Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 7/25/25

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

Mike Halford & guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at the previous day in sports, plus they set up Sunday's BC Lions home matchup versus Hamilton with radio commentator Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich. 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.

You're listening to the best corner to end the ball game. And the Blue Jays will take the opening game of the series by a score of 11 to 4, an outstanding performance. Hey, that's pretty good. I don't like boats like that. If you go on a boat, you're committed. Like, you're there for hours. Like, I like a boat for like 45 minutes, but then after 45 minutes I'm like okay like I've seen it all,

we're on the water like I get it. Boats are boats, the mystery box could be anything. It could even be a boat! You know how much we want one of those. Ladies and gentlemen, The Weeknd. Good morning Vancouver, 6 o' 1 on a Friday. Happy Friday everybody. Sweet sweet Friday. It is Halford, it is Bruv, no wait yet again. It's Josh Elliott-Wolfe and we are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Josh, good morning to you. Good morning. Adog, good morning to you.

Good morning. And regular Zach, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford and Bruv of the Morning is brought to you by Sands & Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for net help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them you by Sands and Associates BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3,000 five-star reviews visit them online at Sands-trustee.com We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio Kintec footwear and orthotics working together with you in step brother

We made it we did it we did it so proud of us. Yeah, it was a real task getting through this week, but it's Friday We're gonna have a lot of fun. We got three hours of sports talk excellence. Oh, mediocrity. Over the next course of this show, we got a lot to get into. We got a guest list that we need to parse through here. It begins at 6.30.

Scott Wheeler is gonna join us from the athletic. NHL draft prospects expert. A lot of things to dive into with Scott. He's got his 100 top drafted prospects list out there. Recently wrote about Gavin McKenna's big move to Penn State. Here's some fun that we're gonna do with Scott. Throughout the week, Josh and I have teased, and you know it's a slow week when we're teasing this,

this thought exercise where what would it look like if for the upcoming Olympics in 2026, they dialed back the clock and put together a young stars roster. Remember the young stars? I loved it. Everyone. Remember it? 2016 world cup of hockey. JT Miller was on the team. 23 and under. What a time to be alive back in 2016. If you were 23 and under and you were North American, you played in that great young stars team.

What if you did it 10 years later? Who better to ask about what the team would look like than Scott Wheeler from the athletic draft prospects expert. So he'll be joining us in about a half hour's time. Should be a lot of fun. Seven o'clock Jason Greger is going to join the program. Sports 1440 in Edmonton. We're going to check in with yet another Pacific division foe of the Vancouver Canucks.

We've done Anaheim, we've done Los Angeles, we've gone around We're going to check in with yet another Pacific Division foe of the Vancouver Canucks. We've done Anaheim, we've done Los Angeles, we've gone around to a handful of other markets as well. We'll check in with the Oilers today. Jason recently had a long sit down interview with Edmonton head coach Chris Knobloch, so we'll talk to him about that. He's also been doing some league wide coverage for sports 1440, including some interesting NHL wide trends,

a drop in high end scores and power play opportunities. So we can ask them about that. That's all coming up at seven o'clock, 7 30, Jesper Sorensen, Whitecaps gaffer is going to join the program. The caps are back in action tomorrow, Saturday, 7 30 kickoff at BC place against sporting Casey, lowly sporting KC. We'll ask him, what are his plans to replace injured centerback Ranko Veselinovich, who is out for the year with a torn ACL?

Also, when might we see the debut of Josh's favorite player? I've heard of him. Kenji Cabrera. Kenji Cabrera. Sick name. He knows everything about Kenji Cabrera, including his name, where he's from. Yeah, both places. both places where he's from and how old he is What's his favorite movie? Well? That's uh, we'll see. I don't know. I don't know doesn't know everything. Yeah, my bad. I'm sorry Yes, for sorenson's gonna join the program at 730 to talk about all that and then at 8 o'clock. It's the Moj Yes, it's the Moj Bob the Mojj Marjanovic. Lions play-by-play, man.

So a big weekend at BC Place. You have the Caps at home on Saturday. On Sunday at 4 o'clock, the Lions kick off against the Hamilton Tiger Cats. It's all BC Place this weekend. The Lions are looking to rebound from a disappointing 33 to 27 loss to Saskatchewan last weekend. The rebound won't be easy. Hamilton tops in the East, although yesterday they fell a half game behind because I believe Montreal beat Calgary. Anyway, they've won four straight behind some inspired play from Bo Levi Mitchell. So we'll talk to Moj to preview the Lions and Thai Cats coming up at eight o'clock.

Also on the show today, it's Ask Us Anything Friday, brought to you by AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. $100 gift card to AJ's to the best Ask Us Anything. We need, more than ever, your Ask Us Anythings. Content for the show, hashtag them A-U-A. The Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. All you gotta do is hashtag it A-U-A and put a pizza emoji into your text. You can ask us about anything, quite literally anything.

It does not have to be about sports. For those of you new to the program, get them in. Dunbar Lumber Text Line is 650-650. We'll do them throughout the show. We'll announce the winner at 8.30. The winner will get a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Working in reverse on the guest list. Eight o'clock, it's The Moj, 730 Esper Sorenson,

seven o'clock Jason Greger, 630 Scott Wheeler. 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 was. We know how busy your life can be.

What happened? Missed it? You missed that. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? 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.

Visit them online at bccsa.ca. We begin yet again with the red hot Toronto Blue Jays. Ernie Clement and Joey Loperfito hit back to back, Jax in the fifth to help the surging Blue Jays win again, beating the slumping Detroit Tigers in the process. 11-4 on Thursday night in a matchup of first place teams. Going in opposite directions, let's hear that Ernie Clement home run. This is the one in the fifth that really broke the game open

and accounted for the winning runs. Clement goes yard, J's win yet again. Well hit ball to deep left! And he made him pay! Did he ever! Ernie Clement got every bit of it and launches a three run homer. Ernie's back. Ernie is back. I didn't know he left. 61 and he was on the team the whole time. I feel like he's been there for a while. 61 and 42, the Jays are now.

So get this a four and a half game lead over the Yankees in the East, a one game lead for first overall in the entire American League. One game, one full game ahead of the Houston Astros. And if you want to go to the overall MLB standings, it is two teams on 61 wins this year. The Toronto Blue Jays and the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers lead the overall MLB standings by a half game. But all this says is that the Blue Jays are having, again, we've said this about a million times over the course of this week.

And I know some people don't like having Jays talk, crammed on their throat, but whatever. This is one of the best teams in baseball. This is an incredible story. And they just continue to win games, Josh Elliott-Wolfe. Yeah, and there's been so many stories too. Like Eric Lauer started again last night. Old fat lip Lauer, he was out there

and he went eight strong innings. It was impressive. And was really, really good. And he's been a great story. He's been a legitimate number two or three starter for them this season. And I kind of, for him and for the Jays as a whole, I kind of keep waiting for the experience

to come back down to earth. And it just hasn't. And it kind of keeps going. And I was critiquing Vladdy early in the week. He must've heard it. experienced to come back down to earth down to earth and it just hasn't and it kind of keeps going and I Was critiquing fladdy early in the week. He must have heard it. He keeps doing stuff. That is uh, that's that's good So he got another uh a few rbis last night and he has been Uh really good for the jersey game tying double in the six to bring home the first of five runs in the sixth And uh, another one in the seventh as well. Yeah, he has been he's been swinging the bat very well. This doesn't go on guard with the regularity that I

think most of us are used to. But again, adopting the philosophy of this team in a lot of ways, it's when runners are on base, let's get those runners home. It doesn't matter how it works or what it looks like. Let's just get runs across the plate. 11-4 for the Jays. Yes, Jay. Long term, because you're wearing your Jays hat right now for the dozens of people watching the live stream on Sportsnet Plus. That's who I did it for. How excited are you for what's to come for this team?

And where are you allowing your mind to go beyond just, hey, I think we, yes, you're going to use the royal we here. I think we're going to make the playoffs. How excited are you for the prospect of what's more to come? I so I'm still hesitant because again, it feels like eventually this might come back down to earth. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?

Why? Why? For all the reasons that everybody else from any other market is mentioning where it's like, hey, the run differential isn't that good. And they're getting a lot of good breaks. And, you know, they're getting a lot of bounces playing against the Yankees hey maybe you didn't deserve to win all those games but the Yankees were booting the ball around and that helps a lot but that being said I think they deserve to be where they are right now I think a lot of my excitement is going to be determined by what they do

in the next week ahead of the deadline because if you go full and you don't have to go full 2015, but if you go close to full 2015 and go relatively all in, I think that would do a lot to create full belief in what they can do in the playoffs. Okay, I'm glad you brought this up. So for those listeners that are unaware

of the 2015 reference and illusion there, that was the summer in which the Jays went out and got Troy Tulowitzky and David Price at the deadline. What a time. One of the biggest splashes, I would say obviously in franchise history, but in American league history, that was a massive, massive sea change

at that time of the year. Cause you gotta remember, like Tulow was an all-star and David Price was a premier, premier pitcher at that point. Now obviously his postseason failings, maybe a little harsh, but they're well documented. But David Price at that time was a high, high, high, I can't say it enough, high profile acquisition. Those guys aren't available at this year's deadline.

That caliber of shot in the arm isn't there. But with a lot of people pointing to the fact that the Jays have put together a home winning streak, the likes of which we haven't seen in over a decade, their record over the course of June and July is the kind of summer record that we haven't seen since a decade ago. The 2015 teams, a lot of people are saying, well, look at history. It's repeating itself in a couple of fashions. Will it repeat itself with a deadline? Where do you expect the Jays to go at the deadline?

I think pitching is the clear need because you saw like, we've seen that, hey, yeah, the Jays need more home runs. They need more power in the lineup. But at the same time, it's like, are you going to take away from the depth you have in your lineup to try to reallocate that to bringing in a power bat and then you got to send someone down. Maybe the vibes are off if you do that. In terms of like the bat aspect,

I think getting Santander or Dalton Varsho back, I think would go a long way. But in terms of pitching, like I think they would benefit from having another starter going to a six-man rotation for the rest of the year, giving guys like Scherzer and Gosman an extra day to get right before their next start. And then also a legitimate reliever, back end reliever,

high leverage reliever would go a long way. The thing about 2015 as well, that I think some people forget is the Jays were six games back of the division lead at the trade deadline. Yeah, different spots entirely. That's a valid point. And so now it's like, hey, you can more justifiably take a really big swing.

And obviously that swing was huge, but I do think you can take big swings on relief pitchers that don't usually cost that much. You don't have to be going after a big bat, though that would help. And then if you can get a starter, that's great, but I almost kind of think they should hold their cards on that unless they get a high end guy that for whatever reason comes available. One guy that the Jays will not be getting at this year's trade deadline,

Josh Naylor, the Canadian slugger in news from last night, had his stay in Arizona, truncated short- stay with the D backs because Josh Naylor is on his way to the Seattle Mariners. The news and the trade was announced late Thursday. He's going to Seattle in exchange for a pair of pitching prospects. Naylor, 28, obviously most Canadian baseball fans know him very well, did very well in his one and lone singular season

with the Arizona Diamondbacks hitting 292.11 home runs. 59 RBI. The only issue there was the Diamondbacks didn't play especially well around Josh Naylor. Three games below 500 in the NL West. So they decided to start selling pieces. He was traded, for those that missed it, from Cleveland to Arizona this year.

That's why it was his first and only year. He's contracts up at the end of this year, so this is purely a rental. But it's very interesting for the Mariners now, because he gets plunked right into the middle of a lineup that does include some big bats, Cal Raleigh, Julio Rodriguez, Randy Arroz Arena, it makes them more formidable.

And I know we've spent the majority of this week talking about the Jays, but this is a very interesting move from the Mariners, especially given the Canadian content involved with it. Yeah. And he's been, he's been a good contact guy. Like he's batting almost 300 on the season. I think the nice part about this, if you're a Mariners fan, is that they are legitimately adding some piece at least because the fear is always that they're going to be like, well, don't want to spend money and don't want to do anything that, you know, goes goes too overboard or loses too many prospects. I don't think this is that trade.

Like, this is a more conservative trade than it would be if they had acquired a Henio Suarez or someone like that. Who's still available. He is still available. And now it shows that the Diamondbacks are really selling. But yeah, I think it's a good ad for the Mariners and I think you'll help. You think Suarez is gonna end up with the Yankees? I do because he's third baseman we just saw the third baseman just like kick balls around Rogers Center for the Yankees.

And the second baseman. And the shortstop. The majority of the outfielders. You know the first baseman too. So they need defensive help he's good defensively and then also he's got over 30 home runs and he's doing really good. OK, we'll now turn our attention to the National Hockey League. There was a really interesting signing of note yesterday from a not interesting team and a very little known player. The Carolina Hurricanes signed forward Jackson Blake to get this eight year forty five million million contract extension.

If you're thinking who, what? That's fair. For those of you that don't follow the Carolina Hurricanes and their exploits all that close, Jackson Blake, he is the son of former NHL or Jason Blake. So some people know him from that. He was basically in his rookie season last year, although he debuted two years ago.

17 goals and 17 assists in 34 games. If you're wondering why that earned him an eight year, $45 million contract, well, this is where the Carolina Hurricanes, who always like to think outside the box and always like to be ahead of the curve, tried to get ahead of the curve here. It's a 5.6 AAV, but it's actually only 5.1

because this deal includes deferred money. It's also an eight year deal. Deferred money and eight year deals are not gonna be around when the new CBA kicks in in September of 2026. So the Carolina Hurricanes saw a young player, he's only 21 years old and they thought, hey, let's take a calculated gamble on this guy right now and give

him a big money contract with a lot of term with one year left on his entry level deal. You just don't see it that often in the NHL because he doesn't have a huge body of work to bank this on. However, Jackson Blake is now a rich man and with one stroke of the pen, made more money than his dad made over a near 900 game NHL career, which is a wild thing as well. Yeah, and it's the move and the contract that I think a lot of people, like it's become a sexy idea around fan bases, you know, find a guy who is younger, who maybe hasn't reached their full potential and be like, oh, we're gonna lock you in for eight years and it'll be a lower price

and it's all gonna work out real good. And I think there is potential here for that, but also the reason those don't get signed all that often is usually you're not getting a star to sign for eight years at a reasonable price. The idea here would be that a guy who, again, had 17 goals and 34 points last season has got 45 million bucks in the bank. I can understand why Blake would take the money straight away.

The idea for the Canes would be if he continues to progress the way that we see in year three or four of this deal, when he's making 5.6 million, it's going to be an absolute bargain for us. But there's a lot of projections that go on here. A lot of projections. And I'm kind of with you. I'm not sure that you want to make these bets a lot. I also think it's and I'm going to it's easier to make this bet in Carolina where nobody's paying attention.

Carolina, it feels like the it's just that just try stuff. This is what they do there. Let's see if it'll work. And if it does, great. And if it doesn't. I mean, they tried the Coke and Yemi thing. Yeah, didn't work. Yeah, and that was another quote unquote calculated gamble that a lot of people liked at the time.

Sometimes I think they can be accused of being savvy for savvy's sake, trying things just to be outside the box. But also, if that is your organizational ethos, you kind of have to live and die by it. You can't try it once and say, well, we try to gamble and speculative odds on a young guy and it didn't work out. We're never going to do it again because we got burned. You have to keep trying it. And they do have a lot of young guys that are intriguing locked up and they've got a

core that's going to be there for a while, including a guy like Seth Jarvis and obviously Sebastian Ajo. Jarvis is the one where they also made a bet early in his career and he's kind of flourished. So we'll see what happens in Carolina. I think it's a great bet considering that in just a few years time with the salary cap rising, that kind of money is going to be like a third or fourth liner. So even if he does just continue to put up the points he's put up, it'll be worth the contract. Sure. The other thing is that he just flatlines,

which is also a possibility. Or he gets hurt. And then you're dealing with a guy that you've got cap space tied into where he has an inability to stay healthy. I mean, when Jack Hughes signed his contract in New Jersey, it was not quite out of. I don't think he had one year left on his ELC,

although he might have, I don't remember. But it was out of his ELC. And everyone was like, that's kind of a no-brainer. However, he has a hard time staying healthy and what's happened since then, he's had a hard time staying healthy. Now you don't blame the player for that, but it is a risk that you take

when you invest in a young guy. But I also don't think the devil's regret signing that contract, because when he is healthy, he outperforms that by a mile. But he's also Jack Hughes. Yeah. And this is Jackson Blake.

Yeah. Who's not at the level of Jack Hughes. Hey, they're both Jacks. Yeah, fair enough. Didn't think about it that way. Hey, they're both Jacks. Fair enough. Didn't think about it that way. OK, the last story we want to cover here is yesterday's news, the Hockey Canada verdict. For those of you that somehow missed the news yesterday,

I do want to recap that the five hockey players, Michael McLeod, Cal Foot, Carter Hart, Dylan Dubay, and Alex Formanton, were all acquitted on Thursday on charges of sexual assault in connection with the 2018 incident at a hotel room in London, Ontario, when they were members of the Canadian World Junior Hockey Team. Justice Maria Carasia read and detailed her decision for more than five hours yesterday.

We were on the air when the decision was first being announced. And by the time that we were done and well off the air, the decision was still being announced. Outlining the time that we were done and well up the air, the decision was still being announced. Outlining her evidence, the assessment of that evidence, and the reasoning that she said supported her acquittals had to do with consent and her inability to believe the testimony of EM.

So there's a few questions that have come in to the Dunbar Lumber Text Message In Basket that we wanted to try and answer in our ongoing coverage from yesterday and then to today. The first is, is there going to be an appeal of the judge's ruling? So as part of the statement outside the courthouse, crown attorney Megan Cunningham said that they are going to review the judge's decision, but because the case is still in the appeal period,

which is a 30 day period, they had no further comment to make about their decision to move forward with an appeal or not. So at least as of now, at current time, that decision still hangs in the balance. As mentioned, the Crown has 30 days to appeal this decision, so they choose. Now, a lot of people don't like that many outlets, many media members have fast forwarded to the reinstatement process.

But the reality of it is a lot of people are asking and it is a question worth answering right now. All five players that I mentioned are considered NHL unrestricted free agents because none of them receive qualifying offers from their former teams upon the expiry of their previous contracts. According to a league source of the Athletics, the NHL is going to review the judge's ruling then complete its own internal process before the players are eligible to sign contracts. There's also no timetable on how long that might take. There is a statement from the league that was released on Thursday. I'll read it in full. The allegations made in this case, even if not determined to have been criminal,

were very disturbing and the behavior and issue was unacceptable. We will be reviewing and considering the judge's findings while we conduct that analysis and determination in our next steps, the players charged in this case are still ineligible to play in the league. Now that's an important thing to point out here because right now it seems as though the NHLPA and the NHL have a very different opinion on the eligibility of the five players involved in this sexual assault trial. Shortly after the NHLPA statement was released, the NHLPA released a statement of its own.

Again, I will read it in full. Dylan Dubay, Cal Foot, Alex Formanton, Carter Hart, and Michael McCloud were acquitted of all charges by the judge in this court from the Ontario Supreme Court. After missing more than a full season of their respective NHL careers, they should now have the opportunity to return to work. The NHL's declaration that the players are quote unquote ineligible to play pending its further analysis of the court's findings

is inconsistent with the discipline procedures set forth in the CBA. We are addressing this dispute with the league and we will have no further comment at this time. So right now you can kind of see, and if you want to read the tea leaves and you don't really need to read them that thoroughly, it seems as though there's a major divide between what the NHL has said publicly and what they are going to do procedurally

and what the NHLPA believes is by the letter of the CBA in terms of reinstatement. We are up against every time before we go to break. I do want to turn it over to you, Josh, if you have anything you want to add to everything that I've laid out here or just go in an entirely different direction. Yeah, I just think from a personal level, I guess I just, I hope this doesn't discourage victims from coming forward. You know,

it was, I think it was brave. I think it took courage. And I hope that anyone in a similar situation has enough confidence in the justice system in Canada to come forward in these situations. It's a very, very difficult thing for victims to take that step. And I've also seen a lot of people online, you know, viewing this as a personal victory or something to celebrate. And for me personally, I think that's a little gross. I think it's a little unnecessary. We'll see what happens with these players moving forward. I personally, I wouldn't be disappointed if they don't play in the league again. It's a privilege. I don't think it's a right. You can argue whether or not they deserve a second chance and you can have your opinion,

but that doesn't necessarily mean that second chance has to come via playing in the NHL. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. I did not eat four burgers. in Brough. It works fine, but you know, it's just grumpy all the time. Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj Moj It's the Moj 802 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Halford Brough with Josh Elliott-Wolfe on Sportsnet 650. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates.

Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80 percent with no more interest. Visit them online at sands-trustee.com. We are now in hour three of the program. As the music suggests, Bob the Mojmar Johnovich, a presentation of the Clayton Public House, is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off hour three. Hour three of this program is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit them on the internet at Campbell-Pound.com today. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio, Kintec footwear and orthotics, working together with you in step and guests on Sportsnet 650.

Calling on the hotline powered by Power West Industries. Don't get caught in the dark when it matters most. Visit them at PowerWest.ca today. They keep the lights on. Let's go to the power West industries hotline right now. It's the mode. Bob Marjanovic BC lions or radio play by play voice here on the health of the brush on sports net six 50. What up mode? Good morning gentlemen. I just got one question. How long is rough on vacation for and like does he have a different agent than

you? No, it feels like it, but no, he's back on Monday. So too am I, unfortunately. I should have taken Monday off and Tuesday and Wednesday, but I didn't. I got another week before I'm on vacation. I don't know what Bruff's doing. We decided not to take vacations at the same time this year to stop all those rumors circulating online. So we're going to do different vacations this summer. Don't you love the summer doing sports talk radio in Vancouver? Like, you know, you're breaking down the 4th line

center in Abbotsford for like three days. So we just said, we just had a very lengthy debate about which has been the best Canadian team and franchise in the National Hockey League during the Canadian Stanley Cup drought. And that got us through about eight minutes of content Moj. It is summer 100% here. Hey, you talk about Italian, I saw something on social media the other day. Yeah. You know that an American team has won the gray cup,

actually before, or after I guess, a Canadian team winning the Stanley Cup. Baltimore won the gray cup in what, 95 I think? 95. Yeah. Yeah. And the Hab team winning the Stanley Cup. Baltimore won the great cup and won 95 I think. 95. Yeah. And the Habs won the Stanley Cup in 93, so go figure. Oh my God. Speaking of those Lions, I'm looking at your talking points for today.

Gut check time for the Lions at three and four, taking on the Ticats at home on Sunday. Why is it gut check time Moj? Well, I mean, you saw it last week with Saskatchewan. They kind of got embarrassed at home by the Calgary Stampeders. They got out physical in that game and they came to BC with a chip on their shoulder and basically handed the Lions their lunch. Forget about the 33 to 27 score, it was flattering to the Lions. I thought they played a dud of a football game. Defensively, they got nothing out of their pass rush.

Hey, you know, tip your hat to Trevor Harris, you probably played his best game as a Saskatchewan Roughrider, but still, you've got to elevate your game to be better than the opposition, and the Lions didn't do that. So it's going to be interesting to see how they react this week against the Hamilton Tigercats.

We're not going to be an easy out by any means. So for me, I'm really interested to see how this team bounces back after a really subpar performance at home against Saskatchewan. Should we be expecting more from Nathan Moorke? I know he was dealing with the injury, but is there more from him to give? Well compared to last game, yeah, I mean in Edmonton he was on point, but last game, mechanically

he was off. I mean, he probably overthrew maybe four or five receivers and there were a couple of instances where I'm, well, I remember one place specifically where he kind of checked down to James Butler in the right flat and he had Keon Hatcher down the sideline. So I mean, you know, there's probably a couple of times where he wishes maybe he would have thrown the ball

to a different receiver, whatever the case may be. But I mean, you can expect way more from Nathan Rourke. I think, you know, last game, even Nathan admitted it. I mean, he put the loss on himself, but I mean you can expect way more from Nathan Rourke. I think you know last game even Nathan admitted it. I mean he put the loss on himself which it wasn't it wasn't 100% for on him but still your quarterback has to be on point if you want to win in any league. Injuries in the secondary let's get to that before we talk about the defense on the whole because there are some defensive issues here but health in the secondary what's going on there? Yeah some concern yesterday at practice two players did not participate starting halfbacks Ronald Kidd jr and Jalen Edwards Cooper they were

replaced by Kam Stoneman and Trayvon Blalock as they did some shuffling in the secondary so it'll be interesting to see they've got one full practice day today and of course tomorrow they'll have a walk through, but it'll be interesting to see if Kent or Edwards Cooper participates today. going. If not, man, you're going with maybe one, maybe two rookies up against the CFL's top quarterback in bowl Levi Metru who comes into the game leading the league with 12 touchdown passes and yardage with 1,812 and you got Kevin Lawler of course with 644 yards and eight touchdowns. That stops for receivers. So it's going to be interesting to see how the lines are up to the challenge. I got to imagine the collective defense right now has to be an issue because it seems like there's a different way that they get gouged on a weekly basis.

And there's a different area of concern almost every week. Like they've had their issues against the run. They haven't had, they've had their issues defending the pass. They've had their issues getting after the quarterback. I mean, Trevor Harris kind of went like untouched last weekend. What are you chalking these issues up to? Cause we had Buck Pierce on the show earlier in the week

and he kind of pointed to some schematic things, maybe some personnel things, but there wasn't a ton of insight as to what's plaguing the defense right now. Yeah. I mean, you can probably look at scheme. You can probably look at personnel, but I think the biggest thing is just consistency, right? I mean, you mentioned several facets of their defense

and at times all of those facets have flashed and they played well and then at other times they've been substandard. So to me, it's just about being consistent and playing complimentary football. And people don't realize that it's such a complimentary game, whether it's your specials, whether it's your offense, you know,

if the offense puts points on the boards and makes a team one dimensional, it's so much easier to play defense. When you're possessing the football for over 40 minutes a game, it's so much easier to play defense. And conversely, like, you know, when your defense is firing on all cylinders, it takes pressure off your offense. There's nothing know when your defense is firing on all cylinders, it takes pressure off your offense.

There's nothing worse than your defense constantly giving up points, field goals, touchdowns, and your offense going out there feeling like if they don't score, all of a sudden you know they've broken serve and you're down two scores or three scores. So and you know special teams, we saw it in the last game. Saskatchewan scores on the opening drive, boom they come out, they score seven, seven McGee fumbles the kickoff return, Saskatchewan gets the ball. Next thing you know, it's 10-0 and the BC Lions have had two offensive plays basically. So it's about playing complimentary football as well. We're speaking of Bob the Moge, Mark Janovich here on the Haliford and Breft show on Sportsnet

650. Justin McInnis, the CFL's leading receiver last year with nearly 1,500 receiving yards. Last week, one catch for 28 yards. The week prior, one for 12 yards. That's not enough. What do the Lions need to do to get the ball in his hands more? Well, obviously they have to draw something up in terms of their package, in terms of their scheme where they can take advantage of Justin McInnis. I look at it in a different way. I just think when your offense is firing on all cylinders, you're going to see a quarterback hit multiple receivers, not just one. You take what the defense gives you, and right now, for whatever reason, that combination

in terms of Rourke and McInnis just isn't there but who knows maybe it is this weekend Maybe they you know, they decide to really focus on Keon Hatch or Berry Hill or whatever And you know leave McInnis alone and Hamilton has a really good secondary by the way So it'll be interesting to see how they match up but you know to me it's just more of a factor of What the defense is doing and what they're giving you and what you're taking We're speaking about Bob the Moj. Mark Janovich here on the Haliford and Bref show

on Sportsnet Six. A reminder, the Lions are in action this weekend, Sunday, July 27th at BC Place against the Hamilton Tiger Cats and Bo Levi Mitchell. I know you already touched on this, but we should just mention the opposing quarterback because of the year that he's having. The Hamilton's won four straight coming into this.

If you look at the CFL Statistical Lead Award for passers the year that he's having the Hamilton's one four straight coming into this. If you look at the CFL statistical leaderboard for passers, Bo Levi Mitchell's having a heck of a season Moj. Yeah, he's been on fire. And you know, it's interesting. Here's a guy who was benched last year. There were people, including yours truly, who thought he was done.

Yeah. You know, he was cooked and you know, he's bounced back. And it was interesting, I was listening to the TSN broadcast and they were just talking about Bo Levi and you know, the fact that, you know, he's kind back and it was interesting, I was listening to the TSN broadcast and they were just talking about Bo Levi and the fact that he's kind of approaching things differently just from what he's doing off the field. He talked about the fact that on off days or some time off, he'd go golfing

or he'd go to the mall. He said, then he just kind of realized that he was getting a little fatigued and now it's just going to the facility, going to practice and coming home and going to bed. So he's probably gone through that stage in his career where he realizes perhaps that he's got to do things differently, both physically

and in terms of his preparation and give him props because he's having a monster year. And like I said, I'm one of those people that thought he was cooked, but that combination between Bolivar Mitchell and Kenny Lawler has just been so dynamic this year And it'll be priority one for the Lions and if I'm the lion I'm game-planning You know, I'll take Kenny Lawler out with a double team for me

If somebody's gonna beat me, it's not gonna be Kenny Lawler But we'll see how defensive coordinator Mike Benavides approaches things come this weekend scouring the rest of the NFL for key storylines Scooter mishaps Moj. what the hell's going on here? So, first off, I think there's a player in Montreal that was involved in a scooter mishap. I can't remember who it was, but I was talking to J.C. Abbott from Three Nights at Practice the other day and he mentioned that there was a player in Montreal that got hurt. Of course, the big story was the CFL's outstanding offensive lineman, that's Ryan Hunter of the Toronto Argonauts, who was involved in a scooter mishap and he's out six to eight weeks, right? So serious injury there to one of their top performers. And Stanley Berryhill

of the Lions actually was involved in a scooter mishap on an off day in Syria. Apparently he was riding a scooter car, kind of ran him off the road, kept going, didn't even bother to see if he was okay. Several motorists stopped and kind of helped Stanley out. He kind of, he was lucky. I mean, he didn't, he came away without any serious injuries. He's going to play. He didn't have to practice though, because he had a really bad case of road rash on his hand.

So maybe catching some passes from Nathan work, like sting a little bit literally this week, but yeah, it's been crazy to see like three players get knocked out of the lineup due to scooter mishaps in the CFL. Okay. Two more for you. Our traditional ask us anything food related. It'll be last, but second to last, the penultimate question here, your thoughts on the passing of Hulk Hogan. You know, it's somebody who grew up a big wrestling fan and, you know, followed the WWF at that time in the 80s. The one thing I'll say about Hogan is that he transcended the sport, right? He's the guy who took it to the next level. Everybody knows that, but like I said, he was a guy that transcended the sport and made it like

mainstream popular culture. Even if you weren't a wrestling fan, you knew who Hulk Hogan was, right? You'd heard about him. You'd seen him. Um, and just a great showman, right? I mean, yeah, he had his flaws. We all know that. Yeah.

I thought he was a horrible wrestler. I think it barely execute a leg drop, but he was a guy that, you know, he, you know, fans, you know, love, they were attracted to Hulk H a guy that you know he you know fans you know loved there they were attracted to Hulk Hogan and you know he had the gimmick the gig and had the physique and you know like I said he's a guy that's responsible for taking the wrestling into the mainstream culture so kind of sad to see him going like I said he had a sloss we all do don't we but at the same time he had an outstanding career. And finally, from Woodrow, the eligible bachelor,

a Moge specific, ask us anything. It's always with food. We are in barbecue season. Woodrow wants to know what's your go-to side dish that you would bring to a barbecue? Oh, wow. That's a great question, Woodrow. Well, I'm going to defer to my guy Rusty Johnson, who is a world championship

barbecue. Familiar with his work. Yes. Did Rusty, did you ever connect with Brough? Did you guys? No. I know Jason was trying to get ahold of him for some event or whatever. Yeah, yeah. I think Brough did, but I think it was for something further on in the summer. But so we're anticipating getting in on the feed with Rusty. The thing is with Rusty, like, you know, he has like the best brisket and like whatever he makes is outstanding. One of his things that he makes for a side that is a killer is potato salad. Yeah. Right. That's right. And if you make a really good potato salad or a really good slaw,

I think you're killing it with a barbecue because it's so complimentary, you know what I mean? You have like the meat and then you kind of have like a little slaw or some potato salad. To me, that's probably the best side. I like corn as well, like you know, you put a nice little corn on the cob on the barbecue, but in terms of a side, I think it's slightly lacking

behind a potato salad or a coleslaw. Have you ever had one of those watermelon salads with Feta? No, no, dude. Okay. First off, there's, there's a major full bar there. I'm telling you, it might sound strange at first. I don't particularly love it. I get like the flavor profile where you've got something sweet and something salty. I've seen them more and more prevalent at barbecues recently and you can see people looking at it Like why is there cheese and watermelon? But no, I'm not gonna lie. It's not bad. I cannot do fruit and salad

Okay. Oh, oh Like salads with blueberries and oranges and apples. No, no, I can do Can do a song with I can do a slow with Apple. That's what the extent I don't like sweet and salad. I'm going to with you on that. That's what the extent I'm willing to go is like an apple. What about Josh? Josh, you like fruit in your salad? I mean, I like a fruit salad, but I think that's all fruit.

Like, I don't want fruit in a veggie salad. Thank you. Thank you. I'm bang on with you. Like, you know, hey, you want to mix a bowl up of apples and berries and whatever. a veggie salad. Thank you. Thank you. I'm bang on with you. Like, you know, hey, you want to mix a bowl up of apples and berries and whatever. I'm game for that. I do that all the time.

Strawberries and blueberries or whatever, okay. But don't be sticking an orange in my salad. And besides, when you do put fruit in a salad like that, like oranges and apples and blueberries and strawberries, what do you use for a dressing? Right? You're gonna put a vinaigrette on strawberries? Yeah. Yeah. No. No. Hard pass. We've covered a lot of good ground today, Moj. This was important Sports Talk Radio. Thank you, thanks for taking the time to do this. As always, we appreciate it. Have a good call on Sunday. We'll do this again next Friday. Thanks, fellas. Have a great weekend. Yeah, you too.

Thanks. That's Bob the Mojmarjanovic here on the Haliford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. It's a powerhouse of the hit every week. Yeah. Just gets heated at the end. Did not care for my watermelon and feta salad. But that's just watermelon and feta, right? Sometimes you can put basil or some other green herb in it.

See, I think that sounds awful. I think it's fine when it's if you're mixing the veggies and the fruit, it's like, wow, what are we doing here? It's, I don't wanna say it's an acquired taste because when you eat it, it's not that wild. Watermelon, especially if it's like a sort of bland watermelon, doesn't carry much flavor to begin with.

And then feta cheese is really just salty. So it's, it's not like this crazy flavor profile that you have to wrap your head around Zach's face right now. It's like Zach, Zach eats Brahman for breakfast. So yeah, I'd much rather eat ramen for breakfast. Okay. Uh, we've got a few minutes before we go to break here. We're going to do some, what we learned on the other side, but we want to kickstart ask us anything Friday, a reminder,

the $100 gift card to AJ's, still very much up for grabs. Send in your Ask Us Anythings, hashtag it A-U-A, put a pizza emoji into the text. You'll be entered into the grand prize contest. The contest winner is the best Ask Us Anything. $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. The best pizza place in the world, Josh. I don't know if you're aware of this or not. I've been.

It's very good. You can win a hundred dollars to spend there. Do you have some Ask Us Anythings? Yeah, I got one here from Bar Smasher. For all of you, that's me, that's you, Michael, that's Andy. He's not in the room right now. And Zach, if you could choose one of these leagues to add a team in Vancouver, which one would you choose and why? Assuming the stadium situation and the ownership situation, that's all figured out, that's out of the equation. So we get free range. You just get a team. Major league baseball, national football league,

or an NBA team. NFL. I feel like that's such a... It's a layup of a question. I almost think it's, let's limit it to baseball or basketball. Wow, we're narrow, we're taking NFL out of the equation. Well, because like NFL, it would just be like, I almost think it's let's limit it to baseball or battle. Wow for narrow We're taking NFL out of the well because like NFL it would just be like you're the first Canadian city with an NFL team Yep, that would be a bit of a no-brainer. It's a good point to bring up. Okay, so we're now we're down to MLB or NBA. Yes

Hmm, okay. Let me let me work through this I do miss the Grizzlies a lot and I do think that the chance to write that wrong would be very tantalizing. However, the prospect of having an MLB team and the sheer volume of games that you get to go to. 81 games, 81 regular season games in a Vancouver summer. Wow. With the fantastic summers that we have. You'd probably have a great view wherever the stadium is built. And I wouldn't have to worry about the build or the economic impact of the stadium

because it would already be. That's a future problem or a past problem. That's a past problem. That being said, I do like basketball fundamentally more than baseball as a viewership sport, as watching it. I find the game more entertaining So there's that also the star power in the NBA with all due respect to show Hey, Otani and Aaron judge and all the other megastars in baseball. I do feel like oh man. I'm going back and consider this Yeah, how how many nights do you have to stay up to watch the Vancouver Canucks? Throughout the fall winter and spring already feels like a lot then you're going to add 82 NBA games to that.

I don't know. For me, it's like baseball. Okay. Seasonal, you bring up a very good point because I, we are currently right now at 8 21 in the morning on a Friday going through the dead of the summer. It sure would be nice to have a major league. We could talk about a Vancouver baseball team and people wouldn't be like, stop talking about the Toronto team.

We'd be talking about the Vancouver team. You may have just won me over. Yeah. I think if I had to choose between NBA and MLB, I think I'd go MLB. See, I'll take the other side. I would go NBA for this. I feel like there is at least some baseball presence here and that's no hate to the Vancouver bandits, our higher level basketball team.

But I think that I would rather go to a Canadian's game than them. I feel like the Grizzlies, of course, tough legacy, we're bit robbed. I'd love to see the NBA back in Vancouver. By the way, we also had another Ask Us Anything. If you could redo one move of the Grizzlies era, what would it be? I don't have the texters name.

Leaving. Sorry? Leaving. Yeah, you know what? I would undo that the texter's name. Leaving. Sorry? Leaving. Yeah, you know what? I would undo that. Leaving was a big one. Right? That was a pretty crucial part in the entire process. But let's narrow it down to when they were still alive

and still functional Vancouver Grizzlies. I've spent a lot of time going over all of the erroneous moves from the Stu Jackson era. The one that I go back to that I really think honestly could have altered the course of the franchise, not necessarily kept it from leaving, but altered the course of the on court product and maybe change things in a fundamental way was not drafting Steve Francis second overall, but using that pick to select Lamar Odom second overall in the 1999 NBA draft,

because not only was Lamar Odom a unicorn in terms of on-court ability, he expressed the desire to want to play in Vancouver prior to that draft. So instead of going with the guy who very clearly did not wanna play in Vancouver, they could have got a highly functional player, a multi-tool player, a guy that put up like 17 and 10 in his rookie

year with the Clippers and wanted to be here. I think it would have given him a dynamic look on the floor because Odum was close to six foot 10. He could play on the perimeter, whereas they had a guy that was already in the paint with Sharif. And I think it would have made them a much more competitive outfit than the one that had to go out there with the sum of the parts of the parts of the Steve Francis trade, which was Michael Dickerson and a handful of other guys. So that would have been my one, not only not drafting Francis, but specifically taking Odom. Because I think the draft that year went Francis at two, Baron Davis at three, and then Odom at four. I wouldn't have gone with Baron Davis. I would have gone with Lamar Odom at two. And I think it would have made a fundamental difference to that team. Again, I'm not saying that the Grizzlies wouldn't have gone with Baron Davis. I would have gone with Lamar Odom at two and I think would have made a fundamental

Difference to that team again I'm not saying that the Grizzlies wouldn't have left because there were way larger issues than the encore product But that was one for me that just absolutely killed them when they needed to go in a direction upward. They just kept going down Okay. Yeah, I think it's it's definitely hard to pick anything non Steve Francis related, right? What year were you born again? 98. So I was one that had takes. I had takes.

You don't remember the Grizzlies at all. No, it's a total non-fact. No, it's all hearsay to me. Right. And it's all like retro gear and just stories from old people like me. Fables. Yeah. And you guys are like, oh, it was so cool.

I could go to 7-Eleven and get tickets. Any shoppers drug mart, they had a lot of tickets available. Which was the style at the time. I don't like this dynamic. I don't care for it. I don't feel like remembering the Vancouver Grizzlies should put me in old man winter territory, but I'm right there.

And I can't even describe to you what it was like because there's not a sporting environment, I think, that'll ever be like it because the market was also very naive and kind of just happy that we had an NBA team. There wasn't like a robust, there wasn't a robust NBA fan base and there wasn't like a collection of media

that were really familiar with the league and the sport. So it was all kind of new. I liken it to like when the NHL went to Carolina and everyone was like, Hey, cool hockey, right? They're very similar except the team stunk. So everyone understood that. They're like, well, I don't know much about basketball, but I know they're not good at it. They got a lot more losses than they do wins. They don't put the ball in the hoop that often but the team they're playing against does and that was kind of the the analysis And I'll give the market credit like for the amount of losing that happened the enthusiasm remained remarkably high for that much losing And then it all just went away and now it's this weird distant memory for you because you're close to 30 years old now Are you not? I'm 27. Yeah, right. So you're getting there and it's... Well who's to say? I mean eventually you will

get there. As a 30 year old you're gonna look back on this time be like I don't remember it and it's only through stories through old man Halford. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.