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The CFL Outsiders, Bonus/Episode, The Completely Legal CFL Free Agent Negotiating Window · The CFL Outsiders

• 0:00
  Hey kids!
• 0:01
  Welcome back to a special bonus episode of the CFL Outsiders.
• 0:06
  I remain as always your 100 % impartial, completely unbiased and, well, still celebrating, host Old Man Shouting at Clouds.
• 0:17
  Joining me as usual is MJ...
• 0:22
  Hey everyone, I was looking forward to some chill before free agency but the CFL has no chill right now.
• 0:29
  Apparently not.
• 0:30
  And also here, GT.
• 0:32
  Hey guys, how's nice to be back.
• 0:34
  Yeah, well, I missed you too.
• 0:35
  The other thing is, yeah.
• 0:37
  man, my wife says you have to stop.
• 0:39
  You just have to learn to say no and stop enabling MJ and I.
• 0:42
  just.
• 0:44
  No, no, no, no, no, I enjoy this too.
• 0:47
  yes.
• 0:48
  In fact, goddess was, goddess and I watch a lot of English television and they always, whatever the series is, they do a Christmas special.
• 0:55
  So she says, that's what we're doing.
• 0:57
  This is our Christmas special.
• 0:58
  Thanks.
• 0:59
  I know you tried to ignore our emails, but...
• 1:02
  We, we've decided that there's, there is enough going on in the CFL that this worth, is worth doing a, a quick podcast.
• 1:11
  It may be short, but knowing us, it probably won't be.
• 1:14
  It'll probably go nice and long.
• 1:15
  So we'll see what happens.
• 1:17
  we're going to talk a little bit about sort of the league news and then look at where the teams are at as far as any player moves and things like that.
• 1:25
  But to start us out, MJ says that the grizzled old man Philip Rivers has inspired her to a game.
• 1:33
  So what do you got for us, MJ?
• 1:37
  Alright,
• 1:38
  okay.
• 1:38
  So unless you live under a rock, you must have heard that Philip Rivers is the new starting quarterback for the Colts.
• 1:46
  He has not played an NFL game in five years.
• 1:49
  He's 44 years old, 10 kids, one grand kid.
• 1:52
  He's out starting as their new QB.
• 1:56
  So my thought, I basically thought, let's play a little game.
• 2:00
  I have a list of five recently-ish retired quarterbacks.
• 2:04
  If your team crashes out next year on a list of 1 to 5, who would you want to start for your team?
• 2:13
  Alright, so the first one, Henry Burris.
• 2:16
  Okay, is one the top or the five the top?
• 2:21
  Five is the least.
• 2:22
  Okay, Andrew Burris, I'm gonna play it safe and put him at three, leave myself some room.
• 2:30
  recent relatively recently retired we're going back as far as 2017 with Henry right so I'm just wondering who else around that time or sooner Yeah, I'm gonna put him at Number two
• 2:48
  Okay, all right.
• 2:49
  Travis Lule.
• 2:52
  Hmm...
• 2:54
  See, there's where I've hurt myself now.
• 2:56
  four.
• 2:56
  Yeah, I think I'll have to go for her as well.
• 2:59
  Alright.
• 3:00
  Mike Riley!
• 3:04
  Okay.
• 3:05
  So then we're talking about them coming back now as the old man them.
• 3:10
  I don't know if Mike Riley can move, but he was a gamer and I've got to save some room at the bottom.
• 3:17
  So I'm going to go number two with Mike Riley.
• 3:19
  And I'll flip it with Burris and go number three.
• 3:23
  Okay.
• 3:23
  All right, Kevin Glenn.
• 3:26
  He can pick up a playbook fast.
• 3:28
  You know he can.
• 3:29
  get you through a season pretty good, the playoffs weren't his one chance, got the broken arm and no, he's got to go number five.
• 3:36
  I have a feeling I'm going to really regret the last one.
• 3:39
  Well, it's either a really good one left or it's a really bad one left, right?
• 3:45
  So it's either the double R or nothing at number one.
• 3:51
  So I'm going with Kevin Glenn at number four.
• 3:57
  All right, and then our last pick, Darian Durant.
• 4:01
  Whoa, I wouldn't even put it on the list.
• 4:05
  And I guess I have to put him at number one.
• 4:07
  Yeah.
• 4:08
  starting for the riders!
• 4:09
  Yes.
• 4:09
  uh
• 4:11
  choice.
• 4:11
  All I've got left is number one.
• 4:13
  Yeah, so Darien's the number one.
• 4:20
  Yeah, I like it.
• 4:23
  had Ricky Ray as the number one guy.
• 4:25
  I can't believe you didn't have Ricky Ray on the lift.
• 4:28
  uh
• 4:31
  that's, that's part of the fun of the game.
• 4:36
  Yes.
• 4:36
  And if I'd seen the list first, I got to admit double D would not have been the top, but, he probably would have come in about maybe third for me or so.
• 4:45
  So that's not so bad.
• 4:47
  don't understand the love outside of Ryderville.
• 4:49
  I don't think there's the love for for Darien Durant.
• 4:52
  That's and I don't get it.
• 4:53
  I don't think he was that tremendous.
• 4:55
  He won them a great cup.
• 4:56
  Other than that, I don't understand the love for Darien Durant.
• 4:59
  I
• 5:02
  I had Anthony Calvillo down and then I crossed him out because I was like, oh right, he's an OC.
• 5:04
  He wouldn't be able to just suit up, but then I put Darian.
• 5:09
  Dane Evans recently retired, but he's He's not Philip Rivers old.
• 5:15
  that was kind of the sort of range I was figuring that you would go with for the last one.
• 5:20
  And I'd be putting someone like Trevor Cornelius at number one, but at least double D wasn't so bad.
• 5:25
  And I got to say, GT, I'm, I'm kind of with you on that.
• 5:29
  Even when Durant was playing for the riders, he wasn't my favorite quarterback by any means.
• 5:35
  he had hot streaks and I felt like not so much.
• 5:38
  One of the things that used to bug me was they'd he'd come onto the field after every time the offense came on and he wasn't running on or anything.
• 5:45
  He'd kind of slouch on and slouch off and I didn't get it, but I can tell you every rider that I've ever heard that played with him, absolutely raves about his leadership and what
• 5:55
  he brought to that team.
• 5:57
  I've not yet heard one of them say anything, but you know.
• 6:00
  Number one, triple grade A top, top for Durant.
• 6:04
  So obviously in the locker room, he was important.
• 6:06
  Right, right.
• 6:07
  Yeah.
• 6:08
  And as I said, yeah, I guess I just never, maybe I watched what you watched.
• 6:11
  I don't know.
• 6:12
  I just never thought, I thought he was a reasonably good quarterback.
• 6:15
  didn't think he was a tremendous quarterback.
• 6:17
  He won a great cup He'll have a lot of reasonably good quarterbacks, you know?
• 6:20
  So, and he only won one.
• 6:23
  Yeah.
• 6:24
  Carrie Joseph won one for the riders in 2007.
• 6:26
  And so, you know, and while he was, had a great career, I wouldn't have called him a great quarterback.
• 6:33
  Yes.
• 6:34
  Hopefully none of our teams crash out next year and we do not have to pull out from the alumni.
• 6:40
  Yeah, yeah, let's hope so.
• 6:44
  I don't know.
• 6:45
  they were, they were talking about that on three down and of course, Dunk is a quarterback and loving Canadian quarterbacks, but he was just ranting.
• 6:53
  I'm sure you, maybe you guys heard it about how, how can they have someone like Taylor Elgrisma and the other young quarterbacks out there looking this good and, and they get,
• 7:02
  don't get a shot.
• 7:02
  yet someone who has to have his walker on the field with him is brought back in.
• 7:07
  Well, that shows you again, it is what they say it is.
• 7:11
  It's an old boys club And they're not willing to take a chance.
• 7:13
  that's the reason that so many guys don't get opportunities.
• 7:17
  thankfully for us, we get to see them play because otherwise they wouldn't be, most of our players would be south
• 7:23
  Yeah, that's true.
• 7:25
  So anyway, other league news, I've got a couple of things, but we're, we're doing this kind of freestyle.
• 7:30
  We've just, we're going to talk about the league and then the teams.
• 7:33
  so whatever you've got, any, of you want to start us off on anything from the league?
• 7:40
  Well, I noticed, and I think MJ had this on her list as well, is I noticed that the league just shut down the league official .ca fan form.
• 7:50
  And there it seemed to be that it was a smaller pool than it used to be, certainly.
• 7:55
  And the same people on it as always, but most fan forms are that way.
• 7:59
  I was just surprised that they just kind of did away with it without even mentioning it or anything.
• 8:04
  It wasn't announced anywhere until it was gone.
• 8:08
  Then a couple of people noticed that it was gone and said so.
• 8:13
  I was like, wow.
• 8:14
  I went on because I have it saved.
• 8:16
  I went on and sure enough, it wouldn't reload.
• 8:18
  I don't know whether they're revamping it and part of their whole new website.
• 8:23
  Maybe it'll come back.
• 8:24
  it's another way not to engage.
• 8:26
  And it's another way that I think the league has kind of blown it because even if it's a small number, it's, it was a couple of the individual team sites like the rider site and
• 8:38
  the tie cat site, those two in particular had like hundreds, not thousands of members, not always posting, but certainly being active on it.
• 8:47
  So I think it's a
• 8:48
  it's a big loss,
• 8:49
  Yeah, someone posted that they were directing people to either go to the CFL Reddit site or to Discord.
• 8:58
  And that just upsets me because anyone that's a fan of a quirky little league knows is you, like, a lot of this is your community that you built.
• 9:09
  And you didn't even give people the chance.
• 9:11
  how are you supposed to find some guy from our person from,
• 9:16
  across the country that you are been friends with on this fan forum for 10 years and all of a sudden you've never exchanged information.
• 9:25
  You just always see each other this form and then the forums gone and now that person's just gone and that you've lost somebody who you really connected with.
• 9:35
  And I just think that if you're trying to build community, at least give people like a couple of weeks notice so they can work out where they're going.
• 9:44
  Yeah, that makes sense to me.
• 9:45
  I have to admit, I wasn't someone who used the fan forum, and it may be that they've said there's going to be a new website coming out next year and they seemed in a hurry to shut
• 9:54
  things down.
• 9:54
  know stuff like the fantasy and the, and the pick 'em as soon as those games were over, it was gone.
• 10:01
  You couldn't go back and look at the year or anything.
• 10:03
  So it seems like maybe that's what's going on.
• 10:05
  But if you're doing that, I agree with both of you.
• 10:07
  Say that.
• 10:08
  And say, you know, we'll be down for three months.
• 10:10
  Give people two or three weeks notice.
• 10:11
  You can get in touch here and here and here.
• 10:13
  We're coming back with something much better.
• 10:16
  Don't just, dump things.
• 10:18
  Yeah, they, one of the regular members on the forum has set up a new almost identical layout.
• 10:26
  And she said, she goes by gridirongirl.
• 10:29
  And she said she set it up within a day of, a few hours, just redid everything herself.
• 10:35
  And with all the same...
• 10:36
  um
• 10:37
  all the same kind of buttons and everything else that you can and layout.
• 10:41
  So you can find it quite easily.
• 10:43
  There was a post on Blue Sky about it today and I went and looked at it and it is almost identical to what the, but that also says is how, how out of date and how bad, how was
• 10:54
  that somebody was able to redo it in three hours.
• 10:57
  I mean, that that does how complicated a process was that.
• 11:00
  So the league couldn't have done that to just kind of sidebar it.
• 11:03
  If you, if you're developing something new and fancy,
• 11:06
  So yeah, I guess it's just one of those things.
• 11:12
  I can look through blue sky, but if you've got the link for that, maybe send it to me afterwards, Judy, and I'll put it in the show notes here so people can find it easy.
• 11:19
  yeah, I'll try to find it in the post today and I'll send it to you.
• 11:23
  Okay.
• 11:24
  That sounds good.
• 11:25
  Well, to keep from turning this into a, into a real bitch fest right off the top, I'll say something positive in league news.
• 11:32
  And that is that the, uh, the numbers for the gray cup came in, or at least the preliminary ones, I haven't seen the final ones, but they said the ratings for it, they,
• 11:40
  it was a little over 4 million that watched the gray cup this year.
• 11:44
  So that's, that's impressive for this.
• 11:48
  that English or was that total?
• 11:50
  I have a feeling that's total.
• 11:52
  The, the article that I saw didn't go into a lot of detail and they said that there were still some to be whatever counted or to look at it, but the projections for the total
• 12:01
  viewing was going to be 4 million.
• 12:03
  So probably a three or so on English and about maybe even a million in French with the, the Als in it.
• 12:10
  yeah, yeah.
• 12:12
  That's why I wondered.
• 12:13
  that's a dream come true for them to have those two teams in the gray cup.
• 12:18
  Yeah.
• 12:18
  m
• 12:20
  You get that if you can't get a good, a good viewer number out of those two teams, you're in real trouble.
• 12:26
  Okay.
• 12:28
  How about you?
• 12:29
  I'm going to save the schedule release for the last part of this news thing.
• 12:33
  Do you have anything else there from the league news?
• 12:36
  Well, I just just to tie in a little bit to the league the schedule race like the I don't know if you guys all watched but the Every team did their schedule release and some Were
• 12:47
  class acted and some were the worst reschedule release posts I've ever seen So you're the top two these two are the only ones I actually watched all the way through and really
• 12:58
  enjoyed the BC Lions did a lie detector test with Nathan Burke and it was just hysteric
• 13:04
  And it was like, you know, like it was pretty shady.
• 13:06
  was like, they're so shady and I loved it.
• 13:09
  It was a lot of fun.
• 13:11
  Nathan's earned in his off season marketing money for sure.
• 13:14
  And now they have the 12 days of Rourke going where he does a little video every day.
• 13:18
  So it's been fun.
• 13:19
  And then the Bombers full on did a video game, which my son and my husband played and they had a great time playing it, but it was also super shady.
• 13:31
  And really well done.
• 13:33
  So at the bottom is the Argos who just posted a photo.
• 13:38
  People are making video games.
• 13:39
  People are making playable video games and you posted a photo.
• 13:43
  Which I think just sums up how things are going out there in Toronto.
• 13:47
  And some other people tried, like the Alouettes tried, the Redblocks tried, but nobody's hitting the social media game like the Bombers of the Lions.
• 13:58
  I definitely have to agree with that.
• 14:00
  It is a wide swath.
• 14:02
  When we get to Toronto, we'll probably have lots to talk about around that.
• 14:05
  uh
• 14:07
  I saw that.
• 14:08
  It's actually interesting because when they announced the schedule came out and I posted right away because right away I saw the Stan Peters schedule release oh video and I posted
• 14:22
  Stampeders are the only one to put one out.
• 14:24
  And then three hours later, all of them came out.
• 14:27
  But I was surprised that there was that big a delay that they weren't immediately available.
• 14:33
  And then
• 14:34
  And then I went, well, Stampeders were at least first out of the gate, sort of like last season.
• 14:42
  Yeah, they were there.
• 14:43
  They were definitely there immediately it wasn't that great, but it was okay.
• 14:48
  Yes, they tried.
• 14:50
  the Bombers and the Lions did will up the standard for next year.
• 14:54
  Because it seems like, yeah, but it seems like some of the teams have to be dragged a little kicking and screaming into the new era.
• 15:04
  Ottawa traditionally has been very good social media wise So I wonder if that's part of the changeover again, they just kind of got lost in in the I don't know if they moving
• 15:14
  pieces around in the office, and maybe there just wasn't the person there again.
• 15:19
  I understand they did something.
• 15:20
  But again, it just seems like in the past, they've been in that upper echelon and, the whole behind the R and everything else that they kind of
• 15:28
  did first.
• 15:31
  I was a little surprised that theirs wasn't more edgy for want of a better word.
• 15:36
  least eight of the nine teams did make the trouble of putting a video together.
• 15:41
  yeah, there's that.
• 15:43
  the other, I'll, I'll toss in another bit of just news.
• 15:47
  don't know how much it affects things, but tangentially, uh, along with the league, cause it's the people that cover it.
• 15:54
  I don't know if either of you saw that the three down nation media conglomerate of the CFL has been bought up by Harvard broadcasting who are the.
• 16:04
  Flagship, they own CKRM in Regina, the flagship station for the riders.
• 16:08
  They've had the riders broadcast radio broadcast rights for longer than I can remember.
• 16:14
  And that's a long time.
• 16:16
  I worked for them in, what was it?
• 16:19
  87 to 91.
• 16:21
  And they were, had, were doing the riders games then.
• 16:24
  So I don't know if it'll change anything.
• 16:27
  The boys on three downs said it won't, but we might see even more green coverage there.
• 16:31
  Who knows?
• 16:33
  I have noticed that they have done more, they've been doing interviews with players that they hadn't done as much of quite as fast and quite as often as they seem to have in the
• 16:43
  last couple of weeks pumped out a couple of real quick ones with Keon Hatcher.
• 16:46
  And today I think they did a Brady one and they did a third at least that I could think of.
• 16:52
  I think they, yeah, they did Miller's approach.
• 16:57
  Yeah, and they also got, and they also did what, um
• 17:01
  in Ottawa, they did that in that transition as well.
• 17:04
  So it seems like it is going to make a difference to them and good for them.
• 17:07
  I mean, it's a job to them.
• 17:09
  It's not like we're putting around like we got like us.
• 17:12
  So good for them.
• 17:14
  Yeah, they're putting money on the table.
• 17:17
  Yeah.
• 17:18
  We can go cheap.
• 17:22
  Alright, anything else before we get to the schedule for League News?
• 17:28
  Well, I think it's been, you know, we're waiting more announcements.
• 17:32
  Yeah, exactly.
• 17:33
  Well, the only other, I had one more point and I was actually quite happy to see this was that once the playoffs were all over and everything was said and done, there was an
• 17:42
  interview with Andre Proux who officiated the
• 17:46
  the game in Edmonton where, Rankin got the ball punched out on the end, in the goal line and it went into the end zone and kind of laid there around and Calgary finally ran and
• 17:57
  jumped on it.
• 17:57
  And Prew came out and said that he thought the, command center had blown that call.
• 18:03
  He said that should have been a dead ball.
• 18:05
  Nobody reacted in time.
• 18:07
  And basically that.
• 18:09
  they need to do better communication between them.
• 18:11
  said the only reason he didn't speak up on it was because he was trusting them to get the right call.
• 18:16
  Yeah, and then also though, I will say, because he indicated that he felt that it should have been a touchdown for Edmonton.
• 18:23
  And he did not say it should have been on the one yard line or something any, he said it should have been a touchdown for Edmonton because it was signaled a touchdown.
• 18:31
  And I completely disagree with that.
• 18:33
  And a few people have said that since, and they said, you play to the whistle, you don't play to the hands up in the air.
• 18:39
  It's the same as a guy goes out of bat,
• 18:42
  does he hit the pylon, does his foot go over?
• 18:44
  They can change that call when even though they've been signaled a touchdown, they can review it and go, no, that's not a touchdown.
• 18:50
  So that's what they did.
• 18:52
  there's still a bunch of controversy about it and you know, it is what it is.
• 18:56
  ah But I still, and I still say too bad.
• 18:59
  They should have played to the whistle or they should have went out and touched the ball or whatever.
• 19:03
  It's their own damn fault.
• 19:04
  uh
• 19:08
  a ref though being very candid about this in the off season?
• 19:12
  uh It's like no F's Andre, I love it.
• 19:15
  m My little Andre story that we're going to talk about in a second is during the Grey Cup week, the French LF, LCF, I'm not going to say the words in French, but the LCF Instagram,
• 19:27
  their host and social media woman, she is just fantastic.
• 19:30
  And he was teaching her how to throw the ref, like the flag.
• 19:34
  and how to throw it and how to pull it out your pocket fast.
• 19:38
  It was pretty fun.
• 19:40
  I enjoyed it.
• 19:42
  He's a good sport.
• 19:43
  I, I, I'm sorry.
• 19:44
  I missed that.
• 19:44
  Yeah.
• 19:45
  And, frankly, what you said, uh, MJ is, is why I'm mentioning this.
• 19:49
  It's not whether he was right or the replay center was right or whatever.
• 19:53
  What I want to celebrate here is that a referee was, was in a position where he felt like he could break ranks and say that.
• 20:01
  And I think that's good for the league.
• 20:04
  My opinion could be wrong.
• 20:06
  agree.
• 20:06
  will say we give our refs a lot of hassle, but in my casual NFL viewing of offseason of CFL, there's some very questionable officiating in other leagues and it's not so bad here.
• 20:20
  So, good job, people.
• 20:23
  that aren't full-time officials that have other jobs and stuff.
• 20:26
  Well, and even without that caveat, think the, in general, the officiating we get holds on par with any professional sport I've seen, any of the other major leagues or anything and
• 20:35
  is better than some of them, frankly.
• 20:38
  Now don't watch as much other sports as you all do, but the bits I've seen, that's what the impression I got.
• 20:44
  Okay.
• 20:45
  So I think that's it other than yes.
• 20:47
  They league announced the schedule back at the December 2nd, I think, or whatever, but they, said they were going to start having it put out on a set date and they did it, which
• 20:59
  was very impressive compared to last year.
• 21:01
  So did you look over it?
• 21:03
  Any thoughts on the schedule at all?
• 21:05
  I did some number tallying, but I'm curious what the two of you thought about it in general.
• 21:11
  uh I think I'm in the Michael O'Shea camp The schedule is perfect.
• 21:17
  Yeah.
• 21:17
  Yeah.
• 21:19
  Because you know what it in other words is there's nothing you can do about it you play the game That's put in front of you you play the schedule that's put in front of you,
• 21:26
  right?
• 21:27
  And but I got that quote from him last year.
• 21:29
  I thought was great.
• 21:30
  The schedule is perfect It's perfect every year.
• 21:32
  So Yeah
• 21:35
  I'm trying to find it.
• 21:36
  Somebody calculated the kilometers that each team would have to fly a travel and apparently the Elks are the sad, sad losers with like almost like 10,000 more kilometers
• 21:46
  than everyone else.
• 21:48
  Well, guess it depends on whether Toronto is flying back and forth for those four weeks in a row where they play out West, because that's the hook.
• 21:56
  They're actually in there.
• 21:58
  This is one of the things I did look into a few things on it that I will mention in Toronto, of course, because we're going to talk about Toronto generally.
• 22:05
  But in the schedule portion of Toronto, they are just, it's wacky.
• 22:09
  there are road games this year, quote unquote.
• 22:12
  air quotes whatever road games they there there's no mention of what games in saskatchewan or winnipeg are the road games whether it's the first game there there or the second game
• 22:22
  that there's there's no there's no mention of it on the cfl site there's no mention of it in the argos thing there's no mention of it in the riders thing there's no mention of it
• 22:32
  in the bombers thing you i don't know Oldman do you know if as a rider fan
• 22:38
  Were you paying for an extra home game in your season ticket package this year?
• 22:43
  Or is it open to just anybody that wants to buy them?
• 22:46
  How does that work in Regina?
• 22:48
  So their schedule is, They're in Saskatchewan, then they're in Calgary, then they're in Winnipeg.
• 22:55
  Three weeks in a row.
• 22:56
  Do they fly back and forth to Toronto each week before heading back and forth to each one of those?
• 23:02
  or do they stay out West for three solid weeks?
• 23:05
  Do they get the home field?
• 23:07
  Do they get the home dressing room in each of those, in those games when they're away or do they not?
• 23:11
  Do they get any of the perks?
• 23:13
  Like I say, if you're a Winnipeg or Saskatchewan fan, did you get dinged for an extra home game?
• 23:18
  Did you have to pay for 11 home games this year instead of 10?
• 23:23
  I mean, there's so many questions that weren't and haven't been answered on this shenanigans yet
• 23:27
  there's advantages to being the home team that even if you're on the road, you should get.
• 23:33
  And if they're not getting those, it's like, it's even worse.
• 23:37
  Cause then, then they come back to Hamilton from Winnipeg.
• 23:41
  They come back for a game in Hamilton.
• 23:43
  But again, we don't know if that's a Hamilton home game or a Toronto home game.
• 23:50
  you get that as part of your season ticket package for the Argos or?
• 23:52
  OK.
• 23:52
  we did.
• 23:53
  And then they go immediately back to BC.
• 23:57
  So it's like, holy mackerel.
• 24:00
  They really got...
• 24:01
  an ownership group that doesn't care about you.
• 24:05
  It's just like, oh, it's worse.
• 24:08
  It's worse.
• 24:08
  It's not just what like it's,
• 24:11
  way better World Cup schedule than Toronto did.
• 24:13
  Toronto got of the two between the two cities, Vancouver got two Canadian home games, Toronto got one, Vancouver got like, I don't know.
• 24:22
  England and someone else, I mean, but they've got Germany or someone, they at least got a major draw.
• 24:27
  Toronto might get Italy if they get lucky, but there's no confirmation of that.
• 24:33
  So again, Toronto for everything they gave up, they got nothing.
• 24:37
  Yeah.
• 24:37
  they also got a game in the round of 32, which BC also got, but BC got a round of 16 game as well and Toronto didn't.
• 24:45
  BC Place can hold more people?
• 24:47
  That's what it is.
• 24:48
  I have no idea what it is on, the rider season ticket.
• 24:52
  can't tell you, unfortunately, I'm a riders fan that lives about 2,500 miles away from Regina.
• 24:58
  So I don't have the season tickets, but, but Hey,
• 25:02
  if there are any rIDERS fans that pay attention to us, please let us know.
• 25:08
  Or bother us.
• 25:10
  Yep.
• 25:11
  Thai cats.
• 25:12
  What did you get for that?
• 25:14
  Yes.
• 25:15
  Yeah, exactly.
• 25:16
  Hey, at least Toronto didn't ding you for the two home games in Winnipeg and Saskatchewan on their season tickets.
• 25:24
  here's your like $100 off your WestJet flight.
• 25:27
  Off you go.
• 25:28
  they're tragic.
• 25:30
  Bye.
• 25:32
  Okay so BC has a better World Cup schedule.
• 25:37
  They knocked it out of the park.
• 25:38
  They're playing in Langford and they're playing two games in Kelowna.
• 25:41
  They're building it out to think, what did they say, 18,000 to 20,000 seats in Kelowna.
• 25:46
  They have just like done everything perfectly and it just makes MLSE look like just nonsense.
• 25:56
  And I'm, yes, and I'm quite happy to be going to, well, unless I somehow can't get the tickets, but I'm going to at least try to get to both of those games.
• 26:05
  And it's nice to have that 30 minutes away rather than three and a half hours away.
• 26:09
  That's what, yeah.
• 26:13
  I would be fun to go to Kelowna for this Couple games well at least one game anyway
• 26:17
  of them, let me know.
• 26:18
  We'll do something.
• 26:19
  Because that's, like I said, that's my backyard.
• 26:23
  And that's the other thing is they made the two teams, not only did they get the two games in Kelowna and figure them out, that they did it back to back so they don't have to tear
• 26:32
  it down and set it up or leave it empty for six weeks in between.
• 26:36
  They did it back to back weekends.
• 26:38
  And they've got Calgary and Edmonton, which is like, it's not like just Vancouver fans are gonna be there.
• 26:43
  The half of Alberta will drive because it's so close.
• 26:46
  So it's, yeah, they did it right.
• 26:48
  They just, yeah.
• 26:50
  yeah, kudos to the Alliance executive and management team because they just put in a lot of work and they obviously worked really like did a lot of work with the CFL to make and
• 26:59
  probably with the stamps and the the Elks as well.
• 27:02
  So like good job all around.
• 27:04
  and that's part of the reason why I say if I can, if I can get the tickets without any problems.
• 27:09
  Cause I, I think, yeah, I mean, if you live in Edmonton or Calgary and you can book maybe a day or two extra off and go spend late June, early summer in the Okanagan Valley and
• 27:20
  watch your team play, that's a hell of a draw.
• 27:25
  Yes.
• 27:26
  Yes.
• 27:27
  But before we go off of Toronto on this, I will mention too, that the other thing with all this, apparently I'm.
• 27:33
  I don't know for sure, but I've been told that they're for a good chunk of the world cup.
• 27:38
  They're not even going to try and get near Toronto for practice or anything.
• 27:41
  They're just going to base out of Guelph and, um, work from there.
• 27:46
  Yeah.
• 27:46
  They, so why not play out of wealth then?
• 27:48
  Yeah.
• 27:48
  played there for an entire season.
• 27:52
  It's,
• 27:53
  game there.
• 27:56
  They just, they're just greedy.
• 27:57
  It's just greedy.
• 27:59
  Nothing to do with the fans.
• 28:00
  Other stuff with the schedule.
• 28:02
  Any other com- kudos or complaints.
• 28:05
  I'm really just happy that it came out early so people can plan.
• 28:09
  Like last year was not like silly so this year like I really appreciate that especially since things are happening in Kelowna and so it's just really nice for people to be able
• 28:18
  to set up their plans ahead of time.
• 28:20
  Yeah.
• 28:21
  Well, I noticed a few things as well.
• 28:23
  And I agree with you that it's nice to be back more than anything back into the December release of the schedule because last year it was like February, but there was a year like
• 28:32
  just after or just around COVID where it didn't come out until April.
• 28:36
  It was like really, it was crazy late.
• 28:39
  But
• 28:40
  But I looked at a few things and to me it's Calgary's got a back to back in Toronto then Hamilton.
• 28:46
  When Toronto finally gets back to playing at BMO, the first game back is Calgary at Toronto and then the following week Calgary's in Hamilton.
• 28:55
  So I'm thinking that they might stay here for the week, which will be interesting because then do they practice in Guelph Do they take advantage of that?
• 29:02
  Because that would make sense.
• 29:03
  So, you know, I might get to see my stampeters at practice again.
• 29:07
  I haven't been able to do that since they practiced in Kingston years ago.
• 29:10
  So that will be, that was 2012.
• 29:13
  But that, you know, that'll be great.
• 29:17
  I noticed that week 15, have, the quadruple header, four in a row.
• 29:24
  That's like, yeah, that's good.
• 29:26
  thinking we were complaining about watching three in one day and I saw that there's four.
• 29:31
  I'm not sure if that's a lot of coffee or a lot of beer or both.
• 29:33
  I'm not sure what that is.
• 29:35
  That's going to be interesting.
• 29:39
  hope they market that like kind of like how can the NHL does hockey day in Canada I hope they market it well because if you're do four games you're gonna have to like bring in
• 29:47
  some extra people and commentators are being like It's gonna be a lot.
• 29:51
  So I hope they I hope they do it really good job
• 29:54
  And then in week 21, there's two games that started exactly the same time.
• 29:59
  It's overlapping.
• 30:01
  That's really strange.
• 30:02
  never, don't think I've ever seen that before.
• 30:04
  So that was, I thought was weird.
• 30:06
  And I looked it up.
• 30:07
  So I went back because if you remember, we talked about in the last broadcast, there was this, there was a story out there that they were moving the schedule forward by a week
• 30:16
  from last year to this year.
• 30:18
  So I went back and I looked and
• 30:20
  Last year, was June 5th to November 16th.
• 30:28
  This year is June 4th to November 15th.
• 30:30
  So, it's almost identical.
• 30:33
  But you go back to 2016, it was June 23rd to November 20th.
• 30:40
  And if you go back to the turn of the century, it's weird to say that, but literally to the year 2000,
• 30:48
  The scheduled, the regular season didn't start until July the 5th, and it ran till November 26th.
• 30:55
  So we're a full month later than we were, you know, not that long ago for the people that are still complaining that we're, you know, we run too late in the fall.
• 31:05
  And we're only 12 days earlier than we were then.
• 31:08
  And that includes a third bye week now that we didn't have back in those days.
• 31:13
  You know, it used to be the season started on Canada Day
• 31:16
  Yeah.
• 31:16
  And that's been, like you said, that's been an ongoing sort of thing.
• 31:19
  And the extra bye pretty much hammered that in place.
• 31:24
  I haven't talked to either of you about this yet, but I, I've got to do some soul searching about how much time and energy I have, but I may, I've got an idea that I may be
• 31:34
  doing something a little bit special around that, uh, quadruple Canada or football day in Canada, the 15th there.
• 31:41
  If I do, I'll probably drag you to, well, I would definitely be looking to maybe drag you to in it.
• 31:46
  That's just a teaser for you and the fans.
• 31:48
  Cause like I said, I, if I do it, it's going to take some, some prepping.
• 31:51
  So I got to decide if I've got the time and effort.
• 31:56
  There we go.
• 31:57
  There we go.
• 31:58
  See putting it up, putting it out here also puts some extra pressure on me.
• 32:01
  So maybe it gets me moving.
• 32:02
  All right.
• 32:03
  Yeah.
• 32:03
  The, uh, the other.
• 32:05
  back-to-back that was late that night.
• 32:07
  I was disappointed to see that our Grey Cup rematch back-to-back takes place Thanksgiving Day and the next week.
• 32:13
  They've got Saskatchewan and Montreal back-to-backs in those games.
• 32:17
  I was disappointed that it was Saskatchewan-Montreal on Thanksgiving, that it wasn't Ottawa, that tradition that they kind of got going, that, you know, it wasn't...they
• 32:26
  weren't able to continue that.
• 32:28
  And I did see as well that the Stampede Bowl is back, and it's the Argos this year.
• 32:37
  Yeah.
• 32:37
  Yeah.
• 32:41
  Alright.
• 32:42
  um
• 32:43
  to circle the date.
• 32:45
  Yes.
• 32:46
  I I had so much fun this past year at Stampede Bowl.
• 32:50
  Yes.
• 32:50
  And well, and who knows what the Argos will be.
• 32:54
  So, I said, I crunched a few numbers on it.
• 32:56
  My opinion, there were a couple of teams that were treated not as well as the rest of the teams.
• 33:03
  And frankly, that almost comes down to definitely Calgary and to some extent BC because people, I meant to do the Thursday night games and I.
• 33:15
  didn't get that far done, but people always talk about the short weeks.
• 33:18
  How much does that impact you?
• 33:20
  So this year, the team's playing a game on four days rest.
• 33:26
  Edmonton, Calgary and BC all do that three times through the season.
• 33:31
  Montreal and Winnipeg do it twice and the rest only do it once.
• 33:34
  So there is definitely a, an imbalance there.
• 33:38
  And then you go up to the five day rest, rest.
• 33:41
  Winnipeg and Saskatchewan both have four.
• 33:44
  Ottawa, BC and Toronto have three and the rest have two, but it's still, you know, Calgary gets, I think a total of five games on short notice.
• 33:53
  Plus they have a stretch of 17 games with only one buy in the middle.
• 33:59
  They have their first buy early and then I think it's a two late ones on it.
• 34:03
  And Toronto is kind of the same.
• 34:04
  They have 16 games with only one buy in the middle.
• 34:07
  So it's going to be a little tough for some of those.
• 34:09
  for a couple of those teams there.
• 34:11
  And then there's others that exactly.
• 34:16
  Yeah.
• 34:18
  I'm setting up all the excuses right now.
• 34:19
  uh
• 34:22
  yeah, people will be going after Hamilton because because they don't have any or no, they've got the one four day week, they've got ah two five day weeks, which is the least.
• 34:32
  And uh so they just.
• 34:37
  No excuses if they don't win at all!
• 34:42
  running it back with the good schedule.
• 34:44
  Yes.
• 34:45
  Well,
• 34:46
  I said, to me, the schedule, is, as we've said here, great that it's out early.
• 34:50
  People can start getting the tickets.
• 34:52
  Although again, I don't know what, with what will happen with in-game tickets for regular stadiums and that, but I'm told the BC ones for Kelowna here won't go on sale until
• 35:02
  February.
• 35:03
  So I'm just going to stay on top of that.
• 35:05
  Well, I don't envy anyone having to do a schedule and trying to figure out who else is in that stadium.
• 35:12
  Look at, okay, so the Whitecaps were in the MLS final against Miami and there was a monster truck show at BC Place.
• 35:20
  So they had to play their home game They were the home team.
• 35:23
  They had to play in Miami as the home team against Miami because there was a monster truck rally event at BC Place.
• 35:32
  So.
• 35:33
  Ooh, scheduling, what a nightmare.
• 35:35
  yeah, and especially in the major cities.
• 35:39
  And especially with nine teams, right?
• 35:41
  with 10 teams, it's just that much easier to do.
• 35:44
  You can move things around, but with nine, it's just, you're going to have that, okay, that, and buys and, you know, buy weeks and everything else thrown in.
• 35:52
  It's just, yeah, it's a mess.
• 35:53
  It's hard to do.
• 35:54
  There's no doubt about it.
• 35:55
  I don't, that's why I don't really get generally upset about it.
• 35:59
  Put that team in Quebec City and we won't have a problem.
• 36:02
  Yeah.
• 36:03
  Perfect solution.
• 36:07
  put one in Victoria and go six teams in one division and four in the other.
• 36:10
  That'd be CFL.
• 36:12
  Hahaha!
• 36:15
  Okay, anything else?
• 36:17
  Yeah.
• 36:17
  Anything else to talk about for the league or do we start bouncing onto the teams?
• 36:21
  I think a lot of it just is now team related, probably.
• 36:25
  Yeah.
• 36:25
  So I figured we'd start in the East this time and Montreal has been active.
• 36:30
  I've got a bunch of stuff here, but I'm more than willing to let either of you start off and see if, see if I have anything to fill in
• 36:38
  Well, in my household, this has been hot topics of conversation.
• 36:42
  Top line note, Davis has been extended to 2028.
• 36:46
  Philpott, until Hatcher signed, got a massive high-grade payday.
• 36:53
  Just, I was quite shocked actually to see that number and I don't know, I personally don't think it was quite deserved, but it's causing ripples because now Sankey has not been
• 37:05
  resigned.
• 37:06
  And there was rumblings.
• 37:08
  Danny Machosha, there's rumblings that they might not resign Dequoay
• 37:12
  That's what he's been saying.
• 37:13
  Noncommittal as they say.
• 37:14
  and they've resigned Maltos Diaz through 2027 as well.
• 37:19
  a lot of good things in Alouettes land.
• 37:21
  Philpot is gonna cause some salary cap casualties there and they're gonna have to do some jigging around.
• 37:29
  All right.
• 37:30
  So I don't think it's got anything to do with Phipotts numbers.
• 37:35
  think the numbers are where the salary cap, it's, think one of the things that a lot of people, some other folks are talking about, I think is most important is there's a bunch
• 37:44
  of money left over from last year that Pete, because the salary cap went up $400 plus thousand dollars last year and most teams didn't spend it.
• 37:50
  So now they're spending it, they're, they're signing these guys to these contracts and paying them that out in, in like large up
• 37:57
  front money that goes against that $400,000 this year.
• 38:01
  So in fact, that money for Philpott isn't necessarily going into next year's salary cap.
• 38:10
  I don't think the number is going to impact like Sankey at all.
• 38:13
  Sankey's 31 and they re-signed Kanten Arkou.
• 38:17
  And Kanten Arkou is the guy that they want, not Sankey.
• 38:20
  That's got nothing to do with Philpott's money.
• 38:22
  That's just moving on from older players.
• 38:25
  And Sankey I saw him this year be cheap shot and be guy that looked like he was playing cheap to keep his job.
• 38:34
  See the one that was like shoving extra shoving and that guy?
• 38:38
  Yeah, that guy.
• 38:40
  think he would just played it.
• 38:41
  I think they're just moving on from players.
• 38:44
  If you look at who they signed, they signed Philpott, they signed Katen Arkou, they signed Lestage, they signed Hogan Sagan, they signed, they, as you said, they extended to 2028
• 38:56
  for Davis Alexander.
• 38:58
  So they're locking up their core.
• 39:00
  and they're locking up the young guys and they're making, they're moving on is what they're doing.
• 39:06
  They're transitioning in the right way, the smart way.
• 39:10
  And I don't think there's anything about, I don't think that Philpott contract is a massive overpay at all.
• 39:17
  think one of the things, and you talked about Hatcher, that's obviously also in the BC thing, but he signed for $315,000 to $320,000 a year.
• 39:28
  That's the biggest money we've seen yet and I just think we're going to have to get used to people getting paid finally.
• 39:36
  And it's about damn time that it's not just quarterbacks.
• 39:39
  And I think we should just be celebrating it and saying the league's in better shape.
• 39:43
  And I don't think it's going to be too long before honestly, if it goes the way it's looking like it's going.
• 39:49
  In a couple of years, I think we could be seeing the first million dollar quarterbacks.
• 39:53
  I think the Dex, Davis, Alexander, the what's his name in BC, Rork in BC, those guys could be making a million dollars a year on their next contracts.
• 40:02
  I really do.
• 40:03
  Because they're the stars they're the youngers they're going to be in their late 20s to early 30s and they're going to get paid.
• 40:10
  Now we need the bottom to rise so that we can get over these criticisms that they've had, we've had for years and years and years that, oh, they make 50 grand a year.
• 40:19
  Well, nobody makes $50,000 a year anymore in the league, even the base rookies, except for maybe the globals.
• 40:25
  And I think they make 60 or 65, but even the base rookie, I think now is 80 grand.
• 40:31
  And most of the guys are making a hundred plus.
• 40:33
  So if we can get it to the point where they're making 150 to 200, 100 to 125 is the base and most guys are making 150 to 200, again, it just the perception of the league gets that
• 40:46
  much better and people start paying attention more.
• 40:48
  So I don't think that, I think these salaries are nothing but good news.
• 40:52
  I honestly do.
• 40:53
  And I'm happy that they're getting paid.
• 40:54
  and I think Montreal is doing all the right stuff,
• 40:59
  guess the one that surprised me the most was Dekuah, because if anyone is alouette, it's him, so I'm surprised at that.
• 41:04
  he's going to be 32.
• 41:06
  He's coming off an injury season and they've got two great 22 and 23 year old safeties waiting in the wings.
• 41:15
  Two, the next two waiting in the wings.
• 41:17
  They're like BC.
• 41:18
  They've got safeties upon safeties.
• 41:21
  They don't know what to do with their safeties.
• 41:23
  got such good guys.
• 41:24
  yeah.
• 41:26
  Yeah.
• 41:26
  Well, to, to, to what you were saying about bringing the bottoms up, the bottom salaries up.
• 41:31
  agree with that.
• 41:32
  Cause regardless of where it's at and frankly I can't think of the names right now, but I do know that over the last two or three years, we've lost three or four very promising
• 41:43
  young players who just retired.
• 41:45
  Cause they said I can make more money in, out in the real world.
• 41:49
  So anything that helps with that I'll agree with.
• 41:51
  Is Philpott worth it?
• 41:52
  I don't know.
• 41:53
  They.
• 41:53
  He's apparently he's signed for two more years, 265 and 270 or no, 275 the first year, 285.
• 42:01
  So he's going to be the highest paid Canadian receiver unless something weird happens.
• 42:06
  mean, Emilus is still out there and I'm not sure who else is as far as Canadian free agents,
• 42:12
  is McGinnis signed or unsigned?
• 42:15
  I think when they signed him last year they did two years.
• 42:18
  But I could be wrong.
• 42:20
  he'll move back into that upper echelon next year if he continues, right?
• 42:24
  Yeah.
• 42:25
  also though they paid Lessage on the O line.
• 42:28
  240 for his first sign for three years, 240 going up to 260 in the final year.
• 42:33
  So yeah, they're definitely moving up there with it.
• 42:36
  I think that's because they anticipate the salary cap going up so that those numbers are not going to be as scary as they sound.
• 42:45
  Because we're used to being, my goodness, on a $3 million salary or $4 million salary cap, but it's going to be five or five and a half or whatever.
• 42:54
  So you're going to have money to, or six, whatever, but you're going to have more money is my point.
• 43:00
  And so these numbers are going to grow and you're going to hear about them and they're going to be like, oh.
• 43:04
  What was big numbers are now middle numbers and the big guys are going to get paid like what we think is astronomical numbers for CFL guys,
• 43:15
  it's it is good for the league and it's, I do like it.
• 43:15
  The, the other thing we haven't mentioned that, was kind of, thought the story was kind of buried and could have an impact on the team next year is that their old line coach, Luke
• 43:25
  Broder Jordan.
• 43:27
  I always struggle with his name.
• 43:29
  He's been with them as the line coach, I think, since he retired in 2019.
• 43:32
  And they've said he's stepping away from the team.
• 43:35
  No explanation given, but.
• 43:37
  The O line play there in Montreal has been a lynch pin of their organization.
• 43:42
  So hopefully it doesn't suffer from that for hopefully they get someone in that keeps that up.
• 43:47
  Yeah and they may lose a guy off of the defensive staff to go be the DC in Toronto apparently, right?
• 43:53
  Yes, but I think he was like a positional coach.
• 43:56
  he not?
• 43:57
  Uh, yeah, he wasn't the OC or DC I should say, but he was, yeah.
• 44:02
  Swift, right?
• 44:03
  Is it Swift?
• 44:05
  Yeah, I think so.
• 44:06
  I believe that's it.
• 44:06
  I've got it down under the Toronto stuff here.
• 44:09
  Quick.
• 44:10
  Greg, quick.
• 44:12
  Swift quick there.
• 44:14
  You were in the right ballpark there.
• 44:16
  Yeah, yeah, sure.
• 44:18
  Greg Quick, Greg Swift, Taylor Swift, Taylor Quick, who knows?
• 44:22
  I'm a Quickie.
• 44:22
  scheduling news there's the bombers aren't playing on Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey's birthday so a birthday wedding so Zach will be able to go so it's nice with the CFL to do
• 44:34
  that for him.
• 44:36
  Okay, anything else for Montreal or do we?
• 44:39
  Two things, one, GT doesn't care about this, but I think it's interesting that I like the NFL workouts because I always think it's interesting.
• 44:47
  I think not that they're going to necessarily sign, but I think this is good leverage for them when they need to start asking for more money.
• 44:53
  But Travis thesis, I've been working out with the Vikings and McGill says the turf needs to be replaced and that it was so bad last year.
• 45:00
  There was a hazard and they had to pause games to fix the turf.
• 45:05
  But I don't remember them pausing to fix games to fix the turf unless it happened on TV timeout.
• 45:11
  Maybe, or maybe I heard the quote I heard was says, said they had to repair it during the games.
• 45:16
  And I wondered if maybe it happened at halftime when we weren't seeing it or something, but I never remembered seeing it.
• 45:21
  uh
• 45:22
  I've never heard anyone, I didn't hear anyone complaining about the turfler that they complained about at McMahon for years.
• 45:29
  So interesting.
• 45:30
  think the number was 1.75 million that they said it was going to cost to do, which is, you know, we had heard back when these rule changes got announced that it would cost well over
• 45:40
  a million dollars for the teams, for the schools to have to adjust their fields.
• 45:45
  So, yeah, it kind of rolls into that ballpark and, you know, of course they're going to, you know, everybody hedges their money.
• 45:53
  So I wouldn't be surprised if the 101.75 is really 1.5, but nonetheless, it's a lot of money that the alowettes or somebody's gonna have to pay.
• 46:02
  Somebody said that.
• 46:04
  they replace it?
• 46:06
  Do they try to patch it up for one year and then change it all when they're changing all the field dimensions or are they going to have to replace it coming up for the season and
• 46:13
  then change it again?
• 46:15
  ah They made it sound like it's immediate, but I can't believe they would do it twice.
• 46:22
  Unless they put on painted markings, that if they replace it and then do painted markings so they can change it a year later with just the paint rather than stitched in.
• 46:33
  That's what, that's what I was going to say.
• 46:34
  I have a feeling that as some of these fields get replaced at our dual use, they may get rid of the embedded markings on the field and just go back to paint.
• 46:43
  Cause makes it easier with that.
• 46:46
  The only other surprise that, uh, that I got of the whole Montreal thing was about five, 10 minutes ago when we started this and MJ you said big news in your family.
• 46:55
  And I thought that you were going to start with the maltose resigning automatically.
• 46:59
  Yeah, well, sorry, Davis Alexander overshadowed that a little bit.
• 47:05
  most places, but I thought maybe in your house it wouldn't, because I know he's got a real fan there.
• 47:10
  uh very, very happy that Malto's Diaz will be back through 2027.
• 47:16
  But I also just, speaking of Montreal stuff, immediately when Davis Alexander signed, I thought to myself, well, I guess that kind of throws out my theory that he might be
• 47:28
  getting NFL looks.
• 47:30
  know, because he resigned for the extra year.
• 47:33
  because I posited that or posted that when we talked around Grey Cup.
• 47:37
  And then like last week,
• 47:39
  there was an article in Three Down about how he may yet go to the NFL and he might work.
• 47:44
  And I was like, wait, maybe I wasn't so far off after all.
• 47:48
  Yeah.
• 47:50
  Yeah.
• 47:50
  Well, I I would assume that even though he's resigned, he's still open in that NFL window.
• 47:55
  So yeah.
• 47:58
  I think that Montreal was one of the more active teams, but I think that sort of covered it off.
• 48:03
  we'll, we'll slide a little west across the, uh, the river or whatever and go to Ottawa, which was not nearly so active.
• 48:10
  I've only seen two resignings there.
• 48:13
  Um, the running back,
• 48:15
  Atta boy And Dino Boyd at tackle.
• 48:18
  Has anybody else seen any other movement from them?
• 48:21
  Other, well, Dinwiddie but I guess that's-
• 48:23
  doing front office stuff.
• 48:24
  Well, Condell's been interviewing with the Bombers, so we'll see, but...
• 48:30
  hopeful.
• 48:30
  Yeah.
• 48:31
  Yeah.
• 48:32
  I think everybody else is like, yeah.
• 48:35
  Yeah.
• 48:37
  When we get to Winnipeg, we'll talk about that, but there was news today which tells me pretty much Condell won't be the OC there.
• 48:43
  Yeah, just had, yeah, as part of Dinwood, I mean, they announced Dinwood, but they haven't announced, other than William Field staying as their DC, they haven't announced any of the
• 48:54
  other coaching staff positions.
• 48:56
  You kind of assume that they're waiting for the fallout in Toronto and who Dinwiddie can bring with them.
• 49:01
  But, you know, at this point in time, it's a little surprising that they haven't announced anybody else.
• 49:07
  They're also still messing around with Drew Brown because there's been a lot of talk about
• 49:11
  I saw uh two different stories about Trey Ford's bonus coming due, and yet I'm pretty sure Drew Brown, who negotiated with the same agent and got almost the exact same package as
• 49:21
  Ford did at the same time, he must have a bonus coming due as well.
• 49:25
  So they've got to make a decision there relatively quickly, and that's been relatively quiet.
• 49:30
  We've heard nothing more out of out of Dinwoodie or anybody else in the organization about what's going on with him.
• 49:37
  So I think, you know, that's about the only starting jobs in my mind that's up for considerations throughout the whole league because the other thing that I had in my, you
• 49:48
  know, kind of league wide notes was the general carousel of quarterback carousel that happens every year is now over in starting quarterbacks because every team's resigned.
• 49:58
  mean, the fact that they, you know, that...
• 50:00
  uh
• 50:01
  Trevor resigned in Saskatchewan, Bo resigned in Hamilton, Cody in Edmonton.
• 50:09
  It just means that now there's not a starting quarterback job available anywhere.
• 50:13
  It's now the carousel of it, except for maybe Ottawa, exactly, except for maybe Ottawa.
• 50:19
  And then the backup carousel is gonna be the most interesting part as we get into free agency.
• 50:25
  Like you look at the names, you've got Crumb, Ford,
• 50:29
  Mayor Powell out of Hamilton, does he want to stay there?
• 50:33
  He's a free agent or does somebody else come along for him?
• 50:36
  PJ Walker, is that a guy in Calgary still or after the injury does he want to come back?
• 50:41
  There's a lot of questions.
• 50:43
  I mean, and there's a lot of teams that need backups.
• 50:47
  They don't need starters, but almost every team needs a backup quarterback.
• 50:51
  Calgary needs a backup quarterback.
• 50:53
  Almost every team.
• 50:54
  So those guys are going to get paid.
• 50:56
  and they're going to have, you know, it's going to be a bit of a bidding war and interesting carousel of the backup quarterbacks around the league for sure.
• 51:05
  our buckles contract up.
• 51:07
  Does he do a bonus?
• 51:08
  yeah, he's fine through this year.
• 51:11
  yeah.
• 51:11
  Is he do a bonus though?
• 51:13
  wondering.
• 51:13
  So this is, this is my conspiracy about Ottawa is that Ryan does not seem very sold with Drew.
• 51:20
  And I'm wondering if Toronto tries to cut our buckle loose and Ryan scoops them up or does Toronto just stick it to Ryan and sit Nick for a year.
• 51:33
  Like GT just said, teams are hurting for backup quarterbacks and Arbuckle was a good one this year.
• 51:41
  Now again, the question is how much of that was Miller and how much of that was Dinwiddie?
• 51:46
  And we're kind of,
• 51:49
  yeah, we're going to, we may as well just slide into Toronto cause they're the next team there anyway with it.
• 51:54
  And as far as player re-signings go, they didn't have anything of note.
• 52:00
  Ryder Varga, who's a good Canadian linebacker.
• 52:03
  And then, Jordan Hurdman Reid is a backup Canadian linebacker was the only thing I could find for them, but everything else they're all over the place because I guess technically
• 52:13
  it happened since our last broadcast.
• 52:14
  So if anyone only gets their CFL news from here yet didn't Ryan did when he left Toronto and signed in Ottawa as the GM and head coach.
• 52:23
  So there's been a lot of moves since then.
• 52:26
  They, Toronto tried to get.
• 52:30
  just about anybody that they thought that they wanted and were turned down either, either by the people getting interviewed or even turned down for interviews.
• 52:40
  Mace turned them down, O'Shea turned them down, Steinhauer turned them down.
• 52:44
  And then they started talking about, people like Kent Austin and even Chris Jones who hasn't showed up.
• 52:49
  And in the end, they promoted their quarterbacks coach, Mike Miller, who's had some OC experience in the NFL.
• 52:57
  Not a lot.
• 52:58
  And then he's been up here for a few years and he's going to be the head coach and offensive coordinator.
• 53:03
  So, mean, Dinwiddie was a quarterback's coach when they hired him, so it could work, but I don't know.
• 53:09
  then they brought in Huffnagle and uh Barker to help with the football operations side of things.
• 53:18
  They've gotten rid of Murphy.
• 53:20
  They're one coach that they did have under contract for this year with Shivers as DC and they've gotten rid of him.
• 53:27
  Which is good.
• 53:28
  Like, yeah, yeah, I think so.
• 53:30
  Like GT said, they're, they're, they're supposed to be Greg Quick coming out of Montreal as the coordinator, but yeah, they've been, they were, it looked like for a while they
• 53:38
  were going to be always a bridesmaid, never a bride.
• 53:41
  They could not find a match there.
• 53:44
  So what do we think of where they ended up?
• 53:46
  I'm wondering if some of why some people refused to interview with them is that it sounds like they were like ride or die with Chad Kelly.
• 53:55
  And I think there's some coaches who said, I will not play with him or I'm not going to coach him.
• 54:00
  I don't want the mess of that.
• 54:01
  I'm actually quite shocked that Hufnagel left Calgary and went to Toronto.
• 54:06
  I thought I was seeing things when I saw that news break.
• 54:10
  Apparently he's going stay in Calgary and just like work remotely.
• 54:13
  But what a surprise.
• 54:15
  Who knows what the news out of Toronto will be next?
• 54:19
  I think, first of all, yeah, I agree that they went through a lot of uh names.
• 54:24
  I think some of that was smoke.
• 54:26
  Some of it was real.
• 54:27
  I think that some of people were saying no before they even got asked whether they were to be there.
• 54:32
  Like, I don't know that they actually interviewed Steinauer.
• 54:36
  I think he just said no, you know?
• 54:38
  ah I don't think they actually, yeah, they, exactly.
• 54:41
  don't even know.
• 54:43
  I don't even know if they even reached out to Mesa.
• 54:45
  Apparently, and it seems that that might have been done behind without the team's knowledge.
• 54:51
  wonder, I get the indication that that was Murphy.
• 54:54
  And that's part of the reason he's not there anymore.
• 54:56
  They finally said enough with him and his backdoor dealings.
• 55:00
  As good as a scout as he is, because the guy has found talent over the years.
• 55:03
  You cannot deny the talent he's brought into the league over the years.
• 55:06
  He is also not a preeple person.
• 55:09
  and is more backroom dealings kind of guy.
• 55:13
  So I wonder if they find a stead enough ah in the organization.
• 55:17
  And I don't think Mike Miller is a bad choice.
• 55:20
  think he's going to do just fine.
• 55:22
  I think he's going to be a good coach.
• 55:24
  I think once they got down to who they were interviewing, actually interviewing, not just talking, but actually interviewing, I think he was the best choice to make.
• 55:35
  I think that they've made a mistake.
• 55:37
  Well, I don't think they made a mistake in getting him out of Shivers.
• 55:40
  I was never a fan.
• 55:41
  I thought he was not very good in any of his last roles.
• 55:44
  And I think all the teams that he led showed that when he was in their DC.
• 55:49
  I think they should have just stuck with Ebin though.
• 55:51
  I don't think bringing Quick over is the right move.
• 55:54
  I think they should have just handed the reins to Ivan and let him go.
• 55:57
  But we'll see how the rest of the staff turns out.
• 56:00
  For Huffnagle and Barker, I think Barker's a great move because he is another guy that's brought tons of talent to the league over the years, like him or dislike him.
• 56:09
  He has brought players to the league and I think he can still do that.
• 56:13
  I posted quickly when it happened that this Huff thing reminds me of Norm Kimball going to the Alouettes back in the 80s from Edmonton to the Alouettes and that Oldman, may remember
• 56:25
  that.
• 56:26
  They were in complete disarray and Edmonton was coming off of five gray cups and it was Norm Kimball was supposed to go there and save the team and straighten it all out and get
• 56:36
  them back on the straight and narrow and show some of that Edmonton's right way to run a franchise, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
• 56:43
  A year later, he walked away and the team folded.
• 56:45
  So that's sort of what Huff reminded me of.
• 56:48
  And also I think Huff had run out of time.
• 56:51
  and energy and his place in Calgary was done.
• 56:54
  His place as a legacy guy was there, but his place as a football guy was done.
• 56:59
  And ownership had decided that it was time to move on and they wanted him out of the picture and it was Jay's team.
• 57:06
  And I think that they want, and Jay has said, I'm the president now, John, sorry, I'm the president.
• 57:12
  And this is the way we're gonna do things.
• 57:14
  And I also think Huff is a bit of an old school guy.
• 57:18
  And I think part of the Stampeders all those bad marks that they got last year in the PA thing, those are a lot leftover from Huff.
• 57:26
  Those were not necessarily Dickinson.
• 57:29
  That was partly leftover from Huff.
• 57:31
  And so I don't know necessarily that him going to Toronto is the greatest thing.
• 57:36
  I just, I'm not sold on that move.
• 57:38
  I think it's like, and especially if he's staying in Calgary, it's a part-time gig
• 57:42
  I don't think that's a great move necessarily for them.
• 57:45
  he might give some more expertise in management, but I don't think he's going to give much more than that to them.
• 57:52
  Well, for whatever it's worth, to me, it, the whole Toronto thing looks like a cluster, you know what?
• 58:01
  I feel like they, the reports that came out when Dinwiddie left about how understaffed they were, how they're running on a skeleton staff, all the problems with that, the PR
• 58:11
  problems that they've had for two years around Kelly doesn't help with them and everything.
• 58:15
  And it felt like.
• 58:17
  Their only way they were going to get a coach was to take someone either from within who was willing to stay or get somebody who was desperate to get back into coaching.
• 58:26
  didn't seem like a good scenario.
• 58:28
  And it feels to me kind of like the same thing with the, with the GM role or the football operations role.
• 58:34
  You know, there's, there's no new blood It's old guys that have been around forever.
• 58:39
  And you know, I can't criticize someone for being old.
• 58:41
  am too, but you want to get the, just, doesn't feel to me like any sort of a.
• 58:47
  a positive, solid restart for fans to get excited about.
• 58:51
  It feels to me like, well, we're going to keep it going for a while, or we're going to keep it going till the rules change or something.
• 58:57
  just, I'm not, not, I've never been impressed with MLSE and they did not up there my opinion of them at all with this.
• 59:07
  Yeah, no, don't disagree with anything you said there.
• 59:10
  I think you're absolutely right.
• 59:13
  Yeah, it's unfortunate because Toronto as a flagship team, that would could be do wonders for this league, but they just could never seem to get there.
• 59:22
  Now, mind you, given Toronto's history looking at how they're going into this season, my early prediction is they'll go nine and nine and win the great cup.
• 59:29
  you know.
• 59:31
  They always do.
• 59:32
  Yeah.
• 59:33
  I do want, do, I do, you did say that they hadn't really made any signings.
• 59:37
  I did want to bring up one key signing that they've made and that was bringing back Ralph Holly from the NFL.
• 59:43
  He's, yeah, he, that's a huge signing.
• 59:46
  Cause if you think back, one of the biggest problems they had all year last year was the defensive line.
• 59:51
  And he's going to fix that a lot of those problems in a hurry.
• 59:55
  So that, that's a huge resigning.
• 59:58
  Okay, thank you.
• 59:59
  NFL workout news for them.
• 1:00:01
  They have three guys working out, but think their biggest one name for them is Swluka is working out with the Colts in the bank.
• 1:00:08
  Yes.
• 1:00:08
  Mind you, the Colts are work or seem to be working out anybody who's ever played in the CFL this off season.
• 1:00:13
  So, yeah.
• 1:00:18
  Okay.
• 1:00:20
  it seems like the Colts always work out CFL guys, the Saints always work out CFL guys, and the two New York teams always work out CFL guys.
• 1:00:28
  Those are the teams that you can count on getting a workout with.
• 1:00:32
  Yeah.
• 1:00:33
  Yeah.
• 1:00:35
  And sometimes signing.
• 1:00:36
  Yeah.
• 1:00:38
  enough with the mess in Toronto.
• 1:00:41
  The moving us on to Hamilton and the ongoing GM search is the big news there.
• 1:00:48
  It's so...
• 1:00:49
  this is interesting because why doesn't anyone want a GM in Hamilton?
• 1:00:55
  I'm wondering, I think they...
• 1:00:57
  just like Toronto's a bit of a mess, I think...
• 1:01:01
  I'm not a Scott Mitchell fan and I'm not a huge Orlando Steinhauer fan and those guys are running the show and I'm just...
• 1:01:09
  So, but if they bring Sutherland back then what are we even doing here?
• 1:01:13
  What are we even doing here?
• 1:01:17
  The big news out of the big news I mean you can Bo Bo signing for two more years kind of puts the other stuff in the background a bit I'm not sure why they signed him for two
• 1:01:27
  years But he says he's gonna treat it as a year-to-year contract so we shall see But if Bo put out a promo video of himself signing and in it in the beginning that was the three
• 1:01:39
  down nation guys
• 1:01:40
  voiceover talking about how he was washed up and he should rejoin just go and join the TSN panel
• 1:01:47
  Bo would have enjoyed doing that.
• 1:01:50
  was the best.
• 1:01:50
  It was the best.
• 1:01:51
  And then he then it shows him starting to play better.
• 1:01:54
  And they're like, I was wrong.
• 1:01:55
  Bo's having a great season.
• 1:01:57
  Also a little feather in the tie cat's cap.
• 1:02:03
  I don't know if you guys know who this is, but ProStats is, they're on Instagram.
• 1:02:07
  I'm not sure if they do have a website, but they run numbers all year long for players in the CFL and they do like rankings every week of the players and their stats.
• 1:02:18
  And their number one player of the year based on statistics was Kastatonis.
• 1:02:24
  So he was the ProStats player of the year based on the stats.
• 1:02:27
  So that's nice for Stavros and Bo.
• 1:02:30
  And hopefully they find a GM.
• 1:02:32
  I mean, it's hard to fill Ted's shoes.
• 1:02:34
  I think Ted was going to have such a vision for the team.
• 1:02:38
  And I feel sorry for anyone who kind of has to step into that.
• 1:02:41
  And there might be in the shadows for a bit.
• 1:02:44
  Yeah, they're that again, it's like you're as you said, MJ, it's low key, but they're kind of as a mess, like a mini mess of Toronto for sure, that they need a GM and they thought
• 1:02:55
  they had it figured out and unfortunately not the case.
• 1:02:58
  But yeah, it's I don't they're not going to find it easy.
• 1:03:01
  And it's those two guys and even and even Milanovic to some extent, because he's a bit of a control freak, too.
• 1:03:08
  And, you know, he's going to be battling and fighting whoever comes in there.
• 1:03:11
  because he wants it to be his team and he feels like now he's got his team.
• 1:03:17
  yeah, it's going to be hard for them to find the right person that is able to step in, calm the waters, then maneuver around and make the changes that are required because there
• 1:03:32
  are some changes that need to be required there.
• 1:03:35
  I don't know how many great next in line, there's the guy in Carson, I guess his name is in Saskatchewan, that's the next guy, because McManus is it's resigned in Winnipeg.
• 1:03:47
  So there doesn't seem to be the next, you know, GM in waiting, so to speak, at this point in time.
• 1:03:53
  Apparently Danny wanted to live in Florida and that's why that didn't work out.
• 1:03:57
  They wanted him to be up in Hamilton.
• 1:03:59
  Yes.
• 1:04:00
  And I've seen that, yeah, that, Kyle Carson has, has apparently, I don't know if it was an offer or just for an interview, but apparently he's declined as well.
• 1:04:08
  So it looks like he's staying in Saskatchewan, but yeah.
• 1:04:11
  And that would explain why Hamilton hasn't signed a lot of players other than Bo.
• 1:04:15
  The only two I've could find with names that I even remembered were, Taylor Ternowski and Johnny Augustine.
• 1:04:22
  and Jamal Peters.
• 1:04:25
  Yeah, that's a two year one.
• 1:04:26
  So that was that was a big splash.
• 1:04:29
  Well, I think you're safe doing that one regardless of who the GM is coming in, but, but you can see they're waiting to let somebody make the decisions.
• 1:04:38
  Yeah, they have six players working out in the NFL right now and the big names like, well, I don't think it's any surprise that Verashuk has like Garnus of Indras and Isaiah Wooden.
• 1:04:47
  Those are the two big, big names that are working out.
• 1:04:51
  And I have no surprise the Saints and the Browns and the Broncos are, and then the Jets and Texans.
• 1:04:57
  Yes.
• 1:04:58
  Yeah, it seems like every-
• 1:04:59
  other players because I hadn't heard so the non big move
• 1:05:02
  okay.
• 1:05:03
  So TSN has a free agency tracker and they did not put it by team, but I will just try to quickly.
• 1:05:08
  So they're Quintenbarrow.
• 1:05:11
  tryouts from, or workouts from, it seemed like if there's 32 teams in the NFL, feel like 38 have announced tryouts for Wooden.
• 1:05:19
  Yeah, so Barrow is trying out with the Vikings.
• 1:05:23
  Constantino, their punter, their punter is trying out with the Browns and the Saints.
• 1:05:29
  I'm worried that he might because, Braxton Hill's trying out the Browns, the Broncos and the Buccaneers.
• 1:05:35
  Talbert is trying out the Broncos and yeah, and Verasuk and Wooden.
• 1:05:40
  So they have the most out of anyone.
• 1:05:43
  So we'll see.
• 1:05:45
  So realistically, who do you think's leaving?
• 1:05:48
  I think their punter could leave.
• 1:05:50
  Jake Julian was down the NFL and in fact Jake Julian's trying out again.
• 1:05:56
  So if someone's desperate, Veresek might be a stopgap for the rest of the year.
• 1:06:01
  I think if any of them go, it'll be Tolbert He played damn good and I, and he could, he you know, he's not as known a name as the others.
• 1:06:10
  hasn't quite gotten the publicity, but that would be my, he, would say he's got the best shot of the, of that list.
• 1:06:18
  And that would hurt them because they didn't have the best defense last year.
• 1:06:23
  They were middle of the road, but he was one of, definitely one of the highlights of it.
• 1:06:27
  Dear new GM, we need a better.
• 1:06:31
  Yes.
• 1:06:34
  I don't know.
• 1:06:35
  I mean, two years ago, they, had a not bad backfield, but they couldn't get linebackers to save their lives.
• 1:06:41
  And their line was, this year they got the linebackers straightened out and the line played not bad and the backfield went away.
• 1:06:48
  never quite piece it together with hi cats.
• 1:06:51
  anything else before we jump over all the way to the west?
• 1:06:55
  We'll trundle up through Thunder Bay and along the main highway there through Kenora and into Winnipeg.
• 1:07:03
  Anybody want to say anything about Winnipeg?
• 1:07:05
  Well, they resigned Brady yesterday to again, three years big dollars.
• 1:07:11
  And it took away my Brady to Ottawa in free agency note because that was my note.
• 1:07:20
  Not everything's about money because him, Brady and his partner, I don't know if you saw this, Brady and his partner have a new show on CBC about their dog rescue.
• 1:07:30
  So I think that part of staying in Winnipeg is because he's doing this TV show as well.
• 1:07:35
  had him listed to go out to BC and I was wrong on that too, but that was also the news today that tells me they don't have Tommy Condell in their OC list anymore.
• 1:07:44
  Cause I think and Brady would not go near a team with him as OC.
• 1:07:48
  that afford last year?
• 1:07:50
  Who knows?
• 1:07:51
  I know, but Brady's smart enough that, you know, he had a chance to sign where he wanted and I'm pretty sure he's confident they're going to have an OC that will utilize him.
• 1:08:01
  he had down in writing that Tommy Condell was not allowed to work before he would sign.
• 1:08:09
  You'd have to think, right?
• 1:08:10
  Because he has to see what happened in Ottawa and what happened in Hamilton.
• 1:08:15
  Yeah.
• 1:08:16
  I've heard in the background that they really wanted Miller before Toronto made him the head coach.
• 1:08:23
  And so that's kind of scuttled what their plans are for the moment.
• 1:08:26
  And again, this is much older news, but since we last got together and talked, things looked a little bit, no one knew what was going to happen because they're, they didn't
• 1:08:36
  have their coach and GM under contract either.
• 1:08:39
  And now they've resigned the both of them, O'Shea and Walters for three years.
• 1:08:42
  Yeah, which is also very surprising because those guys have been on year by year contracts for the last quite a few.
• 1:08:52
  yeah, yeah.
• 1:08:55
  Exactly.
• 1:08:56
  Yeah, I agree.
• 1:08:58
  maybe.
• 1:08:58
  I don't know.
• 1:08:59
  still think Dinwiddie suddenly not being in Toronto anymore was more surprising than the three year deal.
• 1:09:05
  That's just me.
• 1:09:08
  But like you said, McManus has stayed.
• 1:09:11
  otherwise.
• 1:09:12
  They signed a quarterback.
• 1:09:13
  They signed a guy from the UFL that was the all-star quarterback out of the UFL, I guess, last year.
• 1:09:21
  And they signed him, so we'll see if he pans out in any way, shape, or form.
• 1:09:26
  But at least, you know, it looks like they're going to have some sort of competition for replacement, because I doubt...
• 1:09:32
  Strava's not going to be back before.
• 1:09:34
  you know before Labor Day if he's back at all and he's talking about not coming back at all at this point so so yeah me neither
• 1:09:43
  yeah, when they, when they started talking about this fella, I can't even remember the name out of the UFL and apparently he's had some NFL experience and that the first thing
• 1:09:50
  that popped into my head was PJ Walker.
• 1:09:52
  thought, well, hopefully not a repeat of that scenario.
• 1:09:56
  but they did also re-sign Pokey Wilson.
• 1:09:59
  So he won't be trying out the NFL again, which is good.
• 1:10:01
  And then the rest was, well, they had Cam Lawson on the D line and Reda Cramdey from the backfield.
• 1:10:07
  Cramdey's a big one.
• 1:10:10
  I wonder, they say, did there was any news about how much Cramdey got paid?
• 1:10:16
  Cause he's a guy that should have got paid.
• 1:10:19
  yeah, he should have, but I didn't see any reporting on it.
• 1:10:21
  hard to find their salaries.
• 1:10:23
  I feel like they don't like to tell us.
• 1:10:25
  I'm sure that Three Down will come out with a list towards, or maybe after free agency, because they generally do that.
• 1:10:32
  yeah, the salaries have never been announced officially.
• 1:10:35
  I don't know how Three Down gets them, but that's their job.
• 1:10:38
  Like you said, that's how they make their living.
• 1:10:40
  So they're good at it.
• 1:10:42
  I feel like Winnipeg's so busy, like, keeping track of which GMs and which coaches are getting interviewed and requested to interview and they're, like, making video games.
• 1:10:53
  They haven't had time to do anything else.
• 1:10:57
  except for sign Brady.
• 1:10:59
  Yeah, Yeah, Kyle Walters is renowned as both a fantastic GM and a tremendous coder for video games.
• 1:11:06
  Yeah, all hands on deck.
• 1:11:11
  All right, I think that, like I said, them.
• 1:11:13
  Saskatchewan also other than...
• 1:11:15
  Oh, sorry.
• 1:11:17
  Favles working out with the Jets, Saints, Browns, Vikings and Broncos.
• 1:11:21
  But I think he'll probably be back.
• 1:11:23
  Obviously returners are considering that they don't actually allow you to return the ball in the NFL.
• 1:11:29
  The returners sure seem to be in demand.
• 1:11:33
  Yes.
• 1:11:33
  okay.
• 1:11:34
  Now I am going on to Saskatchewan who's also been, uh, relatively quiet other than that Trevor is back for another year.
• 1:11:43
  And the other concern was losing Kyle Carson out of the scouting.
• 1:11:46
  Cause he has been with a couple of teams now.
• 1:11:50
  I think he was with Calgary back in their heyday and that, and his reputation is definitely knows his talent and knows what he's doing.
• 1:11:57
  But there's that.
• 1:11:59
  And it looks to me like they.
• 1:12:01
  My guessing is they're going to be looking for a different backup quarterback next year because they resigned Trevor and they resigned Tommy Stevens, but they've been awfully
• 1:12:12
  quiet on the Maier
• 1:12:14
  They need a succession plan for Trevor.
• 1:12:16
  And it's not Tommy Condell.
• 1:12:18
  Like, Tommy Condell.
• 1:12:19
  no, Tommy Stevens.
• 1:12:20
  yeah.
• 1:12:21
  No, definitely not Tommy Condell, but, but, but, but Condell might be a better overall quarterback than Tommy Stevens.
• 1:12:28
  don't know.
• 1:12:30
  Cause Tommy is a one trick pony, but we're happy to have them.
• 1:12:34
  And yeah, and actually they keep saying their, their succession plan is Jack Cohen.
• 1:12:39
  They are big on him.
• 1:12:42
  So maybe that's why we're not seeing anything looking at Maier coming back.
• 1:12:46
  Maybe they, put Cohen in as number two this year.
• 1:12:49
  Could be.
• 1:12:50
  Who do you think is going to pick up Maier Any guesses?
• 1:12:55
  I don't know.
• 1:12:56
  There's, there's like, like GT said, there's lots of teams that need him.
• 1:13:00
  Winnipeg if this you have, I would be putting somebody other than this UFL guy in my bucket if I was Winnipeg, you know, and again.
• 1:13:07
  I think he's going end up in Ottawa.
• 1:13:10
  Yeah, could be, but if Taylor Powell decides to go somewhere else,
• 1:13:15
  Taylor can't be happy that Bo signed for another two years.
• 1:13:19
  No, I wouldn't think so.
• 1:13:21
  And who knows what, it all depends what coaches or OCs think they can still squeeze something out of Mare.
• 1:13:27
  Maybe he doesn't end up anywhere.
• 1:13:30
  Yeah, he might be like Cameron Dukes and just like spend half the season just waiting.
• 1:13:35
  Yeah, exactly.
• 1:13:37
  And the, the only other big name out of Saskatchewan was they got Hardrick back, which was good because he was the, a force this year and got the O'Lineman, a most outstanding O
• 1:13:47
  Lineman.
• 1:13:47
  But other than that, it was a Wachie who's a fullback who's good.
• 1:13:51
  But unless you're in the weeds like we are, most people don't recognize, recognize him and Dalke on the defense, which was a little surprising because kind of got the impression
• 1:14:01
  that,
• 1:14:02
  that Mace wasn't happy with him when he first came over there, but he's worked his way back into being a solid special teamer and playing positionally situationally on the
• 1:14:11
  defense.
• 1:14:12
  And they seem happy with him again.
• 1:14:16
  Anything else from either of you or?
• 1:14:18
  No, I thought I just had my notes said Saskatchewan was pretty quiet.
• 1:14:21
  mean, the three teams in Saskatchewan and Alberta both were all pretty quiet.
• 1:14:28
  all I have is that Dante Myers is working out with the Vikings, the Bears, and Broncos
• 1:14:31
  Yeah.
• 1:14:32
  And, and that could be, could be a bit of an impact, but to me, the biggest question with the riders is going to be where do they sit with their Canadian receivers when this is all
• 1:14:42
  over?
• 1:14:42
  Because if they can afford to keep them all, they will be looking awfully good.
• 1:14:48
  But you know, you're looking at, got Emilus in there who most people are saying could easily be a number one receiver, might be the best Canadian receiver in the league.
• 1:14:56
  It's debatable, but uh, you've also got Schaefer Baker who's.
• 1:15:00
  didn't
• 1:15:00
  come back from injury as good as he used to be, but still contributes on there.
• 1:15:04
  you got Tommy Neil that came over this year.
• 1:15:07
  You got Ajou Ajou who came back and can contribute when he wants to.
• 1:15:11
  Duncan Busby is still good.
• 1:15:13
  And then they've got Deshawn Mims who was drafted a couple of years ago and is just sort of working his way in now.
• 1:15:19
  And I can't remember the name of the player from last year that they're, so they've got a, a cornucopia of Canadian receivers.
• 1:15:26
  and most of them are in free agency.
• 1:15:28
  So it'll be interesting to see who stays and who goes.
• 1:15:31
  I don't know if it's, I wouldn't say this is my prediction, but if I had my choice, I think I would probably let Schaefer Baker go.
• 1:15:39
  And my priority would be of course, Emilus and, and Neil, I've always been impressed with Neil, even when he played in Toronto and he has certainly became a clutch player for the
• 1:15:49
  riders.
• 1:15:50
  Absolutely.
• 1:15:51
  Yeah.
• 1:15:52
  Yeah, I Schaefer Baker.
• 1:15:54
  I think Schaefer Baker will end up in Edmonton, but we'll see.
• 1:15:57
  Now that's quite possible.
• 1:15:58
  They're looking for receivers and...
• 1:16:01
  Yeah, and him and Cody have a relationship.
• 1:16:04
  Oh, that's true, that's true.
• 1:16:07
  back, it goes back to there.
• 1:16:08
  His first breakout year was with Cody.
• 1:16:11
  Yeah.
• 1:16:12
  Good point.
• 1:16:14
  Okay.
• 1:16:14
  And speaking of Cody, then let's jump over to Edmonton cause he's resigned.
• 1:16:18
  So like you said, GT kind of spoiled the, this didn't give us a spoiler alert when he started off saying, when he's resigned, he's resigned.
• 1:16:26
  Um, yeah, the Elks are gonna run it back with Cody for another year.
• 1:16:31
  They liked enough.
• 1:16:32
  I think they saw just enough.
• 1:16:34
  But I mean, this is when I'm like, always like, Cody doesn't get the respect he deserves.
• 1:16:40
  He's a top quarterback.
• 1:16:42
  He's won great.
• 1:16:42
  And now I'm like, the Elks resigned Cody for another year.
• 1:16:46
  I'm like, I don't know.
• 1:16:47
  I guess.
• 1:16:47
  Okay.
• 1:16:48
  Ford's do his bonus February 1st.
• 1:16:50
  So and Cody's resigned, they were gonna
• 1:16:53
  hundred grand they're gonna have to figure that out.
• 1:16:57
  The day Cody's resigning and they're flashing it all over, Ford was in Disneyland posting Instagram stories of his kid at Disneyland and then the Elks were like, Cody's back!
• 1:17:08
  Also what I mean nothing really else is happening they signed Vincent Blanchard for what another year so they guess they like this is like I feel like they'll sleep see they're
• 1:17:18
  like we liked you enough to try you again so I don't want to say Blanchard's an elite kicker in this league by any stretch but they've seen enough that considering how the
• 1:17:28
  kickings been in that team the last few years it's just good enough
• 1:17:33
  for like status quo, so we're gonna keep you.
• 1:17:36
  And I feel like that kinda is the vibe from Cody as well.
• 1:17:40
  Cody needs some receivers though, as mentioned, they have no receivers really of any, like if we wanna talk star quality in the CFL, if you wanna talk star power for receivers,
• 1:17:51
  there's not, I don't know, I can't think of one on Edmonton that is a star receiver for Cody to throw to.
• 1:17:58
  they have a bunch of people that would be a good number two or three receiver.
• 1:18:03
  And, and I include, the, who was it?
• 1:18:06
  Dunbar in that he's good, but he's not a number one when, even if he comes back with it and, and neither is Gittins and neither is, um, who was it came over from Montreal, drawn
• 1:18:19
  a blank, the two name guy.
• 1:18:20
  I don't know what the expectation is here because it feels like it's just like kind of run of the mill and I don't think they're shooting for anything.
• 1:18:30
  So I don't know.
• 1:18:31
  Yeah.
• 1:18:32
  Well, they, they seem like they're happy with their defense in general, cause that's where they're doing the re-signings.
• 1:18:39
  I was surprised that they resigned Robbie Smith as quickly as they did.
• 1:18:42
  And there was no mention of the money that he, well, actually I heard that he, I think I read he's making the same kind of money again.
• 1:18:49
  for, know, they paid him that 270 last year and they're going to pay him again next year, even after coming off of a down year and an injury.
• 1:18:57
  They signed Terrell Ford, you know, which a lot of people said they weren't going to do.
• 1:19:01
  after Trey getting on the outs, but Terrell resigned.
• 1:19:05
  And again, they signed him to pretty big dollars last year, so they must have paid him again this year.
• 1:19:10
  So they're throwing some money around too.
• 1:19:12
  And again, that all was back that salary cap that I talked about earlier.
• 1:19:16
  I think that people are getting paid finally.
• 1:19:18
  um
• 1:19:20
  they went all in on Rankin as well.
• 1:19:22
  Yeah, they paid rank in a lot of doughs.
• 1:19:25
  they've made some decent moves.
• 1:19:27
  They just haven't made the big ones yet.
• 1:19:30
  there's still that whole linebackers question that we talked about last time around too, what they're going to do there, right?
• 1:19:36
  So it's going to be interesting.
• 1:19:38
  And they're just looking for a backup quarterback if they don't resign Trey.
• 1:19:42
  They could pay him the hundred grand as a signing bonus against this year's cap and then only pay him a hundred to do 120 off of next year's cap.
• 1:19:50
  And he's making 220, which is what backups make.
• 1:19:54
  So he's going to probably have to take a pay cut no matter where he goes.
• 1:19:59
  So it just depends on whether he wants to stay in Edmonton and take a pay cut or whether he wants to go somewhere else and take a pay cut.
• 1:20:06
  That's that's reality for him.
• 1:20:08
  yeah.
• 1:20:09
  And I get the impression he's, he's as far as he's concerned, he's done in Edmonton, which I can sort of see.
• 1:20:15
  So they might get him back, but I'd be surprised.
• 1:20:18
  Mark Killam even kind of was like, Trey will be great for the CFL based basically like on some other team, not this team.
• 1:20:26
  but if they don't want to pay him, if they don't have much other options, because they say, okay, so, you know, is Dustin Crumb better than Trey Ford?
• 1:20:39
  Are we going to pay Dustin Crumb $250 and we got to pay, you know, $225 or whatever, $244 for Trey Ford?
• 1:20:49
  Maybe they decide to stay with Trey Ford.
• 1:20:51
  Maybe they just do.
• 1:20:52
  Maybe they can.
• 1:20:52
  And then Trey goes,
• 1:20:54
  Whatever.
• 1:20:55
  mean, I'm making 240.
• 1:20:57
  I'm like, does he honestly, maybe he's at the point where he doesn't even care anymore.
• 1:21:02
  Maybe he's just like, whatever.
• 1:21:03
  I'm getting paid, man.
• 1:21:05
  I'm going to Disneyland.
• 1:21:06
  I'm taking pictures with my kids.
• 1:21:07
  I'm getting paid.
• 1:21:08
  That's all that matters.
• 1:21:10
  You know?
• 1:21:11
  Yeah.
• 1:21:12
  So, so, so maybe he, yeah, maybe he's no long, maybe he's like, maybe he's checked out.
• 1:21:17
  Who knows?
• 1:21:18
  Yeah.
• 1:21:19
  he even want to play?
• 1:21:20
  That's the question that he needs to ask and all the teams need to ask.
• 1:21:24
  Does this kid still want to play football and how badly?
• 1:21:27
  And that's the decision on whether he gets another job, period.
• 1:21:31
  And if he doesn't, and if six other teams decide that they don't think he's worth the money, then he might as well just suck it up and play in Edmonton for 225 if they give it
• 1:21:40
  to him.
• 1:21:41
  But do you want to even give it that to him if he's is checked out like that?
• 1:21:45
  Like my impression is, and again, this is, oh, stuff I've seen through the media and everything.
• 1:21:52
  So it's hard to say, but he does strike me as someone who is competitive and wants to win.
• 1:21:57
  And I just think he feels like he's been screwed around in Edmonton over and over again and has no interest in being there.
• 1:22:04
  I think it's, well, that's where I think it'd be a mistake to bring him back because I don't.
• 1:22:08
  think even if he's got the potential to be a good quarterback, I don't think that organization can bring it out of him right now.
• 1:22:14
  But I could see him going to who knows BC maybe as a backup to Nathan cause they're somewhat similar.
• 1:22:21
  Yep.
• 1:22:21
  Yeah, Mazoli's a free agent, guys.
• 1:22:24
  yeah, there's something that's gonna get fine.
• 1:22:26
  ah
• 1:22:28
  think he may be on his way to coaching.
• 1:22:30
  that so closely.
• 1:22:32
  Yeah, well, you know, that's a whole nother, like I said, that's a whole nother podcast as we get closer to, to free agency.
• 1:22:39
  But I do think that there's the backup quarterback position is going to be very interesting throughout the league.
• 1:22:46
  as like starting QBs was last year.
• 1:22:49
  Yeah, you're right.
• 1:22:49
  This year is gonna be how many backups get shuffled around.
• 1:22:53
  Well, yeah.
• 1:22:54
  yeah, because there's a lot of teams in desperate need for them.
• 1:22:58
  so there's questioned around a couple of people that are getting a little bit up there in age that, know, do they, can they have another year?
• 1:23:05
  think that the ones that that's being asked about do other than again, Zach and as long as O'Shea's in Winnipeg, think Zach stays as the quarterback until he's can't crawl on the
• 1:23:16
  field if he wants to.
• 1:23:17
  But, you know, other than that, Brown, like you said, Brown injury prone in, in Ottawa.
• 1:23:25
  don't know, and Kelly in Toronto, we have not seen him on the field since his injury.
• 1:23:30
  there, there he's just Mike Miller saying he's the starter.
• 1:23:33
  It's and we'll have competition, but he's our starter Has did that injury actually impair him physically to the point where he can't perform the way he used to.
• 1:23:42
  which is why the next knock on anyway.
• 1:23:45
  Yep.
• 1:23:46
  Yeah.
• 1:23:46
  and they got him locked up and he's under contract.
• 1:23:49
  And he publicly said after the Grey Cup that it's Chad's team and I'm going to be the second guy when Chad comes back.
• 1:23:56
  So he publicly said it.
• 1:23:58
  He's not like he's hiding from it.
• 1:24:00
  So it is there.
• 1:24:01
  But that's all we've digressed off of again.
• 1:24:06
  Yes.
• 1:24:07
  So, but let me just say when I said earlier though, about the defense, they've also signed besides Robbie Smith, they signed, re-signed Noah Curtis and Noah Taylor on the D line and
• 1:24:17
  Brandon Barlow.
• 1:24:18
  And along with, with Tyrell, they signed Cordell Jackson in the backfield as well.
• 1:24:24
  So they've got pieces of the defense they're obviously happy with.
• 1:24:28
  Yeah, and I think I'm worrisome for them is that Jake Julian, as we mentioned, Jake Julian's I'm trying out with the Saints and he's played down in the NFL before and he came
• 1:24:38
  back and signed like a two year deal with the Elks, but he's down there working out again.
• 1:24:43
  So.
• 1:24:44
  Well, that's the thing is that.
• 1:24:45
  they've got Cody Grace lurking there too as an unsigned free agent.
• 1:24:49
  So it's not like they don't have somebody that can't step in.
• 1:24:53
  he got injured though and I'm not quite sure if he's back or if that's still an issue with him.
• 1:25:01
  But Cody Grace is, if he is able to, then he is lurking in the wings for sure.
• 1:25:08
  Okay, so then we slide down the highway to Calgary and I imagine you'll know a lot more news here than I was able to pick up GT because it looked very quiet.
• 1:25:18
  The only thing I had was them resigning Bryce Bell on the O-line and Clark Barnes at receiver.
• 1:25:24
  That's it.
• 1:25:25
  It's all they've done.
• 1:25:26
  And they've been real quiet.
• 1:25:29
  I think that again, and other than the Huff News, and I think that's a bit of an organizational thing.
• 1:25:34
  So I think they are from there.
• 1:25:37
  I think they're just going through the head office and that kind of stuff and figuring out what they want to do there and how they're going to manage the team going forward rather
• 1:25:48
  than.
• 1:25:49
  worrying about signing players other than what they can do as they come up.
• 1:25:53
  They're not really stressing about it.
• 1:25:55
  And that's sort of Dickinson's, he did a lot early stuff last year, but this year I think he's more in the mode of, we've got a team, now we've got to be more selective rather than
• 1:26:06
  just get guys, any guys.
• 1:26:08
  Now we can see whether we want to keep these guys or not and who we want to keep.
• 1:26:13
  But I think the two signings that they did have are real,
• 1:26:16
  are both important.
• 1:26:17
  Barnes is very important and Bryce Bell is nice to have back because he's a Swiss Army knife on the offensive line.
• 1:26:24
  He was injured all year last year, but he can play three different positions.
• 1:26:28
  And I think he's important to have back.
• 1:26:31
  And he's a glue guy and a leader as well.
• 1:26:33
  So I think that those are both good signings.
• 1:26:36
  They've got a couple guys on your NFL circuit.
• 1:26:40
  They've got a few guys.
• 1:26:42
  The big one of course is
• 1:26:45
  is the the defensive lineman that I think that's the guy that they're going to miss the most if he does sign in the U.S.
• 1:26:53
  Although I think he's only had one thing.
• 1:26:55
  Alfred had, Damien Alfred had two quick ones, but we've heard nothing since in the last monthish.
• 1:27:01
  They were very early.
• 1:27:02
  The same thing, the same Hicks, I think was also going to have one, but I don't know if that ever happened.
• 1:27:11
  So there's not a
• 1:27:12
  Hutchings.
• 1:27:13
  Hutchins has had two, I think.
• 1:27:15
  Again, Cleveland, Cleveland.
• 1:27:18
  Yeah, Hutchins has had two, I think.
• 1:27:20
  And one of them, of course, was Cleveland.
• 1:27:22
  And again, I don't know that those, don't know that it's been quiet since then.
• 1:27:26
  If anybody signs, I think he's the most likely of all the players this year.
• 1:27:31
  He's the most likely to actually end up getting a contract and sticking around for at least most of the year down there.
• 1:27:39
  And I'm not talking about the play this year.
• 1:27:41
  I'm talking about the play in next season.
• 1:27:43
  but anyways, that's that's it So they've been real quiet and we'll wait and see I think there's some some players that they need to sign but Until you're close to free agency.
• 1:27:55
  There's so much time left that I don't worry about it until the week before free agent
• 1:28:01
  Yes.
• 1:28:02
  my kid was like horrified that Alfred was out doing NFL workouts.
• 1:28:06
  He's just devastated.
• 1:28:08
  And then he's like, no, they resigned Barnes, but that's Alfred's position.
• 1:28:12
  So was like, I know things happen.
• 1:28:16
  So we'll see how things shake out.
• 1:28:18
  And Stampeders land.
• 1:28:19
  Yes.
• 1:28:21
  They need five of them.
• 1:28:22
  There will still be room for Alfred there.
• 1:28:24
  it's hard.
• 1:28:24
  It's hard to be a, you know, when your favorite player is on the out, a little bit on the outs, right?
• 1:28:31
  Hey, it's part of the pain of fandom.
• 1:28:33
  He will learn as he roses.
• 1:28:35
  learned.
• 1:28:35
  he's learning.
• 1:28:36
  It's been actually kind of fun because I'm like, yes, I know, buddy.
• 1:28:40
  I know.
• 1:28:42
  Yes.
• 1:28:42
  I don't know that I've recovered yet from Weston Dresser playing in a Blue Bomber uniform.
• 1:28:47
  yeah, we all have those heartbreaks.
• 1:28:50
  Yes, we do.
• 1:28:52
  But personally, think Calgary is in a, in a pretty good place this year because they did come together and played well.
• 1:28:58
  had some off games, but overall they played really well.
• 1:29:01
  And it was a team that seemed like it had good chemistry to it.
• 1:29:05
  But again, other than, you know, Hutchings and probably VA on the offense and uh the running back, they didn't really have anybody who's like going to be a sought after free
• 1:29:17
  agent.
• 1:29:18
  They had a bunch of guys that work really well together.
• 1:29:21
  So if they want them back, they can probably get them.
• 1:29:23
  And to me that that's what they need to do is they need to put that starting team back together and then work on building up their depth.
• 1:29:30
  Cause that's what cost them last year.
• 1:29:32
  They just, when people started going down, they didn't have the, didn't have replacements in a lot of it.
• 1:29:38
  Yeah, and I've been very concerned about their Canadian linebackers last year and I think that they need to, that's where they need to focus.
• 1:29:45
  And the guy that I wanted was Terrell Richards out of Montreal as a free agent and he resigned in Montreal today.
• 1:29:51
  So that takes him off the list for me.
• 1:29:53
  yeah, I really think that, you know, I've talked about it over the season.
• 1:29:57
  The Canadian linebackers definitely need something.
• 1:30:01
  well, know, Adam Bighill is a free agent.
• 1:30:05
  They can re-sign him.
• 1:30:08
  Yeah, that's what I mean.
• 1:30:10
  We've all been told that.
• 1:30:13
  All right then.
• 1:30:13
  So we'll move on to the last one we've got for today here, which is BC and not a lot of action there.
• 1:30:20
  You guys mentioned they made, uh, Keon Hatcher the
• 1:30:23
  highest paid non-quarterback.
• 1:30:25
  they now have the highest paid quarterback and the highest paid non-quarterback.
• 1:30:29
  And even with the extra salary money, where's that going to, to leave them in the cap?
• 1:30:33
  But other than that, they had what they have Josh Haggerty, who was one of those multiple safeties you mentioned and Riley Pickett that they converted from defense to fullback last
• 1:30:45
  year.
• 1:30:45
  And I haven't seen any other signings.
• 1:30:48
  Have I missed stuff?
• 1:30:49
  they've been quiet as well.
• 1:30:51
  when I looked at their free agent list, as I glance through each teams, they don't have, you talked about Calgary not having a, you know, a bunch of guys that everybody's hot to
• 1:31:01
  try to steal from them.
• 1:31:02
  BC's the same.
• 1:31:03
  There's nobody on that list that you go, yeah, he's leaving.
• 1:31:06
  I mean, Hatcher was the guy.
• 1:31:08
  So that was, they've signed him up and I think that they're kind of, they can go, I think free agency this year is gonna be really, really like,
• 1:31:17
  not a big deal, not as big a deal as it's been in the past because I think a lot of these guys are getting paid now and the biggest names are already off the board.
• 1:31:26
  The quarterbacks, the receivers, the DBs, a lot of them are off the board.
• 1:31:30
  It's not gonna be a lot of guys left.
• 1:31:32
  It's gonna be middle of the road guys and fillers.
• 1:31:35
  Yeah, I also think some people are waiting to see where what things shake down with coaches and other teams and who's signing with you know, there's just some of that too.
• 1:31:46
  For me, the biggest drama and for the BC Lions right now is not anything to do with team dynamics or team free agency.
• 1:31:55
  What is happening in BC right now is that the
• 1:31:58
  MLS has told the Whitecaps that they can no longer, we talked about this briefly, but they told them that they are no longer able to play at BC Place and that they need a new
• 1:32:07
  stadium.
• 1:32:08
  So now the Whitecaps are, and there's been interest from other cities to try and move the Whitecaps because they keep getting overbooked.
• 1:32:19
  They keep getting overbooked and I think it's too big.
• 1:32:24
  Yeah, that would make some sense.
• 1:32:26
  sure the issue with them, they also had to play one of their playoff games, not the final, they played that away, but they also had to play another playoff final, playoff game away
• 1:32:36
  from home because of a double booking.
• 1:32:39
  So now they want an outdoor stadium with grass and you know, the whole MLS shebang.
• 1:32:45
  And so they're looking at, they have an MOU with the city now for Hastings Park.
• 1:32:49
  BC Place is owned by the province.
• 1:32:52
  So now there's um talks about what the BC Lions are going to do because it's hard for them to fill that stadium as well.
• 1:33:01
  And do they want to move up to Hastings Park and partner with the Whitecaps and MLS?
• 1:33:07
  Both are their own dilemma.
• 1:33:10
  I will just say that Hastings is not as transit friendly as going to BC Place.
• 1:33:16
  But BC Place, if it's not full,
• 1:33:19
  is kind of sad.
• 1:33:20
  It's kind of like being at Commonwealth.
• 1:33:23
  So there's some sports rejigging and drama that's going to happen the next couple years in BC and whether the Lions decide to stick it out at BC Place or whether they decide to move
• 1:33:33
  up to Hastings Park, we'll see.
• 1:33:36
  Okay.
• 1:33:37
  I hadn't heard any of that, so that could be interesting.
• 1:33:40
  Yeah, I had heard that they were, I had heard that they had an MOU with the city, but I thought it was more of that whole, we're so excited.
• 1:33:47
  We think that this is now the, you know, and I'm like, why?
• 1:33:50
  Like, don't know.
• 1:33:50
  I did not, I didn't know the background and why they needed to move when they, when the Providence spent again, hundreds of millions of dollars to refinish and give them BC
• 1:34:00
  place.
• 1:34:00
  And I'm surprised that the league can say that they could say, you know, you got, you need a new stadium or no, you need a better schedule.
• 1:34:08
  You can, you you need to not have, you need to hold dates more in case.
• 1:34:13
  Like that's what happens here in Toronto.
• 1:34:16
  Why the Argos can never play at home in October is because there might be a playoff game in MLS.
• 1:34:24
  So they, that's why the Argos could be in first place and not, and you're not going to see them for five weeks in a row from the end of September through to the middle of November,
• 1:34:34
  Eastern final, because there might.
• 1:34:36
  be a game that the MLS needs it for if TFC makes the playoffs and their shenanigans of however they set up their schedule.
• 1:34:44
  I mean, and that's, they could say that in B2C2.
• 1:34:47
  And I guess it's the...
• 1:34:48
  just an issue with the province, right?
• 1:34:51
  they should just, but why would you go out and spend all money on another couple hundred million dollars on a stadium for a soccer team?
• 1:34:58
  That's just dumb.
• 1:34:59
  Sorry.
• 1:35:00
  But MLS likes to throw things, like they just, this is sidebar, it's not CFL, but MLS, is for the Argos stuff, MLS has decided to change their entire schedule.
• 1:35:09
  So now it's just gonna be over the winter.
• 1:35:12
  So teams like Montreal, Toronto, who have outdoor stadiums, they're like, what's going on?
• 1:35:18
  And I mean, if you wanna talk soccer too, there's also some drama going on with the Bombers and their FC Valor just folded and...
• 1:35:25
  There's actually, I should have talked about this with the bombers, I forgot, but there's been some very damning allegations and how the Winnipeg Blue Bombers treated their soccer
• 1:35:35
  team and what happened there.
• 1:35:38
  So is soccer is a little dramatic in Canada right now?
• 1:35:41
  Yeah.
• 1:35:42
  Well, plus whether it's soccer or football, I'm not sure I'd want to be sitting at a game in BC when one of them atmospheric rivers comes through because having the roof is awfully
• 1:35:56
  fortunate in those conditions.
• 1:35:58
  Yeah, so if they move out, they're gonna have to play over the winter and it's gonna be, yeah, rain.
• 1:36:03
  And just like this last weekend, it's, you've been there for it, it is, it's like one of those Texas monsoons where it suddenly starts coming down and it's just, it couldn't come
• 1:36:14
  down any faster.
• 1:36:15
  It's a wall of water.
• 1:36:17
  for the Lions it's not as big of an issue.
• 1:36:19
  Like I was in Vancouver when BC Place was closed and they moved us all over to Empire Field.
• 1:36:24
  which was a great stadium.
• 1:36:26
  It was so intimate
• 1:36:28
  had the best time at Empire Field.
• 1:36:31
  You can see the mountains in the background and the stands were really loud.
• 1:36:37
  It was a lot of fun.
• 1:36:38
  I enjoyed it there.
• 1:36:40
  Yeah.
• 1:36:40
  And with all those temporary, I went to a few different games when they were down in that one and with all those temporary stands, people got their feet pounding on the metal and
• 1:36:49
  it was loud.
• 1:36:51
  So who knows, if they do do a soccer stadium or a small one, I would like to see them do almost the same sort of plan they did in that temporary one.
• 1:36:59
  Cause that was part of what made it so, so great.
• 1:37:02
  It was small and there was, you felt like you were right on top of the game.
• 1:37:06
  It was fantastic to watch.
• 1:37:08
  Well, with the new field, if the new field, can do it together at least if nothing else, But then you just have to put up with the, you're ruining our turf nonsense from the
• 1:37:21
  soccer guy.
• 1:37:22
  and moving the side, like the benches for everyone's games.
• 1:37:29
  I think that's it.
• 1:37:32
  Apparently it's a good thing.
• 1:37:33
  There goes my voice.
• 1:37:34
  I think that's it.
• 1:37:36
  So anything else to wrap up before we're done or we given the audience enough of a treat, an unexpected treat of our smiling faces here.
• 1:37:46
  Yeah, no, I think it'll slow down for the next week or so over the holiday.
• 1:37:50
  And then in January, we're going to have the apparently open to the public almost CFL Board of Governors meetings, very transparent Governors meetings.
• 1:37:59
  And that'll bring out lots of news.
• 1:38:01
  And that's when we'll probably get back together.
• 1:38:05
  Yeah, that'll be just, I think that's just before the free agency too, isn't it?
• 1:38:09
  So we'll have a much better idea of who's resigned and who hasn't.
• 1:38:14
  Yeah, I think we're still a month apart at that state, but it's pretty close.
• 1:38:18
  I thought the governor's meetings were like mid to third week of January and free agency is middle of February.
• 1:38:24
  Yeah.
• 1:38:24
  And see, I was thinking, my thinking was sort of the same.
• 1:38:27
  thought it was third or fourth week of January and the legal tampering opens, I think on like February 7th or something.
• 1:38:36
  yeah.
• 1:38:36
  Because otherwise you're going to get me, again, going off on...
• 1:38:44
  Let's not use that term on this podcast.
• 1:38:47
  Which term is that?
• 1:38:49
  that one that you just said, because there's no, it's a ridiculous term that somebody invented that we, yeah, and that that the league allows to perpetuate and allows, and
• 1:39:01
  people don't get, because then they hear it and they hear it they hear it, and it sounds Mickey Mouse and it makes the league sound Mickey Mouse, and yet it's not.
• 1:39:11
  It's an inaccurate statement.
• 1:39:13
  It's an open window that every league has.
• 1:39:17
  And yet somehow this league has been saddled with a disproportionate amount of bad publicity around a situation that every league has.
• 1:39:29
  it drives me crazy.
• 1:39:31
  It makes me nuts that purported real media, including those guys that just got paid,
• 1:39:40
  be no longer a podcast, but a media outlet, still use and promote.
• 1:39:45
  It's not right.
• 1:39:47
  Don't use it.
• 1:39:48
  If you want to promote the league, stop using degrading terminology about the league.
• 1:39:54
  That is inaccurate, and it's a degrading terminology about the league.
• 1:40:00
  It's not accurate.
• 1:40:02
  Sorry, that's just me.
• 1:40:03
  That's just me on a rant.
• 1:40:06
  I get it.
• 1:40:06
  And I, and believe me, I appreciate the passion and you make good points.
• 1:40:11
  So I will try to not use that term.
• 1:40:13
  I'll try not to slip into using that anymore.
• 1:40:15
  Am I okay to call it the
• 1:40:17
  Ed Hervey negotiating window?
• 1:40:18
  It's a negotiating window.
• 1:40:21
  That's what it is.
• 1:40:22
  It's negotiating.
• 1:40:23
  It's a negotiation window.
• 1:40:26
  It's what it is.
• 1:40:27
  The NBA has it.
• 1:40:29
  Nobody talks about the NBA the same way.
• 1:40:31
  They literally, you can do it for two weeks from July and you can't announce any contracts until two weeks later.
• 1:40:39
  The NHL does it.
• 1:40:40
  They just don't talk about it.
• 1:40:42
  mean, it's just, again, another one of those things that I...
• 1:40:45
  I don't know why we allow our league to be talked about in that way and why reputable newscasters continue to do it.
• 1:40:53
  I just don't get it.
• 1:40:56
  Like I said, it is a very good point.
• 1:40:58
  I think the issue may be that there's too many of us around that remember how we got to this in the first place because it didn't used to be.
• 1:41:05
  alright, point well taken.
• 1:41:07
  You can give me a virtual slap if I use the term again.
• 1:41:13
  Anything else now for our closing?
• 1:41:17
  Yes we were.
• 1:41:18
  But that's part of the fun is you never know what's going to trigger.
• 1:41:22
  So the negotiation window opens at the first week of February.
• 1:41:25
  You are correct.
• 1:41:27
  Yeah.
• 1:41:27
  So somewhere in around there we'll probably come back and do another show for you folks.
• 1:41:32
  I don't think there'll be anything before that.
• 1:41:34
  But we'll have to see.
• 1:41:35
  We weren't planning to do this one.
• 1:41:36
  And then let's see how...
• 1:41:38
  I like seeing this much CFL news in the offseason, I gotta say.
• 1:41:42
  Absolutely.
• 1:41:43
  That's why I wanted to talk, because it seemed like we have more news in December than we've had in December of any other year.
• 1:41:51
  Yeah.
• 1:41:52
  Yeah.
• 1:41:52
  And it was, it was hitting me and I was seeing it, but I've been wrapped up with a few other things.
• 1:41:58
  I was, it seemed to me like, you know, I'd see, there's a spat here.
• 1:42:01
  And then I wouldn't look at anything for two or three days and then I'd oh, there's another spat.
• 1:42:05
  And then once you emailed and said, we should do this, there's a lot going on.
• 1:42:09
  And I went back and started tracking it.
• 1:42:10
  I oh, holy crap.
• 1:42:11
  Yeah, there is.
• 1:42:14
  Anyway, any other closing thoughts, GT or your social media.
• 1:42:20
  No, my only other thoughts is Merry Christmas, and happy holidays to any other holidays that you enjoy, and that enjoy the season, and take care, say hello to your families, give
• 1:42:32
  them all hugs, and we will talk again in the new year.
• 1:42:36
  And in the meantime, if you do want to see the occasional post, there might be one on Blue Sky at GT Barnum.
• 1:42:44
  Yeah.
• 1:42:45
  I actually had someone on blue sky come at me and say, love the stuff that you're putting out here.
• 1:42:50
  Now that we're in the off season, can you tell us a bunch more stories about from like the fifties and sixties and that?
• 1:42:54
  And I thought, sorry, wrong guy.
• 1:42:56
  My, my memory is not that good, but if you would like to, cause you're the man from that, go ahead.
• 1:43:02
  There's at least one per one account on blue sky that would love to see it.
• 1:43:05
  How about you MJ?
• 1:43:09
  Anything to close with?
• 1:43:11
  Yeah, just quickly, it is my kid's birthday tomorrow, so happy birthday to him.
• 1:43:20
  Yeah.
• 1:43:22
  And so between that and the holidays, it's been busy, but, you know, happy holidays and Merry Christmas to everyone, and CFL, please be chill so I can finish watching Heated
• 1:43:32
  Rivalry and not have to deal with you.
• 1:43:36
  You can...
• 1:43:37
  Oh, wow!
• 1:43:39
  no, no, that wasn't the...
• 1:43:40
  but please tell me!
• 1:43:44
  It's consuming my every waking thought right now, so if you enjoy heated rivalry, find me, or you know, CFL, talk.
• 1:43:52
  You can find me on Blue Sky at Sports and Plants.
• 1:43:55
  Okay.
• 1:43:56
  That sounds good.
• 1:43:58
  And, we'll disappear here again, like I was saying for another month, but in the meantime, I'm still going on bluesky at old man dash SAC.
• 1:44:07
  There is still some stuff going up on, on Twitter and on, Instagram and bluesky at the CFL outsiders.
• 1:44:16
  And I'm still doing a bit of stuff on Reddit if you want to check it out there.
• 1:44:20
  But other than that, I think we've covered everything we've got.
• 1:44:25
  I'm imagining that if you've got this one, you probably subscribe because nobody would have been expecting that you probably gotten notifications.
• 1:44:32
  But if you are brand new, if you are one of the lucky people who just discovered us out of the blue, please subscribe and you'll get notified when we're going again through the rest
• 1:44:40
  of the off season.
• 1:44:41
  And then we hit it hard next year.
• 1:44:42
  And I think that's about it.
• 1:44:44
  I'll echo what GT said.
• 1:44:47
  Merry Christmas to all that celebrate it.
• 1:44:49
  Happy holidays to those that celebrate something different and
• 1:44:55
  Hopefully the year ends better than it's been.
• 1:44:58
  for JT and MJ, this is Oldman saying, get the hell off my lawn.