In this episode of Rush to Reason, John Rush speaks with Canadian legal scholar Leighton Gray about the dynamic relationship between the U.S. and Canada. The conversation touches on the debates surrounding tariffs, the role of Alberta’s oil in the American economy, and the political tensions that shape these interactions. With Gray’s insights, listeners gain a deeper understanding of how global and domestic policies intertwine, impacting citizens across borders.
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This is Rush to Reason.
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With your host, John Rush.
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Are you crazy? Am I? Or am I so sane that you just blew your mind?
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It’s Rush to Reason with your host, John Rush. Presented by Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, we are back. Hour number two, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Special guest joining us now. Oh, no, not quite yet. We’re getting him rounded up. Apologize. We got a voicemail, not him, actually, so we’ll do our best. Leighton Gray, who is with us from time to time. He’s a Canadian, and I wanted to bring him on today to talk about some of the things that are happening, not only on the Canadian side but some of what the Canadian government is doing in regards to billboards and things here in our country which I believe he is calling us as we speak so we’ll do our very best to get him on because I’m anxious to hear what he has to say. We don’t see a lot of those things here in Colorado because we’re not near the Canadian border but we’ve got some sister stations in the Crawford Broadcasting Group that definitely are in some of those areas and I’m sure they can attest to some of the things that Leighton is going to talk about. Again, I’ve not seen these things personally, so I don’t have any firsthand knowledge of how that works. But again, I do know that people don’t realize how close there’s a certain part of the United States to where things are very close. Let’s just say it that way. Leighton Gray joining us now. Leighton, welcome. How are you?
SPEAKER 05 :
I’m well, thanks. It’s a privilege to be back on your program.
SPEAKER 07 :
As always, I appreciate you joining us. Gray Matter Podcast is what Leighton has. He’s a legal scholar as well. Now, I just read this to our audience, and I did not know this because we’re not near the border, so we don’t quite see some of the things that others may. We’ve even got some sister stations that are in the Buffalo, Detroit area. But the Canadian government is using digital billboards across the U.S. with the message, tariffs are a tax on your grocery bill.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Isn’t it something?
SPEAKER 07 :
I’m not shocked, by the way.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, no. Well, it’s not a lie. I mean, because we know if you understand how tariffs work, they do increase the price of everything that we buy. I mean, that’s really where the government gets the revenue through tariffs. They are a form of taxation. But this idea that the Canadian government would spend Canadian taxpayer dollars to try and indoctrinate or propagandize Americans is against their own government is really, really, really revolting, but it’s very, very typical of the Liberal Party of Canada.
SPEAKER 07 :
I think that’s very important, by the way, for the folks down here to remember what you just said. And I watch a lot of things along these lines. I try to pay attention to as many of these things as I can. I’ve got friends that live up in Canada, which, by the way, are more like you and I, so they look at things completely different. Although there’s a lot of, to your point, propaganda that makes its way even down into Canada. the lower 48, I guess you could say, because the reality, Leighton, is I see a lot of comments on different things that may get put out on social media, and, you know, things like, you know, we’re Americans, we stand with you, Canada, or, you know, this, that, or the other, and I read some of those, and at times I shake my head and think, okay, first of all, Are you a Canadian or are you an American? Because our loyalty should be to our soil first. Nothing against you guys up in Canada, but our loyalty should be here first, everywhere else second. Yes, there’s been some good things that have happened between Canada and the U.S. over the years. On the same token, Leighton, you and I both know there’s been some things that haven’t been so good that have taken place between our two countries. And the reality is I think you’re being very naive to say that it’s been a great, fantastic, never a problem relationship.
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, if you go back to the beginning of the relationship, it was a divorce. Thank you. You know, in 1776, about 80,000 traders to the American Revolution basically mass emigrated to what is now Ontario. There were only about 8,000 people living in Ontario at the time, and they took over what is now Ontario and founded Canada. And this might explain to your listeners why. why Canada behaves the way it does. The people who run our country, all of our prime ministers, most of them are former Americans. They call themselves United Empire loyalists. But in fact, the truth is, Americans didn’t actually declare war on Britain. The revolution was against the people, their friends and neighbors, who had become the elites, the administrative state. They were giving themselves all the best licenses and and leases and everything. And people down there just got, in 13 colonies, got fed up and kicked these people out. And, of course, they’ve been the foundation and the ruination of Canada ever since. So this explains kind of the relationship. And these people, especially in Ontario, which is our most populous province, and that’s where the seat of government is, their number one fear remains that big, bad America is going to come in and take over. And that’s why they spin all constantly this propaganda. Where I live in Alberta, it’s quite different. We’re very friendly to Americans. In fact, at one time, not so long ago, about 25% of our immigration was from the U.S., Because Alberta is a very industrious place that has very strong trade relationships with America.
SPEAKER 07 :
That’s where the tar sands and all that are, correct? Make sure everybody understands that.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. Our biggest enemy is our own federal government.
SPEAKER 07 :
Right.
SPEAKER 05 :
Not Donald Trump.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I want to make sure you explain that, because I’ve tried to explain that to folks before, and I’ve even gotten in trouble, by the way. We have a podcast that we… do that’s on a national basis and my cohorts from buffalo and you know buffalo new york and detroit michigan join in and i have been in trouble on more than one occasion by canadian listeners because of where our stations are there’s a lot of canadian listeners across the border and they at times don’t like what i have to say about canada and one of those by the way i try to explain that The reason why we will always buy Alberta oil, tar sand oil, at a discounted price is because, A, you need us. B, because of your own politics, you don’t have any other distribution. There’s a little, but not much distribution outside of us. So if you want that oil exported, you have to have us. It’s just plain and simple. I’m not trying to beat anybody up. That’s just the facts, Leighton.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah. And, you know, just to put this into perspective— Alberta is a great friend to America. We have 170 billion barrels proven reserves of oil. So that’s five times the proven reserves in America as a whole. We have 200 trillion cubic feet of gas, proven reserves. So that’s essentially inexhaustible. And we are the largest exporter to the U.S. There’s more oil from Alberta than coming from Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and Iraq combined in the U.S. So we have this very successful trade relationship with America. that really our federal government is interfering with. And the Liberals and Mr. Carney, who is basically a central banker, a World Economic Forum acolyte, he wants to shut down the oil industry, which is beneficial not only to Albertans and is really financing Canada, keeping Canada afloat, but it’s also very crucial to America. And I think this is part of the reason why Mr. Trump is… And Americans have taken such an unprecedented interest in the domestic politics of Canada because they really do impact America in important ways. And we should be working together towards, you know, our shared concerns and being mindful of our shared enemies, like the ones who are operating up in the Arctic. rather than being divided and fighting with each other. I think the Chinese are enjoying this.
SPEAKER 07 :
I was just going to say that between the Arctic and the China, in the CHICOMs, I mean, the reality is, yes, we both should be worried about them more than one another on the same token. And I want to make sure that I’m crystal clear on this. We love your oil. We get it here in Denver, by the way, because it pipes all the way down. Suncor, you guys actually have a refinery here, which we love and we appreciate very much. And I would never take that away. And I don’t think Donald Trump would either. On the same token, because of your own energy policies and environmental policies in Canada, you have taken away much of the ability to get that oil out to other countries outside of us as America. So I hate to say this, Leighton, but in a way, you sort of wrote your own destiny.
SPEAKER 05 :
If there’s another country that has developed energy policies more detrimental to themselves than Canada, I’m not aware of them. It’s a very strange situation, but I think the answer is that over the past three decades… the federal government in Canada, you know, people like Justin Trudeau, they have become infiltrated by organizations like the World Economic Forum and especially the Chinese Communist Party, which is, we have proven Chinese influence in our last two national elections that we can’t, that the investigation of it is being suppressed. And I think, again, This is part of the reason why Mr. Trump and his administration are very concerned about what’s going on in Canada, because it does pose a serious geopolitical threat to America and indeed to the entire Western world. It’s important to remember, you know, the Russians have 30 nuclear-powered icebreakers up in the Arctic and a giant nuclear-powered battleship, and they’re allowing the Chinese to move around up there, even though China has no Arctic coastline. So we do have shared enemies out there, and I think The tariffs, I think, really are a prelude to a kiss. I think what Mr. Trump and his administration are more interested in is how do we secure this continent against our real enemies? And unfortunately, Canada is obviously on the wrong side of this debate. And I think as a Canadian, I’m grateful to Mr. Trump. because he’s actually doing more for Canadians than any of our political leaders are doing. We wouldn’t have gotten rid of Justin Trudeau. We wouldn’t have a national election coming up if it weren’t for Mr. Trump. And I think he’s very, very interested in the welfare of Canadians and in the security of the entire continent, not just, obviously, he puts Americans first. But I do think, and he said, he has a soft place in his heart for Canadians.
SPEAKER 07 :
And really quick, Leighton, I think really quick, make sure that I’m correct in saying this. I think he has a soft spot in his heart for the Canadian citizens, but much like the ruling class or the establishment, you know, the deep state that’s been in the U.S., he has a disdain for those individuals in Canada. Am I saying that right?
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. And he said so at CPAC in February of 2022 when we had the truckers convoy here. He recognized publicly that we had an authoritarian government. He pledged that if he ever became president again, he was going to free us from that. And, you know, say what you like about Donald Trump. He usually does what he says he’s going to do. And he’s in the process of doing it right now. And instead of being angry at Donald Trump, as a Canadian, I happen to be grateful.
SPEAKER 07 :
which you are the direct opposite of even some of the comments that I have personally received from those that listen to our roundtable discussion and so on because they don’t quite seem to look at it the way you do it. And I get it, Leighton, and I try my best to not be too – how should I say this? I don’t want to step on people’s toes. I love the Canadian people. I’ve got a lot of friends that live up that way and – And I love that. And on the same token, I think there’s a lot of very misguided Canadians, Christians included, that haven’t opened their eyes and looked at things the way that you’re looking at them right now.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, well, propaganda is very, very powerful. And try to imagine… how vulnerable Americans would be to propaganda if you had, I don’t know, Gavin Newsom had been your president for the last 10 years. And unfortunately, Canadians have been fed a steady diet of propaganda for the last decade, and so we’re very, very vulnerable to it. But I think, again, I see MAGA as a made-in-America response to globalism. I think it’s an irresistible force. And I think it’s impacting Canada. We’re going through some short-term pain right now, but a lot of people are waking up from this stupor that we’ve been in, going back all the way through COVID and even before COVID. But, you know, unfortunately, Canadian people seem to be very, very vulnerable to propaganda, especially propaganda that involves violence. you know, looking at someone as though they’re an invader or an enemy. And that’s how Donald Trump is being portrayed. But let’s face it, I mean, you could bring in the Montana National Guard into Canada and take the place over. Listen, we couldn’t even shoot down a Chinese spy balloon. We had to call the Americans to do that a couple years ago. If this is how we really want to take over Canada, I mean, he could get a coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts and have less effort.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well said. I think it’s also very important because I don’t think our folks down here quite realize this, especially those people that I see commenting on some of the media posts and things that I was mentioning earlier. I don’t think people really understand that you don’t have freedom of press and freedom of speech. It’s why we have so many listeners here in the U.S. that cross over because our signals will reach up into Canada and so many people listen to actual American radio because the reality is you… other than podcasts like what you have, Leighton, you don’t have the same free press, do you?
SPEAKER 05 :
No, I mean, imagine if the only access you had, if everything was CNN, and this is because one of the things that Trudeau did is he essentially took over our mass media. I mean, financially, he owns it. They’ve passed legislation restricting what’s available. Mark Carney, who 93% of Canadians don’t even know who he is, he’s saying that if he becomes prime minister, he’s going to ban X. We already have banned TikTok in this country. So, I mean, censorship, this is one of the hallmarks, one of the features of totalitarian governments is they censor everything, and you’re quite right. And so, again, we’re very grateful to Americans because without access to American news and information, you know, we would – It would be like North Korea.
SPEAKER 07 :
Good point. Good point. Leighton, how do folks find you? How do they listen to the Grey Matter podcast?
SPEAKER 05 :
Well, the podcast is available anywhere people listen to podcasts, so Spotify, Apple, Podbean. The best way to follow our content, however, is on X, at least until the Canadian government bans it. That’s at Grey Matter Convo, so all of our content is there. There’s a lot of American content there, by the way. And so it’s not just Canadian stuff. But thanks for having me on. It’s been a privilege talking with you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Always a joy. I always enjoy it. It’s always a great joy having you. Keep up the good work up there. Keep the faith. We appreciate you, Leighton, very much. Okay. God bless. God bless you, too, as well. We appreciate it. Veteran Windows and Doors is next 35% off. Windows up to three, four or more. It’s 40% free labor either way. Give Dave a call today. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 08 :
Putting reason into your afternoon drive. This is John Rush.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, we are back. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Appreciate you all joining us today. And let me do this, Charlie. I’ve got something going along the lines of what Leighton was saying that I want to play. I’ll talk about this for a moment or two, and I think I’m going to have to rewind this, and then I’ll hit play. We should be good. Here we go.
SPEAKER 01 :
Want to have access to the Canadian market. want to sell vehicles in canada you need to have a footprint in canada you need to be building things in canada if you’re not going to do that then there’s another set of rules by which you will have to play by because the reality is we buy as canadians 2 million vehicles a year in this country we don’t make in canada 1.5 million vehicles so we’re already operating at a deficit so to think that you can As a corporation, make a decision that you’re going to move a plant or shift production or shut down shifts or do whatever it is and still have full access to our market for free. I think you’re going to see Canadians respond in a very serious way about any corporation that tries to do that in this moment, but also government will have to respond. in a fashion that says, no, you don’t get to do that. You will be penalized if you think that you can shift production and take our jobs out of this country.
SPEAKER 07 :
Okay, I’ll stop at that. Again, going along the lines of what we were talking about in regards to Leighton a moment ago. That is the leader of the private union, Lana, probably not saying that correct, Payne. Now, she’s very serious, very serious. Which, that’s her job. She has to be. Now, I don’t know about the rest of you, but as a car guy, knowing how many cars we buy on average in the U.S. on an annual basis, and then listening to her numbers and her talking about how many vehicles Canadians purchased in a year, it’s a little over 10% of what we purchase here. Which would make sense. It’s about 10% of the population, so the numbers aren’t far off. We consume, on average, depends upon the year, about 17 million cars and trucks a year here in the U.S. Now, that number, I think, might change and probably even go down slightly, because if government stops buying as many units, which they don’t need anyways, that’s a whole other doge situation, but… If they stop buying as many as they’ve been buying, that might change our numbers. But reality is Canada doesn’t even scratch the surface on what we use as far as vehicles in this country. And her threat that if you’re, in other words, an American car company, and you want to continue to sell cars in Canada, but you take General Motors, for example, if they move a plant from Ontario to across the border, Put it back over here, there will be repercussions to pay. Okay, so I guess the question I would have for Lon is, and what’s that going to be? Again, not saying that American car companies don’t want to sell units, but if you take all of the different vehicles that are out there, the makes, the models, and so on, that are actually made in and or sent into Canada, as she said, they only make about $1.5 million of the $2 million that they use, so they’re still importing roughly half a million units a year. So if you take all of that into consideration, I mean, how much is each manufacturer, U.S. manufacturer, by the way, actually going to lose out by moving production back to the U.S.? I’m sorry to say, Lana, not much. What’s that old saying? She’s got people behind her. They’ve got the elbows shirts on, which if you don’t know what that is, look it up. It’s a big thing going on in Canada right now. It’s a Wayne Gretzky thing. And they’re mad at him, by the way, because he’s a big supporter and friend of Donald Trump. Anyways, long story short, they’re trying to use a hockey terminology in regards to elbows as to how to defeat us as Americans. And I think our last guest, who is from Canada, said it well. The Montana National Guard. could walk into Canada and take it over. The reality is all of these Canadians, which they’re prideful. I get it. It’s their country. I’m prideful of, you know, I have pride in our country, rightfully so. But at the end of the day, I think they need to be very careful with what they’re saying because her little speech there a moment ago is empty words. I don’t know how else to say it. It’s empty words. I mean, it’s almost like, okay, yeah, that was a great speech, but nothing there is going to matter at the end of the day. That’s all on deaf ears. Nobody’s going to listen to what you… That’s like Charlie Brown’s teacher. Wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. No one’s listening. No one heard, Lana, what you just said. No one cares, frankly, with what you just said. And again, I’m not trying to ditz any Canadians. And I already started a kerfuffle. Well, I can’t talk here. A firestorm. Let me say it that way. I started a firestorm with some of our Canadian listeners of Neil and Bob’s because of some of the things that I’ve said on the roundtable, which was not my intention. But I’m American. I’m not here to please Canadians. I’m here to make sure we, as a country, succeed. And while I am very appreciative of Canadians, like I was telling Leighton a moment ago, my loyalty is not with Canada. My loyalty is with the United States of America. Well, that means to God first, but God and country. That’s the theme of KLZ, of Crawford Broadcasting, God and country. God first, country second. They go hand in hand, in my opinion. This country has done a lot in regards to not only the spread of the gospel, but lifting other countries up, and yet we have been taken advantage of far too often in the process of doing both of those. And Canada has taken advantage of us, by the way, for far too long. Golden Eagle Financial, speaking of finances, give Al a call today. Find out how he can help you with your future retirement plans today. Find him at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 07 :
Now, back to Rush to Reason. And we are back, Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560. Richard Rush joining me now. Richard, weekend of sports. I didn’t get a chance really to pay much attention to what went on. I mean, I know there was lots of things going on. I did see some highlights of some golf and different things like that, but I didn’t pay a lot of attention to basketball or anything like that.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, we’ll briefly touch on basketball because a little bit the March Madness finished, or not finished, I should say, went into its second weekend. There’s the third weekend next weekend, which is the Final Four and then the National Championship game. For the second time in history, Dad. The all number one seeds advance to the Final Four, which usually doesn’t happen, right? There’s usually some form of an upset. A two beats a one, a three beats a one, maybe even lower than that. Didn’t happen this year. Made for an interesting season. I guess, or maybe not as interesting, it’s all chalk, right? Which, you know, that’s what you say when all the favorites win, which typically doesn’t happen. But this is kind of the year, and maybe this is the more common theme, right? We talked about this last week with NIL and paying of players now. The sort of the blue bloods of college basketball are the big programs that can afford to pay the best players are probably going to, and maybe they’re just going to continue kind of moving on. However, that is not the biggest story around here, Dad. The biggest story is something that happened last Friday, which obviously we didn’t get a chance to talk about. We did a little bit on Friday with Andy as far as Dion. But Coach Prime, Dad, right, gets a new contract, an extension that pays him in the top five for of all college football coaches in the land. And for someone who’s been someplace for two years, and these are the niggers, right? Only two years, hasn’t really won anything. He hasn’t won a conference championship, much less a national championship. He is being paid right up there with the best of the best in college football. And, Dad, I would argue he is worth every penny of that money.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I don’t think you’re going to get, well, you know me, you’re not going to get any arguments out of my end of it. Like I said last week, when you perform well, this is, by the way, something that everybody out there could learn, whether you’re self-employed, whether you’re employed, work for someone, doesn’t matter. The higher your value, the more you’re going to make.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, and that’s exactly what happened. And he, again, and people that are outside of CU, that you’re even seeing on a national stage. I mean, some people are, you know, championing it. Some people aren’t. I’m going to. Some people even around here are going to say, man, that’s a lot of money. And even some sports talk shows are people are like, oh, that’s a lot of money to pay a football coach. Well, Dad, you look at the impact. that he has brought to the region. I think they estimate that just to Boulder, he’s brought in like $90 million, and then region-wide during this past season, he brought in $140 million. And that’s just crazy. That’s never before been talked about as happening. Even when Coach Mack was here, right, CU was good, but it still wasn’t what it is now. I mean, I’ve been watching this.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hmm.
SPEAKER 06 :
Coach Prime series that’s on Amazon Prime, their video service. And you see, you forget kind of what happens. It’s kind of watching it to kind of figure out, relive the season, I guess you could say. Just the amount of stars that show up for CU.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I mean, I can go back for… All of you that maybe don’t realize this, maybe there’s some folks that are either new to our area or they’re younger. I mean, I was around for all of those McCartney years, that era. I mean, I was around all I mean, I watched football games up at CU and, you know, Crowder was the coach. That’s how far back I go, Richard. I mean, I remember my my folks, you know, complaining about different coaches, this, that and the other. Then when Coach Mack came on board, you know, the difference that he started to make in the way that the culture was and so on. And yet and yet. The entire town, and I’m not joking when I say this, the entire town of Boulder didn’t like the guy. They didn’t like his Christian stance and standards and so on. There was a lot of people that loved him, but a lot of people that just couldn’t stand him. A lot of the regents didn’t like Coach Mack. I mean, there was a lot of… friction tension i guess you could say at the university with coach mac there and even though dion is in a lot of ways of the same vein faith and so on once what’s best for the players which coach mac did as well once these you know once these kids and not just be stars on the field but off the field i mean a lot of their their their value system if you would richard is very much the same difference is coach coach prime is being much more accepted than coach mac was
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, and 100%, Dad, if you recall, I think it was last year, his first year, someone tried to bring suit against him because of his praying in the locker room. And you can even see it on the documentary. And whether you want to argue with him or not on how he goes about it, the guy doesn’t curse. The guy doesn’t say the Lord’s name. He doesn’t do any of that, right? And yet he is unabashed about who he is, and there’s a reason he’s primetime. I think he’s a humble guy. He’s humble in his own way, right? He’s probably not humble in the most traditional sense, but he sort of speaks the truth. But I do think that he loves the Lord, and I do think that he’s a Christian, and he, in a lot of ways, is doing the same things that Coach Mack does. for the university and for these players like you were talking about. And like you said, he went through some of the same things. But I’ll say it, I think he also is getting a little bit – well, I don’t think there’s as much animosity towards him, although there still is a lot, as there was before. And I think part of it is because Coach Mack came before him. And I’ll say the other part, Dad, is he’s an African-American in Boulder. And that’s not things that you don’t see very often. No, no, I think to his –
SPEAKER 07 :
To his credit, and by the way, if he was right here with us and we were having the same interview and Coach Prime had the ability to talk to us, I think he would fully agree, Richard, with what I’m going to say next. The reality is that’s a factor that shouldn’t be. But I will tell you right now, if he were white doing the same things Coach Mack did, he would not be in the same position today that he is now. And I think Coach Prime would agree and would also say that it shouldn’t be that way.
SPEAKER 06 :
100%. I totally agree with you. And here’s the deal. That Boulder, for its left and all the other things that they are, your People’s Republic of Boulder, they have never been well-known for being a super-inclusive society, right? It’s just a lot of natural factors are at play and lots of other things that we can get into at some point in time. But he’s sort of changing that. You know, we talked about this a little bit last week. 20% increase, Dad, in out-of-state admissions. Wow. even with everything that he’s doing. And again, being a witness and praying and talking about it. And he’s not forcing his faith on these guys. He’s really not. He’s saying, guys, this is what I think. But he also knows that a lot of these young black men do come from Christian households. And it’s a very big thing for mom, right? And especially for mom to be sending their son to some place that can do it. And a lot of people will say that they are and do some things. But you know what? I’ve never seen, you know, I’ll say this. You’ve never really seen Prime do the drinking and some of the other stuff that some of the other coaches have. Even the infidelity piece of it. that some of these other coaches have, Dad. So I am excited for what he can bring and for what he means to the university. And again, some people, because people are like, this is a lot of money, and I can’t believe the Regents approved this. I can’t either.
SPEAKER 07 :
One of the first text messages that I sent back to you when you sent me that was, I’m shocked. I can’t believe they approved that either.
SPEAKER 06 :
Dad, if you told me, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, even when Barnett, after Coach Mack, when CU was at its height, beating Nebraska, all those things, that we would be paying our football coach $10 million plus a year for I would say, no, you’re wrong. It’s just because we have been for so long this stepping stone school where even if we get a good guy, right? We got Mel Tucker. He came in for two years, then left in the middle of the night. He was being paid about $3 million, $4 million. It just didn’t happen. And the fact that it is with Deion. And whether he stays or not, Dad, he has created so much buzz about CU and just so much news and hype. It’s really hard to beat that. And I think people were surprised. I think people were shocked.
SPEAKER 07 :
Here’s the other thing, really quick, though, if you look, I just because I had to look it up because I thought, you know, it’s got to be fairly close. If you look at average NFL coaching salary and you look at his salary and his bonus structure and so on. Honestly, Richard, could he replace it in the pros? Maybe, although he’d have a lot bigger row to hoe and a lot more risk factor in going to the pros than he has right now. The reality is right now this guy can ride his own ticket. Why would you leave?
SPEAKER 06 :
I was just going to say that his buyout this year is, I think, $12 million or $15 million. I think next year it’s $12 million, then it goes to $10 million, and then it drops from there. It goes to like $6 million and then $3 million. I could be off by a little bit. Basically, obviously it gets less the further the contract gets. But the point is this, that if he’s now making essentially $10.5 million with Colorado a year, He has to get that same amount to go someplace else, right?
SPEAKER 07 :
And you look at really quick, for everybody listening, you look at Andy Reid, who’s, you know, coach of the Chiefs, top paid coach, by the way, that’s out there in the NFL, makes $20 million a year. Sean Payton, not far behind our Bronco coach, is $18 million a year. You look at where Deion’s at, and really quick for everybody listening, and Richard, I wanted you to, I’ve got a couple of minutes here where you can throw this in. A NFL coach outside of maybe… I don’t know, Richard. They may get three, four weeks off total when it’s all said and done off, and I’m not sure it’s that much. Some of those guys, the minute the season is over, they take a week off. They might go spend some time with their family or do whatever, and they are right back at it immediately after. A college coach, not that they don’t work as hard because they do, but their schedule, you and I both know, is not the same as what Andy Reid, Sean Payton, Tomlin, some of these other guys are doing. So not only can he make… Basically the same money by being a college coach as he would in the NFL. His schedule’s not as heavy. Am I correct?
SPEAKER 06 :
You are correct. Well, and even the way that he goes about it, right? He has not done the whole in-home recruiting that a lot of these coaches have done, right? He’s taken advantage of the transfer portal. And when it comes to the high school kids, he takes a select group of them. He goes after them. and then he gets them on campus and he talks to them and he gets their parents, but he doesn’t do a lot of that. And yes, he has the ability to come from, and they’re buried in his contract too, it’s probably use of CU’s jet, but that’s a different conversation, to where he can go to his house in Dallas for a quick long weekend if he wants to, or go see the kids play, right? See Shador play if he wants to do that.
SPEAKER 07 :
By the way, those would not be happening in the NFL, as you know.
SPEAKER 06 :
No, it’s much more difficult to do that. Again, it’s just a different game. And I think that he’s happy with that. Like you said, he can sort of write, you know, create his own schedule, write his own ticket, whatever you want to say, he absolutely can. And it’s why I think… In order for him to leave that, it would have to be more than the money, because the money was going to have to be equal, so a pro team is going to have to pay him more money, but especially a college team, right? A college team is going to have to pay the buyout plus pay his, you know, essentially write a new contract, right, which is going to have to be a six-year deal, five- or six-year deal at $12 million. It just gets really expensive. Yeah. The buyout numbers may not be all that great, but ultimately, Dad, he’s here. He’s here for at least the next two years, and any time we get at this point in time is just the more the merrier because CU is on an upward trajectory with him, and I’m glad to see, Dad, and this is the last thing I’ll say, that they have finally realized… And I hope they continue this, that if you make an investment in football and in sports, especially the two big ones, right, men’s basketball and football, that it will pay off. And your success is paid off. Because, again, honestly, the Regents, they love that out-of-state number, that 20% increase in applications. Huge. Those kids, again, we talked about that on Friday. They pay a whole lot more per year than those in-state kids do.
SPEAKER 07 :
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SPEAKER 11 :
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SPEAKER 07 :
Affordable Interest Mortgage. Kurt will join us here in just a little bit for our Monday Mortgage Minute. In the meantime, give Kurt a call, 720-895-0500.
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SPEAKER 07 :
All right, that time each week where we slip in some car reviews. I think we only have one this week, Richard, and you were able to drive recently a 2025 Toyota Tundra Rally, which I’m not familiar with the rally version, so you’ll have to fill me in as well. Go ahead.
SPEAKER 06 :
Yeah, so it’s a new part for 2025, Dad, right? They kind of introduced it. I’m looking at the press release right now. And so it gives you the red, orange, and yellow colorway, right? Kind of the old Toyota TRD kind of type stuff. It gives you 18-inch wheels on all-terrain tires. Bilstein absorbing shocks. It adds heated front seats, a heated steering wheel, gives a larger display. You also have to get the, it comes on the larger Crewmax model. You get electronically controlled locking differential, multi-terrain select crawl control. Let me see here, soft tech trim seats. It’s available in four colors, ice cap, magnetic gray, mignite, black, metallic, and celestial silver. And so for the easy way, Dad, is it’s an option that you can put on, I think it’s on the SR5, maybe any of them. I’m not entirely sure. But I know you can for sure put it kind of on the lower levels of the Tundra, Dad. And it does a great job. It kind of adds a little bit of some different badging. It adds some different, you know, luxurious features on the inside. And it’s really something that can add just maybe a set apart your collection your trim addition or your level of Tundra. But outside of that, Dad, it’s pretty much everything we’ve come to expect, right? They redesigned this vehicle back in, let’s see here, I think it was 2022, if I’m not mistaken, Dad, right, is when they really came out with this new addition. There’s two different turbocharged V6s. One a hybrid and one that’s kind of standard, or not standard, but one that’s just a turbocharged version. We drove just that one. We didn’t drive the I-Force Max, although both of them work really, really well at our altitude, Dad, by them adding the V6 with the turbocharged engines. It still works great, and especially at our altitude, it’s fantastic. It’s got a nice big cab, Dad, as you know, especially the CrewMax version. It’s got a really spacious back seat. It’s got the self-closing, self-operating tailgate, which is a great feature that’s up and down. Again, you’ve got some nice apportionments on the inside. As far as the display, Dad, I think it’s the really nice big 14-inch display. in the model we had, which when you get in it, you’re like, whoa, this thing is pretty big and spacious, and it works. It’s very easy to use that. It’s a nice user-friendly system that they’ve done a good job at. And that, honestly, on the Tundra, you can get, depending on how you want to equip the Tundra, you can get it for everywhere from kind of the low 40s to the high 80s, right? Wow, big spread. That’s just depending on how you want to… How you want to equip it, right? And that’s more of a, you know, if you want the SR package, right, which is kind of the most basic, or the Capstone, which is right up there with a lot of the luxurious trim levels. But speaking of the Rally version that we drove, it was nice to have some of those kind of other features that maybe you wouldn’t get on a more basic model of the Tundra. And you get it for a relatively decent price. I think that package adds about almost, I think, $8,500, $9,000 more somewhere around there to the price tag as of right now. And it was something that I would definitely consider buying, again, because you can get it kind of on a more base level, but you can add some of those luxurious features without having to option those out differently. So you and I, well, you’ve driven these new Tundras, Dad, and they’ve really improved them, especially by changing out those engine options.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, the interior is much better. You get more options than you’ve ever had in the past. The fuel economy with the new options has gone up. They have had, and there’s no secrets here, they’ve had some engine issues with some of these things, although I will tell you that, yes, as time goes by, like a lot of other manufacturers that are encountering some of these same issues, they will get those things dialed in. So I’m not too concerned about that. Every manufacturer at times has a few struggles with that. I get comments and questions on that on a routine basis. I will say that there are still a lot of loyal, dedicated Tundra drivers out there. In our area here in Colorado, we see a ton of them. It’s just one of those models, Richard, just sells very well in this Rocky Mountain region. And I think that alone should show you something. They wouldn’t sell as well as they did if it wasn’t a vehicle worth buying. And again, yes, they’ve had their share of problems, so have other vehicles out on the road as well.
SPEAKER 06 :
They absolutely have, Dad. And like you said, they wouldn’t sell as many of them if they weren’t great. And we’ve been asking for a, not just us, but a lot of customers have been asking for a refreshment and improvement. I think that they did that. And again, we kind of get different models of these different versions, Dad. And they all kind of have their own things, and we could sit here and kind of spend multiple segments on all the differences. And all that we can say is go out and test drive these things yourself, Dad, because you can kind of see some of those subtle differences. Maybe you can save money. Maybe you want to spend a little bit more money, right, to differentiate yourself from the next hundred driving down the road. Because, again, there’s a lot of them out here and for good reason. That’s right. So with that, I would encourage folks. Get out. Test drive this, Dad. See what you like. You can probably get one ordered with all of the different things that you would want on it. And when you do that, let them know that John and Richard Rush from Drive Radio and Rush Reason sent you.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, Richard, with that, I’ll let you roll. Appreciate you doing that very much. Cub Creek Heating and Air Conditioning coming up. And again, we’ve got more weather coming in potentially later in the week. So if you’ve had any kind of furnace issues at all, give them a call. And the same token, be ready for spring and summer with your AC. I talked about that on Fix It Radio on Saturday as well. And that’s something they can also do. So give them a call today. Find them at klzradio.com.
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SPEAKER 03 :
Now back to Rush to Reason on KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 07 :
All right, about done with this hour, hour number two. Hour number three, we’re going to talk, of course, to Kurt Rogers, do our Monday Mortgage Minute right at the top of the hour. And then Alan Hibbard will be joining us. He is a precious metals and alternative money specialist at goldsilver.com. And with everything happening in the market, you might find that might be something that interests you. It’s something that, frankly, I’ll just be straight up honest, I don’t do a lot with actual precious metals and things like that. So it’ll be a learning experience for everyone. All of us at the same time. We’ll be doing that as soon as we come back. Hour number three is next. Rush to Reason, Denver’s Afternoon Rush, KLZ 560.
SPEAKER 1 :
I’m a rich guy
