Let’s Go… Lions?

Welcome, everyone, to WFHRs, playmakers, still hit the break, still hit it, still the catch up, though, I had to catch up to it to speed up the

little bit. Oh, thanks for joining the show, everybody. We hope you're happy and a great day out there. Happy afternoon to you. It is time for you to call up and join the conversation. That's what's going on. We want to hear from you, call up and join us with our live calling show. That's how this works. Call in, join us with your sports thoughts and

feelings. We want to hear from you. We want to spend a Sunday special shout out to our friends at Quality Pulse Printing, getting your words out here in rapids, set HabHagger, pitchhating for us today. Thanks so much for being in with us, Seth. Not a problem. Not a problem.

Going to get your takes and your feelings on things as well. But we most importantly want to hear from our audience. Call up and join the conversation. Want to hear from you. We'll talk whatever you guys want to talk about.

Matt LaFlore had his season ending press conference. Got some takeaways from that we want to get to. I also at some point today want to get to a couple of other notes. Craig council blames Garth Brooks for his batting stance. I want to touch on that. I want to talk raptors and river kings with you. All right.

We will talk a little bit about that. We'll get into some of our local coverage as well. Not only what we got for you, but some scores from over the weekend from our high school basketball teams and all that.

Did stuff. But I want to start in a unique place, but not so unique for playmakers and long time listeners of the show of playmakers. Many of you out there have been listening for a while.

And we appreciate you so much for doing that. We do. We do. Randy and I about three or four years ago. No, not about four years ago. I think when playmakers first started was one of our first episodes.

It was actually when we were coffee and sports sports. Yeah. We were previewing our division. And we are going through teams.

And we did Minnesota, Chicago, Green Bay. We wrapped up a Green Bay, but right before Green Bay, we started. We did Detroit.

And I don't know what it was, but Randy and I got really excited about Detroit Lions. They just signed this coach Dan Campbell and it was an exciting time.

It was interesting. Now this guy was talking about bite kneecaps. And I don't know how many people took him seriously.

But for some reason, Randy and I both like Dan Campbell and like the makeup of the team and what what was beginning there.

And here we are now, where the Detroit Lions and I can't believe I'm saying this are one game away from possibly being in the Super Bowl.

They're first ever.

Yep. And I I would like to ask the audience to join Randy and I on this bandwagon of the Detroit Lions.

Oh, OK. Yeah.

I was waiting to see what would happen with Green Bay. Now that we see Green Bay season is done.

And our division does not have anybody else in it represent right now.

Yep. I go back to what my papa used to do when I saw him rooting for the Packers in the Super Bowl.

And I know that he bleeds Navy blue and orange.

Right. And he was like, we root for our division in this family.

That's what we do.

So I'm asking everybody to just jump on the bandwagon a little bit.

Sure. Have some fun with it. It may only last a week.

That's true.

Don't get comfortable.

We don't know what's going to happen, but we'll see.

Yeah. And we'll see what's going on with our audience.

Good afternoon. What's on your mind?

Good afternoon, guys.

Hey, hey, what do you want to talk today?

Well, well, I mean, I want to try talking to make this show longer than an hour.

Yeah. God, yes.

Oh, God, yeah. You could try such a checklist going on.

You know, yeah, we have to play Oscar football, but there's so much other stuff going on.

We're not going to be a chance to talk about because you only do it for an hour.

You got to start pulling some strings.

I'm going to see what I can do. I'm going to see what I can do.

I've got Olympic things that I've been wanting to get to for like three weeks.

I hear you.

Oh, man, too much sports. It's all there is.

I have to agree with you on the Detroit Lions.

It's just it's one of those teams that you saw what they were doing.

You know, and building that team, bringing this coach in.

I mean, he's he's a good coach.

I mean, I wish I wish Green Bay would have him, especially the defense coordinator.

I mean, it's just.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, they're going to do well.

I mean, I hope I hope they, you know, they they play well and and make it look good.

You know, back in back at the beginning of season, who would ever thought that two teams

from the NSC from the NSC North?

Yeah.

What do you even have a chance to be in the Super Bowl?

Right. Right.

Yeah.

It's pretty cool.

We were kind of listed as the as the bottom feeders of of the NFC, which again, to me,

the East was the bottom feeders.

I mean, that was as we've seen.

As we have seen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But really bor out.

Yeah.

But, you know, it's think back to what's beginning of season with the Packers.

You know, I'm going to kind of go with that way with it.

You know, kind of taking away, you know, the limelight's low bit away from the Detroit right now.

Yeah.

But we were actually looking at the Packers.

As, okay, Rodgers was gone.

Oh, my goodness.

Here we go.

We're going to go back to the 70s and early 80s.

Rebuild it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, we were going to be back to this again.

We're now we're going to know what the bare fans feel like.

Yeah.

We're going back that way.

You know, and have to try to think back of 2010 and and and and and 1997.

You know, let this rip live those years of being in the Super Bowl.

Yeah.

Like the bears with 85, you know, to keep we live in that 85 bearers team.

Somebody say 85 bears.

Somebody say.

Such a cliche.

It's true.

Also, now for that after a Pittsburgh game, it's like what happened.

Mm hmm.

You know, it is like something like a light bulb finally clicked in the Jordan loves it.

Yeah.

You know, and you know, you listen to listen to the talking heads throughout today.

And you know, it's like, where did this come from at the end of the game?

What made him decide that I'm going to throw the ball to the middle of field with two

time outs left and almost a minute to be able to drive down the field.

And you're in first down.

There was no there is no need to force it like he did.

And I was kind of some of the stuff that he was, you know, it's like it almost reverted back

to the beginning of the year.

We were everybody was so surprised that he made a throw like that.

But I mean, I can't, I mean, you feel bad for the team.

You're disappointed.

But let me tell you, we never expected them to be this point.

Yeah.

Oh, no, not at all.

I don't know if a lot of people, if this was reported or not, but if you noticed,

when Jordan love went to the sidelines after that interception, and it was on the phone,

with a joint call with Brett Favre and Aaron Rogers, say, I learned it from watching you.

I learned it from watching you.

It's your fault.

Yeah.

Because like immediately on social media, there was pictures of Brett Favre in his last

past as a Minnesota Viking throwing the almost the same exact type of interception across

body across field.

We saw, I was just talking to Seth in our pregame.

We saw Josh Allen for, I believe it's a 10 to 11 quarters playing Alex Smith football,

10 yard passes, five yard passes, doing everything they could to try to take the knucklehead

out of him, if you will.

And in the last couple of drives of that Buffalo game yesterday, what happened?

He went back to being him.

And not that he had any interceptions, but he kept trying to believe be Superman.

And he thought that they could just nobody, I don't know outside of Kansas City who had

a Buffalo lose in that game.

I know I didn't.

Even with Kansas City ahead, I didn't think that I didn't think the Kansas City was ever

going to win that game.

Josh Allen lost that game in many ways.

And not only him, but of course, Stefan Diggs with the drop and not in a couple of other moves.

And you can then you can come to the kicker with me.

Right.

And that's something I want to get to with Green Bay too before this hour is up.

Because there is a lot of people blaming the kid the kicker and they should be.

But at the same time, why do we have coaches?

Why do we have GM's?

What is their job?

Their job is to evaluate talent, to build their players up, to figure out who is healthy, who

is best equipped to play on Sunday.

Mentally and physically, who is ready to play and making this move.

Now, is it about, is it about that or is about, hey, we wasted a six round pick on him?

And I've got to make sure or a third round pick or whatever it is.

I've got to make darn sure that I look good, that I make sure that it was worth drafting him.

And I don't look bad for this.

Is what's going on there with that?

Why this kid stayed in that position all season?

And why you've got a head coach joking or not telling the media, yeah, I'm praying every time he's going out there.

How the kid's going to read that?

How does that build his confidence?

Whether it was set in just or not, and if it was set in just or not, you as a head coach as a grown man has to know better.

Poor taste, yeah.

I'm curious about that decision making in there.

It doesn't come down to just him.

There's plenty of plays that you can point to and count out.

Whether it's Jordan Love here or it's this, the play calling.

I don't know what happened with the play calling in the last four, in the fourth quarter for the Packers.

Why, what happened to Aaron Jones?

Did he leave the game?

Did he go home?

Well, there was reports that he said something to somebody or something happened after that one long run that he might tweak his hamstring again.

But then you get the floor like, well, that's news to me.

But go back to Carlson is that, okay, that fourth and one.

And he decided to go for it.

If he's kicking the ball good, when did you take the points?

Yeah.

You know, so it did come, you know, you hate to say it.

I mean, I, you know, okay, I might get crucified for this.

That I didn't really have the Packers picked to win this game.

Oh, yeah, actually sad.

I, my score I picked was 30 for San Francisco in 28 for Green Bay.

But Green Bay would have had a chance to win it at the end of the game.

But Carlson would have missed the field goal.

Well, he missed the field goal to make it a seven point game.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, so I mean, if in all reality, he means he did come down to him, missing the field goal and the Packers lost the game.

I really hope I really do.

They bring, do bring competition and yeah, they wasted a sixth-round graphic on him.

But well, yeah, competition makes you look better.

But, you know, everybody wants to revert back to crowds beyond this.

Back when he had that stumble.

Yeah, yeah.

But he also had a name for himself too.

True.

Yeah, something to build off of.

I think that they're already talking about bringing competition for the kicker.

And I'd be, there's no way that that's not going to happen.

I do think also though, there's some, there's a lot of talk about that going on when there's not,

I don't see a whole lot of being said so far.

And there's only been a couple of hours since his presser.

Coach Reflore has said that there is nothing, nothing's been decided regarding any potential changes to the coaching staff.

I'm going through everything right now, quote, I want to certainly sit down with every assistant before any decisions are made.

He's not putting a timeline on this process.

There is coaching changes going on throughout the whole NFL and even teams that are good and are making coaching changes.

Do you as a fan, whether it's you, man, or any of our listeners out there, are you confident if you go into next season with the same exact coaching staff, how do you feel?

Are you confident with that?

I'm curious to know how people feel.

Well, I would be, I would, you know, if they would stay, you know, it would have to be a couple games, you know, into the season that before I would say anything.

But if they would say we're to where they were here at the end of doing, you know, blood scene and the defense that we had, I would feel confident.

But I think it's, I just by looks, I didn't listen to the presser a little bit that it, it's me.

It's almost like he is going to look somewhere else.

I mean, you've got guys out there that you mean we're Vera said that if he's not going to be a head coach, he wants to be a defensive coordinator.

Just interviewed with a Philadelphia.

That's right.

Yeah, and you got frable.

You still got frable out there.

I mean, he's there, you know, there's talk again of possibly Jim Leonard.

There's also a guy, I think he's on the 49er staff.

Holland.

Yeah.

Holland's a possibility.

The linebacker coach for San Francisco.

But you can't sit on your hands on this.

They have to make the tree and they can't wait to all the Super Bowl.

Or I think they need to make a decision now if they're going to have, you know, going to bring them back.

I mean, it's, you hate to sit as a coach because of, you know, everything that went on, you just lost the game.

You trying to want to.

But yeah, I think going back to.

There's been enough cry for the, I think they need to make a change.

And, and goody is got to say something to I would think of these.

How much stock has he put into this defense?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You know, and.

I think going back to what you.

Where this all started, this conversation of playing, you know, the phrase we've heard a billion times in the last week or so playing with house money.

That comes back to the packers having a better season than most of us expected.

And now you go into 2024 with not, oh, we're coming out of our first year of rebuilding after the Aaron Rodgers era and all this and stuff.

Now, now you're coming into year two, expectations.

Yes.

Now, the sudden you're coming in, no matter what happens with the Detroit Lions, I would think that we all agree the Detroit Lions are the class of the division right now.

Again, how many times we thought we'd hear that in our lifetimes.

But it's the truth.

It's the fact that it's the truth.

And then it's everybody else, you know, crabs in a barrel trying to get to number two.

We have no idea what is going to go on with Chicago.

We have, it's very, I'm very curious to see what's happening with Minnesota and how that's going to develop.

Maybe a quarterback, yeah.

And then there's Green Bay, which which just again did what, as our caller said here in many of us have thought, who saw two teams from the NSE North being in the final, you know, final six or whatever.

In the division round.

Yeah.

That's pretty darn good.

But that brings with it expectations.

It does.

So to your point, the fire is hot.

You got to strike while it is while that's burning.

And going into this off season, you're not just going into it.

Okay, we're in year two of a rebuilding year.

Now we're in year two of hope.

Now we're in year two of possibilities of expectations.

And that wonderful, you know, feeling.

Okay, so the next question I have for you, James and Seth.

And being that, you know, they do have a little bit of money to spend.

Come me.

What are you doing?

You got it.

You got to solidify that receiving core.

You got to get a veteran in there.

You have to get a veteran receiver.

You need somebody.

Some voice.

Oh, oh, yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, you have to.

Am that 50, am that 50 million?

Or are you going to try to?

I'm surprised they haven't done it already.

Yeah, I think you got to.

They've got to.

Yeah, have to.

I don't know if he's worth it.

I don't know if he's if he's if it's going to work out.

I have no idea of any of those things.

But I think that you have to in the regard of what he's shown you, what he's given you.

That's half of the season.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The everybody in the world is looking for what Green Bay has had three times in a row here.

He's homegrown talent.

He's under you.

It's cheaper to pay him than it is a free agent, even under the same deals and the same in different situations.

So you almost have to pay him after what he's done.

And in a almost contract year in some ways for him.

In a lot of ways.

Yeah.

But would you tag him this year, though?

No.

And pay him maybe that 25 to 30 and see if he has another year.

But then I'll then you might be looking at you.

You might have to go up to that.

Because you know, you don't really want to strap yourself again like you did with Rodgers.

You don't want to have a guy that's going to have 20% of your your salary because then you won't be able to go and putting you really around him.

Right.

So you know, that's the that you know, they got to look at that again.

Yeah.

You know, they don't have any albatross, you know, albatross contracts.

They don't have anything really that's hanging over them that's that's really going to really hold them back.

If I'm them, I don't mess around with the bad PR and the the the the head games and all this of franchise tags and everything.

You know, you got the kid.

You know, you believe in him.

You know, you built him up.

You you drafted him all these things.

Again, going back to good and goods wanted to look good and that mattering to him.

And I think he's proven to us that that does.

Yeah.

If anything, the kicker being still out there is proof of him in the floor and how they feel about those things.

So yeah, then not only do I think they should pay him, they're gonna.

There's few things in the world that will shock me more than him not getting that deal.

Whether I think it's a great question about the tag.

That's something I had not thought much about.

And I think that's a really good question.

But I don't think it's worth the bad blood that it creates.

I mean, they barely got through that with the Lamar Jackson.

They barely made it out the other end of that.

If you remember the end of last year, it was really whoo.

Touchy go for a while.

Yeah.

We were talking about him possibly being on the jets.

Yeah.

We were hearing GM's talk about how they don't want Lamar Jackson.

Because they're insane.

I don't know.

Atlanta was happy with sticking with Desmond Ritter over over, you know, kicking the tires on Lamar Jackson.

That traded everything.

So yeah, a lot changes and yeah, a lot has changed for Jordan love.

Yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

Good to talk to you, sir.

Thanks for the time as always.

You have a great week and we'll talk again next week.

Next week is next week is baseball.

Next week is baseball.

Yeah, that sounds good.

Sounds good.

Good baseball.

Yeah, all right.

Appreciate the call.

Let's keep them coming.

424, 2600, 424, 2600.

Why don't you hear from everybody out there.

And since he did team me up, we are going to talk a little baseball real quick.

All right.

Okay.

I do want to talk rafters and hot stove event from the weekend.

And got an interesting programming note for everybody.

But before we get to that, we have to, you know, how we do things around here.

We have to lead it into something.

It's just jump right into it.

We need segways, man.

Exactly.

For those that didn't hear about this on the sunrise show,

which you can hear every Monday through Friday, 7-8 on West Country, 105-5-Wi, all right.

Shameless plug.

Great console.

Of course, the manager of the Chagel Cups.

Boo, boo, boo.

But back in these playing days, it had a really funky batting stance.

Yes.

Several, as a matter of fact, he changed it over the years, too.

That's very true.

Yep.

I forgot about that.

In an interview, he said he blames that stance on Garth Brooks.

Craig's career was standing out, what was starting out in the late 90s when Garth was spending

time at spring training with the San Diego Padres.

Okay.

Craig said he was with the LA Dodgers and was struggling in spring training.

He finally got a hit or thought he did.

But Garth was playing left field and he made a diving catch to rob them of the hit.

Craig was released the next day.

That's cold.

That is cold.

So from that point onward, he changed to his unconventional stance.

But he kept that he kept most of his career.

And I ended up getting on with the brewers and everything.

And when I won a World Series with Diamondbacks in 2001, yeah.

So everything worked out pretty well.

It did.

Yeah.

But it's funny.

Like he's actually had an interaction with Garth Brooks about this where he's like, yeah,

and I blame you for him by weird batting stance.

That's pretty good.

That's not bad.

I would take that.

I would definitely take that.

Oh, that's a feather in the cap.

Oh, it is.

Yeah.

I like CMA Award winner this and this.

You know, Grammys and all this.

And then in my resume, also made Craig Council changes batting stance.

I would absolutely have that in there.

Oh, man.

But we do want to talk a little rafters and congratulations to them on another successful

hot stove event.

Yeah.

That was a lot of fun.

A lot of people had a great time at her.

They were really good things and really good feedback from everybody about it.

But I want to hear from the gang and I want to hear from our friends over at the rafters.

So Tyler is going to join us next Monday.

All right.

Right in the right to kick off the show.

We'll talk to Tyler and I was constantly rafters.

Okay.

Talk a little bit about hot stove.

Talk a little bit about the season ahead and some of the things that we're looking forward to.

And some of the expectations to be honest.

Yes.

I'm with you.

The last couple of seasons rafters baseball.

We've had winning teams.

Yes.

And I think with that comes a just like we were talking about the packers.

Expectations.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I want to talk about that.

Keep the talent coming.

Yeah.

See how feeling about that one.

So we'll talk all that.

Coming up in just a little bit.

We'll have our fourth period coach in GM of your Wisconsin Rapids River Kings coach Paul going to join us.

Looking forward to that.

He'll be with us in about five or ten minutes.

All right.

It's going to be a fun conversation.

Very good.

When he joins us.

I'm curious if this will come up or not because I know he's a football guy and he watches other sports.

Did you see this Seth?

Some of the NFL games over the past couple of weeks have been kind of painful to watch.

Buffalo and some of the locations that Kansas City game was pretty mad.

Very cold.

Yes.

They've even had to move games, which I don't remember that happening much.

If at all we were kids.

I'm trying to remember them doing that.

I don't.

I can't.

Several of the games were played in freezing temperatures, particularly in Kansas City and Buffalo.

And some of those fans looked miserable.

In fact, there were some that were actually treated for hypothermia.

There was a lot of that going on.

If Jason Kelsey doesn't put a shirt on.

What is he expecting?

No.

It wasn't him.

It wasn't him.

Big advantage for it's Jason Kelsey.

A new poll asked people what's the coldest temperature they'd be willing to attend an outdoor pro sports event in.

In 38% of men said that they'd be fine with freezing temperatures, including three percent who are okay with below zero.

Forget it.

Forget you.

No way.

No way.

Only two percent of women would also be fine in freezing temperatures, including two percent who claim they'd be okay with below zero temperatures.

They're smarter.

Only two percent.

Yeah.

Ladies are smarter.

On the flip side, 30% of men and 20% of women say that they wouldn't watch a sporting event outside unless it was at least 50 degrees out.

I'm leaning towards them.

Yeah.

I'm totally leaning towards them.

I'm guessing that's one of the main reasons baseball is my favorite sport.

It's played in the summertime.

That's why.

I was curious how you felt how you feel about this being a Minnesota.

Yes.

And I imagine that you've watched plenty of outdoor sports events in, you know, pretty bad weather.

Yeah.

Yeah.

All the local stuff, you know, we were all the football games would be played.

I mean, yeah, they're early in the year, but up in minutes, you could get snow in October.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I'm not trying to be a weatherist here or anything like that.

But is even your volleyball played in snow?

Like is it even?

Yes.

Yes, our beach volleyball is played in snow.

We're the only state that has no spot volleyball, right?

That's kind of be rough for the volleyball team.

Oh, man.

That would, that would just be, that's horrible to contemplate.

It depends on the game.

It honestly depends on the game.

I think that there is something about, like not only watching sports, but something as sports fans.

I remember when the Black Hawks had the Winter Classic, and they're playing outdoors hockey.

And my dad is sitting there watching the games like, what's the big deal?

We played all the time outdoors.

It's true.

We played on rivers.

We played, you know, we played in any place there was like a patch of ice.

It didn't matter where people were putting their skates on.

I'm curious to know, like, what it takes to, because to me, if it's my team,

and they have a, if there, if it's a big game, if it's a playoff game,

if they have a chance to go to a Super Bowl, these kind of things, whatever it is,

yes, yes, and yes, like a thousand times, especially when I think about,

like, I've got, I've got one of those warm jackets, like one of those wings,

the ones that, you know, heats up and everything.

Yeah.

I feel like I cheat.

Like, I'm cheating Mother Nature or something.

You know, there's a big reason I wouldn't do it.

And there's, and I have my, the biggest reason I think is that football is so much better on television.

Yeah.

It's not so great when you're in a huge stadium live.

You can't see anything.

And it, it's so much, I mean, if there was a sport made for television, it was football.

Yeah.

And so I have no interest, no interest in going to a super cold game,

so I can, like, barely see what's happening on the field.

No, thanks.

No.

We want to hear from you, 715-424-2600.

Feel free to join up and call the converse, join up and join the conversation.

We'd love to hear from you.

We are going to be starting our fourth period when we come back.

GM and head coach of your Wisconsin Rapids River King's Coach Paul Peckman,

going to join us, coming up on Playmakers here at WFHR.

Welcome, everyone, to WFHR's Playmakers.

Proudly brought to you by Quality Plus Printing, getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids.

You have your host, James J, and it is time to start the fourth period, everybody.

We have got our GM and head coach of your Wisconsin Rapids River King's Coach Paul Peckman.

And with us right now, Coach Paul, good to see you.

Good to see you, man.

Appreciate you bringing in a friend.

You want to introduce our friend over here?

We have with us, Jude Awing, from all the way from London, England.

And Jude, good to have you with us.

Thanks so much for being here.

Yeah, thanks.

Appreciate the time, man.

And I've got a couple questions for you.

I don't want to get to before we start to talk the game and everything.

Right out the gate, I think some of the most interesting people I've met my whole life,

literally, being a kid growing up with a hockey family and everything, were goalies.

You guys have built different, man.

You're built different.

I've never met an uninteresting goalie.

I don't think it exists.

Tell me first out the gate, what it is that got you to want to play hockey?

It's a weird story.

I was on holiday with my family.

In my sister, we're going at it, you know, as siblings do.

And my mom got a bit sick of it and arguing over which movie to watch.

She just threw one in the DVD player and it was the Mighty Docks.

So soon as I saw her, I was hooked.

I think I watched it six times at holiday and from then I was obsessed.

Now, you from where, you know, across the pond, where you're from, how popular is hockey over there?

How easy was it for you to jump into the sport?

It wasn't so easy really.

It's definitely grown since I started playing, but there was only one club around that I could go to.

And it was 30 minutes away and it was more of a grassroots club.

You know, I owe a lot to that club like first five years of my playing career I spent there.

And it was, you know, some of the best times of my life being a kid playing hockey, there's no stress.

But it's difficult because you've got to, if you want to compete and you want to be competitive and go somewhere with hockey,

you've got to travel around the country.

So it was a lot of late nights and, you know, early mornings getting to practices and stuff,

but, you know, the family made the sacrifices.

And the shout out to them and appreciate them.

Why go, why golly?

Um, I think I was like six years old and I saw the guy wearing the equipment on a senior practice and I just,

I liked all the gear.

I don't think my parents appreciate you.

It's expensive.

Yeah.

You had to pick the position with the most equipment.

Yeah, that's awesome.

That's great.

It's so cool to hear how supportive they were.

And helping and everything.

You're not here literally without them.

I imagine.

Especially in your situation where, you know, while the states, um,

we may not have some of the stuff that some countries out in Europe have with hockey.

We're a pretty hockey friendly country where we love our hockey for a lot of reasons and everything.

Um, there, there's quite a few places to play no matter where you live.

Uh, there's something to do.

So I imagine it made it even tougher.

It shows how much the support you've had and how great that grassroots team was and everything.

The fact that you're here right now, man, that's pretty cool.

Thank you.

Now, uh, why the river Kings, why come here with your skills?

Well, uh, I was, uh, I was playing for a team out in Idaho last year and, and a lot of things unfolded and just,

I wasn't going to return to that team.

And I think it was best for me.

And I was lucky enough that, uh, I had a couple of buddies play for coach Paul in the river Kings last year from, uh, from England.

And, uh, they constantly texted me like, you've got a sign for the river Kings.

Are you where you go next year?

And I said, I don't know.

And they were like, talk to coach Paul.

I was hesitant because, you know, I had some stuff happen while I was over here where I, I didn't really trust, uh, yeah.

Trust that stuff was going on here.

Trust teams, trust coaches, but I spoke to coach Paul and, uh, I think there was no turning back from there.

Really told me, uh, he'd give me the opportunity to play and, and I had to earn on that right because, you know, you got,

however many goalies on a team and there's only one spot to, to be on the iceberg goalie and you gave me the opportunity to, uh, to compete for it.

So, man, we are happy you are.

You've been having a nice season, brother.

A nice season.

I want to talk more about that with coach here, but thank you so much again for joining us and coming to town here too.

We really appreciate it.

Thank you.

Coach, uh, what he's talking about there, uh, being on that side of things as a player where, uh, your, your friends, you've got a good base of people telling you,

this is a good team.

You should give this team a chance, but there is outside factors.

There are things that kind of can, can, can, can come up and hang conversation, whether it is just, uh, off the air on here, that kind of thing.

How, how do you, as a, as a team, not just a coach, but a GM, uh, how do you reassure these players?

How, what do you do to kind of give them a chance to look at, uh, get their feet wet before they get here or, or, or build that trust?

Well, it's, for me, it's, it's been very important that, that you do what you say you're going to do, right?

So, as you go through the course of the season, um, hopefully they're experiencing things that we talk about all the way through, right?

So, it, it's come in fruition, right?

So, hopefully they experience and he's going through it right now and having a tremendous year.

And now we got phone calls with, with, with the, with the colleges that he wants.

And, and that's the goal, right? And, and it was very important for him, uh, to go through that process and understand this.

And I said, I was going to give him a chance and, and, and he's got to earn his stripes just like everybody else, and nobody's different.

So, uh, and he took that challenge and he ran with it and, and now he's, he's reaping the rewards.

So, I'm very proud of him for doing that and, and, and trusting me in the process.

Um, you know, we work hard, you know, and, and the kid has earned everything he's gotten.

So, um, that's what, that's what I want everybody to place for me to understand.

Um, and look what we're doing, right? I mean, we're having a great year.

So, um, so why wouldn't you want to, number one, come back?

And number two is why wouldn't you go and make sure that if you know somebody that, that is good enough to play here.

Right? I mean, that's bottom line. It's like, we don't just get anybody, right?

I mean, this is, we're in the top 15 elite, right?

So, uh, this is, again, back to the standards and, and the expectations, all that stuff, right?

So, uh, bringing in the right guys with the right character and that, that can help us compete.

Um, and when more than we lose and, and just fit that culture and be in the right environment.

I want to talk a little bit about the games coming up.

But before that, we're winding a little bit to this past weekend, taking on the Minnesota squash.

Uh, let's go to Friday's game and then Saturday's.

I don't really want to get into Friday's game too much or anything.

Well, we'll talk about it. Uh, it's not, it's never easy with a, uh, an overt, an OT.

Uh, but you get those points.

And as you always say, coach, that, that's something they can't take from you.

That's something that we, we certainly come away from in that game.

Um, anytime, is it different approach if you, if you lose a game in the third period,

just outright lose or if you lose like that and over time,

or is it the same approach for you and your coaching staff, uh, the next day?

Well, I think there's different things, right, that we talk about on, on how we, uh, how we feel about it.

Right? I mean, that, that first game was a, I thought we had a tremendous weekend.

I thought we played absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Tremendous and, and, and how we want, and how we want, how we tied the game, right?

We didn't give up. We kept coming and we kept coming and we kept coming and getting the right guys in, in the right spots.

And, and then, you know, coming through, uh, with Jake tying it up, waiting the game, right?

I mean, I pulled the goal. And you got a lot of mess going on in front of that.

Uh, it's, uh, I'll take it. Yeah. Yeah. I'll take it. You know, because we know we can play with them.

We know we can beat them. And that, that was just, uh, the mentality going into Saturday's game was that,

listen, now you know what you're up against, right? We know we can handle it. Let's just play the right way.

And, and that was really just the, uh, the talk going into the game.

Yeah. I'm curious about it. I mean, it teed me up perfectly coach, because, uh, Saturday's game comes around.

And, uh, for those that didn't hear the River Kings one, five, two, uh, and a very nice victory, uh, for our team.

And, and from, at least from the box score from what we can tell and see, uh, a, a game you had from the first period on,

that this felt like this was you guys were in control. This was your game to lose, not so much them to beat you.

But you to beat yourselves almost and that did not happen. Nice game. But was there a conversation that happened before that?

Was there, was there a different approach to that game? Because coming out of the last game going into that,

uh, I, I almost feel like there was a momentum from that time goal in the, in Friday's game that you carried right in.

Regardless of what happened in OT, it felt like that momentum that, that was going on in Saturday's game as well.

Well, like I said, we knew we were up against, right? So we just had to keep that, that keep that energy up,

that compete level, the physicality part of it played big. So guys had to come with it, right?

And that's what we talked about. Jude had a tremendous game. Um, and so we had everything going,

and it was just a high energy. We had to play fast, and we have to play physical. And when we play like that,

we beat everybody and anybody. We can play with the best. So, uh, that was really it. Listen,

if you, if you want to have a shot at getting, you know, bypassing them and getting to, to the top spot,

then, you know, you got to beat them. Yeah. And, uh, and that's really the way we went into it.

And I thought the guys executed tremendously, and it's nice to get a lead, right, and get some breathing room.

Right. Instead of always coming from behind, uh, which we have a tendency to lately.

But, um, you know, Jude, you'd bail us out a few times and, uh, and, and, you know,

we got guys that are starting to click now, guy like Joel Texmo, uh, he's got six goals and three.

Yeah. So he's starting to find in it and, and get comfortable being here.

And, and, and his role and stuff like that. And, uh, you know, I just guys executed really well.

We're in third, we're sitting in third place in the, uh, Midwest, uh, west division of the standings.

We're only just two points, uh, back from Minnesota, from the squash, I should say.

Uh, and we've got some nice games coming up. Oh, look who is coming to town.

Our look where we're going, at least, uh, with our schedule next. Um, what do you, what are you looking at?

What are you telling the guys this week building up to these games this weekend?

Well, you know, we talked about at the end of practice today, right?

I mean, it's the Minnesota military team that have gotten better. Yeah.

And, uh, that's not something that we can take lightly. Um, then we need to get that mindset back that, uh,

the way we play against squash and where we put against Hudson and stuff like that.

Those are the way we win games, right? If we don't come with that, uh, we're going to put ourselves in a bad situation

that we can't afford right now. Um, so that's just, let's go back to work tomorrow.

I mean, that's, that's the mindset going for the rest of the week is tomorrow's battle day.

Um, and we get after it.

We've got a nice stretch here of home games. Uh, and, uh, I say that not only, uh, in excitement and happiness for you guys

and everything for our community, but to remind our community, we love our home ice advantage.

Let's show everybody and show these other teams what home ice advantage truly is.

Uh, and make sure that you show up at the South of County Rec Center and appreciate them.

Watch these games, take these in and the attendance matters, everybody.

Goes a long way. It's not just about making sure that these, uh, players that take their towns and their lives and come here with them

coach and his team coming here to our town with these things.

But also, uh, it matters when we're trying to keep the river kings around when we're trying to make sure that the facilities the river kings have are up to standard.

And I bring that up because I want to remind everybody that there is a fundraiser going on with our Wisconsin's Rapids River Kings.

We want to make sure that they know they are not alone on.

Uh, we as a radio station as a company are behind you guys on this.

And doing what we can to make sure that this happens and we get the money that we need to make sure that the facilities are where they should be.

Um, and we're going to be behind you on this.

We'll talk more about this as we go on throughout the season.

Um, I also would like to make it so that coach Paul even in July, he's coming on the air with me.

That I'm going to bug him year round now because sports doesn't have an off season anymore.

Does it? There's no real off season.

So I want to keep up to date with you on that.

And just as another side note to our audience and everything that we'll be talking river kings all year long.

Uh, going forward here and everything.

We're looking forward to being able to do that too.

Um, and we, as we continue to build hockey up and down the river.

Uh, support your kings, get those tickets and we'll meet you at the South of County Rec Center this weekend.

River Kings hockey dot com river Kings hockey dot com.

Be listening to our shows this week.

Maybe a chance to win against win some tickets.

Be listening for that.

Looking forward to it.

Coach, thank you for the time and you thank you for the time, Matt.

Thank you.

Why goalie?

No, I'm just kidding.

I appreciate you, Matt.

Thanks for being here.

Coach, always good to see you.

Thanks, buddy.

We'll come back with more fun on playmakers here at WFHR locally grown radio.

Welcome back to WFHR's playmakers.

Probably brought to you by quality plus printing, getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids.

Seth and James behind the mics.

Thanks for joining us, everybody.

We're here to take your phone calls.

715-424-2600.

Call up and join the conversation.

Nobody made a highlight from the sidelines.

Get in the game.

Join us on playmakers.

Yeah.

Uh, looking forward to taking your calls.

Want to say a big, big thank you to, uh, head coach and GM coach Paul Peckman for joining us there.

Uh, for a fourth period.

That was awesome.

Jude for being here.

Yeah.

Um, Jude is great.

He's a good guy.

He's awesome.

That's good.

That's good.

He actually was one of the guys they drafted to do a little, uh, color commentary a couple times with the River Kings.

He's even good at that.

I mean, he's, he's really good all the way around, man.

And then to bring that up and compliment him on it.

Uh, yeah.

He's in a very good job.

Yeah.

Let's take some phone calls.

Good morning.

I knew I was going to do it.

Good afternoon.

You're on the show.

Well, good morning, James.

Yeah.

It's a great start to the day.

I'll tell you that.

I wish my day started at three of it.

It was going to be nice.

Like your first year at a high school.

Kind of like that.

Exactly.

What's on your mind, man?

I got a few fun facts and a couple questions.

What do you got?

Okay.

All right.

The first fact is a baseball one that I learned recently in 1917.

Babe Ruth started for the Red Sox and he hit the first batter, walked up, argued with the umpire and punched him.

He was ejected from the game.

Um, I felt the name Ernie Shore came in.

Uh, they got the runner out at second and he struck out 26 batters in a row and they, uh, they, they ended up calling it a combined no hitter.

Holy.

I'd never heard that.

Well, he didn't strike him all out, but he did get, uh, all of them.

In fact, they, yeah, because for a long time that was listed as a perfect game.

Uh, but just recently they disallowed that because of how it started.

Oh.

Yeah.

So it's still, it's a remarkable story.

I'm with him on that one.

I don't know.

I don't know.

I might have mentioned this before, but the crown on a football field from sideline to midfield is 20 inches.

So it is a 20 inch increase in height from the sideline to the center and the bombarding trophy is 22 inches high.

Huh.

Wow.

Okay.

That's pretty cool.

That is pretty cool.

Okay.

Being a Viking fan, I thought I got a sneak one in and in 1985, a guy named Buster Rhymes was the NFL kick returner leader.

That's awesome.

Always that awesome.

That is fantastic.

I bet.

How did we just hear that now?

How can we be 90s kids and just hearing that with the great Buster Rhymes out there?

Oh, that's good.

Oh, man.

I actually made a football card of them too.

Oh, I got it.

That's awesome.

I got to check that out.

And I got a couple of ideas.

One thing I thought would be kind of fun with the pro bowl.

There's a pro bowl activities they have coming up.

One thing I think would be kind of cool is instead of having the quarterback challenge and all the other challenges, they should let position players do competitions in other positions.

Oh, I like this.

I have linemen being receivers or kickers.

Yes.

It's all flag football anyway.

Yeah, definitely.

Oh, I love this.

That's a fantastic idea.

Take that to Gidele, man.

I'll do you one better.

They should play other sports.

Oh, hey, there you go.

There's a lot of them, you know, athletes in other sports, two baseball players and basketball players.

So yeah, they should do that.

I got a...

Oh, go ahead, go ahead.

Nope, you first.

I'll go ahead.

Well, I'll leave you with something.

I think James, you'll laugh at me and a buddy we're talking about yesterday.

If Padma Holmes puts his helmet on, he kind of looks like the brain from Pinkie and the brain.

He kind of does.

You're so right.

No, that's awesome.

I appreciate you, man.

Thank you so much for that.

I have a...

Take care, brother.

I have a friend who is...

No sports.

You know, I have to explain it to her.

She gets sports.

But she doesn't really pay attention to it.

It doesn't take up her band with her or anything like that.

And I go to her, like, you know, Padma Holmes.

I said, yeah, I've heard of Padma Holmes.

He's a big player at all this.

Like, have you ever heard him talk?

He's like, no.

No, I haven't.

Oh, oh, oh.

And I just start freaking out and almost dropping my phone.

I'm so excited.

Then I get to be around somebody for the first time that they hear Padma Holmes speak.

Oh, no.

I love that young man.

And he is easily one of my favorite players to watch.

I think he is one of the greatest quarterbacks I've ever seen already.

No matter what happens with him, the rest of his career,

I will not change that statement.

And I think that's a pretty easy statement to make.

Yeah.

Not like going under the lean here.

No, you're not.

But he's just a lot of fun to watch.

It's so cool to see a player like him in our day.

We're alive to watch him play.

And then you hear him talk.

And man, that kid...

He's lucky.

He's a star.

With that voice, I love his voice.

I love it.

I can't give enough of his voice.

To me, it's the equivalent in baseball of...

Okay.

Dave Stewart, one of the most intimidating pictures that ever lived.

He had that glare.

He's big dude.

And he had that, you know, just that intensity to him.

And then he opens his mouth.

Yeah.

And he had like the squeaky voice Dave Stewart.

Which is always the most incongruous thing in sports.

And it's a kid I wanted badly at the time when both these guys were kind of around.

I want to say at their peak, but both around to have Dave Stewart interview Mike Tyson.

I'm the radio.

I'm the radio.

What are they talking about?

What is this talking right now?

I don't know which one's talking.

Take a quick glance at our schedule and our local sports.

Over the weekend, Saturday night, Wisconsin's rapist Raiders,

who are victorious or lost to Steven's point, 7558 in boys basketball.

And some good games last week.

It's going to be some good games this week, including tonight.

Now, we got the sports on your radio dial on both stations.

Tonight at 530, our pregame will kick off from Milwaukee Bucks at Detroit.

Should be a good one right there.

Looking forward to that.

Could be a high score game.

Could be.

Certainly, it's supposed to be a get right game for your defense.

We'll see if that happens.

It didn't happen the other day.

No.

I mean, I know the Bucks won, but yes.

That was closer than I think most of us wanted it to be.

And on our sister station, WRI 105, our pregame kicks off at 650 for great high school boys basketball.

Port Edwards at Northern Lutheran.

Randy and Seth are going to be running that one for you, everybody.

Yeah.

Going to be a good game.

Be sure to check that out.

Looking forward to it.

Tonight also going on in the Civic Media Universe.

Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln High School taking on Warsaw West in hockey at 650.

For our listeners, it may be LHS hockey fans.

You can tune in to WXKCO 98.9, 12.30 AM on the CM app.

Go ahead and check that out.

That's right.

Yeah.

Check out Bull Falls radio.

And you can listen to our buddy Chad Holmes be doing that game.

Have a great time tonight, Chad.

Yeah.

Chad the game.

I'm not jealous at all that you get to call hockey.

Have fun.

Have fun with that.

Tomorrow, we got more great basketball for you right here at WFHR 5 o'clock.

Wisconsin men's basketball at Minnesota.

Big 10 matchup right there.

Should be a good one.

And on our sister station, WIRI, 705, our pregame kicks off for high school boys basketball.

Edgar at Assumption, Randy and Seth covering this one for us as well.

Mm-hmm.

Wednesday more Bucks basketball, 630.

The Bucks hosting Cleveland should be good.

Wow.

Now that'll be an interesting game.

Yeah.

The way Cleveland's been playing lately.

Darius Garland coming back to full form.

It sounds, it seems like too.

So that should be pretty good for a good matchup between him.

And Dame and Yannis and that front court with Jared Allen and some of the other pieces that they have there in Cleveland.

Yeah.

They're an upcoming team now.

Should be good.

Should be good.

I wanted to mention two other things before we wrap up today.

One, that there is a blood drive going on today right now over at the former Eastern High School Music Room.

Go check that out.

If you can, it's going on till 7 o'clock today.

All your superheroes out there.

We appreciate those of you that can donate.

You are a superhero.

If you donate, head on over to the 311 Lincoln Street in Wisconsin Rapids and donate if you can.

Thank you very much to everybody that does.

Please, please.

And thank you.

Start of their show.

Putting a branch out to the audience to join me and Randy on this Detroit Lions bandwagon.

But we are not, especially here in the Midwest.

We're not show, we're not front runners.

We don't just jump on teams just to be, you know, be bandwagon jumpers.

Not usually.

So if I'm going to ask you to do this, I got to come with a little bit of facts, right?

If somebody says, hey, you're not a real Detroit Lions fan.

Well, okay.

Did you know that the Detroit Lions have won four NFL championships?

I see.

They have.

It's been a while, but they've done it.

Boy, we all remember back in 1935 when they were one their first one, right?

Yeah.

About 52 and 53 back to back, baby.

I'm telling you.

Oh.

The Lions in the 50s were pretty good.

They won in 57, too.

And those are last one, of course.

But yeah, no, they've had some history.

They've had some great players there, too.

By the way, I got to do a side note, you know what?

Forget Taylor Swift.

Okay.

And I said that in a nice way.

Okay.

Forget Taylor Swift.

How about M&M losing his mind?

Yeah.