Halford & Brough in the Morning - Let's Talk About Grass

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Daily Hive soccer reporter Har Johal (5:01) about the grass installed at BC Place for tomorrow's Whitecaps v Wrexham matchup, they chat with Flyers reporter Charlie O'Connor (12:13) on the club's offseason thus far, plus they go around the NFL with ESPN's Stephen Holder (26:42). 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.

702 on a Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. This show is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 2 of the program. Teresa from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway is going to join us in just a moment here. Hour two of this program is brought to you by

Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste, Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of

five-star Google reviews. Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec is what you're waiting for. AJ's Pizza is what you should get this weekend. AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Try AJ's traditional New York pizza or sink into their famous Detroit pizza. Only at AJ's Pizza. Order online at ajs.pizza.

Speaking of AJ's Pizza, it's not AJ regaling us with stories of the Yankees today. It's Teresa from AJ's Pizza joining us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Teresa. How are you? Good morning, boys. Long time no see. How are you doing? I'm doing pretty well. I got to come down to AJ's for some pizza. What's shaking this weekend? Yeah, so AJ's in hiding, obviously, after the Yankees got swept at home to the Mets. So you get me today. But yeah, just wanting to chat about an August promotion that we're doing throughout the month.

So for the month of August, we're going to be selecting some local businesses to do free deliveries for. No company too big or small. We're actually starting today with a small local company called Earl's. You may have heard of them. I have heard of them. We figured

they needed some free pie, but they moved to our, their corporate office moved to our neighborhood. So yeah, we're welcoming them with some delicious AJ's pizza. But yeah, so basically listeners just need to follow us on Instagram, send us a DM with their company info, approximately how many people. So it can be five people, it can be 100 people. Name their favourite sports team, no wrong answers.

And we'll be selecting winners every Tuesday morning. So we'll be announcing that through our Instagram. And if you don't have Instagram, get on Instagram. There's some free business advice for you. Or reach out through our website. So basically, you could be the hero of your office because you get free AJ's pizza delivered to your office. Yeah, and it might even be AJ himself delivering it.

So there you go. Free delivery Fridays, courtesy of AJ. Teresa, thanks for doing this today. And then he dances for you, right? Yeah. That's a big part of free delivery Fridays, dancing, of course. Teresa, thanks for doing this today. We really appreciate it.

Good luck with free delivery Fridays. I'm off for a little bit, but we'll talk again soon. Okay, sounds good. Thanks, guys. Thank you. That's Teresa from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Try AJ's traditional New York pizza or sink into Thank you. That's Teresa from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Try AJ's Traditional New York Pizza or sink into their famous

Detroit Pizza. Only at AJ's Pizza. Order online at ajs.pizza. Yeah, so a reminder, that contest does go through Instagram. Just go to their page, AJ's Brooklyn Pizza, and then DM them with your company address. You could get free pizza on Fridays. We should do it. Yeah, that's awesome.

I'm not here, but... I'll do it next week.'m gonna be working with josh elliott wolf is he good is all right josh is great is he yeah so i'm a guy young guy he yeah he's coming after our jobs i didn't bury him i am gonna ruin his career i did not uh i didn't realize, nor mention it on the air, but Josh is closer in age to my son than he is to me. You're old. Thanks, Greg. That's what I wanted to be the punctuation on that sentence. You are. I didn't realize it at the time.

So he's 26, right? And he's got a little bit of an old. He's not like coming over to your house to play or anything. Yeah. Why is Josh here? I don't recall inviting him over after the show, but lo and behold, he's here. You can play video games.

Yeah, we can play Xbox together. Okay, this weekend at BC Place, the Wrexham Tour continues. They were down in Santa Clara a couple nights ago playing Chelsea at Levi's Stadium. Last night at the Hollywood Theater, they had the live podcast show, the Men in Blazers-Wrexham collaboration.

And then on Saturday at BC Place, it'll be Wrexham against the Whitecaps with grass on the pitch. Joining us now to talk about that and a whole lot more, Harjo Hall from Daily High Vancouver joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Har.

How are you? Hey, good morning. Thanks so much for having me on. It's going to be great talking grass, finally. Yes, we're talking grass. I love it. So tell us everything we need to know about the installation of real grass

at BC Place for this match. Yeah, the process to install the grass began on Sunday. So as we know, the Whitecaps played on Saturday. There's not a lot of turnaround time to get that installed, and it's a lengthy process. So what fans are going to, they're not going to see the whole process, but what I can share is that it began with the turf on the bottom, as we know, then a protective layer, then the concert floorboards that you would see at a concert at BC Place, followed by another layer, and then you have the sod and the grass on top of that, finally.

So that's what the players are going to be playing on on Saturday, and neither Wrexham nor the Whitecaps will have an opportunity. They won't be training on that, so they won't get a feel for the ball, the way it rolls, the way it bounces. So it's quite exciting. There's a lot of curiosity to see grass because we've never had this before. The Whitecaps have not had it, BC Lions as well. So it's going to be great, and we just saw 30,000 fans just announced are expected to be at the game.

So wonderful news. So how do they make sure that the grass isn't an issue there? Because we've seen and we saw in Copa America, they laid some grass at some of the stadiums and there were seams and the turf was coming up. Have they given it enough time is essentially my question to make sure that it's a solid surface. Yeah, I don't think there's been enough time because there's that quick turnaround. I understand the vendor had a short time frame, a short window to get this process going to get it in sales. So, yeah, it's similar to what was at Copa America.

And it's hoped that because you haven't had a lot of teams or a lot of games on this surface, that it will be healthy and fresh and new. So hopefully we don't see chunks or we don't see areas where there's a spot of trouble. So not having either team training on it, hopefully that helps. And hopefully there's no injuries, there's no problems, and this game can go smoothly.

Have you heard anything about this being beyond a one-off for Wrexham? No, this is just going to be one game only. It's coming out because we have the Lions and the Whitecaps and concerts. So this is just in because Wrexham and the TEG sport promoters, it's their game. They're the hosts. So they've asked for grass and that's what it's going to be. I know fans are wondering why wasn't this there for Miami and Messi. It's nothing to do with that. This is an event where Vancouver is being invited to play. They're not organizing it.

They're not in charge. So this is a Wrexham event with their promoters and that's why the grass has been requested. Do you have any idea how much it costs? I have no clue. I'm hoping to find out later today when media has an opportunity to go down and see the grass and take some photos. So hopefully there'll be more information. I'd like to know where the grass came from, where was it stored, and how long has it been in Canada or Vancouver? Yeah, because I guess the next logical question is, is any of the similar practices that they're going to use in 2026, the World Cup? Because as I understand it,

they don't want this to be the way that it's done, just rolling it out a couple of days prior to the matches beginning. Yeah, hopefully this is a good test run to see how this goes. And then maybe they can take some learnings and see what they can change or implement going into 2026 so yeah it's going to be an opportunity and i think we're all going to look forward to seeing the grass uh har we're right up against it for time here um i want to thank you for taking the time to do this today we've been talking about you know getting the real grass in bc place for a while and what it might mean leading up to the world cup so excellent

investigative work enjoy the rexham match on the weekend. Hopefully we can do this again. Thanks so much for having me on, guys. Thanks, Har. That's Harjo Hall from Dealey High, Vancouver, here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. I still haven't gotten a really clear picture of how 2026

is going to work. Are they going to have to bring in lights for the grass to make sure it gets enough sunshine because if you keep it in there layman layman's terms are they got to grow a field you can't just lay down a field right like well they're gonna lay it down it'll be it'll it's not like they're gonna go out there and it's gonna be a lot of topsoil and they're gonna put grass seed down layman's terms they're not gonna roll it down like two days before the matches start like what they did at copa yeah yeah that was one of they're going to water it in and make

sure the seams are yeah but and but then maintaining it um does that field get enough natural light to maintain that grass and i i have no idea good thing there's a lot of experts of growing grass indoors in bc we'll have no problem at BC Place. I'm going to be fascinated with that World Cup. Oh, Gregory. You know, all the guys that listen to the show and love it when we have like lawn talk, we should all just meet at BC Place and we can watch it.

So if you want to make this cost effective, they should just throw it out there and be like, hey, we need all hands on deck. If you're a lawn enthusiast. I'd love to mow it. You could make it rigorous. You could have a skills competition beforehand. There's a guy that I played with.

I just don't want to do the edging. There's a guy that I played with that when he found out that they were putting grass in BC Place, he wanted to volunteer his services. But earnestly. I'm like, I don't think it's going to work like that. I think they're going to bring in professionals. And he's like, but I'm a professional. You can see my lawn. I do think there's a cost-saving measure here that we're not exploring because I'm not trying to overstate this, but it is a huge deal

because the complaints that they got at Copa America of the quality of pitches, especially at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, were so damaging to the legitimacy of the tournament. When you just lay it down two days before and it's all in sections, you can't really expect it to be great. And the issue was

hosting an event of this magnitude, because Copa America is probably the third largest international tournament in the world. Say it's behind Euro and it's behind the World Cup. So it is a very, very important and very, very prestigious tournament to the point where they don't want to mess around with turf that's laid down 48 hours before kickoff. It's going to be a big deal.

It's going to be very, very, very much discussed prior to the World Cup. I'll be very curious to see what happens on Saturday. Unfortunately, I'll be out of town, but I'll be watching it from afar. Do we have Charlie on the line now? Okay, we're going to go from pizza to grass to the Philadelphia Flyers. What a show we have here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Charlie O'Connor from PHLY Sports. Flyers reporter joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

Morning, Charlie. How are you? Morning. How are you guys doing? We're good. Thanks for taking the time to do this. We appreciate it. Busy, busy last couple weeks in Philadelphia during an otherwise quiet time on the hockey calendar. Let's begin with this deal for Travis Konechny. Big money, eight-year, $70 million extension with the Flyers.

What has the response been locally to the deal for the 27-year-old? It's a lot of money. When it kicks in, it'll make him the highest-paid player on the team. What have fans and other media members been saying about the Konechny extension? Well, I think it's kind of split. It really just depends on what you're focused on as a fan. I don't want to speak for other media members, but on one hand, Travis Konechny is a very popular player. He plays the kind of style

that fans love. You know, he might not be the biggest guy in the world, but he's hard-nosed. He plays a lot of effort. He's a gritty player. He's a bit of an agitator as well. So fans really like him. And I think, you know, especially fans who are primarily focused on the idea of what, you know, what makes me enjoy watching the game as much as possible are quite happy that Travis connected me back. The fans that are a little bit more focused on future cap situations and, you know, trying to basically play armchair GM aren't as happy. And I think it really just boils down to the fact that, you know,

the Flyers have said on multiple occasions over the last year plus that they're in a rebuild, that they're going to take it slow, that it's going to take time for this to turn into a cup contender and we're going to do it the right way. And I think there is understandably some concern that, you know, signing a guy to an eight-year deal who will be 28 when the deal kicks in, who, well, Konechny is a really good player. He's not a star. He's not an elite guy. That doesn't really line up with the messaging that this is a rebuild. Because in a rebuild, you don't sign a guy of that age who isn't elite to an eight-year deal with that big of a cap hit. Because your

expectation is that you're probably not going to be a-year deal with that big of a cap hit because your expectation is that it's you're probably not going to be a contender until he gets to the back half of the deal and by then he's going to be in his mid to late 30s and he's likely to decline so i think i would say that it's mixed because there's excitement that connect me who's a homegrown guy really popular player is going to probably spend the rest of his career in Philadelphia. There's also a bit of confusion and frustration that it doesn't seem, at least at first glance, to line up with the rebuild plan that they've been telling everyone they're about to execute on. Is it related at all to the Flyers getting Matvei Michkov over to North America much

sooner than many people expected? It is and it isn't. I think they would, let me put it this way, I think they would have re-signed Konechny even if Mitch Kopp wasn't here yet. But do I think that the fact that Mitch Kopp is here earlier than they thought he was going to be played a role in maybe, you know, making it a little bit more urgent to re-sign Konechny? It could, because the one way this deal really does work for the flyers, and I wrote about this at allphly.com, is if the flyers turn the corner into contention much quicker than I think a lot of people are expecting them to. Because the key to a deal like

this is, you're signing a 28-year-old or an eight-year deal. You want to be competitive for the first half of the deal when the guy is almost certainly providing real value. Now, my concern with a rebuilding team signing a guy like Konechny with this deal is, well, if the first two, three, four years the Flyers aren't that good, then what's the point of having him really? Well, if the Flyers in two years are a borderline cup contender, if they take a leap similar to the leap that two years ago that the Devils took when they went three years into his career, and he's already a star.

And now your cap situation is better. You may make some big trades suddenly, then having Travis Konecki makes a lot of sense. But that requires a lot of things to go right. Mitch Kopp getting here early was one of the things that went right. Now, there's a lot of other things that have to go right in addition to that. But if the players turn the corner quicker than I think a lot of people in Philadelphia are expecting them to, the Konecki deal makes a lot of other things that have to go right in addition to that. But if the Flyers turn the corner quicker than I think a lot of people in Philadelphia are expecting them to, the Konechny deal makes a lot more sense. And Mischkoff getting here early does increase the likelihood of that. What's the status of Sean Couturier?

I seem to recall back in, I don't know, it might have been May, there was a report that he'd changed agents. And we all just assumed just because he already had a contract, a long-term contract at that, that maybe he was changing agents to try and facilitate a trade out of Philadelphia after being healthy scratched by John Tortorella. What's the latest to see Couturier switch agents. And I think there was a lot of, you know, back channel stuff that had to go down to figure out exactly what he was thinking. But in the end, I think that this was more about having a guy in, in Brisson, who's obviously a power player in the, in the hockey world. Number one,

to facilitate communication between Couturier and the Flyers. I think the communication between. Number one, to facilitate communication between Kateri and the Flyers. I think the communication between, you know, Tortorella and everybody and Kateri wasn't the best, uh, when that scratch went down. And I think they, they are hoping that Brisson can do a better job of,

you know, managing media and managing the relationships internally, um, that his old agency, his old agent just wasn't going to be able to do. I do think that maybe getting Brisson might be a, you know, hey, if this continues to be untenable, Brisson's the kind of guy who can potentially find a trade partner. Because look, the thing with the concept of Couturier asking for a trade, it's not that easy.

We're talking about a guy on a massive contract who had two back surgeries and really didn't score at all in the second half of the year. Like, even if Sean Couturier had requested a trade, there's no guarantee they're even going to find anybody who wants him at this point. His value is not exactly at a high point. So having a power player agent who has relationships all around the league could potentially serve to help facilitate a difficult deal. Now, I don't think that's why he did it, because I think Couturier really wants to make this work. You know, when Mitchkoff came over this week and had his introductory press conference,

Mitchkoff said that the captain of the team, Sean Couture had already reached out to him. You know, that's not something a guy does if he's secretly trying to force his way out of the town. Like he, because there a wants to stay, but I do think that there is a feeling probably from Couture side that look like if,

if this upcoming season goes even worse and he's getting scratched for a week straight because John Tortorella decides that he's not a good enough player and he's clashing with the coach and maybe the relationship with the front office starts to sour. He wants to sort of have that in his back pocket where, OK, if I if I need to go nuclear here, I have the forces and I have the ammunition behind me that I could actually pull it off. But I don't think it's hurry is trying to leave. I think he really does want to make it work in Philadelphia. He wants to spend the rest of his career in Philly. I just think that, you know, this provides him, you know, a pathway if it gets worse, not that he's forcing his way out. Charlie, what's the goaltending story in Philadelphia?

What is Carter Hart obviously not signed? What's the situation with the goalies that they've got? Yeah, the goaltending situation is a work in progress. They really like Sam Arison, who essentially took over the starting job after Carter Hart took his indefinite leave of absence and then ultimately was charged. Arison was real good in the first half. Harrison was real good in the first half. He was real good in the first half in a timeshare,

and he was honestly really good in the weeks immediately after taking over for Hart as well. The Flyers, I think, just kind of ran him into the ground. They pretty much played him every night because they had absolutely zero confidence in their backups. They had confidence in Harrison, so they just kept playing him, and I think he just kind of got worn down. Their hope is that if they give him a less strenuous workload this season, while still using him as the primary goalie, but not playing him 26 out of 32 games like they did down the stretch,

they think he can be a quality goalie. But they also went out and they brought over Ivan Fedotov, who I think the entire hockey world remembers that situation think he can be a quality goalie. But they also went out and they brought over Ivan Fedotov, who, you know, I think the entire hockey world remembers that situation where he tried to come over a few seasons ago, ended up getting pulled into military service in Russia, didn't look like he was ever going to be able to come over. The Flyers found a way to get him over here. Now, Fedotov's on the older side. He's older than Arison. He's not quite a prospect anymore. He's in his late 20s, but they like him. So they've added him to the mix.

They also have a top prospect, Alexey Kolesov, who they're hoping is going to be coming over to start this season for his first season in North America. So I think what their plan, their post-hard goalie plan is, is let's just throw all of these guys into the mix, all these guys who we like from a talent standpoint, and see who wins. And hopefully at least one of them seizes the rings. Now, if none of them do, obviously that's not a good development for the Flyers. But at this point, they're hopeful that at least

one can be the present and future solution and goal. And if it's not, they've got a few more prospects percolating in Russia and in the WHL that they're hopeful over time could be in the mix. But in the short term, if none of the guys work out, they're probably going to lose a lot of games. But if one of them does, then maybe they have a solution. Charlie, we're right up against it for time, but I do want to ask one more real quick. It might not be a real quick answer, but what the hell, we're going to try it. How long, how much longer, how long is John Tortorella for this job behind the bench in Philadelphia?

Well, he's got two more years left on his contract. I don't know if he's going to make it through the two years. There's always been rumors that he's, he's looking to, to go upstairs. Right. I do. I can tell you though, that the Flyers are really excited to have him coach Mopay Mitchkoff this year.

I think the Flyers plan right now is to have him finish out his contract. A lot of it just kind of depends on Torts. You know, if Tortorella decides at the end of the season that, you know, I'm ready to take a step back, I think they will be open to it. But if Tortorella wants to coach through the end of his contract, as long as the locker room doesn't mutiny on him, I think that's, what's probably going to happen. I'm not necessarily expecting him though, to get another contract from the flyers. I think that,

you know, he's, he's reaching the end. So it would basically be either whether he, he plays out the end of this contract or he makes the decision at the end of this season that, that he's ready to step aside. Charlie,

this was great. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Enjoy the weekend and the rest of the summer. Yeah, of course. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Charlie O'Connor from PHLY Sports Philadelphia Flyers, a reporter here on the Halverd and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Coming up, more guests.

Stephen Holder, NFL reporter from ESPN, is going to join us at 7.30. And then at 8, it's our weekly hit with Bob the Moj Marjanovic. Then at 8.30, we're giving away a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza for the best Ask Us Anything. We're giving away a pair of tickets to see Billy Idol and Platinum Blonde July 30th at Rogers Arena for the best What We Learned. I'm going to tease my What We Learned. Charles Barkley has released quite a spicy statement

about the TNT broadcast situation with the NBA. So we'll get into that later. But Stephen Holder coming up next from ESPN. Talk about NFL coaches and their improving sleep habits. You're listening to the Health Improv Show on 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 two of the program. Stephen Holder, NFL reporter for ESPN, is going to join us in just a moment here. Our two is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some at a liquor store near you or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. When this story first appeared on ESPN, we saw it individually of one another.

You didn't send it to me. I didn't send it to you. I think it resonated with both of us because it's about sleep. And we do a morning show. And the lack thereof, right? I know that anytime someone would be like, man man it doesn't seem healthy that you only sleep you know like if i sleep like four or five hours a night i was like that's not like john gruden only slept three right and when he was coaching that was his thing on claim to fame on wednesday

night i had an awful sleep yeah for whatever reason didn't sleep the whole next day was just yesterday i was just in a mood you were yeah i was in a mood worse than usual worse than usual yeah yeah yeah not not the usual mood latin a worse mood i had to go play in a golf tournament had to it was fun yeah it was fun but i was terrible out there oh the rigors of the job yeah yeah yeah but it makes a huge difference for me. Some people, their sleep habits, they like to say, well, I can survive on this amount of sleep. Yeah, but are you thriving? And that's the crux of this story.

Yeah, so our next guest wrote a very interesting story about how some NFL coaches are rethinking their work hours and lack of sleep. That author, Stephen Holder from ESPN, he joins us now on the Halford & Ruff Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning, Stephen. How are you? I'm doing great. How are you guys? We're good. We're awake.

It's a morning show, and we didn't sleep a lot last night, so we're not unlike how some NFL coaches used to act. So it was the crux of the story and the centerpiece of really Sean McVay and how he's kind of rethought his sleeping patterns and habits. How did you stumble upon doing this story and going with this particular angle with Sean McVay?

So I'm just like super curious, which I guess means I'm in the right profession. Doing the right job. You know, right. When you're around a sport for 20 years like I've been, you pick up on some of the less obvious stuff. And I don't know what this says about me as a football writer, but I think the longer I do it, the less I am preoccupied with what's happening on the field and the more interested I become in sort of the things that surround the game. You know, why do they do what they do?

Why is this the way that it is? And one of the things that it's like one of those fundamental questions. Okay, yeah, they work a lot of hours, but like, what the hell are they doing? And what's the point of this? And is it even necessary? I've always kind of wondered that, like this fundamental question. And I decided to just kind of start pecking away at this and asking some coaches and I was prepared to get very predictable answers and when I when I didn't

you know in the first a couple of interviews then I said oh well we might have something here and what I got was coaches to a man saying you know I'm glad you asked me that. And I've actually thought a lot about this and we need to rethink this. And I was stunned because, you know, football coaches are such a creature of habit. So anyway, that was kind of the thinking behind it. There wasn't any light bulb moment necessarily, but I was definitely prepared for different answers than I got. And then it led to the conversations that you then read. In the past, what has been the culture of NFL head coaches and how much they do or do not

sleep? Right. And I think that's a big part of it is it's not that there's so much work. There is okay. There's clearly a lot of work. I mean, uh, you,

the, the fundamental idea behind some of this is that you got to outwork your opponent right on the field and off the field so that's where this really started from but but certainly the old school uh approach was you got to watch all the film and if you don't sleep that you know sleep is secondary it doesn't matter and what we're finding out is certainly that the science says otherwise whether you are a football coach a stockbroker whether you sell insurance whatever your deal is you know you how you function uh is directly there's an absolute direct correlation to how much you sleep and so so you have football coaches who are just to a degree terrified of not being prepared

on Sunday, which is certainly a healthy, fair to have. But that can drive you to then break down all sorts of scenarios that will likely not even happen, right? And maybe it's at some point almost distracting. And so what I've learned from the old school coaches is that, yes, there was this tendency to not care about sleep. You got to get it done. And they were all young sort of gopher coaches at one point where there

you're really expected to just work until you drop, right? Because you're doing all the dirty work. So I think the progression of the coaching career, the arc of your career sometimes means that that's how you were bred, was to be the guy who did everything. And you were the first one there because you had to get everything ready for the morning meeting, you know, things like that. So that just continues, and it's just this self-perpetuating uh situation

to what we have now but i think the younger more open-minded coaches are starting to shift that um how much of this was about being prepared for game day and being fresh for being on the sidelines for all the decisions that you have to make, decisions where you have to weigh a number of options and you have to do them while the play clock is ticking down and you've got to figure out, wait a minute, how many timeouts do I have left, et cetera, et cetera? Right. So think about it this way. Certainly preparation means watching all the film

and getting prepared for those exotic blitzes and all the things that you're going to see on Sunday. But what about Sunday itself? And as you mentioned, the decision-making you have to make on Sunday, the scenarios that you're going to be confronted with, with the play clock ticking, 25 seconds in some cases. What are you going to do? Are you fully prepared to be at your best in those situations?

I mean, if this didn't matter, if rest didn't matter, we wouldn't care how long pilots slept. We wouldn't care how long truck drivers slept, all of those things. The reason it matters is because pilots, for example, have to make split-second decisions where lives depend on on their decision making. They have to be alert. They have to they can't they can't screw it up. Right. Certainly, football is not a matter of life and death, but your job is to a degree on the line every Sunday. I mean, if you lose enough games, you will not you, you will no longer be the coach, right? That is clear.

So you better be clear headed. And everything the experts told me is that the, the impact on their decision-making and their, their clear headedness on game day is significantly impacted by a lack of sleep. So much so that even like one hour of, if shorting yourself one hour of sleep per night from the recommended seven hours over the course of weeks has a tremendous effect. So it really is an important aspect. The article is snoozing or losing why some NFL coaches are rethinking their sleep habits.

It's up now at ESPN dot com. I highly recommend everyone go check it out. Steven, thanks a lot for taking the time to do this today. Very cool piece, something that obviously hit home with the two of us. And I wanted to thank you for taking the time to do this on the show today and enjoy the rest of the summer. All right. I appreciate it.

And thanks for your interest. Yep. Steven Holder from ESPN here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Are you in a good routine with your sleep now, though? Like, no? I thought you were fairly comfortable with getting four to five hours at night and then having a big long nap during the day. Yeah, and I talked to my physician, my doctor, about it,

and he's like, it's not the greatest, but it's not awful. I mean, the idea is... There's probably a lot of people listening right now that have weird sleep habits or not regular sleep habits just because of the work they do. Yeah. I mean, I go to bed late. People will often text in to the Dunbar Lumber text message in Baskin and be like, Halford, you were tweeting stuff. It is the number one question. It is the number one question it is

the number one question i get asked about my job likewise sleep it's not it's not it's not even about like what do you guys talk about or sports or anything like that it's like how do you guys deal with the sleep and i have we've worked with countless people that just couldn't do it just couldn't just couldn't do the hours and i i always felt awful for those people because it wasn't like they weren't trying but some people just find the lack of sleep borderline debilitating you just you can't function and all the old tricks the you know cold shower in the morning with a cup of steaming hot black coffee just won't do it it won't get it or it'll give you this temporary lift that won't get you through however long you have to do even those new even

those new drugs like modafinil or something like that that have you heard of that deboxamone no no no modafinil which is i've never taken a sleep aid oh it's not it's not a sleep aid it's to keep you awake oh to keep you awake it's a third composite you awake. I'm taking those. They're composite. Pills. Nootropics or nootropics? I don't know. Anyway, they give them to, they use them in the military, and probably every president of the United States is taking them, like Barack Obama took them,

because you can imagine, you're the president of the United States. Oh, sure. You want to, well, the thing is, the debate is the debate is like you feel awake, but your decision making is still affected by your lack of sleep. Right. So you can almost fool yourself into thinking that you're awake. I was forever scared off uppers when I watched Saved by the Bell and Jesse Spano get hooked on caffeine pills. Oh, man.

Or Lisa with the truck of pills. Pop the truck of pills. Oh, man. Or Lisa with the trucker pills. Pop the trucker pills. That's it. Cold turkey. A few different people texting in the inbox wanting specificity on the hours. So for me, I'm not sure what you guys. For me, I'm up at 4.30 every Monday to Friday.

4.30 every morning. And I'm usually here by 5.30. Yeah. And then I'm here until whatever. And I wake up at 5.45 when Halford calls me. Yeah. Yes, that's your schedule. Well, when we were at 1040.

I had to be even earlier for that. I was up at 330. Yeah. So there's a lot of people that take the lack of sleep as a badge of honor. So someone texted in, you guys wouldn't be a good commercial fisherman getting up at four in the morning every day and then working 18 hours. So stick with your job. Okay.

Advice taken. I wouldn't be a good commercial fisherman for a number of reasons. Nobody and then working 18 hours. So stick with your job. Okay. Advice taken. I wouldn't be a good commercial fisherman for a number of reasons. Nobody should be working 18 hours. Apparently you have to be a jerk to be one. Yeah. I'll take your ass. So the problem is there's a lot of jobs out there where it's worn as a badge of honor and NFL head coaches were one of those.

And it was just the culture of working in the job is like, Oh, you get eight hours of sleep or you get nine hours of sleep. You must be a bad coach. You must, must not be, um, sacrificing enough. The one that I always found crazy. Um, and, uh, you know, I grew up and my dad was a doctor and he would get called out on call once in a while to go deliver babies or something like that. And one of the things that I always heard was when he was doing his residency, how they would, you know, not sleep for like a day. And I'm like, in hindsight, I'm like, that's crazy because you're a doctor.

Oh, it's nuts. Like, that's crazy because you're a doctor. Oh, it's nuts. Like that's the last thing you want. If I'm not in bed by 10 o'clock at night, I can't function. But as a patient, you don't want that. But it was kind of like the culture of you go to med school, you do your residence and you don't sleep. Like, ah, we've got a bed. There's this room where you can go catch a few Z's, right?

And I just found that nuts. And I don't know if that's changed or anything. I don't know if they're, you know, it's the same with, you know, lawyers or investment bankers, right? They go out there and they say, okay, no, you're going to work these crazy hours and you're not going to sleep.

And you know why? Because, you know, I did it. And now I'm a partner and I don't do that anymore, but you're going to do it because I did it. Like doctors'm a partner and I don't do that anymore but you're gonna do it because I did it like doctors like I get like I get lawyers but doctors like you think they would be like they're more connected to health they know what's going on with their own bodies you think a doctor be like yo I gotta be getting some sleep right now especially if they're learning I'm destroying my brain yeah how can you possibly learn to become a doctor if you're not well

okay the right amount of sleep culture The culture part of it's interesting. That's just so weird to me. Mike, the urologist from Brockville, that's always a tough one. He's a doctor. He just texted in and he said, medicine surgery is classic for working on no sleep and pushing the limits, but you shouldn't want a surgeon operating on you on no sleep. And he adds, I've been up 36 hours in a row assisting on major surgeries. I mean, okay. That's bonkers.

Yeah. Doctors, I think, maybe are in a classification. Doctors are in a classification of their own because the job almost at times requires you to. It's not necessarily a badge of honor. It's prepping for what the job entails, right? I guess like you're on call and stuff like that. So that's, I mean. A bit of a time crunch sometimes with these patients.

Right. Like, we're going to wait on that emergency surgery. No, the emergency surgery needs to be done now. With our job and with, I mean, not to the degree of an NFL head coach, but I do pride myself on like, I stay up because I want to make sure that everything I'm going to talk about in the morning,

I've actually watched the night before. Yeah, you're crazy. Like you'll be setting, I'll be waking up in the morning at 4.30 and you're sending me these emails like two hours after I've gone to bed. I'm like, how is Halford still up right now? So one thing that I tell people when

they ask about the hours and everything is like, I have worked with people who didn't watch or didn't pay attention to what was going on the night before and then tried to fake it the morning when they came in. And it showed. Yeah. Right? And that's just I mean, I never wanted to be that guy i'm gonna go in you're a reliable guy that i can always ask a question like what's the story with this you know because i know alfred is a prep so you don't have to yeah but it's it's a fun job and i like i really enjoy doing it

so i kind of take it part of the gig that there's going to be this sacrifice where i'm shortening my lifespan because i'm sleeping for the sake of sports talk yes for sports talk well at least our teams win oh god yeah if i wasn't following the connect so diligently would they ever win who's to say okay i want to read this uh charles barkley statement. And this is about the NBA broadcast deal. TNT after next season, unless their lawyers are very successful, will not be broadcasting the NBA anymore. Amazon will essentially take over from TNT.

And here is a statement from Charles Barkley, who is a big part of the famous studio show Inside the NBA. He writes, Clearly the NBA has wanted to break up with us from the beginning. I'm not sure TNT ever had a chance. TNT matched the money,

but the league knows Amazon and these tech companies are the only ones willing to pay for the rights when they double in the future. The NBA didn't want to piss them off. It's a sad day when owners and commissioners choose money over the fans. It just sucks. I just want to thank everyone who has been at Turner for the last 24 years. They are the best people and the most talented and they deserve better. I also want to thank the NBA and its fans, the best fans in sports. We're going to give you everything we have next season.

So Charles Barkley, not very impressed with the NBA's decision-making. And let me just say, I feel sorry for anyone who has to do the studio show at Amazon to take over from TNT and inside the NBA. Although I do wonder if Amazon, as part of all this, is going to unload the Brinks truck and try and keep the inside the NBA panel together. So I did want to bring this up yesterday when we were having the conversation, but we kind of ran out of time. It hasn't always been sunshine and rainbows between TNT and the NBA,

despite the fact that the panel is largely considered the gold standard, not just for basketball coverage, but for all sports panels. There have been moments where the NBA standard not just for basketball coverage but for all sports panels there have been moments where the NBA has not appreciated the way in which Charles and Shaq and everyone else have spoken about the league of course not right uh because they're they're edgy well going all the way back to like 2005 I remember reading about this yesterday you can just see the corporate people by the way just like we want edgy but not too edgy at the 2005 nba all-star game the nba uh enlisted the services of country music stars big and rich

i don't even remember these guys apparently they were a thing at the time and barkley just tore it to shreds and the implications were beyond just the musical choice there was this understanding that between the dress code that was implemented and trying to distance itself from the malice of the palace the nba was also trying to distance itself from hip-hop culture and they and so putting a country music artist at the 2005 nba all-star game was reflective of that and barkley just went out and blasted it right and that's something that cuts to do you think do you think the league was and I'm talking about the NBA was all that happy when Charles

Barkley was talking up the Stanley Cup playoffs as being way better than the NBA's at the Stanley Cup players at the Stanley Cup I don't think they appreciate where was that Nashville he showed up to Nashville yeah like that was before TNT had done the deal with the nhl too yep it was so there was a lot of times where because the things that made the nba on tnt panel great inside the nba was that they they had no fear of speaking candidly and at times critically because they weren't worried about losing their jobs. Those are the best guys to have on the air, right? Guys that like, I'm Charles Barkley and I'm Shaq and I'm going to just give you the honesty.

But what we're seeing right now with the shift away from that is the sort of ugly part of it is that the league at the end of the day, it's a brand and it's a corporation and it's got a lot of wealthy stakeholders that don't necessarily want guys running it down and sometimes they did i mean these these last playoffs were a perfect example but i do wonder if the nba recognizes that it's going to lose something significant with the loss of inside the nba if it if indeed happens and just still made that business decision to go with amazon because Amazon, if you want to represent

deep pockets, you know, that like they're infinitely deep pockets and every league in the world wants to get into business with the Amazons and the apples of the world. I did see a lot of people acknowledging that the move to Amazon because of its global status, all due respect to Turner Sports and TNT, that the NBA's long game might be, we want to make global expansion as big as possible, more so than it is right now. And I mean, partnering with Amazon

is a fairly good way to do that. You know, I bring up the fact countless times that three of the last four MVPs in the NBA are non-American players, right? I mean, you look at the Olympics right now and the NBA is probably looking at this and saying, I wish we could be more aligned with the Olympics and that it could be one of our products

because we have all these amazing international players that are going to the Olympics. Yeah. And, you know, I do wonder one day if the end game for the NBA is having an international competition, not unlike what the NHL is doing with the Four Nations face-off.

Ask us anything. I like this one from Chris in Richmond. Ask us anything. Dogs, you're going to have to pay attention. Since today is the opening ceremony, if the four of you were to compete in an event and beat the other three,

what would it be? Hacky sack. Not an Olympic event. Not an Olympic event. Breaking. Who would win the breaking event? Okay. It wouldn't be me. Are you sure? I think I actually was going to bet on A-Dog, but maybe Laddie's goaltending experience might help him

a little bit. You're flexible? I'm the least athletic of all four of us, so I wouldn't win any of the events. I think you'd find a way to win one of the events. I'm just not sure what it would be. Maybe like judo? Maybe like shot put or something. Something with a lot of upper arm strength. What are you trying to say?

My right arm is very strong. Question about breaking. Do you need any rhythm? Is that a requirement? Yes. Because they... Yeah, but look at the competition. That's true.

I just have to have more than you guys. You just have to beat us. The obvious one that I beat all of you at is golf. I'm not even that good at golf, but I would beat you guys. Could you confidently say that- Well, you can't really do soccer, but that's not an individual event. Yeah, I know. It's got to be an individual event.

I will say that- He'd just be in goal the whole time. Right. God, he's going to score for me. Yeah, this is easy. But also hard. I bet I could score on him. No.

The net's pretty big. It's a pretty big net. I would put your percentage chances at around zero. We have to try this. We have to get you out on the field now. I bet we have to get you out on the field now. It's such a- Maybe 20 years ago, pal.

Such a big net, man. I can't even move anymore. I'm now putting it up to one. Challenge accepted. We should also note that on the subject of breakdancing, there's only one of the four of us that has taken breakdancing lessons before. Who's that? That's me. I remember all the lessons.

What? Carousel Community Center in 1988. Shut up. I took one lesson. I remember all the lessons. What? Carousel Community Center in 1988. Shut up. Yeah, yeah. I took one lesson. I'm less confident in my... Yeah. I had break dancing lessons at a community center. Yeah.

I took a skateboarding class at a community center once. Why did you... Hold on. I can't... It's come up before. I'm so mad we got to go to break. It's come up before. I got to unpack this.

There's a lot here. We got to come back to this. No, but I've talked about it before. Why did you take break dancing? Because Michael Jackson did the moonwalk, man. And you wanted to do that? Yeah. And then I went and I'm like, this is much harder. Wow, there's a lot of moving.

I'm not coming back to this. We got one final hour. It was my first of many failed activities. It's like me with fencing. You did fencing? One class. You did fencing? See, you'd win the fencing. How did you not bring up the fencing? Oh, there we go. Yeah, I tried it once. See, you'd win the fencing. How did you not bring up the fencing?

Oh, there we go. Yeah, I forgot about that. Okay, fencing, I'd kill you guys. Literally. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about JanPro, the leaders in commercial cleaning and janitorial. If your workplace demands a clean environment, contact JanPro for a free no-obligation quote.

Visit them online at janpro.ca. One final hour to go. Moj is going to join us next on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.