Halford & Brough in the Morning - There's A Lot Riding On The Jake DeBrusk Signing

Episode Date: September 6, 2024

In hour two, Mike & Jason talk Canada Soccer's friendly versus Team USA this weekend with Footy Prime Podcast's James Sharman (4:07), the boys discuss who they are most excited to see at Canucks training camp (15:47), they chat with the newest Whitecap - midfielder Stuart Armstrong (25:26), plus they debate with a listener if listening to music is acceptable on the golf course (30:41). 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 Friday Happy Friday everybody Halford Brough Sportsnet 650 Halford Brough 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, sales, financing, service, or parts. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio.

Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider, powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. So, Orfite, what are you waiting for? Kintec. To the phone lines we go. AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, AJ?

What is going on? I think I might have assembled the worst fantasy football team in creation. Last night. Last night, we all went to AJ's. It was a vibe last night. First off, the place was packed. Everyone was there to watch the football game. There was dudes wearing Ravens jerseys, guys in Chiefs jersey.

I was there with my existing fantasy league. And just to throw something else on top of it, AJ and a bunch of his buddies and Teresa as well, they were doing their fantasy draft in the middle of all of this. And then AJ decided, I'm going to take the easy way out and I'm going to put it on auto-draft. Oh, okay. I like that. And now he is left with one of the worst

fantasy football teams of all time. So who's your star? Dak Prescott. Yeah. How much? And I don't even know if he gets any points. I don't know. Listen, because here's the thing.

I'm a gambler. Right. I don't know know if he gets any points. I don't know. Listen, because here's the thing. I'm a gambler. Right. I don't know anything about fantasy football, although I do have a great parlay for everybody this weekend. Okay. Ruff, you're not going to love what I have to say because it's Broncos-Cowboys. Okay.

Both getting points. Well, are you a good gambler? Listen, I'm a good pizza maker. You are a good pizza maker. You are a good pizza maker. This is very true. Okay. But it's exciting, right?

Opening weekend, we got, you know, obviously a great game tonight. We do have a BC Lions game tonight, which is awesome. And then Sunday, and then a new wrinkle on top of happy hour all day Sunday is we have $6 Eastman Pilsners on every football day. Okay. And Sunday, as you mentioned, you can play A.J.'s parlay with the Cowboys and with the Broncos. You just have to come spend the winnings at A.J.'s. Right.

That's the catch to all of this. We should put that in the disclaimer. And then we were talking about this yesterday. There's going to be competing screens and competing because you're going to want to have the sound on for the Seahawks game, obviously. Of course. But also that Browns-Cowboys game

is Tom Brady's debut as an announcer as well. So there's lots to see and do at AJ's on the weekend. A reminder, happy hour all day and $6 pints as well. AJ, thanks for doing this today.

I'll see you at the Seas today, bud. I'll see you later, man. Everybody have a great weekend. You too. Thanks. That's AJ from AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. The best pizza place in the city. Awesome place to watch football.

Like I said, it was a vibe last night. It was a lot of fun. The only not fun thing was having to watch Drance sweat out $11 micro bets all night. Oh, Drance was there? All night. Well, he's the commissioner of our fantasy league. Oh, right.

So he spearheaded this social gathering. Yeah. And then proceeded to like- And tell you about his bets and the backstory behind the bets. He needed Xavier Worthy

to catch a pass longer than 30 yards. Yeah. I'm like, this is not fun. You're ruining the vibe. Why don't you go out and get some exercise there,

Drance? Or why don't you just walk around the block a few times? Why don't you go 30 yards? Anyway. Over, under go 30 yards? Anyway. Over, under, 30 yards away from me. I'm taking the over.

Drance, can you do it? Can you? Can you? Okay, so Sunday we know that the NFL is going to be popping off at AJ's. Hey, how about Saturday? Canadian men's national soccer team back in action for a friendly. There's a lot on the line here. and joining us now to break it down from the footy prime podcast.

James Sharman joins us now on the Halford and rough show on sports net six 50 morning, James. How are you? Morning fellas. Yeah. Doing great. Thanks. So Saturday one o'clock our time,

four o'clock Eastern from Kansas city. It's going to be the Canadian men's national team against the U.S. And I said, I think it might be a match friendly in name only because there's a lot going into this. The two are kind of now very bitter CONCACAF rivals. And then you've got the Jesse Marsh angle to all of this as well. Obviously, he thought he might have been next in line for that U.S. job a while ago. There's obviously some ill will with how the Federation treated him.

Now he's the manager of the Canadian men's national team. So how spicy are you anticipating this friendly being on Saturday? Yeah, it's a good point, right? Because generally speaking, friendlies are kind of pointless nowadays. That's why they invented the Nations League. So we actually have some competitive matches because no one cared about our friendlies. But every now and again, you'll get a couple of teams that

don't like each other, that there's some intrigue, a bit of soap opera behind them. And that seems to be the case right now between these two teams. You mentioned the Jesse Marsh factor, and you're right. I think at one point he thought he'd get the job. Didn't work out. They went back to Greg Berhalter. That didn't work out. They went back to Greg Berhalter.

That didn't work out. They're now waiting to get their next man in charge, Mauricio Pochettino. That's been dragging on. He's still not signed. So they're under an interim coach this weekend in Mikey Varas. And then on the pitch, of course, you know, listen, CONCACAF rivals. The States are still the States, despite a bad Copa America. They're a really good young, young squad

who see themselves as the best in CONCACAF, whereas Canada had, most recently, in Copa America, shown themselves to be maybe the best team in CONCACAF. A brand-new mentality with Canada. I was speaking to Jesse Marsh last week and Alison Johnston this week, and they were both saying, listen, no more apologetic Canadians. We go into games

against whoever it is, wanting to win, punching them in the throat. We want to get wins no matter when. And that's, listen, we saw that at World Cup qualifying, not so much in the World Cup perhaps, but yeah, it's good. We need this. We need some vitriol, some hatred between these

two teams because, you know, that's what it should be. Canada v. USA. Sports, right? I think the thing is very positive if they don't like each other. What does Canada need to achieve in this run-up

to the World Cup? Because we all know that they're going to play in it. They're hosting it. But where do they need to go? What are you looking for them to improve on so that they can have not only an appearance in the World Cup, but maybe actually do something in it?

Maybe win a game. Yeah, yeah, exactly, right? I mean, it's a good question, actually, because coming off Copa America, there's great momentum, right, and belief within this team. But, you know, this team needs to start winning things, getting later in tournaments on a more regular basis. Now, there isn't much in that regard between now and the World Cup.

There is the Gold Cup next summer, which is important. But often you'll see the top teams rest their stars and put in more developmental teams in place next year. And with the Club World Cup next summer as well, we'll probably see that. Between now and the World Cup, you want to see how they bond and gel under Jesse Marsh. Was the

Copa America just a fluke? I don't think it was. But it's a young squad with young players. Some guys probably making their debuts the next couple of games against the States and Mexico. If the defense is as good as it looked at Copa?

Can the attack turn it around? Can John David, who is by far the team's best striker, maybe the team's best player, quite honestly. I mean, it's probably Fonzie, but he's a very, very good player. John David, who hasn't played that well for his country in recent months, despite playing well for his club, Lille. So I think you still need to see a collective improvement. More goals, fewer goals conceded. That's it. Not much, right? But I think that's the biggest thing. How will this young team grow and become a real collective heading into the world cup it's funny because um the casuals like me watch jonathan

david in play for canada and we don't watch any of them in france or anything like that and we hear about this guy who's so good and then you know oftentimes i watch jonathan david i'm like i don't get what the fuss is what why am I I mean you're kind of suggesting that like I have a point I'm not watching like I'm not I don't know what I'm watching here has there been a disconnect there with Jonathan David and the international team you know what it is um so so John David does more than just score goals um but that's really his number one job is to score goals because in in a team like Canada, we've got too many players that can put the ball in the net.

They have to rely on that guy to do so, which he does every year in France's Ligue 1, which is one of the top leagues in both football and the Champions League. Now, if you watch John David closely for Canada, he does a lot of work. He's a very good defensive forward. If you

like, he drops deep deep he runs his socks off effort is never an issue with him um so you'll see him in these you know like America for example he didn't play badly at all but he didn't score that many goals right and strikers will always tell you they're always judged on that goal scoring he had many chances he didn't convert he needs to get more clinical with that red shirt on, just as he is for his club team. So I think he's a little bit unfairly maligned because, you know, he puts the effort in.

He does a lot of really good things. Often when they do score goals, if you track it back a few plays, he's involved. He starts that play. He makes that pass. But yeah, he's got to find his confidence in front of goal because at Copa, there were three or four opportunities there

that usually you'd see Jonathan David convert, which he didn't. So yeah, not the finished product for his country just yet. And when he does score, if you look at his goal record so far, he does tend to beat up on lesser teams, which is great. You need that. But against the bigger teams, where is he? So that's what it comes down to. He'll be fine.

I've got no concerns about Jonathan David, right? He's going to find his form for his country at the right time. But right now, there's a few questions needing answered. We're speaking to James Sharman from the Footy Prime podcast here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. James, you mentioned that you guys

had Jesse Marsh on the podcast, and you were talking about a variety of things. I do know that one of the things you guys discussed was his recruitment of dual nationals. For those that don't know, it means guys that were either undecided on who they were going to play for or made the one-time switch from one country to represent Canada. So, walk

us through who's on the roster for the sets of friendlies and who might make their Canadian debut possibly Sunday or Saturday against the U.S. Yeah, it's really important, right? And this is something that Jesse Marsh has said from day one since he got the job. We have to recruit dual nationals.

There's a lot of people out there, some that perhaps aren't well-known to Canadians but are doing the job for their club. So this weekend, it's going to be huge. You're going to see Nico Seeger. He's the big name right now, getting his debut. Now, it is a friendly. So potentially he could still play for Croatia, which is where he's playing right now for Hadzik Split.

But he's a Burnaby BC boy. And it's just risen and risen and risen the last couple of years years where he's playing a pretty important role in the Croatian league, which is a very, very good league. He's played junior level soccer for Croatia, which is why it was a surprise when he switched allegiances to Canada. And where he plays in the pitch, he's a deep line midfielder. He can play a bit of right back, but he's a deep line midfielder, a position that Canada could really use right now as well. And Jesse Marsh said that

yeah, he'll probably get some minutes the next couple of games at some point. He's one to look out for. Stephen Afrifa of Sporting KC, another one. He could play for Ghana as well, I believe. He plays, obviously, in MLS, as mentioned there, in Sporting KC. He's a forward.

He's a forward-thinking player, something that, obviously,ada needs so that's that's really they're the two that really stand out right now who we might see in the next couple of games but there's other players on the horizon you know daniel jefferson of bournemouth just switched to watford on loan he could play for a couple of countries uh but canada is still very much uh in contention there as well sadly ryan Ryan Gould of the Whitecaps got capped yesterday. It broke my heart, fellas. It broke my heart.

Got capped finally for Scotland, and he's been holding out his whole career for that, right? So good for him. Really good guy. Really good player. Would have fit in beautifully in that Canadian team, but he played last night in a loss to Poland for Scotland. So sadly,

he is no longer an option for Canada because he would have been good. He would have been perfect. But hey, you can't get him all right. I do want to ask one more question

and it's England kind of related. Have you ever seen a worse start to a Premier League campaign than what Everton just went through with their first three games? And follow-up question, what is the future for Jordan Pickford in net for England? I think he's a masochist, honestly.

Because he could move to a big club. I'm sure he could. He's that good. He's England's number one for years now. But he just seems to love to play for Everton and get just, you know, face so much cannon fire

and do the job. But yeah, it's a terrible start for Everton. They lost their opening three games. And the last game in particular, finally, Sean Dyche had a team playing well.

They were great up to nothing. Was it Bournemouth? I think it was Bournemouth they were playing. Yeah, they were in Bournemouth. Yeah, and they dominated that game. And then 87th minute is 2-1. Then two calls in injury time, they lose 3-2 to go 0-3 to start the campaign. At home.

You have to feel at home. Yeah, and Goodison Park, if you've been there, they love their football, They know their football. That is not somewhere you want to lose on a regular basis and lose that way. So as bad as the season started for them, the way they lost was heartbreaking, but I guess they can take some positives.

From that, like I said, Jordan Pickford, I'm a big fan of his, big personality. I don't know if there's a more emotional athlete on the planet. He wears his emotions very much in his sleeve. Maybe it's time to make a move at some point. But listen, if he sticks around, he'll be an Everton legend, if not already. And that carries some weight.

I do want to point out before we let you go that we had Ryan Gauld on the show and I made the personal offer to stand in line for him at the passport office here because it's about a three-hour wait. Yeah, yeah. He didn't take me up on it, but I did my part. I did my part to try and get him in.

I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah, but it never worked. Didn't get the deal done, though. I appreciate that. It didn't work out. Although, you know, he did create a couple chances for a very poor Scottish team yesterday,

so good for him, I guess. Anyway, James, we've got to let you go. Thanks a lot for doing this today. Enjoy the match on Saturday. We'll do this again soon. Thanks, fellas. Anytime. Yeah, thank you. James, James, we've got to let you go. Thanks a lot for doing this today. Enjoy the match on Saturday. We'll do this again soon. Thanks, fellas. Anytime. Yeah, thank you. James Sharman from the Footy Prime podcast here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet

650. It is Ask Us Anything Friday here on the Halford & Brough Show, so let's do an Ask Us Anything and let's go right back to the Vancouver Canucks, okay? Alistair, the restaurant guy from Burnaby. A lot of Burnaby references in this segment ask us anything it's not a reference it's just where he's from it's a reference

it's also where he's from I wonder what restaurant he's from in Burnaby uh ask us anything which new Canuck are you most excited to see in training camp which by the way is now just uh 13 days away it's Jake DeBrusque there's a lot riding on this sign. Let's make no mistake about that. There's a lot riding on this one. I mean, aside from the fact that there's a lot of term attached to him, this is, you know,

it, the, I don't think you can have a Jake DeBrusque conversation in the preseason and training camp without including Elias Pettersson, because it seems like he said it publicly the club has said it publicly they're not even trying to dance around it like we are bringing in Jake DeBrusque to play with Elias Pettersson given how Pettersson's season ended and we've gone over it in great detail here um he's going to be vitally important um you know there were a pretty

interesting breakdown that I was reading on nhl.com about some advanced analytics on DeBrusque's game. Interestingly enough, among the league leaders in high danger shots on goal, high danger chances, suggesting, I guess, that he while maybe erratic

in terms of the consistency of production, he did show good consistency in being able to create high danger chances, which you're going to want from a winger playing with a creative player. He gets to the spots? Yeah, pretty much. And a guy that's playing with Pedersen,

who, let's be honest, oftentimes was saddled with wingers who either couldn't get into those spots, didn't have the IQ or the speed or whatever. Got into them. And then they were, oh, it's McHale. I wish I wasn't here. Right.

I wish I was not in this high danger spot right now. So I, I mean, for me, the answer to Alistair's ask us anything, um, which new Canuck are you most excited to see in training camp? It's the breast by a mile.

Uh, Patrick, the ice cream man texts in, uh, good morning fellows. Uh, ask us anything. I hosted a post,

a poker game for my 40th birthday last week still not a sport prat and i was shamed by a group of friends for never having watched any of the star wars movies i was further ridiculed with every classic movie that was named and i hadn't seen any of them shawshank top gun etc, etc. Wow. With all that said, can you come up with a list of the top 10 movies that every guy should see by the time they're 40? I've binged all the movies I mentioned earlier

now. That is hilarious that it took you to your 40th birthday to realize that I should really check out this Star Wars franchise where Shawshank Redemption or Top Gun. We're not going to come up with a list of 10. It's impossible to come up with a list.

I can see A-Dog just frothing at the mouth about the possibility of putting this list together, too. Well, I mean, there's so many obvious answers. What genres do we go by? And honestly, it's not like a top 10, but off the top of my head, in terms of most famous, Indiana Jones, Back to the Future,

Lord of the Rings, Alien, Terminator 2, Die Hard, Goodfellas. I'm going through like all the genres now. So it's funny you brought up Goodfellas. Honestly, like you could list like 50. Cool. You could list like 100. It's funny. Mighty Ducks.

Ghostbusters. Okay. Can I talk? It's funny you mentioned Goodfellas because we were on the golf course yesterday, and then we were playing some tunes, as you do on the golf course now, and Eric Clapton's Layla started playing. And my buddy in the cart was saying, I still remember seeing Goodfellas in the theater.

The piano coda. Yeah. He's hanging by a meat hook. He's all frozen up. Johnny Roast Beef. But then if you haven't seen those movies, you're like, yeah, this is a good song. Well, I have, I don't know. It's just the references that you would miss

in everyday conversations. I think you almost owe it to yourself to just go watch those movies. You know how challenging... You'll understand so many more pop culture references if you just rip through them quickly. Do you know how challenging this show is to listen to all the time?

But when you don't know Simpsons references, people... I've got a friend of mine who didn't watch The Simpsons. He's like, I have no idea what you guys are talking about a third of the time. I've never seen The Simpsons didn't watch The Simpsons. He's like, I have no idea what you guys are talking about a third of the time. I've never seen The Simpsons.

Right, so there you go. You're also young, though, so you're kind of excused because you're way past the glory years. Quick aside, because you mentioned your golf trip yesterday. How was Jack in the Box? Your scouting report was accurate, my friend. Yeah, I knew it. Very disappointing. Very disappointing, eh?

Very disappointing. Did it make you hate yourself right after you ate it? No, no, that can't possibly happen anymore than I already hate myself. Self-loathing is pretty much checked. Yeah, and then I went to play golf. It was just very disappointing. And the funny thing was I'm sitting in there in the jack-in- around Birch Bay and it's dead in there. Yep.

I know exactly what you're talking about. Totally dead. I actually had to drive around this kind of massive shopping center to actually, I was like, where is the jack in the box? And it's hidden. It's hidden. There was no one in there except for me.

I went in there and I was like, I'll have a sourdough jack. And they're like, really? And I'll, no. And I will get a medium fries and a medium drink. And it came to $15 and 32 cents US. So already.

$70 Canadian. So it's already, I'm like, uh, I don't know if I can afford this. So I ate it and the, the, the love was gone, man. The love. That's exactly it. It just kind of got thrown at me.

I opened the sandwich. The bun was like too crispy,. It just kind of got thrown at me. I opened the sandwich. The bun was like too crispy, almost to the point of burnt. And then so I'm sitting there. I'm going, I wonder who owns Jack in the Box. Like I was going to write a letter or something. Dear Jack. Then I realized it's publicly held.

Stock symbol, Jack. Oh. And I was like, I wonder how the stock price has been doing terrible yeah that's not surprising terrible it's almost like it's fallen 50 or whatever in the last year and so i need an activist investor to go in there and shake that place up you need no no maybe i'm the guy they need to bring it back to the glory days what he should have done the e coli glory days after that right right yeah no no not those ones just the glory days. What he should have done. Not the E. coli glory days. After that. Right. Right. Yeah.

No, no, not those ones. Just forget about those. No, what he should have done is gone to Denny's and had one of their new Beetlejuice Beetlejuice dishes because they have a bunch of Beetlejuice themed dishes at Denny's in the US right now. I saw this. They have the Say It Three Times Slam, the Afterlife Melt, the Beetlejuicy Burger, and a Cookies and Scream Shake. If I hear one more thing about this Beetleju Juice movie, I haven't had a Mount Brough

in a long, long time. Can you guys all recognize that? That's my goal. I have been working on it. I haven't had a Mount Brough. But if you bring up- I'm going to try to destroy years of therapy in minutes. I'm going to say Beetle Juice three times soon to come and kill you.

Okay. We got to focus here. We said we weren't going to do this today, by the way, and we made it to 725 before we went completely off the rails. We're going to come back. The newest member of the Vancouver Whitecaps, Scottish designated player Stuart Armstrong is going to join us. I promise you there will be no Beetlejuice related queries

of Stuart Armstrong. I can't guarantee it, but I'm almost guaranteeing it. You got a lot more to go on the program. We're halfway through, hour and a half left. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Okay, I am having a big-time argument in the text inbox with someone who doesn't think that music belongs on the golf course. Okay.

And it just ended with him saying, ask the rest of your listeners who think music on a golf course is a good idea. I dare you. Okay. Because it's obnoxious to the other golfers that aren't in your group. So yesterday, played a Loomis Trail down in the States, took a cart because I'm lazy and it was hot. Yep.

The golf cart has a Bluetooth, says connect your phone to play music, speakers in the golf cart. It's not disabled. And we play the music very quietly. Right. No other group can hear it. It's playing in the golf cart. Just nice tunes for the golf course. I think that's fine as long as no other group can hear it. It's playing in the golf cart. Just nice tunes for the golf course. I think that's fine.

As long as no other group can hear it. And this guy is losing his mind. Okay. Let's- About it. Now that we've already opened this door, let's open it up to the listeners. He thinks I'm,

do you think I have a ghetto blaster on my shoulder and I'm walking around like playing- Like Meat Se seeker NWA or something like that like it's just let's open it up to the listeners who knows who they'll agree with Dunbar Lumber text line is 650 650 playing music on the course via bluetooth speaker okay or not okay he asked a bluetooth speaker nobody outside the... I'm not blasting it. Don't sway the listeners. See what they think. They may all agree with you.

I asked him if he was from the town in Footloose, that band Dancing. Another timely reference. Don't take it so personally. Let the listeners back you up. You may be right. You may be horribly wrong, but we're going to find out shortly.

Stuart Armstrong is waiting patiently on hold. We'll get to him in a moment. Before we do, I need to tell you that you are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for, sales, financing, service, or parts.

To the phone lines we go. Our next guest is the newest member of the Vancouver Whitecaps. Their newest designated player, Stuart Armstrong, joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Stuart. How are you? Good morning. I'm very good, thank you. Do you want to take a stab at whether or not playing music is acceptable on the golf course, or do you want to gloss over that one entirely?

I didn't like it when you first said it, but then when you said it's just quiet, it's just in your car, I thought maybe that would be nice. Okay, I'm going to put him in the yes category. So you're in the yes category for that one. We'll move on. Sold.

We'll move on to the football now. We were talking to Axel Schuster earlier in the week, and we heard all about the recruitment process and how you ended up landing in Vancouver. But I know that you had multiple offers on the table to go to different clubs. So, Stuart, first question, why Vancouver? I think it was just time for a new challenge in my career.

And Vancouver ticked all the boxes from a football side and a living side. And everyone who's been to Vancouver tells me how nice it is. So I thought it would be a good place to come and play football with my own family. How large a role did Ryan Gould play in the recruitment process? A little bit, a little bit,

not, not too much much I wouldn't say I think he he gave me a couple of messages a few weeks ago just gentle taps on the shoulder I would say

how close are you two I know you played together at Dundee United for a couple years the clip was making the rounds where a very young Ryan Galt

was finishing off a chance that you squared for him how well did you guys get to know each other at Dundee United for a couple of years. The clip was making the rounds where a very young Ryan Galt was finishing off a chance that you squared for him. How well did you guys get to know each other at Dundee? Yeah, well, obviously back then we were close. But the nature of the beast in football is that people move away and it moves quite fast. So I've not actually seen him in a long time. So I'm looking forward. I mean, I came over this week, and he's just left.

So I was hoping that he'd be at least here to say hello. I'm sure he'll be back soon. So I'm looking forward to seeing him again. So you spent an awfully long time in the Premier League. You've played in Champions League. You've played in European Championships. You've been capped numerous times by Scotland. So you've got a fairly decorated playing career, and you've played a European Championships, you've been capped numerous times by Scotland, so you've got a fairly decorated playing career and you've played at the

highest levels. I've got to ask, what were the perceptions, what did you know or think that you knew about MLS prior to joining the Whitecaps? I knew a little bit about the MLS. I've had a few friends who've come over and played here in New York, sporting, Kansas, Houston and LA.

And they all talk about how it is a competitive league and also that fresh challenge that I spoke about before and a new culture and a new environment. I played all my football in the UK, so for me it was important during my career to get out of my comfort zone and a new environment. I played all my football in the UK, so for me it was important during my career to get out of my comfort zone and try something new. How much experience do you have playing on turf?

Say again, sorry? How much experience do you have playing on artificial turf? Well, during my time in Scotland, a few teams had artificial turf, and growing up in Scotland, a few teams had artificial turf. And growing up in Scotland, the weather's not so great. They had a lot of artificial turf. So, yeah, I've got plenty of experience playing on that.

This weekend, I know that you've just arrived and not a ton of training time. Where are you in terms of fitness? Match fit enough to try and feature this weekend against Dallas? I would say the match fitness is quite low. I think hopefully that comes back quickly enough. I hope I can be

involved in some way in the match and then the following match is coming up and just break in bit by bit to regain the fitness. You mentioned that you didn't get a chance to say hello to Ryan before he took off. And obviously a great moment for him after a long time being out of the Scottish squad. He gets back in.

I'm assuming you watched yesterday. Is that correct? Yeah. Yep. What did you think of the performance of Ryan and then I guess the Scottish team on the whole? Because that was the team that you just featured for the European Championships. Yeah, I think obviously conceding the goals weren't great. But I think the Scotland team always have that positivity and the energy to produce at all times.

I think they were just a little bit unfortunate yesterday. And I thought Goldie did really well in terms of his movement and nice clean touches as he's known for. And I think he'll just get stronger and stronger in that environment. The Whitecaps are back in action this Saturday. It's a 7.30 kickoff from BC Place against Dallas. Stuart, thank you very much for doing this today. We really appreciate it. Great to have you aboard with the Whitecaps,

and best of luck this weekend. Thanks very much. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. Great to have you aboard with the Whitecaps and best of luck this weekend. Thanks very much. Thanks for having me. Yeah, thanks for coming on. We appreciate it. Stuart Armstrong, the newest designated player for your Vancouver Whitecaps. Maybe features this weekend? Maybe not. We'll see. 7.30, Dallas comes to town to take on the Caps at BC Place.

The guy who texted in, so how's it about music on the golf course? How's it going so far for you? Um, well, I would say it's not going well for you, pal. There's a lot of people texting and saying music as long as it's played at a respectable level is not only acceptable. In a lot of cases, it's mandatory.

I don't know. You can, I'll give you access to the text inbox. There's a couple of people it's mandatory i don't know you can i'll give you access to the text inbox there's a couple people that don't want it you managed to convince stewart armstrong he was a naysayer at the start but then he thought about it i i mean i'm i'm not equipped to weigh in on this conversation at all i don't golf and i like music so um i you know i'm probably biased in two different ways here. You know, the easiest. Golf is changing, man.

And there's a reason why it's so popular because it's getting less stuffy now. Yeah. The pandemic, I was saying, actually, it was funny. Um, we were talking about this on the course yesterday while we were blasting our music. We couldn't actually hear each other because

the music was so loud. So we had to turn it down at one point. That's right. Um, and, uh, and we were saying like is there any sport that has boom and bust like golf like it's it's it's crazy when you know tiger woods there was this massive boom um and then things like the financial crisis really affected a lot of golf courses because a lot of them were tied to housing and then there was a concern um just up to until a few years ago there weren't enough golfers and then the pandemic happened and the pandemic golf shot through the roof a lot of young people i remember playing golf during the pandemic it was the only time i felt like things

were normal right when i was outside the house man and it was the only time I felt like things were normal. Right. When I was outside the house. Sure, man. And it was the only time. I was out there with my buddies. Yeah. And it was enjoyable. I'm not a big winter golf guy, but I played in the winter back then.

And I think as more and more young people are playing the sport, blasting their rock and roll on the course, know golf is changing and um but i did hear i won't name the i i won't name the private course but i did play at a private course recently it was funny because it's kind of known as a bit of a stuffy course okay they're like we allowed music for one year i guess they banned it again so it is a it is an interesting debate to be had uh some people don't like it some people do like it um i will say that the one thing is the one thing that becomes challenging is if you have a buddy and you don't like his musical taste yeah sure like

oh he gets a speaker but that's in any setting that's like a road trip or if you're away like house boating or whatever and someone has control of the this is interesting because it really is uh a new age versus old age new guard versus old guard and then sort of the the loose collar and the stuffy shirt right and it's interesting because i think golf more than any other sport does have an issue with gatekeeping when it comes to etiquette rules and the way that you do things and the way that you don't. And, you know, some people don't. Was there a funnier character in a movie than Judge Smales? Right.

It's exactly what you're talking about, right? You were texting back and forth with Judge Smales. Right. Right. Yeah. Okay. I want to do an Ask Us Anything on sports. Well, the world needs ditch diggers, too.

Another timely Caddyshack reference. What year was Caddyshack? 84? Very early 80s. Yeah, 83, 84. Something like that. Rough's wheelhouse. And Zach, what year were you born?

2000. Get out. I'm sorry. Please leave, Chad. Please leave. Chris and Richmond with an Ask Us Anything, an actual sports conversation here. Although I guess that was a sports conversation. Now that we're so far removed from the Russell Wilson trade,

how do you look back on his career as a Seahawk? Now that there's no longer rooting interest for a higher pick, I find myself actually feeling bad for how he was treated by Sean Payton and how he's barely clinging on to his career at this point. Has time changed your perception on Russell Wilson? That's interesting. That is a very interesting question, because I kind of feel

right now, in this moment, the same way that Chris feels. I think he did it to himself. I think a lot of it is because of the way that he built himself up, and there's a fall from grace for sure. You know how I like those comeuppance movies? Like this guy's going to get a comeuppance.

Yeah, well, you know where his comeuppance happens. And it's usually Liam Neeson delivering that comeuppance. But in that case, it was Sean Payton. And I think it was just Russ's ego got away from him. He started thinking that he was bigger than the game, bigger than his team.

He was talking about how his legacy is important to him. And I said it many times on the show. I was like, who cares about your legacy? You don't get to write it, buddy. Yep. Like, you know, your legacy, everyone's legacy is different depending on, you know, who you're talking about. It's just go out there and play the game.

So the other part of the question was, how do you look back on his career as a Seahawk? I'm always of the belief that if it's not something criminal or scandalous, the off field shouldn't affect the on field. We're not talking about Pete Rose gambling on baseball or Barry Bonds doing steroids and that keeping him out of the Hall of Fame. What Russell Wilson did in Seattle, you might not necessarily like the way that his personality unfolded,

but it shouldn't affect what he did for the team. Now, that being said, we had the conversation with Mike Tanier about Russ's Hall of Fame candidacy, which at one point seemed like kind of a path to getting into Canton. That's taking a U-turn. I think he'll be hard-pressed unless there's some sort of very... No chance. No chance.

Very, very unlikely late career renaissance, like when Kurt Warner rose from the ashes in Arizona. Remember, he was done. Kurt Warner was done. He was leapfrogged by Eli Manning in New York. He wasn't playing well at the time. Then he went to Arizona and had this really, really, really unexpected and brilliant late career surge.

The issue with that is there's only one Kurt Warner. I don't know if that happens again, and I certainly don't know if it happens with Russell. But to answer the Texter's question, I think I'm cheering for Texters question, I think I think I'm cheering for him this year. I think so too. I've heard he's got a bit of an injury. He may not even be able to play. I don't think it's

going to go well. Yeah. But I don't think it'll go terribly as long as he's healthy. No. I think he's a better quarterback than Justin Fields. Right. But I think Justin Fields might be a more, if that makes sense, more effective quarterback. That doesn't make sense. I think that he could,

I think that he might not play the position as well, but I think he could get more wins. I disagree. I think he could. He makes too many mistakes. I know, but he also makes plays that Russ can't make anymore with his legs. Yeah, that's Russ's problem. He thinks he's still young. He thinks he's Justin Fields. I'll just escape this sack and I'm been sacked.

Justin Fields is the guy that'll finish 10 of 31 passing with four interceptions, but he'll also run for two touchdowns and they'll win 14-13. You know what I mean? Like that kind of game where you're like, that wasn't an oil painting as far as quarterback play, but you won. Ryan and Ladner ask us anything. For those of you in fantasy football leagues, does your league have a punishment for finishing in last place?

Also, what's the most creatively awful punishment you've heard of in another league? Ours is pretty standard. The last place finisher has to host next year's draft, and they're on the hook for everything, all the booze, all the food, the tab. That's a good idea yeah it's pretty it's not demeaning that we're not making them look like i've heard of one where the losing the guy that finishes dead last has to caddy an entire round of golf for the winner did you hear the story about the guy who lost the fantasy football draft and had to compete in a u.s

open qualifier yeah i guess they fudged his handicap or whatever you needed to do in order to get one of these qualifiers. JT Miller played in one. Yeah. And I don't know exactly how it works. But legitimately. But there's multiple levels. Yep.

But typically, if you're going to play in one of these guys, these guys are scratch golfers. So this guy got teed up with a couple of guys who are, you know, legit. Yeah. You know, they've got the dream and this guy goes out and apparently the story that

goes around on Instagram that you see it once in a while is from the, um, is from the perspective of the good golfers that he was playing with. He said, this guy showed up to the wrong tee. Yeah. And then he hit his first shot, like a this guy showed up to the wrong tee. Yeah. And then he hit his first shot,

like a hundred feet. And he shot a one Oh nine. Oh, it was probably, it was, well, you have to, right.

You have to. And he probably shot way higher than that. Now, some people thought that that was BS of that group to do that to those other good golfers right yeah it ruined their day but the way at least one of these guys put it it was like yeah it was a little annoying but it was also kind of funny yeah it was it was a good story to tell i've heard of one where a guy had to spend 24 hours in a waffle house i remember that was one that was one that went viral um that's pretty funny though see that's fine because it's just that individual that's being affected as long

as it doesn't affect anyone else other than the loser i'm fine we had an event in university where we did 12 hours at the cobalt that's a good one that's a long time to drink a beer every hour what was the end the cobalt was uh it wasn't the nicest place you would go to. Okay, now that we're down this road, not the Cobalt, but the drinking every hour. Did you ever do the Centurion? Yeah. Do you know what that is?

I didn't make it very far. Do you know what that is, Andy? The Centurion? It wasn't the alcohol. It was like, I have a small ballada. Yeah. Explain. You drink 100 shots of beer for 100 minutes, right?

One every minute? You want to get to 100, yeah. Oh, yeah. So it's a shot of beer every minute. Yeah. How much beer is that? So irresponsible. Very irresponsible.

Actually, let me do the math. And you can't leave the table. That's a whole thing. Yeah. And it gets messy. We shouldn't be promoting this. We're not promoting it. Come on.

We're kind of promoting it. We're not promoting it. That's 14 355 milliliter cans of beers. So 14 regular sized cans of beer. It's a lot. Sorry, you have to do that in a hundred. A hundred minutes. An hour and four.

Without three liters of beer in an hour and four. 14 beers in an hour and four. Yeah. It's a lot. So the challenge. That is a lot. Yeah. The challenge becomes not so much.

Well, it is the alcohol. Yeah. I don't know if you want to promote that. No, it's definitely the alcohol. No, but it's not being able to pee. That's what got me. I'm like, I'm out. I only lasted, I mean, I was.

First period, he's like, I got to go. No, I was like, I don't know, I was like 19. I lasted, I think, an hour. There's a lot of. Two shots in, oh, see. I got to pee. Because then you start, but you start thinking about it, right? You start thinking about not being able to pee. You start thinking about it. You're like, oh, I think I have to pee. Because then you start thinking about it. You start thinking about not being able to pee.

You start thinking about it. You're like, oh, I think I have to pee. No, definitely. Anyway, don't do it. Don't do that. Don't do it. Kids, don't do it. I don't know why I'm thinking about this, but my friends and I, when we were kids, well,

kids, 19 plus. Let's not promote any of them. No, no, it's not like that. We had this birthday tradition. Anytime any of us turn, for the first time. Sometimes we jump our motorcycles off not like that. We had this birthday tradition. Anytime any of us turned. Sometimes we jump our motorcycles off a cliff. Three or so years after 19. Every time we turned 19. I don't know if this is a thing outside of my friend group or if other people did this.

But there was a shot called the Prairie Fire. Do you know what that is? Yeah, Tabasco and. 151. 151, yeah. Which I don't even think you can get anymore. No, you can't get 151 anymore. I think it's too strong now for BC.

They've changed the regulations, so it's like you can't get it in this province. You can get it in Alberta still. Prairie fire was real bad. Yeah. That was our tradition, and I do not recommend it. Yeah, because it burned like a prairie fire. Don't do those either, kids. If you're listening, you're on your way to school.

I know it's a Friday, and you're all getting jacked up for the weekend. Parents put their kids in their cars right now. We're just going to mute this right now. What sort of bad stuff can we get up to this weekend? Centurions, prairie fires. Don't do them. Has H-A-Z with an Ask Us Anything, what sport or

sports team do you guys follow but never or rarely talk about on air? I can't think of one. I force my sports likes on all of you. I'm sorry about that. There's a reason there's so much golf talk on this show. Vancouver's heard more about Leeds United

than they have any reason to, solely because of me. England, soccer. I sometimes feel guilty about that, but not really. It's our show. We can do whatever we want with it. That's true. And England always loses in the end, so it's funny, right? People always get a good laugh out of that out i watch a lot of college basketball and i never subject the listeners

to it until march madness rolls around and then i try and do it in a very casual like hey fill out a bracket here are some cool stories to watch here's a funny school like rhode island school of tech like you know those kind of things right school of art yeah right risdy um i but other than i i don't i don't subject anybody to that that's the only one okay uh let's do a quick reset here we've got a final hour of the program coming up and we got a lot to get to uh we'll talk to moj at eight and then we'll run through we should do our locks of the week right even though we're not formally doing them yet with playnow.com. I've got all the lines from playnow.com, so we'll run through some games. We'll do locks of the week.

Contests. We're giving away not one, but two $100 gift cards to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. For the best, ask us anythings, plural. So get them in, hashtag it AUA, and put a pizza emoji into the text. We're giving away two $100 gift cards to AJ's. You can use them this weekend. It's going to be awesome on Sunday. They're going to be playing tons of football all day.

We are also giving away a four pack of tickets to the Vancouver Canadiens playoff game on Tuesday, September 10th at Nat Bailey. If you want to go, send in what we learned. Tell us what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports. That one is hashtag WWL and it needs a ticket emoji to go in.

The Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650, get them in. We're going to do all this in the final hour of the program. Moj coming up first, we're going to preview tonight's game between the lions and the owls from Montreal. Then we're going to do some NFL locks of the week.

Then we're going to do ask us anything and what we learned. So we're going to stay focused. We're going to do a lot of sports and we're going to do some NFL locks of the week. Then we're going to do Ask Us Anythings and What We Learned. So we're going to stay focused. We're going to do a lot of sports. And we're going to get through the final hour of the program with minimal hijinks. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.