Halford & Brough in the Morning - BC Lions Assistant Coach Ryan Phillips + What We Learned

Episode Date: August 20, 2024

In hour three, Jason Brough and guest host Josh Elliotte-Wolfe chat with BC Lions assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Ryan Phillips (1:03) about the Leo's four-game losing skid, and what they're doing to try and get back on track this Saturday at Ottawa, plus the boys tell us what they learned (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.

welcome back to alfred and brough josh elliot wolf jason brough here with you alfred and brough is brought to you by the delari family of honda dealers experience the delari difference today visit your nearest delari honda dealer today it is hour three of the program in this hour of halford and brough it's brought to you by campbell and pound real estate appraisers trust the expertise of campbell and pound visit campbell-pound.com today and you can text in 650-650 dumbar lumber text line get your what we learns in we're thin on what we learn get them in and i promise we will read them. Maybe. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber and Ladder has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park.

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Kintec. That's what you're waiting for. We now go to the phone line. Ryan Phillips, BC Lions defensive coordinator and assistant head coach. Really appreciate you taking the time, Ryan. How are you? I'm doing okay. I'm doing okay.

How about y'all? We are doing well and wanted to get your thoughts on Sunday's game, kind of what went wrong against Winnipeg and what has been going wrong, I guess, for the last few weeks. I mean, I think it's been a multitude of things. One, I think as a coaching staff, we can do a few things better as far as some of the positions we've been putting our guys in. Those things are definitely, you know, pivotal things, especially in pivotal moments. You know, just things that we could do better, whether it's adjustment-wise, game planning-wise,

from that aspect. Execution. Tackling and things like that have not been at an all-time high. At the beginning of the week, we were one of the better tackling teams in the league. Now, the last couple of weeks, we have not been as far as that goes as well. Execution and making

some of the bigger plays. We've been making some of the routine plays in those first, you know, six, seven weeks. And I think we got away from doing that. And those things become, you know, hurtful, you know, especially on, you know, whether second and long situations or even second and medium situations. And that's on offense and defense.

Those are plays that we usually make, first downs that we usually get. And I think we have gotten away from that. And, you know, we got to find a way to turn this thing around. What do you do as a coach when you look at your team and say they're not tackling well you can't exactly go out there and tackle yourself no for sure but uh you know what sometimes it's just going back to fundamentals um I think sometimes you know you take for granted the fact that they're professional athletes and uh the assumption is that they know how to tackle because they got here and things like that but I don't think there's ever a time that you've got to stop working fundamentals. And I don't care what sport it is.

Those fundamentals got you to be at this point. So, you know, it's our job to try to structure a way for us to get back to, you know, fundamentals, fundamentals of tackling and things like that. And, you know, even where it might seem like you have short weeks and, you know, times that you want to try to save guys' bodies and things like that, these are pivotal things that win and lose ballgames. So, you know, getting back to the fundamentals, doing some things from that aspect, even if it's some training camp drills, things like that from that aspect.

I mean, we got to bring those things back in place because that's the only way that we're going to, you know, get back to being one of the better tackling teams in the league. How much tackling does occur in practices? Well, I mean, it doesn't really. Yeah. You know, in today's time, I mean, it doesn't really. Yeah. You know, in today's time, you know, there's so many rules and things like that, even when it comes to how many padded practices you can have and so forth, right?

And obviously, you're not going to take guys to the ground at the professional level. So, you know, with the rules the way that they are, you only have so many, you know, practices that you have even with shoulder pads on throughout the course of the year. And there's all those things as far as that goes. So, you know, it's really for us to try to shoulder pads on throughout the course of the year. And there's all those things as far as that goes. So, you know, it's really for us to try to balance that out throughout the course of the year as far as fundamental-wise, you know, being able to go to the ground, you know, whether it's having tackling dummies and, you know, other things to be able to assist in that manner. So, you know, those are things that, like I said, we just have to balance out and implement as much as we can and, you know, make sure guys are on guard.

And, you know, other than that, you know, it's just the willingness. You know, some things can't be taught, and you've got to be willing to tackle. Tackling takes heart. You know, those are some things that, you know, honestly you can't account for through drills. But, you know, like I said, the fundamentals of that is something that we can't work on regardless of that. Ryan, what does Winnipeg do so well defensively?

I think, one, you know, they have,, they have a good scheme within that, credit to their coaches. I think they've got a good coaching staff. I think it's been proven based off their track record the last few years. I think they're a well-coached team within that. And also within that, they're able to apply some pressure, obviously with their front, whether that's with three or four.

And then at that point, they try to not allow big plays. And that's kind of what it is, you know, from that aspect. So, you know, with all those things tied together, I think that's what makes them, you know, a very good defense, efficient defense in that, you know, they're able to, you know, do some things with it, you know, three man and four man or, you know, whatever it is throughout that. And with that, you know,

so they got guys out there that's making plays and, you know, making open field tackles and, you know, doing some of those things from that aspect. So, you know, you give credit when credit is due. You know, they're playing good football at a good time, you know, even though they started out slow. And at that point right there, like I said, they're making a play to be able to put their offense in position where that's a score point or, like I said,

their defense in position just to, you know, hold people out from scoring themselves so that way they have a better chance to win ballgames. When you guys are playing well defensively, what do you want people to say about your defense? What would be the strength of your defense? Some teams are great in coverage. Some teams tackle really well.

Some teams pressure the quarterback. I know you probably want to do all those things, but what do you think you're capable of doing? I mean, the sky's the limit as far as capability. And I just think that's based off the people that we have in the world. The problem is, you know what I'm saying,

you have to be consistent. And that's my staple. Like, I don't want to be a consistent defensive defense. It's going to be consistent, you know what I'm saying, play in, play out, you know, day in, day out. And that's more of a thing for me. Like if you're a team that shows glimpses, you know what I'm saying, for, you know, two games and then not a team that shows anything

for the next two or three, you know, I don't think you can establish any real true identity as far as that goes. For me, like I said, it's more about being balanced and being consistent because at the end of the day, also the team that you play don't present the same issues. play don't present the same issues. They don't present the same dynamics. Some teams throw the ball 40 times. So if you're just a run-stopping defense, that's not the best.

And some teams that can run and do some other things from that aspect, and you're just so pass-cover savvy, at that point, then you're giving up everything. So being consistent is the main thing for me. But within that, you've got to be able to play football. And I don't care what level it is, football doesn't change. You run, hit, and tackle. And that's the reality of it. So when you have the willingness to do that,

when you have the willingness to step up and make those type of plays from that point on a consistent level, those are the better teams. Those are the better defenses in the league. And, you know, we've been, you know, towards the top three in the last two years from that aspect. And we've got to just get, you know, sent back to being that on a more consistent basis. What kind of challenges, while we're on the topic of different teams presenting different challenges,

what kind of challenges does Ottawa present? Because you're going to see them in your next two games, including one in Victoria. Well, one, I think they're just playing with a big confidence. They're definitely different from what they've been the last few years um you know they lost some close games and things like that in the years past but i think now at this point right now they're identifying themselves as having a table balance i think they run the ball very well they have a very good

running back that runs downhill uh can do multiple things also catch out the backfield from that aspect so you know he's getting running lanes, sometimes not getting touched for the first five or six yards. And at that point, then he's pretty dynamic. Obviously, they got Jeremiah now back as a quarterback from that point. And, you know, I think he brings a newfound energy, a guy that's trying to get back in, you know, saying the football despite his injuries and so forth. And, you know, he was a good quarterback before he got hurt.

So, you know, I expect him to go out there and put out his best effort, just like he did in the last week. He and go out there and try to win the game. And they got some good receivers. I mean, obviously they have Rhyme, someone that we had from that aspect. We know what his big playability is. But also with Acklin and, you know, and those guys from that point and Hardy who's out there having, you know, such a good season. I think they present a balance.

And their balance is different than some other teams where I think their running back is more so like the Kadeem Carey type of thing that can do multiple things at the backfield. They don't have to always go with a big group personnel-wise to be able to be successful running the ball. So their balance, they're going to question your willingness to tackle. They're going to question your discipline within coverage. So we've got to be up to the task

or else those you know, those guys will go out there and give us their best shot. Hey, Ryan, do you ever work with the offensive coordinator just with your expertise on defense? Do you work with the offense to help that coach figure out something that the offense could do that would make it hard on the defense? Yeah, from time to time. I mean, you know, at some points, you know, yeah,

you want to allow people obviously to do their job. But, you know, any time that you have any thoughts of what they're doing or how they're doing it, you definitely want to be able to give it. And that's even to the quarterback himself. And that's just, you know, being able to understand defense, understand, you know, the keys to it, things that they can look for from that aspect. Everybody needs to be able to help everybody.

And that's kind of how it goes. So, wherever it's being able to give different looks, even during, of course, a practice week, you know, certain plays and things like that from that point, you know, we got to be able to work together as far as that goes. So, yeah, we definitely try to do things collectively. You know, we're out there trying to win collectively as a unit. So, you know, you definitely try to, you know, give some insight as far as that is and you know hopefully you know it's things that's going to be helpful and not damaging you know because obviously they're having a thought process of how

they want to execute their things as well so you will you want to make sure you don't get in the way of that too much but yeah we definitely you know try to collaborate as best as possible so that way you know we can try to put our you know our best um our best plays and our best uh you know positions for those guys who go out there and you know try to execute can try to put our best plays and our best, you know, positions for those guys to go out there and, you know, try to execute and try to win. So, yeah, we definitely try to do that as much as possible. But, you know, maybe it's something that we need to do a little bit more often so that way, you know, we can try to turn this thing around.

There must have been a lot of emotions around the team and a lot of just – a lot of information flying around, a lot of things happening. You know, you came into that Winnipeg game. You lost three in a row. It was a came into that Winnipeg game, you lost three in a row. It was a big game, Winnipeg at home. You want to get revenge, and then you've got Nathan Rourke returning as the starter.

It's a home game. Was that a factor in the game? Was there almost, I'm using the word distraction is so cliche, but was there just, was there a lot going on, and did that have an effect on the game? I would say as far as a effect on the game, you know, what I say is a lot going on for sure. I mean, the reality of it is, you know, the very first day of practice, you know,

we haven't seen that much media out there since, you know, whenever, not even in training camp, right. You know, and things like that from that aspect. So, you know, you see some of the things that since, you know, whenever. Not even in training camp, right? You know, and things like that from that aspect. So, you know, you see some of the things that are, you know, happening on a day-to-day basis that are irregular. I mean, that's a given from that aspect. You know, the pressure of the moment and things like that, you know, I think sometimes can get unrealistic.

But that's part of professional sports. So I don't really make the excuse for that. You know, with pressure, you know, is either you rise up to the competition and rise up to the level or, you know, you let it, you know, kind of swallow you. And, you know, at that point, then, you know, you're not able to perform. And we got to find ways to still perform. You know, we're going to have pressure moments and be planning on playing in the playoffs. We plan on trying to win a great cup. And we've got to move towards, like I said, being able to build ourselves up to be able to still perform and reach peak performance in those pivotal moments.

So, yeah, well, there are a lot of things going on for sure. You know, obviously the expectation of Nathan, the expectation of him going out here and doing all these miraculous things, you know, despite only being here and practicing for three days and things like that. So, you know, you have those pressures and also, you know, trying to perform at a different level too as well, you know, just because of the point of the game, right, and the team that you're playing and standings and, you know, trying to perform at a different level, too, as well, you know, just because of the point of the game, right,

and the team that you're playing and standings and, you know, where we have been the last couple weeks not, you know, winning and trying to find a way to push ourselves, you know, getting back into those winning ways. So, yeah, those things were there, but I don't make the excuse for that. That's professional sports. And for a person that's obviously been there and played it and done it, but also, you know, being on this end now for, you know,

these X amount of years now, like, we have to be able to raise our level of competition and our job is to win games so we got to be able to withstand that and still push ourselves forward. Well you got some tough games coming up two against the Red Blacks and then it's Montreal and then it's Toronto so good luck in those games hope you guys get back on a winning track. I know people were really excited about the return of Nathan Rourke. The first game, maybe not so good, but I think people are still optimistic about the team overall. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us today. I always enjoy talking football with you, Ryan.

I greatly appreciate it, and thankful for the support. Like I said, we're going to get this thing turned around. Like I said, it's going to be sooner than later, and I definitely look forward to the competition this week. I definitely know we're going to put our best foot forward and getting back to winning ways. Good to hear. Good luck in Ottawa, Ryan.

Have a good day. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. That was Ryan Phillips, the defensive coordinator for the BC Lions. When I asked him, like, do you ever work with the offensive coordinators about like maybe some ideas?

Can you imagine if he approached the offensive coordinator and he was like, hey, have you ever thought about this? She's like, shut up, Ryan. We've got our own problems here. You deal with the defense. Hey, make a tackle out there. Why don't you guys?

Like, that's when like the finger pointing starts and everything. You could tell he was a little bit like, sure, if they ask for my opinion, maybe I'll, but right now I'm just going to leave those guys alone. Like that's what, that's when like the finger pointing starts and everything. You could tell he was a little bit like, sure. If, uh, if they asked for my opinion, maybe I'll, maybe I'll, but right now I'm just going on and leave those guys alone. Yeah. That's fair. That's fair.

Uh, what we learned, did we want to get into those? So, uh, we got a few, we'll go around the room. I can start the, uh, I wanted to officially put a stake in the Seattle Mariners. If it wasn't officially in there already. I thought it was already. Are you guys still watching baseball? Sometimes. I saw the Jays game at my gym,

and I was like, is anyone watching this? Does anyone care what's going on? My TV box was having issues yesterday when the game was on. I was like, you know what? I don't feel that bad about missing this one. Good call, TV box.

They lost. And so did the Mariners to the Dodgers. The Mariners lost 3-0 to the Dodgers. They've lost six of their last seven. Last week, Jamie and I were going back and forth. We're like, hey, maybe the wild card, they're two games back of it. They're right there. And then the Mariners did.

And so they're six and a half back of the wild card now, and it's not looking good. So both the Jays and the Mariners, all the fans that butt heads, Mariners fans were getting a little high and mighty for a bit there and now here we are on the same boat can I interrupt your what we learned with an with it with a question yeah go ahead uh laddie what was going on with Chris Bassett and what he said because there are headlines all over sportsnet.ca and uh I'd rather you tell me as opposed to me reading. It takes cognitive effort to read.

Chris Bassett has reached the doesn't care portion of the season and doesn't care what he says to the media. Um, there were rumors about him being traded at the deadline. He still has a year on his contract, but a whole bunch of things could happen with Chris Bassett this off season. So he doesn't really care what management thinks about him at this point. Uh, so we went on with Chris Rose. I think he's got a usual spot on that show. So he doesn't really care what management thinks about him at this point. So he went on with Chris Rose. I think he's got a usual spot on that show, so he's on there pretty frequently. But, yeah, they just asked him straight up what went wrong this year,

and he said that it's a combination of a lot of things, but it's a lot of things that are kind of unfixable is what he was saying. Do we have the audio from that? We have the audio if you want to hear it from him. So this is from the Chris Rose rotation that Chris Bassett went on. And I guess the Blue Jays had a meeting with all the guys that they figured were core guys and tried to send a message to them. Or not send a message, but told them about the plan going forward.

Yeah. Is that accurate? Well, he didn't sound upset, right? And that's kind of what it was about. And then he also dropped a nugget about otani okay he kind of just talked about this past off season and just how this season sort of fell apart before it even started really in a way so that's what this was about let's hear what he had to say how do we explain this to blue jay fans where did it go wrong i'll say this i think we do a lot of things right here but like i don't want to identify the problems because

some of the problems i don't think are fixable the one thing i will say about the blue jays um for this year we put i think 700 million dollars into shohei otani's basket and didn't get them we really didn't have a pivot this is this is the reality of the landscape is that you need three or four superstars. We have to get more hitting to protect Vladdy and then the pitching has to be a lot better. There's so many things that you could talk about. I mean, I could literally talk for 45 minutes on this of things that didn't go great. But again, I just don't think saying those things publicly is what is best for this organization and even if i leave i still don't think i would ever be like hey like the blue jays have this this and this because i've never done that with the white socks or oakland or the mets i just i feel very uncomfortable talking about that just because I love all the guys that I've ever played with.

So it's just like, I'd rather protect them than hurt them. Now that doesn't look great for Ross Atkins. Chris is like 35 years old. He's like, whatever, I don't care. Yeah, he doesn't care at this point in his career. He doesn't care what the management thinks about him. And it's great. But didn't we all say that like at the beginning of the season?

Like if they don't get Otani, what are they going to do? It sure sounds like he's throwing Atkins under the bus a little bit i don't think that's what he was trying to do with that whole statement but are you sure it doesn't are you sure i'm sure i don't know man i think i don't know it sounded like he was like i'll tell you this right now it's pretty fixable 700 million dollars the problem was atkins it's pretty fixable you fire him and you move on and i don't think that's for him That might be like an unfixable problem. Maybe, maybe he sees how ingrained he is in the organization,

but I, yeah, I, I do. Man, it was hilarious to hear that. We had so many problems. A lot of them are unfixable.

I think it just means about the makeup of the team. He just thinks that the team has fundamental issues with how it's been, you know, brought together that you can't really fix mid-season it's not something you can do one thing that went wrong this season one thing like if you're power ranking all the things that went wrong with the blue jays this season what would it be oh boy there's like you said there's 45 minutes of material you can go off there either vladdy's no power at the start of the year george springer disappearing into nothing for the first half of the season

that's you can have that at your lead off spot i think it was really put him behind the eight ball to begin with i think it's boba shett and that was my last one yeah yeah he was leading the league in hits for a couple of years and then he just he's a negative war player this year so it's just crazy yeah and he has seemed like so checked out of the blue jays this year too just like totally uninterested every time we've talked to blue jays people they're like yeah he's talking to other media and being like well i don't mind if i would go to another i think that was a little overblown a little bit they were feeding him questions to get him to stay stuff like that but he clearly doesn't look like he's invested in this.

Do you think he'll be on the Jays next season? You're asking me to make a prediction. I don't think so. I think they're shopping him. I think they're trying to get rid of him. Yeah, if he's back next year, I don't think that's the worst-case scenario. So what does next season look like?

I mean, you either go hard. Who's the next Otani? You're going to go in hard. One Soto. Can they trade for Otani? Well, Soto would hard. One Soto. Can they trade for Otani? Is that true? Well, Soto would be huge. Soto would answer a lot of the problems that Bassett was talking about.

Honestly, the thing is, like, you just, you have to go hard in free agency. Because you should have this past season. And obviously, they tried to. They tried to get Otani. And that's a very unique situation. I remember when we were all talking about it, it was like, hey, they don't spend money like this, but they're going to because it's Otani and you get the money back. Yeah.

Whereas when you're going out in free agency most years, you're spending a lot of money and it's way more risky in terms of the investment. Juan Soto might be another special case, but he's still not Otani level of special cases. I know baseball is different than other sports to the amount of players on the roster and the makeup of the roster, but you almost need like a kawaii type trade to just, like you said, you need three or four superstars on your team. They need to make a move like that to get another superstar, which is way, way easier

said than done. Do you think there's a chance there's a big house cleaning there? Or is the management group generally considered safe? I think it's wild that there hasn't been already. I think they're safe. I think they would have done it by now. But I mean, John Schneider is not going to be like the bench coaches.

I don't know. Can you imagine if they bring them back? I think the players like them. The players like playing players. Well, who cares what the players like? They're losing. The players loved Bruce Boudreaux. But he's a young manager. They wanted to give him a little bit of leash. And then how many managers has Ross Atkins fired at this point?

I think it's four now. Yeah. But I don't think Ross Atkins should be back either. But it does feel like they're both going to be back. But I don't know. Maybe it's a, hey, last day of the season. There will be changes. I think there will be some changes.

I don't think full-scale wipe the slate clean is going to happen. But there will be changes. Okay, give us a mookow on that very extended what we learned. I'll get a quick one here. NFL related. Jaden Daniels is officially

Washington's starting quarterback. You follow this stuff closer than I have been on vacation. Was this largely expected? I mean, he's the second overall pick in the draft after Caleb Williams. Now that he's been named the starter, was there ever any doubt that this was going to happen?

No, because you look at their depth chart, and it's Marcus Mariota as their backup. So it was like, hey, beat Mariota, and you're the starting quarterback. I can do that. Yeah, sure. Why not? But I think it's also like it's a good situation for him to be in. And when you look at the receiving core, like Terry McLaurin's good.

Jahan Dotson I kind of have questions about, but you have Zach Ertz. They have a decent offense, so it can be a situation. Like they're a team I look at as maybe I'm overhyping them, but could be the Texans of this year. Right. They have a rookie quarterback. They have some of the other pieces in place, and they're just ready to take the next step.

There was so much excitement last season because they got rid of the owner. Yes. And it felt like a new step for the organization as a whole, and then they just didn't play very well. So maybe this is the year. They take that step. They take that step. I still don't know if it would be to Houston's last year heights,

but I can definitely see them taking a pretty big step this season. And they should. It would be disappointing if they did not take a big step this season, and it would probably fall on the shoulders of Jaden Daniels, but I'm pretty high on it. I think it would be good. Okay. Give us a moocow on that get your what we learned into the dunbar lumber text line 650 650 there is

actually lots to talk about rick dollywall came on our show today gave an update on thatcher demko which has a lot of people wondering if he's going to be 100 in time for training camp. There was a Patrick Liney trade to Montreal yesterday and this morning, if you're just joining us, the Edmonton Oilers did not match the offer sheets for Broberg and Holloway. So they will go to the Blues and then the Oilers will, I don't know, I guess give Pod Colson a chance to

replace Holloway, possibly keep Evander Kane off of LTIR, accrue some cap space, have some flexibility heading into the season. So there's lots to discuss in terms of hockey news and other sports going on. So text in your What We Learns right now. Jam Pro, the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial. If your workplace demands a clean environment, contact Jam Pro for a free, no-obligation quote. Visit jampro.ca.

Keep getting your What We Learns in on the 650-650 Dunbar-Lumber text line. It is Halford & Brough, Josh Elliott-Wolf, Jason Brough on Sportsnet 650. Now for my favorite part of the show. What'd I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time it's what we learn time on the show

final segment on the show it is what we learned it is halford and brough josh elli wolf jason brough here with you coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Keep getting your What We Learned in on the 650-650 Dumbar Lumber text line. Halford & Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. And this hour of Halford & Brough is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit campbell-pound.com today.

We go to the dogs. Did you guys have any what we learns? I got one. It's unconfirmed right now, but it looks like Quinn Hughes will be on the cover of the next NHL EA Sports video game. Him and his two brothers. He has to share the spotlight once again with the Hughes brothers.

But yes, Quinn Hughes. I feel like Luke doesn't deserve it. Just riding on his name. We are catching strays here. This is about Quinn Hughes getting on the cover. Poor Luke. Yeah, but Luke hasn't done anything. Oh, it's just because he's a Hughes brother.

He's on the cover. Yeah, yeah. The leaked... He hasn't done anything. Yeah. Oh, it's just because he's a Hughes brother. He's on the cover. Yeah, yeah. That kind of is what it is. The leaked trailer has... It's like Ringo Hughes out there. They have each brother, and they have different things that they've added to the game based off each brother.

So they said, like, skate like Quinn Hughes, and shoot like Jack Hughes, and then the other one was... You like Quinn Hughes. You like Luke Hughes. It was move the puck like Luke Hughes. Luke Hughes is going to be a good defenseman. I realize that.

He can move the puck, apparently, quite well. So can Quinn. Yeah. Some would say better, maybe. Yeah, I guess you're right. Some would say better. So the last time a Canuck was on the cover of an NHL video game was 2005. Marcus Naslund.

Marcus Naslund. He was, yeah, the lockout year, right? Yes. No one bought that game. Yeah, well. And there have been. Who was the first ever Canuck? Kirk McClain.

Kirk McClain? On an NHL game cover? Yeah, 1995. I think he might have been getting scored on. Yeah, it was like an action shot, and he was just in the picture. Oh, they didn't, okay. He wasn't like crowned the cover boy. He was getting scored on. He, they didn't. Okay. He wasn't like crowned the cover boy. He was getting scored on.

He was getting posterized. He's like, oh, great. Thanks, guys. Kirk, I got some good news. Also some bad news. Also a royalty check. You're on the cover

of the ENN game, but you're getting lit up. Oh, you win some, you lose some. Yeah. It's not great for... Oh, I totally forgot about that. Yeah.

Who else has been on it? And then I think it was just Naslin. There has been... The Sedins never made it? So the European cover of NHL 11... That doesn't count.

Yeah, had the Sedins on it. And Pedersen has been on the Swedish cover. Okay. Is there any jinx with this sort of stuff that I should know about? Not like Madden.

Okay. I think it's been... Kane made it twice, I want to say. Yeah. There's never any goalies. Broder was on it once. I think I think it's been... Kane made it twice, I want to say. Yeah. He was on it twice. There's never any goalies. Broder was on it once.

I think that was it. Yeah, because they're boring, man. It's always got to go back to goalies. What looks cooler than a goalie making a glove save or something? Nobody cares about goalies. Kurt McLean was on the

couple of months. Don't worry. Sorry, laddie. It would be a goalie scoring a goal, then. Oh, yeah. An empty netter. That's the most

exciting situation in hockey. Are you saying a goalie goal is not then. Oh, yeah, an empty netter. That's the most exciting situation in hockey. Are you saying a goalie goal is not exciting? Yeah, I was there. I was actually right. Who is it that the Bruins, the... Allmark? Did Allmark? Yeah, it was Allmark, right?

I was sitting in the end zone there right behind him, so I had the greatest view of that. It wasn't that exciting. I was like, all right, let's get out of here. The Canucks always get scored on with the goalie goals. They're never the ones scoring the goalie goals. It's always... The Canucks don't have any, right?

I don't think so. Demko tried last year. I remember he tried once. And I think it was Nabokov got one against the Canucks. Do you remember when Luongo had to go in the All-Star Skills Challenge with the... Like they made the goalies, I think, raise the puck. Like they had to do a big saucer pass,

and Luongo was like, this is my nightmare. He was having one of those dreams where you can't run. Speaking of Luongo. When it was real life. It confused me about Luongo, though, because it wasn't that he was just bad playing the puck. He'd get Bambi legs. He'd get out there and forget how to skate somehow.

He handles the puck. He's like, what are you doing? You know what? That's why I didn't get his jersey retired. I could do a quick What we learned on Luongo. This wasn't going to be mine, but now that you mentioned Luongo. Okay. And I'm not a wrestling guy, so this kind of flew over my radar,

but everyone was talking about it last night. He was on WWE last night. That's why it's a fly under your radar. Yeah, under my radar. You said over your radar. Over your radar. Oh, my radar isn't very wide, so it flew over top of the radar. Because that's how it works, right?

That's how radar works. Yeah, don't research that. And yeah, apparently he was on WWE last night talking to CM Punk. And I saw the video of it. I'm sorry I don't have the audio because I just thought of it right now. But that was very strange and kind of cool. Is Luongo a wrestling guy? I guess he must be.

I did not know this about him. But I did not expect to see Roberto Luongo on the WWE Twitter account cutting a promo with CM Punk. He's got his day with the Cup soon, doesn't he? He's going to Montreal with it? I think that's what we heard from that clip. It was just Hamilton.

I heard that. It was just in Hamilton. Carter Verhage. What was it doing? Carter Verhage. Oh, Carter Verhage. He was doing Carter Verhage. One of the players needs to... I thought it was in Hamilton. It had a big Carter Verhage. I was doing Carter Verhage. One of the players

needs to... I thought it was in Hamilton, like, had a big bender or something and woke up and was like, where the hell am I? Hamilton?

This is the worst what happened last night. That's their marketing program. You don't want to wake up in Hamilton. Tourism Hamilton?

How did I get here? Hamilton, the place you don't know why you're there. Oh, sorry, lad. Give us a moo cow. I forget which player, but one of the Panthers players ate cereal out of the cup, and I was very happy to see that.

That's been done before. I know, but I would do that. If you ever win the cup, definitely. Yes, that'd be the first thing. You know what? You can do whatever you want with the cup if you want it. 650, 650. Let's print off the listener what we learned.

Fire plan me. Oh my God! We're having a fire! Plan! Uh, what we learned, the, this is Harry, the radiation oncologist from New Westminster. Pierre-Luc Dubois really wanted to go to Montreal. I find it ironic that the player that was traded for him, Patrick Laine, goes to Montreal instead. That is a great what we learned from Harry.

And if we had a prize, Harry, you'd win it. Congratulations on no prize, though, Harry. Man, is Dubois going to be good at all, ever? Where is he again? LA. No. No, he got traded. No, I thought he got... Where'd he get... Oh, yeah, he got traded no i thought he got where'd he get oh yeah he got

moved hold on we should know this see i've been on vacation for too long yeah dubois got traded now we're gonna get capitals to washington right yeah i was like darcy kemper he's already he's already asked for a trade out of washington yeah yeah he's just isn't that funny he's like like that's a pretty big trade and we were kind kind of like, wait, where did he go? Yeah. But that's because Washington doesn't matter anymore. Washington might be the most, if like Ovechkin obviously registers, but they might be the most forgettable team outside of maybe Columbus. Because it's not like Ovi's going to break the goal record next year.

Right? Unless he goes off. I don't want to play another year. I'm getting it done. But so that's really, for me, the only interesting thing about Washington. But they need to start charting a different course, and I think that's what they were doing

with the move for Dubois. They later realized, we can't just be about this one guy chasing this record that he might not even get there. It's not 100% certain that he's going to get there. He's going to get there. I think he will, but it's not 100% certain.

Capitals, I guess they, like, I forgot they did other things. They traded for Andromagia Pani, too. Got Brandon Duhame. Jacob Chikrin. They traded for him. Do you remember the Brandon Duhame rumors around the Canucks? I'm like, who's Brandon Duhame? I cared about him.

It was one of the many players that I cared about for like two hours. Yeah. Jordan in the Ridge, what we learned, the semifinals goes down at the Minto Cup tonight. Poco versus Orangeville. God, I hate Orangeville, I think. Winner plays Coquitlam in a best of three. Were you a lacrosse guy growing up?

Because I always feel totally out of my depth when it comes to lacrosse. It just wasn't played in my neighborhood. My buddies never played it. So in Chilliwack, it was pretty popular. I never played it. Mustangs. Yeah, had a lot of friends that did play it. Right.

Okay. Lacrosse, difficult sport. I used to ref lacrosse and play were you have any lacrosse questions i was a much better lacrosse player than i was a hockey player what does a lacrosse ref dress like uh well back when i did it i didn't have to wear a helmet which was uh very exciting they do now they make you wear a helmet but you just wear all black you have like a black t-shirt and black you saw You saw black? Yeah, black shoes. Very slimming. It was the best I ever looked. But it's also, as anyone knows that referees any sport these days,

it's a little stressful. What we learned. Wearing a helmet when you're not on skates, there's something about that. Just seems weird, right? Yeah. Yeah. It kind of gives you the ick. You fall down.

Yeah. I had a buddy back in elementary school that had to wear a helmet for like a week because he kept on getting concussions. We made some fun of him. The ball does bounce a little erratically in lacrosse. I'll say that. There's a few off the boards that I'm worried about. 650-650.

Unsigned, so it's from Gary. What we learned is that the Lions are a top 10 on defense in the CFL. They are a top 10. True. They're a top 10 offense, top 10 defense. Yeah. Yeah. Good for them.

They're great. Go team. They're a top 10 offense, top 10 defense. Yeah. Yeah. Good for them. They're great. Go team. They're such an inconsistent team, though. Yeah. I mean, Ryan Phillips kind of nailed it. He's like, we got to be more consistent. I asked him, like, when you guys are playing well, what's the strength? He said, the sky's the limit.

This is just a matter of us doing it. That's frustrating when you're watching a team like that. And generally, inconsistency means there's a problem there. Yeah. Any team can go in and play well offensively or defensively, well, a couple times, but can you do it all the time? I still go back to that game they had last season when they went into Winnipeg and dominated the Blue Bombers.

Defensively, they were unbelievable. And then, I don't know, ever since then, they've just been kind of like you can't trust them defensively and you can't trust them offensively lately. And I think the hope, at least, is that Nathan Moore kind of fixes the vibes, but that might take a while to get up to. This one from Iron Blair.

We were talking about jayden daniels what we learned tom brady thinks the young quarterbacks are thrown to the wolves without being developed these days and he is probably right so the the reason it feels like that i think is because most of these teams are trying to capitalize on rookie quarterback contracts now and when you have a guy especially when you pick a guy high you're like hey we need you to make an impact so that we can capitalize on this and so we're just going to throw you in there and hope it works out and i think some teams are maybe getting wise to it of being like hey have an insurance plan in case this guy doesn't work out or just to give him more time? I think the problem is that when these guys go first or second overall,

chances are, and this isn't always the case, but chances are you've got a fundamentally bad team and where does that show up a lot? In the offensive line. Yeah. And if you can't protect the quarterback, first of all, if he's got no time to make plays, then it's tough for any quarterback, even if you're Patrick Mahomes.

And second of all, that's when you get into injury concerns too, right? Like Joe Burrell. Yeah. As well as he's played as a young guy, he's also had some injury concerns. And yeah, it's like if, you know, to bring it to the Seahawks, whenever they do decide, if they do decide to take a big swing in the draft

or however to get one of these blue chip quarterback prospects out of college, I hope they're in a position where their offensive line is solidified and they've got a good running game that can take the pressure off these guys. I mean, it's such basic stuff. But in some cases, you're right. You're sitting there going, well, if he's good, he'll figure it out. The thing is, too, that it's so tempting when you get those high picks to just be like, okay, you've got to go get a quarterback because that's the most important position you don't know when you're

gonna be picking high again and try to figure out the rest after but it does feel like there there should be more of an emphasis at least on having a couple pieces on your offensive line be in place before you go out and get the quarterback and some some of that. You also do look back at some of the, well, former greats and current greats, not first overalls necessarily. Like Patrick Holmes. Doesn't have to happen. Yeah.

Doesn't have to happen. Tom Brady wasn't. I mean, Peyton Manning was. Yes. And did well. And he struggled. Like he threw a ton of picks in his first little while with the Colts.

But, you know, he was such an extraordinary talent and he was so prepared from being from a football family that he was able to overcome that stuff. I'm going to be really curious to see how these young quarterbacks do this season as, as we are almost every season. This feels like a different year. Yeah,

it does, but it's funny how you can go, you know, like, Oh, all these great quarterbacks. And then a year later, some of them are kind of like laughingstocks. Yeah.

Yeah. It happens real quick. What we learned, this is from Adam, the former bat guy. I learned that Tua had some not very nice things to say about his former coach, Brian Flores. Did you see this? I did see it. Apparently, Brian Flores was not overly encouraging.

Yes. So here's the quote, and I'll read some of it, but it's from Tua. To put it in simplest terms, if you woke up every morning and I told you that you suck at what you did, that you don't belong doing what you do, and that you shouldn't be there, that you haven't earned this earned this right and so on and then another person comes in and says dude you are the best fit for this you are accurate you are the best whatever you are this or you were that how would you feel and who would you rather listen to so he's comparing brian flores

and mike mcdaniel and he later goes on to say if you have a terrible person that's telling you things that you don't want to hear or probably should not be hearing you're going to start to believe that about yourself and he says that's sort of what ended up happening and it's basically been two years of training that out of him I'm putting it on the spot here but what was the situation when Tua was in Miami with Brian Flores was there another guy there that Brian Flores might have wanted I believe if if I remember correctly I don't think it was I think they might have he might have wanted to draft like someone on defense okay and Tua was there and I mean there were question marks about Tua yeah

and that's the other thing there was the injury concerns too um but there have been like reports and rumors about and other things about Brian Flores and his coaching acumen and head coaching acumen specifically. What kind of coach would you be? Uh, I feel like. Would you be a player's coach or would you be a taskmaster? Nah, I'd be a player's coach. Country club atmosphere?

Yeah. That sort of thing? I'd just let him do whatever he wants. You're the best. You guys are the best. Yeah. I'll be over here. I'd be a Pete Carroll.

On my phone. Yeah. But Pete. Pete was a player's coach. Pete was a player's coach. He was a cheerleader for best. Yeah. I'll be over here. I'd be a Pete Carroll. On my phone. Yeah. But Pete. Pete was a player. Pete was a player's coach. He was a cheerleader for sure. Yeah. But he also, he demanded a very physical style from his team.

Right. He understood that football was, you know, eat or be eaten type of game. Like he did understand that. Um, but yeah, he was a player's coach. What would you be?

Uh, I don't, I don't think I'd be super touchy feely. I think I'd, I'd be like, Hey guys, I would be, you know what I'd be?

Halford. I just say like the reality of the situation, like a ton, ton of times I'd be like, uh, this is what you got to do. If you can do it great. And we'll help you and we'll try and help you.

But if you can't do it or you're not doing it, I'm going to tell you that like, you're not doing your job right now. Right. Isn't that just honest though? Yeah. Yeah. And so in this to a situation,

they, it can like verge so far into the, like you're trashing on someone because you think it's going to end up being good for them in the long run yeah and or you want you want a specific reaction you want him to say well i'll show you coach but not everyone's built like that yeah not everyone thinks like that and i think the best like the best coaches and we kind of see it here in vancouver with rick tockett especially last year kind of felt like he understood the personalities of the room and he knew not to and alias petterson is the one that comes up the best course of action

with alias petterson is probably not to trash him it's probably to try to build up his confidence a little bit whereas someone like jt miller for example probably responds pretty well to rick tockett being like hey you're playing bad. Be better. Yeah. And so the best- Or knock it off with the unnecessary stuff. Exactly. Yeah, yeah.

And so the best coaches seem to understand that balance. And at times, like Brian Flores, this might have worked for him in the past, being hard on players and trying to get the most out of them that way. And then he sees it with Tua and it obviously did not work. It's a very tough balance to strike though, because you also don't want to be in a situation. And this happened with the Seahawks where you take different approaches with players and then that's seen as favoritism,

right? It happened with Russell Wilson and Pete Carroll. A lot of the guys on the defense were like, this guy, like he never gets in trouble. Yeah. Right. Like he's the teacher's pet and we're out here making plays and being held accountable in all these situations. And, you know, Russ is Pete's favorite, you know? So, and I don't know if that was Pete Carroll treating guys differently because maybe Russ needed to be, you know, have his ego massaged a

little bit more. I have no idea. I hope one day, by the way, I hope one day there's a 30 for 30 about the Seahawks, that era of the Seahawks, because the personalities, and you know, you could get some guys on the record, you know, the personalities that were involved, the very outspoken guys on defense,

Pete Carroll himself, and also Russell Wilson, who is just a different type of cat. Yeah. What we learned, Johnny Angel, I learned that they need the pitch clock in the Little League World Series. Have you watched any of the Little League World Series? No, I didn't have an opportunity to, but it sounded like

wally went down there and while they had some issues against some of the better teams uh sounded like they were like leading the league and having fun yeah which is honestly the most important thing at that that level we're actually trying to chase someone from the wally team just talk about the experience down in william. But what was going on? Do you know? Were there some delays? Were there a lot of guys stepping off the mound or something like that? I was watching one game yesterday, just had it on in the background,

and it didn't seem that bad. I don't know if there's – maybe it was in a specific game, but when I was watching, it seemed – I actually thought. I was like, do they have a pitch clock? Because they're going really quick. Right. And so I didn't have any issue with it, but was like man these guys are better than me were you a baseball player growing up i was a baseball player yeah but we had a big what was your what's your

biggest little league memory oh dude okay so we we went over this last week but um also i got corrected because i didn't play little league i played like minor baseball or whatever and that's a different thing. Right, yeah, yeah. People get upset about it. What age were you? Yeah, one texter got very upset about it. Yes.

Little League is what, grade five and six, basically? Yeah, and I was in grade five and six, but I guess I just wasn't. My city didn't play in that league. Oh, I see. Okay. So anyway, we were playing in Provincials, and this is my biggest memory. We were playing in Provincials, and we were hosting it. So one person on our team randomly got chosen to catch the opening pitch from the mayor of Surrey, Diane Watts. She got an arm?

Well, no. I got picked, and she threw the ball, and all the teams are kind of lined up down the baselines from all the cities. And a kid from Abbotsford caught it. He got all the teams are kind of lined up down the baselines from all the cities and a kid from abbotsford caught it he got all the glory and uh josh elliot wolf sitting there at behind the plate did not so i don't understand how it worked like she just it was like she's randomly through it yeah i don't know like that is she like the bouquet at a wedding or something like that like for a ceremony of first pitch and you were the were the catcher? I was the catcher. Well, why did some Abbotsford kids catch it then? Because she could not throw it well. It was down the line.

She missed Josh with the throw, is what he's saying. Yeah, it was a bad throw. Now, do you have any good slow pitch memories, Josh? No. Anyway. Sorry to bring up a bad memory at the end of the show. Appreciate everyone texting in.

650-650. Appreciate everyone listening. Thank you to the dogs, A-Dog and Laddie. Appreciate Jason Brough. I've been Josh Elliott-Wolf. This has been Halford and Brough on Sportsnet 650.