Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - James Duthie: Toronto Mike'd #158

Episode Date: February 11, 2016

Mike chats with TSN's James Duthie about his years at TSN, being recruited by Rogers Sportsnet, whether he'd follow Jay and Dan to the USA, and what he thinks of Rogers Hockey.

Welcome to episode 158 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. I'm Mike from torontomic.com and joining me this week is TSN broadcaster James Duffy. Welcome, James. How are you, buddy? This is a cool environment you have here. I've never done a show in a basement. I love the hockey mask, which I think I actually have that exact mask,

which is kind of a throwback. I was a Tony Esposito guy back when I was a kid. And I think that would be circa about 1978 or something like that, that mask. At least I kind of inherited it. So it's like it's the real deal. Whatever it is, it's not a replica. Well, those are the kind you could get when you're a kid too. My era of street hockey, Canadian tie or whatever, that was the mask you were getting.

So very cool. I wear that every Halloween. I wear that mask. Terrified children? You know, it's true. My kids were scared of me back in the day when I'd put on that mask. I used to have a special voice I'd use.

What the hell is the song? Alright, so here it is. What is going on here? Okay, so you are my very first james okay my first born is named james and that's i just always loved sweet baby james you don't have to listen for a while do you want to sure play the whole album if you want well the other one I always liked. This is the first song on our new album. Jimmy James by Beastie Boys. Right.

So those are my two favorite James songs. And I always liked the name James, obviously. I don't know if I have an own James tune myself. No? Jamie's got a hook on. Close enough. Because I used to be a Jamie. Oh, yeah?

Yeah, when I was, although was it Jamie's got a gun or was it Jamie's got a gun? No, it's Janie. Janie's got a gun. There enough. I used to be a Jamie. Oh, yeah? Yeah, when I was... Although, was it Janie's Got a Gun or was it Jamie's Got a Gun? No, it's Janie. Janie's Got a Gun. There you go. My music backer. That was a great track, though. I was a Jamie when I was a kid, although I was always James to me, but my friends all called me Jamie. So people from my old neighborhood

will still run into, like, and they'll say hey, Jamie. Okay. But I was always James. Even when I was eight, I would introduce you to him. I would say, hey, I'm James. But my parents like Jamie, so they call me Jamie. Yeah, I actually like Jimmy. Like, I think Jimmy's a cool name. I get Jimmy now.

Can I call you Jimmy? Well, the guys, yeah, like Bob and Drakes and those guys will call me Jimmy. And I'll do the whole Seinfeld Jimmy thing sometimes for speaking the third person. Oh, that's right. They used to say that, you know, when I have a few drinks, Jimmy comes out. You know, that's right. And the third person Jimmy, that's right. Yeah.

Seinfeld reference. Hey, serious question. So this is, well, every question is serious. You're going to learn. But this is Thursday. If today was the day the FNUF trade happened, would you have bailed on me? Like, would you have had to bail on me because of...

I don't think so at the time we're doing this, in the morning, no. I came in, I think I didn't have to come in until four or five o'clock. I mean, those guys, the Leafs lunch guys handled the programming, and we just came in to do panel hits, so it would have been all right.

So when there's a monster deal like that, like the foot of trade, alarm bells don't ring in your house? You've got to call all these outlets and get James Duffy on it? No, honestly, if it happens, it's mayhem when you're in or when you're on the air doing a game, but there's not much I can do from my little house in Aurora besides people will call me and I'll do radio bits. But we're not going to come in and do five hours of live programming.

Although I shouldn't say that because sometimes we probably would. But no. You could have, though. Like this is one of those. You could have built like a six-hour FNUF. You could have built a whole program around this. You've built stuff around less. Come to think of it, when the last FNUF trade happened,

I can't remember what the circumstance was, but for whatever reason, I took my family down and we'd spent, I think it was a Monday as well, because for whatever reason, we spent a night or two at the Royal York and I took the kids to just stuff downtown. We went to a game or something or we went to the CN Tower. And that trade happened that day. And I did have to check out and race up to work

with my entire family to do some sort of panel. But I guess they don't care about me anymore because they didn't call. That was a seven-player trade back in 2010. This one's like a nine-player trade. Yeah, but only one relevant player, really. That's true. But yeah, we'll get to this later

because I want to ask you about like trade deadline day and all this stuff. But first, let me just say hello to the Toronto Mic'd Patreons. So there's crowdfunding for this lovely setup you've got going on here. So if people go to patreon.com slash Toronto Mic, they can pledge like a dollar a

month or I always say you can do a million dollars a month if you wish. Go ahead. But thank you to Tom and John and Greg and Cameron and Robert and Matt and David and Julie and Stephen and Pete and Norman and Ed and Moose Grumpy, which is my favorite name on the list. Al Grego, Hamilton Mike, at 1236, Marc Asor, Steve Leggett, L Miller, Mark C., and Rick C. in Oakville. So please pledge and become a patron. Well, they've bought you some nice gear. This is a professional-looking thing. You could use a paint job in the basement maybe,

but the actual gear for the podcast is spectacular. And you know what's going to cost a bundle? Because I've got to lower the floor so people stop hitting their heads on the ceiling. What is this, a four-foot ceiling? I don't know. I've only had a few guests who haven't had to, like, bend. Did the DeVito family live here before?

For sure. Siobhan Morris from 1010, CFRB News Talk 1010. She's one of the few guests I didn't even have to warn. I'm 5'10", so hold on. It's about 5'5", because I hit my head like in the semi crouch now yeah i gotta warn you what often when people are finished they're slightly relieved to of like to be leaving the hot seat and they leap up kind of excitedly you know it is like so you're gonna forget about the ceiling when this is over so you're gonna have that moment yeah calling rush home i remember specifically she hit it pretty hard like i thought forget about the ceiling when this is over. So you predict that I'm going to bash my head. Colleen Rusholm,

I remember specifically, she hit it pretty hard. I thought she was going to be concussed. I was quite worried for her. But she leapt up and it was bang. Have anybody, especially particularly women, been creeped out by coming into your basement? That's a great question.

With the hockey mask on the wall and everything. There is a little bit of a Silence of the Lambs thing going on here. Sometimes, like Aaron Davis, I noticed, brought her husband. Right. And sometimes I'm like, I don't blame him. There's a reason for that. Who's this guy inviting you to the basement?

Yeah. And sometimes, like, I think Raina from 88.1 and some other young woman who kind of just... Have you had every broadcaster in the city on the show? You and I think Bob McKenzie is the last one on my list. young woman who kind of just... Have you had every broadcaster in the city on the show? You and I think Bob McKenzie is the last one on my list. So if you can help me with that, let me know. And what is your fix? Is it just an interest of

you media? Is that why? How did this thing start? See, I'm going to turn this over. I asked the question here, Duffy. Well, this is actually just like it organically emerged from I had the blog, TorontoMike.com. Obviously, you're a reader of TorontoMike.com. It's bookmarked in your browser.

I'm going to start reading it faithfully now. That's okay. So TorontoMike.com, I've been doing that since 2002, I think. Okay. And this just evolved like when I helped Hum and fred with their podcast and then i was doing the back end which is like xml and web stuff right and i'm like if these if these two bozos can do a show i can do a show i think that's what most people think when they watch me yeah you are one of my inspirations this guy can do this guy can host a national hockey show uh anybody

can and then i realized, I got this show. Like I bought good, as you see, these quality microphones, thanks to my buddy Andrew Stokely, with swing arm or boom swing arm things. You're the second guest to have that after Ivor Hamilton. It's very exciting. And it's like, I figure like, I can have people I'm interested in in my basement,

and for like an hour, I can ask them anything I want, and they got to answer. I'm recording it. Like this is pretty awesome. Yeah. No, it helps that you're married too with kids and everything because if this was like a tinder date or something yeah well i just use the the wife and kids as my front to for you to like you have no children all those toys and baby chairs no that's creepy when do the lights go off and you put on the mask and the infrared goggles and the moths start flying around oh man that's creepy no i wonder the lights go off and you put on the mask and the infrared goggles and the moths start flying around? Oh, man, that's creepy.

I wonder, like Siobhan Morris again. She came over, just this single young woman came over and went to my basement. Come on. You got to be smarter than that. Come on. See, now you're making even your listeners creeped out. No, they don't want to have. I have references.

Like if somebody's a little nervous, I can say, well, you know. Have you actually ever had to use that? No, I don't think so. But sometimes when I invite somebody, I will drop the names of previous guests. I might have done it with you. Like I'll say, previous guests include, and then by just seeing that, oh.

None of those impress me. No, not even the legendary Strombo. Yeah, Strombo, he's a good man. So there you go. All right, now. See what I've done here? I'm slowly asking you questions. Well, now you're just making this interview

a two-hour interview. We're out of time. Okay, see what I've done here? I'm slowly asking you questions. Well, now you're just making this interview a two hour interview. We're out of time. Okay. I got to start. You ready? Yeah. You set? By the way,

that beer in front of you, Great Lakes Brewery beer, you're taking that home with you. Okay. It's going home with you. Do you have any kids that are of drinking age? No, I let my son drink.

I shouldn't say that, but how old is he? 12? 16. Okay. I let him have the occasional one. I shouldn't say that. But how old is he? 12? 16. I let him have the occasional one. I don't like feast him. I'll give him one. When did that start though? This summer. Okay. Because my 14 year old, he loves like a little sip. He likes it too much though. It makes me nervous. And the beer stays downstairs. I told him I counted these beers.

I'm going to know. I used to steal my dad's Labatt 50 from the basement. And I still don't know if he, my dad wasn't a big drinker, but he'd always have one case of 50 in the basement and I'd steal one in grade nine or something and go out and we had a forest behind our house with buddies and eat my 50 and drink my 50, excuse me, and think I was cool. So I'm, I always said to my, I'm never going to be that way. If my kid is that age, I'd rather him just do it in front of me and me know what was going on instead. Yeah, no, I'm the same way, but I'm not ready to give him a beer quite yet. But I wondered when that kind of kicked in for you.

But tell me about when you moved. So you moved to TSN in 1998. And basically, what were you up to before then? Like you were messing around in Ottawa? Is that the deal? So I went to Carleton Journalism. I got a job as a news reporter for the local station, which is just called CTV Ottawa now, which was CJOH TV. I guess my first gig was in radio, like the campus radio station,

where my name was Jake Duthie. Nice. Morning, Jake Duthie, CKCU News, because I thought Jake sounded... Brother Jake Edwards. I thought Jake... I was just on with him, as a matter of fact. Yeah. So for some reason, I thought Jake was cool.

My buddies called me Jake. It was kind of a nickname. So Jake Duthie, CKCU News. And then I went back to James for... I was a news reporter. I covered fires and murders and all these things, still wanting to get into sports. And then I got into sports in a horribly tragic way and did sports for a couple of years in Ottawa.

And then I went back to actually doing news in Vancouver before TSN called me. So this tragic way, somebody passed away. Mm-hmm. So Brian Smith was the sports, there was two sportscasters in Ottawa, Brian Smith and Bill Patterson. And I really don't want to bring this podcast

grinding down, but probably one of the worst times in my life. I would, as a young news reporter, you know, I didn't love news. I wanted to do sports, but that was back in the day, early TSN. There weren't many jobs and basically every local station had two old sportscasters who'd been there forever. It was Brian and Billy who who had basically grown up watching in ottawa and honestly my the the level of my ambition extended to being the local sports guy in ottawa i didn't think anywhere beyond that if i could do that that was gold to me because that's all that was ever on my tv and uh i would hang out file my story and then hang out back in the news room with these two guys brian was an ex nhNHL player, brother of Gary the Suitcase Smith, who some of your listeners might remember, and just a journeyman NHL player,

really good quality guy, and Billy was salt of the earth. And I was on a party vacation with a buddy in Halifax one morning, and we'd crashed at some friend's apartment after a night of drinking, and this girl woke me up i was i was sleeping on the couch and one of the girls that was living in this apartment woke me up and

said you do you know brian smith and i said i couldn't figure out why she was asking me this question like had he slept with her or something and done something wrong to her so i said yeah and she goes you got to turn on the tv right right now. And Brian had been shot walking out of our station by a guy who turned out to be a schizophrenic and basically wanted to shoot the first person that he saw. And so from 50 meters away, Brian walked out of the station and he caught him right between the eyes and didn't kill him instantly.

He was in a coma. So I flew back that day. Billy, the other sports caster was a mess. And they asked me to do the sports cast that night, which was still will always be the toughest thing I ever, ever do in this business. Cause I walked into, I w I was in the cab on the way back to the station when it was announced that Brian had passed away and, you know, walked through a throng of reporters that had crowded our station and then into our station where everybody was balling. And it was, you know, quarter to six, I had to do the sportscast in a

half an hour and, um, pulled it off, I guess somewhat, and then just went and balled in the stairwell for about 45 minutes. So, and that's, so you, you know, you, you, you dream all your life of doing this job and then you get your break by your friend being murdered and it was really really weird and strange and so I Billy and I worked together Carolyn Waldo was the other sportscaster there and uh I did it for a couple years but it never felt right right and so at some point I decided I had to move on and I took a gig in Vancouver. I actually had an audition with TSN at the time. And it came down to myself and Lisa Bowes, who you might remember. Of course. For the job, but Lisa had already been there. And I had this job offer in Vancouver. And I

remember Keith Pelley calling me and saying, you know, we're trying to decide. And I said, well, I have to give this guy in Vancouver an answer. And so he ended up going with Lisa and said, look, I want to hire you someday, but I can't hire you now. And I said, no problem, but just don't call me in six months or something because I want to go live in Vancouver for a couple of years. And he called me in eight months and offered me the job. Wow. Yeah, again, you were right. That is a very sad, tragic beginning to your career. It is. And Billy, you know, who was, I was probably closer to Billy than Brian, Billy Patterson, the other sportscaster. And Billy, you know, who was, I was probably closer to Billy than Brian, Billy Patterson, the other sportscaster. And we became, after Brian's death, really, really close, like my best friend.

And he passed away of a heart attack just during my first year at TSN, which he never wanted to be the 6 o'clock sports guy. He was really content doing the 11, being that second guy. And I think the pressure of doing the 6 really got to him. So, yeah, a really terrible time, but two unbelievable mentors and good friends. Now, I'll lighten the mood a little bit. Yeah, I'm sorry. I won't tell you any more stories like that. Actually, later in the episode, don't worry, I'm going to bring us right back here later in the episode. But it's like a roller coaster on Toronto, Mike. You're up and you're down. I once helped out a guy.

He was a cameraman for the CBC and he had won a Gemini Award for something or other. So he had this award in his living room and I was visiting him one day talking to him and I saw the award

and I go, hey, can I take a picture of that Gemini Award? And he's like, go ahead. So I take a photo of this Gemini Award and for shits and giggles, I wrote a blog entry

on torontomike.com. I just won a Gemini Award for best i think i said best local blog on the movable type platform like i gave it this title to make it very obvious this is a joke okay right i can't tell you and to this day i just kind of wish i didn't do it because i can't tell you how many sincere congratulations I received. And at first, I'm like, well, it's clearly a joke, right? But no, people believe that you won a Gemini. And it just seemed people thought maybe they're giving out awards for blog, local blogs or whatever on certain platforms or whatever. What's the tie in here? Are you saying my Geminis are fake?

I'm telling you, to this day, as an inside joke, I will often refer saying my gemini's are fake i'm telling you to this day as an inside joke i will often refer to my gemini award like i'll tell you know to this day i will still talk about the gemini because i've decided once they bought in and keep the photograph in your pocket like i accept the ladies once in a while yeah oh yeah that's right that's that's my key to fame here so and the ladies will all go what the hell is that because nobody knows what the gemini they're not even gemini called something else they're called something else now. By the way, another thing about Canadian media or whatever, like, so we all, like, Gemini's, for better or worse, we knew what they were, but now what do you call these? Screen awards or something?

Like, come on. I know. I know. It's the weirdest thing ever. It's, look, it's always nice to win an award, but it was strange, like, these top sports caster award or whatever it is yeah um they would always also give it out on the night of okay like i don't want to bore people with gemini awards but there's no people love gemini stories no there's like three different there's a big industry night and then

there's the one hour and a half show on television right and i never understood i would always go and usually lose to ron mclean like eight times. But it was always on TV. And it was the strangest. You'd have best actress in a drama, best comedy, best sportscaster. It didn't make any sense, right? That's right, that's right, yeah. But I always figured that really,

Ron McClain and Don Cherry are probably the two most famous guys in the country, more famous than most of the actors because I would always be there with my wife or whatever and we'd be going, who the hell is that? Oh, it's always like some French Canadian like Quebec movie, right? Yeah, you would recognize

almost nobody from the night and so yeah, those are always really weird nights. So how many did you win in total? How many Geminis

you got in your collection? I only know this because I actually dug them. I got my basement reno'd and finally they'd been sitting in storage somewhere. I'm not one to display them. The only time I took them out,

I had a party once with all the work guys and I put them at the end of my driveway like lions. Oh, that's funny. But I have three of those and I guess one of the other whatever they're called. I can tell you actually I did my homework. It's called the Canadian Screen Award. Right.

Which is a very creative title. I think I have one of those, which I shared with Rod Smith, which was very cool because he's one of my better friends at DSN. Could I have one of those Gemini Awards? Because I would put it on this table and then it would become like a conversation

piece. Yeah, no. Where are they right now? Like in a box? I read Ron McClane told me once he gives all his away, I'm like, I'm not giving them away. I got to feel like I won something. You know, trophies. I got a lot of trophies when I was a kid. See, this table, which has some things, like an Andre the Giant cup.

How about next time I come, I will bring you one, and you can take all sorts of photos with it and keep living your life. No, and bring that Canadian Screen Award, because people need to know I also won one of those. So yeah, do this. That's great. That's great.

Hey, I mean, we're in Toronto now, and I have this discussion of lots of people. You cover the CFL. This is the Canadian Football League. Right. Because we have our own league. Yes, I'm aware. Yeah, I know. I guess my question is, ratings for the Argos and we see big numbers for CFL. I see big numbers. These are big, especially when you compare them to something like the Raptors numbers, for example. The CFL's got a big audience. I never see it broken down like Toronto versus... My hypothesis is that the CFL is not that popular in Toronto, outside of Toronto.

This is my hypothesis. Do you have any insight into this? Only that Glenn Suter and I had this conversation over a beer. He was actually mad at me because I would do all these radio shows and he would only hear the ones in Vancouver because that's where he lives. And he says, why don't you talk football? And I said, well, they never want to talk football. They only want to ask me about hockey because that's what I'm known as.

I come in and do the playoffs for the CFL. Essentially, that's it. And he said, well, you should push football. And he's just such a heart and soul guy who loves the CFL so much. But we were talking about that in Toronto, and I just said it doesn't, as much as I love the CFL, it doesn't register. Like CFL shows don't work here, and people want to talk about the Leafs and the Raptors and such.

And unfortunately, I think it's a shame, but the Argos are way down the list. But he told me that when you break it down, the Argos actually do very well in the Toronto area. Is that right? If you break down TSN's ratings, that the Argos actually... Okay, so let's say there's 900,000 people watching Argos, whatever game, Saskatchewan.

Sure. That there will be a good 300,000 people. Oh, that's the 300,000 Saskatchewaners who live here now. Well, Saskatchewan is there will be a good like a good you know 300,000 people oh that's the 300,000 Saskatchewaners who are here now well Saskatchewan is yes exactly Saskatchewan is by far and away carries the

ratings for the CFL I think Saskatchewan and Alberta but apparently the numbers in Toronto do better than you would think they do and I'm not sitting

like standing up for TSN doesn't matter to us I don't think where the ratings come from no you're a national broadcaster as long as they come

across the country. But I think they do better than what you would think of considering the media attention it gets on radio and print, etc. here. In Toronto, just like televisions in Toronto. Well, let's say the GTA. Okay, so we can throw Mississauga and the group in there. So in the GTA, this is just...

What do you think? More eyeballs would watch a CFL game or a Raptors NBA game? CFL. The Raptors... See, that's another thing that amazes me. The buzz about the Raptors, to me,

seems so much more substantial than the Argos, and yet the ratings do not reflect that. This is where I'm going, because yeah, I only see buzz. I see buzz, and to me, it's not comparable. If I call up my 20 closest friends, all of them are watching the Leafs, like half of them are watching the Raptors,

and maybe one maybe caught a bit of the Argo game, because... The only thing I can think of is that just the ratings system is skewed, or it's more towards older people, even though they have demographics that say it's younger and more younger people are watching on their phones or whatever. I don't know. I'm not smart enough to understand all this stuff. But it doesn't make sense to me.

You're right, that in this city anyway, the Raptors get so much hype and yet the ratings for the games are not great, unless they're on a run. I mean, it's certainly gotten better over the last couple of years, and come playoff time, it's excellent. But on a general game-to-game basis,

I mean, the CFL kills the Raptors, which is weird. Yeah, no, it's strange to me, because to me it's not even close perception, but then you hear the... No, I'm with you. And it just finishes off... Maybe CFL fans are just older and quieter or something.

I don't know. David Schultz was in and I had this convo with him. And my working hypothesis, again, here is that like a lot of young people don't have like cable. They cut the cord

so they're streaming it and all this stuff. I think you're probably right. Yeah. And I think the PPM devices to begin with, like first of all, who has one?

But regardless, I don't think a lot of young people are carrying around their PPM devices. And I know it doesn't work if you're streaming unless you do some kind of a you have to put something in the headphone jack or something this is i have i have no clue so do they count is streaming even counted on apparently you can plug something into the headphone jack well nobody nobody's no one's doing that no one's yeah they have to figure out a better i mean with the technology we have, shouldn't they have some better way that whatever device you have,

it somehow registers, right? Yeah, no, I'm with you. We've got to find a better way. All right, let's move on to the Olympics again. So you mentioned you're known as the hockey guy. And it's true, I always think of you as the hockey guy. But you were 2010 Olympics and 2012 in London. You were one of the main guys.

Right. Well, my first job that I got when I came to TSN, I hosted CFL and NBA. So my first three years at TSN, that's what I did. I was the CFL host when they relaunched Friday Night Football, and I hosted NBA. We just posted something. This is going to sound like

a plug, but not really. Go ahead. They posted a chapter from my book on.ca this morning because the one NBA All-Star game I covered was 98 in Oakland, which was the Vince Carter one. No, 2000 was it, I think. Whatever it was, that's the one NBA All-Star game I covered was 98 in Oakland, which was the Vince Carter one. No, 2000 was it, I think. Whatever it was, that's the one I was at. You mean the half-man, half-amazing?

No, the whole slam dunk contest. Yeah, yeah, yeah, half-man, half-amazing. Yeah, and it was one of the coolest nights of my career, just because the buzz in that building, for what is really a non-event, was just off the charts. So, yeah yeah i did the olympics uh in 2010 in van and in london and uh some in turn as well so i never got in this just to be a hockey guy that kind of happened by mistake and uh as much as i love it but i i really like doing the other stuff as well cool yeah well yeah. Well, you've got the face for television. You've been told that, right?

No. No, I'm just kidding. It's a good thing I'm on Canadian television because it probably wouldn't go so well elsewhere. There's some ugly guys on TV down south too. Don't worry about it. You're in good company. Well, I wasn't going to go as far as ugly,

but thank you for putting me in that category. No, I kid because I'm jealous. Back to Schultz. So Schultz back in 2013, and he, by the way, was on episode 150, if people want to hear my chat with Schultz about Canadian media stuff. Right. You were heavily recruited by Rogers.

This is what he writes anyways. So my question is, okay, here, yeah, the seat's getting a little warmer here because there's a 12-year deal rogers signs of the nhl that's a 5.2 billion dollar deal that's real that's real cabbage 5.2 billion bucks and of course now all the hockey not all the hockey because there's still regional games you share with rogers whatever but a lot of the hockey we watch now is on rogers because they have the rights why didn't you go where the games are tell me if schultz has it right that you were heavily recruited by Rodgers. Well, look, I mean, I wrote this chapter and I'm not trying to relentlessly plug my book, by the way. I'm sick of plugging my book, so I'm not. I'm going to plug it at the end anyway. No, it's okay. Trust me. But the way I feel about this is that it doesn't matter. I mean,

you can read what Dave wrote and all. I've always answered this question the same way in that if you have conversations with people that are between you and them, then what kind of guy are you if you're sitting on a podcast or talking to a newspaper reporter or talking to whoever and spilling all those details? I can tell you one story where Sportsnet called me.

Go ahead. That was back when I was in Vancouver, when I was working at VTV, which was a complicated story, but it was an independent station owned by CTV. And this was my great lesson in leverage. So I was working as a news reporter in Vancouver, and I think I was making, if I have this right,

$60,000 a year. This is 1997. And I thought I was doing a good job and the bosses were saying I was doing a good job and I kind of did all sort of goofy, some like the shtick pieces we've done on TSN, a lot of really lighthearted fluff stuff. And so I decided I wanted a raise and I went in and I asked for a $5,000 raise. And they said, we have, we don't have a cent. We love what we're doing. We'd love to give you a raise, but we don't, we just do not have a cent to give you. And I said, okay, whatever. So about two weeks later is when Keith Pelley called me and offered me the TSN job. And I took it in two seconds and I can't, I think it was was double or something the salary roughly that I was making there,

and I was going to host CFL, which I loved, and NBA. So I took it, and I walked into the office of the general manager, John Festinger, a really great guy, and I said, hey, I'm sorry I'm resigning. I've got a job with TSN. And he sat there for a second and said, well, we want to keep you. He said, what if we match the salary? And I laughed out loud. It was like one of those moments where if you had a drink, you'd spit your drink out. I said, like two weeks ago, I asked you for a $5,000

raise and there was no money. He said, well, yeah, we really want to keep you. And he said, look, can you just, I said, I'm sorry, I'm leaving no matter what. And he said, can you just give me the night? Just do me the honor of giving me the night. And I said, okay. sorry, I'm leaving no matter what. And he said, can you just give me the night? Just do me the honor of giving me the night. And I said, okay. So I walked back into the newsroom, and five minutes later, Suzanne Boyce, who was the vice president, sort of second in command at CTV, called me. She was a really nice lady as well, and she said,

what can we do to keep you? We want to keep you in the CTV family. What can we do? And I said, look, I'm really going to TSN. Remember, this is when CTV did not own TSN. Right, no, that's key detail, yeah. TSN, yeah, TSN's an independent company at the time. Right. And I said, look, I'm staying. So then five minutes later, the phone rings again, and it's Scott Moore. Now, Sportsnet was just starting that next year.

And so Scott, it was a really funny conversation because he didn't know me from Adam. And clearly, Suzanne had called him and said, we got to keep this guy off from a job. So Scott kind of says, listen, James, I really don't know who you are, but would you like to come work for Sportsnet? And I laughed. And there are times we still laugh about that conversation, Scott and I, because it was, you know, I said, look, I want to do this. I've always wanted to go to TSN. I want to do CFL. And he said, totally understand. And I get it. And the conversation was over in a couple of minutes. But there was a time that sports had offered me a job. But the funny thing was, then I called back Keith Pelley. And I'm like, look, I'm coming, OK?

I guarantee 100% I'm coming. But they asked me to wait one more day before I officially resign. So could you just be patient and not make any announcement or anything? And Pelley goes, they want you to stay, eh? So how about if I offer you a, I can't so could you just be patient and not make any announcement or anything and pelly goes uh ah you they wanted you to they want you to stay eh so how about if i offer you i can't remember another 20 grand or something and i said well you don't have to do that because i i've already

agreed to the terms the deal you're not supposed to say that and i i was i was the worst negotiator ever and he said no i really want you to be happy. So I said, okay. So all of a sudden, it went from not being able to get a $5,000 raise to people just throwing money at me left, right, and center. And that was my lesson about leverage in the media business, is that it means everything. And I'm not trying to duck your original question. Sure you are. That's a great story. But I just, you know what? I don't see why it matters. Do people really care? But I just, you know what, I don't see why it matters.

Do people really care? Yeah. All right. First of all, first lesson you learned, there's always money in the banana stand. Right. That's important. You're right. There's always money in the banana stand.

And no, look, I'm not asking you to, whatever, talk at a school or whatnot. And you don't, you know. I can tell you why. No gun to your head here. I'll tell you this. It was a really crazy week for me. The week between the day we lost the rights, which was just a weird, strange day. I went to a movie with my daughters

and had my phone obviously on mute in the movie. It was The Hunger Games. And I heard it buzzing, but just ignored it during the movie and came out and there was a text from Bob McKenzie that said, can you text Phil King for me, who was the president of CTV, and ask him if we lost the rights, because I think we might have. And the text was about 45 minutes old by the time I got it.

And I texted Bob back and said, I will, but is that really fathomable? And he texted me back and said, you don't have to text him. I already confirmed it. And, you know, Bob broke the story that night that that had happened. And that was a whirlwind because I just, I had never, of all the possibilities that went through in my mind about what was going to happen with the rights, that was not one of them that we would be completely shut out.

So it was a very whirlwind week where a lot of crazy things happened. And I ended up signing a contract, a new contract with TSN, I think a week to the day that the rights thing happened. But in 20 years when I'm retired, I'll come back and do your show and I'll tell you the story

and drink these six beers. I'm going to hold you to that. It's something I don't feel comfortable talking about, if that's okay. No, that's not okay. See, that's fair enough. What am I going to hold you to that. It's just, it's something I don't feel comfortable talking about, if that's okay. No, that's not okay. See, that's fair enough. What am I going to do? I once got,

I once had Todd Shapiro on the show and I was asking him about, you know, why did Dean Blundell have him fired from his gig? Right. And he was very careful. He was trying to be careful because he didn't want to burn some bridges,

but he was answering it, but he wasn't, you know, he didn't, the people who were listening want him to say, you know, Blundell's a prick. What an ass. He did this, whatever.

And then I got a lot of flack. Like I wasn't hard enough on Shapiro. Right. Like, and then I always, I said, what was it? Was I supposed to grab him, grab him by the scruff of his collar and shake him? Welcome to this business. What is this, court?

Yeah, you'll always get that. And like, no matter what, you can ask me the question as many times as you want. I'm not going to reveal details of conversations I had. I want to give you as much as I can and try to be insightful for your listeners and give them stories that I haven't told and stuff that's interesting.

I have permission now to treat you as a hostile guest. I think that's the deal. All right, well then tell me this. Do you think Rogers is doing a good job with their hockey coverage? Yeah, I think, I think they are. I mean, there's things I do differently, but I always say this when, when, when I hear people criticize and, you know, I'm like anybody else, you're out for beers with guys, people all have opinions. Our first year, we weren't very good. We had, uh, we, you know, we decided when I first got the hockey job, which was 0203, and that's a whole other story about,

I got it like two days before the season started. They'd hired, Keith had hired this, uh, a woman named Linda Freeman, who I actually knew, who had been a breakfast host out in Vancouver. Really wonderful girl, but she wasn't a sports girl, and she was hired to do the show. Oh, right, yeah. And then two days before the season started, she wasn't comfortable, they weren't comfortable, they moved on, and Rick Chisholm, who was our VP, came up to my house, and he never comes to my house.

I had golf with him and stuff. That's a long drive. Yeah, and said, we want you to host hockey. And it was funny, I never even applied for that job because the course I thought my career was taking was to do football play-by-play or something. I was doing SportsCenter at the time. And suddenly, they asked me to host. I'd never even called or applied or lobbied for any job with the NHL and TSN.

Suddenly, I had it. So that was really weird. And I was on the air 36 hours later. But we had, if people remember, we had rock bands in there. We had brutally awful segments. There was a segment called, the worst possible segment, which we still joke about, was called Talk Amongst Yourselves. And this was Dave Hodge and Bob McKenzie having a hockey talk.

But the idea was that we would join the talk in progress. So they would already be talking in the background and I would say, Bob and Dave are having a discussion right now about headshots. Let's listen in. And then they would raise their mics and listen to them for two minutes and then they would slowly lower their mics

and I would come back on camera and say, their discussion will continue, but we have to go to break. It was the lamest thing ever. And you know when the mics are shut down there, they're just saying, man, this is a lame. Yeah, exactly. Man, this is lame, man.

So that was a terrible segment. And then we did, like, we had a lot of really awful things. I write in the book about this producer who brought in this stripper one night to introduce, instead of we, it was like our mid-season all-stars. And this woman who, I shouldn't slander her, but she was clearly, I believe she may have danced with a pole. That's all I'm going to say. And she would basically hold up cards and say,

and from the New Jersey Devils, that feisty little John Madden. And that's how we introduced our mid-season all-stars one year. And she was like lying on my desk with this tight tube top on. You'd get flack for that today. Oh, yeah. We'd get killed for it. But back then, Twitter and all these things didn't exist. So we did a lot of really goofy things.

And so I always try to, I will temper any criticism I have. It takes a couple of years for you to find your groove. So they get the rest of the season and then you can tell me the truth. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of people I know and like over there. So when am I going to sit here? You're not going to slag Strombo? No, I like Strombo. Do you think he does a good job?

Because I think he's the lightning rod of criticism. I think because of taking over for Ron McLean and being kind of the face of the broadcast. I think that the hockey base, the fan base in Canada of hockey are, you know, they're a blue collar. They like their hockey guys the way they want their hockey guys to look.

And they also don't like change. And it's the same thing. Again, I got some of the same heat when I started because, you know, who's this guy? What does he know about hockey? Ron's been around for 20 years, so they know Ron. It's a comfort level and it probably took me a few years where people became

comfortable with me as well. You don't have any visible piercings. Right. Yeah, and those things, unfortunately, those things matter. He said it himself. They matter to people, right? He feels the rest of Canada sees him as not just Toronto, but Queen Street. You know what I mean? And that a lot of pockets in this country don't particularly want their hockey guy to look like Queen Street.

No, like I said, it's a blue-collar base of hockey, especially in places like Alberta and a lot of small towns in Ontario and across the country. And so, you know, I get that. But I don't think I'm a good person to ask if someone's doing a good job. That's why I'm asking. Did you ask Strombo if I was doing a good job? Yeah, he says he loves you. Yeah, he probably would probably like you because he's got good taste in his broadcast. You know what? He's a good guy and he's a good broadcaster.

Anybody that can come into that situation when you've never really hosted sports before, I think that people underestimate the moving parts that you have on a show like that sometimes. You know, a lot of people wish TSN had the rights because there's a lot of people out there who prefer your broadcast. Like you said, you had those growing pains at the beginning, but then you figured it out. We did figure it out. And I think once we went to a normal panel format, that's when we started to figure it out. And, you know, you're right. And that's what gives me, I still, I really appreciate it when people, you know, I did a book tour in the fall.

And I got to a lot of different corners of the country, to Newfoundland and Halifax and Alberta. lot of different corners of the country to Newfoundland and Halifax and Alberta. And the people that were, it's bizarre, by the way, that people would ever even come and, let alone buy your book, but line up to meet you. But in those small pockets, you're like Paul McCartney's coming to visit, okay? Pretty much. No, but people do come out. And the one thing people kept saying over and over again is, man, we're really sorry you lost your rights and we miss you. You know, a lot of people still get us doing games, especially from Manitoba East. But in Alberta particularly, we really miss you doing games out here.

And that means a lot to hear that because we took a lot of pride in what we did. And it sucked that we're not allowed to do it on a national level anymore. Do you have any schadenfreude at all? I love the word schadenfreude. It's a great word. Do you have any schadenfreude at all that all seven Canadian teams might miss the playoffs this year? No, I don't because everyone thinks that.

Hey, screw Rodgers. Well, Kiprios is the one who tweeted out those fuckers at TSN. It's the perception is that you guys, even though you say you have a lot of friends over there, you might root for their failure, possibly, if you are less of a man than you are. I think there's probably people at TSN that do.

More in the dollars and the management things. But I think there's a theory that... What's that expression about one boat floats all boats or whatever it is? Rising tide rises all boats. I'm terrible. That's why I don't use any sayings on the air. The boats are rising. Anyway, but I think there's something to that. It

sucks for us, too, that on SportsCenter we can't go and cover the Canadians in the playoffs or like we did last year. I mean, we... That was the, by the way, the only real hard part last year was the playoffs, the first year not having it because as much as you work crazy hours and it's exhausting,

I love doing the playoffs on TSN. And last year, we do panels for SportsCenter, which means we're still a part of it, but it's not the same as doing the games. So that was a couple of dark months for me. But we were out there. We went to Calgary for the first couple of games there, and we went to Winnipeg for the first playoff game back there.

And I think SportsCenter's ratings do well couple of games there and we went to winnipeg for the first playoff game back there and you know i think it sports center's ratings do well because canadian teams are in the playoffs and so yeah it's going to suck for rogers but it's probably not going to be the greatest for us either because there won't be sports center still does remarkably well considering the lead-ins are not necessarily national hockey games that's what i was going to ask because here in Toronto, you know, we just came off the 2015 Blue Jay season, which was bananas. And by all accounts, this really helped Roger's properties because we were already tuning into their radio station, 590. We were already watching Sportsnet because they had every game. And then people either leave, stay there

for the whatever, what's their sports desk called or sports center? What is it called over there? Connected? Yeah, connected there for the whatever. What's their sports desk called or sports center? What is it called over there? Connected? Yeah, connected or something like that. By the way, why did we change the name of Sports Desk to Sports Center? That was an ESPN partnership. Right. And I think we were all pretty leery of it when it happened.

And I think Canada probably was. But I think it was pretty fluent. And I think it worked out really well. It's just the old guys like me who want our sports desk. I started on the desk. Gino read a mustache. I don't know. I think it was just to go ESPN owns 28% of us or something.

But I think it's worked out okay. And that music is still good. And I think actually the reason they did it is when you can have somebody like Steph Curry go, hey, now I'm going to be on SportsCenter. That's right. And we can pretend he's talking about us.

You know what? That's probably the primary. That is the reason to do it. That probably is. Yeah. And it's worked. Because he's not, like, Steph Curry's not taking the time, hey, coming up on SportsDesk. Right.

No, he's not going to do that. No, you can ask him. We can mooch anything from the States now because of that. All right. So for the record, you know, the fierceness of this rivalry, as far as you're concerned, like if I said, Elliot Freeman's coming down the stairs right now, would you punch him in the face?

Yeah, I would. I would kick him. There would be a fight. In the nuts. Okay. No, I honestly, like, there's too many people that you've known. I knew Elliot from before with the score and stuff, and they're good people.

I mean, there's competition, definitely. Like, on Trade Center, on Trade Deadline Day, we want to beat them. Good point, yeah. But like I know all these guys and it's a small world. They could be working with me later. I could be working with them later.

Who knows, right? They're all nice guys except for that Cox fellow. But most of them are nice guys over there. Honestly, I think it's more, and when you're a host too, you're kind of this, you're not into it as much. I think it's probably more competitive with the insiders and the analysts and stuff than it is with a host.

And you brought up that Kiprios thing. I just laughed. We all have weak moments. We all have done bad texts or whatever. I know Nick. That's funny, because that was meant to be a DM. And I forgot the D part. I know Nick. That's funny because that was meant to be a DM and I forgot the D part. I'll tell you something.

One of our producers, Rick Hodgson, passed away during Grey Cup. One of the most important guys on our crew. He was the guy basically, if we're doing a panel on hockey, he would be the guy who edited all the video that you see. And for Grey Cup, a lot of the stuff. He was one of the backbones of

our show and passed away suddenly of a heart attack in, I guess, the end of November. Right. And, you know, Kipper and Elliot both showed up at the wake, you know, which, and they didn't know Rick, but that's what I'm, you know, so that to me is 10 times more important than a guy throwing out an FU on Twitter by mistake.

I'm glad you mentioned Rick. Real quick small world story is that my wife's boss's wife is first cousin of Rick Hodgson. And so, I mean, that night, actually, I was at a Christmas party where she was, and she actually ended up going. As sad as she was, she ended up going. But your piece about Rick Hodgson, which is on tsn.ca, was very, very well done,

very touching, and it was just awesome. Writing is a bit of a catharsis, I think, for me, and I sat there in my hotel room in Winnipeg crying and just needing to do something. It's the most cathartic thing you could do.

It really is. Yeah, for sure. I agree. I actually like writing, you know, I don't say I like writing more than television, but in some ways I do. There's a permanence to something you write where something you do in TV,

it's not like 20 years later you're saying, boy, that was a great panel we did that night. The second intermission of the Lee's Game. It's preserved or something. It is. Google will index it. People will visit it 10 years later. Right, and people will say,

if people are kind enough to compliment me on something, it'll usually be, I really like that, either that book you wrote, or I like that column you wrote. And then no one will ever say, I really like that panel you did. You're right. It's either that or the schtick pieces we've done. It's almost like the...

That's all they remember. Yeah, well, speaking of... So a lot of people listening might know Rick from that, which is he was the Zach Galifianakis to your Ed Helms in the hangover. I like to say I was Bradley Cooper. You can say that all you want, but you were clearly Ed Helms. I know. I actually get Ed Helms a lot now.

I used to get Ben Stiller all the time, and then it went to Seth Meyers. Yeah, I see that. And now I get Ed Helms, which is... Ed Helms for sure. I don't know where... It's not trending well. I think I'm really getting close to like Steve Buscemi or something.

I don't think it's going in a good direction. Anyway. That's fine. So, yeah, the hangover video with Cole Pitar. Right, right. So, the only reason we did that video was because of Rick. Rick grew his beard and we're like, this guy looks like Zach Galifianakis. And then one of our producers said,

we should do a hangover parody. And that was the birth of that entire idea was just simply because Rick kind of looked like Zach Galifianakis. That's how the ideas are born at TSN. Just a sad story all around that he was only 36

and it was sudden, like a heart failure, sudden heart attack and he had a young child. Yeah. Just sad all around. Yeah, it was awful. So,

it's like a roller coaster, okay? Now we're going to come to draft day. I got a question about draft day. Draft day used to be

super exciting. Like, there were lots of actual trade deadlines. Sorry, yeah, yeah. NHL trade deadline. Draft Day was a bad Kevin Costner movie.

Did I say Draft Day? Oh, you know what? I saw it on a plane. I just saw it coming back from Copenhagen. The trades he pulled off in that movie are impossible.

Okay, but it is an entertaining airplane movie because you're like, you know how it is on airplanes. Yeah, it's all different. Movies seem better on airplanes.

I know. You watch, like, eight modern families and they're like the funniest things you've ever seen in your life. Everything's over, like, yeah. So I'm watching, yeah, the Kevin Costner movie, Deadline Day or whatever it's called. Draft Day. Draft Day. One day I'll get this.

What is wrong with you? I don't know. It's the beer, too many beer. So I'm watching it and it's like like i know it's not supposed to be good or whatever but i'm enjoying it like i'm thoroughly enjoying you know because it's football and it's costner's pretty good in the sports movies like even like the emotional parts of jennifer garner at the end i'm feeling like weepy and i'm like no really this is what happens on an airplane you're you get emotionally connected to shitty movies i'll true story yeah i watched one day

desperate on an Airplane. Like I go through spurts where I'm traveling a lot and I can remember watching the Justin Bieber concert movie, like Believe or whatever. It's starting to weep up.

It was a good movie. At the end. It's okay. And I was starting and I'm going and you know, you look at the passengers next to you

and you're going, please don't see what I'm watching. That might have been my lowest point as a man. But you know who would suffer the brunt for that? It would be Ed Helms, because you'd see a tweet where Ed Helms is crying at the Bieber movie. Ed Helms crying over a Justin Bieber movie.

That's right. Okay, so forget Draft Day. Trade deadline. Trade deadline day. Trade center, we like to call it. Right, trade center, right. This enough trade would have been fantastic for that day. Right.

Come on. Can't we all get together on this? Like, to me now, the big trades happen before deadline, trade deadline day, and then it's always a bust. You're preaching to the converted. I say to my bosses every year, this is the only show on television where you hype it and promote it every year, and it delivers less and less. Yeah, yeah.

And we're not kidding anybody. I say it delivers less and less. Yeah, yeah. And we're not kidding anybody. I say that on the air now. I don't try. There's no pretend hype. But how long is your show that day? Like, how many hours do you do? Well, they added an hour this year, so it's eight to six. That's amazing. Look, I went to my boss, Mark Miliere and Stu Johnson, a couple years ago, and I said, look, go have a little private meeting with Scott Moore, and I think Keith Belly was still there at the time, and reach a truce and agree that you're going to come on at noon

because we're not fooling anybody. Nothing happens between 8 a.m. and noon, and we just look like idiots. And then they went and they showed me the ratings, and the ratings are good in the morning. And the only conclusion I could reach from that is that it's like people who stop at an accident scene. People who watch us do not care about the trades. They want to see us.

How you feel the time? Yeah, they want to see if we can pull it off through four hours and bring llamas on the set or whatever the stupid idiot stuff we do. And so I gave up. I used to be hopeful on trade deadline day that stuff would happen. I gave up on that. I expect nothing now and just expect to have to fill the 10 hours. But it is this weird, weird Canadian thing that people, you know, it's tradition and people like to watch. And there's always the possibility that something will happen, even though most of the time nothing does happen and so i think that intrigues people and i think you know we love

hockey so much in that country we still have lots to talk about like there is usually the hard hours for me now are sort of if if it's not a really busy day that four to six window where we've done everything possible and there's nothing else left to do, that's painful. The morning's not that bad because we have a guy named Steve Dryden who puts together all the stuff, and he creates quizzes and gimmicky segments. And, you know, we have enough for the panel to chew on. It's just, but it is painful. I think it's ridiculous that we're not on at noon. I think it's crazy, but it is what it is.

How much of that is a reaction to what they're doing at Sportsnet? Is it essentially like if they're on, you've got to be on? I think that's the way it started initially. Like this extra hour. Are they doing the extra hour first? 10 or 15 years ago, I think we went on at noon and did like a three-hour show. And then maybe we went to 10 first, and then they went to 10, and then they went to 9. I don't know.

The whole thing's dumb. But I will say this, that it is the one day a year, it is the only day a year now where people have a legitimate equal choice. It is the only day where you have, it's not the quality of game or the sport that they're choosing one network or the other. It's just they're choosing, it's the exact same thing.

And so they're choosing on what they like or who they want to watch that day. And so that's why it's an important day, I think, at TSN and for them. That's a very good point. And on that note, who won, for example, the 2015 trade deadline day battle of the Raiders? I think it was four to one or something for us, Like I said, that's when you don't have the games anymore on a national basis. I'm not 100% sure of that, by the way. Too late. Somebody from Rodgers.

It was somewhere in the 3-1, 4-1, 5-1. As a guy with no skin in the game, Bob McKenzie factor. It's a massive factor. If all things being equal, which is the only example you have, really, like you said, is this I want to call it draft day again, just to piss you off. The trade deadline day is... Bob, in my opinion, he... Even the FNUF trade, I saw a tweet

from him before I heard any rumblings of FNUF going to Ottawa. And of course, two minutes later, there's an official tweet from Ottawa Senators or something like that, but I saw Bob's first. He's the best. And that credibility matters like crazy, I think, from all those guys, from Darren Drager, from Pierre Lebrun. And I think we have really good analysts, too. Ray Ferraro is fantastic on trade deadline day.

All the guys are. So the thing that has changed the most, I think Bob would tell you this, is it's not really about breaking trades anymore. I mean, it used to be, okay, we broke this many trades, they broke that many trades, whatever. I think that was the competition between the insiders, but it doesn't even matter anymore. It's 30 seconds, 10 seconds. Usually the teams are tweeting out the trades.

So it's about the details and getting them right, and it's about the analysis that you get is what really matters. It's about who do you trust, and that's where you've got to go. Who do you trust, who you want to hear break got to go. Right, who do you trust, who you want to hear, break it down, I guess. Sure.

And everyone is totally entitled to their own opinions on those things. You heard it here first, four to one was the ratio. I'd have to email our PR department. I remember that it was... Landslide victory. ...fairly substantial, yeah.

Landslide victory. Do you have any interest in going back to radio not really i do a lot during the week oh you do the hits like where you yeah i do i do you did one in your car before we started i do most cities like a couple of times a week um i like it it's nice to be able to talk even sitting with you and as a host you get very little time to talk, right? Your job is to get in and out and 15 seconds here, 10 seconds here and ask questions, which I enjoy. But it is nice to be able to talk once in a while.

And so that part of radio I like. Maybe when no one can stand looking at me on TV anymore, which probably isn't that far away, that I would do it again. But I've never really done it. I've never done a regular radio show before besides Jake Duffy on CKCU. By the way, when you were on the air with brother Jake Edwards before you came in here,

did he do the champ? He did not do the champ. He does just his own thing right now. I think it was Steve Anthony was here and I don't know how Jake Edwards came up and I think Anthony went on a rant. I hope I got the right guy here. I have to check my PR department.

But he went on a rant about he can't believe how much money Jake Edwards made off this champ character that apparently he bought from some other guy or something. He was so angry at Brother Jake. I don't know the backstory, but it's amazing. It's a great backstory. You've got to dig up that Steve Anthony episode. So it's now like the David Pratt and Bro Jake show, which is one of the shows I do out in Vancouver, which I guess is fairly popular.

Well, yeah, for those who don't know, Brother Jake was on Q107. Right. And I was an impressionable teenager, and I used to listen to that show. I never, like, I would, yeah, The Champ, I never, I would hear it, I guess, on my Ottawa radio stations, too, and never knew what the hell it was. Oh, it was like 640, I think, And I would wake up to that station for a while. And I used to love it. I would go to school. I would do my imitation of the champ.

And we were all listening and trying to make up our own, like, pass the tea bag. I heard your wife's quite the thespian. I said, pardon? I'll have to ask Jake if there was a writer for those things or what the heck it was. Oh, he probably subscribed to some service. All right. Sorry for my brother, he probably subscribed to some service. Right.

Just gave him the joke. All right. Sorry for my brother, Jake. You mentioned Jake Duthie and then all I can think of is brother Jake Edwards. So I mentioned radio because Michael Landsberg, TSN guy forever.

I can't remember a sports desk without Landsberg, actually. He is rumored and I think it's so much... I think you can confirm it here on this show it'll be like a big quick break in his but he's the new morning guy at tsn radio 10 50 i believe that to be correct but perhaps only because i read it on twitter oh see that's a circular uh it's proof because i read it here it's here because i'm pretty sure that he's with dave nailer on the

on the new morning show yes so the uh not to scare you, but the last TSN guy here was Mike Richards, and I guess he's now going to be doing afternoons on, like he's not fired or anything, he's on afternoons because he's got to get out of the way so Naylor and Landsberg can do their new show. I guess I believe that to be correct. Do you confirm or deny these allegations? I believe that is correct. And I think the guys from Leafs Lunch,

I'll probably get in big trouble if this is, so we haven't released this yet? Well, let's pretend you have. Keep going. And I think the guys from Leafs Lunch are now on the drive home. So Brian Hayes and O-Dog and Jamie McLennan, which to me is the most entertaining radio show around

from my own perspective. I probably have bias, but I love those guys. I'm a little surprised at how good Jeff O'Neill is at this role. He's awesome. He's a star. You have to admit, you're a little bit surprised he's that good. I don't know. I don't know.

The very first TV segment I did with him was, I don't know, some sponsored play, best play of the year contest. And him and Jamie McLennan each had to pick a different play and vote. And that was the first time he did TV with us. And about 30 seconds in, I said, OK, this guy's got something because he has an ability to state what makes a good analyst besides being able to see the game well is to state an opinion really strongly you know and have some sort of on-air presence and he had that right away so and plus he's he's self-deprecating he's got the funny like he he kills us if he could tell some of his off-air stories on air some of which he does

he's one of the funniest most self-deprec. Like, I really think he has a chance to be, you know, look, I hate the next Don Cherry thing because I don't think that exists. Don was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and so anybody who's looking

for the next Don Cherry, you're never going to find him. But I think he could be the next sort of star because he's got that not only strong opinions and no fear of saying what's on his mind

and criticizing, which is, look, that's a hard thing to find in hockey, ex-hockey players. But he's funny. Yeah. And you put those things together and I think you have a rare talent. So they're going to go against Bobcat McCowan on the other station. And the morning show is, so Naylor and Landsberg are going to go head-to-head with the Dean Blundell and Company or whatever they're calling it over there, the Blundell Show.

Okay. Yep. So you're – and anything else you want to tell us about TSN 10? Do you know anything else we don't know? I think Leaf's Lunch is still going to exist. It's not dying. It just happens in a different sort of format. So honestly, I don't really – I am –

You don't follow this stuff. No, I'm not. It's not that. It's just that I don't – I am the opposite of an insider. I live the most sheltered life that you could imagine. I live up in Aurora. I spend most of my time at my kids' sporting events. I drive into work.

I got a nice little parking spot right outside our studio. I go in. I do our show, and I leave. I barely even see half the people in the building. So I'm usually the last person to find out these things. But when you're listening in your car, will you sometimes, you'll tune in sometimes 590, see what they're doing, sometimes 1050.

I mean, I'll usually listen to us. Once in a while, I'll flick over, for sure. There's been yesterday. Honestly, most of the time, I'm listening to Sirius, something on Sirius, because I have sad radio. You're listening to the Pearl Jam Station. No, I like to flick it around. You know, I go with the hip hop.

Oh, yeah. I'll do the hits. And they have the Eminem one there. Well, I don't get that one. There's an Eminem station now? Yeah, he's got a station there. It's in the hip hop. I have a no,

there's no reasoning for my taste in music. Like, I'll listen to the hitsy stuff only because my daughters usually have that station on. Yeah, mine too. And then I'll, I like hip hop and then I'll go to like Springsteen for a while and then I'll go to like what, Coffee House once in a while

when I'm in a sad mood. When you want the ballad-y cover of the song. Yeah, the John Mayer Coffee House version of Daughters or something like that. And I'll slowly cry about my daughters getting old. All right. So just to wrap up the changes from yesterday on 590 really quick, because this is fresh news or whatever, but Greg Brady is gone.

Right. So Brady and Walker is now just Walker. And that's the one to four show. And the other guy who's gone is Jeff Samet who was there for like 17 years. Yeah, there's, we went through that thing at our place

a couple of months ago and it's, it's the worst and good guys and good broadcasters and so, I mean, I think it sucks.

Nobody, like nobody cheers because the competition has things like that happen to them. I want our business to be healthy. I want Rogers to make gazillions of dollars. Honestly, that only helps Bell spends more.

Rogers does well. Bell steps up the game. There's an analogy here about boats and water. No, but I'm serious. I'm not being wishy-washy, but it's true. You want a healthy business. You want more jobs to be available because you don't know where your next one is going to be. And I want more as many people.

So all this stuff makes me sick. Whether it's Rogers, whether it's Bell, whether it's these newspapers, a bunch of guys from the Citizen where I used to write a column took buyouts yesterday. It's a freaking awful time in the business. And I hate it because you speak to broadcasting students and I don't know what to tell them. I have a kid who was a friend of my son. My son's in grade 11. This kid was a year older. They used to play hockey together. And he was applying for Ryerson Sports Media. And I don't know what to tell him because there's no jobs right now. and everybody looks at us and says i want to be you and the the chances of that happening are so minuscule but at the same time

you don't want to be the dream killer who says don't do it because i was that like that once and when i was in news at cjoh they said don't go into sports it's a dead-end street and everybody told me don't go into sports don't go into sports and i ended a dead end street. And everybody told me, don't go into sports. Don't go into sports. And I ended up doing it and things worked out okay. And so who am I to say to some kid, don't go do it? Because the one thing I do think is that, A, things change quickly. And B, there's always a need for good storytellers. I don't know what capacity it's going to be.

Maybe it's going to be the way like you are, that somebody runs their own podcast and gets sponsors and makes their money that way or blogs. But if you're a good storyteller, I think there'll always be a place for you. So I never tell anybody to run away, like a lot of people are saying these days, run away from journalism and sports media programs. But it's tough. You better have a backup plan. This is my point. I'm with you, except if you want to make an adult living, like where you can live in a city like Toronto, you can't do what I'm doing.

No, I know. So this is my passion project. Right. And there's a little bit of gas money along the way, literally beer money. You are literally doing it the right way. Like I'd almost advise somebody, look, go and take law or whatever, computer programming, go take whatever you're decent at

and try to do this stuff on the side. Right. And if you can, and because you're setting yourself up for potential disaster if you don't. And there's too many popular seasoned broadcasters right now who will literally work for peanuts just to get back in the game.

Like, no names at all. Just, I have these chats. There are people now... You mentioned the Rogers cuts that are happening as we speak. 200 people across the board at Rogers Media are getting axed, which include the two guys we mentioned from 590.

We just last... Late last year, we had the Bell Media cuts across the country and we saw popular faces from... You mentioned TSN or whether 1010. Mike Toth was in here talking. He was one of the many who got, you know, shafted on that. And I was a big, I was a big fan of Toth in the sports. I called him the day he got laid off because I, you know, he was sort of a polarizing guy, but I, I, he did things like

he, I would say before Jay and Dan was a guy that did things you know they weren't they weren't always successful but he would make me laugh out loud just doing something completely stupid and i like that i like it too yeah like i can remember a time i told him this when it was he was doing a show with lisa bows and they came out of commercial break and all he'd done was he just lowered his chair all the way down because we had these up and down chairs which we still have at tsn so only his head was over the desk and it was the stupidest thing ever and Lisa's trying to be a pro going Mike what are you doing and and that kind of stuff it's really stupid and it makes me laugh yeah I'm laughing just here yeah and it was the same sort of stuff

I think that Jay and Dan do that made them popular so So I was a big fan of... I like guys that do things differently, and Toth was one of those guys. So I hope he gets something somewhere. Alright, you mentioned Jay and Dan, so let me ask you, because there's big changes coming to Fox Sports. So they bolt for, I'm sure, lucrative contracts from Fox Sports or whatever. But I just read an article

Fox Sports is making big changes. Not that they... Jay and Dan are not fired or anything, but they're changing where they're appearing on that station. Yeah, I think they're relaunching their show. Look, I'm not going to lie. I was down there in San Francisco, and whatever's going on on that network right now is a disaster.

This Jason Whitlock show that they did for Super Bowl week was terrible. They had Jay and Dan in a closet somewhere, which, you know, they made funny because they're remarkably talented. But I don't know. I worry about that network and where it's going because they clearly don't, they're not going to do any highlights anymore. They want to do all these, you know, copy ESPN

and these hot takes, which that's a whole other topic to me is one of the more ridiculous things about the business now is that's all that sells. That's your hot take. Somebody, yeah, my hot take is that I hate hot takes.

And I just, I'm not a big fan of those shows at all because I think it's all pure BS and I think people make up half of their opinions and just to yell on television. Just to be contrarian. They don't really feel that way.

Like Donald Trump will be the best president in the United States history. Like, now I'm going to do that because it's provocative. I like people who are who they are. You know, Mike Milbury was like that in a way. He was very good at it, but we would sit in our meetings

when he was an analyst with TSN, and a certain subject would come up, and the producer would say, how do you feel about this, Mike? And he'd listen to everybody else and be completely calm. And he says, I'm not sure how I feel about, Mike? And he'd listen to everybody else and be completely calm. And he says, I'm not sure how I feel about it. And then he'd go on air and he'd go on a rant

and say this was the stupidest thing ever, which was great television. He was a smart man. He did it. But I didn't always believe that he meant it. It's not authentic. I didn't believe that he meant it. And these guys, and Mike's good.

Like, he does care. A lot of these guys in the States, Stephen A. Smith, I know he doesn't care about half the things he rants on, but people buy guys in the States, Stephen A. Smith, I know he doesn't care about half the things he rants on, but people buy it. And if Fox is going that way, like the stuff they had on the air last

week was just utter and complete crap. And I was talking to Jay and Dan about their relaunch and their show. I think those guys are good enough that I just hope they're given tools because if they're given crap to work with, it's hard to succeed. But I think if anybody can,

those guys can. Do you think they might want to come home? I don't think so. I don't think they're coming back. I really don't. They went down at a good time in their lives and I think they've established themselves enough down there that even if Fox goes down the toilet, that they'd get something else, whether it be ESPN or a radio show or something. I think that they have, you know, strong enough characters that, and people like them enough down there that that's what they would get.

So I don't think they'll be back. I really don't. Well, how about James Duthie? Has he considered, I'll speak about, Jimmy, what does Jimmy think? Jimmy? Have you thought about jumping ship and going to the United States like Jay and Dan?

Actually, that's a question I should give credit to Jay on Twitter. I have some people who tweeted in questions for you. Jay on Twitter wants to know if you've thought about it. Jay on, right? Yeah, it might be, you know. He wants to know if you've thought about jumping to the States. So, I mean, I think every broadcaster has. I think more when I was younger, I did, like in my 20s and such.

You know, I grew up watching NFL and things things and that's my original dream was to do NFL play by play. That's what I wanted to do. Uh, opportunities wise, like nobody called until I would say I never, I had some, some local station, I think in Seattle during my first or second year on TSN called and made me an offer, which I wasn't interested in. I had, uh, Oh, let's see, this is going to be another one of those stories I'm going to tell without names and stuff, but I'll, I got to give you something here today. So I had a weird series of things happen. I starting, I think five or six years ago where, uh, the only, this is the only interest I've really ever had from the States.

A very senior executive at one of the major networks called me. And the first time he called me, he was interested in me doing college football and not leaving TSN, but like flying down to do a series of college football games in the fall. And so it never got, he never made me an offer. We just talked about it for a long time. And then I can't remember what happened. Uh, I think the host, he had had a contractual issue with getting rid of the guy they had. So he was going to keep him for another year. And so we put it off for a year. And so then the next time he called me was one of the weirdest things in my career. A major, major name in broadcasting

in the States had left that particular network. And he was calling with the idea of me replacing this person. And it was so bizarre to me because I am fully aware of who I am. I don't look like Stone Phillips. I don't have the, you know, the opinions or the personality of Stephen A. Smith. I think that I am a Canadian guy who, if you do like me, it's probably because you've watched me for a few years and I've become credible over a few years and you think I do a decent job hosting. And so the idea of me being put onto this show, which was maybe the biggest property or one of the biggest properties in TV shows in the States,

made no sense to me. And by the end of the conversation, I talked him out of it because I said, how is this possible? People in America are going to see me come on here and go, who the hell is this guy? Yeah, you are a lousy negotiator. Yeah, no, but it didn't make any sense.

I was interested, but I said it would make much more sense if I started, you know, you put me on the show in some lesser way and worked the way up. And I think I talked them out of it by the end of it. So that was really weird. And then I would say the biggest time that it happened was right near the end of one of my contracts at TSN I'm trying to think of the year it was the year that uh all I know was the year that the all-star game was in Carolina and the year that Phil Kessel got picked last in that fantasy draft because I remember that was one of the days I had the converse one of the conversations with the guy and this was the first time it got real serious. And they had a job for me that would entail hosting college football,

having a role on an NFL show, and doing one other sport. And he literally called me every day for about three weeks. And I was really uncertain about the whole thing because I'd never felt the need to go down there. I really like Canada. I really like doing hockey and all things Canadian. But obviously it was, you know, there's temptation involved. And I can remember he called me.

So he was like the second in command at this network. And he called me and said, OK, you know, obviously I had to go to the big guy for approval. The big guy loves you. So we're going to put together over the next few days a contract offer for you we'll fax it to your agent we'll fax it to you and off we'll go and he was already talking like he's like can't wait to have you join us sort of thing and i was really had i had this pit in my stomach because i wasn't sure i wanted to do it but you know my wife was already looking at real estate on MLS and trying to pick out a

house for us and the whole thing. And so I can't remember the exact timeframe, but let's say the contract was supposed to arrive on Monday for me to look at. It never came. And let's say, I don't know, Wednesday or Thursday of that week, something like that, a few days later, I'm driving and listening to the radio. And on a TSN 1050 update, it says that this, the big guy has resigned from the network. And I actually laughed out loud. I said, well, I guess that probably kills that thing. And the weird thing was the second in command guy, I never heard from him again. He never called me.

He never emailed. So he went literally from calling me every day for two to three weeks to he never called me again. And I saw him maybe six months or a year later at some major sporting event. And he came over and said, hi, shook my hand and said, how you doing? And I said, how you doing? And that was it. Like he acted like it. No closure. He acted like it had never happened before.

And that actually made me really content. Like I don't know that I would have gone anyway. I was really happy at TSN. And when it went away, the pit in my stomach went away, and I always thought, okay, that meant that I, you know, it wasn't a time for me to go. But I always thought it was really weird that the guy never called back. Like, who does that? How do you not send

an email or something and say, look, my boss just left. This is not going to happen. I'm surprised you didn't seek the closure. It's just not my way. I probably should have called, but I always thought if you want to contact me, you should, and that's the way I would handle it. So I just let it be. And even when I met him that time, you know, it was

at some party or something, and I wanted to say, what the hell happened with that job offer? But I didn't bother to. So anyway, that was the only real time. But I've never felt, I think Jay and Dan, the other thing is the time frame in your life. Maybe if people had asked me when I was younger, but when you get kids, you know what it's like.

You have three kids. Even at the time that that came about, my kids were, I don't know, 13, you know, 10,

12. They're established. I like living here. I think it's a better time to go. Like Jay went at the perfect time. He, you know, just was about to get married

or just been married. Didn't have any kids yet. He has one now. And Dan had a young family. So I think that's the time you go. Yeah. And honestly, nobody, nobody wanted me back then So I think that's the time you go. And honestly, nobody wanted me back then.

I never got an agent in the States. Most people that get a job in the States have an agent that looks around for them and finds something. I just never had the desire to do that. You know, I'm glad you stayed because I feel too many of our quality broadcasters are jumping to

but partly our fault because as you mentioned before, the industry is shrinking. Like there's only so many jobs and there's less and less every year. So it must be nerve wracking. I think of Greg Brady because, so Greg Brady now is let go by Rogers. I'm sure he's severed fairly or whatnot, but he recently,

I don't want to say burn bridges because maybe that doesn't exist, but he's known for some on-air rants against 1050. And then you realize, okay, if you can't work for Rogers or Bell, that's like more than half the jobs. It is. And that's a sad part of the industry. Yeah, so the states must be enticing because at least they seem to have jobs if you will in your industry yeah but

it's changing there as well it's not the same way it used to be even i think on the pay scale with uh you know david amber is a good friend of mine who has been down and worked for espn he came back and you know i think he he liked his time at espn but you know he chose to come back to canada which i greatly admired too he could have gone down there and chased it. Right. But I don't think it's all what it's cut out to be. Even Jay and Dan, who I think have been money-wise and opportunity-wise and lifestyle-wise,

they've loved it there, but look, I don't think they're happy with what's going on in their network right now. I mean, I think they've said that publicly. And I mean, money is not everything. It's not. It's not. In the end, look, I've said this before, but whenever you're faced with a decision like this on should I stay or should I go,

you've got to say to yourself, okay, do I like the people I work with? Well, I sit and work with Bob and Dregs every night who are two of my best friends. O-Dog and Jamie McLennan, these guys make me laugh. I really like the guys, not to mention the guys behind the scenes, our crew and stuff. I really like those guys. And I like my bosses, which I know is not a trendy thing in the world, but I like the guys I work for.

And so if those things are true, and if you drive to work every day and you like being there, then that's three quarters of the battle, right? You're right. You're right. I know I've kept you longer than I said I would, so I'll try to wrap this up quickly. By the way, you just answered Brian on Twitter.

His question was about if you had ever been approached by American networks, but you did a great job telling that story. I gave a lot of no-name stories. A lot of no-names. In my head, I'm thinking, who's this big name he'd be replacing? But you know, was it an NFL or a NCAA? Was it an NFL gig? What was the gig, the big name that you were going to come in and replace? Was that, give me a little, you don't have to give me initials.

That particular show was an NFL show. All right. I think you could probably, if you sat and looked around the time frame of whatever it was four or five years ago, if someone was really bored and you'd have to be super bored to do this,

you could probably figure out who the executive I was talking about left was. All right, guys, you have your call to action here, okay? And who the broadcaster was.

All right, cool. Do you and Maggie the monkey still keep in touch? That monkey's dead is that that's true is that true i said that once on air and i got i got in trouble because kids were like writing tearful letters saying james on tv said the monkey was dead maggie i think actually truth be told i think the monkey died in the midst of her five-year run i think they switched monkeys like that one of the monkeys died and they brought in another monkey.

How do we know? They all stank the same way. It's like Lassie. There were 100,000 Lassies. But that goes back to one of your earlier questions about Rogers and the criticism of the stuff. Look, I had a monkey on my shoulder in the playoffs for five years so who am I to throw stones? Rob J. on Twitter

says, who at TSN thought serious NHL fans would appreciate a monkey taking on a role as an analyst? Sorry, what was his name? Rob J. I will say to Rob J., I am with you 100%, Rob. But unfortunately, that monkey was ridiculously popular. We all hated it. I've told this story many times.

It crapped all over my suit and peed all over the studio. But people loved the freaking monkey, and so they kept bringing it back. The worst, I tell the story in the book, the worst time ever, once we decided the monkey was getting old. By the way, this is the way things work in television. Eric Neuschwander, who works at Rogers now, used to work at TSN, really good guy, producer. He's in a meeting, and this is the early years of NHL on TSN,

and they're like, how do we spice up our coverage? And he goes, why don't we get a monkey? He was joking. And they go, the executives go, that's a great idea. Get on that. And so one year, the monkey's getting boring. So they bring in a lemur as well from the same zoo. And lemurs are these weird animals that have to,

they sit on your shoulders and they have to sit upright. And so they put the lemur on my head while the monkey was spinning the wheel. And this lemur has claws that were like digging into my skull. And you're on live TV and you have this, like you can feel this trickle of cerebral spinal fluid going down the back of your neck and thinking you're going to die on television from a lemur attack. And that's what my career had come to at that point. And you're like, like oh i made a huge mistake yeah exactly what have i done should have stayed at sports center uh matt and dj that's the

name of the twitter handle matt and dj i don't know if it's matt or dj but matt and dj on twitter ask uh with all the changes in media are you stressed over lack of security let me just say to everyone you are sweating profusely right now. You are under great stress. My feet are freezing. I should have asked you for slippers or something. Get your guest slippers, especially the ladies next time. What is it, minus 17 out?

On days like this, it can get cold down here. True. I don't know. Look, I've had a really good run, and so I honestly don't stress over that. So maybe I'm naive and dumb that I don't know. Look, I've had a really good run, and so I honestly don't stress over that. Right. So maybe I'm naive and dumb that I don't. Plus, I got a pretty good bio clause.

So you're hoping you get it next time the Bell Media cuts come. No, I hope to stay there and do my thing for a while. But I don't stress, but I stress for the people and the jobs that are vulnerable. I'm hopeful that you will always need people that can host panels and such, although they could probably decide that a monkey could do it, and I have no necessity, and that I'm way too overpaid for it. But I try not to stress.

If you move aside that 1% making the real cash, the 99% in the media are working very hard for very surprisingly little for the average Joe to learn what somebody they see on TV or whatever is making. Like, oh, wow, I make more than that. Like, they're shocked for a moment. Right. But the 1% does quite well, and then there's a great fall. Right.

Where's the question there? That's my hot take. I thought I'd put it. There's no question. What am I going to say to you? You make too much money? When I say it, I say the same thing to broadcasting students. If you say, okay, so say take, you're thinking about what you're going to do in school,

and you take, okay, I'm going to go into finance, or I'm going to go into medicine, or I'm going to go into law, or I'm going to go into broadcasting. And you say, okay, in those other three fields, what do the top 10% make, or maybe the top 20% make great money, or whatever it is, whereas I think it's probably less than 1% what you're talking about. If you're talking about really, really great money, you're talking about a quarter of a percent or something like that in media.

And just really decent money is probably... It's just Bobcat, isn't it? It's probably 1%. Yeah, that in media. And just really decent money is probably... It's just Bobcat, isn't it? It's probably 1%. Yeah, that's right. And just I always... This is not a question, another hot take, but you can feel like you're making too...

Not yourself, of course, but you could be making too much money and then you become a target. And I don't know anything about why Greg Brady was let go. I quite like the guy as a broadcaster and as a human being but uh there's two guys there there's brady and walker and brady kind of comes in with some leverage from a competitor and then he's the morning show guy so you know that there's only two spots in radio that actually pay decent

and it's like the morning guy and then the drive home guy and he's one of them but then he's put at one to four which is not known for paying very well but he has the salary of the morning guy and then the drive home guy and he's one of them. But then he's put at one to four, which is not known for paying very well, but he has the salary of a morning guy and he's not as young as Walker who came in from Calgary. So I don't have to know their salaries to know Brady was making more money than Walker.

Maybe that's the reason if you're going to cut somebody, you're going to cut Brady because he's getting more money and maybe there's a danger in being paid too much money. Yeah, sir. I think when we did our last contracts,

Bob and I and Dregs all had that conversation that that's always a possibility. You got targets on the back now? But what are you going to do, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are you going to do? No, I don't want that much because I don't want the target. And you know, radio is such, you've talked a lot about radio in this last hour or so and it's a different animal

where I think your people are listening based on personalities a lot more and so there's a lot more pressure in that game. I think that there is for me where people are not watching for me. They are watching for the quality of the game that I am hosting, and hopefully I'm just not going to screw it up and not make them not want to watch because I'm so annoying

that hopefully I'll just get it to the analysts, let them analyze the game, hopefully throw in a little bit of entertainment here and there, and we'll maybe enhance or at least keep them watching during intermissions or pregames. But it's not the same thing as being a radio host whose entire

personality carries a program. You're right. Matt on Twitter, by the way, wanted me to ask you about the Wubber Boots story, but instead I think you tell that story wonderfully on an episode of the Jay and Dan. Right. So I don't know if I want to tell people they should go look for that,

or if you want to give a quick Reader's Digest version of the Wubber Boots. I promise to retire the story after the book, although I'll tell you a funny story. As soon as Jay and Dan left TSN, they started approaching me about doing a podcast. And I'm still sort of contemplating it, although I watch you and it seems like a lot of work.

And it just seems hard when you have a bunch of kids and I'm busy as it is. It's true. But I still may do the podcast. And if I do the podcast, the podcast will be called the Rubber Boots Podcast because I still get probably 20 people a day on Twitter say to me, are you wearing your rubber boots tonight? So this goes back to my

days bringing the podcast full circle here at CJOH in Ottawa when I first started doing sports. And you have to remember, this is 1993, 94, and the whole world is different. There's no internet and people, our phone number is in the phone book because you don't have any cellular phones either. So people call the sportscaster at the station to get scores of games because there aren't games on TV. So every night my phone would ring 30 times,

people saying, what's the score in the Habs game? Because there was only games on TV usually on Saturday nights. God, I'm old. And so you would also get these regular callers who would call you all the time and just to chat, like lonely people, basically. Sure. It's still like that, by the way.

So one night I answer the phone. Hey, CJOH Sports. And this guy goes, hey, how are you? And I go, good, how are you? And he goes, you wearing your rubber boots tonight? And I go, good, how are you? And he goes, you wearing your rubber boots tonight? And I said, pardon? You wearing your rubber boots tonight? My rubber boots? Yeah. No. Do you want to score or something, buddy? Hey, I got one more question. What is it? You like the dunk tank? Pardon? The dunk tank at the fair. The dunk tank at the fair? Yeah. You like that? So anyway,

I said, look, buddy, get lost. I hung up on him. So next night he calls back again. Hey, how are you? Hang up, hang up about 10 nights in a row. Finally, one night I'm bored. So I'm like, hey, how are you? You wearing your rubber boots tonight? Yeah, you know what? Actually, I am wearing my rubber boots tonight. Oh, what color? My Actually, I am wearing my rubber boots tonight. Oh, what color? My purple ones. I got my purple ones on tonight. Oh, could you put them up on the desk for me?

So he had some rubber boots fetish. And so that started a relationship whereby I'd entertain him every night with, yeah, I am. Tonight I got my polka dot rubber boots on tonight. Oh, please put them up on the desk for me. And the rubber boots guy became like my best friend. And so I told that story on the Jay and Dan podcast. And since then, most people who see me or tweet me say,

are you wearing your rubber boots tonight? And that was the voice. It was this kind of combination of Joe Pesci and Goodfellas and Elmer Fudd mixed together. It sounds a bit like an Adam Sandler character. It is a little Adam Sandler. Maybe that's because I don't do good imitations. But to my best recollection, that's what the Rubber Boots guy sounded like.

And I don't know what happened to him. He doesn't know now that he's famous on podcasts and in my books. The other dunk tank was my thing. You like the dunk tank? Like who? I'm glad you told that. I don't even want to know.

I was secretly hoping you'd tell it again on my show instead of everyone going over to Jay and Dan. There you go. They've got enough listeners over there. The guy on the left, sports stories from the best seat in the house. I pretty much told the whole book today, so screw that. You don't have to go by that. Here are a few stories I enjoy. You chatted with Tiger Woods in the men's room at the Masters.

This happened. Right. You would know you were there, right? Right. I retired that story, too, so I'll have to read the book for that one. And kind of because I want to end on a sadder note, we're having too much fun. September 11, 2001. Right.

You went on the air that night. And I just can't imagine what that... Well, you mentioned, actually, you had a... Going on the air in Ottawa after the... that night. And I just, I can't imagine what that, well, you mentioned actually, you had a, going on the air in Ottawa after the... Brian Smith. Right.

Right. Well, that was different because it was more personal. Of course. Although 2009-11 felt personal to all of us. That was, Dutchie and I

were doing SportsCenter at the time and we just, both of us, we called each other during the day. We said, we're not doing a show tonight. We can't do a show tonight.

Never have you felt more irrelevant, more small, I think, in what we did in our jobs than that day. But the bosses kept saying, you know, it's important that we do something. And they were right in the end. We fought it, but they were right. We just did a half an hour show that basically had reaction from players and talked about games being canceled and so on and so forth.

But it was a really, really strange, crazy, horrific day, as we all remember, and a weird day to do television. And you're right. It really put things in perspective. Like that night, you start, oh, who cares about a silly game that adults play?

If you ever have Rod Black on, he, if you remember, hosted Canada AM for a very brief time. I think it was one year or two years. And that was his second day on the job. Hosting Canada AM when the planes hit the towers.

And then that's a sports guy doing news for the first time. I would have Rod Black on the show, but only if he grows the mustache back first. I think they all should. Schultzy, Suter, Rod Black, Gino. I think all of the show. They just came way out of fashion.

Is that what happened to these mustaches? Come on, bring it back. I can't grow one, so. Me neither. People ask me to partake in Movember, and I said, I actually do. You just don't notice. You and I are cut from that same cloth.

I try, and it just looks sad. Like when Sundin would try to grow the playoff beard. Or even Crosby. It's just awful. Don't even try. And that brings us to the end of our 158th show. You can follow me on Twitter at Toronto Mike. And James is at TSN James Duthie.

Not Jake Duthie. James Duffy, not Jake Duffy, James Duffy, or just Jimmy at Jimmy. Hey, when you rubble boots, see you all next week. Drink some goodness from a tin Cause my UI check has just come in Ah, where you been?

Because everything is kind of rosy and green Yeah, the wind is cold But the sky's so warm today