Halford & Brough in the Morning - Starting To Get Nervous About The Super Bowl

Episode Date: February 6, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Vancouver Giants head coach Parker Burgess (6:47) ahead of the WHL Prospects Game held at Langley Events Center, plus they talk all things Seahawks ahead of the Super Bowl with KJR Seattle's Dave "Softy" Mahler (27:24), who joins the show live from Santa Clara. 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.

Friday. Hey, it's a Fiesta Friday here on the Halford & Bruff Show on SportsNet 650. Hola listeners. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Do you have payday loan debt? If you do, Sands and Associates can cut that debt by up to 80% with no upfront fees. Visit them today at Sands dash trustee.com for more. We are now an hour two of the program, AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. And now a new location.

It's going to join us in just a moment here. Kick off Hour 2. Hour 2 is brought to by Jason Hamanuck. at Jason Dow Mortgage. If you love giving the banks more of your money, then don't let Jason shop around and find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason. Dow Mortgage.

We are coming to you live from the Kintech studio. New Year, new opportunity for comfort with orthotics from Kintech. To the phone lines, we go the ABLE Auctions hotline. AJ from A.J. from A.J.'s joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sports Night 650. What up, AJ? What's going on? What's going on this week?

Anything big? Anything big happening at AJ's in there. the world of AJ's, never mind, 325 and 327 East Broadway. So many things are happening. I want to start with the Super Bowl. What's the situation with seating should someone want to come by AJ's this Sunday? So I would come in pregame. I'll squeeze you in if you say I love Halfordham Brough.

Nice. Actually, in Laddie and A dog. Yeah, those guys do. Then maybe there's a couple seats left, but we're pretty full, but come in pregame. We have some great feature menu, which has some chicken tenders, Mike's hot honey, some chicken palm tenders, some pepperoni chips, some beef sliders. So, yeah, come by before maybe you go to your party. Okay. Now, the big news is that pizza and chlorinated water, finally together at last, tell us about AJ's in Tawson at Big Splash.

And so I want to be, this is amazing that this is happening. And it's open now, right? Like you guys are going to be in business this weekend. First day is actually Super Bowl Sunday. Okay. You know, why would I, why would I do anything that isn't insanity? Right. But no, we're excited.

It's kind of, you know, it's like everything. It's been in the works kind of pretty much since the summer. And we're excited to partner with the executive group, who's, who's the owner out there. and own hostels, you know, throughout kind of Canada, really. Yeah, and you know what? We don't take ourselves too seriously, man. And there's going to be a full restaurant. That won't open until probably middle March, April.

But, yeah, you'll be able to get everything that you get at AJ's in Vancouver. Okay. So you don't have to go to the water park. Like, people are saying, you know, if you got AJ's pizza at the water park, I was like, is it next to the hot dog stand? Good question. Like, really good question. Okay.

So when the water park is not open, you can come into AJ. It's not a problem. If you go to the water park from June until September, during the day when the water park is open, you can get AJ's and you can sit in the structure and have a beer and a glass of wine and eat a Ronnie Detroit and some slices. And then after the water, after the water park closes during the summer, it's open for a full restaurant. Nice. So I just want to put this out there. I mentioned this to Brough yesterday. And he said we have to do some sort of Halford and Brough hits the road show.

Oh, yeah. You got to do a water park day. You got to do a water park. You got to do a water park show. 100%. It's going to be great. Just you have to go down the slides. Firing down the slides.

Asking big spot. Can you have four more bad bodies in there? We'd like to bring. We'd like the show to show up. I'll be one of them. That's why I'm at the gym right now. AJ, man. Enjoy Sunday.

It should be a lot of fun. Thanks for doing this as always. We'll talk next week. Yeah. Hey, go see you, Bruff. I'm cheering for you, my friend. Thanks, pal.

Yeah, take care. Everybody. Have a great weekend. Yeah, you too. Thanks, bud. AJ from AJ's pizza on East Broadway. And I'm going to have to add in now at the former Splashdown Park. I'm going to still call it Splashdown Park because that's what I was when I was a kid.

Out in Tawson, it's going to be a lot of fun. Can we please do a show from there? That's like five minutes from my house. I would absolutely love that. I'd be like Brough rolling in. We're going to do the show. We're going to do the 6am to 9 a.m. At your house.

Yes. And then we're going to quickly pivot over to splash down. We're going to have a water slide day. We'll expect a full breakfast, by the way. Yeah. Can we do it at your house? You guys are coming over. I feel like A-Dog's going to be at the top of the slide.

Like, I don't want to go down. I don't want to go down. And the person's going to have to be like, come on, you'll be fun. Oh, man, I love water slides. So the best. Someone's going to have to dangle a piece of pizza at the bottom of the slide. Yeah, give me a reward. No, no, dangling it up high in the air and you got to get air to bite it up like a seal or something at a sea world.

Do we have Parker on the line? or are we still working on that? No, we're talking about pizza right now. I haven't even called them. Okay. Parker Burgess, the head coach of the Vancouver Giants, is going to join us in just a moment here. I will remind you,

it is Ask Us Anything Friday on the program. We just had AJ on the show. AJ's, of course, is the presenting sponsor of Ask Us Anything Friday. The best Ask Us Anything Friday submission will get a $100 gift card to AJ's, which you can use at any of the locations, I guess, including the Winter Gardens location,

in Florida. Do you have one at the ready, or do we just want to... I've got some breaking news, actually. Oh, my. Buck Martinez is retiring. Really? Just announced his retirement.

And he said, he's got a long statement through SportsNet PR that you can see on social media. Said, it's hard to believe I came to Toronto in a trade in May of 1981, thinking that would be the end of a very good career. Little did I know that I still would be associated with the Blue Jays through the, the 2025 season. Congratulations to Buck Martinez. I now feel somewhat worse that the Blue Jays weren't able to win that World Series

against the Dodgers, but a beloved figure in Blue Jays history. Blue Jays broadcaster, Buck Martinez, has announced his retirement. Yeah, okay, so there's a lot going on. A very busy Friday on a Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. We do have Parker on the line now, is that correct? We're going to go live now.

again to the ABLE Auctions hotline. Our next guest is the head coach of the Vancouver Giants. Parker Burgess joins us now on the Halford & Brush Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Parker. How are you? I'm good, guys. How are you? We're good.

Thanks for taking the time to do. This is always. We appreciate it. So it's a busy weekend at the Langley Events Center. I mentioned this off the top of the show. You got a Friday, Saturday, back to back here. Tonight against Spokane. Tomorrow against Cam Loops.

Walk us through and walk the listeners through what to expect over the next two nights at the Langley events. Center. Yeah, it should be good. We're kind of on the right side. We've been dealing with some injuries and some illness. We've had five or six guys out here the past couple weekends, and we're optimistic that we're going to be welcoming a couple of those guys back into the lineup, so a little bit of a spark there. And a couple really good teams coming into town with Spokane and Camloops and a couple players on Spokane tonight that are former giants that were part of some of the transactions that were made a few

just a little over a month ago. So, yeah, we're looking forward to it. A bit of a tough run of results recently for your guys. I know you talked a little bit about this already, but expand a little bit further. What you and the Giants need to do to turn us around and get some wins on the board. Yeah, I think, you know, for us at the deadline there,

when we made the transactions that we did, we opened up a lot of runway and room for some of the younger guys to step in and take more role and responsibility. And then unfortunately, after that, you know, we run into five or six kind of just weird different injuries. And it kind of put a little bit of a roadblock in the momentum that we had created. You know, we had some kind of rolling there.

And, you know, the guys are learning and they're growing every day. And we've been in some tight games here recently. You know, I think the biggest thing for us is, you know, I feel like our play without the puck, the defending, the compete level. We've taken some really good steps in the right direction, but we've got to start manufacturing, creating a little bit more offense.

You know, you've got to score goals to win hockey games, and it's been a challenge for us, so hopefully we can kind of get that running, something that we've focused on in practice here, and, you know, just collectively as a group, we need some guys to step up and help contribute offensively and kind of get this thing rolling on the right track. For those that we'll be attending the WHL Prospects game

on February 18th, the Langley Events Center, which of course you will be one of the assistant coaches for Team West four. Let's run through the Giants that are on the roster right now. I guess the first two, Ryan Lynn and Mathis Preston, when are they going to be available to play? And are they going to be available for this prospect scheme? We're optimistic. I think it's kind of day-to-day week-to-week for both of them.

You know, both of them, that was, you know, the weekend after all the kind of the big moves were made. Ryan was named the captain. You know, Mathis stepped in, kind of fitness. into the group right away was a really it was an injection of just, yeah, enthusiasm, energy.

He's a really great, not only is Mathis like a great player, but he's, you know, just his personality in the locker room and the way he plays, he impacts every shift. And so yeah, we got both those guys kind of rolling. Mathis scored in overtime, then they both got hurt. I know they've been working really hard with our athletic

trainer, Mike Bernstein, and the team doctors. You know, these are, you know, the injuries that they have aren't the hockey injuries that you can just play through and grind through, you know, just things that take a little bit more time to heal and kind of settle. And, you know, we're optimistic.

It's going to be kind of touch and go as we get closer to it. I know both of them would love nothing more than, you know, to represent the Giants to get the opportunity to play. But, again, kind of day-to-day, week to week, and we'll know more here as it gets closer. What's it like in junior hockey or college hockey When you just have this constant Churn of players

And you pretty much have to replace your leadership group Every two or three years or one or two years, I guess Yeah, I mean it's a challenge But it's You know, it's kind of the normal in the league that I come from And I think that it just emphasizes how important it is To get the culture right the environment right

and it takes and it becomes very kind of cyclical and there's some continuity to it when you can kind of get it rolling and you know your leadership group your core guys really understand what it takes and how to act you know kind of day in day out

and you get that high performance culture in place then when those guys leave you know your next crop of younger guys they kind of take the reins and then the next group that comes in you know, they kind of learn from those older guys. So it can be a bit of a challenge, but once you get it rolling, it has some pretty good momentum. When a new crop of young players comes in, what do you look for when you're looking for a future leader of the team?

That's a good question. I think, you know, the biggest thing is you need them to care and you need them to care about not only winning, but just their teammates, how they interact. in the community, their passion for the game of hockey, like how invested they are in their own personal development. Like junior hockey, you know, you want to win games, you want to pursue championships, but it's also a very developmental stage for these young players.

And they all have aspirations to play in the NHL and represent their countries and play on the biggest stage. And, you know, it is a time in their career where they really have an opportunity to kind of set themselves apart. And you just, I've gotten to work with some tremendously talented players and players that are in the NHL. And I think the one common theme I've seen from all those guys are just how driven and how committed they are to their craft, you know, regardless of the wins, the losses, whether you're at home or on the road, what time of the month it is, those guys show up to the

rink. They're very enthusiastic. They're committed. They're competitive. And they want to be coached. They want to get better. And I think if you have that, that growth mindset and that kind of like that intrinsic competitive nature in you. Those are the guys that really seem to separate themselves. And then you want to build the group around that because that becomes infectious. The younger guys see how dedicated these guys are. And really those guys make sure, like, you know, they set the standard. And, you know, the guys just kind of gravitate towards that.

And then everything gets elevated. And that's what I'm talking about with like the culture and the environment that you want. And then, you know, when that guy's, when that leader and the guy who, you know, He's got that passion and he's pursuing an NHL career. When he's doing all those extra things, then I think the rest of the group sees that. And they're like, well, if he's showing up every day and getting better and pushing himself, you know, I need to make sure I follow suit. And then the whole group's doing it.

And then you bring in a couple new guys and they see kind of what the environment is. And they just kind of fall in line. And, yeah, you can get it rolling pretty good. What do you do when a player doesn't take feedback well? You must have had some experiences with that. Yeah, I mean, I think every player, you know, I think it's human nature. People get defensive. And, you know, when they, a lot of people say like, oh, I want to be coached hard and I want

constructive criticism and, you know, you can be honest with me. But then there's an element, too, that, you know, when you tell somebody something that they maybe don't want to hear, that it's sensitive. Everybody, you know, all these players are very proud and very driven. and so sometimes when they hear those things like, yeah, it can be difficult. I think it's important as coaches that we get to know our players and build the relationships with them so that we understand, you know, maybe how they tick a little bit or how they'll respond to certain situations.

You have some guys that, you know, you can be very open and honest, even in a group setting, and you know that player is, you know, he's not fragile. He can take that criticism or that information. that feedback and and be okay with it. Other players, you know that, you know, they might be a little bit more sensitive to that or you just got to go about it a different way with a little bit more tax. Maybe it's one-on-one. But I do think it's our role as coaches to tell the truth.

And we are at a level where, you know, we have to be honest with players and we have to give them feedback because if we sit there and we have information or we have feedback or thoughts that is going to help a player, on or off the ice, you know, our responsibility is we have to deliver that feedback and we have to do it in the right way and we have to handle it the right way, but we can't, you know, hold back because we're worried about hurting somebody's feelings or saying the wrong thing. And, you know, I think the biggest thing is when you give that feedback, you may have a player who, you know, I had a player last year who ended up being a really high draft pick in the NHL.

And, you know, there was a situation where he was playing pretty good hockey. and but I was just looking at the situation and we just needed more out of him and I think he expected more out of himself and he had these really high lofty goals and you know it was kind of a conversation that while he was doing okay and there wasn't anything necessarily wrong with his player it wasn't like he wasn't giving an honest effort but there just needed to be more we needed to kind of push through and and kick the door down we had a really difficult conversation and I don't think the player loved it and I don't think he necessarily agreed with me completely at the time and he didn't talk to me for about a week. He's pretty quiet and he was usually a happy go lucky kid and I could tell

he was frustrated and you know just picking up those cues it was like okay I got to give him a little bit of space here and he's still processing it and kind of going through it and you know it was a mature conversation he handled it the right way and then that weekend I think he had you know two goals

and two assists and the team swept and he was a very mild-mannered young man, but he played pretty pissed off and with a little bit of a chip on his shoulder. Nice. Then finally after the second win of the weekend, you know, as a coach, you go around and you shake the guy's hands

and just congratulate him for a good game or whatever, he had a big smirk on his face and kind of gave me the look of, all right, I can kind of see what you were talking about, and now we're going in the right direction. And so I think you're going to have those situations where they may be frustrated or upset with, with the conversation or the feedback at the time.

But ultimately, if you do it the right way and the players know that you care about them and that you're invested and you're in it with them, then eventually they'll kind of process that feedback and realize that you're just giving them that information and best interest of their game and what their goals are. And yeah, so it's just part of the job.

That's good coaching, Parker. You should have gone to him, young man, I told you so. Yeah. Always listen to me. and that's a lesson for all of you in this room. I am right all the time. I got one final coaching question for you before we let you go. And I know that you're going to be an assistant coach

in the Prospects game coming up. And I know that they're not going to announce the celebrity guest head coaches for the game until Tuesday morning. But can you give us a hint or give us a tease who the celebrities are going to be? I got to be honest. I don't really know, but I was talking to our media guy,

Nate Tanter, and he said that there's some pretty high profile, local area celebrities that are going to be on the bench and said we're pretty familiar with them. But he wouldn't give me too much information, so I'm just as excited as you guys to find out and looking forward to spending some time with them.

All right, we've got to wait until Tuesday morning, 10 a.m. our time. Hey, Parker, thanks for doing this today, bud. We really appreciate it. Good luck tonight and tomorrow night. Thanks so much. I appreciate you guys having me on. Thanks, Parker.

Parker, Georgia Giants head coach here on the Halford & Bruff Show on SportsNet 650. All right. It is Ask Us Anything Friday here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. Did you want to do your ask us anything

about awkward handshakes? I know that was an issue. Okay. So my ask us anything is do we need to standardize male greetings in North America? Explain. Okay. Now, now let's not get too

sexist here or stuck in gender roles. Okay. But, you know, for women, there's one way to greet each other, and it goes like this. Oh, my God. I haven't seen you for so long, even if you saw them like yesterday, right? There's always like a shock. There's like an, oh, my God, you know?

Slightly pretending that you're happy to see the person. Slightly, slightly, right? And sometimes it's legitimate, and sometimes it's like, oh, my God, I hate you. Are you saying men should adopt this method? No. Maybe. Maybe. Because I could, that might work.

Now, in my day, which was a long time ago now. Before electricity. There was a handshake. Sure. There was a handshake. An old-fashioned handshake. And now, it's very complicated. And so I met my friend Mike the other day.

I saw him. Not me. And not you. Another Mike, a better Mike. And now this was my fault. okay because he he kind of he kind of came at me last minute with the fist bump okay and I met him with the handshake the old ball and socket no no no no it was worse oh because then he changed to a handshake but after but only after I had changed to the fist bump the reverse ball and

socket and then I went back to the handshake and he went back to the fist pump and it was just It was brutal. It went on. It went on. It seemed like an hour. His wife was there. She couldn't look at it. She walked away. She was she was super, she was embarrassed to both of us. She was embarrassed to both of us. So that's, that's only two options. But there's also this, you know, like the bro handshake with the hug. I like that one. The shug. You like that? I like the one, like the, not the handshake, but like the high five handshake and then you bring it in for like the one arm. hug. That's my usual go-to. Because like the clasping of hands, power, I call it almost the arm wrestle handshake. Yeah. That's exactly. It's an arm wrestle handshake.

It's simple. Which has become standardized among pro athletes. Well, I don't even know if it is standardized, but like at the end of golf matches now, you're getting the arm wrestle. And I think it's just very confusing. I go... I like the running high five. No, no, no, but it doesn't matter what

you go. Yeah, I know. It's just like we need a, we need, we need, we need a standardization. You know, look, I'm not saying it should become a law. Right. That there's one way. But if you were running for mayor, this would be your main policy. But if I was running for dictator of Canada, we'd be like, we are implementing a handshake rule. A handshake world.

There will be nothing other than handshakes from here on out. Or a fist bump. Or a fist bump. Whatever you want. No, no, I think that's part of the problem, though. You can't give people a choice. You have to be like, you can only do this one thing. thing. If you don't do a handshake, you go to jail.

No, no, no, yeah. Fist bump, believe you're not, jail. But I would leave it up to my loyal citizens to choose what it is. What are you in here for? Mason and Vancouver, I'm a huge fist bump explosion guy. As long as you do the sound effect, then it's fine, I think. Yep. You get the job interview?

You get the job if you do the fist bump explosion at the end. As part of this platform, I do want to say, the fist bump came to prominence during COVID, right? It was a germ thing. It was there, but it's, yes. Howie Mandel popularized the fist bump. I feel like in order to eradicate those bad times from our life, we should eradicate the fist bump. I don't think the fist bump has any place in society. I'm all about a nice firm grip of a handshake.

Yep. It's all you need, bud. I love a nice firm. Fisbup is good as if you're on a team and there's like a line of people going by you. and you need like a quick greeting. But that's the only time. You're not greeting anyone then. You're celebrating then.

I'm going to put down the law right now. When you're saying hello to someone, the fist bump is out. It's off the ledger. It's off the table. What if it's in passing? Like you see someone and you know that you're going to walk. But you know,

it is, but it's a good way. That's a good way. What's up? Then you do the hat tip. What, you know, or the up nod.

Boom. It's very caught. All I'm saying is that it's become complicated. and I had a very embarrassing moment the other day and I can't stop thinking about it. I have a ruling on that one too, the nod. The down nod is for the fellas and the upnod is for the ladies.

Oh, I didn't know there was a rule. Down nod is for the fellas. I've been upnodding all the wrong people. You just give that guy an upnod? Oh, I'm the lady to my accident. Oh, man. You'll knock the earth off. It's a week.

You can't do it. Also, the text is saying that the hand, or the quick one with the arm hug is called a DAP. I like shug. I like the shug. It brings me back to my high school days and even my 20s with my group of friends. We had a way too long and complicated like reading. It was like a handshake that turns into like this thing, which turns into another thing.

It takes like five minutes to complete a handshake. I hated it. It's way too complicated. I like those, but those are singular friend moments. Like you can't, we're talking about a universal guy. Yeah, you're talking about a universal one. Yeah, you can't have a handshake that ends with like four snaps at the end of it. It was a strange.

A couple of texters are calling for the return of the Rome. handshake, which is when you grab like the forearm. Oh, yeah, Viking style. You used to check for daggers and stuff back in like the 1600s or whatever. I still do. I think that's going to complicate things. Just check it for daggers. If anyone could have seen this exchange between me and my buddy, Mike,

I think we'd all be on board with some sort of standardization. Follow-up question from Loud Titans fan, the first semi-intelligent thing he's texted all morning. Did you and Mike acknowledge the screw-up or was nothing to spoke? Okay. Yeah. I believe my comment was that's the whitest thing we've ever done and we've done a lot of white stuff.

All right, we got to go to break. Don't clip that. Take that out of context. I meant golfing. Golfing, golfing. Well, that's going in the best stuff. When we go, come back from break, we got a lot more to get into on the program.

Dave Softie Mahler from KGR Sports Talk Radio is going to join us live from the Super Bowl in Santa Clara. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on SportsNet 650 or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. I don't want to hear your nonsense. I don't want to hear your blue jps, okay.

Softie, we brought you on to talk about the Cracket. No, we didn't. No, we didn't. What are we doing? 732 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Braves, SportsNet 650. Alfred and Brough of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Are you getting collection calls? If you are, Sands and Associates could cut your debt by up to 80% and stop the calls. Visit them today at sands-trustee.com for more. We're an hour two of the program at the midway point of the show. That voice you just heard, that of Dave Softy Mahler. It's going to be joining us shortly here. Our two of this program is brought to by Jason Homunuck at Jason. If you love paying too much for your mortgage, then don't let Jason shop around

to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at jason.morgage. Any guest willing to get up this early to join us deserves a ton of praise. But maybe this next guest more than anybody, because based on his Twitter timeline, he is having a time down in Santa Clara for Super Bowl 60 from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle. Dave Softie Mahler joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Good morning, Softie. How are you? I wasn't willing to come on. I was forced to come on.

I appreciate you. You sound awful. I appreciate you taking the time to do this this morning. Oh, boys. Oh, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys. Santa overdid it last night. Santa flat out overdid it last night. John's grill.

I'm seeing a stop at John's Grill. I'm seeing countless selfies with NFL legends, Sean Alexander, Ricky Walsh. Chad Brown. You had a time last night, my friend. Who's the best conversation you've had with one of the guys that you've bumped into? Bo Jackson. Bo Jackson was on the radio show yesterday. He was outstanding. Unbelievable. I mean, this is a guy who, if you're like me in my early 50s, you know, late 40s,

Bo Jackson was an absolute legend. Maybe the greatest athlete I ever saw and sitting down with that guy for 20 minutes and hearing him talk about what he thinks about NIL and college football, what he thinks about helicopter parents, you know, living their lives vicariously through their kids, you know, why kids should play multiple sports like he did,

hearing him talk about his favorite athletes and his favorite Bo Jackson moments, man, that was amazing having him on the radio show yesterday. And then we had an actually had a Canadian on the radio show. yesterday. Luke Wilson. Nice. You guys know Luke. Oh yeah. Former Seahot Tide End going down there playing the role of the media

member, which he is now like us. Working up in Toronto for TSN, I believe, if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, he's a big dog up here now. He's a big star in Canada now. He's a guy that's spent, you know, a lifetime criticizing people like you and me and now he is a person

like you and me. So now he gets to kind of live the live the life of the peasants instead of the superstar that he used to be in the NFL. But no, I'm just, I'm just busting his balls. He's a great guy. He is a good guy. Did Bow's game against the Seahawks come up? Oh, absolutely. Yeah, we talked about that. We talked about how when he went inside the tunnel, he kept running about 30 more yards until he hit the back of the wall at the kingdom. So that was awesome, man. That was fun to hear all those stories from him. But I've got to be honest with you guys.

we've been done here since Sunday afternoon. I am ready now to get this game over with and get the hell out of here. I'm done. I am done. I'm done, done. If I don't come home 20 pounds heavier than what I was when I left, it'll be a miracle. Softie, are you like me still a little shocked that the Seahawks are actually in the Super Bowl? Or have you, like many others, come to terms with it and you're ready to roll?

Yeah, I'm ready to roll. I mean, look, we thought about maybe two, two and a half months into the season, there was a chance this could happen. You know, when the cream started rising to the top of the NFC and we realized how good the NFC West was, I think we all thought there was a chance this could happen. If you were to told me over the offseason, the Seahawks would be in the Super Bowl,

I don't think I would have bought that, right? But as the year went on, and this defense got better and better and better, and Sam Darnold clearly showed that John Schneider made the right call moving on from Gino Smith to him. There's no doubt that we all thought there was a chance this could happen. But the Patriots, you know, being a what, four-win football team last year, being 14 and three now, this team in year two under McDonald, year one under, year two under McDonald's, year one under Darnold to be here like this is, it's obviously exceeding expectations and it's really kind of expedited the timeline a little bit,

if you know what I mean, right? Like this, you could have seen this maybe happening in year three or year four, but to see it happening in year two with a real chance to win it is amazing. Did you ever see it happening with Sam Darnold when they signed him to the contract? I thought they were doing the right thing by getting rid of Gino and moving on to Sam. Yeah, I mean, I would not have thought that before he went to Minnesota. You know, you would have told me two years ago that Sam Darnold would be the guy that he's become. I don't think there's any way I would have bought that.

But after seeing what Sam did with the Vikings a year ago, I was like, all right, you know, obviously this guy's found something. Obviously, he's a much more polished product than he was when he was in Carolina in San Francisco and with the Jets. there was a part of me that was wondering if that was a little bit of fools gold with Minneapolis a year ago. But clearly I think the guy is showing that it's not, man, no doubt. So when it turned out that it was going to be the Seahawks versus the Patriots, you know, up here we were like, oh, God, we're going to have to go over the interception again and again and again. Everyone's going to be talking about it. Did you meet that with a second?

Yeah, I don't want to. I don't want to. You're the one that just brought it up. No, no, no, no, but my question was, too-cha. about it and then you freaking talk about it. But I was just going to ask you, did you, did you have that reaction of like, oh, God, I don't want to do this? Of course. Yeah.

Are you kidding me? I mean, I was there at the game. I was sitting on the 15 friggin' yard line right in front of all that crap with my mom and dad, my wife and had a chance to win a championship with my folks and my family with me watching and Glendale and those bastards robbed me of that, you know, 11 years ago. So there's a part of me that's looking for a little retribution, a little bit of revenge against these guys, but that's all amongst the fan base, right?

That's for guys like us to talk about. That's got nothing to do with the players. And I don't know if you guys have noticed, but Mike McDonald's getting just barred with questions about that play. Every other day, because there's so much freaking media down here. Like they did a, they had their opening night thing Monday. Then they had a media gathering at the hotel with McDonald and every player on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,

which is kind of a little bit ridiculous, if you ask me. I think it's a little bit of overkill. And then on top of that, we can talk about this in a minute if you want, but the whole layout here is totally absurd. But the problem is you get all these media in town, and they think, oh, I'm going to be the one, I'm going to be the guy, and that's going to ask about that interception. When these idiots don't realize it's only been asked about 50,000 times before they showed up.

And finally, McDonald, the other day, he just kind of said, look, guys, I'm kind of getting done talking about that thing. That's got nothing to do with us. So it's been brought up. It's been talked about on our end. But come Sunday at 3.30, it's not going to mean squat. Mike McDonald should be like, I was like 17 when that happened. It was a long time ago.

I'm a young guy. Oh, it was 11 years ago. Yeah, I was 27, 26 years old. Yeah. God's sakes. How has Coach McDonald held up through everything that he's had to? deal with, and that includes his first Super Bowl and all the media responsibilities and other responsibilities that go with it, but also questions about, I'm sure he got questions about

the ownership, even if that has nothing to do with him, but the questions and maybe the distractions that I wonder about the most was Clint Kubiak reportedly going to become the next head coach of the Raiders. Yeah, I don't sense that there's been any real distractions. regarding any of that this week. You know, I mean, look, you know, Kubex moving on. He's going to be the coach of the Raiders. He's going to coach one more game for the Seahawks, and then he's done, right?

That's it. So as long as he's a professional about it and does his job on, you know, this week and on Sunday, it should be just fine. I mean, the questions are going to come, obviously, after the season's over about who the offensive coordinator is going to be, who's going to buy the football team. You know, you talk to different people down here, and you get different answers. You know, is there going to be a new owner by September of next year?

Some say yes, some say no, right? You know, what's the deal with guys like Balmer, Bezos, you know, for example, you know, owners like that? Is there already a buyer lined up for this football team? How quick will this go? How long will this take? Will they actually go up for sale on Monday the way the report stated? Or will they wait a while?

So, you know, I mean, those are all questions that will obviously shake themselves out. the season's over, but I don't see any distractions. Honestly, guys, they're going to be a major problem for Sunday. Now, look, we get to Saturday night and somebody gets arrested or somebody goes missing the way Barrett Robbins did before that Raiders Buccaneers game, you know, then we've got a problem. But so far it's pretty much all quiet, man. We're speaking to Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle, live from the Super Bowl

here on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Kay already alluded to it, Softie, so let's dive into it. the setup that you were just referencing. I'm assuming you're not feeling well because you're too close to a substation. That's at least what the internet stole. Exactly. Actually, you know what?

I swear to God, so we're staying in an Airbnb in Daly City. We're about 10 miles south of San Francisco with traffic takes about seven hours to go 10 miles. And I'm literally looking outside of my bedroom window right now and there's a substation right behind the fence. I kid you not.

I'm staring at it right. now. I wondered where this third arm that I've grown came from since I've been down here. And now I know, right? But I mean, this is just, look, nobody wants to hear people like us bitch and moan about things like this. We're at the Super Bowl. I'm going to the game on Sunday. My wife's flying down tomorrow night, as a matter of fact, for the game. And we're lucky as hell to do what we do. But this is the most absurd setup I've ever seen in my life for a Super Bowl, right you want to put all the media stuff in one area and have all the fan stuff in another area that's fine but you've got radio row you've got the NFL shop you've got fan fest all happening in san francisco and all of the media availability for the teams are in san jose and santa clara which is about an hour away from here and that's without traffic by the way so we're running back and forth going from one city to the next uh you know polluting the air in california with all these rental cars, and I just think it's crazy.

I mean, they easily could have put all the media stuff in one spot, but they decided for some stupid reason not to do that. We're jumping around here on topics, but I got a few things I wanted to hit with you. Yeah, good. I've been doing laundry since I started talking to you, by the way, so this is great. We're all multitasking. This is good. We've talked a lot on the show today about culture, setting it, resetting it, what have you.

And we talked about the moves that John Schneider has made there. Based on, like, guys you've talked to around the team or maybe players that have spoken about it publicly. How much is the culture shifted between, you know, the coaching change and bringing McDonald in, moving off Gino Smith, and I think maybe most importantly, moving off D.K. Metcalfe as well. Right. Yeah. I mean, look, you know, I think D.K. wasn't any kind of a cancer on this football team. He was just going to be asking for too much money given his production. That's it. End the story. So Hawks made the right move, getting rid of him. He was, He was well liked in the locker room.

I was talking to Jackson Smith and Jigba about him the other day, and he mentioned how they still talk, right, you know, during the season. Go hear from guys like Lockett, go hear from guys like Baldwin during the season. But it's not like D.K. Metcalf was a major problem. I mean, there's definitely been a bit of a culture shift in the locker room in that Pete Carroll was kind of a real big-time players coach, rah-rah guy, you know, kind of your crazy uncle type of dude. Mike McDonald now is more of a ballbuster.

I mean, he will get after guys behind the scenes. He may not show it on Game Day on the sideline, but he will get after guys behind the scenes. And then, you know, for John, excuse me, making the moves that he made at the time he made them, go back and look at the acquisition of Leonard Williams, Ernest Jones, Rashid, Shaheed, all at the deadline. Three years in a row, bang, bang, bang, getting players like that.

And then moving on from Russell Wilson at the exact right time. Moving on from Gino Smith at the exact right time. on from D.K. Metcalf from a production perspective at the exact right time. Finally hitting on an offensive lineman in the draft in Graze-Able, who was the highest drafted guard the Hawks have ever made since Steve Hutchinson. So the timing guys of the moves that this guy has made in the last two, three years, I mean, he is on some kind of a role. It is really impressive to watch what John Schneider has done.

Okay, the chemistry is off the charts here because my next question was about John Schneider. And again, here in Vancouver, especially with the Canucks, there's been a lot of consternation and critique of the executive and the general management group and the lack of ability to build out a proper team. What Schneider's been able to do over the course of his Seahawks tenure, but almost resetting what he built and building it back up so quickly, how much appreciation is there locally for what an amazing job that he's done? And like, where does I don't know if you guys have put together like the Mount Rushmore or the pantheon of great Seattle sports executives. But I imagine.

Imagine, based on what he's done in this second iteration on the job, he's got to be somewhere in the top. Well, I mean, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, from a sports executive perspective, I mean, if you're including owners in that group, you know, Paul Allen, Todd Light Wiki, John Schneider, are all in that list, you know, for what they did. No question about that. And there was a point in time a year ago where people were wondering if Snyder still had the magic, right?

You know, he was kind of striking out in the draft. Things weren't really going well with the trades he was making. The team was kind of meddling around, you know, mediocrity a little bit. They weren't winning playoff games. And there was a big question going into this year, does this guy still have it? Well, I think he showed that he does. And look, I mean, I think John Snyder is a Hall of Famer. And if he wins on Sunday, he's a lot for the Hall of Fame.

He's going to be looked at as one of the great NFL executives of all time. You know, I mean, taking a completely new roster. 11 years later after they lost to the Patriots in Arizona and making the Super Bowl and then maybe winning it on Sunday, I don't think there's been any GM in the history of the NFL that has done that, right? I mean, we've got guys like Bill Pollian, you've got guys like Ozzie Newsom, Bobby Betherd, you know, back in the day with the Redskins, you know, in Washington. But for this dude to completely over-tool the roster and get back to this point a decade later when the game has changed, much as it has. For him to adapt like that, yeah, he's going to Canton, Ohio, guys. This guy's getting a jacket.

Okay, Softie, one final question, and then we'll let you go back to your hangover and your laundry. Yeah, I got to get, well, I just got to get some brandy or whiskey or something here. I was going to say coffee, but let's just go right to the good stuff. Okay, if there's one thing, there's one thing that the Seahawks have to do in order to win this game, what is it? Yes. find a way to get home with four against the six offensive linemen that the Patriots like to use. I asked Chenin Owosu about that the other day, and I would tell you what he told me, but you'd have to probably hang up the phone on me and hit the dump button about five times.

I'll just paraphrase. He said, the Patriots, and I can send you guys the clip if you want, I'll send it to handy. Okay. Patriots using six offensive linemen doesn't change blank. Yeah. We're going to hit the mother effort in the mouth, does Chenin-a-Wosu on Sunday. So I'll send you that clip,

and you guys can edit it, do with it whatever you want. But this is a football team, guys in the Seahawks that has had tremendous success with four offensive linemen getting home on their own and not having the blitz at all. They are one of the least teams, least, you know, blitz-heavy teams.

Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah. They are one of the least blitz-heavy teams in the NFL. And they've been very effective. They've been able to drop seven, right? They've been able to keep Nick Amin-Wory

that strong side linebacker. And every now and then even drop them into coverage for crying out loud. So that, that to me, is really going to be a big thing here. If they can get home with four and win first down and forced Drake May to be throwing on third and not running on third, which he's known to do. He's a big boy now. He's 6-4-2-25, right?

The guy can run. So, to me, on defense, that's where this starts, right? Like, I don't know if I see the Seahawks putting up, you know, 31 like they did against the Rams, for example, or 41 the way they did against the 49ers. I mean, this offense has been on a heater in the playoffs, right? You know, what, 72 points in two games so far in eight quarters? I would be surprised if they were that successful on Sunday, but I would not be surprised if the defense came to play

and held the Patriots to 17 points or less. So after you're the best, thanks so much for waking up and actually answering the phone. That took a lot of courage. Yeah, I thought about not answering it for a second. Yeah. I don't want to make you guys cry, so I answered the phone. You've got a lot of grit, and let's hope that the Seahawks do this.

I am very excited. Canada, when you need to get your voice back in Canada, what do you guys do up there? Take a week off? Fisherman's friend, my friend. Fisherman's friend. Done. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Fisherman's friend. Thanks, Softie. See you, buddy. All right, boys. Later. Later. Dave, Softie Mahler, barely alive at the Super Bowl on the Halford and Brough show on SportsSat

650. Rick Dollywell is going to join us in about 10 minutes, and that is always fun on a Friday. And Dolly's going to talk to us about something we talked about on the show yesterday, and that was Teddy Blugher's damning comments about the Vancouver Canucks and not being able to find the character in the group. He's going to talk about the fact there were no trades at the deadline, the Olympic deadline for the Canucks. And a few other things.

Elliot Freeman is off to Italy to cover the Olympic. and he left us with a written 32 thoughts on Sportsnet.ca. And I thought this part was interesting. And for people who are enjoying the Rangers downfall, he wrote, and it was his fourth thought, Mike Sullivan, the head coach, and J.T. Miller, the captain, are on a business trip to Italy. Yeah, they're going there as part of Team USA.

Gold is the goal and nothing can get in the way. But at some point they need to sit down and discuss some rangers. I understand that losing sucks and Miller doesn't want to pour gasoline on the fire with his postgame commentary. But there has to be a better way than how he's answering questions right now. It's only inflaming tensions. Sullivan clearly is just as frustrated feeling his message is not getting through. he's the coach and Miller is the captain. They have to work with each other to make it better

or the Rangers are going to have to change something there too. Don't forget, Sullivan just signed on with the Rangers and he's getting paid a lot of money and J.T. Miller was traded last season and has just become the captain of the New York Rangers and he's got a lot of years left on that contract. If Elliot is hinting that things are no bueno between those two right now, that's not good. And here were J.T. Miller's comments.

We played these earlier in the show, but if you're just joining us, the Rangers got shut out again. Yeah. At Madison Square Garden last night. Yeah, they played a good team in Carolina. Seventh time they've been shut out at Madison Square Garden this year. They've got fewer wins at Madison Square Garden. It's been very, very bad. So we're going to go out with J.T. Miller's comments,

and then Rick Tollywell is going to join us on the other side of the Halford Abrupt Show on SportsNet 650. I know it's really, it's still fresh, I should say, but just what is the message to your team now going into the break? Because you like to regroup? I don't know. We've got to come back with a better mindset. It hasn't been good enough to last a little while, so try to regroup,

freshen up, and I don't know. I really don't know. I really don't know. I just need to enjoy here. take time. I literally don't know. Come back with a better mindset, I guess.