Halford & Brough in the Morning - Duane Vienneau + WWL

Episode Date: August 27, 2024

In hour three Mike Halford and Jason Brough talk to BC Lions president Duane Vienneau ahead of their Touchdown Pacific game in Victoria. They also tell us what they learned!  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.

801 on a Tuesday, Big Band Tuesday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. Dwayne Vanneau, president of the BC Lions, is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 3.

Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio, Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of 5-star Google reviews. Sorfi, what are you waiting for? Kintec!

That's what you're waiting for. Ah, there it is. Now I got to do it. Get your what we learns in, everybody. We need more. Dunbar Lumber Text Line 650-650. Help us out. We need a little content for the back half of this hour.

Hashtag them WWL. The concept is what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. Let us know. It's your chance also to be on the radio. Not just telling us what you learned, but having the rest of the lower mainland know it as well.

Hashtag WWL. Dunbar-Lemmer text line is 650-650. This weekend, it is the much-anticipated Touchdown Pacific game in victoria joining us now president of the bc lines duane veno here on the halford and brett show on sportsnet 650 morning duane how are you good morning thanks for having me how's it going over there uh it's great thanks for taking the time to do this we really appreciate it uh this is a very cool initiative touchdown pacific and we played at royal Athletic Park in Victoria.

You said last week that you'll look at something that you've seen forever, that being Royal Athletic Park, and you'll look and go, where did Royal Park go? What do you guys have exactly in store for the facility this weekend before we get into all the rest of the stuff involved with Touchdown Pacific? You know, the easy way to describe it is we're essentially taking a baseball park that has about 3,000 seats and converting it into a football stadium, and we're trying to get it up to as close to 15,000 as possible.

So it's a big transformation. You know, the diamond has been covered, if you will. And we've added 7,000 seats on one side. And we've built suites on an end. And we've added a party zone on another end. And just everything that that part, you won't recognize. People are already coming up on the street. It's very transparent.

You can look in at any time from outside the gate and people are just blown away saying, what has happened to a little girl's car? Tell us about this party zone. Yeah, so that's, it's been done a few times in, we've touched on Atlantic and essentially there's going to be 2,000 of your closest friends really up close and personal with the game.

The fence line gets right near, about 10 feet away from the end zone. And it's just a gigantic sort of social gathering area, but you're right up into the play, and it's just a unique atmosphere. The BC Lions, lines our team will be entering the field through that party zone so it's just it's an opportunity to fans to to get really close to the game which in some other stadiums and other settings you don't get that close and it's just a real tight compact event tell us why you're doing this game in victoria you know it's uh well there's lots of reasons.

It starts with our owner, you know, Amar Doman, our owner. He's born and raised in Victoria. And so he really has a passion to come to Victoria. We could not do it without, you know, him wanting to do this. Essentially, we're going from, we're averaging this year, you know, 32,000 fans at BC Place and we're going to, you know, 32,000 fans at BC Place, and we're going to, you know, 15,000. So to chop that in half, it takes commitment from ownership. That's the start.

But we pride ourselves in being the BC Lions, and we want to do whatever we can to outreach and be accessible to our fans, and this is one of those initiatives. And then last but not least, the Touchdown Series brand is big in the CFL. It is the second biggest event that's held every year behind Grey Cup. We're lucky enough to have both this year. But we have people that are coming from every CFL team.

We have people coming from Atlantic Canada. It's a huge economic driver for the region and that is what makes things a little bit different. There's going to be overloaded with Lions fans, but there's also going to be fans from every team. That seagull there was just perfect, by the way, Dwayne.

Just perfect placement. That was incredible. I'm outside, actually. I'm here at the stadium, so I'm looking at everything I see. We've got a big seagull problem at the stadium that we're going to have to deal with before the game starts.

Hey, Dwayne, does it feel like it's been a crazy year for you? There's been a lot going on with this team. You've got this to organize and all the details and all the crazy seagulls. You've got the return of Nathan Rourke, and of course I'm sure the work continues because you're hosting the Grey Cup in a few months. How's it been

for you personally? How's it been for the organization? Has it been a challenge? Yeah, it's great. We like it. The busier the better. Essentially, this is the 70th year of our franchise, and celebrating that 70th anniversary, we wanted to, you know, host Grey Cup. We wanted to, you know, do Touchdown Pacific and come over to Victoria. And, you know, it's just been great. We're working hard. All of our staff are working very hard to be, you know,

to have this year ahead of us. And you're right. We're coming back. And they kicked it all off with the home opener with 50 Cent, that pregame concert at the home opener where we sold out BC Place. And that hasn't happened in a long time. So it's just been a busy year, but a really good year. And, again, I think we're averaging about 32,000 fans.

I believe we're leading with leading attendance right now, and we're just trying to keep that up. We're speaking to BC Lions President Dwayne Vigneault here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. This weekend, it is the touchdown Pacific game, but there's a lot more that's going into this than just the game itself. There's a three-day calendar of events that kicks off on Thursday. So, Dwayne, for those that are listening that are going to go check out,

maybe not just necessarily the game, but the entire festival, can you kind of give us some of the highlights of what are going to be going on Thursday and Friday? Because I'm looking at the calendar right now, and you guys have an awful lot of stuff planned. Yeah. We build it as a mini-great company. We really don't want uh people just

to come in for the game we know that visitors are coming throughout the country and some in the states and they when they come they want to experience football so we have a festival at ship point we have a family zone we have uh an entertainment stage we have a beer garden there we have a bunch of activations with some partners. It runs Thursday and Friday during the day. There's always something to do. We're doing an open practice. Our team's doing an open practice

on Thursday at Starlight Stadium in Langford. That'll be exciting. They're expecting to actually sell out the open practice. It's not for sale, but you have to reserve a seat. We have the Grey Cup coming. We'll be getting information taken with the Cup.

We have players nonstop at the festival doing autographs. That runs every day, Thursday, Friday. We have a headquarter bar, if you will on thursday friday as well and saturday and that gives you a bit of again that great cup feel where it might be similar to a team room you would experience at great stops and and then last but not least the game itself which has been sold out for a long time as you guys guys know. And we have a pre-game party. And then we also have a watch party as well, where we're trying to, you know,

give the people that weren't able to get a ticket, come and be close to the action. It's going to be really, you know, 100 feet away in a park really close to the stadium. And it's, you know's a $12 ticket for kids and come in and experience the game itself. Hear everything, smell everything, if you will. The cheer team's going to come in

and just sort of have more people be able to experience it. Dwayne, I know you're not the head coach. I know you're not the general manager. But when the team loses five straight, does that affect your job at all? Does that affect your day-to-day, or do you just leave it in the hands of the GM and the coach and the players to figure it out?

Yeah, to your point, everyone's working really hard to get it figured out. Nobody likes to obviously lose five in a row. We're seeing improvements, and we're confident we're going to have a big game this weekend. And the touchdown to Pacific and Victoria is just the right time to get this thing back on track. Are you hoping it's a good thing? Because it could be seen as yet another thing to be distracted by when it would have been maybe easier for these players to just go back to BC Place and host a game.

No. I've been involved in these on the other coast a few times and it's uh it's it's an exciting thing to do it is it is different that the team gets here tomorrow on wednesday they normally you know would would show up at a home game on day of and so it's a bit bit of a time to get the team together, you know, think nothing but football. And I just, I'm just confident that we're going to, you know, things are going to get going on the right direction here soon. Dwayne, this was great.

Thanks for taking the time to do it. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the game on Saturday, obviously, but all of the touchdown Pacific festivities as well. Thanks guys. Really appreciate your support. Yeah. Thank you, Dwayne.

We appreciate you coming on. That dwayne veno uh president of the bc lions here on the halpern and brough show on sportsnet 650 i will say um there's it's it's been an entire bc lions seasons of two platforms it really has one has been the on-field product which obviously is the main driver and of chief importance. And that's been erratic, to put it mildly. It's been very up and down. It's been a tumultuous season. I think it's fair to call it a tumultuous season.

Totally. On the field. Yeah. Off the field, it's almost a shame that the product hasn't lived up to what they've done because the opener was, it's hard not to call it a big-time success. They won that game at least. Yeah. opener was it's hard not to call it a big time success they won that game at least yeah and uh the concert series which has become in a very short period of time a well-understood tradition like people know now that the bc lions kickoff correlates with this big concert um touchdown

pacific like i know that there's the game and there's the transformation of Royal Athletic Park but what they've like the amount of time and effort that they've gone into creating a festival which is not an easy task you can't just throw these things together and slap like they've got very detailed schedules for the 72 hours prior to kickoff basically it's a lot and it starts at

noon you don't have to work with the ferries like one ferry leaving back to the mainland i think they had to i imagine they had to call bc ferries and you'd be like hey can we push the sailing from nine o'clock to ten o'clock call in a favor right yeah there's a bunch of people that want to play pole position on the way back they don't have that i don't think they let them do that anymore um but to the point, it has been a very interesting dynamic to watch unfold over the course of the year because oftentimes in the past, it was the opposite. The on-field product at times was great. They were winning lots of games, but the marketing and the way that the organization was run seemed to fall short repeatedly. So it's very unique to see that play out this year. I hope just for the sake of a lot of people doing good work

at the executive level that it does pay off with maybe even just getting it right and having a late season run. I'm hoping this could help them, give them a bit of a surge, give them a bit of a confidence boost. But this is a massive game for them. And the problem there is that. What a freaking boost. There it is

the problem with that is that i'm not sure just going over and talking to a couple different people about how bad the defense is that it might not be like fixable like that right you can't go in there's some adjustments i'm not worried about the offense as much maybe i will be in a few weeks if nathan rourke still hasn't found his game and all of a sudden there's a quarterback controversy but um i think we should all give nathan rourke a few games to shake off the rust yeah you're right about the defense though the because football by nature if you i mean you hear moj you know spit out some of the cliches about it's you know it. You go in and you look at the tape and you make your adjustments and you go from there.

It is very much an adjustment from video sport. But when there's things that you can't fix with X's and O's or tape and when it's just a core, like we might not have good enough players or good enough tacklers, like we said talking to Moj yesterday, it's not something that you can correct in a short period of time. It's like you can go, we're going to practice tackling. Everyone gets to do 100 tackles today in practice.

Yeah. Let me call in the union. Yeah, they're not going to happen. We're not doing that. They guys are going to get hurt. So you might be stuck. It's very losing five games in the fashion that they have, where there's been different issues at different times.

But the one recurring thing, and Farhan pointed this out on Twitter the other day, consistently, they've been giving up so many yak yards, like yards after catch, which is often the one that people point to to say your tackling's bad, right? If you can give up the reception and bring a guy down, that's one thing.

But if you're giving up the reception and then you can't wrap him up, that's where Yakards really come back to kill you. Should we do some What We Learned? Sure. I learned that they're really filling the center ice circle with logos this season. Explain.

Really filling them. They're using all the real estate. I don't know if you've seen the Canucks logo at Rogers Arena. They're using that. Oh, you're talking about the Florida Panthers. No, no, no. The Canucks have it too. And the Ottawa Senators have.

So I think the NHL has said, guys, you know that center ice circle? Use it. All of it. All of it. The logos are going right to the edges there. Because the new one or the one that sort of caught on social media yesterday, was that the Florida Panthers have their new center ice circle. And as you mentioned, it's completely filled out.

There's no white ice. And they did it with the... Are teams going to be losing the puck in these? Possibly. It's very busy. What is it? Is it the underside of the Stanley Cup? It's the inside of the bowl.

Inside of the bowl. Yeah. Which is similar to what Vegas has. It's kind of cool, actually. It's cool. It's very busy. What is it? Is it the underside of the Stanley Cup? It's the inside of the bowl. Inside of the bowl. Yeah. Which is similar to what Vegas has. It's kind of cool, actually. It's cool. It's a pattern. It's very busy. Love to see that at our rink one day.

Can you do it if you haven't won the Cup? It's a Norris Trophy themed circle. Just a bold prediction at the start of the year. Yeah, that's why the Jack Adams. Is there a Jack Adams trophy? Oh, there has to be. There has to be a Jack Adams trophy. Yeah, there's an actual trophy.

I think maybe. They don't give him an envelope with a gift certificate in it. That's not the award. Yeah, right. Two tickets, it's $100. I don't know what it looks like, though. Yeah, I just Googled it. It's a trophy.

Right. Okay. It looks like the one they give out to the Western Conference champions. I only really know, I know the Stanley Cup. I know the Constantine Trophy, I know the Hart Trophy. I know the Vezina's got a beaver on it. Does it? Yeah, it's got a little carved out beaver on it.

I think we went down this road before. Oh, okay. Never mind. Yeah. What? I think we went down this road before. Oh, because we tried to figure out why it was there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What does the Norris look like it's a good question i feel like we should know this stuff is professional sports professional being used very well it hasn't been relevant until the last year in vancouver right like i learned the other day too here's what it looks like the old ihl their goalie of the year award was the james norris so there's a whole bunch of goalies that have won the norris trophy technically that played in the ihl which. Which is the Jim Rutherford. Is it the OHL goalie of the year? OHL goalie of the year, the Jim Rutherford award. Imagine a Canucks goalie coming up.

I'm looking at the Norris right now. It's kind of boring. Is it a defense? It is very boring. It is. Jack Adams is worse. It's just a cup. It's pretty big. Jack Adams has more flair to it than that. The Jack Adams has a picture of Jack Adams on it at the top. That's the Jack Adams.

The Norse is just a bowl with a lid on it. You know, but now I'm racking my brain trying to think of the individual awards that have that gravitas or everyone knows it. What are the iconic ones? Like the Heisman? Everyone knows what the Heisman looks like. Everyone can do the pose, right? Outside of that, your guess is as of that your guess those classic baseball trophies where the guys swing on the bat i don't think they give those for like mvp they give those for

little league when you successfully field a bunt at first base uh give give me a moocow on the center heist logos well i learned that um and thank god because I heard that they were struggling financially. But the Kelsey brothers, Travis and Jason, have managed to get their financial futures on path. Because they've sold their New Heights podcast. You know, the brothers do a podcast together. They sold it to Amazon, although it'll be published and distributed by Wondery. $100 million. A three-year $100 million deal for their podcast. I just want to put that out there.

Do they have Kintec on board yet? I don't know. Is that where Bridge Brewing went? Where did they go? Did they go with the Kelseys? I don't know. The deal was announced Tuesday. This comes on the heels of the Kelsey brothers

who may have, you know, kind of ridden the Taylor Swift wave here. Cause I think they also released a line of, uh, cereal as well. Oh, a dog will be interested. Now,

have you listened to their podcast before? Bits and pieces. I'm, is it interesting? Okay. They seem like nice guys. This is meant as no disrespect to the two guys. You gotta be,

you gotta put out numbers. If you're going to get a hundred million dollars, right? Like there's only a few guys say what you will about Joe Rogan, but a lot of people listen to that podcast. Laddie's just immediately triggered. We'll talk about the Kelsey brothers. I knew his name was coming. I knew it.

I've listened to it on occasion, and this is meant as no disrespect. They're football players, first and foremost. I don't get it. I don't get what the –'ve listened to it and it's nothing and this isn't meant to like sort of shave them or anything because obviously they're really good at what they do and they're really popular and they're really successful and they're making 100 million off their podcasts and i am not but i i just don't get it i was reading an article the other day that's talking about everyone's kind of drawn into the allure of how much money's in

podcasting right now but if you dig a little bit deeper on the numbers it's really skewed to like the top five or ten or making obviously it's crazy yeah but people think they're like all these people are making money off podcasts i'm like no some podcasts are the new blogs but some people are making money off yeah it's like everyone's like oh but you can make a lot of money off substack it's like yeah but like 90 of the money goes to the top 27 substack right for the new yorker first then maybe you'll make some money so like i mean everyone's like realtors there's a lot of realtors there's only so many realtors 90% of the money goes to the top 27 sub stack. Right. For the New Yorker first, then maybe you'll make some money. Like, I mean,

everyone's like realtors. There's a lot of realtors. There's only so many realtors that make a lot of money. Right. But, um, with this, I,

again, I get, I can understand how it's gotten so popular. They get really good guests. You've got the Taylor Swift effect to Travis Kelsey. Jason Kelsey is a very funny guy. The T Swift effect is huge. But what do they have? They

have guests on. I imagine that's not just them talking. I was like, remember when we were kids, but it's huge numbers and they win a lot of awards. So it's like it's a clean for them. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. It's great. A hundred million dollars over three years. A crazy amount for a podcast in a related note. We are willing to sell our podcast

Mu County. I had the perfect segue for my $40 is the opening bit over three years. We are willing to sell our podcast, Moo County. I have the perfect segue for my opening bid. $40 is the opening bid. Over three years, we're willing to spread it out. We'll bring the cap hit down. Your What We Learned, Michael, was about a pair of successful brothers. Yes. Well, I'm going to give you a bit of history that was made by a pair of brothers in the MLB the other day.

Oh, my. I'll play a couple clips. First one, Cincinnati against Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh with a chance to win it. And a drive to right center field. To the wall. And it is gone. Clear the deck.

Cannonball coming. Walk it off. So a walk off in Pittsburgh over the Cincinnati Reds off Alexis Diaz. A few short hours later against the Mets, San Diego did this against the Mets. High drive, deep right field. Merrill Madness walked off at Petco. Padres win it, 3-2.

So that was off Edwin Diaz. So it's Edwin. They became the first pair of brothers in MLB history to give up walk-off home runs on the same day. Edwin and Alexis Diaz. Both gave up walk-off home runs hours apart. It would have been nicer for them as brothers if it was a less dubious distinction, but point remains.

We've had some good walk-offs in the last little while. We had the walk-off rouge. We had the walk-off bunt in the Little League World Series. had the walk-off Rouge. We had the walk-off Bunt in the Little League World Series. Now the walk-off brothers. The blow-and-save brothers. Yeah, the blow-and-save brothers. Negative connotations in this one. Didn't really go great for the fam.

Hey, man, Laddie, those Jays, they're really coming together. We're not talking about the Jays right now. No, they're coming together. They look like a good team. And if the season was 6,000 games long, they might get back in this draft race. You were asking me yesterday why I keep watching the team even when the season's lost.

Because look at the run they're on. They're exciting. They're fun to watch. So, like, after a game, they win. Have they won five in a row, something like that? Something like that, yeah. Something like that. They win five in a row and you can't lose.

You're watching with your wife and you're like, five in a row. So what that? Something like that, yeah. Something like that. They went five in a row and you can't lose. You're watching with your wife and you're like, five in a row. So what? There goes that draft pick. It's like watching the Canucks the last, you know, five years ago.

Okay, move out of that. It doesn't matter as much as baseball, though. They don't seem to, do they make that big a deal of it in baseball? Like, if your team

has a late season surge, are you upset for draft reasons? It does affect where you go in the draft. It just doesn't seem like as big a deal. It's not. Maybe that's because in baseball you can still buy your way out of problems. The draft itself is a whole

other world in baseball because there's slot value and the best player isn't necessarily getting picked in order like you would see. But there is a race. If you're not any any good there's always been a race to i mean more recently there's always been a race to the bottom it's like well we're not gonna be any good we may as well be terrible right the white socks yeah exactly i mean that okay there's a team where you know when we talk about this team that they they stunk too bad and the sharks yeah you the sharks might be screwed for a long time because of how bad that they stunk. You can be bad, but you can't be that bad.

They might have done damage in Chicago for how bad they've been. The White Sox are still on pace to break the record for losses in a season. That is a long history in this sport. When the 76ers tried it in basketball, and yes, Joel Embiid's an MVP and everything, but the playoff success number, I firmly believe that you do some sort of weird cosmic damage that goes beyond. The vibes get too bad, and the karma gets too bad. You can't get out.

I agree. Yeah. You can be bad, but you can't be that bad. Who are we cheering for now? Let's assume the Mariners are not going to make the playoffs and the Blue Jays are not going to make the playoffs. Who do we cheer for? AJ, you missed it, but AJ on Friday came on the show and tried to convince us to cheer

for the Yankees. That's probably not going to be it. But honestly, I was kind of like, yeah, sure. Like for free pizza, I'll do it. I'll cheer for Man U too. But the Yankees for me aren't. When was the last time they won? What about your beloved Milwaukee Brewers?

I don't know. You remember when you got a... I might get into Cleveland. Cleveland has a good team. They have a legit shot. They've been... They've been rocks. Yeah, but they haven't won for ages.

You got on the Brewers bandwagon, I swear to God, it felt like 12 minutes. Yeah. And you're like, oh yeah, they, you know... This sucks. Yeah, it fit the sad club.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know if the college was there. I'm always slagging the Royals on the show. The other team would be the Padres. Yes. I like the Padres a lot. One of my show. The other team would be the Padres. Yes. I like the Padres a lot. One of my really good buddies is a diehard Padres fan. Yeah, you said he's the only one in the city.

Only one I know. Yeah, he has way too many brown hats. I've sat and watched countless. They leaned into brown for a long time. They leaned into brown. Does he have to make his wardrobe all brown too? There's a lot. He's more brown and yellow than a banana. Does he have to make his wardrobe all brown too? There's a lot. He's more brown and yellow than a banana.

Does he wear the camo jersey around with the hat? No, no. And he never really got into like the Miami Vice-ish ones that they rock on occasion. Those are nice. You know, very few professional sports teams lean that heavily into brown and yellow, right? Like the Padres were very iconic in that regard.

Wasn't that a hot color scheme in the 70s? Which one? I feel like there was a lot of brown in yellow kitchens. Brown, oh, maybe. Wood paneling was big on cars. Yeah, but the Padres really stood the test of time because they're still brown. Anyway, mook out that.

Get your What We Learns in. Hashtag them. WWL. The Dunbar-Lumber text line is 650-650. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet. 650. Now for my favorite part of the show. What'd I say?

Talk to the audience. Oh, God. This is always dead. It's What we learn time. It's what we learn time. It's what we learn time. On the show. 833 on a Tuesday.

Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 3 of the program. It is what we learn time.

Hour 3 is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at campbell-pound.com today. That was a good one. You're on your game, Halford. Yeah, now I have to yell at the listeners. They have not provided us

with enough what we learned. We got a few in not enough while you were saying white walk it's the scripting who writes a script like I think he said right rock this time they said it's no wonder why white rock Honda it's too many W's right in a row

and then you know that you've got that rock coming up right so that's in your head right so I turn into like Scooby-Doo you're like Raggy right, we got right rock. I go with a fourth W. Usually. Y, white, walk. Usually.

It's not good. But sometimes you say right rock. Sometimes you say right rock. Yeah. Because I'm anticipating the fourth W and then I tack on a second R. Exactly. Keep us in suspense. It's tough.

I actually work behind the scenes to make your reads harder than they should be. Yeah, like, I have something to admit. Super helpful when I'm reading it. Then all I hear in the background is... I'm, like, trying to focus, take care of our sponsors. Don't try to focus. Give some love to the dealership. I got an old horse face over here guffawing in the background

as I try and get through the business of the day. You couldn't focus with like a bag full of Adderall. I'm not a good focus guy. Not a good focuser. I get distracted easily. They should not have put two TVs in the studio. I watch them constantly. He's already lost it.

I watch them constantly. He's like, what's going on tennis wise? Oh, yeah. Tennis is on. Olympics was a joke. You would just be watching the Olympics. Yeah. Sisi Pass. He's playing tennis right now. Pronounce that other joke. You would just be watching the Olympics. Sisypas.

He's playing tennis right now. Pronounce that other name that he's playing. Kokonakis. Nice. That is a good matchup of names. Sisypas versus Kokonakis. They both feel Greek, but one is Australian. I'll let you decide which one it is.

Don't look at the screen, Greg. Okay. Some more of what we learned. We'll do a couple other ones here. Lena's got one. Lena's got one about liver shots, but not the liver shots that I thought. You just think someone's just punching?

Yeah, boxing. Like when Lomachenko destroyed Linares. Have you ever seen- Isn't that a kidney shot? Liver shot. When you want him to never drink again. Eat the liver. Right.

Well, if you watch, the funny thing about boxing when a liver shot happens, that's where you just, you know, punch someone in the liver, is the reaction is delayed by a couple seconds. I don't know if it's the biochemistry or it takes the body and the liver a couple seconds to realize that it's been severely damaged, but the boxers stand up for a couple seconds. They're like, I'm okay. And then they crumple to the ground. You like that, do you?

I love the violence of that. The delayed reaction. The delayed violence. Well, he knows it from his street fighting days. That was a number, you know, go-to shot that you do, the liver shot. Yeah, it gives a little more drama for the camera. Anyway, I'm interrupting, Lena. Tell me about liver shots.

So the Ottawa Senators posted on their social media a home visit with Jake Sanderson. Okay. media a home visit with jake sanderson okay and uh in doing so he showed his daily routine which includes taking liver shots a drink so that's what i thought it was because they call it liver shots but upon watching the video he has cubed raw liver okay put them in an ice cube tray yeah and waits for them to freeze. Then he pops one out, dips it in maple syrup. It's not human liver, is it? I hope not.

It was not specified. Could be. Jake Sanderson. Cannibal. He didn't say it wasn't. Noted cannibal. Where'd you get this, Jake? That's not important.

So he's one of those guys. And it's funny because his former teammate jacob chickren yeah also known to like dabble with raw meat right so i don't know if it's a senator's thing but it was an interesting watch jake sanderson will miss the first month with food poisoning botulism yeah yeah you don't know any of these guys do you the guys that go with the the ancestral lifestyle guys no you know what i'm talking about yeah yeah the ancestral life that's what that's what they call that's what the influencers call it yeah so the most famous wasn't that one guy outed as a complete fraud liver king like he was just doing steroids yeah why would you want to live like your ancestors they died at like 21

but why would you want to live like here's difference. Your ancestors didn't have a plethora of steroids to take. So yeah, liver king, he would eat copious amounts of raw organ meat. Right? And also steroids. And then he would eat steroids. He's like, look at me. I look great. I think it's the steroids.

But yeah. And then so it was later revealed that in addition to eating all of this ancestral diet, he was also consuming $11,000 monthly of anabolic steroids. Or what I call supplements. Yeah, right. And then he apologized for his conduct. Worked like a charm. So I don't know.

I mean, I don't want to connect Jake Sanderson with the liver king because that could be libelous. But ancestral lifestyle, I'm not sure it works. He is from Montana. So I don't know if it's like a Montana thing. Who is, Jake Sanderson? Jake Sanderson, not the Liver King. Is he really? Yeah. How many hockey players have come from Montana? That's it, just the one.

Yeah. I'm just guessing, I don't even know. Okay. All right, give us a mookow on that. So I got another one from the soccer front. This happened yesterday, actually, but Canada has announced its roster for the upcoming games in September. The friendlies against the United States and Mexico. Did you guys bring this up when Nico Seeger, the local kid that was...

No, because I wasn't sure how to pronounce his last name. Seeger, yeah. I was like, Bob Seeger's son, Nico. No relation. They both spell and say their surnames slightly differently. He's a 20-year-old from Burnaby. He went over after one year. I think he played at York University

and then just shot through the ranks in Croatia playing for Hayek Split and now was close to being capped for their senior men's national team. And he'd been playing for their... Their under-21s. Yeah, okay. Jesse Marsh, who I guess... I talked to a couple different people national team and he'd been playing for their they're under 21 yeah okay uh jesse marsh who

i guess i've i talked to a couple different people that were following what he had been doing lately with the canadian men's national team and he's been on a very aggressive recruiting campaign to get some of these dual nationals to commit to canada so do you think he tried with ryan gold i don't think so because there was always the issue of the citizenship and he was so much older too yeah like i had been told that the math wasn't gonna line up that he actually probably I don't think so because there was always the issue of the citizenship. And he was so much older too. Yeah. Like I had been told that the math wasn't going to line up, that he actually probably wouldn't be eligible for proper Canadian

citizenship by the time 2026 rolled around. And if that was the case, it's like, well, you can't just, I mean, I guess you could plunk them in. Like he might not even be good enough to make the team.

Yeah. And it's a couple, it's still a couple of years. Canada. It's weird, but Canada is better than Scotland. Right. Or they're better on the level, same level?

If you were to put them against one another in a competitive match right now, it would be very close. Okay. It would be very close. So what does Bob Seger's son... Well, he's not the only one. The reason I wanted to bring this up

is that the story was more about Marsh going out and getting these guys because there's another one, Stephen Afrifa, who's 23. He was eligible to play for Ghana, but he also chose Canada. He plays for Sporting KC and MLS. And there's a couple other ones that are kind of hanging out in the ether that Canada's trying to get a hold of.

There's a guy that plays for Burnley that they're trying to – he's a dual national as well. Canada has a match with the Americans coming up right yeah it's it's uh what is that for they're just friendlies they're just friendlies they're gonna play the states on September 7th in Kansas City and then they're gonna play Mexico uh at Geridome AT&T Stadium in Dallas on September 10th okay and they also booked a friendly with Panama later that's another window and this so is this a challenge because they don't have to qualify this is the tough part of getting automatic

qualification is not only do you not participate in the qualification but all the other teams are like we're busy trying to qualify so we can't play friendlies against you right so right yeah um will the the fact that these are just friendlies does that make it harder to find the guys to play in these games? I mean, the roster. Because they might be like, well, you could see it in theory. If you're banged up a little bit, maybe you take a friendly off. The roster's pretty legit. I mean, everyone's there.

Okay. Yusaku, Davies, everyone else. The question is, will the guys named to the roster actually show up in September? Because it could very well be one of those things like a couple days before, like we're going to step aside. And since they are friendlies, it does give some of these younger guys an opportunity to go and play, and they can name replacements to it. The really interesting thing is Jesse Marsh versus USA.

Yes. That is going to be really interesting. Revenge tour. Yeah. Well, the American media has almost covered that more to be really interesting. Revenge tour. Yeah, well, the American media has almost covered that more than the Canadian media. Not kind of.

Well, what did you think about the hiring of Pochettino? One of my favorite names up there with Sissy Pass. Yeah, it's a, I mean, it's a huge splash. It's the most decorated, outside of Juergen Klinsmann,

the most decorated coach they've ever had. Now, there's been some pushback from the hardcore, like, America, America first. They want an American coach. They said's been some pushback from the hardcore, like America, America first. They want an American coach. They said,

we've tried this getting someone, um, a non-national that's got a huge resume, but maybe he doesn't understand the intricacies of, I don't feel like the Americans have, I don't think Americans have risen to the level where they can have that argument.

For example, right. And this is probably a good, a good opportunity to bring this topic up. Sven-Goran Eriksson recently passed away. And we won't talk too much about this, but he was the first non-Englishman to manage England. And he was the manager for England

during a lot of the David Beckham years. He had- Which was a huge, huge thing. It was a big, big deal when huge huge thing It was a big big deal When that happened It was a massive massive decision Yeah And it's something that still reverberates in England

Because England's now gone back to English managers And forever in Canada It was kind of funny because it was like oh god not a Canadian Please The last thing you want is one of those We can't have a Canadian coaching team. We don't know the game. We need others to show us. No accent?

Get out of here. You could be literally anywhere not named Canada, and for the longest time, America. God, it's so funny, though. Even when I hear an analyst or a play-by-play person calling a soccer game, I'm like, it's a North American accident. I don't know if they know what they're talking about. You don't love the

sport. Yeah. And there's a goal. Yeah. What? Then they shoot up the cannons behind the net. Bro, if you were

wondering about Canada and Scotland, how they match up, Canada just leapfrogged Scotland actually in the FIFA World Rankings. Canada now 40th, up eight spots.

Scotland now 48th. They just dropped nine spots. So they did a little flip flop. You asked the question earlier. Scotland was bad at Euro. They got trounced in the first match against Germany so they did a little yeah like scott okay so you brought you asked the question earlier like scotland was bad at euro they i mean they got trounced in the first match against germany they did a little bit better as the group went on um they've actually got some

very good quality players including ryan gold now but um it was cute how they went in with all that enthusiasm and then like germany dominated them right from the start. Classic Scott. Oh, we had a good time. Mookow that. Fire up the dot matrix. Let's see what the humanoids got for us today. Let's hear some fire plan just for convenience. Oh, my God. We're having a fire plan.

Derek, the dinosaur mechanic in Richmond. I don't know what that means I don't know I don't know what that means he's Moj's doctor yeah like what dinosaur mechanic it's a great handle

it's very complex and confusing Derek please text back and explain what that entails hashtag WWO what we learned Brough missed Halford when he was on vacation you can hear it in his laugh when Halford makes I need to, Derek, please text back and explain what that entails. Hashtag WWO, what we learned. Bruff missed Halford when he was on vacation. You can hear it in his laugh when Halford makes a joke, and it's genuinely heartwarming.

We didn't talk much during our respective vacations. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. It's not just a vacation from the show. Sometimes it's a vacation from each other. That was nice. In this rut we were in. You say we were like it was past tense. Cyrus from Sawasson. Still feels pretty

ruddy to me. What we learned is what we learned, participation drops off considerably without a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza. Hey, I get it. I get it. During the season, we're giving away Canucks tickets. Yeah. Remember those days where we were During the season, we're giving away Canucks tickets. Yeah.

Remember those days? We were like, hey, we're giving away Canucks tickets to the playoffs. Yep. Get your What We Learns in. We had a few more in there. The competition was furious at that point. Yeah. It actually got a little annoying sifting through. Although it was entertaining to see people try to pander.

Yeah. Because sometimes we're in a mood for pandering. Yep. And sometimes we'd be in a mood for tugging at the heartstrings. And other times, tugging at the heartstrings, frankly, turned us off. And then we'd tell them, don't tug at the heartstrings.

And they'd tug at the heartstrings. You don't listen. You people don't listen. Unsigned, what we learned, Oasis has been promised $88 million for their global tour, including 10 dates at Wembley. Yeah.

Are you? You must have been an Oasis guy. I have a multitude. I was shocked yesterday at the volume of Oasis content. Like, I liked Oasis as much as I think anybody else. They're pretty big, man. They were big, but there's been other bands. It just, this struck me as, I don't know if it's. Don't you think they'd be a really cool band to see live? It'd be amazing to go see. as i think anybody else pretty big man they were big but there's been other bands it just this

struck me as i don't know if don't you think they'd be a really cool band to see be amazing to go see like all the sing-along songs that they've got and so they're gonna but like make no mistake part of this has to do with the fact that uh it's the the part is the cult of personality like the music is one yeah they've got well the brothers have had a feud going for i don't know right forever and they're equal parts like hilarious and like at times two of the biggest like pricks on the planet yeah yeah and it's egomaniacs right and so like the fact that i think the fact that they're getting back together knowing that it's going to end badly again is really intriguing to a lot of people like there's no way they're going to have an amicable departure at the end well yeah i'm like i'm holding out hope for hopefully a lot of fun i'm hoping i hope they get in like the studio or

something but that's never gonna happen now they're doing these shows for the money and then they're peacing out but here's a question for you what is the best concert venue in our area commodore commodore for sure commodore for indoor maybe malkin bowl for outdoor but but even you could go i've never been to the Gorge, but apparently that's- You're going to count that local? Yeah, that's fair. It's in the vicinity.

Driving distance or something. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been to the Gorge. Commodore is great though for a show. Commodore is the answer. What about a massive show? Like these guys are going to Wembley. They're going to do, interestingly enough,

when they play their Manchester tours and they're from Manchester, they're not going to any of the football stadiums there. Right. They're going to what's called Heaton Park, which is just a big park. Sure. And you know, they do those, they do a lot, they seem to do that more in Europe. Right. When they have these massive festivals or massive concerts and the spectacle is incredible.

Right. I went down. Have you ever ever have you ever been to a concert like that i actually haven't i've been to a massive spectacle like that it's been a red bc place like i've seen some good acts there but one of the problems with bc place is i guess they're too like rule abiding yeah do you know you know what I mean? Like they won't crush you all onto the floor. So when you look at it, it doesn't look as cool because the floor is like half filled. And then you go and look at some of these concerts,

whether it's frankly old concerts at Wembley, a lot of concerts down in South America. Yeah. I don't know if they have fire regulation there. They're just like, go for it. You're in there. Right. Is there anything go for it. You're in there, right? Is there anything like that in our area where we can go to? Not that I necessarily want to be part of a crush of people,

but I'm just curious. I went to a couple of edge fests at T-Bird Stadium. That had a festival-esque feel. Were you moshing? No. I can see you being like the cheapest mosher with like your elbows up or something like that. He didn't really.

Punching people in the liver. Yeah. Liver shots. Liver shots for everyone. Not the kind you think. During vacation, went down to Marymore Park, which is down in King County, just outside of Seattle. And I saw the Avett brothers. I don't know.

We just got free tickets to go see. And so it was an outdoor festival. Like, it was this huge state park. But it was too organized to be, like, a festival. Like, there was very regimented parking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there was, like, all these. A fun festival always feels like it's on the verge of falling apart. Now, you don't want it to completely fall apart.

Yeah. But you want it to completely fall apart. Yeah. But you want it to feel a little bit dangerous. A little. Like the old Merritt Mountain Fest. Right. You never know what was going to happen. What was it? Campground Sea?

Campground Sea. Yeah. There was a magic to it. Yeah. It's called drugs. This is one from Matt in Surrey. Hey, guys. Just a thought on nathan rourke are we not a little concerned about casey printer's syndrome dominated the cfl went down to the nfl couldn't hack it on

a roster down there but then couldn't find a cfl game when he tried to come back different people for sure different personalities definitely but it has happened before matt and suri i'm willing to entertain it solely on the historical reference which is accurate yeah something happened the whole thing like matt knows and he adds it at the end different personalities definitely 100 i don't think anyone liked casey printers on the lions no but there was i don't know if it was he got certain casey printers i'm talking about he got served, Casey Printers I'm talking about, he got served a piece of humble pie and then couldn't digest it.

Yeah. I think it just messed with him in a way that he never was able to deal with. But listen, it's on the radar. A lot of people have wondered about this. I've seen Casey Printers' name come up on my social media feed. People are bringing it up. Sure. I definitely think that this is more a factor of having not played a competitive football game for like two years or whatever

that's a long time off you can only get so much being the scout team quarterback for the new england patriots who won like four games last year like you just it's it's not the same i have based on uh the week one to week two improvements it wasn't great in week two, but it was better. I think that's a good trajectory for Rourke, but it is an interesting thing to bring up. I'm glad Matt and Suri texted it in. Someone texted in, I went to the Budweiser stage in Toronto this summer.

It was awesome. Yeah, that's the type of place I'm talking about. It's okay. Really? It's a big venue and it's in Toronto. I don't know if it's like, there's nothing fancy about it. But it doesn't need to be fancy. It just needs to be a big venue and it's in Toronto. I don't know if it's like, there's nothing fancy about it. But it doesn't need to be fancy.

It just needs to be a good venue. It's got the lawn, I guess. It's kind of cool. Yeah. I don't know. I've been to much better venues than that. What's the one that you got? Was there one in Hamilton?

Was there like some sort of pit somewhere? Small clubs and stuff in Hamilton. They do one street festival, which is kind of cool. But no, like Abandoned Steel Mill or something like that. There are probably some good shows

I missed out on at the Abandoned Steel Mills. Smelt Fest? Are you going to that? No? Okay. Horseshoe Tavern in Toronto. I guess the P&E

is redoing there. Yeah, that's what I was going to bring up. I mean, based on the mock-ups, that could be really cool. Deer Lake Park

was another one I saw in the inbox. That's a good one for outdoor venues in Vancouver. Yeah, it would be cool if you could make it bigger. Parks don't grow.

It's hard, right? It's cool when you've got a full show, though. Yeah, but I've been to a couple shows there. I saw Sublime there with the, obviously not Bradley Novella. It was Rome they replaced them with. And it was a good show because I like the music and everything. But going to see those shows, you just know that you're not getting the real, true essence and experience. It was a decent show, though, for outdoor.

That and the summer was a lot of fun. Okay. We are up against it for time. Thank you all for listening on a Tuesday. It's been a lot of fun. We're back tomorrow. Same time, same station. We don't even know what we're going to have for guests yet, so we'll figure that out.

But for now, we've got to get out of here. That's what the music means. Signing off, I have been Mike Halford. He's been Jason Brough. She's been Lena. He's been Laddie. This has been the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.