Halford & Brough in the Morning - A Team We Cheer For Actually Won Something!

Episode Date: February 9, 2026

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they discuss their Seahawks winning the Super Bowl (3:00), plus the boys ask the listeners what the Canucks can learn from the Seahawks' culture (27:00). 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. Touchdown! C-Haw for the second time in less than 12 years. The C-Hos win Super Bowl 60. Good morning, Mackey. We're 6-1 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. It is Halpert and his Brough at Sportsnet 650.

We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios. beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Oh, Michael, good morning. Hey, dog, good morning to you. Good morning. Dan Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have payday loan debt? If you do, Sands and Associates can cut that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour 1 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 at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming live from the Kintech studio. New Year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from Kintech, which everyone uses to celebrate a Super Bowl win. You got good energy this morning, Jason. Hey, how often do we get to celebrate a championship on this show when our team wins something?

Our team won something last night. They actually won. 12 years, according to Steve Rable, I lost track. 12 years. What a performance yesterday from the Seattle Seahawks. Your Super Bowl champions. Our guest list today, our Duick Morning Drive, brought to you by the Duick Auto Group,

is going to begin right there at 7 a.m. Mike Tanier, our weekly NFL insider from the 2-deep zone, as mentioned. The Seattle Seahawks have hoisted the Lombardi trophy for the second time in franchise history. Mike's Monday morning walkthrough, a must read for anyone, Seahawks fans or otherwise, in which he calls Seattle the greatest team ever that nobody saw coming.

It's very appropriate, very apropos from Mike. We're going to talk to him about all that at 7 o'clock. Do you remember, and maybe we'll recap with Mike, there was a week, I don't know what it was, week six, seven or eight in the season, when we asked Mike, hey, have you noticed the Seahawks? And he was like, I have. and I asked, like, are people in the main market starting to take notice of this Seahawks team? And he admitted, like, Seattle doesn't get a lot of attention.

And they really didn't for a long stretch of what is an unbelievable regular season when you stack it all up. Didn't you say they could win the Super Bowl, like really early on? And everyone was just like, what are you talking about? Mike? No. It was like around that time, week six or seven. No, the narrative was like, I don't want to get into it. Arnold. I mean, that was the narrative.

So you're not in a Super Bowl with Sam Darnell. I think the narrative developed about halfway through the season where there were like 15 teams that were probably like, hey, why not us this season? Look at what the Chiefs aren't great. The Ravens aren't great. The bills look, man, right? You know, anyway, we'll get into this. So Mike's going to join us at 7 o'clock this morning.

It's 7.30. We're going to go to Italy. Luke Fox is going to join us. Sportsnet, NHL, and Olympic hockey writer. We'll get the latest on Team Canada following the team's first practice on Sunday. during which we got our first look at forward lines and deep airings. On the women's side, Canada takes on Czechia today at noon our time. So Luke is going to join us from Milan Cortina at 7.30 this morning.

8 o'clock Satyar Shah is going to join the program. Canucks pre and post game host right here on Sportsnet 650. Going to take a deeper look at some of the Canucks participating in this year's Olympics, including Peti, who's on a line with Mika Zabinajad and Ricard Raquel for the Swedes. And Philip Horonik, the Czechs are practicing this morning. They, of course, will open the tournament against Canada. Heronic, not surprisingly, on PP1 and on the top, D-P-Pering for the checks. Lots to get into is Satyar Shah at 8 o'clock.

Working real quick in reverse on the guest list. 8 o'clock, we got SAT. 7.30, we got Luke Fox live from Milan. And 7 o'clock, we got Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the 2-deep zone. That's what's happening on the program today. Greg, without further ado, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

No. What happened? the action because I'm losing. 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 invest in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. As mentioned, the Seattle Seahawks absolutely

dominated the New England Patriots on Super Bowl Sunday, holding the Patriots scoreless through the first three quarters, capturing their second Lombardi trophy in the process. A swarming defense absolutely took care of Drake May all night. Three turnovers, six sacks, and one interception return for a touchdown. And of course, finally, it goes without saying a stellar offensive performance from running back, Kenny Walker, who had more than 150 scrimmage yards, and he wins Super Bowl MVP. When did you stop being nervous during the game? The Novosu pick-sick.

So I was like, put it to bed. Really? Yep. Put it to bed. I stopped being nervous in the first half. I was like, the Patriots do not have it today. They didn't have it. The Seahawks defense is too good right now.

The Mac Hollins touchdown scared me a little bit because they picked on Rick Wullen. I was like, I wonder if they could do that again. But until it was put to bed, I was always on edge. That's just the kind of guy I am. How unlikely a championship was this for the Seahawks? They were somewhere around 60 or 65 to 1 long shots. in the preseason. I didn't miss the playoffs the last two seasons.

Yeah, they went 10 and 7 last year. They barely missed the playoffs. So they weren't bad, but Super Bowl contenders? No. It was such an odd season in the NFL, and we were kind of talking about this before. I can't remember exactly when we started asking, hey, mine not the Seahawks,

but I don't know, it was probably around halfway through the season when the chiefs were, the chiefs at one point were five and five, The Ravens were five on five. The bills looked good, but not great. The Detroit Lions, we didn't talk much about them on the show, but they had a very disappointing year. Yep.

And so did teams like Green Bay. Yep, that's fair to say. Overall had a disappointing year. There was optimism about the Washington commanders heading into the season, and they were terrible. The Eagles were super dysfunctional all season, and despite being Super Bowl champions, like the fans seem to hate them.

And then they lose to the Niners in the playoffs. And then the Broncos who had an unexpected great season, great defense there, then Bow Nix gets hurt right as the AFC title game, I guess was, no, no, no, right before the AFC title game. Yeah, going into the AFC title game. The team that scared me the whole season was the Rams. And ultimately they were probably the second best team. But only barely, only barely behind the Seahawks.

I still think about that crazy two-point conversion that helped the Hawks beat the Rams in week 16. If that goes the other way, are you and I celebrating a title today? Like, I know the Rams went out and lost to Atlanta the following week, but I don't know if that happens if they beat the Seahawks. Look, they were the two best teams in the NFL. We can say it now and with the benefit of hindsight,

it kind of feels hollow. but the NFC championship was the Super Bowl. Aren't you glad that Stafford won MVP and not Drake May? Because I'll be honest with you. Look, this may be totally unfair to Drake May because I didn't watch a lot of Patriots games this year. But I'm watching him last night. And yeah, the Seahawks defense was amazing. But I was like, how easy was the Patriot schedule?

Were they playing teams in the NFL? because he looked like a rookie in that game. He looked... He's not far removed from me. No, I know. But that's a thing. I mean, he just lost the MVP race to Matt Stafford, and he looked shaken in that game.

So I watched, obviously, every playoff game that the New England Patriots played in pretty closely, and there were warning signs right from the wildcard win over the Chargers. that what we saw in the regular season from Drake Bay was not going to show up in the postseason. I mean, I know that the Seahawks harassed the living daylights out of May yesterday

and they finished with six sacks, but if you go back... And they had a rookie left tackle that was getting picked on. But he got dropped five times against the Chargers. He got dropped five times against Houston. He got dropped five times against Denver. So, like, teams were getting to him with regularity and they were turning the ball over.

So the Seahawks did a fantastic job doing it yesterday. Better than any of those other teams have. If you look at a lot of the metrics, they harassed Drake May in a way that he hadn't seen all season. But yes, his regular season schedule was padded with teams that he was able to take advantage of. I will say this, throwing 31 touchdowns to just eight interceptions across an entire regular season, still really impressive no matter who you're going up against. He didn't turn the ball over anywhere close to the amount that he did in the postseason.

Did the game suck? Game wasn't great from an entertainment standpoint. I had a lot of fun watching it. I had a good time. Are you asking me, me, this guy? two thumbs. I had a good time. The game... The first half was pretty boring. Dude, the whole game sucked. It was beautiful for me. And even if I wasn't a Seahawks fan, I can always appreciate a great defensive performance. But the game sucked. There was no drama. And it was totally

one-sided. I mean, you mentioned that the Patriot scored that touch sign. I was like, okay. I mean, most people in Seattle were already celebrating that point. No drama, totally one-sided. that does not make for a great game, even if you don't require touchdown after touchdown to be entertained. It was just a close game. There's no drama. There was nothing.

There was nothing. That game just ended, you know, and the Seahawks were running away with it and they celebrated it. And it's okay to admit it. It's okay to, if you're a Seahawks fan, you're like, yeah, it was a domination. It was so dominant.

It was so dominant by the Seahawks defense. that the game sucked. Yeah. I mean, the other Super Bowl that they won, was that a masterpiece? No, they pumped Denver. Yeah. Well, I had very similar Denver vibes.

Not the fact that it got, it got away from Denver early in that Super Bowl. This one took a little bit longer, and I'll give credit to the Patriots defense, and specifically Gonzalez, who I thought was their best player. But let's take it, let's stop talking about the Patriots here for a second,

though I did wait into Patriots Twitter last night to get their feel on what the Seahawks did to them. What you saw, yesterday was one of the most dominant defensive performances that you'll ever see in a Super Bowl, statistically or eyeball otherwise. And all it really took was a stat correction from that being the most like great QB harassments, I'll call it, in Super Bowl history. Seven sacks is the record in a Super Bowl. Four different teams have put that up. The only reason the Seahawks didn't match that record.

It was because when Witherspoon hit May and Nowuosu returned it. Originally it was called a sack and a fumble, but they called it an interception. They called it a pass. So they took away Weatherspoon sack. That put them at six sacks. That was the only reason that that game isn't going to be there in the pantheons of great QB harassments in Super Bowl history. Can I ask you a bit of a psychopath question?

Yeah, sure. How bad were the Patriots fans hurting? Terrible. Terrible. Really? They were? Oh, yeah. They were?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Because, like, okay, I'm sure it sucked for them. Mm-hmm. But there's no way this makes up for the last Super Bowl. No, no, no. The Pats had, like, at the end of the day, the Pats had a magical season and took advantage of an easy schedule.

They're obviously a good team, and they've probably got a bright future with Drake May, but that was a mismatch yesterday. And sometimes I think it's better to know that the other team was just better than you. The ones that really hurt are the ones that. where you had it in your grasp and you let it slip away. Or you just flat out choked. You know, I mean, had it in your grasp and you let it slip away.

You know, I think about the 2011 Canucks. I think about the Blue Jays. Frankly, I think about the White Caps because I thought, you know, down in Miami, despite the star power that Miami had, I'm like, the White Caps had that. Like, they were playing better than Miami. This isn't a game. And, you know, they made a big mistake.

And then they kind of just lost their momentum. tell me more about the Patriots fans hurting because I feel like this doesn't really even come close to making up for the last time. Well, part of it has to do with how awful and inept the offense was. It's hard going to a title game. Let's not

forget, say what you will about May going into this game and not being fantastic in the playoffs. He was still the runner up for MVP. And to be dead honest, it was a tie for MVP with how the voting went. Like, he ran that offense to the point where you didn't expect him to put up 50 yards and no points. Like, they

we're putting up one of the worst offensive performances in Super Bowl history. That in itself is embarrassing and disappointed. They didn't do anything. It almost felt like they showed up to the Super Bowl and then went totally flat. The only reason that game wasn't a bigger blowout at halftime is because the defense did incredibly well. And I will say this, at a certain point in that game, the Seahawks knew that if they didn't make a mistake and Darnold didn't turn the ball over, they didn't fumble, they were going to

win. That was very obvious because they were able to get the ball into the red zone, which the Patriots weren't able to do. They were able to move the ball into positions where they could at least kick field goals, which the Patriots weren't able to do. It was kind of an embarrassment until they were able to put up a cosmetic score or two at the end, to be honest. There's a difference between being embarrassed and having your heart ripped out.

Would you agree? Would you concede that? Well, it wasn't getting their heart ripped out. It was just getting embarrassed on the national stage. It was bad. Their offensive line was getting mocked by Chris Collinsworth on the broadcast. They're having a tough day out there. I mean, anytime you go and you give up Super Bowl records to the opposing defense,

I thought Chris Collinsworth was really good, by the way, on the podcast. There was one point where he was just silent for eight seconds, like he was trying to put words together to explain what he just saw. He's like, I don't even know what that was. Like, that was just awful by the Patriots. Yeah, I mean, I just think he felt out that game real early. Yeah, another very interesting dynamic from the Patriots side of things that I saw. They've now lost more Super Bowls than any other franchise.

Are they five and five in Super Bowls? I think it's six and six, if I'm not mistaken. So it's an interesting dynamic. because no one's won the kind of Super Bowls. Oh yeah, they've won six. You know what I mean? But they've also gone and lost multiple times now. I would like to make a formal apology to Sam Darnold.

There is no way I pictured the Seahawks winning a Super Bowl with Darnold. And even during the game, I've got to be honest with you, I had my doubts, especially early on. I think it's easy to forget after such a dominant performance by that. Seahawks D and the score line, he needs a real risky throws early on. Almost got picked by Gonzalez. That was the one where I thought that if that game had a chance to go one way or the other, that might have been it. Well, I mean, I thought Collinsworth nailed it.

There was a couple. He was like, he's throwing into some tight windows out there. And there are a couple throws that if they bounced the other way off someone's hands, those are picked off and gone. But when all was said and done, Sam Darnold didn't turn the ball over once in the playoffs. the guy that led the NFL in turnovers, didn't turn the ball once, turn the ball over once in the playoffs.

And he made the place he needed to make. I think it was five TDs and no picks and three playoff games. And then he told the NBC broadcast afterwards, he was like, as long as you believe in yourself, anything's possible. And I was like, God, that's cheesy. But I will allow it and maybe even shed a tear because, you know, when the Seahawks,

when the Seahawks traded away Russell Wilson I was like okay we're in the wilderness now and Gino Smith played better than I think a lot of people including myself

expected him to play but he would just be like man that was a dumb mistake that was a dumb play and ultimately you know the Seahawks made the decision we could talk about the decision making that the Seahawks have made

many of which have gone their way they made the decision to go to Sam Darnold. And I'm like, okay, that's a caretaker quarterback. In my opinion, for a little while, until they find the next guy. And, you know, they can build something on defense. They can maybe win a few games, get to the playoffs. You know, again, even during the playoffs and even during the Super Bowl, which the Seahawks won decisively,

I was like, I don't have full belief in you, Sam Donald. And I think it was great to see a guy like that who appreciated the belief that he got from his coaches, his teammates, the management that targeted him and said, we want you, even after the way it finished in Minnesota, we want you, and we think we can win with you because I didn't think they could win a Super Bowl with him. So, yeah, there's a lot there.

They put together, and for those of you that are like, you're such a Seahawks homer, this station is like so in the bag for the Seahawks. I say this without hyperbole. Sam Darnold was the QB of what's going to go down as one of the greatest single-season teams in NFL history. That's not hyperbole. The Seahawks went 17 and 3. There are three losses this year were by four points. three points and two points.

Outside of those, single score losses, they won 17 games. They rolled the Niners in the first round of the playoffs. They got through the Rams in the second round, and then they rolled the Patriots in the Super Bowl. As you mentioned, did not turn the ball over a single time during their Super Bowl run. The first team in NFL history,

and we're talking fumbles or picks. They played it as well as you could play. In a year where it was wide open, they firmly established themselves. is the best team in the NFL. The Rams were there. The Rams were there for sure. But at the end of the day,

they beat the Rams two out of three times and they took care of everyone else in pretty convincing fashion as the season went along. And Darnold didn't just manage that. Like in certain phases, he had to cut down his mistakes and he had to limit what he was doing.

But if you look at his numbers on the year, look at how durable he was, if you look at his ability to overcome the issues that plagued him, it's a really remarkable season as a leader, not just as a lifeguard or as a stopgap or as a guy that managed the game. Was he great yesterday?

No. And he acknowledged it in his post game availability too. He said the offense could have been a lot better, but it didn't really matter. Here's what I do remember. It was around week six when they went down to Jacksonville. Jacksonville was four and two at the time and they had just beaten Casey. Seattle went down to Jacksonville, beat them 20 to 12. They only let the Jags score 12 points and they sacked Trevor Lawrence seven times.

I remember thinking at that point, okay, the defense is really good and it could take them places, but Darnold needs to clean up all the stuff that's still plaguing him. Turned them all over too much, took way too many sacks. Didn't clean it up really right at all

in the immediacy. Something clicked after that crazy game against L.A. that you were talking about with the nutty two-point conversion and the crazy comeback where he had a terrible first half and turned a ball over like crazy. And then played a really good second half,

got them back into it, After that game against the Rams, Sam Darnold threw one interception over the next five games. And it was against, I want to say Carolina in the next game, after the Rams game, where they won quite easily. But then he goes regular season finale against San Francisco doesn't turn the ball over. Wildcard against San Francisco doesn't turn the ball over. NFC championship doesn't turn the ball over, of course, a Super Bowl.

Like that to me is the mark of a guy that got it. He figured out what he had to do. to be successful and still took some risks, still made some risky throws in the Super Bowl, but deserves a ton of credit for steering this team. When you think that they went from Russell Wilson to Gino Smith to Sam Darnold and the second, you know, first year on the job. Yeah. He goes out and does that.

Really remarkable. So I saw the Super Bowl odds for next year came out and the Seahawks are right at the top of the list. There's no reason why they can't return to another Super Bowl next year. I mean, the reason would be like, it's unlikely. You know? Yeah. It's hard to make back-to-back Super Bowls.

I mean, they did it just over a decade ago. And the second one, you know what? I didn't enjoy it. Didn't go as well as the first? I didn't love it. You can go great. But, you know, most of their core, not all of their core, but most of their core is pretty young. What do you want to do with Ken Walker now?

Hug him. So he's an unrestricted free agent. There's another guy. We should have mentioned him. Well, I mentioned him in the intro because I knew we weren't going to talk about him, which is kind of be fitting. I know a lot of people in the aftermath was like, we didn't, like he's a very soft-spoken guy. Listen to a bunch of his interviews and everything.

And he's not really a big, bold personality. He didn't get a ton of media attention going into the Super Bowl this entire week, played fantastic. And then the narrative afterwards was the Seagark's going to keep him. Like, he is such a fundamental part of their offense, but we know how the running back position works in the, NFL. Yeah.

There's always a new guy on the horizon. Edog, are we going to Brady this week? Because there's a couple of guys that I want to talk about. Brady's tomorrow, yeah. Brady's tomorrow. Okay, so let's table this conversation. What did the Seahawks do in the off season? You know, top of mind for me was like, okay, they've got JSN as maybe the best receiver

in the NFL. Yep. Do they need a little, could you see John Schneider saying, okay, we need a little bit more after? And this is no disrespect to Cooper Cop who made to big plays down the stretch. But he's getting a little bit older. Sure. Right? Like, do you need to do a little something there?

Now, this is a question I want to throw out to the listeners because I realize that not all of you are Seahawks fans, but most of you, if you're listening to the station, you're Vancouver Canucks fans. And we have seen runs from the Toronto. Blue Jays. We've seen a run from the Vancouver White Caps. And now we've seen not only a run, but an actual championship from the Seattle Seahawks. And despite the NFL and the NHL being very different in terms of how you manage a roster, how quickly your draft picks can make an impact on your actual NHL team, on your actual team. Like, there are lessons to be drawn. from the Seattle Seahawks. And I'm going to throw it out to you, the listeners.

You tell me what is the biggest lesson the Vancouver Canucks can learn from the Seattle Seahawks who just won the Super Bowl. Text into the Dunbar-Lumber text line at 650, 650. We can do that on the other side. And we can also get into some of the Olympic hockey news

that is coming out of, Milan on the men's side. How is Canada going to line up? What about the Americans? What about the Swedes? They're all starting to practice over in Italy. And the intensity level is not going to drop at all because we got Olympic hockey coming up this week. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

It's Canucks 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. Super Bowl champions for the second time. This is fun, man, to play football with these guys, you know, in that locker room, these coaches, like, that truly, like, love coming to work every day. And I think that's, you know, that's a credit to this guy, too. Like, just the messaging that he's showed.

And, you know, it's just, uh, it's just, a special place to play football and to come to work every day. I don't really know if I can, I think that's about as simple as I can make it right there. Sam Darnold, just like Halford and Brough, love coming to work. I think it's a special place to be. There's love coming to work every day. Especially on a Monday. It's 6 o'clock. And the best part is we don't actually have to work that hard. It's true. You know? Like our culture is a culture of just talking and

not having to work. Right. When Sam Donald says he loves the grind, I'm like, what's that? Is that a coffee reference? Yeah, we can just re-crumble under university. We talk about. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sports 9-650.

Halford and Brub of the morning. Spratsy by Sands and Associates. The Mookow stopped working once, and we went off air. Yeah, exactly. Shut her down. I quit. Are you getting collection calls? If you are,

Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% and stop those calls. visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com. We are still in hour one of the program. Big Seahawks heavy first hour here on the Halford and Brough Show on SportsNet 650. First hour 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 at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. I like how nobody's complaining because they just pity us so much that our team actually won something. So they're just letting us have it. It's fine. You guys talk about your team. I guess a loud tightness fan took the day off today. Where are you, bud? Where are you at?

Loud Titans fan. He was getting all upset with the predictions that the Seahawks would roll the Patriots, and he was freaking out. So in my betting. Guess what happened in the Super Bowl? Yeah, it got rolled. Seahawks rolled the Patriots. In my betting group, I made that we all put one bet forward,

then we put in a parlay. Rarely hits, like most parleyes. I said, I want to take the Seahawks. The line eventually moved to four and a half by the time the kickoff started. I said I wanted the Seahawks at six and a half. I think they're going to win by a touchdown. Everyone shot it down. They were too scared.

They were a bunch of loud Titans fans. Then I watched it clip. It's more like there are a bunch of Cadox fans. It's not going to work out. So Drance had the Seahawks at minus 13 and a half. Drans is like their DVOA, in fact, was one of the top DVOAs in NFL history. And that nerd was right. Because they covered and they did it.

And the Seahawks are Super Bowl champion. for the second time I franchise history. Now, good for Trance. That's a good call. It's a great call. Now, a lot of people... Kind of hope the Pat's had a backdoor cover in hindsight, actually. I was like, throw another touchdown.

Throw another meaningless touchdown. Throw this into chaos. We asked the question prior to break. Because this is the home of the Canucks Sports Night 650 and we still are contractually obligated to talk about the local hockey squadron. We asked the question, how does this relate to the Canucks in the context of what could the Canucks possibly learn

from a championship caliber team and the way that the Seahawks went about their business not just on the field with the talent and the scores but building a culture, building a culture of winning, as Mike McDonald like to call it? There are two themes that came in to the Dunbar Lumber text line. One was the culture thing and the other was don't be scared to move on from players.

Even great players, even super talented players. if they're not going to buy in and be part of the culture and part of the identity. I want to read some of these texts. Let's do it. Scott and Surrey, I think the biggest lesson the Canucks can learn from the Seahawks is the importance of having a good culture, management structure, and a coach who knows what he's doing and what he's talking about. That is important to have a coach that knows what he's doing.

Three-putt Shane, biggest lesson, easy. Learn how to recognize diminishing talent and move on. from it. Remember the worry about trading Russell Wilson. Yep. How are you going to replace a Hall of Fame quarterback? There were media members that covered the Seahawks that were convinced that the Seahawks were never going to

make that trade. They was like, no, they're not going to do it. All this talk is nonsense. And then they pulled the trigger. David from Surrey, the biggest lesson that the Canucks can learn from the Seahawks is that culture and identity matter. From ownership down to the fourth liner that gets seven minutes a night, Everyone should know what it means to be a Vancouver Canuck.

Joe the Sparky, culture, culture, culture. Number one thing the Canucks need to learn from the Seahawks is culture. Another unsigned. The Canucks can learn to trade players at the right time as opposed to holding on to them until they are worthless. And then Brad and Chilliwack, Canucks lesson. Three words, culture, culture, culture. And the culture topic seems to have really taken. over the Vancouver Canucks.

Are you applying the Canucks have no culture? I'm almost worried that the culture topic is going to overtake the absolute need to have talent. Do you have a culture problem that needs to be fixed? I mean, you could think from the Thehawks that they have a very good culture. But look, to call the Seahawks just a bunch of guys is ridiculous. I mean, that defense has elite playmen. at all three levels. Yep. Yep, great.

You know, there's talent on special teams. Oh, yeah. And there's talent on offense. JSN is, what was you, the NFL? Was he the NFL? Most outstanding offensive player. The Canucks bringing Sam Arnold to talk about culture. JSN was incredible.

You don't need to go through. They got tons of talent. I just don't want people to think like, oh, once you fix the culture, everything's good. You know, I would say here's some other lessons that I think. drafting matters. Yep. They've knocked the last few drafts out of the park.

And I think that's where if the Seahawks had a bit of a wobble over the last decade is when their drafting fell apart. They drafted incredibly to get to the Legion of Boom era. Yep. And then it fell off a little bit. It really did. That's a massive busts. And then they started drafting better again. And they made some good corresponding moves, including

bringing in Sam Darnold, but a bunch of other guys too. And this is the team you get. They also had less draft capital when they were successful as opposed to when they had this one. That's a part of it. But they had some major misses. Yeah. And you know what? You could go and dive deep on the process that led to those picks or the talent identification

or were they drafting for position or were they drafting for BPA or whatever. But the fact remains that once they started hitting on those early picks and you talk about Zabel and email. and worry and impact guys that came in right away, it turned the tables and it turned the tables quickly. Now, I want to go off a little bit here in a positive way on the coach. Because obviously coaching has been a major, major talking point in Vancouver this year. Adam Foot and the job that he's done has come under intense scrutiny and I think rightfully so.

We even floated the idea and Thomas Trans did this as well as if they should make a coaching change during this Olympic break. we do need to talk about what an absolute home run it was from John Schneider to bring in Mike McDonald and I mean I could throw the numbers at you right he's now the third youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl it's him McVeigh and Tomlin right he's now set a new record for most wins in a season by a head coach under 40 right now Mike McDonald is one of the brightest young minds maybe in the top three of the best young coaches, however you want to define young coaches in the NFL. He might even be at top of your list. I don't know. But what McDonald did was take over from a legend. And Pete Carroll is the most successful coach I've ever had in franchise history and maybe a Hall of Fame coach, probably

a Hall of Fame coach. I don't know. But he came in. So he had to live in the shadow of Carol. He also had to turn around a team. And I remember last season, the first thing that really struck me about McDonald was when they were getting gouged up. on defense and they couldn't stop the run and they were giving up, they were just getting sliced sliced and diced by opposing running backs. And he made a midseason trade. And it was more about the guys that he had not fitting his scheme than really the guys that they were bringing in. Yes, they brought in Ernest Jones and he's been very good. But there was a there was an undercurrent of that trade where he said, we have a certain way we're going to do things around here. And if you

don't do them that way, you're gone. We're not going to waste time. We're not going to waste time. We're not going to give you a ton of opportunities to figure it out. And if you're not on board, we will find you somewhere else to play. And I remember thinking that for a rookie head coach, it was pretty ballsy. And it was pretty definitive early in his tenure about what he was about. And I think that's an important thing for whoever the next head coach of the Canucks is going to be, is that you don't have a lot of time to set up the standard you want to set and to lay down the ground rules, the non-negotiables. he will. I always thought that was one of the great things that

Talked did when he came here. I'll be honest. Talked at his blind spots as a coach. For sure. And I don't think that he was perfect as a bench boss. But I remember when he came in and he said, these are the things we're going to do and this is how we're going to do them. Now he didn't have the roster

flexibility to, because I sure he would have turfs some guys that weren't doing what he had to work with what he's working with. A few did get turfed. Yep. But communication is important. Clarity. Clarity is important. So important. And you know what oftentimes the clarity is? And I mean, we talk to Brady Henderson about this with McDonald.

Sometimes when you're a hard-ass coach, it's do what I'm telling you to do. And watch what happens if you don't. No gray area. And you don't have to yell. Your actions speak louder than your words. You can ship a guy to Miami. Yeah. Those actions speak pretty loud, right?

Mike McDonald, have you ever seen him interviewed? He's shy. Yeah, but he's just very direct. And I remember him saying that when he first made his first speech to the Seahawks. Do you remember he said, like he said, okay, picture this scenario. We're in this scenario a few years down the line. And he laid out that vision. He said before he made that speech, he was super nervous because he's mid-30s

and about to take over an NFL team. I'm sure he was nervous. I was watching it. And even after the game, I watched a bunch of the post game, flipped over to the NFL network. And he's just, he's a soft-spoken guy. And you would think, well, all NFL head coaches have to be like, you know, loud and puffing their chests out. The one thing that really, you know, I notice about this Seahawks team as, you know, they're egosless.

And that, like, you know, John Schneider and Mike McDonald and all the players, all the players want to do is praise. There are other players and the coaching staff. and all the coaches want to do is praise their other coaches and the players. Like they are all in it together. Now, let's see what happens if they have a few more years of success. Success tends to ruin that. If you want to talk about like the Seahawks or the Cowboys or the Patriots, I mean, the Patriots, it's hilarious.

I mean, they have this incredible dynasty and they all hate each other. Yeah. You know, it's because it's because like, oh, he's getting more credit for this than me, right? I mean, this is what ultimately turfs a lot of dynasties. But right now, the humility is there. Yeah.

And it really makes them a likable team. Yeah. And, you know, it was interesting. I was watching John Schneider get interviewed yesterday. And he was talking about Mike McDonald. And he said one of the things that he loved about his personality is a lot of things you were saying, like he's not a fire and brimstone guy.

He's not yelling at players. But he's also completely unafraid to make the tough. decisions when they need to be made. Yep. He didn't drag his feet. He doesn't think twice. He moves forward with clarity and precision. And you've seen it over a very short period of time as a head coach. He took a team that was kind of in no man's land to being all right last year to this year, again, 17 and 3.

And the three losses were all by one score. It is about as close to a great season, an impact. season is you can get in the NFL, and he's done in a short period of time. What comes next might actually end up being a more difficult challenge, because now everyone goes into the unknown. And the unknown is, what happens when we taste success? What happens when we achieve our goals? Is Sam Darnold going to get jealous of the dark side getting all the credit?

Or is the dark side going to get jealous of everyone praising Sam Darnold? What about Ken Walker? He's like, hey, I'm the NFL's Super Bowl MVP. And what are me? When do I get my share of the credit and the pie and the money? That success breeds all those things and that's going to be the next challenge for McDonald. Yep. But the fact that he got here already, it just shows you where you can get and what you can do when you have a leader in that particular coaching position that knows what he wants and is unrelenting in setting a standard.

But also knows how to turn it over to the players and has the players that it can be turned over to. one of the things that Mike McDonald said in that post-game presser was the players drive the team. Yeah. And it all does ultimately, of course. It comes down to the players. Another one too I want to jump on here. When you talk about the Canucks and identity and what they're going to look like and who they're going to be moving forward, let's just make this abundantly clear.

The Seahawks are a defense first football team. They brought in a defensive guru in McDonald. they are led by that defense. I know they've got a ton of great players on offense. It's not like the offense didn't do anything. But this team hangs its hat on defense. Schneider, another really interesting thing he said yesterday. That's another thing that Canucks can learn that defense matters.

Seriously. Consider what I'm going to say next. They play in the toughest division in the NFL right now. And two of the reasons why, head coach of the Rams and the 49ers in McVeigh and Shanahan. two offensive-minded, two offensive gurus, two very bright, innovative young, offensive minds. Schneider, and he's referenced this in numerous interviews

since hiring McDonald. He's like, if you're going to win in this division, you're going to be able to need to stop what McVeigh is scheming up and what Shanahan is scheming up. Look at the Canucks. If you go down the road over the next five or ten years, they're going to be in a division that's got Conor McDavid and his new line mate, Macklin Celebrini,

for the foreseeable future. Like you're going to have tests in your division. And I know it's apples and oranges a bit comparing the NFL to the NHL here. But, you know, Schneider went out and said, I need to find a guy that is a defensive guru. And he made his decision. He's like, we're going to be the defensive team

in this NFC where you've got, you know, this high-powered explosive Rams defense and this very innovative play calling from Shanhan. We're going to be the defensive team. And you lean into your identity and you are what you are. You establish it. You get good at it.

And then that becomes your reputation. That was the Legion of Boom. The Legion of Boom, a lot of what made them so feared was the name, the reputation, the swagger. They would go into places and teams would be like, we're in for a tough weekend. They established themselves as like the premier secondary in the NFL one of the greatest units of all time. Do you think that, do you think Drake May was a top three. rattled Super Bowl quarterback. He's up there. The numbers bear it out.

Yeah. I mean... Like, I almost felt sorry for him because he's 23 and he looked overwhelmed. I also don't think that Vrable and the Patriots coaching staff did a great job. I like, why were there no more designed runs for Drake May in the Super Bowl to one, avoid the relentless pressure? But to do the thing that made him really good all year. If you go back and you look at his regular season stats, most of the games, that he was successful in, he put up a lot of rushing yards. Yeah.

He escaped the pocket routinely, or it was just the designed run. Like, it's easier said than done against the speed of that Seahawks D though. Okay, but just, just get out of the pocket. Sure. Yeah, yeah. I mean, and the Seahawks did blitz a little, I don't have the numbers in front of me. They did blitz a little bit more yesterday. They did.

Then they traditionally do? They brought spoon. Especially early. Yeah, yeah. But there was still a lot of times where they just ran their front four out of them and like, just go get them. Like, you're chewing up the, offensive line of the Patriots, just go after and get them.

So, I mean, it was such a thorough performance. And it's part of the reason why when you're taking all of these, quote, unquote, lessons from the Seahawks, you could probably talk about it for three hours. Because it was the kind of season where a lot of NFL teams, and maybe a lot of teams outside of football, are going to look and say, how did you do that? How did you make this team? Do you have the Mike McDonald audio from yesterday?

I wanted to play this too from McDonald. I loved this because, you know, at the end of a long season, you always assume that everyone's ready to go home and, you know, rest up or go to Cabo or celebrate, right? Listen to what McDonald says after winning the Super Bowl. I thought this was great. Here's Mike McDonald after the Seahawks won their second franchise Super Bowl yesterday. Just the best team I've ever been around. The closest, toughest, most connected team I've ever been on.

And our guys made it come to life. everybody in the organization just straight ahead. No drag. Stack days. I love them. I'm actually like, as great as it is, I wish the season kept going because it's just such a great team. That's how you know you really want to go to work.

When you've won and you've kind of accomplished your goals and you're like, I wish we could go back tomorrow. Because I think they genuinely enjoyed this season. Rightfully so. They were winning games left and right. And I think that they understood that they were building something great and that every week they just kept getting better. that's a very difficult thing to find and to attain

when you've got that many people that you have to manage 53 man roster you've got coaches you've got to organize when you kind of get in that Zen state or whatever and you just want to keep it going you don't want to stop it would have played another game if they could have yesterday and I know guys were banged up and they retired they wanted to go home but McDonald was like I would love to get out there again

and just keep playing football because they were so good at it by the end of the season what else did you watch this weekend do you watch match Olympics? A little bit. A little bit managed to catch some of the Canadian women's team on Saturday. Okay, I got to admit, I wasn't impressed. I didn't think, look, maybe they're rusty. Maybe they had to shake off some of the...

It wasn't good. Some of the... I mean, there was a delay around the norovirus and all that sort of thing. It wasn't ideal. But, you know, if you looked at the final score, you know, 4-0 over Switzerland and the shots, they dominated them on the shot clock. You're like, oh, that's a typical Canada one. win. Maybe it was, but I watched them play and I was like, they don't look great. They look old.

They look slow. They don't look very dynamic. Now, the Swiss played a very defensive game. Yep. As you might imagine. And they packed the front of the net. And so Canada was kind of left to fire pucks from the outside. But for all the shots that they got, I don't know how many high danger chances they actually got. And really what they needed and what got them over the top was that Switzerland kept taking penalties and they scored on the power play.

I'm worried about the Canadian women team. I know we had Haley Salveon on last week and I said, you know, like are they too old? And she was like, no, I'm so tired of this narrative that they're too old. And I'm watching them like, oh, they look pretty old to me, right? And the Americans are

young. and they're fast and they dominated Canada in those warm up games. The rivalry series, four games, four wins for the Americans, one of them, 10 to four. Yeah.

Listen, it was one game and the one thing about Canada is they do have a lot of experience in these games against the Americans and hopefully that will put them over the top. But right now, I think the Americans are significant favorite.

on the women's side to win gold. So, and not to steal Haley's Thunder here, but part of her logic and reasoning for what, you know, why she thinks it can't will be okay in this tournament, is that they've got the best player in the world in Marie-Philippe Poulin, and that's going to carry them in these kind of contests.

Maybe not necessarily when you're firing 50-plus shots on Switzerland, but when you get tested, I think people wanted to see more of a fast, dominant, we're light years ahead of this. Creative. In that first game, especially in light of what happened with all of the previous matchups against the U.S. where it was really one-sided. Like it didn't even have the traditional Canada U.S. games that were at least tight. Like there were some pretty one-sided, lopsided scores in the rivalry series and everything else that you kind of raised some red flags for Canada.

We're like, this is a problem. Yeah. Right? You need to at least be on equal footing going into the Olympics. And you wanted to see maybe a switch get flipped or something. and it didn't happen in game one. Now, Olympic tournaments are really difficult. Yeah.

You know? We've seen Canadian men's teams that have not looked good early in the tournament. And you say you get a team that packs the front of the net and doesn't allow you to create a lot or really just tries to play defensive. It can make for a pretty dower affair.

Tournaments are short and you need to figure it out quickly. So it's one of those things where you just kind of have to wait and see until you get a bona fide test because that wasn't it on Saturday. I just don't want to lose to the Americans in anything.

I'll push back a little bit on your thing there about Americans being younger and faster. Yeah, Canada might skew a little bit older, but they got contributions in the first game from the sort of next wave of players, Gosling and affiliate with a couple of goals. Like they're from the younger side of the group coming up. So I don't know. I feel like it's a good mix, and it's still way too early. The goalies are so good in women's hockey that you can throw 50, 60 shots and only win for nothing sometimes. That's just what happens.

So I'm not overly worried. I think they'll figure it out. All right, we got a lot more to... I'm just saying I don't want to lose to the Americans. Oh, me too. In anything like watching that Seahawks game yesterday, I was pretty relaxed watching it on the couch. And even the lead-up, like I woke up in the morning,

I'm like, oh, yeah, the Seahawks are in the Super Bowl. My intensity level for Olympic hockey is going to be a hundred times higher. I can't wait for it. But I think it's going to be... I think it's going to be uncomfortable, especially if Canada happens to play the Americans for gold, men or women. It's going to be very uncomfortable,

and hopefully Canada can come through because I don't even want to think about losing. First hour of this program was brought to you by the Duick Auto Group. Find out why nobody beats a Duick deal and why nobody has since 1926. Visit Duick GM on Marine Drive. Visit them downtown. Visit them in Richmond and visit them online at theduick Auto Group.com. Coming up on the other side of the board,

break. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the two deep zone. He wrote in his Monday morning walkthrough why the Seattle Seahawks are Super Bowl champions, the greatest team ever that no one saw coming. We'll talk to Mike about that on the other side. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650.