The CFL Outsiders S02/E05 (My Mom Was Right)

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:36):
Hey kids!
Welcome back to another episode of the CFL Outsiders.
I remain as always your totally impartial 100 % unbiased co-host, Old Man Shouting atClouds.
Joining me this week, as always, is MJ.
I am ready to talk junk football.

(00:56):
good, because there was a lot of it.
And of course GT.
Hey, how you doing?
I have one question about last week.
Was it something I said?
It was everything you said, apparently you sounded like a chipmunk.
I don't know what happened there.
I'm glad we've got you back.
We'll do our best to get you a full show in this time.
No, I used all my very limited editing talents to try and fix it and couldn't.

(01:21):
there we were.
Anyway.
as I said, I think that was probably the best I ever sounded, so there you go.
I wouldn't say that.
No, we want to hear what you got to say.
Anyway, I'll jump in just real quick I usually give the updates on my fantasy stuff.
Another bad week.
didn't get anybody really above about 10 points.
I'll get better.
I lost again.
I'm now two and one.

(01:41):
I lost to Adam at the CFL, what is it?
Canadian football countdown.
That's their show.
So that's my shame again this week.
Hopefully we'll do better next week, but.
gonna jump off that right away quick and we're gonna start because apparently we'restarting off with it's all about me with GT

(02:02):
Hey, how are you?
It's about, as you may see, I'm wearing black and gold this week for a couple of reasons.
Number one is because I said I would wear red until we lost.
We lost, so I'm not wearing red.
The reason I'm wearing the black and gold though is I'm gonna just stand up, turn this,this is number one, turn around, see you can see that on the dot.

(02:25):
It's a Casey Printers number one jersey I've had for quite a while.
And it kind of started something from MJ that went and just posted, whatever happened toCasey printers?
And I said, well, I have a Casey printers jersey.
And then I said, well, why don't I thought, why don't we do this?
I will auction it or sell it.
At first, I thought I would sell it.

(02:47):
And then I thought, no, let's auction it off and see if anybody would be willing to buythis Casey printers jersey and all money, all funds will go to CFL fans fight cancer.
So I thought that was a nice way to try to raise some money for CFL fans fight cancer fromsomething that's been hanging in my basement since Casey Pritchard was a Ti-cat.

(03:10):
So yeah, so that's what I thought we would do.
And MJ was the first one that jumped the board.
I started the bidding at $50.
MJ has raised that price to $55.
So for everybody that's listening,
It's now a bid at $55.
The bids are going to stay open until the end of the game between the Stampeters and theTicats on Thanksgiving weekend.

(03:33):
And at that point in time, the closing will come about and we will then find out how wefigure out the rest of it and I will ship it to you in some way, or form.

(03:57):
that's the thing.
And I will continue to update both on social media once a month or so, and here as well,and let everybody know where the bid currently stands and what the next steps are.
And hopefully we can raise some money.
Now, why do I have a Casey printer's jersey?
So,
Because I'm a sicko and because I like messing with people, when I've been a long timeseason ticket holder here for the Argos, because that's where I live, so that's where I
primarily watch football.
So I would go to Argo games in every other team's jersey.

(04:18):
I have a jersey from every other team and I would just show up and mess with people aroundme because they'd say, oh, you're a Ti-cats fans The next week I'd be there in the,
in every team, I have every team's jersey, other than the red blacks, because they didn'texist.
So I don't have a red And I don't have a Edmonton jersey simply because I would never owna red Edmonton jersey no matter what.

(04:42):
And, and I do have a rough rider jersey, which in today's world, I would never own again.
So I still have that left from the days before.
when they were just kind of cute, when they were just kind of cute and off to the side andwe didn't worry about that.
yes, that's why I have every other team's jersey just to mess with the other fans aroundme where they would just go, what are you doing?

(05:05):
And then the only time I would wear the Argos, which I did on Friday night, was whenEdmonton was in town or now when either Edmonton or Saskatchewan in town, I wear my Argos
jersey.
Because on those nights,
an Argo fan.
So that's the story.

(05:25):
That's the story.
So I am willing to give up the Casey printers and we'll see how it goes and maybe I'll dothe rest of them as well.
And I have another little bit of paraphernalia that if this works I might also put up foron auction and see if the you know what if I just sitting in my basement it's a great
cause and if we can raise money for it even better.

(05:46):
Oh yeah, absolutely.
It's, uh, I, I give you a big applause for, for doing that and for putting the moneytowards it.
like you say, we'll update it here every so often as we go through and we'll, we'll pumpit up on the other stuff where we're at.
See what we can do.
We've got a couple of...
of rants to talk about this weekend.

(06:07):
It seemed like it was the, not just ugly weekend of football, but the angry one as well.
And I was going to mention first of all, I'm sure most people know by now, coachDinwiddie's explosion after the game.
It was, it was incredible to watch.
I don't know that I've ever seen a coach that angry and I've seen a lot of them.

(06:28):
I've seen the classic ones about the playoffs and you know.
all of this stuff, but he was just so upset and it makes me almost wonder if there's moregoing on behind the scenes there with Chad still being out.
And is it maybe that that injury just isn't coming back?
Is there other pressures?
Cause I don't know.
I've heard a lot of people say, I'd love to hear a coach talking like that, you know, niceand honest and everything, but calling out your players

(06:55):
in a press conference.
Even if you don't say specifically which guard it is, you're still doing close enough thatthat's there.
And then the part that I can tell you from, being in, having been in a leadershipposition, being a people leader, when you make a threat that somebody is going and then
you do nothing to follow up on it, you've lose all kinds of credibility with your team.

(07:16):
So if he was going to say that I would have thought somebody would have gone.
That's about all I've got to say.
What do you guys think?
Well, I didn't see it because I was at the game.
So I didn't see it and I wasn't going to watch that whole game again just to be able tosee the rant at the end because I certainly, because I've seen enough at that game.
but obviously I've heard pretty much all of it from the thing.
One of the things that I do have, I do say is that he said somebody's going to lose theirjob.

(07:41):
He didn't say somebody's going to be off of the team.
So it could well be that he's going to make some changes to that offensive line and maybe
one of the guys that we think is like a Ryan Hunter who maybe, maybe he's a tackle, not aguard.
He was specific about a guard.
But somebody like that who's, a high profile guy might get knocked down to not beingstarting.

(08:03):
And maybe it's just for a week or two, but that also, that fulfills the threat withoutlosing the player.
So don't think we have to jump to the conclusion three days later that he hasn't cutsomebody, so therefore he hasn't lived up to the threat.
It might be simply that he makes changes along that line.
And they have to, because that line's been horrible.

(08:23):
It was horrible that night.
It's been the worst part of their team all in three games so far.
I have a real problem with calling out a specific player in a press conference.
This is Ed Hervey level nonsense.
And I, my take is that Ryan should not be there if that's how he's going to act and talkabout his players.

(08:45):
You've clearly lost the room.
I just, like, this is parenting 101.
Like you can't give empty threats and you can't call specific players out in pressconferences.
You think about
Michael Shea would never.
Dave Dickinson probably would never.
Like you can't, you can't, don't care how mad you are, you cannot throw specific playersunder the bus.

(09:06):
It is just not the vibe.
actual quote was someone's going home tomorrow.
So that's not, I'm making changes.
That's someone's going home tomorrow and there's been no action on that.
And the other thing is, I don't know, it could be Hunter because he's had a bad first fewgames and they did move him inside to guard on that game.

(09:26):
might've been him.
I don't know.
It's either him or who's the other one?
Vandel, think.
So one of them, he's not happy with how they came into the season and with, but yeah.
Were you not at training camp, Brian?
Did you not see he came in at that weight?
You knew.
I don't think it's surprise.
So I just don't understand why you need to like voice that out to like the entire world.

(09:50):
Well, and I've seen him on the bench at games when things aren't going well, likeliterally trailing along behind people, yelling at them, like we used to see Chris Jones
do.
So he's a great coach.
gets, he's got a fantastic winning record.
He gets the most out of his team, but I wasn't impressed with that one.
Anything else or should we move on?
Yeah, well, I think it ties into when we talk about the game.

(10:13):
I think a lot of it has to do with the game itself.
And it has to do with, you know, the fact that they're 0-3.
now MJ was going to tell us about our other rant that's got everybody talking.
This is
I tried to read, okay, Luke Wilson on the X place posted apparently a huge rant.

(10:33):
I've only seen screenshots of it so I haven't seen him replying to anyone.
I tried to read it, my eyes glazed over, he was rambling, but basically his takeaway fromthe CFL is that it's hot garbage and we need to change a bunch of rules.
And my favorite...
CFL social media person, Beau Levi Mitchell today, told Luke Wilson, welcome to the CFL.

(10:56):
There's going to be quarterback sneaks and penalties.
So I can't wait till Beau's on the panel.
But it was just, I think I'd like to think a lot of the upset here.
And I was thinking about it Luke almost feels like an outsider coming in and tellingpeople what's up.
And it's different when you talk smack about your family and then when somebody outside ofyour family talks smack about your family.

(11:18):
It's two different things.
Are the things that can be cleaned up?
Great.
Is it necessarily rules?
I don't think so.
He was talking about how no one's watching games and I think that the rules are not thereason people aren't watching games.
Yeah, first of all, I'll say this is that it wasn't that different than what he said in aninterview with Three Down about three or four months ago.

(11:43):
It's basically the same thing.
It was just after a game.
So he had specific examples from a game this isn't new.
This is this is what he thinks it the CFL needs to do now.
I don't agree with most of what he said.
I do believe it sounds very much like an NFL guy telling us that the NFL is better and youneed to be four downs and you need to do this and you need to do that to change the rules.

(12:12):
Yeah, but we don't want to be the NFL.
So that's not going to happen.
and the way that he didn't like the last minute and a half of the, that's what we all loveabout this game.
And from the stands, it's terrific.
from an analytics analyst point of view, maybe it's not, maybe it's not from some guy thatplayed the game, but you didn't play this game, you played a different game.

(12:35):
If you played this game, like Bo does, or like some of the current players do, they mighttell you, this is the best part of the game because it's freewheeling and because it
happens in a minute and a half.
I agree with you on that.
I, what I heard him saying was basically, you should become NFL rules.
Everything that he complained about was, basically the stuff that they don't do in theNFL.

(12:58):
And what you said, GT it makes the CFL exciting.
It's, it's a, it's most of these new fans he's talking about us bringing in are notfootball analysts that are going to see every bad mistake They're looking for an exciting
game.
And that was.
extremely exciting.
So I guess I'm with you.
I write it off.
I don't do a lot of social media, but what I have done, seems like everybody is justwriting it off.

(13:20):
It'll be, be interesting to see how TSN reacts because one of the things that reallyannoyed me about it was the fact he sat there on the game at TSN and did his little
sideline gig.
Look, I'm now part of TSN and everybody should be paying attention to me.
And he said, none of that stuff.
He was all about how great it was and look at how good this, this play is or that play is.

(13:41):
And then he gets off right away and says hot garbage.
it seemed like he was mostly talking hot garbage about the last two minutes of the game.
That last drive, he seemed to really not appreciate it.
And he was talking about timeouts.
Why wasn't there more timeouts?
And you only have two timeouts.
if you either know the rules and then talk about it, but you can't just complain about itif you don't know the rules.

(14:05):
So you can't say, they should have called a timeout.
if there are no timeouts to call, you do quarterback sneaks because you only have threedowns.
You do, like you have, you have the yard off the ball.
So you have more opportunity for quarterback.
There are things that you need to do and just do differently the way the games played.
if you want it to be the NFL light, well, that's not what any of us want.

(14:28):
Sorry.
I don't know there's a lot more to say about it.
this is not me.
This is stolen from, don't know, it was either three down or the two and out guys orsomething, something I was listening to yesterday, but they pointed out on the whole
quarterback sneak thing that Saskatchewan at least had six quarterback sneaks for 30yards.
And they said any, any football play you can average five yards of play on, it's not a badfootball play.

(14:50):
think he's just trying to, draw attention and make himself be a household name in Canada.
Cause a lot of people that are CFL fans don't know who Luke Wilson was.
let's get off of that and go on to a GT.
hear reinforcements are coming in Calgary.
Yeah, they signed Adam Big Hill to the practice roster, I think most people have eitherbeen waiting for him to sign somewhere or expecting him to kind of ride off into the

(15:16):
sunset after the injury last year and Winnipeg not resigning him.
I kind of thought he would take a shot somewhere and I kind of thought it made sense to bein Calgary over the course of the off season.
And now it makes great sense considering they had,
Michael Lee their number one middle linebacker, go down and might be out for the entireseason.
And then they lost another linebacker on Saturday.

(15:37):
And certainly they were already thin there.
So to get a guy of his caliber, even if it's as an insurance policy, and even if it's onlyfor Markel Lee is back in after Labor Day or something, well then you know what?
You still keep Biggie around if he wants to be around for the rest of the year.
And it doesn't cost you too much money.
He's a great leader.
I don't think it's a bad move and it's good timing you do those kind of signings when youhave a bye week next week Maybe he play he practices a bit I wouldn't be surprised to see

(16:05):
him in one of these next couple of games Because they look pretty bad at linebacker on theweekend.
Yeah, they, they are, especially in the middle there.
They started with tights and he was a good football player at one point, but he's just,he's aged quickly and what I saw was he was either crashing too quick to the line and
getting just tied up in all the blocking or he was hanging back too far and not getting tothe hole before the running back was through it.

(16:32):
They're in tough.
And then I noticed they, I can't remember the name, but their rookie that they draftedthis year, they had him in for a big chunk of the second half.
And he looked like he's got a Faraniche Yes.
He's looked like he's got some potential, but again, he's a rookie.
So big hill, if nothing else will be, will be a great coaching addition to them.
And then it's just how much, does he add on the field?

(16:52):
I, did hear someone suggesting that he might not be fully recovered from the injury yet.
So he, they may still need a couple more weeks before they can get him
into playing at all, but we'll find that out as it goes along.
I just want to offer my condolences to the Winnipeg Blue Bomber fans, because this hurts.

(17:13):
My equivalent is this is when Peter Dijkowski signed with the Riders.
And you're just like, in one heart, you're like, I'm happy you're still playing footballand I'm glad someone wants to give you a shot and you're going to go help another team,
but it's like a dagger.
It's a dagger.
so, Bomber fans, I really feel for you.

(17:33):
Big Hill has a great season with the stamps.
Yes.
And it's been a bad year for them already because Andrew Harris is coaching with theriders, which has got to hurt even more.
Yeah.
Yeah.
They're doing good.
Winning makes everything feel better.
Okay.
All right.
Well, we don't have a lot more to talk about, we've got it's time for MJ's Family FootballTalk.

(18:00):
I just want to give a shout out to all the CFL players who go out of their way after gamesto sign autographs and talk to fans, especially kids.
We were at Commonwealth for the home opener and my son, as you know, is a huge alouettesfan.
And after the game, he got to talk to quite a few alouettes.
He and Malthouse took a picture flexing together and he was just over the moon about that.

(18:25):
was just, he was just...
And he wanted to make sure that I sent it to the two of you.
He's like, please send it to Old Man and GT.
I need them to see this.
yeah, we've got it and we've got a slightly modified version that I'm going to throw inhere so folks can see how good it looks.
And he talked to Alexander and Alexander took a picture with him and I was like, thank youso much.
You guys only come here once a year.
He's like, yeah, I know.

(18:45):
Cause he ran over after his interview at TSN.
ran over cause we saw him waving and this is how you grow a game.
You want to talk how to grow a game?
Just sign autographs for the kids for 10, 15 minutes.
It doesn't take a lot of time.
And these are core memories.
These are core memories for kids.
Like, Mike, he was just over the moon.

(19:06):
special thank you to the Montreal Alouettes, special thank you to Maltose and Alexanderand Austin Mack, and the other players who signed, but especially those three who took the
time to talk to him.
You guys are just superstars.
Yeah.
Big applause for them.
I gotta love the players that do that.
Yeah.
They, know, whether it's, it's them or you hear the stories about VA you were talkingabout how the, the one pre-season game that he wasn't dressed, he was sitting there

(19:29):
tossing footballs back and forth with kids in the stands.
Players that, yeah.
I think personally, I think that's one of the best things about the CFL is that maybebecause they're not making multi-million dollars, they s-
The players there really seem to appreciate the fact that they're playing for fans andtake the time for the fans.

(19:50):
You know, we, we see stuff like this at games, but there's also on every team.
There are players that stick around in the off season and go to different events and theyget paid for, speaking engagements but they're out there doing that.
And a lot of it is with kids and with the schools.
So good onto the CFL players for what they give back.
speaking of CFL players and speaking of all those ones you just did, I guess it's time tomove on to our first game here, Montreal 38 at Edmonton 28.

(20:20):
And I will maybe start with this one just by saying it wasn't a great game for for theElks.
they look
really good in garbage time in the fourth quarter and they scored 22 of their 28 pointsthere, but I don't take a lot of good away from that.
On the other hand, they were also playing Montreal who's just been, I said last week, atier above everybody else and.

(20:40):
I can't wait to see a game between Montreal and Winnipeg or Saskatchewan.
Basically that's about the only two I see right now that feel like they could maybe givethem a game.
Toronto, if Kelly comes back and changes it, maybe, any thoughts on the game?
A few things I thought, yeah, was the overall, the first thing I'll say is for an openingday for home opener, the crowd was terrible.

(21:07):
It really was.
And it looked probably worse on television than it was live or maybe it did.
But it it looked pretty bad.
Secondly, overall, my feeling as I was watching the game, especially in the second halfwhen he started to make things happen was Trey Ford is not working with Maximec at all.
It seems like the only time he was doing things was when he was off script, when he wasjust moving outside in the pocket.

(21:36):
and then looking for his second or third read down the field.
When he's forced to do, this is what I'm told to do, this is what I'm going to do, itdoesn't work.
They need him more mobile and he may just not be one of these guys that's gonna live up tohis potential in the short term.
He might be Vernon Adams 2.0.

(21:57):
Vernon Adams took eight years before he finally fit into a system and then put all of thatstuff together.
and now the guy that people love as a quarterback.
it may not be Edmonton's, know, and Trey may not be the guy there over the long termunless something happens.
But I just think they need to.
be able to figure out how to utilize him rather than trying to have him fit into a littlebox that they have designed for him because it's not working.

(22:27):
heard someone talking on a podcast today about Mikezic and when he was in BC and he workedwith Mike Riley and Nathan Rourke and they are not Trey Ford.
You're never going make Trey a pocket passer.
He's got to be mobile.
He's got to be mobile all time.
They're like giving him grief for not doing his second, third reads, but he'll do thosereads when he's running 30 yards.

(22:51):
then sometimes he'll make a great throw down field so he can do his reads, he's just notdoing them the way that that offensive coach seems to want him to do them.
And it's pretty disappointing.
And he had progressed more under Jerry's Jackson, frankly.
He was, he was, he was, he was getting through his reads.
He was, he was, I don't think that it's impossible for him to be a pocket passer.

(23:14):
I think he'll be, he'll end up being a VA or what I said a few weeks ago, given the rightpeople to work with, he'll end up like a flutie where he can stand in there and pass out
of the pocket and be great.
But if the line suddenly breaks down, then he can do all this other magic.
and go off script and still make things happen.
I don't know, it could be just learning pains between the two of them, but I don't thinkit's a lack of talent on, on Trey's part.

(23:38):
I don't think it's a lack of talent on either of them, the coach or the quarterback.
I think it's just a mesh between the two so far.
And I think it just may take longer than we expected.
And we think, he's his fourth year, but he's still got very little consistent playing timeto learn.
And again, he might learn to play from the pocket, but it's never gonna be his bestposition.

(24:01):
He's always, as MJ said, always gonna be better rolling out.
and throwing on the roll,
Just a reminder that Jerry Strykson did interview for the head coaching job of the Elksand they said no.
Well, we'll see how that all turns out for them
Couple of, I won't go into a lot of the stuff that I feel like saying there, but I willsay a couple of things from just from Montreal's point of view that I was impressed,

(24:24):
impressed the hell out of me.
That is a very good team, but that interception that Ento made, uh, coming across whatkind of range and speed he showed on that.
Once they, when they showed the replay, how far he closed and what he did on that, that,that was amazing.
And then the other thing that I thought was really, really pretty football was the.
touchdown run by Sean Thomas Erlington.

(24:46):
he did a fantastic job.
was patience waiting for the holes to develop.
And even once he got through the holes and heading down the field, he was still lettingthe blocks set up in front of him.
He's a good running back when he gets the chance.
Yeah, thought that speaking of Trey Ford, I thought Davis Alexander did his best Trey Fordat one point where he did the exact same thing where he just ruled out, ran 20 yards deep

(25:13):
and then ran around and then just launched a bomb and perfect end zone touchdown.
I mean, and the difference between those two quarterbacks was, know, Davis Alexander, itlooks like he's on, if that injury is not long term
if he's back on track, he's going to be so good it's crazy.
All those people that were doubters, I think were wrong.

(25:33):
MBT was also pretty inspired because he did like a big jump.
Yeah, it's hurdle.
Yes.
Yes.
One of the other podcasts was saying you're too old for that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a couple of other things just before we move on from the game that I noticed inthe game.
Number one was I'm not sure if it was camera angle.

(25:55):
I'm not sure if it was the play calling.
I'm not sure if it was the plays themselves.
But early in the first quarter, throughout the first quarter, it seemed to me that wecould see the vision of Montreal's offense happening in real time.
As backs were crossing behind the line of scrimmage, as guys and receivers were movingback and forth and going into position, you could just watch it all.

(26:20):
And then the play unfolded and it was there.
It was like, wow, this was, I don't know if that's new or it's just my eyes were better.
I had my football eyes in or what, but it just looked terrific.
And the other thing I just want to touch on is, Philpott, both of them, but that night aswell,
Tyson Philpott is an incredible football player.

(26:42):
He catches, but where I blew me away is he blocks his butt off.
He works so hard blocking for the other receivers.
He lays guys out.
He ties other defenders up.
He's an all-around guy.
He's not just standing there waiting for the ball to come his way.

(27:03):
He's doing everything he needs to do.
He's a heck of a football player.
And Jaylen, I noticed, doing the same thing.
And maybe it's just more time, but Tyson looked incredible the other
Yes.
He also, he's the one that cost me the fantasy win by the way, because Adam took him andin fantasy, you have to pick one person as your captain, which is almost always the
quarterback because he gets the most points and your captain gets double points.

(27:25):
So, Tyson was there with 24 points and Adam made him his captain.
So there was 48 points right there in one player.
had half of half of what I scored.
So I'm a fan of Tyson, but just not right now.
That's
I just want to just talk about a couple things.
I just want to say the Elks kicking game has improved 100 % accuracy on that game.

(27:47):
So good job, Vincent.
Hopefully that continues.
I'm just wondering, so the Elks DB situation, I know they got rid of one.
Aaron Grimes is...
Yeah, Aaron Grimes, it's first year coaching DBs.
I'm wondering how that's going.
And I also was thinking today, how much are they missing Lucius Purefoy?
And

(28:15):
Didn't they bring him back in some capacity though?
Or am I getting him confusing?
for two games for taking ADHD meds that weren't prescribed to him.
okay, I didn't even know that.
he has now been diagnosed with ADHD and has a doctor's, but anyway, I was at that game.
Season opener.
I'm going to give the Elks a little bit of a pass on this.
What?
Why would the CFL make a team have a home opener on a Thursday night at 7 p.m.
during the school year?

(28:37):
There was hardly any kids there.
Hardly any.
My kid was only there because of the alouettes.
If the alouettes were not playing.
We wouldn't have gone to that game.
Okay, can I ask you a question?
if you had tickets to a blue jays game on thursday night at seven o'clock or seven thirtywith your son would you go

(28:57):
It would depend.
It would depend on what's.
I'm so tired of people using excuses like it's a Thursday night.
You go to every other sport on Thursdays.
Why does football and particularly the CFL get all this, I don't buy into that.
I don't buy into the traffic.
I don't buy into any of those excuses,
My child did not go to bed till midnight that night because we stayed till the end and itis a disaster waking a kid up.

(29:24):
It depends.
If it was like playoffs, that's a different nuance and I would probably say yes.
A regular season, especially early in the season, no.
there wasn't a lot of kids there.
They took down all the Elks signage, all of it's gone.
They put a former name on a fire truck and paraded it around the field.
With the polar bear mascot, I really don't want to talk about this, but I'm just going tosay my experience I canceled my family tailgate party for next month.

(29:52):
We're not going.
We're done.
Like I can't, I can't give Larry money.
So I will watch on TV.
I will not be attending in person.
Good luck, Larry Thompson.
I think all of those are valid reasons not to go.
I just don't think a Thursday night's valid reason.
But.

(30:13):
Yeah.
No, I, I agree with what you're saying and we'll cover them because it's, you know, it'spart of the CFL, but I think that had a lot to do with the fact that they had whatever
14,000 and change sold tickets.
don't think there was that many in the stands.
I've had, I've had people on blue sky reach out to me.
had one fellow reach out to me and say specifically when they held that press conferenceback three, four weeks ago, his first thing he did was he called

(30:38):
His season ticket rep who'd been trying to get them to resign and said, don't bother.
I'm not interested in any of this.
I've seen others talking about how the fact they're not going to go to the games.
if you want to talk hot garbage, that is hot garbage.
There's no reason for that.
And I wonder how much that affects the players.
You know, cause there's yeah, it's I don't know.

(30:59):
Anyway, well, it's worked.
think we're all on the same place that we're just.
We're not impressed with Edmonton and we're, and that management group ain't going to getany support here.
a couple of things that I will mention, cause you were saying about Davis's injury, uh,Davis Alexander's injury there.
He did, he missed both days.
They've had two days of practice so far and he's been DNP.
I checked that before we came on here.

(31:20):
So that looks a little iffy.
Austin Mack was limited the first day and did not participate the second day with a footinjury at all.
The other one that I'll mention just because Hamilton didn't play this week is Greg Bellwith Hamilton was limited in practice.
So I don't know what will happen there.
The good news side.
Sorry, go ahead.
is Montreal going to be like the Winnipeg Blue Bomber machine where you just like drop newpeople in and it just keeps going?

(31:45):
We'll see.
Yeah.
I think maybe we'll see on that, on that front.
The one thing that I've been waiting to see is they got Josh Archibald back off injury.
He's the DN that they picked up from BC was just a rotational DN out there, a Canadian,but I was really impressed with him last year and I can't wait to see what he does on that

(32:06):
line with the kind of performers they have there.
So hopefully he'll be in this week.
They could start three Canadian defensive linemen.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
Well, yeah, think about the Canadians on that defense back at safety, got De Qua, thenyou've got at linebacker, you've got Tantanarku and yeah, all names that I struggled to
pronounce.

(32:27):
a very boy, Bergland, you've got Oogalack and now you've got Arkham.
Yeah, it's crazy.
I mean, that's, you know, without even really working at it.
That's your ratio right there.
it's pretty wild.
They're loaded.
There's no doubt about it.
Okay.
interesting because they were much more conservative with MBT there and they weren't goingnearly as deep in the second half as they were in the first half.

(32:52):
need to.
Yeah, I think that was as much due with the fact that they had such a lead in there.
I mean, they didn't have to give up.
I don't believe they had to give up the points to Edmonton.
did it in that fourth quarter, but it's just, they were playing fourth quarter football,smart football.
So that takes us on then to the other game.
The one that's caused all the controversy this week, which was Saskatchewan 39 at Toronto32.

(33:19):
And I'm not going to say a lot about this off the start other than.
This is the fact that I think that Luke Wilson missed and a lot of other people that arecomplaining about that game with all the penalties and with stuff not being done well is
you had a team between, you had a game going on between a team, one team that has not hadtheir starting quarterback yet this season and frankly looks lost in what they're trying

(33:41):
to do out there a whole bunch.
And the other team was at the end of a two week grueling travel schedule.
They flew to Toronto, well, to Hamilton, Toronto.
and back twice in two weeks and then had to practice on top of that.
I'm pretty sure they were just exhausted.
And that's when you start getting penalties from just poor technique or you're, you'retired and grumpy and whatnot.

(34:03):
think that, that a lot of the stuff that people are complaining about within that game hadto do with those facts that neither of those teams were in position that they could play
their best football.
Well, I think a lot of it had to do with eight starters from the week before in Torontonot being available.
Eight starters.

(34:24):
That's a lot.
On a team that wasn't exactly playing terrific before that, and a team that had what a lotof people suspected was a decimated defense from free agency in the off season, and in a
team without their number one quarterback.
I will say that this was the chippiest football game I've seen in many, many years.

(34:46):
And it was chippy from the get-go and then that penalty, the delayed hit and the injurymidway through the first quarter
That wasn't great.
But it was chippy from the opening and it just got progressively worse.
And I will say from where I was sitting,
It seemed to be instigated by Saskatchewan.

(35:07):
And I'm not doing that as an anti-rider guy, all right, because I'm not.
I'm just saying that from my point of view up in the stands, it seemed to be Saskatchewanthat was driving that.
Like they knew that they had a Toronto team with a lot of guys that were not veterans andtherefore are more likely to get upset earlier.

(35:28):
So let's tick them off type of thing.
The one guy that I noticed mostly, and I don't know if it came across on TV, so you cancorrect me, but Jermaine Hardrick, he was in the midst of every single one of those, and
he seemed to be the leading figure that was making the Argos nuts and driving guys afterthe play and doing lots of chippy stuff.

(35:49):
And that seemed to be going nonstop from the beginning to the end.
Toronto took a lot of penalties.
Saskatchewan took more, but Toronto took them at worse times because there was a lot ofoffsetting penalties.
then the play at the end, was so exciting.
place went wild when Brissette caught that two point conversion.
And Brissette and Mattel both had terrific games as Canadian receive.

(36:14):
Both had terrific games.
And then, you know, the way it ended was just that classic CFL football.
I mean, it's bad that they only had 11 players and they buggered it up.
But that's sort of classic CFL football too.
So there you go.
Well, and, and that whole game to me was all the way through it.
I didn't, didn't, I wasn't sure who was going to win or lose, but I didn't get nervousbecause that was a classic Saskatchewan game.

(36:38):
When they went up by whatever 10 points in the first half or something, I said, doesn'tmatter.
this is going to end up being excited.
These games, these are the riders lose by a couple of points or something goes wild.
And it was, that is a riders game.
You certainly don't end up using all of your seat for the last three minutes of any oftheir games.

(36:59):
seems like you're perched on the edge.
it was, I thought it was, a sloppy game.
wasn't a well executed game, but it was an exciting game.
Yeah, exactly, because there was still lots of really good plays in that game.
There was some great catches.
There were some big hits.
There was a lot still going on in that game.
live, it didn't look as sloppy again.

(37:21):
Maybe what it looked like was slow and broken up because of the injuries and because ofthe penalties.
But it wasn't like this is just like, another like boring, boring.
No, there was always something going on.
Because just when you thought
one team was pulling forward, Saskatchewan looked like they were going up.
Toronto would just do something and come back, you know, and then they would bugger it upon the one yard line and only get one.

(37:46):
know, they'd be like, then it would butt the, you know, it was like, yeah, it was good.
It was, it was typical.
It was a good ZFL Friday night.
So this is the game that had the live TikTok feed.
So, all right, so I did, I saw I had the game on my laptop and then I had TikTok live onmy phone.
So it was kind of funny because they were either 10 seconds ahead or 10 seconds behind.

(38:12):
So then one person's like, you guys are like too far, like you guys are 10 seconds behindthis other person's like.
comment they're like, guys, like, I don't have cable.
This is how I'm watching the game.
And then one person commented, my grandpa's the timekeeper at the game today.
And they're like, let's go see if we can find him.
They're like, he's upstairs so we can't.
you know, at the Argos game, this the sidelines, both benches are on the same side.

(38:37):
So they were just walking up and down the sideline following the play.
So if you go to my blue sky, I took some photos.
like screenshots of them being in the way of two referees, being like up into the Argosbench and like players glaring at them.
my god.
But then they'd stand in the end zone.
At one point there was over 600 people watching at one time on the live stream.

(38:58):
And I stopped watching after third quarter because I was like, okay, I need a TikTokbreak.
But then I wish I had been on TikTok live when all that drama happened in the last twominutes because I'd be interested to see how that all played out.
But there were some American people watching and they were asking questions about therules.
and what was going on and some people who didn't have, didn't have streaming or cable.

(39:20):
So they were, that's how they were watching the game.
they have all their CFL gear on, on the sideline and they get an interview at halftime andat whatever team is winning at halftime, they get an interview with a player, but it was
kind of funny trying to get them to find a player to even interview with them because theydid not, like they looked so sketchy.
Ha
Reeves interviewed with them and Reeves talked about the game being chippy.

(39:43):
And then at end of the game, they talked to AJ and they were asking AJ where his favouriterestaurants and clubs were in Toronto.
And then AJ was fairly nice.
He was like, there's some people wearing my jersey, my Toronto jersey over there.
After when I'm done talking to you, I'm going to go over and say hi to them.
Yeah, CFL players, like I said.
that's I think that's a good number.

(40:06):
It's just a number to the base and then keep growing from there.
I think that's cool.
Yeah, it's, sorry, I was gonna say, it's probably not 600 people you're taking away fromsome other audience.
You're not stealing those people, from TSN or anything, so that's an add-on.
I love it.
It's a great initiative.
Yeah, so they said that they're gonna do probably one game a week.
I think it'll be in the GTA area.

(40:28):
So it'll probably be a Hamilton or Toronto.
They're hoping to expand it.
This is just kind of an experiment, but it seemed to get really positive responses and itlooked a little more cleaned up from the first time they did it.
The one thing that people, you couldn't see the score.
So people were constantly in the comments asking what the score was.
And so sometimes they would pan to the scoreboard or they would tell you.

(40:49):
So I think they're looking to try and see if they can superimpose the score.
onto the TikTok feed so that people can see it.
But yeah, I'll keep my eye on it.
But that was actually kind of fun.
Yeah.
And it'll probably, probably be Eastern teams because of just the travel costs or I thinkthere might be a couple of Western teams that have TSN radio in the area.

(41:09):
don't know if radio and TV work together on that, but maybe they can get some of those,the radio staff are doing it.
Cause I'd love to see it through other games.
I think it's a great idea.
who are the quote unquote hosts?
Are there a couple of arguments?
no, they're, they have, I think they're CFL, I think they're TSN employees.
One had a man bun, they looked like they were in their mid-20s, they looked like interns.

(41:32):
They were young.
that's what I thought.
They'd be interns for it, but I wasn't sure if they'd be League people or TSN people.
They knew their football stuff.
I'll give them props.
They were quite knowledgeable and they were answering people's questions and talking andkeeping an eye on the game and running up and down the sidelines.
Getting in refs ways, getting in TSN camera ways, they were having a great time.

(41:56):
chaos.
I'm here for the chaos.
the best part of the CFL is chaos.
Yeah.
But before we move on, there were a couple of things that I wanted to mention that I tooknote of.
One is I just, I absolutely love Ben Major as a ref.
His way of communicating to the crowd, clear, concise, a little bit of humor when it'sneeded.

(42:16):
He adds to the entertainment value.
You know, I've always enjoyed the games that Andre does the best because I think he's thebest ref in the league, but it's coming up there with Ben just because of his
presentation.
And then the other two things that I wanted to mention was the AJ's touchdown run.
I was just absolutely amazed at the blocking on that.

(42:38):
If I don't know how much it showed up on in the actual game when things are full speed,but you look at it,
They talk about a hole you could drive a truck through.
literally did.
And then by once he gets past the linebacker levels, he still got a lineman downfieldblocking for him.
It was, it was one of the most impressive, overall blocking setup runs for a touchdown.

(42:58):
thought that was fantastic.
And then the other thing that I made a note of, as I said, that Dejan Brissette hasprobably got a bruise, the shape of Marcus Sales on his back this week, because there were
twice that he got.
passes out into the flats and sales just absolutely tattooed him.
And well, one of them, he didn't get a chance to catch the other one.

(43:19):
held onto it.
Fantastic hit, but sales is not a big guy, but he was sure throwing his body around outthere.
And then the last thing, again, when I looked the injury list just before I came on here,M-less is still did not participate.
Harris was a did not participate today and so was Trayvon Campbell.
So hopefully those are just minor nicks.
Harris, it said injury slash head So I don't know what that means, but they...

(43:46):
They could have a bit of a tougher time if they lose those people for the weekend.
Yeah.
and BC's coming into town, that's gonna be real interesting game to see.
Was, did BC list, I know we're a little bit off topic, but did BC list Rourke as apracticing or what did they list about?
He's doing half the practice.
Mazzoli's doing half, Rourke's doing half.

(44:08):
the other one for BC that we could talk about it during the game, but we're here now.
So I'll just say that Dejan Allen, who was injured in that game, the guy they brought inat the right tackle, did not participate.
And that could be difficult for them.
They've been struggling with that line in injuries.
Yep.
I will say though, before we go off this one, that's the other thing that just made merealize I've been very impressed with Daniel Johnson for the riders play and left tackle.

(44:36):
He's the player that they drafted not this year, but last year fell down to the sixthround because he'd had injuries all through his college career.
And I've read some stuff since then that it was basically, it sounds like it wasmismanagement by the team in college.
They never gave him the chance to heal.
So the riders brought him in and put him on the practice roster last year and just lefthim there and let him heal and do as much work as he could.

(45:01):
And they are very high on him now.
And I haven't, I haven't, well, they've only given up two sacks.
I haven't seen him give up either of those and not a lot of pressures from him either.
So nice to see a Canadian kid coming in and playing that well.
But let's move on to game three, Ottawa 20 at Calgary 12.
The monsoon ball, yes.

(45:23):
I was saying the only thing that I think anyone can take away from that game , the onlylearning you can get from it is don't pass up on points in a monsoon, because you don't
know when you're going get more of them.
Calgary gave up 17 points away in the first half, more than they scored in the game.
I don't fault either of the plays in the third and goals either time.

(45:50):
They were the right calls.
They just weren't executed well.
I think Vernon had a really bad day.
You can blame the weather, but both teams played in the weather.
and I just thought he was short hauling things and I don't know if his hands, maybe I'mnot sure how, what his hand size is.
So maybe with his hands, if it's not big enough and that affects it more with the wet ballthan maybe a crumb or another quarterback with a bigger hand that can grip the ball even

(46:15):
better, even if it is wet.
But I just thought he was short, short stuffing all day, not just, but he did that onebecause
Barnes was wide open on the first one from the third and goal from the four.
And then the second one was, I didn't think they should have run up the middle.
I thought again, they should have gone outside with PJ Walker because he had had the greatoutside run earlier in the quarter.

(46:38):
I just didn't think they executed well.
And Renee missed another one.
And as you just said, old man, you can't give away points in a monsoon.
You got to take every point you can get as evidenced in that game.
put it this way, the fourth quarter, I was watching without volume because that, you know,I'm mad when I can't listen to the game anymore.
I just couldn't watch it.
the offense was trash.

(46:59):
The offense was just bad beyond the weather.
The offense was bad.
And yeah, that was, yeah, yeah, no, he's not.
that well, it was, I know the concern about it, but I got to say that in that game, Idon't think that you can really blame him.
I know, like you said, it's the, was, you got to play in the weather, but frankly, to mejust, I didn't see the final stats on it, but it looked to me like the red blacks were

(47:25):
dropping more passes than the stamps were things that were there and they just couldn'thold onto them.
So one of those games, you know, that, that wet.
uh
right.
You're right.
receiving cores were dropping.
Receivers were dropping balls and maybe the red blacks dropped more balls once they got tothe receiver.
My problem was that VA wasn't even getting the ball a lot of time to the receiver.

(47:48):
He was short hopping it.
He was sailing it.
He just wasn't getting it to the receivers.
So.
So that storm was so bad that it knocked my sister's cable out.
Like it was nasty in Calgary.
She ended up going, like they were at, there's a women's sports bar in Calgary that doesshows women's sports.
So they were there to watch the Calgary wild game.

(48:10):
And she said there was a lot of stamps spent there in all their rain gear and the stampsgame had started and they were still at the sports bar.
Yeah, I don't doubt it.
wanted to actually brave it and go outside.
the junior ride outriders were there and I think that's only reason there was actuallyeven that many fans in the stands because what a not a day to be outside.

(48:32):
So good job.
Did you see the red blacks?
They did a whole cinematic video this week about them playing in the rain and having themwalk in in the pouring rain and them persevering through this like
downpour it was it was pretty good.
Good job Red Blacks.
Yeah it was was fun.
I enjoyed it.
Yes.
I heard that.

(48:53):
I don't know for sure, but I heard that they said the winds was gusting up to 80kilometers an hour.
And when you can see the rain coming down on the television, then you know, it's heavy
Win or lose, you take the points, you don't worry about too much that went on because itwas just impacted so much.
The, the only other comment that I had, which was, thought could potentially be very badnews for Calgary was unfortunately like with about a play or two left in the game, Damon

(49:20):
Webb went down and they'd brought him over.
He was, I thought he was the second best halfback in the CFL last year and he's lookedgood this year.
So if they lose him, that's gotta hurt them.
Well, there is a few things there.
Adam Maboye went down in the first quarter and never came back.
So that was a big part of it because then they were using Benjamin, primarily for kickreturns.

(49:44):
But he ended up being the backup running back instead and got a lot of carries.
But that hurt without different styles.
He's not a bruiser like Mills and Adam Mboye.
Sorry, yeah, no, Exactly.
Exactly.
Saved it.
Saved it.

(50:04):
But yes, was an Antwi So yes, Antwi went down.
Also, after the goal line stands where he got stuffed,
We didn't see PJ Walker again after that.
Even for third downs, they went to the draft pick this year instead as the third down guyin the second half.
So I don't know if that was a decision because of that play at the goal line or if maybeWalker got a little nicked at that point too.

(50:30):
So lots of things that might be real good timing for this buy that they have
The, uh, yeah, it might, the other thing with it is it might just have been the angle thatthey were shot shooting at but it seemed to me and this is not favoring either team.
think it was just favoring let's please have some offense.
It seemed to me that anytime that they were close to a first down for either team, thespots got really generous.

(50:52):
I saw that I thought, okay, well that's, that's a, that's going to be a second and a yardand a half.
Oh, it's a first down.
They're like, please, please, we need to, Like when that strike zone gets bigger as yeah.
Sorry, let's move it along.
Yeah.
I'm cold to it, I wanna go home.

(51:13):
Alrighty.
Anything else for that?
Or I think we've already talked an awful lot about a game that could be summed up inmonsoon in one word.
So that takes us into game four, where Winnipeg went into BC and came out on top 27-14.
Of course it was, Jeremiah Mazzoli in there, not Rourke.

(51:34):
Yes.
And unfortunately he didn't play great.
It's.
I have things to say about this.
Okay, go ahead right now, jump in.
will not stand for a Mazzoli slander and this is why and this is why.
Why did Buck Pierce give Rourke half of the game practice reps when he wasn't going toplay?

(51:56):
The balls were there.
They were there.
They were close.
I joked that maybe the receivers in Ottawa were five inches taller than they were in BC,but they weren't.
They were just off.
They weren't.
They weren't in the ground.
They weren't 20 yards.
Like people weren't running.
They were, it was close.
They were always close.
And I'm just wondering if he had had full practice reps with his receivers, if thatmight've changed a few of those.

(52:22):
Buck's doing the same thing this week, giving Rourke half the reps again and Mazzoli theother half.
So clearly the lesson hasn't been learned.
But before you dig Mazzoli into a big dark hole,
I just have to stand him a bit for that.
And his O line was terrible.
the O line was just leaking and yeah, it was a tough day for the Lions.

(52:47):
Yeah.
In fact, I would say if I had to, call it, I would say that the overthrows had less to dowith the amount of practice and more to do with that line.
He was, he was backing up on almost every throw and that's how you overthrow when youcan't step into it and you're, you're just having to try and strong arm it.
I, thought personally, he didn't play well, but he wasn't really given a lot ofopportunities to play well either.

(53:10):
Yeah, that's exactly how I thought too.
Winnipeg just came out and just dominated again from the beginning in a different way thanthey did the week before, but they did.
And yeah, Mazzoli didn't have a great game, but I wasn't 100 % on him either.
I just think BC is showing us the kind of team they actually are.
they're a third or fourth place team.

(53:31):
They're not upper tier in the West.
certainly not Winnipeg, Saskatchewan.
They're third, maybe fourth.
Where where's Bryce?
Why even have him on your team?
Why?
Why?
Mazzoli is listed as third, correct?
Or has he moved up?
I didn't really check either, to be fair, but what why?

(53:54):
He's been up.
Mazzoli just signed.
He knew Bryce has been there for three years.
At what point do you just not trust him to put him in?
Why is he there?
I think Pierce is playing some gamesmanship there too.
The, the stuff he learned from O'Shea and that probably has to do with why Rourke's outthere at practice.
He doesn't want anybody to know who his quarterback is going to be.
But if they do have to go for a while without it, think I wonder if maybe he just didn'twant Bryce's first full game to be against that Winnipeg defense.

(54:22):
Also just to like give Mizzoli a little...
he had to 44 times.
Where's your run game?
44 times.
We were given the Ti-Cats crap for both throwing 50.
This isn't far off.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the, the one defensive touchdown Winnipeg was not Mazzoli's fault.
That hit Butler right between the hands and he dropped it on the ground and it was, thatwas the one that was the lateral and they scooped it up and scored.

(54:50):
I'm a Zoe through that ladder.
I'm like, did you watch that and hit him in the numbers?
It was a lateral.
He threw it backwards cause he had to, that's where the player was on the line, but it'sthe players either got to catch it or fall on it in a hurry.
That I saw this with the lions last year and I'm starting to see it again this year wherethey've got good players that can make great plays, but they just don't seem to.

(55:13):
They don't seem to have a lot of rah rah to them.
Like I noticed that with, with McInnis last year, and I'm seeing it again this year, he'sgot great hands.
If he runs a good pattern and you throw the ball where it needs to be, he'll catch itevery time.
But if he's got to stretch out or get after something or, you know, or even on aninterception, go get back after the guys, he just, seems like he just, doesn't put in that

(55:35):
extra effort.
I remember the, again,
This is going back to last year, but I remember specifically one of the games where he wasout there.
They needed like eight yards for a first down.
They passed to another receiver for six yards and he's trying to fight to get across thefirst down line with a couple of DBs on him and McKenna stands there and watches them.
Whereas every other team in the league, they're over there pushing.

(55:57):
You know, they just, they don't seem to have that.
that real desire to get in and give it everything they've got, which is how you winfootball games.
Yeah, but that was the thing that Buck was supposed to change, right?
Because that's what they even talked about at the end of last year themselves.
And that's what they were supposed to change this year.
I agree with you.
they're not that great a team, period.

(56:19):
Yeah, my husband was like raging watching that game.
He's like, they're not even doing anything, like just infuriating.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I gotta say one thing that I loved about that game was the big man touchdown to Eli.
A lineman man catching the ball.

(56:40):
Did we not talk about this in the rule changes?
Like first episode where like they can throw to O lineman where like somebody's gonnathrow to an O lineman.
It was Winnipeg.
Nice.
I was so-
throw to the O lineman now.
That was a slightly different rule.
What they changed in the rule was it used to be an O lineman couldn't touch the ball inthe air at all.
Whereas now they've said if it gets tipped an O lineman can catch it.

(57:02):
But no, that play was still one where he would have had to go in and declare himselfeligible.
He was the extra tight end on the line for the.
Yeah.
Anyway, I love it.
What a great clip to like just play all week on every sports center and TSN highlightreel.
Like so much joy.
and as I've heard like eight people point out already, it wasn't your typical linemantouchdown where they sneak him off the line and when nobody's looking and he's got 10

(57:30):
yards around him, he just has to catch it.
That he was, had good coverage on that.
They had to hit him, they had to lead him with the ball and he had to make a receiverstyle catch.
And he had to make a receiver style route too.
Like, I mean, he went down and back to the outside and stayed right on two yards in theend zone along the line.
It was like, well played.

(57:52):
Yeah, exactly.
what is going through the DB's mind when they're like, have to cover alignment in the endzone?
Like, what is this?
I don't know.
think the only thing you could possibly be thinling is I've got to get in front and knockit down because I'm not going to hit him.
you didn't, and he scored a touchdown.
Anything else for there?
Or are we done?

(58:12):
We just need to talk about the...
I just want to talk about the ejections at the end of the game.
okay.
Sure.
Yes.
I almost forgot about that.
I just want to tell, my mom has a saying that I think about a lot when I watch nonsenselike this.
And my mom says, if you have time for that kind of stuff after the whistle, you did notplay hard enough between the whistles.

(58:36):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
I, yeah, there's, there's no reason for it.
And yet it, I don't, I honestly don't understand how, like I'd get the trash talking andall that, but how they're, they're also calling misconducts, if you say anything too far
out of line for even talking.

(58:57):
So how do you get under someone's skin
I'm so curious what Willie Jefferson was like, beaking his mouth about.
Because he had done something to play before So that was yeah.
Yeah, so it was like it wasn't like he had just it was just a one-off No, he he was doingdefinitely doing something that was ticking him off for sure and interesting again, like I

(59:21):
say that that it's the veterans like him and Hartrick or Hardwick that I just thought wereThat's not that's really unusual or not guys you think about in that manner by any means
so
Yeah.
Well, I know Winnipeg, I wouldn't, I would never call them dirty or chippy, but they dohave a reputation that they, they go that extra mile as it were, that they play to the

(59:44):
whistle and a beat beyond if they can get away with it.
And, and those things I can, those I can see getting under your skin eventually, but stillyou learn how to play football and part of playing football is not.
taking penalties because somebody's decided they're going to get chippy with you I don'tunderstand how people get to a pro level and haven't got that into their, into their

(01:00:05):
wheelhouse yet.
Maybe I expect too much out of people.
that there was no miscon like injections in the Saskatchewan Toronto game and there wastwo in this game.
I couldn't believe it.
when we were talking about that Saskatchewan Ottawa game, I was thinking about that and Irealized part of the problem there, I think, is that they just, they're doing too much of
the offsetting penalties.

(01:00:27):
So then two people get it.
It doesn't really affect the game.
does mean that if they get another one, they're out of the game.
So there's that deterrent, but it doesn't really stop anybody from instigating if they
know it's just going to be the trade-off.
So I think that they can watch the tape now that the replay center can see what's going onbefore it watch.
And if you can determine an instigator, either the instigator gets the penalty or he getsa higher yardage penalty.

(01:00:51):
It's like 10 yards for the, person that's reacting to it.
And 15 for the one that generated, you start doing that stuff and maybe then you'll get acut down on it.
Because like you said, GT, a lot of vets do that knowing that they're looking to get freeyardage.
Yeah.
Is it like the NHL that has the instigator rule?
Because like, yeah, I think the, yeah, because I think there's just the, if you instigate,you're getting the bigger penalty.

(01:01:18):
And I think, CFL might need to look at that because that's not how you grow your game.
Like, yeah, it's kind of funny at the moment to watch Willie Jefferson like gesturing atfans, but in the longevity of the game, that's not it.
Well, yeah.
And, and the other thing is, going back to the earlier games, Saskatchewan and Toronto,that many penalties it does, it just starts to be a bit of a slog to watch.

(01:01:41):
You know, and I got to say that, that this weekend was a bit of a tough weekend to watchbetween the monsoon game and stuff.
found that by the time that I got into the third quarter of the last of the games of theBC Winnipeg game, I was saying,
Well, if I wasn't doing the podcast, don't know that I'd stick around for this becausethey were already at a good lead and it just wasn't going anywhere.

(01:02:03):
Yeah, this weekend we get four games over four nights, so at least it's not doubleheaders.
there's always a weekend in the season or two that you just go, ice, that was hard towatch.
And this happened to be one of them, because yeah, it wasn't the best weekend forfootball, that's for sure.
Yeah, exactly.
And, and I, I hope this week will be better, but I don't know because it looks likethere's at least some imbalance going on.

(01:02:25):
it's Winnipeg and Edmonton, which doesn't promise to necessarily be a dead even game.
And, Montreal and Hamilton where Hamilton is still struggling some.
Yeah.
I know careful, but yeah, well, there we go.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah.
To tell you the truth, that the two that I am looking forward to is to the BC Saskatchewanone, cause that'll give us a read on where those teams are actually at.

(01:02:53):
It's been kind of hard to tell And then the other one is Ottawa, especially if Brown isback in Toronto or Toronto in Ottawa at the end of the week.
And I hope that also that the Chad will be back and we'll see both starting quarterbacksthere.
Cause that could tell us a lot about that division.
Yeah, should we do our pics?
I guess we better,
so let's move on to our picks and what we've, we did last week.

(01:03:15):
We were three and three and one last week, which was pretty good.
Yes.
So for this week, here we go.
We're starting with on the Thursday night, Edmonton at Winnipeg.
Do I have to ask?
We're at, we're at, we're all on Winnipeg there.
Okay.
Montreal at Hamilton.

(01:03:36):
Hamilton.
I said Ti-cats, especially if Alexander doesn't play.
Also, I want to point out that the humidex, I looked up the weather, I was like, I'm goingto check weather this time around.
And it's supposed to be 27 plus humidex.
And as you know, GT, Ontario, Southern Ontario humidex is like add 20 degrees to that.

(01:03:58):
So I'm going say Ti-cats.
Yeah, it depends.
Like there's a couple of games this week that it depends on quarterbacks.
And this is the one that's mostly depends on quarterbacks.
If David's Alexander's playing, I'm taking Montreal.
If it's MBT, I'm taking him.
So right now, so right now I'm taking him.

(01:04:18):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we're going with Hamilton from you, you do, you two folks.
I will say that.
Sorry to not to be down on the Ti-cats, regardless of who's in it quarterback, I'm still,I would still go Montreal.
team or the podcast is picking, Hamilton's that's good, but I just, think Montreal.
Yeah, we're picking Hamilton.
We're picking that's what I said, but

(01:04:39):
also tell you that the Cats put a really nice social media video out today about they'redoing their hammer theme that night and they put out a big thing about the history of the
city and the history of the football team and it's just, aw, it's good vibes all around,Ti-Cats.
stuff.
I, but I, I don't think I don't know that I'd be picking anybody over Montreal right now.

(01:05:00):
So that's, that's where i'm at but that doesn't matter.
We're going, the show is going Hamilton.
So hopefully you guys take us to a win there.
So that let's go on to the next one.
BC on the Saturday, BC at Saskatchewan.
It's riders.
I was going to pick lions, but then I saw Buck Pierce is splitting up his practice again,so I will say riders.

(01:05:21):
Now, unless it's Jake Maher, because if you mentioned Harris has a hand injury, if it'sJake...
Oh, head injury.
Yeah, nah.

(01:05:41):
You know what?
I'm still going riders.
I just don't...
I don't have any faith in BC.
I hope Mazzoli has a better game, but I'm still gonna yeah, riders.
I, I would say, I'd say riders too.
The only way that I see if it's that it might not be the riders is if Roark comes back andHarris is out.
Cause if it's Roark against mayor, that that might be enough of a difference, but withoutRourke BC doesn't have a lot going for them.

(01:06:06):
No.
what's going on with their O line?
Even if it works back?
I don't know.
And again, yeah, like I said, looks like they, they're big Allen their big off seasontrade acquisition that they gave up Ryder Varga for who's a damn good linebacker.
If he's out then yeah.
And they were already playing like, I think this year they were this week game, they wereback to three Americans on the O line, but they were playing four Americans for the first

(01:06:30):
two games.
So they don't have a lot of backups to work with.
Anyway, the final one, the first Sunday night of the game of the week, or game of theyear.
And I'm told this happens from now till week 12, apparently they're going to be fournights a week.
So Toronto at Ottawa.
This is the toughest to pick in a while because we don't know what the quarterbacksituation is going to be.

(01:06:53):
You know, if it's Chad Kelly versus Drew Brown, I'm taking Ottawa.
if it's Dustin Crumb versus our Nick Arbuckle, I'm taking Toronto.
So I guess it comes down.
I don't know.
It's too early to tell
now, so.
Okay, who you guys going?
Convince me.

(01:07:13):
I said red blacks because they survived the Monsoon Bowl with Dustin Kreb and their ridinghigh.
And the Argos have a coach who scolded them in public and I think that it's just a bitmessy there right now.
So I think just for team continuity, I think I'm gonna say red blacks.
Yeah, I get worried if Crumm is back in there, but we don't know that.

(01:07:37):
So all things being equal right now, I I'm going red black just because it's a home gameand they have really picked up their home play this last year.
So, yeah, it could be something like that.
Now, again, like you said, if it becomes crumb against even crumb against our buck, yeah,I would still take the red black.
So.

(01:07:58):
You can pick who you want, JT, for our records, but we're going Redblocks.
Yeah, but don't forget, I'm keeping our individual ones so I can say how we did too.
I know.
So you know what?
I'm going to Ottawa.
Okay.
We'll make it a sweep there.
Alrighty.

(01:08:18):
And, and hopefully we see some, some good games this week.
Cause that's one of the things about the CFL is that even the games that look like they'regoing to be crap.
Sometimes they are like we had this last weekend, but sometimes they are just incredible,you know, and maybe it's not the whole game.
It seems like there is something to, to the CFL that like, I'm remembering the OttawaWinnipeg game a few years back, the crumb back,

(01:08:42):
scoring 21 points in four minutes.
You just you just reminded me of the thing that I totally agreed with in Luke Wilson'srant and that was he said that There's there's lots of bad games in the NFL But because
there's enough teams to cover it you don't notice them whereas in the CFL with only fourgames you notice everything every week and That and that's the same as it within the games

(01:09:09):
And I absolutely agree with him.
I've been saying that for years.
That's one of the biggest problems with the perception of the CFL.
The best part of it is there's only nine teams.
The worst part of it is there's only nine teams.
So every mistake is magnified and it's really easy to pick out the mistakes and then harpon them versus, you know, there's lots of crap football in the NFL.

(01:09:29):
You just don't get to see it because there's 32 teams and you're only watching, you're notwatching 16 games play by play.
You're watching three.
You know, the best three that are.
you're watching Red Zone I tried to watch that once, what a nightmare.
But anyway, they just give you a couple little clips from each game and then they're offto the next game.
So you don't see all the garbage stuff.

(01:09:51):
that was the thing that I agreed with him in amongst all the part of the
I do agree with that.
But as you said, it's being the worst part, but it's also the best part because you do,it's a league where you actually get to see every game if you take the time to do it.
And so if you're playing stuff like fantasy and that you can make educated decisions basedon it all.
No, it is good.

(01:10:12):
And then the, since we're back to this, we'll close on it too.
guess the part that I really got annoyed at of that whole thing was when he complainedabout our three minute rules.
and how, they don't add any urgency to the game.
Are you kidding me?
You watch the last two minutes of any NFL game and you may as well just go to sleep 90 %of the time.
Yeah.
And whereas in the scene and he's complaining about, there's no urgency.

(01:10:34):
I think that was what Bo was mad at.
Bo was like, are you not entertained?
There was a tie and then a run back for a win in like not like in very short amount oftime.
Well, again, because I pay a little more attention to the riders.
I can't even remember what game it was last year, but there was a game like that last yearin Saskatchewan where it went back and forth.

(01:10:56):
I think the riders ended up winning it by like two points or something.
they interviewed Harris after the game.
he said, if you're not entertained right now, I can't help you.
Yeah, that's the way that, the league is and that's the way as you started out the second,that's the way the games are.
Every game can be, yeah, it's not great.
wait a minute.
It's fantastic.

(01:11:17):
kind of slowed down again.
here we go again.
that is the beauty and the detriment of the game at the same time, based on the rules.
And then you're not going to change it unless you change all the rules.
and we're not going to change all the rules.
I would always rather have my heart broken by a last second TD, like kickoff touchdownreturn and somebody winning a million dollars than have my heart broken with a blowout.

(01:11:41):
that happens way too much down in the NFL.
the other thing with it is it's been a long time.
I, well, I haven't watched NFL for much in the last couple of years, but even before that,it's been a long time since I've seen a lot of games that were exciting down to that last
three minutes of the game.
Usually by the time you're halfway through the fourth quarter, you know who's got thegame.

(01:12:02):
They keep trying to tweak their rules a little bit to make them a little more CFL.
So Luke Wilson might want to think about that.
Yeah, exactly.
look at what, who was it?
McDonald down in, wasn't it?
The coach down in Miami that's doing that at least last year was doing the best he couldto run a CFL style offense, running his receivers along the line of scrimmage to get, to
get some, some momentum before the play I personally, I agree with something that I'vealso heard both the Kelsey say that they figure that there should be some of the CFL rules

(01:12:31):
put in there.
Well, maybe Luke should talk to Jason and Travis.
Yeah, I've given up on the whole NFL CFL discussion.
I don't care.
I don't watch NFL.
I've never watched NFL.
So I have no opinion on the NFL other than so I don't care.
It's pretty simple.
I've always said if you know the games to a point of like really understanding what'sgoing on on the field, they're almost as different as rugby and football are.

(01:12:59):
you can't, compare the two games because they aren't the same at all.
I think we've, we've pretty much drained it.
I know I'm starting to fade.
So where, where can any closing thoughts you got and where can the folks find you on thesocial medias?
Well, you can find me with this lovely jersey.
$55 is the current bid.

(01:13:20):
We're going, as I said, at GT Barnum on Blue Sky, and that's where it is.
I'm also going to be posting it if I can figure it out on the Ticats forum on the CFLwebsite.
Anywhere else that anybody that is listening or watching, please repost.
Let's drive some money towards us, CFL fans by cancer.
and I will try to outbid you.

(01:13:43):
Yeah.
I'll put it up on, the CFL Reddit too, because of the subreddit there is, is prettyactive.
So, but I'll put your contacts on it.
Blue sky, GT.
Okay.
And MJ.
Yeah, you can find me on Blue Sky at Sports and Plants.
am currently in a discussion about how the CFL could do a crossover with Book Talk togenerate some interest.

(01:14:06):
So come join the discussion.
Alrighty.
And, I'm old man dash SAC on blue sky where the overall podcast is the CFL outsiders on X.
You can get us there if you want.
We're, also the old fashioned email, you'd like old man, all one word dot shouting atclouds, all one word at Shaw dot CA.

(01:14:28):
And all that'll be in the show notes, but I think that's about.
We've run ourselves into the ground so until next week for GT and MJ.
This is old man saying get the hell off my lawn

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