Halford & Brough in the Morning - Braeden Cootes Looks Like He Belongs

Episode Date: September 29, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a wild and busy weekend in sports (3:00), plus they break down a pair of Canucks preasons matchups which saw an impressive performance from rookie Braeden Cootes (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Halford and Brough You're listening to Halford and Brough. Kick to the uprights, and it is God! And the game ends in a tie. I'm trying to be aggressive at the end of the half, and that really bit us in the butt. It should piss us off. Even though it's week four, this should piss us off.

I mean, we're keeping a buck right now. We have us, so we owe it forward. The 2ndall Js are American League East Division champions for the first time in 10 years. Good morning, Vancouver, 6 o'clock on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. This Halford and his breath. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Adol, good morning to you. Good morning. Laddie, good morning to you. as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks.

Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech Footwear and Ortho. We're going together with you in step. What a weekend. Outstanding weekend in the world of sports. So much to get into. So much to talk about. We're going to go through the guest list very quickly here. First hour, all uninterrupted Halbro,

because we have so many things to get into. Guests don't start rolling in until 7 o'clock. Mike Tanya, our NFL insider from the 2 Deep Zone, is going to join us. Crazy Sunday in the National Football League. Capped off with wait for it. The second highest. scoring tie in professional football history.

40 to 40. I'm sorry. Not a real league. Not even close. A tie? Come on. Little too soccer from the NFL over the weekend. That was between the Cowboys and Packers last night. There's also a lot of major injury concerns out there. It's going on with Malik neighbors. Most concerningly, it's going on with Lamar Jackson and the one and three Baltimore Ravens.

Lamar could be hurt for a while as well. Of course, we've got a Monday night doubleheader, Dolphins Jets, followed by Bengals and Broncos. Tanner is going to join us at seven. to talk about all that. 7.30, James Myrtle's going to join the program, senior NHL writer from The Athletic. Lots of big stories going around the National Hockey League this weekend.

On Friday, we had Alexander Barkoff's season-endie injury in Florida. Got a Mason McTavish extension in Anaheim. But the reason I want James on, and the reason we invited James on, is because he wrote an article for the Athletic, which suggested, you know, everyone thought, oh, the LTIR loophole is closed. But wait.

but wait like if you know he used the example of let's say the Vancouver Caducks make the playoffs what they could do in theory

is say all right Lankinen you're not playing because Demko is playing and then that does that open up cap space

that the Canucks could use ahead of the playoffs salary cap chicanery yeah every time a loophole is closed another loophole open. So we'll talk to James about that and

what he expects certain teams to do and what are some new ways that NHL teams could take advantage of the salary cap. 8 o'clock Kevin Woodley, NHL.com, and Ingold magazine's going to join the program. Busy week for your Vancouver Canucks. Busy weekend, I should say, who split a pair of exhibition games. There was the good. A 4-2 win on Friday at Rogers Arena, which saw Evander Kane score his first Canucks goal in a Canucks uniform. Then there was the less good but still encouraging last night a 4-3 loss in Edmonton

that saw a bunch of youngsters fight valiantly to score three times in the third period, including young Braden Coots, really making an impression. We'll talk to Kev about all that and more. Has he actually shot a puck into the net, though? Doesn't matter. Goals are goals. Right, okay. They don't ask how many.

Did one one won off his leg or his body or something like that, and the other was like a bank? One was thought to have gone off Drew O'Connor, but that actually went off, Matthias Atcombe. Right, okay. The important thing is they were heads-up plays. Heads up plays. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, those were goal scores. And he called bank, I believe, on the second one. It's true. It was really weird. He just kept going, bank, bank. 8 o'clock, Kevin Woodley, 7.30, James Myrtle, 7 o'clock, Mike Tanya. That's what's happening on the program today. Laddy, to tell everybody what happened.

Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. What happened? I missed all the action because I was. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? I missed it? You missed that?

What happened is brought to you by at the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. Okay, we don't normally do this, but this is one of those days where it was really hard to choose which story to lead with. And sometimes we get in trouble with listeners in the inbox with the story that we decide. to lead with. So I'm going to start with a bit of a disclaimer. We didn't forget the Canucks had a preseason game. We didn't forget the Lions had a big win over the Argos. We didn't forget the white caps drew in Seattle. We didn't forget Canada's tough loss to England in the women's

rugby World Cup. That was a tremendous run for the Canadian women. We didn't forget about a wild finish to the Ryder Cup Wild Weekend, really. And we didn't forget about the NFL. There are a bunch of NFL games yesterday, and we'll get to those eventually. In fact, we'll try

to get to all those stories at some point today, but we got to start with something, and we're going to start with the baseball. Let's go! Because, even though Halford just said that, and he sounds like a member of the American Rider Cup team, you sound

like Bryson Deschambeau when you say that. One of my favorites. One of the best ever do it. For the first time ever, the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays will head into the postseason as the top two seeds in the American League on

a collision course for the ALCS and I need this to happen. The Mariners did it before the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays waited until their final game of the season and And we all know in baseball, there are 748 games in a season.

And the hero was their catcher, Alejandro Kirk. The Blue Jays did it. As Jason mentioned on the final day of the regular season, capturing the first AL East crown. And over a decade, it was Alejandro Kirk, two home runs, six RBIs. He started the day with the Grand Slam, but let's play his second and most pivotal home run, Greg. I know we're going right to the second one.

This is Kirk's second home run of the day. to help the Js beat the race 13 to 4 and capture not just the ALE East, but the best number one seed in the American League. Alejandro Kirk the Hero, here's what it sounded like. Driven to center field. He's hit it well. It's gone. Aalandro Kirk is back, and the Blue Jays lead eight to four.

Stay on, Kirkie. I mean, he is swinging it. Kirk now has 15 home runs this season, a career high. First Grand Slam of his career, second multi-homer game of the season. He finished three for five with six RBIs. He also homered in Saturday's game as well. What a performance. I got to admit, the final day of the MLB.

season on a sports weekend where there was a million things going on. Everyone had to make some tough decisions yesterday when it came to their viewing. Everyone had to make their tough decisions. Very difficult. It was a phenomenal day. Can we just hear the final call as well? Look, we have been following the J's. Is this the closest we've followed the Jays

since we've been at our time at SportsNet for sure? For sure. This is the close. This is the most we've been down. And Lattie, to you, we say, congratulations. You have been a beacon of positivity and consistency and calm and cool. throughout the season. Why, was it in Jeopardy or something?

Even when we rage baited you to say something crazy about the Blue Jays. You're like, no, we're going to stay the course and then all he sent yesterday when the Blue Jays clinched a three-word text, never in doubt. So congratulations to you, Laddie. It was in doubt, though, at times,

many times during the regular season. In hindsight, I will admit, yeah, there was some doubt but I will contest, even if they lost it, it wasn't a collapse. The Yankees were just insane the last month of the year. I figured what their record was, but they went off. So it wasn't like the Tigers collapse. No, it wasn't like the Tigers collapse.

No, no, no, no. But there was a better collapse than the Tigers. But there were concerning things. I guess one of the things I wonder now going forward, the Jays are going to have some days off, which will be much needed for the rotation, and just maybe their mental health. And Bo?

Although I, yeah, well, that's what I was going to talk about. What's the story? Have there been any updates on Bo Boshet? Because they need him. I know they got it done, but they are a hundred of Kirk's bat now. They are a much better team when he's in the lineup, obviously. Yeah, I mean, as you mentioned, they're going to have some time here. So the wild cards, by the way, get underway on Tuesday.

We'll get into all that as we parse through the rest of the MLB story because there were some big stories from around the league, not involving the Toronto Blue Jays. Do you want to play, let's play the Shulman call because at the end of 162 games, having the last call of the regular season be this call, it is pretty monumental. It's not very often that the Jays do this.

It's not very often that we will. walk into a postseason where, as you have pointed out, for the first time ever, the Jays and the Mariners are the top two seats in the American League. So it was poetic that Dan got to send it off into the playoffs like this. Final call yesterday, Jays beat the raise 13 to 4 on a pretty memorable day for the Blue Jays organization. And a ground ball fair, Guerrero to Lauer, and they've done it. The Toronto L.Js are American League East Division champions for the first time in 10 years. Okay.

We now need to turn our attention to the remainder of the story here. And before we take a look ahead to the playoffs, I do want to take about a minute and a half to two minutes to talk about what happened to the New York Mets this season. The New York Mets fell apart during the second half. half of the season, specifically in August and September, but all they had to do yesterday was beat the Miami Marlins. Why? Because the Cincinnati Reds went out and lost to the Brewers. So for that final wild card spot in the NL, all the Mets had to do was win one single game and avoid one of the biggest collapses in MLB in sports history. They did not do that. At one point this year, the Mets were 45 and 24. They were 21 games above 500. They had the best record in baseball.

They had a playoff position this year. There's 186 days in the regular season. They were in the playoffs for 174 of them. It's remarkable how badly they collapsed. This is Mike Francesa from Mike and the Mad Dog. Now, you want to think that Vancouver Media is negative and toxic and can really come down on the players. This is 63 seconds of eviscerating a team.

This is Francesa went live on his podcast right after the Mets got eliminated. This is wild, but this gives you an idea of how big and how bad this collapse was. One of the biggest collapses in sports history that New York Mets. Here's Francesa in the aftermath yesterday. This is such a colossal failure. This is one of the great colossal gutless collapses that we have seen from a team with talent in a very long time. There are bad teams. That's not them.

They aren't a bad team. They're a gutless bunch of. underachievers, that's what they are, gutless to the core as a group. They should be ashamed to themselves. I never thought they would be this gutless. I never thought that they would not figure it out to this extent. I never thought their pitching would dissolve as badly as it did, but not just their pitching. They were a top heavy lineup all year. They became a bad defensive team. They became a bad situational team and they

became a bunch of gutless bums. That's what they were down the stretch. There's no other way to categorize it. You know what's really difficult sometimes for me is when baseball teams are described

in this sort of way. Like a gutless baseball team. Now I can understand a gutless hockey team. Sure. Right? Like a gutless hockey team would be a team that while you know they never went into the corners to win battles no fight no jam there's no fight they didn't take the puck to the front of the nats didn't stand up for teammates they didn't stand up for teammates like that sort of thing baseball it's just and maybe it's i just i don't know i never played it at a high level like i know i you know i don't i don't

maybe understand where it's coming from but it's like with baseball it's kind of like well were the hitters not going up and trying to hit the ball or were the pitchers not going up and pitching? Like how, what are some examples? What are some examples of being a gutless baseball team? The New York Mets did not win a single game this season in which they were trailing in the eighth inning or later. They were 0 and 67, I want to say.

So they could not. Do they have a defeatist attitude? But like how does that, but how does that play? itself out. Does it does a guys going up and being like, I'm not even going to try to swing the bat? You had nobody step up in the big moment. You had, but what is, but people, people, I'm sure people tried. Yes, I'm sure they tried. Yeah, yeah. But they lacked the guts to do it. Anyway, you know what I'm saying, right? Sure. You know what I'm saying. I think if you watch a team collapse, in baseball especially, because it's, it's, it's, plays out so slowly. Like,

the Mets collapsed over the course of two months. And you can just see it. And you're waiting for someone, I think, to step up and make a big player, or someone have an outstanding, outing or someone did the nerves get to them that would be I guess you could say that was that was gutless and maybe you

I mean we watched a lot of golf in the Ryder Cup and I think you know maybe the example would be like guys were trying to make puts but the pressure of the moment got to them

I think we've all seen at bats where you can tell the hitters have just given up or they just have no confidence no confidence yeah but does that mean gutless well I think when it comes down to

Halford's about their record eighth inning or later, like, yeah, that's gutless because you have zero fight in you. How many late inning comebacks to the Jays had this year? I think they're led to the American League in them. So there is a big divide there. And it's also for a team that was winning games so easily that they're very talented. Anyway, let's move on to the rest of this. It gets into semantics anyway.

Sure. I might always just find that interesting, the different dynamics between the sports. Okay, here's the playoff bracket. The Toronto Blue Jays are going to meet the winner of the Yankee. and the Red Sox, which is awesome. Delicious. Seattle is going to meet the winner of Cleveland and Detroit. And that's interesting because Cleveland,

with their terrific finish, and Detroit's gutless but still gutty enough to get into the playoffs finish, fell from getting a buy, like Toronto and Seattle, to all the way to the sixth seed. Yeah, wild card was doing. So all those.

games will be played in Cleveland. Over in the National League, Milwaukee, they're an unbelievable season. They're the top seat and they'll play the winner of the Cubs and the Padres and then Philadelphia, one of the great places for postseason baseball, although I think Toronto and Seattle are going to be pretty

great atmospheres as well. They will play the winner of the Dodgers in the Cincinnati Reds who snuck into the playoffs because of the gutless Mets. Yeah, it's going to be amazing. We'll pivot up. We'll get, you know, let's circle back onto the baseball stuff

maybe in the second half hour of what happened because we do want to get to the Canucks stuff as well. But an amazing weekend of theater. We didn't even get to how the Guardians got in on a walk-off home run on the final day of the season. But there's a lot more to get to and I know we got a lot to get into, period. So we will now turn our attention to

your Vancouver Canucks. I mentioned this briefly in the intro, but we'll go into more detail here. Busy weekend for the Vancouver Canucks. A few hours after we got off the air on Friday, the Connucks played their first preseason game at Rogers Arena, a rematch against the Seattle Cracken, and they won. 4-2 over the Crackin. Braden Coots, Philip Hironich, Jake DeBrusk scored with a goalie in net. Evander Cain scored an empty netter to make it 4-2 in his first period of action. It was Lankton and Total Appeal and Net for that one, so that was good. By the way, just before you get to the second game, I had a...

very funny text conversation was sat about the Pedersen discourse after that game on Friday because... What was that like? Well, I mean you know, there are people that are just looking to see what they kind of want to see and a lot of it's based on their opinions on what's

going to happen this season. So anyone who is super pessimistic about Pedersen saw all the bad and there was a couple of times where he fell and he didn't have any points. Like he didn't you know like yesterday's game McDavid and Drysidal finished their chances.

They had a bunch of points. They were the reasons that the Edmonton Oilers won. But on the other hand, you know, I thought, I personally thought that Pedersen looked better. Like he was, I thought that was encouraging. You were a positive discourse guy. No, I'm just the truth. I'm just the truth. I wasn't any, I wasn't optimistic or positive.

I've always said, like honestly, honestly, I've always said, I just call it like I see it, right? And I thought he looked better. Was he to the level he's been at before? God, no. But it was a start, and I thought it was encouraging. I thought maybe there was some chemistry there with Evander Cain. We'll have to see. But it was just so hilarious how, and, you know, Sat was saying, like, people desperately want certainty.

And, like, you're not going to get it. Right. You're not going to get it, especially in a preseason game with Pedersen. But for me, that was the story. I know the story yesterday was Brain and Coots, because this guy, keeps on doing everything that he needs to in order to make the team but I think the connects need to have an honest discussion

about themselves with themselves and be like hey do we want Braden Coots to make this team because we honestly feel he's ready and he's able to last an entire NHL season with being a good player at his age at his physical stature or we just need them

you know, like is our center position so dire and so thin that like we need this kid to make it and we're going to roll the dice a little bit with his development and see what he can do. So the notes and details from last night where the Vancouver Canucks went to Edmonton and lost 4-3 to an Edmonton team that featured both Leon Drysidal and Connor McDavid. Those two combined for checks notes seven points in the 4-3 win. But a lot of the discourse in the aftermath was how well. A very young and inexperienced Vancouver Canucks preseason lineup handled itself, especially in the third period,

when they scored three times. The goals were scored by a bunch of youngsters. Atu-Ratoo, you mentioned Braden Kootz. Jonathan Lekromacki on a nice goal as well, on a pass from Philip Heedle, all scored in the third period for the Canucks. Thatcher Demko stopped 20 of 24 shots, made an unreal save in that game as well.

But the biggest story right now is Braden Kutz. He played the third most minutes among all forwards in that game against Edmonton last night. He was out there for big boy shifts against Drysidal and McDavid. I know Randeep came on the post game show afterwards and was talking about the board battles

and the battle level that Cooch showed against two of the best players in the National Hockey League. He skated on a line centering Drew O'Connor and Jonathan Lekaramacki. I think it was like 6 of 11 from the dot. So he is getting a very extended look as close to as what regular season hockey can look like in the preseason.

I don't know how else you can get it other than going up in Edmonton playing against McDavid and Dry Settle for a full game and the kid acquitted himself well are they going to give him a real look it always has felt and it continues to feel like a bridge too far yeah I'm still in that position I think he's going to get some games though I think he's going to they're going to use the the night if I had to guess right now he's going to make the opening day roster and get sent back to junior that's where I am that's where I'm at right now I think he's earned that that's what I think

is I think he's earned the opportunity to play the nine if you can continue to perform all you really do is force the coaching staff and the executive to make a very difficult decision and one quite frankly I assume they weren't very

they weren't predicting that they were going to have to make but what Coots has done is thoroughly impressive I just I just remember 2015-16 Willie de Jarden

was the head coach and the Canucks had Jared McCann and Jake Vertan and let's focus on McCann here because he was actually like he was older than Coots it was his deep draft plus two season sorry it was draft plus one season I guess Coots is in his draft plus zero season

and he was scoring a ton of goals and they kept him and he ended up playing 69 games in the NHL and nine goals and nine assists not so nice right like he he didn't thrive and then foolishly they traded him because he wasn't mature enough to make the team and maybe that's where brayton coots you can say that you can differentiate between mccann and vertan who i don't think ever matured um because everything that has been said about brayden coots is that he does everything the right way. And the veterans that are

talking about him are saying how impressed they are with his preparation, et cetera. But I don't know, I just still worry about whether or not he's going to be able to thrive like this on a physical level. Like, it's a long, long, hard season in the NHL. Yeah, I will say this, though.

But I'm glad we got him. Once every decade or so, you do get one of these anomalies. and you know it's for a lot of luck is involved that they either fall to you in the draft or they're just ready something just clicks we have seen the past look there's been lots of guys elite level guys who have played in the NHL at 18 like in their draft year it has happened

it just doesn't happen all that often and very rarely do they last the entire season if you want to go to probably the most recent example that's the closest to this is last year with Lechenko in Philadelphia where he got a cameo and you know that he performed incredibly well during the preseason and they gave him a look.

And then there's been other guys. I think Ryan Nugent Hopkins did it as an 18-year-old. Barkoff did it an 18-year-old. Jordan Stahl did as an 18-year-old. So it has happened. It's just, it's rare. And I think part of it is... Nuge was the first overall pick.

Yep. You know, Barkoff's gone on to be one of the greatest two-way players. But what I'm saying is these guys, it happens. Like, Coutes could be... And I'm just throwing it out there for like the hypothetical of it all.

He could end up being an unbelievable. steal of a pick at 15. Like, it's possible. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm not saying it will happen. Well, hopefully it does. I'm just saying it could happen. What you could be seeing right now is that.

You could also just be seeing a guy that's on a heater in the preseason. And then it goes, it crashes back to Earth or something like that. There are certain things that we always need to be careful of and cautious of, knowing that there are exceptions to the rule, but typically in the beginning of the season, it's the young guys that are going to go all out, empty the tank. And it's the veterans who are. you're like, you know, I'm not going to go 100% in the first few games because I know, through experience, that it's a long season.

And they still scored seven points. And also, I made the team. I don't need to do this. Okay, we are up against it for time. We are talking Canucks preseason right now. All Canucks preseason coverage on SportsNet 650 is brought to you by Big League Sports Excellence. Score the Sports Excellence exclusive CCM JetSpeed Extra S.E.

lineup of gear at Big League Sports Excellence, your go-to for everything CCM. Visit them in store at 2151 Burrard in Kitt Salano. We've still got a bunch more to get into. Have not even talked about the National Football League story yet. Haven't talked about the BC Lions, haven't talked about the Vancouver Whitecaps. That's all coming up in the next half hour of the program. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet, 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Richo and Saty R. Shaw, your destination for everything Canucks.

Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the podcast. host game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. 633 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough in the morning is bratsy by Sands and Associates. Get out of the penalty box of debt and back into the game with a financial fresh start. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com.

So much to get into from the weekend. We're still an hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scratch. Metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. Going to start off the second segment of the show. Going local. Vancouver Whitecaps in Seattle on Sunday. Saturday, sorry. Not even Sunday. Saturday.

Two-two draw in Seattle. Fine match. Not a ton of talking points from it. They did win the Cascadia Cup. hilarious moment after that match is they brought the Cascadia Cup out and Thomas Muller was there and he's like, what is? How many cups does this place have? I'd do explain it to him. It's a competition between Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland, the Pacific Northwest. It's like three teams? Yes.

And just regular season? Yes. Well, it's good news that And then he hoisted it. It's good news that he's learning about all these cups, right? It's one of the cups that's learning about... Well, no, but he's learning about the supporter shield. Yes. He's learning about the cascadish.

Acadia Cup. On Wednesday, he's going to learn about the Canadian Championship. And then he's like, we've got playoffs too with the playoffs. And hopefully he learns about the, what, the MLS Cup presented by Audi or something like that. Why do you have so many cups? He's so enthusiastic about it, though. He's like, this is great. We shall celebrate another trophy.

And he was very excited. Anyway, Caps draw two to as Jason mentioned, the big one is this Wednesday. The Vancouver Derby, Caps, Vancouver FC at BC Place on Wednesday. Caps can win their fourth consecutive Canadian. championship there. Speaking of the local teams playing at a BC place, the BC Lions won their third straight game on the weekend on Friday

in very un-BC Lions-like fashion. It was not the offensive exploits of Nathan Rourke that got the job done. It was a dominant defensive display by the Lions against Nick Arbuckle and the Toronto Argonauts. They're getting some good revenge on some of the Eastern teams lately. They got revenge on Ottawa.

They've got revenge on the Argonauts. goes and all of a sudden you look at the standings and there's a chance they could host a home playoff game because they're in a race with the stamps and the bombers and they've got a huge game Saturday at home versus Calgary Vernon Adams and the Calgary stampeters and things aren't going great for the stampeters. So we'll talk later in the week about the BC Lions and their big game against the Calgary Stampeders. We should also mention that the BC Lions are going to have two games in Kelowna

during the World Cup. Now, the Argos, who are also, Toronto was also hosting World Cup games at the home of the Argos, and the Argos are like, I don't know, go play them in Hamilton or something like that. It's do it every want. Whatever. We're not doing a lot of extra work for this, right?

We already changed the rules and that sort of thing, and we want an NFL team, let's be honest here. You go to Hamilton and you do with things. Amar Dolman, a good owner, a hardworking owner. Now, I don't know the venue very well. You're not familiar with the Apple Bowl? The Apple Bowl. I've seen pictures of it, and there is a tiny grandstand.

I love the Apple Bowl. They're going to have to bring in a lot of temporary seats into the Apple Bowl, but I think it's going to be pretty cool, and I guarantee that Colona is going to embrace the two games that the Lions play up there during the World Cup. I think that's really cool. It's got a lot of the... And then people are going to be like, maybe the lion should move to

Colonna. It's got a lot of... It's got a lot of Halford Green Flags. It's got a big track around the field. They had a CPL game that they hosted recently. They had 6,200 for that, which was a record. According to mock-ups and someone that I was talking over the weekend, they're going to have it so it

it accommodates at least 17,500. And they may expand, like, the standing room so you get 20,000 at the Apple Bowl is wild work, but they're going to try and get done. And we're going to make a lot of jokes. A lot. Listen, we love you, Colonna. Love Colonna. But we're going to make some jokes at your expense. Tourism, Colonna

is like, open up extra tattoo shops. We've got a lot of people coming to town. They're actually going to have them on site. There's one option, barbed wire. Yeah, there's a guy that does the tattooing. And then right next is a removal guy just in case you regret it by the end of the game. Welcome to Colona. Here's your barbed

barbed wire tat. Please line up there. Anyway, we just wanted to bring that up to take the pot shots. But I digress. It's going to be very fun, and it's a very cool thing. And I think it's a great initiative from Mardomino, the BC Lions. Okay. Now this is where you give me credit and say I was right. Rider Cup time, eh?

So lost in this weekend for some people, but not Jason Brough, was the Rider Cup. And it was a tumultuous weekend. I don't think there's any other way to put it, that the sagas and the storylines and the up and downs. And at time, it felt like the golf took a back. to everything else that was going on with the Ryder Cup from the Friday with Donald Trump showing up to the Saturday with all of the insults being hurled at Rory and apparently a drink being hurled at his wife to Sunday that began with the she deserved it right I mean I mean yeah let's obviously being sarcastic on that but like it was an unbelievable weekend of golf and the Americans frankly for for me because I was cheering so hard for Europe made it very uncomfortable yesterday day. Yes. Like I thought at times, I was like, are they going to do this?

Are they going to pull this off? And it ended in a 15 to 13 victory for Europe. Europe needed 14 points to retain the cup, 14 and a half to win it outright. And one of the controversial things is that Victor Hovland could not play on Sunday. So per rules, I think it was Harris English. Yeah. He was in the envelope. That's a crazy rule.

I did not know about it. He got enveloped. And if there's an injury, it's an agreement because golf used to have honor. Yeah. Where it was just like, okay, well, you know, you didn't mean to be injured. And it's nobody's fault. And it's happened before at the rider. Yeah.

So we're going a half point for each of you. We'll just assume that you tied that match. So you know that if the score had finished 14 all, and Europe had only retained the cup people would be like well if Harris English had played Victor Hovlin surely Harris English the Americans would have won

because they were riding the momentum one of the craziest Ryder Cup stats ever Europe won one singles match on Sunday and they won the Ryder Cup because they absolutely dominated the Americans on the Friday

and the Saturday. The Friday Donald Trump was there And the Saturday was when the crowd really got out of control. And that's what I said last week. Like I was just like, listen, everything is coming together for an out of control crowd. It's a New York crowd. And they almost take pride in being kind of disruptive. I think one of the things that is contributing to it too is golf is still in a somewhat volatile space.

Like, there were a lot of emotions, and there were a lot of politics, whether you want to admit it or not, involved in the whole live thing. And Rory was very outspoken. And, you know, he's easy to rile up, right? Like, he can be quite volatile himself. And one of the things, you know, that I never thought I'd see in a Rider Cup was Rory McElroy, turning to the crowd and telling to shut the F up. Yep.

Like, he's, like, do you know how. crazy that is. The whole thing was crazy. Flipping the bird at them. And honestly, I don't blame them. No. Some of the things that were said were reportedly

totally over the top. And frankly, like, I'm not one of these guys. Like, it's funny because I think maybe recently, a week or two ago, we were talking about how golf has progressed to the point where you can play music on the course.

It's less stuffy than it was. right and but it almost like this tournament went too far right golf should still have some etiquette golf should still have some honor in it and respect for your opponent and people now complaining and kegan bradley is one of them he's saying like the envelope rule has to change i'm like no it doesn't no it doesn't like victor hovlin didn't want to miss sunday sure like he was injured and that rule was in when golf had honor and it was like it's still the only sport where you're like you could cheat you know like but but you're you you depend on the honor of the golfer to be like hey you know like i i touch the ball there yeah or like you know like the ball moved or whatever and

you know i need i i need to be penalized right you know and and it's i don't know the weekend was for me, like compelling and certainly enjoyable when the Europeans were dominating but it also left me with like, hey, I don't want, I don't want this. I don't want this going forward. And I felt the same way

about like the Phoenix Open, the waste management. I'm like, that was fun for a bit and then for me like it just got too, I'm like this looks gross. Like I don't even I wouldn't want to be there. I don't know if I'd want to have been there at the Rider Cup this weekend. The big difference there.

is that the waste management open is designed to be a tire fire like it's that's what the tournament's kind of known but it went way too far it went way too far and they had to dial it back and I think they're going to have to dial the stuff back now the Ryder Cup was never meant to be this like the Ryder Cup was supposed to be one of the prestige events in golf

yeah there were supposed to be gamesmanship and they were supposed to be you know it was supposed to be competitive but it was not like this it was obnoxious that's what it was before we get to your audio what do you got

I got this funny clip. Listen to this back and forth with the reporter and Rory in the post. With all that in mind and everything, you go through, how satisfying is it to turn around to someone and say, quote, shut the F up and then stiff it to two feet? Very satisfying. Congratulations. He was fired up throughout the entire weekend.

Now, can we play the audio? I do want to play the audio about this because, you know, from where I'm at with golf and where you are with golf, two totally different places coming at it. But the amount of vitriol, it went way beyond a golf tournament. There was a lot more going on that there was a very geopolitical element to it. There was a lot of personalities. There was a lot of hype going into it. And you kind of crystallized it on Friday that this has the potential to get ugly.

And I think it did. But everyone said it going in. And that didn't really stop anybody from letting it get ugly. Like the warnings from ahead. Nobody bothered to heed the warning. they just kind of leaned in to being the worst versions of themselves, which is a terrible thing. Here's Rory McElroy in the aftermath of the Ryder Cup talking about how it was

unacceptable the behavior from some of the fans of Bethpage. I don't think we should ever accept that in golf. I think golf should be held a higher standard than what was, you know, than what was seen out there this week. golf has the ability to unite people, golf teaches you very good life lessons, it teaches you etiquette, it teaches you how to play by the rules, it teaches you how to respect people. And, you know, sometimes this week we didn't see that, so, no, this should not be what is acceptable in the Ryder Cup, but, you know, we will be making sure to say to our fans in Ireland

in 2027 that you know what happened here this week is is not acceptable and it's you know for me it's you know come and support your home team you come and support your team you know I think if I was an American I would be annoyed that people I didn't hear a lot of shouts for Scotty today but I heard a lot of shouts against me and it's like support your players you know that's the that's the thing so um look It was a rough week for all of us, but at the same time, you know, we shut them up by our performance and how we played, and we tried to, you know, I chirped back a few times because it caught to me a few times, but we tried to handle everything that came our way with class and poise, and for the most part, I felt like we did that. Peter and Cloverdale texted in the exact quote that Rory said while the clip was playing, as a matter of fact. He said, he had a really good point.

Like, if you're that excited to be there and you're that emotionally invested in the tournament, why not direct that energy to cheer on the guys that you're supporting? Yeah. As opposed to tear down the guys that you're going against. There's a really good philosophical debate there that we probably don't have, quite frankly, the brains of the bandwidth to get into today. But it is interesting that the MC that got fired from her position of being the hype-up person for the Ryder Cup. And she was leading an F.U. Rory chant?

Like, that's, that's smart. But it came after she tried to do a pro Scotty Schephler chant that didn't go anywhere. Yeah. And then it was like, well, the name, she leaned in. She was like, give the people what they want. Right. And they want to say FU Rory as opposed to let's go Scotty, which is a real, when you take a step back and you think about it, you're like, why are they that much more enamored with telling someone to go F themselves? Yeah.

And now to talk about the UFC event at the White House. Right. Right. You know, anyway. There might be some crossover there. Should we do some National Football League? Oh, yeah. There was NFL games yesterday. I forgot about that. So a very busy day in the National Football League. We got to start with what was an epic game, aside from the finish. An epic game yesterday between the Packers and the Cowboys.

In a game that was supposed to be about Micah Parsons' highly anticipated return to Dallas, it ended in being the second highest scoring tie in professional football history. Brandon Aubrey and Brandon McManus is the field goal kicking Brandon's, they call them. They don't call them that. Traded field goals in overtime as the Cowboys and the Packers ended in a 40 tie. Here's what the call sounded like from Westwood one. Pay close attention because you can sense the excitement, but also the disappointment that a game of this caliber ended in a tie.

So now it's Brandon McManus. a 34-yarder for this game to end in a tie. Snap, spot, kick is up, and it is good, and this one will end in a tie. The Cowboys and Packers tie at 40. Brandon McManus hits the field goal at the gun. The Cowboys go to 1-2-1, and the Packers are to 1-1.

An unbelievable game here tonight in Dallas and it ends deadlocked. Cowboys 40, Packers 40. So I was sitting there watching the game and my kid looks at the screen and the aftermath pops up from doing his homework. He's like, you can tie in football? Like you sure can. You sure

can. I love a good tie. I hope they both had fun. Scorogami, by the way. Yeah. The score that's never been posted before. Well, there's only been, so the highest scoring tie in pro football history was all the way back in the AFL in 1964. when the Raiders drew with the then Boston Patriots back in 64.

This is the Dallas Cowboys' first tie since 1969. Nice. The Packers last tied a game in 2018, so it is a real rarity. But it's so unfulfilling at the end. Now, here's the thing. Unlike Keegan Bradley wanting to change the rules of golf because something not good happened to him over the weekend. You know, they asked Jerry Jones about this afterwards.

Do they need to revisit ties? And he's like, no. He's like, let's not overreact. It was a great football game. It doesn't happen every week. It doesn't happen all the time. And when it does, you just sort of take it and you move on. He also said he's sick for the fans.

He said he was sick for the fans. Sick. Right. I mean, any time you score 40 and don't lose, but also don't win, it's a very odd feeling. It's a sick feeling, I guess. At least the game was entertaining. Do you remember when the Seahawks and the Cardinals had a six all tie? It was so bad.

Like one of the worst football. One of those sports events, one of the worst sports events ever a 6-6 football tie. Because you didn't even get any scoring. So the Packers started the season with a very impressive win over the Lions and then they beat the commanders. Yep, that was also a very impressive win.

And people were like, man, these guys might be the Super Bowl favorites. Since then, they lost in Cleveland. Which was bad. And they tied in Dallas. And now they're into their by week. Their defense was not good. Neither defense was very good yesterday.

You give up 40 points. It's not a good day. But there. Tighten it up a bit. There's a wobble there for the pass. hack for sure. Just a couple other quick NFL stories that I did want to touch on. We spent a lot of time talking about Russell Wilson's

fall from Grace as no longer the starting quarterback for the New York Giants. How about his replacement? Jackson Dart threw a touchdown pass, ran for a touchdown in a pretty impressive NFL starting debut. The Giants in a huge

upset on Sunday beat the previously undefeated L.A. Chargers 21 to 18. The crazy part about all of this is the worst thing that could have happened to the Giants this season might have happened yesterday because Star Wide Receiver Malik Neighbors went down with what's expected to be a torn ACL. They haven't confirmed it yet. And the vibes were still super high

from the Giants afterwards because they are so excited about having a quarterback like Jackson Dart who is he's an old school swashbuckler man like he is like who am I going to throw it to? And he just ran it and then he did a flip pass to the tight end Theo Johnson. It was a fun game I don't know how sustainable the style that he plays is because I think he only threw for 111 yards he ran it 10 times for 54

but some energy for the Giants and they've been so bad the last couple of years and to move on from Russ who seemed very limited for Mr. Unlimited and what he was able to do it's always fun when you get a young quarterback in there because all of a sudden you're like what could the future have in store

can you give me a pass tonight on watching football not great tonight do I do I have to I know this is my job, but Jets and Dolphins. I can talk myself into the second game. At least one of them will get their first win of the season, unless they tie. That would be awesome if they tied. That first game is Cheeks.

Jets and Dolphins. Bengals, Broncos, Jake Browning versus Bo Necks? Like, I don't know. It's not great. No, it's not great. It's not great. The Broncos aren't fun to watch. They get a great defense, but they don't play entertaining games.

How are you talking yourself into that game? I'm not really. It's a bad... I'm addicted to sports. I am, yeah, and gambling. No, I can't convince you to watch those tonight. I got to be honest. It's not a great matchup.

Either one's not a great matchup. I'll watch it because it's on, and it's Monday night football, and we have a brief reprieve before we get back into playoff baseball on Tuesday. By the way, quadruple header on Tuesday for you baseball enthusiasts out there, all four games.

And none of them overlap. Baseball gets it right. Baseball gets it right. Actually might take a... You know, sometimes you've got to take care of your body. Today might be a recovery sports day for me because the weekend was so

full and we've got a big week of sports coming up. You mentioned the baseball and just so everyone knows this is the Kinnock's remaining preseason schedule. Oh yeah, those guys. They've only got

two games left so they're going to be decisions made soon. Wednesday they're in Calgary and it'll be interesting to see the roster they bring there because Friday they finish off at home against the Edmonton Oilers

and we talked about this before we wondered could that Friday game be essentially the full team because they have six or five or six days off after that final preseasoning game

they don't play their first regular season game until October 9th so October 3rd to October 9th you might want to just get the whole band together for that game against the Oilers. Maybe they want to do it in Calgary as well. I don't know if the likes of Pedersen and DeBrusk and Bessor and Cain and Hughes will go to Calgary. I feel the answer is probably no.

Yeah. But, you know, normally what happens, and, you know, we saw it yesterday. McDavid and Drysidal were playing for the Oilers because it was a home game for the Oilers. and the Kudox had a younger squad there. Will that be the same in Calgary on Wednesday? Or because, you know, Pedersen has only played one game so far, do they want to get them three preseason games, two preseason games? I mean, whatever.

I know everyone's focused on Coots right now, but they need this team to be rolling heading into the regular season. They've talked about hashtag the start, and we're back to that now. and they need to get off to a good start. And it's a tough, it is a tough start. Maybe not the opponents, but all the games that they have on the road. And you want this to go well.

You want it to go well. You want the vibes to be high. Okay, before we go to break, I do need to tell you about the BC Lions. It's another season of hard hits, heated rivalries, and non-stop entertainment for tickets. Visit them online at BCLions.com and get ready to roar as one. Hour one in the books. Mike Tanier, our NFL Insider from the Two Deep Zone,

is going to join us on the other side. You're listening to the Halfer. Inbrough Show on Sportsnet, 650.