The Pop Tart Bowl?

Welcome everyone to WFHRs, Play Meckers.

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here in Rapids.

Got your host, James J. Mailov here.

I'm joined by my favorite pitch hitter in baseball, Seth Hathagger, Seth how you doing?

I'm doing all right.

Good to have you.

Mormon up again.

Thank you for being here.

We just got here.

Just all of a sudden.

Over night, it really did a number of us.

Yeah.

I also want to say a big thank you to the other guest hosts we have here.

All of you.

Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.

Part of our final show of the year.

That's right.

So right, Play Meckers of the year.

Oh, yeah.

We are going to do what every sports show does right now in this dead time of year.

Just talk about the year.

No, I'm joking.

We're not going to do that.

But I do want to hear from all of you.

And if there is a sports story that stood out to you more than others in 2023, go ahead

and call up and let us know.

We'd love to hear that.

I do actually kind of find some of that fun.

The year in review.

As long as you don't spend the whole show on it.

Like it's just it's such low-hanging fruit kind of thing.

Like we got nothing else to talk about.

I remember that time that.

Yeah, basically Chris Farley.

Yeah, I'm just doing a whole I love I miss Chris Farley every day.

But we do have some fun things to get to.

We want to talk local.

We want to talk a little bit of our local schedule as well.

We'll get to all of that.

But first our favorite thing to do.

Let's take your calls.

First hitter.

Let's up lead off hitter on the deck.

How you doing, sir?

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

We just hang on a second.

Oh, Baker me.

So just do another touchdown.

That's the kind of show we're going to have.

Perfect.

I like it.

I like it.

So your thoughts on the game yesterday.

I word two games in our wall that we have a decent place 12 yards off the ball.

I a school team play better defense than that.

I get a little angry with especially when we hear like fans or you know talking heads

on Monday morning talking about I could have ran for 50 yards against that defense

or whatever and everything.

I genuinely believe.

I genuinely believe in my heart that any of us could have gotten at least a first down

against that.

And not because that those of those players are not talented.

I don't want to say that.

Those men and one of them walked in the room right now.

I do not stand a chance and I can handle myself and I wouldn't be able to.

But in that situation where that defense is being scheme that way,

I believe that all of us are intelligent enough to figure out where the holes are.

I just I mean.

I'm just starting to really truly wonder what Matt LaFour saw and Joel Barry was going

to be able to come to Green Bay and put a championship defense on the field.

But he's never done it.

And if I remember correct Leonard was the runner up that the organization

that there were other people that wanted Jim Leonard in that position.

And LaFour's decision was to go with Barry.

And I hate to say that the baddest thing is right now.

If they would fire him, I would take Rex Ryan in a heartbeat.

And I don't like him.

I don't I mean, come on.

Well, you're you guys are in the position that I was as a as a bear fan

when it came to look like, you know, at a certain point.

Look, I'll take Ryan Fitzpatrick.

Like, give me give me anybody.

Give me somebody that could throw the ball at least 10 yards down the field.

Give me something and you're at a point.

Now right now we put so much money.

So much effort.

So many draft picks so much scouting into the defense.

Get the defense better.

Get the defense better.

Three, four years of this and you just lost another game because of the defense.

And it's got to be frustrating.

I mean, it's just ridiculous.

I mean, and it's not like it's new mistakes.

It's the same of the state.

It's the same.

It just how can we be aggressive?

I mean, why can't we be aggressive?

Is that the culture and green Bay that when it comes to defense that we can't be aggressive?

We can't.

What's the quarterback?

We can't get in the receivers for you.

So put them around.

We're going to be a bunch of marshmallows out there and just let them walk all over us.

I mean, it's just that this is ridiculous.

Every Friday we have my Clemens joining us with us, you know,

looking at talking sports with Mike and everything.

And it's been it's been really fun talking with him over the last couple of months.

But one of the things that surprised me is when I bring up Joe Barry

and the idea that he's coaching for his job and he's think some Mike's going,

no, no, he's fine.

Like like Joe Barry can basically just, you know, if he if he doesn't already own his home,

he can buy a home in Wisconsin.

That's shocking to me.

That's that's borderline shocking to me.

I heard I heard Mike Clemens done a different radio show this morning after you guys.

I mean, I yeah, right.

I appreciate it.

I appreciate it for you guys.

But this morning, no, I don't think Joe Ferris could have either.

I could change over a weekend.

Yeah, just a game like that.

Yeah.

Well, two weeks.

I mean, even Monday night, you know, and now now they have injured offensive players holding up signs

so that the defensive back and see what's have a personnel that the offense is in.

Yeah, they have one of the one of the injured tight ends was holding up a sign.

So if it was 11 personnel or, you know, so that the defensive backs

knew it, knew where to be.

Wow.

There comes a point where you're not so much coaching for your job.

You're coaching to coach again.

Like you're just hoping to get like a linebacker position or something like that.

Like you're because this is the kind of position he's in.

Now they to be to be real about this too, they recycle these coaches insanely.

Oh, they do.

It's nuts how much they recycle these coaches and you know,

don't always give a lot of guys opportunities and everything.

But I couldn't agree with him more because this isn't his first rodeo.

You know, this has been a number of stops or another chance is I think not just for not so much for him.

But I think for guy, the defense coordinator position, like it's already micro.

You know, used to be a head coach got the job for five years.

They get to fulfill their contract usually of the side of extreme circumstances.

Now it's of course micro where it's two, three years, you know,

and assistance assistance get a season or in a half.

That's it.

So yeah, in that regard.

I yeah, maybe maybe goes back to high school.

He'll get a college gig at the very least or coach linebackers or defense of backs or something like that.

He'll get a job.

They always do.

But as far as you go ahead,

was I here part of that that always 16 team on Detroit?

Yes, he was.

I just couldn't I couldn't remember exactly what he what his job was with them.

That's why I didn't want to go there.

But I do know that he I'm 90% sure that he was on that staff.

Yeah.

And if you go to I mean, I just I did I made them I just googled them.

And oh my god.

Oh, I just I just wanted to pull up his coaching, you know, stats.

I didn't mean to see all the fire very get rid of very shredded.

Yeah.

He was he he was the trend trending topic on Twitter yesterday.

Oh, wow.

Top trend on Twitter next to Dallas losing last night.

I so so.

Oh, geez.

Um, yeah, he was the defense of coordinator for that Detroit line steam.

Oh, he was not know that.

Oh, that's not good on your resume.

Oh, geez.

Oh, man.

Is that what sizzle?

Hey, we got this guy who had this terrible season with.

I mean, we already know maybe here.

Here is something that I never thought of with coaching.

We already know his see his his floor.

It can't be worse.

He can't be.

At the very least he's got a bill from that.

Right?

I guess that's a different approach to coaching.

I never thought of a boy.

Uh, yeah, yeah, I don't know.

Um, when it comes to that though.

Okay, you put that because the deep the playoffs are gone.

I mean, no, they're still in the hunt.

But I don't know, but they went from seventh to 11.

Yeah, yeah.

That's a big job, yeah.

So I am a little curious about that though.

As a, as a packer fan, you came into this season, kind of looking at, uh,

rebuild it in some ways, you know, assessing Jordan love, the berry situation.

But I think you've done a lot more winning than I think a lot of average

packer fans would have thought and all the sudden the playoffs become a

possibility and opportunity.

Are you excited about that?

Are you, are you, are you just kind of wavering keeping your feelings in balance?

Like I'd love to see us make the playoffs.

But I'm not, you know, I'm not going to lose my mind if we don't.

Well, that, I mean, I would have been overachieving all those time.

That is a bit, you know, um, I actually thought maybe a 500 ball club,

you know, nine and eight or eight, nine, you know, I was kind of teeter

and on that end of it.

But, you know, when they got that on that roll and Jordan loves

our looking good.

I mean, he's going backwards again.

You know, he has four straight games, a really good quarterback play.

I mean, yeah, yesterday he still had a quarterback or eight of a hundred

or eleven, but it just, I don't know.

I just, that defense makes me feel just not that good.

And he had a perfect quarterback.

He did.

I think I might have seen the comeback player of the year there.

Yeah.

He might be.

He might be.

Yeah.

It's hard to imagine somebody other than Damar Hamlin getting it.

Yeah.

But, um, you know, if they're going to give it to, you know, somebody who's

played, played, nothing against what Hamlin has done.

Obviously, it is, it is a miracle and incredible what that man has done.

But, you know, as far as actually putting up some stats and some wins,

keeping his, his team's got to, I think he's played every game too.

So, yeah, very true.

Yeah.

Uh, I didn't then Vegas Vegas has actually the opening line.

Or the game next week on the road against Carolina.

Packers favor by four.

Hmm.

Are you getting me?

That's how much disrespect they have for Joel Berry.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's, that's rough.

Yeah.

It's beyond words.

I've been waiting to get this off my chest and at a clock this morning.

What are you guys?

I hear you, man.

I hear you.

I appreciate you.

Well, they hold the egg in there.

Well, I tell you what, if they do need a new defensive coordinator in Green Bay,

Brandon Staley's available.

I appreciate you.

Yes.

Thank you, Big y'all.

I just think you saw, I mean, look what it filled off you did now with.

What, what's used back post for the alliance, very clear.

They've actually, he was not scared to be an officer play cause of the action being him,

the defense coordinator for the rest.

Yeah.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

Why can't, why can't the pastor take a change in the middle, do you?

I mean, that's, but you know, some corners are some coaches are meant to be headlocked.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I think that a lot of people are doing a little bit of what Seth and I are in our heads

of like, okay, if it's not him, who could be the next?

Mm-hmm.

And that, there's so many names and names that we never even think of.

But here, while we can't predict that, if it looks like I don't see any scenarios where

Met La Flora is not the head coach next year, so he's going to be making the call there.

Well, decision, yeah.

The decision making process in Green Bay is similar to most places, but it is there.

It is in, it's not changing.

Like, nothing's changing it.

GM makes, you know, his decisions, but he doesn't tell the coach what to do.

Coach makes coaching decisions and head in his staff.

Mm-hmm.

And so with that one, do you think he'll let go, Barry?

Because that's one of his guys, obviously he's proven that.

And two, do you think that he, do you trust him to hire the next guy?

Mm-hmm.

I, I mean, I really think, I mean, I think there's enough friends from all from the fans.

I mean, I just, I think it's starting to get to the point now.

I think before it's going to have to look at, you know, say, buddy, I, you know,

we're friends, I, you know, worked with you, I know, you know, it's time to make a change.

I mean, these guys think the friendship is, if there is a friendship there,

because the last couple of weeks with it is, it is a podium talk.

He's kind of put Joe under the bus a little bit, a couple of times.

I'm kind of wondering if he's going to hang it out until the end of the year.

And then look and see what's available.

I mean, who knows?

Maybe he's, maybe now that Joe Leonard's got a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a coach, coaching,

coaching, couch, couch jobs and Illinois.

Maybe, I mean, that might be, you know, he could be a possibility there.

There is a couple of names that were brought up from some other coaching trees that are, like,

linebackers, coaches or other specialty coaches.

Yeah.

From other teams that could be, you know, good choices for, for Green Bay.

We see, I just want to see some, it's going to be more aggressive.

But I'm going to want to start someone stroking on really taking tools.

Yeah.

I, I, I, I want to defense a coordinator.

And I know that Kansas City isn't the greatest defense necessarily.

But give me spags.

Steve Magnolia is one of my favorite coaches ever.

I love him as a defensive coordinator.

I love him as a coach.

I, I thank him.

If I ever met the man, I would thank him for what he did to the Patriots and those two super bowls with the giants.

I think he's one of the most underrated coaches ever.

And I, I love that even when you give him scraps, he will find ways to get turnovers and something out of that defense.

I'm not saying he's the greatest coordinator ever or anything like that.

But I, I, to me, if I was grabbing somebody that, if he was a free agent, if I could get him, that's one of those top, the kind of guy you're talking about, sir, is that, that's the kind of guy I would want him.

But I think we're on the same page on that.

There is somebody out of the coaching tree of his, on his staff.

I think it was a defensive line coach was brought up today.

I think it could be a good defense before.

Yeah, yeah.

That would be a good one.

I also find interesting too that you're not going to have the talent pool you used to in the NFL.

Because as an example, North Dakota states head coach just left that job to go be the linebacker coach at USC.

Because it paid more than the head coaching job in North Dakota state.

Right.

And the money that these colleges and universities have, they don't have to spend on players.

So they're just waiting, they're just spending it on giving insane amounts of money to assistant coaches and all these things.

So you can actually, in some ways, you can make more money in college as a coach assistant coach than you can in the NFL.

Right. So you're not going to have the talent pool that you used to with that either.

That's going to be interesting.

I would look like we would look like you're a star being a Fisher there at B&M.

You're going to be a fire fish.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You was actually making more than NFL coaches.

Oh, yes.

And he would like to let everybody know he's still looking for work.

Yeah, I believe he's on LinkedIn.

I think he's on LinkedIn.

I think he is.

You know, please, please, you know, give me a call.

Even if you're not really serious, just to, you know, make sure he's all right.

Yeah.

Just, you know, send him a little.

Give him a little.

Give him a little.

Give him a little.

And maybe put a little smile on his face.

Yeah.

I don't think it sits on that pile of money.

I was going to say I don't think Jim Bolfisher is getting this through the

right.

He's thinking, all right.

We appreciate you, man.

Thanks so much for the call.

All right.

You guys have a very Christmas.

You have a great one too.

Yeah.

Merry Christmas to you and you're on.

Yeah.

I want to get a chance to talk to us to the new year.

Yeah.

That's right.

This is our last playmakers of the year.

So yeah, happy New Year's and a Merry Christmas to you and yours, sir.

All right.

You guys have a great one.

You do.

You do.

And the official break right here will come back.

I want to talk not only college football as Seth, because I want to get to two things majorly

in college football.

Uh, the idea of what to do next between NIL and all the conference realignments and all

these things.

I think we have actually a pretty dang good close to a perfect solution from an unlikely

place.

And I want to get into the pop tarp all I want to talk about that.

It's important.

We have to.

We face the tough stuff around your pipe tarts.

Very tough.

Very tasty.

More playmakers coming up in your calls.

424-2600.

Feel free to call if you enjoyed the conversation.

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Playmakers probably brought you by quality plus printing, getting your words out here in

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Welcome back to Playmakers, everybody.

Seth and James here with you.

Feel free to call up.

Join the conversation.

424-2600.

715-424-2600.

Listening to us on the civic media app we appreciate.

Thanks so much for doing that.

Just a touch or two away from calling up and joining the conversation.

I just thought of something real quick.

Before the show, James asked me if I had anything.

There's only one thing I wanted to quick talk about.

How about the announced or jinx that Chris Rose put on the Vikings on Saturday?

How about that?

That was like the best I've ever seen in my life.

Oh, that's great.

I didn't know how that game ended until my old friend and friend of this station as well.

Jim Ross, you know, him better us pan about Jack.

We'd still talk all the time and stuff.

He die hard when a soda Viking fan he is.

Oh, I didn't know that.

Okay.

He messages me, boy, the bears in Minnesota, they just, they break you, just gnashing victory

out of the, you know, the arms and the feet.

Defeat out of the jaws of victory.

Yes, they do.

Yes.

Oh, man.

That's how I knew how that game ended.

It's a tough one, man.

Yes, Rob.

That's Rob.

I don't know, we don't, we, this is, we are in Wisconsin.

So we don't want to keep it out of the Packers and stuff, but, but still, although I do

have to say the, the Vikings did luck out when they got Brian Flores as a defensive coordinator

because other than the fourth quarter on Saturday, they have been just remarkable the last

several weeks.

It's been very impressive.

Good defensive coordinators are like a, a great significant other when you get one, you

hang on to them.

Yes.

You hang on, you make it work.

You, you, you figure it out.

Those two, Kyle Connell and him don't necessarily always see eye to eye, but they make it work.

They do.

You know, although they are still calling for his head, they had coach of Minnesota.

Of course they are.

Of course they are.

Because they all are.

They, they all, all had, I mean, the heads are will roll.

They can't, they can't.

They can't, the Kirk Cousins thing.

I mean, who knows what would have happened if he would have stayed, you know, well,

though, his, his, his Achilles ripping up, so I, I wonder, too, if, because of that

situation and not knowing if Kirk Cousins is going to be the quarterback in 2024.

I doubt it.

A lot, a lot of times they're looking at this as, and I believe they have a newest GM as

well.

I think so.

You know, clearing house and, and, and, you know, especially if nowadays, GMs are looking

to hang on to their job.

No, yeah.

Oftentimes, whether it's getting a, hey, this quarterback isn't working out.

Let me draft a new one so I can get four more years.

Hey, this coaching working out, it's him, not me.

Let me get rid of him.

Yeah, right.

I'm surprised.

Not, he shouldn't say surprised.

It's in a natural order of things.

I just didn't see it coming as soon as it did, but I always thought this was going to

be the case.

These owners nowadays not only have they got a quick trigger, but they're getting rid of,

they're cleaning, and they're not just getting rid of the head coach anymore.

Not GMN head coach.

When we were kids, you didn't see the GM position fly open as often as you did.

Oh, no.

I think we saw a lot more coaching openings than we remember, especially when I talked

to my dad and some other people about this subject, but yeah, as far as the GM job,

that's another one.

Right.

Don't know.

Yeah.

That is a good way to put it.

Yeah.

That's a great, I appreciate that, that feedback, that break you bring that up, that's

good one.

I want to talk a little bit of college football.

I want to certainly get into River Kings and high school, and we'll do that a little bit

on the other side of the break.

Do want to keep the phone lines open as well and remind everybody that's our last playmakers

of the year.

It's January and a big thank you to quality plus printing and all the people that help

make that possible.

Yeah.

And it'll be just six weeks before catchers and pitchers report.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Speaking of which, your home for the Wisconsin Rapids rafters and, of course, over on

WWI River Kings, big thank you to both of those organizations giving us not only a lot

of entertainment and commerce in this area.

Absolutely.

And we remind you of that as our River Kings have a fundraiser going on to try to get a

decent building.

Yeah.

And we're not actually saying like decent, we're just mean facilities.

Yes.

Period.

They don't have a lot of stuff that they should have.

And they're doing it on their own.

Yeah.

So let's not, let's make sure that they know that they're not alone in this and let's

tell wherever we can.

And that includes not only going to games and supporting them, but spreading the word

about this team and certainly, you know, adding to the fundraiser if you can, more on

that coming up.

Yes.

But for now, I want to get into this with college football and college football is crazy

with everything.

There's no layer to this.

We could spend a whole show talking about whether it's NIL or it's conference realignment

or it is the coaching insanity or the player insanity.

All these things.

There was a, and most college coaches know this better than most because obviously they're

in, they're closer to this than we will be in many cases as fans and that.

But they're also too close to it in some ways.

So when they have something to say, I got to be honest, I don't always give it weight.

I don't care if it's Nick Sabin.

I mean, Nick Sabin's got to think about Nick Sabin.

Nick's got to think about Alabama football.

Right.

But Chip Kelly of all people, a name that I don't think people have necessarily heard

in a while.

I've been coaching UCLA football for a while and doing okay over there.

He had some thoughts on this and a shout out to the reporter that asked because man that

he tee him up.

Okay.

I'm going to play this.

This is about 30 seconds, maybe a minute long, but it's worth it because I think that

there's a lot that you on here when it comes to how to fix college football.

What is the biggest issue that you might have right now, whether it be realignment and

IEL transfer portal and what would your plan maybe be to try to solve it?

I think they're all a problem and I think we need to have a conference commissioner and

I think football should be separate from the other sports.

Just the fact that our school is leaving to go to the big ten in football, our softball

team should be playing Arizona and softball.

Our basketball team should be playing Arizona and basketball, but because football left

and they say, well, how do you do that?

Well, Notre Dame's independent in football and they're in a conference and everything else.

I think we should all be independent in football.

You can have a 64 team conference that's in the power five and you can have a 64 team

conference in the group of five and we separate it and we play each other.

You can have the West Coast teams and then every year we play seven games against the West

Coast teams and then we play the East.

We play Syracuse Boston College, Pitt, West Virginia, Virginia.

Then the next year you play against the South while you still play your seven teams.

You can play seven game schedule.

You can play four against another conference, another division opponent and you can always

play against one Mountain West team every year so that we can still keep those rivalries

going.

Not that I've really thought about this.

Not that I've a lot of time on this, but I think if you went together collectively as

a group and said there's 132 teams and we all share in the same, we all share the same

TV contract so that the Mountain West doesn't have one and the Sun Belt doesn't have another

and SEC has one and they have another that we all go together.

That's a lot of games and there's a lot of people in the TV world that will go through

it.

You can sponsor each one instead of calling a group of five and power five.

You can call it Amazon, Nike, bid that out to things, even a lot of different things.

But I think if we still do the same thing and take all that money and I would do this

and I think this needs to be done, that money now needs to be shared with the student

athletes and there needs to be revenue sharing.

And the players should get paid and you can get rid of NLI and the school should be

paying the players because the players are what the product is.

And the fact that they don't get paid is really the biggest travesty.

Not that I've thought about it.

Big thank you to ESPN to Dan Levitard Cho for that clip.

There is a lot to chew on there and I don't necessarily agree with all of it.

I think that he loses us a little in some ways when he talks scheduling and stuff.

But I want to put that whole thing aside, the scheduling.

And at the same time, I don't because there's two really strong points he makes there, I

think.

One, college football should be its own separate entity.

Yes.

I don't think there's many people that would disagree with that, even.

No, no.

I don't think that be that sci-fi.

I don't think that be a hard to pull off.

I don't think that's far-fetched.

No.

No.

For me, you know, I've spoken before on this show about I would separate them.

I would go even further.

I would separate the football teams from the schools.

They would become like a minor league, like we have discussed before.

I get that's like way off the radar for a lot of people, but this is moving in that direction,

which I am for.

You don't have to do it all at once, but I'm with you.

I agree.

And I think a lot of people are thinking, you know, that would make sense.

I also think that he's got a lot to say there with the idea of sticking, you know, it's

basically doing what we were already doing, you know, as far as having teams stay in conference,

a couple of outside of that games, but basically staying in conference.

So UCLA isn't traveling to play Rutgers on a Saturday, you know, actually a Friday or

something like that.

These kind of things.

So there's a lot there with that.

And I think that's great.

The idea of a commissioner, I mean, we already have that and I don't know how much that's

going to help anything.

I think more a board, I think more something like that, like a group.

I don't like anything being down to one person.

I like the idea of a group of people doing something like a committee, even or something.

Yeah.

That's that much better, but at least it's a little bit better.

I think it's a little bit better, you know, but the strongest thing that I agree with him

on is paying these players.

Yeah.

There is not even a, there's no argument anymore.

The argument is gone.

They get a scholarship, the money that they make on that field alone earns that scholarship

baby.

Like as far as the money, the technical money that's being spent by that university on that

young person, that young athlete is made the moment they stamp on that field because

of endorsements for the university, not for him, for the university.

Right.

And all of that, everything down the line, they sell everything nowadays.

Everything is sponsored.

They are making money off of the towels, off of the water, I mean, everything.

So that player made that money already for you.

That's a nonstarter.

Yeah.

Exactly.

The honor to play for a university, that same honor that these coaches have, the same coaches

that have left a million different jobs for a million other jobs.

Jerry Kill, coach over at his coach right now in New Mexico state, they've had a really

nice season, upset, you know, a couple of teams and everything.

You used to coach a Minnesota.

Yeah.

And used to coach at Northern Illinois University.

I believe he was there, he actually left that job for the Minnesota job.

That's right.

I was in the room when he's doing this and he's telling these players, I love you.

I'm not going anywhere.

His wife was packing while that was going on and left literally that night at two in the

morning.

And the next morning, the first story I see is Jerry Kill is the head coach of Minnesota.

Right.

I mean, and this is the part of this that I love.

Jerry Kill, he's a great guy.

He's an honorable guy.

Yeah.

And he's coaching who wouldn't say Jerry Kill is an amazing person and an amazing coach

and everything.

Uh, he's got as much loyalty as the next contract.

Exactly.

So don't give me that stuff.

Don't give me a pop and circumstance loyalty to the university.

That's about fans.

That's your bag.

Don't put your bag on.

And he's guys.

These guys are got a, this is a business.

This is a job.

It is.

I admire every person that wants to play for their father's team or something like that.

Yeah.

That's wonderful.

That's awesome.

That's a couple stories here and there.

These kids are doing this because they got an opportunity and they're going to run with

it.

Uh, literally.

I think I think it's a magnificent idea, all a number of different things about there.

The NIL part of it, you don't have to worry about having as much money as the Joneses

if it's a university thing because all these universities are printing money.

Every one of them white water has plenty of money to spend.

At alone UW or Marquette or any other of these schools, the highest paid, you know, state

employee football coach, football coach, baby, football coach, it's, it's a non-started

of me.

Pay these kids.

You will not only have competitive balance, but you'll have some, at least some structure

in the wild west.

Right.

Right.

I love, you know, and this is the first time I heard Chip Kelly talk about that.

First of all, this is big.

It comes from a coach, one that's had a lot of success.

You can call it in the college ranks.

I was kind of surprised, but I mean, he had it all laid out.

I mean, this guy, he had it.

He was ready for that question.

He sounds like he was ready.

But I imagine what he could do if he had time to think about it.

Yeah, exactly.

Well, and the whole fake leaf of NIL, that's all it is.

Yeah.

It's just a cover.

It's just forward to, to say that, oh, there's still amateurs.

Let's stop.

Let's just stop with that.

Okay.

Yeah.

It's ridiculous anymore.

Let's just laugh.

I really would love to see college football be able to do and enable some of these things.

Do some of these things because I don't, I love college sports and I love college football

and I don't want to see it go away.

And I, I don't think you're not necessarily got a chance of seeing it go away, but seeing

what we love about coach football go away.

That I could see.

I think you could see happening.

We've already seen quite a bit of it already happen.

Yeah.

I think that in order to save a lot of these things that we love about the pageantry, the

tradition and all that.

You need some of this and you need these universities to step up and do what they've

always, they should have been doing from day one.

And I think the whole idea of egos being put aside by these conference, you know, people

that run the commissioners and everything.

Yeah.

And working with each other and the idea of, okay, we can still have a power five and everybody

can get their ego, but the collective, everybody sharing money, a little bit of a similar

to base, Major League Baseball, it sounded like a luxury tax and some, yeah, revenue sharing

yet.

That seems like a good idea too.

Yep.

We'll take a quick break.

We'll come back and have more playmakers.

We're going to get local when we come back and we want your phone calls, 715-424-2600

call up and join the conversation here on Playmakers, broadly brought to you by Quality

Plus Printing, getting your words out here in Wisconsin, Rapids on WFHR.

So this is Christmas.

Welcome back everyone.

Playmakers here at WFHR.

I just wanted to get a little Christmas spirit in it as well as a little set the James

here with you.

Thanks so much for joining us, everybody.

Hope you're having a good one out there.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Hope you're having a good one.

Our last show of the year.

That's right.

We will be back in January, looking forward to that.

It's going to be a lot of fun.

But not January 1st.

No.

Because that's another day, obviously.

You're going to have to wait two weeks actually to get to the new Playmakers after this.

We will be back, though, and stronger and better than ever.

I actually, Blake, I don't know how to do this.

With the transfer portal, I had an opportunity to get a four star announcer, and I'm sorry,

Seth.

But I got a new guy coming in to make you feel better.

I also got a five-star guy who's going to replace me.

So we're both actually out.

We're both actually out.

We're both out of playmaker.

Yeah.

I kind of got myself in a hole there.

I didn't mean to do that, but he's too talented and I can't say no, it's so much more

talented than I am.

So we got a couple of five stars coming in.

Oh, boy.

I do want to get to one last college football, one last college football story when we have

a chance.

But let's go local.

We'll get into our schedule here in a moment.

Let's rewind a little bit to Girls Varsity Basketball.

We've got, or I'm sorry, I know it wasn't Girls Varsity Basketball, one of the start with

it was Boys.

Okay.

Boys Varsity Basketball.

Last week, on Friday, the Auburndale Beat Assumption 61238, Port Edwards lost to Lincoln.

Lincoln Hornets.

Not our local Lincoln.

Not Lincoln High School.

Oh, yeah.

62-52.

Nukusa, 64-48 over Blair Taylor, nice game by them.

On the girls side of things on Friday, the Golden E, Austin Beat, Nukusa, 67-16, big victory

for them right there.

And then on Saturday, we look at Hockey, Boys Hockey, Stevens Point, my Red Raiders, 3-1,

on the boys side, on the girls side, of Basketball, Oshkosh North, Beat the Red Raider, 70-43.

Looking at your local schedule for tonight, that you got on the girls side of things, our

assumption girls are heading up to Ryan Lander, taken on the Haldags.

Different division.

That's going to be an interesting game, because the Haldags are doing pretty good this year

so far.

Can not wait to see the box score and see the results from that one.

It's going to be a good one.

Port Edwards, taken on Northern Lutheran.

The both of those games is seven tonight, Pitzville against Abbott's Furt.

And again, yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing how that one brings down.

Right here on this radio station, tomorrow, we're very excited about this, but we want everybody

to cross their fingers on it too.

All right?

Because let's be honest about this.

We've been talking about one to play Milwaukee Bucks Basketball, Civic Media now has a deal

with them.

We've been able to play Bucks Basketball here at Civic Media.

That is awesome.

That's very cool.

It's amazing.

It's incredible.

Of all the years to get to Milwaukee Bucks, you've got this year.

That's a win.

That's a score, baby.

And I love that.

We won them on WFHR.

Where we really want them for our listeners as well.

So we're going to try to get a game on tomorrow, 630, Milwaukee Bucks hosting the San Antonio

Spurs.

Oh, wow.

OK.

The Spurs who happen to have just just one of the biggest freaks we've ever seen in sports.

But are they still in their losing streak?

Yeah.

No, no, no, no, they won a game.

They definitely won a game.

OK.

They won a game.

Yeah, it was Detroit.

I'm thinking of Detroit hasn't won yet.

Oh, there is.

They're getting close to the record, aren't they?

Detroit, by the way, who is paying their head coach more money than I believe.

Any head coach the best balls ever got, at least guaranteed, I believe, much.

Yeah.

Victor Wimbanyama and San Antonio Spurs taking on a Sianas and the Kupo, Damian, Dame

Time, Damian Lillard in the Milwaukee Bucks, 630.

We're hoping to have that game right here at WFHR on our sister's day.

Oh, did you have some?

No, it was a state like you said, you know, every try is the optimum word there.

Try to get it on.

We're really going to try.

We don't make enough of this shout out to our engineers at Civic Media working so

dang hard to make those things happen and try to figure out every single way to outsmart

these computers and the things that I could never do.

Yeah.

Giant.

Thank you to all of our engineers out there.

A special one to chuck a generic on WRI sister station 640 tip off our pre I'm sorry, a

pregame will kick off.

Boys basketball, Port Edwards, hosting Marion, going to be a go to Michael and Seth going

to run that one for us.

Yep.

Should be a great game.

It should be a good one.

A girl's assumption hosting strafford, 655, Randy and Seth on that one.

So coming out of this hoedag game should be interesting to see how they play in that

one.

Again, another just no easy games for the assumption royals really.

Right.

They have, I mean, they have started their season in like in a groove.

I mean, they have been just amazing.

The assumption girls have been destroying all opponents that have come into their path.

So some challenging coming, challenges coming up, which I think is good for them.

I think they need, they need a little bit more of a challenge.

So looking forward to that, really looking forward to another great season of assumption

royals, girls, basketball, there's an amazing team.

On Friday, WFHR right here at 6 o'clock, Wisconsin men's basketball hosting Chicago State.

That should be another good one.

Really?

Really?

Did Chicago State just beat Northwestern?

Thank you.

Yeah.

Wow.

I was going to say a really interesting team Chicago State, they start play some nice players

on that team.

I would not take them lightly.

No.

Wisconsin should win that game.

They should.

But I wouldn't take them lightly.

Northwestern did.

And they paid for it.

Yeah.

After beating.

And especially, this is the real kicker for Northwestern fans.

They just got done beating the number one team in the country and Purdue.

Just beat Purdue.

That's the ups and downs of college basketball.

Wow.

Looking at the high school side of things, Port Edwards basketball alumni game coming up.

You were invited to the annual alumni recognition basketball game coming up January 2nd for

the boys side.

And for the girls side of the January 15th, a alumni basketball players attending will

be given admission to the games, be treated to on court introductions at halftime and after

games social.

Invite your teammates, your friends, your family, all you Port Edwards fans out there, all

you black hawks get in on this and enjoy.

It's a fun one every year that they do.

Yeah.

Good stuff.

It's going to be a fun game.

Looking forward to that.

Let's talk some Kings.

Let's talk some River Kings.

Let's do, yeah.

So up and back and forth week for our weekend for our River Kings, big thank you to them

for another great week in a hockey in our area and having these games home was great.

Was nice.

I do want to do one shout out on Saturday.

Obviously, you heard earlier, I was at the party so I couldn't do the game, my big shout

out to John Don Chesbro for filling in for me.

He came back to do a game.

Thank you, Don.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you, Don.

So the game you were able to hear the game and that was a good one.

That was the good game.

Friday, not so much.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Friday, the Minnesota Squatch, Wisconsin's River Kings facing off, Squatch or a game, a couple

of points ahead of us into standing, so these games matter quite a bit.

The final from Friday night's game, it was five to two, five to the final, yeah.

So not our greatest outing, certainly.

I would feel okay with this if I was coach and the team because on Saturday beat the

Squatch won nothing.

If I know some certain things about hockey players, fans, coaches, there is so much more to

a one-nothing victory than there is to a, even if they had won that or something, yeah.

They had won that game against the Squatch on Friday, five to, if they had won that, I

will take that one nothing.

Now, look, we love to have a lead going into the third period.

Of course.

And I'm sure there's some relaxing, but as far as the result, you have the data, now

what do you do with it?

You can't change the results, you got this data, oh, I like the way my team played in that

game.

I like a team that can hang on to a victory like that, I like their defense on that night.

There's a lot of things to take from that game.

I think a lot more to take from that game than you can necessarily on a Friday game when

you haven't been playing for a couple of nights.

You're both feeling each other out, and it becomes a slap of your game.

Well, and it was the Friday night game was, I mean, these are all going to be physical

games.

Very physical.

There was a Donnie Brook that broke out on Friday that was a couple of majors that came

on.

Very physical games coming up here.

One thing, and I know, you kind of referenced this last time you talked to Coach on

air here about he didn't, he didn't want to really get into it and I understand why,

but the Kings are a third period team.

From all the games I've listened to now, when I've been working them, they come alive in

the third period.

It doesn't matter what the score.

Now, Friday was the exception for whatever reason, they just never really got it going.

But man, they, even if they're not playing great in the first or even the second period,

that third period, they come on late.

So that's an interesting little thing I've learned about them.

I've been watching hockey, literally, my whole life, literally, I was not even one

years old and my mom had me at the rink watching my dad and stuff.

And I will never understand how these guys have this endurance.

How, where they find that's where they find, especially coming into a third period where

you've already been on those legs for so long, and you're so right about this, this team

comes alive.

And I remember last year being that way too, I think that it has a bit to do with the

coaching.

It must.

I do want to mention that the Kings are in third place in the Midwest, West Division

standings.

Just two points behind the Hudson and two points behind Minnesota.

So they're tied on the top right now, okay, wow, okay.

The Hudson and Minas of the Squatch tied at that spot, I'm going to be very, I mean, just

nonstop, must watch television, must watch, you know, must listen radio.

Yes.

This season continues for the River King's going to be a lot of fun.

Your King's playing next as soon as my computer works.

I had it at the top of my head, but I don't want to say it because I feel like I'm going

to be wrong.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But the Kings coming up are going to be taking on January 5th, be going to the Dels,

taking on the Dels ducks.

I got a two game series on January 5th in the sixth for those.

And then on January 7th, back in town, taking on the Hudson Havoc, who are again in first

place in the standings.

That's a big game.

Very big game.

Should be big.

Should be big.

The only thing that's bigger than this in a possible playoff chance and maybe even making

a, you know, a chance at the cup and everything for this team is the leg, the keeping this

team.

If I could be blunt.

Yes.

If I could be completely real.

And I'm just speaking for myself here, nobody else, nobody else.

Just me, James J. Maylove talking here.

I, I've watched this my, again, my whole life.

I've seen teams in cities love their team and lose that team because of facilities or

things like that.

The River Kings have, we have an opportunity to show the River Kings how much they mean

to us, how much they mean to Wisconsin Rapids.

They have a fundraiser going on right now where they're trying to raise money for a shower

in bathroom, a shower in bathroom, like end of sentence, like just, just something to

put, you know, a, a team video room, team equipment in a peril storage, laundry room.

How about a office for coach?

That'd be nice.

Somewhere where you can do business, seemerware, it's like right on a piece of paper, you

know?

This, this gets me angry and I'm trying not to let it and everything, but it really,

really does.

And I'm holding back right now because they, they shouldn't be in this position.

Right.

And they are, but here we, and here we are.