and foremost, there's so many. So many extenuating circumstances you need to take into account with that number. 400,000. First of all, you need to count. You need to take into account that that's just ratings over the air. That's not counting the stuff that happens on peacock. That's the over the air viewership. Second of all. What time are the games coming on? Six, seven in the morning sometimes. As someone on the west coast was a Tottenham fan. Like. I am. Am I really going to wake up at five in the morning and watch Tottenham play. I love my sleep. I'm not going to do that. So I'll watch it on demand later on. So this number about 400,000 per game is kind of. It's not representative of the actual number of people that are actually watching the premier league. But do you think that that's a good deal? That if they're getting in the premier league is valued at $2 billion, right. For the six year deal. And that Fox is doing a three-year plan at 150 million to bring in. I think they said they were going to bring in another 250 million. Beginning, somewhat similar viewership. I mean, it doesn't seem like a crazy number that Fox is spending on this prop. If they're trying to compete right. Like you said before they get the content to get the property right. I mean, it's, it's good for the first year, but then there's another, there's another player that comes in town. And that's when we need to talk about that, you know, there's another player that comes into town. And once, you know, The XFL. What's going to happen there. Are the numbers going to go down? Like, are people going to want to opt for the XFL more than USFL? Or vice versa. Are people going to op. More for the USFL than the XFL. That's some that needs to be taken into consideration. Where are they going to be able to hold that number? That they had 400,000 views when they were doing the spring league. Are they gonna be able to hold that number when expo comes around? I'm not sure. It's interesting too, because I think that the XFL right. Is going to be earlier right there. If they're presumably they're launching you after in February, we don't know this yet. If they're doing a little earlier, I worry more about the, the coaches contracts and the player contract shot with like when the AAF came in, they were signing players to multi-year contracts so that they could not jump to the XFL when they launched. Right. So it'd be curious to see. What, if anything the USFL does to be, you know, to kind of take the jumpstart on that and to maybe sign players for a two or three-year deal, give them a cheaper it's Hey, we'll pay you for three years. So then when the XFL and the same with the coaches on there, There was a, we had a question online from what real quick, I pulled us up here on a sports pro media.com. It said, quote, the Comcast owned broadcaster average 414,000 viewers per match. Poorly. For, for per match window on the NBC networks, which, you know, since acquiring the league rights ahead of the 13, 14 season. That number, however does not factor in Spanish language. Or the peacock digital broadcasts. So again, that's 400,000 number. Time, iffy. As well, and. You know, it's hard to get the numbers. I just, I think the point was just that maybe that Fox, like you said, where they're owning the content again. They're producing it and they know that they have a home for it. They're probably getting a better deal than having to pay like the premier league $2 billion. That they're getting it's like we're getting into the discount. Let's hope that they pay the players, right? Because the money that Vince was saving with the original XFL. Was not passed along to the players. There was heavy criticism that he was not paying competitive rates for that, because at that point there was no AAF. There was no other competition. So. You would hope that at least this first year, if they're trying to lock players into a multi-year deal, that the, that the USFL will be paying. Money for that. A question on the line that we had. I. A lot about like, what's going to be made at the spring league. Like the Josh. And the AVS, I think that that is still going to exist, whether that's like a two week training camp that it kind of used to be before Brian was trying to bring this CTV. I don't think that that's going away. I don't know. You know, obviously we'll keep an eye on it, but that's like, you know, if you're like a diehard job-seekers fan or whatever, You know, I don't know. But I think that's still going to exist, but clearly, you know, the trademarks and the money that's been spent will be for these USFL franchises and like, we'll go here. The Jeff. Jeff has a lot of thoughts about it. If it's, if there's an ethnic Italia there with the USFL to kind of justify all this work that they're doing. And at another point to that whole owning the content thing. NBC's paying $2.7 billion and they don't own one frame of that video. Fox owns everything. They're going to be shooting for the spring. USFL. I want to call the spring league because this is regular. I owe them owning their own content. Like it just, hi. Because we have a question you're coming up later, you know, XFL with Disney or whatever, you know, think of all this money that all these carriers are paying for all this content, right? Like Netflix, where do they get Martin Scorsese? $250 million to go make a movie here's Fox. Like you said, they own all of this content in. And for perpetuity, I can't speak with library. And perpetuity, but. But, you know, besides guaranteeing a home for this content, I just, I can't imagine this isn't a. And the great deal for them. If it works out. I mean, if it doesn't work out, then. And I also like an Hadar. I keep harping on this, but. I'm sure. I'm not saying I'm sure, but. It feels like there might, might've been a situation where Brian brought this to Fox and said, how much are you going to pay me for the content? I'm willing to provide. And Fox threw out a number and Brian realized that he could run the league on the number he was given. Which may have intern. You know, sped this up we're Fox like, well, we want it. Let's do this and then gave him. Gave him a give him the, you know, the buyouts. So, yeah, cause there's always questions like will Fox kind of it's like they could've just decided to buy the thing. Like both of those things can be true. Like Fox could have been a minority owner that now is the majority owner like that all can happen and be all realistic. So. A lot of questions to be. Answered in the upcoming weeks. And we'll, we'll definitely stay on top of that. I know Reed will text me every five minutes with something new if something happens. So that being said, we're going to toss to Jeff Perlman, Dave Dawson, Aaron Caroll, Nick. And then we'll come back with CFL news and then we have AXA. We got some. I have a, we have a little XFL discussion fan controlled football, and then a couple of voicemails for you. Awesome. That was good. That was a good little discussion. Next time. Yeah. I thought we were very engaging. We grab something real quick. Yeah, that's fine. Easy. This note here where I, this is start off. It's like a weird week is only like half the games really matter. I think that. Oh, hang on. Excellent. My freezer keeps opening. Oh, that's what. Oh, is that a breath man or a condom? Nope. Oh, Let's get it ready. Are you going to be chomping on the show? No. My mom, like. I started smoking pot a lot, a couple of years ago for her knees or whatever. And now I think she realized that she's like allergic to fine and she can't smoke anymore. I think she's going to have to move to edibles. Cause that's her arthritis. Like she can't sleep. She's like, you know, My friends were in town and they stayed with me and I didn't smoke for like a week. And she's like, I didn't cough at all. You guys, like she thought it was her cat. I think she's allergic to like smoking pot. I mean, it could be, she just needs to know the edible highest. We see more intense. God's given them. I mean she's but I think she was as easier, like this role of a joint. Yeah. She's the old school, like roll a joint, just f*****g kickback. Yes, ma'am. Sorry. That's fine. I let those things kick in. It's good here in about an hour. I don't know if you knew this one time, like my edible kicked in a little earlier. We're recording the podcast one year, one week, I was like, oh s**t. I don't know. I mean, you'd have to tell me which one. That was like, it was like three weeks ago. My edible kicked in. Earlier. I think it was one where I was laughing a lot. There was one where I was laughing hysterically at something. Oh s**t. My animals. Way too soon. It's not professional. Welcome back. One of the thing, our guests, Jeff Perlman, Dave Dawson and Aaron Caroll. Thanks for joining us. Great interview Jeff. There. Great interview with Jeff. Very spicy. It was worth the wait, because like I said, we were just going to have him monitor in the summer and just, Hey, what do you think about this USFL coming back? And I said, it literally could not have been the better week that the week that all this came out, I mean, we've known about it, but yeah, the week that it's official, I thought it was good. It worked out good for Jeff. Very cool stuff. This week, the final week of CFL action. Set to take place. Look at what we're looking at. We're looking at ELPs. Taken on the Argonauts. That's probably going to be. Well, that already happened. That already happened. Yeah, that was, oh, that's not updated on here for. Alex beat the Argos. They, they, they are not, they lost their home winning three. Yeah. This is a weird week because really only the Hamilton, the macho games really have stakes. Right. Because. Yeah, Al lads are trying to kind of get their playoff. I never understand, like all these playoff seedings I've tagged them down below here. Right? Like Elks lines is basically a nothing game. They're starting Nathan Rourke. I cause try to get him some wraps. Mike Riley's out. Blue bombers as stamps is a big game, right? For Calgary to kind of get going. And then Roughrider is handling. There's only a couple of games that really have to say, so you see these playoff, you see the, I never understand this is east division stuff. Okay. So basically it boils down to. If Hamilton wins. No matter what they host. Yeah. If Hamilton Wednesday host. If Montreal wins and Hamilton loses their ties in Montreal. So basically there's only two options here. If montra wins. Then things come into play. Yeah. Cause what, what happens, who plays first? Well, and so, yeah, I mean, because a lot of this I've set, right. You know, stamps and rough riders, that's going to be the big kind of game next week. Right. They were, hopefully we're going to have Luke back on the kind of break down. The the east semi-finals, that's kinda, what's up in the air here. Just kind of figuring out who's going to help us. Cause it's, it's going to be Hamilton and Montreal. Just kind of figuring out who gets the home field advantage. And then obviously. They're going to be taken on the Argos who have clenched and then Calgary and Saskatchewan to figure out who's going to go take on the blue bomber. So I am excited. This weekend is a little snoozy CFL, but I do think because I don't really care, like who hosts, who, I mean, I think Hamilton travels well, and they also have good home field advantage man-child travels, but that next weekend though, semi-finals Calgary and Saskatchewan going into that to the west vinyl, I think is going to be big. Yep. And. And I, you know, I think it's, you know, It's going to be interesting, like. We're in a situation now where Hamilton Hamilton went to last grey cup, right? Yep. Against Winnipeg. And Hamilton is on the, on the verge of like going on the road. If they lose and Montreal happens to win, or if they tie in Montreux hub. This is when Hamilton is the last east seat in the playoffs. It's gonna be interesting to see what happens there. So we'll know by tomorrow four 30. Well, not four 30, but after the four 30 game. Potentially what's up for grabs on Saturday. Cause if Montreal loses on. Friday. There's really that Hamilton game doesn't matter. Yeah. It doesn't matter. Yeah. So listen to the podcast. And then stop it, staff. That's why. I'm glad that we had the problem when Stephanie USFL said this week. Cause it is kind of a wonky week for that and like prognosticating too much, whatever. Definitely, definitely a surprise. Scroll the stuff up. Yeah. So our Kells, they were officially announced as Greg of halftime show. We talked about that. I still think it should be Jeffery really Olsen. I watch her made up. I'll be doing a copyright strike for that one. They're going to be the halftime show. People are really excited and they sing that Ty cats is humming song. They've also announced a Josh friend of the show has messaged me a lot about the events that are happening in Hamilton. They're not all, you know, it's maybe like 8% of what they normally do. I have put us in for reservations for all the ones that I think we are good for. If we get our media passes, we will be in for all of them. I especially want to be there for the Randy Ambrozy state of the league, because they're going to be taking questions from the audience. I think we might have some good questions. Also, they're going to unveil the gray cup trophy, which has either my name or, or who he, who we don't speak of anymore. His name. Bye. Could it have one of our names on there. Interesting stuff, all this stuff going on. Spirit of Edmonton breakfast, like it looks like a really fun week there. And thanks to Josh for. [Unknown] and, you know, Josh, Josh has also really positive person. Like sometimes we're talking to DMS about. People we won't mention, and he's always been uplifting. He's like, you have to realize what you guys are doing, you know? One person doesn't speak for 19,000 people. Okay. People are just fine with you guys. So I like hearing from Josh he's he's a great, he's a great dude to talk to you whenever you're feeling kind of like frustrated about the lack of lack of love from the CFL people up north. I could just be like, Kizzy they send out this thing and it's kind of like when we go to WrestleMania weekend and they give you the list of like, what's all happening, you're like, well, do we need to go to access six days? Yeah, do we need to do. Bianca do we need to do that? But, you know, so it's good to know, like, I mean maybe the CFL war it's like is that worthwhile, but I do think that Ambrozy, I think, and, and either way we're going to be getting coverage of this. I just hope that we get our, I want to be Wayne's world. I want to go in, I already have my tweet. I will. It will be the last thing I mentioned, his name. If we get approved for the gray cup, I'm going to tweet out that I am going to crop desks, the media room at the grey cup and blame Mirage for it. I already have the tweet ready in my head. If we get our media credentials. Solid solid stuff. So moving on. New BC lions owner, Amar Domin. Domin wants to evaluate everything in place with organization. Including the arrangement. Arrangements with BC plates. Huh. Interesting. This is interesting because this isn't brought up before, that was an expensive stadium to build. Right. They have a lot of stuff, but it's one of those things, same with Toronto, right? Hey, we got this beautiful stadium, downtown Toronto, you know, downtown Vancouver, but yet I have a lot of the people that are watching these games don't live. Downtown Vancouver. Like they live out in the suburbs. You're like, I'm not going to drive the BC place on a Friday night to go like the game tomorrow nights at like seven. I'm going to drive the BC place at seven o'clock to go watch a game. Right. So I, are they going to rework that they said here, or they're going to try to figure out different ways for parking and you. You know, Controlling through the, in beverage and stuff like that. But there's been talks about building a new stadium in the outskirts, but that would have to be like fully funded by Domin because there's a lot of money tied to BBC place. I mean, maybe Domin has the money to do it. BC places. Like, I mean, I don't, I don't buy this narrative to be honest with you because. I know I'll pull it up. I want, I want to know how much. I will say there is a lot made for w when it comes to why attendance is down. And a lot of CFL markets, a lot of it is made for where the stadiums are, where traffic is, but yet, then you look at like the Seahawks in downtown Seattle. They get people from Vancouver coming down. I just, it's one of those. I do think a lot of it can be solved by a compelling product and, you know, blaming. You know, people in the outskirts. I think if it was a hot product, they wanted to CBC, they would come in. I just don't buy that all the time. While people are on vacation in the summer, when they get done with the crops, the Watson Roughrider games, I just don't always buy that to me. It seems like a little bit of a stretch sometimes. I mean, but here's what we're looking at too. He's probably looking at things in a small window that he's been owning with team. Like in this small window, we haven't had great fans show up at BC place. Well, dude, you have to point out the fact that you've also still been in the throat of a global pandemic, too. That also has to be taken into consideration. I mean, look at the, I'm looking at the MLS. Attendance. You know, for the year. And. Only three games. We're counted. For attendance in Vancouver and they average 10,000 fans per game. And that could be because of COVID limitations and stuff like that. But, so I would just advise them, maybe give it another year with BC place to see if the attendance kicks back up. I mean, it's going to, it's going to be hard to kick back up and draw interest that you're not playing in the playoffs. Don't get me wrong. But it's going to be interesting to see. Well, he can't even do that because Vancouver is like one of the lower seeds in MLS. So they will be playing at home. No matter what happens, you can't really gauge. An MLS. Play off. Appearance for Vancouver Whitecaps because they're not going to be at a BC place. So I would just advise Domin to give it another year. Let's see what. Happens with your attendance when the restrictions lift up, is there. Or is there a public transit that goes to BC place? It's always easy. Same with Toronto, even Josh is talking about that. You know, he lives out of the town, people coming into town. Cause again, you know, the CFL is, you know, is the suburb league, it's the Prairie league. And then you have these stadiums in the downtown areas. It's just hard for the people. I will tell you. So. Whereas at Nathan, work's going to be the QB this Friday. They're also putting Mr. Bailey. Into the, you know, their, their wall of fame, right. Kind of the ring of honor, whatever ABC place this game would be. See Edmonton on Friday. Good to have like six people in it. Like Krista, my friends on Twitter, like she's a diehard BC. I said, I, I don't know who's going to this game Friday. Like BC's out Edmonton. No one cares. This is it. You know, that Edmonton played on Tuesday because of the reschedule because of the big outbreak earlier this year, like, I mean, there might be more players on the field than there are fans in the stands. This, this I'm I'm scared for Friday. Was Christina, one of the people that picked a Hamilton over Toronto last week. I, what do you mean. You said your friend, Christina. No at Krista, Krista, my friend, Chris. Chris has it, because I said anyway, We'll see. I don't mind. You got to make some ways. I've got to make some movements with this. I would think partnering with an American CFL blog asset for most of the BC lions would also be a good way to. Not Americas. Congratulations is that Collaros. Zack as wife had their second child this week, he had missed practice. So there was a lot of concern, like put him in bubble wrap because her memory was that Clarence is a little injury prone. They're getting ready to, you know, they're hosting the west vitals. But no all is well, they had a second baby and a CS. Congratulations is Zach in his life. Definitely. Ref swears during the rough rider game, he was fine, but he won't miss time. Come on. Yeah, I'm going to play this clip now, Paul, now I will warn everyone. There is, there is an F-bomb in this, but Paul, you need to hear this. Th this is, and I want to make sure my settings. Yeah, this. This is great. And then we're going to talk about it. This is fantastic. My screen is going flack and I have it here. Where is it? Did I not copy the right. On no on no standby. W. With fanfare. I got to find it. All right, I'm going to vamp up the next story here. Apparently. The CFL has unveiled their 2021 team award winners. Running down real quick. BC lions player of the year is lucky Whitehead of the stamps. Khadim carry from the U of a. Tucson boy went to canyon Del. The Laurel congrats to Khadim James Wilder Jr. For the Elks player of the year. Cody for Gerardo for the rough riders, even though he's got a soft skin. One of the blue bombers. Zack Collaros we also got somone Lawrence from the Hamilton tiger guts was a player of the year. And McCloud Bethel Thompson for the Toronto Argonauts Davante Deadman for the Ottawa red blacks and Williams. Stand back. For the Mon Montreal elements. I got it. Here's the thing. And now I want to talk about this. I want you to see if the ref should have been fine for this, where, and this is ITV. So this is coming out of the half. People were late coming out to the field because CFL is at professionals fourthly. And so people were late coming out to the field and said they weren't ready for the kickoff. And so they had to call a time out before the kickoff of the second now, which is this remarkable anyway. Specifically to get. They weren't ready. Right. Cause they all came out yet with like the kickoff they'll come out second half, and then they didn't have enough players on the field to do the kickoff. So I can imagine. People were very upset that the RAF should have been, you know, more unbiased, but also like F them get your flyers out on the field. Like, let's go. You're in playoff contention here, Roughriders. Hmm. Interesting. Anyway. And he called it a mistake. They Dickinson and apologize for them. He called her that mistake, not having the players out in the field, that it was embarrassing. The rap was fine. He won't miss time. So that's not good. Cool stuff. Very funny. Very funny. We've talked about this before. The NFL has floated the idea. Of Toronto expansion of the owners meeting those a report. I buy it. They've got it. They've got to do right by St. Louis. So it's maybe time to consider. Expanding a little bit more here. Yeah, Naylor had a couple of tweets here. I just talking about the difference between the NFL and the CFL, where the NFL requires private individuals to own the teams. A lot of the CFL teams, you know, Roger Bell MLSE so, you know, finding potentially I guess, Presumably local Canadians to own, to own a franchise like that. Right. That's not true. Look at look at the agreement of hackers. Well, that's the one exception. But, I mean, there's ownership groups that exist, like groups of people that buy, you know, There's minority owners. There's majority owners in all of these. All teams and you have to form it, LLC. To protect the entity. So technically. It is a corporation. Oh, yeah. You've tweeted nave. I mean, I don't doubt you either. I've just, Dave was tweeting this out, trying to bring up the challenge is that it would cost 1.8 billion Canadian. T to build like a new stadium, similar to the one that's proposed in Buffalo. Just talking about, you know, it would be about a $7.5 billion venture. And that was if they were starting right now, you're just talking about trying to, I guess, paint the picture of like the uphill hurdle. It would be the actually like. Start a whole new team, like bring it to Canada. I think it's a big monumental task. I think it is too, but I think. It would definitely pay off in the long run because I'm going to be honest. Like if, if people complain about the attendance at the Argonauts game, And I honestly believe that if you had an NFL team, you would have. You would have. You know, you'd have more people there. Yeah, I don't, I think NFL wants to add. I Toronto wants NFL or bust. I think that that is, they view themselves. I've had many immediate person on the show drawn. And the views themselves as high market, they want to have the Raptors. They want you to have the NFL. They want you to have the major sports there. And the Toronto Argonauts could not have been more successful than they were this year so far. And they have 6,000 people at their game on. Granted it was a Tuesday, but there was like 6,700 people there again. So. I don't like the cracking play Tuesday in Seattle. Cracking head. A lot of people there, it was a Tuesday. I mean the Tuesday thing is an excuse when the games are like, I know that was a nothing game. Like I get that, but. Cracking got destroyed by the Blackhawks on Tuesday. I mean, they came back at the end, but like that was sold out. That was a Tuesday that was. I mean, because outside of what the Sonics fans were doing, when the Sonics got bought and then subsequently moved. Seattle people show up for their teams. Like. Mariners. What are the, what's the Mariners attendance for last year? I had to be good because they were actually good toward the end. They. Yeah. So, I mean, Seattle. Seattle. Fans. Show out for the team. They do. Do you want me to go into XFL? Safra? Do we want to take a break? Let's go next. It's all stuff. So, so here's a couple of things. So I want to say congratulations to Taylor, Hideki Taylor high, and he beat Tom Brady this week. Tom Brady. Did you see, he had this big, a pissy pants press conference where he walked off after about a minute and a half. I'm Brady, but you wouldn't even answer questions. I'm like, Tom, like you got, you know, Taylor was, was 26 for 30 to join a 56 yards, you know, 80% completion. T one TD. Yeah, either. And that Taylor looked really good. He was kind of, it's just undersold. I think that, that how impressive that is like the Washington football team. I know it was a big upset, but they beat the super bowl champs coming off a bi-week Brady's like 14 and two or whatever it is coming off a bi-week like they did it. So. And the, and the Washington football team gave Tom Brady and Tampa bay. Their hardest tests last year in the playoffs. Hi, Nikki's for real. And people need to start paying attention. I saw a tweet tonight. Cause I'm again, I'm part of the Washington football team, social media. I see a lot of them. They're like, y'all act like, hi, Nikki's paid $150 million a year. Like or whatever. He's on 150 million or Kaiser. He's getting pay like 20 bucks a game, like, let's see. Let's cut him a little bit of slack and he's not on this major. I think he's 4 million a year, like 3.8 or whatever. And I mean, he's. It's a great value for them because they're getting this good quarterback. So. I want to rant a little bit about this PJ Walker thing. With cam Newton, we talked to us week, you know, he was going to get his shot. Did you see how, when cam Newton got his big I'm back and screaming and all that? PJ Walker. So they go, oh, cam, you got two touchdowns on eight plays that he was in the game. The cam was in the game for eight snaps. Who drove the ball. The other 80 yards down the field, every one of those times, I'm so frustrated by NFL media. I watch good morning football every day. They're like, oh yeah. You know, cam came out at two touchdowns off two runs. PJ Walker was the one that drove the ball down the field and got them in position to score. They wouldn't have been at the 10 yard line. They have camera in at the end of the PJ Walker. Hadn't have got it down for, I'm just, I'm frustrated. I shouldn't surprise this by covering these leagues, but the lack of respect that they get and they cam almost, if you watch that play where he did that, I'm back. He almost fumbled the snap when they gave it to him, he picked the ball up, you know, he kind of bumbled it and then, you know, kind of belabored. Only ran it in and they go look at all cams back. PJ was the one that got the ball down the field. I don't like that. I mean, I think, I think that's. There's something definitely to be said about. The PJ thing. I think there's also something to be said. Let me look what's happening near jets. They're starting unvaccinated, Joe Flacco this week. Over my way. Over Mike White Mike Fen light. And if, and if Mike White's not available to go. There's another quarterback. That's there. Josh Johnson. What are we doing? You think they should start? Josh ever drove? I think they should start. I didn't even think about. Since the Aaron Rogers thing happened, they need to start Josh Johnson to send a message and be like, look, this unvaccinated crap has got to end. Let me think about that. Aaron Rogers put a black eye on the leak and now you have reports coming out. That Antonio brown forged a COVID car. That's awesome. But. You're going to put on a vaccinated player. Admitted. Of unvaccinated player. In a quarterback. In the number one media market in the country. And you're going to put him in instead of going with Josh Johnson. Who probably will win you the game. Well, and they're fighting like the dolphins, right? I mean, I know, but it's, it's the point is, is just like, It's frustrating. To no end, because you have to like, The league has got. Appearances she's with this COVID thing after Aaron Rogers, after AB, and now you're going to try out Joe Flacco as a starter. It's just doesn't make sense. They need to, like, I think that they need to like, Stamp down on this. And make this not happen. This is just. And the rationale for Joe Flacco is like, well, he's better prepared against the dolphins. The dolphins are two and eight. That's not a breakdown. Like last time Joe Flacco started a game. You play last year. He played last year, a couple of games, but like, I just, anyway, I don't want to get into the V like debate. It just, it makes me mad that cam got all this kiddos this week. We're still talking about cam and I want cam to come out this week and get blown up against the Washington football team. I made a fool up because he was eight, you know, he had eight plays last game, and then you're going to hear, oh, he's ready to start, you know? Matt rural. I have no respect from that rule anymore. When he came out, he's like, oh yeah, we feel like cams. Another guy go. Oh, yeah. PJ Walker that won you a game last year. That when you, the game yesterday, the got your ball 90 yards down the field. That's crazy to me. No respect from that role. I. I completely agree with your take on PJ. Like PJ deserves his flowers, deserves nurses, respect. And he's not getting it. And it's and it's, and it's irritating for us that have supported PJ supported people. I PJ and Josh and Taylor. That feel these, these quarterbacks aren't getting the respect because. You know, They're stopped gaps. Yep. I don't. Look, stop looking at a tailor. Heineken is a stop gap. First and foremost. And when you do that. Maybe we can stop looking at PJ Walker. As a stop. As, as someone that's better than a stop yet, but we can start doing that. Maybe we can start considering Josh Johnson. A quality backup quarterback for any NFL franchise. There's no reason he should be on the practice squad right now. He's good. He's better than two. I want to knock out this and I do cause I want to get an XFL debate before we get out of here. Cleveland Indians are becoming the, the Cleveland guardians tomorrow. Rip XFL guardians. I have to imagine. Did you delete my tweet? Oh, did I know? I thought I put that in there. The south one. Oh, there, there this, sorry. Yeah. Is that the one? Okay. No. I low key, wanted to get a Guardian's Jersey with a pebble laid on the back. You've got to match my. Yeah, I actual wait, is this one? What is this tweet? Do I need to look to-do master. He, he had something really solid today. Yeah on Twitter. He said, I still can't get over how the new England Patriots just straight up stole the uniforms. They need our guardians. What's a different color. So it's, it's black and gray as a Patriot through, but it's very similar. It. So I found that was the one I hadn't moved there before about the premier league deal. That's okay. Okay. So I want to have this baby before we go. And then we'll do our voicemails. So Mike Mitchell had a big article this week. We were going to talk about the XFL is being built different in 2023. I had my whole built different girl with the egg and all of that. And then I thought that USFL. I was pre. Probably better. I have a great thumbnail about. [Unknown] screaming. I think I hear you. Yeah. I'm starting to think that I'm back with the USFL. I was free. I was pretty proud about that. So Mike did a big article targeted about. Not to expect wholesale team name changes in location changes. I don't know. I think the guardians are gone. I had a story earlier, we deleted that the NSF L now owns not only the Orlando renegades, but they own the trademark to the renegades as well. I understand that the Dallas renegades existed last year, I could see the XFL wanting to move away from that. Right. And maybe if they're moving away from Dallas to San Antonio or maybe San Diego or whatever, I get, see them dropping that. But, but I think that, you know, obviously the roughnecks logo gone, the guardians. Do you think there's any way to keep the XFL guardians in New York with the Cleveland guardians? No, but they'll, they'll keep them in New York. But maybe move the venue. Maybe make it to put it in a red bull arena. And I think it would be a great, like when we went, saw DC at Audi field Audi field. And he felt it was a great venue for, for football in the sense like, okay, it's smaller, more intimate. And it was great for that league. So putting an XFL team at MetLife is like, It's too big. So put it rebel stadium and name it. Something else. And you're good to go. I, yeah, there's hard to hear. Yeah. The moving away from Los Angeles campus, the other one, moving it to Orlando. We talked about this before. The one that this has to be, I wanted to ask. Cause Mike Mitchell seems pretty sure we had that Easter egg a couple of weeks ago about the NFL logo on that paperwork with Danny. Right. We were like, Are they really partnering? Mike really feels strongly about this NFL connection. And this is what I wanted to say, because forever I've always believed. The NFL doesn't need a development system because they have college football. On Mark's podcast this week. Mark was talking obviously about this Mike Mitchell thing. And you think about how many players don't peak until years after college. Right. And think of how many players this year say for Mac Jones tonight? That when I turned it off was killing the Falcons. But, you know, Trevor Lawrence, Zach Wilson. Trey Lance. Right? Justin Fields. If there was an XFL connected to the NFL or USFL, whatever. But to give those players a couple more years, I don't think it's that crazy of an idea for one of these leagues to really be. I never thought that the NFL needed that. So this week when mark and I'll give mark credit for making me think about that. I mean, if you, if you're looking at it like a player that could have benefited from a. A developmental league. Look, no further than drew breeds. He spent the first four years of his, it was, you know, career in San Diego. Didn't do squat. They, they were like, we're going to draft. We're going to draft this quarterback. They drafted Eli. Eli became a b***h. Pardon my French. He wanted to Sue the NFL, which, you know, B***h move. And then, so they were like, w. San Diego is never going to take eat. They were never going to keep Eli. They just want to mess with it a little bit. They want to try them a little bit. They went ahead and drafted Philip Rivers who did great things while he was in San Diego. Can't hate on that at all. He like. He blew his ACL out and play the AFC championship. Phil Berbers is a warrior. So it would have helped a guy like drew Brees to have a developmental league go in there for three years. Come out. And you're looking at a guy after, you know, You're five is when drew Brees turned on, like all of a sudden drew bees became drew Brees in your five. So he would be one year away from that if he were in a developmental system. So I do like the idea of it. Especially with all his name, image, and likeness, you know, selling going on with college athletes. That's also another idea, like. Maybe I don't, maybe I'm good enough to go now. Who knows. I just, you know, even look at like Ryan Tannehill with the Titans, right? Like really coming into his, you know, whatever now. And, you know, Derrick Henry goes down, but you know, dry candy hill is a much better quarterback than he was three or four years ago. Obviously Kurt Warner is the, you know, the famous example and they ran the leaks and all that stuff. But I just, I I've always thought the CFL or the NFL doesn't need any development. But now, like what. What gets that Wilson right now, it's like, we're throwing them out to the walls in the jackets, you know, he's he gets smoked now. He's hurt. I think if he could have just gone and like just crushed everything like PJ Walker just crushed everything in the accent, foul for a year or two. And, you know, he, who we will not talk, I would say, well, see, you're you're painting. The XFL is, you know, the place to go. You know, it's the place to see the guys for the guys. But yeah, I mean, the NFL is drawn 20 million a week. If you get 1 million a week to watch the XFL to see these guys, I mean, I think that's fine. I think for the money that's involved in these leagues, I don't know. I think it's great too, because if you have a player that you've drafted and you're sending them to the XFL to get developed, All of a sudden, someone's watching, someone's watching that footage of teams watching that footage and they need a quarterback. They need a running back. And you, you have. Let's say you are, who is the, who is the leading. A rushing leader. Let's say you are well, Derrick Henry right now, probably. It's actually, it's actually Jonathan Taylor now. He's a beast. Well, now it gets there. Yeah, Jonathan Taylor, let's say, you know, you're the cults, you know, Jonathan Taylor. But you happen to get a great running back in the draft. And he's not going to be your third down back. You already have someone who's the third down, back. You can send him developmental, have him play in the XFL. All of a sudden San Diego needs a running back. They're seeing tape on the guy you've drafted. They'd like to have him. There you go. Now you have more to play with in terms of the trading. Every. Every every league has a developmental system. Except the NFL. Baseball. Basketball. They have the, the G league. You're talking, you know, hockey has the AHL video soccer has like for the Sounders, they have, you know, The Tacoma defiance now, I think it is the Sounders to became Tacoma. Anyway, the point is, is like, Every leak has developmental. So why not the NFL? I'm not that I'm not opposed to it. I'm really not. Especially after it. Just thinking about how many quality quarterbacks right now. I mean, I know not to just focus on that position anyway. I thought that was interesting. Mike's pretty sold that this is kind of, especially with some of the back and forth that you got to have a lot of NFL network and Mark Ross and all these people with the XFL that this connection is not going away. Yeah. I mean, you know, if you're talking like, There's so much money that th that. That could be subsidized in the NFL from the NFL to the XFL. And, you know, I think it's a winning situation. If they, if they go that route, I like the idea. Yeah. [Unknown] I know you, haven't thinking about saying in the voicemails. The family sports group, obviously the rubber thing. They are buying the Pittsburgh penguins. That's. I mean, we're not ending up on gas, but that seems like a pretty big maximalist or I'm actually very excited about that. That the penguins have like over 3 million followers on every social media. They're very hip. Any thoughts about that quick? I mean. Everything, everything. Fenway sports management group is doing it revolves around the analytics. So maybe they're looking to get the analytics and the hockey a little bit. I don't know how you do that, but. Maybe they're looking to do that. Journey. It sounds like journey with FCF is not going to be returning. I tweeted this week. I said FCF is finally discovering what it's like to not be the only alternate football league in town. You're going to be competing. We have a voicemail here coming up about that will. And then you want to talk about it yet. FCF, the league that is complaint selling NFTs is making fun of the green bay Packers stock sales. And you said you want to talk about this? Oh, because they're clearly I saw the tweet and they're clearly referencing people that are saying that their sales, their teams are fake. What's their problems with people getting. Documentation that said they, they own teams when there's some kind of problem with their ownership. Structure people said they're going to get paid and they were going to own things and we're gonna get money. Then Patrick DS, come on this flipping podcast and say people that invested in these teams, we're going to be making a profit. Did he not say that? He said at some point down the line, I mean, there was never any timeline about that, but yeah, currently right now, I would say. You're I would argue right now that you're stocking owning green bay Packers with a certificate on your wallet is about the same as owning. Yeah. Maybe you get an extra vote online in a group, but I would say they're similar right now. It's not, it's not the same thing. It's an NFL team. And the group has been doing this for years. Yeah, it's just paper. I mean, it literally is just like, you can't do any, I mean, I get it, it just kind of funny. It is it's ceremonial in nature, but Packers fans are rabid like that. Where they have a name brand. That is synonymous with like diehard football fans. Cause ain't crap to do in green bay. But go to a football game. So Packers fans are very rabid fan base. This makes sense. It's symbolic. Yes, but it makes sense in terms of like, They actually have votes on things. They, they actually contribute. What, what ownership, what owner. Actually had the ability to contribute. Yes. Richard Sherman's on, on the first game, complaining about how the rules are changing on the fly. Like shut up, Patrick. Shut up. We don't know what you're doing. I'm sorry. I'm not going to, I'm not going to sugar coat this anymore. This stupid league. It's stupid. It's dumb. It's ridiculous. And all they can do is talk s**t about everybody else, as opposed to worrying about their own product. They said, they're going to put two different seasons in a year. Guess what? They didn't do that. Stop worrying about what other people are doing, Patrick. Stop talking trash when you're doing commentary, Patrick. Focus on your own crap. Get this thing to where people aren't questioning the legitimacy, they aren't questioning anything about your league, how shady it looks because it looks shady. Worry about making your product legitimate and stop knocking things that have been around for years. Just to make yourself feel better. Okay. I said it better myself. We have two voicemails this week. Speakpipe.com/mark. We actually have three, but Richard, you. You get one. Yeah, but we have, so speakpipe.com/mark Hass. If you want to leave a voicemail, this is from Jack Stevens. Remember Jack. One of our oldest listeners is. This is from Jack. You're going to get the hood that's when then we have one more from Richard. Oh, yes. My name is Jack. Oh, I was just wondering. What are you guys just dots on the expansions teams for the XFL 2020 through season. Where do you think they're going to be? And do you think do an and keep some of the cities or put some teams in new cities? Thank you. Big fan. Big fan. Like Jack Stephens. I think, I think LA is moving to San Diego. I think that's guaranteed. I'm sorry. I do think it's going to happen. If it doesn't, I'll be surprised, but if it does then, you know, If it does then. Roll back the tape. You know, St. Louis is. Is a guaranteed place. They're going to, they're going to play. The fields aren't it's still there. So they're still gonna play. They're still going to play in St. Louis. I think, I think. You're looking at like a, I think a market like Seattle is going to keep the dragons. Assuming they're going to calm the dragons. They might not call them the dragons after all. I think. The four shore ones are going to be Seattle. They're going to be St. Louis. After that I think everything's up in the air. And I don't think there's an expansion. I think there's, there's plenty of teams right now. I don't see an expansion happening now. But give it three, five years. You might get another four teams limits. Listener, Seth. It feels 12. That's a, that's the Mo model for profitability. You know, having a longer season and all that stuff, we'll see, you know, Brian's doing a, with the spring league and all that stuff, but yeah, moving to LA and move in Tampa. This has been Richard. That's a good one. And then we'll get out of here. Hey, mark. This is Richard Bernard, Twitter rich. Oh, for real. I got one question. Cause you guys today. It's a fail at a USFL, both trying to start it. Did you play it for this? Fan control Lee. We jumped ship to go. [Unknown] yes. Are they going to get. Smallest school HBC U you. You know, division two schools. Besides just division one or. Or you think that you're going to try to get practice squad? Only, you know, I'm just trying to figure out, maybe you can help me with this. Cause I really hold. Both legal work. That's one thing I will say. I don't want to see no lead Chrome. I won't say mostly work. And do you think that. It says it's a field, we'll get it contract with Disney, which would be cool for them. And then it'd be on ABC. ESPN. Just a question though, today. Thanks. I mean, I think it's a possibility first and foremost. There's a lot of division one players that are really good that aren't getting the, that aren't Josh Johnson. Perfect example of someone that should be playing football. This weekend. Yup. There's a lot of good players that are still division one athletes. That aren't playing in the NFL. A lot of great players. Ryan Scott, we were just hired about him this week as the U. I mean, Brian, Scott's literally sitting at home lifting. He's doing cool videos, lifting weights and stuff, but Brian was, Scott should be playing football right now. I mean, I mean, come on. There's there's plenty of quality players inside division one. Yeah. There's some great. Division one AA. Players. I still believe if I'm not mistaken. By Southern Utah Thunderbirds have sent. Their quarterback a few years ago. He's the backup in San Diego right now, sir. Still great players. At every level of college football to be picked from and have some quality talent on the field. Another thing that people need to pay attention to is this. HBCU thing, the historically black colleges and universities. These colleges in light of everything that's going on right now, this is not a political statement, but in light of everything that's going on right now, a lot of top tier athletes are picking HBC use because of the. Because of what it represents right now in the current climate we're in, that's not political, it's just what's happening. So you're going to see a lot of great talent come through like Grambling and Southern and these schools that you don't really pay attention to. And that may be NFL Scouts are paying attention to either. I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see him. I completely agree with him. I don't want to either, either lead to crumble. I'm concerned, but I don't want you to leave the crumble. Yeah. I think the Disney thing is cool. I think the streaming, but I think I said before I FCF is in a world of hurt when they will discover when you're a ball exists. Now arena balls back us have Ellis here. CFL is getting ready for another season. Whether it's out level is of quality players that they have to draft. So. That's it. That's all I got. And I'm typing a response to our boys over at FCF right now. Because I'm tired of this crap. Okay. We want to thank everybody for listening to the Marquez, watching the Mark House on YouTube. If you've done that. Remember to subscribe and rate us, please. Share the podcast, please share with your friends that might be interested in. Everything else. That might not be NFL. We still talk a little bit about NFL here, but other things like, you know, Canadian football league, you know? I'm not going to say where the premiere. CFL podcast in America. Read might say that, but I'm not going to say that. Because it was be taken out of context anyway. So. Just share the, share the podcast app. Subscribe. Give us a review. By some merge. Support your boys. Supports. If he might. Do you see my, the extra shower they ask? Pretty proud of that. The circuit 1999 attitude era. I love it. Yeah. Anyway. It looked like you looked like X. I just don't do any pills. Ah, so. Listening to the markets this week. To the next week. Reed's got a very big. Very vaguely. I feel pretty good about, I think you guys are going to be good. You guys are gonna like it. You know, He's excited about. If he's excited about it. I'm excited about too. Thanks for listening. And we'll see her next week. This year edible hit. Yeah. A little bit starting to go in now. Yeah, we'll get the promo will get out there. USFL lead. This week on the mark cast, the USFL is in business. But there's a different owner. We're going to break down what this means for former owner Brian Woods. Who's still on the team. Yeah. We have an exciting interview with prolific USFL author, Jeff Pearlman, Jeff, Jeff has some high takes. I'm excited. We break down all the big announcements from Fox sports, the press release all the details. You need to know some of the stuff we already knew. Some of the stuff we know that they haven't announced yet, but we'll kind of get to all that. Sorry. You're getting f*****g my thoughts. Do a CFL and then yeah. We didn't forget about the CFL. We're in the middle of playoff positioning. There's only one. Couple of real meaningful games here this weekend. Hamilton playing, you know, it was an Ottawa. And then, or is it Montreal playing Ottawa? Montreal is playing Ottawa. Hamilton's playing. Did that again? Sorry. Also we're in the middle of playoff positioning, just a couple of teams figuring out where they're going to go. It's either going to be Hamilton hosting Montreal or Montreal, hosting Hamilton, depending on how everything shakes out this weekend. With those games, we'll discuss that we'll discuss what's happening grey cup weekend. It's coming up really soon. We're only a few weeks away. Yeah, we have a couple of great CFL interviews. We have Dave Dawson with sports spectrum. We have Aaron, Carl and neck with TSN edge and TSN 10 50 Toronto. We do a little CFL fantasy, talk a little C two 18 sports betting, kind of all that stuff. And then Paul, I'm really happy. I feel like we had a really wholehearted debate about the XFL. At the NFL about D does the XFL needed development system with the NFL talking about a partnership that way. And then I think we got heated about a lot of stuff, but this was, I think the longest we've recorded. Non-interview in a long time. That's right. Like we w when we first started the podcast about our lawn without interviews, and now we got to interviews and we went long today because we're really bashing about a lot of stuff. We hope you'll tune in. Yup. Okay. Well, let me hit this and we'll get going here. Yeah, I mean, this, this is, I mean, we just couldn't b******t it during the summer with whatever, but this actually worked out a lot better with everything coming out. So. Well, I'm excited today. This has been months in the making. I'm not quite as prolific as the rich eyes and show that I saw your video interview on getting ready for this, but thank you. Welcome to the mark Hass. Jeff Perlman. How are you doing? I am well, and I am, I apologize. I just had a book. I actually just handed in a couple of days ago. So I was, when you're in the tunnel of the dark deep tunnel, you always worry that you sound like an a*****e because I don't like telling people like. I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it. Cause I'm, I feel like when you're a journalist and your job is soliciting interviews. It's not really core to not do interviews. You know, if you want to talk to you, I was just living in the hell of book deadline. So I do apologize. That's a good bed. So the books and the book is sent to off. How are we feeling about that? Terrible. I always feel terrible. I'm always like this Sox is the worst. I asked my wife to read it. She'll say it's good. And I was saying, no, you're just being nice. It's socks. And then someone gives you a compliment because we're all just like. I think most writers tend to be, I don't know, tend to be a little bit, we're very thin skinned. And you'll be like this sucks and someone will say, it's really good. And you'll be like, oh, really? It's really good. So I don't know. It's fine. Well, this, this worked out good because like I said, we, we could've just had you on during the summer kind of speculating about whatever, but now, you know, we have a new. USFL coming kind of Fox sports and all that. I guess first off, how did you get involved at, you know, Lots of excitement with you coming on with the book that you wrote from the previous XFL football for a buck that you know, the crazy rise and crazier demise of the USFL. How did you get involved in all that to begin with? Well, I grew up. I'm older than you. Clearly. I grew up in a small town, Mahopac, New York, and. When the USFL came along, I remember seeing the cover of the. Sports illustrated. It was a cover of sports illustrated, went to the mail pack library. Because my family would not get a SSI subscription because it was very expensive. I remember seeing Herschel Walker on the cover. And it said hitting pay dirt entertainment in New Jersey generals uniform, it was a greatest thing ever. And I just fell in love with the USFL. And that love the us about like, love, love, love the new league, loved everything. The logo. Players at the helmets, all that stuff. And when I was a senior in high school for my AP English class in Mahopac, New York. We had to write a senior thesis of 20 pages that I pitched the downfall of the USFL. My teacher was definitely not feeling the downfall of the U S of Elvis. I was like, no, I want to do it. And I wrote 40 pages on the downfall of the us Val. At 17 or 18 years old. I'm sure it sucked. But I always had that in my head. I just always had that in my head. I was at the U S of L my head and I would, I was. The kind of nerd who would watch. Old us Val games on YouTube and just kind of fell in love with it. And so years later, when I started writing books, You S have Albrook was always in my head for years. It was always in my head. And I finally pitched it. Got rejected. It's again, was able to write it and it was kind of my dream book and a lot of ways. And I mean, obviously the research and everything that you had to do, kind of going back and the interviews and everything. I mean, talk about, I want to, you know, obviously transition to all this new step, but all the work in, in insights that you had to get to be able to do it as thoroughly as you did. That's the fun of it all. The fun. Isn't the writing to me, the writing is hard. The fun is. You have one year where you can just call everyone for the old us about. You just got to track these people down. And for a lot of these guys, the old us of bell. It's like talking to someone about their great days in a fraternity in college. You know, like, Hey, can I talk to you about your time in whatever, something alpha? At the university of Florida in 1990. Oh, Kenya. Yeah, man, of course he can. What. And that was us of, out to these guys. So it was. I interviewed hundreds and hundreds of people. And I don't think anyone. Felt conflicted about talking about that experience. It was just a joyful experience for them. Oh, let's go. And I mean, that's, we do a lot of CFL coverage here too now. And that's the joy with that too, is people that are really passionate about it. Right. Wants to share and want to talk about it. You know, obviously, you know, the, the downfall on all that. It's so funny to me, how. Not, it's not the same. Now we're coming back with it. It feels weird. This USFL coming back now, obviously we had the, you know, the Trump of it all and, and the, the generals and kind of all that stuff. Are you pretty up to speed with this new Fox owned now that we know it's actually Fox owned USFL that we'll be launching here in April. I mean, I probably read the same things you have and I have a lot of people are saying, what do you think about this? What do you think about this? So I get asked about it. A fair amount. And. Just to be honest, like. I think what it has in common with the audio's Val is they're calling it the USFL and they'll have a few team names and that's about it. And I'm actually. How old are you? 35. Oh, you're 35. So you don't have like super strong memories of the USFL or any memories of the us as far as, at the time. I'm a little surprised. I don't totally get. Why they're calling. I'm not against it. I don't totally get it. Cause it's not like. Like when I say nobody wanted a USFL book until I wrote it. Like nobody in publishing was like, that's a, Gretz great. That's going to sell because not that many people cared. So I'm a little surprised. That they're tying themselves to the name and the team names. It was, I'm not sure there's that great of a nostalgia to it. Do you know what I mean? It's a little confusing to me. I wouldn't a hundred percent agree. So we had a back, I'm trying to do the timeline back in like April kind of whenever this came out. Cause. We were following the spring league before that's Brian Woods is, you know, alternate football in a bubble system, whatever, you know, we Brian's been on the show. We had that, you know, we followed, they had the big outbreak in San Antonio. They had to cancel the season. So when they came out and they announced this immediately, there was all this, you know, who owns the trademarks, what's going on? Why are they doing that? Steve Earhart came out. I'm sure you've talked with him. He came on our show and said, you know, no one ever talked with us. And that to me was the weirdest thing from the get go is why would you it's the same? We cover the XFL. Why would you. Tie yourself to this new entity, you know, your new entity tie it to this old name, like Dwayne and Danny with the XFL, with a USFL, but then not even reach out to like Steve Earhart and a lot of the former guys. And. And, you know, and girls to like get their blessings or work with it. I mean, don't you think that that's weird? Yeah, I'm telling you, I'm not. I hope I'm wrong. I got, I don't great care, but yeah, I'm more hope I'm wrong them. I don't see it happening still. I just don't. It feels like. It feels really sloppy. It just feels really sloppy, even though like, this is going to sound super dumb. Right. But I'm looking at the Fox sports press release. And it looks sloppy, like. The type of the font, the type font they use looks sloppy. The spacing looks sloppy. The plan seems sloppy. They have their bold face name is Daryl Johnson, the former cowboy. And. It just seems really sloppy. And it doesn't seem like, it seems like it almost feels like if you and I were like, we used to make a U S U U S new USFL, and you're like, that's a great idea. And I'm like, I'm going to put out a press release and you're like, do it. And I'm just going to use a Microsoft word and I'm going to put out a press release and maybe there'll be a few misspellings and I'll have commas in the wrong places. And. And people are like, oh, this is awesome. The USFL. I don't know. I hope I'm wrong. It seems like it'd be kind of a fun idea, I guess. I don't know. I don't feel that optimistic about this. Just being honest. I really don't. No. You know, when we hopped on the call, you asked, you know, I have my USFL hat and you said, where did you get back? So they knew USFL uses Printful, which is, you know, we as a mark ass, we also have merchandise. We don't sell very much. But we use the same manufacturer, right? It's just like a print on demand. Does that strike you as odd that the new USFL is using the print on demand merchandising? It's insane. Like it's like, It's almost like the U S of Val. It's like, if you were to call the U S of R right now, and you'd say. So what's your website and they would say, oh, it's www dot. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, or if you called the U S about. And you were like, where can I get a so-and-so hat? And they're like, oh, we have a, we're using a printer out of Topeka. He's really good. His name is Marie's printing shop and you can call him and he's there between nine and four, but he leaves for an hour at three to go feed his dog. And then he come. It just doesn't feel. It feels like Fox sports. Maybe it was like, oh, well, we can latch onto this and we'll add our name to it. And maybe it'll be something. And if it's not, nobody's going to care. I don't know. It feels super weird then they're like, all the games are going to be in one stadium and that feels weird. I don't get it. I just don't get it. Maybe it'll work. I don't know. Last question. W w poking holes in seven. I want to get your take because we've done a lot of other, you know, talks with reporters and stuff to fill in some of these details that they're still lacking. What do you think of that? If it being USFL to.com. Is that what it is. We don't have USFL or United States football league. It's USFL two.com. Wait is that actually the website? Oh, my God. I'm actually looking at the website. Oh, this is not good. Like, this is not good. The websites I'm looking at it right now. This is. If I, if you told I have a 15 year old Sunday and debit, if I said to EBIT, I'm going to give you five hours to make a website for the bus about, he would make a better website than this. Like that's a bad. And when I've been, I don't have the knowledge. And I've been told is so that the. Those are the players on like the banner and the heading and stuff. That's like a stock image that you can use. It's like blank, low. It's like a, it's a, a player in. You have like a white Jersey and then you can add stuff. So that's, I think it was used in the AAF. Like I I've been told that these stock images, that this guy has been used quite a bit to promote a bunch of different leagues. The gear. They have three years, you can get the hat you're wearing. The unisex hoodie, which is a pink USFL sweatshirt, and then a white kids hoodie. There's some more, you can go in there. There's like a cammo one. There's so there's four of the teams. Right now, I think it's the Mauler. They have four of the teams, you know, whatever. So. The idea a and fundamentally I get it, right. This is an we've covered this spring lake. So this is an evolution of that. We have Brian on the show last spring, before there may season. You know the idea. Last year. Okay. We have 18. They don't mean anything. Right? We have it's the jesters, the aviators. It doesn't mean anything. Well, so now if we have it be like the Seattle gestures or whatever, Then maybe people that are watching can go, okay, that's my team. Right? And then in year two or three, we can move those teams. Right. Relocate them from the bubble out because I think the idea is they do eight this year, split four, and then by year three, right? All the teams are in. But like you said, the idea of having it be the USFL trademarks with it, that is where it gets murky to me. Cause you're making people expect something that it's probably not going to be. Yeah, I can't get over this website. Like the website and it's like, the shirts are really bad and they don't even look good and like, Yeah, it's a. I'm telling you, so I'm 49. And there comes a point when you get older. And you're like, am I just being the grumpy old man who's s******g on everything or. I am a realist. And I don't want to be the grumpy old man of s******g on it. I really don't. I don't want to be the fight that resistance. I fight that every day. It's hard to look at this and look at the planning. And think. Yeah, they're really honest something. And again, the other thing. The thing that I actually struggle with, not struggle with, but that bothers me a little. I is like the USFL was actually something. And it was very unique and I know most people don't care, but I actually do care about. I wrote a book about it. I love the us about. I'm like. Jessica's a bunch of guys. Guys come along, slap on some team names, make a website. I said to someone, it'd be like, if you were like, we're gonna start a new kiss, we're going to take the rock band kiss. We're going to start a new kiss. Gene Simmons he's dead. And Paul Stanley's dead. All those guys are dead, but we're going to start the new kiss. We're going to put the same makeup on four, totally different guys, kisses back, everyone. Kisses back. And it's like, is kiss really back, like, is that actually. This is what I sound like. And I guess the clothes are the same. It's this seems weird. I don't, I don't really get the BIFAD or buy this whole thing. It doesn't mean, I think they have bad intentions. It really doesn't. I just don't get it. As someone that is obviously. You know, love this study that wrote the book on it. What is it about the original USFL? Cause we still have, you know, there's Kyle, Smith's been on the show. He runs a USFL project, right. People that are preserving the history of this, right. There's USFL, Facebook groups and other websites. I think. Have you read the Paul REITs book? I haven't yet. Great book. Just saying Paul Reese is a guy you should have on to talk about the U S about. He's a super expert in right. I think, I believe Mark Perry, our father website. I think he had him on a couple of weeks ago to talk about this, but I mean, what is it about that original USFL that, you know, we're in 20, 20, 21 here? I mean, it feels like it's. Wacko year, but they, you know, 35 years later, it's still. Kept all this [unknown]. I mean, the more in the eighties were just a weird time. Like they actually were, I lived through them. They were weird. There's a lot of cocaine. I'm not saying to me, I was just a kid. A lot of cocaine and a lot of beer and a lot of swagger. And a lot of groupies and a lot of like, There's like a dirty grimy period, but kind of cool. And. The USFL like this, the thing the USFL came along and punch the NFL on the face. You know, they really did. They came along and they were like, we're punching you in the face now. And it was like David punching Goliath. Literally they walked up to the Goliath and he punched him in the face. And fans really felt that and fans felt. Part of the U S about experience because the us Val was a big middle finger to the NFL. We're going to do things differently, by the way, you know what? You don't have any black quarterbacks. We're going to have a ton of black quarterbacks. We don't care. We're going to let them play quarterback because they should play quarterback. If they can play. And we're going to do the two point conversion because it's just more fun when you know, what we're going to do on offense is like the running shoe. And we're going to have five wide receivers and we're not gonna have any running back. It was going to do it. We're going to have coaches challenge plays. We're just going to do it in. And we're going to, oh, by the way, we're going to steal three straight Heisman trophy winners. We're going to sign them and you're not going to get them screw you. And it just like. I think people really identified with that. It was the rebel league. It was like a bad-ass league with awesome uniforms. And. And swagger. And a lot of guys who like had a grudge against the NFL. Or. And they allow players to celebrate at the end at the time. And the NFL you were getting fined for excessive, for celebration, even worse than you are now. And years ago was all about out. Talking trash and. Get in people's faces and doing core tots now dances and. P to be like 12 year old me like hot cheerleaders, you know? Little grimy things it's stupid, but like at the time, all that stuff really added up. So people had a real visceral connection to the USFL and it'd be very, very hard. Very hard. For an upstart league. To replicate that because it was something organic. Well, it's kind of like, you know, ECW when it came to like the WWE, I mean, we've tracked, you know, all of that and the Vince and everything, but, you know, it's the same idea, right? You're all offering that alternative. Do you think, you know, and I'm sure you've been asked this a million times, but you know, if it weren't for the Trump of it all moving to fall to go to had they had, I mean, was that spring niece? Was that going to be a success for the USFL? No, but they would have, it would have, it depends on how you define success. Ultimately, they probably would emerge the NFL would have absorbed. Five of those teams, six of those teams. 'Cause you got to remember, like there were. You had a team in Jacksonville at the time when there were no Jacksonville Jaguars that was drawing crazy. You had a team in Memphis before there was any team in Tennessee. You had a team in Baltimore after the courts left, before the Ravens came along. You could have put a team in Carolina. They were us have always talking about that. There are different markets. I would have worked out really well. So I think ultimately what were to happen is you would have had. Absorption of teams. And that I think that would have been a success that we've been kind of cool. And a lawsuit blew it. You know, Trump kind of blew it. Do you think now with, with there being an expansion of teams, right. And they're continuing to talk in the NFL, right. You know, Toronto and London. I mean, we just had reports this week again about it. And, and keep in mind, we are a podcast that's focused solely on covering spring football leagues. Do you think that. The chances of having a successful spring football league now. You know, doubling up in the light of these cities, right? Except for, you know, maybe St. Louis, right Birmingham. I mean, there's not that many untouched, NFL really viable phase. Is there a successful formula there for spring football? It's hard. I there's no formula where you're going to be the NFL. Like that's the first thing. I think people know that, but you do need to know that. I always think like if I were starting a spring football league and it was real, I really want to start a spring football league. I'm doing Boise. I'm doing Tulsa. I've been doing. Toledo. I might do white Plains, New York, like I'm doing markets. That are Irvine, California. Like I'm doing. Mid-major markets. Where they don't have a ton to do. And fans will come. I'm not doing markets. I'm not putting a team in Seattle. It just doesn't it doesn't make sense. Not. The NFL is a year round entity now. You know, it's not when you came along, it wasn't how it is. So to try and compete that. Oh, cities makes no sense. There are a lot of people who live in Boise, Idaho. Factually, there's a stadium in Boise, Idaho. You know, like there are a lot of people who live in white Plains, New York, believe it or not. Like there's no pro football. There's an English. There wouldn't be. So I just think if you want to do it. If anyone were interesting to actually make turning a profit, a modest profit. I would may get mid-major cities that don't have, and maybe you could have a Nashville where there's no NFL team. Oh, excuse me. A Memphis, not Nashville, Memphis. Cities like that, but I think mid-majors a way to go. Does it, some of the Fox people that they have involved in this does. You know, having Fox own the league, does that do anything, you know, obviously tracking. The, the difference of the USFL ha you know, having the, the, every owner kind of has their own prerogative, right. Whether we trying to do is having it owned by the TV network. Does that do anything for you? I mean. It guarantees of the games will be televised. Yeah. That's nothing to sneeze at. So that's pretty good. It also though. I mean. It also means maybe Fox is like, we're going to put these on it too. After. And infomercial from, you know, whoever Robin Thicke. So that's not so good, but I think ultimately, I mean, the thing is it's so weird. Like back in the day when the U S of I got a TV deal from ABC and ESPN, that was enormous. Like, that was a huge coup, and that was a big deal. Nowadays, I can't tell you the last time my kids, so my kids are teenagers. I can tell you the last time my kids. Sat down, grabbed the remote control and turn on ATV. You know what I mean? Like it's a different world. And younger viewers, if you're trying to get younger viewers. They're not watching things the same way and not like, oh, it's four o'clock. I need to sit down and turn on a USFL game. It's much more fed off of. Everything online and you could have a streaming service carry these games and PRI. I don't know how, I just don't know how big of a difference it would make. It can't hurt. But I don't know, it's not the same landscape that it was back in the day. Well, it's still in the, you know, the channel surfing or stumbling upon something or, you know, having the overrun lead to something else through your, you know, Yeah, put some on after they may just doesn't exist anymore. You know, it's. Do you [unknown]. The idea that, that basically we're going to have these teams. You know, called, you know, the floor that whatever. But still exist in this bubble in Birmingham for a year. I mean, I just think I've always thought that you're setting up unrealistic expectations, right? Like we knew what the spring league was. Okay. It's the gestures, whatever, you know, we're cheering team purple versus team green. But when you start calling them city names, but they're still located in the base city. I just, it's hard for me to see this working. It just is because I know the expectation is we'll call them by the city names. This first year there'll be in Alabama. And then we'll start to their cities. It seems like the odds of that happening. Are slim. There's just so many hurdles and hoops to jump through. I had to actually happen, like, all right. We're going to have the Pittsburgh Maulers right. The Maulers are one of the teams, right. Okay. We have the Pittsburgh Maulers and this year they're going to play in Birmingham. Where are they going to play next year? Well, we're not going to have them in three, in a Heinz field because that's way too big. It's going to look empty. Maybe we can use. The university of Pittsburgh stadium. Well, are they even available? Is that even at least? I don't know. Maybe it's not, well, we can play outside of Pittsburgh. Maybe we're playing. So-and-so. Like there's a, and then you wind up with a team in Bethlehem playing on a high school field. Like you just. It's a lot of hoops. And it doesn't really seem, maybe I'm wrong. That they have these things in order. It all feels real pipe dream. And if it, it feels like they released a press release and put up a website, a million steps before they actually had any real plan of what they're doing. Like, are there any coaches hired? Have they reached out to players. Are they having combines? Are they. Like, it's just sounds like we're going. Like, if you, and I said, we're going to start a league, let's start a league, let's put up a website. It's gonna be awesome. And then people start tweeting about it. It's just weird because they've replicated this before. We just calling it's, you know, when you call it the USFL, you're just bringing in such these expectations, you know? Cause they've. I that, that one in may, you know, I mean, they have like a two week training camp and they brought people in and they did, they did like a draft, but it wasn't really a draft and they had the coaches kind of. Highlight, maybe players, they want to, it just seems weird that we're, we're expecting this. Do you think, are you tracking that all the Dwayne and Danny XFL spring football, does that. On your radar at all. Bare minimum. I would say I was kind of into the. I was fascinated when the Alliance came along and the X of L came along. 'Cause I'm like you, I am, I am definitely. Kind of nerdy in a good way about spring leagues and like, I love seeing it and kind of the CU I love upstarts. I love that stuff. It is not a great sign. For the quarter. And quote, new USFL that those leagues crashed and burned code. That obviously was a huge factor. But like the Alliance at one day they just closed shop. They were like, oh, let's just suspend until COVID clears that there was like, we can't do this. It's not a good luck. I don't really get it. I don't get the whole thing. I put on it. You were kind of on Seth, our, one of our listeners, big fan. He run in. He says, I do. You, could you feel like a sequel could be in the works, arising all of that. The second USFL. I think it would be a very short book. It might be. And then they put up the website and games were never played the end. So if he wants to buy that 500 page book, I can make it. I mean not a 500 word book. I just don't see it. I want it. I don't want to be this negative guy, like old grumpy Gus. I really don't like I don't. Because I don't, I want these things to work. First of all it's jobs for so many people, which is awesome. It's entertainment for people, which is great. It just doesn't seem like they have a plan in place. It is weird, you know? Cause we get a lot of, we post in like the CFL groups and you know, all XFL USFL and they say, you know, I get this out of here. We don't. I go, are you saying it is. You know, it's jobs for the players, it's jobs for the staff, it's jobs for the stadium workers and the people that do the marketing. I mean, it kills me, you know, even in the, when the USFL tweeted all their stuff yesterday. That you get these people, oh, you know, we're doing this again. I'm like, why do you care? Like let these people, you know, at least let them try to do it and hire people and pay people while they're going. I mean, it does. It's not a wanting to see them crash and burn in my estimation. It's we want them to. Succeed. And they're maybe not going to buy that the right way. It's kind of like. Right. A hundred percent. Like if this could work, I think you and I would be used proponents of it. It sounds like we both feel like, oh, that's great. This can work. This is a good opportunity for people in. Et cetera, et cetera. But. Okay. And it doesn't my complaint is it doesn't seem like a serious effort. It seems like a weird half-assed effort by people who can't even. I mean, you can't. It's a bad sign. If you can't fork over 3000 bucks to get someone to design you a decent website. Like that's about to me, the wet I'm telling you, I'm not just saying this when I judged like a book, just as an example. I look at the typeface. I look at the margins. I go to the back and look at the bib. The bibliography and see how much research was done. And when you judge something like this, you do go to the website and you do look at the press release and you think this looks shoddy, this doesn't look professional, adult, this website. I guarantee you, they have a picture of there. The lead picture on this website is Doug Flutie. In handing off to Herschel Walker in the U S about. Game. It's a grainy crappy photo. The guarantee of, they don't have the rights to use the photo. I guarantee they grabbed that off the internet. They didn't pay the guy to do it. And this is a for-profit business. So if this photographer, whoever took this image, Sees that they're using it. He's going to be like, why the hell you didn't pay me? Like, I guarantee you, they did. So they just grabbed an image. It just looks like that kind of thing. So. If you do, you know, Cliche. If you judge a book by a cover, it's hard to see this and think, oh, this is great. Oh, I go to their Instagram feed. They've been Instagram leak. Like I would just, right now it says, oops, an error occurred. There is no Instagram feed. Like that's a bad sign. Facebook feed. It's terrible. It's just, you know, 570 People are following their Facebook page, not a good sign. That's not very many people. It's. I don't want to be this guy. I really don't. It's just hard to feel great about this. Before I let you go. I want to know. Craziest story something interesting doing your original USFL research, something that you know, our listeners to kind of follow the original iteration, something that they will get a chuckle out of. I mean it was about, was insane us. Isabel. My favorite player from the rest of out. It was a guy named Greg fields and his nickname was big paper. And I early on in my research, someone said to me, you need to talk to big paper. And big paper was a defensive lineman out of Grambling. For the LA express. And. The coach was about to cut him. The coach was a guy named John Haydel. The coach was about to cut them. And he calls Greg fields into his office and says, Greg, we have to let you go. And Greg FA fields reaches back and punches him in the face. And then he starts calling in death threats to the team. He's I'm going to comment, I'm going to kill you. And he would stand at the stadium during practices at the facility and just stand and watch. You'd be watching. He had a gun in the trunk of his car. And the team I had to hire, there was a singer at the time named Liberace. The team hired Liberace body. I got away from Liberace to protect the LA express. So everyone in the league is like, Greg field's bad, dude. And the San Antonio gunslingers need a defensive lineman. So they actually signed him as a free agent. He's playing for the San Antonio gunslingers. The team stops paying players. He follows the owner. Home to his house with a baseball bat. Walks up to him and says, I want my money. And the owner walks into his house, comes out with a paper bag filled with I forgot or $15,000 and hands it to him. And Greg fields drives off never to be heard from again. And. You were some hours, this Renegade outlaw. Bad-ass. You know, it's kinda what people love about it. Well, this is great. I'm sure we could do a deep dive about all this stuff. I'm sure you've spent, you know, years into this. I really appreciate your time before we let you go. I do have a quick story for you. I want to get your opinion about this. So. The Fox. Company that owns the USFL trademarks. Okay. They it's like NSF L holdings, LLC. It's a national string football league, LLC. So we went on a couple of weeks ago and that is actually not. So there was a lot of confusion like, oh, is this, is it going to be called the national spring football league is going to call it the USFL. What's going to be called. So we went on, there is no trademark for the national spring football league. So we own that now as, as a podcast. So if you ever want to start a national spring football league, Ah, call the N a SFL. We have H I have a hat. We have hats. We have shirts available. So anyway, who owns the USFL trademark right now? Apparently Fox says under, under NSF L. Wow. That's awesome. Well, That's like people who ran out to buy, like every, like, Donald J trump.com. Donald J trump.org, Donald. And swooped him up is a very smart. If you knew who like the next great NBA players, you know, swoop up. You know, Ronnie james.com. You know, it's funny. Yeah. So anyway. You ever, ever get the edge to start a national spring football league? Well, you know, where the Gardner. We're in. Jeff. Thank you so much for your time. I excited for your new book to come out. Do you want to talk about that before we go? It's not coming out. It's a Bo Jackson biography. It's not coming out for another. Next fall. I think so. Ah, yeah, I appreciate having. Yeah, I love, I love talking to this stuff. Well, I, this was a long time coming. I appreciate it. And it was, it couldn't have worked that by the time, man. So thank you again. I'm not, I'm not overly versed on USFL CFL a lot more. I know amaze. Well, now we gotta get, we gotta get. Sports spectrum here. I got everything. Okay. Awesome. Well, we have Dave Dawson coming off of a busy weekend here with sports spectrum. How are you doing today, sir? Yeah, not. Not too bad. My a broadcast company. H on. In life, we do live streaming of amateur and minor sporting events at a huge, huge tournament in Calgary, Alberta. And so I've been in recovery mode since then, but I've been doing good, trying to consume as much sports as I can. And this is the prime time of the year to take in sports, right. Everything's up and going. Rather well, so appreciate you having me on. Yeah, I appreciate you powering through. It's exciting here. You know, where week 16? I don't know. We expected, we would get there at the beginning of this season. A bird's eye view. What are your feelings with this season thus far? How has it been for you? Yeah. You know what I was thinking about this this morning, and it's interesting. This is essentially the sweet spot of what would have been the season. Last year, right? So obviously no preseason and those first 2, 3, 4 weeks to get those games that is this really the team like we saw a Saskatchewan. You know, going to burst out of the gate because they had some easy wins against some teams that weren't that good. And you thought, oh wow. Okay, Courtney. 40 For Gerard was going to be the mop and. And then, you know, Teams had a law, the bombers going to feed it and. Yeah. I think that this is the time right now, where you were seeing the absolute character of the teams come out, who the teams, each team really is as finally come to fruition. Obviously with unfortunately being a shortened season, now that. You'll really wonder how some momentum maybe could have shifted if we had a few more weeks, but I I've enjoyed it so far. Yeah. As a VC Alliance fan, I very much. No. When now we are very much seen like what the teams are and yeah, for better first time you like the Argos, that's better for them. And for like BC it's. It's horrendous right now. What I honestly think for the lions, it really has been a confusing last couple of years, you don't really know. Who the lions are. And, you know, I was looking through some of the Edmonton football team's stats over the last couple of years, and I really feel that. Mike Riley is that generational guy that can cover over a multitude of sins, as they say that. You know, you have a guy as good as Mike Riley, Michael Riley. Now that some of the teams. Weak weaker areas or are shaded over and you come out of the start of the season where Riley wasn't totally healthy. You don't know how healthy he has been the whole year. You know, maybe we probably won't really find out until the season's over that. All of the intricacies of what actually went through a man who's nearing 40 years old and still can put an incredible performance out. Here's my sickness coming out again. Okay. But I honestly feel for, for the BC lions because.Yeah.Live captions provided by Rev.com. For 99% accurate post-meeting transcripts and captions, visit Rev.com. Oh, good.Michael Riley is an an and the makeup of some of those components ofthe defense and the secondary. I've always been a big market sales fan.I really do feel Hakeem Johnson next year could be one of the topdefensive backs in the league. I've loved Geontae harden.Who's kind of come in and out and hasn't been healthy for the wholeseason. So. I feel for the lions. I really thought they could have pushed. Cause there was that midway through the season where they're really starting to gain some momentum. You thought, wow, were the lions going to make a run for it here? The riders are kind of slipping in the lions. Right. So, but no, I, I really do feel overall as a season that it is unfortunate for the lines, for sure. I think also playing some subpar teams early on kind of padded that schedule and, you know, made it look. Better than it should have been. Well, and, you know, As I was going this morning, and this is one of those weirder years of the CFL. Right. So if you look at. The auto roadblocks. God bless you. Auto red lax. Everybody loves to rip on them. Everybody kind of had an idea coming into the season. They might be one of those teams that were almost the free space, but if you look at how strong they were defensively and. One of the stats that I really wanted to pull out and I'd been pulling out recently, was that the field position stats, when it comes to kickoff and punt returns, Ottawa was number one, the league, when it comes to field position. So they have the ball in great position. I'm kickoffs and punt returns. However, the quarterback position was one that they just weren't able to put together. And I. I mean, I don't have anything against Matt Nichols personally, as a human being. He's a great guy. I've interviewed him in the past when on-site CFL fantasy was our thing. And I've really enjoyed my chats with him. But you would kind of wonder. All appellees maybe. Maybe do they pick the wrong guy for quarterback this year? Because then from that point on auto has always been behind the eight ball. And so setting Ottawa's field position, we'll use that as a precedent to set for the rest of my points here. You look at Edmonton. Right. They have a great quarterback or the start of the year, a quarterback that people love to absolutely hammer on whichever Erez. But field position dead last in the league, 17.6 yards. Average per game. They're starting drives in there. 10 they're, 15 they're, 20 they're, 25 consistently. Every tribe you can't do that. And here's an interesting stat that going all the way back to 2015. The last year that Craig Dickinson was a member of the special teams of the Edmonton football team. There've been 68 kickoff and punt return touchdowns. Since 2016. So the start of after 2015 season, Guess how many Edmonton has. Zero, no kickoff or partner turn touchdowns. So I really do feel when it comes to the Edmonton side. So Ottawa quarterback is the issue. Edmonton. I really feel that they were pretty good football team. Field position is the issue. Now, when you bring it all together, I'm just rambling on a tangent here. When you bring it all together. Michael Riley is a guy that hides all those things. Right. So I feel like. He was, he's a generational quarterback that BC might've had more problems in different areas than Ottawa or Edmonton, maybe the same amount of problems. But Michael Riley, hi bill was because of how good of a quarterback he is. So, so yeah, the season is season is weird. Who is the best team right now? Again, we're in the sweet spot. There's a lot of teams that can come in and upset someone in one week. Yeah. I just around that, the lion stock, I am excited to see Nathan work play this week. I mean, I know that obviously that was the whole debacle earlier this year, but I am excited because, you know, I think at some point we need to figure out a future plan. Right. And if that is Nathan work or someone else. In terms of the teams you. It's so boring talking about Winnipeg, right? I just, because. I'm from Winnipeg. So I don't mind, but. I mean, so, you know, we're, we're set kind of, you know, We're figuring out. Thoughts on kind of the west. And then I do want to transition to the east to get your thoughts on, on, you know, the Argos and everything else. Yeah. I think that obviously duke Williams coming in and making a big difference for Cody, for Gerardo and I I've in Cody for Gerardo's. I was an incredible quarterback. I, I do remember the time when he was backing up in BC and I had written a, an article on three down nation a couple of years ago, and had mentioned that of Cody for Gerardo. He was given the opportunity. He could be a starting quarterback and I'm really grateful to see that he's succeeding. I think he's an incredible human being as well. Which I'm from my platform. I'm far more grateful for overall. Is that we need good people in the league. I think that Cody for Gerardo. You know, he, I don't want to give him the game manager tag, because I think that we've shown that he's had the ability to win games. Right. He had his got a three touchdown game finally. Yeah. This last week. But. I think for most of the season. You know, you have the issue with. I love being sick and. Here's me this. We're getting here. Let me get this going here. I appreciate you coming on. It should be fun. We're getting through this. Getting through the season. Well, I'm excited today. We have Aaron, Carl, Nick on with TSN edge and TSN 10 50 out of Toronto. How are you, sir? Fantastic Reed. How are you? We're doing good where I, you know, week 16 here. I didn't know if we would get that far. Yeah, I know it's wild. The year has flown by. I think, I feel like it's like the CFL and life in general. It's the same seems like week one was just yesterday. It feels like January 1st was just yesterday, but now we're at the end of the year. What a year. No. I mean, American Thanksgiving is next week. I am, I am astounded by that. That we were coming that quick on it here. It doesn't feel that way. I know you guys celebrated Thanksgiving already. Oh, yeah. What a celebration. It was, I'm still a little hung over from all the Turkey and the wine, and then stopping, but I'm raring and rocking him donuts. So let's do it. So you're with TSN 10 50. So, what do you do with TSN edge? What do you do with the Betty and then, and fantasy and all that stuff? Okay. So Derek Taylor, who, you know, from Saskatchewan hosts about a sports cage on seek era. He, and I came up with this idea, actually, we've been doing it for a number of years now where we've been betting a lot of CFL related crops. And in the NFL over the years, that's been super popular. Passing yards rushing yards. Perceptions ankles, all that stuff is so popular with the NFL because the influx of fantasy football and how that's been incorporated, everything there DT, and I have. Been a very keen. A group of observers on the way that sports books put out props related to the CFL. And let's just say over the years, they haven't been that sharp in pricing, the numbers appropriately. DT and I. I've been really successful in wagering on these props. And we brought this idea to TSN where we do a segment called the prop masters, which is a twice. Twice a week we go through. The games of the week and the CFL look at what the sports books are posted. For certain players and their prop totals. And we go over or under, based on our information, our research, and we've been very successful over 70% and we hope this is something that. Our audience, not only for the broad masters and TSN, but for ESN and the CFL as a whole embrace, because I think it's a great way for the lead to gain visibility for layers to become more popular to its fans and ultimately for the CFL to be more successful and generate more revenues. Is it, the numbers are off because they just don't know CFL that well. Is that why it's well, I mean, I think relative to the NFL, for instance, they handle the amount of money they'd take in is so minuscule probably. One 1000th one. 100,000. I don't know exactly. I couldn't tell you. But my understanding is it's not the top of the priority list. So that's been kind of a niche where we've been able to explore it over the years, but the same would apply to the NFL. I mean, a lot of people are very successful betting props in the NFL. It's very dependent on news and. But an aggregation of certain sources. Whether it's in the NFL or the CFL, you're able to take advantage of the books. A lot of them have done. So, you know, cause we've obviously been tracking C. Two and eight and all that heading into that. So is this. All these ideas, trying to create more young interests, right? More diverse interest in the CFL. I mean, this is kind of part of the rollout of that, right. Continuing to work on that, but let me put it to you this way. Read on Tuesday night. The Argos play the Edmonton Alix. They completely meaningless CFL game. For so many reasons, the Argos and clenched Edmonton's a disaster. And why would anyone have any interest in watching that game? I had nine people over at my house. The leaps were playing that night. Canada was playing Mexico that night. And we did not deviate for a second. From Argos and Elks. And why you asked is that the case? At the answer. Gambling. And it breeds an interest in watching a sport, unlike anything else, and for a league like the Canadian football league, which has been so. Unsuccessful in generating young, new fans to the league. Listen, I go to Argos games all the time. I'm the youngest person in that are in that building a lot of times where I feel like I am or close to it. And I'm not that young. I can tell you that. So that's a major problem and I truly believe. The CFL needs to embrace will never be the Argos. You. You will at west. Statue Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton. BC in many respects, like there's a lot of hardcore fans in that. The commitment is there on a larger level, but here in Toronto, I think really embracing gambling and player props and all that type of stuff. It would be huge for the brands. Because, you know, obviously all that past, over the summer, we're kind of in this weird influx season anyway. Right. We're moving on. Is this cause I remember even like Duncan Audra saying, oh, we're going to be gambling by labor day. I think they said, and then, you know, it takes a while and it's so hard because it's dependent on all the different teams have to manage it themselves right in the provinces. I mean, not to get into all the nitty gritty, but like. Is this, you foresee this as a major stepping stone next year as well, going on. My, yeah, I think the plan here in Ontario anyways, and that's 40% of Canada's population. So that's a very significant stepping stone and we know. Toronto and Ottawa and Hamilton, three of the nine CFL teams are based here in Ontario. So. Yeah. I think my understanding is that they're targeting February for the launch before the super bowl. And then you'll have regulated sports books offering. Odds your hope on the CFL and all types of exotic. Rob proposition wagers and roughly really creating creative offerings that lend itself, not only to the hardcore CFL fan, but just the casual fans going down at BMO field or Tim Horton's vehicle, wherever they may be, go to see a game and like, oh, You know what I'm going to bet the over on Jeremiah, miss Soliz, passing touchdowns tonight. I guarantee you their engagement in the game and the way they cheer and the way they embrace the experience is completely different. In a positive fashion. Well, it's the same goes for fantasy. Cause I mean, here's something where, you know, even if. 'Cause we're like, I'm the lions fan, right? That's like, we're, you know, we're mark out over the last we, even if they're not playing right. Trying to get interest. You know, across the board, it is easier in the CFL where there's nine teams. I think you can have a vested interest in the law. I mean, the NFL. It's damn near, you know, How are you ever going to have any interest in. Half the match-ups every weekend, but the CFL is a little more doable through its. It's the plus and minus, right. Because it's an easier pie to kind of see all of it, but then it's also, you're, you're having less diverse match-ups every week. Right? I mean, it's true. And lets you have the CFL purist out there probably lives in Regina or lives in Winnipeg has been watching lead for 40 years and they liked the CFL in its current form, which is totally fine. But I can speak from experience. And I think we would all agree to see if that was a league that needs to grow. The CFL is a lead that was very keen at well. I used to, at one point in time on merging. Forming another lead with the XFL. However, that was going to ultimately play out. The financial issues with the Canadian football league are real and people might want to deny it. People might want to look at different ways that CFL could manages and believe that Randy and Rosie should do this. Well, Randy and Rosie should do that. Randy and rosy. Here's league side, a gambling partner, and I don't really know. I haven't been ultimately very impressed with the partnership as a whole. I don't think they've done a very good job of executing. Both the partner and the league. I think it's kind of just been, that was a press release and that's it. Which really surprised me. I think that they could do a lot of different things to appeal to the more casual fan. And let's, that's what we do at TSN edge. I mean, One of our core. Foundational principles, at least when it comes to get T as an edge. Which is TSN gambling fashion and our work with the CFL. We want people to engage in the Canadian football more than they did prior. And we believe a way they can do it is by betting on it. I know from firsthand experience with my friends. Y Y one of my buddies who never watched a CFL game ever. Prior to Tuesday night. I had done so much research leading the game. I was like, oh man, I thought Arbuckle was the quarterback of Edmonton. I looked over and put in pause to be a bit more impressed. And you know why he was doing his due diligence. As gambling was a part of me, cause money was a part of it. And that is a way to embrace the younger and new fan base that I hope the CFO figures out how to do a lot more efficiently than they have so far. Yeah. It's just it's it's hard. Cause it's it's this league, you know? Cause. You couldn't think of two different than posing things. You know, this fantasy sports bookie probably on that. It's just like new edge, you know, we're sweeping the nation, all this, and then you have the CFL. Yeah, we got 108 years. You know, so it's just trying to get those to the meld together. It does seem impossible. There to help that they're going to figure that out. I mean I'm with you, man, but I can't talk with the guys on three down nation Hodge, Don got into, had done a fantastic job of pushing a lot of the stop with their, they have a partnership with Bodog and I see all their stuff. And we had TSA. There's a lot of people out there who are trying to push the gambling narrative as a way for the CFL to expand its horizons. And I think once the bill is ultimately it's passed, but as you have to be. What injury regulation yet? You hope when that actually happens and kind of some of the. Well, the lines that companies like bell and Rogers and CVC haven't yet been willing to cross when they're able to cross those legally, I think you might see a different buy-in from those companies and ultimately a different buy-in the CFO, when it comes to fantasy and gambling. So, how did you get involved with the CFL? I mean, are you, you know, Toronto or you, you know, Argos fan lifelong, or how did that work? Not at all. It's actually a funny story. So I used to produce a radio show for Dave nailer. And Naylor was always going on about the CFO. I mean, this guy is. Canadian football league hall of fame or the media. One of the preeminent journal is a very close friend of mine. And I was always rolling my eyes and like Dave, nobody in Toronto cares. Come on stop. We're not doing this on the show and I'm on. Come on. And then it was after I met Derek Taylor. Again, who from Saskatchewan. And I guess originally from Winnipeg, then moved to Toronto, work with us at TSN and then back to Saskatchewan. Now the boys are the riders. Showing me all these. The charts that he did for CFL games and how he had all this proprietary information that nobody including teams in the league cat. And I'm looking at this. As a guy who loves sports betting forever. And I'm like DT. I think we can make some money here. He's like, oh, really? Like. And which way I'm like, well, you have all this information that no one else has. How could we not? And we just got to start putting it into practice. And I worked with DTE on kind of creating different segments at TSN and then we started betting and it was very successful. And then I just became completely enthralled with the league and its history. And. Now, I guess this coming great cup on December 12th. We, my eighth grade cop and I love it. I love the fan base. It's so Canadian. It's so much fun. The passion is so unique for the league. And honestly, I can't wait to get back to the breakup. Because I feel like these, these are my people and it's it's and living in Toronto. Nobody cares. I mean, you have a very, very small group of people who do, I don't want to say nobody because I don't want to disrespect those who do. But on the grand scheme of Toronto sports, and I work on a radio show where we talk about the leaps and the rafters and the blue jeans and all these different. Sports and teams and organizations that are far above interests. And then they try to organize our wish that wasn't the case, but it is to this point. And. You hope, maybe a win in the east vinyl where you get to the gray cup on December 12th, things change a little bit, but it's a, it's one of those things where I I'd almost grown into and I learned to love it and I push it on as many people as I can because. I as CFOs have fantastic products. Well, w we'll also be in Hamilton. We have all of our, we have all of our things books, so we will be there. I was perusing the CA the gray cup merchandise last night, I saw the release timeline so that, you know, if it's. It's an exciting time, but so you're an albatross too. I mean, kind of coming into it late. You know, via Naylor and Derek Taylor and all that is. It's interesting. You know, As the CFO continues to try to find young viewers, you know, unless you have someone, you know, I, God forbid we wouldn't have been on any of this, if it wasn't for all the XFL stuff. So it's, it's interesting how everyone comes into the league and, and discovers what's going on. Oh, you're absolutely right. And just like you think about so many NFL fans here in Toronto and Ontario, I feel like it's almost synonymous. Their growth of their fandom or the roots of their banner. Fantasy and gambling. And I think that's so uncommon with the CFL because there's, hasn't been a buy-in with that, except for me. And I, yeah, that's how I got in the CFL. I love CFL fantasy. I love. Daily fantasy with CFL. I love daddy. At bell and player prompts and all this stuff. So. That's how my bat, my, my passion was spawned and I'm hopeful that as the years go by and. And we're able to continually integrate different types of content into our programming at TSN. I'm able to be a part of bringing in a new group of fans who. We share the same passion for fantasy and gambling as I do in the NFL. But we bring them in by the CFL. Because, I mean, it does seem that way. It seems to me, and, and again, we haven't been covering the league nearly as long as, you know, everyone that we've had on the show, obviously, but like, it, it seems, it really is up to people like you, the CFL isn't doing this right. It really does seem like it's people like you. It was like, this is something that I'm passionate about. I'm knowledgeable about I wanting to bring this in. Pretty much. Yeah. The CFL is not really. Honestly, there's times where I. I'm sitting there. I'm watching all my friends yelling and screaming to TV. I bring 10 guys to the Argos games. These are, these are dudes who had zero interest. Had zero interest in a CFL. I think I might. Why is the CFL not hired me to it in some kind of role to help out with this? Because I feel like in many respects I can be such a huge benefit to that lead group. Listen. There's a lot of older gentlemen who worked in the Canadian football league for a long time and are kind of stuck in their ways. And this is how it is now. It always has been how it always wellbeing. I feel like I view the league. Completely different way. And I hope that. As we go along with this. And let the Argos, I mean, nothing's really changed since 1991 with this franchise, right. I mean, right. With 30 years of empty seats and. And page eight in the sports section. So, how are we going to figure this out? I think they tried so many different things. And I think the last frontier perhaps is a full 100% buy-in to degenerate gambler. And that's what I would advise and listen, I understand. You know, gambling is an addict can be addiction problem and all this. I'm not above trying to minimize that issue, but I think God, there's something to be said about trying something that normally has never been tried in. Comedian football, but in professional sports as a whole, you. I'm talking about like the dog track in Florida or highlight, but this is a completely different thing that I think the CFL will be wise to consider at least in some capacity. Well, and obviously, you know, obviously you had the, you know, the expansion, right? The failed us expansion, you know, things reaching out, right. This XFL thing, whatever. I mean, at least this, I know Ambrozy had said a lot, you know, Made in Canada solution, I think was the quote or Canadian made solution. May at least this is in theory. Building from the fan base that's there, right? Building interest in the product. Just, just layering on to what a product already is there. No, I mean, and that's fair unless I think the number of fans and stands in certain cities is a problem, but I would also argue that this year alone, The product. Has been terrible in many respects. I mean, It's a struggle many times to watch a lot of these games scoring is way down. Explosive plays are way down, like where are the great players? Exactly arrows. Listen, he's a really good quarterback playing in front of a historically great defense. I would hope that in a normal year, this thing is putting up some really good numbers. Don't get me wrong. But if you compare and contrast, Sacaleros. This is statistics to Matt Nichols statistics from a couple of years ago. They're really not dramatically different. So as great as Glarus. Clara's is having, as far as the season goes, I think he's going to win most outstanding player. And I think he's deserving of winning that role or winning that title, but that's not necessarily a good reflection on the league because I don't think Collaros. Arrows as solid a quarterback as he is. It's outstanding. I think that's a term that might be reserved for lucky. Whitehead is outstanding. But he's been injured and he's had a rough second half. There's very few game breaking players beyond guys like the vaunted Dedman, lucky wide had. And I know I'm missing some other guys, but that's a, that was a big concern for me this year. Just the lack of. Excitement and a lack of talent that we saw on the field. Well, and that's, I appreciate you bringing that up because obviously a lot of the people we have on here. Have the vested interest right. In like, Well, the, you know, the game plays fine. It's not you like Rob van Sones. Come on. I mean, he's, he's been critical of it, but it is. Because it hasn't been great. I mean, in airable. Terrible. I think I watch more games. I watch a lot of CFL games. I would say I probably watched 75% of games. Not because I'm betting on. I'm very interested in. The quality and [unknown]. It's pretty it's anecdotal this year. And I'm sitting there watching it. It's kind of. I'm like living in this back room where things just kind of going round around, but I have been so unimpressed with so much. The play. Like thinking about a guy like Cody for Gerardo. It was so good. A couple of years ago. I've been mediocre at best this year. Mike Riley, believe I'm Mitchell falling off a cliff. They're not what they once were. So who are the great players in this league? That's my question and who are the next great players in the league? Because a lot of the guys you see coming in like Taylor, Cornelius and Kayla Bevins, Dave being. Awful. Awful quarterbacks. So that has to be a major concern. How are we going to figure this out? Because the last thing you want, if you're trying to sell a product and its fantasy and gambling obligations is a league that the average is like, 41 Points a game. Boring. Figure out a way to get off offense booming again, like we saw. I don't know, the early nineties, like bring back the 91 Argos where they're scoring. 38 39 Points a game maybe that can drum up some interest. That's that's former XFL quarterback. Cornelius. I would just appreciate it. That is true. I bet on the Edmonton, Alex on Tuesday night, watching that guy play, I want it to rip my eyeballs out and throw them out the window. No, I. Cause we, I, I, we, the wedding, so most of the games are not, I I'm watching on demand. Very rarely am I watching live. Thank God for ESPN plus, but I, I had that Winnipeg game on last Saturday with Montreal, right? Like the early game. And I'm like, this is a matchable. I really it's really hard. I was. I can't. I, you know, I watched about 45 minutes. I'm like, I can't do this. I can't sit through the other part of this. Total totally painful. And keep that game had no meaning to Winnebago. They had a guy, Sean Maguire. Who was quarterback in that team that throws the ball like I do. And I'm not a good athlete, so that's not good for him. That's not good for the product of the league. You are. I for TSN putting this product on the executives must be watching this and be like, oh my God, I can't believe this is on our airways. We have Sean Maguire or back in the game. This is no indictment on Sharma wire. It's just a reality. I'm sure he would agree. He's like, yeah, I'm not good. Like, that's just, it. And Taylor Cornelius, I know you love the XFL. He's not good. Deal of evidence is not good. So there's a problem there. And how they rectify this problem with the poor quarterbacking that I've never, never could. It would have imagined it would be as bad as it's been this year. And maybe it's an aberration, maybe 20, 22 rolls around. A lot of these guys figure out me, Mike Riley and Bo are back to. Our previous form and maybe Cody Pachardo is, and how Bethel. Thompson's good. And. Our buckles good in Edmonton. And we don't have the same situation, but watching some of these quarterbacks this year. Oh, just brutal at times. It's been frustrated because when the CFL is operating with, with good quarterback play and exciting big plays. That it's a terrific product. But the way that we've seen things go this year, there's been a lot of just brutal games. The watch and that's bad for everybody involved. Before we let you go. I. Yeah, Argo. Stan, are you, are we bullish on them going into the gray cup? Maybe, maybe I think if Montreal gets passed to Hamilton in the east semifinal and. The artists have a really good chance. So when at home and yeah, they lost the game on Tuesday night, but. Argos with our full lineup are basically undefeated at home. And why that is no one really seems to know what that someone's access. I'm in the Argos beat Winnipeg at home. Early on this year and go back to 2019. They beat Winnepeg at home. Oh, Perhaps there's something to that. It was, I think the Argos could absolutely get to the great cop on December 12th, but. I mean, I remember being in attendance in 2017 when the Argos. Check on Calgary and nobody in their right mind thought the Argos had the slightest chance to beat the stamps that year. And I did. And there was some luck involved, some big plays and good bounces for sure. But the Argos nine and 19 one. The breakup in 2017. So it's football, but I am hard pressed to see any team. I compete with Winnepeg this year. This team is a fine oiled machine. They'll get Andrew Harris back. They're going to be well rested. They're going to have home feel the least in the west vinyl, and then they'll come to Hamilton on December 12th and. Whether they play Toronto or Montreal or Hamilton. When a pet will be a very heavy, favorite and rightfully. So that team is outstanding from top to bottom. Yeah. Dimension that had the Toronto Edmonton game happened when it was supposed to happen, then Toronto probably still would be undefeated at home. Right. That's fair to say. Yeah, absolutely. So. The whole. We're just going to move this game way. Now this game doesn't matter at all. We're sitting everybody. It's interesting how that works out. I mean, they fled, there was only the one that, you know, rescheduled this year, so. Well, Aaron, thank you so much for this. This was exciting.

Episode 66 - The Fellowship of the XFL

We had a couple false starts there. I'm recording the video that we had with him. We got him in that way. The VIN. That would have been bad. We have, we almost had the read. I was watching the Ravens game. We almost didn't get the video record started, but we got it going. That's very true. I'm broadcasting live from the new. Well, it's still coming together a little bit. There's a different camera. You can tell. And then, you know, like there's two monitors set up now, the IMAX gone. So basically this is becoming the new control center. It looks really cool. Whenever you, whenever you come down to LA, you'll have to see. I'm really like, happy about it. So I'm excited. It looks good. I have me. Paul is a good Paul, so that's good. I, the camera looks good where it's good. It's good. And we're recording now. The key thing. Always rolling the intro music. And I was like, oh no, No more the board. So we got it going. Awesome. Welcome to the show, everybody. Ah, thanks for joining us for another week of a XFL CFL. Maybe some USF I'll talk. Maybe we'll say. We'll say. Is that berm? I thought I was so clever this week, the fellowship of the XFL. They had. So the idea we're going to talk XFL later in the show exit. XFL hired, you know, the president and everybody. They hired nine people. Paul there's nine people in the fellowship of the ring. Wow. Nine people. Huh? So I put together a thumbnail. I have like, Because some of the people have like MBA backgrounds and NFL background and, you know, Buffalo bells. So it's the fellowship of the ring with everyone's heads replaced by, you know, I was very proud of my, that. Sometimes things just come to me and I was, I was very proud of that this week. So. And we're going to do all our CFL staff, but we have a big, everyone wants the XFL, all the hires, you know, that the Ross brand ends of the world and the J Rothmans and all that staff. We're going to be talking about that later in the show, say, congratulations to your new XFL. LinkedIn contact by the way I saw that. I sent out a couple of LinkedIn requests to these are real ones. We've had problems in the past with LinkedIn. Rest Brandon president of XFL is now connected with me via LinkedIn. And that is the official one because the XFL official account. Tagged him in his presidential post. Anyway. I shared this week. No. You know, USFL news. We thought this week, next week, I believe it's going to be next week, the week of the 15th, that was kind of the rumor. Good news is Jeff Pearlman. He wrote the big, like you. The rise and fall of the U S alpha book years ago. I've been going back and forth with Jeff since like the USFL became a thing back. Months and months ago. You know, like back in may and Jeff was like, Hey, hit me up the week like this week and let's figure it out. And I said, this is great. This is gonna be good. So Jessica, come on next week. He just confirmed with me. People seem excited about that. And we should have all the USFL announcement stuff. From Fox in Birmingham next week, the week of the 15th. So. Very cool stuff. Anything else? Cool. Going on at you. That you want to share before we get going? We are plugging the show here. We have, you know, your friend of mine, Dan Ralph is going back on he's the CFL hall of fame reporter. I, he is going to be in Hamilton for the gray cups. I think Dan's going to be a good in-person guest. Dan sounds like he's going to be good to go. We have Christy Edwards. This is good. Paul, you're a TV person too. I'm TV. Chris is the senior live event producer for the CFL for TSS. Like Chris is in the truck, producing the games. I asked Chris. Who is to blame for us hearing what you're made of like 87,000 times every CFL game. Chris has got, he's got lots of stories. He's been with a CFL for decades. He's going to hook us up with some other good contacts. So Chris is great. If you guys are big and like old stories and stuff, Chris has a lot of insights. We obviously talk this season. And then Adam, I ghost, eh, he is a Toronto Argonauts. He's kind of like the Robert McGregor we had on before. He obviously this big Toronto Hamilton game this week is like, you know, for first in the east, all they've sold out Bemo field, all this stuff. So Adam talks to all that Toronto stuff. So. Very cool. Sounds like another jam packed shows you always like to say so. Would that being said, I like your hat by the way. Yeah. Gov. I think things like. So I want to be known. I officially want to be known as the commissioner. Now I am. This is my national spring football league hat. Yeah. I said that the back is printed crooked to it couldn't be any better coming from Printful as we would expect, you know, from the Printful merge. A couple quick things, please. A lag. I can subscribe. I'm going to postpone the photos right now. Kyle got his Jaster shirts in the giveaway. And then Steve got his mark has sweatshirt from the giveaway. I'll post the photos right now. But please like, and subscribe XFL, USFL stuff coming up. And then we do have voicemails now. So we're going to play them at the end of the show. We have a couple they're not too long. Paul. Don't worry about like now this has been long requested for awhile. If you go to speak pipe.com/mark cast. It's going to put it on a YouTube link, but speakpipe.com/mark has it's super easy. You can do it on your phone, your iPad. You don't have to like eat Mark Perry. You know, it makes it email them like MP3s or whatever. This, you just go on, it takes you five seconds and we have some voicemails to play at the end of the shell. And yeah, I just, me a little more interactive. I thought that was good. People have questions. We might, we might want to do it for wheelhouse and, you know, There might be a thing that you like. There might be cool thing to, for wheelhouse it's I'd say it's the one that we have. It's free. It doesn't cost a penny. It limits you to 90 seconds, which is better. I think. If you pay, you can have, I don't think we need longer than 90 seconds. So these are like 45 seconds, but it's good. You know, if you have a question, if you have a comment coming up, there's lots of USFL stuff, XFL. Please speed. By.com/mark Hass. I got the hat. They're printing our gray cup trophy right now. My name is on it. And then I did tweet this. I'm going to put the photo up. They tweeted this week, the Argonauts McCobb Alto Thompson. They were doing like, Hey, come down to the game, come down. BMO field. I said, Paul read who. I bet the Thompson is my vote for people's sexiest man. Paul, how are you looking at this photo? I am looking at the Sony. He's very, he's a very attractive chap. I can find it because they have some anyway, so that's my vote. Yeah. Paul read who, but anyway, McLeod, we're standing, you and Paul, I think you're our, that you're going to have a big weekend here coming up. I hope they do cause this, this is it. This is like the big thing. Like this is. We're going for the top. See the east this week? Yup. Yup. Yup. I. I discovered they were underdogs as we did all of our interviews. So they, I kinda thought Hamilton was the favorite or Toronto was the favorite going in all this, but anyway, easy the scars and last week lion's lost again. Alex last again, red lacks loss again. Al that's, you know, they they're going to have the blue bombers blue bombers are sitting Zack Collaros. Now this week. So that's going to be a little more intrigued for that rematch. The big game this week is Friday, and then, you know, stamps lions, we, the. We saw that Brill when we were trying to go up to BC before that blow out and then Alex Roughriders. And it really is all your money on that Friday night. Yeah, BIMO, they've sold it out 12,000 strong to capacity there. So. We just got a quote in from McLeod Bethel Thompson about. The world's sexiest man hears what he has to say. I met the criteria. To be selected. But I was. Let me go. There you go. Let's show what's that from. Over the last dance. When Isaiah Thomas, he said. Because Isaiah Thomas wasn't on the, the. The dream team, the first dream team. That rolled over anybody. Because Michael Jordan hated him. That's why it wasn't included. So he said that and it became a meme. So. There you go. Easier to pick up Sarah Hamilton and then UBC. I guess at the big thing, I really didn't think that Toronto, I thought they were kind of the favorites going into this, but anyway, everyone's taken Hamilton, but that, that is your preview. That was your blogs. Now we have CFL news and when they will do all the XFL stuff with your time codes, a lot of people are going to be very disappointed when that, when that turns out to be. In interrupt. So. All right, moving on. This week. Trevor Harris is making a second store for that wet plants to be better. Be better. From your Harris. They're hosting the loo bombers. Good luck being better. You know, lions again, just if. We have a story coming up, Michael Riley, you know, lion's lost again last week. I'm not, I'm sorry, I'm making that, I'm talking about. Harrison to the allies. You know, going up against Winnipeg blue bombers is a tough, tough battle. I guess. I think this week saying Zach Claris is going to be a little bit better, but you know, again, it's tough to make these changes, bring it back up, quarterback in here this late in the season, not a backup, but you know, someone from another team, we talked about that last week, right? He goes, I'm going to be better in certain situations where you can move the ball. 14 of 25 last week for 1 77, 1, 2 touchdowns and two interceptions. I mean, Yeah, not the worst game and the way he's playing better than Lamar Jackson is tonight. So. Well, I mean, Lamar Jackson, I'm getting some benefit of some calls tonight, though. He is getting the benefit of some calls though. Yeah. So. We have, we have a couple of quotes because it's still waiting on Cody for jar that he hasn't blocked. My verify it's had enough. He's actually seen like the cameo because I would agree. It's your verified. I mean that verified. That verified, you know, It lets people know when you're mentioned by a verified account. He, we have. People don't respect the talent in the CFL. He's blaming Cody. Like everyone is blaming the year off rather than the Canadian game. For the lack of offense with the seat. This is like, you know, we've started talking about this. I've been talking with people, I'll find like, you know, our rule changes coming to the CFL are big changes coming after the season. I talked with Dan and Ralph about this day in the interview. The, the quote with three down, they said in weaker moments, some of us have even wondered. Quietly of changing the rules. So why. At the American game. Could watch every Sunday. It could be the answer because he says, I don't think so. I watched it. You know, NFL every week. Yeah, Cody, I don't know how much he can blame this year off again now. We're we're we 15, 15. With a little bit of, you know, workouts and pre-season ahead of that. We 15. No, it's six weeks. That you guys, everyone wants it to be a bunch of points, but I think our games are great. We're just going to have a year with, with no football. And the guys are trying to get back into the rhythm of things and figure out reading defenses. I just don't. How long have you been doing this? Like you could read a defense. By now, right. You get. I think the big litmus test is going to be this USFL in, in March, April. Right. And if they can get guys in, in the beginning of March and get them up to speed for an April 15th kickoff or whatever we've reported. That's going to be the litmus test. Like, can you get players in, get them ready in four weeks and get them ready to go. Yeah. The TSL felt. From my recollection that watching the TSL games, they were a lot more competitive than some of these, especially this late in the season. That's where I'm, this is not week one or two, but he says, I'll say until the day I die, you know, CFL is extremely hard. You can't be inaccurate. You can't miss it throughout. That's the thing is they're not. It's such a tight window of success in the game because the rules that, like, I just don't think the players are up to snuff this season. So I, I completely agree with that. I mean, you got so many things going on in terms of playoff positioning, and even trying to get the play off still for some teams. You think there would be better games? You think there will be better games? Well, you have, you know, and you had coached him where the, I talked with. I didn't talk a lot with Adam about this just cause, you know, he said the organ. And that's guy, but you have coach Dinwiddie, like basically challenging and unchallengeable call last week, mismanaging the clock member of the timeouts, where they kneel too early. We're going into like your, your, the planet. You're the leading team in the east and we're like messing up. Like major calls going in and, you know, you can say winning is winning, but. There's a level of lack of. You know, cleanliness here. That is not good. It's not good. For the league, so completely agree. Speaking of uncleanly things moving right along. Nice little segue there. Michael Riley is blaming b******t headsets. For the final collapse for lions unacceptable. Pro football. You says. Yeah. Yeah. The big thing. They say, you know, Michael Riley, isn't a big crybaby. So if he's saying something that's, you know, like he's not making the excuses, he's out of the car, Cody for Gerardo's, right. I mean, he's not discounting. Yeah, he thought saw. He's not Sharman Jones. He's not sharing it, but no, they said that, you know, he was having headset problems like 95% of the game. He couldn't hear coming down the last drive, you know, this one of the things like D do you do a delay, a game? Can we get that resolved? Can you get a wristband with some, you know, Plays on there. With the time clock being sorta in the CFL light, the XFL member, they relied a lot on the headset communication to. It's the way that those things, rod Pearson was joking earlier this week. Funny. It never happens for the home team. It's always the away team that has like calm issues at the, at the stadium. Well, I think that happened. Like I. And I wound up talking about the Astros 2017 cheating thing. Like these kinds of things happen all the time. When you go on the road. No matter the sport. For example. I mean, there were, there were stories that we had heard, you know, as kids and then, you know, Brian Hunter. He was on a podcast that I used to work on, that I don't work on anymore. He was talking about how, when they went to play Minnesota in the world series, The color temperature of the lights changed. In the dome. So when Minnesota is batting, the lights got more white. So the baseball would hide. In the lights, but when the Braves are batting, We turned yellow. So, so, so the. Baseball would show up. Yeah. It's kind of stuff happens all the time. Well wasn't there in that. And the baseball Docker, and this came up last, but. What's that when Cal Ripkin was doing like the iron man streak, where he played every game and they, he was cheating with the guy's wife, Kevin Costner was cheat member. They was, and he was, you haven't heard the story that like Kevin Costner. With like cheating with Cal Ripken's wife. Allegedly. And they, they, they were like, they got in a fight and they, cause he played the iron. He played like the most continuous games, right? Like how Ripkin had. And every game or whatever. And there was a power outage the night that he was going to miss the game because of this. And they have like a freak power outage at the stadium. And the conspiracy theory is that they did that power outage to save history. It was. It was actually not true. I do I did. I do remember this client of sort of. And I, Kevin concerts. About to Sue someone over this. Yeah, because it just got out of control, like. It was such a stupid rumor. And it was something like way back before the internet would blow these things up. Like, like when I was in high school kind of stuff that before the internet would blow it up. This was going around and Kevin Costner was going to say, I remember this now specifically. Okay. Anyway, so, Hey, am I Riley upset about that? BC lions lost. This is another great cause if you try that. Cody for dryer though, at steam proud. Despite social media criticisms as riders get no credit for rose wins. He goes. I think it's very big for us, especially on the row, which isn't easy. I don't think a lot of people give us credit for that. Tonight. Edmonton was in their home stadium for the last time. We know they were going to get us everything they had. If we were losing the games, I would be concerned, but we're finding the way to win. So, yes, I know we can help our defense out. We can help the team out by scoring, going up two or three scores be at the end of the day. It all depends on wins and losses. And when people look back at the season, no, one's going to dive into the analytics of it. I don't buy that because I think it's historically known right now that this is a terribly offensive season. I think people are going to remember where, oh, and they're not gonna, you know, they're just gonna remember the riders were 10 and four were like, no, they're gonna remember, like, this was a horrendous season in terms of scoring. That's very true. And, you know, It's you says there's still stuff to go still tough to go on social media, even when he's winning. Well, it shouldn't be because you're blocking everybody coding. Cody in his ivory tower. Social media. I mean, I can't imagine I walked a couple more people. It does feel good. It. Here's the week's worst headline. Pay lip is on the way. That's the three. At the three down VC Alliance signing Kager Bailey hail. Anyway, he is, Bigay completed the Mandan pear mandatory brother calls. You know, Nick Vogel was in there. He was Jimmy Camacho. BC is. I have, my guys were done like it's too. Like how many games are you playing? Like we're bringing in another kicker here. I would just, I would ride with Nick Vogel, but maybe they're really not confident in him. I don't, I can't imagine it's worth bringing in another kicker with where week 15. Yeah. We have three kick kickers on the roster. Even the ones in the practice. You got three kickers now in the roster. That's. That's ridiculous. Of course. He's from Louisiana tech. From Eastern, New Mexico. Louisiana tech. And yeah, it's going to be, it's going to be interesting to see if he's. Up their game in terms of kicking, because you know, there's been a lot of games where they've, they've lost because of missing kicks. So maybe this might be enough to make a last minute push, but who knows? Yeah, who knows? I'm our domain. Says he plans to bring back the fans on his own dime. Yeah. You know, these are just a couple of interesting tidbits to, this is a lot of heavy stuff this week, but yeah, he was negotiating for six and a half years and this are Braylee. And then the states and, you know, take over the gate. I take over the lions. He says, I don't think the issue is with the fan base. It's with us not promoting. We have to get out there and do our job, good people and get things affordable. It's going to take someone like me, who is a doer and the management team, like the BC lions to do it. Again, we're winning. Why are a guy getting texts winning helps. And the fact that like lions just have had a horrendous, I have my focus on, I should not be getting taxed right now. I have my iOS, my Macko has spoken. Anyway, Amar. He wants to do this and it doesn't matter what you're going to spend or how low you're going to drive ticket sales. The team's got to win. And the story. I mean he can talk and we can. Do you know, free water bottles and like the Edmonton Alex with you and yo get the it's like a member. They had like a limited food and all that, but you got to the team's got to win. So I wish him, I do without. I'm surprised you didn't put this on my radar a lot sooner. This next article about a football operations cap. Apparently, apparently. This football operations camp. The cap is, is trying to like limit spending and stabilize it. But apparently you get penalized. If you fire people that aren't doing a good job, is that what I'm reading here? Is that what it's saying? It could be looked at it. It's like, you're it. There that you're trying to get rid of them. It's not, it's not penalized. If you get rid of them. The reason I put this in here is we've talked a lot this season and a lot of our interviews about offenses being stale coaches, not necessarily being proactive in, in, in running schemes that would, you know, get the higher points, but then we have this spinning cab and you're not able to attract quality coaches. W w and now they're cutting it. It's going from 2.5 down to 2 million, a flat is even more punitive to, you know, if the coaches and delivering, you get rid of him, you got to see under the cat, but he is. It doesn't make for a good worthwhile. I want to be a part of this team and develop stuff on there. No, it makes sense. So. You see fans in Edmonton wide change, the football operations cap had good intentions, but the lead created a system that limits the teams from recruiting good players and retaining good people. And they, it restricts them from making necessary changes. That's Jamie and I thought that was good. They need to clear it all out there in Edmonton. It's bad. It's a bad situation. They need to get rid of all of them. All of them. Well, that's how everybody here, Sherry. Eric Jones wants to get rid of that. I mean, he's a brand into the ground, burn it with fire. So what have your other Edmonton. People have been taught, like. Dave Campbell, what does he said? Yeah. I mean, Dave Dave's. Scott's going to come on in a couple of weeks to morally does Morley's data's farther. I mean, Dave is pretty PC about it. I mean, Dave understands that there's a problem. But it's also like that's Dave's job. You. You know, so it's hard. Terry Jones was, was odd because, you know, Terry covers Edmonton and they came out so strong, you know, it's you gotta look at like, I can't ask Adam with the Argos. Like, why did Dinwiddie blow the call last week? It's like Adams. You know, you kinda got that. It's tough sometimes. The political, you gotta be, you know, diplomatic. You know, You got to kiss. You got to kiss up. You got to kiss the ring sometimes. Writers or, sorry, not sorry for Elks. Oh for home record and low fan attendance. They have announced the paid attendance average north of 26,000 fans. What's that on the exchange rate Canadian. A quick TSN camera shot showed. Pretty much an empty stadium. Empty seats. And. Terry Jones, Edmonson sensing fewer than 8,000 people. Yeah. Because you have a season ticket holders, not showing that right. You have paid attendance. Like people like, okay, I got my $30 a game or $60 game. I'm just not going to go. Right. And that's the problem is not only now, are you not attracting in the casuals, but okay. You're still getting the money from the season. Ticket holder is. And when it comes to rap at the end of the season. Yeah. If like Brock says your land is still the GM, they're not going to wrap it, made it. People have said that online. Like if they don't get rid of the GM, like they're not wrapping their season tickets. I just like this quad duke LA. Duke Williams. He's like, nah, I don't feel sorry for them. That they. Responsibility that's 13 and they're playing how they're playing as players are supposed to come together because obviously Saskatchewan came in and wiped the floor with them. So. Yeah, they might. Before it was competitive, but it was competitive, but there's still. Take a big L's. Toronto sellouts sells out available tickets against Friday's Hamilton game. Congratulations, Toronto. You're selling tickets. I'm so glad that MLSE. Is is making, you know, some kind of headway in terms of. All the money that they're diverting from the Raptors and the blue Jays to. The blue Jays beliefs. To pay for. This stuff. It's good. I mean, I've just seen a lot of people online, really excited about this. They're taking that as a moment of pride. Steve Simmons, that's been on their show before member Steve was playing golf and forgot to come on and they came on the next week. Ah, Steve wrote like a scathing article this week. Like if Toronto clinches first, like no, one's going to care. Well, I kinda get what he did and it was really to kind of p**s people off to make a stand. And what did they do? They came out and they sold out the stadium. So like it's kind of sneaky smart. I kind of get what Steve was doing with that. So. And I mean, you know, Toronto. He's not heading to the MLS playoffs. So there's, there's plenty of, plenty of. Real estate free and available at Bemo field right now. Yeah. By the way I got to talk about this, this crap. It's almost like, did you watch the center's game last week? No, no, you don't, you don't watch religiously. You only kind of really bad tender when they're actually like you went to the MLS cup game. Maybe on a second. I'm a bandwagon fan. But basically it was like, I felt like it was BS. Like I was sitting there watching, going there's something fishy about this game. And I look at the standings and I'm sorry to divert, but this is going to, you know, people in Canada are happy about this, probably because there was at least one Canadian team that made it to the MLS playoffs. And it was Vancouver because they drew, they drew with Seattle. It was very interesting how it almost seemed like MLS needed a Canadian team in their playoffs because Montreal didn't make it Toronto didn't make it. So Vancouver made it. Interesting. Hmm. Interesting. I might go to this. We have playoff tickets here at the 21st. That might try to go. I try to bring the wife. And because of that, because of that, because of that, a draw. The Sounders now have to play first round game. Sounds good. Yeah. They got it. This is not a good story, Charles eager. He is no longer with the red blacks. He was insensitive to the French Canadian players. I decided this was like crazy. He's an American coach comes in, but cause you know, Outlet or not the allies, the red flags have, you know, a handful of French speaking players. Right. And I guess he was let go. They w they won't say if he was suspended, but they say this contract will not be renewed. They have 11 French speaking players on the roster, and he was asked not to be a part of them for their final regular season games. There you go. That's not good. That's. That's not a good lift for like Americans coming in. And respect like you don't go to someone's house and crap all over the place. Be respectful. Be mindful. And even then like sometimes the Canadians, like, you know, our, our friend. I think we're still cramping anybody. So. Canadian rock band Arkells teas. What are the Arkells? So I have. Listener to the show friend. I need to show. Josh, our friend that said y'all are going to merge. He sent me. I want you to look this song up later. I'm going to keep the YouTube link in there. I have him forbid we get YouTube claim cause we play the Arkells and they copyright strike as this. Ty cats, touchdowns. Like it is really catchy. I really, Josh, if you're listening to this fire really made fun of him. Like he said it to me, I'm like, this is a terrible song, but it's like every time the Ty cats score, it had to say, and it's like the tag. It gets her hot man. But then they're like how long it's like the game and people were granted the game, but they want them to be the great cup. Halftime show cause they play the Hamilton song and it's going to be in Hamilton and all the things I say it needs to be evenly. All of a sudden that plays what your made up if they don't play. Cause I don't even know how to watch a CFL game right now without what you're made of playing 87 times. So if it's not Steven Lee Olsen, he needs to play the warmup and holy God, the dolphins to the Ravens 22 to 10. Wow. One of the dolphins. Yeah. They won 2010. That's crazy. Oh, I thought you said. Last note here, Bob. That song sounds kind of like the Houston Oilers fight song. If I were free to completely honest with you. Are you. Are you trying to play? That's the Oilers one. Okay. [Unknown] I'm I'm I'm kinda got a second. My head now it's a good, like, Anyway, last very Bob Irvin. He's retiring. Yeah, he's the voice of the blue bombers Baba that you're trying to get Bob on the show for about six months here. He's going to call the west final. That's his last game. He's been the blue bombers broadcast partner for like 50 years. They're trying to get it so that he could do the gray cup, like national radio game. Cause they're like, it's not going to be, you know, cause TSMs got it. But like who's going to be doing like the radio broadcast of it. There's kind of like an online petition going for that. Like Bob gets to go out, you know, presumably calling Winnipeg, winning the grey cup. Cause let's be honest. I mean, that's, that's the most likely outcome right now. It's kinda like the, like when VIN Scully was retiring, everybody was clamoring. They're like Vince Scully needs to call the world series. Kind of the similar thing. So let Bob do it. I mean, Especially if Winnipeg. I'm going to be there. We'll be there. Yeah. That's that? Aren't gonna take a break, give. The toss over to Dan, Chris and Adam. Reed's going to talk to them. And after we talked to them, we got XFL news and a quick little USFL update. And really do we have fair controls of all. And we let them combine dates coming up, combined. It. Crap. That's all coming up. Right after this. That was good. So I've bolded some stuff. There's a lot of texture, but I just kind of highlighted this stuff so you can see what's the cause. It's important. There's a lot of like big, heavy hitters. All right. We'll do much higher ratings and all, I look into the analytics on our video and there'll be like this for the XFL stuff. Got it. Welcome back. One of the things Dan, Ralph, Chris Edwards of Adam Goss. Gossi. Yes, Adam ghosts, that Canadian pronunciation, are you sure? It's ghost? You have. I've listened. I'm going to check it right here because I have how I ended up. Well, we have Adam gossip, goth. There you go. I knew you don't forget what the status is only to hear how I pronounced that. What your everything. So let's move on here. XFL news now. Woo hoo. That's spring football league that has crushed the uniforms according to our buddy. Ah, they've hired their league present. Former Buffalo bill CEO. Rent Russ, Brandon. Yeah. Interesting. It's a big news. This week came out. They came out, I believe Monday it was, you know, they announced their nine big hire so far. We knew Jay Rothman was with it. He is formerly ESPN. He is. You know, the former Monday night football producer. I have a bunch of notes here, but this is a big deal. You were finally getting going. I am surprised I didn't. Does it make sense to me to do this in November when it's like end of the year staff, but clearly they want to go hot and heavy. I imagine January, you know, we're, we're really going to get a lot of news. xfl.com is updated. It has all the new press releases XFL shop is down for good until 2020. It says coming back in 2022. So that to me says like either new teams, new logos, new names, new cities, we don't know, but they're all the merchants gone now, but didn't didn't w D w. Like. Weren't they, the ones fulfilling the orders anyway, right now. So maybe that's also the, the reason why they took it down. Yeah, I think this is it's been a long time coming. I think this is a fresh start now. We're getting all, everything in order. Russ is in charge. People are not happy about this. Mike Mitchell tides about this before rest. Brandon has a history of some insensitive female. Things it's not great. When you have someone like Danny Garcia as a female owned sports league. Like, whether it's true or not, I'm not going to pass. You know, judgment on Russ, but it is like, That's your first big hire is someone that has a questionable past. That is not great. Obviously he has a good resume managing partner and president of the Buffalo bills. The, the thing with this was he was an executive advisor with Redbird capital, like kind of during all this. Th the thought process is like, He was already kind of in the family, like, well, let's get him in and put him in that position. I don't know, like, is he there? Everyone's going to be reporting to him. Is he going to be the face of the league? Like, I don't know. Like all of her luck was. But they said, yeah, he was 21 year tenure with the team. He ended in 2018. He's the other big person on Mark Ross is joining. He's going to be the executive. Vice-president and the football operations. So he's kind of that chief football officer role that we had talked about, you know, rumored for whatever. The interesting note about this is an in listener. Sam pointed this out. I wanted to give him credit where his title is. Eh, w w which is the one that I have here. Oh, sorry. I J Rothmans I'll get to that. He is in job. Football operations. So he's kind of going to be that CFO. And so he was a former Bill's general manager. Doug Whaley is always going to be in similar capacity. So we have the list here. We have the nine people. Is there any of these names or any of the things I've highlighted with some of their backgrounds? Strike you as anything. Interesting. Nothing right now. I mean, J Rothman's a good hire. Very good hire there. So. It's definitely gonna be interesting to see like, You know how the, how, how, how well they do. And I I'm. I also will share the concern about Russ, because I mean, you know that he did leave Buffalo in, you know, unceremonious fashion. And it's almost, you wonder if, if they even did their homework, like if they even tried to like, look outside the box and actually look for a candidate, That could do this. That didn't have the baggage. You almost wonder if they dead. Did they try? It feels a little like in the family and we're kind of sweeping stuff under the rug. We have Ross Gerber. He's the chief financial officer. He was with the MBA. He was senior vice president I've team and labor finance. Yeah, that's a good hire. We're bringing in a lot of people that have been really smart in other leagues, right? This Jordan slash healer. He had been with the XFL before a lot of these people have been were, were with the league in some capacity before bringing them back in Janet Dodge is the same way she was. President of the XFL guardians before she's rejoining kind of in this prominent role. It's good to see people that were with the league before. Except for obviously. Every P*****k. Yeah. I always think it's ever never bought a lot of these people are getting rolls back. I have a wedding show tonight. My brand's very tight. But I Janet's a good one because she's been with the league a long time, really built up the New York audience is good as you could kind of in that New York market. The other interesting. Mark Ross. He is a current analyst on NFL network. I think that is interesting to bring in that sort of like, is he going to be easy executive vice president of football operations? Is he going to be more of the on-air role, right? Where he is like an analyst? I'm like I said, maybe rest Brandon is just the president. Like we don't see him. Right. Everyone assumes, oh, it's going to be like all of our lock and they're going to be out, you know? And the forefront, and I don't necessarily know if that's the case. Interesting. Interesting. The other, no, Jay. Rozman. So this is when I wanted to say, so listeners set. He is the senior vice president of broadcast operations and, and Jay thought that was interesting as he worked for ESPN. Is is the XFL. Are they going to be doing their own broadcast of the games? Good question. Where, you know, obviously we know they're going to be producing a lot of content, right? Like the ESPN 20 for twenties and the 24 7, all that leading up. But when you're talking about broadcast operations, someone that was the EVP of, you know, Monday night football, Before, if you have any way, there's no like XFL, you know, basically like NBC would produce it or Fox would produce it. Right. They would be doing whatever ESPN. I guess was NBC, you know, the original XFL, you know, ESPN and Fox, but this time. You know, maybe XFL is producing their own content that way, running the games and then selling that to the networks. Yeah. Presumably the same cost. Or maybe they're looking into like, doing like a, like a network type of situation where, you know, they, they, they have the framework. Place to broadcast their own games on overtop service and they get sell their own ads that way, who knows. A bunch of different possibilities. So. Yeah. With this classical. I want to get through this. Jordan Slatcher I mentioned before, he'll be happy. He was the one he negotiated the whole bud light seltzer thing. People were excited about that. So obviously, you know, some more, and that was the big sponsorship from the original XFL. But yeah, they actually don't need to have, has a great breakdown of all of these, but really excited to see this news coming out. They've also updated the career page and they've basically, they've linked it over to LinkedIn. So they're going to be posting jobs. Now I would imagine pretty soon I would imagine going into the new year, if you want to do social media staff or whatever for the XFL, but that is all getting updated. It does seem like we're moving all along. I know they shouldn't hire. Danny Garcia appearing to be holding a weird ball. My. I have it on focus. I did this. Display me for this is very unprofessional. Yeah. This was the thing you. And when Danny and Duane, when they came out and they bought the XFL. They, they had their own custom ball, so I don't buy this. People are thinking like I saw, oh, are they going to go back? Are they remanufacturing balls? I don't think that we spend the nine months of research and development that they did making the first XFL balls and redoing that. Like, I don't, if. We're buying the league. That's moldy jerseys and footballs. I think we're keeping the footballs that we have. I don't think we're like going about doing that again, but people are worried. I think it says a diseases. I'm going to put this further up. The jacket is more concerning to me than the football. Can we be honest. I don't know what's going on there. There's a lot of, there's a lot of words on there. Let's call. Yeah. It's like. What, what is happening with this? I don't even know what this even needs a jacket, some more concerning. Like a zoo Baz reject jacket. [Unknown] that people used to wear back in the day. No Zumiez. No, no, not Zumi Zubair. They were like zebra pants, look them up. When, when we're done, they're ridiculous. And that's what this looks like. It's ridiculous. Also, you texted me about this. You thought the week before that Josh Johnson was going to play turns out Mike White. Who is going to be their franchise quarterback for the jets. That's the gun. Yeah, that is the guy. He has all the Moxy, all the intangibles that you couldn't measure. You know, I think what's his name? Oh, Zack. Yeah, I think it's time has done already. I think Mike, White's the guy, Mike, they call me Mike effin white. That's his nickname. That's. That's pretty, that's pretty obvious, but. Josh Johnson came in to replace him when he got injured with a forum, unfortunately. With 27 41 for 317 yards, three touchdowns at neuroception. It is clear why Josh Johnson keeps getting work. This is obvious. This shows you that spring football works. Araj. Because it's kept a guy like Josh Johnson, employed and sharp and. And, and game ready. So. It was interesting. Yeah. I've told you this soundbite real talk. I don't know if I want to do the Eros experiment for Thanksgiving. I don't know if I'm ready for that. I think we might do we'll. We'll see. Eight. He doesn't seem, I don't want him to come in and be a grumpy guy. I want to actually talk CFL. And if he's going to want to be himself. I don't want, like, I want to have an actual conversation about CFL and I don't think that it's going to be that way. I think. Come on and bash the XFL for like 30 minutes. All. I was going to do, and that's not, I don't have any, like I don't and you could go bandwidth there. I don't have the energy to do that. We'll say. The other thing. Well, I rapport, you know, Is reporting. Obviously, cam Newton got brought in PJ Walker was going to get, you know, the star at Sam Donald's hurt. He's at least going to get the star this week against Arizona. I mean, talking about the horrendous way to make sure. Right. I mean, at least a JJ watt is injured. I mean, not as good these injury, but at least JJ is not going to be like breathing down his throat, but. You know, cam Newton's coming in. That's this appointment, I was really helping the NEC a week 11 was going to be the Panthers versus Washington football team. And it would have been heinie keepers, PJ Walker, which we actually would have been like pretty remarkable, but. Disappointing. I think you have a better shot with PJ than $10 million with cam coming in. I completely agree. I think this is, I think this is a situation where they're trying to like maybe men defense, one with cam maybe been the fence there with cam cam should retire Panther. He should. He took it to the Superbowl. He needs to retire in Carolina. I there's no doubt that he needs to do that. So maybe this is like the field. Good story. While I love to see PJ get the reps. You know, it needs to Cam's cam story needs to have this happy ending and go out on a good note. Maybe this is it. So. Yeah, just average. Yeah, it. It is a report here. And then we had this, we have a very small kind of up to you, just real quick at the end of the show up. He reports again, that Toronto could be getting an NFL franchise along with London and St. Louis is the other one that's involved in that. And San Antonio is that the other one I have. They're trying to get up to 30 16. You know, 80, cause you're going to have 18 games and then. You know, the whole thing. Interesting with that, obviously with the MLSE of it all and the XFL and Toronto and the Argonauts and all that stuff. We have a voice limit about that, but any thoughts about the Toronto in this of it? I will say this right now. A franchise. All alone in London is not going to work. That's not going to work. You'd be better. You'd be better. Suited. Yeah. That's exactly. I was going to say Mexico city would be the place you need to put a team. That would be, that would be a personal choice over London. The reason why here's another reason why the NFL is looking to expand. A, because of pandemic losses. I don't know if you guys know this, but every single major league sports, France. Organization. Lost a lot of money, even though they're able to get back on their feet. Cause they've got, you know, You know, built in fans and TV contracts, whatnot. They still lost a lot of money. So there's going to be a lot of expansion talk with a lot of different leaks. Spoiler alert. The Seattle Sonics are coming back. The NBA is going to give them a team. They're going to give Seattle team. It's going to be the Sonics are coming back. The other reason why the NFL is going to do this. And, and they've picked St. Louis. The other reason why it's happening. I don't know if you've been watching what's going on with Stan cranky though. Owner of the Rams. How he, you know, he kind of said he was going to. Basically. When St. Louis. If St. Louis sued the NFL for relocating the Rams out of St. Louis to bring them back to LA, bring them back to LA. Got to say that. Stan was like crunky was like, Hey, I will cover all the legal costs. The owners are off. There's no. Financial liability from any of the owners for me. To make this move and the owner's like, hell yeah, let's do it then. Now he's backing off his financial obligations. So this is, might be a way for the NFL. Be like, Listen, if you drop the lawsuit against us, we'll give you a team. Win-win. Yeah. A couple of the last things, and then we'll get to the voicemails here real quick. We'll get out. Birmingham news coming next week and they're moving forward with that. I, you know, hopefully Monday, Tuesday, I imagine, like I said, we have Jeff Roman coming up. This quote really struck me on three down. They do their insider quotes every week. This. You know, they're anonymous quotes. It says there's already rumors going around that some current or former CFL coaches are going to the USFL. If they go, they're going to try to poach players. I wanted to say with that, I get a lot of feedback, a lot from CFL groups. When I, when I post like USFL. There are, why are you posting? All of these leagues exist together. No league exists in the bubble. If the USFL launches in March and April, they're going to attract some coaches that are not going to be available or necessarily want to then go play immediately after in the CFL, especially if they're moving up their kickoff. Like far, hon it originally reported to like, Either right at the beginning of the June or into may, like the, the, all these leagues exist together. And so when I post like post USFL extra, like these coaches. Little Thompson Lee quarterback, the Argos, just playing the spring league last year. That's why it's connected. Like I just get tired of this. Like, why are, why, why are we hearing about all these other leaks? Because they all exist together. So I think it's. I don't know if the players, I don't know if you need to worry about the players leaving. I think the CFL is financially more stable than the USFL is evil with all their troubles. Even the fact that like, You know, teams here and there get to get to like. Flirt with bankruptcy. I still think the CFL's a better business model right now, from what I've seen. Since we've been covering Brian Woods and his cohorts over the spring league and now USFL. We've been covering them. And we know there are some financial concerns that we personally have. So if I'm a player, I'm a coach. I'm looking at that situation. Billing. I don't know. If I want to risk. Making, you know, $40,000 Down in the us. Over what I'm making in Canada and, you know, Canada's a viable league. USFL might be, it might be for a year. Yeah, you might get, you might get a year. You might lose. Yeah. There's so many question marks with USFL. I just don't think it's a situation where, unless you're looking for your first head coaching gig. I don't see anyone leaving the CFL to go to the USFL. I just don't. I do so I will disagree, but that's good. I think that's good. I mean, I think that we just talked earlier, you had the cap issues and all of that coaches. Not feeling welcomed in that welcome, but not feeling like they have longevity with their teams, right. That maybe their careers are on the line that way punitively. Right? Like, Hey, you did bad. We're going to fire you. We'll see. I'll be curious to see. I mean, no one we don't know yet that that's whatever. Vander's or football, this. The last thing they released their combined dates. I'll put it up here December for the 18th. You got, you got the weather in LA on the 18th because they had the PDs. January 8th. Here's the thing, you know, February 28th combined USFL is training cancer started March 1st. So if you are, people might not be leaving the CFL for the USFL, but they are definitely leaving fingernail football for the USFL. Yeah. Here's a couple of quick voicemails before we go. These aren't too long. She's. Kyle first voicemails from Kyle here's Kyle coming at ya. Of course it's gotten tougher. You can play your alerts for your texts, but not this. Yeah, this is the way. That's happening there. We can't. We can't not have. Hey, what's up guys. And I'm going to have to start working out on my fate there because. There's some issues going on with that. There are some. Paul. Hey. You know what read. Oh, I'm so happy that you guys came out with this this way for us. Fans, you know, to communicate with you guys. Questions, give feedback, et cetera. You know, I love this show fan for a long time. Listen to it every week. I'm in a blast. What a week for XFL news. This is exactly what we were waiting for. I'm curious for you guys though. How do you feel. About all this news. This is huge, you know, from going from such a, a long period of time without anything, you know, feeling it. And then all of a sudden, boom, you know, all this to talk about, you know, so. This is great. It's great for the show and it's great for us fans. I'm happy to listen to about it here. How do you guys do take care? Thanks for that. We're definitely excited. There's a lot more talk going on. More stuff that we could talk about, the better it is for you. The better it is for us to, I mean, like we were worried about what we've talking about. All this time. And thankfully, you know, we had the CFL to kind of. Kind of ingratiate ourselves with. And it's been cool. So it's good to see some, some news about the XFL, the whole reason why we started the podcast to begin with. Yeah, too. Two quick ones. Zach's is St. Louis fans. Zach's talking about the expansion. Your best football buddy. I just won't give my perspective on. Potentially. I'm not too worried about it. Because even though I would support the NFL coming back to town. I think. The entire city is basically. Done with that. So I'm not worried about. It affecting spring football. In any way. There you go. I mean, I, do you think, you think St Louis has burned on the NFL? No. I mean, I think they're burned in the sense, like they're p****d that they don't have a team, but you give him the chance to get a team they're going to gladly take that. So. Y, I, I see his point. I don't quite agree with it. Okay, thanks. I last one, Richard's a long time fan. Richard's a big fan. Hey, Marcus, this is original Humphrey. No Richard. Cori on Twitter. I have to say, gosh, So great. Fantastic. There's two you on YouTube. And Parkash and. I'm so happy about. The SFL hiring. I just hope. Soon we'll get information about the coaches and TV and all the plans. I mean. When they give us all the information will be. Because the fan been waiting for news since they bought delete. There you go. We're all excited for the news. We're. We were super excited to see their hiring people. There's some movement being made. There's something finally happening with the XSL. So we're glad you're sharing that enthusiasm. There you go speak five.com/mark has. These are real people calling in. I think this is great. I'm going to get one for wheelhouse. I think. Thank you read, like you've given us an idea. You, you took. Will's been kinda mad when you call your mom, mama. Mark has like. They took that from me. So it's like, you know, We share and share alike. But yeah. We want to leave a comment if you want to leave whatever I can subscribe. I just think that's a good way. If you want to leave a comment, I like getting more people involved in the show that way I think that's really easy. Definitely again and subscribe to us on all the platforms, all of them, all of them, YouTube. Speaker. Apple podcasts, Google podcasts. The weird geo, whatever it is that. I heart radio that's there's like a geo Saben. One thing. I think we're on Amazon now. They finally added us to Amazon. It's a Facebook now. Yes, we did. I did set that up today, not today, but last week. Last week. And you can get us on Facebook. Now you can listen to the podcast right in your Facebook feed. Part of that whole metaverse everyone's talking about. I want you to stay on the platform though. I've listened to the body. They want you to buy things on the platform. They want you to stay on the platform. And that's what this whole metaverse thing is about. Look it up. If you're interested. Anyway, I want to thank everybody for listening. I want to thank you for subscribing. Again, we got another giveaway coming out with 1600. Is that where we're looking at. 2000. I just, I was saying if we got to it this week, I was going to buy someone merged, but we didn't get there. So we have to worry about that. So 2000 we're going to. We're going to get some lines that. Thanks again, Dan Ralph, Chris Edwards. I think that's good connections there, Adam goth. I remember we have Jeff promo coming out next week with a bunch of CFL people. It's going to be a good job. Very cool stuff again. Thanks for listening. Subscribe and share. And we'll see you here next week. That was good. I do like the voicemail thing. I think that's, that's a great addition. Just, I mean, I know it's like five minutes at the end of the show and like, but like, to me, that's like a. It doesn't cost a penny it's interactive. And that's, that's, that's something that drives people, listen to shows. They're like, oh, I can interact. And we'll always do it at the end. Like always plug it, do it at the end, but like, and it's free you sign up. Cause like you can get 30 a month. We're never going to get more than 30 a month. I felt. I mean. Right. I love this new camera. Like I'm, I'm really happy with this new camera. Like I don't, I don't have the depth of field anymore, but like, It's good quality. It looks great to me. To me. And you're the think is good. It's all always right out of sync. Oh yeah. The sync. Well, I never bothered me. I never bought it always bothers me. Okay. Promo let's get the f**k outta here. Yup. All right. I'll leave with XFL. Pop the top of the thing. This week on the mark cast, big XFL news, a lot of stuff happening. Holy cow Reed was asking for a while do something like he was like the meme with the stick, with the guy, poking XFL logo, saying, do something and they're finally doing something. [Unknown] it is the fellowship of the XFL. I'm very proud of that. We have our nine hires increasing glass brand in J Rothman. We have all that, you know, all the big, heavy hitters NFL network NBA. Iraj come at us with all your criticisms. Of the hires at the expo. We have XFL. President and leadership hired. Very cool stuff. We're also still talking CFL stuff. We've got three guests this week, Dan Ralph, our CFL hall of fame writer in front of the show from the Canadian press. Chris Edwards. He is the senior life event producer for TSN. I asked Chris the question that everyone wanted me to ask. And I have that all set up. Yup. Oh, and it's ghost write, what is it? Well, we have Adam gossip, goth. And Adam Goss, the PA announcer for the Toronto Argonauts, which is really American CSL team. And a new way to contact us and interact with us. This is a cool thing to read that you can leave us voicemails. Now we have a lot, we're playing your comments. We're talking feedback, but we have a big show. We got USFL next week we had good guests lined up. XFL said this week, your CFL week, 15 preview, big Argonauts Hamilton game. We're selling out BMO. Everyone's going crazy. Adam's got a flag fallen off the law in his interview. It's something weird with Argonauts people interviewing us and things falling off walls like Nitel a couple weeks ago. Now I'm worried that something's going to fall off my fault. Oh, well, hopefully it doesn't happen. That's all happening this week. We're getting ready for the playoff final playoff, pushing the CFL. Cause we did all the like pre-season stuff and now it's, you know, like what a season stuff. Yeah, so. Well, thanks for hopping on. Let me hit record here. Yeah. And. Cool. Well, thanks for coming on. Well, we have friends of the show already, already Yani. Okay. Canadian hall of fame, reporter Dan, Ralph. Thank you so much for coming back on the show. How are you? Great. My pleasure as always. And we were secretly plotting. Some potentially grey cup live episode things here before we started recording. So that could be fun. What. I guess where week 15 here. I'm really curious. What, what is your main storyline right now? Whether you tracking this week? Well on Friday, you've got the Toronto Argonauts hosting Hamilton. The winner of that. Puts itself. Well, if Toronto wins it, they, they went Toronto will win the east and get a first round by. And if Hamilton wins, they win the season series. They assume first place going into the last week of the season and could be in their own. Could could control their own destiny whether or not they finished first. So, and lurking in behind is the, the Montreal lox. And third they're only a game behind Hamilton and two behind Toronto with two to play. And so. If those two teams beat up on each other, Montreal could sneak in and get, get second place, or I guess in a roundabout way. I am still get a home playoff game one. There's still plenty of drama going down the stretch. I mean, Oh west, you have Calgary in a position to clinch. A a, a playoff spot. You've got Saskatchewan in a position to clinch a home playoff spot. And if Calgary, clinches, then BC's done. So. The muddled. The muddle CFO playoff picture. I could clear up significantly by, by Sunday. So I was surprised I'm putting together the show today. Paul and I are going to record tonight. You know, I CFL riders, you know, cfl.ca. Good. You know, take what you want with what they pick. I was really surprised to see Hamilton across the board, everyone picking them in the scam. Does that surprise you? No, no, I, I mean, Toronto leads the season series to one, but both of those wins were by a point. And I was being very gracious when I just was writing this, that I said that the football gods for smiling upon Toronto for both those wins and they were. I mean. Elton had a chance to, they were, they pulled to within 17, 16. In the first loss. And what should be. Maybe not an automatic, but they miss the convert to that would have forced overtime. So Toronto one that came 17, 16. And then on our Thanksgiving, on the 11th of October. Hamilton took a 28. Lead into the fourth quarter needed a field goal with a minute 30 left to go up by two. And then Toronto. Drove the ball down with just over a minute. They drove 31 yards and kick the game winning field goal from 51 yards out into the wind. On the game's final place. So the other win Hamilton got was on labor day and it was by 12 points and it was decisive. So. If, if Hamilton, you know, to me, Hamilton with a little bit of luck, Goes into this game sitting in first, but I think anybody will tell you, you know, if you, if you want to win, you got to get lucky sometimes. And Toronto has had its share of luck. You know, we've obviously. You know, track the whole Toronto and the attendance and MLSE, I've, you know, I've seen a lot online today. All the available tickets are sold for Toronto. Right. I saw Steve Simmons had a big article come out like, you know, Toronto, if they win, does anyone care? A lot of outrage? What are you making of the push that Toronto is making, you know, they're going to have presumably 12,000 fans, whatever the capacity is. They're really trying to make a stand here. Like we do give an S about this team and this league. Yeah. Well, and I'll tell you the CFL needs Toronto to be too. To do well. Maybe not necessarily on the field, but in the stands. And so I'm not surprised. I mean, MLS has come under a lot of flack this summer. And, and you can't hide behind the COVID pandemic anymore because the Ontario government is allowing more and more people into, into stadiums. And they're just not coming in. But having said that it's not just for the Argo games to Toronto FC. The MLS team. Which usually. Has great attendance has seen its numbers. Dwindle. But they've struggled this year too. So I. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe that's just a part of the fickle. Soccer market, but I don't know what else the football team has to do in terms of putting a product on the field to succeed. But, you know, MLS has come under a lot of flack about its lack of marketing and not putting its money where its mouth is. In terms of the Argos. And I guess we'll see this weekend. They better get 12,000. Because I'll tell you, half of those fans are going to be tied. Cat fans. So, you know what? They better get 12 to 13. And, and, and it better, it better resonate that way because it's not hard to count. I mean, I joke, but at halftime I can count the attendance this year. So. I'm hoping that maybe if I start counting, I have to go into the third quarter on Friday. Yeah. I mean, what do you make of the attendance? You know, a lot's been made in Edmonton as well, right? I think it was like 6,000 fans the week before last. Obviously they have been dreadful. You know, in general and then especially at home, but you know, here, I heard, you know, for months leading into the season, okay, we're going to do a slow rollout, open up capacities. Well, now. I mean, obviously Toronto, they're still operating under, but like Edmonton, they can't fill that place if they, yeah. I saw $29. All you can eat or get a hot dog and the water, I. W, what do you make? Where a week 15, we're still not hitting these capacities except for, you know, Toronto this weekend, potentially. Yeah. Well, I mean the NHL season started the NBA season started. And those are direct competitions for the entertainment dollar in Toronto. And. And both of those have both of those sports have much higher profiles on football here. Well, I mean, But putting my football hat on. I can't imagine that there's not 20,000. Diehard football fans in the city of this size. That don't. Care enough to come down and, you know, the TV numbers seem to be good for Toronto. So it's like people will sit at home in the comfort of their basement. Or their living room and watch, but they won't make the, they won't make the effort to come down. And, and I can't, I can't give you a reason why. I mean, They moved to Bemo years ago because it's, it's a much more intimate stadium. It's down by the lake and on. On a beautiful day. It's a great place to watch a football game. They're still not coming. And my biggest fear is if MLSE can't make this go or decides that it's not going to try and continue to make this go. Whether there'll be anybody who will, because I mean, if MLSE, can't do it with. It's resources. I think to me, that's pretty damning. If, if, if it gets to that, But, you know, we'll, we'll see. Well, I'm putting the cart before the horse. Well, no, but you know, you just had Mr. Domin. Monogamy OBC lions this week, I think on sports net talking, you know, he's willing, you know, he knows it's going to be this huge uphill battle. A lot of his own personal funds, you know, being spent to do this. And like you said, if you have the resources that MLSE has at their disposal and they're not. Making it happen. You know, it does get that question there. It does. And I mean, I watched two, two gentlemen. David cinnamon. And our son, the last key to. And Southern Ontario businessmen. And two very respected people in, in what they do. They, they came in and they gave it, you know, everything they could. And, and I thought, you know, I mean, it was what. What they did was commendable and was fabulous. And. They did everything they could. But when MLSE came, I mean, you're, you're comparing a sports. Kind of a Walmart or a giant immediate, you know, sports giant. And I thought, you know, okay, well, you know, they've got the resources to make this go and. We haven't seen it. And you know, and I don't know why. I mean, I've been in this, been in this job for 30 plus years. And I've seen it do this. But mostly this, and I wish I had an answer for you. I, because if I did. I would bottle it and I would, I would sell it to the eyes better. What do you make? We had our big episodes a couple of weeks ago, you know? Does the CFL have an entertainment problem? It seems like that was kind of the prevailing, you know, we're getting these low score games. Yes. They're coming down to the last second, but you know, it's like 19 to 21 or whatever. I mean, Whether you w overall. The seasoned dots this year about the entertainment and the football quality on the field. The entertainment's been good because the games for the most part have been close. But when you examine why they've been closed. Yeah. I mean, some of the, some of the, the. The offensive fireworks that, that this league is known for, have not been very, very, they've been fueling far between. And, you know, I wish I had an answer for that. Some of the offenses, like I. I thought for sure that the Hamilton, Ty cat offense would catch fire in 2021. And it's, it's been, it's been inconsistent. The Argos offense has been inconsistent. The best offense has been the one out west with the defendant grey cup champions. And, but otherwise, yeah, there's been a lot of. Inconsistencies. Defenses have been very, very good. And I initially I was chalking it up to, okay. They lost a year. And it takes an offense. A little while to catch up, but I mean, that argument doesn't hold doesn't hold water when you're what. 12 Games into a season. And, you know, maybe, maybe they'll catch fire this week, but the entertainment value has been good because the games have been close for the most part. But there's a reason why they've been closed and that's because they haven't always been well-played. And I mean, I look at a guy like Bodhi by Mitchell. Who's still probably one of the best quarterbacks in this league. And he's got twice, almost twice as many interceptions. Two touchdowns and that's unheard of for him. And that seems to be the by-product of 2021 in the cane for. All week, I guess. Yeah, it's just weird. I mean, we have a story with Cody for jar though. Coming up. You know, complaining. You know, the games are exciting, you know? There's talks of moving to four downs or whatever, and cause he's like, you know, it's. It's like, we're still on this year off. And I just, you know, Winnipeg had the same year off that everyone else had. It might not be out a lot of, you know, retention and carry over right. With the O-line everything, but like they still have, and it's, I mean, it's just lights out across the board except for Winnipeg and. We just seems like something is a miss here that. That you know, the Winnipeg is, is that Ms. Hanson source. We have Jamie Knight had a, had a story talking about. You know, the cap issues when it comes to coaches and things like that. Right. Being YouTube. Is that the idea, because you know, here we are USFL, whether you believe it or not. Right. Launching in, in April, you know, we have the presumed announcement coming next week. That's going to draw coaches from the CFL. It's going to draw players. You know, if they don't have the money to, to retain people or the people that retain me, what do you make of that in the coaching? That's just really been stale this year. Yeah, I think, I think there should be a big concern about that. And years ago, God bless his soul. Don Matthews talked about. The the need for a coaching association. To set up pensions to set up. A situation where coaches could get paid more and get paid better. And. And have more security. 'Cause he envisioned the day when. The good coaches would leave and go elsewhere. And. You know, You're seeing that. You know, I mean, I don't think anybody begrudges a coach. To take an opportunity in the national football league. I mean, that's, that's where they want to be. Most of the coaches in Canada are American, and it's an opportunity to go back home, but you want to keep your good coaches and you want to keep, you want to do what you can to keep the, you know, like do what Hamilton's done and keep Tommy Candell and Orlando Steinhauer. And Mark Washington. And I'm and trying, and keep the turnover limited to maybe position coaches, which you can. In, in essence. Replace more easily. Right. But I think it's, I think it's an issue. And when you start cutting coaches salaries, There's a much more competition and you're going to have guys that are going to go. I mean, Chris Jones was coaching at a high school for crying out loud. After he, after he left Cleveland. So. I think it's something that that's. That's very valid and it's, it's something that they're going to have to address now how they address it because the coaches don't have an association. They don't have a union. So that's a really good question. I wish, I wish I knew that too. It's this crazy, you know, I get a lot of flack, you know, we post our episodes in a lot of the XFL groups, a lot of the CFL and the USFL and yeah, you get a lot of the CFL people. W what is, what is USFL or what does XFL have to do with, you know, what does that have to it's like, well, it has a lot to do with it right now. When you, when you're looking where we're there. You know, announcing next week, Fox sports, you know, 150 million, three years. I mean, whether you want to laugh at. The league or not, or. I mean, this is, you know, presumably a real league that's going to play for 13 weeks. You're going to have these players in these coaches that are going to get tied in and not be able to go back or have players that go, well, why would I go up to Canada? When I could make about the same, maybe a little less, but I'm at home. I'm here for 13 weeks and then we move on and I go back to my job. You. You know, you get, are you concerned at all about that? I would be. And the thing is the American players going to go down south and play. He's going to get paid in American money. He's going to be in the United States. And in his mind, he's going to be more visible to the national football league because that's where most, if not all these guys want to end up, they're either on their way up trying to prove that they belong or they're trying to get back. And, and I think that's what American leaks. Offer that. Offered that ability to get paid in American dollars. Cause they come up here and they make Canadian dog Canadian money. And it's not par and, and there is the top two about. You get taxed, maybe you get taxed twice. I have to have an account and go through that with me because I am a Canadian and I, I live here year round, but I get that, you know, A while ago. The Canadian and American dollars were at par. And I remember talking to an Argo player and. I think I remember who it was, but on until, until my mind's getting, but I think. He was, he was taking all of his Canadian money. And reinvesting it in buying American because he goes, this is not going to last forever. And he's right. And these guys, the American player takes a major hit when he comes up here to play because he's getting paid in Canadian. Canadian money. So the opportunity to play closer to home. To make American money. And I think probably be more visible and closer to the national football league. For all incentives for players and ditto for coaches, I think. Do you see. You know, we had you on, obviously after the breakdown that the talks and everything, I don't want to get into the XFL of it all, but do you see seismic changes happening within the CFL, following the season? You know, now that we've gotten through it and we've seen, you know, and we're going to look at the budget sheets and we're going to see how much money was lost in. You know, Rule changes to try to freshen up the offense to me, what I, you know, across the board, do you see seismic changes? Well, first and foremost is there there's. This seems to be having had been a common theme throughout, but we're going through another round of CBA talks this winter, and those have been contentious. They've been, they'd been a little difficult. So, I mean, it'll start with that. There's always rule tweaks and always rule changes. Yes. And then, and then, you know, we'll see where the salary cap goes in the new CBA. And that'll impact. Free agency who gets signed in for how much. And, you know, the whole thing with. We'll see above. You know whether or not we have the whole scale changes. Whether players. Still sign one year deals, or maybe they lock into two more years and maybe. Give you a little bit more security on a team front, but no, I mean, I think the it's going to be the same. We've been through 2000 and, and. After the 2018, we went through CBA talks leading up to two 19. We went through CBA toxin, two 20 for an amended CBA. They didn't play. They went through CBA talks in 2021 to amend the CBA so they could play. And we're going through CBA talks again. So, and, and they're never easy. They're never fun. And they're never, they're never pleasant, especially when these two, these two groups get together. So. I think that may sort of be the tipping point and we'll see where that goes. But there's always rules changes. There's always going to be an Exodus of players. There's always going to be. Coaches that leave to go. Wherever. So I don't see it changing much on that front, but you know, if they do reduce the coaches. Cap or the football ops cap. Then I think you're going to see a team's cut coaches. Or reduce coaches and then others are just going to say, I might as well go back home and. And coach. Do what Chris did coach at a high school. It's just hard, you know? I see all these fans online talk and, you know, there's all these ideas and they should do these shows or they should do this stuff online, or they should do this as like, you know, you need to have the money, you need to have the money to pay the coaches and the players. You know, I TV ratings have a good this year. Right. But I mean, they're kind of set in with their, you know, with their budget from TSA. I just don't know, you know, hopefully I guess another year of two 18 coming in and really bolstering, but I haven't seen any real earth ma moving, you know, movement from that so far. I just don't know what's next for it. You know? Well, I don't either. Because I know when you go into CBA talks. You and I both know. The league is going to it's teams are going to say, look, we we've lost combined the last two years. Umpteen million dollars. We don't have money to give you. And even the TV deal this year, it's been prorated because there's only 14 weeks of games. Right. So, I mean, The. The CFL PA knows that. And I think the player reps know that. And I mean, it's going to be a contentious contentious. CBA. They, but they always are. I mean. W they, they had a nine and two 19, they had a 97% strike vote. And so. But these are guys that, you know, I wonder if they could afford to go on strike, but a lot of them. Didn't play in 2020 and they found alternate rev. Alternative jobs. So maybe they, maybe this time they can, I don't know. But I do know that the teams are going to be saying we lost. Millions of dollars and in. In a data-driven league. You know, it's not going to be hard for them to prove that. Do. Speaking of money. As some of us watched the game for 30 years, this. Do the ads on the field is that. Are we for other, we against it. Well, you know what I, that doesn't bother me. You know, what bothers me more is if I watch a world hockey championship. And I see ads on the jerseys. Then I, for some reason that that irks me more, if I see it across the helmet, The Hendricks me more, but adds on the field. I'm all for. Teams and the league doing whatever it ha whatever they have to in order to be a financially sustainable. Because bottom line. I think you said money makes the world go round in pro sport. And so if you can get a TV. TV. Broadcaster to give you. 130 Million over three years, then I think you become legitimate. Because you need money to make this thing go. And then if the CFO has to sell ads on the field and so be it just please don't put it on uniforms. Not yet. Well, but you have the marks, right? You have the marks sponsored. Right. Yeah. You know, as a covering, you know, Toronto and everything. I was going to ask you to certainly why do you want to get your thoughts on this before we let you go? What do you, what do you make in the McLeod as kind of the primary? I've heard rumbling that it was more of a dissatisfaction in Arbuckle and that maybe Toronto is going to be looking elsewhere after the season. I mean, McLeod, we're a fan, but it's not like he's been lighting the world necessarily on fire knowing he hasn't. But I mean, Th they're still winning and that's, and that's the bottom line, right. But no, I'm with you. I personally, I liked the guy on a personal level. I think he's refreshing because. I would say an excellent. He can be a little out there. And, and, and I, I, I. He's got a fresh take. I. I mean a member asking him why, why does this Kim place a well at BMO field? Any narrative down to grass. Dirt. And worms. I never would have guessed. But, I mean, I think. I think he's, he's a good quarterback. I think he's, he's a good player and I think he's a great teammate. I think they made the decision to, to go with what they had because they weren't going to pay two guys. Cause they were, they had two guys making starters money. And they couldn't afford to pay both. And so when Nick was, was healthy, he was coming on the roster. He was getting a starter salary. And. And so you had the two of them. And I think in a perfect world, you'd like to have one-on-one a, but you can't afford to pay them both. And, and still they were going to get more guys off to six game. The six game injured list. They were going to have to pay them to. And so they had, they had cap. They had cap issues to deal with. And, and I think, you know, what they got from, from Calgary was, or what they got from Edmonton. Was probably better than they would have gotten for McLeod. And I'm not saying that is to diminish McLeod, but McLeod's older. Maybe it had doesn't have as much tread left on the wheel. Although he would tell me he does. But, you know what I mean? Like, I think he's the younger asset and, and you could probably get more forum, but I, I, I do believe that money played a factor in it. No, I, I do have one more question for I live, but no, I mean, I, we saw they Toronto had posted something on social media, you know, come to the game this week and have McCloud Bethel Thompson there, you know, and it was buy tickets. I said, You know, Paul rad, who I would vote for MOCAD Bethel Thompson, sexiest man of the year. I. I've been serious, you know? I mean, it's a good, I think he's a good young, refreshing looking person to have. You know, The star of the team. Last question. I'm glad you didn't ask me what I thought. If he should be. Thank you. I know. A lot's been made about coach Dinwiddie, you know, struggling. Right. We had some time management issues. We had some penalty calling you thoughts on, you know, At first year coach like this and kind of getting down the stretch here. I mean, we're, we're, we're going to the playoffs here and we're, we're making these issues. Yeah. And you know, and he'll be what. I like about Ryan is he will be. You will be. Stand up and he will take responsibility and, and he acknowledged the night that he didn't do very well with time management. And he's, he's acknowledged when he's made mistakes and, you know, God bless him and they've won in spite of his mistakes. So I'm thinking that's, you know what that's he, his, his miscues haven't cost them as far as we know. I mean, I'd have to go back and look at the four losses and see if there were anything there, but he's been, he's a standup person. I think he's done. I think he's done a very good job given where he's got this team and he's got good players and the players seem to like him and seeing the play for him. But, I mean, these, these issues are going to be magnified from here on in. If he makes a mistake that costs them first place and cost them an opportunity to, to host the east vinyl. And then makes another mistake that cost them a chance to go to the final or go to the gray cup. Then that will be magnified. I think he gets out of get, he gets a get out of jail free card because they've won in spite of his mistakes. And B he stood up and beat and said, yeah, I made a mistake. I gotta be better. So now he's got to be better, right? He's used that Maldon. Yeah. W. I w winning solves a lot. I mean, look. It does it, it resolves it. You. It blinds you to whatever warts there are. That's for sure. Yeah. I mean, Yeah, urban Meyer and Jacksonville, you know, I got a couple of wins and now we don't really worry as much about we don't talk about the other stuff. Dan, this has been a long time coming and I appreciate it. Exciting as advertised. Thank you so very, very much stay well, stay safe. And here's hoping I. We get to talk during breakup. I hope so. I will see us. I'm fine off the cuff. So. And you fire away. Cool. Well, let's get going here. Yeah, my, my cogen seems excited to have you on set. That's good. Yeah, hoagies. He's a good guy. For a number of years. So. I was in, I was trying to find like headshots for you for the. You got to get some more headshots out there. You've got to update your LinkedIn. Hello. You want this? You want this face out there now. There's a reason why I'm a producer, man. All right. Well, we, I think we're good here. Okay. Well, I'm excited today. This is a little different than we normally do. We have, you know, Chris Edwards, I TSN senior live event producer. Thank you so much for coming on. How are you? My pleasure to be here. I'm. I'm doing well. Thank you. I'm always happy to talk football, especially CFL. Yeah, thanks for, thanks for buying me. So for the I'm a former TV person, you know, kind of in my, in my previous life before weddings, I did that. So what is kind of your role with everything in, in the CFL of the season? Yeah. So I've been, well, first of all, I've been at TSN since 96. I've worked on CFL. Amongst other things since then. I've been in the trucks. Since 99. And I've been producing since I'm a full-time since 2009 CFL. So my role is. So like I'm doing two games this weekend, Friday and a Toronto. And then a Saturday. Saturday, Montreal. We are, but on the live event producer. So I'm the one in the truck amongst. A cast of characters. Broadcasting the game. All connected via Intercom. Mainly my role is to steer the ship somewhat. I am in constant communication with the commentators with on-field officials. With our people back at TSN just dictating. If we're doing everything from a replay to a graphic to go into commercial break. To what? Not just kind of navigating the waters so you can definitely, you know, tell us who is the biggest diva when it comes to commentator or. But I will say you don't like. Earlier this season we had far, hon, I believe it was far Hahn and. He's the biggest diva far. I think we have far Hahn and down again on as like the. As I said that is. All the games need to be far homology and mat down again. I thought that that was tremendous. Been also the BC completely just like Steve rolled again. It was one of our soul wins this year. Yeah. I, so can you put me in contact with whose decision it is to play what you're made of 87 times at every single CFL game? You know, we do have a deal with universal music and. They do like to push or an artist. And we, we like to find, especially with that song, which I gotta tell you, it's, it's definitely grown on me and we'll find sometimes the truck. We're clapping the hands along to it, but it's, it's nice to have a signature song. That's for sure. And I know. You know, for the diehard fan who watches a lot of games. Maybe they hear it a lot, but it's, I don't know. It it's, it's definitely grown on me. And then he sees an artist that's a. That's a, I don't know, the song has kind of resonated and it's, it's both easy to, you know, cut tube. It has a little bit of a. You know, some good pace and whatnot, but I know, I hear that. I've heard that before, you know, we heard that with the rec laws before, but it is nice to have a signature song. So that's the, yeah. But getting back to the diva comment, I got to tell you, and I'm not just saying this. We have a great group of people that love the CFL and there's no divas on that. And. And that group, it's a real good game that loves the league. And just wants to put on the best. I put out the best product possible. But it will say far hands a little bit, but he's a little hard to deal with. Well, no. Hey. Yeah, no, I get the side thing. Because, yeah, I did see they're talking about the red claws E right. The half game show at the ground, we're going to be at the grey cup. We have our tickets. I said now, if it's not Steven Lee Olsen or whatever we write, I don't even know how it would be to even watch a CFL game with that, that just, and I've certainly done my fair share of. You know, live events and TV. And I definitely know how those ear worms get in your head where you, you hear that every time. But yeah. Speaking of the CFL, do some media, as someone from America, the outside, reaching out to people throughout the year, yourself included, like you said, they're really, everyone is so open and wanting to work and see this league succeed and grow and taking time like you are today. I mean, it really speaks volumes to all the men and women that are kind of behind the scenes working on this football league. Yeah. I got to tell you, like I said, I'd been involved since 96 and I can think of a well, there's a very small group of us that had been on it since then. Like I think of our senior producer, John Heinz, who's done. Hub. Like I can. I'm not even sure what number grey cup would be. It's gotta be probably 12 or 13 that he'll do this year. And then Glen suitor and one of our statisticians David Morris there's the four of us are kind of the only ones left of that old guard since 96. But I got to say everybody who's come along the way. CFL has been a real labor of love. And it's a, it's a big reason why we get a special, I get very defensive of it when some people, you know, Attack it or whatnot, because I love all football. I love NFL, like college. I don't discriminate. You know, and some people that rag on the CFL ticks me off because it's a great product. And I, like, I grew up, I grew up in Edmonton as a youngster watching. Well, I can call the Eskimos since they were back then. But, so there was a, there was a love for this league that was. You know, those ingrained in me. But we have so many people that just put so much work into making this product. Look as good as possible. We love it. And, you know, we take a lot of pride in it, so it's a. You know, we. I tell you every year when we finally get to that great cup, it's a real combination of a lot of, lot of work. A lot of hours and, you know, we're, we're a group that really loved working with each other. So it's really, like I said, it's a labor of love, but I get, I'm very lucky. I get to work with a lot of people that I consider my good friends and I get to do a great leak, which I. Absolutely. Well, and, and just the excitement of, you know, live TV of live sports, especially right. You know, I never the same, always there, you know, you can ever predict, you know, whether it's going to come down to whether it's going to end up being. How did you kind of get involved? How did you get involved in all this? I kind of fell into it by what happened to be in Toronto. For a couple of weeks. Back in back in 96 of my first gig was actually, I was the late pat burns. I was his special assistant when he was working for us on the. NHL playoffs for two weeks. I was as gopher. Doing whatever we wanted. And at the end, those two weeks. The then executive producer. Appreciate. Paul McLean who. Ah, sadly, we lost, we lost. Number of years ago. And he was the originator of Friday football. He was a huge support of this league. But Mack asked me if I want to stick around and I played football high school university. I love the game. I wanted to see us succeed and I just kind of fell into it and it turned out to be, I like to joke. It's the two things I did best growing up, which were playing sports and watching TV. And it's been a. It's been a great marriage. And you talk about the live, the live aspect. I talked about John Heinz earlier. I was working under him for a number of years in 2008. He let me do the second half of a stand. Peter is a Eskimos game. So I was in the lead chair and when I did my final count. Unfair. I just kind of sat back and the adrenaline of it all I just said, you know what? I know this is what I want to do. And I love it. It doesn't really matter to me. If it's a Friday night, which is basically a playoff game between Thai cats and the. Our goals or if it's, you know, if it's funny the week of the year and it's a nothing game, I. The adrenaline of. Doing a live game and telling stories and just being involved in it. It, I get such a thrill out of. Like I find them just so lucky to do what I do. I love it. It's a real rush. Oh, yeah. There's nothing quite like it. I want to, and I want to, I taught games before we get to that. This season, what's it been like? You know, coming back, you. Kind of shaking the rust off right of the year, you know, getting back, you know, kind of getting the game together again. Kind of overall mile high thoughts of this season, how it's been for you. Yeah, it's been a, I'd say it really. It really reinforced how much we love this, given how much I missed it. Like it was, it was a tough year being away. Last year was a, was a struggle because, you know, just, you. There's always the worry about the CFL or worried about what was going to happen. But it was. It's so good to be back and I'll be honest. We haven't had. The overall number of the games haven't been. The best as before. It seems like defenses have really ruled this year, but we've had, so we've still had some great moments. It seemed like the last few weeks, things are really ramping up in intensity and the playoffs are going to be great, but it, it was definitely, it was great to be back. If there were some challenges we've had to adjust with. No, it was the same with covert protocols with distancing on interviews. We're not doing, we're not close to teams as we usually are. I've missed going down on the sidelines, pregame, which I used to do just to kind of hang around. But, you know, we all adjust and. Just being able to be back and doing the games has made up for the fact that, or made up for the inconveniences of, you know, of what we've had to go through, but it's just, it's a. It's been great. You. And we, like I said, we've adjusted along the way and we've had a blast doing it. It's so good to be back doing the games. And I don't even think about last year anymore. Yeah. It's cool because with sports, especially the way TV and replays and everything, you know, Th there's like these moments that will live on right. Forever. You know, I we're just going back and forth today. Ah, When John Ryan and Brad laugh. Last hour when he like. Yeah, we were talking at. Kicking celebrations and I had posted. You know that cause John Ryan used, you know, he was with the Seahawks to. I always have an eye on him and then running into the stands after making, have there been moments this year that you've seen where you're like, wow, that is going to be something that, you know, exists kind of outside of even just this year and something that is going to be part of, kind of the nomenclature moving forward. Yeah. And you know, that's the beauty of it. I'm just thinking before we get to this year, I think of pastures, like. The best, the best moments happen that are organic. Like. Like a great yelling sin in the, in the. I think it was the east semi, when, you know, in the snow doing a snow angel where we, another, we had John got going to the end zone and the, any drinks, a beer like we had, you know, those things happen right in front of our eyes. I'm thinking, you know, it's funny, I'm going to Ottawa theme right now, but I'm thinking like, like last week, You know, the body dead, man, who's now become one of the most electric players in football period. No matter what the league. You know, taking one back to the house and, and tying the great gizmo Williams. In, in kick return touchdowns. You know, in far less games. So I think, you know, the great thing about this game sport live sports in general, but especially as CFL is I find. Any game can just have some kind of moments. That you, that does resonate. And you do remember, and, and I'm sure, you know, I'm sure Friday night for sure. We'll, we'll bring more of those. BMO field. I'm sure there'll be something electric. You don't come on the field before the game somone Lawrence and some of the players are going to be wearing a Angela Moscow Jersey is facilitating. Your honor, the. The legend and a. You know, I it's funny. It is. A lot of it is organic. You. You you plan things before you go into a game, but I would say. 80% Of the time. It's it's it's, it's on the field and, and, and that's, those are the best moments when you don't plan for them, but you execute them properly. And, and, and right. When, when they do happen, Yeah. It's just such an interesting thing about sports, where it just lives on like in our society. It doesn't matter what league, it doesn't matter what sport, you know, you can have great baseball moments or soccer moments or football moments and you know, it just. Everyone remembers like where I was at that time or what was her. And think of just all that, you know, hundreds of moments that you kind of have been involved with over the years. I mean, it's gotta be kind of cool. Yeah, I've been, I've been very fortunate. I've done. The bulk of my work has been football and hockey. I had done a lot of amateur sports. You know, but I, like, I knew the world juniors and I was there when, you know, when Connor McGregor. Conrad, David. One gold. For the juniors. You know, in Toronto the first time it was played there. The same term when I was in Helsinki, when they went out on the first seven holes, which was just unbelievable. It was one of my favorite moments. I've had some great moments over the years with a CFL, but I can honestly say the highlight of my career. And I've done some Olympics. I'll be going back to Olympics. In February, but the highlight of my career and the one moment that I will always remember. Is, you know, The Vannie McMaster, plain Lavelle. And BC place. And. One of the greatest games period ever played. And we nailed the broadcast I, to this day, I see it's the one broadcast I would go back. I wouldn't change a thing, but it's. It just, I still get goosebumps thinking about that game and, and the energy and whatnot. And I've, I've been very fortunate to be a lot of. A lot of really cool moments. And it's, it is by far. Yeah. It's the highlight of my job that you just, when you're there in the moment. Experiencing it with a bunch of people and yeah, I'll never forget some of. The Lily's live on. It's just, it's something that most people, I do, something, you know, I'm have that TV background too, you know, and I'm used to kind of, I'm always the camera guy. I'm always used to, you know, Having the, you know, the star be in front, right. And all the people that go behind the scenes. So I appreciate that, you know, all, you know, the hundreds of people that are working the other cameras and the tracks and back at the studio and putting it together. If you had to think of like a top CFL moment from the last couple of years, I mean, something that fans would really go, oh yeah, I totally remember that. Wow. Well, first of all, you're right about the peel behind the scenes. Cause I always equate it to an iceberg. Yeah, you see. 5% Of it. The controlled chaos. That is behind the scenes ago. Man, I tell ya. You know, it was. You know, in recent memory, you know, the, with the bombers, when in the. The cup. Over the Ty cats, which is a great game recently. It, man, I'm trying to think of just one moment that can really put it. Really stick out. Like it's tough. It is really tough. I think of. Because largely what I do my, my last game of the year is always the east final. I usually do the east semi in east vinyl. We've had a lot of great moments over the years, but. You know, I, I, my, my thoughts just go back to that gray cup. And fortunately I was, I did the pregame show with half that I was sitting with a panel watching, watching much of the game. And I'm just feeling the electricity of the crowd and seeing some of the big plays, seen some of the big hits. Yeah, it's I, I honestly, I can't pinpoint to one. Aye. Probably cause there's too many. I honestly that there, there plays every single game. I think I, you know, I think of a. Actually one of the, I can't think of it. I'll. It's a TV really? The way we did a. You know, on the road, up to the gray cup, you know, sometimes it's approved for you. You just have a, you got to go with your instinct and you feel like you want to talk or tell a story about some, some player. And I just had a feeling about Brandon Banks. So we, we promote him going into the break. We come out, we talk more about them. And what happens. Bang, bang, bang. He gets two catches and the third one is a ridiculous diving catch and he hands off the touchdown. And you just, you just. You know, you feel good, not just because you nailed it, but you just, it just. You know, all the hard work and, and I said, you know, go with your gut. It just, it felt damn good. So that one kind of sticks out. Yeah. The last thing you want is here, previewing this game. And then, you know, someone gets hurt or someone that, you know, But you gotta take chances, right. You know? I'd rather take a chance. It happens all the time. Take a chance on some guy. He doesn't do anything. But you take a chance and it hits you like, all right now, Thank you. Goodbye. So I want to get your thoughts on it. Do you see. So you said you're going to do be doing Toronto right tomorrow and then a Winnipeg. I didn't realize going into today, producing the show, they Toronto is actually considered kind of the underdog here with Hamilton coming in. I kind of, I kind of, I'm a McLeod guy and. So the thoughts kind of on the Hamilton Toronto game here. Yeah. Let's see, NFL is always about. It's not about how you start, it's how you finish. And every year there are teams that. You know, they go through loss. Well, this year Winnipeg hasn't gone through any, they just, you know, they've been consistent with that. But teams like Calgary and Hamilton have really slowly and steadily. Improved over the year. And, you know, Steinhauer is such a good coach and Hamilton is a, you know, a veteran team that they've had some bad injuries. Why not? They've but they're, they're peaking at the right time. I think. And then the Argos. You know, they've had a good, good year. I would give Steinhauer the edge over. Dan, what are you? The coaching category. And I like, I like Bethel Thompson as well. I'm not sure you. The Arbuckle tradies seems to have. I'm not sure he's played as best since there. And I'm gonna ask is that I'm not sure what the reason why. But I just, I just kinda think the Thai caster. R a peaking a little bit. Well, Toronto's plateaued a bit. So if I had to guess, I think. I think the Thai cats. Take that one, which would put them on the inside track of hosting these vinyl. And then, then we got a Winnipeg and Montreal. And even though Winnipeg's sit in the number of guys. And maybe, you know, Montrel. Can contain the beast. I would never count out the bombers, you know, so. Who knows we'll have him, but, but it's great that in the east, especially there's a real. Fight to the end. You know, first place is still for grabs and that's. That's first round by means a lot. And especially if you you're banged up it's so it's, it'll definitely be entering the Friday night is going to be so great that Thai cat Argo game has so much significance this late in the year. And because it's good for the game and it's going to be, it's going to be a great atmosphere there. Oh, yeah. And I, I mean, I've seen online. You know, they sold out, you know, all available tickets, right. And BMO does that obviously ha has to help these add to the electricity. I mean, a good game is a good game, but when you have as many fans as you can in there, Invested in a game that's as important as this. Yeah, absolutely. And it's a. I know they've capped at 12,000, which per se. It's a shame. I wish I wish they would open up a little more, but I'll say this about BMO and people talk about. The crowds and whatnot, but Bemo is. You know, you talk about loud stadiums. You know, Winnipeg's IGF and, and Regina is mosaic or. Or the, or the, or the measuring stick Bemo is surprisingly loud. And, and when you get a good Argo crown there, and Friday will be. There'll be some good Thai representation. It'll feel. It's going to be loud and it is. Honestly, it's going to be a fantastic chemistry. It's going to feel like it's a plastic. It's going to feel like it's the, you know, the semi or the semi. But it'll be a, you know, it's great to see, you know, the, the black and gold faithful come down, come down the highway. And, you know, it's going to be electric right from the get-go. Like I said it will be, this is like a, an early playoff game. Are you able to watch the games as a fan now, you know, being invested in it for so long and obviously, you know, producing and where you it's like when you see how the sausage is made or whatever, but are you able to still enjoy the games as peer sport? I definitely am. Although I know in the past I a. I might still be guilty of this, but I remember I was watching a super bowl. It goes back about five or six years ago. And the gentleman that one of the people I was watching with left the room and I found out why is because I was so critical. I was talking about the broadcast so much. As a beetle, a critical that I drove nuts and he wanted to watch the game. So I kind of learned my lesson, but no, I can definitely watch as a fan. You know, I'm a. I'm a big oiler fan of a big Raptor fan. So I can watch those any day of the week. And I do appreciate watching broadcast to. Learn what works, what doesn't work. I always watch my own games back. Usually my, my director and I he'll go home. I'll go home and we'll both watch the game back together. It's gonna be two o'clock in the morning, but just, just kinda, you know, while it's fresh in our head. But I do. I love going to go to a bar or sit back a friend's and watching a game as a fan because number one, I'm. I'm a huge fan of CFL. I love, I love the game. You know, I like, I liked the NFL too, but I, I just find the CFL game more exciting with, with. You know, with the $3 in the past, we. But I, to answer your question. Yeah, absolutely. I can, I can watch, sit back and watch. As a fan, but with a discerning eye towards the broadcast. Well, Chris, this has been so much fun. You you're such a wealth of knowledge. I mean, I, especially for you. Just as long as you've been with the league and especially behind the scenes, I could talk to you forever, but I really appreciate you making the time today. You know, my Cogan said, oh, Chris, doesn't make a lot of appearances. So I appreciate you taking the raspy. It's my pleasure. Thank you very much for asking me it's I guess it's always great to talk football and CFL and. It was my pleasure to be on and. I'm happy to come. Anytime you like. Yeah, well, we'll keep you on that. I know you've got a busy week here. We're heading in and then we've got, you know, heading into playoffs. I assumed, but I appreciate it. And good luck with the broadcast this weekend. And we'll be in touch. All right. Well, we'll get going here and I'm rolling. Okay. Well, we have Adam Goss on today with the Toronto Argonauts. Standing background here studying. You know sure. You have the pillow, everything you're looking very Adapar oh, well, I'm, I'm flying the flag literally, you know, always got to rep the colors. The double blue roots are deep with myself and my, and my family. So yes, absolutely. Always. Always wrap it. So Ty to me, huge game tomorrow, you know? Well as this air, so it will be tonight. Yeah. Huge game Friday here. You know, hosting Hamilton, I just saw it. You know, it sold out. Right. All available tickets on Ticketmaster. I've seen people posting. Talk about your excitement and everything leading into this game. Well, aren't you lucky you, you get to talk to me the day before the biggest Argo game in about four years. So, oh. Congratulations. You'll notice I'm drink a little bit of tea. I plan on having an active voice tomorrow night and hopefully with any luck, it's a little horse from celebrating. Look it we're, we're lucky tomorrow we get to play. Our biggest rival in again, the biggest game in about four years, I would think going back to 2017. What more could you ask for, except for one more opportunity to do it at home and in a few weeks. So that's the goal. Obviously, there's going to be a lot of black and yellow in the crowd tomorrow night. And, you know, and kudos to the Hamilton fans, they always travel well. So we have them to thank for probably putting us over the top tomorrow night. That being said. It be that our crowds are small. We've always been mining. In my opinion and there's, there's no such thing as a bandwagon Argo fan. So the ones that do show up to Bemo always, always bring a big tank of gas there. They're ready to go full throat. And there'll be ready to meet the challenge where most tech ad fans enter the building tomorrow night. Yeah. I'm genuinely surprised. I just saw the CFL that CA writers picks come out. You know, everyone picking Hamilton and this I'm, I'm genuinely shocked with that. Cause I just, I think that. Yeah. You know, and maybe I'm just misremembering, but it seems like Hamilton's had a few more missteps, just. It does feel like Toronto has been on a roll lately. I mean, that's what thoughts about that? About everyone picking Hamilton. And are you guys the underdogs? If you're asking me and I, I, I, I'm not a professional player. Didn't play football growing up. I love that kind of talk because it is good for Bolton board material and it's nice to be the underdog. Because the victory just tastes that much sweeter when you win. From a coach's perspective. It's probably not unfounded. If I was to look at the sports writers and say, and I did see them earlier today that it's a clean sweep. Everyone picks the Ty cast to win. I would say, okay, fair. You know, for, for a first place team in the division. You know, we do have a points deficit or point differentials in the negative. And we've had a lot of close victories. Victories done the less, but the, the expectations for this team I think are higher, but not point differential shows despite the fact that we're in first place. So. All that's going to go out the window tomorrow. Anyway, you know, you're talking about two teams that hate each other. And anything can happen. Yeah, I just, I guess I just didn't know it. Like, I really just thought Toronto was the favorite going in. And then I'm prepping the show today. And I'm like, oh, I just kind of assumed it was like this crowning game. Right. Okay. Well, you know, it was like Winnipeg. Yeah. A couple of weeks ago. Okay. We're going to win this. And now, I mean, I guess we're actually in, you know, worrisome here against Hamilton. I talk about just, you know, being a part of the fan base. They're seeing the Hamilton fans command. I saw people posting to the online, like no fighting, like make sure we keep everything clean. Right, right. I mean, it's. I mean, this goes back to these generations, right? This rivalry, and it's fantastic. Sometimes it gets a little over the top, but you know what, we'll, we'll take a little bit of the bad with the good, with a predominantly good. Ty cat fans need Argo fans. Like we need them, you know, you can't have a, a hero without a villain. So it's, it's nice to. To beat up on each other, but at, at, in. At the end of the day, we respect the rivalry. That's a passionate fan base. You know, you can go to a game at Tim Horton's field. And you, you know exactly what you're gonna expect. You're gonna expect some. Some abrasive language, you're going to expect some, some energy and they fill the place. They love their football. They love the tie, cats, football. And they love to hate on their Toronto Argonauts down the road. So I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be fantastic. We haven't had a game like this, a meaningful. Argos Ty cat's game in quite some time. So it's, it's going to be fun. We should get beer. Yeah. Well, I, how long have you been with a RN that's kind of in this current, you know, role? Cheerleader extraordinary. Right. You know? But, I mean, how long have you been involved in all of this? So I've been on the microphone. This is my second full season during my second go around. I was the PA announcer at the dome. For a few years. My last year was 2008. My day job took me out of town to British Columbia for five years. So obviously I had to leave it behind, but find my way back. And here I am. So this is, this was the second full year of this regime, so to speak. And how long have you been an organized fan? Well, stop me if you produced before. But my, my double blue heart exploded when rocket is Mel came on the scene. It was the 99, 19 91 season that just. Did it for me, I fell in love with that team, you know, Hollywood north. John candy, Wayne Gretzky, Matt Dunn, again, Darryl K Smith on and on and on. It was that season where I really sunk my teeth into this team. And. I've been in love with it ever since. What's it been like. You know, we've had a lot of different immediate people on we've had that, you know, the Argos fan CAS on, you know, talking about. You know, being Argonauts fans, you know, you get all this Toronto doesn't care about that. The only one, I mean, what's it been like being, you know, this, this, you know, many, many year, decades, long Argonauts fan and kind of going through all of that. And like you said, there are no bandwagon Argonauts fans. Well, it certainly teaches you humility read. I mean, I I'm, it's my personal opinion. I haven't communicated with every fan base on this planet, but I don't believe anyone has a tougher than we do. You know, we've been around since 1873. But we, we get used and abused at every turn. You know, it's one thing. If you're not a CFL fan, I get it. But there's a little bit of. Resentment or even the Testament in this city that I still haven't been able to figure out. You know, we have to scrap and claw for every inch of our sports landscape. And kudos the Argos fans that turn up every day, we're in the trenches, you know, fighting for our survival sometimes financially, but we, we make it work. You know, we, we know that it's a tall task to. To be in. You know, in the forefront of the sports landscape in the city, but we're up to it and we're here for the long run. How good. I presume. Good. How good. Do you feel about the chances of you guys? I getting to basically kick the door down in your neighbor's house. Right? Go in to Hamilton here. Maybe representing the east in a gray cup. Well, it would be like a deja VU. If you were called 1996, you know, the Argonauts walked into a very snowy Ivor, wind stadium. And at one, a great cop on Hamilton soil. That's that's pretty sweet. I know that the Ty cat fans would love nothing more to be representing themselves at home. Again. Would love to break their hearts. It's a tall task. You know, it's a tall task to win in that building. Obviously, since Tim Horton's field was built. You are going to have to don't fare very well. I believe we only have two regular season wins in that building since it's been built. So that makes tomorrow tomorrow's contest that much more important, you know? Failing that we'd have to go on the road at some point. And went in that building. And when the playoffs come around. So we'll see what happens. I tell you I'm feeling good. You know, I worked out, I good timing wise, having you on today. We have, I invited Mike Hogan back on the show here in a couple of weeks and he said, Only he goes, I refuse to come on. If the Argonauts are not, you know, still in it, rather than I got to, I said, well, Mike, you know, I think I feel. Pretty good. You know about that. I like to kind of shoot my shot that way, but I surprised, you know, how good the, the heme has ended up this year. Just, you know, had a little stutter at the beginning, you know, really seem to be picking up steam. You know, Chris Jones coming back on, you know, kind of controlling the ball on defense as well. I mean, how has this season felt for you? Well for me, this is, this is kind of been the Argos emo. You know, if you go back to, to 2004, when they won the grey cup, they finished 10 and eight. So nothing spectacular. You fast forward to 2012, there were nine and nine. You fast forward to 2017, there were nine and nine. The three seasons. That the team has in common. Is is, is a new quarterback, a new head coach or combination of both. It takes time for a team to gel. That takes time for a handful of new players to find their way to, to build chemistry, to learn a new playbook, new schemes, new coaches. So it took an entire season for those teams to peak. But they, they peaked at the right time. They picked in the championship. What I'm saying is all you need is an opportunity. It's gonna. You know, what did I pick this team to finish seven and seven at the beginning of the season, based on that. For mentioned history, they've guaranteed themselves a winning season. So they're at least going to be one game better than that. But it's, it takes time for this team to peak. And we've obviously seen some quarterback changes this year already, so they have to overcome that. There's been a lot of injuries. There's been bodies moving in and out. That's not unusual for a CFL team. But those things, those things will happen. So whether you're, you know, whether you're finished off. 12 And two. Or, you know, 11 and one like, or sorry, 13 and one, like the bombers could go or eight and six, you know, you're, you've still got an opportunity. Yeah, I like it. I said this before on the show, I like, you know, Toronto being the one in the gray cop till like. Neighbor, the ones that kind of made the Russian bleed, right? They were, they Winnipeg's only lot, you know, like if we're wanting, you know, unless you're a blue bomber fan, right. If you're wanting. Even a little bit of like, something else could happen. I do like that. Like, Hey, remember back in like week two or whatever when Toronto won, I just think that's exciting. I think that makes for narratively as good as, as a kind of a storyline, as we can have with this season with Winnipeg, just like killing everybody the whole time. You know, well in 2019. There was a similar story. You know, obviously we know the blue bombers, one of the great cop that year. The Argonauts had four wins and one of them was against those blue bombers at home. So again, you know, there's, there's nothing that really scares this team. They just have to put in the work. They have to execute and there's really nothing stopping them if they do. So I've gone as far as I can. Contractually without tagging Nabokov. Bethel Thompson here as we do. As we do an Argonauts interview. Yeah. Thoughts on him. I hear ya. I just tweeted today. I said, you know, Paul red, who I would take, McCobb all the Thompson, this people's sexiest man of the year. We had a wonderful Twitter ad with him promoting the game. You know, his beautiful face with the beard thoughts about kinda McLeod leading this team. I presumably hopefully to the grand cup. If you look up quarterback in the dictionary, you're probably going to see a face that looks like in the plowed baffle toxins. I mean. He's got an arm he's gritty. He's tough. He can stand up and take the abuse. This guy is not a quarterback that misses a lot of time and he takes hits. He can scramble. He's got the flow this year. He's out of the looks, which is fantastic, but above all that, he's a leader. You can tell by talking to the players. Both on this team and around the league. That, that he. He has there. That's okay. That was our existing alarm for the regular scheduled call. But he's, he's got, he's got all the intangibles. He's a leader. He's a leader of men. And he loves to do it. He loves to do it, you know? Some guys are, have all the talent in the world, but they lack a little bit of that fire. He's got it. A fire burns, bright, and he loves playing football. He loves leading this team. He just finally hopefully has an opportunity to do it. He's obviously been overlooked a few times. The past few years he's had to fight his way back. So now he's got the opportunity to do it. Do you? Yeah. So I have two questions following that. Do you believe that when coach Dean, when he says this, he is the face of our franchise. You know, we are moving forward with him. I mean, Yeah, obviously winning helps. Right. Everything right now. But do you believe that moving forward? I mean, obviously we can't predict the future, but sure. I absolutely believe it. Because I believe in Michael PennWell climates, I believe in him. I believe in John Murphy and their staff. They have a track record of success. They have a track record of identifying talent sometimes long before anybody else does. And they've also believe in character, character matters on an argument's football team. We're pinball. Clemons is involved. And McLeod Bethel Thompson is a character individual. He's a good person on and off the field. And I think his players see that and they'll follow a guy like that in the Bible any day of the week. And that's what I like about it. I mean, it feels like that is what should be happening, right? Like, I feel like, you know, this story checks out, right. He's worked so hard, worked for years. You know, we did our whole week to, you know, we called him the king of the CFL and, you know, cause he's been caught by, you know, all these different teams and on the 49ers, like three times, whatever. It's just crazy. You know, we tracked him back in the spring league, November of, I guess it was 2020. Yeah, up till now. I, you know, I, I saw him even in, obviously he had played for years before that, but I'm like, he's got like a, like a John Moxley. Like, I don't know if you watch wrestling at all. Like you said, there's some, it's a little unhinged, but it's like this unhinged. Genius. Right. Kind of just. It's a little off, but we're just going to let him hide that. Like, like let him cook when he gets on the field. I mean, Wait, just the career he's been on and the journey. It thoughts. Now, the finally see him in this first position. I actually exchanged a few messages with him online. Prior to the season. After he departed. To give himself one last shot in the NFL. And of course, those who knew him, including the team, encouraged him to do what he needed to do and, and wished him well. But he also said, you know, if the opportunity came that he wasn't going to return to the CFL, there's only one team you wanted to play for. And it didn't take him long. He didn't, he didn't sit on it and he didn't. He didn't draw it out. He, you know, he, he gave it an honest shot. He took a look at himself in the mirror is probably not going to materialize. So I'm going to head north right where I know I'll be welcome and I'll have some success. And he's done just that. You're right. He's been a journeyman and that's, that's fine. Everyone loves an underdog story. So the stage is set. The lights are on he's under the spotlight. He's, he's got to step up to the microphone and say, I like that. Yeah. I just talk about, you know, going into this game, going through everything, you know, there's been so much against the CFL this year, you know, and they didn't play and all this stuff and the Kobe, like everything going on, it does feel like this is, I really feel good story here. I mean, what is the mood with the fan base? As passionate as they are. And then kind of the team and Everett, what is the vibe they're kind of in this organization right now? Well, you know, On top of the, the laundry list of, of, of adversity that we've had to overcome as a fan base, you know, depend dynamic was just one more thing to add to the west. You know, we were removed from the sports landscape for a year. Which obviously didn't help us at all. We've had to return to reduce crowds due to. You know, COVID restrictions. And we're coming off a four and 14 season, you know, how do you sell that? You know, anytime there's a plethora of new players, new coaches, fans are gonna say, well, what is this? What is this team going to do? You're going to have to show me. At this point, I think the team has done enough to tell fans. This team is in it to win it. Even if it's not this year. The organization has shown. And my opinion has shown the fan base that. We're committed to building a championship team or at least a team that can contend for a championship year in, year out. So that would be my message to the fans. It would be like stick with us because the people in place, and I'm talking about the people off the field. You know, the pinballs and the John Murphy's and even the Ryan Dinwiddie's. The people are in place to lead this team to sustained success. And those are things we haven't had in a while. I mentioned the great cup championships, the recent ones, oh 4 20 12, 20 17. They were immediately followed by failure. You know, Toronto. I don't have to tell you loves a winner, loves a winner. You know, and, and believes they, they, they deserve a winner. So even after championship, if you can't. Sustain that by. Producing a quality product. You're not going to turn out for it. I saw a, I don't know if you saw or not. I kind of divisive article came out yesterday. Steve Simmons, right with the Toronto sound writing. And I get, like, I get all sides of it, right? Like I get why he wrote the article and, you know, talking about, I think it was, you know, Toronto, K Wayne. And you know, who cares or whatever. Right. And I got a lot of messages. I saw a lot of comments. I actually think it was a good artist called me. I kind of get, you know, where, what do you make of that when you see, you know, here's like the one print reporter, you know, And, you know, covering the CFL for the Toronto sign writing, like who cares if they win. I'll say what I thought when I read that article reading. Have you ever seen the movie mystery, Alaska? No. Sorry. Okay. It's all good then. Well, there there's a scene where Russell there it's. It's a Podunk hockey team at Alaska. That's playing the New York Rangers. And, you know, during one of the intermissions. Burt Reynolds tries to convince his team that they're linked. So look playback and play defense and, and go for a tie. He did it with the intention of lighting a fire under his team. The team captain said, wait a minute. We're not beating. And as the team left, the locker room all fired up. He looked at his confidence and he said, thanks for the assist. So I think Steve Simmons was deliberately. Steve Simmons was an article fan. Yeah. So he has a job to do as a journalist and I respect that. But I also think he was trying to light a fire under this fan base. And look what happened the game of solar. So. You know, I think, I think there was an undercurrent of, Hey. It's a scathing article, but it's also a motivating one. Like prove me wrong because I want to be proven wrong. That's my take too. I mean, I said I got it to me. It felt very different than the, than the Terry Jones, like burn Edmonton to the ground. Right? Like this is, you know, this, this franchises is, is in the dirt, right? Oh, you're flagged. Fell down. So, you know, I get it. And I think that it's good where. I tell you there's something to be said. We hadn't to Tay on a couple of weeks ago. His picture. I don't know if you saw his interview, his, he had a framed glass. Photo fell off the wall and shattered during his interview. There's something. If he sat with Argos. You know, members and, and some find out the law. There's always going to be adversity. There's always going to be challenged. Clearly. This is mine today. We'll get well. This is as good a time as any. We're going to wrap this up. I, Adam, I still appreciate your time. I really, like I said, I, I didn't go into today recording and thinking that Toronto was the underdogs this week. I'm really. Scared now for them, but I do think McLeod and everybody let's get a final prediction for the, for the score. Well, it's been closed every time. So there's no reason for me to stray from the normal, I'll say 28, 27 double blow. Wow. There you go. That would be an exciting game. I'll add them. I save your voice, you know, scream tomorrow. I hope I, that, you know, 12 12,000 Strong. I think, I mean, it's going to, it should be hopping. I mean, I'll be watching on TV. It should be a pretty hopping that they can get that place filled up as much as they can. So. I can't wait. It's been a long time and, you know, good for us. Good for the fans.

Episode 65 - The NEW USFL’s Identity Crisis

All right. Cool. I got to fade that down a little bit better. I keep saying that every week I'm going to feed it down better and I just never get around to fading it down better. It is what it is. As good. Into the show I wanted to add. What are your thoughts on the Toronto Raptors as a Canadian MFL mascot? I was watching 20 years ago today, I guess the routers David. Yeah. I was like what they were. Yeah, 1995. I was just. On Twitter. It just, you know, we have the blue bombers, we have the allies. I mean, I know it's MBA, but Toronto Raptors. I just think that. That's true. And then, you know, you know, when Montreal lost their baseball team, You be their mascot became, you know, only for the Canadian hockey, the Canadians, the hockey team. Are you in a, is this as a baseball fan? Are. Are we in a good mood or a bad mood that the Atlanta. In a very good mood. You know, You gotta stop with the chop though. Yes. That being said. I'm glad they Astros'. Didn't when they're still in search for their first real legitimate world title. I'm not really happy about that. So, I mean, they can sit there and they can say, oh, well we got 2017. The reason they still have 2017 is because majorly baseball would have had to say. 2018 Away from the red Sox and they didn't want to have. You know, no champions are two years in a row. That's the only reason the Astros were allowed to keep that title. The only reason. Lots of cheering that the bar Cervia last night, when the Astros got through. When they got thrown out at first. It's exciting, but. So we have a good show tonight. We are talking about the new USF L's identity crisis. Obviously we're going to leave with CFL and stuff, but the announcement is coming a scene for that. We'll talk about it later in the show. I believe November 15th, that week. I've heard mixed. I've heard next week. And I've heard the week of the 15th. Fox officials are going to be in Birmingham to make that announcement. They're going to vote today as this air is to kind of finalize everything. So hopefully fingers crossed there won't be like an official announcement until next week when we can record it again. Yup. Looking forward to that. Let's see what's going on with that. And I did. I just want to thank you, Paul, for a, you gave me a little pep talk this week. I want to thank you. And I listeners of the show, if you would have thought between Paula and I, that Paul would have been the Lente. I keep on keeping on. At talk to read. About this podcast, you. Probably the bats were off. I want to thank you for that bond. The baby fell nice. Yeah. I mean, just, we just got to keep our nose focused on what we're doing. We're doing the right things. I just, you know, I don't care what everyone else is doing. I care what we're doing. That's why I always pops, always tells me this. He says, Lives and dies by it. He says the reason why horses in a race where blinders is that they don't see the other horses running. Run your own race. Yeah. So, anyway, thank you for that. And please like subscribe. You know, Especially as we kind of get to the, all this USFL stuff coming out. Good CFL show today we have Sean Bowen. I misspelled that name in there. But Sean Bowen, he is kind of the Robert McGregor we had on a couple of weeks ago. He was with the Argos, your team. He's their digital host. Stadium house. We talked a lot about that. Simon Steli. To leaky Greek last name. I worked with him about trying to pronouncing that he is from TSN six 90 and then we have either ready. Ethan is a reporter, kind of like us. He's a local news reporter in BC in a. C K PG. He covers the lions. Either. It comes in with a lot of high takes. I like Ethan a lot. You know, questioning some of the decisions from the big Argos BC lions game. Also like Ethan retweeted the episode before he's even been on it. That's always a good, a way to ensure that you get back as back on the baguettes. I believe Sean and Ethan have already retweeted the teasers for the episode. So a good job then. But it's a, it's a good show. That's good. Yeah, we got some, it looks like we have some, some. Oh, this. This thing. I remember that. I now I remember what this was. Yeah. Okay. That kind of threw me for a little bit, then I'm like, wait, read, did something very funny. I did do something verified. People that follow me on Twitter will know this. There was a lot of discussion last week or the week before about cause the national spring football league is the LLC owned by Fox that owns the USFL. And there had been a lot of misreports out there that said. Perhaps the league would be called the MSF L and not the USFL and that, you know, for whatever reason. It was a cause of panic. So I was going online with listeners sat and I realized that the national spring football league isn't actually trademarked by anybody. And so we went and did that. So. I even Dorothy, signed off on it. Dorothy thought it was very funny. I am now the owner of the merchandising rights for the NFL. I have a United era. National football league hat coming. You can also go to the mark cast.com/store. Or merge. I think it is. And by a, this is a national spring football league. T-shirt so I had this company, it should be here next week. What do you think of my apply to get back a Mr. B woods? This is funny. I love it. I, you know, I'm a big. I'm big petty guy. They call me petty Paul over in the wheelhouse. I'm a big petty guy. So this is kind of like right up my alley. When I saw that I was like, that's, that's flipping genius. I will swore there. That's how genius. It was almost got me to swear. The first few minutes of this podcast. Well, Facebook just changed their company name to Metta last week. And now someone owns the trademark to Metta and they pay them $20 million. So like, needless to say at this now, No. What happened? Yeah. What happened was the, I guess the charity that him and his wife run. Bought the name. Oh, A long time ago. Oh, wow. So. Well anyway. I'm just saying the natural thing football league comes to knocking at this. Mark has, might be a no mosque. And we might be living so limited in that Miami. We're talking about us also, just a couple quick things I want to get to the show. Ah, I realized I was today. And I realized that Roman reigns my least favorite wrestler of all time. Played for the worst CFL team of all time, the Edmonton Ben Eskimos. Now, Alex, did you have any idea? I knew that in the back of my head that Roman played CFL, but I guess I never put that together. I didn't know that, which team he played for, but yeah, I knew he played CFL. I knew that. It makes all the sense in the world. I mean, how they, that. I thank God every day. I'm. And then they'll expand. And that Roman reigns, literally the worst wrestler in the past 40 years, probably of WWE. Place for the Edmonton. No, no, I'm not a big Roman reigns fan, but you're not watching anything that he's doing on SmackDown and going. That's brilliant. That's actually really good. I did I okay. Listen there. Kevin did didn't really make me juggle when I tweeted that he said acknowledge Roman and the Edmonton Alex. 'Cause that right? That's his big thing is like, acknowledge me, acknowledge me. Okay. I'm acknowledging him. Anyway. And then you watch the BC game crazy game this week. You know, we lost track of time outs. It was called like the most exciting game of the year. I don't want to do too much like hot or cold water on the fire, but. Like I talked with Ethan about this in our interview. Like to me, a head coach miscounting the number of timeouts in the end of a playoff clenching. Game. I deleted into overtime. It's not the most exciting thing to me. That's a little bit of negligence. I completely agree with that. I. You know, I was, I was back and forth. I had some things I had to do, but I watched some crazy catches going like in the middle. Like I texted you, you were working. I was like, oh my gosh, this. Catch this BC guy made it was unbelievable. They had some great highlights. But yeah, I think their coach mismanaged the. Mismanaged the flow of the game. And it's like, Man, you, you have to, you have to like get at least one first down, bro. Get. At least one first down. And they won't ever get the ball back. And then, you know, that's what happened. They got the ball back and tied it with the one point. I don't like that. I like that. I'm not going to like that. I'm never gonna like that. They're gonna get around to that. So, well, That would be people arguing for the Rouge because of all that. Anyway, I. So, yeah. You know, BC lasts again, stamps of wine. Ty cats rolled over the Alex and then I'm pretty competitive, you know, rough riders going over the Al wets. It seems like Cody, we'll talk about him later in the show with our updates about our big. You know, goof we did with Cody. But yeah, Roughriders are really good. We we preview the Argos game this week with Sean. We preview the lions game with Ethan rough riders back at the Alex. Again, one of those repeats and then Al let's have a really tough match on Saturday against the blue bomber. So we'll have to see how that goes. Very cool stuff. Moving on though. Moving on. Moving on. There's a new starter in town for the Elowitz. Trevor Harris. Yeah, so he's going to start, you know, he, he, they were still going with Schiltz last week. Shells got polled. Trevor Harris came in. I talk about this with Simon as well. I Simon, obviously the Montreal market talking a lot about, you know, outlets are still really trying to make a push for the playoffs right now. You know, this isn't like a backup coming in and playing on a team that they've been at the backup of all season. This is a new quarterback coming in and kind of taking the reins. And Trevor Harris is a very different quarterback than Vernon Adams, or even Matthew Schiltz. And it's interesting to see how he's going to do, but you know, they're certainly paying them enough money. And he's got enough on his contract to kind of keep that going. So. It's D it's interesting that they're in the playoff hunt and then they decided to go get a quarterback on top of that. They're already in the playoff. They're in good position. And they went ahead and got a quarter, right. It's an upgrade. You know, it wouldn't surprise me. It wouldn't surprise me. If Montreal made a move and ended up playing Winnipeg in the. The gray cup. That's my prediction. We'll see, I mean, you know, Vernon's outright now. Yeah. I, the. It's always that weird six game window. I don't know when that, you know, If he's going to, I think he's probably kind of out for the season at this point. With kind of for the Trevor Harris thing, but it is weird where you know exactly where it came in before backup, you know, took him to the gray cop just to bring in, you know, The cross country trade, you know, here in the, in the midst of the playoffs and kind of getting that going. So, yeah. Interesting to see if that'll that'll keep their momentum going. Hopefully it doesn't cause you know, for Toronto. Went out there and get that first round by the Edmonton Elks, assigning quarterback, they are buckled to a contract extension. He was on a one-year agreement and now they got him for another year on top of that. Yeah, so. He obviously was traded from the Argos last week, you know, with McLeod kind of being anointed the face of the, of the team there. I they've already signed him. He's going to be making 340,000 next year. The, the thing with Alto. Is the CFL really is year to year. So they really could tear this all up before, like they gets come February next year and be like, actually we don't, it's such a tenuous way, the way the contracts work there, whether it is of both of confidence that they are behind Arbuckle kind of moving forward, hopefully trying to get, you know, a new face of that franchise going. Interesting enough though. Taylor Cornelia starting this week. Against the. Saskatchewan Roughriders. It is interesting. Yeah, that was crazy. Dave Campbell, you know, he, they said that. [Unknown] is going to be starting our bunko the limited work during practice, mostly observing. He's been saying like, again, it's one of those, like this isn't a backup coming in. You know, this is where we're moving them in. We're bringing them into the system. Cornelius has not played great. You know, as of late, obviously they lost again. You know, last week. So [unknown], I think sooner than later, Arbuckle's going to come in, but yeah, in the meantime is people thought that was very strange, that. Token analysis. So getting a start, I think, I think it was. They're just trying to get our buckle up to speed. Probably, you know, our buckles, you know, Had a little bit of time off. So maybe it's just, you know, getting the, the offense under his, under his feet and getting back up to speed on that. This was interesting. I thought I, the minute I was watching the BC lions game, I thought, oh boy, oh boy. Jimmy Camacho's in trouble. When you're in the league, when you're playing pro football. And your kicker and you start missing the way Jimmy Camacho was missing. Your your days are number. And with that being said, the BC lions have signed. Nick Vogel out of the university of Alabama, Birmingham. Yeah. Yeah. BC already had the whole. Takasaki Thomas hockey, a global kicker that remember they started the season. He was the first Japanese kegger that cooked the field goal. I, you know, obviously let him go and then brought in Camacho that was thought to have kind of solved all their problems. Ah, terrible. I mean, you can't miss. He got one for six over his last tries over his last three games. I mean it, you just can't do that. So I, he, Nick Volvo is still in quarantine this week, obviously moving up to Canada, but this is, I mean, Let's be honest here, this isn't going to fix all these problems, but this is like, Hey, we can check one of 18 someone tweeted. They're like, you know, except for the quarterback issues and the online issues and the defense issues. And the kicking issue is like a BC has a really strong contender ship for the grey cup. And that was like, That's kind of the true. Grandma had. Then we call her grandpa. That's the way I look at things like that. It is interesting that if Jimmy Camacho had made like one of those kicks it, would've never gone into overtime. I just won. And that was one. I know. The team they lost to the Argos announced today. They signed American linebacker. Nate, Holly. And Jonathan Zamora was also claimed off the practice roster from Stampeders. Holly was, is 26. He had an outstanding. The 19 campaign with a stamp Peters. Plenty of all 18 games. He is also the twin of former XFL or Nikolay. And they play for the roughnecks. Holly, Holly is a former. And Sandy and our rookie award. You know, he he's a beast. You know, Argos clearly making a run at it here. Right. Clearly trying to kind of bolster that team together. I'll be. I always think that's cool too. Like I know the Nikolay name. He was a big fan favorite in the XFL as well. They're like identical twin brothers. That's really crazy. Very cool. Andrew Harris, not coal news though. Andrew Harris missing practice Tuesday due to lingering knee injury. Let's start running back, suffered the injury during the week 11 victory over the Elks. And he missed the blue bombers 45 0 win over the BC lions. And yeah. Winnipeg's already claim, claim first place. So, you know, it's kinda like, they're just kind of. You know, holding onto that and just, you know, They don't really have to play all their starters all the time. And it's probably a good idea that kind of gets some other, get some other faces, some game situations. Some up to speed on, on, in game situations. And then, you know, they get deeper when those, those backup players start getting real world real game experience. Yeah, it's one of those things. You know, they have Briella Vera. As well, you know, he's a not. Obviously the rug. The rockstar of the Andrew Harris is yeah, he can certainly carry the way. It's kinda like the Kansas city thing last year with like, We're not going to play my homes for like the last two weeks of the season. Like we've already got first place. The other just quick notes here. Saskatchewan's having some injuries. Kira Moore just came out this evening. He's probably out for the rest of the season. He was nursing the knee injury. Maria McCormick was reporting that the duke Williams whomever, they brought him in as kind of like the Cody Phaedra that was mad. And they brought him in to bolster the wide receivers. He has a lower body and the Dan Clark, but that Kira and more. That's a lot of damage to Saskatchewan this week when they're still very much in that less contention. I mean, they're, they're second in the west, so that's clearly going to put them in, in trouble. So. Definitely, definitely moving on. We already talked about in the car buckle sign of the one-year extension. Just some notable, I guess, quarterbacks that are said the free. Some free agents besides Nick are Arbuckle. Well, who could become. A free agent because like Reed pointed out, you know, kind of goes year to year. McCloud Bethel Thompson's becoming could be a free agent. Is that Clarus. Dominic Davis. Dana Evans. Isaac Harcort Jake, Jacob. Is it. Mayor mayor. Jeremiah. No one cares about Sean Maguire and David Watford. All becoming a free agents after the year. Yeah. It was just crazy. I mean, I just put this on here. You know, Vernon Adams, right? He's likely with Montreal, I tailor. It just it's so tenuous this quarterback situation here, right? Where I talk about it, there was. With Simon in the interview as well. The CFL is such a quarterback driven league. And then you have all these guys playing in these one on one off year deals, right? Like we can tear up the paperwork at the end of the season. It's not worth the paper it's written on. Just, I, I just can't imagine trying to build any momentum with all. I mean, I've already heard that they've really only kept McCloud in Toronto just because they, they were sour on Arbuckle and that they're going to be looking for someone new as soon as the season's done. I mean, I don't want to like call out Sean on the interview about that, right. Where he's Argo's house. But like, I. I was renowned at three down today, the insider quotes, like, yeah, they they're really not that into the McLeod either, even when Dinwiddie is calling him the face of the franchise. So something's weird with Toronto with that. And then obviously just that seeing how many guys are going to be on the, on the chopping block potentially at the end of the season, moving on. Very cool stuff. Blue bombers attendance from last week. What is your special note on that? Well, it's easy. You know, we commented about how with. Pigs. The attendance was down. I got about a million comments and that it was because the jets were in town. I understand that. When it paid clips to play off birth with their, when like at some point you can't blame like other things going on around town is this one of those things, like, you know, if the jets are playing, make CFL camp, miss Meg, when they pick a hot ticket, people have to choose. They shouldn't schedule them on the same day. It's but. At different times. Just pick different times. Yeah. You see just a couple attendance here. Or a viewership your viewership's down this week. We don't need to read all these numbers, but do you see how it's really been trending downward? Over the course of the 12 weeks of the season. Yes, I am. Last, I mean, it's up from last week, but it's still down from, you know, week seven. Yeah. I mean, it kind of peaked in that 5 25 50 range. The total week 13 average for viewership was 429,000, you know? I think that has to do with the quality of play. Right? We talked about that last week, we talked about the product being entertaining by the sixth of the first seven weeks were over half a million, but the last half dozen weeks have all been under half a million viewers. That's not the momentum you want going into the playoffs. Very true. Alice and tiger cats can clinch playoff spots with wins this week. Mantra when or BC loss means Montreal cleansers. The playoff spot. Hamilton winter time means Hamilton cleanses. Playoff spot and no team in the west conclusion playoff spot this week. Sorry. Read. There's no. That's for your peace of mind. I did see Matt baker going back and forth to some fans like, wow. Technically have like these. Five teams lose and we win every game. And like it's, I think it's a 19.2% chance that the BC lions make the playoffs. And look, look. On July 16th when the all star break happened. The Atlanta Braves had a 0.4% chance. 0.4%, not 1%, not 4% 0.4% of winning the world series. I'm just saying. That's true. It's true. Wow. Okay. She wants you to come back in time and put money on the Braves to win. Yeah, odds would have been astronomical in your favor. Yeah. Anyway, you see your drive though. Clancy, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, all that kind of stuff. I just kind of get in the playoff picture. It was good. All right. Stampeders signing CFL all-star receiver, Reggie Belton. [Unknown] okay. Yeah, I guess he was with the Packers in 2020. He. He was only on the practice roster after that one game. Against the Atlanta Falcons. And he was earning $185,000 a year. Hopefully he gets the same amount. Maybe, probably not. People seem high on this. Maybe you should be going back to green bay right now, considering the week that they're having. So, yeah. Alex drew between eight and 10,000. People on Friday, they say. But I say the dwindling and attendance is a result of poor on-field product. Nope. It's a result of the culture. There's a really bad culture in Edmonton. Here's the thing. I mean, I said Terry Jones, he's a, I've tried to get him on the show. He's like, now that podcast guy he wrote, I guess he's like, you need to literally fire everybody. You need to fire Elizondo. You need to fire Sutherland. You need to fire the. You need to get, I need to burn the entire franchise to the ground that. We bring it back because Roman reigns blood for him. That's why. I mean, you know, it is one of the things where Edmonton is. Yeah. Has like a 56 thousands burst stadium. And when you're only getting like 8,000 in there, it's like really cavernous. I just thought tonight they're doing like $29. You get like a $2 hot dog with it. Kind of the thing we talked about Toronto doing last week, they have a. The fan appreciation night is this Friday. And the joke is that there's going to be more Roughrider fans in the crowd than Edmonton fans. They're also doing that 50 50, where you can buy tickets and then part of the money goes to charity and part of it. But. [Unknown] at home the season, like, I mean, what are you going to do to kind of incentivize people to get into the stadium? That's weird. You. You think, you know, you had a year off football, you weren't able to see your, your Canadian football teams play and you're not going to the games. It's really weird. It's really weird. Red blacks had touched Paula police claims. He does not want the general manager's title. Along with being the head coach much. Like I think Mike Holmgren was that way in Seattle when he was there. Basically or was it green bay? Mike Holmgren was double like GM and a coach for a while, but [unknown]. The police doesn't have an interest in that. He just said he just wasn't wasn't down. Well, They have the interim in place right now. That was a thought right. Was maybe they want to keep a lot of police in, you know, as the head coach, you know, bump him up, give him some of the hiring, you know, signing. Right. Agency there as well. I, he kind of dissuade that. Kinda like when they asked Mike Tomlin. They're like our hair. Are you going to USC or whatever? And he was like, no, absolutely not. Remember when he yelled at like the reporters last week when they asked him if he was taking the college. It's going to be Eric Bennett. The enemy is going to get that. Head coaching job at USC. That's the person they need to hire. I would, I would be down with that. We dealt with that. He's the right offensive. I read the coordinator for the Kansas city chiefs, right? Yep. Exactly. Yeah. I mean, you know, like they're often outside of this year has been good. I w if I were Airbnb, I wouldn't take that call. I would've taken that call. Immediately cause like the chiefs offense is not doing that. Great. But yeah. Per Steve Milton. This is interesting. They were going to do the hall of fame. Obviously last year they didn't do it, you know? Because remember CFL didn't. So they're going to do, they were going to do it all this year, the gray cop, they're going to keep it, and they're going to do a special event out later in the spring at Tim Horton's field for all the T 20, 20 and 2021. Classes. I want to make sure I have this down written, right. That it's going to be 20, 22. Yeah. Okay. Game football hall of fame doors closing gold 2022. Sometime before the 2020 season begins next spring. So this. A spectator is a ad. It's one of those like locked websites. I can't read the whole article, but anyway, Steve Millan's friend of the show. Very cool stuff. Speed of cool stuff. A writer's Cody's Gerardo has to been told, never to apologize for an ugly offensive when, especially when it clinches a playoff spot. He said it was ugly, went off offensively, but he's only been told not to apologize for it, especially when you cleanse the playoffs. And yeah. They, they, they did that with a win over the alphabets, even though they had like 243 arts. Yeah. We're you. And I just wanted to talk. So we post our big Cody joke on the cameo thing. Cody. I don't know if he's not on Twitter this week. We've tagged him about a bajillion times. If you're on Twitter, you know, at the mark Hass re Johnson, my, my verified account on there, I've been trying to tweet at Cody, but. I said for every, I retweet it gets Cody actually has a thing set up where you can donate and, and plant like a hundred trees. So I want to do that. It's like 60 bucks Canadian, whatever they do that. But I give that video some live, give us some retweets. We're still waiting to hear back from Cody, you know, about our whole mark cast cameo, run it. And some. Very cool stuff. All right, we're going to take a break. Reed's going to talk to our guests, come back. We've got USFL news, TSL news, and a. Maybe some fan controlled footballs. I, what I'm seeing here and the MLSP update, we have an MLF. We update a lot of alternative football news coming up right after the break. Yeah, that was quick. That was good. Welcome back. Want to thank all of our esteem guests. I won't even try to pronounce Mr. Sleek. [Unknown] sleekness. Yeah, we want to thank all of our guests for joining us. Read. Good morning, John Bowen was gray and then we had Simon and then obviously Ethan, even, I think he was good. I was happy with all that. So thank you guys all so much for making the time. We have a really good show next week as well. I have scheduled. So I, it wasn't a PJ Walker is apparently slated at XFL, you know, legend PJ Walker to play this week that Sam Darnold is still in concussion protocols. So PJ could be getting to start. For Carolina couldn't couldn't hurt their chances right now. And if he, if he takes, if he, if he gets that w. Then Eros needs to apologize. Once again. Once again, well, last week when it was, cause PJ got to play, Josh Johnson got to play and then hi, Nikki got to play, but they, cause I was going to tweet like F U Eros with everything like Josh Johnson. Only play with like one down and then PJ lost a bunch of yards. I was like, okay, I'm not going to tweet anything this week. Because I was, I was saying like, oh, all three quarterbacks leading their teams. And then he would've been like, yeah, two losses. The the, the. We talked about this briefly, you, you got the national spring football, a trademark. It's gonna be interesting to see what happens with that. I'm going to put this tweet up here from listeners. Have. Going off of when Aaron Rogers got a sack. Against was it against the Cardinals. And that was the big, funny thing I thought said, let's go with that. I will say that. So guys for the USFL stuff, I really want some comments on the YouTube video because what I'm trying to figure out, we're talking about the identity crisis of the USFL. Cause I got into a lot of Facebook discussions this week where people are like, Cause it's kind of, people are realizing now, like it's going to be eighteens, it's going to be a bubble. It's called the USFL. And I got a lot of like, well, this is like dumb, this isn't what I wanted or this isn't what I expected or this isn't. And so like, are you excited by this? I mean, I. It's good for the listenership to have people think it's something that it's not right, because people are interested in their tuning. Nimble. Like I genuinely want to know, like, are you really jazzed about this? There has been talks that they're going to do a draft. I can't imagine it's going to be a televised thing. Does that make it more exciting? If it is a televised draft? I really want to hear from people if they're actually excited now that we know whether this USFL thing is going to be. Yeah, with that being said, a Fox sports is apparently holding a formal announcement next week. Detailing with the USFL is coming to Birmingham. Yeah. So per Dillon Smith, this came out the Senate, they passed the funding. I have the article where I come in. They approved. So they basically they've hit the 3 million that the city needed to kind of bring to the table. Because there, you know, the way the deal is working is kind of the USFL is going to be hosted there. They. I just had a couple of notes here. They think that they're going to have 40 million people watching the games played at the brand new stadium. I, he says, it's great exposure. Crystal Smitherman counselor said. We don't owe Fox sports, any money. I think that's really significant because usually we have to pay the leagues money to come here. So that 3 million is kind of like housing, all those costs and things. The interesting thing. One of our listeners Harrison sent this over. Th that Fox sports personalities and officials had suggested they would like to get involved in the community. They're while they're in Birmingham doing internships with broadcasting, doing community service, doing training camps with the kids. I think that's a really cool way that like, build that community growth. Again. I don't know how that affects like viewership in San Diego, like why you're supposed to watch this USFL Birmingham thing you get, why it's like this identity crisis wide titled the episode that, yeah, I just, I don't know, like. On top of like on top of the fact that we still have so many unanswered questions behind who owns what. Like there's still so many questions to me. I don't think the people that own these trademarks. I can own them. I still don't. Well, we know who owns one trademark. That's for sure. And we know that Frank Bertha. Owns major league football incorporated. Maybe he owns it. Maybe he doesn't, maybe he's part of the ownership. I dunno. I dunno. Hang right there. That's it, but they, they announced that there's a, there's some cities under consideration for their six franchises in their initial run. Mobile Montgomery, Alabama, little rock, little rock, Arkansas Norfolk. Canton Daytona, Orlando, Austin, Denton, Texas, San Antonio, Texas. And a Oklahoma city that we don't talk about. Oklahoma city. Yeah, it is, you know, people. Th this is one of those other spring leaks that. Th that they're claiming to be launching in mid April. You know, they were going to come in in the summer. We had a lot of questions about that. It's just another one of those crowding, the landscape, also the FCF they've kind of posted. I'm going to put the tweet on here. Yep. They're going to be coming in spring as well. So, you know, we're further kind of delaying that. It was supposed to be in the fall. We thought maybe February. Okay. Now it's going to be in the spring. This is a really crowded landscape. That's when indoor football league kicks off in arena football, and then you're going to have, are probably not every. But yeah, the IFL and then you're going to have the USFL. Right? I getting a lot of these players. I do not think this MLSP thing is going to be good. Rip Josh Davis was actually really close friends with Frank Murtha. That kind of would give us a lot of insights, but Josh always, never really thought that it was going to go anywhere, but it's a really crowded landscape with a fingernail football coming in as well, which apparently. Is that Tim with these shallow may, what does that tweak? That's Timothy shallow may and then a Zendaya's next. 'Cause, you know, it's like the dune thing. Is he doing yet? I haven't seen Dean yet. I sent you that thing with friends. How you doing? Joey. All the dune stuff anyway, so, but here's the longer, the short. USFL should be the week of the 15th potentially next week. Dylan is reporting the, our friend there for Birmingham. We've had them on before. It's all good to go. But I really want to know what people are thinking. Like, are we actually jazzed about this now or not now that we like people that are learning about this? If you're learning about the USFL now, like, are we game for this? Are we not getting for this? I think we're all still waiting for the XFL to give us something more than what they're giving us. So would that being said. Want to thank everybody for listening. Thanks to our guest. All it reads that I completely lost control of the Google docs. So you can say their names. I can't get back up there to say. I, they say the sound Bowen and the tar with Toronto organized. Simon still leaky. I it's the licky. I keep saying it wrong. And then Ethan ready? Thank you guys. All so much. Good show next week. And hopefully we'll have a big USFL announcement. So let's, let's look forward to that. And again, Please like, and review and share the video too. Why not share the video as well? And we appreciate all your listeners, all your views. And we'll see you back here next week. Thanks. There you go. Okay. Cool. Oh, USFL is kind of a lead. Right. This week on the mark cast, we're talking USFL stuff. Do you guys want to hear about you and so stuff, is that what they want to hear about re. Well, I think there's an identity crisis here going, I don't know. You know, USFL is becoming a thing. I don't know if it's what people are wanting it to be or not. So we are discussing that the announcement is coming as supposedly next week, Fox agents are going to be, you know, on the, on the grounds. Amber, we have kind of making the announcement about this spring alternative league. That's very cool news that we got coming up also. Ray's got a sneaky thing to tell you all about here in a bit, but we're going to cover CFL. Like we always do. Argonauts clenching a playoff spot. Congrats to my team. Looking forward to seeing if maybe Montreal or Hamilton will clinch one. Yeah, we have a. Yeah, we have a loaded lineup. We have Sean Bowen, I Toronto Argonauts digital and in-stadium host. We have Simons. That's the leaky he is with TSN six 90. I still can't pronounce his name correctly. I'm sorry. And then we have either ready. We're talking to the little America CFL team, the BC lions, kind of that confusing loss to the Argos. They're going up against Hamilton. I don't feel great about that matchup, but that is what is on flame for the lions this week. It's going to be interesting to see, and we're going to also talk about a little bit of major league football news coming out. Apparently there's a team and, and fan controlled football. Apparently they tweeted out some something, and there. There's something going on with them too. Are they coming? Are the, are they actually going to play? Like they said, they weren't two other times, Patrick, I don't know. You have to tune in this week for all of the news and updates right All right, let me hit this. And this will be good. Perfect. Well, we have Sean Bowen here today with the Argos. I really like this. So we had Robert McGregor on a couple of weeks ago with the blue bombers, right. Kind of stadium announcer host, versus I like getting these other team right related, you know, people on Paul's and Argos fan. How are you doing today? I'm great, buddy. Thank you for the warm introduction. You could've just said. Professional t-shirt for, or, but that's, you know, I do. I do appreciate yet. Yeah. You know, begging up the role for me. So, yeah. It's good. And now I will say, as a BC lions fan America CFL team, I don't like you too much right now after the whooping that you guys put on this last week. Talk me through your experience of that game. I'm generally curious. It was cold standing out in the rain for three and a half hours is, is isn't the greatest, you know, I always say there's a big difference between being cold. In cold and wet. And that was cold and wet, but I mean, you know what? The game. I know. We get a lot of slack in the city for not having the greatest of attendance. But to be honest with you, I fought Saturday's game against the lions. Was probably our best home crowd of the year and the game lived up to the expectations. Right? I mean, I'm a huge Mike Riley fan because Mike Raleigh has a, his relationship with who I think is the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. And the greatest quarterback that ever will play the game. And that's Mr. Aaron Rogers. So I'm, I've always been a big fan of Mike Riley and to kind of see him in person. And just the way that he throws a wallet, it's, it's phenomenal, but the game got a little hairy at the end, a little dicey. I don't think the way the team drew it up. But nonetheless. Call you mind the TJ. He said, you know, a dirty with a stolen when at the end of the day. And I'm a big believer and there's no pictures on game sheets. And if it says you score more points than the other team, well, Hey, you scored more points to the team and you got the wind. Yeah. And the tape was on last week and he politely said that, you know, he goes, you know, Toronto doesn't have the most intense. Home field advantage, right? I gotta stop you there. You gotta drop the last no. It's not Toronto. It's Toronto. And see, this is the stuff you got to learn. My man. Well, and we've retired. Yeah, I had to say Saskatchewan, there is. Oh, yeah. It's just got to win. But yeah, he play. But here you guys are five and then went home. Right? Building momentum. We have McLeod by. The Thompson were, you know, we stand McCloud here. You know, we had our big called him the king of the CFL back in week two, and everyone made fun of us. And now, you know, well, who's laughing now. So. What do you attribute that to just that weird home field advantage for that's not really a home. But you guys are killing it. It's honestly a great question. You know, and, and I think a lot of our wins at home, I mean, they haven't been by huge margins either. Right. I mean, we've really kind of cut it by our teeth at home. And. You know, I don't know. I think it certainly does have something to do with the familiarity of the, of the. Of the stadium and, and I know like BMO field is one of the only grass fields in the CFL to right. To which will players love as opposed to running on turf. But, you know what, at the end of the day, like, listen, we, we do have a strong fan group. Sometimes they might be scarce, but you know, we do have our diehard supporters and they certainly do make it feel like if there's 20,000 people in that stadium. Sometimes that doesn't reflect on television, but nonetheless. And I, you know, the, the proximity to where the players live and how close it is to the field. You know, It's home cooking. Right. I think everyone rather be playing at home and being on the road and, and it's, it's been great thus far. The fact that we're five and no at home. And we've really made Bemo field a fortress because you know, the first year that I took over my first game was against the Hamilton tire cats. And I think we got beat 64 to cob. And I, and that was my introduction to the CFO. And I was like, oh boy, this is going to be like this for this year. It's going to be a long year. And thank goodness. We've been able to cover a win at every home game this year. So it makes my life a heck of a lot easier. Yeah. We have stories this week about Edmonton, you know, And just future performances right at home. I mean, in crossword, but it's really hard. And when we're talking about building fan base and driving gate sales and building interest and to be, you know, have zero winds at home for the season is really hard coming back. Right. Oh, yeah, no kidding. Right? And we do. I know the Argos do such a tremendous job of trying to gauge interest here within the city. And it's difficult, right? I mean, You know, especially in the summertime when the Toronto blue Jays are, you know what they are here. You've got the Toronto FC and then, you know, we get into October. The city of Toronto certainly does become a. Leaf's hotbed in a robbery. Hotbed. Right. So we do kind of get second fiddle, but you know, last Saturday with the rain and the weather. It was our best crowd of the year. And I'm excited to see now that we've punched our ticket into the playoffs. Here's hoping that we got that east final and we're able to pack that place to its capacity. And I mean, back in the day, you know, my, my old man used to, you know, do the, the, the spotting for the Argos. And I remember going down as a kid and we used to play at the Rogers center where the, the Bluejays currently play. And it was packed. You know, and it was one of the hottest tickets in town. And I don't know what's happened over the last few years. You know, we're we really haven't been able to get those diehard fans back, but you know, the team now, I think people are taking notice. That we do have some pretty exciting players and, and Hey, we are undefeated at home and. It's an opportunity to come down and have some fun and, and, and see a really good football team. Take on a take on another good football team. Yeah. I mean, winning certainly helps talk about just the momentum here that Toronto is building. I mean, it really does seem all signs are pointing up. I know, you know, we had that weird loss right to the Al wets back before the. You know, the, the Arbuckle trade and all of that. But really, you know, top of the east, the east. It's super competitive this year. Right? Talk about this success that team's finding. You know what? It's very strange. I mean, we, we spoke with, with coach Ryan, didn't Dinwiddie this afternoon. And we were talking about. You know what the beginning of the year everyone picked this team to finish. You know, they said that their schedule is too tough to play. You know, you got to go up against Hamilton. A number of times you're playing Winnipeg twice. It's going to be a daunting task, but this team has looked at the schedule and it's face. And has said, okay, well what, let us just play and let us do it. I mean, To be honest with you. I think the biggest turning point of the season was a second game against a year. Against Winnipeg at home when we beat them. Right. I mean, still Winnipeg's only loss is to this Toronto Argonauts team. They've been dealt some pretty serious injuries along the way. You know, a couple of American guys that I know that they were high on bringing in at the beginning of the season. You know, Shane, Ray, I think was one of them and, you know, Charleston Hughes's wall who's who's suffered injuries. But this team hasn't missed a beat, you know, it's been next man up. And the one thing that I think is really surprised, a lot of people within like the Argonauts community. You know, has been the play of their younger wide receivers and curly Gittens Jr. And deja. Primarily right. I mean, curly, I think has taken a huge step in his career and is slowly starting to become one of the top receivers in the CFL. Maybe the touchdowns aren't there yet. But at the same time, he is a reliable receiver. And I can't speak enough about Damar. I think he's one of the best in the league. I was super excited when they signed him. I'm a huge Notre Dame football fan. So I remember watching debars. Doris back when he was Dawn in the, you know, the golden dome. And, you know, I think Mack obviously give him all the credit in the world. I mean, it's. It's been a very challenging few years for him, right? I mean, you sat behind Ricky Ray, and then all of a sudden they bring in James Franklin. He was second fiddle to there this year. Nick Arbuckle comes in. I think everyone kind of anointed Nick as being the number one guy in the future of the team. But max said, no, I'm going to. Continue to play for this position. And I think Mack's been great. I mean, he's given him a chance to win night in and night out. Yeah. Tell me about that and the leadership right in the locker room and the reaction that the players give him. Well, I, you know, knock is such a tremendous human being and he's such a well-spoken individual and, and he just, he loves the game of football. You know, and when they traded Nick, I know Mack was quoted saying that this was probably one of the closest. Quarterback groups that he's been a part of in his career. You know, with him and Pipkin and Arbuckle, and they're all pulling for each other too, which is great to see because it's. You know, in some situations there's always going to be the number one guy and there's going to be the second guy. Who's, you know, the younger guy coming up and. And maybe there was going to be a little animosity because he knows a younger guy is going to be taking his job and the old Wiley vets, you know, on the last. You know, few yards of his career, but, you know, he just said that all three of them have been extremely close and they're all pulling for each other. And, and, and be honest with you. I think Antonio Pipkin is really kind of been some of the glue that's in that, in that quarterback's room. And now that they've traded, you know, Nick to Edmonton. You know, they've really given Mack the keys or the Ferrari to drive, and you know, it's going to be on him here to lead them to a potential great cup appearance in potentially capturing, you know, a gray cop. I just think it would be so cool to have that story about bill Cabell, the Thompson. Kind of fighting getting that position and then, you know, winning the east right. At a minimum and especially going to the gray cup there. I mean, even looking at the schedule coming up. I mean, obviously red blacks. I, I, you know, Not too much. Have a concern, hopefully. Right. I mean, you know, and then you have the times. Those are the. Those were the trap games, you know? I mean, you know, We're thinking about. Yeah, red blacks and then a tie cats and then Elks. I mean, it seems like it's a favorable as it can be scheduled here in the CFL I thoughts and kind of the remainder of the season. Yeah. It's I mean, you would think that this Saturday would be a layup, right? I mean, I know it's true though. Right? I. I mean, you, you, you, you put your hands up and you're just like, well, you've seen stranger things in the world of sports, right. So, you know, you're going into Edmonton or excuse me, Ottawa. Word's been doom and gloom here this whole entire year. Right? I mean, two wins for them on the season. And they've given up just an abundant amount of points against. That being said, they're still pro athletes. They're still being paid to play the game and they're not going to go and roll over and let the, you know, the Argos come in and take a big win from them at home. So. I obviously expect Ottawa to be ferocious and, and come out swinging and, and wanting to prove to everyone that, Hey, they're still a good team in this league. I I'm more excited for the game against Hamilton. I think for obvious reasons, our biggest rival, and those are always great games at BMO field. When. You know, the, the tire. Katie Cod fans come up from Hamilton and, and wave their flags and try to make as much noise as we do. So that's always fun. But we, I asked coach today, just, you know, what takes priority her, winning the east, or is it, you know, maybe getting the guy some rest and, and he kind of, he tiptoed around it a little bit and didn't give me a firm answer. But I think that's one question that the coaching staff is going to have to. You know, determine here, like, you know, if you win here against. You know, if you, if you went against Ottawa, this. This weekend. Then you're going up against Hamilton. And if you say you losing and SAML to me, what takes priority then in the last game of the year, is it rest or is it. You know, trying to win the east and getting the buy in to the finals. I think for me, it would be trying to get a buy and go to the finals. Cause you know, then you'll get the rest of the end of the day, but it's going to be interesting. These are. Three tough games for this team. Thankfully two of them are at home, which makes it even better. But I think the one big concern is, is the, the last game of the season when you play Hamilton Saturday, and then you've got Edmonton on Tuesday. So you're really gone. Two days of rest and playing pro football. I'm on two days, arrest is unheard of. And also that's I, I'm very curious to see how that shapes up. Yeah, I'm looking here. I mean, and this is where the Edmonton. It all comes in with all that. We're in the Edmonton's plane. The 16th and then the 19th again. Yeah. At BC, which is, you know, I mean, hopefully we might be able to get one more wind before the end of the season. You know, if we can't be Edmonton on three days, rest at home. I don't know. Really what we're doing in this late. Those guys have. Hop schedule. Especially with COVID. It's like. And at the end of the day, like you just, you wonder like how safety is a concern there because that's a lot of football and this is a very physical game. You know, you see the NFL doing it right when you're playing a Thursday, it's like, you usually kind of get that late Sunday game, the following week. It's. I mean it's difficult. Talk about. Are you sensing excitement in the community there with this growing a winning and we're making moves and we're, you know, here we are potentially going into Hamilton, you know, to, to play a great cup. You know, I, I, I think the change of culture happened. The season prior to the pandemic hitting. Hitting us here. And when, you know, Ryan din when he was brought in and, you know, pinball was brought back in as a general manager and Murph, you know, being an adviser as well. I think the. You know, bill Manning, who's the president of, of the Toronto Argonauts. And he said that it's important building a culture here. A winning culture. And establishing these guys back in the community as being heroes and, and, you know, spotlighting what a great product the CFL is that sometimes people don't really know of. Unfortunately, the pandemic, I think is. As hurt the ability of the guys being in the community as much as they want to with, you know, restrictions here in Ontario. But it mean from the people that I speak with man on a daily basis, you know, whether it be a games or, you know, via Twitter or whatever. I mean. There's a growing sense of this team is doing something special and a lot of people are excited about it. I mean, I personally think we have some of the greatest fans in the CFL. They're very passionate and you know, they're out there. A lot of them come to practice to watch. They always hang around after the game, you know, whether it's a win or a loss to, you know, support the players. It's I think once we get into playoffs, I think we're going to see a bit of a change in tide here with the, you know, Fans coming back, but I mean, I'm excited man, to say the least, like, I think this is a very exciting team to watch. I think if they get healthy here within the next few weeks, I personally think it's it's, it's going to be an exciting playoffs. I I'm excited. Like you said before Winnipeg, the one loss they had was to the Argos. You know, it feels like a million years ago now. But to think then. Yeah, maybe we saw that one c***k in the armor, right? I mean, it is just from a storytelling. That would be cool to me to see that if. Where everyone else has just been decimated. It was like the one. Yeah. Yeah. They say like, you know, the Russians been cut right there, like in Rocky, you know, like, you know, that they bleed. And so. He's not a, he's not a machine. He's not a machine. Yeah. You know, I, I, I'm excited for that. Any other. You know, I hate like bearing on the Winnipeg thing, you know, winning. Thoughts on, on maybe the Al wets making the move here at the end in the east, seems like, you know, maybe they would be some competition. I certainly think they're going to be, I mean, Premar Harris was a proven quarterback in this league, right? I mean, he's. You know, he's seen it and done it all. And that's an obviously, right? I mean, with these three final remaining games, it's like, you're either going to be playing. You know, Montreal or Hamilton, it looks like, right. So, you know, good on the Alawites for establishing that they needed a quarterback. Can Trevor Harris come in there and this shorter period of time and really change. Perhaps, I don't know. I mean, I personally think it's going to come down to Toronto and Hamilton if I had to put money on it and I'll go as far as to say that, I think we're going to. Jay go to Hamilton. It will be excited. Well, I, I appreciate you so much for taking the time today. I know it's, you know, busy and news in the middle of the week and set, but I, I. At the time. Building, you know, we had Josh Burton on and now we've had a [unknown]. And you, and so building kind of our repertoire of Argos people, I do appreciate it. Y'all I'll bug Mike Hogan. You guys can pick his brain for a half hour. I'm sure he'd love to come on to. Mike's been on Mike's. Mike has an invite to come back on here in a couple of weeks to preview the final speed. Doesn't want to come on and less. The Argos are in it. So we have to hope that they're in it. He said, I will not come on. And the Argos aren't playing in the, in the final. So I, I was, I was just with him this morning, filming our keys to our games. I'll I'll, I'll bust. Again to make sure he comes on. I'm I'm sorry. You had to spend time with my Coke and I'm sorry. The feelings are very mutual. It's a love, hate relationship between him and I love him. Thank you so much again, and good luck this weekend. It should be, you know, it's going to be exciting here. I'm so excited today after now being properly taught to introduce our guests, Simon. The leak is from DSN six 90 Montreal assignment. Thank you so much for coming on. How are you? Thanks for having. So. As I meet myself. So there's been some kind of lamenting as we're approaching week 14 of the CFL, you know, are the games exciting? We talked about it last week, three down nation did the big thing, Rob Vanstone. Been a lot at what has been your overall, you know, mile high view of the CFL this season. You got to get great quarterback plate. And that's what I think has always made the CFL special. When you go back to like, I'm not going to call it the heyday of the Canadian football league, because I can only go back so far. But when the, was it Jeff Garcia, when there was a. Doug Flutie when there was a Casey Percherons and Anthony child. Right before him was Tracy ham that to me. I don't even know what era exactly that was, but you know, Jeff Garcia went on to the NFL. You know, Casey produce was a pretty good player. He couldn't have. Yeah, I think he tried to get all the Kansas city, but he didn't, but it was a lot of talent. At the quarterback. Position in the Canadian football league. And that's what I made it. I think it made it really special. And right now, I don't want to knock the guys that are there, but it seems like we have the haves and the have nots. That's the thing. Healthy. Calgary team and a healthy bullied by Mitchell kind of changes things. But right now, if I can just be a little bit critical of some of the Canadian football league this year is that we're not getting great quarterback plate right across the board, but it goes with any league, like you go back to like maybe the. You know, The nineties when. There was a struggle in the national football league. Dave brown was getting snaps where the New York giants. And whoever else was in the NFCS. It just wasn't good. They made a conscious effort the last 10, 15 years to protect the quarterback in the NFL. I think in now, quarterback. They're upright. You can't hit them. That's too bad. I, you know, I prefer my footballing any level when it start quarterbacks are playing. So I'm just going to say that. You know, a little bit more stability, a little better play from the quarterbacks. I think that the league would be out here. It's just hard, you know, I mean, we a and we were talking enough. You know, Cameron before, you know, Coming into this, this season. And it's like, Yeah, this holy Graceland is promised right. Of like this exciting football on everything. And not that the games. And I think the storylines, right. The characters, I just had jumbo in, on talking about McCloud, Bethel Thompson. Kind of rise in, in, you know, Toronto. But, you know, they said after labor day, the games pick up, obviously the schedule push that back. Maybe it's like, we're still not, and now I've heard, you know what, once we hit playoffs, then it's really good. I'm like, But it's still the, you're going to tell me that you're Winnipeg Montreal week 14 versus week 16 is going to be that dynamically different because it's the playoffs. I think what you see, what you get. There's also look, there's an old sort of element there and then. The last couple of years, this personal. With COVID the national football league has expanded its rosters. And that means there's probably more quarterbacks out there on practice rosters, riding. I've been wanting to take reps in the Canadian football league that hurts them as well. I remember having this conversation with Nick Lewis about, you know, I was asking him what he was going to do post his football career. And he was talking about a high school coaching job. That was like a very nice salary, very nice living. So that's what they're always competing against. I just think. You know, I love the Canadian football league when the quarterbacks are a little bit more like Doug's Lydia, like when they're a Damon Allen type, where you can get outside the pocket and get creative, you can run rather than just, the guys are going to sit back there and try to. Dissect a defense. So. You, maybe you. You know, you'll hope that catches on maybe a little bit guys, south that maybe need to Polish their game. Be better throwers. They come up here for a little bit. Cause look. Jeff Garcia used the CFL as a stepping stone, sort of. Louie. So, you know, a lot of it. Good quarterback. So just get a little bit more athletic back there rather than the guys that are because to me, the leagues, they never been a, you know, five step drop, seven step drop. Sit back there and dissect the defense. Although I thoroughly enjoyed the Anthony Calvio days and the 800 winning percentage that came along with it. But from a viewing perspective, I've always felt that if that was the that's, what made the CFL special? A little bit more dynamic. Is this hard, you know, we, we produce a show. I do this show every week and EOE it's like, we preview these games and we talk about what could be. And then, and then sometimes we see the games and it's like, Ah, you know, it almost feels like, and I see the same in a lot of the Facebook groups and the message boards. I'm part of that is the community, right? The fans that want to support the league. The conversations around the league are sometimes more exciting than maybe the games themselves are. Yeah, it is sometimes. Look, I think you also got to remember. One thing when the owls are struggling, which they're not. I think last time I checked, they were above 500. They're a good team. They'll make a playoffs water and all that. When the Argos are good too. I think that brings more media and I think it brings a larger fan base in, but right now, Like the CFL is always going to Excel in Calgary. Edmonton Saskatchewan and Winnipeg. I think auto has got a nice thing going on a little bit more of that hometown feel smaller market. Kind of like, I would say maybe like how the Packers are, you know, It's a, it's a very good market. It's a very healthy market. It doesn't have the. The reach of the Cowboys or, you know, the Steelers market, but it's, I think auto was a very good market. So you need, I think Marcelo to be a little bit better. You need the Argos. For the good of the game. You need the Argos to be better. You need that fan base to come in. And then I think you'll get a little bit more. I look, you get a little bit more exposure, a little bit more coverage. And I think that helps the game as well. We've talked this week about just the over-saturation right of content, right of sports. You know, here we are. You know, NHL is kicking, you know, as launched now. I know NFL is in full swing and how much that, that year off really hurt the CFL. Right. In terms of not only the visibility, but then obviously coming back. Now, if the quality of play right now is to blame for the year off or the, if the year off is to blame for the quality of play. Now, then, then. It was doubly bad, right. In terms of not going forward, that, you know, thoughts on that and just kind of the CFL, trying to maintain some sort of a market share. I think you're right about there. I, I, I, you know, I don't think that the Canadian football league is. You know, I shouldn't say healthy enough because there are areas again that are very healthy, but yeah, taking the time off and losing a little bit of that talent. You don't make enough money to sit there and miss that pay, right? Like, We're the guys that are fringe players or are not stars. They got to find something else to do. And the one-year off. I'm sure a lot of guys weren't they found something else to do, whether it was the coaching gig and. And didn't come back. Another thing I'd like to see at worst, the revenues are greater so that they can pay their assistant coaches better. And I think once you get a little bit more constantly with. You get OCS and DCS that want to stick around and. You know, you can bring in a young quarterback and then next thing you know, OSI has gone cause he got a job somewhere else. Cause he's, he's made you made an extra buck and stuff like that. So. The root. The problems. The money. And if there was a little bit more money to go around, I think guys south of the border would give it a shot. Any Canadian football player. That I ever interviewed at TSN six 90. We brought, I brought in. [Unknown] a couple of times Gino Lewis. Brought in a few times, like, Do you know, this has been teammates would seek one Barkley. And baker Mayfield. Pretty impressive to me. It's a Heisman trophy winner. First pick overall a second book. So he's got no problem up here. He played at Oklahoma, played at Penn state. I know. And you know, and you want him to be an ambassador of the game. Nick Lewis, ambassador of the game. Once you get more guys to come up. And again, The with dollars and cents. I think the product becomes a lot better as well. But I. Is that small element there that I believe if, if coaches were better compensated, I think you'd see. Even a better brand of football. The guys come, they try to use it as a, you know, They might let myself get in there at the professional level and see where it goes from there. But if they can, it's worth it for them to stick around. I think that helps the game. Yeah. I mean, that's been a lot made to the season about, and I'm never going to be the axes and those kind of guy, but just the offense and, and trying things, pushing the ball down the field just hasn't been there this year. It's a lot of. You know, kind of letting the defenses dictate, right. And just not. You know, you're going for that four yard pass. Okay, maybe you get it. We're going to get the first down. But even if you miss one, trying to put together 12 plays in a row to get down the field just isn't happening this year, the quality of play, right? Just isn't there. Where ed with the three downs, if you miss the one play, you know, the whole drive's done. And you heard, I mean, you, you. Just the monotonous of the game sometimes, right? The back and forth the pontine. I mean, what do you make of all that? It's tough. Alyssa. It's a different game. You're right. You know, You set yourself up on second and 10. And the NFL or college football. He gives up a chance to, they still convert a first down. And the CFL, it gets a little bit more difficult. I'd like to see teams push the ball down the field. I'd like to see the other whites get a little bit more creative as well with their offense. At the beginning of the year, when they were struggling with the Vernon Davis. Ron Adams, excuse me. When they were struggling over at Adams, I just felt that when I was watching them play, it's like, this is not what the CFL is supposed to be like grants. It's supposed to be four guys in motion. Two guys splitting out of the backfield, going down the field. Six guys, you know, six set receivers. That's what it's supposed to look like more now, how you can get that. And I think is once you get more established quarterbacks and guys that are comfortable here, I think it will be a better, better brand of football. The other ones that brought the running game back. It's that back. I like it. I still think there's a place in the Canadian football league for running, you know, like it's a big field you can run on. On second and eight. And I'm pretty decent chance of getting a first down. So maybe some teams need to implement that more. The return game is fantastic. I'm a big fan of the national football league as well. But my biggest pet peeve, I was using it as an example. I have a buddy of mine is going back 20 years. Went to New York to watch the Cowboys and the giants and Deion Sanders was playing. For the Cowboys. So we're like, okay. Let's go primetime, I'm going to watch prime time. This is awesome, but we want to watch and pay. We paid an arm like for. For the tickets, some. Some ridiculous amount of money exchange was terrible as well. So was it, you know, double down. And we watched them. They punted the Dion five times. For caught for. I'm like, this is criminal. This is the one it's criminal. I didn't sign up to see this guy. Hand it over to the officials. So there's an element of the Canadian football league. That, that is very good. I love the fact that they give the five yard rule. One thing. I think all NFL fans can complain is that we're seeing way too many kickoffs. Right out the back of the end zone. We've lost the Richard. You know, big Chicago bears fan. I enjoyed Devin Hester and his days with the bears. He's returned game. So there are the elements. Are there just need to get a little bit more, play-making a little bit more creativity, especially on office. What do you make of, you know, Trevor Harris now coming to Montreal, right. You know, Vernon Adams, you know, down with injury, right. Presumably through the season. I tried to get, you know, wasn't getting success really in Edmonton now, you know, trying to get in this it's like this quarterback carousel, right? You know, our uncle's moving and Harris is moving. But do you think he's going to, he starting this weekend? Right. You know, Matthew Schiltz got pulled last week. So what do you make of his chances for success in Montreal? I don't know. It's tough. I haven't seen enough of the middle, how it tailed off a bike. You know, I thought shields was good when he came in, because I, you know, there was enough athleticism in there that on second and for him getting out of the pocket, You know, Vernon as well. Second for. As always at auction to get outside of the pocket and make it the friend or miss and pick up a first down. We'll see what Trevor Harris can do from the pocket. It's a good group though. Like it's a good. I don't know if it's good. It's an excellent group of receivers. So guys should be able to thrive. Your quarterback should be able to thrive. You're now on my putting that on the offensive coordinator. I don't know. But stand back is the best running back in the league by a mile. I think. Eugene Lewis is the best wide receiver in the league. By a mile. And if he isn't, his stocks will back it up. You leads him pretty much every major category when Nicky and Cunningham are very good. As well, so the weapons are there. So at some point. You know, is it the quarterback? Is it? You'll see it. It's going to fall on those two guys. You know, you can see what you want about the online. Okay. There's there's ways to patch up an old line, bringing an extra receiver, keep your backing in there to, to help out with some of the blocking assignments. So the talent on offense is there. They should be able to move the sticks. A lot easier. Jennifer, Howard's going to get that opportunity. Maybe they need somebody a little bit more of a veteran presence. I don't know. But I didn't hate what Schiltz brought. I just thought that he was pressed in and it's hard to make it work right away, but that group's a good group. Wide receivers. Is it fair and I'm not obviously, you know, coming into the CFL. The longest term, Trevor Harris. Standby. Quite a different QB style, right then Vernon Adams, right? I mean, you have this offense bill tramper in the Adams and Matthew shelter. Right. You talk a little more. Right. Isn't Trevor Harris, a little more. You know, we've got the accuracy, right. And the, and the throwing versus your Vernon, being able to scramble a little more. Yeah, it looked at. To me when the acquired Vernon, I thought it was a home run. I'm like, this is it. This is exact. Unless you have, unless you're blessed by the CFL gods. That you get a guy like as an account view and you get him a group of wide receivers that he had, and a lot of the homegrown talent that he got on the old line, but that out of the wet steam for a decade, it was a special group. They want a lot of football games. And they were good at every level. But that doesn't come around often enough. I think you have to be athletic. When you play quarterback in the CFL and when they signed a Vernon, I thought it was a home run. Like I watched them a little bit. Going to college, you can get outside the pocket. Pretty decent arm. It should have worked. It hasn't worked in success rate that I thought. But, you know, being off from football for him for a year from Colbert, I don't think that helps. I think that's, you know, If you look across the league, who's a quarterback that didn't need the reps or could have used the year off. Probably Zach collaterals. He's pretty banged up. He's having a great year bull Levi's another guy could, could've used a year off. Not Vernon Vernon needed those reps. So I think. When you look around the league, whether it's hockey, whether it's, you know, basketball, everybody got that time off or whatever, who did it hurt the most? Probably in the Canadian football league, nobody was hurt more from the shutdown, the verdict he was getting into his group. I was getting the opportunity, also getting an opportunity on a team that wasn't good. And he goes, got to get his reps so they could have went five and whatever, or six in whatever. Otherwise friends, one of the carrot, well, they would have cared, but it would have seen progression with their quarterback and knowing that that's the guy going forward. I think it would have been fine with that. And I still think he's the guy going forward because to me, his. His DNA makes should make a very good CFO quarterback. You know, you're a radio host, right. You know, you talk sports all the time. And have you talked to more CFL right now in the last 20 minutes and you have in the last couple of weeks, Not me. But others maybe. Yeah. If you brought some up, I like, listen, I love football. I tried to do whenever I'm hosting, I probably. Push the football more than anybody. I think I definitely push. The basketball. More than anybody. I've been there for about, I'd say 15, 16 years. Always doing basketball when it wasn't cool and trendy, when we were getting. You know, text messages from listeners, almost threats to stop talking about basketball. That's not the case anymore. But I do talk, I know when I'm on, I'll be auto join alpha. The area at the end of the month. They'll definitely be a discussion about CFO football on the daily. You're in Montreal. I don't need to explain to you what drives the radio station. What spore drive the radio station. It's hot. It's hardcore. But I want to implement as much as I can and NFL. At that as well. Yeah. You know, we have the general managers, a regular contributor once a week on the drive show. The coach is a regular contributor on the morning show. We get a couple of the players here and there. So we do our best. We do our best there. Of course the. The program. And I, yeah. And that's meant as I'm just trying to, you know, in terms of market interest, right. That's what I mean. Right. It's not, you know, in terms of, obviously we want to be able to be passionate, I just don't know. This is, is this driving, you know, like daily conversations in Montreal here, you know, as we approach playoffs, as we approach. And this culmination of the season we're founded. That's where I'm trying to figure out, you know, cause obviously in Seattle, I don't see talking all that. No. It doesn't have a, I don't know if it drives. I don't think it drives conversation. I think if they're a playoff bound, people will listen. If there is a playoff game, they'll fill up. The all the words are in a dog fight. With CF Montreal, that's the MLS club. So depending on what the buzz is, it look at tabs first. Yeah. If they're competitive, they'll get a crowd. They're not good enough to be bad, but how many teams are in pro sports? Good enough to draw a crowd, even when they're a terrible. I can't think of many, you. Even NFL football teams like NFL, you know, the. And make this incredible amount of money. The JAG sock. They don't get a crowd, other, you know, Cleveland for years. Wasn't that good? It didn't fill up. The Alawites are a good talking point. People will show up. But they need to win football games. In terms of their chances here in the east, right. You know, Toronto is looking strong. You. The they see, you might have an easier schedule coming up. You know, playing Ottawa this week. And then I think it's Edmonton the week after. Or that, you know, the third week. I chances on, on Marchelle making that Megan to run in the playoffs. I think they can make a run in the past. I think the next couple of weeks and stuff, they get the Winnipeg. Which we haven't seen. And then there's a game against this guy. I think there's two against whatever, even when he gets Saskatchewan. So that's, that's a tough structure then. I like that defense they can get after the quarterback. There's some ball Hawks on the defense as well. And I think, look, if they can get any continuity and they can find their guy between now and the end of the season, I don't care. If you can stay away from Winnipeg. To me, everybody else's beatable right now, it's Winnipeg and everybody else. So if you can stay away from Winnipeg and whatever the matchup is, you got a pretty decent chance. To a. To win a game. Like, I don't know if they're going to go in there having favorites. I really doubt that, but I think they do want a football game. And again, I'm a big fan of all the weapons on offense. If they can get something out of the quarterback position, that could be fine. It's just time you. You have the one thing you have the backup quarterback, you know, maybe comes in and makes the playoff run. Your exact Clara was right. Was the end of that. Like. But, you know, bringing in Trevor Harris here. Like fresh out of E. It would be a crazy story to see them really find success here, bringing them you. Th th the shined, Edmunds and quarterback that nobody wanted from the team that no one really cares about, you know, to be brought in. It would be a remarkable story and something that would be here for, well, listen, the last time I ever Irish played a playoff game in Montreal, I think he completed his first 22 passes in a row. And finish the game 35 to 37. So if it can bring any of that to the next Alawites playoff game as a starting quarterback, there'll be okay. I remember that it was just ridiculous. And it was 20. I think he started off the game, 22 in a row, and it wasn't like 20 to dump off either. Like he was stretching the ball. So. Look, if they can get anything out of him, I think there'll be all right. Last question before I let you go. Just future looking here, you know, I've seen a lot of the attendance numbers come out. I've seen a lot of this, you know, the, the bills are going to come due at the end of the season. Right? You know, in terms of attendance and money and things. You know, longterm sustainability of everything here, you know, obviously. We lived through all these XFL talks before, and I didn't want it, you know, I say the M word again, but w what are we thinking CFL going forward? Obviously they announced, you know, gray cups moving forward, but just the overall health of the, of the league right now. I think it's good. I don't think it's great because when you have your, you know, Because the mark Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal are the biggest cities in this country. They need healthy football teams. They need football teams that, you know, Like the Argos Ivan 6,000, 10,000, whatever it is as a game, that's not good. It's like having, you know, the Yankees drawing 6,000 people. That's like, you need your biggest markets to be represented. The CFL will be always be very, very healthy in the middle of the country with the four teams. You want to see BC do better? You want to see the Argos do better than the other ones? The other ones I think are on the cusp of getting really good, some really young talent there. View owners. But the CFO is going to be around for a long. It's just, you know what, the level of play. You know how much, you know, how many guys can you get from down south to come play up here? More kids in Canada are playing basketball and football. They never. You know, Katie and kid got drafted in the second round to Washington and the national football league teams are sending players down south. So, you know, same thing. Like we're looking at our Canadian next. You know, men's basketball program where, you know, 20 years ago it was made up of Steve Nash and maybe one other guy who got a cup of coffee in the NBA. Now the men's national program, there's guys who are pretty decent NBA careers, but don't get the invite. You don't make the roster. That's a deep it as the same thing with the soccer squad. And I think with football too, I think there's more kids playing. I think there'll be more local talent, which will help the game as well. But, you know, the one thing I've always asked, they'd been on the radio for 16 years. I've been watching the Canadian football league for like 40 years. I'm still waiting for that great Canadian quarterback. We have a two time. NVP and Steve Nash, we have Alfonso Davies. Who's tearing it up all over the world and soccer. We're still waiting for the outstanding Canadian quarterback. It's a, we've had. You know, Elite tennis players. We've got a guy, won the masters for whatever reason. This country still has not produced a high-end CFO quarterback, which is crazy. I love. We'll keep track of it. Yeah. I mean, Yeah. I know you hate to see that you. The Americans come up. I. I'd love to see, you know, like Nathan Rourke get more opportunities in BC here. You. God knows what will happen with Michael Riley. Moving forward. It'd be nice to see some of Michael Connor right here with Calgary. Some of these guys getting this RJ Mayer. Right? Am I. Making up. So we'll say Simon. Thank you so much for sharing your time today. I appreciate finally connecting and getting you on and it should be And it's a CK PG news. Yeah. We're in storage. Cool. All right. Cool. Well, I appreciate you doing this. Well, we have Ethan ready here with a CK, PG news out of BC. I'm so excited to have you on. We can talk a little America's CFL team, the BC lions, and kind of week 14. Ethan, how are you doing today? I'm doing really well, actually, it's, it's still dark outside here in prince George, but you gave me a reason to wake up early and actually get out of bed. That's good. Yeah, that's it now. And I don't. So before we talk to, you know, we prefaced kind of before we got on. We're doing a little research to catch up on CFL, which I think is fair because I do think there's been a little bit of. Lethargic. Right now with some of the media, right. Covering this. Have you found, you know, not as much excitement covering it? I mean, I think that's okay to say into this season. You know, it's tough because like, I mean, A little bit about myself, but. CFL has always been a big part of my life as part of the reason why I actually got into broadcasting into journalism. You know, I've worked for the Hamilton tire cats as their staff writer. I worked in the CFL head office. And this has always been a league that I have. Paid close attention to. Since moving out here in prince George being kind of that local sports guy. And paying attention to those local sports teams. It's not so much that this. This season is any less exciting than any other one. And if anything, I think. This is a very, very unique season, just given the circumstances, the shortened season and everything with that. Yeah. It's more. So just, I mean, my lifestyle has just gotten to a point where it's tough when you know, you've got local sports teams playing Friday, Saturdays, and you simultaneously also have CFL going on. It can be tough to stay on top of what's going on and much like yourself, you know, busy schedule you're you're having to watch these games after the fact, after everyone has already kind of reacted and perhaps in some, some cases. It's tough to have that. Organic. You know, unswayed opinion on how, how games are being played out. I think it's fair though, because you know, I see. I'll obviously didn't play last year. Right. And the assumption was always, you know, well, they're going to come back, you know, flip the lights back on and it has been there. There's a lot of other things to compete against attention wise right now, you know, sports and otherwise. Right. You know, Now we have NHL, right? You, I mean, good luck for me trying to get a lot of the CFL people that I'm used to talking to on the show. Right? Just because you really got to go, you know, we have NFL. So that's, that's why I asked that and obviously local sports in your community, but it is like, there's a lot of other things they're competing against now, even more so than two years ago. Absolutely. And especially, as you mentioned with the season being pushed back, you know, a late start. You know, Us CFL fans, we commonly be seeing, you know, is it June yet trending as a hashtag leading up to the start of the season when the season doesn't start till August. That's lining up with the exact same time that NFL preseason is getting underway. At the same time. As you mentioned, you know, NHL, NBA. World series just wrapped up. So we're also, you know, competing. With those other major sports that Luke. The CFL being the league, that it is. Perhaps it's struggling to get new fans or draw new fans in when you've got these other leagues that have. Arguably some more exciting times in on, that's not to say the CFL is an exciting by any means, but you know, it's going to be interesting as we, as we reach now a new time where we're starting to talk about. Play off football in the CFL. You know, the great cop happening in the middle of December. That's a very unique situation. It's going to be interesting to see even just viewership. For for that great. Top how that's been a compared to years past. Coming much later. In the year. Yeah. I mean, I we've been tracking ticket sales seem, okay. We, we got ours. I was like, afraid that we weren't gonna, you know, cause I had heard all this and so we got one of those codes and now I look either we could still have gotten, you know, noseley, but it does seem like tickets are moving, but I, you know, I heard it and I went back and forth. Last night online too. You know, I hear. Okay. When the playoffs hit, then it's really going to. They're really going to go. And I go. Yeah, but I heard that in after labor day and I know that the timelines are weird, but I kept hearing that okay. After labor day, it's really going to get going after labor day. You know, now we're at week 14. Does. Is this Winnipeg. Who are they playing this weekend near Winnipeg lox. If they're in the playoffs in three weeks, does that make it a more competitive game than it will be this weekend? Like I just don't know. It's interesting. Cause I was actually talking about. About this with a colleague of mine. I don't think we've ever seen a west of vision. I guess early pre like season champ crowns this early in the season, it's a shortened season. And the fact that we were talking about the Winnipeg blue bombers. You know, hosting the west final as early as we were, was very surprising. It just goes to show, I mean, they're 10 in one right now. I, it was funny that the. Season we're placing bets on. Would there even be a team that got to double digit wins in the short and season? But I think in the case of the ALS, I mean, this week, they're going into a game where, you know, if they, when they quenched. You know, they're talking about playoffs. And. I think as the season goes on, As those playoff picture. It becomes more and more tight, you know? The drama gets heightened. Those games become more physical. You start to see it from the players as well. Cause they know what's on the line. Those games become far more exciting. And to be honest at times, those those last one or two games for each team in the regular season can be far more dramatic than, than those playoff games leading up to the breakout. Well, that's good. I mean, cause I, you know, I I'm open there. You know, my opinion be swayed, but it does just seem like it's, it's been a little bit, I want to talk about the lion specifically, right? I mean that, that's our team here. Their inability. It seems like to win any game at all. I don't really in, in it's been months. Right. You know? I want to know before I swayed anything. What did you make of the Argos over time? When, you know, with BC this last weekend? You know what? I think it's easy to point the blame at the kicking game and. That's the answer right there, to be honest. When you have a kicker that struggling as much as gimme Colorado has been, especially just the last two weeks. I mean, he has only had four kick attempts in those those two weeks and he has not made one. That's his job. To be making those kicks at the same time. I think as you start to peel back the layers on this team and where they've been at the last. You know, five, five games. You start to really see. Perhaps what, what the real issues are. You start, you look at the start of the season. You've got Michael Riley who. I'll use a mop quarterback in this league. He's consistently been among the top in terms of passing yards. Year after year. And he starts to season. Any any looks great? No, this team is talking about. You know, I remember doing a story about this team and the fact that there was, there was no run game. It was non-existent, but it didn't need to be existed because they were doing so well through the air. And then they hit one at Peck. Right. And. And it seemed like that first game. You know? Yeah. They had a few losses before that, but. It seemed like that first game against Winnipeg was, was really the big test for them leading into that game. They had back-to-back games against the Ottawa. Which, what. They're just there. They're not a good team this year. And it being the red blacks. And at the same time, you know, they, you know, they struggled against Edmonton as well. And those being to the bottom, you. Basement dwelling teams in this league. It's interesting because you look at Michael Riley the last few weeks. I don't think he's passed for more than 60% of his completed. 60% of his passes. That's a big issue with this team. That's that's not an issue with receivers dropping the ball. It's not an issue with. You know, You know, running the wrong routes or anything. That's an issue that falls on Michael Riley, but at the same time, also those five guys in front of him. He's just getting hit way too much. And he's, he's not a young guy, so like you need to be protecting a quarterback like that. He's a beautiful man. You need to be protecting them. Make sure he's looking good. It just, it feels eight years I've grown up in Seattle. It feels very Seahawks. Ask where it's like hot start to the season. Right. Like Russell's out. You know, NVP Russell, and we're getting all this. And then, yeah, I mean, this season get outta here, but you know, most seasons it's like, you. They, we sputtered to the end and that was the thing too was, and I want to get. The timeout call question for me too, with coaching with you, but like the two point conversion at the end, like I'm watching this and like it's not even close, right? He's like 10 yards off from hitting the RI I'm like, well, this is, this wasn't even like, Okay. We did the overtime when we drove the field and we came down and we got the touchdown and then we're getting the Dubois. I wasn't even closed. And so that's where I get frustrated. As a fan and as someone that likes Michael Riley, you know, watching that. A hundred percent and that's, and that's a bowl that he's, he should be making consistently. I mean that, that outro in the CFL is a completely different. Compared to that outro in the national football league or any, even in NCAA, just with the field dimensions, but that's a ball that he completes day after day in practice. That's a volume needs to be making it. And then especially a quarterback with, with the experience that he has in that given situation overtime game on the line, you know, You make that, you know, You win the game sort of thing. You need to be making that pass. But, yeah, it's, it's easy. Like I said, it's easy to point the blame on that game. Particular to be pointing the blame on Jimmy college hill. Because, you know, he makes one of those last kicks and suddenly now they're ahead by one. Right? You're not having to. Thank goodness for the Rouge and the CFL. Cause if it weren't for that, I think he wouldn't have even been on the plane back to Vancouver. But, I mean, does it. Does it say something that a head coach and I know a new head coach, but the head coach. You know, mistiming the game so poorly there at the end is what led, because I, you know, I'm working the wedding, right? Like we're there Saturday, I'm working, I'm keeping them. I'm like, okay, there's a minute left. We have downtime. I'm pulling up my phone. And I watched the missed CAC. And I they're like, oh, you know, our girls going into victory formation, you know? And I. If I, you know, oh, poop and I closed my phone off. Right. And then the next thing you know, it's like, okay, BC is going to overtime. I get the alert. Like what happened here and the fact that like, Good people we're talking to this. Isn't like the most exciting ending in weeks. And that's how it came about. I mean, thoughts about that and how. Does that count? Out. If you're a lions fan, it wasn't excited. Right. And. And I think the other thing is, I mean, Rick Campbell. He's a. I don't know if you can really say that this is his first year because he was brought in, you know, When the pandemic all kind of unraveled. At time to kind of familiarize himself with. With his personnel and build this team much like any other team in this league. The, as long as you, you made the most of that. That year off. To build the roster that you thought was going to bring you a great cup. When you finally did step onto the field. You know, there's nothing to really be worried about, but for Rick Campbell, To come in. You know, you spent that time. They, you know, With Michael Riley. You know, folk the whole focus of him coming in was with. Initially. Was tailored around, you know, them improving that offensive line. And it seemed early in the season. It looks good. But it's very quickly kind of spiraled down as we've gotten to the point where. They're playing those competitive teams early in the season. Let's remember that they were also facing teams that right now, Are in a similar position than they are. They're sitting at the bottom of the standings. You know, Edmonton and Ottawa, they have no chance of making playoffs, but like those were games that. It would have been interesting to see had they not played those back-to-back games against Ottawa, had those games perhaps spaced out. Where this team would be rather than, you know, beating up on Ottawa. You know, putting all your time and energy into those. Those wins. And then having to, you know, Fall face first against, against Winnipeg. You know, the way you did. So I, yeah, I made that. And then also the fact that our Argos basically forgot that BC had an extra timeout. Right. And that's kind of what. Well, let that, cause that to me was like, how did they not. Yeah, I think coach. The way he like came out and said he apologized right. Or felt thankful that they had the, when I, I have some quotes and they took on like, I get, I get the, you know, Clock mismanagement happens. It was like a Mike McCarthy with the Dallas Cowboys, but like the fact that we're forgetting. You know, in the playoff clenching victory, that, that the opposing team, how to time out, we go into victory formation too early. They're able to get the ball back and damn near wind just on a kick. I mean, the whole thing to me just felt like kind of a kerfluffle that. I don't know if that's the best look for everybody. When, I mean, I guess from, from someone. Like you. Perhaps growing up, you know, Growing up in, in the states, this is a league that I don't know how long you've been paying attention to it for, but I guess like you're trying to sell the league on, you know, gaining more American fans. Cause I think it is truly an amazing league to be. Interested in. And when you see those types of decisions, you almost question like, how is this a professional league when you're, when you're, you know, the scoreboard's right there. You know, you, you can see how many timeouts each team has. You can see where the ball is. You can see how much time is on the clock. But those are all things that are readily available. They're right there in front of you. And it's not even like they're in your, in your lap. They're right there. So it is, it is a little bit concerning. I mean, Ryan Dinwiddie. He, this is his, you know, First year with the Argos for Campbell, you could say this is first. Like first full season with the lions and it can be questionable when you're seeing these types of decisions being made in very meaningful games. Have them play out at the same time. For Rick Campbell. You almost, it was a monkey pitch. All you had to do was hit it out of the park. You know, not even you just needed. It's tops because I think. You want to also trust your kicker as well? At the end of the day, that's what he practices. Day in day out. Can you just put it through the uprights and for Jimmy college? Oh, to not have done that. At all that game. It definitely. If it puts a target on his back, it puts a target on Rick Campbell's bag because it's well, why, why do you trust him? Why did you. Put him in that position. And I mean, for the lines to have already gone ahead, I think they brought a Nicole this week. Ahead of Hamilton. It just goes to show they're, they're looking for answers. They're looking to correct their mistakes because I do think that there is. There is time. It's going to be tight. There is still time though. For them to potentially. Make the playoffs. Yeah, I was just, I was like, I knew it was Vogel. I can't remember if it was Nathan or Nick Vogel. Well, we have Paul McCallum on last week and one of our listeners that maybe you should see a fall with. I was like lace back on. You know, cleats and go. I so last question for you. You know, as we, you know, you've worked for Hamilton, right. You know, VC going in wa. I'm really curious to see. That your thoughts on that and what, what do you make of that matchup? Right. I mean Mazzoli my fantasy wishes. I would have picked him last week. I mean, who knew that he's having this? It's a weird season, right? I mean, talk to me about, I guess, first talk to me about that. You know, Mazzoli struggles, Dan Evans, the Danes, her now Mazzoli is like playing God, like, you know, football. So I guess first let's talk about that. And that's interesting because I remember the year that I was with the Hamilton's higher catch-ups. It was the year that Zach Polaris was with. The starting quarterback. There's a lot of questions around Zach coming into the season with regards to like injuries and everything. And yeah, it was, it just seemed like that from that season to the next you saw that, that shift from Zack Collaros to Jeremiah Masoli. That same year that I was with the tire test. That was when Jeremiah had that amazing comeback in Edmonton. And it was truly a dramatic because I didn't think we were going to come back and. I say we having worked for the team, but like, didn't think that we were going to come back or have any chance in that game against Edmonton. But now. Moving forward. You almost f****d. You. You kind of found yourself in a very similar situation because coming into the season, you had Jeremiah solely, he was. You know, already having those mop conversations before even hitting the field. In well over a year, but then at the same time, you also had Dana Evans, you know, You know, right, right there behind them. It's. It has been a very interesting, unique. Seasoned because there has been so many storylines from team to team. With Edmonton, it just so happens or Hamilton rather. It just so happens to be that topic of. Of who's playing at quarterback when you've got. Jerilyn. Solely then you've got Dana Evans and then, you know, both full down to injury. And then you can, you know, musclely back in the, in the starting position and he's playing lights out football. It's going to be interesting to see how the final few weeks play out. For Hamilton in a year that they're hosting the great cup for the first time, since 1999. Well, yeah. And heaven forbid they get it two out of three years. I mean, I felt like. I was like, you know, kinda make sense. I mean, I feel like lions are walking into the slaughterhouse here just with how, especially how good Hamilton looked last week. I mean, I'll be at against Edmonton, but final thoughts on that game before we let you go. And that's the thing. I think this is the game that. You, you automatically. Perhaps many, many analysts, many fans across the league, you automatically give, you know, The up to Hamilton. That being said, I think this is the game. This is a statement game that BC could go into Hamilton and Michael Riley goes off for 300 yards. Right. If you have that performance at a Michael Riley, you have that protection from your offensive line. And I don't know who, I don't think the word has actually been released as to whether they've released. [Unknown] or what's going on in terms of common show on Nick Vogel. But if you get your kicker to actually make a field goal this, this week, then I think that it's. It last week was a good bounce back from a 45, nothing score against Winnipeg to at least be in a competitive game against the team. That was undefeated at home. Still is. That was a good performance. It was a good way to bounce back because unfortunately that it panned out the way that it did. But in Hamilton, it's going to be tough and it's, I know how tough that stadium can be for, for kickers. So if it's common show, you've got to rebound from last week. If it's Nick Lola, you're coming into a new league. Stadium that you've got. You've got a twister. That's basically just always over top of that stadium. And you've got to figure that out. It's going to be a tough game for, for the kicker who regardless of who's playing in that game. But I do think that if, if BC is able to. Pull out a win and it needs to be a win. But if they are able to pull out a win in that, then I think there are any good position for the rest of the season because, you know, yeah. I think your last game of the season is against, against Edmonton. And that, that should be a good game. I I'm going to bite my tongue right now, but. As long as you're you're in the wind column leading into that game. Those final few weeks, then I think you're positioning yourself well to at least be competitive. And, and buying for a playoff spot. Yeah. Per Matt baker. He's in COVID right in the air. COVID via a protocol right now. So I feel like we're going to be stuck with it for another week. It's just frustrating this year, because we have the global kicker right at the first I was trying to. Do you remember? I was trying to recall my, I looked at, I looked it up last, last night, cause I was like, oh yeah, Maybe we did have that, that other tick. From Japan, I believe. Early in the season and yeah, kicking has been a struggle for the lions all this year. Counsel came in and he, he looked good in his first few games. The last few weeks he is, he is not looked good whatsoever. So he. You just need to jump back on that, that train of focus and just zero in, like, don't worry about, don't worry about the stadium lights. Don't worry about, you know, the fans, don't worry about the situation. Don't worry about the standards. You've got one job and it's football through the uprights. I say that having never been a kicker myself, but. It's that's your job. You just got to focus on that. You got to remember that. That's that's what you're you're you're getting paid to do. Yeah. It's a KIRO Yamasaki. There you go, Hey. I even, I appreciate your time today. I will. You. It would be the breath. We watching this game here, but yeah. I it's scary times they have, but I, I do appreciate it and that will, hopefully we have the last couple of good weeks of the season, but yeah, I don't feel good for BC, but I feel good for. My wife who, you know, the first night of the season picked Winnipeg and has never looked back and, you know, we can't all be so lucky.

Episode 64 - Does the CFL Have an Entertainment Problem?

Welcome to the markcast. Do you ever watch that Jersey? I do. I've tried to be careful with how often, because I. I just like, I take it off and I put it back in the closet. Like I have a whole closet behind here, like. Nike hate me, Jersey. I have like my PJ Walker Jersey, both the authentic and the replica from the, the roughnecks. So yeah, I tried to keep them clean. Cool. I was going to say this the other day, you look like Tigger. You know, It was tall orange and black thing. That's what that's going on. Halloween every day for you. What, when you're in your viewing, you know, CFL, BC lions, legend. Paul McCallum. I mean, you gotta, you gotta where the BC lions verse, he appreciated that he appreciated the merge. So. Fair point. He's coming up at the end of the show before him though. The T a J and Rob danced on front of the show. Coming back to talk to. To talk to read. We have a really big share today. So we have, you said every week though. You do, but yeah. We actually have real USFL news today. Real news like confirmed, you know, Birmingham, we're going for Birmingham. We have all the info. We have XFL stuff. I pulled a couple sound clips from Danny and Jerry card. Now we have my special cameo for us, for you, for the podcast. And then we even have the USFL hat on boxing, the official hat on boxing, even though a Stephan that runs a accidental newsroom with the only other person in the world that owns one of these hats. And he unboxed is on Twitter already. I saved mine for the podcast. So we're the only two people in the world. You couldn't have waited for me, Stephan. You. You know, you had to open yours first. So anyway, we have a very big. You'll need to coordinate, synchronize your swatches or something. Yeah. Please subscribe. So, you know, we crossed the 1500, we're getting up there. 1523. Matt. Matt baker, BC lions is going to give us some merge for the giveaway for 2000. He was going to give it to us and that remember we didn't get to BC, so we didn't get the merge. But, yeah, so please like it, subscribe, I'm mailing out all this stuff right now, Paul, we're going to give, Steve has Argos Jersey in Hamilton. He's going to be there. So that saves us about a million dollar shipping to Canada for one thing. And then Kyle and Shane are getting the other staff we've talked with all of them. And so I'm going to ship all that stuff out this week. You saw we had another good review come in this week. Cool. Alt football forever. That is from Evan F 91. Very cool stuff. Yeah, he says, great host, great gas. Perfect. Listen for all football, fancy. You know, the mark has.com/review. We don't plug the reviews a lot in this subscribed stuff, but please, you know, we're still trying to build this stuff up. I really appreciate it. And, and the reviews don't cost you anything and it makes us feel good. So I can say something very spicy right now, but I think. Withhold so well, we're not the premier place to get your CFL news. So moving on. I stand by the fact that we are the premier American CFL podcast. And that's fair, but I stand by that. That's I know that's what you said. You didn't say overall, you just said that. Yeah. Well, you want to say United States of America, would that be. The west coast. Would that be acceptable? We are the premier, Seattle and LA paced. Paul. Spoiler. I had to buy this late at night. We have our gray cup tickets. I texted you. I know you're working through wherever I go. They're going on. Casey. I thought you were going to sell that right away. Now they're still haven't sold out. So, but they are a lot more expensive now than they were. So I saved us like 150. At, you know, loonies I ticket. Cause there, you know, it's cheaper. But yeah. I got to find a button. A sound clip for you and play it every time you say something like loonies or. If you call your beanies to. We're going to, we're going to have an issue. I have a serious issue. But anyway. Yeah, so we have our great, good tickets. We're all official now. So we're going to get our tasks like we didn't do before, but we have our flights. We have our Airbnb, we have our gray cup tickets books. So we're in like flam. We have a ride row 13. They're not like the best tickets in the world, but they're not the worst, but we will be in the building and still working on media passes so that I can give a Rosh, a hug in the, in the media press booth. That is my goal. That is your goal. I would like to give a Raj, I would like to go up to a rock and I give him like a big wet kiss on the side of the ear or something. Just to like, you know, just to rattle the cages a little bit. Now, this is what drives, who we're going with that. Get inside his head a little bit. Yeah. Yup. Yup. We have a ride. We have other Russia kind of anyway. So we, we got the big cameo sobriety. You decide when we can do that, we can do that going into break. We can do that midway through the show, but with. Let's just do the other show. Well, okay. Then people, you got to wait around for this, cause this is worth it. Really I'm telling you guys, if you are a fan of the show, this is really where that. Then the hat thing, AXA found news coming up, I've pulled the soundbites. We're going to do that. And then I have a picture here. I'm going to post it. A friend of the show. I, Nathan Woodside was at the battle Hawks stadium for like a band thing. He was there. And they still cause no team plays it right now. Right. Because St. Louis, you know, doesn't have a football team, whatever. So it still has the battle Hawks like logos on the field. Like two years later. And so he said, you know, holy crap guys, the battle Hawks logos are still on the field. And I said still, or are they there again? You know, Anyway. The title of the show is as a CFL, have an entertainment problem. We're going to talk about that. We talk about the gas and stuff, but very poor weekend of games last week. And then hopefully we will improve it this week. You see RBC, Lyons square there. Paul. It's not ours. It's not ours. Let's beat the Argonauts, my team. Not your team. My team 37 to 16. Blue bombers. That's hard to say. It's really hard to send. They stomped reads lions. 45 Zip. Hamilton 32, 3 over the red blacks, because they're just terrible. And the roughs Roughriders beat the stamps 2017. My heart is racing, getting ready to post this cameo. I am racing out and I f*****g went. We might have to do at the end of the first break. Okay. We'll see, we'll see. Yeah, a big weekend here. Lions are going to Argos. We preview that with Natasha. I tiger cats, Alex, you know, some of these are the most exciting, I think stamps are going to roll out. Well, that's obviously going over Argos last week. They're making a run. You know, to be the first in the east. And then that, you know, You have the Argos just trading the way Arbuckle, which we'll talk about here, you know, with McLeod, seeing how they're going to do against BC. And then obviously the elk is trying to figure out the whole quarterback situation there. And then. With the outlet. So, you know, some intrigued this weekend, but there's been a lot of like Lamaze online lately kind of about the quality of the play is finally catching up to people. Got it. Cool. With that being said, Let's move on. Just mentioned it before Nick Arbuckle traded to the Elks. From the Toronto. Arc knots, big news. You. At the ethically. With this wave that. Yeah. Typically you don't lose 37 to 16 and then I trade away one of your quarterbacks the next week and go like, Hey, we're thinking with McLeod. Obviously we're happy for McLeod. You know, we called him the king of the CFL. You'll remember back in week two. But, you know, surprising there is good. The there finally he has, he has continually fought for a backup position, you know, for years. He's always in con. Competition, you know, he's been signed and caught all these seams. It's good to finally have McLeod. I didn't, when he says he is the face of our franchise. You know, It is good to see. I'm not going to make like a, what is the Arvest franchise right now? Joke, but it is good to see that like, McLeod is finally getting the shot. You're getting you out of yourself. On the, on the Google doc. That's. The third story and you're just like talking it up right now. In between there then, and there, we can talk about Chad Kelly, nephew of Jim Kelly. Toronto Argonauts acquiring his negotiation list rights in the trade for Nick. Yeah. I mean, people are really hoping that Arbuckle gives it a fresh start again. Th this is, this is like his fourth team in three or four years, his wife's giving birth. It's really this human element to it, right where this isn't like fantasy draft rear. Hey, we're moving people. I mean, he's got to move all the way over. You know, he got moved to Edmonton. Now we're in the middle of the season. You know, presumably a lot of his family is probably not, you know, local, right. Helping him do all these things. So it's, I just couldn't imagine now, especially with everything going on, but yeah. Chad, Kelly nephew. You know, Jim Kelly, he's a legend. And, you know, but, but cloud is their guy right now, which is surprising to me. He's been a little inconsistent lately, but they feel like in the Tay we'll talk in the, in his interview, he feels like he's really earned that through, you know, 13 weeks, this season. So. To that point, a head coach Ryan did when he said he thinks that. You thinks that a. McCloud feels the respect that we view them as a starter and the phaser franchise. Of course this year, he has 1600 over 600,000 yards, nine. And touchdowns. You know, really want a two to one. You know, there's a one, 1.3 to one. Yeah. It's a 1.3 to one interception, a touchdown ratio. That's. That's scary, but maybe this, this, this confidence boosting a statement that didn't what he say, did what he said will help. You know, help, calm. [Unknown] down. It's just school. You know, we tracked him back in the spring league back. You know, November of last year. So it was just cool to see like that trajectory, you know, he was in the spring league from this, you know, the year off with the CFL goes back to the CFL, earns his spot. It's just cool that we have tracked, obviously not all of his career, but you know, the last year and a half now that we've really been tracking him along the way and to see him now, you know, with your team, the Argos it's cool. Very cool stuff. Melissa Cross further into the border there. The Ottawa red blacks have fired general manager. Marcel. He was the first employee hired by the red box. 2013 Said, mark. Rudy presidency. Hopefully duty. Duty. [Unknown] I think, as you started to end. Use your name? Yes, he, yeah, he was there only GM once they rebranded the red flags and they were the Roughriders before and all that stuff on. This has been a long time coming, obviously Ottawa city and like it to a nine. Something needed to be changed right at Paula police. Expected to stay as the head coach, that's brought in a lot of issues, right? Like you're going to keep the head coach and then bring in the new GM. That maybe wouldn't have all the say that they could have said. Right. You know, you would presumably hope that maybe they could bring in, you know, a new head coach, but this has been a long time coming. I think red blacks fans are pretty happy with this. And a lot of the changes that have been made. I let him go. A lot of star players that now have, have succeeded in other teams and basically just not setting them up well for the future. A potential candidate for that job. Well, maybe, maybe, maybe not. Maybe he's just throwing his name out there, kind of, sort of in a roundabout way. TSN analyst. Duane Ford said he'd be lying if he said that he wasn't. Interested in that job. The thing that he would say is that the opportunity to help build a team is something that has always interested me. For anyone with those kinds of aspirations? I think there are a lot very positive, very attractive things about the auto situation. Ford explained on a TSN 1200 radio in Ottawa. Yeah. Once it came out, once Marcel was out, that was kind of one of the first thing, you know, whether those crowds like, Hey, if we say this enough online, maybe you get some steam, there's a list of candidates. I mean, obviously they, they enter on people right now. Just kind of get into the season and then, you know, red blacks are going to be needing the total rebuild hill here, coming out. It'll be interesting to see obviously what they deal with. Like the quarterback situation too. They've had a bunch of different. You know, turn over and injuries and stuff there as well. So moving forward. The BC lions Reed's team. They're getting. Star receiver, lucky Whitehead back in the lineup this week. Against my Argos, of course. He suffered a broken hand against the blue bombers on October 1st. And underwent surgery. And so now he's. Like he was going to be in the game. Yeah, that's a quick turnaround. I mean, they really need him. I think that's ahead of the timeline that they had. I believe it was for the six weeks when he was injured. It's a little more like three to four now. We showed, obviously it remember we had the x-ray and we shared all that on the podcast, so, yeah. Good, good to have lucky back. I don't think that's enough for BC day to take on. Toronto, but it's not going to hurt. We'll see. Bad news. An injury injury related way. Seattle Seahawks, legend and Saskatchewan Roughriders punter. John Ryan suffered an ankle injury and. Apparently he's going to be out two to three weeks. Yeah. You know, he's still, he's got, I mean, he's one of the elder statesman in the CFL. Still killing it and yeah, swelled up pretty bad. They said a coach. Dickinson said, but yeah, not too good. I thought this is interesting. I'm at baker did kind of like an AMA with the Mar DOMA and they were doing like a, if you were a season ticket holder, you were doing a round table. Apparently Amar is Mr. Demand is putting in. To for Vancouver to host the 20, 24 gray cup. I said, you know, [unknown]. If my place will drive up, you know, A little like caravan up to the border. We'll have all our paperwork in order. And then they think some Jersey tweaks are going on, but I've seen a lot online. Like I think the lions a lot, try to like, Hey, we switched our Jersey. Like, well, let's get some more people to the games. Like I think they do that a lot. It's kind of like the gimmick, like the Vincent man, like let's bring back Brock Lesnar, you know, like let's, let's switch the Jersey. But I buy the 20, 24 gray cup. Cause it's Saskatchewan, you know, with Hamilton, Saskatchewan, back to Hamilton, and then it would be 20, 24, which, who even knows that the CFL is, is existing. But that. P****d off. That's the quiet though. Yes. As have we, 12, eight of the nine clubs have met the 85% fully vaccinated milestone. Based on upcoming scheduled vaccination dates. Delete. And just made said 93% of current players will be fully vaccinated by Halloween. It's Edmonton, right? I mean, they're the one. It's crazy now, eight of nine. It's crazy, you know, we're at this time, but you know, you have a GM there, Brock Sutherland doesn't, you know, he's not vaccinated, so it's challenging anyway, but yeah. [Unknown] of nine is good. Right? I travel issues. I'm not going to be an issue for Edmonton going into the playoffs. So I presume they just say effort at this point, we don't care. Yep. We could attendance this week. Toronto. 12,000 People. Ottawa Hamilton. Over 20,000, you have BC and Winnipeg having a 23 77 50. And so sketch one versus Calgary 21,000. Yeah. They're below the numbers, right? We're really open now. Winnepeg holds about 30,000, right. They have that for that, for the home opener. And you know, I'm seeing this a lot online, like the bills are going to become due at the end of the season here. Right. Cause they really helped. Okay. Once we get everything open, we're going to get a lot of fans. And remember we talked Toronto had 6,700 a couple of weeks ago. So it's getting to that point where yes, we have people then, but you know, only getting 23 in Winnipeg when they're basically crushing everybody. Right. I mean, you would think that like Winnipeg's on a hot streak if they're not selling outright now, especially against BC, which isn't a nobody team. I mean, it ended up being a terrible game, but. Not not good news there. TV ratings had the Toronto Montreal match up at 410,000 on TSN. That beat out the rap Celtics, the Oilers verse, the Knights. But didn't beat out. Boston and Houston game six, the world series. It just kind of seeing where. Sorry. Yeah, just. Kind of where the rankings are. I mean, you know, there's still a dry nine TV, right? I mean, BC Winnipeg 600,000 on TV is I think a tremendous number. It's just getting fans. The fact that you can only get the 23 into the stadium that is kind of the issue there, especially when, you know, that's like a salary day. It's not a weekday thing. It's not even a Friday. Apparently though on that note, The CFL has an entertainment problem. And there's no easy solution. Three down nation. Rob Vanstone Daniel Austin. And Twitter erupting about. This even Canadian high school. Well, I just, even like the Canadians. It's not, it's not a it's, it's like a CFL issue, like Canadian high schools that are coming off a year off. Like they're playing well, you sports are playing well, right? Obviously the NFL, no preseason or limited. Alright. It is very much like a CFL problem. You know, we we've talked about this before you have 30% of the players on the roster right now have never played the CFL game, you know, until this year. But this is something where all walks of life. Like when Daniel, Austin is talking about this and Rob stone, Rob van Sant, like everybody, I, you. I tweeted out the three down article, very mixed. I got like over a hundred votes, you know, you get, yes, there's no problem. Or, you know, no, there is a problem. And. Robin, I get into this a lot in the interview. I just kind of want to tease that and point that out. Okay. Not a friend of the show. Foodie foodie for Jordo not the biggest fan of Montreal smoke. Smoked meat sandwiches. Or the mark has for that matter. Yeah, this. When they were interviewing Cody about traveling, you'll be in demand of Canada getting to travel around and they were talking about him making a serve to Montreal. And he's not a big fan of the smoked meats. I just thought it's this tremendous, like this got a lot of like, play this, got a lot of air time. I saw a lot of quotes about this. Basically say, I know guys are a fan of the smoked meat. I'm not the biggest fan. I have tried it before. I just thought that was tremendous. Thanks Cody. Thanks for sharing. Jeremiah Masoli we'll start for us. Orlando Sten, our. Names. Mazzoli. They'll start her against a Edmonton in week 13. It's surprising the guy, Dean Evans back and Dan was on the injured list for six weeks. It's surprising. They got Missoula. Evan's back and they're still going with Mazzoli. He has been inconsistent this season. Hamilton is still very much in contention, but he said, you know, that you might be seeing the boat this week, but you know, Missoula getting the start just does seem weird to me that you wouldn't really. Put the focus back on Evans now that you have them. Cause I don't think Missoula has been planted that strong. Interesting. Interesting. Interesting. But what about jets have moved the start time for their December game that's happening on the same day as the CFL west final in Winnipeg. They were, you know, there's always that, that worry that, you know, you have the big one or the other, and thankfully Seattle has a good system where you don't have to pick one or the other during the baseball season. You'd. You can go to the game first, the soccer match or the baseball game. Vice versa. They schedule it out very well and looks like they've done that here in Winnipeg. And this is pandemonium. Like, that's why I put it in here. People I saw this people freaking out online. We're not going to be able to attend both the. They've pushed the one back, they've moved the other one forward. All is right in the world. You can go see both of these. There you go. And then this, and then this. This, this tweet. Yeah, this Todd friend of the show, Todd, I mean, you know, he's right here. I mean, you see this. Yeah. You saying what seriously as blame the media for not promoting the Argos. This isn't getting fans into watch. That clearly means they're not interested in the product. Do you think it's a situation where they're not interested in the product? Or is it like, kind of like a middle finger to MLSE? Yeah, it's hard, right? I mean, so I'll put the tweet up here, but you know, the $25 tickets you get, you get a soft drink or a water and a hot dog, you know, it's like, what, what can we incentivize you? I saw the Elks. Are I just thought tonight, I didn't put it in here, but they're selling like all you can eat seats. So like, if you pay $99, you get like unlimited Coke and nachos and stuff on like, We're really doing anything we can to get people in. But yeah, when you, when you drive 6,700 people, you're really, but I don't know if it's a middle finger. It's. I I've heard. It's just like, not cool to be at Argos games. Right. And like, not to make fun or whatever, but it's, it's challenging. I've had writers talk about this. Okay. In his interview, he called it. Politely. He goes, well, it's not like Toronto has the strongest home field advantage. I go, wow. You know, I mean, that's, that's a really polite way to say we don't have a lot of. Support. Loud support here when you're in the stadium. I mean, they could do things to James. Like bring drinking. I don't know. That'll get people. That'll get people in the stands. Well, my Drake wants to be with the rafters, right? That's his big thing. Will these already it tied in MLSE. It all works out. Yeah. Make that happen. All right. You ready for the cameo? Yeah, let's play the camera. So I'm going to text this to you. We're going to talk now. It should not show you who it is. In the, when you get it. Okay. And then I'm going to mute my mic because I don't want to hear, I want just the audio they come from you. And then I will put the video on when we, when I do the video. Okay. I'm going to mute myself now and good luck with this. I really hope it works. Oh, okay. Okay. [Unknown] all right, here we go. What's going on, mark caskets, Cody for Jorda here, quarterbacks. That's on Roughriders. I just want to congratulate you on getting your cast off your buddy Reed is the one who booked this. He told me about you've been in. Casper over a year now it's our. Our bed has been tough, especially cause you can't attend any rough rider games and your buddy Reed also told me you're a huge CFL fan. You guys got your great cup tickets already set to go. Hopefully the rough riders will be in that game. And we can cross paths during that amazing week. It's truly incredible heart castings. Like. That make it special to be the starting quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. So thanks for sticking with us through the ups, to the downs, to the winds, through the losses. We're going to try and make a late push here so we can. Have a deep run. Playoffs and hopefully. Oh, is that great. Couple of our heads, so happy to hear. You're getting. I'll continue to pray for you. I sent you some sprinkles of Jesus to continue to cast. Like I said, I hope I can see you in a great. And maybe get us. Be able to sign a Jersey or a card for you. Having an amazing time. Thanks for all your support. And thanks for being a huge CFL fan. God bless our Casto writers. How long was that? God bless mark cast. Go riders. Jesus. Sprinkle of Jesus. Here's the thing. So we're going to post this online after I'm going to get everyone to share this. Cody. We are a fan of you. Okay. We are. Now here's the backstory. So I submitted that and it got rejected. I get said. Ah, this is like for business use. I'm not going to do it. And I thought, oh, he's like, he's on to us. Right? Like Cody's on, he's figured out the ploy. Ah, cause I put like read in there and like, you know, whatever. But then I got an email from cameo support and they go, Hey, like this is Sharla. Cody accidentally declined your cameo. And he's so upset about it. Like, can you please submit a new one so that he can do it? And so then I submitted that, but we're going to share this on like Cody we're a fan. So. Please. Unblock us. Come on the show. We'll share some money to your charity. You know, we can a hundred bucks. We I wa but I, we are fans of Cody for Gianna. We are Cody for Jarlo. Fans on the podcast. I'm sorry that I tweeted an article about you using the word chicken McNuggets instead of curse words. And I'm sorry that we talked today about you not liking smoke to meet, but we are fans. Sprinkles of Jesus. We are fans. We are fans. That's one of the funniest things I've ever heard. Paul you've been working on this Martin CAS for over a year, trying to get it off. And I just thought you needed the pep talk from [unknown]. So there you go. We're in that we're going to toss to, we got Natasha Jay, we got rod Vanstone. We got Paul McCallum coming on. BC lions. Legend. We have all your XFL staff and then we have all the USFL news coming up all time, code everything. That was good. Sorry. That's good. Do you think that was funny? Yeah. Sprinkle some Jesus. Oh, sorry. That's too funny. And welcome back to the mark. One of the finger gate guests. The Tay Rob and Paul. All showing up. We appreciate you coming on. The more custom. I should give us some more context. So longtime listeners will know back in the day. We were trying to get Cardel Jones, former DC defenders quarterback onto the podcast. Cause we, you know, we had just started and we had like 10 listeners that we ever. So we used book cameo to do the, basically do that joke. We didn't, you know, it said. I'm mark. I'm getting my cast taken off and Cardell Jones did the whole thing, and then we tweeted about it and he blocked us. And so then we called him Sharman Jones because he soft like Sharman, you know, toilet paper, all that stuff. And there's a t-shirt you can get at our merchandise. Yeah. It says Sharman saw anyway. I it's too long. I mean, cause it this out long to play like the uncut one, I don't think it's, I don't think it's funny to have to hear it again. Not I cut, but you can imagine. You can imagine like the. The prompt that was used to, to get a lot of that information out there. But. He really did a good job because I, I kept saying like, cath, he really got his cast. He's really sad about his calf. 'Cause you got to get them to say it more than one time, so you can kind of cut it together. So, anyway, I went on forever. It felt like he was like, wait a minute. Yeah, it was it's long it's it's the uncut one is a minute seven and the, the one edited is a minute 15. Cause it's got the bumpers on the. At 15. Got it. Anyway, so that is it. But please share that we want to get Cody on the podcast. Please. Or at least analogous. All right. Danny Garcia and Jerry Cardinel from. From Redbird capital partners. They're going to do a live stream, invest in sports events. Yeah, they did this today. So this came out. So it was, this is funny. So they were trying to get everyone to do. Sport. [Unknown], it was like a hundred dollars to get to watch this online thing. So luckily we have smart listeners. So we found like the unlisted YouTube video, and I just shared it with everyone. So no one actually like it had like a lot of use on the unlifted thing. Because we tweeted it. So, because the whole thing was about, you know, business and growing. So I did pull a couple soundbites, Paul, this is a little lengthy, it's about two minutes, but this is because I didn't want to just pull the quotes because. W I didn't want to get into like another months, years debate. Remember we had the whole thing with Danny. It happened again today? Didn't it. Well, this is because of that. So this, these are the quotes I'm going to play this sound bite. It's about two minutes. This is with. This is with. Can we have, this is where Danny, and then Jared Cardinel talks after that. So just we'll, we'll sit here and listen, but anyway, I don't wanna privacy much, but this is I'm talking today about the XFL timelines and you'll see why Paul describes. Can we have sort of an emergency board meeting of the XFL right now. It to makes a core and that's fine. You to have the discussion. What is the discussion now? Jerry? What do you say to Danny? Danny? What do you say to Jerry? Where are we? Where are we going? It's the same discussion that we had when we first. You know, how do we build a company? That is, that is both a convergence of live event, entertainment and sport. And, you know, again, it's what we talk about today. Is exactly what we started out doing a year ago. And it's been a little over a year ago that we came together and it's really the overlay of every everything that they do in terms of a real entertainment company, with an engagement with fans that is global and orientation that is delivering must carry content. And, you know, my, my input will be, how do we make this a company? How do we get this to pay for itself? And then you put that together and that's where the magic happens. And we're in the middle of that right now. And you'll be hearing from us. As Danny will tell you, you'll be hearing from us, you know, with an increasing crescendo over the next many months, because we're ready. We're getting ready to start to debut some of the things that we've been working on. Danny what's the market. What are you hearing from folks that you're pitching? So for RP, that that's interesting, but we continuously hear, especially in our relationships is what's next? Where is it? What's happening? You know, they're our partners, our media partners, entertainment partners, our sports partners, our consumer products, sports partners. All have the competence because they worked with us historically. So they know what it means when we begin to add dimensionality to a very linear type of business plan. All right. So all of a sudden you're, you're having one month and it said as if you've been in business three years, right. You're adding depth, you're executing multiple layers at the same time. So that fandom and the athletes and the property is being experienced on a much larger way. So what we continuously hear is the, when are you ready to talk to us? What do you have next? What can we know? And I think that's very, very exciting. I think there's a challenge in what we're doing because. Or our fans for the Bandon, we have to stay so quiet. Right. There's still we're. We can't be quite as transparent as we want to be because of the amount of infrastructure that's happening in strategic planning, but for our partners who are in the business and understand the business, there's an incredible anticipation. And I think that's very exciting. So. Coming soon. They're mad. They can't be so transparent. I coming into many months, I would say January. I don't think there's any reason we announced any hires before then. I thought the global aspect of it, of Jerry was interesting at the time about that. A lot of the others have this business speak. I know it's too hot. I didn't want to like cut it. But do you get what I'm saying there? That they, they, Danny, I thought it was a good, like we get the people are very frustrated. Yeah, it was kinda, it was, it was, it was an olive branch basically like, Hey, we're we, we we're working on some things. We can't, you know, divulge all those things yet, but. Please believe that we're going on some things. So, I mean, You know, I think that helps cool. The fires down where, you know, you don't got people like Raj going, oh, now it's a three times failed leak. It's kind of cooling everything down and saying, okay, just be patient while we roll it all out. And eventually you'll see the plan. Coming to fruition. Yeah, so it was good. I mean, I wouldn't, if you really want the video, you can DM me. I can send you the private link. It's like a 25. It's a good, I mean, it's like a good 20, 25 minute thing. I watched them, I ate lunch today, but those are kind of the main points that I pulled from that, but just, I want people to know I'm not making excuses for the league, but just like, I think that Danny knows right. That. I like the silence is deafening. I thought that was good. And then them really taking the time and spending, you know, one month is the equivalent of many months of work that they're doing, putting in and that they are getting ready very soon to unveil all of that. So. Cool stuff. Moving on though. The Cleveland Guardian's roller roller Derby team has filed a federal lawsuit to block the Cleveland guardians baseball team from Houston. The new name. Or WK YC in Cleveland. Not Cincinnati. The Derby club says it has common law, trademark rights dating back to 2013 nails a hold, the web domain and social media accounts. Well, you know, cause we have the New York guardians member. Yeah. We talked about that. So now, I mean, this has been a long time coming with the Cleveland guardians roller Derby, but I saw mark post. New south lake who hears about roller Derby, like the XFL needs. Am I now you're going to p**s off the roller Derby fans, mark. You need to be careful, but. I mean. Yeah, but anyway, so. I don't think the New York Guardian's name is long for this world, but that is what is happening because I think if the Cleveland guardians, I think they're going to take over all these. More than likely Sam Darnold was benched by the Carolina Panthers. And his return to MetLife stadium. He did walk her, took over. Congrats PJ. Oh, this is, so this is setting us up. So we talked about this offline. The goal is to get the rock back on the Thanksgiving episode, I'm going to put, I'm going to play the lip together, a little social media thing. Hi, Nikki had that terrible dive against Washington where he like sacrifice himself at the one yard line, you know, gave up the ball. And there was a whole Washington lost by a lot, but that was kind of where it started to unravel. Right. At the same time PJ Walker came in and his first. Drive lost like 20 yards off, like the first, his first scramble or whatever. So I'm just sitting there on like a Sunday and the Rosh is like, Hey, at mark has like, your quarterbacks are terrible. I did them like. Why is like, why is her Rashi in Atlanta covering the world series tweeting me like his ears. Must've been burning. Cause we were talking about this. Cause I haven't tweeted a Roshan forever, but I mean the, the fire still burns in a rush. So I want to have. I want the episode to be a very happy American Thanksgiving with a rush, because we've already celebrated Canadian the exhibit right now. And then I was tweeting them like, oh, you're here. He was here covering, you know, for the whole NLCS he was here at, it was like, The fire is still burning for you to like, come let's go grab coffee. And you can tell me about my twice failed legal, the bowl, the jerseys for an hour. Like. Let's hang out or rush. Well, I just can't. I'm literally sitting there on a Sunday. I'm like a rush is blowing up my phone and he was like, really? He. I'm like a rush. I just talk about this stuff. I'm not P like I didn't coach PJ Walker. Like, what do you want me to do? I'm not as father. I'm not a scout. I'm I'm getting so we're into the USFL stuff. Now I'm getting this hat out of the way, and then we're going to talk. We got our big, when they're going to return. So we already, we've seen this online. Oh, this is good. It looks, so this is the official USFL snap back. Might look familiar to you, Paul, to the XFL of mark cats, snapbacks. But this is good. I mean, it's good quality. I think people were expecting a lot worse. You know, you got the valve or not the Volcker, you got your snap back on there, which is a step above the XFL, but. Anyway. So I'm glad that we got that. This is. This is like that. This is really like the, even the first XFL ones were like, these Printful this classic, whatever. But anyway, Jake Henry Baldwin one last time about that. So I was order 1 0 2, which means I was either order one or two because they started a thousand. Stephen was one of the three Jake Henry by his tonight, he was order 10, 10. So that means between like iPod and Jake only nine people have bought the items from the merge store. So we're going to track the USFL shop orders over the next year. So. They're going to speak to USFL. They're ready to finalize agreement with Birmingham. Junior. Junior college. It's a Birmingham. Jefferson. Community complex or whatever. This. Yeah, so we're good to go. So we have Ray Johnson on last week. They were trying to get the money together. So this is where all, I think it's like all, go ahead now. USFL, April 15th. Per CEO tat a tat Snyder. He says, may stakeholders are working on this. They got kids. Basically. They needed to get the communities to pony up like $3 million to. Kind of pay like the USFL is going to use the stadiums for free, but then the players are going to like eat in the community and use the hotels and they're going to have tourism and all of that. So it was really like negotiating all of those sides, but we're good to go now. Go now. They're going to, this is all agreed to, they raised all the money, a couple of interesting notes from this. There's a quote from hunter Williams. And I asked Roy for context on this and he did not have any to give. It says, this is from hunter Williams. This proposal is far different from previous efforts to create a new viable football league. For the first time this Everett has the support of the NFL Fox sports and NBC. That struck mark and, you know, Us. Interested about that. I asked Roy for contacts. He didn't have any right. I mean, maybe counsel a hundred misspoke. Right. And just while it's football and the San Diego or whatever. That is interesting. The other interesting thing is that Birmingham is most likely going to host half the cities for the second year as well. Because again, when Brian Woods announced all this and everyone's like, how the hell is he going to get to eight cities in six months? Eight cities this year or eight teams in one city. Then maybe they expand out for this is all brands to all about this, but he like, he, it kills me, like he talked about this on the podcast last April. He goes, we're going to do a hub city. All of this. So it's, it's TSL with different paint. We've talked about this. It will be that third year before there's all eight independent teams. That seems like a perfect, like that's, that's kind of like, Kind of like how the AI just kind of went. Falls to the wall. Yeah, this is smarter. And I got to give him credit. I still don't know. Anything about the trademarks, but I got to give them credit for this. Yeah, we. I'm not going to say anything right now. We haven't. We have interesting trademark stuff coming up. The courtesy of me. But that'll be a tease for a couple of weeks down the line. We'll see how that works out. The last thing, this is per sat. He's listening to the show. The Carolina Panthers have fired the extension of opposition against the Michigan Panthers, a trademark for the spring league. So the, the market question is the name Michigan Panther. So like we already might. It's one of those things like, you know, the trademarks are around and they, no one uses them. And then you try to use them. Oh, Hey, you know, actually we have all that XFL is running into that. It's a whole mess with all that stuff, but. Good news. I think USFL April 15th, I would feel very confident if you are a player listening. I know a lot of them that are curious about that. I think we are doing good. Cool. Awesome. Awesome stuff. So again, remember to like us on Facebook, subscribe to us on Facebook, leave us a review. We'd like those reviews too. And yeah. We appreciate everybody's listening. One was redoing over there. Getting the USFL hat. So we appreciate everybody listening and tuning in every week. And we'll see you here next week. And share the. Video. Sure that. Okay. Okay. That was good. All right. Lead with the USFL and the, in the XFL, I think. This week on the mark cast. More USFL news. It looks like it's almost a go. And finally we heard something from Redbird and Danny. Yeah, you. You know, we're, we're hacking into the sport of the co you know, live streams. We're pulling clips for you. You can hear Danny talk about why they have been less transparent with the fans maybe than they would like. Jerry car. Now let's talk about the global vision for the XFL. That's exciting. And then, yeah, I think it's all systems go. We are kicking off in April. In Birmingham for the USFL 2.0, we also do want to talk about the okay. And. And then we'll cut whatever. Do you want to plug the guests? We've got a T a J coming up. Color commentator. Paul's Toronto Argos. Natalia is coming up and the day had like an earthquake during his interview. Like part of his picture. Like it's very, [unknown]. Be ready for it in the interview. It's very exciting. A lifetime friend of the show, Rob Vanstone and candy come back. Andy makes an appearance. She's in a cone. But Rob is back. And then Paul McCallum, he, I asked him about his thoughts of my campaign for America's CFL team. And he w you have to see what he has to say. Also the big cameo surprise Reed got a cameo. It's going to be great to see who that's from. That's going to be interesting. Long time, listeners of the show know are dabbled in cameo. And this one, I feel like lives up to the hype. A, is it a friend of me, of the show? Well, you'll find out. And of course we're asking, does the CFL habit an entertainment problem? I mean when Toronto's keeps trading away quarterbacks, maybe they, maybe they don't. Just tune in. that, and just kind of weekend preview and just any kind of other thoughts and any of the other games. I mean, nothing too crazy. That was good. I lately. I love it. Cool. I'll hit this. And. It should be good. Yeah. No, you look and sound good. So it should be good. I was trying to get this. The sound is, is this live or is this come on later? So we'll post tomorrow morning. Audio goes up overnight. And then I usually post like at 7:00 AM when I get up Pacific. So we'll, we'll post and tag everybody and do all that stuff. So nice. Yeah. It's an. Yeah, it's been. And it's been interesting, but it's good. So I made the CFL and then we've got like the USFL stuff coming back. So, I mean, Obviously we're doing mostly CFL right now, but it's good when we have. Kind of the other leagues and stuff too, to talk about. So yeah, so what's going. I haven't been falling into much of what's going on with, so the XFL. Well, so that that's on the whole 20, 23. So they're going to come back. You know, we get people that message every day. And when are they going to announce staff? I'm like, yeah, if you're launching in February, March, April 20, 23, you're not going to do anything now. Yeah. The USFL we're tracking. They're kind of doing the bubbles spring season in Birmingham. April 15th is when we've heard that they're kicking off. Okay. So that'll be more busy. You get a lot of people that think it's going to be like the USFL back in the eighties. And then like, eventually they'll move to the cities, but right now, like we have reporters in Birmingham that were talking to you. Like it's just going to be at the one stadium, like bubble season, just kind of like a trial run. So it's like, not that exciting, you know, but at least there'll be a lot of players that we know that we can talk to that are going in there. Cause it's always the same kind of pool of players. At least from the states that we like. Like McLeod Donald Thompson. He played in the spring league, which, you know, on the off season, which now then obviously he's so like, it's cool for us in that way to be able to track those players. Right. So that's. And we can get into the McClard thing. Doesn't. I mean, like we did a whole big episode about him back earlier in the season, so it was great to see him obviously get the, get the start. So yeah. Yeah, no, he's a pretty popular guy here and he's a. Well deserved then. Yeah. Let's let's get into it. And then I'll introduce you here and then we'll get going here. Alright, sounds good. Well, Natalia. [Unknown], I'm very excited for this, you know, color commentary with the Argos. We booked you a long time ago and then it turned out. Thank you a for holding the date and then B turn that a really good week to talk Argos football. I mean, a little bit of news going on. How are you doing so far to that? I'm doing fantastic, man. And you're ready. We booked this a while ago and I wasn't sure what I'd be doing two months in advance. I told you. Man. I don't know, you know what I'm doing next week, but you booked this two months in advance. He said, all right, man. I remind you the day before and you know, you were true to your word. You said you work with weddings. So you're used to planning stuff ahead of time. I'm not, but I'm happy you made it work, man. I'm doing good. How are you? We're good. So I'm excited that we have a couple of things, you know, we obviously you're facing the America CFL team this weekend, you know, the BC lions. I'm excited about that. We're traveling then. First off either the, this Arbuckle trade. Kind of took a lot of people by surprise, at least kind of in our circles. What were your thoughts on that big trade that came out this week? It took me by surprise because you know, there've been talks early on that he was on trade block and I, you know, people I talked to it didn't seem like that was necessarily true. But, you know, with the emergence of McLeod, but at the Thompson. And, you know, I told you a Pipkin too. Don't forget by him. He's been playing really well. Now as a backup short yardage guy and in practice, he'd been lining it up. With all those things factor into it. They felt like it was the best time to make this move. You know, a lot of fans who weren't too happy about it, but, you know, there are a lot of things behind the scenes that no factors into this trade. And then another thing is, you know, they there's some. A lot of players that, you know, haven't been able to play this year because of no salary cap restriction. So there's a ton of stuff going into it, but, you know, McLeod Thompson. He's no, finally the face of the franchise here in Toronto. There's finally a team has said, okay, he's our guy. And I have to say, he's earned it. You know, the guys in the locker room who love them. You know, the fans obviously love him and he's the kind of guy. You know, can make every throw on the football field. So you never go wrong with the guy that has that kind of horsepower. And he's done a great job of not turn the ball over this year, which is what the coaching staff wanted to see. So they went with him and, you know, unfortunately for Nikki's here, guys love them. He just wasn't healthy this year. He wasn't able to show fully what he was able to do in Calgary in 2019. So that kind of hurt him so that the team pose at the right time with the trade deadline. The on Wednesday to, to, to make that deal. Yeah. I mean, this is a really interesting situation, right? Obviously you have this human element of it too, right there. All buckles bit, you know, been on so many teams, like I saw he posted, you know, his wife's giving birth, you know, he, they raising the baby. Now they're moving cities again. I mean, just talk about that from a, from a player perspective, you know, mid season, everything else going on having to move, right. I mean, across the country now to, you know, figure out what's going on, you. We're week 13 here, you know, I mean, it's, it's crazy in this, right. Yeah. When a player perspective. Now I put some on Twitter that, you know, don't forget the human aspect of it, right? This guy is a guy that, you know, has a family, right. Young family here in Toronto for the first time, without their extended family around to help out. Right. And also mid-season, he's already settled into finally settled into the no life in, in Toronto. And now he has to no pack up and move. Right. But, you know, as a competitor, If I'm in Nick Nick's shoes. I'm excited because it's another opportunity to play it. Right. All you want as a football player. Is opposites to play a T a team that know believes in you as their number one guy. There's a starter. No Edmonson is not treating Nick. For Nick Arbuckle, you don't have to be a backup. They believe he's going to be a starter. And as a player, that's, that's what all you asked for. That's all you want. You know, but you know, in terms of family life and off the field stuff, it's really hard. Like, I. Was the situation when I played in Edmonton, where my family stayed back in Toronto, and I have to say like on the field, everything was good. When I'm at practice. Everything's good. Playing games. Everything is good. But off the field, you got to FaceTime every day, which is tough because you want to be there for all those little moments for your little kids. You want to, you know, be there, dropping them off at school, picking them up and. You know, all those little milestones that kids go through. Right. So that's, that's the tough part. For him because he's. This 13 and I think what two CFL seasons right there, team. To Calgary. Ottawa Toronto, not 14 in two seasons. Right? Oh, sorry about that. And to CFL season. So. That's tough. That's tough to go through as, as an athlete, as a player. So, you know, he's having to deal with that and. Yeah, he's a true pro you're a professional for a reason, but on the field, he'll be fine off the field. I know it would be hurting a little bit. Yeah. And obviously we are not in the Elks locker room. Right. But it would certainly seem that. Acquiring Arbuckle. They don't, they getting rid of Trevor Harris was kind of making the room for him and not, oh, Taylor Cornelius is going to be our main guy going forward. I mean, they were still, I mean, do you have any thoughts on that? I mean, obviously just from the outside here, but it does seem like they're trying for the next option here and not sticking with Cornelius. That's what it seems like, right? Like that. I guess that you're not trading it for Nick, our local to be a backup. He's at CFL experience, right? Right now he goes into that quarterback room and he's got, he's got the most CFO ways. He's got the most CFO. Those. Neil most CFO reps under his belt. Right. And looking from outside in. You know, who trades for a backup quarterback? You know, at the trade deadline writing, it gives over that kind of capital. Like no one really. Right. So they're bringing him to him. And to be the starter, they see his potential. And, you know, before this season, Nick Arbuckle was, you know, one of the most coveted free agents, right. Because you know, you're looking at him as kind of the next guy, right. He took over for bullied by Mitchell at 2019 and did a great job. You know, kind of, you know, this right of the ship and got that team. Into the playoffs then. So there, he was kind of next in line. And so that's, that's his, that's his, that's how Edmonson is doing him. Right. As a quarterback that has a potential to be a starter and a star in this league. Right. So. You know, the that's that's the route they're going in and obviously tailor Cornelius. No there you're telling the fans. Yeah, we believe in this guy, obviously they did at that point. But when you have a chance to kind of upgrade that room, they'll do the one position you never want to leave. The chance is the quarterback position, because, you know, without a good quarterback, you have no chance in this league. So they want to bring as much talent as possible. And even though they told us. Courtney. This was going to be the guy. Do you knew any other chance they got to bring in more talent. They will take it. Speaking about the Toronto side. You know, with McLeod. There's so much has been made. You know, such a journeyman quarterback. Right. You know, we did our big episode McLeod. We called him the king of the CFL back and like week two, when he had his big hot start. You know, finally having a coach say, you know, this is the face of our franchise. You know, this is the person we believe behind after being. You know, going through so many false starts, right. Or, you know, always having to fight for the position. I mean, what do you think that that does? For someone like him, that's been in the league so long and it's kind of persevered through so much adversity. It's massive. I mean, If they didn't say that and he was in his role. You'd be perfectly fine because you know, that's the kind of guy he is. He's, he's kind of not, I don't want to say he's used to being a backup. We're used to being in a secondary role. No one ever gets used to that. And he's the kind of guy that wants to be the man. And, but he hasn't heard that in his career. Right. And to finally hear that it's almost like a weight lifted off your shoulders. Now he can. You know, fully, just be comfortable in, worry about playing football, not playing a game where, you know, okay. If I make [unknown]. Those will I get benched or, you know, will, will that get pulled or you don't have to worry about any of those thoughts now he's the man, right? And I feel as great as the athlete, because you just want to be, to play your best football. Like you want to eliminate as much outside noise as possible. Right? You want to be in the zone, right? And the best way to get a guy in the zone is, you know, to make his role extremely clear. And his role is as good with clear these, the face of their franchise. And the funny thing about. McCloud Beth Thompson is that. He has been he's a, so he's never been. You know, the number one guy and Swami, right? That he started, you know, a couple of games. I don't know, he started games when Daines Franklin was the starter in. It's Rano and he came in in a backup role. Right. But he's in Argos history, right? He's 17 completions on ninth and in passing yards and ninth and touchdown passes. Right. And this is a guy who has never played, like been a full-time number one from. No game one to game 18 in a regular season. Right? So then we know this guy has the tools. We know he's got the horsepower. You know, in that arm and, you know, he can make every single throw on this. I don't know, football field, all he needed was a team to say, You know, you're our guy and I think he's done enough this season to, to approve that. And. I have a good feeling. He's going to run a run with this. It just, it's surprising to me. And like I said, you know, we're McLeod fans, right. You know, we tracked him through the spring league, back from the CFL to the spring league, back up. It just seems, you know, Argos, we're kind of on a hot streak, right. It seemed like defense, right under, you know, coach Jones is really kind of leading the way, but then especially after that game on Friday, right. The loss did Montreal. I, you know, I was sitting here watching it and I finally, you know, we turned it off and went to dinner. I mean, not, it just wasn't the best outing. Right. And then to have this news come out. I mean, I'm glad, I'm glad that McLeod gets like, that's great, but it's just weird timing. I mean, I know the tradeline and all that, but like to just get blown out and then be like, well, here's our guy. I mean, any thoughts about that? Yeah. It's well, I had you. It's funny. I didn't want, I didn't. I wanted to turn it off. But I would say I couldn't cause I had to stay locked in, but it was a rough day. Right. And you know, that's not the kind of announcement you expect a year after, you know, your team kind of gets blown out. It looks ugly, but when you go back and watch that film, right. And even the throws that Bethel tonsil was completing, it was relentless pressure the entire night. Right. And you know, there's nothing he can do about that. So when you watch the film, You know, you take the blinders off and you kind of understand what's going on out there. There's only so much a quarterback can do when he's, you know, There's so much pressure in this space, their entire night. Right. So, you know, I think the coaches looked at it and said, okay, even though those guy was under fire, He didn't, he didn't really, you know, obviously you have a bad turnover game, but their entire season, like he's been really good with turnovers. Right? So in these only, I think he had one pick come into his game, not counting two point conversions. So, you know, he's been taken care of doing a good job, taking care of the wall. And when you get in a situation like that, where it's kind of a blow and has done a force, the ball. Another game, script changes, right? And you've got to force the ball down into throws that you probably wouldn't make. If it was a tight game, then you kind of understand why those turnovers happen. But it. You know, you'd look at it and you can kind of see that, okay. The quarterback sometimes gets a lot of the blame when things don't go right. I don't. I think the coach has watched that film and we're like, okay, it wasn't, it wasn't really his fault. Plus the trade deadline is coming up. Do we got to make a move? There's some guys that have been on this roster that. Excuse me then. You know, deserve to play and because of, you know, paid two quarterbacks. That kind of money. It isn't allowed to happen. So they kind of looked at the entire picture and then saw that this was the right time to make the move. But I'm with you. I was extremely surprised. I'm like, wait, we just got blown up and then we're going to make declarations like this. Guy, you gotta be, but you know, he's earned it. If you look at the totality of the season and. How he's played. He has earned it. There's nothing. There's nothing against him. He's definitely earned it, but the timing was funny. I'm going to ask the same question. All of our guests today. This is the episode of our title episode of the podcast. This week coming off of three down, did a big article about this. Rob Vanstone did a big article about this. The games this weekend. You know, 1637. 45 To zero. Yeah. The lions 32. Three with the red blacks. Does the CFL have an entertainment problem this year? Honestly. Watching the games and being invested in it, knowing the guys that are playing. I would say to me, there've been times where I'm like, ah, man, this isn't as fun as I remember it being right. But that's me being invested in knowing all the guys. Now, if I was watching as a fan and not knowing anybody. It's tough to say a lot has happened. That would keep me tuned in. Right. So the thing about there is an insane problem right now. And is doing a scoring. I don't know where it went, but the CFL is supposed to be a fun league. Right? Two downs, bigger field, bigger Enzo, bigger ball. You know, the office is always supposed to have the advantage, right. When you put, you're not seeing that this year. Right. So I don't know what's going on. I don't know how to fix it either. But this off season. You know, the league is going to have to take a look at itself and really ask the question is how do we keep the young viewer entertained? How do we keep, you know, fans from turning the TV away, right. And scoring has a lot to do with that. If you can put on scoring. And, you know, highlights here and there. Like people will be tonight. They don't care about. I like defense. And then a lot of events, but. The general fan is like fantasy football fans. They want to see score. And then once he actually wants to get highlights, he wants to go quarterback making unbelievable throws. Right? So the league is going to have to look at itself and say, how do we increase that? Right. And you're not going to do that by firing all the defensive coordinators. Like that's out of the question, you can't do that defensive. As the court has done a great job, they understand the leak, but I think a lot has to do with, you know, having a whole year off. Right. I was reading a stat that, you know, 30% of the CFL this year, our guys on rosters had been playing their first CFL game. Right. So you're losing the continuity, right? Like, you know, back in the day, when I remember watching. You know, you have these receiving cores that have been together, like, you know, three, four or five years. Right. And they were just like, barring on all cylinders. Right. So you don't have that anymore, especially with the one-year contracts, you don't have that. Right. So there's a lot of factors working against having that product where it's, you know, high flying. No explosive one offense. Right? And so I'm thinking, you know what, the whole year, you know, hopeful off season. No guys coming back to the same teams that will help some of the issues. But they've all CFOs. I've also got to add to that and look at itself and say, how do we tweak these rules? And depends the coaches obviously be matte, but they've got to understand that this is an entertainment too, right? How do we tweak this rules to no further. You know, help these offenses, you know, I mean, they've tried in the past. I remember. 2014. Our first got into this. The, the CFO. You know, they took the, they. They took out the ways deep as a backs to get their hands on receivers. Like they took that idea. They were trying to help office. So they've done some things in the past. But they've got to make it more fun because I mean, as a fan, if you're watching and then, you know, you, you, there's nothing keeping you tuned in. Is this all right. It's. I said, I'm watching the Arcos game. I know I'm talking to you this week. I got. I'm on trial. I'm like I'm watching the game. Yeah. And I'm like, man, you know, this is, you know, work right. And I'm like, I can barely get through. It's just, it's really hard. I've seen a lot made this week, too. Like you brought up about the one-year contracts, right? I guess so hard to, to build any sort of continuity at all. I mean, I get it in the money and trading with between the teams and look, we've had all these quarterbacks and stuff, but I mean, there's gotta be some way to incentivize the teams to want to hold onto these key players and these players to want to be with these teams. I mean, look at, look at Winnipeg, you know? Yeah. You. You know what. When a fact has done a great job. You know, building the culture. That goes beyond money. Like I have friends on that team and there they'll say they don't want to be anywhere else. They'll take less money to play there. And that, that that's really rare to find in pro sports, right. Especially because the careers are so short, you have a short window to make a certain amount of money, but a, for a good friend of mine, John Rush, you actually did play in one of the peg. I was talking to him about that this week. And he said, you brought up, you know, obviously in football, it's hard to guarantee contracts where you can't really do that with the nature of the injuries and. And the owners would never go for that, but a way where maybe guarantee a portion of guys contract, maybe like 10%, 50%, right. Depending on stature in the league. Right. And if you can do something like that were. You know, Desensitizes a team to release guys, right? Because you know, you're losing money. If you lease a guy cause it's 10% of his contract is guaranteed. Like if he makes a hundred thousand dollars, that's $10,000 that he's guaranteed. That maybe that is a way to go to that. Cause I'd never heard that idea, but maybe that's a way to help, you know, with these teams. No. To give him something. It's in the way of, you know, not the cutting some guys. So honestly, the league has got to do something because one, the one year contracts is tough to get any continuity fans go out and buy a Jersey, got on a team the next year, because he knows he's going to pay him more money. Right. So that's really tough. You know what I mean? It's just hard morale wise. I mean, just knowing like I'm here, you know, I don't, I, you want players to be invested in the cities that ran in the communities. I mean, I know that's what we've always heard, you know? CFL players are still invested in building the community and doing the outreach and doing all these things. And then yeah, if you're going to be, you know, shipped off to, to Edmonton, you know, in the middle of the season, you know, it's all right. Final thoughts. I want to hear it. Obviously, you know, lions are traveling into Toronto this weekend. What are we making of? The blinds coming off of, I can't even count how many horrendous losses were coming off now. Yeah. And that last one was especially bad. I mean, like in the. We probably, you probably watched the gun over, but like to score zero points in the CFL game is. That means you got totally dominated. I don't know if the last time I seen a team go. The get bull shut out like that. And that game was tough to watch another game that was tough to watch because what a peg. All fit faster. The the, the game office defense specialties. This totally dominated. Right? So what do I make the lines? I mean, they've got my grotty, one of the best quarterbacks in the sea of Michael Riley. Sorry. One of the best quarterbacks in the CFL, the play with them, the guy's a warrior. I know he's probably going through. A tough time right now, because this, all he wants to do is win. Right. And they've got the pieces. I know. No Rick Campbell was looked at as a, in a good head coach in this league. Right. They've got a offense, you know, Duran Burnham, shag Johnson. Katoi they've got pieces. Right. But I think Mike, Riley's getting hit way too much this year, the lie. And I hate to, I don't want to call out any line in or anything like that because they're. Your job is tough, right. But he's getting hit too much and that's a problem they had in 2019. They did a good job in 2019 towards the end of the year. You know, strong it up when, you know, Kelly Bates came on as a office lineman coach, but this year has been, has been tough. And then I know Mike is getting hit a lot. Michael was going to hit a lot. That's never easy for a quarterback, especially at his age. I don't know what to say, but they they've got it. Right. Cause you know, they're, they're, they're buying for that crossover spot, right? Not right at four and six. They're probably not going to be, it is going to probably be them and, and, and Calgary right now. Fighting for that crossover spine. Right. And you know, it's right now, it's hard to see, you know, that unless they turn things around, it's hard to see. They're really get hot and they want to get high to, to go into the playoffs. They got to start right now and I guess it's run an organized. Right now the Toronto star for no at home. Right. So it's going to be tough, tough place to play. They're not playing the best football right now. You know, I got some presidency, so I'm pulling for them, but just not this week against the Argos. Yeah. The fan had off analytically. Who do you got this weekend? At home. I Toronto, I. They, there are different team at home and it's so, it's so weird to watch because a lot of the things that prevent them from winning. They don't do it when they're at home. Like they do when the turnover we're better. When they're at home, we'll do a, when the pounding battle, when they're at home. Just, they just have more life. But when they're at home, it's weird. Because it isn't that big of a home field advantage. I know Toronto is a great city and you know, God loves sleeping in their own beds, but you know, you look at a team like. What a peg, right. Where, you know, they they're so sold out the soul loud there. No teams are getting false start counties, right? That's a whole to the vendors that you think go, right. But Toronto isn't considered that right now. And it's, it's, it's, it's interesting to see why this team, it's just unbelievable as he wants to place a one at home. Right. So. No, I could not take another team against Toronto right now, record wise, you know, obviously they're both coming off losses, right. But Toronto. Probably suffered the least embarrassing loss. Last week. So I've definitely got to take Toronto and you know, this year, after every loss Toronto's face, they've come back with a victory. So. That's another reason why I turn on this game. That's the polite way to say it, that there's not as much of a home field advantage. And then, you know, maybe they like scrimmage, you know, maybe they're just right now. I'm not going to. Thank you so much for coming on. I hope we can keep your number in the Rolodex and bringing you back. But I do, I do also feel bad for the lions this weekend. I do think you'll be. You'll have a good game to call. But thank you so much again for sharing your time to that. No problem. And then serve up my picture, falling down. I was, I never, I don't know why that happened. Well, you were a true professional because. As you were unfazed. I was like, why does it have a name? So I'll have to go back and look at the replay. I'm sure. Yeah. I don't have embarrassed. Perfect. Okay. Well, good. Is I just, I figured just general CFL staff. Your article from last time and I figured you don't need to. You're you're an old hand at this at this point. So you're certainly old anyways. Well, here we go. Well, Well, Rob van. So I'm so excited, you know, friend of the show, have you back on, I think we talked previously. It was like before the season. So now we we're, you know, we're week 13, we're into this first off, everyone wants to know how has candy doing. Well, she's got a coat on her head right now. She's she's been. Okay. What do they get appearance? She's got a, she has been just some closet or kind of inflamed. So we have to have a call. We have to have a cone on her head so that she can't a liquor clause. And. And make them worse. So. Say hi to. Here's candy candies. I know my wife would want. Yes. Everyone wants to know. That's good. Well, here, I am very excited to have you on in a week. You know, I think, I don't know if great minds think alike, but I certainly think that my mind might think similarly to your great mind sometimes. Our episode this week, you know, does the CFL have an entertainment problem? Three downs doing articles. Now I see EO. Oh, rod Vanstone right. Is, is you're writing about, I had the name of it here. It was a that one's exciting. CFL Lee. Right. Pardon me. She distracted me. Yeah. It's really disappointing. I mean, it. And I hope I don't sound too curmudgeonly, but. You know, you wait all this time, wait two years for football to resume. It's just not very good. And I'm not a CFL hater. I think I'm the antithesis of that. I've been watching the sleep for 50 years. I've loved it. I've. Had season tickets. I've got a ride, got rider shares. My mom and I used to go to the gray cup every year when I was a teenager. You know, I just, it's one of the. My great sporting loves. And the candy and she's going to crash. The thing for sure. And, and just to, just to see it come back and then not really come back with a flourish is really disappointing. And people say, yeah, that's the lake. You know, the people should maybe just lay off whatever. Thing is, I've seen some really good football games this year that haven't been at the CFL level, which have had the same, some of the same dynamics. Players have been off for two years that hasn't prevented high, high school football from. A classic a few nights ago. College football and cannabis had some really good games and, and. Junior footballs. So there's a local team here called the Regina thunder of their eight. Regular season games this year, three of them were absolute classics. If any of them work we're I think. Played under the CFL umbrella this year. They would have been called the best CFL game of the season. So Canadian football is still breed. Compelling and entertaining to watch it just isn't. So. Often enough at the pro level. And that's such really, really distressing. Yeah. I mean, cause I, you know, obviously we've talked about this, you know, for weeks now. I just coming to the forefront now, I just, it seems like they're kind of the collective online. 'Cause I mean it's week 13 it's week 13. I said today, if this rumor USFL is. As launching here that we're tracking next spring. Right? We'll be crowning the champion week 13, 14. I mean, this is, this is a low, I mean, this is more months into the season here and this is still, it seems like people now are finally losing their patients. Right? It does seem that way, that more people now feel this way, or at least vocalizing those opinions. Yeah, it just. You know, and I've heard some people say in rebuttal, If you got against the fence of football, I'm not sure it's defensive football. I think it's the fact of football. And that's, that's, what's really getting to me. And not only that. There's just a real sameness to the lot of the games. I think that the defenses in general have the same philosophy, Ben, but don't break and take what is undertake all the take, what the defense gives you seems to be the offensive unavoidable, perhaps offensive philosophy. So it's a game, which with three downs instead of four, I think once upon a time that was perceived as being more exciting than American football. Because three downs. Would compel teams to throw the ball more often. But now you're seeing it in American football. Be it college pros. There's no shortage of balls in the air, but what you're getting in the, in the, in the CFL is, is defensive coordinators saying, okay, Because there's only three downs. We don't think you can execute every play perfectly enough to March 12, plays for 75 yards and a touchdown. One play goes wrong and you are, you're either punting or you're in a second and long situation. And it's a distinct advantage to the defense. So. As a result, they're just daring you to take. 5 6, 7 Yards at a time. And if one is wanting completion or one run that stopped for a yard or two. Then you, then, then you have to change your whole philosophy. So the defenses are playing that sort of umbrella. Coverage and it's just underneath Pal's hitch screen. Et cetera, et cetera. And it's just. It's not very interesting to watch the CFL that I knew and, and, and. And still love. Ideally is a game with a lot more. Wide open play. And especially when you consider the size of the field, I mean, there should, there's so much potential there because of the size of the field. And it. That this potential is not even close to being realized this year. And it's. It's not just applying the sky thing to hope for something better. When you have seen something better for the vast majority of the years that have been spent watching the Canadian football league. And this is the. It was 1971. When I first went to a game that I vividly remember August 27th. For that. Or rough riders beat Ottawa 42 21. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's, it's hard because you know, There, you know, there are differences between hating on something and then there's differences of constructively criticizing or analyzing something because I see like, you. The second anybody says, okay, the game isn't working this year, they got allow, you know, you that you're a hater. It's like, well, no, you can. I mean, to me, it's backwards, intuitive at this point where we say. Maybe the CFL athlete is a B plus. Compared to the NFL. Right. But the game itself is better, but then it's like, then you almost would want more downs in the CFL. Right. And more chances for, you know, it's like almost the NFL. It should almost be the reverse, right? That the NFL should be three downs. If they have like the peak athlete. Do you know what I'm saying? Like it's almost counter-intuitive at that point. I think at one point, the three downs were advantageous to the CFL in, in comparison to American football. But now I wonder. And I'm not advocating a change. Now, I wonder if it's counterproductive because it plays into the hands of the defense. And, and a lot of this talk came up. When, when the discussion started about the XFL and whether the rules would be changed or compromised. And I wrote a column saying, you know, pretty much, I think that was the impetus for the first conversation we ever had read was. You know, the, the Canadian game and the rule should be sacrosanct. But now the game with those same rules, isn't what it could be or should be. I'm not advocating. A change to four downs, but I just, I would like to. I'd like to see up to something better than it's being played. And when I see that game being played better. In terms of entertainment. At other levels that tell me that tells you the Canadian football isn't deficient, but it tells me that there's efficiencies within the Canadian football league. Now you talked about constructive criticism. I think that's the vector vexing. Same thing. What do you do? To, to, to make it better. Aside for something drastic, like the league noticed. In 2014. That something was happening to the passing game. There were only free 1000 yard receivers in 2014. So they brought in the rule. Really cracked down on illegal contact on receivers. And just pretty much, if you, if you graze a receiver, you're getting a 10 yard penalty as a defensive back. And that, that, that brought back some of the offense that had been. Had been the diminishing at least passing wise. And some of those calls were ticky tack, but. It did I think lead to a restoration of a passing game. At a level that was more reminiscent to what the CFL has been. We're never going to go back to the early nineties when it was just crazy. Those were like Madden games every week. I'd like to see it, but I don't think you're getting back there, but. I'd sure. Like to see a game. See such situations where both teams were in the thirties from every now and then it just seems to be. You can almost mark every game down to be 21, 18 or 1713. And, and that's what the NFL was in the, in the sixties and seventies. And when, when everybody was saying how boring it wasn't comparison to the CFL. And I think there's other there's other issues as well. I just thought. I think the league. That is a situation now where they. They really need to replenish some of the talent. They lost some. There just doesn't seem to be a. The Playmakers that this league had a few years ago. And it's, you know, some of the quarterbacks aren't performing at the levels that I think we're expecting, maybe it's just an aberration because of a talent deficiency. If this persists for two or three years, then there, then you've really got to take a close look at it. At this point, it might just be a one-year situation. And then obviously this year has been. I've not the greatest. Because of so many factors, not pertaining to football, but nonetheless effecting the game. It just, I would just, I get the year off, I get the continuity issues. I just, I got to think of my week. You know, like I said, week 13. Yeah, we got to get, I mean, I'm looking here, you know, we're talking scores, so we can, that was, we had five games that week. Obviously you had the blue bombers blowing out the ALEKS, but then it was, you know, 22, 19 stamps Roughriders, 24, 23 Argos, Ty cats, 2016. Alawites red blocks. And then yeah. The red blacks play the game with the Argo 1635, but you know, the three of those games. So then you get all these people and they go, well, See they're exciting games because they're all within one square. I don't know. I don't think a 19 to 22 game, they came down to a field goal at the end because no one could get any touchdowns for the, you know, the entire second half of the game is exciting. Right. You know, you can get a look. We can look at the writer's Calgary game last week and it ended up at 20. The 17 in the last few minutes were undeniably exciting. But a lot of that game was pretty pretty pedestrian. And a lot of the things that the Roughriders hadn't done well in doctor back losses to Calgary that continued not to do very well in the victory, but they, they were more resourceful and resilient than they found ways to. To win. You know, according for Jarno two years ago was one of the premier deep passers in the Canadian football league this year. A deep house from the rough waters is six yards. So it's. He's still Cody for Gerardo. But something's changed here. And, and the Roughriders are by far, I think the worst deep passing team in the league. And I don't think there's a matter of their quarterback getting old. He's only 29 years of age. And there's this something. Something has changed and, and, but you don't just don't see. You just don't see the. It's just not the vibe. There's just not the buzz. And maybe the. Maybe it's not all attributable to the way the game is played. Maybe that's a product of the circumstances as well. Cause I don't think the personalities can really come out when you, when you're just doing everything by zoom and just, I don't. I think there's a lot of stories that just aren't being told or can't be told because everything is so. Just so regimented right now. And I think that that takes a little bit of the zest away from the game as well. I haven't done a rider zoom session for like two weeks. I just. I'm just find it. So drawing, that's not a commentary on the rough riders. That's just a commentary on. Commentary on the times. And if you're going to tell a story and tell it was some. Really get into it. I think you need more. More time with an athlete. And more of a flow. Then you can be generated with one or two questions in a zoom, and then it's onto the next person. So for a storytelling aspect, I find it kind of disappointing as well. And maybe that's affecting my perception of the entire league because it just isn't as much fun when you can't. Spend five, 10 minutes talking to somebody and try and get, let's try to get story. And then it's your story. It's not being sure, but everybody else. So there's just a lot of sameness in terms of the presentation of the off day. Things. And then there's a lot of sameness when you look at the games. It can be, you know, Winnipeg versus BC, or it can be Hamilton versus Montreal. Everybody seems to have the same offense. Everybody seems to have the same defense. Everybody seems to have the same playbook. I don't know why they close practices anymore because everybody's got the same playbook. They might as well. They might as well, send it to the opposition and say, here's what we're doing. Cause it's the same thing that the other team is doing. It's just a matter of when are they going to make those calls? There's just not, there's no innovators. There's nothing. That's. That really strikes me as distinctive about anything. It's kind of reminds me of the NHL. You look at. It can be, I hope you're enjoying the cracking, but. You you look at. It can be. Columbus versus. Florida or it can be the Islanders versus the coyotes. The games are gonna pretty much look the same. The CFL's I think suffering from that sameness, not only during the games, but, but on the, on the off days when there's games being discussed in retrospect or games being previewed, it just, there's just not a lot of zip there. Well, I mean, I think, yeah, it's something to be sad when you have someone like Rob Peterson, right. That is like the daytime, whatever. Yeah, daytime Canadian sports. It's like we're focusing on NHL. We're not like we're not leading with CFL anymore. Wow. Okay. Like, I mean, cause they, eh, I think that speaks a lot to like the, the draw and the numbers. I mean, I can tell you, you know, when, when there's USFL updates or XFL updates, you know, interest in our show is two or three times, right. What it is we're just talking to CFL is as much as I've tried to. Stack the show with smart people like you and the Tay and Paul McCallum today, you know, I'll be curious to see this week's viewership, right. Compared to weeks when it's like, oh, the rock tweeted about something. I mean, there's this. There. It's a weird, like intangible. People, you know, people are clamoring for this. I, Greg tickets aren't sold out. They're not even close to being sold out. You know, we're, we're trying to promote this, you know, Randy Ambrozy is doing that, but then it seems like we want there to be interest, but there's not interest. It's very weird. I might, I'm very tolerant with it. What I'm saying? Yeah, I totally get it. And I think I might be an example to that effect. I've just looked at it. I mean, we've got Maria McCormick's our football writer and Marie does a terrific job. And. And he's on the zooms every day and he's a practice every day. And, and, but I found out for a while it was counter productive to have two people tied up on the same zoom call, getting the same zoom quotes. And there's such a limited pool of stories because from the availability standpoint, So, yeah, well, I just reached a point where I thought, well, I don't think we need two people telling these stories because there's, there's just not a lot of them that are available to be told. Given the parameters that now exist, and that's not the fault of the rough riders. Now it's not the fault of anybody, but it's just the way things are this year. But I thought as well. I think there's a lot of stories here that are fun to fun to tell and, and. I can tell them with some freshness and some, some access than it. That's not afforded. Via the Canadian football league. So for example, I've got a story running in Friday's leader, post on a coal cylinder, an 18 year old from hockey player, from a Johnny he's. Now with the Columbus blue jackets and his dad played in the NHL and his dad's fighting. His dad's dad, Mike cylinder, his final NHL game. It was played at Madison square garden. He scored a goal in his final NHL game. And his son Cole is going to be playing at Madison square garden for the first time Friday night. I thought that was a cool story. I did something for today's paper on a Saskatchewan junior hockey league game that began at one arena and ended up the other. A different arena in town due to ice problems. I thought that was a really fun, cool story. And I find. It almost hasn't been a conscious decision. I just think I've been kind of following the scent. To where the fresh, interesting, unique stories are. And I'm not neglecting the overlooking the fact that the rough riders are still the bread and butter here. We're still, we still have something on the news in the paper every day. But there's just other things there that I find really. Charge my batteries a lot more than, than writing about the CFL. When, when there's just not a lot of diversity in terms of what you can write about. So I'm really enjoying the high school football game that ended up in a, in a hail Mary and the, just, just all the, all the stories outside of the seatbelt. And then what happens is as the gate, The game day draws closer. For example, for Saturday's paper, all of, all of a column. Advancing Roughriders versus Montreal. And then of course, emanating from that, there'll be more rider stuff. And if there's something huge, Warrants on a postscript then of course, that will be written about, but I just don't think there's enough. To carry. The CFL story-wise during the week, given the way everything is presented. But I think there's, there's a ton of stories with everything going on in the sporting universe. Now, something we didn't have a year ago, especially here. That. Just they've been energizing and that's where I've been going during the week. And I never used to do that during football season. It was riders, riders, riders, riders, riders, and then for a change of place, change of pace riders. That was it. You can pretty much put me down from June to November. And if I wrote to call them is probably 95%. The certainty that it was about the rough riders. Lately. Maybe 40%. And, and maybe that may be the fact that the product isn't is invigorating. Is factoring into that as well. There've been some really good sporting events held in Saskatchewan lately. Very few of them have been held at. Except except in terms of a junior football in high school football. So. It's a French really long answer. I apologize. It's good because, you know, we scheduled you to come on a ahead of time, but then, like I said, it was serendipitous that, you know, you write this article or I saw it last night, you know, I don't know if it came out yesterday, I assume, but. Why did you feel compelled to write? And it is all, it's not swell in the ones exciting and CFL. I mean, You know the tagline. So what, what inspired you to write that right now? Week 13 here. Well, I think Saturday last Saturday was a, was a real catalyst for it. They had a triple header. First game was 32 to three. Second game was 45. Nothing. And the third game. It was 20 to 17 and it was close, but it wasn't by any means a classic. 29 Years ago to the day, also on a Saturday. And the Roughriders played Calgary as they did last Saturday. So one-off. Saturday, October 23rd, 29 years. Apart. October 23rd, 1993. Roughriders be Calgary 45, 43. And Dave Ridge, we kicked the 34 yard field goal on the last plate. Ryder's lived 35 to 10 at halftime. Doug Flutie brought the Stampeders back ducked. The 377 yards. In the second half and four touchdowns in the second half. Ken Austin for the Roughriders, that 312 passing yards by by halftime. Doug Flutie and Ken Austin that day combined for 1093 passing yards, 546. For Austin, 500. And I think one, one fewer. It was five hundred forty five hundred and forty eight. I can't emerge. They're both in the five 40. And my mouth is deserted me right now. Just. It's probably the best regular season. Game I've ever seen the same football league. And so I had that going through my head. It was, it was the same day that Joe Carter, we're going to date world series home, run for the world series, winning home run for the blue Jays. And everybody forgot the rider. Calgary classic. But I've never seen anything quite like that. 48 45 rider game. Not date. It was just amazing. And, and so. Then you look at the three games in a row between the real fighters in Calgary. The scores were 2317. 2219. And, and. And 20, 20 to 17. So in each case, the, the point totals, the combined. Point point totals in that game. We're fewer than either teams scored. And on October 23rd. 1993 When it was 44, 48 for the riders and 45 for Calgary. And, you know, just. That's the one degree to which the pendulum is swung. Those are the extremes that we're dealing with. So that kind of factored into it too, because there's that Saturday, October 23rd. And I'm thinking, man, I remember that game 29 years ago. And then they rolled out a triple header that was just. Really lousy. And the other thing is once upon a time, I would have set the PVR for those games. If I wasn't gonna be sitting on the couch, watching them, I had no inclination or two or interest in recording those games. I couldn't go for a bike ride fast enough. Last Saturday afternoon, I just got back in time for the rider game. And that was telling to that. I just had no interest in following those games actively. And then I went on my phone and check the results that I congratulated myself on. Not PVR in them. What a waste of electricity that would have been. So it would have been the only electricity resulting from those games. So I think all of that conspired read to the point where. I wasn't interested in those games. I was certainly validated for not being interested in those games. And I didn't like the fact that I wasn't interested in those games. I mean, I had back in 1980 when I was 16 years old. I had a chance to go on a bus trip down to Minnesota to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Minnesota Vikings. And you know why I didn't go because there was a CFL game on TV that afternoon. I had a chance to go down to the states and watch an NFL game for free. They were offering us a free bus trip, but I didn't go because I didn't want to miss the Argonauts versus the bombers or something. Wasn't even the Roughriders playing. That's. That's the degree to which CFL would one stop me in my tracks and to be as indifferent as I was to games involving not involving the rough riders. Last Saturday really told me how things have. Things have changed. Maybe that's a commentary on me. Things change over 41 years, except my voice is still the same. But I think the game is, I think the changing nature of the game. Has also contributed to that because I wasn't that person even two or three years ago, but this year I just don't find that. At that compelling. I I've used a lot of people who, who would agree. I didn't get, I have yet to receive one email from somebody. Who said. No, that's ridiculous. That's great. What have you got against defensive football? Why do you hate the Canadian football league? You know, You get a few Twitter comments, but I was expecting more of a backlash. And, and, or, you know, people say, are you just being negative while you're picking holes in this? We're so glad to have the CFL back after two years. There wasn't any. Any real buzz and the other thing too, and I'm really, you realize I'm rambling, but. What I've also noticed is that. I'm just, there's just not a lot of feedback in general. On. On the Roughriders. I I'm certain two or three years ago, the referees lost back-to-back games to Calgary. My inbox would have been absolutely filled full and Twitter would have been going crazy. And what I found after those back-to-back losses, like. I maybe got four or five emails about each game. And then the riders beat Calgary and there just didn't seem to be the, the. Any real buzz resulting from that, that victory, it just. And again, maybe that's a me issue. Maybe people just aren't interested in communicating with me anymore, but it wasn't that long ago, a rough rider loss period to anybody. Wood. Would make my inbox just blow up. So, what has changed are people as engaged by the product as they used to be? Maybe this is all symptomatic. Of a, of a malaise. It's hit the clean football league and. How they get out of it. I don't pretend to have the answer. I just know that it's not what it was, at least in this estimation. Yeah. I'm happy to let you go here. And the man I'm going to, we're going to have Paul Callum hop on, but I don't think it's you. And it's, what's crazy to me is, you know, we got into all of this. All of this XFL staff and everything else, and, you know, F you guys and with. The CFL is the. You know, I all, you know, all this. All of a sudden that happened. And to have just really kind of a let farther this season right now. Where we're, you know, Winnipeg is going to come. I mean, obviously we have our tickets, we're going to the grey cup, we're doing everything right. I mean, we have our tickets, we will be there. We have our flights, we everything, but like, you know, to, to go knowing when to pay is going to win against whoever it doesn't matter who is there. I just have all this. I'm like, okay. I mean, if. If this were to come out and really shocked the world this year, and then at least had some sort of like, You get what I'm saying? Like after all of this in the six months of all this hate that I got, and now it's like, this is what we're talking about is 45. With the lions. It's like, okay, what are we doing here? Yeah, no, it's a. And the playoffs could very well salvage things there. I remember covering the great cup in Hamilton in 96 and the CFL was on death's door at that point. And the whole week leading up to the game, a lot of the storylines were, is this the last great cop? The CFL was in touch trouble. Nobody was really complaining about the product that time, but the finance. We're in such a terrible state. And suddenly there's this amazing, great cup game between Doug Flutie again and Toronto and Edmonton. And then Toronto 1 43 37, just as beautiful game in the snow. And afterwards it was just like, this is what Canadian football should be in 89. Again, finances were an issue for the league and. And the riders have the 40, 40 breakup victory over Hamilton not got game is still, I think the best advertisement ever. For the CFL sometimes, sometimes. A real good playoffs. Can can, that's what resonates with people. And that's the memory that lingers, and maybe that can have a, have a have. Have a positive effect on the perception of the league. You know, in 1889, nobody thought the heavens and Eskimos were going to lose. Now the Elks, they were 16 and two of the 16 victories are still a league, regular sleep league. Record for regular season victories. They didn't even make it to the great cup that you're a nine and nine rider team went into Edmonton, 1 30, 2 21. So. Maybe. You know, maybe that can happen. I'm not. You know, you don't rule anything out when you win. It's a one game showdown. It's not, it's not a best of seven. And the elements can certainly change a game. One hit can change a game. If the bombers are rusty after this extended break between games, that actually mean anything. If they don't have that kind of edge that they need in the first, first quarter, and somebody can get a jump on them. Well, suddenly they're playing a different game than they were accustomed to play. And they're not, that's the team that hasn't been chasing a lot this year. What did their putting the situation just to just do the rust. The settling, they're trying to come back from 10 nothing. And this is what they're really accustomed to this year. And then strategies change and maybe people panic because there's, there's a lot at stake when this loss and nerves get tight. So much of the game of psychological soap. You never know in 1972, which is the last time that when people play Winnipeg blue bombers, Hosted the west division final. Nobody thought they were going to lose. The Saskatchewan Winnipeg had lost at home all year. The rise. And we're eight and eight and they went into Winnipeg and one a. And 1 27 24 to get to the gray cup, which was also in Hamilton in December. So maybe this year is a good omen for the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Maybe it's maybe Winnipeg isn't as invulnerable as they seem to be. I've seen, I saw the 89 Eskimos. I saw the 72 bombers and a. Strange things can happen. It's Canadian football and, but there needs to be something to make more games. More compelling because Winnipeg just seems to be a. Just squelching everybody and not, I think that's altering the perception as well because they were party to one of the games on the weekend that just wasn't very good through no fault of their own. They put up 45 points. I'd love to see more teams put up 45 points, but the zero on the other end really wasn't. To flattered. Well, I'm glad that, that we get you back on. You know, we, we it's been, I didn't want to have you back on TC and then the seasons, I think this is a good time. I appreciate your time. You know, we'll, we'll be chatting here and I'll be following your work and I'm excited to see, hopefully we'll get a turnaround here. Heading into the gray cup because I am a little terrified right now. So. I hope you have a wonderful trip to it. If we don't talk before that. And I hope you enjoy everything that's, even though it'll be a minute, bit of a diminished festival this year due to COVID. I've been to a ton of gray cups, a lot of them that. I didn't attend for vocational purposes, but just cause I love it. And it's it's you will absolutely. Enjoy every second of it. Even if the game doesn't turn out, well, the festival will meet. We'll make it happen. And, and you'll have a, you'll have a great time when I. I hope you enjoy. You enjoy it. Cause it that's your first exposure to something like this. And it'd be a shame if it wasn't what you're hoping it would be. So here's a hearsay. It was a good luck. Wish for that one. No, no, we're good. We're good. Okay. Let me get this going. Yeah, it looks rainy up there too. Well, I'll just get, sorry. You know, it's really good. I think your connection's a little. Are you there? Sorry. [Unknown] it's pretty jumpy. Is it one sec. I'm gonna try and do. Yeah. I'm going to take you off. I think I'm connected to a wildfire. Not work. And I've got. Good to log back in without it. Okay. Okay. Okay. Here we go. About there, the better. No. That's good. I'm going to. There we go. Okay. Well, Paula come. Thank you so much for coming back on and making the time. How are you doing? I'm doing all right. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks for having me back. So in the time, since you've been on the podcast, last we have now adopted the BC lions, you know, Whether your former teams as our official team, I have coined them. America's CFL team. Do you support me in that campaign? Oh, yeah, I think so. I really do. It's. We're in the west coast, Vancouver, big city, and yeah. It's a. It's a good market and a, you know, If you're going to have a team. In the NFL or the United States that they should fall should be VC. How have you enjoyed the season thus far? I messaged you. I said, have you been keeping that you said you have, whether you thought our big. It seems like a lot of the online chatter right now is asking if the CFL is entertaining enough to season. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know what, it's, it's entertaining football, but I think. Eh, the way things have gone because of COVID it has affected the plant a little bit. I don't, I don't think there's any questions on that, but, you know, The short and training camp, shortened preseason. The, when you're not able to. Prepare properly then I think it does affect you. Do you think by week 13 that maybe there should be a little bit more cohesive in. Cohesion, I can't speak. Then there, then there was, you know, maybe week two or three. Yeah. No, absolutely. I mean, but I mean, football is a funny game. I mean, you're going to get, you're going to have that cohesion. You should have that cohesion, but at the same time, Football is a physical game. So I'm going to be losing players with injury and whatnot. If you're. Even it just so happens aligned to the left. Lost a pretty explosive player and, you know, Sure. The backups have to step in and do what they need to do, but it does affect your team. So for the lions. You know, specifically, I think that, you know, they started off a little slow and they started to pick things up and with some injuries and whatnot. To think. They're lagging a little bit, but. Yeah, I think as a whole, as well, you know, there's teams like Winnipeg, they're super strong. They're deep France. Their offense is. Very potent as well. They're fun to watch. So, you know, I think when you, when you want to talk about. How the, the. The teams you're looking and, you know, people saying it's not our team. You've got. You know, A small amount of teams compared to watching the NFL. You know, but. Those teams in the NFL that are struggling. You don't. They don't talk about them. They always talk about, you know, how how's Phoenix doing, how how's Tampa bay doing how's Kansas city, doing things like that. I think up here when there are teams that are struggling, it's just magnified. Yeah. And especially with some of having some dog games, right? Like a 45 to zero. I don't know. Did you, did you watch that game thoughts on, on the loss and when the pigs dominance. Well, that's just it. I mean, Winnipeg. It's just. Just the way it is Winnipeg dust team in the league right now. Their defense, the statistic, I think for the points allowed in the fourth quarter. It's an incredible. They're there. They're strong all over. Their frontline stronger linebackers are good. Their defensive backs are good. So it means. It's hard to pick them apart. You know, the line is just struggling with their running game. And so Mike's. And still with their blocking up front. So Mike. He doesn't have a lot of time for. Anything. I mean, I think one place, I think. You know, my dad, a three or five step drop and boom. He got hit before he could set his feet. So, I mean, when you're one dimensional, With a sense of your running game strong, you got to start throwing the ball. They just pin their ears back. We come at you, sweat. It makes it really tough. So. Yeah. And I mean, like I said, when a pig. They're all, all around balanced team and the. They beat. BC and all three facets of the game. Obviously BC traveling, you know, to Toronto this weekend. I just talked with Natalia J from there about, you know, the big Arbuckle trade to Edmonton. Thoughts on any of that and, and. Moving players around. I mean, obviously before they trade. Deadline, but, but quite, quite a big trade, you know, they it's like the fourth team now for our buckle here in a couple of years. Yeah. You know, when it comes to the quarterbacks. And at other players. Sometimes change is good. And, you know, I think when Bethel Thomas Thompson was getting in there early on, and then they pulled them in struggling and put our buckle in and you know, didn't okay. And then they put them. Thomas back in and, you know, I think our buckles different scenery. You know, he's a good quarterback. I think that. You know, good things can, can happen. You know, different different teams where players are struggling and they switch. It's amazing to see how they flourish with other teams and schemes and organizations. Just change the scenery. So it's going to be interesting. What happens. How do you feel about BC going into Toronto? They're foreign though at home this season. [Unknown] politely called that you guys. It's not like Toronto has a huge home field advantage, which I said, well, that's, that's quite the blight way of saying it, but I have thoughts about them traveling in there and trying to bounce back and get. Something of this season kind of going correctly. Yeah. I mean, you know, I would heard Mike actually. Riley on a post game. Talk show and, you know, he started. The best it's, you know, after coming off a loss like that, The team's got to step it up. They got to put their head down. They gotta get to work and. The playoffs. So. And, and you know, what, if they can just concentrate and execute and do the simple things, right. You know, catch the balls. When they're thrown to them. You know, a little. Just the little things add up. You know, and I think that any team. At any time can be beaten. Over my, you know, My career, I've seen it where you've got a team. Like a Winnipeg that could be as dominant and dominant as they are. Just for whatever reason, no explanation. They can get beat by anybody. And so, you know, the lions. They have to have the mentality to go in there that. They're going to work hard to do it. The they've been working all week. On and just, just go and execute. You know, it's. Why not start it around this week against Toronto. Obviously, you know, new ownership coming in for the lions, right. Our domain and company. Trying to really revitalize, you know, he seems to be making a big conscious effort of, you know, having this face out there. Right. Promoting family nights and promoting the cultural awareness nights. Promoting all these things. Thoughts on that and trying to kind of revitalize the franchise. Yeah, I think it was a really good move on. Mr. Burley's the state to pick somebody a local older. And a fan. I haven't had the chance to play or to meet him yet. But everything that I've heard. And heard him say is a very, very positive. Wanting to, to build up the community again. And get back that. That pride, that local pride in the team. So I'm glad that, you know, he knows it's not something. That he's just going to purchase and make a lot of money and that he's, he knows it's not going to happen overnight. I'm actually a, you know, I'm excited to see what, what he does with the team. Do you think that they're still, you know, actionable things that can be done to really, you know, I hear this all the time. Right? You know, BC am. I sure I'll try it. I mean, what do you, what are you looking to see? What do you want to see out of an owner and out of someone building trying to, you know, get the fan base back. Well, for me, to be honest with you, it's, it's an atmosphere. I had a potential owner in the past. Ask me what I thought about. Getting the fans. In the stadium. And getting that atmosphere back and everything else. You know, For me. It's gotta be affordable. I mean, We're in Vancouver. You know, if you want to get family for two hockey game, it's. Probably $500. It's ridiculous. But. The football. It's entertaining. When you get out there. You're going to have that atmosphere. Of excitement and what's going on around inside the stadium, all of those things add up and they sort of. Sort of like, The atmosphere when it's electric and breeds more fun and excitement. You know, if you just get people in the stadium. You know, what, if you've got to cut the ticket prices? You know, I think. A good game, the person who's in there and he's at the nosebleeds and you. You have a full stadium. You put on promotions and things like that. Of course, you're going to put on a winning product, but it all ties together. It's gotta be, it's gotta be affordable. And. Unfortunately, if that stadium is not. At least half full. It's hard to get that out in the sphere. So another thing, which is a little bit of a little bit off topic, but I'd like to see them look at possibly the white cops in the lines, having their own private venue in the suburbs, because I think the football is and blue collar sports. I think if they were to have a smaller venue, a little bit more intimate. And think it would, would help a lot to bring those fans. And make it something special to do. And another thing. I don't think I mentioned this or possibly I did here in Vancouver. All the high school kids play American football. And for me, I just have a hard time with that. When you have the kid. Who's playing. Position. That an NFL player would be playing. How was she going to relate to Canadian player as a, as a receiver, for example, or a slot back, we have motion. And how, how, how was she going to relate to. The CFO game when the position he's playing and he's going to idolize as an American player. You know, I mean, there's so many little things that I think need to be looked at to help the game as a whole in Canada. I'm going to BC, especially. I think that's one of them. And. You know, you're wearing BC gear. It's very difficult to find BC gear in Vancouver as well. So, Another, another thing I think that needs to be looked at to help build the quality of the game and. Get the people excited about the team again. You know, when I, when I first started, I mean, we had 35, 40 5,000 people in the stands, and now you're lucky to get 20. So it's, it's sad right now, but I think. And I think at the local owner, it's possible. Yeah, it's. This is actually a, one of our listeners made this for us. It's a custom. Oh, nice. It says, mark. They sent one. They sent one to me. And then they sat at Argos, went to Paul because mycosis and Argos fan. We will hold that against him, but yeah, you know, But it's it's that grassrootsy stuff, right? Like we're trying to do, you know, cause people, you know, some people get on us, but well, You know, who cares about what I'm like? Well, at least we're, again, we're talking about this, right. And we're trying to figure stuff out. It is frustrating that we have this new ownership come in. It really seemed like it all was going well for BC. And then it's been like all these losses at home and these horrendous losses and these last second losses. And now this blow out. I mean, it really does seem like, yeah, if you're Mr. Dome, and at this point you're like, Let us going on, you know what I mean? Yeah, no. And I get it. It's a bit frustrating and you know, there's things that, you know, he's going to have to look at. You know, when you first. Whatever kind of business when you first get it. I think it's, it's really. Smart to just kind of keep things how they are. And look around and assess them from that perspective, as opposed to just coming in and turning everything upside down. So, I mean, it's going to be, it's going to be. Bit of a process to, to change things, how he sees. And, you know, that'll take a little bit of time, but, you know, Got a, got a good quarterback. There's no question there, but they just get a little, I think they just need a little bit of a better supporting class around him. All the other two facets. You know, for me, I'm specifically looking at special teams that had some pods, blogs. A lot of return. You already. Concerning and things like that, but yeah, it's, it's gonna take a little bit of time, but. It's a game. So you can just time to work at it. Before I let you go. You know, obviously Winnipeg is kind of the cream of the crop in the west who are, you know, Argos making moves. Right. You know, Montreal is making moves here. Who are you keeping an eye on in the east? You know, presuming that the Winnipeg steam rolls here through to the grey cup. The other team in the east for me. Kahari Johan's car. John's a good friend of mine, of Montreal. He's got a way of. Pulling his teams together. And making good things happen. Never ever a doubt. Anything that is involved with. So I would think Montreal will be. Interesting. Thing out of the state, if anything's going to happen. That's kind of the team I'd pull for. Yeah. Yeah, we have, I mean the big Trevor Harris trade, right? I mean, certainly making moves here. Still, you know, still a lot of daylight here in the season, right? I mean, it is closing down here. Yeah, it is, but I mean, like I said, it's closing down, but there's, there's some things. I think there's still time to happen. So it's gonna be very interesting to see what happens in. You know, like I said, you can have teams that have dominated. I think. Early two thousands. When you had teams like Calgary that were running through the league. And then they get to the show. And things change, right? So it's, it's never over till it's over. So I'm, I'm always one watching a game. I almost watch it to the end because in the CFL. Unlike the NFL, the last, you know, two, three minutes of a football game. And can really make a difference. A lot of points can be scored. Well, Paul, I appreciate you coming back on today and making time running around here. So I thank you again, and I will keep you I'll keep the BC merchandise, you know,

Episode 63 - Is Winnipeg Inevitable?

Paul, can I interest you in any IRL NFTs? Thinking about what the F is that we're going to get into. Are we, I have a rank. It hasn't been, it hasn't been a long time since I've had a fan controlled football rant in my heart, but I do have one today here later in the show. So long time listeners be excited for that. One from listeners also be excited. I have a book, Cammie, a request out for you. For an upcoming bird or so. We're going to get that. The long time listeners will know our cameo as cafes, and we have a long time we have, this would be a, this would be an all time. Or if this comes through. That's cool to hear. The title of the show is Winnepeg inevitable. I guess we're going to go to the Stanos. Is that what we're doing? They're going to snap. The other eight teams. Why is that? That makes sense. No, but I mean that. We're going easy this week. We got big, huge USFL stuff later. We see you sit all day on the podcast where we're posting this early, because you know, Paul's working stuff. I appreciate him coming on. We have a lot of news to post tomorrow and everyone had the interview today. Everyone's very busy. And so we did all the interviews today, but yes, it was Winnipeg inevitable, but stay tuned. We're going to time code all the USFL staff, our big interview with Ray Johnson and we will do. Dissect that later in the show. Very cool stuff, pat Steinberg. Also joining the show. Robert McGregor. State of announcer for blue bombers. Joining the show in Josh burden. He's a video ops guy with Argos. He's joining us as well. And then, then your, your USFL up. Exposé so to speak a lot of info coming down. This is, I mean, I mean, I feel like I did good journalism work today. So we have a proposed kickoff date in writing for the USFL for 2022. We have in writing proposed TV networks, schedules, things like that. Roy gets into all of that. So I've Roy. I like having boots on the ground in these places. Now we have Dylan from last week. We have Roy, we have like people on the ground there to get this going, you know? Do you want to go to Birmingham? I don't want to go to Birmingham. I don't really want to go to Birmingham. I have no. I have no business in Alabama, man. Yeah. So anyway, I huge show kind of that, but yeah, stay tuned. We're going to get through all the CFL staff. We got our interviews and then all time code all of this, if you want to jump around, but we'll do all the dissecting with the USFL stuff later in the show. It would be remissed if we didn't start the show off. I'm a kind of bad down note, a friend of the show. Josh Davis of. Passed away last week. Very young. You know, We don't know all the specifics behind what happened, but our thoughts are definitely going out to his friends, his family. And yeah. This, this came as a shock to all of us. You know, It came to a shock for everybody in the entire niche, football, alternative football. What do you want to call this? Community, because, you know, he was, he was well respected by a lot of different leagues. I mean, In the XFL. Broke there, you know? The next fellows in tweeting anything. And they came out and they said something about Josh as well. So we want to send our thoughts and prayers out to his family, his friends, his daughters. And especially as daughters that during this tough time, It's rough. It's definitely rough. Yeah, there's a go fund me up on Facebook. If you got XFL news tab, it's on all the social media stuff. I'll probably add it to the YouTube description, but they have a go fund me to cover some, you know, his fiance, three kids, all that just terrible. And that's kind of the thing is, I mean, besides just w. Wonderful person. Josh was all the work now that like we've been doing this week with the USFL, I'm like that's stuff that Josh would be doing right. That Josh would be loving to do. And so like trying to carry that on in his honor, figure out all this stuff. I mean, you can call this silly that what all we're doing, but this means a lot to the people that are doing it and yeah. Just, you know, rest it. What do you say? Rest in power, right? Arresting power Josh. And like, it was a big, it was a big shock for everybody. XML tweeted fingers or football tweeted, you know, XFL, even like accidental newsroom, you know, were like competing. I mean, everyone like came together and was like, this is. This is, this goes beyond like, you know, Competing sites and stuff like that. This is just. Situation. It's just rather unfortunate. You know, we'll, we'll leave it at that and we'll just keep, keep, keep those, keep those people in our thoughts during this time. So. Show must go on and let's pick it up a little bit here. And I was shocked to see us, but. Daniel, Danny Austin complimented. The mark cast. He was talking trash about us about three months ago, said that we were begging him to be on the shell. I don't know. I don't know the communications. I read was having with him, but I guarantee you, he was exaggerating just a little bit here. Yeah. And. W I, the one that's get my candida story either. So we'll get to that. But no, I would just, the, the, the funny thing was, you know, how addition, because I don't follow Danny out of her principle and it just shows up like, you know, suggested CFL. Oh, I was like, oh, what is this? And it was. You know, Daniel complaining about something. And so I was going to, I was reading through it and I was like, what am I going to make fun of him about? And then in the comment, like he was tweet, conversing with someone and he was like, yeah, you know, that XFL news, the XFL podcast, those guys, like I had it all wrong with them. They really meant like they really know their staff and they're really good, valuable thing. I'm like, well, here you go. I was assumed that I was going to make fun of Daniel Austin. And then I ended up getting a great compliment from him. So. That's how easy it turns. AKA let's say easy. That's how easy everything can turn out for you, Cody. So easy things. Can turn out for you. Cardell Jones. Just being nice. One few down. I will tell you the other food we have will never die. Now we have, everything has been blocked on every social media with the other feed that we have going on right now. But this view is done. If he either just really. I think I'm a viewed. Who's your. I want to know why. Ross is here in LA, hasn't called and wanted to grab like drinks or anything. Whoa. He's in LA. What's he doing in LA? Ah, he's watching the baseball game. I think. I think. I'm suspecting that like, We kind of work for the same company. Cause he works for sports net, right? Yeah. So why? Well, I don't work for sports net, but I work for the. Yeah. Wow. I mean. Now. What if a rush moved here, that'd be, that'd be fun. I would, I still think I would, I bother the Raj to come on. I should offer them again. Now that the blue Jays are not now that we bear their hatchet with Daniel, Austin, maybe we can bury our fascia with. Araceli. I don't have a few. At all. Getting like, dude. I'm totally kidding. He doesn't. Call me grab a bite to eat or anything. It would be cool. It'd be cool. You know, meet up at Bersin, like. You know, chat with them, but, you know, I know he's probably. Irritated a spring football guys. Things that don't go well together is the Raj Madani on the word. Cool. So I just started. I know, I don't know about that. I just, I have to share my Canada story really quick. For people that don't follow me on Twitter, I posted a little bit on Instagram. Dorothy, and I, you know, they guide you weren't there. I would've gone. Nuclear bro. I was already nuclear. So it would've been like in fall would have been there. You know, obviously Paul was out of town on family tragedy. This would have been the, like, we might not have ever spoken again, like after all of this. During the night, Friday afternoon, drive all the way up to the border. We have, you know, Dorothy is so nice. We have all the drinks packed. We have snacks, we have food. We have every, you know, we have everything for, we're going to be gone. Two nights. We have everything. We have to the border and, you know, pulling out my passport. It's all this staff member we had to get during these passport. That was a big day. We up there. And pulling out my card and he goes, well, you, you need that, but you also need a negative, a negative test. And I was like, what are you talking about? Because in the us and most people I've talked to were all shocked. I mean, there was like one or two Canadians that were like, oh, you also need to have a test. Most everyone I've talked to is like, wait. They all assumed I forgot my card. And when I told them like, no, I have my car. They're like, oh wait, what. Yeah. So we ran down to the Bellingham airport to get a rapid task, long story short. It did not come in in time. We spent a wonderful romantic night at the hotel, bellwether and Bellingham. Drove up to the border and waited until about an hour before game time to see if the, the test would come in and it never did it in time. So what's funny is like, I was hanging out with Nydia that night and I'm like, I got back. I'm hanging out with Nydia. And f*****g we're looking up at the, like the f*****g. The requirements and they had no issue with tests. None. Do you want to believe yourself there now? But we, you said the effort twice. Can. Just pick it up. Yeah, that's fine. So I'm hanging out with Nydia. After I get back from Tucson that night and we looked at the website, we're like, there's no. It just says vaccine record on the website. It's a vaccine record. Yeah. It was even like filling out the, you had to download an app and I even filling that out and like, which port we were traveling through in Canada, it was like this whole big thing I had to Google. Like, what is the Pacific highway border crossing? It's not Blaine. It's not like interstate five. It's like Pacific. The whole thing's very right. I mean, it's my fault. I mean, it's clearly my fault. The lions lost 39 to 10. It was a horrendous game. I watched it from my mother's living room while we picked up Rosie and I would have also been nuclear. Had I been at the game when that happened. So like, It overall ended up being okay. But Paul, if you had been there, because during the night that we had got the last room at the bellwether, there was a king bed. That was it. Man. I couldn't imagine how, how nuclear you would have been. If you didn't get a room that night. Well, we could stay at like somewhere, but I mean, we wanted to make it nice this day somewhere to like make a meal, make good on it. I mean, we could've stayed at the side of the road somewhere, but it was, did you, did you get any refund back on the Airbnb? Everything. I think they're waving the cleaning fee. I mean, it's my fault. I got all the, even the tickets, all that, but I had a wager with the pocket spin puck and pig skin podcast. He's like, so where's that Calgary logo. I, Mike flush $700 down the drain. Got detained at the border. Not changing the logo. Sweet, sorry. Sorry. So we. He doesn't mean to Welch on a bed. But honestly like that. That's a pain in the ass right there. Yeah. Anyway, moving on with the games, like you just mentioned the stamps, beat the. Blue bombers. The Alex big surprise, 26 16. And the elements beads. The red blacks, 27 16. Of course my Argos had the week off. Cause I played twice in a week. So there's that. Made blue bomber, sweat. I mean, that's. Six to 16 is a lot closer than the 33. It was the week before. Maybe the culture is changing week 12, coming up the Argos, taken on the lox, the lions. Visiting the blue bombers. I'm going to lose their, sorry. Read. The red blacks, visiting Hamilton and the Roughriders visiting Calgary to take them to the stamps. Big game Calgary's bat arrive. Excuse me. Cody's back office. Bi-week we'll see if he's got his head back on blackout white hat. We preview all this, that pat coming up, I talk with Bob McGregor, you know, he's the BC. Stadium announcer. So we had funny stories about all that stuff sometimes of like all the game previews, all that stuff coming up. So I will do all the time goods. Very cool. All right, moving on news. Now, CFL players, association lawyers, examining leagues, unilateral COVID-19 vaccine travel policy. The players association is distributed the following memo to its membership. Following a recent report regarding unvaccinated players being barred for the great cup playoffs. Basically they, they, their lawyers or counsel are looking over the federal government's clarification on the travel restrictions. And they mean they remain in talks with the CFL and the federal government to make sure. People can travel. Yeah. So Naylor came out like earlier yesterday. I believe it was either earlier to ASA. We recorded. It's all screwed up, but they said they came out and they said the CFL decided that players who are not vaccinated can not travel. We've talked about this in December to the east west vinyls or the gray cup because of the vaccine. Yeah. They're going to be placed on the suspended list and not paid. None of this is a surprise. This was all announced, but now. That's actually a thing they're trying to see if it's legal or not, which you know, was be wonderful to figure out before now, but they're trying to figure out like a bacon bus them, but you know how large Canada is like let's. Heaven forbid if the BC lions may get to the finals, right. And they got to travel to Winnipeg, it's like a 10 hour bus ride or whatever. I mean, I probably longer I've don't know that, but it's really far to get from place to place. So, yeah, I mean, it's going to be interesting to see what happens with this. Of course. We previously said that they're not gonna allow, you know, Unvaccinated players to play in the playoffs. And. What else to say with Naylor here? I'm having a hard time. Squinting a little bit. My eyes. I is 25 hours, which everyone with. The BC. So there you go. Sharing them out anyway. I mean. Yeah, so. They're looking at it right now. It's one of those things. All of this was announced previously. Like, we've talked about all this, but now it's Neo. Now the asset's hitting the fan. They're trying to say the players can't get paid. We have some stories coming up with James Wilder among others. You know, proudly proclaiming he's not vaccinated. The long running joke is that the Edmonton Elks do not need to worry about being in any of these games with all anyway. It really doesn't affect anybody. I didn't think that was a good bet. Yeah, while they're tweeted at crazy how people reached out, thanking me for speaking up salvia and the league where most key players have to hide their beliefs and some are going against their beliefs. To please own there's where their body, because who that politics into sports, I will never be that person, obviously a lot of negative feedback coming that way for Mr. Wilder. This isn't politics, man. It's become political, but it shouldn't be. Yeah. Rod had a very I've firmed stamps on his show today, you know, I mean, You're an employee. I mean, it's kind of what it is. I mean, I know they have the players association agreements and all that they're working through, but you're in a play. I, I, we do weddings. We have to be have cards and things. I don't want to say too many buzzwords for YouTube to ban us, but like, you know, we have weddings now we film where it, we it's required. Like it's required in Seattle. It's required. We cannot go in there. And, and it's one of those things that we want to be able to continue doing the work that we want to do. You just have to do it. So, yeah, I mean, if you, if you want to go to the Alamo draft house here in LA, guess what. You're unvaccinated. You can't get in. That's the way things are going. I mean, We're going to start. We're going to start. Rewarding, the people that get the, do the work. So. So this came out. So we'd remember, we talked with Dave Campbell last week, all that Trevor Harris, getting bands. Now he's been traded to the outlets. Vernon Adams is on the six game. IRR. This is a big, obviously big earth shaking news, you know, he's on a $1.1 million deal. He's kind of the big franchise guy of the Alex to be traded. I, he, we have a quote here, you know, he's obviously disagrees with them, you know, benching him and decided not to plan. Do you see the quote there? Yup. Each team has a certain direction. They want to go. That's why you have a higher head coach in general manager. They felt it was best to go the opposite route. I disagree with them not playing me, but that's because I'm competent who I am and the skillset that I have to play this beautiful game. In this country, it didn't end how I missed anticipated. When I have so much love for the guys in the locker room there, and honestly, honesty with which Brock Sunderland dealt with me. Although we disagree on certain things with the decisions that were made. Neither here nor there. You're always going to disagree. I know who I am and I, what I have to offer. So. Yeah. I mean, this is big. I talked with pat about this, you know, Edmonton's obviously kind of mortgaging the, their season, right? I mean, we're getting rid of him. We're bringing in Taylor, Cornelius. He, although former XFL hasn't necessarily lifted world on fire. It's just weird that, you know, in such a quarterback dry league, You know, where we're thriving, you know, thirsty for these quarterbacks that you've had, you know, willingly trade away, kind of your franchise here at $1.1 million is a huge deal in the CFL to be trading away. The other issue with this they're having questions. If he had the car, if he had all that stuff, if he would be eligible to travel. And he says that during the bi-week, he took care of all that. So whichever Harris. It's come out and said that he is vaccinated and he is eligible to travel with all this stuff going on. Apparently had a medical exception that he applied for. He didn't hear back from it. So we just went ahead and got vaccinated. Good for him. Good for him. I don't know what the medical exemption is. Vaccine is. Maybe an allergy to potentially what's in it. That's, that's the thing. That's thing that exists. So. It's interesting to see. Yeah. And funny enough notice that Mr. Cameron Newton in the NFL got vaccinated. He claims, and now he, people are calling him about trade deals. Interesting. Interesting. That worked out. Ryan Rashad. He was on a desert Nielsen show. Dustin was on a couple of weeks ago, just talking about how they've lost faith in Trevor Harris. Something is, is, is clearly like nuclear. Is that where the live today, but in that locker room, I mean, this is like toxic, It's a really crazy. Th that one team is so much more off-kilter than everybody else. I really can't grab my mind around that need. Like neither could Dave Campbell. I mean, we've had people on that are close to this locker room. It's really crazy. It's like the, every, every time that you have like a football team, It's like. Darn it, she likes the Raiders used to have an issue. And then like, you know, we used to call the Portland trailblazers, the Portland jail blazer. A lot of their players were going to jail and. That's kind of the same situations like this. You're watching a train wreck happen in real time. And you can't take your eyes off it. This culture thing that they were talking, all they want is culture. Like what effing culture do you guys want? Like, this is a bad culture. This is a terrible culture. I know, I think. But here's the funny thing. People ask me that all the time they go, Hey, where's that Edmonton flag? It's still here. It's been. The whole time. I've just never gotten rid of it yet, but I do think that we will burn that in a trashcan by lake Ontario during the breakup. I got live show. I think that that would be the climax of our show is burning the Edmonton dog's leg. So. Just the buzzer, a couple of signings here at Winston rose got picked up a DB with Winnipeg. Pat Seinberg has a lot more thoughts to say about that. The blue bombers also signed Chuck Cooper. He was like, go from the lions. So it's like kind of like the rich getting richer, you know, Winnipeg's already killing the NID fans. We, you know, we signed an all star DB. The other big thing, Sergio Castillo, he was released from our trading from BC for a fourth round pick. Sergio was with, I know he was with the CFL before, but then he was with the roughnecks in the XFL. He was with the jets member. He was, and then he got cut. Right now he is back. So like Winnipeg member, we talked, he didn't have a kicker last week. Now they have a fixed all that. So. Cool stuff. Red backs, bread, blacks. I should say. Turning back to Evans after last week's mention. Paula police confirmed. The team will go back to Caleb Evans under center. Center spelled R E at the end Saturday against the Hamilton tiger cats. A lot police joined TSN 1200 on Monday, said Ottawa will give Evans another shot. One week after he threw three interceptions. Against the elements. Yeah, Kayla came out hot. He was kind of the rookie with the golden hand has really struggled the last couple of weeks. The other big thing. You know, red blacks are playing against. Katz Dan Evans is coming back on the 16 injured reserve. Try to figure out if there's enough time left in the season for Hamilton to make a run addict, because it's basically the Argos world in the east. Pat has a lot of thoughts to say about that as well. I would presume that day in the starting this week. Otherwise they'll go with Mazzoli again. You know, Watford. I was the third string and they've never really gotten anything going with him. So true. Red black signing quarterback, Tom Flacco. Is that. Yeah. That's okay. Six foot 1, 205 pound pivot. Pivot. Pivot. Pivot. That's copied. That's copied and pasted from CFL dot. New Jersey plaintiff's. As college ball at Townson. The 26 year old assigned by the Roughriders in January. And then he was one of the team's final cuts to the conclusion of training camp. And he'll join the team when he's cleared COVID protocol. The younger brother of Joe Flacco, he was in, I'm pulling up on the website now. Just to make sure I CFL said, what does that mean to 205 pound pivot. I don't know just every time I see the word pivot. If I go anyway. Andrew Harris, you know, Winnipeg or your star. Rushing back. He hurt his knee. Last week, he was limping around. He did not practice. On Tuesday this week, obviously I think it would be kind of a game time decision for him. Brady Olivera had to do a bunch of work earlier this season while Andrew Harris was out. He's really got kind of an injury thing, which is, is, is that, you know, I mean, you get these players. It's like Christian McCaffrey. Right. You know, it comes back for the Panthers injured again. And some people took them. Number one in their drafts. And fantasy. Hi. The number one in your job. Who's who's the guy. Like Derek Henry, is that the guy that people. Took like the. Derek Henry's and all, sorry. I mean, you could have been better off with like, well, even like Nick Chubb or someone with the Browns, but I would say they're both injured now, too. So. But like everybody everybody's like people that picked Derrick Henry number one. Their legs are clearly rolling right now. There's no, there's no way. Matt baker on the BC lions lost the Roughriders. He says we're frustrated. I think we can play better. I was sitting in an action. Better. And I don't know. I think there was an energy missing. I tweeted. I said, I, we tried to get to the game mat. We w we, we were the energy that wasn't there. A lot of cliches. I mean. We could have been there that I think we were the energy. Speaking of bells. Former TSN broadcast or rod black, a victim of the cutbacks there. Apparently, according to Black's agent, the veteran. Broadcasters contract expired on August 31st and he was not offered a new deal. Even though he agreed to call a number of CFL games in early October and performance was not a factor in his departure from the network. He said that he knew he was leaving for months, who was surprised it didn't get out. And I'm like, well, it's cause it's like CFL media broadcast deals. S**t anymore. And like, and like you guys protect your own. You know, you guys like there's like a bubble, like. You probably didn't. Spill much. So. Well, that being said, we're going to toss to break. We're going to come back and hear from all of our wonderful esteemed guests. All of our friends with the show. And then come back, talk more USFL news, Taka. To get, get reads a little rant in yeah. Cool. And the, yeah. I'll pull that out by just the F bomb, whatever. That's what it was going through my mind as. Yeah. I was like, Okay. Welcome back. I want to thank all of our guests for joining us here on the mark hast. By the way, I don't know if you notice, like I'm looking at the camera a lot more today because I got the Google doc up here on this monitor. So I can like actually read in school. It's a little self. I want to thank pat Steinberg, Robert McGregor, Josh Burton, and Roy Johnson. All for there. In input. Joining Reed here on the Marquez. Yeah. So we got our USFL stuff right now. So we're going to kind of, I just a couple of thoughts on this. I mean, obviously Roy and I did a lot. Paul. So w what we know now, April 15th is the proposed kickoff date, right? So that would put training camps, you know, kind of that end of March, right? March 20th. The, the other thing about it was that mentions of games potentially on peacock and on Fs one and on Fox and MBR USA with that, which is owned by NBC. So, so thoughts on kind of mucking up those waters of broadcast sales. I mean, I guess like USA and NBC and Fox have kind of been in bed a little bit, like allowing characters on, you know, because they have the w they have separate WW deals. Like they've signed those deals with Bentz. So they're allowing characters to kind of cross over every once in a while. So there's a, there's some kind of working relationship here. I'm not sure. How long this will last, but it's very interesting that. That two networks got. Got in on this because I just don't. I don't know. And what does that. What does that mean for like, I mean, FCF. They are on peacock to like, Why that they're on like that peacock and we'll talk FCF here, coming up. Boom. They're on like that. A. Peacock or NBC LX or whatever, like it's awkward. The weird thing with this too. And so listen to the show, Sam, we've been tracking a lot of this stuff. So right now. There is the national spring football league and they own the trademarks of the USFL and all of that. That is Fox. Roy talks about this we've confirmed all that. The mailing address is everything for the national spring football league is an LLC on by Fox broadcasts. The USFL is also trademarked currently by the spring league on by Brian Woods. And then also by, I think it's ATL, it's like a separate third brand, that era third, LLC, that is also owned by Brian Woods. So Sunday he is, is odd here because Roy believes that Fox is, is spearheading this deal. I've reached out to Brian Woods. Brian, didn't get back to me. He got back to Mike Mitchell. Mike Mitchell is not the one recording podcasts every week. Brian Woods. I would probably get back to me on this as well. So something is weird. That way. Shop usfl.com is a thing now. So you can go on there. This was discovered by Jake Henry friendly of the show. You can buy merch. So they have merged. Of course I ordered the hat cause we're going to test it. We tweeted about this. It's owned by prayer. It's run by Printful, which also does our merchandise. Which sometimes has problems, you know? Shipping merchandise sometimes when you need it. But the four teams that are on the merge store are the Philadelphia stars, the Pittsburgh modelers, the Birmingham stallions, and the new Orleans breakers, you know, all kinds of that demographic, you know, that side of the country ride a lot of. Make sense, right? The Birmingham thing. The merchandise looks terrible. It's like a Printful store, right? I mean, it's, it's like what we did. So [unknown]. At the time said than I had was like, I, you know, I think Brian was still involved in this, but it's like, are they launching this to show USFL commerce, right. To like have rights to the trademarks. Maybe, you know what I mean? Cause like, if you, if you start, you have to show it like using Congress. Cause it's, that's, it's such a hastily thrown up store. I mean it's, if you go on there right now, shop usfl.com. I bought a $20 hat. It, I paid through PayPal. The PayPal address is shop USFL, whatever.com, but then the name of it is the spring league. Like it's very, like, not a Foxy feeling thing. Yeah, I don't, that's kind of weird. That might be illegal too. Well, it's weird. Like it's like if you still buy stuff on XFL, it's fulfilled through WWE, which is still really weird to me. I mean to this day, you can buy, if you go right now, buy something on xfl.com. It will ship from WWE headquarters. So ship from WWE. If those things. If WME is billing, you. Yeah. I mean, I think it's build XFL. I mean, it's the fulfill, I mean, that's, I think that's fine. It's just weird. So this national spring football, like anyway, but that is basically Fox. They own the USFL. Now they are negotiating these deals. There's a list of other. You know, trademarks, this showboats. The Orlando renegades, the balls, all these things so that we're trying to figure out. What eight teams are going to be in this, but I would have to say, obviously the star is the Mahler is the stallions and the breakers being on the merge site. There's also like this horrendous cammo flat bell hat. There's a normal flat bell hat. Basically, it's really weird. Like, it just doesn't feel like this is a Fox, $150 million deal. Going into this. Let's just. This isn't passing the smell test. It never has it. It hasn't since we talked about. First got brought up, like we're totally bought the rights. We've talked to the homeboy that we thought had the right stuff. Like we talked to copyright lawyers. Or a lawyer not. You know Singler but it's like, none of this makes sense. This is so weird. There's not a good feeling behind any of this. Yeah. So, I mean, I guess takeaway, cause I got a lot of like, okay, what is going on with this? Bringing, I would say takeaways today. I think April 15th is the kickoff date. This is whatever I don't care if it's connected to the spring league or not. This is going to be the spring league with different colors on the jerseys. That's what this is. Roy talks about it. It's a three-year plan year one to two, they're going to start incorporating some other cities and owners this year. It's going to be the spring league, but without the [unknown]. It's going to be the stallions and without the blues, it's going to be the Maulers or whatever, but that's all it's going to be this year. I mean, hypothesize all you want for the podcast is great for our listeners, but like I've done a lot of work. The last couple of weeks I've talked with. The, the, these reporters are in the room with the officials while they are having these meetings. This is an 18 bubble. And I do not think there's going to be a draft. I think it's going to be very much like the spring league, where they assign quarterbacks, they assigned players based on the coaches. I do not believe on October 20th, we are going to hire coaches for seasons. Is that it's not going into training camp until March. I wouldn't imagine coaches getting hired until February. I really wouldn't. I don't see. Any reason to put a soul on payroll in the year 2021 at all. Nope. Good for tax benefits to. And, and apparently according to the John Bergeson sources, claiming the spring league is no longer working with. Yeah. Over there. It's sprinklings all working with USFL. So there's some question of like, I think the spring league is still going to exist in some form. We do not know what that is, but this USFL this year, I believe is going to be a very carbon copy of what the spring league was like I said, with the fresh paint and then whatever that ends up being the TSL could just be. I training camp or whatever, but I think that those two things are very separate. So many questions to be answered. More questions are going to be answered. Soon who's going to run the XFL. Of course. We had our, our fearless leader stepped down recently and now there's three potential candidates to run the league's operations. Mike Mitchell. I got from a former Houston, Texas GM executive vice president football ops, Rick Smith. Former general manager, executive Scott Pioli. And for our Buffalo bills, Buffalo Sandra's president Russ, Brandon. You have any thoughts on rest? Brandon? I know that there's issues. He has. I, I did remember something about Russ, Brandon. I can't remember off the top of my head, but there was some bad stuff about him that, that came out. Yeah, Mike's kind of down on that. And this isn't a deep dive on any of these names today. I just had a couple of quick notes rest. Brandon seems to be the front liner. Mike wrote in his article that, you know, he's had some paths with some female harassment issues, things like that, going back kind of like a dance Snyder. He kind of feels like maybe a little bit, you know, related tangentially with Washington football team. My vote always since I've heard that Mike Mike mentioned Scott Pioli probably nine months ago, six months ago. I can't remember what we were talking about. That's always been my vote for this Scott Pioli he's on good morning football. Every week. He basically has a standing appointment on there. He won a bunch of obviously super bowls with the Patriots. He was with the chiefs. He is someone that carries himself very well on camera. He follows a lot of XFL related media accounts on Twitter. I think Scott Pioli would be my vote as. As someone that has a credibility with that, Rick, Rick Smith with the Texans also as well, but that rest brand, and it seemed to really upset Mike, that that is a potential. Someone that could be sad. You left Buffalo in rather unfortunate circumstances. So. Yeah. It's I don't know. I like Scott Pioli too. I'm on the board with you there. We finally agree on something. And then rounding out here and then we'll get out of here. I am. And controlled football wide receiver. Previs. Has signed with the giants. Giants is still going to suck no matter who they signed, because they need to upgrade that offensive line. And they need a new quarterback. He could be good at is going to get a better offensive. Yeah, anytime. So let's look on the jets to. And then this thing, this is ridiculous. That was crap ever. Yeah. So we talked about this a week or two ago on the podcast that fangirl football has this IRL NFTs going on. So they posted the big video today. I, this has been around before, but I retweeted and they said, How can we get more money? How can we profit more from our fans? I, as I think that the quote that I used and. It's so weird to me, the people that like, so vehemently defend this league. Right. I understand like some people have spent money and they own these teams, you know, they own right. Like 0.01%, whatever. But like, All I'm trying to do is like point out, Hey, maybe I would think about this before you put some money on this, or like, Hey man, like that is our role as the independent media, that's clearly not liked by fingers on football and that's fine. I have criticisms about spring league and Brightwoods, I have criticism about the XFL. It's not an anti FCF thing, but when, when you're. Basically, what you can do now is the process they did last year, where you could go on and pick the team names and the colors and all that. Now that's like paywall reserved for at least a couple of the teams. Like you have to pay to do that with this. Like it's an MFT, which is. You know, like Dorothy right now is like what's in that NFT. It's like a digital thing that doesn't exist. Right? It's a non-physical thing, but it's an in real life non-physical thing. So that doesn't make sense at all. Like having this seizure, but yeah. These are digital assets. That's what they are. It's basically like crypto digital assets, all that, all that stuff coming together. Like you. These things go through the blockchain. When you acquire NFTs. In real life NFTs. It's an oxymoron. It's contradiction. It doesn't make any flipping sense whatsoever. It's so stupid. This is dumb. I just don't like that. Basically we did this last year and now, oh, we can charge for this and now we're going to charge you, you know, we're going to hide things behind the paywall. That's what I don't like about it, because you're going to get kids that, that like, Oh, I wanted to be a part of that Intel, Patrick and the team can answer me how you get any money paid back for your ownership of these. There is no profit sharing. There is no buyout. Abilities. Anything I bet until I know how, like I would get my money back from my 250 or a thousand dollar, I think investment. I just wouldn't be spending money on this. The football can be fine. I'll watch some football and do all that. I just wouldn't be like figuring out more ways to spend money on this. This is grift. I'm sorry, I'm going to call it for what it is. They didn't raise enough money when there's. And that's the reason why they didn't go in August. Because I'd have enough money. They didn't raise enough money to go in August. And if they did raise enough money, they didn't manage it correctly because there was an August member. They're going to have a second season in August. So. Did you guys anyone's paying for this crap is being taken to the cleaners. Well, I guess how I do feel that they tapped out the resources that they raised before. And then now they're trying to figure out that is whether it reads to me. And if it's not, that's fine, they can be more transparent about it. This is my last comment on this. It was really interesting. I was just alerted to a tweet today from Patrick DS, basically making fun of the XFL again. You know, rent-free for not, eh, eh, they don't exist right now. You know, we're a real league with a logo or their logo. We're really big and all this stuff. FCF and XFL have the exact same number of players. Sign them their contract right now. Which is zero. Eh, FCF also has no players under contract. And then I don't want to hear anything from a league that is selling whatever in real life NFTs about anything that may believe. It's not a real thing. But that's what I mean, like, Right. Like, don't like, I, this is not that this would not be the week that I would make fun of something for like, not being real while I'm also selling something. That's not real. Right. You know what I mean? That's what I might want there. That is. The quote right there. This is the week that I wouldn't make fun of something. It's not real when I'm selling something. That's not real. Because this doesn't exist. And NFT is not real life. But this one is. T exactly. That's all it is. Anyway, that's I'm done with that. Do you want Jacksonville homes? Don't dance on the logo. I just had that here. Don't dance on Shawn Taylor's number either. Yeah, don't do that. Jackson, my homes. I'll put the video here. Dorothy likes and I've paid. But don't try to not give him credit. I'm not going to give him any more publicity Jackson home, shame on you. I'm not going to do it. Sure Patrick. At some point, you got to sit your family and your wife down and be like, stop. [Unknown] me. At some point. That's all I've got today, but we, I think we did good today. We may find the FMI so football, we got, we broke USFL news. We had all these interviews. I think we did good today. Again, once again, one thing aren't all ever guests that joined us today. Let me scroll back up to the top of the Google doc. Robert McGregor. Josh Burton with the Argos gray guy, Josh isn't. Josh is a good one. And. And then. Roy Johnson. There you go. All right. So thank you for tuning in again, subscribe to us on YouTube, also radar podcast, please do that. Do all that fun stuff. And the merch store is back up and running. I will be checking it every day to make sure if the orders are going out, because apparently it was an issue. Didn't even know it until I was made aware of it. So. Moxie cash.com is back up. Or you can go to expo show.com/merch. That's a quicker way to get right to the XFL stuff. When you don't have to read through all the other stuff that rather than read this, what are you looking at? We look at my logo. I was putting my, I was putting my switcher that there, there you go. So with that being said, one thing, everybody for listening and tune in next week. See them. All right, quick promo. And then that was good though. Yep. Lead with the USFL. We're breaking the big USFL stuff. This week on the mark cast, big USFL news. We're breaking. We're breaking that we're raking the USFL news. We have feet on the street. We have the proposed kickoff date. We have proposed TV networks. What is a national spring football league? We are answering all of those questions today with friend of the show, Roy Johnson. Also joining the show, talking with Reed is pat Steinberg. Oh, Robert McGregor stadium announcer of the Winnipeg blue bombers. And Josh Burton from the Argos, the Argos. Live captions provided by Rev.com. For 99% accurate post-meeting transcripts and captions, visit Rev.com.Yeah.[Unknown] preview. We have an FCF rant in my heart. IRL NFTs. Aren't really a thing.I a league that is not selling real things should not make fun ofanother league. That is not real right now. There's a lot of we're back to like old form. I feel like today.We've got pretty snarky read.Had a bad trip to Canada. Daniel Austin complimented us.And this was the first time in a few weeks that Reed hasn't saidanything about the BC lions. Being America's CFL team. Cause they're not. Let's let's sit in for the podcast. Okay. Sorry. I have my braces right now. It's very difficult. It's very disciplined. We have pat Steinberg here with a cfl.com. I wanted, I have some words about the CFL rather as pics. At some point during this interview, but I thank you so much for coming on. How are you doing? I'm good, man. How you doing? We're doing good. We were going to get you on earlier in the season and then things got busy. Now, what have you, we're a week 12. Now, whether you thought so far. It's been a fun season and it's been a hard year to pick. Like it has been, I just got myself over 500 on my cfl.ca picks in a week, a week, 10. And I was able to keep it there and week 11, but it's been tough to, to pick this year. Like it's been so unpredictable, especially the first half of the season. I think we're starting to see. H it's starting to become a little bit easier to differentiate Canada, the good teams from the middle of the pack to the not good teams, but. Yeah, it was tough early on. So there were a lot like that. Toronto beating Winnipeg and Ottawa winning a couple of times, and then Edmonton decided to not be a good team anymore. And like, It's just, it's been a weird year, but the unpredictability in the first half was fun. And now we're starting to see some of these playoff races and the way things are going to shake down in the final third of the season, I think it's going to be a really good end of the year here. Yeah, it's crazy. Like even just trying to do. Nazi mentioned like single game sports bed here. You have a distributed, you like fantasy. I'm like. I go okay. Vernon Adams. What was it like week three, you know? Al went to one like 45 to whatever I'm like, okay. Now they decided to be a good team. I picked that. I mean it's hard week to week to really know. I mean, I think now we're finally getting there, but it really did take a long time. It did it did. And. Part of that was a few teams had to find their way. I think Calgary is one of the better examples of a team that found their way probably Toronto as well. And, you know, yeah, there's, there's still lots of things that need to figure itself out. Like Hamilton was single handedly, the cream of the crop in 2019, they made next to no changes on their roster. But they still need to figure themselves out. And Saskatchewan still has some things to figure out there's some of the play calling questions that are there. So some of this stuff has figured itself out, but then you throw into the mix that we don't know who Hamilton's quarterback is going to be going forward. We don't know who Montreal is. Quarterback is going to be going forward. There's there's still lots more to figure itself out in this playoff mix. So it's going to be a. It's going to be a fun, final third of the year, but at the very least we've had some teams turning around and obviously Winnipeg is. It's just a different world they're playing in right now. Like nobody comes close to what they're able to do in all facets of the game. No. The episode in thumbnail this week is Stanos, you know, as Winnipeg, like I'm inevitable. I mean, there's not even, I mean, it's almost like not even, I don't want to say that for, you know, listenership and viewership. It's not even fun to watch sometimes just cause, you know, I mean, you know, America's CFL team, the BC lions are going into Winnipeg here. And I mean, I can't imagine they don't just get slaughtered, you know, especially after how they played against Calgary last week. Yeah, it's. I feel, I feel bad for anybody. Playing Winnipeg right now. Like how about Edmonton? They had, they're trying to turn their season around. They had to go back to back with the bombers. And I mean, the bombers, here's the craziest thing about what Winnipeg is doing right now is that they, they just signed a kicker that I think that you can be confident in, but since Tyler, Christina went down like that, nobody can hit a kick. Like they're talking, like there are games when they're missing three and four field goals and an extra point, and they're still winning by two and three and four position and possession. So they're stupid right now. Like the way Collaros. Is playing. They've got Willie, Jefferson and Jackson. Jeff code are on different levels right now. Adam, big hill is one of the best captains in defensive captains in the CFL. Their secondary is ridiculous and here is the scariest part. They just brought back Winston rose. Winston rose. Just that guy, that guy I named him. He only played a few seasons. I named that guy to the all decade team, even though we only played like three seasons in the decade because he's that good? Like that? There might not be a better DB in Canadian football than Winston rose and the bombers just brought him back. I don't know. I don't know, like one game playoffs. In football, anything can happen, but if the bombers are on, I don't know who, I don't know who takes it down. I really don't. Yeah. It is like the rich getting richer here where, I mean, is it, but is that, are they re recruiting those players? I mean, is this everyone just wants to play in Winnipeg? I mean, I was surprised today cause they signed. Was it Shaq Evans off the VC lions? Right. They signed Cooper. Yeah. Cooper. And I assigned him as well where you're like, okay, we're still making moves here. Like we're still building this roster out. Well, a few things. I mean, I give, I give that management group a ton of credit and the way that they have built this team, like. It started in free agency. I want to say about five or six years ago, they signed Stanley Brian from Calgary Stanley. Brian is without question may maybe the greatest left tackle in CFL history. And so they signed him. The next year they brought back. And they brought home, Andrew Harris, a Winnipeg guy, high school product from there. And so they brought back, you know, the best or one of the best running backs in the CFL. And it kind of started, it kind of went from there. They, Justin Medlocke, they brought in. Med block's not kicking this year, but that was a big part of it. And, and so they, they just have gradually started building up, building up, building up then. They signed ahead of the 19 season. They stole really Jefferson from Saskatchewan, which was huge, and that was a massive swing for them. And then a pretty savvy move when, when they go out and they bring in Zach [unknown]. I was kind of out of nowhere. The trade forum and Calero. Returned to being the MLP candidate quality player. He was in like 20 14, 20 15. So. All those things. And now Winnipeg's the place to play. They've got one of the best stadiums in the CFL. They've got one of the best groups of fans in the CFL, you know, in Canada, Winnipeg gets, we, we, we kind of make fun of it. Oh, yeah. It's a dump that type of, but it's really like it's, it's, it's a cool Prairie city. It's like a Midwest us city. It's it's industrial, but the people are fiercely proud. They love their sports teams and IgE field is one of the best people. Always talk about mosaic and Regina. The field is, is one of the best. Atmospheres that you're going to find in football. So. People want to play in Winnipeg right now. And so if your Winston rose. You come back. That's where he played before. You're like, well, yeah, of course I'll come back to win it, but I got a chance to win another great cop. And Mike, O'Shea's got this team click in and Richie hall is one of the greatest defensive minds of CFLs ever seen. Like, it's just, it really is. You said rich get richer. That's that's what the team is all about right now. Yeah. Teasing later in the episode, we have Bob McGregor coming on, right talking. And we talk about how he just, the excitement in Winnipeg and in the stadium there, and him calling the games and stuff. I mean, it really does seem like the coolest party in the world that no one else. I mean, it's not even close. I mean, it's, it's, it really is like one tier and then everyone else has multiple, multiple steps down. Well on, apparently they. They have this thing I've never been to ID field. I've been to the old stadium, which it was, it was time for, it was time for a, an upgrade, but they have this area and sometimes on TV, it looks like it's not full, but that's because all the, all the like 20 somethings go to this one area at the one end zone and they're just partying down there. So the. They're always sold out or close to sold out. And when you don't see people in the stands it's because they're all, not one area. Just ripping drinks and having fun. I want to talk about the Trevor Harris trade. And what I w was that as groundbreaking to you is it seems like, you know, we had Dave Campbell on last week trying to make sense of the Trevor, you know, With all that. And now, you know, the cm traded big monumental, Trayvon, what did you make of that? Well, I was stunned by it. Like. At CFL. I did my pre-season predictions and he was my most outstanding. I was like Trevor Harris mop. The kind of missed on that one. And, and so I, I was, even though it's been a nightmare year for the ALEKS, and even though they healthy scratch their guy, I was still stunned to see the deal get made because. That's a big time quarterback and, and I guess. I look at it as a tenure that never quite hit the mark in Edmonton. Like there were so many times. When it was that close to. Kind of fully meeting its potential or realizing its potential. Like before he got hurt in 2019. He was in the MLP, maybe leading the mop conversation. Then he got hurt, missed four games. Took him out of the MLP conversation. Cody from Gerardo was the west nominee deservedly cell, Brandon brang, Brandon Banks, and Hamilton, and ended up winning and deservedly cell. And then he comes back because there's one dynamite near flawless playoff game in Montreal. And then again, Not great against Hamilton, but you went into the off season thinking, okay, what tends a team to watch out for look it up. Good Harris. Wasn't his first year there. Seizing it's canceled. 2021 Comes around. They go out, they bring in derail Walker. They bring in James Wilder. And you're like, oh man. And Greg Ellingson, his favorite, Target's still there. You're like, okay, this, I don't know who is stopping this Alex offense. And again, it just hasn't quite hit the Martin. They have that one game Harris, I think through three incomplete passes on labor day against Calgary, he looked like. He looked like. The, he looked like. He hadn't missed a beat from 2019 and he was back to a lead form. And you're like that, that was that. Teaser of what it could be, but again, it's just like, if here is the top and just kept on getting there and falling back and it never quite got there. And then, you know, there's been a lot of stuff. There's been a lot of innuendo and what's happening behind closed doors in Edmonton and some strife in the locker room and maybe Harris being a part of it. I don't know. I'm not in that locker room. You know, we just heard the innuendo and so. It's a big move from Montreal. It certainly gives you an idea what they feel about Vernon Adams and his chances to return. So it's, I was a little stunned by it. I'm interested to see how long it takes for Harris to get into his first game with the lox. And if you're Edmonton, you're ridding yourself of a big contract, you're bringing in a pretty promising defensive end. That's 25 years old. And you're clearly looking to 20, 22 now in Edmonds and their seasons clearly done. So you've got an opportunity to move on from Harris going a different direction, and Montreal feels like they could be playing in the gray cup Kane and rightfully showing that east division. So they go out and get a guy who has played in a gray cup before. Right. I can understand why they thought about making that move. Yeah, I get that. I just don't get from Edmonton where it's. Quarterbacks or sets like low c'mon. You know, you hot commodity, right? We got to get them. We. We need you dev. Generally need to write, and then we've got to have whatever. And then, you know, it was weird enough to sit him now to. To just totally get rid of him for, you know, taro, Cornelius, which, you know, I mean, XFL. Okay, let's go here. But I mean, it hasn't really lit the world on fire, right. It doesn't, it's not like he came in. And even have like a kale of Evan's first game where it's like looking unstoppable. I mean, it just seems weird that they would just feel like they're forfeiting the house here and just moving on, like you said, the next year. It definitely. It definitely raises some question marks as to what the direction is going to be for 2022, you know? And, you know, there's been some talk is, is Brock Sunderland going to be the guy that is, is at the helm, his general manager, there is Jamie Elizondo going to be the head coach. Once again, you know, there's, these questions are out there after a. A nightmare year and it's not like it's not like right now, there is a plethora of quarterbacks knocking on the door to be starters, you know? I'm I'm curious as to what Toronto does in the off season. They've got McLeod, Bethel Thompson and Nick Arbuckle. So if Edmonton really wanted to. Look, they could, they could try going there. You know, there's the Matt Nichols. He started in Edmonton. Nate, maybe they think about going back down that road. Is not been good for Nichols and Ottawa this year. So I don't know how. Really viable and option that is, but there's, there's not a ton of options out there. Jake mayor's had a good year in Calgary. Maybe they try to pounce on their provincial rival in that respect. But I, it's not like there's anybody knocking on the door and Trevor Harris, for instance, when he got his shot in Ottawa, He was knocking on the door. He was behind Ricky Ray in Toronto's. Okay. Harris is this next guy in Arbuckle was knocking on the door in Calgary, behind bullied by Mitchell. And I know that it hasn't worked all that well. Some are for our buckle in Ottawa, but you're like, okay, he's he's that guy. He can, he can be that next starter. I don't know if there's that next guy, if I'm them, I might try and take advantage of Toronto situation. I'm a big McClard Bethel Thompson believer. And if somehow could, they could pry him away from Toronto. That'd be interesting to see and like truly give him a shot and say MBT. You're our guy. That might be an interesting way for them to go, but you know, Toronto is not thinking about that right now. They're thinking about playing for the great cup. Is he? Yeah. I love McLeod at the Toms. Right. It seems like a lot of people, you know, big fan favorite. Do you think Toronto is sold on him? Long-term or is it just like, you know, Arbuckle's not working out right now, right? Was her, it wasn't her, you know, we need somebody to play. I mean, this is not a long-term viable solution for them after this year. I mean. I think they should give it more thought of being a long-term viable conversation or option, but I don't get the feeling they will just because they have it. Right. I mean, MDT didn't even come back until. Late in the conversation this year, they went out, they, the cloud Bethel Thompson had himself. He was one of the bright spots for Toronto in 2019, and what was a generally miserable year. And they still went out and first went after Matt Nichols and, and then did the swap of Nichols for Arbuckle. So they clearly, weren't looking at him as the guy coming into this year. So. I don't know. I don't know if I see them thinking that way going into next year. And you know, if you're MBT, it's kind of just like, yeah. Okay. Well, I'll go somewhere else and I'll prove that I can play because it's all he's ever done. Like, like one of the coolest stories and one of the really cool. Examples of a journeymen that just all along the way, like where have we seen him play? We've seen him play. I've seen him play. Arena. We've seen him play spring league. We've seen him play CFL and I'm probably missing two or three stops for him. So I think there's a real chance, like. Give him an opportunity to actually be the guy and, and empower the guy. That's why I wonder if Edmonton doesn't think about doing that. Okay. And maybe it's not him. Maybe they come in somebody else, but. I just, I want, I want the cloud to get a shot somewhere where he's not always looking over his shoulder. That would be, that'd be kind of cool for him to get well, absolutely. Cause we did our, and I'm trying to remember what you said that we had our big McCloud. I think it was like week two. We did our big episode on him. And he was signed to like five or six NFL teams, like was signed to the 49ers twice. I mean, it really has been like this dog's dis. You know, journey to get wherever. And then now, like you said, to always feel like you have someone over your shoulder and not to sound like this is my ship, I'm going with a, it has to be very hard to play with that. Well, and I think, I think part of it, like, I really think that he enjoys playing with a chip on his shoulder. And why wouldn't we, because he hasn't really been believed in the entire way, but you know, even in, in 2019, I mean, it was James Franklin who was right there in the conversation and he kept on getting chances and it was always like, okay, well who's really the guy. That that may believe in. And in two years, Franklin was the guy that, you know, I think Toronto was hoping would, would take the ball and run with it. And the cloud methyl Thompson was just plan B. And I think the exact same this year, I think you don't go out and acquire and sign Nick Arbuckle, unless you think he's plan a. And I think for Toronto, Yeah, well, McCloud's probably plan B. And once again, McLeod, Bethel Thompson had been like, okay, well screw it. I'm going to show you that I'm not a plant. So I, I just be really interested to see how that guy would react and how he would play if he was planning. And if somebody empowered him and said, you're on top of our depth charts, you're going to be our guy. Let's go. I mean his numbers this year are outstanding. He deserves all of the, all of the accolades he's getting this year. I mean, he's. I think that he's done two intersections all year. His efficiency rating is, is near the top of the league. Like. Toronto is six and three. And on top of the east division and a big reason why is because of that guy. Yeah, a hundred percent. I want to talk about Hamilton. You know, Dan Evans, right. Coming back. Is there enough time for them to figure out this season or is there a re cause it's weird. Cause it's short, right? I mean, is there enough time for them to kind of get this ship righted? Yes there is. And, and a hundred percent there is, and I. I think there's a good chance that happens because right now it's pretty clear that Dane is the best option for them. They look like a very different team. When Dana Evans was quarterback before he went down. And, and obviously Wotford and Mazzoli, hasn't been able to, to pick up the same level of planets, you know, it's too bad from is only because the last time we saw him, he was the most outstanding player quality player. And he hasn't been able to find that again. But Dan Evans, I think is the best option for them. So if he comes back and it looks like the guy he was before he went down, And I think Hamilton absolutely can because they still have a significant amount of high-end weapons offensively. And that defense, like when you're talking about that defensive backfield and that defensive line, and some only Lawrence at bind. And back here, like they have the capability of being an elite CFL defense, and I know it hasn't. Totally come to fruition this year and they definitely have underachieved it four and five, but all you got to do. East division is wide open. If you're in Hamilton, all you got to do is start to find your game. Avoid being crossed over by a west division team. And the good news for them is that there's no touch. If you are crossing over from the west, you have to have a better record. So if the same team is four and five it's HBC right now, BC is, is sitting there as a four and five team tied with Hamilton. There's no tiebreaker Hamilton gets the third spot in the east, BC doesn't cross over. So Hamilton's in the driver's seat for a playoff spot. And if they, this league 14 games, 18 games, doesn't matter. This league, it is proven. It is all about peaking and finding your game. Kind of in that final two weeks of the regular season, Winnipeg proved that last year we've seen below 500 or 500 teams when the gray cup before. And it's all about when you hit your stride and when you find it. So there's plenty of time left for Hamilton. They've got five regular season games to go. There's too much talent on that team. That head coaches too good, that offensive coordinators too good. So I think they'll figure it out and there's plenty of time for them to figure it out. One team. I wish it would do better. I'm not too sure about. You know, BC lions, right? You. They seem to be on this downward spiral, right? I really can't get anything going right now, you know, got walloped by Stampeders, you know, horrendous game to watch them. I tried to go to the game. We got detained by from the border. Watched it at home, it was horrendous. Do they have enough time left, especially with the Winnipeg and everything going on there. They didn't lay across the border. Hey, what was the, what was the issue? We didn't have the card and the test. Okay. So you needed both. I didn't know. Now, not very many people I've talked to knew that you needed both. One, well, Hey, next time. You'll know. One day at one day, it will be normal. Again, crossing the. It's better to know now than when we, cause we have our Hamilton flights books. I'm far better to know on the drive, the VC. The Hamilton. It is easier to fly right now. It is way easier to fly. There's Babs. It's it's really simple to fly over the border. So I think it'll be good that anyway, I digress. I don't know. BC is a team that showed some really good promise. Early on. Michael Riley looks like himself now. Calgary did some really good work on Riley in, in this last weekend. Like they frustrated him all night long and they were getting after him, they were mixing up coverages. Two interceptions, no touchdowns and under 200 yards for Riley. Like we haven't seen that from him this year. Most of the year he's looked like the old Mike Riley. He looked like the guy that when Edmonton was leading the passing chart every single year, that's what Riley's looked like for most of the year. And I'm not really worried about him. Not really worried about that passing game. Like when, you know, losing lucky Whitehead, that was a big blow because he was a breakout superstar, but having Brian Burnham and I, I still liked that receiving group. What. Was kind of the, I don't know the, the false flag or the red herring was this defense. Their points against numbers were really good, but it was very clearly. Bend, but don't break type situation. And sometimes when you see a team give up, a lot of yards give up a lot of yards, give up a lot of yards, but not give up a lot of points. You're wondering. Okay. Is that kind of a dam that's about to burst and I feel like that's happened to their last three games, but they got absolutely pounded by Winnipeg. They got pounded by Calgary. Although cabby didn't score a lot offensively. There are some special teams in there and Renee paradise. W scored 18 of those 39 points. So it wasn't, it wasn't as if that was all on the defense, but I just. I think there's a lot of potential at the lions. I think they're significantly better than they were last year. I trust Rick Campbell as a head coach. And plus it'd be like, that's a really high-end head coach. And I think that. He'll be able to. Keep them keep them competitive here, but you know, It's going to be tough for a west division team, a fourth west division team to make the playoffs this year. It feels like for the first time, in a while. Crossover is less likely than likely. So BC is going to have to catch Saskatchewan or Calgary. I. Yeah, I, I don't feel good. I was feeling really high on this about a month ago, you know? And then it was BC loss, you know, a couple of very winnable games. See, I don't think we have much hope, I guess, Winnipeg, but I think the previous two, especially against the rough riders. No real. Excuse there. I gave her the weekend, whether we're looking at whether you excited for. For this coming weekend. To me, there's no doubt at SAS. And gallery and. That is one of the best rivalries in the CFL. Like it's funny, I'll give you a little like Canadian geography lesson, like. It sounds condescending. I don't mean. So nobody travels like sass expands, first of all, but nobody travels like Sask fans, the games in two markets, Calgary and Winnipeg. So they play Winnepeg back to back every year. That's always an awesome the, the, the labor day rematch and the labor day. Amazing atmosphere. But when SAS plays Calgary two, two times a year, one time a year, whatever it is like we're talking about half green. McMahon stadium. Like there are so many transplanted people from Saskatchewan that live in Calgary. Calgary's a really transient city. A lot of people came here for oil work and that type of stuff. So a lot of born and raised Saskatchewan I'd. Or Saskatchewan. And I don't know, one of those is correct. In in, in Alberta, in Calgary specifically. So you've got all the born and raised people from Saskatoon or Regina or prince Albert or north Battleford or wherever they're from. So they they're riders fans. They grew up as riders fans, and they live in Calgary now. And it's only like a seven hour drive from. Regina to Calgary. So then you've got, you know, these, these absolutely. Rabid fan Angela. Well, huge game in Calgary and get in our car. Let's go. There's a motel village is right by the stadium. So there's like a travel lodge and a couple of other hotels that they just make a killing. Every time the riders come to town, the Denny's on 16th avenue and a CRO child trail makes. Killing every time. So it's going to be an awesome atmosphere in Calgary. This is a massive swing game. Like the riders need this game. If they want to host a playoff game, if Calgary beats him again. That's three straight wins for Calgary over Saskatchewan. That's hard to do. And now the stamps are on the driver's seat to maybe be hosting a west semi-final against the Saskatchewan. And I'll tell you. Yes, rider's fans travel well, but there's not a home field advantage, better in the CFL than planet mosaic. And I like SAS, chances of winning over Calgary. Playing and home much better than I do on the road. So a huge game for the riders. I think this authentic needs to get some of their confidence back. Cody Fajardo is getting, it looks like Cody's getting not just one, but two, like ridiculous elite receivers, Shaq Evans, and duke Williams looked like they're going to play this week. So that is a really big element thrown into the mix. I don't think there's any doubt about it. Trey Roberson, who? Calgary design, isn't going to play this week. But cabbies beat them two in a row. And is, has really done a good job against them and been definitively the better team, I think, in those two games. So I think SAS set some of the proof. I think Cody for Giardia has got something to prove, and this is. There's a massive swing game in the west division. So that's, that's the one for me without question. Last question for you and I a. We could go on forever. I got. Courteous Paul, kill me. If this we go. Like 45 minutes. Like we did the last time we went, ah, It's the bi-week the time off we hypothesized last week is coding. Even though the man in black from Westworld ride to see, you know, are we going to be white hat, Cody blackout Cody coming back, whether we did the bi-week get him right. And there's a chance of it. And I think that he went into the bi-week kind of looking at things and saying, I need to get right. I think that this week of preparation and this week of practice, his favorite target is back. I think that the fact that Shaq Evans is back like Tony and Shaq are like two peas in a pod. And, and like, I remember I did this. This column. The Monday morning quarterback@cfl.ca and I was naming the best. Quarterback receiver do what was in the league. And, you know, I went with Harrison Ellingson and I think I went Eric Rogers and boldly of I Mitchell and Michael Riley and Brian Burnham. I left note for Gerardo and Evans. I went with my five and they were my six, but I only went five. So I think, I think it was Pajaro who read the article, said. Responded to CFL that CA said, Hey, Hey Shaq, Evans, where are we? And like that, like, so, and I, I laughed at him. Ah, good on you. So. They're pretty good duo too. So I think, I think Cody's going to be fired up to have Shaq Evans back if Shaq plays and then you get duke Williams in there too. And I know it's been a while since new explain and he's learning a new scheme, but if that guy catches fire, if that guy looks like the guy that completely dominated the league, For, for a couple seasons with, with Edmonton. Like watch out for this offense. Yeah, they still have William Powell is one of the more underrated players and consistently what he's been able to do this yet. So I, I just, I think that there's a really good chance. That SAS gets themselves. Right. And I think there's going to be a really competitive game at McMahon stadium. That's good. Yeah. Cody is a little precarious when it comes to, you know, the online, I didn't even, I tweeted about him in an article and we got blocked. So I've, I think. He is very precarious. You don't want to, you definitely don't want to write it and you can be smirking about, you know, the one coding for Jara the online. Pat, this has been great. I mean, As well worth the way. And I'm glad that we could do a mid mid-season check-in here. All right, let. Well, I'm excited for this. We have Josh burden now I want to figure it out. So you're the Ady video ops, right? For the Argos as someone that also makes a living with a camera in my hand, I would like to know what exactly you do with the organization. So I would say video is the most misunderstood position. And for most football teams, people think you work with the social media team or with the communications team. Usually when someone says video, they mean they're filming the coaching film for the games. So that would be practice and game film. You also do a lot of film acquisition. Be it. College film, other professional leagues. And then a lot of your job also involves data. And general I assistant work with the coaches. So that is what most of my daily duties end up being. So when you see the cool high videos on Twitter, that's not us. We're the ones filming the all 24 film or. All 22 of it would be a American for down football, but up here installed 24. Ah, well, that's exciting. I mean, So how it seems like a desirable job, right? Someone that wants to be involved in football, you know, in the CFL, the Argos good organization. I mean, how did all this, I, I know you're popular online, so I'm just curious to get a little bit of your story. And then I want to hear about your thoughts of the season. I don't know if I'd say I'm popular online, but. If you want to say that, share. Thank you. I mean. Yeah, it is. I think video, honestly, if, if anyone was looking to get into football and they weren't a hundred percent sure where their path would go or what their skills are best suited to, that is where you want to begin. I think it. Allows you to get your hands on the most things. You're very involved. You're right there with the coaches and players. And. It's simple to start, but it can just grow exponentially. You can add more and more things. You can always be doing more. You can always be getting better at it. And yeah, I like it. Cause I also like filming. I love being behind the camera. It's fun. The actual filming is simple, but like, I would just always be happy to watch football. So you kind of get to do what you already want to do. I think you asked how I got involved with this. I mean, I was working with the TBRI. Scam Peters from 2017 to 2019. And in the off season there, after that, after that season ended, I ended up getting intox with the Toronto Argonauts. And then ended up joining the squad here, which was great as they were. They were my favorite team as a kid. So it was very fun to get, to kind of join a group that you used to cheer for as well. Although. It's different once. You're part of it, obviously you're not a fan anymore. You're. It's your job. So it's a little more serious, obviously. Yeah. It's like the, I always say it's like the security that works at the concert. Right. They have to have their back to the performer, right. Watching the crowd. You know, you're working, it's not as much. I we're trying to figure out gray cup staff and they're like, you know, do you want to come as a fan or the media? And I'm like, well, I don't. I don't know. I might just want to watch the game. So as someone that was with Calgary, what do you make of this resurgence right now? You know, both Levi's seems to be on the man that they put a thrashing to America CFL team, you know, the BC lions last week. So what do you, what do you make of Calgary on the warpath right now? I'm not surprised at all. I mean, having worked there for a couple of years, I know that that. That team has great coaches. They've got a great system and boy, do they work hard? So it really doesn't surprise me at all to see it all coming together when the weather gets cold, which is what you always expect out of Calgary. And boy, I wouldn't want to be someone who has to face them at any point. They're they're a great team, really. Yeah. You know, they're, they're facing the Roughriders again, right at home. Roughrider seem to be on a decline right now. Ah, weather. What do you make of that? You know, that we we've talked for weeks about the Cody for jar though of it. All right. You know, we're, he's the man in black, right? We're we're. You know, throwing some teammates under the bus. What do you make of what's going on in Saskatchewan right now? I think it's just the abs and flows that you get, you know, in any season that you find you're going to run into teams who have a great game plan for you. But I think they knew that they were having some issues and they addressed that. I know that duke Williams is a massive acquisition for them and not. That's going to be really exciting to see how he works in that offense. I know Cody was. Talking about needing to make plays deep downfield on 50 50 balls. That's exactly his type of ammo. So I'm really excited to watch that game. I think from both ways, I want to see if Calgary can keep their Ron going and. I want to see what the riders look like with it. And those are both very talented teams with a great rosters from top to bottom. So like that, that is great football to me right there. Yeah. Yeah, it seems last week. It was a little, it was a little scary. Some of the games I. You know, the lions game was exciting. This weekend is a little more, I feel like we got a little more meat on the bone. Right. You know, Argos here, we're traveling. We obviously both stand McCloud, Bethel Thompson, right. You know, they, they king of the CFL. What do we make? He came out strong, struggled a little bit. Now he's back seems at the helm ready to go. Whether we making of his success now that we're seeing. I mean, I think it's all part of the process and what we've been working through all year. If you watch the first game, actually, after the Calgary victory McCloud talked about that, how this is just the first step on a journey that we would all be taken together this season. And I think for a guy like him, he. He's been through so many experiences in his career, different places, different leagues. I mean, He's got a great head on his shoulders and you just know that he's level he's always going to come through. He's calm and he's such, he's a great leader. So I'm not surprised by how he's been playing it all. I think we all knew it was there. And I mean, And he's got such a beautiful deep ball. It's hard not to want to watch that. So. Well, it's good. You know, I mean, we, we came out, we had our big standing episode and then he struggled a little bit, so it's good to see. You know, Argos obviously first in the east right now you're looking a, it seems like the momentum, it's a good time for them to be hitting their stride. Right. I mean, how are you feeling about them right now? Kind of ending. We don't have that many games left this year. No. I mean, we don't, and this is exactly when teams need to start proving who you are. I think, I think for any team, particularly in football, for teams who want to win a championship, they need to find out what their identity is late in the season. And stick to that. I mean, Football such a different sport than many others, and that it's so structured and you get to basically. You know, there's no other real sport where everything is stripped or scripted. You know what I mean by that? Right. You're calling a designed play each time. And so it's not such a free flowing game. So you need to know when the going gets tough. What, what are we good at? What can we run and know we'll execute and get those yardage. Get the plays, the points we need. So, I mean, yeah, it's. It's exactly the time that teams need to be, not just us, but all the teams in the league are looking to find their stride. They need to buy. Now you would have hoped you figured out kind of who you are and what you do well, and it's now all about refining, putting those final few wrinkles in for the opponents you expect to see. And getting ready for the playoff push. Right. Setting yourself up for the seeding of where you need to be. So. Are you, you know, and I heard, I know it's hard to divorce kind of the fan from it. I mean, I feel pretty confident in Toronto right now in that division. I mean, realistically, how are you guys, you know, evaluating the chances that you guys have. While we know that right now, we're first in the east. And what matters is taking care of our own business. We need to keep winning games. We're about to face a really good football team here on Friday, who was one game behind us. And if they should win this one, That will put them in first. So this is a critical game for us. It's a critical game for them. They're all big games now. So we like where we are. But we can't, we can't rest on our laurels. We need to keep going out and winning every week. And we actually have a big matchup coming up against America's favorites. Football team there. Next Friday, or I believe next Saturday in the BC lions, who was also a football team who might be getting a star lucky Whitehead back for that game. I mean, he's an electric player who you have to always think about. So we've got a lot of big games coming up here. There's no easy games left at all for us. You know, obviously where you guys are getting ready to face Montreal, right? The Vernon Adams and all of that, right? The Trevor Harris trade. Like any talks of any of that sort of stuff. I mean, not get into anything that you guys should be talking about or not talking about, but I mean, Obviously big shakeups on the other side of the field, right. Approaching the game this weekend. I mean, of course, right? Like it. It always depends with your game plan of what you'll do depending on the players. You're portably putting out there. But. I think we trust what we've been working forward to. We know that obviously Vernon won't be out there playing, and that's a huge loss for them. And, you know, we hope to see them get back and healthy and back to the way he was, he such an electric player. And he's so great for this league. I mean, He's great on social media, the fans love them. And I mean, What he does on the field, as well as just, it's hard not to have your jaw drops sometimes. So yeah, it changes obviously a little bit about what you're expecting and what you think they'll do, but. You know, The rest of the guys are still the same. The rest of the team out there is still the same. So does it change a little bit what they might be doing? Sure, but we know that they're going to come at us with their a game regardless. And Matthew Schiltz is a pretty great quarterback and he just seems to get better and better every time he steps on the field. So you can't take anyone lightly. I mean, that's, that's a way to lose a game. If you think that you've got to, oh, they've lost someone. So no, that's, that's not how you could ever look at it. I, this might've been, I've been. I've been busy, fighting with fan controlled football today. Online is Matthew Schiltz. Are we, is he going to be the starting quarterback this weekend? For my, I mean, I CA I would expect it to probably be him. I don't know. I mean, From what I heard. I don't. And this is just, this is obviously what I heard through public stuff is that I don't, I don't believe it's quite the turnaround fast enough to get Trevor out there in time is from what I would guess. And I would assume they'd go a shelter because he's looked, he's looked great out there. So why wouldn't you, it seems like they've got some mojo going with them and. Again, in all the times I've seen him out there. He's always been doing a good things and putting his team in positions to win games. So, yeah. I would expect it to be him probably. Yeah. I mean, that's my belief too. I just wanted to make sure I got out. I would hate to miss something on that. Yeah. Talk about coach Jones coming in, obviously seeing the defense, right. Immediate impacts, you know, It was like three defensive touchdowns. You know, that first real game. I mean, what impact does that have for what was already a good team? But I would say. You know, as much as we love McLeod defense has really carried a couple of these games here recently. I would agree with that assessment. Yeah. I think our defense has put us in positions to allow our offense and special teams to win the game late. So yeah, I think that's a good assessment. And having coach Jones come in. For someone like me, who's a very data and analytically minded person. I mean, it's perfect. I mean, he's all about that. He's all about reports. He's all about. Different ways to break down your opponents and figure out what their weaknesses are, what their strengths are, what. Same with the same, what you are doing yourself. So for me, it's been great and just the more talented football minds I can work with, the more I learn, I find that. I've worked with some pretty great people already in my five years in the CFL and just adding another person like that. It can't help. It can't hurt at all on. You should always be looking to pick up knowledge from everyone you work with because. Why would you stop ever? I mean, right. That's, it's silly to think, you know, even enough, even if you've been in the league for say 30 years, there's always someone who could give you more. And so just to work with someone like canvas it's, it's a dream come true, honestly. Yeah. What's the vibe with the team. Right. You know, coach them, where are you coming in? A lot of success going right now. Right? I mean, obviously we see with Edmonton, you know, first year coach, right. Having some struggles, I don't want to get into all the other crap right now. I mean, at least on the field. A lot of circles. It has to be a lot of excitement going on, kind of in, in the locker room. Right. I mean, on the practice field, what is the vibe like for the team? I think it's fun, but focused. I really think this group has something special going on with the. The way we've all come together. I think. Yeah. The year off really made for a lot of turnover in the league. A lot of new faces here, myself included, obviously. And I really liked the way the. It doesn't really ever feel like there are. Some people who are more important or less important than others, everyone knows their role. And everyone is just so close. I've. It really is a great group. And I mean, it comes from like, as you said, it comes from coach Jen, Woody down, but everyone else has bought into this and. We're having a good time. We enjoy each other. We enjoy working together. But as I said, focus, though, we know we've got a goal and we've got work to be done, and we're not here to enjoy ourselves. We're here to win football games and you know what? Winning football games is pretty enjoyable. So that's, that's where the fun comes out of it. Right. What do you, what do you make of this Hamilton red blacks game? Right. You know, obviously Argo's either squeaked by this high cath last time. You know, whether we. I mean, is Hamilton going to get back there? Groove here? I. You know, we have Ottawa, they've struggled as well. What are you making of that matchup? Well, I don't know if I'd say Hamilton lost their groove. I think. I mean, they did drop two games late there to do divisional opponents, but they were looking good in both those games as well. I mean, Hamilton is. An incredible roster that is really well coached. You know, that every time you face them, they're going to have something special designed just for you. So I think Hamilton will come in with everything ready because they know that they have to win. Likewise, I think Ottawa. You know, They're not having the season. I think they were, they would hope they would've had it obviously, but that doesn't mean they're just going to sit back and let other teams. Beat them like that. No one does that. Everyone's playing for their jobs. Everyone's playing for their own pride. And auto has got some great Playmakers on them, too. It's pretty tough for them to lose a guy like Dedman. He is such an incredible returner, so that's going to be hard for them, but. Hamilton can take any game lightly. No one can take games lightly, right? It's how it is late in the season. You start to think. Well on paper or. In the media, we are supposed to be better than this team. That's when you're gonna lose because no one, no, one's going to just say, oh, here, please have the w you're you're better than we are, but that's just not how it works. Right. So I know Ottawa is going to be out there playing for everything too. I mean, they're not officially eliminated at all. So why wouldn't they. They've got, they've still got a chance. Yeah. I mean, you look at Edmonton, really put the screws to when in fact last week, you know, Exactly. It should have been. I like it. You know, Dan Evans, right. Obviously coming off the injured reserve that has to obviously help. I mean, That was such a blow for them. Right. Just felt like they were kind of hitting their stride mid season. And then we have Dan Evans go down. Thoughts on him returning to the roster. I mean, obviously he can't hurt. Yeah. I mean, it's obviously going to help, but I mean, thoughts of him. And he just seems like a remarkable human, a good leader, right. Someone that's good on that team. And he thoughts on that. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, his injury occurred against, against us in the labor day rematch and you could see it from their team, how important he is to them. It was. It, it was hard to watch those guys go through that. Cause you knew how important he was to them. And it was hard to watch a guy like Dane who obviously knew that he just suffered a serious injury or. Somewhat serious injury. Let's say. So that's huge for them to get them back. I know that Mazzoli is also a great guy for them. And it really is exemplary of what the CFL is. You got to have two quarterbacks because this is a pass first league where you play a lot of you play a lot of football and a lot of passing downs. So guys are gonna get hit. Guys might get hurt and you need to have someone you can turn to, to keep season going, if or when that does occur. I think if you look at almost every team in the CFL this year has used. Well, the mud, not all of them, but the majority of them have used two quarterbacks at this point or more. So that's just, that's a critical part of roster management is to make sure you've got enough guys and having a guy like Dan, come back, you got to think that will energize them and get them going. And. I know that he and Mazzoli kind of had the same thing going last year in 2019. So I got to think they're just happy for each other's success. Right? Whenever the other one's on the field. All they're doing is chairing for them. So yeah, I think it will be huge for them. Yeah. I see you post a lot about like wardrobe choices. Am I winning streaks? Right. And like we're winning at. I want to know. That is what is the, what is the philosophy behind that? And whether we going to be doing to it, you know, Travel here. It's a monetary outcome of that. Ah, well, I mean, originally it was just started more as a joke. I mean, It started in, in Calgary. Generally, whatever game day shirts, the coaches, where it would be the, sort of the opposite of what the players wear. If they were wearing red, we wear the black or white ones. Just, just for some contrast and kind of to make it clear on the sidelines, you know, who's in what role. And it visually, it gives a nice cohesive look. So. I just started doing that here out of a habit. So for our first couple of road games, I word the. We have a blue polo and a white follow. I wore the blue line. That was nice. And then for our first home game, I wore the white one. And then as you know, we're Forno at home this year and had a loss. So maybe there's a little bit of magic in it. So I decided to end up wearing that to our last game in Hamilton, a place where as you know, The Toronto Argonauts have only one previously, one time since Tim Horton's field opened. And then we happen to have a. An incredible victory like that. You don't, I mean, anytime you got to walk off field goal to win, it's pretty special. So. We're five and O when I wear the white polo. And I think it's, it'll definitely have to make an appearance and Montreal. Can't stop that now. Yeah, you don't have that. You're packing for the chair. You don't have to pack much. You just have to pack the lucky shirt. So, yeah, exactly. Well, and you know, pants would probably be important too. Yeah. Final thoughts on the season, you know, obviously excited to be back. I've seen. Even today you talk online. Are the games exciting enough? You know, NHL is back now, the NFL. I mean, what, what do you just overall thoughts on the season? And I mean, I think we're just happy that everything exists right. I think at the end of the day, but, you know, especially for a winning franchise right now, it has to feel good. But just thoughts, general CFL, you know, 20, 21 thoughts. Well, yeah, I'm first and foremost, just so happy the league is back and we're playing football again. I've been a lifetime CFL fan. It means so much to me and so much to so many people in this country. As far as people saying that games aren't exciting enough. I mean, I'm. I guess I just have to disagree with that. I have seen so many late game victories, so many late game. Big plays being made. But I think the difference this year is it seems like this is just a year where the defenses are probably having a bit more control. I think most people are used to watching the CFL when it's a wide open, all offense all the time game. And there's a lot of really talented, defensive and defensive coordinators in the league right now. And I think that currently, and an often sports stole like that cyclical where. There'll be a lot of minds or strategies that are working on one side of the ball. And then the other side of just so right now, we definitely have a lot of strength in the defenses, in the CFL. Not that the offense has don't look good either, but. Yeah, I mean, For people who are hoping that every game would have 70 to 80 combined points, that hasn't been what we've gotten this year, but. I just checked the stats recently. I think it's about 58 or 59% of games are currently this season being decided in the final three minutes. And the average margin of victory is around seven points. So one score games to me in a football game. If it ends in one of the two or ideally both a one score game where the final, you know, the lead is changing or tied in the final three minutes. What more could you ask for. That's that's, that's what football is. And that's why I think. At least for me, that's what keeps it for me. The sport that I can't. Can't stop watching is that there's no other game that seems to have late game magic like that. It almost seems like scripted almost at times you go, who would believe this is occurring, but it just happens over and over in this sport. And I'm sure I don't need to tell you that you, you know that too. Well, yeah, I mean, I have to walk out feel good. It's just, you know, CFL is at a disadvantage, right? With the number of games each week. You know, you're going to have stinkers, you have stinkers in every league. Right. You know, I mean, the crackin got blown out last night and NHS. And I get it. It just happens. It's just, there's a lot more spotlight when there's only three games or four games a weekend. You're going to have dogs on that. This has been great. I'm so glad, you know, we're, we're working our way into the Argos organization. Paul, my co-host is an Argonaut span, so we will be excited. You know, hopefully they cheer you guys on, you know, in the gray cup. I think I'm in the east sail. Thank you so much again for taking the time to come on today. Really appreciate it. And I thank you very much. Read. I'm glad to join you and pull together. Yeah, a safe and safe travels. Right? You guys. Yes, that's right. What Optimo to Montreal. So thank you for that. Thank you. Yeah. but we'll go with Bob because that's what the stadium folks know. So. Okay. We have Robert McGregor here with the Winnipeg blue bombers. I was thinking about this. I don't know if I like you very much right now. I just, I'm going to paint the picture. I, you know, you're the stadium announcer. You know, for the blue bombers. I just traveled to Vegas last week for the crackin home opener. Yeah, we lost terribly was. And the announcer the whole time, you know, I mean, just screaming, you know, really made it hard on the guys. And now I feel like American CFL team, you know, the VC lions are traveling the Winnipeg. And I think that you're going to give them a hard time as well. How are you doing, sir? I'm doing great. Thanks. Thanks for asking. You know, Going into any stadium is like going into a lions, Dan, because the crowd is. You know, for the most part. All with the hometown team. The stadium announcers are supposed to be neutral, but they're not necessarily neutral. Of course are going to scream louder when there's a. Home team touchdown, but you know, all in all, I think that every stadium and every arena is kind of the same. You're, you're, you're much more jacked for the crowd because you're playing to the crowd. Right. Yeah, I just, you know, as you know, I'm, you know, we're home. You know, Seahawks, Mariners. I mean, very rarely am I traveling like too? To a really hot that I was like, this is like palpable. You know, the. Just the frenzy. I mean, he was very cool and I imagined that the Winnipeg games have to be. With such a successful team right now. I mean, they have to be just off the charts, right? They are. We actually had a competition a couple of years ago where they brought in meters and we're checking the sound at different points across the league. And it came down to sort of who's the loudest fans. Is it. Is it the rider fans and Saskatchewan, or is it the bomber fans or. And, and we actually were up like around, I think it was one point. Oh eight. Or something or a hundred, 108 decibels, I think at one point, which is a bar. It's a boat like sitting next to a jet airplane. I heard there was some wasn't there some floozy math with that. I mean, I've heard both sides cause I've heard. The Roughriders too. I mean, is that, is that a scientific fact that when the Vegas allowed to Sam face. So both meters were taken rate at midfield. Just outside of the announce booth for tea. So. It's as close to apples to apples comparison as you could possibly get, but no, it's not scientific. You'd really have to have mikes all the way around and you'd have to be. Go sensing sort of a cumulative amount. I don't even know if that's even possible. Right. But. The barber fence. Yeah, well, I mean, but that's the thing is, you know, I mean, we've been tracking for a couple of weeks now, you know, frustrations in Saskatchewan, right. And, you know, call. Jara though. And all that staff and him yelling, you know, we called him the man in the black hat last week on the podcast. And it does really seem like Winnipeg is taking that mantle as the most diehard. You know, that the team you want to be with, I mean, what, I mean, what is it like just being a part of that organization right now? So I got to say this. I'm the old guy here. So I go back. I can remember games with Tom Wilkinson and Warren moon and Ron Lancaster. I haven't seen a team. That is as well-rounded as this one, a pig blue bomber team in 2021. I really have not seen anything like it. It's it's right to watch. But it's, it's almost superhero status. Like it's, these guys are doing stuff that you just not seen before in pro sports. I mean, they're, outscoring. All of the Ripolin by two to one. And so, and, you know, fourth quarters. Given up six points, all your 10 games. Yeah. It's almost at the point where it's now. What do you even say to that? Right? It's like, whoa. Yeah, I it's it's I, you know, when we had the lions was. We, you know, two weeks ago, whatever, you know, when they played the lions. Yeah. It's like, it's almost like fun to watch. Cause you know, like, and then the, you know, obviously this week again, I'm like, well, this is, I mean, this is going to be a disaster. You know, I mean, going in, I mean, if we. It could be. But keep in mind in April, it's like the, any given Sunday type of thing, the BC lions are not a poor team. The lions are as good as I think, you know, at least four or five other teams in this league. And all it takes is for the bombers to come out and just be a little bit off. And the lions to come on really strong in this game could go the other way. There's no. You can never just have a guarantee, even with the team as strong as the bombers, they going to come out with, they got to play hard every down, every quarter. Every game. And in so far they've done that, but that's not to say that they can't lose. They've already lost once this year, the Toronto, so they can lose. The lions are, are. Why is there a really good on defense when they put their minds to it? So if they can, if they can put that kind of effort in for. For four quarters. This could be an interesting game for sure. Yeah. So we, the plan had been, we were going to the game last week in NBC. I got detained at the border because I didn't, we didn't know you needed both of your card and the negative task. And so, you know, I ended up watching the game from my mom's living room and I will say they, goodness, I was not at that stadium because it would have been, I, I spat of depression. I. You said, you know, The lions have to want to win. I couldn't imagine coming off of 15 days off and looking worse than they did last Saturday. No. Absolutely. And part of that is. You know, That's something that almost every team worries about coming out of a bi-week or the guy's going to be sharp, or are they going to be kind of flawed? And I think for, for the lions, they were, they came out flop. But there were a team that, you know, can bounce back and, you know, Riley's got his, his struggles, but the, the lions. You know, I wouldn't count them out. They, they, they still have that ability to, to bounce back. And they have at other points during the season. And the previous seasons as well. So. I can recall more than a couple of seasons where the BC lions, how do weak. First half of the season and then started coming on strong and, and got into the playoffs. And made some moves. So. We'll we'll we'll stop to see right. Talk about, you know, game day experience, right? I mean, it's been different this year, obviously all the restrictions and everything when they pay came out really strong. Right. Keep everyone safe right away. Have we gotten back to just the energy levels and the excitement and stuff in, in the stadiums with everything going on. I mean, what's the season been like that way? So 2019 ended. At that point, we had no idea what was ahead. Right. In 2020, we had our great cup celebrations here down. Down through the main part of downtown and out to the forks. And everyone went away celebrating. You know, it was a great season, right? 2020 Hits the season's canceled. There were a lot of bomber fans that, you know, were really missing football by the time it came back and it came back a little late this year. But it once, once we get the green light to go ahead. They had this scrambled to get together a schedule that would hold 14. The teams are 14 games for all the teams, all nine teams. And that first game back was electrifying. We had a full house at. At IgG field. And you could, I mean, you could feel it and I'm kind of disconnected a little bit from the fans cause I'm up in the press box area. And I got a big wide open window, but I don't get that same connection that I felt as a fan sitting in the stands next to all these electrified people. Right. But it felt like a play off and it was just, it was loud. It was crazy. Everyone was celebrating. And when the, the gray cup banner was unveiled. I, I would. Guesstimate that there probably wasn't the dry eye in the house. It was just that emotional. It was, it was, it was amazing. It's just interesting to me, you know, someone covering these leagues and launching the NFL games and watching CFL games and. How. The best parts of the CFL rider, how connected the fan base really is. Right. And feeling like, you know, we're a part of that journey, right? I mean, I've only been covering this thing for, you know, Drop in the bucket, right. For the lifetime of the CFL. But you know, the BC lions ever went to the gray cup, you know, I would be, you get emotionally invested in this. I mean, it's the best part of the league. Why, what is it about that that draws that from these fans? Wow. You know, that's, that's a great question. I, I'm just not sure that I can put that into, you know, 10, 15 words. And try to describe it. I, the problem with. The CFL is the, they don't get the same kind of attention that you see south of the border with the NFL. It's a totally different game. It looks the same, but it's totally different. Right? And the fans I think are. They're more attached. So the game is it as a, as a group. So, you know, sure. You're going to cheer for the Saskatchewan Roughriders are going to cheer for the Winnipeg blue bombers or the BC lions, but you still care about the rest of the league. Right. And that's, I think what separates us from most of the other sports. Here in Winnipeg, we get the Winnipeg jets. You're a jets fan. You know, really care about anything going on. So the, the border, right, like Tampa bay is Tampa bay. The only time I worry about cat bay is when would. [Unknown] right. So it's a different, it's a different field. It's a different kind of a fan experience for sure. I'm trying to figure out what's next for Winnepeg, you know, here. Okay. Hamilton's the big you. Whatever they knock him down. Right? Rough riders to big. You know, they've beat them now. I mean, I just, I'm trying to figure out what is next. For a challenge for them. I mean, they, you know, they just signed right. Sergio Castillo. Right. That was the big, I guess we can talk about that too, but you know, it just seems like they're putting all the pieces together. I don't know. I mean, I don't want to say it's boring, right? Because we want that. We want the viewership and we want the listenership, but. I mean, what is next? What's on the docket here. So. I will say, you know, at the end of 2019, they were referring to the top three guys at the. The Winnipeg blue bombers as the Canadian mafia. Right. So you had micro Shay and Kyle Walters. And Wade Miller and yeah, they were putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. And it paid off. Right. They got the great cop. But this year, You know, there was a one-year lull where nothing was happening. And there were a lot of key pieces to our team that went away. And, you know, They retired or they moved on. One of the biggest pieces I think you were started to refer to is Justin Medlocke. So when you lose a kicker of that magnitude, It really changes the dynamics of the team. And we had a few holes to fill also with the DVS. But they managed to fill all those holes. Right. The only whole while I think what is the place kicking? And that's nothing to say that like, yo we're, mourtada, wasn't pulling their weight. They were, but. They're not there, right? They're not at the Justin Medlocke level just yet. And that might take another year or two for them to get there. But in the meantime, we need a kicker and we need somebody that, that. That finishes off everything that we got. Offense, defense, special teams. And Sergio played for the barbers back in. In 2015. Any any did? Well, I mean, he came in late in the season, but he, but he did well. For a kicker who is still pretty new. Right. I think you've got signed in the NFL, but he'd never actually played the down. And then he came up here and he was able to do some kicking, probably would have been our kicker going forward if it weren't for the fact that Medlocke became available in 2016. So. You know, that's, that's what it is. I think Sergio has shown him that he can do what he does. And so now he's back with the bombers and he's excited about it. And the team is probably won't see him play until sometime in November. We'll be playing for this game, coming up with BC, but by the same token, You know, more title has not been that bad. I mean, he missed one field goal, right? He was four or five in the last game. So he's figured out what was going wrong with this technique. But yeah, it pays to have a solid checker. If you're going to. If you're going to go all the way, right. Oh, yeah. And I mean that, you know, you. Heaven forbid we get down to, you know, the last second, whatever. I mean, you just, how many games are won in loss? You. We cover a fan controlled football and they have no place kicking at all. Right. It's and. They go with. EO, Kiggins boring. I'm like, how can you say that? When you know, we have the Jaguars, right. You know, break a 20 week losing streak with two, you know, two back to back 50 plus. Our field goes by this kid that just got signed, you know, the week I'm like, I just can't imagine you not. So yeah, it's like that one c***k in the armor that you don't want to have for when and pay going. And, and it's cool too. Cause you know, Sergio spend time in the XFL. I mean, our listenership is excited for that as well. Right. I think it's cool when. The leagues and players can go between, and it just adds to people that really are invested and care about their story. Right. Yep. No, absolutely. And I will say this, you know, you get down to the playoffs. You've had a 14 game season. That means that whoever you face in the playoffs has 14 games worth of tape on you. So you may have beaten them well, during the season. But come play off time. They've had an opportunity to really prepare for that playoff game. And it's you were die, right? Like you either win that game or you don't. And many, many times the top tiered team has been knocked off by a second or third place team. Simply because they were better prepared. Then the guys who should've won. So. Playoff time is a completely different. Game. And, and at this point in time, You know, I think. There is at least five teams out there that are capable of going all the way to the gray cup and winning. Assuming, you know, we're just, I kind of assume you Winnipeg, right? It takes the last. Who, who do you see? You know, the Argos are coming on strong right now, right? I mean, I'm glad that McCloud got his, you know, second or third shot when. You know, now he's kind of leading the health. Is it Toronto's race in the east food that we see on the other side? I don't count out Hamilton at this point. I mean, those two teams together are pretty pretty neck and neck. If you look at the S the points for, to gain. Toronto is actually let more points games than they have for, so. You know, I'm not a huge stats guy, but I just know from watching those two teams, they're so close. This could really be a matter of who comes out of the east. It's either Toronto or Hamilton for sure. Are you. W when we comes to the great cop, right. You know, Hamilton has seen, how does that work in terms of. Day of stuff's there, right? Like, do you mean. Pigs in it. Do we get to go? Do you get to do some work there? How does that work? I'd love to do that. No, the way, the way it works is if you're the stadium announcer for that venue, then you're at that venue. So I've called a couple of great cop games in Winnipeg, but what a pig wasn't playing. So. Then you really have to be neutral. You know, cause it's exciting. I mean, you have to feel. Yeah. It's like your home, right? It's like I own this building and then you're coming in here. Yeah. Totally. I can't even really, I mean, I've tried to explain it many times and I. And it's. I guess this is the best way I can do it. So this is, this is my 25th year. We started 97 with the barbers. In the beginning, it was really just kind of announcing and that's, that's really all I was doing. Right. Like, Okay. It was. You know, whoever ran the ball six yards at second and seven or Y whatever it was. But what came to happen is that you almost become almost the Maestro, like a conductor. And you can get the crowd into it. But if you're always up here, you're always up at the high point, you're going to lose everybody because it's like, why is he so excited? It was only a one-year run. Right. So you have to find a way to work the crowd and kind of build to a crescendo and then let it come back down a little bit and then go again and then come. If you don't do that, the crowd's not really in sync with what. The rest of them are around the stadium. And that's why it's hard to explain, but it's, but it's. When all those things are going at the same time, the crowd is all into it. I'm into what the music guys into what the audio guys into our producer is into it. And then I also have a, an announcer who is, you know, reading all the spots and, and she gets as excited as everybody else, too. Right. So. It's a, it's a real team effort. That's happening up in the production booth that coincides with what's happening with the, with the audience and it, and it's just, it's a really symbiotic relationship, which is it's really cool. I, I, I CA I've never experienced it. I've I've done standup comedy. I've done. I was a news anchor and a sports anchor. I. I've done reporting. I've. I've done am seeing work, but I've never felt this. This is just something really unique. Yeah. Well, and especially where, you know, like, I mean, we talking to the CFL, you know, trying to drive the gear. At gates, trying to draw the crowds. And maybe it's just. Maybe he says part of. I have been off. You know, Not attending these things. For the last couple of years, but like I say, you're going to that hockey game. You, do you feel like you're part of this show? Right. And I think that's a good thing, you know, Vegas does in general. And obviously, you know, you're part of that, like you said, it's in my show, you're playing the crowd, getting them into it, building that it's, it's what, it's why you don't watch it on TV, right? I mean, you, you go to the game to be a part of the game. No. Absolutely. And, and I got to say that in 97, when I started. This would have been at the old stadium and candidates. That field. Was pretty much just 110 yards. The end zones. We had a little bit of north end seating, but it was primarily east and west side. Wasn't the bowl like it is now. We didn't even have ribbon tape around. So there was no real graphic, anything happening back in 1997. And we didn't have any big screens on either side of the stadium either. So all it really was, was music and my voice. Which should be pretty boring for an audience, right. But what happened is in 1999. So two years later we held the Pan-Am games in Winnipeg. And as part of that, some money was set aside to put up a big jumbotron type screen down at one end of the stadium. So we finally had video, right? So now we actually had a couple of cameras out on the field and we were starting to build that atmosphere and build that. As you said, sort of that. That stadium feel that you just can't get when you're watching it on TV, right? And then we move into the new stadium in 2013. And man, like we've got everything that you could think of. To, to create an atmosphere or to create a feel that. Is. 10 Times better than watching it on TV. Absolutely. And, and most of the fans now are, are almost reluctant to sit in their seats because we've got a Concourse area that goes all the way around. You can watch the game from the Concourse and it's a social event, right. It's a, yeah, it's an experience. If you have not been to a game. You're totally missing out on what, what, what it really means to be a fan of. Well, I, this is so great. I could, I could talk to you all day. I that I even so grateful. You know, with your time and coming on. Whether you looking for this weekend in terms of the matchup. And kind of any other thoughts on the season before we let you go? So for the C this season, I will start with that. I, I expect that the bombers will go all the way to the gray cup. But I'm not holding my breath on that one because stranger things have happened. This is what makes the CFL so exciting. Right? Is that a team can be really dominant. For the regular season and then they can start to sputter in the, in the playoffs, as they said, because teams now have a lot of tape to watch and, and prepare for right. And it just as an example, just to go back for a second. So we, we ended up playing the Elks three times. And Edmonton didn't do so well on the first game, they played a little bit stronger in the second game. And in the third game, there were a lot of what a pig fans true in their fingernails come the fourth quarter because it was tied at the end of the three, right. 16, 16. So the, the Elks have figured out. Some way to get pressure on Collaros. That's what I saw. I saw a team that was figuring out the pass rush. And doing a pretty good job of containing the run. Until the fourth quarter. So if other teams are seeing that. Right. Cause they get to see all those games too. They may be able to figure out a way to dampen the danger of our offens and to do some damage on or defense by picking some holes. And so. From a season standpoint. You know, it's really important for both the offense and defense play, the game they play. And Joel, let the other guys take advantage of, of mistakes because you know what. Football is a game of mistakes, right? It's a chess game. And if you make the wrong move, you're going to pay. Sometimes you only pay a little bit. Sometimes you pay a lot. And I get that. There's also, you know, from a defensive standpoint, Sometimes you got to give up a pass play. So that the read for the quarterback is actually the wrong read. And later they'll step in front of that ball and they'll take it the other way. Right. So, so I get that. You gotta sometimes force mistakes. On the other side and sometimes you got to give up something. In order to get it later. But. I would say for the most part. If the bombers keep playing the way they been playing and, and man, they, they do their prep work too. Right. I don't think there's a team that can stop them this year. As far as this game coming up with the lions on Saturday. I again, I just think it's, you know, you do your prep work, go up there and play the game quarter by quarter. Don't think about the rest of the season. Don't even think about next week. She has to think about taming these lions, right? So that's, that's the, that's the play. I think as far as we go. Well, just. Just maybe this weekend, you know, when they're up like 36 to five against every, whatever against the line. Just, you know, if the lions have a good, you know, rally's got a good round or so I'm just giving the lender like, like a Riley for nine yards. Just give him a little. Don't don't be too hard on the lines this week and maybe give them a little boost. And then some of the announcing that'll be good for us. It's a little lot. Pat on the back. So. Bob, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate connecting and that I'm sure you know, your whole. We going to be a successful rest of the season. on their behalf. Yes. Okay. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Well, we'll get going here. I appreciate you coming on. Well, we have Roy as Johnson here of aol.com. I just listened to a wonderful 20 minute chat you guys did about this, and I'm excited because I feel like you have a really good understanding of kind of all the businessy stuff that's going on with this and the big deep dive into this USFL in Birmingham. Why don't we recap first off, what is the latest in terms of this? We we've called it a, an agreement of an agreement. To, to start moving all of these things, going into the U Birmingham. Sure. Well earlier this week. Fox. As owners of something called the national spring football league. And the Birmingham Jefferson county civic center, which is the entity that would host the games. Pre-taped protective stadium. Came to a memorandum of understanding. That lays out a lot of details about what an agreement and ultimate agreement would be, but it's a non-binding agreement. And it lays the groundwork for now negotiating and working towards a binding agreement. Fox has said that it wants to try to reach an agreement sooner rather than later, ideally by the end of this week, which might be a bit of a challenge, but, you know, with their schedule, And the needs that they have, we're creating this bubble. They certainly have the right to say, look, we need to know sooner rather than later, so they can go to plan B if necessary. Yeah. I mean, listen to your chat. It seems like. In terms of, and we were talking about this before we recorded, you know, the concerns that spring football fans have versus the concerns that the municipality of Birmingham, Alabama has, are quite different in terms of, you know, we care about, okay, when is this kicking off? You know, what's the schedule, whether the broadcast partners, where you guys have actual feasible questions, you know, who is paying for this? You know, how are we housing all these players? You know, how are we feeding all these players? Are you sensing any real blow back now that some of these numbers and plans have come out. Blow back is a pretty big word. I think everyone is doing their due diligence. There are a lot of moving. Cart's here. And if you allow me to kind of set the landscape, so the proposal is that the USFL would play a 12 week season, including playoffs all here in Birmingham. And what that means is eighteens would be playing their games would be, I think it's 40, 40 games. And then three playoff games. They would be broadcast on either. Fox our NBC. R. Some of their affiliated cable networks and this agreement. Actually contains the details of which networks the game, each game would be. Broadcast on Fox sports one. USA. What else peacock is also mentioned here. So the games would be spread out over all of these. Networks. And so. The Cola. The who pays or that. The Fox wants to stadium use for free. Okay. Cause they're bringing almost 800 people here and I'm going to fill up over 40,000 room nights, which the local convention and visitors bureau has projected an economic income of $15 million on the area. Just based on them. Being here. So ultimately then who pays the cost? What is the cost? For the U S of belt to do this in terms of just stadium operations, you've got to open the doors. You got to sell tickets, you gotta clean it up. There's wear and tear on the fields. So what does that cost and then who pays for it? The entities that will probably have to chip in. Include the city of Birmingham. Jefferson county, which of course we're Birmingham exists. And, and possibly the convention and visitors bureau, because they're going to benefit obviously from them being here. And maybe the private sector, maybe even protective, which is a large company here that has the naming rights for the stadium. Maybe they'll kick in a little bit too. So it's almost like you got this bunch of people around the table. What is the number that they need to reach? Is it, is it 4 million? Is it five main? Is it 3 million? And whatever it is, who's going to chip in what you know, there's no question. There's a major benefit here in terms of just tax revenue. You know, every, every meal, these people buy every hotel room, everything they do for the 12 weeks. Generates new taxes that were really like manna from heaven. It's like unexpected taxes. There are costs that go with it and is taxpayer dollars. So everybody's doing their due diligence and they're all sitting around a poker table. Trying to figure it out. Who's who's in for what? And how do they get to that number? I will tell you, you walking around with the, with the proposed, you know, networks in times in games. A lot of people would find you on the street and tackle you for that. A lot of our listeners. Because that was interesting to us when that came out. Right. Cause we, they always, the assumption had been. You know, we've followed this from the spring league last year, the bubble season in Fox. It was in Indianapolis and then Houston. Right? They kind of have the two bubbles seasons, but all the games are on Fox. It's interesting that all this has come out games on NBC, like you said, peacock. What, what percentage of that is that a good mix on other networks from, from looking through all that? Without getting into exact numbers. I believe about 30 of the 40 games, maybe a little, maybe fewer we'll either be on Fox, our, our NBC. So most of the games. We'll be broadcast on the major networks, but I see. I see USA down for an hour. Just count a one, two. Three four by five, six days peacock. I see three, four Fs one. I see a 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, maybe eight. So, you know, I mean, There's a balance there. So I was then maybe 25 to 30 on, on Fox. Our NBC NBC. I see. For. 5 6, 7. Eight nine. 10 And then a Fox. Several as well. So, you know, again, without getting into the exact numbers, it looks like a pretty good balance. At least AF would be on Fox or NBC with the other spread out over those other networks. I mentioned USA, Fox sports, one and peacock. And this is proposed. I mean, this is a pro you know, this isn't. Absolutely. And then in terms of a proposed timeline, whether we looking at. Well again, if they want to play the first game, I mean, the first game in this understanding is scheduled for Friday, April 15th. So, if you, if you back that out, you're going to have to be, be here. You know, by early next year. So this is a, this is a big entity. So I imagined that they, and if, if it's not going to happen in Birmingham, they're going to want to know. Again sooner rather than later. I think this might stretch to the end of the month, but that might. That might be about as far as it could go before the, the national spring football league. I E Fox. We'll have to go to it's plan B and, and that would be a pretty significant, in my opinion. Blow for Birmingham for Jefferson county. Because I believe that this. Would generate a lot of, not just income for the city, but just be a, a great thing for this new stadium to showcase it. You. The city invested in this. A lot of people, the state, the city, the county invested in the stadium. And already it is attracting something that the city would not have been able to track the track. Without protective stadiums. So just to give you a reader, some you're listening to some background protect those stadium. Literally just opened less than a month ago. The only been two games. Played there. It was, it was controversial. Something that the city has been trying to do for 30 years and finally was able to do. And so. But the fact that it was being done, you know, I heard that the head of Fox is literally watching the construction camp and was just fascinated by this new shiny toy. That a city like Birmingham was creating. So it clearly has been a magnet already for interest, not just from the USFL, but from concerts and other, other types of sports advanced that otherwise might not have thought about coming to Birmingham. What is your understanding of what is the national spring football league entity? What, because we've, and I know that we talked off camera. We don't need to get into all the, you know, the trademark legalees, but a. I guess. What is, what is your understanding of what that is? So my understanding is that the national spring football league. Is an entity. That is mostly owned by Fox. And as other owners, I think your listeners know, I think you, you talked about the person that you believe that, you know, was somebody who helped drive this deal to get box involved. My understanding is that they've invested $150 million into this entity to gather all of the trademarks and be able to launch this with the eight teams, including. The Birmingham stallions, which is that a lot of people excited around here because the stallions were part of the original Ana. USFL that played the mills. Three seasons. So my understanding is that is an entity primarily owned by Fox and it allows box two. Do this a little bit differently. I've tried to get people to look at this different from other leagues. You know, other leagues, the teams are all owned by people. They're dependent on ticket sales. They're dependent on local sponsorship in order to drive profitability, to be able to pay for all their costs. This is very different. This is a programming play for Vox, so they there's almost like a game store. So you look at this like a game show, they're creating a game. So. They're going to try to fill the house with, with cheap tickets, giveaway tickets, just so it looks good. And, and, but in terms of sponsorship and commercial time, they're making their money on that end and it's going to be national sponsors, really not local. Sponsors, I don't, I don't get the sense that they're going to go too much into the local market of Birmingham and compete with entities like the Birmingham Legion, which is a soccer team here. You know, the, the Birmingham barons, the AA baseball team for sponsorship. No, they're just going to drop it here. Show these games on their networks, make their money on advertising and get eyeballs eyeballs that are hungry for football. As you know, you know, there, there is an unquenchable thirst. For football around the nation, if not around the world. And so that's the idea that they're not dependent on ticket sales or local local revenue, local sponsorship. This is a pure programming play. That will allow them to attract eyeballs in the spring and generate revenue off of advertising and those and those eyeballs. A quick question and I have a bigger follow-up what's the seating capacity of the stadium there. 40 Plus thousand. I'll look it up, but you can go to the next question, but I'll look it up while we're, while we're talking. Yeah. I mean, that sounded right. I mean, Exactly. Just rough. When you're talking. Yeah. So. Because there's always an, you know, There's a Brian Woods question, right. You know, negotiating with Fox, you say primarily owned. By Fox, is it entirely owned by Fox? Do you. Do we know that relationship? I don't know that relationship and, and would only be only be guessing. In order to say that I imagined that. Brian Woods has been part of it that he might still own it, own a portion of it. But again, that would be totally pure speculation, but there's no question that this is a, this is a Fox Fox sports play. Has that name been brought up? To you before I've started talking about. Only in my own research. Did I see the name? So it wasn't brought up to me by any of the local entities that are part of the negotiation. So I, what was it the first time I heard it when I heard it on your, on your show, but I'm not familiar with him at all. Okay. The there's been a question on. The amount of money being spent. Right. I had seen, I had seen 200 million, I believe more like you've said it's a 1 50, 50 a year, right. For a, for a three-year. Questions about. Okay. Well, you know, if the XFL had, when Vincent man did the XFL, Asher, you know, if he spent 200 million that the da. You know, what is 50 million? And, you know, we've been trying to temper our listeners expectations of. You know, this could be connected to the spring league, right. Which was Brian Woods, his previous venture or not. I still feel like it's going to very much look and feel like that. And 18 bubble season. Different names, perhaps right before we had names like the job stirs the blues, right? I mean, now you might call them the stallions or the Maulers, but you know, 50 million does seem sufficient in terms of, of launching that sort of bubble season, not in eight cities, right? In one city. Are you in terms of the money being invested, whether your thoughts on, on that proposed budget and then, then eventually trying to raise more money. I would imagine when they're moving to the cities and bringing in. Investors for those cities. You know, having being somebody and, and your, your viewers may not know. I covered sports for 40 years was splits illustrated in the New York times. So I've been deeply involved. In the industry for, for a while. And as they all know, these spring leads have been tough because they've been based on that basic formula where you gotta drive fannies in the seats as it were, you got to. Do I have local sponsorship. And they just haven't generated enough to keep even these richest guys from saying, you know what. I've I've had enough. This is very different. Again, it's an entity. Fox sports, making an investment. And the bubble is only the first year. My understanding is that the second and third years it will go. They will go back to a more traditional model and have teams in eight cities, including Birmingham. And they'll have local ownership, but it won't be the franchise is a little still, everything will still be owned. By Fox. So I think. They're going to learn a lot this year that the, the financial model this year will be a lot different. Then it will be in year two and year three, because now you're talking about. Having to pay likely to be in stadiums. You're talking about. Perhaps local ownership. Trying to get local sponsorship. So it's almost like they've got to have two models. They've got to have a model for the bubble season and then a model for years, two and three right now. I think they're not thinking about two or three. They're just trying to get to one. And then through one. And again, this, this idea was created. At a time during the pandemic and modeled after the NBA, blah, blah. They don't have to do it this way. But the idea is intriguing to them because it may actually save them. The money. And that first year, and Birmingham is not a bad place to be in the spring. The cost of living here is much cheaper, so they get a better idea of controlling costs back. Just bringing everyone to one. One place one entity. And again, it's a different model than two or three, but it'll give a pretty good idea of what their run rate is going to be to operate going forward. It gives them another year to really figure out the eighteens and eight cities model. Yeah. That's certainly something people don't want to hear. With the XFL postponing, the 2023. I think a lot of people looked at this launching in 2022. Filling that gap, right of, okay. Well, we're getting in, you know, the XFL is going to push back, like we're going to have this. And, and I do, like you said, I think that this is going to be a test season, right. To see how far. I just, I don't know. When we had the spring league, it was, you know, like I said, we hadn't, you know, the jouster. Those are the, you know, the alphas, whatever they see names, you know, very little marketing, very little expectations. And they would get, you know, 400,000 viewers a game and people would go well, that's great because you know, who cares about the team purple versus team blue. When you bring in these legacy names, you know, the lineage names, the, all the baggies with the USFL. I just, I worry that they're setting up unrealistic. And then I see numbers quoted that they're expecting like 1.4 million viewers. Right. And I think those are numbers that Fox brought. I mean, how realistic knowing that this spring league last year in Indianapolis drew 400,000 viewers on a good day on Saturday on prime Fox. To get 1.4. I, I just, I worry about those numbers being a little inflated. Oh, absolutely. There's no question that, you know, they may be being a little aggressive in those. In those projections and we'll just have to wait and see. If you're smart about creating your, your teams. I think one of the things that has been learned in the last few years is, you know, Lily's locally. If you populate your teams and here you are in Alabama, how many great. Former college players are there, here that aren't playing in one of these other leagues that you kind of populate. Here. And it may not make much to, might not mean much to television viewers. But if you've got players from Alabama a and M Alabama, I'm a state. You obviously have Auburn. You got Troy, you got you. At university of Alabama, you got to UAB, a lot of players. Aren't in the NFL. If you start to populate your team with, with alumns from those schools, you might draw pretty good. A sizable audience here locally, too. Now that revenue won't go to a Fox, that ticket revenue will go to the BGACDC. But I just think it's just a, you know, it's another way to generate interest in your team. And again, if there's more people in the stands, I think that'll be reflective of more eyeballs. In front of their televisions as well. Do you have any thoughts on previous USFL? I mean, knowing the history of that and I mean, do you, I don't know if you have any, any former knowledge of that at all. No, I didn't really cover that. I wasn't, I wasn't covering football at the time. I was more covering the, the NBA. Look, I, I, I applaud any of these efforts to try to capitalize on the unquenchable thirst of football fans in the spring. I mean, clearly. Nothing has been sustainable. To this, to this point. And so I'm always intrigued when somebody else thinks they have a, a better way to, to, to make this sauce. So Hey is, is, is not my money. So have at it, I think if there's any model that can work, it is this one where the entities are, are owned by a television station because that's also been another challenge is getting a television contract, most sports, make most of their money. With a television deal. So if, if the league is owned separately and dependent on getting a television deal, that's always been the biggest hurdle. That's not the hurdle here. They've got the television deal, they're going to get the exposure. So I think this model has the best chance of succeeding. What success looks like. We don't know yet. Fox has made us projections about eyeballs. But the fact that it has a solid. It has a television deal in place that guarantees it. Exposure guarantees the city of Birmingham exposure because this remembering of understanding said, there'll be at least at least one, if not, two 32nd spots for each game. I think that's the best model. So I would, I would, I would try to assure your fans, like if anything is going to succeed, it might be this because it does have that television audience that most of the spring leagues have been. Trying to get and buying bind to get in praying to get. And we'll just never able to, to obtain. Yeah, I think negotiating it's like negotiating with house money when yours. When we own it. We can prioritize it in our lineup. We can make sure that's always been the concern with the XFL of. You know, getting the right money in place. The question with this is, is if this Bellville season works. You're still making that jump. Then, like you've said before and seen all these other spring leagues fail or, you know, or not work out, like maybe this does work for a year, but then you're still, this is still one step before the big step. If that makes sense. It is it's in, it's a different step. And again, who knows what their model will be. I understand that the league. I mean that the national spring football league, I eat box. We'll still own the teams and will still. Put the teams use it as a programming model, as opposed to okay. You own a, you know, we'll just pay you X dollars and, and you, you, you have to make the money. So I don't think that. Ownership. We'll move totally to the local level. So I think it will still be an entity that is wholly owned by. National spring football league and Fox, and we'll figure out what their local ownership model is. It may just be a partnership. Where someone may be invests. For the right to bring that team there. So I'm sure they've thought through that. It's just not part of this. Memorandum of understanding what makes you believe that that it's going to be more Fox continuing to have the ownership versus franchising out the teams. Well, ultimately that's the model. I mean, the model is, is that. They, they own the teams and that gives them the incentive really to put them on, on the air, having to go and France. Salomon. Franchising's a little, a little different. We, you know, it's not worth digging into the weeds. In that. There may be some value to some model of local ownership. And I'll be interested to see what they begin to put out. You know, as a, as opportunities for local ownership. But I think. There will be a team for instance, in Birmingham, whether there's local ownership. Or not they'll, there'll be, there'll be players here. There'll be coaches here. There'll be uniforms. There'll be a stadium. They'll play the games, whether there's local ownership or not, because ownership. Ultimately resides with the national spring football league. I E Fox sports. Cool. Well, I you've been so gracious with your time. I'm looking here as the time has gone by. Any other nuggets or tidbits, anything before we let you go, it's very helpful. And I hope, you know, we'll get you back on here again. This. Absolutely. This is a moving target. I tried to touch base with all the entities involved and get as much information as I can. Every day I'm about. To hit to a meeting right now. Within the next hour and a half. Of the board of directors of the BJC, the Birmingham Jefferson civic center. That is the entity that would host the USFL. So. That should be an important meeting just to see. Where we are. It's a public meeting. So I'm looking forward to hearing. W where they say negotiations are, as I've mentioned, box ones wants to have the deal done by the end of the week. I put my money on that. But. You got the city of Birmingham, you got Jefferson county and you got private monies. They've all got to get around the table and figure out how much they have to raise. And who's going to put in what. And that's going to take a little time, but so we'll just stay in touch. And as soon as I think we have an agreement, I'll let you know. Perfect. I appreciate that. I like having boots on the ground.

Episode 62 - Cody Fajardo: The Man in Black?

How was dinner? Watch the Eagles. Try to come back a terrible ego. Stand the Eagles, Philadelphia Eagles. Not doing well this year. Nope. You know, Brady was Brady. It's good. Brady is. I was talking about this with a coworker that had a brand new coat. Well, he's brand new now, but he used to work with you back in the day. Anyway. We're talking on this day. We're like, we don't hate Brady. And he's just like, earn our respect. Like you can't hate on him any longer. So. Yeah. I didn't expect the Eagles to win that game. So. Welcome to the show. Welcome to the show. A big show today. We have my. Val Khalifa jar though. Colon the man in black, that we were going to a lot of acts CFL news today. Lo and behold today busy day, Paul, I've been doing some sourcing on our own some interviews. Lots of USFL staff. We have lots of CFL and then, or XFL, and then we had the CFL staff we have before. So that's why there are the interviews. Everything read did a lot of stories seen today, but it's a lot of it's. In the can. So we just we'll just roll around it. And we'll, we'll plug in the holes right here as we record. Now tons of USFL news, apparently coming up in the, in the show later to wow. USFL interesting stuff. So anyway. A lot of guests, four of them. Jeez. Wow. So we have a good friend of the show, Dave Campbell, you know, not with a good football team. The Edmonton Alex. Dave was last minute we've had Trevor Harris got benched and in favor of Kayla. Cornelius, a lot of drama going on with Edmonton. You know, what is going on with their season? We talk with Dave. Scott Radley. He's friends with Steve Milton. That was on the show a couple of weeks ago with the Hamilton spectator. We're talking Thai cats and they're horrendous. I tried to Argonauts at 6,700 people at their, at their game last week. So tremendous. You know, It's alarming issues there at Gemma Carson Smith. She covers the BC lions. So we talk, you know, we're going to this, I'm going to the gateway. I thought about that going to the game this week. Gemma with that. And then Dylan was the last minute. And Dylan Smith, yellow hammer news out of Alabama. All the USFL suffocate and came out today from Birmingham. With the USFL with the bubble them setting up there. So we, I, I called up Dylan. He was nice enough to come on the show to kind of talk through all of this stuff, all the news. They came out today about the Fox, about the budgets, about the teams, everything I joked with Dylan, he has a very Alabama accent and I said, well, we've been dealing with Canadian accents for quite a while now. So I feel like we are in good spirits with that. What's that a boot. Well, speaking of Canadians, you're going to Canada this weekend. Yes. And. Condolence and Paul was going to come. Paul's had some tragedies in the family. So Paul is not going to be making that Dorothy and I are going to make the trip in your stead. And I, I have. Danny, I call him Daniel Austin. Cause that's how he sciences articles. I tweeted at Danny Daniel. I said, if you are at the game, if you make the trip from Calgary, I'm going to buy you a hard drink or a soft drink of your choice. And he said, I'm on. So I think we're going to maybe try to meet up and bury the hatchet. Patch things up there with. Mr. Danny Austin. Good. I bet it's also it's football weekend in Canada. Jim Mullins has been promoting this a lot. Go to the football, canada.com. There's a whole slate of virtual, you know, conferences talking about women in football, talking about, you know, past history, indigenous, they're going to be selling the indigenous merchandise to raise money for that. So lots of things, football, candida.com for that. Very cool stuff. Again, tons of USFL news later on in the show. Stay tuned for that. But some big XFL news today. Huge massive XFL news. To start the show. Yeah. A couple of things. So we were, oh, I, and just woke up before I forget, I don't want to talk about my viral tweet because we went, we have too much to talk about. We are announcing the winners of the giveaway at the end of the show. So I have it all ready to go. I have the names, we have all that stuff. So if you were part of the 1500 subscriber giveaway, Please stay doing also, please subscribe to this today. I mean, I tweeted today. I go, if you don't care about XFL, USFL and CFL stuff, like we are the place for you. So, yes, first this week we have a, just another stupid Danny Instagram, like she's in Hawaii, tweeting, you know, Instagram and about the XFL. But then today we did actually have news, Jeffrey, P*****k, former president and CEO of the XFL is stepping down and moving on from the XFL. Yeah. You, you sent this to me toward the end of my day. I was like, holy cow. Not toward the end of the day. Right. Like right in the middle of my day, when everything was starting to get busy. And this is interesting. That Jeffrey P*****k is stepping down effective immediately, but it's been in the works for quite some times now. Quite some time now. They're still planning to return to play in 2023. I'm wondering if they've started to kind of make a new hire for. The commissioner of the league. That's why Jeffrey P*****k is, is leaving. Yeah, I think it's one of those things he had Jeffrey Poff was really instrumental in getting the league through the bankruptcy. Right. Getting it ready for sale, kind of keeping the lights on. During all of this stuff last year. So I have to imagine it's a mutual partying, right? I have to imagine. Jeffrey is just looking to move on to other things. What's interesting to me is there's only a finite number of people now from the original, like it was Jeffery. Or like one other person. So, you know, They're building a new regime, the quote I had from Mike on here. So Ben Fisher got the credit from sports business for us sports business journal for reporting the news. Mike Mitchell confirmed that he's known about this was coming for a while. It says the. The, where do I? Oh, Did you hire is expected to act more as a football boss who oversees those aspects of the league. And so that's kind of that chief football officer role that we've been promised for months and months and months. That's more of a, all of our lot commissioner, then the Geoffrey Pawlik business PR. Perhaps Redbird has people in place that can already do the businessy things that Jeffrey Pawlik was doing before they go to them saying, yeah, And I mean, Redbird did make those investments in Fenway sports group and they have a lot of sports minded people, infantry sports. I mean. It's Fenway sports group. And clearly it's a red Sox oriented forum, but they own. You know, various different holdings and Liverpool and, and other things like that. So maybe somewhere there's somebody with somebody with some football acumen in that. Fenway sports group that might come in and start things off here. The quote I had here and I tweeted this out of the quote I had from the article that struck out the most to me, my screen's dark right now. Cause I have the Twitter open. The one click. This is from Mike, the one clear thing that the league that they hope to present. The one clear thing is that the league they hope to present will bear very little or any resemblance to the XFL that existed in 2020. And I tweeted, I go XFL homers. Be ready to be shook a little bit. Cause this is a problem we dealt with with the CFL people. Right. We were coming in and they were protective. Then you have a lot of these XFL people with, you know, less lineage, right? Did the league saying I'm holding this deer? Well, there's no, one's left really. I mean, this is a whole brand new in name, flip of where the XFL was. And maybe they should just change the initials to. I don't know. That might be on the, that might be on the table. They want to shake things up a lot. Then maybe just get rid of the thing that that's like the albatross hanging around your neck. I don't know. I'm really not. I'm really not opposed to it at this point. I just, I don't, I had questions to the, on Twitter about all this. Like I just can't imagine that we have we're three years after thing and we're going to do this. And Jeffery Paula, he was, he was the lifeblood that was left and now move. I'm moving on. The, you know, I've heard some names circle that they're thinking about bringing in. I have one that I would really like to see them bring in as a CFO that you football officer. But I don't know if that's going to happen. So we'll see. All right, moving on CFL scores this week, Argos win two games, 35 16 over the red blacks, and then 24 23. Over the tiger cats on Wednesday and Monday busy schedule of Toronto. They. Ah, they won both games. That's impressive. Trying to stay in the east. Yep. Stamps up. Beat the Roughriders 2219. That's kind of unexpected. If you ask me. The blue bombers roll over the Elks. Thanks Lee. 30 To three and the Alawites beat the red blacks. So the red Lux to lock. Two L's this week. 20 To 16, the red blacks lose their to Montreal. This week. We got a Winnipeg on tap. Visiting Edmonton this time. The stamps go to BC as we will be at that game. And the aloe heads are going to turn around and face the red flags. At their field. Yes. As, as rye Peterson coins. He kind of is a dog's breakfast of games this weekend, except for the stamps lions. That is, that's going to be a good game. You know, Stampeders are on a hot streak right now. Yes, the victory over the Roughriders very much is spring. Again, this continuing Cody for Gerardo he'll turn that I'm tracking that, you know, the man in black, that we are tracking on this. And it very, very curious to see what comes out with that. So I have tremendous, I have some stories here coming up with Cody, but yes. Argo's looking really good. I feel like, eh, this. So far, it could be a Hamilton, a Toronto, or I sorry, a Winnipeg Toronto gray cup in Hamilton. I'm all for that. You know, I'm all for that. It would not make, would not make the, the Hamilton people that hate the Argos. Very happy at all. So that. That would be like as hosting the 49ers that lumen field likely would be, it'd be like, I really don't like that. As you see at the pickups here, I just put this. So you can see at BC lions holding from in the middle, obviously Winnipeg and that are not shooting straight to number two here. And the power rankings. I love it. I love every minute of it. Speaking of the writers. Let's see here. Micah Johnson. Defensive lineman says. That even though they've narrowed assess gets one's lead for a second in the west division. Just down to two points. He still thinks that they're not quite there yet. There are confident group. He says. He says he felt that he, that he felt that they should have won that game. He doesn't think it's a confidence thing. You have a bunch of confidence guys in that room. We're just going to watch the film and keep figuring everything out. They're off. Until the 23rd now. The Saskatchewan is, and they'll take on the stamps on that day. Yeah. So I talk with Jim about this. We talk about the coding for Gerardo. Something is awry in this locker room. We have our quote here. I Cody for dry then went home for the bi-week. I've asked reporters about this. It's not uncommon. It is. You know, he's going home for the extended time. It's one of those is, does time heal all wounds? You know, Cody remember had the harsh word save as teammates and he needed receivers that have more tools. And now, you know, here we are at, you know, we're on a bi-week we're off another loss, right? Another loss to a division rival. And I don't know, I just, I'm curious. I. That episode thumbnail is Colibra. Ajar though from Westworld. I know you don't like Westworld, but he's looking at either taking the why you don't like restaurant. Right. I watched the first season, but I haven't gotten to the. But remember. So for anyone that's listening to the episode, them that when you go to Westworld, which is the fictional TV show on HBO, you can select a white cowboy hat or a black cowboy hat. And it's, you know, if you are a white cowboy hat, You're the good guy and if you're the black habit. And so that's why it's calling for Gerardo, the man in black question mark. And that was famously ed Harris from the first season. Interesting stuff. Moving on now to Winnipeg blue bombers had coached Miko. [Unknown] gave embattled place. Kicker Allie. Mourtada a vote of confidence on practice Tuesday. Of course they're rolling. Everybody's so your place kicker is not that important right now. Kicking field goals or whatnot. You're scoring touchdowns and blowing everybody out. So basically said the misses that he's had are just outside the uprights. They aren't. The slices. The ball's not different every time the five minutes is they all look exactly the same. So there's just a slight correction needs to be made according to Miko, Shea. Interesting stuff, but he's a rookie. So it's like, it's like the one c***k in the armor. That's I put this on here because we had to have one negative thing to say about Winnipeg and it's like, yeah. You know, they're kicking could be a little bit better. Yeah, that's the only flaw in their game right now. A long time. See if I'll play by play, man. Rod black says goodbye to TSN. He is ending his run at the sports network. He tweeted the other day, sad to say goodbye today to do my friends at CTV and TSN, but so excited for my next chapter will be as amazing as the last. Thank you. Had the time of my life. This is big. This is big rod. Black's been there for a long time. These even rod black parody accounts on Twitter, which says a lot for, you know, as, as you know, famous. Going to see all that parody accounts of. But now he's in a rock. As for 40 years, he spent 30 years about media calling the games. He was on, you know, the broadcast this year. I mean, he was like the number two on some of the games to play by play. So it is, it is an odd move. It came out of nowhere today, as we record, obviously tomorrow is, you know, whatever is this air is, but. Big news. I saw a lot of people, you know, family. Very upset. You know, I've listened to him for years, you know, not upset, but just sad about it. Sounds about the news. Yep. Definitely I'm 30 years. Wow. 30 Of those with bell media, family. Interesting stuff. Calgary Stampeders quarterback, Jake Meyer. And enters a COVID protocol out a minimum of 10 days. Yeah. So, you know, Calgary is coming to BC, you know, Beau is a Bose kind of on-demand now Bose had some problems. You know, Jake Mayer has come in and plays exceptionally well as a working quarterback has, you know, excelled in the games that he did, even though the record didn't reflect it. So basically now there, the. Have. You know, they have a lot, if Bo is not doing well, Michael O'Connor is, is the, like the third string backup that would be in there in their place. But. We'll see what happens in the game on Saturday, but I, Jake mayor. Yeah, he was in the protocol earlier this week and then it came back that he did in fact test positive. So that is why he is out the minimum. 10 Days per Daniel, Austin. Calgary as I will call him now. No more quarterback news. To start Taylor Cornelius and Dakota Prokop. Procop Prokop. Yup. Yup. At the quarterback position over. Of course. The ALCS, you know, there's a culture issue there. They're facing Winnipeg at home Friday and last week they got blown out. Dave, Campbell's got more about this later on, but I think it's interesting that one of those spring football quarterbacks, you know, the spring football thing that never quite works out one of those spring football quarterbacks, starting for the Elks. Interesting. I tweeted. And I had a couple, I have a lot of positive. I had some people like, what do you mean. I said, it's very ironic to me. To me, it's the definition of irony that the one football team that came out and openly talk crap about the XFL now has an NFL quarterback that they bench Trevor Harris for. And I have people like, that's not ironic. I'm like, no, that's literally the definition of ironic. You were the only team that talked crap about the XFL. And now Kayla. He wasn't. Do you ever Harris isn't hurt. Right. And that's what Dave taught. We talk about it in the episode, like area in the interview, this is a benching. This is, I do not feel comfortable with you in the first or second position. I feel more comfortable with our second and third quarterbacks. And you taking the backseat. I mean, he's not even dressing for the games because in the CFL they can only dress two quarterbacks. That's that's indicative. And that might mean that your, your time there is almost over. Well, you know, there's been, we have a story here coming up about Nick Arbuckle, trade rumors. I mean, people have tired. You. Do you do they cut Trevor? Do they try to trade him? I mean, there's, I talked with David about this. There's only so many games left. Like why ruin the kid's life here by trying to trade him or beg him? I mean, who cares if the Alex. You know, if they end the season at three and 13, do we really care at this point? Like, let's just get through the season, but I guess, you know, Elizondo is ready to go. I mean, this, these are moves being made to try to preserve or save jobs. If we're, he's worried about it. Hmm, interesting stuff. Speaking. To the Elks Canadian offensive lineman. Jacob Ruby has spoken publicly for the first time since being released by the Elks at the end of August. He said the past few weeks, the past weeks have been really difficult for my family. And I want to make something clear. I made a mistake. I made a mistake in represent misrepresented. Misrepresenting my vaccination status. I came forward and then I mistake. And then willing to accept the consequences. I want to apologize to everyone who's been affected by my poor decision. Specifically the Elks organization and their culture issues and CFL PA, and the CFL who've worked so hard to put on the season safely. This has been a learning experience for me as I strive to be a mother better, man, father and husband. I will set a good example of learning from mistakes and better myself going forward. He was on the lights had used vaccinated. They didn't have this kind of spurred the whole thing there. And they've had like 17 players now that he is on the blacklist for this season. He can't be signed by anybody. And so this is one of those things where obviously he's trying to make amends now and it's good. I mean, we have not heard from him. This is the first time he's come out since all of that. So it's good to see that he is making apologies. Definitely. Definitely. Is this a yeah. Okay. Vernon Adams on the six game injured list injured in the final minutes of the victory against Ottawa Monday, Matt Schiltz will now. Complete the gate and. Completed the game at quarterback position and they'll start. In Ottawa. This week. Yep. And so shape Patterson, who he was in the spring league before we've tracked him. He's from other to the active roster, the backup mat. This is not good news for Ottawa, Ottawa. Sorry for the outlets. Montreal has really lived in die by Vernon Adams all season. This is one of those things where he is really the lifeblood of the team. And to see him go down and injured in the last minute, this is one of those things like. You know, there's only so much time this season. I feel bad for these players that are getting injured and for like what purpose at this point, like when it makes going to win anyway. So I'm kind of like, I feel bad for Vernon. Like I hope he just. It takes the rest of the season off, heals up Al let's do what they can and kind of move on from there. More quarterback talked to BC lions released former new England Patriots quarterback. Danny [unknown]. At link, he was on the practice roster. The six foot 3, 220 pound passer was a seventh round draft pick of the new England Patriots in the 20 18 20 18 draft. You spent his rookie season in the past. Practice squad there. Earned a Superbowl ring and then got picked up at the Atlanta Falcons, the 2019. With that being said, It looks like the Seahawks have signed him. This is why I think. It's interesting because it's because, you know, obviously BC lions America's CFL team, but. By wrestler. It's out. I mean, th this, this, do we have a Geno Smith and then this Danny at lane comes in and I mean, is that realistic in the NFL? Like it is to CFL. Like we signed someone to just promote them right away. I mean, look what happened with. Oh, nice. What am I saying? Yeah, this could be the next grade. This could be the next great ultimate. I'll start. I mean, I think Russell's done in Seattle. I mean, we talked to Robert turbine. I think Russell's done. I really did. If you guys have it, if you want a good interview, that guy, no views at all. We had super bowl champion, Robert turbo, turban on the show many, many moons ago during his time in fingernail football, which we actually have fingers off of on. I really shouldn't. At the top. But anyway. Yeah, I Russell's probably, then that is very interesting. If now Danny at lane is our. And Gina Smith. That's great. That's a great situation in Seattle looking. Really looking forward to that. Are there every day. Sorry, I'm just kind of distracted. The Dodgers are playing the giants right now. Of course. And hoping the Dodgers do pull this out. Because, you know, Then you will be very happy if they do. And then of course they, I get this notification that the Cardinals have fired their manager after a 17 game winning streak, but the Yankees are gonna stick with. From that team. That's my team, the Yankees to another team. That's my team. Toronto Argos. Oregon Argonauts quarterback, Nick Arbuckle. I'm getting my words mixed up subject to trade discussions. Recently. At least one team is called Argos about the 28 year old quarterback. And then they're checking in with multiple clubs to see. What the interest is, is this just a young member? We had our McCobb athletic Thompson is the king of the CFL. I haven't remembered that week two, everyone remembers that. And then he came out and stuck up the joint Arbuckle got hurt again. And then McLeod. Here's the issue though. I love McLeod, but as dominant as the Argos had been lately, they really have kind of stunk on offense a lot. I mean, they won the one game. If you're an avid fan, say like three defensive touchdowns, they won with a field goal cake at the end of the game on Monday. But you know, it really took them until about halfway through the third quarter to even get any momentum going on offense. So I don't know. One of those, like, I mean, they're riding the high hand. It's like, well, we don't need Nick Arbuckle anymore. I'm like, hi. I might keep that in my back pocket. We also played two games last week. Read. Give him a break. They're probably tired. Yeah. Th this scheduling with the Thanksgiving and then the dealt with, you know, the five games in one week. It's pretty crazy. But yeah, they see they've, he's got a big contract. That's kind of why they're looking right signed. I have all the notes that you're signed to $150,000 signing bonus. So, yeah, maybe we try and save some money to get rid of him. So. BC lions release American running-back check Cooper. He signed with the Leos as a free agent in February, and then spent the first. A games of the 20, 21 season in. You see. Yeah, that's sad, you know? I mean, they, they really, it kinda sounds like they're going to blow out and we really tried to rebuild their running game in the off season. I mean, it's been horrendous so far with the Winnipeg. It was like, no, most. Almost non-existent. Gemma. And I talked about that. Maybe they're trying to work on that in the bi-week, but I just don't think you discover a running game. You know, in a seven day. And then come back. So the other thing on here. I'm keeping, I'm going to put these photos out, but you see like you Whitehead a B the x-ray that he had is really small, so it would fit on here. But I like you, I had tweeted this day that he actually played most of the game with this injury wrapped up and then got the stuff afterwards. How do you play with that? I mean, I mean, the picture is small on this Google doc. But I can see the break it's clear as day. Like I don't have to zoom in to see that break. That's. That's significant break. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, I'll put it at the picture on here. So you can say that, but yeah, I mean, lucky he's out. I think they said he's at three to five weeks. So obviously the bi-week helps cut that down. They've made some moves to. We'll be curious to see this week. You know, how they go. Lucky was kind of their go-to guy. Michael Riley saw. I'm curious to see what they decide to do there. Tim Horton's field in Hamilton, approver full capacity. Good news for the gray cup. And the max capacity is $24,000 in a 24,000 people. I don't know why. It's the $24,000. I'm tired. It's been a long day. 24,000 People out into Tim Horton's field. And hopefully we'll be well, we'll be in tenants in any way, shape or form. If it's a member of the press, or if it's just a casual fan, we're going to be there. Yeah. So here's the other thing. There's a lot of texts here, but I can just talk through this. So the announced today. Thai cats, you know, that we're hosting this year next year. I believe it's the ref. I don't quote me on who next year is, but then in 2023, they've announced that it is going to go back to Hamilton. 'Cause this year, obviously a lot of the festivities aren't going to be the same, right? It's going to be grounded. Just an accident, but you know, it's like, remember when they did WrestleMania in Tampa and then it socked and then they did it again the next year. Cause the Cove and all that. So I really didn't think this was a big deal. Like I saw the story, I came out, I'm like, oh, that's cool. Like it's a make good for whatever. People today lost their freaking minds about it. Why does, why does Hamilton get it again? That this year it's ridiculous. Here's the deal they hadn't had in 25 years before this year. This year is kind of going to blow the it's not going to be the financial boon that they want with everybody traveling in. So doing, they make it. I think this is the best decision the CFL could have made. Let them go back. We'll do it next year. But I, the, the reactions I saw on online that people were crazy. No from listening to Brian via Twitter. He. He said the combination of scaling down in 2021. And the fact that they've been hosted in 25 years makes it an easy call to give them 2023. Ah, that's very cool stuff. I'm all. I'm all. In favor of this, it's going to be a mosaic next year. I looked, but yeah, the other interesting note with this is this is the first time they've really talked about a 23 through all the XFL talks. Right. It's just interesting that they've gone out and like, announced that, that we are, cause remember like Dan Ralph friend of the show said, you know, Hey, he thinks that the talks are going to continue after the gray cop. I don't know if they are or not, but I it's interesting to see the like CFL is planning 20, 23, you know, November, presumably of that. That's a long time. To be playing out and putting your stake on that to like, you know, pull that back later. But yeah, people lost their minds about this. I'm like, no, this is clearly a make good for the team to, cause they're not going to get as many people traveling in casuals as you would normally. That's fair. TB you were shipped this week. Toronto Hamilton. Got 597,000 people to watch on TSN. As compared to any Baltimore 596,000. Of course, that was a great game with more. Lamar Jackson just went off. NHL season kicked off this weekend as well. So that's gonna, that that might help or hurt. CFL numbers. Reed was at the Seattle Vegas game with the golden Knights. Shout out to Vogel. Tonight's. They beat up on the Seattle. Cracking. That was nice. It was three to four. Cracking one tonight. It was three zip and then you guys came back and then, then Vegas took it over. So it was. It was, the score was not as indicative of how much of a blow out that really, really. I was very, I was very sad. I had a lot of like really drunk, angry yelling videos at Ravi. Hopefully it was a block. You like. [Unknown] yeah. But the injuries are thinking about this. The CFL viewership on Monday, they Tronto game beat. Monday night football. I mean, it's in Canada, but I mean 5 97 to 5 96. That is interesting to me. Very much. So, especially considering that Toronto's attendance and this isn't Hamilton, but you know, the Toronto attendance was supported this week and then yeah, four 14 for the Vegas golden Knights. So, you know, I mean, they're hanging in there. The Toronto gets the, the TV viewers. It is getting the butts of the people in the stands. Yes. All right. And then you see this, this is just a couple of quick things. So they're putting the Winnipeg, the wonderful blanket logo that we've had the indigenous blanket designed by Denise and Claire. They're going to be putting that on the team helmets this weekend in place of the traditional w they have we'll put the feather on the thing. I just think that's a really cool IBC did that. They took the logo and they superimposed on the field for some of their home games. And so I think that's interesting. Very cool stuff. Taylor hanukia apparently was done wrong in the new band and he looks. Ah, What does he look like? He looks like a mutant, Steve Nash in this picture. It, they think it's like a Russian bond villain. Yeah, it's totally like, I'm gonna, I want to go play goal a golden Knight on my end. I don't have a Nintendo 64, but if I had one, I would go play golden Knight, a goal, a goal than I right now. And a. Play, you know, Taylor Cornelius looks like one of the villains on there. Yeah. You replay that you ever play that when you were a kid golden eye. I have many hours. Odd job all the time. Right? Because you. Yeah, you're. A little cheaper, you can do odd jobs and then a jaws because they cause Johns would always one, it would, that'd be a headshot if you were on a job, right. Because of the way that guns lined up, every shop was a headshot. If you Raja. Yeah. So you guys band. People from playing his odd job when you're playing, because that seemed like that was the rule. If you played with. You can't be odd job. You can. I'm. I'm flapping. We're going to slap. When you didn't have a gun anyway. And then you can do, and you can play slappers only, and there were no guns. Which is such a fun game. Can I take a break? We talk to our guests, Gemma Scott, Dave, and the homeboy from Alabama. Dylan. That's all coming up next. It's funny. Welcome back. Welcome back. Want to thank all of our guests. There's four. This week for guests. I don't think with the red forecasts, we've. We had four guests. We did we've I think we had five at one time. But where we had a gas, I think we had four and the guest house, whether her Nessa that was a busy week. Very much so. Moving on though. As you just heard from Dylan there. Birmingham and Birmingham, Jefferson convention, complex officials. Discussing playing all USFL games in that city. Yeah. So I just get your thoughts on this and some big takeaways, you know, so we asked Dylan about you where'd the money come from because there's a lot of figures in this article. The big takeaways for me that Dylan had would just kind of skim a lot of this text. Paul is. Dylan. Dylan does not know who a Brian Woods is that struck out to me. Mm. Yeah, cause there's been lots of talks with Brian and all that stuff. And I, you know, And, you know, so that's, I'm just talking, you know, cause everyone's listening to the interview. It stays stuck out to me. Also things that stuck out to me was they, according to them, they do believe that Fox owns all the trademarks. Now. I think there are semantics there. I think that Brian's still own some of them, cause it's a big debate, right? Like who owns the USFL south? Does Fox own that staff, whatever. Fox is bringing 200 million to the table, either hoping to raise another 250 million per like private investors. I would assume that that would be people that are owning stakes in the teams. The other interesting thing to me was that, that that was kind of estimated the XFL was estimated around 50 million a year operating costs. That's kind of in line with that. But doing this bubble season. You know, I was private messaging with whip, with a player that would be very interested in all of this spring league stuff. And they were asking me, well, when are we going to make the announcements? I'm like, well, they have time. Cause it's not. And they go, well, no, if they kick off. Next year. I'm like, oh my God, it is middle of October. I kind of lose track of all this stuff. So, what do you think of doing. Basically all this USFL ends up being right now is a spring league with a different coat of paint. Hm. I don't know, man. Like I don't. I don't know if, if the trademarks are completely clear. I know that there's there's there's court docs. There's like patents and trademarks filed a whatever. I don't. I don't know, man. I just don't. Like, like, what's the draw here. Like, we're just going to watch the spring league with different team names. That's basically you got a different coat of paint. I just don't know if like. It's the draw that it's going to be. People are going to tune in and go. This was not really the USFL. That's my fear. I was explaining this to Dorothy tonight. Because this was kind of the big story that came out today. There's been a couple of articles that say, this is kind of the most in-depth one. That's why we talked to Dylan. I said, yeah, because last year it was in Indianapolis and then Houston. Right. And they did like the split bubbles, and then they played together and I go, if we do it this year in Birmingham and it's not the jouster is, but it's the stallions. Cause that was the Birmingham stallions. This, that draw 10 more viewers at all. I don't know. I don't know that there's that much. Because at this point, that is what it's feeling like. It's October, if they are kicking off in 2022. You know, no coach has been, you know, none of this has been announced, right. This is kind of the first iota of information. And I just don't know. To, to have the excitement of saying we're going to do the USFL thing when it really is just TSL 3.0, which is also great. I mean, that's fine. We will cover it with every, but I think, I think this set like unrealistic expectations, also the numbers they have on here that they, and these are for. From Fox per Dillon, but they're expecting 1.4 million on main broadcast and then 700,000 on cable. Those are tremendous numbers for a spring leaky. USFL combination, whatever this is. Yep. It's going to be interesting to see, to see if that, that those team names, that name recognition draws any more viewers. I'm not sure it will. I'm really not sure it will because. I think, you know, We're getting to a part where there's oversaturation potentially, and I think more people are going to be interested in seeing what the rock is going to put together. That's just, that's just my opinion. Yeah. I think that was kind of the feedback I got today. Right. If you have the XFL and they take the time and you're in the stand-alone markets attracting the teens, I just. Th this split bubble never made sense to me. I get COVID reasons doing that, but now, so we're going back to the one bubble, you know, having the eighteens that's confirmed your ATM's over 10 weeks. It just, it feels very spring league. San Antonio, again, just a little bit longer. And I, you know, maybe you can get some fans in the seats, Birmingham. You know, population-wise are we drying that many fans there? I know they're hungry for football, but I, I don't. It is Birmingham. They do have an appetite for football there. Yeah. So, I mean, you know, maybe you get that. I just, to me. I think it was a misstep. If you wanted to acquire the USFL staff. But not make as big of a deal about it. The other takeaway I had is the Fox. Is there one of the quotes was they're planning to launch like an aggressive marketing campaign. And I go, well, that's kind of like the XFL thing too, right. Is people have said for months, Rock does snaps his fingers and it's going to go. Yep. And I'm like, well, so is this like, do people care that much? Say that Fox just like blitzes and media campaign, that this is gonna. Like, I don't know. I mean, it didn't, it did find before I did like 400,000 viewers, are we getting three times at four times that, but just by more ad spend, I don't know. I don't know either. I don't. I. I don't know, like maybe that maybe first week you'll see people tune in just for the name recognition. And then you're like, oh, well, This is really like mediocre football. I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen. I mean, we could sit here and. And guess all, all, all my long, but. You know, podcasts can only be a certain amount of. Certain amount hours. And I just, I, I think there's going to be tremendous talent there. Right? I think the, the people that were hoping for an XFL, you know, some of the players I talked to, you know, hoping for an XFL this year, that didn't happen. I think there's going to be talented. I just don't know if, if the, the USFL stuff is worth it. So. No. Speaking of other leagues Reed's favorite league, the van control football, doing the ballers collective. In real life NFL experience. Oh, sorry. That should say NFT. That's my, that, yeah, this. So they're doing. This is per Patrick. These who? Patrick. These was like liking comments on my tweets today. Then Patrick like this anymore. Yeah. It's not my, this is just more ways for fan. [Unknown] football to sell things, right? We're going to say it's not an NFT. It's going to be an in real life NFD. I mean, that's not an NFT is not. So Rob our good friend Sarov, you know, owner. And see you, whatever C CEO of fingers of all day, the interview with Cameron, the Silva with OSD B. Just a couple of takeaways from this. They they're going to return in 2022. They will remember we were going to do this spring season and we didn't do that. They expect Morris. Acts NFL players who take part of it, the things that I didn't like, they're expected to add more sports betting, which I said, then you need to, you can't change the rules between games like that is the one thing. At the other thing, and this is it in the, got a lot of attention this week. He said that he would be open to be working with the rock and the day, like if they XFL wanted to come in and they would have to play by the FCS rules, which I said, you know what rules. And they would. You know, but I go. So everyone goes, oh, this is so. I go. Being open to being asked. It's very different than being asked. Like, so Rob can mean I could be open to being president of the United States. It doesn't mean I'm going to be. Yeah. Like I can be open to being the CFO of XFL, like just cause so rod is like, oh yeah, I'd be open to it. It does not mean that anybody in the world would ever partner with them for any of that stuff. I just thought that was a clever way to, to do that. That's a clever way to ride on some hotels there. Excellent. All right. So that being said, we got our big giveaway winners. Yeah, big giveaway. So this, this is how we're going to do this. You're going to DME. I think all these people are on Twitter. So you can DME at the mark CAS. I have your information. We're going to do this. So the winner of the Arvest or as a, you're going to need to tell me if it's a small or the medium, because Paul has both and we need to figure out shipping because if it's too expensive, I'll cover part of it because I don't know where this person is located. Right. Steve mark cell. Friend of the show. Tweets a lot. He did what I did put all the names in. Is it Steve? You're getting the harvest Jersey. It's smaller, medium. Just DME, Shane Melanson. You're getting the Marquez sweatshirt. I saw a lot of people want. And I think a lot of Canadian viewers wanted it before it got too cold. So Shane, Shane Melanson. DME. And then here's the deal. On the jouster. Her shirt, very little interest, right? No one wanted everyone wanted the Argos and then some people wanted the mark ethic. So here are the two winners, but this is you have to pay for shipping if you want this. So Kyle and Mac, Kyle and max, you were the only people that wanted the Jasper shirts. I am happy to send them. You can Venmo me for shipping. I have them ready. Otherwise I'm going to wear them. Cause I'm not paying to ship stuff you've already won before. That's why we're doing this because people will think. Kyla max. I've already won before, so I'm not, I love you, Kyle and Kyle wants his white Jasser shirt. He tweets you out all the time. Kyle, if you want to pay for shipping, I'm happy to send it to you. Same goes with max. I have a feeling max is going to say no, but. That is my offer. There you go. What would that being said? Want to thank everybody for listening? Have fun this weekend in British Columbia. Rudy on the lions and yeah, well, we will see you here next week. Want to thank our guests again? One time for stopping by of course. Dave Campbell, Scott Radley, Jim mccarsten Smith and Dylan Smith. No relation. And talking about the various things that have been going on this week, a lot of stuff. When he interviewed four people sentenced to. And then same last name. At my. The chances there in the world. Yes. That's one of the common, last name like Smith. So, anyway, thanks for all the guests. Thanks for you guys listening and watching us on YouTube. And we'll see her next week. There you go. We got through that. Wasn't too bad at all. 40 minutes. Yeah. All right. So promo, we got to plug the XFL and the USFL has the big stuff. All right. Hm, this week on the mark cast. Big news, but not CFL news. We're talking XFL news, USFL news. What happened? It's taken the world by storm, you know, Jeffrey Pawlik R R. Fearless leader and chief, he as CEO and president of XFL stepping down, we're talking through all that immediate reactions. And then we have all the staff with the USFL setting up the bubble, moving to yo Birmingham, Alabama. So we got feet on the ground there, the big article that circulating Dylan Smith. And then we are talking CFL week 11. We have a big interviews coming up. We're talking with. I'll edit this. All right. We're talking with Dave Campbell. You know, formerly our team, the. My team, the Edmonton Alex. Dave is coming on to talk through the quarterback dilemma that is going on. Whichever Harris. We have Scott Radley with the Hamilton spectator and radio fame coming on to talk tie cats, the Argonauts, attendance problems, everything else. That way. And then I am traveling north with my wife to go see America CFL team, the VC lions live in person. And we're talking with Gemma, Carson, Smith, all about, you know, lions coming off the bi-week, what they're going to be doing. Sands lucky Whitehead to face. The Calgary Stampeders this weekend. Paul, what else do we have? We also have apparently, maybe a truce between Reed and Danny Austin. That's interesting stuff. Maybe. Kinda sorta. I don't know it is football a weekend in Canada this weekend. So you can. I hear more about that and yeah, basically me market about. Marking out about the Argos winning both games this weekend. That's great. It's a, I'll edit this all together. It's very fatty. We, we, we are a well-rounded. It's very Saturday. We are a well-rounded show this weekend. We have all your CFL. We have all your XFL and then we have all USFL. So please like, and subscribe. And we have our giveaway to. And also. You, if you noticed the. Episode at the title, the name of the top. Also, you've noticed the name of the episode. What's going on with Cody. Cody is Cody going to be wearing the white hat wear the black hat when he comes back from his bi-week is Cody is Cody for jar? The man in black will see if he's a healer or a face that's all happening this week on the mark cast. Well, Dave Campbell. Thank you so much for coming back on. I feel the last time we talked, you know, Edmonton had the new name. I was wearing Edmonton merge everything. Now we are BC Alliance, podcast, Edmonton. His is struggling a little bit. How are you doing so far this season with the CFL? Well, you know, it, it hasn't gone the way I expected from an Edmonton Elks perspective. I thought on paper, they were going to be much better on the field. It just shows you. You know, papers just. You know, it's not, it's sometimes not worth what's printed on it. So. I think from that respect, it's been, it's been pretty tough to see what's been going on on the field. They have not. Met expectations. I think they're a better team than they're showing, but you know what you are, what your record is. I fully believe that. And they are full marks for two and six because they just are not a three-phase team. You know, you hear about complimentary football that you play very much uncomplimentary football. There's special teams have struggled mightily, especially in the, in the return game. All fence has been inconsistent. You know, defense is their best phase, I think. And I think that the lifeblood and the. And the emotion of the team. But we haven't seen overly consistent play from them at times, but I think they've been giving their team a chance to, to be in games. I think they're the one phase that, that does give the team a chance. So it's disappointing. And guess what? There's six games left. Wonderful. Yeah, cause this is something I'm trying to figure out because you know, obviously we have a new regime there, right? But yeah, a lot of these teams have, have newer coaches. Right. You know, Ryan Dinwiddie. Right. I mean, so it's not, that's what I'm trying to figure out. Is it, is it. The year off, is it just all the new changes going on there? I mean, what are your, what do you attribute it to? Well, you mentioned the year off and I think that is a factor because. You're just not sure how it's going to change. A team or change certain players. Cause that's a long time away. And I think we you've seen. That play out in the CFL. I mean, there's only one team that's in the, in tier one. And that's the Winnipeg blue bombers. There is a tier two, but there's a significant drop-off. To the scattered Roughriders. The Toronto Argonauts, even your beloved now, BC lions. I don't even think Calgary's in tier two. I don't know if you're a B CS in tier two, and then you have the bottom tiers with, you know, with the Ultem, with the red blocks. And then, you know, Thai cats and alphabets are hanging around. Yeah, but, you know, from the Elks perspective, They had a head coach in place. And Scott Milanovich. Then he left in February. Early February, because he took a job with the Indianapolis Colts through the NFL. So then rocks under one of the GM's and a bit of scramble mode. So he picks up the phone. Who do I know, I know Jamie Elizondo very well. Rumbler days with the Ottawa red block. So he got hired in early February, right before for agency. Not the best time to hire a coach. But it is what it is. So. You know, I can't solely blame it on that. I think it's a factor. Pardon me wonders. What would happen if Scott Milanovich didn't leave for the NFL and stuck it out for the CFL. Yeah. And they've had authentic line and consistency. They have so many tackles retire. I think they had three or four. And then they've had injuries. And they haven't had play out of there. I know we're going to get to this. Their quarterback play. Hasn't been very good. The receiver play. Hasn't been very good. James Wilder is probably their most outstanding player. It's just baffling to me that a, this team is, is performing the way they are, but you know what? There was a. In the off season, when you have to make that major of a change. And not have your head coach. Basically in place until early February. That's the little tough. But at the same time, You know, I would still say this was a. A very big disappointment and we look at the quarterback area. Jamie Elizondo and Trevor Harris school back a long way from their days as members of the Toronto Argonauts to the Ottawa red blacks to now. And I think that's why I'm, I'm very surprised. Of what we're seeing on the field from Trevor Harris. That we're not seeing much better from him. And from Jamie Elizondo, it's, it's, it's really surprising and shocking to me. Yeah. And that's obviously why we called you to come on. You know, we had it, it was the week that Trevor Harris went in the injury. You know, we had, I think Milt, Steagall and a couple of other people, and we're talking to Edmonton and we're saying. You know, as long as they have Trevor Harris, right? Edmonton's going to be at least competitive, right. At least in the mix that afternoon, it came out, you know, he had a neck injury. You know, in practice, all that came out. And then it was like, oh my God, you know, now it's, you know, worlds are, are erupting. Right. You know, Taylor Cornelius wasn't super consistent. Right? I mean, it seems like he came out the first week did better. But now to have Trevor Harris back and then to not go in that route, what, what do you make of that? You know, Off the game last week in Winnipeg, 30 to three, just to just a really terrible performance minus the defense. I thought they hung in there as long as they could. And they gave the Alto shot, but. You know, it's funny Morley Scott, who is my broadcast partner. On six 30, Chad and Jerry Mata. John who covers the team on Postmedia. We call ourselves the Evanston contingent, who, who travel and cover the team. You know, we're sitting around breakfast on a Saturday morning before going to the airport. And Morley asked both of us. What's the one thing that the Elks could do. To really shake it up, going into next week. And we both said Jerry and I both said, James, the quarterback. Because that's the only thing that I could think of. Cause you know, we're talking to. Winnipeg media after the game on Friday night. Are they going to fire Brock Sunderland, they're going to fire Jamie Elizondo and I'm like, I don't think so. You can't fire Jamie Elizondo now because he was going to call place. You know, The he's wearing so many hats right now. So you're just going to have to ride this out, but. I said, quarterback change. Not expecting on Monday. To hear Jamie Elizondo say, we're going to go with Cornelius Taylor Cornelius in Dakota brew cup. And Trevor Harris is going to come all the way off the roster. I was shocked. It's been an interesting dynamic this year between Jamie Elizondo and Trevor Harris. I don't think at times, Elizondo has been happy with Trevor Harris's play the way he hangs onto the football. The way he seems to be indecisive, wants to be too perfect. Not throwing the ball on time. It's been surprising to see Trevor Harris's performance. This year for six games, he hasn't played well. The two games he did was the first win against Alliance in early August, before the COVID outbreak and labor day in Calgary, he was sensational in both of those games, especially on labor day. But. The message. It sends though. You know, we're going to take you all the way off the roster. Like that is, that is surprising to me. And I know Elizondo has a. You know, as a lot of respect and he knows Taylor Cornelius well, and. Likes what he brings to the table, but. You know, for me read, it's just, we're picking from a batch of not very good. Right now, as far as quarterbacks go. So. We already seen what we have in Trevor Harris. So Taylor Cornelius, we've seen a little bit, but maybe I. You know, if your Elizondo, I just like what I see in Cornelius right now. I want to see more of that because I've already seen. Enough of Trevor Harris. Are we going to see Trevor Harris play before the end of the year? I think we will. But this is an interesting move, but, and I don't know what the longterm effect is going to be. Well it's, it's it, it shakes confidence, right? It has to, if you're Trevor Harris, it has to it's like that. The Carson Wentz. All right. You know, you can't be. I go through all this stuff and then come, I mean, People are human beings. Right? I mean, it's gotta be in the back of your head. It's like I got bench, you know, I got pulled from. Yeah, and I was the, I was the designated team leader here. It's shocking. Yeah. It really is so. Now it's interesting in practice this week, Trevor Harris has done hardly anything. You know, he hasn't taken it. He's been the third string quarterback. This week he's taken individual or participated in individual drills. The one thing we have seen from Trevor Harris, and I know he's frustrated. I didn't always not happy with this. But yesterday in practice, he's in the. North. Part of the field near the end zone. And he's working with Trevor Harris or sort of working with Taylor Cornelius, then with the row Walker. And you can see Trevor Harris talking to Taylor. And I thought, okay, now that's, that's Trevor Harris, right there. He's as, as upset as he is. He is putting it aside. Or has enough of where will fall? And experienced to put it aside. And help is. Young quarterback. And Taylor has been very complimentary to Trevor Harris, but this is hard for Trevor Harrison. You know, I got to go back to the longterm. Like, what does this mean? He's under contract for 2022. Now it's only worth the paper it's printed on. And if the team decides to rip it up or not, But. It's. You know, I, I'm still shocked that Jamie Elizondo went this route. By by not dressing him. It's a very interesting move. How did you think that Taylor. [Unknown] has played in the games that you saw. So the first start on September 18th against the bombers, you only had one day. Full first team reps because Trevor Harris try to perform and practice couldn't hold himself out at the end of the two. And that you. That's a hard change to make. I thought Cornelius came out with a, a. Slow start. And then he gone to rhythm in the second and third quarter. I thought he was very good. I thought he moved. Well thought he threw the ball on time. And then unfortunately the book on Taylor Cornelius, he's going to throw. And interception that is going to be a game decider. He throws a pick six. And then the next play that he touches the ball, he gets stripped, sacked, and. The bomber score, another defensive touchdown. Yeah, it wasn't held by specialties cause he was backed up. Near his own goal line because the Elks returner at the time of thing was earnest Edwards. Didn't take a knee and pick a single and put his offense on the 35. Put it on the four or the eight or whatever it was. So. Then he gets full Taylor Cornelius gets full for first team reps. Going into Ottawa. And I thought he really struggled at times, except for he moves well in the pocket. He steps up in the pocket really well, and he can get the ball down field and flip the field real fast. Other than that. And he did score three touchdowns. Eh, but he's through two interceptions, including one. That was a key moment in the game. I think it was a one possession game or. It was a 10 point game. And he throws the ball to Mike Jones in the end zone, but he's offline by a lot. And then, you know, the game is pretty much over. At that point. And then the game he came in last week in Winnipeg different scenario. Cause he's a backup. Thought he gave him a bit of a spark, but. You know, it's a tough situation for a young quarterback to come in when you're down by forever. And yes, you threw an interception, but I, I don't blame him for throwing the, making the decision and throwing the ball down field. Cause you have to so. Overall. I don't think I've seen enough of Taylor Cornelius to be convinced that he could be the next one. Or the next starting quarterback for this, for this team or starting quarterback in this league. But he does give you different things in Trevor Harris, who I think has struggled with, like I mentioned movement. He, he doesn't move as well as he used to. He is quick. Decision-making doesn't seem to be very quick right now. His throws are not good. But bottom line. They're offensive line play has been dreadful. It's not good enough. And partly because they don't have the depth. They're a little young there and they've had to use so many combinations in there in their eight games. This is the worst I've ever seen. A team have to deal with offensive line issues. In my time covering this league, it's been staggering. The, when we announced that we're going to have you on, we had questions in between. Taylor cannulas and then Dakota, fruit cough. Which I mainly don't know anything about right. Monday. As a third string, Alex. It was said to me that Cornelia's in him are very different styles of play. Right. And he was curious that they would go with both of those as, like we said, keeping Trevor off the roster. Any thoughts on Dakota? Yeah, he's, it's funny. Cause he's been in the league for a while. He's with, was with the Argos for three years. I believe. And didn't play very much. He is. Someone that can run. With the football. He likes to throw deep. He's got a live arm. I think the accuracies and the decision-making that's, you know, that's another thing that's in question. I'll get to the funny part. The funny part to me is used with Calgary. In training camp and the Stampeders cut them. And so many of the media members that I talked to that I've covered the team for a long time. Like mark, Steven, for example, you said I was shocked cause he played really, really well. And then, you know, the Alex brought him in. Cause I think they released Troy Williams. It was supposed to be the backup or we pegged him as the backup going into training camp. You know, Dakota is a good guy. He's someone that's close with Trevor Harris. And I think he's a good teacher. He's kind of like what Logan Kilgore was for Trevor Harrison, 2019. And played some games, but you know, Dakota pro cop, I see him as someone who is got some good wheels and has a live arm, but it's inconsistent as well. So. I definitely think Taylor Cornelius is the better quarterback. Then Dakota brew cop, but you know, just it's, it's, there's nothing wrong with having a guy that has been there, done that a little bit in the league and has a good offensive mind has a good head for the game. I think Dakota's kind of become a. A player coach in a lot of respects and there's another. Sort of player. As aspect as well, even though he's not a player anymore, his will aren't who used to be with, with your lions and with the red blacks at one time, played with Trevor Harris. So. You know, they. They have a quarterback room with a lot of cohesion. But for Dakota approved cop, he's probably going to be the guy on Friday. That's going to be the short yard. It's bad. Back and going to come in for. You know, maybe some different type of change of pace plays and. You know, run the football or put, you know, try and put the defense. In the mind do option plays that sort of thing. So, yeah, but I, you know, I don't think the ceiling is particularly high with Dakota. You know, it's one of those, like, are we going to get another kill of Evans? You know, are they going to just come out and blood, but then, you know, It's like you get that spark for a week. You know, it's really hard to get that, you know, it game planning, right? You, you are going to get a little bit of that, like, oh wow. And they, you know, you get a little bit of success via having that sustainment, longterm, even Cornelius, you know, off that, off that late start the first time, you know, well, you look at Caleb Evans, you know, Goodstart against the Alex. Not roll that good against the Argos. And so-so against the LOL. So, but there's something there. You know, Taylor Cornelius. I'm not sure yet. But we have no choice. We're going to see them right. I hope we can see improvement in his game. Cause there are some things I do like. In his game. It's just, it's really raw right now. And I don't see a refined game from Cornelius yet, even in his early. You know, is it early days here in the CFL, but he's got good skillset. He can keep plays alive a lot better. I think right now, the Trevor Harris, but I would not annoyed him as, you know, a legitimate at this point. Last question for you with as. This crazy as the season is right. You know, coming off and all the things. I think rod Peterson called it like a dog's breakfast yesterday. Yeah. Just the whole, we're just kind of getting through. I get into this season. The long-term ramifications of pulling Trevor Harris. Right. For. A finite number of games last on a losing record. You know, I, we said, I don't think Coachella is on those job is in jeopardy. I think he's spoken. And it seems like he held them, holds himself quite well. You know, I feel like he is a good. Spokesperson. Right. Even when he made the announcements and things, but like, is it worth the longterm polling Trevor for like whatever we're going to get out of the Taylor? And that's my question. Yeah, that's the question right now is how much damage control do you have to do off of this move with, with your number one quarterback. So is this an indictment of his play? Is a coach upset about something else? I don't know. It's just weird. That that. You know, He hasn't played very well this year, but he's he has played well. And he's one of the better quarterbacks in the league. I don't think for every Harris's elite, but I think he's very good. So, I mean, and the line's very thin with that. Right? So now 2022 has a lot of a free agent quarterbacks. But if you're the, if they're thinking that way, I'm not saying that they are, but let's just go down that road if they're thinking. Hmm. Well, there might be. Another quarterback that we want. Well, it doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get him. Right. So you need to make sure you're good with the, with the franchise quarterback that you have now. And, you know, Jamie Elizondo is going to have to own this clearly because this is his decision. You know, I'm in rock Sunderland. And he's not going to step in and say, no, you can't do that. And play. Trevor Harris, right? Like, but you know, bras, everyone's going to be evaluating this decision as well. So. But yeah, I mean, Is anyone going to lose their jobs over this? Well, I don't know, you know? It's. It's a, it's going to be interesting to see what happens in the off season, you know? But the longterm ramifications of this is something that we're going to watch. If Trevor Harris doesn't play for the rest of the year, what, what message does that send? I don't, I'm not convinced you got six games left. You got to think Trevor Harris is going to play at some point, unless there is an injury and they're not telling us there's an injury. I just find it strange. The third, you know, he's third string quarterback and has done nothing. Usually third string quarterback run something and he's done absolutely zero. So. I'm not sure if there's an injury concern with Trevor. It's just the message that has been sent. So let's just, let's just land the plane here. Jimmie Elizondo is not happy with the quarterback play. It's not all on Trevor. But he wants different. Things and skillsets and, and, and the way the quarterback position is run. Do you thinks Taylor crony. Lisa and Dakota PRUCOL are the best combination. For Friday and it gives them the best chance to win. That's the line. That is. In my opinion, if I'm Trevor Harris things the most. It's partly. And a diamond on his play, but it's like, wow. Does that mean you're done with me? You know, I mean, that's it. I like, like, what does it mean when you say. 15 And 14, which is Cornelius improved. Cop's number of the best combination for a win. That's that's the line. That could a. It could be, well, I think it is going to be an interesting line to follow for the rest of the year. Cause that that's like, wow, that's like pointing the finger straight at your starting quarterback and going, you're not good enough. And we don't believe you're good enough. So we're going to. Go with the rookie. Who's only started two games. He'll start his third game on Friday and Dakota PRUCOL. Who's been a career backup and has been, you know, below average. Interesting to me. I would ask you your predictions on the game Friday. I already know. I think. Yeah, I won't put you. I don't think it will be a 27 point loss. Or, you know, by R or wind by the bombers. I do think the outs have a chance to make this really close. I mean, you never know. I mean six games left. They're not out of the race, but they're not in it at all. You know right now as well. So. A lot of injury going into the game though, with Taylor Kearney, Lisa quarterback. But do I expect to win? That's going to be really difficult for the Elks to win this one. Dave. Thank you so much for the last minute call coming on talking to this. I just, it's fascinating to me now with the, with the Evanston of an all. And it was my team and nice. I. A very dear. It's funny. Well, Scott Radley here out of Hamilton with the Hamilton spectator. I've friended the show, Steve Milton. Was this on a couple of weeks ago. I appreciate that. How are you doing today? Thanks for coming on. I am great. Listen, I don't know that I can live up to Steve. But we'll give it a go here. I mean, Steve is a legend. Steve is Steve is Steve. There's not a person who follows football in Canada that doesn't know Steve. So I, I just hope I can sort of follow along in his vapor trail. My wife said he does have very beautiful hair. And I'm like with you, I'm also, follicly challenged that with Steve. We'll pay this about the shame with that. Steve has more hair than a man his age should, I mean, on his head anyway. So that's a, you know, There we'll leave it there. So, you know, I want to talk all the Hamilton and I want to talk a little, a CFL a week 11 here, which is crazy where at week 11. Obviously coming into the bi-week for Hamilton, a couple of hard losses. It seemed like they had a lot of steam ride and then we have the quarterback injuries and the David Watford's of the world Mazzoli was back. What did you make of the loss? Was it on Thanksgiving? I'm trying to remember what day, Monday. On the big things. You know, two in a row now. On the last play of the game that they could have, and, you know, Probably should have one, but as someone pointed out to me a long time ago in the, in the standings, they have w and L they don't have a woulda, shoulda, coulda call them, which are the typecast could be leading in right now because they, they should have more wins. They should have at least two more. And, you know, the, the problem with this is, I think they're a better team than their record is showing. They've had the injuries. You know, Dana Evans went down, Mazzoli was missing for a while. Brandon Banks has been out. All these things have hurt. But. Ultimately who cares you? You, you, you know, it's, you're going to be judged on what the standing say and your playoff. Path is going to be based on the standings. And right now they are. Putting themselves in a bit of a tough spot, even if they are close losses. It could be one point. It could be a hundred points. It doesn't matter. There's still losses in. You know, they're hosting the great cup this year, as everyone knows they clearly wanted. And I think the expectation and the hope here. Was it, they would have, one of those great years would get the buy in the first round would play a home game before the gray cup and then the great cup of whole that's. It's looking less and less likely that that simple path is going to happen. Yeah. I mean, especially, you know, obviously they just announced it's important, right. At full capacity now. Right. You know? Things are looking good for the gray copy now for you just at Rawkus home field advantage. Happens, obviously more in the CFL than it does. Like any editor. NFL where it's happened once ever. But I is that, is that disappointment? Are you sensing that among, among the players and fans? Well, not yet because they could still get there. And so, you know, no, one's the expectation. I say the hope, the expectation coming into this year was. They should be there, especially in the east, which has. Over the last number of years. I I'm not breaking any news to anybody. The east has been a division that's been there for the taking and animals has been the best team. So I think that was the expectation. And, you know, for Hamilton fans. There, this is not a memory that they cherish, but you know, you think back to that game a few years ago, where they played the grey cup game in Regina against the rough riders, and it was clear from the opening kickoff, the Thai cats had no hope of winning that game, Saskatchewan playing at home in front of that crowd in those conditions. They were going to win. And that's, that's the hope here that if you get the same thing here, That may be you get that same swell, that same momentum, the same home field thing. You just got to get there. And here's the big deal about this right now? I mean, Jeremiah, Ms. Ali has looked. Okay. I mean, he's been, he's been not terrible, but he's been not great. But Dana Evans is going to be back in. I think he comes in still. I think most people still see him as. You know, forget everything that's happened so far when Dana Evans comes back. Things will be fine. And I don't know if that's true. But that's a commonly held view. Things will be better when Dane gets back. How did you think Mazzoli performed on Monday? Okay. I mean, he was, he was better. No question. He was better. And Orlando Steinhauer that goes to the takeouts as pointed out on more than one occasion. That Ms. Ali has not played a lot of football lately because don't forget he was hurt. Well, we didn't have a season last year, the year before he was hurt. So. Perhaps, it's not surprising that it's going to take a guy a little while to get back into the groove. But he's been okay. And I think that's not what a lot of people thought Jeremiah was only was going to be. They thought he was going to be really good. He was the starter starting the season. And. So. You know, th this is why in the CFL you good teams have two starting quarterbacks. And you just hope that in time as you. As you get closer to the playoffs that one of them, the, both of them are healthy and both of the replay and okay. But one emerges as the star and we'll see, we'll see you pointed out it's a shorter season. There's not the same runway to be able to figure this out, but we'll see. That's the hope. It is surprising to me how well the Arvis had done lately. Right. You know, obviously they, they, you know, have that wind early on it kind of struggled, but then it seems like with Chris Jones, the defensive, you know, last week, and then really sluggish start obviously against the tie, cats came back and won at the end. What are you making of the momentum with Toronto? And, and why do we see them on the other side against. Presumably when the peg. Well, I mean, I live in Hamilton. If I say that Toronto is going to be in the gray cup, I might be assassinated. I. I mean, I, I'm not that brave to say that. Let's put it this way. The Argos right now have a two game lead on the takeouts in the standings. They both have five games left. Two of the teams that troll and we're going to play Ottawa and Edmonton, you would think our wind games for Toronto. That gives them four wins ahead of Hamilton. Which means Hamilton will have to run the table. If everything falls into place, as you expect it might handle it, it will have to run the table. To have a shot at first place in the east. And host all the way through. I mean, it's a, it's a tall order, so. Right now, it looks like you're going to have to maybe go to Toronto and maybe beat the Argos on their whole field. Now. The good news about that. If you're a TICAD fan is the last Toronto home game. They got 6,700 people. So there are guys playing in the CFL and I'm only halfway joking about this. There are guys playing in the CFL leukemia, playing their university ball. The states. You've probably never played in front of a crowd that small there. They're high school. Inter squad games probably drew more than 6,700 people. So, you know, you can go to Toronto and it's not like it's a daunting, overwhelming, impossible home field that you're going to have to deal with. It's just the extra game, that's it. And it's not even a lot of travel. It's. It's an hour. It's not an overwhelming obstacle. It's just, as I say, one more game potential. Yeah, that you know, and I know that, you know, the Toronto attendance jokes and everything, and I hear online a joke though, anymore. Well, that's, I, I just, you know, Scott, we, we lived through all the XFL, everything we have lived through all, you know, all these things and, you know, we don't need anything. I do not know how you can be in attendance at that game and be like, yeah, that's fine. We're good. I mean, I just ate that. I was watching the game. I was like, this is a staggeringly scary. Crap. It really is. And you, I mean, there's two, there's two ways to look at this. You, I mean, MLSE owes the MLSE has more money than Jeff Bezos and bill gates probably put together. Not really, but, you know, I mean, they can, they can keep this thing going. They can write it off and whatever, and you know, one of the theories out there is they will, they'll just hold onto this and keep it going simply because the dream is for the NFL one day. And if we have football of worthy people who were running football in the city and I've kept the. Torch lit. That'll give us an inside track on getting an NFL team on the flip side. You know, if that's not, if that theory is just people outside making up that theory and it's not real. You do wonder how long a company like MLSE is going to continue to prop up a franchise that is. Well, their attendance has gone down every single game. This year. They haven't broken 10,000 yet. And as I say, 6,700, I mean, that is an astonishingly horrendously, low number for a professional football game anywhere. And so we'll, you know, It depends on where MLSE is on this. It'll you know, they're not going to tell us. But you hope for the sake of the league, you hope that it's in the first category, even though that might involve an NFL team, but you hope at least they're committed. And they're saying we're just going to keep doing this because really, I mean, Relative to our bottom line. How much is the CFL really costing us? Yeah. I mean, and it's hard because Toronto is winning right now. Right? I mean, they, they are doing okay. I laughed. They were giving away those, the. The Argo sweatshirts, right. All the merchandise at the game. Right. And now they're selling them online because obviously there weren't enough people in the stands to give away, you know, the 10,000 or whatever sweatshirts. I mean that that's not a good, I don't know. That's not, I don't want to get too negative on it, but that's not a good way. Nobody imagined what the crowd would be like if they were losing. I mean, this is a winning team. And again, this is, you know, jokes are made about it. I don't think it's really funny at this point. Yes, you can. You can pull jabs out and you can say that, you know, the first game of the year when they had 99,000 something, half of them were Ty cat fans, which is true, probably. I mean, more than half, maybe were Ty cat fans. But no, it's, it's not a. It's not a healthy thing for the league. And here's the other thing. Years ago, and it's gone on and on wrong. But. The J's years ago, they had good crowds and then they became the team. They became the cool place to be that even if you weren't necessarily a blue Jays fan, The Dole was the place to be because it was hopping. It was young and it was exciting. Who would go to an Argo game right now and sit in those stands and go, you know what? I really feel like I'm in the hop and happened in a hot place in Toronto right now. You couldn't possibly. And that's a huge, that may be the biggest obstacle. Somehow the Argos and the people behind the. I think. I have to figure out some way to make it cool to go to an Argo game. And for the life of me, I have no idea how you do that. But I think if you can make it so that you know what, yeah, I don't mind being seen here. This is kind of a cool place to hang out and I don't even care if I'm watching football. It's just fun to be around. If you can do that, you have a chance, but I don't know how you do. Yeah. We just came back from the, the golden Knights home opener. You. I mean, I know. Oh, by the way. It's a whole, it's a whole show. It's a whole experience. There, there are things that can be done where you, I mean, I'm not the biggest hockey guy, but you're like, wow, this was I show. And they had performers in the light spectacles and things. I mean, not that it's all. You know, The football's got, I mean, Toronto is doing loud. It's frustrating. I want to get your thoughts a little bit on, on the other games this weekend, right? We are. I'm making the voyage up to BC on Saturday. We're going to be in attendance for our first CFL game. Stamps coming to town and against American CFL team to BC lions, whether you making them that matchup Calgary seems to be having some success right now. Just before I answered that. Let me just go back for one more. Second to something you just said about the Vegas and the show and everything. When Bob young took over the Ty cats, 2005, I think it was 2004, whatever year it was that he came in. One of the things he said right off the bat was. We are trying to make an event here so that it doesn't matter what the score of the game is. It doesn't matter if you come to then either when stadium. And handled to lose is 50 to nothing. We're going to give you something that when you leave the park, you can still say, you know what? Yeah, they got shelled, but we had a good time. And it costs money. And I'm not sure that in Toronto, they want to spend much more money and I'm, again, I'm not sure what that thing would be or what those things would be. They tried that. Authorized official tailgating. That seemed like it was not really success. They've tried other things. I don't know, but it, that, I think Bob young was onto something there. You have to inoculate the experience so that it doesn't matter what the score is. And anyway. To your point. You know, I always, because I'm old enough now to have seen enough CFL. The even when Calgary is not having the kind of year, the Calgary always has. I still always just expect that Calgary is eventually going to start having the year the Calgary has. I mean, how many years in the last 40. As Calgary really been bad. Not very many. And so, you know, what. Yeah, they're not having a typical Calgary year, but I just. I'm not a betting man, but if I ever was, and I was ever bidding on the CFL, I would always have a very hard time betting against Calgary only because I always just assumed that at some point, the switch is going to get flicked and they're going to be Calgary again. So you have feeling good for the BC lions. BC's had a good, has it had a nice year and I'll tell you what I mean. One of the great stories in BC. I love this story because I've ever talking Nathan Rourke. Who's there. Backup quarterback there, the Canadian kid, he played. Down here in the Burlington Oakville area in high school. I remember I've done a number of stores. I've talked to them a number of times back when he was there. And he had a terrific story. When I say terrific. I mean, it was really disappointing for him, but he was. He was a lights-out prospect in high school. Remember watching one video highlight pack of him. And I think he connected on a touchdown pass where the ball was in the air for 55 yards or some stupid thing. And I mean, this is a high school kid in Canada. And he couldn't get anybody to be interested in him. He just D one teams just, there was no interest in this guy. And so he went to a junior college or a D two school. I can't remember exactly where played. Well, finally got his chance in. NCAA. In division one, but even then he was the guy who was invisible. And. You know, he came up and he's had his shots here. He's had some chances this season with BC and honestly he's looked good. And I he's one of the guys that I root for because you know, there's another guy now it's a hockey thing. You said you're not a hockey guy, but there's another story from around here, cam Talbot, who is now goalie for Minnesota, did with Edmonton new Calgary. Same situation, never drafted in the OHL. I covered him for ages playing for the Ontario junior, able to Redwings team. Went down to Alabama, Huntsville, the hockey hotbed of Alabama to play in, in university because that's the only place that would take it. These are stories, Nathan and cam, and these guys, these are kids. The kids are men now, but that you root for because they've never had anything given to them. They've had to work as scratch and claw and scramble. And then when they make it. Man. You're, you're happy for these guys. So. So even though I was what I said about, you know, I expect Calgary, I. And you don't want anyone hurt to get Nathan in there? I kind of hope Nathan does get a shot. And if he does, I kind of hope he wins. That'd be good. That'd be good. I mean, like, Y heads out, you know, there there's some stuff you. Some offensive deficiency is running the ball, things that we need to be doing better. But yeah, I, Calgary is, is heating up, but not a good time for us to be making our main voids to BC place. I'm not. That's super excited for that. And having Daniel Austin, Rob, Rob my face in it with Calgary. Maybe traveling, never know. You never know you. Maybe you'll bring the magic to BC place. You'll have the pixie dust. That'll be sprinkled over the field and it'll be a blowout for BC. Hey. This blue bomber Elks thing, you know, we had Dave Campbell or we're going to have him depending on how I produce this show here. We're going to, you know, The Trevor Harris, right? Being benched, all these things. Yeah. Th the rematch again, are we expecting any different with. Tan getting blown out by 27 points with a different quarterback under center. So, first of all, Winnipeg is really good. I mean, we saw that in the first game of the year, it was on the gray cup last year here in Hamilton, we saw in the first game of the year with Hamilton, we've seen it throughout the year. And, you know what I said about Calgary? I say the same thing about Edmonton. I'm old enough to not have many memories of Edmonton teams being awful and worse than being awful, seemingly being in a state of disarray almost, or at least that the, whether it is or isn't in disarray, that kind of is the perception outside that it looks like what in the world is going on there. And. So again, you kind of always think, well, I've been doing, I'll figure it out. I'm not sure they're figuring it out this year. I'm not expecting, they're figuring out against Winnipeg. Right now. May, maybe it's the name? I mean, look. This may pick a scab or. When they named them, the Elks, I was on the record on the radio, talking about that may have been in my mind, the dumbest name anyone could have possibly. I mean any other word that starts with E you could have come up with. And I, if I'm correct grammatically, I don't even think Elks is grammatically correct. It isn't the plural just elk. I think. So I might even, I mean, I do, I. I think the name has screwed them up completely. They got to go back, revisit it, find a new name that starts with E and start over again. And maybe that'll get them back on track, but it will be in time for this weekend. As, as someone that hosts a podcast called the mark Hass with no cohost, that's named mark on it. I know. I know how it goes with questionable naming sometimes, but sometimes you do have to work this roll with it. You do. I mean, I'll look, the CFL has a glorious history of strange names. I mean, the tiger cats is just cats, cats. Really? If you think about it, And, you know, we had two rough riders as everyone knows for a long time. And. And I still am trying to wrap my head around the fact that red blacks, I think is still all capitalized, which I think means every time you say you have to say Ottawa, red blacks, you have to yell it. I mean, I think that's what they're saying. I don't know. I would go on record saying that the rival acts are the worst name of that. I love the mascot. Loved it. Love the colors, love the traditions, love the sewing and everything else, but it's a. Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a kind of a weird name. Let's be honest. This, this thing. I mean, The Los. Great name, historic name. I don't know how many people, maybe I'm maybe underestimated. I don't know how many of you will know. It's a little bird. Maybe maybe a lot of people do. It's not exactly the most terrifying figure that, you know, you like to think of football and we got the bears, you got the Vikings, you got the Packers, all these names, and then the LOL Terp trips. I mean, it's not exactly. The CFL it's it's it's, it's part of the great tradition of the CFL, the unusual naming conventions and things that happen. Yeah, we have one of our listeners. He, and he's a character artist and he, every week you might've seen them floating around on Twitter, but he'll do all these matchups. Yeah. And there will be like the world war two pilot against the outlet or. It's like trying to, trying to animate these, but he's a wonderful Jenna friend of our show is a red blacks fan. So we can't say too much bad about. Speaking of that matchup, our final bit of conversation here. You know, rematch again, like all these it's like so weird, like every week it's like, we're going to there and then we're back again. So now we have the Al lads going to Ottawa. Ottawa is still kind of a bottom basement team at this point, whether we make an event. But Montreal without their quarterback. So it's true. That is true. Okay. So who knows what I mean? Normally you would say Montreal is in a playoff race. They have a chain. They, they are trying to hold off Hamilton for the home field advantage to make, you know, in the playoffs. So they're very motivated. I mean, you assume any team is motivated at this time of the year, but. I mean, there's lots of reasons. I think Montreal wins that, but then you take their starting quarterback out of the mix. I mean, you tell me what percentage. Changes when all of a sudden, the most important guy on the field isn't there as far as expectations. I, I think it, it, it certainly, I still expect Montreal to win, but it certainly throws it into much more of a, I don't really know situation to me. That's true. Yeah. Cause we're, I, this we're early on the, on the west coast here. We're going to do the rest of the show later. Yeah. The, the Matthew Schiltz right at. At all, I mean, is that it is. Outlets are, are they out of contention now? Do you feel cause Vernon's on a six game. I mean, are we seeing Vernon again? You know, And again, if they can maybe catch Toronto, that would be their best scenario, because then you got five games and then the playoff game by. I guess, I guess I should look into the rules. If you have a buy in the playoffs in the first round, can you count that against one of your games on the 16 list? I'm not sure if that, if that works. Maybe someone else who's way smarter than me can figure that one out. But no, I mean, look, we, we saw here we. W with Hamilton, we saw the team. What happens when you get down deep into your quarterback roster? And, you know, they won games. But it wasn't pretty. And, you know, if you were watching the CFL for purely aesthetic and entertainment value. Those games probably didn't do much for you, but you know, we started this whole topic. By saying, you know, it's a win and loss only in the scoreboard is just winning losses. Hamilton one with their third string quarterback. So, you know, it would be ridiculous to dismiss Montreal and say they can't do it. It'd be crazy to do that in this league. And how many times over the years in this league, have we seen a backup quarterback come in? Whether we know much about him or not. And suddenly go, holy. Who's that where's he been, I mean, how many back to Calgary and BC, both over the years, how many times has someone got hurt? And then you end up with a future hall of Famer coming off the bench that we knew nothing about. So. You know, that's the CFL it's it's. Theoretically, what we could be seeing in Montreal is the beginning of a new hall of fame career this weekend. I don't know, maybe, maybe not. Or, or maybe he'll be, maybe he'll be cut after this way. Who knows? But it's the CFL. Anything can happen or I, I feel like more of the Bookspan written that Matthew silt. So I feel like he's a little more as known, right. Yeah, no, I, I, you know, again, it's, it's a situation of just this league over the years. Where it's had its real depth. In a lot of ways has been at quarterback, not every team, not every time. But think how many guys are among the greats that we would count among the great quarterbacks of the modern era. Who didn't come up to Canada as the starter, when they, when they got going, they were coming off the bench and then opportunity presented. And all of a sudden they took it and ran with it. And then we said, you know, years later when we're talking about them and someone says, oh, you remember that? Doug Flutie, didn't start his first game up here and you go really? What? You know, Jeff Garcia didn't start his first game of your, I can't remember if Warren moon did or didn't, but that was before my time probably, but it's, it's not uncommon for someone to come in that we don't necessarily know much about or expect much from. And all of a sudden you've got something. Yeah. I mean, looking at the schedule here really is San Peter's. BC is really the game of the weekend and it's really kind of a scary otherwise, but I'm glad that we're learning about this as we're recording the show. So thank you. For coming on any final thoughts of you've been so great with your time? No, you don't want just a. Appreciate you doing this? I look at this, there's so many things I. I am just, we go back to the Toronto thing for a second. I don't want to end on a downer, but geez. I hope that somehow before the end of the year that they can get a decent crowd, one decent crowd in there to show some signs of life. And I, again, I don't want to. I don't want to finish this segment by just, you know, being the Sayer of doom or whatever else, but. You know, just to give some indication that there is a hope that this thing can get turned around. I would love to see the. You know, 15,000, you know, which is, which is still not enormous, but it would be a sign. It would be something. Let's hope. I mean, if people are listening in Toronto, just for the, just for the sake of appearances and, and offering a little optimism, go out and sit there and you know, you can, you can watch. Netflix on your phone while you're sitting there. If you really don't want to watch the game, just get there for once. Yeah, it's a again, I guess I just can't imagine looking at that and being like, this is fine. This is all, we're all hanging in there. So, especially, I know you gotta go, but especially after. You know, all the Canada soccer game that was played there this week. And you look at the crowd for that. And you think, okay, if you could somehow drop that crowd with the flags and the cheering and the chanting and the excitement, if you could, somehow for one game. Drop that crowd into an Argos game. You would have something because I, and again, not to go in circles. When, when TFC was before they were good. Before they won championships. Now they're bad again, but. People would go to games at BMO field there. Not necessarily a lot of people even to see soccer, they went because they wanted to be part of the excitement in the crowd. And yeah, you watch that soccer game this week and you go, man, if that could ever happen for an Argos game, you would get people coming back. Even if they couldn't care less about football, because they just love the atmosphere. I just. You know, Fingers crossed that it can happen before it's too late. Yeah. You know, I hear traffic's too bad. The stadium side in the right place. It was on a Wednesday with. I mean, you hear. [Unknown] you hear a lot of stadium? And it would go back. I mean, the Dole was too big and Bebo will solve all of our problems and an outdoor stadium and grass. And like every single thing that has always been an excuse as not turned out to be the panacea. So. Ultimately it's going to be, do people care? Do they not care? And if they don't care how to get, make them care. And if you can't make them care well, then what. Scott. Thank you so much. So gracious with your time. I really appreciate that. Hopping on here this week talking or. You know, getting through the season week 11th, And we're going to be here. I'll set up everything here, but. Well, I'm so excited. Gemma here, Tommy. I said, finally, we're getting some female voices on the podcast. I. You know, Dorothy, my wife will be very happy that where it's not the old man club anymore. We're talking with some BC lions America's CFL team. And then also I want to get your thoughts on kind of the CFL in general. How are you doing today? I'm great. Thanks. So I have that a little bit of a cold, but. I'm wonderful. Thanks for having me read. Yeah, I appreciate it. So we are going to the game this week. We're making the venture of north, my wife and I. So we're very excited. I mean, just in general for BC and everything, but especially this week to get your thoughts on that matchup, you know, like you said, before we start recording and, you know, coming off the bi-week and everything. Just first off. What have you general thoughts as we enter week 11? Are we feeling good about the season of what, what are you thinking? Yeah, I think there's a lot to feel good about this season. If you're a BC lions fan. There are obviously still areas that. Potential concern. The lack of running, being the, the number one, but I know that was going to be a focus heading into the bi-week. Another possible concern is. Poor lucky Whitehead's broken fingers. Our nephew saw the image they be posted, but that is horrific. I can't believe you tried to finish the game with two, like Grocon very broken fingers. I think that'll be something that they really have to address heading into this week. The stamps are obviously coming off two big wins over the rough, a rough riders, and we'll be hungry to keep going. I know that was the thing a couple of weeks ago. So we got a lot better about this matchup. And now Calgary's got quite a head of steam coming, you know, Bo. The Jake Mayer, right? Yeah. Obviously some concern there doesn't seem like there's any overlap. You know, between him and, and believer, but. It seemed like that was a good trustee backup to have, right. I mean, Jake's come in multiple times, played better than Bo has many games. It dawns on that, just kind of that QB dilemma. And then obviously with Jake been out now for the game. Yeah. I just saw that this morning and that's a, definitely a wrinkle in their plans for sure. As, as you said, He's been such a. Great. He's come in and really proved himself. For the stab Peters this season and to lose him. For who knows how long even just one game is. Definitely problematic. I think Michael Connor hasn't been tested. Really, definitely not this season, not much in the CFL in general. So hopefully we'll see a little bit of a Canadian QB action. But we'll, we'll see, definitely going to be a tough matchup for sure. Would he make it have both struggled so far this season, it was like he was hurt. We thought, okay. Once he comes back on the all will be good. It's taken a little while now it does seem like they're finally kind of hitting their stride. Yeah, both. I'm Mitchell is such an interesting. He's so exuberant and he's got so much passion for this game that, you know, when he's not playing well. The biggest critic is unresolved. He is his biggest critic and he will do whatever it takes to get back in that game. So I think you're starting to see that you're starting to see them come around. I don't know exactly besides the injury, what the issues were previously. But I, I wouldn't count about he's a force to be reckoned with for sure. What is it been like, you know, in BC you're kind of covering the team, right? Obviously we have the new ownership coming in. A lot of, it seems like a lot of excitement we've talked, obviously lucky being injured. Now, but you know, the excitement around him, right. And, and the costumes and things. What is it like w w would that organization, does it feel like there's kind of some fresh. Energy, some fresh blood going through there. You know, what really has the last couple of games really did feel. Like there was something like percolating and I haven't felt that for a long time around this team. Even, and even the last two games, the last two home games were weren't exactly the results that the team would want it. The Olympic game was a little bit ugly by the end, but there was young people in the stands. Which I haven't seen a ton of previously. I mean, you've still got your season ticket holders. You. Generally skew. To the, the grayer hair. But. You really starting to see a little bit of momentum with this team. And I think that's huge. I think part of it is. The. A new ownership. I think he's really making a concerted effort to really put the team out there. But he hasn't had much of a chance to do that. I think the bigger impetus for the. Excitement is the performance and, and that comes from. Michael Riley's had. Another big year. And even with this elbow injury that he's still going through and lucky Whitehead's been. Just terrific. And then we've got the, the stalwarts that have long been the backbone of this team, the Brian burdens and the TJ Lees. And even on defense, we're seeing some young guys come up in Jordan Williams and that it's, it's exciting. It's exciting time for the team. It'll be interesting. Dennis' last stretch here to see if they can pull it all together and really secure. I've spot in the playoffs, but. I think people are intrigued for the first time in a long time. Yeah, it is as competitive as the Roughriders loss was. Right. I don't think any of that similar. This could be sad about the loss to Winnipeg. I mean, I felt. Very much like a thrashing kind of from the first drive down. You have to hope coming off a bi-week right. There is more of a rebound that way. In any sense? I just, what do you think about realistically, like finding the run game in seven days or whatever, man, I just don't like, you know, they always say, well, we're going to figure this out. I'm like, you can't just develop a run game that you have not had all season. For sure, for sure. I think. It's probably something that they've been working on behind the scenes. And we just haven't seen it come to fruition on the field because. So much. Their offensive production. This season has been from those big plays. And they look great, but you can't count on them. They're not as reliable. So I think that they're starting to try and shift that bogus. I don't. Like you said, I don't think it comes about in seven days. I hope that we can see a move towards that. Come tomorrow, Saturday. But I definitely think it's going to be a process. I don't think it's going to be an automatic. Yeah. I just worry about that. I worry that it seems like they have a good momentum going in that that's a thing right. In football and you can lose it at the same time that we have Calgary, right. The Argos really, you know, heating up on the other side. And it does feel like we're having struggles at not an ideal time of year. Right? I mean, I don't care if you start four in one or whatever, but if you finish the season, you'll four and 12 or whatever. That's kind of where we start getting into questionable territory. Absolutely. Yeah. It's. You can totally stink out the joint. If you've finished with a playoff spot. But. And that's the thing. They're not stinking out the joint. They're just kind of. Losing steam. In the middle of games and that's. That's concerning for sure. I think that is something that they can address. And I'll be very interested to see how they go about tackling it, especially against a team that like you said, does have that momentum coming in and is definitely gonna be a force to be reckoned with. What is it like covering a team like the BC lions, maybe aren't on the height of everyone's radar, right? As someone younger, right. As acid. As a woman. I mean. Covering these, what, what is the, the, the vibe around the team right now, man, that we're trying to revitalize, you know, the franchise with the new ownership. Right. But what is that experience like? What I love about these guys is how much they love what they do, their passion for this game. I've talked about bullying by Mitchell's passion, but it's, it's honestly infectious throughout the league. The number. This is my third season covering the lions. And I think. I could count on one hand, the number of guys who didn't, you can feel their desire to be here and their love for football and their love for playing this game. Here in Canada as well. So I think that that's something that really resonates. I also covered the connects and the white cap. So it's three very different experiences, three very different experiences in, in the rinks and in the stadiums. And I think there's something definitely special about the CFL. You get. People have riders. Are these coming out to like a Winnipeg lions game? It's people love their team no matter what. And it doesn't matter if they're winning or they're losing, they love their team and they will. Support till the day they die. Whereas on. I would say connects fans are a little more fickle. It's interesting that, you know, now as we're approaching hockey season, I see a lot of my steadfast CFL media people online. Right. It's like immediately switching NHL. I immediately cause it's either, you kind of gotta know where the bread's buttered, right? I mean, you feel like even within Canada and when we talk about the CFLs woes and we've covered this forever, even it. It is just the second child, even in its own country, right. To the NHL. Yeah, absolutely. I do feel like that. And it's. It sucks because it is such a great experience. And like I said, the guys are so passionate, they put on the on-field product is, is really quite. Amazing. And. I don't think it's appreciated. Enough. I think, especially in BC, there's a lot of people who come from the suburbs and come in to watch games. It's not a lot of like the downtown. Coming to a. See this cool experience in a downtown stadium, whereas like you could walk and have dinner and all that. No, it's people are coming in on the SkyTrain and that's really disappointing. I don't know how you fix that. If I did, I would have a lot more money. But. I really hope that it's, that the CFL can find this younger generation and ignite. Their love for the game because it's, it's pretty special. Yeah. I mean, we're when we planned everything I thought, oh, look, you know, we're looking at the maps and stuff and we've got an Airbnb downtown, and yet we're trying to do that whole thing. That wouldn't everybody do this, but it is an odd. I, you said that most of the peoples that are watching, they're still traveling in, even though you have this. What seems like a really cool kind of hip there's like a museum and stuff, or like a science center, man, looking at the map and seeing the things. And you would think that that would be where like in Seattle with the cracking now, like that is what they're developing, right. As this hub with climate pledge and everything downtown and the bars and the hotels. It is weird. That it's not working the same way there, you know? Well, and, and for the other sports for the Canucks and the white caps. You do see that younger audience you do see. And I don't know if it's. That. People of my generation. We're brought up with the CFL. I definitely want, as my mom had [unknown]. Eskimos season tickets on the 50 yard line when I was a kid. So I grew up going to Eskimos games. And she is still like the biggest Michael Riley Stan. She's so jealous of my job all the time, but I don't know if we need to engage kids and kind of grow that love. From that level or if there's another way to go about it, but you do see it with the white caps. You see lots of families coming out to Whitecaps games with connects games. You see a lot of younger people who do live in the downtown core, who are. I'm excited about this team and wearing the jerseys, the Patterson and the queen Hughes jerseys. I don't know what the answer is, but you three very significantly different. Groups offense. For each of the teams. One thing I want to get your thoughts about, we've been tracking this a couple of weeks now is the coding for jar though of it. All right. It's. This week, our episode's called Khalifa jar. ER though, the man in black question, mark kind of like, like a Westworld thing, right? Is he going to be the white hat? Is he going to be the blackout? You know what I'm saying? Right. It's like this slow evolving he'll turn. We, we watched a lot of wrestling. What do you make of. All, all of that going in, he's going home on the bi-week, you know, it's time heal wounds. What are your thoughts on Cody? Yeah, I'm, I'm intrigued by. Magento. He had a big game out here a few weeks ago, and I thought that he was really good in his post game. You talked about how there were so many fans of the stands chamber. That, that he, you can tell what the final call was on that crazy last play. So I think. I think that his personality is maybe not. What fans are used to. But yeah, no, I'm very intrigued to see where the Saiga goes that Mr. Pichardo. Yeah. I mean, it's one of those things. Yeah. If we're winning, it's great. Right. And then, you know, calling that receivers, I mean, surely you've had to see some of those comments about it. I mean, is that something, I mean, you, you know, you've talked with players in teams, With that. What would you be mad? Like I would be mad going into the locker room later, be like, bro, you know, you. You kind of threw me under the bus here. From my experience. You can see those tensions when you. I mean this season, we're not in the locker rooms, but there have been times when people have called other teammates and you can really see the tensions in the locker room. So I can't imagine that they're just not there. I'm I'm sure he's got some dinners to pay for it to that. Kind of patch over. Any hurt feelings. But yeah, I definitely think that there's some work to be done on the chemistry of that lineup. I'm looking to see where where's this where's Cody from. Ah, That's American. I just, I'm trying to figure, because it says. A lot was made this week. He went to Nevada law was made that he was going home on the bi-week right. That he wasn't spending time maybe with the team. Is that, I mean, the lions are coming off a bi-week is that non traditional? To go home. I think a lot of guys do go home. I know some guys will have their families brought up to Canada as well, especially if they're in. Point of the season where they're kind of like a make it or break it time. But these guys also made like some time off physically and mentally to kind of reset and heal. I don't, I don't blame them for taking. For going to Nevada or wherever it looks like he's from California. California. Yeah. Which would not have guessed. I would've definitely guess like, Texas. But he just gives off a Texas. But I don't know. Sorry. Yeah, I think that he, he needed some time away from the team. To to reset. It makes that whole. Absence makes the heart that grip on your thing. He might appreciate what he's. He's got when he gets back. That's the thing is, I mean, you know, to be the lead quarterback in Saskatchewan, we have where they don't have a lot of other sports. I mean, there's just, there's a lot more of a. Yeah. It has to be one of the more higher profile quarterback positions right. In the CFL. Now that is a small standard compared to maybe some of the other leagues and things, but it's, you know, it's all in comparison. Right. And that's, that's something where I, you know, I know we don't like criticism. When it comes to the podcast, you. And so I have to imagine that it's something, but it's also, I guess, football. So you kind of have to like take that also with a grain of salt. Yeah, there's, there's definitely two sides for it, for sure. But like you said, he's under. My name microscope. Out there and just got Twain. It can be easy. We've we've started to talk a lot more about players, mental health, and good for him for saying, Hey, I need some time away, even if that's not how it was framed. Thoughts on the other two match-ups this weekend. I mean, it's, it's kind of. I was going through this with Scott Radley, right before we recorded out here. I said, this is not the most intriguing. Match-ups the other way we had Dave Campbell on talking about the Trevor Harris thing. You know, we're, we're going into Edmonton Winnipeg, right. You know, blow out before now we have, you know, former XFL quarterback, Taylor, Cornelius, I've starting for, you know, the XFL besmirching, you know, Edmonton elk. So what. Thoughts on kind of that whole dilemma that game. Yeah, I think it's. It's going to be. I don't know. I'm not particularly excited about it, to be honest. The most exciting thing is that the bombers could clench, I guess. But like if they don't do it this week, That would be, that would be a story. Is it the Alex bead the bombers, I think. These are two teams that we, we kind of know where they're at the Alex or. MSCI and the bombers aren't dominant. Like it's. I can't get too excited about that. That's it. Yeah, that's a, that's a polite way of saying that MSCI is. So that's a good, polite way of describing it. I've heard lots of other words we use to describe the oxygenation. So. And then, you know, that. These, these match-ups back to back, eh, you know, we're still learning the CFL season. Right. You know, I think earlier in the year, doing these, like back to backs and the labor, they think, I mean, now we're, we're outlets back at Ottawa again. I mean, Not a lot of juice there. Dots on Brendan Adams being, you know, going down right, is not shelter. Matthew Schiltz is, are we taking the world by storm with him? I think again, it's, it's someone who's pretty unproven. There's a lot to be seen. I'm again, not terribly excited about it. They're kind of two teams that are battle of the basement, basically. And. Aye. I thought that last week's matchup was all right. But I I'd like to see a little bit more. More of a dynamic game going in this weekend. Yeah, it's just hard. And especially where the story of the outlets all year has kind of been Vernon Adams and now Vernon Adams is out. Is that to me, it's very hard when. You know, obviously they have other guys on, on, on defense there and, and, you know, running back there that. Can drive storylines, but it is really hard when kind of the main cast character. You know, the main character of the cast goes down and then Jack, okay. Now, are we still watching? Absolutely. Are we still watching this movie? Is this movie still being made? What's happening here. And I think that that's a question that Montreal definitely asking itself. But. It's a whole next man up mentality is what they would say. So let's see what the next man can do. That's on the Argos. Seeming to gain momentum. Right? I thought that their win, although they won on Thanksgiving was very sloppy as they seemed very stagnant, even in there when, you know, the previous week. Yeah, McLeod's our guy. We did the whole episode. We'll call Bethel Thompson, king of the CFL. We all, all these things. And so it didn't seem like offensively. Right? I heard. Dinwiddie yelled at all the players afterwards. Cause it was like the worst offense, all these kinds of things. So it's like the Argos are winning, but they're not looking dominant, but yet here they are very dominant in the top, in the east. Right? What are we making of this? The east isn't great. This season. I think that's what we're making of it. I think. That. Yeah. Yeah. I think there's another locker room. That's got some challenges. When you're, when you're head, coach is calling out players. Basically. W what did you say? Something along the lines of, yeah, I didn't think we were very good on offense. Anyone except Mac or something like that. That's that's pretty strong words from a head coach. So I think that they've definitely got to get it together. If there have any hopes of making a playoff push here, but the east is the east. It's just disappointing. This season. Yeah, we've still got half a season left, but I don't think anyone's going to light a massive buyer. And going into mass history here. Yeah. I mean that, that's what I've, you know, I've heard. Right. You know, for years the east it's kind of, you know, This kind of a cluster AF right. Whatever. But, but now I'm, I, it really is. I mean, it does seem like it's Winnipeg's world. I don't even see that dynamic last year with Hamilton where it's like, okay, Winnepeg, see underdog, whatever kind of thing. I just don't see. I I'm a fearful for a very boring gray cop. I mean, I know Argos. You know, did you give women pick their one L but that was, seems like forever ago when, when they paid was even close to losing anything. Does it just seem like a juggernaut right now? And I. I. One of the people who get annoyed by teams that just went all the time. Like it's boring. So I hope that someone gives them a run for their money. I don't know. It was in a position to do that at this point. But I hope that there's a. He'll that comes in in a play spoiler. I mean, that's the thing is like, eh, I don't know. I, we watched a lot of NFL too. I'm sorry. But like, you know, you mean. The NFL is exciting this year because the chiefs are losing a lot. And that's why. That's very much more exciting than, you know, for no chiefs right now, or. And they're like two and three or whatever. That's far more exciting than five and oh, over 41. So it, it, it's hard. W, you know, when there's only nine teams to have one team that's, it's like playing with Chico. It just seems very odd that they're just head and shoulders above everybody else. It also makes it super boring to write. Like how many times can you say? Yeah. What impacts great. Everyone's doing really well. When your Harris is. Running back at the century. We all love, wait a minute. Like it's just boring. Right? Let's get some excitement in there. Let's make that. So I don't know what has to happen in order for that to take place. But. Someone's got to get in there and present sand into the gears. Yeah. Not, not Edmonton. Whereas I know it's not going to be Edmonton. I'm sorry. Final thoughts before I let you go. You've been so gracious with your time. I mean, we're, we're getting there right to the great copper. We're slowly seeing that. I saw that today Hamilton was announced that they get to host again in 2023. So I guess that will be. Exciting, this kind of a make good. Are you, are we excited for the gray cop? I mean, I've heard. I've been told for a long time now that this is a very exciting thing, but yet it seems like it's a Winnipeg one way ticket. It does. And it also could be so cold. Like, do you want to go to Hamilton in the middle of December? I do not. Well, I guess like I very much do. Cause I would love to go and cover a great cop. But it sounds cold. So this west coast. Girl does not. Get excited about. The middle of December in. Southern Ontario. I, I will get excited if the matchup. Becomes any more interesting right now it's just one impact versus everybody. And when I steamrolls and I'd like to see someone. Come out of the woodwork and a. Just offer them a little bit of resistance. Just a little. It's really hard. I mean, just the last couple of weeks here it's it's gotten where like, okay, I thought maybe BC would give them a run. And I just, it's really hard to get that excited. And, and we're, I mean, we have tickets by, I mean, today we have to get our ticket tickets, but we have like, we're going. So, I mean, worst case I will be out in front of Tim Horton's with a megaphone, you know, that we will. So I really hope, you know, my wife picked when the peg at the beginning of the season, right. So of course now it's this whole thing, but I am very concerned about that. But in terms of excitement, if it's just when the big versus a world, I don't know, Your wife is a smart lady. Oh, so I've been. Did you have a thank you so much for your time and coming on? I hope you have fun. You know, we'll, we'll be at the game this weekend. I hope you have fun covering the game and we'll be wearing bright orange jackets, but I'm sure everyone else will be too. At the BC place. So I'll wait from. At you from the press box. That'll be good. Yellow. We're in a we're in two 16. We're in section two 16. I look for the tall guy and that will, will have rise in orange. You know? No, not really. So. So you just kind of, you know, this is kind of like a, you know, like a, a learning experience as well. So, you know, just. A wealth of information and that we'd go in to put it out there. Cool. All right, well, we'll get going here and we'll. I appreciate well, and then we'll put all this together. I'll post it. I'll go tomorrow morning. So we'll, we'll post it out. I appreciate it. Well, this is exciting. We have had a lot of XFL stuff break today. We got Jeffrey, Pawlik being stepping down to the CEO and president, and now we have a lot of USFL staff it's been coming out this week. The Birmingham talk. A big article with Dylan Smith from yellow hammer came out. We were going to go on that, go through it on the show. And I figured let's get the man on that. Did the work and give him some credit for putting this together and see your thoughts. So I, Dylan, thank you so much for joining. How are you doing? I'm doing good in how much you were doing. Good. So you're in Birmingham, Alabama. It's right. I'm actually in the extreme Northeast corner of Alabama, but we covered there. The entire state. So. That's good that I keep that we're, we're used to talking with Canadians with their accents and we'll we'll man, this three year, your Albanian accent. And that'll be good. So I'm, I'm kind of, we're kind of going through this together. We've had the USFL a couple of days ago. You know, we saw they they're talking to Birmingham. So we've covered the USFL for when it was the spring league. You know, from Brian Woods, he, you know, did kind of a bubble league in San Antonio. And then last year they did. Houston and Indianapolis. So then, you know, in the off season that came out, Brian Woods has picked up a lot of the USFL trademarks things from back in the day. So this is the first we really heard about. Okay, we're going to Birmingham. We're setting up a hub city there. When did you learn about all this? Cause, I mean, I'm probably way deeper in this and maybe you were on first blush. So how did this all come to you? Well, this, this all just, you know, It's been in the works for a while. And it's something that, you know, y'all hear mill news learned of, you know, pretty recently. In terms of, you know, more details. And that have, that have emerged. So, you know, so, so what we've learned, we, we put it together and we thought that, you know, is extremely newsworthy. It's going to be a huge, a huge. You know, Boone to, to the entire, really the entire state. And the city of Birmingham. But, I mean, it's just, it's great for football fans, you know, of, you know, all across the United States. You know what I mean? W we as football fans, You know, we fall, it's our prom. Right. But. I mean, you know, Well, the spring lake like this. I think it really engages a lot of, lot of the football fans all across the country. 'Cause, you know, we want football all season long. I think. You know, the more football. We get that the better. So, you know, I, I think you don't, I think it's a great opportunity for all involved and, and we, we're certainly excited. Hope, hopefully going to say material last year soon. Yeah. So, you know what kind of happened, right? You. So Brian Woods has been on our show a couple of times, CEO of the spring league. So, you know, when it came out earlier this year that he was purchasing a lot of the USFL trademarks was going to go in with Fox. They were going to do all this thing. I think the immediate thought from a lot of fans was okay, we're going to have eight or 10 cities, you know, spread off across the country. Right. We're going to do all this. And even when Brian was on our show, he had talked about his longterm plan of. Doing another hub city or a couple of different hub cities, right. Maybe associating the teams with cities, but you know, to go from one hub city to eight or 10 cities is a huge undertaking in six months or a year. And so I don't know if this is what people want. I think this is great for the continuation of the league. Right. And certainly for, for Birmingham, I mean, some of the quotes I see in here from some of the city leaders talk about the excitement that, that, I mean, they're talking, this is the biggest sporting opportunity here since the Olympics. I mean talk about some of the excitement. I mean, you've been to these meetings now with some of the, you know, the, the city officials. Yeah. So I, you know, really, I think that, that, that the elected leadership. That represents Birmingham and the greater Birmingham area. Yeah, they see this as a tremendous opportunity. You know, in, in, in the realm of sports, But also, you know, it can pour out into, into other aspects of the economy. Of Birmingham and, and the state as a whole. You know, you're looking at tax receipts going up. So that's tax additional tax revenue for the city for further investment. And to, you know, you've got protected laugh stadium, which is, which is an. Grant. Facility to host something like this, that, that Fox sports is, it has proposed a Birmingham. And also you've got Legion field rock, which, which, you know, that's, you know, the, the older legacy top field that, that Birmingham has that'll serve as a practice field. And I feel for additional games. So I think that the city leaders really say this as a golden opportunity to really put Birmingham on the map. You're talking about billions of minutes and Eric, Tom exposure. With with, with a prestigious name. Black Fox news and another one of our broadcast network partners, which is, you know, as, as article stated, believed to be NBC. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's just the golden recipe and you know, you really couldn't dream of a better deal. You know, rod, if you're Birmingham. So the elected leadership is certainly very excited about. Yeah, that was something that struck a lot of people from this article was, you know, we knew that Fox was in connection with Brian Woods. Right. They, they were kind of in conjunction, you know, bringing NBC into this, to carry a part of that. How did that come out or how did you guys learn about that? Well, you know, it's, we just believe it's, it's part of the greater deal, you know, it's it's, which obviously it's not officially announced yet, but it's kind of understood that that's who. You know that that's who it would, the other partner would be. And so, you know, you've got Fox coupled with their. You know, potential partner with. With NBC that it's just, it makes for extraordinary. Visibility for Birmingham. On the national stage. And so, you know, and, and this is, this is different, you know, because you've seen. You've seen these loops come up, rotten, you know, this better than you by probably, I mean, they've, they've come up and they felt. Whether it's because of, you know, mismanagement. You know, in terms of the finances or, you know, operational cost or whatever it might be. This is really, we've not had a situation like this before, where. Network has, has approached local stakeholders and said, Hey, we're taking the lead on this. And, and so M in boxes. You know, you've got, you know, foxes that the number one football network. And you've, you've got the whole umbrella of Fox, which is, you know, On and operated by the Murdoch family. And, you know, you, Gus Johnson. Reggie Bush flew into Birmingham and, and hell. Help meetings with local stakeholders. And so, and you know that you've got Fox sport reporting directly to Rupert Murdoch. On the deal. So I mean this obviously a very important to Fox. That this gets done. And it's just a once in a lifetime opportunity. Do you know, if, if the Birmingham put together a package for Fox and Fox reach out to Birmingham, I mean, it cause. I don't know what would make more sense of a city? You know, it doesn't seem like that would have been the top of the list. Right? Initially. I mean, just when you're the top 10 cities, whatever, obviously USFL has history with the Birmingham stallions, rather than I know that some of the officials have been asked about it and we was that the connection. Do you know why, why Birmingham? You know, I think, I think they probably took a look at it and they said, you know that because like you mentioned that they had the stallions. But so there's history there. But I think that, you know, looking at a prom location, look, you've got, you've got a very friendly environment and in the greater Birmingham area, Rob, because you have. The infra infrastructure there. You got the facilities. You've got the fans. You've got the, the larger support network. You've got the hotel accommodations. You've got the entertainment. So all the rot makings are there for Birmingham to, to really, you know, host a successful. Season of this and for it to be the central hub. Now, you know, as you stated, I mean, it's going to happen somewhere. And so if, you know, if for some reason this does not materialize, they'll go somewhere like San Antonio or somewhere else. But, but they, the, I believe they set their sock that Fox sports sets its thoughts on Birmingham because of the. All the things that we just, that we just mentioned. Some of the numbers here, you know, where they're talking about audience views, right? 1.4 million, 700,000 on cable. Where did the Fox presented those numbers? Where did those numbers come from? Those are Fox estimates. Yes, those are Fox estimates and they do believe that. That those numbers. You know, our reflection of, of their top of the audience, of the viewership. They would have so. You know, just, just for someone who from an outsider's perspective is covering this, you know, and, and, you know, as a journalist. It's just, it. That's pretty impressive. And I think that it will garner huge attention and it's like, they stated, you know, this is it's a spring league, so it's the only football. And action going on in the country at that time. And so, you know, Americans love football. So I mean, it's, you know, And obviously I think it's going to be something that's. You know, huge interest to, to all the football fans across the country. Just a couple of quick. I just want to clarify Stefan here. Cause I don't, some things get lost in semantics. We've had the same thing with XFL staff with Ms. Garcia and Dwayne Johnson stuff. It says on here, Fox sports is serving. They have acquired all the copyrights of the USFL. You know, trademarks and brands. There's questions about that because like Brian Woods is owned some foxes on some, is that just Fox and Brian kind of as a package, owns all that or have those, do you know, have those rights been transferred to Fox now? No, I, I. I honestly don't know the specifics on how that went about what your snow, that. Then that is that, that is the case that they have acquired all, all brand names. So that's, that's the branding to the USFL as a whole. And the writing of the former team. So they could use the former teams in that, which I'm sure you know, is. Is is very, I mean, it's nostalgic. So I think that the fans would be of this former league would be excited to see those, those same things back in action. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I just. Cause like we get all that and people get caught with. So what does that mean? Yeah. So, if it's been presented at Fox is collectively owns all that. That's interesting for us and our listeners to kind of track all this as you would be amazed with people like track where the trademarks and stuff exists. But as far as, and then it says on here either. The 250, 200 million investment from Fox with a gold raise, another 250. A million, that number I believe is over a three-year period. Right? I've seen multiple figures out there. It's like 50 million a year or a 200 million that we're where are those numbers coming from? That's right. Yeah. I think that those are, those are numbers that they tossed around, that they discussed. And I believe that is over, you know, over a, an extended period of time. But, you know, it's and it's, these are, these are well to do investors to that. That we understand that they're speaking with. So, you know, from, from what we understand, they, these are profit venture. So, so these are, it's going to be well-funded. And, you know, I believe, you know, one of, one of the senators. Commented. You know, in, in the store to Yellowhammer news, that. That this, this financing is, you know, it's kind of unprecedented to, I mean, because it's strong. It's going to be built on a, on a strong fundraising apparatus. I mean, because you've got, you know, Fox sports in and with it and you just set the whole name, it carries it. Right. So it's, it's easy to get behind something. And throw dollars at something that you know was going to be successful because just, you know, my pure opinion, I don't think Fox with. What would enter into something that they felt could potentially fail? Because I'm in, they have such a they're the most track record more. You know, recognizable name out there. So, I mean, it's, it's a prestigious brand and I don't think they would get behind something or propose something that they thought would potentially fill. So I think for that reason, they probably, they're probably going to have. You know, a good amount of. Of strong investment. Is he. It's his engine. Cause it's, it's talking investments from Fox and then raising the additional money that Fox is putting forth a lot of that money, which we weren't really sure about. Cause. You know, Mr. Woods has had very past. You know, air. So we've been told. So, you know, when all this came about where it was, you know, Brian Woods was working with Fox. The question a lot was where is the money coming from to fund all this? And the understanding is that Fox is investing that from Fox itself, the 200 million. Yeah, that's right. That's right. Yeah. From from box. That's a direct investment from them, from what we understand. And then, then that additional, I think. To two 50 coming from. You know, additional funding sources. And so, and from what we, we, we understand that they are. You know, Pretty wealthy. You know, private individuals. Because, I mean, I think XFL new soap, which is our kind of mother. You know, whatever site that we're on, commented in their article today, you know, this is the first time that really a sports network has gone on. I know the NBC back in oh one was pretty connected to the XFL, but this is like the first time the sports. Network is saying like, we are running with this league, this is our league. We are investing money in this. Right. So it's, it's interesting from that regard that they, they feel so strongly about that. Oh, that's. Yeah, you're exactly right. I'm. And I think that should give a lot of people, faith and confidence, right. Because, you know, we can get our hopes up that there's going to be a new football league. And, you know, this is not a relaunch. You know, they're not billing it as a rewatch. This is a brand new league. And I don't know the specifics on the rules, but it's, you know, they're kind of, it's like, you know, providing a fresh update for, you know, for football. Yeah. From what the NFL rules are, you know? There are scenarios where it can make for some exciting comebacks and, you know, just things like that, using some innovative technology. So, you know, from what, from what we understand, so. Yeah, Falk. Like you said Fox coming into this whole. All deal and carrying their weight behind it. That that should, I think, you know, set a lot of people's fears as. I follow. Is this going to be another, this is coming another leg that, that fails. No, it's not because Fox carries it. And then just confirming out here, you know, we have eight teams, 10 week season, all those things for those numbers provided from Fox. And I mean, those are confirmed numbers. Are those. Estimations in terms of timeframe and the number of teams. Yes, sir. That's right. Those. Those those are what. Fox plans. In cans to implement. And so it will be over a 10 week regular season. And then I do believe an additional three weeks for playoffs and a championship game. Do we know how long this, these talks have been ongoing? Like when, when did this, cause you said it's been some time it's gone back a little bit. How long has it been in the works? I guess. Yeah, I believe it has been in the works. Probably since June or July of this year. From, from what, from what we understand. And. You know, and that's, you know, it seems like, yeah. I mean, that's, that's not, that's not too long of a, of a month stretch there, but I mean, it seems like this kind of materialized pretty quick. And then Fort and you know, right now we're kind of like on a threshold rock. You know, I've heard the expression, you know, we're on the one yard line. We've got to punch it in. So, so really it's going to take an all hands on deck effort. I know there's a lot of local stakeholders that want to see this happen, but it's a lot of different governmental entities. That. You know that we'll have to come together and say, you know, if there's additional funding sources that we need to provide, you know, for an operational costs. You know, $0. Got a Fox. So, you know, so it's, it's really just the stadium overhead. Protective law. And, you know, and they, they invest an extraordinary amount of money into protective offstage. And you would think to host events such as this. I just can't stress. How, how big of an economic opportunity this is for that, for that area? And for the states that in general, Yeah. I mean, I'm just looking, I was looking at ESPN. I was just trying to figure out timeline wise. You know, June 3rd was kind of when the. The news started coming out, that they were deleting a launch in the ATM's and the USFL. So that timeline makes sense of a June, July. And I mean, it is, and that was the thing was, you know, all these people thought, well, how is, you know, how are they going to do this over six months and goes on? It's like, well, no, because they're going to do. Bigger D you know, it's, it's, it's much more. It's much easier to run through one city like this and do it that way. Any other stuff that has struck you? I I've done my best with my journalism background that kind of pour through the article. You know, in a different life before all this, I was on your side of everything. What, any other takeaways that you've had from this? And maybe I didn't ask about. No, I think, I think we, I think you did a good job of covering it and I know your audience really appreciates it because it's something that. It's an intrigue to a lot of people. And I mean, I mean wrongfully. So rod, I mean, it's something new. I think that I think that the. The exposure aspect of it. I think that, to me, I find that very interesting because. From, from what we learn with Fox. Intending to launch very and put it, put that in bold, very aggressive advertising campaign. I mean, they're going to advertise this thing. The USFL. And it's games, you know, on, on some of the most recognizable and most popular. Nationally broadcast shows. And so, I mean, so that's, I think that's a big deal that they're willing to put that much commitment. And effort into it. Who has been representing this from Fox on the Fox side. You know, I, I don't. I don't know the inner workings of. Fox personally of who they're, you know, who they're, you know, Having interact with the local stakeholders and every, and everything like that. I do know that they have brought in big, you know, some of their, some of their larger breasts to communicate this whole deal with them. As I mentioned earlier, you know, Gus Johnson and Reggie Bush, two recognizable names with Fox. And so, but, but in terms of the boots on the ground, who's facilitating this. I would assume that there are multiple people with box that, you know, that are doing that just because of the, you know, of the, everything that surrounds the deal. But, but yeah, so that's, that's, that's what we understand. And then the last question, sorry. I have has Ryan Woods name and brought up with all in any of these discussions. Have you, I mean, before I've started talking to all this today with that, have you heard a lot about Brian Woods? No, honestly not. No, I've not. Yeah. So, so now with you mentioning that as that's some of the first that we've, we've, we've. No, I individually have pepper personally, so, but no. Okay. Yeah, this. I'm just trying to work all this out and figure it, you know? Cause we it's hard getting information from that side of the stuff. So this is good. Well, I don't, I appreciate your time, you know? Peppering you with all these questions about all of this. But I certainly appreciate you taking the time. And I think that our audience is really going to appreciate kind of your openness and willingness to come on and talk through all this. That's been helpful. No. Hi man. Look, I really appreciate you, you know, being interested in the story and you'll hammer. News and thanks for having me on, man. I really do appreciate it. When the hub comes we'll we'll, we'll do a weekend. We would've done with the spring last year, they were in Indianapolis and we would've done all that trips with. You know, the pandemic going on, it was challenging, but maybe if we can get past all that we can get out to Birmingham.

Episode 61 - Edmonton’s Worst Week Ever

I like your action green. Your Seahawk Thursday night football jersey. A lot of people are starting to make comments online about how ugly they were. And I've always liked how good they looked. This is cam chancellor's Jersey. It's an authentic action. Green. I got this a few years back and yeah. You know, I just wanted to kind of say. I like the action green read likes the action green. And if you don't like the action green wallet, two words for you. I like it. I. I I've not [unknown] Jersey. It would be an action green Jersey side. Use your Washington football mark all the way now. Hey, we leave. Leave. The Falcons this week, I, I went to the bar. It was on cause in Seattle it's damn near impossible. Washington football game, but it was on like one TV in the corner of the bar. And I got to watch, I got to watch Taylor, hi Nikki with the game winning, you know, pass and run. And it was great. Did you hear his post-game conference poet? Well, he was saying, how is it? Yes. Without him sleeping on the couch with his sister and his, her. His brother-in-law. Yeah. I mean, he's like, that's the, every man he's the, every man he is succeeding. He's so humble. I have a story about him later on being called, like baby Russell Wilson. I mean, the players really like him. There's a lot, but. There's a lot of good will there. Right. And that's what is discovered by these alternate football leagues. I think that's cool. Well, very cool stuff. I've got a big show today. Reed talks to you. Jeff Hamilton, from the Winnipeg free press. Chris Welby Waldo. From the former three. Time, grey cup champion Winnipeg. And then I met baker, man. Manager of communications contents. Yeah, we got to get, yeah. Yeah. Chris, Chris will be three time, Greg. The way that peg is one, may many, many great cops. He went, but Chris lobby, when, when he found out that Dorothy was a fan of Billy. I think Chris wants to steal my wife now. I think I've been Chris Mavi. He's like Dorothy glaucoma with me. I mean very lively interview with Chris. Jeff has always good. We've talked with Jeff before. Jeff has a lot of things today. We kind of did like. There's a lot of stuff going on right now. There's the Edmonton thing. There's a Kenny Lawler thing. There's the Eddie steel getting, let go from Chad radio, all the different stories. We kind of do all that with, with Jeff. Chris gets into a little bit of that. And then we kind of do like Winnipeg more seasoned. We can preview stuff. And then, you know, BC lions are on the bi-week, but we are invading Canada next week. So we have Matt baker at, he has a fan. Of the America's CFL team, that the campaign that we're doing. I've also told him to make sure that Mr. Domin knows what a mark cast is. So I think that we are on a good, good. We're getting in there. We're going to, he said, they're going to wave to us. He knows where we're sitting at the game. They might have some stuff for us. You know, when we go. So. Very cool stuff for you. Maybe possibly. I'm rolling. My Argos who put the hurting on the red logs. This week. It was beautiful, man. That was good. Yeah. When you have like three, that sounds in one quarter. It depends. The I very happy with my fantasy fix this week. Courtesy of listener max, we did all Ottawa and we did all Ottawa and Argos fantasy. Cause they're both playing twice this week. So the players cost a little bit more, but like Ottawa even got as a ton of points because they just couldn't score touchdowns. Like Caleb admins would throw the ball to the 10 yard line and then get it picked. So we would still get. It was like the best of both worlds. You know, what. Makes sense. Paul happy fan controlled football Newsday. I saw that. And before, before we start the show, I just want to explain to Jim Mullen, the reason why I'm wearing this ad right now is because my gangs. Completely crapped the bed. One two. My family's from Bushwick. From Bed-Stuy. So then from Brooklyn, And three. My best friend. She's a huge Dodgers fan. So. That's why. That's okay. That's okay. I'd rather have the old school XFL mark castle into the, I thought that was fun. I mean, you can't buy those anymore. It's a limited. But anyway. Ah, we have fingertip up on these. We're going to get two legends in the show, and then we're going to break down all the XFL NFL. It's not a partnership at. We're going to talk about all that. So we got lot of CFL staff. I feel like I'm rod Peterson. Now I'm like apologizing for talking about XFL stuff on a CFL podcast. 'Cause like rod now, like apologizes for talking about CFL era. Yeah. I apologize about talking about CFL staff. I'm like, Hey, we gotta talk MFL. Like, right. You're a, you're a radio. You're a Canadian radio personality. And he was like, he was like, the guy in the bar says he wants to hear more about the NFL, not about the CFL. It's like, well, don't cater to that audience of one rod cater to the audience you already have, who wants to hear about the CFL? That's just my phone. Yeah. So we're going to do CFL all of this stuff. Then we got a lot of XFL and then we've got, w w we'll do finger told there at the end. Breaking news. First and foremost. The BC Alliance waken out, they fall. The XFL mark or the mark has the account back on Twitter. So there all is right in the world. Congratulations on getting that call back. I lost Paul's camera there for a minute. I don't. There we go. I'm back. That's okay. Anyway, so BCLI is. Also you'll notice I have I'll it'll be changed by the time. This is area by that lost my big bat to Milt Steagall, you know, CFL hall of Famer. I called out Matt baker in the lions and our interview. I said, you really made me look foolish in front of the. Milt Steagall, but I took the Winnipeg logo and I flipped it upside down on the kind of like the Ms. You said you had WIB, so it looks like a mark cast. M I thought that was so freaking smart of me splinter. That is a very clever way to, to fulfill that bet. Yeah, so that that'd be good. I. Lots of. No, no one did that this week. Obviously the lines are off also. Th this thing can get as much traction as I wanted, but I was really excited about this. CFL and twisted T are doing a, like a giveaway to go to the grey cup and I'm like, oh, okay. So I. I look at the rules. It's like, Must be illegal Canadian citizen. I go. Just more gatekeeping. From the CFL came from this. I mean, I understand. I think Brayden's buying that. I'm kidding. I'm totally kidding. I understand like tax ramifications of why we can't do that, but I know Paul, we need to promote more independent Canadian football platforms. Just not the ones that people don't like, the ones that people disagree with, then we can't promote those. But. You know, we're homers about it, then, you know, promote those. Yeah. We're going to talk about Randy. Danny and the Rocklea during the show. Oh, this is just a side note. So Dorsey, this isn't fast. Fascinating for me. So you're going to be so excited because we're going to get to have more bachelor talk on the podcast. So we back in the day, you know, Brandon silvers or the XFL dragons looked like the guy chased, whatever that was on the battery. So I didn't know. There's a Dorothy and I are so far behind on watching bachelor. So they've announced a new bachelor. His name is Jesse Palmer. He's like famous, right. He played for the first. Yeah. He's the new host. Yeah. Yeah. So that was a new bachelor. Yeah. No, no, no, no. Jesse Palmer. Yes, the Palmer former NFL quarterback played half a season in 2006 with the macho outlets. So former CFL quarterback. Jesse bomber is going to be the host of the bachelor. That's awesome. That's good news for him. He used to be on the bachelor. I think he was. He was, he was the bachelor and this also, I am drinking right now. We're watching Thursday night football. So you're like, why is free? So excited right now. That is what's happening. It was a long day. But yeah. That's okay. Also happy Thanksgiving Monday in Canada. I didn't know this was a thing, but this is, we have it's Thanksgiving, candida weekend. Some people say it's the real Thanksgiving. I don't know. But I'm happy Thanksgiving, Canada, Thanksgiving, Monday to. The Canadians. Does that mean their Christmas shopping starts Tuesday. I wouldn't call it the episode that I didn't realize that I call the, the episode Edmonton's worst week ever, because Edmonton like Naveen is going to write for the Edmonton Alex. I thank God. Every day I wake up and I'm not an Edmonton Alex fam. So anyway, but happy. Yeah. Happy Thanksgiving Monday in Canada. Also, I'm thinking in two weeks, we'll talk about this. We might have a Thursday we might record maybe, and then air the episode on Thursday. Cause all my guests seem to only be able to record on Wednesday. And so I thought, well, maybe we could record. We'll talk about it, but I just thought just, I just wanted to put it out there. Not alive show nothing crazy. Just. You know, just maybe post the episode early. Cool. Well, last week's games, the red blacks took up, took out the Elks 34, 24. The LOL. 23, the Hamilton targets 20, the blue bombers. 30 Over B reads BC lines that are not American. So CFL. NFL team and the stamps beat the Roughriders 23 to 17. Yeah. Surprising there, obviously, you know, Roughriders, they're going to do it again this week. Again, it's like all these flippy flops. So San Peters are going into Saskatchewan this week. You know, curious to be what happens there. Bo Levi sat out at the end of the game last week. He says he feels better this week per. I have a story coming up here for a non-friendly of the show. You know, Danny Austin, you know, when he writes his articles, he titles them from Daniel Austin. Okay. I mean, like, are you Danny Austin or are you Daniel? Austin? I don't need to be. Anyway, I begins this week, very talking about the Argos, all that. So then Elk's obviously facing Winnipeg. We're going to preview that with ACRIS Wabi coming up the flippy floppy Stampeders at Roughriders I red box outlets, and then the Argos to get. It's like do other teams are playing twice this week. It's a crazy, it's like a five week. Two of the games are on Monday. It's truly a phenomenal week there. And obviously you see the, the pickups. So shout out to COVID for doing that for us and those pickups. Those are interesting. What was Christina thinking here with this pick? The red blocks are really. Am I reading that right now with. Now, this is after the fact and everybody picked the Argonauts. That's right. No, this is for this coming week. Yeah. So obviously everyone's speaking. Winnepeg. Ah, You know, pat Steinberg he's out, he passed sideburns, kind of like a, he's a, he's a Calgary mark. He really likes Calgary. And then obviously Hamilton being Toronto itself. The big story this week, and obviously the title of the episode Edmonton's worst week ever. So there's all this stuff going on. We talked last week about Brock Sanderlin the, you know, the GM of the Alex. He is not vaccinated. They've had 17 players be vaccinated, all this stuff. The latest thing that came out about this is Eddie steel, who he does like the play by play for Chad, you know, six 30, Chad, whatever I, he was on rod show last week, he had some bad things to say he was on the pregame show on the radio and they just did they, I just added this. He was on Jason Gregor show and he called the Alex bottom feeders of the CFL, which is. You know, I mean, whatever. They've let him go. So there's all this drama because it's like, It's Chad gets the game. They're like connected to the Elks, but it's supposed to be separate, right? Right. We can say whatever we want. You go to the IGA, like the, the issues that right. Yeah. Completely like when, when someone, so for example, there was an incident at. At K delay. Since. My last day is today. Technically. Oh, sorry. Start a new job. There was a guy that went on social media and sort of bashing the Dodgers a K deal. I had a partnership with daughters, so they were like, get the f**k outta here. Yeah. Jettison now the building. So this happens, this does happen. Yeah. So ed, you got to, I talked with Chris while we about this because Chris, obviously a former player with Winnipeg. Chris also does a lot of broadcasting. So I said, You know, like Chris. You kind of get both sides of this because you know, you have your freedom of speech as a player and you mean you should have your freedom of speech as a broadcaster, but then when you're a broadcaster in, in like you're in a relationship, you. It's it gets murky with all of that. Right. Cause you're the media and the independent media. But if you're with like a station sponsored media, Very very, very messy. Luke. Melinda. He does the rough riders. He thinks that they should be ashamed, lots and lots of drama. Nothing is going right for Edmonton right now. Look, I mean, I completely understand the freedom of speech argument. That's great. Freedom of speech can protect you from not getting criminally prosecuted for things you say. And granted, unless you were like actually assaulting someone and saying I'm going to kill them, that. That's a different story, but like you don't have freedom of consequences from a private company. Hiring you like that's you still have to F. You know, you have still have to abide by their terms and conditions when you take that job. So like I understand it's kind of petty and nonsensical to fire the guy, but at the same time, freedom of speech does have consequences. To some extent. It's just, it's not good. It's one of those things like Joe Rogan used to get into that a lot. Right. When he was like criticize like sponsors and things and, you know, w we want these people to have their voice, but then there's obviously like money in seven balls. Right. And, you know, that's why. Like, it's great to BC lions, follow us, whatever, you know, that's great, but I never want to have like, Some XFL podcast, right? You. I had like a partnership with the XFL. Like, then you get into like, well, what can we talk about? And what can't we talk about versus like, I don't want fan controlled football to like us at all, because then we can talk about them. Whatever. It's very incestuous. When you, when you become like, Like a, basically a mouthpiece for whatever you're supposed to be objectively covering. It's really like, it just, it brings your credibility in the question. Yeah. So anyway, so this is going to, he's making the rounds right now, right. You know, he is a former Edmonton player. Not really good. It sounds like he's going to get picked up somewhere else, right. Either kind of do his own podcast or maybe get picked up by somebody else. Jeff has a lot more things to say about this as well. Right. Jeff is someone that like writes for a Winnipeg and does a lot of press things. So I wish I had that out, but. Really not a good luck continuing with this. The other story that came out today with Edmonton yesterday, today, whatever, with all of this is Robin Brownlee. He. He's a Edmonton media person came out. So this Joey Moss was someone, he was like a developmentally disabled, dry had special needs. And he was the mind that was around without like Wayne Gretzky and the hockey team. And then with the Edmonton. And he would kind of be like in the locker rooms and hoo rah, rah, and you know, really hanging out with the guys and they were having fun with them. Well, it's come out, but like maybe Brock Sanderlin the GM of the Edmonton also was like, we don't want this guy around. He's a distraction. Traction. Right. Jeff has a lot of things to say about this in the interview as well, but he was basically like beloved. Across em. You know, everyone loved him and it seems like maybe the GM thought that that was a distraction. So that's kind of the other thing. And of course the ALEKS issued a statement saying the Elks categorically deny that any member of the club's management requested that Joanne. No longer be part of the organization, the green and gold cherish. Joins presence around the team and respect the important role he played. With the organization for decades, I'm not buying it. I'm not buying it. This is. They're talking about the cultural issues and Edmonton, and like you guys have serious cultural issues. The opposite way of what you're trying to maybe, maybe want to perpetuate this culture. I don't know what's going on. You guys are a mess. You guys are a mess. Yeah. And then we talked about, I talked about what you have to have the, there was like one of the equipment managers that he had been with the team for like 49 years. They let him go before his 50th year. He just a lot of things going on right now there, you know, not necessarily related to football, but then obviously you're, you know, we're in the middle of the season. We're, you know, we're, we're going into Winnepeg this week and trying to face that. So I don't, yeah. As a team. I, you know, obviously football is secondary to a lot of these like personal issues, but it's something that is certainly becoming alarmingly weird that like Edmonton is the only team that has had any COVID issues. Like at all. Like no one else, like not one other hemophilia, anything. This is, this is like, it's becoming a thing where every week we're talking about something battled Edmonton, like we'll talk about one bad thing with. When the bag here go three weeks. Nothing will happen. One bad thing about Toronto here. Three weeks. Maybe one bad thing about Hamilton every six weeks. Every week, we're talking something bad about Edmonton. Is this the culture you want Edmonton. Is this the culture you're your nickname got canceled because it's offensive to Intuit people. And now, like there's a difference, different culture in place, and it's not a good culture. Yeah. So, you know, obviously a Brock is getting called, I mean, Who knows. I mean, this is still going. I mean, we could wake up tomorrow and there could be more, you know, fallouts from all this. I mean, obviously we're recording late on Thursday, but it's really kind of an evolving situation now where. Management you. Current players. The players that got like go right? Like the Derek Dennis's of the world were unhappy getting, let go, can he Stafford right. Be made. An example of, Hey, we don't want this guy in our locker room. So anyway, it's something we're going to keep up, but yet Edmonton. Definitely the worst week ever. Thus far. Interesting stuff. This other yeah. So the other kind of thing this week. Drama staff. So Kenny Lawler, he's like the star wide receiver for Winnipeg. Kenny got a DUI the other day. Luckily nobody was hurt thankfully. Right? I mean, drinking and driving is not great. Kenny came out, you know, the team issued in apology, Kenny issued an apology. Can, he's not going to play in the game this week, you know, he's being suspended temporarily. So it's one of those things where Kenny is getting a lot of heat right now. And I understand that it's a serious situation, but also the league, the team, everybody is being incredibly upfront about it. Like the second day found out it happened. I have nothing else to add to that. I completely agree with you. Yeah. I mean, so they released this statement. I just, you know, it's one of those. I've just seen a lot of people online, like really, really. Say mad things about Kenny. I agree. Drinking, driving. Isn't great. But it's one of those things, like if we can learn from any of this, if Kenny can turn this around and make a positive about it, that's something that we need to be in support of the Bible. DUI. I I've heard. I've had friends that have like tremendous monetary value, right. That you're. Tens of thousands of dollars in the states to find all this stuff, you know, to go through all the processes. So like the last thing we need is like nameless Twitter, people yelling at Kenny, but I, you know, hopefully he'll get all this going. And thankfully Winnipeg really handled this correctly. So kudos for them. Yeah, first, first name, bunch of numbers is definitely the person you want to seek out for a great opinion on something on Twitter. Vaccine air travel update Naylor posted the following on Wednesday. Now being told by federal government source, that previous information given to him was incorrect. Apparently Canadians flying after October 30th will be able to fly with only a negative test until the end of November. And that means a. On VAX to see if our players can get to road games in November. Apparently. Really, it was thought they had to be in the process of getting Baxt. The end of November means there's still some games to be played after November. So this seems like this might affect some great cup stuff. You got east-west finals on December 5th and then you have the gray cup on the 12th. So both of those. Games are very, very much, cause this came out right. The nailer came out and said, Hey. It was really thought like end of the end of October, you're not going to be able to travel unless you have. They said like you either either needed to have something scheduled or have one shot or whatever. And then the dealer went on the TV last night, he was on the broadcast and he said, As long as you have a negative test, you're going to be good through the end of. November, but it is like big time if you're getting into the finals and you can't travel with the team, that's, there's some long road trips, you know, when BC's got to travel to I'm kidding. BC, but yeah. Initially, I mean, This is also interesting. So we have five teams now that have reached the 85% vaccinated. BC Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Hamilton, and Montreal. Surprise. Toronto's not in there. Let's get it together. Toronto need you to get it together. But, I mean, th that's interesting, cause we I've never seen it listed like that where we would have the five teams so far of nine, right. That we know that they've reached 85%. Yep. Cody for Gerardo spazzed out like a child in the rough riders, sideline apologized for it. He spazzed it. He said, I spelled it out like a Chubb on silent. Like someone took my toy away. During the, the loss to Calgary. It's not the only place you spazzed out. Cody spazzed out on Twitter, too. He says, I left the frustrations of the game and the motions of the game affect me afterwards. I wasn't raised like that. It's been a tough weekend. I mean to not only lose the game, but also to know you've heard some people's feelings and I didn't want it to come across that way. You did her reads freedoms. Yeah, I think it is. I said, you know, this all came about. When you, when you watch this on Twitter, I tried to find this. Jeff and I, we have a good vantage about this. This is like the Cody for jar though. He'll turn right now is the most fascinating thing to me in the world. It's like, he comes out, you know how like when someone's in wrestling and if you're a good guy, right. And then, and then you begin the process of becoming the bad guy, right? Like it's a slow turn. And so they'll come out and like beat somebody up and then, oh, no, like there'll be. That'd be remorseful about it. And then the next week, then come back out and do it again. That's like Cody right now, he came out, he blasted his teammates. He say he didn't have the talent there to throw it to them. They signed duke Williams coming out. That will. We have a note here. And then, then he comes out. I'm really sorry. I didn't really mean all that. Well, I mean, you got your way, you got a new receiver sign, but now next week, are we going to get this again? If you, I mean, if Calgary blows him out again, Yup. Then the onus becomes on you, then it's your problem. It's not any, any talent they're not putting around you because of course. They did sign up veteran wide receiver, duke Williams. He has played in Edmonton. He played in the NFL. At the bills. No, it looks like a super good get for them. We'll see, let's see, what does. If, if. If this gets me one loses this week, we need to have the title be something like. Something about Cody being heal. We, I think we got to workshop that for like the fallen hero. Cutting for drivers. Because Abe really is. It's like fascinating. I spazzed out like a child on the sidelines. I. Where was she ever hear that? It's fascinating to me. This is I put the weeknight TV ratings in here. The Winnipeg BC game did really good. 600,000 on Friday night. Kind of that marquee one, the average for the weekend was 4 69. They competed a lot with the blue. Jay is now that obviously rip. Aren't in the. You should. I reached out to a Rosh now this evil come on the show and be like, Hey, I know you're not covering the Bluejays. I know your head. Ain't got nothing else better to do. Because we cover it, cover the Raptors at all, or just a Bluetooth. I don't think he covers her out for years. I don't think. Time on his hands. Yeah. Couple of things here. And then I have a tweet later from the alert, because the attendance in Toronto, I know it's the ongoing joke with the XFL and the MLSE, whatever. There was like 6,000 people in Toronto on Tuesday. And even watching the game last night, it's like, if you're watching this game and you go, oh, like our, our business model is fine. It's not, no, I mean, that was like scary tenants, but anyway, red blacks didn't hit capacity. Excuse me, lion's dead. Ty. Cat's dead. And the Stampeders did not. So, you know, BC lions are doing really well with that regime there right now. You know, cause they're obviously BC is a tighter right. In terms of coverage restrictions, but that, that game last night, as we record was. Scary scary and Toronto scariest care. Speaking to your BC lions that are not America's CFL team. They announced Monday that wide receiver, lucky Whitehead will undergo surgery. After breaking his hand and last week's loss to the wind bay blue bombers. Expected to come back to the lineup two to four weeks. Yeah. Thankfully they're on the, by this week. You know, lucky is kind of their main guy right now. Punt, returner. Obviously widely received kind of the main Michael Riley's main target. Even in the game, like they almost has had him out there as a decoy. Right. He couldn't. I mean, he was so wrapped up. He, it was like he had a club on his hand, like, is that the, I get that you're trying to play, you know, play the ball. Okay. Well maybe they would throw it to him, but he was clear that like, lucky couldn't catch anything, but it was almost like putting him in more danger by having them out there. Obviously, he's going to get that. I talked with Matt baker about this. This Debbie air Posey. I think he's going to be signed. David Sanchez, who he's with TSN is reporting that he's being signed to kind of pick up that weight. Matt couldn't confirm any of that in the time that we recorded, which is great, but it sounds like that's in the process of moving forward with that. He was at the Thai cats and was released and. They're going to pick them up so good to hear. Elowitz a quarterback. Adams. We're in it as a comeback, win over the Ty cats at it could be career defining. Had coach Carrie Jones said, I thought it was big. He didn't want to miss the game. He didn't, he wanted to be a part of it. And it ended up being a really part of it. He played some, he made some great plays down the stretch. Great decisions. I was impressed by how he came back. Yeah, it was, you know, this is the kind of thing, Vernon Adams that, you know, he follows me on Twitter. The three. He's a good guy. He. Huh. I like that name. You're dropping names. But he, he, he got injured earlier in the game when they were fighting Thai cats. I came back out. You like led to drives down. They won with a game and he feel goal. This is the kind of stuff. You know, Vernon Adams kind of like Taylor high-key. We were talking in the, in the XFL NFL stuff. He's just kind of an, every man you watch these interviews here. You can really relay with him the emotions he goes through, but this is a good you'll being able to put the team on his, on his back, kind of like that and help propel them down the field is, is great. And I mean, they, I was watching the game. I was filming the wedding and I'm like, oh my God, like, I'll watch her getting blown out. And the next thing I know, they score 20 points in the fourth quarter. I'm like, holy God, like. It's crazy. Outscored about Trevor Harris, slated to return against Winnipeg. According to our report from a 600 seat. C H EDS. Chad. Dave Campbell. After this morning's walkthrough. Jamie Elizondo said, quarterback, Trevor Harris will be ready to return on Friday. And what a Peggy gets the bombers. He missed last two games with the neck injury. I also have a neck injury, talked about the Elks and their negatives atmosphere so much. Yeah. So, you know, former XFL Taylor Cornelius had been the quarterback for the last couple of weeks, filling in for. Jeffery Harris. He did really good. The first week. I really stumbled kind of last week against the red black. So I think they're going to be happy to get Trevor Harris back within. You get us one of those like CFL things where kind of like the believer thing here that we're going to talk about. You know, he, Trevor Harris was said to be going to be out six weeks, two weeks he's back. You know, I'm like the culture. I'm sorry, I'm not risking anything for like the CFL. Shortened season. I don't know. That's the same with believer. I might get bone needs to sit out the season. Let Jake mayor take this and go for it. I just don't understand this. Like we're not. What are we fighting for here to either be slightly better in the 14 game season when. Calgary's already right? Elle Edmonton's are like, why are we fighting this at this point? Culture? It's the culture they want. Bullied by Mitchell didn't want to be selfish. So he took himself out of the game. On the final drive after we aggravating his shoulder is something he's one of worried about talking about, but he says it's something I've been avoiding talking about with you guys. It's definitely something that's been sourced, something that's bothering me and he took a hit on it. And apparently he said he didn't feel like he had the pop in it. But this the thing he had the broken leg, they bring him back now. I mean, Beau is his need some time off. I just don't get like, Calgary is in very, very, very dire straights. Let Jake Mayer play, let Beau rest up. There was nothing worth like injuring any of these players. I just don't understand that like the CFL, you know, where it's half your year career, right? This isn't like, you're not doing this 12 months out a year. I mean, Beau gets paid more than others, but. I just don't get like going out everywhere that hurt yourself. I, this is where I said that per friend of the show, Daniel Austin today, Levi said it feels effing good with a smile. Let's go when they were asking him about his shoulder. But. I think you say you needed some time off. They had a whole year of time off they're. Well that he needed, he got injured and he got hit in like one of the early. I know, I'm kidding. I'm throwing some shape. Yeah, this is our last thing. Before we go to break here, this is supposed to as CFL today on Twitter. We're friends. So the gray cup and the finales are both on Sundays. Why would you not have the gray cup? I mean, we're already booked. We're going to change anything of it. Why wouldn't you have had that on a Saturday, not compete against the NFL. You still have a whole slate of NFL games on Sunday. That's where I that's a good question. It's a valid question. You wouldn't be going up against Navy. You could bring in the American, you saw what happened with the other game you have the night. Americans are tuning in to watch that. Great cup on ESPN on Saturday. And guess what? Guess what. And then we're fighting, you know, college we're fighting traffic, we're fighting the weather. We're fighting people on vacations. I mean, I hear a lot of excuses about why people don't want. Anyway. Yeah. So we'll toss a break here for tons of XFL stuff. We're going to do all the exit polls. Oh, is that. Just a break. Okay. You just tossed won't coming up and say, we. We have wonderful Jeff Hamilton, Chris will all be who wants to steal my wife. And then that vaguer would the BCLI. And that FCF news. Jill. But don't you go anywhere? Okay. That was good. That's good. I'm fine. And we're back. Interesting news. We have some extra felonies to cover. Yeah. First off, thank you very much to Jeff Hamilton. Chris will be a Matt baker for coming on the show. Apparently thank you for trying to steal Reed's wife. That's a very, I, Chris. Christmas, like I'm calling Dorothy, am I, he hung up the zoom call. My Chris. I mean, I mean, I was told. Now laundries boundaries. I always tell Dorothy about it. She goes, well, how does he even know what I look like? I go, well, no, it's just because you're a winner big fan. Cause he goes, oh, your wife's the most beautiful. I'm like, it's because you're a Winnipeg fan. You don't think you like stock to maybe a little bit, right. I think Chris and I could barely get the zoom going on. I don't think they're Chris's is, is cyber stocking. My wife, my wife. All right, moving on. XFL NFL partnership rivers are heating up. Interesting. Here's the thing. All right. XFL staff came out this week. Dwayne, Dwayne Johnson, our commander in chief was flying to New York. Danny was flying to New York. I've already seen videos posts about this on YouTube. They've got like tens of thousands of views. People have asked me about it. Cause I don't do a lot of that clickbait. Like in the title this week, I will say like XFL, NFL. Just because like, we got to get some views, but I don't, you. Th this whole like partnership thing, basically, you see the photo there, I'm going to post it here. I'm going to put my hand up. So I remember the post is. Danny's got the thing. And then people are saying that that is the NFL logo on the thing behind it. And because of that, they're saying that there is a potential for a partnership. And this is like the craziest thing. I can't, it's like zoo cruiser. Remember I talked about, what is it? The JFK, the Zapruder film. I can never pronounce it. There's a pretty different, this is like we're, we're, you know, enhanced, enhanced. I'm like, this is crazy time. Is the history. Is he drinking like a lime reader, a strawberry. Zola. Orange SOA. That's it. And now Dwayne is right. Twain's very on-brand right. He's got the nice shoes. No socks. He's got the Zola. But I just. Let's get excited. They're talking about it, right. It's going to come about, we're just getting a patient. You know, people magazine covered the story, right? You get the, you get the views when they post about it. But this whole, like they're partnering with the NFL thing. I just can't even get behind it all. No, I, I, I don't see that happening. Like why does the NFL need the XFL? Why do they need that? Why do they need that partnership? I don't see why they would need that. Unless they're trying to, just to like offload. You know, the thing is always the, the NFL doesn't need a feeder system. They have college football. What is the NFL need that college football isn't providing? I don't know. I mean, there's, there's a small, small opportunity. Maybe it may be something with all this name, image and likeness stuff that's going on around college. He's these days. Maybe much like how the NBA has a D-League maybe NFL is thinking maybe they need a D league as well. That's a possibility that's a very small possibility. I guess either way, when you look at some of the quotes, the Danny's have a four that the rocks have before they want to have a league of culture, league of purpose, you know, league of giving players, voices and valuing their opinions. That to me does not say we're going to sell to the NFL or we're going to partner to the NFL. Is it anything like when Brian Woods comes on our show and goes, I'm not taking the back seat to anybody. And then people go, oh, maybe the USFL wants to merge with the XFL. Like you need to listen to like what the people are saying. And like, that's fine. I mean, they don't need to do any of this. He actually fell is going to be its thing. I think, I think it's going to be fine. I really do. Like, I know it's the poopoo, whatever. I think they're taking their time. The Rock's working on it. Now you said he's got a hip hop song, rap song coming out. Like with, with tech nine. Oh, so, you know, I mean, maybe they drop the XFL. Zion in there. I wouldn't be, if they were freaking smart, they would drop an XFL thing in there dropping your fresh, like the XFL. Oh dish. I dunno. I can't rap. But the last thing about this Naylor tweeted after the whole Toronto thing, that he, this was his quote, you know, Toronto Argonauts owner. MLSE, we're bullish this spring on the CFL corroborating with the XFL and lost that battle at the board of governors level as the actually Val moves on with plans for 2023, the Argonauts drew in historic low of 6,788 to last night's game against Ottawa. I mean. Does that really a revolt though? Is that, what is that? What is that? What he's insinuating is like, this is a revolt. No he's insinuating like this is, Toronto's not done talking with the CFL. That's what Naylor is saying. But my, my thing, and I've always said this. We've had Dan Ralph on the show. We've had Paul Woods on the show. Changing the league that owns the Argos. Isn't going to make people interested in seeing the Argos. I think you're going to lose even more of those 7,000 people. The only way you change the league. To get people to see the art ghosts. If you take the artists, the NFL, that's not happening right now. So. Well, I mean, the fact that we can count the number 6,788. Two of those people at the show I began were Brayden and Josh McGhee. And that's one of those people. Is it like you're actually losing people by bringing it into the XFL. Very much so. This is interesting to you. The last thing about this. So JD bin Kissick he played for the, you know, the Seahawks, right? He's a pro bowler, Superbowl champ, all this stuff. He is with Lawson football team and they were talking, doing the AMA with Bleacher report and they were asking him, when did you know Taylor? Hi, Nikki was a doc. Like a good player, you know, like a baller. He goes, you talking about baby Russell Wilson. Oh, my God. Stop right there. Stop. Full stop. No. Full stop. Deep Russell. Wilson's the first. Is the youngest quarterback to hit a hundred, 100 wins. Well, Intel, Patrick Mohammad is old enough now, right? I know Kermit it's under winds. I understand it right now. Russell Wilson is the youngest player to hit 100 wins. Yeah. I just slow down, slow down on this talk. Don't put those expectations on him. Let him be him. That's true. That's true. I agree with. That's the way I'm looking at it. Let him be him. Let him just be, let him just be Taylor Heineken. Not baby. This not baby. That not baby David Carr, Derek Carr. One of the cars, just let him be tailored high to keep, please. Just let them do that. And talk about a loss with the Raiders against the chargers. Charter's looking good, man. And it's looking good. All right. Last thing, here we go. Fannie. So football came out today. So, so. So Rob was on something and I think they were going to do more. They have their live show today about. I didn't see a lot of other stuff coming out. So this is, I am credit D and FCF news about this. Cause there are days I've been on podcasts with them before it's up. So if you're interested in FCF steps. So season two, that was going to be in the fall that didn't ever happen because we're in the fall. They're coming in spring 20, 22. They're going to partner with peacock, but it's weird cause they're with. NBC LX, which is like a substation of NBC that's on. So it's kind of like, To me, you would kind of be like, so yeah. So Pepsi owns a hundred different soft drinks and we're going to partner with like the off-brand diet, mineral water, and now. Or some s**t. Yeah, I. Do you get what I'm saying? Like they were, and now like we're part of that family, but I guess they're going to be on peacock. So people are excited about that. My thought is this. And I might be in the minority. I think this is a dumb move for them. I mean, they, they make dumb moves all the time, but this might be a dumb move because. You have a partnership with Twitch. What's the status on that? The one year, two year contract. Okay, so there's still gonna be on Twitch. I mean, that's, that's fine. That's fine for now. But what happens if there starts to be a little beef between the peacock? You know, NBC corporate and Twitch. We're NBC peacocks, like, well, you're not watching the games on our art stuff. You're watching them on Twitch. I don't know I'm going to have, like, I just feel like, like there's. NBC's already been contentious about some of the, some of the stuff they're doing with like WB, for example, they've got a bit of contentious about that. I don't know. I don't know if they're gonna, if they're going to allow the Twitch thing to happen. I just don't. I don't know if that's gonna, if that's gonna really happen. Well, it is, you know, you have to pay to be on peacock, right. Or pay to, I have to pay the watch peacock, right. I have to pay 4 99 or whatever. The other things that came out, all the owners from season one are going to be returning. But I dunno if this was tongue in cheek or that I'd say if they stay on where their previous teams is another conversation, as in my consented, Well, here's the deal people bought in to like the BESE, because it was Marshawn Lynch because it was renamed Montgomery. So like, yeah. Or they're talking like, well, there's going to be, you know, four new teams and some of the owners, right. I Republic the company that handled all of like the people buying in and stuff. I don't want the like, I don't know, that'd be like if I buy a stock with a startup and then that, that CEO moves and someone else comes in, like, I'm not, maybe I don't want to be interested in that anymore. If I'm a Marshawn fan and I bought into the beast and then he moves on to an expansion team and they give him like their own. I mean, I'm making the that's like the biggest example. But like, I mean, cause you're not buying the players. Right. I mean, they're moving on. You're not buying, you know, you're buying the logos and the owners. Right. And kind of what you believe, like, okay. I like kind of funny. I want to be with wild ACEs with ever. All I know, is this stuff came out today and I immediately had a headache. I'm like, this is why. Like I hate, so I don't know if we're going to cover all this we're talking about right now. Either talking about their it's all going to be in Atlanta this year. They're going to have all the games on Saturday to after lines two in the evening, bath bursa rod, there's going to be eight teams. They're all going to be in Atlanta. And they might have one to 2000 people per game, which is not that many people. Losing some weight. It's fitting a little bit. Sorry. That's good. Not to buy that a little bit. I mean, like my, my, I still go back to that, like, I can't. And I guess it would, apparently there might go international with this thing too. It's like a year or two. Yeah. I just like, I, I'm just curious how this is going. I think the viewership for the stuff. They were taking numbers based on the fact that you open up Twitch and you'd have the game right there. Yeah, it's kind of like how, when you turn on the cable box here. Here in LA. And you have the default settings. It turns to spectrum news one. And. If you don't change the settings every time you turn on the kill box, it starts on spectrum news one. So, yeah, I mean, So it inflates the numbers. That's the thing. And that's what people didn't get anyway with the FCFF I firmly believe FCF was averaging around 50,000 people per game. I think that is a fair estimate. We talked about it. Jake Henry crunch, the numbers, Seth listener, south Princeton numbers in a, they average about 54,000 people a game, which is fine. My problem now is, you know, it's been a year, it's still going to be February, right? So. This isn't the XFL in, in, I, I believe me, I have my own criticisms with that taking too much time off, you know, the exit valve was still averaging like a million viewers, whatever thing. So you have something that was averaging 50,000 viewers now taking a year off NBC LX on Twitter. I know that's not the BL I know it has like 5,000 viewers or 5,000 followers. No one really knows that no one really knows that's there. Like I've seen it maybe three times, like. Yeah. It's it's so it's so hit or miss when you actually can like, oh, there's that thing there. They're talking about. I just don't. I think it's, I think, I think it kind of is going to. Take away from that inflated viewership that Twitch. Yeah. Yeah. I think that, that if they weren't on the front page that they didn't have that yet. Anyway, I think those. 50,000, 50,000 or reasonably watching that stuff. Popped onto which we're like, oh, let's just check this out. Yep. If that's not on Twitch. I don't think those people are going to go. And pull up. Here in LA it's channel. They're going to pull 4.2 on their digital tuners to see NBC LX and go. Oh, well, there's that thing that I wanted to watch really badly where the rules change from week to week. And I don't even know if this is really football, but you know, fifth down and, oh, we can't do that on, you know, we can't do that with five minutes and 46 seconds left. We have to do it before five minutes and 46 seconds to use our fifth down. Like, I don't know if people are going to seek that out on LX or peacock. I don't, I don't know. I firmly believe they're not. Like it sounds great to say we are on peacock. It sounds great to say we are with NBC eyes. Do not think a demonstrable number of people more than they have watched because they're on that. I think it's great for the branding. Right. It's great to say we have this partnership. It's great too, because they're, I imagine still trying to raise money. It's great to. You know, crowdfund, not craft, but you know, like invest fund, whatever, you know, shark, tanky, whatever things. But I don't think I Jamacha will never people, like you said, are going to 4.2 or whatever to watch that they're still going to watch on Twitch or they're not going to watch it all. Yep. Completely right. And I, and that's another thing like. Content is king. Are they paying, are they paying the SCF for this or is it FCS gonna be like, you could just have this content for a year free. That's another question I have. Yeah, interesting stuff. Again, want to think you're ready for listening one. I think our guests are dropping in chatting was read. If I could pull up the document here and get their names, that'd be great. Jeff Hamilton, Chris Welby and Matt baker. All thanks for joining read earlier in the show. And it was fine the good week, you know, Edmonton. Hopefully the. We'll see, but I think this is good. A lot of good conversations today. I feel good about what we did, so, Nope. Today next week. By the way we're going to do the, what are we going to do? The giveaway? I D I just remember that. I'm going to do it. It was, I had the fall. We're getting multiple, not a lot. We had both had really busy weeks. We're getting there. I have it all. We're going to go back into things today. You all please subscribe like, and subscribe. I wanted to talk about that beginning of the show, but we didn't. So yes, I will do the giveaway. I have everything. Nothing is going anywhere. We'll get all that squared away. Perfect. There you. If you're really mad about it, comment on the video and like drive the algorithms, you know, like let me know. I'm really mad. I wanted that Allah era, Argos Jersey, but you know, please comment. Yeah. Drive, drive the algorithm that way and share the podcast too, please. We appreciate it. Thanks for listening. Thanks to our guests. And we'll see you next week. Yeah. I, I told her I was going to do that. And then I got. I had to get my brain is put back onto this. I lost hour coming home. How is it only seven to three at the top of that? There that's wild. So wild. I got the interviews. I'll send you let's do the promo and. And then I'll send you this. I'm so sleepy. Oh, I was sick. I was driving home in traffic. I was like, I'm falling asleep. This week on the Mar cast. Oh my gosh. Edmonton Edmond. Sorry. Again. Okay. This week on the mark cast, Edmonton, Edmonton, Edmonton. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Horrible horrible. Yeah, I Edmonton's having their worst week ever. I thank God every day I wake up and then everything else, fan. We have a great show coming up. We talked with Jeff Hamilton, the Winnipeg free press. We get into all this stuff about Edmonton. The Eddie steels of the world about the everything going on in the CFL, all the drama and everything. We have Chris Wabi when they pay blue bombers. I think Chris will all be, wants to really start talking to my wife. Dorothy, who's. And when they blew on her fan, I really lively interview with Chris Welby. And then we have, I officially have deemed Matt baker, the manager of communications and content for America's. CFL team, the VC Alliance, Matt baker comes on. We're talking BC lions on the bi-week. What else struck you this week? Paul BC lions followed you back on Twitter. Danny and the rock tweeting about the XFL. That's XFL news. That's the Mexico news. We have fan gunshots. Football needs actual affairs from football, and he's coming back in the spring. We get into all this stuff this week, we're previewing the week we're talking blue bombers, whichever Harrison's coming back, we're talking that, you know, all the Edmonton. The it's the song that will never end all the drama, their TV ratings. Are you lucky? White had all this Everwise in Texas and I football. I'm having a beer. It's. It's at the lively show. Well, Jeff Hamilton. So excited to have you back on today. I've been busy, you know, and now we're getting back into hockey season again, so I'm sure you're you. Busy on both ends of the spectrum. How has everything going for you? Everything's good. It's like, like you said, it's kind of busy season. You have the, you know, the football. Ramping up CFL football ramping up as we headed into the playoffs. And of course, Winnipeg blue bombers, you know, You know, being more than just relevant in this league right now. And then the Winnipeg jets are obviously the big ticket in town and. Training camp is coming to a conclusion and we're getting these last preseason games in and then the season ramps up. So it really is an exciting time for this city. Exciting time for my job. I'm one of those guys that gets to cover both. So. Just a busy season, but a fun one. A little less. Yeah, not too bad to have Winnipeg. It's like, they're, you know, they, the franchise leader here in the CFL right now, We have friend of the show, Tim Banes covering the red blacks. Right. And it's certainly a little more prestigious covering the blue bombers. Right. Well, it's funny too, because like, I, you know, I did mention the jets of the big ticket and for a long time, they're like the bombers. We're. How do you put this? Like, you know, it was a tough go to compete with them. Right. It was tough for, for, you know, Ticket sales. It was tough for a lot of different things. Of course the 2019 gray cup held, certainly put them, you know, I don't wants to put them on the map. Just made them more, even more relevant in the city amongst fanbase. But then this year has just been kind of taken off. Like you almost kind of, you have this mix of the bombers doing really, really well. Obviously it's seven in one and not really looking like they're going to slow down and possibly repeat. All these things. But you also have the loss season in 2020, that light kind of ramped up that, that love, you know? And, and so now you have football back and not only is football back, but football is fun to watch because these guys are winning. And I mean, one other thing I'll say about that is I was talking to some buddies yesterday. We used to write these stories. About the bombers, like how bad home field advantage was for them. I remember the headlines is like not so home sweet home and like, you know, whatever. And now you look back over the last couple of years and they've won like 15 of the last 16 games at home. So that's, you know, that's resulted in fans caring more, you know, attending games, doing those things. So it's, yeah, it really is a it's, it's a good place to be as far as CFL coverage, because, you know, as you mentioned my friend to Tim Banes, I don't envy, I don't envy that day in and day out. You know, situation, but I guess, you know, they did beat the Alex last weekend. So he did get to change up the narrative a little bit, at least for one week. Yeah. You know, the last time we talked, I don't think we knew if there would be a CFL season. Right. I say they remember about, you know, there was a lot of. The issues. Yeah. Now we are kind of midway through week 10 here. How have you thought that the season has gone so far? You know, we've had, obviously there's been ups and downs. Certain weeks have been better than others. Yeah. You know, like I think. I think we. It's, you know, it's a good question because I don't want to, like, I think it's been great in the sense that I think, you know, there, you see that appreciation, not just in Winnipeg, but in other pockets, you know, there is. You know, I really do think that the product is, is different this year. And I don't know if it's the lay off. I don't know if it's injuries. I don't know if it's COVID protocols or a combination of all of them. But we really kind of, we didn't, the league didn't really hit the ground running. In my opinion, I felt like there was a lot of like, it wasn't a lot of fun games scoring was significantly down. I remember doing a story. It was like 15 points. Fewer points. Per game. Through the first four weeks than in previous years. And so I think it kind of had a slow start. We finally got that uptick going, you know, it's interesting too, because you have the red blocks kind of in the basement with the ALEKS now and the bombers up top. And then there's a whole bunch of teams that I still think we're trying to figure out what exactly they are. You know, like you look at Hamilton, like they've been playing better, but there's also been, you. They've had to deal with injuries at their quarterback position. Like what is Montreal? Right. I mean, they're a high scoring team, but it's like every week we seem to talk about like how Vernon Adams is, you know, It's frustrating one week and then dynam dynamic the next week. I mean, there's just so many different teams, Toronto, you know, Saskatchewan, I mean, Saskatchewan looked like they were going to be world beaters at the beginning, and then they went through injuries. And now they're like, now we're wondering if they're going to hover around 500 to paint on. What Cody for Gerardo. You know, shows up. So anyways, that's a long roundabout way of saying, I wouldn't say bad. I'd say it was a bit of a slow start, but now I feel like there's been so much drama in this league and it's like, you just remember how great the drama is. It's like, it's not just what happens on the field, in the CFL. What happens off the field is almost just as fun to cover. And I'd imagine for fans almost, just as much, just as good to watch, I guess, unless you're an Alex fan for that better. Yeah, I, yeah. I wanted to tell her a couple of different controversies here. But first off, what is your take on coding for Gerardo and this, like, he comes out it's it's the heel wrestler, right? He's throwing his teammates under the bus. He comes to apologize is I just had an article for three down today. It says he spazzed out like a child on the sidelines. What do you make of this Roughriders Cody vagina thing? Ah, you know, it's funny because I'm just, I'm not like, I think Cody for Gerardo is great for the league. I think he's a terrific quote. You know, I think he's a good guy, but I'm not a for Gerardo believer. I got, I haven't been one, you know, I thought he played, he played super well in 2019. There were certain like, you know, there's not nothing to take away from his play, but there was circumstances that. That allowed for him to be in a position to be the west nominee for most outstanding player. I mean, You know, bowl Levi, Mitchell, you know, being injured, Mike Riley, playing on a garbage team. Like there was just, there was just so many factors that played in Andrew Harris gain his suspension, you know, like that allowed for him to kind of, I don't know, rise, I guess if you will. And again, I'm not taking away from his play cause it's certainly deserving what, I just have this like, and I've written in my weekly column, CFL rundown. I have this like Cody for Gerardo back and forth where I'm write about them and then I'm wrong about them. And then I'm right about them. And then they did write about them at all. And so, I don't know, like, I still feel like, you know, he's, he's done one season. One season in the CFL, you know, and, and this year is he getting exposed? I don't think so. We've seen some really good things wrong. We've definitely seen that leadership capabilities from him, you know, we're, he'll put the team on his back and. And, you know, run for report and yards and, you know, you know, those kinds of things that really endeared yourself to your teammates, but then you see kind of the stuff where he's coming out and he's apologizing. It's like, what's the deal go? You know, like, I mean, is, are we kind of focusing too much on this and is he too nice of a guy? I don't know. Anyways, I'm not to say I'm not a fan of Cody for Gerardo. I just feel like. Some of the coverage of him. Since his rise in 2019 is almost kind of been like the savior of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. And now we're seeing him not with a ton of weapons that receiver. It an inability to, to, you know, connect on that deep ball. And now these kinds of like little things in between where he's like apologizing and like, and just kind of doing stuff that you have to do in Wrightsville, I guess. But overall, like, I don't know if I even answer the question for your read, but like I do think that Cody is, you know, he's a good player. I just, I don't know what kind of player he is yet. I don't know if he's necessarily shown that after one. You know, one and a half seasons as a, as a starter. Yeah, it's just one of those. It's easy when the sun shining. Right. And it's easy to kind of, you know, Roughriders came out strong right there, winning, and then, you know, they've had some adversity lately, but you know, it, wasn't a great game that he played last week when all these comments came out in. Yeah. You see that a lot in like the NFL where the quarterbacks, where it's, it just seems like they take a little bit more of the weight on them of like, you know, it was my bad, I didn't know. I very rarely do you see it? Like, I need to have more weapons, like my receivers need to do their job. I just don't remember that coming out a lot. I mean, I understand frustrations, but you know, you're the quarterback in Saskatchewan. I mean, I just have to imagine the media pressure, there is a little less. In the scheme of the football landscape happening in, in October of 2021. Well, and that's it. I mean, like, so I don't even know. I think it's an inner pressure. He puts on himself. I don't think it's one of those things that like the media is hammering them. Cause if you look at the media, they love Cody for Gerardo. I mean, they write, you know, marvelous things about him, not just as a football player, but you know, But what he does in the community, all these things and all those things are valid. Like, I mean, he is a standup guy. There's absolutely no doubt about it. But even just to touch on your comment about like, how often do you see that? I can think back in a couple of different quarterbacks, Trevor Harris is one of them, Trevor Harris would be the guy who would be like, you know, the key point fingers, yada, yada, yada. And then he'd wrap up an interview saying, I need to be better. You know what I mean? So it's like he would be pointing the finger and then he would wrap it up by saying, well, it starts with me, you know what I mean? And, and, and here's the thing. He's, he's not the first. Person, according for Darla means to be kind of like persecuted for it from, from fence because they hear those things and they want their quarterback, like, like you said, to kind of put it on their shoulders. Right. They get all the, they get all the praise, they get all the, you know, they're. They're the highest paid player. Obviously they get all the praise when things are going well, when. When, when winds are happening, but when they're losing. You know, it's like, you know, I guess fans just want them to, you know, want them to, to, to own it. And so like, you know, we've seen that with triggers, Henry Burris is another guy. I'm not saying Henry Burgess was a guy who was like, you know, calling out his players, but he was very animated on the, on the, you know, on the sideline. He was very emotional, like you would in interviews, he would share. So you could see that kind of. Those kinds of situations. And I liken it to maybe. You know, Cody's animation on, on the sidelines. Like to me, I don't read a lot into that. These guys are teammates. Anyone's, who's played organized sports, understands that, you know, you go to war with each other every week and like, you know, emotions are gonna fly over and you're going to say some things now. I don't know if these comments Cody's comments about his receivers. Necessarily hit home. Like with those guys, I don't know if that more or less. Him reading on social media that he shouldn't be doing this. And now he's out front. You. Kind of smoothing the surface and just letting people know that like, you know, we came to work the next day and it's a no big deal. But as a quarterback, as a leader on this team, I need to recognize that my comments matter and I'm going to try to rectify them again. I kind of find the whole apology thing, like a little much, but at the same time, if you're looking at, you know, if he's personally looking at his situation and knowing that he needs to kind of address this to. To ease things out and cause things aren't exactly going great over there. Then that's what he's got to do. And I think that's why he did it. Yeah. I mean, it really is like a WWE he'll turn thing where they. You know, it's like the conflicted heel and I'm going out and I'm going to hit the guy with the steel chair. And then I'll, I didn't really mean to do that. The next week. I mean, it really is like this. I'm very much here for the, yeah. The, the Cody for trying. The heel Turner. And now I think it's very interesting and it certainly, you know, add spice to what you know, he is this kind of a good looking nice guy. I like that a bang up is. It was good boy image. I was going to tweet out yesterday, did it. So whatever, but like, I kind of want to see more bad boy, Cody for Gerardo, you know, like this whole thing, like white picket fence. You know, like, you know, just kind of good guy, you know, situation like this is football. Like I kinda like to see a little bit of the passion. So I'm there with you. Yeah. I mean, that's what you were saying when I interrupted you, but no, I know. Exactly. I want to get your thoughts too. You know, the, the episodes titled like Edmonton's worst week ever, right? It began last week with the loss of the red blacks, which I think surprised everybody. I, you know, obviously everything going on with, with the firing of, you know, Eddie steel, right. And all that stuff. What, what do you make of the, kind of the Edmonton stuff right now? Edmonton's been a circus all year. I mean like this, this isn't like. It hasn't been one of those things where like, I mean, yeah, I mean, great, great title to an episode because it has been, you know, a bad week and you just kind of wonder, like how many lows is this team going to hit? I mean, all the stories coming out. I mean, the Eddie Steele, one's interesting now. You know, There's been a lots of talk about that. Lots of, you know, lots of opinions coming from. You know, all sides about whether or not, you know, he should have free speech and all these things, you know, here's, here's my take on it. His, his firing was unjust because he's he's, his job is to say, Yes, he's paid to share his opinion. He's paid to use his insight. All those things he has is has. At his disposal as a former player, obviously on that team only two years removed to share that insight. The reality is though, is it was predictable. The firing was absolutely predictable and I'm not again, be saying it's predictable. It's not, you know, I'm not agreeing with it. But. The reality is, and you know, this word media gets tossed out a lot, you know, and, and, you know, And like, what is media? Is media, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, that stuff is media, you know, Hardcore journalists, investigative stuff is media, you know, SportsNet TSN in this case, Chad. Teams that have, you know, Deals with their teams with teams to you. No to, to broadcast the games. And so like, you know, I've seen this side being like, you know, they pay big money to have the privilege of calling these games. Well, Yeah, they do, but that agreement works both ways. And it works both ways in a number of ways in that. Okay. You know, they get, they pay for access. They pay to talk to the coaches at certain times, they, you know, these new, you know, whether it's a radio or TV organization, if a story breaks in their respective city and they didn't get it. They call the team and want to know why they didn't get it. So that's the, that's the benefit on the things I, the other give is you don't tell, you don't make comments that the general manager and vice president of football operations should take a height. It's just like. You know, you have to, and the reality is. And I'm in a luxury where I can come out here and see whatever the heck I want, knowing that my work. You know, we're we're arms length away. We don't have any affiliation will back me up. That you, you do not have that backing when you're the team broadcast or when you go over the line now straddling that line. And there's a lot of guys that do it, where color analysts or analysts in general, on the shows, they kind of ride that line. So, but all that, all that being said, it's just an added thing that like, it just goes to this like thin skin. Paranoia title that the Elks have adopted all season long. So when you get rid of a guy who talks negatively of you. You're getting rid of them because you don't want the negative pub. You know, publicity, which you're creating even more negative publicity, because he's now going to go out and share how big of a clown show you guys are. And that's exactly what we're having. But I mean, just from the beginning, like the Alex have been the team, that's the least vaccinated. You know, you know, this whole last week thing, I mean, this doesn't even count for the worst week of the Elks. Brock Sunderland coming out with a statement about like, you know, like his, you know, his, his vaccination status and, and all these things. It's just kind of like, no details. Just this is what, this is what we've been hearing, you know? So I add to the paranoia, like how you even have to address that. I don't know. But it comes down to the players. I mean, Trevor Harris like him being, having a neck injury practicing for two days, not like that was just like, there's lots of speculation. And now you take speculation with a grain of salt. You know why he was out and what the situation is with him and all those things. But at the same time, like you're welcoming too much of it in the Joey Moss thing. That's come out. Like how bad can it possibly get? Like that's all is the worst one. And the worst part about it is if your Brock suddenly is it's all being pointed at you there. There's no other names like Jamie Elizondo should get some meat. You know, he's, you know, we talk about comments about owning, like the coach that owned it. We've had him come out a couple of times this year. And point fingers. So it's just, you know, I feel like I've been talking forever here, but there's just so many things in Edmonton that have gone wrong. And this doesn't even count the whole cutting players in training camp. And then calling them cult, not cultural fits like no one does that. Nobody does that in the CFL. Even if they aren't a cultural fit, maybe a guy talks too much, maybe a guide isn't jelling with the rest of the position group. Maybe this guy's just more into it than himself or anything you get rid of them. You don't become the organization that. It releases a guy and then, then, then, then stomps on them with some kind of title like they did with Kenny Stafford. Who's now with another organization. Well, and a, it came out and immediately scored against the organization last week, you know, when they played. I want, and it's so much. Can you, you know, I. We know our story, right. You know, we're coming into this. Can you explain why the joy [unknown]. The situation is such a big deal. Joey Moss is an institution. He's, you know, he, he, he represents. The best part of society. You know, this is a guy who was born with down syndrome was, you know, the stories told is in the eighties, I think it was his sister. One of his relatives was dating Wayne Gretzky or something. I hope I got that. Right. But that started the connection and he was a, he became a presence inside the Oilers and. Edmonton football teams. Dressing rooms. Like he was a staple. He was a guy that like, you know, and, and when I say the best to society, I mean, you know, He had mental disabilities, right? I mean, this is a guy that everybody embraced. They propped him up. They, you know, they, they, you know, just the life lessons that come out of meeting people like Joey Moss are so massive. It's insane. And not just grip, like you talked about the players, like the way Gretzky speaks about him, the way from Gretzky to the guy who. You know, who, who spent three weeks with the Edmonton Elks or, you know, would speak about Joey Moss, the exact same way, because the respect factor was so high there and that's just the players. He gripped an entire province and like, you know, I'm talking about him passionately and I don't know, Joey Moss never had the pleasure of meeting him, but I know the effects that somebody like him can have and did have an Edmonton and for a guy to come in in a CFL organization and ban him from the locker room. Now. We've been getting conflicting things here. That whole statement thing is ridiculous too, because they don't outright deny the claim. They just say no one. You know, kicked him out of the organization or didn't want to be part of the organization. All I can say is if that is even close to being true. Like, where do you start? You know, where you start your fire, Brock's on your land because he doesn't represent the community. Or the province. Yeah, this is the one that was things where I, you know, E even if it was like, was it, you know, At that point when you get like ticky tactical, Well, we didn't actually ban him. You know, it's like, well, no, if it came out that it was like, you didn't want them around. And then we're like, we're kind of pushing him out. Well, if he felt like he was a distraction in the room, when you made this rule, like you could be around us, but you can't come to the room. That's to me. And a story. Yeah. And just to circle back on the Eddy thing too, it's just weird. You know, it's this mix of like being able to cover leagues and then trying to be in with the leagues. Right. And I see that. You know, all the time and every league from. From the CFL down and Ian, and that's been like our problems with three down nation from the beginning is it's like, you know, you want to be the PR for the league, but then also be critical. And it is this fine line of like, well, what can we cover and say, and still not get like our privileges revoked, right? Because words have meaning, right. And words have power that, you know, you can say things. Like he was critical of Edmonton and then things can happen. Right. And that can be unjustified. Both of those things could happen. You have, you can have the right to say it. And then also they have the right to react. Even if it's unjustified, you know what I mean? Well, absolutely. I'm like, just to be clear, I mean, this stuff happens all the time and every other organization, it just doesn't necessarily learn. Lead determination. Now there's a few different factors in that one. I think Eddie and you know what? I think Eddie sounded great. I mean, if you read some of his statements, you read some of his, you know, like he, he kind of came out and spit fire there for a little bit, but also pulled back on the idea that like, you know, he'd wit and he wished that he understood the situation a little bit new. Like he, wasn't going to sit there and sit down. I'm a new guy. So like, I should get a free pass or whatever like that. But I also think, and. I'm careful to throw blame here because I just, you know, like I think it, there is blame all over the place. Like, you know, like, It should have already known, you know, what that line was. Maybe, probably, you know what I mean? Like this whole idea that like you were a player at one point, you knew how to straddle the line. Like. If you didn't like what was happening? In the, in your football organization, you didn't go out to the media and say it as a player. So, you know, this is obviously a much different role. It's a much different. A situation where he's actually encouraged to share his opinion. But I also think that, you know, there probably, he probably should have been trained better. You know what I mean? Like, like for somebody who you. When you come on, you know, obviously in this case, it'd be Chad, like this guy comes in, he's now an analyst. You like all these things that he brings to the table. As I mentioned before, obviously his, his connection to the, to the, the, the organization and to players still. So, you know, he has that pipeline of information. You kind of have to say, okay, let's straddle the line here. You know, you can be critical of the general manager. You can do it, but you have to do it in a way where you're not calling for his head and suggesting Chris Jones should come. Back and take over the organization. Coach who got you a great cup and then packed up his coaching staff and move and move to SAS. So, you know, like to me, it's like, you got to find that fine line. And it is a challenge. I imagine for a former player, because you kind of want to be, you don't want to be soft edged either. It's like, you know, you know, this guy knows more, you know, whatever. So it's unfortunate and he didn't get the opportunity to, because you can clearly tell he's learning from his experience. It's unfortunate that he hasn't had that you didn't get the opportunity to continue on. But from what I understand what we've been reading, like, you know, I don't think he's going anywhere. I think he's just going to be talking from a different. From a different venue. Gotcha. It'd be interesting to see. Yeah. The last thing. You know, as long as drama this week, we have you on whatever. You know, the county Lawler of everything. Right. I, you know, from what I can tell everything was handled wonderfully. Right. You know? The infraction happened, you know, the team came out, all that stuff. I did think it was weird that CFL last night still had his photo on the marquee picture for the Friday night matchup or whatever the, the game is. Do you have any thoughts on that? I mean, I feel like people have really been giving Kenny a hard time, which. I don't know. I don't know if that's justified. Very very, very difficult question in my opinion, because I think there's so many moving parts to a situation like this and, and that's not to, you know, Deflect my opinion. I'm obviously completely against drinking and driving. This is my community, right? It wasn't, you know, like it's, it's it directly impacts. You know, people who live here. Yes. There was no injury, you know? But, you know, there's a single, single vehicle accident. His obviously, you know how, you know, what and how we did it, we don't know, but he was a danger to the road. And so, you know, when I say case by case you. Had he gotten an accident? Heaven forbid, how do you kill someone? We'd be having a completely different. A different conversation. And I wonder if that should matter, you know, I wonder if that, you know, if you're going to call things inexcusable, are you going to call things? You know, like the use, those kinds of words, unforgivable, all these things. Well, then they're unforgivable. So how do you know, how do you reach that place? I think what works, what works for him here? Or was in this advantage here is that there's been precedent. In this league and as early as 2018 with Charleston Hughes, and, you know, in that case, the riders came out, said he was going to play, you know, that week. And then more information came forward and turns out that, you know, he, you know, he denied a breathalyzer, which was, which was suddenly a, you know, a, an infraction to the. You know, to the reputation of the, of the rough riders organization. And then he got that one game suspension in the league. Didn't add anything. So I think the bombers are looking at the situation is okay. He made a stupid decision. You know, he, no one was hurt. He's not going to immediately suspend him. And you know, the one game is the precedent. Now I'm up for anybody who disagrees with the one game I'm with people who agree with it. I find myself straddling a line because I just, I don't know, have zero tolerance, whether it's, you know, this kind of situation again, it varies. Domestic abuse is another one that gets brought up like should a guy get caught, loses income. And the reason why I bring that up is I've talked to experts in the past around domestic violence, done investigations with this league regarding that exact topic. And they don't believe in zero tolerance. They don't believe that just cutting the guy's paycheck income, yada yada is going to make the situation better. So I think if you can translate that kind of education piece to Kenny and the drinking and driving. You know, it's one thing. If he just gets the game and his attitudes, crap, and you know, all these things, he seems extremely remorseful. And I hope that he finds some way. To make up for that blender beyond just a one game suspension, whatever, if you can, you know, he doesn't have, you know, claim to have an alcohol problem. I don't believe he does have an alcohol problem. I think he made a stupid decision under the influence. I need to make the argument. He has an alcohol problem if you get behind a wheel, but I think he needs to do something to show this community that what happened was a massive mistake and not just words, not just emotions. And I don't know what that looks like. Maybe it's working with groups, maybe it's doing. Something that at the end of the day, you're going to get you're in a lot of trouble here. It's not like you gets the one game suspension and everything gets figured out. I mean, he's in trouble with the law. Yeah. So you know what I think, and what I hope for is, you know, getting back on track here, but get him to give back in some way. I'm not going to fight. And create the answers for him. He needs to do that. And just kind of show that, you know, what he did was a bad error in judgment and what he's doing now to prevent that from ever happening again. Yeah, I just, I think, you know, it's one of those, you know, Last really long and lots of things happen. And, and I think that at least in the states, you know, a DUI is a huge financial cost, right. You know, it's tens of thousands of dollars, all these different things. I just. I just don't like, like people beating up people online about that stuff and like there's already, it's. I got a mountain of crap. I gotta deal with you're like, I don't know if I need like, mean tweets about this as well. Like. That's where I'm at is I feel like at least the CFL did handle this correctly. Rising the team came out in the, you know, like you said, in the past, maybe there had been issues where other players hadn't been. That's my thing is I just, I feel bad for the guy and I don't know, he seemed, really don't sit on it, right? Like a lot of teams sit on it and then they, and then when you sit on it, you, you're trying to figure out what to do. You're weighing options back and forth. And then, then somebody else finds out and then somebody else finds out and it's not you releasing it. Well, guess what? That's brutal and it's a brutal and oh, you made it twice as we're and the other thing, and I don't. You know, I don't want to throw in controversy a little bit here. But what's the penalty. If. Kenny Lawler, isn't leading the CFL and receiving yards. You know what I mean? Like. If he's a practice roster guy. Do aid. We even find out about it. It'd be we sure as hell don't see them next week. You know what I mean? Like it's just, that's the reality and that's the reality and professional sports. So, you know, that part plays in too. So like, but I'm with you read. I mean, I I'm. In the sense of like, everyone's got to share an opinion and everyone's got to argue on social media about something. That's what it's for, that's the platform to have it. But it's just one of those things that, you know, I don't know. It's, it's, it's a weird balancing act of feeling sorry for him, but also understanding what he did was horrendous. So. Yeah. Well, it's also like that when the, when Adelaide, the AC Leonard, right. When he had the whole urine thing and yell, but then the team's like, okay, you're good. Like, you know, if this is someone that maybe isn't as delivering as well, right. That was the debate without, as well as if you have a player that's maybe not as excellent, you know, Last question before we begin, we've got all this drama. What game are we looking forward to this week? Weather. What are you excited? Are you excited about the blue bombers? I mean, There's gotta be a thrashing of the ALEKS. I mean, whether we, what game are you looking forward to this weekend? We have two games on Monday, Thanksgiving, Monday. I'm learning this as a thing. I didn't know. This was. The thing. Yeah. The games, I would say like, Kind of when you look at it and I mean, Toronto, Hamilton is always a good one because of, you know, of their provincial, you know, provincial proximity. But, and it's a weird one, right? Cause those T a couple of teams played twice in a week. So I think like I'm not trying to be biased here just because I'm a bombers. The bombers. You know, beat reporter, but I really do think that's an interesting game because of everything we've been talking about. Like to me, This is a massive character game for the Elks. Like we're going to, you know, like you've had to deal with all these things all season long. You know, you lost to the bombers, then you, then you'll lost to the red blocks. Now your back up against the first place bombers, like what team are we going to see? Trevor Harris is now back under center. You know, again, all the drama, all the controversy, everything that's. Wrapped around that organization for the last six, whatever weeks. Or more. What are they going to do this weekend? Like, what are they going to do Friday night in Winnipeg? And you know what, like the, the reality is it's, you know, it's any given Sunday, any team can win any time. Obviously the bombers are heavy favorites. But if I'm Edmonton, I'm looking at this game and looking at all the outside noise and looking at all the drama, all the fans. Got it. Now I'm going to say all the fans are turning their backs, but it's not helping. If you can beat the bombers on the road. You have the potential to flip the script here for you guys? Like that's the reality of sports. So when I look at all these teams, You know, there's some, again, the Hamilton. Toronto is going to have some massive implications for, for the, for the. For the standings. You know, but at the end of the day, another one of those games is Ottawa and you. Like it's just to me, it's, it's, I'm looking at more so. What, what, you know, not so much how good the bombers are going to be on Friday. What answer the Alps are going to have against the CFLs best team? Yeah. I mean, they say sometimes it's drama, galvanizes teams. I mean, you know, they do that. I've heard that's the thing sometimes. And we'll see. I do think that's a heavy, heavy lifting, but I appreciate you selling the matchup. Well, the other one too is though, like, I mean, I, I shouldn't say, I'd say that that's the Saskatchewan in Calgary games, Calgary, like, so anyone who covers whoever watches the CFL, like Calgary's in a very, very unique situation that they haven't been in for a decade. And that's desperate. So you got two desperate teams, you got the drama coming out of Saskatchewan with the 50, 50 balls and Cody for dry to apologizing and. All these things, and then you got Calgary. Who's hanging on. And, you know, you're going to get the best from Calgary bowl, Levi Mitchell's back in. He said, you know, let's F and go, my, my, my shoulder's fine. Let's let's put this to rest. He's confident. So that's another one that I would be looking at and saying, okay, this will be a good match up to. Cool. Well, Jeff, thank you so much again for spending the time. You know, we always have, it's all this myriad of drama. Every time we have you on and before it was all the stuff with ELEAGUE, but I appreciate you and know, you know, no holds out and saying everything and, and talk, tackling all these issues. I appreciate it. Yeah. No problem. You know what that's, that's why I love this league. You know, the drama is what makes it fun. The feet. You know, the on, on, on field excitement is good. You know, I figured we'll do more just blue bomber stuff with you and kind of how. I'm okay with touching all the subjects, man. Cool. Well, Chris Wallaby. I will tell you, I can always tell when we get fun, exciting guests on. Cause I post our previews on Facebook. A tremendous support for you coming on this week. People seem very excited. What do you say about that? You don't want to, buddy, I've done 10 years of CBC television. Up in Canada. I've done six years with TSN sports, where we covered the bombers exclusively. I've had a lot of funny, you. I'm getting old. I think people just feel sorry for me right now. You know, I lost my hair at an early age. I think they're just feeling sorry for me. Well, I appreciate you coming on. At former blue bomber, I'll tell you. So a little backstory. I had a standing bat last week was CFL hall favor, Milt, Steagall. At the BC Alliance, we're going to be Winnipeg and clearly, so my Twitter profile photo right now is a logo of the Winnipeg blue bombers because. As we all know they left. When did you, when did you make of that? Trouncing of a game that the BC. You know, loss at home when the bank came in and kind of wiped the floor with them. You know what? I was very surprised to be honest with you, big man. I thought, you know what? I actually was one of those guys that. She was going to have a great game. I like Michael Riley up. Call Michael now. No more. Mike, Michael. I like that, you know, I liked the fact that they had lucky Whitehead. We used to play with the bombers and he was having an Alice down a year. I didn't like the fact that they made the whole game about lucky and I kept shaking my. I did a show before. The game when I went. Lucky unlucky. Not that I jigs the poor guy. You know, obviously he breaks his wrist. I've got a great hit by Brandon Alexandra safety. Oh, listen. I was surprised, but then I wasn't surprised because. The bombers have there's no chicken, the armor, the one thing I thought was going to happen. I want to see what their players kick a good dude. Because remember those kids named Allie Martin cattle played in the XFL. And he was here for three, his first game. And usually if you're in the NFL or any other big league, your God. You got an apple and a roadmap, right? Well, this guy got a second chance. Now he kicked in doors. Now he's going to have to see, this is what he does. And would it be. With the wind swirls year. We got one of the windiest cities here. And the winds are blowing right now as we speak. Even though it was beautiful. And I want to see what he does. Ah, Well, that's about the only thing that I know that really good come back. And heard this team because their office is phenomenal. Their defense is phenomenal. Like I said, they're covered teams, everything else, especially teams, other than the field goal kicking. It has to be in subpar. But, you know, I want you to look at. And then of course you probably know that they went through, they lost their leading receiver this week with a. You know, impaired charges, which was a terrible thing. And they just plug a guy in Kelvin light comes in now. I mean. I don't know where and how this team will lose, unless they self-destruct or injuries taken place. Yeah, I, so we were. My wife's good friend got married last Saturday. So I'm a, I'm a wedding videographer. So I was filming, I bet. But Friday night we were at the rehearsal dinner and I had the ESPN plus on my phone, you know, for the lions. When in fact. And at first to and out. You know, when they just couldn't get anything going. And I thought, oh man, like, This is trouble. Cause he OBC always starts strong. They always come out the gate. And I, from that first drive, I thought, man, this is where I am for a world of hurt all night. Yeah, I agree with you, man. I was hoping I was actually excited about this game and I that's what I wanted. I want a close game, but they just dominated. I mean from, I mean, the shack, Michael Riley, six times. It seems like every team in the CFL right now. That's got issues. Audio line. Except for the bombers. Alive, which you have not missed a game in two years, the shame group and anybody that knows football knows chemistry on that whole line. You know, to be able to coordinate the talk. Communicate is so key. And so when you're looking at the bombers online, they've had these guys playing for two years now. Just a great cup run lie in 2019. And they they're just, they're moving along. There's big, they're strong Stanley Brian to two time miles Downing. The lineman, they could have a team of five all stars this year. Well, I mean, and that's even something, you know, in the NFL, they talk about it all the time with players being swapped out and this guy had never played left tackle before we're moving him to the MSI. But I mean, it is it's so, so to have that, even in the CFL is so much more remarkable, they kind of have that chemistry going right. Yeah. I agree with you and I'll tell you what. I had a couple of cups of coffee in the NFL. I tried out and. 1989 And I showed a sign, a contract with Shannon frown. They offered me a contract didn't sign. I went to Dallas. I tried all of the San Diego and I went to Arizona or Phoenix at the time. I came back here and. The OFA was pulled away. But, you know, what is funny? Back when I played. I mean you it's a two, it's a two job. A year, right? You. You played the game and then you go. I used to teach school. But down there now, your offensive line are probably the second highest paid people beside the quarterback. So you just tells you how much people now value. I used to hate that term. You guys are on still. Skill. Do that. I tell you what if I don't got a quarterback? And if I don't have a lot of primate, you don't, what's going to happen. That guy's gonna be counting clouds all day. He is not going to get, you know, You're not gonna be good. So I love the fact that the whole line is buying to get recognition in every league. Well, and, and. Yeah, we're BC, just like they just couldn't give Riley any time. It seems like the whole night. He's you. Yeah. Okay, Michael, Riley's a fast man. He, he is that he's also, you know, he's getting older. He shouldn't have to run. You know, she didn't have to run for his life, you know, every other place. So. Well, he does. I mean, that's the thing. I mean, I, I, I remember Michael when he played for Edmonton. When you started, I know he's played great in BC, but having said that. I know. They've had to revamp that a line. That was a problem last year when he got the, I think he was sacked the most of the CFL. So. It's not good, but having said that ma'am. I still think abuse has got a chance to be good. But having said that, I, again, I'm gonna reiterate myself. I don't know if anybody can beat the bombers right now. And I'm looking forward to seeing them play. Tomorrow night. Because. Edmonton actually gave us a pretty good battle. If it wasn't for those two turnovers in their role to lead, you know, the quick pick shakes for touchdown. And then obviously Willie, Jefferson, I ended up the guys. I don't know why Willie Jefferson's even in his league, you should be in the NFL. Stripped shack. And then Adam videotapes and we're touchdown. Those two plays are two series. Turn the game, turn the tide of the game. And I didn't have Trevor Harris. Yeah. You know, rookie I'm Taylor Cornelia. So I'm looking forward to this game with a little bit more anticipation. That it will be a closer game. And we'll see what happens. It's just do you. Do I want to talk about the games previous? To finish my thought on you talking about, you know, when they paint, can't be stopped, right. They have so much. Is it just that chemistry, you know, with the. With the returning players, because it seems like no other team is at all consistent at all. Right. I mean, we're coming into this. CFL is talking about single game sports betting. We're trying to do fantasy, all these things. But yet. The LLS from week to week could be the best team in the league or the worst team in the league. Right. So, I mean, why is it. But when a bank is like every week, you know that it's, you'll at least know what you're getting with them. You know what, in this league, in the Canadian football league, you have to draft good Canadians. And Kyle Walters, general manager. And Miller who played these guys all play football coach. Michael O'Shea they've all played. I mean, they understand that. And what they've done is created a culture where in the old days, you know what it was basically at the end of the year. You know, Johnny ass on the way off. Well now they'll get your jobs. Listen, they've got a professional chef. These guys eat like Kings. Now I'm trying to sneak in the back door. When, in my little bag, Jerry back get some food. Oh, no, I can't get in there, but anyway, It's just a culturally created. They've got a, such a good bunch of guys and everybody wants to play. I want to bring now, I mean, they have signed. More free agents. And kept the nucleus of this team because nobody wants to leave because you know, you go to Toronto BMO. All right, you go to Amazon and they got issues. And Amazon. You know, You see these beautiful trial, but the cost of Lumizyme. So, I mean, If you can come to want to play right now and. And, you know, you like water, we've got tons of water. We tell these guys. Like fishing. We have fishing here, boy. At diet anyway as well. That's my rant. No, but you just, it seems, you know, cause obviously we're coming into this, you know, where the Americans who came into the XFL to the CFL set, but like, it, it almost seems like it's unbalanced, like Winnipeg is just. Heads and shoulders, like you said, you know, from the organization down the football team, It just is weird to me. Cause then it's like, you have this. Th these misfit teams. Like there's only one. I, it seems very odd to me. Yeah, it does. I mean, but again, to me, it comes down to coaching. I mean, you got Jordan younger, who's the secondary coach played with the Argos, trying to organize. It's taking a bunch of guys. I got three rookies, not sec and secondary. These guys who performed what the front. If you look at anything on the bombers, What they have is we got a guy named Willie, Joe Shaw. Just mentioned before. You got a game? Jackson, Jeff Cody, dad, booze. Whose dad is a hall of Famer. PLAYBAR Dallas Cowboys. These two guys could be in the NFL in my mind. They shouldn't even be in his league, but they have such a, they have such a good rapport. And they get so much pressure. And that helps a secondary. Plus the biggest thing I ever want a bank right now. Nope. Knock on wood. No injuries. They're being very, very healthy and I thought you should drive a Harris. I haven't been out a lot of quarter basket and hurt. I think they've started five rookie quarterbacks this year already. So, I mean, we been on the right side of that for sure. Talking to him at the game this week, right. Edmonton, you know, coming in. They've struggled, obviously. So the title of our episode is Edmonton's worst week ever. Right? It started with the loss of the red blocks last week. Now. You know, all these different issues. What are you making? Of Edmonton. And is it too much for them to overcome? And even like, try to play some semblance of a football game with everything else going on. No, I think Yemen. It can be a Bergen football club. I think you can't look at them. I mean, They're like a sleeping giant, they've got Chubb. They just haven't figured out how to win. You know, when it's like losing, once you start losing the road just becomes natural. I think these guys right now, if you look at it, We've got Darell Walker. You got. They've got a bunch of studs on his team. The real Walker was one of the leading machine was he's got big Miami and he hasn't even got a touchdown this year. That's crazy. I mean, you know, you look at what they have. I'm defacing, not a great deep. But they keep making stupid mistakes, interceptions kill them, turnover that game you mentioned just now it gives the Ottawa. Was it sloppy as game I ever saw. I mean, they brought in a kid named Calibans in Ottawa, threw for three touchdowns while you saw it yesterday. He's mortal now. They threw three interceptions in the loss against the Argos. W who coincidentally are the only team that beat the bombers this year. So. You know, it's just one of those things. Man. I tell you what I look at this team on Amazon. Talent-wise if on paper, they look pretty good. But I don't know if it's a head coach. I know, but as a system they're running. But they're just not very productive right now. What the fact is Trevor Harris is back. She ever Harris was leading the league in passing and passing. He was Shana's before he got hurt, when his neck injury. Kenny recoup. I don't know. We'll have to see. I mean, you look at bullied by, in Calgary, right? He pulled himself out of the game last week. She had, he's not feeling good. They still won the football game against Saskatchewan. But having said that. Again, another injury to a key personnel. So we'll see what happens. What do you yeah. Our Argos. Just last night, you know, tremendous game. Right. You know, obviously Chris Jones comes back defensive. It didn't seem to be as a MOCAD. Mental Thompson fan. We did a whole episode about him. It didn't seem like he had that great of a game. I mean, it really seemed like the defense, you know, you look at that scoreboard. Does Toronto have enough to challenge. And really now that they've getting all the pieces going, I think so. I think, I mean, you take a look who their general managers, Michael pinball, Clemens. One of the stars is CFO. TFL one of the best speakers. I mean, we went down to Louisiana. Remember we went down when the. We just CFL played in Shreveport, Louisiana. We played in Birmingham, Memphis bulldog. We went all over the place. So we had a, we had a group of us. Myself. And while Clem was Matt Dunnigan and we went down and talked to all of the schools, we talked to a lot of communities about what does CFL could bring to the city. Well, you know what you do not want to go behind Michael. Clemens going to talk. Eloquent. He is got more. I mean, he's talking about butterflies and cocoons and. I go up and then I'm like, I don't want to go. I'm not speaking. No, I don't want. Because he's got good, man. What. Jaci question. Yeah. Toronto's got some good players. I hope they can actually increase your fan base. Get some people out on that, because right now that's the big thing, right? They're the biggest s****y. You know, they call it the center of Canada universe. Right. They just need to do some claims, but I think they have a very good team. They signed a lot of guys and right now they want to get us Ottawa, which is. I feel bad because Paula police. The head coach, there was what Winnipeg won a grey cup with. And I just think. They're not a very good football team. And I know they signed a guy named duck Evans or something. Yeah. I want to see what he does. I mean, he's probably going to get closer to play it now because. Caliber Evans became, they said right now he's, he's mortal. He. The 300, 300 steps or so. But going back to Toronto. Yes. I think Shawano very good team. I don't know who else. Montreal, maybe, maybe Hamilton. We dismantled them. How was it? Has no online. They're horrible. No, I know if there might be listening to watching your podcast, I love you guys your whole life, but guess what? Anyway. Yeah. I go on a rant all the time. It's good. I mean, It might my one other thought about the game last night. I mean, not to here. We all know the Toronto of the issue with attendance, all those things. I mean, my God, you could count the fans in the stands last night. I mean, I was in, I, I understand it's a Wednesday. I understand. It's midweek. I mean, I understand all these things, but I was like, I just can't imagine anyone watching that broadcast and being like, oh yeah, like our business model is great. Like. We're we don't need to worry about. I mean, even Naylor was tweeting today about the XFL stuff again, which I didn't want to, I. I just don't know how you look at that game, right? Yeah. We're fine. We don't need to address any of these issues. It drives me nuts. I mean, obviously going to Toronto and work in the games when I worked for CVC. You know, and go to the bars, going to local watering holes and having a cup of cold ones. And people would say no, no, no. We don't want to watch the game. Put on Buffalo. But see the. The city has the Raptors. It has the blue Jays. It has the maple Leafs. Those three big sports teams are the heart of that. That's s****y. The Argos are way, way down. You got the penthouse and you've got the outhouse. That's where they are. It is. Yeah, I don't, you know, and I say, it seems like it's, you know, everyone says online, you know, you can't. We've heard the jokes before referral. And I was like, yeah, but that doesn't make it any less true or scary right now. What's going on. Oh, no, you. You know what I hope Toronto. I mean, you always had the two cities and maybe come up or Toronto and BC. And obviously with the pandemic. And, you know, the fact that I think in BC, you can only have 12,000 fans right now, still because of the pandemic. I don't know what the limit is in, in Toronto. But, you know, in the old days I remember going to BC was 50,000 all the time, every game and Toronto was the same as always. You know, I hated this guy norm I hate to play in his guidance. Because they just, the field was so screwed up because he had the baseball. I mean, I'll always creases where a couple of my teammates blew their news can hear, you know, get caught their foot and where the. The seams were so. Yeah. I mean. But to me, I mean, just. I hope Toronto picks it up. I think they will. I think they're a very good football club. I really do. And I like what their leadership. Now Ryan Dinwiddie is obviously a rookie coach. You know, he was here with us in a warmer, but. Yeah. I don't know. It's a, it's a crazy time. We're from. One thing. I really am curious to get your thoughts about, you know, as someone that played right now, now you do broadcasting and things, you know, On both sides of the ball, right. Obviously all this stuff coming out with Edmonton, with Eddie steel, all of that. Do you have any. I don't want to put anyone on the spot with anything. Thoughts on that, just because you're in an interesting position, right. Where you're on both sides and kind of see. I mean, you've seen both sides of the ball. Well, You know, obviously Duane on Drew's yak, the equipment manager at 49 years was let go before this 50th year. That surprised the hell out of me. I was like, what the hell is going on here, man? This guy's a legend. His equipment guy forever. And then I, I haven't read this yet, but I saw there was a quote from joy mush. Joined Mazda's family put a quote out. I haven't read it yet, so I can't speak on that, but I'm at joined mosque a couple of times and him again, and he was, you know, Just a great guy, obviously with, you know, Disabilities. But the team loved them. They just loved this guy. And then I'll blown away. That hypothetically. And I can't speak cause I don't know. The general manager Brock Sunderland, and said, he's not allowed in the locker room anymore because he's a distraction. Obviously you passed on rib brother. What happened? He said that. This story has come out. It's put an ugly face on that franchise right now. Right? First off, you know, we're doing a whole thing with, they were the Eskimos. We had to change the name because we're. We got to take care of that stuff right now. So now they're the Elks, but yeah. Speaking about those two things. And I don't know. I mean, they're pointing it right at the GM. Is it the GM? I don't know. I can't speak to, I know the Eddie steel officer's job. On the radio. Because he went after him and said, you know what? This is a thing, but. I can't speak to it. I'm not close to it. But I do know both of those guys very well. I'm Dwayne Andrews yak. And. Enjoy. And I was surprised when I read about it. Not, I mean, I already, I knew about Dwayne because he got like a little beginning of the year. Or last year, what joy. I was surprised to hear about that and that to me. Struck a bone. And I hope it's not true. I hope it's not true because I think that's just a terrible thing. But you haven't seen with the Eddie thing where it's so hard where we're, you know, You have your opinions, you have your thoughts, but then when you, even when you're paid to give those, and it's messy, right? Because with the radio station and what. I mean, do you. I mean, how do you feel, you know, when you go out and obviously you're either depending on like what agreements or arrangements, whenever I, but you know, when you're paid to give your opinions on things and it's like, do I need to watch what I say or. Oh, yeah. There's times you have to do that. You have to watch what you say. They'll tell you a little, you know, watch your P's and Q's you want to make sure you don't talk about this day. This is a situation we don't want to come up right now. I feel bad for Eddie. I mean, I know Eddie. He a good guy. I thought he did a great job. And that's right. When you put handcuffs on the guy, how are you supposed to know? That's why I like these podcasts because podcasts, you can basically say whatever you want. So I knew the Blondfire spores, Shauna. You know, one of the things he said when I started doing it. Is yo, you know, just be who you are and just speak what you want. But even then I still take into consideration. Watch what you say. If you're not sure about it, don't get in there. You know, don't jump in right with both feet, make sure you know what you're talking about. Otherwise it can come back and bite you in the ass. Right. So I don't want to have that happen to me. Do I think Eddie got treated unfairly. Yeah, I do. I do. I think it, whether his comments were true or not. I think the radio stations just. Those stick behind a guy like that. You just say, Hey, this is man, we hired you for your opinions. And now you're telling you, you can't speak what you think. He's not trying to be a shock jockey. He's not trying to be a crazy guy. So, I mean, Yeah. Hopefully the station. Reconsiders. And puts them back on the air, but, you know, once they made that decision, I usually going in different directions. Yeah. It's just hard. I. I mean, it's one of those things you don't. You know, you hire people, like you said, you know, for their opinions, for their personalities, further, whatever. And then a lot of stuff comes along with that. I mean, you know, we look at that even within the states and, you know, we had the whole staff with like Stephen, a Smith came out and, you know, he was talking about baseball staff and how they should be able to speak English. And it was this whole big thing. And then, you know, I he's still, you know, nothing happened with that. Right. I mean, I, he apologized, but it's one of those it's hard where you want people that you want to create drama, but they need, it's like, well, not that kind of drama or not too much drama, you know, it's all, you know, I think a lot of guys try and be like, how are you doing right. Shock jock say, what'd you feel like he's got, you want to hear. That guy's crazy. Like, I mean, he says whatever comes on his mind, a lot of it is right on the other side of the wall, but, you know, they love him. And he's making millions of millions of dollars doing that. Now, some guys share what, you know what I want to do that because that's how you get attention. Right? You're a little different. You don't want to be. And that's the biggest thing, you know, you're talking about your point right here. If I come on, I just speak black and I just talked bland and I gave you the general. Oh, okay. Yeah. This team is very good. They pass for 200 yards. A yard back is very good. You're like, get this guy off. You know what nobody wants to hear that Jack ass. Now. You talked a little bit, you have some fun with it. People want to listen to it, right? I think so many guys are trying to do something different, but again, going back to any steel. I spoke as mine spoke from his heart. Guaranteed that he knew something he's not going to go out and make this kind of comment. Leslie doesn't have knowledge about what happened again. I can't speak to it because I'm not an amateur. I don't know the scenario there. But I would say that for a station. And I, why, why watched the. The after scene people were, I read the comments and they were like, you know, this is ridiculous, man. And they're talking about the GM of the radio station knowing full well, what Eddie said was probably true. But because they have the radio rights, they don't want to lose it. Cause that's the big thing, right? And all of a sudden we got a, you know, we got a PS. And so what we have to do is we need a sacrificial lab. Eddie jump on the state. Bye. Bye buddy. That's what happened. Yeah. Yeah. It's hard. Getting back to I, I football set before we let you go. I appreciate your time. You know, so my wife famously you. Y, so kickoff game this year, right when they're packing Hamilton said she goes, yeah, I want Winnipeg. The w. It's very similar to university of Washington. Where is she? Exactly. That's the same one. Yeah. So, you know, now she is, of course never went when they pay blue bombers fan. Right. I mean life. You've got to get a wife, my brother. So, yeah, it's them in the pack here. Going through the gray cup. I mean, who do you see on the other side of that match up here? We're going to be in Hamilton. We have our tickets bought, you know, flights. We got to get our game tickets back. What are you? What do you see on the other side of that football field here in December? That's a good question. That's a great question. Because we talked about affirmation organized. It was the only team that beat the bloggers. Right? We talked about Hamilton. Who just lost her first goal, a game in two years at home. I think they still can be a very good football team. Then you look at Montreal, we haven't played yet. You know, Burning Adams Jr. And, and they got some talent. They got a good defense. So. I think the ease is right up for grabs. I, you know what I know everybody's picking Hamels and right now, because now Wilson went there last year. To the great couple of 2019, actually, what. I don't know. I really don't. I. If I'm having a hard time thinking about what what'd you could be because I watched Montreal with a great comeback winning the last game. Guess Hamilton. And then I look at Argos and they way they dominated yesterday, but Ottawa is just. I feel bad for one. I was just not very good. And then I look at a Toronto. Who will be playing soon. So. Yeah, I don't know. Ma'am. That's a good question. Who do you think. I mean, you're, you're a guy watching it. Besides your wife, who's got the smartest, your wife's beautiful man. She likes the bombers right on. What's your wife's name? Dorothy. Dorothy. But the wizard of Oz, she, she knows what's going on. Yeah, there are at the end, Helen. I heard parents like. Older sounding name. We don't yet know. Come on man. You don't have to broadcast. I'm making some kids. I've got a whole pack of them. Want me to read you a couple? I, yeah, I think Toronto. If they can get the offensive going. I mean, last night, was it, you know, if the, if the offense can live up to what special teams and defense provided last night, I think that Toronto. I, like I said, I, we are becoming about those times and stands. I mean, I followed him even in the spring league here last year when he was playing in the off seasons. I mean, McCloud's our guys. So, and Paul, my co-host is trying to argue that this man I'm a BC lions fans. I am angry at the world right now, but. You know, with like you Whitehead and everything else. So, yeah, I think Toronto is looking Gabby. I think it's when it pig's world and we're just living in it right now. Well, I, you know, it's funny you talk about McLeod belt. At the Thompson, I've always been a big fan. He led the league in passing last year. He played. For some reason, he's just got that asterisk against him. I mean, you know, they signed a Arbuckle NACARA boggle, who I'm not impressed with at all. I mean, yeah. He played with Dinwoody it. Didn't what he was as coaching joggers. I haven't seen him do anything. But cloud to me is a pure passer. And this league is a passing like with only $3. To me, it's an old brainer. I mean, he's won 200 Ronell McCloud, Bethel Thompson. How do you pull them now and go, okay, Nick, we're paying you the money you're playing now. So, I mean, that's a different situation, but I, I like McLeod. I'm staying with you, man. Even though at home. Like BC, like you do. Well, I like your wife, Dorothy, Dorothy, I love you, man. Chris, this has been great. I hope we can keep it in the Rolodex and call you back. I appreciate. Yeah, you take. And even though my, my Twitter logo is a, is a Winnipeg logo right now. I, it will be okay. And I know, I know that's all right though, brother. I appreciate it. Chris will be. Thank you so much again for taking the time. My pleasure brother, talk to your shoe at any time. I got to go make some shopper right now. Okay. So audio is my friend. Dorothy stop calling me. We're all. Yeah, we're at five. That other way. Good. Let me hit this time. All right. Cool. Well, we have Matt baker here, manager. I want to get this right manager of communications and content for America's CFL team to BC lions. Matt, how are you doing today? First off, read a yeah, you nailed the title. Got a few titles depending on the day, but everyone has to chip in everywhere, but yeah. Hey man. Great to be here. A big fan of the show, a long time listener slash viewer, whatever platform I'm on. So, yeah, it's an honor to finally be here in the flesh. Do you, is it with. Those things when I never know this, like people that manage content and manage the social media, if they're like read just like shout out, like with. Do you see, like when you see people like tweeting all the time, like taking the BC lions, does that, is that annoying to the people that run the social media? Not at all. Well, I shouldn't, I mean, Here's the thing, right? W whether you're talking about whether you're talking about positive, Feedback, negative feedback. Here's the thing I remind myself and I remind people who we work with. People care. Right? So, you know, we're in a two game losing streak right now, not fun. Right. You're getting all kinds of interesting. Reaction. And some of it is more polite than others, but people care. That's a good thing. And that's why we love you guys because you're, you're spreading the word and you're, you're really, really making some headway, I think, on this America's team thing, right. We might have to talk to Jerry Jones about getting that term. Used for us only. Right. I tell you, I mean, This is the thing I tell Paul, this, I go, this, this stuff is brought up on other shows that I'm not even bringing up now. I mean. We're working that, you know, kudos, arrived Peterson for, you know, the, the era. Canada's team right? The Roughriders. But no, I think America's CFL team, I think is American CFL podcast. I think it's good. I want to know Matt. So what the hell happened on Friday? I had a bet with CFL hall of Famer, Milt, Steagall. I was embarrassed in front of the world. What happened with the lions on Friday? Well, first off. Good on you. Good on you for having some fun with Milt. As you know, we, he's an all time legend in this league. I know it sucks that you had to change your Twitter logo to that ugly. Thing there w for the w whatever their slogan is, but no. I mean. You can't sugarcoat it. I mean, I think more than anything else, you saw that Winnipeg right now, as you know, in this league, it doesn't matter to November. It's all about who's hot in about a month or two from now, right? Winnipeg really is the class of this league. I mean, balanced. Aggressive on defense. They've got that Andrew Harris guy who seems to go for five, six yards on average, every Kerry, he had some injuries early in the year. It seems like he's healthy, raring to go at the right time. You know, and they have a couple of game breakers at receiver. I mean, you saw what Kenny Lawler was able to do. Zach Calero set quarterback. I mean, you see what a full year of health can do it, especially he's, he's surrounded by a lot of great weapons. It's not taking anything away from him, but yeah, that was, I can tell you, you know, we're talking about all this social media stuff. I know I'm internally here with the lions. We were really excited for that game going in. I mean, You know, we viewed it as a chance and sort of. Established that the west is going to be a wide open race here for the final half of this year in there. There's a lot to be determined. You know, I think Winnipeg right now, it looks like they're sitting pretty on top, but. I mean, you know, you look what Calgary was able to do last week and Saskatchewan, you know, unfortunately dropping those two to the riders might play a role in how all the tiebreaker is work out, but. I mean, we're still looking at a pretty solid race here for second, third and fourth. I think it's going to be fun, but yeah, last Friday, I mean, can't sugarcoat it disappointing result, but. I think the guys in blue and gold. Prove that right now, they're in a class by themselves, but that could change. That's the beauty of a one game. Anything can happen. Yeah, I think the biggest difference was, you know, the, the Roughriders game, it was so close. Right. It's like comes down to the wire. It's like a heartbreak. You know, last Friday I was at a rehearsal dinner for my wife's good friend's wedding. And I'm like watching the game on my phone. And, you know, the first two and out you're like, oh no, this is right. I mean, His Winnipeg is like you said, just in a class of their own, what, what were you sensing? You know, watching that game versus the one with the rough riders where it was a little more hotly contested, you know, as crazy as it sounds. I mean, the score, the score might be a little misleading. The one I'm about to say, but. I look at that game again, that Winnipeg game, there was some opportunities for the momentum to turn. I mean, you look at late in the second quarter, I think the score was only nine, three. Elect to punt and pin the bombers deep back at their own five. You got to play the field position game against a team that balanced. And then sure enough, on the second and five, Tim Bonner, I think is a guy jumps off side, gives them a fresh set of downs. There's another penalty that extends a drive later. So all of a sudden. You go from pinning them back at the five to surrendering a 105 yard touchdown drive. And at that point, I want to say game over that. But those are Backbreakers couple of, couple of big takeaways in the second half where I think they just got a field goal and then came away with nothing. And also there was some, you know, despite that score, looking like it was out of hand. There were some chances to snatch the momentum away. It couldn't do it. And you have to do it. It needs a good teams like that. So, Yeah, we'll see. I mean, not going to have to go into Winnipeg here in a couple of weeks, and I'll tell you what I know you're coming up here next week. If you want to experience a fun CFL environment, you've got to get to some of these Prairie spots. Read you guys. As I going back, going into there in October, the weather might get a little cooler. Those here. Here's a, here's a tidbit for you as well. Winnipeg's a stadium IgE field. Had the same designer. As lumen field in Seattle. So it kind of looks like a mini luminous field and it was kind of built that way for the noise to kind of echo off. So these are the environments. It looks like this lion's team is going to have to go into, come play off time. So that'll be a good test against them again in a couple of weeks time. When you work with the league, are you, do you still get into like every down, like the excitement of that, or is it like a thing when you're working at like a concert and it's, I, I don't listen to the music. I'm trying to do my job. I mean, W as a fan. Are you still, do you still watch and enjoy the games? Yeah, I mean, I'm kind of being right down there on the sidelines, right. So you're kind of into it. You kind of get wrapped up in all the excitement with the players reacting and. Yeah, I kinda, I kinda. Feel like a fan still when I watch. And that's kind of cool. I mean, it doesn't always feel like work. Right. But there's a lot happening during games. I mean, I'm doing a lot of the social media, a lot of those sideline videos. Media duties with my communications role on making sure at TSN has. Has a, what they need that kind of stuff. So it's kind of like a hybrid of being really into the game and cheering and having a good time or not cheering of something doesn't go well, but also making sure I have some of all those other bases covered, but yeah, I mean, we all, we all get into this because. We love sports. We love the team and you know, I'm a guy since age of six, seven years old going to lions games. So yeah, I don't think I'll ever have the fan in me taken away as, as long as I'm lucky to be in this role. All the respect aside. You know, Mr. Delmon, you know, w wonderful owner, right. We bring him in. Yeah. Revitalizing the BC. Do we need to keep him out of the building when we're playing at home? Because it seems like. Right. It's. [Unknown], I don't know if it's too much pressure like the bosses there and everyone's really worried. I mean remarkable that we've had two home games, right. Under the new ownership and, and or three, right. And the LX two losses and all three of those of the home games. Well, we haven't lost on the road since he took over. I don't think so. There's that too, but no, no. It's I know, I think he was joking about that in one of his interviews, too. Whoever the host was it might've been rod Peterson actually, but I can't remember. Kind of brought that up and he's yeah, well, That's funny. I mean, I'm the, tide's got to turn in here though, because you said it, I mean, Those two games against Saskatchewan. Might've played a role in how some of the standings might shake out. But I'll say this I don't. Mr. Dolman. He's he's a guy, BC guy born and bred, you know, done great business here. He's passionate about this team. And that is, that was something he kept hearing about as far as the ownership where Mr. Brayley wanted to sell it to someone, and this case is a state solve it. Wanted to sell to someone who was passionate about the team. And that's what we have. I mean, this guy is very involved in the community. I can tell you there's all kinds of ideas being put in motion. In terms of getting more kids in and making sure. There's better relationships as far as business and minor football. And you know, that that's something that was missing the last few years of Mr. Bailey's ownership. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to travel. I mean, the health issues sort of prevented that. And, and that was a presence that was missed having the owner there, having them in attendance. Yeah, the record's not. Any of us want with him in there, but I will say it's good that we've found a good local owner. Who's a on hand. When the team is playing. Tell me about, you know, the excitement, you know, going through that whole process, having him come in, you as someone that's been with the team for, you know, some years now. Knowing kind of like, wow, we're. I mean, I would have feel like, you know, I struck the lottery a little bit, right? Like here I am, I'm with this team we're doing okay. But now man, we got this whole new, fresh everything coming in. Right. You know, resources and ideas and money and things like that. What was that like for you and, and kind of the energy of the team? Oh, I mean, breath of fresh air, really? And again, it's. Ticks all the boxes, local deep pockets. Very well connected in the community and yeah, I'm not sure. I, you know, you mentioned the new resources and all that kind of things. And I mean, I'm sure we'll reap the benefits of that. I believe going forward. I mean, we're kind of getting through 20, 21 as best we can right now, but yeah, just, just a totally different vibe, just a totally new energy, knowing that he's there. I mean, he does a lot of his work behind the scenes. I mean, you know, you're not always going to see him necessarily in front of the cameras or out at the games. Right. I mean, we were talking about Jerry Jones earlier. I mean, Jerry Jones on camera every two, three minutes. It seems. And. So, yeah, just, just a total, just a total new energy around the team. No doubt about it. A good energy. Everyone's feeling great and optimistic about it. I came out this week. Lucky Whitehead, right. Injury going to be out a couple of weeks. W always struck me with him. You know, besides being able to put the product on the field, right. Tremendous player. Just the freshness, right. Marketability. Right. You know, coming to the stadium, we got the goofy hats. We got the spheres. We're backing it up on the field. What is lucky light, like as a person. And do you enjoy, you know, the, these new, like we're trying to build stars, we're trying to get marketable people and having guys like cam. Yeah, Nathan Rourke, right? We're hoping future for him. You know, a lot of these guys, what is that like being around them? Very good question. Very good point. Because you know, coming into this year, we were kind of thinking, yeah. You know, like every team in this league player turnover. No doubt about it. It's a problem. I mean, you hear that as one of the things that maybe why people aren't buying jerseys, maybe aren't buying tickets to TV numbers are great, which is awesome. But. Yeah, lucky is a, is the epitome of, of what we were looking for kind of, you know, a new face, a new guy to get out there and my experiences with him, nothing but awesome. I mean, you see his smile on the sidelines. You know, what you see on TV is what you see in person, right? And I'll tell you a quick, funny story. We're flying back from Montreal. After the wind there in September. And it's the kind of guy he is lucky decides to help the flight attendants serve the meals and drinks. So. There he is pulling the cart back, taking drink orders. And that's just, that's just an example of the type of personality he is. But yeah, I mean, it's cool that the scooter and the hat and the ninja turtle backpack. New stars, new electrifying stars, right. I mean, again, that's a challenge. All the teams are facing, but, and we have some good ones, you know, Michael Riley, Brian Burnham, TJ Lee, Gary Peters, Bola. Kumble examples of guys who have been here for a long time. But we know what they're all about, right. So lucky has been awesome. And then, yeah, as far as the injury goes, let's just hope that it's closer to two weeks and not before. So we'll see what happens next week. The team will get back to practicing here, I think on Sunday. So. The surgery went well, and that's a guy we need on the field in this playoff stretch drive. We're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. Obviously Calgary coming to the town next. It's been ups and downs. Right. You know, we've both Levi and he's in and these following stuff. Hi, how are you just as a fan feeling about that game? Obviously removing, you know, I mean, BC lines are going to win every game, but how are you feeling about that? That game as a fan. Going to get to determine a lot, I think. Right. I mean, you just look at the standings right now. They're right there. Two points back. I mean, you can call it four points because currently have the upper hand and the tiebreaker and yeah, I'll be watching that game. And there is in Saskatchewan that keenly here this weekend, but. Yeah, it's going to determine a lot. You just got to do the math, right? I mean, When there, and I don't want to see your home and cooled, but you have locked up the season series and then he will pick up two more points. But yeah, you can never count out Calgary. I never, for a second. Counted them out. Bull Levi Mitchell. It appears that he's gotten over whatever injury issues he had there. And maybe he was fighting that a little bit after the wind we had there in week two. I think he went on the injury list after that week, in fact. Right. So. And it just seems, I mean, It's a credit to John Hufnagel and you know, the continuity and what they've built there these past several years. I mean, they they've been dealing with injuries and they just plugged guys in. Right. But you know, just guys. Good scouting. Good evaluation. Maybe Kamara Jordans or receiver there is that's battled some injuries, but then they've had some other guys come in and step up. Right. I mean drafted well recruited. Well, and yeah, they're going to be in this race here, these next couple of weeks, which is what makes this game. Coming up next Saturday. Important, always fun. When gallery comes to town. I mean just historically over the franchise and you know, some good battles, some big playoff wins. A couple of tough playoff losses over the years. I mean the BC lions, as you probably know, following this lead now read. They don't have that traditional arrival, like the labor day, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto Hamilton. Right. But Calgary has kind of been their defacto big rival over the years. Right. A lot of playoff games go back to the early nineties when Doug Flutie bolted to Calgary as a free agent. Very tough times. I mean, Franchise back here for a couple years, right? So, yeah. If there's, if there's a game, if there's an opponent where this lion's team will be. Anxious to face in need of a bounce back. Calgary's the one. I have a note here in the show, David Sanchez reporting, right. That. Davey or Posey. And I never know how to say this. We are Posey. Yeah, he's getting signed, right. Is that to kind of help out with the lucky white head injury for the next couple of weeks? Well, as our, as of this recording on Thursday afternoon, nothing, there has been announced. Okay. I don't know what else I can add on that reef, but. Yeah, Dave. Yeah. David Sanchez, a buddy of mine. And I know for a fact he's pretty well connected, so, okay. I just. Yeah. A lot I get to into it, but I just, I have that. And to know that why that would make sure I asked you about that. I want something that you posted the other day or the Tiempos. Both at yo Michael Riley, you know, things to know about Michael Riley, you know, who's this hero watching bachelor in paradise is Michael Riley, just the most wonderful person in the world to get to know. I mean, you know, Mary's got kids, family, guy. He had been in the league forever. I mean, talk about him as this, you know, face of the franchise right now. And what do you, what does that do for the team and kind of the leadership role. Yeah, he's great. I mean, you, you see him, you see him in the flesh, you see him in action. One of the bigger competitors you'll you'll ever be around. It's amazing off the field. He can kind of switch that off and be that funny comedian guy, that funny family guy. With COVID and everything we haven't done as many in-person features and stuff this year, which is unfortunate because you can probably dig back into our archives and find some interviews. And me and him where he's just. Hassling me. And I'm trying to get me off my game. And that kind of became a funny thing between the two of us. We'll have to get back to that maybe after our next wind, but yeah, to me though, that that's kind of been the best storyline of this year. And it was a big question, mark. Not only for him for a lot of the, the veterans. Coming into this year, we talked about Zack. Collaros right. Battling injuries a year off. Michael said he used the year off to sorta rest up, heal up a lot of bumps and bruises over the course of the last couple of years. Remember he broke his wrist at the end of 2019. Kind of put a wrench in to the team's quest to try to win a couple more down the stretch and try and make the playoffs after a really bad start, really bad season. But yeah, the year off was to his advantage and he, and he's playing as good as he's ever played. I mean, before that game against Winnipeg last week, he was leading pretty much in every category. I'll say he he's the team's nominee for most outstanding player right now, whether he gets the nod in the west division of Zach Calero. [Unknown] keeps doing what he's doing. Those are hard accolades to ignore, but. Hey. Yeah, you're right. I mean, good family guy. And I think that video you're talking about, he talks about his dogs Rottweiler and. Talks about what he wanted to be when he grows up and. You know, it's a great thing. This is not a slate at any of the other leagues, but CFL players have more of a human element to them. Right. I mean, Let's be honest, a lot of these guys, not him, but after work jobs, they're regular type guys. And you know, they're, they're doing this for the love of the game more than anything, but yeah, Michael's a good one. And he had to just hope, like, heck that the winds keep piling up and you know, he will be the guy to. Lead us to that elusive seventh grade cup. If this year, We're beyond whenever. Yeah. It would be quite the storyline there. The American CFL team. Take over whether peg. Yeah. Worried about that. Obviously my wife is a windy pig fan, so now we have this wonderful. She picked them up and nobody's perfect. Well, I know. But yeah, according to Chris Welby, who I just interviewed at Griswold. He sounds like once a day. Dorothy, now. It just, yeah. I was going to say Chris wall B. One of the best guys. This league has ever produced. Miss him as a broadcaster, he used to broadcast the games. When CBC had the contract, he was kind of the number one crew analyst, like the gray cup every year would be. Chris wall B and Chris Cuthbert. Right. So, no, that's great. We'll be, I'm glad you talked to him because he's an all time classic, great guy. Yeah. Rounding out here, you know, really appreciate the time, you know, taking the time on the bi-week. What. Y working for you. What is the mentality like Gail coming off of a hard loss. Getting ready to go again? You know, we're going to have another home game, like you said, I think they're starting practice on Sunday. Right? What. What is the team working on now kind of moving forward into next week while you watch the games? Right? I think a Rick Campbell alluded to this. They want to get that running game going. So, you know, we talked about Mr. Posey a few minutes ago, if that's a possibility. Maybe they're looking at bringing in or running back or two by the time. By the time, this episode officially EHRs. But I think it's just getting back to doing what they did right. When they were winning. Right. I mean, good pass protection. Good defense. I mean the pass rush. That's another area. Well, they'll tell you to a man has to get better because getting you go outside the line of scrimmage becomes that much more important, but. You know what I think, you know, you could make an argument that the bi-week always comes at a good time. In this case, it came at a good time. Right? Couple of big statement games. Didn't go their way. You know, take a few days, refresh the guys battling injuries have been in getting treatment and stuff. I'm sure. So I think you'll see a team come back refreshed and focused and. Like we discussed big, big one coming up here against Calgary. It's. We'll determine a lot. Yeah, we'll we'll, we'll be waving from the side era from. You know, from the, from the stands will be waving, you know, I know with all the protocols and things, but yeah, I, we're excited, you know, it's been a long time coming and getting up there and it'll be fine. Having the Marc cast invade Canada for, for them for the weekend. And that we're looking forward. We have a great, like a high rise Airbnb right down by BC place. With the whole. So we're very excited. It's going to be a fun weekend and I'm excited to cheer on the lions and. Well, when we bought the tickets, I wasn't, we weren't even on the lions thing yet. So it's been a long t

ime coming and we're very excited. So it should be good. Well, we know that I'll tell the guys they have to perform well because reading polar in town, right. I mean, this is. No, that's great. We, I, I tell you, we, we always appreciate the support. It's a great to extend the brand south of the border. And yeah, we'll, we'll make a point to come say hi at some point there on Saturday, worst case we'll have to wave from the field, but in the field, I understand. Yeah, no. Embarrassed in front of. Milt Steagall. I had ed Tate riding me making fun of me online. So I have a lot of, we have a lot of things to make up for here. I would appreciate the BC lions stepping up and I really appreciate it.

Episode 60 - We’re Halfway There

Are you, you get ready here. I programmed our theme music into the stream deck. And I've been using trend to like, Eliminate reaching over here to push the button for the music and. It's not clearly labeled. So the stream deck handles a lot of things. This is not an ad for stream deck, but I love this thing. It's probably one of the group. I purchased. Yeah, that's good. [Unknown] a happy read, so that's good. By the way we're recording this podcast on international podcast. Did you know that it's international biogas? It's also orange shirt day in Canada. Thank you for participating Paul on September 30th. I wore this anyway for the BC lions, but then Steve Milton today. How the orange shirt on, I've seen lots of teams change their logos to like orange shaded, whatever. So anyway, this is to raise awareness for the residential school systems in Canada. I've got the history and legacies of the schools and that Neo. How every child matters. So that is dual purpose today. Yeah, I didn't get the memo. Sorry. Don't shame me for that. It's okay. I would've worn an orange shirt in solidarity. Okay. So here's your card. I am chomping at the bit. So we're going to play the show real quick. And then boy, oh boy, I got some for you here. Great show today. We have destiny Wilson. He is, does all the play by plays? Well, not all, but he does a lot of play by plays for a lot of the CFL games. He is on TSN 1260. Dustin is great. You've seen them. You've heard them on all the CFL games. Reid Wilkins, a fellow Reed spelled correctly from six 30, Chad he's friends with Dave Campbell, you know, friend of the show. He, we talk all about Edmonton and all that stuff. And then Steve Milton has covered the CFL for like 40 years. He's with the Hamilton spectator. He is on as well. So tremendous show, tremendous knowledge. I kept all the interviews. Good, manageable length. So hopefully everybody will get through that. Very cool. Very cool. So congratulations first off. Big changes in your life. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. I've got a new job. I am. I'm. I'm going to be leaving the students. See I'm programming right now. Right. As we're doing this. There we go. I am leaving KTM. My last date. It will be next Friday. The aids and a lot of people are kind of sad to see me go. A lot of people kind of indifferent. It's been, it's been quite a fun time being in, in, in television is I want to say I've been doing it for almost 20 years and it's time to move on to something like a look, a little bit longer form stuff. Editing, you know, video doing the motion graphics, the, you. The intro that we have all here on the mark has that kind of stuff. That's what I'm looking to move more into. So, yeah. Thanks for the congratulations on the new gig. I'm really excited. I am stoked to get things going over there. Yeah, we're excited. So. Th this is, here's what I'm thinking. You. Things are on the rise for Paul. You got your new job. And we got a gift here. It just came today. Okay. This has been a lot. Time in the works for you. I know when we're going through the grey cup, we already tickets book. Yeah, you're worried about getting a little polled in Hamilton. Well, don't you worry anymore with your, this is courtesy of friend of the show van longtime friend. Mark cast. Black. Nice bomber. This is a read in van collab. It's got the mark cast on it. It's an XL. It's got the mark cast on the back. Wow. Yeah, this is what makes it even better. The arms. Yeah. That's great. That is the greatest thing ever. At the van. I love it. There you go. When we are in, when we are in Hamilton, I'm going to have any, Dorothy got finally got her a long promise. Orange Dragon's one, but it's BC lions colors. Right? I. I mean, I picked a right team. So Dorothy and I will have our orange. Yeah. And you will have your cousin jackets. I figured. Well, we'll give it to you when you come up. But anyway, so I van shifted here. It just came in, hot off the press. So there you go. Very cool. Thank you van very much for that. You know, cause we've, we've kind of given him a little bit of hard time here on the podcast, you know? I was told not to bring a jacket to DC because I had a jacket waiting for me. Come to find out I. So van has made good on that and I appreciate that van a lot. Yeah. I didn't have to, but I appreciate it. Definitely. And they shipped it to the house. I didn't even have to go pick it up. So there you go. Even better, especially with the pandemic still going on. Yeah. So, this is just my little story, but we did have a little bit of privacy there. There's not like a ton of like newsy south. We have all the game breakdowns, all that stuff coming up. So we are going to preface a little bit today with some of this other stuff. So I am watching. America's CFL team, the BC lions last Friday. Okay. And I'm sitting there and I'm going back and forth with JJ Adams. He's a local Vancouver reporter, and he's talking about like the defense and the BC lions and he's tagging people. And y'all, I'm always trying to find like, okay, who can I add and try to get, you know, on the podcast. So I see this guy, Ryan, so I click on it. Ryan Philips. D I, he is the defensive coordinator for the BC lions. I shot his wedding three years ago. He's my groom of best made videos. Hmm. And he is like, not only like. Because I remember when we filmed his wedding, we, it was a really posh wedding that the Fairmont Olympic, or it was at the four seasons, it was downtown Seattle. And I remember them being like this guy is a big time, like player in Canada and I'm like, who cares? Right. A few years later, we care a lot. So I reached out to Wrike. I mean, I have his email. I mean, I have like his whole. I'm not going to utilize all that, but anyway, but I'm reaching out to Ryan. I'm sure he's busy right now preparing for the Winnipeg blue bombers game. But yeah, Ryan is like one, two. Great. I got gray cops with the lions and OCX 11. He played a. I 212 regular season games, like in a row. All right. No, no. But fifth all time. He, there was some record. He had replayed like the most games in a row. Anyway, it says Ryan and his wife Padilla and their two sons reside in. Yeah, well, I filmed their wedding, so crazy, crazy world. Very cool stuff. Very cool stuff. I noticed it's been throwing me off lately. There's a, there's a different logo on the Twitter job. Did you do some stupid stuff again? Yeah, so. And then we, this, our big. Through a line for today. The I tweeted last week, I go, if you know, we did our whole thing with the outwits fight, their podcasts, Tim and Cliffy and all that stuff. Well, I was like, I did a Google search and I didn't see, I said Google, you know, Saskatchewan Roughriders podcasts. And one that came up was like back in November of 20, 20, I go, oh, well, they must have stopped with the pandemic. So I tweet, you know, if only the Saskatchewan Roughriders had a, had a podcast that supported them, that we could, you know, do a wager with. All my God, the tweet. [Unknown] okay. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You sound like, you know, it's like when people reach out to me for wedding pricing and I go, I don't go, well, you dummy it's on my website. Like, oh, well here's the link to the website. Well, because you're professional. Oh, yeah. I tell you there's the, I, they were, and even like the whole reason I do the wagers is to like, have fun with people. They were like, I've changed the logo and they haven't interacted sense. I'm like, Hey, that's fine. I mean, that's your right. I was trying to have fun and build the podcast. Right. I'm trying to like build connections. I was just on the Argos fan cast podcast this week. I was on the bucket, big same podcast. Like, yeah, we're trying to build connections here. Maybe you just want to like, have me change the logo, move on. That's fine. But that's not fun to me. Right. So anyway, we, I have the pillows podcasts right now. But the big story right now. I messaged a friend of the show football, a candidate president, Jim Molan about this. Don't mind me just challenging hall of fame or Milt Steagall to a social media avatar. Challenge Paula, do you, did you see my clip? And I know you had a busy day at work when I sent that over. No, I did not. Sorry. I. I I, my, my bulges. That's okay. So Lee long time listening to the show, Evan, he is a huge when the big blue bomber fan. So he messages me. He goes, Hey, I know I'm kind of small potatoes, but like I would do the Winnipeg blue bombers thing with you. You know, if you want to do the logo thing, I'll change my logo. Evan's going through a lot of health stuff. He's really working through. He's being a brave guy and I go, you know what. I'm going to deal. And better. So I tweeted Milt. Steagall was been on the show before. 14 Year CFL. Hall-of-famer I go mill, I'm challenging you. And he accepted. CFL hall favor Miltz Eagle. When the BC lions beat the way they pay blue bombers this Friday. Milt's Eagle's going to change this logo to BC lands logo. I thought that was mine. I would think that we will be calling out all Famers and they would deal with our shenanigans. That's very cool. Especially your shenanigans, which are, you know, Sometimes. Oh, you know, they're cheeky and fun. Yeah. In our interview coming that breathe Wilkins gives the BC lions a 7% chance to win this week. And I almost threw him off the podcast immediately. I almost just had it in the interview. Speaking of being thrown off things. What the crap is that. Someone. No one else's Sharman soft. Well, I was like, I thought you were talking about the rock thing. I was like, what's happening. Yeah. I remember we did the whole, I was going to pull a clip and then I didn't have time this week. We did the whole thing last week, Cody Pachardo doesn't like people being mean to him on social media. We defended Cuddy. We said, you know, it's really hard. All this stuff. I tweeted last, the last week. I didn't even take anybody. I was just an article. Came out Cody. You know, being mad. And then he also that he uses words like chicken nuggets, as opposed to swear words. So I just tweeted [unknown]. Yeah, people make fun of me on Twitter. Also this, I didn't even tag him. I didn't do any hashtags, anything. He blocked me. Was this on the Marquez. The verified it's on the mark. Castlemont. I didn't, I didn't even, I didn't take anybody. I didn't do any hashtags, anything. Wow. Wow. Wow, bro. I mean, he has to have like alert, set up. I mean, I didn't take anybody. That's what, what killed me? It'd be one thing. If I like tagged him or like the hashtag or tweeted the team, I didn't take anybody. That's like. Man, come on. We're not. Whitley w you see, read giving people crap online. You have to understand Reed when he gives people crap online. 98% Of it is not malicious. There are some times when you guys get containers with them. And then he'll start throwing it back. And you know, when he's like serious, but every time you see him, like poke fun at someone. It's not serious. It's not serious. So Cody calm down, man. We're fans climate. I was like, I was anyway. Maybe he's p****d because I did the Spanish pronunciation of. Yeah. Because you call it far though. That is like, you've. He knows what people down here would call it. So anyway, We have a little bit of extra on these this week. So the rock posts on Instagram, like he said, covering a lot of business red, know this that's his movie, Tara Monta, tequila, and an XFL been waiting for this day for a very long time. My insane schedule is now behind me, nothing, but my tailgate taillights. Okay, well, what are we doing? There you go anyway. What are we doing? Dwayne? If you want your XFL news, there you go. Yeah, they. Hey posted on Instagram. So there you go. He meant it was. That was like the first times he's imagined the XFL since like black Friday last year. So it's been awhile. It's been a hot minute. One was black Friday last year. Like November, November 27th or something. Okay. I was just saying like, that was pretty, that was a pretty significant week that week of November, mentally that he mentioned the XFL, but he also gave me a shout out for my birthday. Oh, that was, that was all on the same. Remember that? And the rock send a fleet out on me. And that was cool where. We're getting to the point where I'm Facebook, I'm getting notifications of like the old clips that we posted and the things that we used to talk about where it's like completely asinine compared to what we're doing now, we're getting a lot better. It's all about graphs. So we'll CFL. The week started early, I guess, last night, I'm seeing Tuesday. No. Two nights ago, Tuesday. Of course, this is airing on Friday. We're recording Thursday. Tuesday night game, the red blacks, one congrats to the red blacks. They found some offense. Beaten up on the Oaks, 34 to 24. And she really glad you made that decision to leave. Alex now. I am very glad we have some other series coming up by Edmonton in the show. I, this was wild. You know, Ottawa has been horrendously bad. They barely beat the Edmonton. That's the only team they've ever beat. Taylor Cornelius was starting for the ALC. You know, it's a rookie, but he played last week did. Okay. Right. And, and, or I think they were on the bike. He played the last time, the Edmonton plate. David. Okay. Ottumwa scored within the first, like three minutes of the game. And I was like, oh no. Oh no. Cause I like, my fantasy picks were all on Edmonton. My pick 'em games were on Edmonton. I just thought like, if I was a job in arrested development, like I've made a terrible mistake. So anyway, we have some stories coming up about that. And then we go into a lot of the Edmonton of it all with Reed. That's obviously he, he, you know, covers Edmonton and then Dustin has some thoughts on that, but. Really like when you're, when you lose to the worst team. It doesn't say a lot about your franchise in football. Very true. Big big games coming up. Obviously Friday night here, we're going to have a, you know, the lions hosting, the gambler bombers. I. You know, w we obviously I'll watch that game last week. Remember we had, where were they? Exciting CFL games. And then they found us, you even watched the game. This is exciting. Yeah. I w I was watching, like, I had some downtime. I started watching. I was like, wow, this is really, this is really picking up. This is a. Like, like anchorman. Boy that escalated quickly. I was surprised that the comeback. You know, schedule and put on there. Yeah, ridiculous. Yeah, we have our logo. And then yeah, Allied's Hamilton. You know, Hamilton the seems to be doing well at home. We talk about that coming up in an obviously rough riders and Stampeders CMP heaters are really got to figure things out right now, or else they're going to be. And the, on the outside of the playoffs, looking in here, coming up, you see obviously the pick them here. I copy where our eye. All the riders are taking the teams here. Yup. Only one person. Chris O'Leary's picking you RBC lions. Two. All the ups out there. And then only one person that's Steinberg picking a, you know, the stamps to pull it off against the rough riders. Interesting. I mean, it's like, it's the curse of the CFL writers. Right? You see Edmonton, they picked Edmonton. All the way through and then, you know, the upset. So that's kind of, the joke is like if they go all in on one team, Everyone had the lions last week, and then they lost. So, you know, I mean, it's kind of like the curse of the CFL rider, but yeah, pat Steinberg, we're going to work at, we're working on getting him on the show again here. He's always kind of an outlier with this picture, but I appreciate him. Very cool stuff. Moving on now, though. Jamie Elizondo coach Elizondo is embarrassed by the Elk's performance and lost a red Lex while we're embarrassed by your take on the XFL. He said they played really poorly in all three phases. He's embarrassed. He's. Disappointed and obviously frustrated. And yeah. I mean. You lose to the red blocks. Kind of embarrassing. Is it, something is awry. We have some more stories coming up here, pandemic related stories with Edmonton, you know, that's been the whole day. You know, there's only one team that's had any issues with any of this stuff. This is something that's going on. I, I, I thank God every day that I've gotten out this Edmonton bandwagon. I mean, I love Dave Campbell. I love Reed Wilkins. Yeah. I love all the people that cover the, I can love the. The players in the media, but Hey, the team, Hey, the team. It isn't the Edmonton, the one that was talking about like culture changes and stuff like that. That's for the culture changes or for the worst, apparently over there. Spoiler alert. They cut. Kenny Stafford. Right? They said he wasn't a cultural fit. Guess who scored the first touchdown for Ottawa against seven 10th. Yeah. Funny how that works out. Bern. It's like the curse of the Yankees. Like they let someone go. Like they let a picture go. Like, like what's his name? Crap. It's. I'm drawing a blank. Pardon me. I get. Sonny gray. They let Sonny gray walk. After he becomes Friedrich. He goes on. Start the pitching is pitching lights out again. They let, what's the name? J hot. He goes and starts pitching. Pitching lights out. Like it's always the curse. Like you let someone go and they go, okay, well, I'm going to show you. And they, they do it against you. And talk about this Mariners. Can we just, I know this is a CFL podcast, but this is tremendous times in Seattle sports right now. They are exciting to watch. And I stood there like, you know, people are like, I wouldn't want to face the Cardinals. I don't want to face the Mariners in a one game playoff, but if things go well, that looks like it's probably going to be the case. My Yankees against your Mariners. And we're going to see what happens there with that, but what I'm really hoping for really, this is what I'm hoping for. I'm hoping the Seattle Mariners sweep. The angels. Then I'm hoping the A's sweep the Astros. Then I'm hoping the Yankees. You know, Make the playoffs after that. They're going to win four games. So if those three things happen, if those three things happen, The Yankees have to win out. The Astros lose all three games, athletics. And the Mariner sweep the angels. Guess what. The Mariners don't have to play in the wild card. Oh, there you go. They're into the 14. Because our division champion at that point, If we, if the Mariners play the Yankees, we need to make a bet with Jamal and we get up. We'll figure out something. We'll all do. [Unknown] that'll be good. Anyway. Yeah. Social media, avatar, whatever. We'll figure it out. Ah, yeah. Now good news, your BC lions, Marcus sales, he's out for Friday's game defensive back at, you know, that's the, the big thing with Alliance last week, too. I remember talking about Ryan Phillips, my former groom, you know, best maybe this, you know, just the. The stops. They had, you know, all that stuff in the, in the, the schemes that he was working out, but obviously not great. You know, you want to have BC lions have all their weapons going up against when they bag, but it just was tremendous to see all the shout outs that, right. Like every time that we saw Ryan during the game, I'm like, that's right in there. So. Very exciting times here, but yeah, not good for market sales. Very cool stuff. By the way, one zip Yankees right now they're playing in Toronto. Apparently the ball just landed in Hamilton. That's funny. Did you see this? Hamilton. And now we're up to 18,000 for sports games. It was at 15 they're they're increasing that, you know, cause again, gray cups come in. So we got to figure, I was talking with Steve. Milton. Off-camera trying to figure out media stuff and he's like, wow. They probably don't know yet. Cause like we could either technically go like maybe as media or as fan city game. And he's like, well, they're still trying to figure out like the press room and all of that. But Steve, I think Steve could help us out too. I mean, we have some other emails, but I feel good. One way or another, but yeah, up to 18,000. We'll definitely be there in one facet or another, you know, of course constantly mark asked right on the lake there. It's going to be a great time. So I will be there with a bull horn outside the gate. We have, we don't get tickets. Like I will be there. With a bull horn. Podcasting live from outside. Playing the theme song over and over to. Let's play it over and over again. Yeah. You see there's Jason. [Unknown] defensive coordinator. Didn't realize social media. Negativity bias, cardio. For sure. There's so much excess that's it didn't surprise me now either. He had a big, I just thought it's funny now, like even the offensive coordinators are talking about those. It's like a man, I get it. Like it's, it sucks. It's a terrible cesspool. Sometimes social media is, but at the same time, it's like, Man. You're you're in the place you're in because you can do what these people that are talking trash about you online. Can't do. That's what that's, what you have to realize is that like there's some people online. That liked to say things about. Baseball and act like they know more about baseball. And I know for a fact. But they've never stepped foot on a baseball field or played the game. So it's like, you gotta, just got blocked that stuff. When someone tries to gatekeep you or tries to criticize you. You have to realize, like, they, you are in a position that they are not in and they will never be in. So they can't criticize you. It's one thing if Aaron Rogers tweets about you, it's another thing if Reed, Johns tweets about you. Toughen up. It means a lot more. No. I will say the only thing more toxic than CFL Twitter. Because as you know, I'm Washington football team fan. Washington football team. Twitter is the most oxic Twitter. They are crazy. Only data. Did you see what was going on with Tampa bay? All 11 of them. Coming up anyway, Cody. Stay off their say. This is a good story. I just had, this was interesting gate Evans. He's injured right now, but he's one of the Hamilton quarterback. He was [unknown]. As native American aunties. And I can't speak because of my braces ancestry. I just thought this was interesting. Like giving more, you know, he goes, I look like a ball white guy, but you know, I'm. On his father's side, his great, great grandmother, Doris Jean. She was the last fluent speaker of the Wichita language. I just think it's interesting, like anything to give more color to these players, right? To give more background to them. I talked with Dustin about this in the interview as well. Like. You know, it's like when we had Kevin Kugler on, they did the spring league games, the research. You have to do for these players is because not everyone knows their stories, right? Like everyone knows Brady versus Belicheck this weekend, but not everyone knows about Dan Evans is like native American pass. You know, his family lineage. I just think that that's cool to have stuff like that. Definitely on. On a weekend like this that's, you know, kind of bringing awareness to the, the. The. The rural schools. The residential school system in Canada. So that's really cool. Yeah. This was interesting. You obviously we recorded it last week with, after the Panthers game and Christian McCaffrey went out at yo Chuba Hubbard played just some comments from Matt, rural talking about, you know, how that's really his time to step up right now. You know, Panthers are rolling. I mean, you know, Christian is, it does a lot of heavy lifting for them, but. Juba is kind of that next guy in line now. And that rule set, I told him at halftime, this is why we drafted you. This is your moment. So obviously, you know, having been from bay, we talk about XFL players in the CFL, but I am excited to see a Canadian player excelling in the NFL. Did you all, did you realize that like, There would be one undefeated team in the NFC south by week three. And it wouldn't be the bucket areas. Did you ever think that in your life. Who is the, on the feet in the NFC south right now. Isn't even the Panthers. I'm stupid. Yes. Yeah. Ah, a remarkable, remarkable, well, but I mean, even. Strength of schedule. I'm like debating people like, oh, they're like Denver is on top of the world and make never beat the jets. I'd never be a, you need to play players like the Raiders matter because the Raiders beat the Steelers at home, the Rangers beat the Ravens on Monday night football. Like they, that they're three, you know, matters more than like the same three, a note that beat the Texans without their quarterback. And I mean, the Rams are, are really good team. The Rams are a really good team. Matthew Stafford is finally like, yay. I get to play with really good team. I E tremendous. I mean, there that that's. I think they got the bucks number. I mean, they, they crushed him. Five five passing touchdown on Saudi Safford. It's crazy. So that's why they get went out and got Richard Sherman, obviously. That is wild. Right. Also Richard. You mad, bro. Like we, we were up there when that was all going on. How like Tom Brady was talking trash to Richard Sherman's ain't come see me after the game. And it was like, I'm seeing you after the game, you took it now. So there's always been a little bit of. But now apparently that's that's who that's, who recruited Richard Sherman. To the Buccaneers. It's interesting. 2.2 million for a year. I'm glad. I'm glad. Tom Brady finally respects. I'm sure he always did, but just now it's like clear as day. So moving on. Would you believe they nether Edmonton Elk's player was in COVID protocol. I wouldn't. Seriously. Wouldn't. This is the only team that's had any issues. That's what's crazy to me is like, I get, not all the teams are at like 85%. Like they don't. You know, we don't have all the exact numbers, but it's amazing to me that there's still like one team is the only team that's really had any issues. And they've had 17 players now entering the COVID protocol. That's the culture they wanted, man. You just got to let them have their culture. Yeah. I don't want to get too political on this, but it is interesting. So. Yeah, David Beard, he's in the cover protocol. And then also came out this week that the Edmonton GM Brock Cendrillon, he has medical exemption from getting his, he doesn't have to get vaccinated, but he's had multiple doctors do whatever. And so I, rod went on the big thing about this this week. I don't want to get like super whatever, but it's just, it's like weird, you know, Edmonton side doing this. They're not. The thing he's not, there's just, they're the only team that seems it's always keeps coming back to them. Can can someone explain to me what the medical exemption would be for this thing? If you have like allergies to the thing is what I've seen is there. There's a couple of different reasons. Allergies to an MRI and anything. I guess whatever they use. And the thing, I mean, I'm not a doctor, but I just, I don't want to get too, like, I don't like, like questioning peoples ever, but it there's, it's like when there's smoke, there's fire and this is flaming from Edmonton, like all of these issues and it is remarkable to me that they haven't got this under control. Completely. Montra all. That's a fire, that offensive line coach Todd Howard. He was with the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 2013 to 14, then went to Winnipeg. And, you know, Defensive line coach doesn't seem to like, kind of catch on anywhere for a pretty long time. He won a super bowl with, with the St. Louis Rams. Yup. Hmm. Interesting. Yeah. And then, you know, with the virus, I just not there. I mean, I thought Al let's defense looked really strong, like the first couple of weeks. And then they, they really have been struggling to get, you know, consecutive points going, but obviously, you know, they're working out things that Toronto brought in Chris Jones, you know, to work on their stuff. So it's interesting that even in this segmented shortened season, that like, we're still making all these moves, right. We just kind of like get through this season, but I mean, clearly these teams like Al let's are, are. Are playing the wind. So. Very very interesting stuff. We get ratings are in from TSN and ESPN to Saskatchewan and BC topped with 618,000 viewers. Very cool stuff for them, because that was an exciting game. That's why I was, you know, actually it was like, wow, this was picked up really well. And. The quarter, quarter of a million on ESPN two in the us. Cause that's the, I mean, so that had. It's exciting, you know, 900,000 viewers on a Friday night. I mean, I think that that is tremendous ratings for that, for the CFL for a late game on a Friday night. That I thought that was at the quarter million on ESPN too. Cause that's like, people like me, right. That we don't live in. You know, we don't have TSN. So I just, I thought that was a tremendous number for that very exciting game. I thought that, and I mean, like, you know, people have said we don't need the American market, but you just got guys just picked up a quarter million viewers from the American market for having your game on. That was really exciting by the way, do more of that Americans will pay attention. And you can get more money. It's. It's all cyclical folks. It's all cyclical. It's like I reached out to the [unknown]. [Unknown] I, you know, we're all trying to, but now they don't want to deal with it. That's fine. That's good. I get it. You know, it's. The Canadian way. There was twice as many gay people in the red blocks this week for the victory. Then last week, remember it was the big Trenchill downpour last week. They had like less than five. They had like 50. 500 Words or something like that, but back up to 1200. Tuesday night. It's not like great, but at least they bounce back when it wasn't like a trench with. Very cool stuff. Trade deadlines set for October 27th. That's when at 5:00 PM Eastern, we're going to see what's been going on with that. Maybe we'll do something special that that day to try to. You know, lead up to it. I don't know. Who knows. Maybe we'll do a live show who knows. Reads reads reads, getting all excited. Of course the trade deadline before was October 9th to two seasons ago. But of course, with a shortened season and having a little later. That's why they've kind of adjusted like that. Yeah. This is interesting. This football candidate thing. I have all the dogs seems longer this because there's a lot of photos on this. Have you seen this re-imagined football, Canada logo? I have isn't that someone that's related to Jim Olin. It's Jim Mullins. Nephew. Very cool. And so they, cause you know, obviously BC did the big thing a couple of weeks ago, they redid the BC lions logo. We had the shirts that are now people remember those shirts that they were giving away at the game. People are now like knocking them off. I doing knockoffs online. I'm like you are a horrible person. Like you are. Because all the money's going to charity, like all the money that the BC lions are making from that it all is going to benefit. Like they're not making anything. And so like you're selling knockoffs of this charity. T-shirt like horrible, horrible person. It's like how Rhoda, where did the thing where they like took the, the, the design from the Dave Parker foundation and made their own shirt with the New York Yankees involvements, like. Those those shirts sales go to the Dave Parker foundation and Rhoda where it was just like, you know, we're, we're going to do this. And then of course they fixed that. We were like, okay, fine. We'll give some of the profits to. I just, I that's just so low class to me. Like that's scummy. That's really scummy. But this is the guy. So the new logo, I'm going to keep it, keep the photos here. I'll put it up. On the thing, cause it is, it's a cool, I'll go. It was Jim Mullins, nephew grant. I have the name on here. Colton Colton grant. But what's cool. Is there going to be, this logo is going to be available on merchandise. Football weekend in Canada about which is also known as mark has invasion of Canada that weekend. I just talked over 15 and 16. So I think your mom's going to be pretty busy that weekend that we're coming up. But anyway, that is going to be, mark has an NBC day, October 16th. So. Very cool stuff. By the way I think our think our former boss just texted me. Yeah. He's got some that he's got some per diem work going on across the street. I just copied this thing. You get the whole surround here. You see this when they pack things. So they're doing something similar. The do you want, do you want to read this? Apparently he's very superstitious as most people before that this. About the logo. Oh, yeah, they're doing very similar. Okay, cool. So that's kind of the same. Indigenous kind of embracing of the, the. Is that what I'm looking is that what I'm looking at? It's hard to read the text. I'm sorry. Sorry, I just copied this. So Winnipeg, they redid their logo. They're honoring September 30th as well for national day for truth and reconciliation in the orange shirt day. They are unveiling a new black blanket themed logo designed by local, and these should be artists and Starblanket designer Denae Sinclair. And it's basically, it's a Winnipeg w you know, reimagined, right. It's kind of like a tapestry blanket. I'll put the picture up. It was all really cool, but just like, this is really cool. Like, you know, the, I know the NFL is doing that as well, right. With the Hispanic market doing like the NDA on the NFL logo, like they're trying to do, I just it's cool to me. And I, especially as something that's so like, In the history of Canada and everything else. To be embracing all of this. And I think it's just a really smart way to do it on social media. I honestly feel like this is way more important than like when you know, the, the Brooklyn nets. Roll out the lowest nets Jersey. I think this kind of stuff is way more important because it draws attention to you. A very dark. A moment for indigenous people in Canada and really kind of like. It's kind of, it's kind of like a peace offering. It's kind of a reconciliation and I think this kind of stuff. Is is way more important than catering to. A certain demographic just because it's certain demographics. So yeah. Speaking to Winnipeg blue bombers, the jets head coach. Paul Maurice is very superstitious as am I. And he says that he single handily won the blue bombers to break up in 2019. So like what. Basically like his wife is a fan. He wasn't, he was. His life. So like maybe. Yeah, Dorothy is kicking me out of the house, right? When she's watching the villi maple bomber scan. It's not really bad. And then he would actually not be allowed inside the house. His wife was watching the blue bombers fly. Said he used to turn on the TV. It's not supposed to be on [unknown]. So he said, I may have single-handedly one of the blue bombers are great cop. I never got a thank you. And so he is, I presumably not watching the game and this again this year, because that is kind of the chalk pick, obviously for the west division, for the crack-up. Interesting stuff. Spring lake though. What's this. So we just have a couple notes here and then we're going to get out of here. You're going to be happy because we're going to do the giveaway next week. I have everything. I'm just, I didn't have time to draw the names. I'm dealing with corporate deadlines right now. So I, we have all the names, everything, but it's still comment on the video, give us, you know, feedback and questions, everything, but I will do the giveaway next week. We have everybody in for all of that. But remember the time that Justin Fields came in debut for the bears and they got sacked nine times. Well, now I just have to, it's funny to now the bears are trying out Matthew Saxton. He's a. I think as a wide receiver. But then they're doing. Ryan Willis, who was in the spring league as well, who plays quarterback? Interesting stuff. I mean, the bears need to shore up that offensive line before they start, you know, thinking that Justin Fields is the problem. I mean, liquids. Look what Sam Donald's doing. For example. Yeah, no, I mean, that game was horrendous. I watched, I wanted some, most of that game and I felt very bad for Justin Justin Fields. Yeah. I thought it was interesting barriers that may work good for mathy sex and good for Ryan Willis. Both their spring lead guys before I turn that for the mirrors. So very cool stuff. All right. So would that being said, we're going to toss now to read interviewing Dustin. Reed. And Steve, it's weird to read there on the show this week, but that's, what's going to happen right now. We're going to toss to that. And we'll, we'll have a commercial break before that, but yeah, enjoy the gun and then we're done. So. Reed will take you out with those interviews and we'll see you next week. There you go. I was going to do the giveaway and. I just didn't have time. So I'll figure it out the shutter for next week. That was good. That was a good show. This jacket. It flew by. And that tactical. I like it. It's good. I think you'd. I did a grey cup. Well now I don't really like, oh, you're you're the f*****g Americans. Yeah. Okay. Suck. Suck my Dick. This week on the mark cast. Apparently I've got a special gift waiting for me and are going to show it right now, or are you gonna wait until the show? Oh yeah. Paul has a special gift. That we are going to be wearing too. When we go to the grey cup in Hamilton, in December. Very excited about that listener of the show. Longtime listener van hooked you up with a price. We've got great stuff coming. You know, of course, we're talking about the BC lions thing. We're talking about the rock, making a slight little Instagram teas of XFL action. Stop teasing us. Just get to it. Oh, we're also discussing how, you know, The Edmonton culture. Jamie Elizondo. Not so good right now. Yeah, we've got a pic show coming up this week. We have Destin. Yeah, we have a big show coming into this. This guy around. Yeah, we have a big show coming up this week. We have destined Nielsen coming on. TSN 1260s doing all the, you know, the play by plays for the games we're talking to him. We're talking to Reed Wilkins from. Six 30 CHDD Edmonton radio. I fell over, read the spells, his name correctly. And then we have Steve Milton, the Hamilton spectator plus. I called out Milt Steagall this week, CFL hall-of-famer and friend of the shell. We've got the lions versus the blue bomber, social media avatar for social media avatar. It's going to be good. And also we're gonna talk about Cody Fajardo being a little soft. Even a little soft. Blocked. The guy blocking us on Twitter and we didn't even seen tweet us. It's all this week on the markcast whatever that was on Tuesday. So, yeah, that was a little bit of a messy, holy smokes. I'm rolling here. Well, Dustin. Thank you so much for coming on. I've so enjoyed watching, listening to you call many of the CFL games. This season so far, how are you doing today? I'm doing just fine, man. Thanks for having me. Kind of been watching your work from afar and happy to be a part of it this week. I appreciate it. Yeah. I appreciate it. Busy man. You know, lots of different things going on. How has this season been going for you? You know, our episode last week was where have all the exciting CFL games gone. Then, of course the lions and rough risers go down to that second. How have you thought the season's been going so far? Ah, you know, I'm, first of all, I'm just happy to have CFL football back. I mean, after not having it for her for a year, You know, I just think for the entire country, it's great to have it back again. It was great for me to be involved in it again as well. You know, I've had a few pretty good games. The vinyl. Yeah, I mean, And it's pretty widely known that, you know, there haven't been a ton of great games this year, but the first game I called this year came down to like a tackle at the one yard line here in Edmonton, which was a great finish. And then, you know, I had that last game. With the, the riders and lines was, was. Tremendous as well. So I, you know, I think. Yeah, probably the first four or five weeks, you know? And this would happen. This is what happens. Usually if you don't have a, pre-season let alone having not played all of last year, either. I think. A lot of the offense is we're, we're still trying to figure out their timing. There's a lot of new faces around the league as well, or different plays, different faces and new places that we're still trying to get used to. So I think, I think the second half of the season, you know, and there's a few teams that, that might not live up to the billing that, that are struggling here out of the gate or through the first half of the season. But I think we're going to have some really good match-ups in the second half of the season. And I would expect to see if I'll play offs to be just like they always are. And they're usually pretty darn good. When you go into calling the games and I've talked to other people that, you know, when it's non NFL, right. Where like everybody knows Tom Brady story, right. When you're going in and you're calling a lot of these games. And learning about these players. How much research are you putting into that? To figure out like the, you know, to do a little bit more of the, of the story behind everybody and let the audience know, maybe these people that the audiences know about. Quite a bit at the beginning of the year, for sure. Because at the beginning of the year, I mean, I really don't know much about half of these guys. Right. So, you know, you'd, before I can kind of share their story with, you know, everybody watching, I've got to kind of learn it myself. So. At the beginning of the year. You know, And the way I prep, I kind of can lay out all of this. Like, I'll have my own sort of customized Deb charts of all 19. So I was building that at the beginning of the season. And then as you move from game to game, now it's a lot easier because I don't have to worry so much about recognizing who's, who I can kind of tell who everybody is just by the way they play now, which is, which is nice. So. You know, it does allow me time to, to maybe focus a little bit more. I mean, one story that we can relate to here is Ricardo Lewis with the, with the riders, like we've been waiting for him to kind of have a big game. He played two or three already, and we had a, on the TSN broadcast. We've been saving that clip of him and Nick Marshall for like three, four weeks from their time in college. And then he's. And then we played it before he actually scored a touchdown. But we scored a touchdown, not shortly after we played it. So, I mean, that's, that's one of those storylines. Well, how a bunch of those kind of kicking around and figuring out when we can fit them in for a lot of these guys. I don't have to give a lot of background on, you know, Michael Riley or Cody for jarred or Zack. [Unknown] there, you know, but there's a lot of guys, even from week to week popping up. That come with, you know, A big story. Like Ricardo Lewis, he's good buddies with Jarvis Landry. He was in Cleveland. He gave Landry his number when. Landry ruled in their families are close though. You know, there's a lot of players like that, that have, you know, four or five stops along the way before they even get to the Canadian football league. And, and nobody up here has ever really even heard of them. So, yeah, there's a lot of great stories. And, you know, the way football broadcast is, you know, you, you can try to fit in. I wish we had time to fit it more, to be honest with you of some of these guys, maybe, you know, when they, when they make a play a big play or something along those lines, like. Demon web who had that scoop and score at the end of the lions lions riders game. Like nobody really knows who he is at all. And we didn't have time to lay it out there because he doesn't really play on the defensive side of the ball, but he's on special teams and pick that one up. So there's a, there's a ton of stories, which is why myself and my cohost. Lieutenant Eric on our show up here in Edmonton, he, he is a very big supporter of having like a CFL films or like something more in depth for the Canadian football league where we can tell a lot of these stories because I think it would be a pretty cool idea. Well, yeah, I mean, we were at a dinner last night for one of my nephews in, I guess it's my stepfather. I don't know if he somehow really. But he's like, wait, what, what. Whether we f**k asking whatever that might. Yeah. As I give you cover these leagues. I said, because then when these guys show up in the, you know, and you see them around. It just helps build that character of who they are, right. Where they came from and seeing those stops along the way. But he had tried to explain, he was like, you know, why. Like, why do we care about this? Or why do we care about fan controlled football or like, It's like, well, no, because those players move around and it's cool to see those stories, you know? I like Taylor Cornelius was in the XFL with Jamie Elizondo. He was there with Jaylen. Haulover who Jaylen Tolliver is now here in Edmonton as well. So there's a connection there. And you know, if you look hard enough for most teams, Either who they're playing against like some of the opposition, you know, they played together in college. So there's, there's a lot of ways to, to wrap our heads around this thing. And I think that's one of the cool things about the league. To be honest with you. So, you know, good games last week, right? We had outlets in Argos. We have, you know, lions and rough fires. What happened in Ottawa on Tuesday? If I had, if I had the answer to that, I might be a coach in this league. Like I have no idea. You know, being based in Edmonton and doing a show in Edmonton, I can tell you right now that everybody here myself included was expecting Edmonton to come away with a victory. I think they were what, a seven and a half point favorite. I do a sports betting podcast. Me and my CO's. We were locked in at the seven points thought for sure. Cause Ottawa, even with Davis and Nichols this year. Could not do anything offensively. And we're sitting there at the beginning of the season with Paula police and lap. Who's an offensive genius in this league. Like you're thinking, okay, this guy what's going on here with laughable. You know, it turns out maybe it was just the two quarterbacks that weren't able to execute his system because I thought Evans was terrific in that game. And Edmonson shot themselves in the foot way too many times in that football game, they couldn't tackle anybody, which I think has to be frustrating for them. And it's not the first time that's popped up this year. There's special teams and any special teams against Deadman might not look that great, but Edmonson special teams haven't really looked good at all in any aspect of it the entire season. And then, you know, I give a ton of credit to Ottawa for the first driver that game on Tuesday, you know, they mixed in the past from Davis down to former. Edmonton football team member, Kenny Stafford. A big play for him. And then, you know, they punch it in not long after. And then Edmondson gets the ball back, Cornelius throws it to Ellington and Ellington fumbles. And it was like, at that moment, you're like, what is going on here? Greg Ellingson is one of the most short-handed receivers in like the history of the league. And it was a little past, but he picked it up. He secured it and then he went and he had the ball knocked out right before he went down. And that's just. I don't care who you're playing. I mean, if you give anybody. The ball. When you're already down and all the momentum's on the other side and you give him the ball within the 30 yards of the end zone. That's not the ideal way to start that football game. And then, you know, like the Alex actually, you know, they hung around, they were down by a touchdown on that drive when Greeley's through the interception in the end zone. And then that was, that was kind of, and I know Jim Elizondo talked about it after the game. That was the big one that, you know, they had some momentum, they were still in the game, had a chance to, to tie it and keep it close. And, and then that interception and the Cornelius is interesting study because he threw for over 300 yards, he threw for three touchdowns, had that interception, which you would probably like back. He had another guy wide open that he probably would've got a pretty good chunk with. And then he had, you know, the interception late. I'm not going to read too much into that. So I don't think he's, I don't think he's just a blame for these, for this loss. This last one. I, everything else in the team didn't look very good. So lots of questions there, but you know, overall for Ottawa and they're going to have to put together a run and it was gonna be easier said than done, but I think that's something at least to build on here. As you transition at the quarterback position. Yeah. I mean, it's sad. Cause obviously Taylor, you know, coming from the XFL, right? You want to see a little map? 'Cause that's coming from America. Right. And then, you know, play decently last week. Right. And it just seemed like Coachella was on. It was just incensed, like was so upset called it the worst, first half he's ever seen with just. You, I mean, not to do too much of a deep dive on Edmonton, but you know, he comes in and clear shop, you know, Derek, Dennis is of the world. Right? Can he Stafford's. What is happening in Edmonton now for them to seem like they're falling apart. Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, the general manager was taking a lot of heat on my morning show the day after that loss because every and Elizondo. Not, I mean, Milanovich was this guy. And Milanovich goes down to be a quarterback coach with the Colts. But, you know, Sanderlin has always had a connection with, with Elizondo. They'd been together in the past. I think he originally wanted Elizondo here in the first place, but Elizondo was in the, in the XFL at the time, decided to go that route. So, you know, suddenly has been taken a little bit of heat, at least from, from, you know, the fan base. Up here in Edmonton and some members of the local media weights. It's interesting because you know, they get hit with the COVID thing early in the season. And you think that might rip a room apart a little bit, right on vaccinated guys versus vaccinated guys, they get it together. They end up having to reschedule this games. They got those three coming up in November, like in seven days, which is crazy. But then they come out of that break. And they win back to back games and all of a sudden you're thinking, oh, what's going on here? Like I remember going into that broadcast Glen suitor and I before the game, we're like, we're going to learn a lot about this Edmondson team. Like. Let's see what let's see what they're made of. And they come out and look pretty good coming out of that break. Trevor Harris has had a couple of really big games so far this year. I know I was on a, wants them to be a little bit more aggressively offensively when he's, when he's in a quarterback. And I think that's kind of why he likes Cornelius, cause he wants to take some shots down the field, but you know, they're, they're an interesting, interesting study right now, the Elks, because. Especially offensively. They've got the tools they've got at the front for, and defense is, should be providing probably a little bit more pressure than they have, but it just hasn't seemed like they've clicked. As a, as a group just yet, which is. Which is strange to me because they've had a couple of moments that really should have brought them together. And I get, you know, it's a first year, Rasheem all that, but I mean, all these seams are dealing with time off and shuttled rosters. I mean, I get that they have a lot more of moving pieces that have come in, but it just seems like, you know, and even I saw Kenny staffer, you know, re-tweeting people like talk about, you know, not being a culture fair. They may just seems like there's a little bit of tension there that I would like to be a fly on the wall for some of those conversations that had happened. Yeah. I mean, maybe it'll come out at some point, but they've did a pretty good job keeping it. I mean, at least here in Edmonton, like not a lot is leaked out about. A meal from within the team. And whenever, you know, was it a Mondo see, well, who had those things to say about Trevor Harris? I mean, You know, most of the guys in the team when it. It was brought up, had his back in that situation, but. You know, it is, it is kind of interesting to see some of those things pop up outside of the market. Now it's, it's tough because you know, if somebody moves on from another team and it's not their choice, I'd be a little bit bitter too. Right. And I'd probably be willing to retweet people, seeing nice things about where I am now or, or bad things about where it was before. So I don't want to read into. To too much of what's being said by these guys who aren't here anymore. But at the same time, I mean, the end result of the product that is still here would lead to some question marks just on its own. So the game I really want to talk about here coming up tomorrow night. You know, tonight as we were, you know, as this air is. Yeah. Yeah, my team America's team, the CFL. Yeah, the VC alive. I have a standing bet with CFL. Hall-of-famer Milt, Stegal that if, if the, if the lions beat the blue bombers, he has to change his Twitter profile to a picture of the BC lions. How have, how do you think of my wager? What are my chances? I mean better than most seems in the Canadian football league. Can we at least say that? Probably. We saw what they did to the riders. And I still think derive and the riders lion's game was so good. And I thought that was just a terrific football game. I don't care. And wherever like that, that was, that was a, that was a great game, but I mean, a shanked kick. Basically set up Cody Fajardo to put together a nice drive, but. I mean, they should have. You're right. The lions should have sealed that game away. Now the riders. You know, in the end, really didn't manage to keep a close against the bombers. Like they could not generate anything offensively. I do think. Michael Riley, you know, they don't run the ball or they can't run the ball, or I don't know what's going on with running game, but Riley's got Burnham and he's got lucky Whitehead and now he's got some other good options there too, as well. But Burnham and Whitehead are probably as good as it gets. In the Canadian football league, statistically, it looks that way. And just the way they meshed together with lucky doing what he's capable of doing and Brian doing what he's capable of doing them. Doing a is. Is deadly for variety. And Riley's had this before. I mean, here in Edmonton, he had a Derrius Bowman and Darale Walker in his early days. He had Fred stamps with the dairies Bowman for a while. He had Brandon Zylstra. Or when he was here with Walker, I think like he's the ad. He knows how to work those two guys, but this Winnipeg defense. Is by far the best positional group. In the Canadian football league. I don't even think it's the battle. I think there's an offense that dominates more than any of the other offenses. This defense is a nightmare for opposition quarterbacks. So they're going to have to give Mike Riley time, and I know Michael Riley can get out of the pocket and scramble, and he's good at that. He's and he makes plays. But when you got Jeff Cote and Jefferson. Coming at you all night. It's it's, it's going to be an issue. So I do think the lions. We'll keep it closer than the riders were able to do, but, and I. I think, I think the bombers. Are in a class of their own. I really do. I mean, they've only lost one game since Zach Clarus took over as a starting quarterback and Mike, my co-hosts up period. Edmonton. He's he's a big time riders fan. So he's like, let's not, I mean, the bombers, they can be beaten. They could be being insured. They can be beaten, but you're going to need a near perfect game and you have to look after the football. If they can look after the football, that's something that's, you might be able to take advantage of. You know, the BC defense man, like I sit here and talk about Winnipeg defense for 20 minutes if you want. But that BC defense. Is. You know, if I talk about Winnipeg being the best defensive unit in the Canadian football league, and I believe they are, but we expected that I would probably describe the BC lions defense as the biggest surprise in the Canadian football league this year, because the lions defense. I didn't think was going to be a. A difference maker. I didn't think it would be awful, but I didn't really know what to expect. So. Ah, you know, in the middle of the pack, sort of a middling defense, but that's not the case. I mean, this lion's defense is, is terrific as well. They got some Playmakers on that side of the ball. Yeah. I feel like they gave that game away. I mean, I'm a lifelong Seahawks fan. Right. And you always feel like Russell, Wilson's gonna like figure it out and be like, it doesn't matter. Like as long as everything. And I just never felt like they were going to lose that game until I was like, allow, like, we're actually we're really, this is done. I mean, we're really like, we really missed the extra point. Like. We really not planning. We're really losing now. Well, And that's the thing like you. There was a couple of opportunities to the kickers. Camacho missed his first field goal here in that game. Did he not? I mean, he was nine for nine going into that game. Mr. Big one, they got it out and then remained a, you know, a one score game. And then print off who was tied with essentially with John Ryan at the top of all punter categories. You know, he comes out in. Just an, I think even on the broadcast, I said, that's a horrible kick. And it, it was, and then, you know, when something like that happens, And on top of that, Riley wanted to go for it on certain too, but that was a long too. So I didn't think it was a bad idea to kick it away, especially when you've got a guy who's averaging like 49 yards per punt on the year. And, you know, he just had one go off the side of his foot. And then for Gerardo, what did it take? Like four or five plays? And that ball was in the end zone. So I was. We were sitting there and it was after the interception. That's the Giardia. So through, he tried to find Mitchell Picton and it got picked off. And I think a lot of people at that moment were probably like, ah, yeah, that's probably it. But we went through a commercial break and I looked at Glen and I said, man, I. I said, I still think something else big is going to happen in this game. Cause that's just the way that game went. And then sure enough, you know, we got two or three of those moments down the stretch. It was just a terrific ball game. Yeah, it takes a lot. My wife can be excited about Raiders Ravens or whatever. They, it takes a lot to get her into. And writer on a Friday night, but yeah, she was, she was into it. Oh, Really quick before you guys. I'll hold you for ever. You've been great. Any last, who are you thinking? Outlets. Ty cats. You know that early Saturday game kind of the weird time slot they're way. In any real brief thoughts about that before you head out and then we'll get, obviously the other one. Yeah, I think I'd probably take Hamilton in that game. I hesitated a little bit. I did a lot of Montreal games two years ago, so I kind of got a soft spot for the iOS. They were like my main team in my first year calling games. In the CFL for TSN and I've just think Vernon Adams, I mean, he's been inconsistent this year. He'll, he'll be the first one to tie that, but he's, he's still a special talent. I think he's a special talent at quarterback. So, you know, I could S I could see Montreal going in and winning, but I think I'd stick with die-cast and. Writers stamps game is an interesting one because. You know, the riders, they, they, they struggle. They lose those two to Winnipeg. They get the bounce back. They're in a pretty good spot, still in the standings. But Calgary. And I thought this way for Edmonton for awhile. And then I saw that loss of the red, black. So I thought, you know what, maybe the Elks just are who's who they are like that's, but with Calgary still, I still look at it and go, you know, with a healthy believer. I Mitchell. And Kumar Jordan and some of the weapons they have there. I still think Calgary is better than their record leads us to believe. So I think Calgary, if they don't, if they don't beat the riders, I think they give them a pretty good scare. So I think that'll be a really good game. It wouldn't be good for the lions at the state. I don't know. Yeah. I, the. The bow thing is, is, is fascinating. I think we did a lot of talk last week about that. Yeah, just fascinating. Like what is happening there? It comes. Yeah. The Prince's promise comes back and then they still can't get anything going. It's been an interesting situation there. So yeah, it has. I mean, but he's, I mean, he's one of the best we've seen in this league in a long, long, long, long time. So I'm probably. And I mean, the team overall was pretty good with Jake Marin there as well. And I like mare, I think he could be a quarterback in this league, but I don't think he's better than Bolieve I Mitchell is right now. So, you know, I, I could see Calgary putting together. I've I've run here where they get, you know, maybe. Three, possibly four winds somewhere along the way. And all of a sudden we're like, oh, here come to Calgary Stampeders. Cause I just. I just think they're better than, than what their record is, led us to believe. So I won't be shocked they're at home. I won't be shocked if they beat the riders, but it would, it would be classified as an upset. Well, thank you so much for your time. I should have asked you this before you came on. There are. Are you on any of the games this weekend? You know what you caught me on the one weekend. I don't have any games. It's just the way the schedule worked this week. I. I mean, I have a young family, I got like a four and a six year old, so it's nice to be home for a weekend. My parents are actually coming up. I haven't seen them in like six months, so they're going to come up for the weekend as well. So I'm going to kind of kick back, watch some of these games and then a. Yeah, it just. Got a sneak peak at like the rest of the scheduling. You know, new people. So I, I appreciate it. Let me hit this. Any kind of prefacing stuff. I just figured how to weekend preview stuff. Obviously talk about Edmonton. Thoughts on that game. And what that was on Tuesday. And then just not kind of have any of the other games coming up. Sure. I got to check the schedule ahead here. Yeah. I always have to pull it up. I'm like, okay, well I know that. And again, it's hard to keep track. I will say the CFO needs, it is hard with the Tuesday Wednesdays. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, well, whatever you want, I can roll with it. Cool. Well, it's very exciting to have another read on the podcast and other properly spelled read, read, walk ins of Edmonton. How are you doing today? Well, that's right. Proper spelling is the main thing. I get a lot of R E D. R I E D I still don't really understand that one. I once I got an R E a D E, which I thought was interesting that I guess that's maybe more common, last name. But I don't know if you find this. I do get a lot of R I E D and I've asked people about that who have, you know, a colleague who is. Sometimes you started working with someone new and they leave you a note and they put it R I E D. And I'll be like, why did you do that? Well, I, before E except after C and then my like, well, I guess, but, and in my name would be the other exception. I get a lot of R E D. I get a lot of wedding tips made out to read R E D. So yes. It's good. I'm glad to have you on kind of the other half. We've had obviously friendly. Dave Campbell on before I was a lot. Higher on the Edmonton football team back when Dave was on the show. And then we've, we've said. Gone. And now we transitioned to the BC Alliance. Who we're now proclaiming this America's CFL team. An interesting week of CFL games first and foremost, what did you make of this Ottawa? Edmonton? Game debacle. Everything that happened. Yeah. Well, Really disappointing. I mean. And for the elk, some fortunately now, It's not a, it's not a one-off or even a two off that you have a flat performance and make a lot of mistakes and start the game poorly. And don't have a lot of imagination offensively. This has become the norm for the Elks. And then that's, what's frustrating and, and look. The Elks were favored going into that game. I think they should have been favored. The favorite. But now. You know, they've lost Ottawa twice. I, I don't know if you can debate. Who the worst team in the league is now. I mean, it's certainly Calgary continues to struggle. We'll see how they do this weekend, but. I think for the LTC, it's just. It's just super disappointing to see them come out that flat. I mean, you're down 14, nothing. The previous game to Winnipeg, 10 minutes in. But. I don't want to say that that's acceptable, but it's more understandable because you got Craig ileus making his first start. What a pigs. Awesome. And, you know, they came out and researched themselves to be down 14, nothing to Ottawa before the game was five minutes old. I mean, forget about Ottawa getting to 14. They've had trouble getting to 10 named entire games and they did it in five minutes against the Elks. I mean the old snow. Not ready to play. You know, By the trick, play a fumble offensively. And then it's, it's just a, again, incredibly poor special teams. So it, it, it, the elk star team now, I don't think you can. To me. There's no dealt with. With a lot to fix. I certainly don't think it's going to happen in the final games of, of next season. I think it's going to be a really critical off season. For them to make some big changes. I mean, I just, I look at the upcoming schedule. And given some of their previous results, I just don't see. You know, you're probably going to have to get to a least six wins to make the playoffs. So, I mean, how do the old school foreign three against the Saskatchewan twice Winnipeg, twice the three games in seven days on the road at the end of the season. So. Just disappointing. Sure. According you got an experienced quarterback in, but the loss wasn't on for Nicholas. Yes. He missed throws and yes, he makes mistakes based on inexperience, but he's not giving up kick returns. He's not fumbling the ball. He's not missing tackles. Yeah. I. We had filled out our pickups and stuff. We had to go early. Right. You know, Tuesday I started Cornelia and fantasy, all these things. And then I see. Yeah, it was like 14 here. I'm like, what is happening here? You know? Turned on the game. I was finishing work and I was like, I just so unexpected it. And I just can't figure out if it was Ottawa doing things well, or if it was Edmonton doing things poorly. Well, that's a good point. You give the other team credit for coming out and winning and Ottawa came out. And. You know, I'll reference that first drive with an aggressive game plan. I mean, you call it, they called the trick, play with the receiver, throwing the pass and it looks like they just said, look, we're going to, we're going to go for it. Nothing to lose. If there's a team, we can jump on. It'll it'll probably be the elk, so good for them. Or for doing that? Absolutely. And obviously they were, I didn't even realize they'd gone over a season without a home win or something that was like 11 games or something at home. So that would date back all the way back to. 18 Then I guess, or early 19 a. But until they last won a home game. So it's. And the, the frustrating thing with the Elks is kind of like I referenced earlier. Not just that they're losing. It's it's how they're losing with very sort of lifeless efforts games that ultimately aren't that entertaining. You know, I think I, to me that the Elks have played decent twice on labor day. And the loss to Winnipeg, I will actually give them credit for how they came back. After the first 10 minutes against Winnipeg. I mean, they basically played the bombers. Even for the last. 50 Minutes of that game. And I mean, they had the lead five minutes into the third quarter and you know, they, yeah, they took some punches, but they, they dished out some punches against the bombers as well. I mean, even the game, the Elks one in BC, I don't know if they played. Great. I think they did enough and I still not really sure where the lines are headed. I think they've benefited from their schedule as well, but that's the thing about the [unknown]. They, they fall back when they fall behind, even by seven it's kind of already. Oh, Oh territory, as opposed to like, okay, but no big deal. Now they're going to drive down an answer back. They there, they really aren't doing that. Very seldom. Do they do that? When we had announced that you were coming on this week, we had a lot of people in the Facebook group say, okay, we're glad. Read shoots it a little straighter. Right. And they wanted your take on just the quality of the gameplay so far, this season. Our episode title last week was where have all the exciting CFL games gone and obviously lions Roughriders and the Alawites Argos Friday. We're actually, you know, pretty competitive, but Hey, Yeah, we can take credit for that, but I mean, what have you thought, just so far of kind of, most of these games, just kind of being a little more plotting this, this season. Yeah. You know, I've asked people about that on my show as well. And, and now it should save since the war. This has started up. I haven't seen as much the last, the last couple of weeks. And. In terms of, especially being able to watch a full game front to back. I think it is a few things I do think not having a season last year. Made a difference and not having any preseason this year. I do think that makes a difference for the sharpness of the offense. I think in terms of. The bigger picture. In the scores are coming up. I mean, You know, you've referenced a couple of the games last, even 34, 24 auto on. Edmonton. And we consider that a low scoring game. I mean, you know, But. Somebody, if somebody told me a couple of years ago, That the, the challenge for pass interference was a really significant change. And. If you don't play man to man defense. You're less likely to give up a big play and you're also less likely to commit pass interference. So I also, so I kind of think a lot of defenses are playing zones and are saying, okay, we'll give you a series of five yard passes. And maybe you'll get 30 or 40 yards, but if you throw one in completion, you gotta punt because you're only trying to gain five yards at a time. So if your quarterback goes seven for eight, the drive ends. Because of the one incompletion, because then it's second and five, right? And I do think, I do think there's something to that. I think. You know, Justin dunk talked to me about defenses are now taking the initiative they're playing on the balls of their feet and the offenses are playing on their heels. And. And yeah, I mean, it's, it's sexy for a quarterback to have a 78% completion. But. But it's one touchdown in 240 yards, like. You're not pushing the ball into the end zone. We're trying to make big plays. I think in, especially in the CFL, you got to reel off. You got to have explosive place. You get, you got to try to get sometimes get 20 to 30 yards on a play. So I think some of it is a mentality. I think sometimes it's too. We saw it in 19. And again, this year, a lot of starting quarterbacks got hurt. So that hurts it as well, but I just that's what worries me. There seems to be a bit of a shift in the CFL. Towards ball control. Don't screw it up. You know, let's throw high completion. Passes, but to me, you're, you're playing into what the defense would would like if you're doing that. Too often. And I think ultimately aggressive teams win. You know, like. I think Winnipeg can do a lot of different things. I think when Hamilton is clicking and they can do that. I just know, it feels like after the top three or four teams, there's a lot of safe, conservative football that doesn't lead to a lot of big plays and therefore doesn't lead to a lot of points. Yeah. I mean, obviously, you know, we've come into this from the XFL of, at all. And you know, a lot of people went when the season started and it's like, yo, what do you think of the three downs? What do you think of all this stuff? And I said, well, It's running a lot of the NFL offense of go for four yards or go for five yards. Like you said when you only have two downs, you can't go for four yards every time. You're never going to get a firsthand. And I see these, you know, it's second and 10 and they go, and it's like, even if you got the completion, you're only getting five yards. Like I just don't. Gordon Randall was on our show. He was talking about the offensive that the it is. It's not aggressive enough. It's not pushing the ball down the field. It is just settling for that dump pass when you should be going for. But maybe they're not trusting, right? Maybe they're just not trusting the receivers further down the field. And that's also an issue. Yeah, I think the. And I mean, look, it's. It's such an extreme debate because I know that's easy to sit back and say, well, just throw it deep. Just throw it for you. I mean, obviously it's a lower percentage pass, but I do think sometimes you have to do it. And, and again, you might get past interference, which is. Which is as good as the. Completion. I just don't. Yeah, I don't always get. What the philosophy is, and certainly yak is important. And you'll, if you had a guy like Terry Vaughn, he could make a living on catching a three yard pass and a running for, for 14, but that's, you know, That's easier said than done. And I, and I just wish there was more of that mentality where it's like, Hey, we got to spread out the defense. Like we gotta tell the defense we're we're going to initiate and we're not afraid to, to punt. You know, every once in a while, because we're going to come back and, and be aggressive. Again, and again, and I wish there was, I wish there was a little more of that. I know, like here's, here's the thing read. I remember when I was a kid, like we're talking early eighties, you know, there's, the commentators would always have that saying, well, if you throw a pass, three, things will happen. And two of them are bad. Incompletion or interception. And I, and I feel like that meant. Again, to get back to what I'm saying. It's. About the high completion percentage. I feel like quarterbacks are just terrified to throw an interception, which is justified. They're terrified to throw it in completion. Like, okay, sometimes you, you got to put it. And that was, you know, I've been speaking to Justin, Doug, like he brought up Ricky Ray when he was on my show and he said, you know, we're kind of in a Ricky race era. And I said yes, but Ricky would, would throw the corner pattern to Tucker or we take a deep shot to Harvey. You know, and, but the thing that was Grable, Ricky. He would throw the deep past and he'd say, okay. Yeah, ed Harvey's covered. But if I throw it to his right shoulder, Either Ed's getting it or it's incomplete. Like, you know, Ricky still had a bit of that mentality and I'm worse now. I feel like, ah, I can't throw a 50 50 ball. Can't even throw a 60 40 ball because for what if the 40 comes through and it's incomplete or intercepted. Well, you said it's so it's so. Focused on that passenger appearance anymore. Anyway, I mean, even in the NFL, I think they just throw the ball down, like, you know, one out of three times or two out of three times, they're going to get the PII anyway. And so you're, I got at least. You don't even need to be close to having them catch the ball, then you just get it in the area and then something's going to happen. I mean, they, especially the way. I don't know. You know, with this sloppy, as some of the CFL play has been. I mean, I certainly don't think that the defense is, is really on okay. What is going to be interference here and what isn't right. I mean, they're just trying to kind of go at it. I just think you have a lot higher percentage in there than they're giving it credit for it. They tried to get the ball down. That's a good way to put it for sure. Yeah. The other games coming up, but we have obviously close to my heart. We have lions and, and when on Friday I have a standing bat with Milt Steagall that if the lions. When he asked to change his logo to VC lions logo on social media. What do you think? My chances are for the American CFL team and the BC lions to actually conquer the, a Winnipeg. 7%. Maybe if you played a hundred games. When a big would win 93 of them. I've sorry. I've like, I've just, I was high on the bobbers before the season and I just continue to be impressed with them. Every time I see them play, they don't have a lot of weaknesses and. I think now I didn't get to see a lot of the BC Saskatchewan. But I think the lions have still a lot of flaws. I mean, they didn't play. Great against Edmonton. I know they won in Calgary. There's another game I'm thinking of where I thought. Man. Oh man, they didn't, they didn't look that good. I still love watching Michael play. I mean, he's just such a joy to watch with his toughness and his ability to keep plays alive. I don't know. I feel like, I feel like Riley with the exception of maybe a couple of years in Edmonton though. He's never had a great offensive line either. Like, I'm not, you, you probably know it better than me, but I just feel when I've watched the lines this year, I'm like, is that a great old line to protect Michael? Like you give him, give him some time. And I still think like the, I know Edmonton and Calgary, aren't doing well, and I'm not that optimistic about DemonTHON anymore, but I don't think that that's a safe, what two game lead on the stamps for third, if the stamps get it going, which is. Easier said than done. I'm sorry, man. I got to heavily favor the bombers and if I'm wrong, I will, I will gladly say I'm wrong, but I got to heavily favor the bloggers there. Well, I mean, if BC, I think they have like seven rushing yards last game. I mean, it wasn't even like an exaggeration. And he literally can't. They, they literally can't run the ball at all. So except for Michael Riley, you know, scrambling. You know, they keep saying like, he's fast. I'm like, yeah, he's fast for like a 38 year old. I mean, he's the old right? How old is he? 36 38. I don't think he's 38 yet. I think he might be 35. But anyway. Yeah. At my age. That's what they say, but that gives out. Thoughts on unlucky Whitehead being just the revelation of everything happening in the world right now. I mean, it really seems like all signs are pointing out for him. Well, he's an exciting player. I. I mean when he was with the bombers before. And I mean, I guess speaking of, of the yak, I mean, to me, that's a player that you can just get them the ball, right. And give them chance to. To make moves and that I feel like. Every CFL team used to have one. Or to have him. Maybe now he's a bit of a dying breed or the NFL snaps up more players like that. With some of the shifts in their philosophies over the years. But yeah. I mean, he's a super exciting for me. Definitely. Like, I think if I'm going to sit down and watch a lions game, I'm still. I like watching Riley. Because he was here because he's still good. But I would say Whitehead is definitely a reason to watch the lions too. The other two games, just some quick thoughts on those. You know, Outlet issues all year, right? Vernon Davis. We're in the Adams. Sorry. It's like, you know, Ah, we're down. We're doing whatever. That's on the, on the early salary they gain without going into Hamilton again. I mean, Hamilton's on, they're on their third quarterback. Lot of issues there. Yeah. I mean, I know. Adams is the, is the one guy. Seems to just Chuck it right. That is a bit more old school along the lines of what we were talking about. But yeah, Montreal is, is so up and down. They're to me, they're pretty hard to predict. Hamilton's got a lot of good things, but you're right. The quarterback issue is, is the big one for them. But you know, in Hamilton with Montreal being so inconsistent, I was still give Hamilton the edge and then. To me, this is now. A critical game for Calgary, right? They, they got Edmonton beat them on labor day. Beau comes back for the rematch. Pretty much a must-win for calorie. Like if they would've been sitting there at one, when. You know, it's probably lights out for them and they went to Edmonton and bows back and then you think, okay, here they go again. And then what was it they lost in? Was it in Hamilton? The next game? I want to say. Yup. So now. Like Calgary's back at home where they started the season poorly. I think they just have one win at home. Edmonton has zero. So to me, this is the one for Calgary. Where we see. Because, like I said, I think the lions can be caught. But Calgary is going to have to mobilize and do it. Saskatchewan is, is very, very good. They've only lost a Winnipeg. You know, I think that they have certain things that can be exploited, you know? We see Jason Moss is a. The offensive player, like he came, I saw that headline the other day, lake mosque. You have an interesting quote where he's like, we need to do some better things on offense, but I'm not going to change my approach. I'm fairly well. And that was the, kind of, what he was slammed for here is that he didn't. Adapt very well, but to me, this is a big one for Calgary. Cause I like, I talked to the media guys there and people who cover the stamps, like there are some serious questions about both. If is this it for him? Like, is he, is he past his prime? Is he a little too beat up now? Is the team around him? Not clearly, they're not as good as they used to be, but is there just not enough? Support forum. So I think if, if, if Calgary loses this one, I mean, man, two, two, and six over halfway through the seasons. I think that's a big one for them. I think I do think Saskatchewan is going to go on there and win. Well, I really writing off the Alberta teams. Aren't I. It's just hard. I. I get where they've always said, you know, like we're where the east is kind of like, I think rod Peterson calls it like the dog's breakfast or whatever he calls like the, I mean, it's just like, I mean, Hamilton still is leading the it's just tremendous to me with everything they've gone through with the Jason was always in the data Evans and now Watford. And whether we have in Hammond, that the fact that they're still leading the ease is just astounding to me. Well, yeah. And that is, that is an ongoing story. I mean, Toronto has surprised me. And they've had some nice wins along the way. I'm just checking the standings of your Montreal at two and four. That's going to be despite. They still have a lot of home games left though. I don't think they've, they've won a home game yet. But I think, you know, you talk about it in the CFL. You have to build. A good program. Right. And that's what it was Shea has been able to do in Winnipeg. I mean, it's, it's funny, like our sister station CGB. Carrie's the bombers games and O'Shea's first two years. I like, I was talking to somebody who. Bri, I think you did the coaches. She did it. He probably still does it. He does it. He did like a weekly coaches show, I think with Bob Irving. And like Irving had to say live okay. That you can't just call into the coach and tell him that you want him to get fired. You know, or, or, I mean, you can ask critical questions, but let's just not yell at the guy for an hour and tell him that he needs to go, but Hey, now look. You don't have defending great cup champs favorites this year. You'll Calgary clearly has had a program there going back a couple decades. Now this is an off year for them. And I, and I feel like Hamilton has a bit of that, right. Where they've had some athletes. The stay there for a while. They kind of know who they're building around. They can still be competitive. Even with a quarterback, like. Like you said, even going down to a second or third string quarterback, maybe you don't win every game, but you're kind of in every game. So that's kind of how I look at. I look at how I don't think they're as far along as Winnipeg is, but I look at them where they kind of have like a good program. They're not just a good team. They have a good program. It's been great before we let you go. I mean, obviously you like right. Winnipeg gray cup, right? I mean, we have to kind of imagine. Who do you see on the other side of that, that field, if you had to make your call. Well, I'm still going to go with Hamilton. I just think that they. You know, going there a couple of years ago, probably still upset about losing that game. And I just think the. The depth and the consistency. I mean, I know they've had a couple of disappointing games earlier in the season. I think Montreal will probably get third. Or maybe even second, but they're, you know, again, they're so up and down and I kind of look at Toronto the same way too. Like I've watched them and. It's like, man on man there. Pardon me. They're good. And then the next game, I'm like, what is going on? Like this is, this is this the same team. So I just think I know what a single game anything can happen, but I think just because of the consistency of the experience and some of the athletes, I would still go with Hamilton there. Pretty pretty bull. They pick them the two fair first place teams to play in the gray cup. Well, but it is like you said, it is this. The lack of consistency is just crazy. Mamie we've talked before about, you know, sports betting and all these things coming to the CFL. And I'm like, I wouldn't put money on any of these scenes right now. I mean, except for Winnipeg, right? I. I would know. I it's just crazy. I mean, who, I mean, not one person in the world. The Edmonton with the lost that game on Tuesday. I mean, it's just astounding to me. If you had to pull a thousand people, no one would've said that. I'm sure the most optimistic red, black fans were still like, great. We're going to lose to the other last place team, you know, too, with, with. Because there are no name. Quarterback is probably still better than our no-name quarterback, but it didn't. Well read. This has been great. I appreciate you making the time and spending some time to talk with us today, and hopefully we can keep you in the role of the accident and bringing you back in the future. If Edmonton ever wakes out. Okay, so I'll hit start here. I don't want to hold. Too much of your time, intro everything. I'll just, we'll clean up everything and put it on. We want to work 15, 20 minutes. Yeah. Yeah, I try not to go. Like I just appreciate people's times. I'm in there. Some stuff I don't know, too, because I'm a columnist, not necessarily the beat writer, but we don't have a beat writer. So. All right. Let me get this here. So we have Steve Milton here with the Hamilton spectator. Thank you so much for coming on and talking a little, you know, obviously CFL and then Hamilton too. It's good to get. There's not a lot. It's hard for us to get good Hamilton coverage from, from here, right on the podcast. Well, it is. There aren't many media. The cover the team. In Hamilton anymore. You could say the same about the Southern Ontario market and if you know anything about CFL, I'm sure. And you do read. You've been studying this league, you know, that the Southern Ontario market, in fact, all the big city markets have been in a bit of an issue. It's not an issue in Hamilton itself, but for those of you. That don't know. The Southern Ontario geography. Hamilton Toronto or only a, and I'll use miles here. We use kilometers, but they're only about 45 miles from, from city hall to city hall. So this is a small town in the shadow of bigger city. I think in terms of Oakland, And, and. Ah, San Francisco or a little. The more Milwaukee, Chicago, any of those? Those are the kind of shadow city. So they have there. It's their own thing, but it's part of the larger market. And in Southern Ontario. And media, there just isn't a lot of coverage. And we only have one newspaper in town and, and, you know, we don't have an old sports radio station here anymore. That's one of the reasons why. You have a little trouble getting some coverage out of here. I may just seem out of Toronto as well. Yeah, well, we're excited. Right? So we, we have our flights booked for the gray cop. We have. We have a wonderful Airbnb on the, on the coast of lake Ontario out there. By the stadium. How has this season been going for you? Our episode last week was called where have all the exciting CFL games gone. Very good topic. And you know, obviously Friday last week, the double header with the lions and all that stuff, we're excited. But what has been your thoughts on the pace of play so far this year? Yeah, it hasn't been, it hasn't been anywhere near what we, it is. What we've expected and of course, We're always comparing here. Canadian trade of course is always to compare and contrast ourselves to our neighbors, to the south. And there's no secret that the NFL has borrowed heavily. Conceptually. From our game and from the college game. Right. And they didn't invent any of the stuff they got going on now that makes us so excited that it came from elsewhere and they, it was things. They resisted from the college game. And prior to that, The Canadian game for a long, long time. And I'm talking about the scrambling running quarterbacks. We're talking about maybe the lighter. Outside linebackers. The, the dual function tight ends that also have to have a little bit emotion to them. All of those kinds of things. Going passing earlier on downs and not using the whole 40 seconds. That's it. That's a huge part of the NFL now. And it used to be very much a Canadian thing because those. I'm assuming that people who follow your cast. I understand that it's a 22nd time clock here. It's. It's done at a little differently. But generally we've had more plays and, and tend to be more exciting place because of the, you know, you have to make. I have to pass early in downs. Now the NFL is doing it. And so we have that sake. We've had that comparison. One of the problems we've had is, and I share this came up on your must have on your podcast last week. Was that year off was really hard. The leak did not play. And then it delayed. And then when there's no exhibition games, there were no preseason games. So a lot of. Stuff couldn't get worked out during training camps and all of those things. And we all now have not, we have shorter hours. We are coach scare, allowed to only have the players four and a half hours a day, because quite often, Maybe they're not getting paid enough, right. To. To be here that much longer. Plus they. Many people, especially the Canadians would use to have other jobs. So that's not the case anymore. They're really, I mean, their full-time athletes need to be. More on the job. I'd like to see another hour a day that could help with some of the old fence. The other part is stability on the offensive lines of. Offensive lines changed because of that pandemic. And, and there's really only, I would say one or two, one veteran. Together and you know what offensive lines are like. It's like, I often compare it to synchronized swimming. Right. And you have to be together and do the same thing as well. If you're bringing in new people, which almost everybody did, there were great number of retirements. In that period of time. And then that's been part of the problem. Two quarterbacks aren't being protected. Yeah. I mean, do you think though, by, you know, we're entering week nine here, we're in the middle of it, right? Obviously we have the Edmonton game this week. Should we affect more by week nine? I mean, I get we've won two. You know what it should be. This is the halfway point. It's a condensed season. There's only 14 games. So most teams have played seven, right? So they've played half of their schedule. They should be at this point by now. Eh, Yeah, or sort of, they should be at the point that you're asking. Bye now. And, and it's a bit of a problem. This isn't. Strictly pandemic related. It's been coming for some time. Part of the reason. It is free. Is that we don't go deep enough in quarterback. You know, Hamlin just won two, two games with their third string quarter. Like. They had to change everything they did. They had to almost win it by defense and special teams and not throwing the ball away on old fence. This is an exciting team. Hamilton was extraordinarily exciting, at least as exciting as Kansas city. In the 2019 season is as Kansas city has been the last two or three years, at least bad. Exciting. But they haven't been able to do that because they were down as a third string quarterback. When when's the last time the NFL teams won back to back with third street growing. Zero and my guests, if it was, it was probably in the sixties. Because you just don't, you can't practice. The person that, well, one of the problems that we're having, we don't go deep enough at quarterback because many of the types of quarterbacks. That have always dominated this game and they've been able to come in part way through a season and with a half a season star the next year. So they were number two the first year and come in. They're being kept by the NFL now. And then they go a little deeper on the roster. They have usually have an extra person on it. It's a C and often it's a CFL look at all of the top quarterbacks in the NFL. Many of them wouldn't have been in the NFL a few years ago. They would have been up here for a couple of bit. I mean, We've often said Doug Flutie would have been a star in the NFL and not had had to come to the CFL and, and, and Joe Theismann and, and, and probably. Allen Damon Allen probably would have got a big shot down there and all kinds of them. Even Matt Dunnigan, people like that, that were stars in college and played that kind of game that wasn't NFL, six foot four drop back, straight drop back kind of passer. Would've got their chances. We wouldn't have had them. Luckily we did, but we're not getting some of them now. Yeah, it's interesting. I was on the Argos fan cast. This we talking you cause obviously we're, I'm in Seattle and the Seahawks. Right. And. Wilson is very much like what you're talking, where he was the exception when he started. And now it's it's every, you know, you got Kyler Murray, you got Patrick Maholick. You have everyone. There are about 10 of them. And then, and I'll tell you that, that he was your. Russell was everybody's favorite NFL quarterback, except, I mean, obviously there were some great quarterbacks, but everybody who followed the CFL loved him. I know that person. I know that game. Everybody used to say. Up here about him and, and, and of course, That's pat a great effect here. People. I mean, most of Canada lives in, within an hour or two drive of the U S and of course, with broadcast. So. Obviously you have a very strong Vancouver bent. From Seattle, but, but a Winnipeg in Minneapolis. Toronto. Slash Hamilton and Buffalo. I mean, Most people in Hamilton who are 50 years. Or, oh, I mean, I would say that from the age of, you know, they've, they've grown. If they're, if they're under 60, they've grown up with the Buffalo bills. I looking at Hamilton here, we just had [unknown]. Begins on talking. I asked him, I said, you know, who do you take, obviously, Winnipeg right in the west. We're presuming for gray cop. He took Hamilton east, obviously they've had their quarterback issues. Right. You know, Missoula went down date. AVID's. It is Hamilton, just that good of a team that they're able to persevere, even with all this influx under center. It didn't look like that at the start. And the coach who's tremendous. Right. And he was on a good stream in the colleges. We're along the Stein hour. He was on a really good progressive stream. They're out of pro Fresno straight. He was nominated for, for assistant of the year. In his only year at college, down here, he was on a good track. So this is a very good coach and he understands the game up here and he played here. I've known him since he was 22. And he's in. I don't know, he's 47 or something now. And, and so he, he, there's a bit of a culture here and they have a lot of the same players. They've watched a lot of players. I think they lost four or five through the pandemic through retirement or one or two from three agents. But they had a real core, which is odd, which is one of the reasons of course, when a bank is doing so well, they have a core and they kept it, especially in the trenches. You know, they're winning this league on the trenches. They're the best, you know, Combinational offensive, defensive line, and then nobody else's clothes in the sleep. And that's where it all starts, starts that way in every, at every, at every level of football. But I Hamilton's. Defense is very strong. To play. They can play two types of ways up front. They've got a very good front for that. They brought completely back and including the backup they've got they've they made one good Canadian draft choice. Who's able to step in there and spell the older player who was Canadian. Just to remind people, we have a ratio here. You have to start seven Canadians. And, you know, so, and if one comes out and you're only at seven, another Canadian has to replace them somewhere on that side of the ball. Right. So during the game, so they, they got really, I wouldn't say fortunate because they, they thought they had somebody in the step, but he's turned out to be what you don't see a very, a first-year player who you can just throw in there. And, and, and not just as a body, but as somebody who may solely, and they have a very aggressive defensive backfield, they lost somebody in all star, but they replaced him with a, with a ball house. So. If they can get the pressure and they play aggressively in the backfield. Well, what was happening is they weren't getting the pressure in the back. They was just getting to know each other, the secondary and the first couple of games when they got, when you're playing aggressively. And you're not getting pressure on the guys too much, you're going to get beat deep. You're going to get beat on the seams all the time in any level of football. That's what was happening early, but they've come. They brought that together and teams could run on them. Now they've seem to solve that. We'll see a little bit more when they play Montreal. But I said there's best running back in the league by far. Now if they can, you know, but they did well again, they're only team that's done well against that. Running back all year. The only one that's basically held him and under a hundred, somebody else happened at 82, but I mean, Back to back games. I think you said what? 270 yards or something. You know, so. They've they've stored up there. Run a little bit. I think they're still, if they have a weakness it's against the run. But if you stop somebody in this game with two downs and you stop for less than six yards on, on the first down, they got to throw. And then the other stuff comes into play, which is they're very, very strong defensive line. They're starting to get sacks now, too, which they didn't. For the first half of the season. So the answer is yes, they have an awful lot of depth to overcome things. They've got trouble on the offensive line. It hasn't been enough continuity there. And even some of the players, they put into certain positions weren't working out. So they're making. Thinking that a little bit. And they were without their deep threats, Hamilton, why they were so exciting why they were the Seattle Seahawks. Or, sorry, we're we're the Kansas city chiefs was, they could stretch the field with a speedy bank. So it was the most valuable player, most outstanding player. We call them in our league. And then he was heard for three games. The quarterback. They were down to the third quarterback. So they won, they had to play a ball control game. Not, not, not just don't throw it away and we'll try to win it somewhere else, which they did. I mean their defense. Scored auto was offense last week seven to nothing. And, and so now they've got them back. And they got him and Berlin Addison, who was the number two receiver. So. This could be a whole different ball game. And not necessarily ballgame read, but. What you see on the field could be very, very different here. This could be the first time they've. Really hit some high-octane except, you know, they've only had three practices together with everybody back together. It's just weird. Cause he was like Hamilton even last year, you know, they were the heavy favorites, right? When. Big wins or you. You know, two years ago, but you go and I mean, last season, Now. Yeah, they come out, right. They lose the home opener. Right. And then it's like, does that galvanize them? They've had all these issues with the quarterback. I mean, you're obviously in the market with the players talking with all of them. I mean, what is the feeling there in the locker room? The organized. And this is a really good word and galvanize really, really, really good word, but there's a, there's a. I think there's quiet confidence. They've reestablished home field advantage. Two years ago, they won every game at home. They won nine at home and there was an exhibition game, but they didn't, you know, first. You know, half the team, 90% of the team wasn't playing started seeing. So they went all nine home games and then they won the playoff game here. To go. And this place, when it first opened a new field, Tim Horton's field in 20 14, 20 14. Yes. They won every game that year, once they got in a, so they won their first kick 10 games here and it was dominant. I mean, Hamilton's always been a good hometown. Partly because it's a bit like Oakland, that way is the real, the fans. I, you know, it. It doesn't matter what walk of life you come from, you change personalities when you walk into the stadium like you do in many, many stadium, but this one's pretty, very insane. Even when they weren't drawing well at that far. Hard core. So they've established home field advantage and they got a lot of confidence about that. The other part of this is they've been pretty good. Since 2013, they were like the Chicago bears. They had to spend a whole year on the road playing on the road, but they also had a practice, not at their own stadium, like unlike Chicago in those years, they. You know, they were playing. Either home games. It was really amazing and they made it to the great cup that year, 2013 from that period on. And there's still a four players left from that team. And, and about five or six that have been here six or seven years. Many of those years, they started Owen to own three, one and 4 0 1 year old, six, and made the playoffs are on five and made the playoffs. So to lose the first two games this year, you still have that. There's been a bit of a DNA. That's been passed down to say. Doesn't matter what we do now, as long as we do it later. While they're at the later now. And because it's halfway through, we always say the season, doesn't start here to labor day. It wasn't fair this year because labor day was it wasn't halfway through the season. Like it normally is, but there are halfway through the season. Now this is when it really starts. When they have five home games. To finish out of their seven and they only get on an airplane one more time. So the, the, you know, when you buy extra time when you're not on airplane, so you only home game, a way game, other than having to fly to Edmonton is in Toronto. And you can walk there. So I do you feel confident that this weekend Al. It's been a little bit of a rollercoaster this year, right? Vernon Adams. How are you? How are you feeling about the match of here on Saturday afternoon? I mean, of course I don't. You know, a stencil, we don't care. Right? I mean, it's. I'm here. Watch it and to, to, to analyze it and to opine on it. But if I were them, I'd be confident, partly because. Now it's, whether there's so fast can get up to that kind of speed and, and what they're going to try to do, because Montreal is very, very porous on defense at the moment. Right? Once you're all is a. But they're also very other, I mean, it's incredible on their second down conversion rate. I mean it, their failure on second down, there's nobody close to how few times they fail on second down. There's nobody close to the leak to monitor all that way. They're mercurial. And, and so you've got to make sure, I think that you get to a stop that running game. And, and probably a reason you, you, in any football one great way to stop a consistent running game is to get a lead. Right. So I think Hamilton recognized they're going to have to score more points than they have the last two games, but it's also, I mean, they're not using their third quarterback. He'll be in there at points because he can run. And, and that adds a different dynamic, but it's a very, very. If you can stretch the field at all, which Hamilton hasn't been able to do much this year, partly because at first the guys weren't getting open. They didn't have braille employment, but. Brielle and Addison playing, but are partly because the quarterbacks were doing very well. Even the one and two quarterback Evans and Ms. And then Evans and an Evans became one and none of them, they weren't really, really succeeding except for one game. It's stretching the field by hitting guys. Down the seams and that kinds of thing. And the guys weren't getting opened as much. Well, If they can do that. There's a score, a lot of points. They'll score an awful lot of points. And, and, but Montreal, if Montreal its defense can do anything or Hamilton turns the ball over, or, or that kind of our field position, it ends up establishing a little bit of imbalance there. The burden can put up some stuff. I mean, everybody here knows Vernon and he was, you know, he was here. He was basically the reason a. I mean, Dana, Dana Evans. He was cut essentially for Dana Evans. Everybody thinks it was good. Johnny Munns at Mandela was here at the time that wasn't it. This was the third quarterback. And that was either between Vernon. And in fact, Vernon became. I don't know if people know this or care about this, a little bit of trivia. He became briefly a receiver in Hamilton because he could tell that Dana Evans was going to beat him out. And so he, he, he, he asked him to change the receiver and then, and then they ended up, you know, that didn't work out. If it only lasts. A day or two. And, and then he ended up being CRE being. Cut. Right. And then ended up in Montreal and he's landed on speech. Well, he should be proud of himself. Is Dean back in the line of now, is it still offered this. No, no, he's still, he's still, he. He was four to six weeks. Right. And, and, and it's a, it's an oblique injury. I haven't talked to Dane. And a little while later, they usually the injured players. You don't see them out on the field. And because of the pandemic restrictions we don't have. I I'm not even going to run into him by accident because we're restricted to what parts of the stadium we can go on. I can't go on a field to talk to the players at Kinko's. In the locker room, that's two or three times a week. I'm not on the sidelines after practice. Like I have been for 40 years or 35 years. And so it's, it's a. I don't even know how he's progressing with that oblique injury, but, but they're not gonna push it. You know, I mean, he's probably. If they. You know, Choose to unwell. Well, he will be. He's the quarterback of the future here because of his age. And it's the present as well. So I don't think they want to mess with it. I want to get your thoughts on this last game. And I want to ask you this question just to get your reaction to you before. So lions blue bombers, right. You know, Friday night. Game of the week. I have a standing bat with hall-of-famer mid Stegal that. If mil, if, if that BC lions I'm calling them America CFL team. Cause we're, you know, we're the American base. Cl badass. If they be the blue bombers, Milt, Stegal needs to change his Twitter profile to a BC lions logo for a week. How do you feel about my chances and the BC lions chances against the blue bombers and seven have discovered this leak for decades. Well, I think the defensive line is prob I mean, Mike right rally in the last two years is just taken up pounding. He is the toughest guy. You like? He was the last quarterback. We had a year of the fallen quarterback. I called it 2019. Every single team wants their starting quarterback for a signal, but he was the last one to go down. I mean, and he should have been the first with a kind of pounding that he took. He was getting nailed. That's where I think the problem is, but I really like. Wait, I want to say it's due for a bad one. The only thing they, they are. I mean, as I said, they've got the best combination of offensive defensive line, but they get Mike any. Any kind of protection the way he's connecting right now with white ed. And he's got some other weapons there. It could be. It, you know, I think you've got a chance. I wouldn't take the bat. You know, I still think that Winnipeg at this point, Just because of the continuity. They haven't, they haven't really had the big injuries because of the middle linebacker. And because of Andrew Harris compound, the [unknown]. It's out of the ball and you know, the running game. Sets up everything else and, and Andrew can do it. They can stop him. To some degree and all, and I think the can. But it's get they, they need to buy another. I don't know, three quarters of a second for Mike. If they get that three quarters of a second, he can beat them. Reid Wilkins gave the blind to 7% chance of winning. And I always threw him off the show. So you have no idea that you have done it. I don't think it's as low as seven, but you know, it's not a whole bunch in the double digits. If you were to take it on pure face value, but this is the CFL. And, and it now normally. In 18 games season, you see two or three flat games by every team. I don't know if we're going to see that with a 14, you know, like where are you going to see it is when you don't get the rest because the 14 game schedule made. And because it was late in stadiums were always booked for some other things. When they had to change their schedule from 18 to 14, they had to make some adjustments. So there've been some compacting period, but I don't think either team is suffering from that either. So you're not going to see, I mean, it's not like if there's three-day rest or anything like that. Right. So if it goes to form Winnipeg still just again, I'm going to say, I have injuries somewhere in the trenches. They're. They're just better in the trenches. Ah, well, Steve, I appreciate you coming on and playing along with all these shenanigans and spending. I really appreciate you. Thanks for doing it. It's great. Anything that, you know, we love our game here and, and, you know, we love the NFL game and we're very proud of our game and it's nice to see people. South side. Take the same kind of. Like for that you have, yeah, we're doing that week. We're doing the Lord's work is what we call it.

Episode 59 - Where Have All The Exciting CFL Games Gone?

It's been a, it's been. Corporate client heavy right now with work too. So I do feel you a little bit, but yeah, this is Gilbert. We're getting the sand after Thursday night football with the Panthers. Where'd you. With PJ Walker and that plane, but with, you know, with PJ Walker at the backup. So they, they are currently beating the Texans with. About a minute left in the game. So. Three and. Looking like they're going to go to the Panthers of all teams. Didn't expect that, but. Goes to show that if you buy an offensive line, New York, you might've had Sam. Darnold being a little bit better up there, but I will tell you though, Christian McCaffrey out again. At the hamstring injury. So we'll see. I had a note here, you know, A lot of talk tonight with. The Hubbard. Canadian football player playing for the Panthers. Kind of the backup role with Christian McCaffrey going down. And, you know, we get that a lot. I see when people post about like XFL players playing in the CFL, I see a lot of. CFL people going like, well, don't, don't talk about that. But yeah, when it's tuba hybrid in the NFL, that we can talk about that we can talk about. I, I just think that's interesting. I mean, We're all the same. We're all the same. Nope. We're not sorry. Paul. Did you think that we would be making a political reference in the year 2021 with our episode title this week? No. What does Paula Cole up to these days? By the way? She's still. I just don't like that. I don't even know anymore. I have. So, you know, young, young listeners of ours might. No, there used to be a song that was called where have all the Cowboys gone. And it was, I think she won the Grammy. It was everywhere. It was a one hit wonder. And so this week, I wouldn't go there. I think she won the Grammy. I wouldn't say one. One hit wonder. Cause she also had that. I don't want to wait song that was on Dawson's Creek. That was her. Yeah. Wow. Anyway. So she had a song where have all the Cowboys gone. And so there has been a lot of feedback this week. Justin donkey, even tweeting about, you know, How the CFL needs more exciting football games like Kansas city and the Ravens. And so the title of the episode this week is where have all the exciting CFL games gone because we were told. You know, CFL business model, everything else aside, XFL everything, the play on the field. The superior, the most exciting football brand out there. And the game last night that I watched Paul, a lot of it before Dorothy and I went to go see my in-laws are, you know, her parents might, you know, whatever. I. Horrendous game horrendous game. Your friend Eros Madani even tweeted the abandoned night for the CFL. You know what I have to say? To all those people that told me the CFLs on-field experience was so exciting. This totally pure fiction. It never happened. But I mean, it's good. And that's where they, so we're going to get into it this week. So we have a good show. We have Daryl Davis, another CFL hall of fame reporter. He is coming on DEO Davis. I delight, wonderful conversation, Darryl and I had Sean Campbell. TSN six 90. He does play by play for the Al wets, BC lions, BPL weds last week. We'll talk about that. And then Steve McAllister is like a legend in the CFL game. He's not really like covering the day to day anymore, but we really wanted to get him on the show. So we do kind of a deep dive in this sports betting is a CFL ready for that. And now that we've legalized everything, Steve is the editor in chief now of the parlay, which is like a sports betting. How you like to keep you up to date kind of. Website newsletter thing. He used to be as former sports editor of Kansas national newspaper. And he was the former managing editor for Yahoo, Canada, Yahoo sports, Canada. So like he has his own Wikipedia. How many people do we interview that have their own Wikipedia page? Not very many, not very many. So. Anyway. So we kind of tried to disect all this this week, Darryl and Sean, and then Steve, a little more. Wide ranging, but like what is going on with the CFL gameplay right now? Because it is. You know, We're week eight, like they were in training camp for six weeks. You know, most of July, August we're end of September, like what is going on? Why are we playing a third string quarterbacks and, you know, scoring no offensive touchdowns at all for the red blocks. I think they're playing third string quarterbacks because people might be not up to, you know, conditioning. Cause we said there was a short. It was a short pre-season before they got into actual game mode. And no one had a chance to really work out, you know, completely and get in game shape, you know? I think that's why you're seeing a lot of this. Third string quarterback coming in, you know, a lot of question marks here. Yeah. So anyway, we have that. Just a couple other notes. So w w. Well, maybe we'll do this in the break. I want to do the giveaway giveaway thing again, this week, we're going to keep everybody and we had horrendous, like two people commented, like max was like, I guess I would take it. I share it. We have these jerseys that like Josh sent, we have all this stuff. So maybe in the break we can get them and show them off and do it again in the show, because I want, I don't want it just to be like a retread of like the two people that commented. Does that make sense? We really, I mean, It was fine. Viewership and everything last week, but it just wasn't like, it didn't seem like anyone cared. So maybe during the break I was getting, I forgot to, but maybe we'll give them and show them at the end of the show. I want people to want these giveaway items. You know, that Josh McGee took the time to send you the Argos Jersey. I don't just want to like mail it off to any, you know, Yahoo that they decided to comment. So what we're going to do that so 16 at the end of the show, we're going to talk about the giveaway and then. Oh, the. We we won the podcast. Paul, I won the podcast wager against the outwits flight deck podcast. So we didn't have a chance. Twitter avatar. Very good. I'm proud of you. You know, I think that they, I. I don't think that Tim and Cliffy expected to lose. So I think it was one of those, like, They tried to just kind of bury it in the trash bed. Like, you know, when you lose a bat and you're just like that. We're just kind of going to sweep that under the ride. We kind of felt that way a little bit, Tim and cliff, he kind of felt that way. Like, you know, we changed the, we changed the logo back at 10 in the morning when we're, we don't record it till later in the day. I thought that was interesting. And then Paul, we already texted about this, the gray cup fan base that we are a part of. We cannot put the mark has podcasts. They want allow us to put it on there. I've gone back and forth to them, like five times about this. Well, then it's just your name then. I'm there in spirit. So I am not going to pay. Yeah. I'm not going to pay twice to have re Johnson and Paul Sanchez. So Reed Johnson will be on that, but we tried to get the Marc CAS podcasts. They won the Lao. Non affiliated business names to be on there, which I think is ridiculous. You would think that they would just accept anybody who wanted to support the grey cup? I don't know. I don't know. Thank you, right? I mean, by the bite of my name was mark Hass podcast. You don't know. Everybody thinks your name's mark any damn way. Captain bathroom dude. I thought your name was mark. I did a, I was on the puck and a pug and Biggs thin podcast this week with Jason. And that was his first question was why is your podcast called the markets when your co-host is Paul and read? So I did a whole story about it as a pug and big scan. If you want to look that up on YouTube, they, he had me on over there. That was a delightful chat. Very good. And then Danny dropped some. Exhale things that didn't probably go anywhere. Yeah. If you're doing the XFL watch, Danny did one of her stories. She had like a dress on and it was like going to dinner with my XFL partners and rubber capital. Friend of the show, Greg parks' tweeted. He goes, I wonder who is picking up the tab at dinner? I said, Randy, Ambrozy. Maybe, maybe. There's a non-zero chance. You tell me there's a non-zero chance that radium Rosie picked up the tab at Danny Garcia's exit bell. Not until they Sue the CFL for like, Espionage sabotage, whatever. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. One final. I deleted this off the big one final days. I know you're tired. We don't need you to do a deep dive about this night. How are you feeling of the status of this podcast? Are we, are we happy? Are we feeling good? We're feeling great. I mean, you know, like, It's just been like, it's been a long couple of weeks where I'm just like, kind of burning the candle at both ends in the middle too. So it's just like, I'm trying to like power through. I know you've got a lot of business clients you got going on. So one thing we're doing good. I think we're, you. You know, we're putting the work in and I think. It's done necessarily that we're doing this just because we want to prove the doubters wrong. There's a lot of people that have. We're just using a CFL just to use the CFL. And it's not the case at all. Like, you know, whenever I'm able to tune in and catch some highlights or catch a game I'm doing that. And Reed definitely is too, because he's like, I want to put off the record in the podcast till after the Thursday night game, the NFL game. So it's like, Okay, Reed. Well, you know, I'm tired, but yeah, we'll, we'll do that because we're dedicated to this. And I just, I feel like. I feel like a, you know, Who knows. And I mean this more from like a, like I said, as a standing in the league. I messaged back and forth with a mutual friend of both of ours. Shemot on a lot this week about. Lack of support from the league, right? From the CFL, from what are we doing? I feel like we're points. I was just curious, like, do you feel like we're still expanding in our like, platform of what we're doing? If you still think that we're. If we're experiencing growth in that way. I think we are. I think, you know, like people might not engage doesn't mean they're not listening. Just because they're not engaged. It doesn't mean they're not listening. That's my viewpoint. So I think we're doing fine. Let's just, let's not stop. Let's not doubt ourselves publicly. And let's just stick our nose to the grindstone. Keep doing this. Keep talking this stuff. So last week, last week. The tire cats beat the Stampeders 23 7. The BC lions, not America's NFL. CFL team. Vitiello it's 27 to 18. The Roughriders beat my Argonauts 30 16 and then the blue bombers of course, one. 37 To 22. Yeah. Taylor Cornelius looked good for the L a for the Alex. That was good. And Nick Arbuckle did not look good for the Argos. We have Maccabia. Bethel Thompson coming up this week. We have a story about that. You know, rough riders is going to be a big match of this week. Obviously we had the tiger cats beating the red blocks last night. As we record Wednesday as this airs horrendous game in the rain, 5,200 people in the stands, I'm just kind of getting through some of the notes we have below. Horrendous game horrendous game. Ottawa had a two quarterbacks go down. Nate Rite aids, Nate, I have it down here, there. Their receiver had to come in. He threw one pass and did a rush. The only points they got was a defensive pick six back in the end zone. Really really bad game for the CFL. I should be other good games this week. The Al lads. Obviously I talk about that with Sean Campbell, coming up with the Argonauts and then the clearly the game of the week is Saskatchewan taken on BC. Kind of for that second place in the west underneath when they're peg, which is like clearly the Jagger and that right now, I mean, I don't. Basically, we're going to Hamilton to see. I play someone. Yeah. It's going to be someone and like, it's weird because like the CFL, like with the point differentiates the point differentials, like if you're in the west, like you can move to the east in the playoffs because, you know, it's the five and four and this way. So like, Basically it's either like BC is going to have to like be Winnepeg or have the points to go to the east. And then, you know, it's like this bus sob, Winnipeg, no matter which way you go about it, they're kind of sitting at the top of this back, the BC's number two in the power rankings. He can't tell me that we didn't. I didn't hit my, my horse to a, get a wagon here. You did. What your hitch, your wagon to a good horse. Whatever I said. It was good. It was a good switch up all because you know, they talk trash about the XFL. And look what happened. The Elks could have been in second. I think that the magic touch of read. And help to get the BC lions a second, but they're still not American seatbelts. Sorry. Anyway. So I horrendous game, I Iraj tweeted about it, Barbara Irvin. Right. Which is like, typically he's kind of the spokesperson for the league. I, Dave Naylor, everybody tweeted about the game last night. They're like, I really hope this was not the first time anybody was ever watching the CFL game. Which is like, not something you would expect. I gave Naylor that tweet, right? I mean, obviously Dave proponent of the league. And so are we. 53,000 Or 5300 900 Erik. 53 92 Fans in the stands for the game a Wednesday night rainy night, you know, not an ideal night for football. I really not good. I've already tied about this, you know, the third string quarterback. And just really kind of a mass for Ottawa and not a good look for the CFL going into like the halfway point of the season. Yep. Moving forward, moving on. The cloud Beltsville, Thompson's going to be back at starting quarterback for the Argos on Friday night. They've announced that they starting him. As they, there are three and three. This friend BMO field. Nick, Arbuckle's going to sit out the entire game because of a hamstring injury. And they're just kind of being cautious of him and Antonio Pipkin. We'll back up. That's a great name, Pipkin. Kind of like Scotty Pipkin, fibbing. Again, the king is returned. We did our home. I mean, remember week two, this seems like a lifetime ago. We did MOCAD Bethel Thompson, the king of the CFL. He comes back. I don't think it's enough to ride the Argo ship. I'm glad to see him getting another chance. Our buckle looked horrendous against the rough riders. Just a lot of. You know, long passes, passes, nowhere near anybody. A lot of that drop passes. I mean, it's, I don't understand. Oh, I watched the spring league games with, you know, two weeks of practice and then six weeks of game play. And it seems a little bit more Chris. Sometimes they're really struggling these players on offense right now to get anything going. It's interesting to see that I, you know, again, I think they needed more practice. They needed more warmup. I think they needed some, maybe some preseason games. I don't know. I don't know. The CFL suspended. BC lions DB, a defensive back Gary Peters for the game against the writers. Apparently. It was because of the, I guess, The drug. Yeah. So here here's the answer. He's appealing this, right? So we don't know if he's gonna play or not. He's technically suspended. They came out late tonight. He's trying to appeal it. I w I talk a lot about this. I with Darryl on the interview with Darryl and I do a deep dive into the urine testing. Matter of AC Leonard from last week with the rough riders and then Gary Peters. There's something going on with the drug testing, with the urine testing, with the urine testing volunteers, lots of urine talk with CFL hall of fame. Reporter Daryl Davis. By that. Yeah, truly fascinating. If you want to stay tuned to that talk. So are the testers for the drugs? Are they, are they being belligerent with the players? I'm I'm curious as to why. Now we have two incidents where players are. Arguing back with. These administrators, you are not incorrect. You are no. The year, absolutely reading the situation, right? Like this is two weeks in a row is very strange. Very, very strange. Also, this was the other one. Mike Rose. He kicked a, this Nicola Kela Nick. He like kicked him in the nuts. Like he came down and my tackle the, on him and basically like I kicked him in the balls. And so that's why they're like, how did that not get, so he got a fine for that. So that, that. Immediately. Yeah, all. All is right in the world, though. In terms of last Friday, the writers had 25,883. The tiger. That's 15,000 even. The Elowitz 13, 5 91. And then the Elks had 23,310. For their tenants into the ratings of corners stamps at Hamilton 48. Okay. Toronto at some schedule. Which one had 6 44 K and a little bit of change there. BC at Montreal had 440 K and then Winnipeg Edmond, Edmonton. Not the big watch of the week, but still up there. 536. Thousand 400 views for them. Yeah. And then they're bounced back. It was a little bit lower with labor day with some of the non-labor they gained [unknown]. Enjoyable games. The interesting note was the rough riders. And we talk about this. So Darryl to the, the 25 for the riders, that is what they announced. That's absolutely not what was there. Right? Like, and if you look at it, it was basically like season ticket holders that paid, and then didn't go because this was the first week where you had to have a COVID. Vaccine or a negative test. And so they had, you know, probably three fourths of that number. And if you do the math, it was probably had a lot to do with the number of vaccines that people in the province have. Interesting. Moving forward. Cody Pardot. Pajaro I'm sorry. I keep saying hardo. 'Cause it's like when in Rome. He says they've got feelings too. Apparently. Disgusting things. Sit on social media, welcome to the club. Pal. People have been saying a lot of bad things about him on, on social media, the writers one 30 to 16. Over the arguments in front of night. And the, these naysayers were kind of motivating him. In terms of like, Getting them to win a game. So interesting stuff. It's it's just weird. Cause it's like CFL guys. I mean, It's like, you know, you're I get beatless, you know, it's like, you're a survivor celebrity, right? Like you're, I mean, you're a professional athlete, all these things, but it's not, I mean, I can't imagine what, like Patrick Mahoney seals with on like a daily basis, but I do feel like, I think we need to leave some of these CFL players alone. Like it's cutting fish either way is a good, is a good. Chrissy man. I mean, he. They, I wouldn't. You shouldn't be riling him up like this. I do think it's interesting. It's a little snowflake issue, but maybe Patrick Williams has. Needed to worry about what his brother is doing. Dumping water on people. Randomly at NFL games. Calm down Jackson. Stick to your Tik TOK videos, bro. Wow. That kids are kids annoying as crap. Patrick. My home's his brother's annoying. The most annoying. Sibling of any player I've ever seen in my life. That's annoying. I tried to tell Dorothy, Val. So Chris Jones, we talked about last week, he was officially hired by the Argos as a defensive consultant. Not a defensive coordinator. Defensive consultant. It's clear that he's probably going to be like, you know, helping to run that defense through there. It was really funny. I listened to the sound, but I didn't pull it for this, but they go. Why do you think that, that, why do you think the Argos hired you? He goes the way the championship. That's why they brought me here. I'm like, wow. Okay. How's the Reagan camp. Go on there. Christians is basically makes you think like whoever the defensive coordinator is, the Argos right now has gotta be like, oh crap, I don't get my stuff together. I'm going to be out next week. Well backing up. Like he's getting ready. Well, and they cause they it, and they got all, they lay it off or they're not there. There. I can definitely suspend it because of the vaccine thing. Remember cause the MLSE cause their employees there, they have to be, so that's why Chris Jones is an, but it just seems like it just she's like, yeah, they brought me here to the winning the championship. Why else would they bring me here? I was like, oh, okay. All right. Interesting. Big news here in, in, in stamps land Boley by Mitchell finishing the game against the Hamilton tiger. On the sidelines. Well, that's the three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter. The head coach Dave Dickinson decided to give a Jake Meyer, some reps. And he didn't think about making the decision to bench Mitchell earlier in the game. But it was just probably just to give a Meyer, some reps to see what Meijer could do. Yeah. I mean, this is like a couple of weeks ago we were going to title the episode, the collapsible leave. I Mitchell and it, you know, it was maybe premature week three, but it's definitely at that point now where he's come back now from injury prematurely, the stamps still aren't winning. He still isn't performing. I Jake Mayer was playing well enough before bill Levi mentioned was back the stamps at one, one last too. It wasn't like they were losing because of Jake Mayer. But I to see Bo benched as like one of the premier athletes in the CFL, it was pretty alarming. I did watch that. I got home Friday night for my gig and I was watching the game and I thought that that was pretty alarming to see him on the sidelines. I think you're reading too much into it. I think like if the games lost his point, you want to get your, you want to get your backups. Some reps throw them in there. I think that that's safe to say, because who knows how serious the injury is to boldly by Mitchell. If you're gonna, if you're, if you're thinking you might need to rely on your backup a little bit more this season. Get him, some reps keep him game fresh just in case I'm not reading too much into this right now. Oh, that's good for you. I mean, I think that's, that's great. That's a equally valid read on it. So I think that's good. Well, lucky Whitehead. His energy is infectious infectious. According to Michael Riley. I just had to put in a little BC lions stuff. Matt baker, you know, friend of the show. Now I hear we have a box coming our way from the BC lions. We just be laggy. Why heads the top of the world? Right? Like if we go to the game, I might buy. I had Jersey. Amanda, don't tell Dorothy, I mean, I mean, like you, I had is like, ah, Yes. It's everything that we need, but yeah, I mean, you know, he's absolutely ELAP in a, I think he's ever seen, you know, his physical attributes, but we didn't know the, basically they thought they were just getting him as like a kick returner guy. And he's involved in this. You know, he wide receiver, he can run the ball, you know, pass catchy and all these kinds of things. Just a really good weapon for BC. And I'm really, really happy for like, in my head. I mean, that's what happens when you get someone who's from the NFL and then, you know, an NFL, they demand more things of you in terms of like being like, you know, wide receiver, the blocks. And maybe they're not just use, maybe they're not used to a player like lucky Whitehead. Who's been conditioned south of the border. I don't know. I don't know, I'm not hating. I'm just saying like, there's a lot of things. The NFL teaches you to do that, you know? Other, other places like in college don't teach to do. And the American college, not Canadian college American college. They got me in spicy. I'm not, I'm just saying like, when you get to the NFL, it's a different game that teach you different things. I like it. I'm okay. I'm here for. I'm here for. This is good. We just, you know, Travis, Kelsey, this. You know, anytime you get the chief side by the CFL, they were asking them about Zach [unknown]. I didn't realize this, that he played. Travis Kelsey of the Kansas city chiefs played at the university of Cincinnati with Clarus. I did not realize that at all, that Travis Kelsey is his run against the Ravens this week. And from like the 45 yard line with the most athletically insane thing I've ever seen. I mean, it's like Gronk ask, right where he's running like 37 yards and like leaping over guys. And yeah, he had great things to say about is that Claris. I love how, like there's so many on Twitter and said, Travis. Kelsey was like the best Titan ever to play the game. Like. Bro one. He's not even the best tight end to ever play in Kansas city. What are you talking about? Wild. Yeah anyway, but I think this is good, right? I. I mean, you get the former super bowl champs, I mean one year removed, but the yellow talking about the CFL that's good stuff. Exactly. But the point is he goes, I think he could play in the NFL. It's like, we don't need let's sack. Let Zach be the whale of the CFL. Right? Like let him be the shark up there. We don't need to like ship everyone down to the NFL or vice versa. Like you can exist and be the king of that domain. I think. Coach. Saskatchewan head coach. Greg Dickinson told the media that a defensive end and AC Leonard tried unsuccessfully to provide a urine sample. And he's getting agitated about it. I guess this is the situation when she blew up on these administrators, right. I said, yeah, this is a story that is like I said, Daryl and I talk about this. But, but to think that you couldn't cause like they give you water, they give you. Th that you couldn't. I go. I go pee four times an hour. You can go pee one time and four hours. Who knows. But the minute I drink water within like 15 minutes, I need to go to bathroom. Yeah. I mean, this could be called a year in Castlemaine. Darryl than I do a good solid seven minutes about. The year end gate. But I, yeah, he added the game, but it does seem like the team has forgiven him because Daryl was Daryl says that, like, I would've just cut him, like your son line. Like, this is kind of a selfish act, right. Whatever's going on here. Like I would have just caught him, but. It seems like the team has kind of forgiven him and they've all got back on the same. Page, but it is very weird. You know, missing three games of a 14 game season is not great. Goodness. Yeah, especially if you're gonna miss pay on that too. Drill elements had coach Carr. Jones has been cleared to resume after testing positive prior to the week seven game. It's the BC lions. And congrats to him for becoming a. He was asymptomatic to begin with and he's cleared. That's good. Dave Campbell tweeted that they're going to be doing that. Rabid testing outside the ALCS games. I think that's great, you know, up to not only just to be healthy and safe and all that stuff, but obviously to go to the games. I think that that is, is, is fantastic. I just, I wouldn't expect that, you know, cause Edmonton was still late on the. Getting people tested to go to the game sort of thing, but that's a good, that's a good step. That's like in the right direction. I think that is great for the Edmonton. I that's my quota I've said one good thing about Edmonton. This week's. I won't say anything else, guys, about everything. There you go Montreal at signing for. The BC lions, quarterback, Shea Patterson. Formerly the spring league and then he got released last week. So that's good. You know, Vernon Adams, obviously still the star there, but you're looking, trying to backup situations, all this kind of stuff right now, Hamilton. Oh, I have a note down here too, about that. They. The sign, Jalen Morton as he's American, he was with the Colts. And then they also assigned linebacker. Corey Thompson. You just trying to build doubt again with where. Right into this thing, you know, we're already on our third string Hamilton quarterback, after Mazzoli, after the Evans went down. You know, trying to future proof there. And all of that stuff, but yeah, I guess I, I cut and paste that to the wrong thing. The next story will be the Hamilton tiger cats, vaccination protocols. They're requiring only proof of COVID vaccination proof of a negative coronavirus tests will no longer be accepted for admittance to ticketed events, silks. That's where it's going. We are going to start requiring you to have proof of vaccination. They're doing that in New York city now. Coming up very soon. My nephew is going to go on a tour to the Marine. Merchant Marine academy for football scholarship. And I was like first and foremost, I didn't know. The merchant Marines had an academy to start and then stacking them all my, my brother. You know, his dad was like, Hey. So does New York city require VAX proof? And it's not in effect yet. But they're going to now negative prone. Virus test will not get you into bars and restaurants in New York city very soon. So this is the way it's going. Folks get vaccinated. Yeah. I, the last note here we. Gender alphabet. I, yeah, I copied and pasted that one. Sorry. Wrong. The last thing is Dave Campbell came out because I didn't even really think about this. Dave Campbell come out, came out and he said, or Dave nailer, not Dave Campbell, Dave Naylor. I not the. They'd nailer. They've nailed her, said that Hamilton, right? It's still a 15,000 for games there right now. They're hoping with this vaccination policy and all of that, but the gray cup is supposed to be in Hamilton and CFL. They came out and they said that they are still planning to do it in Hamilton and there, you know, all the other events and stuff. They'll figure I go, Dave, I can leave on our tickets. Like. This is not like this is a non-negotiable situation here. So I, I tweeted that our fellow commissioner with my verify the count, and I said, if it's any consideration for what decisions you make, we've actually already purchased our Airbnb and flights, because I can't imagine any other reason to go to Hamilton in December, except for the great Cub, my friend, Nigel. Nigel. He's an actor. He's like, oh gosh. You're going to Hamilton. Anyway. I'm going to go to commercial right now, coming back, Reed's going to talk to Darryl Davis, Sean Campbell and Steve McAllister. And then we got some XFL news. And giveaway item. We're going to showcase that as well. Coming up after the break. Hey, see, I, we got the giveaway. Do you ha are you able to grab that? Hang on. I'm f*****g lagging. Thank you. Sorry. And then this is almost, this is a short section. All right. Welcome back to those Joe. Want to thank our guests, Daryl Davis, Sean Campbell, and Steve McAllister for joining Reed and chatting some CFL stuff. On with the show though. Yeah, getting. And those farmers getting those farmer Canadian hall of fame reporters on the show. I, I, I liked that. I liked that. That is our gimmicks. I think that's good. We have some exfil news. Yeah, all of her luck. This is always when I see these saris, it's always my John Malcovich bade that to Matt and his many from rounders. The trial is going forward, then all of her legs, Vince McMahon, battle of the century, I was going to be in October this year. I didn't actually realize that they pushed it to March 7th, 2022 friend of the show vans with all football scout tweeted. And this is a good question for you. What do you think happens first? Vince and all of her settle or the XFL returns or not. Or how about a third option? Vince cells, the WB. Ah, I think that is yes, may. I've the two, that's probably the most likely of any of them, but of the two. Do you think the XFL returns or do you think that all of our invincible. Overbid. It's settled. Yeah, because XFL. It's not going to. Wow. It's not going to, it's not going to go to trial. They're going to sell. That's the whole point of this. So. So that's going on. Then I just have a couple of hi Niki stories here. I'm interested in this. Why did you move all this up? So the, the Washington times, this isn't like CFL news hub, XL news have no disrespect that, you know, I mean, I love all the people who are good. I mean, they're talking about this. They Fitzpatrick might not have a job when he comes back. Cause high Nikita's plans. I mean, this is the Washington fricking times talking about this. I think this is phenomenal. Calm down as the Washington times is not the Washington post. Okay. And not as big a deal. Calm down is that way. That's a big deal. I thought the Washington times sounded. And again, the Washington times is a very, right-leaning sometimes dabbling in a little bit of a. The fake news. And I thought it wasn't what I thought it was the Washington post. I'm sorry. It was the Washington times it's calmed down, but it's a good article. Good article anyway. You know, kind of saying, we've been saying before, like, you know, Ryan Fitzpatrick being on a short leash. Hi, Nikki coming in. Beating the New York football giants. And their, their poverty team, 30 to 29. And, you know, it's going to be, so it's going to be an interesting thing to see if Heineken keeps. Do they bring Ryan Fitzpatrick back as the starter? I don't think to do. I don't think they do. It is a couple of things. They have interview with Alex Smith this week, obviously a former Washington football team quarterback. He absolutely thinks that Taylor, hi Niki can lead them to a division title. I mean, he basically. You know, Yeah. I mean the NSC. I didn't mean. Low bar, but you know, I mean, alginate is getting this. And then this is the feel good. If you want the mark cast, feel-good serve the week. Taylor. Hi, Nikki sitting on his couch, you know, gets called into the NFL. We all know the story play played against some radio. This app. For like months. Now, this joke has been why isn't Taylor Heiney G sponsored by Heineken, right? Like this is crazy. Hi, Nicki reached out to Heineken and was like, Hey, like what are we going to do with this? By the light. Is that we are waiting if we are happy Fabius. So. Taylor. Hi, Niki is now officially with bud light as like a sponsored athlete on whatever the hell promotion they're doing, make it more money than, you know, like his contract's not paying the most, but like, this is more money for Taylor. Hi Nike. And it's like, Bud light. Home run for this, because now you're, you're attaching your brand. To someone whose everyone's talking about in Washington, everyone's talking about Taylor. Hi Nikki. Where'd the kid come from. Yes. And rush spring football works. Where did the kid come from? How, how did everyone sleep on this kid? He keeps winning. This is going to look like a really smart decision for bud light to get in there and user behind again. Who completely dropped the ball on this. They said. He is now. Taylor hashtag bud Lakey. That's interesting. I think that's, I don't know. So they have I'll post the valve, try to remember the post, the photo and the video here, but it says, I mean, this is a joke where they go, it's coming soon to FedEx field. It's a big sign that says, hi, Nikki's favorite official, favorite beer. Bye-bye I think this is phenomenal. I think this is like, I mean, And it's getting. Washington football team. Part of their social media is like former XFL people like this kind of staff, you know, this is smart marketing for 2021. This is like stuff that the CFL should be doing, but this is very, very smart. And I kudos to everyone involved in this decision. Very cool stuff. Speaking of more cool stuff, we're doing the giveaway still. So again, read, explain the rules, please. Well, I really just want to make sure that people get excited about this. Cause I don't just want to hand these out. I'm happy to pay for the shipping and all this stuff. So Paul has an Argos. It's a small or a medium, right? We have two of them. So we have an Argos Jersey. We have this jazz masters XL. Sure long sleeve from Brian Woods. They're actually really good shirts. I mean, they're really comfy. They're just, you know, we wanted jerseys. We have another Jasper's once we have a gray and a white, this one's got the, the logo on it and then the other one's got the thing. Right. So we see that. And then this is a brand new, this is an official mark cast sweatshirt. Okay. So there's no. Yeah, this is nice. Right? So I bought one too small. I didn't, you. It's like too big for Dorothy. It's too small for me. So. This is, I want to give these to get homes. So if you are interested in the giveaway, you need to comment on the video, tell me which one you want. And then if you retweet the episode on Twitter, we'll put you in the bin twice. And then if you leave us a review@themarkass.com slash review, we'll give you a good one. Now the people they did it last week. You're already going to be unique comment again, or I'm not going to count it, but I'll, I'll double count. It. I'll add the ones from last week, but I just want, I want some engagement on the video. I want some people excited in this. This is like 120. I gotta, we gotta pay the ship, all this stuff out. I want people to be excited about it. I don't want to pay 20 bucks to ship it, whatever the Canada, because no one else wanted it. So if you want it and you want to support this. Leave a comment. And please share the video and, and give us a review if you can, because we're, you know, Paul and I are working late tonight on this policy. I mean, I would really appreciate that. That would mean a lot to me. If you would do that. Ah, there you go. That's how you win. Free prizes, basically. It doesn't cost you anything to do that stuff. Subscribing sharing the podcast out, leaving a review. It costs you nothing but about two minutes of your time. And trust me. Who doesn't like free stuff. Right. Who doesn't like free stuff. And I would just appreciate it. Again, thanks to Daryl Davis, Shawn Campbell, Steve McAllister for joining us earlier to chat CFL news. That's it for this week, we will see here next week with some more CFL stuff. Excellent stuff. Hopefully, hopefully Danny right here on the Mark West. Hey go. That wasn't too bad. Yeah, you can tell on Mike. It's good. We got it. It's good. All right. From this week on the mark cast, we're doing another week of the giveaway because Reed wants engagement on the videos. We got stuff to give away who doesn't like free stuff, please. Please. Please. Yeah. Check out the video. We got your instructions to the giveaway. We have. Paul Wade. The most surprising part of the week that I have a pollical reference in the year 2021 talking about where have all the exciting CFL games got. I think the most exciting thing actually is not that exciting. Danny's teasing us on Instagram about XFL stuff. What does that about? Yeah, we got a lot of stuff. I have the exit foul we're talking, you know, we're rehashing this Ty cats. Ottawa. Blacks at calamity. Great interviews coming up this week. We have Daryl Davis. We're talking to Al let's football, had they just lost through the BC lions with Sean Campbell. And then CFL. As the editor in chief of the parlay CFL via. We have this mastermind sports media person, Steve McAllister, joining the show. And we're just getting in the, I just a lot of, you know, we're in the muckety-muck ritzy. We gay right now. We're we're, we're getting through this. I've already got their episode ready for next week. We're almost halfway there, Paul. And an update on all of our Luxe lawsuit against. Vince McMahon, some actual L XFL talk. nothing crazy just week eight stuff and yeah. I really appreciate it. No problem. Let me hit this. Well, Darryl Davis, thank you so much for coming on. Continuing our trend of Canadian hall of fame reporters coming on the podcast. I really appreciate it. You're welcome. You're not going to run out of them. There's lots of us. Well, you know, I mean, it's, it's, we're, you know, we're the outsiders here. We value the opinions of those that have come before us. And so I really appreciate you taking the time to that. Great. Nice to meet, to read the, appreciate the invitation to. So the episode title this week for our podcast is the, the, if you can imagine it's the Paula Cole album cover, where have all the Cowboys gone. With the word cowboy scribbled out and exciting CFL games put in, in between. Put in instead. So we're have all the exciting CFL games. I have seen many, many, you know, voices this week frustrated about everything. I certainly the game last night, didn't help. How are we feeling right now? And, you know, midway through week eight of CFL. Well, the offenses are getting better. Evidently, but they always talk about the defense as being ahead of the season. When you ask, where are the exciting games gone? They've gotten self to the border. The NFL games are. They're so exciting to watch these these days, because it looks like you're watching a lot of CFL offenses. Like the way the CFL used to play with all that. Moving guys around and mobile quarterbacks who can throw on the run. So it seems like they've all gone. Down the great games have gone down south. So. Why aren't they great up here? Well, it's a quarterback driven league and there's some teams who are struggling with quarterbacks. You know, there are two or three grade ones, but even boldly by Mitchell, who's supposed to be one of his. Who has been one of the great quarterbacks in CFL history. Isn't having a great season, you know, so that hurts as much as anything I'd say re. Yeah. Because, you know, the whole thing. I, you know, we got into this through the XFL and that's kinda how we even got involved in this whole world now. And that was always the thing that was said. Right. You know, say what you want about the CFL business model about, you know, the ownership about expansions, about, you know, profits, but the game on the field. Outweighs all of that. Right. And I mean, you know, I went into. It would scratch me. I've watched every game is. I work weddings. So sometimes I can't watch the Saturday, but I watch most of the games on replay. Like, I've seen a lot of this now, my we're in week eight of this. Like what is, what is going on? Yeah. Well, I think a year off, obviously heard everybody getting people back and not, not knowing what they were doing a longer training cap, no preseason. So when you think of a shorter season, obviously has a lot to do with it. New coaches and new places. There's 140 different things. If you want to list a little bit of this and a little bit of that. The officiating hasn't been terrific. That slows things down. I hate video review, by the way, I'm one of these proponents get rid of video review out of every single sport. Because it's just ruining it. It's ruining the momentum of. The only thing that's really live on television these days is sports. And now they're saying, oh, let's stop you catch you. And now we have to decide if that's a touchdown or not. So that ruins the game too, especially because the video reviews. Aren't getting the, the, the reason they brought video review in was to get the call. Right. And they're still not getting the call. Right. So that's just me on one of my, one of my soap boxes read. I always, I always try to throw that in because it doesn't help the game, especially on the CFL. I think it's hurting it more than anything. What else is happening? Ah, well, as we said, two years of not playing, you're getting a lot of rookies coming in who have never played the game. A lot of great players retired in, in the. Interim during the pandemic season. When you look at, look at the list, there's a bunch of all-stars who just disappeared. So you to replace those guys easily, you know, you can do it in one team. Maybe you can find one guy, but. But to do it everywhere across the league, that's difficult. And I think that's really hurt the caliber of play. The quarterbacks, as we mentioned, like associating it, it's just a little bit of everything and it is, it is getting a little disconcerting. As you seem to agree with me on this one, that the CFL is a better game. Played by interior athletes is what we've always said. Right? The greatest athletes obviously go to the NFL. There's more money, but the rules of the CFL to me are better. I know the NFL Americans don't care. They love the NFL game that they have. I've been down there when the, when the CFL expanded down there, we. I used to travel all the time down to the states and ask people why they said listen to CFL is okay, but we love the NFL. We don't have anything against it. We just don't need another football league. So, you know, the fact that they haven't kept up. Just that they haven't evolved the way the NFL has, I think might be as much of a problem as anything. Right. They, they, they're not putting in rules that are really helping the offense. I might see the NFL doing that. And I think the CFL isn't doing that as well. Yeah. And when you talk about the video replays, I mean, you know, obviously the three downs. Without, you know, when you're driving passes, when you're missing place. Right. It does slog the game so much. Right. You know, back and forth. And then when you're adding in the reviews, it is, it's like we I'm checking my phone all the time. Like Ron commercial, I'm back onto. Great for like Twitter and that online engagement. Right. Terrible for actually watching the game. I mean the game last night, you know, I'm just, I I'm zoned out right at that point. I'm not, I'm not invested in that. Oh, I don't blame you though. The conditions were horrible. The rain was bad. The quarterback in situation, both teams ended up playing third string quarterbacks. You know, Hamilton's just got a better team around David Wotford so they can put something together. I've always said, if you get down to your third string quarterback, it doesn't matter what type of team you've got around them. But. I guess David watched, it's proven to be a little bit wrong on that one. They seem to be okay, but they've done a good job of surrounding him. They maybe have the best personnel in the league. So obviously that's what makes the Hamilton tiger cats. The best thing Ottawa has for sure. The worst personnel in the league, the worst quarterbacks they could have. Everybody's complaining that there's only two quarterbacks on the roster. Now, technically you can have three, but I don't think having five or six would help Ottawa. They're so bad right now. And I think Marcel days aren't and the general manager, he started, he better start feeling some heat. And start finding some players because they are crappy. It's just, I just don't get it. I mean, like we cover. Spring league, right. We cover a fan controlled football. It's very obviously very different, but like, but I'm used to seeing players come in with a two, three week, you know, they're doing the little camp, they're getting ready. They're playing six weeks. I mean, my expectations are not like you said, you know, NFL, caliber, whatever. I mean, you get a lot of guys that come in. But, you know, we had two months or preseason, right? I mean, now it's end of September. I mean, it's been two months of play. That's where I just don't get, like what it's been for months now. Right? They've been together. These teams. Well, it is tougher to get players. And when they're up here, they're in quarantine. They have to, you know, the new quarterback from Ottawa. What's Duck's last name? Yeah. Who everybody wants to see now that has to go into quarantine for, so he can't just walk up. He. If he's in good shape and he shows up, he can't just go out and practice with that team and learn the offense. It's sluggish. It's tougher. They've got practice roster, guys who aren't playing there have been some serious injuries to we, you. Of course that happens in every sport I'm running out of excuses for them to be honest, read that you're you're right. It's a really good point. Why are they so bad? I've given you a whole bunch of little things. And I think if you add them all up, maybe that's it, but there's gotta be something more at the heart of this. It's just not as good as it used to be. And I'm not one of those guys who say I prefer the CFL or the NFL. I love watching football. If I have a choice, I guess it's a CFL, cause I'm more connected to it, but you know, it just doesn't seem to be keeping up. And that's really, really, really depressing for a lot of us. Yeah. I mean, I, I I'm the same way. Right. You know, we went into this open mind and obviously I'm enjoying it, but, you know, I will have an easier time getting my wife to watch Panther's Texans tonight. Right. And watching. You know, Hamilton and Ottawa, just because at least there's going to be some sort of action going on. You know, it doesn't matter, you know, and my wife is as casual as anybody watching these leagues except, you know, she of course picked. The way that they blew bombers for, you know, first game out. You know, it's just like, it's a hard sell right now. You know, how many people did you see last night? Naylor tweeted. Hope. No one watching this for the first time. Bob Urbian. You know, people. Connected to the league. Yeah. Even harassment down. Can you imagine that. Just kidding. Harassed and I are good friends, but I know he likes to take shots at them, but deep enough, in his heart to rash as a CFL fan, he's got CFL routes. He's worked in the CFL. A lot of us in the media in Canada love the CFL. And we love saying like a bad dog, you pat it on the nose and say smart, not right. And that's what we tried to do to the CFL quite often. And I've always thought that that's kind of what our role is. They know we love them, but we just want them to smarten up and do some smarter things, you know? How can you do it? Well, Here's the first thing. When you talk about NFL games, how many there's 16 a weekend, basically, right? 14, 15, depending on bi-week. How many there are. So you might get four or five absolutely outstanding games that are on television. The CFL has three this weekend because of the bias situation. Sometimes for, and a weird week, they'll have five. The other thing that's close by play. On a Thursday and a Sunday who knows the way that schedule has gone. So you, your ratio is going to be smaller. So we were used to watching four CFL games a week and two or three of them were pretty good. Now, if we get one good one, That's still 25% and maybe that's about what the NFL is having. There might be some really bad games. The one that you're talking about tonight, Might be a crappy game and then you're stuck with it. So in terms of the ratio, you're going to get that an awful lot anyway. So, you know, give the, give the CFL it's due. Like it's not going to produce. A hundred percent great games and neither is the NFL. If you, if you ever want entertainment and your friends have a rash, Madonna, you can go back. We did a duel with a rash and the rash. Kraft on the XFL for about 40. If you ever want to have. Go back and utilize my, my co-host Paul, get him out of this. Red is my football Canada. I've gone back and watched a couple of, or listened to a couple of podcasts. I've enjoyed them. I'll I'll dig up that one. Cause harass is always good theater that's for sure. It was. Nonetheless. But, you know, so. To round out at least the conversation about last night. Cause I do want to get thoughts on the other games as well. You know, otherwise. I mean, it struggled so much. I, and I've gone back and forth, you know, John Hodgins and I are not probably the closest to people in the world, but even he tweeted, you know, this is the red blacks off of a bi-week opting to make no major changes at all. I mean, I was like, wow, this is, this is. Dicey. Good point. But what does that say about the general manager about Marcel days Arnett? Right? So that's who you have to point the fingers at Paul appellees has proven that he knows how to run an offense as a head coach. He knows how to be a head coach. They doesn't have the personnel when they let. And somebody else tweeted today that. W when the red blacks last going sin. Let's see Vincent Rogers, Trevor Harris. They just let them all walk away, thinking all we can replace them. Not many general managers can just walk in and replace guys like that. And obviously Ottawa, cat. And that's why it might be time to start looking for somebody else to bring in players for the Ottawa red blocks. Yeah. Obviously Hamilton, I think has succeeded in spite rather than even want for it. I mean, he is competent enough, right? That it's not, he's not giving away the ball, but. It's a lot of running, right? It's a lot of it's. It's not a lot of dynamic offense too, which is also a problem to drive interest in their games. True enough. And that's David Watford was here in Saskatchewan for a while and they wanted him as a running quarterback. Right. Run that third downs. Short yard and stuff, and that's still his four days and very good athletes. You get beaten up and prose. If you run, everybody says, why don't you watch a quarterback running? It's you just get pummeled. Linebackers are so much bigger and stronger. Those defensive backs come tailoring at you. You don't want your quarterback running. David Watford will be okay for awhile, as you said, running the football, but you want to get Jeremiah Mazzoli back in Dan Evans, back in somebody who throws the football downfield and saves, wear and tear on your starting quarterback or your third string quarterback, whoever it is. Well, and I just, I was looking at. Tack has just signed this. Jason Jalen Morton, right? Formerly of the Colts. I have this in our show. We're going to talk about today. I mean, maybe there, but again, you're on this COVID two week and then they come in and now we're at week 10. I mean, it's, I mean, that seems to be a future proofing problem at that point, right? Not necessarily a now fix. Yeah, the best teams always have guys in a row waiting behind you. Right. And so if you put somebody in place now, I don't think they're, they shouldn't help this year. Probably for future rights. Somewhere down the line. That's what the, that's what the Calgary Stampeders used to do. They used to be the best team at having players step in. It's caught up to them eventually. Right. And I think it has a lot to do with, as you mentioned, the COVID. Scenario, it's tough for getting players up to Canada. It's tougher to find players. There's fewer of them. Right? There's. There's more players on practice rocks. There's more players being kept in stashed even by NFL teams. Right. Because they don't want to give up the talent anymore. And it's finally caught up to Calgary. We were wondering what might happen. And it looks like this might be the year that it's happened. Yeah. Do you have a thoughts on bow getting sad at the end? The last game? I mean, I just couldn't believe that. Yeah, me too. At the end. Dave Dickinson was obviously very angry and he even said it afterwards. He said, Bo's got to play better. He's got elevated his game. But this is also the team, Danny Austin. And I had a scrap about this online a little bit, because this is the team that said don't worry, bows. Okay. We've checked them out medically and physically he's okay. We'll put them back in the game. He's got a fractured leg and, you know, a fracture could be just a little bone chip. It could be pulled by a ligament or something. Of course it could be really minor, but he's got a fractured leg and they put them back in the game and then they say, okay, he's all right. And Dave Dickinson is now backpedaled and said, we don't put guys in dangerous way because we want to make sure they're healthy while you've already messed up. Your medical staff is messed up. Don't put your medical staff in me and my. And starts on me and my family, because I sorta want, want to trust doctors like that. And that may be of co has. To me, might've caused a little bit of a disconnect, you know? Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole on that one, but it seems to be that everything that they did. For the last few years with. Centered around boldly by Mitchell and what he did, who he wanted, what type of players he wanted. And I think that's bull is wearing down. Obviously he plays very hard and he's getting hurt a lot. And. That's unfortunate, but now there's not those, those guys in that. And aren't coming in with him anymore. He doesn't have guys to throw to anymore. So I think it's a. It's Dave Dickinson saying, how come you're not performing at that level? And what can Beau do? He doesn't have those people around them to perform at that level. Putting him in making that change late in the game. You're right. I don't think that's going to help at all. If he was going to make that change. You should've done it earlier. And. Now, how do you do that? I know that Dave will be in charge and he's a good guy and both can handle it. He's a big boy, but sometimes these things happen and can. If there's a small rift in there can make it even worse. Yeah. I mean, cause that was the thing was Jacob Mayer was playing. Like I don't think Calgary was losing because of Jake and that's why I just didn't get rushing that back at all where, you know, God, what was it? 16 completions in a row. I mean, Jake was playing phenomenal football. You know, one misfield go away, right? It may be the blue bombers. Yup. We were all talking about the who's bullied by mitts are going to be traded to obviously Ottawa, right. That's who they would have to think. Cause Jake Marin looked good enough to play as a quarterback. That doesn't happen very often. Right. Cornelius looked pretty good stepping in last week to write for Edmonton, not on occasion, Cody for Gerardo's. Has been how many times around the league waiting for his opportunity and finally gets a chance. There are very few who step right in. And can take that chance. Jake Mayer looked like he could do that. And you're right. What was the hurry? Let Beau rest, let him heal. Maybe, and maybe you can move on without them, because that's usually a hallmark of the Calgary Stampeders. They might be ready to move on and you have to be able to do that. You can't get tied into a player as important as he is to your franchise or west of your franchise. If you have to make a move. You have to make that move and maybe it was time. But they, they were scared to make that. I think this year. Yeah. I just like, I mean, it's the CFL here, right? I mean, we're talking, it's a weird season. It's truncated, like. And Peter's aren't playoff contenders, like who cares? At this point, you know, not to like, but it's sports, right? I. I mean, it doesn't really matter. Right. At the end of the day. And so. It's like, whether we do in here, you know, this is, I don't know, just interesting to me. It is fun. Right? We take it so seriously. It's not life and death. And. I teach a journalism class at the university now. That's what I tell my students, listen, pay attention to the news. You have to be able to write the news because it's life and death. But also know what's going on in the sports department, right? Because it's, it's going to be the fun parts. Who is the Supreme court justice in the United States, who said, when I grabbed my newspaper, I opened to the sports pages first. Cause that's where I read about man's successes. On the front page I read about man's failures. Yeah, it's just fun. Right? It's always keep that context. I know we're talking about people's livelihood, but gee, if you get to play sports for four years or five years, I'd ride the buses in the minor leagues for one year as a contract, as a pinch hitter, just to add the fun of being a professional athlete. And I think everybody else would do that. So just realize it's a game first and foremost, right. Yeah. I want to hit on the law. The other two games here. Real quick. Excitement of the day for me. McCloud Bethel Thompson named the starting quarterback this week for the Argos outlets, obviously struggled last week at home against the beat. You know, my team America's team to BC lions. I heard that. I was listening to podcasts. That's quite an argument you've got there. We have predominantly American CFL podcasts right now. I feel like I have the rights to make that. First of all call a what do you think about McLeod? Getting another shot? You know, he, he struggled earlier this year. What do we thinking about that game? Oh boy. You know, he's looked okay. But teams, that teams that are going back and forth between quarterbacks, aren't going to be successful. You have to have a number one. You can't have a one in a one, a. There have been rare situations. And if you look back that actually when the Saskatchewan Roughriders won a grey cup in 1989, it's the team I'm most familiar with. They had guys named Tom birds, doesn't get shared kind of like. That was because one was hurt and the coach saw one guy is better against zone. Defense is one guy's better against man to man defensive. So he switched them around a little bit, but come the end of the season, when they're marching through the playoffs, they said, Kent Austin is the starting quarterback. There's no doubt about it. And that allowed them to get over that hurdle of who's in, they liked the other guy better as a personality, but they knew that Kent Austin was the guy who was going to lead them to a victory. When you talk to some of the great coaches in this league, they've always anointed a number one quarterback, and ride in what he's new at this. I think he's going to be a great coach. So he's, he's, he's got the mindset of a coach. He's he's confident. Obviously. I don't think he has. As big an ego as some of the other coaches, but I think he's going to be a very good coach if he gets some time with, with this team, but he can't be doing this. If he's got, if he doesn't have a choice. Stick with your guy and you could see that that's what Paul appellees wanted to do. He decided about what two, three games go. Matt Nichols is no longer. Ottawa is starting quarterback. Dominic Davis is now our starting quarterback and he didn't want to put Matt nipples in. He was looking for a replacement, right? Matt Nichols is no longer the leader. He's no longer the guy carrying the flag like Michael Riley is in BC. Like Cody fajita was in Saskatchewan sweep on the side. That's what we've been talking about doing with bowls financial. Sweetness side and decide you're moving on and get rid of the guy with the big contract, this juggling back and forth. Isn't going to help the Toronto Argonauts. Montreal has an advantage, even though Vernon Adams isn't playing great. And he's an all big play guy. It's everything or nothing every single time. And, and I keep going, well, I guess it works for them. It did last game, but you can't do that in the CFL, especially this year when the season is so short, you have to say, this is my quarterback. Everybody's got to believe in him. You got to make the right choice as the head coach. And that's why I credit Paul lat police for making the choice, deciding that Nichols could no longer do it. And that's why he stayed with Davis until the injury yesterday, of course, but you can't do that. And I, I liked McLeod Bethel Thompson. He had a good season last year, but they brought in new carbuncle to be the starter from what I thought. And the, the fact that they're juggling that I don't think it helps the Argonauts. Yeah. I mean, I think, I think Nick has a, like a hamstring issue this week, but I mean, even watching the game, was it against the Roughriders right on Friday. I mean, he's just hugging the ball and hugging the ball and, you know, I was trying to catch up on edits and so I'm watching it and editing and I'm like, oh, okay. It's, you know, 10 Yards over again. Five-year I mean, it's like not even close, right? Yeah, let them fix it. If you have faith in him, if you think he's the guy, let them fix it. And once he proves to you, you can't, maybe it's too late in the season, but Ryan did what? He's got a long-term contract. This isn't his, he's not just now. And a lot of times coaches are panicking because of that. Have the confidence say that. We've we have Arbuckle here. He's struggled a little bit. What can we do to fix him? What can we do to help him? When you pull the rug out from under him, it doesn't help either the quarterbacks. Now the team is deciding what's going on, right? If you, you have to make that decision and you have to live with it. We could get you fired as a coach. And I think that's this, this could also get Ryan Dinwiddie fired down the line, but he's got to decide who is. Who his quarterback is and stick with them. And I don't like the idea of going back and forth. They had a grit to me, McLeod, Bethel Thompson's maybe the best backup in the league. Right. So they're in good shape. If. Nick Arbuckle is hurt, then they have, then the team has confidence. We know we can put them in. And then all of a sudden he develops into a starting quarterback and then you trade them or let them go somewhere as a free agent. But I don't think this helps you organize going into the game against Montreal. I saw a much made about the poor attendance in the Argos game. Well last week, you know, said 9,000 home fans, right? I can say Hamilton game. Thoughts about that matchup and, and that the attendance issue there. I mean, obviously this is not a new thing. About the crowd while with Toronto, right? They're trying. You know, it's, it's been such a tough thing when I started covering the CFL. Oh my goodness. That's in the eighties. I go to see any, they all exhibition stadium and it was full. You know, there's, there's 30,000 people at this ugly old stadium and B. Then they go into this guide on whatever it's called now, and now there'd be the most beautiful little feel. But you just can't that's the NFL exposure. Everybody thinks NFL was big time, but talk to TSN about it. And everybody says, well, why is there a team in Toronto? Look at the ratings. There's people watching TV. They're watching the CFL in Toronto. They might not be buying tickets, but there's a following there. There's following in pockets all around Ontario. London is apparently a very big. Place with TSN fans, a great numbers for their market on TSN. So if you worry a little bit about the, about the, about the crowd, yes. It's going to happen sometimes. And this is a. This is a gate driven league. You've heard that from everybody you've spoken to, I'm sure about this read right throughout the entire, the gay driven it's all depends on it's ticket sales. But it, it, it does because that's what makes you profit, but you can kind of stick around and, and, and hover around zero profit without losing money. Based on it. Pretty good TV contracts. So people are watching the game. I want them to go to Toronto. We all do. But even last week when Toronto was in Saskatchewan. The mosaic stadium holds about 33,000 people. And if there were 17, 18,000 people that I was surprised. However we can figure this out. Or the guy I worked with Jamie nigh, who's a wonderful host of the green zone on CGME, and CQM figured it out mathematically and. It's the first cake first game that. If you don't mind me veering off on this. For a second. It's the first game that Saskatchewan, the rough riders have demanded. Double that proof of a double vaccination for COVID right or negative test. So they, they sit, they announced 25,800. Tickets all pretty good crowds for the Toronto Argonauts coming to town. Considering that the five of the rough riders first six games were at home. Okay, so you think, okay. That that's not a bad ticket. Pre-sale. Always 5% of the crowd doesn't show up no matter what game it is, maybe the Superbowl or the great cop, everybody shows up because you paid thousands or hundreds. For tickets, but for this one about five. So let's knock it down to about 24,000 or what you're expecting. I have been sold. Our province, Saskatchewan is the lowest. It has absolutely the worst COVID rates right now. And it's about 68% of our population is. Double vaccinated. So if you multiply that 24,000 people by 70%, we'll give them 70% of the population. That's about 17,518,000 people. So everybody who is eligible and new habit tickets. Was there. And they sold 25,000. So it's not as worrisome as you might think. The fact that they're playing this year, that they came back after COVID the whole league. They're not going to lose as much as they're probably going to lose money, but the fact that they're making some money off TV sales, they are selling some merchandise. People are back. You know, they, they they're covered recouping some of their costs. It's not, it's not horribly drastic. We're used to the Toronto organized for other teams covering up a little bit for them. Let's get them all stabilized. Let's get the games better. That was your first topic to write. If we make them more exciting. And maybe that's something they're going to have to work on a little bit more than, than, than some of the other stuff. And what do they do to make the game more offensive oriented? The way it used to be in the LA. In the eighties and nineties. Yeah, I, one last thing on this and I want to hit the last game I saw at 53,000 or 5,392 for the red blacks game last night. I mean, Oh boy. I know that the Wednesday rainy with. Yeah, I know. That's the old joke. They didn't announce the crowd last night. They introduced it. It's one of our old jokes that we use quite a bit around here. And it was unfortunate the Wednesday night. I understand why they're playing and people have said, is that good? That play on a Wednesday? Well, NFL has Thursday. NFL has Sundays. They're working around it for years. Everybody's been saying work around the NFL. Don't go up against that giant because they'll just crush you. So they're trying to do that. Sometimes it'll work. Sometimes it won't, and they're learning as they go along. I'm much more forgiving of the CFL than harassment Daniels. That's good. That's good. Yeah. Last thing. I, and I am on pins and needles about this game. I was on pins and needles last week about the BC lions, going to the Al lads. I made the big wager with the outlets flight deck podcasts. We won. It was good, but I mean, this has gotta be the game of the weekend. I. No question about it. So what. I mean, lions almost had them last time. Michael Riley only played half the game. So whether, what are your thoughts? Because I'm very nervous. Yeah. That was a big quarterback. Artery was red. Who was Mike Riley. Okay. Was. His arm looks to be fine. Doesn't it? The last couple of games. And if you're calling the BC lions America's team, you know that the Saskatchewan Roughriders have always have long called themselves Canada, this team. So it's a real international battle here, obviously. I am looking forward to that one too. If you want somebody to watch a game, only thing is it starts late. I know you're west coast or I'm in the middle of the middle of the country. So it starts a little bit late for a lot of people. It's a double header, but it's the game that you want to watch. It's too offensive to see two quarterbacks who have played exceptionally well. Well coached teams. Your Campbell's a great coach, a very solid coach. I wonder where he got that from. Just kidding and. And I think Craig Dickinson is just doing a wonderful job with the Saskatchewan Roughriders after they, by the way, they bounce back against Toronto. After those disheartening losses to Winnipeg, Winnipeg's a great team. But they came back very strong. They held together. I don't know what they're going to do with this AC Leonard situation. It sounds like they're going to let them back in. And after his next suspension, I said, Originally I was saying, you know what, that's the type of selfish guy you have to get rid of. But I think they've patched things together and that's the way this team operates. So I can criticize Greg Dickinson for a few things, but he gets them together, believing in themselves. They all believe in Cody vagina. Why wouldn't you use one of the best athletes I've ever dealt with or watch in this city, in this province? As a professional. How accommodating is how herky what's my social media. You know, he's a vulnerable guy. He's talented. He did his. He earned his stripes by. Playing as a backup as a third stringer in this league, and he's earned the opportunity to, to lead this football team. Mike Rowe, Michael Riley. I'm sorry. Has. Obviously done the same thing. I think the world of Michael Riley too. He's. He's played. He's tough as nails and a very talented. And I would, I, we should maybe meet there at BC place stadium. It's my favorite place to watch a game in the entire, the entire league. And it's going to be a pretty good one. I would say. Yeah, I. For two things. What was the deal with AC Leonard? We have more stories this week. He. It took four hours. Couldn't go to the bathroom. Yeah. According the way that they do the random drug testing is they come in, they send people in from. Center. Ethical center for ethical sports in Canada or something. I can't remember exactly the official title, but it's, it's an independent company that does it. Sometimes it's even volunteers. Who stay there. Their job is his, this person's job. It's a male for a male athlete. So I can say this guy's job was to come in and say, AC Leonard, we need a sample urine sample that we're going to test for drugs. Drug tests. PDs or only thing that are illegal. They're not. You know, performance enhancing, obviously cocaine and marijuana. If you find out, then they tell you. We've tested, but you don't get suspended for it. So AC Leonard from the stories, from what we've heard and we haven't had anybody who's been right there other than AC Leonard himself confirming this and secondhand news from Craig Dickinson, they had code saying. That he waited. They, they always feed you water. They'll even give you a beer or something, but they can't drown you because then you die. Right. If you have too much water in you. So, so for four hours, they were walking around. Waiting for him to pee into a cup. He didn't. He said he was going home according to Craig Dickinson. So knowing that there's an automatic two game suspension, then you're, you're instantly considered to be guilty. You have a two game suspension. A week about four or five days after that, it was announced that AC Leonard had verbally abused the vol volunteer, the worker who was trying to, trying to get the sample and was added a third game. Onto a suspension. Basically Leonard met the media. The other day on a zoom call was very contrite apologized to his team to. To the fans. I don't think I might've heard this, heard it, but I, I don't know if he volunteered to the volunteer. To the person, if he apologized to the person who was supposed to collect the sample, I hope he did and said that he's not like that he apologized. He won't be like that again. He understands he will be tested more often. And he apologized for, for causing the scene. I said right away, caught. A guy like that, but you can't count on getting rid of them, but they've changed their mind. I've even softened a little bit on a read. I'm usually kind of, I'm a second chance guy. But in this one I was wondering about, and Gary Peters, who might be the best defensive back in the BC lions. Obviously provided a sample. It evidently it provided a sample, but wasn't as malicious or mean to the person who is gathering it because Gary Peters got a one game suspension and will be missing this game because of the way he acted to the collector. After the last BC lions gate. Yeah, I saw that I saw a lot of way. They are the IVs. These people just fragile. I mean, It does seem weird that it's two recurring. I don't know. It seems weird. Yeah, you make a good point. We wondered that too. I I'm I'm I play racquetball I'm on the racquetball candidate executive. At our national championships, we have volunteers following our winners around until they. Until they provide a sample and they don't leave your side, you go home and nap. They go home and sit there and watch you. Right. There's a story about the drew tape when he was playing for Calgary. He took the guy home and had a beer with them and then, then gave him the sample. So you, you can do that. There's lots of ways to do it. There's no time limit on it. So we kept wondering how mean was AC Leonard to this person. And we also started talking as you did. Are they just fragile or is this really a bad scenario? And AC Leonard admitted. He was a little frustrated after the loss. Cause it came after the Winnipeg loss and that might've played into, into his reaction. And obviously if you're waiting four hours, you're getting more and more frustrated, but. G for the sake of the team. It's a team sport. I would wait there for 15, 24 hours, whatever that's what you have to do. And they're prepared. That's happened before. I'm sure for the sample collectors, if that's what we can call them. Well, I'm glad that we did get enough urine c**k in the. That'd be a bad headline in there somewhere. But no, I really appreciate your time today. You've been so generous. I'm hoping that we can keep you in the Rolodex and call you back. I just am so excited about this game and people need to leave Cody alone. It's I don't like the social media that like. We can say whatever we want, but then you can't respond. You know, we've got criticism and it's like, If you're going to say stop people have a right to be offended or not the other way round. Absolutely. And you put your name on it. You put your name on your podcast. I put my name on, on my Twitter account on, on my radio show. Everything that I do. I put my name on, I respond to people who have names, who look like real people on, on social media. And if they not, it's just like my old newspaper days, I wrote for the vaginal leader post for 25 years. If somebody wrote a letter to the editor and it wasn't signed. Right into the trash. Who cares if you don't have the guts to say something to somebody's face or to sign it and tell you what they're thinking and forget it. Cody vagina was too good. A person to go to player. He's going to get some criticism. Don't make it personal. Right? Talk about, you know what, maybe he shouldn't have been playing after a concussion protocol. You can have that discussion. That's a fair discussion to have. At any time. And I wondered about him playing. But to criticize his personality. There there's seldom been a better athlete in Saskatchewan to deal with or to represent this province and the writers and the province. Are quite proud of them and I'm glad you're sticking up for him to read because he's a wonderful player and it's going to be exciting watching him go against Michael Riley. Got to figure out what's going on. Thank you so much again, I really appreciate your time today. Enjoy to read. Thank you very much. Take care. Try it again. There we go. Okay. Let me hit this. And TSN six 90, right? I have everything here. Yeah. Cool. There you go. That's. I want to get. We have so much like, well, we kind of, we were big on the merge thing for a little while with the podcast, and then now we just, I, you know, I have the shirt. I'd much rather wear like the crack and stuff, then like my. Well, Sean canthal with TSN six. And the outlets that thank you so much for coming on today. How is coming off a big loss to the BC lions? How, how are you doing with the outlets right now? Pretty good. You. The, they had a tough one against the, the lions where they played well. But didn't score. It was so weird. They. They moved the ball. Great game from the offensive line. We'll stand back. Vernon Adams Jr. Just kind of got back to his inconsistent play and he and Eugene Lewis just have not been on the same page this year. So, you know, it's, it's been an interesting season with the aloe wets with two by weeks already heading into week eight. They've only played five games. I mean, I don't even know where I'm at with this team just yet. They haven't won a halls, but they're just a couple of games away for being top of the east. So. Asked me a couple of weeks. Maybe, maybe I'll have an answer for you, but I don't know where I am with the house right now. I was thrilled. Right. Yeah, BC. BC lions. That's our team on the podcast. I'm calling them Americas. CFL team, you know, they came in and cleaned. Cause I was, I had a wedding Saturday. I was filming the wedding and I'm literally watching the game on like ESPN on my phone. Right. Like during cocktail hour. And it did, it seemed like a tremendous amount of authenticity moving the ball. Right. I mean, The yardage. I was like, how are they not like. You know, cause I'm like watching bits and pieces and I'm seeing the box score. I just, what is the Vernon Adams is cannot seem to get it going consistently this season. Yeah, I think that you had that big game against Ottawa, but everybody has a big game against Ottawa. They have three more games against Ottawa. They're going to play them four times this year. So if they get those four Wednesday should be okay at that point. And we kinda just keep an eye on Ottawa this past week. You could tell there. Just banged up, but nothing's moving. Nothing's going for them. Other than that. It reminded me of the game against BC. Remind me a lot of games. Like the game against Calgary. Out west in Cal. Bri. And that came right down to the wire play at the goal line, half a yard. And if they score that they win the game with the extra points cause they lose by six. It was a game that the, the, the Alawites could have won. But they didn't win because they were inconsistent, but still at the end, they were right there. Same thing against the BC lions. It's a game that could have won, but because of inconsistent play. An 11 yard field goal and int in the end zone. So if you get down to Vernon Adams, Jr. And his inconsistent plate, it's the completion percentage. He's got to get that out. 55%. Just not good enough. The top guys are over 70%. You need that in the CFL. He hasn't clicked with Eugene Lewis yet. He has thrown him the ball. 42 Times. Yes, 20 catches. That's 22 times that he has chosen Eugene Lewis as the target. And they didn't come up with anything. And Eugene Lewis. If you're heading into the season, you would think would be the outs. Number one, target number one receiver. And a lot of people had him as the number one receiver in the league by seasons. Hey. It's caught every ball he might be at this point, you have five weeks, five weeks, 42 targets. That's kind of what you want for a guy like Eugene Lewis, but they're missing the perfect example. Is that one that they have to kick the field goal. On, on second down, he's doing a crossing route. Vernon Adams junior throws the ball just a little bit behind him. Okay. Not a great throw. But catchable Eugene Lewis, just a little bit on the back hip. It's in his hands. Not perfect, but he still should have caught it. It's like errors on both sides. Just a little bit that are coordinated and to misplay. So I, to me, it's the, when they're on it's. Okay. But when they're off is it's a struggle for the team. Yeah. I mean, it's across the board that way. It seems right now with like the drop passes where a lot of these balls are catchable balls, right. At a lot of these plays are make-able plays and it just feels. I mean. The title of our episode this week and I made the joke. Daryl Davis is. I think we'll be on the show before we come to the segment. And it's Paula Cole where have all the Cowboys gone, but it's where have all the exciting CFL games gone, because all we've been told right. Going into. The XFL and the, see all of this craziness that we've gone through this. Barring that the analysis CFL on the field right. Is, is exciting. It's whatever. And I mean, like last night, the Thai cats game was like, I mean, we saw. Leading CFL commentators tweeting about how horrendous this game was. I mean, what, what did you hear? Yeah, I watched the game last night. Yeah, I caught it. I got a good chunk of it. It was, you know what? I kind of liked those ugly weather games too. And the rank, the rank. Stop. It just wouldn't stop. And I mean, good for those red black fences stayed in there and they saw that. The Deadman touchdown on the punt return. So they got that exciting play. I was like, you know what? I was just happy for the fads that stuck around for that. But. You know, both quarterbacks go down and then you had Nate Bahar trying to throw and take a QB sneak yet. No idea what a, you gotta, you gotta let him run around the edge there that. I'm not a big fan of that. That play call, but nonetheless. You know, it wasn't great. And it hasn't been great. And where has all the offense gone? I, I think a lot of people felt with no preseason with a year and a half. It was going to be slow moving. The offense takes a little bit more time. We see this year and year, but I'm, I will be honest. I thought by this time, The teams would have caught up. But now we're starting to see the reason why it hasn't caught up. Hamilton on their third QB. Ha Ottawa doesn't really have a QB. You're getting inconsistent. Play from Vernon Adams Jr. Toronto's quarterback situation. It's not great to begin with there at Bethel Thompson and Antonio Pipkin. At this point, then you get into the. You know, the west bully by Mitchell went down. That's the. The best quarterback, Michael Riley's look good, but you know, it's not the same Michael Riley that we've seen in the past. And, and you're getting, you know, solid plates in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan. Right now the quarterback position. And one of the reasons why they're at the top of the lake. So to me, it's a quarterback driven league. I don't think that the quarterbacks have been up to par. That's probably the number one reason why the scoring is, has been down. I would think that Vernon Adams Jr. Being one of those quarterbacks that can turn it on. I should turn it on in the next couple of couple of weeks, but I think that's why it's been down. I I'm blaming the quarterbacks. Oh, yeah. And we had mentioned before, I mean, with the schedule against, you know, four times against Ottaway this year, I mean, if the outlets don't make it. Into the PLAs. I mean, something. Rackless has has happened. Right? I mean, I w one of the riders that we have with the CFL news type, you know, I think they were complaining against that. I'm like, I don't think any outlets fan in the world, what can play in the they're playing Autobot four times a year. I mean, it seems it has to be forgiven wins, right? I think so I'm watching that team. I mean, Bleeding, any football team. You know, three times in the season and we could get into an NFL conversation. And even then the CSL, I think it's very difficult. Any team, no matter how good or how bad. And it's one of those reasons, you know, seeing the NFL division rivals, they face each other and then they meet each other and playoffs one team beats the other team twice. What happens the third time around the team, that one sticks to the same game plan because it worked, but the team that lost changes their game plan. Frustrating the team, this one, and then they have the upset and was like, oh, what happened? Well, beating any football team three times in a row. Yes, they should win all four because Ottawa is not very good. But the Alawites have shown that they can be not very good too, so they might win one. But the key is the next two games for the house. Two divisional games on the road. I know you want to win the divisional games at home, but two divisional games on the road. Against Hamilton and Toronto, Toronto this week, and then Hamilton next week puts them right back up at the top of the division, if they're able to pull it off. So you really got to target the Toronto and Hamilton games. May, if you split the season with them and you beat your four times against Ottawa, you'll be in the playoffs. I'm pretty sure. Wait, what do you make of the Toronto game Friday? I mean, to me it felt. Not a given when for the Al weds right now we have MOCAD. At the Thompson announces the quarterback. I mean, that's exciting. We are fans of his, on the show, right? I mean, I've even watched him back in the spring league last year when he took, you know, when the CFO wasn't playing, you know, So, so excitement there, but obviously he, he struggled and was pulled and, you know, we, we all know that kind of story. So what do you make of the match of this week with McLeod and the Argos? Yeah, I look, I'll give the edge to the ALS. Because I think that they're running game is solid. And when Vernon Adams Jr. I could put, like, you know, he played a good game, but not. I guess Beastie. And if he does that against Toronto, I think that, you know, BC's may be a little tougher than Toronto and, you know, Bethel Thompson. It's not like a Riley who had that big play and the house defense has been solid snaps have been perfect, but it's been solid. They get to the quarterback. They've had a couple turnovers this year. I'm giving the edge to the house. But again, I say this with like huge hesitation. I've I've, you know, I've been at every, I'm going, I'm going to be in Toronto. Like I'm calling that game and I'm, I'm expecting the house to put up a good performance and bounce back and knowing it's a divisional game. I look at Bethel tops. I look at Vernon Adams Jr. I gave the edge to Virgin Adams Jr. But. When I watched Vernon Adams, junior, miss a five-year-old out or seven yard slant. I'm like, wow, maybe I'll give it to Beth. At Thompson. You know, or just turn around and just keep handing the ball out. So we'll stand back and he's going to be running 12 yards a carry. So with hesitation, I think it should be the Al's game, but. You're right. It's the CFL like, even at one point in that Hamilton Ottawa game. You know, after the return and then Hamilton couldn't get a first down. Like these teams just die for quarters and the Aliza. I've been watching them that just dies for quarters. I don't know if I've seen a team put together a four quarter effort across the CFL yet this year. That's a good point. Yeah. I mean, especially, even though I've noticed. Third quarter coming out from halftime. It's been seamless. We got across the board where you would think that there would at least be one big drive, right. That you would come out from the locker room really sparked some sort of offense. And I mean, third down a third quarter, it's just been like a desert. It seems like for most of the CFL games. Yeah. I think about against the BC. The house had their chances, but then they had this great drive. They got the ball back with about 42 seconds left at their own 11 huge run from we'll stand back. Then the couple plays later, they get a field goal range. David Coty kicks a career long. It's a rookie this year, 49 yards and of half. That's how it went for the ALS. And in my head, I'm like, That's 42 yard drive just to get it to field. Goal range is. Motivate. Them and they get the ball first to start the third quarter. I'm like, Zackly what the house needed. They're going to be pumped. They're going to, and then nothing in the third quarter. Either team, nothing in the third quarter, but that's, that was my mentality. That's how I thought, I thought they were going to be able to carry that. But you're right there hasn't been much in the third quarter across the league. And I know that part of the McLeod are buck. Oh, thing is he has. I got a hamstring injury this week, and I know they are limited practice and that's why they're putting the McLeod. What do you make of Arbuckle? I mean, it seems like last week he gets a Saskatchewan. It just seems like. The Argos is cannot get anything together. I'm seeing these passes five, six yards, two deep Yolanda, just Hocking the ball down field. There is a lot of quarterbacks in the CFL that I kind of clump into the same category. And I know that it's different for which offense they're with or which affects they're not with. And we see the deaths on each team. You know, Bethel Thompson, our buckle let's I could go to, you know, Dominic Davis, I feel a little bit different about. Kind of go into like a Watford or, you know, third string there, Matt Nichols has kind of dropped off for me two weeks kind of fallen into that category. I just don't expect much. I love being surprised by a guy I'm like, wow, like, how did this happen? You know, and, and, and I, I could go back four or 5, 6, 7 years ago. Before bull Levi Mitchell. You know, took over the reins. He was a third string quarterback on the Calgary Stampeders. Of course he had those breaks ahead of him. But then I was like, okay, well let's just some third string guy that played a little college. You know, he's never really going to get his chats. And then he got us Jessup. Oh, this guy's good. But I just, I assumed the worst and then I get pleasantly surprised when someone, and I'm not expecting to be surprised by our bubble or Bethel Thompson, you know, Vernon Adams Jr. Is a guy that. You know, I kind of watched him a little bit more. I was like, okay, this guy is going to surprise me, but then I still think he needs to take another step to get into that. Category. I've really enjoyed coding for Gerardo. I think that he's a guy that's made that step. Of course, Michael Riley has, you have to try and stare at that step. He's kind of coming down at this point of his career a little bit. And he stays up, but Arbuckle, Bethel tops. And they're kind of in that category where I'm still waiting to be like, Hey. Prove prove something to me that you could be an everyday starter in the CFL. Well, I mean, I'm amazed that my rally doesn't leave in a wheelchair, some games. I mean, Out there and getting hit and. As. And it's physically active as he is right at being significantly older than a lot of the other players, quarterbacks and players. He's we have, I mean, You know, I mean, w we'll take it for what we can get. I mean, I've been told Nagel. Nathan work is, you know, the princess from promise. I mean, I've been told that that, that they will still be in good hands, even when, when Michael Riley's time has done. So. Well, that's, that's what you, you hope. Right? And just, I'll just use Montreal as an example. Oh, when a Anthony Calvio. Has done. Don't worry. They've got agent MacPherson. Okay. They don't have any first. And then it goes to Josh DS. He's winder, then it goes from Josh knee's wander and then it just moves on and on and on. And it was a decade. Before they really settled on a guy. This was the first training camp where you knew that Vernon Adams junior was going to be the starter, every training camp since then. Well, it's Darien Durant's was the quarterback for eight year. You know, the Johnny Manzell Sega. For him coming in at quarterback, as we like to call it, Manzella Palooza. You know, we, it just seems like every year there was just another guy, Antonio Pipkin, who's going to be bad backing up. He was a starter until he got hurt and Vernon Adams Jr. Took that. Pitt can beat Vernon. Junior at training tech. It wasn't a battle of training camps. So yeah, there's always a next guy, but you have to be able to perform right away. It's hard. You know, I, we talked, I talked a lot with Gerald Davis about day, the whole Jake Mayer, believe I'm Mitchell of it all. And how. Bo getting sat, you know, at the end of the game, I mean, really just came. I mean, to me, I'm watching it and I'm like, wow, this is crazy. I mean, We've been waiting for him to come back. He comes back. Didn't play grade the week before, you know, and then obviously played this game. And did you make anything of that and, and kind of just the whole collapse of the San Peter's this year. Not really. I think it does hurt when you lose your bonafide starter right off the hop. And then he's probably trying to jump back into it a little bit too soon. One, he sees a guy that performed decently in his position and he was like, Hey, I need to. You know, hold my ground. I I'm still, you know, to me, it's full Levi Mitchell. Jake Mara. I I've liked it. I saw him up live in that game. Is his first start and I was, I was impressed. I was impressed with him now. I need to be impressed. And I, and I also say this for all these guys that have never really thrown in that game. He had never found a CFL pass in his life before. I really, truly believe if you want to be a good starting quarterback. You almost need. Three years of CFL experience, not professional experience. CFL experience to understand. Comprehend from the clock to the game management to everything, because you see the confusion for a lot of these guys that come in. Oh, they got the talent. They have the arm. You know, they can understand a playbook, all you want, but until you're on the field and understand the CFL game. So like Jake. Jake marrow, I'm going to wait. A little bit on that. And I think boldly volume Mitchell of course, has shown that, improve that. So. That's kind of where, you know, and bringing it all back to Montreal a little bit with. For now I'm sooner. I think he's past that last year. In 2019, that was his third year. That was his understanding of the game, but that was a year and a half later. It's like, Hey. But you were so good. Let's get back to that. Yeah, I think even them coming out of the gate, you know that after the first bi-week, you know, coming in week two, it. It just seemed like they had a lot of firepower going a lot of good defensive. I don't think that. I would not have expected to be as 50 50 on this game, you know, this weekend. If he outwits had looked better kind of the, you know, the last couple of weeks. So, yeah. And I think just on, on the house with, you know, starting off, they just had, didn't have much turnover on offense and I think that's why a lot of people looked at them to do all right, because. They ha Verda nanos junior had his receivers that yet Jake [unknown]. He had BJ Cunningham yet. Eugene Lewis. So these guys were, you know, Julian grads, even Dante Apture Quan Bray, all those guys were there in 2019. Most of the offensive line was there. Just shuffling the deck a little bit. We'll stand back with stairs. So I think that's why it was like, oh, they don't need a preseason. All the. They've been together for so long, but you still need to play the game. Yeah. Before we let you go. I do want to get your thoughts on rough riders Alliance, right? I mean, obviously the game of the weekend. You know, Do you know, two a and two B kind of in the west. What are you making of that matchup? I think it should be a good one. I still, you know, watching the lions. Up close for the first time I saw, you know, the, the fluctuation of, of Michael Riley, but I still really like them. I like a good quarterback, a battle, like, you know, prime time. Michael Riley over. Cody for Gerardo. Yeah, I'll give it to Riley. But the Saskatchewan team, that's a team they've, they've, they've shown that they're going to be something to deal with. Here and it. And I, you know, I have them at two eight Saskatchewan. I have. BC a to, to be than Winnipeg. But it's almost like. If. You're in the west right now. Would you rather be two, B or two C for the crossover? And then it might be an easier path to get to the gray cup, because if you're to a. Then you have to go through one. Before you get to the gray cup. It might be a little bit different. So it'll be interesting to see how this plays out in the west. I do think that you're talking about that second tier. Teams, but I, I think it's going to be a great game. I think maybe we might finally have that. You know, 35 To 33 football game that we've all been waiting for. I don't know if we will get it. I've been kind of saying that about a game here and game there. I think I thought the Calgary Montreal game was going to be like that, that wasn't the case. The only real barn burner we had was the. I was in the red, black Cialis. At a 51. Black's put up 29, but that's physiology. The defense just stopped trying to do, they didn't need to do anything. They almost stopped trying because they wanted to get the Aus offense back out there. So I'm on. They'll see. Welcome. You know, go in the end zone, but this might be the first pure shootout that we'll see. And I hope we do. I hope week eight week nine, we're going to be turning that off offensive corner across the CFL. And I think it'll start with that game. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, I'm looking at it, you know, we're at this September here. I mean, Greg cuff is coming, you know, We're at next week is kind of the halfway point. You know, we're, we're right in between that, and now between this week and next week. And so, yeah, it would be good to see some, you know, I I've been promised all of this high score and CFLI, you know, offense I'm really. Your patient. Really we're really waiting for it. So, Sean, I really appreciate your time and coming on today and previewing everything. I hope you have safe travels for the game and have fun. And I am. I did pick the Alawites in my fantasies. And I do feel good about that, but I, I don't know if I change your mind or not. And you know what, it really depends on how they want to play that day. But you know, Cool. I'll I'll hit record here and we will. On this, I don't want to hold up too much of your, let me. There we go. Okay. Oh, I lost all my light there. There we go. Well, Steve McAllister. Thank you so much for coming on. Not all of the guests that we have on have their own Wikipedia page. I was doing some reading about you, quite the extensive resume, right. Editor in chief of the parlay now formerly with Yahoo sports among other things. Thank you so much for coming on. No, my pleasure. Read another. One of the mysteries that remains to this day. As who, whoever put that week. We can put any page up for me, but it's, it's a, it's a. A rare source of pride for my, my three kids. I might work at PDs. I mean, They brag about to their friends. So. Well, good. This is exciting. So, you know, I reached out to you a while ago, we connected online and you said, You know, obviously it covered the CFL and things, but nowadays much more into the sports betting world. Right. And so we want to focus on that because this is something that we covered pretty extensively heading up into the C two and a passage. We had Nick Saul, ski, the. CEO of point SPEDs Canada on the show. You're talking about all these things. What has been your reaction so far since the passage of 2, 1 8? I mean, obviously we're, you know, they need to legalize it. Right. And all the provinces are, they need to turn on everything, but like how big of a deal was it to have this passage in Canada? I think it's certainly a big deal in a. Ontario read right off the bat because Ontario is the alcohol and gaming commission of Ontario is indicated. From the get go that they were going to have a wide open market. So I'm sure if you've been reading the parlay newsletter since February, or I know you've been following bill C two 18. Just the fact that, you know, There's going to be a day in the, not too distance future where DraftKings and FanDuel and Penn national gaming, which bought the score for $2 billion back in August. We're going to have all these major sports books are going to be. Open for business and Ontario, and then I've been, you know, It's a bit curious too, just seeing what's happening outside of Ontario, where the lottery corporations for now are going to, they're going to operate single of them betting. Through their various products. I think it'd be talked to people in the industry. They'll tell you that. The province like BC and Alberta, for example, they're taking a wait and see approach. They want to see what happens in Ontario before they open up those problems. How big. Of a deal, you know, when we were covering all of this and you know, the talking about, you know, the CFL and they're hemorrhaging all this money, right on a good year, they lose, you know, $10 million or whatever. Looking at, you know, I think the estimates it's been months now, since we covered all this, but, you know, $2 million a team that offsets the $20 million, they lose. I mean, you know, obviously the league is not making money from single game sports value. Right. It's, it's bringing in attention right. And interests, but how big of a deal to you? Is it that the CFL now is, is. Formally, you know, cause there was always sports betting on the CFL. Now it's legal, right? Yeah, I think. I think again, not to try to duck the question read, but I really do believe that you have to wait and see what happens here, because we're still on the barely. For a year on these stages. And I know the CFL did the deal with, with bad Regal. I guess two months ago now, I think probably the beginning of August. And, but the league has had deals with, with, with sports books in the past. I mean, with bulldog and sports interaction and they have had those partnerships. So. I guess what I'm curious to see is what the impact is going to be. R R maybe casual football fans going to start paying attention to CFL because the opportunities around. And game and live, live betting. You know, I think Randy and Brosy. When he appeared before the house of commons and Senate committees around bill C two. 18 Earlier this year, talked about maybe the opportunity to convert American football fans. So that's something I talked to Tyler Masaru about a few weeks ago for, from the CFL head office is. You know, all those football fans that are waiting in the U S that are waiting for the NFL season. And all these kids that come up from us college programs to play in this CFO. Are they going to, as a league, going to be able to convert those fans into. At the betting betting money. And generate more awareness around the league, but you know, that's something that we're, we're probably not going to get a real good sense of until next season. Yeah. My biggest concern, especially now having, you know, we've actually, you know, been covering the CFL, watching the season, and obviously it's a little bit of an outlier, you know, coming off of the break, everything else. But, but the gameplay has been so inconsistent week to week. Right? I mean, I, you know, Let let aside the Michael Riley, is he the quarterback of the BC lions, that whole skirt. All right. The first week, but you know, some weeks the owl wet score, 50 points the next week they score five. I mean, they it's like, I am terrified to even do free fantasy play on the CFL. I mean, let alone, is that a concern that, that you, as someone that tracks all this stuff, just like. Y, you know, people actually spending their money on this league. Yeah. Well, two things. I think one at the end of the day, the quality of products still going to be important, even, even the betters. I mean, if the, if the product isn't, isn't good. And if you have a leak where you. You know, you have subpar substandard play. And we were talking about this on camera. I mean, I covered the league back in the early nineties for Canadian press one. You know, Ricky foggy was, was putting, throwing three and four touchdown pass a game for the Argos and they're winning games, 43 37. And that, that was every, every week. So there's that, that part of it. And then secondly, if you don't. If it's hard for betters to get real good information on games, because to your point, teams are going through two and three quarterbacks. You don't know where every week when the Ross was going to look like, and obviously COVID has an impact on that as well. That could scare betters is way. I way as well. I mean, it's, you know, especially like you said, we were talking to the head, the game last night, or, you know, Wednesday night is this air is, you know, where the Ty cats are on their third string quarterback, the red blacks go through two and then bring in a receiver. I think he only threw one pass. I mean, if you had money on that game, I just couldn't imagine going through that and not, you know, like we're, we're on the third string quarterback and here I have a a hundred dollars bat or whatever. I mean, it's, it's something that the CFL was really going to have to grapple with it, you know, and the same with injury. Injury. I can't talk with my braces anymore. Engineering. And reports and all this other stuff. I mean, there's a lot of things that go into. Right. I think the CFL saw the money that was in the NFL and it's like, well, we want that too. Yeah, but there's a lot more of a framework that needs to go into being a part of that. Right. Yeah, for sure. And again, you're talking about U S where I think the, we, we have in our newsletter this week, that. There's going to be. $1 Billion plus ad spend this year on NFL broadcast, which. You know, you really don't bat an eye at because you know how much money you spent in the U S around the NFL. And now it just happens that money is being spent by sports books now to promote their promote their products. So it's, it's one of those things where I think. The other part that people are going to have to figure out. And this is where the broadcast was command read as how, what can the broadcasters do to help attract those betters in the kind of betting information they provide? And at the same time, not ticking off. You know, loyal CFL fans. Who've been watching the game for years on, on TSN or listening to them on the local radio stations. I think that's a real fine line to walk. Between how much betting information do you get? At the risk of turning off. CFL fans who just care about the game and don't have, they have no interest in placing a bet. Oh, I, I totally agree with that. And when you talk about the Brock hazardous, I mean, you know, caper ness, And the guys on the halftime show incessantly. Yeah. What is the over on this game? What is he under on this team? And I'm someone that like, you know, covers this amateurly on whatever this platform that we have is, but, you know, I don't even really, you know, I, I use sports, you know, I use the over-under as a way to gauge, okay. Who's the favorite in this game? Just to kind of know right. What the landscape is, but I don't, I don't know a lot of this stuff. I can't imagine, you know, my wife trying to watch and be like, what are they talking about? What is going on here? Yeah, no. That's a great point. Read. And I also wondered too. I, I get a little nervous when I, when I see on-air personality, starting to throw odds around and, and. I think that's one of the reasons why we've seen the ESPN, for example, experiment with NBA games last year, where they did programming on ESPN two or ESPN. Plus it was a real sports betting focused show. And I think that's the direction you're going to see sports go, go. And you're not, you're not going to watch an NHL broadcast and all of a sudden see. Ellie Freedman providing betting information, or if they're going to have somebody who has. That kind of expertise or, or. You know, do what do what we've been doing at the parlay on our social media channels, which is again, bringing in young, young video hosts. But. You know, people who are doing research and giving a proper betting information. And at the same time, educating people like you and I, who are both probably are new beast, as far as bedding. Educated us on how to place bets and understand what a parlay is an over under and a prop bet. And, and to be able to make intelligent beds instead of just throwing our money away. It just feels like, it feels very untransparent of like, Hey, they got a directive, right? Like CFL people, like we need to push us and like, you know, I listened to ride Peterson. You know, we, I watched the show most every day when I, you know, for as long as I can. And, you know, I know this about two months ago. Hey, what's the over-under on that. What's the over-under on that. And then a month ago, Hey, what do you know bet Regal as a sponsor of the ride Peterson, shut that down again is a. What did they call it that, you know, a spokesperson for the lead? Yeah, I bet Regal. CFL legend or whatever they're calling up program. Yeah, but you know, I'm like, okay. I mean, clearly, you know, they're in talks and it's like, we really got to push this. Right. This is the new, big thing. I just. I don't know, it's one of those we watch WWE forever and it's one of those, like WWE is trying to get into new social media landscape and they push it for a few months and it. You know, Ultimately the product on the field needs to be good more than anything else. And that would be where I would put my concerns as a CFL office right now. Yeah. And the one thing I would say reading. I know you mentioned next sauce. Do you like there are people out there who are experts in betting? And, you know, I've talked to, there's a guy in Evanston, Andy, but Neil who does some handicapping around hockey for Beeson. And I interviewed Andy for the sports betting column. I write in the Toronto star every week. Right. Way back in April or may. And then, you know, this is a guy who he's up at five o'clock in the morning, going and checking the checking, the Azar, ready and trying to find the best odds to place a bet with different sports books and. You know, I thought that. TSN was kind of going in the right direction last year, where I don't know if you remember, they D they were doing magic. Mike segments on their hockey broadcasts with Mike Johnson, who comes across as a guy who plays his wagers. And Mike was presenting pretty, pretty good betting information. But I think if. I think you're putting your broadcasters in a tough spot. If your TSN football panel. If you're asking those people to give betting insight, I think, I think that's a dangerous place to go. But at the same time, I can also appreciate that this is a learning process and Amber all trying to figure it out. Yeah, it's just one of those. It does. We're getting the seat at the table now. Like we want to be a part of this and not knowing, I mean, W w how many billions of dollars right in the U S the span of gambling and, and, and the sports books and all these things. And now, It just feels like. You know, the, the grandpa, right. Trying to kind of get hip on this. I mean, the CFL right is, is a little bit more slow moving than maybe the NFL is in terms of adapting to a lot of this stuff. Yeah. And I think a lot of that to be, to be perfectly honest, read just comes down to finances, right? I mean, The NFL, when they're doing a television deal. It's a billion dollar deal. Not, not, we're not talking. No. It's like a CFL con. Broadcasting. Yeah, we're talking billions of dollars. And the us. And obviously with what's going on in the us now with they're they're three years ahead of us, in terms of, of, of regulators, single events, sports betting. The NFL has been able to do those deals with the bed MGMs and Caesars. And a draft Kings of the world. And again, that. That much, they're bringing billions of dollars for that. And the other layer of that is as these, these deals are doing with data partners like sport radar. Which which really ups the ante on the bedding experience, because now these, these companies are providing. Live data, the tap into video feeds, and that just plays into being able to really amp up that, that live betting experience during games. It's just, you know, talking about the CFL and all that. I remember when they, you were giving ideas about this stuff and far Hahn's friend of the show. I mean, I have great respect, but you know, they're far homologies talking well, You know, at BC place, you could have a stand, you know, where people where you could, you know, a sponsor, Sam, where you're, I'm like. That's that's this to me feels so small potatoes compared to like, what, I mean, what the NFL does with this and what, how much money it's like, well, we're going to have a stand and you might pay the CFL might make $8,000 a year or whatever on this sponsorship. I mean, that just doesn't feel like a big, massive landscape shaking thing. Yeah, no, I, I think I would say read it. It is a new revenue stream for the league and the teams. I don't think it's as big as some of the numbers that we've seen. And, and I have either talked to or read. There are some people who've been quoted since then who have kind of backed away from some of the numbers that were being thrown around 5, 6, 7 months ago. But at the same time, I think you can do. You can do some things like go to a game at BMO field in Toronto and drive Kings has a kiosk there that people can place a bad. And that's going to be a sponsorship deal or a partnership that the Argos wouldn't have had 12 months ago. But, you know, that's, we're talking about three Ontario teams, the rest league, like how much in BC right now, you just have the BC lottery corporation with a, I think it's the play now. Products. So you know, how much money is playing now, going to be willing to spend on the lines when they, when they had the Canucks and the white caps. And, you know, you have a lot of. Awful lot of other sports going on and NBC, or, you know, how much money is. Misa OSHA and a lot of Quebec going to spend on the Alawites and Montreal and, and especially with COVID right now, it doesn't make sense in 2021 to put betting kiosk in a stadium. If you can only have. 8,000 People. So that's why, again, I think. You know, people shouldn't, people shouldn't overthink it or, or it shouldn't be taking a. Slinging arrows at the CF all of the teams, because we're still, obviously in a, in a very serious situation with the pandemic and we're not, we're not going to get a real true sense of what. The support, the impact of the sports betting landscape's going to have on a CFL until we get through COVID and we can get staged full again and get, and really get back to regular business. When you talk about people rainy back there, expectations of, you know, estimates of whatever. I, I haven't seen that. I mean, how am I? Right. I. Surprise surprise. Like, Hey, we're going to make all this money. And then it passes. And it's like, well, maybe, I mean, why, how much are we talking? Reduction of estimates. Yeah. Like, I'd see, I. We know in Ontario, for example, that, oh, well, gee spending a boatload of money right now because they're the only, the only legal sports. Betting game in town. And, but even they're describing the surface. And the sense that we get at the parlay is that there are teams and organizations who have sports betting deals and ready to write a launch, but they can't do that until, until, you know, say draft Kings, for example, gets regulated. And I'm sure as soon as they get lice licensed by the AGC, we're going to draft Kings all of a sudden going to announce a whole slew of partnerships and even the bet Rigo partnership with the league right now, I think their title is official gaming partner. So they can't even get, get, go down the bedding path yet because bet Regal's not a licensed operator. And Ontario. So, you know, even that program right now, isn't nearly as robust as. As it probably would be two years down the road. Right. I mean, I think I remember that. Did they announced, I mean the first game, it was the kickoff. You. You know, when they're picking Hamilton and they say, yeah, we're bringing this in. It's like, wait, you even really can't even bet right now. Right? I mean, I really, I mean, obviously they got to put all these things in place, but it does seem like we're still, you know, I think when they were talking [unknown]. And a, you know, donk ed posted a thing and said, well, yeah, you can be betting on games by labor day. And I'm like, well, I don't, I don't think that's good. And we're going to get that right. Yeah, and I think. Again, it's a, it's a crowded sport yet. You all read as you know, this time of year. I mean, the, you know, the NFL is back and there's a bit of normalcy to the sports, to the sports schedule again. So I know. People are really excited about the major, major league. What playoff race out right now in baseball and a lot of blue Jay fans across the country. So they're following the blue Jays wildcard chase. You know, we've got the Ryder cup starting on Friday, which is a big deal in. And golf is a sport that actually has really taken off for sports betters during the pandemic, because at the start of the pandemic, golf was really the only game game in town. So where's the sport. This has really benefited from a, what we always call this brave new world of, of sports betting. So, you know, how does the CFL. Fit into that. And in fairness to the CFL. This isn't a traditional Cedar for the CFL. They got off to a late start. So I I'm sure even if you're a die hard CFL fan that the, this 2021 season has had a different feel to it. Yeah. I mean, you know, candidly, I would like to know your thoughts as someone that's obviously covered the league. I mean, we talk. Even when they were passing all this, you know, When you have an NFL, people are betting on the NFL, right? You have 16 games, 14, whatever games a weekend. You know, some of those are going to be dog games. You're not going to bet on, you might bet on, you know, there might be four or five and you place bets on two or three. Yeah. With the CFL where there's only four games anyway, three this week. Right? And, and two of the match-ups aren't great. I mean, the one, the game last night was horrendous. Right. And I would say. Alawites in Toronto. I mean, to me is kind of a flip of the coin. I just have a very enticing game. So you're only betting on one anyway. Right? Maybe it was Saskatchewan versus the clients. I mean, do you. Like, how do you really expect people to be betting on these games with all these? I mean, I know this year is a liar, but with everything going on, Probably not, I think. And you can't even say read the, this year, it's going to be a trial balloon because as you pointed out earlier, we're not really. We have expanded their games to include single, single game bedding, you know? If you're the CFL and the teams, I'd be a little bit optimistic. I think that the CF. The gray cup game could be a lot of fun. That week, especially with that prop betting. And if I'm, TSN, there's an area where I would go all in on having a bedding component and figuring out a way during the broadcast that day, whether you do it on a, on a regional channel or on TSN radio or on tsn.ca, where you do something that's specifically dedicated to bedding and you bring in some experts. And I think that's something that could be a lot of fun. And we just, we do a weekly, we do a show on Twitter spaces every week called the weekly parlay. And we were talking about this earlier this afternoon. About the Superbowl and it. The sense we get right now as a super bowl is going to be that. The first event where we really see this new world of sports betting and there's, you know, people are going to be prop betting on how long lady Gaga sings at halftime and how long. The national Anthem is going to be, and then you're going to have all this neat stuff happening during, during the game around a Tom Brady or, or Patrick, my homes. And I think we could, I could easily see us experiencing that with, with the gray cup this year. And again, I think that's where someone like myself. I mean, I'm, even though I don't follow the CFLs closely as I once did I still watch the grey cup every year? And yeah, I'd put aside 25 bucks on. I'm grey cup Sunday and bet on the halftime show in bed on the things that are happening within the game itself. Does that. And I guess my last question for you today. And that was the concern we had too. Is. You know, With sports betting. Are you, are you just capturing more of the interest of someone like you that's already casually interested in the CFL or are you. I mean, are there that many people that are not watching the CFL that are like, well, I got that extra 25 bucks. Like I'm going to go better. I mean, you have to be knowledgeable right. To bet on it. Yeah, and I think it is an opportunity to, to attract new fans. Read, because there are laws, sports betters out there. I do believe there is a way for the CFL to, to convert some of those NFL fans who, who, who do like the wager and, and can now. Can now bet on Bon CFL games. But I think that takes, you know, that takes some marketing and promotion and storytelling. And, and again, I, I'm not sure how much that the CFL has done over the past. Decade. But there is an opportunity now, but. It's not, it's not easy work. And I, to your point earlier, I do think there is something to this, the consistency of the schedule too. And then obviously that's the great power of the NFL where they're playing. One game Thursday night. What? The third, 13 or 14 games on Sunday and then one, one game on Monday night. And that just lends itself to the whole bedding experience. And to be honest, I can't, I can't imagine the CFL hasn't discussed that. And in this new world. That they're going to look at ways to. Can we play three games on a Sunday. Especially after labor day. And do we, you know, so we do, we're going to do Friday. After labor day, we're going to do Friday football. We're going to have three games on Sunday. And we're going to have a real solid strategy in place to attract those American football fans to come, come watch our product. And then the challenge is how do you, how do you convert those people during the summer months when there is that gap? And there isn't any football going on? How, how do you get adults? Those people to start watching your product. And again, I know the CFL teams. It's a tough. A tough road to hoe with the scheduling and the summer and every, every market's different. And a lot of those markets that doesn't make sense, playing games two o'clock on a Sunday afternoon in July when everybody's at the cottage. Yeah, it's. The one thing I've learned in getting in all the CFL stuff is, yeah. There's a lot of reasons why people can't watch the, you know, it's too hot. I got to go far on my map of vacation. I'm with the CA. I mean. And the traffic's too bad. I can't make it to the game. I mean, it is fascinating. The excuses I've heard over the last couple of months. Yeah. And then just, but, but again, it's, it's always felt to me, it's almost like. You know, going, going back to going back to university on labor day, it's, you know, It's the first day of packing up the U hall and going back to school. And it's also the first day that of the real CFL season where people really start to follow it. And I think that's where a lot of those casual fans who are off golfing in the summer or fishing or out at the cottage. They get back in their living rooms after labor day. And they're sitting there watching those games on, on, on Sunday. And. And, but I, again, I, I do think that that tapping into that American football fan and knowing that you have all these. You know, star players from the university of Michigan or Ohio state, or university of Florida who, you know, the, the small linebacker, wasn't big enough to make an NFL team. You can come up here like a. Cameron awake when he started it started in BC. That there you can, you can tap into those stories and help. You know, not only, not only convert those people into end up being fans, but to get those people, to spend some money with sports books. Steve, this has been a delight. I'm glad that you were on a Darryl Davis. It was on the show before I was excited that, you know, we have all these great minds here in this. I really appreciate you coming on. And I think, you know, once we kind of get into the meat of all this betting, you know, later on next year, maybe we can have you back on and see how everything's going. I really appreciate your time. Yeah. I'd love to come back on. Read. Yeah. This has been, been a lot of fun and thanks very much.

Episode 58 - America’s CFL Team, the BC Lions!

Welcome to the Markcast. Yeah. Very very exciting. Late night tonight. I've had a couple beers, not too many beers. I think we should be okay. I am wearing my tailor. Hi, Nikki. It is Taylor. Hi Niki season. And the Washington football team just knocked off Daniel Jones and the New York giants. Very very excited. Paula. Where did you think of everything exciting night tonight? It was, you know, once I saw the gave Taylor, hi. Nike two minutes. Left. I was like, oh God. I think they gave him too much time. And I'll tailor Hideki really has to say at this point is. The real real. So you better check yourself. That's it. That's all you have to say. Ah, yes, I have my high Nike Jersey. I was Tim and Cliffy. I listened to your podcast. Paul I'm going to get, we have a wager coming up. I was going to wear my outlets flight deck shirt tonight. I was going to put on the BC lions, Jersey, all that stuff, but instead it is stellar high Niki season. We're going to, I think we'll do a little more active belly talk later, but I do have to get that out of the way at the top tremendously excited for him and my team, the Washington football team. Played horrendously tonight, but still man, his s**t to get the win. Well, it's the giant student. I mean, it's the giants. They're, they're like the football equivalent of the Mets. Well, the jets would be that too. Why are all New York sports right now? Like kind of blowing. Yeah. Talking to you, I'm talking to you, Yankees. You lost to the garbage Oriel. Tonight was saying. Anyway. So we, yeah, w. We'll do the hierarchy talk later, we have big, we actually have some XFL news. We'll talk about that. But tonight we are celebrating America's CFL team, the BC lions. I have a custom thumbnail made from Gary. That's made all of our characters and everything. Gary has made us a custom thumbnail for the video talking about America's he of Altium. So I'm very excited to talk BC lions tonight. It's not America. Moving on, moving on. Not a lot of guests. It looks like here. So I will tell you this for CFL fans. I Milt's Degal. Alleging that the game. Right. But you know, 14 years when I posted earlier this week that we had mill Mike's, we had mill Steven, Mike Hogan, and then Julio Carvana. I'm at the most likes retweets thumbs up that we've gotten Milt Steagall. They called him turtle, man. Paul, do you know why they called him turtle, man? No. Why did the Gollum turtle man? Because apparently he was so ripped with back in his day, his abs looked like a turtle shell. Oh, I thought maybe cause. Is headwind and do his shoulders. That's what I thought. That's what I thought, but no, they said, cause he was, ah, mill is on. He's great. You know, he's getting ready to, he flying out to TSN to do the, the shows this weekend. Milt's great. Mike Hogan with the Argos, we talk a lot about the Argos. We talked a little bit about Chris Jones. Mike didn't want to talk too much about Chris Jones. When we talk about that. He's a friend of Jim Mullen with the crown Gridiron nation. I forgot to tweet that when I tweeted that and Jim got mad at me, and then we have Julio caravan that he is the color with the U analyst. For America's CFL team to BC. He also, yeah. Was the quarterback. Julio is great. That's the, I mean, I will tell you, you know, Make fun of me, not BC lion stuff. You know, I'm just doing that facetiously, but great interviews all around tremendous gas across the board. Very cool. Well, you hit 1500 subs on YouTube. So thank you for that. We appreciate you. And all that you've done. To get us to that, mark some giveaways in that situation. So. We'll figure that out. Talk to you about that later on. Yeah, I had an idea. Maybe we can announce that later in the show, how we're going to do that similar to before, but you know, get people to listen around. But yeah, 1500 subs were like 1504. Now it really appreciate everybody and all the interests, but I do think us getting Milt and everybody this week really kind of put that cause we added like 15 substance. We. And announced Milt cell. Very cool stuff. And then there's a bet. Yeah, we have a couple of things. So first off. I so you have your wonderful Argo staff that we're giving away. Right? Josh McGhee, that's probably the giveaway. We have some spring league staff from Brian Woods, a friend of the show. I have. It sounds like we are getting in with the BC lions for reals, and that there's going to be some merge coming our way. So that's, I've gotten a little note from friends of the team. Not Jim Owen. And like actual people in the BC lions. And it sounds like we're going to have some other giveaway stuff. And then I have a wagered with Tim. Tim was on our show two weeks ago, Tim capper with the. Outlets flight deck podcast. And Cliffy over there. That I were so confident. I'm so confident that the BC lions are going to beat the Al wets, that if they lose, I'm going to change the Marc CAS Twitter avatar to a horrendous macho outlets logo for a week. But when the BC lions win. They're going to do, and they're going to kids going to be the outlet flight decks, but they're going to have a BC lions logo. I thought that was funny. That's very fair. That doesn't involve me changing my avatar or anything like that. So I liked that you kept me kind of neutral from any kind of wager because you know, you like to claim the BC lions are our team and they're not our team. Or your team, but. Yeah, that's it. That'll be interesting to see who comes out of. Ahead on that. I'll take it. You have 1500 views for my little wager on that. You know, a Wednesday afternoon. I can't tell you that many people were talking about the BC lions at noon on a Wednesday, except for that wager. So I, you know, I'm trying to do my stuff. Rod tweeted about when I, when I posted my video, he goes, Are you not an Alex fan anymore? And I tweeted back. I said, child. I mean, Brian is like missed the boat. I go, not anymore, rod. Sorry. After they talked so much trash about the XFL. Good riddance. Anyway. So I find staff, a BC lions are going, yeah, we have this review here at the tiniest Pran. I tried to put it on there. I don't know if we can read that at all. It's a lot of fun. Listening to Americans cover the Canadian football league. Because longtime. This is the star wars font. Now it's barely. It seems the Paul and Reed. Learn something new about the storied league. Every week, and it's great to get along. Go along with them on that journey. I agree. So, yeah. Great. Great review. I appreciate it. It's also a comment about us doing more shows before the Thursday night games. And I go, we did that. I maybe it was a fever dream. Every Monday when we screamed at each other on our live shows like those happen. So I don't want to hear any complaints about like no more or like we want more live shows before that. They're like, we tried that, like, we might do it again. We might do it again now that you know, Reed figured out what was going on. I'm not trying to bring it up. We have old stuff. The problem is with him and we might do it again. You never know, you never know. Anyway, so they give for that. That was Jerry. I believe Jerry left that re baby XFL. All right. The mark has.com/review. If you want to leave your review also, please subscribe. We're I think we'll do another giveaway 2000. And like I said, that will probably involve some BC lions merge and some other fun stuff that we have recruited along the way. Very cool. Last week's games. Of course, Argos taken on. I should Sue. Taken out the tire gets 17 to 16. Yes, that's good news for me. Blue bombers continue to be hot. They take out the rough riders, 33 to nine. Reed's lions 45 to 13 over the red blacks and the stamp Peters stamps. Take out the Alex. 32 To 16. Yeah, this lions, this lion's red escape. Late night, Saturday night game. I watched this, I, it was, I. I told Julie about it on an interview. I go. It is as close. Like when I get taken from this earth and I go to whatever higher place you're going to, I hope they did. This is glorious, is watching that game and watching Michael Riley throw. I mean, it was like a tremendous game. Like the BC lions couldn't be stopped. Half the points were scored the garbage time at the end with the red blacks. Like, I mean, it was truly like God on earth and it was, it was phenomenal. There's something that happened that night. That was a little bit more phenomenal. And you, you mentioned it a little bit above there. You know, I was in New York city this last weekend. I actually got to see my New York Yankees take on the poverty little brother mats in their great field. They they're too bad of a team to deserve such a field like that. It's kind of got the Ebbets field, like throwback, look to it. It's a beautiful park. Got to see the, you know, the nine 11 ceremonies and stuff like that. Really moving stuff. And if I hadn't been there, I probably been watching a bad game along with reads. So yeah, it. It was great. It was a great weekend. For both, you know, baseball fans and CFL fans. Yeah, it was good. So this week. The big double header. Right? So Stan Peter's going, Dean Evans is out. So is David Watford now he's her third string quarterback. That is a little scary. The Argonauts are playing. They. They've had some coaching personnel issues. We're going to talk about in the show against the rough riders. They're really in Cody Pajaro though. We don't know. It sounds like he's not going to be in concussion protocol anymore. Lions, you know, we've already talked about that against Alice and then the big thing today just came out that Trevor Harris, the Elk's leading quarterback is a alpha six games with a neck injury. So what was already going to be a stressful game against the blue bombers is probably going to be much worse, although we have some XFL news with that. So I do see here the first one that we have on the show. Yeah. What is, what is, what is their current. I'm guessing win-loss record for the Oaks right now. What do they say now? It's like one in four. Whether it's the ultra. Wow. Yeah, they're not, they're not good right now. They're two and three. Great two. So, yeah. So E w. Even in the interviews today that you cause the Trevor Harris stuff came out. Like I did mil the other day and that, you know, they're kind of out of order. You know, everyone says whichever Harris, the elk skin, when I'll get well. Now, whichever Harris is out, we have Tara, Tara Taylor, Cornelius. I can't talk for my braces. Just announced today. He was, you know, former XFL quarterback with the, with the Vipers. That was one of the reasons why I was originally intrigued with the Alex. And so he will be starting to be at Trevor Harris is out for six games. That is a huge, huge, huge blow to the OCS. Trevor Harris is one of the all-stars of the league and you're going against the league stop team right now. Yeah. I'd like good luck. Yeah, so. That's not going to be great. I won't be excited to see Taylor Cornelius playing. Obviously we have the Taylor hi, Nike thing tonight with the XFL, we have XFL stuff. You know, I don't, I don't love the like, okay. Taylor Cornelius spend a cup of coffee in the exit, fell a year and a half ago. I mean, but he also would probably not be put in this position if it weren't for that. So I'm trying not to be a Homer, but still supporting everything. Very cool stuff. Also signings had happened, I guess this week let's see where to go. It kind of move around me. Devlin, duck Hodges, a red black signed him. He's a, he's a quarterback. Three-year contract. Wow. Yeah. Do you know this guy? He played for the Steelers? I don't know him. I didn't know if you had any knowledge of him. I really don't. I'm not a Steelers fan. I'm not a giant fan either. But, you know, At Sanford, I don't know what was, what was the, he said. Wow. You said an FCS record, which is like, There's like two division, one, like in, in NCAA basketball. There's like one big division one, but they split it in half. The football and it's this, it's the secondary division one league. FCS records with. 14,584 Passing yards and awarded the Walter Payton award. It's pretty impressive stuff. For Mr. Hodges here, Mr. Devlin Hodges. So it's going to be interesting to see maybe, maybe that's that's that's going to be the. I guess the secret. Sauce. To maybe turn things around for Ottawa. They're not doing too bad. Well, there are two. The issue. So Matt Nichols is injured, right? He was already had his bum arm this year. He got hurt. Dominic gave his, has been playing, obviously did not do great last week against Michael Riley and the BC lions. So. Look for potential QB changes. Although they're bringing this guy in quarantine, get them up to speed. I mean, it's going to be a couple of weeks, but you know, it's, it's not this isn't the 21 week CFL season or whatever, where we have time to like bring in a quarterback mid season. I mean, we're already at week seven. I mean, we're, we're approaching halfway through the season. So it is destined by obviously the three-year contract gives him a little bit of time, but yeah, a lot of the way has a major, major red. Quarterback issue. I mean, maybe this is the guy to turn it around. It's you know, He's, he's got some good stats on, you know, that secondary division one level. So it'll be interesting to see if that helps turn things around. Yeah, I just a quick note here at BC has given out this really cool shirt. They tweeted this today. They had the big announcement this morning. I give us, give us peace. Give us compassion. Give us love. Ah, Korean hunt is a, is a artist up there. You know, she kind of redesigned in, in like a native. Look, I, I scratched. It's a picture down here, just so it fit on here. But basically it just, I was really excited about this because this is like immediate stuff that Omar Delmon, right. The new ownership, the new everything with BCI. We talk a lot about this with Julio coming up in the, in his interview, things that the BC lions are trying to do, like get more fans, get younger fans, get fans that are not like white, old Canadian people to like. Support this league. And so I just, I even had people, either fans of other teams messaged me and go, God, I wish like our team did this. I wish that we had, you know, things like this that we could be excited about trying to get more fans than the stance. W what exactly is the, is this because of the whole. Because there's a bleeding, a lot of controversy over the, the schools. And how they've treated indigenous people in that area. Is that what this is for? I'm trying to, I don't know what this is for. Yeah. [Unknown] every child matters. I think it has to do with that. This is just, I, I wish. I wish I had more, the way that I just got excited about. He's basically there. They're talking about, like this kind of relates to that. What I'm talking about, where they found like 215 children's bodies and unmarked graves at residential schools. When it came down to like colonialism and dealing with indigenous people on that land. So that's kind of, that's kind of why there's a, there's a, there's an indigenous indigenous artists that design these shirts. And kind of bringing awareness to that, which has been, you know, kind of a hot button topic for people above the border. And not too many people down here know about it, but I've been I've. Been keeping tabs. So it is definitely something that needs to be aware. Awareness needs to be brought to for sure. Well, and I told them that they should sell this. It gives it to charity. I mean, I tweeted that too. I said, I would buy this in a second. If the money went to charity, you know, besides just doing the giveaways and the stamps, like obviously do that, get fans in, but then. Please sell this and let us kind of raise some money and awareness for that as well. So definitely, definitely, definitely. Moving on though. Chris Jones resigning a self. Pittsburgh high school had coached, joined the Argos coaching staff. And. What does he, what does he. Being a, what does he being listed as for, yeah. That's the question. So I asked my Cogan about this and my ghost. Cause sources have said that he's, he's joining the Argonauts as their defensive coordinator. And Mike Hogan was very quick to come out and say that that's not official. Yeah. That is just per sources. Rumors. Basically the Argonauts have had a couple player, a couple coaches that have stepped down due to personal reasons. People are speculating. It has to do with MLS E basically requiring the employees to be vaccinated. And so without getting, you know, you can kind of put two and two together. Chris Jones used to be with the rough riders. He left to go to the NFL. Then he was without Pittsburgh. High school. They haven't played in a while because of issues with COVID and everything down there. So he's kind of leaving that now to come back north. He's going through the quarantine process right now, but people are putting two and two together and they go, well, the RN that's lost a couple of their defensive staff members, Chris Jones, defensive, you know, mine from the rough riders. Coming in. He's kind of polarizing. A lot of people are excited and a lot of people are not black. I said, I talked to my Cogan and he was like, dad, it's not official yet. Really? Didn't like it. Anyway. Well, basically. They're basically talking about anybody that's under, not under a collective bargaining agreement. Everybody with the players. It has to, you know, has to get back, say that. That's kind of the one, it seems the palsy is. So interesting to see. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My Craig. We had a quote from him. He's not surprised to see him back. He's a fun guy, brings a lot of energy, you know, he's kind of, the polarizing gets a lot of interests, but you know, again, like things like this draw attention, right? It gives people like the CFL Newsweek and tell today when we're recording was a little slow, right. You know, obviously the Trevor Harris thing and the signing of the duck Hodges. But I, this was something that has kind of carried the new cycle this week. So that's good. I mean, you need people talking about things going on in the CFL. All right. So we're talking about COVID-19, I'm gonna jump ahead of the story, then we'll go back. Carrie Jones testing positive for COVID 19. Of course the Montreal Woodside coach is in isolation for a minimum of 10 days after which his situation will be reevaluated. Crazy to me. Cause he is double vacs. Crazy that that would be a 10 day quarantine. That's the only takeaway I had from this. And I'm like, man, like the players in the NFL, if you get tested, you know, it's like two tasks within 24 hours, your car is double vacs. Like I would just can't imagine that you have them on a 10 day quarantine, but obviously better be safe than sorry. But that was kind of my takeaway. It just makes you wonder, like, even, even if you, if you like you're double Vaxxed and. You catch it and you have no symptoms. Like you don't know if you're spreading it either, you know? That could be also a thing because there's still plenty of people here in the United States. They're also, you know, not back. So it's, it's interesting. I think that they're being, they're erring on the side of caution here, even though you're double backs to being around people that might not be Bakst. In that case might be the problem that they're looking out for. Yeah, I did. I did tweet at car and he posted, you know, thank you for the well-wishes. I said, I hate to make your week worse by having a loss to the BC lions on Saturday, but I hope you feel better. Wow. I say rest up, coach. I say, rest of coach. I hope you feel better. And you put a little bow on it. Yeah, put a little bow under burn. Cody for Gerardo hasn't been cleared for full go yet. On his concussion protocol, but apparently he's made progress. He increased his physical road. Workload a practice while. While preparing to host my Toronto Argonauts on Friday night. Very cool stuff. He took half the rubs yesterday. Which would probably be two days ago and took two thirds. Yesterday. I'm trying to like on date. This article. So it's going to be interesting to see if he actually goes. Yeah, we're kind of going with that in the interview. So they just, if it comes out to me, It comes out of that guys, if you're out for the game. We have all acted in all of our interviews is though credit. It was playing against the. The Argos. So. It's going to be interesting if he does it. I'm going to be upset. On those interviews, if he doesn't. So spicy stuff happening. Winnipeg being Winnipeg, doing dirty stuff. Here we go. Here we go. I like, I like when the Canadians get spicy. I love that. Because you never, you never expect, you know, never expect Canadians to get spicy. Apparently there was a Mila Malay. At the end of the game and at the end of the banjo bowl, of course, big deal. And. What happened here? Did you see this? And this was the big issue with this. Andrew Harris does seem as though he gets a little bit of spare for special privileges. Sometimes he gets, you know, hugging the NFL. Some guys can wear it like the visors and stuff. Cause there's like, oh, D came back half is like a superstar. He can wear like the visor, but if you're Joe blow that, whatever you can't do, that kind of stuff. That it does seem to me sometimes like Andrew Harris gets a little bit of stuff. He ended up, I, he ended up, did get a fine today. They announced that, that he, he did get that, but they were upset that he didn't get thrown out of the game. A couple of the rough rider flyers, basically Andrew Harris, like ripped. Dudes helmet off. And we thought with that Milt Steagall about this. Yeah. Once a helmet comes off, you really, that's kind of like, you need to go kind of issue, but you know, it was heated. It was a good it going into half time. Sean McGuire, he's kind of the guy that goes in and does a running touchdowns. For exact Clara as they pull him out. Cause he's injury prone. And they were running in and there was a big skirmish, but yeah. W big issue, lots of drama. And that Andrew Harris did not get penalized until today with the fine, so. Oh, so sketchy ones, Garrett Moreno, NIJ, anywhere from the game to the rough play disqualification during the game. And then three members of the blue bombers were penalized for roughing. So very spicy stuff going on. Yeah, they announced I was going to add that to the thing, but I do remember that. Yeah. He says, you know, Andrew Harris says, when I see it may get toss around, I'm just not going to stand there and watch you mean he's trying to defend him. You know, I get all that, but it does seem like there was a lot of questions about him not getting thrown out. And so anyway, Interesting stuff after that loss. However, let's see here. I kind of skipped around. Whoa, where did it go? Craig Dickinson. Praising Winnipeg is the class, the league right now. So we have the coach saying Winnipeg is a class litigant, and you have another player saying when. The one went back things. Are they. I think they're better than the rest of us. And I think it's by quite a bit right now, they're a better football team and we are. And by quite a bit. Interesting. I want your thoughts in this action item writers. AC Leonard. So this, this came out. I want your thoughts on this, because this is, and this just got updated today. So he, they needed to submit a urine task. They do the random urine sampling, right. For drug testing and all that kind of stuff. That's the other thing, Andrew Harris got like busted for that stuff before. And so he gets some. You know, there's always issues with Andrew Harris. But this guy. W w was going to, was going to do the task. And then he waited a while, made the decision not to submit the drug test. Like, I guess he thought about it and it's like, well, If I positive, gotta. Like what would be the reason of like going in to do a urine test and then not actually doing it and leaving you smoked weed. It's okay. They haven't quoted. Stephen A. Smith would say. I. They can say it guys. It's actually pretty simple. Our guys are selected for Dragon's hazard game randomly. He wasn't able to submit if you, if you, if you don't submit, it's not an act two game suspension, but then today they announced yesterday as we required. That he was suspended for the additional game to do verbal abuse and unacceptable behavior. We shouldn't laugh towards the doping control officers. So like he didn't pee. And then he came out like screamed at him. Wow. I mean. I just, I thought that was kind of wild. I thought it was kind of interesting. We'll get the condition of your, your play. Like, why are you mad about that? Like stay off the weed. Until, until you get to a point where we, we allow weed in the CFL, the NFL got to stay off it. That's just the way it works. Maybe he's doing Adderall. I don't know. Ah, I'm Hamilton tiger cats naming David Watford, their starting quarterback for weeks. I'm going against the stamps. He took more Jordan, the reps with a starting off offense with a C during the prep week of practice for the stamps. And yeah. Never started before. Going into town against the STR the Sam Peters are coming in. That is going to be a welcome to the big leagues. I would be terrified. I mean, they look Hideki. I mean, Hideki did it. He against Brady. I put that tweet out there earlier today. I said, you have to understand Taylor Hideki was the one that played Tom Brady's Buccaneers the closest during those playoffs stretches. Playoff games last year. Be careful. And what happened. The giants lost. Do you have any knowledge at all about New York defensive back, Jeremy Clark? I do not. We used to get that rat rather assign them. I didn't know if that again, Yeah, you play with the XFL dragons. But, you know, some of these times, like, I don't know, every single my NFL knowledge, right. We know is like a mile deep for the last, like two years. So sometimes I don't know all these sounds like maybe Paul would know like, oh yeah, that guy played division, whatever. And scored 5,000 touchdowns. Argos, they did sign. Call McDonald ID. No call McDonald's. He was from Hawaii. He was with the Titans for a little bit, a cup of coffee with the Panthers and Carlos, but he was also in the spring league. So. There you go comes. I do know that I do know my, again, it's a mile deep, like the last year and a half. Very good career at Hawaii. He was the Hawaii bowl MVP. When Hawaii took on, I believe it was shoot. From here. Because Hawaii is in the mountain west conference. I can remember they played, but he was the MVP for that game. So it's, it's, it's cool to see Cole from the spring league. Who had a couple of cup, a couple cups of coffee in the NFL gap, you know? Give a job with the Toronto Argonauts. We'll see if we can outlast the MOCAD Bethel Thompson. What else? BYU cougars was who they beat in the 2019 Hawaii bubble. No a lot. Interesting. I didn't, I. I was gonna, I was gonna guess BYU. I was just like, oh, maybe. Jimmy Elizondo your boy, please with practice debut of huge Ash. The huge addition, Derek Moncrief. He said that I saw him and blocked him the whole one time and looked up and said, that's why they're going to, that's what they're supposed to look like. Derek's rate, he's going to be a huge addition to us. It looks like he fit right in and it's credit to the coaches. Getting him ready. Yeah, they they've picked him up last week. He was saying he was in quarantine. He was waived by the Rams. So he got brought in. That was kind of a big signing last week. And now he's through the quarantine. Protocols. So that's why we are talking about that. Oh, this is infuriating Edmonton elk star receiver. Greg L Ellingson was fine for throwing gloves to what. Yeah. [Unknown] what is the, like, is this like, is this a COVID? It's gotta be a COVID thing. Otherwise, like this is a bad look for the CFL. If it's not COVID related. I guess that that kind of makes sense in that way, but man, you need these kinds of moments to kind of draw some interest in league, especially if it's a young fans that you want to stay invested in the league. Not saying this with Ellenson and then also Justin Renfro. He was also at the Alex. He also got fined for assigning the fans hat. I have heard in, I think it was on rod show this week. It was probably in right periods in jail, but like certain players have handlers with them after the games, making sure that they are not interacting with the fans. Right. And one could conceivably. Predicted that has to do with their COVID vaccination status. And we obviously know what happened with the Edmonton Alex and that whole thing. So like just kind of putting all of these pieces together, but like Greg Ellington is a superstar wide receiver. Like he should not be, I mean, like we need more players like this interacting with people, but it is. Completely agree. Speaking of COVID stuff. This Friday, September 17th marks the first Roughriders game were vaccination verification or verified negative test will be needed to enter at mosaic stadium. That was happening almost everywhere. These days, you were having to get a 40 to 48 to 72 hour test or a vaccination record to go to anything. Bars restaurants what's happening here in California. And apparently a. The Roughriders are doing that the same way. Yeah. It was, they talked about it a couple of weeks ago. We talked about, and it's finally, this is official now, right? So this is the big first game. They only have like three home games left, but. This is where the rough riders are finally getting on board with that. So, Very cool. Most watch regular season CFL game on TSN and six years was the 2021 bombers writers labor day. With you classic clash. Yeah, delayed ratings come out, obviously. Cause labor day. So we got them more this week, but yeah, it was like 979,700 crazy highest in six years. And then they were also saying that the NFL kickoff there isn't, that football was the highest watch kickoff in like six years. So. Yeah. I walked in the sports. TV ratings for that time. You see that the, you know, you see the blue jeans with kind of ticking up on their TV, watching here because they're actually getting hot. Now, someone, I think it was here on this podcast. Someone was talking about how the blue jeans, what was it you that was talking about how the blue jeans were done? I heard. I heard they were that. And I said, they weren't done go to the tape. I said, they weren't done. And they're not done. I knew it. Spoiler alert. Justin donk writes far more articles about the CFL beating the Bluejays in the ratings than he does about the blue Jays beat in the CFL on the radio. It's just, would you expect anything else from that? I just, it is interesting, like, Like, if they beat the blue Jays by one viewer, it's like, We killed the glitches. Whatever. I mean, this is 884,360 2000. Interesting stuff. BC lions also adding a former Patriot Danny. [Unknown] is that what I'm saying? Yeah. He helped the LSU win the 2016 citrus bowl. And the BC lions have released Shay Patterson from Australia. Thoughts from that. Yes. She had said also of the spring lake. There you go. We're gonna toss to reads interviews. Our guests come back and do a little bit of XFL stuff. Very interesting stuff. We've got to talk about, you know, After the break. That's good. So I hear that your audio, like when we first got on the call. Your audio is a little choppy. I rebooted the computer. Not only is your audio not choppy, but I feel like it's. The stream is working perfectly. Yeah, you haven't cut out at all. Not one second to me. So you literally haven't, it's not one second of anything. Let every single time I'm going to reboot my computer. Okay. From now on, that'll be the solution. Welcome back. Want to thank all of our guests read, took all the time to talk. To so many people great interviews from both. From all three. I was going to say both, but there was three. Mike's mill Stiegel. Mike Hogan. And Julio Carvana. Yeah. Tremendous I Julio is, is truly just, I really delighted him. My Cogan is great too. Yeah. Thank you, Jim Mullen. I, this is a quick story. So when it's the last weekend, when the BC lions killed right 45 to 13. Jim Mullen tweeted. And he was with Armar Delmon that owner of the BC lines. Jim was in the suite with Amare, right. Hanging out at the game, watching the game. So I tweeted at Jim messaged him and publicly I go. Could you please let tshirt make. Amar make sure Martin knows whether mark hast is. Can we please do that? So he tweeted me back. He goes, oh, you know, I'm working on staff, whatever I go, okay, well, I have a big show this week. I didn't even need your help. And I forgot that Jim was actually the one that gave me my Cogans number. That. So, but we got them anyway, we got everything. So. You're doing. A little bit of XFL news now. Jonathan [unknown]. As the XFL owes him money and he doesn't want to work for WWE. We had again. Mm. Coachman says when he returned to WWE made it very clear. He was. He was there to try to help them grow the things he saw and the way they're treating people ultimately a year ago, when they asked me to come back into the XFL. We need someone from the WW on that side to give Vince what he wants. And he flew coast to coast because he lives in California. They did have this expensive set up. It seems like he's paid his own expenses of the way he's saying. And because we have the 20-year relationship there and he. Felt like, you know, he'd be taken care of because, you know, The relationship and it seems like they took care. They took. Took advantage of that. Yeah, well, it's like spoiler alert coach. A lot of people didn't get paid when they went bankrupt. Like that is how bankruptcy works or you're like, you're never made whole, you're made partially whole, right. I mean, Coachman's no different than Cole Boozer or someone that maybe was owed money when they went bankrupt. But I mean, obviously Coachman's. Checks were probably significantly bigger than a lot of the XFL players. Well, to this point, Andrew Yang tweeted out today that he had a call with the us department of layer labor. And he says, if you are a current or former WW performer, who feels you were misclassified as an independent contractor, Let's get you what Vinson use. OSU. This has been a long time coming, but the storyline was real. Of course, Andrew gang. Had like campaign on this had made a big deal out of this because it's a big wrestling fan. And, you know, His, his response after his first tweet in his thread was all you have to do is bowl leave. So Coachman hollered, Andrew Yang become part of the yang gang. I get your money. He turns on the cash now. Who Andrew Yang is not. Who is he? A lawyer. I don't know. What does, what does Andrew Yang do? I know he ran for mayor failed. He's an entrepreneur. Oh, that guy, that guy. Okay. I will say this. So coach talked about all this all, you know, Jonathan coach and the coach. Talk all about this on his podcast. Ask coach anything alive. Like you can't. I get AMA, I mean, it doesn't read it on that. Like they trademark the AMA. All my podcasts as coach anything live. I think they try to, but I think the courts threw that out there. Like you can't trademark, something like that. Anyway, coach's mad. He goes, I'm not okay. I will never work with someone like that again. I mean, Here's the deal coach did. Like the weekend preview shows on Sundays on YouTube. Like I watched him cause I was a mark, but it wasn't like, it was a big hallmark, but I think we will be okay with coach, not returning to XFL 3.0 or 5.0 or whatever we call this. Whenever this comes about that. I'll make that happen. Unless it's the rock making fun of gospel. Yeah. That'd be good. Per Tom Pelissero. The Cowboys are expected to resign kicker, Liam. Usually roots to the practice squad. I guess, I don't know. I'm probably butchering that name too. I guess Greg's airline had some strugglers in their opener. And Lira might be the guy they call on later on to. The step in. Yeah, Lira was he's from he's Canadian. I'm the CFL he played in the spring league. He, he had topped. A friend of the show, Matt mango for that longest field goal kick. I believe all this. I believe all this is great. He owns the record now for the longest field goal cake in the spring league, took it from Matt mango friend of the show, my Marquez jacket. Thanks. But. Greg had like off season back surgery. And then now remember he missed all the field goal kicks during the home opener last week against the Buccaneers. That was why, because of all this, and now they're like, oh, we're calling this Emer effort right now. Like, We're not, you know, Mike McCarthy is not messing around. Like, let's get this guy. And normally it's so limited on how many kicker, how many people you have on your roster, that if they signed a kicker to be on the practice squad, You got one. One week. Is there a line you got one week to figure it out. And if you don't, you're done. Yeah. Any other Hideki stuff. I didn't want to kill it at the beginning, but I mean, truly tremendous performance tonight. Great performance behind the key. Like I can't, you know, like when he threw that interception with like three minutes left in the game, like, oh, this is over. Hi, Nikki, just get into the game. And then I was like, and then when I saw I was like two minutes left, I'm thinking, well, maybe, maybe there's a little bit of time there for high Nikki to work and sure enough. You made things happen. I mean, Granted, it was kind of a situation with giants gave him the game. I mean, They missed the field goal. The giants player was offsides. Got five more yards at a second shot. Almost missed it again. But. But I mean, Taylor Jaime keys. You. Doing great stuff. I was, I was kind of throwing it out there on Twitter. I was like, oh, cam Newton. Cam Newton, but now. I think they're going to let it go for another couple. They're probably going to let this go for another couple of weeks. Hi, Nikki does. And I don't think he's going to, I don't think he's going to definitely. Let people down. I think he's, I think he's a solid quarterback. And I sent you this too, by the way, the Panthers. Did you see this? Stupid thing. Yeah, I think it. It was insane. For a friend of a friend of yours and mine immediately tweeted like CFL. People need to figure out how to do this right away. I'm sure you can imagine. That's the dumbest thing for team it's going to go five and 12. Why, why did they do that? Why do they spend money on a thing that's stupid. Yeah, Panthers had a thing, came out like a Panther. I ran through this, but it was like real life and it was augmented, but it was on the scoreboard. It was very odd. It's like the stupid crap that WWE does during WrestleMania, where they like put the, you know, the stupid graphics on that is so dumb. And they think that that makes production values better. I think that that crap looks stupid with. W does it. I don't know, maybe it's just me. Yeah, last things. Oh, just one more thing that I can do. And then we'll talk giveaway and they were out here. You cannot convince me the cam Newton would have done a better job tonight. Well, he would've folded given what I saw him play last year, you cannot convince me that he would have done. [Unknown] a better job than Heineken. I mean, it's the same, whatever where you cannot tell me he would've done a better job. At a folded he's a little crybaby. He would have folded. Oh, hi Nick. He's a quarterback in Camden's an athlete. That's the difference? I like that. So I'm worth. So here's the deal. So we're doing the giveaway. We'll plug it again in the promo. Cause I kind of forgot we were going to do this. And then thankfully I remembered. So here's the deal. So Paul has his Argos Jersey. Yeah, I do. I have a spare one. I have, I have. I have a small and a medium we'll give away one of those. Okay. Let's do. So w. And then we have to XL spring league Jasper shirts. So we have there over there. I have on there, everything's up. So, this is what you're going to do. So if you want to be entered in the giveaway for the 1500 to giveaway. You need to comment on the YouTube video and say what you want. So you can say, I want an Argos, the Argos Jersey, it's either a smaller, medium, and then we have two XL Jasper shirts. So you can say Argos thing. Josh is saying. Oh, I also have an old Marc house sweatshirt. It's like a medium. So that's also in there. So there's four items, right? Comment. Comment on the YouTube video, if you want an additional chance to win. If you're on Twitter, if you retweet the episode, when I post it. When you hear it, I will enter you in for another one. And then if you want another chance, you can leave us a review. If you haven't already@themarkhas.com slash review. So if you really want something, it's all free. None of this costs you anything to like type in YouTube, leave a review. But I figured that would be a good way. So three different ways. Leave a comment. You have to tell us what you want, because it's, you will only be in the running for what you could be. We've won all three, but if you only want like, well, I'm an XL, I don't want the small Jersey or whatever. And then you can retweet the episode. Or you can leave us a review of the mark house.com/review. Perfect. That's a lot. Right. I thought, did you think about that on the fly? Cause that was pretty good. Like if you just came. Or did you plan that all out? I've had it that last night. Okay. Well that was, that was definitely a way to go three different chances to get your name in, to win either an Argos Jersey, medium or small, or one of the two jobs or shirts that. You know, really broke Brian Woods bank. Or the mark has the washer. It's a really nice, it's a brand new, it's like never been, it's a, it's a Mark House hoodie with the Mark House. It's nothing's wrong with it. I just it's too small for me. Very cool. All right. There you go. Do the giveaway things just, you know, plug us, help it, help share, get the word out. Write a review, share the, share the Shirley episode and leave a comment. What you want. That's three easy ways to help. Boost us and maybe get yourself a price. So with that being said, want to thank all our guests again for joining us and we'll see you next week. Cool. What's plugged the giveaway in the promo. Cause I w I forgot to mention that again. Like I wanted to do it earlier than the. Kind of forgot. All right. Got a quick. That was good. I have all the interviews ready to. Cool. This week on the mark cast. It's Hideki mania. Reed's got his Heineken Jersey on. He's also talking to some great, great guests read. Who do you talk to this week? We have a CFL hall of Famer, Milt Stegal coming on. He yells at me about my BC lions Jersey. It's a whole lot of fun. And we have friend of the show, friend of mine, Mike Hogan, friend of Jim Mullen and crown Gridiron nation. Mike Hogan, the Argonauts he is coming on. And then the voice of America CFL team Julio Caravana is coming on the program. We're talking BC lions. We're talking to Mara Delmon, we're talking to all that kind of stuff. Paul, what else are we going through? We got to give away because guess what? We hit 1500 subs subscribers. So there's going to be three chances for you to enter. You could do all three it's great idea that Reed came up with. You have a, you have a choice of a mark cast sweatshirt. It's in a medium. A choice of one of the justice t-shirts that Brian Woods broke the bank to send us there an XL or one of the Argonauts Jersey, smaller, medium, your choice, what you gotta do, listen to the show and we'll tell you how to win. One of those gifts. It's great. It's a really good show. A lot of good gas. We've got CFL staff. We're previewing week seven. Trevor Harris is out. We've got new quarterbacks coming on. It's a whole, it's a whole. Thank you so much for coming on Milt Stegall. I will tell you the feedback that we've gotten from Facebook and Twitter, when I announced that you were coming on, the show has been overwhelming. So thank you so much for taking the time today. Thank you for having me on, but I do have one problem right away. Why don't you have on a Milt Stegall? Stegall Jersey. Little disappointed. I understand. Who you cheer for? I understand all that, but if you're going to have me. You need to have one. Steven Jersey. I know, I will tell you that. Big big show today talking BC lions. We have a Julio coming on as well. I've voiced to the lions. I, you know, these teams are waking up to the power of the Marc has, so hopefully we can get. How has it been going so far for you? Everything the season as we're approaching this at week seven now. Yes. Yeah, no. It's been going good. I'm happy of course, to be back in studio the first. P weeks. We were actually, I was actually working where I am right now. So. It, it was good that the CFL was back up and running, but I'm just so excited to be back in studio. We're starting to see some, some good games. Of course. I think everyone knew early on, it was going to be a little shaky. With no. Preseason. Guys have been off for almost two years, but now we're starting to see some good CFL football. So, you know, this is, this is. When he's going to start really counting, you know, Gods are starting up. Placed themselves in position for playoff spots. It's really getting excited. So I'm excited with every one hour. Who's involved. Yeah. I have heard people online, a little frustrated that it has been not, not as Chris, maybe as expected, you, you feel content with everything and you think it's been, it's been rolling. It does feel like it's taken a couple of weeks to kind of really get going. It's playing football is not like riding a bike. You know, you just don't get back on and everything is as normal, you know, it takes time. It takes timing. Of course, those are players who were on those teams in 2019. I mean, there's some different teams. Do you look at teams like. Winnipeg or Hamilton. Whatever team may be. They lost some players, you know, the free agency to NFL. And so that means they had to pick up some different players. So it takes awhile to build that continuity, that chemistry. It's not going to just happen over night. How much talent you have. Of course the defense. Is there going to be a little bit further ahead than all offenses? Because that's just all about effort and heart, but all offense that takes some time and it takes getting used to the scheme and everything. So things are up and running. Things are looking better each and every week. And I think this week. We're going to really send it, see some explosive. Teams and some players come out of this week. Any surprises. When they pick, shouldn't be a surprise how good they're doing so far, any teams that you're presently surprised with? How well the records are and how well they've been playing. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm not as well as an implant, but not as well, you know? Edmonton. I thought they would be a whole lot better than what we've seen. This was going to be the year for Trevor Harris. He had some weapons on the offense. A solid defense, but once again, he's showing that it is not just young, but that team is just showing so much inconsistency, you know, early on. They were my favorites. To represent the west. As far as the gray cup goes. And I said, Winnipeg, I don't think they had a chance because I didn't know exactly what's going to be. That's it exactly. As long as that gets healthy. There'll be in a gray cup and it's looking that way right now. But. At McKinney, they're a big surprise to me, the fact that they haven't been able to overcome. Their inconsistency is like, And passionate, but you know, they still have time. They're next throughout of the four games against Winnepeg. So, but so they better get it going. Yeah. I mean, you know, tons of turnover there, obviously new head coach, you know, A lot of veteran players go. I mean, we were tracking all that with the Derek Dennis's of the world. I mean, just too much going, leading into the season with all the off time to really get anything going. I mean, what do you think is to account for that? Well, and I hate to put it on one person, but in the CFL, we're such a quarterback driven league, you know? It comes down to the quarterback. As I alluded to, it's not all on him. You know, it takes other guys doing their job, but Trevor and he understands this I'm guarantee. You he'll be the first one to tell you. He has to be more consistent with his play. He can't do. What he did in a labor day, classic against Calgary, and then come back out in the next week. Last week, did what he did against. You have to be more consistent if you want to be considered an elite quarterback. And if you want your team to be considered legit. And right now they're just not doing that. So as I mentioned, he still has time. You know, we're going to try seventh week, but they have to position themselves. Now, if they want to not only get a good playoff spot, but just getting the playoffs because we know it's going to be tough. Coming towards the end of the season, as far as teams. Getting into the playoffs. Did anything strike you over the last weekend? Obviously the banjo bowl. I saw Andrew Harris. That's a new comments come out, kind of that big scuffle and everything. Cody. Being injured in anything from that big game, we did the big preview last week with everybody. And the whites talking about that just. It really seemed like he came to a head, all the frustrations. Yeah. Yeah. It's unfortunate. And, you know, as a former athlete, I understand. And even you may understand. If anybody understands when you're, when you're getting competition, you know, you're getting the heat. They're battling. You want to protect your teammates and understand all that. But some of that stuff that went on, you know, it's unfortunate and it's. No place. And it for professional sports, let alone football. Like I said, I can understand you're protecting your players. You're getting in the middle of it. But when you have projects being thrown, when you have helmets being slung off a players or the, when that helmet comes off, that's your protection. As long as helmets are on in football, you really can't do too much damage. Well, once that helmet comes off, that's where the damage can be done and not putting the spotlight on Andrew Harris. Do you know, the times I've talked to him. He's a great guy. The people. I've talked to him, asked about him. They always say he's a great guy, but that situation was unfortunate for both sides. And it was unfortunate that some players were kicked out and some players weren't kicked out. So hopefully that may lay as in the past we move on and we just get down to playing some football. Yeah, Cody. You know, the week before I took some hits, right? People were worried here. We have this franchise quarterback. You know, taking maybe. You know, really proudly running the ball. Right. Really wanting to get any action. Then obviously. Then the game last week, the concussion protocol, I guess he's seen some practice as of today. We're recording this a little earlier this week, but. Thoughts on him and, and, you know, as that franchise quarterback, but still having to kind of protect yourself and help your team. Without a doubt and, and I'll always tell people, you know, The tough player is good, but the smart player is the player that lasts long. And understand, you know, he wants to do whatever. He can do for his team to help them get those extra yards, those first downs, whatever. Be that tough guy, but I bought my franchise quarterback to be available. And to be available. You, you can't take all those hits. I don't care how tough you are mentally, physically. How much you live, you continue taking those hits and there's going to be some wear and tear on you. So hopefully he understands that because we know when he's at the top of his game. He's a really special player and that's good. Not only for the Saskatchewan rough riders were also for the CFL. As I mentioned before, this is a quarterback driven league and we need our top quarterbacks on the field. So hopefully he's able to play this week. As you said, he's going through. Concussion protocol and. They haven't said if, or if not, he's going to be planned this week, but hopefully he can play because they need him. And I need them at the top of their game for them to have an opportunity to compete and win some games. Yeah. They're going to have against Argonauts and thoughts on Chris Jones coming back to the league, I've seen a lot of excitement mixed. We react. You don't seem really excited. Some people that that's a little before our time with the league, I ate thoughts about Chris Jones coming back. I love it. I love it. Chris Jones. I know some people don't like the way he leaves things. He leaves left and right. He left the Calgary Stampeders. He left Saskatchewan. He left his high school. You know what Chris Jones is good. Cause, you know, people are talking about it. And when you're talking about things, You're talking about individuals in the CFL, good or bad. It's good because people are perking up and now they're interested. They want to see what Chris Jones is going to do. So I guarantee you, I have some people who may not have been interested in the CFL, but they want to see what Chris Jones is going to do. He's a character. He brings life to teams. Bring lives to players. Either he's one of the most polarizing figures you. You know, in the last decade and the CFL, so it was good to have him back. I'm excited to see what he's going to do this week. I think it's just a matter of time before that defense is here. I know this week. It won't be that way. He's still in quarantine because he's coming up from the states, but I'm excited to see Chris Jones back in having him back in the CFL. Yeah, I really don't know like what the Argonauts are. You know, it really seems like they came out strong, have struggled obviously last week with a, with a clutch win over the tiger cats, you know? Dan Evans going down, upset thoughts on Dean Evans and then kind of the Argonauts heading into this week. Yeah, it's unfortunate. As we talked about with. The Saskatchewan quarterback, you know, When you get hurt, it's difficult. The good thing about them. If he is healthy, they have a suitable backup in Jeremiah Mazzoli, but they were, they were rolling. They were doing pretty well. With Dana, it was a forest. They were struggling. That's a Rancho game. But up to that point, they were doing pretty well. Where am I think they were going to ride him out, but now he's out at least four to six weeks dealing with a lower body injury. They say it may be something. Core injury maybe, but they do have a suitable backup. If Jeremiah Mazzoli is healthy, as our, as far as Toronto goes, You know, Nick Arbuckle, is there a guy. You know, Dan witty brought him over. From Calgary, of course originally. They, they, they didn't have him there. He was with Ottawa, but I know he's happy to have him there. He knows that system, those two have some chemistry together, but he did ask to get gone. You know, he's still young. As far as his starting quarterback career goes. He still has to get gone. I think right now they're happy that their defense gets got going because that allows that offense time to get going. So they're excited about what they have the other excited about Chris Jones. And I know Ryan Dinwiddie pretty well. He's a very intelligent guy. Who's going to get the best out of his players and most important, he's going to get the best out of his eyes. As young quarterback and Nick. Are we worried about with Ms. LA coming back? I know he had had some rib injuries, you know, facing the Stampeders. Bo came back. How do you think Beau looked in his kind of re debut this season? And what do you make of that game coming into this week? He looked okay. He, he looked okay. And he'll be the first to tell you that he looked okay. He struggled. You know that that's not the bow we're used to seeing to some quarterbacks. No, that would have been okay. But for both standards, As I alluded to it will be the first. He didn't look well, you know, him and I, it was good to see him and Kumar Jordan make that connection and make some big plays, but he knows if they want to be able to compete with the, with the big dogs we're winning. And in some other teams. He has to play a lot better. So it's going to be interesting to see how they do this week. He's going to be here for another tough battle team. We're going to test him to see what he's made up, but I think you'll play better. How much better? I don't know. It remains to be seen, but he knows he has to play a lot better than that. If they want to get back to where they were. In previous years. Yeah. I heard a lot being made of him getting into a scuffle on the sidelines with the coach or whatever, then kind of bickering back and forth. I, it seems at least that would be a good thing to Bo would have that comfortability right. To kind of feel like he could voice his opinions and frustrations without a doubt. You're you're dealing with some alpha males. You. Dave Dickinson. He's the head coach and bully by Mitchell was a top-notch quarterback. So I'm sure that wasn't a big deal. But that probably happened more as all. More often. Than we know. We just don't see it all the time. Of course, it's good TV, but those guys that's what happens when you're dealing with someone you've been dealing with for years, you guys bump heads. Sometimes it's like being in a bear. Do you know, you're going to bump heads sometimes. But you understand the main goal and that's winning games. And those guys understand that I'm sure afterwards they had a laugh about it, but it may happen again. It's just part of the game and it's no big deal. I feel very confident in Winnipeg blue bombers against the Alex, just with everything we talked about earlier. Any other thoughts on that matchup and how. I feel like they're pretty gonna roll right over the [unknown]. They have a lot of momentum right now. They do, but with Trevor hair, she just don't know. What's Trevor Harris is going to show up. Is Dr. Jacquelyn, Mr. Hodge. Maybe another character in. You know, Trevor Harris. When he's on his game. He's one of the best. I mean, he has two great receivers at some other younger guys, great running back and JWJ, and when he's on his game, it's hard to stop him, but he just has to get on his game. If he's not on his game. You know, Winnipeg has held four of their six opponents under 10 points, and I can see them doing the same thing. If he's not on his game, but if he's on his game, He could go up there and put up 30, 40 points. So Trevor Harris mentally has to go out there and say, I'm going to go out here and get it down. Okay. When it picks how they've dominated in the past, I'm going to go out here and get it done. If he can have that mindset, he can get a good, early start. They can get Winnipeg to run for their money, but if not, Winnipeg is going to dominate and just mentally take Trevor Harrison out offense out of the game. Heading into game of the week. I would say we have the lions against the LLS. Yeah, we have, obviously the unfortunate in this. A head coach. Car Jones, you know? Testing positive. I tweeted at him. I said, yeah, I'm sorry to make your week. Even worse with a lion's victory on Saturday. You know, thoughts on, on that first off and having to go into the game without your head coach, right. Only doing the stuff via zoom. And then any thoughts on that matchup? I mean, the lions looked really, really good last week. I'll be at, against all the way, you know, it's not that. Now that a large. Thoughts on that. Yeah. It was still a professional team. So yeah. Now I won't take too much away from, but yeah. The lions dealing well, like what lucky a Whitehead is doing. He he's dominated not only on special teams, but also when he gets the ball in his hand. But speaking about the Allah wets. It's going to be a different situation, still Cari Jones. He's still trying to be able to call the game. From his, from his living room, or I don't know if they have the capability, the technology to do that, but he still wants to call the game because the guys behind him was going to be calling it. They haven't been in that position yet. And it's not an easy task when you're dealing with. You know, trying to make plays and make calls with 22nd play clock. And this is where the experience of burning out of that. Becoming a player is going to be sometimes where he has to say, okay, this is what I feel comfortable running, and this is what I'm going to run. So it's going to be a difficult situation. Can have the input, like he has like, like he hasn't. Pass. It past games when he's on the sideline. And I don't know how he's going to do that from. Comfort of his own home. It's going to be difficult, but the one thing they have going for them. Like in past years, even going back to a while he was coaching, it's been very difficult for the lions to win when they have to cross country. And play those alphabets. So in past years it has been difficult for him. So we have to wait and see what happens. But Vernon Adams is really going to have to use his experience. Being a starting quarterback. I know it hasn't been long, but he's going to have to really use that experience and say, okay, this is what feels comfortable for me. And this is what I want to run in these certain situations. It seems like, you know, they obviously have to buy last week. It seems like Vernon really rediscovered his love of throwing touchdown passes. Right. I mean, they really looked good the week heading into the bike and I think they won 51, the 14 or whatever it was. It is it's this like rollercoaster ride that some weeks that he looks really good, some weeks it does seem like his confidence is a little rattled, right? Yeah. Once again, not taking anything away from him. It was against autumn was so let's keep. Perspective, but no. It was good. Mint. It is different over that hump. I don't care how physically well you've done in the past when things aren't going well for you mentally. You need that confidence booster in the same seat. Got that. When he put up that big game against Ottawa, you could see afterwards. Motional. He was after the game in that interview. So that's good for him, but now he has to ride that momentum. And when he faces some adversity. He has to go back and think about the times where he did well and how he was able to overcome that adversity. So it will, we'll have to wait and see what happens as you mentioned, BC is playing some good football. So they're going to come in and, and try to continue that. So burn it out. Asked to go out there and have a good early start. And maybe that will allow him to continue. Building up that mental toughness. Yeah, just one final thought about BC, just you lucky white had really did. It seems like he huge game for him. I love the personality, right? Someone that you can build around market around right here, BC has a new ownership or, you know, we're trying to figure out how to kind of grow that. I, that is the kind of thing, having that, just such a tremendous star and personality coming in on the scooter. He's got the hat, everything. It just, it all really worked. Any, any final thoughts on BC before we wrap this up? Yeah. Yeah. You, you, you, you, you talk about. Lucky, but you can't forget, you know, Brian Burnham who's. Maybe the. As the best hands in the CFL, he's just a low key type of guy, but those guys have a great one, two punch. Mike Riley. Is doing well. You see that defense is starting to play better, so they're starting to put it together, but now it's going to be more of a challenge. Going against Montreal. Let's be honest. Ottawa offensively. You know, they're, they're challenged. So you, you can't play a game like that. Against Ottawa and come back and play a bad game. So they have to keep it together. Or they're trying to position themselves for a good spot. In the west. As far as the playoffs go, of course. Winnipeg is the cream of the crop, but. Who's ever that second spot is still up in the air. Statue on where he was holding it down, but they've lost two. So the BC lions have an opportunity to take full control of that second spot in the west. And it starts with this. This upcoming weeks. Battle against the mantra or otherwise. My last question for you that you've been so gracious. Thank you so much for your time. How great is it being back? Just kind of covering this, you know, I see you guys on the desk now going in and out of the games. Just football back fans back. What, what is everything been like? You know, just this last couple of weeks and really getting to get all the way back into this. Man, you know what? It's the greatest feeling in the world. I tell people all the time. I've never worked a day in my life. You know, I played professional football for 17 years. Now I get paid to watch and talk about football with some great group of gentlemen. And of course our wonderful leader. Lady Kate Burnett. So I'm just having a great time. I pinch myself every morning. I wake up the fact that I've been involved with the CFL since 1995. And. And the country of Canada and the way it's treated me. If I'd never, if I could never get an opportunity to call in. [Unknown] say I'm truly blessed. For the opportunities I have. So I have a break time, as I alluded to earlier is. Great being back in the studio, talking about CFL football with some great individuals. So I'm having a great time and hopefully I can continue doing this for another 10, 15 years at least. Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it would. I just thank you so much again for your time. I really appreciate it. I hope this will be a fun episode. And I know there's a lot of excitement, so thank you. I know you're a busy guy and flying out to do all this stuff, so I appreciate it. No, thanks for having me on and, and take care. And like I say, I got to get your milk. I can't have you with this. BC lions Jersey with milk. Thanks again, and we'll see you this weekend. All right, take care. Have a good one. Well, we have Mike Hogan here with the Toronto Argonauts. I will tell you, I was first of all, thank you so much for coming on. I have been going back and forth with our mutual friend, Jim Mullin about, you know, programming things. He's hanging out with BC lions, owner, Amar Domon and I say, Hey, you know, let's, let's get the hookup. And so I said, well, I'm so proud of the show I put together this week without his help. And I forgot that he actually was the one that put me in contact with you. So thank you so much for coming on. How are you doing Great. Thank you. And, and friend, me and Milan the acquaintance of business, I don't know acquaintance would work. I don't want to call my friend. He might take that, you know, doing that. I actually liked them. Yeah. And also partly the crown Gridiron nation, right. Is that Jim always wants to make sure that we talk about that entering into season nine or something. I saw him post the other day. Yeah, it really is good. And it's, it's been interesting to watch the progression where it was you know, just kind of the small, tiny thing from the west coast and every year it's gotten better. And then, you know, the, when the highlights and everything was rolling, it really started looking good. And, you know being able to to get on TSN finally has been a godsend for the show because it, it, it just helps tell the story of the great Canadian athletes we have playing in the states and the other great Canadian athletes who have stayed home to play sports football. So so many stories to tell, and we're just happy to be able to maybe have some fun with it, but also, you know, let people know about some of the players that normally they would hear about. Alright, well, thank you for coming on for doing all this busy week. It ended up kind of being for the Argonauts. You know, obviously we didn't plan all this. What do you make of, of Chris Jones and all the like, and, and it seems like a lot of attention going to the Argonauts right now. Chris Jones is not a member of the Argonauts. One thing you know, we had two coaches who made who made decisions early in the week and they are on they're on leave right now. And right now I can tell you that rich Stewart is going to be calling the signals on Friday night against Saskatchewan and Kevin Ivan has taken on a little more opportunity. And we'll, we'll be doing a little bit more with the defense obviously. And we'll be up top, I believe in, in Regina on Friday night. And, you know, as coach Jim, what he has said, they're talking to people about filling a role and you know, when, when something is ready to be announced I'm sure it will be it'll be pinball or Dinwoody making the announcement not. Yeah, no, absolutely. And like I said, you certainly wasn't anything that was planned ahead of time, but it was like, ah speaking of pinball, just first off, talk about what a breath of excitement that it seems like he brings. I mean, it has brought forever, but to the organization, I've heard him now on many media appearances, as you know, as the GM what, what has that brought to the fan base? You know, we've had people on, in the past with the Argonauts about building the fan base, right, building the excitement, what has he done to help kind of rejuvenate that Every franchise and sports has that guy. That seems to be the one at the top of the food chain, whenever you're talking about who the best representative of that organization is. And with the Argonauts, it's my Clements, a pinball did everything you could ask for as a player carried the football more than any player in the history of pro football. When you, when you take all purpose, yardage into account. And then, you know, what a great cup as a coach and then as an executive and was the president of the team and is absolutely beloved by everybody in Toronto, whether they're an Argo fan or not like, even if you have the folks in town who just wouldn't know two players on the Argos, they know who pinball Clemons is, and they will immediately say something nice about them. That's who he is. Everybody should be so lucky as to have Mike Clemons as their boss to come in and give you that high five first thing in the morning or the hog, or, you know, now the, now the elbow more than anything else in these times, but you know, everything you hear about Mike Clemons is true. The one thing that might not be appreciated enough by those who don't know, Mike is how competitive he is and how much he wants to win. And that's obvious every day he's trying to make the Argonauts better on and off the field. Okay. That's good. Speaking of, you know, the organized, winning big win last weekend, you know, right against Hamilton, he came down to the wire, obviously with the, you know, unfortunate injury to Dean Evans. What have you made? It really has been, you organize came out. We were high on McCloud, mental Thompson. We proclaimed him the king of the CFL. You know, then obviously we got pulled. Now we have Nick Arbuckle. W where did we made the Argonauts thus far heading in now to week seven? Oh, I think that the defenses is still a little bit ahead of the offense. And, you know, when you, when you take a team that had watched 75 new players, roughly going into camp this year, and the fact that there were no exhibition games this year preseason games, essentially that game against Hamilton was, was third game that everybody had played. And some times I think people are expecting way too much, too early. The defense has been great. It's the best team in the league against the run. The, the late touchdown that Hamilton score to 21 row 21 yard run by Shawn Thomas Earlington was the first touchdown on the ground. The Argos have given up all year, and it was the first run of 20 or more yards. The Argos had given up a whole year. So defensively, they fly to the football. The, the, the, the secondary is phenomenal defensive lines, doing what it's asked to do, linebackers fly around out there. They're fun to watch. And every week you see the offense getting a little bit better, a little bit better, and sometimes it's coming in spurts. It's not consistent yet, but again, that was week three with a bunch of guys who've never played with one or another for the most part. So I'm really anxious to see what this team is like, come play off time, because if this team has progressed to this point so far from scratch, I can't wait to see what it can do with another 10 weeks under its belt. Yeah. And obviously, you know, we had the whole thing with the Elks and I don't want to get into all that, but just like not having a regular, you know, we're playing the game, we're practicing. We have these biweekly, whether we doing we're traveling you know, we got to reschedule that game now for later. I mean, it just hasn't been the most straight forward the path so far for the team, right? No, I mean, I mean, the other thing that's been amazing when you look at the team's record, which is three and two right now, when I saw the schedule come out, I went got open and calibrate. That's not easy, then it's home and home against Winnipeg. Okay. Then we play Edmonton, the team that a lot of people, the preseason said was going to win the Stanley cup and then a home and a home with Hamilton. And then we go to Regina. You know, if you look at that and said two and five, a lot of people, I said, okay, that's that looks okay. We're already three and two, we're playing with house money. If that was your, your, your aspect. I know nobody in the organization was thinking that, but when you did look at that schedule coming out, it was like, oh boy, well, a bunch of guys who haven't played together before this is going to be rough and to be Winnipeg, to beat Hamilton. I thought the scoreboard was probably flattering in each one of those instances that, you know, the Argos left some points on the board and both of those games and, you know, continue to shoot itself in the foot, in the, in the Hamilton game and still came up with, with a win. So the team is in a pretty good spot right now considering what the schedule has been like of the game. And Regina is the last time we have to go west everything now was a home game or handled to Montreal or Ottawa. So the schedule is a lot more favorable. We got four road games out of the way already. So again, the time, if they can come up with a win and Regina and make it two in a row and continue to get that ball rolling, that's a, it's a pretty good place to be in. Well, you know, and even, even with, you know, the blue bombers, right. And being able to kind of hand, hand them their, their one L so far. I mean, obviously there seems to be a lot of good things going for the team right now. Yeah, I agree. And you know, when you look at the number of guys on the injured list right now, I mean, you could have a front four of Shane Ray and Cordero law and, and Nevis, and I'm missing somebody. There's four guys on there who could start for most teams and be, oh, Coney Eley. And it's a, it's a pretty good front for, and, you know, bear woods, hasn't played a game this year and Robinson Daniel's been her. It is an on and on and on president Butler missile. The last game Archon Koons spin out or offensive line. Our best lineman in camp was Isaiah cage. He's he got hurt. And that's, long-term Jawan Brusca son. So when you look at all of the guys who were expected to be contributors to this team or out and when they start coming back the rich are all gonna get richer You know, heading in here now, right. Where we're taking on Saskatchewan, they're coming off some struggles, right. You know, this week we Cody for Georgia. I mean, I think we're expecting he's going to play. I saw the last, you know, the Dickinson saying, you know, he he's feeling good, looking good. What, what are we making this matchup? You know, Saskatchewan looks so dominant. And then obviously the double losses to Winnipeg, what are we kind of making of that? Well, it never will. I get a team coming off, you know, an embarrassing loss to it's our tribal because you know, they're going to have a pretty rough week and want to get out there and show that that was that was a mistake, much like, you know, it was a short week after labor day for the Argos. Nobody took that loss in, in Hamilton as decisive as Alamos lightly. And couldn't wait to get back on the field and I'm sure the writers are feeling the same way that they just want to get back out and in front of their home crowd show that that was a one-off on in the banjo bowl. So that's going to be tough. It's going to make the first quarter very tough. And should a Saskatchewan come up with some points early, that's going to fuel the fire a little bit more with that crowd. So maybe silencing them and getting out to a lead early might be the thing that the doctor can best prescribe for the Argonauts on Friday, but it's a good team, you know, whether Cody's a hundred percent or not I think everybody's prepared to play against them. Like you say, you know, when, when, when he went out and practiced on Tuesday, I was like, okay, good job was going to be the guy. And if he's not, that's fine. Yeah. It's just, he's it just adds just a totally different layer to that team. I mean, I just don't even know what that looks like this year. He's just been such a presence, you know, as in the offense and making things happen when it doesn't seem like there's a place to, you know, to even make it happen. And I, I don't know. I have to imagine that, yeah, there was sighs of relief, you know, when they saw him come out and, and looking good heading into the weekend. So, You know, you, you never want to see you got hurt. Like Dana Evans got hurt at the end of the game against Hamilton. Nobody wants to see that you want to see the guys go out and play their best and beat their best. And you know, anybody who's been around the sport of football knows that that injury sock and they, they, they, it, it, it's not a contact sport. It's a collision sport and stuff like that happens. I'm really happy for Cody. I really am. I mean, he played here in Toronto and was never going to see the field just with the death card, aside from the short yardage stuff. And I, you know, this has katchewan fans don't want to remember his quarterback sneak in 2017, that one, these final, and got the Argos to the grey cup against the riders. But, you know, I, I I'll throw that in there, but you know, I, I will be the first to admit, I didn't see this coming for Cody and I'm thrilled for him. I love stories where guys come out of nowhere, you know, maybe with Cloris people expected it with drover Harris, people expected it. I don't think anybody expected Cody B to become as good as he was last or 20, 20 19, and really happy for him. I love his perseverance and the fact that he's been able to play. I'd love to see him out on the field on Friday, because first and foremost, I want them to be healthy. Speaking of Dean Evans, going down, right. Hamilton, I want to do briefly kind of touch on these other match-ups just to kind of get your thoughts on it. I trying to goose David Watford, right. Is that the starter now for the, Well, if it was only, he's not ready to go, but he'd be, they'd be next guy up. Yeah. Well, I just saw it. Yeah. Today. I think they said they they're nailing a watt for this, that as a starter. What do you make of that? You know, obviously bow comes back, looked good. It didn't seem like Calgary had it all going right last week. What do we make of this matchup kicking off tomorrow night? Well, it depends if it is the newbie. I mean, he didn't get any warmup at all after Dan got hurt and he didn't look good. So with another week under his belt I assume taking the number one reps, he'll, he'll be a lot better than he was. He just, he just didn't look ready against the Argos. And it's tough when you're QB three, all of a sudden, and QB is one and two are out and you're thrown to it without very many reps. That's not an easy situation to be in. So I expect him to be better, but, you know, calender has got something to prove. The games between Calgary and Hamilton are always entertaining. It doesn't matter if one team's up one team's down, they really usually put on a pretty good show and that's, that's exactly what we're expecting. And of course, in our gold land, we're all hoping for Calgary. When The episode today, we're focusing a little bit about the BC lions. I have a, I have a wager going with the guys over at the outlets flight deck podcast. He, I feel very good about the lions. Even though they're traveling across the country, all of these things it really did seem like a coming home party last weekend for the lions, right? Like 45 points. I mean, I was having the best night of my life. It can veer it's whether we making of this. And should I be worried about my wager against the guys over there? Are there points involved or is this just straight up? We have to change. I have to update our Twitter profile, two alphabets, a logo, and we, if we lose, but because I want, I want to be Albert's flight, deck podcasts, and number one outlets, podcasts that would BC lions logo on it for a week. That was the wager. I'm really looking forward to this game because these are two teams. I just can't figure out how good they are. And, you know, one for y'all I'll admit in 2019 Montreal blew me away without good though. Cause I didn't see that coming at all. And now that the expectations were a little bit higher you know, I think still people are where everybody we're looking at Hamilton as being the beast of the east and kind of looking at the Argos and Alawites and saying, okay, now what? And I think we've got a pretty good handle on, on who we are and now it's getting a chance to see Montreal. We have our, our next home game is a week from Friday against Montreal. And I can't wait for that one. I mean, not trying to look past Saskatchewan at all because that's going to be a lot of fun, but you know, I really am intrigued to see what Montreal is all about. Likewise, BC. So, you know who came out and had that really weird first week game against Saskatchewan, that I still can't figure out for the life of me, but made it very entertaining and that receiving court and you know, lucky Whitehead now back there returning kicks holy smokes it looks like a team that's going to be able to score from anywhere on the field. And if you're playing them, that's always gotta be a concern. Okay. That would be good. I I'm, I'm, I'm scared now that I saw the CFL the staff, the cfl.com pics came out and it's mostly favoring the alphabets, but then if you look at their their, how well they've done most team, you know, most of the writers, you know, including friend of the shutout Steinberg, you don't have a losing record for picks. So I'm hoping that I'm hoping that we're going to be okay. Yeah. Just look at whatever mat cause beds that the opposite that's, that's, that's my best advice. That's good. Obviously, you know, Winnipeg, right. They're running away with everything right now, you know, just came off a wonderful double weekend. The Elks, you know, also have looked strong lately, right? Well, I guess they, they lost it the stamps last week, but, but, but I really had that, that showing the week before, it seems like maybe are they getting something going, whether we making of the, of the Elks and the blue bombers, oh, Well, Bloomberg bobbers or the blue bombers. Right. you know, w we went out there in week three and they put a pretty good looking on us and, you know, the 120 yards in penalties certainly didn't help when you're, when you're playing a team that tough to beat in their building to begin with. And then, you know, a week later they came to Toronto and I think the total yards was something like four 60 to two 50 in the Argos favor. So, you know, their, their team is beatable. They're an exceptionally good team, but I, I don't think that there's that team this year that has separated themselves from everybody else. You know, there's no, I don't think there's a 96 Argos or a Flutie arrow stamped Peters out there, or Warren mood Eskimos out there. I think there's a, there's a good chance that anybody can win on any. I know it's a cliche and I hate doing that to you, but, you know, any given night in the CFL team could win as the Elks. I mean, they lost the Ottawa and, and, you know, Ottawa seems to have the most work to do right now among any team in the CFL. But they beat Edmonton. So strange things can happen. And I don't really get surprised, you know, at any point when a team wins in this league, because, you know, if, if Winnipeg is a consensus, number one, I don't know if they are or not, but if that's the way they're going and Ottawa is the number nine team in the league, the teams between them, I think are all capable of winning again on any given night. But then again, you know, you look at that coaching staff you know, they didn't expect, you know Matt Nichols to have the arm problem that he's obviously going through. So they've, they've had to adjust on the fly and they lost some guys just before camp opened to, to unexpected retirements. And, you know, it might be some tough sledding, but, you know, w w with LA police up there and poach Benevidez up there, they've got some guys who've seen a lot in this league and they're going to be as well prepared for any team on any given night. And, you know just, you know, it was tough watching that game in BC because I think a fan of any team in this league has been in that situation where you're on the wrong end of a, of a bad score, 2019 as obesity fan you'll remember your home game against us. That was not fun to watch. And maybe the tweet of the year from Adam Kruger or social media guide, who at halftime, you know, it's a late game, obviously a Saturday night game in the east actually tweeted out. I wonder, who's on SNL tonight. So we've all been in that situation where your favorite team goes through a night or a couple of nights like that. So the auto will bounce back. It's just a question of when Yeah, I, I w Toronto killing it with the social media right across the board. I feel like that is right. The, where the bullet number one, social media presence, restaurants, Ranking, that's it. And undisputed Adam Kruger's number one. I will die on that hill. Yeah. I it's interesting. Yeah. It's interesting, you know, interacting with these teams now and, and, and w you know, we're working with BC. I think we finally have gotten some inroads there, so it should be good, but it's, it's a, it's a slog. And it's interesting to see who, who picks up the mantle, be at Toronto without a doubt, the best obviously, you know, you have a stakes in one of these games so far, I'll let you go a game of the weekend that you're most looking forward to. It is okay if it's Argos, but I would generally like to know what you think is going to be the most exciting game of the weekend. Oh. From an outsider I always look forward to Calgary Hamilton. I just cause there's, something's gonna happen in that game. You know, for purely selfish interests, obviously Friday night is, is going to be, the second game is going to be the one. So Friday, night's going to be a fun night in front of the television. I'm sure that I will have enough enough junk food to get me through the night and with the late night game enough soft drinks and sugar. So I'm going to be really unhealthy on Saturday morning. Hopefully I'll be doing it with a smile on my face though. Yeah, no, the, the, yeah, the double Friday, Saturday right now, it seems to work. It's not wonderful for my wedding schedule. I'm ended up watching a lot of these scams on delay, but, you know, that was why I was into the XFL. Cause it was, it was February to April. That's my off season. It was wonderful times, but yes. I, I think How many hours did you spend last Saturday in front of the television For the, for the nine Hour CFL marathon? I watched the BC game. I couldn't talk my wife into, I watched Hamilton on Friday. I watched BC and full on Saturday. I could not talk. We have that friend's child's birthday party. I had to miss the I actually missed the manageable and watched a lot of it on replay. So yes, We have dinner around that time. So it was kind of out of hand. And the second half I made it to the end of the BC auto a game though, I was proud of myself. Yeah. It's one of those, you know, when we have Thursday, when we have Friday, we have Saturday and Sunday and Monday is very, it's like, okay, we got all that I would do at all, but yeah. So you know how it is. It's happy, happy house. So we got that. We have the VMs Mike, this has been delightful. Thank you so much for coming on. I hope we can keep you in the Rolodex and talk some more Argos here, coming up in the future. Really enjoyed it. Despite the Jamal and connection. I know we, we, we, we, now we can go between the ourselves. We don't have to hold that against me. Okay. Yeah, we'll go. We'll, we'll circumvent and we'll go outside of that. So Mike, good luck this weekend and I hope that it's a success. I, I, I maybe, maybe Roughriders just on a downward slide. Maybe they don't win again. We'll we'll say you're a lions fan. You have to drew for the Argos on Friday night. I am cheering well, I'm cheering for friends of the show. So I'm sharing a friend of the show, then I will cheer for the Argos. So thank you so much. Appreciate it. Yeah. Well, well, Guilio Caravatta, we have you here. I will tell you, this is the third interview I've done for this episode, but I, it is the most excited. We have the voice of America CFL team to BC. Thank you so much for coming on. How are you doing? Yeah, I'm very good. Thank you very much for having me appreciate it. This is exciting. I mean, this, you know, cause we're working in, you know, we, we were doing the Alex thing for a little bit mistakenly. Now it turns out today with Trevor Harris being out. Maybe I really got off the train on the good time. And now we're. With BC, how has everything been going so far this season for you? It's been great. I think, you know, for all of us, I would imagine that players obviously it's been a very, very different year, you know, with COVID and training camp and. You know, the isolation and tier one and tier two and all that stuff. And even when you travel, it's different. So, you know, the same as for us, like [unknown]. You know, we're all creatures of habit. I've been doing this a long time. So. You know, it, it takes you out of a, kind of a routine that you have, but it's like everything else, like we've all learned to adapt. We all learn to kind of abide by what the new rules are and, and we, you know, do the best with what we have in front of us. And I won't lie. It's it's been exciting. This has been an exciting year in the sense that I think the lions. Have, you know, a really young, exciting team. So up to this point, I think. They, you know, pretty much I think outside of, you know, that first half in Saskatchewan and I'm sure everyone would agree. Like they, they laid a bit of an egg against Edmonton, but you know, pretty much all the games have been exciting. They're good. They're young. And I think that the future looks very bright for this team. Yeah. Yeah. I was looking at your Wikipedia and everything setting us up. I mean, you've been broadcasting right for years now, right? I mean, a really long time have obviously gone through a ton of different teams and players and owners and stuff. I mean, Doesn't really seem with Arma. Mar DOMA and coming on, right with the new ownership. I just literally, before you came on, the lions announced and you give away at the home game. That'll be next week, right? Whenever they're back home then. Yeah. Next week. I I tweeted, I go, please sell me one of those. I wonder. I want to buy it, support that we're going on the 16th, but I mean, just talk about the excitement that is going on with this franchise now. Yeah. Well, as you said, you know, it was, it was a long time that David Brayley. You know, own the team and, you know, he was looking to sell the team and unfortunately, you know, Mr. Brayley passed away, I think, you know, I I've got nothing but great things to say about Mr. Brayley. I was, I was fortunate enough to play under him. And I know a lot of my broadcasting career was with him as the owner, but. You know, Amar Dallman is exactly what this team needs. Right? He's young. He has a level of excitement. I think he really has a plan. Moving forward on what he thinks needs to happen with this football team, especially in the stands and with the fans. You know, he's he, he just, like I said, he, he brings a level of excitement. Everybody that I talked to who was at the game last week. You don't. They just say what a good time they had. It was a great vibe. It was exciting. It was, it was just, it was just a really good vibe in the stadium. And I think that's what you're going to see. You're going to see him really try to get to the young people. Get that younger. Generation back in the stadium, however, he can get them in the stadium and get them excited about Canadian football. And we all talk about. The fact that this league I think has missed out on a generation, right? They've. They've missed out on that younger generation that. You know, they just let slip by and now they have to regain those young kids. And so getting them to the stadium, getting them exposed to the, to the game. And now too, like with the swag and with giveaways and all that kind of stuff, he wants to get kids in lions t-shirts and wearing lion's hat. Like your great hat and gray Jersey that you have on. So. Yeah. So there's a level of excitement that, that, that he's brought to the team. And, you know, I said this. When he took over the team is that he is a guy that is, is exactly what Mr. Brayley wanted. He is local. He has local connections. When he calls his friends, when he calls people in the business community, they're going to call him back. Because he's that well-respected in the community. And. You know, I think you're going to see a lot of those businesses, all jump on board. And when you have that kind of local. You know, investment in the team. Then it's going to be successful. You would be amazed this. This is actually a custom. One of our listeners sent this to me. This is a custom, it says mark cast on the back. Nice. So, I mean, the, the, the excitement is growing, you know, I heard from Matt baker, you know, with, with the BC lions. Yeah. We're going to be having some schwag coming our way. I think we're going to, I feel like that the lions are getting on board with that, you know, promoting even our small little bit that we're doing, but you know, really just trying to get the word out there, get the excitement. It does feel good that I even have people on Twitter message me, like when we saw the giveaway and they go, man, this is something that other teams should be doing. Right. I mean, I know Edmonton did a little bit of that at the beginning of the season. With the Jersey or the t-shirts right. Yeah, but like, just like, this is the kind of stuff that we need to be doing more and more, and it can't just be one thing, but you know, trying to create that snowball effect. Are you, are you feeling that in the community that the excitement since. And you honor. Well, you know, I read, I'll tell you too, that like I coach, I coach at the high school level, I helped one of my friends, coaches, Centennial high school here in Coquitlam. And, you know, I know that the kids are asking me more about, Hey, about the lions and Hey, I heard it was a good game or I watched the game and that's, those are the baby steps that need to happen. Right. Those are the baby steps. And so, you know, when you have that kind of grassroots, Where you're where you're talking about the game. And now the next step is to get those kids to a game. And I know Mr. [unknown]. It's talking about, you know, busing, these amateur groups down into the stadium and getting the kids in the stadium and that's where it all starts. So. That to me is the one thing over the years that I wish that, you know, Mr. Brayley would have done more of was get more that younger generation and, and, and Mr. Dolman, I think realizes the importance of it and is going to do everything he can to get them into the stadium. Speaking of the games. We had a wonderful showing last weekend against the red blacks. Right. It to me as close to when I am taken from this earth. Right. And I go to heaven. I want to see something like that game that the lions play. What was the excitement following that game? And what were your thoughts on the game? Well, I think from a personal standpoint, I think what really impressed me was the fact that the lions played 60 minutes. Right. They played from start to finish. They had great energy early on, and that was all set up by the, you know, the great return by rainy to start the game. But I think as far as a complete game, offense, defense, special teams and the contribution that all three of them made. Really stood out to me. So, you know, a lot of people will say that all was the auto red blocks and Baba listen. This is professional football. Those guys get paid. You got to take care of business when you can take care of business. And that's, that's the bottom line. And so it doesn't matter who your opponent is when you're a championship caliber team, you take care of business when it's in front of you. And the lions were able to do that. So. I think that we saw what the lions I think are capable of. Now it's all about that level of consistency, right? It's about doing that. Each and every week, and I know every coach strives for that kind of performance, but I think Rick, Campbell's gotta be happy. You got to remember something to read. Is that. This is a young team. Especially on defense. You know, they have all those young defensive linemen. They have, you know, a couple of defensive backs. In Kiati harden and Jalen, Edward scooper that are rookies. You got Jordan Williams, that's a rookie. And then you've got five or six defensive linemen that are in their first year in the Canadian football league. That's a lot of, that's a lot of first beside a lot of names. So, you know, to be where they are, especially defensively. It's been very impressive and offensively. I think, as you see Mike Michael rally get healthier. You're going to see this offense become more and more dangerous. And when you got rainy and you got lucky Whitehead back there, you know, your special teams is, is capable of hurting you or helping you at any time. Yeah. Michael Riley. I think it was right. He tied his record right. For four TD passes and then they kept him in the game longer. Cause I really think he wanted to beat his record. Right. Kind of your takeaway from that? Well, you don't mean, I think Mike's a competitor. And the other part is, is that you got to remember something that. Mike's not practicing very much. Right. Like if you go to Alliance practice, you mean he's still limited during the week. Like he doesn't throw very much. So I think the more game reps that he gets, the better. I, you know, I mean, I would have liked to have seen him maybe come out a series earlier than that. But, I mean, that's, you know, again, we're talking about very, very competitive people that don't want to. You don't miss out on those opportunities. And, you know, for all of us who watched the game and, and, and, you know, our, our armchair quarterbacks, you know, we're all say, oh yeah, you should have been taken out of the game, but again, you know, Mike's I get he's a competitor. He wants to play. He wants to be, he wants to be out there. So yeah, I got no problem with that. Yeah. It's like when they talk with Cody vagina though, right. And he's running the ball and dive in and staff and they go. Don't do that, make them once a competitor in me. Right. Yeah. For sure. You mean that's exactly. These guys are, are aware. They are for a reason, right? They're highly competitive, highly skilled. And it's. And when you talking about. The game is being played at such a high speed and high level. Those are all just reactionary things that they do because that's what they've been doing, their whole lives. So, you know, I, I know that. You know, having been around players like that. And I was like that as well. You don't want to get taken out. You want to play, you want to compete. And however skills, whatever skill set you bring to the table, you want to, you want to showcase that. Speaking of what we've had, the lucky Whitehead, how big of a star? Is he becoming, I feel like he is kind of this young hip. It's coming to the stadium. He's got the scooter, he's got the hat. But then he also backs it up on the field. Right? I mean the NFL, we have the whole Juju thing and I can't stand that if someone does all this stuff and then gets blown out, but you know, he comes in, does his thing. And then you know that the touchdown run, right? The kick return run back. Late grade. I mean, talk about. I star like him really trying to re revitalize that interest as well. Yeah. Well, I think that he's, you know, he's part of what that new generation wants. Like you say, he showed up in an electric scooter he's bombing around. He's definitely got a certain swag to him that I think a lot of people, you know, really, really like, but most importantly, I mean, he, he's a dynamite player. Like, he's very, very dynamic. Like when they first signed him, I thought, oh yeah, you don't, they're going to have that guy that you can give the ball on jet sweeps and screens and all that stuff. I didn't realize. How good a route runner he is like as a receiver. And so. That's the part of his game that has really, really impressed me because all the other stuff I knew he could bring to the table. But when you have a guy who's, that brings that skill set to your offense, he makes them Seoul so dangerous. And. E w the, the lines are lucky to have him. The fans are lucky to have him because he's one of those players that when you put the ball in his hands, however you get it into his hands. He's got an opportunity to make it, you know, To bring it to the house. And when you got a guy like that, it brings people up onto their feet and excited every time he's out on the field. So here we go. We're traveling across the country, right? We're taking on the Alawites. Now I have made a bat with the alphabets flight deck podcast or the Alawites podcast that if, if we, if the BC lions, when they have to put the BC lions logo on their Twitter page, If we win. Or, you know, the other way, whenever I have to put an aloe let's, you know, Because right now, I have my face with the BC lions. How do we feel about my wager and the lions? Well, you know what? This is going to be a heck of a test. And, and, and the reason I say that is that. First, anytime that you go on the road, it's difficult. Anytime you travel from the west to the east, it's difficult. But I look at both these teams and the kinds of teams that they have. They're they're they're good. D are they're good defensively. They get after the quarterback, they have good quarterback play. I'd say the lions probably have a little bit more consistency. At the quarterback position, Vernon Adams is still, you know, when he's on spectacular. Yeah. But when he's, when, you know, when he struggles, he can really struggle. So what, as far as like, The test that quarterback. The lions defense is going to get this is, it doesn't get any harder than this. Like, Vernon. If he starts moving around with his feet and running. He can hurt you. A number of different ways, hurts you with your feet. Hurt you with his ability to create time and space. And then you can throw the football from the pocket. They can run the football with Steinback. And that is another thing that, you know, the, the lions have to worry about. So there's a lot of, there's a lot of weapons there that, that can hurt you. And defensively Amando cul who moved over from Edmonton to Montreal. In the middle of that defense, you mean I have. I have been a very, very big fan of Amando from day one. I think he is probably one of the most disruptive defenders that's out there. He can change the game because of his ability to get into the quarterback's face and, you know, force the quarterback into changing where they throw the ball from. And he, with his presence in defense as well is that you have to double team him. And in some cases, triple team him. Which puts the other guys on an island. So they now are one-on-one and so you've got to really hope that those guys can step up and do their jobs. So this is, this is going to be a heck of a test for them. I'm really looking forward to this game because I think it has the potential to be a really, really exciting game, given both offenses and what they're capable of. So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to as much y'alls. A great road trip anyways, for, for me personally, outside of the five-hour. Plane ride that, that, that, that, that it takes. I love going to the city. It's a fantastic city and it's a great venue to watch a football game from. And yeah, I'm super excited about the, about this week's matchup. Well, you're kind of scaring me now. I might have to go call Tim and Cliffy. No, it's good. I just briefed that, you know, I don't want to keep it all day. I so appreciate your time. No, no. That's okay. On some of the other games here. Right? So, you know, obviously we have the Winnipeg, you know, steam rolling, everything. He just came out right before you came on. You know, Trevor Harris has been placed on a six game injured reserve list. I, I assume that means Taylor Cornelius of XFL fame, right? With the, with the Vipers. Thoughts about, about that? I think the Elks were probably the underdogs anyway, in that. And now, especially with the Trevor Harris news, any updated thoughts on the blue bombers and Elks? Well, I would say that if you lose Trevor Harris, that that's going to be a big, big hit to you. You mean he's, he's got experience. He's got. You know, he's, he's got that experience as, as, as, as an elite quarterback in this league and all like, he he's, he's been to the big game. He's won the big game. So. You know, I'm a, I'm a big guy. I'm a big Trevor Harris. I would say big fan, but I like the way he goes about and does his business. But anytime you lose your starting quarterback in this league, it's going to hurt you. And when you're playing arguably the best team in the Canadian football league and the Winnipeg blue bombers. I would imagine that. The money on, on the, on the blue bombers is gonna, it's gonna skyrocket with this game. They're very, very good. All the way around. They're well coached. They get after the quarterback. And, and I would imagine that. The Winnipeg blue bombers are gonna are going to be all that Edmonton can handle. We have the Stampeders going on right at Dean Evans, you know? On all these teams, right. I mean, thank God we got to protect Michael rally. I mean, this is. Yeah. Yeah. I will say this they'll read. Nathan Rourke's the real deal. And the other thing works, the real deal. Like I know that he's young and the expectation, you know, I like to temper my expectation, but everything that I've seen or that kid in practice. I think the lines feel very, very comfortable with him running the show. So, but as you're right. I'm knocking on wood or knock on wood that, that Mike Riley stays healthy. Yeah. You know, Dan Evans is going down and they announced, right. David Watford is going to be helming for the tire hats. I think that was going to be an uphill battle anyway, with her. You know, with injuries and things. And what do we think about the stamps and the tiger cats? Well again, I mean, the stamps are a different team with bull Levi in there, obviously. From a confidence standpoint, but, but. Mirror really, really kind of impressed me. Right. He was, he was, he was good. Like, you know, for a kid that's a rookie to do what he did, especially after the start that he had. I think he went at two or three interceptions, not one half, and then really settled himself down after that. But again, like the calories. They're they've they're just so well coached. And so well-prepared. Right. You know? That they're going to show up and they're going to play the good discipline football and there they're going to be in the game unless something really tragic happens. And again, if David Watford is going to be the starter. You mean, he's a guy like last week was, was, you know, on the bench. Right. And there's a reason why. And I don't mean that with any disrespect, but I mean, he's the third quarterback. Right? And so now all of a sudden you're being. You know, you're being pushed into that starting role and. You know, I always say this, that. There is no substitute for game speed. And that reality of when you get into a game mean, things move a lot faster than what you're used to. So. I would imagine that Edmond or excuse me, Calgary's really gonna test him with that. They're going to go after him. Forced them into making reeds, making, getting rid of the football and that's, that is going to be the difference in the game. If Dave Laufer can. You can put. If he can put together and stay composed and get rid of the football, then you know, that's. There we go. What happened there? Like if somebody called me and I tried to shut them off and it went onto my iPad, I think it's okay. My bad. Sorry about that. Power of editing the two seconds. Okay. You were talking about and we're almost done anyway. You were talking about David Wofford. Yeah. Well, so yeah, so. So David's going to have his hands full, right. And. That's the, the, the, the one thing about, you know, professional football is that when you get to this point and you get your opportunity. You know, they're going to test you defensively. They're going to, they're going to put pressure on you. They're gonna make sure that you are able to make the right read at the right time and get rid of the football. So they're not going to make things easy for them. And. You know, Dave having been a former quarterback, I think he knows. The things that you have to do in order to disrupt the quarterback like that. So, You know, and, and I'm sure that Hamilton is going to try to use David Walker. I know that he can run a little bit and, and, and move around. So I think they'll probably try to use that to their advantage, but I know that Orlando Steinhauer in the mud or the Hamilton tire cats are probably. Getting very frustrated at, at their luck. Right. They just can't seem to there. They lose guys injuries. And especially at the quarterback position, it's really hurt them. Yeah. I mean, that was the thing is Ms. Only went down, Evans looked like this revitalization. Of everything and they just seemed like they were cruising. And now. You know, it's hard. It's challenging enough to go to QB, to, to go to the QB. Three it's like, yeah. Yeah. It's hard. Right. It's hard. And the thing is too, is like, I know, like with the limited roster and the way that the practices are now, like when I'm out at the lions practice, you know, Nathan Rourke is taking all the wraps because they only dress two quarterbacks. So you really can't prepare a third quarterback, right? It's it's, especially with the limited time. So. It really, really puts a strain on your team when you have to get to that point. And it also. You know, I think this is worth, worth noting because I think it's very prevalent in this league is that, and I think you could use Jovanka toy as an example. That you know, A lot of times guys, when they get to this level, they're so used to being starters and so used to playing at whatever level that they came from. That when they get put on a practice roster or they don't play. That they kind of like, oh, you know, they're disappointed and, and all that kind of stuff. And. But that's really when the worldly real work begins because, you know, This season. Well, now it's, this is a shortened season at 14 days, but normally the 18 regular season games. You don't know when you're going to get your opportunity. Right. You might get it in week one, you might get it a week 10, or you might get it in a week 16 when your team really needs you. You better be prepared. Right. You better be ready to go. And I think Jovanka toy for the lions is a great example of, of a young kid who has been around, but, you know, I was played limited, but then when he gets the opportunity to step in. Man he's he's right there. He knows every position and he steps right in and has the quarterback's trust because he's, he's he's knows his job. And the same for a quarterback, right? Like, I know how easy it is because I've been in that position that when you're the third quarterback, You got to prepare like you're the starter and it can be hard because you know, you know, 99.9% of the time, you're not going to play. But it's so important to be prepared and you really, really see that from some of these young quarterbacks, when they get these opportunities, how prepared they are. So it'll be interesting to see what David Watford brings to the table. It's just hard. You know, we have a lot of friends of the show, a lot of kickers, right? A lot of special teams guys and how they have to keep themselves in shape all year and mentally be ready to go. I mean, it's just, I just couldn't imagine, like, you know, having to stay in physical shape and then also mentally these quarterbacks I gave off. Yeah. I mean, it was the next thing, you know, you know, you're in the game, right? Spotlight. Yeah, you're absolutely right. And, and again, like, Hey, you, you can, you can go out and, and line up and, and, you know, go to a field and, and throw all you want and kick all you want or do all those things. It's and that's great. You have to do that because that's, those are really sometimes all your only options, but. You know, when you get into a game. When you feel that pressure and anxiety for the first time or, or, you know, you haven't, you haven't felt that in a while. It can be, you know, it can be the thing that really tips the scales, right. That you're not used to the pressure and the anxiety that come with being in a game and. As I said, your team really, really needs you to be able to step up and, and do your job. And so for a lot of these guys, these that's. They don't get many of these opportunities, right? If you go in there and really don't know what you're doing, and don't know where to go with the football, because we've been practicing this, or we've been talking about this and we get into a game and you don't do it. You mean that your career can be over pretty quick. Any, any thoughts about Roughriders Argos before we let you go? I mean, you know, It really kind of have been, I really struggled last couple weeks. Well, and I just, so I haven't heard yet read, but what's this, what's the status on Cody for Gerardo? I think we'll, we're assuming that he's playing. He's going to play it to me. I I'm building the show right now. We're going to record tonight. I mean this all air tomorrow, but yeah. As yes, as. We record this, their presumption, this he's going to play. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Well, if he plays, obviously that's, that's a big, that's a big difference. So, you know, I, I, I, I like Toronto. I really do. I, I, I like, I like what they're doing, obviously with the whole. You know, With the defensive quarterback. Chris Jones now coming on board is there's a lot of questions there. But anyways. Chris has proven over the years that he can, he can just flat out coach. So, you know, and it might not be, you know, this week or, you know, next couple of weeks until you really get a flavor. But rich Dubler, I think, is going to fill in as a defensive coordinator there and there, you know, Rich's another guy who's had a lot of success in this league and is gonna do, do very, very well. Offensively, I think too, with, with. With the Argos. It's all about the quarterback, right? If. What you would call it? If they can, if they can get the consistency. At the quarterback position. Then you know that, you know, they're going to have a chance, but rolling those two guys, the way that they've had. They need a certain level of consistency at that position in order to get to get it done. Yeah. I w I, I just, we, we just have my Kogan on, I brought up the Chris Jones thing and he said very clear. He's not part of the team yet. They other than that, I mean, it was towing towing the line. I said, well, I wasn't. I wasn't trying to like, get any breaking news. I just was trying to talk about like, obviously things are in the works, so yeah. I mean, obviously some changes go in there and personnel things and whatever, so, yeah. Yeah. You know, And I mean, Toronto. I know everybody was really, really, really high on them. And as, as they should, I think defensively, they're very good at. Offensively, they have some weapons and they could hurt you, but it's that it's, it's the, it's the quarterback, right? That, that you just don't know what you're going to get out of some days. It's good. Some days it's bad. You know, we'll see. But Saskatchewan too, is another team that's been playing very, very consistent. Football and they've, they've really benefited because what did they have? They played one, one road game yet to this point. Have all their games been at home. Well, they play the. The Roughriders had the banjo bowl was the only, I think. My first away game. Yeah. Was their first away game. So you mean that's, that's a big advantage. So now they're going to get tested by going on the road to here for the next little while. Yeah, I, it should be good. I'm excited. I think it will be a good game of, you know, we get their games. I so appreciate your time coming on. Like I said, I'm excited to get more of the, the BC lions flare on the podcast, you know? So we're, we're doing that. We had friend of the show, Jim Molan was hanging out with the Mar Delmon at the game last weekend. I said, could you please let Mr. Doman know what a mark cast is? And then we did. We'll get that going. But. I really appreciate your time and that will be up a worry. We are seeing the game on the 16th, so we'll be there when the stamps come into town. So. To make the trip up. Well, read. Listen, I really appreciate what you do for the game. I know you love the game and, and you promote the game and that's, that's fantastic. So anytime you need me, just let me know. I'd love to come back on and, and, and talk football. I love to do it. Very bad. And we have the voice of CFL or American CFL team.

Episode 57 - The Banjo Bowl!

All right. There we go. Your year. That was a fast fate of music there. That was, that was intense. I wanted to get out of that real quick. It's like I'm stretching still. Cause I haven't set the board over here cause I'm moving this stuff around. But. Yeah, it's over here. Right now. Sorry. Stretch. A little bit. Paul is getting on the plane. And like 10 hours. So you're good. I'm already on vacation mode. I'm sorry. I'm already on location. Don't in New York. Going to see a lot of people that say you're too. So it's going to be great. I love like the, the Google doc today says some info for Paul. Like it's very, it's. It's it's. It's borderline condescending. But I'm gonna, I'm gonna let it slide. I'm gonna let it slide. I want to make sure you have all that, all this stuff in there. I want to make sure. Before we came on the, I just got sent the matrix for a trailer distraught. Do you think we should live, react to the matrix forest rattler? Would that be a good intro to our podcast? Well, you can live react. I've already watched it so you can live react. If you. I haven't watched yet. Am I going. I mean, I kind of watch it right now, but in general, am I going to like it? I mean. How do you. I have questions. Like why do we have to like, resurrect anything? Why can't we just tell a new story? Yep. His dad didn't carry a Mazda. I. I mean, they all died at the end. Spoiler alert for a major. 20 Year old movie Whaler alert. I rewatched all those too. I just recently it really ends horribly, horribly, horribly. Well, the dialogue is so bad. The dialogue is terrible on the second. Like the first movie it's like, okay, it's all like concept and like high brow stuff. And then when they start to get the dialogue, like, I won't let you die. It's like really cheesy. It's super cheesy. And I think that was the problem. Yeah. Wednesday made Keanu fly. They couldn't go back. And that was the problem. If they hadn't had him fly at the end of the first one, spoiler alert, it would have been anyway. Ah, we are. Thinking today about the. Paul your internet is glitching a little bit. Do you think we could turn off anything while we talk here? I just, it's really just it's really glitchy. Today we are talking about the banjo ball I, I made, I, I think my mom. I like inception into my mind because she commented on my post about the banjo ball this week on Facebook mama, mark Hass. And she goes, oh, you mean like deliverance? You. They're deliverance. Didn't. [Unknown]. And so that is that's our thumbnail this week. So I post on Twitter. I said, we are talking about the manageable. Is this a correct artwork I should use? And I got a lot of people laughing about that. They thought that that was pretty funny that they deliver it's banjo bowl. Did you ever see deliverance? Do we like that movie? I did see deliverance. And it's it's, it's very, it's good, but I mean, there's some, there's some rough parts of it. It gets all scaffolded, bro. So I'm trying to talk in 60. In addition, we seem to have once a month here. It's so fun. As I got. So anyway, very excited about the banjo ball. We have a lots of guests coming up today. We have Ted lineman. With the Winnipeg sign he's going to be coming out. He covers the Wednesday blue bomber is going to be excited. Braden gray. I just wrapped with him. He covers the rough riders for 9 89 80 CJ, M E. He's going to be talking about the rough riders after you know, their big loss last week. And then we have Adam Lee. [Unknown] LA Lascaris with the daily hive coming out. I have a record without him yet, so I haven't asked him how to pronounce his name, but Adam is coming on. We're going to recover that later. Paul's finding that town. So it's going to be weird. Show's going to be a ton of CFL staff. We're going to do the interviews and then we're going to get out of here because spoiler alert, Paul, this is the first time we've ever recorded an episode where there is no XFL news on the Google doc. Does that surprise you? That does surprise me. I'm really I'm wondering what happened there. Why, why there's no XFL news on the Google doc. But I'm not going to complain either. I mean, there's not even, there's not even a modicum of anything of semblance of anything. I could talk about X. If I tried. Anyway. So I have, I will show off now. Paul is still working on. I have my wonderful BC lions Jersey. They came to me. I hear we're going to do it right. Courtesy of listener of the show, William and Paula. You guys check this bad boy out. I'm going to not talk for a second. I'm looking. I'll look at that. Look at that. Mark cast on the back. So it says mark. In the back I tweeted at the BC lions. I showed them my Jersey. I got a lot of feedback and followship off of that. I said amazing that listeners of the show appreciate my supportive America CFL team, more than the actual social media. More than the actual social media. So anyway. Stack shell. And then also we have. Huge huge, huge show next week. I just want you guys to know all now please like, and subscribe. We don't talk enough about this. We're like we're 11 away from 1500. I want to hit 1500 subscribers, but. We next week stack show stack show. We had a stack show and I got confirmation that another guy can come on. I'm talking like TSN panelists coming on. I'm talking like voice of teams coming up. Big big show next week, we all should be very excited for next week. Very cool. Did that help at all, by the way, the internet. Glitching or it's a little bit, but we're going to work through it. Paul. Did you see the notes about the banjo bowl and where do you, what are your thoughts about why they call this the banjo bowl? I love bull. I love Bolton board material by the way. It's great. So when I'm seeing someone like saying stuff like a bunch of banjo picking in breads, That stuff is great. And it like lasts a long time. And that was funny to see. I'm glad, you know, they're, they're spicy in Canada still. Well, I mean, this was a four, I mean, does this fly in 2021 banjo picking in breads? Sure. It seems like. This that this Troy Westwood should be canceled by now. I don't know. You can cancel someone over the, over an inbred comment. Like other comments maybe, but not an inbred comment. I don't know. I don't know. I just thought that was remarkable anyway. So we were getting excited for that today. I couple of this last, those four, we get into everything. Big issues this week with the elk Stan Peter's game on ESPN. I actually tweeted about this, the game wasn't on ESPN, like at all for the first, like half of the game that they were airing like 17 different versions of the U S opens. And then I think the red Sox were playing, but it was one of those things where. I wish CFL would come out and like address that staff. Cause like ESPN got on and they're like, oh yeah, we're working on it with everybody. CFL has to know, like these things are going on. Like when the game is literally not on ESPN at all. And it's one of those things where I just wish that the league with someone on social media, that's obviously seeing this stuff unless they need it. All of my accounts would be like, oh yeah, we should like, yeah, guys are working on that. Like, we're trying to figure it out. So. Why would they meet your accounts ever? Well, maybe. Because I tweet too much. I don't know, I take them to do many things. I know. I mean, pat Steinberg's. Michelle. I mean, CFL knows what a mark cast is. So anyway, I couple this things last week, Paul, we finally had an honest to goodness CFL game, 51, 29 outlets. Vernon Adams had the game of the century finally woke up and realized how to throw a football. Any any of these game? Outcomes. Surprise you at all. Let me look at the outcomes real quick here. I'm sorry. I'm trying to still fix this internet issue. I was surprised to see the Argos. Taken out to the, to Hamilton who, you know, That was weird. That was on Dan Evans is the kingdom. Mazzoli wasn't and, and I think you'll be having Ms. Ali still on the bench. Dan Evans is coming up. I also, you know, rough riders really tough. A loss at home. You know, we talk all about that with the guests coming up. You know, heading back to Winnipeg, that's going to be the biggest one to me was this Alex San Peter's game. And I actually it's the first CFL game I've missed. We read the green day green day, fall out, boy, Weezer concert. You had the best, what was it? What'd you say the best 2004. It's like back again. That's true. But really surprised. Yeah. Whichever Harris finally kind of woke up, they really got the offense going. I have to imagine that they're going to win at home again with the, with the stamps. A lot of these games are rematches this week. It's weird. Like the alphabets are off. So BC's plan the red blacks, but, you know, Sam Peters or going to the Alex. Like I have to imagine that and with the, with the rough riders as well, We are back to back weekends, but I think it works out. It works out well for some kind of like rivalry step. So. Definitely. Definitely. Definitely, definitely. So we've got a lot of cool things to talk about today. Some really cool guests coming on. To speak about other things. So let's get into it. What else is going on in the CFL this week? Well, of course, you know, we are gonna try to record early last week and that we all had to work. We miss the big Alex reschedule, whatever. The big thing with this is the Elks now are going to be playing three games in seven days, which is a pretty, pretty remarkable staff. They have the games here. The 13th and then the I, the 13th, the 16th and the 19th, and they're going to CFL is gifting them. They're going to be able to, to dress five extra players for the November 16th and 19th games. But. I mean. Yeah, this isn't like hockey where you can play back to back or like baseball, where you can play twice. And then, I mean, this is like crazy time, three games in seven days. There's a lot of, you know, physical wear and tear. That goes on the body. When, when you're talking about. We were talking about it. You know, football like that. That's why. When, when T teams are having, like you see some teams in the NFL. The Monday game, the Monday night game. Thursday night game and people are like, wow, how can you, the conditioning that would, you would. Football is just a different sport. You. It's like. All the CTE stuff, all the physical limitations, getting hit. That's such, you know, High speeds and velocities and all that weight. It's hard to do this. One thing. So. I mean. The Elks are gonna be in trouble. Like they're, they're going to be in trouble. They're already in trouble. No matter what. But, you know, trying to turn around three games and that's shorter time, that's going to be rough. That's gonna be definitely rough. Yeah. And, you know, and, and they seem to be kind of getting their act together now. Right. You know, obviously they have the big win on, on Monday. And so it just seems like this will be a hindrance coming up later, talking about that. So. Can you give me a quick second? Sorry. I'm going to. It's. I just, I keep hearing it in my ears, which is the only reason that I say anything. You're hearing what in your ears? I just hear the glitching, like I can hear, I'm not trying to, well, whether, I mean, I'm not, I'm just trying to fight through it. Cause I don't, you know, So I'm here. I. So I could just keep trying every single f*****g time. I know what it is. What is it? So I don't pay the bill like a week after I get it. Like the internet bill they'll start like bringing my speeds down automatically. That's f**k that. And it does. That's why we do this every month. It's like you get the bill and then three days later, all of a sudden the Internet's like, oh, let's slow you down. And I'm like, you only pay for gig. You get. Give me some time to f*****g pay the thing. Yeah, so God damn annoying. It's okay. That's. I was just trying to. I'm not trying to, you know, I know. This is ridiculous. I do have to warn you that probably probably is not going to get cleared up by the time we're done with this. With this fight. That's fine. Stupid. All right. You're good. It's we'll just. Or do you want to pick up. Oh, here I have a thing. Okay. I, I forgot to mention when I was so excited to show off my BC Leinster has ever got to show off this bad boy. Tim Capra that came on two weeks ago, the Al wets flight deck. Sent me this shirt. So Dorothy, I didn't buy this. This has handed me my friend in the show. Anyway, I'm aware of this on an upcoming episode of the podcast, but obviously I had to wear my new lion's busy today. But anyway, Tim. Capra and the outlets flight deck team, and Cliffy over there. Thank you so much for that. I really appreciate that. We were talking about the banjo bowl. Banjo bowl is also officially sold out Andrew Harris and in many other Winnipeg people tweeted on Twitter about that. So that is 29, or I think it's 30,000 doubly vaccinated. CFL fans will be attending the Winnipeg banjo bowl game. I'm going to be interesting to see. The you. Lab. You had, you had the blue bombers, you know, when that game isn't a repeat. We'll see. We'll see really tough too. And the really toughest Saskatchewan to come in there to attend. Doing the bank and do that. This is interesting. You know, Trevor Harris has, has struggled the whole season. He was finally named one of the top performers of the weekend. Matt down again, who is really a forest of, of my life. I've really enjoyed watching him lately. I, they, they, they voted and voted him. Bernie, the Adams who finally woke up and Brit Brandon Alexander, but Vernon Adams really turned things around and he's had some confidence issues so far this season. And then Trevor Harris. Yeah, I don't like that. I can support the man, not the team. Right. Don't don't need the support of the Alex, but I can, I can support that Trevor Harris. So good job for that. Very cool stuff. Harris, his character. Crediting the Elk's character for the winter. Stamps. He says the team showed their true character in the victory. And he wishes he could take the whole offense with a C out to dinner. But can't do the COVID restrictions. That's so sad. Damn COVID restrictions. Well, you know, Coach Elizondo came in, let go of a lot of players to ID about building the culture and the character of the team. And I just. Oh, that's definitely like a buzzword for the Alex is like, you know, the character of the team. And so I did. Or yeah, that culture. I just thought it was interesting. Trevor Harris was like, oh yeah. It was our team culture there that led us again. No, it was actually like you throwing touchdowns, but that's okay. That's interesting how that works. Speaking of speaking of taking people out and giving people things. Hamilton owner Bob young buys beer for all season ticket holders before the labor day. Classic. They're holding their home opener Monday and Bobby on the set here. Celebrate. Yeah, that was great. You know, I wasn't. Th this was that there w whenever the Argos last week, I thought this is interesting. Yeah. They hadn't hosted a football game in a long time. Obviously he had a big, they were maxed out to capacity there, but I hear it eventually for himself as the caretaker. And so he had cards made up and gave everyone a free ice cold beer. I saw a lot of red blacks fans love. All they get are like $21 beers or something that they're game. So. But the red blacks. Our hosting 500 frontline workers at the games this season. That's a really cool thing to appreciate all the people that were working on the front lines during the pandemic. Really appreciate all the work that nurses and doctors have done over the last two years now, two years were going on. With this pandemic. Yeah. Yeah. Mark galley. The, the CEO there, you guys are frontline workers have helped keep us healthy, safe, and informed during the very difficult time. I think that's great. You know, the NFL did that. They have people go into the super bowl. You know, a lot of people in Tampa, frontline workers, and seven, I think that's great. I think that's great way to kind of give back and. Who doesn't want to go to the football game and especially you would hope it would be for a better team than, than the red blacks who were performing. A little bit better. But I, I don't think beggars can be users. Maybe they'll find an offense this weekend. Maybe just, maybe they'll find it. This week. Not against the lions. I don't want to hear that nonsense. I asked I just, when I wrapped with Braden gray, I said, how many points are the lions going to beat the red, black spot? Hopefully more than like 15. A little bit interesting to see. Speaking of offensive changes that are going to answer starting Nick Arbuckle, a quarterback in Friday's labor. A rematch against Hamilton. He's coming off a disappointing performance in which he did 18 and 32 for 207 yards. One touchdown, but two interceptions. When at the loss. Against Hamilton. Yeah. We saw a king siding. MBT came out, played a couple of play, the couple of drives. You know, it's one of those things like, it's so funny there. They were down on like three, three scores or something and they bring him in because Bethel Thompson, cause like our buckles says played terrible, like the games down. And the announcer's. Well, you know, Mo. McLeod's a one games in the past. Like we just have to teach them. He is not a miracle man. Like he can't just come in and fix, like, it is crazy. I mean, you gotta, at some point there's only so much a man can do, and I. I think they were down like 70, but I can't even remember how they have down there down, but it was like, I give the announcers, want to like keep the excitement in the games going the whole time. But at some point. You know, we gotta be real realistic about that, but yeah, I was hoping the McLeod would come back in again, but he did not. So. We'll see if. You know, let's see how, if, if our buckles starting, let's see how short his leash is basically in the next game. Coming up here. Against Hamilton. Yeah, you see this Mike Mitchell. You know, famously even keeled. Mike was a little heavy on the Argos loss this week. Did you see there talking about, you know, it felt like 2019, they aren't ready for the spotlight. It's very interesting because I mean, you know, Toronto hasn't had the best. A franchise. Recently in terms of like getting attendance. And in terms of success on the field. So, you know, having that success after such a long time, Maybe not having as much access. It's a question, you know? It, it depends on how young the team is. These are kind of things. These veteran teams that actually performed as well. You know, it's, it's clear that Toronto's got, got some more wrinkles. They have dire now. Yeah. I mean, you know, they made a ton of moves in the off season, spent a lot of money, brought it in a lot of people. It's just surprising that they still, you know, it's a lot of turnover to kind of get things going that quick. I mean, I would presume next year they'll have. Everything. But Mike, even when he posted this, he goes, I don't think the Argos people are maybe going to be too happy with how heavy he was, you know, kind of on the Argos. One other note, Adam seaborne, I didn't get all the TV ratings this week. I'm sure they were posted, but with like labor day, it's all delayed and whatever. 980. Average. Audience on TV for the rough riders, blue honor's game on Sunday. What do you think about that? Oh, that's pretty good. I mean, you know, They've been averaging recently. You know, usually anywhere from like 400 to 600,000, I saw your favorite. Online message board rather than per se. Yeah. I thought that we needed the rock to be relevant. Oh, yeah, he's taking those shots again. He can't stop. You can't stop himself. He can't help himself when it comes to your shots. Against, you know, the, the, the, the rock and. Bell stuff. Yeah. But yeah, I mean, I tell you, I I'm not sneezing any of this. I mean, I think a million, a million people is great. I mean, they obviously they've built this into a hell of a. Ravelry, right. I hope the same continues this weekend for the banjo bowl for, you know, obviously the success of our podcasts and everything else. But I just thought that was. You know, a million people, is that me? Obviously there was over a million debt that the average attendance was 980,000. So. Very cool stuff. The CFL is 114 years old today, depending on how, what would you really judge? You know the age by, but you know, according to a lot of people that. You know, getting our, getting our grills and, and getting our mentions on Twitter. CFL's 114 years old today. September 7th. I put the note there. Oh, September 7th. So like we're recording this Thursday and then what. Actually it's not even September seven. And that's like, that was two days ago. Yeah. That's not. Well, it was today as a scenario. Oh, okay. I get it now. I'm. My brain's still off. I'm in vacation mode already clearly. And my internet is in vacation mode as well. Cause so I could, I could see read whenever, like it's, it's glitchy. It's like. You just, you can't, you can't help, but have that look on your face when my Internet's glitching, I'm sorry that I don't have a blank and T1 connection at my house. Just for you read. We're going to clean that. No, it's good. We're going to go. This is interesting too. I came out that the red blacks no longer a negative test is no longer going to be applicable to the games that you were going to be needed to be approved. Double Vaxxed. Moving forward. Which is interesting because a lot of that, you kind of, the thing was no one had any restrictions and a lot of the people had the tasks and whatever. Now it's, you have to be double vacs to go to an audible game as of September 12th. This is part of that. This is part of that, you know, we're starting to reward people that did that played by the rules and got vaccinated. We're starting to reward those people. So, I mean, look, this mandate thing is it's, it's calming like a lot of things. A lot of, I mean, here, here in the U S. President Biden's about to announce that all federal employees. After we vaccinated no more weekly tests. If you want to work at a federal job, you have to be vaccinated. Which, you know, affects my sister affects my brother they're they're both federal employees. So, you know, it's, it's, it's something that's happening. All around that these, these mandates are coming down and it's, it's going to be interesting to see. How far this goes like from CFL. CFL teams and then NFL teams, MLB teams, like. Agents needed someone just needed to open the door. And then all the other teams are probably going to. Follow suit. Yeah, I was well earlier at Washington, we just got an email the other day. Cause I'm on the small business people there and that's all non-essential. As of like October, you're going to have to be, I do go to the bars and restaurants and stuff like that. So, You know, Yeah. They, they added some, some defensive power Derek Moncrief they've been added. He was announced. This week, they're obviously coming back to take on the Stampeders. Again, he was with the rough riders from Oklahoma state, really trying to beef up the defense. A big sign that, you know, Alex let go. A lot of people obviously famously friend of the show, Derek Dennis, a lot of other, you know, veteran players. So obviously they're trying to bring in some more, you know, on both sides of the line. But I, he was, you know, in the NFL, played with the dolphins airplay against the dolphins and he was at the ramp. So that was, that was a big signing. I saw that the riders. Kind of had courted him to come back, but didn't, didn't pay him enough. And I think he got like a $20,000 signing bonus, which is like, Yeah. For the CFL is like a lot. In that sense? I think. I'm sorry. Is a Canadian dollars or American dollars Canadian. It's like 15 grand. I. I mean, that's the thing is when we talk about these low CFL like wages, and then you're like, that's Canadian. Yeah, that's Canadian. That's not American. That's right. Speaking of adding. Adding people. And people is, this is what I'm saying. Oh, no, this is just a funny quote from Winnipeg blue bombers receiver, drew a wa with our ski. W w I know him, I pick him at fantasy. If I could just get Vanessa [unknown]. Well, the entire ski he's excited. You know, talking about Chris traveler being with the Cardinals. He's a great dude. He taught me so much about work driving ethic. During video conference. Cause obviously. I think stragglers third string. I think he's behind too on the Cardinals, but you know, we have Kyler and then whoever Tyler's backup is, but anyway, I just, I drew it juries excited. They win the PAG and. You know, it was good to see a straddler. I don't know. I mean, I don't think he Kyler is a pretty healthy guy, but you know, he, he went down at the end of last season. He had that like ankle or knee injury. So I'm able to see that. Do you see this quote? I, this is, I had to put in a little, the BC lions stuff. This lucky Whitehead. Do you see this thing about him having like a snake and stuff? I did not see this. No. So he says. Wild animals and big plays. That was the name of the article. Matt baker AF. You know, friend, he added me on Facebook. Lion's like content creator. So I'll have to imagine. We're like friends with the show now. He goes, my mom had them as pets growing up. He's talking about snakes. I currently have a ball Python named squeak. I said might have following the squad's first post by we practice. I've always loved snakes, monkeys, cheetahs, and of course, lions. I'm planning to get a pet monkey seat in the name of him. Abu, is that from, is that the. Not in the Latin reference. Oh, that is a Latin reference. That isn't allowed in references. That's funny. You know, I like you. Why he had his, is that he is that he posted videos of him lifting chains, working out. I mean, this is like NFL caliber marketing material from lucky white hat. I'm very excited to see him as one of my leading BC lions wide receivers. Well, he did spend a light, like I think for four years in the NFL, like three years. Oh with the Cowboys. I think he picked up somewhere else too. If I'm not mistaken. Earlier, I can't wait to watch the NFL kickoff tonight. I mean, I know what to say. I guess I really can't wait for the Cowboys to get steamrolled. He can't read. Can't wait to watch anything, but a glitchy internet. Apparently. That's that's what's going on. Michael. What I say I've kept a smile the whole time on my face. You're smiling behind them. Let's be honest, you're smiling behind the pain. Read the perfectionist as otherwise, sometimes. And so if things don't go to [unknown]. You know, he's like smiling, but he's like, God goes stupid internet. This is a story for you apparently. Your boy. Michael Riley faced at the BC lions together. Really. You know, my wife's a teacher. Or a thesis teacher. Talking, yo going back to school, it can be difficult. Remember to embrace diversity and race discrimination. I just thought it was great. You might go Riley coming out there and being the voice of a generation, telling kids not to boy, I. I thought that was really fantastic. I just, I love Michael Riley. I think he is a wonderful spokesperson for the league. And for America's CFL team. And I just remember it. They're not American CFL. We're almost done here. It just, I just, we don't have to hide through all this. I just spent the power ranking. So you can kind of see where everybody is. Obviously Winnipeg is moving up there. The interesting thing to me is, you know, BC two and two is down. I would have to imagine. Calgary is the bottom of the pack. They have red blocks there right now. I can't imagine a worst. That's tough. It's kinda like nine a and nine B for like, who is the worst team right now? The red, black shirt or the Stampeders. Any other placement of any of these teams? Argo slipping, the five. Edmonton, you know, moving back up, they were at. You know, at six, but obviously coming off a win so helpful there. Any thoughts on the power rankings? I was going to copy the pace of these here. I just think it's. I just think it's funny that the Argo slipped a fifth out a third, and then the lox dropped a jump from eight to four. Based on what. Based on what. Well, I guess it Vernon Adams, apparently you remembered how to throw a touchdown pass. I mean, this was like a big time. That's the thing is they're just not consistent. It's really hard for me. Like the CFL and I get it snow pre-season and I get all this up, but. I get so hard week to week to not know how these teams are going to perform that. Like [unknown]. Came out the first. They had the bi-week. So they came out week two and, and smoked, like killed everybody. And then it's like Vernon Adams does know how to pass. He throws an interception. He scared to play the ball. I'm like guys, you need to be. And then they come out and they score 51 points. This is crazy. There's this it's really hard, like to do fantasy to be. I couldn't imagine sports betting on the CFL. I mean, all the jokes aside, like the play is just not consistent enough. Week to week, except for like the blue bombers. Cause like, I mean, even the rough riders lost, I mean, you know, they're, they were the big undefeated team. It's just crazy. How much of these seem to balance kind of week to week? Very much so. It's like, you know, they say any givens. Sunday, like one team could be another team, but yeah, this is just like, It's interesting to see the teams that are beating the other teams. And it's just, it's it's, there's no rhyme or reason sometimes behind this. Speaking of that, like, When you're talking about like putting up stats and putting up number, or is it putting up like things, you look at a team on paper, like a team that's getting 386 rushing yards. On age of carriers. And 4.7 yards of carry. You know, like if you're getting 4.7 yards of carry and you're running the ball, every single down, you're getting a first down every single time out. Every single time out. 12.4 Yards. Every time you throw the ball. A quarterback that's thrown 939 yards in his first. Three career starts. You're looking at a team like that, and you're wondering why they have a one in four record. Yes. Yeah, Connor. And he'll put that together. He does say Mike Calgary might be the best worst team in recent memory. Cause I was like on paper, they're playing incredible. But it's one of those things where, you know, I think when Beau comes back, I think they're going to win. And I think Bo's going to get a lot of credit for those wins. And I don't think that like Jake mayor has played exceptionally well for a rookie that has 300, 939 yards in his first year games. I mean, it's crazy. Like never, never played a snap in the CFL before it comes in and lights the world on fire. I mean, It's. I mean, Calgary is out of it. I mean, calorie. I mean, they would really have to turn things around, but I just don't want, I hate that when like a guide that's kind of like helped keep the ship afloat. Like a bowl comes back and gets all the credit. You're gonna be like, no, keep in mind, like Jake kind of like helped right. The ship here while this was going on. So definitely. Some sad news now, though. A former Los owner, Bob wedding hall has passed away. He's. He was a. The owner for how many years? Like. I'm trying to see here in front of get this. Yeah. He was. The ownership, he, he kinda like, he kinda helped to rebuild the alphabet. So he, they, they had, they were crowned great cup champion three times. Like he was there for, he, they appeared in eight grade cops. They finished in the first time that, I mean, he was. Like he kind of, he gives her a lot of credit for really, really rebuilding kind of that outlet franchise back a few years ago also. The Roughriders former president. Bruce Cowie. I just had this last night, they released the statement, the rough riders in there they're saddened by the passing of him. So I just, I, you know, pass, owner's obviously paying respect on that, but, but sad kind of a, both, both regards for that. Definitely. Some power thoughts on condolences are with families during this time. Yeah. And when does your, your Washington. Yeah. Last note with this. JP Finley. And I saw it was floating around a lot last night that Adam Schefter had a podcast with Tanya. Snyder, you know, the, the now, cause it was right. Dan Snyder, whatever. And right, Dan, is that the right? And he's down. Oh, the sexual harassment staff and said, Tanya is in charge. She said it gotten this quality we ever, but basically we're looking at the final team names, you know, red hogs, defenders, Armada. Our presidents were great commanders, red wolves and the Washington football team. JP thinks that's going to be the commanders. What do you think about the Washington commanders? I don't think it's going to be commanders. I think it's gonna be red wolves. I see it a lot. I, I don't, I don't. I don't know. What do you think. You have to be the red wolves, man. That's like the fan one. That's like the fan one that they really want. They, they, he thinks that it's like, they're keeping the, basically he thinks you're down to three and they're keeping the Washington football team, man, because that's the one that they add. They're keeping the commanders in. Cause that's what it's going to be. And then they're keeping the red Wolf stand because that is why the fans really want. But they're really not going to go that way. But you think they're, I mean, I've seen like 87 logos posted in the last two days about the red walls. I think it's gonna be the red wolves. I think they're going to listen to the fans here on this one, because I mean, like, I think they've taken a lot of power out of the fan sands and I'm not saying, you know, Oh that they did it poorly. Like they handled this, they finally handled this problem. Because it was a problem. It definitely was a problem. And I think that like, this is going to be a compromise, like. W we're going to put the name red in the name. And we'll just call him the red wolves. Anyway. So I just, I just want to talk about that. So, and here's the deal. So Paul's got to hit the road. He's going to go see a baseball game. Go see his dad in New York. I'm thrilled that you're getting out of town. So we are going to toss, head and Britain, and then Adam, and then we're going to get out of here. There there's no XFL news this week at all. I got to go. There's nothing I've scanned me unless. If something breaks here, I'll pop on with tad laser and add it to the interview. But that's where we're at. I mean, we're, we're talking football right now. I, Brian has said USFL staff is coming. I checked the app. For the stuff I'll website again, nothing's going on. So I think that sounds like a good plan. Paula, do you have anything else to say before we get up there? Nothing else per se see you next week. And if there's any late news, we will take care of you. Thanks for listening. Excellent. All right. So that's why you're like the, the. The premier person UN. Okay. Well, let me hit this. We'll we'll, we'll get into it here. I thank you so much for coming in. I appreciate it. Yeah, you're welcome. Well, Ted Wyman. Thank you so much for coming on a late on the down Thursday. We can finally get back to watching some real football tonight. I'm kidding. I'm kidding. Over the NFL. Ted. Thank you so much for coming on. And I'm so excited about the banjo bowl. How are you doing this week? Busy week. Yeah, very busy week, always a busy time in Winnipeg, the beginning of September. You go to Regina for the labor day classic. A lot of fans go, maybe not as many this year, as most years, but usually a lot of fans do that. And then a lot of rough rider fans come back to Winnipeg and. Both the buildings are sold out. It's really as good of a week. A two week period is the CFL. We'll see outside of the playoffs and. I think this is the heart and soul of the CFL right now. Yeah, I love it. I love the friendly banter. Right? I love the backstory. I love everything about this. Right. I saw someone. Today, Luke, or whether the media guys was saying how they shouldn't be called the banjo bowl because it demeans, you know, both of their premiere. Teams. Right. And Dave Naylor quickly said, well, no, this is it embodies all of this. This is a grassroots thing that came up years ago. I mean, what, what do you think about the whole. In breads and all this stuff in the back and forth and everything that goes into it. Well, you know, It's a different time now, too. Right. But when it was originally. Created off of a quote by Troy Westwood when he was the kicker with the blue bombers and you stop try on sometime, cause he's a heck of a guy to talk to about those things, but. You know, it, it, it came out of a comment that he did basically just to stir things up. Right. And what the bombers embraced out of it was that everyone talked about the labor day classic every week, every year, everyone gets excited about the labor day classic. They've been keeping stats on it forever since 1949. But then the next week it's like, well, that's just the game. That's back in Winnipeg. You know, it didn't have a name. It didn't have a feel. And the bombers marketing department embraced that. And yeah, there's an aspect of disrespect. There. There's no doubt, but it was very tongue in cheek. Definitely not anything meant to be truly offensive. I think just. You know, just a part of CFL, Laura, that has kind of just taken on a life of its own. And you know, you see people at these games at the bedroom. Well, every year with banjos, you see players. Pretending to play the banjo. You know, you see that it means something to people in terms of its its appeal. And it really is a good time. The two weeks is a good time. And I do agree with you. I think it's generally a friendly rivalry between the two teams. I think even at the labor day classic, you could see that there were Winnipeg fans in pill country, and they weren't getting hit over the head with cans. So it was something must've been going okay. There. Yeah. Well, I mean, even cause that famously where yeah, I'm a BC lions fan and people said, well, you don't BC lions don't even deserve, you know, a rivalry this weekend. Right. No one even likes them the labor day classic. And you know, and I said, well, we don't. We don't have to play anybody that we're better than that, but no, but it's. Labor day. But I love, I love all of this. So, you know, obviously what made it so great this year is how great Winnipeg and Saskatchewan had been looking out of the gate. Was it surprising to you how dominant really Winnipeg was in the first game last weekend? Yeah, it was surprising to me. I have media colleagues who called it. And he thought the bombers were playing better. Particularly on defense than the rough riders and the rough riders coming off a bi-week, there was a lot of thought there that it might affect them. Personally. I've seen so many of these games and been following it for so long. That I don't really look so much at how each team is playing as the history of it. And Winnipeg has always had a very difficult time going into Regina and winning. In fact, Damarcus, Hardrick the blue bombers, a offensive lineman. Said that when he played versus katchewan they were, oh, and nine, when Winnipeg came to town. But the writers one anyway. You know, Winnipeg, I think was nine and, oh, it was just a crazy situation and it just works that way. So I did not think the bombers were going to be able to do it because I thought. The riders were for real based on what we saw in those first few games. But as Willie Jefferson pointed out, the rough riders really hadn't played any of the cream of the crop, especially in terms of pass, rush. In the first three games of the season. And. You know, he, he thought they would be able to expose the writers a bit. Bringing what they bring, which is a lot of heat. And it turns out that was true in hindsight. I think, you know, it made a lot of sense what Willie was saying. And you really look at the way Winnipeg dominated and it was all about that. It was just that Saskatchewan had gotten a little comfortable with what was working for them in the first three weeks, especially playing all their games at home. They weren't comfortable one bit in that game last Sunday. Well, that was the thing is, I mean, they've been talking about Cody, you know, being a mop candidate, right. You know, outstanding coming out of the gate. And I mean, running for his life, right. Taking really unnecessary, you know, tackles and dives and things to, you know, trying to get any yards he could, it really did seem like he struggled to really get any momentum going. Yes, he absolutely did. And that was right from the outset of the game. You could tell, I think the writers punted three times in the first quarter, and there was an interception, I don't think that they. Got much in the way of first downs, maybe one or two. And I think that was the whole. Key to the game, other than the fact that the defensive line, the bombers defense was all over them, the whole game, but what the bombers went into with a major key was to really control the ball in the first quarter, not let the rough riders get that huge amount of momentum. Right when they come out. Of the tunnel through the fireworks and the flame and everything like that and let the fans. You know, go crazy over them, getting an early touchdown. The bombers didn't let them that happen. And I felt like that really played into their hands. And then I started thinking, boy, this could be exactly what they're looking for. And the bombers did maintain that all game long, but not having the fans in the game and never really allowing them get into it. Saskatchewan never scored a touchdown, so they didn't have a lot to get excited about. That makes a huge difference. You've taken away that 13th man. How, how big of an oven? Impact has it been having Andrew Harris back on the field? Pretty big. I mean, he hasn't hit his stride yet. I don't think that he would say that he has, he played, I think he got 81 yards in his first game, 95 in his second game. Baby steps there because, you know, I think nobody would be surprised if he's starting to get up over a hundred fairly regularly before the end of the season. But it's been a long way back for Andrew. He was hurt right off the bat. The first thing, second game of the second practice of the, of training camp. Came back for a few minutes, just, you know, not even really playing hard, but just sort of trying to get himself going. And then he tweaked something. It was in his calf. And then he was out again until the fourth game of the season. So that really was not, that was a really long time for him. And he's not used to that kind of stuff either. We've seen. That not very often, I would chalk it up almost entirely to the fact that he's older now. 34. And he also is, you know, he's also coming off a two year layoff. Like everybody else it's going to take awhile. But I really thought that his mindset sounded like he was much more prepared for this last game. Had shaken off some of the rust and was ready to go be Andrew Harris. And I tell you, and when you see him trying to absolutely hurdle Mike, Adam, In the age gap and almost doing it to be honest. You know that that's vintage Andrew Harris right there. Yeah, because you talk about, you know, them coming out in mosaic, you know, all the fans, everything, they were really loud and even the announcers, they said, you know, Winnipeg wants to have this long slow kind of pounding drive down the field with Andrew Harris. And it really did. It seems like suck all the life out of the crowd. There had to have been, I mean, a Testament to the coaching ride and the coordination to be able to just like, I mean, it was like a light switch. Turn that off. I thought it was very compelling to see just how quickly they were able to do that. Yeah. You obviously have to look at the two and outs that the defense was forcing. I mean, One of the things that I thought about in that game as a couple of things that really struck me, one was that the Roughriders never kicked off during the game when it paid, kicked off. At the start of both halves and they, the writers never scored a touchdown and the bombers took the ball after the two field goals. That's pretty unusual right? To, to have that, that tells you something about that game. No question. And also the Roughriders never got into the red zone. Until the last minute of the game. And then amazingly Cody for Gerardo hit the crossbar again, which I mean that just blew my mind and everybody else it's like that didn't possibly just happen. Did it, but it did. And he was a pretty good, good in terms of his humor about it. But you know, the fact that they were never able to really even get the ball in their control in Winnipeg exam. Really says a lot to how dominant that defense was. The bombers offense didn't really do that much in the first half. But boy, in the second half, they really moved it. They stepped up and they started to match the defense in terms of their production. And then the game wasn't close. Yeah. Cody seemed, you know, very upset throughout the game. You know, every time he would come to the, to the sidelines, you know, angry and like grabbing his hat and saying, I mean, it just seemed very where EA. He strikes me as a very jovial person. Right. It's ELA. Competitive there. You know, someone that wants to try hard, but seem visibly upset with how dominant Winnipeg was kind of the whole game in his face. Yeah, he doesn't say those things publicly, but you do see him wear it on his sleeve when he's out there. And sometimes, you know, I wonder if it's not a little bit about play calling. I look back to the 2019 west vinyl and there was a series of goal line stands by the bombers, including the infamous crossbar that for Gerardo hit at the end. But. He was so mad when they try to run off tackle with him on a quarterback sneak and it just didn't work. And he came off the field and you could just tell he did not like that play call. And I saw him do that a couple of times. Again, this last. Game. Just wondering if there's not something they should be doing a little bit different to try to break through what Winnipeg is doing now. The problem with that is. How do you know what Winnipeg is going to bring? You do know that Willie Jefferson brings the heat. You know, that Jackson Jeffco brings the heat. But they had nine. Defensive lineman dress. That is not a misprint. I mean nine defensive Wyman, Doug brown. The great beef or defensive tackle for the bomber style. Hall of Famer told me that when he played, sometimes they would only dress five. So for them to put in nine it's a boat creating this confusion, this, this. Series of different looks every time. Plus they rotated in linebackers. They actually would have a traditional linebacker in sometimes and a dime back sometimes, maybe 50, 50. Man when you're, if you're offense on a Saskatchewan side. How are you figuring out what you're going to do with that? When it looks so different every time. And I think that's been a huge key. To the bomber success so far. Their defensive line, coach Daryl Patterson, who was a bomber way back in the eighties and his coach for 30 years in us college. Before coming back into Canada, he called it a stew mixed with. Really great players that puts together a recipe that is very much for success. So what what's next, then? You know, a Winnipeg. Yeah, Saskatchewan clearly has to figure out what's going on here, going into this weekend. I mean, you said it was so confusing what Winnipeg was doing in a good way. Do they have the recipe for success there? I mean, it seems to me that it's, it's really hard for the rough riders to come in here and actually try to get this wind back. Well, I didn't think the bombers would win last weekend and I don't think the rattles or writers will win this week, but I was wrong, man. So you never know, but. I D I D I had this conversation with Bob Irving. Who's a legend of CFL. Broadcasting has been doing it for 50 years, basically. And, and we both kind of looked at each other and said, how do the rough riders win this game? I mean, we're not smart enough to know how they win this game, but it's very hard to. Picture it, because if Winnipeg keeps doing the same things, And the writers have basically had what, two, three practices, one day off and then three practices to try to get ready for this thing. That's not a ton to make all those adjustments. I just don't know what kind of adjustments they can make that are going to actually throw the bombers off. Now, that being said to Toronto, our go to organize did do that to the bombers earlier in the season. They came into Winnipeg and they lost, and then they played great the next week and they won. And Winnipeg was certainly humbled by that. But one of the differences there was that I thought Toronto was actually building on some successes that they had in the first week, which was running the ball with John White. And opening up the past and also playing great against the run and stopping Winnipeg. In that sense, they did that in both games and in the second game they were successful. I don't really know what successes the rough riders have to build on from last week. Other than the fact that their return game was very good. And, you know, perhaps that is a weakness right now with the bombers because the bombers returned game is not good. And the rough riders were able to put up quite a few points on them. Other than that, you know, I mean, I'm coding for charter is going to have a better game. I think the receiver is going to have a better game. William Powell is going to have a better game. Their D-line is going to have a better game. The bombers are looking at this as we have to be better than we were too, or else we're not going to win that game. I do expect a strong push from the riders, but at their best. Can they beat that Winnepeg team in their home park? I'm not so sure. It's just weird to me, you know, and I, I will ask, I Britten this on the interview. That'll. Will air after this too. Yeah, we kind of came into the CFL off the heels of all this XFL stuff. And all I've heard about is, you know, Winnipeg was the underdogs and they allowed, you know, the gray cop and all this stuff. They come in this year. Hamilton is, you know, the king of the league, all this kind of stuff. The favorite. But to me when they peg us, like nothing but dominant, except for this weird flu cloth to the Argos. I mean, why is there this. It seems like dual lean ideas about Winnipeg where they're, you know, three and one, the most dominant tier four and one now the most dominant team in the league, but yet also there's still the underdogs. Well, it wasn't a fluke loss to Toronto either. I mean, the Argos deserved a hundred percent full marks for winning that game. Nick Arbuckle was great. The, you know, John White was great. The other running back there, I can't remember his name right now, but he was really good. They did the job and they also got it done on defense. And so. Winnipeg just. It is odd. And I've thought it odd since the start of the season that a lot of people were not picking the bombers to be. First in the west and a lot of people were not picking them to be the great cup champions again. I had a hard time quite understanding why not? Because they came in with almost the same team. That they had last year, there is a big aspect missing. And Chris traveler, I admit that. I mean, I think he was a huge part. Of what Winnipeg was able to do. But Zack Collaros was a huge part of it as well. And I think that's the only reason. Where, why a lot of people who have watched the CFL for a long time would take Winnipeg down a notch because they think that Zach Claros. Arrows has a lengthy. Injury history, which he does. And they think if he gets hurt, when a bank's not going to be able to do what they've done with Sean Maguire, who is their backup and really is not tested in any way. I guess I have to agree with that, but it's also kind of hard to look at it that way, like to, to just assume that the guy's going to get hurt and therefore Winnipeg is not going to be able to finish the season with him and, and, and be what they are. The fact is they would have won that game with any quarterback last week because the defense only allowed eight points. If that's the case. You know, you're probably going to be all right. They're still got a great running game. They've still got very good receivers. And that defense, as I said, is, is really something special. I mean, you look at. Certainly hall of Famers in Willie, Jefferson and Adam, big hill. They're the last two most outstanding defensive players in the CFL. And there's other guys like Jackson Jeffco. And I mentioned before Brandon Alexander, who went in at safety and has just been nothing but great since the October of 2019 in that position. And, you know, a couple other DBS that are looking like all stars so far that is not ever going to be an easy defense to beat. So I like the bombers chances of being around. Prob. You know, I think they're going to be in the west final or at least the west semifinal and probably hosting one of those two games. I don't see much from. Calgary as being a potential. Threat to that. I'm not sure on BC yet. It's, it's, it's hard to tell, but that's a long way to come back from what they had last year. And Edmonton is pretty inconsistent as well. But the one thing that Edmonton has going forward is that they get to play Winnepeg three times in the next four or five weeks. And if there are going to make anything happen, they're going to have a chance to do it. Final question on the banjo bowl. We talked about mosaic, you know, rough rider fan base, right. You know, rabid green and, you know, That was Winnipeg. Does it have that same level of excitement when you walk into that stadium? I mean, I know they're going to be at capacity. You talk about kind of the atmosphere there for the game. Yeah. Okay. So they're a little bit different and I'm happy to be able to say that I haven't been to both every year, since, since I've been on the beat here. And every year since mosaic opened, in fact, then. That place is a it's a little bit bigger. It's. Look. I think Winnipeg fans are incredibly passionate. But it's not an insult to them to say that Saskatchewan fans are more passionate. The truth is, is katchewan. Fans are the most passionate in the CFL. There's more of them. There's a. You know, they're, don't have other things to distract them as much like the jets do here in Winnipeg and, and it's really something it's great. It's great to be a part of. Because of the atmosphere that they create. But personally, I think Winnipeg is very, very close, especially when it's full. You get. The party atmosphere is outstanding. You know, and a lot of the fans just stay in the concourses and party and watch the game from there. And it makes the stands look like they're not full, which is kind of funny because really the building is full, but a lot of people are standing. And it's amazing atmosphere out there. You know, the fun that people are having, the noise they're making the chancellor on the, the shirts are off. You know, like it's just, it, it is really a fun place to be. And I enjoy it so much, even as a media guy, you know, just to be there and observing it and listening to it. And I think that your original question is, you know, does Winnipeg match the atmosphere of Saskatchewan? Well, In its own way. Yes, they are a little bit different, but believe me. The bombers are going to have a big advantage this week. With the crowd noise and in the last year has manageable. Cody for Gerardo couldn't handle it. I don't want to take up too much of your time. I do want to get a couple of quick thoughts on the other match-ups this weekend. Hamilton going back against Toronto, obviously they're they seem to be looking a lot stronger than they have been in, you know, a little more consistent under Dean Evans. Thoughts about that matchup? Well, they played their preseason. Didn't they. The tiger cats and they lost them. They didn't score and it was not a good situation, but they do look much more like the great cup contenders that everybody. Thought they would be in thinks they will be again. I think it's really interesting that Dana Evans is back at the helm. I would be very interested to see if you know, maybe another team around the CFL starts taking a run. At Jeremiah, I'm a solely in terms of a trade possibility. Hello, Ottawa, red blacks. But he, you know, I think that. I think Hamilton really does look good, but I thought Toronto looked very good. I thought Toronto look really good against Winnipeg. To be honest in both games, not just the one with Bethel Thompson at a not very good game. In in the first one in Winnipeg, but when Nick Arbuckle went in, he was much better than he didn't have that great of a game. This time against Hamilton. They've got some things to iron out there in Toronto, but they do have some real potential under Ryan Dinwiddie. So. I would not be shocked to see Toronto in that game, in the back half of the home and home, I thought they did a great job of making their adjustments against Winnipeg in the same situation. And I think they can do it again. Yeah, that was ah, I blame us. The mark has for that. We Jane Smith. By the Thompson. We have a big episode proclaiming him and then he immediately went out and got pulled out of the game. So. I mentioned, you know, jokingly MBG MVP. After that first big game. And then, you know, he didn't even make it through the next one. No, no. It is. Tricky though, with these quarterback situations, obviously with Ottawa as well. My question has been all week is how many points is, are the lions going to win the game by whether we think about the lions and all the way, the late matchup on Saturday? Well, so basically. Paula police, the farmer blue bombers offensive coordinator has the one, two combination of Matt nichos and Dominic Davis, which he also had in Winnipeg. For a few years. They're in Ottawa and I'm well, I'm a big Matt Nichols fan and supporter. Because I think he's a, a warrior in the CFL and a guy who would do anything for his teammates and all that kind of thing. But I'm not sure you. Got it right now in terms of his ability to get the job done for the Ottawa red blocks. And I've never thought that Dom Davis really had that potential to be a starter. He's a good guy to have around the team. He's a good guy to bring in if you need them. In a tough situation, but the fact is as a starter, he has not looked very good either in Winnipeg or in Ottawa. And I do not like their chances with that combination at quarterback and let's face it. The, the red box didn't look good on paper anyway. Regardless of how they look on at quarterback, they had retirements on the offensive line that approved them badly. They lost players. You know that, that just didn't come back after the, the S the year off and. It's, you know, I don't think expectations are high there. I don't think that if you went around the league, that there would be too many people that would be shocked if Ottawa didn't win another game or didn't win one or two more games, you know, maybe get to three at tops. It's kind of going to skew things there in the east division because Montreal for instance, gets to play them four times. And then we're going to look at the record at the end of the year and say, well, Montreal was this great team. Well, I don't know whether that's going to be true. I do like the lions chances of, of putting up with double digit win. Is it like ripcord time for Ottawa? I mean, are we like you were talking about a QB trade, you know, the Arbuckle or whatever. I mean, are we. What are we doing here? I'm firing the coach, you know, a lap was brand new in the job. It's not like they're gonna go down that road. So it's not really, like, it's not pull the plug time. It's not blow it all up time. But. You know, you can't win in this league. Without a dynamic quarterback. And the fact is they don't have a dynamic quarterback right now. Again, I think Matt Nichols. We'll scrap and climb and do everything he possibly can to win football games. And he did it for the bombers for years and he got a great crop ring in 2019 and deservedly. So even though he didn't play in the playoffs, But, you know, it's hard after a year off. And he also was coming off a shoulder surgery and I not sure that the arm strength is there. There's a, you know, there's a big, noticeable difference in Winnipeg with what Zach Claros is able to do right now. I don't know if it's that Clarence is in his prime, but he's not far from it. And the way he's throwing the football is really, it, it completely changes. What wouldn't pay can do on offense because they have this deep threat and it's accurate. You know, all the time and, and Matt Nichols was not as, as proficient in that manner. So. I just don't know how Ottawa makes this work with the quarterback situation. Maybe they take their losses this year. Maybe they just play the younger quarterback. Or younger quarterbacks and try to develop some guys. And then maybe they take a run at a, at a big free agent in the off season. But otherwise I don't see how this is going to turn out well for them. And I guess it was from his old way, not our buckle. I was having, like, he was confused. In terms of the Elks really? I on paper, it seemed to really dominate last week, right against the St. Peter's. It's sad to me because I think Jake Mayer is playing phenomenal football, right? I mean, for someone that's played three games and the stats and we have all the stats in the show talking about. Why can't Calgary. Just seem to get it together right now. And what is the Alex doing that? I mean, obviously they came back from the struggles and COVID and everything else. I mean, who would've thought they would've put it at 32 points? I would not. Yeah, exactly. Especially with the last few seasons where Trevor Harris. Has been great at. Throwing the ball between the twenties, but not so much in the red zone. He hasn't been able to get the touchdowns and then he gets four touchdowns in this last game. And I thought he looked really good. Like if Trevor Harris is playing top-notch football and you've got Darrelle Walker and Greg Ellingson on your team among others as receivers, you're going to start to do some things. And I think that. You know, that's a really good a sign for the Alex that things went as well as they did this last time last. I mean, when they, when they lost that game to Ottawa earlier in the year, There was obviously a lot of rest involved in that, but that was a shocker. I mean, really that should not happen to a team like Edmonton. Calgary's just not that good right now. You know, I hear differing opinions on that, that they're only losing by a few points here and there. They're not. You know, they've been close and they could surprise. Well, maybe that's true. And they're probably going to get Bo like boldly by. Mitchell back pretty soon, but I don't think Jake Mayer was the reason that they lost those games. Certainly the game in Winnipeg. He completed 17 or 17 passes to start the game and, and, you know, gave them a chance to win it at the end. And unfortunately, Prentice came up short. So I'm not convinced that Calgary is out of this thing in terms of the race in the west. But to me so far, they look like the team that's kind of slipping back the most and that's not just based on the one and four record. They just. They don't look like they have that. What it takes to win the close games and to win. You know, The big games, obviously, because Edmonton really took it to them. And it would not be a surprise to see them do it again. That being said. If believe I mentioned comes back, that's obviously regardless of how well Jake mayor played. That is a rallying point for that team because he's a true leader in that and a huge part of that organization. Yeah. I mean, if nothing else, I mean, jig mayor has set himself up well for next year, hopefully or whatever it is. Yeah, there you go. Any, any final thoughts on the [unknown]? That's you know, Vernon Adams seemed to rediscover his love of throwing touchdown passes. I mean, What I, what. 51 Points. I was, I was astounded everyone in my fantasy took Vernon Adams. I said, absolutely not. He's he know he's fooled me for three weeks in a row. And then. He had the game of his life. No, I was playing Ottawa. So there's that. I mean in all honesty. Like I love watching Vernon Adams play. And I, I'm a big Kahari Jones fan as well, and I think he's done a great job. In Montreal since he took over at the beginning of the 2019 season. And he's helped. Vernon Adams become a star. He has his blips and he's had them this year already, but that's a guy that when he gets going, he can really sling it. And he's got some guys to throw to there as well. And I mean, I don't know. He's Jake Wayne. Panicky Jake, when a key, the best receiver in the CFL right now, I'm going to ask that question of you because I think, you know, it's possible no disrespect to Brian Burnham or Darryl Walker or any of those guys. This guy is putting on a show out there in Montreal. And if a VA can start, you know, just putting balls up to them and getting them those chances. He looks like he's going to make plays. So that's a really interesting team. Like I said, they get to play Ottawa four times. I sure liked their chances of being in the playoffs. Yeah. It is exciting. I mean, They came out. We too are really good. And then kind of that falls through the little bit by the Vernon's got his, it just seems to live and die. If he has this swagger behind him, he threw those interceptions and seemed rattled. And if he's got the confidence, you know, he came out and was crying in the interview and the wind meant so much. And. You got to get, you know, get past that and, and be the leader. But yeah, I mean, I think he's got tremendous art potential. I would definitely agree in terms of the marketing. And the team rallying behind himself. Well, I saw him, I can't remember the total number of points that they came back from, but it was about 30 against Winnipeg in September of 2019. That was the grey cup champion, blue bombers, by the way. And he absolutely destroyed. They're a defensive backfield in that game and win and pay could do nothing to stop them. And, and Montreal came back and won that game. I think 41 40 or some crazy score like that. It really was, you know, That was an. Opener for me as to how good that guy can be. And I think this last game was just another indication. I'd like to see what he does against a really elite defense. And he does get Winnipeg twice this year. So it'll be interesting to see where he goes in that situation. Yeah, interesting schedule for sure. And some of these match-ups and non match-ups and everything else, but I thank you so much for your time. I appreciate all your insights and for coming on, I do mean that, and hopefully we can. Call you again, maybe closer to that. When Lyndon peg, I guess, is going to go back to the gray cup again. Everyone right. You could be at, you know, you could have a good job all year, right? As the, the, the winning-est, I mean, as far as we know the best team so far standing, right. Yeah, it does look good for them so far, but even in their championship year in 2019, they had a great big blip in the middle or right around September where they. Yeah, I think they went something like two and seven over a nine game spread and, you know, Maybe a lot of people, they fell to third place and a lot of people thought, well, that's it. They're not really contenders anymore, but when they want to do and they turned it up, they played their best. There was really no one that could run with them. So we'll see how that goes again. Anyway. Thanks. I need those. I just like to be exact in there. I'm going to hit record. Cool. Well, Britain gray with nine 80 CJ, Emmy talking to riders. I'm so excited today. This really worked out well that we. Scheduling gas. And then it ended up having the labor day classic. And now we have the banjo bowl. We have Ted Lyman also joining the show to give the Winnipeg side. So it should be fun. How are you doing so far with the CFL season? It's been great, especially after last year, not having a season. Gimme all the football I'm here for all the CFL, as much as I can cover it. And it's been interesting. I will say that it's been kind of unexpected in some cases, but in some cases it's exactly what you expected. Yeah. Yeah. People told us that they headed the season, right? Yeah. Jim Molan was on the show. He said, you know, you can't bet on the first three weeks of the CFL games, it's too unpredictable, obviously with no preseason to it, but it is like, you know, Vernon Adams comes out last week as the game of his life. You know, the week before couldn't get anything going to, it's very hard to know, week to week on my fantasy picks, who they go for. Exactly. And everyone expected Hamilton to come right to all the games. They were in the grey cup last year and they've kind of been searching for their identity. It seems a little bit, they might've found that out recently, but yeah, like I said, there's been a lot of things. That you weren't really sure what to expect with a year and a half off. That's something almost unprecedented in this modern era. So it's been interesting to say the least to try to try and pick any that you're definitely a braver man than I. So I want to get your thoughts on all the games, but primarily obviously we have the banjo bowl coming up is that is big of a rivalry. Is I, it seems to appear at least on my Twitter timeline and then the Facebook groups. Absolutely. The riders and bombers hate each other. The players always tell us we can lose every other game as long as we beat the bombers, or as long as we beat the riders, this just, that. Deep into it in the fact that you've had this home at home. For so long, just kind of adds to it because the team that wins labor day, which is usually the riders except this year and another year in the past 16 years. Wants to win the boundary ball. They want to try and get answer back because these are two teams who no matter what the standings are, anything can happen. Even if the riders are in last place, bombers are in first, the riders will beat them on labor day or something like that. Same vice versa. So it's always fun when these two teams lock up because there is that con there is that rivalry. There's that almost hatred between the two clubs. So, you know, the riders came out looking really good. Right. Obviously had the bi-week what happened last week? I mean, it seems like Cody was running for his life. It felt like a lot of chaos. I mean, it just, wasn't a good game. What, what was your take on the game last week? I think what happened was all the questions we had about the riders and all this stuff we thought. They might have issues with finally came to fruition. Someone was able to finally. Expose some of these weaknesses for the most part. Cody for jarred on this offense has been able to kind of do quick passes. They've been able to get their first downs, keep their defense. Keep opposing defenses on the field and kind of wear teams down. But you, you can't really do that with Winnipeg, especially with how good that defensive line is. They can get after a quarterback, they can make you feel uncomfortable. And that's what we kind of saw. This is an old line that. Dan Clark at the center is the only starter left from 2019. From this Roger's team. They brought in Evan Johnson who started games in the CFL, but otherwise you had a rookie and Logan for a Lind who was here in 2019, but his first CFL start came this year. Cam Jefferson's for CFL star came this year. Andrew Lauderdale's versa. I'll start team this year. So just a lot of trying to figure out what was going to happen. And the riders have been for the most part leading. They haven't had to rely on big plays yet. They haven't had to rely on a 50 yard bomb to get back into a game. And as of now, the riders just haven't been able to find that big play ability on offense, whether that's just Coney for Gerardo needs more time. The loss of Shaq, Evans is big. He's one of the best deep threats in the CFL. So losing him as big. But I think I was looking at the stats and they only have two passes over 30 yards and their longest is 31 yards. So it's just the big plate wasn't there. And what happened was they couldn't find it. When, if they got ahead and that defense is smothering and Winnipeg. So we'll see what happens this weekend. They always say, if you lose, if you lose the first one, You're in better position for the second and a back-to-back because you're going to go change things. The team that one might decide, Hey, it worked. Why would we change it? Now the riders are the ones who have to make adjustments and figure out how they're going to stop. This rush from, get into Cody for Gerardo. Yeah, it's kind of like when you have an undefeated team, right. And they always say it's easier to pick them off if you haven't had to adjust too much ahead of time. A lot was made and it was in previous weeks to about Cody, for jar, though, about his physicality, right. About him running. He had a couple really big hits right in the game. The one where he had. It was weird. I think rod Smith called it a burner. I'm like, isn't that a stinger? Right? We call that a stinger. Or at least I, we do that in the state. So I, you know, a lot of worry about that, right. About like this future. You know, franchise quarterback for the reference. What did you make of the physicality of Cody scam? Oh, Cody's always been one of the toughest competitors since he became a starter in 2019, he battled through a injury in the playoff game and. We knew it would have to be bad to keep him out. He wasn't going to just sit out for a stinger or something. It would have to be pretty bad because of how much of a competitor he is. But yeah. Obviously whenever you see a franchise quarterback get hit and come up a little hurt. You're you're worried about it. [unknown]. And Zack Collaros also kind of looked like he suffered an injury labor day classic. And you're worried about that because the league is at its best. When these quarterbacks are playing, you never want to see an injury happen. And so it's going to be. From what we've seen in practice so far this week, he seems fine and seems like he's going to be 100%, but you could kind of tell rider nation just kind of held their breath. One Cody for Gerardo was on the ground there. Yeah. I mean, it was scary. It was big. And it seems like, you know, some of these Kiwi sneaks and things, he I've noticed a lot of, okay. Let's bring in the backup. Right. You know? Zach Claire. I can't remember his backup. Right. But they would bring him in. Right. You know, third one. And I'm like, God, I really wish that we wouldn't be, you know, Because. Yeah, the CFL does have a quarterback issue, right? I mean, there's only so many top tier calender players, right. And so you want to like protect those with your life. I mean, the same that you would in any football league, but it seems like there's not a cam Newton in the CFL, right. This waiting to come up that just need someone to get injured, to come up and take the call. You know, Yeah, it's, it's an interesting thing with the fact that you don't have these kind of, I guess, highly, highly thought of people, but every now and then an injury opens way. That's Cody for Gerardo. As a prime example, he was always a short yardage guy. Through his first little, few years here in the CFL. Zack Collaros goes down. Cody for Jaro comes in 2019 and lights the world on fire. Right? Nick Arbuckle, another guy who got his opportunity because bull Levi Mitchell was injured. So the CFL, like, like I said, for there's a lot of people who look at these backups and they're like, who are these backups? We don't really know, but you never know who's going to come in and be the next step. Be the next star and that's kind of what makes the CFL fun is that you get to discover these guys almost for the first time, unless you, you follow college football really closely. Did the bi-week hurt. The rough riders are the blue bombers. Just that good. I think it's a mixture of both. This blue bombers team there. They won the grey cup in 2019 for the most part they're all back. And I said, defense wins championships. And that might be the most complete defense in the league. But, but the riders didn't have a bi-week. They, they went out, they kind of rested and maybe, maybe that played into something Cody for Gerardo said this week, the bi-week might've. Been a hindrance to them because you kind of, you kind of take your focus off the game. You're all relaxing. Some of these guys that was the first time they got to go home to see their family for the first time. Since training camp started. So it's, it's a little bit of both. I'm sure that a week back into it, your, your, your body's ready to go again. You're kind of back in the schedule, which will help. But. This Winnipeg team is really good. And that's something we can't take away. It's they, they very well might be on their way back to a great cup appearance, especially if they can stay healthy. But it's going to be very interesting, the bounce back game, because the riders don't often have to go to Winnipeg. To to win the banjo bubble. Usually it's the BA. It's their bombers, trying to get back at the riders for a labor day loss. So kind of unchartered territory and it's the first time the, the riders are on the road this year, too. They've been lucky. They've been at home for four straight games. And Cody for Gerardo. Said that that's also a good thing. You deems bond when they're on the road, it's a different thing. Something different. It kind of gets people in a different mindset just to hit refresh button, like you said. So. That's what I'm looking forward to is how this team bounces back because there's no excuse of we're. A bi-week maybe some guys lost focus you're focused in, especially after. Getting beat, like when I'm getting beat, like the riders did against Winnipeg. Yeah. Yeah, of course my wife or casual CFL pick. Oh, I like the blue bomber, so yeah, I'm sure they'll go back and take the green cup. It is funny, you know, cause obviously if anyone, if you haven't, but people that listen to our show, you know, we got into this through the XFL, into the CFL. You know, Winnipeg was the underdogs last year, right. It came out, you know, one and it's just funny to me. They come out again this year, a light in the world on fire, everything I'm like, when were they getting these guys ever the underdog, like. I do understand, like we still talk like, oh yeah, the blue bombers. I mean, what is, is it just a historical thing? I mean, why they talk about, you know, Their marketing's on brand. Now they've got a good team owner. They've got everything kind of firing for them. Why is there this weird? Like they were the underdog and now they're not anymore. I think part of it is, is Zack. Collaros getting there. He kind of, when he got there, After the trade he was here in Saskatchewan, got traded to Toronto, eventually traded to Winnipeg. And when he's healthy, he is one of the best quarterbacks in the CFL, and that's a major difference for them. You kind of had some questions with what they were doing with Matt Nichols and Chris traveler, like this one, two punch at quarterback. You don't see that too often. Doesn't lead to a whole bunch of success. But when, when Zach got there, he really took over that team. He became a huge Playmaker for them that down the scratch and especially in the gray cop. And you're seeing it now. Just he's been there in off season. He's staying healthy, which is the main thing with them. You always have injury concerns recently. And like I said, the league is better when he's healthy, because he's, he's one of the top quarterbacks in the league and that's, that's just part of it. A Winnipeg. Has had all the talent around them. And now you have that quarterback there who who's the elite and everyone kind of goes around him. And it helps that recently they have been very good marketing. They have a swagger to them. Willie, Jefferson is a major part of that. A lot of people like Willie, even in Saskatchewan, he used to be here, but he still endears himself to fans. And when you have guys like that, it makes it real easy for you to. To sell your team to get people interested. And they're, they're backing it up on the field right now. They lost to Toronto this year. Yes. But for the most part, they've really been solid, especially defensively. I think they're averaging only giving up like 13.4 points a game right now. Which is, which is incredible as a defense in the CFL. Yeah, I mean, Looking back at me, a truly absurd, bizarre loss to the Argos right now. I mean, I just, it's weird. I have that. Like w how did that happen? Like what's going on. I wanted to talk about, you know, going into. You know, Winnipeg stadium, right? Plane obviously had to be intimidating going into mosaic. Right? [unknown]. These are two of the stadiums. You have some of the higher capacities, right? Right now in the CFL with everything going on, obviously with Winnipeg, with the full capacity, with the vaccines and all that stuff. I intimidation factor going into either one of these stadiums last week, and then going in this week. I think it's always there because you said these two fan bases are some of the most intense fan bases in the entire CFL. But the, the riders view this as a challenge, as I'm sure Winnipeg viewed it as a challenge, right? You want to go in there and quiet over 30,000 people. And the riders I think are kind of looking forward to not having the crowd on their side and the fact that. Okay. What kind of team are we when we're facing some adversity? When we don't have the crowd to really hype us up? And that can show this team where they're at this year, because you're, they're going to be on the road a lot. This back half of the season, like I said, they play, they only have seven home games. Four of them have been played already. And. It's always tough to go to Winnipeg. Like. For the most part, the banjo bowl has gone the bombers way just because it is, it is tough to win on the road in any league. And so. It's definitely an intimidation factor, but I think right now the riders are looking forward to it eight because it's their first away game. They want to see where they're at when it comes to being on the road. And B, they just like beating the bombers whenever they can. And they love to do it in front of Winnipeg spans because Winnipeg has come into mosaic stadium these past few times in front of rider fans and walked out winners. So I think the riders want to finally give them a taste of their own medicine and show them what it feels like. Yeah, I think it was Andrew Harrison said. It'll sound good. Silent scene 30,000. It's like, boy, I mean, they did, they really did that. I mean, it was really. Very quiet that ended that first app. Last question about the banjo bubble. I do want to get your thoughts on the other games. You tied them out, the rough riders needed to change things, right. You know? Coming off of Alaska when they, whether you looking for them to tune up or fix going into this game. I think the main thing is you have to find a way to stop this bombers defense from getting to 20 foot Gerardo, which is easier, said than done with the defensive line they have, but they're gonna have to try and figure that out. I also expect. Them to run the ball a little bit more. We haven't seen William Powell get too many handoffs yet. Part of that is because the run game hasn't been able to get too much going, but. I think that to beat. This Winnipeg team, you have to run the ball because that can stop this rock. They have to respect the run a little bit more. They can't just keep bringing people after Cody for Gerardo. So I expect them to run the ball a little bit more and kind of clean up those protections. And on the defensive side, for the most part, they kept the riders in it in the labor day. Classic. And so I don't expect them to change too much. They are dealing with some injuries right now. So we'll see who plays, who doesn't. But. That's what I'm going to be looking for is how do you protect Khalifa? Gerardo. And if you can get a deep ball, if you can make some big plays because Cody food Gerardo. Ms. Kyron more on what would have been a touchdown. So it's just about fixing that it's still early in the season. Like we said, in the first three weeks, you're almost still working out the Ross with no preseason games. So we'll, we'll see. We'll see what happens here. Yeah, I saw, I made a note. We're going to record our main show later, but about [unknown]. Has her there's another rough rider injury as well. So yeah, I mean, certainly keeping an eye on that as well, heading in. Some of the other games this weekend. You know, obviously it's weird that you, the lox, right. Like the game of the century. Now they have the, the, the bi-week. Whether we thinking about tire hats and Argonauts are going, that's really struggled last week. You know, offensively, still trying to figure out who is recorded back. Whether we thinking about this game. I think we're going to find L maybe more we're Hamilton's app. Yeah. Yeah, they have Dane Evans starting. And this is a team that, that got a win here. And. It's always tough. When you have a team with two good quarterbacks, Jeremiah Mazzoli, Dana Evans, kind of battling through training camp. You have that kind of quarterback, controversy of one guy doesn't perform really well. So I think we're going to see where Hamilton's at and trial's going to need a bounce back. They made a lot of free agent signings. This off season, especially from Saskatchewan, they have a lot of former riders there, but that's kind of what I'm looking forward to is maybe, do we see where Hamilton is actually at? Cause I don't know. If, how they started the seasons, how they're going to finish, because that is a very talented team out there. Yeah, it's this weird, like Dan Evans is like a resurgence of, of like life for this team. And it's really weird that when the Zoe was in there and it's like, what are they doing different that they weren't doing before? It just, it's like a totally different team under the eight habits. It's a really weird how much that team has turned around in the last couple of weeks. Yeah, it just comes down to sometimes a quarterback just has controlled the room or just whatever they do. It just seems to work. You can't really explain sometimes. And it's, like I said, it's always interesting when you start the season with kind of a quarterback controversy somewhere because the locker rooms kind of split, right? If you have two guys who think they can be the starter while some guys like Jeremiah Mazzoli better, some guys might like Dana Evans better. So you have to really come out and be like, this is our starter, no matter what. And it looks like they gave Jeremiah was solely, did suffer an injury, which I will open this up. But if Dane Evans continues to win, like he did in 2019, it's hard to, hard to go back to Jeremiah Mazzoli, even though he's been a good quarterback in the CFL. Yeah. And the last week they put in mocha, Bethel Thompson. Right. You know, we had done our whole episode about him and then they lost and all that stuff. I mean, it sounds like our buckle is starting again. Eh, just a weird. He really struggled in the game. It was really, it was a really rough go of it. I mean, I was excited to see NBT get some time. I mean, obviously you don't want to see anybody, you know, struggle that much, but it seems like there's still index camp. Right? I mean, it seems like that's still kind of the go ahead. Yeah. It's I think Nick, Arbuckle's the guy around in, when he wants, he got him and he got him when he was in Ottawa, a pandemic happened, never played for Ottawa. They kind of made the quarterback change. So I think that that's who they, they want to start. But it's almost another Howard situation, right? McLeod Bethel Thompson has won games in the CFL. He's been a good quarterback in the CFL. If Nick Arbuckle struggles, all of a sudden the voices start to. Start to say maybe, maybe he needs to get back in. So it's very interesting what's happening out in Ontario right now, because I know both those teams. Really want to make a great cup runs. Hamilton's been there and Toronto with all the moves they made to bring in veterans and spend all that money. They see themselves in a great cop. So it's going to be a very interesting game to see where everyone's at right now with a shortened season, especially. Last couple of here, obviously the box score last week I missed the Alex Stan Peter's game. We had green day was here. So I sadly had to miss the game for first gate CFL game. I missed this here. Very surprised with the box score came out right. Of how well the Elks seemed to camp come together. Right? I mean, they've really struggled so far. Obviously playing at home. Now I is, do we know Bo's still out? I mean, it's this whole Calgary thing. They, they seem to be playing well under Jake mayor. They just can't close the games. Yeah. And I think that's just what happens. Bolt when bowl Levi Mitchell plays, he's probably top one, top two quarterback when he's healthy in the CFL and the. It goes to say something that a quarterback can just will a team to win when sometimes they shouldn't. Right. It's just that belief. And I think that that's just, Bo's been there for so long. I think when he gets healthy, you'll see this Toronto or not travel. This Calgary team obviously take those steps. And I mean, other teams in the west are more than happy to see Calgary lose some games because they've been so dominant in the west for so long. But you're really not going to know what that team fully is until Bo's back. I think like Jake mares look good. He's fine. But he's still a CFL rookie. Beau's a guy who's been there. Done that one, a great guy. I've been to multiple great cops. And so I think the, the key to that game is if both plays or not, And that's a completely different Calgary team. I think when you get bullied by Mitchell back. Yeah, I don't think they've made an announcement. Yeah. They may know that he was, had some limited practices right earlier, I guess it was before the game last week, before labor day that they were talking. Finally, how, how many points are the lions going to beat the rat blacks by on. On Saturday. I'm really curious with. I mean. A lot. Ottawa's won a game too, right? Like it's not like they haven't won a game yet this year. But it's just, that's another team that's kind of struggling right now. And you're making a change at quarterback moving to Dominic Davis. And. When the lines are on, especially with Michael Riley playing well, that's, that's going to be a tough team. They have a lot of weapons and we kind of saw it. Week one against the riders when Michael Riley nearly leads that comeback in the second half. Like this. The lions are a good team, the red blacks, they have some holes to fill. But, I mean, I would hesitate to think that the safe bet is the lines just because Ottawa has an instilled, a lot of confidence in people yet. Yeah. It's, you know, they pulled Matt Nichols. I have a lot of like red, black stuff on my timeline. I see a lot of like, oh, he's washed up. He's gone, you know, trash. His arm shot. I mean, Dominic gave us. It didn't seem like it instilled a lot of faith in a lot of the people that I talked to online. I mean, how, how are you feeling about that switch? Ah, I, I think it's interesting. I mean, The coaches have a reason for it. Obviously they have a male to find anything under Matt Nichols yet. But I mean, Davis in 2019, didn't instill a lot of confidence in red blacks fans. A lot of people assumed they were going to have Nick Arbuckle. Right. That was a whole thing. That was the big signing. And for 20, 20, 20 20 gets canceled, our buckle goes to all. To Toronto, Ottawa gets Nichols. And now I don't know if Matt Nichols is hurt or what's going on there, but he just hasn't been able to put anything together. And the red blacks may be panicking a little bit or making this change early. But I think. I just don't know, like, He didn't, like I said, Davis, didn't instill a lot of confidence in 2019. They went out and found a guy he left. So there can't be too much confidence at all in the Ottawa red blacks quarterback room. And it'll be interesting to see where this season goes. Maybe, maybe Davis comes in like the road on fire. He's a starter next year, but maybe they have to, to make a move for someone. Yeah, this is. He was like Matt Nichols arm, his tire, that Mike, we haven't played in a year and a half. I don't really understand what's happening here, but I will say I don't want to be too boastful about that, but I do hopefully forget about, about. You know, my, my pick for that day. Anything else before I let you go, this has been fun, kind of running through all those. And I do feel like we got enough Roughrider stock in there as well. Just CFL football's back. These are kind of the best two weekends outside of the grey cup, obviously. Of football for riders and bomber spans, especially because of the rivalry here. And I hope that if, if fans haven't had a chance to watch the CFL, really these past two weeks, Are kind of exactly what the CFL is about. The games might not be as exciting as you think sometimes, but it's all about the fans. And you can tell the fans care with the fact that the riders were down by a bed, but the fans stayed rate till the end. Right? And that's, what's great about both these fan bases is that. No matter how bad or how good the team is there. They're. They're there to cheer. And the banjo bowl is always exciting and I just can't wait for it. It's a fun time to be back covering the CFL and just be a CFL fan because after 2020 not having it. I want license. I want all the football. Let's just talk football now for the next few months. Cause didn't get to do that enough in 2020. Yeah, it was, I don't know if it was totally Jefferson. It was one of the blue bombers was like flipping off the crowd as. They were walking out. Did you see that at the end of the broadcast? It was wild. I didn't see anyone flipping off the crowd, but I absolutely could see that happening. These, these fan bases hate each other. I think really Jefferson got some small, some young kids to like take off their rider. Jersey gave him some bomber gloves and it's all in good fun. But at the same time, he said there's a lot of bad blood, especially if you grew up watching these two teams. And it's always fun because they have this, these two games have just that extra excitement and intensity to them. Yeah, it is it's. I think that it. Compared to like the NFL, the, the accessibility of a lot of these players. I wish that some of the social media teams and things were a little bit more approachable, like the players are, I'm like, this is wild where the players are almost more accessible to the fans, both online and in the stadiums and the, even the teams are because I think like, God, I mean, those kids are gonna remember that forever. Right? At the time we were at the game and we took our Jersey off. And I mean it's, but like as a really cool moment. Right. And that really speaks besides just the skill of the football players, but just that extra level that I think helps them stand apart. I mean, I think this is obviously tremendously successful for them. So. Yeah, it's a fan driven league. They know that the players love interacting with the fans and that's something you don't. You don't see as much in the NFL, just because of how widespread they are, but it's always fun. These guys especially know the history of the CFL. They're well aware. Of the rivalries and they, they liked to play into it as well. Especially Andrew Harris. He's from Winnipeg. He knows, he knows all about the rivalry between the riders and bombers. So. I wasn't surprised he tried to add a little fuel to the fire. Well, Brittany, thank you so much for coming back on or for coming on. I hope we can have you back on in the future. I hope we can keep you in the role of actually, Yeah, go ahead. Let's scare us. I'm terrible at all these, especially like all these Canadian names, I'm always like some of the players and stuff. I don't know what that, you know, No for sure. I was okay. Well today we have Adam Lewis Garris with us who just correctly told me how to say his name, Adam, thank you so much for coming on. How are you doing today? Oh, I'm doing well. Thanks. How are you? We're good. We're we're excited for the banjo bowl. We've got a lots of smart Canadian media people joining us today to kind of fill us in on all the weekend scams. Besides Toronto and Hamilton. What game are you looking most forward to this weekend? Oh, man. I think what I was going to say, Toronto and Hamilton, I'm excited to get back out there and, you know, go check things out. But I dunno. I mean, I guess it'd be interesting to see. I guess just from a BC Montreal perspective, just to see how the. I think he's just shaking our brain. Everybody's really, really tight man. That he's division there. So yeah, I mean, of course I'm looking forward to being at BMO field tomorrow and checking out. Hamilton back in Toronto. For the first time in a, in a few years, but yeah, just, I think the east divisions. You know, really interesting. So far, so far in the season. Your microphone's rubbing just a little bit on your shirt from your earbuds. So does the banjo bowl, does that do anything for you? I've seen a lot of, you know, our big show today, the promo around you win a Winnipeg, Saskatchewan, all that. Does that rivalry do a lot for you? Yeah. I mean, I think anytime that, you know, you get to, you get to watch a tight. You got to watch the tight rivalry in CFR, just from a Toronto perspective, it's always kind of funny to see, you know, things that you might not think about as much, just, just from a perspective of somebody who's been in, been in Toronto their whole life and just seeing how, how things are marketed or at the country. So, you know, I can't say that it's a, it's a game that I've ever had a chance to go to chances that I, you know, I've been out. GA to either of those markets, but I, I think it's a, yeah. It's going to be an interesting, an interesting, magical, definitely. The tuning in. So I think it's. I think it is definitely going to be. Interesting to see how, how things play out in that one. So a last weekend. Toronto really struggled. Right? A lot, a lot of quarterback issues, you know, we famously how they're being MOCAD Bethel's at Thompson episode. The next week he comes out, gets pulled from the game. W w struggles going on in Toronto right now, what do you make of all of that and kind of the QB dilemma and just, it was just a really tough game to watch. Yeah, I mean, so that one was. I mean the Liberty classics you. You know, it's been something that has immigrated the Argonauts over the past few years. I guess. It's going back seven years in her own out. Right. Toronto has been unable to win a game and it was. It is something where you wonder if it's a, if it's a mental thing for the players, you know, just, just knowing. Going into an environment where this is pretty much their, you know, their biggest regular season game. Year for Hamilton. You know, no matter where the seeds are in the standings and it's, it's a one that's weird because it's early in the season. Right. So that's a big, that's a big difference. So yeah, I was on the call with. You know, Ryan Denwitty had coach after the game and. And he said that, you know, next going to be starting a yang. That's up straight again. It says that, you know, Nick Arbuckle is supposed to be starting again. It is. It is so strange in a season like this, where. It's a, it's a shortened season. Right. And you know, these are the two guys that have played in the CFL before. And. You're it's hard. You, you don't have that much time to really. Figure out your can be situation. You don't want to be going back and forth. Right. So it would be great for, for the Argos perspective. If they're able to, you know, sign that Nick Arbuckle is the guy that they want. If they're able to stick with him and. You know, not be having. You know, questions and post game pressers where they're saying, Hey, are you. You know, thinking about flip flopping, your quarterback situation again, because the side of. You're in week 5, 6, 7. So, yeah, I think it'll be, it's such a short week and it's, it's, you know, one of those things that only kind of comes up in the CFL where you're playing a Monday to Friday against the same opponent. So if the air goes, you know, come through and they, they come looking at strong and our buckle looks good, you know, then everything's kind of. Kind of a wash. And, you know, you go, you, you split a week, which is a rare thing that you can say in football, but if, if our buckle. You know, it starts to struggle a little bit then. You know, I'm not sure how quickly they want to. They want to go back. It's in the cloud, but yeah, it will be. It's really, I guess, a litmus test for the Argos and Nike. QB situation tomorrow. Yeah, it's just. You know, obviously we have NFL kickoff tonight as we record and you know, a lot of pundits and stuff we're talking about, you know, with the longer season, you know, you can use week. One is more of a pre-game. We don't need to worry. We can, we can fine tune kind of, as we go into the season where the CFL is totally different, you know, shortened season, right. You know, we're already. A third of the way through over a third of the way through either trying to figure this stuff out, like the fact that we're going into week six and we still have like QB issues with Ottawa, with Toronto, you know, Hamilton seems to figure it out with Dan Evans. I mean, it's just, it's hard to really get momentum going. As, as any one of those teams. Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a wild thing. Just looking from the harvest. Perspective going back to that, right? Like they come in on. On a hot streak, you know, the winner first game, this season. Integrated. And then it's like, oh, you know, we're feeling good. And then, you know, you go right back on the road. You're one-on-one again. And then the Argos. Are two in one. And it's like, oh, you know, if, if they, if they'd won that game on Monday, ready there. They're feeling pretty. There's three and one they're top of the division. And now, you know, just in the span of the span of five days, You could be back to having a losing record and it is. Yeah. There's, there's no space to, to really, to really mess around. Especially in, in the use of vision, I think it's been, it's been tight and it'll be interesting to see if the Argos are able to, you know, Come out of this year. Just from a 14 game perspective, you know, with a strong lane record and something that looks like. You know, they're able to build a sustainable, you know, winning program or if they're going to come out and they're gonna, you know, do it. It has been the norm for a number of years and either, you know, be out or below 500. And then relying on a bit of playoff lock. So I think this is actually, yeah. Super important. There, it goes just as a whole. Just to see where their program will, will stand and sort of where they're. Where their reputation will be yet just amongst the league. Yeah. You know, it's hard. I mean, obviously we've covered all of the XFL stuff and MLSE stuff we've had other Toronto we on before we've had other Argo. We had the guys from the Argos fan cast on you, other podcasts. And it's just this weird thing you'll covering this team. In Toronto, they struggled so much right. For, you know, fan base for these things. And then it's like, God, we just wished they would be a successful franchise. You know, maybe if they would win, right. If they would have some momentum that it would help. I mean, you know, nothing. Else would eat. It wouldn't hurt anymore. Right? I mean, W what is the struggles like of covering this, this team in the city and kind of everything else that goes along with that? Cause I know it's a complicated issue. Yeah. I mean, well, the one thing that I'll be super intriguing for me is. Just wondering what, what the vibe will be like tomorrow. You know, hosting. Oh, sing Hamilton. Just because every time I've been to a tiger cats game in the past. In Toronto, it's been a few years now, but there's always been a strong Hamilton contingent. And I think that's likely to be the case tomorrow night where there's people that are there. And, you know, obviously if they're, you know, they're committed fans, if they're traveling from. And it's not the furthest place away, but it's not like they're, you know, it's just, it's just a short walk or a short drive to the. You know, to the stadium either. So I think it would be interesting to see sort of what, what the fan dynamic is there as well. I think, you know, Bemo fussy. Bemo field's been a beautiful facility for them. And I personally prefer it to when they were flying at the Roger center, but I think it will be, yeah. One thing will be, you know, a test like that to see when you have a big rival coming into your, coming into your stadium, how you know, your fans respond. And obviously there's, you know, contingent as Argos. Those diehards that are. They're making noise and they're happy. You know, and it's used doing well, but it'll be interesting to see if, you know, if they're struggling a little bit, just how, how people that might be taking their first Oregon's game in a few years, we'll be handling a, you know, a Friday night it'd be no field if it's, if it's a tight game or if it's that sort of thing. So I think, yeah, these sorts of games are super intriguing. You know, your Friday prime time, you know, you're, you're competing for people's ad dollars and attention and, and, and all that. So I think, I think tomorrow will really be, I guess, Today might be one. When it's released, but yeah, I think it'll be really interesting to see. Sort of what the actual Argos fan base will be like, because I, I'm not a hundred percent sure how to predict it. Yeah, cause I have. You know, we have like listeners that write in and they're like, Big Argos fans. Oh, they just released season tickets. You know, a week ago or, you know, they just started selling tickets or we haven't seen any ads or this is the one I've only seen one billboard in a week, or, you know, we get all these ages. And so I'm like, well, I don't know. Right. I mean, I'm not there and I'm not, but it seems like, you know, are they doing enough? I hear MLSE is doing enough. I hear they're not doing enough. You know, it's just a, it's a confounding issue up there. Yeah, I think the one thing. That's important for a team like emo or sorry for an ownership group. Like MLSE. Is to realize if they're. You know, once that they've purchased the Argos. It's it's been a franchise. You know, for many generations has struggled to capture the, you know, Toronto fan base. They obviously had their. You know, their heyday sort of in the nineties. They have a great history, but I think it's important for MLSE too. Realize if they're gonna, you. It's important to do everything that they can, right. And they can, they do, you know, things that are of professional caliber. They do things that are, you know, what people would expect if you're coming from an American perspective. If you're trying to recruit players that don't know much about the CFL, and I know that. What I've heard is that, you know, Brandon Wood, he's a guy that sort of made those same demands of the, of MOC. And I'll be honest with group when he came up here. And he decided, you know, He has some success with, with the toddler Stampeders. And I know that it's yeah, you need to, you. If, if you want, you know, they are going to ask them to CFL. Canadian football as a whole to, to gain respect. It's important that you're really treating every facet of your organization. Like a professional one and you know, it. You know, the Argonauts are not, Emily's he's most important property. Everybody knows that, but they still need to treat them like a very important property and not every decision is going to be made based on, you know, how much profit you're going to be making in a year by year basis. But it's hopefully if they can put in enough of a. Effort over the years to build the right, right things around the program, then that sustained success. Has a possibility of time. It's just, they've made so many moves in the off season. Right. You know, Mike Mitchell writes for us for CFL coverage and he has the Argos. You know, all the moves they made. And he had an article that came out this week where it's like, man, you know, all this work and all these things. And then they really just haven't shown that bright, you know, we're expecting a little bit more, I mean, What do you make of that? And just all the work and signings and everything they've done. And to be where we are now, we're right there at 500. Yeah, I know it, it is. It is strange when you look at it sort of the way that. The seasons played out. Right? Like they, they definitely had a really strong game to just start the season. You know, they had, they came in with a, it was an unexpected victory and then they had a strong game. You know, hosting, hosting Winnipeg, and then their other two games. You know, the loss a lot to be desired. Right. So it is, it is really funny how, how fast they can swing in football. And it's, if you look at, you know, just a five game sample size, if they go three and two, you're like, oh, wow. They've. One 60% of their dance. And if you, you. You know, if they have a right. If they have a rough one for night and it's like, oh, you know, is this team able to deal with adversity? Right? Like realistically you should. You know, you should be competitive in your home games and they didn't look all that great on, on Monday. So I think. It'll be a, it'll be a huge test to see sort of the. Yeah, the teacher. Of this team, this season. And you know, I think that there'll be tough questions. Tough questions. Ask if they look over-matched. Or the same opponent twice in one week. Speaking of rematches obviously Alex finally figured out kind of get to get some offensive momentum. This last week, right against the standard Peters. What do you make of that? I mean, w we talked on the show, Calgary is playing well under Jake mayor, even though the record doesn't necessarily show it. I mean, what do you make of that rematch on, I guess they're playing Saturday and Metro blender. Yeah, I mean, Sinfida is right. It's it's just strange to see. You know, Tim fallen it, it is so weird to try and relate everything back to, you know, A season that happened. Two years ago, right? Like. It does feel like, oh yeah. We were, I wouldn't say overwhelmed, but you know, just their expectations to the St. Peter's organization have been high for a number of years. Right. And that's a. Yeah, there were another program where you wonder, you know, you wonder not necessarily as is this. The end of them, but how many is this a year where they're, where they're going to be rebuilding? Are they going to be real building for, you know, a number of years? Are they. Yeah. Are they, are they still in agreement, a crab in the lead? Because this point in the year, so far, you know, Like we said, we're we're one third of the way through the year. Just say, Hey. Is this a. Is this going to be a watershed moment for the San Peterson to turn it around? Or are they just gonna, you know, continue with. With a decline that I guess came pretty unexpectedly. Yeah. I mean, I really wasn't expecting a lot from the Elks after the first couple of weeks. And obviously coming off of the whole mess they had with the COVID things and not being able to practice and stuff. And then, you know, show up and win 32 to 20 or whatever it was. I mean, truly it tested me. Yeah. That was like, Last year when the Titans weren't able to practice for, you know, two weeks or whatever. And then they came out and beat the bills. Is this. I, I wasn't expecting that. What do you make of the Alex going forward? Is this a new breath for them? Or they have their figured some stuff out. Yeah. I mean, it's gotta be strange. Just I'm thinking like the internal politics of, of the locker room dealing with. You know, an outbreak that sounded like it was mostly among unvaccinated players. I think that's gotta be a really strange. Moment where the team assist sort of look. You know, you're, you're looking at each other and you're having these tough conversations that hopefully, you know, you win. And, you know, I think that you're going to be. There's kind of a moment there for, I guess the coaching staff and the. The coaching staff and the players and the management where they're, they're kind of looking and saying, okay, you know, we have this different opportunity now. Not necessarily a great one. I mean, there was talks that, you know, they'd be forfeiting the game, obviously, that, that didn't come about. They rescheduled. Against the Argos, but I think that that's sort of. Yeah, I'd be interested to hear what those internal conversations are like and what people are saying within the organization. Just just being the team that sort of is, I guess, cast in a bad light, sorta. Throughout the week. Right? Like nobody wants to be the team that. Is is causing their, pro-fossil just, you know, relating it back to the hockey season last year. Right. But the Vancouver Canucks, when they had their COVID outbreak and they were causing all these schedule issues, it just creates this animosity where. Every other team in the league is liking you a bit less. It's it's, you're creating schedule problems for them. I'm sure the Argos, aren't going to be pleased about the fact that they're playing an extra game at the end of the season, that they weren't planning, planning for us. So I think, I think the Alex. Yeah, really just, just internally. It'll, it'll be interesting to see how they. Or they can move forward throughout the season. And if they do have that sort of target on the back throughout the year, Yeah, like you said, you know, Last year, you know, the Ravens huge issues, riot turned to reschedule everything. I mean, with Denver where that, you know, the NFL was like, you know, we're not even going to deal with you. I mean, it really does put that mark on us. And especially in the 19 league, there's just not a lot of room to hide behind. You know, if we're the ones causing issues, it's just weird to me, you know? We bring in coach Elizondo. He, you know, let's go Derek, Dennis, let's go a bunch of veterans, right. Talks about building this culture. You know, they weren't the right cultural fit or building this culture. And then you have this COVID outbreak, which is basically just a personnel issue, right? I mean, there's no issues on the field, right? It's it's it's players and choices and things. And then this week now Trevor Harris, there was an interview with him where he said, you know, I credit this. When did you know the culture of our team to the personality? It just seems weird. It seems like there's a lot of talk of must be the buzz word in their locker room about like building this personnel thing. But it does seem like they're the team that has the most issues, not on the field right now. Yeah. I mean, I guess it's that old adage where people say that, you know, winning sort of fixes everything. So. I mean, if they, if they go through a. They go through a big winning strikes. Right? I don't think the story of the elk season will be there. COVID outbreak. As long as you know, fingers crossed it's are able to play a play a normal schedule. But it'll be, it'll be interesting to see because if. You know, if they start to, you know, go on a losing scale, then that's an, it's an easy thing to point back to, you know, whether it's a hundred percent fairly or not to attribute. You know, every, every problem that they run into on the season with that, but yeah, at the same time, You know, Sam theaters have, I've got quite the, quite the work-study to kind of get the season back on track. Thoughts on my team. America's team, the BC lions. Facing the audible red blacks. And what do we make of that matchup? Yeah. I mean, it's a, it's a perfect, massive to, you know, kind of tune into as, as. I, you know, getting into bed on, on Saturday evening. And I just kinda. Hanging out there. I mean, otherwise. You know, Otherwise in another interesting spot, right? I mean, I feel like I'm saying this is that every team, but it's gonna be. You know, emotionally, emotionally, that's a hard game to be playing. Right. You're coming from Ottawa. You're playing a late game on. On, you know, Saturday. And, you know, there's, you know, that. Just just emotionally. I just know from like my own football career, when I was, when I was playing, when I was younger and you're going into a game, right. Are you thinking like, oh man, like if we lose this one, we're, we're one in four and we're in that. You know, you're, you're in that realm where it's like, You don't want to be. Yeah, you don't want to see your season kind of be going down the drain. So are we in a year? Right. So I think that's gotta be, and at the same time, You know, BC. They're kind of just like logistically it seems like everything I've heard in BC, you know, everybody's. You know, kind of in a, in a weird spot with. With COVID right now. And it seems like, you know, people are wanting to have something that's fun to do, and they want to be able to, you know, show out and show up for these games. And there's been a lot of discussions about, you know, whether things are going to be full capacity or not, or whether things are backsliding and. And whatnot. So I think, I think it will be crucial for, yeah, I guess, I guess it seems like every game this week, you know, we've got to. We've got a statement game for just about everybody involved. And I think that's. You know, one of the beauties of the CFL is just how, how tight it is. And this year is no different. I think that this'll be a big weekend for, you know, Everybody was playing. It's just, it's fascinating to me. And I mean, that's why I love, you know, I mean, we had never planned on getting into all this football podcasts and stuff, but, you know, following these teams in these stories and like, I just, how quickly things can change or even, you know, the similar stories where obviously you have Ottawa. You know, we still don't have a quarterback there either. Right? You know, here we are going into week six. What do you think of that with the benching of Matt Nichols and Dominic Davis getting the start presumably again, right. I think they announced that. Yeah. I mean, I think it just, anytime you're, you're dealing with the quarterback issue. Just, just relating it back to the Argos. It's just, it's just something that you don't want to talk about. Right. It's just something that as a, as a football fan and somebody who's. He's following a team. You don't want your team to be, you know, In a conversation where you're saying, Hey, like, Are we, are we content with this guy? Right? Like you, you don't want to be it's. It's funny. How, how much of, you know, the football conversation still, still talks about. Quarterback play just even for, even for a casual fan just all the time. So I think that. Yeah. You know, but if you look at it, if you look at the red blocks numbers, right. They let me score at 67 points. In four games. That's not ideal. Right. They've really, they've really struggled on offense, you know? They've lost. They've lost three in a row. So looking for. Looking for a spark plug as a, I guess that's all you can really do at this point. Right. And it's gotta be, it's gotta be tough, right? Just being in that locker room and, and knowing. Oh, geez. There's, this is our guy. We've got a trust now and a feeling like you're just, you're hoping that the coaching staff figures it out. And if you're, if you're coming from that perspective, Yeah, it is funny to have Tim Bain's front of the show, covering the red flag thing, being able to toss crap his way with when he, you know, After after the lions. Scarily squeaked by, I would say I didn't, I don't think that the last victory that the lions had was arousing, where they get threat black for how poorly they've been played. But I still get to see, you said you had any other notes before we let you go in the other talking points. You wanted to make sure we got across. No, I'm just, yeah. I think like the big thing for me is just, I'm interested to see kind of what that, what that traveling Hamilton San base will be like tomorrow. I'm I'm I think it will be. You know, a good atmosphere at BMO and I've enjoyed it. You know, the, I mean, it was, it was out of the home opener and it was, it was a blast. And I hope that, you know, there'll be a bit of. You know, animosity on both sides without, you know, without anything getting too serious. Cause I think that's just kind of what, what drives the Canadian football league? Just the fandom. Is, you know, having a, having a good time having a enjoyable Friday evening and hopefully we got some, you know, angry. Has fans yelling. Yonder the Argos players come tomorrow night. Do you think that the CFL as a whole now that you know, Hamilton, you know, came in heavy, favorite, started slow trying to figure stuff out right now. We've got deigned s**t. If Hamilton is picking up steam, should the rest of the teams to be wary now that like, okay, now they finally woke up, you know, this is something that we thought maybe it wouldn't be an issue. And now they are kind of coming out. Like we thought they would. Yeah. I mean, it's, it is funny. You know, just, just looking at the history of the Hamilton, how your hats, right. Because it, it seems like we have a lot of conversations each year. But. Hamilton being, being the change of wash and it is, it is odd. That you know, in a, in a small league. That Hamilton has struggled to win the big one. So it's, it is. It will be intriguing. Campbell's is able to. You know, pull it out and I think. You know, they've got a great chance there to really shut up the Argos. And you know, the, our guys who came out to. A two and one certainly looked like they were a hot team. If they, if you are able to, you know, beat your. One of your, your biggest rivals twice in a week. And that's, that's looking great for, for Hamilton and yeah, I think that that'll just make, I mean, I've said this, you know, far too many times in this podcast already, but I'm just, I'm just excited for those watershed moments to, to be coming and you kind of set up the rest of the CFL season. And, you know, really. Create some great storylines for match-ups further down the road. Yeah, it's funny because Toronto, you know, tremendous social media presence. Right. You know, I feel like they do a good job at least on Twitter with kind of poking fun. And I saw that they were going back and forth with Hamilton this week and oh, you know, Toronto, hasn't won here. You know, for seven years or whatever. And they're like, yeah, well, Hamilton hasn't won a grey cup since Drake was into Grossey or whatever. I enjoy it as an American fan. I enjoy kind of seeing some of this bantering back and forth between the Canadian football team, social media. Yeah, I know. I mean, that's always just kind of, kind of what drives it. And I think, like I said, I, I, it'll be interesting to see who. You know, who's coming out and how, how big the fan base is. And, you know, whether, you know, whether they're bringing their errands and all that, I think it'll be, I'm excited for what should be. Great atmosphere, BMO. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. We're going to end the program here. Paul and I, we recorded our stuff and he's on the plane now. Headed to New York. So I want to thank everyone for checking out the show, and we’ll see you next week

Episode 56 - The Markcast’s CFL Labour Day Weekend 2021 Preview

Reaching over here to turn the music down. As the podcast starts. I got to like, organize my set up a little bit better. That's okay. Cops the struggle. My life is organizing my life. So. Welcome to work cast. Nice hat read right off the bat. Look. Right orange. He. Looked like a traffic home. I, I think I'm going to wear this now. Until the BC Lionsfollow me back on Twitter. I think that that is, that is my plan on the podcast. Well, I'll follow you back. You're being too personal or the mark has to count. Either one. Two particular. So I have my Jersey Canada post, you got yours. And mine got shipped. You know, late, but my, my lines are as he is coming, but it really takes like a month and a half to get from Canada here. This it's not that far, but it seems like it's very far to get shipping here internationally. I think they'd be like, Making sure. Every single package coming from Canada is like copacetic. I think they take extra time on that. Because, you know, Everybody knows. There's a lot of stuff. Smuggled down from Canada to. In the U S everybody knows that, you know, maple syrup. Whatever the case. It would be Tim Horton's. I dunno. So, anyway, welcome to the show. Yeah. So I felt long and hard about this. I'm very proud of our brand name this week. So, you know, I knew I wanted to do a labor day, right. Labor day with you. So marks Canada. Yeah. Not Mark Perry with XFL news. Mark Perry. Canada is like a retail club. It's. It's like Ross, right? Like Ross or like Coles or whatever. So it's marks labor day weekend. That is the branding of the weekend. So I have labeled it as the mark gas. Labor day CFL labor day weekend. 2021 Preview. I thought that that was I'm very proud. I, I, I. Butchered the graphics. I would do anything for a cease and desist order for marks. I'm very happy with, with. With this so far, I think we're good. And that leaching out their brand name. This, this looks like Michael, Scott's fun. Run for the cure for the office. That's what it looks like to me. That's I'm just gonna throw it out there. Anyway. It's going to be good. Big labor day. 2021 Preview today, we have a friend of the show, your friend of mine, Jason Gregor, talking to all sorts of stuff. All of the CFL preview. He also, he also talked with Elks president, Chris precedence. So we kind of have some insights in all this stuff with the Elks and the outbreak and all that stuff. And I just wrapped a lengthy conversation with Gord Randall, friend of Jim Molan. He's on the crown Gridiron nation with Jim and does all the research and stuff for that. And so I said, you know, when the president of the football camp. That messages you and says you need to have Gordon on the show. We we go have Gordon on the show. So Gordon is a BC. Lions fan when you lots of BC lions talking and we talk. All the kind of big mashups this weekend. So. Very cool, Jim. By the way, Jim. What are the current standings in the wildfire for a baseball? I'm just curious, Jim. Yeah. That age. 3.5 Games back there. Also breaking news. Dorothy received her passport. We are good to go for a cue. Cheers. We don't need to go to Pramila Jayapal Paul's office, who is our. Congressperson who, whoever we were going to have to do that for. So Dorothy is set. We're set to go October 16th, NBC. So we are. We are good to go. We'll figure out travel plans, but I assume you're riding with us up there. Yeah. Remind me, I gotta buy my plane ticket. I bought my plane ticket for the gray cup. I've I've I've contributed to the fund. Casa Mar caste Casa de mark has been recalling it. But we haven't. What's the French. Word for house. It'd be, I took French in high school. It would be a sham. I know that is wow. I should really know that. Also spoiler alert. I know I messaged you yesterday about the Vegas golden Knights home over there. I have procured tickets to that game. So it will be up to you to decide if you want to go or not. I will be at the mega goal. This. I go nights home, open there against Seattle crack it. So it is up to you then take it to already worth more than I paid for them. So I feel either way, I feel very good about my purchase or my wife. Dora, you can go there anyway. Something that's talking about. I talked to Jason Gregor about that, so I didn't want you to listen to the show and then be like, oh, we actually got the tickets. So. Spoiler alert for later. And show I might consider doing that. I've done. You know, I've got my reverse retro Vegas night. Golden Knights jerseys in the closet. I want to bust it out and actually, you know, wear it to a game. Eventually. Yeah, a couple other things. So w eh, USL update everyone who you need. You didn't even know about the U S about, we have been told from Brian Woods that there is an update coming in September, so yeah. Yeah. SpongeBob Maga. So we're in September. I would imagine next week after labor day, we are getting the USL. A U S F L update per Josh Davis, Josh tax, Brian. I don't, I, I, I got called out this week on Twitter. They're like, what's going on with the USFL? I'm like, I comment, we are a commentary podcast. I'm not like messaging Brian Woods, like, Hey, so what's happening. When it comes out, we will comment on it, but I've been told per Josh Davis and Brian Woods. Update coming next week. So just everyone about that. And then we actually have honest to God XFL news to talk about later. So honest to God, XFL interviews, staff, everyone, losing their minds, whatever, what we will talk all about that, but I wanted, we obviously CFL football games are playing right now. So that's what we'll talk about first. Very cool stuff. And we got, you know, four games this week. Your BC lines of bi-week. It's going to be interesting to see what, what, what. Boils down here. No Thursday night games. Obviously, we're not doing the live show again tonight. What, what do we got on tap here? Well, so this is kind of. This is a big weekend, right? So labor day traditionally, right? It's like week 12, 13 in the season, right? The rivalries. But a lot of these are geographic rivalries, right? It's like blue bombers, Saskatchewan. Right? Alex Dan Peters. So next week and then is the, is the banjo bowl kind of rematch between, so this week it's blue bombers at Saskatchewan, and then next week it's Saskatchewan at Winnipeg. So next week we have tons of, I have writers and all sorts of Winnipeg, Saskatchewan stuff as well. Lions don't really have. Lions don't really have a geographical rival rights. So that's kinda why they traditionally have this bi-week, but, you know, We preview all the savvy. Obviously the game of the week is blue bombers at Saskatchewan three and one versus a three. Now. You know, the Elks are coming off of, they're just practicing now off of all their big [unknown] things that happen. I, a red blacks I've worked pretty poor. Your Argonauts. I could see in an upset against the tiger cats, but. Yeah, it'll be a good smattering of games this weekend. I am excited to kind of see what happens, especially with the, the Roughriders, if they're stay undefeated and then how bad the red blacks are going to beat tonight as we record. You know, as this era. Very bad. By the way I love how the BC lions America, Steve Vegas, pick it up on Twitter. Now a little bit like people are starting to tweet about that and say that. Thanks to you. Thanks V the BC Alliance, our America CFL team. Yeah. They smoked the red blacks last week. It was a great game. I was, I was anxiously. I was at a wedding. I was anxiously following my fantasy score. On the app. Now watch the game on replay. It was fantastic. A couple other things. And this is for mark Steven. He writes for Calgary. I today as we record is the 75th birthday of the Calgary Stampeders. I'm this day in 1946, they played their first game to feed the Regina nines. So here we go. Let me zone there, mark. Yeah, I should know that. How did you not know us? Onto Marquez. So just these CFL picks here. I w I just copied this and posted this on the show. I want you to look Paul here at some of the track records, friend of the show, pat Steinberg. Is on here as well. Some of the track records for PEX for some of these Jamie nigh is five and 10 for picking games that cyber six and nine. These are people, the rifer cfl.com. Chris O'Leary. Leading the pack nine and six, and then Jim Morris, seven of eight, but I just thought that was interesting. You can see kind of where everyone's pigging on there. I think if you're picking Edmonton against Calgary as Jamie nae is I think he needs to get his. Something checked. Pat with the Winnipeg. I guess, yeah. The other two are a little more evenly matched, but that Alex. I Chamie Nye. Against the Stampeders is a little head-scratching. He's he's like I got to stand out from the rest of the pack. I got to make sure I stand out. I I'm surprised so many people picked. Saskatchewan over Winnipeg, the defending champions. That's bold. That's bold. But pat Steinberg seems to be going out on a limb there. Well, the idea is, yeah, right. So when the pigs three in one, but they're almost two and two. Cause if w if Calgary with a nail, the field goal at the end of the game last week, When the baby would have been two and two. So that's kind of the thing there is. I think Winnipeg's record makes them look better than maybe they are right where they may barely miss. It was a crazy end of the game that like Winnipeg missed the field goal, but then there was a play clock violation. So the play didn't count. They moved him back. They actually hit the field goal and then Calgary missed a field goal. So it was like three different things to happen that actually led when the beg to win the match or else they would be two and two. Hmm. So anyway. So news coming out from Edmonton, I don't want to get T and all this stuff, but this is kind of the big story right now. Chris pressin was on Jason Gregor show works out really good timing that, you know, they have all that stuff on. So it came out earlier this week that they had someone that broke protocol unintentionally. He was trying to take care of his body. He has a massage therapist. This is pressing on a 360 Chad. And he contracted it from her. And they also said that a couple of the wives had brought it into the bubble, whatever. So. We kind of got all that earlier this week, and then it came out Wednesday. I believe. Elks offensive lineman, Jager, Ruby. He was the one that broke protocol and he basically Naylor had said, It first came out, Naylor said he had falsified documents and that is like bad, bad, bad, right. That was like a federal crime to false by then. Naylor came out and retracted that and said that he basically just said he was vaccinated. They never asked him. And then when they did ask him, he couldn't provide anything. So that, that is you're, you're still a liar, but you're not a fraud. Regardless, like you're, you're misrepresenting yourself in your back. Vaccination status. And I'm like, that's really bad. Like even the. I guess like, oh, well, it's, you know, It's like attempted murder instead of murder. Just like you still lied about it and you still said you were vaccinated. You weren't, you just didn't provide any documentation either way. It's a lie. And it's an egregious one at that. So. Yeah. I saw that he was released and it was, it was when Naylor. Initially reported that I'm like, oh man, he's going to be in big trouble. But. I mean, I guess it's not as big of trouble. He just lost his job. He's not probably going to jail or anything from that. Yeah. But he's basically blackballed. Right. So, and I've seen, I've seen mixed opinions about this, right? I've seen some people say, okay, it's really good. Basically. No other team is allowed to pick them up now, the rest of the season. And I've heard a lot of people say that's good, but then I ride peers in on his show and I heard some other people on Twitter say, well, there's probably other like infractions or lying or other things going on. And to make a, an example out of him is also not great too. Where do you lie? Do you think? I think they're kind of like scapegoating him out and saying like, this is the poster child of like, okay, now we've let him go. No, I don't think so. I think it's such a, I think it's such a touchy subject. That anyone who lies? I don't care if you're this guy or Jeremiah. Or whoever, anyone who lies about their vaccination status. And then it gets proven out to be lying about it. Is going to get cut. They're going to be released. That's all there is to, it's not gonna be like, we're making an example out of this guy and we're going to make, you know, we're going to set double standards here. Like anybody who lies. On the seriousness of this. Of this virus is going to be cut. I don't think that's. I don't think there's any weight in that argument at all. Yeah, it's all good. Jason, Gregory's got some more time. Thoughts about that coming up? The other notes are the Elks are going to be without a group of players on the game. On Monday, they haven't releases yet. People are presuming that Saturday when they do their injury report, that will kind of know which of those players are still affected by it. So it is kind of hard when we get into sports betting and fantasy and things like that. I mean, we've been talking about for every [unknown]. 18. You know, we won't know like the, his Trevor Harris effected by this. Right. We don't know. Right. And, and I'm, I'm presuming not, I would have to imagine that like, something that big would have gotten out three down already had the misstep last week where they said that he would test positive when he hadn't. But I it'll be interesting to see which of those as they come out of the quarantine and Elizondo says, you know, they got to see the lingering issues and thanks. Cause he had to look at like Lamar Jackson last year in the NFL. I mean, he was on the Ivy in that game where he. You both already have the poops, you. He had, he, he claims allegedly. Yeah. When he went running into that. Running into the back. That was still the most tremendous thing I've ever seen. In, in years of football with some are coming back out from the locker room and throwing the game, like the game winning touchdown. Bro I've had that run many a times. And I won't tell you the situation going on in my colon at the time, but. I know what that run means. Come. Come on. Oh, I thought you'd been that run. Like you even like rewatching that game. Like me actually running the way he ran. I'm telling you. I know what that means. I liked this statement. So Glen Cedar, he's one of the main broadcasters now for the CFL games. So they were talking about. The travel restrictions. And if you're going to be able to get on planes and all this, that we have a quote here from Naylor coming up. He goes, those players should get an apple and the roadmap, he will feel sorry for Alex personal choices. Cause COVID outbreak. The teams that have issue with Covey, we shouldn't feel sorry. There's a bit of competitive disadvantage right now. The Oxford very fortunate. They didn't get lost into the players. Didn't get paid. You know, with the Argos when you won zero, but I liked that. Get an apple on the roadmap. If you can't get on the plan. Yep. Buying one of those old school. You know, atlases where you had the grid system, you know, Our former friend over at Seattle used to tell us all the time that, that you could never fail using those little grid. Those grid. You know, it was old school, like bound. Roadmaps. You like looked up the address and there was bread. Someone that someone who used to work with you still like swear. Swear by those things. And I'm like, no phones are okay now. We've got GPS. We're good. But he's. I mean, that would be like Tony Romo say Matt, right? I mean, Glenn suitor is like one of the main broadcasters for the CFL. So that would be that that's my point is this is like, that'd be like Tony Romo coming out and being like, Get an apple on the roadmap, like figure it out. So I love when Canadians get spicy. It's fun. It's always fun. When Canadians get spicy. Yeah. So there's still this whole thing with Alex that we still don't know if they're making it up. I talked to Jason, Gregor has comments about this as well, but it's kind of one of those things like, you know, we've missed the week now. So I don't like making up games later in the season. Right? Like the NFL did it, where they pushed you back to Wednesday and, you know, they played at like two in the afternoon or whatever. Right. It was like the Raven Steelers. That was like the one really bad game. But I just don't like this, like, well, they were supposed to play in week four and now they're going to play a week, you know, 10 and like, but you know, injuries and things and all that hap you. The seasons should happen. Linear, linear Lee. And I don't like making up games on weeks where it wasn't like you couldn't get it in. And that week I think it should be gone. I completely agree because. You know, your injuries, change and different chemistries, James, like you can have someone that's injured. I'm not wishing for anybody to get injured. That's not what I'm wishing for, but you can have someone that's injured during that week. And they're a key component of like, you're, you're on a hot streak now, and then you have to. You know, You, you. You didn't play a team when they were at their regular strength and now they've got additional players or they're missing players. And it's a different dynamic completely. It's just, it's, it's kind of not fair. Oh, is it. So they're tightened the rumor right now is the boat. Levi might play this weekend. I don't believe that. I don't think he's going to get up to speed in time, but they're taking him off the six game. He was on a six game injury thing. But imagine if Calgary had been in the position of Edmonton, right? Well, he, you know, let's say they, weren't going to have Trevor Harris six weeks. Yeah. Well then you delay, they're not playing this game until week 11. Oh, well look, they have Trevor Harris again, that's a totally different than what it should have been. Before I just, I don't like that. It's like you're rewriting history. You said the schedule, the schedule should be set. Yep. I completely agree. And if you have a COVID outbreak and you know, I just, I don't. I don't know, man. I don't think that we should make this, this. This one, Argo should get the win. Yeah. Naylor is talking about the flight ban coming up. He says that it could be in place earlier than the end of October. It would affect all four games and week 13 Calgary Ottawa. Hamilton at Edmonton, BC at Toronto and Saskatchewan that Montreal. So this is like a big. If we can't ship players around up there, if they're not vacs, this is a big, like, this is going to be a catastrophic issue coming up for the CFL. I mean. At this point, like, you know, Get vaccinated. If your, if your livelihood. Relies on you being vaccinated, you might want to just get vaccinated. I mean. People people are like complaining about what's in the vaccine about taking course paste at this point. Like. What are we doing? What are we doing? Just get the vaccine. So w we tried last week. There were seven of nine teams. Now, the Alex and the riders have both announced vaccination requirements or negative testing for their games. Also Ontario starting September 22nd. They're going to be mandating, not even the test vaccines for like any non essential like bars and gyms and things like that. But the interesting things are, so it's September 17th for Saskatchewan and it's October 15th for Edmonton. And it's notably after the big labor day game, this weekend in Saskatchewan. So they're like, because heaven forbid like we give refunds or upset, you know? Cause that would, that'd be the thing, right? If you have sold 15,000 tickets and then you go, you have to be vaccinated. You might lose eight. You know, however many people don't want to do that. But both of these, there's only going to be three more. I did the math. Each stadium only has three more home games once he's going to a fact. So like, yeah. I mean, it's great that you're doing that, but, but you're certainly mitigating, like Saskatchewan has played most of their home games already. Cody says he supports moving towards fully vaccinated fans. That's per Rob Vanstone. A fan engagement might be a little better. He said, if you know, we get, we get fans fully vaccinated. Maybe we can high five, a couple of fans because you know that everyone will be vaccinated or doesn't have COVID when you have those kinds of questions. I feel like the bad guy, when I can't, high-five a little kid. He was sticking his hand out. I need to point out. I do need to point out. Vaccines. Do not necessarily mean you can't get COVID. Basically, what vaccines do is prevent you from. You know, being hospitalized, being really sick with COVID. So, I mean, It's it's, it's a great thought. It's a great thought to be like, yeah, I can high five you and hug you and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you could still pass. COVID. It just the symptoms won't be nearly as severe if you're vaccinated. Like, Cody's a nice guy. Want to high five, the kids I saw hi by the fan. Cody is getting heat for being too. I talked about this with Gord Randall. Cody is getting heat for being too like media friendly right now, like talking too much like he's and I go. And rod was talking about it on his show. I go, God forbid, any CFL star is marketable enough and big enough to get like fan hate for being like. We need more of this. Like, this is fine. Like let Cody talk and I mean, The CFL needs stars. We talk about marketing, go with Cody. He's a really nice guy. He is married. He's a, he's a, he's like bleeds and God, he's a big, really nice. Well-rounded individual. I think we need to support him and not be a, there was a lot of fans writing into rod show mad about Cody. Pichardo. Why. It just like, you need more of these personalities that are outgoing, like. The more personalities you have that are outgoing. The more people want to watch those personalities, either succeed or fail and they'll tune into the games. You know, people might not like what OTO Cinco do in the field of Randy Moss did on fuel. But they wanted to watch them lose if they didn't like them. If there's something you don't like about a play, you're going to watch. To watch him lose your root against him. It's like a wrestling thing. You're going to root against the heel. And if this guy is. Quote, unquote, like, I don't think it's a, he'll move to like one, a high five bands and stuff. But if you don't like that kind of stuff, you're going to re root for him to lose. You're gonna watch it and you're gonna wait for him to lose. So not that I want him to lose, but yeah, you get what I'm saying? Unless he's playing Toronto. Of course a writer said, coach Craig. Dickinson believes the team is around 85% vaccinated. He says he believes the handful that aren't vaccinated. Have dug their heels in the sand. This. Yeah, Claire, Hannah. She covers the riders. I posted this on Twitter. And someone said, well, heels in the sand mean you still could be drugged. Like, you know, it's not a healing stone or healing is, but. This is the thing. And I post it because like the teams can't know the medical people can know the medical people of the teams can no far Han I think, did they hit last night on sports center about this, but. Is this like, so, you know, we believe that I it's so specific with the numbers, but then not everyone is allowed to know the numbers, like the medical people can know, and then they can tell percentages, but it just. It's a really weird, like it has to be 85%, but then we're, you know, we believe like, I believe it's 85%, but yeah, coach Dickinson doesn't know whether or not all of his team are, you know, So. Hmm. Please hear outlasting. Oh, and then the other thing, I just want to say Dave Campbell said that he thinks of the, besides obviously mitigating the home games for the Edmonton vaccination thing. They because Commonwealth is a community around stadium. He just thinks there's, there's going to be a lot more work to get that ready to go. That would make sense. And that was, I just wanted to give a hat tip of the hat. To Dave Campbell for that. The other big news, and then we're going to get into the labor day, weekend preview, and then we have some other news coming out, but. At Gnomon. Roosevelt. He was released from admin. Al let's pre prior to the season, he is a big veteran, you know, two time a thousand. Yard receiver. He just got signed by the blue bombers. They believe that he's going to be eligible to play on Sunday. The blue bombers have been horrendous about dropping passes the last few weeks, they have really struggled on offense even with Zach Claris. So the idea is that maybe you could bring in this veteran to help alleviate some of those issues. Cause it is like a big, big, big time issue right now. Yeah, you definitely, you know, if you're dropping passes, like when I was playing football, You know, the coach said, if it hits you in the hands or hits you in your body, you should be catching the thing. So if you're dropping passes, then that's. That's a big problem for receivers and thankfully. It looks like they might've added someone that can help out with that. You see this tweet? From the Saskatchewan. Dr. Royal Canadian mounted police. The Mounties tweeting out. We want to remind drivers to be careful on the roads this labor day, long weekend, and not to drive distracted along with the normal elements on the road that demand your attention. This weekends roads will likely be full of bombers fans driving with tears in their eyes. The burn. I thought that was not a tree. The Savage. I love it. I love it. Yeah. So anyway, a big flavor that. We've got our, the interviews here coming up, Jason Gregor breaks down everything. We've got Gord Randall on everything. I said, there's still, I want to talk some more CFL news after the break and everybody, and then we do have the big XFL. Article that came out on news hub that will break down this wall. Cool. Welcome back. One of the things Jason Gregor, friend of the show and Gord Randall for coming on and reviewing. Viewing the labor day weekend. Like it's it's so it throws my mind off to see. Like a you in labor day, I re I type offense with the CNN. Just like people I'm like a listener max I've been writing. Damn. No offense. Happy NCE. And even during these, she was like, wait, they really do that. Like, yes, it's no. It's it's weird to see. I mean, yeah. My wife teaches like fourth grade. Like she teaches English and grammar and things like that. What is happening here. It throws it off a little bit when. Offense with a scene. Yeah. Paul. Police that a great name. [unknown] sorry. Consider pulling Matt Nichols versus BC's after offences with a C like, I love how Google docs, correct. Yeah. It's like, that's not the right way to spell offense. It's down here, south of the border. Americans. Consider pulling Matt Nichols versus BCF the unacceptable start to the season. The red, black struggled on offense again, and then certainly late in the game, but we'll evaluate, he was, he was telling TSN 1200 post game. We have a lot of things to evaluate after three games. What we can do better as an offense, because this is unacceptable. Nichols completed 23 of 2037 pounds. 206 Yards. Pass attempts for 206 yards and an interception. Not bad numbers, not terrible numbers. We're going into week five and that Nichols has not thrown an offensive touchdown pass. Okay. Well, that's, that's a very, very good point then. So I just want to get. Running it all in or kicking. Funerals. Yeah. Only serve wine that rushing touchdown and then many, many field goals. So there's an, I just wanted to get a little BCLI stock cause I was, you know, no game isn't Sherwin, but BC lions against Ottawa was about as sheriff, a wind, as I could expect, I did. I troll Tim Baines who was on last week. They covered the Ottawa. After the game I had, there was like a storm Sherbrooke humping like GIF. And I said, Tim veins, I'm sorry for your, for your loss of your red blacks. But anyway, I. They could pull Nichols this week. He might not start or, or they could definitely pull him. I mean, the Ottawa is looking really, really, really terrible so far. Very true. Jake Meyer sets, stamps, consecutive completions record. Congrats to him. He's looking nothing like a first year. CFL quarterback. 17 Consecutive completions, despite losing a Winnipeg 18 to 16. He says there haven't been. The head coach says, Dave Dickinson. Been a lot of great quarterbacks, Calgary. So that's probably why he got that record. Kind of throwing maybe, you know, a dig at past Calgary quarterbacks. He looks as good as most guys. And I am. I've got a lot on his plate. I've run a bunch of calls like that, and he's better for a hundred games. You handled it well at a. Tough tough environment. I mean 17 completely pass in the row. Was pretty incredible. I mean, I, I, there was, it was a lot of like dump passes, right. It wasn't like a lot of like long bombs or anything, but I mean, Jake Mayer had. A first year, you know, coming in for BOLO, Levi, Mitchell, you got all the steam of email, the stand Peters, you know, this legacy franchise, 75 years, all this kind of stuff. I mean, I can't imagine. Doing that and not just like having the Lamar Jackson's and run into the back. I mean, I just would be really scared. I just, I can't imagine how well he's gone. Done and what a boon. This is for the CFL to have a, another, like Ebola Levi comes back, which they're expecting. He will. You know, is that his job to return to, or if it is his job, [unknown]. Season, maybe Jake Mayer goes somewhere else and we have another. You know, stellar, CFL quarterback. That's that's. You know, it's very, very good point because you know, bullied by Mitchell is supposed to be off. Stay on the six game engine reserve list. Is over. So is there a quarterback controversy? Brilliant Calgary. We'll see. Yup. Yeah, former as evil Quebec. We have an NFL cut down. We have a lot of XFL cut downs later in the show by Chris traveler. He is still the third string quarterback. After the Arizona Cardinals, he did play, you know, he saw game time last season, obviously a lot of game time in the preseason. I'll tell you a Kliff, Kingsbury and Kyler Murray, better figure this s**t out. Or I don't know what's happening in Arizona. Five foot five foot six. Carla, Marie, I don't know what's happening. Anyway, it's travelers. He's making 1.2 million, you know, he's that he's don't get, but I, he's not making 1.2 million McCoy is making one. Oh, sorry. Did that run anyway. Heaven forbid, no, Chris Schaeffer anyway. Good for him. You know, Greg cup winning, you know, quarterback. So anyway, good for him. Seattle sea Hawks shuts. Shouts to the Seahawks. They've added Canadian offensive lineman. Pierre Olivier. To the teams practice rostered roster. He's from sont you stash. Go back. He signed with the team after going on selected in 20 20, 20, 21 NFL draft. And of course. Wait, we don't see. I don't, we only made three selections, Daniel pick Fest. We only meet only three selections in the draft. Why don't we, why did, why did the Seahawks trade their draft picks? All the time. We're paying Jalen Ramsey, like $87 million. Right, right, right. Isn't that? This is insane. A formal Adam, sorry, Nigel. And Ramsey Adams, right? For what. For like two games a season. Yeah. That's great. An all Canadian following the 2019 youth sports season, he was an aggressive leader of the university of Montreal. He helped the Caribbean's when the Dunsmore cup. And the Quebec conference title and earn a spot in the V Vanya cup. I hope. The Dunsmore cup reminds me of like basketball. The dens low cup member. Yeah. So congrats to him getting signed to an NFL team. Yeah. This is interesting. I, so during Carter, he is the son of Chris Carter. Pro football hall of fame receiver. He says he's not good enough to play in the CFL. They had a quote is people are saying, well, what's he doing? He's he's coaching Abby. He goes, apparently I'm not good enough. To play in the CFL. Tweeted on Saturday, referencing the fat. These have been the free agents since he was released by BC in November of 19. That's unfortunate because I mean, when you, when you, you know, When you're the son of the greatest receiver of all time, I'm going to say it. You should. Yeah. That's a controversial take that I'm going to throw out there. You should be able to, you should be able to catch on somewhere. You would think you'd be able to get it from. And then people are going to be like Jerry Rice, Jerry Rice. I'm like, okay. If Jerry Rice. Had the quarterbacks that Chris Carter had, would Jerry Rice put up the numbers that Chris Carter put up with? Like the likes of Shawn Salsbury and you know, these kinds of quarterbacks that were pretty much trash in Minnesota. I'm just saying Chris Carter, you need to start making the, there needs to be some consideration as to what Chris Carter went through. In Minnesota. Unfortunate for Toronto. Yeah. I need to have some thoughts on Chris Kreider. So that's good. I'm a big prescriber fan, huge CFL attendances, you know, 14,000 for outlets at 15 red black shirt. We're capped at 15,000. I go, I can't believe it was 15 on the not, I mean, you can, you can certainly release that and said the attendance figure, but I can not believe that it was exactly 15,000 people. At the Ottawa home opener and then blue bomber is still, you know, 20, 20, 2000. That's good. And then the other thing. Nate Holly. CFL working in the year, he was released by the dolphins in the cutdown days. So that's unfortunate CFL video game update. Wow. I love it. Maximum football is now owned my motives games and they're hard at work. A brand new entry in the franchise. I'm telling you, if you just call EA sports and get Madden and just put the players in the Madden engine, you'd be good to go. And cause I mean the Canadians, you know, they'd probably play Madden up there too. You know, I guess. My problem now is like, Madden's just an updated roster. Every time you buy Madden. Now it's just an updated roster. That's all you're getting. So it'll be interesting to see if the CFL has a game. Yeah, they had their press release here. They said the, the new entry will show our fresh graphics and visuals with all character models, stadiums. And more recreating from the ground up as well as improved on-field gameplay. So people are really excited about that map. Excuse me, Mount Lyons, friend of the show, really excited. He was tweeting that back about that, but, you know, CFL games. You know, any developer, whether era and probably not like an indie developer, but there are smaller. You know, developer brand, but you know, it'd be good to see. So it would be good to see. Ron Redbirds, Rob Klein, talking potential team owners. And current status of the XFL. Interesting. Yes. Aye. This came out last night. It's a listener. Max sent this over to me, Rob Klein. This is our big exit felonies this week. If anyone wants that. He was on the invisible capital podcast now. I don't know. I don't know if I really want to rant about this today or not. It's just like, I get we're building the XFL. I get, we're taking time to get we're doing all that stuff. I just, I just, it gets hard to meet. Like anytime the letters XFL are said, Everybody loses their minds. Right. And it's like, we're supposed to be like journalists, right. We're supposed to be like people that are covering it. I dunno. It's just, it's hard to me. Like we're so star for everything. And then people say like, I'm good. You. You know, when it happened again, we, we are commentating podcasts, but it just, it seemed like it was a spiral last night, kind of all this stuff came out, but this guy he's with red bird, I just, I didn't even copy the quotes to the art. To the Google doc. I just figured that I would open it up here. But basically they were asking him, where is it? I wanted to see. Oh, They, they, they, the host asked Rob, Rob client. What was up with the delay? Why. I'll say it again here. Sorry. Did I, there you go. Why did they delay the 2023. We know that this quote, we delayed it clearly to make sure that the foundations are in place. When I say foundations, we're talking about things like media rights and distribution and the sponsorships and franchises and different markets. And what families or institutions may want to participate in franchises. Could that be like potential, you know, individuals owning teams, not the league owning teams. On a risk adjusted basis. We don't have a ton of capital deployed yet, but we have capital earmarked. That's what this success based investing means. We're going to deploy a lot more capital if we have a clear line of sight. And the making sure the cash flow covers, whatever larger investments we make in the asset. What do you think about that? Quote? And then I have one more quote. I want to look up. I think, you know, the franchising of teams is the way that they're going to make some money back from their acquisition. I've long thought that. And believe that. And I think like now it's, it's definitely like something that. They've had on the table since the beginning. Yeah. The this all spurred earlier this week, obviously there was the NFL cut downs. And so we were in the group chat on the XFL new SAB and they were talking about like, okay, we need to do an article about. You know what XFL players are still in the NFL. And I, you know, I, I commented in the thing and I'm like, just, you know, just my 2 cents. I'm like, This is now the second NFL season we've had since the XFL played, the XFL played for five weeks. I just, I hate like, okay, yes, PJ Walker or Taylor Hideki. Right. If you're like a quarterback in the league, but I was like, I just, I understand the value of the alternative leagues. And I understand that every player's journey is important, but it's really hard for me to get jazzed about like, Billy chalk that played second string D-line for the Tampa bay Vipers, whatever. And now he's on the practice squad in the 49ers, or, you know what I mean? Like I just, I feel like we're like hanging on. And so, you know, My Mike Mitchell and I got into the discussion about this and I go, Mike. The. They are taking too long. If you're going to buy the XFL, you are, you are going to, you are outweighing the negatives that go along with it. You know, Vince McMahon, the past history, the bankruptcy, all these things. Assuming that the fan base that you have associated with it is going to outweigh that, right? You're hoping like, okay, we got 5 million fans or 2 million fans or a million fans it's worth more than the negatives. Otherwise you would just start at the rock football league. Yeah. But I think, but I honestly think like there might have been some, some situation where the whole talk with a CFL made them postpone. I think that's what I think that at the root of this, I think that's what caused everything to kind of be pushed back quite a bit because. Maybe the XFL got a little bit too ahead of themselves. In believing the CFL really wanted this merger thing. And then all of a sudden they backed out. I, I want to put some blame here on what the CFL did. I think the CFL might've sold them a false bill of goods. This was my thought. Well, and I'm welcome to other opinions and things, but that's just kinda where I'm at and it's not like I'm not down on anything. I'm not, you know, I'm losing steam of just. The constant scouring of like Google alerts for any time any of this comes up right now, that's where I'm at. Like when they have a game plan and they want to answer what's going on. That's fine, but I just, I do think that they have lost any Goodwill they have with the fan base at all. I think they would be better off calling it the RFL or whatever they want to call it. I think that there was so much negative. Negativity with the XFL, then now they have I, any Goodwill they've had, I think it is totally gone with a fan base that exists. But I think what's going to happen is even if you'd rename it, the RFL, the rock football league, like what's going to happen is you're going to still like eventually, eventually when the CFL thing does happen, you're going to get those Canadian fans of like, well, it's still the XFL and they're still going to crap on it. They're still going to say you might've changed the name, but it's still the XFL. No matter what, you, no matter what you do, I think it's. That's what's going to happen. Yeah. The other quote here was, you know, They talk about how, you know, Duane social media, you know, he can get it going. Jerry, Jerry CarNow is really close with all this. But they said that they have not paid the commissioner yet. It's still very early in its infancy. So I get all of that. And, you know, obviously like we started the back gas, right. Like exhale, whatever. Now it's down this whole path. You know, where do we end up? But I just. Like I, this is like when I would call it on Twitter and be like, we host the Mark House, like we were supposed to be the marks. Right. And now I'm like, I see this. And I'm like, guys, It's okay. To not lose your s**t. Excuse my we're late enough in the show, but it's okay to like, not lose your s**t every time that someone says XFL, I, that is okay to look at it and go, oh, that's interesting. Like I will read the article and not be like, oh my Michael Scott. Oh my God. Oh my God. It's happening. And it just, that is where I feel like we're at. And then. You're full of meat. Everyone loses their minds. Michael Scott, when it's great. I love, I love the energy. Anyway, I that's where I'm at. You know, call me negative read or whatever you want, but I am just kind of over that right now. And I saw you tweet something. About me. It's okay. Anyway, there was a lot of other NFL cadet movement will Greer cut from our waived from the Panther is the PG. Walker's going to be the backup. That is great news. Josh Johnson was caught, but then signed to the Jack's practice squad. I don't know why you wouldn't have him as a backup. There I, Garrett Gilbert, former AAF MVP was released by the Cowboys. With the new T two, I thought it was very odd, but the Patriots have signed Gilbert to their practice squad. Any thoughts on any of those? The major situation was, was. Incredible all week long, you know, letting go of cam Newton. And then of course the memes of the play 60 commercial came out. That was great. It's interesting. I'm curious. I want to know what Belichick's thinking or what he's doing and it's. And this is incredible as. That's my thoughts. I'm I'm. I was watching it. I tweeted, I said, cam cam Newton, the last shop to a rookie and the MVP of the AAF. So. Because most of them have jobs on the Patriots and I can't do it does not. So clearly better though, to get cam Newton out of that quarterback room, just to dispel like drama. I mean, I get that, right. Like we just need to let cam go now that he may be drama, but just you can't, that was like the whole GI Jalen hurts, like Carson Wentz thing where you're going to have someone breathing over your shoulder. Like you need to solidify number one. So I get that with the Patriots. And I mean, to that point with the Eagles, like they still. They have Kaleel Tate there too in Philadelphia. I know they've converted in a wide receiver, but they do have him there too. And clear tape at one point. Was a Heisman was a Heisman candidate, a quarterback. So the Philadelphia Eagles are good there. And it's going to be interesting to see like, you know, Carson Wentz. I hate to say it. He's not vaccinated. From what I understand. He's anti-vax, from what I understand, I can't, you know, Assume anything. Is that a place where cam Newton might get picked up? I know Dallas is considering potentially adding cam as a backup. Who knows. Kim's a great athlete. I'm not sure if Cam's a great quarterback. No, no, no. Evan wills Moore. He writes, receive on news hub with us. He put together a big list of like, we don't have to go through all these, but he put together a big list on his Twitter of all the XFL in the CFL, south Lego. Don is still with the Browns. That is a good one for him. I Tyree Jackson, he was the former DC defenders backup to Sharmane Jones. He's injured right now, but he's with the Eagles storm Norton, obviously killing it with the chargers down the par him, you know, with the chargers. There's there's a lot of good action out there. Travis toy Vivian, he was a finger told football, which was supposed to. Kick off in the fall. He was released by the Seahawks. So that was not a, you know, people were excited for him. And obviously there was enough depth in the wide receiver group for the Seahawks. Very interesting stuff. And you put some numbers here about being on the practice squad versus being on, you know, a CFL team or other alt football league. Blaming. That's pretty obvious. If you're able to take this NFL paycheck, you're going to take that paycheck. Yeah. 9,200 a week. I mean, That is a that's what two more years experience can earn 14. K I mean, that's the kind of thing is, you know, in the, in the XFL, I can't remember. It was like $850 a week or something like, I can't even remember what. I remember reading all those pay scales and stuff, but you know, it was like 46,000, maybe for the whole season. If your team won everything and you played every game and you won the championship, like getting 165,000 a year, this is on the practice squad with no injury. I mean, I think it's a no brainer. The potential to play. You know, if God forbid people start going down, all of a sudden you're, you're called, you know, Week 13. And you're rushing out there for a playoff spot and you can, you could make some, you could make some noise. So yeah, that, oh, that was the other thing is like all of these rosters and the cuts and stuff like these guys could move up with all the COVID and everything happening. Like you could, I mean, that was like, hi, Nikki was sitting on the, on the couch, right. And Washington football co pull them up. So. You know, th these are still very fluid with everything going on. Very true. The final note here that this is, this is so incredible. You want to talk about this? The best story. It was so good. What made it better was. People were doing memes like. But Lori Loughlin his face and said, Bishop Sycamore. Director of admissions. Cause, you know of the. College admissions schedule. She went through. This is insane. Like, I don't know. Like there's still so much confusion as to whether they're a real school or not. There's still so much confusion with this. Can you so. So first off Kev, Kevin. Twitter's going to be excited. The garbage segment returned this week. We do, we have returned the garbage. Can you give contacts? Because I adore these going to be like, I don't know what you guys are talking about. So basically what happened was there was a, there was a. A guy named Roy Johnson who became a head coach of a charter school called Christians. With cademy I guess, you know, I guess it was like, kind of like those. How you remember how like Gridiron gang with a rock had the convicts or the kids that were troubled kids or whatever. I forget. You know, I forget the whole thing, but basically. They. They had this charter school called Bishop Sycamore. And. Like they're, I guess they're, they're not really accredited, but there's still a school that. Puts on football games and the, they, they got the right connections and they were able to get a game. On ESPN against IMG academy, which is also a prep school, but they're accredited. And this is, this is just. They, they were just getting worked by this IMG academy. It was just so embarrassing. It was like, Allegedly, there were some Juco people, people that were playing Juco ball that were cut like their first year, like freshmen, Juco players. We're playing for Bishop Sycamore, like adults. Basically we're planning for bishops. And they were getting worked. By these kids. That's the real story. That's the real story. Well, what was he in it for them to get like, just to get on TV? That's what I don't get. Like what was their con to get on? Just to get more publicity, I think to get more publicity and maybe to get more players and be, get more money. There's there's a lot of advantages to like, Appearing on ESPN. Like if you're appearing on ESPN, And you're getting worked by IMG academy. Someone's going to feel sorry for you to be like, how do we make this team better? Apparently they're like a really. Well-renowned charter school and they start donating money and then they start donating money. Their facilities get upgraded. This coach who has, has kind of a sketchy past, maybe take some of that money. I'm not sure I'm not going to use. But there's a lot of things coming out about the coach now that he's gotta have some kind of sketchy past as well. So this is a fascinating story and I can't wait for the ESPN 30 for 30 on this thing. It's going to be incredible. Yeah. Anyway. That that, that that's it. That seemed on-brand for us to talk about the fake school, getting the game on ESPN. And then the other one was the guy that had the fake girlfriend that was like, I dated someone then. I thought that was funny. Cause he famously right. Was catfished or whatever. He was, that was, that was the most intense catfishing cause like I watched the Dr. Phil episode after that, where they interviewed the guy that catfish. And I was like, oh my God, he does sound. The guy totally made his voice sound like a female. It was. I think it's this. I'm just, this is I'm fascinated by this whole thing. Yeah. Anyway, that's what I got today, but big, big labor day weekend. It's going to be good. We got a good, good show. Kind of. We have like all we have like all new guests coming up. I'm looking here at the podcast, guests. Next week, big banjo bowl staff. We have the voice not next week, but the week after we have the voice of CFM America CFL team, the BC lions coming on the, the, the color commentator for them. My cogen is coming up on the show. We have to have Wyman coming up on the show. A big, big step. We have a sports submitting gas coming up. So lots of really good, I guess, coming up here, new, new blood, into the shark tank, into the mark tank, into the mark tank. And I love it. I love it. So keep going, keep, keep tuning into us. Subscribe to us on YouTube. Click that bell for notifications also again. So for him. Just on your audio podcast player. If you don't want to play the YouTube version, go ahead. Just sit. Sit it on the audio podcast and drive around if you're stuck in LA traffic to two hours. I'm already back on roads. It's a great thing to listen to while you're, while you're sitting there driving out to wherever you're driving out to, you know, six blocks down the street and it takes an hour. So we appreciate all of you listening. And we'll be here next week. Like we always are. We're we're 12 subscribers away from 1500. Get, can we die? Can we. Can we just get 1500 plays like. You got to give away. So please. If, you know, someone that would like to hear us. Like to subscribe to us. Tell him to subscribe to us. It costs you nothing and you might get a prize out of it. So there's that. So again, it's like it, subscribe on YouTube, hit the bell for notifications. Unsubscribed to us on your podcast players. And we'll see you next week. Yeah, I'm I'm ready to roll. Cool. Recorded here. Well, Jason Gregory. Thank you so much for coming back on. I had told Paul back when I reached out to you again, and you said you come back on. I said, Getting the guests. The first time is great, but having them come back. Almost better. So thank you so much for coming on today. How are you doing. I'm doing pretty well. You. We're doing good. I just, I preemptively bought. Vegas golden Knights. Home opener tickets with the crack and right before you came on.r 88436846484/ Cause I can't go to the crack and home opener. We have season tickets. So I might try to convince a friend or a wife to go down for that. So, yeah. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, it should be fun. There'll be the good times. Those will, it'll be interesting to see the crack. And, you know, obviously Vegas is going to be a rival they're fairly close. Although I think Vancouver might end up being their biggest rival, but. There's going to be a lot of, can we match Vegas and. Yeah, that's, that's pretty lofty expectations to think about. Out of the conference, final three out of four years and go to the cup final on your first. Like, I just don't think it's plausible to be honest, but I think their fan base will be rabid and now they'll have a lot of fans, so good for you. Yeah, well, Well, I see you've been busy, you know, we're, we're entering in week five of the CFL season. Chris pressing on from the Edmonton Alex. How is all of that situation going before we kind of preview the labor they established. So I wanted to have you on, but. What is everything going on with the latest, with the Edmonton kind of outbreak and all that. Well, they finally went to enough days with positive tests. They were back on the field today, although it's raining in Edmonton on Wednesday and they moved indoors for kind of a walkthrough. That's that's really their first practice. The beat the BC lions a few weeks ago because of the COVID outbreak. So I'm very interested to see what the team will look like when they play in Calgary on Monday. Obviously, you know, it's a big game. The stamps are one and three. The Elks are, are one and two. And you know, if one of those teams can somehow sweep the labor day, which is easier said than done, it rarely happens. The other team could be in a pretty big trouble, especially if it's Calgary, because they've already played an extra game. They don't have boldly by Mitchell. So I don't really know what to expect from the Elks. I, you know, I would, you. They're professionals. We don't know for sure yet. If all the players who, who caught it will be able to play, right? Like if they've recovered, You know, there wasn't any severe reactions, but there might be minor ones. Lots of people who have gotten COVID have had trouble breathing properly and to be a professional athlete, like, you know, you're playing 20 seconds snap count in the CFL. You gotta be able to catch your breath quickly. So that's something that, that we might see over the next few days when they, when they actually get back to a full speed practices and, you know, they, they did make some other moves that they brought back Terry ISER to help out on their special teams. Now the special teams has kind of been a unique situation, AGA gas. You know, let go. Very late during. Or wanting to let go. I still haven't gotten to the bottom of that story on what exactly happened there, but I don't think it was a, like a mutual parting of the ways. Asia gas, a really good coach and I, and then they fire their special chord teams coordinator after three games, which is pretty rare. For any team to do so now, now I got questions on WhatsApp. Like their special teams hasn't looked great to begin with. Now. Eisler has tons of experience in his being around the organization many times. So I understand why they bring him in, but now we'll see if their special teams can get better. Yeah, that was weird that, yeah. Coming off the wind that they would let him go. I, it w we talked about that last week. I'm going to show that I thought that that was odd. Just the Alex thing is weird. You know, they came out the first week. Didn't look great. Barely kind of beat the lions and felt like there was a lot of penalties and things that kind of allowed that to happen. Weird. You know now. No practices were coming on to me. Whether we expecting with them realistically this weekend on what would be one or two days practice. Yeah, well, they, they should have real practices. Thursday Friday and even Saturday if they want it. So. I yeah. On Saturday. So three days. It could be okay. Like the re-offense did not look good in the first two weeks of the season. You know, it kind of picked up and that really was. Was symbolic of almost every offense in the leak, right? Like if you look in the first two weeks of the season, there was a combined five and not games with just five teams out of those 16 cause eight teams are playing each week that it scored over 21 points. Right. And now in, in weeks, three and four, that jumped up to, I think it was eight to 14. Team. So a significant improvement offensively. And I was kinda surprised by that. I thought, well, after a year and a half off, or almost two years off that maybe the offense would have the advantage, but that wasn't the case early on. So, you know, I would think that, you know, maybe Trevor Harrison, the offense will get going. They've been rushing the ball very well, but they're they're passing attack. They hadn't been able to punch the ball into the end zone, which was. Kind of a problem too. You know, the last time they played in 2019. And, and to me, that's, that's the interesting thing early on here in the CFL is. We haven't seen many classic CFL games that are high scoring, like s**t. I don't want to see nine points in a CFL game for a team or 16, like give me a break. So. That's something that that's kind of perplexed me a little bit early on here is that. You know, there's, we're starting to see a little bit more light. Like Calgary's passing yards are great. But their touchdown to TD ratio is absolutely horrific. You know, they've got two different quarterbacks and bull Levi Mitchell now. You know, he's got one. What was he? One, one TD and five interceptions and two starts like, so if you go across the league, Man. It's, it's kind of interesting to see, like, look at Hamilton, Hamilton doesn't even have 600 passing yards between their two quarterbacks in three games. Like what the hell is going on? Yeah, it really sluggish. You know, I watched the blue bomber game last weekend. I had to watch it on delay. It just seems like a lot of, you know, drop passes, drop passes. We're not going, we're not going just a lot of like sloppiness. And I, I think the first couple of weeks, I, at least I was okay, like, whatever, we're getting back into it, but now by week four or five, it's like, we really need to kind of get going on this. It feels like. Well, it does. It's not a great look. Number one, like, you know, you can have a few drops, but I found there's been two eat too many. What I would call easy drops, like catchable balls, right? Like sometimes it's going to be considered a drop guy, gets a hand on it and receivers will tell you if I can get a hand on it, I should catch it. And I like that mentality. It's not always true. But, well, there's just some catches where you're just like, come on now. You gotta, you gotta make that catch. So now get out the ball machine and practice like this. What it comes down to like if there was sloppy tackling. I get that because you're not really allowed to tackle very much in practice so that I could understand, but there's no rhyme or reason to have as many drops. So obviously you had on the Alex president before we move off them. I'm really perplexed, you know, Ambrozy did the big sit down with Dave nailer. You know, we're rescheduling this game with the Argos. Is this ever going to happen? Did you get any clarity after talking with the team president? Yeah. I talked Chris press and felt very confident that they were going to get the game played. It sounds like they'll need help from others, which is me reading between the lines. He didn't want to go into it. He said he wanted to. Wait till it was announced, but that sounds like there's probably going to be, like we saw, you know, in the NHL when they had to reschedule some games that other teams will have their games moved. Right. And I know that some people won't like that, but this is a league it's not about like the fans themselves only care about their team as they should. But at the same time, you should have some semblance of caring about the league. So. We have, if this means that other teams are going to have to move a game. Here or there to make it happen. That's what's going to happen because the league wants the games played. Right. Dave. If that's game is in play, that's lost revenue from television. They can't lose any more revenue. They lost tons of revenue last year. So all the other teams, according to press and were, were willing to help out. And obviously some did. So we'll get some official clarification here soon. Cause I was spent an hour, one day trying to figure out, okay, when could they slot this game in? And I finally gave up now I. I'm not advanced computer wise to slot in all the games. I was just doing it manually. And I was like, oh man, because there was no week where it was just a simple one. Oh, Toronto and Edmonton are on a, bi-week done. Like that would have been too easy, but that obviously isn't the case. So, you know, you had to look and no building availability will be an issue in Edmonton at all. And. It doesn't sound like it will be in Toronto. So I think ultimately they want the game in Toronto because that's where it was supposed to be played. And, you know, The Argos will then lose a gate revenue. So I get all that, but you know, they might play it in Evanston and then maybe give Toronto the revenue. I don't know. I guess they could do a split somehow, maybe on ticket sales. We'll see. But. Either way. I think the game ultimately we'll get, we'll get done and you'll probably have an announcement here. I would, I wouldn't be surprised by the announcements done before their next game. It just feels weird to me that we're. You know, in the NFL last year we have, you know, multiple teams and the Ravens and the Patriots and the Brooklyns. So we had all these different teams had the issues and where it's only been one so far, I get the whole, you know, saving the league mentality, but then. You know, you run into issues with revenue, sharing the things before with the CFL. So why, why are we now going out of our way to accommodate this one game when you could just as easily have, you know, marked it up as a, as a loss and just moved on from there? I mean, besides obviously the loss revenue. Yeah. Could do that, but I don't think anybody wants to do that ultimately. Right. That is just, that's not great teams. You know, the, you look at what the NHL did in teams had to play a lot of games in a short period of time that the CFL isn't gonna do that. It's not like they're going to be playing on a Monday and a Wednesday or anything like that. So I think ultimately. You know, there there is bi-week built in. And so they figured out the NFL moved their schedule around and they got their games played. So I don't see why the CFL would be the one league. Like to me, that would be a bad look on the league if they didn't do everything possible to get the game played. Fair enough. Moving on from the Alex bay. I had you seen today, we talked before we recorded that Jacob Ruby kind of the whole issue, right. Patient zero, whatever, with the Edmonton team. Released, you know, he, he wasn't forthcoming with the vaccination things. Any other insights that you have from talking with Chris present about that before we move on? Well, That's it's a simple thing to me. Don't lie to your employer. If anybody else out there, if you lied to your boss and they caught you. You probably get fired. And that's at the. Again, it's the simplest way to put it. That's what happened here. He was asked multiple times whether he was vaccinating. He said yes. Now early on I get why the team are you vaccinated? Yeah. Like it's, you didn't need to lie about it because you're allowed to play. If you're not vaccinated. Right. You're allowed to play. Wait, we haven't seen lists of, you know, it's not like it's the Scarlet letter and players are playing with a Jersey. That's got a little bowl on it. Look, I'm not vaccinated, right. No one knows a hundred percent, which players are vaccinated or not. So why would you lie? Other than there were some changes, there were some slight benefits for vaccinated players over unvaccinated players and how they got to move about that. Was it. So, you know, I guess if you're. So now you're lying and you're unvaccinated, but they're treating you like you're vaccinated. Well, all the statistical data out there has shown that people who are unvaccinated are higher case right now, right. Higher hospitalizations. Like this is so it's pretty basic. And. Oh, I saw it. Rashma Danny tried to say, they're scapegoating it. Like give me a break or rash. What are you talking about? Scapegoating, not scapegoating you. So you're saying, oh, it's good to lie to your employee multiple times. It's not, it's a simple thing. Don't lie when it has public safety at. At the forefront. That's the only reason cause you weren't allowed to play no one, no one said he couldn't play. Right. So once he was finally asked to prove it and show documentation, you didn't have it. Well, obviously that's a breach of protocol because he'd been walking around, like it was a vaccinated person. And that's just like, if you did that at your job. You'd probably get fired. Right. Like just don't lie to your boss at the end. This is a simple thing that every parent teachers, their child, please don't lie to me. You'll always get in more. We all know this from a kid. What gets you, when do your parents get mad at you more when you're caught, lying than if you just owned up to it? They're like, well, I respect you. You still might. You know, get in trouble, but your trouble would be on a, like a four out of 10. Now when you're caught line, you'll automatically get punished more. This is not new and it's definitely not scapegoating. So looking at the labor day weekend here, you know, we've heard about this big, you know, big weekend football, right. And to me it was always cause it's kind of like that midway point in the season, right. Games were heating up. Well here where we five, right. You know, we've started late. Does the labor day weekend classic kind of as we're branding, this episode carry as much weight this year with the late season start. It's a good question. I'll let me add one thing on, on Ruby. Sorry. I forgot it was that, you know, Other teams now can't sign him. Right. Well, go get vaccinated then. Right? There's gotta be some consequences to negative actions in society as a whole. Right? What should it be? Oh, well he gets released, but now someone else can sign them. So it gets a paycheck. There's really no consequence. Right? So here's some consequences, man. And you should send that message strongly across your league. So it's not scapegoating. It's sending a strong message. As for the labor day week now, I still think the labor day weekend. In a shortened league, I would argue now that it's heightened even more, like usually you get to labor day and you've got half the season left, right? You'd have nine games. Well, now you still have nine, but it's a short end game. Like the nine games remaining count more than they would in an 18 game season. So usually, you know, fans are coming back from holidays and different things and you're getting heated up. I think if anything, this will get more attention to the league because there were lots of fans who took the summer off and, you know, maybe they watched a little bit, the route of the. Cabin, you know, the go traveling and, and even this year, people were still doing a lot of outside stuff. So I think now the weather cools down slightly, you know, it's not as sunny outside. I, I wouldn't be surprised to see TV numbers slightly go up. And, and hopefully offensive numbers go up as well. So, cause I've, I've branded our episode. You know, it's normally it's Mark's weekend, whatever right. Marx is like a grocery chain up there. Right. So I'm calling it the mark CAS, you know, labor day weekend, whatever. I'm very proud of our branding this week. It th this game on Friday. Al wets, red blacks, you know, Outlets did not look good last week, red blacks really haven't looked good the whole season, or whether we thinking. For the lead off game. Yeah, Ottawa is offenses. It was being awful, right? Like [unknown]. You do wonder if there's going to be a change at quarterback there with Davis. At some point I could see like the questions have been asked a lot, like, cause we've already seen now in some cases due to injury, but what we've already seen three teams. You know, almost splitting their, their quarterbacking duties. And I I'm, I thought Ottawa would like, well, I didn't think they'd be this bad offensively, but funny enough, they're not even one of the worst. Like Hamilton's offense is the most perplexing. We'll get into them in a second, but. Like. You know, Vernon Adams, Vernon Adams has struggled much more than I think anybody really like a lot of people thought that Vernon Adams might be a guy that at the start of the season, you know, when they were making projections would be in the running for the mop. Wow. He's not even close. So. Hit his play is one. You know, when you look at certain individuals, his play to me is, is rather surprising. Yeah. I never thought I was going to put him in the league of like Ricky Ray or bully by Mitchell or, or Mike Riley guys. Who've done it year after year after year, but I thought like he was ready for a breakout. Right? Like you look at Cody for Gerardo. In Saskatchewan and he's kind of just picked up where he left off and he's, he's been good. And Vernon Adams has taken complete opposite route. Yeah. And, and really getting frustrated right in his head, you know, we saw the pic and then it was like the next play drive he came out, you know, was hesitating, was having issues. Visibly upset, right? Visibly kind of losing composure, which is hard when that's kind of supposed to be the, you know, the captain of the team out there. Any the quarterback, a lot of like, Hey, you're a human being, so you're going to show frustration. But the truth is at that position. You got to have a short memory. You have to. Now it's easier said than done. But that's the key to success. You would like, it's not like he's a raw rookie. It's not like it's only in his second year. He's been around long enough that he should be able to. And I get that he's frustrated. Right? Well, then, you know, going to the, going to the sideline, yelling to your helmet, do whatever you need to do. To, to be focused because if your quarterback is out of sync, you're done, you got no chance. Right. Even if you're all lines playing great. So yeah, most teams, like if you get shoddy quarterback play. You got a very slim chance of winning the game and, you know, Vernon Adams, he's just got to look in the mirror. He's got to calm down. And I think just understand that it's not just an automatic, every game's easy, you know, what a, everybody throws interceptions. Like, it's not like he's never thrown interception before I get you're frustrated, but he did let his emotions get the best of them. And we'll see if he gets them in check. Yeah, I mean, But, you know, speaking of like Jake mayor, you know, when he came out, you know, through immediately through two interceptions and was able to finish the game with a win, you know, and the, you know, as, as a rookie. And so yeah, you definitely, it's something you have to do. And I also saw that they were talking, I guess there were. There had been consideration to pull Matt Nichols during the Ottawa game last week. Right? I mean, are we expecting the change at quarterback or are we still kind of riding strong there? Well, I've been following the guys in Ottawa. You know, it's there. They're going to look at it, right? Like the coach gives you the, the sit on the fence answer. Cause I understand the coach at the first practice day of the week, isn't going to lay his cards on the line. He's not necessarily gonna want to throw somebody under the bus and. You know, there is the, there is the sense that veterans in any sport usually get a little bit longer release. Okay. Like, let's see, you know, it's a new team haven't played in a year and a half. It's, you know, it's a few games. Got to think that maybe he can come back to think about Matt Nichols is. If you look at his career path, when he gets challenged, like he almost comes back better. So if they would take him out of a game and Davis comes in, like, I want to. It might've been better to do that last game. Cause Nichols, historically, if you look even going back to his time in Edmonton and Winnipeg, Cause he's been in a lot of quarterback competitions. It's not new for him. Right. He's a guy who's being able to handle it fairly well. And in a lot of cases, he came back and played and played pretty good. So it was almost like, oh, geez. Got to get focused here. So I kind of thought maybe they would do it then, but every coach will have the reasons at different times why to do it. But if, if. If it isn't Nichols. To start the game. I won't be surprised, but if it is, I think he's on a very short leash. In the next game. Like if he struggles the first few series I seen, who reason why you had a delay? And I could also understand if they started the game with Davis after how the first few weeks have gone. As we gave him the weekend has to be rough risers, blue bombers, right? I mean, w where the bullet way. Excited, right. I mean, maybe we'll get something. Really some high, some high offense, right. High scoring, maybe hope so. Yeah. And I think that's a great rivalry, of course. Right? Like all the labor day matchups are pretty good rivals. So, you know, you're, there's usually a little bit more intensity in the crowd. Hopefully it's nice weather and a, and you have fans coming out in, in those markets and. You know, that adds a little bit to spice to it, but yeah, those are two good teams and, you know, Obviously the riders are, are perfect so far this season. And so they'll want to continue that and, you know, the Winnipeg would love nothing more than a hand on their first defeat. And of course the bombers, the defending champs. So I, yeah, that I would agree with you that's that's the game of the week for sure. You know, Amitan coming off all of the, you know, two weeks off basically, and haven't had much practice and Calgary's one and three. You definitely can't say that as the game of the week. So, you know, I hope that, you know, we see all the games like. You can have good defense and still have high scoring games in the CFL. And we just, we haven't had that yet. Like, there's been very few, like the games have been close. I'll say that like the games have been closed. There's lots of games that were. You know, then a score in the final three minutes. Great. But there hasn't been a lot leading up. You can't hold your hat on. Well, the last three minutes, it's a tight game. Oh yeah. But it's been 16, 14 up until that point. That's not that doesn't just because the games are close don't necessarily mean they've been entertaining. That's her. Yeah. And a lot of that dreadful third quarter is kind of leading into that final stretch as well. Right. You know, it seems like they, you know, most games, they come out strong, you get a score early on, kind of really dies. And then we kind of finally, yeah, that last three minutes, but yeah, when it's 16, 14, or whatever, going then, it's, it's not necessarily compelling TV. Yeah. The halftime adjustments, I guess we got to hang our hat on the defensive coordinators, because it seems that the third quarter, it's a good point by you that. There hasn't been, you know, that. Cause we've seen it. Sometimes team comes out their first series in the third quarter and boom, bang, bang. You know, eight play drive into the end zone. And haven't seen enough that, and. They're like, I don't know, maybe the offense or just that out of sync after so much time off. We'll see. But Hey, it's pro sports now it's been a month and over a month, like they gotta get going. And we, as I said earlier, we have seen signs. We're starting to see more points than I know the points are and everything to some people, but you know what, we're seeing an improvement in, in for some teams anyway, but you know, the offense like I am, I am the most surprised by the Hamilton tiger cats. Right. They've only played three games, but like they're often seen as being beyond anemic because when I say they, what are, they got? 577 passing yards. I think it isn't in three games combined from two different quarterbacks who have both played, but it's not like they're rushing attack is crushing. It. Right. Thomas Ellen said Earlington has got a total of 122 rushing yards in three games. So, Hey guys, look, we can't pass for 200 yards a game and our main rushers rushing for 40 yards a game. That's not a great combination. Well, and I can't, I can't remember which of the broadcasters made the point where it just seems like there's been a lot of strategic defensive against like certain players, right? Like Stanwell had a good, you know, whatever. Okay, well, we're really, really going to stop that run. Okay. We know Andrew Harris is coming back. If you were really going to stop that, and it seems like. Then then there's no other offenses to go around by the. Like, oh, that was our one, you know, it's like at the Titans, you know, when you lose Derrick Henry and then we don't have anything else, you know? Yeah. I've always been a believer. The offense knows what they're doing, going in the defense always has to react a little bit to what the offense is doing. So unless the offense is so easily predictable, right? I know they study film and in certain formations, you, you know, it's gonna, it's gonna happen. I understand that, but I just. Like the CFL with that wide of field. When it too much, defense just leads the way too much punting at the end of the day. Right. That's born as sin. So to me, I put the onus on the offensive coordinators become more creative for goodness sakes. I find they're being way too cautious across the board and too many teams so far this year. And that's just not good. And like you CA no one wins being cautious. This all take what we give you garbage, no attack them and force them to react to what you want to do. That's a good point. Yeah. So Hamilton Argos, E R are we expecting a win for Argos? I mean, like you said, you know, Hamilton came out last week, like do better, but it's really been a struggle so far. It has like, I can't guarantee a Toronto win at all only because, and maybe, yeah, I'm still waiting for Hamilton to show up. Because I think they should write, like, I think Dana Evans and Mazzoli are better. Like, I don't think they're elite quarterbacks yet. But I think they're better than what they've shown. Right. So I would think like Hamilton's still got some weapons on that team. Like. We're not seeing them enough. So I, I, I wouldn't be surprised though, if, if Hamilton finally wakes up offensively, cause I just think they've got too many weapons. Not too. It's been a struggle, you know, the Argos. They came out strong with McLeod. Right. You know, we did our big hype episode and then, you know, they pull him right now. How, how have they looked for you? That's kind of doing the QB switch. Yeah. You know what. I understand it. Well, Bethel Thompson was, was he's he's solid, right? He's a solid QB, but you know, I get why he, Hey, our buckle was kind of like their big signing. Right. So I understand why you're looking at them more. But I think right now, and there was so there's them, there's Hamilton, Calgary's obviously due to injury. So there are, those are three teams that have already used two quarterbacks, fairly, barely, consistently. And. You know, one of them's just got to emerge at some point. Like you don't, it's not a position. That you love going back and forth with, right? Like, there's been the odd time where you've had success, but, but even the, the, you know, then Eskimos now Elks when they won, when they had Moss and Ray and, you know, Mohs came off the bench a few times and, and. And was great, but it was still Ricky. Ray was the main star, right? I think ultimately for, cause the minute you're rotating, it means you don't have a number one. The end of the day. That's what it means. Right? You don't have one guy because if one guy was that good and playing that, well, you wouldn't pull up. Right. You wouldn't worry about going to the other guy. Right? Like you look at Rourke had decent numbers for BC, but you're like, yeah, we got Mike Riley and now Mike growl is going to play because Mike Riley's lean the league in passing yards. So we don't need to go to, to young Rourke. There's there's no reason to. So I think if you put a lie detector on all those coaches, they'd say I'd love. One of these cubes to take, they don't want to go back and forth. You only go back and forth because the one guy's not doing the job. Yeah. So you weren't impressed enough with Hamilton this last week. Cause I did hear a lot of people, you know, say, okay, finally, this is Hamilton that we've expected all along well they're coming. Right. But still like it's. I like, I like Hamilton. I wouldn't be surprised at all of Hamilton. What are they wanting to. You know, they, they finished the season still with, with eight or nine wins. I wouldn't shock me. Right. Cause I think they're a good team, but I, I still, I'm waiting to see more and maybe I have too heightened expectations of that team, but I just think like that's a team that we should be, we should be like, Ooh. Yeah. You know, like they're exciting. I haven't seen enough of it. That's all. Last game. You know, Jake mayor with the stamps has really looked good. Right. I think impressed a lot of you, what were your initial thoughts and what did you think, especially last week, even, even with that loss, I mean, you know, loss of the blue bombers by what was it, two points or whatever. It's nothing to sneeze at. Well, you look at the Calgary Stampeders man under John Hufnagel. Every quarterback who comes there for the most part plays well. Right. Like drew Tate, maybe not. You know, he was okay. Not bad, but you know, so, you know, even Nick argue about. But when those guys get chances in Calgary, like they've been a pretty good quarterback in factory. And I think, you know, John Hufnagel and, and Dave Dickinson has that combination. Right. That's pretty good. So I wasn't stunned. I'm probably more surprised. Like you look at bull Levi Mitchell now bullied by Mitchell, the last two CFL seasons, which I know go over, you know, span three years from 19 to 20. But in that time now the Stampeders have played 22 games. Right. 18 and 2019. And then for this year, Bullied by Mitchell's played in 13 of them. So we're talking. Just under 60% of the games that he's playing. Like they need Meyer, like you wonder is bullied by Mitchell breaking down. Right. Like, I think it's a valid question to ask because he had a full year off in between. I think it comes back and maybe just unlucky, but I'm not stunned by the early success of Mar you talked about earlier through some pics early, like a lot of quarterbacks do, and he didn't get frazzled. He didn't get rattled and you look, he's completed 67% of his passes. Like that is better numbers in bold. Like if you just look at his numbers compared to bully by Mitchell, who's up. You know, a former mop, one of the best quarterbacks we've had in the last decade. And through to games like Meyer, even with those two picks has still thrown fewer picks than bowl Levi Mitchell. So I've kind of liked his play. I, you know, I'm, I'm excited to see him on Monday. You know what the, this league needs an injection of some young exciting quarterbacks and, and, and Calgary has done a pretty good job, you know, over the last few decades of constantly churning out good quarterbacks. Yeah. Interesting cause yeah, I think. W when Bo went down, it was okay. Well, how long until we can get it back. Where now, when he comes back. I mean, I don't know. Is there a competition there? Is that both hard to take back? Well, you know, they got to win some games, right? If Meyer. Cause at the end of the day, if you're not winning games, even if you have some decent stats, it opens the door for them to go back to the veteran. But let's say if he reels off a few wins here and continues to complete 67% of his passes, what it does is it allows Calgary to ensure that bullied by Mitchell doesn't have to be rushed back. Right. And, and when I say, I don't think teams ever rush a guy, but the player wants, it keeps pushing and they can say, well, yeah, we think you're good, but guess what? We'll give you another week. Oh, maybe we'll give you another week again. So, you know, they can be more patient. With the return of believers, maybe they can activate him, but maybe he's just going to be on the clipboard. Right. Getting some mental reps on the sidelines. So if he continues to play well, it's a benefit to. But if he's not winning games, then I think they're going to, you know, the minute both Levi Mitchell is being cleared to play. He's going to play. Yeah. I did. I was going to mention that I thought, yeah, lots of shots of him on the sidelines. Taking notes. I'm like, is he coaching Jake? Is that mental? I mean, W what is he doing there? Well, you know what? You're trying to stay in the game himself, I think a little bit, but also, you know, the, the quarterback, the good quarterbacks anyway. You somebody helped Bolieve I Mitchell, when he came in, right. When he got in his first, you talked to a veteran guy and you know, you go to the sidelines because those quarter, like both of you by me, even on the sidelines, you never perfectly see what the quarterback sees on the field. Right. It's. It's close, but it's not the same vantage point. So having someone who was just in there a few weeks ago and has been, you know, has played over a hundred CFL games, right? Like, and I think both Levi Mitchell is secure enough in who he is as a man and a quarterback say, I'm going to give this guy every opportunity I'm going to help him everything. I see, Hey, I pick up this, but at the same time, You know, a lot of quarterbacks tell me they don't go to Meijer unless he asks, because you don't want to suddenly go to him and put thoughts in his head that don't need to be there. Right. So a lot of it comes down to, Hey, I'm open to giving you everything you want, but I'm not going to be, Hey, I see this. Like, it's, it is a fine line at sometimes according to some quarterbacks I've talked to over the last few decades of. You know, when's the right time. And sometimes you wait, Hey, what are you seeing? Okay. This is what I'm seeing. Not like what you're not doing, because the last thing you want to do for a young quarterback is having to start thinking too much. Yeah, it's exciting. I think like you said, I think that, you know, the CFL needs some new, fresh quarterbacks, right? You know, obviously you don't want to see someone hurt to bring that out, but, you know, finding new talent in, in ways that you did. You know, I think that people expect to kind of a bloodbath would take me coming out, you know, and, and pleasantly surprised the other way. And I think that only speaks good to the league. Right. They have more options and things for play, you know, who knows next year, whatever. Maybe he moves somewhere else and gets his own team, you know? Exciting. Things to see across the league. I think, I think the more competent quarterbacks the CFL can have makes a league better. That's just a fact, because the minute you have teams starting to look for quarterbacks, it's a big problem. Like, Hey, the CFL and the NFL have never had all teams in league with a great quarterback, right? Like there's a reason it's the toughest position to play. It's hard for a lot of themes. So the more you can get to know of Meyer's serviceable and maybe he's really good. And, you know, they. The league is going to need, you know, a few young guys like Cody Pajaro I think is one of that next young generation of quarterbacks that are coming up. Right. Because you know, you look at Boley by Mitchell and Mike Raleigh, they made illegal long time already. It doesn't mean they can't play for more years, but you need that guy. And so, you know, people thought it might be Dayne Evans. You. You wonder if it's Mazzoli, I'm not sure Mazzoli. He's never that good of a pure thrower to be that guy we'll see. But you know, you need more of them and you know, maybe it's Nick Argo buckles steel. Now maybe it's Meyer. So the more that are out there. It's better for the league. No question in my eyes. Any thoughts on my team, the BC lions, before we let you go there, you know, taking the bi-week two and two. Well, you know what, as I mentioned, you know, there was. Probably the thing that stuck out to me the most was, you know, how they kind of worked my Graley in week one. So he wasn't healthy enough to start. But then he's healthy enough to come off the bench. Like what the hell happened in the 40 minutes of standing on the sidelines? I made a, not my Chelsea. That was the only weird thing, but Hey, Mike Riley is, is kind of what Mike Riley is. You. It's historically been a really good quarterback. In this league and, you know, he plays hard and, you know, I was a little concerned when he started the season banged up, but luckily, you know what that has shown no worse for wear. So, Hey, if Mike Riley's healthy, you know, you look at BC right now and you know, Calgary and Edmonton are clearly behind them. I, and, you know, we'll see if, if one of those teams can get going. The, the west is, you know, I said at the start of the season, I thought Winnipeg was clearly going to be a good team. And after that, I didn't really know. Right. Although I did pick for Harteau to be my mop. Just because I looked at teams and thought success. I was like, yeah, you know what? I wouldn't be surprised if, if Cody ends up as the leagues mop, he was my pick at the start of the season. So, you know, early on he's off to a good start, but here who's leading the, who's leading the league in passing yards right now. It's Mike Riley. So. Usually when you have them, not always, but usually if your quarterback's leading the league in passing yards, You got a pretty good chance at success. Right. And it's not like they've been playing catch up and way behind in games. So he's just throwing in her band into the run. So I don't BCS. I think their record is, is a fair representation of where they'd been as a team this year. I hope, you know, we made the big switch and they came out and got swamped by the ALEKS. I'm hoping, I'm hoping that our good luck will turn them around and making me think of the season. You've been great with your time. So pigs, before we go, who do you got for each game? If I'm filling out my fantasy picks. Cause I still need to do that. Ooh. Yeah, I'll probably go. And like the Alex games really hard. But Edmonton's historically is not very, they don't have a ton of success in Calgary coming off code. So yeah, I'd probably have to pick Calgary now, one just based on history and, you know, double week by, after no practice time. I think the bombers, I don't know if it's an opposite really. But I'll take Winnipeg. I think that's, I agree with you. I think that's going to be the game of the week. I think Hamilton is, is catching their stride. So that's all pic. And then now that I guess, yeah, Montreal and Ottawa. Blue. That's like a coin flip. I honestly I'm. I guess I'll go with Montreal, but I have zero faith in my pick on them. Right man, n*****s still hasn't thrown an offensive touchdown, right? I, they had one rushing TD, right? That's not great, man. That's not good. Last I checked. Geez. If anybody hasn't been there, fantasy league, they're not liking it right now. Imagine that a quarterback without a passing touchdown, three weeks into the season. That's crazy. Well, like I said, I thank you so much for coming back on. I guess it doesn't mean a lot to get someone the first time and then obviously to spend time again, to come back on. So I really appreciated that and kind of breaking all this down as we head into the labor day weekend. So I know problema enjoy the week. Yeah, I know your team's on a bike. she'd be good labor day. Labor they previous. So. Sounds good. Cool. And do you prefer Gorda Gordon? Gord. Gordon that. Okay. Yeah. Well, Gord Randall. Thank you so much for coming on. I'll tell you, when you have the president of the football candidate, Jim Mullen. Message you and say, you need to get gored on your podcast. I say, okay, we're going to get Greg on the podcast. So. Thank you so much for coming on. How are you doing? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me on, you know, I've watched the show pretty closely since you've really started leaning into the CFL coverage. It's it's been great, a great addition to the culture and to the coverage of the game. So, and a time where I think when the game really needed to do so, I think it's been, it's been awesome to have you on board. And I'm really looking forward to this. Well, I appreciate. Yes. For every CFL fan there. Is tuned in that way. If we've equally lost this accent, Val. All fans, but. It's good. You know, we appreciate that. So I'm excited for this. I'm very excited for our son. It's Mark's labor day weekend. Right. Marx is a clothing chain up there. I've I've, I've labeled our podcast, the mark CAS labor day weekend. Right? Trying to play off that. You know, I, I talked with Jason Gregor about this. It seems like normally, you know, labor day makes sense. Big matchups, partway. You know, like we're two thirds of the way through the season. Right. You know, we're really kind of heating up things this year. It's a lot earlier. Is it carrying the same weight for you of importance with these match-ups. I think it still is. I mean, we are now. Four games into the season for most teams, obviously there's the rolling by every week. So that changes things. But I think we're enough into the season to start seeing the way the packing order looks like it's gonna shape out. And we're already, at the point in the season, you look at the battle of Alberta. For example, you already have the point of the season where this is shaping up as kind of a must-win game for both of these guys. And, and, you know, I hate using that phrase because it's used probably far too often in sports discourse these days. But you know, both of them are watching them. Themselves sitting at the bottom of the Western conference standings and Saskatchewan is rolling. Undefeated. Winnipeg has just lost for the first time, but they still look like they're legitimate. Greyco contender. You know, in the lions look much improved as well, have won a couple of, couple of good road games. And have themselves that two and two records. So, you know, for both the Alberta teams. Do you know, Calgary, it sounds like believe I, Mitchell is trending towards playing in this one. Potentially at least. Although Jake Meyer has been, or is a mayor. I can't remember how he pronounces it, but he he's been pretty darn good for them since he started suiting up. And you can never count on Dave Dickinson and that crew there, but, you know, that's, that's one example of just the, the strong implications in just one of these classes we were doing matches this week. And so I think that. It's still a big deal. And I think it also serves to, as a kind of this, the celebration, the party weekend. That, that states that, you know, emphatically the CFL is back. Typically the CFL season is defined by three long weekends. And those are kind of the marquee matchup weekends. You've got Canada day weekend, which for your American viewers are Canada days is three days before independence day in July 1st. So first weekend in July, you've got labor day weekend in September, and then you got a Thanksgiving weekend as the regular season starts to wind down. And so. And we still got two of the three of them and labor days, it still holds that importance even if more symbolic, maybe than a playoff implications at this point. Yeah, we. Jerked back on Canada day. That is also my birthday. So I was. I forgot to ask you, did you make it to the lions game for their home opener? And how was that? I did. Yeah, it's it was, it was a pretty decent crowd. I mean, the, the provincial restrictions here were such that they were only allowed to sell 12,500 seats. And it appears that they, they did that. Based on, not just, I mean, they, they have been known to paper numbers at times, but based on not just the numbers they released, but what I saw anecdotally in the building, it looked like they'd sold that 12 five. It was kind of interesting though, because there was no. System to what they sold and what they didn't. So you got these weird clusters where there were a bunch of people in one section and then these kind of weird gaps. So I don't know if they're going to change that for their next home event, but. They, they may, it might be smart for them to try and do have some sort of assistant that disperses the crowd a little bit more evenly. But that being said, Of the crowd that was there. It was, it was a really good atmosphere. It's too bad that the, the home team, I think they didn't score until the fourth quarter. And I should say, didn't score a touchdown until the fourth quarter. And it wasn't their best effort, despite the Eltz being a pretty vital team and, and. You know, they played well that night, but, but never really put in the lines way. Like they had a chance all night, so that kept the crowd into it. And it felt like a celebration. You know, there was our, our provincial health officer was in the building. Got a huge ovation. You know, the lions owner. Previous owner, I should say at this point, you know, passed away since the last time CFL played a season. So there was a recognition for him. There was a recognition for our Olympic athletes that had just come home. And so, you know, The mood was very good and very positive. So hopefully they're able to kind of carry that momentum over, but I mean, one of the things the lions have this year that, that is so key in this market and carrying that momentum over is they do have a legitimately competitive team. It looks like. Four games into the season and, and it's been a number of years with the lions struggling to find their way. And being stuck in a conference, not that this has changed this year, but being stuck in a conference died. Seems to be the tougher conference pretty much every season. And that's no disrespect to, you know, Hamilton, who's a legitimate championship contender. No, the Argos. You have loaded up this off season, but the historically the east has typically have one really good team, maybe a second, also kind of legitimate playoff caliber team. And the west has always seemed to have four. Sometimes even all five appear to be playoff caliber teams. Nobody ever seems to rebuild in the Western conference. So it's been, it's been tough. For the lions to gain shocks or the last couple of years, because they've been, they've been the closest of those teams to being in, in rebuilding mode. They've, they've gone through a couple of front officer's jeans in the last five years. They've completely revamped the roster a few times. And as I I'm sure you're starting to learn about the CFL. Like there is a lot of turnover. So if you, if you are roster turnover, that is so if you are rolling through. A different roster makeups, like the, the face, the franchise can change fast and then fans don't really have much too much to relate to. Right. You need to have that cornerstone star guy. I think the wines think there's is Mike Riley right now. But I mean, looking forward to the near future, Mike, Riley's also 37 years old. Right. So you're not going to have him for much longer. This is probably his last contract is professional athletes. So, you know, you need to need, start figuring out who you want to keep in the full long-term and who becomes the core marketing piece, but the wines actually have some. It feels like they have some positive momentum to build off of in this market for the first time in a while. So hopefully they can continue doing that. Yeah, it's hard. That's it to weigh too much on the XFL stuff, but. Similar issues there. When we talked about, you know, building these teams and getting fan bases. When you have a league, like the exit. XFL where the goal right. Is to move forward CFL. Right. Presumably a good portion of them would like to be in the NFL, right. It, or, or jumping between teams. It is really hard to build that loyal fan base for the team. Like you said, when there's just so much turnover, whether it's, you know, lead driven or player, you know, Induced or whatever. It's just, it's really hard. A lot of those same marketing issues exist right. In both of those entities. And that was something that I would have been excited to hear what you. Ideas that everyone could have had about that. But yes, I absolutely know what you mean. Yeah. I, I I'm very much on the Michael Riley train right now, but yes, you're like looking like he's, I don't know what future there is there, you know, four years down the line or whatever. So. Yeah. And so, I mean, they drafted Nathan work last year. Now he's got the Canadian passport, which is always a huge selling feature in this league. From. There there we have seen this movie played a number of times over the last 20 years where an organization invest in a Canadian quarterback and people immediately open their eyes because they go, oh wow. They've invested in a Canadian quarterback. And the organization says all the right things. And then it doesn't quite pan out that way. Most recently being the Calgary Stampeders of Michael O'Connor, who everybody thought was going to start after poli VAR, Mitchell went down and then all of a sudden. Meyer comes out of nowhere. And. I mean, it looks, it's looking like a pretty good football decision now. But at the time, you're like, well, hang on, you weren't even dressing this guy over a Connor. And now all of a sudden he's bolting from third to first on the depth chart, really, but we've seen that movie played over and over and over again. And Canadian fans have. I have been disappointed, repeatedly thinking that it's about time that a Canadian guy gets a, gets a legitimate and becomes a lasting starter in this league. And it just never pans out. But that being said, everybody that I've spoken to in the lions organization, Has nothing but positive things to say about Nathan Rourke. And they have been saying things like it. His passport does not matter. He would have been a guy that we wanted on this roster. Had he been born in Columbus, Ohio? And so that's really positive to hear, you know, he did look pretty decent being thrown right into the fire in that first week in Saskatchewan. So long story short, that appears to be kind of the, the era of parents. For marketing for the wines and now they just have to make sure that they nail the transition effectively. Last question on the lines before we move on, but I got to get my talking about them this week. Is there on the bike? A quick thoughts on the Mar Domon. It was funny, you know? It was during the game, you know, they brought them out there interviewing the new owner. I feel like either they got score, then I'm during the time where there was a big pounder. I can't remember something that I was like, okay. Get him off the TV. Like this is bad you do right now, but thoughts on kind of that new ownership and revitalizing the fan base. Well number one first and foremost to the local market. I think it's important to a lot of people here that he's a locally based owner. And, and whether it be the lions or even at times, some of the other major sports franchises in town. You know, the ghosts of the NBA's Grizzlies still haunt this market, you know, really quickly like Michael Heisley. Who's a Tennessee based businessman. Buys the Grizzlies swears, he's going to keep them here within a year, changes his mind moves into his hometown of Memphis and the rest, as they say is history. And I have to feel nauseous every time I watch that team play still. But that's those kinds of skeletons are kind of in this market's closet. So first and foremost, I think the, the important thing for a lot of people here was this is a, he he's well-healed. He's a guy who was locally. Born bread based. And a guy who also it appears, has been sniffing around trying to purchase the team for a number of years. So this has been a long-term effort for him to try and get his hands on this team. And that shows a level of commitment before even actually being in charge of the whole show that I think is a positive factor as well. So one of the things that we've learned in this market, I think is that you're always cautious to anoint an owner. It looks like the owner's a great owner and, and that this is a good fit, but. Certainly on the surface early on, this seems like a great fit. And, and I think another, another element that should be pointed out too is being Southeast of south Asian descent. That is a huge part of this market. Now that I think that the, the organization would be wise to try and tap into. And I hope that this is kind of the impetus for that. And I am a little biased in that. I work in a part of town that is, that has a pretty heavy south Asian population. But it is a massive untapped market here and a group of people that are, that are rabid sports fans in their own way, and just need to be turned on to this particular sport. Absolutely. Oh, that's good. I'm glad we got some lines talking here, you know? Hi, coming off the wind last week. So we're looking at these match-ups right. I think some of them are a little bit more compelling this weekend than others. What is striking you as the game that they can't miss game this weekend. Cam is game this weekend. By far, this is not an original answer, but it's got to be banjo goal. Winnipeg Saskatchewan, this is in my opinion, the best rivalry in the league. Anyway. I know the interprovincial match-ups. In Ontario, or I should say the Toronto area because auto seems to be forgotten there, but the interprovincial match-ups battle one Terra, the battle of Alberta is they're traditionally known. They get a lot of hype. But I think the Jew that are the biggest rivals in this league are Winnipeg and Saskatchewan and it just so happens. They also are arguably the two best teams in this league right now. And. You know, if you, as soon as you're able, I'm sure this is on your list, but you have to get out to Saskatchewan for a game to see it. Because it's in all the best ways is, is as American a market as we have for football. You know, you go into that market and everything is about this, this gasoline rougher ours is the only pro football, the only pro sports team, excuse me, that they have this side of like the national lacrosse league. So it's a huge, huge deal. In in basically the entire province of Saskatchewan and Winnipeg's not far behind, they have a great fan base as well. There's a great venues in both places. Anytime these two teams play, you know, you're going to see a top quality CFL football game in front of a rock is crowd. You know the way God intended it, so to speak. So it's, that's that's by far the marquee matchup. And, you know, Winnipeg. You know, I think there's lost for the first time last week. I'm not mistaken by they've got Andrew Harris back there, their star running back. You know, a guy who qualifies as a superstar in this league, Canadian guy from Winnipeg himself. You know, they are the defending, even though it was two years ago, a great cup champions. And then there's the Saskatchewan Roughriders with their typical rabid fan base. That always seems star for a championship, even if they just won last year. And, you know, they're off to their undefeated start and they're looking like arguably the best team in the league right now. Cody for Gerardo and that offense are absolutely rolling with that new offensive coordinator. Jason Moss. Fueling the fueling the efforts. And so I think that game's gonna going to be a real barn burner. Yeah, really excited about that. It's funny. I, you know, Cody. You know, seems to be really striking. All cords. Right. Really playing hot. And I saw, I think it was yesterday. I'm ride Peterson shower. Well, there'll be two days ago as this airs, but people are complaining now. Oh, Cody's like talking too much to the media or Cody's, I'm like, God forbid the CFL have marketable big stars, like Cody that people could even hate on like. That sounds like a great problem to have that someone that is as good. Yeah. As a person and as a football player with is good. I have a team like God forbid that that'd be a problem that people are complaining that he's talking too much to the media right now. Yeah. And I, and I think that like, You're getting a little bit of a glimpse into the Canadian ed when you're, when you're hearing comments like that. And, and we tend to, we also have this, this kind of side to us where we tend to be somewhat sensitive to Americans showing any kind of bravado. Any, like, even if it's not really bravado, And so I think that's probably where some of that comes from as well as that Canadians have this pretty, a lot of Canadians, I shouldn't generalize, but have this pretty internalized sense of like, you know, what, what kind of humility you should have and just kind of be quiet and go about your business. But I like Cody a lot. I like him dating all the way back to his days at Nevada. I really liked watching him there. And he's bounced around this league a little bit. So I think he's, he's a great story. Like Saskatchewan was the first time he finally really got the keys to the car. After a few years in Toronto, as a backup, a few years out here in BC is Michael Riley's backup. You know, he goes out to Saskatchewan, I believe was an injury that provided him his opportunity in his first season there. And he just took it and ran with it. You know, in, into his late twenties pushing 30. So, you know, I think that's a fantastic story and I was pretty for Gerardo, nothing but the best, unless the team on the other side is wearing orange. So. Yeah. I don't think that there's any real warrants and criticism there and, and. Having seen him operate in this market for a couple of years. You know, Cody is a very humble guy at his core. So I don't really think there's anything too bad, but I do think that. You know, and Saskatchewan too, I should say is also one of these markets where, because it's such a rabid following. Things just get talked about because they need something to talk about. Like there needs to be storylines constantly. It's the same way that the NFL works in most major American markets. It's the same way the NHL works in Canadian NHL markets. You know, there are always going to be storylines, you know, whether they are. Really deep storylines are not because there needs to be something to carry, talk radio. So, who are you taking in that one? Right. Riders are blue bombers for a Sunday. Well, I I'm, I'm biased on this because I think it probably helps in the standings, but I'm going to take the blue bombers. I, I just, I, you know, I know that they, they tripped up last week, but. You know, Andrew Harris coming back and really carry that, that authentic against riders defense that I think can be run on. The, the real question is what they're going to get out of the quarterbacking position. If they can attack that writer's defense. If you look at yards allowed, the rider's defense has not been exceptional this year, they have been good at limiting points. But they have given up yardage in real estate. So, you know, can Winnipeg not just make that yardage that. You know, statistically, you would think they would be expected to, but can they finish the drives? And for the last few years they have been. One of the more efficient teams in the league, in the red zone. So I'm, I'm hoping that that'll give them the edge. The other guy, the other. Reason. I like Winnipeg as well though. I really liked Winnipeg's defense. I think across the board is the best defense in the league. And I think most statistical indicators at this point actually backed that up as well. You know, Adam big hill remains. I would say the best linebacker in this league bar. None. You know, a guy that bounced around the NFL for, for a year or two, but probably should have been probably should've stuck there. How do you not been. Generously listed at five 11. Let's put it that way. And so, and he's a guy that just, not only does he have the skill and the ability to be the best linebacker in this league, but he also goes about absolutely everything the right way. And so he's a guy that I love watching and, and. I just think it's a more compelling storyline. If we're being honest. If Winnipeg is able to, you know, beat Saskatchewan. Hand them, their first loss, tie them in the standings, all those kinds of things. You know, I think you're looking at it at a, at a really great stretch drive. Cause it feels like it's already closing in on the stretch drive with the way the season's lined up. Well, it's interesting because so, So they, they lost two weeks ago, but then they almost lost last week too, with the f*g. Was one field goal away from being two and two, right? I mean, It's interesting that, I mean, they are looked at as the powerhouse and I would agree that they have played the best so far, but you know, one errant field goal, right. From Calgary aside, and they would be two and two going into this match. So it's interesting how, you know, even with, with Jake mayor and all of that, they still really struggled. It seems like a lot of drop passes. Yeah last week and I'll be here to see how that winds out. Yeah. And an interesting note this week as well, is that they brought in a name and Roosevelt. Yeah. Who is a well-established receiver in this league had been in Saskatchewan for the previous couple of seasons had signed in. I want to say Toronto ended up getting cut and Drano. And, and Winnipeg brought him on this week and I know that. Michael Shay, their coach was saying that he's like, oh no, this isn't about the drops. We're just, you know, we saw a, a veteran receiver with a track record and felt that he could. He could help us, but it's about the drops. And, and you know, some of these guys are guys that they're, Drakkar good. So they're going to bounce out of it. As well, like Darvin Adams, for example, but you know, It's let me go to this way. I don't think you can ever have too much receiving depth in this league quality receiving depth in this league. And that's a good position to have comp legitimate competition ad. If guys are not going to get their games together, you know, I, I dropping footballs when you are a receiver, whose job is literally to catch footballs. Is pretty unacceptable. And so, you know, I don't know that you have, you can afford to have too long of a leash for that. So. I don't think we're going to see Roosevelt make an impact this weekend because he's just freshly been signed, but that is another, another bullet that the Winnipeg has in their chamber. If they really need it. Speaking of Calgary and mayor and all of that. What are we expecting you? Elks are coming off of this unofficial second. Bi-week right. I think there. I believe that. You know, they're starting practice. I think it was raining the first day of practice. Right. They're kind of getting into things. Are we expecting anything from that match up on Monday against Calvary? It's going to be really tough for the Alex. I know that Jamie Elizondo has already said that there's a number of guys that went through that COVID situation that probably aren't going to be able to play. At this point in time, unfortunately, given the stakes. And the, and the, the status of this game. I think it's going to be a win for the Alex, just to be able to take the field and nod. Have their season be spinning out of control as much anymore. But I mean, for those that haven't been paying that close attention to this, Alex COVID breakout, like it's been a complete mess. Like there's been, there's been a lot going on behind the scenes. They've had, well over a dozen players get sick. They had to cut one of their starting guards because he lied to the team about being vaccinated, provide them false documentation. And the league was so upset about that, that they've given a directive to all the teams in the league. You can all sign this guy. Which fair enough. He basically made himself a complete liability by doing that. But in like cutting a starting guard in any league. Is something that teams don't take lightly. And in this league in particular, cutting-edge Canadian, starting guard is something the teams don't take lightly. And that throws a pretty big wrench into your, into your dressing room as well. On top of what else was going on already. So, In terms of a pure football standpoint, I think the Elks will be okay at that spot. They've got a drop pick from this past year, a Tomas jocker dealer. Who was Jared Patterson, one of Jared Patterson's leading blockers or Buffalo, the last couple of years. When they ran for like 4,000 yards. So he's a guy that I, we really liked in the draft. His pass protection still needs some work. So that may end up being a bit of an issue for them early on, at least. But he's a guy that I think fairly quickly should be able to jump in there. So from a pure football standpoint, that one spot. Maybe not an issue, but there were so many guys affected by this. And as we've seen over the last two years, You know, the, the after effects of this virus affect a lot of people differently. Some, some guys can bounce right back and be just appear to be at least just fine. And some can really, really deal with some lasting and lingering issues. So, I think. You know, everything winds up, looking like Calgary should be the favorite in this. There's a lot stacked against the Elks, but you know, you never know how things are going to go, but yeah, it's, it's, it's certainly a big game for both teams though, because. You know, the Elks are currently sitting at, you can check me on this if I'm wrong, but the Elta currently sending a one in three of I'm not mistaken as well as the Stampeders. And so, you know, whoever Lowe's loses this game, that's a pretty big hole to climb already. Even if you consider crossover possibilities. You know, that's, that's still a pretty big hole to climb. So. They're going to be giving it their best effort for sure. But I just. I have a tough time seeing an undermanned LX team overcoming this, but. We will see. Yeah. You know that. We saw you last year, Titans came out, right? They hadn't practiced in two weeks or whenever it came out and destroyed the bills, I think it was or whatever. I mean, you never know, right? But I agree with you. I think that the sands haven't. Did Hamilton impress you last week? You know, you feel like people, okay. These are the tire hats that we had been promised all along. W what. What did you think about they're there? Cause they, they won last week and now, now they're heading in against Toronto. What do you think about that? I mean, I think that they're, they're starting to really find their footing at the right time. It was a bit of a shaky start to the season for them. And people were kind of going, okay, what's going on here? You know, they've got two legitimate quarterbacks in the building in Germany. I'm a solely in Dana Evans. And you know, the, the double-edged sword of having that is always that if things are not going great, immediately questions are going to be asked. You have the right guy there. And, and so they're kind of finding their momentum at the right time, but it's, that's, that's another match that I'm looking forward to. Not necessarily because football wise, I think it's going to be good as, as good as the banjo bowl necessarily though. It should be a good game. But I'm looking forward to it because I'm still. The, the Argos with all of those names that they've loaded up on. You know, these, these names from the, from the annals of football, these ex NFL guys, these big high caliber names. You know, there's still, there's still a little bit of a curiosity factor watching them and, and they've gotten, gotten off to a good, if not exceptional, start to the year, you know, they look like they're, they're as strong as we had hoped. And, you know, I, I'm just looking forward to seeing that squad continue to test themselves because there's still that kind of novelty factor to some of those names they brought in. Yeah. It seems, you know, in my cohost, Paul, you know, high in the Argos, it seems like they were coming out strong. There's been some struggles. Right. So we'll see, you know, Hamilton. Dan Evans seems to be where they're going with now. I can't imagine them putting it back in Mazzoli. Right. I think, you know, right. He was hurt or whatever they put, but I can't imagine after a game winning the game that they would say, okay, we're going to put Jeremiah with way back in. Yeah, no, it's, it's going to be Dana Evans at least for this week. And, and he looked like he more than her in the job. I mean, he looked better last week than I felt Missoula. We have looked at all. And, and I, I really liked Jeremiah Masoli. I have for a lot of years in this league and another guy that I've watched all the way back to his college days. At at Oregon. So it'll be too bad if we don't see him back. But the other thing that tends to happen in the CFL is that. You know, evidence getting through the entire rest of the schedule without getting banged up at some point is, is probably not likely either. So, you know, there's, there's a good chance. We'll see a little bit of both of them for the rest of the year, but it definitely looks like Dana Evans has the keys to the car right now. And. And he appears to be the best guy to lead that offense at this point in time. So, you know, it, it feels like that they can maybe build some stability there and start to build some positive momentum coming off of that. But, you know, Hamilton still has. You know, most of the core that brought them to the gray carpet in 2019, you know, they, they lost their starting center. Mike filer to retirement. But that's authentic line is still one of the best in the league. On the other side for the Argos. You know, Yeah. Like they, they they've got all that new talent coming in. Sean Oakland on the defensive line is a guy that I, I still like, I like tuning in just to watch. Not that his stats unnecessarily jumped off the screen early on here, but you just, you remember seeing that meme from him? At Baylor and it's, it's cool to watch those names show up on your screen. But, yeah, I, I think that I like Hamilton in this because I feel like Dave. They finally found something that it felt like they were kind of underperforming who they really are those first few weeks. And now you can, you can kind of say, well, it looks like the tire guys are back so where we maybe expected them to be. So I think that I like them with a slight edge in this, but my, our bodies on our show, Mike Hogan, who does the Argos play by play? Would probably be upset with me picking against his Argos too. So. The last one here. Tomorrow night. You know, Al let's go into Ottawa. Really struggled last week, speaking of this high cats, you know, Vernon Adams really did not look good. Right? I mean, Al let's came out strong. I thought that right. They have the first week by, but then the second week they looked really strong. Really struggling. What are we expecting? If anything, from them coming in to Ottawa. You know, I mean, let's not overlook that the red box I've really been struggling as well, especially on the offensive side of the ball. There, there, you know, Matt Nichols is under fire and, and I don't know, there's been a lot of, a lot of call for Donnie Davis to back up there. I don't know. I have not heard for sure if they've determined who their starter is going to be this week. But, you know, I, I watched that game. Last weekend against the lions and you know, Matt Nichols, just, he really lacks snap on the ball. And, and for those that say, you know, the weather was an issue. It wasn't the second half. But it didn't really start raining until about midway through the third quarter. And they were pretty bad before that, too. So. You know, That being said, his receivers weren't helping him out much either. There were a couple of big jobs here and there and, and you know, more so than the NFL drops are an absolute drive killer in the CFL. Right. And because of that loss of down that. That three down game, you know, you, there are oftentimes where your sequence. Is such that you're going to run on first down. And so that, that path, that, that guy just dropped is your only gas opportunity. And so those just absolutely kill off offenses, but yeah, I mean, auto has been struggling as well. I liked Montreal as, as one of my, as, as kind of my sleeper team. In the east coming into the year, you know, Vernon Adams had a pretty strong 2019, another guy that came out with college pedigree. And you felt like this guy, maybe it just is a matter of time before he figures it out in this league. And, and for guys coming up that have grown up playing only the American game, like that timeline can take a number of years and, you know, look at a guy we just talked about and Cody Fajardo. So I felt like this was a guy that was just peaking and, and I'm not ready to close the book on that yet. Like it's it because of the shortened season, it's four games into the season, but it's also only four games into the season. And so, and, and the allies have had their bias. So I think it might actually only be three games into the season for them. So, you know, I, I, I am looking for a bounce back ever from the house. I think the real Los team. Is more resembling the one that we saw in Edmonton on opening weekend than what we've seen since. And I always trend towards offensive lines because that's my position. And I also really like what moncho has gone on the offensive line in front of her and admins too. So I I'm confident that they're going to give him protection. You know that that's Ottawa pass rush was not overly effective last week against BC, despite having some names like Frank Bell, Trey that have a record of, of rushing the passer effectively in this league, they didn't get much against Michael Riley and the lions last week. So I like that match up well for the Los. And it's just a matter of if, if Adams is going to be able to find his targets at the second and third level more effectively than he was in weeks past. The other thing I think that Adam's can do a little bit more effectively as well is I think that he can make use of his, his legs a little bit more effectively than he has been the last couple of weeks too. He's by no means. A, a run first or a, or a true dual threat type necessarily, but he's a very athletic guy that can run effectively. And the reality is even, I mean, I, now that you've been watching the lions, you've seen like even Michael Riley. You know, at 37 years old and the guy who was never a burner, you have to, there has to be that added thread, that elements of you taking what you get when the defense gives it to you. Because even more so than the NFL. And I think it's a huge edge in the NFL as well, to be clear, but even more so in the NFL game, the American game, I should say, I shouldn't disrespect your XFL. Even more so than in the American game. Teens will just sit back. They'll bring three and they'll draw nine into coverage. If they know that your quarterback isn't going to chest test them at all on the grounds. And that is nearly impossible to pick apart. So you have to have that element to your offense in order for you to truly be effective in this league. In my opinion. Or you have to be very creative with getting your running back involved in those passing downs. In a way that keeps them from doing that. So I do think that Adam's can threaten teams with his legs a little bit more as well. And that would add an added element to the Mancino offense. But that's definitely a team that I think has been underperforming their true potential so far, in my opinion. Yeah, it's just hard. The drop passes. You know, I, we, we all be minded going into all this right. CFL and three that, you know, everything's been good, but with the three downs with the drop passes, like you said, it's just absolutely a game killer. Maybe the games that I've been watching lately more alive than on demand where I can't fast forward it. I feel that drag a lot sometimes. There you go, right? Oh, there you go. And these guys come out and they're flex in and yelling and stop. Yeah. I'm in drop pass. And you're like, okay, well this is, yeah, this is like fundamental seven at that point. And I look at that and I've watched some games with my wife door at the end. You. We watch NFL games too. And I'm like, that would never be dropped in the NFL. That would never happen, that would never happen, or you would be not in your position. And so it's very hard. That is the one thing that has really, I've struggled with the last couple of weeks. If everything else is good, all everything else has been fine broadcast and. Defense and everything, but some of that offense and the drop passes, this was really bad. Yeah, it has. And, and it's, you know, the, the broadcast partner for the league. TSN, you know, they, they, they lost the year too. So you're seeing, you know, ad ads. Put in as much as they can get away with. And, and when you have games that it's, it's going to an hour to an hour, to an hour, there's lots of opportunities for them to do that. So, Yeah, unfortunately, that, that creates a little bit more truncated of an experience than, than ideal. But that being said, I, you know, this is just anecdotally, because I've only been to the one game in person so far, but in person, the pace of the game, On that wine's home opener felt like it was better than what I had seen in 2019, despite the fact that there wasn't a ton of offense in that game. So that's definitely something though, when we look at, you know, the future of the CFL, how to improve the game, make it better draw more fans in. I think that needs to be number one, focus for CFL is the pace of the game. I remember growing up watching a CFL product where even if teams were not putting up much offensively. You were seeing stuff go back and forth and, and the, and the game was rolling through pretty quickly. And, and more and more in today's modern age. That's what people want. We don't want to have to book off for hours to sit down and watch, watch a 16, 12 football game. You know, and, and so it's something that the CFO really needs to address because when they were in their, in their kind of heyday back in, in, in the. You know, in the, in the Sepi atone days of the eighties and nineties, but when, when the CFL was able to market itself effectively and, and kind of peak. In this country. You know, it was, it was on the backs of, this is a faster, more exciting brand of football in the NFL. And they need to find ways to get back to that. And, and. And despite having to fight the uphill battle of the NFL, being a bigger monster than ever. Frankly, the NFL has trended towards more exciting football in the last decade. But the NFL is also running deeper rosters than ever. So you have to be better than ever finding the talent that can do it too. But rules wise. I think they need to make some adjustments to keep the pace of the play. Pace of the game up. And figure out some ways to work that better, because that was always when I was growing up the main selling point for this game and they have lost that in the last five to 10 years. Where it has settled into some of these games, like you said, it's just a slog. Watching through some of these games. So I do think that they need to do some things, you know, adjust the play cog, make the play clock more ruthless than, than they've done. Now. It used to be that it was almost like it would stop. As, as quickly as they could reset the ball would immediately start again at 20 seconds. No exceptions get the playoff. And now there's all sorts of delay while they spot double check things, do replays, make sure things are done correctly, all that kind of stuff. You know, and, and it just, it all bogs down and it doesn't feel like a 22nd play clock because the way that they run it anymore, So, yeah, like there's, there's a few things that they need to do. I think, to adjust. To help encourage that pace of play as well, but you're right. Like players need to execute what they're going to execute. You know, I have seen some people calling for and when the XFL merger thing came up, I think these cries became louder, but some people calling for, Hey, maybe we should be adding a fourth down, back in. And it's like, no, we just. Our players and coaching staff need to do better with the rules that they are given. You know, I, I used to be that when you would get a second and 10 in this league, That was, that was your impetus that you forced yourself to push the ball down field because you needed the conversion. And unfortunately that kind of conservative football coach mentality that is all over the sport has really pervaded the CFL as well in that. Do you watch pay attention on second and tens and watch how much teens are just selling for a checkdown for four yards? Maybe a chance to break a tackle and get a first down, but we'll take what we can get. And that attitude just never used to exist in the CFL. Take where we can get was garbage. Right. And now, as long as you're basically outside your own 15 teams are willing to take what they can get punt and play defense. And I just, I have this crusade against that kind of football. Like I'm an offensively oriented guy, myself and I hate punting. I hate being on defense. Like I just sure. Many coaches I think are, are overconfident in their defense and see nothing but possible. Mistakes for their offense. And so, unfortunately I think you're seeing that, that, that safe thinking purveying to the CFL, right. Coaches don't want to lose games. And so they coached not to lose at times. And so I don't know how you incentivize people to change their approaches, but it would be nice if somebody did come in who was going to be ultra aggressive with a lot of things and saw success in this league. Because as the, as in the NFL, you know, the CFLs copycat league, right. You know, a team, a team builds their team in a certain image, wins a championship, and now everybody wants to be that it team as well. So I'm really hopeful that sometime soon we get a guy come along who can manage a team. In an ultra ultra aggressive way. And have success with it. You know, another thing that I think, and coaches are getting better with this, but another thing is, is that. You know, With the rules the way they are in this league. I like we should be never seeing PAGs. Never. It's it's you're you're snapping from the, from the two yard line to, to convert a two point conversion and kicking a 35 yard field goal. In a league where like, that's not necessarily a gimme. They you're still hitting it 90% of the time, but like go for two, unless you absolutely need exactly. That one point for specific reason go for two more. Coaches are doing it more and more. I think the number is now up to almost half, but like that should be like, 80 90% Two-point conversions. In my opinion, that's another aspect of game that I think should be. That, that I hope. Evolves over the next near future. That kind of point that XFL has no pat. You always got to run out. One of the rules I loved about it. Yeah. Yeah. I gotta let you go here. You've been so gracious with your time. I do it. Totally agree with the second and 10. They'll take such a deep snap, right? There'll be such a deep shotgun. And then they'll, they'll dump it off. It'll be, yeah, it'd be like four yards. I'm like you were two and 15 or whatever. And. You know, you gave it, I totally get what you mean, the conservative play. And, and the more you say that I'm like, yes, that is exactly what I mean. But thank. Thank you so much for coming on. We are, we will be NBC for the Stampeders at BC on October 16th. So if you're at the game, I hope we can catch up. But. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your time today. I hope. We look forward to a fun weekend of football. Yeah, no worries. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me on. And, and yeah, that'd be great. Great. If we could meet up at that game, I haven't looked at my schedule to see if I'm going to go yet, but yeah. We would really like to meet up if you guys are up there. So. I told Jim, I said, I don't want the parade to be too big. So I just manageable. Well fanfare. When we come in. But I thank you so much. I hope we can keep you in the Rolodex and call you back. Sounds good. Anytime.

Episode 55 - CFL Sellouts?

It's Friday morning. Good Friday morning to you all. Welcome to the mark cast. I got to fish again today, Paul. It's just a, it's just asked me, we did the live thing. We did all that. It's just you and me again in, in the zoom room recording and no, no feedback, no nothing. And we're not, you. That's done it over with that's that's done. And over with. Like I like the service. I'm not going to get don't get me wrong. I like the service a lot. It just was like, wow, what is happening right now? Well, I think, you know, if there had been a game today, I think it would have been neat to do the ER last night, I guess. I, you know, I'm not totally off on the idea of doing the live shows. I think. And now that you've figured out what went wrong. You know when I'm not in a beat me up for it. Cause I don't, I don't appreciate when people beat other people up for things that they apologize for and own. So yeah. Basically now. I'm open to do it again, especially since I've got some free time on my hands, you know, personal speaking, personalized speaking. Are they a, we. Paul. I got fired up with off-camera talk before. She'll be a good show today. I have a lot of prophecy staff and then we have a lot of really good interviews coming up. Just, I guess I'll play the guests first off. Mike Beamish he is w we're adding to our slate of CFL hall of fame reporters, you know, like by the likes of Dan Ralph, Steve Simmons. Mike is going to come on. We're talking all about Amar DOMA and member my, my BC lions, you know, the new ownership. Mike is coming on. Mike covered the lions for decades. He comes on to talk. We did all that. I Tim Bains, our friend of the show comes on again. We talk about the red blacks. Their home opener this weekend. And it was almost like Tim also watches wrestling in AEW. So like halfway through the interview, Tim goes, Why we're still talking about the red flags, like. Can we talk about AEW and cm punk. And I go, so we do, we do some cm, punk. We do little AEW, and I just finished with Tim capper late at night for him. He's on the east coast, but he is with the Alawites. Cause the red blacks had their home opener and then the outlets both have their home openers. Can't talk. Openers this weekend. So I felt like that was a good slate of guests. What did you think about the pop that's the unbaked God. Well, good pop C yeah. C. Sam punk debuted on Friday. A lot of things happened over the weekend. Viewership though this week was only F about 200,000 from the previous week for AEW. So I don't know. I have to imagine they would want more than a $200,000, a 200 K viewership increase. It'll get it'll. It'll eventually get there, you know, you've got. I mean, punk dropped a hint the other night. Which was Wednesday night that someone else is coming. He's also writing little initials on his sneakers, that kind of hint that other people are coming after Mr. Danielson. So it's going to be interesting to see if all four of these people actually come to AEW. And I think that'll matter. That'll dental. Broaden up a, you know, a viewership more than 200,000 years. Definitely. So Tim bans look what you did here. We're already talking around the CFL podcast already. The the episode title this week is this CFL sellouts, because. We have been accused a lot of basically like the XFL isn't happening, USFL isn't happening. So we are like go into the, you know, the third prettiest girl at the room. Right. Like you're at the dance. You'd need a dance partner. Here's the deal when there is XFL news to talk about. We'll talk about XFL news, spoiler alert. It's not this week when there's USFL news, when there's baggage of football news, spoiler alert, no fingers on football news this week, but th this like talk about the XFL Mark Perry is putting XFL. We can review the Monday show. On hold. That is how not any of that. So if we want to do a weekly show, which I like to do, we're going to talk about football. That's happening? Like the CFL? No. And leading into that, leading into that topic yet at a very interesting conversation you shared with me and yeah, go ahead and go ahead. And I want to respond. I just want anyone listening to this and you know, lots of this, I just want you to get a glimmer of what Paul and I, cause I know Paul deals with this too. Paul's without social media. Just, you know, We're trying to do the CFO. We're trying to do all football stuff. I toggle with the gentlemen online, you know, they've been, we get flamed dry. Okay. Don't post the accidental puts the CFL. So I'm sitting there Sunday night, dinner notifications are blowing up. So, so I pre DM the guy I'm like, Hey man, like what's going on? Like, even though you, you just talk a lot, I'm not even in this conversation. He goes, well, you need to come up to a CFL game. I go. We are, we're going to the grey cup. We're going to the October, 1600 guy. He goes, yeah, but you need to come like here. You need to come to Calgary. Here's a list of the dates. I go, dude. I have weddings booked every Saturday from now through December, like the Saturday, they except for the one that we're going to in October. Because I won't cancel on one of the weddings of the book does from anywhere from six months to two years out. This is just a hobby to us and this isn't. Exploiting it basically. Yeah. Let me tell you guys something right here. Reed has a full-time job. I have a full-time job. Sometimes our full-time jobs get in the way of us doing this full time. Guess what? This doesn't pay as well as the other full-time jobs. Don't do. That's that's the truth. So, if you got to get up in arms about us, not going to a game that you would like us to go to please subscribe. Go ahead and buy some stuff. We do live shows, throw us a super chat, whatever it takes to make sure that this becomes a full-time income for us so we can donate. These games that you so desperately want to set otherwise. We have to pay the bills. And I'm sorry, but that's the way it works. When, when, when, when Reed needs to handle his wedding, his wedding videography, his business, videography business, he needs to handle it. No interruptions, no guilting. When I need to go to work and I need to deal with what I need to deal with at work. No interruptions, no guilty. There we go. If we, yeah. You know, our average wedding prices is a lot higher than then. I think what YouTube is paying for any of these youth. It's like, we're trying to like, you know, two hours or the interview, Sam, all this stuff. It's not quite that long. It just took a long time. But you know, we have all these people coming up anyway. I don't want to get into that. We just, if you want to taste some kind of what we're dealing with, On a positive note. I have decided I have channeled my inner rod Peterson. Rod Peterson calls the Vegas golden Knights Canada's hockey team. Right. And that makes a lot of people upset. I was talking with Tim today. I'm I'm calling the BC lions America's CFL team. Bold. You know, we got the Cowboys are America's team, America's NFL team. So I, that I am on the record. Well, that's what they say. I'm on the record that the BC lions are America's CFL team. We'll see how that, how well this holds up. Anyway, last thing before we get into the show, speaking of the BC lions. So we talked about MOCAD. Bethel times and he immediately lost the next game. Got pulled from the game. Oh, wow. About the BC lions last week, they lost to the Alex in horrendous fashion. Are we, are we CFL? Jinx ball. I hope not. I really hope not. Who should we set our sights on this week? Who were the, who were the Argonauts blank? The all the, well, no, they fate has that changed things. Has jinx the. The Edmonton Alex's, which we will get into here with our lead story. But. Let's look at the Argonauts schedule going forward. And yeah. Then we'll decide on the next team of drinks there. Just for my benefit. Yeah, I, I didn't say I told Tim Capra this joke. I'll use it again for you. I feel like me getting, not the Alex before they had their big outbreak this week. And we now have 14 players testing, positive of COVID. I feel like I got out of the Alex hit like literally the right time. It's like, if you're at the underage party and you're hanging out drinking, and then you leave the back door, like right. When the cops show up and like shut the party down, I feel like I got off the Edmonton Alex. The perfect time. You've seen the lights from a distance. You're like, okay, I'm gonna hop the fence now and get outta here. Yeah. Lead story this week, 19.2% of the 73 active practice roster and injured players for the Edmonton. 19.2% 14 Players have tested positive for the big C what is your reaction to that? Guys, what are we doing? Is this a, is this an anti-vax thing? You know, it's is this. This is, this is getting, we're getting to the point where mandates are going to start coming in. I hope you realize that right. Like, we're getting to the point where mandates are going to start being handed down. Like you can't do certain things and you can't work. Like the FDA approved. The Pfizer vaccine, which means. Which means employers. Can now require you to have a vaccine. And specifically Pfizer. I don't have Pfizer. I got Medina, but still I have a vaccine and employers can start doing that. Now, now that the FDA has given full approval to it. So we're getting to the point now where it's like, I don't understand, you know, It's it's it's enough to say like 14 people or 15 people, 14 people have it. In Edmonton, but. I'd like to know what the vaccine numbers are for. Belks like of those 14 people. How many are in vaccinated? I mean, your vaccine is, is, is that something that they're telling us? I mean, Who knows. Yeah. That's the thing right now is they're not coming out. We have a story later on Thai cats. One of their players got suspended for a couple of days. They're not suspended. Yeah. He got he's offered a couple of days cause he broke protocol. But that's the thing right there. They're not really seeing, you know, who was, it was a mix of vaccinated. Non-vaccinated the big deals with this. I don't want to get too Covidien with everything, but the big deals with this. So Thursday today's game is we record Friday. You know, Toronto and Edmonton there's, there's no way they're playing. There's no way they're going to make this game up. They had talked about it Sunday, Monday of this week of potentially rescheduling for Monday or Tuesday of next week. Like no way that's happening also. The labor day game that they're playing next Monday against the stamp Peters. That's also kind of in doubt, because if you are positive, if it's like a 14 day window that you have to quarantine. You know, we're getting to the point where, and that's why I don't want to get too political with everything, but it's getting to, you know, there's not enough games in this season and by weeks to accommodate missing games to this degree, Yep. And the BC lions who. No positive cases. So we know that. That there was something that happened in between that game and when everything started hitting the fan. So interesting. Yeah. The other thing, you know, three down had reported, this was a big, they came out and they said, you know, Trevor Harris. Leo star quarterback. It says positive dunk had to do this whole big retraction about that, but it was crazy like Sunday night and trying to track just a little bit that I could, I really crazy with the outbreak. Supposedly by rule. If the Argos are 85%. Covered. You know, w. With player vaccinations. The elk should have to cover all those game. Like all the lost revenue from the tickets, all the lost revenue, you know, refunding fans, the games, like all that stuff should come from the Edmonton. We don't. I don't believe we have the numbers for how many Argos are totally backs, but that's the rules that they put out at the beginning of the season. So it's very interesting what is going on and the ramifications this is going to have moving forward. And you would think that the, the CFO would release those numbers about how many people on the Argos have been Bakst so that we can clear that up real quick. The transparency is lacking still guys. The transparency's lacking still, you would think. Yeah. But this is a big thing. And then luckily this kind of all ended this week, there was a lot of call for a lot of these stadiums to start enforcing, you know, cause obviously Winnipeg with the blue bomber. Is there a mandating that you have to show vaccine or, you know, negative tests MLSE had announced last week, spoiler alert. We are seeing the counting crows on Sunday at Mary Mora park. Totally open. Like it's a park, no seating. We have to show no VAT. You know, whatever, all that kind of stuff. So this is a thing that is going everywhere, but anyway, Edmonton right now, The test cases. And then Saskatchewan are the only two clubs that are not have not as of recording. And I'm sure it will come out tomorrow, but they haven't yet. Done any sort of thing to call for vaccinations? And I think they should. I mean, the van, the mandate should be. It feels like the people that got the vaccine are the ones being punished right now because others didn't want to get it. They're saying, you know, On my body, my choice, but your choices are affecting other people and clearly where. We're seeing the cases of that. So, Let's reward the people that actually played by the rules. Well, and I w what's interesting to me is my Twitter feed is obviously a lot of CFL staff and I see so many. Rough rider, season ticket holders that are furious, that they are scared to go to the games that they want to go to the games that they want. And they're like either putting their tickets on hold or they're not going to the games because they are worried about, you know, being intermixed. Right. And so it's, it's now you're not only upsetting, you know, casual fans or whatever. These are like your diehard, you know, 9,000, whatever it season ticket holders that Saskatchewan has, I'm sure that's wrong, but you know, it's. You know, a healthy number of people now that you are upsetting, that is your diehard diehard fan base. You're going to take care of them and you gotta take care of the people that play by the rules. If those season ticket holders are playing by the rules. They need to be definitely taken care of. And of course, similar policies being announced in BC, Calgary, Hamilton, and Ottawa. It's it's it's. You know, We're moving toward a point. Point where this is going to be a mandate. You want to do something? You got to either provide a fresh COVID test or, or a vaccine. And I honestly think like the French model. Where, if you ha, if you need to get a COVID test to go to do something, you have to pay for it yourself. We shouldn't be paying for these things. The government should be paying for these things. If you want to like, say, I don't want to get a vaccine. That's your right, but then now you have to pay for COVID test to do the fun things. Speaking of which, when you go see county girls, do you think they'll play Mr. Jones? It was like, they don't sometimes. My wife is a huge Kenny Chrisanne [unknown]. Everyone knows Ms. Mann, is there a death? Every knows that she does. I've seen counting crows twice in concert. They played for two and a half hours. Each time I've seen them play and have Naveen. I've never heard them like counting crows ever in my life. You mean Mr. Jones? Yeah, well, I never, I said, yeah, Mr. Jeff. The name of the band is counting crows and willpower. This would definitely. Be upset that you slaughtered their good name. Massive county girls, mark. Wow. He could, maybe he could go into. Right. The, to the game, to the, to the concert next time. At least it's, it's in a better venue this year. Sometimes it's a tough venue. That's kind of hard. Anyway, they have [unknown]. Swan. They've already had confirmed cases coming from the games there. It really is getting to a point where they need to figure that I tie Katz a defensive end. Jerry D. Garrett Davis. I think that's right. He broke over protocols. He's ineligible to play this week. He gets Montreal. We have Tim caviar coming up. Talking all about the lox home over there. Basically, I'm sure they were just on the bi-week and he like went out and did whatever. Cause that's the whole thing is if you're not vaccinated, you can't do anything except be in your hotel room or your, you know, house or whatever. If you're on the road. So I'm sure that he, they just said that he violated the health and safety protocol, but I'm sure that that was like, he went out and did something that he wasn't, I don't know how else you break safety protocol on the Bible. Well, the strip clubs. If that's what you're doing. Stem Mr. Clips. Interesting. Yeah. Dwayne Haskins. You ain't ask him, give me the backup quarterback for the fifth. Birch dealers. Depending on how he plays in their final pre-season game. This weekend. And, you know, Rothenberg is not a spring chicken, so you never know, you never know. I remember when we, when we, because I think we were tired. A year ago on the podcast when we were talking about Roethlisberger and you're like, he's 40, it's his arm going to fall off? What is happening. You're so old now. Like I was living in Idaho when he is, when it was rookie year. And him and the rest got together and screwed the socks out of the first title. But yeah. This was great. This was great. Dave Naylor. Now friend of the show, we can officially say did a phenomenal interview with Randy. Ambrozy about all this elk stuff this week. It was like a big sit-down virtual interview on TSN. This is the kind of stuff we need. Right. We need Randy Ambrozy I thought he sounded good. I thought he had a great message. I was, you know, it was like 15 minutes we ever meet. It was a lot of time. Right. Talking about getting the players vaccinated. What they're trying to do, looking out for the fans. I thought that this was exactly what you need as a CFL commissioner. You know, he can't, they. They can't force these players to do this right. It's the same with the NFL. They, the players union, I think today, as we're recording turned down submission to, to do a mandate, right. To change the ruling. So I decided this was great and I was very happy and I really want to get Ambrozy to follow me back on Twitter. So I'm pretty high on the centerfield. Other things that happened in the interview. I guess there was the league is operating under informed guidance that charters will not be exempt from a flight ban on unvaccinated. And visuals that this fall. Interesting. Because, you know, they're, they're moving all the players around. Right. And because the idea was okay, we can't use the commercial flights. Well, we charter them. So then it doesn't matter. We'll see. Th th the question is, you know, well, why would, why. Why wouldn't you exempt the charters. And a lot of people I've saw online talk and they go, well, cause you're still going to the airports. Right. You're still interacting and going to the charter flights. I think it's basically just, we don't want to make it any easier, right? Like. If we can't force people to get vaccines, which right. Or wrong, whatever you want to do, like we're not going to go out of our way to make it easier. And I think that they're saying we're like, no flight, like can't get on a plane. I like that idea. I mean, I really do. Again, reward people that got vaccinated. I'm sorry, but that's, that's the way it needs to be. Now at this point, like, This is ridiculous. Yeah. So Ambrozy was, was really anyway, the big thing about the charter. Three down, had a statement from the players association coming out that like, That basically they don't know that for sure yet with the charters and moving the players around. But they did say on there that. Where is the. Oh, there will be limitations and potential pay loss scenarios for players. This is from the players association. As teams may be in the position to lawfully withhold paychecks or terminate contracts. If a player can not accompany the team because vaccines are required for travel. Damn near sounds like a loophole around a mandate. Just like, kind of like. I don't know, like. A mandate without a mandate. If that makes sense. Like there. It's mandating it for travel and you don't, you're not mandated to get the vaccine to play, but you're mandated for travel. Like, it just seems like. It's a mandate to play no matter what. Yeah. I mean, and if it gets to the point where they're going to terminate, I mean, it's one thing to lose, pay for the game. If you're going to get a contract terminated. I mean, that's the scary thing with the NFL is you have all these players like cam Newton can, he can break protocol and miss five days. And I mean, he might lose the job to Mack Jones, but. You know, if you're the, if you're the 54th man on that roster, right? Like you might not be getting that spot or your fear, the 50th or whatever, you know, you might be getting cut. But you guys you're not vaccinated when you know, 54, the 54th person is. And there's someone that you know, is on a squad team or on like a, you know, not a squad team, but like a practice team practice squad. Or a free agent. That's that's vaccinated and your job goes to them because they're vaccinated. They don't have any with. You know, They don't have any restrictions, basically. So, I mean, they can't do. He might lose this. He might, his career might be done because of him and because of how good Mack Jones has been doing this week, because he got the first. Team reps because of, I have been tracking that a lot in my morning football watching, but it's actually, I was going to be starting week one for the Patriots. We'll see what happens there. We're going to take a break toss to Reed's interviews of Mike, Tim and Tim. And we were right back with more CFL and a little bit of the XFL news, kind of, sort of in a way. That was good. All right. Welcome back to the show. Want to thank our guests? Mike Bemis, Tim Bains, Tim capper. Tim's and Mike. Give it to him sign. I like that. I can pack. A pair of Tims. On the show. So. All right. Moving forward with our more CFL news. Ty cats are naming Dana Evans, starting quarterback for week four against Montreal. Apparently Jeremiah solely has been limited during the week with an injury. We don't want to see anyone get injured, even though I do not like Jeremiah Masoli we still don't want to see anybody get injured. So Mr. Evans has been named a starting quarterback. How. I don't know, you're not on social media a lot right now, but I did comment on the three dancer. I go, Paul, please keep it down. I can hear you cheering from now in Jeremiah. Was only as a plant. I would never cheer an injury, sir. I'm not a Philadelphia fan. I would never do that. Okay, well, but to be fair, I saw the Dean Evans starting story before I saw the Mazzoli injury story, but that came out originally. I just thought, cause Mazzoli has their own tomb is only has not played phenomenally. And that was why I thought they gave Dan Evans a start. So he probably, he probably has been missold he's probably been injured for a while. He probably got injured in that first game. Against Winnipeg. And now, you know, now it's like, oh, now we got to say he's injured. That's that's. That's more likely the scenario. More like this startup. Thinking of the Hamilton dire. Your cats, Darrius Scirocco realizes the offensive line needs to improve. Poor start because Jeremiah was always injured. That's clearly, probably your fault. This is why I included this. This is basically like the. The typical, like yeah, no s**t Sherlock. Wow. We were open to our creative acts injured, like, yeah, we really needed to step on that offensive line. I don't know a lot of the people that are calling for the tie cats upset this weekend against the Alawites. I, I have my, I don't bet, but I have my fantasy pick them on the outlets. Okay. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. I got rocked over the weekend in my fantasy facts, I guess. With the Stampeders upset. And then obviously the lions upset. I mean, it was, it was not a good, you know, the Argos B the blue bombers. I mean, it was like not a good weekend for reads becomes across the board. So. All right. So what's this James Wilder Jr. Bringing the Jews to Elks and dispills false high maintenance me first narrative. Yeah. So James Wilder, we did a story about him a couple of weeks ago. He's the guy that likes to have his shirt up, right. He likes to show his, his mid raft. And coach Elizondo came out and said, knock it off. We're not going to do that. So the next week, and it was too bad, it was against a Mira America CFL team to BC lions. But James Wilder ran flag 150 yards. I mean, it was crazy. And I go and I texted Jamal and I go, isn't it phenomenal? How, how much. The Alex said he had played good the week before two weeks, two and three. I go, isn't it phenomenal? How much better James Wilder plays when he's not worried about showing his abs off and he's just running right. He's just running the full heat. Played phenomenally. The other thing that came out online about this. I guess he was in going to join WWE at some point. Do you know about this? I don't know about this. Was he going to join it before they decided to go and get rid of all their really talented individuals and NXD or was it, you know, How big is the guy like I don't, I don't know. I don't much about a site the way. And that kind of thing. Did the WWE developmental systems only looking for big people now, folks. The only one people that are like Roman reigns or Walter or something like that. He's 6, 3, 2 32. That's not about hype, not a bad way. He's the I'm telling the, I don't like this guy cause he plays for the Edmonton Alex. Right. And I, you know, we blew on that, but I [unknown]. James Lauder is a phenomenal talent. I mean, he really did the Alex, like he, I mean, they couldn't, they couldn't stop him. It was like a knife through hot butter. It was just a turn. Heel on the Elks real quick, you turned heel on them real quick. Man. Love it. CFL teams have been directed to give a new classification on their injuries by league. It says GTD, it's a game time decision. That's tried it. Ease confusion and better communicate games. Data is which of course plays in the single game betting. I'm sure that has something to do with it there too. So if you're. You know, you're like, eh, I don't know if I'm going to bet on the Elks this week. Cause someone's got a game time decision. It's going to help you. That might help you a little bit. Yeah. This is a, this is because of obviously. American CFL team, the BC lions here, they have the whole back and forth. Michael Riley. And they didn't know if he was going to start a Nathan work. And so, you know, but now that they're my team, I mean, they're, well, they're like our team in America, you know, they can be squirrely, right. If they want to be I'm all for the like, QB switch over here now, I mean, do what they want, but this is good. You know, I think that like, We're, you know, the CFL hasn't had an injury report for, you know, decades, right. So it's like, we're implementing this in now and we're trying to figure out what's going on. So. Retail or table reads real favorite team that Alex ever leaves. One of his duties as a special teams coordinator, it was announced Friday afternoon, following the 21 to 16, win over the BC lions uninteresting, you win a game and you're going to fire a coach, but Hey, you know, stranger things have happened. Great. Isn't this isn't this bizarre that they went. Also, I thought that I, I thought I typed this in wrong, but this is copy and paste it from the eminent Alex website. They spell coordinator coordinator. Is that, is that a Canadian thing? I think so it's like all the, like the favorite thing, like they put a U in favorite and. Okay. We'll let it go this time. I'm. It's a, it's a, it's a. That's not how we spell it. Right. How does. How does word yeah. Coordinator know. No hyphen here in America. You don't say a boot. Oh, there's none of that here. There's none of that here. Wow. That is crazy. Anyway, tidy cats also released left tackle, Travon Tate. This is interesting. They also released reserve quarterback, Lamar Smith, which I think is interesting, obviously, because we're going to Dana Evans, Mazzoli. I mean, they can only carry it's like they can only carry two cubes on the roster at any time, but. He had played with the Patriots. Have you went onsite? Liked it. And then he was with the Packers before signing. So, I mean, Jomar Smith has definitely been around. I just thought that was interesting that obviously. Ty cats are trying to clean house and figure out what's going on there. Yep. Lion's Lara Durant's says everyone's gonna protect the quarterback to players and. Everyone. Apparently Lamar Duran said that there was two. Well, Lamar drat pointed this out after both teams in his game combined for 265 yards of penalties. And tempers were blowing up. There was, it was. Bit of a chippy game, you know, see, see this. One time at the lions benefited from the exchange on offense. They're spilling off into the sea. It's bothering my brain, but I understand it's probably proper English and us Americans have bastardized the language for everybody else. So basically Duran said, what gets me as we're driving down there and they're getting chippy with a quarterback and we know any type of football play. You gotta protect your quarterback. And he's putting the onus on everyone. I'd been opposing players, you know, don't don't head hunter quarterback basically. Yeah. It was getting intense in the V in the lions out scam. I mean, it was, it was getting a lot of shoving and the one named me one time about a lot this year with the CFL rafts is. Especially on other running plays. You know, when you lose that forward momentum, they usually blow the play dead. And they've had a lot of like letting them go, letting them go, let him go. And then you kind of get to a point where the guy's like, get off me and then they fight. And it really has been leading to a lot of like, after the play scuffles. And I really wish I've heard the announcer say that too. They really wish that they would call some of these plays dead earlier. So get it under control a lot sooner. Yep. That's definitely right. TV ratings are in half a million people for Alex Lyons on Thursday. The blue Jays tiger had set. The Bluejays tigers game had sewn. Oh 1000 fans compared to the Alawites and stamps, they had 544 fans. I'm no Eros was probably happy about that. Saturday red blacks and writers. 629,000 Bluejay staggers, 587,000 and bombers Argos. Wow. We're in 29,000. Not bad. Not good numbers there when it comes to everyone else. I have this one when Justin Dan comment interesting that the blue Jays are out of everything and they still pulled it in 700,000 views. I mean, that's insane to me. They're not really out. Yet. I mean, you. My Yankees are pulling away now. And we understand that, but I don't think they're out yet. I think there's still a lot of baseball we played and they could, they could surprise people. I got a great. They've got a great young hitting court. Then in Toronto, they're going to be, they're going to be deadly with a couple moves in the off season. Trust me. There'll be, there'll be up there. So. It was interesting that. Last week when the CFL game beat the Bluejays. Three down and dog, they couldn't stop talking. They couldn't shut off about, oh, the CFL V whatever. And then this week they was I going to do. Sorry, not through that. Asian I've got like blue. I was like, oh, that's interesting. How, you know, Because when you're not a news organization and you're, you're a PR for the league. Braden says our news organization. So let. Let it be known. Let it be known. Power rankings are out. So schedule one is number one. A Winnipeg. Number two, even though we lost Toronto's coming in. Number three, shout outs to my team. For coming up, number three. Montreal is foreign. At the bottom is the auto red blocks. Just a couple of things, you know, I talked with Tim. We thought. You know, we've heard this now, but interesting, you know, with the red blocks, how low they are. And then obviously, I, I can't imagine the BC being below Hamilton and then even the Stampeders. You know, it's the power rankings. What does that mean? I feel like the stand Peter's win last week was such a fluke. I just can't. I can't imagine them doubling down and winning again this week, but we'll have to see, but I, I do not like the BC. You know, America, doesn't like the BC lions being in it. So. That's America, according to you. America, according to you, you can order your pre-order your Budweiser at Alawites games. Now nine bucks. Is that Canadian dollars or American dollars? Aye. It was a Canadian cause it was, this is from the [unknown]. Montreal alawites.com. I pre-ordered your beer with this. Cool. Like you can pick your stand. They've got a whole thing. You can pick what section you're in. It's like four it's, $13 at the game where it's $9. Every pre-order. I just thought that was astounding. I felt like this is some CFL ingenuity that we need. Like, pre-order your beers? Maybe they do that at Alamo Drafthouse. Now you can order your food and your drinks before you get it. And then I'd throw it out there. I've been forced to, I've been forced to buy my tickets for [unknown]. [Unknown] coming out next weekend at a different. It's the next Marvel movie. At a different theater because someone doesn't want to go to the one. I want to cut it all the time. So. She's like, it's been a bit so. Anyway, I just thought, you know, maybe he gets so drunk, he forgot to pick up your beers. Right. And then the CFL, like we're making money. Oh yeah. Pre-order a six pack. And then like, oh, I forgot to go do that. So. So I'm moving on with a little bit of exome news here. The world ward is the big 12 is bringing in former w West Virginia, 80 and expo commissioner. All. Overlook. I was a consultant. Why the big 12 is over? What are we doing? Well, it's prepared to navigate life, but I don't know anything about any of this. I figured that you were smart. More than me about this. So the big 12 has lost Texas in Oklahoma. They're going to the sec, they're there, you know, like this is done. This is, this conference has done. It's done. Like, it's like the south. It's like the Southwest conference now it's done. It's over. Good game everybody. It's it's a wrap. And so now they're bringing an Oliver luck, apparently as a consultant. To, I don't know, expand the league too. I don't know what they're doing here. I don't understand. I don't. Well, I, you know, You know, I. Luck's a smart guy. He hasn't been working. I mean, he still is. You know, being sued by Vince and they go back and forth. I mean, there just, hasn't been a lot. Lot of stuff lately. He needs money who knows? I mean, he's a little money. Like I know he's got money. I know he's got plenty of money, but maybe just needs a little bit more to get by on this lawsuit. I don't know. Dallas Cowboys waving Canadian kicker. Leerom how's your Hulu. And then of course our favorite. Person always gets waived by teams as Jordan demo. The quarterback, you got way, but lanes again. Yeah, so that, that's your, that's your accidental update this week? I mean, again, I love to talk about any of this stuff. I'd be happy to talk about the XFL. If there was stuff I just, I was stunned this week when mark was saying that he's putting the weekend review Monday show, the XFL folk is he does a Monday XFL and then a Wednesday CFL. I was stunned that he was putting that on hold for the time being until there's news. There's no news. So. There's no news. I got this really cool thing in the mail though. I need to document this. Was it William? You said William? Yeah. Well, I'm a fan of the show, friend of the show. William complete surprise to be. I was told something was coming and it's here. It's my very own Toronto Argonauts Jersey. Shout outs to William. Cause looking at us lists. It's got the name on the back, sir. Got the name on the back. Check that out. No numbers, but just, just the name and Toronto on the front. I love it. It's XL. So it's going to fit me and my fat stomach. I'm I'm really grateful for this. Thank you, William. I will cherish it and I will wear it. Every game day when I'm not working, of course. I can't wear a football Jersey to work. If I'm. You know, you get what I'm saying? My job's a little bit more. They, they, they frown they'd frown on that, but I will definitely wear that whenever I can. I will probably wear it when, when I travel up to, to up there Northwest for October 16th. When reads a team, not America's team, the BC lions. It felt no, but you know, I have one coming my way too. I, I, the photos of mine are, are, are pretty sick. So I'm, I'm pretty excited for that, but yeah, that was cool. You know? I mean, we certainly like above and beyond anything to, to support us and send that in. But you know, that's a real, that's from the store. That's not a knockoff. I mean, that is that's from. You know, the Toronto store. I dig it. Thank you very much, William. Well, even I went back and forth and then that, that, that William is part of the reason why I moved to the BC lions. Cause he said, Hey, they only have the Eskimos jerseys. And he goes, yeah, you kind of seem like west coast, BC lions. And this was when all the stuff was going on with Michael Riley and Jamala and they were booking the trips and everything. And I'm like, I hate that. I think so. I, William William is the co co commander on this, the BC Alliance with me and the America CFL team. The proximity just makes sense. The proximity just makes sense. You're like a stone throw away from BC. And we'll be there October 16th. Yeah, we have a sick, our condo downtown views. We got a sick Airbnb, not as sick as our grand cup Airbnb, but it's pretty. Oh, I know, right? Not as that aircraft. The great cup Airbnb is going to be ill. And I'm really looking forward to that. We're going to probably do some, probably do some live shows out of there. I've got to figure out how to. You can't cause we've got some equipment issues that we probably need to logistically figure out, but like it's going to be, it's going to be cool. Week is going to be cool weekend to go hit the grey cup this year. And we're doing it because we want to do it. And not because we're trying to like, You know, Take advantage or, you know, Whatever you work used on, you know, Well, and low keys. Kim veins kind of low key invited himself on the, on the grey cup show this week. Like when we were on the interview today and that's fine. Cause Tim's like, You know, I just, you know, I'm just another one. It's a quick drive. Bring them all. Bring everybody on. Well, not. You bring. Yeah, we could do, we could do AUW talk with 10 minutes, but no. He did. He was like, oh, you're going to the Greek guy for you doing the show. He's like, oh, that's not going too long of a drive for me. I'm like, ah, Okay. Damn. I see you. I hear I've. I can't pick up what you're putting down misery. You can invite yourself if you're, if you're one of the friends of the show that we've had on, we'd love to have you on again, during our live grey cup show. I don't know what we do. Two shows that week. It's just it's w it's going to be up in the air. We're going to figure it out and we're gonna try to do a lot of coverage. Up there in Hamilton. And. It's gonna be awesome. I'm looking to get to be kind of low key, announced that right now. We were going to be an added more visual time for there. That's fine. I don't mind. It's f**k it. Oh, I'm sorry. You got to believe that. But a few late in the show I give you at this point now you're listening. Whatever Paul Paul's going to, Paul is going to be Paul. So would that being said, we want to thank everybody again for watching us and subscribing to us again. Reyna, subscribe us like us. Hit the bell getting notifications. When you put up a new episode, whatever it takes, help us out. And then you can't guilt us. When we, you know, when we do get to go to these places that do get to attend games, it's going to be great. Just give us a little bit of love and we'll definitely. We'll definitely try our best to get around to all of these venues. Especially once the COVID thing dies down, it's going to be. It's going to be very awesome. And we're S we're going to be here. We're going to be here, covering the CFL. Past this year, even if the XFL does come into effect, we'll still be covering the CFL. We can guarantee you that. So would that being said. Thanks again. We'll see you next week. And thanks to Mike, Tim and the other tenants. Like attempts, Mike and the Tim's. Thanks again. We'll see you next week. We have Tim here from the Alouettes. Flight deck podcast. I wanted to thank you so much for coming on a dirty Americans CFL. Podcast. Teasing, but I thank you so much for coming on. How are you doing so far in the CFL season? Well, considering that they have ALS had an extra bi-week. Like everybody else at the beginning of the season. It's been an extra seven days, but. Considering that. You know, the CFLs back and we had the first Halloween. It's home game and it's going to be 600. 56 Days, 656 days tomorrow. On Friday. I can't. I'm stoked. I really am stoked. Yeah, it's been exciting. I, you know, we're, we're learning all this CFL stuff, you know, we, I, I was with Edmonton. I clearly, I think I've avoided that like, You know, I. Like a plague. Well, like, that's like when you're at the party and you leave early and then the cops come in and I'm like, shut everything down. Like, I feel like we've gotten not that. So I'm with the lines, but I do feel like I watch the outlets. I'm watching every game, the last three weeks. You know, I like B. The French logo, right. I liked that I liked it. It's kind of like wrestling where it's, we're all in on the gimmick, you know, where the French speaking Montreal team. Right. I mean, I like, there's a lot about the Alawites. I like, what is it about them and everything. I mean, you've built your whole life out, you know, season ticket holder, all this around the Al what's what's what is the appeal to you? I it's, it's funny for me because I did not. When it came to Canadian football, I really didn't catch on until. Probably tell them 96, 95, 96, right before we, you know, right before we got a team. Most of my. I think fandom itself and the camaraderie that all the players have and with the fans and, and vice versa. Was through the arena league. So I think it's. I think my fan has started in the Rena leg. Went forward to the CFL and. You know, I I've loved the game. I really it's such a unique game in itself. I just couldn't pass up the opportunity to buy season tickets in 1997. When I had the shot. So it was like, you know, I gotta do this. I've always wanted to do this. But Canadian football is so much fun, so much fun, no matter which city you're in it, just so much fun to watch. So, you know, outlets came out. Yeah, they had the first week by second week looked really good. Right. Really strong. I thought the defense felt very swarming. Overwhelming. Right? What happened last week? Was it just, we don't know Jake mayor and what is happening and then what, what happened last week? Do you think. I think it was a, it was a couple of things where the first thing is I think the Alawites whether they said it or not, I think they. You know, kind of overlooked who their starting quarterback was. I think they, as soon as I heard that believe I wasn't starting, it didn't matter for them who it was going to be a quarterback. And even onto the players, won't tell you that. But then if you look at the game itself, something was just seemed to be a little bit off with Vernon Adams. In my opinion, whether it was throwing into triple coverage, double coverage. Some of his passes were really, really short, which isn't really Vernon. It's not as ammo is usually pretty spot on. And then penalties, GS 18 penalties, total eight by the defense shot themselves in the foot. So many times last week, you know, Gave Calgary. The, you know, they gave him the yards that was needed to allow them to continue to drive and. No. Sure. The out of the. Let's do what they need it to do at the end of the game. But again, You know, Gina Lewis. Yeah. Foot was in the end zone, but the past was short. And that's, that's how the game ended. So, I mean, it's, it's something that they really need to improve this week, obviously versus Hamilton. Yeah. That was quite the discussion online was that final TD. And what kills me about all that is yeah, nevermind. A hundred plus yards of penalties and everything else. And all the other drop passes are like, well, that last pass of the game, it was like, Well, it didn't hit the end zone, right? It didn't. Cross the plane, but no. Like that was one of 1800 things that didn't go right on. You know, for the game. It's just always funny to me when people harp on that so much. Well, I, you know, we're all Monday morning quarterbacks. You know, even myself and my co host. You know, clicky de pine. W w we are, we are we're fans. I mean, we're allowed to be able to do it, but I mean, it's, I think. We all need you to take off her sunglasses. And look at the team. Objectively. And that's what we try to do. And, you know, as best as our, our, our ability, but. Yeah. I mean, it's. It's funny that. Last play. Really didn't stand out in my mind. More or less to what Vernon Adams did earlier in the game. You remember when he threw the, the, I think it was the out routed to the pylon. And what did the ball do? It's smack right off the pie line. So that. That was the Vernon Adams that I was, I was hoping to see, but. Yeah. You know what the, that last play was just the culmination of everything that happened last week. Yeah. Like laser accuracy. I. Remarkable. Do you remember now that you bring that up? It's not, you know, and with the Calgary thing, I used an analogy. On Twitter this week, I said, Cause in the XFL last year, we had a thing where the Seattle dragons. You know, Brandon silvers was our quarterback and I think it was week four. They benched him and brought in BJ Daniels. Right. And we almost beat the battle Hawks who were really great. Right. And so I said, well, you know, it was that kind of the Jake Mayer effect where, you know, we're not able to game plan. We're not, you know, we're prepared for Bo or we're not prepared. You know, this guy comes in and we just don't know him. And I thought, wow, this is like, I am like mega mark now using the editor. You know, it made me realize why I host this podcast, but ages, it felt like they just weren't really prepared. Like you said, that that maybe they just had overlooked it and they just didn't really expect really of anything. And Jake ended up being an exceptional. I thought I played very well. Oh, he did, but, and again, I think that, that goes just to, I guess the coaching in the, in the CFL itself is that. I guess no matter who you are, if you're coached by the right person and you get the right. You know, People behind you, you're going to play well. And that's that's. I mean it's Calgary. Look, they have been a factory for quarterback for wide receivers for coaching, you name it, they've had it. So it's, it's nuts. It's not surprising that he did as well as he did now. Obviously. Aside for him. It'll be what can he do the next game? That's the next question, because now everybody will have. We'll have film on him. But, you know, How are we feeling, you know, tire cat's coming off the buy, right. D Dean Evans, right. Is starting. Jeremiah was always out, I guess, rib injury. How are, how are we feeling about that matchup? I had very difficult times with my fantasy pickups this week in terms of who I thought was going to take the win on that one. Well, I'm hoping first and foremost. [Unknown] learn from what they should not have done last week. Obviously Dayne Evans is not the same type of quarterback and especially his, what he did last year for the, for the tiger cats. I mean, he was basically brought them to the, to the great cop. They just need to be very careful. I mean, yes, it's going to be fun at all to be at home. In front of the fans, they'll feed off of it. I'm sure. No matter if there are, because Quebec's being limited. Bye. By size to a, to 12,000, I think maximum 13,500 fans in a 25,000 seat stadium of our personal Molson. It will, it won't matter will be, they're going to be loud. I think they'll be amped up on that. But the thing is he's got to be careful, no matter how many of the tiger cats that are currently going to be out. Because they have a few, whether it be through. Through injury or through a COVID protocol. They just, they still, this is the defending Eastern champ. It still is the Hamilton tiger cats. And these two teams have been going at it for years and years. And it's, it's not one of them, you know, it's not Toronto. Toronto Hamilton. But these two teams, do I think it's your had a lot of animosity. Tony each other. Are we expecting, you know, Vernon Adams? Is he, is he the franchise guy moving forward? I mean, is this someone that, is this the right option? Is this the best option? I think so. I mean, considering what they're paying him, And the contract that they gave him that he signed a couple of years ago. I think so. And I think for those of you who don't follow each team specifically, and just follow the CFL. One thing that stands out to me the most about Vernon Adams during this off season. He actually on his own dime. Flew in wide receivers. And flew in a couple of, I think. I got a quarterback and some of his DBS. He paid for everything. Hotel flights food. And they had a, an unofficial mini camp in Seattle. That to me. Shows the type of man. That Vernon Adams datas. And I think that's. Finally. We can say it. I think, yeah. VA is going to be the guy it's just, he's learning every day and you can tell he's very humble. And that's what I love about the quarter. This quarterback is very humble. He knows he, if he has to improve, he will. He's not too up on himself. No matter how much money he's getting paid. He's all about the team itself. So I ever since AC add that caveat. Retired. And the umpteen amount of quarterbacks we've had to start for this team. I'm so happy to actually have her and Adams under center. Well, what's remarkable about that is, I mean, contract decides are not, you know, a Vernon. I was just getting paid. I mean, that's something that like Josh Allen did, I think last year in the off season for the bills. Right. And Josh Allen just signed like a $248 million contract, you know, very different for a player like him or Russell Wilson to fly in people down to Malibu or whatever. Aaron Rogers to training where there's someone in the CFL to flow it all down. I mean, that really speaks to him. Just desire. Right. And wanting to create those bonds. Cause it has to be in, especially this year and everyone getting signed so late and the limited training camps and no preseason and trying to get any sort of rhythm. I just can't imagine how challenging that would be. We cover a lot of these spring leagues, you know, they only have two week kickoff and then they're going in. It, it just, it takes a few weeks to really get things going. No matter how skilled of an athlete you are. Oh, that's true. And I think what people need to remember too, is that the CFL for the first time, Forever. As far as I know, in the history of the lake, they had no preseason none. So if people think about it, week two, This past, I started week three, this past week was an essence. The out of a wet second preseason game. So, you know, everybody is still technically at a week up on the aloe lands, but I mean, it's. It was. As we even saw, I think we saw last year in the NFL because they had, I think it was, I think it was, no, it was a no preseason last year in the NFL too. Yeah. So, I mean, You saw the differences, even though scoring was up in the NFL. It's weird. I play. Was, it seems to be a little bit better. Offensive and defensive, they're still having problems getting caught up. But you know what? It's still great football. Even though. You never think of CFL being a low scoring league, but still even with the lower scoring games that we've had so far, it's still been great football. Yeah. I mean, it doesn't bother me at all. I mean, you know, again, I'm I was talking with Tim Bain today in EO. He says, well, you know, it has been kind of sluggish. I'm like I, to me, a good defensive, you know, stop and plow, you know, it's. To me. Watching it on demand later is helpful for that to be able to fast forward through a lot of the commercials, right. You know, to and outs and whatever, but it is still, you know, the stories and the announcers. I think the broadcast seems to have been on point this whole year. And like you said, telling these stories about Vernon Adams and everything else, it really just helped kind of build the character of these players, which I think is so important in the league where they're not all household names, like the RN and other leagues. No. And I think that's one of the things that the CFL needs to really center on into it's the players themselves. I followed many of the, the indoor football leaks as an example where it's been all about the week itself, you know, that they'd kind of. It kind of reminds me a lot about the CFL where you do have a lot of fans who are just fans of their team itself, you know, split up. Okay. Saskatchewan Roughriders as an example. You know, they care about more about the team and the league itself, but it's still about the players. And I think it's one thing that the league really needs to do is to start promoting the players. I think they do a pretty good job, especially the broadcast partner in KSN, but. It's, you know, what. The league is always going to have its flaws. I think everybody will say that. I mean, even, even as the past year, when we did play in 2020, But. That's said earlier in the any interview, CFL's so much fun. They just. Just to make sure they, that they do it right. And, you know, hype up. What is necessary, whether it be the league or especially the players. Talk to me about Williams stand back. He's certainly someone that caught my eye as, as kind of a powerhouse. What kind of things you would expect to see from him and some of the other. Star outlets players and like Jake. When he Waikiki, I never say the name. Some of these players. They've really gotten the spotlight so far in this limited season. Well, I think last week, I think for, for stab back the dudes at B's, they, everybody just out. You know, we sell a stats, what you did last year. Sorry in 2019 before he was signed by the law. Las Vegas Raiders. And. He's just a complete beast. I think he will get into his own too, because you know, in the Atwood's first game of the year, he had to drop passes on screen passes. And I think that may have gotten away from that. If you look at the footage from last week, I, there are many an opportunity to go to stand back because the seems like the aloe wets in their history have always had a running back. It's also been able to do double duty when it comes to catching the ball out of the backfield. So. Stand back. We'll always be stand back. I mean, if you can continue to, you know, I think he's averaging, I think he's averaging just less than a hundred yards so far in his two games that he's played. If it's consistency and with having VA. Shouldn't be any problem here. He should be able to run, run rough shot, and I would be surprised if he leads the league in the. By the end of the year, the league and. Rushing yardage as far as the wide receivers. I swear, I, out of all of the teams this year, the Alawites were lucky enough to be able to keep. I think it's not 90 or 95% other wide receiver core intact. You know, just because of the pandemic. So it gives them a leg up. It. And I can't just, just give props to the two, I think, to the Alawites. But if you, if you look at all the teams. You look at these names. You would never expect to see in the CFL, let's sorry. In the NFL, kind of the CFL, they make a name for themselves. They said like Jake does. You know, BJ Cunningham. Eugene Lewis and, you know, Rayshawn, Simon. You know, one of the Canadian starters for the Alawites. They always seem to be able to. To be able to get the guys to come in, even if one goes down. So it's, you know, that's what I love about this team. I think that's one of the pluses that they hasn't had in 2021. And I'm hoping, hoping that if they can all get it together. Yeah. Be able to go off and down. What will. We'll continue to win throughout the season. So. What'd be nice. I don't want to see some they're 500 but 14 games, man. For less gains can be tough. Yeah. There's far less room for error there. They get it up in the backend. You know, the more we talk cause I was really bullish on the Al lats, Stan. Peters. Yeah, that game really scared me. Right. The longer we're talking now, I feel better. I am taking the ALS, you know, against the time counts. What storyline are you looking forward to seeing in the game? This weekend. I for me, as I mentioned before, I mean, it's the first time the Alawites had been at home and it almost 660 days. I want, I want to be able to see how they're able to feed off of the crowd. Make sure that, you know, coach Gary Jones. I'm sure we'll not allow what happened last week. Same thing with defensive coriander, Baird miles, he, they will. They will make sure that this team is ready to play. For me, it's just, just to get to two and one. It's cliche. Everybody says it go one. Want to know each week, but I mean, I, with the tiger cats being the seems to be the perennial favorite. To win the east. And from what we've seen in this week's pigs from the. From the experts, you know, it seems to be half, half, and we have to pick into when this week, but. For the ALS without honesty. I think it's. The game story really will be. Can Vernon come back from what he did last week? He needs to improve. Take advantage of the home crowd, no matter how many people, Sean, we're going to be. And just beat the tiger cats. Don't take them lightly because if you do. How's it going to come out with an L unfortunately. I know we talked earlier, crowd sizes and stuff. Are we, I mean, fan base for Montreal. I mean, obviously this is a storyline we've tracked, you know, even before the season. Toronto. We just, it was talking with Mike Beamish today about the lions, you know, them trying to rebuild stuff there. What is that fan base like? Obviously I would say you're the right, the premier lox. You know, podcasts, right? Really tapped in to all this stuff. So. Tie to me about the Alphabet's fan base. And what is that like? Oh the fan basis. I didn't even know the season ticket base itself. Is it? Last time I heard, I think it's anywhere between 35 and 4,500. Strong. I mean, that's a lot less than what it used to be, but I think, you know, it. Really is the fan base is, you know how teens go can be in a rebuilding phase. The the fan base itself, isn't a rebuilding phase. You. Specifically how, because of how bad the alleyways data over the past, you know, five to seven years, they just were not doing anything. But the fan base is very passionate, you know? You know, the Francophone fans themselves. They're unique in themselves, you know, they're totally aside from what the Anglophone or the English community is a Montreal, but I mean, it's. They're a passionate group, you know, and we're going to be limited in what we can actually do this season in stadium. You know, whether it be it's. Limited sizes or social distancing or, you know, the, the infamous. Vaccine passport, which is going to be starting in the, in the next couple of weeks, which will may limit fans coming in even more. But. I again, as I think. The players themselves are just happy to be playing in front of fans. And I'm, I'm going to be ecstatic just to be in front of them, but the. The crowd will be there. But as I said, in my opinion, I think the fan base itself has done a little bit of rebuilding period. I don't want to. You know, Ask you questions you don't know or whatever, when you talk 3,500 or 4,500 right season ticket. Yeah. Yeah. Roughly. On par, I mean, what is the average CFL season ticket member Hyatt? You can look at Saskatch. I can only imagine what Saskatchewan is. The guests. They, to me are the, the perennial, when it comes to the top spot. For, for season tickets them Edmonton. Winnipeg itself too. I Toronto don't even start me once or twice even know what it is to run. I mean, they can't. They seem to can't even fill BMO field in any capacity. Hamilton. They're they're they're, they're quite, I'm sure they're up there too, but you know, the, I can't be ALS have been higher in years past, but I mean, it's. It's they've been from what I've heard from across the league. The teams have been very accommodating in 2021 specifically because of what's happening. They may not be there. But they are allowing him to come back or to push forward there. Their season tickets. Until 2022. So it's, it's, you know, like unlike the NFL, Very similar to what you know, the spring leagues are in the indoor leagues and the arena leagues. It's all gate driven. So. I can understand why they didn't play in 2020 with no fans, but I mean, it's. Yeah, I got off topic there. Sorry about that. But it, but it's, it's a scattered on really? I think, but yeah, Montreal. I wouldn't even add that, that probably the lower. The lower, lower tier of the. And when it comes to that listing, all the. Other teams as season ticket holders. At this point, someone's commented on the YouTube. You've been saying that were. Actually, I mean that someone right now is like diving the exact number of events. Okay. Let me know. I do this kind of gears about it. Just to round out the conversation. I mean, I feel. Good. For the Alawites right. I feel like they're, they certainly look strong in their first out. You know, disconcerting last week, but I mean, overall outlook for the season, moving forward, how are we feeling? I've already said, I think, you know, Hamilton is still the team to beat. I put the, the out of the wet second behind the tiger cats. The question is how close will they be? This game on Friday will be. Will be the start of the cast on, on how it's going to, and you know, you get one up on Hamilton this year. Especially in the Eastern division, that one game in the wind calm can make all the difference in winning the east. I'm hoping I'm hoping for an over 500 season. Playoffs. And I think if the team can play as well as they did in week one, versus the ALCS. I could easily see the Alawites. Going to the grey cup. I think a strong defense is there. I I've said before on here, I'm a Washington football team fan. In all defense, you know, they, they won. They damn near won every, I mean, they won the division last year with hardly even the quarterback. So I think that, you know, as long as Vernon Adams is serviceable, right. And they're not getting beat on penalties. I just, I don't think there's anything from what I saw. Like you said against the Elks. Anything that would stop me from having, you know, all the confidence in the world and then compared to some of the other out of these we've seen in the last couple of weeks. So yeah. They only think it's obviously is if VA does happen to go down, we do have a capable, backup. In Shilts. And Matt [unknown]. But it's. After that, you know, with only the rosters only able to hold two quarterbacks on, you know, on the current roster. That's something we don't get to that point, but. Yeah, you know, in football and as we, as we know anything can happen. So. Well, Tim, thank you so much for coming on. I appreciate, you know, Scheduling this and getting this going. It worked out well with the, with the home opener and I, I'm excited to see it and just continuing to learn about all these wonderful teams and that everything else has been a lot of fun. So thank you. Oh, Hey, thanks for having me, man. And I won't. Hadn't caught on to your show at the very beginning, but I really love what you guys are doing there. I'm really impressed. You're probably better on that. Yeah. Yeah, I think we're we're. We're better now. I think we, there was a lot of like, there's a lot of hatred going on with a lot of these things for the last few months, and it is. It is so nice too, to have like three conversations today, about three different football teams and really just talk about football. It's been very rewarding to not have to deal with. A lot of the stuff that we've had to talk about the last few months. So yeah. Oh, for sure. And you guys do what you need it to do. You were able to shift and to get to that next level, because. You know, it's, it's fun talking about football. No matter what we get is it's always fun to talk about football. I'm going to hit this. You got to go. Yep. Okay. Well, Tim bans. I'm very excited to have you back here today. The last time you were on, we had no football to talk about at all. I'm trying to remember even what we do. Talked about, I think it was a lot of like preseason, speculation. How are you doing now that we are headed into week four of the CFL season? It's almost surreal. Like, wow. I mean, you can, you can talk about the, what ifs and let's get this thing going. And here we are. No. It's great, man. It's it's. Good to see it. It's good to actually see a crowd, to see people watching a football game and cheering and, you know, being able to get out of the house. Yeah, I went to my first live gaming. In Saskatchewan, I did not go to Edmonton and, and last week went to the Saskatchewan game. And 25,000 plus people. And we're looking at a 15,000 people. That's all the health officials will allow, but we're looking at 15,000 people in Ottawa on Saturday. So let's go. Yeah, I'm really excited. I [unknown]. It does feel, I love the number of teams, right. I love the weekend matchups. It does. It fills my need of kind of what the XFL was like. I can watch every game. Right. I can keep track of all the players and I have, you know, I've watched every minute of every game, you know, the last two weekends, really just exciting. I, you know, I've heard some people complain a little slow, a little sluggish it's felt really good to me. How has it felt to you? It does feel like definitely like they are a step behind. But that's what happens. I think whether whatever league it is, I think that's what happens early in the season. And you have to take into account. These guys didn't play any preseason games. So they're coming out of training camp mode, really with not a lot of contact and they're going out onto a football field. And putting on their helmets and doing it for real. So I think, I think you're seeing it progress now we're into week four and I think. I think really the offense is they're starting to catch up because if there's one thing I think is lagging behind, it's the author sense? I think you're seeing, you're seeing the defenses. It's just more, there's just more to it on offense. And, and I think you're going to see that start to pick up. And we'll get back to the CFL, but we know which is the 48 to 45 games in some cases. So, yeah, let's, let's see what happens this weekend. Well, I, like I said, I love it. I think a good defensive stop is. As, as exciting, right? Sometimes as I, as you know, a long pass. Certainly for Ottawa. You know, I know that their, their defense has been considerably strong lately as Tim pops his energy drink. Which is good. Yeah. I will say, you know, you're coming into enemy territory. Now I have converted. I'm a BC lions fan, right? We're we're taking on all the weather this weekend, you know, first home opener for our, for the red blacks. I want to hear about how the BC lions are gonna just walk all over Ottawa this weekend. If only it were that simple. Well, I, I mean, these are the number eight and number nine ranked teams in the CFL, according to the. CFL power rankings. So maybe our expectation shouldn't be much. No, I think you're, you're looking at. And with the way things have gone so far. With BC I'm and I think we're going to be looking at Michael Raleigh at quarterback this weekend. But you never know. Ottawa has really, really struggled offensively. Game 1 71 yards passing. And I think game two was a little over one 70. That's 250 yards of passing offense in two games. That's not the CFO. That's, that's not what we've come to know. I think they did take steps ahead last week. And I, I would expect I'm thinking this game. I don't know. I, I think it's going to be. 27 To 24 for one of the teams. I hope I. For BC. So. No, I think it's going to be a good game. I don't think that one team is noticeably better than the other. And I think Ottawa's often or sorry. The way, their defense. And there's special teams. Is good. It comes out as advertised. It is weird that Ottawa is still the low you. Bottom of the barrel in the power rankings. Right. I've seen a lot of complaints online that they're not getting enough respect. You know, I think it was last week, they were ranked below teams that had no, no wins. Right. You know, Hamilton, obviously O and T. So why, what is the negativity on not negativity, but just people are people sleeping on Ottawa? What is the deal going on? I, I mean, I, I guess I get it more this week. I got it less last week when they were. Oh one and oh, It was a one defeated and one of those winds case came against an Owen two team. So, I don't think we are doing a power ranking system. You necessarily should be looking ahead and thinking, what will this team be? In my mind. It's what is this team right now? At the time they were one at O and. In my opinion, better than the team that they beat the week before, or the Edmonton Elks who were Owen too. Yeah, I think you can make a pretty good argument right now, then. In fact, they should be ranked number nine and you could probably make an argument that BC, which does have a win. It could be ranked number eight. But again, I mean, until a lot of why's. Off fence. Really starts taking it to another level. It's pretty hard to take. This Ottawa team. You know, seriously as a team that that can be up there with the elite elite of the league, although they were only a touchdown behind. To Saskatchewan with. I think we're less than 10 minutes left to play in last week's game. So. Again, their, their defense, I think is special. Teams can keep them in games until the offense really finds another gear. Is this a Ottawa offense issue or is this a quarterback issue? I think a lot of people will make it a quarterback issue. I think it's a newness issue. It's a newness of the offensive personnel. It's not just a quarterback. I mean, It's easy to say. Okay, well, you only have 71 yards passing and you only have 170 yards passing that's on your quarterback. To an extent. I mean, you could look at. At the quarterback did have some Shoal as some arm soreness in training captain Praca several days. Says he's at a hundred percent right now, but I think you have to look at at offensive line, it starts with the offensive line. There are two guys with significant CFL experience and that offensive line. There are three guys without significant experience when you're trying to put together a scheme and you've got three guys that have played. Two of them have with no CFL experience and one with less than, you know, with 12 games of CFL experience, that's very difficult. When you try to bring in a, you know, a running back really. Doesn't have a lot of CFL game experience. Receiver's not a lot other than RJ Harris, not a lot of CFL experience. I think really when you put all those moving parts in, into a blender and you, and you toss them around a bit. It really, really is going to take time. So when you simplify it and say, well, what's your quarterback? Well, it's a synchronicity thing. There's a lot of different things in play here and they really, really need time. So I think I said before the season, this is an offense that we'll take we'll know what the offense is. I think after four or five games. If they can come out of that first four or five games with a couple, two or three wins. Then they're going to be in decent shape and you know, maybe the offense you find out after four or five games, maybe the offense isn't that good, but it's really, really tough to determine that right now. And it's tough to pin blame on, on Matt Nichols, tough to pin blame on any, any one particular element of it. I think it just needs time before we can properly evaluate. How big of a hurdle, has it been the retirements that happened off season with Brad monopoly and Alex Mateus? You know, In terms of not having a good receiving core to go to, or an experience receiving core. Well, I mean, obviously you loose anomalies. Monopoly is not your number one receiver, but it's a big blow. He's a multi-time 1000 yard receiver and you know, an excellent, excellent complimentary guy. And if you've got. RJ Harris. And you've got if you've got brides monopoly, and you've got a guy like Ryan Davis and maybe Davante, Dedman getting some reps. I mean, it's a different receiving core. And Jalen Saunders was a loss. You talk about the offensive line, Alex Mateus, a former number one overall picket center. You know, just a solid guy in there and it's backup steps away for the year. So Alex Fontana, another first round draft pick. Who, who would have stepped in et cetera, and who may very well have played a guard had even had Mateus come back. So those were significant losses and it's not like they happened in January or February. The team had to adjust on the fly. These things are happening. A couple of weeks in advance of training camp. So really there were setbacks that, that. You know, maybe they still haven't gotten over. Yeah. I mean, it's just hard. E I like a defense heavy team. I like Washington football team in the NFL. You know, they made it to the playoffs, you know, with basically three different quarterbacks last year, send me, they can be done. Right. I mean, defense can win games. We had Stevie Meyers wanted to make sure that listener that I asked you. How sure. I believe shooting Matt Nichols is going to have now moving forward. We've seen obviously a lot of QB shakeups already, you know, Calgary wasn't intentional, but then obviously with the Argos, you know, we've seen. Yeah. The swapping them quarterbacks. What do you think Matt Nichols, like future looks like here so far. I think they're gonna give them a long leash. I think they have to. Really the backup plan right now is Dominic Davis. Who had the job in 2019. And quite frankly, it didn't work out. Could he be a starting quarterback? Honestly, I think there are a lot of people in our nation in a lot of roadblocks fans probably hope that doesn't happen because they've, it's one of those we've seen that. Before. And it didn't work. So I'm not sure that they're going to, as long as Matt Nichols. Arm is healthy. I think they're going to leave them in there. And in fact, the bigger competition may come from. The number three or the number four guy. Who I like a lot. Caleb Evans and Taron Christian. I think really auto has never developed its own starting quarterback. It's just never worked out that way. Since 2014, they've gone out and signed or traded for quarterbacks. And I think that one of these guys, so I I've been impressed watching them in practice. I was impressed watching them in training camp. And I think either one has a chance to be a legit CFL quarterback. But I don't think we're going to get a look at either one of them in the last, the season really goes wrong and Ottawa decides to take maybe a look toward the future. I just don't see that happening anytime soon. I think Matt Nichols is your guy. Yeah. Yeah. Dan Evans. Right? They didn't have an associate. I was like, I knew there was another slot swap out where he is getting the start this week. Right. For Jeremiah Mazola. It just, it's weird to me. Yeah, this is obviously our first CFL season, right. Covering them in full, but. Without the preseason, you know, having these swaps in these, you know, it seems like. Like the lions looked great the first week and then they stunk it up in the ocean. I guess. It's all that learning that you would have done normally in the preseason. Right? It, it just really, really takes time. It's not like you flip a switch. And you go from no football. In a year and a half into, into full football mode. I mean, the NFL guys played last year and what's the B. What's in a loss season. What, what is there a no preseason games in a, in a, in a training camp that begins. In July, as opposed to in mid may. And we've got a pandemic around us, which changes the dynamic as well. So. I, I you're you'll see these teams hit full stride. It's going to take a while. Talking about, you know, the home opener, you know, being at home. Welcoming fans again, what is that experience going to be like for you and for the people that, that are going to be attending the game? Just surreal, I guess. Especially looking down and seeing now being in Saskatchewan in Regina last week. It's almost like there's no pandemic happening. It's not that. People don't have COVID it's just that there's nobody. In the stands wearing masks. Yeah, you go into the malls or into a casino nobody's wearing masks. So it's a bit different here in Ontario. Fans in the stands are going to be asked to wear masks. So it'll be a little bit different looking down and seeing that. And of course the new news broke this past week that as of their games, September 22nd, there, it will be a. Mandate to fans will be, have to show proof of vaccination. Or have a negative COVID test. So I think for a lot of people who've gotten the vaccines. That's going to be a relief. I think you'll see some people, some. True blue, red blocks. Fans will not be at the game this weekend because they don't want to think about the person behind them or three seats over. Is a potential carrier of COVID. It's hard. We, my wife and I are going to a concert on Sunday and I just got an email today and they said, you're gonna, you know, the same thing, right. We're going to have to show a vaccine. Cards are traveling and we just got back from Hawaii and it was the same thing, but it is. Becoming normal in sporting and everywhere. Right? I mean, this isn't just a Canada thing or just the CFL thing. I mean, this is we're going to at Mary Moore park, it's an outdoor park concert, tons of space, you know, no seating, really of any kind. And it's still trying to, you know, protect people and keep everybody safe. I read a wonderful article. You posted yesterday, right about Ottawa and the enforcements and all that stuff. I didn't want to get to, you know, COVID heavy on this, but obviously I feel like the red blacks are joining. You know, there's only a couple outliers now. That aren't really enforcing that stuff. Moving forward. It's. I mean, they're, in some ways they're catching up to the NFL and some of the restrictions they're putting down and some of the freedoms that they're giving the vaccinated players, but. There, some of these rules are geared towards getting teams up to the 85%. Or talk about too much about COVID either though. The goods and the bads, but, but we're, we're still in a pandemic and, you know, I'm just hoping we get through the season. And hopefully we're looking at a whole new, different landscape in 2022, where, you know, maybe it's a bit more of an afterthought. Yeah, I keep checking Twitter. Cause we're going to put this episode of the bad tonight for tomorrow, waiting to see if they make an announcement about, you know, when are the Argos plan or whether. Yeah. Because I know that the second we have published on is, oh yeah, they're playing on Monday or whatever. So I'm kind of hoping that, that news kind of surprising that that news hasn't come out. I mean, obviously I know that they're doing the tracing and figuring out all of the numbers, but I would just call it out a wash now and just give it to the Argos. If it was me. You know, I'm surprised you haven't asked me about cm, punk or, or cult. A cult of personality, like, you know, the music fan that you are and the wrestling fan and all that stuff. But we'll talk red blocks and we'll talk CFL. It's okay. We'll get to that. I haven't gotten more. I want, I don't want to be accused of not being in my down, being the. I do want to get your thoughts on wrestling here at the end. My last question about. I can tell you're chomping at the bit for that. My last question. What storylines are we watching? Is it Saturday? When are they playing Saturday? The lions out of a, what? What storylines are we looking for in that game? It is Saturday, you know, they, so the red blacks have recently put in a rule that day three of each practice is a non-report day. So I'm allowed to go to practice, which I did today. I'm allowed to observe. But I can't tell you. Who wasn't practice who was, and wasn't practicing today. Which would give you a good indication because anybody off the field today, Probably not going to be in the walkthrough tomorrow. I mean the interesting storylines, one thing. One of their key defensive players, defensive lineman, Leon Lang is not going to play this weekend. It's not an injury. We're being told it's, it's a personal, it's a family matter, but he will not be available because once you leave the team, there's a quarantine thing. And so, I mean, I really don't believe he'll play this weekend. It's a key loss for them. From their defensive line. But it being guys, we didn't see, there was some defensive backs that were missing last week, and we're hoping that Nolan Macmillan comes back and plays right guard. Again, it gives them a veteran presence in the offensive leadership as well on the offensive line. And we'll see what happens at receiver Anthony Coombs. Didn't play last week either. So they really need. It's not like these guys, these guys have the explosive office, they can't really be afford to missing these parts. They need these guys in the lineup and other. Thing we'll find out, I guess, tomorrow when they released their lineup, Timothy Flanders injured. In last week's game replaced by Devante Deadman who had very, very, very few reps at running back, but really was the best available guy in the roster, went in and did a really good job score to touchdown. So we'll see what they do with that spot weather Flanders is back this week and I have a pretty good idea, but again, I can't say. But whether whether that Dedman Flanders gets back in and Dedman gets some reps, or maybe they bring. Another running back into to fill that spot. Did you glean any info from America's team, the BC lions on your, on your press call. America's seen. That's funny. Let's see, I'll sell Ron Peterson's gimmick the other. In my bed and the mark has seen the official mark has seen the BC lions. How was there a press call? I, so I talked to Rick Campbell yesterday. They had that an availability with the former auto or Redwood longtime auto or red blacks coach Rick Campbell, I guess, I guess, sort of a friend of mine. Like I, I guys here that long. And you get to know him a bit, you know, maybe, maybe a bearer too. And. And, and a lot of conversations. So he's really looking forward. I mean, Ottawa really became a home for him. It's the head coach with. The Marc has official a official team America's team, the BC lions. Coming to town and he liked nothing better. I'm sure then too, then too. Put a beating on his old team. Okay now. I do w. We'll get a little AEW here. I want to, I watch I had weddings all weekend, so I had weddings Friday, Saturday, we drove to the coast. So I missed all of the, the punks of the world, cm, punk, and AWU I missed all the Roman reigns. John seen that, even though I saw that matching person. Five years ago at Helen the cell in Los Angeles. Wa takeaways from cm. Punk's big return to a w. Well, I should, we should be talking about like iron maiden and, and metal music and hard rock music and foo fighters. And who knows what. But we'll, we'll go. Maybe next time we can talk about like, as I have it. Thing for like seventies, hard rock and, and run for the Hills and maiden and all that side. You. When any next time? It's it's really interesting. The wrestling landscape right now, because you've got. The re-emergence Brock Lesnar. As a face, which really ponytail. I don't know what the look is. Quite as mean as he used to look, but, but it's, it's, it's something that. WWE. He needs really on the heels of a w bringing in cm, punk, which is, which is for those. That follow wrestling is, is huge. I mean, I can't think of anybody. Of a bigger, bigger move they could have made. And certainly with ADW. Apparently there are other w former WWE stars on the way. I think my allegiance has shifted. I really, really. Enjoy watching AEW on Wednesday nights. I probably any WWE show annex T. On Tuesdays is probably my favorite and the old go-to the standard. Raw on Monday nights is just it's. It's almost unwatchable at times. And here we are talking rustling, like, come on, like CFL is real, like isn't. WWE and it don't, they. Like decide those things at a time in wrestling. I will, I will. I, I told my wife this, cause I've, I've really been turned off to WWE and I've lived through the whole Roman reigns. Right. I lived, I lived cause I'm younger. I mean, I was Austin rock on that, but then I lived through Siena now. I love seeing it, but I hated seeing it for a long time and I've lived through rains and it's like, I'm so tired of in a world where you can literally write whatever storyline you want and have whoever win at any given time that you have so many fans that are so frustrated with your product. I'll never understand where you can, you know, The BC lions could, we can script them to win every game right in the WWE, but yet it's like continually the people are upset and frustrated. I don't understand that booking. What would be the, if the BC lions, like you have to create a face. And a heel on that team. Who would be your face and who would be your heel or even CFL? Like if you got one guy that would be, have to be the bad guy and one that could be your, your hero. Well, I think Bolieve, I, Mitchell has kind of the right. He's the prototypical. I mean, I think he would transition to the wrestling easy. Right? I. I mean, I think he's kind of like a. He'll cocky kind of right. He's got the tattoos. He's got the bandana, everything. So. You probably liked playing that. Now you got to create a face. You got to have like somebody for him to go up against. Well, I will say I was I following his tremendous performance against the BC lions, James Wilder. I saw the heat commented online that I guess he had been in talks to go to WWE at one point that's astounding to me. Yeah, well, There you go and decided to come back to football. We still got time. I mean, these guys. These guys can do that. WWE thing almost. Christian Christian is he's gotta be 40. I don't know, 47 48. Well, Bill Goldberg just headlines. Oh, my God. And bill Goldberg, I think is older than either one of us. Funny, you've got former football players, like once they're done their football career. They, they turn over to Russ and he got him thinking way, way back in the CFL. Angela Moscow. Like a CFL legend went over and a king Kong Moscow in the, in the wrestling ring. Yeah, but, but CFL now, It it's real. And we brought some exciting stuff. Going this weekend, I guess we get it going Montreal and Hamilton should be a good matchup. And, and here we go into week four. Yeah, it'll be exciting. I appreciate it. I appreciate we're going to do some Alawites coverage later on the show for their home opener as well. So I think it should be fun. Hopefully a good weekend of, of football here. So. Yeah. Let's go. And then I'm trying to think, like I'm looking outside and it's been so hot here. It's I mean, I don't know what the weather is there, but we, I never complained. I love tropical. I love Caribbean. I love warm climates, but we've had a string of days and we watched practice from the stands and it's. It's again, 90 degrees we've had, we've had. One a one week, two weeks. Every three days, sunny and 90 degrees. And, and then I think about the grey cup being played in the middle of December and Hamilton. And a guarantee. One thing, it won't be 90 degrees. And I probably will be wearing more than I, you know, today I'm out with an umbrella. Like I look like an 80 year old man with my umbrella in the stands, because it's so hot. It's just it's breeding me. So, yeah. Yeah, great cop. I'm guessing I. I'll probably be wishing it was 90 degrees in the middle of December as the snowflakes are hitting, you know, and, and temperature is somewhat below that freezing mark. Well, we have our, we have our tickets booked. We have our flights booked. We have our Airbnb. So we're just waiting for our, you know, American media access right to the game, but, or we'll purchase tickets. It gets tougher, however, all that works, but we have everything booked, so we will be there. So I don't want to hear any, you, you Danny Austins of the world, you know, what are you guys trying to do? That we, we will be there. We have our flights book, so. Tim. I want to thank you for coming on. If you come back a third time, I might show you my iron main tattoo that I have on my back. So I bet you didn't expect that to be come in so that I don't know. That's all that's overwhelming. I don't know if I want you to, you know, getting down to that, but, but, you know, Well, I could talk a little music maybe next time. Well, as equally overwhelming to my wife, the first time she saw that. Wow. So. How's it going? Tim. Worst of luck this weekend against the lions with the red blacks. And, and thank you very much for coming on the show. Well, you know what I'm, I'm not really biased either way. So I've got like, I'm a red blocks fan. Although I cover them, you know, why. I told the line right down the middle. So I hope it's a good football game. Our nation. The football fans have been waiting a long, long time for this. They haven't played a game since early November of 2019 here at the stadium. So a really, really highly anticipated. And yeah, just looking forward to, to seeing the game. Okay. I'll I'll hit record here and. And then our episode will go out tomorrow. So I'm doing interviews today with everybody, and then we put my co-host will come on later and we'll do our show and then I'll put everything together for tomorrow morning. Okay. That's good. There you go. Hmm. Well, Mike Beamish thank you so much for coming on today. I'm so excited as a new. Member of the BC lions army. I, we, we, I read. They converted from me, Edmonton, Alex. So thank you so much. First off, how are you doing today? Good. Thank you. Nice. Cool weather here for a change. As you have in Seattle long run. Hot weather. So it's kind of nice to get some school days for a change. And it's good to have you on. I appreciate the time. Another. CFL hall of fame, press member joining the ranks. Dan Ralph. And I believe Steve Simmons. Also been on, so. Have you, what have been your thoughts so far of the season this year, where we're getting in? Obviously we want to get into the BC lions ownership, but I would just like general thoughts on how everything's been going thus far. Well, I guess. The biggest thing is that they're actually uses season course. That is not new news. But to me last year was no season. And. And finally the lions and the rest of the CFL are actually playing. So they had their home opener last week. Because of COVID. In our, in the province of British Columbia. Mass gatherings are very limited. They limited it to 12 and a half thousand. Fans. I'm different than some other provinces. In Saskatchewan, for instance, they had 33,000 for their home opener. So, so just the fact that the, the team was actually playing, I guess, is the biggest news. And hard by that is of course. Ownership change last week as well. Yeah, really excited about that. Right. You know, we come on board that, you know, All in on the BC lions. Now we get a new from. From what I'm gathering and the reports and things I've read online, you know, younger for the CFL, you know, maybe a little more progressive thinking. Reactions first off to the big ownership announcement they made. It seems like it came out of the blue to a lot of people. Well, it did come out of the blue. I mean, David Brayley. The previous owner who passed away. Fortunately last. October. He's a Hamilton, Ontario businessman. And he he'd basically. Own the team for 25 years. It's not, you can go back to 2006, which is 15 years ago. When you first started talking about selling the team. So what's taken all this time, like 15 years. You basically want it to sell. That, when it got down to it, but no one was willing to pay, obviously. The amount that he was asking. So. The new owner. Mr. Goldman is. You know, a young. I mean relatively young compared to David Brailer. He's just over 50 David Breitling was well into his late seventies and he's a local owner. He's from Victoria, British Columbia, but yeah. She lives in Western Grover. And on top of all of that, he's a minority order. Fusion by heritage. So he's the first minority owner in the Canadian football league. And perhaps you you'll be able to tap into, we have a. Large. Ethnic population. Oh, a lot of Asians who are not really turned on. Football. So perhaps. He might. Be an entree into, into this market. And. And make it. The audience that's always the B-cell lines. Kind of more, more. Yeah, cause that's a. I know we talked about the two in Toronto, right? We have such a diverse population. They're trying to attract people to watch the games. A similar eman Couver, you know, just fighting a lot of different other interests, right. That we were talking to Seahawks before we recorded it. I mean, there's just a lot of other things to do in, in BC. Maybe then. Then attend and watch a CFL game. Yeah, well, one of the domain's first statements was that you wanted to change the fact that young people in downtown Vancouver. Who are wearing jerseys are wearing Seahawks jerseys and non VC lions jerseys. And I don't think it's star. Strictly a demographics thing, but it's been over the last 10 years, especially. It's the rise of the Seahawks under Pete Carroll. And. And the fact that the lions. Sometimes had some down seasons recently, there's been a huge shift. Towards watching NFL football. The CFL. Brand on television. The numbers are actually very good on television. It's just getting people into. Into the stadiums. That's the big issue in many of the same. Issues in Toronto, which is. The Canada's largest city are very prevalent in Vancouver, which is the second largest city. So some of the things, same reasons the Argos are struggling and drawn or the same reason the lions are struggling in this market. How important is it to have an owner now who is local, who is tapped into the local Vancouver market and to be engaged as he is seeming to be so far. Well, I think that the fact is that. As I say, the previous owner, David Brayley. Although his heart was in the right place. He actually lived in Hamilton, Ontario. So he really never really tapped into this market. As you said. And I think because Mr. Domin has grown up in British Columbia. As I said he was born in Victoria lives in west Vancouver. I think he's probably much more aware of where the lions. Sit in relation to other teams in, in the city. Especially the Vancouver Canucks, which dominate. Sports coverage. And the following in the city and surrounding areas. Is this a problem that is a fixable. Is this a course that we can reverse. Is this something that you know, or has it been so far in the other direction? Well, I think that's the $64 question, because I don't know whether it can be six, really? When you go to a BC lions. Game and generally speaking the audience. They do have family members of these games, but I would say predominantly they're all. There were. The following of the lions is 50 years and older. And. The younger people, which I have. Kids my children, their thirties. We're much more tapped into, I was a, for many, many years. BC lions beat reporter for the Vancouver sun. But even in my own household, People would be watching. Seahawks. Games and wouldn't necessarily, you're watching CFL games. So I think that's. As I say the $64 question, whether people are so far down the road with the NFL, but will never change, or whether you can bluer some of this interest back to the CFL. Is this interesting because you know, Seattle, even living here. You know, in the NFL games are so prohibitively expensive to go to. Right. And obviously you're going to watch this. ITV, but I would just think, you know, BC place, you know, we're going to that, we're booked to go to the Calgary. When the San Peter's coming October, we're going to go to the game up there and do a road trip, but it just seems like something that maybe is more fan. Approachable right. In terms of costs, in terms of accessibility, that was one of the things that appealed to IPO about the XFL was, you know, cheaper tickets. Then it would be the go to an NFL game. Yeah. I, I mean, It depends on which, I mean, definitely CFL games are cheaper than, than NFL. But still, I think for a lot of, we have, you know, as, as you're probably doing Seattle very high. Cost of living here. High cost of home ownership. I don't know if there is a lot of discretionary income, especially among young families to even go to a lions game. With parking and concessions. We're still talking. You know, a couple of hundred, $300, which is a lot of money for some families. You know, younger, single people of course are different, but then I think you have to, you. Use that traditionally make it cool. Right? It's not. Unfortunately, that's, that's a mindset that the lions have to face. As the people here, especially. A certain demographic, I'm just. Thinking under 40. Don't think it's cool to go to lions games. In fact, I think even 10% of the Seattle Seahawks see. And ticket holders come from Canada. So on a, on a day that the Seahawks are, are, are playing in Seattle. I mean, there's a huge lineup of cars heading. So. Two. You know, to go to the Seahawks games. So that. You might say the lines are better positioned. In terms of a certain demographic that can afford to go to NFL. But I don't know how you fight that mindset. I guess that's something we'll see. In the coming months and years. Is it when we're in, you know, downtown. Nearby the stadiums and stuff. Is there a lot of BC lions marketing? Is there a lot of, you know, what, what is the visibility like for the team and the franchise? Well, you don't see a lot in Brazil. I mean, they do have posters on, on buses. You see, especially out in the suburbs, you might see. Somebody wearing a BC lions hat. Jersey, but you won't. You won't see that downtown then sort of. Right. BC place stadium is. Is a big gum. Area of condos and young people. And, and basically where the lions draw from. Odor reaches like Surrey. Chillowak the Eastern suburbs. But they don't seem to attract a lot of people from their core base. Right. In Vancouver. So. I would say that's another area of the Alliance. You have to tap into. And the domain has said that they have to spend a lot more money. Just promoting the team and getting their brand and trademark out. [Unknown] now that you mentioned that, you know, when we were booking, you know, cause we were getting like our Airbnb and stuff down there. It is. I mean, it seems to me like it's a really hip downtown, right? There's a lot of things to do there. There's. I the science museum. I mean, it just seems like it's a, it's a very hip. Happening kind of downtown area that they would seem like a team would fit in really well there as part of the thing to do. Yeah, well, I guess you compare it and Seattle to maybe to Belltown, you know, it was probably a bigger area. In Vancouver, it's called Yale town. And if you're right, there's a lot of restaurants, a lot of people looking for diversions. Activities. And you would think that would be the demographic. Just cause it's right in their neighborhood. That would go to BC. The stadium, but it's not true. Like I say, they, they tend to draw from the. The outer reaches. From the suburbs. I saw early on, I guess it's been a week and a half now or whatever, since the announcement. They had asked Amar about potentially like relocating the stadium, right. Doing something more out in the suburbs. It seems like he shot that down pretty quick. Is that, is that a solution? Is that something that we should be looking into or is that too much money for fixing what would be, you know, Well, it's certainly true. Funny for the Canadian football league. Right. I. I mean, really? The BC place stadium where the white caps of MLS. And the lions and the CFL play. Is a, was. The government. Funding stadium. I mean, there's very little private money in there. And he did touch on that. Because the growth of Vancouver is to the ease to the suburbs. In the east. So, you know, probably having. A CVM further out. Would be, would, would be able to tap into that market, but I'm saying you're, you're talking. Hundreds of millions of dollars and. And certainly in the CFL, it's just, it's just not possible. So I think. BC place stadium for the foreseeable future and then the government. The provincial government and BC. 10 Years ago. Spend a massive amount of money renovating the stadium. With our retractable roof. So. I just don't see, unless it was a smaller. 20,025,000 Seat stadium. I would have more server rooms. I just don't see that happening anytime. Probably in my life. I know it's too early, obviously. To make assumptions about Mr. Domin and, and you know, how. How invested or how long term, whatever. But I've heard a lot and we've interviewed a lot of people that have said, you know, they, the community. Teams make a, you know, make. A little bit of money, right? Put a little bit aside, a lot of the private ownership teams. Basically lose money until they get tired of losing money. Right. And then sell it to another, sell it to someone else. I mean. Realistically. I mean, just obviously this is first blush and, and, you know, we can't make assumptions too much, but what are your thoughts about this new regime coming in now to BC? Well, I think one of the things is the previous owner to David. Who David. The team in 1996, when it went into receivership. And previous to that, one of the owners was bill Comrie. Who owns the brick? Furniture empire. But he was from Edmondson. So I think. The lions are already ahead. In the fact that they now have an owner who is. Is from this area. It was from British Columbia. So I think, as I said, there's, there's a lot of residual Goodwill. Because of the fact that armor. One is from this area. And, and, and I, I think he probably. He's a football fan, obviously. That's why he bought the team. He's. His business background is buying distressed companies and turning it into profit making companies. I don't think he's necessarily. Looking to meet gobs of money with the lions. I don't think that's possible, but he doesn't want to lose gobs of money either. So I think he he's doing this, I think partly is a sort of a civic minded jet gesture or labor of love because he likes football, but. It remains to be seen. I mean maybe if, you know, if he loses too much. Money over the years. Maybe he'll want to divest themselves from her team. Like previous owners. It is it's that, that curse sword where it's like, well, he's not going to make a ton of money, but you know, I mean, it is. It's just the most interesting thing to me where it's like relying on really the Goodwill of either of these, you know, and. The biggest thing they always say about, you know, people that have lots of money is they don't like to lose a lot of money. Right. And they like to be very cost conscious and I mean, You're we're expecting a tremendous amount of money, right. And effort to be needed to kind of rebuild the reputation right. Of the brand of the lions. Yeah. And what, like David Brayley. As I said the previous owner. Even though he probably lost money on the operation sometimes. The teams do here, they bid for the right to hold the great cup. And, and so he. Which is the championship game. Of course. Canadian football league. But. A lot of times they can make back no hands by hosting the team. They have all of the rights. To the stadium, to all of the ticket sales, through all of the ancillary events. So that is one way where you actually make money. Football. But I would say generally speaking the ideas. Try not to lose too much money. That's that's the biggest subject. When, of course. Community on teams, such as the Saskatchewan. Reference actually make money and they make a tremendous amount of money actually on their merchandising. I think only the Toronto maple Leafs. And the Montreal Canadians in Canada. Sell more merch. Than the Saskatchewan rough riders. I will say yes, I had purchased. It's in the room. Ah, interesting. It almost costs more than the hat to ship the hat. I know it's Canadian money. The exchange rate's a little off, but it is. It was. Very interesting to me that it was about double to ship the hat. But it was, you know, Bridges that. Well, of course it works, then it works the other way for us too. Right. When we're getting something shipped from the states, of course. That usually costs more, but. Not to knock out. The us postal service. I'm a big supporter of you. Moving forward. I think people feel optimistic. You know, I think we need a, what. Like in out here, we're going to get through this season. Right? I think our Mar kind of said that too, you know, let's ride this out. W w what are you expecting to see? What are you hoping to see? I guess, before we let you go. Well, the biggest thing. And then he he'll, he'll admit this too, is that. I mean, the team has to be competitive. I mean, if they, the previous season. 2019 Was, was a terrible season. On one, five of the team games. So I think they just basically have to keep their heads above water, be competitive. I mean, they don't necessarily have to win it all, but. They can't go into a losing spiral. So I think that's basically just, just get through the season. She'll show people that you're a competitive team. Start planning for the future. So, like I say, it's it's early days. Under this new administration. And it's early days, of course, for the lions, excuse me for the CFL season. So we'll just have to wait and see. With the future roles. Yeah. I am a little scared. We, we had our big pro Argos MOCAD Bethel Thompson episode two weeks ago, and then he got pulled. Pulled from the game. Halftime that we have after we did that episode. And then last week it was all in on the lions and then they lost immediately following our last. I don't know if we're a team on this, but I certainly hope that the lions. Fortunate improves over the rest of the CFL season. Yeah. Like I say, it's, it's kind of right on the fence a little bit here. Right? Could go either way. But, you know, hopefully it'll go upward and onward. Well, my goal or Mike, I really appreciate your time today and sadness. CFO news and yeah, I'm sure. Hopefully we can ping you back in the future when we kind of get some actionable stuff, but it is great to kind of just have interesting things to talk about outside. Obviously we love analyzing and breaking down the football, but I do love kind of the business aspect of it as well. So this is fascinating for me. Well, thank you for having me on your show Reed and best of luck with your show on the future. All right. Thanks again. Okay. Thank you. Bye. There you go. We. You did a good job. Thank you. I appreciate your time and everything. I'll put this together, but yeah, I, I interesting to track moving forward. Like I know it's so early. You know, in terms of like what's actually going to happen, but I do think it's worth, you know, 10, 15 minute conversation about it. Yeah, that's good. Well, thanks for you at any, any time, just give me a call and. All add, my 2 cents were again. Two or two or three, we appreciate it. Okay. Yeah, it's actually worth a cent. I guess. I'll send you a link tomorrow when it's out. Okay. Thanks a lot. Thank. Thank you have a good day.

Episode 54 - We’ll Do It Live!

We are here, Paul. I've I've done my best. Sorry, everyone. We're running a few minutes behind Paul. Thank you for working through the technical difficulties we were having. Oh, well, oh, well happy Thursday, Paul, are you ready for the Edmonton Elks, Lions kickoff tonight? I am not, but let's go. Go then. Anyway. Can we get a year before we start for the people in the chat? I know Jenna is out there waiting for a year. Sorry. Sorry. I can't give you here today. Paul is very frustrated with me right now, but we are doing our best. We are here. We are alive. Darren is standing by here and they meant it to come on. Paul, how is your day going before I ruined it with all our technical difficulties? Oh, it was hard, hard and long. And, and just, you know, just dealing with a lot of stuff. So yeah. Yeah. Work start stuff. And the usual usual. Well We, we are here today. We are ready to go. I Darren's hopping on a little bit of preface. People have been following online, Bob, can you hear me? Yeah. Yeah. I can hear you. You can. Okay. And that we've been following along online. My love of the Edmonton Elks is, is not going great right now. And so we have the funny thing is for my birthday this last two weeks ago our five-year-old nephew, William made me this wonderful Edmonton Elks, Christmas, or a birthday present. Can you see that Paul? And now, unfortunately, I'm probably going to have to destroy that as evidence of my Alex fan, then Paul, what do you think about that? I can't, I can't see that. That's a good, it's a good photo. Okay. We're going to bring on Darren now. Darren bombing standing by here before he's got to run out, let's pop him onto the stream. Let's see how that works. There we go. Darren, how are you doing tonight? Good. Glad to be on with you guys. I really Appreciate it. How has the CFL season going for you thus far? Yep. [inaudible] Her a heck of a lot of fun, right? I got, I got a crazy echo in my head headset, so it sounds like I'm hearing myself [inaudible], I'm used to these things, but, but it's all good. Good, good. Here we have, [inaudible] a Batman, a racing team wins the championship and some of your viewers out there that aren't aware, it was a great road here in Winnipeg and an eight 19. It was a tough pill for them to snap that drone and in it, and then took to shine off of that championship defending season. That would have been 2020. It was quite a celebration. You know, we don't want your in wondering what to pick. Yeah. So I have some notes here. I have the games going on. First off we have the, and I'm so sorry about the delay. I think Paula, that's kind of the, we were fighting through here trying to get on tonight. So I appreciate you working through that. I don't know if it's a stream yard issue for something else. Talk to me, what are we feeling about the Edmonton and lions game tonight? Yeah. So I know you have an affinity for the ALC and I like the picture that your nephew, but man, I need to see a heck of a lot more to get on. You know, a lot of people have them because this their [inaudible] team in 20, 20, 21, I don't see it. You know, I understand Jamie Elizondo and Trevor Harris had a whole lot, a lot of success when they were back a couple years ago. I just, I just see too many holes in this team lead, inability the early going of the season here to put exclamation points on, drives it into the end zone for touchdowns they're signaling field goals. I was obviously a CSN radio and Edmund today. And that's all people are talking about. You got, got lead leaders are among the lead leaders, James James, Walter junior rush rushing, and Trevor Harris throwing score points. So I liked this match up with the BC lions kind of lump them together as [inaudible] these two teams at this district, gaming them again. That's gotta be to be in a game when it comes, comes down to a short season and he start, start looking at schools for games, standing wins against division. Opponents are going to be extremely important. So we'll see what Mike Riley's got in the tank this week. Good, good starts. Of course we don't know, but [inaudible] lines have like Riley operating things segregated back. They got, we got a really good chance to win. I'd rather fix this echo here real quick. Standby. Yeah, There we go. Darren, can you still hear me? Yeah, I can. Oh, it's perfect. And Hang on. Cause I think I figured out all of this stuff and I know why. Well, as long as the people out there, you hear me there now. I can't hear you. Oh, is that right? I'm not sure why. Yeah. Test one, two. I got levels. I'm okay. Here. Paul, Can you hear me now? I'm I'm working around that. We're trying to check this out. Live in a live on person. I can hear you. You can hear me. You guys still can't hear me though. I can hear you, Darren. Okay. That's good. I don't have an echo in here. I have a broken everything. I don't have an echo either, So I fixed it. But now no one can hear me or I can't hear anyone. I can't hear Darren. You can't hear me now. I can hear you, Paul. Okay. Paul, you tell, read everything I say, okay, Let me go ahead and put, let me go and put Reed on blast here, like real quick, real quick. So we had a system in place that wasn't the best system, right? And I admit this it was getting that little wine. Everybody's complaining about it. Trust me. I was complaining about it till we tried a new system today and I was hearing an echo. I was hearing myself. I'm not hearing myself right now. Thank heavens. I'm not hearing myself, but I can hear Darren and I can hear Reed, but Reed can hear Darren. So I guess I'm just going to be like the interpreter for the show. This is what we're going to do today there. And how are you doing? I'm good. I'm good. I was just complimenting Paul's New Jersey devils. T-Shirts a lot of good Canadian boys. Couple of Winnipeggers who've played for that team. Manitobans as well. So kudos to that. I've been a fan since I was 95 and a freed. Can't hear he's talking about the New Jersey devil stuff right now. If you can't hear Darren, that's what he's complimenting me on. My New Jersey devils were my second backup team is the Vegas golden Knights. I was kind of disappointed to see you know, them get bounced out this year, but I appreciate the company been a fan of the devil since 1993 and Marty Broder guy. I bet a lot on the ball. I'm on my wall, on my wall, autograph, Marty board, Jersey on, and then my Scott Stevens puck over here. Oh, so it's just you and me right now. A new territory for me. Sorry about all the technical issues. All good, man. Hey, You know what that, you know what the good thing is, Paul? That's the beauty of sports. You can talk to anybody like passionately and at length and have a great conversation like the ultimate equalizer in social culture. So, you know, you're a big football fan. I'm a big football fan. We're north Americans talking football across the 48th parallel. Let's have that. Let's Do that. So would that being said, we're going to break down the games this weekend. Reid's going to get his technical stuff figured out. I had some technical issues. I've seen a fixed mind. Reed's gonna fix his, we're gonna get this back on. We're going to get this back on the road. Let's talk about this weekend. What do you, what do you, who are you liking? Who are you seeing? What are you looking forward to? Let's go for the first game. That's tonight lions versus Elks. Yeah. Like, you know, like I was mentioning, I'm not too crazy about the Elks. The BC lions are an interesting team to me. You know, they, they went through a lot of you know, rollercoaster and, and it was tumultuous there for, for a few years, following the retirement of legendary head coach and general manager and the CFL Wally Bano. And when he stepped away and you know, they decided to move on and give Devon Claybrook a very accomplished defensive coordinator with the Calgary Stampeders an opportunity for his first head coaching job. A lot of people thought, okay, here we go. We got a really strong defensive mind. They go and sign Mike Riley. Okay. Now they've got, you know, maybe the best quarterback at the time in the CFL. They went and spent a ton of money and bolstered the offensive line and added players on defense and Devon clay Brooks brought on a ton of young, vibrant coaches and it just didn't work. They just didn't work out. So, you know, that they've decided to move on. And their general manager obviously moved on as well in a ed Harvey. And you bring in who I think is you know, a very strong football mind in coach Campbell and his father, legendary coach in the CFL as well. You know, he was a great cup champion with a real upstart team and the expansion Ottawa red Black's just a few years earlier. So you give him an opportunity with some talent and you know, kind of a new direction for this BC lions team. Of course, yesterday announced they got new ownership as well, which is a fantastic thing. David Brayley, long time supporter of the CFL owned multiple franchises here in Canada through the years he passed on. And his estate and family was set up to ensure that it was left in good hands in his wake. And you know, now they've, they've got a new owner, so you've, you've got a fan base there in BC who I think is just laying dormant. They're ready to come back to the CFL. And when the national hockey league, which obviously is fervent across Canada, but definitely in the lower mainland of BC when they were on strike. And there was, you know, work stoppages and, and hold outs and all of that, the BC lions thrived people, loved the product. They had a winner. They won great cops and, and knocked off some American teams during that expansion in the nineties. And I'm sure people in BC and their new owner are hoping to bring back that heyday. I think they have the right pieces in place to be a team. You know, that we will be talking about as, as a strong one in the CFL for years to come. And, and for that very reason, you know, Reed hopped from, he was, he was an Elks fan. He was supporting the Elks and he went ahead and I think he switched his allegiances to BC. So this is kind of the, the Reed Johnson game. And he's joining us again. Hopefully the audio audio issues have worked out for him. Like they've worked out for me. Yeah. I, I figured out all This stuff. So I think we should be good though. Awesome. Can you hear me? I can't. Thank you, Darren. So we'll get through this. I know I'm very, very Exciting for the announcement of the BC ownership yesterday. I was very thrilled about that. I think it's a really good look at how, what have you heard about reactions from fans and everybody about all the excitement from yesterday? It seems like a really big day for BC. Yeah, it absolutely is. And, you know, touching on a lot of the points I just mentioned, I think having somebody who's invested in the community of BC and Vancouver in Canada, somebody that has business and personal ties to the community is important. And, you know, I was really not surprised, but when, when David Braylee passed on and, you know, it was reported and revealed that his estate was set up to ensure that the BC lions would be in good hands and, and taken care of financially and, you know, through stewardship you know, following his passing was, I think, you know, for a lot of people in BC, a lot of people in the CFL, a really reassuring thing. So this is a positive thing, you know our our, the Calgary Stampeders next for new ownership, possibly they're owned by the same corporation that owns the Calgary flames and, and other you know, major sports franchises in Calgary. So, you know, that's a possibility we saw new ownership in Montreal recently auto, obviously Ottawa joining the league several years ago now. And you know, a lot of new ownership, a lot of investments in the CFL and, and while 2019 was a year of, you know, things went smoothly, it was pre pandemic, right? There was a real financial strain on the CFL. It says a lot that people are still willing to invest and own and run successful franchises in this league. There's something there, business minds are smart enough to know that you don't go throwing good money at bad. And you know, in the, in the tens and tens of millions of dollars on an investment you don't think is going to pan out. So very positive indication. And you know, we'll see maybe some of these other franchises are close behind, we'll see investment. And to add to, you know, some of the, the beautiful facilities that have adorned our country here in Canada you know with CFL the stadiums over the last few seasons. Very cool. Let's move on to the other three games. I know you're, you're on a tight schedule, so let's get you Out. You know, what guys that time, if you want me to hang out, I can hang out. For everyone out there. I work with the junior football team here in Winnipeg, the rifles, they have not played in nearly two years. It's the Canadian junior football league and the Prairie football conference and training camp has been crazy. They've got 150 kids out there. These are aged post high school, 18 to 21, 22. And they paired it down. We got a game on Sunday. I do their play by play with my broadcast partners. Chris will be in Troy Westwood to a blue bombers hall of Famers and legendary players in the CFL. We have a heck of a lot of fun but today is just not a good day for me to go down there and interview the coach and get something up on their YouTube page. I'm going to do it tomorrow before the Montreal Calgary game, obviously being a Winnipeg reporter. I want to watch that Calgary game extremely closely. They're going to be in Winnipeg in just over a week. Well, And to that point, we have a shortened season Calgary's already down, you know, oh and two on the season bowl leave. I Mitchell's out for six weeks. This is, this is already getting dire for Calgary this early in the season. Yeah, absolutely. I think 2019 was interesting in watching the ups and downs of believer. I Mitchell. It was a shoulder injury that really nagged him throughout the season. And you could tell he was not playing to his level for people that are new to watching the CFL. I know many of your viewers are not all of them, but some bowl had been dominant in the CFL like surgical precision just dicing up defenses. It helps when you have a quarterback has general manager, John Hufnagel, a lot of people will remember that name. You know, during his time in the NCAA and in American football, Dave Dickinson hall of Famer at the university of Wyoming and a excellent quarterback in the CFL here, as well as his head coach. Calgary just seems to be a quarterback factory, but when bowl Levi Mitchell moved from third string to second string to first string with the Stan Peters, they were lights out. And, you know, I mentioned Davon clay Brooks, before moving on to coach the BC lions for a season, he had one of the best defenses I can remember in my 10 plus years covering the CFL as, as a journalist. So they were tough to beat. They ultimately, you know got knocked off in the grey cup a couple of times by surprise by the red blacks, by the Toronto Argonauts, both of those teams were right around 500 during the regular season. Bo just couldn't seem to get the job done when it really mattered, but he put up a whack load of yards. He was mop and amongst the, the finalists for that every single season, and then with a shoulder injury in 2019 now a broken leg in 2021. And that he was playing through that broken leg suffered in week one, played through it in week two through a career high for interceptions last week. That was a tough loss, you know, 15 to nine, not a traditional CFL score, especially when you got Bo going up against Mike Riley last week and in that VC lions win. So something was wrong. I even tweeted it like he does not look like himself, something's wrong. And, and there was a few days later announced broken fibula in his leg. And well, you hope for the best for Beau and you hope for the best for his recovery, because when he is healthy, he is lights out and, and just a heck of a lot of fun to watch. What Did we think about the decision to start Jake mayor and not Michael Michael Connor? Cause I was listening to rod today and even on Rob Peterson show, they're like, what's his name? Wait, Jake, like what what's going on? Well, The thing about the CFL, right? You, you get Canadian quarterbacks are relatively rare. We've seen it happen over the last few years, but it's generally an American position. You guys got nearly 400 million people in the U S we have under 40 million. We're about the size of California as an entire state here in Canada. So a lot of kids are playing basketball. It's a huge sport here in Canada, hockey, of course. So that football development, maybe isn't at the same mass as it is in the United States. So at the most important position where you gotta be athletic and smart and the most talented athlete on the field and on your team, while in Canada, often those players end up being a hockey player, ended up being a basketball player, ended up being you know, a track athlete or whatever. So you know, those Canadian quarterbacks are happening more often. But it has kind of been few and far between here in Canada, when they do emerge, they're really good players. And, you know, we've seen Brad synopsis turned into a most outstanding Canadian in the CFL as a receiver after playing a few years with the Calgary Stampeders at quarterback. So, you know, you're going to have young quarterbacks have to step in when your number one goes down, the way the salary cap and structure is in the CFL. You want to pay your quarterback like a bowl Levi or a Mike Riley or Zach Klarus. You want to pay them $500,000. Plus in that range, Mike Riley, upwards of seven 50, you can't afford to have another veteran, you know, making hundreds of thousands of dollars behind him. So you're going to have young guys. And I was a little bit surprised, you know, Michael O'Connor has been in the CFL for a longer period of time. Jake Meyer brand new this year and head coach Dave Dickinson saying it was a, you know, a really tight quarterback battle in camp, a competition between those two. They liked the bigger bodied Michael O'Connor in the short yardage package. That's why he's been listed as the number two through the first two weeks of the season on, on the Peter's depth chart. But now they need a quarterback. They need a guy who's going to run the offense as effectively as possible. And Dickinson plainly stated that Jake Meyer had a better week of practice. So, you know, you also said he's going to give them a long leash. So when you're a young quarterback and you're used to playing 11 man football in the U S four downs you know, one safety, no, you know, dime back or strong side linebacker, in addition to a safety that extra defender on the field, that extra receiver, it's a lot of new concepts. It's a, it's a real comfort level that young quarterbacks need to get into. So if Jake Meyer makes some mistakes tomorrow night against you know, a pretty talented Montreal lox defensive, secondary and defensive front you know, we're, we're probably gonna see him stay in the game. I sure hope we get a chance to see Michael O'Connor before he was at UBC university of British Columbia. He was at Penn state, big body quarterback, big arms smart. I watched him with the university of British Columbia Thunderbirds. And when he joined that team for one season, they wrote it all the way to a national championship. He really has a great skill set and a, I think, a bright future in the CFL if given the opportunity. Yeah. It just seems like it kind of came out of nowhere. I mean, I watched the outlets last week. I mean, they were vicious on defense, right. I mean, I was, it felt to me kind of like watching the Buccaneers, right? Like this vicious defensive tackle coming in. I mean, I fear for them. I fear for the stand Peters. I don't really know what this game looks like tomorrow night. Well, that's What everybody's kind of wondering, like sure. The Elks are R O and two, and the Stan Peters are owned too. So football fans in Alberta, aren't feeling very good right now. That's not normally over the last 5, 7, 9 years. Not the way things have gone in Alberta. They've always been teams amongst you know, the power ranking conversations going in and coming out of every season. The Stampeders are kind of, you know, people talk about them as the new England Patriots of the CFL. They're rock solid, special teams, Canadian talent, offense, and defense coaching, great general manager you know under John, John Hufnagel and great drafting, they seem to find diamonds in the rough, in the second, third and fourth rounds that ended up being starters a matter of months later, or maybe a season later. And a couple of years later there, you know, all Canadian or you know, finding themselves on, on a division all-star ballots. So to see them start on two and up against a tough Montreal team in week three, a little bit surprising, no doubt. But if you've watched the Stan Peters and Dave Dickinson and his team play and be coached by them over the last number of years, you're kind of just waiting for you know, everything to come together. It's hard to write them off. Despite I know when to start his first Montreal, like the gift and the curse that is a weak one by, and the uniqueness says that is that obviously in the CFL, the gift being an extra week of training camp after all of this time off more time to evaluate, evaluate your young rookies and a new players in your system, but then the curse being well, one of your buyers is gone and now you've got to play a 14 game season with just one buy while everyone else gets to. So we'll see how that works for Montreal in the you know, the latter parts of the season, the bulk of the season, we'll see all their health holds up through that, but Kahari Jones, in my opinion, is a fantastic leader of men. We watched him closely here in Winnipeg. He was you know, an mop caliber quarterback for the blue bombers in the early two thousands. You just watch the way his team plays and the way they seem to play for him, really motivated group tons of energy. And then you have somebody who's as electric as Vernon Adams Jr. Now with some experience in the CFL to, to find himself and find his game, I think the Montreal lox or a team that people are going to be watching closely, maybe be surprised by by being a pretty good football club, as we see these games go on. Yeah. At frozen Delta records asked in the chat, you know, women can't remember the last time Calgary and Edmonton was started at and too, I think mark, Mark Wright covers the Calgary mark on, I think is things like mark on Twitter, mark on Instagram, one of the reporters, I think he said it was like 62 or something was the last time that it says 60. Oh, there you go. So, I mean, it's, it's something it's pretty remarkable. So, well, Th th this is the beauty of the CFL, right? We've seen teams start terribly, you know, the BC lions you know, just a handful of years ago, started the season, opened five, then went on to win the grey cup. So, you know when you have a 19 league and eight of them make the playoffs, anything could happen in the playoffs, like what happened to the Winnipeg blue bombers? They were the three seed coming out of the regular season in 2019 sack Clara steps in acquired at the trade deadline. He added such a dynamic throwing threats to the office, a great run game, a great physical offensive line that they still have, and an employee big win to wrap the regular season at home against the Stampeders Peters. They go on the road, knock off the stamps in McMahon are really tough place to play in cold weather. And in the playoffs go into Regina knockoff the Saskatchewan Roughriders in an absolute Nailbiter slobber knocker game that saw a little bit of everything from wild. You know, once in a seasoned special teams play to you know, the final moments dropped interceptions, easy interceptions and you know, Cody for Gerardo hitting the upright on a, what I thought would have been an easy touchdown for sure touchdown pass I believe it was to Kyron more so that led the blue bombers to the gray cup and, and a team that had struggled defensively, especially against the past all season long, just flip, flip the switch in November 14 points against 13 points against 12 points against in each of their respective playoff games. It just all came together in a magical run. And again, you know, if you're single game sports better or a fantasy player or that sort of thing, I think that's why people fall in love with this league. You never know what you're going to get until you see the game. And from week to week, it can change so drastically. And then in the end, literally the end of the last two, three minutes of a game with the way the clock is set up, you can never knock it. You know, we never count a team out. There's no you know, just burning the clock off and you know running the football up the gut to, to kill it at the end of the game. That's a good point. That's an advantage of the three down football is that you don't have the extra down to run that play clock down. You've brought up. You brought up an interesting point. Well, honestly, like I, I'm a huge football fan. I'll watch NCAA, I'll watch the NFL, like, love it in, in, in tons of fantasy leagues with my buddies Monday night, Thursday night, Sunday afternoon, I'm locked into red zone. You know, I love it. That's, that's the way I was kinda, you know born and raised, but when it comes to the way the game is constructed, the rules, the play clock you know, the way they want the flow of the game to go, as far as the, the way the game is constructed through the rules, I truly believe. And, and, you know, is, is it bias because I'm Canadian maybe, but I watched the NFL game and I watched the CFL game and I really do appreciate them each for what they are. If the NFL played the CFLs rules, It's never gonna happen. But if it did, I believe that would be the greatest sporting construction of all time. Like if you have those athletes and those coaches and those facilities and that broadcast network that they have of all the American you know, media and all of that, and, and the level of quarterbacking and the level of athleticism and the level of talent and all of it. And, and 32 teams playing that three down brand again, I think it would literally knock the world socks off. But you know, that that's just for me in my daydreams Moving on to the last two, I don't want to hold you forever. I know you're being nice with your time here. No worries. So we've got, you know, blue bombers, right? Weird rematch. Double-Header we just saw it last week. We had our big, we stand McCloud, Bethel Thompson episode. We called him the king of the CFL. He came in didn't, didn't, didn't really work out the way that we wanted. So you know, we got, Nick are buckled now, how are we feeling about, you know, the Argos going in here? One-On-One Yeah. I'm curious to see what the Argos punched back with. You know, their all fence looked atrocious in week two and, you know, McLeod, Bethel Thompson, you know, you call them the king of the CFL early in the season. I call them the law firm of McLeod, Bethel, and Thompson. But MBT, you know, throw for 354 yards in Calgary and week one, though, that was impressive. And I think a lot of people were expecting them to continue that against a rookie Laden, blue bombers, defensive secondary. They started two rookies at halfback in corner in week one, Deandre Alford and Dietrich Nichols who led the XFL with three interceptions in their shortened 20, 20 season. And then Josh Miller starts week two at the other corner spot because they got an injury at the dime back and had to move Mike Jones down to the box. They couldn't throw, they, you know, outside of John whites ripping off some big chunk plays in that first half McCloud, Bethel Thompson couldn't get any continuity going, going, couldn't get any flow going. And I wasn't surprised to see Nick Arbuckle coming to that game. I was maybe surprised it took to the latter parts of the third quarter, but he came in completed his first six passes attempted and, you know, orchestrated a, a touchdown drive and, and got them on the board if I want to pick responded to that well, and, and did a good job shutting them down. What I do know is that while Winnipeg might be young on the backend, it's that really ferocious and dangerous defensive front six, that they have, you know, led by the Jeff's Willie, Jefferson, who for my dollars and cents is the best player quarterback or otherwise in the CFL today. Jackson, Jeff coach, the other Jeff and, and some really good players in the middle and, and Adam big hill and an extremely veteran and talented and smart leading linebacker in Winnipeg's defensive front, the pressure that they put on opposing offenses, the, the discomfort that they put opposing offenses in, I think has really helped that backend. That's what Jordan younger, the blue bombers defensive backs coach told me this week, and I'm no surprise there. So if Toronto wants to find success on Saturday afternoon against the Winnipeg blue bombers, they're gonna have to continue to run the football. But th you know, Nick Arbuckle is gonna have to find a way to be more balanced or, or balance out what McLeod, Bethel Thompson maybe wasn't able to do. And then defensively, they did a great job stopping very impressive blue bombers run attack. They've been impressive for years now. Andrew Harris led the CFL in each of the last three seasons in rushing you know, for the season week one, he's still injured and Brady all Avera, his understudy steps in goes 22 carries for 126 yards. And you know, through, in a couple dozen receiving yards as well, week two only 2.2 yards per carry against the Argos. So continue to stuff that run it's tough with how accurate Zach Klarus is. You look at those two touchdowns, he threw against the Argos. You know, in that first game here in Winnipeg, you couldn't have thrown them better or more accurately good coverage didn't matter, put them right pinpoint on the money on Rashid Bailey's hands and Nick [inaudible] hands. So find a way to, you know, increase the pressure on Zach. Clarus contain him for a player that's a, you know, had fair share of injuries through CFL career. He looks as good as he ever has. And you know, extending plays just breaking out of the pocket, allowing you know, his receivers to continue to fight, to get open and enrolling out and, and making things happen with his legs and his arm. It's tough right now, but, but that's what the Toronto Argonauts are gonna have to do. Get Zach colorless off of his out of his comfort zone. And definitely continued to stop the run because while Winnipeg didn't run it effectively in that first game against Toronto, they are absolutely going to continue to stuff it down the Argonauts throat, whether it's two yards of carry or six yards of carry they're going to run the football. Alright. The final game, the final game we got on our, on our list here, the red blacks taking on the rough riders This game. Oh boy. How is, what do you guys think? What do you see in the Ottawa red plaques? I saw them really not wanting to hear the pundents right. They were saying, we don't care that we're number. You know, we don't, you know, it is weird that they're ranked ninth, they have a win, you know, they, they have more wins than the Elks, right. In the stamps. I see some defense there, but I mean, the rough riders ran roughshod over Hamilton last week. I mean, that was, that was not a pretty game for them. So I do not feel good for Ottawa. I, I think if we're looking at an upset, I would see the Elks potentially over the lions before we saw the red blocks Over the Roughriders. Yeah. What's that spread out right now? I think it was nine and a half, 10 and a half. It was like 10, 11, 11, and a half, half. It keeps going up now. Here's the thing when it comes to betting lines, right? W we know that's not what they, you know, the, the experts in Vegas or wherever they are. It's not what they expect to happen in the game. It's how they think they can get the most people to bet on the game. And a reality is the most invested fervent fan base in Canada, hands down is in Saskatchewan. It's, you know, one of the least populated provinces, but if you live there, if you're one of the 1 million people that live, there are seven, 800,000 people that live there, you have something green in your closet, you have a, you know, a, a rough riders, emblazoned logo on your barbecue. It's just part of the culture there. So when it, when it comes to setting lines on rough rider games, I see them as a little bit more slanted than the rest, because it doesn't matter if it's Cody for Gerardo, for mop or the riders to be an early season in gray cup. Favorite those odds makers know that they're going to get a lot of action out of Saskatchewan. So they tend to slant those lines to the rough riders that said, I think it's going to be all rough riders in, in that second game of the, or it was that game on Sunday. No, that games, the second of the double header. Okay. Lots of couch action on Sunday or on Saturday, but I don't see how Ottawa is going to be able to you know, just, just be able to compete. Saskatchewan is so deep in all three phases, Jason Moss was a heck of a quarterback. His playing days in the CFL was a, you know, extremely strong, offensive mind as an offensive coordinator with Toronto and Edmondson. And then as a head coach in Edmonton, when he joined the Saskatchewan Roughriders as their offensive coordinator, and he has a dual threat quarterback and Cody for Gerardo who can make it happen with his arm and his legs. I think he had 600 brushing herds back in 2019. I was just like, wow, look out like this is going to be an extremely dangerous offense. They run the ball. Well, they have talent on the offensive line. I know they're maybe not as deep coming into the season as they had hoped Brendan Labatt, a perennial all-star offensive lineman and Canadian decided not to play this year because of personal reasons related to vaccines and, and, and you know, COVID protocol and that sort of thing. Hasn't closed the door on, on coming you know out of this semi 20, 21 retirement. But it would just be adding more talents to an extremely you know, wealthy, a mass that they have of players in Saskatchewan, Jason shavers, fantastic defensive coordinator, great Playmakers. And in Nick Marshall and NCAA quarterback, who's, you know, for my money one of the best cover corners in the CFL today just shows the level of athleticism that he has good line backing despite losing players to the NFL and, and to CFL free agency. I think the, the rough riders are absolutely going to roll Ottawa, some good, special teams, some Playmakers on defense, well, deep, you know, players on defense are gonna make plays if they're on the field all the time. And that's what Abdul Kenay has been able to do. They just keep, you know, attacking this defense and he, you know, is gonna find a way to, to get his hands on the football. So yeah, it'll be an interesting game to watch, but I have a feeling you know, people might be might be looking at the second half line in this game and, and maybe that's a one that they can put a little extra In the chat. Of course there's the one team that has the bi-week this weekend. They are the Hamilton tire cats in the chat, all that Senaida, hopefully I'm getting it right. Asks you if you think the bi-week is going to help the Ty cats get back on track. Well, It, it, it should, you know, very surprising start to the season for the Thai cats, but you know, that they've also had a pretty tough schedule having to go into the Saskatchewan. You'll look at them, you know, have to go into Winnipeg, great cup rematch, and, and you know, how fired up that team was to play that first game of the CFL season and back in front of a, you know, a real capacity crowd. It was the first major sporting event in Canada that had tens of thousands of fans. You know, the Montreal Canadians in the national hockey league. They had a playoff game with two, 3000 fans, that sort of thing, but there was 30,000 fans in Winnipeg. And that was the first for Canada you know, since the pandemic. So that's a tough atmosphere to step into, especially after they, you know, raise the, the great cup championship banner and the fans are all fired up and, and Winnipeg really tough team to beat at home. You go into Saskatchewan, again, a very difficult place to play and how good Saskatchewan is, but the concern is scoring six points, a non-converted touchdown against the bombers on their first possession of the season. And then just scoring eight points against the rough riders in week two it's it's offensive really that the Hamilton tiger cats were maybe strongest in 2019 great special teams, you know, probably had, or did have the, you know, most outstanding special teams player, Frankie Williams in 2019 great special teams coordinator. One of the true greats over the last number of years here in, in the CFL and Jeff Reinbold rock solid coaching and, and coordinators across the board and a very young, innovative, smart coach in Orlando, Steinhauer running things and they have two good quarterbacks like Dana Evans and Jeremiah Mazola. You talk about it, you know you know, just ridiculous level of riches. It's tough for them because, you know, they, they did have some injuries, you know, two of their top receivers starting the season on the six game injured list, but they still have the braining league mop and Brandon Banks and Jalen Acklin and some other guys that are able to make things happen. When Jeremiah Mazzoli is on his game. And I don't think he's anywhere, there's been a lot of talk in Hamilton and across the league of, of is he going to lose his job because you have somebody that brought them all the way to the great cup in Dane Evans right there. But I don't think Jeremiah Mazzoli is going to lose his job. It's going to take a heck of a lot more bad football out of him and out of this team you know, for that to happen. So maybe the bi-week will help them reset, but again, you know, as I was kinda mentioning earlier, it's the CFL, they play in a bit of a weaker east division. So they got two tough Western opponents out of the way, who do they got next week? They're in Montreal, that's another tough game. So you know, maybe they're going to be able to, to figure it out. But the, the schedule this year in the CFL is absolutely crazy and wild. You guys touched on it earlier, like back-to-back, wouldn't pick us Toronto twice. They have Saskatchewan twice as they always do. You know, through the labor day weekend here, a different labor day in Canada, of course Edmonton twice Montreal, twice in October and November respectively and all of those, back-to-back, it's goofy. It's weird. The bombers don't play the red blacks this year. They're former starting quarterback and offensive coordinator are now running things in Ottawa. We don't even get to see them against the blue bombers this year. It's, it's kind of disappointing, but you know, all in all, we're just happy where we got games to play and hopefully a GRI cup on December wealth And us XFL fans are glad to have some sort of spring football going on right now, filling the void where we didn't get our league this year. So we're, we're glad to be here. We're glad to be learning the Canadian game. And it's, it's great to have people like you come on here and educate us dirty Americans, as someone said, well, Hey, we apologize a lot, right. What's the other stereotype we're welcoming. You know, we, we've always been a welcoming culture and I know I've watched your guys' YouTube a lot. And, and all of the media members you know, from national level to local level that you guys have had on, it's pretty great to see you reach out to them to see them you know, come on and talk the game. Commissioner Randy Ambrozy since taking over he's another Winnipeg native and former CFL player himself when he took over guys, like it was all about growing the CFL outside of our borders. And, you know, some of the things I touched on about, you know, how great the game is and unique and innovative and different. And if you're like a real sports, you know, nerd or sports addict or sports file, it's a, it's a game you can really sink your teeth into like the Canadian ratio and, and you know, the, the, the uniqueness of the special teams and the 12 men and the different rules and the, the two divisions and the small league, like it's fun. It's a heck of a lot of fun. And even, even my friends here in Canada that are like big NFL guys are like, they'll go down and, you know, watch a U N D R a N D S U North Dakota state university, like absolutely dominates FCS football and, and, and like taking in those games, they drive down to Iowa or, you know, take in Northwestern games, they'll drive to, to Illinois, that sort of thing, Kansas, a lot straight shot here from Winnipeg, 12 hours down the [inaudible] they don't like the CFL or they, they, they're not sure about the CFL. And then they watch, like, they actually sit down and watch the game, not just like watch highlights on sports center, they watch the game and they're like, Oh, that's into, why did that happen? Well, what, oh, that's Kind of different. Oh, that's neat. I like that. And it takes some time, but when they see it and they start to, you know, apps you know absorb the nuances of this unique brand of football, they tend to really like it and, and some fall in love. So for Americans like yourself, or whomever is out there across the globe, watching on YouTube you know, to, to be interested even just to, to click on a video and, and watch somebody talk about it, I invite you to to watch the game. It's a, it's a heck of a lot of fun to cover a heck of a lot of fun to talk about. And for my dollar, maybe the most fun to watch. I'd like to say, I have heard nothing, but, you know, we've interviewed some of the brightest and smartest minds of the CFL, including you about, you know, the CFL. We've heard a lot about the global expansion from commissioner Ambrozy. I would like to think that we have done more to bring the American game to the CFL in the last year, then the global expansion, but that that's just me. No, I, I tweeted that this week and we were going to get into it in the bulk of the show later. You know, and you've been so gracious with your time. Thank you that, you know, if it wasn't for the CFL plane, and I know this year we're playing late. Right. You know, we started late, but this, this very much fills my need of an alternative that football league. Right. I don't want it to be like the XFL Haider now, right now, I'm going to get on the other side and I'm going to be like the anti XFL guy, but this, to me, the athleticism and the stories. Right. And the players working through everything is what I liked about the XFL. Right. You know, some unique rules, a little bit different, but, you know, if the XFL never came back, I, I really think we would be okay. And I would really encourage a lot of you know, our listeners and people that are, you know, wait, like every day, checking the XFL website. I would spend some time watching the CFL game and said, that's just me. Well, let Me ask you guys a question. Cause I'm, I'm genuinely curious about this. And I talked to some Americans you know, my, my sister lived down in the states for a number of years and got a chance to, to, to meet and talk with you know, some American sports fans. But I'm really curious for you guys and, and the people that, you know, and, and watch alternative football with, what is the appeal? Is it just, you know, you want more football in your life. You want to watch football 12 months of the year. What is the appeal of, of the XFL or the CFL or, or those sorts of leagues instead of just being all NFL all the time, because you can watch NFL network 12 months A year. You can, You can. And I think, I think the NFL, you know, has a reputation for being the no fun league and a lot of these, all, a lot of these leagues, like they're doing, you know, for example, you know, like the, the XFL in when it was going again, they were doing sideline reports, like what the players, as soon as they got off the field, just a lot of stuff to bring the fans in that I don't think NFL does as well with bringing in the fans in, and, and looking at the games, looking at the attendance, looking at the CFL crowds and stuff like that. It is clear that there is, there's a lot of fan involvement with CFL teams and their fans. So I think that, that, that definitely is a motivating factor for me, for, for any league to care about its fans, the way it seems like the XFL NCFL do. Yeah. That's Interesting. I wonder if the XFL is going to be similar to the CFL in well, like obviously broadcast dollars are a huge part of it. If you get, you know, a C CBS or an ESPN or an ABC involved, and the advertising dollars in the us and globally factor in, you know, selling those tickets, those regular ducats for, you know, you and your buddy to go to the game or a father and son, or mother and daughter to go to the game, that sort of thing. If, if that's less important, where's the, where's the drive for these organizations, these leagues, these teams, to ensure that you know, the fan is kept in mind, you can be innovative. Like, I love some of the things the XFL did. Like I love most of the things the XFL did, the you know, the, being able to hear the video review person in the booth that official, that sort of thing you know, having more interaction between, I'm sure it drove the teams and the coaches nuts, but having those end game interviews with players and that sort of thing brings the, you know, the viewer at home and the fan a little bit closer to, while it might often be cliche a little bit closer to, you know the mindset of these athletes and the coaches during the game. But you know, in the CFL, you see them doing things with the fan in mind, because they know without the fan in the stands, buying a Jersey, buying a soda or a beer at the game that the business model isn't going to work. So it's accessibility to the players through social media. I think that's been a huge boon for every team in the CFL and, and all those individual players that, Hey, let's, let's be real. Aren't making millions and millions of dollars and then just can go home. Oh, Pepsi's on the phone, let's do a commercial. It's, it's more like, oh, I got to know that, you know, that fan that owns a car dealership. Well, he'll give me a car and I'll, you know, I'll you know, he'll put my name on the side and I'll drive that car during the season and I'll run into fans at the grocery store and tell her, Hey, go, go see Jim and, and buy a Nissan or whatever. It's much more closely connected. And I think that's a reason why the fan and the business is more in sync with one another, if that's the right way to put it compared to, you know, that big money, that big broadcast that is the NFL, No, the NFL teams are corporations. And it seems like these, these teams are just part of the community. That's, that's a big difference. Well, you've got three or four teams that are literally owned by the community, like here in Winnipeg, it's a not-for-profit corporation and they have a publicly elected board of directors. And they have a, you know, a president that is essentially the CEO and he runs the team Wade Miller, former CFL player. And one of the all time leading special teams, tacklers actually extremely successful businessman took over the blue bombers as president and CEO, and has done a very good job in stabilizing the business in one of the stronger markets here in Winnipeg across the CFL. But you have other teams like Saskatchewan and Edmonton that are similarly run, not for profit public entities. And you know, in tough times it can be a tough pill to swallow for a lot of voters when it comes to sometimes millions of dollars to keep a team afloat when it comes out of the taxpayers' pocket other teams are owned by billionaires, you know, the Hamilton tiger cats the BC lions the Calgary Stampeders, as I mentioned, a little bit earlier owned by, you know, a corporation that runs multiple professional sports organizations you kind of have a little bit of everything that might be one of the challenges being a commissioner in the CFL would bring, is that not everybody is on that same level, not everybody's just an owner running their franchise as a business. Conversely you have the XFL, if my understanding's correct guys, and I'm sure you'll correct me. I hope you do. Is that you have team appointed presidents by the league and the league essentially runs, so you don't have individual owners saying we don't want to do this or have a vote swing one way or the other, because 10 or 15 owners, you know, don't like a league initiative and that sort of thing. Yeah. I think also just with the XFL and like the CFL just more affordable, right? I mean, that's always been the thing with the NFL and being able, you know, we sat, we were front row 50 yard line at century link for like 60 bucks a game or whatever. I mean, I couldn't imagine, you know, the thousands of dollars that would cost to go do that for the Seahawks. So, I mean, it just, it, that's why this whole thing and the back and forth and everything, there's so much of the CFL game that that is the same, that that is, you know, like the, the passion and the, in the working hard and you know, the players, you know, working the jobs and coming in and taking the time off. I mean, it, it's something that I think appeals to both sides. And I really hope that the interest in the American fans continues kind of through the, so, Yeah, I sure hope so too. You know, that American expansion during the 1990s was you know, it was an interesting one. There's a fantastic book written by ed Willis. He wrote for the New York times wrote here in Winnipeg for awhile recently retired if I'm not mistaken from the Vancouver province, fantastic sports writer the book is called end zones and border wars. And you know, when you got the Canadian American flag, right on like, hang on, hang on a second. I know I have it, it is, it Is one of the best books I've ever read on the CFL because it like talks about these unique experiences that media and teams had, you know, in Birmingham with the barracudas and in Sacramento with the gold miners and in Las Vegas with the posse and like the craziness of some of the ownership groups again, that unique nuance of the CFL and the Rouge and, and, you know, the, the singles and, and all, you know, the, the converted touchdowns coming into play. There was a game in Vegas where, you know there's a great story in there where the head coach of, I believe the Vegas Las Vegas posse, you know, got a visit in his hotel room one night by some pretty intimidating looking individuals, wondering, you know, why he made a decision in the game that changed the point spread and the way that game ended up and, you know, players having to, you know, walk through the casino to cash their paycheck. And while half of them didn't come out with any money, that sort of thing. So some, some fun stories in there. I know I have that book. I got it. I got, I got you know, your, your viewers out there, you gotta check it out and zones and border wars by ed Willis, but a great storytell of those, you know unique ties between Canada and the United States and football in the 1990s. Very cool stuff. We appreciate your time and your patience, Darren, for hanging out, letting us work through the work, through the glitches. We appreciate you carrying our show for, you know, the first 15 minutes. For sure. That was fun. That was Fun. I want you guys to call me anytime. Like you just want to, you know, shoot it and talk some ball I'm down. I'm really glad to join you guys. And you know, I studied U S geography when I was in university. So I feel like a little bit human geography as well. So I feel like a little bit of a pseudo American spent a lot of time down there as well. So I, you guys are like brothers and that's all considered ESL. Call me anytime. We'll talk about, Appreciate it. Yeah. And for everyone then on the video, we're going to run through we'll blast through a lot, the other show here that you get off the air and we're going to let Darren go. We'll, we'll let you know, get everyone going for the game, but thank you so much, Sharon, for working through it. We really appreciate it. Yeah. Enjoy the games guys. We'll talk soon. Thanks. Thanks Darren. Well, there you go, Darren, wonderful working through everything Paul, we got, would you believe that it was my fault the entire time? I'm not surprised it was my fault, the entire, I mean, I was like, I wasn't going to bring it up on the show, but since you're, you're addressing, you know, it is your fault. I missed my wheelhouse podcast and I just want to point out the the Matt locking thing where, you know, it wasn't my setup. And I was just like, I took everything out of the equation. I'm telling you folks, I took my podcasting board on the equation, still heard myself going through my ears. So I put my ear buds in, still heard myself, I put it on the laptop. Speaker still heard myself. I could have streamed it. The airplane still would've heard myself. So I'm glad we figured it out. Sorry for that. Sorry for the technical lifts, we're using a new system. And, and you know, now, now that we've got all the bugs figured out of this new system, it's actually sounding a lot better. It's looking a lot better than the system that that I was using for the last couple of weeks. So shout out to Reed for finding this great stuff, the stream yard thing. I think they're calling it a streamer stream yard. They're the ones that are, are basically powering the show tonight. And then yeah, there we go. Like, and subscribe. Yes. So we'll, we'll blast through a lot of this other stuff. Daron, we touched on a lot of stuff. There is just some notes I wanted to get through on the XFL thing to continue that I did see a lot of things this week on agendas watching Jake Henry friend of the show. You know, there is this sentiment right now that people are very upset, right? They're tired. It's been a year, I get all this. And so like I said before, this CFL really fills that niche void. I wish they had played a little earlier. I think they're going to try shifting earlier in the season because of the sports betting anyway, by a couple of weeks, I understand the weather and everything, but you know, I really feel, you know, the four games a weekend I'm watching on my phone, I'm watching on demand. It, it does feel very much like what a lot of people were striving for with the XFL. So just because it has different letters, I just, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over that. Very true. Sorry. I'm, I'm, I'm interacting with anybody in the chat. That's blaming you right now for everything. It's my fault. Audio board's fault. We'll blame the audio board. We're going to blame you. You're on this one, I'm over the moon with Amar Demonn you know, new owner of the, I'm very excited for him as a minority owner, the first CFL minority owner in the last 20 years. He's 50 years old, which is, you know, really young for a CFL owner. Right. I think that he is going to bring some progressive ideas out. And I'm really excited about that. Yeah. He grew up on Vancouver island, moved to BC you know, far Hawn had a great interview with them. Matt with the BC lions.com. He had a great interview with him. I just, I feel a sense of excitement there. I am joining the team. So, you know, it feels to me like all things are pointed up for the lions. Paul went and grabbed something. Yeah. I see frozen Delta records in the chat saying you're waiting for me to scream. The devil. Look, what I got right here. Haven is a, it's a, it's a David putty. A bobblehead. Yeah. With painted face too. I mean, it's probably going to go in and out of focus, but I saw him say, you know, expecting me to scream the devils, like David putty. And there you go. So just really excited about that. I think all things are pointed out for the lions. I am very much off the Alex. I need to get rid of this hideous flag. I need to get rid of my gifts from my nephew. Also, Paul earlier, when you were mad at me, I didn't show the Dorothy had got me. B's like Edmonton or they're not, but they're elk. For the people listening on audio, this is terrible, but they're like elk coasters. Everything else now is going to have to go away. I said that the Elks wind tonight, I will eat my hat on the podcast. You better have some steak sauce ready to go? I think the ALEKS are taking it. No, no, no. A couple other things you know, there was outbreak in the riders this week that was scary with the with the fans in, in attendance. They are not requiring vaccinations yet. They're I don't want to kill everything with all my technical and vaccination talks, but it does MLSE came out this week. They are going to be requiring vaccination cards. Winnipeg has already you know, requiring that. And it seems as though the red blacks also have come on the record and said that they would really be in favor of the vaccine passports to really make sure the fans are Safe. It's time to it's time to start like rewarding the people that actually played by the rules. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be political, but you know, like I've been wearing a mask I've been quarantining for like almost two years now. I went and got the shot, the first chance I was able to get it. And here we are, and we're still having issues because, you know, I completely understand your body you're right. But when you're, when you're rights, foe affects someone else's rights to, I don't know, breathe or live that's when that, that line, that that's when you cross the line for me. So we also had the situation here in LA, like all of the smaller venues below 2,500 that were run by AEG, decided to say, well, we're requiring vaccination cards in the county right now in LA in in LA county is basically, you know, putting their foot down and also requiring the same. So it's kind of getting to the model where the people that got vaccinated they're playing by the rules are are actually going and getting rewarded for playing by the rules. Yeah. Something that I wanted to ask the chat to we're going to go down here. They're kind of the single game sports betting stuff. CA you know, C, C two 18 past, we're legalizing it like August 27th. I think it's finally becoming, you know, a bill, right? Yeah. August 27th. I have seen nothing, but TSN announcers on Instagram, on Twitter, on the games, talking about the overs, talking about the unders it's like, okay, we really get it. A single game. Sports betting is legalized, but it really seems like, like Vince McMahon and the WB, like we are hitting people over the head with, Hey, did you bet? Did you bet the under, did you bet the undertake, but I think it's going to be, I might guys, let's just talk about the game. I don't even bet on I'm not betting on anything. Well, you do bet. Sometimes we did. We did make some money on that calves warrior series when the calves, you know, calves came back from three windows. So we didn't make some money on that. I just curious about that. Oh, the other thing too, Naylor and far Hong came out this week and they said that they're relaxing the policies for vaccinated players. So before that it was, you remember, they were doing the mix and all that. So now they can all hang out as long as they are 85%. The team is vaccinated. I believe there's three that still aren't right now. And to speak of that, the NFL, I think the Falcons are the first team, right? There's a hundred percent vaccinated. Do you know how they got to that number? How they cut the two players that were back? There you go. I'm disappointed. I'm disappointed. The Washington football team has not been a hundred percent of accidental given that their coaches high risk, you know, we've discussed that, Discuss that. So I I've seen some stuff that, you know, Michael Riley thinks, you know, we were really high on Riley coming in tonight. There was a lot of talk. We talked last week with Dave Naylor about the deceptiveness with the sports betting and all of that, you know, Michael Riley says, I didn't really care. You know, we just want to win. I appreciate that. Now that I'm with the lions, I really kind of like, yes, F the rules. Like I don't care at all. Like I would lie about everything. I'm totally on board with all of that. But anyway, yeah, you know, Nate, their work is a good backup. We have attendance numbers here last week, Paul, for the CFL, I want you to hear about this writers strong again, 27,000, the Elks were at 25,000 for their second home loss, blue bombers, 22,000 and the St. Peter's surprisingly two 21,000. Is that up from last week on the Stampeders or the, what was it? Two weeks ago? I had to be higher than 21. I mean, that's pretty, that's pretty scary. Average attendance is 23,840. Not bad, not bad at all. I I'm, I'm, I'm drawing a blank on what the numbers were last week. So in a week one, when I produced the show, I really should've put that in there. So TV ratings really, really strong Hamilton, Saskatchewan, 671,000. That was Saturday afternoon. They're averaging about half a million, 583,000 viewers as an increase of 39% from week two. The one interesting thing here at dunk tweeted this out. Here's my tweet, or here's my thought dunk. You either, are you either cover the league or you are PR for the league, you can do either one dunk tweets out like the blue Jay era, CFL thrash the blue Jays ratings. They w they, yeah, the blue Jays are in the running for a wild card. They're not anymore. And that they were, and you know, it's not even close you. That's fine. If you want to release a PR statement, talking about how the CFL had record high ratings against the MLB, but when you're supposed to be a yes, Cod, we talked about Michael O'Connor if either it just seems weird to me that it's like, we want to be critical, but then it's like, we're, we're really going crazy that, that the rates you get what I'm saying there. Yeah. And the Bluejays aren't out yet, let's, let's not rule the blue Jays out of this wildcard thing yet. I, you know, this, this, this, this season has been, so topsy-turvy in terms of baseball, I'm happy to report that the the New York Yankees, the 27 time world champions are, are back in the back of the running. They're at the top of the wild card standings. They're only like four games back of Tampa. They're making a run. I'm happy. I'm sorry. I just had to go off on that little tangent there. Here's an interesting thing I thought. So this Roughriders have looked really great. First two games, right? I think they're probably going to take it this week. Great. Dickinson is really a frustrated by their lack of discipline there. Oh, Owen too. They said they were frustrating. These guys, you're going to hear about it. There's too many penalties. We don't play real good on both sides of the ball. We're going to lose the game. Really, you know, I would be scared to be really good. I mean, there are winning and coach Dickinson is still upset. I would hate to not be winning and have feedback of that kind. Right. Could you imagine their own to Quit? He'd probably, he probably, he probably throws his headphones across, across the room. So We saw this coming to crew Yemen Yamazaki was released by the BC lions cause he missed a, he made four of eight field goal attempts in the NFL. If you make four of eight you're lucky to ever get a call back even in 10 years, if someone's really desperate. So well wishes for a Techer there. Ryan H dunks. That is my that's. You know, if I tell you this, I used three to have a lot. We could be, we could be a welcome resource back and forth with them when they choose to block me on my personal account from a new site, that is why they get that voice. That is why I don't get that voice because dunk runs like, unless it's Hodge writing it, like it's dunk. And so that is why he gets out. I feel as though he was the one that decided to block me, they unblocked me after we complained about it. But new sites should not be blocking private individuals that are podcasting the CFO. Now, now, now there's one person on CFL, Reddit that thinks he speaks for the entire community will take offense with everything you say right now. So We're moving, you know, we're, we're almost about to overtake them with with Twitter followers. So come at me. So Leerom HADR who he was I someone through that. Yeah. he, he Canadian kicker excelled in the spring league and he is going to speak in the kickers. He's going to be brought in by the Cowboys. They weren't happy with anyone. They had he was with the Rams cut last August and that, you know, really exciting for him, obviously CFL and spring league and those kinds of all of our worlds coming together, a very excited for Liam. Very cool stuff. We had a lot of this talk in the chat room of the 7 0 7 8. Oh, I should say was, was talking about this quite a bit about the Trevor Harris incident during the game, this week, Montreal against I wasn't man, I'm drawing a blank. Oh yeah. Montreal was playing against The, the Elks [inaudible] No, it's been a blur. No yes. I will speak in the, that this actually, my next story is C well says, Trevor Harris folded called roughing the passer penalty, the most BS call he's ever heard. He, I liked this guy a lot. I mean, this is intense defense. I think the alphabets are coming in strong. I feel really good about the D I, he goes, they should've had more picks in that. You just throw it up. I O Taiwan glass at Lisa dinner, he had that pick six. I got to do better. Yeah. Harris did fold. Yeah. They had a huge pick six glass was, was on fire with defense. And he had had a late hit on Trevor Harris who has not been playing good this season. And I'm, like I said, I'm very glad that we were off the Oaks train. So yeah, I was never on him. So I was never on him by the way, the team that I picked updating, betting odds coming out just now plus 500 favorites to win, to win the grey cup. Y yeah. W what did I put this in here? The gray cup winning betting odds wait a minute. Blue bay MERS blue bombers plus four 50. Obviously my wife, Dorothy, is happy about that. Paul has the Argos Argos. I, it surprising that they would be plus 500 with such a QB debacle that they have right now. That is actually surprising to me that the Argonauts are that high as they are one-on-one and they have quarterback competition issues going on right now. True that I mean, maybe, maybe they, they, they know something that we don't know. And, you know, the CFL has, has kind of a reputation for not being as transparent as they should be. So maybe these betting odds, this, this TSL article with the betting odds, maybe they know something we don't know that Toronto has, has, has some stud players ready to bust out and and make things happen. I Mean, I feel like, you know, you know, Darren's in the know, I mean, I think, I think we're leaving. I guess I have some XFL stuff here at CFLA related, please like, and subscribe if you're going to drop off, if you don't want to hear back smell, but this says relate a little bit. Rod Pearson came out again this week, doubling down on the Calgary sale. Right. what's interesting is that, you know, people say, oh, Rod's crazy. What's rod talking about yesterday. I mean, the lion sale came out of nowhere, right? The lions were like, Hey, today we have a press conference, like spoiler alert. We have a new owner. So then when rod comes out and he goes, Hey, I think Calgary is going to be sold. And you have, you know, like one Danny Austin going, well, I don't know about that. And if I don't know about that and that's it, well, you see how the other ones like these things can happen and we don't necessarily know about it, but rod thinks that, or says that his contact that told him about the sale claims that the owner has a potential tie to the XFL. I smell violence. I smell some anti XFL sediment coming our way again. Yeah. When that came out, I tweeted it. I go welfare check on Danny Austin. Cause I figured this head was going to be splattered against the wall And down on a meltdown, you know, and Rod was tongue in cheek, whether it be in the rock. I mean, obviously it's not the rock, but I mean, that just is interesting to think. I mean, again, you know, you're bringing in a Amar, you know, w with the with the lions, you know, to get this progressive ownership in here, I mean, it could be exciting for some of the teams, maybe when these talks resume, like the, and Ralph of the show believes it talks. You're going to resume here at the end of the grey cup that maybe you have some new ownership in places. There's a little more interested in that. So Something I definitely wanted to touch on before we go this we've, we've been discussing slightly about the whole college football landscape here in America. June Jones back in 2014, might've predicted the future because this was right when all that stuff was going on, where there was talk about pack 16 and things were inevitably inevitably going to happen where these power five conferences, where it was like, screw the NCAA. Not only that, but the name and image and likeness stuff opened up for athletes to, you know, start making money off their name, image, and likeness. So now you get in these situations where these power five conference schools, you know, the PAC 12 the ACC, the sec, they're going to get bigger and bigger. And in this article that he had in NSI he just, he just thinks that there's going to be like two different kinds of leagues where the have nots to the people and like the, you know, American athletic conference are gonna probably play in June. This was funny. Yeah. He predicted, he goes, June Jones thinks that all football in the spring is going to be a winning success. And I thought, I mean, he called the shot back in 2014. I mean, that's pretty impressive. So couple of these other quick things, I do want to hit this Washington football team before we go. But PJ Walker played this week. Looked great and jets are in a Panther's preseason. I could not, I would be really not surprised to see him take the banner from Sam Darnold this year, depending on how that goes. I think that PJ is a little bit more mobile in the pocket. Chris traveler looked great for Arizona. So a lot of struggler, you know, he was obviously the grey cup winning quarterback back in 2019 with the blue bombers Brian [inaudible] of the spring league. He got signed with the giants, which is exciting. He was on alphas quarterback. And then Jordan TAMU back again with the lions, he was with the chiefs and he was with the lions and he was with the chiefs, signed back with the lions. I really hope it sticks for a [inaudible] to get some more love for that guy. This Jordan Tammuz story is either going to be the best Disney football movie ever, or nothing at all. Yeah. Yeah. This is near and dear to my heart, Washington football team fan. I am, you know, very invested in this Dorothy and I had a long talk in Hawaii on the, on one of our waterfall walks about the Washington football team and their feature name. Paul they're down to three names kind of league. There was like a, there was a video thing. Have you seen these names? What do you think about the names for the new Washington football team? It's interesting to see the red hogs in there because you know, like they, you know, they have they have the hogs, they go to games. I'm not sure if they go to the games anymore. Cause they might've just been like, oh, they're going to change the names. We're not going to go anymore. That's kind of a tie to some of their fans. I like the red wolves, you know, there was talk about potentially honoring, you know, like Tuskegee airmen. It's going to be interesting to see, I think, I think, you know, I think there's a good chance that it's going to be red wolves and read. You might be happy. It might even just be Washington football team. It might just be Washington football Team. The NFL needs to spend whatever money they can in the world to acquire the trademarks that that guy bought. That would be the Washington football team. And Jen agrees, Washington. John is with me a hundred percent. Jen is with me on this. It needs to be a, and I, the read the hogs that was, I was looking at that, that was like their old, old line or something back I'm like, like the million years ago, that's like the Legion of the boom. Right. You would have like people in the stands dress up like Hawks to, to like, you know, kind of, you know, show that offensive line. Some love, Yeah. People, here's the thing. So one of the, one of the ideas, cause they have like the presidents, the commanders, the defenders is on there. Right? So now we have the Cleveland guardians. We could potentially have the Washington defenders. We have the whole roughnecks logo issue and all of that down in Dallas, I tell you XFL homers. I would really clutch the, you know, I think things could be a changing and I would just be very prepared for the landscape. I mean, who, who knows if the XFL even comes back. Right. Who knows? I mean, I, yeah. I mean you posted, we haven't heard anything dead silent. And I, I was going to the whole thing at the top. I was going to say all that too, but you know, I've, I've kind of like, I'm over the speculation now. Like we have games on now we have four games a week. We have good games on, we have athleticism, we have lots of intrigued with everything. I just, I would really get on board with this. And if something comes of it later, that's great. But I would move through those stages of grief because you know, if it comes back, it's exciting, but otherwise yes, and we will wrap here very soon, but I just, that is what I'm saying. I'm saying like, let's, let's move on and let's be happy with what we have Very much. So another Canadian note, chase Claypool suffering, a minor ankle sprain should be fine. Eagles quarterback turn tight end Tyree Jackson, fractured bone in his back and expect to be out eight to 10 weeks to back. It might be longer than that. That's unfortunate. Yeah. This was just this week. So Tyree Jackson was the backup QB for the DC defenders under Sharman Jones. And he, they turned them, you know, they were going to convert them to a tie then for the Eagles and like actually about news, how they just had this so hard go out this week. I Tyree Jackson and excelling and training camp. This is a future he's getting there like two days later, backbreaking injuries. So that is very scary for him. We obviously wish them the best. And then this last thing, J Henry had this USL, the people want the USFL notes. They say, they're going to have merge coming soon. Paul, this photo in the Google docs, vertical it's very much like the merchant supplier that we use. I mean, is, is, are they using Printful for their merchandise? Y'all y'all, y'all, y'all have all the money in the world to run a, a football league and you're using a drop shipper for your merchandise. I have questions for the players. We're also on Instagram now at official USFL. I they're not following anybody and they have not posted anything, but they're on there. Yeah. So that'd be interesting to see that, that that copyright debate that we brought up last time. So yeah. Yes, we will continue, right? Yeah. I, I'm a really kind of all NCFL right now. I think we've lost some subscribers over that. That's okay. I mean, I think you got to live in the moment. I think this whole speculating for something that could be year and a half away, I'm kind of, if you're on board with CFL, we're going to be here covering that. I'm enjoying all the games, so, okay. Wow. Now I'm having no, that must've been like an ad plane. I was like, well, I don't know. Let's get outta here. We did. We did. Well, All things considered. We got it back on the track. And with that being said, we, we appreciate everybody tuning in. We're going to find a way to piece some kind of audio podcast with us together. And we appreciate it like, and subscribe again, like, and subscribe, review us on your podcast player. And again, there's this little like dollar sign thing on the chat it's called. It's called the super chat. You can send those to that'd be great. Yeah. God bless you all for working through. I appreciate that. It was my fault. It's all my fault. And we're going to work through it here by that. Thank you guys all so much, please. Like, and subscribe later,