1867 Sports Show Ep. 23 - Taulia Tagovailoa's Signing, CFL's New Deal, Olympic Preview & More

[Music] 1867 Sports show back again for another fantastic week we are on episode number Ron Lancaster tonight Mr Skinner what's going on brother I'm doing pretty well we got big Father's Day coming up and uh you know not to tease what we're going to finish off with here but uh we're going to finish off with some stories that I cannot wait to unfurl for the world to hear but uh no I'm doing pretty good yourself ah just fine man just fine been a very busy couple of weeks as uh you and I have both discussed but uh overall can't complain you know can't complain we're we're doing well everyone's healthy and happy and uh yeah it's just gota you know get more hours in the day somehow that's all yeah just got to squeeze in an extra you know four hours make them 28 hour days we're we're all laughing at that point it's Gotta clone yeah we gotta clone ourselves get a couple more hours in the day we're all good you know we just got to figure that out yeah and then the Edmonton Oilers need to figure out their lives so that you're in a bit of a better mood there so there you go you gotta start it off right out of the gate I mean you what I'm clearly turning into just Mr negativity on this show so if anything I'm feeding into my character here you're way too optimistic time to hit you with some reality here what what's going on with your beloved Boys in blue though well they can't seem to get the puck near the net which is a problem when you want to score goals but uh that as an issue in hockey it does it's it's a pretty big issue um but yeah Florida is just a really good hockey team like people who don't watch them play very often they're a very good hockey team and when they're up on you it's very difficult for you know for a team to come back and actually you know you tie a game and or take a lead when you know they're behind so yeah I mean full credit to the Panthers full credit to the coaching staff I mean we' mentioned it a couple times Paul Maurice is just a an absolute tactician when it comes to developing defensive game plans and strategies so I got to give them full props Edmonton I mean they're not playing terrible they're actually playing pretty well you know some untimely turnovers have been costing them some uh some pretty big opportunities but that's going to happen right it's just it's going to happen now you know we we talked about this last week about you know the the Canadian teams kind of being snake bit and kind of going through these situations of oh well you know they were close they didn't make it they were close they didn't make it you know this is you know it just kind of Screams the same type of situation right when you look at it on the service you're down two to nothing wo is me the world's you know the world's falling well we saw this in the Vancouver Series right we saw this in the Dallas series Edmonton is just a glutton for punishment they love when people start counting them out they love when their fan base starts to turn on them and that's when they seem to you know put their pedal on the on the medal here so um yeah I I I look at this and it's kind of you know app propo if I were to use a a big word from the dictionary um look at me um but but it is very fitting that we spoke about this topic last week because I mentioned the team that I kind of saw having the best opportunity squandered was the 2011 Vancouver Canucks MH the reason why was because they were the last team to go up two to nothing in a Stanley Cup Series and then loose so look at you you're already playing out the reverse card here right I mean it seems to work every time I do it with you it seems to come back and and actually helped so I mean let's just hope that we're due for one of these types of scenarios where a team who's up to nothing kind of rests on their Laurels a little bit and uh lets up and you know gets uh gets the team down 02 back in the series and uh yeah again gotta be an optimist because if I wasn't this would be a very different episode tonight if I if I didn't have my rosecolor glasses on well you know what there's no team that embodies you're never in trouble till you lose on home ICE quite like the Edmonton Oilers run this year you know I I think in game one obviously that was a poor performance I think we we can agree on that one game two they at least had a little bit of spark to them but like you were saying it's just they seem lost when they get into the offensive zone which is very uncharacteristic of a team led by Conor McDavid and LeAndre iidle and some of the Firepower that this team has on their roster but I I think what's going on right now too is you're slowly seeing as this series goes on the Matthew kachuck of the world and some of the extracurriculars after the Whistle the Evan Rodriguez of the world yeah they're I think they're they're starting to find a way to get under you know the oiler skin a little bit throw them off their game plan and sometimes when that does happen and you go down 02 right like it it does need a all right we're we're back home let's reset shift the mentality it's home ice new series throw out what went down in South Florida you know they they've got to come up here and win one if they want to be hoisting Lord Stanley's cup so it it really is a good time for them to try to reset here but at a certain point not only on offense but I mean you're you're well aware of it here the revolving door on defense as far as all right we'll we'll put CC in oh no that was a mistake let's take CC out and oh injury well cc is probably going back in now and it's just just like that fourth through sixth defenseman right now has kind of been questionable right yeah boilers so it's not just oh we can pin this all on Skinner oh we can pin it all on the fact that they're not producing offensive like across the board there were a lot of ugly spots that they kind of need to smooth out when they get back home here so game three is going to be absolutely huge for him um I mean you look at the fact that like eblad are apparently throwing rear naked chokes on you know Evan buire to the point that's the first tap out I've ever seen in NHL history but this this is a series that's getting more and more physical as you go yeah and that plays into the Panthers yeah so there there's going to be a need for a massive shift in Tempo in philosophy in everything it's kind of throw out everything that we've been doing because it hasn't been working we got to come up with something knew when they take the ice for game three yeah and I think what really needs to happen for Edmonton to get the spark in game three is they need McDavid or drad to score the first goal yeah that's what they need to happen like McDavid if you haven't been watching the Stanley Cup he is buzzing like no one in the hockey world can buzz like he's playing so well but he's just he can't put the puck in the net which is obviously VI ly problematic but he's doing everything else right like he's controlling the puck he's obviously the best skater in the league he's doing the things that you want a captain to do which is Galvanized his team but I just think that there's that sense of defeat when it's like well our best guys aren't putting the puck on the net how are we going to right the Warren fogal the Ryan mcclouds the you know the Evander kanes like they're just sitting there saying well if we have to shoulder the load of putting the puck in the net here we're in trouble because we've got two of the best players in the world who are also struggling to put the puck in the net so I think what needs side of that there as well too right you can already see the narrative where if you know dry cidal or McDavid goes out there and has a three or fourpoint night they win it's a 2-1 series suddenly the headlines on every Sports show is Oilers are back in it momentum is shifted right yeah so it it really is you know if one of them has that breakout night whole new series yeah and and you know and to put things kind of in perspective too I mean we talk about the the big three for Edmonton so far in the playoffs McDavid a dry CID and buard right dry Sidle and buard haven't really been at their best the first two games if you watch the games like they're making uncharacteristic mistakes they're turning the puck over way more than they usually do and they're always in big moments like Bard coughed up two pucks that led to goals last night right so it's it's a situation where you're 100% right if you can kind of get those three guys back on track and you know because I look at iman's you know working his ass off Newan Hopkins working his ass up like the the regular guys who were the grit and hustle guys they're still showing up right and I think what you saw was like a guy like Warren Fogle who is an energy type guy he tried to kind of galvanize everything with that big hit and then he ended up you know sticking his knee out and all of a sudden now the momentum shifts right so those are the types of things that you look at the hustle aspect of it and you respect it but everybody's got to be on that same page because if in order to be the team like Florida you need to play 60 hard minutes and if you don't play 60 hard minutes even if you play 58 hard minutes those two minutes where they're being more physical than you that's when they capitalize and that's what you're seeing happen every series The Rangers you know had them in a a pretty good strangle hold in that series well you give them any crack of life and Florida's taking advantage of it and they're going to come back and they're going to beat you so yeah I mean this isn't the Dallas Stars this isn't the Vancouver Canucks this isn't the LA Kings like Florida is by far the best team that Edmonton has seen thus far this season and they just need to be able to again relax get their big guys going once those guys start putting the puck in the net you're going to see a much more relaxed atmosphere and when that when that arena is buzzing in Edmonton pretty hard to beat you know the momentum and the energy that you're going to get from that so yeah again optimistic for game three home ice is a completely different you know matchup so we'll uh we'll hope for the best and yeah go oil yeah doesn't hurt that uh bosski is playing absolutely out of his mind right now to the point that he's uh reminiscent of early 90s Dominic hassk with his sprawling you know leg cartwheel saves and all that going on to the point where you know when the Olympics roll around you look at that and it' be like God what Canada would give to have something like that as a number one net minder and baros is probably gonna get cut from the Russian team yeah yeah and yeah we won't get into Babi because I mean I'll give him his props but uh yeah it just kind of upsets me at how well he's playing right now so we'll uh we'll save that for another day yeah well you know what why don't we transition to a subject that we can get some golf claps going here because thanan kid Adam hadwin third place finish at the memorial over the weekend and for those that were watching as well too I mean there there's no hotter golfer on the entire planet than Scotty Sheffer right now who is just going out there and is already not even mid June has set the single season PGA tour earnings record already did you s sorry to interrupt you but did you see the guy who placed a wager on Scotty Sheffer to finish top 10 in 10 or more tournaments this year he parlayed it and he put a hundred bucks down and if he wins he's gonna get like a million dollar payout well and it's like looking pretty good yeah he's looking very good because I think he's already halfway there and it's only five tournaments in oh yeah yeah like Barron catastrophic injury like the closest he's been is when Sheffer got arrested yeah in Louisville there so yeah as long as he doesn't have any more run-ins with security or uh local sheriff's departments I think he he's sitting pretty there stay out of the South yeah absolutely uh but I mean hadwin had a moment where he was one back sheffler was kind of struggling so you're kind of thinking oh my God like is he gonna go out there and actually Dethrone you know the world number one here and then had had some struggles closing out the front nine and then he got right back into it and then kind of struggle down the stretch ultimately ends up finishing four underpar um couple shots back of Sheffer so wasn't really In Contention during the home stretch there but had his moments on Sunday which is exactly what you want to see because top of his strong performance there for those that are kind of keeping track of okay you know Paris Olympics are coming up this weekend at the US Open is the final event that they take into consideration for who makes the world golf rankings kind of cut for each international country here with that strong performance all of a sudden hadwin jumps up 24 spots and he goes from outside looking in to all of a sudden current Olympian yeah it's not like it's a a foregone conclusion like we were kind of saying last episode there when we were talking about golf used to be Mike Weir and the also rans right now you've legitimately got five golfers who are all top 100 in the world golf rankings and with the fact that it's a major you know that there's additional points available in this so a strong showing this weekend could ultimately make or break who's going to the Olympics for the red and white tier yeah and yeah we mentioned this several times but it's never been stronger in regards to a collaborative effort from you know Canadian Gulf so you look at the fact that now they're B in for positions whereas you mentioned before it's like Mike Weir and then whoever the top qualifier is right so the fact amateur from Windsor Ontario yeah the fact that golf is back at the Olympics the fact that now I think across the board you're seeing more International golfers really Excel and this is again a rotating you know a rotating conversation that we have regardless of sport you know 10 years ago Canada basketball you know it was Andrew Wiggins and whoever else was willing to join him you know Canadian um you know Canadian soccer weren't even on the radar not even the top 100 in the world and now you fast forward to 2024 you know hockey basketball you know baseball golf like every sport that we end up talking about in regards to Canadian athletics they're doing extremely well regardless of how much the administration gets in the way like that's that's really the only thing holding all these things back from being these Feelgood stories and they still are because the athletes are obviously the main focus here but imagine if you had all of the groups collaboratively say hey top Executives can you guys just take a step back put the money in the places that it should be going and then just stop wouldn't that be nice What a Wonderful World this would be if happened so yeah I mean going back to the golf conversation you know Adam hadwin is a guy who has shown some promise in past tournaments you know he he obviously has the skill set to be a contender it's just the matter of consistency which is the case for a lot of Canadian golfers like Nick Taylor's in the same boat the only guy who really you can say yeah I'll I'll be confident that he'll finish top 20 every tournament is Cory Conor right so you look at all the people who have a chance now to represent their country and go to the Olympics Canada's Got a great shot at a team medal here and regardless of who you get you want the people who are playing the best golf at the right time so if Adam hadman is gonna choose now to shoot up the rankings and finish top five in these tournaments all the power to you because you're going to bring the momentum with you and you're going to make sure that you're getting your spots solidified so let's just keep keep the good Positive Vibes going and uh yeah let's let's get the best team over there that we can to compete for for a medal yeah and you know hadwin has certainly had his fair share of shots at winning tours hasn't won one yet this season but five top 10 finishes already which is absolutely F you know fantastic yeah he's in it on Sundays which is all you can really want as a competitor right you never want to enter Sunday as is like well just made the cut yeah made the cut my job's done here but uh I I mean with with all of those strong finishes he's kind of peing at the right time and like you said maybe the summer games is kind of where that Mountaintop of his season ultimately Crescendo there right and he's kind of been building up and all all of these strong finishes and now we're getting to the Mountaintop here gonna make another note of a large fantastic word that we views on this show so we've had aopo and Crescendo it's good it's good Let me let me tell you we are Quasi educational over here on this podcast as well too but you got Nick Taylor at number 32 right you got hadwin at 35 in the world then you've got Cory Connor 46 Taylor pendri 65 McKenzie Hughes 66 and then Adam venson at 89 only two of them are going to make it US Open coming up here so if you you were a betting man who who are the two that you think will ultimately end up qualifying based on their world golf rankings once everyone's done on Sunday at Pinehurst number two this weekend I I think the smart money would probably be on Nick Taylor and Corey Connor I think those are the two guys who you see kind of and after all that we talked about hadwin here comes the Cur before I before I get into that I said I think the smart money is on that however I think my dumb money D money um I I think a good opportunity for anyone who's willing to place a bet on who's going to make you know the team would be wise to put some money on Adam hadwin because I think that people are going to discredit you know these performances and not you know give him the credit that he needs so yeah I I would not be surprised if he actually does creep into that spot and it ends up being because I think Nick Taylor's pretty much locked in right now where he is so it really comes down to hadwin and Connors now I mentioned Connor's just kind of steady Edy he's Mr reliable he's you know he makes Cuts he finishes top 20 top 25 in most events but you just mentioned a really key stat Adam hadwin is playing the best golf of his career right now and he's got top 10 finishes you know Galore the season so if he can continue that and let's see this next tournament is the big one that really determines where things are who's going to finish you know top 10 if finishes top 10 and hadwin slides down to you know top 30 or missed the cut then you'll see the leap frog happen if it happens the opposite way where you know Connors is going to be in that 30 range 25 to 30 range but hadwin puts together another performance where he now finishes in the top 10 again well you've now locked yourself in right so I I think where I would go I would say Taylor and Connors are probably my you know where I would go with it but again hadwin is as good a choice as any if you're looking to to you know put a bet on somebody yeah and for selfish reasons simply because I want to see them try and actually compete for a medal here rather than oh that was a solid middle of the pack kind of running that Canada had right that's kind of why I want to see Taylor and hadwin right because they end up having Taylor is already won this year right that the Phoenix Open or aka the biggest party in the desert and you know hadwin is playing arguably the best golf of his career right now they kind of give you that shot at hey they strung together a couple of rounds here and suddenly they they're rating the mix of it for the podium whereas nothing against Connors he is the consumate like he said PR's Pro he's going to be earning a paycheck every tournament he pretty much goes out to right he very rarely misses the cut he's in the money all the time but does he give you the shot at a medal or is he kind of that cool he finished seventh well they don't have a metal Beyond three so you know tin there you go we earned a tin medal or one one name though that he would obviously need to have the performance of a career to shoot up into the top two here but as an interesting one is McKenzie Hughes because he's kind of that boom bust golfer where he's either right in the thick of it or he Flames out in a hurry so if he ends up putting together a really strong US Open and shoots up the rankings again does he get hot and he can capture lightning in a bottle for a week in Paris maybe but you know if Connor ends up going I'm not going to lose sleep over it but if we're truly hoping for a medal at least in my mind I don't know if Connors is who I necessarily want to see going yeah and I mean you're you're not wrong for having that mentality because like I said I think hadwin gives you that extra confidence that he can get hot at the right time you know Conor is going to come out and give you what you need adwin gives you what you want right he gives you the hope so yeah I mean regardless of who they send I think this is the most complete you know roster of Canadian talent like we mentioned before that we've ever seen so I'm very very confident very happy very comfortable you know with whoever is going to be representing Canada at the Olympics no absolutely so switching from uh one kind of grass over to another here we're gonna go to the GD transition transitioning here you would think how does one transition from the Olympic Golf to the CFL and you know we're we're gonna trip and stumble our way there with analogy we got there folks we're going from Alabama Bluegrass over to nothing but field Turf that's great astro turf here we go astro turf yeah no shortage of storylines coming out of the CFL over the last week obviously we've got meaningful football getting played but you and I you know we we've done our previews we've kind of run through quite a few teams here so we kind of zeroed in on two bigger storylines that have come out within the last couple of days so one is on the broadcast side which y I think will make a lot of Canadians happy and fans of the game and the other one is on the play signing side so I'm GNA give you Dealers Choice what which kind of worms you want to open up first you know what we like to talk about it all the time because it's always a negative thing this is obviously a positive let's go to the broadcasting side all right so look at this bookmark this on your feeds here Kyle Skinner giving a golf clap CFL hey look at us it only took 23 episodes to get Kyle to say something positive the CF both broadcasting listen I hold people accountable that's my emmo here but for those who did not uh hear uh CFL is going to be on a lot more televisions moving forward which is great to see CTV which is the largest cable station in Canada uh has picked up all the Saturday 3M games plus postseason and gray cup so um getting you know the product in front of more eyeballs for this season abs absolutely a huge win right there and you can now kind of see all right they've got TSN they've got RDS for the the French Canadians they've got CTV people are going to be able to access this even if they haven't signed up for the whatever Bell or Rogers TSN package and this that the other so just getting more viewers tuned into this and the fact that they picked up kind of a a sweet spot on the weekends as far as 300 p.m. kind of a dead time like what what are you putting on CTV there more young Sheldon reruns or something like it's it's something that is going to be on The Radars of a lot of people and I think is going to introduce hopefully a new generation of football fan to the Canadian product as well you know growing up watching the CFL there's something about having a Saturday game in the middle of the day that just screams Nostalgia that screams inviting for young families to watch because I mean when we were growing up obviously CBC was huge into the CFL back then you had your Friday night games on TSN you had your weekend games on CBC that's just the way that it was and as soon as they went to the playoffs CBC had the full coverage so the fact that CTV has jumped in and taken this kind of you know CBC role with you know with the CFL it it's just such a fantastic thing and it just brings back so many good memories that I have with the CFL and this is what got me interested in the game so yeah like nothing but positive things here and the fact that it took this long to get this is you know it's kind of sad because realistically like you were saying how many reruns can you watch from A CTV produced show right it's like oh great Hawaii 5 was on again and CTV is going to show 75 previews for it you know in between you know the golf you know that's on CTV or whatever it is right so tune in at 3:30 for bat loock what's gonna happen this week I think he'll solve a mystery he might read a newspaper at some point on there yeah yeah um wait S no he was a lawyer wasn't he Sol not solving Mysteries he's pretty much just like you know he's he's bad guys in in jail but um yeah like I said I think that the CTV deal at the CFL it's just it's so fitting and the way that you can kind of match it up is over time you've seen Canadian sports kind of go through the trials and tribulations of broadcast deals right like the Hockey Night in Canada thing ultimately every Saturday night you can count that dbc's got your 7 o' game and your 10:00 game it's Hockey Night in Canada I mean we don't have that right DSN swoops in they start broadcasting things sportset pretty much owns the entire broadcasting landscape in Canada and they you know pretty much dictate who gets put on what what station so yeah I love it because of the Nostalgia aspect I love it because of the fit and I love it because of the availability it's going to allow like you were mentioning families to now watch the game of football in Canada without having an expensive cable package yeah and I love the fact as well too that you brought up Sports Net right there too and you know much to many people's suarin who even have the sportset package right Regional blackouts all over the place right if you're a Winnipeg Jets fan that lives in Ottawa or Toronto unless they're playing that team too bad right you're not going to be able to see that so the fact that they're coming out and saying it's not going to be this hodg podge of oh what game is it going to be this week it's Saturday 300 p.m. game whatever that is scheduled that that is what we are going to have on adds a little bit of predictability to it so you can kind of have that casual fan who might not tune into to every game but knows all right I know where to find it I go to this Channel at this time on this day if I want football it's easy right lot of the guesswork of it and I think you've got a lot of fans who would support the CFL and and watch it right but have had to jump through a few too many hoops and if they need to go out of their way to find it they're not gonna watch your they're not gonna yeah make it as easy as possible and so by having it on CTV huge win rate there all all all the flowers in the world to the CFL but they're halfway there that is only half of the problem in my mind here right you've got it in front of more eyeballs right now I don't know if it necessarily solves the right eyeballs because we we have had this conversation a few times here as far as what is the traditional demographic of the CFL they tend to skew a little bit older right yeah they're they're going to be tuning into CTV all right at least in my sphere of experience I don't know a ton of 18 to 35y year olds that are tuning into to CTV for anything right A lot of the stuff that they're tuning into it's either going to be live stream it's going to be whether it's YouTube whether it's one of the big you know Disney Apple Netflix something D Press Box D pressbox oncom Shameless self-promotion but you need to meet people where they live here so absolutely I am taking nothing away this is a huge win it should be celebrated but let's not rest on our here like half the equation you want to trly you're making it easier for kind of the demographic to continue watching which is great your genesy viewership Spike love to see it you're not injecting a whole lot of new eyeballs necessarily so if I'm ambrosie and you know the the head office my next calls are phone up these streaming services who are tripping over themselves to produce Sports documentaries and yeah you know spend billions of dollarss on NBA rights and this that the other I'm not saying the CFL is going to come anywhere close to a 9 figure deal here let's put things in context but any money coming into the league has to be viewed as a win and if you are goingon to put it in front of people as far as you know look what uh Prime has done with the WNBA right now they've got it live TV all right here's the Indiana Fever against you know the New York Liberty 7: on a Thursday night you can factor that into to the CFL and that I think is where you'll really see that viewership uh you know people tuning in from live streams from around the world not just Canada but people are going to be getting more eyeballs on this league if that's the next logical step that they take 100% And I mean only point I'll make on this to kind of support what you're saying is anyone who has a fire stick or any type of you know smart device that's hooked up to their TV how many applications do you see where it says stream live sports here stream live TV here and how many do you end up downloading seven eight nine right because everyone wants what they want at their beck and call that's exactly the point so I mean if you like you're saying if you're really serious about growing in the demographic that you need to grow in you have to look at look we might not get one of the top 10 you know players here but if we can get some you know someone in the you know 11 to 50 range of these you know top sports streamers they're built into TVs yeah right like buy any Smart TV now tell me that you know you don't have Roku tell me that you don't have you know Amazon tell me that you don't have Apple TV like 90% of the remotes that come with the TV have buttons for Netflix Amazon like built into the remotes now so yeah yeah absolutely yeah so I mean it's it's it's a very good point by you it's a very good strategy to have if you're not already exploring it and you don't have to hit a home run here just get on base yeah right like you got to get on base somehow and once you're there then you can start to you know look at getting home somewhere right so 100% I I really like the fact that this is a good start but 100% agree with you in the fact that this is not the end you need to just take this momentum and now you can have this as a business proposal to these streaming services to say look at the deal that we just signed we've now got TSN we've now got CTV two of the biggest Sports conglomerates in can Canada that are collaboratively showing our product now how do we get it you know expanded so good point by you yeah H how do we get more Kramers of the world to watch the CFL draft there yeah no it wasn't Kramer wasn't that it was The Simpsons where he was watching the CFL draft Yeah but but Kramer and Seinfeld he doesn't like the NFL he only watches Canadian football right yes yes yes yes yes CU yeah he wants to the Super Bowls they want St Kramer oh he only watches Canadian football yeah you're right how dare I question you in your Seinfeld knowledge yeah yeah well we'll have to have a discussion about that off airing with the CFL here the Hamilton Tiger Cats made a very interesting signing not necessarily in the it's going to impact their roster next week but old name and again you want to talk about maybe getting some more eyeballs that are Fringe fans or I I'll tune in to see how this kind of plays out very similar to when Mr Johnny manzil came up for a cup of coffee up north here who knows how it'll pan out but brother of Tua taga Mr toia taga is now coming north of the borderon and I didn't completely face plant on that pronunciation sole go clap to Kyle not bad at all that was h I was kind of waiting for you to pronounce it and I'm like inching closer to the screen knowing that I was going to have to say the name at some point here yeah Talia Tonga vioa but um so first and foremost now you see our tie-in to the episode number of tonight's show Ron Lancaster obviously very famous H withan tiger cat head coach last coach to win a great cup for the Tiger Cats franchise um but yeah this one this is one that I kind of saw coming if you tune in to I believe it was episode four uh we talked about negotiation lists in the CFL and how they work and again check the receipts we've got it on here like I like I mention all the time we predict the future on this show this is just something that happens if you want to make money listen to what we say and then Bet On It six weeks from now yeah okay 60% of the time we right it works every time but uh yeah so I I made mention that this was an interesting name to keep a name on because he possesses all of the skills that you want out of a Canadian football quarterback athletic smart good arm good decision maker tough ultimately just doesn't have the size that you want on an NFL quarterback right but the guy's the all-time Big 10 leader in passing yards mhm the guy took a Maryland team that was the laughing stock of the Big 10 for years and turned them into a competitor y right he's got a pedigree because obviously he was recruited very heavily like his brother he was at Alabama before he transferred to Maryland so if a guy like Nick Sabin sees potential in you probably going to be a pretty good Prospect and you're right in the sense that this brings more eyeballs to the league once he gets an opportunity to come and compete for the job right and I think the interesting part about Hamilton is Hamilton's never afraid to take big swings like this MH you always see a team like Hamilton in the mix for one of these big- time college quarterbacks because hey what's the worst that's going to happen if we put this guy in a negotiation list he doesn't come up here we cross him off and we get somebody else on there so this kind of creates a good scenario for Hamilton because now one you've got him signed so he can come in learn the game once he's ready he can then potentially get dressed get some equal staps and see how it goes you can groom him for next year right so that way he sits behind doesn't get any playing time doesn't dress but kind of sees how the CFL operates learns from a guy like bivi Mitchell who I mean you can't learn from anyone better than that and ultimately you could take the next step and compete for the starting job next year or you could take you know the more radical route of saying or there's two other ways this is going to go so you can take two other radical rades one throw right into the fire see what you got which I don't think is a very smart idea because now The Season's already started he's missed all the training camp because he was obviously in NFL mini camps so but throw him out there he's obviously played a lot of football he he's not you know exactly the the youngest of prospects let's see what we got right is he gonna sink or swim and then the most radical option is well we've got him signed he's a part of our roster he's a part of our franchise if we're in the mix you know come mid-season let's dangle him out there as trade bait right I mean I think you saw Hamilton do that with Johnny Manel back in the day when he came up they signed him and all of a sudden it's like oh and now they've traded his rights to the Montreal aletes for a slew of players at picks you know so I I think this is a smart thing for Hamilton it's a smart smart thing for Paia because this is an opportunity for him to Showcase his skills in a professional football league and it's a smart thing for the CFL to keep these things like negotiation lists available because now this allows for you to have free negotiation with these top level prospects who might not get a fair Shi at the NFL so yeah I I I love the fit I love the fact that he's going to come in with the type of pedigree that he has and with a historical franchise like Hamilton again I I love the fact that they go out and take these big swings at guys like this because you never know when they're going to come up and if they hit you've got an absolute steal of a player that costs you absolutely nothing until it comes time to pay him starter money but I digress great for him great for Hamilton I'm really interested to see where this goes because I really think that this is a great fit yeah I I think it's WI all around right you get a free look at him he's a household name right people know based on his pedigree based on who his brother is based on all the dialogue that always goes on around his brother like Tua is constantly in the headlines because Miami fluctuates between being absolutely enamored with him and ready to run him out of town so you know the last name alone is going to be constantly out there but 24 years old like you said big 10 record holder in terms of pass yards and completion percentage which is very very important when you're losing a down coming up north you want to be accurate but he's signed to the practice roster and like you said they're going to take a look at him and they'll make a decision probably sooner rather than later in terms of is this someone that we see as a long-term fit is he a career backup is he someone we're going to trade at the deadline like any number of things is available what I really like about it though is this this is a Hamilton team who we've talked about it already has probably the widest range of possible outcomes of any CFL team this year right they could in theory challenge for the East Division title with all the stars Al line or they could be the absolute doormat of the entire league because they've lost too many of their veteran players and you know new system coming in oh Levi Mitchell no spring chicken he's coming into training camp in a walking boot looked serviceable against Calgary right over 300 yards he had a touchdown one pick but ultimately in a loss so this is a team who you could very well see them at the midpoint of the Season kind of going like listen either we get a spark here or we're going to be picking number one overall at the end of the season so why not go out there and see it now Bo Levi Mitchell consumate professional but let's call it what it is injury prone in the later stage of his of his career so already having the lower body injury to begin the season you're looking at any sack could be a multi-week absence so they need to have that kind of internal backup plan so I would not be altogether shocked whatsoever to see a scenario in which we see Talia actually sued up and take meaningful reps this season and where he kind of goes from there in terms of all right I came up here for a year I got my game film that I can show teams South of the Border again I'm going to kind of do the Nathan Rock experiment and go back down there and you know wherever I slot in on the depth chart is ultimately where I'm happy being or he ends up being like wow look at this kind of breakout star that Hamilton got for a pittance just for adding him to a negotiation list and he actually came up North so I'm really intrigued to see how all of this plays out not that I'm rooting against Hamilton but just for curiosity sake I'm kind of secretly hoping that things might go a little bit sideways on them this season and we start getting kind of that not necessarily QB controversy but the all right we know what we have in Mitchell let's see what we got in the new guy because it's kind of a Lost season at this point anyways yeah and you know I'll give you two perspectives of how this thing could go best case scenario Talia Tonga vioa you know comes in and actually performs very well and he's Zach keros right got a good pedigree coming up played a good school was a very accurate passer in college and his skill set transitions very well to the CFL game and he becomes one of the all-time best CFL quarterbacks right or it could go the way of Timmy changen or we don't know who that is another former Hamilton tiger cat quarterback he was the record holder you know for passing at the University of Hawaii very pass happppy school you know put up big numbers in the NCAA game didn't translate as well as people thought it would so it can go one of two ways either way like we're mentioning this is it's literally no lose for anyone here because you got him for free he's on the practice roster he's learning the game and at the end of the day if your season starts to go the way that you know it you don't want it to but you know let's be honest it happens you get a free look and then who knows what's gonna happen so 100% I agree with you and like I said I think when you have the best case scenario where you're looking at this could be a potential Zach keros for our franchise can't uh can't really can't really beat that off yeah before we move on to the segment that I'm anxiously waiting what one fun little bit of trivia here that I'm curious to see if you know the answer to so Talia has the single season passing touchdown record for Maryland with 26 touchdowns but he shares that with another former Maryland quarterback who do you think that could be Boomer or CI it is not Boomer no okay and the tie-in is it's his current coach Scott milanovich in Hamilton wow okay so if there is anyone who has probably done his homework on his alma mater here and is probably aware of kind of what is coming up north of the Border I think Scotty's got some some Intel there so that that's why I'm extra kind of excited to see how this whole experiment plays out up in Hamilton there you go and you know what that's a first you stumped me on a trivia question yeah dfl of all things look at us go here it's a night of Firsts well is coming up so we figured all right we're we're going to relive some of our own fatherson memories obviously growing up playing sports and both of us having daughters ourselves there we're fully on team girl dad over here and and our kids are now of an age where they're starting starting to dabble in in sports and whatnot so we're we're going to do a two prong thing we're we're going to relive our most fond Sports memories with old pap and then we're going to rehash some of the absolute shenanigans that our current children are up to on Sports field so do you want to get nostalgic or do you want to get into the present here you know what I think it'll be I think it'll be more fitting if we go with the present first and then we kind of stroll down memory lane afterwards all right so M mine I've got two girls here obviously I've got an eight-year-old and Harper is about to turn five in August there so they're at a fun age now yeah harer is kind of just starting out her Sports Journey it's been a lot of like oh gymnastics and kind of all right did my cartwheel away you go started soccer so I don't have a ton with her Haley I could go down multiple Avenues here but the one that I chose that at at this current stage her just turning eight years old that kind of encapsulates exactly who she is in her personality and strong willed and not going to do something unless it's on her terms here has been not even playing a sport but learning to ride a bike yeah so Haley had was a bit of a bit of a late bloomer in terms of riding a bike never had any massive wipeouts or anything but for some reason had some Scar Tissue built up in her memory that like yeah would ride till she was absolutely drenched and sweat with training wheels but the thought of taking those bad boys off even though she was so big it was to the point that the training rules were bent and like was even really touching the ground so she was essentially riding with training wheels already but visual or whatever that roadblock was wouldn't do it wouldn't do it wouldn't do it everyone doesn't matter whether it was me my wife grandparents friends anything you could get her in front of friends who were riding without training wheels didn't care didn't phase her anytime you bring it up nope not interested right so finally it's like all right you're getting to almost like an embarrassing age of not knowing how to ride a bike here at this point something's got to give so I figure you know what we've tried all the little tricks let's just see if bribery works so she has herself a Nintendo switch I say to her listen if you learn to ride a bike without your training wheels we'll we'll go to the store and we'll buy you a game two hours later she's riding around the block by herself so in my mind it's like if she is manipulating to this extent at age eight I said to my wife we are buckling up for the future cuz oh boy those teenage years are GNA hit hard here but it it just encapsulates exactly what it is like once she makes up her mind on something phenomenal little athlete but if you try and do it before she's ready God speed to you yeah and they're kind of in lies the story of Kyle's life always getting outsmarted by children yeah um consistently consistently yeah um no I mean that's that's kind of fitting you know with my too as well because they're very much in the same boat where unless they want to do it it's pretty much impossible to like push them to do something right and again I think that's a lot of kids it's it's difficult to get them outside of their comfort zone it's like you know in our house what I tell them is anytime they say I can't I say we don't say I can't we say I'm going to try again like that that's the mentality that and you know they're starting to repeat it now where they hear one of the other ones say it and they'll repeat that so hopefully that'll stick and hopefully that'll kind of get into both of their heads but um yeah until until it's uh can I borrow the car to go on a date no you can't do that Dad don't say we can't in this I have to I have to explain to them context when uh when we're getting into that type of conversation um but yes I I've thought about that too but I mean right now it works so you know minor six and four and uh yeah I mean so Blair and June have both been involved in different types of sports since they could essentially walk I mean like they were both doing gymnastics they were both doing soccer um Blair does Dance Now um and you know if I were to pick kind of the moments that mean the most to me I'll get into a funny one after this but I mean and you you see it too whenever your kid does something that they've been trying to do and they finally do it and you see the look on their face like holy [ __ ] I did it like that's such an amazing feeling as a parent when you see that you know it just kind of you know puts everything in perspective it's like I spent all this money they didn't show up to half the half the practices and then they finally do the thing that they've been working on and it just means the world to them right so you know in regards to something you know funny I mean I gotta say you know my June my little four-year-old she's she's the tornado of the family I mean she very strong willed which I love she's very athletic which I love but she also has a very short temper which is very you know reminiscent of her grandfather so you know if my dad's listening to this you know you you know exactly where she gets it from but you know the thing that I I think just makes me laugh all the time so we're we're in the backyard we're practicing you know because she's um we enrolled her for team soccer this year yeah so she was all gun ho about she saw her sister do it last year she's like I want to do it I want to do it I want to do it and she's just a natural athlete things come to her a little bit easier so she knew how to kick a ball with minimal instruction she knew how dribble the ball animal instruction she knows how to do all those things you do it in the backyard it's like okay someone takes the ball from you what do you have to do I'm going to go chase him and get it back all right well let's go and you know what she's showing all the things like yeah you you you've got it baby like you're gonna go out you're gonna have fun you're gonna do exactly what you need to do well we go through the entire you know practice and we've got all the drills that you know the coaches do a great job like they kind of you know and again like they're young coaches they're fantastic with the kids and all the kids are doing well they're all dribling they're all doing this and June's having a great time well we finally get to the portion of the practice where it's okay we're going to square up with one of the other teams we're gonna play four on four and June's looking at me she's like I'm gonna do it she's G me thumbs up and she's like I'm Gung home ready to go ball gets dropped and she's the first one to get the ball because she's just you know she's one of those types of kids well she goes and gets the ball and within two seconds one of the other kids goes and kicks the ball away from her and all of the things that she said leading up to that where oh if someone takes the ball from me I'm going to go back and get it all got thrown out the window she turned around stomped her feet and marched off the field and said Daddy I don't like when kids take the ball from me and ref are number one [ __ ] and refus to go back on the field after that and I mean I I I I had to laugh because I'm like you know what this is so fitting for a four-year-old's mentality right like everything is I love doing this this is my favorite thing to do and then something happens that's not exactly how they planned it and then everything just goes out the window so that's just kind of fitting for every parent who's watching their kid go through sports right now because you're going to have those moments regardless of what it is and I mean you have to just laugh and you're just like okay how do we get over this now where every time someone takes the ball from you you're going to get upset okay we can go work on in the backyard we can practice but then you don't know how it's going to operate when you actually get thrown into that situation so like I said I I laughed my wife laughed you know we uh we we we've had a very good um you know very good time reminiscing about the first time that June played an actual soccer game we'll have this story for the rest of our lives yeah absolutely and you know moving moving into kind of memories of uh you know me playing sports growing up and my dad and all of that like it's kind of like what we were just talking about right there and we don't need to get preachy about it but like when I think back on playing sports and even watching my kids play it right now too it's kind of like that that clip of the Boston College player where it's like what what are you gonna miss most about you know Sports and he breaks down into yours and he's like just just going out to eat with my friends like yeah those are the things that are most important you're not going to if you could are a one of those people that's like I remember when I was eight years old every score of every get like you're a psychopath you need to get yourself like actually evaluated there but like it's the road trips it's the the fact that your team Hotel had a pool in it or something at an away tournament and like all these stupid little things that you end up remembering so like when I'm thinking back to my childhood it's not like all right what championship did we win or whatever it's it's like oh I remember that after every hockey practice at the stitsville arena they had a 25 cent one of those gummy cobras that you would get and then I would get a slush puppy and that was just the greatest thing ever and that that was the big reward for the day right and so it's a lot of stuff like that but the the one memory that really sticks out just because I I remember it so vividly was good old link stadium so we weren't even playing sports we were watching a sport at this y so my former minor league team of the Beloved Montreal Expos there and um we're watching a game we're sitting so so sorry I I'll let you get back to your story in a second but just just kind of you know brought something up for me that I have to tell because I know that you know good friend of ours you know Kevin Kelly former you know co-host of the front office podcast um he'll uh he won't find this as funny because obviously it's a very embarrassing story for him but um he missed out on a uh boys trip to Toronto um that we organized with a bunch of the football guys back in you know the mid 2000s because his then girlfriend convinced him that they needed to attend scratch's birthday who was the mascot of the Ottawa links and he missed out on four days of you know games like theery yeah like you know we went to lacrosse games the CFL game we went to Wonderland and you obviously went out every single night and uh had a great time it's a story that we all tell still to this day and Kevin unfortunately missed it because of uh your beloved Ottawa Lynx mascot scratch and his birthday with all of his friends which goes to show how he was picking his girlfriends his current wife there because why anyone at that stage of their life would be intrigued by a mascot's birthday party the best part of the best part about it two is that when we we know were few deep after uh after one of the events that we attended we decided to call and leave a message and we just kept leaving in messages all night and we were pretending to be scratch and thanks for coming out to my birthday pal it's me scratch thanks for coming to my birthday anyways he he'll appreciate that story because I know he'll listen to this but um anyways hilarious moment in uh in everyone's life who got to experience that oh the a links it's the gift that keeps on giving yeah anyways s sorry didn't derail you continue back to my story about my papa um so anyway we're sitting on the third Baseline and that's in the foul territory and for those that have ever been to the stadium it's kind of that picnic grass area right so it's not actual seating it's kind of you Mill around and this the hill and all of that anyway foul ball gets hit it's coming right our way and uh so my dad stands up and he starts kind of chasing it down and I'm following him hot on his tail and it lands and it rolls up to this chain link fence and it just goes under so he's on his belly reaching under and he just gets on it and as he grabbed onto it he turned to me and he went I got it at that exact moment I'll never forget the look in his eyes because about 14 six to 10 year old kids jumped onto him to start clammering for the ball so the noise that left his mouth was part shock and part fighting for his life under the infant crushing weight of all of these kids like it it was literally like one of those cartoons dust files where you just see stars and arms and feet coming out of it there like a Bugs Bunny yeah so we ended up getting the ball and we went down we got assigned by the links but the look in his eye and the sound that left his chest cavity when every ounce of air got blown out of him from all these kids top roping like Swanton bomb style was uh was something I'll never forget yeah that's phenomenal I mean shout out to Dad for putting his body on the line to get a souvenir for his son um Minor League Baseball foul ball six broken ribs for douge look at us good job dougy um but yeah I mean those are always the stories like you're mentioning that you remember so much like I've got two of them that I thought of that that really kind of embody my dad you know my my dad was a huge part of uh of my sports career and you know he he was very involved and you one of the dads who would actually take the time to teach you stuff and you know he he wanted to be there every step of the way which is always nice so the two that and like he'll laugh at these two yeah he he'll laugh at these with that out of the way yeah with that out of the way now it's time to embarrass him a little bit but um so this one goes back all the way to 1997 and my dad was the coach I was playing up a level um he's coach of my brother and I's hockey team and we went down to play in the prestigious uh Can-Am Cup in Lake pla New York and again we had a phenomenal season we won the championship in Sudbury won the Northern Ontario championship and you know we were we went down to this tournament we were the only Canadian team in in the peeee division everyone else was from the US so first game we get uh you know we we go and in Lake Plaza whoever's not been to Lake Plaza needs to go beautiful little little town yeah phenomenal little town and but they've got the 1980 Olympic Arena they got the 1932 Olympic Arena because Lake pl's hosted to Olympics right shocking for anyone and you see it actually is 100% it's literally just an Olympic Village yeah so anyways we're going for our first game and it's a night game so everyone's kind of you know nervous it's like oh man like we're playing in this very prestigious tournament it's a night game we're the last game of the night and we're playing against this team from Illinois who hadn't lost in their regular season so anyways we go in there my dad's like this hard noosed you type of guy he was a police officer for over 30 years like he's he's as tough as they come and you could see on his face that he's just nervous as anything right and even us as kids like we're kind of sitting there like what's wrong with like what's wrong with him like he's he's not himself right now well we all get up after arousing pregame speech and we go March out in the ice for the warm-up and my dad's the head coach but he's not on the bench where is he all right we got our two assistant coaches who are kind of directing the ship and they don't know what they're doing because they you know they're just there to open up the doors well first period goes by and still know Scotty K so we go back in because they did the the flood every two periods so it just so happened that we had the flood after our first period so we go back in the dressing room and out comes my dad out of the bathroom in the dressing room and he's like oh had a lot of butterflies to get out and uh you know just so I don't know if it was something that he ate or if it was just the nerves that cut up with them were both but the guy pretty much spent the entire first period of our first game at this International Tournament on the toilet it's like you you'll never forget that because I remember when he came out we were down two nothing he's like what the hell happened and it's like well you know we all kind of nerves to get out we happen to us what happened to you what happened to you so anyways we ended up winning the game winning the tournament actually but uh yeah that was always a really funny story that we still kind of talk about because I mean only him it would happen to where he's got stomach issues literally for the first period of the of the first game so um and then the next one I'll tell it's uh it's one that again a bunch of the football guys still tell this day because it's it's so fitting for for my dad um so there was always a group of the dads that you know came to all of our road games right like you know they had all drive down together they became lifelong friends like they're probably better friends than we than we are now um you know for guys on the team so we're playing at York University in 2006 and we're the number two team in the country York is perennially you know in the bottom five in the country we should be wiping the floor with them well second quarter we're up by 21 and we're not playing very well but we're just getting away with it because we're just you know we've got better Talent right and I'm kind of sitting there there and you know I'm not really feeling great about how we're playing bunch of the offensive guys are kind of collaborating and talking about what we're going to do to get better so then everyone kind of goes off to the side and then I'm kind of standing off on the side by myself waiting to get back out in the field and a couple of the guys came up and we're kind of sitting there and talking and all of a sudden one of the guys says uh jks What uh what's going on with your dad I like what are you talking about so he like look so we look up in the stand the York University and again the fan bleachers on the other side of the field and you see the entire crowd sitting here in the middle part of the stands and you see my dad in the very top corner by himself looking over top of the other side of the bleachers watching a girl soccer practice so we we all we made the joke it's like you know how bad we're playing when my dad loses interest in the but it was just a matter of like we were absolutely playing like garbage and you know it was he knew that you know we were frustrated but it's like bunch of the dads would get frustrated too but yeah it's like whenever you see him standing by himself you know looking somewhere else like you know we're playing pretty bad so anyways we we ended up winning the game by like 40 or so but um it was just such a good funny moment because it's like yep we've we've lost our our number one fans attention for this must not be playing very well well when you first started out with what he was up at the top and he was looking over the railing I was like is this a second throw up or poop store here is vomiting over the rail it could very well have been but I mean I think it was more uh I think it was more angered towards the way that we were playing so he he found more joy in watching the uh the women's soccer team practice on the on their field as opposed to watching the hot mess that we were putting out yeah abely absolutely so round of applause to to all the dads out there and our kids as well too you know yeah Happy Father's Day to everyone who is listening here and you know what there's ton of things that are going on in the world and we always kind of poke holes in some of the professional leagues but at the end of the day when it comes to you know your kids sports and getting involved in it 99% of the battles is just be there and don't be a dick on the car ride because that is the quick way to turn your kids off from Sports is trying to live vicariously through them yeah let them do their thing and just support them the whole way exactly and you know whether you've got stomach issues or you're getting attacked by a slew of 10y olds you know just being there and creating those memories with your kids are going to be the stories that they tell when they're in their you know mid to late 30s like we are and uh we're still talking about it on our uh mediocre Sports show so if anyone is listening from Lake PL tourism Bureau we we are happy to extol the virtues of your small town because listen we will absolutely do a Nostalgia tour and go to all the places that Canadian athletes performed at their highest levels at the Olympics mind we wouldn't be able to do it in 1980 because Canada boycotted the Olympics however you know 1932 we could still do that but um yeah Lake plid throw us a throw us a shout out here let's go [Music]