Halford & Brough in the Morning - Could The Canucks Be Interested In Jesperi Kotkaniemi?

Episode Date: May 22, 2025

In hour three, Mike & Jason chat with The Athletic NFL's Tashan Reed (2:01) about the inclusion of flag football at the 2028 Olympics, in which NFL players will be allowed to participate, 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 too much, eh, dog? It's too much for a Thursday morning. You say this every Thursday. I know, and I stand by it. It's jarring. You've got to embrace the thrash. I've been up for a couple hours now and it's still too much. Is it too much or are you not enough?

You are listening to the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It is Thrash Thursday, the most polarizing of all our musically themed days here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Some like it, Brough doesn't. Look, we gave you 80s Monday. I know. I didn't even get it this week. We got a darn day off.

Halford and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program. Tashawn Reed is going to join us from the athletic in a minute here to talk a few different things NFL, including NFLers going to the Olympics in 2020 April flag football. Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell and Pound, real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound.

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They keep the lights on. Our next guest is a senior writer with the athletic covering the NFL and the Las Vegas Raiders. He comes courtesy the aforementioned Power West Industries hotline, Tashawn Reed here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Tashawn. How are you? Good morning.

I'm pretty good. How about yourself? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. So I have a lot of questions about flag football at the Olympics. The news yesterday, it was big news across the National Football League, is that NFLers are going to participate in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles in flag football. My first question is a very simple one, and I know you covered this in your article for the Athletic. How is this all going to work?

Yeah, so essentially every team can have one player try out per nation So let's say the Cincinnati Bengals for example They couldn't have both Jamar chase and T Higgins try out for the United States team So essentially you got I don't know how they're gonna figure it out I guess that's especially for each team and each group of players to decide, maybe they have a one-on-one challenge or something like that,

but only one team can participate per nation. In addition to each team's international pathway player, which is a designated roster spot for a player who's from another country. So, a team could have five, six, seven different players, they just can't have them for the same nation. It's still being worked out exactly. How do you go about trying out?

How often, how long do you have to be in camp before you officially join a team? All that stuff is still up in the air, but that's kind of the basics of it. There's gonna be five on five flag football, and there's gonna be six nations both competing in the men's and women's flag football tournaments at the Olympics. What are the positions at flag football?

It's pretty much quarterback, a center who can release into a route after snapping the ball, and then three receivers slash running backs. Those other, you know, three players besides the quarterback can kind of line up wherever they want to. They can line up as a running back. They can have three running backs lined up if they want to. So the exact alignment of the players is all over the place, but those are like the set positions. And then on defense, you're either a defensive back or a rusher.

And if you're going to rush, you have to identify and let them know that you're blitzing before the snap. And you have to be seven yards away from what they're determined to be the line of scrimmage. And then you can rush. And so if a team wanted to send all out blitz, before the snap and you have to be seven yards away from what they're determined to be the line of scrimmage and then you can rush and so if a team wanted to send all out blitz they could that probably wouldn't be smart obviously but you know so there's a little bit of flexibility on both sides of the ball and there's going to be 10 man rosters so there might be some guys who play both ways there might be some guys that only play one way. Like let's say if Ash Mahomes was the USA quarterback, like he's probably not playing defense, right?

But they have four other players that they could throw in their own defense. So it's going to be all mixed up in terms of how teams, you know, design and utilize their options. So how the hell is any other country going to compete with the Americans at this? Like I know we got the CFL up here, but like, we might be second best, but like what's,

how many countries are, is team Sweden good at this? I don't know. Yeah. I mean, we'll see, you know, how things develop over the course of the next three years. Like there could be some teams, you know, some nations that invest more into the sport, but as of right now, I'm pretty sure they are only two nations that could field a full roster of all NFL players is probably Canada and Nigeria I'm pretty sure right you know and both of those teams were

probably still in the United States so it's probably not gonna be much of a competition probably similar to the dream team over on the basketball side how that was the first time but I think it's more so about for the NFL it's not oh are we gonna win or not it's it's spreading the popularity for the NFL. It's not, oh, are we going to win or not? It's spreading the popularity of the game on a global basis, which they've leaned into more. I'm playing more of these international games now than ever, as we see every year. It seems like they add a new location and this is just leaning into that even more. And, you know, trying to spread the game on a global basis. And so maybe 50 years from now, there'll be some countries that can compete, but this, this time I don't think it's going to be pretty

close at all. Well, I saw you tweeting about basketball last night. So I guess the Americans know that they have to win the flag football because the Canadians with SGA leading them are going to go down and win the gold medal in LA. Do you guys think about, do you think, do you think about like, oh, like I know you're not sitting there

worried about it, but, uh, you know, winning gold at that Olympics, I mean, you have to, but the competition is going to be pretty stiff. Yeah. I mean, I think it's getting closer and closer on the basketball side. I mean, you know, we needed, you know, I say we, but you know, I think it needed, you know, pretty much crazy heroics and Steph Curry to, um, went against France and Serbia in the last Olympics.

And so it was already down to the wire. And that was with three of, you know, you could argue three top 10 players of all time, potentially, and Katie, Steph and LeBron playing in that game. And really, you know, the best players in the league are international nowadays. I mean, you look at Giannis, Luca, SGA, you know, Yoakic, the list goes on and on. Like, you can probably put together the top five players in NBA and not name an American player, which that's today.

And you can only imagine in 2028, where Ali Lebron's gonna be retired. We'll see about Steph and KD. So it's gonna be tough for Team USA. Nothing's guaranteed anymore. And we'll see. We'll see if it's Canada or maybe it's France, with Wemby or Serbia with Jokic.

So it'll be tight for sure. We're speaking to Tashawn Reed from the Athletics, senior NFL writer here on the Halford and Bruff show on Sportsnet 650. So like I played flag football. I think a lot of people probably have at some level and as a participation activity in sport, it's kind of cool. It's fun to play. It's obviously not as physically tackling, physically taxing is tackling tackle football, but I'm curious about what it looks like as a spectator sport, because there's going to be a lot of eyeballs on this when it goes to the

Olympics and for a television event. Do you have any idea about what, like, I know this sounds like a weird question, but what flag football actually looks like as a spectator sport? Yeah, we've kind of gotten a preview of it with the pro bowl the last couple years. Sure. They changed the format of that to flag. I don't know that people watch it any more than they did when it was a game like it. Yeah. You know, it wasn't really tackle football anyway. So you might as well make it flag. You know, I think that's probably the closest glimpse of it. They try to keep it high paced and guys aren't taking it too seriously though.

So I think that's kind of the difference is in the Olympics like these, you know, it's still flat football, but guys are going to be competing to try to win medals, you know, for the country. So there's going to be a different level of intensity. And it's going to be, you know, referee tighter than it is at the pro bowl. Like there's literally no contact in international flat football. So you can't press coverage, a receiver and try to bump them at the line of, there's literally no contact in international flag football, so you can't press coverage a receiver and try to bump him at the line of scrimmage

and knock him down before he gets into his route. Like, you can't do stuff like that. And so, there's gonna be some natural habits that NFL players in particular are gonna have to not do, and that might cause him to be a little rusty to start. But I think the Pro Bowl is probably the closest approximation to it, just ramping up the intensity a few notches, since it's, you know,

obviously something on the line. One more on this before I do want to ask you a couple of things about the Raiders. But I know it's early days and everything, but are they going to get like full buy in from the NFL and the star players? Like, is it going to be Patrick Mahomes and Justin Jefferson and all these sort of like fantasy football hybrids where you get to see these guys representing the US and playing in this tournament? I mean, guys, we've been in the info and we've seen guys like Tyree here and Justin Jefferson, et cetera, you know, talk about, you know, the desire to play.

You know, obviously you guys don't, again, we don't really know like what's going to be required of guys to play, like do they have to go away to a camp for a whole month in the summer or something? You know what I mean? So I think all the details that are going to determine how that plays out. And also the other tricky part is, you know, the Olympics start, I believe the week of July 14th and NFL training camps usually start the last week of July. So, you know, unless the games are all in that first week, really the first

to the beginning of the second week is going to be tricky for some guys because they're not going to want to, you know, they're not going to miss anything of training camp, you know, to compete in the Olympics. It being in LA this year helps, I think, a lot. Like I think it's going to boost participation probably the most is going to be for any Olympics that isn't, you know, on US soil. Like if it was in, I don't know, Japan, let's say, I think that would probably hurt the number of guys

who would compete. But with it being on US soil, and I'm sure that's part of the reason why they pushed for it to happen at the 2028 Olympics, I would imagine you're gonna see whoever the superstars of the game are in 2028 out there. So Tishon, in addition to being senior NFL writer for the athletic,

you also cover the Las Vegas Raiders. And you are on a radio station where the two hosts are fully embedded in Seahawks country and are big Seahawks fans. So I got to ask you, how have you enjoyed the Pete Carroll experience thus far? He's a quirky guy. I mean, you definitely get a certain level of energy. Every time he talks, you know, he's almost kind of like a, it makes sense that he was doing a class at USC

because it kind of sounds like a college professor talking to you, you know, the way he explains things. You know, but I think he, I think they already had a high level of energy last year with Antonio Pierce. And I think now things are just a little bit more, you know, organized as an experience, I guess is the way to say it. With, we, we'll see Carol running the show. Like obviously he's been a head coach for quite some time now.

He knows how to do everything essentially. Not to say that he's not still changing things and improving, but you can kind of feel his experience day in and day out. And I think that, you know, obviously his resume speaks for itself. It's earned him a instant level of credibility with the locker room and all the guys know the things that he's done. He's not that old. People remember the Legion of Bush women, even those USC teams.

And so I think he's hit the ground running pretty quickly when it comes to ingratiating himself with the fan base and the players. And we'll see what the results are. But in terms of all the off the field stuff, it's been so much selling so far. I'm glad you mentioned the results part of this because there's got to be heightened expectations now that they've sort of ended this revolving door quarterback with another former Seahawk in Gino Smith behind center What are the expectations now that they've got Gino Smith the quarterback and Pete Carroll at head coach?

I'm a kind of you know, cautiously optimistic when it comes to fans. Maybe some are more pessimistic than others. I think part of that is You know, this is the fan base that had Derek Carr this quarterback for quite some time. And I think Gino Smith, at least nothing Seahawks fans have a higher perception and Gino Smith than probably he's perceived nationally still. And I'm sure a lot of that just has to do with, you know, him kind of flaming out with the Jets early in his career, if you will just kind of have that negative perception of him still. And so, you know, they've kind of been there, done that with the average to above average quarterback. And so I think that tempers some fans optimism, but more

so than Gino, I think the rest of the roster is why there should be some cause for pause with expectations being too high. I mean, you know, often for mine, it's still a question mark, the receiver depth is question mark, all three levels of the defense. They have some concerns, Christian Wilkins, they start defensive tackle. He's still not practicing coming off a broken foot. Uh, they don't really know who their starters are going to be at linebacker or cornerback right now. And so, um, there's a lot of holes on this roster still. It's a really young roster too.

Like you have some marquee names like Gino and Brock Bowers and, uh, you know, Max prize be Christian Wilkins, but outside of that, it's a bunch of like rookies and guys basically. And so, uh, Pete Carroll is the type of coach that he's a floor raiser for sure. And he's going to get you to a certain benchmark and you're going to be competent and competitive. But especially in a division as tough as the ASUS, which is in my opinion, the best division in football right now with the Chiefs, Broncos and Chargers, all

the end playoff teams last year. This is kind of hard pressed to see them, you know, making the playoffs this year. But I think if they just get to a level of competency, you know, somewhere around 500, that builds a foundation that you can build upon moving ahead to next year. What is the Raiders fan base like in Vegas? Has the city embraced the team or is it a place where they just happen to play their games and there's a lot of visiting fans there? I mean like Vegas in general is kind of a transient city, right? And so there's a lot of people that live here now

that moved here from California. And the Raiders pretty much run Southern California, which is pretty close to here. I think LA is like a four hour drive, three and a half hours. And so there's a lot of people that live here that grew up Raiders fans, right? And then there's also just people that,

like I said, it's a four hour drive. So if I'm a Raiders fan in LA, like it's not really anything to make the trip down to come to Vegas for a game. And even going back to Oakland, it's an hour and a half flight. So they have a lot of fans that either are from California that live here or come from California. But when you go to a Raiders game, the kind of the weird thing is like, if they're playing another team of note, like let's say they're playing the Dallas Cowboys, like 50 percent of that stadium might be Cowboys, just because it's kind of become one of those games where it's like, oh, we got to go to Vegas and season the stadium and our team is playing. Let's go. And so it's become like a trip where fans from other teams are willing to pay these crazy prices.

fans from other teams are willing to pay these crazy prices. And if you're a fan of that, it was eight, nine, you know, let's say your season chicken horn and you got eight or nine and somebody's offering you a Drupal, your face value for a ticket. You might be okay missing that. You know? And so I think that kind of changes how the crowds look at Raiders games, but I would say that they've, you know, garnered a good amount of support here between those people that live here and

just didn't have a team growing up. And then also the amount of people from between people that live here and just didn't have a team growing up and then also the amount of people from California that either live here or commute here. Tashawn, this was great man. Thanks for taking the time to do it today. We really appreciate it. Yes sir, appreciate you having me. Yeah, thank you. That's Tashawn Reed, senior writer for the NFL for the Athletic and Las Vegas Raiders as well for the Athletic. He was good. We got to remember him because I'm actually kind of curious

about the Raiders this season. I will be following them because of Pete and Gino and no other reason. Yeah, yeah. You know? But that's reason enough. Yeah, but I will be very curious to see if Pete, with all of his youthful energy

and exuberance and being the new guy on the field can get this team into playoff contention. Not not the playoff field. Although if you go nine wins, your one game above 500, you're in that mix for sure. Because that's kind of the expectation with him. And then finally getting a quarterback where you can at least you can count on Gino, I think, for a few things, right? Like he'll put up the the kind of numbers that will be good, not great. That was kind of the thing in Seattle. Like what's your ceiling with Gino, I think for a few things, right? Like he'll put up the kind of numbers that'll be good, not great.

That was kind of the thing in Seattle. Like what's your ceiling with Gino? Well, you're not going to be a Super Bowl contender, but can you be a playoff team? I wonder if they'll be able to do that in Vegas this year. Okay. I got a quick, what we learned.

I also have a quick, what we learned. Okay. My quick, what we learned is that it looks like Yosperry Kokoniami is going to be a healthy scratch for the Carolina Panthers tonight. Renaud Lavoie is reportingry Kokoniami is going to be a healthy scratch for the Carolina Panthers tonight. Renaud Lavoie is reporting that Kokoniami is skating with the extras this morning. Mark Jankowski is not.

So. Janko. Janko in for Coco, it looks like. Classic swap. Good Hamilton blood. So the only reason I bring this up and I'm not, I'm not advocating for it. Sounds like you're advocating for it and I'm not advocating for it. Sounds like you're advocating for it.

I am not advocating for it. That's what an advocate would say. I don't know if the Canucks have any interest in a guy like Koken Yemi, but beggars can't be choosers. I do wonder if this is going to be the last year of Koken Yemi in Carolina. He's got a few years left on his deal. I remember that deal was signed with an offer sheet. That was the deal that was signed with the

offer sheet, right? And Montreal said, okay, you can have them. And Carolina was like, ooh, they didn't match. Called our bluff. No, I mean, clearly they target him and, but he hasn't worked out. He hasn't worked out in Carolina I know he's not exactly like how old is he actually?

24 25 is 24 years old so there's in year three of eight. Yeah, it's such an odd contract It's got such a low cap. It's four point eight So not that low for what he's produced. Well He's a bad high. He's been bad in the playoffs. I actually won. It's four point eight. So not that low for what he's produced. Well, he's actually quite high. He's been bad in the playoffs. I actually wonder. He's been fine, underscore fine in the postseason.

He's a 35 to 45 point guy that if you squint with the cap going up, you could be like, that's not a horrible number. Yeah. The four point eight. I'm just saying, like, I'm not a Yosperri

Kokenami expert by any means, nor am I an expert on Marco Rossi who's been thrown out there as well as a potential target for the Canucks, but league wide. And how much is the interest in general? Sure. Yosperri Kokenami. Looks like he's going to be a healthy

scratch for Carolina tonight. Give me a moocow on that. Another day, another Haliford update from the world of the Vancouver Whitecaps. So you know that the upcoming international window for both Canada and the US is upon us, and Canada and the US are announcing their rosters. Oh, by the way, yeah, I said the Carolina Panthers, I guess.

That's fine. Yeah. Everyone understands. Close enough. I didn't even fine. Yeah. Everyone understands. Close enough. I didn't even notice. Sometimes people make mistakes. The gaffs that were so regular in the show, I don't even notice them anymore.

Yeah. Maybe the Cucks should target someone from the Carolina Panthers. Yeah. Maybe the Hurricanes should be less relevant and you'd remember their name. Ooh. Yeah. Okay, let's focus here, shall we?

You know they're in the final four. I mean, Koken Yemi was hard enough. It's true. He got the Koken Yemi part right. Yeah. The US has announced its roster for not the gold cup, but a pair of friendlies that they're going to play against Turkey in East Hartford, Connecticut.

There's a hotbed of Turkish soccer fans in Connecticut. And also, they're going to play against Switzerland and Nashville. Now, the interesting thing here is that congratulations go out to Brian White, who yet again is getting a call into the U.S. men's national team program. This is old hat for Brian White.

Now he's been called in for the last couple of camps. They actually got to play most recently. So good on Brian White. He's having a fantastic year with the Vancouver Whitecaps. The next two bit of news, very intriguing. One, there's another American born Vancouver Whitecap who's getting the call into the team. Congrats to Sebastian Berhalter. Oh, it's about time for him, right?

He has not been called up to the U.S. team since he was playing for the U16s way back when he's going to take part in his first ever U.S. men's national team camp. This is obviously a nice little story because his father, Greg Baraholter, used to be the manager of the US men's national team. So congratulations to Sebastian Baraholter. It's been this year that he's really broken out, right? He started to show signs last year and the last year under Vanny Sartini.

This year has been his coming out party, though, on a sort of national scale, like all the MLS writers like, wow, Sebastian Barral, there's playing every single minute for the Whitecaps scoring goals with regularity. What's his strength? He has become and he's always had a really great ability to ping a ball like he can. His delivery and service is phenomenal. What he's done this year has added more of an attacking press. So instead of a guy that's just spraying the ball over the field, more deep line, he's actually scoring a lot of goals this year. Yeah. And that's important in soccer.

It's very important. It's important in hockey, too. So he's become more of an attacking, offensive minded midfielder. And I think that's maybe why he got the nod for this now. So congrats to Barrett Halter. He gets to go. The interesting part of this is that the third American player for the Whitecaps, who's having a fantastic season, did not get called into this U.S. team. Oh, that's Tristan Blackman.

OK. And you know why that's interesting. Canada. Canada is trying to get Tristan Blackman to join the Canadian men's national team program. Now, I did see someone sent along to me the other day that on his Instagram, Tristan Blackman posted a picture of him standing at attention while the Canadian flag was emblazoned on the digital screen at one of their recent games.

I saw him take a knee for the American anthem too. Who's to say what's gonna happen next? That's not true. He maybe, it could have happened, I don't know. Maybe there was an anthem. That with cameras say what's gonna happen? That's not true. He maybe it could have happened I don't know maybe maybe there was an answer that were cameras on them the whole time cameras on them all the time Greg who knows Whatever the case The exploratory talks continued there if black if blackman was to go into the Canadian mix I think it'd be great because they could play three center backs

I think it'd be him moist bombito and Derek Cornelius, which would be amazing. So there's your update from the world of the Vancouver Whitecaps, the US men's national team, and the Canadian men's national team, Mook Ami. I've got one more soccer thing. Let's go. Luca Modric, who I still see in my nightmares, both Canada and England-wise, he's leaving Real Madrid.

Yeah, this is a bit of a surprise. After the club world cup now, he's 39 years old. He won the Golden Balloon in 2018. Ah, yes, the Golden Balloon. I mean, just a terrific Balloon. Soccer player. And he's the captain at Real Madrid, I think.

Yeah, so I was under the impression that there were- Could he come to MLS? Wherever anyone could, theoretically. Yeah, yeah. That was the impression that there would he come to MLS, whoever anyone could. Yeah. Yeah. That was the only all these guys that are leaving their team. Like MLS, De Bruyne. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I had heard that the plan originally was for him to stick with Raul for another season, taking him past his age, 40 or potentially keeping him in the type of fitness he would want to be in the twenty

twenty six World Cup But I guess plans have changed because Fabrizio Romano noted soccer insider. He's the Elliott Friedman of the global game. Okay, he put it out there this morning the Modric and Real Madrid are gonna part ways after the Club World Cup Mukau if Modric was a hockey player You'd need a guy that was... Oh, Pavel Datsuk. Datsuk? Yeah, Datsuk.

Yeah, that took no time at all. They have the same sort of build. They're diminutive, right? They're very shifty, magic men. That's the right answer. He would win the Selkie, right? Yes. Yeah.

This is good, this is good. I like where we're going with this. Because I said Datsuk and I was like, that's the right answer. I don't even think there needs to be other answers. Feel free to weigh in if you want dumb bar lumber Text line is 650 650, but I think in a rare moment of Halford and bruff getting it right. I think we got it right right off the heart. I love autocorrect

Someone texted in uh-huh, and he wanted to say Adam oats. Yep. He said adamant oats These oats insist upon adamant oats These oats insist upon themselves Adamant absolutely adamant All right, hold on before we go to break I need to tell you as we transition from oats to Jan pro from Warehouses to washrooms and everywhere in between Jan pro keeps workplaces tidy clean and disinfected for a free quote visit them online at Jan pro Dot CA you're listening to the healthiford and Bref Show on Sportsnet 650. It's Canucks Central with Dan Riccio and Satyar Shah, your destination for everything Canucks.

Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the post-game show. Listen 4 to 6 p.m. weekdays and on demand through your favorite podcast app. Now for my favorite part of the show. What'd I say? Talk to the audience. Oh, God, this is always dead. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time.

It's what we learn time on the show. This is first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3000 five star reviews. Visit them online at sans-trustee.com. We are in hour three of the program. It is what we learn time. Hour three 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-pound.com today. So the dogs have no what we learned.

They have learned nothing So we're gonna skip right over nothing interesting at least gloss over them if you will you guys both came with what we learned Yesterday had a good chuckle at the area codes which are now in effect. I suppose I learned America is finally phasing out the penny Which we did like 13 years ago Really? Yeah. Did not know that. I don't know why they're just doing it now and why they didn't do it 13 years ago but they're phasing out the penny. The humble penny. Yeah. Rest in peace. My three-year-old mentioned a penny the other time. How do you even know about that? It was way before your time. How long have they been out of circulation in Canada? Like 10 years. I think it was 2012.

Okay. Ish. At least 10 years. Do you guys still carry cash. Nope. Never barely never almost never rarely. Yeah you Only if I'm my wallet and sometimes I don't bring my wallet out because like I've got my credit card on my phone Oh, right. Yeah, I don't have a wallet. Yeah, so I I go like I I'm pretty crazy. Sometimes I drive without my license Rebel over here What? Hey, hey, hey. Oh. Don't, don't do that. That'd be crazy. What are you doing? You can't do that. A rebel over here. Some cop lest you do this show. I'm gonna get this guy today.

Yeah, I'm gonna get this guy. It's okay, I'm a minor celebrity. That's allowed? Yeah, you're allowed to do that. Because I can't prove who I am. All right, look at all these hateful messages I got on my phone. I'm in sports media.

It's like, okay sir, please leave. Also, don't do that while you're driving. Fire up the dot matrix. Some humanoid submissions for what we learned. Those are always brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Homemade dough, premium local ingredients and authentic cooking methods.

AJ's is for diehard pizza people. Dine in at 325 or 327 East Broadway or visit them online at AJ's.pizza. Rob and Suri, what we learned, what I've learned is as an upper intermediate school teacher in Canada, what is that like? Grade six or seven, something like that? He's learned that the popularity of sports amongst that age group has drastically changed from football, hockey, and baseball when I was a kid to only the NBA and international club soccer. Most kids in my school can't even name a single Canuck. The number of soccer jerseys that kids wear now is like, I mean it's crazy. crazy. I mean, you can also wear a soccer jersey too,

as opposed to like, it's a little harder to wear a hockey. I think the dynamic that he's talking about though, is like, my kid has it in his school, there's the hockey kids. Yeah, yeah. And then there's the soccer kids, and then there's the basketball kids. And there's virtually no crossover, none.

Like they're like, I know that there's a, and to what Rob's speaking about, a large section of kids that have no idea about like who's the best player in the NHL. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. They don't follow it. They don't watch it. And it's siloed off. The hockey kids probably all wear their gear

from their associations. Yeah. Yeah. But what it is is because of the accessibility and volume, accessibility to and volume of content, you can immerse yourself in your particular sport 24 hours a day to the point where you wouldn't need to watch another one. Yeah.

Gone are the days of the well-rounded sportsman like Bruff and I. I don't know, I think there's a lot of kids that are into multiple sports. I don't know. I really do. I don't think there is. I think it's less than when we were kids.

I think they go back and forth. They're like, I like this sport now, it's my favorite. Yeah, I think there's that. I think you go through- Now I like this one. Yeah, like now I'm into basketball and then you drop everything else. You're like, now I'm into skateboarding.

Yeah. And you take skateboard lessons at the local community center. You have one bad game, one failure. You're like, I don't really like this anymore. That's the modern society. That's how kids work nowadays. I'm like that too. You are?

I get that, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Once it becomes slightly hard, I'm like, I don't like this. Well, that's why you quit Hacky Sack, right? They're like, you need to up your game a little bit. I was like, I'm not willing to put the work in. You know why? I thought I'd gone into Hacky Sack to be lazy.

I didn't quit. I retired. Because I couldn't get any better. I achieved Hacky Sack perfection, and I couldn't improve any further. I do haveacusak perfection and I couldn't improve any further. I do have I do have a buddy who's he's and he's unabashed. I get the one drop anymore. Like I'd keep it up for 10 minutes and be like, I don't know. Don't clip that. Ten minutes, a long time.

Ten minutes. Wow. And without medicine and a one drop. And I'd be like, I would describe this, but I was just one drop. There's no challenge anymore. You have to go to the hospital for that sometimes It's true. I say it's painful If you keep that thing up for four hours, it's problem call a physician Don't hack that sack. Okay. I have a buddy of mine that he's unabashed in his approach to these So he he's one of those guys that very deeply

gets himself into the sport of tourists, or a hobby I suppose. So I remember he went through his golf phase, and it was like everything was tailored to golf. He's a hundred or nothing guy, right? Yep, and he was like, that's how I am. And then when I get bored with something, I move on to the next.

And I'm like, he's achieved nothing. Right, but that's great. But that's fine, yeah. Well yeah, because now, I mean, to the next. Yeah, and I'm like he's achieved nothing right and I like but that's great like that's fine Yeah, yeah, cuz now I mean the the newest one of all trades Right, but I it's also like if you're gonna have a passion for something it burns bright and it burns hot But eventually burns out. I'm like that's an interesting approach as opposed to taking this lifelong Like I played soccer for 35 40 years now, right? It's something I'm always gonna do and my interest is peaked and valued throughout but I've always stuck with it What are this guy's relationships like that would be you know, what's the funny thing is the nerd 40 times? Yeah

Yeah, he's going on 41. This one's gonna work. No, I think This is purely about the it's a distraction It's like hobby slash interest. And it burns hot and burns bright, but then when it's done, it's done. And it is an interesting way to try a lot of different things to be honest, because you get really into them and then you're just like, all right, now I'm done.

But I'm curious when he gets out of them. Like what is the moment where he's like, I don't like this anymore. Is it when he gets to the point where he's like, I mean, he's obviously working hard at it. I'm glad you asked this, because the interesting part is that there's never a unified demarcation across them. Some of them. It's like I got busy like golf was.

Well, I stopped having enough time to share with it because it's, you know, you can go to the range and that's easy and accessible. But playing around is a minimum, what, five and a half hour investment. And you get to the point with golf where? You know to get better you got to play in marginally you got to play you got to play a ton and you got You got to stay sharp. Yeah, right. You can't be on on, you know the live tour No, are you played like once a week shorts and music is blasting There you want to do the Tottenham several sure several Spurs fans. Come on you Spurs

You're gesticulating towards your phone. I hope that's important because you've interrupted me mid Spurs Congratulations to Tottenham their first trophy Any kind since 2008 when they won the Football League Cup Final over Chelsea their first international Continental trophy they call it in Europe because they beat Man United 1-0 in the Europa League final yesterday. So that books them a spot in the Champions League next year, despite finishing 16th in the league. They're on their way to the Champions League.

And it's great for Ange Pasta Coglu, the gaffer, who amazingly, amazingly, upon being named the manager at Tottenham, pointed out to everyone that historically, through his time as he coached in Australia and then coached at Celtic that he doesn't win anything in his first year, but he always wins something in his second year and lo and behold. He's a big year two guy. He's a big year two guy. By the way, Spurs were 17. They beat number 16.

Sorry, I was just saying, yeah. They beat United who were 16. That's right. It's crazy to see Man United and Tottenham just above the relegation three. Anyway, go on. Man United and Tottenham just above the relegation three. Anyway, go on. Um, so anyway, Pasta Coglu did in fact win a pretty significant trophy in his second year in charge, despite them being terrible domestically.

Congratulations to my boy, Rich and all the other Spurs fans out there. Come on you Spurs. Okay. Good job. Okay. Before, before you congratulate them. I'm, you know, trying to be nice about it.

I know. There's a tournament in college basketball called the NIT. The NIT. And the NIT is often used as an insult, right? Sure. It's chanted at teams, NIT, NIT, which means you're not good enough for March Madness.

Is the Europa League the NIT of Europe, and if it is, why don't they treat it the same way? It's not because it gets you a spot in the Champions League if you win it. So there's a real, like winning the NIT. But it seems like Spurs are also like, we've got a trophy. Yep, I mean that, but that's part,

that's the club culture, because they don't have any trophies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, so there's that part of it too. So Kane finally won his trophy with Bayern. I mean, that's the club culture because they don't have any trophies. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? So there's that part of it too. So Kane finally won his trophy with Byron. That's correct. And Spurs finally won their trophy.

Without Kane. Right. So if the NIT gave you a berth into next year's March Madness, that would be the equivalent. But it doesn't. You win the NIT. It's like, we won the NIT. And I'm sure it's great to win that tournament. I'm sure there's a celebration, but.

But it's so, the comp doesn't exactly work because there is a big dangling carrot at the end. Is that you can, I mean, Spurs have salvaged a terrible season because of this. Yeah. Right, I mean, look at next year. They've got big European aspirations now. I don't think they're gonna do anything with them,

but you know, they're there. So good, again, begrudgingly, congratulations to Spurs. David, from Surrey, what we learned, I learned that Alexander Raduloff is a KHL champion and I wonder if that will be the next championship that Ovi wins. Yeah, I'll be curious to see if Ovi plays in the KHL. Well, he was Dynamo, he was Dynamo, right? Yeah.

Uh. Good old Alexander Raduloff. Yeah. What does he play for, play for Locomotive? I think that's who he plays for. I will tell you. Did you see, by the way, Adog, I sent this to you because I loved it so much. Did you see Radulov hit that guy that tried to do the Michigan?

No. The Michigan. He tried to come from behind the net and just Rangelov absolutely laid him out. How you do it? And Adog was like, Brough has watched this a thousand times. And you're right, I did. Yeah, he does play for Yaroslavl Locomotive. That's the team that he plays for.

And they won the KHL Stanley Cup. Locomotive one. Yeah. And he was the MVP. Thirty eight years old. Do you remember when we were working at NBC? We spent a lot of time writing about Radulov, because you remember he left the Predators to go to the KHL. That was kind of a big deal, because he was a...

He left for a while. He left for like four years. And then he came back and it was like, eh. He took a selfie on a plane. We were tracking Radulov coming back. And yeah. It was for the playoffs he came back for. Yeah, that's right. And then he went back selfie on a plane. We were tracking Radulov coming back. And yeah, it was for the playoffs. He came back for it.

Yeah, that's right. And then he went back to the K.H.L. Yep. And then he came back to the NHL and played for Dallas for a while. It's been a long time. Yeah. He's 140 years old. Did you know that? It's amazing that he's still doing it at 140.

Most people don't get to live that long. Tables. James, hashtag WWO. What we learned, Ladi, you'll like this one. The Jays got some thrash Thursday Done on a Wednesday by thrashing the Padres 14 nothing with their highest offense. Yeah, the Padres okay They're not playing well There's no way you should lose like that to the Blue Jays this variation of them

I did not like a team like that like that I did not get a chance to catch the Jays game. Other things took precedence yesterday, namely all the other sports, but. Huge for the Jays run differential. It's all the way up to minus 11. Who did the business at the plate at the dish? Well Varsha had a grand slam. Oh, did he?

And Lucas hit a homer earlier in the game, but it was mostly just singles and doubles. Honestly, they just kind of singled him to death. A lot of errors in the infield. The Padres were not having a good time. So I don't know what's going on with them. They can't score and they can't defend so that's not a good combination Okay, I see why you were not I see why you guys were just circulating to your phones now, okay, so yes, we're not doing this. Oh, we're not I

Don't know are we not? laddie fears for his job You want to leave it. I want to leave it. Okay. We'll leave it. We'll just move on to another one. We learned all that's cruel That's gonna be great for the listeners See if you can figure it out listeners see if you can figure it out Chetan and Suri hashtag WWE Oh what we learned another part of Spike Lee's Nick soul must have died Seeing Tyrese Halliburton throw an ode to Reggie Miller last night too bad spike was in con I didn't know that and not in in the garden, which would have been pure

cinema. These NBA playoffs have been great compared to the last few years. Few things there. Chaitin, yes, these playoffs have maybe saved the NBA after last year's postseason. And then how bad the regular season one was this postseason has been fantastic. We talked about the Halliburton celebration at the break and we didn't really get a chance to address it that

Obviously when he hit his shot He thought he had done something on par with what Reggie did back in and it was a game five of the ninety four Easter conference final where he made the famous Choking gesture, although the Knicks went on to win that series So Halliburton when he stepped, he rightfully did the choke celebration because he thought he had won the game. OK. And he was going for the win. OK. He drove to go for a two step back and shot a three.

Now, if you watch the broadcast, they pick it up faster than pretty much everyone, including the radio calls that. Halliburton celebrates, but the referees right away are like, we got to go to the monitor because we think his toe might be on the line. And that obviously changes the dynamic of a game in a major way. Have you ever seen a buzzer beater that bounces that high?

Not like that, not like that. We all remember Kwai's buzzer beater. Kwai's, by the way, still remains the first and only game seven walk-off shot in NBA history. In a crazy shot. Yeah, right. And it rattled around. But the bounce that Halliburton had. You know, Nick's fans were like, you know, when it was at its total apex, they're like, that's dropping in the hoop. For sure.

Yeah. We're going to lose. The sequence was amazing because the comeback never should have happened in the first place. And then for it to happen, and you would almost think like the dagger would have been more poetic in regulation because I'm thinking going overtime, I'm like, well, the Knicks can still win this. Yeah.

The Pacers were kind of like unflappable in overtime. They scored 13 points in overtime. They're great. I missed it by the way too. I should have flipped over earlier, but I was watching- 22 TVs. I was watching the Oilers collapse. Yeah.

This is from the Queensborough Dangler, which sounds like a future true crime podcast. To what, sorry? The Queensborough Dangler. I've been treated. A lot of different ways we could go with that. Yeah. The Oklahoma City Thunder are our team now.

With Canadian MVP SGA and ties to Seattle, ties to Seattle, it feels more authentic than supporting the Grizzlies or the Raptors. I am, I made a Jason Brain decision the other day. Like I'm- Jason Brain decision. I am cheering for SGA, cause he does seem like a pretty good dude. That's a real 180 for you. It is.

Because yesterday you were not only admonishing Oklahoma City as a fan. I hate the fans, I hate the city. Yeah, but can you cheer for the individual while loathing the mark, sure. The market. Okay. It's only the NBA. That's true.

There's no stakes in this. No one's going to care. Yerkey in Ottawa with a related question, ask us anything, um, and he says direct directed mostly to Jason, don't you think it actually softens the blow to lose a sports team to a less obvious place like Memphis or Oklahoma city, rather than some Chad city.

Chad city. That already has everything going for it, like Las Vegas or San Diego. I know I'd be less resentful losing a job out to a hard luck guy that really needs it rather than some rich kid in a nice suit whose dad is friends with the CEO, but I don't see it like that. I see it like, I see it like you chose that guy over me? I mean, it is, like Oklahoma City has nothing going for it sports-wise. Yeah. Nothing.

Like, it is, that's their thing. And it's probably gonna be their only thing ever. I can't imagine other leagues are like really excited to get there, right? Yeah. So I kind of understand what Yerkes is talking about. Chad City is hilarious, by the way. San Diego is like highest Chad per capita in the US.

There's a lot of Chads there. But Vegas is the same way. I'd be honored to lose a team to San Diego. It's a beautiful city. San Diego's awesome. It's like their Kelowna. Unlike Edmonton, which is the Chud capital. No, that's...

Someone texted me yesterday after the game. They're like, I'm specifically going out of my way to listen to Ched right now. I'm like, oh, the mighty Ched, yeah, right. Because that's their thing now, is they listen to the Canadian sports markets after they lose these big games. They go and listen to the local sports radio.

Anyway. That's a certain type of psycho in a fan, though. I respect it. Yeah. Don't get me wrong. To tune into the call-in show- Oh, that's a certain type of psycho and a fan though. I respect it. Yeah, give me wrong Yeah to tune into the call-in show after loss of a team that you hate. It's great Okay, I I am I want you on my bitter sports levels of petty guys We talk about like searching like a hashtag of a team after a big moment on check the replies check the reply It's the same thing. It's the same feeling feeling it's a shat and Freud to do it when we got

To do it when the connects were playing the oilers last year I know a lot of people made it like part of their brand to call into the mighty chud and then try and get on The air there were some good clips right that I understand It's it is an extra level of petty when I do not aren't playing the oilers But you're still like I'm gonna call into the mighty chud I do enjoy how the chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud chud Doug thinks the oilers should hire Jim Benning. Here we go again. Classic. Do we read this one from Omar? I don't think we did. What we learned, if the oilers lose this series, Canucks fans might get their Canadian shot in

Florida after all, but the consequence will be that Toronto, Winnipeg and Edmonton will be desperate in the off season to retool, making it even more difficult for Vancouver to get a top six forward. Omar, I think it's going to be difficult. It's going to be difficult anyway, man. Yeah. I don't think those three have anything to do with it. I mean, if Eelers stays in Winnipeg, that has a knock on effect. And I know,

even if Eelers wasn't likely to sign in Vancouver, it just means like that the targets become fewer. I don't know if Sam Bennett's going to end up in Florida, but I know someone's going to pay them a lot. A lot of people are predicting that this is going to be a crazy unrestricted free agent year where a guy, a bunch of guys get overpaid.

And I have no doubt about that. Which is why if you're Ehlers, you're kind of like, oh, you know, like even if I like it in Winnipeg, this could be a real opportunity. I mean, the reason we're doing this. Like that's who's going to get paid, wherever. The reason we're doing this thought exercise where we reach out to Buffalo and we reach out to Winnipeg is I want to give everyone a good

sense of all these other teams that are equally excited about the rising cap, equally excited about spending money, and also want to improve. Sometimes talking about the Canucks is great and it's fun and at times trying, but if you look at outside the market and see what other teams are doing, you get an even better sense of how difficult the Canucks tasks are gonna be because you see that other teams have a task a laundry list that Is equally as long yeah, there's a yeah like Buffalo Buffalo for example. I think things are bad here They haven't been in the playoffs in 14 years as Paul said there's 20 year old people out there in Buffalo that have no idea What playoff hockey looks like I don't remember it. They got bigger issues in Buffalo to worry about that's true They do okay. That's a good way to end the show. We got to get out of here for today, but we will be nice We're not about. That's true, they do. Okay, that's a good way to end the show. We gotta get out of here for today,

but we will be back. At least we're not Buffalo. That's true, Vancouver, not Buffalo, yet. We gotta get out of here for today, but we will be back tomorrow. A reminder, it's Ask Us Anything Friday. Tomorrow, we're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway,

the best pizza place in the world. But for today, we gotta say goodbye. Signing off, I have been Mike Helford, he's been Jason Breff. He's been A-Dog and and he's been Laddy. This has been the Halford and Breff Show on Sportsnet 650.