Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 8/19/24

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Jason Brough and guest host Josh Elliott-Wolfe look back at an eventful weekend in sports, they talk the Canucks trading Vasily Podkolzin to the Oilers, plus the boys chat with BC Lions head coach Rick Campbell on Nathan Rourke's debut in yesterday's loss.  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. The Holmes keeps, it goes behind the back. Kelsey's got it for the first down. I'm sorry to the fans. I know there's a lot of excitement going in this game, and I didn't deliver. I think he'll fare well,

and if he goes out there and lights it up, it wouldn't surprise me. I don't think he's going to go out there and have a clunker. Vasily Voskovin Good morning, Vancouver. 6 a.m. on a Monday. Happy Monday. It is Halford and Brough. No Halford once again.

Last week before he's back from his three-month vacation. It's Josh Elliott-Wolfe. Jason Brough is back, though. Welcome back. Good morning. Good morning. And I apologize in advance if I have a clunker today because I might be a little rusty like Nathan Rourke. I was catching up on, well, everything that happened in sports in the last two weeks just last night.

So I might have missed a few things. So just bear with me. Fair enough. Luckily, a lot of things happened last night. But before we get to that, good morning, A-Dog. Good morning. Good morning, Laddie. You're back. Hello, hello. Welcome back. Alfred Nabruff is brought to you by

the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. You can text in as well. 650-650. The Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved Street Dunbar Lumber in Lattner has moved to progress when Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome. Details at

DunbarLumber.com. I haven't done this for a while. Yeah, welcome back. But I think I can do it. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. reviews Sorfy, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for So today on the show, a lot to get into 6.30, Mike Tenier NFL writer for 2 Deep Zone It was preseason week 2

In the NFL, a lot of storylines there Including rookie quarterbacks Doing their thing again Caleb Williams, getting a lot of hype Getting a lot of comparisons I've been reading a lot of hype, getting a lot of comparisons. I've been reading a lot of Bo Nix articles. Yeah. This guy is...

He's getting hyped up too. He might be the starter for Denver week one. Yeah. Denver can finally feel better about their quarterback situation. Potentially. I don't know if the Steelers are going to feel good about their quarterback situation. I played golf with a Steelers fan yesterday, and he was like, I watched the game. It was not good yeah they're hoping one of them breaks out and neither russell wilson nor justin fields are grabbing it by the horns at seven o'clock justin bourne

sportsnet's nhl analyst we're going to talk to him about facility putt colson getting traded the leafs they have a new captain but also more importantly the oilers and what they're doing with potentially matching offer sheets they made another trade as well yesterday too so a lot to get into do you think tavars is going to get traded that'd be fun probably not you don't think so you don't i saw some sports books that said really it was likely to be traded i don't think so i was at the press call to the islanders he was likely to be traded. I don't think so. He was at the press conference. To the Islanders. He was shaking Matthew's hand saying, here's the sea, my friend. To the Islanders. Yeah.

Because he's like, yeah, I'm out of here. Here's the sea. Take care of it. Actually, I don't care what happens to it because I'm out of here. Fair enough. It'd be fun, but I don't think so. 7.30, Ian Conner, author of Out of the Darkness, The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers. We're going to talk to him about that book and the mystery of Aaron Rodgers, who to me has always been a hated figure.

Initially, it was because I'm a Vikings fan and he destroyed my hopes all the time. Yeah, it was pure football. Yes, and now it's kind of off the field reasons too. So we'll talk to him about how... A hated figure by some, a very much admired figure by a lot of people as well. A divisive figure. A divisive figure.

And my question for Ian O'Connor, and he's been doing all the bigger shows. I saw him on the Rich Eisen show and I'm like, and now you're going to do the Halford and Brough show. No Halford. My biggest question is like, when did this all happen when did aaron rogers turn into this divisive figure because there were a few people that maybe didn't love his personality and they had some questions about like doesn't he have like kind of like a weird

relationship with his family like what's going on here but when did he turn into like a national talking figure whenever he said something you know it kicked off the culture wars on social media when did that happen uh the ivermectin thing i think is what kind of started it all the trajectory went what's radio you can't see me yeah he's doing it up and down yeah for the for the radio people like uh what is this guy talking about but And then he really seemed to lean into that. Oh, big time. As a reaction to the reaction to his stance during COVID.

Yes. It feels like, be surprised. He loves attention. And we'll see. The man enjoys a good conspiracy theory. Who would have thought? 8 o'clock. Rick Campbell, head coach and co-GM of the BC Lions,

is going to join us. Nathan Rourke, he made his return last night. Was not incredible, but also... Hey, I'm just happy the Lions scored some points against those Bombers. Didn't look good. Didn't look good after the first half. It was like, oh God, they're going to get shut out again.

And then they almost didn't get a touchdown in the game, but they got one late. But not from Nathan Rourke. Not from Nathan Rourke. It was a bit of a rough start for him, but also, I don't know, I went into it with low expectations just to not be disappointed. Okay, so we got all sorts of sports talk today. We got some Canucks talk, and we'll lead off with the pod calls and stuff.

We will have lots of Lions talk later in the show. We've got some NFL talk. Now I'm going to tell Laddie I'm going to do the thing. You're going to do the thing? You want me to do the thing? You can do the thing if you want. Oh, okay, okay. So I've got to work in reverse first, too.

So 8 o'clock, Rick Campbell, head coach and co-GM of the BC Lions. 7.30, Ian O'Connor, author of Out of the Darkness, The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers. 7 o'clock, Justin Bourne, Sportsnet. And 6.30, Mike Tenier, NFL writer for 2 Deep Zone. That's what's happening. 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 BC Construction Safety Alliance.

Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit bccsa.ca. Leading off, the Vancouver Canucks making a trade minutes before 4 p.m. yesterday. I was getting ready for the BC Lions game. I was getting pumped. Nathan Rourke's coming back. And then the Canucks were like, hey, look at us. Silly Pod Colson traded to the Oilers for a 2025 fourth round pick that belonged to the Senators.

Vasily Voskovan. So when I first saw this news, I was like, good, we have something to talk about. And then I went to social media for the reaction. And I have to admit, I was a little bit surprised by how many people were quite upset about this. And, you know, I,

I wasn't, I wasn't upset really in the least. I think in the end, the Canucks couldn't trust that Pod Colson would crack the NHL lineup this season. And since they don't want to lose him for nothing on waivers, it's that time in his career now. They got what they could for him now. And I imagine that the Oilers offer sheet situation might have allowed an opportunity for the Canucks to actually get more than they might have gotten for Pod Colson. If he were to come into camp and play some preseason games and then they're going,

I don't know if he's going to make the team or going to put him on waivers. I don't know what they could have gotten from there. I'm not personally worried that Pod Colson is going to break out with the Oilers. I don't think, this is not one of these cases where we're kicking him on the way out, by the way. Like I've said all this stuff. I don't think I was ever super excited about the guy when I watched him. I'm talking about super excited.

He had some potential, sure. And he showed some potential at times. He was the 10th overall pick. Of course he had potential. He was a big guy. He was a hard worker. He was a likable guy. He had a hard worker. He was a likable guy. He had a decent shot.

He scored some nice goals, but not enough of them. He was like a movie you wanted to like because, oh, there's some good actors in it. Oh, he's directing it? Oh, this should be good. And then you're watching the movie and you're like, this movie's kind of boring. Like, when is something exciting going to happen in this movie? When is this? He did Long Legs to me.

Oh, yeah, you did. Yeah, you heard all the things about Long Legs and then you saw it. Yeah, I got really pumped up. Right. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I want to hear from the listeners.

Text in to the Dunbar Lumber text line 650-650. I know there was a lot of people that maybe they live in Abbotsford, they go to Abbotsford Canucks games, that saw him last year and they were excited about him. And they thought he was playing really well, but his point production wasn't anything to write home about from Abbotsford.

He wasn't, you know, and so my question with Pod Coles, and this was often the question that I would have with players that ultimately didn't make it in Vancouver, is like, what are you? What are you as a player? What do you do? What would you say you do here? And what do you do well? What did Pod Kolzin do well? He's not a top six scorer.

He's physical, but I don't think anyone's like wow that guy really hits hard right like he didn't you know it wasn't even killing penalties no and he was in the bottom six so what what do you what are you doing here other than being hey he was a top 10 pick and that that was kind of it so you look at it he had 26 points in his rookie season, and that's where it was like, hey, maybe this guy can grow into a role in Vancouver. Since then, nine points in 58 NHL games, which is not good enough if you're a guy that's looking to grow into an NHL role. And I guess my thing is, whenever I watched him, it felt like I was like, hey, I want more I expect more I can I can believe that there is more but at a certain point you're not getting more so this is just what you are and I think that's kind of what the Canucks looked at and it's it's also felt like he's been a player that

has relied so heavily on confidence but also just never really had confidence and you could see it in spurts where he where he did have a bit of confidence and things going his way. But there were too many times out there where he was on the ice and it looked like he was just trying to survive the shift. Yes. He was kind of treading water out there. And you're kind of like, he's making nice plays along the wall.

But there was never any like, it never really got to anything. You know, he was out there, he was surviving. He wasn't dreadful. No. But I think what Rick talking wanted to hear, to see from him. And we'd heard this before from him. It was like, Hey man, like, just like loosen up

a little bit and go out there and play some hockey. And, and, you know, you mentioned the confidence thing and maybe you just didn't have the confidence to do that and you know just so people might have forgotten because it's still August the Canucks picked up a lot of wingers and they kept quite a few wingers and if you're looking at you know their lineup for next, I don't see how Pod Colson could crack, well, their top 12 forwards, right? He might be a 13th forward, but would you put Pod Colson ahead of any of these guys?

I'm going to rate them all 12 out. JT Miller? No. Brock Besser? No. Nils Hoeglund? No. Elias Pettersson, Daniel Sprong. Maybe you can make a case for Pod Colson in front of him, but I don't think so because Sprong is our new and shiny toy. Yeah, I would also do that.

Jake DeBrusque, Dakota Joshua, Teddy Bluger, Connor Garland, Danton Heinen, Pew Suter, Kiefer Sherwood. That's 12 players. You know, I don't have Pod Colson in front of any of those guys. And the coaching staff probably had another guy maybe in front of Pod Colson. And they looked at the situation and they went, here's an opportunity with Edmonton. They're going to be interested in Pod Colson.

Let's make the deal. At a certain point, like, you look at Neal Zoman, too, and he at least has played on the penalty field. Yeah, didn't mention him. Yeah, like, he's a 13th forward that they probably trust a little bit more than Vasily Podkolzin at this point. The thing that I guess I do wonder is if you were like a neutral team

and you were looking at these two options, would you rather bet on Podkolzin maybe potentially being a bottom six guy that makes a million dollars for the next two years it's cap controlled and is he's fine defensively he's never been like horrible defensively so you know he's always going to be semi-responsible or would you rather have the fourth round pick and for me i think most neutral teams look at it and would probably take pod colson like that feels like maybe a better bet.

But also, then I come back to looking at the lineup, and I can't convince myself that that is the better option or better bet for the Canucks specifically. I was told yesterday, and this is an answer to Phoenix, the yellow Tonka truck driver. Oh, yeah. By the way, while you were gone, we asked listeners, because people were getting mad about Mike the Urologist and his tech's always getting rid of him. Oh yeah. By the way, while you were gone, we, we asked listeners because people were

getting mad about Mike, the urologist and his texts always getting rid. So we were like, just put your profession on things and we're more likely to read it. And he, this guy, Phoenix drives a yellow Tonka truck. Who doesn't. Okay. Uh, he said, I wonder if there, uh, was ever a deal that, uh, pod Colson could have been included in at this past deadline. I was told that the Canucks tried to move Pod Colson at the deadline. There was no interest. They were trying to put him in there in deals. They were like, 10th overall. He's a hard worker.

He's a good guy. And they're like, yeah. Why are point totals so low? He's like, and the Canucks, I don't know, lied or something. They're like, oh, he's hit the most a lot. That's a typo. I don't know. That's a typo.

Yeah, there wasn't interest. We see any tape? No, no, you cannot see tape. Yeah, well, the tape of Pod Colson, you know, if you saw it on a shift-to-shift basis, you'd be like, yeah, he's okay. And he's only, what, he's only, what, 23 or 24? I'm not super worried that he's going to break out, but I could see him hanging around in the NHL.

Yeah. Could they have gotten more than a fourth for him? I think that's some people's concern. That was the only thing that was sort of a weird thing for me. I was like, I get why they traded him. He just wasn't going to crack the loss there. You're not going to get a second for a former first-round pick that has not broken out.

Maybe even a third at that point. Yeah, but you would have been – But then you're going like, oh, a third? Who cares, right? Like, I mean – After the second round, it's sort of a crapshoot anyways, right? Yeah, I'm not all that concerned about the return. And then if you're talking about a hockey trade,

well, one of the reasons he's being traded is bodies and also drance has made this point a few times on social media saying like the canucks have a lot of contracts and i think they have 48 of the 50 contracts allowable right now and you typically want to be around i don't know 46 or 47 um just to maintain that flexibility to make deals later there might be another guy out the door at some point, a younger guy that hasn't panned out at some point this summer. At least that's what Drance was saying. I don't know.

I don't know how much people want to talk about Pod Colson today. I'm not seeing any anger from the text box right now, but I was, I guess, a little bit surprised what I saw on social media. Maybe it was that people just liked the guy. Like someone texted and said, I had a Paul Coles in Jersey. Sorry.

Okay, well. Why did you do that? Sorry, but I don't know. We can move on and talk about this from the Oilers' perspective, if you like, because the Oilers made not one but two trades yesterday. Yes, so they trade the fourth for Pod Colson, and then later in the night, they trade Cody Cece and a third rounder

to San Jose for defenseman Ty Emberson. And the important part of this trade for the Oilers obviously they they still have these pending offer sheets for Philip Broberg and Dylan Holloway and what this does according to Puckpedia trading Cody Cece Edmonton can now match both offer sheets if they match both and Evander Evander Kane returns with everybody else healthy they then have to make another trade but realistically they're starting the year with Evander Kane on LTIR so theoretically right now they can match both of these offer sheets if they wanted to but there are some people that are connecting the pod Coles and trade and going they're going to match Broberg

and say no on Holloway which which I think would be a risk for them. Yes. To me, I thought the easy match was Dylan Holloway just based on he kind of fits in cap-wise a little bit better, though I get it from Edmonton's point of view because you look at their forward group and there's not really many holes in it, whereas on defense, especially if you're trading Cody Ceci out you need someone to play a role on that back end and Broberg he showed flashes in the playoffs I still have a lot of questions about what he's going to be long term totally in the NHL especially at this cap hit

like I think it is an inefficient contract unless he really really hits there's a lot of pressure on him now yeah definitely there's so much pressure on him because um you know if he if he doesn't what's the cap on on Broberg uh it is 4.58 so now imagine if he comes into next season and he doesn't play all that well and now Oilers fans are like wait a minute first of all you're not playing well and second of all, you kind of did this to us. You went to another team to get this contract. And people can say, well, that's their right within the CBA. And it would be the fans' right as fans to be like, hey, you kind of went against the planning of the team to do this.

This was not something that was good for the team that you did. So it'll be interesting to see what happens if they do indeed match Broberg. Brandon in Vancouver texts in. He said, I was half expecting Jason to say he'd put Pod Colson in over Petey. It is good to be back on the show talking Canucks. No, I wouldn't. I'd say it was like a coin toss.

You're not there yet, but you're almost there. The way Petey played down the stretch and in the playoffs, was kind of like yeah pot calls and doing nothing to assist pd doing nothing you know nothing versus nothing who knows uh let's talk a little bit about uh nathan rourke's return yesterday um i was pretty excited for the game i know a lot of people were excited for the game uh It started out well. Yeah. They got a touchdown. They got a first down.

Yes. And then that was pretty much the highlight of the night for Nathan Rourke, his first pass. The fans at BC Place Stadium were hoping to see the Nathan Rourke of old, and they were probably in the back of their minds. They were like, this guy hasn't really played meaningful football for a while, and he's starting right away. He hasn't had a lot of practice time. Yeah, but he's Nathan Rourke.

Yeah, he wasn't very good. No. And the Lions did not look good against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. I guess their defense at times played okay, but then you look at the numbers that the Blue Bombers put up in BC Place, you're kind of like, well, they didn't play that well. This team has now lost four straight. They're five and five. They've still got a chance to win the division.

I think the Riders are in first at five, four, and one. So, you know, the West is not the power division that it used to be. The good teams seem to be in the East now. And although the Bombers are kind of like, are these guys good or not? But in order for us to be talking about winning the division or hosting a playoff game, hosting the West final, which we'd all set our eyes on because the Lions are also hosting the Grey Cup this year, And it'll look good when they're a 5-1. Look good. It'll look really promising. But the last month or so, before we even talk about that stuff, they've got so much to clean up.

And it's not just the fact that their quarterback play has not been good. There are a lot of things, a lot of issues with this team, and we'll get into that with Rick Campbell, the head coach, later in the show, who's probably waking up this morning and going, oh, God, I've got to do a radio hit about this now. Let's play the Nathan Rourke audio, though, because if you didn't watch the game, congratulations. But Nathan Rourke's press conference started off yesterday with him going

whoa whoa whoa before anyone asks any questions i have something to say here's what happened after the lions game if you don't mind if i'd like to say something and hopefully that answers all your questions um i want to take this moment to publicly apologize. That was not my best football right there. You know, as a quarterback here, it's never a one-person job, but it is the position where you have the ball in your hands every single play, and I didn't make enough plays. Obviously, I'm not going to sit here and make excuses in terms of it being a short week and getting into the offense again.

And it's definitely a tall task when you play a team like the Bombers who have been so successful. But I'm not going to make those excuses. I know that I'm better than this. I'm sorry to the team who stuck their necks out for me for getting me here and allowing me to play. The rest of my teammates, you know, effort is never going to be an issue with this locker room.

They fought right until the end, got, you know, battled and got into the end zone on that last possession. You know, teams that have less character, you know, they're not fighting at that time in the game. So I'm really proud of them. I'm sorry to the fans. I know there was a lot of excitement going in this game and I didn't deliver. I'm going to be making sure that this is, you know, if this is a starting point, then we only got up to go from here. The good news is that we got a short week, quick turnaround. Good news is that we're still early in the season and it's anybody's ball game in the West. So

that's really how I feel about that. So next up for the Lions, they travel to Ottawa to play the Red Blacks on Saturday, then host them again August 31st. That's in Victoria in the touchdown Pacific game. Rourke returned to the Lions after spending, what, a year and a half down south chasing his NFL dream, which he couldn't catch. His last CFL game was a loss to the Bombers in the 2022 West Final should we have expected anything better from Rourke given the lack of meaningful football he's played the last two years so I do think there

were expectations from people that he could have done more yesterday to me like look I'll be honest I expected a little bit more but i went into it being like this feels really quick and when he got signed last week i was like oh he probably won't play on sunday but he'll get some practice time time and be good to go against ottawa um show you how concerned they were about the quarterback position though and the direction of the team that they they did give him the start and it just felt it felt very clunky yesterday and and that was expected but now now we need to see what he can do with a full week of practice kind of he's gotten back in the game action against ottawa this week on saturday is that

game so his two interceptions did not look good no that was those were bad throws. And, you know, the media loves a quarterback controversy. And I just wonder how long do we give him to shake the rust off? Let's say he doesn't look great over the next little while. And then all of a sudden the news comes out, oh, Vernon Adams is healthy again. And he's just considered week to week. We don't really know when Vernon Adams is going to be healthy. That'd be a juicy situation. Would be.

Because they didn't trade Vernon Adams. And they very much came out and said this Nathan Rourke signing, it's happening, but don't. And it was in the release. It was in the release that the line sent out the information. They were like, Vernon Adams is not getting traded. Yeah. We'll see how that develops. I think

you've got to keep betting on Rourke, but we'll see how it goes. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. I think he'll fare well, and if he goes out there and lights it up, it wouldn't surprise me. I want to take this moment to publicly apologize. That was not my best football right there. I don't think he's going to go out there and lights it up. It wouldn't surprise me. I want to take this moment to publicly apologize.

That was not my best football right there. I don't think he's going to go out there and have a clunker. I'm sorry to the fans. I know there was a lot of excitement going in this game, and I didn't deliver. 802. Just kind of throwing Mojo under the bus. You just turned 60 at a party,

and you're throwing him under the bus on the Monday. Happy birthday, Mojo. He's not listening. We're going to replay that on Friday when he's on. Alfred DeBrock is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. Text in 650-650-DUMBAR-LUMBER text line.

The Bridge Street Dumbar Lumber and Ladner has moved to Progress Lane, Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. And it is hour three of the program. This hour of Halford & Brough is brought to you by Campbell & Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit 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. So, Orfi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. We go to the phone line now. It is Rick Campbell, BC Lions head coach and co-GM. Rick, really appreciate you taking the time. And we'll start with kind of the big news heading into the game. It was Nathan Rourke's debut. What did you think of it in an obviously less than ideal situation yeah we've been having

trouble solving winnipeg's defense that's for sure um nathan's never gonna say this but he um it was a whirlwind of a week as far as him he was down in atlanta flew out here did get three days of good practice in um but he hasn't played a lot of football in the last year and a half so i think it's only going to get better as it goes and he gets more of a chance. What is it about the Bombers that frustrates you guys so much? Well, I don't know. We've got a better job of adjusting.

Sorry, I'm standing outside here. I've got a train going by me. No problem. They've been getting better on defense. They do a really good job and they're really taking away the deep stuff so we need to be probably more patient and being able to throw the ball underneath but

that's two games in a row we never could get on track versus them versus the defense. Let's just get back to Nathan. I know he wasn't the reason you guys lost but he comes out afterwards and and and before uh answering any questions kind of takes control of the presser and says

listen I just want to apologize um what did you think that uh about that when he said that and why do you think it went so badly in Nathanathan's first game back yeah he's he's never going to back down from the challenge which is one of his best traits is he's he's not going to be afraid of a afraid of a challenge i there's no need to for him to apologize to me or our team and he's only going to get like i said it's going to get better as it goes he hasn't played a lot of football the last um the last year and a half i think he's probably going to get, like I said, it's going to get better as it goes. He hasn't played a lot of football the last year and a half. I think he's probably played maybe two quarters of preseason football. So it's just tougher when you're going against a really good defense

and you're playing live football again. And that's not making an excuse. We played him because we thought he gave us the best chance to win. And my opinion is regardless of who our quarterback was yesterday, our football team needed to help the quarterback out more. And the quarterback needs to play better too. So he's going to get another week of practice in here. And like I said, it's only going to get better as he goes.

He's also got to gain chemistry again with these receivers and the team here. How long does it take for that to kind of come back and for him to, you know, kind of feel confident or where he was a couple years ago? Yeah, I think it'll happen pretty quickly. He did a really good job last week of just getting familiar with our playbook and how we call things and stuff. So he knows our offensive coordinator. He's played with guys like Hollins and Hatcher,

Latoy and much of our O-line. So there's a lot of chemistry that can happen quicker than normal. And like I said, he'll get another work weekend and we'll come up with a good game plan and we've got to go find a way to beat Ottawa. What else are you concerned about with your team? You've lost four in a row. We're literally not making plays, and we're not scoring enough points.

So there's stuff we can do better on special teams and defense, too, but we're competing on those two fronts. But life's tough in the CFL if you can't score points. So I think our intentions are good. I think our guys are willing to work. We actually had a good practice week, but we did not solve their defense. But we have a lot of experienced coaches and players

that I know will rise to the occasion. And, you know, we won five in a row, and now we've lost four in a row. And we're right in the mix. So there's a lot of reasons to uh to correct things and get better because uh like i said we're we're in second place and we can we got as good a shot as anyone uh so you mentioned this briefly off the top tell us about the whirlwind week that it was for uh nathan work yeah well we when he literally called and said he was ready to come back up and you know we had to figure out a called and said he was ready to come back up,

and we had to figure out a contract, and then he was on the plane the next morning. He was still down in Atlanta from being with the Falcons, and then flew up here. And there's things you've got to do, like getting equipment and getting physicals and just doing these off-the-field things that are necessary to get done. And then he literally came in and met with Jordan, our offensive coordinator, and then he's on the practice field. So, you know, it was just one of those weeks. It was totally exciting.

Obviously, a lot of hype around it. And it just didn't translate into the game. And I think it was a combination of things, and I think part of it was he played really well on defense and us not having an answer for it. What went into the decision to start him? Because I'll admit when I heard he was starting, I was pretty surprised. Was it just that you thought he gave you guys the best shot at winning that game?

Correct, yeah. I talked to him. At the beginning of the week, I didn't say he was starting a hundred percent. We wanted to go through the practice week and make sure that he was comfortable with the calls and functioning fine. And we actually had a pretty good week of practice. So we absolutely thought he gave us the best, uh, best chance to win. We like Chase Bryce too, but he's very, very limited experience. And so Vernon's still not available. So we thought he gave us the best chance because he's played

and obviously played really well and didn't work out. But I think better days are ahead. What have your conversations with Vernon been like? Man, he's good. I love that guy. He just wants to win. He's been all in this whole year on 2024 of finding a way to win. And when we had a chance to bring Nathan back, I think he totally understood that we're not going to turn away good football players.

And, you know, we don't want to be playing against Nathan on some other team. So between those two guys that I think our elite quarterbacks in the CFL are going to rise to the occasion and find a way to get it done. Hasn't been fair to Vernon? Fair? What do you mean? Well, he was playing pretty well. I mean, he had one rough outing, but there were a lot of people talking earlier in the season

that he was a candidate for most outstanding player in the CFL. I mean, life isn't fair. I'm not saying it was a bad move to bring in Nathan Marock, but you must have empathy for him, you know? Oh, yeah. No, I just mean he's hurt. He's not available, and we're going to look out for the BC Lions and try to get players to help us out

and Vernon will help us out again when he's healthy and ready to go, which shouldn't be long. He's been great last week helping Nathan or helping the offense the best that he can until he's back and ready to go. So when he's ready to go, you just consider it an open competition for who's starting for the BC Lions? No, it's and ready to go. So when he's ready to go, you just consider it an open competition

for who's starting for the BC Lions? No, we're not having a competition with those guys, but we're going to play who gives us the best chance to win, and we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, and I think it's coming sooner than later. I don't anticipate Rondon being available this week, but I think the next game could be pretty realistic, and we want to make sure he's 100% when he comes back,

that he's not playing limping around or anything like that. So we'll go from there. Could we see a scenario where both guys get into a game because that could present something difficult for the other team? Exactly. That's our whole plan is we want to do whatever gives us the best chance to win. And I've been on a lot of teams and seen a lot of teams do well that have two really good quarterbacks. And so, you know, we're excited

to have both those guys and, you know, we'll keep going and play better in the future. What challenge do the Ottawa Red Blacks provide? Because you're going to play them twice in the next little bit. Yeah, they've been playing well. They've got a good record. So they've been one of the teams that's been trending in the right direction. They're a big running back that runs really hard. And then their defense has been playing well, too.

So that's why it's going to be really important. We've got a good game plan going in there. It's our first time seeing these guys, so it'll be an interesting two weeks. But we'll get in here and get a good game plan going and then head out east. Hey, Rick, really appreciate you taking the time and good luck against Ottawa this week. All right, appreciate the time. Have a good one.

There is Rick Campbell, BC Lions head coach and co-GM, talking about last night's game, Nathan Mork, what might happen when Vernon Adams is healthy. Because to me, we were talking about this all last week. That's the really interesting part of all of this is it's a really – and they've been saying all the right things everybody's been saying all the right things but it's an inherently awkward situation when you have like two amazing quarterbacks and you're trying to balance that and you bring in nathan rourke and we all know

like he can be the best player in the cfl and if you're the bc lions you do have to like if you can add him you do it but it's a very awkward situation what do you think the BC Lions, you do have to, like, if you can add him, you do it. But it's a very awkward situation. What do you think the main reason was they didn't trade Vernon Adams? I just think it's because he's hurt, to be honest. Like, honestly, I don't know. Because I can't think of a reason that. Well, there's lots of reasons. There's lots of possible reasons.

Insurance, in case Nathan Merrick comes up, doesn't play well. It's a small league man do you really want to trade away vernon adams who is a pretty good quarterback and then possibly play him in the playoffs or even the gray cup yeah but like is that another possible reason why they didn't trade i think you take that risk risk though assuming and the other part of this is like to what end like you're not going to get much back from that's that's the thing if you're not getting much back from them okay whatever then keep thing. If you're not getting much back from him, then okay, whatever. Then keep him because, yes, that might be your competitive edge,

not having him on another team. But in the way I viewed it, if you were going to get something back from him that was worthwhile, that helps your team, you shouldn't be afraid of making that move because he'll end up on another team and could potentially go up against you in the playoffs. They want to win a great cup in Vancouver, right? So 1A, 1B scenario, you want to give yourself the best chance to win.

Having both those guys in your back pocket in case one doesn't work out or one gets hurt or whatever, you have a pretty good insurance. But doesn't it feel like they're going to be more loyal to Nathan Rourke? Yeah, sure. Of course. Because they just see him as the better quarterback. Yeah. And he kind of just is the better quarterback when he's at his best. when he's on yeah but worst case scenario something goes wrong or say this what

happened with nathan last night continues to happen having vernon as your backup is not a bad move yeah i mean it's a good it's a good problem to have it's just like i feel like it's going to come to a head at some point and maybe it doesn't because everything i have heard we have heard about vernon adams and how he's handling the situation and how Nathan Mork is handling the situation is that it hasn't seemed that awkward and that Vernon Adams is all for it. But these guys are also incredibly competitive. And I think when you get to a point when both of them are healthy,

they're both going to be wanting to play the entire game. They're not going to be wanting to play the entire game they're not they like they're not going to be super for i would assume not super into a split and maybe they'll be forced to do that but it's just again a very awkward situation and maybe this is this is the best way to go about it but to me i just look at it and it just feels weird for now. Let's do some what we learns. It's my first time doing what we learns. And I do have one. And that is that Gabriel Landeskog could be back early next season.

Is reported by, actually it was a Jared Bednar head coach quote on Gabriel Landeskog, who is the captain. People always forget that. They're like, McKinnon's the captain, right? I was like, nope, it's Landeskog. Bednar said to NHL.com, he's trying to make a return here sometime near the start of the season. And if that goes well, it'd be a really big boost for us. So that's something we're all a little anxious about, but really excited about as well. He hasn't played for us in two years.

We talked about this quite a bit during the playoffs and we talked about how that team, that Colorado team that did win the cup a few years ago was one of the best teams of the salary cap era and they just had so many good players. And then they just really lost a bunch of them right like they just had to go through the loss of land scott cadre goes to uh calgary uh the nutrition nutrition situation um they won't have him on the team going forward so when you look

at that colorado team right now everyone says says there's one thing they say, top heavy. Yeah. Right? Honestly, their second line right now, you look at it, and this isn't just on daily face-off, but one of their wingers on the second line is Nikolai Kovalenko. Who? That's a made-up guy.

Right. I don't know who that is. Wasn't he a high pick? Nikolai Kovalenko. Oh, maybe. But still. We always say names, and Laddie's like, actually, that guy is a pretty well-respected player.

I just remember him having some fanfare when he came over. Maybe, maybe. Regardless, though, it's like when you were a Stanley Cup caliber team and then a couple years later you got Nikolai Kovalenko penciled in on your second line. It's not a great spot. I just want to see Landis Gogg

return. He's a good player. And I know that wouldn't necessarily be good for the Canucks. You want all your rivals to be weak as possible, but Landeskog's only 31 years old. Seems like a decent guy. He's a very good player. And for him to have had to deal with this at this point in his career when he should be in his prime.

Like, I guess it started, what, when he was 29? Yeah. He'd just come off a Stanley Cup win and he's got to go through all this stuff. Like, I would like to see him coming back just for his sake. So it'll be interesting to see what happens with Landeskog and frankly what happens with the abs

because we can now talk about the Vancouver Canucks and the Colorado Avalanche in the same breath, which is weird. That's wild. And I hope that continues. Give us a mookow on that. My what we learned, the U.S. flag football team is not happy about NFL players thinking that they will just get an easy spot in the L.A. 2028 Olympic Games on the flag football team.

Okay, explain. in the la 2028 olympic games on the flight football team okay so explain their 35 year old starting quarterback for the u.s flight football team daryl doucette said uh i think it's disrespectful that they just automatically assume that they're going to be able to just join the olympic team because of the person that they are they did not help grow this game to get to the olympics give the guys who help this game get to where it's at their respect so basically he's saying because you guys don't play flag football you didn't get it to the olympics that the guys who do play flag football should be going instead also he's 35 right are you gonna so what are the expectations for nfl players in

flag football? I believe, like, because Jalen Hurts was, like, he had that ad campaign where, like, he was the one, he was like, it's our time now. Right. I think they all think that they're going to have a shot at playing in the Olympics. And they've all talked about it, and they're all excited about it. So is Nathan Rourke going to be our quarterback? I guess he would have to be.

I would assume so. Right. Don't have a better option. Yeah. So, yeah, probably. our quarterback i guess he would have to be i would assume so right don't have better option yeah so yeah probably unless they like unless for whatever reason the flag football teams and i i didn't do my research on canada's football team their depth chart yeah but unless our team is like for whatever reason really good or there's they're like unique rules in flag football that lend themselves better but it seems like you should just go with the best football players and have them figure it out. As an addendum to that, do you remember when we were working together, what, three weeks ago before the Olympics started, right? Yes.

Well, no, we did week one of the Olympics. We did week one. And do you remember I said like, I don't really get into the Summer Olympics as much as the Winter Olympics. And I don't really care a lot about the Summer Olympics. Yeah. This Summer Olympics, for whatever reason, I loved it. Yeah. It was awesome.

It was such an awesome Olympics. I was into it. Like I was into it every day. Yeah. And there were some great controversies with the women's soccer team. There were some great triumphs for Canadian athletes. That four by one win, terrific. Unexpected, unbelievable.

There are also some big disappointments. We missed your instant reaction to Ray Gunn. I wish you were here for that. The instant Ray Gunn reaction, that would have been nice. The Ray Gunn. Australian breakdance. Oh, yeah, breakdance yeah oh yeah yeah yeah you didn't hear about this yeah once in a while i opened my instagram on vacation and there was like some weird stuff going on i was like was that the aussie so okay tell me what the story was was she doing her best well you would assume so but like how did she qualify so there's like was she

doing a different style of break dancing was that the thing around her qualification okay conspiracy theory a lot of false theories because they are and they're false um but there's so basically for most sports there's like a committee separate from the ioc that like kind of governs everything like fifa or whatever that you like that's how you qualify for the olympics and that kind of governs everything like FIFA or whatever, that that's how you qualify for the Olympics and they kind of run it. Whereas with breakdancing, they don't have that committee. So it was up to every country to kind of figure out their own way of how to send representatives to the Olympics. And the conspiracy theories that are fake were saying that-

What were some of the conspiracy theories? I'm really interested in those. Ray Gunn orchestrated australia's like judging panel like they're saying her husband was on the panel and that's how she got the rot runs deep in the australian yes break dancing federation that was the rumor that was the rumor and and there was another conspiracy conspiracy theory that she was like doing bad on purpose to like make a statement about something. I forget what the statement was, but basically that it like benefited her personally. Some sort of social experiment of sorts.

Yeah, I don't know. I think she was just bad. Yeah. Right. And that's okay. Well, I like the spirit conspiracy theory that she was doing bad on purpose in order to get the notoriety. No publicity is bad publicity.

She'll be famous for the rest of her life now. She'll bad publicity. She'll be famous for the rest of her life now. She'll be making money off of that performance for the rest of her life now. But hasn't she released some statements like she's quite hurt and she worked really hard at this? Yeah. But then the responses were like, yeah, but we watched your video, so explain that then. Because, I mean, I'm pretty sure I could do that. I'm not a breakdownster, but I think I could do most of those maneuvers you pulled off there. Adog, you once again hijacked the conversation.

But I just wanted to tell Josh that I was really into the Olympics. And I was actually thinking, like, man, L.A. would be incredible to go down. It's going to be an easy trip. Yeah. I know it wouldn't be cheap, but imagine watching Summer McIntosh swim at SoFi Stadium. That's going to be insane. I think the Paris was, and like, I can't really like blame Tokyo because it was, you know, during COVID,

there was a lot of issues with that. But Paris felt like a return to like the feeling of watching the Olympics and being excited about it. Whereas in Tokyo, it just didn't feel the same. And I think LA is going to bring that up to another level. And also selfishly here in Vancouver, it's going to be wonderful to have things on at our time as opposed to Europe time.

The pressure for the Canadian men's basketball team to get back to the Olympics is going to be immense. And I'll be curious to see what is the commitment level there? Like, are they able to, are they able to get the guys back on board with, you know, this being important? Because I think Paris was big because it's Paris.

And I think the Americans, especially the era of Steph Curry, LeBron and Katie, like they wanted to go out and they wanted to, they wanted to go win gold. That was important to them. Right. And a lot of very good American players didn't play much.

And so that was important. And it was obviously became important to the Canadian team to get there. And they did that, but they fell short. Yeah. They were disappointing at the end of the day. A lot of the things that we talked about on the show with basketball ben and you like they came to fruition when it mattered against france like the lack of you know having trouble against the bigs right like jamal murray not

looking himself etc etc all these issues that that up, like the weird FIBA stuff that can sometimes catch you off guard. And I also think they were unlucky to get France at home because that crowd, I think, made a real impact early in the game and Canada never really recovered from that. They kind of made a couple of runs in that game, but they never really did recover from that bad start that they had. But now I can't imagine any of the canadian basketball players the top players not wanting to be part of la yeah there should be more pressure on this one and and realistically

and you can say that was a learning experience yes and next time you should have some better bigs like you should have zach edie there and you like hey shea should be like he's really good now could be even better in four years you can make the argument for jamal murray if he's still playing well could be a bigger piece or a better piece because i still think it could be completely forgotten yeah who knows but realistically like they should be a better team in four years and yeah there should be more pressure on them to be better than they were in you're listening to the best of halford and brough