[MUSIC] >> Fan morning show, sports net, $5.5, brand cutting, and Sam McKee with to hear on a lovely Friday morning. >> Mm-hm, I know, Sam McKee knows how to get us in a good mood, though. Sam, before we get into this Olympic topic, which we teased in very off-brand for us, we're actually gonna do a topic we teased. I would just like to commend your professionalism today. You came in here with excellent energy. You were mad at me for yelling, but that was only at the start of the show. I gotta be honest, I had a certain bar I expected for you and maybe that's part of why I'm feeling this way. But you're great. >> Thank you. >> You should dare I say do this more often. >> No, no, no. >> Not like, again, when Ben's here, he should do it as often as he wants. >> Yes. >> And Ben's out here? But when Ben's not here. >> Yeah. >> Love dead yelling. >> Catch him in the afternoon. >> I think Marques, he's getting mixed in. My understanding is what I've been told, because again, like heaven forbid, Ben not take vacation for literally one day. I actually think he's working today. >> He is. >> Yeah, he is. >> I saw him on TV. >> I did too. It was jarring. >> Was he wearing the blue hoodie? >> [LAUGH] >> I guarantee he was like sitting on the back of a chair somewhere. But no, I don't think, I think he keeps that one off TV. >> Okay, good. >> Okay. So, this is a couple of quick texts before we get into it. >> Sure. >> But our boy Giacomo. >> Yeah. >> And Windsor, again, Gunnar, I love it when you bring up Windsor. Stubby clap, born and raised in Windsor. >> I didn't know that. >> So there you go. >> That feel, I gotta say, that feels like a Windsor name. >> So, nothing planned for this weekend, but going home to Newfoundland on Tuesday, two weddings in George Street Fest, let's go, Julian and Montreal, pray for Julian's liver. >> Yes, agreed. >> And here we go, write this down to the pen, only starter from the J squad that will be here when they are contending will be Alec Manoa, Clifton from Etobicoke. Thanks for the text, Clifton, and I gotta tell ya, don't disagree with that. >> Don't hate to take it all, fan legend, Clifton and so we'll talk. >> I appreciate the text, Mike. >> Yes, Ted A-Tets with Jeff Blair. Once upon a time, we're legendary there, so I love the text getting mixed in. What else I love is sport, and that's what you have to call it. >> I don't love sports. >> That's what you're talking, no, but when you're, like, we're sports fans, and we watch sports all year long, like, you know, we watch baseball, we watch hockey, we watch basketball, but then the Olympics roll around, and we're not watching sports anymore, we're watching sport. That's what they call it, oh, that's a culture of sport, okay? So you know, winter Olympics, summer Olympics, they have very different tenor, obviously, for our country. I think of the take that I gave yesterday is that I just, I wish this scandal would have come out in the winter games where we could have just said, all right, yeah, we are the bad guys, and we're gonna be the bad guys up there atop the podium. >> Yes. >> It's a little tougher for us in the summer games, but we got to do our rankings, our draft, if you will, of summer Olympic events. Now, we did just get a point of order. I had to clarify this with you, you know, I could have done it at any point in time in the hours leading up to the show when you just pitched this idea, but I figured I'd clarify it the second we went to air. >> Okay, good. >> Okay, so like basketball, are you gonna draft basketball, or are you drafting like men's basketball and women's basketball at a separate time? >> What about three on three basketball? >> What about three on three basketball? >> I think it's not on my list, just to clarify, three on three is not on my list. >> Really? >> Yeah, no. >> Do you remember for that? >> Yeah, I know. I saw, I know, hilarious. That actually is exactly the just quick thought on three on three basketball, that is exactly the legacy I want for players of that ilk, just like where's Ali Faruk Manesh, who hit big shots in NCAA March Madness once upon a time. Get him out there. That's exactly what I want to see is those guys. All right, you're the guest, I'm gonna give you first pick, bud. >> Thank you, easy, easy one one. >> Dunked dunks. >> Is med basketball. >> Oh, you thought I was going, I know what you thought I was going. It's the number one. >> Okay, yeah. Like this is not a bad pick, but I think that the, I think this is a case of like this is a real hall segad. No clear one. >> Yeah. >> Couple good options. >> One one men's basketball, I think after what happened at the World Cup, where we win the bronze. >> Yep. >> We look so good. We have all these great players. Finally have Jamal Murray involved, kinda. >> Kinda. >> Kinda. >> We talked to Grange, he seems to think he's gonna play 20 minutes at some point. >> Okay, good. Sounds great. >> He's involved. >> Would love to see it. You just think, I don't need to name the names that are on the team. >> Yeah. >> I think there's intrigue with what the America has looked like. >> For sure. >> Through the pre-term games with the narrow win over South Sudan with them, you know, with that game against Germany that was close right to the end. >> Yeah. >> The Germans. >> Oh, Germany's really good. >> Yeah. >> They won the World Cup. >> They won the World Cup. >> They're plucky as hell. >> And they have the classic player who's like good in the NBA, but becomes transcendent when playing for their country in Dennis Schroeder. So I think it's a really, really enticing, especially like France, like all the different guys that are involved in this tournament, it's just, it's not what it used to be. >> No, it's not. >> It's not like America and then Argentina who has men who jennoably and Spain who has like one guy. Yeah, like it's every team has sick guys now and watching two teams play against each other is gonna be incredibly enjoyable. So give me men's basketball as in my easy one one. How many are we going for each? >> I don't know. We'll go until we don't anymore and we're getting some update on Kevin Blue who spoke earlier in the hour. We'll update you on that, but we're in the midst of some very important here. So we'll get to that in just a second. Full disclosure, I had men's basketball number two on my big board. So this is Brian Burke stepping to the podium being like, there's my number one all along. I don't care what anybody scouting service says. I know it doesn't have you same bolt anymore, but come on. What are we doing here? >> Men's 100 meter dash, like I just have the 100 meter dash here. I'm going to go men's because the grass is involved in it there, but yeah, 100 meter dash. The only way this event could be better. It is the perfect event. The only way it could be better and I can't believe I'm about to say this is if they borrowed from horse racing and they just told me the exact time the race was going to start too often. It's like, Hey, track is on. Well, okay. But like, you know, no disrespect to shot put, but you know what I want to see. Okay. I'm looking for here and it's, that's the only problem is it's hard to know exactly what it's going to be. If it was like the Kentucky Derby and they said the 100 meter dash is at 914. That's when the race will start, it would be even more popular than it already is. But that was my number one on my big board. I'm thrilled to have got it at second overall. Give me the 100 meter dash. >> See, but you just crapped all over the 100 meter dash saying it's not the same without without you saying ball just because okay, basketball wasn't the same without Michael Jordan. But hockey wasn't the same without Wayne Gretzky is still pretty good. >> Okay. So you got, I've got men's basketball. You have men's 100 meter dash. >> I have golf. >> That's good. >> My second round pick is golf, tons of great players. >> Four on my big board super intriguing, love the golf course, which we have some history with. >> You're a golf national. >> Right. In Europe. So well, not the last. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> But I remember it being spectacular, and there's two great Canadian players in it. Nick Taylor who's shown that the propensity for the dramatic, loves to play in these bigger tournaments like this. So it's going to be really fun. Corey Conner's top, you know, always in it at these big tournaments. So give me a little bit of golf plus you get to watch Xander Shoffley again, Scotty Sheffler, you watch from three putt on every hole. So yeah. >> I'm making an addendum to this rule right now. We're just doing sports. We're not doing genders here because it's like, I, it's like, I don't want to take Brooke Henderson right now, but immediately I'm like, well, give me Brooke. Okay. So it's like, you get golf. >> Thank you. I got the 100 meter. >> Yes. >> You get basketball. >> Yes. Okay. >> Now, tell me if this is dirty pool, what I'm about to do. And you may say it is dirty pool. And you can have it. Give me the four by 100 meter relay. >> Nah, it's dirty pool. >> That's dirty pool. Okay. >> It's the same thing. >> No, no, okay. I'm just checking. Like, hey, I wasn't sure how much of a breakdown there was going to be. Okay. So this is, this is a, I think a little bit of a dark horse, but I love it. Give me, I'm not being a creep. Give me court volleyball, not beach volleyball. Court volleyball is electric. I love pick buddy. I love beach volleyball, too. Okay. I actually, I have to, I think I'm just going to do it right now. Thank you to our boss who sent me to cover beach volleyball at the Pan Am Games, who was here. So you want to talk about plumb assignments. Okay. That was pretty good. Okay. But volleyball court volleyball, it is electric. I called play-by-play for volleyball in my college days, and there was a guy who was on like the third tier of Team Canada and the athleticism that he possessed. I, I'm sorry, LeBron James is not a better athlete than that guy. Like, it is just remarkable how high they can get up. So give me court volleyball. >> Okay. So you have, I right now have volleyball and the 100 meter dash. >> And I have golf and basketball. >> Yeah. >> This is where it starts to get a little bit interesting. No, skimmie beach volleyball. >> Okay. >> I cannot knock it. Would you like to explain your choice at all? >> I think it's a beautiful scenery. >> Okay. >> It's lovely. I love you. >> This is a, this is not a joke. Have you seen the court? >> No. >> It is completely framing the Eiffel Tower. >> Oh. >> It's a beautiful. >> That's why I picked it. >> Of course, yeah. >> I love that. >> Yeah, of course. >> Of course. >> Okay. So you got beach volleyball there. This one, give me contact kayak. This is like a new event. It's basically, you know the snowboard, you know the snowboard cross that they do in the winter Olympics? It's basically that, but with kayaks. So dudes, I've never seen it before, dudes are banging into each other. And ladies too, I'd imagine, I can't wait to see it. So I'm going in blind. This is like, this is a reach. I saw. >> This is like, this is Brian Bertrand castle for a first run. >> This is not, no, it's not. No, this is more like, do you think this kid's any good? I don't know, the camera footage is kind of grainy, but he looks like he has a little flash in draft. >> He's like drafting the honest. >> This is drafting the honest. Yeah, it's like, are the rims eight feet? Are they 13 feet? Who can say, give me contact kayak? >> Wow. I love that pick. Okay. So this is more of a pander pick. >> Okay. >> Because I don't really necessarily love the sport. >> Okay. >> But it's a high profile one in the Olympics. >> Okay. >> And we have a couple of metal hopefuls. >> Oh, okay. >> So give me swimming. >> Okay. >> Because we have penny, we have summer, we have some, we have hopefuls. >> Yeah. >> You know, the Katie Ledecky is like, there's stars in this. So give me swimming. Not my favorite, but like one that needs to be drafted. >> I did, I did also say that, that that is Canada's only hope is the, like the loud brash American at the summer game seems to be swimmers, usually I think of Ryan locked you, like peeing all over the gas station in Rio. >> Did he get like arrested? >> Well, no. >> Really was like Ryan locked you was taken by a cartel. And then it came out that he was peeing on a gas station and some guys with guns told not to do that is what the story was there. >> So, but what I say to that is that's the only thing that can overshadow this Canada is we need like just super brash ugly American over there and I think the swimmers can do it. I have faith in them. So you're going swimming? >> Yes. >> So I have a quick text to put in here. >> Please, yeah. >> From Ed and Aurelia. If they make break dancing in an Olympic sport, why not cornhole? Which I thought had a different meaning or act throwing. How about the ninja warrior event? >> I, okay, I will say that like America's ninja show, whatever he's referencing there that I just see commercials for. And I, again, like I'm sure millions of people watch it, no idea. That is an electrical Olympic event. Like why not American gladiators? Just bring that in to be an Olympic event as well. So I like that, especially if it is, if it is, if that's the case there. So breaking in or breaking out cornhole in. >> Yeah, I love coaching on that. Okay, I think we've, I've exhausted my list. The only one I had written down here that there were two and one of them's taken a bit of a turn. Soccer. Like, you know, like, I think women's soccer has to go on draft. >> Yeah. We're tough there. And then again, you're going to tell me this is too close, but I do love the 200 meter as well. >> Oh, yeah. Listen. >> I know running is sick. >> Yes. >> But not long running. Sorry. Like no disrespect to the marathon runners. Watch some guy run around for 45 minutes, it's sweaty. >> This is, I think, I had a couple others. >> Sure. >> I do love the rugby sevens. >> Mm, this is great. I am a huge proponent. I said this again yesterday, but I'm a huge proponent of take a sport that I'm unfamiliar with and condense it, make it easier to watch. And then I'll watch it. I'm very big on that. So, I think that, yeah, I do love the rugby sevens and I also, like, there's just ones that I think are so classic. >> Yeah. Well. >> With like fencing and all these field hockey. I love the Olympics. >> Yeah. No, it's great. I will say that this is one that I like don't get excited for, but I find myself watching with my wife a lot and it has to depend on the discipline, but like women's gymnastics is electric. >> Yeah. And they're flying and flipping. >> And it's mobile. >> Yeah. I don't, man, I don't know how the Olympics work because people are telling me like this might be Penny, Alexi acts like possibly her last Olympics. And I feel like Simone Biles have been in the Olympics since I was a kid. Like I'm older than her, but I feel like I watched her in the Olympics in 96 when Bailey was winning gold. Like it's, it is remarkable the shelf life she seems to, to have had, but yeah, women's gymnastics. Like it is electric when you get the right event, I'll be honest, like, yeah, you're on a balance beam. I've seen people do that before, but flying through the air and flipping, dancing, all that. It's great. It's great. It's great. >> So I've had some fun here. >> Yeah. >> But, you know, I'm starting to see some of this Kevin Blue press her trickle in here. And it's not good. >> No. >> And he's being extremely forthcoming. I just are producer, awesome Mack, he texted it. And he said that in the last few days anecdotally, he has learned of attempted drone use once during the Copa America. Blue says he spoke with Jesse March and that March has denounced it as a practice to his staff. >> So, okay, so if I'm going to read between the lines and this is dangerous doing this with snippets from a press availability, but if I read that to be between the lines that and this goes back to 2021, at least we know of, this feels like this was an ingrained practice in soccer, Canada for at least a fair amount of time. If they attempted to do this, and based on again, like just reading the quote, attempted drone usage once during Copa America, that feels to me like there was some and I'll use the wording that was used in this, some unaccredited team person that reported to some assistant that would have tried to do that. Now, again, Jesse Marsh, much like Kevin Blue, he just got here and I don't know how much of it you can paint on him. This is in the same scenarios on the women's side. The priestman's been with this team for a while, but I also don't want to sit here and completely absolve a guy. Like, I think it's good that we have him coming forward. I think it's good to Marsh allegedly again, according to him, denounced it as a practice to his staff. But why was it so ingrained in the culture that apparently it was attempted once at least during Copa America? And how can that not kind of tainted a bit? Again, I don't know what you even gain from this, but how can that not tainted a bit? I don't understand how I'm supposed to look at it any other way. So the question I would love to ask a smart soccer person and a person that's more familiar with this kind of stuff is how much of this happens? How much across the world of soccer do people use, like have other people been caught for doing this? Have there been issues in the past of drone use as Canada, the only one doing this? Are they going to be the fall guy where they're the one who get dinged for it and everybody stops doing it now that they got caught for it? Like, I don't know how much this happens outside of it. But Kevin blew a comment out and saying that this potentially happened at the Copa America. Like, what does this mean for the World Cup? What does like, what are the type of sanctions? Like, Canada is a host in the next World Cup in 2020, says like, is there a world where this means disqualification from that? Like, I don't know if they'd go that far. I don't know what it means for a host country that's embroiled in a cheating scandal. But it seems that, like, I mean, listen, if there's one thing that's going to, you're going to be hanging hat on, it's like FIFA is the most corrupt organization in the world. So like, they're probably not going to kick out a host country and they're probably going to be like, well, we've had this plan. Probably a price for it. Yeah, for sure, and I don't know if Canada, soccer, Canada can afford to pay it. Yeah, I don't think so. I think I've got to make a couple more runs and some big tournaments to get that money. But I just... Without their drones. I don't know what, how far this goes. Like, I don't know where this stops. So this is a huge development and a real black eye on Canada right before the Olympics. And I mean, I give Kevin Blue total credit for coming out and just being forthcoming. It's easier to just be honest and listen, heard this lesson a lot for my parents, heard this a lot for my wife. Yes. Just being honest is the best policy. Yep. And coming out with it and getting the bad news out of the way as opposed to dancing around it or trying to tell a little, a little fib or a little white lie. But yeah. Again, I think that Canada soccer is in as good a position as they can be because, again, like, presemen aside when you're looking at it on the, you know, with the org as a whole in Kevin Blue and then on the men's side in Jesse Marsh, that these are both people, these are both people that are new to the, to the org. So if this has been some longstanding thing, they in theory have the leg to stand on and be like, you know, basically give like the George W. Bush speech before he rips the drive and like, well, root this evil out of our organization and out of their hobbles and, and go about it. So just reading more, more tweets for breaking down the Kevin Blue incident, Kevin Blue was asked about John Herbmann's involvement and said he's not knowledgeable of incidents that predate his tenure, but the review process will include conduct by former employees as well. So this going back to Herbmann, like you said, like all of a sudden TFC pressers got a lot more, a lot more interesting. Now I, it is just so tough to, this would have been a bad story if Canada's soccer hadn't done what they just did. Again, like I'm not trying to dis-involved the women from this. They're the ones who actually got caught here and it goes back to 2021. But it'd be one thing if Canada's soccer was just in the position it's always been where okay, the women, they, they were doing everything that happened and the men's team was languishing. You have so much momentum right now and this story is just going to put a spotlight on you. Again, I think you, you should care and look at how people, how people react to the story who are super involved in care a ton. But I think people are just going to hear this and go, hmm, Canada's soccer cheaters. Like I remember reading the story and it takes so, so long to get that stench off your program quite honestly. Wasn't, I'm trying to remember, wasn't there a drone thing with Herbmann before? I don't remember this. Austin's giving me the thumbs up. I feel like during, was like against Honduras, there was something that he got asked and he like really not scoffed at. He's texting Panama. Whatever that was. Whatever it was. Yeah. But I remember him like scoffing at it and him being upset about it. So. Gunnar, I gotta show you this is hard break. Okay, we have more. So this is from, this is a rash, you know, tweeting through the, the Kevin Blue availability. Canada's soccer CEO, Kevin Blue says he is deeply, he, he deeply considered and thought about the implications of the issue for the entire Canadian Olympic delegation. I have not considered withdrawal of the national soccer team from Ferris, Paris, 2024. Blue says, I will not consider us withdrawing. So if they were out of the tournament, that would have to be an IOC and I don't know exactly how it works. I would imagine the sport governing body is asked about it. But I think ultimately it's an Olympic decision. I have a hard time believing they're going to boot Canada out of the games. I don't mean for the whole country, like obviously, you know, the grass shouldn't pay for this or anything. But even with the soccer teams, like they have rooted cheaters out of the Olympics before. I think back to even the, you know, innocent incidents of Nicholas Backstrom, he got dinged right before the gold medal game in, in Sochi when Canada was playing Sweden because of his gold meds or whatever it was. They didn't kick the Swedish team out of the Olympics. They told him he couldn't play anymore. Now that's a one player incident versus a team. But I just have a hard time giving all of the, I mean, quite frankly, greasiness that's gone on with the Olympics and with FIFA that this is the straw too far. But I also do think Canada is kind of an easy team that if you're an easy country, that if you do want to pick one, you can kind of, you know, wave the hammer with Canada, I think. Yeah. I don't think it's fair to the players agreed. And I don't, maybe at this point, it doesn't matter what's fair to the players, where like it's too bad. You're part of the organization. You had cheating within it. But like to withdraw them now seems like it would be extremely ruthless. Yeah. And like you can maybe go on and go as far as you go or whatever. But I have a really hard time believing after this story comes out that they're going to be able to perform. Yeah. So they're going to be able to go like through this, that this is like as massive a distraction. All the questions, all the talk, like, I have a hard time believing that they're going to be able to perform. So you were right, Sammy, just looking at a headline from a 2021 piece in September, Honduras suspicious of Canadian soccer espionage after drone spies on practice. I don't know how not to look at that is incredibly damning given everything that has come out now. And if it goes back to then this is back in the herd man era and again, like I don't say that to absolve Jesse Marsh, like I think ultimately you're where the buck stops and if you have a boss, the buck stops of them as well. So I don't like necessarily absolve them. But I also think that it seems and again, like maybe more comes out, we're all reacting to this live. It seems to me as though this was a somewhat ingrained practice for parts of coaching staffs. And again, happen on the women's side. We saw it was a technical advisor who reported to an assistant. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a similar way that the things were working on the men's side of things and that's where Marsh heard about it or found out about it and immediately stop the process. Again, we don't have a ton of info on exactly how that happened. But that is the thing that I just can't I can't quite shake here is that you have the story of the drone against Honduras and that goes back to 2021, which I don't know if you've heard, that's when the reported stuff with the women's team goes back to. It's hard. It's Herman. Herman's the drone guy. Maybe women's team to the men's team. I, you know, it's impossible to say right now, but it's also impossible not to connect those dots and men. That's why he was so confident. It's Croatia. He was like, listen, I've seen it. We got drones. These were good. I'm going to call out a traditional soccer powerhouse and work Canada. I've seen their practice. We know what's happening. I can't it does make you think so differently about his tenure. If that's what ends up happening. I mean, this was a guy who, you know, was seen as like leading the light and then he had the kind of weird exit with the women's team and then he goes to men's team and they have success. But another kind of weird toe stubbing moment there and the Croatia stuff, it is just it's remarkable to think of what a one, well, it's not a 180. It's honestly a complete 360. And the soccer started off this run again, whatever you want to think of it as the women's team definitely kicked it off. But as an org that was starting to build success, but was incomplete disarray and then it really seemed like they were really starting to get their ducks in a row in terms of not being a complete catastrophe. Quite frankly, they have the success. The women wing, the women wing gold at the Olympics, the men make a world cup. They make a running copa and now we're right back to where we started with, how can you look at this as anything other than embarrassment on the org? Even if, even if, and like, hey, I'll show them out like Grange, we love his egg, doing the like, yeah, team spy, if you didn't cheat and you ain't trying, I think the way the soccer community is reacting to this or will react to this will be super informative because, you know, the Patriots, they had the spy gate thing. Part of it was the entirety of the, and the biggest part of it was that they were dirty cheaters cheating. I'm not going to try to dissuade that. But the biggest part of it was, they're like, great, this is awesome. This is our chance to keep the Patriots down, to knock them down at peg. The whole league was on board with it. Canada soccer is not viewed as the big bad boogeyman. It's like maybe to America and they're like, oh, they're coming. Maybe that's where they see it, but I don't think this is an org that's like going to get railroaded. I think this is an org that you're going to have pretty fair understanding, again, from the soccer world of how kind of commonplace this is, and it does go back to the thing I've been saying about this all along, is what, what do you gain? Like football, you obviously gain a ton. I would say penalties, penalties. That's it. But wouldn't you have a book on like all the guys and girls taking penalties? They're taking them for their teams or taking them for their colleges. They've generally speaking, and hey, soccer proofs improve me wrong. I don't think you don't take penalties your whole life and then get to a point where you're on the national team and you go, you know, and I'm going to take this one. Well, maybe if you're Alfonso Davis of the World Cup, we'll park that outside for now. That's what I look at. So I think that, okay, it's penalties, but you'd have a book on all them as is. And I don't, I'd imagine when you're taking penalties in practice, yeah, you have your spot, but you try something else out as well. So I got to tell you, this is heartbreaking. Brutal. Because, you know, the run up to the World Cup for the men was one of my favorite, I don't know how long that was. How long is that? Was it like six months? It felt like it. Six months. Yeah. For yourself. No, no, buddy. I loved that guy getting himself into the snow. My favorite moment. Yeah. I really, really loved that. And that was some of my favorite stuff. The women winning the gold medal at the Olympics to me was one of my favorite sports moments in the last 10 years. And then even this Copa America, where that win over Venezuela, where it goes to penalties and conay, and then even the bronze medal game, where they fought so hard against Uruguay and they come up short against the, a really traditional powerhouse in soccer. And just to have this massive tarnish all over that, I don't know how any soccer fan, like listen, you can try to convince yourself that all these teams cheat and all these teams, but like, yeah, they didn't get caught. No. And this isn't a scandal. And now any time you wear the jersey, any time you wear the hat, any time you talk about Canada soccer, the first sentence is cheaters. And you, like, you cannot get by that. You cannot undo this. It's a heartbreaking moment for our country, like it's as, it's horrible. And I know other teams cheat. I know other teams do this stuff. Like I know it's soccer. I don't know if you've heard this or not, soccer, little corrupt at times. I've heard. I, I've heard. But this sucks. Yeah. So I, maybe we'll go to break, get somebody to talk more soccer about this. I don't know a soccer human of any kind, but I just, I, I'm really not at a loss for words. I'm just heartbroken. Yeah. I am right there with you. I'll leave with before we step aside and come back here. One more thing from, from Kevin Blue. And I think this is what, I think this is what everybody wants to hear of this is that one of the things we're trying to understand is the culture of this, how the culture of this is shaped based on the leadership of these programs. So I mean, I'll put that in human English speak of who did this, who put the practice in place, who allowed it to continue and how much was it shrouded in secrecy from the people who actually kind of matter, making these decisions. That's what it all comes down to. I mean, if, if this is a world where, and again, like we have to take him at his word, I think the idea of Marsh immediately disavowing this, great. You think it's bad. Now, imagine like, like, you know, Alfonso Davis is going to lead the program. He's the captain and you need Jonathan David to be good and we got a man, Kone, my man, bombito and every, but it's like Jesse Marsh feels like the face of the, can you imagine he's tied up in this? Again, I think that is the one kind of positive you can take on this, potentially we'll see is that you have new leadership there and it should be relatively, relatively easy in the grand scheme of things to just say, all right, we're going scorched truth. Sorry, people. So I'm just looking at, I'm just on X here. Good for you. I still call it Twitter. Stephanie Lave just tweeted, who was the two time, she was a net for the gold medal win. Ministry of Defense. Awesome. If anyone wants to speak about PKs, I studied hard the night before every match, watched video of players taking PKs in national team and club games, made my own educated guesses based on that info. No drone footage in cats was watched, do not confuse great gold tending with cheating. So the players here are trying to get out in front of this. Of course. The thing like, I didn't do this, I didn't do, I like, I feel for them. That's got to be with, I would just shout out the great accomplishment in, in her life. I mean, her specifically, the way she played incredible. And the idea of having any part of that stripped away from you for, and I mean, again, I'm not trying to denigrate the other members of the team, but if it was like a tactic thing, not that they're not like telling the keeper what's going on, but you know, it's not exactly like she's involved in like breaking down the four, three, three going back the other way. Like, I think that's the other part of it is for her getting out in front of it. Yeah. I would be wanting to do the same. I think the thing that is so unfair about this is that there's one person I want to hear from, and I would imagine we won't ever, or anytime soon on this. It's Christine, Christine Sinclair. This is, look, like Kevin Blue can come in and be a great leader. And Jesse Marsh, we love what he's doing on the men's side, and they'll have to find some new coach now, because I don't think it's going to be Beth Priest been going forward. But until somebody else grabs it and grabs it with like a moment, the truly matters, since and Claire is still the face of soccer in this country will be for the foreseeable future and unfortunately the face of that entire era. And I'd love to hear from her on this and not, not to say, like I demand dancers from Christine Sinclair, but if any player knew anything that was going on, you'd have to imagine it would be sincey. And honestly, again, maybe that's super unfair to her, but that's who I would love to hear from in all this. And I just like, there's no reason why she should make herself available. And that's the person I'd love to hear from, honestly. Nice. Let's hit the break. All right, let's do it. We'll think more about this and contemplate what it means for our country. We were once, we were once peacekeepers, now we're flying drones sounding more like America by the day. All right. We'll see you in the next video. This is one of those classic situations where a non sports person would say like, hey, it's just sports. Get out of here. This is my life. This was our whole summer of fun. Like, I'm honestly trying to think of like, and I don't want to put this hex on anybody, but I'd be hard pressed to think of like a Canadian sports thing that we've rallied around more recently than this. Like there have been Jay's teams, the country's rallied around and Raptors run was fun. But honestly, the unexpected nature of it, right? Like we're going to get best on best hockey. Allegedly, I won't believe it till I actually see. That's happening. Yeah. Like sure. Our boy, Marty Walsh. That's right. And grind and grind and grind and the new union chief for the edge. Okay. Go. He got he came in and got everything done. I wanted to get cap went up. Got international hockey. Immediately. I was like, okay. Yeah. Now we just got to get him working on the soft cap. And then we'll really be cooking there. Marty, don't think that one's coming, but you know, like we get excited about hockey, but there's a floor as in the gold medal and anything less than that, we're no longer excited. We're actually quite anguished and there will be a summit. Much like, much like America with basketball, much like America with basketball, but there's an expectation. Canada basketball, like we talked about, it was definitely a moment last summer, but the World Cup ain't the Olympics and the World Cup for basketball kind of like just became a thing six minutes ago. And this was supposed to be the moment and it still very well can be for Canada's Olympic Olympic teams there. But I don't, again, I can't think of a Canadian sport team that grabbed our hearts this way in an unexpected nature. We've had good teams that were good and we expected them to be good and pool and and everything she does. But I can't remember there being a group or that we kind of grabbed a hold up so quickly as Canada soccer and watching the way it goes. And there's no person better to talk Canada soccer with than, do you know who I'm bringing on right now, Sam McKee? I hope it's my good friend, Dan Richeo. It is your good buddy, Dan Richeo, reach, I wish this is normally said under like actual sad circumstances, but I wish we were talking under better circumstances, but I am happy to hear your voice. How's it going, Riche? Under the circumstances, doing pretty well, fellas, how about how about you? I'm the press. Yeah, we're we're depressed and I'll speak for myself here less for McKee. I'm also a little confused. So we want some like soccer context for this. I understand like Spygate bad Patriots fan. I know. So don't don't spy on other teams, but like how big of a deal is this in the soccer world? I mean, we were just remembering the stuff about the Honduras drone story from 2021 with the men's team. Just how big of a black eye is this on the program? I think it's huge. And I hate to say that because I was hoping you're going to be like, it's not that big of deal, boys. Everybody's spying. Well, like, I want to believe that, you know, I want to believe like whatever drone footage that they got didn't really affect too much, like, okay, they got a little bit of extra intel on what formation people were going to run and, you know, those kinds of things. But is that really deciding the match? Like on the field, you still got to make the plays. You still got to execute. You're still, you know, I saw Stephanie LaBaze tweet this morning, you still got to make the saves. Yeah. You know, she's still got to make the save. But I probably shoot out, which is not an easy thing to do. You can guess right and still not make that save. So there is an element of like, yes, they still won on the pitch and you can never take that away from the players that accomplished that gold medal win from, you know, this most recent Canada team that went to Copa, America, that and went to the final four, whatever John Herman. And that group did winning CONCACAF and qualifying for the 2022 World Cup when nobody expected them to the players still had to get it done on the field and what I'm so gutted about what I'm so sick about is that all of those accomplishments are forever tarnished that forever. You're going to say, yeah, Canada won that gold medal, but they got a little extra help. You know, Canada won that gold medal, but everywhere announced around the world, every soccer fan around the world, the US women's national team followers are going to always be like, yeah, but they cheated. You know, so did they really win the gold medal? And that's just going to like absolutely kill me forever to hear those kinds of takes because the players don't deserve that. The players still did their jobs. They still executed in the big moments. And for me, you'll never be able to take that away from them, but for everyone else around the world, it's always going to have an asterisk around it. Yeah, that's my exact thought. Like I just, I have a beautiful new Canada soccer kit that I bought during the Copa America. I got one of the nice new ones. I have a nice hat. Yeah. I just, it's ashamed. Like it's, it's something that like brought me so much joy, as you know, as this whole country knows that there was no time that was more enjoyable than that. And it's just in the first sentence of every hand, of every soccer candidate conversation. You can't mention any of their success of the last four or five years without this being in the headline of it. And that sucks really bad, Reg. It's, man, it's so awful. You know, you think about, and Stephanie LaBace to eat this morning, you know, it's pretty much like one of the first things we've heard from one of the players that was on the gold medal run. And I mean, she was a star. She became a legend. How many saves did she make along the way? Those penalty shootouts that she was, you know, the reason Canada won in so many of those knockout matches. And even in the gold medal final and it's like, yeah, but did her coaches give her extra intel on where her opponents were going to be shooting, you know, and like those kinds of things, as she mentions, like I put in so much work, you know, I didn't have drone footage that I was looking at, but yeah, did your coaches give you extra intel that you didn't know was aided by, you know, watching somebody's penalty kick practice, you know, like, we don't know these things and it's forever going to be a question you have in your mind. So I'm not sure how you get over it. Maybe time heals all wounds, Brent, like you said, you know, people got over the Patriots spygate a little bit. Everybody still calls Bill Belichick the best coach of all time in the NFL or most people still do. It's like in the long run, is it still going to affect how we feel about this and in this moment right now, I can't see how it doesn't. So my guess my next question here is like, how do you move forward for this? I mean, imagine being Kevin Blue coming over six months ago and, you know, taking over what had a lot of issues, but it was a good bones lesson be told, never leave the game of golf. Like the lesson we learned, you know, there's been a ton of issues with soccer Canada outside of this one. And we all know those. We don't need to go down that road. But what he took over had good bones. There's potential. We all see how popular it can be like the gold medal in 2020, all this stuff. But like now it's one of the hardest jobs in the world is what Kevin Blue has to do. Is it just scorched earth? Is it it's it's reviewing? What is the next move for soccer Canada and Kevin Blue here? Well, the move is to figure out exactly how deep this goes, complete your internal investigation. And hopefully it's, you know, an actual internal investigation, because we know Canada soccer has not always been the best at these kinds of things. And FIFA is going to do their also investigation. So hopefully we do get a little bit more intel as to like, you know, who was behind this and how many of the coaching staff needs to go and realize like, wow, what what we actually gained from this probably wasn't worth all of this trouble and, you know, putting a stain on the organization and some of our accomplishments forever because we did these idiotic things. But Canada soccer, like, yeah, they brought some new people in and there's newer, newer people in bigger positions. We've still got a lot of the people that have made it and given it the reputation first that it has had, which is not a good one for so long. So does Kevin Blue just continue down the path of getting people out of there and trying to bring some level of respect to this organization that for my entire life has not really had it. And whenever they actually have, it's been for short spurts, maybe a year or two, and then only for the next shoe to drop before the next story comes out to the media, they come down their leg like immediately every time. It's remarkable with which the efficiency and which they themselves under all the time. I'm like, nobody has ever been this efficient. Like they're like Shaq next to the basket, just grab it in the fuck in the key, you know, it's just like, it's incredible the efficiency that Canada soccer crushes itself from the inside with. So, okay, obviously, I mean, for one person, this isn't best case scenario, what I'm about to lay out, but wouldn't best case scenario for Canada soccer be able to be, I don't know, talk to John Hart, my name is coach, both these teams. I mean, the story is got a little more interesting the story from 21 involved him coaching the men's team. Obviously he has history with this women's team as well. I mean, part of the story of this has been Marsh and how quickly he became quite frankly, like a part of the fabric of soccer in this country, wouldn't the best case scenario, and again, they can't decide this. It has to be true, but for them to be able to kind of paint this on an organization set up under somebody who's no longer a part of it. I guess that would be it, you know, with with Herman, like thinking about his career and thinking about how I got to know him and how like what always struck me about Herman was how incredibly prepared he was for everything, you know, like very prepared yikes and you know, did I know that there was an extra level to that preparedness potentially? No, no, I did not, but you know, it always struck me how well prepared he was and you know, the desire to have success, maybe maybe a little bit too far. I mean, we'll see what the actual stories come out, but obviously there's implications against him here as well, you know, it just, it feels like an organization and a lot of people in it that were so desperate for some level of success that they were looking to take any possible risk to get there and, you know, to some extent, I understand that, but you also got to play within the rules and to play outside of the rules, you know, it brings man, it changes a lot of memories that we have as Canadian soccer fans watching that World Cup run or that run to World Cup qualification and this gold medal run. And I'm sure John Herndon is going to have a lot to answer for whenever he does speak. Oh, man, I've never said it in my life, cannot wait for the next TFC press. Get me there. I want to cover it. I want to, I want to be like, sir, you must answer for the injustice. My one of my favorite anecdotes have been working in sports media. You know this when the news reporter shows up at sports practice, it's not a good scene for the person who's under the microscope. No. Yeah. Who wasn't that did that rupees on the on the Leafs for CTV? Oh, it was the most damning thing ever. He's like, how does it feel to disappoint all your fans? I will be, I will be tweeting. I will be tweeting that out exactly. It's like Dan Brown Brown or something like that. Yeah, it was electric, uh, reach just like this hit was electric. I'll talk to you enough. I love you. I hope you play. I hope you're playing well. And Vancouver's treating you well, buddy. Yeah. Maybe John Molinaro at that TFC at next PFP conference like that famed picture for a couple of years ago. Gentlemen, we love you. We'll talk soon. Take it easy. Uh, there he is. Vancouver's favorite native son, Dan Richeo. They do love him out there. He's just a Vancouver man. How can you not? I just love that. Like the most Toronto guy. Yes. Like Italian Italian from Toronto, like love the Leafs. Love the dip. Yeah. And just like out there immediately adopt and son, they love him. So he's the man. And there's he's been a Canadian soccer guy, our whole friendship, our whole relationship. He loves it. So it's tough. It's tough timing, man. I just like. I mean, good timing for us that he was awake and we could talk to him, but very bad timing for him. Yeah. I feel like reached can be on the phone to have in that conversation couple of times today. So do like what's the boat look like? They're gonna fly like is our boat look like a drone or what's our boat look like? I lean into it. I think. Yeah, you got to drone down the the CM River there before we do wrap things up. I just want to let everybody know very important as we mentioned earlier, Bush is coming to Budweiser stage. I'm July 19th or sorry, August 19th and we're giving away tickets on today's show to enter for your chance to win text in today's code word golden state to 59590 again. That's golden state to 59590 standard message and data rates may apply today as the last day for this giveaway. But if you don't win with us tickets are on sale at ticketmaster.ca. This is a very me thing to say. I've never been happier for generally speaking Friday news dump. I'm live it. I'm like, no, I want to get my licks in had my licks. I'm very happy to watch this all unfold. I'm excited for the Olympics. I just can't wait. You mentioned it. We got Canada, Greece coming up. That is the immediate thing. I'm most excited about. I am dying to see it. And it's like SGA. I'd be excited to see that if they were just playing in an empty gym and there's actual stakes. So awesome. Acutex speaks today at 1130 AM EST. I'm assuming that means John Herban John Herban. We're getting the thumbs up on that. So that will be an interesting presser. God. Yeah. There are a great number of people very, very, very, very sweaty this morning. Yeah, as there as there should be, quite frankly, I mean, Jesse Marsh probably sweaty watching that I would imagine Herban be looking to if he feels he wasn't at the heart of this rightfully so point the finger at plenty of other places. I mean, TSC's got, I mean, his job was got to be in question with TFC in terms of if you have a guy who's, you know, the ringleader of a cheating scandal, potentially, yeah, we should throw in that caveat. Yeah. Who knows? I mean, who knows? That's what I said. If he was part of it, I have no idea. So we're going to find out. Yeah. Some tough questions be asked. I had these old training. Is this the first time in history that there's been like a hot TFC presser for bad news? I mean, like we've done like the faux. It was like, Oh, the bloody big deal away and like Javinko showed up and bunk was 15 feet taller than them and all that. Yeah. But this has got to be the first like Newsy TFC presser we've had in a while. Yeah, I'm trying to think of that also bill Manning, like no one hates losing their job, but I'm happy to not be there today. Bill Manning's got his feet up and cobble right now. Just like, oh, that dirty herd, man. What are we going to do? I can't wait. Again, Herdman presser at 1130 never thought I'd be so excited about it. All right. I love you for coming in here today. Great job by you. So you do the thing, right? Oh, yeah. You love me right. So first I say you can listen to the fan morning show on Sportsnet 5.9 to the fan. And then we say, good morning for I don't know imagine there was probably a lot of people in Canada that fly drones. [MUSIC]
