Afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHRs Playmakers!
Welcome to the show! Good afternoon, everybody. Hope you are having a good one out there.
Have your host, James behind the mic. I am joined. I don't know if I blew Seth's ears out. Seth, can you hear me?
Yeah, I can fight, I'm sorry. Alright, we hope you are having a good one out there. Thanks for joining Seth and I for a Friday edition of Playmakers.
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Hit us in the numbers. 715-424-2600. We want to hear from every one of you.
Yes. We do have to start off our show. I believe doing a sport, a live sport show that we get the privilege to do.
A multiple times a week and everything. I feel like the only way, and the most fitting way we could start, is with the passing of Greg Gumball.
Just recently, just on CBS News, yeah. I actually didn't even hear it. You heard it and told me.
And I have to be honest with you and the audience, that actually literally took me a step back.
I did not know he was sick and I feel for him and his family.
Absolutely. Journalistic integrity involved the Gumballs in Chicago are huge and have done a lot for the many many
neighborhoods and getting a lot of kids opportunities that they would not have had otherwise, along with just being incredible at their jobs.
Absolutely. I'm not a huge, I'm not a gigantic fan of his brother, but I know how great he is at what he does.
But Greg, I loved Greg. Yes. I thought he was great. I thought he was great at what he did.
Most notably at doing work in the NFL and NCAA basketball.
Older brother, of course, a Brian Gumball. He became the first African-American to
an answer to call play by play for a major sports championship in the United States when he announced
the Super Bowl back in 01. Just one of the many things on his resume.
Yeah. Yeah. He did so many sports. Do you remember back in the mid 90s, he did baseball.
He did some of the playoff games. That's right. He called a couple of those.
I forgot about that. Like you said, he did basketball. He of course did football as well.
He also was in the studio for a while. He could do it all. I think part of the thing with Greg
that was a little different from his brother, he was more every man. He seemed to connect with
people better than Bryant did. He was more of a warmer feel to him. For whatever reason,
he just seemed to connect with people easier than Bryant did. I think that's one of the reasons
why he was so respected and beloved. I think people really liked him. I mean, in the 90s and
into the early 2000s, him and Phil Sims, you know, the team. They did so many games. They were the
lead CBS team. And he was, you know, he called so many great games. You know, I just recently
listened to a couple of them from the late 90s in the early 2000s. And I remembered man,
he was really good. Yeah. A great tone, great voice, great pace. And yeah, a confident humbleness
to him that he carried with himself. Great sense of humor. Yeah, really funny. He had a great
sense of humor. The MC job is so difficult when you're sitting there on the live set. And there
is no second takes. And you just got to be able to work all these personalities in the, any small
realms that I've been in, I can tell you that that can be difficult. I can't imagine what it's like
on that set, whether it's him or Ernie Johnson on NBA tonight or NBA and TNT and everything,
where you've got, it's not just ego that you're dealing with. You're dealing with sports
egos and people's that have had to struggle and work so hard to get to where they did. And now
the thing that they love so much they can't do anymore, they can just talk about it. And the
frustration, all these different layers of things going on. And you've got to be the guy to work
all that. You're the conductor. And to be able to do it and do it, what seemed like effortlessly,
like Ernie Johnson doesn't like Greg did. Your timing has to be so good. You have to always keep
your eye. You're doing a several thing, you know, spin in plates like you like to say. You got to
keep everything moving because at that point, you're the lead. It's not the director. It's not,
you know, the people out there and running the cameras and stuff. You're the, you're the ringleader.
You got to make sure everything works. He was great. He was very good. He will be missed.
And I will be kind of wrapping on another one, on a note that, on note like that, similar.
I've got some Ricky Henderson stats. I want to get out there. I didn't even know that we'll wrap
up with this. We'll wrap up talking a little baseball. But we got other things we want to get to
it as Greg or anybody else would tell you and want the show must go on. It must again call up,
join the conversation. Everybody we want to hear from you. And I want to hear what your favorite
sports moment of 2024 was. We cannot do a live programming and not do year end wrap-up stuff.
Everybody has to do it. It's mandatory. Yeah, whether we want to or not. Yeah, it's literally.
I think there's a lot. Actually, if you, if you, if you, if you see, it's going to call up. We don't do it.
I love the idea. We got sage calls us like, did you guys like to find 50 bucks for not doing
it a best stuff? We need the, what's your favorite sports moments of 2024? Our go ahead and call us
and let us know what those are. And you can use a civic media app to do it. I want to talk a little
bit about a couple of the NFL and college football schedules. What is your burn the boat game? What
is your game of the week? I got some fun stuff there. I wanted to get to as well as head coaching
carousel and what's going on with the NFL. The plot thickens and it's looking more interesting.
Yeah, but I have to, I have to like start the show here being honest with the audience about
something because I, I have been very frustrated with the NFL as much as I love the NFL. And I'll
speak to that more in a second here. The NBA NFL had the first time that they have competed for
Christmas eyeballs. Like directly. Yeah. My whole life, your whole life, NBA, Christmas day,
that's pretty much like the thing, you know, even at least since we were kids. It's been that.
I remember that. Yeah. And I always love that. It's part of what I love about Christmas day.
Honestly, I love at night watching the NBA night game. That's when I always used to be able to
catch and it was usually the Lakers or something like that. And everyone's, especially in the
prime time bull areas, it was the bulls and Lakers usually. And man, that I just sit back and love
those games and everything. But the, you know, I understand the NFL what it is. I'm an adult and
I understand business. I do, I've talked before many times about I think that you can oversaturate
the market. Oh, yes. And you can overdo a good thing. And how the NFL has forgotten its name.
You have forgotten your name. You have forgotten who you are. You were never, you were never
the number one game in town. The people made you that exactly. Die hard NFL fans that showed up
for those great gumbo games, those games that were being every, every Sunday we could count on.
We knew there was going to be a game at three o'clock. Yep. There's a game. Not always a game at
or at least a game at noon and three or one of the other or both if you were lucky. You're going to
get to catch some football. Right. And the die hard fans showed up and the ratings went up and
advertisers noticed and slowly, slowly, slowly, the NFL while the NBA lost some of its luster.
And MLB had trouble with strikes and steroids and all these things. The slowly, the NFL moved up
in that race. They, they found that hole and they went through it like running back. And yes,
the players are a gigantic part of this. The coaches and all that. I'm not at all taking it.
You don't have anything without that. That comes first. But you don't have anything without fans.
And the fans made this and you will forgotten your name NFL because the Christmas games that you
were so, you know, quick to go ahead and get the mighty dollar of, you put them all on Netflix.
And while I had a Netflix account, not a lot of people do. Not everybody does. Yeah. And especially
when Netflix cracking down on the passwords and everything. Right. Right. So that's even, that's
making the audience even smaller. And yes, I understand it's a business. This is how Netflix gets
new subscribers. Blah, blah, blah. Right. And the NFL made a buttload of money on it. Yes.
Exactly. Money they did not need. Money they did not need. And, and you have, you have forgotten
who made you. And so the real diehard NFL fans were not able to watch it and, and catch those games.
And that is ridiculous to me and insulting. And I think it's insulting that you need to take
this from the NBA that you need to do this kind of thing even. It's sad and ridiculous. I actually
like what LeBron James said. I love the NFL, but Christmas is our day. I would love to think that.
I agree with that. And I want to completely own that I forgot that the NBA was on until about
two o'clock. Oops. It's two o'clock. I'm, you know, I'm, there's a lot going on Christmas day
with my family. But while that's happening, Netflix is on the NFL is on and I'm glued to
whatever place I can, I can drag one half of my eyeball on. And it's about two o'clock in the
afternoon before. Oh, yeah. The NBA's got games going on. So as much as I'd love to be able to
sit here on a high horse or something like that, I completely owned that I took the bait. Right.
And it's interesting though. They, I think the NBA did a fabulous job of picking the games that
they did because they had the stars out, man, and it did help. I mean, the look at the ratings were
really good this year, even with the NFL and Netflix, which the games weren't that great. I mean,
the teams that they picked. Yeah. Anyway, and thank you, Seth. Yeah. Because this is, this is where
one of the tie-in to because the NBA has come out and said that they had better ratings than they've
had in about five or six seasons. Yeah. So did the NFL actually help the NBA and did the NBA kind of
set this up for the NFL all along? That's a good question. I wonder. Yeah. I don't. It's a little bit,
the only reason I think of this is because of Bob and Hymer, uh, Oppenheimer, Bob,
your Bob and Hymer, Bob and Hymer, yeah, whatever they want to call it. Um, nobody saw that coming that
that Oppenheimer would actually help Barbie and Barbie would help Oppenheimer. Right. And
actually, it's more so the reverse Barbie helping your Oppenheimer. Exactly. But it really did. It
actually happens. Yeah. People were going to the movies and doing a double feature kind of thing
and everything. Or they were going back the next day or the next weekend to go see the next movie
or whatever. And the box office numbers were insane from that. And then we see the numbers from this.
And, and I wonder if in a weird way, because if people are already in a sports mindset, you don't
just keep in the sports going. Or maybe they get a little tired or a little bored of a game and
they flip to the other one, whether whether that was the NBA or the NFL. Yeah. I'm really curious.
And I don't know how you would figure this out. People suddenly track that. Yeah. Um, but I wonder if
they actually helped each other out. And I had this wrong all along. I don't, I don't think I'm
wrong in the NFL for getting its name. I don't think I'm wrong in the idea that the NFL is oversaturated
the market and the chickens will come home to roost. I agree. But I do wonder if I was wrong about
the idea. Oh, they've got to take this from the NBA blah, blah, blah. Maybe they're helping each
other out. Yeah. Well, I know what they didn't help out was college football on Saturday. They
destroyed the ratings. So they see it. I don't know. They just trying to take over everything. I
mean, I don't get it. That's the part that you that we, that there is no skating past. What
the NFL is doing to college football, whether it is happy to have a game on a Friday when we've
got high school football going on in our local communities, the, the, the lifeblood of the NFL is
high school football. It's not college. It's high school football. That's where kids fit make the
real decision of, do I want to do this the rest of my life or do I want to be a mechanic?
Do I want to do this? Do I want to do something else? Or am I concerned about my long-term health
if I play football? I mean, that's a legitimate question now. Yeah. And they're, they're squashing
on that. Yeah. You know, where mom and dad have to make a decision if they want to watch their
hometown team and the NFL or they want to watch their child. No, no parents probably making that
decision. Right. It's made. You're going to see your kid. You know, you know, this is so fascinating,
man. The next five years. I don't know if my dad would. I feel like my dad, if he had to choose
between the bears and me, I'm pretty, I feel like, no, I know. Maybe better not, better off not
know. Yeah. How about that? Probably better. You know, in the next five years, seeing where
college football and the NFL are are going to end up here. Because I mean, I already seen the NFL
GMs with, I mean, with college football GMs, you know, literally, they've, they've finally given
up and said, you know, this is a business. I again, why are they still connected to, to colleges?
I don't understand. Yeah. Why not just do, yeah, I don't know. And I guess that's what's going
to happen in the next few years. We're going to figure that out. Yeah. Are they going to be,
is it going to be enough to compete with the NFL? You know, I mean, in a certain way, I guess you
really can't because of the, you know, the age difference and all that because of the players.
But what is it going to be? What is it going to turn into? And that's a huge question that we,
we just don't know what's going to happen. And it's going to be, it's something that we're all
going to see. Yeah. We're all going to be here to witness in real time. And whether, whether they
sink or swim on this, and it's going to be really interesting. I will say, I have a lot more hope
for it than than not. And, and it's not coming from a genuine place. It's about money.
Oh, 100%. Yeah. You figure things out when that much money is involved. And we're talking
it out. The amount of money we're talking about is, yeah, insanity. So I feel like they're going to
figure it out one way or another because of anything else. They're not going to let that money just,
they're not, and leave it on the table. No, they will not. And a big thing that we're seeing a lot
especially in business. And, and let's not forget as much as we are saying about our sports
and everything, it's always going to be a business. Being number one is not enough. It's staying
number one. That's what, that's what it is. And, and for the NFL to do that or for college football
or any of these other things, they're, they're going to be, you know, crabs in a barrel in some
ways, I think, which is not good. The people that suffer, the people that always suffer, the fans.
Yeah. That's who's going to really feel it from this. And, and now we're seeing the uptick of
women sports, especially the WNVA. I mean, where's that going to go in the next couple years? Well,
people finally be sick of, you know, the other stuff and say, no, we want to watch this instead.
You know, I don't know. It's, it'll be really fascinating. Where do you guys think this will
go? We'd love to hear from you and your thoughts 715-424-2600. Feel free to call up and join the
conversation. Yeah. Taking a look at the NFL and college schedules. The college football schedule,
of course, has a lot of bowl games and you're going to be having the playoff kicking in this weekend
again. It's, it's odd to have the playoffs kind of stop and go like this a little bit and with
these bowl games in between. But it is kind of ever flowing. And I kind of like that right now,
Vanderbilt's beating up on Georgia Tech and the fourth quarter looks like they're going to win that
one. Navy beat Oklahoma. And I'm sorry, Michael. Last time that happened. Yeah, I'm sorry. It was
a close game. But that, that, that was why. Navy had a heck of a year this year. Really did. They did.
Wow. It is always, I don't think, here, I, hopefully this makes you feel a little better, Michael,
if you're out there listening. Shout out to your brother. It's always going to mean something to beat
Oklahoma. I don't care what, I don't care where, how many decades and forward in college football we
go or whatever your Bob swoops we are, right? Yeah, exactly. It's always going to mean something.
So that's a real big, that's a cool win for Navy, actually. And if anything, it's going to,
they're going to try to bring everybody in on when I'm looking at Georgia Tech the same way. Oklahoma
Georgia Tech had some good games, had some things to build on this season. I think losing a bowl game
is rough as it is. It's not the end of the world. And for a coaching staff, it's everything you
can almost ask for because it's bulletin board material, right? And as we've seen with recruiting,
it doesn't affect recruiting hardly at all. It never really has. Now, these kids, they're making
the decisions on bigger things or other things, then wins and losses it feels like. Yeah,
there are kids out there like that. There are the Derek Henry's out there that all, they,
they had their stats in high school, now they want to win. And there's no wrong way to do this,
I think, because nobody has a playbook for it. No. We got plays out smart plays, out smart plays
when it comes to X's and O's on the field. But there is absolutely no playbook for half of this
other stuff that we ask of these athletes. That's not like off the field and all that. There's no,
the only one thing I can think of is what her med word said a long time ago, think before you
hit send. That's, I mean, that's almost all I got to go up. You know, I was watching an old game
that Herman Edwards played in when he was a quarterback for the Jets and they called him Herman,
then, they called them Herman Edwards. I was like, as having grown up with him as a coach and
a broadcaster, it's like, it was always her. I'm like, oh, that's weird. You and C and you,
you kind are going to be playing and really interesting. So I believe it's, you kind of coach
more, Jim, more, I think it is. You coached at USC LA for a while and everything that was good
over there. He's been, he went to the NFL, came back and has been building Yukon up to where
Yukon, which was never a big thing. No, Yukon was always at basketball school. And now the,
which is, which is really cool. Jim Mora, wow, there's a name I haven't forgotten.
UNC has, of course, has the, you know, the, the Sith Lord waiting. But that's still interesting,
too. They've had a couple of people leave off of that team. So that's not as good of a game as
it could have been. Yeah. Who knows? Um, Miami, in the Pop Tarts Bowl, Miami number 13,
number 18, Iowa State. I think that could be a really good game. Um, and, and maybe the coolest
trophy there is outside of obviously winning it all and winning some of these big name trophies,
like the Rose Bowl or something like that. The Pop Tarts Bowl, the trophy is a working toaster.
That's awesome. That's actually not bad. I like that. You know, if we're going to have ridiculous
names to our bowls, let's do a ridiculous trophies. Let's just go all in. Call it two feet in,
man. You're just leaning into college football. Yeah. Almost all of the trophies are ridiculous.
Right. All crazy. You're fighting for a spitting jug and, and serve battles and everything.
Like it just leans into it. Just don't offer Lamar Jackson cake. That's all. Don't offer him any cake.
Well, he's not going to eat it. That was a bad call. That was a bad, like the jackets. I didn't mind
the Netflix jackets. Yeah, okay. That was a neat idea. I thought that was okay. Uh, but they
overdid it. Like Netflix does with a lot of things. And you're asking athletes to eat, like,
junk food, like sugar, like, like, purge after they've just played a football game. These guys
want to do. These guys walk off the field and are weighed. Like, what are you doing? Talk about not
knowing your mind. You're all on your travels. Yeah. Yeah. Well, of course, he's got a lump right now,
but anyway, uh, the Alamo Bowl features number 17 BYU, number 23 Colorado. Not only interesting
because of the closeness of those states and the runries there. Yeah. But obviously with the
players involved, the reigning Heisman trophy winner, Travis Hunter, the one of the better two-way
players we've seen, introduce Sanders and all that. Um, because yes, they are playing everybody.
For all the talk of people sitting out bowl games, uh, for all the, uh, the ranting and raving,
whether you were a fan or you hated Dion and this Colorado experience with Shredur and Travis
Hunter, all of that noise. I hear peeps. I hear nobody giving them credit that they are playing
this game. Yeah. But that doesn't fit the narrative. Now, now, should they be giving credit for
doing what you should do? I think, I think at just my opinion, I think you fill out your college
experience. I think you play that game. Right. Yeah. Um, I would tell my child to play that game.
Whether they did or not, that's their business. But I would tell him my advice, play the game.
Right. Uh, you're going to want that memory. You know, nothing is guaranteed in life. Exactly.
I mean, who knows how far much further you're going to go? Really? You have no idea.
This is your last chance to do this F for fun. In a way, you know, in everything, I would encourage
them to do it. There's no, there's nothing really is at stake here. You know, that kind of thing.
At the same time, I understand business decisions and all that blah, blah, blah. But for all the,
the rambling and all these guys are bad for the game or they type too much or they talk too much
or whatever, these guys from day one have said they are playing in the bowl game. They are going to
be doing this. I think that's awesome. I think that's very cool. They're doing it. I agree.
It should also be noted that Colorado secured what is said to be a record insurance coverage for
them. These players. All you got to cover your bases. You know, also should be noted. It's just
a complete story. They are covering all bases. I want to throw that out there. I do give them credit.
You can do both. You can do both. Yeah. Um, just a couple of quick notes before go to our first time
out here. Teddy Bridgewater has unretired after winning a high school title in his hometown in
Florida. And he's backing up Matthew. Wow. Wow. You went back in time there for him and Jared
Goff. Yeah. And Detroit. So that's kind of cool. That's kind of cool. Old two gloves.
Uh, he gets the opportunity to do some kind of cool here. Uh, that's pretty cool. That was
gives me. Anyway, I was a fan of Teddy Bridgewater and college at Louisville. I didn't mind him as an
NFL quarterback. Um, and I think this storyline is kind of cool. Uh, to be honest with you, I
wouldn't, wouldn't, when you're, your die hard team is not in it. You're all you're looking for
storylines. Yeah. That's, that's all interesting. Right. What's going on? That's what I want to know.
This is kind of wild. Yeah. I just want a high school title and as high as a high school coach and
everything. And I always sit back in the NFL now. Now I was going to go beat up by 300 pound
men that can run for five. Yeah. I honestly, I hope he never gets into a game. Yeah. Yeah.
Because the moment it happens, it's like instant injury. So yeah, we don't want to see that.
Well, and imagine the idea if the Lions make it to the Super Bowl, like out of the 18 hours of
pregame, at least three hours is going to be in Teddy Bridgewater. Just want a high school trophy.
He has the opportunity to win the, the, the, the, the, the Lamarney. Oh my god. It's a, Disney's
going to be all over it. They're going to turn it into a week movie. Like, look at that. Yeah.
Teddy Bridgewater story. Yes. Yes. Um, I wouldn't, if we have time, we'll get into this.
The head coaching carousel. Uh, and some of that, we'll see where that we end up on that one
when we come back from break. And I also want to get into some baseball talk with you. But, um,
just a quick NFL story. And I'll let you guys do the homework on this one. Just, I'll give you the,
the lead, the first couple sentences, like any good book, any good story that gets you in the
first paragraph. So I think I can get you with Nick Saban and Bill Belacheck attended a
Pink Floyd concert together back in their Cleveland coaching days. Wow. Just let that sit there.
Just, just let that, the two of the most uptight, stuffy people in, in, that we've seen. We,
I don't think they, I don't know what they're like in, you know, like normal situations,
because we always see them in front of a camera, right? Imagine them jamming out to comfortably numb.
They just, just like Bob and their heads do that. Yeah. Just, you know, in a, people like that.
I, I, and I know he didn't have it, but if you see pictures, you know, Bill Belacheck,
when he coached, you know, under Marty shot and I were, but he didn't have long hair,
but I totally would love to see that. They're like, I want to see Nick Saban just,
just talking about the, the lyrics of dark side of any of the lyrics off of any of the songs
that dark side of the mood. I want to be there when they're talking about. So if you line up
the Wizard of Oz with them, I want to hear that story. I want to hear that from them.
I don't know if they've tried that. Yes. Yes. That's what I want to know.
I, I feel with every bone in my body, I am confident to say that they have, they have,
they, I would be shocked. In fact, I don't know if I believe them, but they said they didn't.
Yeah. I'm not sure I'd believe them. Like, come on. Sorry, Bill Belacheck. Don't believe you.
No. Sorry. If you are a big enough pink Floyd fan to have gone to a pink Floyd concert,
and yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Because this is back in 91. This is back in like around that.
Yeah. That was right when they were starting their coaching careers. I mean, yeah,
I mean, that's, that's great. Go ahead, chase that rabbit hole, everybody, and have fun.
Because it's a fun story. I think it's a fun story. We'll be back with more fun on,
right here at Playmakers, brought you by quality plus print to get your words out right here
with Scott's rabbits. We'll just come back. No music. No music. No music. We'll just come back.
Sorry about that, everybody. That was on me. I'm not sure what I did there. A little weirdness
going on, but that's all right. It's not, it's not, you know, that's how you know I'm on the air.
That's, you know, how you know, I wouldn't want that to let down the audience and not have
something weird happened. Very, very welcome back to Playmakers. Everybody probably brought you
by quality plus print to get your words out right here in Wisconsin. Rapids, Seth and James
hanging out with you. Feel free to call us up. Hit us in the numbers. Seven one five four two four
twenty six hundred. Speaking of numbers, we've got our show stats. That show coming up for you.
We're going to, I got one to start off this segment, and then we'll kind of wrap up the show
with a couple of Ricky Henderson stats that I came across and even I didn't know. Love it.
Love it. But I was speaking on the Monday night football or the Christmas games by the NFL.
And the Ravens and Texans game that I thought was going to be the game of the night of the day
turned out to not really be. It really wasn't much of a contest. CJ Stroud just is, you know,
I don't know. I don't know about the sophomore slump stuff when you're being hit that much.
Like it's it's really hard whether we're talking about him or Caleb Williams or Joe
Burrow or any of these guys, not the Caleb Williams is in that class with those guys.
I'm just thinking about quarterbacks get on the top. Those are the top three quarterbacks that
have been sacked the most in the NFL this year. Yeah. So that's got it. That's got like I think
someone mentioned he's starting to see ghosts, which is understandable when you get I mean,
when you get hit that much, it's hard not to still a human being. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
But Lamar Jackson was not seeing ghosts. He was making them like he was just running a game
and he has been. And oddly enough, I'm watching it. And I'm like, is he faster than he was at
Louisville? Like he seems like he's in better shape than he's ever been. He's faster than he's
ever been. And that's not how this is supposed to work. I had to double check. He's in year seven.
He's been doing that for this long. Wow. Yeah. Well, I mean, he broke the record.
So he must have been doing it for a while. He's had some injuries. He's had some hiccups in his
giddy and all that. And his legs are still doing that to the point that in on his 48 yard,
at 40 air rushing yards. And Jackson's maximum speed on the run that he had there, the big play,
21.25 miles an hour. Wow. He was he was going almost at speed limit in a rural area. That's insane.
That's a lot. I mean, if you're doing like a 21, 22 miles per hour, you're fast in the NFL.
And I mean, and he's been, yeah, he's he's a remarkable athlete. I mean, something else.
My goodness. We love talking, of course, big time headlines and sports with you guys and
everything. That's how we stay relevant as a network and as a show. But we are nothing without
local and we cover our local teams. I think better than most. Pretty good. And one of the things
that we have one of the make sure to mention is that our Wisconsin rapids rafters have their
hot hot stove event coming up. Yes. That's right. January. If you sign up for the newsletter,
you'll get that information right away. Everybody encourage you to do that. But yeah, their hot
stove event is right around the corner. Sorry, my computer is not working. Yeah. It was going on.
There we go. Okay. January 18th from six to nine over at the hotel. Mead that'll be going on.
You can RSVP for the event just by going to the rafters at northwoodsleague.com. Just head on over
there to sign up for that. Everybody encourage you to do so. And I'm excited about the rafters
this season. New coaching staff bring it in some familiar faces while also some new ones as we're
used to with our our northwoodsleague. Yeah. And it just excited the baseballs around the corner.
Of course. And very happy that they're doing this still. They're still able to do the hot stove
events and everything. Shout out to the hotel mead hosting it. Got it. You got to keep people
interested in what's going on. And I think we are this community really loves their rafters.
Encourage you to follow the rafters online, especially their Facebook and Instagram pages.
They're doing this throwback Thursday thing where they're going back and replaying moments.
A little while ago they had on from the championship here that they had on some moments from there.
All right. Let's take a call. Good morning. Good afternoon. You're on the show.
Good evening fellas. How are you doing? All right. Do not write. Happy on it.
Yeah. You were just talking about Teddy Bridgewater in Lamar Jackson. And I got to think in
Is Lamar Jackson Teddy Bridgewater without the injury?
Ooh. It's not a bad question though. Yeah. It's not a bad question. I don't I don't have the numbers
as far as like height weight and 40 time or anything. But I never really thought about it. But
yeah. I watched as many places I possibly could have Randall Cunningham. And I look at I
look at Lamar Jackson and that's the closest I've ever seen. But but what 100% better.
And that's not easy for me to say as much as I love Cunningham as much as I love that quarterback.
Lamar Jackson is him times 100 like the size of him, the mobility, the agility.
And the biggest difference with Lamar Jackson that is almost uncomparable to any other quarterback
that we can mention or reference between the years. It's the creativity. It's the imagination of
these guys. That's the biggest difference maker. I think with any quarterback, any great
quarterback you want to bring up. And I mean like guaranteed great. Like we don't question like
that's like that's a legend right there. Um, you know, it's it's not easy for some of us to say
as far as whether you're talking about off the field or you're talking about him beating up on
our teams or anything with I'm talking to two Viking fans and a bear fan here. Right. But Aaron
Rogers Aaron Rogers wasn't faster than anybody. He wasn't the most fit guy on the field or anything
like that. He had a way of seeing the field differently. Yeah. He got out of the pocket and was able to
do something that no other quarterback could do like he could reset. Yep. He reset. And he
saw it a completely different way than when he was taking the snap at first. Um, the way that
Tom Brady or Joe Montana just seemed to will their teams. Yes. With my homes, it's so much of
the idea of getting the ball to the receiver to the other guy. And how do I do that?
And finding different with side ironing and just having a creative mindset that's different
than others. It's all about that brain. You can have there. We were we're seeing guys better
faster than we've ever seen before. Sure. And that means something. I'm not making light of that.
But all that aside, give me that brain. That's what you need. If you're looking for the next great
quarterback, if you're out there drafting or anything, I want the creative guys. I want the guys
that have that imagination for the game. That's what those are the difference makers. And Lamar
Jackson or Teddy Bridgewater. Bridgewater is a little like that. Not nearly. I think that's the
big difference to me in those guys. It's not just injuries. Injuries are a huge part of it.
I think Bridgewater could have been one of the better quarterbacks of our generations and
everything. But I do like the comparison. I still think that Pat Mahomes is the second coming
of a friend target. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. The original one, right? Yeah.
So they place a loose on the field. Yeah. It's a perfect way to word it too, man. Loose.
It does feel like that. That's that. I don't know if I've heard a better verb for their game,
whether it's target 10 or that or anything. Yeah. Because they did. They do seem to be out there
playing like cool. Yeah. Playing in the dirt with their friends and everything.
Ever seen Pat Mahomes flap. It's like backyard football. Yeah.
Exactly. Has he ever looked, you know, like he was nervous or something like that? No. Yeah.
It doesn't matter what the game is. He's always. He's just cool. You know, he's always right there.
What do you, you got to be excited. Both of you, all of you, this whole state. There's a big one
coming up this week. Yeah. I would think in the NFL, there's only one burn the boats game.
There's only one mandatory game for both sides, I would say, in Minnesota and Green Bay facing off
this. There is, as there always is with these games, a lot on the line for reputation and bragging
rights and all that. But for Green Bay, this is an opportunity. This is gigantic for them.
Because this is the difference of having to go to Philly, Detroit on the road or not having to
do at least one of those or something and a little bit of an easier path. I think some of this
stuff gets a little muddied because we don't know how difficult who's going to be healthy who isn't
and those kind of things. And Green Bay has proven, well, have they? They went on the road
last year and won in Dallas, but is that really proving it? Greg, is it? If you beat the college boys
in Jerry World, it doesn't mean anything anymore because they can't seem to win there anymore for
whatever reason. I got a good friend in Texas. I'm not saying that about Texas fans. That's not
about the fans. No, that's about the product on the field. Yeah, I'm pretty excited about it.
I still kind of, you know, I have my trepidations when it comes to sand Arnold and the Vikings in
the playoffs history. Of course. I think the Patrick Vikings lions all make the playoffs beat each
other up and then lose to the Eagles. Right. That would be a good chance. Yeah, that could happen.
The Eagles got to be healthy enough to get there, though, too.
And Jalen Hertz is banged up. I don't believe he's in concussion protocol anymore, but you got
you got a dangerous game for them with Dallas and this is the only time I'll say this maybe in
the next couple of years, but Dallas is dangerous as you're facing in the end. You're facing an NFC
fellow NFC East team and a team with nothing to lose and a team with everything to lose. Yeah,
in football, I don't think that there's another sport that you can like in baseball, you can,
I feel like you can tell more times than not if a player isn't as hard as in the game.
But there's no more dangerous game to not have your heart in it than football. And there's
no more dangerous game to be looking ahead than football. And I mean, if Philly's doing that and
Dallas is coming into it with nothing to lose and you're Mike McCarthy and this may be the last
NFL coaching game of your career. Um, I can't imagine, you know, what, what that.
Big Mike will have a soft landing somewhere. Come on now.
It'd be interesting. I tell you one thing. I know I can make one prediction about that game.
Sichuan Barclay made Kerry the ball 40 times. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You'll have to just give him the ball,
man. Uh, the only thing you carry in. Yeah. That's right. Absolutely. You got to go out
of that man. That's good luck. That's good luck. All right, guys. Hey, appreciate you.
You too, man. Happy New Year's to you too, brother. Yeah. Thanks for the call. Appreciate it.
715-424-2600. Hit us in the numbers. Call up everybody. Join the conversation.
Taking a look at our schedules and in that, just focusing on the NFL, uh, mentioned that.
You got a lot of divisional games, Jets, Bills. Uh, you've got the Panthers and Buccaneers. That
could be good. Um, you know, on paper, a lot of these are like snore. You know, I mean,
there's so much snoring. There is. There's not much we could do about it. Cause like you said,
there are a lot of divisional games this week. And they're, they're, because they got to play
them. So, you know, and they had a lot of games used up already with the Thursday night football
and Wednesday night football. Saturday and yeah. Yeah. Uh, so I, I do think that it's pretty easy.
And that's just, uh, what lion's in 49ers is a good one. Yeah. Just, uh, it's, I still, uh,
what he was saying about Sam Darnell, I feel the way that way about San Francisco. I'm not,
even though I should be counting them out. And they are counted out. And statistically,
they are and all that. That's still a team that I don't take lightly because they've still got
playmakers on that team. As long as Fred Warner lining up, I would not take that man lightly.
That's the predator. And that's, I mean, and suddenly Dibo is, is come to life all of a sudden.
It's like, whoa, whoa, where'd that come from? So I mean, I, I'm with you. You can't necessarily
count them out. Everything I was saying about Philly and Dallas, it's a similar thing with Detroit
and San Francisco. Detroit's got something to prove against San Fran because they beat them
last year in the playoffs. But Detroit also has playing a, uh, a beaten, uh, a beaten hungry
animal that has nothing to lose. Mm-hmm. So in your San Francisco, you have a chance to maybe,
I mean, the one thing Detroit can't have is any kind of, uh, well, our injuries, any more
any more, yeah, injuries. I mean, that's the thing. It's just, their defense has just been
decimated. So yeah, uh, Green Bay traveling the Minnesota has got to be the game of the wheat.
It's got to be, uh, it really does. And that is going to be a good one. It's hard to imagine
that won't be a good game. You know, I do have to mention one thing about Sam Darnold too,
because I, I have the same trepidations, you know, that Sam Darnold is, yeah, at some time,
at some point, you know, it's, it's going to be the rug pull, you know, it's going to be a surprise.
I was Sam Darnold all along, you know, that kind of thing. But he, he, he had a couple of bad
games in the middle of the season, but he turned it around and man, he's had several really good games
in a row. I mean, maybe it's because of my Vikings fan that's like, I can't believe it until like,
it actually, until we're at the end and maybe then, you know, kind of thing that say, if they win
everything, it's like, oh, oh, now I can finally be okay. But not until then, I can't, I just can't do it.
I, I, I think, I think it's understandable. I think it's a sports fan and all of us,
when we look at these things and we see a player have a breakout year that hasn't had that before.
Yeah, I think Ryan Taneyhill, you know, was a similar thing with him. Heck, it was a similar thing with
Teddy Bridgewater. That's true. Well, Geno Smith, I didn't believe in it. Do you know they're good?
Yep. You know, there, there's a handful of these, but I'm also bringing those up in the idea that
it's so much, I think that so much of the time it comes down to the coaching and the surrounding
pieces and how often it is that we're quick to call these guys a bust and for every Jamarcus Russell
that was a clear bust. And I mean, just even he has owned his life and owned that he, you know,
look, I wasn't trying. I was playing video games and all this. There are guys that maybe are not a
bust. Maybe they would have been okay. Maybe this guy would have worked out had they had been in
the, they got drafted by the right team. Well, and, and we've seen some of that already this year.
You know, you mentioned earlier, CJ Stroud, you know, and all the struggles he've had, he's had
here and then we've seen, you know, Bryce Young take a step forward in the last half of the season,
which is, you know, the, the, the narrative last year was, you know, the biggest bust in history,
you know, Bryce Young and look at CJ Stroud, he's just the amazing new thing. Well, they kind of move
it in different directions now. And maybe, maybe, maybe people were a little too quick to, to
place those judgments down there. Well, I mean, I don't know what Bryce Young can do the rest of his
career, but he's looking better than he's ever looked in the NFL and maybe he's getting there,
maybe he's getting to that point where he can be one of those better quarterbacks.
We're going to have plenty of time in the off season to talk about this, but just as we're
going into break, just to touch on the coaching carousel a little bit, as the Bears lose a just
ugly, awful game. Oh, wow. Yesterday to the Seattle Seahawks. Interesting to going into that,
one of the bigger headlines, X-Seahawks and head coach, GM, I believe at one time, former USC coach,
you champion over in college and in the NFL. Only a couple guys have done that.
Pete Carroll is interested in getting back in the coaching and he's interested in the Chicago
Bears job. Now, this being leaked, I think makes it very, I mean, for a lot of reasons,
this is not going to happen. But I think it leaks out there for one for Pete Carroll to let his
agent to let everybody know, hey, Pete is interested in coaching. Coaching again. Yep.
It benefits the Bears and it looks like a more enticing job because of Pete Carroll is interested
in it. But I've mentioned many times that the Bears don't hire veteran coaches. The one time they
did it with John Fox, it went horrible. So I don't think they'll ever do it again. I didn't think
why, you know, whether it was Bella check or Pete Carroll or any of these guys, I'm not even sure
Mike Vrable has a chance. I just don't see them doing this. But more so my point, whether it's the
Chicago Bears or it's the New York Jets or the New York Giants or even the Pittsburgh Steelers,
because nobody wants to include them in this conversation. But they are the outlier of
teams being owned by families. And what that used to mean and how much I as a fan love that and
thought that was really cool as a kid. And as an adult, I find it to be insane and dry it dries me
insane. Only because these individuals will hire their family members to do jobs that they are
not qualified to do and anything in life. And I don't care what we're talking about. We're talking
about a gas station or we're talking about the highest office in the land. When you are hiring
people to do a job that they are not qualified for, that they cannot do, that is insanity to me.
Yeah. I don't care what it is. It's not going to work. And it has never worked. It has never worked.
And any fasted in any medium, no matter what we're talking about, it never works. And it's insane to
me. And I will say something right now. And God, I'd love to be wrong. But you are going to love
hearing this out there. As long as the Chicago Bears are owned by the Makaskeys, they will never win
a Super Bowl. They may never win an NFC championship. They may look into it. They may have
looked into a great quarterback, but they will not look into a Super Bowl. Nobody looks into a
championship. And as long as they are owning that team, it will never happen. And I will make the
argument that whether it's the Pittsburgh Steelers, who everybody raves about three coaches and
all these years and all that and everything, you luck into things in life. And I'm not saying they
lucked into all of it, but some of it has to do with luck. Yes, absolutely. It has to. Yeah.
The giants, the jets, any of these teams. Now, I don't like this. I don't like the idea of tech
companies coming in and buying these teams up or anything, but at least they get things done,
and at least they look at it like a business, and at least they hire people that are good at the
job or can be good at the job. Talk about making a deal with the devil, huh? Yeah. That's what you're
going to do. We got to go to break, but I don't want to take a phone call before that good
afternoon. You were on the air. Well, good evening again. It's funny. Bring up the McCaskys. Did you
watch that Vikings Bears game? Yeah, a little bit of it. Yeah. And did you see how nervous the
McCaskys and Brian Poles were chewing their gum? Yeah, they kept showing them in the press box
that I was like, oh, those are two guys that are probably on their way out.
Well, I wonder, too, how often they have the actual TV broadcast on, and they're seeing some
of the graphics popping up and everything. I wonder how often that's happening, or they're just
locked into those press boxes. They can't see the field as well, unless they have the monitors
on the TV. Sometimes they have a TV up. Sometimes they have the actual broadcast up. I wonder,
too, if that's part of it. Yeah, I saw that too. I'll let you guys go, but how fun is James
Winston to watch? I'll let you go with that. He's the only thing that's more fun than is hearing
him talk. That's more fun. He's almost sort of fly really insane, but it doesn't matter because
the Browns aren't playing him again. No, they're going to, no, we're going to start the worst
quarterback in the league. Yeah. James Winston was too gunslinger for football. He was more gunslinger
than Brett Farve. And I say that because he lost his job. That's right. I mean, that's how it
happens. Like, you know, Farve was almost too, was too little of a gunslinger. He kept his job
and won a championship. Real quick before break, some breaking news, outfielder Tescar Hernandez,
he asked her, he asked her Hernandez, and the Dodgers are in agreement on the three-year 66 million
back to Dodgers. Okay. Cool. The rich get richer. Yeah. We'll come back and we'll talk a little
baseball with you when we come back on playmakers here at WFHR. Welcome back everybody to WFHRs.
Playmakers.
Seth and James here with you. We got about five, six minutes left of show. Feel free to use it
with your phone calls. 715-424-2600. I didn't, I didn't believe you had anything today.
Not really. I didn't think so as I ask you with two seconds left.
But I did want to mention, or I did, I did have something kind of fun for us to wrap up on.
It's a Ricky Henderson stats I wanted to touch on. But I also came across a great article at
MLB.com. You can go ahead and check this out at MLB.com. Everybody, every team's longest home run of
2024. That's awesome. When I actually pulled this up, I thought it was the longest home runs of the
year. But it's just, it's for every team. Yeah. Like, for example, one of the bigger home run
hitters out there, Vladimir Guerrero, 471 feet on June 24 against Boston. Man. Anything over
four way. I mean, anything over 450 feet is monstrous. We have to keep that in perspective here,
people. And I love that they have the clips with them. You can go back and see the clips and
everything. You can watch these, these moonshots. Aaron Judd had one about seven feet farther,
477 feet August second against Toronto, oddly enough. Man, he, he abuses baseballs. That man,
I mean, seriously. That's a great way to play. Bobby Whit Jr. May 21 against Detroit,
468 feet. That gets only going to get better too. Oh my gosh. And he's fast and he's strong.
Oh, man. And his defense, he did like a complete 180 on his defense. I mean, he's, he's
something special. He is something special. He loved to see these guys that are great and they
want to be legends. And they continue to work and get better at their craft. He is one of those
and hard worker, hard worker. And he loves playing in KC. Like, that's pretty cool. He's guy,
he's never going anywhere. Like that contract. He's going to be George Brett. He's going to
be one of those guys that stays. I hope, I hope he stays there his whole career. That's awesome.
Yep. For your twin Seth, Byron Bucksdon on June 27 against Arizona, 456 feet. Man, if he ever had,
you know, if his body didn't betray him so much, he could have been in all time great. He is
going to be one of the like for twin, I could see him going into the Minnesota twin hall of
fame. Yes. Like that for sure. He's going to be one of the most star crossed players in Minnesota
as sports history. Probably one of the most talented, physically talented people that ever played
for the twins, but his injuries. I know that they haven't won necessarily much in recent decades,
but that's a respected franchise and major league baseball that has great history. And he's
all over the stat books. Like that's saying something. When you when you were ahead of Dave Winfield
or Kirby Puckett on something or something like that, that means I don't even think I should
mention the White Sacks, but Luis Robert had a 470 or big deal. Hey, hey, for 70's not bad.
And he's still there. Yeah, for now. Mike Trout, 473 feet on April 1. But I, of course,
am looking for the Milwaukee Brewers, the Brewers, Ronald Acuna Jr. 461. There's another one
that can't stay healthy. Yep. Yeah. It's a shame. If he could especially for my fantasy team,
it was a big shame. And maybe I was going to let the audience gasp over running a little
low time here and everything. But you know, I'll give it a minute. I'll give it a minute. If you
want to call up a guest who had the biggest home run for the Brewers last year, 715, 424, 2,600,
I'm trying to think of who the the boppers would be. Yeah, you know, I think your traditional guy,
Willie Adams had a great year at a lot of homeers. You know, Christian Yelch was still doing some
great. Maybe re-tossins, you know, home run hitter kind of guy. But, but okay. So Jackson Cheerio,
August 27th versus San Francisco, 449 feet. Nice. Man, talk about guys. You're going to get better.
Ooh, that's scary. Pretty good year for rookies. When he finished third in rookie of the year voting,
when he had the year he had, when you're in the same league as Paul Schienes. Yeah, that's
impressive. It is. And credible season went 2020, went 2020, 21 home runs, 22 stolen bases,
had a 3.9 war as a rookie as almost a four war. And I know a lot of people don't know what that is.
But no, that is that's a really amazing. I mean, him and all the Jackson's, you know, Jackson,
holiday, Jackson, Merrill out in San Diego, who I think was second and the rookie the year voting.
I mean, there's going to be some really good players coming up. Good stuff.
It's the, if you're, if you're baseball, or if you're, I'm sorry, if you're in the NBA,
you're looking at what's happening in baseball and you're like, how wide them? How could they get all the
because the baseball, our basketball is really nervous about not having enough young talented
players and who's going to take over the mantle for LeBron and stuff and all this. No, yeah,
they're terrified. Baseball, who isn't? It seems like it's, it's getting to be like when we
are a kid again, and every team had a superstar. Yeah, like I just, I, maybe I'm romanticizing it,
but when we were kids, it felt like every team had at least one guy. They had one good pitcher and
they had one good, exactly one good position player, even, and then the other, the good teams had
more than that, of course, but every team had something wrapping up the week. Like I think we
have to talk about one of the greatest baseball players of all time in Ricky Henderson. And that
is not hyperbole or anything like that. He's Ricky. One name, Ricky. We all know who we're talking
about. It's, it's, it's a buster only. It's, it's the guys that really, we all respect it and
we love this game for longer than I've been alive and telling saying that nobody scored more than
Ricky Henderson had 2,295 runs over his 25 seasons. Ty Cobb is second with 246. So, fluid out of the
water. Yeah, a stat that I don't know if it would be broken. No, it will not. Ricky was the first
since Williams to have 140 runs in a season. That's insane. Nobody was intentionally walked like him.
You touched on this the other day. Well, he was, he was, he acts as a record for most unintentional
walks. His batting eye was so good. And of course, he had that exaggerated crouch, which made his
strike zone was tiny. Talked about pictures who pitched against him. They're like, you could throw
a strike to him. Yeah, it was too small. But what I did not know when I thought was fascinating.
Ricky's career was great even late. So Henderson stolen MLB rec leading 66 bases with the A's in
98 when he was 39, 39. He had 118 the year before at 38. He was and Henderson stole 109 bases
after turning 40 in all time record. Cap Anderson is second with 90. At 40 years. He was 40 years,
though. He was, he was one of a kind. Ricky was Ricky and, and he was, he will be greatly missed
one of the best of all time. Great show set. Thanks. Have a good weekend, everybody.
