Halford & Brough in the Morning - Will Canada Soccer Be Disqualified From The Olympics?

Episode Date: July 25, 2024

In hour one, Mike & Jason look back at the previous day in sports (3:00), plus the boys talk a little summer football news with NFL Insider Mike Tanier (26:18). 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.

Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-d High drive to left. And it is another home run for Vladimir Narello Jr. How stupid do you have to be at an Olympic Games to think that you could get a drone up there? It was like New Year's Day. It was like being born. It was like coming out of the womb. You're in there, it's comfortable, it's safe, and now you're out. Good,, Vancouver.

6.01 on a Thursday. Happy Thursday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough. It is Sportsnet 650. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. Jason, good morning. Good morning.

Adog, good morning to you. Good morning. And Laddy, good morning to you as well. Hello, hello. Halford and Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda, Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. Make it as easy as possible to bring in your vehicle for maintenance with shuttle service, loaner vehicles,

and a local pickup and drop-off service for your vehicle. We are in Hour 1 of the program. Hour 1 is brought to you by Northstar Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. Northstar Metal Recycling, they recycle, you getcler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling. They recycle. You get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver.

And 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, Rafi, what are you waiting for? Kintec, that's what you're waiting for. Our guest list today begins at 6.30. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider. The two-deep zone substack is going to join us as we continue to move around the NFL with training camps now underway.

7 o'clock, Adnan Virk is going to join us from MLB Network. 7.30, Bob Stauffer from the mighty Chud in Edmonton. C-H-E-D 7.30 in Edmonton. He's going to join us after Stan Bowman was introduced as the new general manager of the Edmonton Oilers. At 8 o'clock, Ben Steiner is going to join us for some Olympic coverage, also at 8 a.m. So coinciding with Ben's hit, Canada will take on New Zealand in the opener for women's soccer at the Olympics.

Surely no storylines there, Jason. I sneaky hope that Canada blows New Zealand out and then the Kiwis are just they were just a stiff head of us all day. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. You should do the whole show like that. That's pretty good. And then

Canada, yeah, just they should subtly reference that they felt like they had an upper hand but without actually saying what that upper hand was. So Ben's going to join us at 8. Oh, also a reminder, start getting What We Learns in right now. Hashtag it WWL and put a ticket emoji into your text. We're giving away a pair of tickets to see Billy Idol

and Platinum Blonde play Rogers Arena on July 30th. Shout out to Webster from the WAC, who at 5.31 this morning sent in a What We Learned just so he could win the tickets. We'll see if you get there, Webster from the WAC, who at 5.31 this morning, sent in a What We Learned just so he could win the tickets. We'll see if you get there, Webster. I'm not promising anything, although your early hustle is going to help you out. WWL is the hashtag. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports?

Dunbar-Lemmer text line is 650-650. Put a tick emoji into your text. 8 o'clock, Ben Steiner is joining us. 7.30, it's Bob Stauffer. 7 o'clock, Ben Steiner is joining us. 7.30, it's Bob Stauffer. 7 o'clock, it's Adnan Virk. 6.30, it's Mike Tanier. 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. What happened? I missed all the action because I was... We know how busy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? What Happened is brought to you by the BC Construction Safety Alliance. Making safety simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca.

The Canadian spying scandal, the drone scandal at the Olympics in Paris raged on yesterday. This story is far from being over. The latest developments now are that FIFA, the IOC, and everyone else associated with these Olympic Games is now doing a deep dive into not just the two drone incidents over the last week involving the Canadian women's program spying on the New Zealand team, but there seems to be a relitigation going on into past instances of Canada soccer utilizing drone technology to potentially spy on their opponents. I want to play two clips of audio

to get us started here. The first is from Arash Madani, Boots on the Ground, Sportsnet reporter over in Paris. And this is more of an editorial clip, but I think it really will send us in a few paths. Jumping off points as pertains to where we want to go with this conversation. This is the latest from Arash Madani yesterday in the wake of the IOC and FIFA now undergoing an investigation to what Canada did. Spying with drones on the New Zealand camp from the Olympics. Here's Arash. These are the Olympic Games where they spend around four billion dollars in security, where there are cameras everywhere, and among the terrorist threats are drones. So this very quickly, guys, did not become a sports issue. This became pilot of the

drone, said uncredentialed staff member. He got arrested. He got detained. He could have spent up to a year in prison and a 35,000 euro fine. They gave him an eight month suspended sentence. This is far beyond just sport from that standpoint, which makes you think and wonder how stupid do you have to be at an Olympic Games to think that you could get a drone up there and go all Belichickian and Harbaughian and whatever he in and get away with it which makes you wonder this really probably wasn't the first time was it how long may or may this have been or not been standard operating procedure and what the canadian olympic committee and what can Soccer wants all of us to believe is that this was just two rogue staff members who orchestrated this entire thing. You know, the CEO of the Canadian Olympic Committee, David Shoemaker, said Bev Priestman knew nothing about this. She told me so.

And then Bev today to the CBC didn't answer the question of did you know this was going on she just did the very Canadian thing and apologized so I don't know if Priestman knew or didn't know about the drone spying or even if she did or didn't tacitly approve of the practice by you know not asking questions about the information she received. Like, where did you get these aerial pictures of the New Zealand practice? Who's got a drone? What I do know is that this is a national embarrassment and the women's team will have to live with this

for the entire Olympics and most likely beyond the games where they'll be stained with this allegation. And, you know, I'm not going to sit here and say that she knew, she must've known, she had to know, surely she knew. I don't know. There are instances though, where you do have to fall on your sword when you're the leader of an organization that fails badly. And Canada Soccer has failed badly in this instance because it's about the good of the organization and it's about moving forward. Um, quick aside, I don't know how many of you followed the, um, the story down South about the, um, chief of the secret service.

Well, they had a bit of a failure and she said, well, I'm not going to resign. I'm the one to fix it. And then eventually it became like, no, you got to resign. Like you can't go forward like this. Um, you know, it's just an example of sometimes you do have to, even if you are, even if she is completely innocent in all this, she's more than willing to play this hand of I'm doing this for the good of the group, to show the leadership.

And it's going to be tough to move past this while Priestman is still the coach sitting out one game against new zealand today the team they were spying on isn't going to change anything and frankly it kind of bothered me that she struck did you get this like such a gallant tone with her offer to sit out that game like there there was a real, like, I'm doing this for the, just because I am a leader. So this was the question that Arash mentioned in his editorial there. She was asked, did you know anything about this?

And she said, I think, first of all, I'd like to apologize. As the leader of this program, I'm ultimately accountable. That's why, personally, it was really important for me to take this moment to show strong leadership and to represent the values of this country, of the team, and of myself. And I think I've done that because I deeply care about sportsmanship, integrity, and to be honest, the players who are taking the field. Yada, yada, yada. She goes on.

She goes, from my perspective, that's my stance. It was really important to me. I offered straight away for my voluntary removal from the game. You're kind of like, congratulations. Way to go. Yes or no question. Yes or no question. First of all, answer, did you know anything about it?

So obviously she did. No, I'm not willing to say that. The fact that she didn't come out and say it right away instantly tells you she knew something about it. Fair enough. That's the first thing to get. If she didn't know anything about it, the first thing she would have said is,

I didn't know anything about it. First thing. Yes. She did do that. Probably. She did do that. She did do that originally. Not in that statement.

Okay, not in this statement. But I don't like the fact, taking all that of account, because I really don't know. I don't like the fact that she offered this opportunity for her to grandstand, essentially, about it and to make her look like the hero. Like, you're the one that had the failure. Yeah. Okay, let's put this into focus, what both you guys are talking about here what you're discussing is this sort of gallant um and noble thought and feeling that she put into her her statement like i'm falling on the sword for the benefit of everybody else here with this one game removal and you're

talking about that by not answering the questions she seems guilty so with those two dynamics hanging in the air let's go to answer the question let's go to some very obvious facts that are um right in front of our faces there is not a single person out there that is connected to this program that is left to the defense of Bev Priestman it's a matter of fact the national rights holder for the Canadian men's and women's team, won soccer, had countless, countless bits of material yesterday, including their lead announcer, Gareth Wheeler, absolutely eviscerating Priestman, not defending her at all, saying that this begins at the top, this starts at the top, and that there was a culture where this was allowed

and not necessarily encouraged, but in no way was it tacitly approved. Right. I thought that was very interesting that no one came to her defense whatsoever. Secondly, the only time that

we heard that she denied any involvement in this and had no knowledge was through the head of the Canadian Olympic Committee, the shoemaker that Arash referred involvement in this and had no knowledge was through the head of the canadian olympic committee that shoemaker that arash referred to in his clip so it's kind of it's almost like a hearsay dismissal and he said he said that she denied it but in that question that adog you know we just i just read and adog was talking about it like just just reiterate no i didn't know anything about it and i think the reason that that singular denial has kind of been pushed into the background and probably won't be brought up again is because as people are doing more digging they are coming to the realization

that this might not have been just two drone incidents at the 2024 paris olympics that there might have been and as arash also alluded to in his clip, a history of this behavior. As a matter of fact, someone said, wait a minute, I seem to recall that there was an incident back in 2021 involving John Herdman and the men's national team when Honduras was in Toronto for a World Cup qualifier. And then, of course, CBC diligently doing the work here, uncovered the clip and uncovered the moment. We've got the audio from that as well. So this is going all the way back to 2021.

John Herdman, who you may recall, has several close ties to this women's program. This is him now in charge of the men's team at the time, talking about an alleged drone incident over Honduras' training back in 2021. Here's the clip. We'll roll it now. Different team, different tournament. But back in 2021, as the Honduran men's squad came to Toronto for a World Cup qualifying match, they reportedly spotted a drone flying overhead during their training and suspected Canada of spying. The response from Canada's then coach aired on Honduran media. A lot of people in Canada fly drones, I'm sure.

And when a big team like Honduras turn up, I'm sure people are probably interested in what they're doing. Now, Canada Soccer says an independent external review will look into the drone incidents in France, plus what it calls its historical culture of competitive ethics. Big team like Honduras, you guys. So, okay. There are a lot of people that fly drones, like our coaching staff.

I remember when this happened, and I remember when Herdman got up on the podium, and if you watch the video, he's got this sort of wry little smile on his face yeah while doing it and you heard what he said and you heard the remarks and there was always the understanding that conca cat remember he talked at length about conca calf and it was so difficult and there was the dark arts and you were always playing from behind and everyone was doing everything to get a competitive edge in their respective countries to get through this gauntlet of World Cup qualifying, right? So take that for what it is. The audio is there. The history

is there. I got a question. I won't editorialize any further on that. Yes, Andy. How is Canada not disqualified from the Olympics? Well, I don't know if that's coming or not. But I mean, if it doesn't happen, how is that not possible? You're spying on your opponent. We've got an hour and 45 minutes until kickoff. I don't know what's going to happen.

Isn't that insane if they don't be? I mean, don't get me wrong. I would love to see Canada medal, but I mean, under the circumstances, is that not bizarre that they wouldn't be disqualified? Well, maybe it doesn't rise to the level of a team disqualification. New Zealand has already asked that Canada gets no points from this match. You're spying on your opponent. It's like the worst.

It's not the worst thing you can do on your opponent. It's like the worst. It's not the worst thing you can do. Pretty bad. It's pretty bad. In an Olympic event? Next to like taking their knees out. Let's list all the worst things. In terms of non-criminal offense. It's not great, man.

It's embarrassing. You know what I'm saying? Poisoning the other team's water. It was a criminal offense, though. The guy got arrested. Yeah, yeah. I would like to hear more from Joey Lombardi. Are we going to ever hear from this unaccredited analyst who, you know, is being...

Who has his own page on the Canada Soccer website? Well, listen, I mean, obviously he's got to accept his responsibility in it, but I want to hear. Was he directed? What was the culture? Why did he do this? Where was that information going? Because he's also like an independent sports analyst, isn't he? Yes, but he was there.

But he wasn't there. Could he just be like, I'm a real big fan of tactics. Yeah, I love spying. I love drones. Love watching the ferns play. I just like flying drones. My drone just happened to fly over their practice facility. Honestly, it's coincidental.

I didn't know they'd be there. It's ridiculous that he's being... Scapegoated. Classified. Well, not scapegoated because... It's not scapegoating. No. He got pulled in by authorities.

He got detained. But there... He's like, damn it. I'm the only one that knows how to fly a drone. Yeah, right? He drew the short straw straw there you have to go do it now um another interesting thing i thought from the one soccer gareth wheeler angle which again i the only reason i'm bringing this up is because that they if anyone's going to be partisan towards the program and the brand and the crest it's going to be them they're the rights holder but or to get or to get the notes from can Soccer like,

hey guys, this isn't true. You got to get out there and say so. And they basically did the exact opposite. I mean, they were framing Jasmine Mander and what's his name? Joey Lombardi. They were framing them as good people, honest soccer people that were being scapegoated and were being put at the front of this as those are the people that you should be angry at.

And I was like, this is an, this is an incredible tact from a national rights holder. Obviously there's something to this. Have we heard from Kevin blue at all? Nope. Like he's the, what was his title?

Secretary general or something. He's in charge. He's in charge. Yeah. We haven't heard from him at all no nothing really no like we've heard from the canadian olympic committee because i'm gonna go out on i'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that um there's about eight different things that were going on at once uh including naivete arrogance and stupidity and those are all hard

to plan for those are all hard to get out in front of because when arash brings up the very salient point that you're flying a drone where there's four billion being spent on security you do jump past this just being a soccer issue yeah all of a sudden you're talking about international espionage and running afoul of olympic authorities and officials all of which puts you in a higher classification of uh-oh we're in trouble here let's talk about the oilers introducing stan bowman as their general manager um bowman um said he wasn't going to relitigate the past in his press conference yesterday but he did, I think it's important to start off by touching on my departure from the Blackhawks a couple of seasons ago. And he said, I can tell you

in this room and to everyone watching, as well as something I've said directly to Kyle Beach, that my response was inadequate back in 2010. I didn't handle things properly. I should have done more. That's something I regret. And it's something I've had a chance to reflect on and try to learn from. He worked with Sheldon Kennedy and said he had a chance to work with his group. And he also said he had a chance to work with Kyle Beach

and other people. And he feels like he's learned some things that he didn't know. Now, look, I know there are people who don't think Bowman or Joel Quenville for that matter should ever work in the NHL again. And frankly,

I'm not going to push back and say those people are wrong because this story is clearly personal for a lot of people and I can't relate to them. Um, you know, there's a lot of people that have had to deal with sexual assault, uh, in their lives, either to them or to, to their loved ones. And it is very obviously emotional and, um, it's a very hard subject. But I do think, if I can, now that Bowman's back in the game, maybe we can hope that something good comes from this,

that some lessons have been learned by everyone who has followed this story. The thousands of people, including myself, that has followed this story, that otherwise if this story hadn't been out there, that could have ended with more victims. And I think if you listen to what Stan Bowman had to say, he said, I think the biggest thing I learned from Sheldon Kennedy is the negative power of silence and not taking a bigger role. When I look back on it, he said, that's what I reflect on. You don't want to assume other people are doing things. You want to take an active role and make sure that things happen that are supposed to happen. And he went on to talk about the bystander effect that he learned from Sheldon Kennedy.

So these are all good lessons that are being put out there. Now, I know I've already heard it in the Dunbar-Lumber text line. I'm not defending this hire. Frankly, I wouldn't have done it if I was the Edmonton Oilers because number one, you know, you got to go through all this. And number two, I don't even know if Stan Bowman's that good a GM right you know what I mean but um now that he's back in the game hopefully some good can come from it and that's the only thing that I think I can say about it um I unless you want to add something and say that it never should have happened you know and I have time for that too no i think the where people are having a lot of um pushback and i think it's valid and legitimate pushback is that um when he talks about the bystander effect and what he's learned um it doesn't really jive with the opening remarks which is like i'm not here to relitigate the past. It's like, well, part of this is a constant relitigation.

Like the idea is you don't just put it in your rear view and say, I've dealt with this. It's over now because then there's no lessons to be learned. The lesson is if you make a mistake like this and you have an egregious series of behaviors that lead to this unfortunate and awful incident, that all you need to do is give it some time go through some courses and lessons and speak to people and then put it behind you and move on and they're saying well the thing is is that Stan Bowman gets to move on but Kyle Beach doesn't

because it's happened to him and it's never going to unhappen to him and the subsequent you know use that were assaulted by brad aldrich they don't get to put it behind them either so putting it behind you isn't an option but in the realm of hockey and being a general manager that's what their goal is their goal is to we want to move forward and it's like that's great you get the opportunity to move forward others don't so i understand why there's pushback from a lot of people. And yesterday, obviously. Don't you think he's a bit angry with all this too, though?

Stan Bowman? Allowing that, again, allowing that he made serious mistakes. He wasn't Brad Aldrich. He wasn't John McDonough. If I was him, I'd be pretty mad at those guys too. That's why this stuff is so ugly. It affects so many people's lives. I guess what I'm saying is that there's a dynamic there that you just don't get to fix.

Sometimes that's life, right? Sometimes that's life. Sometimes there's something that, you know, it's like anything. You can do as many repairs as possible, and you can send as many experts in to try and fix. But at the end of the day, something's just broken, and it's not fixed. And that's the reality. And that's nothing that we're going to solve talking about it on the air. And that's nothing that anyone on Twitter is going to solve

by tweeting into the void. It's not going to make it any better. The reality is that Bowman's back in hockey. And he's the general manager of the Edmonton Oilers. And their hope now is that in a couple weeks' time, everyone will have moved on to something else,

and they can get down to the business of re-signing Leon Dreisaitl. And that's what'll happen. Yeah. That's what'll happen. Okay, we are up against it for time in the opening segment. When we come back, we're going to jump over to the National Football League. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider from the 2 Deep Zone sub-stack. That's his very own sub-stack.

We'll go around some of the major stories as training camps are now underway across the NFL. And we are now just one week away from the start of the preseason. You're listening to the Halford and breath show on sports net six 50. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Just about to start talking And then this happens Just let it go man Let it ride

Now that is a synth I feel like soon We're only gonna be available On AM radio Like streaming There's no options Can I give you the description 70s

Groovy Confident Nocturnal Sensual Relax This doesn't feel no, groovy, confident, nocturnal, sensual. This doesn't feel nocturnal. Doesn't feel nocturnal to you? It definitely has the Shaft vibe to me. Yeah, for sure. There is a bit of sensualness to it, though.

It is sensual. Oh, yeah. You are listening to the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. AM radio only. Halford & Brough in the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver's premier multilingual destination for Honda customers. This is them online.

How much synth can they put in one song? Dude, it's the best. This is them online at VancouverHonda.com. We are in hour one of the program. Mike Tan here is going to join us in just a moment here for some NFL talk. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler

pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. To the phone lines we go. Mike Tanier, our NFL insider,

joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Michael. How are you? I'm doing great. Welcome back to training camp, everyone.

I love training camp. Well. I love training camp. Well, I love the week that training camp leads us into the preseason. Then I love the preseason. I want to start with the San Francisco 49ers because I feel like there's enough things going on that aren't necessarily back-breaking things, but they're not good things. The Williams holdout is not good.

The IU hold-in're not good things. The Williams holdout is not good. The IU hold-in is not good. And then there's this Brock Purdy extension on the horizon. I know you wrote about this for the 2D Zone, your sub stack. By the way, check it out. MikeTannier.substack.com where it's like the 49ers are heavy favorites to win the

NFC, but everyone's kind of eyeing each other's paychecks, and there might be a little bit going on underneath the surface. Expand on this for our listeners, Mike. What's going on in San Francisco? That's it, and you kind of alluded to it. Like, there's nothing back-breaking, but there are a lot of straws landing on that camel's back, and I wrote at the 2D Zone, you know, the 49ers do deserve to be the favorites in

the NFC. I don't think there's any question about that. For the FTN Almanac, which I'm a co-author of, we have them prohibitive favorites. We have them with a 32% chance of winning the NFC and going to the Super Bowl. And then you look at what's going on there, and we've known for weeks that the Brandon Iyuk situation

was going to be a problem. We found out after I posted my article that Trent Williams is a problem. We've heard from guys like Kyle Juszczyk saying things like, gosh, I had to take a pay cut that really hurt my ego. This is a team with some financial problems that are kind of, I think, rattling around a little bit like a quarter in a can for the players, for the organization. And I think the Iowa thing will get resolved before camp.

I think Trent Williams will be placated before camp. All of the money that they use to do that will make it very hard for them to do things in the future beyond this year. And the question becomes, is this a potential distraction? And I don't think it's a huge distraction, but it gives me pause before I say, oh, this team is going to win the NFC and there's nothing to worry about. Because let's look at it this way. If the Cowboys were talking like this, we'd be laughing at them and saying, that's a team that's about to fall apart.

I mean, there is some pressure though, right? Because in 2025, the Brock Purdy contract thing becomes real. Like they get one more year on Brock Purdy on this amazing deal. And then all of a sudden it's like, now they have another potential straw on the camel, which is how much do you pay Brock Purdy? How do you see that playing out? Because this is the year where he can really dictate how much money he's going to make. That's exactly it.

I think I can't imagine Purdy having this bad year. I think with just this supporting cast, he's going to have a good year. And if he has like a, another playoff bound year, they're going to have a good year. And if he has like a, another playoff down here, they're going to have to pay him. And they're $38 million over next year's cap already. See, that's one of the problems here.

Next year's cap situation is full of the Christian McCaffrey money. And it's full of, I think some Fred water money is full of Debo money. It's full of kiddo money. So they don't have all this playing room, you know, for in the future cap. So, you know, I think what happened was when McCaffrey signed his big contract, a bunch of eyebrows went up, you know, Trent Williams' eyebrow went up, Iook's eyebrow went up, like, why are we paying the running back again before they pay me? And now the 49ers have the situation where they have to

carve that Purdy space out. There's no space right now for Purdy. They have to carve it out. And they've got veterans demanding money. So it's tricky. And again, I think they can unexplode the bomb for this year. It's a matter of next year, they're going to have to make the really hard choices. I will probably be gone. And is this a situation where these guys,

this is going to linger into, say, the preseason, and these guys aren't going to be the favorites that we project them to be. I would like now to read a Jim Harbaugh quote about the first day of training camp for the LA Chargers. And he said, I'm sure you've heard this already, Mike. It's like New Year's Day. It feels like being born. It feels like coming out of the womb.

You're in there. It's comfortable and safe. And now you're out. You're born. Lights are on. It's bright chaos. People looking at you. People talking at you.

And it just feels good to have it happen. My God, Jim Harbaugh. What about the job that he's got to do with the los angeles chargers beyond the regular weird stuff i'm 100 certain he remembers his own birth lights are on people are talking to you hey jim how are you doing right like my brother's there and he's like a toddler and he's looking at me uh you know i'm of two minds with Harbaugh. On the one hand, it's refreshing to have somebody who goes this big and has for decades gone this big in terms of how he talks about his love

for the game, which is 100% genuine, his love of football. There's no question about that. On the other hand, simmer down, simmer down now. It's July 25th. We don't need to go this route. Long term, I think players have always responded to him because, again, it's genuine. Long term, I think this is going to have guys excited to play there. It's going to get young guys to feel like they've got a shot there.

So I think Harbaugh is going to do a fine job. Short term, they don't got no guys. They've got Herbert. They've got the old guys on defense. They have Bosa and Mack who are older and injury prone. And they've got a they got the old guys on defense they have Bosa and Mack who are older and injury prone and they've got a lot of nothing there so this is a rebuilding team and I think one of the things Harbaugh is doing is he's kind of making himself the star a little bit so that there's not a lot of focus on the rookies there's not a lot of focus on what's going on the storyline there is that Harbaugh's there he's going to make everything okay and maybe ignore what's going on the field for a few months because it might not be that great. What did you think of his brother's defense

of Lamar Jackson, his quarterback, and said something along the lines of our vision together is to make Lamar Jackson the greatest quarterback of all time. And it was maybe another simmer down moment, but probably speaks to all the criticism that lamar jackson has received after yet another postseason failure yeah and an mvp award you know like he won right yeah there's like seven other people in history who've done that he did but he lost the preseason game and there is always this you know rear guard action of no matter what lamar does unless he wins a super bowl he's going to have those critics out there. And I'll give John Harbaugh all the credit.

He's standing for his player, and he's talking the way people in the NFL talk. You'll hear a backup linebacker, and he'll say, my goal is to be the greatest linebacker in history. And it's like, dude, you're third string. They have to think that way to be driven. I'll say this, you know, Harbaugh says that, and then the word out of camp the first day, Lamar Jackson halfway through it gets winded.

And that's the kind of go to the tent for a while. So there's like a little bit of a disconnect there. But, hey, if you say the right things and you envision the right things, they tend to manifest themselves. We're speaking to Mike Tanier from the 2 Deep Zone sub stack here on the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650. We were on with Nick Shook from NFL.com yesterday running around some of these quarterback stories in the NFL. And I am curious about Aaron Rodgers.

And I know there's been a lot of noise and an unexplained trip to Egypt that kind of interrupted the preseason. But I got to admit, I am really curious about not just the comeback but the fact that he had a two-year plan in New York which got sliced in half to one year and he's not committing beyond playing this year do you think there's enough between his natural ability and whatever is driving him right now and the very narrow window that they need to get something done in New York that this could be a very fruitful year for the Jets? Yeah, I guess the question is to find something. Like, I think he's a driven athlete.

I think he takes his work seriously, despite all the weird extracurricular stuff. When he gets in there, he wants to be a great quarterback, and he knows how to do that. And even if he's now 41, coming off an injury, I'm guessing there's some juice left. Juice that's going to make him better than Zach Wilson and Trevor Simeon and all those guys in there. And they've got a phenomenal defense as well.

They've got good playmakers. I still can't look at that and say, well, this Jets team is a Super Bowl favorite or a Super Bowl top contender. They're still behind the Bills in their own division. I think they're still behind the Chiefs in most of our minds, et cetera. So if you say, well, this team could win 11 games, win a playoff game, you know, and do all that, it's like, well, that would be a successful Jets season. Is that a successful Aaron Rodgers season? Does that make this whole trip worth it? That's another question that's going to be impossible to ask, but

for me, the first thing is I need to see him out on the field more. I'd like to see him in preseason games. I'd like to see some things from from camp just to see that he's moving around, that he's actually not out there like a statue right now and that he's able to complete these drills because I think that's the first step to answering these questions. Every offseason, you have that one team where you look and you're like, I don't know what you guys are doing and what direction you're going and what the plan is here.

And this year it's the Tennessee Titans. I have no idea what this team are doing and what direction you're going and what the plan is here. And this year it's the Tennessee Titans. I have no idea what this team is doing. And I noticed that Jamal Adams is not just still playing football, which I totally forgot about, but he's talking about his time in Seattle. Oh, yeah. What's he saying? Did he love it?

He did not. He also said that the Seahawks tried to make him change positions and turn him into a linebacker and that he fought back against that, which in hindsight being 2020, I'm like, Jamal, you should have taken that advice because it wasn't working for you in the secondary. But bigger picture here, Mike. They sign Jamal Adams and a bunch of other guys that were good about six years ago. What is this team doing?

I don't know. Okay. Yes, I did write about this this week. I do know what they're doing. On offense, they're trying to get Will Levis to develop. That's who they're, for now, provisionally is their quarterback of the future, their franchise quarterback. A lot of questions around him. He had like one or two good games as a rookie, and he got hurt a lot, and he took a lot of sacks. So what they're doing with guys like Calvin Ridley

and Tyler Boyd and DeAndre Hopkins, who was already there, and Tony Pollard is they're giving this young man the weapons so they can see if he can develop. If he can play with those weapons this year, maybe he's a quarterback of the future and develops. If he falters this year, you can't say, well, he had nobody to throw to. These guys are still pretty much okay. On defense, I don't know. And I guess what it boils down to is new administration in there

probably wants to show results. If they get all of these veterans who were good in 2019, can they get to nine wins? Can they get a wild card? I don't think that's a good strategy. I don't think that's a good thing for this team to do. They were in cap trouble. They loaded up their cap again. They didn't solve their cap problem.

They should have taken a rebuilding year. So I don't think it's going to happen for the Titans this year. But I do think they will at least get a read on Will Levis saying, smash or trash, do we have to go back to the drawing board or can we build around this young man? Joe Burrow, who obviously took training camps by storm by showing up with the Eminem-inspired haircut. So it's understood that this is like a pretty pivotal year for him. It's four NFL seasons in the books.

One of them, he got to the Super Bowl and looked like he was going to be a franchise-type guy, but the health issues that have plagued him throughout those four years, it's hard to ignore them. What's the outlook for Burrow and the Bengals? Are they going to be able to keep him upright this year? Is that partly on Joe Burrow to keep himself upright this year? I think it's partly on Joe Burrow.

Now, one of the illnesses was an appendectomy, and I don't think you can solve that problem in the weight room or whatever. You've got to fight through it, Mike. You've got to fight through those appendectomies. You've got to fight through the appendectomy. Folks, take care of your appendices. But the other one was like a training camp injury. So when you hit the training camp injuries as a quarterback

who's not getting touched, you can look at the guy a little bit and say, what was your training plan? What was your conditioning plan that you came in here and you had this? They can't do any more for him than they've already done on the offensive line. I think they spent $37 billion on their offensive line and the first round pick this year. That's all in place. Get him to September healthy, and we'll see where we're at. I'm optimistic.

When this young man is healthy and he's moving around the pocket, I think he's a phenomenal quarterback. I don't think there's any question of that. He still has Jamar Chase. I know that's a contract thing. He still has T. Higgins. I know that's a contract thing. He's got the weapons.

He's got the offensive line. I think there might be some people, I think, sleeping on the Cincinnati Bengals. It is the two-deep zone. Visit it at miketannier.substack.com. The walkthrough is back next week as well. Very excited for that, Mike. Thank you very much for doing this.

The preseason gets underway a week today, and soon we will be talking about the regular season, which we're all very excited for. Thanks again, Mike. You got it. Take care and enjoy the rest of your week. Yeah, you too. Thanks.

That's Mike Tannier from the two deep zone. miketannier.substack.com here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. We've talked a little. We've talked soccer with the drone scandal. We've talked some hockey with Stan Bowman going to the Oilers. We just talked a little NFL. Let's do some NBA here. What a diverse sports show, Jason.

The NBA announced a new TV deal, and it's an interesting one because of who it doesn't involve and also who it does involve. 11-year TV deals with ESPN, who they're already with. Yep. And newcomers NBC is back. Da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-naers nbc is back uh round ball rock is back they teased it yesterday amazon prime video involved with the nba now uh already involved with the nfl and the nhl yes and And TNT is out. Wow. But TNT thinks it should still be in. And this could lead to a big legal fight because of the terms of the right to match that TNT had.

TNT said it did match the offer that Amazon provided. And the NBA said, no, it didn't match the offer that Amazon provided. We're not going to get into all the details. This is a sports business dream story, though. You got billions of dollars at stake. All those agreements, 77 billion in total uh you got major corporations uh you know including amazon involved new technology streaming distribution platforms that's a big part of you know did tnt really match well amazon can provide all this other stuff um and you got some big media personalities involved too because this involves inside the nba which is largely considered one of the greatest studio shows ever which will be

going away if tnt is indeed not back with the nba yeah, and the TNT Inside the NBA show, for those that don't know, is the one featuring, of course, Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, Kenny the Jetsmith, Shaq, widely regarded as the gold standard, the platinum standard, if you will, of all studio shows. Not coincidentally, I don't think,

when TNT decided to make its foray into the National Hockey League, you saw some very Chuck and EJ and Kenny-esque overtones with what they were trying to do. They brought in Paul Bissonette. Yeah. They brought in Wayne Gretzky. They tried to make it a very friendly, jocular, like we're going to trade stories back and forth. I think they succeeded in some regards. They're not inside the NBA.

It takes a long time to get where inside the NBA is. I mean, it's just the reality of what the Inside the NBA show was. It was built over time. It had very strong personalities, but those personalities had to learn how to work with one another. And the egos that all these guys had, Ernie with his broadcasting excellence and the players with their playing excellence,

there's egos involved. You have to be able to defer and you have to be able to work off one another and understand when someone's putting something down in a conversation, you have to pick it up. I want to throw this out there for the listeners and for everyone in this studio as well. How important is a good studio show for a major sports league? Um, I think the keys to a good show are, first of all, be honest, be funny, show the viewers

that you enjoy each other's company, and that even though you will make fun of each other, that you respect each other, and that hopefully you're friends and that you care for each other. We don't follow any of these rules. Yeah, I know. As you're saying it, it just. As all the funny things that have happened on inside the NBA, like there have been some touching moments too.

Ernie Johnson lost a son and everyone rallied around him and talked about how important he was to the group. And it was, it was pretty emotional, but you know, if inside the NBA is no more, you know, I'm not even a huge NBA fan as most people know, but man, if I laughed at some of those moments I think my favorite moment was, correct me on what exactly happened with the police presence at the Clippers game. Was it, I think it might've involved Chris Paul.

It was a Clippers Rockets game, yeah. So Chris Paul led his teammates through a secret back door that connected the team locker rooms, and then they needed to have a police presence, and then here's what happened on Inside the NBA. They're laughing at the inside. They don't believe these two guys. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute. I know why you're laughing. I played in the NBA for 16 years, and I've been on TV for 18 years. It's the first time I've ever heard police presence. They got, wait. Wait. They got a police presence? Are you kidding me?

The best line was Shaq. He said, hello, police. Chris Paul tried to beat me up. Yeah. I don't know how that got cut out. That was incredible. You know, there's other ones. I mean, someone just texted in San Antonio women.

And I'm not going to recount that. Yeah. But it was very funny. And it might get people canceled these days. But like those guys, they took risks. And I think that's really important too because we do live in a media landscape where people are scared to have fun sure at times and maybe rightly so in some cases but uh those guys i think they're so popular that they know they can push the

boundaries a little bit yeah well i mean they thought that they they didn't think that they were like Teflon, but they definitely thought they were going to be around for the long haul. When this happened and this media rights battle and started ensuing, as the negotiations went on and it became pretty apparent that the NBA was going in a different direction, specifically with Amazon, you could see a lot of people saying, wow, this is going to be the end of inside the NBA. I mean, they talked about it openly on their show last year how important is that for the nba so that brings

us back to the question of like how important is a good studio show for a major league so here's the thing um the nba is in i don't want to say a crisis point but it's at a real moment in its history where the uh future is very uncertain in terms of popularity because but it's at a real moment in its history where the future is very uncertain in terms of popularity. But it's just locked up a pretty rich TV deal. But the numbers on the TV deal might not match the amount that these people are paying and these companies are paying for it. They're astronomical amounts of money. Really, you're never going to hit those numbers in terms of trying to get $77 billion back. But here's what you got to understand.

The Golden State Warriors era is over. The era which was largely defined by LeBron, KD, and Steph is on its way out. The playoffs last year were some of the least engaging basketball that the NBA has had on its biggest stage for a long time. It was awful. Apologies to Celtics fans. I'm sure you guys enjoyed it, but the rest of us did not.

The Boston Celtics going 16-2 en route to the NBA title was not because Boston was a very good team and very well balanced, but there was a large lack of competition throughout the playoffs, which a lot of people were raising their eyes at. Look, you can come out and say it. A lot of the MVPs right now are not American born and bred players like they were in the past. That just creates a different dynamic. It's not a good thing or a bad thing, but it's different.

Well, look at boxing. Heavyweight champion of the world makes a difference so what you're looking at is the one staple and the one thing that the nba has had over the last decade is this gold standard uh pre post intermission and you could count on chuck and shack and kenny and ej always being funny always being good and no other like ESPN tried to have a panel that never came remotely close. And I think the NBA took it for granted that they're like, well, our product will always shine above the people talking about it. But in this instance, they are entering a brave new world

because these guys aren't going to pack up and go somewhere else. That you can't recreate what they had on another platform with another producer. They just had it down to a science, and they knew exactly what they were going to do. So how important is it for a good studio show? We're going to find out with the NBA, I think. I think we're really going to find out.

And you can apply it to what team. I think it makes a major difference if you rise to the level of inside the NBA. You can have a good studio show and people are like, yeah, it's fine. And it's like kind of expected. And then a bad studio show is obviously a problem. But I don't know how many shows or how many studio shows rose to the level of inside the NBA. None. There was one. When like when i say like

gold platinum standard that's because everyone else is trying to get so so there and then i just think it's it's hard to do that because sometimes chemistry is just innate like you just feel it and you know it and that's it so a lot of people have been questioning the nba's decision on this. Why did you essentially go with Amazon over TNT? There's lots of reasons to go with Amazon. They're a massive company. You want to be partners with a company that can do the things that Amazon can do. But you can wonder about whether or not

they got a little bit greedy and maybe didn't appreciate inside the NBA and now for TNT. But also I wonder about who's in charge of TNT because if they lose the NBA, that's a massive loss for them. Yep. You know, like what is TNT without the NBA? They're going to lean heavy into the NHL. Like leaning real heavy into the NHL. What is on

TNT? I'm not sure off the top of my mind, actually. I don't know what they've got in terms of an entire catalog of sports. The NBA. No, no, I'm just talking about in general. It's not just sports, right? It's not just sports on TNT. I'm being told Snow Piercer is on TNT.

That's a good one. Animal Kingdom. Isn't TNT the same? It was like a super channel. AEW Wrestling is on tnt yeah that's a good one animal kingdom like isn't tnt the same story it was like a super channel aew wrestling is on right yeah a series of supermarkets no that's so you go from having this incredible property that you've developed over the years and i realized that you know at a certain point it doesn't make sense to keep throwing money at something but man whoever's in charge of... I mean, that's like being the mayor of a city that loses a professional team.

You're like, maybe it's not your fault, but at the same time, you're also the mayor of the city that lost the professional sports team. More to come on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Adnan Virk is going to join us next, followed by Bob Stauffer from Edmonton talking about Stan Bowman taking over as general manager

of the Edmonton Oilers. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.