The Bob McCown Podcast

It wasn't too long ago that the future for the Canadian Football League wasn't looking too bright... but that certainly isn't the case now and the commissioner, Randy Ambrosie, is here to tell John and David why.    We talk about the growth in viewership this year compared to last year and why Randy thinks it's trending upward as we approach the 110th Grey Cup in November. Randy also gets into what the league has done this year to get its "Swagger Back", and gives his opinion on former CFL standout QB Nathan Rourkes tryout in Jacksonville with the NFL as we learn why he isn't the biggest fan of seeing good players get placed on a practice squad.   If you've got questions about the CFL, Randy has the answers as we end the week off with Canadian Football on our minds.

With both sports producing enough content to talk about for days, we have another Baseball/Basketball double header today with Dave Hodge in the co-pilot’s seat next to John. With the Atlanta Braves the only team to hit 90 wins so far this season, we bring on an old friend in Alex Anthopoulos to catch bring us up to speed on what he and his team are up to. We go over squad’s roster and what Alex considers when it comes to constructing it. We also dig into specifics about their pitching staff, their health and availability. Then it’s Doug Smith to end the show as we get a preview of Team Canada’s semi-final matchup against Serbia in the FIBA World Cup.

The Lions play the Chiefs tomorrow and we haven't talked about the NFL yet?! Kenny Albert is here to change that. With Dave Hodge sitting next to Shannon for the rest of the week, the two get ready for Thursday Night's Season Opener as Kenny catches them up to speed with everything they need to know.   With a big focus on Quarterbacks today, we start the discussion by looking at some of the top players at the position in the league and the impact they have on their respective teams. We touch on the narrative that's been attached to running backs recently before spending some time on the AFC, specifically the tough competition in the AFC East. We question whether the window has passed for the Buffalo Bills as we look at some of the other expected contenders this year and end the show by getting some thoughts on who Kenny thinks could have a sneaky good season.

Big things are going on in both the baseball and basketball worlds so we had to get all the help we could get today.   J.P. Morosi comes on the show to talk about the frustrating baseball team that is the Toronto Blue Jays. We chat Vladdy and his downward trending play and assess the Jays' postseason chances before taking a look at the other compelling wild card races in the league right now.   We then had our friend Paul Jones hop on for a bit to discuss the significance of team Canada's Olympic qualifying win over the Spanish in FIBA Basketball.

Wondering what Brian Burke has been up to? Wonder no further as the man himself hops onto our Labour Day show to give us an update on his role within the Professional Women's Hockey League Players Association and get a run down on what is to come with the newest professional sports league in North America.

Ron MacLean showed up on time for today’s podcast but the same cannot be said for a certain unnamed part time co-host…. It’s just John and Mr. MacLean for the first half of the show with Daren having better things to do… Wasting no time at all, the two talk about Ron’s summer dealing with the onslaught of rumours and speculation about his job. We then get an update on Ron’s relationship with Don Cherry, caught up on his summer and even have the podcast fact checked by Ron before we have to let Daren back in from the Dog House….  With all intended parties present, John and Daren get Ron’s perspective on some of the stories shared in past episodes and hear some of his own as we get a rare look into how Ron MacLean views the game of hockey and the way it's presented.

No Guest? No problem.  A select number of people know exactly how integral John was for the growth of the game of hockey on television but luckily, one of them is Daren Millard. With no guest on today’s show Daren knows just what to ask and what to say to get information out of Shannon as we take a look at how it started and where it’s going when it comes to how people watch hockey on TV.  If you’ve ever watched Hockey Night and Canada and have asked yourself… “why did they do that?” You’ll probably get the answer today.

We get to cross all the “Armstrong’s” off of our our Current NHL GM Wishlist in just a week with Bill on the Show. We take a look into his career before getting into his team though, as we find out what made him switch from coach to General Manager, who has influenced him on the way and what kind of GM he wants to be. After the break, we dig into Bill’s expectations for the Coyotes this season. We go over their roster and get some insight on some of their new additions made this summer. We also hear how Bill and the organization has dealt with all of the noise directed at the Coyotes and how it has impacted the team.

Daren Millard in the co-host chair and to kick off our week with Millard, Doug Armstrong joins us for some NHL chat to start the week.   We get an update from Doug about the Blues, their off-season and his expectations for the upcoming season in the first half of the show. After break, John and Daren get Doug's opinion on the World Cup Of Hockey announcement and then have a chat about Doug's Hall of Fame Father and the impact he had on his life and hockey career.

Let's end the week off with a roundtable, shall we?   Eric Duhatschek and Bruce Garrioch join John and Richard today to go over some of the biggest storylines in hockey right now.   We talk about Auston Matthews' new deal in Toronto and what that means for William Nylander, sparking a conversation on contract terms - Why are star players avoiding long term contracts all of a sudden?   Moving on, we discuss the different ways smaller market teams have to recruit players, the Ottawa Senators & their stadium woes, the World Cup of Hockey and continue the conversation we had with Scott Moore this week regarding the direction sports media distribution is going in and how the NHL could benefit from a new structure.