Halford & Brough in the Morning - We're Back, Baby! (From Vacation, That Is)

Episode Date: August 25, 2025

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at a busy weekend in sports, they chat important upcoming Canucks dates plus discuss Thomas Müller's first as a Whitecap (3:00), plus the boys discuss everything they've missed over the last few weeks while they were on vacation (27:00).  This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to Haldan-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-na. You're listening to Halford and Brough. High drama for Thomas Mueller. Can he do it from the spot? At the death. Yes! Moeller! Sway to drive.

Keep the left field for his three. Goodbye baseball. Cal Raleigh with his historic 49th home run of the year. Ready. We're all down. I'm pissed off. Why do you get so pissed off? I don't like hitters. Great win.

You're scaring me. Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody's Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming you live from the Kintech Studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning.

How do we do that? Good morning. Ad, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddie, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brought for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn how a consumer proposal could get you on the road to being debt-free in just two weeks.

Visit them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintech Studio, Kintech, footwear, and orthotics. Working together with you in Stapp. We are back. The band is back together. Laddy's here. A-Dog's here. Halford and Brough are back as well.

We have a big show ahead on our return to the airwaves on a Monday. Our guest list today begins. 7 o'clock, our Monday morning quarterback, an NFL insider from the two deep zone substack. Mike Tanier is going to join the program. The NFL season is officially and some say mercifully over. Now we wait 11 days. Yes, 11 days until the Eagles and the Cowboys kick off the season on Thursday, not this Thursday, the following Thursday. So we'll talk to Mike about everything he learned this preseason and look ahead to this highly anticipated regular season.

That's all going to happen at 7 o'clock this morning. It's a football-heavy show today. A lot of football, a lot of pigskin we're going to talk today. 7.30 J.C. Abbott is going to join the program. Our regular BC Lions reporter from Three Down Nation. Defense. Defense. The Lions.

None of it. We'd rather not clap. It took a pass. It's really hard. It was. 529 yards of net offense. Eight scoring drives. That's what the Lions allowed in Toronto on Saturday.

52 to 34, the loss for the Lions heading into their second by week of the season. It's tough to contain Nick Arbuckle. I keep calling him John Arbuckle who was Garfield to owner. Is it a relation between them? Yeah, he's out there like throwing footballs. John's brother.

I want to imagine he also has a cat that likes lasagna. Yeah, has a dog. So anyway, John Nick Arbuckle. Yeah, just had it. He went off on the long. Lions on Saturday. Really tough loss for them. So we'll talk to JC about another awful defensive performance from this team as they go

into the buy. And what needs to change for the Lions during the buy? What else we got? 7.30 is J.C. Abbott, as I mentioned, 8 o'clock. This is very cool. One of the most famous and recognizable sports agents ever. The inspiration behind the Jerry McGuire movie, Lee Steinberg's going to join the program at 8 o'clock this morning.

We'll talk to Lee about all the big stories. Again, from the NFL preseason and looking ahead to the regular season, get into the Shedur Sanders story, because that's obviously got a very agent tie and feel to it, Micah Parsons, another one where the agent is prominently involved. Anthony Richardson, no longer the starter. In Indianapolis, we can look ahead, get his Super Bowl picks, who he likes going into the regular season.

Lee Steinberg is going to join the program at 8 o'clock this morning. So working in reverse on that guest list, Steinberg at 8, J.C. Abbott at 7.30, Mike Tanier at 7 o'clock. That's what's happening on the program. today. Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No. No. What happened? I missed all the action

because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? Missed it? You missed that? What happened? What happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance? Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at BCCCSA.ca.

Okay. So, uh, we're going to flip what happened on its head today. What? Because, and the listeners need to just need to bear with us on this. With all due respect to Brooke Henderson, we'll talk about her win eventually, and the lions against the Argos and the White Caps game against St. Louis and all the things that actually did happen. we have been off for like we've we've been off four of the last past five weeks right

like we need to we need to find our legs a little bit recalibrate the kids we need the listeners to help us out a little bit uh through the text line dumb bar limber text line 650 650 try and get a rhythm back a little bit we got to find our legs because frankly we have been I don't want to say checked out, but we have been checked out. That's how you know he's checked out. For the last month or so. So instead of what happened in this segment, and you got the whole hour with us. And this is for those of you who might just be returning to sports radio in the morning.

Maybe you took some time off. Let's go with what is going to happen over these next few weeks, because we are getting prepared. for one of the best times in sports, and that is the fall. A lot of stuff returns. And of course, like baseball is going into the postseason. So let's start with the Canucks, because I am kind of curious to learn

what has been talked about with the Canucks. And maybe we'll just start with some key dates. Sure. Canucks Training Camp is in Penticton this year. It is August 25th today. And that goes September 18th to 21st. As we know, the players are going to start trickling into town before camp is scheduled to start. Usually those informal skates start a couple of weeks before camp.

And we always get to judge things then. Like, how early did they come? And if they didn't come early, it means they're not committed. No, it means they don't have a practice facility. And then we get back into our groove, right? We talked about like, who is the leadership group should have them out here early? Well, if they had a practice facility, they would be out here early. It all comes back to ownership.

You know, we need to get back into that sort of groove. It's nice that we've already been able to mention the practice facility because I feel like I'm back now. He mentioned it twice. Nobody's return to town will be more closely watched than Elias Pedersons. Folks, it's 607 on a Monday, August 207. 25th, Brough is back. He did it. He's already mentioned Petey. The Canucks don't start the preseason until September 21st in Seattle.

And that's when we'll really get to see some players and see what they're about. But you know that every move that Petey makes, even if he's just skating informally out at, like, UBC or whatever they do, is going to be like, people are going to like, he looks bigger. Yep He looks like he's got a hop in this off season He gets super jacked Yeah Just like I don't know I chose him on steroids

I think his shoulders Look wider It's huge How do you eat a foot Looks pretty pretty big The Kinex roster is not As different as a lot of us expected it to be after last season

That goes for a lot of teams in the NHL though Down the middle is where most of the questions remain Someone texted it into the Dunbar Lumber text line and said Welcome back Boys, back to talking about center depth.

Yep. That's where a lot of the questions are. Can Pedersen return to form? Is Heedle good enough for a top six role and can he stay healthy? Which of the young guys like Ratu, Sasson, or Ty Mueller? So now we've got two Moolers. Right. But Ty Muler is different than Thomas Mueller.

Does he have an umulat? He does not have an umulat. Okay, that's why. like is a Marco how much this is a sad thing to ask but how much did you guys talk about the wild signing Marco Rossi

did that I've been off for two weeks man okay you've been off too a lot of Rossi talk a Rossi talk oh we missed it was a Ritchio just choked well I was just like every day it was like an update

well nothing's changed status quo coming back at 7 o'clock things made me different so glad I was off during those week we missed the crafts off signing you did I can't believe it.

Crab sauce is back, baby. They wouldn't hold it for us. They did it on August 5th, right? When they knew we'd be on vacation, they're like, we're going to bring this guy back. We can't deal with us on the air. So we'll wait for these guys to go on vacation, then we'll bring him back. So what are my favorites? Was that just a favor for Milstein?

I don't know. It was really weird. Yeah, because, like, Milstein is kind of back, too, right? Because he's Cain's agent. Yeah. We thought we thought we got, not rid of it, but all his guys. Sure. And now he's back.

It's, uh, Barney, uh, Mo throwing out Barney meme. Crabt saws back in the background. He's still here. And, uh, just a few more things on the connects. There's a new head coach in Adam Foot with three new assistants in Kevin Dean, Brett McLean, and Scott Young. So what will an Adam Foot training camp look like? And, uh, you know, this is for Rand Deep. What will the power play look like under Brett McLean?

And, you know, with a Vander Cain in the mix as well. What kind of is, is he going to be part of that Canucks power play? Because he wasn't really in Edmonton. Wasn't part of the power play much there. But I think they're going to try and find him a spot. If you want to talk about, like, looking ahead and what's going to happen. We've always tried to come up with a narrative or coin the phrase that's going to dominate the early stages of the season. Remember hashtag the start?

I think this year it's going to be hashtag the questions. and how many need to be answered because there's the roster construction questions, which feels incomplete, although as you astutely pointed out, incomplete across the league. There's a lot of teams that didn't answer the questions that they had with their roster makeup.

But this is also a team that, as you also astutely pointed out, doesn't just have a new head coach, but it's almost an entirely new staff. Like everything is going to be different there, and we don't know a lot about what, like you said, what Adam Foote is going to be like as a head coach as opposed to an assistant coach and what the rest of the staff is going to implement

in terms of changes from last year to this year. And then there's all these questions about where guys are going to fit, who's going to make the roster? There's a lot of questions that are up in the air. I'd say more so than other years where we kind of knew what we were going to get at least at the start of the season.

We knew what it was going to look like. The key was the execution part of it. With this, I feel like there's a lot that goes into the equation that answers to get to that kind of end solution. We just don't really know a whole heck of a lot about the team right now Despite the fact there's a lot of familiar faces coming back Okay, so the BC Lions

And this is where we get into a bit of actually what did happen They got to figure themselves out during their by week They're ahead of back-to-back games against lowly Ottawa Of course they're coming off a pretty bad loss to lowly Toronto Also the defending league champion It's weird how that works I'd bless the CFL The Argos moved to 3 and 8 in their title defense

with a win over the Lions on Saturday. I mentioned it in the intro, but again, Nick Arbuckle, 430 yards and three touchdowns. So a lot of people pointed out, like, it wasn't that you just got singed for 52 points. It was by a really pedestrian quarterback in front of what many have regarded as the worst offensive line in the CFL that Toronto has.

There's a reason that there were 2 and 8 going into that game. Argo's top receiver was... He was on the side. sidelines in civvies yeah so it was another really tough outing for a defensive unit that i've lost the amount of times i mean i forget what we did prior to going on vacation but the amount of times that we've bemoaned the lack of defense across the board secondary not good pass rush not good i know they i think they had three sacks of barbuckle but two of them came in garbage time uh i know we'll talk to j c abbott about this later in the show but like matthew betts with the contract that he has

and the status that he has, not being a difference maker in terms of being able to get after the quarterback, that's a problem. Everything defensively for this team feels like a problem. And as you mentioned, they do get the Ottawa games back to back. They've got the by week to figure it out. But it's hard to have a lot of optimism

that they're going to figure it out because you're already well into the season. You're almost a double digits games played. And the same issues that you thought you solved keep coming back. And then Saturday in Toronto came back in a really good way. 52 points in football games, And it doesn't feel like they're going to be able to host a playoff game.

I know there's still time and it's the CFL. They can go on a run and they do have these back-to-back games against Ottawa. But it's just the inconsistency of the team. There are some results they've had that have been like, yeah, that looks good. And whether it's promising. And then they go and have one like they did against Toronto. I mean, their best hope might be third, you know, getting the crossover into the east. Although I've always wanted to see them make the Grey Cup and play a Western team.

would be amazing in the Grey Cup. And they've got the potential to do that because they do have the talent on offense, well, especially at quarterback. They scored 34 points on the road on the weekend. That's enough to win a football game, except they lost by 18. But hey, it's not great. At least it was a lot of points in the CFL. It's true.

Can't win it all, right? The white caps are racing down the stretch. Just seven MLS games left in the regular season plus the Canadian Championship. The caps should be able to get past. Lattie's FC Forge. I don't know. I don't know. Forge.

They are the class in CPL. Out of the hammer. And then possibly a Vancouver Derby. Yeah, it looks pretty good right now. In the Canadian Championship. Halford, how are you feeling about the Caps right now? We were at BC Place for Thomas Muller's debut. I thought he looked, I thought he looked good.

Like, I'm going to say a real soccer thing now. Okay. like you could really see his quality. Oh, there it is. Oh, total quality. Yeah, you could, you know, people that know soccer that I know, like I know soccer,

you can just see the quality in his touches. Quality player. Yeah. Good toucher. What? Touches. Pardon? It was a lot of fun on the weekend.

Not only did Mueller get his first start for the Vancouver Whitecaps in the three-two win over visiting St. Louis. city. He also got to wear the captain's armband, a nod to how much of a leadership role he's already got with this squad. He said he felt a bit

sheepish about it, but he said I was already kind of being a leader. Did you not just take the captain's the captain? Strip it from who's the captain? It's been road to, because Gald's the captain. Oh, yeah. Gald's been hurt. So there's been a bunch of different guys that have served Ranko. He should have stripped it from him. Just give that to me. Ripped it off his arm. Can we, by the way, can we hear

the call yet again? This is the Apple TV call of the match winning penalty, 10 minutes of added time in injury a lot in the circumstances and then I got to say it, one of the most dubious and dodgiest penalty calls I've seen, and this is an MLS.

Didn't the Whitecaps guy just trip? Kind of look like it. Dubious means bad, right? Right. Just straight up bad. Well, white caps, we were, let's be honest, we were owed one. Yeah. And that's fine, right? You say with officiating, if you don't want to complain about it, the cosmic

whatever, will one day sort everything out and if you get a bad call one day you'll get a call going in your favor the other day I guess if you subscribe to that theory then what happened on Saturday made sense but here's Mueller scoring his first MLS goal and a match winning goal for the white caps three two victors at BC place over st. Louis City high drama for Thomas Mueller can he do it from the spot at the death yes more puts Vancouver on top it's three to two again stole on here this evening. Okay, so you asked how I'm...

Hey, Blake. I asked how am I feeling about the White Caps? I want to play audio from Mueller after the match because there's one, since he's come aboard, I don't know how much he paid attention to it, but his level of enthusiasm for being in Vancouver

and playing in MLS for the White Caps is like comically high. Like to the point where I'm like, is he putting it on for show? Like what's... No one can be... So many good sound. bites too. It's so funny. He's a really funny guy. This is him talking about what it felt like to, and look, this is a guy that is played

in World Cups and has played at the highest level. He's played in some of these most intense matches you can have in the sport, right? This is him talking about taking a penalty in an MLS regular season game against St. Louis. And just listen to what he had to say. Here's Thomas Mueller after the match, 3-2 win over St. Louis. It was an amazing moment for me on one side to have this pressure. Because with a pen, you have a good chance to score, but what happens if you miss?

You're already writing your news. Thomas Miller missed the pen. I like to have this pressure, and my teammates were cheering for me. That was a very nice feeling to score this goal in front of our fans. It's hilarious that he's talking about, you know, the pressure of the media. Like, oh, no, Daily Hive is going to write a negative article about me missing a penalty. I have never received such scrutiny. Those jackals have whitecaps media.

He was honestly probably talking about, like, what the media back in Germany talked about. But it was, it was to the question that the reporter had asked. I just thought it was hilarious because he's trying to bring. Some people have a positive attitude, you know? That's it. That's exactly what this is. Does it just rub you the wrong way? No, I love it.

I'm shocked. We're trying to learn. Yeah. How does it work? I'm shocked by it. What a loser. So friendly and happy. Ernest, caring about things.

I don't, I'm just surprised because there's two reasons. Like one, this is a guy, again, that's gone in far more pressure-packed situations than trying to convert a penalty against St. Louis in, like, September in BC, right? The other one is that we've seen countless high-level star European players come to MLS and sort of kick back and relax and kick their feet up and have a good time and through the motions a little bit. And I'm not talking about the older guys

like Frank Lampard came or Stephen Gerard or Wayne Rooney. I mean, it happened this year like Olivier Giroux came and played for L.A.F. And it was a disaster. It almost seemed like they didn't respect the league. I think that's a part of it. Yeah.

They thought it might have been beneath them. You know, there's this report coming in. Yeah. It's so endearing that Mueller's doing this. because I think he genuinely cares about winning to the point where it doesn't matter where it is. Like it could be in a five-a-side match and Dusseldorf with a bunch of retired players

or it could be this. He just really wants to win trophies and win titles because that's what he's been through his career, he's been a serial winner, right? He's won at every level, tons of trophies and he wants to keep doing that. So that really gives me hope and optimism for a Whitecaps team that is dealing with a lot of,

like, health issues and everything right now. I do wonder how much of a catalyst he can be. Could it also be that this is just all really new for him in his life? I mean, he was a Byron guy right from when he was a kid. Yes. Like he went through their, did they call it an academy there? He spent 25 years with Byron Munich. 25 years.

And he's 35 years old. With Byron, right? And so this is, you know, when we were at his debut at BC Place, we were sitting right behind him. And I was thinking like, man, what's he, what's he thinking right now? Like this is the first time he's ever played for another team. Yep. And like, I hope he's happy with this decision. Because, because honestly, having conversations with you and some of your buddies around your seats

and you guys are all like big white caps fans and you're in the know, nobody could still really give a solid answer on why Vancouver? Why did he choose? And I've asked around. And I've asked around and I've asked around. And there's a bunch of sort of reasons why. I do wonder if there was a cumulative effect of enough good reasons. Yeah.

There wasn't one that outshone the rest. But whatever the case, it's been almost better than you could have imagined because of his personality and his attitude. That's what's going to win people over at the end of the day. Now, unfortunately for the white caps, MLS is MLSing. and they now don't play for three weeks. Because their next opponent, Orlando, qualified for the next round of the league's cup, their next match got punted into October.

So now, with all of this momentum, and, you know, if you look at Apple's social channels and MLS's social channels, the White Caps and Mueller are front and center. They're prominently displayed. Like they want them on prime time, on Apple, and they want them to be a prevalent market. And now they don't play for. for three weeks and that's unfortunate. When they come back, then they play three matches in seven days, but that's still a ways away. But overall, there's got to be a lot of optimism for what they're doing right now. Okay. So we're starting to get our feet under us a little bit. Text into the Dunbar

Lumber Text line at 650, 650 Metro Vancouver's Trusted Choice for Contractors and Renner Warriors for over 50 years. Visit them at one of their three locations to serve you or online at Dunbarlumber.com. We've got another open segment on the other side where we can get into the Blue Jays and the Mariners. Two teams that are on track to make the postseason. The Js at last glance over at fan graphs have a 99.8% chance of making the postseason. And it's really not about making the postseason right now for them. It's about getting a buy into the division series, which is great considering their recent history in the Wildcard series. What a season for Cal Raleigh?

Not looking forward to saying his name again just because it's tough. He's his nickname. Just call him the big number. Yeah, a big number. He loves it. I think he legally changed it to that, actually. Okay.

Call me Mr. Dumber. Well, the Mariners are at 86.4% chance of making the playoffs. So it'll be interesting to see where all the dust settles in both leagues ahead of the playoffs. The NFL preseason and over. Now we wait until next Thursday for the opener. And I do want to talk

a little bit of golf. I am back. So there is going to be some golf talk, but what a Sunday in golf with Brooke Henderson winning the Canadian Open on home soil, obviously, because it's the Canadian Open. But most of

the golf world's eyes were on Tommy Fleetwood, winning the tour championship and setting up like this this rider cup this rider cup in new york is going to be incredible and i am actually wondering is it going to be out of control in new york with the fans there and some of the personalities on both teams i'm really looking forward to that where new york is it is beth page black yeah which is basically long island so you get all these guys like hit the ball. Come on. So let's dip into the Dunbar-Lumber text line a little bit and we can talk about all the things I just listed off. Thank you

for listening. We are very happy and very enthusiastic to be back in the mornings. Alfred & Brough Show, Sportsnet 650. 632 on a Monday. Happy Monday, everybody, Halford Brough, SportsNet 650. I did miss this song, Laddy. I really did. Bring it up a little bit for me. The best part's not even here yet My keyboard comes in Oh yeah, I forgot about that Get ready for it. It's coming.

Here we go. Wait for it. There we go. Nice. This is the sound you do not hear anymore. Nope. They got to bring it back. Music's changed.

Not for the better. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sports Night 650. Alfred inb of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, B.C.'s first. a choice for that help with over 3,000 five-star reviews. Visit them online at sands dash trustee.com.

Several people, tens of people are excited to have us back on the air. Mike the North Shore guy, Justin and East Van. Thank you all for texting in. That was two. Oh, Justin's excited, is it? I need eight more to make up the 10, but yeah, it's nice to be back. We did miss a lot

over August. Well, a lot to stretch. We missed stuff. and it was nice to be away, but it's also nice to get back at this time because as we pointed out in the first half hour of the program, there's a ton to look forward to. All we got to do is get through these next 11 days until the NFL season starts. Halford, I asked you how you're feeling about the white caps,

and I don't know if you ever actually got to an answer on that. I did. I said that Thomas Mueller's presence beyond his quality, which you noticed very much in the 30 minutes that he played two weeks ago. I think that that might be the catalyst plus with the guy They signed new centerbacks by the way I don't know if you raised that They signed one out of the Belgian League and one out of the German league

Older more veteran presences Which I think is important Right right so just You kind of need to drop somebody in and play right away Are the white cap's going to win the MLS Cup? Hold on I don't know Just say good you feel good about the way I feel good

I feel good Laddie Why wouldn't they win the MLS Cup Because other teams might win it No that's not specific enough If they don't win it They got Thomas Mueller. Well, now I get to talk, I get to talk even more about this

because you asked a good question. If they don't win, I think it might come down to their inability to finish. Because that is one of the things that Thomas Mueller said on Saturday. When he was trying to be super optimistic and positive, he let a little Halbro slip in. And he went negative. He said, we have way too many chances needed to score the amount of goals that we scored. And then he pointed out, like St. Louis only needed three shots on that to score.

Well, those defensive backs will need to fit in as well. Uh, centerbacks, yes. Centerbacks, whatever. That's a football thing. Whatever. Yeah, okay, you know, I had the good touch and everything. I was like, good quality. Wrong football, bro.

Yeah. But they are a favorite, yes. But they are, they are back and defensive. Yes, that is true. Both words apply to everything that they do. They're, they're, I'd say they're one of the, I don't know, eight to 10 teams that could win. Oh, really? A lot of teams make the playoffs, 18 as a matter of fact.

So there's a lot of opportunities to get results along the way. So before Halford starts talking about the pros and cons of San Diego's team. Yeah, Laddie. The union's got a good squad. Laddie, you're wearing some Blue Jays gear today. Actually, two bits of Blue Jays gear. You got a hat and is it a hoodie? Okay.

A hoodie and the underwear, too. You can't see that part. Okay. Wait, what? Not yet. So I'm going to ask you, how are you feeling about the Blue Jays? Pretty good after the Bieber start. Yeah.

Yeah, that was awesome. He's looking pretty good. That was wild. What were your expectations going into that start? Pretty high, honestly. Like, just based off his rehab assignment numbers and what everyone was saying, how he looked, you know, a nasty new change-up that he was debuting. So, yeah, I was pretty excited going into it.

Is that going to completely redefine what everyone thinks of Atkins and Shapiro and the work that they did at the deadline? Because people remember when we came in the day after the MLB trade deadline and... What, when he mowed down Miami? Well, I mean... It was a good performance. Yeah, it was a good performance. But it's also like that's a former Sae Young winner.

Yeah, yeah. You're adding to the staff. All I remember is the day that we came in after the deadline, everyone, including us said the same thing. It was like it was safe, conservative. It was a nice deadline. But yet all these other teams like the Padres going out and making these huge slashes. I thought it was kind of risky because you never know how a guy's going to bounce back from Tommy John's.

But they didn't give up a ton. Like they didn't touch any of the top prospects in the organization. Whereas, like, again, I mentioned the Padres. The best prospect in baseball, they traded them away. But hanging on to the best prospect. those top prospects on a season like this is kind of a bold move in my eyes. The fact that they didn't go out and make that big spot. You know what? That's a good way of looking at it, Lattie.

They held their different direction. Yeah, they held the top prospects, which you don't normally do when you feel like you're so close to a championship. So I am kind of excited about the prospect of having the Js and the Meriters and the playoffs. That's going to be a lot of fun. And the Jays, again, if you mentioned, they can get past the wild card game and just get straight into the real meat of the post season. That would be a really.

They actually haven't won a wild card game, have they? Wild card has been tough. has it been like the last four you would know this last is the last four trips to the postseason all have been the wild card and have they been swept two nothing in all of them

well the one was the COVID year that wasn't a wild card was it because it was a multi-game series I forget how they did it during the there was the Mariners debacle yeah and there was the Royals debacle yeah was that the other one the raise is when Junjun Riu had the blow up

that was a long time ago yeah there was a lot of debacle The Twins debacle. Yeah, the Twins one, sorry. Sorry, it was the Twins one I was thinking about it. That was with the horrific base running. Yeah. And that's when they took out Burrios early, right?

Yes, that's right, yeah. So I think, yeah, it'll be, I mean, it's going to be. They bumbled their way through a few wild cards. Yeah, we can say that. Do you think they're just a, do you think this year they're just a better team? Or have they matured into it, into a better team now? because Halford mentions things like the base running errors, and there was always a certain level of, I think, with this,

you know, in the, let's call it the Vladdy Bobachette era, like a certain level of, are these guys, do these guys know how to win? Well, it's interesting, the way they've been winning, they're putting the ball in play a lot, and they're sort of forcing other teams to beat themselves. That wasn't happening a lot last year. They were still doing a lot of the things that they're doing this year. Obviously, they're doing it at a much better clip this season,

and it's been more consistent. But it just, they felt like they weren't getting the breaks last season for whatever reason. They just, a lot of the same mindset went into what they're doing this year, which is why it's kind of weird that it's been working this year because it didn't start out great. The start of the season wasn't fantastic for the Blue Jays. So it was sort of like, okay, we're in for another season of what happened last year. And then all of a sudden it just turned and the ball started to drop. And I don't know.

It's been interesting to watch because there really isn't a thing you can point to and say, yes, that's the reason why. Obviously they have good pitching, but why are the hits suddenly dropping in for them? Well, it feels like they've got a more concern ever... Like you said, putting balls in play, right? And we had Shulman on the show before we went to... I went on vacation.

I remember asking kind of like half facetiously, but also seriously about like how great they were bunting and just putting the pressure on opposing teams. It really worked against the Yankees because the Yankees can't feel the lives, right? And it kind of became one of those things where it's like it's great over the course of 162 games because more often,

than not, if you're playing enough bad teams and you're putting enough bad defenses under pressure, you can win games. It's hard to manufacture those kind of runs in the postseason where, as we've seen, especially the last couple post seasons, the singular at-bat, one-swing, game-shifting moment, that's kind of how you win in the post-season

or how you create rallies. And I think the lack of strikeouts is the big deal, too. I think the pendulum has swung so far to where teams don't give a crap about the strikeouts, their batters striking out. It's swinging back now where the Js, where they have this heavy mindset of don't strike out, don't strike out, put that ball in play, that it's giving them now an advantage probably more so than you would have had in previous years

when there were a lot more teams that didn't strike out very much. Now every team strikes out. And if you're the one team that doesn't, I feel like the Jays are making some sort of ground in that regard. Okay, the NFL preseason is over. Now we wait until next Thursday for the opener. 11 days, but who's counting? What will happen with Mike Parsons before the Cowboys opener in Philly? Is he going to be...

They'll get it done the day before? Do you think so? Yeah. Him falling asleep in the Cowboys game. How about Brian Schottnheimer having to deal with all this? He's the coach. Like if people don't know, right? Like he's the Brian Schottenheimer's the coach.

When he got asked about it, he had to punt on it. He's like, I haven't talked to Mike yet. They're like, what do you need to talk about? He was sleeping. But it was, this is, look, Parsons didn't need to participate in training camp of the preseason anyway. And I, like, they're just, so he was like, I'm going to make myself into a distraction. Right. I mean, there is a little bit of petulance going on for sure, which you've seen.

Well, from Jerry Jones, too. And that's part of it is they're throwing it back and forth at one another. But when they take the field on Thursday, this is going to be signed, sealed, and delivered. There's no way that he's going to miss meaningful snaps. the part about this is that it is pretty nasty though it's been the biggest story of a preseason where I thought

other stories would come to the forefront and overtake it but there's a lot of different reasons why one Parsons is a star two it's the Jerry Jones factor three it's the biggest to me it's the biggest and most dramatic franchise in North American sports and it coincides with the Netflix series

as well so people are already talking about Jerry Jones right and then you've got like this perfect example of life under Jerry Jones playing out in front of your very own eyes. And don't make any mistake. Like this is part of the reason that Jerry Jones keeps doing is because he likes being in the spotlight. He likes the motor, man. He likes the cowboys being in the spotlight.

When they're talking about the Cowboys, you know what they're doing? Not talking about the other NFL teams that take away from his chair. Do you think the Seahawks might be getting the least buzz of any NFL team out there? I'm glad you brought this up because we just talked about the Jays. Yeah. I do wonder if this fall. there's a real opportunity for the Mariners to dwarf Seahawks coverage out of Seattle

because the first few weeks of the Seahawks season where the expectations are kind of mid going in no one's quite sure what the team is going to be now here's the thing if the Seahawks get off to a great start and they win games and they're undefeated And they start against San Francisco so if they're able to beat the Niners in week one at home that'll tip the scales

but the excitement around Mariners baseball with what Cal rallies have 49 home runs he broke Sal Perez's record yesterday combined with the fact that they went large at the deadline and those are really paying off Naylor's been good there I wonder locally it'll always be Seahawks won but I wonder how much of a share

that the like the shine and the spotlight that the Mariners can take away because you're right the Seahawks don't have a lot of buzz nationally right now they are kind of a forgotten team well really good teams have a lot of buzz but also NFL, like really bad teams have buzz as well. People talk about like, how are they going to get out of this? The consensus with the Seahawks is basically they won't be very good,

but they won't be awful either. And I don't think they've got many players on the team that I can think of, really, that are a big distraction. They're going to do something or say something that gets a lot of attention. Right. And their coach still isn't really widely known. You know, Mike McDonald is just like, you know, you know people around the NFL are like, you know, fans around the NFL is like, who's the Seahawks coach again? And part of it is from who he took over from.

Yeah, yeah. Everyone knew that Carroll and the Seahawks were, you know, intertwined. For the large part of his tenure, because Pete Carroll was the face of that team. I mean, Russell Wilson was there for the large mark of it as well. but Pete with the look, the swagger, you know, and now still being in the NFL and moving on, like a lot of people are like, oh, yeah, right, he's in Vegas now. You know what the Seahawks need to get some attention? A Sanders.

That's what they need. Well, they can pick up one of them for sure. Maybe two, depending on what happens. It's Thursday, by the way, that the NFL is going to do its roster cut down to 53-man roster. So Shiloh Sanders has already been released. Shadur got asked yesterday if he thinks that he's going to make the Browns, man roster and his response was hilarious because he wanted to scoff at the question. He kind of did to start, but then in what might have been a learning moment for the young man,

he quickly, wait a minute. He quickly reverted into football speak and started talking about opportunities and he's just out there to help the team win football games. Well, they're going to, are they going to carry four quarterbacks into the season? Does that happen? You mean, no, but here maybe. It's such an odd situation and it's compounded by the fact that it's so close. mostly monitored. Like I don't know if anyone understood how big a role Dylan Gabriel was going to play in Shadur Sanders rookie season before he got drafted to the Cowboys. But now it's one of the premier drivers of this story. And you know, you still got Kenny Pickett there. You still got Joe Flacco there. Going in with four quarterbacks would be like quite hilarious. But I think that might end up being what they do. And then one gets stashed on IR for a little bit before they figure out exactly what they want to do. It's going to be a circus all year though. Yeah. Because there's good. It's almost.

inevitable there's going to be instability at the quarterback position. You can't tell me that someone's going to just jump in there and give them the kind of like solid let's win eight to nine football games kind of quarterbacking that you need to not be a distraction. They could be a train wreck all season and that's going to put more focus on who's playing quarterback. We'll talk more NFL with some of our guests on the Halford & Brough show today. I do want to mention the golf over the weekend. First of all, congratulations to Brooke Henderson, who wins the Canadian Open for the second time in her career, but really much needed because, frankly, she hadn't been playing very well. And some things came together, and she won that tournament. But with all due respect

to Brooke, the golfing world's eyes were on Atlanta and Tommy Fleetwood and whether or not he could get it done, and he did get it done. And he was very good. And he won the tour chance. championship, which is weird. So you're like, you win the year. How many times if you won on the PGA tour before? This is my first time. This is my first time. But, you know, the thing is people were kind of critical of Tommy Fleetwell.

And they were like, I can't get it done. Chokes in the big moments. It was like, yeah, but he put himself into the position. Like, he kept doing it. And eventually you're going to break through. And just on a side note, that's why some of these Canadian golfers in these big tournaments need to start being actually in the mix right on these Sundays in the big tournaments now Corey Connors had another good performance but it was another backdoor top

10 right like he wasn't really a factor he's a top 10 backdoor finisher on the pGA you got be a better way to say that on the pGA tour he does it all the time yeah it's quite remarkable actually yeah I was unfamiliar with the fleawood story by the way I didn't know that he had never did mean his wife being 23 years older didn't know that either yeah that was hilarious Barry says like, and there's his stepson who looks about as old as him. Like this grown-ass adult came out. And I'm like, who's that? It is like, Tommy Fleetwood's kid.

I'm like, he's like four years younger than I'm like, how did that happen? But you know what was really funny is that the American crowd in Atlanta was clearly cheering for Fleetwood over an American in Patrick Cantlake. Who, let's be honest, nobody really likes. Like, dude, hit the ball, man. He's such a slow player, and he's, I don't know, he's got a face. He's got one of those faces. He's got one of those faces. But when the Rider Cup starts in a couple of weeks, it's Tommy Fleetwood, who's going to be the enemy, and people will be, you know, reluctantly maybe, cheering for Cantlay.

And I just want to throw out how wild this Rider Cup could get. Okay, explain this to me, please. You seem very excited about this particular Rider Cup. This Rider Cup is in New York at Beth Page Black, which is basically like New York fans. And you know when you encourage New York fans, they're only going to get rowdier. Sure.

They're basically known as the rowdiest fans. And the president is probably going to show up. He has already been, what's he got, what's he got, true social? He's already put out some stuff. about this Rider Cup and he was opining that Keegan Bradley

who is the American Rider Cup captain and I don't think anyone really expect when they named him captain they didn't expect him to actually be in the mix for a spot but like he was in the mix to win the tour championship

and he has been asked are you going to pick yourself and this doesn't happen like Arnold Palmer played I think was the Ryder Cup captain back in like 83 or something like that. And he picked himself? He picked himself. Nice.

But I honestly, that history is beyond me. I was young and not watching the Ryder Cup at that point. But I don't, I think he'd be crazy to pick himself. And I actually don't think he will because there's enough quality Americans that he doesn't really need to. And the responsibilities of a captain, like, I mean, even you know, you know, you're not the hugest golf guys. but you've watched the Rider Cup and you've seen the images of the captain like riding around in a cart

and just like watching all the matches and making sure like he's got to deal with the administrative nonsense that we have to deal with. It'd be like a player coach. Yeah, I mean, in any rate. Alan Myers is out there, he's also coaching. It'd be a lot.

I just think with the potential of that American crowd, the potential of Trump showing up, and some of the personalities involved, that this thing could just get wild, that this could be one of the most controversial, contentious, entertaining, but also maybe out of control, rider cups ever.

What about the actual, like, the betting odds on it? Are they close to being even? Is it? Okay, that's the other than I ask. Because sometimes you go into these tournaments and there's one side that's a decided, well, sometimes the Americans are informed. Yeah, and sometimes the American,

Americans are heavy favorites, especially when it's being played at home. But when you've got guys, like, for example, a Tommy Fleetwood, who's playing really well, and Rory McElroy and Robert McIntyre and Justin Rose, like, and they've got some good, good young players as well, like Ludwig Oberg, one of your favorite. I love Ludwig Oberg. you know this this could be this could be fun let's just put it that way okay uh we got a lot more to get into on the halford and breath show on sports net 650 throughout the day we're finally going to get into our guest list on the other side of

things coming up at seven o'clock mike tannier our NFL insider from the two deep zone substack is going to join us as mentioned NFL season kicks off not this Thursday but next Thursday the preseason is done though which is great tomorrow is roster cut down day I'm sure a lot of you are currently engaging in your fantasy football draft. So we got a lot of football talk on the docket for the remainder of the show. Tannier is going to join us at 7. We'll get his look at some of the Super Bowl contenders. He wrote about that most recently on his substack.

At 7.30 more football talk, but this of the Canadian variety, J.C. Abbott from Three Down Nation is going to join us in the wake of the BC Lions getting 52 points hung on them in a loss in Toronto on Saturday. The Lions now go into a buy before they've got back-to-back games against Ottawa. Classic CFL scheduling right there. So we'll talk to JC about how bad it was for the Lions on Saturday. If it's going to get any better on the defensive side of the football and what they need to do to correct things, that's coming up at 7.30 CFL talking Lions talk with J.C. Abbott.

Then at 8 o'clock this morning, Lee Steinberg is going to join the program. So Lee, of course, for those that don't know, one of the most famous and, influential sports agents of all time. He was one of the inspirations behind the movie Jerry McGuire. He used to represent Patrick Mahomes, one of the major contracts that he was

involved negotiating with, that massive deal that Mahomes signed with the Kansas City Chief. So we're going to do some NFL talk both current and maybe get in some other stories as well with Lee Steinberg coming up at 8 o'clock. Also a reminder, get your text in. Dunbar Lumber text message in

basket. We can read them throughout the show also we're back which means we're doing what we learns as per usual that's going to happen at 830 this morning so get your what we learns in hashtag them w w l let us know what you learned over the last 72 hours in sports uh if you want to talk about the little league world series if you want to talk about what some of the canadian guys like tajon buchanan and jonathan david did over the weekend for villarreal and uventus respectfully you can get that in as well we are going to be here until nine o'clock this morning halford and bruffer back. So get your text in. Dunbar Lumber text line is 650, 650. Hashtag him, WWL.

Did you say respectfully instead of respectively? I think I said respect. I think I think I can't remember what I said. He card read good. I think I said respectfully. Yeah. Which is not the right word. But I was cooking there for a little bit. And now we're going to go to commercial. You're listening to the Halpert and Brough show on Sportsnet 650.