Halford & Brough in the Morning - 2026 Has Not Started Off Well For The Canucks

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss yesterday's Canucks road loss to the Red Wings (3:00), plus they preview this weekend's wild card action with NFL.com's Nick Shook (28:04). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough. Yeah, I mean, it's frustrating to lose. You know, it's never a good feeling. This is the worst day of my life. Chalbars! Vancouver's 601 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday.

It is Halford and his broth and is Sports Night 650. We are coming live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adon, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halpert and Broughton in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Make 2020. your year to move better and step stronger with Kintech custom orthotics.

We've got a big show ahead on a Friday. The guest list today is the Do-It Morning Drive, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group, and it begins at 6.30. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join the program. It's Wild Card Weekend, everybody. We'll run through all six games this weekend, beginning the Rams and Panthers, on Saturday afternoon, taking you all the way through to Monday night football and the Texans and the Steelers.

Our big NFL preview with Nick Shook goes at 6.30 this morning. 7 o'clock AJ from AJ's Pizza on his Broadway is going to join the program. A reminder to ask us anything Friday. $100 gift card to AJ's pizza for the best ask us anything. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650. Hashtag it, AUA, and put a pizza emoji into your text. You could win a $100 gift card to AJ's. 7.30. Sam McKee's going to join the program.

He, of course, from Real Kipperenborn. Leafs talk on Fan 590. Canucks play the Leafs tomorrow in Toronto. Leifes of won six of their last eight. Sam's going to join us at 7.30 to preview tomorrow's game. At 8 o'clock, Rick Dollywall is going to join the program. Now, normally I turn this over to resident show handler Jason Brough, but I actually have the Dollywall info today.

Dollywall texted. I can't DM Bruff. Something is wrong with my DM. give him my cell if he wants any additional info. Tomorrow we will talk about the game. Kiefer Sherwood Update. Trades and Coots Trade. I have some interesting info.

Rick has all of our phone numbers. Including our, the dogs. All of them. All of ours. It's an amazing thing. We've always just communicated on DM. It's incredible. I did not know that.

For some reason, I don't know. I think Elon Musk didn't like all the conversations. conversations Rick and I were having, so he just shut us down. He was like, the spelling is even too much for me, Elon Musk. We're doing a giveaway today. As a free speech advocate, there are limits. Please stop talking. It's too much.

Whatever this is, it's not speech. It's too much. We are doing a giveaway today also. It is day two of our Chris Stapleton, All-American Road Show Tour ticket giveaway. We're given away a pair of tickets to see this individual. I'm not familiar with this music. This summer, July 22nd, 2026 at Rogers Arena.

If you're caller number 5 at 8 a.m. This morning, you'll win a pair of tickets to see Chris Stapleton's All-American Roadshow. 604-280-650. That number again, 604-280-0-650. Caller number 5 at 8 a.m. tickets to see Chris Stapleton this summer. That's the program. There's a lot involved in it, but we got a lot to get to.

So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened?

Missed it? You missed that? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCS.a.com. The big news yesterday in the Vancouver Canucks 5-1 loss in Detroit to the Red Wings. was Patrick Cain. I will start by congratulating Patrick Cain,

scoring twice in the game, including one into an empty net, and scoring his 500th career NHL goal in the process as the Red Wings, beat the Vancouver Cucks 5-1 at Little Cesar's Arena on Thursday. Shall we play the call? Shall we give Patrick Cain, his flowers?

Just the fifth American player ever, in my opinion. The fifth American player to score 500 goals in the National Hockey League. Here's what it sounded like last night, fittingly, I guess, given his years of torture the Vancouver Cadax. Patrick Cain, goal number 500 and a 5-1 win for the Red Wings. Every guy in a red jersey on the ice, they're trying to get him the park.

Pop up that way, there's Key. Oh, boy. For 500. He scores. Patrick Kane, showtime, 500. I remember when Patrick Cain was a young man, stiffing cab drivers, and potentially assaulting them.

It's been a long time since then, and now he scored 500 NHL goals. Congratulations to Patrick Kane. That was probably one of the lone takeaways from the game last night, I was being honest. Well, I was prepping the show last night, and I realized that from a Canucks perspective,

and we are a Canucks show, there was absolutely nothing interesting to discuss. The game happened. The Canucks weren't terrible, but they weren't great either. They ended up losing 5-1. but it was closer than the score indicated. It wasn't a bad game in terms of flow and entertainment.

It was over fairly quickly. But it wasn't memorable in the sense that it, what a terrific game that was. Jake DeBress scored on the power play. Yep. You know, he does that. Wasn't an ugly goal. Wasn't a beauty.

The Canucks didn't get enough from Leas Pedersen, Brock Besser, or a Vander Kaine at five on five. Have we talked about that before? Probably. Lankinen was fine, not spank. spectacular. The Canucks have 39 games left in the regular season.

Uh-huh. Like that's, that's, I actually, I actually, it's ask us anything Friday, I'll ask the listeners, from a Canucks perspective, so we all know Patrick Kane was the story, right? Yes. And the Red Wings, that was an important win for them.

Every win is important for that team that's trying to break their playoff drought and trying to win the division. But from a Canucks perspective, what's do it out for you. Did you think any of the young guys had a particularly good or bad game? I thought Zeve Boulliam struggled a little bit,

but not so much that you were super concerned. He was frustrated yesterday. He smashed his stick yesterday. Okay, that's interesting. That's good, good, good. There's a stick smash. There's a stick smash. Was there an interesting statistic from the box score?

Did anyone have a particularly good or bad game from that perspective? I checked the text inbox. during the post-game show. And I was prepping the show. I was like, well, I'll see what people are talking about. A few people were to seem mad at Elias Pedersen. We could talk about him for the bill at that time.

Yep. You know? A couple people have, as a matter of fact, right now in the Dunbar Lumber text message. Is he controversial? Is that why? People are. Yeah. But like what, so what are, is anyone texting in right now about, like, what was interesting?

I know this is my job to come up with interesting things to talk about the game. I'm usually like this approach. You just ask people. No, I can usually find something. And I'm like, I really want to talk about that. I think we could really get into that. And I think my takeaway from the game is actually there was nothing really to talk about. Not talking about anything is the talking point.

Yeah, is that not in itself something to talk about? The fact that there was nothing to talk about? Okay, possibly, except for the fact that, as Jason Astuteley pointed out, there's 39 of these bad boys left, right? If you listened to Adam Foots, and God bless you, if you're hanging around for this part of the proceeding still, his end of game media availability. He is right now in,

we just got to move on to the next one mode. And he's been like that for a while. But right now, there's zero. How many of these left? There's zero analysis going on. Like, we, you know, the most obvious ones are we can't give up a two nothing lead. I think, you know, there are different variations

of we shouldn't be this bad at hockey, but we are. And then it's, well, we got to just pack up and move on to the next one. And that is the sentiment right now. is we just move on to the next one. Just move on to the next one. Just move on to the next one.

Tyler Myers in his post-game media availability, we played a bit of it in the intro. He expressed a bit of frustration. Yeah, the details. Details. I got to get back to the details. He astutely pointed out that they would like to win and not lose and that it doesn't feel good when you lose,

but you got to move on to the next one. Yeah. And that is a very appropriate yet worrisome, trend, narrative, talking point, however you want to phrase it and frame it, with 39 games left in the regular season. Here, I've got another Ask Us Anything. I have one too, but we'll go with yours first. Okay. What are the Canucks selling right now?

The next one. Because they've got a bunch of games left in the regular season. What are they, are they even selling hope? The next one. Because there doesn't seem to be a lot of hope out there. So what are they selling that the fan base can get behind? Zeev Buhiam is Zeev, here's, okay, is Ziv Buyam the main selling point right now, or is it whoever they pick first in the draft?

Is he the plan? Is he the selling point? Again, this is where I struggle to understand what the Canucks are doing. And I'll add one more thing. if I owned the team, I'd be absolutely furious at all the guys that I'm paying big bucks. I'd be itching to ship some guys out, if only to save some money. How is there no furor at his management group that put this roster together? Elyas Pedersen, Marcus Pedersen, Brock Besser.

that's over $20 million in combined salary. It's what, $170 million, $180 million in total commitments? The management group recommended that spending. Now, I'm sure there were some opinions from the owners on it too, but they recommended giving up a first round pick to get one of those guys, Marcus Pedersen. The management group was also well aware that Quinn Hughes might leave,

and they still recommended that that spending take place. They were well aware that Brock Besser needed a good, well, they should have been, needed a good center to play with, and that he struggled without J.T. Miller, and yet they still recommended that the Canucks extend Brock Besser. Like, I don't know, I just, if I were the owner of team,

I'd be like, get some guys out of here because I'm kind of mad at them. The closest thing that I've heard Adam Foote come to publicly and by publicly, I mean, through the media, criticizing any of his players was actually the previous game against Buffalo, where after they fell behind 2-0, and we played the audio on the show, he said that was the moment in which we were floundering, and I'm paraphrasing here, we were floundering, and we needed our leadership group to step up and calm the waters, and it didn't happen. This veteran group right now, which by the way, they should all be on notice.

Everyone should be on notice because what's going on right now after trading away Quinn Hughes is the sort of standard issue challenge you put to veteran guys when your captain and leader and best player goes. It's like we're going to need other guys to step up. We're going to need other guys to show the young incoming players like Liam O'Grath and Steve Boeum how to handle adversity, how to try and win games, how to do the league. little things and how to, you know, play with those details that they talk about so much. And the veteran group responded by doing none of that. They're all on the side of a milk carton, essentially, and the ones that are trying are kind of screwing out more often than not. I like the game that Philip Hironic is having.

There's a handful of exceptions. He's playing well. Hironic, I think you could say, is putting in a good honest effort and making his paycheck. But there's some other guys that, and this isn't just a regular moment, I know it feels like they're playing out the string, but the head coach is very much issuing a challenge to these guys to step up and be leaders. Now, this is the further part of this conversation is,

why on earth would you keep these guys around as culture builders or culture carriers when in the moment they are showing you that either they can't do it or they're not interested in doing it? The culture of the team right now is let's get this game over with so we can go to the next one. And then when that one starts, let's get that game over with so we can go to the next one.

And then when that game is over with is let's get on the plane and go back home so we can play another game and get that one over. And then eventually the season will be over and we can go golfing or something. They could hang a banner right now. The Vancouver Canucks,

let's get this over with because that's what the rest of the season has in store. And if that's the case, and you've issued a challenge for some of these veteran guys to maybe not necessarily make that the case, it's failed spectacularly. So, yeah, they should be, I mean, someone texted in yesterday about Connor Garland, how they miss

Connor Garland, dragging people into the fight and challenging and working hard. I'm like, he brings all those attributes for sure. I don't even think that he can pull this collective group out of its whatever this is, a funk or malaise or whatever. Or lack of talent, too, and maybe they recognize it. And I think a lot of these guys, whether they like it or not, or whether they're no trade clause, can keep them from getting it or not, could probably use a change of scenery.

I think everything about this group could use a change of scenery. Of course, you go back to the problem of, well, first of all, the no move clauses, but also do these guys have a market? Does Brock Besser have a market right now? That's a good question. I think I really do think that Brock in the right situation is a good player and can be valuable as a complementary player. I think he is. Now, would I be a little concerned that he's nearing 30 and he's never been the fastest guy and he's got a few years left on quite a few years left on his deal?

Yeah, I would be concerned. That would be the thing. You know, Pedersen's got a massive contract. And I would be concerned about taking that on with some of the things that have happened here in Vancouver. If you're trying to, if you're thinking about acquiring a player with that contract and then you're like, let's see what's happened in the last couple of things. of years in Vancouver and you had the riff with J.T. Miller and you can say even if you excuse that and you go, well, we all know JT. That was JT's fault. So that was JT's fault, right? Okay. So that's in your mind. What about the criticisms from his own team, the management group, the coaching staff,

that he wasn't putting the amount of work in that he needed to? What about all the times they asked him to step up and be a leader, and he didn't seem interested in that. Is that a guy we want to add to the team? Yeah, you want to keep that around for sure. Just give it another chance. Next time. Next time, it might be different. In our team, he'll thrive.

Now, I think I want to pivot off the Canucks here, while we've got a few minutes left in the opening segment. There are some tire fires right now, non-Connucks division, that are raging throughout the National Hockey League. Last night, a few of them were on display. And in particular in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, there are fires and tires burning everywhere. So I'm going to start by reading the statement that the Ottawa senators released Thursday evening in which they categorically denied online rumors regarding goalie Linus Allmark and his ongoing, this is still active, personal leave of absence. This is from general manager and president Steve Stales.

Quote, our organization, was completely disappointed to read the completely fabricated and false stories that are spreading around social media about our hockey club. Linus is away from the team for personal reasons, and he has the entire organization's support. We are disgusted that outside forces are attempting to disrupt our hockey club. This statement will put an end to the ridiculous speculation that is spread online. Did he post that on true social?

He did not. It had that sound to it. Did an official NHL franchise has actually used the word trolls and their press release? In this instance, yeah. I edited it for brevity, but there was some allusions to trolls and sickos and everything else. No, they actually said trolls. I'm aware. That's what I just said.

I edited it for brevity. I didn't read that part on it. So what's the exact line, the trolls line? I don't have it in front of me. Oh, okay. Let me find. Okay. It's amazing.

I couldn't believe when I read it. I thought it was like a parody. account at first. When I saw that thing, I was like, this isn't a real press release. Is it? Oh, my God. That's the new style of press releases, though. It's just like internet comment style. Internet comment style press releases. How do you combat internet comments by becoming the internet comments? So the interesting thing here. The interesting thing is how dumb that was to release that statement because I had heard none of those

rumors. And the first thing that I did, because I'm a human being, was, huh, what are the rumors and then I easily searched them I found them and I was like huh that's interesting I'm not going to share them but like I would imagine that

thousands upon thousands of people did the exact same thing possibly tens of thousands this is the exact line this is the actual line for the press release okay we ask that people respect his privacy but clearly that request was not heard by the lowest forms of trolls and sick people who scour the internet. Can you read the last sentence of the statement? Read the last sentence of the statement. This statement will put an end to the ridiculous speculation that is spread online. I don't think it will.

Narrator, it did not. It made it works. So as this is going on, I'm blown away. This is a real press release. Well, though, they have a history of fighting the internet with the internet. The scales don't have a guy next to him like, Should we edit this maybe? Can we change it a little bit? Has anyone heard of the Streisand effect? But he has a guy beside him saying, go send it. And that guy is the owner, Michael And Lauer, because he does not like this either. You'll remember last year, the Ottawa senators also combated online rumors about Brady Kachuk

and his apparent infatuation from the New York Rangers. The New York Rangers allegedly, and again, reportedly on the internet, were interested in acquiring Brady Kachuk, and they fired out. a statement saying that these online rumors were harmful and accused the Rangers of soft tampering. Right. So this isn't the first time that the senators have gone this route. Now, the more difficult thing here is that with the Kachuk thing, you could say what the rumors were publicly, right?

You could say, well, the rumors are that the New York Rangers are actively interested in trying to acquire Brady Kachuk. In this instance, journalistic ethics and quite frankly probably legal reasons, we can't say what the rumors are, but everyone's interested in finding them now. So while I don't encourage you to go to social media platforms and look for them, they are very easy to find. And I will leave it at that. Also, the senators lost 8-2 last night.

In a related story, they had to play both goalies last night, Merlin and Mad Mads Sogard. Didn't they put, didn't they do the double switch too? Yes. And then they signed James Reimer to a PTO because that will solve all of the problem. They intend to sign them to a regular deal, too. Oh, yeah, they're just waiting. He has to clear waivers. So they don't expect.

It's a new backup for Allmark apparently. They don't expect Linus Allmark to be back anytime soon. I guess, hey, what's going on with him? Yeah. Do you have a timeline on this? Let me do some quick Googling. The senators have requested to please not look this up online. Oh, man.

One of the ask us anythings that we had in the hopper was, hey, when is an NHL coach going to be fired? Well, Sheldon Keith stepped to the table. You might be next. Sheldon Keith, who we talked about a couple days ago. As a matter of fact, I think it was yesterday after the 9-0-0 loss that the Devils suffered to the Islanders, Sheldon Keefe was feeling the heat for leaving Jacob Markstrom-In-Net for all nine of those goals. Well, the Devils did not respond to whatever message Sheldon Keefe was sending, because last night they lost another uninspired for one game to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

And after the game, Sheldon Keefe was asked about his job security. We got the clip right here. Here is under fire and potentially soon to be fired head coach, Keith talking about his job security. Shelton, are you concerned about your job security if these struggles continue? That's out of my hands. It's not in my control. Like I said, I like a lot about our game here.

I know what this team needs. I'm going to get them going, but I'm also well aware of the reality of the business and how it works. But I'm going to focus on getting our team ready for the next game and keep building here. To me, this is, we can use this as an organization as a great opportunity to take great steps in the big picture. Because we've got a lot of things that we need to get better at. Like, you know, and when we lose focus on that and we get ahead of ourselves, these kind of things happen. We got work to do to become a real hockey team. I think there's a perception that we were a real hockey team before the work was put in.

And you get exposed. And that's to me where we're at. We've got to keep on building our game. And you see lots of elements out there. It's closer than you think some of those pucks fall in the first period. Some of these chances we win this hockey game here today. But that's where we're at right now. And we're going to keep working it.

And I'm going to keep working on it. Part of coaching is you've got to deal with crisis. and challenges. These kind of things excite me. I believe I can be part of the part of the solution here. And I'm going to keep doing my job to find the answers.

So as a one day when I get fired, probably in the middle of a show, I'm going to start up the Mike Alfred PR firm. And one of my things is when someone asks you, as a hockey coach about your job security, you should not say the words, we've got work to do to become a real hockey team. If you want to be a real hockey team,

If you want to keep your job, if you want to keep that job, you should not highlight the fact that you are not a real hockey team while you're in charge of the hockey team. I know what he was trying to say. Yeah. And God bless him for trying it. That was a minute and a half of uninterrupted off the dome, like just spitting bars. Never been a fan.

Never been a fan of Keith. No. The quote was, we've got work to do to become a real hockey team. There was a perception that we are a real. real hockey team before we put the work in. Can you imagine having him, if you're a player on the team and he's talking like that in the room? Like, what?

I'm pretty sure it was real tonight, buddy. They've been outscored 16 to 2 in their last three games. That's very real. It's just his tone. It's kind of elementary schoolish. A little bit. A little bit. Elementary school teacher.

He's saying we still have a lot to work on. Last I checked, we're in almost mid-January now. And who's in charge of making sure that everyone's on the right path? That's Sheldon Keith. Oh, I probably should have said that. It is nice to watch the devil's fan base implode, though, because they didn't get Quinn Hughes. It was very funny to watch. They're turning on both Hughes brothers, right?

Like, if you read the social media comments, they're like, get Jack out of here, too. Are all three of them going to end up in Minnesota? Is Bill Garron going to be the one to pull it all off? That would be a very funny resolution to this whole thing. Like, who could have thought at the end of the end of the year? year that all three Hughes brothers would be playing for a different hockey team. And then they suck in Minnesota. That's what I want.

Can't get out of the first round. All right, we've got to go to break. Coming up, we're going to turn our attention to the National Football League. It's wild card weekend, everybody. Very excited for six playoff games on the slate. Saturday, Sunday money. Nick Shook, one of our favorites from NFL.com, is going to join us next to break it all down. You're listening

to the Halford & Brub Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Kinnock Central on Sportsnet 650, from exclusive interviews to insider scoops and post-game breakdowns. We've got it all. Tune in weekdays 4 to 6 p.m. on radio and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 633 on a Friday. It's Fiesta Friday here on the Halford.

And Rough show on Sportsnet 650. Of course it's a fiesta. It's wild card weekend in the National Football League. That's when the loser playoff teams have to play games. Imagine not getting a buy through the first round of the playoffs. It's pretty embarrassing, honestly. the Rams. I'm actually quite scared of them.

You are listening to the Halford & Brubb show on Sportsnet 650. Halford in Brub the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at Sands dash trustee for more.

We are an hour one of the program. Nick Shook from NFL.com is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour one of this program is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's Premier Metal Recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them in

1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. It is time now for our NFL preview brought to you by the Clayton Public House. Nick Shook from NFL.com joins us here now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. What up, Nick? What's going on, guys? I think it's too late

to say Happy New Year to you, but I haven't spoken to you since before the New Year, so happy New Year. You know what? For you, we will make an exception. Happy New Year, buddy. I'm excited. I love that the first weekend of NFL playoff action now has six games. stretching all the way from Saturday afternoon to Monday night. So we're going to run through all of them with you chronologically here.

We're going to get your thoughts on it. We're going to begin with the aforementioned Los Angeles Rams going to Carolina to take on the Panthers. You don't see a 10.5 point road favorite very often in the playoffs, but that's what you got here with the Rams going into play the Panthers. How do you see this one playing out, Nick? Pretty close to what the favorite suggests. look, they've already played once in this scenario before. During the regular season, it was kind of a rainy day in Carolina.

It was a fairly big day for Rico Dowdle. It was also not a good day for Matthew Stafford. And the Rams fell short. They fell short in that game. And it was kind of an upset, pretty big upset at the time, especially on surface value, because the Panthers weren't really 100% making that playoff push that ultimately they won almost by default. you know, by taking the NFC South. It was at the gross division,

and it's a gross outcome. But the reason that I really think that it'll probably stay true to that, you know, that 10-5-line is, I just don't think the Panthers, the gap between their good and their bad is too wide to be able to count on them. And I think that the Rams were able to get, you know, kind of tune things up last week in just enough time before the end of the regular season that I think they'll get to Carolina

and they'll kind of correct their mistakes that they made the first time around. Then we get weird football games sometimes. So I don't say it's guaranteed, but I just feel a lot more confident in the Rams coming, you know, into Charlotte and producing. Then I do the Panthers, and it's also, I think, going to be one of the best examples of why we need to, again, explore proper reseeding of, you know, the playoffs by the NFL in the off season. in the nightcap on Saturday in the NFC sticking in the NFC classic divisional rivalry between the Packers and the Bears in Chicago.

The weather is pointing this towards being a snow game. You got all the classic settings for what could be a good football game. The Packers ran, this line's kind of moved all over the place, but the Packers are slim one and a half point favorites on the road in Chicago. Again, let's just get straight to it.

Your thoughts on how this game will play out. This one is probably the one I'm looking forward to the most this weekend. This one, this and I would say, maybe Bill's Jags, the first game on Sunday. It's, look, it's hard to beat a team, you know, but multiple times in the season. We know these two teams have split. It is a rivalry game. All the classics that you expect, all those elements are there. It's going to be a great test of which of these young quarterbacks can deliver.

We've seen Jordan Love in the playoffs, you know, deliver before. We have not seen Caleb Williams do that. And what I kind of fear for Bears fans is this magical season that you've had. You know, you've enjoyed this ride the whole way there for months. And then you get to the playoffs in one bad day and it's over. And it shocks you. Brown's fans experience that a couple years ago. I watched a lot of them go through the shock of, oh, wow, it's over like that.

So I worry for the Bears. But when it comes down to what's on the field, the Packers have been inconsistent. lately. They also health-wise just haven't been worried about what they've been doing, but they had that week off essentially where they didn't play most their starters, and, you know, Josh Jacobs is going to be as fresh as he could possibly

be. Same with Love who hasn't played in a few weeks. It's going to be rest versus rest for them. Whereas the Bears, you know, I kind of expected Bears to be about the same as they always are. So they come down to takeaways to the Bears. If they don't take the ball away, then their defense is probably going to struggle a little bit, and they'll be climbing uphill, but they do,

they have made their name on winning you know, games in the final few minutes of it. So I think we're in for another thriller. Has it been hard for you to get a handle on the Packers this year, just given all their ups and downs and their injury issues? Absolutely. Yeah, I think it's perfectly framed that way. Whether it's love, you know, getting knocked out and then have it to turn to Malik Willis at the loss of Michael Parsons, you know, a number of different absences elsewhere.

Yeah, even the receiving corps, you know, Christian Watson didn't even get on the field until the middle of the season. So, yeah, yeah, definitely. And that's probably why if I had to lean between the two, I would lean toward the Bears, but Nat LaFleur is also a very good coach. And I feel like this is a team that hasn't quite realized its full potential in recent years, and especially this year. And maybe this is when they start to do it late.

All right. Well, let's get to Sunday. It's a morning game for us on the West Coast, 10 a.m. 1 o'clock Eastern time. Bills at Jacksonville. And we all know how much pressure is on the Buffalo Bills to get to a Super Bowl, get to this Super Bowl. Bowl considering some of the teams and the players that are not participating in the postseason, and they're going to have to do it on the road. How tough is this challenge going to be for Buffalo?

You know, I think it's going to be more difficult than people realize, and you make the argument for reseating everything. One team that earned their home game was the Jacksonville Jaguars. The way that they played football in the second half of the season, and specifically Trevor Lawrence, but also just the team playing complimentary football, they earned that home game. And I feel like those who haven't really paid attention to the Jaguars, which is common. I don't know many people who pay close attention to Jaguars football over the course of the last 15, 20 years. They're going to look at this on paper and think they're going to say the bills have notes used to not win the AFC. What they failed to realize is that these are not the same bills that you expect them to be, you know,

that came from the last few years. Yes, you have Josh Allen. You also have a defense that is wildly inconsistent. You have an offense that has this very strange receiving. Corps that, I mean, you have names that you recognize, but then you also have, you know, Keon Coleman, who just is a healthy scratch in multiple games. And Gabe Davis comes back, and then he ends up being a healthy stretch in the game. And it comes down to Khalil Shakir and Tyrell Shavers and just all this, this patchwork seemingly

grew. It's definitely a receiver by committee sort of situation. And so it's not the bills of hold. And yet, I can totally see a scenario in which they go into Jacksonville and they win the game. It would be a thriller. I don't think that they would win in the blowout. Jacksonville is just playing too good of football. But this is the one I look forward to the most because it's the hardest one I have nailing down.

Not because I don't know anything about either team. It's just that both are pretty good. I trust the Jaguars more, but I also know that it's the playoffs and weird stuff happens in Jacksonville, the playoffs. I was fully prepared to take the Buffalo Bills here. But then I saw the video of the Jacksonville Jaguars gifting Trevor Lawrence, his custom-fitted diamond grill. And I was like, well, that's it. That's Jaggs by a million. Jags to win the Super Bowl.

Did you see the video of the Jags fan, like powerlifting Trevor Lawrence at a bar? Did not see that either. That was cool. Those were some good squats. Yeah. When it all comes down to, we throw all the analysis out the window, we start talking about vibes. And the vibes in Jacksonville right now are immaculate between powerlifting,

Trevor Lawrence, and then him having his custom-fitted diamond grill. I just feel like everyone assumes that Buffalo should do the business here. and that's probably why Jacksonville's going to end up winning this game. Anyway, we've got to move along. We've got a few other ones. We're speaking to Nick Shook here from NFL.com, our NFL insider for a wildcard weekend preview. Brought to you by the Clayton Public House. Pre-game to post game, the Clayton Public House is your home of football.

Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors. Visit them online at the Clayton Pub.com. My game of the weekend right now, Sunday afternoon, Niners, Eagles in Philadelphia. Your thoughts on this one? I mean, this is weird because Robert Sal is getting looks for head coaches right, head coaching openings right now, right? Because the defensive quarter of the Niners,

I don't trust their defense at all. I don't think they can get a stop against most offenses at this point because they're just so banged up. I mean, they've lost players at every level, first, second and third level of the defense. You know, I could list them all Fred Warner, Nick Bosa. Like, you could just continue to go down the list because there's so many more than that that they've lost.

But then there's the Eagles offense that hasn't been able to figure it out for most of the year, And it's like, well, is this when they turn it on? Or is it true that their offensive coordinators is the problem? And this is where their season ends. They kind of had a quietly strong finish to the regular season with the way that they handle their business. And when I say handled their business, they just took care of business against them

bad teams, the Raiders being one of them, right? So it seemed like they may have gotten back on track. And they were a team that rested their starters in week 18. So rest versus Rust again. but the Niners just the way that they've looked recently. It's been all offense, and when they can't score, like they didn't against the Seahawks, they aren't a super competitive team.

So the Eagles defense has started to get it together in recent weeks. I like the emergence of some of the players that they've had to replace the guys that left in the offseason with, you know, like a Jaylix Honda, Moro-Ojomo, those types of guys up front have done pretty well. And I can see them limiting this Niners offense enough to where it becomes a lopside game in. in favor of the Eagles.

Sunday nighter as Chargers and Patriots, and the Patriots have been a big story this year all across the NFL in Boston and in Buffalo, I will say. Drake May has been a good story. The Chargers, though, are they almost the forgotten team of this NFL postseason? I know the Chargers aren't everyone's cup of tea in terms of watching, but like, what kind of,

can you tell me what kind of season they had? Because I haven't really paid much attention to them. They aren't everybody's cup of tea of terms of watching because, well, this is how important your offensive line is. When you can't pass box for your quarterback who is a very good quarterback, it makes your offense a very tough watch. And it forces you to make every game into a rock fight in order to win. That's the way the Chargers have won most of their games down the backstretch. And they're also a team that, you know, I think it was on December 27th, a couple days after Christmas, where they gave up two quick strike touchdown passes to the Texans,

and that was it. They fought back and made it interesting in the fourth quarter, but ultimately they went down by 14 in the first quarter, and that was basically the end of it because they were playing Houston who has a good defense, and they also have an offensive line that cannot protect their quarterback and cannot consistently run-block well enough for either of the running backs to get going. It's kind of a shame because I love their receiving corps,

and I think that their defense is very good, but it makes for an ugly product that a lot of people will overlook. So yes, they are the forgotten team of the ASC side of the playoffs. I would agree. Then again, they're playing a Patriots team that nobody really wants to believe in because they just want to point out the schedule and say, well, they have the easiest schedule in decades. And that's fair.

But the Patriots are playing good football right now, and they also have a quarterback who might win MVP. Probably will win MVP in Drake May. So it's captivating, though, because I could totally see this being a scenario in which it's a low-scoring affair, the Patriots never get going offensively because the Chargers defense plays above expectation. That's a pretty good defense. And it comes down to some Herbert versus May heroics who's going to come through in Foxborough.

It is crazy that I'm looking at a Patriots too soon again. And I didn't think this would happen so quickly again. One more to go. And it's the Monday nighter Texans Steelers. Steelers getting into the playoffs by the skin of their teeth and a Tyler Loop misfield goal. Your thoughts on that one before we move on to some of the other news around the National Football League. and, spoiler college football as well. So be prepared for that.

But anyway, Steelers, Texans. The Texans defense is excellent. I think that the Steelers are, I'm going to sound like a hater here, but look, man, the NFC South produced a very mid-at-best division winner, and even though that game on Sunday night was great, the Steelers are a very mid-team, too. And I think that they're going to get, they're run to a brick wall on the Texans defense,

and they're Mike Tomlin's playoff victory, you know, lack of their, of streak is going to continue, I believe. I do want to ask you, and, you know, I know your NFL focused at this point, but this DeMond Williams story out of Washington and what this means, not even necessarily just for like college football, but collegiate sports, NIL, the sanctity of a signed contract and what it all means. How big is this story become and how shocked are you to see how many twists and turns this thing has taken over the last 48 hours?

I think it's, you're right, the sanctity. That's a good way to describe it, because we are in this landscape where there are no guardrails. There are no, like, universal rules governing what can really happen when it comes to NIL and transfer portal and contracts that you can't sign. It's all ambiguously. Individual schools can sign players to contracts like Washington claim that they did. And there's no standard protocol for that. like there is in the NFL.

So it's almost like college football's cosplay as the NFL but doesn't want to institute the same type of rules. Yeah, there's no CBA. They want to enjoy all the money and the revenue. And that's right there among many other things that they're wrong with college football, including the fact that they need to change their calendar

to fix it to where you're not having teams playing the play in the playoff while the portal is open or playing, you know, bowl games while the portal is open. All that needs to be fixed. But this is a great example of why that they have to get some sort of governance and get some sort of basic rules in place here. Nick, you're the best, buddy.

Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We appreciate it and have enjoyed it. Enjoy all the games this weekend. I know you will. We'll do this again next Friday. Hey, you guys enjoy the artist formerly known a super wildcard weekend because I know I will. Thanks, buddy.

You're Nick. Appreciate it. Nick Shook from NFL.com here on the Halperton and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. So I did want to get that, DeMont Williams story in the door, because we don't talk a ton of college football on the show. I don't know how much it resonates with people. Matter of fact, people, someone's already complained. We haven't talked about the Fiesta Bowl last night.

I think that was a joke. I know, but still. Fiesta Friday, we should talk about the Fiesta Bowl, maybe. Congrats to the U and to Michael Irvin, who is flying high these days. You sure is. In a manner of ways, he is flying high. Anyway, this story with DeMont Williams, he's the quarterback at the University of Washington. We've talked about it a couple times this week.

He signed a deal to remain at the school for this upcoming season, and then two days after signing that contract decided, I said, no, I'm going to enter the transfer portal and maybe go play somewhere else to which the University of Washington said, and they held up a big piece of paper and said, you signed a contract. And then became the conversation about signing a quote unquote student athlete to a contract. And what, if anything, those contracts actually mean? Yeah, is it enforceable? And, you know, once in a while a story like this comes up and we're not sure whether to mention it on the show. Most of our listeners, as Hoffert said, don't really follow college football all that close.

And that's okay. But I remember when this story broke a couple of days ago, and I thought, we got to talk about this. We at least got to mention this because this is nuts. This story is emblematic of the way college sports is going down south. And, you know, in the ESPN story that talked about DeMond Williams coming back to the University of Washington. And by the way, awkward. Yep.

noted that his situation was being watched closely around college athletics, and one high-ranking college officials summed up the situation this way earlier in the week. This is a very bright line. Are we going to respect each other's contracts? This is a very simple thing. If we can't protect this, nothing else matters. So the story has technically ended for now, because DeMont Williams has sort of reneged on his original reneging by going back to Washington.

He put in a statement out there on Instagram last night saying, after thoughtful consideration, I'm just going to stay where I signed my first NIL contract. Thoughtful consideration. Yeah, talking with a lawyer who's like, they could keep you from playing, right? Like you may not play for Washington, but you might not play at all.

A judge could easily go in there and be like, all right, we're going to figure this out, but for now you're not playing football. And what it sounds like, considering his agent, fired him, essentially. The agent got rid of the player. It sounds like his family was involved in this. And he got, let's say, $5 million from Udub.

Another school, rumored to be LSU, said, we'll give you a little bit more. Six? Yeah. Six or seven. Six or seven. And then they were like, yeah, let's do that. And then his agent was like, you can't do that.

I just, I negotiated a contract with the University of Washington. And then they said, but does the contract actually mean anything? Right. And then everyone said, I don't know. Right. I'm not sure. And nobody still really knows. It feels like this was a moral clause with the looming specter of legal issues down the road.

But it's interesting. This NIL stuff is absolutely wild the way they just decided to do it. They were like, you know, I think they were forced to do it. Yeah. Because there was litigation pending and some court cases won and lost. But essentially it was like, okay, we, I guess we're doing this. They just opened it up. They just opened it up.

It was like having a bunch of dogs caged for years and years and years. And then just one day being like, what if we let them out without any supervision or leashes? And I think football. I had to get them back one day. You just let them out of the pen. Let him out of the cage. Football especially is prone to this type of story where a family is, in some ways, smartly going after the most money because you're one injury away from your NFL career being over.

And a lot of times, the guys that are good in college football at the quarterback position, they're not perfect fits at the pro level at the NFL level. So this might represent the most money you're going to earn from your athletic career. You're not going to get in the CFL. No. The best argument I saw, and it wasn't even an argument, it's just a statement of fact. It's that there's no one to blame here except for the governing body itself.

You can't, I understand the way DeMond Williams Jr. acted was selfish and thoughtless and kind of like craven. But at the same time, he's there to make money. He's not there to be a student athlete. Like, don't bother. getting that twisted. And if you can make more money somewhere else, who am I to say no? Like the whole thing is a money making operation. College football is a money making operation. The coaches get paid. The schools make lots of money. The players didn't until now.

So if he can make a couple extra million bucks at the tender age of 19, I might add, if any other 19 year old is making $6 million, they're like, what are you doing? How do I do it? Right. I get that part of it. Only fans? I can't do that. No, not yet. Anyway, and then, in the case of Lane Kiffin, the coach that was trying to recruit him, you say, yeah, you're acting like a snake. It's possible you are completely moral-less as an individual. But does that really matter? Because this isn't about bringing young people into your program and making sure they get an

education and becoming adults. That's stuff's out the window now. That's long gone. Lane Kiffin's not in charge. He's not responsible for it. He's responsible for it. responsible for winning football games and living up to the monster contract that LSU gave him to take him away from Ole Miss. So if you're not blaming the coach.

What's that saying? Don't hate the player, hate the game. Right. That is, that's a game right now in college football. And I don't like it. At least before we could kind of pretend because they weren't getting actually paid for it. We'd be like, well, they're getting the education.

That's their payment. By the way, we're not far away from this happening in the college hockey landscape either. Maybe not to this degree with the amount of money that's being. thrown around and how savage some of these like loyalties get fractured. But it will happen eventually. I joked about Gavin McKenna right now. Like if your situation right now isn't going great at Penn State

and he's, his points are fine, but they're not a great team and he's not dominating. He's going into the transfer portal? Why not? Why would you not go to a collegiate hockey powerhouse next year? I mean, I know he's going to go into the draft and everything, but like what would stop him from, you know, Penn State. it would be like, we've given you more money than any other collegiate hockey player in history. We've rolled out the red carpet for you.

Do we even know how much he made, though? His was in the hundreds of thousands. He wasn't in the millions. But still, hundreds of thousands to play college hockey is a wild thing. But do you think that really was the main reason he went to college hockey? I really do think there was something to be said for the, something to be said for playing against bigger, stronger guys. That it pushed it over the edge. Sure, I probably helped.

Yeah. I mean, making a couple hundred thousands of dollars again to play. college hockey is a wild thing. Fewer games than the dub. You're on a college campus, right? And I got a feeling his course load is not that aggressive. Like, I'm sure he's not bending over backwards to make grades. Like, he's probably having a good time.

Yeah, why did I take this advanced physics class? Right, I'm going to go into pottery like the rest of the guys on my team. And I'm having a good time. Anyway, it's an interesting, interesting dynamic in the world of collegiate athletics right now. But we move on here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. second hour of the program on the horizon. We're going to talk to AJ from AJ's pizza from Orlando, I might add. I got a one-year anniversary of their Winter Garden, Florida location.

So we'll talk to AJ about that at 7. 7.30 Sam McKee is going to join the program. One of our favorite guests, it's always entertaining. Fan 590 in Toronto, you've heard them on Real Kipperman Bourne. You've heard them on Leafs talk. Canucks, of course, play the Leafs tomorrow in Toronto. So that's the 7 o'clock hour of the program. And a reminder, if you want to win the $100 gift card to AJ's,

today. Send in your best Ask us anything. Hashtag it, AUA and put a pizza emoji into your text. Make it a good one. We'll read it on the air and you got a chance to win 100 bucks to AJ's pizza on East Broadway. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650. You're listening to the Halford & Bruff Show on Sportsnet, 650.