🏈NFL Kicks Off! Get it?!

Afternoon Wisconsin, welcome to WFHR's Playmakers.

Welcome to the show.

It is a Friday edition of Playmakers and we have got a lot to do in the next hour

everybody and we're able to do it thanks to our great friends over at Quality Plus

printing.

Getting your words out here in Wisconsin Rapids.

So there for all your printing needs by local support, local support, those that support

us in this community, got your host James behind the mic.

I am joined by my partner in sports, Seth Habagger.

Wow.

That whole thing you just did, you couldn't do that again if you tried.

Not even close.

Not even.

Bam.

Wow.

One take.

That's it.

And it'll never happen again.

They used to call him.

One take to me.

We've got a lot of fun lined up today.

We're going to be also joined by Michael Comer.

Michael is down there and over at Assumption High School on the field ready to call the

game for tonight.

We are leading you sort of into our sister stations game for 105.

That will kick off at 650, Assumption High School football, hosting Bacheli, Randy Mike,

Seth going to be running that game for you.

It's going to be good.

Yes.

I want to preview the Badger game coming up.

I want to preview a little bit of the Packer game coming up tonight.

Some of that got a fun stat of the show for you all lined up a little bit later.

We'll talk some brewers and we'll certainly be talking high school sports with Michael.

Anything that you or the audience has, Seth, we want to hear from you, 715-424-2600.

Call up and join the conversation.

Nobody made a highlight from the sidelines getting the game.

One of the things I want to get into with this in a moment here is the wildest foods served

at NFL stadiums.

Oh, those are always fun.

As we are getting into the NFL season.

But I got the chance to watch a lot of out of the corner of my eye in both eyes the

game last night, the first game of the season.

It's probably the last good Thursday night game we'll have all season.

They chose well.

They really did start off the season.

Thank you to the chiefs and the Ravens for giving us a great first game, I think.

Yeah, I was exciting.

I do find it silly.

The people that will ramble and complain about sports that never will talk about sports

until there's something to ramble and complain about.

His toe was out.

That's the rule.

It's always been the rule.

It's actually a pretty fair rule.

Yeah.

It makes sense.

Like it does.

It doesn't.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the rule.

I think I don't see there's any why there's this backlash and it just feels like people

that need.

They want to talk football, but don't know how to talk football.

Like this gives them something to talk about that.

Oh, you know, everybody, well, that makes sense.

He should be able to still get it because well, he tried so hard and it would have been

cool.

I was watching the game and I thought it would have been cool to go to overtime too.

His foot was out.

He's got two toes out.

That's too much.

The Milwaukee Bucks have a title in many ways because Kevin Durant has big feet on being

a toe on the line.

Exactly.

Nobody was complaining about the toe on the line then.

No, no, they're very happy about that one, but no, it's a point that Ravens had plenty

of other chances.

Absolutely.

To tie the score even go ahead.

I mean, it's the game.

I mean, things happen that are going to that one's just obvious because it happened at

the end of the game.

If it had happened in the first quarter, yeah, people would still talk about a little bit

like, oh, you know, if he would have just made that catch in bounds, that had been, you

know, the game would have been different.

But now because it was at the last moment, they could have tied the game and everything.

It's like, oh, we got to change the rule.

Yeah.

It's a way.

Please don't give the NFL more rules to change.

Oh, no, we're still trying to figure out what a catch is.

Let's not even bother with that.

That's the whole year.

That'll never be decided.

No, no, you're just.

I do think that, well, Kansas City won.

Baltimore has shown me nothing but things to be excited about.

Once that offensive line really gels, then you'll see something.

Once Derek Henry is able to gel with Lamar Moore in that line, when they get to know each

other, that's going to be electric.

That's going to be so much fun to watch.

That is going to be an awesome offense.

And by all means, I think we might have just seen the AFC Championship game again.

Yes.

Yeah.

I'm telling it, man.

It's going to be one of those two teams.

And I would love to ramble and talk more and more about that game.

I can't get over.

I refuse to normalize.

I don't do this.

Growing up, most of my favorite players, the guys that I really enjoyed were not the number

one athlete in the world or the number one athlete in their sport.

It was never my thing.

The only time this has ever happened to me is with Patrick Mahomes.

And it didn't start out that way.

I didn't start out jumping on the bandwagon.

I've been a fan of his since he was his first days at Texas Tech.

I just happened to be home one night watching Saturday night football when he had the record

breaking game against Oklahoma.

I want to say it was like 70 to 60.

He had like 600 yards and the thing about him, the way he plays the game is so unique

that it's, he doesn't have, I always seem to like guys like this.

Jerry Rice was never the strongest fastest guy on any field that he was on from high school,

college to pros.

But that man was the greatest wide receiver there will ever be.

Yeah.

I feel very confident saying that because of his work ethic and how uniquely he looked

at the game, he had route ideas that they're doing now that he pretty much invented.

Mahomes is very similar to this.

He just has a very unique improbability in the way he sees the game and how well he sees

the field.

His vision.

Yeah.

I got into a conversation the other day about greatest Super Bowl performances and it came

up again where to me, I think it might have been the best performance I've ever seen out

of a quarterback and he lost.

That's how good this kid is.

I'd love to talk about that for the next 45 minutes.

But I was very distracted because the Chiefs of course are Super Bowl champions.

Their owner, Mr. Hunt comes out with the trophy and all I can look at is his hair, Seth.

So I want to start out the show with the hot take, hot takes, hot takes, hot takes the

sports show.

Older is hair?

Yes.

No NFL owner has good hair.

Now, you know what?

That is my hot take.

That has to be the truth, man.

I don't know if you can quantify that, but just hearing you say that, I think you're

right, man.

I don't, I don't think anyone in any executive, Jerry Jones, Mark Davis, executive Hal Davis,

well, that is the worst, man, any of the, every NFL owner, what is with these billionaires

and they can't know what they, they, I mean, they just go bald or something.

I don't get it.

You remember Red McCombs when he owned the Vikings, he had like the worst hair, my God.

That's perfect.

Oh, that's a great room.

I forgot about that.

All right.

That is my hot take of the show.

No NFL owner has good hair.

We will get to the calls.

I think you guys have better things to say.

Good afternoon.

You're in the game.

I, I'm going to, that opens up this, this show, we got to go, there's something like

go back or, or, or, or the fun of the, they play when they score the touchdown.

This Chicago Black Hawk thing and, you just can't take it anymore, just get, hey, no,

no, no, no.

No, I just can't take it no more.

Yeah, yeah.

And, and, and this is why Kevin has his own sports show that's going to be starting

now.

Yeah.

I have a show inside the show, Kevin, that you're going to run, you'll produce, you'll

do it inside this show.

It'll be great.

It'll be great.

I, I do, I do, and I, I, I am, I should say, excited for this game tonight between

Green Bay and Philadelphia.

One thing that I want to get to really quick that I actually did want to start to show

with.

I just thought it'd be funnier to bring up the NFL owner's day.

For Green Bay, obviously, there is hype.

There is hope attached to this team going from last year to Jordan Love and the way everybody

from Meena Kimes to others are talking about Jordan Love.

This is the next great quarterback.

This is where the excitement lives.

This is what football is all about.

Then you go look at Philadelphia and I think there's blood in the water in Philly and and

and that you got a team that if anybody hasn't been paying attention, I don't blame you.

That is a team that has been going through turmoil since early last year and there's

been a divide in that locker room more and more and more and I don't know why ownership

has kept their seriani as their coach, but they're keeping them at least for now and

that that team is is one push away from falling over the edge.

Like winning cures everything and they come out of this game with a win.

They're going to as long as they keep winning, I think seriani stays in.

But I mean one loss.

Even if they're nine and one and his that seat gets just that hotter in that city that

isn't has no love for anybody, the city brother we love.

I think I think the Packers tonight could start a domino effect in Philadelphia that not

only they get they lose that coach, that team could be going from a playoff contender

to not even making the playoffs.

Oh well, I mean you kind of you kind of hit that too, you know, you know, throughout the

week you've been talking about the turmoil that has been going on there in Philly, you

know, the hell hurts and and seriani is not on the same page as this, that's functional

family.

They're going to say Kwan Barkley and maybe you might have helped a little bit, but if

they're not going to, if tonight at the pack, I mean, their favorite by two and a half.

So Vega thinks something, something to be there for the, for the Eagles, but if they,

like you said, if they get off to a sour start and if the Packers end up beating these

guys by two touchdowns, I mean, I'm not counting on it.

I think it's going to be closer than that.

It might be almost like a score from last night's game, you know, it could be 27, 20 and

I'm just not, I'm hyped about the game tonight.

I don't know how confident I am about the Packers or this first game because most of the starters,

especially Jordan Love played four plays in the preseason.

Right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Really, I mean, granted they had their inner squad or the combined practices, they still

ain't touched a quarterback.

Yeah.

I just, this, this whole deal with the preseason and not letting these guys play.

There's talk.

You know, if you get these guys, like, like, like, like, chase and, and, uh, you can, and,

uh, um, all shoot all those other guys as a couple out.

Yeah.

What's the chances?

I'm getting, what's the chance they're going to get hurt the first play because they're

not in football shape.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

They have to be up on each other, but it just.

It's not games.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm hoping the Packers were the night.

Great.

I mean, the Packers were the night or, you know, come out on top or if they lose it, they

don't lose bad.

You know, they, everything still kind of looks good and you just got to keep by a better

team.

I mean, that's, that's the way it is.

But if they come out and it don't look good, I'm, I'm really getting to get frustrated

with these preseason games.

If you're not going to play the guy, yeah, they get the practice and why you even have them.

Yeah.

It's a good point.

There's always going to be a need for a preseason football, um, of some way.

Because there's just too many positions to fill and you need to find out who's on your,

so who's going to fit your squad and not.

Um, and I do think preseason football has its place when it comes to that.

Um, I could not agree with you more, man, about the starters playing more and all of this.

I'm worried about it with my team.

I'm worried about it just as a fan of the NFL.

Um, and I think we, we get a good example of this all the time.

Look at week one and week one football can be very hard to watch in some ways.

But these two teams we watched last night, they have something in common.

Their starters played.

Their starters took some hits.

Yeah.

Their starters played, uh, their, their main guys took some bumps and bruises in the preseason.

Oh, that's what it hits like.

I remember now.

Yeah.

And it's not their mind that needs to remember.

Oh, no.

It's their bodies that need to remember.

They need to understand what it is like to be hit by a freight train.

There's nothing that can give you that except for real live NFL football where everything is on the line.

Um, you get a little of that in the preseason.

If you got like a third string corner that's trying to make the team or it always is these outliers.

It's not like necessarily the guys that you're really needing to take those hits.

I couldn't agree with you more, man.

Um, and, and honestly, if, if Kayla Williams had played more college, uh, more, um, of the preseason,

and the worst happens, breaks his leg, breaks his arm, whatever.

It sucks.

I'm not happy about it, of course.

But I get it.

It's football.

Uh, I'm not going to look at it any differently if it happens to him.

How do Jets fans feel that Aaron Rogers played preseason football but was out four snaps into the regularly season?

Would it have mattered at all if it was in a preseason game?

Would it, I mean, not really any difference to their season?

Um, I, I, I think there's a lot of factors in there.

I also think though, um, that if you're going to ask that of these players to be playing in these games,

which again, I think I agree with, um, I, I think you've got to do more for these players.

You really want to worry about, uh, take care of players and take care of their health.

There needs to be a mandate on fields.

There needs to be a mandate on, on every field in the NFL and it being up to code.

And if it is not, we play in the game.

I would afford it.

Ooh.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Cause how many injuries we see and how many times we're going to see this season, you know, of all predictions,

there's a prediction for you.

There's going to be an injury and it's going to be because of the NFL field.

That's going to happen.

Uh, I don't want that to happen.

And I'm not wishing that to happen.

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

It happens all the time.

They need to get on that.

If they really care about these players' health, that is almost number one thing they need to worry about.

They mess with the kickoff given these these extra padded helmets.

Sure.

Go for it.

Try those things.

How about you actually focus on the field they're playing on?

Like that needs to be done too.

And, and, and as far as the field they're playing on, how about having it in the States?

Cause I'm not against growing the game.

But you are trying to do something that is almost, I don't want to say impossible.

But it is, it is mind boggling to me that such a smart run of franchise organizations,

whatever you conglomerate business, whatever term you want to give the NFL,

that they don't see the folly in, hey, you know what?

It worked for the NBA.

They were able to do this.

Um, the NBA had the Olympics.

The NBA had the dream team.

Like this was done over decades with the NFL and basketball was already pretty popular in Europe

in some of these things.

It had already had a growing thing going on.

They knew what basketball was.

It had a chance to do something.

Nobody cares about football but us.

Nobody.

They care about football but not our football.

And if you look at where football ranks around the world as far as interests,

cricket is higher.

Rugby is higher.

We're not even talking soccer or hockey.

Like what they're trying to do is, is folly.

It's a waste of money.

If they care about the game, let them come here.

Let, let them come to Lambo.

Let them come to Philly and watch a game.

And that's not a leadism.

That's not me being on American.

You got to come to our soil.

That's tourism, baby.

That's how we survive.

We're, we're bringing the two of them and they don't even want it.

Yeah.

Hey, here's a whole load of this.

Except for the novelty.

I think that's like the one thing you got working for you is that it's like,

wow, a football game.

What is this?

Let's go see what this is.

Now, that has its limits.

Because it's a novelty then.

Yeah, you're right.

But, you know, real quick, looking at the game tonight, you know,

there's a couple, there's two things that I'm looking at the Eagles right now.

A, a fully healthy Jalen hurts.

That is always going to be a, a, a, a bellwether to how Philadelphia plays.

And the, the absence of their Hall of Fame center.

Yeah.

Jason Kels.

I don't know how much that's going to have an effect.

I know everyone is talking about, like, is the Tush push going to work anymore without Jason Kelsi?

Honestly, I have no idea.

Yeah.

That'll be interesting to see.

They changed that up a little bit rules wise too.

So they can't get away with this much of the, the obviousness of that that they used to have.

It just basically being the, well, I don't know if I'm dating myself,

but the USC game with where Reggie Bush got pushed by Matt Liner or something like that.

It was just basically so obvious.

Wow.

That's old school.

Kevin, what are you looking forward to in the game tonight?

Other than we just get to play some, we just get to watch football.

Well, I mean, I guess it's going to come down to is the whole line.

And, and how they're going to, you know, protect Jordan and open up the holes for the running backs.

My, my biggest thing is that what I'm going to really watch tonight and really hope to see is that defense.

And if half of these defense was going to be what they are been hyping it up to be.

Maybe just kind of here.

It might be night in the ice.

Need to see what's going to happen.

And maybe they could take advantage of not having Jason Kelsi in that, in that role where he's been at for so long with words, hurts and calling out the signals and the protections and stuff.

And it could be interesting to see where that goes.

You know, then which was kind of surprised at the past couple of weeks.

They really haven't talked, you know, on some of the sports talks.

I listened to they really haven't talked about the absence of Jason Kelsey.

Yeah.

You know, they mean everybody's kind of almost like they kind of moved on from it.

And they're not going to talk about it.

But to be fair, they probably haven't felt the absence because he's there with them.

He's, you know, he's everywhere right now.

So it's hard to, it's like we forget that.

Oh, yeah, he would, he played football like a whole most and stuff.

I think that it's something that I wanted to get to.

I still appreciate both of you like hitting on about this because they got a lot of good centers in college football.

And they got a really nice center that they brought in.

The personality isn't there.

The character, the identity isn't there.

And as soon as there's so much tied to an offense in its identity, we're going to talk about Wisconsin football.

And that is something that they're still trying to figure out.

Until a team has that, that character, that identity, they're lost.

And you can have a great team.

And you can maybe even win some playoff games.

But I've never seen a Super Bowl winner.

Winner, I mean, that didn't have a personality or character to it.

Whether it's a player or it's an identity from the coach or something like that.

Teams rally around that.

They build around it.

And it's a locker room gel.

It's something that keeps even the guys that don't like the same music or on the same side of the ball as friends are getting along.

Or hey, that's my guy.

I'm going to fight for them and everything.

It brings something out of these guys to be able to have that that talisman almost as your of your team.

And when you don't have that or you had it and you lost it so you know the difference of having it and not.

Ooh, that could be different.

It just, it really feels like that they're on, they're on such thin ice right now.

And even with a win tonight, I don't know that that's going to make everything all better.

I do think that the NFL has to, Brazil is the kidnapping capital of the world.

Like the fact that they're doing this in Brazil, they got to hope that they get out of this.

Not just with no injuries and no kidnappings.

No, like no craziness or anything.

There's so many things that I'm paying attention to that have nothing to do with football about this game that I'm really interested in.

Kevin or you know what?

Go ahead.

It's kind of, you know, the way things, you know, like you said, the dysfunction that they've had there in Philly.

I mean, one of the things that I don't know if you have heard of any of the outtakes from some of the pressors that they've been out there.

It was like a lot of floor and stuff.

Brazil is actually.

You know, open arms to green Bay because of all the stuff that fill us.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, all the players that they don't want to, they don't want to go play there.

Well, go with, go to your city.

Your city's not even better than what Brazil is, you know?

And it's just, it's 50,000 people and it could be 50,000 packer fans.

And this is supposed to be Philadelphia's home game that they gave up.

Right, hilarious.

It is funny.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to kind of seeing how it goes tonight.

You know, after watching some of that game last night and seeing some of the, you know,

you hate to bring up the officials already.

But boy, oh boy.

Oh, very amid season four on some of those, those calls last night.

Yeah.

And these new rules changes.

I mean, they need, I mean, it's got to happen.

Is it has to happen in baseball?

Has to happen in basketball?

And has to happen in football?

You need to put these guys at full time so they understand the rules instead of

being off a half a season and all of a sudden come up.

Here's these new rules.

Oh, let's work on them in the preseason.

Well, if you only have two preseason games, the three preseason games, the rules,

I mean, they're not going to understand these rules by that time.

So I hope it's actually going to come down to a call like that too.

The NFL is a wash and money.

They can't afford to pay the officials to make the games good.

It's a bad joke.

I mean, come on, please.

Yeah.

And we, we say these things.

We bark about these things because we love this sport so much.

We want it to be what it could be.

It shouldn't ever.

We should be talking about the performances of these players or this amazing

rookie Xavier Worthy or something like that.

But still, we, we know us, another sports talk radio out there is this is where the focus

goes because it's so darn frustrating.

And it's such a fixable problem.

Very.

It's not as light.

It's not as if we owe out.

We don't know how to fix this.

This is impossible.

This is, you know, cold fusion.

Who's ever going to be able to figure this out?

It's not that, man.

You know, pony up the money.

You got it.

Yeah.

Yeah, pony up that dang money and fix this, especially before the worst happens.

And you start, you become the number two game in town.

The number three game in town.

You used to be that, the NFL.

Then all of us are old enough to remember Michael Jordan taking over the sports.

And even when there wasn't basketball, people were talking about basketball.

There was a time where it was baseball, basketball, football.

Young people out there may not like be shocked by that.

But that's how the NFL at one point was the third game in town.

They can, that can happen again.

And it happens.

It happens.

It happens when you get an audience not only ticked off because they're loose.

And home games.

They can't find the game.

They can't watch it on a network that they have or a streaming service that they already have.

And they're trying to figure those things out.

So you're alienating older audience members and everything that made your league.

You don't have a league without the fans.

Right.

They're not going to games because of the prices or because of some other things or whatever.

So your stadiums aren't as filled.

All this stuff adds up.

It's never one thing that brings down a, a, a, a, Rome didn't fall in a day.

It doesn't happen from one.

Rome didn't fall from one act.

It happened over many years over many anger and then alienating people and ticking people

off over this stuff and everything.

It adds up.

The Cardinals send taking your fans for granted that they're always going to be there.

And the NFL is getting mighty close to that right now.

And all that being said football.

Well, the game will always be there.

You know, football.

Thank you.

That's why you should be like me.

And start enjoying Canadian football, won't you?

Yes.

Those 120 yard returns.

I think that Canada has messed that up though because don't they, do they do things in measurements

like in kilometers?

They don't.

No, they don't see yards.

They do.

They should do it though.

Kilometers all that.

I think it'd be cooler.

I think it'd be more interesting.

We wouldn't understand.

That would really be confusing.

Hey, I don't confuse Americans.

Show them something metric, right?

Yeah.

Real quick before we go to go to break Kevin.

Anything on your mind?

Do you want to the touch on?

Oh, we've kind of touched on it all.

Right on, right on.

I appreciate that.

Yeah, I mean, a little bit.

You know, you talked a little bit about it with Terry this morning.

I'm more neutral about the money with these streaming services and stuff.

And, you know, obviously, if you don't have in the now the streaming services are basically

remember how you can, you know, try to do a seven day trial.

Yeah.

And a lot of them are getting rid of those now because of what's happening with the people

that are with sports.

Just so they can watch their game once they'll do a seven day to do the seven day trial.

This was the games done.

They'll cancel their subscription.

Yeah.

By the way, you know, it's going to get.

I'll go ahead, Kevin.

Yeah, I mean, it's just going to get to the point where I think, you know, like you said,

the NFL is going to get to the point and people are just going to say enough is enough.

We just.

We'll listen to it on the radio.

You know, you know, listen to.

Hey, we don't mind that.

We in layer B and.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know, after, you know, we used to do that all the time.

I remember I growing up.

There's times that we shut the TV off or shut the volume down and you'd be able to listen to Jim and Max, you know.

Right.

Listen to local team.

Yeah.

You can't do it.

You can't do it.

No more because of all the delays, but.

Yeah.

It doesn't work.

That was such a cool thing to do.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It's all bundles.

It's all.

Yeah.

This is one prediction that I made that I'm standing by because it's going to happen.

It's just going to go right back to it.

It is.

Kevin, we appreciate the time for you, man.

You have a great weekend.

Enjoy the games.

All right.

You guys have a great weekend and I got gold badgers and go pack homes.

Right.

Right.

Yeah.

We appreciate the time.

Best listeners and radio.

We're still going to be joined by Michael Comert from Assumption Field, talking a little high

school football.

Seth and I will also get on into some badger talk and I got that stat of the show coming

up.

All right.

And yes, every NFL owner has bad hair.

It's scientifically proven.

We've got the science back in up now.

Go ahead and prove me wrong.

Please.

715-424-2600.

We'll be back with more show coming up in just a minute here on Playmakers.

Probably brought you by Quadipus Printing, getting your words out here with Scott's

and Rapids.

Welcome back everyone to WFHR's Playmakers.

Using a Black Hawk song, the Black Hawk 70 used that song since 2010.

I was going to say I was actually more than one to use that.

It was a fair shot though.

It was fair.

It was fair.

We love talking with our good people and we got a good one on the year with us right

now.

Michael Comer joining us from Assumption Field.

Michael, thanks so much for hanging on the line for us.

How are you doing over there?

Oh, I'm doing all right.

I'm actually in Port Edwards right now.

Oh, okay.

Okay.

As we got about a minute and 42 seconds before the second half starts and it's been

nothing or not nothing, but it's been all the Port Edwards in that first half who

a tune of 43 to nothing over wild rose.

It's going to start the second half with the runtime mercy rule as there's a 35 point

lead.

So it means the clock's going to run.

So the second half is going to go quick.

Okay.

Yeah.

Either way, it was 30 to nothing, a half time or I at the end of the first quarter and

it's just been all black, it's like MTV, all black hawks all the time.

Right on.

Right on.

It's nice to hear for our local team.

We appreciate Wild Rose coming to town, coming to Port Edwards for that and good for that

Port Edwards team.

You don't get a lot of victories like this in a high school football season.

You take the ones that you can.

It's fun for the fan base.

Yeah, absolutely.

And I mean, it's a, it's kind of a rough game to two interceptions for Wild Rose on the

game.

Port has one tossed fumble, but the big telling thing is 310 total yards at the half

report.

Edwards.

It's not anything close to that.

It's about a 48, 48 split between your passing and rushing for Wild Rose.

So they don't even have 100 total yards in the game yet.

So it's a second half, go go quick.

This is just a good opportunity to get the youth, the younger players in acclimated to

a varsity game, get some experience and prepare for next week.

That's pretty cool.

Michael, of course, you're going to be covering the assumption patchele game tonight before

we get to that.

Any other games on the docket that you're excited about?

Rapids, Everest is always a good one.

That's always a good one.

I mean, Everest has a one-on-one record.

Rapids is on two.

They've played the same non-conference teams.

Rapids lost 44 to 21, two River Falls, but Everest being like 55, 26 or something like

that.

So it was, Everest has a little bit of a mental advantage, but it's, you know, it's

always good game.

Last year was a 14-14 game, Everest should have been running away with it, and they needed

to touch down with less than 10 seconds to go the weekend win the game, but that was a

game that ran, I think Randy and I brought to you last year.

That's right.

That's what you did.

Yeah.

It brought it to us good, too.

I'm very excited to see how that Raiders Evergreen's game goes.

That's going to be good one.

I am also interested to see how this Nikusa teams continue on, and they've been playing

well so far this season taking on Moss, then that should be a good game.

When you get to the assumption royal field, if you will, when you get down there, what

is one of the first things you're going to be looking for out of the assumption royals

tonight?

Uh, just improving an offense, just improving in general, I should say.

They've got to move the ball, they've got to stop their opponent from scoring.

They're playing, finally, against someone who's, finally, someone who's comparable to

them as the Chelly, they've got low numbers as well.

Each, each team's got about 20, 20 players each.

So it's, uh, it's more comparable, and I mean, who knows, maybe with this, this year,

we'll have one just like Seth and I brought you last year that went two over times, and

it was determined on a fumble on the goal line and, uh, assumption one.

I don't want it to go like that again, Michael.

I don't, I, I, that was a log.

I mean, that's what, and by the way, that was Mike's first solo game.

It was on a Saturday as of all things, Saturday morning, yeah.

We had a lightning storm.

I mean, it was the craziest game I've ever been a part of, but it was good.

And yeah, it was the way it ended was just nuts.

I, I don't remember.

I remember there was something else going on a town that day, and I had to stop by.

And you were still here.

What's going on, man?

Yeah, we appreciate you too.

That was a great coverage.

You guys covered the heck out of that game.

I was awesome.

And it was a fun game to cover it.

We'll see what, uh, what this one is like.

Michael, uh, with this, with a game like this one as well, um, is there anything

that any, any, any player that stands out that, uh, you know, you're going to be excited

about it or looking forward to second, you know, for, for assumption, I would say, I

would say it will be just seeing the improvement of quarterback play from Brexton Steiner.

Uh, they're going probably be without Cam Martin, uh, unfortunately with the

legendary that he had last week hip injury, uh, not exactly sure what all went on down

there, but, uh, just looking for the improvement, getting to, getting the handle on

our option offense, just a little bit better.

Uh, looking forward to the coverage tonight, man, appreciate you calling in.

Thank you for the time.

I'm, uh, I'm already excited for next week, getting to talk a little, uh, panthers,

raiders with you, the jug, uh, we'll have that game next week, uh, to be talking about

September 13th.

That's one that we're going to talk about as well.

And as well as, uh, the game, we'll be covering, of course, here at, uh, WFHR and WIRI.

Michael, appreciate you have a good time tonight, man.

Oh, yeah, definitely enough for our listeners.

Uh, just every, every game recap you can find on our Wisconsin Rapids area sports.com.

All right.

Nicely done, man.

Nicely done, uh, say hi to Randy for us.

You have a good night.

Yep.

You got it.

You guys too.

Michael Komer joining us right here on playmakers.

Appreciate the time.

Man, that's fun to be able to do.

It is.

Yes, but the hyper own games, man.

That's great.

Again, on WIRI 105, five tonight, our pregame kicks off at 650 assumption high school hosting,

but Shelley, Randy, Mike, Seth, going to cover that one for you.

No, it's going to be good, uh, a little bit later, uh, tomorrow, we'll be having our later

as in the weekend of tomorrow, I don't know what I was saying there.

Time is a flat circle.

It is, uh, 1230 Wisconsin, bedroom football hosting South Dakota, looking to get things

right.

Uh, and not that they didn't necessarily, I think, uh, because again, they don't have a

preseason football.

Um, no, the, and, and, and I'm not here to make excuses for the Wisconsin Badgers.

I just am a realist and, and I never expected them to come out the gate with a 50 point

win over in, uh, that, you know, Western Michigan, um, every, almost, almost every

team has an opportunity to get better.

Western Michigan is not any different than that.

I think that they, you had a team, uh, week one is always when you can pull off an

upset and every team coming into that week is looking at it that way, whether it's

week zero or week one, um, and looking to be app stayed against Michigan, that they're

all looking for that.

Yeah.

And, uh, it's not surprising to me that that was a rough go.

This week is a different story.

Uh, Wisconsin is taking on a better opponent, um, in South Dakota, but not that much

better.

And while I don't necessarily think that everybody's going to feel better, including

coach fickle, if they have, pull off a 30 point win, um, you're, you're, you're

darn, if you do darn, if you don't, if you win by 30 in this game, well, you were

supposed to, right?

If you don't, well, well, what are you doing?

Everything, this guy is falling in all this.

Mm hmm.

It's a long college season.

And this is the second year of a whole new staff trying to create a whole new

culture and an environment that has been this way for a hundred years.

Badger football, run the ball, run the ball, run the ball, dwind by defense, run

the ball.

Yep.

Um, this is something different that they're trying to do.

They're trying to modernize this.

They're trying to bring the badgers into the 21st century.

They're trying to do something that nobody's really tried to do in that

environment before.

No.

And because they haven't really needed to, that's part of it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But modern day football, you win in the trenches, you win with a good

D line, uh, you, you want to win a national championship, recruit the

defensive line, recruit that D line.

That is where championships are one.

That's how, uh, that's, that's the game that that's the most interesting thing

to me about the most interesting matchup this weekend with Michigan and

Texas.

Um, I would have loved to spend the whole hour talking about that.

Is that game is going to be fascinated to me?

It could blow out either way.

It could be a close game either way.

It should be a good one either way.

Yep.

Good morning.

Good afternoon.

You're on the game.

Welcome to playmaker, James.

Yeah.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

I think you're for having me.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you.

You guys were talking about owners with good hair.

Do you remember 80, 80 Departono from us?

Uh, he had good hair.

Now that was the outlier.

That was the one exception.

Yeah.

That's true.

I'll give you that one.

But to be fair, he's Italian.

And you know, we have good hair.

We have good hair.

It's one of the few things we had.

It's true.

It's a great reference though.

I was, I was also thinking about Arthur Blank and Ziggy Wolf.

But if you cross your eyes, they kind of look like a marked brother.

Definitely.

I, I am so glad you said that, man.

We, uh, I'll bring it back, uh, and close, you know, earmuffs to Atlanta fans out there.

I know how big we are in the Atlanta market.

Yes.

We, when he's dancing on the sidelines and everything, that famous, you know,

moment of that and everything, he's, he's not dancing dancing.

But he's out there doing that.

I immediately thought of, uh, groucho marks in, in the soon he was in with that

mustache.

I thought a groucho, uh, and I thought it was just me.

That, that's great reference.

The joke was on him.

Uh, Matt, uh, we appreciate you.

Is there anything you're looking forward to in this big, busy sports weekend,

uh, more than anything else or something that stands out to you?

Oh, I want to see the Vikings win.

Obviously, um, what you're talking about tonight's game.

And I think the field that you mentioned, that they're playing on a soccer pitch.

So I'm hoping that wouldn't be an issue.

Let's hope it, yeah, it makes me wonder about the ground game and the kickers

because you got two running backs that are trying to kind of resurrect their

careers in new places and, uh, the kicking, I don't know what the scenario is

like in Green Bay, but I'm not even sure what it's like in Philadelphia.

But I think it's going to be a three point game.

Wow.

Yeah, I, I, I feel like that's the, that's, that's the growing feeling with this game

that it's going to be close.

I, I find it really interesting, um, not only what you mentioned about the pitch

that they're playing on, but, uh, the, the, is excited as I was to see my homes

and jacks and go against each other.

I'm excited to see this match up at running back.

I think it's going to be a very good match up at running back and, and two

teams that like to run the ball.

Um, I think Sequan Barclays, one of the best, if not the best overall

running back in football, as far as a three down back and a guy that could do

everything you ask of him and everything, still got some good legs on him.

Uh, great, uh, great football mind and a guy that is such a team player.

I'm a big, big Sequan fan, um, and I'm a big Josh Jacobs fan.

I think he's a guy that's been begging to go to a team that is competitive,

that a team that has playoff contensions and everything.

Um, he is, uh, he's got fresh legs when it comes to that because he's, he's

so energized to be playing with a good franchise.

That's going to be really exciting to see how those two teams play up as much

as, uh, everybody wants to talk love and hurts.

And I get it.

Those are the headliners.

Right.

I really am excited about those second tier guys, those guys like that.

See how they play.

Wait a minute.

It's love hurts.

Yes.

I just got that.

Oh my God.

Where am I been?

Why has nobody been on that?

I don't like love hurts.

Yeah, it's perfect.

You had a Nazareth song teed up for you, NFL and no, all you marketing geniuses.

I swear to God, it's going to be playing.

It's the pregame thing.

They're going to play it at some point.

They got it, right?

Yeah, they have to.

Uh, it's a horrible song by the way.

It is.

That's the way.

Uh, so you're going to look guys.

Have you heard if there's going to be a big half time performance by anybody?

I have not.

I have no, no, no, no, I have them.

Okay.

I would, you would think, uh, especially like, hey, at least have Shakira.

I believe Shakira is Brazilian.

I apologize.

Or are some other Brazilian star.

Yeah, some of the Brazilian star.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, let's see.

Enjoy the games, man.

You have a good week on those.

You do have a good morning.

Have a good.

I'm kidding.

I'm getting back.

I'm good.

I have our stat of the show, Seth.

Seth has the show.

Let's have some fun with this one.

And our stat of the show is similar to last week where we're using a year.

And I'm choosing the year of 1926.

Okay.

We're going to stay in college football to the Georgia Bulldogs that weren't always the Bulldogs.

The college football team of Georgia had an interesting story behind its name.

Before becoming the Bulldogs, Georgia's first unofficial mascot was a goat.

The Georgia goats.

I love that.

In the first incogn, uh, combination, uh, or first intercollegiate game.

I'm sorry.

Against the team of Auburn in 1926.

The team of Georgia introduced a goat as their lucktalesman.

That was their team nickname.

However, the team acquired the name Bulldogs, weirdly also, uh, Morgan Blake wrote in the

November issue of the Atlantic Constitution from 1920 that the Georgia Bulldogs would

be a fitting name for the college team.

Then Cliff Wheatley used Bulldog in his article five different times after a tie against Virginia,

calling this team a bunch of bulldogs.

Bulldogs, right?

Yeah.

From that point on, Bulldogs just stuck and they became the Georgia Bulldogs.

Yeah, but the Georgia, there are no goats as far as I can think of, there are no goats.

I want to say in professional sports.

No, there's not because for so many years, the word goat was a negative word, a negative

connotation.

You were the goat.

You made, you missed the play.

It we lost because of you.

You're the goat.

It's only been recently.

It's become an acronym for greatest of all time, which is when it's switched and it's

very positive now, which is very confusing.

And if you think about the first time someone used to that I heard use goat in the positive

sense as an acronym, I was like, what are they talking about?

I was, why are they denigrated?

This guy is great.

What are they?

Oh, it wasn't till, let me say a couple of years later, but I found out that what it meant.

That's pretty sad.

I, I, I think it's, it's very similar to turning bad into a slang word and meaning good.

Right, yeah, you know, that kind of thing or cool and, and what we did with that.

Yeah, right.

We do this with words.

Where we like, why do we do this?

I don't know, English is hard enough to learn, man.

Another example real quick, just to add on to our stat of the show, Virginia Tech.

Virginia Tech is another weird example of curious naming the nickname of the football team

changing from with the college's name.

For first, it was Virginia, architectural and mechanical college.

Then the name changed for Virginia, architect, architectural college and poly,

polytonic,

holy technic institute, thank you.

Technic, those are hard to say.

And finally, the name settled with Virginia Polytechnic Institute and state institute.

You know, this college by the name Virginia Tech, right?

The football team started as the fighting goblers.

The nickname was James Tahoki shortly after that, right?

But that was Hoki's better.

I would love to see a game against the Georgia Goats and the Virginia fighting goblers.

That would be awesome.

You know, my favorite nickname for a team that's not really their nickname is Georgia Tech,

the Ramblin wreck from Georgia Tech, which is actually part of their school song.

Yes, I am a Ramblin wreck from Georgia Tech and a hell of an engineer because it's a

technical college, right?

Makes sense.

Some of our great ones have gone to Georgia Tech.

I don't know, I don't know.

I literally just stayed with the Ramblin wreck, but I, I, I, one of my oldest friends,

my best friends, brother Ryan, diehard Georgia Tech fan.

And, and so I just know a ton of Georgia Tech knowledge and players and everything.

And I, I'm with you on the name.

I, I love it.

It's great.

Ramblin wreck.

We're going to take a quick time out.

It's okay, though.

We're close to the end of the game.

We can spend our last time out.