Afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHRs! Play MacRars!
Welcome to the show! Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Have your host James
Biden the Mike. I am joined by our good friend Michael Comer. How you doing, buddy? Good
to see you, man. It's good to see you too. We're going to have some fun today. We want
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We got a bunch of things to get to this hour. We want to take your calls, of course, 424-2600.
Hit us up in the numbers. We would love to hear from every one of you. Michael and I are
going to get in some local sports. We have a legend Jew talk about in the big news there
with Coach B. Ola News. Michael's got some other information for us too. The WIA released
their statement, their feelings, their call, whatever you want to say. They're about the
seeding and the board approval of the football qualifying and seeding of other fall sports
changes. We're getting in all of that. It is super bowl week though. We have to start
there, Michael. I do also want to talk NBA trades with you. You're the only guy I can
talk basketball with. Nobody else wants to talk basketball with me. I'm going to make
you talk basketball. I'm going to make you talk about it with me. Just a running theme
throughout the show and the rest of the week really here and as long as you guys run
the show out there, Michael and I are just behind the microphones. What is your favorite
sports NFL moment, the NFL season? Maybe you're waiting for it in the Super Bowl, but
I don't think that's going to happen. What was your favorite moment? We got a bunch of
nominees that we'll get to and everything, but the first thing we'd like to do around
here is get to your calls. Good afternoon. You're in the game.
I cleared my throat for it today, so I changed it so we can talk about it. Appreciate it.
You know, the Super Bowl, it's this morning, you're kind of talking about the prop bets
and all that stuff. And throughout the day, I was kind of listening to some of the people
that are down there with the Super Bowl. Through to me, there's no real interest in this
game at all. Regardless if KC is going for 3P, I have a feeling NFL is going to really
hit rock bottom on this one because I don't think you're going to have the viewership.
You were seeing earlier this morning that it's a regional thing.
Yeah. Yeah. It's funny how the playoffs go on. The football becomes more and more
of a regional sport, I believe. I don't think it affects the ratings that much because
all of these things are sold. The way that they run these things, the rating systems
now by streaming numbers and all of this, they're going to get their numbers. But I actually
agree with you. I don't think they're going to see record numbers like they have in years
past with the Super Bowl this year. I don't know necessarily you're going to see that.
They're not going to, nobody's going to lose their job. Nobody's going to be fired from
or anything like that. But I don't disagree with you at all there. The interest in the
games gets less and less as the season goes on. I'll argue that. I'll say I think it's
the matchup that's the problem. Not like what the game is for per se. You got to say
that the AFC Championship game, it was Buffalo against, well, I mean, it was the World
against Kansas City and just Buffalo happened to be the one. Okay. Then you have to watch
the Jane Daniels and the Redskins or whatever they called anymore. The commanders that these
possibly the next big thing and they're watching that and saw the commanders explode and just
fall apart and Philly did Philly did. Now, as far as Super Bowl goes, you have the city
that nobody likes with the fan base that nobody likes and Philly. And you have the team
that's getting all the calls that they play themselves into the bad guy. Whether it's
it by by design or what they've done or just the happen a consequence, I don't know. But
there's only there's going to be people watching it. And I think it's going to be better
to watch than whatever award show was on earlier in the week. But, but, but the no counter
programming to the Super Bowl. Right. And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and I can't,
remember, remember when we were kids and there's celebrity death match during the halftime.
I miss that so much. Oh, that was a good one. So much. Oh, I love that. Or how about when
there was that WWF mankind, the rock and the the hardcore championship match? One of my favorite
matches in wrestling history. Honestly, you said that and I got goosebumps. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. And I think it was mankind won with a with a forklift that put it down. Which,
if you think about it, my God, that's dangerous too. We're having work with forklifts. That's
dangerous. I miss Mick Foley being in my life. I miss, I miss that. I miss some, some days,
some days, I, I, I mean, I'd like to guide him what he did in the ring and outside of the ring.
Sometimes outside of the ring, I just make shut up. No, but, but, but, but, but in the ring,
I just could watch his matches all the time. Earlier, the better. But, but, especially,
cactus jack. But, but that's besides the point. Back back. Uh, have a nice day, James.
We're going to have to have a wrestling show one time. We're going to have mercy. Yeah. Yeah.
I like it. Was that, was that dude love? Yes, it was. Yeah. There you go. I got the three
faces in there. But, but getting back to the topic, it's, there's, people are going to watch
this stinking game. Just whether, whether you like it or not, they're going to do it to cheer
against Kansas City. I'm sorry. They're going to. It's interesting to think of people being
on the Philly side. I'm not, but I'd have to cheer for them. Well, it happened with New England.
It happened where we, we all became Philadelphia Eagle fans against New England. Well, I,
I hate Seattle, but I had to cheer for them in that Super Bowl too. Yeah. It's such an odd thing
that you, you, you, you work everything to be great. It not just to be great, but be dominant
and to, to win and to win and to win because that's all the matters in sports. Not how you win.
Nobody talks about winning by little miles. They talk about winning. Uh, that's what matters.
Nobody remembers that the, uh, you know, um, Tennessee almost won a Super Bowl. I do. Uh, uh,
well, you know what I mean. Uh, crazy people. Of course, that's crazy people. Remember,
I remember two crazy, but most people don't remember that stuff. They remember winners.
History is written by the winners. Uh, but you work so hard to get to this point and then you
are hated for winning. Like that's what happens. And I, I, I, I get what you guys are saying here.
I'm, uh, I'm interested in the game in part because of the history of it. And I can't get passed
out. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a history nerd and I admit that. And the idea that I'm alive when I
could see something that nobody's ever seen before, it almost doesn't matter what it is. It,
it almost doesn't matter what, what, what we're talking about. Never seen what before.
A three P, uh, Green Bay did it in the 60s and in the late 20s and 30s. Green based on a twice,
uh, I know, I know how much you need this as a sports base. So I'm not going to fight you on
this one. I know how much the green base sports base needs this. So you can have it. I don't
really care. I, I will say I hate when people discount that stuff. I don't like when people
discount that was before the super booger and that's, yeah, I don't buy it either. You don't have
that without this. So exactly. But as far as since the merger, we've never seen anything like this.
I, I do have in front of me, uh, the stat of the show that kind of falls into this a little bit.
And it's the amount of back-to-back Super Bowl champions. And I think, I think it leans into what
you guys are talking about and what the, what the fan bases of football is and how, and often
we've seen this because I'm like Pittsburgh Dallas. Uh, New England's done it. Denver did it. Um,
one more. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let me, let me pull. Yeah. Sam, Sam Francisco did it. Um,
then, uh, I know who's been to four and never got it. Yeah. Uh, let me Buffalo in Minnesota. There's
one sneaky team that we've forgotten about. It is their own fault. It's their own fault. Oh,
not Miami. They were, they were, they only won one. Uh, not the Redskins either. Yeah. I'm
literally trying. No. No. Oh, you're going to hate it too. Oh, I'm going to, I'm going to be mad at
this one. Okay. It's not. I got in front of me. So I'm cheating. Yeah. Cheater. Cheater. Oh,
yeah. Well, hardly. It wasn't the colds either. No. Denver. No. No. Oh, you did say Denver. Denver
did do it. Denver did do once. But Michael called that one. I'm going to give it to you so we can keep
moving. Yeah. Dallas. Yep. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So, but to the point, we have seen this so many
times, the back-to-back champion. And I can, I mean, I wasn't alive for all these certainly,
but the majority of these, it's funny how it went where I remember when, uh, the Niners were in
there. And it seemed like everybody was in the 80s. Yeah. The 80s. And then all of a sudden,
it shifted. And when did it shift? The Dallas Cowboys. In the 90s. The Dallas Cowboys started
to shift the needle a little bit. I don't know that everybody was mad at Denver, necessarily,
outside of Wisconsin, outside of that lineup. You know what I mean? I had Atlanta probably,
but I don't know. Well, Atlanta's got a lot of other things to be angry about, especially today.
I heard today's the anniversary of the 20 into three. Yeah. Yeah. Geez. But then New England
changed all this and completely like all the sudden, the NFL leaned into the villain and
having a villain in the NFL. And New England isn't the villain anymore. The NFL needs a villain.
Kansas City. Step on up because they and not even because they really fit the mold. No,
they don't. That's a thing. But they they'd suit. You know, it's better than nothing. We need a villain.
And you can't have it. I remember hearing Stanley talk about this when writing comic book
characters. It wasn't enough to have a hero. You had to have a villain. What good is a hero without
the villain? What is good? What good is Batman is great, but he's nothing without that cast of villains.
Right. And you can't have him. You can't have your putting if you don't eat your meat, man. That's
so it's interesting to me how that works and how we all talk about this game being boring and
everything else. And what are we going to be talking about on Monday? What will we do? We will.
We will. We'll be talking. Hopefully, hopefully, the dethroning of the swifts there.
Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. It better thing is though, I mean, how do they become the villain? Because
obviously what has gone throughout the whole, I mean, obviously, it's out there and they brought
it up to the players on Monday night at the opening night. It's been talked about all weeks so far
down and radio roll and everything is the referee in it about how they're getting the calls.
And you know, and you try to hurt Tray Wingo this morning, say something on, you know,
the Buffalo had a chance to, you know, yeah, Buffalo didn't get some of the calls, you know,
at the end of the first half there, if the government went to challenge, it would have, you know,
if that would have went one way, well, then they would have had defensive holding on on Buffalo
anyway. So that, you know, the chief sort of got the ball or in, you know, at the end of the game.
And you know, we could go back to every single game and find holding calls that weren't called.
Oh, yeah. I mean, man, it's such an old, I know that this didn't turn out the way we wanted it to.
I know we may not have the Super Bowl we wanted. And it may be frustrating. And Josh Allen
and Patrick Mahomes both are one and two and getting calls in the NFL. That's certainly.
Every game has a different set of refs. Are you telling me that all the refs got together and
decided, hey, we want Kansas City and the Super Bowl. We've seen weirder things though. I mean,
it's so convenient. It's such a convenient argument to just make, just for everybody to feel
better about this. Like it's ridiculous, man. Are you telling me every single NFL player,
every single NFL employee is going to keep their mouth shut. It's not going to look for their 15
seconds of fame in this day and age with the social media that we have in the cameras on our phones.
You're telling me not one single person is going to come out and say, hey, guess what?
DNFL wanted Kansas City and the Super Bowl for Taylor Swift.
Are you kidding me? What is the sky in your world? What color is it? That's pretty gray right now.
Because that is a world that I want to live in. I want to be that kind of, I'm not even
kidding right now. I would love to have that blissful kind of mind. I'm an overthinker.
I'm way too serious for my own good. I wish I could shut down like that and be able to think like
that. There is so much money on the line. There is gambling involved. Thousands, millions,
every second of the day. That's being generous. You're telling me that this all comes down to
a couple of referees deciding that they want Kansas City and the Super Bowl or the NFL deciding
that they want Kansas City and the Super Bowl. We're going to do all these different things and
get everybody to sign no requirements and all of this and boom, here we go. We got Kansas City
and Philly and the Super Bowl. The one thing the NFL didn't want, a rerun. It's the last thing they
want. It's the most ridiculous thing in the world to me. We're grown men. We're adults. If we don't
like it, fine, say you don't like it, but this idea that the referees and all these, it's so
convenient. It's such a lazy argument to me, man. We're better than this. We can be talking about
literally anything else you want in sports. There's a billion things. We got the, maybe the best
player in women's college basketball coming to Madison tonight. We can be talking about that.
Judeo and USC and everything. Oh, okay. Yeah, because that brings up a point from the last few
shows. They don't talk about it. So I don't know. But I'm just saying, I mean, there's so many other
better things we could talk about. I feel like we're for what? What is it? Even if you're right,
even if you're right, what does it change? What changes? The game's still going to go on.
They're still going to play the game. They're still going to watch. Now, tell me there are
thousands and thousands of because all the people that are complaining about this. Are they
signing an agreement that they're not going to watch the Super Bowl, that they're not a single one
of them? Then I'll pay attention. Then I'll listen to you. But all these people talking this
yet, and they are not changing their minds. They're not changing the channel. And I don't care.
I know. I know. I'm done with these conspiracy theory ideas and these, these flat earth things,
because that's where I accumulate this with. If you, you want to talk about flat earths too,
because now we can talk about also. I mean, what are we doing? Okay, do you see a deep breath,
take a deep breath? It's going to be okay, James. I want to talk about the NFL class. I want to
talk about the Hall of Fame class. If I had a beer right now, I'd hand it to you. You should calm
down. I've been listening to this stuff for years. I'm tired of us dumbing down for sports. We're
smarter than this. We're better than this. There are real problems out there. There are real
issues. There is stuff going on with the NFL that we could actually be talking about that. If
you want to talk about real problems, how come not every player is wearing these helmets? How come
the NFL isn't making mandatory for everybody to wear those darn goofy helmets? All the guardian
caps on top of the helmets. How come the turf isn't better for every NFL team? There's so
many better things we could actually talk about. The conspiracy theories, the refs did this. They got
this call. That got that call. How many calls did the Packers get on their run to the Super Bowl?
How many calls did the Bears get on their way to the Super Bowl? All of them then. We're
talking about the Bears, James. The undefeated dolphins. How many calls did they get? I mean,
every one of these teams get calls. It's such a lazy argument. It just shows that who's
got the golden horses you know where this year. They're coming games that came to CD Projekt
should have lost this year. They have the quarterback. They have the players that know how to win
when you know pull the games out of the end and then you got the coach Andy Reed. That's one of
the guys most respected guys in the NFL. It's hilarious to me that Andy Reed has become a villain.
How can a guy who only eats bacon cheeseburgers like myself? How can you be a villain? Imagine
watching a superhero movie. And the cheese nugget. And Spider-Man's going up against Andy Reed.
Like that's what we're talking about. I would watch that. I would tap 100%
watch that. And I don't even like Marvel movies. I'd be watching that. Yeah. I actually know I
changed my mind. I wanted to see that now. Kevin, I appreciate you man. Thank you for hanging
on the line. I real quickly. Is there any other sports that you had or anything else? I do want
to get into. Go ahead. Because you were talking basketball. I kind of want to twist a little bit.
You know, there's a couple things with the basketball. Obviously the big news today in Wisconsin is
that Chris Melton has been traded to the Washington Capitol or whatever the name
ourselves. And to me, you touched down a little bit this morning when the news broke.
It was a good move. I mean, obviously, Chris Melton really hasn't played basketball
until the last three years. Yeah. And he's getting slow. But then there also,
that was a little bit talk today to what I was kind of flipping through the sports talk stuff.
And you know, everybody's like, what did I, Yannis? This is his guy. But the way it sounds
that Yannis was kind of signed off on this a little bit too. And that's to me and the NBA. I mean,
obviously, it happened out in the out and look with the Lakers with a bronze and AD. This is
getting ridiculous. They have, you're the general manager. And these guys have to understand.
I mean, I know basketball is a little bit just different than what football is because
it's fine man or even baseball. But they're getting paid to build these teams.
Yeah. I'm at the NBA, these guys in the NBA, the bronze, Yannis. And I'm a Bucks fan,
you know, because they're from Wisconsin. But these, some of these guys like Yannis,
they just need to keep their mouth shut, play basketball, and play a team sport.
I don't mind the GM. I actually think it's a really smart move for a GM to go to a player and be
like, you know, hey, we're talking about doing this. What do you think? These guys got to co-exist
together. They got to play together. How do you feel about playing with a James Harden?
Somebody like that. That's a big personality to bring into a locker room. But as far as the
final decision, like we're going to do it. We're going to do it. Like you can, I want your opinion,
but I'm still doing what's best for the team. I couldn't agree with you more. I'm a big fan of
this crazy thing of letting people do the jobs they're hired for. It's this wild thing. I think of
not only hiring competent people to do those jobs, but then let them do it. Let them go ahead.
It's wild. I know. It's a hell of a concept, too. I'm throwing out there. I'm just going to throw it
out there to see what happens. The other thing I was going to talk about, you know, I kind of
was going to bring up and you guys might probably talk about later. It's the Badger basketball.
They got themselves scheduled coming up here in the next couple of weeks. They got Purdue
next weekend. That's this weekend. They got Iowa. They got Illinois in there, mixed in there.
I think Michigan State's mixed in there. If they can keep shooting the ball like the event,
I know they had that little bit of a hiccup out in Maryland, but they still had a chance to win that
game out there. What about Carter Gilmore? They'll ask a couple of games. Where was he? He's
like he's lighting it up a little bit. I really like that. I think this team and I think
Gary kind of alluded in his pressure that they had 13 to 6 fifth last night. He's got
a complete team. Yeah, and then that's what you said. They're a team. They're not an individual.
Yeah, they got a really solid team. You got some locks in the Big 10. We got a nice conference.
You know, we always do some good teams. I like growing up the Big East was everything to me.
I just watched 30 for 30 about that. But to me, the modern Big East is the Big 10.
I love the way we play basketball here. I like the way that basketball is covered here. I like
a lot of the announcers and some of that. I think the ACC might argue with you on that.
Sure. The FCC, the ACC. They definitely have a good argument. Part of what I love about
this not only end with the influx of these new teams. In football, I haven't loved it too much yet.
It's going to take me a while to get used to it. I kind of like having USC and UCLA in the Big 10 now.
I like the late night games. Yeah, because I'm a, I'm just like you James. I'm an idol. I love being
able to sit there and be productive watching a game because it's, I'm working. Well, and maybe it's
because I took classes there and I was on the campus or I just love college basketball. But having
UCLA in our division in our conference, that means something, man. That still means something in
basketball. I know it doesn't mean a whole lot to some people, but that's still one of the benchmarks
in college basketball. USC, UCLA. I'm sorry. I meant to say UCLA. Okay. I went to, I actually went to
USC believe it or not. Yeah. PhD and BS. We, I was coming. I was like, I didn't see that on your
resume. Yes. Yeah. He majored at it. Yeah. Oh, yeah. But I'm excited about that. Wisconsin has
a better than bubble team. Oh, they're, they're in, they're in. And I think that feels good too.
That part is just like icing on what happened last year or two years ago, whatever it was.
Right. Yeah. I mean, I've been seeing some of the bracket, you know, how the bracket
allergies go out there and it changes every week, obviously. But it's been, I mean, I think
pretty much most of the price since the first of the year, when now it's starting to kind of
matter a little bit more. I think you've been sitting right around a four or five seed. Yeah. Yeah.
Most, you know, so I, and I, I, rightfully so I think that's where I think they would put, put
on my, the one this weekend I looked at, they actually were, if they make it out of the first weekend,
they end up playing Duke the first game on the second weekend. Oh, that was, I think they were
in the east. I think it was, you want to talk about, you were either the east or south.
Well, you want to talk about Wisconsin fans going nuts. Remember Tyler Hurrow when he gave the
middle finger to go into Wisconsin and went to what Kentucky? Well, you want to see that happen
again. Look at, not, not flag from Duke, but Con Caniple. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Given the middle finger to Wisconsin and going elsewhere. So, and, you know, a chance to upset
that team. Oh, that sounds like a great match. And normally, God, I love it. And I mean,
if it goes between Duke and UNC, I go Duke all the time, but it's tough now because, because I
always like coach K over Rory Williams. And I didn't dislike Rory Williams. But now with coach
Kagan, I just don't really care for either one of them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think it's,
for me, it's still a history thing. You see in those, those teams and everything, but I get it.
I'm with you on that. It's definitely lost a lot of its luster. I felt that way, though, too,
when Dean Smith left. Yeah. And I thought that it was kind of, it started the tail off.
Coach Tell Who net you come started the tail off then between the NC rivalry there with,
you know, all the Caroline teams and stuff. But, you know, it'll still be God. March madness is
so exciting. I cannot wait. But we got to get to the Super Bowl first. And for now, we got to
get to a break. And we have kept having part of his afternoon. This man doesn't have that much
all the time. We've taken a half an hour off. That's right. Appreciate your brother. Have a good
evening, Kevin. All right. You guys have a great night. Michael and I'll be back with some local
coverage for you. He's got a bunch of great stuff for you over there coming up right here on
Playmakers, which is probably brought to you by quality plus printing and family natural foods
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Michael and James hanging out with you. We hope you're having a good Friday after Wednesday afternoon
out there. I'm ahead of myself. My days are all mixed together, man. We appreciate you joining us
so much. A big thank you to quality plus printing and family natural foods sponsor in the hour.
Thank you, gang. We appreciate you. Michael, I know you've been working hard on bringing together a
bunch of local news for us. Oh, yeah. I think if you don't mind, I think we kind of have to start
in a couple of places. One, the retiring of a legend, if you don't mind. I think it's okay of me
to say. Yeah, I would say it. And I say that not just as a football coach, but the announcement that
Tony Viola would be hanging up in retiring. It sets ripples. And not just football, but in teaching
and powerlifting and so many things. Yep. First and foremost, you've got to make sure it gets
perfectly clear here. He's retiring from the coaching position. He's still going to teach. He's
still going to be powerlifting coach. He's still going to be track coach. That's what his plan is
next year. I interviewed him. I talked to the man himself yesterday. Now we'll go back up a little
bit. I had received word a couple of places actually on Monday morning that hey coach Viola was
retiring, resigning, stepping whatever term you want to use. And I said, well, I've heard this over
the last few years about several coaches. So I said, I haven't heard anything, but you never know.
So I shot Viola text message and said, hey, I heard some rumors. Just rumors or some truth.
And he says, yeah, it's true. They're going to post the position later in the week. I said, okay,
well, I guess at that point, I got to do my due diligence. When would you like to talk? When do
you want to? Because I got to talk about this. I got to write the story about this. And he
didn't get back to me, which I'm sure. You know, I'm like, you know what? Let the school post
the position. And then you go from there because you don't that this is because when you run with
stuff like that, that's how you get fake news. That's that's how you end up like Dan rather in
the old four election. Okay. That's what happens. And I'm not about I look like an idiot as it is.
I'm not going to add fuel to the fire by doing something fake and wrong and all that other stuff.
Well, once I got a I got a text message and buzz on my phone. Travis Wilson from Whistport. He
confirmed what I had already known. So I just said, well, I got to go to Lincoln anyways this
afternoon. So I stopped out there after school. And Tony and I, we talked for a good half an hour.
And I mean, I got conversation on the phone. And the gist of it is he is near the age where it's
mandatory tire. And he's he figures. He's got this year. He's got next year. But if it would be
one more year after that max. And he doesn't want to make it a situation of leaving everybody.
Goodbye, everybody. See you at big surprise to everybody. And when he came in and he talked to
coach Chris fight the AD and even emailed or called Ron Rasmus in the superintendent, the former
principal at Lincoln. They were both blindsided. They didn't know there's just coming. They didn't.
But he's that's why he's doing this. He's being proactive. And his exact words are I'm being
proactive instead of reactive. You got to have a plan. And what he said at the end of the day was
he is stepping on it as retirement from coaching. He still plans into empowerlifting next year. And
boys track next year. Depending on the financial situation talking with his family and his wife
Tracy at the publishing there at the sponsors show that they've got it aside because he's like I
got married on head kids young. I'm having my third grandchild here in April. So I'm entering that
next point in my life. And when I have some fun with it and he's going to be 57 in two years. So
55 now. So he's making decisions now. Here's the thing. The post of the job they're probably getting
ready. Start taking all these applications. And the thing is fight. Rasmussen the principal not
there now. Just new guy for I'm spacing on his name. My apologies. They they've all got to meet.
They've got to have a board to hire new coach. Well, Biolo's not going to be part of that. He said
he's not I trust the man. He's never lied to me. And he's going to he's not going to be part of it.
It's going to be up to athletics and administration to school. And there might be a student board part
of it that they got to make sure they get the right guy. And the big thing is if they don't find
the right guy. If they don't, he said if they need me to, I would do one more if if I have to.
And this isn't a bright far thing. This is an arm retiring. No, I'm coming back. It's if they
need to, he would come back if he had to. But the plan is to not. And it's one of the things that
he did say was when he's when he talked to me, the big thing was when he started in 2003.
My sophomore year of high school. That was his first year. It was three years before him was Jim
Benick. And then before that was the legend Ken Beagle. Okay, when he took over, he had an older
established coaching staff holdovers from Benick and mostly Beagle. And all those guys have
since retired and Tony's old man on the tone pole, you know, so to speak. And now he's got a
best consistent coaching staff young or stay in there. They know what they want to do. They know
what they're doing. And it's kind of well, let's get someone in there that can handle that. And if
they want to change what they want to change is their program. They can do what they want. And he
and he said that and I agree with him. And the big thing too is, you know, if even if he's just
a volunteer, he gets asked or if they don't ask if they don't want them there, but then he won't,
he'll do whatever he's got to do. But he always wanted to leave the place better than when he left
it. And that's he's doing his best to leave it better than when it was handed to him. And when it
was handed to him, it still wasn't all that bad either. So, so he's, you know, it's a big transition.
You're there for 22 years. I mean, he's the second longest tenured coach in rapids football history.
He's the second most winning football coach in history. Some would some can argue that he's the
most successful coach in rapids football history. So I mean, there a lot of that's open to debate.
Call it call us up here. If you want to debate it, I'll sit here all debate with you all night
long. They end of the show. I don't care. But yeah, it's just big news and on a personal note,
you know, knew him as a teacher and got to know him more as a colleague and a friend. It's always
hard to say, hey, now your friends are tiring. He's leaving. And you know, so is he without fault?
Nope. He's got faults. I've got faults. James got faults. But it's just, it's just a change of
the guard would spend there for going on 23 years, 22 years. I, I didn't have him as a coach,
but I had him as a teacher at one of the worst time, if not the worst point in my life. And he
couldn't have been cooler to me. Couldn't have been better than me. Treated me so well. And
one of the few teachers I had back then that talked to me and with me, not at me. Yes. Not down to
me. Absolutely. You know, just a, and, and I think of him first almost as that before a coach,
even though I loved him as a coach, obviously, as a Lincoln alum and everything. And, and follow the
team. What I'm happy for him with is him being able to make this call at his time when he feels
yes. And I, while I'm, I'm sad about this, not just for him, but for people like you and the
people that care about him. I got a couple of friends that heard this news and were, you know,
really rocked by this and everything. I'm, I'm too happy for him to, to be too, you know, grumpy
up or anything, you know, and I know you feel the way that same way too and stuff. And I think
everybody does. It's, you don't get to write your own ending very often. And, and, and if a guy,
and you talk about the people that deserve it, I had two interesting tie-ins today and two very
different people. I interviewed Sheriff Becker today for an hour. And I brought this up and we
talked about it. And they certainly he talked about his relationship with Tony and his tie-in with
him. And then a little bit later, Laura did an interview with Coach Mach over in Nesita. Yep.
And we had a great conversation there. Lord did an amazing job. And you'll be hearing more about
that in the newsletter and maybe even the interview itself. But in, in talking with him about the,
how Nesita powerlifting got started and everything, the first name he brought up was,
it's just amazing that how much his impact has been. Right. And the tie-in, when you talk about
legacy, when you talk about what, when you take a step back and look at your life, what can you be
proud of, I love when people are able to do that at a good age, where they can really appreciate it.
And people are alive to appreciate them, too, too often that's not how the story goes.
No, and it's, and sometimes it's the old adage from Batman. You're either hero or you live
long enough so you see yourself become the villain. Yeah. Well, with Tony, there is no villain. Now,
there's people that don't like him. I know there are. I know that. There's people that don't like me.
There's people that don't like you. But, but the thing is, everyone's got a right to be upset with
everybody. I mean, I get it. But I don't, and you can be mad at his coach and style. I can be
mad at his choices. Whatever. But as the quality of person, I don't think there's anybody that can
be mad at that man. But at the same time, I'm not going to tell anybody who to feed, how to feel
about anybody. I am, you know, I want to say journalistically, so everybody knows, and this
is up front and everything. I am throwing my name in the ring for offensive coordinator. I want to
install a West Coast offense. I want it up. I hope you have the athlete. Let's go ahead and talk
about the board approving the football qualifying and seeding and other fall sport changes.
The Wisconsin, the WIA board of control approved recommendations by the fall coaches,
advisory committees, including a plan that replaces the 11 player and eight player football player
playoff qualifying and seeding systems. And it's February meeting. This just came across just
recently. The board voted to support the plan created by the Wisconsin Football Coaches Association.
They finally listened. Yeah. Yeah. I think that part stands out to me. But, Michael, when you
read this, when, how can you break this down for the audience? Well, in the words of DX,
break it down. Yeah. The first thing that I'm going to start with is eight man or eight player.
Whether you call it eight man, eight player, I don't care. Yeah. I'm going to call it eight man.
That's what I've always done. Sue me. But please don't. I don't have anything. Please don't.
You can't sue me for what? I don't have anything. Not even a clue. So anyways, eight player, eight man,
the big thing is instead of being 16, it's a 32 player division or a 32 team division,
just like D1 through 7. And now it's instead of their, I mean, it says 16 and then they're being,
you know, another 10 teams mad because they didn't make it because of some arbitrary math model,
which it's math. I don't get it. There is now 32 teams. And it's, it's more fair. It's the way it is.
And it's going to be handled the same way that 11 man is. And the seasons are going to be
structured similar. Now 11 man will still have nine regular season games. Eight player, eight man
will have eight. Now they're all going to start at the same time week one. Everybody starts
because before it was week one, 11 man. Yeah. And then week two was week two 11 man, but week one,
eight man. Huh. Well, now week one week one. And eight man will still play eight games. 11 will
still play nine. So when it's that ninth week of 11, that will be the first week of the playoffs
for eight man. And so when it's the state semi finals for 11 man, that is a state championship
weekend for eight man, which is held in beautiful Wisconsin. Rapids love that. So so that's the big
thing for the eight man that that that that's the biggest thing I could take out of that. And I think
that I personally, I love this. I think that's good. Well, and when you take it from the the
opinion that I had formed or not that I made the opinion, it was that I listened to other people
talk about and yeah, you're right. That's kind of my what you're saying. What I've seen. Yeah,
that's this my opinion of it of notness. I won't say the WIA, but they're maybe part of it kind of
looking down the nose a little bit at rural Wisconsin where you can't have a full 11. You got to play
eight and kind of looking down their nose a little bit at it. And that's why there was just 16 for
so long. And before that, there was even eight. But that's but the numbers have grown. There's been
a shift to urban instead of rural. And that's just the way it's going to be the biggest thing that
I can now jump into the 11 player part. The biggest thing I take out of that is instead of your
your they take the top 32 and then they balance out the the discriminatory punishing you for success
moving you up a division, the competitive balance thing. And then they they readjust
you know and then they then then they decide what division you're in based off of that.
You know from the start of the season until the final snap of the D1 title game in November
on dear season eve. Holiday world holiday that you know you know what division you will be in.
And then they make the multiplier points of okay, we'll link it Wisconsin Rapids Lincoln.
For example, you play nine games, five division one teams, three division two game two teams
in one division three. And then they have the success multiplier of well, you won two against
division one two against division two and one against division three. So you got five wins five
loss or five wins four losses if my math works out. And then they do the multiplier and
it they that'll decide how strong your numbers are for your division again. And if you are a part
of the 32 the high I believe it was if you're 32 highest in your division, which
Lincoln's on the border with division two. If they are division two now, if they're on the top 32
teams, they make the field and then they get divided up to where their seed would be and go to
the closest geographical region, which in Wisconsin Rapids, that could be the Northwest,
that towards like Superior Hudson, that could be the Northeast towards Green Bay,
that could be the Southwest towards Madison. And you never know, maybe they could shift to Milwaukee.
I don't know, but that's the way it sounds. And I think it's a better system than what it was,
especially now it's all transparent, the matrix, because the one that WIA was using before that
really got negative by the WFCA Wisconsin Football Coach Association, that really that got
negative really quick because it was wasn't transparent. And that's the same thing that the Wisconsin
basketball coach association is having now that they're trying to readjust as far as head head
and stuff like that. Whether it's the WIA or any other of these scholastic organizations,
all of them I hope are paying attention to the NCAA and what can happen. If you don't listen to
the coaches, if you don't listen to the coach, the players, the team, the parents, the community,
they are able, this sports are too big to not happen. They are going to happen. They are going to
run without these governing bodies or not. And at the very least, they're going to create a new
governing body instead of this and all that. So you got to do your job. You got in your
main job, just like any politician or even our job in what we do, Michael. Listen to the constituents.
Listen to your followers, your readers. Know your audience. It is one of the first lessons I
teach anybody and entertainment and radio. It's one of the few crossovers that I get one
of the many crossovers. One of the first ones I like to hit on. Know your audience. It's the
main thing you can have. You play to your audience. You got to do it. You ever one of us
are that rock star showing up in Cleveland. You got to play to the audience, even if you've
never been there before. Or if it just looks okay. I will wait. What did I bet? What'd you say?
The there was other recommendations that were taken in volleyball and tennis. We don't have enough
time to cover some of those, but I do encourage you to check out their website, www.org.wawa.org.
And certainly be looking out for the newsletter tomorrow at noon. Michael is going to be having
a bunch of this coverage. And I can't fit everything I want to get in there into that newsletter.
So that's why I'm here right now. If I can jump on to that, please. Please, please. All right.
First things first. Head over to our friends in the blue and white assumption high school.
JT Schlafer broke a thousand career points last night against Auburn Dale. He's a junior.
Okay. Junior. Yeah. He's got a thousand and seven right now. The record hosted by the honorable
distinguished all knowing Ryan Klein. Gross basketball coach. He's got like 1400.
The blade with Ryan. I'm going to tell you what. He's still got maybe close to 10 games left.
Average in 25 a game. He's going to be right on the doorstep. And depending on how late they,
how far are they going to the postseason? Depending on how far they go. He could make that record
this year if he really goes crazy. I wonder if Ryan remembers it's sixth grade. We're out of
the same basketball tier. I would have heard about that. He might, but maybe not by choice.
But either way, huge congratulations. JT Schlafer on that. Another big congratulations to our
good friends down down on the river. Blue and white schools. Well, Wisconsin or Nicosah. Nicosah
assumption port Edwards wrestling. They finish their wrestling season five and oh in the conference
duels. And they have their conference tournament coming up Friday night down in Austin.
So if you're going to drive down there, be careful that weather's going to go to crap on you.
But anyways, the big thing is last Thursday. Rapids finish their dual season undefeated
for wrestling. So you got two potential conference champions here within 10 miles, 15 miles of
each other on the river. And when there's good wrestling in the community, that's a great thing.
It has come from a wrestler's home bias. But with Nicosah on that duel, they had to beat
Austin. Austin won it last year. Came down to the last last one of this the night.
Austin was leading 3634. Nicosah, the weight broke well for them. Their stud wrestler at 132 came
out. So Erostrom and pin first period. So that's six points and that's match 30 or 40 to 36.
Nicosah got her done. So we have that going for us there. Hockey, their brackets come out
this weekend for playoffs. You're talking about playoffs, yes, I am. So that's what we're having
there for rapids hockey. You know, weak girls basketball brackets come out. I mean, we're the
February frenzy going into March Madness. And there's going to be basketball all over hockey,
all over wrestling, all over wrestling, rapids conference on Saturday up at Warsaw East.
Why else? I know I said Warsaw. I know what I did. And then obviously Nicosah going down there.
And then the big thing next year, assumption they're breaking off that co-op. They're starting their
own their own team. Assumption high school wrestling co-opping with Picheli. There'll be
members of the Marrowwood Conference. And boy, there's going to be three teams here. Man,
that you could almost do your own Wood County duels. Yeah. I mean, which personally, I mean,
they do it in track. Yeah, where they have where they have Nicosah port. Assumption Lincoln.
Bad idea. Pitzville, Columbus Catholic, Marshfield, Auburndale. So you got eight teams. Well,
if you do that in a wrestling, which you could rotate the site every year, yeah, which I get it.
It could be fun to watch Rapids, Russell and Nicosah or Pitzville. Come on. Yeah. I mean, we know
it's going to happen. But the thing, and notice respect to those other teams. But, but you're going
to see, okay, who is the best one? And now Wood Rapids went on a necessarily wrestling
Marshfield twice, you know, you're probably not. But, but you can only wrestle five matches in a day.
So you could go with your Auburndale Marshfield, Pitzville, Rapids, Nicosah,
probably forgetting one, but I know what you're saying. You know, I, maybe it's seeing Mr.
Brickhouser earlier or something, but I think of the cranberry classic and how it doesn't. We always
have great teams, but even if these teams weren't good, people watch because of the rivalry,
it's because you get to see something you don't always get to see. The idea of doing that with
wrestling, I'm going to, I would think that I'm going to be honest with you. I just said that here,
sitting here, I didn't plan this out. I'm like a dog with a car. What are you going to do when you
catch it? I did not think about that until just sitting here with you, my friend. I'm actually
going to kind of pitch that. I mean, I would. Yeah. It's a good way to celebrate the sport in a
central location in the county that we've got some amazing wrestlers in this county. The
history of wrestling in this area alone, I think you could get in the room with that
conference with this idea. Let alone weigh things have been in the last year or two in the way that
I don't want to see a rise back or anything like that, but I certainly hear more people talking
about wrestling in the last couple of years than I have the previous couple of years.
Right. So you jump on that. Yeah, I'm going to see what I can do about it. We'll be back with
more show coming up here on Playmakers. Welcome back to the show, everybody. Playmakers here at
WFHR, Michael and James hanging out with you for a couple more minutes. You want to call up,
feel free to wear a wide open hitters in the numbers. 715-424-2600. Take a quick look at our schedule
before we get out of here. Do you want to touch on a couple of key things? One of them coming up
in just a little bit from now, we are kind of your lead into Wisconsin Women's Basketball 610
Lady Badgers taking on USC right here right in Madtown. I was almost said right here, but you know,
here in Wisconsin essentially. This is noteworthy. Certainly the badgers are looking to make
some moves, you know, maybe upset some teams or something before Big Ten Conference, you know,
the conference championship, Baron and all that. Yeah. But the big storyline is having one of
the greatest players in college basketball in town, in state. That's pretty cool.
Juju Watkins is a wonder to watch. She's so much fun. And getting a chance to have that, I think,
is noteworthy alone. So I encourage you to check that out tonight. Everybody should be a good one.
Tomorrow, on Thursday, we got the Great Guard show at 605. After that, Wisconsin Hockey Hour,
those two back-to-back, and then join our friends over in WIRI at 705 Lincoln High School Girls
Basketball Hosting Wasaw East. Mike and Laura are going to be covering that one for you. It's
going to sound good. It's going to sound good. It should be a good one. Last year, I remember that
came right down to the wire. And if I remember right, notice you're back to the, I don't even know
if she stole the coach here, but she got technical and thrown out of the game right at the end of the
horn to the Wassie East coach. We'll see what happens this year. Playmakers, again, on Friday,
we'll get you ready for the Super Bowl. We're talking about a couple of things that are certainly
set to be in. So you know, we'll talk baseball. But I also got the top 10 NFL cities
this ranking here. I want to get into that a little bit too. And Friday night, you'll have at 630,
Wisconsin men's hockey hosting Penn State. Then we'll also have that game for you on Saturday,
wrap up that series. On Saturday at 11 o'clock, Wisconsin men's basketball at Iowa,
more big 10 action. Monday, Playmakers for you will have in a special edition of Playmakers,
because we're going to recap a little bit of talking to a star. Shannon's star is going to join us
on Midday Magazine that day. Shannon, of course, is the granddaughter of Bart star. She's going to be
joining us, the eldest granddaughter of Bart and O'Auth Sherry star. She's going to be talking with
us about some really cool things that she has going on with the organization and cookbook that
they have coming out, cooking with the stars. I love it. I'm looking forward to that. So we'll talk
about that. And just as importantly, and I'll get to the call in just a second. You're hang on
the line because I want to make sure to mention this. Chad Holmes is going to be broadcasting the
Warsaw West Raid Lincoln Raider game hockey game coming up. That's going to be in Warsaw. And Bob
look is going to be joining him for the broadcast. It's Bob's 50th year broadcasting. Chad will have
Bob join him for the first and third periods and Bob will call the action in the second period.
This is history right here. I love these teams and I love hockey, but I love Bob as well. And I
love the idea of him getting a chance to do this. I want to thank Chad for that and the opportunity
there. Bob, of course, called games here in Wisconsin rabbits for many years. In this state for
the Wisconsin Badgers has been working with them for a long time, hitting that boat, hitting that
number for us and everything every time they score. The game will begin at 649, be simulcast with
our friends at 89.9 WXCO and right over on our sister station 105, WRI. Tell you more about this
in the next couple of days. Looking forward to that. Let's take a call. Good afternoon. You're in the
game. Hey, what's up guys? Good to hear the Bob's coming back back on the air for that.
I've got just a random quick fact about the NFL that I learned that you guys may not know. Sure.
Did you know that Tony Bisselli is the only person that was ever drafted number one overall by
two expansion franchises? That is an interesting stat. Oh, no, that is interesting. Yeah, you're
drafted by the Jags, of course. You're drafted by the Texans when they came in. I know too.
Very cool. Thank you, man. We got to go. Great night, Michael. Thank you for the good show.
Hey, thank you, man. Have a great night, everybody.
