Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Moj Talks Lions + What We Learned

Episode Date: August 9, 2024

In hour three, guest hosts Jamie Dodd & Israel Fehr preview Sunday's BC Lions matchup in Edmonton with radio commentator Bob "The Moj" Marjanovich (1:56), plus the boys tell us what they learned (24:38). 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.

It's the Moch. I did not eat four burgers. Yes, it's the Moch. I don't want to go to Winnipeg. Nobody wants to go to Winnipeg. Yes, I love food. It's the Moch. I went online and kind of did a little surfing. It's a millennia.

Yes, it's the Moch. Halpert's fine, but, you know, Brumfuss is grumpy all the time. Moat, moat, moat, moat. It's the moat. Really got to let that one run. A long tail on that one. Got to let it breathe. Worth every second. Welcome back to Halford & Brough, your Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd, Israel Fair. Halford & Brough brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers.

Experience the Dilawri difference today. Visit your nearest Dilawari Honda dealer today. This hour of half and rough is brought to you by Campbell and pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell and pound visit Campbell dash pound.com today. And as a reminder, you still have time to get your ask us anything Friday submission in a

hashtag a U a and include the pizza emoji, six 50, six 52, the Dunbar Lumber text line. Include the pizza emoji for your chance to win a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway in Vancouver. We'll do that at 8.30, but right now joining us, as you heard, he is the play-by-play

voice of the BC Lions. He is Bob the Moj Marjanovic. Moj, what's going on, man? Good morning, counselor. Good morning, Izzy. Good morning. How you doing, man? It's a Friday, isn't it? So it's a good day. Exactly. Exactly. So, all right. Lots to get into with the BC Lions. Before we do that, I'm glad we have you on today, Moj.

Earlier in the show, somebody texted in a question about ordering pizza for a group. And my take was was keep it simple. I'm not saying it all has to be pepperoni, but don't overthink things. Pepperoni is the best pizza. We don't need to go trying to add all these fancy toppings. Just keep it simple. Everyone likes pepperoni.

That should be the bulk of your order. I got a surprising amount of blowback, people criticizing my devotion to pepperoni pizza. So I got to put it to you, Moj. Where do you stand on pepperoni pizza? That's a tough one. It's funny because we were on the road in Winnipeg. And I usually get some sandwiches and stuff prior for game day and for the flight home and all that.

And I kind of like, you know, I could have done the subway road. I mean, here's the thing. You can go like the super safe thing. If you're picking a sandwich, you go with Subway, you know, I could have done the Subway route. I mean, here's the thing. You can go like the super safe thing. Sure. If you're picking a sandwich, you go with Subway, Quiznos, whatever. If you're going with pizza, you can go with pepperoni, you know, ham and mushroom, whatever. You can keep it simple. But if you have confidence in your clientele, the people that you're with and say, hey,

and you have confidence in what you're, you know, what you believe to be a great pizza or a good sandwich, you kind of venture out. And I'll give you an example. We're in Winnipeg. I read about this place there that had some amazing Vietnamese subs. And I'm thinking to myself, if I ask Julio Caravaggio if he wants a Vietnamese sub, he's going to say no, right? Like he's Mr. Ham and Potatoes, give me some pasta, whatever. And I ordered the subs

anyways and both him and tim are absolutely love these subs they're unbelievable right so it's a real risk but you have to be pretty sure in the pizza that you're ordering that if you do order it people are going to love it i mean you can go safe but see here's the thing i don't like safe i like to venture out and try different things and i even want my friends to get out of their comfort zone and try different things and nine times out of ten it works out pretty good because people actually do like what you pick but see for me pepperoni it's not that it's safe it's just a well-done pepperoni pizza is better to me than the than the more adventurous and i'm not saying i never go for other things of course you know i mix it up here and there but i just think the pinnacle of pizza is a really well done pepperoni pizza

yeah you know sometimes basic is really good the only rule i have with pizza is i don't put pineapple on pizza like i mean if you're gonna put pineapple or you put bananas and oranges and all this other stuff pineapple does not belong on a pizza. That is absolutely criminal. Anybody who puts pineapple on pizza, like don't even ask them for any sort of food opinion. Moj, who's putting bananas and oranges on a pizza? Same people who put pineapple on it. All right.

Moj, I knew you'd have a good, a strong take on pizza. So thank you for doing that. But let's get into the BC Lions here. They're looking to snap a two-game losing streak in Edmonton this weekend. You know, that's coming off a five-game win streak for them. What's gone wrong over the last couple of games for the Lions? Well, first off, the game against Calgary, just not making a big play when they needed it, right?

I mean, they had ample opportunities in that game at three or four late in the game where if they make a play, they had ample opportunities in that game at three or four late in the game where if they make a play, they could possibly win the football game. I mean, Seante Evans falls on a football, it squirts out, and Calgary retains possession. There was like a second in, I don't know, 15 where they let Calgary

up the hook. They make a play there, they get the ball back a couple of passes, and boom, they're in field goal range, they win the game. So, that one you look at and you say they just didn't make a play. Winninipeg I don't know what happened in Winnipeg I mean they made the the Bombers defense look like the 85 Bears I mean Winnipeg's got a good defense don't kid yourself but BC's got a pretty good offense as well and they just completely misfired in that game and um yeah they just it was a no-show and as Rick Campbell says you're gonna have those games those those bad days at the office i mean even rick talk it'll talk about it with the

connect there's maybe four or five games a year where it's just you just gotta wipe it you know wipe the slate clean and go back to the drawing board and kind of go back to what made you successful so hopefully this weekend against the edmonton elks in at commonwealth stadium the lines will get back to the recipe of success. Adding to the disappointment in Winnipeg, obviously the Vernon Adams injury and the news this week is that it's not long-term, long-term, but it is week-to-week,

but that does appear, at least from the Lions' side, to be positive based on the way that he left the field against Winnipeg, does it not? Yeah, I mean, obviously it's not a season-ending injury. And we're going to see what Jake Doligala has in store. He's a big quarterback. He's got an unbelievable arm. I was at a practice yesterday and made a couple of throws

that you just kind of went, wow. Great arm strength. Of course, he doesn't have the mobility that Vernon Adams Jr. does, and that might put a little bit more pressure on the offensive line. But it's going to be interesting to see what he does. He played last year for Saskatchewan guys, and I looked at his stats. It wasn't like he

played poorly. He did the job for a backup quarterback, so it's going to be interesting to see what he does. But the big key, and Rick Campbell talked about this this week, is they've got to be much better on first downs. You know, against Winnipeg, I don't think they ran the ball the first four times they had it, so

that's something they've got to get back to, is run the ball a little bit more with William Stanbeck. Get in a second and short situations where either you can run the ball or run these hit screens that everybody seems to be running now, where it's just an extended running play and you get the ball in the receiver's hands, you know, and allow him to pick up 5 6 10 15 yards whatever the case may be yeah and you

mentioned jake dolegala the backup who's going to get the start of six foot seven as you said big fella big arm and you know i know sometimes there's a tendency when you have the backup quarterback coming in and as you said they want to establish the run more anyways maybe you play it a little bit safe right do more of those short types of screen type passes get the ball in space to your guys but when you have a guy with that kind of arm and that kind of size you got to probably want to take some shots downfield at some point too right moj oh without a doubt without a doubt i mean you want to play to his strengths right so it's going to be interesting plus you have to you know when you look at what you run on offense a lot of times you have to take what the defense is giving you, right?

So if they want to come up and take away those hit screens and force the Lions to throw the ball deep, well, take some shots. Conversely, if they want to play deep and take away the deep ball, then you hit the hit screen. So it's basically like every defense, no matter what defense it is, there is a weakness in it, right? You just have to find the weakness in that defense and exploit it. The cliche football answer is that it's a week-to-week thing

and the team's not going to be looking past any opponent. But if Vernon Adams misses, let's say, three or four games, what's a realistic expectation for how the Lions can perform while he's out? Well, I mean mean if you ask anybody on the team they would they want to win each and every game but you know if say vernon adams is out four games and if you can go three and one or two and two i think you're in pretty good shape um just because of the fact that you do have a backup quarterback in so i mean the last thing you wanted to go is one and three or oh and four if he's out for say four games my biggest

the thing that really kind of concerns me about Vernon Adams being out, you know, the Lions have a little bit of space to play with in terms of the standings, but the thing that concerns me is they got Winnipeg again. Winnipeg had a bye week, and then they'll play Winnipeg at home next week, and if Winnipeg wins that game, Winnipeg has the season series on the Lions, right?

So to me, that's the biggest concern you know you always talk about trying to get a team at the right time of year well the Bombers are getting the Lions at the right time of year by knocking them off in Winnipeg knocking Adams out of the game and of course now going up against the Lions here next week and not having Adams in the lineup you know and Moj as you said still the the standings in the West Division very tight right Saskatchewan's played the extra game so so they're ahead of the Lions right now, but that can change with a win for the Lions over the weekend. But then Calgary's at 4-4, Winnipeg 3-6, but as you said,

maybe they're catching the Lions at the right time here. And of course, I think in the back of our minds for a lot of us with this Lions season is the fact that they're hosting the Grey Cup and it would be absolutely amazing to see them make a run to that game at this point of the season I mean how would you kind of just evaluate the Lions as a whole and their chances of of being in the mix for the Grey Cup at the end of the year well I think they got a really good chance I mean you know you're gonna look at you're gonna have some recency bias and look at the last two weeks and go oh this-oh, this team's in trouble.

But let's not forget they did have five wins prior to that, right? I mean, it's crazy. I mean, pro sports, it's crazy. You know, a couple of weeks ago, they're in cruise control on a five-game win streak. You lose two, and all of a sudden, people are reaching for the panic button. So I think they got as good a chance as anyone in the Western Division to reach the Grey Cup in Vancouver. And you're right. I mean, I was there in 94, believe it or not, and I was there in 2011. When your team is in the Grey Cup and you're hosting the Grey Cup and your team's in it, it's just an amazing experience

and it's even more amazing when they win. So I look at the big picture and again, I think they have just as good a chance as anybody to win in that division. Edmonton is 1-7, but as you point out in your latest column, six of those losses have been by one score. So they've been playing some tight games, obviously big news there just a few weeks ago with Chris Jones getting let go. What is the challenge that Edmonton, even with that poor record, could pose to the Lions? Well, they've been competitive in every game. I mean, of course, we talked about that in the piece. And then, you know, you look at the Edmonton Oaks,

they're coming off a win, so they're going to be playing with some confidence. They have a reference point. And they have Trey Ford, a quarterback, who's given them a tremendous boost both on the field and, I guess, psychologically. So it's going to be a challenge. I mean, you know, the one thing about the Canadian Football League this year,

man, I can't remember a season where there's been so much parity, where so many games have come down in the last three minutes. And even with the command center trying to screw everything up last night, I mean, it was still an entertaining football game, right? So it's interesting because, and Rick Campbell talked about this as well, you can't look at the records, right? So it's interesting because you, and Rick Campbell talked about this as well, you don't, you can't look at the records, right? I mean, these are good football teams, despite the fact that Edmonton has only won one game, they've been in pretty much every game. They could have four or five wins by now if things have gone the other way, but they didn't. So they're, here they

are with one win, but man, I'm looking at this game in Edmonton, and I'm looking at it. By no means am I saying this is guaranteed win night for the B.C. Lions because they're going up against a one-win game. Yeah, and on the flip side of that, right, with the Elks losing by a lot of one-score games, I mean, some of the Lions' wins early in the year were one-score close games, right? So I think it's a great point about the parity in the league right now. And, you know, you mentioned earlier, right, that they really need to do a better job on first down.

And a big part of that is getting the running game going more consistently. What needs to improve in that area for the Lions, not just against Edmonton this weekend, but for the rest of the season as well, Moj? Well, I mean, if you want to run the football, it starts with your offensive line and gaining control of the line of scrimmage and winning your one-on-one battle. I mean, that's what it boils down to, right?

And, you know, utilizing the proper technique to do so. And conversely, on defense, I mean, I was watching that game against the Saskatchewan-Edmonton game, just watching, you know, what Edmonton did in that game. And, man, I looked at what Saskatchewan was doing on defense, and I'm like, guys, what are you doing? Like, I'm just – there were some plays like, you know, guy, I mean, I'm going to get a little technical on you here, but, you know,

when you're playing gap control defense, you can't allow your shoulders to get turned. I saw players getting their shoulders getting turned. I saw linebackers sitting at five yards, and instead of moving up and canceling a gap, they basically waited for an offensive lineman to basically block them. I saw Micah Johnson one time who had an outside shade on the guard and crossed his face and tried to get into the other gap

and then just got washed, which I'm like, this is stuff you don't see in high school, right? So basically on defense, it boils down to gap integrity, right? Just maintaining your gap and doing a great job. They're going to have to do that this week against Trey Ford and Javon Lake because if they don't, Edmonton will have an opportunity to exploit some plays. But for me,

with the run, it starts on both sides of the line of scrimmage, whether it's offense or defense. Moj, as you know, it's an Ask Us Anything Friday here on the show. I know you're a big, big fan of this segment. We had Colin Intuos texted in specifically for you and ask us anything for the Moj.

Which Olympic event would you have been the best at? I don't know if you're a big Olympics guy, Moj, but there's the question from Colin. Which Olympic event would the Moj have thrived at? Oh, wow. That's a great question. Colin from White Rock, I think you actually silenced me on

this one. That's hard to do. Yeah. Which Olympic event would I love to have done? I'll tell you a crazy story. When I was a little kid, like when I was like six or seven, I actually wanted to be a tennis player. All right. Okay.

So, like, you know, I was like, you know, I went out and bought a racket once and then, you know, banged the ball around at Queens Park at the tennis courts for like, who knows how long. And then I kind of decided I was going to become a pilot or something. I can't remember. There was a part of me at one point that, you know, dreamed of playing in Wimbledon. Right. So maybe a tennis player. It certainly certainly wouldn't be diving.

Right. Sure. What what would I have been capable of? Man, I was just I wasn't a good enough athlete to be even close to anything, right? But yeah, maybe like a tennis player if I had to go that route, right? What about hammer throw?

We're a hammer throw powerhouse now, Moj. Yeah. Hammer throw? No. I'd probably kill somebody in the stands. But they do have those nets, right? Like, they have those nets. It'd be all right.

If they didn't have those nets, they'd be like, hammer could be going who knows where, and that'd be dangerous. I don't know how those people do it, either. Like, they're unbelievable. That's wild. Like, I mean, think about this. Can you imagine Dodge spinning around four times? He'd fall down.

Right? Forget about throwing anything. Just the spinning would be bad enough. Exactly. You'd spin four times, and like, you know, you'd be like one of those little kids at a birthday party. You'd be down on all fours in, like, six seconds. No, I can't even do the pinata. Exactly.

Well, the next game's a mojo. We've got flag football. 2028 sounds like a lot of the top NFL stars want to participate. You're obviously a huge football guy. Do you have any interest in the flag football at the Olympics? You know, I'll tell you something about the Olympics. I was thinking of doing a column on this, and I still might.

I don't know what it is, but when I was younger, I was totally into the Olympics. I'm still into the Winter Olympics, and I'm into the Winter Olympics because it's smaller, it seems more quaint, whatever. The Summer Olympics, to me, it's just got monstrous. And I think the other thing, too, that kind of turns me off is the participation of all these to me have just it's just got monstrous and i think the other thing too that

kind of turns me off is you know the participation of all these professionals like whether it's golf whether it's basketball i mean they've got surfing in french polynesia and tahiti right i mean is that really part of the olympic games yeah it is three on three basketball is you know whatever i mean what break dancing i mean all of these events, it just got so big. And I don't know. I've had a real disconnect with the Olympics. And that's not to say that I don't appreciate what some of these great athletes are doing. But to me, it's just gotten so big that I just can't connect with it anymore, right?

And that's why I think I really love the Winter Olympics because it's smaller. And you can connect with the athletes. And, you know, here I am talking about love the Winter Olympics because it's smaller and you can connect with the athletes. And here I am talking about professionalism, yet when it's Olympic hockey, of course, I'm watching, right? So there's kind of a double standard there. I mean, look, we're Canadian, right? The Winter Olympics is always going to have that extra

pull for us. I understand that. Moj, really appreciate it, man. Fun times as always. Have a great weekend. All right, Counselor Izzy, have yourself a great weekend. Thanks, Moj, really appreciate it, man. Fun times, as always. Have a great weekend. All right, Counselor Izzy, have yourself a great weekend. Thanks, Moj. That is Bob the Moj Marjanovic weighing in on the Lions and the Olympics. I like that I have a nickname for my Moj now. Explain Counselor to me.

Because I used to be a lawyer. Right. Okay. Sustained. That's right. I'll allow it, Counselor. That's a special moment for me, getting the Moj nickname. I expected Moj to go to, like, wrestling or something or, you know, as I said, hammer throw shot put.

He's a big lacrosse guy that's in the next games. Yeah, that's coming up. So I guess it's not a traditional Olympic sport. But tennis, I wouldn't have picked Moj for a tennis aficionado. No, that was a bit of a swerve. I do generally agree. This is a problem in a lot of pro sports and sports in general, is if you're not growing, you're not getting more money and things like that.

But I am an Olympics traditionalist. A purist. I like the core events, if you will. I'm not anti, you know, the breaking is going on now and people are excited about snoop dogs there he's he's very excited about that but i i always was more of a of an olympic purist yeah the the the real sort of tentpole events the core sports are the key right you're swimming your track your athletics those are the key events i don't have a huge issue with them trying out these

different things and adding breaking and you know three on three basketball it doesn't detract from the rest of the games right as you said kind of the traditional ones that people really get engaged with for me i can kind of separate them i get why they do it they're looking for you know they're looking for these uh these new revenue streams and to grow the interest and all of that it is kind of funny that they end up putting in these different versions of sports like three-on-three basketball right and look i watched a couple of three-on-three games really entertaining great athletes but even you know i said the lacrosse version is like i was wondering i was like okay it's probably not box so it's got to be field lacrosse but it's actually like a relatively newly developed version called sixes. So six aside, that's

kind of a smaller rugby sevens equivalent. Yeah, rugby sevens, right? So it is that throws me off a little bit. I get why they do it. You're trying to, you know, it's a short tournament. It would be hard to stage a whole rugby tournament in the amount of time that they have of traditional rugby.

Like the Rugby World Cup takes places over like 19 weeks because you can't play every day you can't play that many games whereas in rugby sevens you play multiple times a day right so you can get it done really quickly but that's the one thing like i would love for it just to be you know field lacrosse or something right rather than the new version that's kind of only been recently developed having said that still stoked still stoked for uh for lacrosse to be there and for softball and baseball to be there in 2028. Robin Suri texted in a very appropriate what we learned. What I've learned is that, you know, it's summer when the main topics of conversation are pizza and obscure sports that we know we would never otherwise dream of discussing.

It's the Olympics, man. That's one of the best parts of the Olympics is you get to weigh in on all of these sports that are otherwise never, ever on your radar. You get to learn new rules and all these things that you'd never thought of before. I mean, you were fixing the Olympics yesterday. The speed climb was too fast for Jamie Dodd. This event should be more than five seconds, he said. It should!

Old man Dodd and his cow, slow down! You're moving too fast for me to keep track. Crazy kids can't keep track of all this movement. Well, we came in this morning and there was like the more traditional, like, technical where it's like, see how far you can go, but it's difficult. And Jamie was like, this is more my speed,

guys. It was way better. It was way more compelling. They were like, this is a whole minute and a half. None of this five second nonsense. You could really see the technique. One of the guys fell off before he was uh before he got to where the leader had gotten to like this yeah he needed he needed like one more one more hand up to to get to the gold medal spot and he he fell didn't you say you were listening to the people show yesterday and they had a guest on who made the same point like

the ioc has got a they've got to make this last longer it's not it's it's no good under five seconds i'm standing by. That's a good take by me. That's a strong, strong take by me. Had you ever cared about that event prior to yesterday? No, of course not. Of course not. But that's the whole point of the Olympics.

You don't need to be invested. I had this conversation with Bruff. He's like, oh, so all of a sudden you care about swimming? It's like, well, at the Olympics I do. Why not? It's the Olympics. That's the fun of it, is getting invested in these sports. Bruff is very anti-Summer Olympics. Yeah, I know. He's on record. I know. That's the fun of it, is getting invested in these sports. Ruff is very anti-Summer Olympics.

Yeah, I know. He's on record. I know. There's a lot of Canadians like that. I don't know why they feel threatened because we're not one of the best countries at it, unlike the winter ones. I mean, I get it. Just lean into it.

I'm far more invested in the winter games than I am in the summer games. It's always been that way, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the summer games. They're still super fun, too. There's some great events and incredible athleticism that you'll never see anywhere else. Thank you. Well said. Why not? Well said. The spirit of sport lives in ADOC. Big final segment

of the show coming up. We'll do what we learned, of course. Also Ask Us Anything. The best Ask Us Anything wins a $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza. Still time to get a dynamite last-minute submission and include the pizza emoji if you want to be entered to win the gift card. Get ready for the ultimate sports fan trip to Michigan

from September 27th to October 1st. Experience games at the Big House, Comerica Park, and Ford Field. Contact Neil Chark at neilc at uniglobecarefree.ca. For details, final segment of the week next here on Halford & Brough Sportsnet 650. Welcome to Kelownafarnia. West Coast. Yeah. Kelowna, baby.

Best place in the world right here. Right here. Ha ha. Kelownafarnia. Kelownafarnia. Kelowna Sportsnet 650. Jamie Dodd. Israel Fair. Hey! Let's go! Final segment of Half and a Brough for the week here. Sportsnet 650, Jamie Dodd, Israel Fair. Half and a Brough is brought to you by the Dilawri family of Honda dealers. Experience the Dilawri difference today.

Visit your nearest Dilawri Honda dealer today. This hour of Half and a Brough is brought to you by Campbell & Pound real estate appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit Campbell-Pound Real Estate Appraisers. Trust the expertise of Campbell & Pound. Visit campbell-pound.com today. 650-650 is the Dunbar Lumber text line. The Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome.

Details at dunbarlumber.com. It's an Ask Us Anything Friday. We will read some here momentarily. We'll announce the winner of the hundred dollar, uh, AJ's gift card as well. Before we do that, we want to get some,

what we learns in, uh, I'll start. We've got a theme, at least to a couple of our, what we learns, uh, today.

So I'll start from the national bank open last night. Uh, Stefano sissy pass lost his match. He also very, very very frustrated some tense moments during the match he ended up kicking his coach off the court and by the way his coach is also his dad and not only did he kick his dad off the court of the match because he was frustrated with the coaching he was receiving during the match He also talked to the media after it and pretty much just ripped into, again, his dad after his loss at the National Bank Open.

Here's Sissipas. I've been complaining to my coach about it already the last four or five days. And that was also the reason we, I had a confrontation with him during the match. I'm not used to confront my coach in that sense. You know, for me, an ATP Masters 1000 match is an important match and I need to be, I need, I believe the least I deserve is a coach that listens to me and hears my

feedback as a player, it's an important one, and tries and adjusts to those kind of things. I feel like my father in those sort of ways hasn't been very smart or very good at handling those situations or trying to read what's happening inside the court. So that's really poor performance, and it's not the first time he has done that. So I'm really disappointed in him. My father hasn't been very smart or very good at handling these situations.

I'm really disappointed in him. That is tough. Just airing the family dirty laundry after the match. He gave his dad the I'm not mad, I'm disappointed. I'm just disappointed.

He kicked, no, he essentially grounded his dad. He was like, get out of here, go to your room, and then afterwards told the media,

I'm really disappointed at him. That's tough from Stefano Sisyphus at the National Bank Open. Just, I guess he's moving on. He said, maybe I'll think about making some changes. But, like, if I'm his dad, I'm like, well, I don't want to be your coach anymore. What is this?

Everyone's relationship with their parents is different. I don't know what you guys is like, but I couldn't imagine saying something. Like, my dad was my coach for a lot of years for hockey. And I wouldn't dream of, like, going to the media and saying something like that. He hasn't been good. I'm disappointed in him. He hasn't been smart or good. that. Like he hasn't been good. I'm disappointed in him. He's literally, it's like,

he hasn't been smart or good. Poor performance. Hasn't been smart. Doesn't take my feedback. I deserve better. Woo. Incredible commentary about his dad from Stefano Sissipas at the national bank open.

Give us a moo cow. We'll keep on the theme. Cause Laddie, I understand you have not just another, what we learned from the national bank open, but some audio for us as well we're going all tennis in the that's right everyone was demanding uh well it was a big eventful first uh round apparently because cc pass lost his round and so did the number three seed daniel medvedev he had a lot of issues in his uh his match he wanted to take a bathroom break.

The umpire would not let him go, and this is how he reacted. Sorry, man. Can I take a poo on the court? No, sir. Why not? You don't let me go out. Poop. Poop mouth.

Can I have a poop out of your mouth? So he straight up asked the umpire. Can I take a poop on the court? Can I take a poop out of your mouth? So he's asked, he straight up asked the umpire. Can I take a poop on the court? Can I take a poop on the court? And then, no, why not?

Well, I've got one idea why you're not allowed to do that. So that was on the way to his eventful loss in that first round. So, yeah, Medvedev, I

hope he got his bathroom break that he needed. Eventually. Yeah, that was not a good situation. Can I take a poop on the court? Look, it happens to everyone, right? Roberto Luongo, you got to go to the bathroom sometimes.

Sorry, man. Can I take a poo on the court? Sorry, man. You won't let me go to the bathroom. Can I just right here? I'm going to drop trowel right here and take a poo on the court. Oh, man. Izzy, you got a what we learned?

Yeah, I'll do this one. Is this about poop? No poop. Well, actually, it's about the Chicago White Sox. So it's poop adjacent. The White Sox yesterday, we covered it on the show, fired manager Pedro Grafal. The prevailing wisdom was that charlie montoyo would take over

as interim manager but we found out a few hours after we were done that charlie montoyo was also fired so blue jays fans won't get to see pack your drums and go charlie old charlie mr congo's in uh the manager's seat for the white socks surprisingly grady sizemore if you're a baseball fan if you remember the uh mid to late 2000s uh grady sizemore. If you're a baseball fan, if you remember the mid to late 2000s, Grady Sizemore was a really, really good player. I feel old now. For Cleveland. He was one of my favorite players from that era.

He's the interim manager for the rest of the season for the White Sox. They say that they're going to do a major search and that they're finally going to – I think this will be on manager four since 2020. So they've had some issues finding their long-term guy. What if Sizemore turns them around, though? What a story that would be. Can you imagine?

Big win streak to end the season? Yeah, turns them around in the context of wins 10 games. Their priority, I guess, their priority is to avoid the record. And now I don't know if Grady Sizemore is the guy to do that or what the path is, but I can still play. Cause I saw some people asking, why are you even firing Graffal at this point?

And I kind of get that. It's like, what do you like? You're not turning your season around. You're not saving your season. But I guess the, the thought process is let's just do what we can to avoid going down in the record.

And they can now officially, not that they couldn't really before, but they have open season now to put their list together. Like, you don't want, this happened actually in the Premier League at the end of the season where Manchester United was interviewing managers while not having fired their manager to sort of test the waters, and then they win the FA Cup in a surprise, and they say, you know what, maybe the interviews didn't go that well,

we're going to keep Eric Ten Hag, which is pretty unprecedented where you're actually going to have full-scale conversations to replace someone who hasn't been fired. Very unlikely to see that in baseball. So you get rid of that. And in this instance, they have said we're not, Grady Sizemore's not going to,

we're going to go outside of the organization. We're going to do a big search after the season and hire someone with Major League Baseball experience. So this isn't even like a Canucks and a Rick Tocket situation, right, where it's like the season's over, but we want to get our guy in, give him that runway going into next year. It's just a change to try to do anything to avoid setting that record. By the way, Grady Sizemore also Montreal Expos draft pick.

So shout out to – never played for the Expos in the bigs, but drafted originally. And went to high school in Everett, Washington. Yes, that's right. Yeah, Cascade High School. I'm looking at his baseball reference page right now. I didn't just know that off the top of my head. Cascade High School.

Jamie was scouting Everett High School back in the day. He was an Expos scout for the Northwest. Regional Expos scout. All right, give us a moo cow there adog you have what we learned i do not all right great thank you happy to contribute you're doing you're working hard back there i know you are buddy don't worry um and i'm gonna ask you to contribute right now because it is time to announce the winner of the hundred dollars aj's gift card and uh very very fitting here that it goes to an Ask Us Anything about pizza,

which, of course, generated the most discussion on the show today. Yeah, congrats to Tyler. Pizza emoji AUA. If you had to order two pizzas for a group last minute, what are you going with? Are you going safe or trying to blow minds? And that was, of course, what spurred on Jamie's apparently hot take about pepperoni pizza that upset many listeners. And, yeah, so you give us content.

We give you a gift card. Congrats, Tyler. There you go. Congratulations to Tyler. Try AJ's traditional New York pizza or sink into their famous Detroit pizza only at AJ's Pizza. Order online at AJS.pizza. And Tyler, my only request, we don't put conditions on it, but my only request is that you treat yourself to some pepperoni. Probably the Detroit Roni.

When you cash in that gift card. Detroit Ronnie. Ronnie, sorry. Excuse me. It's okay. Yes, Ronnie. Treat yourself to some pepperoni one way or the other. I think he will if he's going with a troop of five-year-olds, Jamie.

First of all, five-year-olds do not like pepperoni. It's too spicy for them. If you're going to say a pizza is for kids, it's either ham and pineapple or cheese. Oh, man. I was down on pepperoni pizza when I was five. I mean, I probably was too, but a lot of kids. Kids today are soft. Can't handle a little pepperoni.

Can't handle the heat. Kids and their phones. If you're ordering pizza for like a five-year-old birthday party, you're not leading with pepperoni. You're going heavy on the cheese and you're going heavy on ham and pineapple. You might include a pepperoni for the parents. Oh, dude. 100%. When I was a kid, if there was ham and pineapple at the party we would all make fun of the kid that ordered it be like what is this abomination doing here what is this doing really

even at five oh yeah it was a classic kid pizza no we put like spaghetti on their pizza we learned very early like what is this it should not exist in the natural universe see i actually i actually do like hawaiian pizza if you're gonna come for my pizza taste and call it immature that's where you're going not pepperoni pepperoni i'll back you there i like it i like it good it's a it's classic it's delicious it's not my number one order but yeah no if it's a slice i'm on on the go. And it looks good. I'm not opposed. Don't tell Moj. Not a fan.

But okay. You stick to the oranges and the bananas. I respect your opinion. When he said bananas on the pizza, is he conflating banana peppers with people putting actual bananas? No, you guys missed it. He wasn't saying people actually do it. He was trying to say. It's equivalent to that.

Yeah, why, if you're going to put pineapple on why not just put other fruit but it's funny he said that because just earlier laddie and i were just do you have the audio i don't have the audio on me but the the yankees announcer michael k yeah did not know what a banana pepper was he literally thought people were putting banana pieces on their pizza being like this is disgusting and his color commentator had to explain to him what a banana pepper the little circular peppers this is yesterday right this is yesterday so i was surprised when moj said that yeah that's wild you go you're michael k's gotta be like his 50s he's apparently a really picky eater he doesn't eat anything and yeah so he would be like a cheese pizza guy he would be a cheese pizza guy all right

by the way somebody texted mike but both my kids love pepperoni they're four and six years old it's the only thing they eat which is amazing there you go i do think i have just converted recently my six-year-old got on board of pepperoni pizza for the first time was like okay i like this so my two-year-old like very exciting maybe it's just my kids yeah kids i've uh i've been around but i haven't seen a lot of love for the pepperoni pizza so far uh all right that was the winner for the ask us anything congrats to tyler diving into the inbox here this one came in a little earlier all right of course my bad this is the administrative nonsense jamie because i was on to ask us anything not what we learned i know you can't just move along like that no obviously it's too easy what would happen if we didn't play the the uh the printer sound people would get upset

people would get really mad and And now, of course, we gotta go to the fire plan drop. Oh my God! We're having a fire plan! All right. Into the inbox for an Ask Us Anything. This one came in a little earlier. A recent Laddie tweet

about the Canucks goal song reminded me of how awful it is. Do you guys think it should be changed? He suggests all of the lights. You know, I'm sure there's other people with lots of other suggestions. Laddie, where do you stand? That tweet got zero interaction.

Except from this guy. Yeah, apparently somebody saw it. I just thought it was surprising because there's a Canucks Army account posting a goal of the day, and there was a goal, Bo Horvat scoring on Vitek vanacek of washington and the same goal song starts playing so just it just feels so old to me like they need to change

it up it's a new era of canucks you think bo horvat you don't think of this current iteration of the vancouver canucks why is the goal song still the same i feel like they should move on this is one of those things where it's just like i get it you want an iconic one i also have a really hard time caring and i i think also it comes down to the players. What do the players think? Is this something they enjoy? Probably not much. Are they into it? That's the thing, right? But if they have a big problem with it, then that's fine.

They did have individual goal songs for a while there. Yeah, I prefer the one unified one so you know it's going to hit. You have that kind of immediate response. See, I've got the Nirvana. It better be good then because the Coxucks goal song is trash. It's been trash for a long time now. It just feels so anticlimactic. It's not good. It is so generic. There's so many good songs

to choose from. Come on guys. Why are we forgetting about them? And the Canucks have great music at the games. That's why I don't get it. Their in-house DJ does a really good job with lots of good and, like, obscure and interesting music, yet you can't, like,

do something with that goal song. But you don't want an obscure song. No, no, no, no. It doesn't have to be obscure. But I'm just saying, like, let's get something that pumps people up.

Do you have a suggestion, A-Duck? I mean, honestly, off the top of my head, I don't. I mean, not better than the ones they've previously played.

I really love the Japanroids one they had for a long time. Holiday was fine. Holiday was a classic. Holiday was fine. I mean, it's not my favorite they had for a long time. Yeah. Holiday was fine. Holiday was a classic. Holiday was fine. I mean, it's not my favorite song, but it was fine. But I don't know. I just feel-

But you think about that run, right? Well, I think that's why a lot of people like it so much is they associate it with great memories. But that's what a good goal song does. And I don't feel like we get that from- But you don't want to be always stuck going back to nostalgia. Like, oh, go back to holiday because the team was good. No, no, no, no, no.

I'm not saying that. It should be something. And in fact, I wouldn't want them to do that. Don do the nostalgia thing like actually get a new song what that would be i don't know just make it a good one exactly i also am always wary and this comes up with the jerseys for the canucks right where it's like oh they got to change it they got to change it like at a certain point you got to stick with something even if it's not necessarily ideal right because we're all old so we're listening to this goal song and it's like that's not really for me but if you're a kid if you're 10 years old and you really got into the Canucks for the first time during this last playoff run you're gonna have really good memories about this goal song right

and so I think there's a danger to constantly switching things up kids who saw their first Canucks game this offseason to this playoff season, rather, that will associate the Canucks with that goal song, like, 30 years from now, will still love that song just because of the memories brought around it, right? I mean, that's what it does when you put music into sport. It just connects it in that way. So that's going to be the tricky

part. It's, as you said, like, you've got to pick something that resonates with everybody, but obviously now the goal song, which they currently have, has left its footprint after the season we just had. Inbox is saying Japan Droids. I know you'd be all for that. That's what I said. I really liked the Japan Droids goal song when they had it for,

I can't remember how many years it was. But I'm not saying go back to that one, but something like that. Maybe another local Vancouver band. I don't know. Get creative. A lot of people sticking up for it as well. John the Electrician says, The Canucks goal song is the best in any league the crowd sings along and it's extremely annoying you're

seeing that in other teams i.e chelsea dagger uh another one brandon and langley who says could not disagree more the canucks have the best goal song in the league the point that john the electrician makes you don't just want a good song you want something that's going to annoy the other team as well. All the other teams are talking about it. Channing la la la at them is going to annoy the other team and the other team's fans. That's a huge vote in favor of keeping the one they have. I will agree with that. Yes.

Annoying the other team is very important. Somebody says we should produce it. I will agree with that aspect of it. Somebody thinks we should produce it. Nobody wants to. Because it would be annoying? Yeah. Just play the What We Learn song. Just play the What We Learn song. Just play the What We Learn song as the goal song. What we learn. Canucks just scored. Oh my gosh. That would be

very, very good. I think either that or like the Moj. Imagine if it was just like a Moj theme. Goal. Goal song. That was for you, Moj. Goal. Goal. Goal. Every song, they salute Moj in the press box. Every goal. Man, how long is this goal song?

Can't drop the puck. Three minutes. Hold up. We really got to let... A-Dog really was in his bag on this one. We got to let it breathe, guys. Don't drop the puck yet. It's the worst idea ever.

Speaking of your jingles, somebody texted in, if you could have one A-Dog jingle stuck in your head for the rest of your life, one would you choose i think i have to go for the what we learned jingle because that is stuck in my head for the rest of my life i'm already living that life but that was that the first one you made um no it was the chris faber one oh okay yeah but i feel like maybe that one you know i think what we learned was third okay third one i feel like oftentimes you one, you know how sometimes... I think What We Learned was third. Okay. Third one. I feel like oftentimes, you know, bands' third album is like, okay, they've got their first

two under their belts and then they really... No, no, no. It's like that's their masterpiece. I feel like the What We Learned jingle is your masterpiece. Oh, thank you. And so that's the one I would choose. I know it's controversial. It gets some hate in the inbox from time to time.

Yeah, well, that's what I go for. I mean, I'm not trying to write a jingle yet. It's the most earworm. Yeah. It's earworm-y. Ideally, I want to annoy the listener with my jingles. well, that's what I go for. It's the most earworm. Yeah. Earwormy. Ideally, I want to annoy the listener with my jingles. Exactly. Oh, by the way, a listener did recommend a goal song,

which has become a Halford & Brough staple, and we're just going to play it for you quickly. If the Canucks could pick a goal song to annoy the other team, this is the one. Ah, crazy horns. Just imagine hearing that after like a six goal lead. Especially the sound of the other team's coach. Viano kicks in. If you're just going for pure trolling

Of your team I mean that's a strong contender I mean it would be awful but it would also be kind of great Why not Colonna Fornia? You could think of like terrible one hit wonders from the past Also like Mambo number 5 Who let the dogs out was a good one I went to a lot of Hamilton Bulldogs games over the years Growing up and heard a lot of

Who let the dogs out Who let the dogs out is a good one I'm blue if you're just trying to annoy the other team I think you got to go back to like the one hit wonder some of the awful awful one hit wonders of our youth okay final few minutes of the show here 650 650 Chumbawamba is the Chumbawamba Chumbawamba is not as terrible to me As those other songs that I mentioned Tough Thumpin It'd be alright Take a whiskey drink

Take a cider drink I believe that is a song very closely Associated with the English soccer team The England national team Really is it? I did not know that Well good for them they've already had it I guess They've claimed it Alright 650 650

final few minutes of the show here uh gordon poco building off what aj had to say about his wife battling a black bear with her bare hands last night we kind of just moved on from that didn't we yeah i mean well he like i was like explain he's like yeah she fought it off and i was like with her bare hands he's like yep i was like all right i guess that's all there is to the story feels like there's more there but maybe not growing up in lynn valley izzy did you have black bear incidents because i sure did oh yeah i feel like at least once a year there'd be a blackbird going through our garbage and it was always quite the experience yeah definitely my parents still live up there and they had one in their yard uh two weeks ago i grew up in north

van not lynn valley but north van i remember i think i was in kindergarten or grade one and like eating a pepperoni that's right one. Eating a pepperoni pizza. That's right. Chowing down on pepperoni pizza. And the school went into lockdown because there was a bear on the schoolyard. Right. It was like we all had to stay in and they had called in, you know, the wildlife services or whatever. So it's a part of North Van.

Both of my sisters. The valley needs a bear patrol like on the Simpsons. Okay. Both of my sisters now live in Port Moody. Kind of like up the mountain in Port Moody. It's way even worse than North Van ever was. Like every week they're sending me pictures of like bears wandering around on their street. It's like they live in like the frontier in the Old West or something.

It's just like constant wildlife invasion. So it's a part of life in the lower mainland. AJ said he was over in Gibson's. But anyways, Gord texted in uh what would be like the limit you're protecting your dog like aj's wife was what like how big do you think you could go in terms of an animal how big how fierce would you be willing to commit to fighting the animal off uh protecting your dog i mean now that i know that aj's wife battled a black bear i feel like i gotta say say black bear. I think if I had been asked that question before hearing AJ's story, I would have said like, I don't know, a large dog or something or like a coyote.

But now I'm feeling pretty good about myself. I'm going to go for the black bear, just like Teresa did. Black bears, I think, manageable. Grizzly bears and plus not manageable. Black bears can be surprisingly timid for large animals. They can be very scared very quickly and just bolt. A grizzly, on the other hand, I don't know if I would take my chances with a grizzly bear. That would probably end very badly.

No, a grizzly bear, that's a very, very foolish idea. The Half-Eared Brough Show recommends not approaching any bear, regardless of type of bear. Let's put this out there. Yeah, I don't know if we want to throw it out there that black bears are, quote, manageable. It's like, just go find a black bear and fight it. A lot of people don't know this. For legal reasons, we must say. It's great. A lot of people don't know this. Black bears love to be pet. there that black bears are quote manageable it's like just go find a black bear and a lot of people don't for legal reasons we must say a lot of people don't know this black bears love to be pet no they're huge wusses they're not good fighters you can go take them on

yeah we don't need like a jay's wife people go look for kangaroos right oh yeah i hear sometimes about people like fighting off cougars and stuff right so maybe you could throw that in there as well if you have that adrenaline rush, you're protecting your dog. We get coyotes in my neighborhood. I feel pretty confident against a coyote. I feel pretty confident about a coyote. I feel like coyotes are cowards also. They're like tricksters. They're not looking for a head-on fight.

One good shot and that thing's running for the hills. It's running away. It's taken off. And then you can say you defeated a coyote. Fantastic note to end things on. Izzy, thanks for doing this as always. I'm back in with Josh Elliott-Wolf. One of you is off? Laddie's off?

Laddie's off. Alright, A-Dog's in. Josh Elliott-Wolf is in with me next week here on Alfred and Brough. Have a great weekend. You've got it on Sportsnet 650.