The Sports Lunatics Show

When SiriusXM's Mick Kern comes on the show, we can figure on a lively conversation and this one is no exception. Mick and Howie discuss that momentous night fifty years ago, February 7, 1976, and many of the things that surrounded it. They weave in and out of the topic and even get some CFL talk in as well. It's a fun conversation and they share a bunch of laughs.

It's February and the Winter Olympics are in our collective consciousness and so our thoughts naturally float to a couple of weeks back in 1980 when the sporting world was focused on what was happening at the hockey venue in tiny Lake Placid, New York and what a group of college kids were doing by upsetting the vaunted Soviet Union juggernaut. There's a new Netflix documentary and Shawn and Howie discuss it and the 1980 tournament and the players and personalities involved. They also take a look back at the life and career of Detroit Tigers' great pitcher, Mickey Lolich.

On Wednesday morning, January 28, 2026, it was reported that Bill Belichick would not be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility. Reaction was swift and intense. Tom Brady said, "I don't understand it!" Other athletes and observers were equally shocked. Shawn Lavigne and Howie Mooney discussed the snub in this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show.

In this freeform episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie look back at the things they loved about the 1970s (and some things they didn't). It's kind of a wild show and the boys go back and forth on a whole bunch of topics that were perhaps peculiar to the 1970s. You might remember a bunch of the topics they discuss here as well.

Another legendary NHL goalie has passed away. On this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie examine the career, life and legacy of Hall of Famer Glenn Hall. They also look at the career of the first ever 50 goal scorer for the Atlanta Flames, Guy Chouinard. The second week of January also marked the 50th anniversary of that infamous match between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Soviet Red Army team back in 1976. The guys close the show by talking about the little consolation speech by reporter Lynn Jones to Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen.

Howie sat down with J.C. Abbott from 3downnation.com to discuss a piece he wrote for the website on the twenty worst teams to ever step on a Canadian Football League field. Abbott explains how he chose the teams and the two men talk about some if the teams. The conversation is interesting and this episode is a must-listen for CFL fans. Go to the Sports Lunatics Facebook page to make your feelings known on the whole subject!

In this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie look back on the lives and the legacies of two hockey giants - David Branch and Bob Pulford. Branch was the commissioner of the Ontario Hockey League for 45 years and the president of the Canadian Hockey League for 23 years, all while being one of the most personable executives that anyone ever met in hockey. Bob Pulford was an all-star and a Stanley Cup winner as a player in Toronto and Los Angeles before moving on to coach the Kings. He then went on to become the coach of the Chicago Blackhawks before taking on the role as the team's general manager not once but four times. You have to listen to the story Howie relates about goalie Darren Pang's remembrance of Pulford. That is the icing on the cake of this episode.

Shawn and Howie look at the sports year that was 2025 in this episode. The Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl; the Florida Panthers took the Stanley Cup; the Oklahoma City Thunder was the NBA Champion and, in what some have called the best World Series they had ever seen, the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series. The NHL, in what would be its All-Star break held a 4-Nations tournament that turned out to be everything they wanted it to be. The Luka Doncic trade? What were they thinking? There is more too! Enjoy the show!

We have reached that time of year. It's Festivus. That includes the airing of the grievances. The time went by so quickly that Shawn and Howie didn't get to discuss all their points. But it's an absolutely lively conversation and the boys hope that Toronto Maple Leaf fans aren't too angry with them. They cover the Leafs, the way the Kansas City Chiefs season is arriving at its end, the movement of franchises, the pricing out of some families when it comes to pro sports and how the Canadian Football League went about their upcoming rule changes this year and how will they be implemented all the way down the football line in Canada. Enjoy the show, everyone.

In a wild and bizarre weekend the Kansas City Chiefs lost Patrick Mahomes to an ACL tear and lost their game to end their quest for another NFL playoff berth, ending a run of success that was incredible. That same day, 44-year-old Philip Rivers came out of retirement to almost lead the Indianapolis Colts to a win over the Seattle Seahawks. But poor clock management resulted in Seattle having enough time to kick a field goal and pull the game out. On the Saturday night, John Cena appeared in his last wrestling bout as he tapped out against the Swiss giant, Gunther. On the cultural side that week, Dick Van Dyke celebrated his 100th birthday. He was born right before Babe Ruth began a massive tear across the American League. And on Sunday, Rob Reiner and his wife were murdered in their Brentwood home. Shawn and Howie discuss all of this in this episode.

The Contemporary Eras Committee voted for their Baseball Hall of Fame candidates this week. Would Don Mattingly finally get in? Dale Murphy, maybe? Nope. Neither. One man was selected to be inducted in 2026 from this vote. Jeff Kent. Shawn and Howie discuss the selection and what they thought might happen. It's a lively and wide ranging conversation and they bring up a lot of names and comparables for the men on the ballot.

On December 8, 1980, as we were watching Monday Night Football, Howard Cosell informed us all that John Lennon had been killed outside the Dakota Hotel. Shawn and Howie discuss their memories of that night, the following week and the impact that Lennon's death had on them and the world as they saw it at that time. Some illuminating audio accompanies their conversation.

In this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie cover a lot of ground. First, they remember the lives and legacies of the great Canadian curling giant, Colleen Jones, and 1979 Masters winner, Fuzzy Zoeller. Then they look back at three sporting anniversaries. In 1975, Archie Griffin won back-to-back Heisman Trophies. He's the only man ever to achieve that NCAA Football feat. In 1985, on Monday Night Football, the undefeated Chicago Bears went to South Florida and pulled the Nine of Hearts against Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins. It was their only loss of that 1985 season. Lastly, in 1995, in the first week of December, new Habs' coach Mario Tremblay left Patrick Roy in to face the Detroit Red Wings onslaught. When Roy felt he was being humiliated by his coach, he stormed off the ice and declared to team president Ronald Corey that he was finished in Montreal. The boys delve into all these subjects and also divert over to many different tangents that illlustrate a lot of their own personalities and their sports histories as well. It's a fun and lively show!!

In this episode, Howie put together a compilation show of pieces from four different episodes. There are highlights from an interview Howie did with Ken Warren about the demolition of the Bob Guertin Arena in Hull, a show that Shawn and Howie did on the life of George Foreman, a short episode on the importance of August 12, 1994 and 1976, and a piece from an interview Howie did with SiriusXM's Mick Kern on the passing of Ken Dryden.

This episode is a bit of a random mish-mash of topics all over the sports history map. Shawn and Howie start off by discussing the passing of the first great pitcher for the San Diego Padres. Randy Jones won the Cy Young Award in 1976, winning 22 games and completing 25 of his 40 starts. He pitched 315.1 innings that year to lead the majors. But his 1975 season might have been even better. Howie explains why. The boys examine Major League Baseball's new agreement with ESPN, Netflix and NBC is back in the baseball business too. They talk about the good old days of the NBC Game of the Week and Curt Gowdy, Joe Garagiola, Tony Kubek and the great Vin Scully. A gruesome anniversary passed this week. In November of 1985, Lawrence fell on Joe Theismann's leg while tackling him and grotesquely broke his tibia and fibula. It was on Monday Night Football. They also tackle the question of whether or not Alex Ovechkin's #8 should be retired league-wide. They finish the show by talking about a couple of reunions that each of them experienced in the past week.

The sports world lost a few luminaries and Shawn and Howie do their best to remember them all. NBA All-Star player and one of the greatest coaches who ever walked the sidelines, Lenny Wilkens, passed away on November 9, 2025. He was 88. Former NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue suffered heart failure and lost his life on that same Sunday. He was 84. Mel Bridgman, who was the first overall selection in the 1975 NHL Draft and played 977 games in a 14-year career, died on November 8. He was just 70. Leon Stickle, who worked as a linesman in the NHL for 30 seasons from 1969 to 1998, in an era when the officials were almost as recognizable as the players were, passed away at home on November 5. The boys also look back, on the 40th anniversary of his death in a car crash, at Flyers' great Pelle Lindbergh. They also reflect on the 50th anniversary of the sinking of the cargo ship, the Edmund Fitzgerald, and the Gordon Lightfoot song's persistent resonance with people all these years later. It's a fully packed episode!

On this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn and Howie do a post-mortem on the 2025 World Series. They examine it from a number of points of view and eventually pose the question of whether or not it was the greatest World Series ever played. Howie brings up the 1975 World Series and the epic sixth game of that year. It's a lively back and forth and in the end, they both agree that it was, at least, the greatest World Series in fifty years.

In this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, Shawn turns interviewer and Howie is the subject as they discuss Howie's latest book, An Unlikely Story, about the season for the 1981 Ottawa Rough Riders which culminated in an appearance in the Grey Cup. Despite being 22 1/2 point underdogs, the Riders gave the reigning champion Edmonton Eskimos all they could handle. In the dying minutes though, a referee's call takes the Riders' hopes away and the Esks eventually kick a game-winning field goal with just seconds remaining. The Ottawa CFL Alumni Association called the book "a heartfelt tribute to a team that captured the spirit of underdog perseverance." The book is available on Amazon.

Netflix recently released a highly anticipated documentary on how the Montreal Expos met their ultimate demise and who might be responsible. As Howie says in this episode of The Sports Lunatics Show, there was a blame pie with a number of responsible parties. The guys discuss the documentary and provide some historical analysis that accompanies the narrative of the documentary. You may agree with some of the things they say or you may not. Feel free to weigh in on the show on The Sports Lunatics Facebook page.

After an incredible seven game series against the Seattle Mariners, the Toronto Blue Jays are headed to the 2025 World Series to take on the highly favoured Los Angeles Dodgers. Shawn and Howie discuss the wild finish to that seventh game, how things have gone for the Blue Jays and their prospects against the vaunted Dodgers. They also look back fifty years to the sixth game of the 1975 World Series and Carlton Fisk's game winning homer against the Cincinnati Reds.