Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Arty Party Will Continue
Episode Date: July 17, 2024In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talks the Arturs Silovs extension (6:00), they react to the MLB All Star Game (13:00), plus they chat some summertime foo...tball news with NFL Insider & Too Deep Zone's Mike Tanier (27:00). This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.
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da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da All off to the bat, Jaron Duran. That one will leave the yard and give the American League its first lead of the night.
Paul Steens, my mom is single, bro.
I have a great opportunity to play with some really good players on a good team.
And hope they can come in and do what they can do best.
Listen, I love a good flim flam.
Good morning, Vancouver.
Six o'clock on a Wednesday.
Happy Wednesday, everybody. It's Alfred and his bruv It is Sportsnet 650, we are coming to you live
From the Kintec Studios
In beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver
Jason Bruff is back from vacation everybody
Good morning Jason
He's back from Italy
That's what that means
A-Dog, good morning to you
And Laddy, good morning to you as well
Hello, hello
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I'm going to start using my hands a lot.
You should. More hand gestures.
Did you learn any Italian while you were there?
I learned some hand gestures.
C!
C, C, C, C, C, C.
We are coming to you live from the Kintec
studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite
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powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews.
So, what are you waiting for?
Kintec, that's what you're waiting for.
So, Jason is back.
We are back for the remainder of the week.
We'll get into the guest list right away.
Joining us at 6.30, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider.
His substack is the 2 Deep Zone.
He's going to be joining us to talk about Brandon Ayuk's trade request.
Big signings in Chicago.
Caleb Williams rumored to be done.
Romo Dunzey done. Do we really
believe that Brandon Ayuk's going to actually be
traded? No. None of these guys
ever get traded. Right.
But there was a deadline.
There's like, okay, we've done all this stuff.
Now is the time I request a trade.
The timeless dance. The training camp hasn't even
started yet. We're in July.
It continues.
You know what other trade I want to ask him about is Aaron Rodgers planting the seed for a Devontae Adams trade,
which he did over the weekend at a golf tournament.
So we'll ask Mike about all that, get caught up with our NFL insider
in the middle of July, which is always a good time to do that.
Aaron Rodgers stirring the pot.
Can you imagine?
Who would have thought?
Who would have thunk it?
But there he is,gers stirring the pot. Can you imagine? Who would have thought? Who would have thunk it? But there he is, just stirring the pot.
7 o'clock, Zach Worden, MLB writer for Sportsnet,
is going to join us.
All-Star game last night, so a couple games off.
We'll talk to Zach primarily about the Jays.
I don't know why there's all this talk about a Vladdy contract extension.
What's going on there?
I thought they were trading Vladdy.
That guy went 0-2 in the All-Star game.
He's done.
You can sign a new contract with the team he gets traded to. You can't resign. That was actually a very Vladdy performance in the All-Star game. He's done. You can sign a new contract with the team he gets traded to.
You can't resign.
That was actually a very Vladdy performance in the All-Star game.
A couple ground outs.
Well, getting robbed on one of them.
The turn to play was beautiful.
It was.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He hit the ball hard and on the ground.
On the ground.
Got to clear that infield button.
730 Thomas Drance from the Athletic Vancouver in Canucks stock here on Sportsnet 650.
News out of Canucks camp yesterday is that Artie Silov's
signed a two-year deal, so we'll talk to Drance about that.
We'll get into that as well.
8 o'clock, Blues ringside reporter Andy Strickland
is going to join the podcast.
So Andy Strickland did a podcast, the Cam and Strick podcast,
with one of the new Vancouver Canucks, Jake DeBrusque.
We've got a bunch of audio from that.
A couple of really interesting clips about his not one,
but two trade requests out of Boston.
And then him singing the praises of JT Miller.
See, I thought he'd be singing the praises of his new center,
Elias Pettersson.
But the controversy has already begun because it's clear that Jake DeBrusque
wants to play with JT Miller now.
That's just my assessment.
That'd be hilarious.
Even if that's not true, we should start that rumor.
I know.
I know it should be an ongoing rumor throughout the summer.
Definitely.
I may be catching some of you up.
Trouble in paradise.
Yeah, right.
I may be catching some of you up.
DeBrusque on the podcast was like, wasn't Petey pretty bad at the end of the season?
Does he really make 11.6?
Anyway, Andy Strickland is going to join us at 8.
We'll also talk to him about the potentially huge injury
to Torrey Krug in St. Louis that could rule him out for the year
and the status on Joel Quenville trying to return to coaching in the NHL
because I know Andy Strickland,
I believe he's pretty tight with Joel Quenville at the very least.
He's been one of the hockey industry people at the forefront
of providing updates about Joel Quenville's return
to coaching in the National Hockey League.
So working in reverse on the guest list,
eight o'clock,
Andy Strickland,
730 Thomas Drance,
seven o'clock,
Zach Worden,
630 Mike Tanier.
We got a lot to get into.
So without further ado,
Laddie,
let's tell everybody what happened.
Hey,
did you guys see the game last night?
No.
What happened?
I missed all the action because I was.
We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? You missed that? What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be.
What happened?
You missed that?
What happened?
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On Tuesday, the Canucks announced through general manager Patrick Alvin
that the club has agreed to a two-year contract extension
with beloved backup goalie and new folk hero Artur Shilovs.
The deal will have a very tidy AAV for the Canucks anyway, $850,000.
And now your Canucks goaltending triumvirate is set.
It is Thatcher Demko, it is Artur Shilovs,
and it is Pavel Patera
in goal for the Canucks.
Yeah, this was a big story
in Italy,
and they were just wondering
when is Shelovs going to sign.
Day and night.
Was there a celebration
in the streets?
Well, I wasn't there
when it actually broke,
but I assume it was.
Sorry, I got to interrupt.
Yuri Patera.
I said Pavel Patera,
former Minnesota Wild forward Pavel Patera.
Oh, my.
I see nothing has changed.
Not to be confused with Ken Patera, the wrestler.
He's also in that for the conference here.
Yeah.
Sorry, go ahead.
Done?
Pavel Patera, everybody.
And now I've completely lost track.
Now I'm thinking about that wrestling movie that I watched on the plane
about the Von Erich family.
Oh, the Iron Claw?
Yeah.
Did you like it?
Yeah, it was great.
I just loved it.
It was so much fun.
So they got in a lot of crap with the trailers
because they tried to position it as being like an uplifting movie.
Oh, it was horrible.
Does anyone know this story?
And then I actually read about the the real family and for the movie
they had to combine two guys yeah like like in the movie only two of them no and their lives
in real life three of them and their lives spoiler alert yeah yeah i was gonna watch it tonight um i
knew about who cares what i i knew about the i knew about the family because I was really into wrestling.
Yeah, I'd never heard of them.
Yeah, and when I heard they were making a movie about them,
I'm like, oh, that's going to be the most tragic movie of 2024.
And then I saw the trailers and I was like,
feels more uplifting than the actual story was.
Anyway, it was nice to get off track with you again.
And that's what we do here in the Helper to Brough show.
Seeloff, as we all know, played heroically in the playoffs
after Demko got hurt, even though
at the end of the day, you might look at his
numbers and say, you know, his numbers weren't
overall too great in the playoffs.
The kid was put in a very, very tough position
and he played very, very well.
But we all know it's dangerous to assume a
young goalie's progression will be linear.
Right, Laddie? Right, Laddie?
Right, Laddie?
Like to assume that Seelovs is going to come back and play the way that he did last season.
That is correct.
That's why the Canucks also signed Yuri Patera after moving on from Casey to Smith, as Hofford mentioned.
Patera might make the Canucks over Seelovs to start the season simply because Seeloffs is waivers
exempt and they may not want to put Patera on
waivers and then be like, oh, we lost that guy.
Hmm.
The Canucks will also want Seeloffs to, you
know, play hockey, make lots of starts as
opposed to sitting on the bench for like, I
don't know what, 80% of the games in Vancouver,
70% of the games in Vancouver.
At any rate, I don't think we can talk a little bit more about this with
Drance because I know he wrote about it for The Athletic,
but I think all three goalies are going to be really interesting to watch
at training camp and into the preseason.
Silovs and Patera, just to see who starts as the backup for Demko,
but also Demko to see how he looks after ending the season injured.
I know there was lots of talk about whether or not
he could have come back if the Canucks had advanced
past the Edmonton Oilers, but we never got to see that.
And in some ways, I kind of felt like the Canucks,
I have no proof of this, but you know, this is our show.
I kind of felt like the Canucks were just stringing along
either their opponents or maybe it was a bit of psychological stuff like,
oh yeah, Demko's ready to come.
He's ready.
He's ready to go.
Right?
Like, I don't know how close he ultimately was.
And if it was the regular season, how much longer he would have been out.
So how is this all going to affect his offseason, his offseason training?
And how's he going to look heading into training camp?
That's going to be a big question for me in addition to the two younger goalies that they've got.
Well, we had the conversation quite a few times.
One, because the Seeloff's thing was sort of hanging in the ether and a few people texted him when we were doing Ask Us Anythings and whatever, like, when's this going to get done?
And so the conversations about goaltending were pretty fluid over the last couple weeks. And one of them, the thing that I kept coming back to,
was not even necessarily training camp,
but one of the big stories for the Canucks this year
is going to be Demko's workload.
And I think that's probably the bigger jumping off point.
Obviously what he looks like coming back from injury is going to be big,
but right now I think it's hard to argue that there's got to be
some level of concern within
the organization about keeping them healthy and upright for an entire season did it not feel to
you that the entire season either fans media and that probably extended to the organization
they just didn't want the good times to stop or even risk having a collapse yeah and they're like
man we got to keep this going dumko you're going And they're like, man, we got to keep this going.
Demko, you're going to start a bunch of games
because we got to keep this going.
You know, they went into that swoon after the
all-star game and everyone was like, oh, is this
it?
Is this it?
Is this the collapse?
Is this where they fall apart?
And you get it, right?
When the team had missed the playoffs for as long
as they had and the way they'd missed the playoffs
and everyone was just'd missed the playoffs and
everyone was just waiting for the bottom to fall out on the season and i think that tempted them
to play demko a little bit more than they probably should have they were in prove it mode i felt
almost right up until the end of the regular season until they clinched and i think and there
was and there was a bunch of valid reasons why one of them was it was I mean
essentially a new head coach in Rick Talkett needing proof of concept that all of his ideas
and thoughts and structures and uh they would work and he's probably saying well they're going to
work a lot better if we have Thatcher Demko and then the Oilers started putting it together and
gunning for the division title as well right and i did think that at a certain point
they could have eased off a little bit um they they had such a good cushion through the first
two and a half months of the season that it would have taken an epic collapse to fall out at the
same time i think everyone understood the importance of finishing first i think you know all that it
represented even more than playoff position what it meant is that you go from being out of the playoffs
to winning the Pacific Division.
So it was important.
I get it.
Moving forward, I don't think that they should be walking around
and we need to prove to the rest of the league that we're good anymore.
I think some of that should be established.
I think what they should be doing is having an eye on the postseason
from the beginning of the year.
Now, that's a dangerous game to play because because as we saw in Edmonton last year,
when you start looking-
The Canucks are going to go cup or bust.
Right?
Could you imagine if the Canucks-
Talk, it'll be gone by December.
They lose to the Sharks and he's like, I'm done.
That was it.
It was a good run that I had.
I do wonder if that dynamic of-
I thought a lot of the free agent signings
played into that dynamic as well.
I felt like DeBrusque, one of the big calling cards for him,
and he talked about it on the Cam and Strick podcast,
was how many playoff games he's played.
For a relatively young guy at 27 years old,
having played close to 100 playoff games, that's a lot of experience.
I felt like that was a nod.
Also, adding additional guys and a guy like Sherwood
who's going to give you maybe more of a playoff-style game.
So if you're talking in that context... they saw that up close right you saw in the
first round so if you're talking in that context you're saying well what's the next piece of the
puzzle and it's probably to make sure that your third string net minder isn't playing the lion's
share of your playoff games and you're keeping Demko healthy and upright uh did you watch the
all-star game last night it was pretty actually pretty good. Bits and pieces, bits and pieces.
There's no question the actual All-Star game,
baseball has the best one, right?
There's no question.
And it makes sense because, well,
the Pro Bowl doesn't really exist anymore.
Hockey, you're not going to have full big hits
and everything.
It's not going to get physical in an All-Star game.
Basketball is at its best as a physical game as well.
And baseball, although, you know, there's physics involved.
Yep.
It's more of a cerebral game.
And I think the, the guys want these, they, they want the pitching matchups, right?
Like they want, I want to face Skeens and I want to see how he does.
And Skeens is probably like, well, I want to face, you know, whoever Soto, Judge, or
I mean, Vladdy, I'll, I'll get him to probably ground out. see how he does and skeens is probably like well i want to face you know whoever soto judge or i
mean vladdy i'll get him to probably ground out but you know what this you know like it is bigger
and then when otani goes up there um and hits a three one run bomb it's like wow that's that's a
pretty good moment that exploded off his bat i don't think we have the audio of that one but i
listened to it on a few occasions and it was awesome this the crack that it makes when it leaves Otani's bat is wild.
The other big home run last night was the one by Jaron Durant,
a guy I was not all that familiar with.
I kind of remember that he was like in his second year
or something like that as a full-time player.
And he's 27.
He was like a hot shot prospect, and then it took a really long time
to get going, and now he's having this real tremendous season.
He's always been good defensively, and now the bat's coming around.
Right, and he hit the this real tremendous season. He's always been good defensively and the bats coming around. Right. And he hit the,
he hit the decisive home run yesterday.
You know, we had an interesting conversation go completely off script here yesterday
with Jamie.
It was pertain.
So someone sent in a sort of hybrid,
ask us anything,
or just like a question about sports.
And he says,
what's better,
any all-star game or no all-star game.
So all the all-star games games you can pit them up or is
it just better to not do them because it was a jumping off point for what the nhl is going to
try and do this year yeah no all-star game this year they're going to try the much anticipated
four nations face off we went down the road of are the rest of the leagues going to look at what
the nhl is doing not necessarily copy the format but hey, might we want to punt on the All-Star game?
Because one thing you've always brought up
about the All-Star games of years past,
back in the 40s when you were a kid,
is that the All-Star game...
I listened to them on the radio.
It was in black and white on the radio.
And then they had them in talking pictures.
Do you like old-time radio?
The All-Star game in an earlier era
used to be about,
you get to see everybody from every team,
where it was hard to do that back in the day,
because you didn't have satellite TV and the internet and the ability to...
You could follow any team that you wanted now as closely as you wanted.
You can be a fan of the Jacksonville Jaguars in Vancouver
and follow them as closely as
someone that's living in Jacksonville.
You can watch every single moment of their existence.
You couldn't do it back in the day.
So these games mattered.
And the players used to take them way more seriously.
So those two dynamics are gone.
And we were sort of kicking around the idea of like, how antiquated are all-star games
in terms of the modern sports viewing?
So as it pertains to what the NHL is doing, and actually I kind of got more intrigued
because I do wonder if the players make this work,
the four nations face off,
if they go in and they're like,
we're going balls to the wall.
This is going to be as close to his Olympic competitions.
I don't think you can do it every year though.
Right.
You know what baseball might do though?
Let's go to the Olympics. Yeah, I know. Because it's in LA in 2028. I wondered about that. That was it every year, though. Right. You know what baseball might do, though, is go to the Olympics.
Yeah, I know.
Because it's in LA in 2028.
I wondered about that.
That was the one thing I was wondering about.
It's like, well, because MLB is not going to put on their own international competition,
right?
Like the NHL is doing.
Well, they've got the-
They do it in the preseason.
Not mid-season, I mean.
Not mid-season.
Yeah.
And then with the Olympics is an interesting one.
They could do a mid-season.
With the injuries and the arm injuries, I don't know if they would want to do a big tournament. They could do a mid-season one.
With the injuries and the arm injuries,
I don't know if they would want to do a big tournament.
It would be tough getting across on the PA.
But I also think that Olympics thing might be a one-off just because it's in LA.
I mean, they might as well try it at this point.
But it's funny because...
But the Major League Baseball All-Star game,
there's nothing wrong with it.
It's fine.
There's nothing...
The uniforms are bad.
Wow, they were...
Uniforms are awful.
Uniforms are awful.
I was like, is this game in Miami?
Or I thought it was in Texas.
It looked like Miami uniforms.
The AL jerseys had a real cream overtone to them, which I was like, that's a lot of cream.
It wasn't even Sunday.
It was too hot for me.
No Sunday cream.
No Sunday creams, no.
Can I bring up a random conversation that I had multiple times over the pond, as they say?
Sure.
So first of all, I went to Denmark and then I went to Italy.
I know it's a bit of a weird combination.
There was a big family reunion in Denmark,
lots of Danes, they love to drink and they're
very tall and good looking and I felt out of
place.
And then I went to Italy.
Yep.
The Danes that I talked to were shocked that
some of the Canadians that were on the trip
followed soccer or football so closely.
And I said, and this was something that related to what you recently said about, you know,
being able to see all the players. I said, it wasn't like this when I was growing up.
It was not.
Because you couldn't follow the teams. And now when you see what kids are wearing, there are more soccer jerseys.
There's more Man City jerseys, PSG jerseys, really than I would say any sport right now.
There's more soccer-related gear being worn in Vancouver elementary schools than I think any sports.
So the European.
Yeah, there's a lot.
There's Canucks stuff during the playoffs.
But like, I mean, something has to do with,
some of it has to do with like, you know,
you can wear a soccer jersey.
You don't want to wear a hockey jersey every day or whatever.
And kids aren't going to go like sons out,
guns out with their NBA jerseys in the middle of November.
But like the amount of knowledge too
that kids have about soccer
is through the roof
compared to when we were kids.
And it took the Europeans by surprise
that we talked to
that we could kind of hold our own
in a conversation about soccer.
They were like,
I thought you guys played that ice hockey.
Yeah.
Yeah, we do. We do. I mean, we're, you know, I don't know how much longer the Americans are going to get. conversation about soccer they were like i thought you guys played that ice hockey yeah like yeah we
do we do i mean we're you know i don't know how much longer the americans are going to get it you
know yeah yeah no but but it was i think i think it was noteworthy that they were surprised and
you compare that to when the world cup went to the united states in 1994 and when the world cup's
going to come to the united states as well as Canada and Mexico in 2026,
I think the overall knowledge of the North American fan base is going to be a million times higher than it was in 94.
So I kept, when you were gone,
I kept coining this as like hot footy summer for Canada,
what we just went through,
because it was a month of wall-to-wall,
all day, all night coverage on like one of our
major networks and people not complaining about it no and people here's the thing and especially
with copa america um on at times that were more digestible for a north american audience like
games not on at nine o'clock in the morning or noon like prime time i'm home from work i turn
on the tv and there's canada and venezuela on a friday night where i can sit down and it's on and it's canada so i'm
gonna watch we had countless anecdotes coming in about that and that's a big part of it um the next
iteration of that will be doing this more full time as opposed to just for major tournaments
and i don't know if the major broadcast networks are ever going to get there, but that's fine. It's one step at a time.
It sounded like Copa America was really well organized.
Yeah, that was, we had a lot of conversation about that as it pertains to hosting.
Now there's a lot of wrinkles to it, right?
One of them is that the general consensus is that come to ball, drop the ball big time.
Is that with all due respect to the u.s
being the host it's the federation that's in charge and overseeing most of it and they did a
lousy job at the same time it was very apparent that a lot of the u.s based stadiums and locations
weren't ready to deal with the passion well that but also the quality that the managers and the
players expected there was an oh in terms of the setup for the the quality that the managers and the players expected
there was an oh in terms of the setup for the training grounds and the turf and everything
like the turf was a disaster yeah yeah um that and that started on the opening match
between canada and argentina did it get better as no no it didn't uh well they eventually they
eventually managed to get away from some of the venues that had to have the artificial turf laid down.
The final was played at Hard Rock in Miami.
Yeah, yeah.
And then I did notice they were going exclusively between places
where the turf would be less of an issue because in Atlanta,
it was really bad.
But they had just laid that.
That was the problem.
They laid it three days before the tournament started.
What do you think is going to be like a BC place for the Wrexham game?
I know you had Axel on the show. Was it three days before the tournament. What do you think it's going to be like at BC Place for the Wrexham game? I know you had
Axel on the show. Was it yesterday?
Did you ask him if that was a bit of a warm-up
for the World Cup to test
anything? Yes, and he was very cagey about his
answer. So he made it clear
that... It's not like FIFA's going to come in
and run the Wrexham game. But it's also like the
Whitecaps. I wonder if they're going to show up, though. The Whitecaps
aren't running the Wrexham game.
Oh, who's running it? It's a third-party promoter.
The Comma Ball?
Yeah, Comma Ball's taking it over.
Very good.
I see.
Okay.
Wrexham's got a third-party promoter that is kind of doing the Wrexham tour.
So Axel came on our show and specifically stated,
we are essentially guests in our own stadium for the night.
So he says, I cannot confirm anything.
And then he dropped it.
But my sources tell me,
I'm like, oh, Axel's got sources. That's good.
That they have requested Graspi laid down for the
game and that it's probably going to go through.
And that's on July 27th.
Rob and Suri texting into the Dunbar Lumber
text line.
Rob, good to hear from you again.
Hashtag sports in school.
I'm a grade six, seven teacher, and I cannot talk
sports with the kids anymore.
All they talk about is major European club
football and NBA when all I know about is
Major League Baseball, the NFL and NHL.
It changed a little bit this spring with the
Canucks making the playoffs, but Jason is
bang on about soccer jerseys being the most
prevalent in elementary and middle schools
around the lower mainland.
There is a reason that the Vancouver white caps are worth many, many millions into the
hundreds of millions probably.
And the BC lions are not worth that, even though their attendance numbers are similar.
And you might even say that the BC lions still have more interest in this province than the
Vancouver white cap.
Yeah.
There is a, the people can see where this is going people can see where mls is going um in large part
because of what happened over the last year with a lot of i'm not even saying like aging superstars
anymore but pretty significant european players uh departing europe because those clubs don't
have the money and it's like well you can go to saudi arabia and play there or you can try this north american thing the other really
interesting thing with mls right now is that they've also made massive inroads into south
america so if you look atop some of the best players in mls right now for teams that you
wouldn't pay attention to in vancouver um there are some really good young like i'm talking like
early 20s south american players that are realizing they can
make a lot more money at the early stages of their career go to mls get profile and then go and sign
for a big club in europe and maybe in better facilities too there's a lot of new stadiums in
mls better stadiums uh just honestly more exposure because of the apple TV thing. Messi's given the global reach
of MLS a massive shot in the arm.
There's a lot to it. And MLS
acknowledges itself as a sell-on league.
They're more than happy to move these guys along
if they star for a year.
It looks good on the league.
Do South American clubs want to keep them?
Well, some of them do. Or it's just a
different type of business.
It's a lot glitzier and glamorous
for MLS to be like, hey, look at all the guys that we've sent.
They send out press releases all the time of like former MLS players that are doing the business in Europe.
Yeah.
That's where Alphonso Davies gets a lot of mention.
It's like, look at our former player.
He's a star at Bayern Munich now.
So there's all that to consider.
Okay.
We got to go to break.
When we come back, we're going to talk a little NFL with Mike tenure, our NFL insider from the two deep zone sub stack.
Zach Worden is going to join us at seven to talk a little Jays.
When do you want to have our conversation about Garris Southgate and Rick
talk it because I've found a way to marry that subject.
Would you like to do it after Mike tenure or after Zach Worden?
We have so many guests today on the Halford and Brough show.
Let's chat for 10 minutes with Tanier
and then have that conversation.
Okay.
Jason's got a very good
and God bless the Halford and Brough Show.
I was working on vacation.
I was thinking.
I was thinking.
The world's only,
and I can guarantee you this,
world's only comparison
between Rick Tockett
and Gareth Southgate.
That's coming up next
on the Halford and Brough Show.
It's their teeth.
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your destination for everything Canucks.
Exclusive interviews, inside info, and even the postgame show.
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632 on a Wednesday.
Now, this is not meant as a criticism of your work, Laddie,
because I love this song.
However, I'm pretty sure Wednesday's your Eurodance Wednesdays.
Yeah, it's true.
Yeah.
With Ruffback, I wanted a lighthearted, sort of happy... However...
They were actually playing this in Europe.
It's true.
Everywhere you were walking down the street, for some reason, this music was playing.
This is a good...
This is the Jason Brough Returns.
Yeah.
This is a walking down the road in a busy foreign city kind of song.
So damn hot.
Trying to find his wallet.
Oh, I found my wallet.
Yeah, I know.
We heard it.
It was a big deal.
Gave us an hour of content.
Someone asked where it was.
It was in my toiletries bag.
And I put it there so I wouldn't lose it.
For safekeeping.
Big mistake.
You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.
The band is back together.
Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda.
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They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,
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We are in Hour 1 of the program.
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paid visit them at 1170 powell street in vancouver to the phone lines we go mike tannier joins us now
on the halford and brough show on sportsnet 650 morning michael how are you i'm doing great you
know putting your wallet in your toiletry bag so you won't lose it on the road sounds like a six beer kind of a decision to me. Yeah, it was absolutely. I mean,
or wine or everything that I was drinking over there. Yeah. I,
I'm basically have to dry out now that I'm back in North America.
But it was, it was very stressful. It was so stressful that, um,
my shirt was completely soaked through,
like just completely soaked through in like terror sweat. And I couldn't figure out what I was going to be the most annoyed about if I had indeed lost it.
Was it that someone in Europe had my wallet and I was going to have to like deal with the potential like, oh, my idea is now stolen and being passed around Europe?
Or was it the fact that I would just have to go and I just got a new driver's license.
Was I going to have to go get another driver's license?
You got to cancel all the credit cards.
And there was a little bit of cash in there.
I didn't even care about the cash.
That wasn't even a factor at any rate.
I'm glad I found it.
It was a long trip.
It sounds like you had the European vacation I had back in 2022
where it was 98 degrees every single day everywhere you went,
and you just lost your mind.
Yeah, and then, yeah, it was stay out of my way.
I lost my wallet.
Don't ask me about anything else.
What's going on in San Francisco, Mike?
Are the 49ers going to be able to bring back
all 11 members of that offense
that looked so good last season?
Jed York lost his wallet
and can't figure out a way to pay Brandon.
To pay Brandon Ayuk,
and one of the reasons why he didn't lose his wallet,
he lost his, you know, he lost his mind.
He didn't lose his mind either.
He spent a lot of money on Christian McCaffrey and Debo Samuel and George Kittle
and other guys that, you know, we would want to pay.
And there's not much left for that extension to Brandon Iyuk.
So what we're hearing right now, Iyuk, of course, he requests a trade.
This is part of the negotiation process.
He's signaling that he's going to hold out at least for the start of camp.
He's going to hold out as long as he can.
And he really wants that new deal.
He wants that extension.
I don't think the 49ers can figure out a way to work him under the cap in 2025, 2026.
What they could probably do is find a little money this year as a sort of token to give him.
And by a little money, I mean like $1 million, $2 million.
Not a little money to you and me, but to the NFL.
As a peace offering to say, come back this year, play this year.
Maybe we win the Super Bowl, and then you test free agency.
But right now we're in that negotiation,
everyone staring at each other before the start of camp period of time.
Is requesting a trade just part of the playbook?
Yes, that's it.
That's signaling to the rest of the NFL you know to the nfl to agents to fans
to everyone this is where i stand letting the 49ers know a little shot across the bat i probably
won't be there for the start of camp this is why here's something that you can do i you know to
or at least this is something we can say that you're trying to do when what they're really
trying to do is is probably just kind of play chicken with each other because I don't think the 49ers have any interest you know as a Super Bowl contender in like going
and getting some draft picks for Brandon Iyuk. Taking quarterbacks out of the equation where
does the power ranking sit in terms of where money is being spent positionally in the NFL?
That is an excellent question and I can possibly pull it up right now and get
you a really good, excellent answer. Uh, let me say,
I know this is because this stuff, this stuff, this stuff, you know, there's,
there's trends to this and, you know, last off season,
we talked a lot about running backs and, you know,
they were complaining that we're not getting paid.
And most of us were like, we understand,
but we also understand that you get hurt a lot
and we probably wouldn't pay you as well um i'm just wondering like where where's the next uh
where's where's the next battle going to be fought what position i think we're in the process of it
at wide receiver because not only do you have iok you've got uh t higgins uh who is going to report
to camp probably you have cd lamb of the cowboys who going to report to camp probably. You have CeeDee Lamb of the Cowboys, who might not report to camp.
You have Justin Jefferson, who just signed the next level contract
for these wide receivers.
They're all going to want that contract, but Jefferson is better than them all.
So that's going to be a battlefield.
I'll tell you right now, positional spending,
49ers are number one in spending on wide receivers.
Seahawks are number two.
Seahawks are number two, but of course you've got two solid veterans at the top of that list. They're making a lot of that money. Yeah. else to try and surround your Brock Purdy or your CJ Stroud or whoever it's going to be with as much
talent as possible and that's that's kind of the variable in the right now not so much position by
position but who can afford to pay because they're not paying the quarterback for this year what
would the argument against paying wide receivers be could you say in some cases that quarterbacks
make wide receivers you can but you can say it the other way around and a good example a lot of times is you know
you'll see what happens when a rookie quarterback doesn't have the receivers you know brace young
last year did not have the receivers in carolina he had adam thielen and nothing else and he was
running for dear life uh so you want to make sure that you you take care of that i think the biggest
argument is you want three good wide receivers. And can you really pay three good wide receivers?
And do you want to pay the one guy the huge money and then turn around and look at the other guys and say they're discovering they're not happy with that?
The Eagles had to, like, settle with Devontae Smith and with A.J. Brown
this offseason to pay them both.
Tyree Kill's looking for money right now.
And the 49ers are facing it a little bit with Debo and I.
I will say, you know, it's better to have this 1-2 or 1-2-3 punch around for a year or two
than to, like, constantly try to play, like, salary cap roulette
and try to really, you know, be a resource manager.
Because if you get that magical year, like the 49ers have had a couple years of,
the Eagles two years ago, you get to the Super Bowl,
as opposed to saying, hey, we're always in good cap shape, but, you know, we're always, like, 49ers have had a couple years of, Eagles two years ago, you get to the Super Bowl, as opposed to saying, hey,
we're always in good cap shape, but
you know, we're always like 9-8.
We got a question here for you,
Mike, from Adam, the former Bath guy.
Wants to know about the situation contractually
between Tua Tungavailoa and
the Miami Dolphins. So, the obvious
part is that he doesn't need anything imminently
because he's under contract through 2024.
They can always slap a franchise tag on him moving forward.
But quarterback contracts are always interesting because it seems like the most recent one always tries to outdo the last one.
Or the bar has been set from the previous one.
And a lot of people have pointed to the egregious sums of money.
Maybe egregious is the wrong word.
But it's a lot of money for what Jared Goff got paid in Detroit.
So the new Tua contract in Miami,
what do you think that'll end up looking like?
When do you think it'll get done?
Any updates for Adam, the former Bath guy?
You nailed it.
You nailed all the major talking points here.
He's under contract this year for $23 million.
If they were to decide to franchise him next year,
it would be the average of the top five salaries.
And you're exactly right.
Not just Goff, but Trevor Lawrence signed one of these giant contracts.
And you look at Tua and say, okay, he's going to want more than Joe Barrow
and Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert.
And you look at Tua and you're like, are we sure?
Are we sure?
I think he's closer to a guy like Goff was a couple years ago,
but Goff has kind of taken another step in his career, you know,
later in his career.
So I see the Dolphins,
the fact that the Dolphins got to his fifth year indicates that they're not
fully satisfied with who he is.
They know his supporting cast is a large amount of his success.
They know he had injuries in the past and they're playing wait and see.
I wouldn't be surprised if they paid wait and see another year with him.
Branch ties tied to him and see another year with him, franchise tagged him, and seeing if he gets them on a deep playoff run.
Or, conversely, they fall apart because Tyreek Hill gets hurt
for a couple weeks or whatever.
They're doing that.
Remember, a couple years ago, Cowboys did it with Dak Prescott.
Years back, Washington did it with Kirk Cousins.
Teams will do that if they're not sure he's the franchise guy.
Might not be the worst move for the Miami Cousins. Teams will do that if they're not sure he's the franchise guy. Might not be the worst move for the Miami
Dolphins. Before we let you go, the
Chicago Bears took care of
some major business yesterday, so they signed
Caleb Williams and Roma Dunze, the
two first-round picks that are going to sort of revitalize
this offense, along with some other guys as well
in Chicago. What are realistic
expectations for this
offensive group, not just Williams and
Dunze maybe, but the entire thing because the amount of additions that they made in free
agency is big.
Obviously getting the franchise quarterback and maybe a franchise receiver in
the same draft is a huge thing.
I think the expectations are really high,
but what's a realistic expectation for what this group can do?
The expectations are high.
The projections are low.
The FTN Almanac is out the former football
outsiders almanac you guys can find that at ftn fantasy and the projection for the bears is at
6.5 wins it is way down there it's a last place projection as a team that's going to have a very
below average offense because the young players very below average defense because we know they've
got a couple of big names but they have a lot of rebuilding blocks that they're doing around there.
You know, I love what they did.
I like the idea of having Caleb Williams with Rome at Dunzay
and with Keenan Allen and with DJ Moore out there.
I think it's a good development plan for the quarterback,
but if you look at his inexperience, you look at where their offensive line is,
you look at where their defense overall is,
it's probably very much a rebuilding year for the Chicago Bears.
They might take 6-11
or 7-10 or something like that
if they come out of this and say, oh, yeah,
Williams, he threw for 3,500 yards and 25
touchdowns. He'll take the next step this year.
But that's the kind of year it'll probably be.
Mike, this was great, man. Thanks for taking the time
to do it. We really appreciate it.
You got it. Take care and enjoy the start
of the NFL season. Yep, you too. Thanks, Mike. We appreciate it. That it take care and enjoy the start of the nfl season yep
you too thanks we appreciate that's mike tannier our nfl insider from the two deep zones substack
be sure to check him out mike tannier uh on twitter and check out his substack okay so yesterday uh
dot and i were hosting and we came in in the morning to some breaking news that shortly after losing in the 2024 european final uh england
manager gareth southgate as many expected announced that he was resigning from his post as england
manager it was a very heartwarming farewell that he sent we actually played the audio of his speech
following the win over the netherlands in the semi-final in which he the sort of in now infamous
line is,
everyone just wants to be loved.
And it kind of felt like a concession speech before the final,
that, you know, the wear and tear and all the criticisms
and the amount of, you know, stress and pressure that he had been under.
He'd finally delivered another finals appearance for the English fans,
and that was sort of his parting gift, and he was going to go.
So you had an interesting jumping off point
in the wake of Southgate's resignation. for the English fans and that was sort of his parting gift and he was going to go. So you had an interesting jumping off point in
the wake of Southgate's resignation.
I was just thinking a lot about the way
Southgate has been perceived or was perceived,
past tense now, throughout his stint as manager.
And I think it's worthwhile going back to
where England was right before he took over.
They were in a bad spot.
They had been eliminated by Iceland
in the 2016 Euros.
I flew through Iceland on the way to Denmark
and I'm looking out on this rock of volcano
and I'm like, volcanic rock or whatever it is.
I'm like, this country beat England?
This volcano?
This volcano?
Well, I mean, if they had the volcano,
then you'd understand.
This rock?
Like, seriously?
Hard to beat a volcano.
So he started at the 2018 World Cup
as manager of the senior team.
And expectations were not particularly high.
And then they went all the way to the semifinals.
They over-deliver over delivered and they lost to
croatia and they the country fell back in love with the england national team but as england
failed to continue to progress or sorry that they failed to get over the hump. They continued to progress in these major tournaments,
but they failed to win.
And the criticism grew to the point where most England supporters wanted him gone.
Is that fair to say?
That they wanted him gone.
They were throwing beer cups at him after the Slovenia match.
And there was all sorts of criticism of
Southgate for failing to deliver an actual
title.
Now I am not saying this is going to happen
to Rick Tocant.
Okay.
But if there's one thing Southgate was
criticized for, it was his conservative game
plan.
People saw all the talent that England had
and they wanted England to play attacking and
creative soccer, like the teams that typically win these tournaments. You look at the way that
Spain plays and the way that they played in this tournament, it was creative, it was attacking,
it was relentless soccer. And I'll get to that word relentless in a bit. I just think that it's
going to be really interesting to see how Talkett
approaches next season. There is no question he had to get the Canucks defensive game sorted out.
He had to get their culture sorted out. He had to return pride to the team, the fan base,
the organization, the crest on the jersey.
They were a mess before he went behind the bench. And the fact that he was able to fix all those things and get them to buy into his system
is why he deservedly won coach of the year.
It was an incredible coaching performance and it returned like in 2018 for England.
It returned pride to the program.
Now expectations have changed.
And after the way the playoffs went with the Canucks,
I think it's fair to say often struggling to create offense.
Forget about goals, shots sometimes, just shots on net.
I think it's going to be really interesting to see how he's going to respond.
And he had some, I think, revealing remarks at
the end of the season after the Canucks had
been eliminated by the Edmonton Oilers.
And he said, I'd be crazy not to do a deep dive.
There are simple things like hitting the net
and working on your shot and changing angles.
It's my job to make sure guys keep developing those skills.
But I think he wants to go even further than that.
And he said, we were heavy on systems last training camp,
and the next camp will be more creativity and skill oriented.
A lot of that's going to have to do with the power play.
Now, he's still going to maintain his principles,
his bedrock non-negotiables, and he said,
the good old-fashioned get to the net is something I have to get to.
Now, for the record, I think the criticism of Southgate
was totally ridiculous at times.
England made the semis of the World Cup, the finals at Euro, the quarters of the world cup,
and then another Euro final.
They got eliminated by Croatia, Italy, France,
and Spain.
There is absolutely no shame in that.
But I will say that the one thing I noticed in
the Spain game was how Spain kept pressing after
they went up one, nothing.
Would England have done that?
Spain were relentless.
And again, that word relentless,
how many times do we use that to describe championship teams?
Relentless.
Scored one, let's go score another.
Let's bury these guys now.
And they just never, ever stop.
And something that Tuckett has said,
we have to be better off the rush.
And it's another thing we got to look at they have to be able to transport the puck up and down the ice counter
attack more efficiently and just be able to come in waves at teams more than they did you obviously
need talent to play that way but i think you also need the mindset and England never seemed to have that mindset when they had the lead and they had the lead in very important games.
They had the lead over Croatia.
They had the lead over Italy in the Euro final and ended up losing both of those games and probably deservedly so.
And I'm just wondering how the talk narrative is going to evolve and potentially change as expectations rise in Vancouver.
So there's funny, there was a line in a BBC,
very lengthy BBC article about Southgate.
And it said, they described his approach as
occasional tactical inertia and conservatism.
I'm going to use that all next season
if the Canucks ever get into a defensive shell.
Occasional tactical inertia.
I really like that because England would have like 15 minutes
where they played really well.
I'm going to be like, you know,
the Canucks had too much tactical inertia last night.
No, the key word there is occasional.
Yeah, but it was more prevalent than occasional, I think.
Like, that's...
It was...
Okay, let's just make this really...
Explain what tactical inertia means, then.
It's inertia that's tactical.
Duh.
It's the...
Okay, I think the Italy game probably describes it best.
The Italy match in the Euro 2021 final was the one that everyone points to as
the biggest disappointment.
And also the biggest critique of maybe not doing anything and sitting on your
hands when,
um,
being aggressive would have been the play.
Luke Shaw scores for England in what the second minute or something like
that.
They're up one nil.
And then there was this sort of traditional
Southgate reliance on,
let's just keep everything the same.
Let's not change anything.
We were almost gifted this brief moment
of offensive opportunity, and we took it.
And now it's time to sort of keep things neutral at best
and try and play for this 1-0 victory.
Which, to be fair, might have allowed them to progress in a lot of tournaments.
Yeah.
By keeping games close, not taking too many risks, occasionally having to get to penalties against England tradition, actually winning on some of those penalties.
So it gets them far, but maybe that approach isn't going to
win at all so the dictionary definition of inertia is to do nothing or remain unchanged
right that's inertia okay so when you talk about tactical inertia it means okay i'm not going to
the the strategy is to do nothing like not alter anything
and that was always
Southgate's undoing
both in terms of
the players that he would bring in
right?
I mean Harry Kane's
a perfect example
we're going to remain unchanged
Harry Kane inertia
if you will
even though he was
not playing well
for the duration
of this tournament
and some will argue
well he got man of the match
against the Netherlands
or whatever
he was not good this tournament no he wasn was there was a lot of people that were saying
stop sticking with what you know stop starting stop starting him try something new in the final
why not bring on ollie watkins who scored a huge goal for you against the netherlands
why not start him i mean they eventually did right yeah but start him not start him not spend 45
minutes of a final against Spain not really doing anything.
Right?
That's inertia.
The tendency to do nothing.
Now, as it pertains to Tuckett, I think you kind of stretch the limits of the comparison.
Because I think what's going to happen now is Tuckett has an opportunity to maybe do what Southgate did.
And that was evolve and be
creative and be unique i think in a small way a nod to that was what they did with yogi shvakovsky
and like promoting him yeah to assist the coach because his whole thing if you go back and read
some of the articles that were written on him as primarily a skills coach was working with guys
one-on-one to unlock certain things yeah in attack offensively
find new ways to generate offense generate chances either individually or within the confines of the
system it's a fine line when you're a coach because you have to um come in with principles
and remember talk it said like you got to bring in three or four ideas and you got to hammer them home and you got to take a swing.
And I think that was what he said.
Like, I'm going to take a swing and I'm going to bring in my ideas.
And if they work, great.
If they don't, I'll be out of a job.
Right.
Now, the fine line comes where how far can you stray from those ideas if you have to right because the whole
conversation next season is going to be about well you don't want to throw out the baby with
the bath water if you're trying to create more offense you know one of the reasons that the
canucks were so good defensively might have been at the expense of offense.
Yeah.
You don't have guys blowing the zone early.
And now they tried to add some speed with some of their changes.
And we'll see if they're a faster team next season.
But I just thought it was interesting because, you know,
Gareth Southgate was a god in England for a couple of years.
And then it just went away, right?
Because people were like, those ideas that we originally liked, we still like them, but we think you're being too stubborn with them and i could easily see the amount the amount of text messages
that i've seen in my years of doing sports radio that have all been um critical of a coach's
stubbornness yeah whether it was av whether it was torts whether it was willie de jardin you know
and i could see it happening to talk it. It often happens. In fact,
with the more defensive coaches that are like,
no,
this is the way we play.
You know,
a guy like Daryl Sutter,
despite the fact that he won two Stanley cups,
it was always described as like,
this guy's too stubborn and he won't change his ways.
He won't evolve.
I think talk.
It is the type of guy that absolutely recognizes this.
Like I,
yeah,
I don't think he's one of those guys that wants to be stubborn,
but it's always that dance that you have between sticking to your principles
but also being willing to adapt.
I have a few more things I'd like to say about this.
I'm sure you do as well.
We can continue the conversation on the other side.
We are going to dive into the world of Major League Baseball,
the all-star game last night.
Lots of Blue Jays stories, particularly those pertaining
to Vladdy Guerrero Jr.
Zach Worden, MLB writer and Blue Jays writer for Sportsnet.ca
is going to join us on the other side.
You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.