Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 7/26/24

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports, they discuss the latest developments in the Canada Soccer drone scandal at the Olympics, they chat some BC Lions with Leos radio play-by-play commentator The Moj, plus the boys tell us what they learned. 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 of Halford and Brough. You're listening to Halford and Brough. Here's the 1-0. Abrams swings, lines it into right field. Johnson coming on. He's got it, and the ball game is over. Dylan See says no hit. The Washington Nationals. It's swung on.

Back into deep right. Tapped into the ball. It's gone. Rays win. A rose of rain. Ladies and gentlemen, the weekend. Good morning, Vancouver 601 on a Friday. Sweet, sweet Friday.

It is Halford, it is Brough, 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. Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well.

Hello, hello. Halford and Brough for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal.

Northstar 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, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Guest list today begins at 6.30.

Gareth Wheeler, the voice of the Canadian men's and Canadian women's national soccer teams for one soccer, is going to join the program in the wake of Bev Priestman's ouster from the Olympics. Huge story got even bigger yesterday. New developments. Rick Westhead is on the case. The Canadian drone scandal continues on. Gareth Wheeler is going to join us at 6.30 to talk about it. 7 o'clock, it's Teresa, not AJ, but Teresa from AJ's Pizza.

She's going to lay out what's going on in August. Very special initiative that they're doing for the remainder of the month of August. So Teresa is going to join us at 7. 7.05, Harjo Hall from the Daily High Vancouver. We're going to talk about turf installation at BC Place for tomorrow's match between the Whitecaps. And Wrexham will also talk about Bev Priestman and Place for tomorrow's match between the Whitecaps and Wrexham. We'll also talk about Bev Priestman and the Canadian women's soccer team with Har as well. 7.15, Charlie O'Connor is going to join the program

from PHLY Sports in Philadelphia. We'll talk about all the news out of Flyerland. Travis Konechny signs a big extension yesterday. Talk about Matvei Michkov as well arriving in Philadelphia. 7.30, Stephen Holder from ESPN. He wrote a story about sleep, which

is something that we don't get enough of. I'm a Viking. It was sleep and NFL coaches and how NFL coaches are starting to go, hmm, maybe we

shouldn't spend 24 hours working and at least, I don't know, 15 minutes of sleep. Get 15 minutes of sleep. Is this stupidly dangerous for my health? Yeah. Not sleeping for days on end?

They didn't even think about it for their health. They thought about it for during the game. They've got these decisions to make on the field and they've got to make them real quick. And maybe they shouldn't be super tired while they're trying to make them. They needed a doctor to tell them that? Yeah. I foolishly thought it was about health. It's about coaching at the end of the day.

8 o'clock, Bob the Moj Marjanovic is going to join the program. So it's a big guest list, tons of guests. Yeah, I love how Halford's last show, he wants to talk the least amount possible, so we're booking six guests. We're going to try and book a seventh during the show. We're going to put one more right at the end of the show. Reminder, two giveaways today.

We got it all. It is an action-packed show. A $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway for the best Ask Us Anything. Folks, let me tell you, the competition for this one is fierce. We had Ask Us Anything coming in overnight. The

Dunbar Lumber text message inbox is already loaded with AUAs, so you gotta get in, you gotta be good, and you gotta be diligent. Hashtag it AUA. So you gotta get in, you gotta be good, and you gotta be diligent. Hashtag it AUA. Put a pizza emoji into your text. You'll be entered into the grand prize contest

for a $100 gift card to AJ's. Also, final day of giveaways for the Billy Idol Platinum Blonde tickets. July 30th, Rogers Arena. That's going to the best of what we learned. Hashtag it WWL and put a ticket emoji into your text to be entered into the contest for that one.

This is all coming up in the final half hour of the program at 830. We'll announce the winners then. So you got about two and a half hours to get your ask us anything and what we learned in. The guest list is too long to work in reverse. So without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the B.C. Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools,

resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. As I mentioned off the top, the Canadian Olympic Committee has officially removed Bev Priestman, the head coach of the Canadian women's soccer team, after she voluntarily stepped down for the first match, which ended up being a 2-1 win for Canada over New Zealand. And stepped down so the first match, which ended up being a 2-1 win for Canada over New Zealand.

And stepped down so gallantly, too. Just really fell on her sword for that one game. There was a level of gallantness with it. But Bev is now out. Gallantry. Gallantry. Gallantness-esses. She is now out as the head coach.

Gallanticity. To be clear, she's still not officially out-out as the head coach of the team. She's out for the remainder of this tournament. Unofficially, she's still not officially out-out as the head coach of the team. She's out for the remainder of this tournament. Unofficially, she's obviously out. But officially, she's out for the remainder of this tournament. And that is when the final investigation that the Canadian Olympic Committee is currently undergoing, the findings will be made. Because this is going way, way beyond what the Canadian women did at the Olympic Games.

Yeah, and we discussed whether there'd be any further fallout yesterday, and, well, there was, and it was pretty much straight away. And I think this story got even bigger yesterday. Rick Westhead, who certainly did a number on Hockey Canada, is now doing a number on Canada Soccer. And this drone spying seems to have not been an isolated incident. It seems to have not only been prevalent in the women's program, but also possibly in the men's program. And I don't know where it started And I don't know where it started.

I don't know where this started, but a lot of people are wondering about John Herdman now because he coached the women's team and then went on to coach the men's team. Jesse Marsh, who's the current head coach of the men's team, I guess he said either himself or through Kevin Blue, who's in charge of Soccer Canada now, that he was aware of the practice, and he's told his staff,

no, we're not doing this anymore. I have no comments about our drone spying division. I mean, the division we don't have. It's not a drone spying division. Right. But basically, Canada Soccer, known worldwide now as the cheaters. The cheating country. That's what we are.

Very, very, very revealing article from Rick Westhead, TSN's investigative journalist yesterday. And there are several very specific instances listed in the Westhead piece of previous allegations, which have been sourced multiple times, corroborated in some cases by text messages of both the men's and the women's programming adhering to these practices. This includes, and I think this might end up being the big one, a spying incident involving Team Canada filming not one but two of Japan's closed door training sessions during the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. Now, the reason I bring that one up is because there's been a lot of chatter and a lot of banter.

And we'll ask our guests today, including Gareth Wheeler, about this, how far back the sanctions may or may not go and what light this will cast the Canadian women's gold medal victory in 2020-21 in those Olympics under. If it will rise to the level of, because we've seen it from the IOC before, either rescinding or stripping of the medal. I have absolutely no evidence other than what's being said in various reports

and what's being talked about online that they would actually consider this. But there is, within the Westhead piece, I think it was a double-sourced report that there was something going on in those specific Olympic Games. Now, there was other instances as well. As a matter of fact...

Well, he had a source tell him that it was actually a little tricky in Japan because of the COVID restrictions. And that that... So the person who took the video had to sneak out of his hotel, his or her hotel, to get the video. Also breaking COVID restrictions to cheat.

But then apparently once out of the hotel while breaking COVID restrictions actually got a lot easier. Yeah. Because apparently you just kind of walk around and there was nobody around, you know, providing security or monitoring all of these airspaces and areas. There are reports of spying dating all the way back to 2019, which is a five-year window, which well predates the men's World Cup qualification, that fantastic run that they went on under John Herdman. And what's more, the 2019 allegation is the men's team spying on the U.S. men's team prior to a 4-1 loss in Florida back on November of 2019.

You should have worn your Houston Astros hat today. I got rid of that. I bought it because it had an H, and I was coaching at Hastings, and I was like, it matches. I can wear it during games. We were navy blue. I was like, this works. And then I wore it out a couple times, and then I was like, what's up with the garbage cans? And I never wore it during games. We were navy blue. I was like, this works. And then I wore it out a couple times,

and then I was like, what's up with the garbage cans? And I never wore it again. Who do you think had a bigger advantage, the garbage cans or the drones? The garbage cans were... Garbage cans. Yeah. Garbage cans.

So you do bring up an important point. How much do you gain from drone spying? And how prevalent is cheating across all the sports? This is not meant sports this is not meant this is not meant to try and lessen the seriousness or to downplay the significance of what just happened and what has been happening in the canadian soccer programs both men and women i want that to be abundantly clear i'm not trying to uh suggest that this is just par for the course. I don't even want to classify this as if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying,

because flying a drone at the Olympic Games is just stupid behavior, okay? I'll get that out there. That being said, this is in a long list of spying and droning and cheating that we've seen in football, both at the professional and collegiate level. It's pretty prevalent in soccer.

My beloved Leeds United with their old manager, Marcelo Bielsa, got into a dust-up a few years ago when Frank Lampard was coaching, and they were spying on Frank Lampard's derby team. How were they spying? They went to the training session under the guy like they wore the fake mustaches? Yeah, fake mustaches. Mustaches, love it.

Chin putty. They were in there, right? So it's there. I guess all I can say is that when you hear about what they did and the length of time they've done it, it wasn't surprising because other teams and, I mean, at this level, maybe not necessarily to this degree. It's not like Canada invented invented spying on other but we

perfected it they but they did it at the olympics which is i think is the big one yeah just because well i know they did is the olympics i don't know if it is for me because as much as the olympics always talks about how we're you know so pure and everything the olympics aren't pure it's there's that part of it but there's also the inherent risk of doing it at the olympics because what they were talking about in other instances especially when they were in uh doing it like in conca calf qualifying as they said um it was actually pretty easy to do because you know there wasn't this like airtight security and there was like well is fifa in charge of this is conca calf in charge of this who are the well morally and ethically i don't i don't differentiate between spying during the olympics or spying during conca calf qualifying or whatever but um as far as the

likelihood of getting caught that's i mean but that's not i mean that has nothing to do with morals or ethics that's just stupid yeah it is, it is. But it also- You know, like flying a drone. I think Arash Madani put it perfectly when we, and we played the audio of it yesterday. I mean, these Olympics have so much security and a lot of it is focused on drones because drones could theoretically be used by terrorists. Drones are now very much a tool of war. And to think that you're going to be able to get a drone up without anyone noticing, well, I mean, maybe you could, but it's a heck of a lot riskier to do it that way.

And that's kind of the other part of this when they talk about the culture, the systemic cheating that's in both the men's and women's programs because again going back to what west had reported um staff and contractors were told that the filming and the the droning was part of their jobs and that they could lose their positions within the federation if they didn't go along with it yeah so i mean and this goes back to well why is that priestman out well there's someone at the head of both the men's and women's programs and in the women's case it was bev priestman so the thought and the initial response that she had no idea that this was going on is almost laughable and comical at this point and the fact that she would say that and then the canadian olympic ceo would reiterate it and say that he believed her is

baffling to me and i think the only excuse they might have is that they got caught in the moment and they didn't have time they didn't have time they didn't have time but that to me is i mean we'll talk to gareth wheeler about this coming up at 6 30 because he's been very pointed in his criticisms of of priestman in particular do you look back on that press conference that John Herdman had when he was asked about the drone, um. Against Honduras. Against Honduras and Honduras complained about

it. And then Herdman kind of had a, he kind of said like, well, you know, there's a lot of people that want to see this Honduras team. It could have been, you know, I'm not surprised that there's a drone up there. Do you look back on that differently now? He was being super almost arrogant and tongue-in-cheek, almost saying, catch me if you can, kind of. Catch me if you can.

The impish little smirk and the little grin. And he didn't think it was a big deal. Right. That was the other thing. So I have thought about that. And one of the ways that I think he would probably explain it now is that, well, we were in the midst of trying to qualify for the World Cup through a region that is known for subterfuge and the dark arts

and sort of underhanded tactics. So all we were doing was merely playing along. Now, I would push back and be like, but the Hondurans didn't send a drone to your training session. Yeah. And I think that's – it really comes comes down to are there levels of cheating for you out there in listener land and feel free to weigh in dumb bar lumber tax line 650 650 is cheating cheating are there different levels is some okay and is some not well there's a lot of people that

will say if you ain't cheating you ain't trying and i've always hated that because if you're cheating and you know you're cheating then you're're a cheater. I remember distinctly when that World Cup qualification run was going on is Herdman leaned heavy, heavy into, we have to play the game the way everyone else is playing. And I don't mean the game of soccer. I mean the game surrounding the sport, right? We have to learn how to maybe simulate and try and gain the advantage of a referee i remember that they

would routinely have max crepeau fake an injury in the 60th minute of every match so that they could get like a unofficial timeout yeah so and and that was just something that herdman did he was not opposed to getting in the mud and doing some of the things that other federations were doing with regularity that Canadians didn't necessarily do. I think that's an important part of it because there's a lot of people right now that are saying, this is unbecoming of Canada, this is un-Canadian, we don't do these things. Yeah, but before then, going to the World Cup was un-Canadian. Even good soccer was un-Canadian, right?

Yeah. So it's pretty complex. I just don't want to be the guy that gets up and tries to explain how cheating is baked into the recipe of some of these regions and federations and qualifications and try and make it okay, because I don't

think that's where I want to go with this. Adam from Pocompton texts in, Will or can FIFA disqualify Canada from the World Cup, but keep Canada as a host? That's not going to happen. It's not going to happen.

They're not going to disqualify the Canadian men's team from the 2026 World Cup that Canada is plowing millions of dollars into hosting. Like it's, that's, that's not going to happen. I understand that people are wondering about further consequences. Um, I wondered if they go back and take away the gold medal from Canada at the 2020 Olympics. Um, which would really, you know, and I don't know if it already has sullied that moment, because that was a really cool Canadian sporting moment,

and we actually shared that on the show, and a lot of people really enjoyed that, and it was during the pandemic, and it was one of those things that helped us get through the pandemic, and now you look back on it, and you just look back on it a little differently. Like I imagine, you know, some of the Houston Astros fans look back on a World Series that they won, you know, because of cheating. And it's, yeah, just, you're like, oh, I don't, I, and that whether or not, um, you look back on it differently at all. It's just, it's just, uh, it's annoying that we have to think about this.

Annoying is the wrong word, but you know, like it's, it's like, we were really proud of that women's team. Yes. Really proud as Canadians. We were proud of that women's team. And now, and this seems like it happens every time with Canada soccer. Like every time, every time they, you know, the women's team or the men's team, every time there's like this great moment, there's like, oh, you know, when's the other shoe going to drop? One step forward, two steps back.

Yeah. And it's just like, and I know they've had all sorts of leadership changes there, you know? And I imagine Kevin Blue is like, oh God, what have I gotten myself into here? But they're just, they just can't seem to figure it out. You know, they can't seem to figure it out. They can't seem to do anything right. Austin and Langley with the very appropriate end to this conversation. With the what we learned. Hashtag WWL what we learned.

When John Herdman said we are going to F Croatia, he meant film. Good job, Austin and Langley. That's a strong contender for best what we learned of the day. The other news from last night. The Seattle Mariners in a very un-Seattle Mariners-like move made a big, big deal late into the evening, acquiring one of the biggest bats available heading into the trade deadline. Randy Arrozarena, the hard-hitting left fielder from the Tampa Bay Rays,

is now a member of the Seattle Mariners. Two low-level minor leaguers, an outfielder, Aiden Smith, and right-hander Brody Hopkins, all going to Tampa in return. Here's the thing, and Laddie and I were talking. Laddie was the first. I actually broke this to the entire group. The text by our group chat, because I was busy

doing other things last night. I'm looking at it, and I'm like, damn, first blush. You're like, that is a huge move. Aroz Arena, many will remember from his outstanding 2020 playoff run, which culminated with World Series MVP. He then lit it up at the World Baseball Classic as well. Like, can knock the ball out of the yard with regularity.

Having a down year this year. Having a down year this year. And what did you say about, you know, guys that go to Seattle, Greg? Well, the Sean Figgins, Adrian Beltre, you know, you always worry about that with the Mariners, but I think anyone is an improvement

over the offense that they've given this year. Where high-profile acquisitions go to die. Seattle. The key to the trade, I think, is the fact that the Mariners

only give up their number 12 and 22 prospects in the deal. There is a player to be named later, but neither player in the top 100 prospect list. It's a great deal

for the Mariners. They've got two years of control left after this year with Rosarania. So why did Tampa trade this guy? Because that's Tampa Bay, baby. Budget reasons? Budget reasons. No one really knows why.

They like to sell high on their players. But I was digging around. They didn't sell high. They must really like these prospects, I guess. They're very good at talent identification. There was a lot of the Rays beat writers who were like, this one doesn't make any sense because the Rays have actually played a little bit of better baseball lately, which coincided with the Rosarena.

They beat the Jays 13-0 yesterday. They're 52-51. They're only four games out of the wild card. And Rosarena's got, what, two and a half years left of club control. So it's not like he's a pending UFA and they needed to unload him because they weren't going to they needed to unload him because they weren't going to be able to bring him back. He was going to be around.

It just kind of, it's almost like they overthought it. And instead of, you know, trying to actually win baseball games, they did that baseball thing where they're worried about, you know, year six of the plan that further that much further down the road. And I'll be very curious to see if this works because we had Adnan on the show yesterday and we were saying, look, the Mariners just blew a 10-game lead in the division. Houston's caught up.

It feels like they flatlined already, even though there's a lot of baseball left to be played. The Mariners just got swept by the Angels. They're three and a half games back of a wild card. Kansas City currently occupying the third wildcard spot in the AL, but Boston is ahead of Seattle, and Tampa Bay is in the mix, and Texas is in the mix for that wildcard spot. And I suppose you could say that they could catch up

to the Houston Astros, but probably not, I would imagine. Well, they're only one game back of Houston, so that's probably their most likely way, just win the division that they were leading for most of the season. I'm excited to watch dude play. Like, Orozarena's a beast, and he has shown a penchant for getting better in the clutch moments. I think everyone talks about the playoff exploits

and then what he did at the WBC as well. So I'll be very – I mean, I might even go down to go see Randy or Rosarena play. He'll be perfect in Seattle, although they don't have any, they never have clutch moments where they never have opportunities to be clutch. On the flip side, though, for the race fans, you got to feel pretty bad. You know, they're trying to get a new stadium built. And this is the theme of the team, right? Every time a player becomes a star. I wonder if that's going to change if they get this new stadium built and if they can funnel some more revenue into that franchise.

This isn't a good sign, though, right? It's more of the same from Ray's... To me, he was the most identifiable Tampa Bay Ray. I thought about the team, I'm like a Rosarena. The guy's a beast, right? He's one... Good for the Jays, then. Yeah.

Well, they're not winning their division. Going forward. Going forward, yeah. And then one final one that I want to throw out there then. Yep. Well, they're not winning their division. Going forward, going forward. Yeah. And then one final one that I want to throw out there, because we are going to talk to Charlie O'Connor from PHLY sports in Philly. And the seven o'clock hour,

Travis connect me, signed a monster deal, monster extension with the Philadelphia flyers yesterday, eight years, 70 million. So when the deal kicks in, it's going to have an AAV of 8.75 million, which is going to make him the highest paid player on the team at first blush it felt like a lot of money and a lot

of term for a good player but not necessarily a star player and he's being paid like a star player although his numbers last year um solid like he's a 30 goal 60 70 point guy and the year prior actually he was on pace for even more goals in a season. I want to talk to, when we talk to Charlie about it, I want to ask what the response has been, because I know it was pretty polarizing. A lot of people wondering why they were locking in so long to this

particular player, but also what the outlook is for the Flyers now, because they are undergoing a youth movement. And Konechny's only 27, but now he's going to be under contract until he's 35. So there is your What Happened for today. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.

You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. It's the mooch. I did not eat four burgers. Yes, it's the mooch. I don't want to go to Winnipeg. Nobody wants to go to Winnipeg. Yes, I love food.

It's the mooch. I went online and kind Winnipeg. Yes, I love food. I went online and kind of did a little surfing. Halpert's fine, but, you know, Brough is just grumpy all the time. Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, Moj, on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough of the Morning is brought to you by Pacific Honda, North Vancouver's premier destination for Honda vehicle sales and service. I like this part of the song. It gets really epic. 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 3 of the program. Moj will be joining us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 3. Hour 3 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, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Sore feet?

What are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Our next guest is a presentation of the Clayton Public House and he joins us from Cabo. How nice. Bob the Moj Marjanovic on a

bye week here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What up, Moj? Good morning, gentlemen. Sitting on a cot probably about 75 yards away from the Sea of Cortez. So, yeah, this beats next week's location, which will... Well, no, actually, we play in Winnipeg on Thursday,

so we'll be home by Friday morning. What's Cabo like in July? That sounds really hot. It's probably about 30 degrees every day. It's not stupid hot. It's not stupid humid. It's really nice, actually. Are you... What kind of place are you staying at? Are you doing the all-inclusive

thing? Do you have a friend's place? What's going on? All-inclusive, yeah. Nice. They're doing an all-inclusiveinclusive which is pretty nice so you don't have to worry about anything just kind of chill and relax like i said it's just very relaxing it's just you know you just wake up whenever you want you eat whenever you want you go to the pool whenever you want you drink whenever you want so it's all good what is your what is your day drink day drink at night what is your drink of choice are you just uh cerveza or, you know, margarita? How are the margaritas at the resort? Sometimes the all-inclusive resorts can have bad margaritas.

No, the margaritas here are really good. So margaritas, a couple of pina coladas every so often. Every so often, just because they're so sweet, I just sprinkle in a shot of tequila. And are you going gonna work out at the gym there buddy i probably i've probably started like i got back into spinning and i was doing these interval programs i'm spinning like five times a day and then resting for two so i'm not spinning on the weekends i swear i lost actually believe it or not steven chang is a

photographer and i made a wager. He needed to get 210 for a weightlifting competition, and he weighed 227. I was at 267, and I wanted to get to 250. I was down to 259. I actually lost like eight pounds. And we made a wager. So whoever hits the target first

or was the other person dinner on the road, I have probably regained all of that. Between the tacos and the pina coladas and the margaritas, it's all back. Then they'll be taking Stephen out on the road. It's funny, Mitch. And we're going for a big meal. When I was working at Bodog,

we did a Bodog fight down in Costa Rica, and they held the fight they rented out an all-inclusive resort in costa rica to house all the fighters yeah they built a ring on the beach that's super cruel and they all got to cut weight don't they so we had an all-hands meeting before they're like does anyone want to bring up any potential issues and i'm like yeah are you gonna put fighters in an all-inclusive resort? I feel like it might be counterintuitive to getting in shape for the fight. It's like, hey, you know what we're going to surround you with is unlimited food and alcohol prior to your fight.

I watched a guy cut 20 pounds. In how long? Like 13 hours. It was ridiculous. Did he do the garbage bags in the sauna? He was in – no, there wasn't a sauna. It was just Mexico? No. Oh bags in the sauna he was in no there wasn't a sauna it was it was just mexico no he was in his hotel room he turned on the he made a steam bath in his bathroom and then he was in there intermittently like going on the bike with the garbage bags yeah and then just trying to sweat out everything he only ate ice chips for

12 hours he made weight but but he was so weak. I was like, I feel like we've got some luck. There's actually a series of guys that do that. They lose like 10, 15 pounds. They make their weight, and then they gain it all back. Right away. Do you get 24 hours after you're weighing? Yeah. I mean, this one was a little.

We skirted around some of the sanctions when it came. Basically, you had to weigh that weight at one point in your life that was it right if you can hit that weight at one point during your existence you were good to go uh okay mojo like being a canadian it's kind of like being a canadian in the cfl right your mom flew over newfoundland when she was pregnant you're canadian you're good oh yeah that's how you end up on the national soccer team as well, given some of these guys. Anyway, I wasn't here last week, so I missed all the ramifications in the follow-up

from the loss to the Stamps, a disappointing one. What was the talk before you took off for Cabo following that disappointing loss to the Stamps? Well, I think it was just a game of opportunities lost. I wrote about it in my column for Black Press this week. I mean, there was like four or five times in that game where if you make a play, you probably wind up winning the football game. Even a minute and a half left, they've got that second and seventh game.

They could get the ball back, get in the field goal range, they let him off the hook. And immediately following that play, they try, pardon me, Philpott fumbles the football, and Seattle Devon dives on it. There's no one around him, and he just dives on the ball, and the ball just squirts out to two-caliber stampede. His name is Philpott that recovered his own fumble. So it was just a game that just, you know, they had opportunities to,

and here's the funny thing. I always talk about this because, you know, I hear coaches talk about the process, and this is where I bring this up, because in that game, they really didn't follow the process for victory um and yet have they found a way to win you know everyone would have been talking about oh what a great effort on the road oh they did this they did that you know they managed to find a way to win well guess what they didn't make that play that didn't occur now you at the game, that entire body of work the different way. You're looking at it from a negative perspective.

So sometimes the loss is a good thing. Just ask the Philadelphia Eagles. I mean, here's a team last year, if you remember, what were they, 11-1 at one point? Yeah. And then they just completely fell into the tank. And I remember talking to a couple of people at the big game, and they were like, you know, the reason the Eagles just,

they weren't following the process. Despite the fact they were 11-1, they weren't playing good football, and it eventually caught up to them. The Owls in the big game yesterday, the battle of the 5-1 team, the Owls beat the Saskatchewan Rough Riders to move to 6-1 on the year. So that's the best record in the CFL right now. How good are the Montreal Alouettes, considering they did that without Cody Fajardo, a quarterback?

Yeah, I think their quarterbacks, pardon me, their defense is really good. Make no mistake about it. Now, here's the thing about their quarterback play. This is what kind of cracks me up, because everybody talks about how great Cody Fajardo is. You know, last night, Davis Alexander. Here's the key to Montreal.

Their wideouts are really good athletes. And if they get the ball in place, they will burn you. You have to tackle against those players. Even looking at the numbers from last night, I just woke up this morning and took a look at it. I think like they were well over 60% in terms of yards after catch. So what they're doing is they're getting the balls or getting the footballs in the hands of those receivers. And you know,

a three yard game is now a three yard catch is now a 12-yard gain, right? So the big key for any team against Montreal is to tackle those guys to minimal gains. But instead, what they're doing, because they're so athletic, they wind up breaking these, you know, screen hitches in the flat for like 15, 20, 25 yards. And it's something that we're seeing in the CFL as well. I remember asking T.J. Lee about this recently.

And the Lions have had difficulty defending that play as well. And he said what teams are doing is they're trying to expose the tackling abilities of defensive backs. So that's maybe a trend that you're starting to see in the game. And as a result, people talk about sacks being down. Well, that's one of the big reasons why. It's because so many of these passes now are these quick hitting plays where you're really testing the tackling ability of the DB.

We're speaking to Bob the Moj, Marjanovic, here on the Halford & Breff Show on Sportsnet 650. Hey, Moj, how much have you been paying attention to what Nathan Rourke's been going through at New York Giants camp? Yeah, well, not that much this week. Well, it's not that much to pay attention to. That's the thing. Yeah, we, not that much this week. Not that much to pay attention to. That's the thing. Yeah, we talked to Nathan.

He was at the last home game, and we had him in the booth for a couple minutes, and he's optimistic. But, I mean, he has to be optimistic. He has to go out there and just – he can only control one thing. He can control what he does, right? If he gets the opportunity, we'll see what happens. But there's – you know, he can't control, you know,

the amount of reps he's going to get, the amount of reps he's going to get, the amount of snaps he's going to get. All he can control is how he plays. And I think if he gets the opportunity, he'll surprise some people. So we'll see what happens with the Giants. Well, I mean, the issue right now is that he's the fourth quarterback for the Giants. And Brian Dable came out the other day and clearly defined him

as the fourth guy behind Daniel Jones, Drew Locke, Tommy DeVito. I mean, I guess he played last year, so he gets the nod there, but it just feels like Rourke made a decision to go to Jacksonville. And then it kind of felt like he got sold a false bill of goods to a certain degree. Like he thought he was going to get more of an opportunity and he didn't. And now he's almost at the whim of all these NFL clubs who are picking him up off waivers or scooping him when he becomes available. And he's not really landed in the situation that's beneficial for him. And that's got to be frustrating because there are situations in the NFL where he could probably get a better look than being the fourth stringer in New York. Well, I'll give you one case in point of how the how the nfl operates i remember when dave dickinson

time with san diego the chargers back then um they didn't have a quarterback on the roster and a couple of weeks they drafted a guy named drew breeze and they signed another guy named doug flutie right so you're thinking hey you sign this contract there's an opening there might be a competition here and you know within 14 days you have a guy like Flutie there and they draft a high pick like Breeze. I think the thing with Rourke, too, is it's interesting. Coaches in any sport, they want to be able to trust their guys, right? And to trust their guys, you have to prove that you've performed

in those situations before. So Locke has NFL experience. DeVito has NFL experience. Guess what Nathan Rourke doesn't have? He doesn't have NFL experience. So when you look at a depth chart Guess what Nathan Rourke doesn't have? He doesn't have NFL experience. So when you look at a depth chart, of course Rourke's going to be at the bottom of the depth chart behind guys that have played in the National

Football League. And that's probably his biggest challenge, is getting to an organization and finding that opportunity and finding someone who trusts him. And if he does get into a game, well then things change. Who was the last CFL quarterback to go make it big in the NFL?

Probably Garcia. Yeah. Just off the top of my head, I think. Right? Can you think of anybody since Jeff Garcia? Not that went down

and made it big. And, you know, I think one of the big reasons why, too, we've seen so many whole bunch of quarterbacks do that over the years, go down and,

you know, get an opportunity. But I think what you're seeing now is the death of the pocket passer in the national football league. You don't see pocket passers anymore. They want quarterbacks that can run. And a lot of those quarterbacks that would be playing in the Canadian league. It's funny.

We're talking about this wall. One of the other night named off. But Wally talked about the fact that a lot of those quarterbacks are now in the National Football League. They're not in the Canadian Football League because the NFL is looking for the athletic, smaller, more mobile quarterback. And as a result, you know, there's been a drain of talent of those players, those athletes come in Canada.

What else did you chat with Wally about? We got into a whole bunch of stuff. It's interesting. Farhan did an interview with him, and he talked about if he was commissioner for a day or whatever, what's the one thing that he would do? And I know that he's always been a big proponent of just having one division, getting rid of the East and the West. But apparently his idea is to expand it in the u.s right and get the u.s markets involved again right so that was kind of an interesting take

and i think if he did it i don't think i would you know go into southern towns like they did before like you know birmingham or memphis i would try to, you know, stay along the border. Maybe get some, you know, a team in Montana or North Dakota. You know what I'm saying? Like teams that are like in close proximity to the Canadian border and, you know, probably would have a better, you probably have a fan base that might understand the Canadian game a little bit better. So I think if they were to do it, I think that would probably be the way to do it.

And I wouldn't go crazy either. Maybe like max four teams if if they were to do it, I think that would probably be the way to do it. And I wouldn't go crazy. I'd have maybe like max four teams if I was going to do it. But, you know, the other thing, the big problem with that is, you know, how you handle the ratio, right? I mean, the American teams would have all Americans, so they'd have a bit of a competitive advantage. Moj, I got to ask us anything to let you go here. Love it.

That's part of the program. Specifically for Moj, from maybe our most valuable listener, Justin in East Van, who does tireless work for this program. He's asked us anything for Moj. What's a road trip snack that you always get at the gas station? A road trip snack I always get where? At the gas station. I couldn't hear you.

At the gas station. Oh, at a gas station okay i couldn't hear you at the gas station um oh at a gas station yeah okay like jerky chips chocolate bar no red bull i don't even think red bull's a snack no no that's a good answer awake if i'm driving so right i mean like if you're driving you just i always get it like if i'm driving and, you know, going up to the interior or driving around, you know, going to Whistler or whatever, it's always the Red Bull just to make sure that I don't fall asleep at the wheel. Good choice, Moe. I like it. Okay, go enjoy the rest of Cabo.

Thanks for doing this. Have a Red Bull. Yeah, have a Red Bull and a couple of Margs. Hey, next week, next Thursday, we're in Winnipeg. That's enough said. Soak in the sun, buddy. Soak it in. When I come back, Friday we'll be back in Vancouver,

so it'll be all over. But just wish me well. Good luck, buddy. Have fun. Later, bud. See you, dude. All the best. Bob, the Moj Marjanovic live from Cabo here on the

Halpern and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Moj in an all-exclusive. All-inclusive. All-exclusive. All-inclusive. That's something different. Would be, uh,

like you would make friends with him real quick. Oh yeah. Yeah. Moj would be the guy. I went solo to an all inclusive once. I remember. For a week. I didn't talk to anyone.

Yeah. It was weird. It wasn't weird. It was weird. It was awesome. It was weird. Why was it weird? I bet Moj is solo there.

Sorry? I bet Moj is solo there. Yeah. Moj probably talked to people yeah i don't talk to anyone yeah i would just i had i had my book and i would uh wake up every morning go down to the pool or the beach read my book get a little drunk yeah that's weird and go to bed what that isn't that amazing wasn't that what what a lot of people would call amazing it's just like you did you went to it i'm

comfortable being by myself but you went to an all-inclusive to do that you could yeah you didn't need to go there why well you could have done it anywhere the all-inclusive part is i think inherently is that you can just sort of mingle with a bunch of different people at these no it's not okay it's just ease it's. The all-inclusive is ease. You don't want to mingle with a lot of people at the all-inclusives. Well, Moj does. Well, because he's Moj, right?

He's so gregarious. At the end of his Moj's week, I bet there's rumors that like, that guy won the Super Bowl once. Because there'd be so much confusion about him. He starts the rumors himself. Yeah, yeah. That was Bill Belichick, I think.

Who told you that? Bill. He's over there. I have a what we learned. Oh, okay. I learned that. Oh, yeah. Oh, no.

This is a different one. Sorry. Okay. Can I just? Well, you teased the Barkley one. I thought this was that, but then we did the Barkley thing. My bad. I learned, and this is through the Associated Press, that chicken wings that are advertised as boneless can have bones in them, according to the Ohio Supreme Court.

And it was a close vote, four to three ruling. The Supreme Court said Thursday that boneless wings refers to a cooking style. And this all came about because some poor guy, I guess, had to go to the hospital because a bone got stuck in his throat after eating boneless chicken wings. And I have to say, I very much disagree with the Ohio State Supreme Court here. And there are three dissenters. It was a narrow vote.

It was a narrow vote. It was a narrow vote. And the dissenting judge who wrote the dissent said, the question must be asked. Does anyone really believe that the parents in this country who feed their young children boneless wings or chicken tenders or chicken nuggets or chicken fingers expect bones to be in the chicken?

Of course they don't. When they read the word boneless, they think that it means without bones, as do all sensible people. Right? That would straight up happen to me. Nobody. If I was inhaling boneless wings and there was a bone in there, I would die. No one thinks that boneless wings are a quote unquote cooking style.

They think that the stuff you're getting doesn't have bones in it. Hence the name boneless. That's a good lobby right there. However. The wings are boneless. Repeat, boneless. I also kind of agree with the overriding ruling. Big chicken got to these judges.

Clearly. The lobbyists are paying Halford off. Listen to this, though. This makes sense to me. Common sense dictated that the presence of bone fragments in meat dishes, even advertised as boneless, is a natural enough occurrence that a consumer should reasonably expect it and guard against it. Big chicken got to Halford.

Hey, you're on your own, folks. You're on your own. If you go to McDonald's and you got nuggets, chicken nuggets, do you carefully eat them? There might be a bone in there. No, but I understand the inherent risk. You don't understand the inherent risk. You are definitely willing to bet your life on McDonald's.

If you're ordering something that has the word boneless in it, you shouldn't have to expect that there's a bone in there. Reasonably expect that there might be a bone fragment. No, you shouldn't reasonably expect it. You should expect that the restaurant or the producers of the boneless wings have taken reasonable care to make sure there's no bones in them so they can call them boneless chicken wings. When I go to McDonald's and I bite into something,

I'm reasonably expecting a lot of different things. Alfred, you've had many weird take in the time that I've known you, and this is one of the weirder ones. This is one of the weirder ones. This is a Supreme Court ruling. It's not weird. It's a weird ruling. It's stacked with people

that have been influenced by the chicken lobby, which is massive in Ohio, I imagine. Big chicken. They own the town. Yeah. At any rate, give me a moo cow. We need a chicken sound. Some sort of chicken sound. We couldn't even get the right barnyard animal. Anyway.

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

Not an Olympic event. Not an Olympic event. Breaking. Who would win the breaking event? Okay. It would be me. Are you sure? I think I actually was going to bet on A-Dog,

but maybe Laddie's goaltending experience might help him a little bit. You're flexible? I'm the least athletic of all four of us, so I wouldn't win any of the events. I think you'd find a way to win one of the events. I'm just not sure what it would be. Maybe like judo? Maybe like shot put or something. Something with a lot of

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

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

Yeah, I know. It's got to be an individual event. I will say that – He'd just be in goal the whole time. Right. God, he's going to score for me. Yeah, this is easy. But also hard.

I bet I could score on him. No. The net's pretty big. It's pretty big now. I would put your percentage chances at around zero. We have to try this. We have to get you out on the field now. That's what we're doing.

We have to get you out on the field now. We have to get you out on the field now. Maybe 20 years ago, pal. Such a big net, man. I can't even move anymore. Such a big net. I'm now putting it up to one. Challenge accepted. We should also note that on the subject of breakdancing, there's only one of the four of us that has taken breakdancing

lessons before. Who's that? That's me. I remember all the lessons. What? Carousel Community Center in 1988. Shut up. Yeah, yeah. I took one lesson. I'm less confident in my... Yeah.

You had breakdancing lessons at a community center? Yeah. I took a skateboarding class at a community center once. Why did you... Hold on. It's come up before.

I'm so mad we got to go to break. It's come up before. I got to unpack this. There's a lot here. We got to come back to this. No, but I've talked about it before. Why did you take break-ins? Because Michael Jackson did the moonwalk, man. And you wanted to do that.

Yeah. And then I went and I'm like, this is much harder. Wow, there's a lot of moving. I'm not coming back to this. We got one final hour. It was my first of many failed activities. It's like me with fencing. You did fencing? One class.

You did fencing? I tried it once. See, you'd win the fencing. How did you notencing You did fencing? One class You did fencing? I tried it once See you'd win the fencing How did you not bring up the fencing? Oh there we go yeah I forgot about that Okay fencing I'd kill you guys Literally

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