WEDNESDAY SHOW RECAP: JAMES FRANKLIN JOINS!

Wednesday marked Day 2 of CFL Free Agency and the boys covered it all on Episode 176 of The Rod Pedersen Show! Here are the highlights:

• Rod and Dupes were joined for The Rollout for Flooring Superstores by CFL Alum Quinn Magnusson. The Saskatoon product moonlights as a freelance broadcaster and offered his take on the opening day of Free Agency, and the moves the Riders have made over the past 10 days. The guys kicked around the following Quick 6 show topics: 1) Winners & Losers of free agency so far, 2) Is there too much movement?, 3) Tuesday in the NHL including the Boumeester incident and the Oilers winning without McDavid, 4) The Pats trounced in Med Hat and the Blades welcoming Brandon Wednesday night, 5) The lawsuit by former Blue Jay pitcher Mike Bolsinger against the cheating Houston Astros, and 7) The future of Tom Brady.
• Quinn thought the Toronto Argonauts were winners on Day 1 of FA while Dupes chose Hamilton and Rod went with the Riders. RP feels the bargain the Riders got James Franklin at plus the retention of Elimimian, Judge, et al was a major win for the Green & White. The question was posed to the audience on the Capital Auto Mall/Universal Collision Centre poll and the majority voted for Toronto.
• The newest Roughrider – QB James Franklin – joined the show via video chat from his home in Oklahoma. He discussed why he chose Saskatchewan, his struggles in Toronto the past two seasons, his relationship with Jason Maas (the pair was together in Edmonton in 2016 & 2017), his relationship with Cody Fajardo, and how great it feels to be wanted by Rider fans.
• Canadian QB Nathan Rourke of the Ohio Bobcats joined the show from Nashville where he’s getting ready for his Pro Day. The Oakville, ON product discussed why he chose the NCAA over U-Sports (he feels it’s a faster road to the NFL), the X’s and O’s he’s learned at the Div 1 school, what he’s hoping to achieve on his Pro Day and why he isn’t really thinking about the CFL at the moment.
• That answer spawned a lengthy discussion where a viewer said the CFL is “losing out” because Canadian kids are dreaming of playing in the NFL rather than the CFL. Rod took offense and went on a lengthy rant explaining that no kid grows up dreaming of playing in the AHL yet that’s where thousands of Canadian hockey players have ended up, and made a great living. Again, he pointed out the salary differences in the two pro football leagues and asked how you could blame Canadian kids for aspiring to earn millions of dollars rather than thousands? He also said this isn’t the CFL’s fault, but the CFL and its fans need to finally look in the mirror and realize the two leagues aren’t at par.
• CFL Director of Global Scouting Greg Quick (a former Riders Defensive Coordinator) joined the show from the CFL Head Office in Toronto to talk about his scouting trips to Europe and Asia, and the vision for CFL 2.0. He said the country which could produce the most CFL players is Brazil. He said he never envisioned growing up in Ohio that he’d be staging a pro football combine in Japan, but he’s very much enjoying this latest phase of his career.
• Roughriders DL Chad Geter joined the show from West Virginia to talk about playing the past two seasons for Saskatchewan, with a detour through Montreal. He talked about how the Rider D-Line will shape up without Micah Johnson, the excitement of hosting the Grey Cup in 2020, and how he’s trying to grow his Twitter followers!
• Rod and Dupes spent the last 20 minutes of the show answering questions from the viewers, enjoying the true interactive nature of the program. That led to many, many stories of the 2007 Rider Grey Cup run and what it was like working with Kent Austin. Rod said these tales will all be told in his forthcoming book about his life adventures.
• Wednesday’s show is available for viewing now on our Facebook page or you can listen to the podcast by clicking on the PODCAST tab at the top of this page!
• Rod is off to Vegas for the rest of the week to be hosted by the Golden Knights for games against the Blues and Islanders so Dupes takes over the chair on Thursday and Friday.
• See you at 10 am CT on Thursday on Facebook Live and RodPedersen.com/ListenLive!