CFL 2024 Schedule Released: What You Need to Know!

Well, happy Marcust Friday here, welcome back back in the studio here, revamped studio. Don't don't just your sets. I can talk through that. But did some adult team that got somethings framed? And I cleaned out a lot of the other office here kind of during the off season. But we're coming back here today. Yeah, new revamp. Guys. Do you like to look here a little different? Got rid of the clutter. Yeah, it looks fantastic to me, and it's like, I don't care, let's

get clean. It's clean. I like it. Well, it was one of those things that kind of rocked it for a couple of years. And then Dorothy's like, you know, you know that really looks messy, and like my friend Michael's like, you know that really looks messy, and all the I'm like, you just just tell me and the brother will clean it up. So we have our defend the Deep here. I got framed cracking went through the entire losing streak I eight game while I was waiting for that

to come in. And then this is from I have my media badges. And then when we did our pit Bull Cruise many years ago, we meet met pit Bull and did shots with pit Bull and everything else. So they put together all the kind of schmorgas sport of all that. So I thought that was fun. A couple of programming notes. So we're here today. We're going to talk CFL schedule, We're going to talk negotiations, list all

of that stuff. Amazingly, we have a CFL schedule to talk about while still waiting on an XFL twenty twenty four schedules, and that's always fun. We had similar feelings last year for that. But we'll talk through all that today. I don't know how, in the interest of avoiding burnout, this might be a little bit more how the podcast is, you know, things happen, we'll do it. I don't know if this will read as a

Friday every week kind of guy right now with everything. You know, we took a couple of weeks off obviously, kind of after the CFL and I don't know, I posted on the YouTube the other week. You know, I just don't feel good right now like posting well, people are kind of waiting to find out about their jobs and lives and careers, so kind of waiting that out. But you know, it's one hundred and seventy whatever weeks of this now and if we want to get to two hundred and fifty whatever,

I think we need to go through this. So we'll kind of wagh through all of that. And then if you are trying to get a hold of like I have a lot of people that message me on Facebook. I've been locked out of Facebook. Happened last year as well. My business pages

get like play. It's a whole thing. So if you like Fran, all these people that message me, Brad, all these people that message me on Facebook, LinkedIn message me on LinkedIn, or my best made videos Instagram works, but my mark cast Instagram down, mark Cast Facebook down, personal Facebook down. So it's kind of a whole lot pain in the but that way, So I, Jason, I have you deal with that, Steven

Canada, But it really is kind of a pain in the butt. Yeah, I think I'm actually locked out of my like Facebook thing for Hussey's Huddle, So yeah, I'm dealing with the same thing. I'm glad I take you on that all the time. I do tang you what, but yeah, like this one, I'm not able to post online. So Evan, I'm going to open my window here Evan, how have you been since kind of the CFL buy that we've been going on. Yeah, I've been good.

I mean, you know, still waiting on news here, I think on the XFL and USFL side of things, but at this point I'm not holding my breath. So, you know, just been looking at some CFL stuff. There's been some transactions, the netlist came out. We can talk about that for a bit, along with some of the coaching changes. So yeah, I've just been looking at that, you know, taking care of business, and I guess life's been good. It's good. Yeah, So

we'll do the I figured we'll kind of talk scheduled today. I will go week by week. That'll give us a good excuse to kind of talk about you know, the Toronto Argonauts, you know, coaching, you know higher you know moving around and the Corey mass of the world and you know BC Lions bringing everyone back Seela here to chat it in. So that's always good to see. So let's, I guess, first off, talk about the

schedule. Let me get pulled up here. Thank goodness, we have you know people, And when I tweeted this yesterday, I meant this kind of tongue in cheek, but it seemed like the CFL listened. There was the big Hubblou last year, and we didn't get a meaningful Great Cup rematch until it was like way into the season and Argonauts already kind of locked everything out. Jason, here we go, we have you know what right Montreal and the heck was in the Great coupter Montreal and Winnipeg. Here, what did

you make of this year at kicking off the season. I think it's great that we have a Great Cup rematch. I mean, it's only been a couple of years since we've you know, previously done this. I think Hamblton and Winnipeg played a couple of years ago when they had played in twenty nineteen in the Great Cups, so they have done this before. But my one critique would be that I think the team that wins the Great Cup should have the home game to host this. I think that this beag in Winnipeg.

I think it should really be in Montreal. But I mean, I think I'm not really going to complain about having the Great Cup rematches the first game of the season. Well, I think that's a fair point, and I have my bookmarks here. I got to pull up as well, because I know that the Tim Kapper with the Alwitz flight deck like he was upset because they have a bunch I got some bookmarks saved and like people, you know,

because there's all these complaints and then complaints and everything about everything. But yeah, Montreal has a bunch of Thursday games and they're you know, more than they've ever had, and they've had historically more than everyone else. But it is a good point. Yeah. I feel like, especially where the Gray Cup is a neutral site, I feel like we've won the Great Cup should be able to host that. Evan, what do you make having the game back here at least getting the rematch out of the way. Yeah,

I agree with Jason. I think it's good that, you know, we finally are getting a rematch, and that was one of the things that people were talking a lot about, you know, scheduling wise, was not having the Great Cup rematch last year in Week one between Toronto and Winnipeg. And then when that game did happen, it was pretty much meaningless because Toronto sitting a lot of their guys really just didn't have the same feel to it.

But I agree with Jason, I feel like not having the game in Montreal is a significant you know, critique or something that would you know, not negate not negate the matchup right, because I feel like it'll still be a good game. There'll still be a lot of hype around that. But yeah, I think it was Darnel Sanki who put it up and he said, you know, typically I think if the team you know wins the game, they're the one who gets to host you know, the game in the in

the following season. But you know, the CFL schedule, right when it's twenty one week season with only nine teams, you know, you're just gonna have to, you know, make do with some things, and I think in this case, you know, that's one of them. I'm just glad that we're getting the rematch. I don't really care where it's being played, you know. I know that maybe some Montreal fans might find that disrespectful, but I think this will be a good way to start the CFL season.

Definitely. Well, is someone that you know, presumably here will you know, go live for for the you know kickoff at least feels like a really hot game. To me. It was like BC at Calgary last year or something. It was a really innoculous game, like it just didn't it didn't have and I think they tried to say, well, this is you know whatever and historically, but I think this is cool. It sells itself.

I mean, we have graphics built already. In terms of any other Gray Cup fallout, Jason anything from this, I know Cody's been talking a lot and he was on Rogero anything else following out with Winnipeg, and it seems like the band is ready to kind of stick back in there where this is going to be you know, we're still going to go through free agency and all that, but feels like this this is going to be a complete team again next year. Yeah. I think that. You know, for the

most part, the core of that team is still intact. But there are a few guys that, I think Mike O'Shea, the head coach said that are still considering retirement. So I'm looking at guys like Stanley Bryant and the O, JaMarcus Hardrick, guys that haven't brought up on the Great Cup Show. So still waiting on those guys. But I think in terms of you know, the quarterback, the receivers, those kind of guys will be back and if those guys are intact, they're gonna be a you know, threatening

team again. So the other highlights they had here, and they talked about this, I think when Ambrosi had his either both the state of the media and the fan or either or. But you know, returned to the balance schedule. Jason, we've kind of and Evan and I have entered the CFL through all this kind of COVID world where this used to be the This wasn't the differentiation, this was the norm, and then COVID and we're cutting down costs and stuff. But going back to a balance schedule, is that the

thought process here? We're cutting back money for a few years, we're not flying people from BC to Montreal or whatever. Yeah, I mean I think that some people kind of complain that, you know, the East Division teams would play more games against the West than they would against other Eastern teams. So I think people like said that was the reason why the CFL did that.

But I think at the end of the day, like you said, I think it's about cost and why they you know, cut out some of those you know, long distance cross country trips to save a little money. The last couple of years when the CFL is little lean in that regard,

So good to see them go back to a balance schedule. I think the biggest thing, you know, we're what I'm looking at is do we get a crossover team this year because the last time that we did have a balance schedule back in twenty nineteen, we did have a crossover team and that was the last time a team's crossed over into the East Division. So looking forward to seeing if that's the case this year. Yeah, I always talk about that. They always It's like I feel like when you're watching NFL right now

and they're like Chicago Bear are still alive. Like we always talk about it, but like I would like to actually see you know, this out of the cross I talk about consistency is key. I like the CFL summer schedule this Thursday through Sunday. It seems like that worked a lot of Sunday night games and then obviously going back into the Friday Saturday here in the fall, and we're you know, have have not had any meaningful updates involved with the

CFL Plus or the CBS Sports Network or anything for US American viewers. But Evan, in terms of that, you know, obviously shifting things away from the NFL where we hit the fall, but there's ay through Sunday that all works. Yeah, I mean I feel like it was very equally distributed this summer, you know, over those four days, and I would like to see it continue that way, and the CFL here, you know, has

clearly stated that. Yeah, I think that works out well. Just you know, because there's not as much going on in the summer in terms of sports, you're probably going to get more us it's viewers during that time period, because I mean it was the NFL, but really college football kind of started that shift, you know, And I noticed that because the second that the college football season started, you know, there weren't a lot of games

CFL games on CBS Sports Net anymore, just because they had to take those slots for college games, right. And then obviously, you know, once the NFL you know, gets into full swing, you know, a couple of weeks later whatever, you know, that also takes away. So yeah, the schedule changes pretty quickly in the fall. But I like the summer one. I like having you know, those couple of days, and I know not everybody likes having you know, four days of games or whatever,

even three days. But you know, I don't mind. I think if you you know, distribute it equally, it's just a longer week football in general, and it feels like you get to take in more. I know, you know, maybe if you're doing a recap or something, then you know you're doing it on Monday. It's harder to remember what happened, you know on Thursday, there, Friday. We've obviously dealt with that before. But you know, other than that, I think it's good. Yeah,

it keeps it, you know. To me, it keeps the CFL and they don't have as much a problem. I mean, this is something with the XFL and the USNL have them existing during the week outside of their games. I mean obviously, you know with Naylor and far Han and you know all the Kate and kind of everyone involved in you know, the TSN and Sportsnet and everything else, and uh, by the way, uh the sports

Net people. I would have loved to have been in those board rooms with all the show heyo, Tawny talks we're taking down the CFL here and then uh, you know the flight that was wild, Like if we had been podcasting, what was that two weeks ago? That would have been wild, but keeps the CFL more in this guys, I like it. I agree with Evan. Sometimes on Monday you're like, what the heck happened on Thursday. But it was so weird to me that when they announced this shift back

last year, We're gonna have more Sunday games. You know, all these like Saskatchewan people complaining and I'm never going to go to the games on Sunday because you know, we got to get up in the morning to drive. I mean just Monday here we were watching what was it, the Titans, Titans and Giants and Green Bay and all that, and like, we mean it's eleven thirty here in New York. You're watching these games, like you

know, yeah, so don't tell me about that. I mean, people make, you know, people make sacrifices that they need hussey thoughts on the Sunday through or Thursday through Sunday stuff. Yeah, I agree with Evan that it's good to have them like kind of spread out, so you know,

it keeps kind of the news cycle going throughout the week. I think that, you know, at the end of the day, you know, I think it's something to be said about the CFL keeping a consistent schedule of where you know, the fans know when the games are going to be, the consistent seven o'clock Eastern time slots to start the games every week. I think that's really important because you look at the NFL like you know exactly when those

games are on every week. So I think that's very important and that will help drive some viewership by itself, well not even even for that regard, like using my mother as an example, like maybe not even know what the game is, but knows like, hey and we're West Coast. Hey, ten, am I have a game? So let me log on, you know, let me pull up my Exfinity at nine and figure out kind of

what game I have? So, h yeah, you know, maybe I don't know it's the you know, it's the Red Blacks playing whatever, but at least I know there's going to be a game on at that time,

and if we have time, we'll get into that. I thought some of the schedule reveals with the Lions and the argos did where they were the Titans had done it last year, where they're showing the logos and trying to figure all that out, and I THOWT Baker getting really chippy with at Winnipeg and there was like a Winnipeg a BC Lions Twitter few But I thought that was funny. And then alas and this is weird to me, and we you know, last year we're doing the play moving the playoff games to Saturday.

I still think the Great Crump should be on Saturday, but we're doing the Great that and like after one year, it was a resounding success for moving forward with that. Evan, any comments, I'm mad. I mean it seems like they're at least for the time being, really die hard on doing the Saturday playoffs. Yeah, I mean I really don't mind. Again, it really has to do I think with the time of year, your your window kind of narrows when you're doing playoffs and what is it November, you

know, just because again that's like deep into the NFL season. Yeah, I would like to have the Great Cup, you know, on a Saturday, just because it's standard blown you're not playing other playoff games, you know. But I didn't mind it on a Sunday, you know. I went this year obviously with you guys, and I mean, you know, obviously there's NFL on there's other stuff, you know, next day's Monday, which is kind of tough if you want to go out and you know, do

whatever party after the game. But I really didn't mind it, you know. I think those are again, those are all very nitpicky issues, maybe, and I'm always somebody who focused is more on the grand scale of things, you know, in terms of where a league or where a team could improve. So overall, I'm just I'm really happy, you know, with the way that this schedule has turned out, whether it's regular season, you

know, or the playoff structure. Has there anything else on this? Yeah, I don't mind the Great Cups on Sunday personally because I think it's important for the host city to be able to have that full weekend for the whole festival aspect of it. You think of all the events that were going on Saturday night in Hamilton that you guys attended at the Hamilton Convention Center. So

I think it's important for that aspect of things. And I think that because the later start time of the Great Cup, it doesn't interfere as much with the NFL side of things. It's more like a Super Bowl time kind of kickoff. So I think at the end of the day, I think great cups on Sunday are here to stay. Yeah, and I especially like that. I like getting all of our work done on Saturday and being able to just enjoy Sundays. That to me works out. I have a couple of

just wide ranging here and then we'll get into the schedule. Tim Caprire I guess at Alwin's Flight Tech al WEF's opening the season great Cup rematch at Blue Bamber's first time opening season in Winnipig since sixteen. I'm talking about the three Thursday games a Sunday, Monday, one Saturday four with preseason. The other one I thought was interesting here I had with Derek Taylor Pierce of Red Blacks because I love Eric for all this like nerdy stats up, which is great.

Piers of the Red Blacks have the most RESTful schedule in total, the fourteen days more rest in their opponents nine times they'll have had more rest versus six with LASTI elks On only have four times rest versus I don't know how you figure all this stuff out, but Jason is that exciting. I mean, red Blacks here, Let's give him any opportunity we can here, Let's give them more. I even tweeted because Tim Baines tweeted out, like, oh, good to see the Red Blacks have a week one by I said,

gotta get time the round, all that time they can get. Yeah for sure, I mean like yeah, like you said, I don't know how Derek Taylor calculated this, but I was gonna say the same thing about the Red Blacks make a joke about they need all the help that they can get in this scenario. Yeah, look at this BC working on the hardest there and you know Edmonton, you know, let's see. I hope Edmonton

maintains all that. So let's get in here us. Like we said, we talked about a week one here, Montreal out, Winnipeg, Hamilton going into Calgary, has Saskatchewan, the Edmonton BC at Toronto, and I think this would be a good opportunity to talk BC in Toronto, coaching or all that kind of stuff. But what do you make of this Hussey, your

tie Cats traveling into Calgary. Well, I mean, I'm very curious to see the outcome for bow leave Mitchell this offseason because I mean a lot of people complained last year that they didn't get to go to Calgary and they didn't get the return game. Who knows if he would have been even healthy for that game. But that's just another point altogether. But I think at the end of the day, you know, Calgary and Hamilton playing in the first

game of the season, I think that's a pretty good matchup. I think, you know, you Knowmilton will be interesting with the new head coach there, and I think, you know, Calgary bringing back probably a lot of the same group as last year in terms of, you know, the quarterback and the head coach and whatnot. So I think it'll be interesting to see

how it plays out. I think a lot of the time, the CFL likes to get those you know, Western teams to have their home games earlier in the season so they don't have to deal with the weather as much later on in the season. So I think that's big. And you see you know, three or four West teams hosting Week one here. Yeah, Evan, what did you make I'm talking to Hamilton and the coaching and all of

that. It was really weird. It was like last week and they had a press release like Steinhauer has a different role now and like, by the way, we're going to have a head coach later like, it was kind of weird how they did that. What did you make of everything that Hamilton did well? I actually think it was a good thing, and a lot of people I understand, you know, the structure was strange. I think

they could have just made the announcement at once whatever. But it's really nice to see that they were able to retain both Scott Milanovich and Orlando Steinauwer just because I feel like, you know, Orlando Steinauer he's a very good football mind, but maybe that team, you know, ran its course with him at the Helm. After you go to back to back Great Cups and you're not able to win those games, especially you know, one that went to

overtime and was ultimately a heartbreaker. I mean, both of them were, but you know, especially the second one there in Hamilton, you know that that was very difficult. So, you know, I think having him, you know, still in the building and still having you know, some control

over certain decisions, I think that's a good thing. You know, I don't think you needed to just get rid of him completely, but at the same time, you know, having him be the head coach, you know, it was pretty clear that maybe that wasn't going to be the best thing moving forward. And you know, I'm really glad to see that Scott Milanovitch, you know, got the job there in Hamilton. It was kind of unclear where he was going to go. There was some rumblings of him going

to Saskatchewan, but that ultimately didn't happen. You know, those rumors were clear away pretty quickly. I know we were talking about that at Great Cup, but really the two finalists for the Saskatchewan job where Buck Peers from Winnipeg and then Corey Mays from Toronto. Obviously, but yeah, I think Milanovitch, you know, I think he'll do I think he'll do great things there.

You know, regardless of who the quarterback is. I know that this game that we're talking about here between Hamilton and Calgary is supposed to be you know, Bo Levi's return to the Stampeders. Whether or not that actually happens, or even if he's there, is he the starting quarterback in that game? A lot of questions around that. But regardless, you know, whoever is the quarterback there, you know, could be Taylor Powell, could be

somebody else. You know, I think Scott Milanovitch will do good things. Again, I keep saying it, and well I was saying it during the season, but I'll keep saying it now even as we move into the twenty twenty four run. You know what he did with that offense, you know, I think that's why he got the head coaching job. Really, just

that immediate turnaround. I think that really sparked something, and that team went from you know, maybe a situation where you go into a complete rebuild, to hey, we can just do some restructuring here, get Milanovitch and as the coach, you know, move Orlando to the front office with Ed Hervey, who I believe is the new general manager there. And I think ultimately again just being able to retain those two guys and not having one leave and

not having you know, some form of power structure. Again, I get that it might be a bit interesting. You don't see that very often where a coach is removed from you know, his duty but is still with the team. You don't see that very often. But I think in this case, it's a really good thing for the Tycats. Yeah, it's like you said, and Jason, it seems like we had every complaint last year and they're like we're gonna do We're gonna figure out everything that everyone complained about week

one. We're gonna fix it. We're gonna get bow Levi in the Calgary, We're gonna do the Great Cup rematch, and we're gonna do b C Trump. I just look at it this like this is like okay, guys, even at this BC Toronto game closing out Sunday, like let's let's let's see you got it CFL. CFL season is a marathon here talking Saskatchwan Edmonton a good point to talk about Corey Mace and we kind of that happened right

after we kind of logged out everything for the season. We joked a lot online like the the you know, the ass kiss scene that went in and I'm sure Corey Mace is a tremendous gentleman and phenomenal football coach. I My Twitter for about three days was like Corey Mays is crazy and he saved eighteen children in the war and he did and you're like, guys, like I understand that anyway, but Corey Mays couldn't be worse here in Saskatchewan. Jason,

what do you make of this? Them going on the road to going to Edmonton here, but you know, we get the new look Rough Riders here and he's still saying they want a Trevor Harris. I guess right. Yeah, it seems like they're very committed to Trevor Harris going into next year. I mean, that's one thing that Corey Mays really was adamant about in his opening press conference with the Riders. And I think it was a good

hire. I think that in general, I prefer an offensive head coach if I was running a football team, but I think there's still his value in having these up and coming defensive mind especially in the CFL, where you know, a defensive led team can make a big difference. So I think it's gonna be very interesting to see how it works out. And about of all the about all the hooplaw that was going on, I wrote, you know,

Corey Mason, all the you know, the cheerleading. I think that, you know, that just goes to show you, like, there aren't that many new faces that get into head coaching jobs in the CFL. So I think whenever that happens, you see a lot of buzz made about it. Yeah, I mean it's great, you know, and I'm excited. It's something to take away, but it was you. I mean, you would have thought that they you know, I mean, like now they influenced

Gene Jones up here out haven't gotten him involved in all that. I think Evan and I probably would have been leading the cheerleading bandwagon. And so I haven't any thoughts hereon Corey Mays because he missed talking about all that. Yeah. Well, I think the one really cool part about Corey Mace is, you know, he's the definition of a player's coach. You could tell people

immediately gravitated towards him, you know when he was hired. And you know, I'm not gonna I'm not going to carry on whatever you're talking about in terms of the you know, Twitter parade for Corey. I'll be a bit more reserved with my thoughts, but there is no denying he's a good coach. And I think the best part, you know, like I said, he's a players coach, really cares about those guys. And he's young, right, he's only thirty seven, believe it or not. Him and Trevor

Harris are the same age. And Trevor Harris is probably gonna be his starting quarterback next season, which is fascinating to me. You don't see that very often. But again, he's a young coach. He brings a fresh philosophy to the team, one that I think they really need. I don't want to say that things got stale over there in Regina, but you know, I feel like he's a guy that can come in and really just you know, almost rebrand the team in a way. You look, look at what

you know Antonio Pearce is doing with the Raiders. I think it'll be something like that where you really see a significant culture change. So yeah, really happy for Mace. I think that's a good hire. I was honestly surprised that they didn't go in the direction of an offensive guy like Buck Pierce, but I think you know, the money was right in Winnipeg for him to stay. And again, Corey just I think brings a bit more. I keep using the term culture, but I think he brings more of that in.

And then in terms of you know, who's gonna run the offense, well, they just brought in Mark Mueller from Calgary, you know, to uh to lead the offense there in Saskatchewan, and I think that was a pretty good hire. Obviously, you know, Calgary's offense struggled a bit last year, very up and down. Uh you know, only a few games where they really seemed complete. But uh, you know, I think I think that there's some potential there. You know, I think Mark Mueller again,

you know, he worked with Jake Mayer. He's worked with a lot of these guys you know who have been successful, Mark and Michelle. I mean again, list of names, Reggie Bagelton. So even if that offense wasn't complete, you know, the players again that he had to work with there in Calgary were we're you know, some of the better in the league,

no doubt. Yeah. And I think, like you were saying, in terms of just that players coach more the leader of man at that point of like there had been and it was so weird, like once Dickinson went out and it was like the players didn't respect him and he had totally room when you're like, okay, I mean you know clearly there was a lot of like ill seated kind of things going on there. So I made a

fresh start there. This would be exciting. Yeah, crazy to think that Trevor Harris is my age and it's still playing football in Mcadian football league is reually remarkable. Uh do Jasey anything else on Saskatchewan. Well, I think it's gonna be very interesting to see, you know, with this Mark Muller

hiring, the effects that it has on not only Saskatchwe but Calgary. Next year, this Calgary's offense all of a sudden get better, because I've heard people you know around the CFL, you know, tweet out saying that they were kind of blaming Mark Muller a little bit for calgary struggles last year.

So maybe it could be like an addition by subtraction, not saying he's a bad coach or anything, but maybe uh, you know, Calgary's offense does take another step next year, and you know, maybe Saskatchwan's you know, offense, you know, struggles a little bit. So I'm very interested to see how it works out. Well, I mean, especially you know with may or whatever like this might be. You know, this this is contract year here, right, like we got to kind of figure out what we're

doing. Uh not like last year, you know we were easy. You know, we went into Calgary kind of kicked the snot out of them BC here uh in Toronto, uh people you know, and all the complaints about you know, Toronto home games and everything. You get one opening weekend here, uh BC going in. Uh I had the the the article here, you know, retaining their whole staff, which I think is I mean,

obviously tremendously exciting. But Jason, are you surprised that, you know, we had talked about the Ryan Phillips and the Scotts and everything in the world like that, they're not that BC was able to retain everyone. Is that that we paying up? Is that a lack of it? I can't imagine it would be a lack of interest in any of the BC staff. Well, I think it came down to the fact that there weren't that many openings around the league this year. You had saskatchwe which is obviously you know,

you know, a full search and everything like that. They interviewed a bunch of candidates, but Hamilton really wasn't an open you know, head coaching job where you didn't really know that that job was open, and so until they officially announced Milanovich as the head coach there. So I think it comes down to the fact that there weren't that many open jobs this particular offseason, and they'll have to wait another year in terms of you know, Ryan Phillips and

Jordan Maximmok becoming potential head coaches in the CFL. Yeah, and they made Jordan Scotty too many and rosters. Yeah, Evan, I mean this is exciting b C. You know, full on Gray Cup hosting here. I mean, I think this is kind of the window and with Vernon and everything else, are you are you thrilled as I am to have them kind of keep all their staff together. Absolutely. I mean, both the coordinators, Ryan Phillips and Jordan Maximik, Both of those guys, I think, you

know, we're head coaching candidates in a variety of places. But again, you just don't know the direction in which franchises want to move in and what openings are going to be available, Like Jason pointed out, So all those guys I think would have been finalists for you know, any openings like there would have been interviewed, things of that nature, but that didn't happen,

and BC gets to keep them. And I think that's really significant because I think those two guys you know, did a fantastic job in twenty twenty three, and it's very rare to have you know, two coordinators on your staff, who again would both be head coaching candidates. You know, that could create some significant losses if they were to take other jobs, but again they didn't. Those opportunities were not available, and therefore, you know, BC

has taken that to their advantage keeping both of those guys. I think that makes them, you know, an incredibly strong team next year. Yeah, I mean, what else do you say, right? I mean, it's just that the work there has already spoken for itself. So I'm excited to see, you know, what they can do next year. And really, I mean, if we want to talk about BC here for a minute briefly, I don't want to say. I mean, I really don't want to

say next year's make or break. I could have said that this year, you know, right, I mean being in the West Final with Winnipeg again, which we literally predicted probably six months before it actually happened. It just seemed like all signs reporting in that direction very well could happen again next year. To be honest, we'll see you know who Winnipeg retains and you know

who goes that. There's still some uncertainty there, but you know, next year with BC hosting the Gray Cup in Vancouver, which I think is going to be fantastic by itself, regardless of who's playing in that game. But you know the fact that BC's hosting next year, and you know the fact again that they were able to retain both of their coordinators, which something tells me that one of those guys is probably gonna leave after next year for a

job i'd have to imagine, or again at least be interviewed. You're going to go through that cycle of uncertainty, you know next year. I mean, you really have a chance to make a statement. Things are, you know, lined up in the right direction. You know, Vernon, you

know clearly is your franchise guy again. Very good pick up there. I can't underestimate, you know how good it was that they brought him over from Montreal, you know that season and twenty two when Rourke got hurt, they brought him in his insurance and that's paid off, I think more than anybody could have ever imagined, you know. But we'll see. I really hope that they can pull it off next year. I think we'd all, you know, love to see BC at home. I know I'd love to see

that. That would make the experience just a little bit more special for me. But yeah, man, I mean, who knows. Just really I hope BC is reading the room in that regard. I think I'll leave it at that well, And I think that Rick had said already and there was the other quote coming out that you know, they're already working to retain a

lot of the players and everything, you know, I don't know. I think it was a really stack Dak and to the point where you had that incredible depth, Like I don't know if like if like Lucky Whitehead isn't back this year, if I'm going to have like a you know, a heartbreak at this point just because of kind of the use of a lot of these players during the year, and obviously you had that death where people got hurt

and you could cycle through. But to men though, it almost feels like there's a couple of names that maybe are more expendable than it felt like they were going into last season. I Jason thoughts on BC and then kind of any of the coaching of the player stuff. Yeah, I think Lucky Whitehead will be one guy that I don't see being back, just because of how much he was getting paid previously. I think they're probably gonna want to spend

that money elsewhere to retain other guys. I think Hollins and Hatcher are both free agents as well, so I think they'll want to retain those guys above Whitehead. So I think it's going to be really important for them to do that. But I will say this, I think I'm more confident. We'll

see what happens in the offseason. I think I'm more confident BC going into next year than I was going into this year, because I think at the beginning of this year, I didn't think that Vernon Adams are Like I think it was a question that Vernon Adams was a starting caliber, franchise level quarterback in this league. And I don't have that question anymore. So I think

that's really important. And obviously the fact that they've been able to retain a lot of their coaching staff, the entire coaching staff, and the probably retain a lot of their players. I think I'm pretty confident in BC going into next year. And then in terms of Toronto Evan Corey Mays and all of that, and then right they're still working to replace him in Toronto. Kind of any any thoughts on that, And I know Mike Mitchell's them the deep

guys. We'll get into some negotiation list here if anyone has any comments and any of those players, but evan any thoughts on Toronto here coming back after obviously losing and uh it was that the CFL like super Late News twitter account tweeted the other day like Chack Kelly got picked off again by the mantra Alwitt But I thought it was incredibly funny. But thoughts here on on Toronto hosting BC and anything with their staff. Yeah, I mean, you know,

Toronto, I really don't have any doubts about either. I mean that team was so complete this year. Again, you know what we'll see, Uh, I'm sure Mike would know. I don't know how many free agents they have to resign, and I don't have a number on that. You know, we'll see who they're able to retain, you know, maybe bring in a couple of new guys. But you wouldn't I mean, even if you

lose some guys, I really don't need. I really don't think you need to bring in a whole lot there to uh, you know, to make up for anything. I think what happened against Montreal and that uh, you know that that game, the playoff game. Yeah, I think that was just a whiff simply, you know, I think again just one of those games you weren't ready. It sucked, you know again, really sucked to see that because again that's not a game that really should define anybody's career,

especially Chad Kelly's. I think Kelly will come back next year and he'll play just as he played this season. Again, he has shown just like guys like Vernon Adams have and Zach Kalaro's and even Cody Fajardo now who just got extended. And uh, these guys are franchise quarterbacks. They found a home. They can be successful. And you know, Isual Toronto being right back

in the in the Great Cup race without a doubt. Yeah. I think in terms of Cody as well, you know, and we've talked about this, having Naylor commented it out it as well during the season, like it should be a lesson you know, quarterbacks in the CFL or a commodity. I like it might be worth same with like Jake Mayer here, it might be worth Okay, let's work through a couple of seasons of this versus you know, and the next thing you know you send up, yeah, you

know, talking about the al Wes Montreal like sports are weird. You know, the Kraken just went into Chicago two weeks ago and absolutely got rocked kind of by a team that they should have beaten, and it spiraled this whole kind of losing streak and all that stuff. And then they just beat the same team seven to one last night in Seattle. Like, you know, sports are kind of weird that way. Anything else here I guess stack and we won't do is deep obviously deep dive here with all the other weeks,

but really stacked a week one here, Jason. Anything else on that, well, all just build on a point about Toronto. I think that one thing to watch this offseason is that Chad Kelly goes from making basically nothing to making six hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year. So there probably will be some loss to this roster this offseason. It just depends where those losses tend to fall. Yeah, and that was talking about the show hey contract and

the seven hundred million and it would be like a billion dollars. Can you imagine the billion dollars on that? So coming in here. My only big takeaway with this a kind of glance in the head and if anyone has any kind of standout thoughts for all this, you know, we'll kind of scroll through all that. But yeah, Ottawa gets their first you know, the first game. It's the first home game we're hosting on a Thursday against Winnipeg.

To me, that is kind of a bummer and snooze. And at that point here, we already have the week one by and then we're coming in and that's probably getting there. I can't imagine against Winnipeg. Jacent thoughts on that, Well, it's it's worth to say it's worth pointing out that Ottawa beat Winnipeg last year and that one of the games of the year. So I mean, I think that's kind of the angle that they're trying to play here. But uh, yeah, it sucks for anybody that gets that

first week by. I really feel bad for any fan that has to go through that, Like you're excited for the season to start, Oh my team doesn't play this week. Yeah, it's and like even with the NFL, like it's so weird that like the Commanders didn't have their buy till last week. It was like I didn't even know, like you're kind of living through and then you're like, what is like, what is happening here? What's going on? You know, Montreal going in Scotsman Hamilton, who's getting the

Toronto's got the Week two buy? Here to kind of figure out stuff with that, Evan, did you have and I have the negotiation list here pulled up? Did you have any names? I know you tweeted out some of the names, anyone you wanted to talk about in particular on the winner necklace that came out. Yeah, I mean I think if we just go, you know, team by team, I didn't write anybody down in particular,

but there's certainly a couple of guys I can talk about. I mean, starting with the BC Lions here first, I got the list pulled up. Like Devron Harper, he's someone you know who's very close to me. I interviewed him and I forget the other guy's name, Ty James. I also I've also talked to him at Mercer. They been a very good duo in the FCS, And I think he's a guy, you know who does have you know, maybe a realistic chance of playing in the CFL. Because keep

in mind on the neglist. You know, some of these guys you know that are listed probably aren't gonna play in the CFL. Every now and then you'll get one of these really cool stories, like the one last year that got brought up constantly was Tommy Lee Lewis, who was on the neglist in Calgary for like seven years. They pretty much waited for his entire NFL career, you know, to be over which span in multiple teams for him to finally come up, and he did play. You know, he did make

an impact. It wasn't anything ridiculous because he's an older guy. Now again they waited seven years for him or something, but you know he was there, he did sign on and you know, did play a portion of the season. So yeah, Devron Harper there from Mercer. Sean Chambers at Montana State, I mean again one of the top of CS programs. They always have a lot of guys going down to Edmonton. Holton Taylor's I don't know if he's a free agent right now, but I believe he was with the

Seahawks out of East Carolina. Isaiah Davis again, another really good running back from South Dakota State, another top FCS program. I would expect him to have some NFL interest. kJ Jefferson is an interesting one. I'm not really sure where he stands. I've seen him play before at LSU, you know, live, so I've seen his ability again. You know, kind of an interesting prospect again, you know, a guy that I'd really have to dive deeper on. Cam Rising, a bigger name from Utah, didn't didn't

play this year. I don't think due to injury. But you know, we'll see where he's at. He's going back to school for like a seventh year. You get all these guys in college now with COVID eligibility going back for you know, year seven. Let's see, BJ Wilson was just picked up by the Roughnecks in the XFL. You'll see there's a couple of guys here who do have XFL interest, you know, who signed letters of intent, were acquired in the rookie drafts over the summer. Dresser Win quarterback from

Tennessee Martin. He was actually already with the Elks this season, you know, signed and on for a couple of weeks to their practice roster, got an extra few game checks. He's with the Rams now, I believe on their practice squad or he might have been released, but he was with the Rams. He went back, was like with them in training camp, got cut signed with Edmonton. Couple you know, checks sitting there and then went back to the Rams for a bit, and you know, we'll see where

he's at, you know, going into twenty twenty four. Also in regards to Edmonton, shout out to Rick Sarahtell who's been on here before. Just took one of the scouting jobs there with the Elks. So you know, wow, that's exciting. The other day, what's that I said, that's exciting. That's awesome for Rick. Yeah, no, it's good anyway, just going down the lift here going to Calgary. Jerome Capp, that's the name that rings the bell from Cuttstown Division two school. Believe he was with

the Jets at one point. Josh Love, former USFL player with the Michigan Panthers there and Pittsburgh Mallers, I believe, quarterback from San Jose State. Audentate from Florida State. I believe he was with the Bengals. That was also a name that I was surprised to see on there. Well, maybe not surprised, but one of those names where you're like, it'd be cool to see him in this league, you know, I think Mike had brought him up at one point in regards to the XFL. Just going down here

to Saskatchewan. Jerry and Ealy I believe just signed from Ole, Miss Chase Scarber's from California. I believe he could have a CFL future again, another quarterback. These lists are always pretty quarterback heavy. The Carrious Keys, that one rings, the name from Tulane, you know, I've been down there before to do work. Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Let's see Michael Ayers, I

believe from Ashland. He signed or I don't know if he signed a letter of intent, but he was drafted by the Roughnecks in the XFL and had some previous CFL experience before. I don't think it was with Winnipeg. It was maybe with Ottawa, but don't quote me on that. Mark Gronowski another

guy from South Dakota State. You always see these, uh, you know, these top FCS schools on there, the Montanas, the Dakota's, you know, and again those guys, I mean geographically those are all pretty close to Canada already, so it'd be fun to see some of those guys up there. Anthony Witherstone from Merrimack I believe just signed with maybe the BattleHawks in the XFL as of yesterday, signed a letter of intent with one of the XFL teams, and I believe was in an NFL training camp going down the

Hamilton. Chamar Bridges, a name that rings a bell, was with the Ravens at one point at a Division two Fort Valley State. Thomas Castelianos from Boston College. Again, another quarterback by a guy you know who might not have that NFL interest. He played at Boston College this year was the starter for them. De Kwan Finn from Toledo is a is a guy that's interesting. He'll go back to college. He's in the transfer portal right now.

I believe I don't know where he's supposed to go. But again a guy that i I'm looking at there, you know, so again he won't be he won't even have, you know, a pro future I don't think till twenty twenty five. But a name to keep an eye on. He's been one of my favorite quarterbacks to watch this year in college and to kind of

follow along. Austin Reid from Western Kentucky. Probably a guy that will have NFL interest, I think, but you know he plays in that uh you know, one of those wide open, you know, air raid type offenses. Again, really liked his stuff. He played at Division two school before he came to Western Kentucky. I believe it was West Florida, so you know, quick rise for him. Him and again a name that I'm familiar with, Talia tagovloa brother of Tuitago Viloa who played at Maryland started for them.

Uh you know what we'll see again that's these are just names. Nothing really here that that's concrete. Rajon Wright I believe was there's a he has a brother who I think is with the Cowboys. I always get a mixed up. But he might have been the guy that was on last chance to you. I'm not sure. But anyway, going down to Toronto, Mike Mitchell did a deep dive on these guys, so check out day. Yeah

right. He was very fascinated by this list. I mean, I won't talk about too many guys here just for time time's sake, but John Motocha, the quarterback from Colorado School of Mines, just passed Tyson Bagent for the All time passing, don't. I'm not sure if it's all time passing touchdowns or just all time career touchdowns in general at the NC double A level.

Colorado School of Mines is a Division two school, and he passed Tyson Bagent who's currently with the Bears and played it played at Sheppard and MATOCHI will be in the Division two National Championship coming up against Harding, so you know, we'll see what happens with him. John Ruis plumb Lee, that's a guy that I've seen before live at UCF. I've actually seen him and Castilianos. Castilianos was at UCF before he transferred to Boston College. So good to see

both of those guys here on cflagolist that they're narrating some interest. Matt Sluca from Holy Cross is a fascinating one, very mobile guy. I want to say he has some sort of background in lacrosse, but I could be wrong, but I you know, I've watched him plenty again. Another FCS quarterback, but a guy that can you know, run and throw really well, so you know, interested to see if he latches on. Could definitely see him, you know, coming out out and signing a CFL contract, you

know, maybe pretty quickly. Again, some of these guys will have NFL interests, go to a camp, some of them won't. You know, you'll see some of these guys sign on pretty quickly, just depending on you know, that they gauge their level of interest. Going down to Ottawa, Tim Demarrat from Fordham, I believe he was in camp with the Commanders, a very good FCS quarterback last year in twenty two. Khalil Pimpleton. He was on hard knocks with the lines, if I remember correctly. This's just

kind of a fun one. He played a Central Michigan. I don't actually know a ton about him in terms of the player. And then you go down to Montreal. There's some names here that I think are returning. Davis Cheek was the USFL guy I believe with the New Orleans Breakers. The quarterback Brett Gabert played at Miami. I think he's coming back Miami of Ohio, not the school in Florida. Jerray Jenkins is the guy I'm really hoping to

see up there sign an undrafted contract with the the Jacksonville Jaguars. I believe, you know, played at LSU back in twenty two, so I saw him, very familiar with him. He's a he's a great player. Surprised that he didn't, you know, latch onto a practice squad or anything like that. Parker McKinney from Eastern Kentucky, another SCS quarterback. It's incredible how many of them there are on this list. Probably a guy that you know gets an NFL look. And then you know E. J. Perry from

Brown that's a USFL guy. Also played with the Michigan Panthers. Lindsay Lindsay Scoot. It's Lindsay Scott. It's a type of there but played it incarnate Ward obviously, you know, planning on joining the Houston Roughnecks this season if they're around. Believed he signed the letter of intent with them, so he's good to go. And yeah, Darwin Thompson, I think is the last

guy really worth talking about. Believe he was in the NFL for a bit, maybe has some playing experience, so kind of a veteran in that regard. But yeah, there's your there's your negolist guys. So that that shaved off a couple of minutes of the stream. No, that's good, Jason,

No, because and I wanted to at least it's it's good. It's a little deep diving because and I god knows how Evan keeps shack kind of all this stuff, but because it was you know, I posted the other day, and you know, they oh, like these people are like they're in talks. It's like, no, you know, they're on the list and they go up to Canada. Are you a proponent of the negolst here?

What do you make of this, mister north of the border. I never get excited about the negotiating negotiation list personally, because one, they only reveal like one quarter of it, so I think it's like forty players long per team, so they only reveal or have to reveal ten names, which

I guess is better than nothing. But I think that the CFL does a very poor job, and I've said this before of introducing the American players to the fans, and I think that I would like to see some kind of draft like for American players, you know, even if it's just some small thing with you know, just like like an online live stream or something like that, just to tell us something about these players that are coming into the

league, because they just show up in training camp and it's just like you just have to figure everything out on your own. So I think at the end of the day, not a huge fan of the negotiation list process in

the CFL. Well, I think it could be better. It's one of those things like it takes work right, And we did that with the what was it the because the USFL did the college draft and the XFL did the rookie Draft, and you know, we did that and we're the same thing, like they just dump the list and we're okay, these teams acquired these people, and we're sitting there and I need, you know, Evan and like four or five other guys on to be able to like, okay,

who knows about this guy or who can talk about it, Like I know we had coach Craig on and I know Ris bean on some of those that Evan was talking about with the Elks. But you need a lot of people because some of these guys, you know, you're not you know, you're getting a TSM panel together to talk about some of these guys, they're not going to know even half of what Evan is able to spot off even just here on the stream. So it's one of those things challenging at least to

me. I like seeing players that are interested in the XFL and the CFL is interested in them. I like seeing these guys, you know, pop up a couple of different places just because it means that God knows what's gonna happen with this UFL or whatever. But like there are options out there. But yeah, the whole like secretive and like, okay, we can have this many quarterbacks or it's kind of weird in that way. Yeah, for

sure. I think Naylor brought up a great point to the thing about quarterbacks is like I wish teams had to narrow down like who's their guy, Like they should have like only a maximum amount of quarterbacks allowed on these lists that they have exclusive rights to. Yeah, so let's get in here, we'll kind of scroll through all this together out you know, ten minutes are so left on here. You know, HiT's keep coming here, right, Okay? Augar b c BC back in at Winnipeg here exciting to me? Uh,

what's he here? Ottawa going on the road against Montreal? Anything stand out to you here with this one? Evan? Which game did you said? Sorry? Oh? Just week just week three? And I mean to me, the BC Winnipeg is stand out and BC is it you know, challenging schedule here, going to you know in Toronto, hosting Calgary and then going back into Winnipeg here. Yeah, I mean, i'd say I think

obviously the BC Winnipeg game stands out there more than anything. You know, Yeah, I will say b C, you know, going up against Toronto and Winnipeg, all these heavyweights you know in the East and West. It's uh again, they're gonna be tested early. We just talked about, you know, it's a big proven year for BC. Can they really get it

done well. They're gonna have to open up against some pretty tough competitions that we might find out you know, pretty early on whether or not you know, or well maybe not whether or not, but what the identity of the

team is, I think is what I'm trying to say. You know, it's kind of instead of playing the bottom tier of teams first, you know, you kind of go out there and you take on, you know, all these teams that you had or that you played very well against, you know to some degree in the previous season, or you had some very good

games against, right like BC and Winnipeg. There were some I guess you'd say classic matchups there, some blowouts in both directions, some close games, and then obviously the Toronto game, you know, between that and BC, Like I thought BC in Toronto, I thought that was gonna be the Great Cup this year, and I was obviously mistaken. But you know, both of those teams, you know, made it to the final and then lost,

so you know, we'll see. I mean, I wouldn't mind that, you know, as the Great Cup next year either in BC, right, I think that'd be a great matchup. Not that we needed to talk about that quite yet, because twenty twenty four seasons still quite a days away, but yeah, no, I think I think it'll be an interesting start for BC here well, and Jason to me, like you know, and obviously we got to go through a lot of free agency here, but like,

yeah, identities have changed here. Right, we're maybe like Montreal last year, we're walking you know, we're walking in and maybe we didn't do as because I think I can't remember how the schedule came out last year in terms of whatever else we were doing, but like we certainly didn't do this and you're sitting here in like, you know, Montreal are looking at is like one of the you know, worst teams in the league potentially last year, we're here like you know, all us got to go into Montreal like

that's you know, that's really like, you know, any identities of these teams changed from last year to this year. I mean, Hamilton, I still don't really know how to read. Saskatchewan's got a lot of you know, missing you know, kind of question marks here. But Montreal feels good. Edmonton if they can roll, feels good. And then we know what

Winnipeg and BC in Toronto are. Yeah, I mean, one thing I was going to bring up is that Hamilton and Saskatchwan week two and three, they actually played back to back here, so that's very early in the season, both brand new head coaches. So we always talk about, you know, it takes time for a new coach to establish their culture and their systems and they'll be in to see, you know, who gets the edge in those if it goes too well either way in that early home and home there

between Hamilton Saskatswan. But yeah, like you said, I think Montreal looks a lot better than they did at this time a year ago. And you know, that game for Ottawa. I think it would be interesting to see how they look this year because I think audawe Edmonton, these are going to be very crucial years for both of these teams. I think that it's been far too long without playoffs. It's not good for any team in the CFL

to go more than like three years without playoffs. So I think it's gonna be very important for odd one Edmonton to have you know, big seasons next year. Yeah, I've said already on here, like I don't I don't know how Odawa has a fan base right now, Like I mean, I understand that they won a great cut back before we got involved in all this stuff, but I really just kind of living through all of this here Hamilton

right here going into Ottawa. You may you know, if you're looking at this right just Odawa get their first win week four right like hosting Hamilton. I mean they very You're just there. You're asking a lot here at Edmonton going into BC. That would be good another So not only are we doubling down, Well, no, it's not because I keep in my mind I keep thinking that Toronto was in the Great Coupan. Yeah, here the the East Finals here at Montreal at Toronto, I should be exciting their week for

Evan. You certainly have to have that one circled. Oh yeah, I mean, you know, Montreal, they're already starting to bring back a lot of their guys. You can tell that. You know, they're not wasting any time. And you know, Phil pot Fajardo got extended, Sankey Lemon, all those guys are already. You know, any questions that people had

about the core, I think those have already been answered. So you know, now it's just a matter of can they elevate their game in twenty twenty four, because again, the whole storyline with Montreal was they had a pretty pedestrian I guess you'd say regular season, not that there was anything wrong with that, but again, no one saw them as a great Cup contender, and suddenly playoffs rolled around. In those those last three games were on nothing

short of incredible. So hopefully they can carry some of that momentum into the regular season and make that play more exciting. And you know, we'll see whether or not they're able to get off to that hot start or you know, maybe they open things up. But it's a bit slow and it still takes time to get acclimated again. But again, when you're bringing back a lot of the same guys, that's a good sign in terms of continued success.

So it'd be cool to see them go into Toronto, you know, and maybe have more of a back and forth type of game this time, as opposed to Montreal just kind of running away with it early and you know, Chad Kelly, you know, just struggling not you know, not seeing the field correctly. You know, hopefully all that will be resolved to that game, because again, yeah, that would be a very fun one, a repeat of the East Final that I guess nobody expected. Yeah, not

to date this podcast too much. It looks like Brandon Staley was officially let go from there lah here, So unless there was a surprise, we'll kind of go through here. We got to get out of here pretty see. But you know, Toronto and Saskatchewan some of these, you know, we get to kind of get into the you know, I say, here by July or we're getting a little bit into the to the minushav that you know, you never know, BC Hamilton, I mean we had that where Hamilton

came in last year, right, they kind of rocked BC's world. I'm going to kind of scroll through. Jason, do you have anything you want to pop up on this let me know here. Yeah, I mean, like b C Hamilton, the second game last year that took place in Hamilton, that was one of the games of the year. I was there in attendance. I would say as a tay Cat season ticket holder, that was my favorite game that I attended last year, even though that ty CAATs even

lost. So I mean really excited for that one for sure. Doublely down here. So we got Toronto back at Montreal, so a week apart, but then they'll be going in here. I don't know, it's just to me some of these you know, I know it was predictable last year, but it felt like it was a good season here to get some juice behind some of these teams. I mean, you know this Ottawa Edmonton week six

is a little bit you know, Thursday night here Toronto at Montreal. I mean that's like, you know, if there's nothing going on XFL in the world, like that's a Thursday night live show we have going into that game. I mean, I'm just you know, saying here, like some of these games to me seem a little bit more appealing on paper now than they did maybe a year ago. Evan, any thoughts here, I mean, it's gonna kind of keep getting through here. Yeah, I mean, just

going back to the nagelist for a quick second. I mean, I know we've kind of moved off that, but there was actually a player I forgot to talk about, James Morgan from Florida International, you know, former NFL draft pick who also played in the USFL with the Pittsburgh Mallers. So you're seeing this common theme again, a lot of guys that have XFL interest, a lot of guys that have already been under contract and maybe played in the USFL. I know the Argos already signed a couple of you know, former

USFL players I think from the Philadelphia Stars. So just something to watch, you know, as these I guess, merger whatever, I don't even know if you can call them talks anymore continue to unfold. You know, CFL

teams I think are keeping an eye on some of those guys. And I'm not going to be blowing anybody's cover, but I don't think that's really a secret at this point that you know, there will be some guys, you know, even maybe before the mergers finalized and you know, certain teams are cut out, as we've been speculating, you know, some of those guys will probably head up to Canada and it'll still be an uphill battle for some

of them, I think, right. I mean, they're gonna have to compete you know, for starting jobs and things of that nature that they didn't really not that they didn't have to compete for them in the XFL, but it was a bit more of a clear path. Like you've already got a lot of established players, you know, up there in the CFL, so

you know, we'll see. It'll be interesting, you know some of the names that might you know, head north, as we like to say, over the next coming weeks and months, because there's no denying that there will be a few. There already has been a few, so you know, just something to monitor, right. I don't think that the number of XFL

and USFL names on these lists coincidence. I think it's meant to, you know, give options to guys that they can kind of weigh and think about, you know, because there are some players you know that would fit well into both leagues. I I guess now it's just going to be the CFL, and we'll call it the UFL for the time being. But I just

wanted to throw that out there. I know that's kind of a little random factor tidbit, but I felt like it was it was important to bring up, just with everything going on, and after all, we are trying to include every form of football into this, I guess, and you know, it's been a while since we've actually done anything uh XFL, USFL UFL related again, I don't even know what to call it anymore, but you know, just to tie that into the you know that that's something that you know,

whether you're a CFL fan or one of these American league fans, you

maybe want to keep an eye on that well. And I think, and I agree with you, I think, and I've Knailer's been on here, like I wish this CFL didn't get so like our league so difficult, like you got to work your ass to get in here, Like I I think, if you know, with these nagas all this and with these leagues, like I think, if THEFL did a better job like fostering getting some of these like it's like you got to overcome all this, Like if you got

to be an American quarterback like it's gonna take you five years, so like you better put in your time, and you're like, I just don't know. I just think they could change their mentality with that. And that's kind of a conversation for a different day. In terms of this, you know, here a great cup last year here Winnipeg Toronto randomly week eight here Saturday, July twenty seven. That's got to be exciting, Jason, Yeah, for sure. I mean, at least we get it earlier in the season

this year. I still think that these two teams are the favorites to finish first place in their respected divisions. With all due respect to Montreal, I think that Toronto probably is still the favorite to have the best regular season next year. So very much interested to see how that one plays out, and the fact that we get it earlier in that it will actually mean something.

I think that's huge. Yeah, And like even here like BC at Winnipeg, you know, that's like another that's a that's an early and that's what we're having a beer on the deck. We're doing a pre stro pre show live stream there going into that Thursday game. I'm just giving you, I mean, somebody I don't know. To me, this is an exciting schedule here kind of going through all this. Yeah, again, you're always going to get like, Okay, we're Saskatchewan and Ottaway here on August eighth is

probably not going to be the peak of that. This This might be the worst week I've seen this far. Hamilton in Montreal. Does that do anything for Jason? I mean, I'm always looking forward to seeing the ty Cats. But that's just the fan and me talking. Yeah, some of the you know, it seems like we're from a little bit. You know, we got Winnipeg BC here again closing out Sunday August eighteenth here. You know, some of these Thursday games are rough anytime. I don't know why,

like I would get so many of these Thursday games. Well, I mean I feel like they I don't know why they do that. I feel like maybe the Thursday night games they don't like, they're not going to do that well anyway in terms of the rating. Probably so, I mean like they'll just throw you know, the shittiest team for lack of a better word on there. But I think at the end of the day, on the Calgary Autawa game, I think it's worth throwning. That was one of the better

games of last year too. Despite the struggles, those two teams had pluck at this we got we go one, two, three, four, five, six, I mean, you know, we got anyway, it's interesting. They're interesting with all that stuff going through OTWA at BC. So see then we're jumping to Salary Day here, so that's when the NFL starts. We'll get into all that stuff. Move in. I can ind of the

day Labor Day weekend here August twenty. First, this is the touchdown right the thirty first thoughts on that a Jason and not well round out here, we're we're almost done with this. Thoughts on no touchdown Atlantic beginning to touchdown Pacific and then Evan you can give your comments. Well, I don't necessarily like the fact that they're not having a touchdown Atlantic this year, but I do like this whole idea of having you know, another touchdown games or having

touchdown games at other locations. I think that it's really great what BC's doing in terms of trying to make it the problems his team, and I think this is you know, having a game in Victoria is uh, you know, goes a long way to doing that. So I think at the end of the day, I think it's really cool and I think, you know, the game is gonna sell regardless, so I think putting audible there, I think is is fine. Yeah, I have a lot of questions,

like are you going to go to that game? Like wedding videographer weekend, the Labor Day weekend in Seattle is is challenging, whether it's with an ou R just in the O R so in ten In terms of I do wish that there was both in Atlantic and the Pacific. It very much feels to me like the CFL like whoa, whoa, whoa, Like Okay, we're doing the Pacific this year, like we can't, God forbid. We try to balance both of those. Evan, whether or not we're going through the

game, you gotta be excited for that having your life. Yeah, I think, you know. I think the one thing I'll say about the touchdown Pacific that no one's really brought up yet, and it's significantly different from touchdown Atlantic. So the touchdown Atlantic game is typically you know Nova Scotia right, see Victoria. You can take the ferry from Vancouver over to Victoria, so you can get a lot of BC fans there, I mean Halifax, Like

that's Nova Scotia. That's way, you know, way over there on the other side of the country, pretty far out of the way, like you'd have to fly there. You know, it's a way, I guess, bigger deal. And I believe the matchup last year for Touchdown Atlantic was Toronto and Saskatchewan. Yeah, the last two years. Yeah, last two years, right, and not like very many people from Saskatchewan are going to be making the trip over to Halifax. I don't think that's a very common path.

But you know, with the Touchdown Pacific being in Victoria, like, you know, Victoria is not that far from a lot of things, and it's you know, again right there on Vancouver Island. It's not terribly far from Vancouver itself, so you can actually get you know, a lot of BC fans there, Ottawa fans again, other side of the country. Probably not like maybe if it was a team in Alberta or something, you'd maybe have people fly over and then you know, go to Victoria from there and

kind of make it a weekend or something. But you know, I still feel like, again you're gonna have a better turnout just because of that, I guess convenience factor, right, because again, if you're playing a game in Halifax, there's just not you know, the CFL market again has not been establablished over there. I get it. Look, we were at Great Cup the Atlantic Schoooners had a great setup, but that's he has not been established there yet and maybe never will. So dare I get into that discussion.

I'm not going to talk about that today, but you know, again just something to keep in mind, right like Victoria there, it does feel like again again especially being in the province too of British Columbia. You know, touchdown at lant is a completely separate thing. It's not really attached to any province. This feels this feels significantly different in my opinion, but again in a positive in one that I hope to see continued in future years. Well. And the reason I wish I we'll see I mean, if I

I just am presuming I have a wedding that day. If I don't, I'm sure Baker can hook me up with a you know, just stand on the sidelines or something. But we have a direct ferry from the port of Seattle, which is about fifteen minutes from my house that takes you directly there. I'm like, you can drink. It's like a whole It's a whole

thing. And funny enough, when I used to work at Q thirteen, I came in, I'd work like the eight am to five shift on Sunday, and I come in and someone had actually uh because they just more them down there and then they take off and someone had like climbed up over the security fence in and then like untied the boat and floated to the middle of

Elliott Bay. So then they have I had to go and like we had our cameras with like the super long lenses and they literally have like kind of like a Michael Bay movie, like they boarded like the ferry and they have like the swap boats come out because you know, they don't know like does

this guy have bombs like on the boat or we you know. I mean, it's like it gets to be this whole thing and ended up being like drunk woman or something that climbed up over and then for But but yeah, you can directly you go use give them your a little your passport or we have that little the other your passport card. You can just hop right on

there and go up. So exciting that way, getting out of here BC Montreal A good Friday game here, getting into September, this is when we started getting you know, the triple headers, which is always tough for me just with you know, if you're out and all on a Saturday, Jason anything here, I'm just kind of scrolling through here. Well before we get out of here, well, I wanted to bring up something for you guys. CFL plus. I think it's gonna be very interesting to see if they

add more features to it. To they add the on demand feature next year, I think that would do a lot to you know, leviating some of your strathspur these you know, triple header double header kind of games so days.

So I'm excited to see what they do with that, like just yeah, just once the game's done, just and I don't understand because they do that with you know, if you're a TSN person that like just put the game on and if you want to I get this with the ads and all that, it just even just screen record the thing and then if we got to fast forward through where they have the weird you know, ghetto rap instrumental music like whatever that is I just would really go a long way, I

think to just feeling like I can't leave the house from ten am, you know, Saturday on, you know, trying to explain to my wife like well, you know, because we've established Sunday right, like, hey, we understand like this, this is what we do, but it's really hard to get both of the weekend days that way. Evan anything else here, you know, we got another Toronto at BC. It really feels like BC's

got a contender schedule here. I mean, I know at the CFL it's pretty balanced around and we're doing all these you know, you know, the competitive balance this year, but it feels like BC's got a pretty heavy, heavy hitter schedule. Well, I think we're the point in the season now just going down this list, you know, where the schedule's starting to be more condensed. You're moving down to one or two days. You're having teams start to you know, go on buys. As the season wraps up.

We know from you know, doing all of our work this season, you know, those last couple of weeks really becomes a marathon at that point, you know, when it's like there's like three games in one day and all these other teams are on a buy and you know, this year, like Toronto had the East locked up, so a lot of it, you know, for I don't want to say it became meetingless because there are players you know, who are really making a statement out there and you know, doing

their job, you know, and providing great entertainment for us. But you know, it was at a point where it's just like, you know, yeah, we're here in like week twenty one, and it's like, you know, you know who knows, Like it's just that's that situation where you know things might already be already be again locked up, and you know you're just you're just kind of playing games for guys to get reps at that point.

That's always one of the things that I found, you know, interesting about the CFL in particular again with a twenty one week season in pro football and only nine teams, I mean you just see like, I mean, obviously there's going to be repetition, but you know you'll see you know, teams playing each other back to back and like just some of the same matchups, and it's hard to have diversity again with twenty one weeks and only nine teams, So I commend you know, the I don't know, this might

sound bad. I don't know if there's like a committee who makes the CFL

schedule. You know, I don't know how that works, to be honest, I'm not a schedule guy really, but you know, I commend the league, I guess, I'll say, you know, for being able to make a somewhat diverse schedule and adding these things like touchdown Pacific to just jazz things up a bit, right, because again, with the amount of repetition, it's it's pretty easy I think for some people to just go, oh, well, you know, we saw this matchup two weeks ago and you

know, yeah it was in Toronto and not Ottawa, you know whatever, but it's still the same thing. And you know, but again I say that keeping in mind that you know, the CFL changes very quickly and last year, like I could have said that going into the season, but then, you know, even if you did have the same matchup, you know, two or three weeks apart from each other, you know, the games could still be very different. And that's one thing again, just with the

flow of the season and the length of it. That's where those those variables come into play. So yeah, ultimately, you know, I think again, nine teams twenty one week is going to be difficult to have a schedule that's you know, not interesting but just captivating on a regular basis. But you do get these weekends that are you know, i'd say more interesting than others simply. I think, you know, anytime there's a rivalry, you know, like the banjo boll stuff, Labor Day, all that jazz,

you know, I think that's great. So yeah, I'll leave it at that. Yeah, I actually wanted to see so, yeah, so we have the we have the the Victoria game, right, and then this will be right, this is and then we go back or so with the labor I always get a mixed up, right, so we got the Labor Day classic and then we go back with the bangible here. So that would be exciting kind of that week thirteen fourteen. I always flipped those in my head. But yeah, this, you know, I don't know if it was

me. Do I do this game a different day to kind of let you know, maybe let's bruce up week ten or something maybe, you know, and obviously there's availability in scheduling and all that. That would be my one comment that way, and like we talked about with the the Week one stuff, right, like, let's put a lot of stuff and that's great,

and I think Week one should do tremendous ratings for the CFL. And I know some of that stuff, but I think last year that touchdown Atlanta game was kind of used as a prop game in like the beginning of August, right, Jason, it felt like it was more of a standalone where we were building around that versus this is part of the Labor Day weekend, which I think maybe stands on its own, would probably be my own thing. And then my last comment will throw the Jason, and then we'll kind of

round this out. You look here this week twenty one, like this might be the loser bracket. Again, Calgary is as catchewan here last game of the year, but hey, you know, the last weekend ended up being tremendously exciting more or less with some of those games coming down the pike. So yeah, this Saskatchewan, the Calgary game four pm on October twenty six kind of circled out as potentially the loser bracket. Yeah, for sure.

I mean I think I agree with you guys, and I think that the CFL should do more to like, you know, jazz up some of these matchups and do some of these you know, special event things. And I mean, I think it's questionable that they put it on Labor Day. But at the same time, I'm happy that BC gets to have, you know, be a part of Labor Day weekend for once, because they're usually the

team that misses out. It's usually Montreal versus Audiball. It's BC with the buye that week, So I'm glad from that perspective that they get to be a part of that. Yeah, I see, And I just spoiler alert like the prep I do, Like I haven't looked at the schedule until today, so I like kind of living through in the real time. But I think that that works out. Yeah, I mean, I think, honestly

a tremendous job. Like I said, the week one feels heavy, but I think there's a lot of moving pieces there with the schedules and who's available what Toronto, I'd say Tim Capper complaining about the Aulettes Thursday games to talk to If any Red Backs flans existed, they would be very upset with you complaining about that. So that would be my last comments with that Evan anything else before we get out of here. Evan's good, I think so well,

Jason. I appreciate that this was fun and we did Neglas, we did coaching hires and all that stuff. We'll get back. Jason and I are figuring out some sort of free agency thing. You keep me posted scheduling wise and with all of that when that makes sense to do. But we'll try to get together a panel or maybe do a live show for that, and then yeah, we're kind of TBD. Like I said, I feel pretty strongly about you know, and and Mark can do and Brandon can do

kind of what they want with the XFL stuff. I feel pretty weird doing a lot of like trying to get clicks and views for stuff when it's like people's jobs on the line. So I kind of came to it kind of a conscious of crisis about that a couple of weeks ago. So we'll roll through anything else. CFL will come out. I know Zach was asking about like when's the next you know, we'll see when news breaks, you know

where to come, stay subscribed. We'll get everything on there. But I appreciate Jason getting all this and Evan with his knowledge of all the necklace and everything else. We'll get out of here and we'll see everyone next time, next