Halford & Brough in the Morning - BC Lions Bo Lokombo + What We Learned

Episode Date: August 6, 2024

In hour three, guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Israel Fehr chat with BC Lions linebacker Bo Lokombo (1:10) ahead of Sunday's match in Edmonton, the boys tell us what they learned (13:10), plus we hear from the humanoids (25:02).  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 half an abrupt sports net 650, Jamie Dodd and Israel Fair. Fill-in-in here this week on the show. Halford & Brough brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. This hour of Halford & Brough is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit campbell-ound.com today.

We are live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet, what are you waiting for? You can send your What We Learn submissions in now. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. We will read them at 830. Hashtag WWL. What you learned over the last few days in the

world of sports. But before we do that, we're very excited to be joined by our next guest. He is a linebacker for the BC Lions. He is Bo Lacombo. Bo, thanks very much for doing this today. How are you? Hey, I'm doing fantastic, man. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's our pleasure. We're excited to chat with you. And you know, the team coming off obviously a tough loss in Winnipeg over the last week. What's the key as a team to kind of putting that behind you and moving on and focusing on what's to come rather than, go back to the drawing boards, go back to what went wrong, go back to the practice field, to the film room, and review, right? I mean, we play a sport that it's a win or a loss and really black and white. And so when you lose the way you do, you can't dwell on it too much, you know? And just like when you win, sometimes we're going to win or we've been winning.

We win big games. You can't dwell on it too much. You always got to have that mindset, the short-term memory of like, hey, you know what? We may have played well or we may have played bad, but we've got to move on. We've got to learn from this. We've got to watch film.

We've got to learn and go forward. And that's all we're looking to do going into this next week. Coming off of a game like that as you get back to practice today, how much time do you spend on reviewing the game and as you said, kind of learning from the mistakes that were maybe made and then projecting toward

the game coming up this weekend? Yeah, we try to spend at least, right after a win or a loss, we usually go 24 hours into reviewing tape. We already watched the Winnipeg game. We've already made our corrections.

We watched what went wrong and what we could have done better. And so we've already corrected a lot of things. And moving forward, it's just about not repeating the same mistakes. Obviously, finding new strategy. And again, learning from your mistake. Going into Edmonton on Sunday, all we care about is limiting those mistakes, making more plays.

I know our offense started a little bit slow the last game, but it's really about bouncing back and playing more collectively. Defense, offense, special teams, all three faces. We talked to your teammate Suk Chung a couple of weeks ago, and this was still when you guys were riding a five-game win streak. One of the things that struck me, Suk said, look, we know we're winning a bunch of games here,

but we also know we have lots that we can work on that we can do better. Now, not that you ever want to lose a game, obviously, but is there almost an element of when you know you have that we can do better now not that you ever want to to lose a game obviously but is there almost an element of when you know you have things you can do better but you're winning games maybe it can be a little bit more difficult to make those adjustments but then you do take a bit of a disappointing loss it can almost serve as a wake-up call for the team and okay hey we know what we need to do now we know what we need to do to get back on track oh yeah especially the way you lose right it's all about how you bounce back from it. You know, the way we lost, my offense has been on fire this whole season. And it's not

just the offense or it's not just the defense, but it's, like I said, the collective thing. Sometimes there's a phase that's a little bit slower than another, or maybe the scheme that the opponent has against us is working in their favor or maybe they're making more plays than us. But it really just comes down to overcoming those mistakes, overcoming that adversity. And again, it's like sometimes you've got to eat a humble pie. You might be on a 4, 5, 6 winning streak,

but then you get humbled by a big loss or something. So you just never know. And sometimes it's better that it happens earlier in the season as opposed to later when there's a playoff implication and stuff like that is on the line. So it's better for you to be humbled now. That way you can learn from it. And when it really counts, when playoffs come, we're ready to go.

Yeah, as you said, it happens relatively early in the season. And whether it's, you know, you're riding high in a winning streak and you need to kind of keep yourself in check a little bit or you need to keep your spirits up after a tough loss. I mean, it's such a long season in the CFL. How difficult is it to kind of learn that skill of, you know, not getting too high when things are going really well, not getting too low when the adversity hits,

as it always does at some point in the year? It comes with experience. It comes with being around the game. It comes with really just going back and realizing that, you know, we've been through this before, and here's a better way we could approach it, and here's how we could be better. And also, you know, the game that we play, a lot of times, sometimes there is a bit of luck involved too. You know, you deal with injuries.

You know, guys go down, and so now you're fighting. You're kind of scrambling and trying to put, you know, guys who are going to replace, you know, those guys. So some teams, unfortunately, go through the injury bug, and sometimes that's the reason why they're doing poorly. But it all comes together. You've got to always be together, and you've always got to remember, hey, you know what?

There's always better days. You mentioned injuries. Obviously a big one, Vernon Adams Jr. getting hurt late in that game against the Bombers and now is set to be out week to week with that injury, which means won't be playing this weekend. What's it like for someone that's not in the quarterback room and that's not even on the offensive line in your position? How does having a quarterback coming in that is going to be taking over

the starting role change the the dynamic for for a team leading up to to a game does that impact the way that that you prepare because it's obviously a hugely important position yeah we really have to rally behind the backup you know the person who's gonna you know take over that role you know we you know we've known over the years um at football you know, I've been playing quarterback position is the most important position. That's for sure, hands down.

And so when a guy like V.A. goes down, it's definitely, it does. You think about, you know, the type of season that he's been having so far and you feel bad for him. But again, you got to rally behind the next person, the next person in line. He's got a difficult job.

It's not easy, but you can't really do concern. And, I mean, for me, it's, you know, you really just got to hope that, you know, you're doing what you need to do as far as your job and as far as giving your best effort and then let everything else handle itself. You know, that's really out of my control, and it's out of anybody's control unless they play that position. So you've got to hope that, you know, they're ready to go and we can continue the momentum and the season that we've been having. And we will. We will.

I think Jake DeLaGala is going to do great. If that's Jake backing him up or Chase, we don't know. Again, you know, that's above my pay grade. I just got to do my job, make my tackles, make my plays, man, and do my best for us to continue to win. Hey, Bo, away from the field a little bit, I wanted to ask you as well. I know you had the chance to take a trip to Kenya in partnership with the CFL and World Vision Canada and do some interesting things over there,

connect with the community. I know there's a short piece about it at the BC Lions YouTube channel right now, but tell us a little bit more about what that experience was like. Yeah, it was an awesome experience. It was a partnership, kind of a brand-new partnership, between CFL, the BC Lions, and World Vision Canada. Basically, they selected eight player ambassadors from different teams. For our trip, it was only six of us

because another group did a trip in the Philippines, but I went with six total player ambassadors, and it was absolutely incredible. We went for about eight days, and basically we went to see the type of work that World Vision is doing out there. This one specifically was Kenya, but they've done work all over the world. And I grew up in the Congo.

I was born and raised in the Congo. So I haven't been back in the Congo since we immigrated here when I was six. It's been over 25 years. So for me to go back in the continent of Africa, it was like so surreal because I've always wanted to go back. I've always wanted to go back to my roots and see where I came from. You know, when you're immigrating at six years old, coming to a whole new different culture, different country, it's a bit of a culture shock. And a lot of memories, unfortunately, you don't recall like you want to. But going back gave me an idea of what it was, you know, the landscape.

I mean, the first day or the first or second day we went to the national park with seeing all the different animals like lions, like zebras and all types, just to name a few, right? And just to see that, to see the landscape, to see the people, it was incredible and it was an awesome trip. And I would definitely go back if that opportunity came up I couldn't pass the opportunity up Yeah, it sounds like an awesome experience

and really, really great work before we let you go I did check out your Twitter account and I was very intrigued by a recent tweet or I guess it's called X now, but a recent post here, and I wanted to get your full explanation here. But, you know, on sports radio, we're always talking about who's the GOAT and all of those things.

You know, a lot of talk at the Olympics right now, Simone Biles, the GOAT. You've got a post here that Lil Wayne is the greatest rapper ever. Is that your take? take you stand by that you know everybody has a top five you know they have a top five rapper top five you know food whatever for for me wayne is my number one as the best rapper for sure hands down i grew up on him um i think he's got clever lyrics is Just everything about the way his flow is, his style, I think that's the reason why I have such high regards for Lil Wayne.

And that's why I posted that because, obviously, he's a lot older, right? Like, he's retired. I feel like he's already been in his prime. Like, he's past his prime. He's did it all. But just to see him still make music at this age and still make somewhat music that reminds you of his prime is the reason why I posted it. And, yeah, Lil Wayne is my number one for sure, the GOAT.

Got to stand by your GOAT, absolutely. Hey, Bo, thanks for doing this today, man. Really appreciate it. And best of luck against Edmonton this week. Thanks a lot. I appreciate it, guys. Thanks, Bo. That is Bo LaCombo, BC Lions linebacker.

Who's you got as the GOAT? Man, I don't have as good of a take or explanation. I like that he was ready to go there. Yeah, he was riding. Wayne's got to be up there. Wayne is up there. He's up there for me, too. I think he got a good...

First concert I ever went to. A little Wayne. A little Wayne, really? Rogers Arena. I'm a big Kid Cudi guy. But greatest of all time? He's up there. What?

Yeah. No. That's a wild take. I mean, I'll be basic, and I'll say Pac, probably. Yeah, Jay-Z, I think, has to be in the conversation. Yeah. Biggie. Eminem, hello.

I'm thinking of my personal goat. If you're talking all time, then yeah, obviously. I think I'd probably go Biggie. You wouldn't put Eminem up there as as a lyricist i don't know if i had to choose five rappers to listen to i could only listen to them for the rest of my life eminem would not be on the list fair pretty easily i don't know is that is that a wild take no no no it's no because i'm of the belief that a lot of his stuff sounds very similar yeah and it would be very annoying after a while. So I agree with you.

Not that his stuff is bad. I'm not throwing him under the bus. Make it stop. No, he's got some great songs. Don't get me wrong. I just don't think he'd be in the top five. All right. It is Halford Abruf here, Sportsnet 650.

Jamie Dodd and Israel Fair filling in this week. 650, 650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. Get your What We Learn submissions in now. We will read them coming up. But I want to do a few of our own What We Learns here first. And I'm calling a bit of an audible. I had one prepared. I told Laddie he couldn't do it earlier before the show started.

I was claiming it as mine. But I'm going to put that on the back burner. You were marking your territory. I was marking my territory. Coming back in the hosting chair. That's right. This is dog related, actually, the one I'm about to do. So marking your territory, aptly chosen.

I'm going to put that one on the back burner. It's coming in the text box, so we can hit it there. But I got this one. This is a fantastic what we learned learned if i do say so myself this is per uh pete thamel who is an espn college football writer international recording artist pitbull is purchasing the naming rights to fiu's football stadium that's florida international football stadium he's expected to pay the school $1.2 million per year for the next five years to change the name of FIU Stadium to Pitbull Stadium. Pitbull, buying the naming rights.

I thought he'd go Mr. Worldwide Stadium. Yeah, it was Mr. 305. A major college football stadium will now be known as Pitbull Stadium for at least the next five years. There's no way he has the copyright to Pitbull. Yeah. Well, why do you need the copyright? Well, you're naming something and you're spending money on it.

You'd want to have the rights. Why does it hurt him if other people say Pitbull? I guess. It's just an incredible power move by Pitbull. I've never heard of an individual, of one person, going out and buying the naming rights to something and saying you know what this is this is gonna be my stadium now I heard that you were Jamie Stadium conversations

with the district of North Van to rename some of the baseball fields rename Zelke field yeah Jamie Dodd Memorial Park why Memorial are you still around I'm still here I just thought I had a nice ring to it he gave us a million dollars.

Good luck cashing the check on that. Live from Pitbull Stadium. Well, no, I mean, that's incredible, right? When you think of they're going to have to play Pitbull like all the time now at the stadium. He's got to have a big bash. He's literally named that. He's got to have a big festival. That's the only thing they'll play, actually.

They won't be allowed to play anything else. Big concerts there and stuff. He's going to be, I hope anything else. Big concerts there and stuff. He's going to be... I hope he's going to be at the games. I don't know how good Florida International's football team is, but they've got something going for them now with Pitbull. Pitbull buying the naming rights to their stadium. We've got to get Michael Bublé.

Can Michael Bublé buy the naming rights to BC Place? Bublé Place? Or the Langley Events Center because of the Giants. There you go. There you go the giants there you go the buble event center i like it buble bubbly he can double down that's right get some corporate money in there as well yeah all right give us a moo cow on that one now i'm always terrified to ask but does anybody else have anything prepared for for what we learned

we have our own what we learned submissions ready here? I have one. All right. Should I go? There you go. The guest host stepping in, doing some prep work before the show. You'll love to see it. We're staying on the dog theme here.

Okay. So reported over the weekend. If you've been watching the Olympics, I'm sure, Jamie, you were in the U.S. for a few days. So you were watching the NBC coverage. Hasn't been quite as prevalent on the U.S. for a few days, so you were watching the NBC coverage. Hasn't been quite as prevalent on the CBC coverage, but he's been seen on TV. He's certainly been seen on social media. Snoop Dogg's been all over the Olympics. It reported over the weekend that he's getting half a million dollars a day, plus expenses,

which we can only imagine what Snoop Dogg is sending through the expense report at the end of every day, to be at these Olympics as kind of an unofficial ambassador for the upcoming games in L.A., the 2028 games. And he's been all over the place, and that's a heck of a deal. With that money, he could potentially put his name on a stadium. So true. You could have Snoop Dogg Stadium out there. Cal-Tac Stadium. It's going to be have Snoop Dogg Stadium up there. Cal-Tac Stadium. It's going to be like Snoop Dogg, Long Beach Cal.

The Snoop Dogg Football Stadium. Long Beach Poly. Let's go. That's actually a great idea. First of all, imagine being the comptroller responsible for going through Snoop's expense reports and trying to figure out what you're approving and where you're like, I don't know about this one. That'd be a wild job the thing that blows my mind and shout out to snoop for getting half a mil a day is like he doesn't even have a job there really

i mean i guess he's doing some on-camera stuff with mbc yeah i think he's doing some some stuff in some bits but like we've seen him like he's just there right like he's he goes in the booth at like king's games Ducks games and he just for like five rambles. But there's no like one set job. It's mostly just like go hang out. Yes. Go be around.

Go be Snoop Dogg in the vicinity. You know who's had a similar job to this in the NFL is Marshawn Lynch. It was similar energy where he just goes and he says what's on his mind and he he's pretty earnest. I think that's what we've seen from Snoop Dogg as well well it's an impressive career arc from snoop to go from like controversial rapper yeah what was that tweet that was going on viral i want to remind snoop or thank snoop because my my mom grounded me for buying the album growing up and now she loves all of his olympics i had to remind her when i was a kid but it's really like it's just 500K a day just to show up and have fun and be Snoop, be charismatic.

Good for him. Give us a moo cow there. All right. Dogs, you guys got anything? I can do a quick one here. I got a little bit. Take your time. Don't rush on my account.

A little bit of a clip here. As you guys probably saw, Blake Snell threw a no-hitter over the weekend. And we did it for the san francisco giants and he's had a bit of an up and down year but there were some rumors in the off season he was a free agent that he'd come home because he's a washington native he'll play for the seattle mariners and he did a guest hit on a podcast after the no-hitter and they asked him straight up like did did seattle even reach out to you and and he said he was surprised but no yeah no i thought i thought they had at least called, but nothing. Yeah.

And I wasn't shocked for that because just their track record. But, yeah, I mean, I was curious on it for sure. So that's pretty interesting news there. I thought they have a pretty good rotation in Seattle, so I don't know how much they need Blake Snell. But you'd think they'd at least give him a phone call and say, hey, are you interested in coming to play for us? But Seattle Mariners had zero interest in the guy

that threw the no-hitter over the weekend. Just another bullet point on the resume of Seattle's front office that I'm sure will get their face. Well, if they don't make the playoffs with what they did at this trade deadline, then that'll be another bullet point. When he says track record, to me, that's that they don't sign big name free agents. You know, yeah, they signed Robinson Cano once upon a time, but by and large, they do not go after the big free agents.

And he was a guy that had to wait a while before signing with the Giants, but he's a two-time Cy Young winner, so there was going to be a big price there. And they do have a great rotation. It's arguably the best rotation in baseball but also they've had like they've been fortunate they haven't had any major injuries for the most part their their main their three main guys have been healthy throughout the year and so he could have helped them get better there but i think fans were i mean there were there were mariners fans that were trying to talk themselves into shohei otani making his way there and if they're not calling blake snell they're not they're

not even they're not even writing up their own documents about Shohei. They don't need a Shohei Otani scouting report. What kind of delusional fan base would convince themselves that Shohei Otani was going to sign for their team? Hmm. Couldn't be me. That was a wild no-hitter, though, that Snell threw. I don't know if you guys looked at the numbers behind it, but he hadn't even pitched into the eighth very much. Yeah, he'd

been struggling. Like, cumulative total in his entire career from the eighth inning beyond was an inning and two-thirds in his whole career. In his whole career. In his whole career, and he threw a no-hitter. Famously had a no-hitter in the World Series. After, what, four or five innings, he got pulled in that one? So, hey, he's like, hey, I showed you everyone.

I can do it. The Mariners tie-in is interesting. It's going to be fascinating to see what happens. And the thing is, as underwhelming as they are offensively they could easily still make the playoffs like the astros aren't that good either right so they still got a one and a half game lead on the astros here i just can't get around like this was supposed to be you have this rotation you have this opportunity to really go for it and even if you do end up making the playoffs because your division sucks like they've got a 522 winning percentage right now.

They're only five games under over 500. They are fundamentally a mediocre team, whether they make the playoffs or not. They're a mediocre team and making the playoffs probably will be enough to save the front office's job. But I kind of don't think it should be because like you had a chance

to be really special this year or be a real contender. And instead you're putting a mediocre product out on the field again. Yeah, you'd like to have like the Randy Rosarena stuff. They ultimately do get him before the deadline. But those were rumors going back to the offseason. I mean, he had a really slow start. Who knows if he had ended up in Seattle before, if that is going to be the case.

He's been really hot since the beginning of June. So there has been like he is among the best hitting outfielders again. But it does, even last year when they faded down the stretch, they missed the playoffs. The talk was if the Mariners got in, teams wouldn't want to face them because they've got, you go through the American League and I think of the contending teams, and this is assuming that Gary Cole is just okay

and not the guy that he'd been prior to that. The only team that might have one pitcher that's going to be advantage, like the favorite, they'll have the edge in the pitching matchup would be Corbin Burns in Baltimore. Like the Mariners probably have between Castillo, Gilbert, and Kirby the next three guys on that list. So that's their strength.

That's what's hopefully or ultimately going to try to get them there. But it is disappointing when the offense has just been really, really bad. And that's why they slipped down the standings over the last month or so. It has been tough to watch. Very good. Thank you, Laddie. Get ready for the ultimate sports fan trip to Michigan from September 27th

to October 1st. Experience games at the big house, Comerica park and Ford field. Contact Neil Chark at Neil C at uniglobecarefree.ca for details. Last chance to get your, what we learned submissions in 650, 650 is the Dunbar lumber text line. I mean, it your What We Learn submissions in. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. I mean, it's not really the last chance.

We're not giving away a prize or anything. You can send them in throughout the course of next segment as well. But get them in now for a better chance to have them read on the air. We will dive into the inbox next. Final segment of the show coming up here 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.

Welcome back to Halford & Brough here. Sportsnet 650 with Jamie Dodd and Israel Fair. Final segment of the show here on On a Tuesday after a long weekend, 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. This hour of Halford & Brough is brought to you

by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit campbell-ound.com today. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. Now, it is what we learn time, and I understand we are not contractually obligated to play the stinger here,

but I do enjoy it. So here we go. Oh my God. We're having a fire plan. Had to get that in there. Absolutely. Had to get that in there. And there's always so much like stuff around what we learned with the

moo cow, with that, with the dot matrix printer, but I always get thrown off in the order, but I think I'm doing it right. Now I go at you to go to print them off, right? We're going straight to the listeners. Well, unless A-Dog really wants to get something in here.

A-Dog? No, no, you go to the listeners. Alright, that's great. Very good. Did it. I always get right to the moment. I'm like, uh-oh, what am I doing? Last year you were, when we did the show last year You were horrendous The first couple of days

You were so so far off Alright it's time to print out the moo cows I think he said that last year If we want to get nitpicky Technically you're supposed to do the dot matrix Then the fire Oh really Yeah that's generally how it works

Okay still horrendous We'll let that slide Alright I'll try to do it tomorrow You're like the Canucks front office You went from 30th to 5th But you're still not first Yeah, that's generally how it works. Okay, still horrendous. We'll let that slide. You guys, all right. I'll try to do it tomorrow. You're like the Canucks front office. You went from 30th to 5th, but you're still not first. This is the administrative nonsense that we preach on the show that has to be learned. Well, it's very, there's just a lot of steps to it. It's not like, here's what we learned.

There's a lot of intricacies to how we do it. People think we're the sticklers, but look at the inbox. If you mess up the nonsense, they will let you know. Oh, I am sure. I am sure they will let me know about it. Okay, 650-650, get your What We Learns, but we do have some good ones in right now, and I wanted to start with this one.

This was going to be the subject of mine until I saw the Pitbull naming rights news. This one, Unsigned, says, What we learned in the last month, the AL All-Stars have more wins than the Chicago White Sox do. Yes, the AL All-Stars won the All-Star game, which means they have more wins recently in the Chicago White Sox who have lost 21 straight games. We're coming up on a month. July 10th was the last time they won a game.

It is now August 6th. They have tied the American League record with their most recent loss, a 5-1 loss to the Oakland Athletics. The Major League record belongs to the 1889 Louisville Colonels, who weren't even in the AL or the NL. They were in something called the American Association. They lost 26 straight times. That's the American League record.

So the White Sox are five losses away from tying the 1889 Louisville Colonels for the biggest losing streak in Major League history. Wow. I gotta say, like NBA, I can understand it. If you're just a terrible team,

the talent differential is so great. You suck. You lose 25 games or whatever. Hockey and baseball, because hockey of the goalie, right? Shooting luck, all of those things that keeps games close, low scoring. You shouldn't lose that many games in a row.

But the same thing for baseball. Like you're, I don't know who Chicago's ace is. I'm guessing he's not much of an ace. Crochet? No, he's good. There you go. They actually had two pitchers this year who were good. So there should be some games at least where it's like,

hey, it's our ace against their fifth starter or they're having a bullpen day or whatever. They're resting a guy. You should just be able to stumble in to some wins over the course of almost a month. The White Sox losing 21 straight games is mind-blowing. That's how bad they are. I mean, we talked about the Mariners and how they don't hit.

White Sox don't do anything. They beat the White Sox. They just played the White Sox last weekend. And it was the 26th on the Friday night. They won 10-0, the Mariners, a team that can't hit. And then 6-3, 6-3. So, you know? With baseball, it's so tough.

And you think about losing streaks in other sports, like you said. But with baseball, it's every day you're going out there and you're losing. And it's such a long season. There's still a month and a half to go in this season. It's such a slog for those players. I feel so bad for the coaching staff and the team. Oh, it's miserable. It must be so miserable in that club.

They're 27-88. They're on pace to finish 38-124. That would be the most losses since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. The famous Spiders. They're always on these lists. Well, there's the Spiders, the Colonels, and the Bean Eaters. If you're on a list with those teams, you're not doing well. Not the Bean Eaters.

Yeah, the Bean Eaters. We'll see what Bean Eater record they're approaching. But you're right. Every day you're going out there, and it's just completely futile. This is always the thing with bad baseball seasons in general. Even the Jays are living through this, right? Where you have nothing to play for, but there's still so many games left to get through

and so long to get through. And this is an even worse version of that for the White Sox. I have seen, so their manager is Pedro Grifo. Yeah. So he's got an L at the end of his name and the people photoshopping for every loss, an extra L onto his jersey, like going in a circle around the number.

And they're very close to it coming all the way around and matching up with the front of his name. He was next in line after Griefall. Is it Ozzie Guillen? Charlie Montoya, baby. Chaz Montoya will be back in the big seat. I saw that Ozzie Guillen was like openly campaigning to get the job. He's like on the postgame show.

Yeah, yeah. He was like, it should be me. Wait, what? Are you allowed to say that on the postgame show yeah yeah he was like it should be me wait what are you allowed to say that on the postgame show he's a champion i guess so and do you know what triggered this whole thing i just saw a stat the other day too the white socks are 44 and 120 since the punch to anderson the fight with cleveland they've won 44 out of 164 games since that moment so cleveland just took them down whatever happened they won in in combat and then they're they've destroyed the chicago white socks as an entity on the field i

also have to say so this is a side point to this but i pitched this as um and a lot of places are reporting this as chicago white socks 21 straight losses they're tying an al record. I feel like the concept of an American League or National League record is like a psyop created to make us care about the Aaron Judge home run total. Was that last year or a couple years ago? A couple years now. Yeah. Before that, whoever talked about AL records and NL records, especially now, it's not even like we only have interleague play.

There's DH in both leagues. They play each other all the time. They're barely separate leagues. No one ever talks about like, oh, that's a Western Conference record what the Vancouver Canucks just did. Who cares? It's an NHL record. It's an MLB record. All the Yankees writers who are like, oh, Aaron

Judge setting the AL record for home runs. Yeah, but all these other guys hit more of him in the National League. Why the heck are we discounting those? It used to be much more of a clear division, right? You'd have different umpires. Free interleague and all that. It's been 30 years now. It's been a while.

But it's been a long time. Are we really still pretending these are separate leagues that have their own distinct records? Like, who knows? Like, oh, who has the AL record for RBIs in a year? Who cares? It's one record. It's the Major League Baseball record. That's my rant.

I wanted to get that off my chest. Well, it's like if the NHL did that for, like, Western Conference. Come on, nobody cares. It wouldn't make any sense. He scored the most goals in Western Conference history. It's like, what? All you're telling me is that people in the Eastern Conference scored more. You were seventh all time.

Yeah, if you're citing AL records You're basically just saying someone in the NL did this better Yeah that's fair So get it get it out of here I'm done With AL and NL records But I am kind of rooting for the White Sox To tie the Louisville Colonels for 26 games in a row I hate to say it does that mean

It would be kind of funny The surviving Louisville Colonels pop champagne Anytime the team gets a win the reverse dolphins if you're a surviving member of the 1889 louisville colonels i think you're celebrating every day yeah every every breakfast is a mimosa still got the record 155 years old let's go uh okay 650 650 is the dumb bar lumber text line uh more what we learns uh coming in here this one from tyler what we learned if nfl teams aren't reaching out to the 100 plus kilogram judo champion they are doing something wrong french athlete teddy reiner is six foot eight and is a fit 300 pounds. Yeah, he's the judo gold medal champion. He is a absolute beast. I mean, six, eight, 300. And as Tyler says, he can move right. He's out there doing judo moves. I don't know which weight class is going to go in the final so they had almost like a price is right like sprint spin the wheel situation to see which weight class uh would represent would be in the final and it came up as the heavyweight

and everyone in france was like yeah because they know they're guaranteed to win they've got this six foot eight three hundred pound guy who's gonna go out there and he did win it for them so he's saying tyler say in nfl my first thought seeing this guy in action was whenever he wants to hang it up in judo he's gonna call wwe right like six foot eight 300 pound guy who can move and gold medalist combat sports gold medalist they should be all they should be all over this they should be right giving him a blank check to come to WWE. I'm sure that's on the table. You think Triple H is

on top of it? Quaking in his boots? Oh yeah, he's trying to get the deal done? Sure. I mean, that's just such a natural fit, right? Speaking of WWE, this news happened while I was on vacation. We have a What We Learned here. I learned

that WWE Survivor Series is coming to Vancouver on November 30th. This is one of WWE's biggest shows of the year. It's the first WWE premium live event, which I guess is what they call pay-per-views now in Vancouver since 1997 when they hosted the event Rock Bottom. I'm not the biggest wrestling guy anymore but i gotta say i saw that news and i was like that's not like you were 12 again no that's like that's interesting i might that that's would i would consider getting tickets to go to that like that's i'm i'm old

enough that like survivor series royal rumble those shows still are like lodged in my head as like a big deal you know what i mean not wrestlemania but there's still a big deal kind of surreal to see it coming to vancouver i'm like oh you know what that's pretty interesting that sounds like a good time i'm not gonna lie i'm glad uh i'm glad you had that reaction that's nice you disagree i just you're out not for me uh all right 650 650 uh again we're doing what we learned here on Halford and Brough. Jamie Dodd and Israel Fair filling in here. This one comes in Oz in Squamish. What we learned last night,

I learned that the 2008 national champion Florida Gators, 41 members of that team have been arrested. That's one of the craziest sporting stats I've ever heard. That's from Oz in Squamish. Is it a sporting stat? Well, I mean, it's involved members of a sports team.

I don't know. Is there a banner in the stadium? It's tangential to sports at least. But wasn't that like Urban Meyer leader of men?

What happened? And Tim Tebow? Tim Tebow, yeah. Maybe not running quite as tight a ship as we thought they were. Are they all in jail right now? Could they form another team in prison and just dominate? It's like Longest Yard.

The prison leagues? They would dominate. They would. I believe they... The Florida Penal League? There's a Netflix show about this team. I believe so, yeah. But this was a big deal at the time.

Under the guidance of Tim Tebow. Tim Tebow, but he was the shield, so every other player was getting arrested on the tee, and it's like, hey, this guy is too good to be true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One side or the other. He puts Bible verses on his eye black. Don't look at these other 40 guys who got arrested.

We have a man who's a literal angel. Don't look at the rest of the team. Just ignore everyone else and what they're doing, especially Aaron Hernandez, who was on that team oh yeah sure was so i mean everyone else is like it can be like at least i'm not as bad as aaron hernandez i might have done some bad stuff what was that locker room like do you think oh boy it was pretty interesting pretty fun uh to be on that team in that lock in in that locker room. Okay, 650, 650 again. Keep those what we learns coming in here.

This was more of an ask us anything, but from Todd has bad takes. He says, is Canada now the sporting world's bad guy? Cheating, suspensions, abuse scandals. What is going on? Should we have seen this coming when our national team started wearing black that's from todd has bad takes i don't know if i would extend it to the

entire sporting world canada are the bad guys the drone thing in world football is definitely going to stick to them for a long time right as much as there's other people saying you know i've heard other people from other countries saying like look everyone look, everyone does it. It's not that big a deal. It's an easy thing for fans to latch on to. Right. It's an easy thing for fans to chirp about, to point out, to kind of if you're looking for a reason to root against a country, it's right there. So I think they are going to be, especially on the women's side, probably a little bit of the bad guys for a while there. Yep.

I'm very curious to see for so many reasons, but this game against France that gets going in about 15 minutes here because they're playing in front of the French crowd. So right away, you're the bad guy. Not because the French hate the Canadian team, just they're the opponent, right? So they're the bad guy. And then that's kind of their identity

too right like dylan brooks we all know what he's about on the basketball court he wants he aggressively wants to be the bad guy every time he steps out there lou dort doesn't have quite the same theatrical uh nature to him as dylan brooks does but he's a tough as nails like defensive player right i can kind of see it if if they are able to knock off france dylan brooks does dylan brooks things like they could go from oh hey plucky exciting canadian team with with shea gilgis alexander to these guys are the villains of the tournament depending on how this game goes i mean the dylan brooks stuff has been you know a lot of a lot of it, especially in the NBA linked with LeBron and being the guy that is unafraid of

LeBron and trying to throw him off his game. And so, yeah, he's completely assumed that mantle. I just think that unless Brooks, you know, I don't know, pulls a Draymond on Wemba Yama, SGA has the cool guy factor.

He does. And that might supersede unless Brooks does some WWE sort of stuff tonight which don't rule it out SGA just is he has almost a perfect approval rating yeah right there everyone says he is top three top five player he's so smooth he is so cool he doesn't you know in this era where there's a lot of people that complain about the nba where it's look at me and i'm trying to get attention and i'm trying to get traded and all of these different things he is just doing his thing in oklahoma city he has that quote unquote canadian mentality he's, he's backed it up. And so I, if he, if he has a big game,

I think people will jump on the Canadian bandwagon, but Brooks is always the, he's always the wild card. And it's an interesting, you know, you brought up dream on green, right? And it's interesting.

It's an interesting comparison because I think if you look at dream on, on the warriors, Steph Curry probably has the highest, as you say, like approval rating of any super. He was like the Tim Tebow of the warrior. Really? Because you say, approval rating of any superstar. He was like the Tim Tebow of the Warriors. Really? Because, you know, people hate LeBron.

People rip Kevin Durant for switching teams. James Harden. Don't get anybody started. Even like Luka Doncic, right? Like for similar things, although he's still pretty popular. Embiid. The Celtics guys. Everyone has detractors in the NBA.

Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant. Really except Steph Curry, I would say. I mean, I'm sure you can find people out there, but by and large, nobody is like. Of the upper echelon. Nobody is a Steph Curry hater. But I think there were people that were happy to see the Warriors lose at different points, probably in large part because of Draymond Green.

Now, I don't know that the Warriors ever flipped to full on villains, right? Because it was still Steph and clay thompson and steve kerr pretty likable chill coach right but they did have that dream on green element where it was like even if you're not cheering against the warriors it's pretty easy to cheer against dream on green it's kind of a similar dynamic with canada as you said where you know sga still wildly popular around the nba but dylan brooks somebody people love to clown on. I am curious with Shea Gilgis Alexander because it always flips at a certain point, right? Like guys go from young, exciting players or like people are so excited to see what they can do so much potential.

And then if it doesn't happen right away, the criticism starts to come. And I think we're seeing it with Luka Doncic, right? Like, does he do enough on defense? Is he his conditioning? All of those things, his style of play. When does that start at a certain point for SGA from kind of an NBA wide perspective? Because there's going to be a lot of expectations on him and that OKC team to really do something. And he's at the point now where it's like, OK, he's going to be in the crosshairs if they don't take that next step as a team it does feel that way although i do wonder if being in okc and with you know lebron

still being with the lakers that's going to take up a lot of oxygen the celtics are now defending champions that's going to take up a lot of oxygen the knicks are back in the you know they're back in the mix they they they had a good season they got people excited about the knicks again that'll take up a lot of oxygen uh you you mentioned dallas like donchich is going to be taking i think like if you're going to go down the list we're probably looking at anthony edwards being on the receiving end of some criticism before s. And some of that is also just his personality. Anthony Edwards is really confident. He's out there, yep. SGA, he's just smooth, man.

Like, yes, that OKC team is on the cusp of, they look like they should be on the cusp of doing great things. I just do think that they kind of get coddled a little bit because they're OKC, right? Even with the Durant teams and the westbrook teams it was like hey look at these guys good for them they got all of these high picks and now they're now they're making a run to the final and then it it did turn at the end but it took a while

right it wasn't until they lost to the warriors and then durant obviously infamously then joined golden state but it took a few years before people turned there, and then they turned on all of them, right? People turned on Russell Westbrook. Harden. Harden eventually gets, you know, he's traded to Houston, and people turned on him. But they were that young, likable group.

It just took a while, and I wonder if SGA just, he seems like he's Teflon right now. Yeah, he absolutely is. And Mike Theorologist from Brockville, Texas. And SGA is so Canadian with the unflappable calm and cool demeanor, says it reminds him of Ethan Katzberg and Summer McIntosh. Friend of the show. Friend of the show, Ethan Katzberg.

And it's a good comparison as well. That is one of the things that defines him on the court, as we were talking about with Harash Madani earlier. He's so in control. Every time the ball is in his hands, That is one of the things that defines him on the court, as we were talking about with Harash Medani earlier. He's so in control. Every time the ball is in his hands, you have the utmost confidence that he's going to make the right decisions, make the right plays, survive the pressure, but the other team is thrown at him. And Basketball Phil texts in,

Steph hasn't guarded anyone at the Olympics yet. I can hate on that. So Basketball Phil is talking himself into hating on Steph Curry. That is the criticism that he gets. Can't play defense. But, I mean, whatever. It's like he's Steph Curry. Come on.

We're going to hate on him for that? Whatever. Mike texts in as well. How great would a USA Canada final with Brooks versus LeBron be again? That would be phenomenal. Dylan Brooks, the chance for revenge against LeBron James. Can you imagine? In a gold medal game.

Now, I don't want to get ahead of ourselves. They've got to beat France. They've got to win another one. But that's on the table. The Dylan Brooks revenge shot against LeBron James, if they can take care of business, starting with France, in just a few minutes in the quarterfinals. We'll be back tomorrow for more Halford & Brough here on Sportsnet 650.