Halford & Brough in the Morning - Brough Gets Introduced To Pokemon

Episode Date: August 26, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with BC Lions analyst Giulio Caravatta (1:31) on the latest around the Leos, plus the boys tell us what they learned (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

It's a one on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody, Halford Brough, Sportsnet, 650. Albert of Brub of the morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. B.C.'s first and trusted choice for dead help with over 3,000-5-star reviews, visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are now in our three of the program. One half of the VC Lions Play-by-Playteam, Julio Caravetta, is going to join us in just the moment here. The kickoff hour three. Our three of this program is brought to you by Campbell and Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and Pound. Visit them on the internet

at Campbell-dashpound.com today. We are coming to live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech, Footwear, and Orthotics working together with you in step. Guests on SportsNep. 6.50 call in on the hotline powered by PowerWest Industries. Don't get caught in the dark when it matters most. Visit them at powerwest.ca. Today, they keep the lights on. So before we get to Giulio, I need to tell you about the team he's on the play-by-play call for 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. Let's go now to the Power West Industries hotline.

Julio Caravetta joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sports. Net 6.50. Morning, Julio. How are you? I'm good, thanks, guys. How are you? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. So, you know, from an entertainment standpoint, pretty good game on Saturday. 86 points combined, 971 yards of net offense. Pretty good. But from a Lions perspective, pretty disappointing, given they got 52 points hung on them in Toronto. Can you point to one particular thing that went wrong defensively, or was that an impossible task,

given that they give up 52 points. Yeah, I know. I think, you know, I've been trying to rack my brain about, you know, that performance and, you know, to try to narrow it down just to one thing. I don't think it was just, you know, it's not just one thing when that kind of performance happens. Now, I will say, you know, I've been watching Nick Arnbuck a long time. You mean, that might be as good as I've seen him play as far as, you know, his reaction to what the Lions defense was trying to do.

It seemed like every time the Lions tried to blitz and get after him, you know, he was hitting the home run and, you know, with perfect passes. And so, you know, you have to give him credit. But, you know, overall, I think it's the, there's so many different levels to this. You know, their inability at times not to get to be able to get to the quarterback with four guys. They just can't disrupt any kind of timing.

And if you watch the Calgary, Saskatchewan game, you can see what four guys can do when they can get after the quarterback quickly, right? It makes everything else work. You don't put as much strain on your secondary. Your linebackers are freer to kind of move around and do different things. So I think ultimately their inability to get to the quarterback, I think, is what's the biggest concern, right? And, you know, until they fix that, it puts up. a lot of pressure on everything else, right?

It exposes guys, when you give a quarterback in this league a bunch of time to throw, there's just too much space and, you know, a smart one is going to find, is going to find the holes because ultimately there are. And that's, that's what I,

you know, that's what I kept on coming back to was, you know, that's been their problem. I think a lot of the times when they just haven't been able to get to the quarterback, you think about you know, when they played Trevor Harris and some of these better quarterbacks, right? They're just not being able to disrupt that timing.

Do you think they're going to be able to fix this issue? Because like you said, this isn't just something that's cropped up in the last couple of games. It's been an issue all season. Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's difficult to fix it at this point, right? And everyone always sats, you know, well, yeah, the NFL is making cuts and all that kind of stuff. You know, the NFL right now, if anybody who's getting cut is either going to wait to try to get picked up because they've probably been told oh yes you know keep yourself healthy and ready and

you know if something happens we're going to we'll give you a call right so they hang on that um usually what happens at this time is you're going to get the guy who has been probably sitting around on a practice roster trying to make a team and is done trying to get into the NFL because it's you know he's he's exasperated all of his opportunities and decides okay i'm going to come now are you going to find a guy at this point who is a difference maker who you can bring up here and is going to wow you on the practice roster and you say okay we're going to play this guy you know i think you're you're really kind of that's a hope and a prayer um usually guys at this time of the year are being brought in they evaluate them and they're going to be asked to come to training camp next year

um so obviously it puts pressure on your scouting system and ryan rig maiden to maybe try to find that guy. I'm not saying it can't happen. You know, it can't happen where you bring a guy in and you think, holy cow, yeah, this guy's going to fit our system. This guy's going to do this. This guy can do that. But at this point, it's, you know, you're really, it's a really hope and a prayer. And I don't know whether or not you want to hang your hat on that. Is there anything good going on in the Lions defense? Because, you know, sometimes when you have issues getting to the quarterback you can bring some guys from the secondary and blitz but you know it seems to me you tell me it seems to me like the lions are loath to do that because they don't

trust the guys in their secondary either yeah yeah you mean you're you're you're right right it hangs a lot of pressure on your secondary when you do that kind of stuff right but you know that's why these guys uh you know i mean you look at the coaching staff and they've got a lot of experience and I'm sure this is not the first time that it's happened to somebody like you know Mike Benavides has been around a long time right he's he's been a lot of different scenarios where you now have to you have to reevaluate and and maybe this by week for them has come at the perfect time in the sense that you can you know a lot of times what ends up happening is that on all levels of the game like offense defense special teams a bi week at this

time the year gives you a chance to you know self-scout yourself give yourself a chance to go out and see, hey, what tendencies are we having? What are other teams seeing and how you now have to maybe come up with a little bit different scheme and how you do things? Do we need to maybe bring a little bit more pressure? And if we do that, how do we align the secondary that maybe we can help them out? Maybe we zone blitz a little bit more. All those kinds of things are on the table.

So, yeah, I think that the evaluation time is probably, or excuse me, the by week came at a great time, and you know, you have to reevaluate, hey, where are our strengths? What do we do well? And I don't want to come across like, oh, this is a dead cause. It's not. We've seen the defense play well, right? We've seen them do things the right way.

It's just the level of consistency, right, that you need to see. And against elite teams, you know, you just can't have breakdowns the way that they've had the breakdowns. Tell us a bit more about what you're seeing from Matthew Betts. Yeah, Betts is, you know, I mean, he's a marked man, I think. You know, when you have his kind of reputation as far as his ability to get to the quarterback, and he's a guy that his engine goes 100 miles an hour on every play, you're going to get attention. So in fairness to Matthew Betz, right, when you have a tackle and a guard or a tackle and a running back that are going to chip off of you and you need help, right? You got to, you know, ultimately your defensive ends in this league, the elite ones, they are very successful because you have guys on the inside that are going to preoccupy your guard, your center, and the running back because they have a direct line to the quarterback, right?

They're the fastest way to get to the quarterback is right up the middle. So if you don't have to worry about those guys, then you can concentrate on, okay, who's the next guy that we really got to be careful with? at bets, I'm sure, would be at the top of that list. So I think, you know, the, you know, everybody up front needs to take more responsibility and, you know, just they just have to play better, right? It's that simple. We're speaking to BC Lions play-by-play. I'm a team member, Julio Caravetta here on the Halford & Brough Show, on Sportsnet 650.

So we're now 10 or depending on what team you follow 11 games through the CFL season, Julio. What's the best team in the Canadian Football League right now? Record-wise, it's Saskatchewan. Would you say it's Saskatchewan just based on the A&2 record, or is there other contenders for that title right now? Yeah, no, that's a good question. I, you know, having seen Calgary up close,

if you saw them in preseason, which, you know, the very first game, I don't think that counts for anything. So, but ultimately what I've seen from Calgary, and I, you know, watch pretty much every game, they're dangerous, right? Their defense is very good, and as I said, they're front four. if you saw the game against Saskatchewan

their ability to get to the quarterback and even for a guy like Trevor Harris who gets rid of the ball very, very quickly he was having a tough time and here's the thing if you're a quarterback who gets rid of the ball quickly then what does that tell you for the secondary wise, right?

You know the ball's coming out pretty quick so you can kind of anticipate where the ball should be going and react the way that they do but Calgary to me, and they're also on offense. You know, Vernon has fit in very nicely with that team. I think Dave, I knew, you know, when he went there, that Dave Dickinson was going to really help him.

And their ability to run the ball. Like, they really, they do a very, very good job. They're committed to running the ball. So I really like Calgary. I would not go to sleep on Montreal. Montreal has been devastated by injury, and especially when you lose your starting quarterback, Davis-Alexander. They're a completely different team.

when he's in there and they don't have Austin Mac, they don't have Phil Pot. So there's a few teams that are there. Obviously, Saskatchewan is there, but guys, I've seen it too many times where, you know, you get to this time of the year and you're going to get a couple of sleepers, right?

You're going to get some teams that are going to start to, you know, they're going to put three, four games in a row heading into the playoffs and they're going to have confidence and they're playing well. And, you know, that's what makes the game so great is you're always going to get a couple of teams I think in the end that are going to surprise some people. Do you think the Lions have that potential?

Yeah, I do. I really do. I think offensively, you know, Nathan is an elite quarterback. They can score. They can score for sure. Yeah. I mean, he's going to give you a chance every single week, you know, as offensively, right? It's the other parts of the game that they need to help out, right? And so, you know, the other thing, two guys, is when you play a game is, you know, that obviously, when you give up 52 points in this league and everyone's talking about how bad you are

and everyone's, it sometimes can light a fire right? And, you know, the worst thing that you can say to an athlete is, you know, you didn't compete, you weren't very good, you know, you're questioning their ability and their heart and, you know, you can, that can sometimes be a rallying

point and that's what you've got to hope for if you're a Lions fan, right, that the defense can find their way and recommit themselves because I truly do believe they have the talent. They do. It's the inconsistency part, right? And you hear Buck Pierce talk about that mental toughness and developing that ability to overcome bad plays

and, you know, not get down on yourself and be stronger towards the end of games. And that's an evolution, right? That's, you know, Buck's the first year head coach. He's still trying to figure out his way. He wants what he wants. And, you know, sometimes that takes some time. So I still believe that they have the ability to get on a run

and be right there. There's no question. And as I said, when you have Nathan, you're going to give yourself a chance each and every week. Julio, if this was great, ma'am, thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the biweek, and then we'll get back to you. And then we'll get back to you and win two games back to back against Ottawa.

Thanks, bud. Appreciate it. Have a great day, guys. Yeah, you too have a good one too. That's Giulio Caravada, part of the Lions Play-by-Play team here on the Halpernerbuff Show on Sportsnet, 650. Okay, should we do some what we learns now? Yeah, do you want me to do the, I think I'll take it off your plate

because I know your beloved Newcastle United. It was a tough day. for them yesterday in a lot of different ways. But an amazing match. The Premier, okay, there are a lot of people, I, in my football world, all the friends that I have, sometimes they give me a hard time because I am almost exclusively Premier League focused. They're like, there's all these other leagues.

You have a footballing circle? I do, yeah. It involves like a couple of my good buddies that follow the, they're Italians, so they follow Sariaa, and they're like, it's a, you know, all you'll care about is the Premier League. But the reason that I do is because, on a weekly basis, the drama and theater and the audio that we get from the Premier League never fails to like it's always entertaining

there's always something dramatic and they you know so yesterday Liverpool took on Newcastle in the Monday night football affair yeah yeah right in Newcastle and this is going into it it was a hotly contested rivalry because at the center of these two teams is ESAC the Newcastle striker who's out of the squad he's trying to force his move to Liverpool and Newcastle who has big aspirations this year

just in the Champions League and they were top five last year I was like we're rich now nobody does that to us we got money take our money and he wants to go to Liverpool so there was a backdrop of that drama early in this match Newcastle goes down to 10 men pretty rash challenge from Anthony Gordon

on Virgil Van Dyke gets a straight red card actually it was a yellow to start and then they went to VAR and I gave him a red Liverpool goes up to 2-0, Valiant comeback, 10-man Newcastle, rallies late to draw at 2-2, and you think, okay, great theater, great drama, yeah, going down to 10 men, but they rally and they come back at 2-2, and you think it's over. Then who comes on the field?

Rio, I'm going to try and pronounce his last name as best I can. Nigmoa. Okay. It's a hard G. It's N-G-U-M-O-H-A. It's N-M-O-H-A. It's not Nagu-N-G-I-W-N? No, it's not.

Haydow you want to take a chance at this one. How do you spell it? N-G-U-M-O-H-A. But it's a hard G. Nogamola? Not bad. Not bad. He has Rio on the back of his jersey just to be.

Anyway, the more important thing than how you spell is certain him is that he's 16 years old. He comes on English, English. Yeah. He comes on five minutes into 10 minutes of injury time because there were two Newcastle injuries in the match, which led to 10 minutes of added time. And we'll let the office. audio take it away. This is right at the death, 16-year-old Rio with the drama for Liverpool in their match against Newcastle.

I've got to get the ball into the final third and get it into the area. I was supposed to leave it. And come, oh, what a moment! What a moment! The 16-year-old! almost the last kick. So Nighamo, the fourth youngest player ever to score in a Premier League match. 16 years and 361 days old.

That was, for those that saw the highlights, that was like the best dummy I've ever seen. It's the Bozolai. Yeah. Anyway, I don't know who it was, but I know he pulled off. The Bozolai, yeah. Dummy.

It was high drama. And that's how you beat a 10-man squad, right? So, yeah, with dummies. With dummies, a lot of dummies. You know, Newcastle probably deserved a better fate on the day. They play it extremely well. And to battle back and to get the late equalizer, only to have it all fritted away.

I also want to point out, so a 16-year-old scores yesterday. I don't know if you saw it on the weekend, but my beloved Leads United were humbled their trip away to Arsenal. Yeah, four-nale, was it? Five. Five, five, five, just counting. Yeah.

Arsenal, when you're talking about it, when you know it's bad for your two, team, it's when the other team subs on a 15 year old with 30 minutes to go. And that's exactly what Arsenal did on the weekend. I'm like, they're bringing them in now? They're going to let them play that much. It was a tough day

for leads in the 5-0 loss. And then they, 15, as we talk about youths sports. Youths in sports, professional sports. 15 and 16-year-olds doing the business in the Premier League. All right, give us a moo cow on that. So I'm going to need, I

think, Lattie and A-Dog for this one. And this might be kind of, well, it's a couple days old. But I need to understand. I know what you're going to do. This is Daily Hive. Rob Williams, Rob the hockey guy. Peak Daily Hive. This is Peak Daily Hive. And the headline is

Jake DeBrusk throws down big money on Pokemon cards and nobody knew he was a Vancouver Canucks player. So he went to some Pokemon I would say Pokemon Pokemon Pokemon card show

Went to a Pokemon show Hey man I take pride And not knowing about this stuff Yeah it shows And it was in Calgary The overtime card show in Calgary And Debrusk Put down like over a grand

In cash he was carrying around cash too And on a particular card and he was asked how long he's been collecting these cards and he said about five months now it's an expensive hobby does he have a kid that he's collecting this Ford he's doing it oh you mean he hasn't didn't grow up with it

I just assumed he'd been doing it his whole life likewise that was the biggest takeaway from the story for me was this is a new hobby he's playing the card stock market this is this our power forward he's playing the card stock market sorry what was the card he bought what was the card he bought What was the CardiBut? Charzard.

Oh, Charzard. Okay, that makes sense. Okay, well, what? That's the big one, boys. You got to have the shiny Charzard. That's the big one. You got to have the shiny Charzard. What's it called?

Charzard. The evolution of Charmander and Charmilian. Yeah, Fire-type Pokemon. Come on, Broth. I'm watching Bruff Soul leave his body right now. Literally one of the first Pokemon in the Pocodeck. Yeah. Like right there at the beginning.

It's a giant dragon that breath's fire thing. It's one of those things. So it feels. sounds right now like Laddie has a lot of Laddie you have a lot of experience with this I grew up with it as a Pokeyman I was gifted Pokemon blue when I was 10 years old and what's that

Pokemoning ever since their first game the first game that made It's a game? Do you remember hearing the phrase I thought it was just cards In the late 90s early 2000s Do you remember ever hearing the phrase Pocomania Where it just took over everything I heard of Pokemon

I thought that was like Poke bowls It's like a disease you get It took over like all of pop culture for approximately three to five years, but it stayed relevant. Got to catch them all. Yeah.

I thought that was a game on your phone. That was Pokemon. There was a show. There's movies. It is the most profitable video game franchise of all time. I can't remember the exact number, but it's in the tens of billions at this point of how much money, this property,

this one IP is made over the past 20 years. So it's a big thing. Like all over the world and it's never really lost Steam. Remember Pokemon Snap, that game on the phone? That went crazy in 2019. That was supposed to Pokemon Go. So it somehow managed to stay relevant over the 20 years that it's been a thing. And it's never really died down.

But I'm surprised that this, and I, full disclosure, I'm not a huge Pokemon guy. Like I played, I had the first game when I was a kid, and I was addicted to it like everyone else in my friend's group because we were all 10 years old when they came out and it was like in our wheelhouse. But I'm not really into the franchise. Yeah, you're playing any sports. That is a sport, bro. It's competitive. And there's lots of exercise involved. Your wrists get really tired, the thumbs, you know.

Anyways, it was a big thing I had tired wrists later Yeah I knew you were going to not Go right to that They sort of connect actually Well you think about it A lot of alone time

Associated with both of them What do you do and you don't have any friends around You still playing with those Pokemon cards Nope Nope My take away from the story like what you just said Alfred is that I just assumed that Jake had been collecting these things his whole life

Because the Pokemon cards came out also in the 90s early 2000 so I just assumed he grew up with it but the fact that you just kind of got into it now yeah that's odd over the last five years or so like how how would how was de brass 27 years old or something born in 1996 how is a 27 year old NHL are in getting into this hobby

I don't know well there's the card stock market there's a monetary is it investing yeah yeah yeah well the cards are actually not a joke worth a lot of money like Charz are what was it 20 grand like these cards are like really expensive they get rated like a like a hockey card does They give you like 10 out of 10. Like you trade them like any other sports card. Do you know what DeBresk's favorite Pokemon is?

It's not Charzard? No. I don't know if I'm going to pronounce it right. All correct. Kai Ogre? Nagai. I think it's Kai Oger. It's one of the newer.

K-Y-O-G-R-G. Yeah. I'm going Kai and Ogre. I don't think it's Chi-O-O-Ger. I think you're right. Keogre? No, it's just Gore, actually, you pronounce the rest of the letters are signed. That's an odd selection for favorite Pokemon, though.

A lot of people texting into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. Making fun of me No, making fun of me For not knowing about this stuff Justin and East Van Just sent in early What We Learns Brough learning about Pokemon

On the Halbro show Is his Nagywin Moment I'm not embarrassed by this I'm not embarrassed about That's fair But it is worth understanding It's because it's a massive franchise

It's like It's the same size as Mario Or Push out a little of the air wolf Out of your brain Fortnite or it's like up there I don't want to know about any of that. I've heard of them.

I've heard of it. That's all you need to know then. That's fine then. But I don't know. Everyone's like, oh, you don't know who this is. What are they? Dragons, creatures. What are they?

They're pocket monsters. Pokemon. He's familiar with that. Come on. Grass type. Pocket monsters. Yes. Electric type.

Is that what they're called? That's what they're called. They live in your pockets? They live in polka balls. Like, go around your belt. You catch these monsters and put them in your balls. Why? Well, you can carry him around with you.

You get a team of six. Why? Because you battle other trainers. You meet him out on the go. How do you battle? In the game. The cards had different values, and one card beats another card. Or if you're talking about all the cards, then you sit down at a table and you play, there's like a game involved where you can play against somebody.

It uses the elements of like water type is against, what is it, electric type? I can't see. It's just like magic the card game? Sort of. Sort of. Dungeons and Dragons. Okay. Yeah.

You want to be. the very best, the best there ever was. What the hell are you talking about? The thief song. For what? Pokemon. The cartoon.

I'm just wondering if there's a pokey man, is there some sort of pokey woman that I don't know about? Every day after school I go home and listen to that song and watch the Pokemon show. Is there gender equality in the pokey person world? I don't know. It's not M-A-N. It's M-O-N. Yes, no, we're aware.

Jamaican? Jamaican? Jamaican? That's nice. It's culturally sensitive. Okay. We've got to go to break. Mercifully.

When we come back, we're going to do more what we learned. But it's your turn, the humanoids. Get them in. Dunbar Lumber's X-line is 650. 6.50. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports.

It's your chance to be on the radio. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet, 650. Now for my favorite part of the show, well, that's a talk to the arts. 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. On the show. 832 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough of Sportsnet 650. Halford Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Learn how a consumer proposal Reduces your debt by up to 80% With no more interest Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com We are now in our three of the program It is what we learned time Our three is brats by Campbell and Pound

Real Estate Appraisers Trust the expertise of Camel and Pound Visit them on the internet at Campbell dash pound.com today One of Brough's most traumatizing What We Learns ever He learned too much What just happened you mean?

Yeah the whole Pokemon thing Yeah Ruffler and far too much. Is the game, someone texts in and said, Pokemon, is essentially like an advanced rock paper scissors game. Yeah, well, it's kind of what indie was getting to where like the water type is good against the rock type.

Yeah. Rock type is good against electric type because you can't electrocute a rock, that kind of thing. Yeah, it plays off that. It teaches kids important lessons about the elements. Right. Like old rock. Nothing beats rock.

Yeah. There's an element of. of, or sorry, one of the categories is, like, a fairy? Yep, that's one of the later ones they added in. Like the boat? I don't know, a fairy. There's jiggly puff, right? A what?

Jiggly puff, which is like a fairy type. Oh, okay. You've heard of jiggly puff. So I just, I found a list in the, the boat. Dark, in the dark corners of the internet, I guess. And said the fairy is strong against dark, dragon, fighting and weak against steel and poison. There you go. So do you guys know this stuff off, or is there like a matrix, like at the

blackjack table that you can kind of, right? Back in the day, we'd have to memorize it. You memorize it after a while. It's not much different from memorizing like the types of hands in poker, right? You just memorize what these things are and then you play them. They've made it easier though. In the newer games, it'll actually say under the move, like this one is super effective. So you played it a little, who played it a lot? You did A-Dog? When I was a kid a lot. Tell me what a ghost is strong against.

I can't remember. Laddie'll know. Fighting? Really? It's psychic. Oh, okay, yeah, it's psychic. And it's weak against dark. Well, what attacks a ghost, right?

You got to think. You got to think. A fairy? Is this where the fairy comes in? I think you're reading too much into the types. Okay. I think we've gone too far on this to be. I didn't think we were coming back on this after the break.

Howard's like, yeah, I got it. Ghost week against BC fairies. Essentially, you want to have a core... Remember I said you carry six Pokemon with you? You want to have a core group that cover all the different types. I would not have a BC Fairy's Pokemon. The Queen of Quillum. Yeah.

Goes this week against Queen of Quilululah. You send it at only works 80% of the time. It just fails. Engine will break down during active pass sometimes. Shows up an hour late. The arcade isn't even open. All right. Do the BC Ferry still have arcades?

Some of them do. I haven't been on one of them. It's an arcade in heavy quotes. There's like three machines. Okay, let's focus here. Must we? Yeah, because I got what we learned. This just came across my desk, also known as my laptop.

We talked about the Ryder Cup yesterday. The Telegraph noted publication out of the UK is now reporting that Keegan Bradley is expected to pick himself to be a Rider Cup wild card, despite being warned that it would be the worst decision ever made by a captain. How much of this has to do with Trump? I don't know. Throwing it out there that he should pick himself and that he's going to be at Beth Page Black on Friday. But why? To appease Trump or did you?

There's been some appeasing of Trump. I don't know if you've been noticed it. But it's like it wouldn't be a slap in the face to if you're like I decided not to. Yeah, it's going to be interesting to see if Keegan Bradley. So the picks are being made now. I think they get announced tomorrow. So he's King Bradley kind of young to be a captain? He's never four years old yet?

It was an odd decision when they named him captain. But I don't think they expected him to be in the mix. And then he started playing really well. But they're going to have to make some tough decisions. Like the one name I hear about, who a lot of people thought would be a slam dunk pick, is a guy like Colin Morikawa. But he hasn't been playing that well lately.

But he's a hell of a ball striker. So I don't know. know what they're going to do. But I'm telling you, I have a feeling that this Rider Cup is going to be, it's just going to be very interesting and possibly like, it's crazy to say this about a golf tournament, but like kind of out of control. Like I think there's going to be stuff that happens that crosses the line when it comes to golf. Like that crowd in New York. Like that crowd in New York, especially if Trump shows up on Friday, and with some of the characters on the European team, too, like, they are going to be all over Rory.

Yep. And you know how he can get a little emotional sometimes, right? Yeah. How about a guy like Tiro Hatton who's like, you know, what about him? That sounds like a Pokemon. He's an English guy. Remember he's like a really good, he's really good at swearing. Oh, yeah.

drops a lot of F-bombs. He kind of looks like, he looks like a football hooligan almost. Okay. You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like, he's going to be on the team. Like, how's he going to react?

And you know, there's going to be a strong European supporter contingent because it's not, it's not hard to fly out from Europe to go to New York. Yeah, that's true. And so they're always rowdy and they're always singing. And then plus you've got like, I don't know, man. I think this decision, like, Kegan, you better play well, buddy. And the crazy thing is he's going to have to play on Sunday

in the singles matches. That's to me is the crazy part. And that's when you're going around in the cart like going, okay, what's going on here? What's going on here? Chearing up your guys. Maybe he's going to have a right hand man that's going to take on a lot of those types of responsibilities. But to me, this is

going to be wild. And it is my favorite golf tournament. So I'm sorry if I'm getting a little excited here. No, no, it's good. Because this makes it a lot more. I like this way more. I like the Redder Cup way more than a simple major. Because I went down the road of looking at former player coaches in the annals and

history of professional sports. I think the most famous one is probably Bill Russell when he did it with the Celtics. Did everyone know, and Laddie, you are baseball enthusiasts, did you know that Pete Rose was briefly a player coach at the end of his tenure when he got traded back to the Cincinnati Reds? Briefly, he's the last one, wasn't he? Last player coach? Yeah, he was.

Because Bobby Clark did it with Philadelphia, but he did it in 79. And then did it for a few years, but then I think Pete Rose was the most recent one, which is interesting. I mean, remember when they used to have guys used to do coaching and general manager, and that was considered too much. Pac-win. Yeah.

Darryl Sutter, I think it was the last one that didn't. Imagine trying to be a player. Imagine trying to be a player coach in this era. How difficult that would be. Because all the coaches look like hell. They don't sleep enough, they eat horrible. They all look like puffy, like they've had too much salt

and booze and not enough water. you know a real puffiness going around yeah especially hockey coaches right i bet half the hockey coaches like privately or maybe not even private they're smoke still like i just need to get outside they didn't even try and consider vaping they're like now let's go smoke not harsh enough for me who's the guy you watch bang down some darts michel terrian no no no there's another another guy oh pete d'bore yeah yeah was that in nashville oh yeah he kept the door propped open no i think it was michel terry i think he used to carry around a little piece of cardboard so he could slide it in

the emergency exit. Oh, man. So that he could sneak out and get back in. That old trick. And he used to wear it as a pocket square in his suit. I'm like, that is a guy that knows the game. That's pretty impressive. Okay, Mukiao, all that. Let's fire up the Dom Matrix. Humanoid submissions for what we learn brought to you,

as always by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. You got to try the bar pie, 14 inches of cracker thin crust. topped with tomato sauce, matza, and cheddar only in AJ's pizza order online at AJ's.com. You got anything here? Yeah, Ben and Langley.

This doesn't sound like it's starting well. What we learned, hearing Bruff talk about Pokemon makes me think he's this generation's David Pratt, and I'm here for it. Can't wait to hear his take on bike lanes. I mean...

Wow. As one gets older, one becomes a little. more Pratt. It's just a natural... Is that going to happen to me? I think it's already happened, bud. You just got to embrace it.

What happens to me next season? Depends how Petey does this year. And Kane. Yeah, oh yeah, that's right. Oh, man, I forgot about that. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. This could be a great year.

You've got the black shirt thing down. I know. Yeah, which is good. Prad used to have that saying, like, there'd be a young person in the office. You'd be like, I got t-shirts hold of. than you. And it was true. I think he said that to me.

Yeah, and you were that young. No, I know. I'm like, I was an old shirt. I just had some really old shirts. Dude, you got to update your wardrobe then. Woodrow, the eligible bachelor, hashtag WWO, what we learned another Jason Bruff one. Carlos Alcaraz is sporting a Jason Bruff-inspired buzzcut.

Now, there's a haircut you could set your watch to. Alcraz. You're kind of scary, man. Alcraz is, that's not a buzz cut. He shaved his head. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, let's just make it. But for those that haven't seen Alcaraz, he's got no hair now.

It's a Johnny Unitas, Simpsons John Unitedis? No, it's not. That's a high and tight square head. Carlos Alcara is just, this is a skinhead look. Did you watch a Beckham documentary? Yeah, that's a Beckham. That's a Beckham. When Beckham came, and I remember he was famously, he wore his hat all the way,

and even into the dressing room. And Sir Alex was like, take the hat off, son. He's like, no, the defiant son. And then he took it off. And it's funny, when you go back and you read the tabloids from that era, Beckham like Beckham cutting his hair Just cutting his hair Wasn't that outlandish

He just had hair and then he didn't It caused a firestorm in England Do you remember when This might say more about England Than it does about David Beckham But still Do you remember when buzzing your hair was like A big thing

A big deal? Yeah Remember that movie Stripes? Yes They went and they had to get their John Candy was there Had to get their hair buzzed for the army

And they were like crying Now it's just kind of Like, yeah, not a big deal. I remember when I was playing soccer in college. It was a hazing thing, too. I shaved my own head to prevent the hideous haircut that they were going to give all the Oh, I like that. Yeah, I bet the older guys didn't, though.

They're like, we're going to find something else for you, son. There were so many bad ones. One guy got, he had the Dawford move, by the way. That's such a scarty cat, Halford move to preemptively strike your own head. Some would consider it smart. Not scared But I bet they found something to do They did

Yeah I'm sorry They can't talk about it They sure did I'm sorry to bring it back to Pokemon But I just have to read this text It's a first time text This is why I love it so much

Unsigned First time ever texting into the show To paraphrase The Great British Literary Critic Ben Johnson A man who does not know Pokemon It's like a man who is not

seen the ocean There is a great thing out there That he knows not of We did reach out to some new listeners today for sure 100%. You lost some old listeners yeah and a lot of the old ones things are changing.

They're different. I don't care for it. Anyway. All right. A dog interrupted. Follow text enough on the Pokemon. Yeah, I think we've like exhausted all the Pokemon angles here. They don't get it.

Okay, I'm going to throw this one out for Amro the actor because he sent it in a few times and Halford maybe you've got some thoughts. Okay. What we learned, I learned that I've spent a year defending the four and two start the Chicago Bears had at the beginning of the football season last year, I will be redeemed this year. Go Bears. He's a big Bears fan. He's very high on what did Caleb had a really good preseason game, didn't he? They got the new head coach. Ben Johnson.

Oh, Ben Johnson. The offensive guru that a lot of Detroit Lions fans, and we talked with Mike Tanier about this yesterday, are very nervous about having lost because they considered him, not any of these other offensive weapons like Jared Goff and Sam LaPorte and Jermere Gibbs, that this was going to be the reason that the offense might take a step back. And what they've seen with Caleb Williams, again, very briefly in the preseason, is signs for optimism. So, by the way, the Chicago, if you go back and look at the history, and part of the reason anything Amro's so excited is that if you go back and look at the history of the Chicago Bears quarterbacks, it for as storied and is, you know, a historic franchise, they've been around for

forever. There's a lot of really important statistical benchmarks that Chicago Bears quarterbacks have never hit. There's never been a 4,000 yard passer in Chicago Bears' quarterbacking history. Which is crazy, right? Last year, Caleb became, just the 7th Bears QB to throw for 3,000 yards in a season, which is crazy, because by all accounts, it was just sort of like a meh year for them. I forgot that they lost 10 straight. Yeah. It got off to a nice little start.

4 and 2 start. Then they went into the by week. They're like, we're feeling good about things. And then they lost 10 straight. And you remember all the quarterbacks that were drafted and, you know, they're going to do this. Mitch Chibisky. He's going to be the guy. Justin Fields

he's going to be the guy they were not the guys how have I forgotten about them losing six to three to the Seahawks that was a bad game we were totally forgot about that were the Seahawks out of it then

you remember that we kind of glossed over last year with the Seahawks right like there wasn't much to it do you remember we kind of were like yeah they're there you spent most of the year trying to figure out like what was going on with D.K. Metcalf

and if he was going to get traded and then ultimately... Well, they had the good start. Sure. Because they beat... Was that last year? Just go back and look at the schedule. No, I know. Was that last year that they beat Russ in Denver?

Or was it the year before? I can't remember anymore. Maybe I'm looking at 2024. I think I am. Okay. All right. Doesn't matter. Whatever.

This is from Stewie. Why don't you look that up? And I'll read of what we learned from Stewie in Richmond here in the Halfford and Brush Show on Sports Night 650. hashtag WWO what we learned Stewie says I was too young to see the World Series in the 90s but this is the first time I've ever seen the Blue Jays with pitching

batting and bullpen depth in my life with the Yankees and Dodgers looking mortal this could actually be their year okay let's unpack some things here the pitching I think is great hey here's one for you I'm going to throw you on the spot lab if you're going to go to a five-man rotation who do you go with

You got the Bieber finger Well I think I dropped Burrios Would be my easy way out It's tough It's tough It's not These are the good decisions You want to have to make

Sure Like it's gonna be a tough one Yeah And he's not He hasn't been terrible But he's underperformed the most Out of everyone in that rotation Okay secondly

Yankees and Dodgers Looking mortal Which I don't think the Dodgers Are looking mortal I think they've been banged up They had a great Very comprehensive Mokey's starting to come around and they're looking better.

They had a very comprehensive win over the Reds last night, which I kind of caught the tail end of. I do wonder if it's some of the other teams that are not mentioned there. I know the Yankees and the Dodgers are the big ones and they were in the World Series last year, but it feels like a very open field. I'll put it that way. The Brewers are first place. The Brewers don't stop losing baseball games.

It's incredible to look at the standings right now. Here's why I got confused last year. Okay. Okay. Okay. The Seahawks beat the Denver Broncos in game one. And then lost to Charzard. No, no. No, but it wasn't Russ last year because Russ was with the

Steelers last year, right? It was Bo Knicks, remember? Yes, they made Bo Nix's life very miserable. Right. And then they started 3 and O when we were kind of feeling good about the Mike McDonald era. And then things got hard. And everyone was like, they're still not a good team. And we were like, come on, give them a chance. It was like, turns out they're not. I did forget about that 6-3 win over Chicago. I did too. I don't remember it at all. Yeah. Okay.

Rob and Surrey, what we learned, What I learned as a kid was that I always felt sorry for my best friend who would come and watch my hockey games in an ice cold arena until I went and watched his soccer games in the beautiful Greater Vancouver, November weather. Then I didn't feel sorry for him anymore. You don't know when else in Canada runs a winter season for soccer except BC. Because I love watching the soccer games in September and October. Even a crisp late October, Saturday morning, you wake up. It's a little bit chilly, but you get a coffee, watch a little youth soccer. The sun will warm me up.

And then it gets into November. November's bad. Yeah. December's bad. And the kids get cold, too. They're weak. January's bad. February's tough.

When you were coaching soccer and the kids were, I don't know, nine years. old. What did you do when they were cold? Did you encourage them to wear like long pants or were you like old school? I had to have a lot of conversations with parents but you can't put the hooded jacket under the jersey. Like you can't do it. We're going to have to have that conversation. I've seen enough really bad situations where a kid goes in on a breakaway and there's one kid that's like I bet if I grab that hood I could stop them and it gets ugly. But you have a lot of those questions, especially the younger ages. There's a, I think when they go to U8,

they go from playing just strictly indoor in either gyms or turf fields. And the year that they moved to outdoors, the year you see the biggest drop off in participation and enrollment. Yeah, yeah. Because the kids are like, I'm not doing this ever again. No, and some of the parents are too.

Yeah, and it's, it is tough. But you don't want, I used to tell them, I'm like, if you could layer up if you want, but you'll see the ramifications. You'll just be soaked. There's no way to get around the rain. Or sometimes they get super hot. Yeah, that's, well, he's running around.

Yeah, I'm like, you will warm up. Hopefully, hopefully they do. Yeah, if you're not standing there all game, like you, Terrence have been doing all games. Like, if you move around, you will heat up. But you have to explain that to them. And most of them don't get it, right? They're just coming like layers upon layers. I'm like, I don't, everything's going to get wet.

That's what a lot of people don't understand is it's not so much like the cold temperatures. It's that everything that you're wearing is going to get soaked. So it's not great to layer up and wear it. 18 layers of What about pants? If you got like, the only thing that works reasonably well is Under Armour.

That's really it. And it kind of looks like sporty. Right. Like as like somewhat. Yeah. And I mean, they're designed to, you know,

like moisture wicking. But it's the same thing. They're going to get bogged down. When I was a kid, they were kids that would wear the sweatpants. The sweatpants. I'm aware. And then the shorts over the sweatpants.

So I played for Carersdale and we had gold shorts. shorts. So you'd have like a gray sweatpants gold shorts combination. Classic soccer look. And I just never did it. It wasn't my parents that were saying it. I just like, I didn't respect players that did that. It was more of a respect thing. It was a respect thing. At that point. Yeah, no, I hear you. Steve and North Sanage, what we learned on youth sports and specialization, I once got a chance to ask Ray Ferraro. What a treat about the best thing to do for your kids, in sports, and he said not to specialize until they're late teens.

Hide the skates from April to August. It also made my kid look forward to hockey season as he was doing other things over the summer. Is my kid a pro? Hell no. But he still loves to play and ref. That's what matters. And I think Steve's got it right there because the ultimate goal, well, it depends

what you think. You can have different opinions on this. But I would hope the ultimate goal is to instill a lifelong love of the sport. Sure. And not necessarily going pro. Not necessarily going pro. But being able to, like you don't get so burnt out that you never want to see that sport again. Speaking of pro.

And then you go pro. Speaking of pro, Jason and Greg, I need to tell you about Jan Pro. From showrooms to stock rooms and everything in between, Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean and disinfected for a free quote. visit them online at Janpro.com. That's it for today. We're out of here for now, but we will be back tomorrow. Thank you all for listening.

We have, you should mention Bill Armstrong on the show tomorrow. The general manager of the Utah Mammoth that's going to be joining us tomorrow on the program. We'll ask him about his favorite Pokemon. If he has preferences over type, you know. Okay. Tris his opinion. Get all your Pokemon stuff out.

It's done. Now? Laddy? All done? We're all done. I can't promise I'll try, but I'll try to try. You can't promise you'll try? but I'll try to try.

Okay. All right. That's it for today. We'll be back tomorrow. Signing off, I have been Mike Halford. He's been Jason Brough. He's been A. Doug, and he's been Laddie. This has been the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet, 650.