Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best of Halford and Brough 8/1/25

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports including a very busy MLB trade deadline, they get the latest BC Lions news from radio commentator Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich, plus the boys do some Ask Us Anythings. 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. Suzanne? Get your pyro on the phone. DiFrance. He swings and launches, left center field and deep. Back it goes. Go on!

Sabie-Sabster, it's Billy. I can let you have him from almost nothing. Why would you do that, Billy? Because I'm amazing. Uh-huh. Gino's got his first hit back with the Mariners, and he tiptoes in there with a stand-up double. Billy says he needs $225,000 for Ricardo Rico.

Please. Yes, I added the please at the end. Come on. Come on. Good morning, man, cover 6-1 on a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. It is Halper, it is rough. SportsNet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studios and beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver.

Jason, good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. And Arash, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Halford and Brough of the Morning is brought to by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com. We are coming you live from the Kintech studio, Kintech Footwear and Orthotics, working together with you and Step.

Great intro today, Arash. Very well done. You're wearing a his hat. So I was like, all right. You know my audience. Okay. A lot of you normally just kind of goes through the motions. Yeah.

And basketball, Ben. There's just really long audio clips. I hope he's listening right now. Basketball, Ben. I hope he's listening. We have a big show ahead on a Friday. Sweet, sweet Friday. It's a four guester here.

Five, actually, as a matter of fact. It begins at 6.30. We're going to the world to swimming. Toronto varsity blues swim coach. At the U of T, Byron McDonald is going to join the program. Not only one of the most decorated swim coaches in Canada, he also competed for Canada in the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. So he's going to join us to talk about, of course, Summer Macintosh,

currently competing in the World Aquatics Championship. It's not the world swimming championships, everybody. Don't ignore the rest of the aquatics. It's the World Aquatics Championship. This is going to remind me of swimming lessons too much. Talking to Byron? Yeah, I might, I might have a stomach ache for this interview. I get cold.

I don't like the pool. My mom said I used to... I'm with you there. I have very poor, very bad memories of swimming lessons. My mom said I always used to pray for a train that it would somehow interrupt our drive. C.G. Brown pool. Inverterby. Like a massive...

Yeah. Like, two-hour train or something? She's like, you want the train to hit the car? I'm like, if that's what it takes. If that's how we're going to get out of this, then that's what we're going to do. My entire bodily reaction was like, are you nuts? You want me to jump in that water? Well, I remember when they're like, like, okay, this is the part, you know, you've progressed a little bit.

And now we're going to throw a ring in the deep end. Yeah. You'll go get it. I'm like, you go get it. You're doing me PTSD right now. No, I'd be like, do you know all the things that could go wrong on the way there? There could be sharks over there. What is your plan?

What if I just start breathing? What if I just start breathing on the way down? What are you going to do then? And for what? A ring? Yeah, for a ring, what is? Well, this is how they call. What is the upside here?

This is how they call the week. Anyway, Summer McIntosh did all these things as a child. Look at her now. She's got three gold medals. The goal is to get five a feat. Only Michael Phelps has achieved a single world championship. So three down two to go. We'll talk to Byron McDonald.

I've never actually seen her go swim for a ring, though. I bet she could. I'm going to go out of a little bit. You could ask Byron McDonald's like, do you do the ring thing with your kids? You still do that? do you still have colors when you

that used to be the thing right when we were kids swim lessons you got a color there was a color coordination with every single level that you passed remember what you got to Maroon

Maroon was a Maroon was a big separate root over here yeah I don't know how it went I know this doesn't make any sense but the colors got more serious yeah yeah

all the fun colors was pretty good yeah if you get to black you might die they just took karate belts they took karate belts and they just took karate belts and they just applied them to these rings?

I think they flipped it somehow because I think there are... This has nothing to do with rings. The colors were the achievements that you got. How old are you? 35. I actually don't know how to swim, also get you know how to swim.

Better question. Never mind your age. Do you know how to swim? You used to get a badge at the completion of your swim lessons and it was color-coded. So you'd be like, I passed orange. Yeah.

Orange was easy. The hardest badge was at the bottom of the pool. I just had a kid and he was all blue And it was like, ah How funny would it be if one of the things That's why it was blue? Yes, you're not that good to swim around after all. How would it be if these rings were like one of the revisionist history things?

You know, we look back and we're like, if we knew what we knew now, they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do it. That's what we got to ask Byron, actually. That's a good question. He's like, are you going to ask him about Summer Maccadosh? No, no, no. But the rings, Byron, the rings.

Anyway, he's going to join us at 630 to talk about swimming and Summer Macintosh. 7 o'clock AJ from AJ's Pizza on his Broadway. He got a hold to me yesterday. He insisted, demanded that he interrupt his summer sabbatical to talk about post-MLB trade deadline stuff. So he'll be joining us at 7. That's a reminder that it is Ask Us Anything Friday. The best submission wins a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on his Broadway.

Get him in now. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650. Hashtag at AUA and put a pizza emoji into your text. You'll be entered into the grand prize contest. at 7.05, Adnan Verk is going to join the program. Now, you might be thinking, wait. Two Adnan's this week? Did you not do this yesterday?

And the answer is yes. We did do it yesterday. We spoke to Adnan before the 3 PM MLB trade deadline. And a hell of a lot happened after we left Adnan and then getting it back on the show today. The Padres went crazy. The twins sold everybody. The Jays made moves of significance so to the Yankees and the Astros. So we thought, you know,

know what? Let's get him back on the show. He obliged. She'll be joining us at 705. We'll run through everything that happened at the MLB trade deadline. 730, Landon Ferraro is going to join the program. So in addition to his budding media empire that he's got with the NHLs Canucks, the HLs Abbotsford Canucks. He's now got a new media endeavor, the 100% Canucks podcast with John Shannon. He gets better guests than we do. Way better guests. They thought, hey, how do we forge our space in this very crowded Canucks podcast ecosystem. And it was to get all the good guests that nobody else can get. They've had Adam Foote, Patrick Alveen, Connor Garland, Braden Coots, Scott Young, and most recently, Jake DeBrusk.

So we'll talk to Landon about his new podcast and all the guys that he's spoken to over this offseason. That's at 7.30. At 8 o'clock, it's the Moge. Yes, it's the Moge. The Play-by-Play voice of the BC Lions. No Lions game this weekend. They're on a buy. so we'll look back at that disappointing loss to Hamilton last weekend

and then look ahead to next week's rematch. We can also get into other things with Moge as well. Working in reverse on that guest list, 8 o'clock, it's Moge, 7.30, Landon Ferraro, 7.5, Adnan Verk, 7 o'clock, AJ from AJ's pizza, and 630 Byron McDonald. That's what's happening on the program today. A rash. 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'm moving. We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance,

making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools or resources and safety training. Visit them online at BCCSA.ca.ca. We got to begin with Major League Baseball Trade deadline craziness yesterday, right up until 3 p.n.R. time. Trades were coming in like Matt. It was hard to keep track of everything. So we're going to go through the most notable moves collectively from each team

as it all went down on Thursday afternoon and into the evening. Let's begin with the Toronto Blue Jays. While not the biggest mover of the day, the Jays did bring in four, count them four big league players, before the 6 p.m. Eastern deadline. They added Sir Anthony Dominguez, who we already knew about, Louis Varland, Shane Bieber, which was probably the most interesting of all of them,

former infielder Thai France. Here's a fun thing about Thai France. He is a one-time All-Star. He made the All-Star game in 2022 with the Seattle Mariners. He also gets hit by the ball a lot. He is the Mariners' all-time leader in hit-by pitches, passing Edgar Martinez. He would get plunked like every second game that Mariners actually put.

I'm sort of like, you got to stop standing on the plate here, But he loves to do it. He loves getting in by the head. You're not even allowed to do that. They also got a catching prospect by the name of Brandon Valenzuela. Let's hear now from SportsNet, Shai Daviti, on the collective, the entirety of what the Jays did at the trade deadline

and what it looks like moving forward. Here's Shai Daviti from yesterday. I think from a Blue Jays vantage point, this was a very two brand type of deadline, where they had a few different needs. They addressed them. They didn't necessarily get the biggest names, but they didn't pay the big.

biggest prices either. You think about the two bullpen pieces that they get in Sir Anthony Dominguez a couple days ago, Louis Varland today. They add a bat in Thai France who gives them a bit more depth. And then in a very difficult starting pitching market, they get Shane Bieber, who has a little bit of upside. And to me, he really makes or breaks this deadline for the Blue Jays because there is an element of risk in his acquisition back. Boring Blue Jays. Wasn't that boring? It was just safe. Compared to everyone else? It was just safe.

Well, compared to the Padres? Here's the thing about the Padres deadline is half the fan base hates it. More than half the fan base hates it. That's fair. They're furious that they sold the farm. The general rule at the MLB trade deadline is you're going to get prospects, but very rarely do teams part with their best prospects.

And then the San Diego Padres went, what if we parted with the best prospect anywhere? Doesn't that make you kind of want to cheer for the Padres? I love it. A little bit, right? AJ Preller is a madman. That's the Padres GM. The fans will be happy when they win the World Series this year, though.

Here's the thing. They have to get through the Dodgers. Now, ignoring that. But they've got to get through them eventually. I know. Ignoring that premise is great. Maybe they're just like, well, we're never going to. I mean, they spend money.

But maybe they're like, well, we can't outspend them. So we got to take a shot once in a while. Maybe they feel the Dodgers are a little bit vulnerable right now. Or you just say, as you pointed out, you're going to have to be the best to be the best. Yeah. At a certain point. Like, you can't keep kicking the can down the road because there's other good teams

that you don't think you're going to be able to beat. I watch a lot of Padres games. They're a good team. They're a fun team. They've got a loaded lineup. Their bullpen was already the best in the National League. And then they went out and added Mason Miller. So if they get into a series where maybe something goes wrong

in the early stages and they have to go to the bullpen early, they are more than capable of like kind of stemming the blue leading, and then playing catch-up because they're going to be unhittable when they get Miller and everyone else, and then finishing with Suarez in a game. Give me a Mariners, Padres World Series, two sad club franchises. The Mariners have never even been to a world series. The Padres have been a couple times, never won it. Give me that.

That would be great. Well, I mean, all the Blue Jays fans were like, that wouldn't be so great. Hold on, Jason. What about a Blue Jays' Padres World Series? sure you're really underwhelmed by this trade deadline i will say this in the context of what well beber's the key right like right i i i'm those other guys have to do their jobs but beber's the upside bet they strengthen their pen with two relievers but they're going to be they're not closers or at least if they're forced into closing for hoffman that means something's gone wrong with hopman

but the whole key to this thing is shame beber now for those of you that might be unaware didn't listen to yesterday's show. On paper, the Jay's just picked up an elite starter. At his peak, when he's healthy, Shane Bieber is one of the best pitchers in baseball. He's a former Cy Young winner, multiple All-Star. He can really pitch. He's a big dude. He's got good command. The only issue is he hasn't really pitched since 2023. Slight issue. It's a bit of an issue. Now, he had Tommy John, right? He had Tommy John in 2004. But even, Even in 2004, I think he only pitched 12 innings before he got this. 24, not 2004.

2,024, yeah. Very young for Tom. If he hasn't pitched since 2004, we got problems. That's like 21 years between starts. That's going to be an issue. Anyway, right now, the Jay's rotation is Gossman, Burrios, Bassett, Scherzer, and Lauer. If Bieber can get back and get healthy and get right, he probably bumps Lauer, although Lauer's been good this year. And he's got a ERA below three.

It could also be Scherzer. who's only started seven games, but I think you want to keep Schurzer around for his big game experience in the playoffs. As for Bieber. I love seeing Bieber trending on social media in Canada. And a lot of people must be very confused when they click on this.

Yeah. They're like he got surgery on his elbow, the singer. Anyway. Yeah, Justin Bieber got Tommy John. Bieber's had a couple rehab starts already. Apparently, he's confident enough in where he feels that they've already mapped out a plan with the Jays where he might join the rotation

after two more rehab starts in the minors, which I find interesting. You know, Ross Atkins, who by the way, because him and Shapiro have so many ties and other guys in the organization as well to Cleveland, they were pretty familiar with Bieber's work, and I think that's part of the... And then they've made a bunch of other deals

with Cleveland as well during their time in Toronto. They're pretty confident that, one, he's going to get right and get healthy this year and two, like he's going to be a guy it's going to be in the rotation for them in the playoffs. So if this pans out, this once safe deadline suddenly goes to

wow, they made a really shrewd move but a lot of things have to go right. Like not only does Bieber have to get right and get healthy, he's got to rediscover the form. Like there's no magic wand that says you are now a Cy Young winner again. Like he's 30 years old. He hasn't pitched

in a long time and he's going into the heart of the season. Is there is it more encouraging or worrying that the JAs remember that hot streak that they were on when everyone was contributing

you know like call up a guy from the miners and he'd contribute he didn't have a big hit or something is that more encouraging or discouraging looking ahead to the playoffs that they don't really have a guy that's like offensively

or you can push back on this maybe they do that's like on fire you'd really have to pitch around this guy my i think what they're hoping right now is that with the season and bo's having a very good season especially at the plate he's and especially lately and with vladdie heating up their hope is that these guys are going to be at their peak and prime in august and september and that we have added enough around them in terms of bullpen help and then when we get to the postseason we get later in the season that's when the beber effect and not justin but that's when the beber effect comes in now now now here's the thing that's all pie in the sky optimism and it's banking almost exclusively on one guy compared to let's go

through some of these other teams what about the mariners now well the mariners i mean cal do you have to do you have to pitch around cow rally now the mariners lineup and by the way the mariners got off to a nice little start yesterday from the post trade trade deadline bump with the six nothing win over the Rangers. Cal Rally, as you mentioned, hit his 42nd home run of the year yesterday. Eugenio Suarez back in Mariners' color. It's very exciting. I believe he scored on a wild pitch, so he chipped in as well. I want to throw this over to some audio from their general manager, Jerry Depoto, because DePoto flat out said it, he's like, we want to give these guys their best shot at winning a World Series. And they did it with the acquisitions of Naylor and

Suarez. Here is Seattle Manor's general manager, Jerry DePoto, on what he did to push his team closer to a World Series. This one we went a little bigger, and it was players who were our free agents at here to that, which is a little unique for us, but we felt like this team deserved the opportunity to just go out and see if we win the World Series. We feel like we have as good a lineup as there is in our league,

our rotation. If the guys do the things that they do is proven that they can be as good as anybody in this league, and the guys at the back of that bullpen are really good if we give them the opportunity to get a little bit of rest in between. So hopefully we hit on all cylinders moving forward. So definitively saying, like, we're giving these guys a best chance to win a world series.

I think it was important because this is an organization. I think everyone's well aware. And if you're not, you know, Jerry DePoto's most famous line is the general manager of the Seattle Mariners, where he said the goal was to win 54% of our games. Right? This was always an organization that was, I mean, accused, but accused rightly of maybe not necessarily having that go for it,

mentality, but trying to win enough games year over year to remain somewhat competitive. And now, salary restrictions. Yeah. They don't, they don't, relatively speaking, their owner is not that rich. And they went for it. And now they, and now they've gone for it. And look, if there was one thing that I totally understand from yesterday about some of the angst and when you yelled out boring, when it came to the Js, it was that at a trade deadline where a lot of the other contending teams made really big, bold, aggressive, moves the jays weren't in lockstep right the yankees completely redid their bullpen san diego acquired like eight players and if you look at houston they went out and made the

carlos carrera trade so there was a lot of different teams that are in the mix that were like we're going for it you know to be damned with the other favorites we want to get our seat at the table because we think we're a good ball team and that's a mentality approach and the jays kind of played it safe they didn't buy big but they didn't spend big either and And it's one of those things where you're left saying, okay, it's fine. Let's see how it plays out with Bieber. And that's not the most exciting trade deadline. It was Atlanta a couple of, was it a couple of years ago that made like so many moves?

And that was former Jay's executive, Alex Anthopoulos. He rebuilt the team, basically. The whole outfield of replace. Yeah. I do want to get to the tennis before we go to break. It has not been a great NBO in Toronto and Montreal for Canadians, but Victoria Mbocco is doing as much as she can to change that. Her magical run in Montreal continued yesterday. The 18-year-old won her third round match against Marie Buzcova, who I know absolutely nothing about until last night.

Despite losing the first set, 6-1. Got absolutely smoked and then returned the smoking. 6-3-6-0, 6-0, 6-6-love, as they call it, in tennis. On Thursday night, to not just advance and be the only Canadian woman left in contention, she now gets a chance to play Cocoa golf. On the weekend, Saturday's center court in Montreal. Let's hear the very understated English final call. Here's Victoria Mobocco's win from last night. To move on to the fourth round, if she can, to take on the top seat next in Cocoa Golf.

Victoria is victorious once again. Mbocco delighting the home crowd, keeping Canadian hopes very much alive here. last night. I love an understated Englishman on the call. Yeah, so it's like, and the world has had to talk. Well done, young lady. Yeah, this is going to be cool. This is going to

be, I mean, last night was a moment for her, but I hope she's prepared for what awaits her when, like, the hype is building big time, and now she's got Cocoa Goff, center

court. This is the match of this tournament. so far, and it might be, you know, depending on who wins, it might be the biggest match everyone talks about. She played golf earlier this season, by the way. It was in Rome on Clay, though. Oh, how'd she do? She lost, yeah.

It was a three-setter, though, so she pushed golf. And if you look at what Mboko's done this year, I believe this is her sixth win against a top 50 players. So it's not like she hasn't gone up against good competition throughout the year. There's a reason that she's ascended the rankings as much as she has. But again, for a tournament right now where, you know, no, I don't think anyone expected Jeannie Bouchard and Vachik Pospicil to go very far. They were kind of doing their retirements. And they bowed out early.

You know, Layla Fernandez bowing out early. Bianca Andrescu getting hurt. And then on the men's side, you know, Chapo and Felix dropping out as early as they did, there's an added pressure here. Diallo's still. Diallo's still in, for sure. But Mboko's really become the story right now. In large part because of the opponent. Like this is a...

Well, she's also 18 years old. Yeah, and this is... Not the opponent in Bolko is. No, no, I know. But the opponent that she's... Everyone, look, when we were talking about yesterday's match, I don't think either of us knew who she was playing. But we knew that if she was going to win,

she was going to get to go against Cocoa Gough. And that was going to be center court Saturday night in Montreal. It was going to be a really big thing. Okay. Sorry, I got one more I need to do, by the way, because I know we got a couple minutes. Okay. I don't want to mention...

that there was a Hall of Fame exhibition game in the National Football League yesterday even though it kicked off the season and even though it was a 34 to 7 win for the Chargers backups against the Lions backups. I'm not going to mention that. I am going to mention the fact that

we got rid of the chain gang officially yesterday and the NFL has implemented its virtual measurement system. Did you see it? Is that for the whole season? I thought it's definitely for the whole season? Okay, it's not just for the Hall of Fame game.

They weren't just trying it out. It's the new virtual measurement system. it's here say farewell to the chain gang so like I don't need to see the chain gang I know you like the chain gang it's a total waste of time you know what you just get these

and it seems so unscientific it's just like what are we doing here when they take out the the pocket card from their back pocket and they slide it between the football and the chain to show you that there's a gap between that was always the biggest everyone knew this was

not scientific but that was the best part we'd be like hanging out like where's the spot i'm like first of all who did the spotting right like the ball is hidden from anyone everyone because it's like underneath 12 massive dudes and some referees like i think it was right here it is amazing that in a league that is on the cutting edge of technology they were still relying on a 78 year old linesman named walt to run out and be like i think it was there right there but then it would sometimes change while he ran out there Well, I had to dodge a little to the right. So actually, it's right here.

And then a crew of approximately 18 guys to pull a chain and all look at it together and be like, yep, we got it right. That's a first down. So how this actually works is there is a chip in every NFL football, but the chip isn't used for this. The chip is used for next gen stats tracking. Okay. This is Sony's Hawkeye technology. So that's the same as tennis. That's what you see at Wimbledon.

You are correct, my friend. It is six. guy six 8k cameras that judge where the ball is spotted and then you know superimposes the line so they broke it out yesterday a couple times oh it's not like six hawks no watching it not a single hawk to be found which again was disappointed the hawks bring out the chains and like the humans are like how did this happen anyway how did we lose our jobs to these guys anyway uh also tray lance man yep trelland's kind of made fun of them yesterday well i mean why didn't make fun of him. You didn't know he was playing with the Chargers.

That was the joke. Well, I said we kind of made fun of him. All right. Don't throw me. Don't act like you were on the Trey Lance band. I was like, I was going to be great under Harbaugh. I was gambling on Trey Lance. I'm like, you look good. Yeah, he threw a touchdown to Will Disley to remember him. And then Harbaugh, yeah, and then

Harbaugh kept him in the second half. Dan Campbell was not impressed with his team's five turnovers, but when asked, he said, eh, who cares? Okay, we got to go to break. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. What up, Moge. First off, I'm not in a good mood this morning because I lost a half hour sleep, right?

What? Why? The alarm went off at 7 because I thought I was doing a 7.30 hit. So the alarm went off at 7. The alarm should have got off at 7.30 if I'm doing an 8 o'clock hit. I'm sorry, Moge. Who do we blame for this? Is it Andy? Me.

Oh, okay. Is it Andy? No. It's Andy. No. It's Andy. By the way, I can talk movies. I don't know why you say I can't.

I love to talk movies. It's more the, you didn't like the premise of Ask Us Anything. You didn't, you thought it was, I think, silly. Well, you're asking me about some, yeah,

like the Simpsons or South Park or something, hard pass. Those are like two very small. We're talking anything. Like, okay, are you going to now make rules on Ask Us Anything? Like,

the whole premise is ask us anything. You can't be like, ask us anything, but not Simpsons or South Park. You can ask me anything and how it's up to me if I'm going to answer or not, that's all. Okay, that's fair.

Well, I mean, you're not under indictment or anything like that. It's not like you have to plead the fifth. Yet? Yet. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm going to start by asking about the BC Lions. How do they regroup after that loss to Hamilton? Well, I mean, it was a tough loss. I mean, clearly, I mean, you blow a 10-point lead like that at home. They've just got to, you know, they've got to rinse it.

They just got to forget about it. I mean, learn from it. Yeah. I mean, go through the tape, figure out what you did right, what you did wrong, reinforce what you did right, and then try to correct what you did wrong, but you can't dwell on it because there's so much more, there's a lot more football left to be played. It's interesting, though, like, you know, a lot of people are giving Mike Menevite's

a hard time, the defensive coordinator for the soft coverage that he played, but here's the thing that I've talked to is so many defensive coordinators. You hear about pre-med defenses and say people say, oh, it prevents you from winning. and I've talked to a lot of DCs about this and just about all of them agree the issue that you have when you call defenses like that is that they still have to be played aggressively

but players just subconsciously you know it's a prevent it's a defense where you're playing soft they play soft they don't play aggressive and that's half the battle when you call these defenses is the mindset of your

players. And, you know, the lines got caught being a little bit passive. I mean, you know, the only complaint that I had about that, probably if they would have, once they got in the field goal range, I would have come after them. I really would have. And I would have blitz the host, I would have done something to try to get Bo Levi off his mark and make a mistake. Because even then if they do score, right, they're going to score with a minute left, a minute 10 left, whatever the case may be. And you're going to give your offense a chance. But, you know, we wound up, you know, hindsight's 20-20. And it's, and it's a minute. And it's, I actually called it during the broadcast.

I told Julio, so they've got to come with the Boots because they're going to score with like, I said six seconds left. In fact, it turned out to be 14. But that's probably the only thing I look at maybe from a philosophical standpoint that I would have done differently. But, hey, like I said, hindsight's 2020.

It's a lot easier when you're watching on TV or in a broadcast booth than being on the sidelines and calling the plays. Do they have good enough personnel in the secondary or everywhere on defense? Well, I think they do, but I definitely think they're not playing up to their capabilities. The defensive line is the last two games, I'm sorry, it's not been good enough. It's been brutal.

And, you know, you can get more out of Cone 2 EMMA, you can get more out of Matthew Betts. The secondary, okay, you're playing two rookies and a guy in a second year, so I can understand that, you know, maybe you're trying to protect them with some of the coverages that you're calling. But, you know, Robert Carter, I think, is an exciting young player. I mean, it was a hell of an interception as we saw. And I think he did it in college at Robert Morris, too. So, I mean, this guy's an athlete. Blaylock was in for Jalen Edwards Cooper.

Hopefully they get Edwards Cooper back after the buy. We'll see about that. But I think they have the personnel to be a good defense. And they've played well at times. But I just think it starts with the defensive line. These are veteran players. These are players that need to bring more to the table. I think Jonah to Lai is another guy that has to bring a little bit more

in terms of a pass rush. So for me, it starts with a defensive line and getting heat on the quarterback. And once you do that, you're going to ease up. Or you're going to, you know, the secondary won't be under as much pressure. I mean, to me, the most glaring thing, and it wasn't just the Hamilton game.

It's two weeks in a row at home where you leave with no sacks. And it's not like they were playing against the most mobile quarterbacks in the CFO in Trevor Harris and Bo Levi Mitchell. So part of that is like the D-line not doing its thing. but when you, I harken back to what you said earlier about, you know, dialing up a blitz, it just felt like they needed, you can't go through two weeks at home, too,

where you've got the crowd on your side when the opposing offense is on the field. Like there has to be some disruption in the backfield, and there was nothing for two straight games at BC Plus. No, 100% bang on. I totally agree. But, you know, the counter to that, and a lot of people will tell you this, is you decide to dial up the blitz. Now that's secondary that you are worried about, basically,

is playing man to man with no help, but basically it covers zero, right? You're playing man across the board, and if somebody gets beat, it's basically six points. So, you know, there's your drawback on dialing up the blitz. Do you have enough faith in your secondary should the blitz get picked up that they can cover those receivers

and not give up a big play? So, you know, that's the negative to just, you know, everybody's, oh, just blitz? Well, okay. Do you have the people in the secondary to be able to, help out. So right now it's a really bad combination. A young secondary with a pass rush isn't effective.

It's not good. They're going to have to figure it out a way. And again, I think they have the talent internally to get this thing going, but they need to get more. But it's just, you know, like you said, two games, nothing. Absolutely nothing. Right? So they've got to

figure it out and they've got to figure out in a hurry. I don't know whether to be worried or not about the lions because on the one hand, Nathan Rourke has looked pretty good, and it looks like, to your point, there is talent on this team. On the other, they've only won three games, and two of them were against Edmonton. Yeah.

I'm still the belief that this team is going to get stronger as the season progresses. And I have a lot of faith in Buck Pierce, and a lot of fans are down on Buck Pierce. But this isn't Buck Pierce's work. is, you know, the remnants of what Rick Campbell had left. Yeah, okay, they've got some new players, but they're trying to establish a new culture, new identity. And I've talked to Buck about this.

And, you know, one of the things that when you're on a winning team, as Buck was in Winnipeg, when you're faced with adversity, you're like, okay, we're going to figure out a way to do this. Anyone who's played sports, you know, any competitive level knows this. Those really good teams that you're on, you're always confident that you're going to win or find a way to win. like, okay, fellas, let's get this done, right? Like, okay, we're down a couple of touchdowns going on the fourth quarter.

We got this, right? But when you're on a team that's struggling, as soon as something bad happens, it's more of that, oh, here we go again, right? And right now, I think the Lions are trying to build that culture where they have that belief that they're going to win, no matter what the circumstances and have that confidence. And I don't know if everyone has, I don't want to say, bought into it, but practiced it, right?

And that's where they're at. And once they start getting players to actually believe that no matter what happens in the game, they're going to overcome this adversity and find a way to win. There are going to be some bumps in the road. But, you know, plus, they're still going to have more talent, fellows. I mean, this is the first year for a new regime. They're not going to get everybody that they want in year one. So, you know, maybe it's going to be a two-year project.

Maybe it's going to be three years before this team is a team that's an elite team in the Canadian football team. a league and contending for a great cup. Moja, let's talk a little baseball now. What did you think of the deadline? You know what? Major League Baseball has the best trade deadline. I'm sorry. It does.

I mean, big names being moved, tons of trades. Anybody who thinks that hockey has a better deadline? No. NFL, it's, no, NFL is a comedy. And NBA, who cares? So. Tusha. A fine point you make.

I think Major League Baseball has like the best deadline. There's so many names being moved. But you know it's an interesting dynamic. And I heard you guys talking earlier about the Blue Jays and the prospects and that's not. Okay. So I'm the commissioner of this pool that we've had for like whatever, 35 years. And I digress here, but just stay with me. So when a player, it's an American League only pool, right?

So when a guy gets traded to the National League, you get the first right of refusal on the prospects coming over. So I was going to look up these prospects and say, hey, you want so-and-so, do you want this guy, do you want that guy, and talk to the owners in their league. But when you're looking at most of these prospect guys, they're not like top 10 prospects, top five prospects on your team. I go to Baseball America.

I can't even find some of these guys, and Baseball America lists like the top 30 prospects on each team. And I saw something on Twitter the other day. In the last three years, I think there have been, two top 100 prospects traded during the deadline. That's right. Right.

And even yesterday, I mean, the only trade that I looked at yesterday, I said, wow, this is a bounty is the DeVries trade. Where San Diego traded Debris, Bateman, High Tower. I mean, those are all pretty good prospects, right? But I mean, for the most part, the other guys that are being dealt in most of these deals. They're shrapnel. They're like the 10th or 11th or 12th best prospect on their team,

never mind like, you know, cracking a top 100 list. So it's interesting because teams just don't want to trade prospects. If this was hockey and they were trading prospects of this caliber, hockey fans were taking it out. They do really think they go nuts. I mean, they went nuts losing Dakota Joshua for a fourth round pick. But I mean, I'm just looking at like, you know, what's coming back in these trades sometimes? And I'm just like, whoa, that's really not that much.

But it is just an interesting dynamic in baseball the way it's gone. Yeah, like it's funny because the DeVries trade, don't people don't probably follow the major league baseball draft as closely as other ones but I mean it would be the equivalent of like we had um donwood L on the show the other day from Columbus it roughly would have been the equivalent of like Columbus trading Caden Lindstrom yeah like your most highly touted top because because Lindstrom and I don't even know if it would be comparable because DeVries wasn't just the top prospect in the Padres organization he was the number three prospect in all of baseball yeah like that was an untouching

touchable guy. The Padreys better win the World Series this year. And I get why Padres fans were upset because, I mean, I know they might transition Miller back to being a starter, but he's a reliever right now, at least by trade, and they've got the best bullpen in baseball. I get at trading, you know, to make a strength and even greater strength. But to do it with that kind of prospect is crazy. But it goes back to what you were saying.

Like sometimes when the arms race happens with the expansion of the playoff field and more teams feeling like they're in. minute, more teams will get after it. Like, look at Seattle, for example. I mean, they made huge moves at the deadline, very uncharacteristic for that organization, but you look at them now and you're like, yeah, there's a team prime to maybe get through the AAL and to go to the

World Series. Yeah, and you know, the other thing, too, is just the way, what teams are doing at the deadline in terms of who they're targeting? I mean, you know, in previous times, back in the day, when starters were more impactful at the major league level, people, you know, they'd be going after

those big-time horses, right, and trying to acquire Randy Johnson or Kurt Schilling at the trade deadline. Now it's just about loading up your bullpen. I mean, look what the Mets did. They went on and got Soto who used to be a closer in Detroit. They went on and got Heisen, who was the closer in St. Louis, and they still have D.S.

I mean, you've got 7, 8, 9 covered with three guys that, you know, are potential closers or our closers. Even Mason Miller going on the Padres and still got Suarez. Right? So, I mean, now you're going to have a one-two punch of Miller and Suarez. Never mind the other arms they have in that San Diego bullpen

Morion and Adam, yeah, it's crazy. More John and all those guys. I mean, it's really interesting to see how teams, you know, go about building at the deadline as well. Okay, Moge, despite how this call started, I did flag a food ask us. And I think it's a good one because it's not just about food. It's about romance.

You ready for this? Okay, far away. Which Simpsons character? No, I'm sorry. Woodrow, Woodrow writes in and asks us anything for Moge. How would the Moge plan a picnic date? Where would you go and what food would you bring? Okay, first off picnic dates are off the table.

Off the table. You mean off the blanket? No, with two knee replacements. Have you ever seen me try to get up and down? Okay. No. Fair enough. Fair enough.

Like I'd embarrass myself. I would, you'd need a Sikorsky to get me back up. You can tie a rope to it and like, you know, I'm serious. Like me, so when the lines go Offside at practice or Everybody's got to do push-ups, right? Yep.

So we're in Camelps, so we're doing push-ups, and the team president, Duane Vanneu said, Moj, you don't have to do push-ups. You're going to hurt yourself getting up and down. Like, he honestly told me I didn't have to do push-ups. Also, you're not on the team. Two things.

Yeah, I was just like, no, I can do them. It's okay. Well, hold on. How did it go before you answer the picnic question? Did you manage to do? How did what go? The push-ups? Oh, the push-ups. Push-ups are fine.

I can rock the push-ups. The push-ups are a problem. But getting out. That was one thing during COVID. Like, you know, he had nothing to do during COVID, so I took out that 50 push-ups and 50-day thing and killed it. So that's like I'm still kind of doing them a little bit here and there. Sounds like someone's in line for a picnic date.

Okay, go ahead. You're going to do well. I'll tell you, do you want to hear a great story. Yes. A great story? So it involves Katerina Vitt. Let's hear it. Yes.

Did you hear the Katerina Vitt story? I know, you know what? I do know there. is a catarina vitt story i don't know what it is but i've heard the aura and the lore of it yeah so here's here's what happened she came to town vancouver during the world figure skating championships i don't know it's like a year before the olympics and we wound up interviewing at her studio right so i gave him a card just said hey if you want a tour of vancouver let me know i'd love to take you around blah blah blah right no big deal a couple days later my phone rings and it's catarina

a vet hey do you still want to give me that tour around vancouver i'm like you know the pope catholic hello what we did is we went out I got a limo like from my old buddy gentleman Jim we had a concert deal with got my limo and went to Fortease and picked up a huge platter at Fortes right? Like a seafood

platter and like you know it was like a charcutory board with seafood on anyways it was an amazing class so we drove around the city went to Stanley Park we went up to like you know that point up there that oversees like the Lions Gate Bridge did everything right? Park! You got a makeout point.

Then we come back. She's like is this make up point? Yeah, okay, keep going, keep going. Yeah. Well, I'm a disliked Forte, and I go, I've got to go, my show starts at 4 o'clock. This was on 1040, the sports zone, before 1040 even became the team, right? So you're talking, yeah, we're talking like 2000, 1999. So what happens is she goes, oh, she goes, well, why don't we just do the opening segment on your deck? On the deck here in Fortes?

I'm like, yeah, okay, I guess that could work. And the reason I could pull it off is because we've done two pre-tapes earlier in the day. I think it was John Davidson and Bobby all of all people. So did the opening segment on the Fortease Decliffe or on the phone, ran the two pre-tapes and I was back at 5 o'clock. She had to be back at GM Place or Rogers Arena by about, I don't know, 4.30 or something.

But that was probably the extent of any sort of, quote, picnic type lunch that I've ever done. You know, you ticked a lot of the boxes. That is an amazing story. That's right. I bet Katerinavind never forgot her seafood charcuttery board picnic date in a limo. I'm going to say that. I bet she never forgot it.

I think it was like a seafood tower or something like that. But anyway, it was phenomenal and like just sitting there nibbling on a little, you know, charcutory board driving around Vancouver and seeing all the sites. It was nice. This is why we ask Moge, ask us anything for this exact reason. Moge, you're the best, buddy. Thanks for doing this today. We appreciate it.

Enjoy the weekend. We're on vacation for a while, so we won't talk again until later in August. We're out of here. Where are you guys going? I'm going to... They're going to Disney World together. Yeah. I don't even know if I'm going to talk to A-Dog.

I don't know if I can do next week because this is how crazy this travel is. How about this? So we play in Hamilton Thursday. Yep. Right? We'll get back probably like three or four in the morning on the charter. And then I'm taking my significant other. We are going to Cancun at 8 o'clock in the morning.

Nice. That's going to be like four hours between landing from Hamilton and then flying to Cancun. I won't, I don't know. I'm actually come to think of it. I won't be available next Friday. Okay, there you go. Adag, one. No, no cancun hit?

Problem solved for next week. Well, you know what? Hey, I'll be taking off at 8 o'clock. It could be like another one of those really like short 13 second hits like we had that one time. Oh, that was amazing. All right. Goodbye. Take it off.

Moge, enjoy your vacation, buddy. Okay, follow. See you, Paul. Bye. That's Bob the Moj, Marjohnovich. It's here on the Halford & Bruff Show on. SportsNet 650. So I'm always smiling

or laughing when we're chatting with Moge. It makes you laugh. Can you imagine Moge driving around in a limo

with catarine of Vitt? Yeah. And just be like, this is going to happen? Giant stack of shrimp on a plate. Is this real? Throwing the shrimp tails

out with the limo. I love your shrimp tails, Moj. Moge shooting is shot with Katerion of it is the most on-brand Moge thing. Moge's confidence burns with the fire of a thousand sons.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. And I respect the hell out of it. Katerinae of it. Nice work, Moge. Okay. It is Ask Us Anything Friday here on the Halford and Brough show on SportsNet 650. A friendly reminder to get yours in. Dunbar Lumber text matches in basket is

650, 650, 650. Hashtag it, AUA. Tell us, or ask us, sorry, literally anything. It doesn't have to be about sports. It can be about anything. Put a pizza emoji into your text. You'll be entered into the grand prize contest for a $100 dollar gift card to AJ's Pizza on these Broadway. Okay, we'll do a quick one here. That probably won't be quick. Okay. Oz with and ask us anything. If someone came up to you and said they had the funding to make the next great sports movie and they wanted your help

deciding what to make. What sport would you make it about? Is it based on a true story and what is the tone of the movie going more dramatic or like a longest yard or major league? type comedy. I know what I do right away. I would do a documentary on the Bertuzi Moore incident and I'd use all that money to try and draw both of them out

to speak about it publicly because I think getting Steve Moore out would take a lot of money at this point. And I don't even know if you'd do it for money. But that would be right at the top of my list. It is the most unexplored drama and saga of the last two decades in the NHL that you've never,

like no one's really ever done like the definitive podcast, movie, documentary interview just to get the whole thing, the trial,

all the parties. I mean, Sky Rintel looked into it, like, didn't it? But his was the West Coast Express. Yeah,

but that was part of it. Yeah, I know, but it just wasn't like, it's hard to get guys on the record when there's been legal stuff.

You need to talk to Steve Moore. Yeah. That's the white whale of interviews in the whole thing. And I don't know how much money it would take, but if you had an infinite budget, you put like millions of dollars

in front of the guy. How many agree, do you think there have been agreements written? Like, don't talk about this? I don't even know. I don't. And neither do I. And that's part of the great unexplored story. That's what I would do.

I would do something very different. Okay. Tell me if this has already been done. Because I think this would be an interesting pitch for a comedy. Now, I don't have the chops to write it, but I've got the elevator pitch. Okay. Okay. So I was.

It's a hockey player who discovers golf. No, okay, go ahead. As a golfer that discovers hockey. And he's like, well, it's pretty hard to skate. Really? No. Give me the elevator Okay, here's the idea

Okay, there's a super super rich guy Right? Yeah And he buys a professional sports team Okay And as an FU to the rest of the owners And kind of the world Yeah

He moves that team to a very small town Okay What's his driving force for the FU? There needs to be something Like, there's got to be some antitrust stuff there. You know how, like, you know, some leagues have the power to say, well, you're not moving it there. But like in NFL, there's some, I don't know, I haven't quite got all that. But anyway, let's suspend reality a little bit.

Sure. The idea is that this small town gets this big league team. Classic trope. And they get to cheer for them. The big city goes to the small town. And there's all sorts of funny characters. Yeah. I haven't written yet.

well hold on hold on you can just say I have an eye what do you think of my idea I like it you need to have a really compelling driving force as to why this guy would do what feels like intentional sabotage yeah you need some stakes like maybe one of the other owners killed his parents that got went too far right away I acknowledge this

no you might be honest something but you need a man of sorts you need an inherent drive maybe again with the dead parents and everything but you need a driving force to why why would you do it right but the hook is great because you'd bring the glitz and the glamour of Yeah, yeah. And it would be like all these guys are like, they show up and like, this is where we're playing.

Yep. And they would be. Yeah. They would be. And then eventually they'd be like, you know, I learned something. The big city is fun. But these small towns have true values. That's true.

There would be one guy in the small town that was like the sheriff, but he also ran the local market. And he'd be like, we don't. And he used to be a running back, high schooled running back. He could have been a star. And now he's the sheriff. And he ends up shooting someone. right didn't see that coming right with the shooting anyway again i'm i'll feed this all into chat or chad gpt okay it's a pretty good idea i think you need some surfboards

sick bro okay wait i like his ada calm down my pitch is solid andy calm down we're going to let you do yours too don't worry i got two quick ones we're going to table jasons and now we're going to go to yours go okay first one is a senior league edition of mighty ducks so you can't do it another 20 years. You have to wait until every actor's in like their 70s. And you have to bring them back in their twilight years to compete against another team and to show that they're still the greatest hockey team of all time. In an old-timers league. Yeah, all the original Mighty Ducks actors, Coach Bombay is there, but they're all 70-something.

So again, you can't do it now. You'll have to wait a couple of 20 years or so. I'm not going to lie. That's actually not a bad thing. My other idea is the best basketball players on Earth, team up with the world's most famous cartoon characters to take on a group of aliens to try and invade Earth. And they have to take them on in some sort of tournament in space and there'll be jams involved. I call it Alien Ball. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough.