The Upsetting Packers!

Welcome to WFHRs Playmakers.

Proudly brought to you by our friends over at Quality Plus printing, getting your words

out here in Wisconsin Rapids.

Have your host James J. I am joined by Randy Paul.

Haven't stopped smiling and vote the last 22 hours or so.

I thought, oh, the sun came out.

That's really great.

No, that was Randy walking into the building.

Just a beaming bright light right now as many of you Green Bay fans I imagine are.

That is probably where we're going to kick things off with our show today.

But remember, it's a call and show.

Your participation is required 424-260715-424-2600.

Call up, join the conversation.

Love to hear from all of our listeners out there.

Randy, I want to get into a couple of things with you today.

I want to talk about the playoffs, of course.

The upcoming games.

We've got the schedule for that.

At 330, we'll add the fourth period coach, G. M. Iver, Wisconsin Rapids, River Kings,

Coach Paul will join us looking forward to that.

If we have time, I would love to be able to touch on the brewers.

They made some good decisions and interesting decisions I'd like to hear from everybody else

about.

Speaking of baseball and hot stove, we'll talk a little rafters before we wrap up today

and get our high school update from you as well.

Looking forward to that.

But we have to start with Green Bay.

We have to.

We have to start with the smallest franchise in all of professional sports.

Last week, I got some heat from some of my listeners in Chicago and some friends of ours,

both of us, and some relatives of mine because I said all of these great things and wonderful

things about the Green Bay Packer organization.

I would like to start our show with doubling down, like a lot of our politicians nowadays.

And only backing that even more, I would like to give you the evidence of this weekend

to just go with everything I said last week.

I want to start there.

I want to start, of course, where we like to with our listeners.

Let's go ahead and hear from you.

How was your weekend, sir?

Oh, you have to ask.

It's just a polite thing to do.

I mean, you got badger hockey, you know, even all they tied on Saturday night, but they

didn't know they're still got their winning streak going.

You got badger basketball.

They moved up to 11 today.

You know, then you got Green Bay, you know, winning, you know, it wasn't like a close

game.

You know, the score, you could wipe the F-score out because, you know, it was like a quarter

and a half.

I think that's the else playing against their second stringers.

Do you know that the score with five minutes and 55 seconds was left in the game?

Yeah, 48, 17 hours, 48 to 16 with 55 to go.

Yeah.

It was a pure dominate at the Green Bay part, and all and everybody else, when I was

that jerk, you know, there's like, well, what are the badgers after the Packers have

to do to win the game?

I mean, they just have to play smart football, don't make the dumbest thing that maybe get

a turnover to it, and then you have a chance to win.

I never expected what they did yesterday that that was just like, you know, shell shocked,

you know, and then if you look into the talking edges, you know, they were saying that all

the media down in Dallas were saying that these guys were looking bad for the Packers

looking at playing an NFC championship game.

Well, one of the comments that I heard, one of the comments I heard that gave us a little

bit of a hope that you didn't hear a whole lot about was they said, Dallas secondary

wasn't the greatest, and I think we kind of proved that yesterday.

Yeah.

I mean, I know we're going to, we're going in against a different, you know, different

monster, stronger opponent, but a bunch of decent of wives, but I mean, if the Packers

played to did yesterday, there's, I mean, again, there's a chance.

I mean, if I had to, if I had $500 to put down on that even this weekend, I would probably

put $450 on San Francisco, maybe put $50 on the Packers, but, you know, I mean, they're

playing with house money.

I mean, there it is.

Yes.

It's just, it's awesome.

I, I, I, I lost a bet with myself.

I really did think that coach McCarthy would be just Mike McCarthy, no longer coach, just

Mike McCarthy, by the time playmakers started today.

I would like to end a, send a personal apology to Jerry Jones.

I apologize.

You have more patients than I thought, sir.

I really, I really thought for sure that that would have happened by now.

The fact that it hasn't, no, it's not, no, it's not as we've seen in the last week or

so what, what used to be black Monday is now more like just black month.

It's just a dark month for coaches where if you're on the fence, if you're, you know,

these guys, even, even if your team makes the playoffs, you, you better be renting.

You better not be owned in that house.

Yeah.

I hope you're renting that home that you live in.

And well, that's surprising to me a little bit.

I say that more jokingly than anything.

Randy did have a, a fun stat when he came in today that about the Packers at AT&T Stadium.

They've actually won more playoff games at AT&T Stadium than the Cowboys have.

They won three.

The Cowboys have won two.

Wow.

I got one real strong question for the audience today because I, being honest with everybody,

I didn't get to see any football this weekend.

I had car troubles, had some other troubles in the home, so it just wasn't able to focus

on sports.

But I did, you know, talk to a number of people that did watch the game and certainly

people that actually know what they're talking about better than I do.

They said very similar thing that you did, sir, about the game and the flow of the game.

The green bay was in control from the first snap of the game throughout the whole thing.

And on all three facets of the game.

So the national media is going to spend the whole next week, whatever happens with McCarthy

talking about the Dallas.

So I don't want to do that here.

Although I think that it is pretty low hanging fruit, it'd be pretty easy to.

And I don't know how, in all, I say it jokingly, I don't know how McCarthy got that

job to begin with, let alone how he keeps it.

You get your first press conference, in your first press conference with your boss right

there, you admit you lied to him.

Like how do you, how does that, how is that a great place to start a relationship?

I don't, I don't understand that, that, that's just right there.

And I think there's another thing of this too.

And I believe that we already have the answer to this, but I am still curious as, as somebody

who loves a team, loves two teams that is in a similar situation with Jerry Reinstorfe.

Jerry Reinstorfe wants to win another title more than anything.

So with the cut, with the white socks, with the bowls, I'm paying close attention to, oh,

is he desperate?

Is he going to do things to their desperate moves?

Or is he just going to kind of let people that he hired do their job?

Jerry Jones is in a very similar situation.

He wants that title, not just wants that title, he wants a Jerry Jones title.

That's what I want to see.

You want a Jerry Jones title or does he want to tell us Cowboys title?

Because if it's about Jerry Jones, the next high, well, they'll, they'll, they'll keep

McCarthy or, or the next hire will be another puppet, will just be another puppet.

You're not going to see a, a bill par cells type come in there.

You're going to see another puppet come in.

So it, that's how we're going to find out if he really wants to win a title or not, or

if he wants to win a Jerry Jones Super Bowl.

That's kind of interesting.

I think they said yesterday, being 81 years old, how much patience is he going to have?

Yeah.

He's talking earlier that maybe why he hasn't somebody else signed already, a Bella check?

Well, that choice is right.

You got Harbaugh, you got Bella check, you got Vrable, there's others arguing that you've

never had better choices in coaching.

Like, just Bella check sitting out there alone, let alone all the other candidates that

there are there.

But if you're a head coach, now is not the time to be looking for work, because there

are some pretty high competition out there for you.

So that, that's all the, the Dallas story.

And if anybody wants to talk about that, we can talk about that.

I want to talk about Jordan Love, Mike LaFloor and the Green Bay Packers.

And that may be the only time I've ever say that on the air, but I don't, I really do,

because this is impressive.

And how often do you have this where you go into a playoff game as a, as a fan?

And as the caller said, you're playing with house money.

If they lost that game, I don't care if the score was reversed.

All right, that sucks.

You know, it's rough, but you know, how many billion of things are we going to be talking

about today?

Jordan Love did this right.

And he, it's a learning experience.

You need the playoff experience before you can win, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The fact that you won, let alone one convincingly in all three facets of the game, let alone

your young quarterback, who it by all rights is pretty much a rookie still, went out there

and played better with, with more ice water in his veins than the guy on the other side

with the star in his helmet that's got all the money.

That's interesting.

That's, that's pretty wild.

Somebody had a great meme today, they said it's not, uh, it's not a logo.

That's a rating.

One star rating.

Oh, that's good.

You know, you know, you didn't get that, uh, you know, you get all the memes about, you

know, you know, the word of the day, Dallas, that'll be Dallas's last game or whatever it

is.

Like that.

The last gate, Dallas game for the, the, the, the boys or whatever.

But I don't, with Jordan Love, I mean, he looked like a season vet out there.

I mean, he looked calm and nothing really rattled him.

Um, he, I mean, he took a couple of hits from, from them, but I mean, he just bounced

right back up and got, you know, it dusted himself off and went right back at it.

Um, you know, it's just, I don't, I mean, I have no idea what, I mean, what sparked the

pack, the, the packers here, um, what got the offense going, um, but over the last couple

of weeks, those wide receivers have not just been running patterns and they've been

wide open.

Yeah.

You know, that, that one, they're sitting down in those zones.

Yeah.

That one to Musgrave.

I was reading a little bit about that one.

The play before they were going to run that play and air and, um, air and Jones or, uh,

running back.

Love didn't like the call.

Uh, he didn't like the, the set up for it.

So he, he instead gave it to Aaron Jones who ran for 27 yards.

And then he looks over at McCarthy and he goes like, now let's run the play and then

they got the touchdown.

Right.

So they were talking a little bit about how much the floor actually trusted love and, and

I think that's kind of what happened here in about the last three or four weeks.

They just, he's just kind of been putting people in the right positions.

You see him killing plays at the line of scrimmage and still managing the clock, right?

We haven't had to take a whole lot of time out because the play clock was running out

either.

Uh-huh.

Yeah.

I mean, it's just been, it's been fun to watch, you know, and you know, I was, you know,

I'm a die-hard packer fan, but back in, you know, back earlier in the season, I was, I

think, why did my waist and my time, why am I wasting my, my, uh, Tyron Sunday to watch

these guys?

I mean, they were showing like they had no effort.

Yeah.

And like I said, what clicked, I mean, what all of a sudden, you know, that made these

guys understand that, oh, this is a football season.

It's so, uh, it took him till probably week 14 for them to do it, but the fact that

it turned around at all, this doesn't usually go this direction, uh, the, it only flows

one direction.

You use it.

You lose a locker room where there's division in a locker room.

Very rarely do you hear of that team winning, let alone winning in the playoffs.

I was really concerned about that when Devandri Campbell came out with that and said, I'm

not going to play hurt anymore.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I thought, oh, locker room's going to get lost here and it's going to fall apart

and after that.

Well, and that was before the Jair Alexander knucklehead in this, like he's just walking

out there like he, because he, he doesn't, I mean, a kid, a guy doesn't do that.

And at that age, with that much NFL experience, if he doesn't feel like, well, I can do this

because there's not going to be any retaliation, like I, like, that's not a locker room.

That's not a well run locker room.

And all of that's going on.

If you told me they'd have a playoff win on the road after all of that noise, there's

no way I'd believe you.

There's no way.

You know, it let alone this young team, that's an impressive win by that coaching staff

and that team.

And people are actually kind of down on the Packers for like suspending them for that

one game.

And they're like, well, why don't you just suspend them?

You know, that game right away or keep them all or whatever.

You know, it took a lot of guts because they're going to play the Vikings, right?

Yeah, yeah.

And so they have a talented wide receiver over there, right?

And yet they did it.

And they said, okay, this is how it's going to work.

You just, I don't care who you are, you're not bigger than the team.

And maybe that pulled them together.

I don't know.

I think that that stands up.

No matter what, when you tell talent that they've got to sit down, everybody listens.

It doesn't matter who it is.

And I think that you're right, Andy.

I think that that, that may have been what we're looking for here when we're

trying to figure out from the outside perspective what changed.

Maybe it was that.

And that may, that seems as clear to me or it seems like it's good of an answer as any.

Because it really did seem like to us as watchers of this team that there was a click moment

that they're for this team.

And it happened at the perfect time.

So you know, going forward and you, this San Francisco team, all their world beaters.

They're amazing.

They're, they're so dominant.

Wait a minute.

What?

They're quarterbacks down?

Okay.

Now let's get to the game.

Let's check this out.

Because that's what happened last year.

That's, I mean, Brock Pertie, I like the kid.

I wish him well.

I don't want to see anybody get hurt.

But last year, I mean, that was a weird injury that he took.

Those things can happen again.

Are you afraid of Brock Pertie as much as you are, Sam Darnold?

I mean, you know, I mean, that's the, I, I think that you've, you've got no reason not

to keep betting on this team, well, like the caller said, having perspective.

I, I wouldn't go by and tickets to, you know, Las Vegas right now to expect a Super Bowl.

But it also, they make it to the championship game.

It's not going to shock me.

It's not, I'm, I'm, I'm beyond being shocked anymore about this team.

One of the other good comments at halftime was one of somebody's coach, some coaches

and get fired today.

Either it's going to be McCarthy for this loss or it's going to be Joe Berry for the biggest

comeback in his realm.

I don't, I didn't want to go too far down this road, but that is an interesting thing

with the Joe Berry situation where everybody and their mother seems to want him out.

And the more they win, the less likely it is that he is going anywhere.

And that's, you know, Mike Clements was telling us a couple weeks ago that that's not,

he's probably not going anywhere.

And that was before this playoff.

Well, I think we can see the change.

He started to, when they get to about midfield, he started to put more pressure on the quarterback.

He's gone more into man coverage instead of playing pre-vent like they did before the half.

And then they walked right down the field and being playing pre-vent at the end of the game,

where they walked right down the field twice, where that's fine.

But when he, when it was on the line the last two, three weeks, he's changed the defense.

Yeah.

And I think that's the difference, too.

Yeah, it goes so much farther.

Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, if it was Joe Berry, I mean, if he comes back, I would hope that he'll be at a very

short week.

Yeah.

But it just needs, you know, it took a week to see this thing, you know, you know, how to

play defense.

How to call defense.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't know.

I guess I never really did like Joe Berry from the start, you know, from the higher

game.

Uh-huh.

But now between try, I gotta stop that.

Yeah.

He just like last year.

I mean, last year was the same thing.

He got out of me, but I'm not running at the end of the year.

You know, there was talking.

He was going to get players.

He's involved.

He's come to click.

I think we've kept you a long time, man.

I appreciate you hanging on the line with us and everything.

Thanks for the call, bud.

All right, guys, I'm going to get you to talk next week.

Um, I, I think this is a, now the, the packers are not mediocre by any means, but this

is a part of what I was talking about the last week with the being stuck in mediocrity

and, and the struggle of that.

You, you do just enough to keep your job.

You do just enough, you know, and, uh, where that leaves you as not only a fan base,

but as your team going forward, uh, the, you know, the, the packers, you know, when

are lose in San Francisco, it does look like Berry's going to keep his job.

And then what happens next year when through one through week eight, you're still, you're,

you know, fan base is doing this again.

And there's still some out crying, everything, do you hang in there?

Do you, do you see what matters?

Uh, the regular season's great, but it's about winning in the playoffs.

And if, if he shows up in the playoffs as a coach and that, that defense shows up in

the playoffs as, and that's what matters, uh, coach Mike, uh, Mike McCarthy would, uh,

Dak Prescott would have completely different, uh, uh, arcs right now to their career,

with just one big playoff victory, which is just even showing up one great time.

Um, uh, I don't know their playoff records together or anything, but I know it ain't good.

And I know it's a losing record.

Um, that's, yeah, this one win, say, say, uh, the worst happens with Green Bay.

They don't make the playoffs for a year or two.

This victory yesterday, that victory, you can ride that.

The floor can ride that.

I don't know if his assistance can or anything like that, but that's a good enough contract.

You're going to have to pay Jordan love now.

You're going to have to pay him and you're going to be paying him that, uh, that contract

that Dak Prescott just got.

Right.

It's going to be extremely similar to that.

Um, and that's going to, you know, kind of, uh, hold things up a little bit as far as

being able to sign certain players and everything, but who cares?

Uh, it, it, you got the quarterback.

That's what matters.

There's like 10 of them in the world.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

And we've seen a time and time again.

How many, just we talked about this ad, Ozzy, I'm ready.

How many quarterbacks, two thirds, stringers are playing this year, right?

Um, and if you got a top one and he stays healthy, boy, they're going to give him the big

bucks.

This kid in his first playoff game, uh, gave you a darn near flawless game, gave you,

uh, an opportunity to, uh, you know, lean on the run, uh, where, which is so important

in these, in these playoffs, and no matter if you're playing under in a dome or not,

you need a running game.

You've got two thoroughbreds back there, uh, one of them with quads, the size of rookie

Henderson, uh, so being able to lean on that and that actually working.

And I, I haven't heard anybody say this yet.

And I was really waiting, waiting to see it.

I, I, I know that our audience is smart.

I know you know this, Randy, um, but that offensive line, let's give some credit to that

offensive line.

Right?

There's no way this kid or that running game looks like it does without that offensive

line showing up and they have been impressive.

Let's take a call before our break, good afternoon, you're on playmakers.

Yeah, I got some, a couple things to say.

One thing I am disappointed at the games on an X-Terry night.

I'm going to the hot store event and I'm a baseball person mostly, but I do have a,

give a comment about Jordan.

I think that they got to steal when they got him.

He's, yeah, he's awesome.

Yeah, I think he's going to be a better long range passer than, than Aaron was.

I, I would love to see that.

And the kids got everything like he, you watch certain plays he does.

He had a throwoff his back foot in that Minnesota, in that Minnesota game.

That if you couldn't see the jersey number, look like Aaron, look, look like Aaron.

It looked exactly like it.

And, and Seth said something this morning.

He was like the first or second thing he said to me.

He's like, boy, isn't it great to have a, a Packers quarterback press conference

and it'd be boring.

It's not that the kid isn't exciting.

It doesn't have charisma or anything like that.

It's just, it's not like it was, oh, I don't know, the last 10, 15 years.

Where, where the quarterback of that team was, it's a little different, the press conferences.

Right now, Jordan goes up there.

He sounds like it had a full quarterback.

He's, you know, he's telling you the basics.

And it sounds like a guy Aaron Jones is talking about how they go over to this house.

They hang out, they got some food, they play some pool, they watch some film.

He's just young man.

Yeah, that's it.

He's, and there's a lot to root for there.

Yep, you sure can hold a ball to a, to a, to a 10 tire at 40 yards.

Yeah.

But you would depend it around.

I see him do that already like 30, 40 yards and right there on the spot.

Yeah, you know what I'm going to be a better long, long, long range.

I like that.

I like that take.

I like that.

That's saying something about a first battle at Hall of Famer.

I, I also, I think one of the exciting things about Jordan Love about this whole

conversation, he's just getting started.

Yeah.

This is just the beginning, but it's just continues, right?

Yeah, yeah.

Thanks for the call, sir.

You have a great day.

Yeah, you do think.

Randy, I wanted to start our whole show with the Detroit Lions,

winning their first playoff game in 30 years.

Well, we started that whole thing three summers ago.

We did.

I think you were awful for that.

We take complete credit.

Dan Campbell's second.

Yeah, I'd say second on the list.

That's actually what we got to think.

I, I think that this, you know, they talk about this in sports a lot of times.

When this team does good, it's good for the NFL.

When, when the New York Knicks are good, it's good for basketball.

When the Lakers and Boston are good, blah, blah, blah.

I don't agree with any of that.

What I do agree with though, when the, the Detroit Lions, when a playoff game,

that's good for the NFL.

That's good for, for, for fans of the NFL.

I don't know many people outside of us here in the Midwest,

to play against Detroit or something like that.

They can't root for that team.

They can't be excited for that team for that fan base.

You know, it's different when we play them.

I understand that.

But as far as it goes, I, I don't know, I'm excited for them.

I, I'm pulling for them.

I, I like to see them do well in these playoffs.

I was really happy to see that victory go the way it did for Detroit

and that fan base considering the way that the Matthew Stafford

Jared Goff story started.

Right.

And it looked like Detroit.

Oh, Detroit's in a rebuilding year.

Oh, they need a quarterback.

Oh, this, oh, that.

The Rams are going to be okay.

Sean McVase, awesome.

I'd kill to have Sean McVeigh as my coach.

But with Detroit, like, man, this has been pretty cool.

They, but they backed Jared Goff and Jared Goff stuck by them

and, and backed them and did pretty darn good by them.

The, they have an old school kind of way of playing this game

while also, hey, we got everything I was saying

about Green Bay in these playoffs.

Detroit's been doing this in Stan Campbell got there.

We got nothing to lose.

We're playing with house money.

Almost every game it seems like that.

I don't know of many coaches that I see them in the press conference

or I see them talk in their worst moment, their best moment.

It doesn't matter.

I want to play for that guy.

I would, I would, I would suit up right now

and I would get destroyed.

And I'd be in a hospital for the next year just going out there

on special teams kick return or something like that.

Just, just as a fly or just running down there or something like that.

But I do it because it's Dan Campbell.

Just lead makes you want to play that way.

The other fun thing after tonight, either the NFS East or the NFC South

is going to be represented Tampa Bay or the Eagles.

The West is represented by San Francisco.

And oh, by the way, the NFC Central has two teams in the playoffs out of four.

Yeah, it's kind of cute.

It's awesome.

It's wonderful to just pick up where Randy was talking there.

In the AFC, the line up for the playoffs this coming week

in the divisional round, Saturday, January 20th,

as our caller told us, there'll be games for Green Bay.

AFC-wise Houston is going to be either at Baltimore or Kansas City

at 4.30.

NFC at seven o'clock, Green Bay at San Francisco on Fox.

And on Sunday, you'll have either Philly or Tampa Bay at Detroit.

That'll be at three o'clock on Peacock or NBC and Peacock.

And in the AFC at 6.30, you'll have either Kansas City at Buffalo

or Pittsburgh at Baltimore.

That'll again be on, that game will be on Paris CBS.

And the other fun thing was that they were showing the Packers game

at the Lions game as they were waiting to play theirs.

And everybody's just cheering like crazy for the Packers.

Because if Detroit won, they'd have another home game.

Yeah, that's right, that's right, yeah, yeah.

It's an exciting lineup.

One last note before we go to break, the Dolphins Chiefs game,

that Dolphins Chiefs game on Peacock set a record for the most watched event

on a streaming service.

Going into that, I, including myself, but everybody I know,

including myself said that this was a foolish idea

to have a playoff game on a streaming service.

And everybody went to Peacock.

Everybody kicked in six bucks.

Yeah, everybody went and did it.

Now you are never going to see the end of this.

No, this is, it's only going to get bored more like this.

I don't, you were never going to have a play, a serious playoff games.

Not that any of these games aren't serious,

but you know, we're talking AFC, NFC Championship games,

Super Bowl, that's never going to be on a streaming service alone.

But you're going to see this kind of stuff.

A Monday night football and those things on streaming services more and more.

They opened up the box, didn't they?

Yeah, they sure did.

When we come back, I was talking about coaches that you would play for,

that you'd run through, you know, for,

we got one coming up, everybody, live and direct.

The fourth period comes up in just a few minutes.

GM and head coach of your Wisconsin Rapids River Kings coach Paul

joining us in just a few right here on WFHR's Playmakers.

Welcome back to WFHR's Playmakers.

For this January 15th, 2024, 330 on the clock.

Have your host James J. I am joined by Randy Paul.

Good afternoon, everyone.

And what a great day it is.

Yeah, we want to say a big shout out to our friends at Quadde plus

printing in your words out here at Wisconsin Rapids Sponsor in the show.

And a big, big thank you to coach Paul Peckham with the Wisconsin Rap's

Ruer Kings joining us as he does whenever he can.

He's in town.

And we can start the fourth period and talk a little bit of River Kings hockey.

Coach, you brought a friend in.

I did, I did.

I have S.J. will come with us today.

Hey, how you doing, Beth?

Good, how are you?

Good, good.

Thanks for being here.

I appreciate the time.

And the best news about S.J.

He's a background fan.

Found that out.

The break here.

That was great.

I want to talk about the games this weekend in a second.

But man, if you don't mind, let's get to know you a little bit.

But where are you from?

I'm from New Jersey.

Right.

For Mama, New Jersey.

So it's like central Jersey.

I know people say there's no such thing.

But there's no such thing.

Actually, I'm a big John Stewart fan.

And I know he's from out there.

And I think that's that he said something like that before.

OK, it's a big thing over there where people

to say it's not a thing that's either north or south.

But that's definitely the middle part.

Right on.

You guys a big hockey area?

Yeah, we have a lot of local teams.

And then we have the big tier two team, a couple of NCDC

teams around.

But the big main team is the New Jersey Titans non-team.

So yeah, great history for that team too.

Yeah, it's known for a lot of players moving up to D1.

And I mean, it's getting a little bit of a bad rap now.

But it has a lot of good players that came from it.

It's drawn a lot of hockey throughout my local town.

So that's nothing wrong with that.

The other thing we are always interested in

is how did you get drawn here to Wisconsin Rapids?

So if I can be completely honest, it was Drew Dayling.

He was my beloved brother from last year.

I'm also played with two kids, Justin Davis,

and Jameer Wasil, who's on the team a couple of years ago,

prior to last year.

And my old coach, but it was mostly just Jude.

And Jude, I wanted to be with him again,

because he was the best thing I ever had.

My best first build up brother.

Like, you know, he was always there for me

when everything happened with the Sput King.

Yeah, yeah.

I wanted to be there and have fun with him

for my last year and just go out with the big bang.

When I ring with him, that's all I wanted.

So what are your first impressions so far,

having been here for a couple of months now?

It's great.

I mean, I couldn't ask for anything better

with the support of the local community,

and graces with Miss Kelly.

And then obviously with the work of Coach Paul

helped me commit to college and stuff like that.

So what is it that got you in hockey?

My mom, yeah, because my dad was a big football guy.

So my mom, she was always the hockey guy.

She played goalie growing up.

And then she just sat me in front of the TV.

Even the Rangers were playing.

That's why I'm from New Jersey, big Ranger fan.

Right on, right on.

Not, I get that question all the time.

Yeah, I was going to drive, I was going to pry.

But yeah, that's why, because I just sat in front

of the TV.

As a little kid watching the Rangers play,

watching Lungquist play.

Oh, yeah, when you were growing,

oh, man, some of the players you got already, yeah.

Like, I mean, my number, I picked my number

after Chris Crider, so.

Right on, yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, my original number was number 10.

That was my first year I were playing.

That's Marion Gabbrick, one of my favorite Rangers ever.

That's a good one.

Yeah.

And then Chris Crider, I love his game, him and me.

Right on.

Very cool.

We'll talk more with you before we wrap up here,

but thanks so much for being here.

Appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Coach, up and down weekend for you guys,

taking advantage of Chicago Rush.

First off, the schedule changed on you

with Mother Nature doing what she does.

Nobody stops Mother Nature.

She is scushed.

She is the queen of everything.

And we just follow her lead.

She wins every time.

Yeah, yeah, there's no going to overtime

when Mother Nature, that don't happen.

But we, so first off, how does that change things

for your team?

Hockey, one of the things I learned from my dad, routine.

And just such a huge part of the game,

throws off the routine a little bit.

How did the team handle it?

How did you guys adapt?

Well, I think we handled it pretty well.

I mean, we still had our skate in the morning

and a pre-games skate and we went through,

we just kind of took a little bit easier

and wanted guys to stay home with the weather,

the way it was, right?

So stay home, get some rest, eat well and just prepare.

You know, I mean, just keep mental prepared

and then we go into tomorrow, which was Saturday.

Now, right, for the first game, you know,

have some meetings and talk about things

that we want to, that we want to attack

and hopefully come out.

That Saturday game, the River Kings

lose to the Chicago Rush Crush in overtime, one nothing.

45 shots on goal for our Kings 33 for the Crush.

So I bring up those shots on goal for a reason

because I want to get to Sunday's game.

What do you take from that game right there?

That Saturday game, the one on the Losano.

It was three, two.

It was three, two, did I say,

oh, I said one, nothing, I'm sorry.

The three, two.

What do you take from that game, sir?

Well, I thought, obviously, you got a right to it.

The shots is something that we preach about a lot.

I mean, we got to get to put that in there.

We don't score a lot of goals.

Per se, so it's very important.

We got a quarter pocket in there.

We got to get bodies in front of that.

I thought we did a great job with that.

It was once we got going, which again,

you don't score for 40 minutes and all of a sudden

it's a third period now and the things are tightened.

Everybody's gripping a stick a little bit tighter

and then we're fortunate enough to come in a situation

where SJ ties it up with 30 seconds last, right?

And now you get a point at something

where you really may not have deserved it, right?

So you get it.

OK, well now you go for two.

And then we get a stupid penalty with 10 seconds

left in the game and that puts us behind the eight ball.

And so what do you take from that?

Well, we shook up the line up pretty good for Sunday.

So certain guys didn't dress.

They didn't deserve it.

And certain guys did.

And so we mixed things up a little bit here

and then everybody understood that they had jobs to do

and if they wanted to compete, now is the time.

Opportunities arise when guys do, when guys are sick,

guys do stupid stuff, guys get hurt, things like that

create opportunities for other guys.

They may not get as many as they think they should.

So now is the time to take advantage of it

and some guys did.

Looking at Sunday's game coming in,

I'm sure wanting to get it that,

getting not only points, get that W,

especially not going to be at home for another week.

You know, you got the, you're going to be on the road

this week coming weekend.

So the River Kings come in and we end up

winning that one five to two over the crush.

33 shots on goal for our Kings, not bad.

49 shots on goal for the crush.

Rough, rough to look at that.

Not not only as somebody who loves defense and everything,

but that young goalie, like that young man Seth comes in

this morning and I'm talking to him.

The first thing he wants to talk about is your goalie,

and how amazing that last couple of minutes was.

Just incredible work by that defense, by that goalie,

just nice, nice work.

Let's talk about that performance a little bit.

Let's talk about that game, a little coach.

Do you play dumb blue, I thought he was,

and that's why he was the number one star, right?

I mean, he just, again, he's got a couple of schools

that are looking at him and evaluating his games

and he just stepped it up and that's exactly what he needed

and what we needed from him.

It's nice that now you get a couple goals, right?

So we scored first goal of the game.

We get one which we're not accustomed to, right?

So all of a sudden now you're up five, one,

and now you sit back a little bit, right?

And then you get a couple of penalties

and a lot of those were on power play,

out plays and things like that, right?

It was a five run three, I believe at one point.

So, and Jude did what he needed to do, right?

That's what big players need to show up at big time

and he did his job, I'm proud.

At a perfect time too, we have got,

it's go time as it has been for weeks now,

really a month now, it's felt playoff like with this.

When you're sitting in third, fourth spot in the standings

and with the playoffs being what they are,

that's a little bit too close for comfort, I'm sure.

You wanna get into that number two,

if you can, that number one spot certainly.

Just in case our audience out there

isn't familiar with the USPHL and how the playoffs work.

The top four teams in each division make the playoffs.

The higher teams get the home playoff games, right?

Or top eight?

Top eight, okay.

Top four get home ice in the first round.

Right, thank you coach, thank you.

So, we've got, with that in mind,

we have, we're going to visit the guys right above us

in the standings this weekend.

Let's talk about that a little bit.

Well, they're good team, they score a lot of goals there.

They're an offensive heavy,

they're probably poor opposite of us.

I was gonna ask, they're very offensive heavy.

They give up a lot of goals.

They take a lot of penalties, right?

So, they're very talented.

So, if you're not paying attention

and we're not playing the game that we know how to play,

they're gonna smack you in the mouth.

So, we've got to be prepared this week.

When it comes to playing a team

that is a bit different than you,

do you go in there and like, this is our game plan.

We're gonna play our game.

We're not gonna adapt to their game.

How do you balance that with also being able

to adapt to their game?

Well, we'll adjust our game plan.

Adjust your game.

That's who we're playing.

Right, right.

So, that's the way we're gonna talk about it.

We're gonna go through it this week.

And it's the internal stuff that we talk about,

right, the compete level and battling it.

And how do we attack and certain like that?

We want to destruct you that we're gonna use

to play against that team.

That's the way we go about it, right?

So, it's always kind of interesting.

We know what happens during the game's obviously coming to watch,

but what's gonna happen now Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,

this week for your squad?

What's tomorrow?

Battle day.

The biggest day of the week.

Right on, right on.

So, what's battle day?

Battle day is just...

Best day?

It's just battle day.

We've got to love that for my hockey career, right?

Well, that's awesome.

It might be on my dad, man.

That's it.

But right now, he's sick of the same thing, yeah.

Usually Mondays, or, you know,

we're just getting back in, right?

Someday, so usually the days are.

So Mondays is a lot of fun.

Just let's get the legs going again

and doing all that warm and everybody up.

And then Tuesday's battle day.

And it's just, you know, all elbows and we're grinding

and we're very physical.

A lot of one-on-ones, two-on-two's just grinding it out

and getting prepared in that mindset.

Two Wednesday's is more into

his own works, defensive zone, neutral zone, offensive zone.

You know, breakouts, entries, that kind of stuff.

And then Thursday's is more,

special teams, power plays, penalty killing.

Lighting it up a little bit.

And a lot of small games in between, keep guys, you know,

energized and that kind of stuff and competitive.

And, you know, see who does what during the course of the week

and, you know, a lot of that depends on whether or not

the playing on Friday or Saturday.

Do you have over the Minnesota then on Friday?

Yeah, Friday morning will usually hear about 11,

get there about two, get in the hotel.

We'll have a pre-game meal, that kind of stuff

and get to the ring by five, one up six, 30.

Right on.

Your River Kings are sitting in third in these standings,

right behind Minnesota and Hudson.

We are looking to change that after the next time coach

joins us, looking forward to this weekend,

the weekend, this week in the River Kings games,

playing on this Friday and Saturday against Minnesota Squatch,

going to be up there in Minnesota taking on these games.

We're going to be there with you though in Spirit Coach.

And I'm looking forward to talking next week more with you guys.

Before we let you go, I want to remind everybody

that our River Kings have a fundraiser going on.

We are looking to raise funds to help our facility

over at the South of County Rec Center.

Looking for a couple of things to help make the facility

better, make it more hockey friendly, make it more ours,

and more of a River Kings centric, if you will,

and skating centric and looking forward to being able

to do more and more with that and with you guys,

encourage you to go to River Kings hockey.com, find out more

and find out ways that you can help our River Kings build hockey

up and down the river.

Coach, and man, thank you so much for being here, you guys.

Thanks so much.

I appreciate the time.

You keep on bringing players or coaches.

Great, we love this, we love this, yeah.

You guys take care and safe travels this weekend, all right?

Thank you, appreciate it.

We'll take a quick time out.

We'll come back and have some more fun here on Playmakers,

brought to you probably by quality plus printing here

in Wisconsin Rapids.

Welcome back, everyone, to WFHRs, Playmakers,

probably brought to you by friends at quality plus printing,

getting your words out here, Wisconsin Rapids.

Got Randy and James here with him before we get into

some local coverage.

Big thank you again to CJ to coach Paul for joining us

in our fourth period.

That was a lot of fun talking with them.

Build, help the River Kings build hockey up and down

the River Kings hockey.com and support this team.

We're looking forward to talking with Coach again real soon.

It's always fun to see what the thought pattern,

how things develop in one's life and how they get over here

to Rapids and that's so much fun.

I love when he's bringing these players in

and here getting so much of the look behind the curtain.

It's so much fun, we love it.

We're all spent here.

Exactly, only here, only on Playmakers, baby.

And only here can you get the great local coverage

to were able to give you.

Randy's got that for us, what do you have?

Well, for boys high school basketball,

you know, it's kind of a limited schedule with Tuesday

and Friday being canceled school wise,

but there were a few games that were played

in one took place in the valley.

The battle for Wasau, they didn't have quite as much

snow up there on Tuesday as East improves to 11 and two.

They throttled three dubs 90 to 52.

Lincoln High School will be back in action

from the field house tomorrow night as they will be taking

on Antigone as they will come to town.

From there, Wood South, marathon rate number two,

division four improves to 12 and 0.

As they hand Auburn Dale there, first conference lost 60 to 39.

Hayden Anderson had 11 points to lead the Eagles.

Stratford steps out of conference

to beat Black River Falls 58 to 38.

And Edgar knocked off Newman 66 to 42.

And speaking of the cards, they'll host a assumption

tomorrow evening.

Over the CWC South last Thursday,

Port Edwards got a big road win over Pitzville 61 to 51.

The Black Hawks were led in scoring by Josh Channel

with 24 points.

Logan Parker had 16 and Brendan Beck at 11.

Well, for the Panthers, Logan Zickert

led the way with 15.

Anderson Luther threw down a 12.

Ben Friday contributed at 11.

Almond Bancroft is ranked number seven

in division five, their 11 and one.

And they pounded Pachelli 69 to 30.

Pachelli, they'll be at Port Edwards tomorrow night.

That's a score right there.

They lost their best player that

how he got under an injury and so they've been down ever since.

And speaking of a down, down in the South Central,

the Cusa fell out with Toma 78 to 55.

The paper makers will be at Athens tonight.

Boston was nine better than Westfield, 56 to 47.

And the Dells demolished the Green Devils

of Adams friendship, 73 to 26.

Girls high school basketball action in the Valley

on Tuesday, the only game played this week.

Wasaw West, one over Wasaw East, 51 to 44.

So kind of turning the tables from boys to girls.

Wisconsin Rapids, they'll travel up to Mozini tomorrow night.

From the mirror with South on Monday

and a game you heard on our sister station,

top-ranked assumption.

Defeated number 10 in Division IV, Nielsville, 52 to 44.

Some say it was maybe the first time in 19, 20 years.

Some were saying maybe the first time ever.

Wow.

Yeah.

Great game, Adi Valert.

Knocks down 18.

Jordan J. Linsky threw in 16.

On Thursday, the Royals now 13 and 0 knocked off Newman.

64 to 34.

Stratford upset Auburndale in overtime, 58 to 52.

Maya Katzenberger had 18 for the Eagles.

And Edgar was 13 better than Marathon 50

to 37.

The Wildcats will come to assumption tomorrow night.

No games were played in the center.

Wisconsin South, the coordinator is Blackhawks,

host Mirion this evening.

And down in the South Central on Thursday,

Nicosafel to Wattoma 71 to 27.

And Westfield improves at 12 and 3,

with a 47 to 34 win over Austin.

Four games were canceled this past week,

or postponed, or rescheduled.

As was the game with three dubs from Thursday

to Monday, January 22nd.

Tomorrow night, Wisconsin Rapids will host

the Merrill East co-op at 7 o'clock.

And as we already talked, things got moved back

at a with the River Kings, losing it over time

to the crush three to two.

And then winning last night, five to two,

they'll be in Minnesota for games on Friday and Saturday.

And the Bucks, as we were talking a little bit off air,

what a great finish to that game yesterday.

They missed what was it.

I think Sacramento is three free throws

right at the end of the game.

And the Bucks got back in it.

And then Dame Knox went on.

He just barely got over half court through it up

and was fading to his left and splashed at home

at the buzzer and they won 143 to 142.

And over time, Lillard had 29, the honest 27.

Michael Beasley 23, Bobby Portis 22,

Brooke Lopez 17, Cameron Payne 15.

So we're talking six guys in the whole digits.

Well, you're getting 143 points.

You got to have a lot of scoring somewhere.

So it was a good win for the box.

They certainly got to take a look at the defense

in a nobody wins championships in any sport without defense.

So that's certainly something that you,

you're what you wanted to get fixed there in Milwaukee.

But you can do that.

You don't have to worry about defense

as much when you score 140 some points.

And it's incredible, man.

They've been doing that a lot this year.

And this team is a very similar on a similar path

that the Green Bay Packers have been on.

There's been some ups and downs.

There's been some questions about the coaching staff.

There's been this and that.

And as they're rolling,

and we're not even in the midway point of the NBA season, of course.

There's a lot of games to be played here.

But if you look at it timeline wise,

in comparison with the NFL schedule,

they are right on the pace of things

where you'd want them to be.

This is a team that isn't built to win,

for in three or four years from now.

This is a team to win this year, to win next year.

That's the way this team is built.

So they are in the playoffs.

As far as the Yannis and Dame and them,

the Yannis has already got a title.

And he's as hungry as they get.

Think about how hungry Damien Lillard is.

He's been waiting for this,

literally his whole life for this opportunity

to be on a team that is a championship

qualified possibilities.

Yeah, you know, you think about the same thing

with the NFL as you were looting to

and they're about the midway point of the season.

And one of the things, you know,

halfway through the packer season,

we're just kind of like, oh boy, you know,

they're like, well, we're gonna struggle a little bit

because it's early in his career.

And then we hit our strike.

The other thing that's huge, like right now,

Angumbari, I think, towards ACL.

So he's out for the year.

That's kind of, that was kind of sad.

But otherwise, you know,

hopefully Jaiyer's okay with his ankle.

I know he hear that during the game,

but they got out of that game

pretty much on the scale again otherwise.

And the last couple of games that happened

with the Bears as well.

And the Vikings, you know, they were,

there were times they lost seven guys in a game.

To be healthy now at this time of year is huge.

That's the same thing with the box.

You know, yeah, it's fun right now.

And you have these great games up and down.

And but when it comes to the bottom line,

you gotta be healthy when it comes playoff time.

So you gotta be careful with Yannis.

Don't give him too many minutes,

but wait until he has the day.

Game played almost the whole game.

They're being very cautious with Middleton, you know,

so they're watching that as well.

You know, the other thing I was thinking about,

just go back to the Packers for a quick second was,

people are like, you know, all were the seven seed.

And it's the first time a seven seed is won.

Well, it's only been going on for four years

at the beginning of the 17th.

So it's not that huge of statistics.

But the other thing that I think was important was

it reminds me of that 2010 team,

not that they're gonna win the Super Bowl

or anything they could, but that's not what I'm saying.

What I'm saying is that team was built

for not playing in Lambo actually.

They were built, they went to Philadelphia.

It was a nice day and they went.

They just destroyed Atlanta in the dome that year.

It was like 48 to 20 something.

I remember that game.

Yeah, then they had the cold one in Chicago.

But the, how were the Packers have done this well?

I don't remember the Chicago game.

I'm sorry.

I don't remember that at all.

B.J. Roger is a pick and not.

Your brain protects you from pain sometimes.

Right.

But you think about, would they have been able

to light it up yesterday in a frigid cold weather game?

You think how it was with Kansas City and Miami.

I mean, Tua wasn't able to do anything, basically.

Yeah.

Would they have the same success

if they had played that game in Green Bay?

We saw what the Giants did to Green Bay

when they had some great teams.

They came in Green Bay and they beat,

far van, they beat Rogers.

So, you know, there's no guarantee if you play at home

and just ask Dallas.

You're right.

Yeah.

And just probably going to be an upset this weekend too.

You know, who knows?

It's weird for me to think of,

I'm glad you brought up the 7C, 1C,

a lot of that stuff and everything, Randy too,

because to me, what do we always say

about the playoffs in any sport?

Well, throughout the record books, none of it matter.

So, why do we continue to talk?

Like, there are no upsets in the playoffs.

All these teams made the playoffs.

All these teams are good.

It's the order of wins and losses very so much.

We all know that the team is completely different

for week one than they are to week 18.

Think about five weeks ago.

Right.

Who was the best team in all of football?

The Eagles.

And then what do they do?

They lose like four other last five.

You want to crown them?

Crown them.

You're so right about this.