Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHR's Playmakers.
Welcome to the show. Hope you're all having a great afternoon out there. Happy Wednesday
afternoon. On this September 4th, have your host, James J. Mailov here. I'm joined by
a good friend high school correspondent, Michael. Comer? Michael, good to have you with us. It's
good to be here again. Do you like Mike or Michael? Do you have a preference, man? Because I know it's
going by James. I don't respond to Jim. That's my dad usually, but... Right, you know, most people
call me Mike anymore. About 90% of the time it's my last name, Comer. Hey, Comer, what are you doing?
Yeah, yeah. Comer, get out of here. You don't stuff like that. You're... And then there's more
colorful names people use too. And I'm okay with that too, as long as you're in the proper context.
We might have some of the crossover there. We might be called the same thing in some of those
terms, but it doesn't really matter, though, honestly. We got high school football to talk with
Michael and just a little bit. I want to get into that. I want to talk a little bit about,
of course, the kick off the NFL season. We got brewers to talk about as well. And what do you
want to talk about? Phone lines are wide open. 715-424-2600. Call up and join the conversation,
everybody. Looking forward to talking with every one of you. Got some stats in the show. We'll get
into a little bit later. I think our kind of fun college football related. We will talk some badgers
as well as we've got a big badger game going on in this Saturday. They're all big games.
There are no small games in the college footballs or football in general. Well, we kick things off
the way we like to around here, taking a phone call. Good afternoon. You're in the game.
They give call me whatever you want. Just not late for supper.
Right, right. It's a classic. It works every time. How you doing, man?
Oh, not too bad. I don't know if you get if Michael got a chance to watch the badger game at all
on Friday. I know that he was probably calling to high school games, but I don't know. I mean,
I don't know if he had a chance to watch either games, but I don't know if we're doing a wash
rinse and repeat here with badger football with pickle or not, because it's just
so I watched every second of that game. And I saw the first game of a new collegiate season with
a second-year coach, and it probably the first time having more of his players that are about
70 to 80% his players. From what I'm seeing online, at least, I don't know that for certain,
but 70 to 80% of his players, so more players than he had last year that were he recruited,
that he brought in specifically for his offense, his defense, all of the above. He's in the second
year of this. And very seldom do you see a coach walk into a situation and flip it around overnight.
The only person who has hyped this team, the only people that will fight this team up,
is media. I haven't heard Luke Fickle going around talking about winning the big 10 championship,
or showing up in the college football playoff. I hear him giving you typical college football
talk. We're going to go out there, win every game, et cetera, et cetera. It's the media that has
built him up. And now granted, they got reason to. Luke Fickle was as far as for agent coaches go,
the biggest name and free in college football. And he signed in your school. And that is pretty
exciting. And there's going to be hype that goes along with that. And understandably so,
give me what he had with Cincinnati and everything. But again, he didn't do that at Cincinnati overnight.
That took time. And in college football, even with NIL and the transfer portal and all of that,
this is not an overnight thing. What I saw on that team was a team trying to figure its identity out,
trying to figure out each other, trying to build some chemistry, and doing it all in real time.
I saw a preseason football game. I mean, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Now, they're going to be playing Alabama in a couple of weeks. And then we're going to see how
they rank against an Alabama team that has a new coach and is trying to bring in new players.
And certainly has the pedigree of Alabama. But I don't know the, I'm hearing so much like
Doom say about the badgers and everything. This man is trying to change a culture that has been
around for decades and trying to modernize it, trying to get into today. Look, I love badger football,
old school badger football. I'm one of the, I, Rod Dane might be my favorite college football player
while up there in the top five. I love watching those teams. I can name you every Wisconsin running back
for the last 30 years. That's how much I love that team and I love watching the running game.
But it's an old school way of football and it can win you anything. Even Michigan,
winning a national championship had to throw the ball down the field. This is something Wisconsin
has to, you know, turn into and grow into. I am a little worried when I see that the offensive
line for both these schools look the same and there is a gigantic difference of conference between
these teams. I see the, I'm not saying that I don't understand some of the, the concern here.
But I wouldn't go point in the finger at Coach Fickle or this organization and it is an organization.
McIntosh has done a heck of a job there and I'm, I mean, I feel like they built enough good will
to be like, okay, well, let's see what happens. This is a school that has done well for many,
many years. Let's not turn Wisconsin into Nebraska. Let's not turn this into one of these things where
we're entitled to anything or we, you know, have certain ideas and expectations that will never
be met because the Cornhusker fans are still talking like it's the 80s man. Yeah.
Well, I mean, I, I, I agree what you're, what you're saying, James, but it just, you know, I think,
I guess as a fan, I would feel better if you would not come out and said, they had a good game plan.
Yeah. So you guys got all coached. Yeah. You're right about that. Yeah. Definitely.
You know, don't, don't come in and say they had a good game plan. Well, we're, we're your game plan.
You know, it just, that offensive line did not give, I mean, you got to give the guy more than two
seconds before you run through a life. If you want to be considered an air raid team,
were you encouraged by how things wrapped up in the fourth quarter? I thought that we,
we saw more of what the offense is going to be going forward with that fourth quarter and when
they started the gel a little bit, you also had a tire defense. I mean, there's certainly that
no worthy, but I did see, regardless of that, you can't do anything about that. The offense
was tired too. They were playing too. And I felt like they were really clicking that fourth quarter.
I mean, that first, that first drive, that 16 play drive that they missed the fuel goal.
Oh, yeah. I mean, you missed that. And they come back again with another 16 play drive and
they score a touchdown. You know, back in the day, you know, like you said, all school badger football
with 32 plays in two, two possessions. You should have that team wiped out that defense.
Oh, agreed. Agreed. You know, because if you would have the big nasty's up front,
like they used to have the big, you know, the big old farmboys, you know, on all the big,
big beefy guys in the front line, if you did 32 plays in two possessions, like the other team
was done, they wouldn't have been able to stop the run. You know, that would open up, you know,
there he goes. And you can open up that air raid. I guess I just, it's frustrating because, you know,
they, you know, yeah, that the media kind of built it up. But fickle kind of was saying that our
offensive line is experienced this year. They're young and being preseason.
But this weekend, I'm hoping it's out of trap game because the Alabama's coming knocking and
then you got to go up against USC and the USC looked good. Yeah. And fast. So I don't know.
We're going to see. We're going to see. If they come out of this game, it's getting South Dakota
with a nice score. They come out of this with a nice game. Do you feel more confident about the
season going forward? I would. If, you know, things look better. I mean, obviously, I mean,
I mean, Wisconsin, I mean, even the packers of the same way, they don't go out and step on their
throw. Once they get a good lead, you know, then they get a little bit more conservative of their,
their offense. They don't go out there and try to score a hundred points. You know, yeah, they,
they just that just not has embed Wisconsin football ever. But I mean, I will say this too.
Go ahead. Sorry. I mean, I would just like, I would just like to see them, you know, be more efficient,
be more, you know, on more confidence. For what you're told to be more confident, right? You know,
can't happen. It's there at all. Cam wore to Miami is just figuring things out and getting no
half these guys names. And he looked like a pro. He looked, he looked so comfortable. Maybe too
comfortable in some ways with the hellfumbly. He can be with that ball sometimes. But he looked
good back there, uncomfortable. He didn't, it didn't look like he even knew he was playing in
Gainesville. Like in that fan base, at least in the first quarter was ravaging at him. And yeah,
didn't matter, didn't matter one bit. I will just real quick, Michael, before I go to you, I did
want to send a shout out to Lance Taylor, the coach of Western Michigan, because one thing I think
that's not being talked about there too is Western Michigan improved. And not hard to do when
you're the lowest team ranked in the FBS, but they got some nice players over there. And they came
out with a lot of heart. That coach is a nice coach. I'm looking forward to seeing that team.
What happens with him as a coaching career and everything? I believe this is his first gig.
It should be interesting. It should be fun to see. Did you have something like?
Yeah, there are a couple of things with that turn around with Western Michigan. There
are central Michigan, whoever the heck they play. There's some Michigan. There, yeah, they're
Michigan. I'm pretty sure the name of the university is word Michigan somewhere.
Okay. Yeah, that works. Yeah, I've said that before too.
Stay afloat. Yeah. Well, either way, you can maybe see how much she has already started to turn
that team around being an optimist by how tough they played Wisconsin. Yeah.
When it should have been just a one-sided adventure, not even close. Another thing is I'll quote
the late L Davis, just win, baby. It doesn't matter anymore whether you blow them out by half a
hundred. You know, as my buddy Barry Switzer always said, hang half a hundred by half time.
It doesn't matter if you do that anymore. You win on the last second field goal. You won.
And this day and age of the playoffs, it doesn't matter if it's pretty or not.
It doesn't matter if it's a blow-out or a close game. You just need to win. And at the end of the day,
to answer Kevin's question, I didn't see the first half. I got my location to right after that
heck of a Nacusa football game that we'll talk about in a little bit. I got to my location to
right right when half time was ending. Third quarter was starting. And I saw the score and I said,
well, that's not what I expected. And then I saw Wisconsin just pull away and just out physical.
But there's something to be said about that offensive line. No, it's not the overwhelming big
nasty's up there. I think the last one that I really think was nasty was Beatash. He was about
the last real big nasty line. And I remember and just he's a heck of a guy. I've actually met him
out and had a couple beers with them since he's been in the NFL. And that was pretty cool because I
wrote on about him when he was in high school. And I thanked him for the, you know, let me be part
of his experience. He's like, hey, thanks for getting me to this point. So I mean, it was pretty
cool and nice guy. And I hope he does well with the reds. I mean, comedy or whatever they are called.
But the aggressive big nasty just hogs on the offensive line. Six foot nine three hundred and
fifty pounds that can move and still outrun me in a 40. I don't think they, I don't think they're
around anymore. And it's in part of its mindset. Yeah, football coaches always say if I could get
all wrestlers in that line, I would probably be just running through people and they need to do
something to toughen up. I mean, I'm not calling them weak, but there's got to set that mental
mental state first that you're not going to get beat. I wish I could find the quote. It was
somewhere around the end of Elvarez. Elvarez is run as, I keep wanting to say GM, but athletic
director. GM, GM really is GM, but athletic director. And he talked about, because they were asking,
it was something, some concerns about Wisconsin's line that year. And him talking about those farm
boys that we used to get are, they're still there, but if they're not playing in Florida or in
California or in Texas, they're going to play the defensive line. Some of them are staying in
Wisconsin, but they're going where the money is and they're going to D line. I think to your point
as there's not as many of those kids as they're used to be. And I think there's a lot too about
coaching in the way that that offensive line coach and Elvarez were with offensive line, and they
could take a two star guy and get him drafted in the second round of the NFL. The coach, there is
something to be said for coaching, especially in football. You can coach up. Oh, you can coach. Man,
you get the right mindset of a kid talent almost like doesn't matter in some ways. Ryan Ramshack
right there started at UWSP was a nobody at splash. And he then is big, big nasty for the badgers.
And now he's, I think he stole the Saints. Yeah, he's with the Saints here. Yeah.
Kevin, I always appreciate you. Anything else in your mind before we let you go?
Well, I just hope we that we can win that I against those Cardinals and he ready to make the
keep making the move. We're only what 13 is the magic numbers. I mean, that's I guess that's good,
but there was one thing that was brought up and now hang up. What is that? What is the way
the Cubs are playing right now? Wouldn't it be odd that as much as the Brewers beat up on the
Cubs this season would now have to face constantly the Cubs in the playoffs and the wild card?
I mean, it's a sports dream. I would be scared for the Brewers if they had to play the Cubs right now.
I don't blame you. I, you know, especially with a one-off, you never know. It's baseball. Anything
can happen. You can only get one game to do. But I always appreciate the time, Kevin. Take care.
Have a great night. I appreciate all your calls. 715-424-2600. We'll talk a little Brewers
in a little bit here. I do find that as an interesting scenario. I know that. I want to touch on that
a little bit. Well, we can do that later actually when we talk Brewers. And we will. We're going to
get to some Brewers talking a little bit because there's a couple of players. I want to make sure
that we highlight everything. But we ain't going to forget that point, Kevin. That was a good one.
Michael, before we go to our first time out, I do want to talk a little high school football with
you. Of course, coming up this Friday, 650, our pre-game kicks off as assumption is hosting
Pachelli. Randy, Mike, Seth, going to be calling that one, running that game for us. We appreciate
that so much. Michael, last week you were hanging out in Nicosso, taking a watch in that game.
Good game. Yeah, I mean, first, Randy and I were at that Peppin' Alma. Yes, yeah.
A Sumption game. And unfortunately, just when you're playing against the number 9 team in the
state with about 50 kids out. And you have 20 kids on your roster. It's insane. You just get
worn out. That's not a knock on assumption whatsoever. What do you expect to do? Yeah.
What do you expect? I'm proud of them going out there. Oh, yeah. I'm proud of them. 20 kids going
out there. Yeah, I'm proud of that. The Royals and Coach Sullivan, they're, excuse the language,
they ain't back and down from nobody. Yeah. And they're going to give it. You're going to know you
play the assumption Royals when lose your draw. Now, then when Randy and I got done, thankfully,
that game got to a, thankfully, I'm thankful. If you put that way, the game got put to run time
and I was able to get to Nicosso for that Westfield game. And I was kind of keeping an eye on
the old cell phone. And when I left Southwick County, Westfield was up 14 to 6. So I'm like,
oh, we'll see how this goes because they scored early in the third quarter. Yeah.
Well, got, got there. And I literally got in the stadium stood up or stood up on the,
on the sidelines on the Westfield Sikes. I didn't have time to get to Nicosso's side yet. And
that's last play of the third quarter. Nash Kretschmarr hits his little brother Finn for a 38-yard
touchdown. And they go for two and get it and tie it right at the end of the third quarter.
That was right as time was expiring. All right. Go through the whole third quarter or fourth quarter.
Times running down. Neither team can really get any motion, get it, get anywhere with it.
Nicosso punts them all. Nice pun. Pushes them back. Well, then the next thing is, well,
there's the illegal procedure penalty. So they have to re-kick it. They re-kick it. And it was blocked
and recovered at the 22-yard line by Westfield. So they go in there and they pass a couple times.
If that's incomplete, stops a clock. They still get time. They got to the 7-yard line. And I forget
which down it was 12 seconds left. Coach John Russell, defensive coach, he called time out.
And they talked about it. It was snap of the ball on that play. Both edge rushers just full out
blitz, all for nothing or all or nothing. And they both reached home, wound a duck, floater,
and that's hauled in by Nash Kretschmarr. And he rolls 98 yards for the touchdown. His time
expires to beat Westfield 20 to 14. So that's two scores that Nash had hand in as time expired
in the third quarter and in the game to win the games. And Acoustic sitting at 2-0 this week,
they got a 0-1-2 Boston. They start conference play personally. I think Westfield might be better
than Boston. And that'd be really cool to see Nicosico 3-0. But at the same time, how is this
going to be a letdown game after the emotions from last week? Do they turn over the ball?
Do they have too many penalties? Who knows? It's a high school football game. But that was
in my I counted. I tried it several times to make sure I was right. And most of the time I got
to the same number. 17 years of being around sports, high school sports, writing, or doing some
radio with you guys. That I've never seen a game end that way. And I may never see another one
end that way. That was unbelievable. I would say the less peru game I was at, it was I was there
with a bunch with my buddy and it's my godson or watching and it's a normal game. You know,
it's coming down to the wire night thinning and everything. And Yelich goes up there and I believe
was Yelich. It lays down a bunch in the guy scores. And we saw a game and on a walkoff bunch.
That's where we looked at each other. We're like, we'll never see this again.
Well, you're going to see that again. When you get to see those things, even on the TV,
it's really something. But to be there in the stadium and see it is something that you just you
feel. It's part of what we love about this sport so much. Always the big game of the weekend is
the one that you and Randy are covering and Seth is producing. But outside of the assumption
patchelli game, I have to admit, and I think you get this a little bit too as a Raider alum.
The DC Everest Raider game coming up this Friday is a big one. Yeah, it is.
And Everest comes in one and one. They got crushed by Rice Lake 44-17. Then they come back
and beat River Falls 51-26. Can't figure them out. And then they won on the road too. Rapids,
they host River Falls. They get beat 44-21 and then they get crushed by Rice Lake 44-0. You know,
whether short game stops scheduling Rice Lake. It's a random draw. It's true. And the way they did
that was to ease the not conference scheduling. The big rivers and the Wisconsin Valley Conference,
they randomly, yeah, they randomly drew that. And Rapids just happen to get the two big boys this year.
And I believe that's the same schedule for next year as well. But Rice Lake comes here and Rapids
goes over to River Falls. You can use a transit property. All you want, team A, team B, team C.
And at this point, I guess Everest, you would say, well, Everest should beat Rapids. But
Lee Corso, not so fast, my friend. Last year, Everest was supposed to destroy Rapids. And they
needed a touchdown with less than 10 seconds to go in the game right in the corner of the end zone.
Toe tap to make a count to beat Rapids 21-14. So, throw records out. These two teams, they play
hard against each other. And with the teams that Rapids has played, the same ones that Everest
played, you think that something's going to be coming to ahead with them. And they're going to
be ready to go. Yeah, I'm looking forward to that one. There's a, and as you mentioned,
the Nikusa game is an interesting one as well. It's a nice high school lineup, a nice lineup of
high school football this weekend. And again, it starts off for us on Friday at 6.50 right on our
sister station. 105-5-WYRI, Assumption High School Football, Hostin Bacheli, right here in
Rapids. Randy, Mike, Seth, they're going to tag team that one. And you know, it's going to be a
good one right there. Looking forward to it. It's going to be a fun game. I want to get into a
couple of other things with you, Michael. We've got some fun stuff to cover yet today. Because
not only we're going to talk Brewers a little bit later, but I want to talk a little bit of NFL,
because we are just days away from the start of the NFL season. And one of the questions,
you know, everybody can talk about who's going to win, who's going to lose some of those things.
We'll get into some of that. We'll talk about whatever you guys really want to talk about.
But I want to know who's calling the games. I got in the now to here with me. I want to go with
that over that with the audience. Let's get into who's going to be calling these games on these
networks. And by the way, there are now 19,000 networks. So we got a long list. I know it's going
to be a long list, man. It's going to be a long list. But we'll get through it. We'll come back with
more fun on the board. I'm a son of a boarding show. I was on Playbackers here at WFHR. Playbackers
probably brought you by quality plus printing, getting your words out here and Wisconsin Rapids.
Welcome back, everyone to WFHRs. Playbackers. Got to write that time.
Michael and James here with you. Thanks for joining us, everybody.
Phone lines are wide open. 715-424-2600. Feel free to call up and join the conversation.
I'm going to talk some NFL in a moment. We'll talk some brewers before we wrap up today. Let
you know who's going to be calling these NFL games as the season kicks off. But we have our
stat of the show we're going to get to, our stat of the show, probably brought to you by Acme.
We don't have a sponsor yet for it. But we'll get one, baby. We do have quality plus printing, of
course, sponsoring this hour. Gigantic. Thank you to them. Phil joined us this morning on the show
with our wicked awesome word of Wednesday. Great time. We appreciate our friends filling the gang
over our quality plus printing, getting your words out right here in Rapids. Go visit them over
at A Street. So our stat of the show today is 1911, Michael. 1911. You're before the Titanic, Shane?
Yes, nicely done. We go to Missouri football, Missouri football, where the tradition of
homecoming is widely spread in U.S. college sports and high school. We all know what homecoming
game is. Returning to home school and familiar places is always thrilling. It's great experience.
And the College of Missouri takes credit for the creation of this tradition.
Homecoming began in 1911 when athletic coach Jester Brewer invented alumni to come home for
a big game against the team of Kansas. And other people saw him doing this. We're like,
well, that's a really good idea. We want to do that. He doesn't have a copyright in the term
homecoming and everybody started doing it. And it just kind of spread from there. And so that's
where homecoming comes from. It's pretty cool. I think that's pretty interesting. Man, I did not
know that before the other day. I looked it up this weekend. I also love the name Jester Brewer.
We're not making a lot of gestures anymore. No, no, no. This is a tough day to have, man.
That's a tough day. That's a Jester Brewer. Well, you could never mind. I'll leave that
joke for later. Yeah, but now here's my question with that. Homecoming, you have to
have been a way for a little bit. You come home and it's okay. If your home school isn't
any time you come back home, homecoming? Oh, yeah. Oh, that's a great point. That's a great
question. Philosophers have been wondering this for decades. Oh, well, the answer to that,
what it's a great question. Decades, what kind of time, space continuum, or you were on a
flat circle, time is a complete flat circle. Michael, I want to get into a little bit of NFL with
you. And I want to talk some brewers yet. Man, man, let's get into. Well, let's go ahead. Since
Cap set us up earlier with Brewer talk, let's go ahead and dive into the brewers a little bit here.
I thought it was an interesting point about the idea of the Cubs and brewers, possibly playing in
the first round. That's interesting. Not as interesting to me, at least, as what Willie Adamus
is doing right now, who he had a home run streak of five games, tying a brewer record,
what he has been able to accomplish this season in a contract year has been really
noteworthy. And it's been a fun season. And that being said, and I'm a fan of Willie Adamus'
I think what Jackson Churio has done to season is even more impressive. And it's in part because
of his struggles. It's in part because of him struggling. And a lot of times, which we've seen
this year, I can think of the top of my head for examples of high, you know, touted rookies coming
into MLB and just not having a good run and getting sent back down to the minors. The one from a
Baltimore pops right in my mouth. Yeah, but he came back though. Yeah, yeah. And that's what they
would have expected with Jackson to come back, of course. But instead Pat Murphy decided,
because they asked Pat and he decided, no, we're keeping him up. Let him work through this.
Well, let him work through this. We need bodies anyway. Let's let him work through it. And man,
did that pay off because this young man is showing you what he is capable of right now and is
just playing his tail off. It's been really fun to see this team get hot offensively at the end
of the season when that's not traditionally what happens with them. And it's just kind of a,
what I enjoy about this team is the playing with house money aspect and the idea that there is
even though this is a team that's won the division in in a multiple times over the last multiple
you couple of years, you can make an argument that they should be in this spot that this should not
be a surprise or anything. A whole new coaching regime in some ways, no necessarily star, star players,
certain things. Just lead me to always hear Pat Murphy talk about this team like, man, we're happy
to be here. We just love baseball. We love playing. And certainly trying to win every single game.
And a bunch of bulldogs out there when it comes to that. But not necessarily a team that's
expected to win it all. And they're playing like they got nothing to lose. And right now the
bats are flying like they don't. Well, there's a few things with that, you know, they're happy to be
there. Well, you got to be more than just happy to be there. Oh, yeah. And that's that's the thing
I've got. I've got a lot of friends who are already crowning them. And I laugh because I've seen
too much baseball to see brews do what brews do. I mean, they're kind of like the bears, you know,
back in 1982 when you're crowning a, you know, I've said before, when your crowning year is still
losing, there's nothing to be excited about. I'll say this much though with this much smack talk
as brews fans have had this year about Craig council. Craig council sneaks in there. They play
each other first round and Craig beats Milwaukee on their home turf. It's a long. That's next next
time. Maybe I'll say it. Listen to me about them a little bit more and just realize they're
they're all right. But, but, but, but we'll get, we'll get back to that point though. That would be
one heck of a of a game. I believe it's just one game. I have to double because they've changed
it bracketing so much on how many games that it is. But that would be one that I'd even sit
and watch. And obviously, I'm not pulling free the one of them. I'm kind of popping whichever
city it sends slides into Lake Michigan. But, but either way, that's going to be that would be
must see TV for sports. Now, if there's a football game on, I'll put that on the back burner.
I'd rather watch football. And, but, and that's no matter who's playing for them for that matter.
But, uh, man, that thinking about that, that would be one heck of a matchup.
It'd be a fun series. I really think that whatever happens, whatever, whoever they're playing,
it should be fun because I think the Brewers are playing some fun brand of baseball, a baseball.
And I admit that I'm a fan of small ball. I don't need home runs. Oh, okay. With that. I like
stolen bases. I like a lot of that. And I feel like they're playing with a lot of deep. I don't
know that any team can be crowned right now, especially. But even once you give me the,
the all these teams and their playoff, their matchups and everything, there's nobody. I feel
confident putting five bucks on, man. I wouldn't put five bucks on Philly or the Dodgers or San Diego
or any of these teams. I don't feel that confident. So, to me, you're going into this. And what do I
excel at better than any other team? I've got better defense than anybody. Now, does defense put
points on the on the scoreboard? No. But it definitely takes runs off the ball. Yeah.
Brewers have called up an interesting outfielder, brewer Hickland from AAA Nashville before
the game against Cincinnati the other night. I thought that was not worthy to have a brewer on
the Brewers. That was pretty good. And he played all right. It looks all right. It looks like a
pretty good player right there. Milwaukee, of course, as Kevin noted earlier, having sent and
Lewis play in town tonight, should be a good matchup as these games always are. It doesn't matter.
Another one of those games where they love to say, did you throw out the record books? It doesn't
matter. It should be interesting. You got anything else in the Brewers? Or anything else on
baseball, if you want to touch on? It's just going to be just what lasts not even a month of the
season. This is the last time St. Louis and Milwaukee play the sheer more than likely. If it's
hot as Milwaukee started against them back in the spring, they're playing pretty even now. That
maybe shows Milwaukee's maybe slowing down a little bit towards the end where St. Louis has
gotten better. I don't know which one it is. We'll obviously find out in another week or so
two weeks. But yeah, it's the end of baseball season. And we're here with what I call America's
sport now. Yeah, football. Yeah, football. It really is. It really is ours. And to the point where
nobody else cares. They're trying so hard, man. They got these players. It is insane what they are
putting the Philly and Green Bay players through to just get this game in Brazil and just hopefully
get a 1.5 share out of the country of Brazil and everything. It's not so preoccupied with whether
they can play there or should not. They didn't stop to think they should. All the chunk that they're
putting everyone through. It's not worth it. I mean, there's a reason why what they stop playing
games in Mexico for a while. Or I think they still have. I'd have to double check and look at
the schedule. But I understand it's the almighty dollar. I get it. I truly get it. But think of
is money really everything? Yeah. I mean, to me and you, I don't think either one of us would say
money is everything. But obviously to the NFL, they feel a little different about it. But play
that game in Philly. I mean, Philly's just a dangerous is so powerful. I mean, you know, as
somebody growing up in the 80s, when football was not the America sport. And it wasn't the number one
game in town. And it was like a band that you liked that some people knew about, but they weren't
that big. And you felt like it was your sport and your thing like striper. Nice. Nothing
against those striper fans out there. They got some good tunes. But that's, you know, striper.
Everybody knew rat. Yes. Van Halen. Yeah. So when it comes to where the NFL is now, I'm happy
to see it. I love it. And I'm really enjoying what the NFL is right now. But if there is a way to
kill the Golden Goose, this is it. Yeah. By not only putting your players through these things,
but just rubbing and rubbing in the fans' faces, we don't care. You say what you want,
complain about this all you want. You don't like where it's streaming too bad. You don't like
that we're playing in Brazil too bad. That that only that is a shelf life that we show Taylor Swift
every two seconds. Too bad. They don't care. Yeah. Like it's going to like the chickens come home to
roost, no matter what we're talking about in life, even with the NFL. And that kind of stuff is
going to catch up to them if they keep it up. And doesn't look like they're stopping anytime soon.
I'm wondering, I'm waiting for a game on the moon. I believe that that will happen. I just don't
know when the one thing that the that the Packers and it's not necessarily even the Packers this year
that's not there. Well, it is, but it isn't. This is scheduling with what that with the two
with the two ticket packages that they have. And this is one thing of a complaint that I have.
And this can be a conversation topic in another couple of weeks and you'll give you time to research
the green and gold package that the Packer fans have for tickets. That's the old nine from the
30s to 1934 to 1994. They play three games a year at Old County Stadium in Milwaukee. Well,
that was the gold package. They get one preseason, two regular season, whichever preseason,
whatever. Because I was back when they had four. Well, then they had the second and fifth games
traditionally that were played in Milwaukee. Okay, cool. Well, now that they got all these extra
games now. This year, for example, I had the preseason, some green package ticket holder,
either preseason. And I have my one, three, five, or one, three, four, six, seven, eight. Okay,
well, you know what games I don't have because they're gold package. Minnesota Detroit Chicago.
So the Milwaukee ticket holders who are notorious for selling the tickets to visiting fans.
They're notorious for it. Okay, so you mean to tell me,
and they are, they are their property. Those tickets are their property. You can sell it for whatever
you want. That's that's the beauty of capitals. But you're more willing to sell it someone wearing
purple or Honolulu blue or ugly blue and orange to then someone else wearing green and yellow.
Those are Wisconsinites doing it. Yeah. I mean, whether from Milwaukee or wherever they're
from, they're doing it. It's nothing new. I will say there is no stadium in the in the world
that can handle an opposing fan base better than Lambo. Oh, yeah. I mean, oh, yeah. There's no,
no fan base. I don't care if you're bringing in a soccer team from Europe. Oh, I was
clear when their fans are that there's going to outsell outrank the green bay the green and yellow
out there or any of that. It's going to represent it's going to make sure that the whole field of
the bandages felt. It is interesting what you're bringing up. It is interesting what you're talking
about there not only with ticket sales and tickets in general and not just green bay but around
the NFL. But this is one of the ways that that that golden goose starts taking hits. It is not
being able to bring fill a stadium because right now that's the beauty that the NFL has because
people can make fun of Chicago all they want. They can make fun of Detroit all they want.
All these other teams. Guess what their stadiums still continue to do even in bad teams.
Nearly sell out. Nearly sell out. Say whatever you want about those fan bases. They are loyal and
they continue to fill that stadium. Do half of them do it just so that they can bark at the team. Yeah,
because that's a Midwesterner for you and that's my people and I am going to stand by.
But they sell out those stadiums and as long as that's happening the NFL gets a sit back and say
guess what you same people that are giving us those harder and dollars that you barely can afford
to spend. We don't care about you. The NFL has not done one thing to show that they care about
fans. Nothing. Well, they call up 715 424 2600 if you can debate me on that one because I would
love to be wrong about it. I really would. I love the NFL. I would like to be wrong about this.
I don't think I am. They do it with the guys of safety like
not letting fans in for the Rona year. Yeah, yeah. That was for Satan. No, wasn't just in hindsight.
That was that that whole non-stadium issue. Yeah, that whole stadium thing was that not having
stadium seats or whatever it was. That was a first but but anyways, I was there for those two
playoff games that Green Bay finally did let people in and that was that was a blast. That was
too long. That was those were cool those two playoff games. I don't I don't know when it's
going to happen, but I will go to a game at Lambo one day and I cannot wait. I don't care who
they're playing. I just want to go to a game there. I just want to experience it. I've been
outside of Lambo a hundred times. I've been in the Green Bay a bunch. Wonderful city. There's
no city in America like Green Bay. But I do think that being in the stadium is a whole different
experience. It is and I would tell you there after being there a million and a half times
if you get the chance and maybe not on game day and make it a weekend do a stadium tour. I haven't
I actually haven't done that yet. I've wanted to but but never had the opportunity. That's a good
idea. You go through the Hall of Fame when you get towards the end when they start showing the
the bronze footballs of all everyone who's in the packer Hall of Fame then you have the the
football player lockers of the I think that's of the retired numbers. They also have a big
thing about who's in the NFL Hall of Fame as well. That's that's almost 30 of them and then at
the very end of it they have the Hallest trophies and the Lombardi trophies and when you walk
through that and you see the names of Jimmy Taylor Paul Hornig, Curly Lambo, Blood McNally,
Ray Nitschky, Reggie White. I mean when you see those names you feel those ghosts. Yeah. I mean
you get a chill. It's it's powerful. It's not even close to the same thing but walking through
the hallways at Second City and knowing the people that went through those hallways and the
blue shoes and the farleys and some of these people and everything. I mean even in comedy you
can't help but be inspired. I cannot imagine what it does in sports and just a fan or anybody else.
Michael and I are going to get into who is calling these games for us in a moment just a couple of
notes on the Packers for though we're catching anybody up who have not heard. The Packers have
signed Chris Brooks running back off of the Miami practice squad. Brooks has set some decent
ups and you know some highlights to his career. You just a body. Let's be honest you need bodies
back there right now running back which is not an issue that I think anybody thought back in June
with this team. So that's that's a tough spot to be in this if you're Matt LaFour and signing
Brady and Russ and the kicker. So it got ties to Wisconsin actually. You already had a family
here. Good for him. I mean saves on some money there a little bit on tickets. It's not even at
Monarch. The move represents a homecoming for his wife. Shelby. Shelby is from Prescott.
Oh right there. So that's pretty cool. Right there near the border I believe of Minnesota. So
that's a pretty cool tie in right there and it'll be even cooler if he's good. That's that's
what matters. Yes. That's the only thing that matters to pack our fans. I know how much
Wisconsinites you know we love root for Wisconsinites and seeing connections and that's cool.
They don't care. They just give me a good kicker right now because kicking and running back
having those two as as sore spots will say not weaknesses but sore spots is not something you want
but if you're going to have it let's figure it out early on in the season let's get it straight
and out and it's a long season. I know how quickly the NFL season goes by. I this is the first
time in my life that I'm going into the NFL season without my my main guy my partner
crime when it comes to football my papa. Him and I anytime the bear back in the day when you
didn't have the bottom line you didn't have the internet and all this when news would break
I called my papa and I was his Adam Schefter. I was the guy that got him the when the draft
happened I'm telling him about the picks as they're going on um he uh he loved this stuff he
loved this game especially baseball was his first love and he he uh he walked away from baseball
he got he thought it was too money-driven and so why he went to the NFL that was something we
joke about but but in hindsight yes but but he threw all of his love and all of his sports
into football and man he loved this game and it as much as a bear fan as he was he just he raised
me to be a fan of the game especially because our team wasn't very good all the time so it was
much easier to like other teams and watch other players and stuff but I I miss this and I'm excited
about um and not only a new NFL season but uh some of the the different things that are going to
be happening with it I want to get into the announcers when we come back Michael and James
taking through an afternoon of playmakers here at WFHR 975 FM 1320 AM we are proudly
brought to you by quality plus printing getting your words out right here in Rapids
welcome back everyone to WFHRs playmakers proudly brought to you by quality plus printing
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well when they open their doors I don't think they're open right but go ahead over there
we appreciate filling the gang over there thank you much to them uh appreciate you Michael
thanks a lot for hanging out with us this afternoon this has been fun yeah phone lines are still
open 715 424 2600 feel free to call up and join the conversation everybody the NFL season begins
to tomorrow uh I almost got said today time is a flat circle Thursday night featuring Baltimore
Kansas City heavyweight matchup Titans going at it a patch of my homes Travis Kelsey Lamar Jackson
and for those that don't know Derek Henry Derek Henry in that offense behind that line a team he
chose could they pick any 32 teams to play for this is the team he took less money to go play for
he wants to win a championship I am so excited about that matchup right there and that that
particular team up of Lamar Jackson and Derek Henry the only way they don't get first downs is if
they turn the ball over all all either one of them like you can just all right Lamar I'm just
gonna fall forward and then you handed it off to Derek Henry and he just falls forward and there's
a first down like they don't have to do anything it's incredible to watch they got some nice
receivers over there Mark Andrews tight end and I say I likely use a great number number two at
tight end I like that kid flowers uh man uh last year and one of my last year and one of my
fantasy leagues I had Andrews and when he got hurt the same day that Musgrave got hurt and I sat
there and right away I picked up Tucker crap crap yeah yeah and that's how I won one of my fantasy
leagues was nice I was right on the spot with that but that was one of the reasons why I didn't take
Derek Henry was how much is Lamar gonna want to hand the ball off okay he's not gonna get hurt
he's not gonna get hit but that still take the focus away from him uh 20 touchdowns but I'm
putting it out there 20 touchdowns for Derek Henry this rush yeah yeah yeah uh the eight schedule
games uh from one o'clock slot on Sunday and four schedule for the afternoon slot Los Angeles
in Detroit will play on Sunday night football opening uh we concludes with the jets taking on
the Niners on Monday night football but who is calling these games well it's gonna be interesting
because for Fox who have a handful of these of course the network made perhaps the biggest
acquisition of the offseason even more than an NFL team by having Tom Brady joined the team
cheating Tom uh Kevin Burkhart will be joining him side-by-side Aaron Andrews Tom Rinaldi will
be on the sidelines it's kind of surprised at Burkhart there but I thought so too I thought so too
it was interesting I thought they had a better uh better uh play-by play guy than him uh and I
don't know if that's Tom's call because I feel like he's making these calls uh but I always
feel like Tom Brady's making these calls so I don't know um I'm interested not only in that but in
the way that the NFL is literally breaking their back to try to make this work with Tom Brady owning
a part of the Raiders possibly in all of this in the that the weirdness of all of that you also
don't know if this guy is going to come back or not like I don't care if it's three four years from
now I'm still gonna be wondering Tom Brady gonna come back like a uh starting quarterback just
went down as Brady coming in this is the same thing about Brett Firth yes yes and it did
rightfully so I think Brett wanted to uh Joe Davis is doing play-by-play Greg Olson will be with him
Kenny Albert and Jonathan Vilma will be teaming up Adam Adman and Mark Sanchez will be calling
the game so this is the rundown for the uh play-by-play callers for Fox I feel like um yeah
nobody got uh shafted more than Greg Olson in this situation but uh you don't hear him complain
about it so I'm not gonna if he's not gonna take it hard I'm not gonna um I I respect the way
he's handled this killing with kindness man and I think Greg Olson's gonna go on to do great things
I think he's gonna be okay I um my favorite announcer outside of you and Randy and I do mean
that Michael uh I mean that brother I mean that I can't fake that stuff um I love Kevin
uh Kevin Burkhard I big big fan of his I he's my favorite guy to listen to and I really feel like
he should he deserved an opportunity among other names that should have been up there so
as much as I like Greg Olson I feel like even before I I was saying that Burkhard deserved Olson's
job uh or not Olson's job but in that slot he should have been maybe him and Olson would have
been a great team I don't know but that should be interesting CBS of course has a handful of
these games the trio of Nance Romo uh gonna be going and uh well Tracy Wolfenstein uh for eight
seasons together they've been well it's eight seasons already it's been for 20 runs crazy uh they're
going to be calling games together Kevin Harlan and Trent Green will be working together on CBS
they're going to be their number two or number three team Harlan you use I Harlan I think
better than people give him credit for him I I think Kevin Harlan's the best uh to me he's the
best I I I love any game that he to me I'll listen to a game because Kevin Harlan is calling it
kind of like I an eagle yeah yeah I there there's certain guys that I just enjoy and he's one of those
ones uh and and you they got of course Amazon this threw me for a second Amazon Prime oh yeah
that's right they have games they have Al Michaels and Kirk Herb Street calling games nonetheless
on Thursday night football um Al Michaels and Herb Street yeah it's crazy okay all right yeah
because Monday night yep I got my announcers confused I'm with the Monday night football team
you right right for the Thursday night team that it'll be Herb Street and Michaels I um I love
Al Michaels I think Al Michaels is the greatest announcer of all time as far as all multiple sports
yes some sports Vince gullies the goat uh you know there's certain sport uh I think that if you
wanted to say John Madden was the the main announcer in football history I'm not going to fight
John that one yeah I don't think you can win that fun no no so there's certain sports individually
but as far as doing anything you can he can call anything yes Al Michaels is the goat to me uh and
I like I just like that he's still doing it I don't know uh you know I also kind of like the fact
he's literally playing with house money and he don't really care you know some days some day
maybe that'll be me and Randy doing that I like that I like that that'd be pretty cool but
NBC returns with the trio of Tariqo uh Chris Collinsworth and Melissa Stark uh for their third
season together now Chris Collins where see he's a guy who just talks and talks and talks and talks
and sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it doesn't and I just use his own words against him see
he's a guy yes this is a guy yep that's it that is so college I was hoping I was hoping you caught
on to that I didn't know that you did impressions too this is what this is going to be a great tag
team back we're gonna have a lot of fun together this is awesome ESP and announced in May the trio
of Joe Buck Troy Ackman Lisa Salters will return for their third season together for Monday night
football the upcoming season will be Buck and Ackman's 23rd season together it's incredible to think
of that I that still doesn't seem like they've been doing it that long um what a lot of people are
excited about is not only of course the Peyton uh the Manning Cast where Monday night football has
Peyton and Eli kind of covering the game as well at the same time but they will be having Bill
Belichick on with them this year as Belichick signed a you know they keep looking at Tom Brady and his
signing I disagree with that I think the biggest free agent signing outside of football as far as
players go is the Manning's signing him and ESPN bringing Bill Belichick it looks like a good thing
when Nick Sabin so far that looks like it's working out I think Belichick it's gonna be fun to see
these coaches these guys know what real pressure is right and it's gonna be it's gonna be
interesting to see them to see if they have either one of them have a sense of humor I think Sabin
does I'm not sure I'm Belichick yet it's funny because I always heard that Belichick had a great
sense of humor but we didn't get to see it so we'll see now I think we have in some of those early
season press conferences I think it's just extremely dry yeah that's just deadpan that it's very
hard to pick up all right with that that's my kind of comedy I like it dark and deadpan I'm going
to be fun oh yeah I'm very curious to see how they develop how they are at these jobs let's
take one call before we go we got a couple minutes left you're on the show hey just a quick question
about a choreo step before you go I heard that he might be the first player to be in the 2020
club by the age of 20 have you heard anything about that I heard a little about that me too
heard a little about that that is pretty cool that is pretty unique another question about
programming I heard previously this afternoon that there was a program on civic media that runs
from four to six they're staring that's not gonna conflict with the no not that I'm aware of no
we'll still be here but we will still be here as far as I know but yes I do appreciate the question
man thank you it gives us a chance to clarify that yeah local programming like ours stations like
ours over the Brent the whole umbrella of civic media those two that dom show will be playing
we're excited about that but for us here in the local market at WFHR 975 1320 we will be doing
what we've been doing as far as I know we'll see we'll see but you know we're gonna keep doing it we
can keep doing it when we get calls and things like this we appreciate your man thanks for the call
we got wrapping up the show here in just another minute I didn't want to remind everybody of
our schedule coming up not only are we your tailgate your pregame for Luke Fickle show at 705 right
here at WFHR that's coming up in just a little bit tonight but on Friday we'll have another
playmakers for you and we will lead you get you ready over on WIRI 105 five for assumption football
hosting butchelly Randy Michael Seth gonna be covering this one you looking forward to am I yeah
and I'll be calling in just giving you the heads up I'll be calling in from Port Edwards as
the have their first home game against wild rose and that'll be uh see if pork and come out on
the winning side of that this year after uh game that was decided on the last play of the game
last year and didn't go their way so I'll give you hopefully half time uh update and then I'll
be with Randy for the big one of the night at southwood county field looking forward to it uh
it's gonna be fun it's gonna be a fun season of high school football and college football as Saturday
12 30 well I was constant football hosting south Dakota the pregame will kick off early for that one
that means no over the back fence this Saturday keep that in mind are looking forward to talking
a more football throughout the week and we'll of course get into some brewer talk as well
on baseball and plenty more Michael have a great night man thanks for the show you too buddy you
guys have a great night out there we will talk to you sooner than later right here at
this is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 AM W24 A.D.E Wisconsin Rapids and always streaming on
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