Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHR's Playmakers.
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We have Coach and GM. If you're Wisconsin Rapids River Kings, Paul Peckman joining us looking
forward to that. Looking forward to talking with all of you. Let's get it going. Good afternoon,
you're in the game. I'll help you out for a few minutes. How's it going, man?
Well, first of all, we got a little rest in peace. The James Earl Jones.
Kind of a sad day in Star Wars history and then and feel the dreams. So you know what? I was
actually going to start the show there. I have a clip from one of his movies. I am a big fan of
James Earl Jones. I had the fortunate chance when I was about 21, 22 to meet him. I took some
classes at UCLA and he came to one of our, as we wrapped up, he came and spoke to us as a class
at the end of one of our semesters. The one lone semester I took at UCLA. And he afterwards
talked to us and he was great talkers. Anybody without there would imagine shared a lot of
cool things behind the scenes with us and everything. But afterwards he took questions and he answered
about like 20, 30 questions and stayed like 20 minutes longer than he planned to and all of this.
And then he stayed a little longer and shook hands with everybody. There were two major things
that happened where he was, I couldn't get over and I don't know if I'm going to say this PC wise
or not or anything. I couldn't get over how the girls were with him, man. Women loved him.
Every single woman in that building was all over him and women that were not like that with
anybody else. But as soon as they around James Earl Jones, it just melted and really enjoyed
him. And he was just like very humble about it. It was an older man as I would met him and
stuff. But they were really into him. They really liked him. And the way that he was so,
there were a couple of typical, you know, stereotypical California kids in front of me.
They were going up and wanted to shake his hand. And right away they're like, man, you were
Darth Vader. And, and I don't know how I would have felt if I was James Earl Jones and the
Thespian that I am that that's what I'm known for. For him, he couldn't have been happier
and handled it so well. And then I don't know what to say to him. And I want to tell him,
hey, when I was a little kid, my dad loved the great white hope. It was his favorite boxing
movie. He liked it more than raging bull. I wanted to tell him that instead all I said was
my name's James. I don't like going by Jim. Do you like going? Did you, did anybody ever call
you Jim? Did anybody? I don't know what I just rambled at the guy. And I get done and I'm
mortified. And he looks at me. He's like, I always went by James. I like the name James. I don't,
I'm not a fan of the name. I'm not a Jim or something like that. He looks at me and he's like,
you look like a James. And just couldn't have been nicer. I shook his hand. I have very big
hands, his dwarfed mind. They just gigantic hands on the man. I couldn't, I've seen and I've
been fortunate to be around a handful of people with a name out there. I've never been around
anybody that had a stronger, kinder soul like he did. And I was around him for maybe a minute
tops. And completely influenced me taught me that right away, no matter how big you get, no
matter who you are, that's how you treat people. That's how you, that's how you are. You're humble.
You, you, you stay around longer. You answer questions. You, you just never know, um, who,
who can influence, who you can influence? And he just, he was such a cool guy, such an amazing
human being. Um, and one of the greater acting careers, I will think that they're ever
going to be. Yeah. I mean, you're, I'm jealous. No, it was, it was a minute. It was a minute
tops. My story was longer than the time I was around him. But, uh, it was, it was a good guy.
He was a really nice guy. And I appreciate you wanting to start the show there. Um, I'm curious
to hear from you. You know, last we talked Friday, I was on my soap box about playing conditions
and the playing field. I, I was hitting on this over and over and over again. And I was talking
about something and I didn't go completely all in on it. But I, I talked to a friend afterwards
and another listener afterwards. And they were kind of giving me a hard time. Hey, you, you, you,
you hung on that moment a little too long. You may have held on that step, stayed on that hill
a little too long. I should have stayed on there longer. Yeah, right. I kind of, you know, I,
I mean, they've had issues going outside the US with these field conditions. Um, if I remember
correctly, I think even some of the European games that you know, they've been over in Europe and
and and all that, they've had issues with the fields will be in slippery and they didn't,
can't, couldn't figure out what cleats to use. And yeah, it was like, like, like, what even
what the floor said, he wasn't going to say nothing about the field conditions because both teams
had it. He wasn't going to make use of it. Both teams had to have to deal with the slippery conditions.
And I knew it. I mean, when you sat there and looked at the guys, if they, like,
scored a touchdown, the paint was coming off on their jersey. Yeah. And it just, I don't know,
I really hope the league really starts thinking about this. If they're going to go to
fell palo or they're going to go over to France and things like that, they go over there,
get the fields ready themselves with a different grass or different, different doing something different
because obviously the NFL's got the money. Yeah. Yeah. They can do this. The NFL has enough money.
They could import a field. They could have brought the field from Lambo over there if they wanted to.
They've got that kind of money. I'm not, I'm not over exaggerating here. They could have easily
done not easily, but they could have done something very similar to that. They could have picked a
stadium that maybe it doesn't fill as many bodies, but it's a better field. There's a million things
that they could have done differently in this situation. And right now, they're sitting there
thinking they did a good thing. This went well for them. They don't, they don't care about stars.
They can always make more stars. They don't care that much about the players. They don't care
that much about the fans. They care about the bottom line. They've proven that. And this is just more
evidence of that. You don't hear Gidel coming out as the mouthpiece of all of these owners
coming out and saying, well, we really need to reassess things. And we're sorry to have lost
one of our faces of our league, et cetera, et cetera. No, no. The NFL did bang of great numbers
in Brazil. And, and you look at the fans and how much they loved it and everything. Like,
this is not going to stop. That nothing, nobody who went down in that Friday game, which again,
was also a mistake. If you ask me, having them play on a Friday, it is going to stop them. None of
this is preventing them from doing any, what they're going to do it next year or anything else.
I'm just happy to get more and more of our teams away from this as far as our NFC North teams.
Hopefully they're done and they don't have to travel as much. We'll get in one of these games
out of the way. I'm not looking forward to seeing any of these teams playing overseas and a little
alone teams in our division. Right. And you kind of wonder if in the CBA, these players are going
to really start pushing this. I, I, I think that, you know, it's always got to be said. It's
always got to be noted. These guys play a kids game for a living. They get paid millions of dollars
to do it. I'm not asking anybody to be empathetic, especially any of my blue collar workers out there
or anything like that. That being said, I, I think that we can all, we can all relate to good working
conditions. And, and everybody, everybody's got OSHA supposed to have OSHA supposed to have all
of our backs. Where are they on this? Where are they on this situation? Because if I'm an NFL
player, especially if I'm a star and I can afford and I can put my name on something, Dak Prescott
was talking about how his holdout and all these things was for, for all quarterbacks and he was
doing this for all QBs and everything, whether he was or he wasn't only him and God know. But
this is an actual thing where you really could actually stand up for something where you could be
like, you know what? You can have you can find me. Go ahead and take the money back. Take some of
the money back. Whatever you're going to pay me for that game. Take it back. I ain't going.
I'm not playing on that field. I'm not costing my, my team. I'm not costing my team four to six weeks
because you guys want to make more money. Like you go ahead and find me. You can call me an
unteen player. I'm doing this for my team. I want to be there in the playoffs. Forget about
week one, week 17 is when they need me. I generally think that I'm not a fan of players. I feel
like that is the last, last option should always be holding out or anything like that. I'm not a
fan of any of that. But in this situation, when they talk such a game about player safety and all
of those things and caring about the fans and fans this and fans that you show you actually do
something, they actually put your words into action NFL. Well, and I don't disagree with you at
all james. I mean, I mean, I've never been a real fan of these international games. You know,
I know they're trying to draw, you know, they're trying to draw a different market and, you know,
then there's talk that they may have a couple teams in Europe so that you have to travel. Which
that would be totally unfair to the market itself. You know, they have to travel like that. You
know, the goal receives, you know, once a year to play a team, you know, especially if it's in
your division or whatever like that, you know, go back to your, go back to do this NFL Europe
like they used to. And, you know, do the Barcelona's and do that again. And then you can get, like
I said, make it, you know, do it as a daily, you know, do you guys that are just on the cost
or didn't get chance to play and they're all in these practice squads. Let them go like that
just like they did before. And they made money doing it. I don't understand why they quit doing it. I
just, yeah, I mean, now that the NFL is getting bigger, try it again. Yeah, it won't hurt.
As we are where we are with this in the Jordan Love situation, he's four to six weeks. It looks
like Matt LaFlore has just recently said that Malik Willis will start Sunday if Jordan Love can't.
Packers also do not plan to put love on injured reserve, which means they still think he could be
back in four weeks. That's always a good sign and thankful to see regardless of what team you
root for. This is one of the more exciting players and league. You want him available all season long.
Do you think that the replacement to get you through the next month of the NFL season is on the
roster or somebody that you or do you see somebody you want to see them bring in? As much, you know,
granted, you know, he hasn't had a great career. He's got many, many starts in NFL. Why isn't
Danny? He'll be in called. Yeah. Why isn't he getting them reaching out to him? Yeah. What
happens if Jordan comes back? What are they? What are they going to do? Are they going to keep him?
Are they going to keep him? Are they going to have to probably pay Danny a whole few million
dollars? Yeah. Are they going to have to cut, you know, put Willis on the practice squad and cut
and cut Clifford again and go from there? I mean, I guess that's where you know, where you
got to think about it with with Gouda Coons. So you got to, you know, if he brings somebody in like
a panahill, you know, what are you going to do when Jordan comes back? I think. And so, I mean,
to me, if they shouldn't want to have the panahill in the first place instead of going after,
you know, you know, you know, great. Yeah. 100%. I mean, yeah, always, always think of.
I think that you you you do these things at the NFL is a is a is a ever moving thing.
And when you made the Willis trade, it looked good and it didn't seem like a horrible idea
at the time. You didn't give up much for him. And there's nothing against in the rule book that
you can't have two cubies on the roster or, you know, something along those lines. I think you
bring panahill in and when Jordan comes back, you keep panahill as your cubie too as a veteran on
that team because again, you have the youngest team in the NFL again. It no team wins without some
veteran personality without some vets on the team. Why not have a vet who's been through it all
in Ryan panahill? Maybe he hasn't won the big game or anything like that. But this is a guy who's
been up and down in this NFL career is been known as a great team player working with other cubies.
Ask Marcus Mariotta, how him and those two work together and everything. I think that you
you have a better benefit right there. And that way, no matter what happen, you don't have to
rush Jordan back. You don't have to hurry up or anything like that. You don't have to check his
leg every hour. Hey, how's that leg? How's the leg? Any better? Okay. You don't have to do that
every hour. You can take your time a little bit more and let him heal up completely. In panahill
comes into this, like Malik Willis is still a young man. It's still a person trying to prove
himself in this league. That can work for you. It could also work against you. You have a
panahill come in. He knows his job. He knows what he what he's being brought in for. I'm coming
in as a as a stopgap. I'm coming in as a bandaid. I'm here for a month to do that. And maybe,
maybe he does get caught and you keep Malik Willis or maybe you let Malik Willis and panahill
on the roster. And you know, you come one May, you put Malik Willis on a practice squad. He gets
picked up by somebody else. So be it. You lost a six round fifth round pick, whatever it is off of
it. Nobody's going to think about this stuff. If you're you're playing in New Orleans in February.
Right. Nobody's going to think about a bit of this. Nobody's going to care who the backup to
QB2 is or anything. If you can get to New Orleans. And that's what this is all about. And
that organization has proven they believe that they can get to New Orleans.
Yeah. And I agree with that. And the one thing that, I guess that, you know,
will bring in panahill and he has proven to win games. I mean, he hasn't won a lot.
Malik Willis only played three games, you know, started three games. Yeah. What's going to happen
if Jordan is gone three weeks and then he lose all three games. You're all. Yeah.
Uh, and you're, and you're, and you're already, are you projecting you to be 12 and four.
Yeah. At the beginning of this season. Well, you know, you're going to go on a 12 game winning streak. You
know, I just, panahill is more of a game manager. You won't, I mean, you can't really say you won't
lose the game for you, but you have a better chance of winning with panahill.
If you're a fan of him out there, please understand. I don't mean this is an insult, but I got to
watch a little football with my dad over the weekend. And we're watching a bit of the cowboy
Cleveland game. And he got bored with it. But before he did, uh, he's looking at McCarthy.
And he just shakes his head. And he looks at me. He's like, those guys, man, they've always won
beaten spite of him. But he just never really thought McCarthy was a good coach. He thought he had
good players, which helped him get a, you know, Super Bowl ring and all that. But I don't know
that anybody has ever looked at Mike McCarthy and thought, well, that's just a brilliant coach right
there. That's a guy that I think a lot of us feel like is in the position he is because Jerry
Jones once a puppet and had Aaron Rogers for a handful of years. And honestly, you know, I didn't
disagree with my dad. I kind of thought about it. I was like, yeah, I guess I never thought too much
about Mike McCarthy. I tend not to. But if I did, that's where I land on him. He's hasn't proven
anything otherwise to me. And I haven't really seen him do anything otherwise. We're going to find
out what Matt LaFlor is. We're going to we're going to find out right now. Well, how much this
game is coaching and how much of it is the talent? Every coach in NFL or just in coaching history
needs talent. But what are you when you don't have it? That's going to be an interesting thing to see
play out for them. I was kind of hoping that they were maybe going to be able to take a swing at
James Winston. I thought maybe that might be a good move. But you already traded the draft pick
for backup, QB. And when you see the breaking news come across it, Dishon Watson's got even more
lawsuits coming his way. I imagine they're going to need James Winston in Cleveland. So yeah,
that that chip has sailed. That is not going to happen. I mean, there are I mean, they could
there could be some other, you know, there was a zappy was one of another one. A little bit.
My opinion is I think if 10 hills out there me out, you're going to probably have to pay him a
couple million. They come in because you know, he knows they're all bad. You need them now. Yeah.
If they would have done this earlier, we said besides doing that trade with with Tennessee,
or whatever they made a tent trade with Jack. Yeah.
I'd say oh boy, I mean, I mean, I he, Tanne Hill probably could be sitting in the driver's seat
for a lot of these teams now. Yeah. You know, especially after week one and seeing some of that
other stuff going, I mean, I mean, look at Tennessee. How in the world do you lose that game when
you have all the momentum in the world? Yeah. And at the end of the game, you're still in
striking distance or any throw a stupid pass. Yeah. Yeah. But I eat the ball and live another day
or try to throw it out of balance. Don't sit there and try to shovel it to your receiver,
which was covered on top of it. You know, it's part of what made me feel better about the
Caleb William performance in comparison, just because I'd rather he was learning things in the
flight. And I don't want to make this sound like he Williams had a good game. Nobody's going,
nobody in the world is going to say Caleb Williams had a good game. But what I saw out of him was,
it was hopeful to me. And things I saw him building and learning in real time. When I see Will
Levis, I don't see him learning these lessons. And I like him. I actually, I'm pulling for Will
Levis to work out and everything. But he doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes. It's something
that happens with a lot of quarterbacks. I don't know. James Winston, another example of this,
who's as far as talent wise and everything, James Winston should be a starting quarterback.
But that decision making of his sometimes is just really questionable and keeps him as a backup.
Kev, I always feel like I keep you to a long man. Thanks a lot for the conversation.
All right, James, you have a great night. You too, man. You too. 715-424-2600,
feel free to call up and join the conversation. At 530, we'll take our first time out. We'll come
back. We'll have the fourth period, GM and head coach of your Wisconsin Rapids River Kings coach
Paul Peckman going to join us. And I almost forgot. I'm sorry, coach, not just coach, but he'll be
having Bryce Cooper joining us. And Bryce with us as well. So Bryce and coach Paul will be with us
looking forward to that's going to be a lot of fun. I want to get our stat of the show in.
And I got to be honest with everybody about something while we're waiting for a phone call here,
715-424-2600. When it comes to the football season, high school, college, pros, all of the above,
I'm good. I'm good, man. I'm really good. Like, nothing can happen this season in any of those
leagues that is going to bring me down. My Northern Illinois Huskies had their biggest upset
in school history. Arguably, the biggest upset we'll see all throughout the college football season.
And not just that, but they beat my biggest rival. And the team that I will, the only team I will
publicly say I dislike, Notre Dame. I'm never going to be able to, I'm not going to be able to
top that. I'm not going to be able to top that, man. I feel good. Oh my God, what an amazing game.
I told a couple of people that I would be willing to give half a pinky to see Notre, N.I.U. beat
Notre Dame. I'm really hoping nobody comes knocking on my door, man. I mean, I got you again,
I guess I could afford to lose a little bit of it, but I was just very excited about that.
So our stat of the show, our first stat of the show, we'll have one about Wisconsin football
a little bit later. For right now, our stat of the show, 1.4 million, 1.4 million.
That is what Notre Dame paid Northern Illinois University to come play their by-game contract.
When many college football games refer to as guaranteed games, this is something that programs do.
And this is how programs, you know, make money. They come and they're supposed to, you know,
go play Alabama or Oklahoma or one of these teams and get beat up. And hey, you get, you get,
you get a couple of mill out of it, you get to help your school, you can build on that.
What's not supposed to happen is what happened to Notre Dame on Saturday.
And I could not be more happy about it. There is no bringing me down this football season.
Nothing could happen could bring me down. I'm too darn good, too darn happy. I am enjoying this.
If you are Notre Dame fan out there, I do apologize, but I'm sorry, man. That's pretty funny,
and I'm pretty excited because that does not happen for my university. Northern Illinois,
probably, is the last time you may have heard about them, orangeable, possibly, or when Jordan Lynch
was doing pretty good. But I am sitting here in an NIU jersey right now with a gigantic joker,
goofy smile on my face. I didn't get to leave anytime soon. And this is what college sports can do.
This is what sports can do. This has been a hard week, a hard couple weeks for my family.
We lost my papa a while ago, and my papa, and my dad, and I, and my brother Nick, sports are one
of the things that got us, not only together, but bonded us from a young age. And whenever this
football season was about to kick off, we all would make the rounds calling pop, talking about this,
or that, getting some information. All of us were Adam Schefters for him, me in particular,
for the longest time. And we realized a couple weeks ago that I picked up my phone. I'll be honest
with you guys. I picked up my phone three different times in the last week to call him, and realizing
as a, you know, a fool. Man, he can't answer. He's not there. It's been hard. When NIU won,
and, and I was able to talk to my dad about it, and, and, and we were able to celebrate and
excited and all that. We laughed. And we, we were just enjoying the moment more than we have
probably in months. We were able to hang out. My dad and I spent the rest of the day,
ironing off, talking, going from every other sport under the sun that you can imagine and talking
about a million different things, along with remembering and talking about my papa. And how much
we miss him. And I don't know if we have that conversation without that game happening.
Sports so many of the times can lead us into these conversations or help us have these conversations.
Because it does that for us. It's so much more than wins and losses. There's a lot more to the
game than that. We are going to take our first time out. That's all right. We got a couple
of the burn. We can go through the rest later. We got half an hour. Yeah. We'll, we'll be all right.
When we come back, we got the fourth period for you. Head coach in GM of your Wisconsin
Rappets and River Kings coach Paul Peckman going to be joining us. We got Bryce Cooper along with.
It's going to be a lot of fun. Stick around for more playmakers brought to you by quality plus
printing, getting your words out right here in Rappets. Welcome back everyone to WFHR's playmakers.
Your host James J here. Thank you so much for joining us everybody. It is time to kick off the
fourth period throughout the whole season really throughout the whole year. We are joined by GM and
head coach of your Wisconsin Rappets River Kings coach Paul Peckman joins us for the fourth period.
Catch you up on River Kings. Maybe preview some stuff throughout the season. We're looking forward
to another great season of River Kings hockey coach. And not only that, not only do we have a great
player in with us. We'll be with you in a second, Bryce. But I do want to get to this right away
10 years. 10 years. River Kings hockey. Yeah. Oh, that feels good, man. Well, obviously I'm excited to
be part of it. You know, this is going into my third season, right? So catching the tail end of it
and to be able to have something like this go on this year. It's special, especially the way we
finished the last year carrying a momentum going forward here and hopefully guys like Bryce and
the other guys on board that have been here a year or two years already can get us back to the
stage, right? Yeah. Get to the dance. That's all we want to do is get to the dance. Anything can
happen from there. Bryce Cooper, forward for your River Kings is joining us and is coming into his
third season with the River Kings. Bryce, how are you doing, man? Pretty good. How are you?
Doing good. Doing good. We always like to let people get a chance to know our players a little bit
more. And you being here for a couple of years, they've had a chance to do that. They've seen your
play. Let's get to know you a little bit more, Joe's for those that may have not had a chance to
or anything, Bryce, where you're from. How long you been playing hockey? From Boise, Idaho and I've
been playing since I was four. Right. How much, what does this game mean to you? It means everything to
me. Honestly, there's there's not a sport out out there like it. I've played pretty much every sport
one of the sun and for whatever reason, hockey just grabbed my heart and there's nothing like it.
What keeps you coming back to Rapids here? Other than the great food. They've got some great food
right here. Obviously Coach Paul, he's a big factor and then honestly the community, the community's
awesome here. Everyone shows up for the games and just goes crazy, so it's pretty fun.
And we have a lot of fun watching you play. I really appreciate you being here. I'll
become back to you in a moment, man, but thanks a lot for being here and appreciate it. Coach,
what does it mean to be able to bring in guys that know the system, that have the chemistry with
some other players like a Bryce? Some of these guys that are already, you kind of, you've had
to talk with them. They understand, they get it. They understand what your philosophy and the way
that you treat this game is. It means a lot obviously, right? It means that the trust and belief
in the process and the things that we talk about in every stage of his career here, right?
It's been different talks because he's going through the different stages. Last year,
it was getting opportunities to go to two camps, right? And wanting him to be prepared for that,
so those are conversations that we had last year. Now the conversation shift to college,
right? But the preparation and all that kind of stuff is similar in the expectations are higher
and they're more, we're going to lean on him heavier this year, right? Because of the experience
and it's talent, right? And that's going to help us get to where we want to go.
I don't mean to, I told you guys there wouldn't be any hard questions, but I do have a hard moment
to go to it. I can't help myself and I apologize, but Hockey lost a great and Johnny Gurdow and
his brother recently. And when one thing I learned from, I think the first thing I learned from
my dad about hockey players, it is a family. And that is what guys that you may have never met.
Guys, you just watch play, guys that you are in other leagues, other parts of the world.
If you put up those, if you put on those skates, your brothers. And we lost one there and a great
one. A guy that I really enjoyed watching play, especially at Boston College and stuff. But one of
the things that it got me thinking about coach and it's so interesting that Bryson's day
is that the way the forward position changed in our lifetime, you know, and how a guy that size
wouldn't always be able to make it into the NHL or anything like that. But when you're that skilled
with your hands, when you're that fast with the puck, when you are that kind of that imagination
for the game, like Gurdow did or a Patrick Kane or some of these smaller guys are able to,
it really opens things up, not just coaching wise, I would imagine, and play wise as far as
play your playbook goes. But it just makes the league that much more interesting, I would think.
I think it's been so much exciting to see guys that size. And Bryson being similar in size,
I would say, I think is pretty darn cool to be able to do. It has to be very different coaching
wise, being able to coach those guys and have that all incorporated. And it's got to be,
I've enjoyed that part of the game. Well, it's the creativity, right? Yeah.
Guys like that that do have the imagination and can see and have that vision. He's one of those
guys, right? So Bryson knows where to be, what to do and where to put the puck. And as we were going
through today, right, we're still talking about swinging and getting it to open lanes and
being able to feed pucks into certain areas where guys can catch with speed. And guys like
Johnny Goodrow could do better than most. And it is a sad day. It still hurts. And to find out,
I always just reading this morning, that his wife was nine months, nine months pregnant, right?
And it makes it just, it's tragic. Big believer in silver linings. And it's beautiful to see the hockey
community around the world come together for this and talk about him and support his family and
so many of those things. And in remind us of, you know, what this is all about, the life,
life. And if they're not talking hockey, I just mean life in general. You had mentioned,
there is no segue and I apologize, but I'm glad we talked about that. And I appreciate you all
for that. I mentioned we were talking in their pregame coach had the annual blue and white game.
How did that go? Well, it was guys were playing hard. Five, four, right? Close game. So it was good.
It was good to get, you know, training camp, give them a break a little bit. Let's play some hockey.
Have some fun. It was nice to see all the people that showed up for that. So it was good.
Bryce, how did it feel for you? I felt good. It was good to take a little break from training
camp. Coach works is pretty hard. So just to go out and have some fun was a good time.
One of my favorite quotes in sports. I heard it from Ray Lewis for the first time, but I've heard
other people say similar things and other sports and everything, but he would have put it as they
pay me from Monday through Saturday. They get Sunday for free. That's the way I think that a lot
of hockey players, a lot of athletes approach the game, but it sounds like it was a lot of fun,
even just to get out there and everything. You guys are going to be back on the ice really soon,
coach. Where are you going to be next? This Friday we're going to head up to UW-Oshkosh,
we're going to tour the campus, meet the coaching staff, play a little exhibition,
and then Saturday we're going to take Bryce and the rest of the old four. It's the 20-year-olds
and we're bringing them up to Northland College where we have Jude Ailing and Johnny Lepard
up there and they're going to practice with the team. So coach can get a good look at them there,
which is a great NCAA opportunity for them. And then Sunday we're going to go up to DC Everest
with the youth program that they have going on and these guys will be referring some
mini-mites and mites hockey and taking some pictures and getting to know the community there.
So we're going to expand. Obviously we want to get out and get ourselves out there and make
people wherever we are and where we're from and hopefully come watch.
You're able to do a really nice thing here where you're not only able to give a chance for
these guys to learn from collegiate players, collegiate coaches, get that idea of what that
atmosphere is like and some of the energy. For some players that's the first time they've had
some of that. For some guys it's something that they're more used to and everything. You're also
able to give them exposure to these coaches, to scouts and some of these things, which is such
an integral part of the job for you I know and it's such an important part of the job for you.
I don't know many people that like to win like this guy does, but the thing that I would put
above that for not speaking for you but from what I can feel from you is the benefit of these players
and then being able to take their skills to any at the next level or wherever they're looking to
take them and help them be where they come here and when they leave and how much better they are,
whether it's as men or players or all the above. That's what this is all about, right? And
ultimately at the end of the day, you're going to win some, you're going to lose some,
hopefully we win more than we lose, right? But at the end of the day, these guys, you're taking
boys and you turn them into men, right? And helping them be prepared for not just hockey,
for life, for school and to be able to hold their own and hold themselves accountable, right?
So I think that's what I try. We try to and hopefully you guys get it and it's always
nice to get it, you know, you get a text from a guy like Kyle, a couple of,
about an hour ago, right, asking how the team's looking and how he's doing and how he's getting ready
in this camp and all that stuff and then to me, that's what gets me excited and I love to see
these guys do well and progress in anything that they do. And so I'm fortunate to be a small part
in their path to whatever they want to do. As we're getting ready to let you guys go and get back
to your day and thank you again so much for the time. One of the things that stands out to me is
we get ready for the next start of this 10th season and you're building to that is these opportunities
for these players not only be around the college atmosphere, but also, you know, putting some
influence on some of the younger kids out there in high schoolers and some of that and everything.
When it comes to all of that, the blue and white game, all of these things, you're sitting back and
watching all of this. What are you taking in and what is the major thing you're looking for?
From the younger guys? All the above. Yeah, younger guys. Yeah. I can imagine it's different
from both, but yeah. Yeah, it just really depends on, you know, you got, we have some young guys
this year, right? So you just look at development and it just, it's, everybody's at different stages.
Everybody's path is different, right? So it's just, I want to see growth, right? And I told
them in a locker room from day one when we sat in there and it's just, I know who you are, what you
are. The question is, what are you going to become? Right? And that's, that's the process over the
next eight months. And whether it's, you know, the first year, the second year, now his third year,
he's grown as a man, right? As a player and all that comes together, how he conducts himself,
he's a leader on this team. And all that comes because the way he is now is not the way he was
when he got here, right? So we've made progress. And in that regard, I can look at him and say,
you know what, he served us well and we've served him well. And hopefully he benefits from all that
along the way. Every time I talk to this guy makes me want to put on skates and like just go through
a brick wall for him. You don't need me. I don't think I, but I do it. I do it for you coach.
Appreciate the time so much for you guys. Thanks a lot for being here. Bryce, good to hang out with
you. Come back sometime, okay? Oh, sounds good. Sounds good. Thanks a lot, guys. Find out more about
your Kings at RiverKingsHockey.com, RiverKingsHockey.com and get ready for a tenth season. Everybody
is we help the RiverKings build hockey up and down the river. We'll be back with more playmakers here
at WFHR. Welcome back everyone to WFHR's playmakers. I was a little off on the timing on that one.
Hope y'all are having a great, great Monday afternoon. Thanks so much for joining us.
Your host James here. Big thank you to coach Paul Peckman for joining us from your Wisconsin
Rapids River Kings. Big, big thank you to him. Want to say a big shout out to Bryce Cooper as well
for joining us. Good to hang out Bryce. Good guy. Good team. So excited for RiverKingsHockey.
We'll be talking more and more about RiverKingsHockey as we get going here. Coach is going to be joining
us weekly with our updates. I had a couple. I actually had a ton of things I want to get to today.
I did want to, you know, we talked a bit about the love injury. Talked a little bit about playing
field conditions. I'm not going to let off on that one. All season long. Everybody get used to it.
I'm going to be bringing this up. The next time we have some breathe in room here, I want to get
into one of my favorite things about college football. And I want to hear from you about it as well.
Your favorite rivalry trophies. Your favorite rivalry trophies in college football. It's one of my
favorite aspects of the game. What are some of yours? What are some of your favorite college football
rivalry trophies? Certainly here in Wisconsin, I think you can make the argument. You have the best
one. The Paul Bunyanx. I mean, come on. It's a gigantic axe that you can win and then chop down
the other teams goalpost with. Come on. I love the trophies that you can do things with.
I don't care how much of a child I sound like saying that. I'm being honest with you. I think
it's cool. So I think you can make your argument. That's the best trophy. The best rivalry trophy
there is. But what do you think? When do you think you're badger so far or 2-0? Badgers getting ready
to take on one of the biggest opponents in college football in Alabama. That game, of course,
this Saturday. Alabama, and we will have that game for you right here at WFHR. It's an early start
time. Alabama going to be at Camp Randall, number four ranked Alabama, I should say. I got to see
bits and pieces of the game didn't get to watch every second of it. But I did have the opportunity
to sit back and watch a highlight reel of it and a really good one too that went through like 20
minutes of the game and kind of sped it up and everything. There's a couple of things that stood
out to me. I think CJ Williams, the receiving core for the badgers is deep. I think they got some
really, really nice receivers. I see what they were talking about leading into the season.
I like all of their running backs. I'm a big fan of chess, but even their backups. They
got some nice kids. They got a chance to get in there and get some play in time at the end of
that game, especially running back wise. And a couple of them look pretty darn good, man.
I think you have not only a player who is going to be starting in the NFL very soon,
maybe even definitely next year. I'm sorry. He's a senior. Yeah. He'll definitely be starting
in the NFL next season and Hunter Waller. That kid's a beast. That kid's all over the field.
He is so much fun to watch. He's not just a hitter. He's a smart hitter.
And not only do you think I think this weekend they had the badgers had their Hall of Fame
brought in and announced some new members to the Badger Hall of Fame. I think one day you might
see Hunter in that group. I mean, he's having a nice career. I think he's going to be playing on
Sundays. It's a good player, but I don't want to take anything away from him, but I would like to
talk about arguably my new favorite Badger. I'm feeling comfortable saying this. I think I'm
ready to say it. I've had a handful of badgers. I've enjoyed the badgers like many of you. My whole
life out there. My favorite Badger of all time is Chris Chelios. It's the guy that got me to
like love the badgers. And I big fan of like Jamar Fletcher. There's a blast from the past name
from the past. Jamar Fletcher had a punt return for a touchdown in the big game once. It was a big
fan of his ever since. Long time listeners out there know that I'm a big fan of Mr. Troy Fumigali.
And so it may not be that surprising that I think my new favorite Badger is Kate. Yeah,
Camelie. Yeah, Camelie, man. That kid. I love a thoroughbred running back. I'd love a running back
that keeps those legs going. That is so much of his game you can't find on a stat sheet.
I like, I like running backs like this. I'm a big fan of Kate. I like him. What do you think?
What do you think of the badgers so far this season? Let it know 715 424 2,600 424 2,600 call up and
join the conversation. Got the badgers involved in our stat of the show. We'll get to that in a second.
First, let's get to you. Good afternoon. You're in the game. Speaking of thoroughbred running backs,
you'll have Jonathan Taylor coming to town if you're a backer fan. Yeah, yeah, JT.
Nice to see him have a solid week one. Indeed, that's going to be a nice combination of him and
Richardson. I heard an interesting fun fact earlier on the damn avatar show. Anthony Richardson
has only started 17 games since high school. It's crazy. It's crazy. The amount of money
that kids make in right now for play the game that he's not even played a full season.
He's like, and more power to him because and I don't blame Indy that kid. His combine alone had
he not even played any collegiate football and he just came into the combine and did what he did.
I could still see him being picked in the first round that that we haven't we literally
haven't seen somebody do what he's done. He broke records at the combine. If he can put it together,
if he can stay healthy, that could be a lot of fun to watch and Indy.
I agree. I also think that we are a week by week coming closer to my prediction of it's going
to be a two quarter back league. I think sooner than I think. Well, especially since the NFL
doesn't care what these guys are playing on. Yeah, yeah, man. I couldn't agree with you more.
I think we've I think it's I haven't heard meant anybody really come out and say it as you did.
And I you definitely got that call you that take. I do think this has been in the back of our
minds a little bit of of the dread of you're losing your starting quarter back. Now if some of
our teams you don't worry about it as much. And as a lot of people like to tell you, there's
nobody more popular during the football season than the backup quarterback. Everybody always believes
that the backup quarterback could figure everything out. I grew up with the list. I'm sorry,
unless you're Charlie Waiher's. Yeah, yeah, I was going to say Mike Tom's act, but you know,
either or either and then there's some great ones out there. There's some great backup QBs
that we grew up with and everything. But I I'm curious to see what happens with that. As I am talking
to a Minnesota fan, though, I do want to ask real quick how you must feel about San Darnold,
because I I'm not a Minnesota guy, but I am a fan of people. And I thought it was pretty cool
to see whatever happens during the season. San Darnold have a moment there of, hey, maybe it wasn't
me. Maybe it was the Jets. Yeah, I think the offensive line played a big factor in that because
we weren't able to watch it. And I don't have the package. I was able to keep up. And when I heard
he was 10 for 10 at half time, I was like, is that the same guy from the Jets? Yeah, yeah,
right. Yeah. Yeah. That's a nice game. Nice game. Any any any before I let you go any takeaways
from the first week? Um, the Packers aren't in first place in the NFC North.
Nicely done. Talk soon, man. Take care. Thanks a lot for the call. 715-424-2600-424-2600.
Call up, enjoy the conversation. I I and I still don't feel like especially in the NFL and the
amount of playoff teams there are now and everything. You got to wait to see how the next month
goes, but I would still be feeling pretty darn good if I was a Green Bay fan. And I as somebody
who was a team in that division, I would still feel pretty good about winning the division about
at the very least being the wild card in that division. Um, but you know, I also wouldn't take any
of these teams lightly and we never know. And a lot of this is going to come down to who's under
center on Sunday and how do they play? Because I whoever it is, if it's Malik Willis, um, that man,
that young man is going to have a very short leash because they cannot go oh and four. They
and they can't go down oh and five. You can't have that happen. Not this season. Not with everything
that they're going into and playing with here. And especially now with Aaron Rogers playing
possibly healthy football in New Jersey, which is ridiculous to say. What did I say?
There's there's no healthy football being played in New Jersey. Not a bad field.
One more stat at the show for you. I wanted to get in Wisconsin. The fun fact about Wisconsin comes
not from the football team, but its fans. Students of Wisconsin took the ritual of wave to a whole new
level. There are several complex steps instead of regular standing up at the right moment. Students
send the wave clockwise twice. Next the wave goes in slow motion. Next the twice faster than the
first wave. Then once around counterclockwise wave. And the last wave splits into two and these
waves go into counter rotation. Performing such complex support deserves the same praise as a masterful
football play I would say. Of course jump around has become very famous. It's really become a part
of the organization of the school. Kind of interesting. I've been a bunch of different stories
that have broke recently and a couple of them standing out more than others I would say.
But one of them that I made I wanted to make sure that we got a chance to touch on
before we wrap up today is that NIU beat Notre Dame. And maybe you already know that but just in
case did you know that Notre Dame paid him 1.4 million to do that? It's pretty funny. It's pretty
funny. It's not really where I wanted to go. I just had to get that into one more time before I
we wrapped up today. I will say for those that haven't heard any breaking news the tree kill situation
looks like it's going to be a bit of back and forth on that one. It's not going away anytime soon
could still see some punishment from that one was a little surprised to be seeing him playing in
the game but then not too surprised. There's another lawsuit accusation against Dishon Watson
of sexual assault going back to 2020 when it was with the Houston Texans. So that is going to
be a ever growing story. We'll see where that one goes. If I was the Cleveland Browns I would be
looking for any opportunity to get away from him. Get away from him, get out of that deal,
get back whatever money you can. I don't care if it's five bucks.
They shouldn't have made the deal to begin with. He's never been worth it. Not even in his
prime in Houston but no player, no person is worth bringing that kind of heat into your locker room.
They they overvalue so many of these guys and no position is overvalued more than quarterback
and I think in history he's going to go down as maybe the greatest example of this even more than
Jermarkis Russell. The Rams have put a wonderful young receiver, Puccanectua to IR. He's going
with an injury. It does look like Jordan Love is going to avoid IR as Green Bay is still hopeful
that he is going to be able to play sooner than the four to six week time schedule that his injury
is going to need to be healed. You know, I'm interesting to see. I'm curious where that one goes.
Those are your headlines right now across the sports calendar. Looking at our calendar,
we've got some good sports on the radio for you. Join us on Wednesday for Luke Fickle show.
Looking forward to that. It's going to be a good one. Coach Fickle, of course,
does not just a great talker but brings you back behind the scenes of the game and I think
gives you a little bit more than some coaches do. Whether it's intended or not to be honest with you
but I do like that about him and interested to see what he has to say. This Wednesday,
705 right here at WFHR and Friday, we will be your tailgate as we lead you into WRI 105,
covering at 650 Lincoln High School hosting Stevens point battle for the drug. It's here. Look
it forward to it. Oh, it's going to be a good game. I want to try to get down there.
In Saturday, 9 a.m. kickoff or 9 a.m. pre-game. I'm sorry for Wisconsin hosting Alabama. The Crimson Tide.
Little steely dad to play us out. I apologize. Wisconsin hosting Alabama.
I'm going to be mad time in Madison. It's going to be a fun one. We'll be back Wednesday.
Have some more fun with playmakers. Thank you so much to quality plus printing,
getting your words out here in Wisconsin. Rapids appreciate them sponsoring the hour.
And a big thank you to all of you, the best listeners and radio. Have a good afternoon,
everybody. Be good to each other. We'll talk to you soon in the later right here.