Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Whitecaps Added Some New Talent

Episode Date: September 5, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason chat with Whitecaps FC CEO and Sporting Director Axel Schuster (1:15) about their newest addition Stuart Armstrong, plus they preview the NFL Eagles v Packers Brazil game with The Athletic Philadelphia's Brooks Kubena (28:22).  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.

702 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Halford, Ruff, Sportsnet 650. Halford and Ruff of the Morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking

for, be it sales, financing, service, or parts. Axel Soester is going to join us in just a moment here to kick off Hour 2 of the program. Jason's going to tell you very quickly about the Kintec Studio. We didn't get a chance to do it off the top because we were too busy talking about Zach's new nickname of Chad. Right. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. Soar feet, what are you waiting for? Kintec. So the Whitecaps are in action this weekend. They're going to be playing Saturday at BC Place against FC Dallas. They're going to be missing a lot of players who are either away on injury or international duty, but they have a

shiny new designated player maybe to make his debut. We'll find out now. Axel Schuster, CEO and Sporting Director of the Whitecaps, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Axel. How are you? Good morning. I'm great. How are you guys? We are well. Thanks for taking the time to do this.

For the listeners that might not know about Stuart Armstrong, can you please let us and them know what to expect from your latest designated player? Yeah, so I would say that this season so far we had some amazing defensive performances just last weekend in Austin again. I think it was the basis for our success. We also have some very good strikers.

Brian White and Ryan Gold have been within the top three strikers, offensive pairs last season. But sometimes we had a little bit of a difficulty in some games to connect those two sides. And so now with Stuart, we actually have found this piece, the guy that can connect those two different areas of the pitch. And as a player who plays in the middle of the park,

you say box toto-box. It's how we call it in soccer, box-to-box midfielder. I would say describes him the best. What does that mean, box-to-box midfielder? Literally what I just said. A player who plays between the two main areas of our game, defense and offense. Somebody who carries the ball from the defense to the offense.

Somebody who can set up forwards in the right way that they can get to the final shot. But somebody who is also working backwards and supports the defense with pressing and closing spaces on the pitch. We call them in hockey, 200-foot players. Yeah, there you go. I didn't know that.

I learned something this morning. Great. We're all learning something. So tell us about this recruitment effort. I heard you're crashing family vacations. Did you go in disguise or something? How did this happen? No.

You know, with those type of signings and our other two DPs haven't been different. It needs some effort. You have to really, I would say, show everything possible, how much you want the player, how much you are open to do for this player. You also have to provide him with all the information about the club, the league. And so I was on his agent and asked him, can I meet him in person? And the agent said, oh, he's on a family vacation in France. I said, I travel everywhere. So then he said, look, he is welcoming you and he's up to meet you in France.

And it was the one week off after the Euro he had with his wife and his little daughter. So for that reason, I was very thankful that his wife allowed that because we all in our business don't have so much time off. And if somebody crashes into your family vacation, it's not a normal thing. I was just imagining them at the water slides or something and you show up. Axel, how much did Ryan Gould help in the recruitment process? Is it fair to say that you would have had far less of a chance of landing Stuart Armstrong if you didn't already have Ryan Gould? I don't know if it would have been less likely. I would say it was definitely helpful because it was Goli who made first contact.

He was the first person speaking with him and said, look, does it make sense if my sporting director of our club connects with your agent? Is there an openness from your side? And also with that, he obviously told him about his own experience. And all of this was definitely very helpful to, I would say, to open the door right at the beginning a little bit. Is it possible that Stuart Armstrong will be able to play on Saturday against FC Dallas?

Look, we have to set him up for success. I don't think it would be great to just throw him in because we miss a lot of players. We will not do this because of that reason. He will be in the roster. He will be on the bench. And if the situation in the game is in a way that it makes sense to bring him, we will bring him.

It will not be a lot of minutes, but maybe, let's speak in a positive way, maybe he can ride the wave and help to get the results home at the end, and everyone can see a few minutes of him. The reason that I ask is because I've looked ahead to who's not going to be playing on Saturday. I believe the list right now, and correct me if I'm wrong at the end of it,

but Ali Ahmed, international duty. Gauld, Kubas, Vite, Pico, also international duty. Adekube, Hurt, Brian White, Hurt. Am I missing anyone? Did I get it right? Is that what we're dealing with on Saturday? You know, you had Fafa Biko as well? Yes, he's with Haiti, right? Yeah, he's with Haiti.

So, yeah, we're missing a lot of players. It's something we have been pretty much aware of. And you know what? It also tells you that our other players that are missing, that the players that are missing have shown some great performances. And we have points per game game fourth in the Western Conference. And last week, we got a big result right at the start of into the last 10 games. And it's a situation we have to deal with.

But you know what? We always have said that we need a depth in our roster that we need and rely on on more than 11 players and it's also a great opportunity for those guys to show up i have seen yesterday a potential lineup for the weekend and i would say every one of those guys that will start on saturday they have already played with us and has already played successfully with us so it's uh it's time for them to step up and to show how important they can be, not only for this game, also for the rest of the season, because there's still a lot of games to play.

We have nine regular season games, plus a cup final in the Canadian Championship, plus playoff games. So we will meet everyone. And on Saturday, everyone has a great chance to show up. We're speaking to Whitecaps CEO and Sporting Director Axel Schuster here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You mentioned the back half of the schedule here. You've got a ton of games coming up in September.

That was the opposite of July and August, where you guys didn't play an awful lot due to a variety of things. I'll run through it for those that don't know. You guys actually didn't play an MLS match between july 20th and then last weekend against austin and then the interim you played a few games you played some leagues cup game you had a canadian championship semi-final in there but then you also had a stretch from august 7th to 27th where there were no games you forgot the rexham game and there was that's right i the Wrexham exhibition. See, it's a very confusing schedule. What's it been like as the sporting director trying to navigate this very odd schedule,

trying to keep everybody sharp, knowing that September, these next three weeks, are very packed with games? Look, if you would have asked me 10 days ago, you would have heard me very nervous about the situation, saying, look, we need to find a way to right away get up to speed again because the one thing you're concerned about is that you're not at the highest

competitive level after such a break. Now, since we have won two games since then and started well on our away trip in Austin, I would say we have used the break in the best possible way because we had to play a lot of games before. And we are a team that runs more kilometers than most of our opponents,

a team that has to travel more than every other opponent. So it was also a needed break. And if you do it the best way and you get out of this break right away with good competitiveness then it was hopefully and we will see that in the next weeks a great thing for us but

it's easy to speak about that like today after the start with the two games has worked well right at the end of this break we all were thinking like how hopefully we have enough competitiveness because if you don't play for such a long time, you obviously lose a little bit of that.

But all good so far. This League Cup thing, I've got to ask you, I know you have to be diplomatic in your response, but I'll put it out there. It seems like a competition that is jammed into the middle of the season and makes life very difficult at times for teams. Like we went to the match against Pumas,

and I remember thinking this could be a great advertisement to see a very good Liga MX team that doesn't get to play here very often and is very good playing the sport, but you guys were given like three days of lead time to sell tickets to it because he didn't know you were going to be playing them until you got out of the League's Cup group stage. And I just wonder at times how difficult this must be, again, to try and navigate. And I was curious to get your thoughts, and I know you've got to be diplomatic

in your response here, but what do you think of the League's Cup? You know, you said already I have to do to be diplomatic twice i know no one believes no one believes me if i speak positive about the league's cup that i mean it positive the the one thing i have to say about yes it looks like it is in the middle of the season but we all know that in mexico it is right at the beginning of the season so as we have decided to play with the Mexican league, yeah, for one league it will be always at the beginning and for one league in the middle. You also see, and I think it shows very well,

that the league that is in the middle of the competition always has an advantage. We have seen that now two years in a row. We always speak about that we have disadvantages in the Champions League right at the beginning of our season. So,

said all of this, this competition, I would say that that's what you just mentioned is probably the biggest challenge because we see

interest, good interest in the games that are scheduled far ahead where everyone knows this game will happen. Pumas is a better and more

attractive team than Tijuana, but yes, we saw far better ticketing numbers and interest in the Tijuana game because people could plan for that. And this is only the second edition of it. I can also tell you that

financially and from the interest of sponsors into the tournament, it looks pretty good. And there is still a lot of things we have to work on and we have to improve. And you have to do this with two different leagues. So nothing is always easy because maybe the Mexicans have a different thought about a few things there have been already adjustments this year and i'm pretty sure that there will be a few other adjustments for next year also next year we have one team more with san diego coming so maybe the format will change because then the number is not to divide to three so there are a lot of things that I can see happening.

Overall, I would say I have not seen anyone who says, at the actual match day, if I go there and watch the game, it's a bad thing. I would say the whole organization structure, preparation, whatever, is something that can be improved. But I also see that it can be improved if we do well. I know this isn't top of mind for you because it's a couple years out but how does your operation change when the world cup comes to north america if you have an answer for me to that uh with all the details i would be very happy to answer this um i think everyone is still still

working on that and figuring it out. For sure the league will stop. That's a question that I get asked very often, so I would like to put that out here that everyone knows this. The league will stop during the World Cup. There will be no games, so that means there will be a break and we have to see how long this break is

and what that means for the rest of the year for the schedule. But all those things, I don't know. But our guys and everyone will have the time to fully focus on the World Cup games, seven in Vancouver, so that is actually a good message. Now that the summer is coming to a close, how hard is it to play in the middle of the summer in certain stadiums in North America because I'm just wondering about, you know, a World Cup game in the middle of the summer in, say, Kansas City, Missouri,

where it can get pretty hot, or some games down in Mexico, or some games on the East Coast. There are going to be some dome stadiums that have air conditioning in them, so that's going to be fine. But I'm just wondering about the weather during the World Cup and what it's like for you guys to play in some of these hot weather cities

in the middle of the summer. Yeah, you know, it's not easy. You cannot really prepare for heat. From the pure competition side, it's easier to play in very cold weather than in very hot weather. But I can tell you something about our learnings and that's probably a thing that a lot of teams will do. If you go to Austin like we did last Saturday

and you go in, arrive Friday, play the game on Saturday and go out of the city, it's not too bad. It definitely is tougher to play there. I always say we are in the most advanced market weather wise you can play in vancouver 365 days and on every given day even if the roof would be open it's rainy it's a good condition to play but if you only go in there one day i i have to say our own experience is it's it's manageable i think it's far more challenging for the teams that live in the market because they have to adjust their training every single day.

You cannot train on such a competitive level with this huge volumes that we do here in Vancouver, in Houston, in Austin, in Miami, in Kansas, wherever. So I would guess that the national teams all will pick their base camps in markets where the weather is, I would say, west coast, where the weather is more comparable to ours. Right. Because that's a far more important thing. Then to go in and to have one time this big load of heat is okay.

Axel, this was great. Thanks for taking the time to do this today. We really appreciate it. The game this weekend, for everyone that's wondering, it is at BC Place. It is a 7.30 kickoff. It's Vancouver and FC Dallas. Great job on landing Stuart Armstrong and best of luck on Saturday.

Thank you very much. Have a good day. You too. Thanks. That's Axel Schuster here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Yeah, it'll be very interesting to see what kind of lineup they have on Saturday. And it's funny because you and I and our good buddy, former Curtin Blog Radio producer Mike Martinego, went to the League's Cup match against Pumas.

There's a lot of Pumas supporters there. Right. On short notice, a lot of the Mexican League supporters. Well, they're probably students in the city. I mean, there's a there's a large Mexican population in Vancouver and a lot of them were there on short notice because they understood that there's not going to be a lot of opportunities to see that team play in vancouver in fact this is one there's one there's one that was you gotta make it's unfortunate that more people weren't able to go to the match for a multitude of reasons one it's in the dead of the summer a lot of people are on vacation the bigger issue was that they didn't find out about that match that they were going to host it until literally 72 hours prior to it like they beat beat Club Tijuana.

Yeah. And then that advanced them to the round of 32. And it's like, okay, you're playing. When are we playing? Wednesday. And so you get, you know, what do you expect? You know, you're going to have a meager walk-up crowd, giving them that short notice.

Yeah. You got to try and get your messaging out there quick. But, you know, it's tough with everything else that's going on in Vancouver in the summer, non-sporting division. And as a result, it was like, I don't know, 10,000 people there, maybe something like that. The NFL kicks off tonight. That's right.

It's NFL kickoff day today. We've got the Ravens and the Chiefs. We've got a few minutes here. So I want to hear from the listeners on this, and we can read some of your texts after we speak with Brooks Cabena, who is a beat writer for the Eagles, and the Eagles are going down to Brazil for their game tomorrow night, and then everything starts on Sunday.

The Seahawks are in action on Sunday against the Denver Broncos. And the question for listeners is, besides your favorite team, whether it's the Seahawks or the 49ers or the Packers or whoever, you can't pick anything to do with your favorite team. What is one NFL storyline that you are looking forward to this season.

And I'm going with the most obvious one, perhaps. And that's Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets. Okay. I just want the guy to stay healthy and see what he can do at 40 years old coming off a serious injury, his Achilles. I can't say, like this isn't me wanting him to fail.

This isn't me wanting him to succeed. I don't care at all about his politics when it comes to this particular storyline. This is a purely football thing for me. I just feel like we got ripped off of a really good storyline last year. A hundred percent. And I want to see how this plays out. I just want to see it because this could very well be Aaron Rodgers last year in

the NFL. Again, 40 years old. He'll be 41 in December. So 41 into the playoffs. The Jets went seven and two last season with Zach Wilson, Trevor Simeon, and good old Tim Boyle. 7-10. 7-10.

What did I say? 7-2. 7-10. With Zach Wilson, Trevor Simeon, and Tim Boyle. They just gave up half of the season. This is so good. I don't know exactly where Aaron Rodgers ranks on the all-time lists of great QBs, but what I do know is from what I've watched of him,

he's – I don't know how many guys throw the ball like him or whoever have, whoever has. Watching him play, he's league MVP four times, including fairly recently in 2020 and 2021. Only one Super Bowl win though. Yep. Which the detractors point out, the Tom Brady guys, right? And they'll be like, well, one Super Bowl win.

You're basically a Russell Wilson. Brett Favre. You know, you're Brett Favre. So for me, I just want to see that play out. I'll be curious to see that. Now, I will be cheering for Aaron Rodgers on Monday night Because they're playing the 49ers Sure

But I don't have It's not like I have a dog in the fight It's just an interest level in And I kind of I guess I kind of support old guys now Yeah I'm like come on old guy You can do it

Pull it together I mean Rodgers is Because he could win a Super Bowl Like that's not totally That's not totally outlandish to suggest, right? It's just a real, real, real long shot. Not how big a long shot. How big a long shot? Outside the top 10?

Top 10 teams in the NFL. Yeah, I would say that if you were to go to the. So there's 10 teams that have a better shot of winning the Super Bowl than the Jets and Aaron Rodgers. While I filibuster, why don't you look at the Jets' Super Bowl odds and see where the odds makers place them right now? Because I'm pretty sure it's outside the top 10. Now, as I filibuster, I'll say I am also intrigued by a quarterback in the AFC. He is a quarterback in the AFC like Aaron Rodgers

that also has multiple MVPs. Two of them to Aaron Rodgers' four. Unlike Aaron Rodgers, he has multiple MVPs, two of them to Aaron Rodgers is four. Unlike Aaron Rodgers, he doesn't have that super bowl. And that's what this year is going to be all about for the NFL's reigning MVP. The most intriguing guy for me in the NFL this year. And that's Lamar Jackson.

And I think, unfortunately this story doesn't get told until the playoffs, because I don't think anyone is doubting that Lamar Jackson, the Baltimore Ravens can get it done in the playoffs. He's won MVP twice. You can pencil them in for 12 or 13 wins. I would say right now they added Derek Henry to the backfield. It's the first time he's had a real bonafide runner next to him in the

backfield. Like Lamar gets it done in the regular season, in the post season. It's almost as if whatever magic or success that he has consistently eludes him. He's two and four all time in the post season. In those six contests, the Ravens offenses averaged barely over 10 points.

10 points was also the number that they put up against Patrick Mahomes and the chiefs in last year's AFC championship. Lamar in the playoffs turns the ball over too much. He can't generate offense the way that he does in the regular season. And it's hanging over him now. He's 27 years old. He's won the regular season MVPs. And what makes this one the most intriguing for me is everyone kind of assumes that if he's going to get to the Super Bowl and win it, he's going to have to go against Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs.

Like, that's the bar right now. Or Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. Well, see, that's what I'm saying. It's going to be a tough one. So what are the odds on that? Okay, I was right. There are only eight teams with better odds than the New York Jets. And they are, although you are also kind of right because there's a tie,

there's a three-way tie for ninth here. I mean, that's where I would have had them in. So KC is the favorite. And then you've got San Fran. And then you've got Baltimore, Detroit, Philly, Houston, Cincinnati, Buffalo. And then there's a three-way tie between Dallas, the Jets, and the Packers. So there's five AFC teams ahead of them, right? That's fair.

You'd go KC first. But my point was it's not a crazy long shot for them to win the Super Bowl. No, they're not down there with the— No. I mean, it's plus 1,800, which is a long shot. Here's an interesting one. It's hard to win. Go to the bottom.

Who are the bottom five right now? Oh, it's going to be Carolina is going to be one of them. New England is going to be one of them. New England. I think the Raiders are down. Denver. So it's the Patriots, Broncos, Panthers, Giants, and Titans. Giants are going to be miserable.

The Titans I don't think are going to be very good either. And the Seahawks are plus 5,500. So they're in the bottom half, but they're in the top of the bottom half. Yay! Top of the bottom half. Before we go to break, we need to do the CFL report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. All eyes this weekend on the Canadian Football League are going to be on that game between the

BC Lions, the surging BC Lions, owners of a one-game winning streak. They're going to go into Montreal to take on the CFL's best team, the 10-1 Montreal Alouettes. I'm going to turn this into the BC Lions report because I get to write it. I don't even write it. I'm just going off the top of the head. But Vernon Adams Jr., healthy, might be able to make a cameo appearance or two. But if there was any doubt about Nathan Rourke and his starting job in British Columbia, he laid it to rest last weekend with a very impressive performance in touchdown Pacific. 21 of 30 completions, 325 yards, three TDs. His rushing TD at the start of that game gave the Lions a lead

that they never relinquished against the Red Blacks. This is going to be a huge test for BC going into Montreal to take on the CFL's best team. Of note, it's a homecoming game for the newest BC Lion, the returnee, Matthew Betts, who we had on the show on Tuesday. He got a sack in his season debut with the Lions against Ottawa last weekend. He'll look to try and amp up the production this weekend when he goes back to Montreal.

So again, biggest game on the ledger this weekend for the CFL. It is the 6-6 BC Lions going into Montreal to take on the 10-1 Alouettes. That was the Canadian Football Report brought to you by Securian Canada, the official life insurance partner of the CFL. Coming up, more football talk here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We're going to look to the other game on Friday night. It's the Packers and it's the Eagles from Brazil. Brooks Cabena from The Athletic covers the Eagles.

We'll talk to him next coming up on the Alfred and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. 734 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. Happy football day, everybody. NFL season gets underway tonight. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. You got the Chiefs and the Ravens tonight. Tomorrow night, Friday night football. NFL variety.

Brazilian variety. You got the Eagles. And you got the Packers. And you got all the games on Sunday. And then, as Jason was talking about in the previous segment, you cap it off on Monday night football with the 49ers against Aaron Rodgers and the Jets. What a weekend. Very excited for all of it.

I like how the Jets' backup quarterback is Tyrod Taylor. Yeah, remember him? Yeah, just like if Rodgers gets hurt, we've got another old guy. Don't worry. He's like 35 now. You know, it's funny. You do that sort of like, oh, yeah, that guy's there now.

And Drew Locke, remember him? Former briefly Seattle Seahawks fan. Where's he now he's new york giants backup quarterback oh okay yeah you'll find out more of these throughout the year as they go along i remember that guy nobody in seattle really tried all that hard to talk themselves into drew lock did they he had that one except for the seahawks organization yeah he had that one game last year i know but still watching him did Did you trust him? No. Did you trust him? Every time the ball went out of his hand. Come on.

Yeah, that felt like a Pete Carroll guy. And when Pete Carroll was no longer there. I think it was Schneider. Yeah, Schneider was big on him, too. But the two of them together, right? Anyway, we're getting off topic here. Our next guest is a staff writer for The Athletic covering the Eagles. Joining us live from Brazil, Brooks Cabena,

here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Brooks. How are you? Doing great. We're just on the highway, taking the Uber through the middle of Sao Paulo, getting to Corinthians Arena for practice. Go check out the Eagles today. And as I understand it, there will be no tweeting from practice today. There will be no tweeting.

I just drove by the mural of Jordan Love and Jalen Hurd, someone in the buildings here in Sao Paulo, taking a picture of it. Oh, wait. Gotta get that out on threads, I guess. There's no option on

that. So it's yeah definitely it's somewhat of a relief i'm okay with it you know it kind of takes something off of my plate but definitely an interesting thing now what have you been told about traveling to brazil and being careful with the crime down there because that seems to be a topic of conversation with the players and the teams that are headed down there. So I came down in June to do a story on the NFL entering Brazil and listening to the concerns of players and the conversation that began. I spoke with dozens of people and spent eight days in Sao Paulo. I went to Rio for a day. And I think there's some generalization going on.

I think it's overblown, for sure. It's a city that in its greater area has 22 million people in it. It's got the bigness of New York City on the center, and it's got the vibe of South Florida in a lot of ways. Spending last night at some great restaurants and going around to bars and seeing people, it's a big city. And a lot of people took offense to the things that Eagles and Packers players have said over the past couple of months.

There's a cultural dissonance that's happening there. Because, you know, in the States, if you go to New York City, if you go to Philadelphia, there are places, I live in Philadelphia, that if you came to me and said, hey, I'm going to go here at this time of night, I'd be like, that's a bad idea. So I think everybody going to a new place, there's a lot of questions. You don't know what questions to ask. You don't know where to be. I think that kind of fuels some of the curiosity, some of the fear, all of that. But it's a beautiful, brilliant city. And there are people here that I've seen at different restaurants,

either from Green Bay or from Philly. There are tons of people on the flight, people out here. And it's a country of 255 million people, and there are 38 million people interested in the NFL. And, you know, I read a story that I wrote for The Athletic in the New York Times and published a couple of days ago. This is digging up like a niche culture of bats following football and what that means for a country.

Soccer is their religion. They have four teams here in Sao Paulo. New York City has two baseball teams, two basketball teams, three basketball teams really, but they just die hard for soccer in the same way that people do about football in the U.S. This is just a new thing that's kind of an enigma that people have a chance to look up close to. And there's a lot behind that. But in terms of just the cultural misunderstanding of coming out here, I'm interested to see how the players will be received in the stadium

once the fans see them and how that will play out because they're very – I went to two games. I went to a Corinthians game when I came down here. I went to a Palmeiras game. And, you know, there was a variety of any college football game I've been to. And, you know, there was a lot of years of any college football game I've been to. And, you know, you've been to some Phillies games. And, you know, the Astros come into town, they do what they all do. But what will, you know, be the conversation when they see some players who have said some not nice things

and maybe misunderstood them. So, I don't know. It's an interesting conversation. I think there's been some generalization. Basically, just because there isn't that much knowledge about a country that a lot of people haven't been to. Yeah, Brazil's on my bucket list to go to. I'm

jealous of you right now, going down there to experience that. Why Brazil? How did this all come about? Was this something where the NFL said we need to go to yet another country, or was there someone was there a promoter from Brazil that came up and said hey you should come to you know we've got

these great stadiums come down here and have a game how did it all come about yeah um that was a large part of the story that spent time in the U.S., swam at Kenyon College, was connected there, and then started his own marketing company, sports marketing company, and got involved with a lot of different things, had connections with the Olympic committees and things like that. And whenever he came in around 2015, 2016, he wanted to go to the All-Star game for the NBA, but had a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

And it was Patriots-Seahawks, and it just blew him away. And he was the kind of marketing team that was putting on live televised sporting events in Brazil. And he left saying, all right, we've got to work with these guys. So a contact helped him get in touch with the NFL, and representatives from the NFL at that time was Mark Waller, who was working with the international projects for the NFL, came down to Rio, where their office is,

and they tried to, at first, bring a Pro Bowl to Rio. That was on the table at first in 2016, because they were thinking about moving that game around. But at the time, Brazil was in a big recession. They couldn't get the investment at the time and it would have been impossible to put on the game,

put on the event at that time. But the NFL left saying, alright, let's keep in touch and they retained Pedro's marketing team called FX Sport. And for the next couple of years, they just basically started doing small events, live watch parties for the Super Bowl.

And he kept cultivating just the interest of the fan base. In 2014, there were 3 million people. There's like a local statistic company that looks up TV and interest and polling, and there are 3 million people interested in the NFL that would at least watch it. That grew to 38 million within five years. And partly that's because of getting people to different events and things like that. And, you know, over time, the NFL was expanding its international games to Europe, and Brazil was still in contact. And there was a local person here, Gustavo Pires, who's the president of their tourism here in Sao Paulo, and he loved the NFL.

And he knew that the only way that it was going to catch on here was to host an event. And he got in touch with Pedro Romero at FX Sports and got a meeting scheduled at the NFL and said, basically, we want to host something here in Sao Paulo. And they were already committed at that time to playing in London, playing in Germany, but they kind of left the meeting, the NFL, saying, you know what, we're not canceling any idea of going there ever. And for the next every 15 days from now on, Gustavo sent them an email. It's basically like, are we there yet? Are we there yet? finally, Mexico City, the stadium,

Estella Azteca, was going under construction for the upcoming World Cup. And that knocked out the game last year that was supposed to be there, but construction took longer, and suddenly the NFL needed the game in 2024. So they reached out to four different cities. They reached out to Rio, Sao Paulo, Madrid,

and Barcelona. And all of them basically had a space race to put together a pitch to the NFL. And Gustavo Pires was the one that ran point for Sao Paulo and secured funding from the city, secured the stadium, secured everything,

went out to London to deliver the pitch to Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner. And they were impressed, and he had him in his suite while watching the Bills game, and he basically said what he did say. He said, why Sao Paulo? And Gustavo said, if we had a 300,000-seat stadium, we would sell out those 300,000 seats. I was there in June whenever they had the online sale.

And here in Brazil, you have to sell 10% of those tickets in person by law. And that's the lead of the story. I encourage people to read that because it shows the interest that's there right now. It is a novelty. Everything's new. But there is a large interest like there is in other countries in the world in american um marketing and so what like music movies sports all of that and people coming from all over going to great lengths to spend hard-earned money to to go to something for the very first time so that's how how it came together. We're speaking to Brooks Cabena from The Athletic,

NFL writer, live from Brazil, ahead of tomorrow's game from Sao Paulo between the Eagles and the Packers. Brooks, I've got to ask, for all the parties involved in this, and there are a lot of different parties involved in this, I'm always curious with these first-time events, and give me some of the novelty events.

What does success look like? Yeah, I mean, that was a large question that I posed while I was here reporting, and became the premise of the story in a way. If success looks to the NFL, I mean, this is a business enterprise. This is trying to grow the game and grow their budget in a lot of ways.

So turning those avid fans, that 38 million number that's at least interested, into people who will actually buy tickets to games, buy goods, subscribe to different things, that interest picking up, that's what success is like for the NFL. They want to be able to cultivate a new avenue of fans. But there are a lot of other people within Brazil whose livelihoods

are attached to this. There's a semi-professional league, I would say, here that plays American football called CBFA. And they had another part of this, and this goes into detail in the story, but basically they're trying to start their own league.

So they're hoping that the NFL coming to Brazil helps generate interest for their league. It's not profitable. People are spending their own money on equipment and things, and they're hoping that through the interest that's brought to this game, there's a large push for flag football. The Olympics is now carrying that.

There's, you know, government funding that can help with some of those issues financially for the leagues. They're hoping that success looks that for them. And then there are a lot of athletes here that, yes, soccer is the main sport, but some people aren't a fit for that they're fit for other things and they can find their own unique path through athleticism through the game of football but that means having the means

to do that having a league to do that and having the opportunities to do that so that there probably takes decades. But the nominal success of at least generating the interest for people to invest in that, that's what success looks like to them. So this hits on a lot of different barriers financially, culturally, politically. But mainly what the NFL is doing here by going in is trying to find another market stream from a fan base that at least has shown them for consistent years that they, you know,

are interested. And they showed that by selling out very quickly in this game. The article is fantastic and incredibly interesting to read. I recommend that all of our listeners check it out. You can find Brooks on Twitter at BKubina, B-K-U-B-E-N-A. Now we'll be tweeting anytime soon. Taking a little sleep break.

Yeah, but there's all the information you need already there posted on X, so it's great. So, Brooks, we want to thank you for taking the time to do this today. Enjoy the rest of your trip in Brazil. Enjoy the game tomorrow. And once again, thanks for doing this. Any time, guys.

Thanks, Brooks. Brooks Cubina, Eagles beat writer for The Athletic, currently in Sao Paulo for the Eagles-Packers game, which is tomorrow, 5-15 kickoff, Friday night football from Brazil. I don't hear that very often. No, never. Never really. Ever.

And tonight, it's the Ravens and the Chiefs as the NFL season gets underway. Now, we posed a question to the listeners earlier in the show, and we said, besides your favorite team, whoever that may be, what is a storyline that you are interested in this season? I said, and it was obvious, Aaron Rodgers, the New York Jets. Halford said Lamar Jackson and whether or not

he can get the Ravens over the hump. Yep. Mike in Deep Cove says, I'm not a Detroit Lions fan, but I'm most looking forward to watching a potential Lions Super Bowl run. How much better can they be? Where is their improvement going to come from? I guess that's the question that I would ask.

That's a valid question. Did they top out with the talent they had last year? A very good year. Some, and I know it's... Did they have a Super Bowl quarterback? The Athletic in their big preseason predictions piece was dropped like hours ago. Has the Lions winning the NFC?

In a bit of an upset. I mean, I would love to see that. Yeah. If it's not the Seahawks, I would be down with watching the Detroit Lions go to the Super Bowl. That would be incredible. You know,

the valid question that you asked is how much better can they be given the personnel in the town? And I think you're talking basically about Jared Goff, right? When you ask that question, let's be clear here. How dare you put words in my mouth?

Anyway, the flip side of that conversation um the flip side of that conversation the alternate side of that argument would be well they're just getting started they just scratched the surface of what they can be under dan campbell that was year one right every guy is going to improve a certain percent they're going to be hungrier because they didn't get there because they fell short in the nfc championship and they left something on the table with dan campbell's you's decision making. Maybe he can drink more coffee.

Perhaps. You see his Applebee's commercial? What an actor. Such range. He did an Applebee's commercial? Yeah, he goes and he asks the, he's the waiter at Applebee's. He's the waiter? Yeah, and he asks the people what they want to order,

but he makes sure that they cover their mouths with their menus so no one can see what they're talking about. Like a football coach would. It's very clever. It's very clever. You know what? I've never been to an Applebee's. Have I?

I'm going down to the States today, too. I could see how going to an Applebee's would be forgettable. I don't remember it. Is there one close? Because I'm going to play golf just across the border. That's a good question. Don't worry about it. We can look it up at the break.

That's a break type thing. That's not a live on the air type thing. Melissa in a helicopter says, my NFL storyline is CJ Stroud sophomore season. I think they are going to the Super Bowl and they're going to win it. JD and Coquitlam also

writes in about CJ Stroud and whether or not he can progress this season. One more text about a young quarterback. See if the hype around Caleb Williams is legit. I'm more excited about Caleb Williams because we haven't seen him as opposed to C.J. Stroud. I would not be surprised if C.J. Stroud has a sophomore slump, not for any other particular reason than they happen.

Do you find it hard to just get excited about the Houston Texans? Like for me, it's way more exciting. They were fun to watch last year, actually. So no. But like, I don't. Just the Houston Texans. Chicago Bears. Chicago.

Wait. Right. I mean, gravitas. I've used that word two days in a row now. I feel like Sequeiras. I don't know if Chicago will match the hype. We talked to Mike Tanier a couple times about this, and he said, you know that there's going to be some bumps in the road.

There's going to be some growing. Everyone wants them to be this high-octane, high-powered offense. And speaking of C.J. Stroud, he kind of laid the blueprint for what a rookie quarterback can do in his first year. and it's in, I mean, speaking of C.J. Stroud, he kind of laid the blueprint for what a rookie quarterback can do in his first year, but it's different. You know what's the craziest part of all of this is thinking about the Chicago Bears and the idea of having a good quarterback and a high-profile offense.

Yeah, it's weird. Because you never, ever associate the Bears with that. It's linebackers and defense and running the football, right? That's it. Who's linebackers and defense and running the football, right? That's it. Who's our last great quarterback? For the Bears? Jim McMahon? Sexy Rexy?

Rex Grossman was not. Got him to the Super Bowl. Rex Grossman is the worst quarterback to ever play in a Super Bowl. I just like saying Sexy Rexy. I know. The sex cannon, Rex Grossman. He was great. Yeah. But he was terrible. They went to the Super Bowl. I just like saying sex. I know. The sex cannon, Rex Grossman. He was great.

Yeah. But he was terrible. They went to the Super Bowl in spite of Rex Grossman. Right. Right. And they did not win it. He's the worst quarterback to ever play in a Super Bowl. You think so?

Yeah. Is there a list? He's on it. I mean, here's the thing. There's some guys that are on it that have won. I mean, if you go back like nick nick foals and when history is done writing the story nick foals is going to be one of the i mean let's be honest one of the worst quarterbacks to win the super bowl trent dilfer's on that list for sure yeah right and

there's there's others right there's others what he needed to do right stay out of the way but rex grossman lost like they got there and then like you can't win a super bowl with rex grossman spent to me perridge says brough avoid applebee the Plague. Better off going to Jack in the Box. Why not both? Why not both? Oh, okay. Warning. I went down to Seattle twice.

Do not diss Jack in the Box. It was really, really bad. Did you have the sourdough Jack? Yeah. Really bad. I don't know if it was that particular Jack in the Box because it seemed as though the workers were unenthused, to put it mildly, about their jobs.

They're usually, when you go to the States, I find that the fast food workers there are just loving their lives. So on the way back, the boy wanted to go to Chick-fil-A. Oh, yeah. Everyone at Chick-fil-A loves their life. Really? I'm not being sarcastic. I've never seen...

They got a good culture there? Unbelievable culture. The room must be like a dream. The leadership group down there really has everyone. The head coach doesn't have to go in there and yell. No. They have 9,000 employees. All of them are thrilled to see you.

It's like they've never served anyone before. Every customer. Are they getting threatened to be fired if they're not thrilled to see you maybe? Is there a glint of fear in their eye? They may be doing this at gunpoint privately i don't know but when you go through the drive-thru they don't even let you get to the window they have countless people standing in the drive-thru line waiting to take your order you wait no time and you know so the the issue would be you drive up and you're like well i can't order here because I don't have the menu.

At which point the girl or guy doing the ordering takes one off a belt clip and hands it to you in the car. Nice. I kind of like that. It's a remarkable system. Although down there, they reach behind you. I'm like, what's going on here? Yeah, yeah. You can take my car.

Just take it. I didn't even want it. Take the boy. Save myself. So anyway. Mike Halford, true hero. Jack in the box, no. Chick-fil-A is a big yes.

Final hour of the show is coming up. We've got a lot more to get into. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about the BC Lions. The Roar is back at BC Place for the BC Lions 70th season. Get your tickets now at BC lions.com. Uh, one final hour to go on the Halford and Brough show on sports net six 50. You're listening to the Halford and Brough show on sports net six 50.