It's time for Make the Call, a weekly discussion on the top Wisconsin sports stories of the week.
You can listen to the show anytime on the free Civic Media app.
Download it now on your device's app store or at civicmedia.us slash app.
Now it's time for make the call.
The Civic Media Sports Produce.
It is summer and it is another Saturday here on the Civic Media Radio Empire for Sunday, depending on when you're listening to the show.
I'm Jimmy Koska, sports director here for Civic Media, and we are here to recap another big week in Wisconsin sports.
Joining me this week to break it all down is the one, the only Parker vertical Olsen Parker.
What's up, man?
Oh, not too much, Jimmy.
Getting really excited for a long weekend here of Mallard's Baseball.
The camera operating gig is back for me.
Gonna be getting a lot of Northwoods League action coming up here this summer.
And you're going to see me in a non working gig at a mall or to keep here real soon, uh, as I will be the idiot somewhere on the third base side, uh, just cheering for, um, I don't know, dollar dogs or something like that.
I, that'll be me here in short order.
Love Northbridge league baseball and softball.
So that's all coming up for me as well.
Well, today's program, we are going to miss the work of Greg Gunderson, our member of upper management.
He is currently enjoying himself at an EDM festival.
So.
So I am looking forward to hearing all about that when he gets back.
I love June, June is summer festival month.
I used to road trip to go to summer festivals when I was younger.
These days I'm old.
So now my days, my road trips are to go watch my kids play baseball or swim or do soccer or any of the other nine sports they are in.
Let me say this Parker, when you become a parent, signing up your kid to every sport they say they want to try, it can be not only very time consuming, but also a little bit expensive.
So I wish you luck whatever you become a parent if you become a parent if that's something you choose to do That being said we have a duty on the show to fulfill and that is to recap the week in sports We will have Mike Clemens join us later in the program to bring you a full recap of everything happening in Wisconsin sports Also in today's program.
We will hear from Micah Parsons of the Green Bay Packers He had his first media availability in quite a while actually and he talks about his progress in returning
from injury.
Given the recent trade with Miles Garrett to the Rams, I thought it would be a good time to just get that in and just hear about his progress back because he'll be a big, big part of what the Packers do this fall.
We'll see when he's coming back, how he's progressing, and we'll learn more about that later.
But we do have to do our top eight at eight this week, our top eight sports or not sports stories.
of the week.
And we start at number eight with perhaps the most important question on the entire list this week, Parker.
And that is, what is the most obscure sporting event you've ever been to?
That's coming on the heels, of course, with the world pinball championship happening in Depear this weekend.
So Parker, I want to start with you.
What's the most obscure sporting event you've ever been to?
When I was a kid, I don't remember exactly where it was.
I want to say it was in like Cottage Grove, I think.
There was a boomerang competition.
There's a bunch of different like events in boomerang throwing.
And it was actually, it was really cool to see all of the different, like there's so many different kinds of boomerang something.
And I never would have guessed how many different competitions there were.
That definitely was the most obscure thing I've been to.
I have broadcast a lot of obscure things in my career.
I have done bowling.
I have done.
All kinds of things i'm going to give you a two for one on this one because uh gray isn't here so it's true i'm allowed to do two for once since he's famous for them uh number one of course is the uscube national championships in eau claire uh kuba's a long game uh with wood blocks that you chuck and try to knock over other wood blocks there's no math required you just have to be uh sort of sort of good at i guess throwing wood blocks a kind of a combination of
A lot of different things horseshoes is probably a good comparison kind of the same throwing motion So that's one and I love that by the way.
It is a really fun sport or a flaunt game I guess if you don't want to call it a sport Obviously the other one that I used to broadcast was one used to be held in Madison the Tecmo Super Bowl World Championships So that's an e-sport.
So I'm gonna sneak that in here as an obscure sporting event But e-sports that used to be held here right in Madison and I used to broadcast the championships for that now that was fun to play a
Very old football video game and see people who are really really good at it for fun I tried out against somebody who didn't even make the quarter finals I think I got beat by about 60 points.
So people take their exact most super bowl very very seriously Number seven are top eight at eight.
What is something in sports?
You just don't understand Parker
All right, I was watching the Stanley Cup was two nights ago
And I forget who it was.
I want to say it was one of the Las Vegas players.
Took a puck directly in the face.
I don't even know if it got any of his visor.
People were saying it did.
It looked like it was straight into his nose for me.
To me.
I don't understand why professional hockey refuses.
to put a cage on their helmets like every other level of hockey that I've ever seen.
It makes zero sense to me why you're risking that.
What is the point?
I just, I can't, I don't understand it, Jimmy.
Some
kind of macho kind of.
I have no idea.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I mean, like it's a sport where you don't really see faces that well.
Maybe they got to, you know, make sure that the cameras get them just right.
Those endorsement deals don't write themselves Parker.
My mind is a football related one.
I don't understand why.
If a fumble out of the back of the end zone as an offensive player becomes a touchback for the defense, why does the defense get the ball automatically in that situation?
I've never understood that rule, and I know it's been brought up with rules committees in all levels, but this has been something that's confused me for a long time.
I just never really understood the purpose of that rule.
It seems like it really penalizes
You know the offense where you might be going in from the water and you fumble it away and all of a sudden you're giving up not only possession But 19 yards of field possession, you know so our position so I've never really understood why that happens.
I honestly have never really even thought of that role Yeah, that is kind of odd.
Huh,
you know what ruled the NFL and all
United States levels of football need.
We need the Rouge, man.
I love the points from missing it.
All right.
Number six of the top eight.
So next week is the start of the World Cup.
It is being hosted by North America.
A lot of the matches are being held right in the United States.
Some in Canada, some are in Mexico.
Most of the teams, though, are practicing training staying in the U.S.
So got to ask, are you watching?
I'm gonna watch very sparingly.
I'm gonna watch enough to get a taste of it is kind of the way that I should put this I I want to see what all the different stadiums are because I I'm obviously you're gonna know the ones that are in the US already But like the ones that are gonna be in Mexico and Canada.
I don't know those stadiums at all So I'm kind of interested to see what those ones look like and also soccer is such a culture of itself I'm that is a lot of fun to see all those different fan bases internationally coming into one stadium.
It's really neat thing so
that I'm looking forward to.
I don't know, maybe I'll turn it on four or five times and watch for 10 minutes each.
That's probably about how much I'll watch, Jimmy.
How about you?
The World Cup brought us to the Vubuzella.
It really made that very popular.
And I have a few in my house and my kids were asking me what that is.
They were playing and they unlocked a sound effect in MLB the show.
which is a booboozella.
And my kids are like, well, what is it?
It sounds kind of weird.
And I'm like, well, go in the basement.
It's right here in this box.
There's four of them.
So now that's all they've been doing for the last two weeks.
Big mistake, parenting mistake on my part.
Your neighbors hate you now.
Oh man, I I personally though I'm a big fan of being annoying these these just kind of amplify that so The World Cup has given us that anyway a backup point I will probably watch a few of the matches, but probably not until we get to Knockout rounds, you know when we get to metal stages things like that the group play can be fun It's hard because the United States isn't expected to be much of a contender their coaching situation is pretty dire their coaches openly interviewing other
positions right now.
Not just, you know, I mean, he was just on a job interview last week.
So how focused is he on World Cup?
You know, it's a mess, right?
US soccer, men's soccer anyway, has been a mess.
Women's soccer has been great.
Men's soccer, not so great.
And the fact that they're in this, it's only because of the hosting that they're getting into this, you know, it's kind of like the like, Oh, yeah, well, you know, you get a free pass just because your country's hosting, which is a really, really ridiculous rule anyway.
Why are you letting a terrible team in just on
the fact that they're hosting.
I don't understand that.
But anyway, back to the point, I will probably watch knockout round things.
It is a cool event and it is cool.
It's being hosted here.
Problem is, is that nobody's going to be able to afford to see it live.
It costs, you know, about
A day's worth of groceries to go to do a match.
I think the tickets are about, you know, $1,500 to get in.
So that's like one grocery trip.
So yeah, that ain't happening.
That's a lot of money.
All right.
Number five in the top eight at eight.
Well, speaking of big events, right now it's June, which means we are in the finals, Stanley Cup and the NBA finals.
Which one is higher on your list?
Which one are you trying to watch more of Parker?
I've been following the Stanley Cup playoffs pretty much the whole time.
So I've been actually
Kinda deep in the weeds of that, so I'm enjoying my hockey, and honestly, I don't know if I've watched more than like 10 minutes of these NBA playoffs.
I don't know what usually I'll watch a little bit of NBA, but I never get into it, and this year especially, I'm not getting into it at all.
How about you?
I watched a bit of the Timberwolves when they were still playing, but in the NBA finals, the Knicks and Spurs is only fascinating for this.
The Knicks are kind of a accidental super team.
Their players kind of came about because
previous teams, especially Dallas, can completely mismanaged their way to a point where they dumped all their good players.
The Dallas situation, by the way, is a whole case study in itself of how not to GM a team.
But you looked at the Knicks, obviously bringing all the pieces in there together, just again, cast away some other teams that ended up being superstars in New York.
And then you've got San Antonio, which after having David Robinson, after having Tim Duncan,
Now have Wemby.
And how fair is that?
That San Antonio gets another generational superstar to play somewhere in the post.
I actually really enjoy watching the dude play because his arms don't make sense to me.
They're just, they're huge.
Like, I'm like, I watch like that does not look like a regular basketball player, but you can't stop watching it.
And he shoots threes too.
So I'm enjoying it, just that part of it.
I'm not actually watching a lot of the games and watching highlights, but
I'm a hockey guy first and foremost when it comes to broadcasting.
Basketball and hockey are what I do the most of and I do enjoy
Hockey but for the Stanley Cup I probably won't tune in until probably after came four, you know, I want to see knockout games I want to see the attention, you know, that's what I get in there for all right We got to talk Wisconsin sports.
It's a Wisconsin sports show Parker.
We've asked all these big broad National questions.
Let's bring it back to Wisconsin further probably the rest of the show here number four at our top eight and eight with Christian Watson getting his extension got a big big big big payday six or nine figures six figures would have to be a payday in the NFL nine figures is a hundred
plus a million dollar contract.
Who else needs to be extended for the Packers now that they have locked down Christian Watson?
I don't know when his contract is up, but I think Tucker Kraft is my number one for the Packers.
He's
First of all, I think he might be my favorite player on that team.
In my eyes, he's kind of the epitome of football.
He's kind of the epitome of mid-western football, kind of a hard-nosed guy, but he's also really athletic too.
He's an awesome blocking tight end, but also he can do some pass catch and he can get down the field.
I think that he has been...
the best tight end the Packers have had in a minute.
So I think that would be really good to keep him and keep investing in him and keep him around.
Jimmy, what do you got for this?
Well, first of all, the punter for sure.
I mean, he's awesome.
So give him the bag right now.
I think Tucker Kraft is the right answer.
I think much like Christian Watson, much like Mike Parsons, now you worry about the injury because now you've got
The core of your team has all had pretty much a major injury at this point, with the exception, knock on every chunk of wood in the room, Jordan Love.
It seems like everybody's had some kind of an injury.
But I know that the extensions are only enabled by recent roster moves, dumping their kicker and all the other moves they've made.
But I do worry a little bit that the Packers are tying up a lot of their money in just a small central core.
And then how do you address things like an offensive line, which still hasn't really taken shape?
How do you invest in making sure you've got enough for your defensive line rotation or someone to cover the slot on defense?
There's still needs for the Packers.
And their salary cap situation is never going to be great when they're paying Michael Parsons and George Love when they're paying them.
But I am excited that they are securing some of their younger talent.
Speaking of young talent in long term, the Milwaukee Brewers have overachieved once again with a very light payroll.
We're going to talk a lot of Brewers here in our next segment.
Well, Mike Clements later in the program will also dive into that pack of stuff with Mike about Mike Parsons.
We're going to hear some from him from a press conference earlier this week, later in the program.
This is Make The Call, the Subicmedia radio network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Make the Call, as you heard from the big O voice over guy there on the Civic Media radio network.
Kimmy Guska, Parker Olson picking you through the weekend here.
And in number three in our top eight at eight, let's talk about the Brewers.
And before we dive into
All the big May record and all the great things they're doing.
Let's talk about the injuries.
The pitching staff has been absolutely beset by every Malady imaginable.
And at the moment, six pitchers on the Brewers 40 man roster are currently sitting on the injury list.
So I'm going to start this and I know you're at your head and your hands right now, Parker.
Oh man, how do the Brewers navigate?
All of these pitching injuries, there's so many of them.
The answer to how you navigate this.
is you keep doing what they've been doing.
The next man out mentality, that's what the birds have been very good at.
The problem is, there's six pitchers on that list, you're kind of running out of the next man.
It's a little scary there.
And frankly, there are some names on here, though, that have been on there for so long, I've just kind of forgotten about.
Jared Koenig, I forgot that he was on the injured list.
I did not remember him being on there at all.
Outside of pitchers as well, Brandon Lockridge kind of forgot that he was hurt too.
It's so hard for the Brewers to be able to deal with this because there are so many, but they've done it.
I think it just has been a next man up kind of thing.
The culture that Pat Murphy has put into that team has been, yeah, it's the next guy up and you're going to be gritty no matter who it is.
You're going to take advantage of your opportunities.
That's kind of the best way to do it, I think, and it's been working for them.
We saw how that they powered through the beginning of the year with Yelich and Vaughn and Shurio all having injuries, and that's obviously on the offensive side, though.
That's a little different than what you've got on the pitching side, but pitching has had their own fair share of injuries, too.
Quinn Priestor has been injured for, I think, all season, and they've been fairly okay without him.
He doesn't look awesome right now in his rehab assignment, but...
How badly do you need them?
The answer might be a lot, because they're actually about to go through, I think, the longest stretch of games that they've had so far this season, Jimmy.
Yeah, and they have that big stretch in July where they got to play on the road quite a bit.
You mentioned a few of them, Brandon Woodruff, obviously, trying to make that comeback all the way.
He's currently in the 15-day IL, Logan Henderson, who's been a part of the pitching.
You've got Angel Zerpa, who's been out for quite a while.
There's six pitchers currently sitting on the IL.
And then you look at what they do have that is going on the Major League staff, and you just heard a very
KG press conference for Pat Murphy about Brandon Sprout and his most recent start So, you know, there's there's some guys that are are struggling a bit But then on the other end of it, of course, you got to think of the guys who are performing Well, just think of that trait for Kyle Harrison and what that has done This really stabilizes team.
It seems like every year and we talked about this two months ago on this very show About how they always seem to find a picture from somewhere that nobody else wants and then they turn them into somebody who's all stark caliber Well, Kyle Harrison's that guy this year
There's a term that I think Pat Murphy has used a couple of times in his tenure and now it's kind of become, I think kind of a tradition every year now to say who's the guy that's going to take a quantum leap this year.
And usually that's applied to position players, right?
I think that Bryce Tarang is the guy that he pointed out for this year.
If not, he should have because Holy smokes.
Yeah, for pitchers, it seems they can do that exact same thing all the time with some guy that they picked up from whoever in whatever trade.
You're right, Kyle Harrison, he's been phenomenal this year.
Rivaling Miz, frankly.
I don't think that he quite gets enough attention in comparison to Miz because Miz had so much hype coming into this year, but he's right there with him.
listeners, you should be really keeping track of Kyle Harrison.
He's been phenomenal, and I think he might just stay that way.
Well, let's talk about some of the positives then for the brewers at number two in our top eight eight after that big may big month may let's see if they can sustain this thing long term What are has that month changed how you view this brewers team like their potential this year?
Do you see them more as a contender after you're having the best record in baseball in the month of May?
In june against the Giants in that series they split it two and two they're currently on the west coast swing with the Rockies and the athletics so they've got They got games coming up on the west coast so a lot
about a late night games.
In fact, if you're listening to the Saturday, they don't play until after eight o'clock tonight.
So it's going to be a late night if you're following it.
Then they play the A's in Las Vegas.
Those are nine o'clock starts Monday and Tuesday games getting over at midnight.
That's always great, right?
During the week.
But do you view this team any differently now because of that hot month of May?
I think just a tick.
I don't think a ton difference, but I feel more confident in the Brewers winning the division than I did previously.
Which I was sort of on the fence about I don't think I think before the season started right at the beginning of the season I was saying that the Brewers would be a wildcard team and not the division winners Which still very well that could be the case because there are so many good teams in the NL central this year I think everyone is still I think I might need a fact check here But I'm pretty sure all of them are still over 500 and we're what 60 games into the season now.
It's absolutely ridiculous But yeah, I think I view the Brewers as a little bit more of a contender for the division
than I did before.
And I kind of think that they've got a better chance at playing well in the playoffs than I had previously.
The amount of pitching that they've got has worked so well.
I think that that could play really, really well, especially if you get a couple of those guys healthy that we were just talking about.
If they get healthy, that could be a really dangerous team.
I do still need to see a move when we talked about this last week.
I would love to see him move on the left side of the infield, kind of get another bat there, but I think that they've got a really nice chance in the playoffs now.
There are two things that worry me.
One, first of all, the record, if they were the AL, they'd have the AL's best record, right?
AL's terrible this year.
On the flip side of that, here's what worries me, the NL, the NL Central specifically, every team.
is at 500 or above right now.
Brewers are leading that pack and they've got a few games lead on the next team up in the standings.
That would be Pittsburgh but they have a very interesting schedule this month because later this month they are going to face the Braves who currently have the best record in the national league.
They also play the Phillies later this month and that's a team that again over 500.
They have a very tough schedule coming up but there are some big things coming up too for the Packers that would be
that Mike Parsons is rehabbing from the injury he suffered in November last year.
And we're going to get an update on that as Mike Parsons had media availability earlier this week.
We'll talk to little Packers, a little NFL in the next segment.
Mike Clements recaps the weekend sports later as well.
This is make the call part of the Civic Media Radio Network.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
Welcome back to Make the Call, part of the Civic Media radio network.
I'm Jimmy Cuska, and in this segment, we are going to deep dive in the Packers as number one in our top eight and eight.
And the deep dive is all about Micah Parsons.
And the reason for this is that earlier this week, we learned that Miles Garrett would be moving from Cleveland to Los Angeles in exchange for Jared Verst.
Edge rushers on the line there because now you're gonna have Garrett and Parsons meet in that Thanksgiving Eve game coming up later this season after Parsons is back from his ACL injury.
He suffered last November, so it'd be almost a year to the date that he suffered that injury.
But also just looking at some of the contracts and some of the movement around the NFL, Nick Herbig, the former Wisconsin Badger, signed a megabucks extension with the Pittsburgh Steelers where they have three very highly paid edge rushers.
on their roster.
That also includes, of course, Aaron Rodgers and the head coach, Mike McCarthy there.
But you look around the NFL at EdgeRusher is a premium position.
And the Packers know this because they invested heavily in draft capital and in making maneuvers.
Most recently, of course, remembering Rashawn Gary, who has now moved on to greener pastures in the NFL.
The Packers have been trying to solve this position.
They've done it through free agency.
They've done it through the draft, trying to find the right piece
to fit there.
And now with Parsons and guys like Lucas Van Ness and some of the draft picks, backers starting to feel like they've got something to coming together on the defensive side.
But this week, Mike Parsons was able to talk to reporters and talk about his progress in rehabbing from his ACL injury.
So the press conference earlier this week, Mike Clements, our very own here at Civic Media, was on hand.
And the first question was about where Parsons is in relation to coming back from his injury.
Mike, where do you have your
rehab?
Just past my fifth month on May 29.
I'm extremely happy where we're at and the direction that I'm going.
So obviously we've got four more months to go.
Many fans hope that they'll see Micah Parsons back by week one of the regular season.
Here's what he had to say about that timeline.
I think the goal has always just been not right now, but longevity with my career here.
And I think they want that approach.
And we have a pretty strong nine month rule.
So it's just all about.
just through the research in the data, there's no good outcomes with players coming back early from ACL, especially if you add in all the other things that get fixed up.
So it's just all about completing the rehab, the best of our ability, and then seeing where we're at from there.
Parsons is not the only packer that is rehabbing an injury right now.
Tucker Kraft also suffered an ACL injury, and Parsons was asked about whether or not he had been talking to Kraft this offseason.
We talked a good bit early on where he's at now.
He's doing a great job where he's at and he should be back way a lot before me.
Parsons was asked to reflect on his experience rehabbing from this ACL injury.
You know sometimes we can make the hard things look easy and you know it's okay to go through hard times.
You know the injury has nothing been slight.
of hard and it came with a lot of hardship days where you're pushing your challenge in different ways and just even just the simple things is doing the RDL or a single leg squat just gaining your motion and your gait back and just running again.
So I just learned that you know what I always thought of myself that just being present every day and just enjoying my process of rebuilding myself and getting stronger.
and learning just how to be, just having started to have more fun with the process, you know, getting back to where I once was before I got hurt.
While ACL injuries are seemingly more common these days, Parsons was asked whether or not he had been researching the ways that other players had been rehabbing from ACL injuries of their own.
No, I don't like to go on those rabbit holes because then it's the comparison game.
And I don't want to compare myself to no man's journey because I don't know what he went through.
He don't know what I went through.
I don't know what steps he did.
It's just a bad game to go through.
All you can do is just try to make yourself better every day.
And that's all I try to do.
Control what I can control.
Everyone is completely different in their processes, whether they're coming in, whatever they had to get cleaned up throughout their surgery.
So everyone's different.
bodies are different.
Everyone hills different.
Some people take longer.
Some people don't take as long and that's just genetically.
It's just freaky, so I don't like to do the comparison game.
The physical injury takes an obvious toll.
Torn ACL is no joke, but there's also a mental toll as you work to rehab from that injury and Parsons was asked about what this has been like for him emotionally.
You know, Doc put it the best way like this.
He was like, because of who you are, you're going to feel good.
But we got to control you from feeling too good.
And so he was like, sometimes you just got to lose the battle so you can win the war.
So that's how long this process is.
Every month, you're going to get a little bit better.
Every day, you're going to get a little bit better.
It's not one of them things where it's like, I'm going to be feeling terrible for months at a time.
Every day, you're going to get stronger, and you're going to feel yourself getting stronger.
And sometimes people are like, man, I feel like I can do a little bit more, but you got to press to break.
You know what I mean?
Make sure we're not moving too fast, doing too much so that way.
Like I said, the goal for me is to complete the season.
Not no relapse, not no and playoffs and pushing towards the championship.
The goal isn't for me to go out there and rehearse myself trying to force myself to be back in the first few games.
The goal has always been.
playoffs and I think we're all on the same page.
Not only that, has it also taken a toll mentally on him as he works back from the injury?
Yeah, I would definitely say it is hard for me to accept.
Not only is it hard to accept that I'm going to miss more time than what I want, but obviously it's hard to accept the injury like that.
It constantly replays in my brain, constantly.
Thinking about how can I not do it like you don't even know how much time I spent on chat GBT about my injury and how Like like I just can't accept like where I'm at like I'm like man How do I keep you progressing and progressing like and it's just not stopped so that's a very good question It is I haven't accepted it yet, but I work hard as hell every day trying to make sure
that I will be better when it comes out of this.
Again, playing back some of the press conference with Micah Parsons earlier this week, talking about his recovery and rehab from his ACL injury.
He was asked about a nine month timeline from when he got hurt in November, if that means he'll be playing after nine months since the injury or if that means that'll be his return to football activities.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I just know it's
Pure nine months, no football, so.
And to follow up on that, he was asked if there was a game that he was targeting to return by.
You know, like I said, it's about, you know, knowing when to go.
And it's all about feeling great.
Like, I don't think Goody or Nate or Matt, he wants me to go out there if I'm not at 100% and risk re-injury and lose me for the year.
And it's just a waste of a year.
Everything is about playoffs and winning football games during September.
Yeah, those games are important, but maybe we don't see Dallas twice, but we see Chicago twice.
And the games that we have in December are even more playoff games.
And not to even just look at that far ahead, but we got tough games, tough schedule this year.
And I think for the betterment, everyone, everyone's made 100.
once me in those games so we can make this championship run.
What's keeping Micah Parsons motivated?
That trip down the tunnel.
Yeah, 100% you know me and that's what good friends are for.
They get you out of that funk and I think Baron and Colin and just even just being here with DY and we talk about all of us being back together on the field again and that's like the beauty part like finally getting through them dark tunnel stages and
being back on the field and they're all talking about throwing up the one and how we are going to do it together in that emotional moment.
So that's like the magic.
That's like, that's what I look at when I'm working out like how can I get back with my friends, my brothers and you know just all that.
So there is that beautiful side of that.
So as I mentioned to start the segment, another prominent pass rusher Miles Garrett has been traded from Cleveland to Los Angeles and well it's a
you know, the NFL players tend to know one another.
So Parsons was asked whether or not he had reached out to Garrett since the trade.
Now, I haven't talked to him.
You know, you got to let people hold it in.
He probably had a thousand text messages.
Obviously recently, but you know, I would say it's a whole lot different from the NFC versus the AFC.
And I think everyone knows that.
So I look at AFCs like, you know, AFC is cool.
Like there's a couple, there's a couple of sharks, but
the NFC is shark infested.
You know what I mean?
It's different football.
It's like playoff football every week.
I mean, there's not really weak opponents in NFC.
I'm going to put it like that.
So I know ASC is top heavy.
The predictions is pretty much the same every year.
But NFC is unpredictable.
So it's great to add more talent to already shark infested pool.
It's going to be exciting to see what we do on Thanksgiving.
Speaking of reaching out, as Micah Parsons asked anybody about this recovery process, that was the question posed to him again at a press conference earlier this week.
You know, I think that's the hard part because I don't really have anyone like that.
And obviously I've had people that went through adversity and challenges and you're seeing some of our favorite players ever growing up go through them.
So, you know, I don't really have that voice.
In my life with people, I just only had great staff of the Packers organization.
I mean, there was a point in time, Nate came down, flew down to Dallas to check on me.
I think Nate almost became like a wife, almost like he became the wife.
He called me more than anybody in my family, texted me more than anyone in my family.
I mean, this guy has, he's probably became my best friend throughout this process.
And that's just, and flea, too.
I mean, it's been nothing but love and support from the staff here.
And that's something I really appreciate throughout this.
I mean, between calling my doctors, asking me if I need machines, I mean, throughout my whole process, I never felt more valued in my life to an organization in terms of making sure I'm okay mentally, not even just to injury all the time.
Like, how's your mental?
How was this week?
What do you have this week?
Did you feel anything?
Like, it's just, it's great.
So, you know, I think this all season and that goes along with Matt too, DeMarcus, my game friends, brothers, you know, just all of the above.
So I really appreciate that.
A new coordinator means a new defense and Parsons was asked what he feels like he can do in a new revamped odd front defense.
What can I do?
I think the sky's the limit always.
I would never doubt myself in no possible way.
If I tell you whether it's 4-3-3-4, I think I can do exactly what I've been capable of doing.
And that's even better because, like I said, I can play inside, I can play outside.
And now it makes it even more challenging because they don't know who's rushing and who's coming.
So the protections have got to play a little bit more honest now.
So I think that's a beautiful part of this, too.
So he's got to learn a new defense and he's got to recover from an injury at the same time.
Micah was asked about that process.
A little bit of both.
I'm majority on just getting my knee right.
Like I don't do meetings.
I do all of the rehab in the morning and then after practice I go out for practice and watch and go with the markets and he spits out the calls and tell me where I would be at and obviously what job does what.
I'm getting more of a walkthrough look versus meetings, which I'm more of a person anyway, I think.
So, um, I don't mind that, but I think, you know, between me and Matt DeMarcus, I think our whole goal is just for me to get healthy.
And we all have that same mindset and plan intact.
I mean, Kent would be different, but, you know, right now it's just all about getting healthy.
That again, audio from a press conference earlier this week with Green Bay Packers edge rusher, Micah Parsons.
going to be a really interesting season in Green Bay after signing Christian Watson to the big extension this week as well.
Here's a couple other players ticketed for some pay raises as well coming up.
I just think that the Packers are a team that brings a ton of intrigue this upcoming season.
It is June.
We're not quite the football season there as much as I wanted to be, but we've got a lot more to talk about.
But we are going to recap our weekend sports with Mike Clemens coming up next.
You are listening to Make the Call part of the Civic Media
radio network, you can find it on demand at civicmedia.us and also download the app from civicmedia.us slash app.
Welcome back to Make the Call on Civic Media.
One final time here on Make the Call on the Civic Media Radio Network, a little previous segment talking a lot of Packers.
a lot of Micah Parsons.
So, appreciate Mike Clemens for grabbing all of that audio and attending that press conference.
We're going to hear from Mike here in two minutes from now with a full rundown of all of the sports this week in Wisconsin.
But it is time for our final thoughts this week.
Greg Underson will be back next week after a much deserved break this week.
So, we have a chance now, Parker and I, to have our final thoughts for this week.
Parker, I'm going to start with you.
What are your final sports thoughts for the week?
Final sports thoughts this week.
I'm thinking about minor league baseball.
I'm thinking about college baseball.
The NCAA D1 college baseball has been a lot of fun during the postseason here.
I believe they're in super regionals.
I don't remember if those start on Saturday, I think.
I'm not certain of what the day's schedule is there, but those are a ton of fun.
I found myself watching college baseball.
Quite genuinely, I think every night that it was on last week.
It was so fun And it's also cool to see too is somebody from Wisconsin having no experience with a division one baseball team RIP Badger baseball For a long time
Milwaukee.
I mean Milwaukee had that nice run for a bit.
Yes, and they were fun to watch too.
They were really cool With kind of bummed that they couldn't get through and beat Auburn again, but it
Awesome team to watch there.
So yeah, that's that's kind of what I'm thinking about Jimmy.
What do you got?
Well, I was big obviously to the college World Series in softball.
Mississippi State was making a run.
And what does Mississippi State have to do anything with Wisconsin?
Well, a girl who happened to attend the school in which I'm a school board member and a coach at by the name of Greta Grassel plays for Mississippi State and big contributor this year.
She is also a member of the Madison Nightmares, the summer softball team she played last year.
She'll be back again for the month of June this year.
So looking forward to watching some of that summer baseball softball.
Well, one final quick note on the Brewers.
They have a series of the Braves coming up.
They play them again in August.
I just feel like those are going to be really, really important series long.
Yeah.
So excited for that.
Parker, have a fun weekend.
We'll be back all together here next week.
Awesome.
Thank you, Jimmy.
Have a good weekend.
Mike Clemens recaps the week in sports now on Make the Call, part of the Civic Media radio network.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
A weekend in Colorado.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with Sports Baseball.
It's the Brewers and the Rockies this weekend in Denver at Coors Field for a three game weekend series that got off to a start Friday night in quite a battle.
Brewers held a just one hit down three to one in the ninth inning.
They came back sending the game into extra innings.
The final Friday night, nine to seven.
Milwaukee splitting a four game series with the San Francisco Giants back in Milwaukee last week.
A final game on Thursday, the Giants winning
12 to 9, but the Brewers also may have lost a couple of their bullpen pitchers.
Left-hander D.L.
Hall had to leave in the fifth inning with a sore shoulder and was asked after the game if he'd ever had that kind of flair up in that area before.
It's the first time.
Just felt a couple pitches before I came out.
Just felt my peg tighten up and tried to keep throwing through a couple of sliders that kind of irritated it a little more and just didn't want to push it further.
I tried to at least finish that batter, but they didn't want me to.
A few pitches later, Grant Anderson came in relief, and he was hit in the forearm of his pitching arm on a comeback hit to the mound, clocked at 110 miles per hour.
Good jolt, I hit the bone pretty good, but fortunately it wasn't any harder.
It feels much better already, but nothing's broken, thankfully.
So just kind of got a couple of days to see.
see what it feels like and go from there.
Brewers manager Pat Murphy after that game said besides DL Hall and Grant Anderson, they already had a half dozen pitchers on the IL.
We've got three starters out right now.
Priester, Woodruff, Henderson.
We've got relievers like Zerpa and Keeney that we're going to be part of it.
That's five major injuries.
Rob Zease out again.
So you got six pitching injuries already of guys that might have been on the team.
So that's half your staff for a first place club.
But look where we are.
Murphy had brought up young Coleman Crow.
But he gave up six runs in just the first three innings after giving up a home run to the leadoff batter on Thursday against the Giants.
Yeah, I mean, it's tough.
I feel like it's it's all in the way
you respond and bounce back.
I mean, there's definitely some pitches I would like to have back.
But after that first thing, I feel like I responded well.
I've gone out there for a second and eat some innings and, you know, put our team in a little bit better position and try and go into one of all game.
But yeah, I think it's in how you respond
and.
She's got to continue to get better and make better pitches.
After this weekend's series in Denver, the Brewers move on to Las Vegas where they'll take on the A's.
NFL the Packers have a mandatory mini camp coming up this week in Green Bay.
That's after last week's OTA session, running back Josh Jacobs able to participate in the voluntary sessions.
Quarterback Jordan Love asked about the team's response to Jacobs facing possible domestic violence charges after being arrested over Memorial Day weekend.
Yeah, we've talked internally.
Everyone knows what the situation is there.
We've talked but obviously the details are everybody's keeping that
under wraps right now.
The backup options at running
back include Chris Brooks and third year man, Marshawn Lloyd, who's been plagued by injuries his first two years with the Packers.
What can he do to change the perception that he's injury prone?
Honestly, I couldn't do it.
I can't do anything until I make it happen.
Like Coach LaFleur said, prove it.
I mean, if I want to change that narrative, prove it.
and reporters were introduced to Tyrod Taylor.
16-year veteran Green Bay is his eighth NFL team and was asked about his time so far after signing in free agency with Green
Bay.
as great chemistry, a lot of great coaches as well too.
Being able to put a strong training camp together, obviously being ready for the season, supporting Jordan in any way possible to be able to help us come out there and win.
And if the opportunity presents itself for me to go out there, obviously be ready to do that as well too.
On defense, Micah Parsons continues to rehab that ACL he suffered back in December, the surgery on December 29th, and was asked, what has he learned so far from his experience following that surgery?
You know, sometimes we can make the hard things look easy.
And, you know, it's okay to go through hard times.
Just haven't started to have more fun with the process, you know.
getting back to where I once was before I got
hurt.
In golf, it's the AMFAM championship going on at TPC Wisconsin course in Madison.
Steve Stricker asked what's he most proud of of the tournament as it enters its 10th year in the Madison area.
The biggest thing is the nearly 22 million that we've raised for charities through that time period.
Half of that money going to the American Family Children's Hospital, you know, which is right here in our backyard that's important for this community and all
So this event has always been about and we continue to do that each and every year.
That's golfer Steve
Stricker with sports.
I'm Mike Clemens.
