Halford & Brough in the Morning - The BC Lions Are Back In The Win Column

Episode Date: September 3, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), they talk a big BC Lions win over the weekend that puts them back in the win column (6:00), plus they preview NFL Week 1 with Too Deep Zone's Mike Tanier (27:12).  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.

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-d They're not down as bad as that dude on the internet who said he did dog poop out of a solo cup. You think you just get to delete your account? The internet ain't gonna forget that, buddy. The rematch. Who did he choose for? Chester Kobayashi. Most in virtual records. But the 16-time champion is gonna walk away an apparent winner.

I wanna go medium hard. But the 16-time champion is going to walk away an apparent winner. I want to go medium hard. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. This is Alfred and his brother. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

Good morning. A-Dawg, good morning to you. Good morning. Good morning. A-Dawg, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie is on vacation, so it's no longer intern Zach, it's regular Zach on the ones and twos today producing. Good morning, regular Zach. Good morning. Halford and Ruff in the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers.

They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We're back now. The kids are back in school. Not quite yet. It's a little early. And I bet a lot of parents just dropped them off.

It's so dark outside. Get to school! Champagne popping all over the city. Early bird gets the worm. Get out of the car. You know what else is back? Sponsors. North Star is back.

North Star Metal Recycling is Vancouver's premier metal recycler, and they are bringing you this first hour of this program. They pay the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfee, what are you waiting for? Kintec. So, we got a lot to get into on the show today. As I mentioned,

it is now officially summer over. Let's start getting fired up. Well, it's supposed to be 30 on Thursday, so. Summer weather still exists. It's unofficially summer is over.

Officially, summer still has a couple weeks. The moment the kids go back to school is when summer dies. They take it out back and they shoot it. Right, but that's, you're not the official. That's very graphic. They don't do that to the children.

They just do that to the summer. So the NFL is back this week. We got Thursday night football. We got Friday night football from Brazil. And, of course, we've got Canucks Young Stars in 10 days' time and then training camp in 16 days' time. So there's a lot to look forward to here as we get the fall underway. 6.30, Mike Tanier, our NFL insider, is going to join us.

We will preview the Thursday night opener between the Ravens and the Chiefs and then the Friday game from Brazil, which is going to be very interesting. And then all the games on the weekend as well, including the much-anticipated Monday nighter between the 49ers and Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. So that's at 6.30. 7.30, we are going to be joined by the newest member of the British Columbia Lions.

Defensive lineman Matthew Betts is going to join the program. He got his CFL campaign off to a good start on the weekend. He was part of the victorious team at Touchdown Pacific as the Lions exacted some revenge against the Red Blacks. Do you think he was like, why have you guys been having so much trouble? This seems easy. Yeah, he got a sack right away.

He got one of the four sacks that the Lions had. So we'll talk to Matthew Betts at 7.30, because now he gets a homecoming game because the Lions are going to Montreal next week. Oh, that'll be easy. Yeah, 8 o'clock, Brendan Batchelor, play-by-play voice of the Vancouver Canucks. We'll start setting the stage for Young Stars for training camp.

Young Stars. You can definitely say that throughout the show. Young Stars. Yeah. That's what the South Okanagan Events Center wants you to say. Young Stars. Do you know where the young boys ended in the Champions League draw? I've been off sports all week, so where did the young boys finish?

I don't know. I don't follow the young boys. It's probably good. Finally, before we do our rundown, I need to tell you that we are – you know how I really know that we're back? We got giveaways. Oh, yeah. Every day this week, we are giving away a four-pack of tickets

to the Vancouver Canadiens playoff game against Spokane on Tuesday, September 10th at Nat Bailey Stadium. So if you want to see one of the last SEAS games of the year, we're going to – now, I already made a mistake. It's not a giveaway. It's a contest. The tickets are going to go to the best of what we learned. So send them in now.

Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. What did you learn over the last 72 hours in sports? Hashtag it WWL. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. The winner will get a four-pack of tickets to the Vancouver Canadiens playoff game versus Spokane on Tuesday, September 10th at Nat Bailey. I can't believe the season is over. I feel like for another summer, this is another summer I've done this,

I did not go to enough games at Nat Bailey this summer. It always seems that way, but there's still a chance to get to some games. So if you want those tickets, the weather's supposed to be nice for the next little while, so grab those tickets and go experience Nat Bailey Stadium and the intensity of the playoffs. The Northwest League playoffs. The most competitive of all the playoffs, it's been said. Working in reverse on the guest list.

8 o'clock, Batch, 7.30, Matthew Betts, 6.30, Mike Tanier. That's what's happening on the program today. Zach, 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 we know how busy your life can be what happened you missed that what happened what happened is brought to you by the bc construction safety alliance making safety

simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training, you can visit them online at bccsa.ca. The British Columbia Lions snapped their five-game losing streak over the weekend in rather impressive fashion. They torched the Ottawa Red Blacks 38-12 at the first-ever game in Victoria, BC. Of course, that was Touchdown Pacific. Over 14,000 at Royal Athletic Park. Saw Nathan Rourke score a touchdown

early, five minutes into the game. And that lead was never relinquished for the Lions as they snapped the losing streak and got back to their winning ways. And this is my impression of all the Lions fans waiting in the long lines to get into the stadium and for beer.

This is my impression of them. Are we winning? How are we doing? Are we doing good? Sounds good. People there are cheering. Are you playing the lineups for long?

They ran out of beer. Oh, they ran out of beer. Yeah. It's not good. Yeah, it was a big win for... Okay, you can stop the music now. Jesus. Keep it going. Keep riding.

Keep it going. I'll segment. It was very jarring. He was trying to do an impression Jesus. Keep it going. Keep riding. Keep it going. All excitement. It was very jarring. He was trying to do an impression of a frustrated Victoria CFL fan. Yeah. I actually did have some friends that went over there, and they said, yeah, the lineups were a bit long, but it was a great experience overall,

and it looked like a great experience, and it was good that the Lions got this win because they really needed it. Rourke, 16 of 20, passing for 246 yards and two touchdowns. Lions had a 25-point lead before the intermission. And they also got 93 yards of running and a touchdown from William Stanback.

So the offense was rolling. The defense showed up too. Drew Brown, who I think threw for almost 400 yards in Ottawa the week before, only 206 yards this time. What a loser. And it wasn't just the addition of Matthew Betts that helped the line. I think the lines were embarrassed. It was a few straight weeks of, like, guys, can't you tackle?

Well, they started to tackle. TJ Lee, especially, he had nine tackles, which is a lot of tackles. I would be curious to hear from any fans that were over in Victoria or live in Victoria that went to the game what their experience was like. When you do have a temporary venue, like the one that was set up at Royal Athletic Park, there's always going to be glitches here and there and there's going to be some long lineups but uh i was watching that game and i was like oh it's too hot for there to be long lineups right now i mean i'm glad it was

a nice day and everything but if i was there i'd be like come on come on come on i need a drink having been to and played at royal athletic park the fact that they were able to do this, 14,000 people at that venue, it almost defies logic because it's not big, right? And it's old and it doesn't have the infrastructure. And I get that people want a certain level of customer service and speed and line movement at professional sporting events. But I think I agree with you on this one.

Like, if you're going to do something like this, and there was a certain level of it being experimental. This is the furthest west they've ever played a game. Geography was all off. They didn't know what to do. They're going to beat that, and next year's game is going to be in Sook. Yeah.

Just keep going. How far can we go? They're going to Alaska, actually. Yeah. Oh, it's cold up here. But you know what? We're back in the Alaska, actually. Yeah. So from a... Oh, it's cold up here. But you know what? We're back in the States, baby.

Yeah. So West. We're so West, we're East at this point. I want to know from the listeners who went what they thought of it, because I only got some sort of anecdotal stuff from J.J. Adams' piece in the province about what happened or what didn't happen on the field. It's funny. The numbers that you mentioned from Rourke, 16 to 20 passing for 246,

that was in the first half. He finished 21 to 30 for 325 yards and three touchdowns. So by far the best game that he's had at quarterback, which is great because you can see the sort of, you know, the linear path from not good start, better in the second, even better in the third. I don't think there's anyone out there, media fans, maybe a few who have no composure,

but was anyone really worried about Nathan Rourke? His first game we were kind of like, wow, I can't believe they even played him. They signed him and they put him in right away. I mean, I can believe him because Vernon Adams was hurt, so they kind of had to force him in there. He wasn't very good. The second game he was better, and they were like, okay, he't very good. The second game, he was better.

And they were like, okay, he'll be fine. The worry all along has been this defense. And the defense was improved. And we'll talk to Matthew Betts about that later on in the show. It is an interesting race in the West. It's a three-team race for first in the West. And I don't know if you watch that Winnipeg-Saskatchewan game. Winnipeg gets a two-point victory over Saskatchewan

in the Labor Day game in Regina. But they'll have a rematch in the Banjo Bowl coming up this week. And we don't know if Zach Kalaros is going to be able to play because he had to leave that game with just a minute remaining in the first half after he got a late hit to the head from Saskatchewan defensive tackle Miles Brown, and that caused the Bombers to absolutely freak out as an organization. They were taking shots at Randy Ambrosio, the CFL commissioner, which I enjoyed. And they were saying, like, the league needs to get serious

about protecting the quarterbacks. We'll see if Kalaris is ready to go for that game. The Lions, as Halford mentioned, play in Montreal on Friday night. So that's a real quick turnaround. Yeah, huge game. It's a huge game. To go over to Montreal, the best team in the league, defending great cup champs.

They're 10-1. They've only lost one game this season, although it was a blowout loss to the Argos. So this is another big test. This stretch of games, this Victoria game, which they badly needed to win, and then Montreal, and then they've got Toronto. It's a huge stretch.

It's a test for the team. It's important in terms of the standing, so we'll see how they do. The Vancouver Whitecaps, two bits of news. They played a game, and also they might have another Scottish guy coming to the team. They do have another Scottish guy going. So let's start with that before we get to the game on the weekend. It sounds as though that Stuart Armstrong, a 32-year-old Scottish international and a longtime player in both the Scottish and English Premier Leagues,

is on his way to Vancouver. Now, some people might be asking, well, wait a minute. How are they able to sign a player right now? Because it's September the 3rd, as a matter of fact, and the August window closed a few days ago. Well, Stuart Armstrong was without fact, and the August window closed a few days ago. Well, Stuart Armstrong was without a club at the time. So you're allowed to sign any free agent right now across international competitions and international leagues, as long as they are not currently attached.

It's not a transfer. It's a signing. So Armstrong, I think this is a direct tie to his former teammate, Ryan Gould. I wouldn't be surprised if Gould probably spearheaded the recruiting process. The two played together. Do you know that for sure, or do you just... I'm just inferring. Oh, okay. They played together at Dundee United for a couple years.

And actually, there's a highlight going around on the interwebs where Stuart Armstrong sets up a very young Ryan Gould. And this is almost like... Thanks for the pass! Yeah, he's really young in the clip, which is kind of funny. Anyway, for those that don't know Armstrong, he's on the wrong side of 30.

He's 32 years old. He had a quad injury that kind of cost him the tail end of last year with self-ampton, which is where he spent the better part of the last four or five years. He was healthy in time to play at the Euro with Scotland, and he has a ton of experience playing in the Premier League,

Champions League. He's played at a very high level. He's a solid sort of like box-to-box midfielder. One year he scored a crazy amount of goals, but he's not really a goal scorer by trade. Whatever the case, he is either on his way or has arrived in Vancouver because they teased it yesterday with a YVR flight arrivals board picture. And there was a flight from Dundee, which is a joke because I don't think there's any directs from Dundee to Vancouver.

So anyway, he will join the team and it comes at a great time because the Whitecaps are about to lose six players to international duty coming up this week, including Ryan Gold. You're going to say they're about to lose six games in a row. No. Aren't they doing okay? No, they just won. They did. They won 1-0 on the weekend in Austin. If you're wondering why we don't have a ton to say about this game,

it's because there wasn't a ton to say about this match. A 1-0 victory. Pedro Vitae scored a banger his first year. The Whitecaps were so committed to having a low event, and by low event, I mean no event game, that they did not allow a single shot on goal in Austin. They played the perfect road. Oh, the fans in Austin must have loved that.

The perfect road, man. Well, good for the Whitecaps, who are now good on the road. Weren't they dreadful on the road for the past few years? Yes. And now they're not so good at home. They're meh. They're okay at home. Yeah, but they've been very good on the road.

And I just want to point out one thing. This is the hilarity of MLS right now is that that win that they had against Austin was their first MLS match since July 20th. Okay. So explain to me this. Yeah. Canada and the United States are going to play a soccer friendly on Saturday, right? Yep. Okay, so explain to me this. Yeah. Canada and the United States are going to play a soccer friendly on Saturday, right? Yeah.

Why is MLS still playing? Like everyone, doesn't all the other, don't the other leagues are all on an international break right now, right? Why does MLS just keep like plowing right through this? They just plow through everything. There's got to be a better way to say that, but they plow through everything. So the Whitecaps, how do you- They're so good looking. The Whitecaps did not play a league match

from July to September, but in that stretch- Because they're playing that stupid Leagues Cup. But also within that, so this is what they did. They played Wrexham. Remember when they played Wrexham? They just threw an exhibition game against Wrexham. They're like, what if we played an exhibition game in the middle of the season?

They're like, sure. So Wrexham came here and played a game game against Wrexham. What if we played an exhibition game in the middle of the season? They're like, sure. So Wrexham came here and played a game. They played a couple of Leagues Cup games. Then they got through the group of the Leagues Cup. So they played the League Cup knockout game, which you and I went to. Then they played a Canadian championship game. Knocked me out with excitement. Yeah.

Then they played a Canadian championship game against Pacific. Then they go back to MLS regular season and play Austin. And now where they should have a break, which is this weekend, championship game against Pacific. Then they go back to MLS regular season and play Austin. And now where they should have a break, which is this weekend, they're going to play and they start a stretch where they play. I think it's seven games in 25 days. It's the most bizarre schedule. I mean, part of it is the charm and endearing part of MLS is that it's so bizarre. But you're right.

No other league is playing games this weekend except for MLS. Okay. I actually want to do this story now that we're onto the soccer. It was going to be my What We Learned, but I want to do it because I think it's hilarious and hopefully the audio is ready to go here. Everton has had an absolute nightmare start to the season. And you got to wonder if this is the year they will finally be relegated because they are one of the longest tenured clubs in the top flight of English football.

Haven't gone down since the fifties. I think only Arsenal has a longer stretch in the top flight. And this is a big club. Everton, same city as Liverpool, Liverpool, their big rival, or kind of used to be before Liverpool was like,

ah, you're not good enough to be our rival anymore. They are building a brand new, like billion dollar stadium that they're going to move into next season. And they might get relegated. Here's how their season has started. They lost. Hold on.

Hold on. Jeez Louise. Here's how their season has started. They lost. Hold on. Hold on. Jeez Louise. Here's how their season has started. They lost, correct me if I'm wrong, 3-0 the first game, right? Yep. And I think they had a red card and they lost 3-0 on that one.

But everyone was like, well, they had a red card. We'll give them a break. Next game, they lose 4-0 to Tottenham, and that was the Jordan Pickford howler where he gave up the ball to Son. Son. Son. My son stole the ball from him and scored. Then they come home to Goodison Park. Old Goody, I think they call it. They don't. Probably don't call it that. They don't call it that. They had a 2-0 lead on AFC Bournemouth, and things were going well. They're going to win this game.

Everton finally going to get this win. We're going to go to 1-2. We're going to turn the season around. And then AFC Bournemouth scores a goal. It was either way late in regulation or partly into stoppage. It was 2-1. And then, into stoppage time, this happened. Steele Tavernier infield to Sinistera inside the box.

Pushed outside the right side of the area. Gets the cross in. Stood up to Lewis Cook! Bob at the level! And you did not see that comeback coming and who of all people in the back post with the header but little lewis cook everton 2 bournemouth 2 in stoppage time so that was bad for Everton. It got worse. There goes the ball to Cliver. Brings it under control.

Left side of the box. Early crossing. Sinisterra! With the header in the back post! Unbelievable! From 2-0 down, not a shot on target until the 82nd minute Bournemouth are gonna win away at Everton Louis Sinistero with the header Everton two Bournemouth three well I've never seen anything like this in my life ever so uh I know that uh a lot of you are probably wondering why this Vancouver show is talking about Everton.

We have a kinship with teams that are making their fans go crazy. Why is that, Jason? I don't know. What does it mean? I don't know. I'm the sad club commission. I cannot answer that question. I think this is going to be one of the really interesting things to follow this season.

Can you imagine if they build this shiny new stadium? Like, it's going to be one of the nicest soccer stadiums, frankly, in the world. And then they get relegated and they're like, we got Millwall next week. Yeah, right. Preston North End coming into town. That's the most incredible thing about soccer. I think we have to lower these ticket prices. Well, they're in, I mean, they've already dealt with like financial penalties.

They are in. They're in a bad way. They're in deep doo-doo. I'm sorry to throw you on the spot. What's the capacity of that stadium? Well, the new one will be like 60,000. Yeah. Well, it'll be a big stadium.

It'll be really nice. And of course, England's goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, has been the goalie. and he did not look at that third goal. Capacity 52,888 at the new stadium when they open it up. By the way, that was former Leeds man Luis Sinisterra driving a stake into the heart of Everton there. And they're already talking about sacking the gaffer Sean Dyche three weeks into the season. It's the one to watch right now because they flirted with relegation before, and he was the one that actually sort of pulled them out of the season. It's just, it's the one to watch right now because they flirted with relegation before

and he was the one that actually sort of pulled them out of the ashes. We got our first text into the Dunbar-Lumber text line. Well, not our first, but our first one of these texts. Nobody cares about this crap. Next topic.

How about some college football? You like college football? Vancouver sports fan? Or do we need to reiterate everything that might happen to the Canucks this season? College football, honestly, I love that college football is back. I was watching a lot of college football. Brian Kelly, do you remember when he went to LSU from Notre Dame and then faked the accent?

Yeah, like Bobby. He was like, I do declare I'm going to be the best coach of the LSU. This is a very narrow route. Go Tigers. Remember when Bobby Hill went to New Orleans and he started acting like a Southern dandy? That was Brian Kelly in his first press conference. This is Brian Kelly after LSU lost to Big Ten power.

USC? Yeah, USC's in the Big Ten power. USC? Yeah, USC's in the Big Ten now. It's all weird. This is Brian Kelly after that game. Yeah, I think it's the first time since I've been here that I'm pretty angry at our football team. Coach, is it disappointing when you have, you know, Savion Jones kind of really rose up, Aaron Anderson, John Emery,

that kind of puts you in position. Is it disappointing when those guys perform and you don't get a victory? Hell yes. Hell yes. I mean, and that's what I said to the team. I said, we had some guys played their butts off tonight, and we're sitting here again. We're sitting here again talking about the same things. About not finishing when you have an opponent

in a position to put him away. That was Brian Kelly. Very frustrated. The most choreographed table pound. I was going to say, he really felt that. It might have been more of a visual. No. But he was like, it's frustrating.

And then he just pounds the table. It wasn't quite, I'm a man, I'm 40. It wasn't quite there. But it was pretty funny. And there's a lot of LSU backers that want Brian Kelly gone. He has not been good for the program. Oh, to that texter that texted in, do you want us to talk about this by any way?

About the problems that LSU is going through? Or should we go back to Everton's problems? Well, actually, Grimace and Ladder did text in that he wants you to skip the college football talk because he is curious about this Everton situation. Oh, okay. If you guys could go into detail on that. If we could go back into the Everton situation. Real detail.

Like, real detail. I just love that college football is back, but it's weird. It's honestly weird to me watching UW, USC, UCLA, Oregon in the Big Ten. And there's two teams left in the Pac-12. Apparently they had a merger. They were going to talk merger with the – who was it? Like Mountain West Conference. It's the Pac-2, right? There's only two teams left in the Pac-2.

So there's two teams left? Washington State and Oregon State? Yeah. It's bizarre. I mean, college football is such a... I think part of this is the way that we grew up is we understood that college football was very regional and very geographical, right?

There was the South, there was the East, there was the West, and then there was the Midwest. And we all understood how that worked. And now it's been flipped on its head. This actually started in college basketball a while ago. The Big East all of a sudden started including teams in Florida. That's not the same thing.

But now you're looking at it. It's like, I guess we're going to have to come to grips with this brave new world where you don't have geography. Geography doesn't matter anymore right northwestern and usc are now gonna be like in the right up against one another like yeah even though they're you know thousands of miles apart yeah brian kelly is like i do declare usc this is rutgers in a big 10 battle by the way good that was the energy in that press conference was people are mad at me,

but they can't get mad at me if I get mad at myself. I've done that before too, right? It's where you're like, this one's on me and then everyone's like, yeah, it's on you. You can't be that mad at yourself.

Anyway, okay, we got a lot more to get to on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 60. Lots more Everton talk. Yeah, Everton, LSU, we could get into Boston College's big win.

What does it mean for Florida State? We only talked about it from the EvertonSU. We could get into Boston College's big win. What does it mean for Florida State? I mean, we only talked about it from the Everton side. We could really dive into it from the AFC Bournemouth side. That's right. What a big win for them. Up the cherries. They're ninth in the table right now. Anyway, we got a lot more to get to in the program. We're going to do some NFL talk with Mike Tan here

next. Season kicks off on Thursday, and then Friday, the NFL goes to Brazil. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. 632 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Halford Brough, Sportsnet 650. Halford Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda.

Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Mike Tan here, our NFL insider, is going to join us in just a moment here. NFL kickoff week this week. Hour 1 of the program is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. He is our Monday morning quarterback. He has a presentation of the Clayton Public House. He is Mike Tanier here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Michael. How are you?

56 hours until kickoff. 56 hours. I know all preseasons are essentially the same length, but this one has felt real long, and it felt like it took a really long time to get here. But Thursday, finally, we get it underway. What a matchup to start off with. It's the Baltimore Ravens and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Set the table for our listeners here, Mike. What are you going to be looking for on Thursday as Lamar Jackson takes on Patrick Mahomes? Well, I'm going to take a look at that uh kansas city chiefs receiving core certainly and see how it shapes up who's healthy who's out there who's getting the ball rashi rice will be out there that was one of the big questions of the offseason with his legal issues also for the chiefs i'm going to be looking at that rookie left tackle kingsley so i'matea. I believe that's how it's pronounced. I trust you. Kingsley Suamatea. I'm going with that.

You know, you lose track of things like that's a rookie. That's a rookie second-round left tackle out there, and a guy who wasn't that experienced coming out of college. Little things like that can kind of trip up the cheese, especially in the early going. Ravens have a receiving court issue of their own. People are talking about what a big game this is for Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson's a

two-time MVP. I think he's going to be fine, folks. But it's more a matter of an opener that could be a game that you're talking about in January because you're starting asking questions like, who has home field advantage? Who has a playoff buy, etc.? And that question can start to be answered on Thursday.

And then on Friday, Friday night football from the National Football League, from Brazil, the first NFL game in South America. It's the Eagles and the Packers. So this one's pretty interesting because you've got a very tantalizing matchup there with two pretty intriguing teams. But you've also got the backdrop of uncertainty and the unknown, right? Like, I've never played a game in Sao Paulo before. Corinthian Stadium.

What's going to be the bigger storyline here is going to be the NFL going to Brazil or is it going to be whatever the Eagles and Packers do on the field? I think it's going to be the football game on the field. I mean, there's been a lot of chatter around this. There's like talk out of the Eagles camp that these guys are unhappy to make this move. And I get it, but you know, people can kind of overstate the unknown a little bit and make a bigger deal out of a nation

that has a reputation for crime, etc. I don't see anything like that happening. Might get a little bit of a sloppy game because it's a long flight out there. It's a stadium guys are not familiar with, etc. Football's football and you're right. You have two outstanding teams here. You have a Packers team that has a lot of

buzz. You have an Eagles team that made lots of changes, lots of changes after last year's collapse. And I'm leaning on the Eagles to win this, but this could be a statement game for the Green Bay Packers. Go out there, demonstrate that Jordan Love is ready to take a turn in his second season as a starter and kind of announce themselves as true contenders in the NFC. So Cowboys-Browns is on Sunday.

I'm bringing this one up, again, not necessarily because of what's on the field, but upstairs, this is Tom Brady is going to make his debut as Fox's lead analyst. So it's going to be his first time. I'm sure there's going to be a lot of people tuned into this one. Is Tom Brady going to be any good at calling NFL games? I think he's going to be excellent, or at least I was certain of it until I heard that they're going to limit his ability to talk

to coaches and teams and do production. That's such a huge part of what these guys do. You know, they get, like, exclusive behind-the-scenes, talk to the coach, coordinator, quarterback, you know, off-the-record stuff that they can kind of use, filter into what they're saying. I guess I wonder, you know,

I see Tom Brady as being somebody like Tony Romo, but without the shtick. Like, he can come in and bring so many insights and maybe not shout them as much as Romo. Less talking. Less. Less. Just less. Yes, not the game-winning touchdown, and they're still celebrating. He's shouting about the play design, stuff like that.

But that might be hard to do if you didn't get behind the scenes and hear what the coordinator calls that play talk about the rationale behind it wait and see no one prepares for this kind of thing harder than brady he's been very serious about preparing for it and i'll be interested to hear how he does what why are they doing this why are they setting these limitations oh well he is a partial owner of the las ve Raiders, and the NFL decided to come down hard on a kind of fish or cut bait situation, so he can't go out there and say, get behind the scenes information

and call Antonio Pierce, who's sort of an employee of his, and tell him what these team's games plans are. But he's not even an official owner yet. The bid process is still underway. I guess the NFL is just trying to scrub out any potential conflict of interest. I mean, I guess it makes sense. I get it.

Like you said, you want him to be able to do his job to the best of his ability. And put it this way, I can't remember a more ballyhooed or high-profile announcer hire than Tom Brady. So you'd think that all parties involved would want this to go as well as possible and not limit them. Right. And then you remember like Tony Romo went into the booth, like right after leaving the Cowboys, you're not going to tell me that he didn't have any like friends on the Cowboys coaches, Jerry, whoever, and like a temptations there.

If anybody had that temptation, I could help my buddies out here a little bit with this insider information. It's constant. It's constantly sign your non-disclosures. And then, you know, you vow for competitive balance. I don't know if this 5% ownership,

this token ownership in the Raiders really makes a difference, but you're right. The NFL has to enforce the rules it can enforce, and this is one they've decided to come down hard on. Hey, Mike, what do you think of Bo Nix? Because Bo Nix is going to be in Seattle

on Sunday with the Broncos, season opener for the Seahawks. The Seahawks are six-point favorites in this one, but by the amount of hype that I've heard around Bo Nix, I feel like the Broncos should be favored. Well, they should not be favored, and the hype is kind of what we do in the preseason. We get excited about the rookie quarterbacks

who are usually out there facing backups and playing really scripted game plans and throwing check-down passes, etc. I think Bo Nix is somebody who's a pretty good prospect, will probably be maybe a little more prepared than the typical rookie starter in that Sean Payton really makes a scheme that's built for these guys. He's a little bit older than a lot of rookies starting a ton of games. But he's also not as dazzling as Shane Daniels is going to be or as calum williams can be with the off structure throws so you're kind of kind of get like sort of a game managery quarterback

with a okay veteran cast around him this is a team that the seahawks should be able to beat uh you know they have questions of their own but if they can bring some pressure and if their secondary plays well like it played at times last year this is a guy you should be able to exploit and get mistakes from but this is the situation Sean Payton always wanted when he agreed to move to Denver and coach the Broncos. Like, I mean, I still look back on that decision, and I know Halford and I argued it over a little bit, but, I mean, he was brought in there to basically run

Russell Wilson out of town, correct? Yes. Oh, absolutely. He brought him to do it. He did it the way he does it, sort of like he was very careful in the steps along the way so that he kind of boxed Wilson into a corner. And, yeah, he wanted some quarterback of the future. He wants to show his bona fides here. And I think Bo Nix is a guy he's comfortable with

because I think he wanted a guy who – one of the things coaches like to say is they like kids who don't get bored with completions. I don't want the kids saying, oh, you oh you know the running backs open in the flat but i can i could be a hero they love the guy especially payton loves the guy just i'll toss it in the flat get a five-yard game bo nicks is his kind of quarterback just remains to be seen is how long that development cycle was going to be that's uh new pittsburgh steelers captain russell wilson i'll remind you as well, because he got named captain. That's a voice I'm sure all the guys will be waiting to hear before and after games. Why is our captain also our backup quarterback now?

Anyway, we're speaking to Mike Tanier, our NFL insider here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. Mike, so I want to, from Brady to Belichick here, we love doing this thing. We do NHL coaches all the time. Who goes into the season on the hot seat or, you know, some sports book will release the coach most likely first to be fired. How much more does that scenario with coaches on the hot seat or first coach to get fired become more complex or complicated by the fact that Bill Belichick is just sitting there waiting,

available to be hired to salvage any team that might get off to a slow start. I'm not sure because there's often that coach. In the past, there's been guys like Bill Parcells or when he was younger, Jimmy Johnson in the booth. So it's always there. And another compounding factor is that you have in Bill Belichick a guy who would pick and choose his spots. He's not somebody that like the Carolina Panthers could call on and he'd be right there. That said, you know, if I'm somebody like Brian Dable coaching the Giants,

it looks like this team is going to be a train wreck. It looks like there's friction all around in the organization. And, you know, Belichick has serious Giants roots. You know, he was a coordinator there for many years. Mara, the owner, can come in and give him a really good sales pitch in terms of how much control he had. If I'm one of those guys, I would say

I have to be wary because this team could pull the trigger fast because this is a team that could make a move there. I would say maybe Mike McCarthy would be in the same boat. Jared could call and say, you get the keys to everything. You can call Bill Parcells. I was good with him. I worked with him years ago. You can do things like that. I I was good with him. I worked with him years ago. You can do things like that.

So I think a couple of those teams, maybe the hot seat's a little hotter, but for your average coach, it's always a hot seat. If you're in your third or fourth year and you haven't accomplished anything, guess what? You better go whether Bill Belichick's coming in the door or not. I mean, McCarthy enters the season with no job security,

so that makes that situation even more complex. There's obviously pretty high expectations to do something in Dallas. Here's one for you. What coach would you hire if you had to do a mid-season dismissal? Would it be Belichick? Or would it be his protege, Mike Vrabel?

Oh, I would love to get Vrabel. And one thing you do want is you do look at the baggage that you got in the last couple of years of the Patriots and you start really remembering all the sort of chaos that he, you know, with Matt Patricia being an offensive coordinator and Matt Jones being the savior and then not the savior,

you don't get any of that with Rabel. Rabel's running a very tight ship. He has a lot of the same personality traits. That team got in the cap trouble after winning the division a couple of times. You know, Brian Tannehill got old. They didn't have an immediate replacement. And they swept him away really fast, which was odd. So I would look at a Vrabel, and of course, I would look at the hot coordinators along the way, but Vrabel is an interesting option because

you get most of Belichick, but without sort of the old swept away, maybe this guy's too set in his ways element of things. I know Patriots fans are probably disappointed that Drake May won't be the starting quarterback. It'll be Jacoby Percet instead. But I do wonder if Jared Mayo might made the right decision there just to protect his young quarterback. What do you think about that decision when all the other teams seem to have gone with their first round draft pick, save for Atlanta, who already have Kirk Cousins there. They're not going to start Michael Penix Jr. And J.J. McCarthy, of course, is hurt for Minnesota. Yeah, well, you start the season, the Patriots start the season

at Cincinnati, a Bengals team with playoff implications, a good defense. Then the Seahawks come in, your team with playoff implications, a pretty good defense. Then at the Jets, with one of the best defenses in the NFL. Then at the 49ers, one of the best teams in the NFL. You look at that and say, Drake May could be ruined by the end of that. If you just throw him out there, you don't have a good offensive line, you don't have a good receiving core.

You throw him out there, he could take 25 sacks in those four games and kind of be shell-shocked by the end of that. So this is Brissette's job. This is his thing to do. Go out there. Keep the team semi-competitive. Kind of absorb the hits a little bit. You hate to say that, but that's where he is in life.

Then things open up a little bit later in the season. Mays a little more comfortable. Spend some time with the second team. Then you can do that. But I think they made the right decision. Be patient. Be long-term. And don't break your new toy

the moment you take it out of the box. Could New England be the worst team in the league this year? You know, it could be. I look at the old Aaron Schatz DVOA projections, and they're actually closer to the middle of the pack because they still have a pretty strong defense. Now, I'll say that a lot of these projections were made before they traded Judon, before Barmore, their really

great defensive tackle, got hurt, and that slides them down a little bit. I just think the Panthers are our worst team. I think the Giants are our worst team. I think the Commanders, when you really look at them, are our worst team, and I think that the Patriots will stay competitive, but it's going to be with a lot of final scores of 13-10 and 16-13,

whether it's a win or a loss. Speaking of the Panthers, where are you on Bryce Young? Well, I haven't seen much of him. You know, they really didn't do much with him in the preseason. He's a guy I thought needed reps. They finally put him out there in the third preseason game. You know, he looked pretty good. He was moving around.

He was moving the pocket and finding his secondary targets and stuff like that. I worry that he's just too small. And there's somebody out there saying, well, Russell Wilson was small. Russell Wilson was bigger than Bryce Young. Kyler Murray is bigger than him. They're an inch or so taller. They were a few pounds heavier. They were a little more able to take the beating.

They're a little more able to see things from the pocket than Young is. And I just worry about that because even in the preseason when I saw him, it was almost like, you take the shotgun snap, you have to start moving because you can't see what's going on in the middle of the field. And if that's the case, then I don't know how you really build around him long term.

We are speaking to Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the Too Deep Zone here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You can check out Mike's sub stack at miketannier.substack.com. He has a presentation of the Clayton Public House. Okay, so let's go to Monday Night Football here, Mike. The Niners and the Jets. The Niners got everything sorted out.

Brandon, that situation, they rectified it. Trent Williams, they figured that out. So it seems as though they're good to go. I guess I was reading a preview of their season today, and there was a good question that came up. Do the San Francisco 49ers have enough footballs to keep everybody on this offense happy? It's actually a pretty good question,

because you look, and they got Deebo Samuel, George Kittle, Brandon Ayoub, Christian McCaffrey. Do they have enough footballs in San Fran to keep everybody happy? Well, I would turn that question around and ask that about the Eagles. Yeah. Because for the 49ers, they did this last year. It's mostly the same guys.

And then they spread it around and, you know, they win the game. So everybody's pretty content. The Eagles are the team that just added Saquon Barkley. And the Eagles just added Jahan Thotson a week or two ago. And it does become this question, are you going to be able to feed Devontae Smith? Are you going to be able to feed A.J. Brown and Barkley and Dallas Goddard? So that's not my question for the Niners. I'm glad the 49ers got this all settled so we can all talk about something else.

They got to have their dramatic offseason there where we talked about nothing but their contract situations. Now everybody's back. Does training camp and preseason matter at all? Because if it matters at all, then Iok and Williams coming in at the last second could cause them to trip up against the Jets. Could cause them early in the season. They've got a two-game road swing coming up.

One of them's the Vikings. They should win that. But one of them's the Rams. And, you know, is there a chance that they cost themselves a win, cost themselves a chance of being, you know, home field advantage, et cetera, because they goofed off with these contracts and two offensive players weren't there? And that's a question I think I need to see the answer to in the early season.

I know we've spoken about Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers already in past weeks on the show, but I am curious, what are you going to be looking for in terms of success markers this year? Is it just straight, like, get more wins than the Chargers have been able to produce over the last couple years, or is it more about his ability to turn Justin Herbert back into the kind of quarterback that we think or know he can be,

but that he hasn't been the last couple years? Well, I want to see the scheme make sense. I think they're going to be a power-running scheme, and I'm not going to look at Herbert's statistics so much, but I'll look at the final scores and third down conversions and things. I'll tell you what, they start out with the Raiders and they visit the Panthers. Chargers could

be 2-0. Maybe they should be 2-0. They come in and they get the Steelers after that. Maybe they should be 2-1. If I'm seeing 2-1, then that's impressive. If I see 1-2, I start to ask questions. But if I start seeing below that, then I have to assume that this is such a work in progress of a team with really bad wide receivers, really inexperienced wide receivers, very old stars, especially on the defensive front.

Then I have to start saying, boy, this rebuilding process is going to take longer than we think, and that Jim Harbaugh's really trying to like do with his personality uh what what you know you can't necessarily do because you simply don't have the talent in 2024 uh well speaking of not having the talent you mentioned the raiders the raiders like flat out don't have talent at quarterback i know gardner minchu and aiden mcconnell like they're scrappy i cannot remember the last time i was in i honestly can't remember the last time i was interested in the Raiders. I know. It's hard.

Besides they moved, right? That was kind of interesting. They're in Vegas now. To me, if a Raiders game comes on, I'm like, no. I'm not sad for that franchise. They've got talented guys. Devontae Adams is talented. Max Crosby is talented.

Brock Bowers could be really interesting. But it seems like it's almost impossible to win at a consistent level when you've got that at quarterback. What are your expectations for the Raiders? The way you described it, it's a guy here and a guy there. They've got a great wide receiver. They've got a great edge rusher. They've got a great left tackle in Colton Miller.

I don't think they have four other linemen around him that are very good, but yeah, that doesn't add up to much. I'll say this at the beginning of the year, they've got that Chargers game. Both those teams want to run the football a million times. I like, that doesn't add up to much. I'll say this at the beginning of the year, they got that Chargers game. Both those teams want to run the football a million times. I like the idea that that's going to start at 4-0-5 and it's going to end at like 5-15, but you're just going to be trying to run out the clock

against each other. But I see the Raiders and I see the Chargers as really simple. Yes, similar, excuse me. Chargers do have that franchise quarterback, but you know, the Raiders, they have Antonio Pierce. He wants to be old school. He wants to build this two-tight end offense. Yes, it's Minshew, but if you're taking the ball out of his hands more,

you can probably get some success with that. I think it's a six- or seven-win team. But, you know, I'm interested in what they're building because I think they could build something that they say, look, we've got a new mindset here. Blower's turned out to be a good player. Now let's find that quarterback. And the quarterback doesn't have to be great because we built this defense. And I want to see what they do. Because you're right. I kind of tuned them out, starting with John Gruden. I kind of tuned them out. And now I want an opportunity to tune back in. When was the last time they got really

good quarterback play? Carr was good early in this group. I think he was really good on Carr. And then Rich Gannon. You have to go all the way back to Rich Gannon. Yeah, that was great. But you're going back a minute there. 56 hours, Mike. They had Rick Meyer there?

Yeah, they did have Rick Meyer. 56 hours, Mike. We got 56 hours to go. That's it. Then we can finally get this thing underway. Thanks for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the start of the season. You got it. Take care and enjoy the kickoff.

Mike Tanier, our Monday morning quarterback, brought to you by the Clayton Public House. Pre-game to post-game, the Clayton Public House is your home for football. Catch all the action on 15 screens and two giant projectors and visit them online at theclaytonpub.com. Okay. We got a lot more to get to on the program. Hour one in the books.

Hours two and three still to come. Matthew Betts, he got a sack on the weekend. One game right back in the BC Lions lineup. Boom. Drops a quarterback. So he's back in action. He's going to join us at 730. Let's do a make-up Ask Us Anything in the next segment.

Any texts into the Dunbar-Lumber text line 650-650, you can do Ask Us Anything. Of course, we didn't do it on Friday because of the tragedy involving the Goudreau brothers, which continues to, I don't know, I'm still in a state of shock, I think, that those guys are gone.

We had a very emotional show on Friday, and I just wanted to thank everyone for sending us their thoughts on the show. A lot of really nice things were said. It was three hours on that topic, and it was a tough show to do, so I appreciate everyone's comments on the show. Hopefully, we'll have a little more fun today. So maybe we can do a little bit of a make-up Ask Us Anything. I have a couple of Ask Us Anythings on the other side.

They're all about Everton football. Excellent. No LSU? Well, a little bit of LSU. No LSU? Text in on the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park.

More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. We can even do some hockey, but it's up to you as a listener to ask us a question or send a comment in about hockey. We all love hockey. We're getting a lot of Everton questions in, actually. And before we go to break, I do need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at bclions.com.

You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.