Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Faizal Khamisa: Toronto Mike'd #226

Episode Date: March 24, 2017

Mike chats with Sportsnet's Faizal Khamisa about his battle with cancer, being Muslim, and his career in sports media.

Welcome to episode 226 of Toronto Mic'd, a weekly podcast about anything and everything. Proudly brought to you by Great Lakes Brewery, a local independent brewery producing fresh craft beer. And propertyinthesix.com, Toronto real estate done right. I'm Mike from torontomike.com and joining me this week is Sportsnet anchor Faisal Kamisa. Faisal. Faisal.

Yeah, we'll go with Faisal. Do you know, I haven't felt this embarrassed since Stephanie Smith came on and I think I referred to her as

Stephanie Smythe because of the E at the end. The E at the end, yeah, okay. I'm sorry. No, it's okay. Everyone does it.

Everyone does it once. Okay, so say the whole thing again for me. Faisal Kamisa. And I called you Faisal? Faisal. Oh, I'm sorry. That's it's okay. Everyone does it. Everyone does it once. Okay, so say the whole thing again for me. Faisal Kamisa. And I called you Fazzle? Fazzle.

Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. I hate it when people call me Mickle. You know, the name is Michael. I'm sure you get that a lot. Faisal. Faisal. Yes.

Okay. You got it. I'm sorry about that. No, that's okay. We only get better from here. Is this where I tell you, okay, we're starting it from scratch? Yeah, we could. We could.

No, because you know what? Then I would violate my own rules of real talk can't do that right off the top though real quick story we got lots of things to talk about fazel because that fazel guy he's not invited this is for fazel the uh when i was a kid you're still a kid but when I was a kid, I used to collect these cassette compilations of golden oldies, 1950s rock music like this. Yeah. At gas stations. Okay. So like volume one, I think they were called golden oldies or something. And they had like Chantilly Lace and they'd have like Jerry Lee Lewis on it or Little Richard or whatever.

But a staple was Chuck Berry's Go Johnny Go. That was like your staple of the 50s rock. I have no idea who that is. Chuck Berry might be the founder of rock and roll. Okay. He might be the guy. I can't believe you don't know who that is. I can't offer you a lot of validity on that.

I'm sorry. Carly Agro did not know who the Pogues were, and I was upset. I didn't let her know it, but I was quite devastated. Well, now you did. Now you let her know it. Is she listening? She might be.

She might be. Because since Carly was on this show, she got a co-hosting position on Primetime Sports. I saw that, yeah. Good for her. Be honest. Is that because of my audition? It's all because of you.

So that's why I'm here. I'm hoping to parlay this into something bigger and better. No, I'm kidding. My wife thought I was joking when I told her, well, maybe somebody there heard the Toronto Mic'd episode of Carly and heard that she was capable of this long-form conversation. So I had it built up in my head that it's actually plausible, possible that it helped her get the co-hosting.

Is that me being narcissistic? I wouldn't give all the credit to you, but I'd attribute some of it to you as well. She's obviously very good at what she does, and I think people know that, and thus when the opportunity comes rising, they come calling. So, I mean, yeah,

she doesn't have the opportunity to do the long-form stuff, given where she is. I don't deserve the credit. This is all Carly. But what it is, it did create a very timely, I want to do the long form stuff. I don't deserve the credit. This is all Carly. But what it is, it did create a very timely, I want to call it an audition tape. It was a capsule of what she would sound like

if she could do more than just do the sports highlights on a highlight reel show. Yeah, and she sounded great. I listened to a bit of it. I'm on vacation this week, quote unquote, staycation. So I've been trying to avoid sports as much as possible. That's hard because it's exciting right now. The Raptors are playing well. The Leafs are playing well.

I'll watch the games, but the build-up to them during the day, which is what I'm used to during my shift in my life, I've been trying to avoid that this week just to get away, but I caught a bit of the show and her and Ken were great. No surprise. So she didn't know the Pogues, and that's disappointing, but understandable. The Pogues

haven't had a hit since the 80s, okay? This is understandable. But Chuck Berry, founder of rock and roll, no hits at all for a long time. Don't get me wrong, but I'm disappointed you don't know Chuck Berry because he's the founder of rock and roll. I also don't know the Pogues. I have no idea who those people are. I'm forgiving that one. But Chuck Berry, anyway, he passed away and it was a big

deal for anyone who collected the golden oldies in the 50s music. It was a big freaking deal. And we're gonna, like you're a man familiar with hospitals. Yes. Very much so. Very much so. I have a brief story that will,

you'll shatter the perspective when we get, do a deep dive into your story. Except, so last Saturday, my daughter, we had a one year birthday party for my youngest. Happy birthday. Yes. Thank you. I'm sure she'll listen every week and get that note. Morgan Faisal says happy birthday. But okay. So my wife is hosting this. This is Saturday. Okay. But she does, she tells me she has a bit of a stomach ache.

And it's too bad. There's a bug going around and let me know, whatever. Sunday morning, she's like, can you drive me to the hospital? Okay. So I'm like, okay, of course. So I drop her off and then I got two young kids to take care of, whatever. Her appendix burst on the weekend. And she, yeah.

So they do a surgery to take out the appendix, but it's ruptured. So it's like they're treating the antibiotics. She was back in there yesterday with some kind of a blood clot that forms from surgery or something. But I'm just sharing this because this has been a... I've got to say, it's tough to have two young kids and to do it all on your own. Now, your story, when we get to it very soon, will shatter.

Everybody will be like, oh, poor Mike. He had a tough week taking care of his own kids because his wife was in the hospital. And then we'll shatter. Everybody will be like, oh, poor Mike. You know, he had a tough week taking care of his own kids because his wife was in the hospital. And then we'll get some perspective from you. But I just thought... There's no comparison. Like, it's not...

There's no comparison. Everyone's got things to deal with. That's okay. There's no comparison needed. I once complained I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet. No feet. There you go.

Yeah. Here's some perspective for all of you. You're practicing Muslim? Yes. The Quran, does it allow you to drink beer? Alcoholic beer? I mean, I think that's open to everyone's interpretation. I don't drink personally.

It's got nothing to do with my religion and everything to do with me being sick at 16 years old. You know, my friends drink. I have family members who drink. I have no judgment on anyone who does it. It's just something I've never got into. And I obviously, since having grown up a little more, felt no need to get into as well. I'm everyone's designated driver, which is convenient for them. Yes.

So they love inviting you to things. Yes. Yes. They love, quote unquote. But yeah. And you have somebody, because I have in front of you right now, there's a Great Lakes beer six pack. And you can use somebody you can give that to and share the love. Okay.

I'm sure someone will jump on that offer pretty quickly as well. So thank you. It's a good thing we're not live or you'd have people outside your door. Just hanging out waiting for you to bring home the six-pack. You got a six-pack of Great Lakes beer. So that's from Great Lakes Beer, longtime sponsor of this show. Great guys. Today, I just want to introduce to everybody a brand new sponsor of Toronto Mic'd.

His name is Brian Gerstein, and he's a real estate sales representative with PSR Brokerage. And he's a new sponsor. And if everyone listening, your only call to action in this introductory episode is to please visit propertyinthesix.com. You know, there's multiple ways to spell that. So he's got them all. Like you can do numeric six, you can spell six. You can do the thing where you put the numeric six and then IX. Okay. That's called making sure you get every domain possible. So everyone, and we're going to, in future episodes, there'll be some interesting Toronto real estate tidbits. But everybody's task today is to go to propertyinthesix.com. I've known Brian for a long time and he's a really good guy and easy to talk to, but he's

really experienced. So if you're trying to navigate like these rocky waters of Toronto real estate, and you need somebody who does their due diligence and is an expert negotiator and he markets the hell out of things, you've got to talk to Brian. Propertyinthe6.com Alright, Faisal, here we go. I'm going to open with your health. Is that okay? Yeah, of course.

Here's a quote. The pain in your chest is a tumor attached to your heart. Do you remember those words? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Tell me, set up this table. When did you hear those and how did you react when you heard that? Yeah. So we're obviously talking about my cancer diagnosis at the age of 16 years old. And I remember the day that was June 1st, 12 years ago now. So 2005. And I'd spent the night in the hospital in Mississauga, got transferred to SickKids in the morning. I was 16 years old. After getting a bunch of tests done, doctors came into this waiting room. My parents and I were there. And they revealed to me that I had been diagnosed

with cancer. And yeah, I was very obviously stunned, shocked, sad, angry, emotional, every superlative you can think of in regards to all those words. I was, and my family was as well. And it was just very eye-opening, very shocking, and a big punch to the face, to be very honest with you. Well, I'm trying to relate here. So you're only 16. You're a kid. That's why you had sick kids. Yes, exactly. Yeah. My son's 15 and a bit, and he still sees his pediatrician. And I always joke like, you know, how long can you do this? And the doctor's like, till he's 18. Till he's 18. And it was a good timing, I guess, because a couple of years later, I would have been, not to say the care anywhere else is bad, but Sick Kids, we know is one of the world-renowned

hospitals in the world. Princess Margaret. Yeah, which is where I'm at now, and they do a great job as well. All right. So is it non-Hodgkin's lymphoma? Yes, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. My lymph nodes were getting messed up. It was attributed to a tumor growing on top of my heart. That was about two and a half times the size of my heart. So when I had gotten tested, like building up to that diagnosis, all the doctors,

they thought it was just an enlarged heart, a very common issue. I played a lot of sports growing up, everything really. And I played at a very competitive level. And I almost every day of the week, I was doing something aside from just school. So I was very busy. I was very active, probably not sleeping as much or eating as well as I could for a teenager, probably not sleeping as much or eating as well as I could for a teenager like most teenagers to be honest with you and yeah, doctors didn't see it as anything more than just an enlarged heart and they thought simple medicine could fix that but yeah, no, it wasn't the case

What were the symptoms that caused the investigation? So I'm not sure how many of you guys are science majors but the heart is a very important and vital organ to your body. Very basic science. So with something pressing onto it, it affected literally everything. Like I felt like heaviness in my legs and my shoulders. I got lightheaded a lot and I would faint here and there and I wouldn't really know why.

Um, and, and I just felt tired all the time. I felt like I was not as fast of a skater as fast of a runner. And I didn't know why. And I just felt tired all the time. I felt like I was not as fast of a skater, as fast of a runner. And I didn't know why. Again, I was in fairly good shape. I'd been doing it for such a long time.

Like you'd get winded before? Oh, so easily. Like before I'd go play, I felt like I was getting winded or I'd take a hit in hockey and I would find myself like on the ice longer than, you know, I can take a hit, bounce back up and go. Not the case for a while in those buildup months. So it was very, again, it wasn't like me. I knew

something was wrong. I just didn't know what it was. And obviously when we found out, it made a lot of sense for why the symptoms were what they were. Now, okay. Well, now obviously you're here now. You look great, but it's been a, like it's, but when the hair looks great, I almost felt bad. Thank you. I got to put these headphones on i know i almost hesitated like because fun fact only one guest has refused the headphones oh damien cox do you know this damien guy i do know i mean he's got no hair though yeah yeah put on the headphones you have a good excuse like that's a great head of hair i i don't know maybe a little stuff in in my hair. Your hair's pretty nice too, man.

You got pretty good flow. But I've lost the pigmentation. Yeah. Mine's coming. The grays are coming, man. I can see them every day. I tweeze them out, which people advise you not to do, but I don't care. You know, I'm very, I'm a TV guy.

Like, there's some vanity about me, and, you know, I want that hair to be as black for as long as possible. This is like the Brandon Walsh thing. Do you know who Brandon Walsh is? I have no idea. Oh, shit. I said yes, but I have no idea. Man, I have a youngster in my room. I'm 28, man.

I'm 28 and like a young 28, you know? You don't know Brandon Walsh. Okay, well, for the older listeners, I got a few of them. He's got a Brandon Walsh thing going up there, which is very nice. But okay, I'm off topic here. So you're dealing with cancer.

Yes. So at 16, and you hear this news. Yeah. Like, what happens next? What do your parents do? Ironically, I think, am I going to lose my hair? Because even at 16, I rocked a pretty good head of hair. But aside from that, you know, my parents, they started crying.

You don't want to see something like that happen to your kids. You have kids, and the smallest thing, I imagine, gets you all riled up and panicked because you never know what the hell it could be, right? Yeah, true. So we know what this is. We know what's attributed with the word cancer, what's associated with the word cancer.

A lot of it has to do with death or struggling or this or that, and they're crying right away. And, you know, I didn't cry. I was upset and scared and angry, but I was kind of shocked more than anything, and I turned around and I saw them crying, and I was like, yo, that sucks.

That's a sucky image to see, you know? Trying to censor myself. That's a crappy image to see. You don't have to censor yourself. Yeah, your parents crying as a result of something that happened to you that's out of your control. Dad's crying too? Yeah, man.

Like this is, you know, again, like this is their kid that's going through this, you know? Yeah, there's three of us, but it doesn't matter. Like anything that happens, even to smaller degrees than that, you know, they'd get emotional because again, we're their kids. So you feel helpless, you feel hopeless,

and you feel like you need to do something to kind of change that. So I assured them right away that, you know, we'd be okay with no idea, of course, what that meant and how we would be okay. But I couldn't see them cry and I couldn't see them, you know, in that much pain. And I had to say something to try to change that mood. And from there, to be honest, they were very good. They were very positive. They responded to my positivity and made sure that nobody came in my hospital room or my house with a negative, sour attitude or this pity kind of, you know, people would all the time, family members, older ones especially. But as soon as they spent two minutes with me and my friends over there and my family, you wouldn't even notice. If you didn't know, you wouldn't know just based on being in that atmosphere and being in that room.

Now, part of my ignorance, I didn't get that science degree, but the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, so what's the outlook? Like, what does the doctor tell you the outlook is? You know what? It's a pretty treatable form of cancer. Is this the Mario Lemieux one? Yeah, that's the Mario Lemieux one. We need to rename it, like the Lou Gehrig's disease. Yeah, honestly.

It's a pretty treatable form of cancer, but the stage in which they caught it was pretty late for me. Again, it was a tumor that was pretty big. So big they couldn't operate on it because it was so close to the heart. In fact, on top of it, any surgery done would risk further complications

or things much worse than that. So it was just a heavy dose of chemotherapy for two years, starting literally the day I got diagnosed. And the day I got diagnosed, I wasn't able to leave the hospital for three weeks. I was there for three weeks, basically, in my grade 11 year. And yeah, they literally started chemo right away, which included a shot of medicine to my leg. And that hurt.

Yeah, it hurt a lot. Okay, yeah. hurt a lot. Okay. Yeah. Now there's, so I was, you know, reading an article about you and it discusses your, you know, basically that your, your, your positive thinking and your present perseverance throughout this, cause you have some side effects like beyond the cancer that you'd been dealing with, uh, double hip surgery and shoulder surgery. I had a double hip surgery a year in. So about a year in the diagnosis looked good. I think the tumor had fully subsided, but there was still a year of chemo that had to be done to make sure that your body was done. So things were so good through the first year that I finished my grade 12 year, despite getting chemo every couple of days or every day. I took all my work home, finished it at home, got accepted to Western in the pre-IV program, the business program there, which is what I wanted to do at that age. in the pre-IV program, the business program there, which is what I wanted to do at that age. And I was good. It was good. That summertime was coming up and we were a year in and we were feeling good. And then I randomly started feeling this pain in both my hips. And at first I

acknowledged that I may have jumped into the sports too quickly after being basically frail and losing all my muscle and strength. So I laid down a little bit on that and the pain kind of persisted in the hip. So I went in to get it checked and they said that I was literally getting no blood flow through my hips because of a tissue wall that had formed on top of the, I don't even know the scientific term, just literally on top of where your hip and your kind of femur connect and where that turn motion comes in. There was no passage for blood there. And that's attributed to the prednisone the steroid medicine that i got as well it was very necessary uh to cure the cancer but the dosage in which they gave was a

little much and it very rarely uh leads to those side effects but it did with me in both my hips so i had to drill a hole through both of my hips and scrape off a layer of it so that it would properly reform and that the blood could flow. It didn't work out very well. I had my hip replaced about two and a half years ago, my right hip, the left hip at some point as well, the shoulder at some point as well. But yeah, I mean, look, again, everyone's got things to deal with. I know some are bigger than others. But you've already put the burst appendix into perspective because I'm not going to bring it up anymore. I mean, you just, no, I'm kidding. Again, but that's exactly what I'm saying. Everyone has their hardships to deal with. The scale of it doesn't matter, you know, but

I think the one thing that I try to tell people is that no matter what you're going through, if you're positive about it, you can try to make some change. I mean, that doesn't guarantee that you're going to be healthy or things are going to be a hundred percent how they were because the day I got diagnosed was the day my whole entire life changed. I used to be on the ice five times a week, skating mornings and nights. I think I've been on the ice five times since that day. So things change in your life. Well, you got like your plastic hip. I saw it on The Simpsons when the guy needed a new hip and it broke. That was the Dean, right?

Yes, yes, yes. Not plastic, though. Titanium chrome, which makes for hell at airports. Oh, right. As if you needed more chrome at airports. Exactly, right? We'll get to that. Exactly.

But it's usually a fun story with the attendant. They're always like, oh, you're too young for that. I'm like, I know, but can you just scan me? Because I got a flight to get, you know? But yeah, the one thing I like to tell people is, you know, you stay positive, whether it's school, whether it's, you know, relationships, family, money, jobs, whatever. Keep your head up and believe in yourself and you can kind of get to where you want to go.

It might not be the clearest path to get there, but, you know, your outlook should be a lot better if you're smiling and staying happy. No, that's great advice. But I think it's as simple as you have two two options right you're faced with adversity right this happened to you probably some random dna cell cloning error or something this happens you know science only because i just read an article how random it all is which scares the shit out of me because i can eat the kale i cannot smoke and i can do all these things but i got like 66 percent of it is like a random rolling a dice i've never had a sip of alcohol these things but i got like 66 of it is like a random

rolling a dice i've never had to sip alcohol in my life i've never had a drug in my life and i got a tumor on top of my heart all right well life is unfair right but what are you gonna do right you're not gonna throw your middle fingers up and say f the world because it's not gonna get you anywhere you're so right man so you got two options right you can you can be positive and fight it and i'm gonna make it and whatever or you can be negative and fight it and I'm going to make it and whatever. Or you can be negative and like, oh, you got the two options. Why would you ever take the negative option when you can take the positive option? It's easy to take the negative one as well because it's so disheartening, right? I understand why people tend to seep into depression and fall into places that are darker than what they ever imagined.

Because, again, life is so unfair. And I know not everybody has the ability to, to see that glass half full perspective. And that's why I try to share my story in hopes of kind of giving that perspective to others as well. And, but I understand that, that not everyone's like that. And sometimes it's not as easy as choosing one or the other. Your body's just kind of ingrained to pick one. And I guess luckily mine, mine was leaning towards the positive one. And I think it stinks that major league baseball suspended you because of the steroid use. I know.

Again. That sucks too. Lost my shot, man. I lost my shot. I could have hit the... Bo Jackson came back, right? He came back with a hip replacement. He hit a home run in his first at bat.

And I was like, man, that is awesome. That is awesome. And I wrote about that leading up to my hip replacement on my website. And it was just so cool. But you had them both, right? You had them both? No, I had one replaced just the right one i had both operated on previously and then since then the right one

has been replaced the left will be replaced at some point bonus yeah bonus man all right bonus uh previous guest on this show is mr jim van horn my guy not his real name by the way i know that i know that uh jim's my guy man jim. Oh, what a fantastic chat that was. But he's, he actually, he was involved. I think he stepped aside for a little bit, but he was heavily involved in the School of Sports Media. The College of Sports Media. Yes. There you go. That's where I went. So tell me about this because I've had, I think there's been a few guests on this show who have some involvement in this. Maybe Don Landry? Wrong guy, right? Yeah, I'm not sure. I'm not sure.

He might have, actually. Yeah, I'm not sure. So, I guess, you know who it was? It was Chris Zeljkovic. Yeah, Zeljkovic. I think he teaches there now. I think he teaches there now. I meant Chris Zeljkovic, not Don Landry. Tell me about this school and what they do there and how that helps feed the

TSN and Sportsnet monsters. Oh, it's not just the two of them. I think it feeds a lot of networks throughout this country. But yeah, I mean, after I graduated from Western with a psychology degree and a business minor, I went to the College of Sports Media, a two-year sports media program, because I felt like I wanted to do something

that made me happy. Again, I spent all this time speaking to young people about trying to stay happy and going to believe in yourself. And I was doing these academic paths that didn't satisfy me in terms of happiness. So in my last year of Western, I started a sports blog, gained a small traction, got some, you know, quote unquote viral hits for whatever 2008 viral was, I guess,

or 2010 or 2011. I remember 2008 viral. Yeah, yeah, exactly, or 2011, I guess. It was StumbleUpon and Reddit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Remember Dig? Yes, I do. Either way, so that inspired some confidence in me,

and it pushed me to actually make a decision to want to try this. And I stumbled on the College of Sports Media through a blog, and I thought I'd go for a tour during my reading week in my final year of Western. And David Lannis, who's the man there, took me on this tour. And I see Jim Van Horn, who's this guy I grew up watching. I was like, this is pretty cool. I came in the next week for an audition and got in. And the rest is kind of history. But it's an unbelievable school. It's just such a great program. And I understand that it's expensive. I understand that the price tag may draw people away. But you got to understand, it's a two-year program. And I understand that it's expensive. I understand that the price tag may draw people away,

but you got to understand the two-year program and you're getting right into it. I understand Ryerson has a sports media program now. Sportsnet has a great affiliation with them. We spoke to their students about a month ago.

They're great, but it's still a university degree. You're not privy to taking the courses you want to take all the time throughout the four years that you're there. You have to take electives. You have to minor in this and this and that. You're literally right

into it at the College of Sports Media. Day one, we're in front of a camera reading something, trying to get a gauge for how we are. And it's very intimate. There's no more than 20 people per class. You do everything from television in front of the camera, behind the camera, radio in front, behind. You're learning how to produce direct, learning how to use the camera, learning how to edit. I wanted to be an editor before I wanted to be on air. It was so cool. I can't say enough about that place. That place changed my life. Jim Van Horn,

personally, just somebody I look up to. Talk about Jim because way before our time, not just your time, but my time too, he was a rock jock on 1050. Unbelievable. He's reinvented as the day one TSN guy. And then, of course, that mustache is legendary in its own self.

But Sportsnet. It's fake. No, I'm kidding. No, it's not. No, it's not. I tugged on it. Oh, really? Yeah.

But it is white now. I know. Jim's seen some things, you know. So tell me about just tell me a little bit about Jim, because he shared with us on Toronto Mike his battle with cancer. And how you can relate there. Yes. And I didn't know about that until I was a student at the school.

And he knew about my story. And, you know, we shared stories together about our quote unquote battles with it. And I think it allowed him to gain a respect. Not a gain of respect. I think he respected me solely on ability first, but as a person, we would have talks all the time about life. And I would go into his office at least once a week and to,

to talk about nothing regarding school and everything regarding life and how he's feeling, how I'm feeling, how what's going on in the world. And, um, you know, he's obviously much older than me,

like much, much, much older than me. Jim's old, man. Uh, but I consider him a friend. I consider him a good friend of mine. And I know, uh, I know he's left

the school right now because of, uh, whatever reason the school is going to be, you know, they're going to miss him. And, and I, I hate that people going forward at that school are not going to get the chance to learn from a guy like Jim, not just about the industry, but about life as well. And the discipline he instilled in you, the work ethic he pushed you to be, and the potential he saw in you. And if he saw it, the work he wanted you to put in, it changed my life, man. I can solely say that Jim Van Horn in that school, the reason why I get to do a podcast like this and why people care about some semblance of what I have to say is because of that man in that school. And I owe a lot to them and they know it. I go back every now and then to talk to them and I let them know that I appreciate everything they've done for me because again, I'm not

here without them. Can you cycle with that hip issue? Like are you allowed to bicycle? I can bike a little bit. They actually recommend biking over like running and stuff because of the impact, right? Right, low impact. But yeah, I bike a little bit. Just because Jim's a... Not to the extent that Jim Van Horn bikes.

That man goes kilometers at a time. And I mean double-digit kilometers into the half centuries because he can and he's just a gangster. Well, I would think positive in that Jim will be back at the College of Sports. I hope so. I hope so.

Because I'm so curious about this, that this exists. So it's downtown Toronto? Yes, it's on Jarvis and I guess close to King and Jarvis. Just this little pocketed school in the plaza. In two years, right? It's a two-year program. It's been there for a while now. In addition to Jim Van Horn and Chris Zeljkovic,

John Wells? John Wells taught there. Ray Williams is the radio guy there. Anthony Ciccione is a TV guy there. He hired guys like Tim McAllister, Cicero Cabby, Elliot Friedman. He's the guy that was at the score when the score was what it was way back in the

day. Headline Sports. Headline Sports, man. He does a lot there. I'm trying to think back to my day. Steve McAllister was a teacher. He used to be the managing editor at Yahoo Canada. Tony Ambrosio used to teach there. Elliot Friedman used to teach there. I mean, right now, Ivanka used to teach there prior to little baby Ivanka coming out.

Hugh Burrell teaches there. A couple editors from the SCORE and the Sportsnet side teach there. Again, it's people that are working there right now. It's hands-on, specialized sports media stuff. It's sports media. You're putting on shows. You said it was pricey, though. Can you give me an idea?

I mean, yeah. I think it's on the site, but it's something like $17,000 a year, maybe a little more than that as well. But if you think about it, you're paying for a four-year degree.'s something like $17,000 a year, maybe a little more than that as well. But if you think about it, you're paying for a four-year degree. You're paying $10,000 a year anyways. And it got you a gig. It got me a gig. It's got a lot of people a gig.

Sean McKenzie's from there. Danielle Michaud's from there. You know Sean's dad is coming in here next week? Yeah, that's crazy. Just cross-promotion. Yeah. I mean, look, for his son to go to a program like that, given who his dad is, it's something. And it says something about the school. Yeah, because his dad would vet it, you'd think. Yeah. I mean, look for, for his son to go to a program like that, you know, given who his dad is,

it's something and it says something. Yeah. Cause his dad would vet it. You'd think. Sure. That dad knows what he's doing. Uh, yeah. Um, and Sean's from there.

Sean's great. Um, he'll tell you too. He learned a lot from that program. Uh, there's, I can go on and on about names that have come from that school and I could really, really do that with editors and producers and directors. And, uh, there is a talented crop there. Israel Fair, one of the youngest ones there, just covered the Olympics for Yahoo at 22 years old.

That's crazy, man. Came from CSM, was my best friend there. I bet you he knows who Chuck Berry is. I don't know. He's younger than I am. Vancouver, I don't think he does. But yeah, I mean, I'm saying if you work hard, treat it like work,

which is what they try to instill in you as well. You can get something out of there. And people say, oh man, there was some luck involved. Sure, there was some luck involved with my job, I'm sure. But I'd like to think that I put in the work as well to get you where I am. Also, you had the hair. I had the hair.

The College of Sports Media didn't give you that hair. And I had the eyebrows too, man. They were much thicker than this before I got on television. In fact, the first day I worked at the score slash sports net, I did updates and the end of the day comes around and someone comes to me and I'm like, oh, cool. Someone's going to give me advice. They're like, hey, man,

can you get those eyebrows taken care of? And I was like, oh, man, I'm everything I hate. I'm everything I hate. And the next day I did it. You know what? I respect it. It opens your face up a lot more, as they say. And yeah, that's cool. I'll never forget the first day. Whatever works. So tell us how you parlay your, is it a degree we get from the college? It's a diploma. Yeah.

Diploma. So how do you get that diploma and how do you end up at Sportsnet? Good question. It's a very unusual path. And the one I recommend to people is if they want to be on air is to start somewhere small in Canada and build your way up. Well, I didn't do that. I literally started in Toronto and have been there ever since. And it was so weird, man. Like in the last couple of months leading up to our graduation or to our end of our tenure at the College of Sports Media, I was so nervous. And I kept going to Jim and Dave and Ray and I'd be like, man, I'm never going to find a job. I I kept going to gym and Dave and Ray and I'd be like, man, I'm never going to find a job. I'm never going to find a job. There's so many of us.

There's so many in last year's class. There's so little jobs. What the hell am I going to do? And they kept saying, man, you're going to be fine. Don't worry. And I was like, I don't know how you can assure me that I will be fine, but I won't worry for the next five minutes. And then I'll worry again. And lo and behold, like a few weeks later, I guess it was still March or maybe early April. And this school went to the end of May. So there was still, you know, a couple of months left, uh, get an email from Greg Sansoni, uh, who at that time, uh, was a GM at the score. And, uh, he asked me to come in to do an audition. I didn't know how they found me or this and that. And, and I go and do my thing. I assumed, you know, it was just other people there as well. And it would be great experience for me to do something like this and put it on my tape and get some good feedback

from guys that have done this for years and years and years. But I get there and it's only me. And I do this thing. I thought I did a really good job. A week later, he calls me and he said, hey, man, can you come in? I want to talk to you. And he didn't know this, but I interned there at the exact same time. So I was already in, like I was interning at the ticker, doing stats and stuff over there. So I was like, yeah, I can literally come in in seconds.

And he had no idea that I interned there, trying not to bring that up. But he's like, yeah, man, we want to hire you. And here's the plan, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So he gives me this plan. And he said, yeah, man, you shadow for a couple of weeks.

You'll see the live at the score stuff that they do. And maybe in a couple of weeks we'll get you on there and do some updates and stuff. I said, great. Uh, he calls me the next day or after a couple of days after I signed my paper, he's like,

yeah, so sports that just bought us, right? We need updates starting tomorrow. You're on. I was like, okay, here we go.

And, uh, couldn't get a fresh haircut for day one, you know, uh, blah, blah, blah.

I went with the wardrobe person to, to get some clothes and, you know, there you go. You're on TV and that's it. Like 30 second updates. And, uh, that's where it started,

man. It started, I guess, four years ago now, almost exactly four years ago now. And, uh, haven't looked back.

One of the Twitter questions for you from Mike Cohen, uh, is actually, ask Faisal tomorrow what it's like working with his former, the score colleague, Greg Sansoni. So tell us, can you tell us a little bit more about Greg?

Yeah. To be honest, like I didn't really have, I mean, I attribute again where I am is because Greg Sansoni hired me and I will never, ever forget that. But once Sportsnet bought

us out there's just a complete shift in positions and he's now the VP of programming at Sportsnet and figures out how many sports you get on your television every night and it's usually a lot because they do such a great job at scheduling that with the leagues and with their networks but he would

give me feedback all the time. He would always tell me this and that and how to get better and he was so open, so down, so cool. Uh, so nice. Uh, I was so intimidated because one, he was my boss too. I grew up watching him and it was so surreal for me to be part of that life. Uh, even though I really wasn't, you know, I was doing my thing, but I was by no means, you know, the same scale as them, but Greg, uh, Greg hired me, man, his email. I still have that saved. And, uh, I'll, I'll never'll never ever delete that the one to come in and come for an audition because i still don't get it doesn't make sense but you know here we are so i think is it jackie redmond there's a few people who are kind of like gobbled up in the score the acquisition of the score by

by rogers sports net uh sofia maybe sofia's there jackie's there yeah um that might be it they kept a lot of behind the scenes people because they were very smart and Sophia maybe? Sophia's there. Jackie's there. Yeah. Oh, that might be it. They kept a lot of behind the scenes people because they were very smart and very good at their jobs. But in terms of on air, Jackie, myself, Sophia, I think we're the last ones remaining.

And I apologize if there's somebody else. I can't remember off the top of my head. So when big monster company like Rogers gobbles up the score there, King and Peter Street, right? I still see it. Because my wife used to work there. I used to see it all the time.

Blue Jays Way, is it? Right there. Yeah. So what is that like? What opportunities are suddenly available because you're part of the big mothership there? Yeah. I mean, for me, it was similar things

because the score stayed around for a long time. And even when it transitioned to SportsNet 360, they still had a requirement to do updates during the day. So that's what I did for a very long time. I knew the door was open then to do things like SportsNet Connected at the time, which is now central. And, you know, they have a bevy of properties, man. And I knew that if I worked hard, I'd be able to get up to one of those levels. But for the first two and a half years, it was all updates all the time and really no other opportunities.

Not because anybody was trying to neglect me from them. It's simply because, one, they had a good amount of talent already doing that. And two, I don't think I was ready to do something like that at that time. Again, I got from school to national television. It's not the most orthodox path in the whole world. The Carly Agro recommendation,

which is to get to the small town. Yeah, and that's still my recommendation because, again, my path is not sustainable. It's not the most realistic and one that you should aim for. But, you know, I kept doing my thing and it was frustrating, sure, because, you know, you get a taste of it

and you want to do more and you want to do more. But, you know, you hit yourself with a reality check as well and understand that you got to get better and you got to get better. And the updates gave me a great opportunity in which to do so. And, you know, while it was frustrating at the time,

I look back and I appreciate the, I guess the, I don't know what the word is, but I appreciate having to do them for so long because it made me better for sure. Yeah, cool. Absolutely. And you've got an interesting relationship with Tim and Sid. Tell me about that.

They're the worst. No. I love those guys, and much like Rex and Sony, those are two guys I grew up idolizing, not just like, idolizing. They did sports the way I wanted to talk about sports, and even before I knew I wanted to talk about sports for a living, I enjoyed what they put on television. I think we take sports too seriously sometimes.

They don't. They have fun with it. At least they did when they were on The Score tonight and they certainly do now with their show. But again, they take it seriously as well

when it's required and they're two of the best at that as well. But there are mentors to me currently, idols to me growing up, and now co-hosts to me when I get to do their show.

And I started, you know, we started doing updates in their show when their show came on the air a year and almost two years ago now. Um, and again, it was a live update into their show. So I thought I'd have some fun with them. And I, we didn't really have a working relationship then because again, such different, you know, forms of expression that we were underneath, but I thought I'd have some fun with them and with these updates. And I always like get a

chirp in on one of them, you know, on the way out of my update and they'd chirp back and the next update I'd chirp them again and we'd have this going back and forth thing and eventually they understood that, well not them, like the team around them understood that, hey maybe I can kick it and when an opportunity came to co-host their show they asked and

they were very happy with what they saw and I've been able to do it a few times since then so they're two guys, every day I'm there, I joke around with them about something, or I'll go up there and I'll make fun of them, or they'll make fun of me, and they usually make fun of me. They're better at that than I am. But you have good chemistry. I think we have good chemistry, yes.

Again, they're very smart people. They're very adaptable to my personality as well, and I think I adapted them as well. I think I can bring a different level of fun and perspective to the show as well. And they don't mispronounce your name. Faisal, they getounce your name. They always, Faisal,

they get it every time. They get it every time. Fasal, as Tim sometimes say, but like for fun, but yeah, he's a, they're my guys,

man. I'll, uh, I love them and they're, they're so good at what they do and they're so good to me as well. And, uh, their confidence in me has given me a boost in myself as well.

Cool, man. And if you, uh, next time you talk to Tim and Sid, uh, off air, tell them they should come and do Toronto Mike. I've tried to reach out a few times, as well. Cool, man. And if you, next time you talk to Tim and Sid off air, tell them they should come and do Toronto Mike.

I've tried to reach out a few times. Radio silence. Yeah. Come on, two seats here, two microphones. They got families too, man. They got, I know they're busy.

So we'll see what they say. We all got families. We'll see what they say, yeah. I'm going to change the channel for a little bit and then we'll come back to this fun sports media stuff. But at the top of the show,

I asked you about the beer because I was sincerely curious because I know a lot of people who practice practicing Muslims. The Koran, I believe the Koran forbids alcohol consumption. Yeah, I think it does, too. And I'm not going to pretend I've read the entire Koran or understand it to its full degree. But I know that alcohol is not looked upon too greatly.

But again, that's not to say people I know that are Muslim don't drink. Again, I have family members who do. We all know a Jew who eats bacon, right? Sure, yeah. And you know, this episode 226, with a guest anyways, my buddy Elvis, sometimes we talk religion or whatever.

But when I have a guest on, I don't believe I've ever talked religion on this show. Like, I don't believe so. So there's a reason for this. There's a context I'm presenting here. So you're Muslim. Yes. And one story I want to start with is in Quebec City.

So this 27-year-old student at Laval University, Alexander Bissonnette or something, I think, he shot six people as they prayed in a mosque. This is fairly recently. Where were you at the time of this terrorist attack? Right down the street. Right down the street. We were at the hotel.

We were there to cover the CHL-NHL Sherman Williams top prospects game, the Canadian Hockey League showcase game, top prospects being drafted into the NHL. Nolan Patrick, he's probably going to go first. Nico Hussier, he's probably going to go second. The two guys on opposing teams. I had a great opportunity to work at the CHL properties this year as well,

filling in for Rob Falls whenever he does curling. And it's a great property. The kids are great. The dynamic there is great. RJ and Sam, the two guys who call the games, are so, so knowledgeable in the CHL and been such great help to me in doing that. It was so fun. So when I got a call to do this game,

I was like, yo, this is a much bigger scale than this. There's like a full crew there. You know, Jeff Merrick's there like big time directors, big time producers, a big time talent,

Todd Warner, Colby Armstrong. They're breaking everything down. Jeff Merrick sitting down with every kid. And I get to be in on those. And I was really looking forward to my role there. And then this thing happened the night before the game, right down the street,

right. As we wrapped up our production meeting at the hotel, right again, a kilometer and a half down the street from where the shooting happened. And it shocked me, man. It put me in a weird, weird state, man. Because again, I'm Muslim. I look around, there aren't many others with me, if any. And I'm stunned. I just don't know what to say. And I go to my room and I close my blinds. I close my windows because, you know, there's reports that the shooter is still on the loose. And, you know, maybe he makes his way to this hotel,

which is, again, not very far. Right. Maybe he sees that I'm of a different skin color as well. And who the hell knows what happens from there. So that was my thought. And not like blinds or windows are going to stop you from spray bullets, but like, I don't know,

it was my sense of protection. And I think that's understandable. Yeah. Yeah. That's off of all the plays, you know, you're a Toronto guy and of all, you know, you're 1.5 kilometers from this attack.

Yeah, but I think there's a reason, you know, I think, good. Like, again, I try to put a perspective on everything and I couldn't for a couple of days after coming back. And again, full disclosure, I didn't work the game the next day. I left in the morning and I couldn't be there. I didn't feel like I had it in, when I've opened up about this, because I felt like, you know, for me, it felt a little different. And I thought about, Hey, can I rise above this? And it just didn't feel authentic. It didn't feel like it was me. And I try to be me every time I'm on television or talking or whatever. Uh, I couldn't do it. And I was scared and I was afraid my family was afraid. I had a conversation with my mom that I tweeted about that, that kind of took off and I needed to come home. And I appreciate

Sportsnet working their tails off to get me back that day so that I didn't have to work the game. And I saw how Jeff Merrick opened the show. It was beautiful, a loving tribute to the victims of this terrorist attack, which we can say. And yeah, I think we handled it very well considering the fact that the CHL decided to play the game. And again, I think I was meant to be there because I think it allowed me to put a voice to this situation. There's a very small portion of the Venn diagram of sports and this attack that crossed over.

And I think I was the only one within both of those platforms that had a viewpoint on both sides. And for the first couple of days I came back, I didn't do anything. I just sat at my house, my condo downtown. I didn't want to see anybody or talk about it. I tried to talk about it. I couldn't really do it. And then Tim and Sid reached out and offered a platform for which to speak.

Had a conversation about them, about how we were going to go about doing it. And I felt like I needed to get out of my funk and share this. And if I'm not there, I'm not able to lend a perspective to what's going on in the world from a perspective of a guy that's Muslim and working in sports right now as well. So I feel like I was meant to be there. And I think the 10-minute conversation we had on Tim and Sid was some of the best television I feel like I've been part of. And that's not a brag on myself.

It was some of the more articulate and coherent like I've been part of. And that's not a brag on myself. It was some of the more articulate and coherent words I've ever put on television. And I don't know how I did it, but they did a great job of driving the conversation and allowing me to just share my perspective and share some lessons as well. And you mentioned your tweets, but your tweets at this time were chilling. I remember sharing a few. One of them, for two days, I've been, this is your words, for two days I've been crying over the events in the U.S. while grateful that I'm in Canada.

Now I'm crying again. Is that part of it that this, I'm going to say it, so Donald Trump signs an executive order, we'll call it the travel ban, right? And it, to me, it reeked of Islamophobia. The whole practice. You're talking, by the way, and me, it's, it reeked of Islamophobia, the, the whole practice. It's to me,

and you're talking, by the way, and we don't talk about religion in the show primarily because I don't believe in any religion, like, any of it, but I respect those who do, and I don't want to belittle, you know, so that's why the topic never comes up for mainly that reason. Gino Reda, one, mentioned he was a Christian. He said, I'm a Christian. That was his words. And I just went on to the next topic. Good for you. So in this climate, and I can't imagine, you're looking at a white guy. I can't imagine what it's like to feel that kind of hatred, and the term, I suppose, a proper term is Islamophobia. So in that environment that existed at the time, this shooting,

which is a white guy shooting people because of their religion as they prayed in a mosque, is it the cumulative effect that sort of caused you to have your reflection here? Is that it's just overwhelming

that there are so many people who want me dead because of my faith. Yeah. So I think all of that was a part of it. And again, leading up to that day in Quebec City, I was in Owen Sound the weekend before doing an Owen Sound London Nights OHL game. And again, that's when all the executive order stuff kind of went down. We saw the protests. We saw the hatred.

We saw the wording that were used, like it was very, like you said, it was a Muslim ban. It was exactly what it was. It was exactly that. And it's so frustrating because again, I have family members that are in the States that are not born there, but you know, have made their life there. And I wondered if they were going to be safe, if they're going to be okay. And again, that whole time I was like, man, in Canada, like we're so lucky to have such a diverse mosaic of people that are so accepted. And so this, and so that, and again, that's probably a little ignorant because again, things happen all the time, but not nearly as, as much of a scale as, as what we see,

you know, down South in the States. So this thing happens in Quebec city and I'm just like, man, we're not better than this right now. We're not better than this right now, you know? And I said on Tim and Sid, like, you know, for a long time, we've understood that we should accept and tolerate everybody. Acceptance, tolerance, that's just not enough anymore. We're living in such dire times. You have to learn about people. You have to get to know people. And people see me on TV, man.

I'm a guy that talks about sports when I do my job. You know, you can't associate me being Muslim or being a cancer survivor. No, by no means am I doing that. Like my job is my job and I'm good at my job and that's why I'm there. It's got nothing to do with anything else. And there's no other way that you should associate me when I do my job because I'm, I'm just doing my thing. But you know, as a Muslim now, I think it's important to, to, to lend a perspective to these things. And Richard Deitch wrote a SI Roundtable interviewing seven of us Muslim sports media members as well. And I shared those thoughts as well that I think you have to be a little more aware of how you're portraying yourself and how you're tweeting and this and that because people just love to hate. And it's annoying and it's frustrating.

And it just makes me fear that we're not progressing as a society. And I'm not going to speak anything. It's got nothing to do with what's going on in the States or with Donald. I'm not going to say anything in regards to that. I just think as humans, we just have to be better. Always, always strive to be better. And a lot of what's gone down in the last few months has not been better. And it's not okay.

and down in the last few months has not been better. And it's not okay. Now, the shooter in that terrorist attack, the 27-year-old student at Laval University, he was, the media said he was a Donald Trump supporter. Like, he was a vocal supporter of Donald Trump. I just wonder, how does it feel when, like, Donald Trump, who tweets about every, he invents some often, actually, he'll invent them

too, but he'll tweet about any terrorist attack where the terrorist is a Muslim, but he did not refer at all to this terrorist attack, because it didn't suit his narrative, it didn't, like, how does it feel, though, that glaring omission, that the guy will tweet about, you know, Arnold Schwarzenegger on The Apprentice, but he does not tweet about this six men dead praying in a mosque by a white guy yeah i don't really have a thought on that to be honest with you i think again his tweets do not qualify or quantify what happened uh just because he doesn't tweet about it doesn't take away from what the hell actually happened. So I could care,

I couldn't care less whether or not he tweeted about it or not. It doesn't change what's happened and what hatred is going on right now. I'm going to ask you about your radio station. So you work on the sports net, which television. Yes. Probably because of the hair is my guess. I'd say that was the first time.

In front of the camera. Do you have any interest in radio? Yeah, I would love to do radio. I think it's a different and fun medium. I think you can have a lot of fun with it, and it leads to a lot of perspective, a lot of interesting topics, and it gives you a platform

in which to express a lot more than you get to do on TV sometimes. Again, you go on Tim & Sid, you get to do a little bit more. But when you're doing one-minute updates, five-minute updates, you're just doing your thing, which is fine. I love those. I think there's a challenge in everything that I do,

and there's a different element that you need to bring to all of them. But radio's been fun. I've done a couple segments with Jeff Blair here and there, and they've been great. And it's just like this. You're just having a conversation about sports and things you know and about life, and yeah, it's just like this. You're just having a conversation about sports and things you know and about life and yeah, it's cool. So your superiors are aware

that you would be open to some radio work as well. I mean, I don't know. Again, I don't know if that's very fair to say because again, I got hired to do television and I'm very, very happy with that. Okay, here's where I'm going with this. And I've never really crossed that barrier with them. I'm curious about this

and I asked this question on my blog, Toronto Mike, earlier this week. The fan 590 just shuffled the deck a bit. They added a new morning show with Greg Brady. They gave a co-host to Andrew Walker, Ben Ennis, and to promote this new roster, they have

a picture where Bob McCowan's in the middle, like the godfather, and then all the other hosts are kind of around the table, and it shows all the hosts that you can hear on the fan from like morning till Bobcat. They're all white men. This is just a fact. They're all white men. And I asked, and I don't know the answer, like I'm not

here claiming anything except it's curious that in a city as diverse as Toronto that every single there's nine of them, so all nine people on the Fan 590 talk shows throughout the day, the hosts, they're all white males's nine of them. So all nine people on the Fan 590 talk shows throughout the day, the hosts, they're all white males, all of them. And I just wondered whether they should,

maybe they should groom some non-white males, you know? And I'm just curious for your thought. I know you work for the company. Yeah, so again, I'm not going to delve too much into that again because, you know, I like my job. And I really, like, again, I haven't thought too much about it. Again, I have no real comment about that. I think all those nine people are really good at what they do.

And first and foremost, you know, that should be attributed. But whether or not it matters or not, I don't know. I think, you know, would I love to see more color on our television? Sure, of course I would, in any capacity and everywhere. But television you see, like I can see that. And I see color on television,

to be too honest. I see it. I see you over there. I see color. But radio where you don't see the faces, doesn't matter. Like should it have some reflection of the audience it serves?

I don't know. I think the demographic is still a majority. I think it's still a Caucasian majority, and I don't know if that has anything to do with the host or not. I don't think that's fully related. I think, again, and I think I'll leave it at this, I think the people that are there

are just very good at their jobs, and color or not, female, male or not, it starts with that, and I think right now it ends with that, at least with what I'm going to say about it. I so respect this because you love your job. Why would you want to say something that upsets your employers?

It's not even that. I don't think I have enough of a thought to even delve into that because I just do my thing and it doesn't bother me to the degree because I have my job and I'm going to do my job. I get where people's perspectives come from and I get where people and I'm going to do my job. And, uh, you know, I, I get, I get where people's perspectives come from and I get where people's upsetness comes from. I do, but, uh, there isn't much I'm going to be able to say about that.

Fair enough. Fair enough. So I'll just say that I, at the beginning, I wasn't sure it mattered. And at the beginning, when I asked the question on the blog and I got a lot of comments, which I kind of took all took very seriously. So for a long time, I wasn't sure, like, I don't think, I don't think it's racist hiring practices. Maybe there's not a lot of people, uh, who are not white males. Uh, maybe there's not a lot of those people coming out of the schools and trying to get these kinds of jobs. I was thinking, and I, on TV, I see a lot of women, a lot have been here. I see people who are not white guys. Uh, maybe this doesn't matter, but my buddy Elvis, uh, who I mentioned earlier, who's a good close friend, and he works in this

HR universe of hiring and stuff. He told me, basically, that it's wrong, and the sooner Rogers sees it's wrong, the sooner they can fix it, because this should be fixed. It is wrong that they have all the spots are white men. Elvis is looking at nine positions on air, though.

He's not seeing behind the scenes. We're just talking about the nine positions on air. Sure. But that doesn't make up a network, right? There's a lot of other moving parts and you know, you can look at on air and it's simple to say, Hey, there's nine white people there. But behind the scenes, there's a lot more people that make up the makeups of the job, which, uh, which are very diverse as well. And next time I have Elvis on, uh, I'll get him to speak for himself. So I don't put any. Yeah, sure. No, I'm not, I'm not diminishing Elvis. That's not what I'm saying at all. I'm just saying, you know, the job isn't necessarily who's in front of the camera,

who's in front of the mic, or rather behind the mic. It's a lot of other people that go into making a network what they are. And Rogers is pretty diverse in that sense. Cool. Back to the television side where you are. And I asked this question of Carly, and I'm curious your answer as well. Who at Sportsnet, there's a lot of young up and comers in the,

at Sportsnet. Who are the rising stars? It's a very good question. That's a very good question. And I think, and you can say yourself, okay, well cut that out.

Let me think again. I mean, Kyle Bukowskis, I think everybody, everybody that sees him knows that he's very good. He's very young, but you can't tell at all based on what he does. He's just very good at his job. I mean, we have a bevy of under 30s there, like Sean McKenzie, Carolyn, Jackie,

Danielle Michaud, who some of you might not know, who's been hosting Central on the weekends every now and then. We know her from City TV. Yeah, you know her from City. She's coming up, and she's fantastic. All of those people are great. Brendan Dunlap's on, like he's 30. Eric Thomas, like it's

we're pretty young. We're pretty young on television. It's pretty cool to see because I think, again, sports should be fun. I'm not being ageist in any way. I think the perspective that a young person can bring is very much fitting the medium of where we are in the world right now.

Like we're a very Twitter-based, reactive society, very meme-based, gif-based, jif-based, whatever you want to call it. Both are acceptable. Yeah, sure.

So I said both just to be safe. Just like Faisal and Faisal. They're both acceptable. Almost different. It's just Faisal. I think, yeah, again, it's cool to work with a bunch of young people

because when you're hosting a show with them, you get a lot of cool perspective and a lot of fun with that as well. And again, like when I get to go on Tim and Sid as a 28-year-old, I can bring a different perspective than 40-year-old Tim or Sid. That's not to say their perspective is wrong, but we just look at it from a different angle now because of the way the world is. And I think we have a lot of rising stars and there's a reason why they hired them so young. And one, they're good. Two, I think they can be around for a very long time

and really build upon the reputation of the network. So everybody, I mean, I'm not, I missed some names. I'm sure of that. But everybody that I mentioned, everyone that I work with, I have a grand time with. Cool. And you mentioned at the College of Sports Media that Jim Van Horn was a mentor.

Who are your mentors at Sportsnet? Because your mentors typically are older, I think, typically, because then they're like an apprentice. I mean, yes and no, but I think there are people that have just been there longer than me as well. Like, again, Tim and Sid,

I think, first and foremost, they're the two guys I look up to them a lot, man. They're so good at what they do, and they've done it to the extent their own way, being themselves. And I really, really appreciate that. It allows me to feel comfortable being myself as well. Not necessarily, I mean, it doesn't work for sports,

but Nabil Karim, he works at TSN. I know him very well. He helped me a lot when I was in school and growing up. Not growing up, but grooming myself in this industry as well. He helped me a lot when I was in school and growing up. Not growing up, but grooming myself in this industry as well. So I look up to him a lot. He's very good at what he does as well. And he gets to rock a beard, which I'm pretty jealous of. I'm on vacation this week, which is why the facial hair is at a strong point right now, but I'll shave on Sunday before I go to work. But I looked up to him too, man. He gave me a perspective that I was very cool and very

eye-opening when I started as well. And ever since then too, I've been able to bounce, you know, my thoughts and stuff off him as well. I know he doesn't work with us, but... Well, that's okay. Because before we started recording, I think I made a joke.

I referenced somebody who works for TSN and I made a joke. Like Bob McKenzie coming next week. Yeah. And I just mentioned, oh, but he's on the other team, I think. And you mentioned that. So that's what I'm curious about.

Is there any sentiment that, you know that it's Rogers versus TSN, Sportsnet versus TSN? So of course there is, right? Because in a very basic premise, you want to be better than the competition. Sportsnet and TSN are very much... Yes, absolutely, of course. On a very basic level,

your first thought process in anything is be better than the competition. You're doing want to win right sure but i have a lot of colleagues not colleagues friends that i that are there uh working behind the scenes in front of the camera that i respect and bounce stuff off all the time likewise with me they'll come and there's just a mutual respect at least with me there's a mutual respect with everybody everywhere i go and i see a tsn uh person you, it's a good conversation. They know who I am. I know who they are. We respect things about them that don't have

anything to do with television. Respect them as people more than anything. I was just in Newfoundland to cover the Briar and of course Brian Mudrick was there hosting and I'd never met him before but I know he too has a history with cancer. He's been doing that for a very long time. The curling stuff and we talked, long time, the curling stuff.

And we stalked, we chilled, we hung out. It was pretty cool. And I don't think about that stuff when I go there, but when I'm doing my television stuff, my thought is, let's do something different. Let's do something the competition would have, whether it's TSN or CBC, anybody, whatever, right? You just want to put out the best work possible.

So that sense of competition fuels you, but I don't have to think about that stuff as much. That's where people are much higher up than me to deal with. Right. You got to think about like your wardrobe, right? Yes, I do. So you're a sharp dress man. Thank you. ZZ Top song, by the way.

They got great beards. Well, two of them do. Yeah, cool. No, seriously. I'm trying to, hold on. I know you say that. So when I say ZZ Top, you really don't know who that is. I'm trying to, hold on. I know you say that. So when I say ZZ Top, you really don't know who that is.

I've heard the name. Okay. But I couldn't put any face to it at all. See, now the seat's getting hot because now I'm going to drill you in. ZZ Top, sharp-dressed man. So you're a co-founder of like a men's accessory line? Yes, a friend and I.

Tell me about this. Yeah, so when I had my hip replacement about two and a half years ago, I needed something to do. And, you know, sure, you can read and pretend to practice your job while you're sitting at home doing rehab. But, like, I needed something different to do to get my mind off not being at work and this and that. So fashion has always been a big part of who I am in terms of my expression. I try to wear things that are a little different and out there and whatever. So a friend and I decided that we were going

to start a men's fashion line with ties and pocket squares and tie bars and socks, especially socks. I have 200 pairs of colored socks at home and I could go almost a whole year without having worn another one. Today, I'm not wearing them at all. I'm wearing basic little ones because it's nice outside. But there's a splash of color. There's a splash of color.

These are the Yeezy socks. Anyways, so my friend and I, it took a year actually. I had gone back to work for about seven months before we actually launched this company and we put our work together.

We put our heads together and we just did it. We launched in December two years ago. That's it. We lasted about a year and then I stopped a little bit earlier

just because, you know, I'd gotten a lot more responsibility at work. It was fun to do. He ventured out into another self-started business, which I support fully. And we just decided it was cool for a bit. And that guy's name was Harry Rosen. That guy's name was Harry Rosen, yes.

I should have kept my stock. No, I mean, he's still one of my best friends right now. He's texting me literally right now. But yeah, it was cool. He just wants the beer. He just wants the beer. No, he doesn't drink either. Uh, he, he, him and I have a great rapport as a great company. It was cool to start and be part of something. And we see people wearing our stuff all the time. Some people on television from both networks and many networks, in fact, you know, purchase the stuff and I always get screenshots of people that, that see our, our stuff there. And it was pretty cool to be part of that.

But again, it's important to be diverse. I think I'm not just a sports person by any means. I'm a thousand different things. Sports being a small, small faction of that as well. And fashion was one of them. So I thought, hey, why not? Why not? Why not?

Why not? And Gabe on Twitter, ask Faisal what working at the YMCA was like. I'm pretty sure he ran the sports there when I was a kid. Yes. So my first job was a recreational programmer at the Mississauga YMCA. And I literally got to play sports with the kids that were coming in for drop-in or whatever. And it was so cool because I was still, when I was healthy and I was able to play sports,

I would dust them all in every single game that we'd play. And I didn't care. Well, maybe when they beat you, that's when you realize something's wrong with my body. I need to invest in it. Even at half speed, I beat them. No, I'm kidding. No, it was really cool, man. I got to just play sports.

It was a cool job for a 16-year-old to have. And I got paid, whatever I did, whatever. And it was cool to just earn a living doing something really cool. And I think that's the first time I realized that, hey, working can be kind of fun, I guess. And I guess that mindset pushed me to change careers when I was in university as well. So that was a really cool job. Shout out, Gabe,

for remembering that. And if you enjoy your job, you'll never work a day in your life. That's what they say. Write that down. Yeah, that's what they say. If you love what you do, it'll never feel like work or something like that. That's even better. All right. I don't even know what this tweet means. I hope this is not offensive. I'm going to read it. I'm going to do this so they can have their language to me. Let's go. Is he copying the Haven Ultra Boosts? Is he copying? No, I'm not copying the Haven Ultra Boosts.

That's a shoe that's coming out. I think most people know I'm a big sneaker guy right now as well. I have like 50 pairs of sneakers in my condo. What? I try to get, you know, whatever, all the new releases and the rare ones or whatever, but I'm not copying. I decided I would stop buying for a while right now. Mind you, I bought a pair yesterday,

but as of yesterday, I'm going to stop buying for a while, so I'm going to lay off those ones. That was Abu Bakr, by the way. Yeah, so you can go get them, Abu Bakr. You can go try to get them yourself. I will not be trying to get them. So wait, wait.

I only own one pair of running shoes, okay? So bear with me. So Haven Ultra Boosts, is that Nike, Adidas? No, it's Ad. So, Haven Ultra Boosts, is that, is that, like, is that, you know, Nike, Adidas? No, it's Adidas collaboration with Haven Shop, which is a sneaker boutique, or I guess a clothing and fashion boutique. So, they collab all the time, which Adidas, well, Adidas collabs all the time with different boutiques and tries to put out a shoe unique to them. So, you're like a sneaker head. I once interviewed a sneaker head for the blog because I'm so

fascinated by this world. I can't remember, Ryan something. Okay. But, you know, he was like you. He's had 200 pairs of shoes. And guys like me have trouble computing. I can't imagine having five pairs. One for every pair of socks I have, I guess. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I mean, I'm a big sneaker guy. I think it's a big part of the culture and expressing yourself as well. I think you can tell a lot about a person from what they wear on their feet. And it is a cool little hobby. Again, like, I don't know. I don't know. It just... I don't know where it came from. I think it started, you know, less... It started less than a year ago. And since then, I've... God,

the amount of money I've spent on shoes has been ridiculous. We don't need to divulge that number. These Haven Ultra Boosts, if I were to buy a pair of Haven Ultra Boosts, what kind of cabbage am I having? Yeah, that's probably like $300. Really? Yeah. That's probably on the high end, though. That's not how much I'm saving. I actually kind of cabbage am I having here? Yeah, that's probably like 300 bucks. Really? Yeah. That's probably on the high end, though. That's not how much I'm saying.

I actually kind of, it's going to sound funny, maybe I was prepared for worse. I was ready for a higher number. But see, that's the thing. They're so rare that you probably won't get a chance to buy them because they're so limited. So 1,000 billion people are going to be online trying to get them the day they drop,

which I think is April 1st. But if you want to buy them resale, well, I don't know about this pair, but there are some that go into the four digits and I've never done that and I don't think I ever will.

But yeah. I'm really glad Abu Bakr wrote this question because just saying, is he copying the Haven Ultraboost makes me feel a little cooler. Yeah, yeah.

Is he copying the Haven Ultraboost? The Haven UBs or what, man? Yeah. And I honestly, I'm not joking. I did not know what I was asking. That's fair. I didn't even want to Google it.

That's why I'm here. Yeah, just ask it, and we can aim and shoot together here. All right, my last question, it's about your current health status. So you beat cancer. Sure, yeah, I beat it. Let's say it.

Yeah, I beat it. Can I say that? Yeah, I think we can say that. Every so many years, do they test? Yeah, I go once a year to get tested. Everything's been great. Yeah, I beat it. Can I say that? Yeah, I think we can say that. Every so many years, do they test? Yeah. I go once a year to get tested. Everything's been great for the last, always, since then. So yeah, I beat it.

So you beat cancer. Yeah. And you had, obviously, these side effects, like the shoulder and the hips, the unfortunate side effects of the steroid use. You're managing that, I guess, unfortunately. But so right now, other than the fact you got a Bo Jackson hip, and your shoulder, you got anything? Yeah, I had surgery on my shoulder. Similar to what they did on my hips the first time.

They drilled a hole and tried to get the blood flow going. But at some point, I'll probably have to do some further procedures. Would I be able to beat you up? 100%. Guaranteed you could beat me up. I might be the first one, eh? No, man, I'm pretty healthy. We're coming up on 10 years cancer-free.

June 1st this year will be 10 years. We did a toy drive last year to commemorate nine years. We're going to do something much bigger with sick kids this year. Uh, the toy drive last year was great by the way. Uh, we're going to do something much bigger this year, but yeah, I feel as healthy as I have in a very long time. I can't work out as much, can't do as much at the gym, but you know, that's okay. I try to keep myself healthy, uh, in whatever ways I can. And, uh, I'm just very fortunate to be healthy and being able to do what I love. Well, I would say, uh, congratulations on 10 years. Uh, and that's, that's the best news. That's the best thing I've heard in this podcast. Uh, it was all good though. Very interesting. And, uh, I think it's a good example of like positive positivity and perseverance and you're

living your dream where you're on television talking about sports. It's pretty cool, man. National television talking about sports. It's pretty cool, man. It's pretty cool to get to do this considering where I was 10 years ago, 12 years ago, to where I am now. A lot of work went into getting there,

but it's a sign that, again, no matter what you go through in life, you can absolutely get to where you want to go. Where do you want to go, really briefly? Is your goal to become Bob briefly? Like, is your goal to become Bob McCowan? Like, what is the goal? You know what?

I don't know. I get asked that a lot and I don't know because, you know, even if I thought back five years ago, I would not have envisioned me being where I am today.

What about Ron McClain? Yeah, that'd be pretty cool, right? Would that be a good job? Yeah, that'd be a great job, man. He's so respected and he's so smart and so good and so elegant

in what he does. I don't want to be Ron McLean per se, but I want to be at that level. Sure. Of course, I want to be respected to the degree. Yeah, exactly. The next Ron McLean. Yeah, exactly. New and improved. Ron's great. Thank you very much. My pleasure. Thank you. This was amazing. Thank you. And that brings us to the end of our

226th show. You can follow me on Twitter. I'm at TorontoMike and Faisal is at snfaisalkamisa Maybe I'll spell it real quick. S-N-F-A-I-Z-A-L K-H-A-M-I-S-A And our friends at Great Lakes Brewery

are at Great Lakes Beer. And I gotta get a good Twitter handle. I just realized I need a good Twitter handle for my property and the six friend, Brian. Thanks all, and have a great day. See you next week with Bob McKenzie. See you next week. And I don't know what the future can hold or do for me and you But I'm a much better man for having known you

Oh, you know that's true because Everything is coming up rosy and gray Yeah, the wind is cold but the smell of snow won't stay today