Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - Cabbie Richards (FULL INTERVIEW)

Episode Date: August 28, 2025

Cabbie Richards Talks Career Journey, Behind-The-Scenes With Athletes & More | FN Barn BurnerRyan Pinder sits down with Canadian sports media personality Cabbie Richards for a fun and wide-ranging conversation. Cabbie shares stories from his early days in broadcasting, his unique approach to interviewing athletes, and the relationships he built with some of the biggest names in sports. He reflects on his time with The Score, TSN, and Bleacher Report, and explains how his style of comedy and spontaneity helped him stand out. The conversation also touches on his move into the sports betting space, the challenges of evolving media, and his thoughts on connecting with fans in authentic ways.BB Vacation: https://nationgear.ca/products/barnburner-vacation-calgary-to-nashvilleSubscribe to @Flames_Nation on Youtube🚨➡️ / @flames_nation 🔥 After Burner ➡️ • FlamesNation Afterburner 📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiBARN BURNER BLONDE https://originbrewing.myshopify.comFLAMESNATION MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/flamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTShttps://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9SHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Powered by @bet365. Whatever the moment, it’s Never Ordinary at bet365. Download the App today and use promo code:NATION. http://www.bet365.ca/ 👍🏼 McLEOD LAW https://www.mcleod-law.com/👍🏼 VILLAGE HONDA https://www.villagehonda.com/👍🏼 OUTDOOR DENTAL https://www.outdoor.dental/👍🏼 ORIGIN BREWING https://originbrewing.ca 👍🏼 Crystal Waters Plumbing Company https://crystalclearcalgary.com/👍🏼 BON TON MEATS: https://www.bontonmeatmarket.com/index.html👍🏼 GRETA YYC: https://www.gretabar.com/locations/calgary#games 👍🏼 Invest-Med: https://invest-med.ca/Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!Producer: Jack Haverstock#NHLPlayoffs #Hockey #HockeyTalk #Playoffs #StanleyCup #EdmontonOilers #StanleyCupFinal #NHL #CalgaryFlames Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Well, it's summer, and we're back with another long-form one-on-one here on Barnburner. It's a presentation of Bet365. Never ordinary, especially those Toronto Blue Jays. Let's go. In actual futures, Jacks, Pittsburgh Steelers, win-over-unders, it's all there. Thanks to our pals at Bet 365. Okay, so get this. Our next guest is a Canadian sports personality for the ages.

His list of interviewees is about as good as it gets. anywhere. I'll just list a few from a few sports. Somebody named Michael Jordan, not the Carolina Hurricanes defenseman. That was Mikal. I think he was some Czech Republic. Some guy named Ovechkin, who I think Trump thought was Canadian. Derek Jeter, very good. Guinnessing party policy. No phones past the front door. He was a, he was an gentleman.

Gentleman. Gentleman. And a gentleman. Parting gifts? Yeah. Aft basket. Yeah. Innovator. Amazing. Aaron Rogers. Was that when everyone thought Aaron Rogers was normal or weird? I don't know where we're at.

Normal into like into the controversial waters. Just did the end. Okay. And then outside of the sports world, Will Ferrell. Amazing. I watched, uh,

wedding crashes on the flight home for my summer vacation. I didn't see in the years. I was dying. People don't play like, we're trying to sleep ass on. I'm sorry. So good. Kevin Hart,

an incredibly funny man. And how about music acting all the above? taking swings on the stage of the Oscars, Will Smith. I mean, this is the highs of the highs. Thanks, man. Cabrell Richards, cabby on the street. Welcome into Barnburn. How are you, buddy?

I'm wonderful. Thank you for the generous intro. That was very good. Well, I'm looking at it. I'm like, geez, like I could just list half the MLB or NBA, NHL. Like, I went and watched your Jerome McGinlow one. Oh, nice. But your first Jerome one.

Yeah, thanks, man. And you ended it brilliantly where you're like, you're like, Jerome's asked you what you're doing last night. you're like, oh, it's Calvoy. He's like, we're supposed to come to the game? I'm sorry, I get. He walks like, Iggy, come on. You didn't answer my call.

I was like, oh, that's just like vintage cabby. This was, so I was an intern at the score back in the day. I think it was 2004. So that was after you got your start. But to be an intern at the score would have been the same as being an intern anywhere until you were an intern at the score. And an intern could like end up with their own TV show somehow. Take me back to the early days.

You're a Toronto area guy. You went to ride. and somehow some way, some punk intern ended up on TV on this incredibly cool and fun network at the time. That's right. You know, I got to credit our boss, his name's Anthony Chichoney. And he was like, talent and hard work was rewarded. We were, the score was such a small media company that it could take chances because the incumbent

was TSN and then Sportsnet had a bunch of money from CTV at the time. And then then I believe it was sold. to roger no no that's one to rogers and 12 but it was c tv is bell and that's tsn and then it would rogers would have been like city yeah sports i thought that was maybe it wasn't in like the bell wagers battle but yeah maybe you know what there's been a lot of consolidation in the media landscape we'll get to that in the bit yeah but either way so you know so s n was it was all the suits yeah you guys are the cool guys in sports i was like we're gonna take our ties off look at us go and you're like yeah you're not really there's somewhere in the middle but they still had like

didn't have a voice. They didn't. And like their, their big personalities were Mike Toth and Jamie Campbell, who were great on the air. And then, you know, Sid and Tim,

who are my cohorts, they just like, we're going to be our full selves. And we're going to, like, it's entertainment first. Tim likes to say edutainment. Because you're still going to try

to educate the audience a little bit, but it was full entertainment. And like those guys, we were like 24 years old. And Anthony's like, okay, you two clowns, you guys are going to host,

host the score tonight. First, was like Greg, not first, but like at the time that we were coming up, it was Greg Santone and Martinei and Martin Geyer. And then like Sid and Tim would do, I think after, I think they'd be like a night highlight show in the mountain time. Yes, sorry. For some people, like obviously television has changed, sports television has changed, but it was an hour highlight show. Yeah. And we all, Sid, Tim, myself, Adnan,

We all started. We're the same group of interns that started in late. That's so crazy. Late of nine, late 98, making 10 bucks an hour. Yeah. Five hour shifts, writing scripts for the host. And eventually, I got to credit Lisa Bose and Steve Cullius, who urged me like, hey, you should do a segment, like do a man on the street segment. Because they did the weekends and they wanted to change their weekend show, may have it a little bit of a different vibe. And I was like, you know, maybe I'll go out there and try something. And I met Brian Roy, who was my cameraman, my man, my man, my man, my man, he bought a camera out of York University. He was like, three grand or something.

Three grand when you're 22 is like so much money. That's crazy. Yeah. And then we just went out and started shooting these. And I was just accosting random people in the streets of Toronto. And I'm surprised, I, like, I didn't get into any fights, surprisingly. And that's, that's how it started. My segment will appear on Sunday nights at like 11.55 p.m. Eastern.

So nobody was up watching it. But eventually random emails would come into the feedback at the score.ca. That's how old this works, bro. We were getting email feedback before Reddit, before Twitter, obviously. And some people really enjoyed it. And that's kind of how it took off. It was like an incredible incubator for talent. Yeah, man.

Because to be that age and to be on TV, you could do that in a small market. But in Toronto, the biggest media market where you've got all these pro sports teams and like, no, like you had to go work. for two decades to get that chance, but that's what made the score so amazing. It was a cool thing. It was the cool place. It was like, okay,

well, we know the rights holders for the big products and blah, blah, blah, uh, you know, there's your insiders making a million bucks, but it's like, you want to laugh like Tim McAllef calling Jayes.

I was like, Tony Batista, he's crazy, he's kooky. No, he's off the wall with a double. Oh my God. These guys are so cool.

His line was always to the gap. Tony Bautista would double to the gap and pick up some cackies or something. Yeah. I was one of his, I mean, he had about a thousand. Because they had those gap signs. That's right. That's right. The billboards on the alley's.

Yeah, exactly. You're good recall by you, by the way. Well, honestly, like, I worked next to those guys years later, but they were the established, like, prime talent at that point. And they were awesome, but they were rock stars. And, like, and not rude. But I remember, like, I had the job that summer to input the NHL schedule into, like, the, what's going on when, which is normally, like, fine but we all knew there's going to be a lockout that year. Oh, summer of 05.

So right after the flames, went to the cup final lost Tampa. And I'm like, I'm putting the schedule. We're going to delete all this two months. There's no way to play hockey this year. Like, we're going to do a lockout. That was a full year lockout too.

That was hardcore. Our co-host, who is not here today because we're doing the summer pre-records. He famously credits the lockout for making his life better and worse. He traveled the world, got married and got fat and played his way out of the league pretty quick. I thought it was probably six years. later but no they had a good team that that hurt that team but uh i remember being there and so i got

sitting next to ad dan verk at one point amazing and he's since we had him on uh the sports at station here that we worked out forever and he's now still visiting weekly there and you know like christia jack james sherman yes our team guy are still working like those two soccer guys are the kings in canada like they're incredible the accents help it really the british accents they're certainly held yeah it's just the there's a whole vernacular that comes with the sport and you just listen you're like man like i couldn't pull it out like if you try to listen to some osie guy call hockey games like okay but it just feels weird with the british like this is soccer it needs to be this is football he doesn't football that's right correct uh james sabalski was a guy

that was there for a while he's got a great sense of him or elli freebren got to start i think it was like uh headline sports that's what was called pre the score like that it was a really cool place to to be and i remember being so proud where my the score t-shirt back and Calgary after my internship a year later. And you're a big part of that. That was really cool. Thanks, bro. Thanks. It was a great time. And we were for the formative years. And we were all, it was super competitive. And we all wanted to. It was almost, it was almost like the way Twitter became in like the 2010s where it was like the cool sports bar. And you just want to have the

funniest line in the bar. Right. Before Twitter became a mess. So that was kind of what it was like at the score where we were trying to outdo each other with either features or access to athletes or, you know, production elements. And we were small. So our bosses encouraged us to be our full selves and take big chances. So when I was when I eventually like elevated to just like move on from streeters and just talk to athletes, it was the goal of every interview was to try to make the athlete laugh or try to crack someone. Totally.

And it was very rewarding when. athletes would play along. And like Vernon Wells was one of the first, Vernon Wells, Toronto Blue Jays, Morris Peterson, Toronto Raptors. And then on the Leafs, because I would interview visiting teammates or visiting teams,

but I would interact with the home teams most often. And then on the Maple Leafs, Darcy Tucker and Brian McCabe were like my go-to guys for, you know, from like 05 to like 08, let's say. And then, you know, guys moved to different teams and stuff. But those are the players that I think I interacted with the most from those clubs. And then, you know, every generation, then it was Jose Bautista.

Right. For many times with the Blue Jays. And then with the Leafs, it became Lupal and JVR and Nas. They wouldn't give me access to Mitchie and Austin Matthews. They knew what they were. Bro, it was like the weird thing, right? I mean, you work in hockey? hockey culture it is evolving but it's still like it's old school man yeah i was just having a

conversation about lou lamarillo yeah two days ago you literally kept facial hair like the yankers doing the same shit you're like it's 20 25 yeah they finally got rid of that rule face tattoos and you still can't grow beard like lou what are we talking about here and he runs the show like i mean he's no longer with the islanders but for his whole career with the like it's though it was still 1995 is with the devils and like you had to a dude to describe that guys would be in the room having fun after practice Lou comes and Lou would be in every practice up against the glass just like making mental notes like at the GM every practice doesn't go away with Lou coming to room everybody just kind of straighten up and it was almost like you know the teacher

comes back in the hallway right after having you know being in the hallway for like a minute where people in the classroom kind of goof around a bit and then you straighten up when when the teachers back. So that's what he was, and these are grown men, right? These are adult men, like millionaires. They shouldn't have to, you know, change the behavior so much because the old school gangsters in the room. But that's, so in hockey culture, it was, it was more challenging for a long time. Yeah. To get access to the biggest stars in hockey, whereas the NBA was the opposite.

Yeah. And I've been very fortunate to have great experiences and iconic to me experiences with some of the biggest names in the NBA. Thus, some of the biggest athletes in the world. Hockey was weird. Like, I only interviewed Sid eight times. And Sid is going on year. And that's over like 20 years. You probably talk. Sid is like, I guess this might be year 20. Yeah. Because he was 05.06 was his first. Oh, yeah. So this would be like year 20 or year 21 for sit. Like eight times, bro. And and and it was Heisman, we got the Heisman so often. Yeah. No, we're just, we're just, we're to sit's not doing anything. Sid doesn't want to do anything is what they were telling us. It's even like you look at like the

wear the suit to the game. And you're like, is that what is that, does that make any sense or are we just holding traditions so that Don Cherry doesn't yell at people? Like, what are we doing here? Like, what about wearing a suit for 10 minutes from the hotel to the bus and then getting

out of it and then putting it off for the 10 minute bus right back to the hotel has anything to do with the sport. That's true. It's about respect and it's, well, it's actually kind of just appeasing old people that did it that way. That's really what it is. Yeah.

I mean, baseball dudes are just wearing like jogging suits. Yeah. And it's like baseball. The thing is the oldest. of the four sports. It's like disrespecting baseball when, you know, the Dodgers will come in or dudes are walking with flip flops and cargo shorts. Like, it's not disrespectful. No. Anyway. Okay. So you get your start 0-1-2-ish in terms of like cabby on the street becomes a show. Yeah, yeah, great. When did it stop being just streeters and you got access to players? It happened

quickly or did someone have to go to war for you at the score? Because, you know, like it's, it's, it's, the brilliance of it is that that awkwardness or that like something a little bit of uncomfortability or just how not normal the interview is you said crack it's the perfect word to crack because guys get in front of cameras and they get into this mode of just spinning out cliches and you know the answers aren't necessarily always super thoughtful and then your stick breaks down that wall that is that traditional sports you know deep puck's one shift at the time that whole thing right and so you know at some point it's like okay we're going to get some some athletes in front of cabby but like oh i don't know if i'm the comms guy that wants my team to do

that first i want to see it go somewhere else first bro that still exists uh i don't want to say his name but there's there's still a guy who is just like uh oh my gosh so for timeline 2002 to 2004 i left the score and i went to sports center yeah hosted a magazine show too a bunch of mb a stuff right yeah mba excel and then i was a contributor on j zone so these are 30-minute magazine-style weekly shows and my contribution. I was a producer on the show, so I would cut features. And then I would have my own little signature interview in J-Zone.

So that would be me interviewing. I got very lucky interview Pedro and Pedro in the, so that was like a, I think the first huge one for me, Pedro, Boston, Red Sox, you know, he'd won, I don't know how many Syungs, maybe two or three in a row or something, or two or three in that era.

and I asked them if we could do a pitching game. We found a radar gun and I said, Pedro, can we throw with our left hands? He's like, all right. So I throw like 30 on the gun with my left because I'm right-handed and I'm fat. And Pedro through 60, bro, with his left with this. I mean, the guy was throwing 95 with crazy movement, you know, with his right. But then 60 with his left and him like goofing around with me on like, a non-pitching day was like so big for my confidence and working on the NBA show I got access to

some of the big stars yeah Kevin garnett had a we went to an all-star game in Atlanta and I asked him about playing he was with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the time I asked him about playing basketball at Prince's house before show before we heard Charlie Murphy talking about you know playing basketball prince um and he joked around with me and I was like oh this is Kevin Carden like he's one of my like man crushes. So once I was able to crack like that level of the video game, so now I'm like elevated, I've leveled up to athletes. When I came back to the score in 05, it was just athletes. And that's where I would, I would have a feature where there would be like four or five or six different athletes from different teams all talking about the same thing. We do like them. Do topics. Topics. Yeah. And we just

have to wait them, not wait them out, but we would take a little bit longer to try to get various people in them so it seemed like oh man this guy's been we got everybody in this one particular so you could ask a player six questions and do six different teams you make six different shows it would take a while but you'd build build up the catalog right yeah but then like i wouldn't be wearing the same clothes so we we it was it was a bit of a juggling act as far as how long to release a particular episode and sometimes we just released it like oh he's wearing a blue shirt and a yellow shirt but it didn't doesn't care they just care about what the athlete had said or is saying about topic, whatever.

You mentioned Jeter. I did a bit once where it was like handshakes, and Jeter had like Sheffield. This is the one there, well, Jeter's only played for the Yankees, but this is maybe 2008-ish. And Sheffield's like, Jeter has a handshake for everybody.

I'm like, well, what are they, what are they like on it? And they're like, who does he pick on? Oh, this one player, I think it was Pasada had big ears. The ears that stuck out. It's like, oh, it does a thing where Pasad and then he touches his ears at the end of the thing.

So I asked Jeter to come up with a handshake, and it was so lackluster. He was so discuser. disappointed in the handshake that I offered him. He's like, ah, it's okay. And then I quickly like, transition to, okay, let's talk about girls. Now, this isn't a time, Ryan, where culturally we weren't as evolved as we are now. So I can, it was one of my crutches. And once I went from the score to TSN, that was one of the big

things that I could not do at TSN because it was still very buttoned up. I couldn't talk about girls. But part of the magic of cabby on the street was the relatability and talking to young men about beautiful women was just something that was relatable to the audience that consumed the scores mostly college age dudes and we're looking up to these millionaire athletes and they're like they could date anyone so now you get a chance to talk to these guys that literally as jutor showed us could date anyone yeah yeah he's kind of the gold standard he's like uh like the only face on mount rushmore it's like his five four of his faces but he wouldn't give me anything i was like who's in your top five girls he goes he didn't get me in trouble i'm like

would you say a couple of anyone giving anything. Well, at least it tried. But just, he smiled a little bit, and he was a tough one to crack because he'd only give me an interview, like once every couple of years. But the Yankees were playing Toronto at least twice. At least, yeah, for three or four games. And then he would just like run past me every time like, hey, Derek, do you have a couple minutes, blah, blah, blah.

And it goes, okay, I'll get you after batting practice or it. So once he said he would and they just ran past me, it was like, just so, so defeated. It's, you know, you know this game. Getting access is harder now post-COVID, but even back in the day, it was still, it was still tricky. Even though you're there with a press pass and you have a media organization, it wasn't just like, hey, this is the cabby show. I was like, oh, I'm representing either the score, TSN, but it was still, it was still tough, man. The hardest it's ever been that I've, and I haven't done nearly as much as you, but covering spring training, those guys just wanted to get in and get the hell out. And it was like, go talk to some rookie.

and you know there's like 70 guys in the locker because it's like all four layers of like it's not just the major league team is triple A, it's double A single A. So many dudes that that was like where you had to just stand and be like someone say yes. God damn it. It felt like dating in high school again. It wasn't good. Oh, I'm with you.

I'm with you. Many swings and misses in high school. You bounced around a bunch like and that's a huge feather in your cap because it, you know, in the media landscape of this country, it's not easy to move from one or the other and then be able to go back to a place where you'd work before where, you know, that seemed usually it's like you've got like a mark on you if you leave. But you went back to the score.

You came back to SportsNet much more recently. You also worked the TSA. You worked ever. I don't know that I can name a guy that's worked at all three of those places. I think Sebalzky has. I think so boss. Yeah. No, no,

I don't think he has for sure. Yeah, that's right. But I'm not sure if there's. It's pretty rare. Anyone else. I'll be lucky or I am lucky that in the fall or sorry, in the winter, I'll work for CBC. I'll go come do some winter Olympics. Oh, no way.

And again, in like in my wheelhouse interviewing athletes, like it'll be in the village and I'll be in Milan for hockey starts like the second week of the Olympics. And Levineo is the other part. So that'll be like I'll interview, you know, someone doing moguls or someone doing, you know, alpine skiers or whatever. There's two things I'm doing. So I'm not sure. I may have like the four infinity stones in the Canadian media landscape.

That's unreal. That would be. Like CBC sports at this point isn't huge, but it was they'd had Blue Jays games back and they did a lot of CFL. Obviously hockey night. It's least space now, but that used to be like that, that is the four pillars of the Canadian sports media in,

in our lives. That's crazy. So Olympics, man, that's exciting. How's your Italian? How's my witch? Italian. Oh.

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And we're back with more Barnburner. You noted when you went to the sports night, you got to do a bunch of NBA stuff, producing shows, your own bits. That would have been interesting because to the point you made earlier, you were getting some access in hockey, but in the NBA, you're just reeling through All-Stars and, like,

mega-studs and, like, the biggest names in the game. Was there one or two that struck you? Like, Kobe, having passed, you'd probably look back differently at the chats you would have had with him. But is there a couple relationships where you're like, Man, that was cool. Well, the Garnet piece, the Garnet interview was big from now, 2003.

And then I got to host a charity game for Vince Carter in the summer of 2003, because he left the team in 2004. Okay. So that was big, too, because Vince was like, he was huge. Massive. He's the reason we got a good basketball players now. This generation of Canadians is Vince Carter, man. And I hope that Shay Gilles,

just Alexander is the next wave of inspiration to young kids and there's a bunch of them like it's uh it's not just SGA in the NBA you got a dozen really really good Canadians Jamal Murray Dylan Brooks um uh Jesus Kelly Olinick yes there's a bunch guys but being like I've seen him go to tie cats games and back in Hamilton I'm like yes that's awesome I see the kids in the press conference with the Larry O'Brien you're like all right this guy seems really grounded I love this. I love that. Good for Canada. Yes. I'm sorry to cut you off there.

I love that he's, he'll even go to like the neighborhood pizza shop. Like he has a hit a post where he said pizza Nova. I know pizza Nova. I know pizza Nova doesn't exist out here in Calgary. We can get into a separate conversation about why the pizza shops out here. Like you can't get pizza by the slice here. And that's like culturally a weird thing. Like there are great places to get full pies.

But pizza by the slice. There's, it's yeah. It's late night outside of pub. That's about it. It's like Canadian Unlimited and I think or whatever it's called. And then, uh, pizza. I think maybe.

I don't know that these slices. Yeah. It's rare. It's rare. Anyway, so Vince was a big one. And then, yeah, Cobb was like the, Cobb was the difference breaker. That would, like, really help me level up.

And then just when, um, I never got to ask him why he let me be like the goofball that he's like, all right, I'll, I'll lower my guards. Yeah, I'll say yes to this. And also like, I'll have some fun with this idiot. And, uh, yeah, That was, that was you. We used to send, so as a calling card for Cabin on the street,

we would send out DVDs of like Kobe interviews to get access to other. Right. So like Kobe said yes. You guys got to say it. But it wouldn't work with us with the Pittsburgh penguins. Right. It was harder to get Sid than it was Cobb. And that doesn't make any sense.

No. And like if you're in Canada, you might miss the context. But like a small percentage of people know about Sidney Crosby in the states compared to Kobe Bryant. Everyone knows who Kobe Bryant is. Yeah. Yeah. So you got like the biggest sporting star maybe in the world at the time. Like he's, you know, he had the Italian roots.

Like he was global star. Yeah. Yeah. You know, in China, people would watch an interview. They love basketball. Yeah. And he was one of the first NBA players to embrace like the Chinese market. He would go, he was the first to do like the Asia tour.

And because he was a champion in that culture, like champions are just so respect. I mean, it's same here too. I shouldn't say just in that culture. But because he was a champion three times. champion then became four time then became five time like that was that established the blueprint for lebron and d wade and um you know the others that followed cob to like make it a part of their summer tours to go into asia and just grow that fan base so cobb was cobb was like the biggest one for me just having yearly conversations and when do you come to toronto because ellie will come to

to toronto and play once i would make a point of trying to like a costume during practice or whatever and just get like two or three minutes of something stupid. But he always, he always played along and it was, it was awesome. Did you get a chance to chat with them after that, like 82 point game? 81 point game.

Yeah. He shredded the Raptors and that was pre-title. That was probably like right in the middle of a nice dark era for Raptors fans. Oh yeah, yeah. Vince left. They get shredded and you're not close to a contender. That's right. I think I spoke to him before.

It was January of 2006 is when it happened. I think I spoke to him just before that. And then afterwards, I don't know if I would have brought it up because it was like, it was like such a pain point for Raptors fans. Yeah. 81 points scored on us. Yeah. So, yeah, I don't think I brought it up.

But I mean, everybody was talking about it and still due to this day because it is remarkable. Wilt and then Cope for most points scored in a single game. Crazy. It would be weird traveling a bit because, I guess this is the same with all media. Like in Canada, people recognize coast to coast to coast. Like you're on national networks, the three big sports ones.

You go to the States, just some guy with press pass. So I feel like the home teams and the guys that met you early on would have a heads up, what was going on? But you would have caught a lot of guys by his friends. Like, what is happening here? Yes. The most first example of that, and this is a more recent example, was I went to Minnesota interview Justin Jefferson and Dalvin.

cook oh my god and i'd interview david cook the year before we would do like a training camp tour when i was at t s nt sn tsn had the nfl right package so we'd go and hit a bunch of uh different camps different camps yeah to get some players so uh so then when i met uh so i immediately turned on my weirdness to like a hundred and just from the start so i you know do my introduction and then uh joseph jefferson starts chuckling because i you know i invade personal space Yes, brilliantly. Just to establish like, oh, this, this conversation is going to be different. Yeah.

Because I'm not just going to stand six feet away from you and speak to you. I'm going to be like in your chest. Like I'm going to be able to hear your heart rate. And then at one point I was looking at Justin in the eyes and he starts like laughing. So he's like bending over. And I'm trying to track his eyes with my eyes. And I'm also bending up. And then he stands up.

And then Davo Cook's like, see, I told you, man. And I was like, oh, it was. I heard it. And I was like, oh, amazing. Because it's it's it's kind of the word of mouth either being you know this guy's weird or like it's kind of fun. It's probably this guy's weird. It's probably a lot of both, man. But, uh, like how many interviews do these guys do that are just the exact same and

hundredly unmemorable? Hundreds. And how many interviews have you done with a guy that's unmemorable? Like zero. Uh, it would be hard to do your style of interview and not have a guy remember it. Oh, oh, on that tip. I thought you meant like not memorable for me. No, I mean, those guys, how many absolute BS, lots of words, nothing said, blah, blah,

spewed cliches interviews. Do they do like, it's all day. It's all the media interactions. 99.9.9. So they get one guy that's doing it different. They're never forgetting you. Well, hopefully not. But you're in the same boat.

Like you try to make your experience memorable and entertaining and sometimes thought provoking. if you guys, you know, if the conversation kind of veers in that way, but you know it's, it's harder because now they don't, players don't really need to do interviews as much. There's, there's more, uh, there's more distrust in the media. Uh, and so when players launch their own verticals or their own platforms, players who don't have their own channels or pods or interview shows, they gravitate their first.

And there's trust. Yeah, there's trust there. There's shared experiences there. There's, they know they'll be protected. And we've seen NBA probably has like 12 to fit, maybe even 20 guys, active players that have podcasts.

Hockey, I don't think there are any, like active players. I spoke to Nas about it. I can't think of any. Like there's a lot of retired guys, tons of those podcasts, but in the league,

no. And the Kelsey Brothers would be like, wow, when that started with the NFL. You're still in the league they're talking their brothers. Yeah, but that's,

you're right. Like, it's been the swing. of like the media comes interviews to like you know the players tribune and like guys starting to control their own message is saying we don't need to go through these traditional channels yeah and and COVID obviously changed yeah a bunch of things but I had had um uh lunch with gnaz um right after the season maybe like may or something and i i asked him about like doing a pot I'm like nobody in your sport is doing it like in baseball there's only mooky bets and he's working with bleach

report he's the only active guy to have a podcast and his is great every week it's like a big from whenever they're on the road, you know, they rent a hotel room and he has like a hour long, Bobby Witt and, you know, Freddie Freeman is his teammate,

but like, um, a bunch of different guys. Uh, and then in football, there's, you know, the Kelsey brothers,

the St. Brown brothers. There's Von Miller has a pod. Micah Parsons has a pod. Like some big Parsons and the Kelsey brothers are like huge. Big games. Um,

so Nas was like, I've thought about it. And I, I, I kind of want to do one, but just with our, sport if we're on say a four game losing streak and then it's like our day to record it's going to it's going to be hard to come in there like bubbly and like having a good time when you just lost

i don't know seven one to colorado then you're so he's like it's the optics aren't aren't the best and i was like i understand that but like yeah i i said i understand but i hope that somebody breaks the mold and it'd be cool like we're missing a lot of access to be fair aren't we Yeah, like those shows tell you the things you can't get in the other spots. And even if, even if it's athletes, like in hockey, I know the protection of the shield to borrow a phrase thrown around in the NFL. But protection of like it's, we would still get some nuggets. I know like biz and Ryan Whitney, they get amazing stories and often share some of their own to like level the playing playing field. But we'd still like if Brad Marchon.

did a pod and Chuck brothers should do one there's your pod I mean I don't know how like I feel like Brady's got the dad's body and Matthew's got the dad's personality right like Brady's physically imposing and Matthew's big but he ain't that

no but he's got Keith Swagger right and so it's interesting how that but you're right like that would be that'd be a smash hit but but you know the league's just a little too worried about ruffling feathers like oh he's doing a podcast today after losing four and roll

Why isn't he out there shoot more puck? Like it's just this old school nonsense. And I think the fans, and you probably know this too, just like every once in a while looking at the comments section, they would just, because of the way of the hockey culture, I think they would be all over players too.

Like, oh, bro, you're doing a pile? Like, you guys just lost six, five or whatever. I think they would be, they would, the players would feel heat from their fan base as well, unless, unless,

you know, some team is like the 2016 Golden State Warriors and lose like nine games in 82. Like it's not going to happen. So the panthers can do it. That's it. Yeah. Maybe the panthers can do it.

Yeah. But yeah, it's, it's hard. So you know Nazan pretty well because obviously he had the Toronto roots. You said he was one of the guys in the leased room that you could get closer to. He's been here for a couple years. I know the year one, you know, it's interesting. I don't know him terribly well at all in the sense that like you're always aware of me. He's a really good player wins a cup of Colorado.

He's in the biggest market in hockey. So you always got to see a lot of them. You're not unaware of them. But he seems to be a guy that thrives a little. little bit of that chip on his shoulder. I would say that. And I think, you know, for a fan base that didn't know them as well as you would have in Toronto and Colorado, I mean, those markets are so small. You don't see a lot of media out of this. A lot of this U.S., you know, it's a huge city, but it's probably the fourth

biggest entity there. Like, you've got an NFL team. You've got an NBA team. You have a major league baseball team. Like, the spotlight's bigger here. And like year one here, he comes in. It's Darrell, it's not a good start. You could tell the coach and player weren't on the same page. And it wasn't just no. Hubert O was the same thing that year. They went from like a lot of people, I think like Frank picked them to come out of the West,

Saravale, amongst some other inside. Like they were supposed to be great. And they missed the playoffs. Oh, wait, that was in the year that they had that the second round versus Edmonton. That was, uh, so that he came that summer. Oh, because that was Chuck Goddrow, Lindholm. Oh, you're right. You're right. And then Johnny Leaser,

three agency, Matthew ass out. Yeah, and that's what Hubert O and Uighur come in. And then they move Monahan's money to bring NAS in. Right. And you're like, okay, it's a reload.

Like this isn't a team that's torn it down. They're just swapping out different stars here. You know, Hubert O and Johnny had the same number of points that year. Like, this is going to be fine. But you could tell Nause was not on the same page as Daryl. And it wasn't alone.

There's a lot of guys and that the room maybe wasn't as tight as it could have been. And you're just like, man, this is year one of seven. Like, he's not young. This is going to be tough. he's posted two unreal seasons in a row after that to the point where you know publicly in early august he's like i think i should be on the canadian olympic team and i'm like he believes himself he's got the big chip on the shoulder if you tell him he can't do something he will

you know he gets death threats in the playoffs against st louis scores a hatrix the next game like that seems to me when he's at his best is when he needs to be questioned in a way and there are a lot of athletes like that you're right and it's it's a it's a motivation piece that uh like mj when you saw the the show bro he would use anything of yeah and you're like oh my God, like he would, he's like making stuff up to get mad at guys. Yeah. And it's crazy. Like invent beeps, invent griepes, invent grievances and then just go murder someone from 40 and eight and eight or whatnot. Nasi, I think he thrives in that, thrives with a chip on his shoulder. We haven't spoken about that like specifically,

but your point about not being invited to like the, the national camp or whatnot, that's got 35 goals on a team that doesn't score that much. Yeah. And a career year in year, what is it now 11 or 12 no not even no no no I think he came in 17 3 or 34 in October if I'm trying to remember so maybe it's your 10 either way it's like the dudes uh and look you could also play the other game where you're like okay so let's name Canadian centers like well McDavid Crosby McKinnon celebrate okay yeah like there's lots of good centers but like you know he feels personally offended and I'm like I like that for now's I think he's gonna be real good in the fall I yeah it would be great like if you use that grievance to fuel you the whole year.

Let's go. I mean, and wait, in the Monaghan deal, who is, there was a, there's a first round pick that Calgary got, was it, Zane? Who did they draft? No, they had to give a first with Monaghan's money. Oh, they gave up. And that was the pick 16 in this year's draft. Montreal got to use it.

And they traded it to go get Noah Dobson. It was another former first for the flames they traded away. Travis Hamnick with the Islanders. Anyway, that's, there's, don't get a son of that train. My bad, bro. But, uh, but, uh, yeah. it's I don't know like I just I feel like uh you know NAS had the book come out and uh like last year two years ago and last year we're starting to learn about what makes him tick here because

things in Toronto just gets so blunt up for sometimes and they make villains that of people that aren't and I it's interesting like he's he's he's competitive cat like do you enjoy interacting with him love love man he's uh I saw him a few days ago we're in Toronto for the HTA summer fest And I also went a few weeks before that. He had a golf tournament in London, Ontario. Like an annual, right? Yeah, an annual event and spent some time with his family and his cousins and stuff. And his, he was like, his mob runs the show and his dad is like the mayor.

His dad is holds court. Shout out to Sam Cadbury. He's just a wonderful. I can just listen to him tell stories all day. It comes from a great family. So, yeah, I do really enjoy Nas. and I enjoy never like when I do interviews there are very few that I'll tell the person beforehand what I'm going to ask because I want the I want the reactions to be authentic yeah the first time I got

to interview co one-on-one we had to send questions to L.A. Right. Before we got the green light because this is like in the time where his public rating was like very low and he'd gone through like a whole ordeal. Denver incident. Yeah, you know, Colorado. So we were just like, oh, just made them super generic. Like what is his training?

What does he eat? Like what is it? How does Cobb relax and blah, blah, blah. And that didn't ask me to that stuff. I asked him like, can I stay at your home? What is your address? I want to stay with you in your guest house. You got a pool house.

Come on. Help me out. For sure he did. So, yeah, Nas, so I enjoy just catching guys off guard. Again, it's always G-rated. It's not, I'm not doing, neither of us have any interest in doing got-your journalism. Right. We're not out here doing click bait, have clickbait titles to stuff.

Like, we want to enjoy. We want to entertain you. and we hope that you enjoy spending time with us. Whether in this long form conversation or the one, the hundreds that you've had in the past and the thousands that you'll have in the future. So we're not really out here. And even more importantly than that, Ryan is we know that relationship capital is the most valuable resource.

If you screw a guy, that memory is long. You mentioned Rogers earlier. Yeah. First time I hung out, like much earlier in the conference. So first time I hung out with Aaron Rogers, we had burgers in the Valley. It was after the SBs. And we become kind of like, not friendly. And then I was like, yo, let's grab burgers. He's like, all right, cool. And then we changed numbers. And we, but while we're eating burgers at this nondescript little burger spot, he told me of like the five guys in the NFL that he'll never talk to again. Blacklisted. Yeah. And I was like, oh, that person's, oh, and that person's also famous because this person is, well, for the league and but like just you know and and he didn't say specifically how they got on his

bets with one guy he did um but players will even if they say i don't pay attention to that stuff everything goes to their phones and you know what here's another thing that i and i don't think clay will care that i uh tell this part of the story tell this story okay so that's that with rogers yes grievances are filed and they are kept for i don't know how you come back once you, once you violate someone's trust, I don't know if you can. It's not back up running back. It's a star quarterback in the NFL. Yeah.

He's going to tell people. Everyone's gas in this guy now. Clay, uh, oh, my point is about phones. So I've learned that sometimes the best time to text a player is right after the game. Because after they get off the court or the, at the ice, like you naturally, you go check your phone. You, like even maybe, maybe before you go to the shower or a change. You just, you know, just out of force of habit.

Yeah. What am I missing? And you just spoke to your phone. And that's when you'll get a response, like right away. Really? Their phones in their hands in there. So anyway, my point is players read and see everything. If they're not going out to look for it, the group chat or one of their cousins will,

yo, have you seen this? Exactly. It's an entourage I noticed a lot too where some guys might not, you know, they can go look for it if they want, but they know it's probably not good. But then it's like, brothers like, you seen what someone so saying about like did you have a real like bad one that comes to mind we're like oh shoot like something went sideways there's a miscommunication or maybe a segment you did got edited away that the player didn't like it like no no i i've been very careful with that yeah uh and

even socially i don't really i never have like controversial stances or even hard like hot takes or hard takes that's not really my game i'm yeah that's fair my game is just to entertain and i understand, well, early I, I effed up with a couple of players. Like I got numbers and we had a couple of nights out. And then I texted too much. And then I just got like, it was just left on red before being left on red was a thing. Just got iced out. And I was like, oh, I effed this up.

Like I was too eager. And I was always like, hey, man, do you want to do a thing? You want to do anything? Blah, blah, blah, blah. Versus like, you know, how are things? How's your body? How's your ankle? Or like, you know, you know, great win.

last week against the Panthers or whatnot, just treating them like humans versus products or like interviews. And that was, I learned that in 2010, 2010, 2011 and that changed how I, that changed the dynamics with me in athlete relationships. Now,

they are, like, some dudes, I'm an acquired taste. So there are some guys in the NHL who, previously, who had you back right away. Now it's like,

it's like every, like, fourth or fifth text, I'll get a response. So I'm like, I know where I fall. And it's probably my own fault that I've effed this up. But relationship capital, very important. And the timing of when you hit up an athlete, either to say, yo, congrats. I was sick, 30 point game or nice hat trick against Buffalo.

The timing matters too. Yeah. I've always found like when guys, like for our show, it's more like people working in upper management, less players. I always feel like players get more interesting after they retire. Then they can let their guard down tells some of their stories. You're not worried about burying someone that's still playing or a GM that's still working. You get a 50-year-old in, they'll tell you everything.

Whereas, like, you know, you get guys with agents and new contracts coming up. And, you know, like, it's, it's, PR is a big part of a professional alley. These are, you know, $100 million institutions and entities. You got to be careful what you say. But I would always think, like, I don't bug people in front offices around trade deadline. Like, their phones are going nuts. But it's like, like, dust settles a week later, it's like, okay, walk me through how this went here. Like, what was this?

team saying about that guy and you get stuff then but yeah it's the timing thing is is real do you find that the the barrier is a little bit lower based on the timing like I feel like executives are certainly and since you work in the media they're just they're cagey so you're not going to get totally and the other thing is like you might get the full story but I'm not trying to get a trade broken like that's not what I do like there's been an opportunity to it once or twice and I'm just like, no, this isn't my gig. And if, if, you know, somehow this is wrong, like, this isn't who I am. I'm not an insider.

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like i don't for whatever reason someone told me like you just spent a lot of time in calgary i'm like what because like you know we're this little western outposts and you know they're the team's highlights come on once they're done with all the important stuff in toronto and you know everything's in eastern time maybe it just says time doesn't you say eastern time like uh but you know we love the city people that grow up here i think this incredible city for standard living you know mountains close by it's clean you know a lot of people have great jobs here it's a great place to you know have kids grow up but for a toronto guy when did you come out west first and what were your you know initial run-ins in calgary like uh i moved here for love ryan i moved here for my wife is from here

and her business is here and her family and her whole infrastructure's here so leaving so the stop in between toronto and calgary was las vegas and i worked there for a couple of years with Bleach Report. And Vegas is awesome. I understand why Mitchie went to Vegas. And a good friend of mine, Joel Ward is an assistant coach under Bruce Cassidy. And he works for the team. And yeah, having lived there for a couple of years was great.

So moving now moving to Calgary versus Toronto was a big, a big step. But I love my wife. So I moved here. And the city, one of the big differences between Toronto and Calgary is there's a lot more green space here i have two young kids so having playgrounds and parks to take them to is awesome where i lived in the city before i lived if anybody's uh watching this or listening to this knows toronto i lived at bayview and uh baby you and lawrence it's just it's in north york it's nice part of town but it's like there's it's towers skyscrapers everywhere concrete street

here there's talking horns yeah here there's there's pierce is it pierce edward park no uh prince There's Prince's Island. Yeah. By the water. Yeah. And then a little bit further down, there's something pure or something. Anyway, there's the river coursing through the city is beautiful. And I, once a week, I'll take my boys down there and we'll do like a, I don't know, seven or eight K walk.

It's wonderful. In Toronto, we have Queens key and we have the lake, but it smells. It's like, you don't swim in the lake. You don't swim in the lake. That's a big thing about a lake in a city. If you can't swim in it, it's really not the man to be. It's one of the great lakes where you get, so you get in there, you come out with a third eye. It's not great.

Or an appendage on your shoulder or whatnot. So that's, and the Calgary is more culturally diverse than I thought. When I take my boys to the library, the Central Library is beautiful. It is, I love going to the Central Library. That's where there is like, like first generation Canadians, they're all there. And I'm looking around, I'm seeing these like four-year-olds or six-year-olds. I'm like, oh, man, like this. this kid's probably a violin maestro over there this kid is probably going to help us

either from the aliens or the AI and I'm just throwing around like positive stereotypes whatnot but um it was uh I mean the stampede is in his culturally diverse which I had a fun night out uh shout out to Cowboys and Dave earner that whole outfit yeah night I saw McClomor do I remember a single McClomore song I do not it was a great show but it's it's a nice city man and I and I I look forward to the new building opening next is it next season to fall 27 so you're okay fall 22 years and how that the whole development around there a couple of hotels j w marriott the paville like i look forward to that and uh i look forward to seeing dust and wolf you know as sign that man connie i mean sign that man listen hellibuck's getting

older shes thirkin's getting older but brobsky's getting older you know like there's there's there's room to and he's the bridge between like the older dudes and like the younger but like there's they're wolfie bro there's there could be a future star there yeah it's a special player i just keep saying like the way the cap's growing and what you've seen him dominated every single level from like junior a hl like rookie only lane hudson could top him last year that that season wins a rookie the year most years the last 10 and it's like what like is eight million bucks going to be expensive in eight years no so like sign this guy to an eight year extension you got him for nine years you've locked up his entire prime and they'll build around

Yeah. Sounds easy over here. Come on, Connie. Yeah, quarterback GMs over here. And you know what's funny? Or GM quarterbacks, I should say. You come to Calgary and it's not a media mecca and that's the hardest part I imagine. And not only that I shouldn't say because like you're an arts and culture guy. Toronto is a mecca for arts and culture.

And, you know, I live there a couple times over a few summers. And it's just like every artist, every like weekend, there's a different festival. You've got three of the four big sports. You've got IndyCar. like it's just culturally incredibly diverse and everything's happening no city is that busy in this country you know Montreal can hang a bit in the summer but to leave that which is obviously a big staple of your brand is like it's got that feel of the city and arts and culture but also like that's where everyone's headquarters are that's where the score was that's where tsn is that's where cbc is

that's where sports night is like that's tough it is um there's less there's less importance being being in a major market in the way that the media is produced or media is produced media and content's produced now versus like 10 years ago sure the biggest example of that and this is i'm nowhere near this person i'm like 1% of this person is pat maccuffy studio is in indianapolis yeah he could go anywhere anywhere to sban and stayed in indianapolis they didn't have to go to bristol exactly yeah so i mean like i mean he is and and in the podcast space joe rogan it's another one like The guy was in L.A. And, you know, had his studio in his garage and then just moved to Texas, move to Austin.

And people, like, Joe Rogan's not going to anyone. Like, you have to go there. Same with Pat McAfee. LeBron went there. LeBron and he fired off a bunch of hot takes. So could what you're building or could maybe what I could build out here be something similar? Yeah. Yeah, a lower scale.

So, I mean, the sky's the limit. And there's less, less importance. And now, granted, there are fewer people coming through here. Yeah. whether it's artists. You're not getting NFL teams passing through. Like I might have to go to like if the Vikings come up to Winnipeg for like either a preseason game or part of their camp, I might have to go to Winnipeg.

That's a big if, Gabby. I don't know what that's happening. Well, listen, there's a growing fan base. Like Winnipeg weirdly is like the Canadian hub for the Vikings. Oh, yeah. Vancouver, Seattle out here. Is it the Broncos or Chiefs? The problem here is that like we're a rare instance in this country.

Like Calgary isn't close to an American city. right like like a big one no like you have to get on a plane you can't drive the one in a day yeah yeah like you can go to billings montana but like what you got single-like baseball like no whereas like you know you got buffalo across the way Detroit's not far Montreal Boston aren't too far Vancouver Seattle right there it's like here you got like the empty estate below you so what what is the either anecdotally or if you're in fantasy football like what is what's the NFL fandom I think like there's a lot of the bills love that you'd see just because of all the being based out of Ontario.

Okay. And then like when the Seahawks were good with neon, you can tell the new Seahawks fans all neon. It's never the gray John Kittner, Ricky Waters shit. When they were actually good, there's a lot of Seahs. I don't know how much that was bandwagon.

Shout out to Sean Alexander too. Yeah. He won MVP and they went to the, I think they lost the pit for it. Four touchdown game. He was a monster fantasy. Yeah, that's right. But yeah,

like it's a, it's a total smorgas board. Like there isn't a team here for, there isn't one team. A anecdotally from like a fantasy football league that I'm in. Niners, Broncos, and Chiefs are the three teams that have like a few guys

in this one, and this is like such a stupid small sample size. Those are the three teams that have resonated in this particular group chat. And Niners Chiefs make sense. They both have been to the Super Bowl lot. Yeah. And those are like generally just popular franchises. That's right.

So yeah, I know a bunch of Broncos fans that you mentioned. Niners fans for sure. They're around. It's like I got buddies that are Philadelphia, Tennessee, you know, Bandwagon. Patriot fans are going away, whatever. Damn Ward, let's go. Yeah. Who's your squad last thing before?

Well, so my grandpa, it was Saskatoon. And when he... He's from Saskatoon? He grew up there, like, big Saskatoon guy. And the winters are just gnarly, right? Like, imagine here in the winter, but just windier and colder. No thanks. And so he would go down to San Diego in the winter.

We'd go visit. So I got to go to a bunch of Chargers games, like every other winter. You go down and you do like the... When you were young, it was like the wild animal part. or SeaWorld in the zoo. And then he's getting older. You're like Chargers, Padres, Disneyland, and Anaheim. So charges naturally.

And, yeah, like the peak of my fandom there was like the Lodenian Tomlinson, 32 touchdown season. 2006, I think you won MVP. I think it was 12. No, it would have been six. You're right, because I was working at Fort St. John. It was six, seven by hockey years. Okay. You're right.

He, I think he ran for 28. He caught three and he threw for one. I think he, they ran him out on a bootleg or something. What, one of the other. Yonk. Touchdown. L. T was a beast.

Yeah, he was, he was awesome. One of, I think maybe there are three running backs that ever won. Maybe three in our light time. Adrian Peterson, Ladanian Tomlinson,

and maybe Sean Alexander. Yeah, I know he was on the cover of Madden, which that might usually have a big year if you're on the cover, the year before. Yeah. No love for the running back. May,

Sey Kwan might get one, uh, I mean, he wasn't MVP this year was Josh. He's not going to, this year. Sorry. Yeah. If it's not this year, then the guy has to jump, does he have to jump over someone reverse and then do a frigging backflip?

Yeah. And then score an 80-yarder to- Sorry, it didn't score enough 99-yarders. Yeah, those are all 80-plus, darn. So, okay, your last bit at Sportsnet, you leave TSN, you had a podcast there for a while. I did, yeah. Touch that a bit. And then the landscape in our business changed a ton a few years ago with the, I guess softening of like gray area of legal gambling into legal you know we got a bet

three six fine sign uh bet three six five sign a little to that three six five uh but that's that's changed a lot of things you know media has been shrinking but you know cable people have been cutting cords but like sports has been very different and the the wagering side becoming legal has been a really big driver of a lot of content just your sort of thoughts and experiences with pre and post you know wagering money yeah I Canadians love to gamble. And it's every year, I mean, play Alberta in 23, rated in 4.4 billion in revenue.

And then 24, 5.3 billion in revenue. And who knows, in 25, we'll hear it in like March, how much. And that's just one operator. Yeah, that's not the biggest book. Correct. That's one of many. When I was at, so my role at sports and I was the executive producer of, strategy and betting content.

Yeah. And our insights team would send us reports every six months about how the public is experiencing betting. And it was 50-50. Half the audience hated it. And the other half were like either casual fans or more experienced bettors or had some interest in betting. But generally for the audience, just seeing a betting or some kind of gaming commercial every

second or third commercial break. To them, it seemed like it was just an avalanche. And I understand that. And we understood the criticism, but wagering in sports isn't going. It's been around since they started racing horses or dogs in like, I don't know, 1901. When dudes are running the 100 meter dash naked in Athens,

people were better than I. Yeah, the first limit, I think it was 1896. So, you know, and I'm sure even before that, if you could race or fight, someone's putting some money, either putting some stones on it or some silver pieces, or whatever. Yeah.

So now, as you mentioned, as the media landscape is changing, some media operations are being funded by, like some of the, yeah, some of the, not the revenue, but some of the costs are being absorbed by these gaming operations.

And listen, they don't need creators to be like, you, bet on this, bet on this. It's just like it's helping to support conversation around sports, whether on a podcast or a show or whatnot. And I personally, I'm a bit of an experience better. I mean, going to work in Las Vegas and our production office was in the Caesar's Palace

hotel. Yeah. And we produced shows at the Caesar's Palace in the sportsbook every Thursday and Sunday. Like that was a life-changing experience for me. Because I before- Sharp's all around you, man. I met a couple. I met a couple, like one whale who were like, we were like, hey, let's just do a dog.

they do not the whales like the the people that bet six seven figures on a game or ah and outcome they do not want to be identified they do not want the IRS to come oh so yeah we saw your little video with glitch report uh let's have a conversation so they they want to remain anonymous because they're you know there there's money being exchanged for now the the one of the and listen i know i enjoy gambling, sports gaming for entertainment. And again, according to the research that our insights team would do at sports end, most Canadians wager for entertainment. Yeah.

In social settings, it's a March Madness pool. It's the start of NBA or NHL playoffs or it's Super Bowl. You know, just it's, it's whereas our American counterparts, the majority of those betters bet to make money versus just for like having another layer of fun in the, uh, taking in the, uh, taking in the, sport. Interesting. And it's,

listen, it's, it's serious. And I know that gambling has affected many families, and it's a serious thing. It will also, it will also, the integrity of sports lies in the balance when,

you know, the FBI or the Gaming Commission finds, like, lower tier players that are trying to make 80 grand on an under three and a half rebounds like John T. Porter did. I think it was a Cleveland Guardians pitcher. Oh, yeah.

First pitch of the first pitch of an inning being a ball. Like little minor stuff that doesn't affect game outcomes, but it's just you open that crack. Yeah. And you will be caught. Like there's, in this, there's no way you won't be caught. So the squeeze is not worth the juice. So these, these entities, these surveillance entities that exist are actually, um, protecting the integrity of the games.

And I know we live in a everything's rigged culture. Sure. Experts is everywhere. And everything, like there's, there's no free will or it's just everything is like, but when it comes to gaming, there's, there's no way you won't be caught. So that and the, the, uh, the deterrent of either your career is over or you're, you're going to be looked at as some version of a cheater forever. It's just not worth it.

No, no. So stupid to do it. Now you can, you can bet. You just can't bet on the sport that you play. Right. So when you're teamed with like running this. department for sports net like it is a bit of a challenge in the sense that like it's not just like hey make this bet i know when when it became legal in ontario that kind of was how old some people

started but it's just like you're not going to win overtime you're not a sharp if you were you wouldn't be telling anyone you'd be in Vegas that's what charms too um and and i and the people that talk say oh my it's just adnauseum every commercial yeah well there's a lot about buy ad space and it they haven't been allowed to advertise for ever so they're going to start advertising right yeah so i i i understand some of the frustration there, but at the same time, like, God, I love putting two bucks on a team when they're down one gold and third. And that is no money that affects my life. And that is not

keep my kids from going to college. But now I care. I'm with you. I'm with you. So I think that that's sort of the secret sauce. So when you're tasked with running this partner for sports net, how do you sort of take your, like, what is good gambling content right now? Right now? Not a show, but like

what are you really trying to provide that book like 365? They're saying, hey, we're a partner with you, we build a sudden. Or is that the challenge, I guess. That would be a challenge. It would just, it would like make gambling a part of the regular editorial content.

If you're having a conversation about the flames, then you could sprinkle in, oh, well, these guys are 15 to 1 favorites to win the Pacific Division and 30 to 1 favorites to win the Stanley, just like small mentions like that, but more important.

Rather than saying you're an underdog, say, you know, they're plus 200. Just change terminology. No, you can, you can say that.

You can say that. I just think for it to have a greater adoption and make it more palatable to the audience that doesn't like sports betting, just sprinkle it in to use a sports vernacular. A little bit of seasoning every once in a while. Don't hit the audience over the head with all right. I mean, you could have a segment like, hey, this is our play of the day. That's 30 seconds of a one hour show. It's only 30 seconds of a one hour show.

Yeah, we're about two hours and that's kind of how we roll. Yeah. And I think that that's the right approach. But again, yeah. And if you've got, you know, 30 seconds of TV lines, a whole difference in 30 seconds on podcast. That might bother people on a TV show, right? Yeah. You know, and it has.

Yes. And with your particular response, Bed 3, 365, when I was at Sportscent, that book, that operation is very much like, hey, we just want to be a part of the regular sports conversation. We don't want any dialogue or any, any kind of suggestions for bets or for wagers. Just let the information. speak for itself. If you're speaking about someone on a heater, I mean,

I would say on a heater, but like if the host, if you're talking about, hey, this person scored an eight trade games, which we would say as a heater, then, hey,

and then they're playing the Chicago Blackhawks, like, hey, this person and in the last five games they played the Blackhawks, they scored three times, like, oh, that's telling the audience, like, here's some information.

Here's some facts. And then use this information to inform your wager, if you're going to wager. But don't say, hey, this is the play today. So I think you guys are doing a great job with that. What's next for Cabby?

I mean, how's father had been treating you? You got two young kids. Man, it's like you've never realized kindergarten or grade one was such a big thing until you're trying to keep kids busy all day. And it's like, oh, my God, all day. I'm not. Oh, it's going to be. You're not there yet.

Not even there yet. My guys and my little boys are 18 months and three years old. So it's hard. We're doing it. And my wife is in her algorithm looks very, different than my algorithm when we open our phones. So I think this is called the attachment theory where we're raising our kids without nannies, babysitters, and daycare or day homes. So they're with us full on. Yeah. It's like it is so we have to play man to man defense. Sometimes it's like

you know, I'll have the mornings where I'll go work and and just I literally go to the library in my neighborhood and that's where I can I don't have any distractions. I'm not getting up to go to the fridge or go to the pantry or have one of the little guys in my office when I'm trying to knock out emails or work on presentations. And then I'll, you know, in the second area, after the nap, then I'll go for the walks by the river or whatnot. But what I'm working on next, I started a small agency with some friends, some former colleagues, a guy from Red Bull and a guy from Vice and Shopify.

We have a colleague in the U.S. as well. So we're trying to connect some, connect brands and teams and athletes with creators and in the commerce space. I know it's kind of highfalutin what I'm describing, but that's kind of the easiest way to understand it. And I'll be working with the CBC in the winter, um, contributing on the Winter Olympics coverage in Milan, which will be awesome. And I hope that I'll have an interview with Connor or Nate or Sid, you know, the, the second last day or the, of the, of the tournament. And it's like, I could smell the bud light or whatever they'll be drinking. I better be that. Maybe Peroni. Come on, boy.

Yeah, sure. Yeah, you're right, Feroni or whoever, I think, I think Budwiser responses. So whatever, you know, but light or whatnot in the, in the dressing room after they, we don't have bar burner blondes over there. So don't waste time looking. I might have to bring these in Calgary. I might have to bring some over there. I'll send you home with some.

Thank you, sir. That's what I got cooking right now. That's exciting. And honestly, like, it's a very untraditional path in media. Like, you found a way to really, like, carve, like, no one will confuse anyone else for Cabby ever. like and that's a huge testament to you for being not only your authentic self but being able to lean into the traits that make you the person that people love and so to take that now into this space with brands and teams like i think that'll be a smash hit thanks we're trying we're trying to

build some cool things yeah so keep those boys busy you're in town let us know when you're around. We'll do. You know, when, when, when, when mom's full on got, got, uh, the young menaces, you can get out and, uh, hey, be my escape hatch coming back to Barnburner. Anytime. Anytime. But, but honestly, thank you for doing this.

I, I know that you're all, you know, we're always in the stuff we're in and you don't get the perspective that other people have. But to sit down with you today, after watching the content you've created for 20 years, like it's really cool. You change the way that a fan could interact with. their players, you know, to get behind the scenes and to see the personalities come out rather than, you know, the traditional press conference style interviews. So kudos on your incredible work. Excited about what you got to come and also excited. There's a couple Cabby juniors

running around our city here. Thanks, man. Thanks, Ryan. You're very kind. I appreciate the conversation today, bro. Right on. Thank you. Cabral Richards, cabby on the street, joining us here in studio for Barnburner. Thanks for watching.