Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Welcome to another episode of the Game Sports podcast. David McCaig, host of the game powered by 91 Network. On this episode, we're going to get into our in the pocket segment. Yes, in the pocket is back season eight football season with myself, EJ and Justin giving you all the news and updates leading to this upcoming football season. And in segment two, it'll be yours truly talking about all updates on the ice and as well all updates around the diamond. Let's go.
Booyah. It's time for the game sports podcast. It is your host, David McCaig junior. And I am starting right off the hop for this episode of the game with, of course, season eight. Yes, you heard that correct. Season eight of in the pocket segment here on the game. And let's introduce the main co host for the in the pocket segment going to the one and the only EJ Russell on the other side of the border. How's it going, my friend?
[00:01:00] Speaker B: Good. I am happy to be back. It's been a long off season, Dave. I'd say you've never looked better, but that jersey looks like shit.
Hi, good to see you. Glad to be back talking to NFL football. This is going to be a heck of a year.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Heck of a year. And honestly, last year was a big, big season full of excitement. I think in the pocket gets better every year. Could be biased, but that's okay. We have fun here on in the pocket. And of course, going to the individual that I like to remind this, on every first episode, you can go back to. Or for all the episodes I've done, of the first episodes. Well, of the upcoming season, I met this individual at a place of work together. I don't want to name the place, just in case of private information. And we were starting.
[00:01:49] Speaker B: It's been.
[00:01:50] Speaker C: It's been like eight years.
[00:01:52] Speaker A: It has been. It was at the casino here in Sault Ste. Marie is where we were working. Okay, so Justin and I worked together and we were starting to talk sports. And we were talking about another sport other than football. Not starting the season off with EJ, where he thinks I'm going. But we started to talk a different sport. And then it led to where he learned that this was a show that I did with, of course, the late Scott Mason, where I have started the show with and amongst other personalities that we have on the show. And eventually Justin, when we expanded to Saint Marie, Ontario, started the show here in Sioux, Ontario with yours truly when we were doing recording phone on top of a cup, if you know, you know, that was in 2016. And that is where Justin, a part of the original crew of the game, joined on to talk. Hockey and football and baseball were our three core. But of course, Justin started with, of course, the first episode of in the pocket since day one. The one and only Justin. Heiko, my friend. How's it going?
[00:02:55] Speaker C: Good. That was quite the intro. I mean, I rudely interrupted you to just tell you that it doesn't. We can just talk about the casino now. I don't think there's like a statue of limitations on that.
[00:03:04] Speaker A: It's been a long time since we've been there. Long time.
[00:03:07] Speaker C: Yeah, that was good time. So good times. Good to be back. Honestly. Awesome to have football back.
Kind of crazy that we're going into like a Thursday Friday, college Saturday, NFL Sunday, Monday Night Football. Like, it's a pretty sweet weekend, ladies. Probably find something to do.
[00:03:26] Speaker A: Now. I can't forget, though, EJ's story when it comes to joining the game. And we've said a million times on here, so we won't have to get into it. If you know, you know, if you don't know, let us know in the comments below and we'll share the story. The story is epic. It's great. We'll save it for another time. But I'll have to say, despite Justin being an OG, EJ is just as much as of an OG. Obviously, when he's. When you started on the show with us over in the Sioux Michigan sides, when we were on live radio.
Yeah, exactly. We did live radio in Sioux Michigan. And now we expanded to doing pre recording to Ontario, which is what we continue today. But EJ show, I can't just beginning on this show. Sorry. I definitely can't discredit. So, you know, just because I wanted to do an intro with Justin, EJ has got quite the background when it comes to the show too. It doesn't involve working with me at the casino, but it's a hell of a funny way that involves a couple beers and yelling over the live microphones.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: If you would have gotten your statistics correct, I wouldn't have had to correct you.
[00:04:23] Speaker C: That's all.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: I'm glad that it wasn't correct. But there's still nothing better than the live radio question that Butch gave Justin. There has never been someone's more blank face than I've ever seen on live radio. This isn't pre record question where you can say, oh, that's. I said at that nonsense out. Okay. It's like, what do you know about this? And Justin, the look, Justin Space. I will never forget.
[00:04:50] Speaker C: I almost wish it was on camera so we could like replay my face over and over and over again because it's like I, I forget the quiet, but it was something about like the management of the Cleveland Cavaliers and what they have to do to get the locker stuff.
[00:05:07] Speaker A: They got a basketball star just tonight.
[00:05:10] Speaker C: They should probably figure it out. Get the team together, get the boys going. What do you. I don't even have any like catchphrases to throw this together here.
[00:05:19] Speaker A: So that's funny. If you know Butch Davis, he's a OG member on this show as obviously we don't get to talk to him as much, but a lot of OGS member here on the game sports podcast, all that have all been involved with the show, but in particular in the pocket of season eight. In the pocket, fellas. And we're going to kick it off. Okay. And it's going to be like our usual opening shows. We go around the horn on everything. You know, the off season obviously happened, the draft, we had some news throughout our summer shows where I provided updates on that. But nonetheless, we're just going to go around the horn. We're also going to get in some predictions. We're going to have a little bit of fun, as I talked about in the opening introduction. So without going too far down a rabbit hole of talking, but the fun stuff, we're going to kick it off and talk in the pocket. Season 8 September 4, 2024 it starts here. And as I get up during live recording, I got something to show. Speaking of in the pocket, this right here, I think we got it. I think this is it. The pick.
Back to back to back. Back. There we go.
[00:06:22] Speaker C: Back to back.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: The funny thing is I asked for a football one and it's a baseball one. That is even more funny.
[00:06:29] Speaker B: It's so jacked up perfect for us.
[00:06:31] Speaker C: We'll have to see more perfect.
[00:06:35] Speaker B: I mean, I requested a WWE style wrestling belt that could, you know, travel, but it knows no need to travel because the king is here.
[00:06:42] Speaker C: But we're all put, we can put a trophy right there. There.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: The trophies right up.
[00:06:46] Speaker B: I think you can duct tape that onto a belt.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Yeah, I think we need to get a belt. But then when I saw the prices of belt, it wasn't in the game. Sports.
[00:06:55] Speaker B: Oh, sorry. It's not in the budget, mister.
[00:07:00] Speaker C: Well, not really a side note, but kind of note on the belt topic, how genius is it on the WWE's part to start marketing those college branded belts?
You know what I mean? It's like pro football fans are like, in pro sports, fans are kind of bitter. Like, I'm not, I'm not buying an Indianapolis belt right now, but, like, college kid, you know what I mean? You want to be the guy, right? Game day out there, you want that. But I like EJ. You buy an Ohio state belt, you tell. You know what I mean?
[00:07:30] Speaker B: Just send me the link, I'll order it.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: I would love to buy an Oregon duck 100%.
[00:07:37] Speaker C: You don't ever hate your college team to the point where you won't, like, fuck them. I won't buy that belt.
It's the most genius marketing thing I've ever seen. I mean, not really on topic, but.
[00:07:49] Speaker A: And except football, it's on topic.
It's good. It's good. But that is the pick them. The pick them. I can never get the mic. It doesn't matter. There it is. It's. That's there. It's funny. It's great that EJ, for some reason.
[00:08:04] Speaker B: It'S in the background of your photo and it should be up on that shelf right over there.
[00:08:08] Speaker C: Yeah, but he just, like, camera magic later and, like, cut and pasted and put it in the background in yours.
[00:08:13] Speaker B: We'll do a little cut and right here.
[00:08:17] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:08:17] Speaker B: Oh, man.
[00:08:18] Speaker C: Oh.
[00:08:21] Speaker A: All right, guys. All right. So this last season, we had quite the storybook year, especially when it came to the media. As obviously fair to say, the Taylor Swift Travis Kelsey News is what invaded football last year a lot. But the storylines were fantastic, and I thought it was a great season. And what's another great topic to go into this year? The Detroit Lions. Attendance in the preseason is already hot. The buy in to Detroit is hot. There was movement throughout the offseason that had a little bit of drama in it. And it does include the Pittsburgh Steelers. It does include Diggs going from Buffalo to the Texans and saying how he was at the lowest point of his career last year until now, joining the Texans. One of those spiels, right? It's been, it was quite the interesting offseason, especially when it came to the Falcons. Did some good buying, I would say. I feel like they made some good moves around. Just speaking of one team that comes to mind, the Cleveland Browns did some restructuring on Watson's contract. A little bit of cap space room, the highest in the NFL right now, if I still dated correctly, that they still have. So a little bit of spending, spending room for the Cleveland Browns, which is pretty interesting. You know, I'm excited about another season for Indianapolis. If they get a healthy one with Anthony with Richardson, I think that would be epic. I don't want to jinx it. We're going to talk about a lot on here. But there's so many storylines that were last year, that injury with Richardson. Or you can look at, you know, that the Chiefs winning again, the Lions almost making the Super bowl, and they arguably should have been there if they wouldn't have blown that game at the end. And who in overtime does what the Niners did against the Chiefs last year? Right. All those storylines lean into this year to a lot of excitement. Okay. And this year, EJ, I'm going to go to you first. What are some highlights leading into this year that are really getting you amped and getting you excited for this upcoming football season?
[00:10:13] Speaker B: I think for me, you know, obviously being a Browns fan, you know, there's always next year. Well, guess what? It's next year. It's time to put up or shut up. We paid Deshaun Watson way too much money to quarterback a team that he's barely been able to quarterback. Get your head out of your ass. Says he feels confident, arm feels good. We're going to see what happens and hopefully the Cleveland Browns offensive line can continue to protect that running game as we're going to start off the season with Jerome Ford and Pierce Strong junior. Hopefully Nick Chubb comes back off the physically unable to perform list quicker than many people may think. The good news here for Browns fans is that when Nick Chubb does come back, he's going to have four or five games of rest under his belt. So it's going to allow him to play a little bit tougher, a little bit stronger in that back half of the year? If you're going to ask me, hey, EJ, would you rather have Nick Chubb for the beginning of the year, the back half of the year? Give me the back half all day when everyone else is tired and beat up. The way that he runs the football, he's like a bowling ball. He's going to smash into dudes. He's going to outrun you. And he doesn't do so with us without even putting a smile on his face or saying a word. Nick Chubb coming back for the Browns is the biggest story there. Obviously. They added Jerry Judy in the off season and Reese and signed him to a nice three year deal.
I feel like a lot of Crimson Tide guys got some deals in the off season and that's one of the, you know, big stories as well. I think there are ten different Alabama Crimson Tide players that inked new deals this offseason, including guys like Trayvon Diggs, tuatunga, violo, those type of players. So the story for me in this offseason, you know, how are the Bears gonna look? They added Keenan Allen. They have more. You know, they drafted Caleb Williams with the number on overall pick. And I'm sure like you guys, we all watched HBO hard knocks, as we often do on this show, and I think that they look good. I never realized that the Chicago Bears had never had a 4000 yard passer in their career. So there's something to look forward to. You know, as far as the Bears are concerned, though, I don't want to hear anything about it until they can beat the Green Bay packers. The Green Bay packers have had their number forever. That division right now goes through Detroit. But the Green Bay packers are another one of those teams that with the way that they performed last year and Jordan love exceeding expectations, they could make a run at perhaps a wild card berth in the NFC. DeMar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills is expected to start this weekend. First game that he will play in since his cardiac arrest on the field against the Cincinnati Bengals two seasons ago.
So this is going to be an exciting football season. You have some big games on the docket to start off. I mean, you have Ravens and Chiefs, that could be an AFC championship game preview, packers and Eagles, that could be a playoff preview. Cowboys and Browns, potentially a Super bowl preview, if you will. But the big matchup for me again, you got Jared Goff and the Detroit Lions going up against Matt Stafford and the Los Angeles Rams. So a lot of fun happening week one. It should be a great way to kick off the season.
[00:13:16] Speaker A: You know, EJ, I think you brought up very good points just about the Bears. I know Keene Allen really referred to Williams as being like a Hebert, some of Justin Ebert who they figured as a comparison, which I think, you know, I hear, you hear a lot of comparisons going into an NFL season, but a former number one pick about what they're going to be. And I think that's a very, actually one of the more realistic that I've heard. But again, it still remains to be seen.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Well, I don't, I don't want to quite put them in that Justin Herbert category because in that, what was it, the second or third preseason game? Because they had four, mind you, they played in the Pro Bowl hall of Fame game. Thank you. I can't remember who it was. Was it the Bengals they were playing against where it looked like Caleb Williams was going to get absolutely smacked. And he just does this little spin around, comes out the other side of the pocket, throws a dart, gets a touch or runs it in for a touchdown. Excuse me. He's showing a lot of creativity with his legs that maybe we didn't see so much at his time at USC or at Oklahoma.
This could be a very exciting year for Chicago Bears fans.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: Good. Very good points, Justin.
[00:14:23] Speaker C: Like the one thing just to touch on the Bears a little bit that stood out for me. And watching the Bears in preseason and watching the Bears of, I mean, old and I mean, this is tricky to be in watching preseason because guys are fighting for jobs.
But it looked like the offensive line kind of had like there was chemistry they wanted to block. There was like violence going on downfield. You know, it wasn't just guys going through the motions. And it's, it's nice to see stuff like that when you're trying to, when you're a team that's trying to change your culture, you're trying to build a locker room. Like if the guys are willing to block for the quarterback, he's probably not a dick. Like things, you know, like it's just, it's good to see. I mean, this is the time of year we're fresh off the draft, all of us. We watched the draft. That was kind of like the last taste of football we had for a bit. Then we got the preseason and now we know how the team shook out. And so there's guys that everyone's kind of got on their list. They want to see how they shake out this season. Like quarterback Daniels. There was Washington, another big one that's going to shake out. Like that's going to be fun to watch.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: What about Anthony Richardson for the Colts?
[00:15:33] Speaker C: Well, that's it. Have Richardson back healthy with the full Jonathan Taylor in it when it ready to play.
[00:15:41] Speaker A: Very good.
[00:15:42] Speaker C: Arizona Marvin Harrison junior with Kyler Murray. Like how's that going to go? That's going to be fun to watch.
[00:15:50] Speaker B: I'm not big on Kyler Murray, though.
[00:15:52] Speaker A: Yeah, well, he showed spurts of last year where he could be that elite, right? Yeah.
[00:15:59] Speaker B: Here's the thing, he doesn't go back and watch that in game. Hard knocks in season, hard knocks with the Arizona Cardinals. His even take his own notes. I think he needs to get his head more into the game before the Cardinals are going to see a ton of success. Success. Yeah. You can throw the ball up to Marvin Harrison junior. He's going to catch it because he's God's gift to receiving. Thank you. To wide receiver university, the Ohio State University. Thank you very much. Kyler Murray, I don't think is the guy.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: That's a hot take.
[00:16:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I want, I just want to be entertained. And I also took Marvin Harrison junior and a couple of my fantasy pools. So I'm really, really banking on him being good.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: So you know what I'll say? What I'll say this year that makes me, I feel that football does it right in the offseason, in the season. And I'm not, like, I'm not slipping. There's no comparison. But I feel like when the season's done right, you have the Super bowl. There's, there's, there's the next. The offseason and the draft. I feel like we had the right amount of waiting time between the last football game and really the last hot take in football, the draft to the season starting right. Where I think other sports are so cramped. Other sports are like, you feel like it just finished and it's already going to resume in a month. And I'm talking about a couple sports, one in particular. But there's a couple of them. I feel like football does it very right. Very right. Great English does it very well in terms of the way that they line up the year and take care of their players with rest. Maybe that's just a separate hot take. Maybe I'm just reading.
[00:17:33] Speaker C: NFL is a machine, though. Like the NFL, it's literally a license to print money. These other leagues have to have x amount of games to turn a profit every year. I mean, not every team, but for the league to be a net positive, they have to have that many games. Like, b, I'm not a big baseball guy, and maybe it's just because the Jays are the team that I have chosen to associate myself with. But, like, when you have to play 647 games a year, who the fuck cares? Like, really, who cares?
What's the White Sox? They had eight people at their game earlier this week. Like, come on, fuck. Like, just stop it. Make it go away.
[00:18:14] Speaker A: That's too. That's my point. Right? You can look at other sports, that's one thing. But to speak on teams, this won't be a hot take. But I'm curious about the jets this year a little bit, because we didn't get to see the taste of Aaron Rodgers. Now, you could be an Aaron Rodgers hater. Aaron Rodgers like or believer, whatever you want to be. But I think a year, I would like. I think it's good for the game of football, for Aaron Rodgers to be in there for this entire season just to make the jets not really be a laughing stock in any which way. They have a good team around them and it's in a division that can make it very exciting between the bills, the dolphins and the jets. I'm sorry, I'm not including the Patriots. And that it's, it could be a very good and interesting year if Rogers can be healthy. Right. And also the dolphins, if they can maintain health, it would be great for the, for the AFC. So that's kind of like an underdog division. It's that I'm watching this year.
[00:19:10] Speaker C: Quiet on the jets front, too. Honestly, as far as the news cycle goes, like, usually there's a lot of even like, hey, we got a shit on Aaron Rogers this week. We haven't done it yet. And like, there hasn't been much of that lately. Like it's just, it's been quiet and maybe that's a good quiet or maybe that's a, a bad quiet. I don't know.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: I wonder if some of the quiet is negative in my eyes because I've seen videos out of jets camp where him and his receivers are not looking like they're getting along very well. So I don't know if the silence is intentional or not, but it's all on the line for the jets this year.
[00:19:45] Speaker C: Yeah. And I looked at, yeah, everybody, everybody's, I mean, honestly, both New York teams, like, that's, it's too big of a market to have those two teams trying to figure it out. It's like two guys playing with a greased up football. Like, it just neither of them can get it and figure it out.
[00:20:05] Speaker A: And I look at each division, I see that each division has a good spread this year. I talked about the AFC each being a three team race. In my opinion. If health can maintain the AFC west, you got to, obviously, you know, think you got to give a favorite there to give our, give our favorites. But there's a lot of divisions this year out of, you know, out of the divisions, all of them will have a good competition internally. There's at least another team that's going to give that top team a good set of games throughout the year to make it interesting or make it interesting by the end of the season. I'm not going to pinpoint every team because that would be a waste of time to talk about, but I, I feel like this is a pretty good, balanced year to a degree. But I also think the favorites to win the Super bowl are that elite talent that they are above those other teams that are not favorites there. You can see the separation. But I think each division, there's going to be surprises this year. There always is. But there's going to be, I think, a good battle in each division. Unless your team name is the Carolina Panthers, perhaps the New England Patriots.
[00:21:13] Speaker C: I don't think the Patriots are going to be, I don't think they're.
I don't think they're gonna be great. I'm not saying the Patriots are gonna be a great team, but I think with the coaching change in the new regime there, I think those guys are gonna be in a lot of games. I don't make it interesting. I don't think they're gonna win a shit done. But I think they're not. I don't think it's gonna be like the Patriots getting blown out by 40 points all the time.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: So do you think over under four wins this year?
[00:21:37] Speaker C: Over? I don't want to give them like, I'm not saying, like, okay, I'm not saying they're gonna win seven games, but but definitely over four.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: Like, it's it's hard to lose every game in this league and there's only two teams that have ever done it and I don't like either either season of the Owen 16. But it's real hard to lose them all. You in this league, there's so much parity because the worst player on every NFL team, still one of the best players on his college team. These guys are fighting for their jobs every single week. You know, even the guys coming off the bench. And any given week in the NFL, anybody can be beaten. There's a reason the Patriots went 18 and one and not 19 and o very good point.
[00:22:23] Speaker A: See, fellas, I lot of storylines going into this year and I think this is going to be another very exciting year. But if you talk about a team that kind of maybe failed to meet expectations last year, the Philadelphia Eagles, now they lost to Baker, right? Yep. Got that right. Had to make sure I got that right. That's not a game that I was predicting to go that way. And that's what last year filled a lot of those surprises. But there's teams that got to be coming into the season with a little bit more hunger and that's the Eagles have to be one of those teams. I wonder if the Browns are one of those teams as well. I'm going to have to predict that the Bears but not in that I lost and should have won type way. Just being that quick turnaround and culture change that. They want to prove people wrong and show they're going in the right direction. And I think it's almost fair to say another team with the biggest hunger this year is the Cowboys. I feel like they've been wanting to prove people that they're not the choke artists of the NFL every year, but they have been right. They haven't been able to take that step. Right. And this year, I feel like they're going with a little bit more hunger to try to change that more than any team.
[00:23:32] Speaker C: I think Jerry Jones is one of the best showmena on the planet, honestly. Like, I think if this was like a hundred years ago, he'd be the guy going around with the circus, traveling around and people be buying fucking everything. He'd have hair.
[00:23:47] Speaker B: That's called the Dallas Cowboys.
[00:23:48] Speaker C: Yeah, like, that's. But it's. All he does is sell you a dream. It's like it's a. I don't, I don't know how, like, I don't know how to fray, really phrase it, Craig, but he's, you know, the Dallas, we're gonna be the best. We're gonna be the best fucking team on the player. We're gonna call you. We're gonna score a thousand fucking points. But guess what? Someone's gonna score a 1001, beat us every fucking time. Like, it's. And as long as Jerry gets that stadium full, he's happy. The NFL is happy. As long as the Cowboys are on every fucking week in primetime somewhere, Jerry's happy. Like, it's. Jerry's winning. Or like, he's not. If the Cowboys don't need to win the Super bowl for the Cowboys to win, as long as the Cowboys are in your face all the time, the Cowboys are winning.
Like, I just, I'm convinced they're not a team that's meant to win. They're literally like the Washington generals against the Harlem Globetrotters.
[00:24:41] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Some hot takes there. Hot takes.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: I hate the cowboys.
[00:24:47] Speaker A: I see that. I see that.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: I ride with you on that.
[00:24:49] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: You know, the, ultimately, when I look at a team, too, coming off a Super bowl loss the way they did the Niners, I'm looking at purdy, I'm looking at the drama with a UK, right. Or iuke, sorry. Whatever. Sorry, correct me, cancel me count, comment below. Whatever. But that offense is so wild. That defense is also great. If I'm speaking of teams that are hungry, they got to be on that.
[00:25:16] Speaker C: How about buddy getting fucking shot?
[00:25:20] Speaker A: And, and I actually forgot about mentioning.
[00:25:24] Speaker C: I just I finally, I heard about it and then I, like, read the story today. Like, the bullet went right fucking through him.
And, like, and, like, I don't even.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: Know the full details. I read it right into it.
[00:25:35] Speaker C: But I, John Lynch, I guess went to the hospital and saw him and he's like, oh, you guys, like, still, like, there's team party tonight. You guys, you know, go have your party. And they had him like, up on the screen at the party at one point. I guess that's bad. What a fucking story, man. Like, if he comes back and plays this season, like, he's going to. They said he was at the team facility working out.
So bullet goes, like, through you. Like, I'm sure he's not as thick as I am. You know, he's lean and a wide receiver. But, like, that's still, like, that's a pretty big hole. No?
[00:26:10] Speaker A: And to get out of the hospital, want to work out and keep going. That is, that would be. Come back. That is, that's a great story.
[00:26:16] Speaker C: And who the fuck decided like, this guy's six five and probably in pretty good shape. Why would you just, I'm gonna rob him.
Why is there not someone easier to rob?
[00:26:27] Speaker B: Because criminals make good. Because criminals are making good choices.
[00:26:30] Speaker A: Yeah, the smart choices. All right. So what I wanted to do is obviously we got some predictions to get into and I want to get into that because there's a variety that I'd like to dive into for multiple reasons. One, because we get to play these back, and two, we get to play these as clips. And I like to get fan interaction. So if you got directed to the channel because of these clips, well, here's where the portion of the show where we're going to get into some questions and predictions. And let me remind you, listeners, because he's going to love to hear this. The prediction champion is at the middle of my screen. I don't know what it is for your screen, but it's EJ Russell. So I got to give him credit as he has been the prediction champ. So if you're going to lean on some predictions, maybe I can say fairly that, you know, it's him. I've even lost a wing bet to him, but I gladly ate those five wings. I remember there were so no ten wings, y'all.
[00:27:27] Speaker B: The video he passed, he did his job. He did what he's supposed to.
[00:27:30] Speaker A: Where else do you want to get those wings? Sportscenter bar and Grill in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Make sure I get that plug. There it is. Didn't forget that plug if you know, or if you know, you know. But fellas, predictions around the horn. I'm going to go to you first, EJ, for predictions. I want you.
I love this part of the show. I don't know why the AFC division champions for each division go, so I'm going division.
[00:27:58] Speaker B: So east, north, south going for each conference. Each division in the conference. I can do that.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:28:03] Speaker B: Okay. So AFC East. I think that everything still runs through Miami right now. I think that that team is loaded to the teeth with talented. They're a team that can run the ball, they can throw the ball, they can execute both on the offensive and decent defensive side of the ball. I think they're my favorites to come out of the AFC east. If not, then obviously I'll go with Buffalo. However, they have some inconsistent talent issues this year. As far as the AFC north goes, I gotta tell you, I think it still runs through Baltimore. I think Cleveland is going to give them, you know, a heck of an effort with, you know, what was the best defense in the league last year. However, Baltimore, as talented as they are, they added Derek Henry in the off season and he's a lot to handle. So I still think it runs through Baltimore. But if you're going to make me pick, I'm going to go with the Browns because the Browns is the Browns.
AFC South. I that's a tough one. I think it's a toss up between Houston and India. I think Anthony Richardson comes in in his second year, you know, healthy and makes a big difference on that team that, you know, with him and Jonathan Taylor, they could be a lot for you to handle, a lot of different looks that they could throw at you. I do believe, though, that CJ shroud is the exception to what I've always said, which was don't draft an Ohio state quarterback. He looks to be the real deal. Look for him to possibly regress a little bit in season two as many sophomore quarterbacks do. That's part of why I'm excited to see what Anthony Richardson is going to do. This really will be his true full rookie campaign if he can get the full regular season in, and I don't think that the league's ready for what is possible that he can do. So I'll take. I'll go Houston out of the AFC south with Indy creeping right behind. As far as the AFC west goes, division runs through Kansas City. They've won, what, seven out of the last eight AFC west titles. I think that that trend continues and I will say this I don't remember the stat line that I saw, but when Taylor Swift attends Travis Kelsey's games, I think he gets about 38 more yards per game. Just threw that in there for you, Justin Heikel. So that's what I'll go with. For my division picks, I'll go AFC North Cleveland, AFC East Miami, NFC South Houston, and AFC West Kansas City.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Predictions from EJ hot takes going over to the NFC. It's unfortunate because I gave EJ the division with his team, and obviously Justin's team is in the same league, so he's not going to be able to pick his team. But Justin, I'm going to make the NFC run through.
[00:30:43] Speaker C: You go, well, we could do that. I'm fine with that. NFC north, I think is, it's a Detroit. I mean, I'm all in on the Lions.
It's kind of crazy. Like five years ago, the Lions were the cheap seats, and now you look at Lions tickets and it's like, all right, never mind. Not, not that into Lions game.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: It's like they signed Caitlin Clark.
[00:31:06] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:31:07] Speaker C: But I think the packers are a close second, to be completely honest. I think that's going to be a little tighter than people think.
NFC South.
I think it's good. I'm gonna say Tampa. I'm just, my gut says Tampa, but I think that division is gonna be tight this year. The Saints defense is always good. Atlanta's added a lot of stuff, so it's gonna be interesting. But I think Tampa, Tampa is the team there.
NFC East Cowboys. So the Eagles, zero educated guessing on that. I'm just the Eagles because it's not gonna be the Giants. Daniel Jones face is way too, like, his eyes. Anyone see, like, those pictures of his eyes? It's weird, something going on there and letting Saquon go and then Saquon going to Philly. Like that's, there's gonna be some couple good primetime games there.
And then the NFC west, I, it's the 49 ers. I mean, how else do you, how do you pick against the 49 ers? I mean, Matt Stafford regressing, I think another year with the Rams.
Not all in on the Cardinals after EJ, you know, let Kyler Murray have it there in Seattle, I just. Geno Smith? No, thanks. So the 49 ers, that's where I'm going there. Those are my early season picks.
[00:32:29] Speaker A: So in the east, you got the Eagles. The west, you got the Niners. The north, you got the Lions. South you got the Bucks. That's a pretty good takes. I like all those takes. I actually don't disagree. One that I may disagree with is EJ with the AFC north nine. I don't think it's going to be the team that's on my crest on or right here.
[00:32:50] Speaker B: I know your quarterback is.
[00:32:52] Speaker A: I have a feeling for some reason this year, and people may not think this is a good take. Steel country, the Bengals. I got the Bengals in the FC north. I think that might have been my only change this year. I could be a crack. I just feel with Joel back coming off the year before, being in the, you know, getting all the way the land, it's, I kind of feel like he has a little, speaking of hunger, that's the guy this year with a little bit of comeback.
[00:33:16] Speaker C: Cleveland's defense has been too good the last couple years, and, like, they just get better. Like, the defense is just at the point where, like, all right, the offense can, we're just going to figure this out. And I think this is one of the years where the offense can, like, if Deshaun Watson's healthy and he get like, houston, even like 70% to 80% Houston, Deshaun Watson, like, head in the game, like, there's enough talent on that team.
Just put a couple points up to defense, will figure the rest out. Like, it'd be good division to watch.
[00:33:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:48] Speaker C: Everything's gonna be, that's great. It's football. That's what that division is. It's football.
[00:33:52] Speaker B: Well, and what I love about that division, too, is, you know, everyone has a reason to hate each other. You know, Cleveland and Cincinnati both. Paul Brown founded teams. Baltimore, fuck you, Pittsburgh, never gonna root for them in my life.
That is going to be the division where it's been like this a lot of my life, where, you know, go back to the Carson Paul Palmer Bengals. Right. You had the Ravens, the Bengals and the Steelers, almost all three of them, making playoff spots every single year. And that's a division where it's possible three teams could come out of there, make a playoff spot. And if that's the case, I think it'll be Baltimore, Cleveland, and Cincinnati. I don't see Pittsburgh making their way to the playoffs, however.
Mike Tomlin's never had a losing season as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers. So you can never, can't count them out. It's, it's going to be one of those years. I think, as a Browns fan, I'm wishing for the best, but I'm just getting my teeth kicked in like I do every single year. And something's going to happen.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: And, you know, no, the, the thing. The thing is that I really define what this year. You guys talked about it in point is football. We have the year full of. It's, could be, can go in any direction.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: Endless possibilities.
[00:35:08] Speaker A: Endless possibilities.
[00:35:09] Speaker C: Just chaos. That's all I want is just a little bit of chaos. Chaos.
[00:35:13] Speaker A: I like that. Now, Super bowl favorite. We do this every year. Who, if you had to pick today, who is winning the Super bowl? And when? February. When. When it rolls around 2025. In the next handful of months, who do you have winning the Super bowl? So I'll go first. Hot take is happening this year. It is the Detroit Lions. This year the Lions are getting it done.
[00:35:42] Speaker C: Motherfucker. Stealing my answer. You looked at my notes.
[00:35:46] Speaker A: Heiken go next.
[00:35:48] Speaker C: No, it's. I took the Lions. I'm all in on Dan Campbell this year.
Let's.
[00:35:55] Speaker A: EJ.
[00:35:58] Speaker B: Well, I don't know if you've seen the new Applebee's commercial, but Dan Campbell apparently has a second job as a server at Applebee's. If you've seen the commercial, you'll get it. But Super bowl prediction for this year.
[00:36:10] Speaker C: EJ, don't give away your order. Cover your mouth.
[00:36:16] Speaker B: Oh, man. This is tough because I'm between three teams and I'm not gonna go bandwagon with the Lions on this just because it's so hard to win a Lombardi trophy. And it's hard for a team like that to live up to the expectations to which they're being asked to fulfill. Ah, shoot. I'm gonna go with.
I'm gonna go with the Niners. I think they've been knocking at the door for a long time. I think on paper, they have one of the best rosters offensively, top to bottom. Give me the Niners. I think they finally break through.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Finally break through. Next point.
[00:36:55] Speaker C: Next questioners can now use many men to come out as well. So that's hard as fuck.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: So can Donald Trump.
[00:37:03] Speaker A: Yikes. Yeah, yikes. MVP favorite. Hike. And putting you on the. For the MVP favorite this year.
[00:37:14] Speaker C: Honestly, right now, I'm.
My gut tells me that it's probably Patrick Mahomes. That's what I'm gonna say.
If what happens? If what's gonna happen is what I think how everything season goes. He doesn't have any wide receivers and they win.
It's him and Travis, Kelsey, and some of the fellas. Like, I don't, he always has a group of guys, they just put it together and they do it. So, yeah, EJ.
[00:37:48] Speaker B: This is this is tricky because I think if the team lives up to the expectations, how is Jared Goff not part of that conversation?
I'll say Jared Goff is my front runner just due to the high expectations that the Lions fulfill those expectations and I think that he has to have that type of a year.
Dark horse candidate. I'll give you Amon Ross St. Brown because I think he is one of the best wide receivers in the National Football League and they're definitely going to need him to perform in order for them to make it as far as they want to go. So I'll put him as my dark horse candidate for MVP.
We'll go Jared Goff as the favorite for now.
[00:38:32] Speaker A: Like it. Like it. I've also torn between multiple players and like Justin said, very hard to choose against Patrick Mahomes, so he's always going to be in there for me. But, you know, I was also leaning towards Joe Burrow this year. Coming back hot, but I think that's a little bit of a stretch, so I'm going to go with maybe a different direction even though it's a high octane offense. Brock Purdy, I think this might be Brock's here.
[00:38:59] Speaker B: That was one of my picks.
[00:39:01] Speaker A: I think Brock is going to be. The guy has a great offense. Like McCaffrey could be mentioned in there. There's, there's people that could be, but I think Brock is going to utilize those weapons and I think it's going to lead them to a very successful spot this year. But as I predicted, the Lions to win. I think the Lions are going to have revenge this year against them. So I don't think the Niners get to the promised land and hope I would definitely on the Lions bandwagon this year, but Purdy's got to be. I think it's going to be a huge year for him and I'm going.
[00:39:30] Speaker B: To throw this name in the hat as well. CJ Shroud, I think if he has the type of year many people think he can have, he's certainly going to be on the short list for MVP.
[00:39:42] Speaker A: Could. Like, do you think there is a chance that one of Lamar Jackson or two could be in that, too? If the dolphins kind of exceed expectations or if the Baltimore Ravens just come out as absolute weapons? That may be, I mean, in there, too.
[00:40:00] Speaker B: Lamar's won the title before. He's an absolutely a candidate anytime he steps on the field to. I don't think so much because if he's playing well, that means Tyreek Hills playing well and I think Tyreek Hill is. It gets more attention than he would. Yeah.
[00:40:14] Speaker A: Good points, fellas. I like those predictions. A lot of clip opportunities. And throughout the year, I'm going to start introducing blind raking to the in the pocket segment, which is going to get EJ going, I think. Do you know what the blind ranking is, EJ? You sure do. You must know what that is.
[00:40:29] Speaker B: Well, share it with the listeners who may not know.
[00:40:32] Speaker A: Okay, so blind ranking is where I give you a, give you five names. And the topic can be whatever. But I'll give you a topic for an example. Let's say most talented quarterbacks, active NFL quarterbacks. And I'm going to say first name will be Josh Allen. Let's say. So EJ would say, okay, I'm going to put Josh Allen at three because you don't know what the rest is going to be. He's going to put Josh Allen at three. Then maybe my next one I go, Bo, next where you're going to put next five because he's a rookie this year. Right? Then the next one I go, Joe Burrow. Oh, shit. Okay. Yeah. So you put them at four. Sure. So you do put them at four. So then I go, perhaps where else? Brock purdy. Right. So now you're going to be thinking, is he one? Right, but now he doesn't know. Or two. Okay, so let's say he put some two. He doesn't know that. I might say Patrick Mahomes last, which means you would put Mahomes at two. But right now, EJ, in the background did good for the blind ranking because he rated everything correctly. But it won't be that easy when I do the blind ranking, that's what the blind Wilson like, you get all these players. That at the end happens, I'm gonna be so mad. And way I'm gonna do the blind ranking so I don't set somebody up, is that I'm gonna text the opposite person what I'm gonna be asking the other person. So they know what is gonna be asked. So they don't think it's just me in this game. So for you think I'm gonna read that. And so, EJ, I will send show prep.
[00:42:07] Speaker B: And I don't even read that.
[00:42:09] Speaker A: So I actually didn't for this show. So Justin, I would text Justin, say, hey, I'm gonna ask EJ these five names. And then he would know. So he knows I'm not going off script or cheating to set up EJ for fun. So we're gonna introduce that. I think that would be fun to do. But, fellas, anything else you wanna bring up in this first episode that we have 42 minutes in, twelve minutes over than what I wanted. But that's okay. We usually go longer. We're, we're getting better at the time management here on the game.
[00:42:36] Speaker B: Uh, no, we're not.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: No, no.
[00:42:41] Speaker C: That's literally our trademark is poor every.
[00:42:45] Speaker B: Hey, guys, we're gonna have 20 minutes.
[00:42:48] Speaker A: 20 minutes. It's 58 minutes goes by. Oh, fellas, sorry. 38 minutes over time. I apologize.
[00:42:54] Speaker C: Yeah, it's 1030. What happened?
[00:42:57] Speaker B: It's like a bad episode of SpongeBob Three.
[00:42:59] Speaker C: Ow.
[00:43:00] Speaker B: As lit.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: Yeah, that would be funny to do for a thing on that on the show, but anything. Final thoughts before we wrap up the first segment? First episode of in the pocket this year, EJ, I can go go browns.
[00:43:15] Speaker C: Yeah. Let's go colts. Let's get out there this weekend. Don't let me down.
[00:43:21] Speaker A: Oh, geez. I did forget one thing. What am I doing?
[00:43:25] Speaker C: Whoa.
[00:43:25] Speaker A: What am I, the pick them?
My figure.
[00:43:28] Speaker B: That's what we're going after this.
[00:43:30] Speaker A: Yeah, what the heck am I doing? Okay, we're gonna do the pick em for you listeners before we wrap up this segment. So that'll be another clip opportunity. Let's get the pick them going and then we'll make this a more quick pick them, then we'll go into.
[00:43:44] Speaker C: We were way too casual there.
[00:43:47] Speaker A: 100%. That's, that's fun. We have, we have a good time.
So, Justin, kick us off for the pick them before we go to our, to our commercial quote unquote break.
[00:43:57] Speaker C: All right, well, get ready for it, fellas. Right off the hop. I'm going to have everyone shaking their head and in shambles. Baltimore over the Chiefs tomorrow night.
Philly over Green Bay on Friday night in the battle of both teams with green jerseys in the country where they can't wear green.
Pittsburgh over Atlanta. Buffalo over Arizona. Tennessee over Chicago. Cincy over New England. Houston over Indy. I'm trying to buck the trend. Everyone, anyone that's listen, knows and understands that.
Miami over Jacksonville. Saints over Carolina. Vikings over the Giants. That was a tough one to pick.
Vegas over the Chargers. Seattle over Denver, Cleveland over the Cowboys, which I was like a toss up on that, but I hate the Cowboys. And Cleveland's defense should take care of Dak. Tampa over Washington, Lions over the Rams, and San Fran over the Jets. Monday night tiebreakers. I took 28, San Fran, Jets 21, Detroit 34, and the Rams 17.
And then most points this week, Miami, fewest points.
[00:45:09] Speaker A: Denver love it. Okay, I'm going to save EJ for last because he is a defending back to back to everything champion for the pick'em. So going from top to bottom, I'm picking the Chiefs over the Ravens. I'm going the eagles over the Packers. I am going the Steelers over the Falcons. Not just because of bias, I just got that feeling. Bills over the cardinals. I'm doing the Bears over the Titans, Bengals over the Patriots. Texans over the Colts. For the same reason as Justin. The Dolphins over the Jags. Saints over the Panthers. Who? It's going to be a long year in Carolina. Going with the Vikings over the Giants, Chargers over the Raiders, Seahawks over the Broncos. Cowboys over the Browns. In the most exciting game of the week. Buccaneers over the commanders, lions over the Rams, 49 ers over the jets. And Rogers finishes that game. The Niners 34 to 20.
The Lions 20 817 over the Rams. And I'm giving the Bengals the most points this week. Burrow coming out of the gun hot. And the least points, the Panthers think they might have ten or less points each game this, each game this week. You know, love for the Panthers here, EJ.
[00:46:23] Speaker B: You also have no loves for Rogers. He'll finish the game. Yeah, I need him to finish the season.
[00:46:31] Speaker C: All right.
[00:46:32] Speaker B: And just so I'm properly mocking Dave today, if somebody noticed, I said, the Browns is the Browns. That will be my team name this year. The Browns is the Browns.
So my predictions for week one of the NFL season, I'm going to take the Baltimore Ravens over the Kansas City Chiefs. You know, I think the Super bowl hangover is a real thing. I think the Baltimore, you know, certainly got better, especially with the addition of Derek Henry to what is an already pretty nasty offense. So give me the Ravens on the road. I take the Eagles over the Packers. Falcons over the Steelers. Bills over the Cardinals. Bears, Chicago. Caleb Williams gets his first win against the Tennessee Titans.
I think who's their quarterback? Will Levitz.
[00:47:12] Speaker C: No, no.
[00:47:13] Speaker B: Kentucky.
[00:47:14] Speaker C: Will, Levi's as. Oh, yeah. Levi's.
[00:47:17] Speaker B: Levi's. Levi's.
[00:47:18] Speaker C: Will, Levi, Will. 501.
[00:47:20] Speaker B: I forgot little five. I forgot I did that. Will, Levi's. 501. I think that they lose. Chicago Bears get the victory there. Shut up, Justin.
Cincinnati Bengals, I've got them taken down. New England. I've got the Colts victorious at home against the Houston Texas Miami Dolphins over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Saints win at home against the Panthers. Vikings. They get a road victory against the New York Giants. I like the Chargers in Jim Harbaugh's debut as their head coach. Seattle Seahawks over the Broncos. Give me the Browns over the Cowboys because fuck Dallas.
I'll take the Buccaneers over the Commanders. I think Washington has the potential to be one of the worst teams in the NFL this year. I like the Rams losing to the Detroit Lions. Lions winning their season opener at home. And then of course, the San Francisco 49. Ers victorious over the San Francisco. Excuse me, over the New York Jets. I think they'll win that game with the tiebreaker being 34 for the Niners 17. The Jets. Rams, Detroit. I got Rams 14, Lions 31. Which team will score the most points this week? I think it has to be the Baltimore Ravens in order for them to win that game. Least amount of points. The Washington commanders.
[00:48:31] Speaker A: No love for Washington or Carolina on this podcast today. A little bit. You gave him a little bit of love, Justin, earlier, but me and EJ, no. And also no love for Aaron Rodgers, like I said.
[00:48:42] Speaker B: But fellas, Washington, who's their quarterback this year? I mean, they got scary. Terry McLaurin, he's legit. They've got some decent pieces, but I don't think they got anybody that you can trust. Throw the rock.
[00:48:53] Speaker A: And I got to make sure because we had a fan texted, good friend of ours, good friend of mine. Sorry. I think Justin knows him. Ejo, you haven't had the chance to meet. His name's Andre. He is a friend of the show. He's our main computer guy for the show, actually. He's responsible for this whole setup. And his prediction was that the Detroit Lions were going to win the Super bowl this year was his prediction as well. He wanted his pick broadcasted. So we do that. So if you want your pick to be broadcast, to comment below, and we may pick yours to be picked or discussed on the show.
[00:49:25] Speaker B: All of the Lions fans are going to be so pissed for the majority of you guys taking them to win the Super bowl. Hey, I'm not going right now. Lions fans, if they don't win, Dave and hike. Fucked it up for you, not me.
[00:49:37] Speaker C: Listen, I already booked thanks American Thanksgiving off. So let's. We're gonna. That should be like catapulting the playoffs by that. All right, it's rock.
[00:49:48] Speaker A: We are back for the game sports podcast, getting back to the busy season, per se, but in the pocket is back. Just a reminder for the month of September, we are going to stick to one show a month still or no, one show a week, once or a week until the end of September. Just so you're wearing. It will be on Wednesdays when we record. So we'll be uploaded Thursdays. There may be the odd chance if it's earlier Wednesday, sure. But for consistency and for our listeners, every Thursday we'll have it going forward. It was Mondays for the summer. We'll now have Thursdays for the month of September. Before we get back to our busier, to multiple shows bi weekly as other sports get back into their season, per se. This has been the in the pocket segment, EJ. I want to say thank you very much, my friend, for the first episode. We'll be back next week.
[00:50:39] Speaker B: Happy to be here as always. This is going to be an exciting year of football. I think that, you know, hike said the word chaos. I think we are in for quite a bit of chaos this year. Any team can beat and or be beaten by anybody in this league. And it really feels that way this year. You know, asking me to make those predictions for the divisions, I think it sounded easier than it really is. I think that so many divisions this year are going to be tight. I'm excited to see that Colts, Houston, the Texans Colts race. I'm excited to see the AFC north with, I believe HBO hard knocks is covering the entire AFC north this year for the in season.
You know, the AFC east, the NFC east. There's a lot of parity and it's going to be an exciting year of football to our listeners. Go Browns. And we're excited to be back.
[00:51:29] Speaker A: So excited. And don't worry, you get to say see ya when we go to break, even though it's not the end of the show.
[00:51:33] Speaker C: I'll give you that.
[00:51:34] Speaker B: Goddamn right I do.
[00:51:36] Speaker A: Justin Heikel, thank you as always, great to have you back. I know you'll be jumping on the other, well, you're on all over different segments with us here on the game. But we're back to the busy year. And when I know when you're sitting in that chair with that amazing background that you have, that football season is back, my friend. And I think it's going to be a great season and we'll have to watch more games together. Kagame is open. I know you don't know what that is. I think you might have an idea. But my bar is called Kgami. Long story. We're not gonna get into it right now, but the bar is open. Your garage, I know is open.
[00:52:10] Speaker C: And those are the garages. So.
[00:52:12] Speaker A: So we're gonna have to watch some games this year, EJ, when you come up to the sue or have to figure something out too, but hike, it's good to have you back. And thanks for taking the time tonight.
[00:52:20] Speaker C: It's a beauty to be back. I mean, this is fun. This is good stuff. I mean, sit here, we talk football with the boys.
Honestly, there's nothing better. Just happy to be here and let's get into it this year. It's going to be a good one.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: I'll drink to that.
[00:52:37] Speaker A: Good season in here, as I don't have a drink to grab. We'll have an invisible. Cheers.
[00:52:42] Speaker C: I got a Pepsi.
[00:52:44] Speaker A: Oh, there you go. I don't have my usual drink for an upload. I just realized that. But again, fellas, thank you very much for the time. And we're going to take a brief break. This is commercial free, as I mentioned, but there's going to be a little pause in the action so I can have a quick breath. Okay. Before we get into the final segment, which will be yours truly here on the game. So thank you to EJ. Thank you to Justin. We'll be right back momentarily.
Welcome back to the game sports podcast. Dave McKay continuing to host you this evening. And I want to say thank you again to Justin Heikel and to EJ Russell for joining me on the first episode of the in the pocket segment in the 8th season of in the pocket. Whoof. How excited is it that football is back? And again, thank you to Justin, EJ, for joining yours truly, as they always do with getting us ready for the football season. And I'm also very excited about being able to have more interactions via our social media clips and overall interaction with her in the pocket segment. Please don't hesitate to comment, but as well like follow and subscribe on the game, but as well as 91 network here in the second segment, as you would have known and heard at the very introduction of the show before the entrance music of the show. We're going to get into kind of going to different topics here more so obviously towards hockey and baseball. And I am going to start with the world of hockey.
And obviously, when it comes to the world of hockey, we have had, you know, unfortunate news in the past week. It's definitely has shook the entire hockey world. Despite if you know, Johnny and Matthew Goodrow or if you don't, overall, just the hockey community and just the world in general, just because of how tragic the story is and everything that comes even outside of it. In combination, it shook the sports world. And it is extremely sad on what happens. Certainly a preventable incident. I'm not going to get into that too much on here because I don't feel that it's appropriate for me to do so, despite me saying that you should know your actions and you shouldn't take action when it's inappropriate to do so. When it comes to driving, when it comes to overall actions in life, this is something that could have been preventable and prevented in general. And the story, when it comes to the Goodrow family, both sides, for Johnny's wife, kids, the Matthews sides, it's so tragic and sad. And there was respect paid throughout the entire sporting world, hockey world in particular.
Obviously in Calgary, Columbus as well as you know, there's been just donations through GoFundMe pages to Matthew Goodrow. Sides it's great to see the hockey community has come together in this tragedy. But it was something that was obviously, as I said moments ago, preventable in such a tragedy to the, to the world of sports about hockey in general. And so it's a matter of how, it doesn't matter if you knew the individuals, Johnny and Matthew personally or if you were a fan or if you weren't a fan because he scored goals against your favorite team, it still shakes you. It still makes you really, really think about how each day needs to be treasured. And I don't want to get into too much deep on this side, but what I want to mention is just make sure that you're always appreciating what you have and holding your loved ones close. This is something, as I mentioned, preventable. So tragic. And the world lost two great hockey players and just overall great people from, obviously, if you know him or not, you can see his involvement in the community. And I had the, the opportunity to see Johnny play this past season when I was at, in Columbus and heard the cannon go off in Columbus, when I was there watching the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Columbus Blue Jackets, just right around Christmas time, right before Christmas time last year. And I got to see Johnny play and what a player.
Fantastic talent. Fast, worked hard. A player that was loved in Columbus. He was somebody who was appreciated.
There was somebody that left Calgary where they thought he was going to go to New Jersey or maybe go to Philadelphia. He shook the hockey world and signed in Columbus, and the Goodrow jerseys were in full effect there in Columbus. His effect there was massive.
Matthew and him and Johnny played together in college, obviously grew up together, very close to. Obviously you're apart in age. Such a sad story. And I'm happy that I had the opportunity to see him play.
Such an exciting player to watch. And I did mention that when I talked about my recap of the, of the game when we did an episode back in last December around that area, January after the holidays, and he was somebody who was a joy to watch. And I, again, for the umpteenth time, tragedy preventable and norm or not, it's something that shook the world of sports and definitely prayers. Condolences go out to the Gujarat family, the other side of hockey news. Obviously, Leon Dreisiedel has signed a very long term deal with the Edmonton Oilers.
The contract comes to, it shouldn't be a surprise, eight year, $112 million contract that begins next season. And he mentioned how he wants to be an oiler for life. That was, that was his, that was his quote that he's using. That's aspernhl.com dot. This is the starting point of being a point for the Oilers core. And if you're a Toronto Maple Leaf fan or just a fan in general of hockey and knowing that players can eat up your cap space pretty significantly, especially in the world of Toronto, this is something that you're like, hmm, is he worth it? Is that what you really want to spend on a player? Look, the salary cap is going up. When he signed the contract that he had, people were chirping the Oilers and he obviously, and the Oilers brass, but obviously he showed everybody wrong. This is somebody who is what is a top five player in the National Hockey League, arguably top two. That's hard to debate against the McDavid or, sorry, the McKinnon conversation, of course. So I would fairly comfortably put them in the top five. Very comfortably. But where you want to place them is to each his own's opinion, then they have the number one player in the world. Do, the Edmonton or others. That's Conor McDavid. So people that I've read online, what does this do for McDavid? Look, I'm a Toronto Maple Leaf fan as I still have a Guerrero jersey up and I'm showing nothing Toronto in the background here, you could see Toronto's memorabilia around. If you know this show, obviously that is the team I cheer for.
As much as being a fan of the Toronto Maple Leaf, I would love to see number 97, Don, the blue and white. And as much as we want to joke about it, if you are Lee fans about him going to Toronto, then yeah, that is the dream. But just like dry Seidel, him and McDavid are close. I would be very surprised if McDavid wants his contract comes up after next year to come to negotiation time going into the final year of his deal that he doesn't sign a long term deal, just like Leon Dreisiedel has with the Edmonton Oilers that this is the core that they're going to go with. I mean, if McDavid left and went to the city that everyone's predicting, I mean, there'd be a parade from every worse corner of Canada that is a Toronto fan. But honestly, the Emerson Oilers have locked up a key player that's going to influence, hopefully, you know, Connor McDavid to sign their further sake. Obviously, you got to look at Evan Bouchard. There's going to be a guy that's going to get a pretty hefty price tag, but they have some players that have high salary caps right now, such as Darnell Nurse and some other pieces of the team that I think they're going to have to look at what they're going to do going forward. But this is a team that made a lot of interesting moves this offseason. Broberg and Holloway let them go in the offer sheets, bringing in Jeff Skinner. I think that's a great move. I think Skinner is going to be able to rifle that puck when he gets passes from dry Seidel or McDavid nurses. That contract, I think they really got to look at, and obviously you got a team there that's going to have to be very manageable with their cap space going forward if they're going to be paying this much money to both Leon and Connor. But there are teams in the league, aka Toronto, that pay a lot to their heavy, into their top gun guys, and they find ways to put players together and be competitive on the ice. In the Edmonton Oilers, though, unlike Toronto, have made the Stanley cup finals, they were a game away from winning the Stanley cup finals. It's a very competitive Florida Panthers team, and they've made some very good changes this year. If in the, in the pipes, if Stuart Skinner could be the goalie that he was after his dreadful start, but be the goalie that was, let's say, the last three quarters or half of the season, whatever we want to look at it, he can be somebody consistent, then this is going to be a very dangerous team and could be hoisting the Stanley cup next year. And that could also be an influence to Conor McDavid signing there, making, maybe creating that dynasty that used to be there in the eighties is what he would hope. So this is a good move by the Oilers, signing Leon to the contract that you have. You have to pay the player to keep them and to get them. And in Canada, there's different ways than there is in Florida and in terms of taxes you're going to have to pay. You're going to have to look at ways to keep the player in the salary captain projecting to go up. So this contract right now, that's a $14 million cap hit, maybe four years down the road, this is truly like a 10 million or a $9.5 million cap hit, as in comparison today, maybe that's too much of a stretch, but that's maybe what the Oilers brass is really hoping and pulling towards.
Other players have gotten paid, obviously, Seth Jarvis with the Carolina Hurricanes, eight years, $63.2 million. That is definitely, I think, a good trade. I think there's, I know there's a lot of Toronto fans in particular that say old Seth Jarvis could have been a Maple Leaf look. Different career path could have led to different ways. He's been a great fit over there in Carolina. That is definitely a strong fit. But Brooke Henderson, 13 time LPGA tournament winner, is creating a partnership with the Ottawa Senators.
They partnered. The jokes that I've heard while they're going to be great for their golfing season. Look, she is 40 minutes. She was born 40 minutes away from the Canadian Tire center where the Ottawa Senators play and she's going to be somebody who's going to be involved with the team. And as I'm reading an article on NHL.com, she wanted to be a part of this team in some sort of way from a promotional perspective. A partnership perspective could be for any kind of, you know, promotional or branding, marketing, etcetera. And there is also somebody who played goalie, didn't know Brooke Henderson played goalie. So Brooke Henderson is now part of the Ottawa Senators partnership, which is very exciting to see these celebrities, professional, other professional athletes either way get involved with teams. Fun story that I like Cannon Reeves signing a one day deal, that contract with the OHL's Windsor Spitfires. I love this story. I'm a big Keanu Reeves fan and little, hopefully everybody knows that he is canadian, but this is somebody who grew up in Toronto, did Keanu Reeves, and he tried out for the team as a goalie prospect when he was a teenager, but he couldn't play just due to injury. So he signed a one day contract with the Windsor Spitfires and signed the jerseys, put on a couple pictures for entertainment's sake and he got to be a part of that there in Windsor. And I think that was great little publicity for the Windsor Spitfires and a great story. I didn't know Keanu had that background when it came to the world of hockey. So I want to give a thumbs up to that. Another thing, thumbs up. I want to just overall give when it comes to that story is that I wonder how it would have been if he made that team, if we would have ever gotten to see Keanu Reeves. But just overall thumbs up for the NHL recognizing the story and just for Windsor doing it in general because the proceeds went towards the Canadian Mental Health association of Windsor, Essex. So and went towards a good cause when he signed a auction off the signed items that he did. So that is fantastic. Another news, Tiana. Tiano, not a thing. Tory Krug will actually be out for the season due to surgery. Just seems like after he left Boston, it hasn't been the same Tory Krug that fans are able. That have been able to see on the ice. But big news in hockey around that has. There's definitely been more news that's been more sad in news, but more news to discuss there as well as the season approaches, we're just hitting near pre preseason time and obviously the NHL season being right around the corner. It's going to be quite the season in the National Hockey League. In the world of baseball. Before we wrap up tonight's show, just a couple minutes here. Obviously in the world of baseball today, up to today, it's been very, very interesting. And recently, since I've done an episode here on the game, I was recently at the Rogers center for two games in the weekend that they played against the Los Angeles Angels and Bowden Francis was an in and away. But before getting the no hitter and then the second game, Alejandro Kirk even got a home run in the game, I saw Vlad hit a bomb. Addison Barger. I got to see a lot of the young guys there in Toronto. And despite how the season has been for the Toronto Blue Jays, there's a lot of promise with these young guys and I think they have been really good. They're hungry to play and it makes me excited as a Blue Jay fan for the. For next season. I think they have the ability to make some moves and signings and not make this a full teardown and be able to be more competitive next year. But I'm going to say this every episode until it happens. Pay the man, Vladimir Guerrero junior. Pay the man. Pay the man. Started a little chant in my section that I was in because the guy is an absolute stud. The way he's been hitting for the past, however, months has been out of this world. Okay? This guy needs to be signed long term and be the face of this organization, the captain, someone who's going to start on this team and end on this team. Enough of guys staying until they're 29, 30, 28, whatever, and then they take a big contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, the Mets, the Yankees, wherever. I'm not pointing any players in particular, but they sign somewhere else, the Dodgers, wherever, and they go win a couple World Series and get 50 home runs. Keep the guys here so we can keep attracting talent to come to Toronto and keep the guys here that want to be here. And no hints to that maybe, but the world of baseball with the Chicago White Sox is what I want to mention. Obviously the wild card race getting tight, there's some movement going on there and I'm going to save the world of baseball news in general for when we can have Conor come back on. But I want to give a little bit of time to the Chicago White Sox. They literally had, like, was it seven people show up to their game recently? This has been the worst team that has been fielded in history. Pertinent. And today, as of today, September 4, things can change tomorrow. They did defeat the Baltimore Orioles eight to one to improve to 32 and one oh nine on the season. If they go on a winning streak, maybe they'll make the playoffs. Sorry, just kidding. Had to throw that out there. But the White Sox actually had a good game where Albert Suarez of the Baltimore Orioles, as I look it up, did not have a game that he wanted to have after in a third pitched. Definitely a game the Orioles would probably like to have back because those are games you have to win. But the game before today, September 3, my wife and I were watching the highlights on the couch and seeing the players run into each other, the airs, the pitcher hitting the backstop like this team is an absolute joke to field as they win eight one today. Of course, as I said, now, am I to these guys levels? No. I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be that armchair guy or the guy on the, on the couch, literally, or the podcasters here just to shit on players. But this team is having everything happen to them that could happen bad with Ryan into that, just losing games, not having fans show up. The interaction with the Chicago White Sox in this team in general, it's very unfortunate. They do have a lot of abilities in the future to draft and really rebuild and they do have some good young pieces right now. But I think it's going to be a very long time before the Chicago White Sox even starts. Seeing a glimmer of a glimpse is the word I should use. Sorry. Of hope and not next year, not the year after, even the year after that, I would say four or five years is when the Chicago White Sox are going to start showing a little bit of improvement. And maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm crazy. I think it's going to be that long. But tell me how I'm not. This team is just adding those young pieces now. They still have to draft those other young pieces. They're going to have to sign some studded free agents to really help out these young guys. It's going to take time. Nobody's going to want to play there yet after the prime of their career, unless they've won five World Series or something like that, or unless they're going to give somebody $75 million, unless they go up to Juan Soto and be like, here's 70 million per year for the next ten years, plus signing bonuses and make them the richest baseball player of all time, which would be absolute ludicrous to do then they're likely not going to bring players in. And even if you offer somebody that, why would you want to go somewhere where you'll likely lose 100 games a season for the next couple years? Challenging times if you're a White Sox fan, but I want to bring them up mostly because I think there will be light at the end of the tunnel. But I think you're a little bit of ways away and I think you're in for a long ride if you're a White Sox fan. So buckle up. And I know if times haven't been great in general anyways, but it's going to get a little bit longer in my honest opinion, and I think they should consider trading Luis Robert. I feel even though he's young, the prime price tag that could be on there. Why not?
Let me know if you think I'm nuts for saying that. But in terms of baseball, I just had to mention again today pave lad and I wanted to give a little chat about the White Sox. I'm going to table any other news when it comes to the wild card and save it for the next time we can have Conor on, which will be next week and as we near time for baseball playoff season as it's going to be, I'm sure an exciting playoffs always is a playoffs that won't feature a canadian team and it's the only canadian team. But ultimately it's going to be an interesting, interesting playoffs because you have the Yankees and Orioles that are going to be battling it out for the American League east. As a look at the standards, it's a game apart, the Guardians having such a great season, the Astros bouncing back, the Rangers having some, you know, some, some World Series, you know, blues after winning it all. The Phillies looking really good. The brewers. I'm really pulling for the brewers to be that underdog team. But of course, the Dodgers, you know, being the Dodgers, it's, it's the Padres looking well. I've always been a fan of hopefully hoping the Padres do well. I think this playoffs could have a lot of storylines with a couple cinderella runs. Um, I just hope that it is in the playoff that has the expected team win. I would like to see that a team that is more of that underdog, even though they're not, but win, that being either the brewers or even the Padres, as long as they can still sneak in the so month the season to go. But that is what I'm going to lead to for baseball for now. Until our next episode, where Connor can hopefully join us to talk a bit more detail about stories in particular and do a bit more of the blind rankings, a little bit of games that we like to have here on the game, pun intended, but also get into as we get into, sorry, the playoff season. In the world of baseball, this has been the Game sports podcast. This has been the September 4 edition. But no matter what day or time you listen, even if it's beyond, it's all relative content. Here on the game sports podcast, we want you to interact, so make sure you hit like fall and subscribe on 91 network. That's the YouTube channel that we are hosted on, but we're also on instagram, we're on Facebook, and we're on TikTok. Make sure you like follow, subscribe on that and interact to the clips that we have. A lot of work goes into these episodes. A lot of time out of our days, even outside of our full time jobs. So we appreciate those who spend time to listen to us, to hear us out, and to enjoy our episodes. And if you want to give us any feedback, just direct message us and we'll always be open to it. Heck, if you want to be a surprise, you know, viewer guest or you want to be a guest guest per se, we would definitely welcome that. We've done that on the show. We'll be back in the live radio days, but maybe it's something we can introduce. So if you are somebody who has interacted or wants to be in a bit more on the show, do not hesitate to reach out. But we appreciate everyone that can support because it certainly keeps the show going. The show has been around technically since 2015, but with the GameSports podcast name, it was since January of 2016. So we are hitting our official eight year anniversary. We had our 8th season kickoff within the pockets. Everything is great here on the game and it's all because of the great listeners and followers that we have. So please definitely interact with us as much as you'd like and also make sure you follow us on social media.
I want to thank you again to Justin and to EJ for taking the time for in the pocket, and to you, the listeners, for listening to the show. We will be back next week. As I mentioned in the last segment, it's going to be to one show a week still, and it will be uploaded on Wednesdays, what we plan for the month of September as we hit October, that's where we can get back to the busy schedule per se, but we'll announce what that schedule is going to look like when that gets closer. But every Thursday, you should expect an upload for this show. There may be the odd Wednesday, but you'll be in the loop of that. So we are happy that you tuned in for the show here tonight and we hope that you enjoyed it. And I'm here to remind you, keep your sticks on the ice, swing your bats, catch touchdowns, train your threes, and shoot your shots. Booyah.
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