Good evening, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHR's Playmakers.
Hope y'all are having a great afternoon out there. Thanks for joining me. James here solo
show today, but I am not alone. I got all of you. Hit us in the number seven one five four two four
twenty six hundred. Just a touch or two away on the civic media app and just between us,
you're going to want to keep that app handy because next week we're starting civic media is up
and down the state break into spring text to win contest. Got some fun stuff in store for you
with that one. We'll talk a little bit more about that later. Get into our schedule. Got plenty more
to talk about today too as well. Some news that the NFL released about the Green Bay Packers
and an award given to them. I don't know if they've been how much you've heard about. I don't
know if it's been covered really. I also want to talk Green Bay and kind of what was being what
would has come out from the combine and some of the pro day visits that they have planned and
some of that want to get into America's sport. What is if they took a survey recently? What is
America's game? Let's find out. We'll get into that a little bit later as well. A couple of other
stories I want to get into soon. You know, stats of the show and some of those things. Most
importantly, want to hear from you. Call up and join the conversation. We'd love to hear from
you, everybody. Big shout out to quality plus printing, family natural foods for sponsoring the
hour. We're greatly appreciate them doing that. Let's go ahead and start off with brackets. Let's
talk and see a basketball. I will do my best to focus on the show while old Miss is trying to hang
on to a lead over the North Carolina tar hails. There's about 249 left in that one. I can't
help myself. I just can't help myself. I know I should be locked in. I have a job to do,
but there's basketball going on right now and I can't help it. It ended up set possibly.
Let's go ahead and take some calls. Good afternoon. You're in the game. James, I'll let you win.
My brackets are kind of moved up a little bit. Yeah. Some of the changes I should have made. I
should have made when I was sitting there thinking about it and I didn't do it. I'm paying for it now.
I hear you. I hear you. So far so good for me. I only had time to fill out one bracket this year.
I filled out Civic Media does a kind of up and down our stations, you know, a bracket thing,
challenge, and I'm in that pool and I'm in fourth right now. But that could change within minutes.
So, you know, let's look at the positives. You know, the negatives are all out there. We've
seen plenty of those. There's been upsets all over the place. There's been some surprises.
I will say, I know people, I know somebody doesn't know basketball when they tell me, wow,
St. Mary's upset Vanderbilt. No, no, no, St. Mary's had a better team than Vanderbilt. They're
a higher right. But there's some that I think also that here's something you can't do. So a lot of
people are talking about Drake beating Missouri and they're also saying how well this one,
this was easy. Everybody had this one. Then how come everybody didn't have it?
Because I know one of the one. Well, I've seen a lot of people that didn't have that. I took,
I did take Drake over Missouri just because of the guards again and that one. That was one of the
few ones I had. I had another one too. There was one other one that I had that was a bit of an
upset. But then I also got bit like everybody else by Mississippi State losing or winning over Baylor.
I thought Baylor was going to win that one. Yeah, that's what I had to. I had Baylor picked
on that one. I had I had Yale beaten up on Texas A&M. I didn't think that one was going to be close.
Yeah, I thought that. So there was another one that I had wrong. Oh, I did have Creighton. That
was the one I had Creighton over Louisville. I was I was proud of that one. That was the one I
didn't switch. One of the ones I didn't switch along was the Drake when I was going to switch and
I didn't do that one. I should have won my gut with that Louisville one. I knew I should have
won Creighton on that because just on how well they played in the SEC tournament or the excuse me,
the big East tournament. Xavier tonight, I didn't pick Xavier either, but I probably should have.
Who did you who did you have winning at all? Who did you have in the final?
Um, I have Duke. Right on. Yeah. Yeah. And I know, I know you and I know you're not big on that one.
Oh, no. I went back and forth. I have Auburn and Duke in the final and I went back and forth
between the two of them. So I want I want Florida Duke. All right on. Yeah. I have and again,
I drink the Kool-Aid on Rick Patino a long time ago. So I went to St. John's upsetting Florida there.
But I feel weird saying upsets because I have all ones and twos in my lead eight and everything.
I didn't really the upsets to me were in the early rounds and then after that, you know,
they kind of the dust settled for me. I think that one of the fun ways of doing this, if you have
the time and this is the thing I when I'm talking to most of my friends or people about this,
nobody had the time to fill out brackets this year. I don't know why this year was different
than others, but nobody I talked to had the time to fill out multiple brackets if any brackets.
But in years past, what I was like to do is fill out one that, well, this is one of my head
things. This is what my gut thinks and being able to fill out two brackets if you can. Just kind of,
you know, having fun with it. I don't know. I think one thing that we can all look at, though,
is Wisconsin is continuing on and Wisconsin has a difficult challenge with another offensive,
top 15 offensive team in BYU, but certainly not overwhelming. I wouldn't say that either team
should go into this one thinking that they're an underdog or an overdog.
I don't know if an overdog is a real thing. I might have just made that up, but regardless,
when you got the, I think the big 10 player that you're in, John, John, I would feel pretty good
going into this one. It just depends on how all they shoot. That's the big ease. If they can,
you know, and they need good bench play too, with just like they've had the last couple days,
but our last couple of games have had great bench play, great defense, especially going on to BYU
that they are just phenomenal and they can throw up to three, and it pretty much, you know,
what's going to say, oh, it's going to go in. And that's where Wisconsin is going to have to,
you know, they're going to have to come out and shoot. Yeah, and be there.
Team defense. It's not sexy, you know, steals and blocks. They get a lot of, they get most of the
the praise and sports center highlights, but team defense is a big part of what not only wins
championships, but it comes into a play when you, when you got two teams offensively that are
herapart. I think I think either one of us could take the sports center angle on this one or the
talk radio angle on this one where you take one side and I take another and both of us would be
right, even though we'd have a great debate. To me, BYU doesn't play very sink defense,
that that has been an issue for them all season. Wisconsin does, they just don't always do it
consistently. If they can start out strong, they don't have to start out hot hitting every shot,
but start out three or five two of, you know, two of, you know, two or four or something like that
and be playing solid defense right away. Get in their heads right away that there is going to be,
no shot is not going to be contested. Really, you know, even put, I don't mind if they even put
a little more energy into defense than offense in this game. It could get out of hand if you don't,
if you don't get in their face, but to me, BYU is, and I've only seen BYU a handful of times
this season, I'll admit, but there are teams that can get rattled and, and like a lot of these
teams in the, in that division, in that conference, I should say, if, if they're not hitting their shots,
they're almost done. They're almost done at halftime. That's one of my problems with the SCC.
They've got so many great shot players there, but they don't have a lot of great defense,
and a lot of those teams are very, you know, go with the flow. And if the shot isn't there,
they don't fight back. That's why I part of why I was so locked into this North Carolina
Ole Miss game. I wanted to see if Ole Miss can hang on to this lead because once they,
once they start getting beat up, these SCC teams, I don't see them fight back. I don't see them play
strong, other than maybe Auburn, you know, towards the end of the season, even though they didn't
win some of those games, they kept fighting against Alabama and some of that. Alabama, though,
is one of those teams to me. If you can get in their head, if you can, you know, rattle them a
little bit, they're done. I don't count on them. Well, you know, I'm going to, I'm pulling up my
stat thing here, and I'm looking. So, and the league rankings, they have BYU, they're 29th
and Wisconsin is 40th. And, and it's BYU is one point better than Wisconsin for points.
They get, they score one, you know, it's they score 89, 80.9 Wisconsin at 79.9.
But this is the one that I'm kind of, that I'm looking at here as the fuel goal percentage,
where there BYU was ranked 21st in the league with 48.3% where Wisconsin's at 45.5%.
And then on the assist end of it, there's a big difference there too, where BYU has a hundred,
has a 17.1 per game compared to 14.6 Wisconsin. But what really stands out to me is the free
throw percentage, where Wisconsin's number one in the country at 82, well, they got 800, 0.827 compared
to where BYU is at 7704. But that's a great stat man. That's a great couple of stats right there,
you just mentioned. Right. But then I'm looking at their last five games that BYU played.
They lost to Houston, but they beat Iowa twice within the last month. Iowa State.
They beat them at Iowa State and at home. So it could be Wisconsin, their defense is going to have
to really step up this next game. I mean, they have what they have the total over under as 155,
and they have BYU, BYU favored by one point. And that really is what comes down. Yeah.
Yeah, they got them favored by one point, and which comes down to the average scores,
I would pretty much what it is. They are a point difference between the two. Wisconsin,
I think they should win. Now if they do win, because obviously the big 10 compared to the big 12
is a little different. But I don't know, I think Wisconsin could end up being just that
the sweet 16 face and I Alabama, and then probably getting beat, because Alabama's, I mean,
they're tough, though they're looking good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it just, it'd be a feather in the cap
of the season to even get to the sweet 60. Honestly, even getting this far and winning that first round,
you just don't want to go out in the first round. Anything after that, I think you can stomach.
You can, you know, not even just spin, just really put a really build on to the next year.
I don't think anybody really had Wisconsin in this place either. Next year might be a different
story, but I don't think that a lot of people thought that Wisconsin was going to be a number 3 seed
or make a run in the big 10 tournament or some of the things they've done this season. Not to count
them out either, because everything I was just saying about Alabama, if Alabama starts out,
if it does work out that way, and it's Wisconsin and Alabama in the sweet 16, and that first
couple of minutes of the game, and Alabama's not hitting their shots, Wisconsin's in it,
because they, they, they may start out slow, but Wisconsin is consistent in getting points on
the board at the very least. I think that a slow start is different to a lot of the talking
heads out there than what it is to me. A slow start to me is every shot is just hitting backboard,
just hitting backboard. Like everybody takes a shot, everybody in their life that has picked
up a basketballs, picked as at a shot that rims and goes out. I'm not worried about that. I'm
worried about guys who are, who are, who are, who are hitting the backboard and nothing else.
That's a, that's a cold start to me. Especially, you know, I know that most people, especially
average fans out there that are just picking up this game right now and everything and do this
every year. A slow start means so much more because of the time these guys spend in the gym,
practice shooting before they go out there. It's not as, they're, they're already using their legs.
They're already warmed up by the time we see them and that ball is tipped. If they're cold
starting out, they were probably cold in practice and that, that lingers in their head. That stays
with them. Even if they were, if they start off the game cold, if they were hot in practice,
they're all right. They can pick that back up. The, the mentality of a shooter is, is unfathomable.
It's a gunslinger mentality. It's basically almost every kid in basketball is Brett Farff.
They just keep throwing it, man. And, you know, it's interesting. Sure. What was that? I don't
remember that last play. I have no idea what you're talking about. This is the first play I've
ever had in my life. This, they just keep going. It looks like Ole Miss may hang on to this one
over in North Carolina as a side note. And, and I think I have, I haven't looked, I get
a look at my bracket again. I think I might have had them, but I don't know, the big, I mean,
this whole, the whole March madness, the whole, the whole big, the big tournament and everything.
It's so fun to watch. And, and I know we kind of got into it a little bit yesterday with the,
and I all and all that stuff and how, but you're starting to see the upsets now. You're starting
to see some of these teams out, probably shouldn't the one they want. And, you know, it's the whole
thing about, good thing about the NBA tournament. Yeah. You can sit there and, and debate it all you want.
It's, and I mean, go out there and go out, let those guys go out there and play and, and do what
they need to do to win those games. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I, you know, I, I will say about the
NAL thing, the thing that I enjoy about whether it's talking with you or Michael about it. And
it may seem like I think to, to some, especially if you're just jumping into the conversation or
anything that we may not see eye to eye on it. I think with all three of us in the majority of
people out there, everybody's on the same page. It's just the logistics or little details here
and there that need to be fine tuned. And that's where the NCAA and the adults out there need
to really come up to step up to the plate. The, the problem that I have with most of this
conversation is, and I am not at all taking, taking light, 18, 17, 18, 19 year old men or women
for that matter. I, all, I just mean individuals. Their adults, they, they can vote, they can do certain
things at that age. But I also, kids are going to be kids. Why is it up to them? Why do we put so
much of the onus on them? And they've got to have this kind of character and they've got to be this
kind of person. That's what the adults in the room are supposed to be helping them build.
Not, not letting an agent get in their ear and, and misguide them. But whoever the guardians,
the parents, the other coaches of other teams. It shouldn't, yes, I understand how, you know,
an intense recruiting can be. But the, the overall goal was supposed to be whatever's best for
this kid. If it's with my university, which I believe, yeah, that'd be great. If he doesn't come
here, all right, we'll move on to the next kid. Not, you know, going to social media and, and
talking trash about this kid or, or something like that, like some of the things we see from some
of these coaches or some of the retired coaches coming out and saying that, oh, it's anarchy. It's
a wild west. We should just go back to the way it was, et cetera, et cetera. How, how childish
is it the idea of being able to put anything? And this, you could, you could appoint this to
anything in life right now. How childish is it to think we can just put the genie back in the
bottle? You know, whatever we're talking about in society, especially in this day and age where
everything's on the internet, there's, there's copies of everything. It's, it's, it's kind of childish
to think that we can do that. We, what we need to do is be adults and, and show these young,
these young adults what it is to be an adult. How it is to, to, to, you know, handle these kind
of situations. And hey, you got options. This is how you decide what's best for you in your future.
Not, here's a bunch of money come here. You know, this is a, any, any 18-year-old that's ever had
$5,000 put in front of their face or 50,000 or whatever it is that these kids are getting offered,
please go ahead and call in and let me know how you handled that because I have no idea. I have
no idea how an 18-year-old's supposed to handle that. I have no idea how I would have handled it.
Well, and the, the biggest thing, the biggest thing I have with the whole, and I out thing,
and the, this whole thing is the, the, the, the store kind of, the kid that played Wisconsin
last year's AJ store. Okay. Yeah. He played Wisconsin for one year. But that's, but now he's on
a fifth school. Yeah. Yeah. Just chasing the money. That's all they're doing is chasing. But you
can't, if they want to be paid like professional athletes, put them under contract because professional
athletes gain, they have to stay on to those contracts. Couldn't agree with you more. And that's where,
and that's where that's where I have the issue is that these kids don't have these kids just can say,
oh, I don't like the coach. I didn't, we lost in the first round the NCAA tournament and now
another school's going to give me 100,000 more than what, what Wisconsin's going to give me.
So I'm going to go there. It drives me crazy too. I can't stand it anymore than I can in the
pro sports with, you know, guys being able to leave or I want to be, you know, just stop their
feet and say, I want out. I hate it when a college coach tells his players, like a coach killed
it. And I heard him telling his players, I'm not going anywhere while his wife was packing his
suitcase and he left at midnight to take the Minnesota job. I can't stand any of these things.
But to me again, I, I can't get mad at a kid for being a kid. The idea of they shouldn't take
these, these options or these opportunities or anything like that. I agree with you. But at the
same time, it, you know, we get mad sometimes or they used to. They don't anymore. But I remember
when the signing bonus first became a thing in sports and it first became reported on this guy
sound assigned to 50 million dollar contract, 15, 20 million of it was a signing bonus. We're like,
wow, he's getting 15 million for signing his name for just doing so, you know, that doesn't seem
to make sense. And people will get mad at the player. It's like, well, who's going to turn that
down? If the team is offering it, I'm not going to, no, you know what? No, no, no, thank you. I
don't need that extra 15 million. I'm fine. Who's going to turn that down? I mean, the idea of
telling other people, you know, to how to handle their morals or how to handle their life. It's a
little bit, there's a little bit of a gray area to me there that needs to be straightened out by
adults. It keeps coming back to me to the powers that be, why are they getting paid at the,
the NCAA Board of Directors and those people? If not to do this, to give some order to this and
make and take away some of these options, because it shouldn't be that you can just play for a team
for three games and be like, well, you know what? My, my season's not going well. They benched me.
I want to go somewhere else. No, that's not about, that's not what an adult does. You, you stick
it out. You see things through. If you sign to contract, that's what, you're a big boy. You got
a, you got to see with that contract through until they do these things. I can't get mad at these
kids for being kids. Well, you're one hundred and that's what I, yes. I mean, they're going to keep
doing it what they're going to do. And that's what the NCAA's going to have to come and say,
okay, enough is enough. You guys got the same contract. You know, if it's a two-year contract,
so you, you know, you got to, you got to fulfill it because what's going to happen if you don't
fulfill it in the NBA or in the NFL, you're not going to get paid. Right. And if the kids,
if these athletes want to, want to be that way, it's, it's time to, I, here's hoping that they can,
they can put some order to this and they can get some kind of something going because it,
until they do, it's going to, not only is it going to remain to be a problem, it could get to be
even a bigger problem than it already is. And, I mean, that's article I sent you. Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's, there's too much of that going on. Always good to talk to you,
man. And I feel like I always keep you longer than you, you need to, but always appreciate.
You're all good, James. You're all good. I, I enjoy talking with you and all that, so.
Have a great night, man. Thanks for the call. You enjoy your weekend.
Enjoy the basketball. 715-424-2600. Full lights are wide open. Feel free to call up and
join the conversation. And yeah, it looks like the, for today, looks like the March madness is
wrapping up a little bit here. We do have a little bit of news. It looks like Cooper Flag came out
of the Duke win fully healthy, but is still a little bit sore. Really, you know, impressive nowadays,
especially talking NIL and so much of these kids understanding the business of the college
athletics and everything to see him continuing to play hurt. I think actually may not that, I mean,
how do you help your draft stock when you're already the project and number one pick by everybody?
I don't know how you help your draft stock, but I think you're showing the NBA. It's not so much
showing the teams, but maybe showing the NBA players what kind of person you are at 18 years old
to be doing that. Again, he's a kid. I'm impressed by that. It's, I can't remember. It may be
Grand Hill trying to think of the last Duke player that made me actually pull for Duke a little bit.
I didn't mind Grand Hill, but those teams they had late in their two. I don't know. I don't know.
I'm so, I don't know. I am locked in on the Badgers BYU game. We'd love to talk that with you.
Talk more about that with you guys. Feel free to call up and join us about that one. When we get
back, I want to talk about this survey that talked about, they took about America's sport fans say,
what is America's game? This new poll and talking about what is America's game? Getting into the
old adage of America's favorite pastime baseball. Is it still? We'll talk about that and continue
the baseball talk as we are really on the cusp of opening day. Oh, God, I love it. Not only that,
but we got Rafter baseball around the corner as well, looking forward to it. As I'm touching on
baseball, I do have a stat of this show a little bit later about a former baseball player, but I want
to take a moment to talk about a different former baseball player, Bobby Janks. For those that
don't know, Bobby Janks, a former closer in the MLB, played, was drafted by the Angels, played for
my Chicago White Sox. I say that because it's one of the only times I could say anything with pride
about the White Sox. Bobby was the closer, I believe. Yeah, he got the ground out to help the
White Sox win the World Series, kept the cut of 88 year drought back in 2005. One of my favorite
sports moments I'll ever, I will be on my deathbed thinking about that moment and to look on his
face when that happened. I bring this up right now because Bobby Janks is currently battling stage
for the stomach cancer. Along with that, his family lost their home in the Palisades fires.
It's just a gut-wrenching story for an individual that has given so much to not only the sport
of baseball, but to communities that he has lived in. I know that he did a lot in the Chicago area.
He has an opportunity for us to help though. If you haven't heard of this website,
and I'll admit, this is part of the reason I'm bringing this story up. There's a great website
called PassPros.com. It's a great way to find out about former athletes what they're up to,
how they are doing, and also in situations like Mr. Janks' situation to help out. His family is in
really dire straits right now, both trying to cover health carous and medical bills,
along with just trying to get back on their feet after they lost everything during this fire.
You can go ahead and go to PassPros.com. You can type in the name of Bobby Janks or any former
player of any sport, not just baseball, but any sport, and find different opportunities to
get involved with them and the things that they're doing. A lot of these athletes are there
doing well. They're just there signing autographs and raising money for different causes that they
want. But with Bobby Janks' situation, I know I got a couple baseball cards. I'd like to have him
signed. What I can do is sign up for it, and I send him the cards, and then he sends them back
signed with the official, everything being official on it and everything. PassPros.com is an
official website. All the major sports organizations back it is a reputable site, and no worthy
situation I thought was worth mentioning. And a big tip of the baseball captain, Mr. Janks,
wishing him the best, him and his the best. We will take a time out. We'll come back and have
another inning. Have some more fun on Playmakers here on WFHR brought to you by quality
post printing and family natural foods. Welcome back everybody. Playmakers here at WFHR,
locally grown radio. Hope y'all are having a great Friday afternoon out there Friday night,
if you will. James here with you. Phone lines are open. Hit us up 715-424-2600. We'd love to hear
from you. Just a touch or two away on the Civic Media app. If you are busy, if you don't feel
comfortable calling in, you can also text us your sports thoughts and feelings through the Civic
Media app. Keep that app handy, everybody, because starting next week, we've got another one of our
statewide up and down the state text to win contest. Our break in the spring text to win contest is
kicking off on Monday. We've got some cool prizes that are a part of this one. We've got a $100 cash
during alternate hours. We're going to give away a Trulavista family stay, pair of brewers,
tickets, club level, not bad, not bad. And our grand prize is this awesome, like just bedroom set,
queen size, medium, plush mattress, bamboo sheets, mattress protector, all the things, all the
fixings you need for it. It's a great set of prizes we have for this one. We're really excited
about it. Be listening for that keyword to text to us starting Monday. Oh, can't wait. It's going
to be fun. We love giving things away around here. Civic Media gives us a lot of opportunities to
do that. Big shout out to everybody who works so hard on that promotion, where all the sponsors
and everybody that are a part of it. We'll talk baseball in a moment, but I did want to get this
news in. I've been sitting on this one for a little bit. I hadn't heard anybody really mentioning it.
I'm sure some people have, but I did want to note the NFL announced recently from Rob Dembrowski
covers the Packers for a long time does a great job doing it. The Ed Block NFL athletic trainer
staff of the year award went to the Green Bay Packers. Brian Flea Angle and a bunch of others
were noteworthy in this and the staff over there in Green Bay. Not the jump in the MVP headline
or some of the headlines you might see when NFL awards are handed out. I really would like the
NFL to do a little better job of announcing these kind of awards though, because maybe it doesn't
mean much right now to anybody, but during the NFL season, I don't know about anybody else, but I
know me and my friends. It comes up all the time about training staffs and how good, how bad they
are and how some teams just traditionally seem to be having injury bug and some teams don't.
With the injuries the Packers suffered last year, I think it's noteworthy, especially considering
they didn't have too many groundbreaking, backbreaking season ending injuries. They had injuries
like with Jordan Love early on in the season and some of that. It's a credit to that staff and
to these athletes of course, but to the staff that they were able to get back out there can be a
completely different season with season ending injuries. You know, that's a look at the draw
sometimes and sometimes it's a great training staff. I think that's a huge feather in the cap
if you're the Green Bay Packers, especially when it comes to recruiting and trying to bring free
agents in. I know for me that, you know, the money, hey, that sounds really good right there,
also, am I going to be able to stay on the field? That's a pretty nice award to be able to tell
free agents and tell your players how much you are working to keep them healthy and keep them out
there. Speaking of Green Bay, interesting article from Chris Shad at MSN.com that just happened to
come across about the Packers and their pro day and the pro days coming up that they are going to
be attending and where their focus is kind of going to be. A lot of people look at this to look at
the tea leaves and try to see, hey, what are they going to do during the draft? Where are they going
with that first round pick? Right now, if you were doing, if you were, you know, making guesses and
you were looking at that and trying to read these tea leaves, it does look like they are putting a
lot of personnel going to Derek Harman's pro day, the Oregon defensive tackle. He has a first round
prospect played incredibly well for Oregon and I don't think a lot of people think of Oregon
and defense, but in recent years, they've been pulling in some pretty heavy recruits at the
defensive side of the ball. And a nice player. Where would you like to see Green Bay go with their
draft pick and if not their first, you know, where we'd like to see them eventually pick, you know,
pick up of this or pick up of that? I'm curious to see. I will say this is one of those years,
I feel pretty confident about a couple of things. I don't believe that they'll grab a receiver in
the first round. I don't think that's going to happen. And I feel pretty confident they're not
grabbing a quarterback. Now, that's an easy one, I think, in part because they still have Malik Willis
under contract. And how good does that feel? How many NFL teams feel better about their backup
quarterback than the Green Bay Packers do right now? Again, might not seem like a big deal right
in here in March, but something, you know, I wish I'm, you know, this is not always easy for me to
say as a bear guy, but I'm a Jordan love fan. I like him in college. Seems like a good kid. I'm
rooting for him. I'm not, you know, I want him out there. But he, he's had some injuries. And,
you know, having a good backup quarterback is dire in today's NFL. If you have even the
slimmest of playoff chances to not put time and effort and resources into your backup quarterback,
is a failure on the organization, the whole organization, not just to GM owners, the water boy,
everybody. Like, I look at Miami as the example, maybe number, number one in this regard.
Tua has shown you that he has an in a history of injuries and severe injuries. And in his
situation, possibly career ending injuries. If you are looking at that team, you're looking at a
team that is supposed to be bouncing back after a bad year that where they were supposed to be good
last year. Your whole season is on your quarterback. Every NFL team, there's not one NFL team
that you can look at and say if they're quarterback, they're starting quarterback goes down,
their Super Bowl odds go up. It doesn't exist. And there's not even 32 good quarterbacks out there,
little loan, 64 or anything like that. How about that math? That was pretty quick. That was pretty
good. That wasn't bad for somebody who was really bad at math. Regardless, to not put time and
effort into your backup quarterback is a failure on your franchise. And in Miami, they addressed
this situation with Zach Wilson. I don't know. I don't know that that's the best option they could
have gone with. I don't know that that's the best, you know, for a guy in Mike McDaniel who
has a bit of a, if not a hot seat, a seat that certainly ain't cold. I don't know about that.
In Green Bay, you have a solid backup quarterback. You have a guy that I would feel confident if
you're going into a wild car game or first round playoff game or something like that and you got
Malik Willis starting. You might not feel as good as obviously as you would with Jordan Love,
but I wouldn't have my head down. I wouldn't go into it feeling like, oh, we've already lost.
You got to shot with that kid. You got to, especially his second year in the system.
Malik Willis, like a lot of these young quarterbacks out there, have not had a consistent offensive
coordinator. Well, neither as Jalen Hertz and he just won a Super Bowl, but for the most part,
that's that is the outlier. That is not how that usually goes. Got to have a good backup.
I'd be interested to see where they go with this. I'm having, this is an open question by the way.
You don't have to call in right this second. We're getting, you know, we're still a little ways
away from the draft, but I would like to hear from you guys and know where you'd like to see
Green Bay go in the draft. What's your interest in the draft? Are you going to the draft?
It's here. It's a couple hours away. This may never happen again. You can go into the draft.
Like, I don't know. I find it very interesting and I know I'm looking forward to it and I'm
trying to figure out a way to get in my clemened suitcase and, you know, just sneak into the draft
somehow or figure out a way to get into it because I got it. I just got to. I've been watching
a draft my whole life. I got to watch. I want to talk a little baseball with everybody as we are
less than a week away from opening day. Feels good, doesn't it? Feels good to say that. And came
across a new poll that asked, which sport do you consider to be America's game in 38% pick baseball?
Coincidentally, MLB launches its, you know, 2025 season in just a lesson a week. As I mentioned
there, football came in next at 35%. So not too far away. Creeping up. A lot higher than it was
10 and 20 years ago. That's for sure. Basketball came in third at 10%, soccer at 2%, hockey at one,
and golf came in at 1%. The demographic that pushed baseball over the top is female Midwestern
boomers. Younger men and women from the south were more likely to say its football. Interesting.
11% of people said baseball players are more interesting relative to other professional athletes.
19% said that they're less interesting and 42% said that they're equally interesting.
The poll also asked, which pro sport is the most fan-friendly to attend?
And I'm curious to see where these two surveys kind of rank with each other.
Baseball came in at number one with 30%. Football at 18%, 10% said basketball, 4% said hockey,
another force at soccer, and 33% weren't sure. Golf did not make the list when it came to fan-friendly.
How much does the fan-friendly part play into the first survey in America's game, or the game we
consider America's game, or whatever? Because I think that part of the reason baseball is still
America's game. Why it is is certainly, you know, it's the oldest sport. It was on radio before
anything else. It got ahead of the game when it came to getting into your living room. And that's
not to say that that doesn't keep you in number one. There's a lot of other factors that have
led into that, but that's just the opening factor. But I think baseball has remained there
regardless of strikes, or steroids, or other controversies, or even just world disasters that
affect games. And you know, looking at the world series some years back that got stopped by an earthquake.
Baseball, you know, continues on. And I think a big, big part of it is because we love to be at the
game. We love to listen to the game. There's a part of baseball that I think
hits nostalgicly for everybody, no matter what your age is, whether you're in your 40s like me,
or you're in your 70s out there, or you're in your 20s. Baseball is one of the few sports that I
think is handed down. I think sports are going to be handed down a lot more now. But I think that the
overall factor that keeps baseball in that number one spot is how much people enjoy to go to games.
Watching listening to the games, those are factors, but physically going to a baseball game.
And the event of doing that, more people enjoy that than I think they do go into any of the other
sports. I'm not saying what I enjoy, but just in general, what I not only hear from people,
what I've experienced in my life and what I see. And some of that is nostalgia, I think. And some of
it is just I think as simple as, you know, as odd as it may sound, being able to see the players
faces and make a true connection to them. It's so much harder to do with hockey and football with
the mask and the pads and everything. You don't really know what these guys look like until you see
them out of pads. And then it's almost like they're a completely different person. And that's true
with hockey and football, especially with mentality. And the way Mike Singletary is probably the greatest
example in history of this. Mike Singletary on the field did not blink. I generally don't believe
that that man, whether it at Baylor or in Chicago, that man ever blinked. Eyes like saucers,
the samurai. And then off the field, as soon as that game ended, the Reverend, the preacher,
Reggie White is an even better example of this. Every single athlete that ever played against
Reggie White in college, in Philly, in Green Bay, all have a story and all of them end the same.
Just Reggie dominating you. Reggie defeating you. Reggie making you second-guest your life.
Do I really want to play football anymore? Reggie White would do that to people. And then afterwards,
you'd hold his hand and pray with him. Like that's football. That's hockey ain't that much different.
Hockey, they're beating the living daylights out of each other. And then the most unhonorable thing
you can do in hockey is not shake the other guy's hand at the end of the game, especially a guy
that you were mixing it up with. So the dualness of this and people on the field, off the field,
when the game's going on, when it isn't, you don't get as much of that in baseball.
Maybe a little bit in basketball, but not nearly as much in basketball either. And I know you can
still see the players and everything. But in basketball, no matter what their hair or their skin,
or any of these things look like, oftentimes you're looking at guys that are three, four,
five inches taller than you, which makes it harder to relate to them.
Baseball, certainly you've got freakish athletes like Aaron Judge and everything. But your
average baseball athlete, regardless of how great and shape they are, their size or measurements
or anything, you're seeing them bent down oftentimes in the infield and that. You're seeing them
in a uniform that doesn't exactly highlight how gigantic some of these guys are and built in
everything. There's a relatability that gets the builds there and going back to tying it all
into nostalgia and growing up with it and so many other things. But this is a survey. It's a blind
survey. Let's take a real survey. Let's hear from you. What do you think? What do you think America's
game is? What do you think overall and what is your game? What is the game that you love to watch
most and is it the same? I think there's a difference of the games that you love to watch on TV
in the games you'd like to be in person with. I think I enjoy football more on TV
than I do at the game. At the game, I get a little frustrated because I can't see things as well
going on and I'm so used to watching it on TV that I want to know what was that penalty? What's
going on? I can't hear the rough. I don't know what those hand signals mean.
Now, baseball, you got to, you got to just of it. You know, you're not waiting necessarily for
the umpire to tell you what just happened. Hockey is easily my favorite sport to watch in person.
I, of course, am a little biased about this one, but don't mean I'm wrong. If you haven't watched
hockey live, go ahead and then you then you tell me what you think because there's nothing
like hockey live and playoff hockey live. Hold different animal. Everything about the competitiveness
of sports I love, nothing embraces it more than hockey playoffs. And speaking of that,
I know we are not talking with coach as much coming up in the next couple of months because the
River King season has ended, but I do want to shout out the Wisconsin Rapids River Kings one more time
before the next time we do talk to coach and ever fourth period or anything.
Very proud of this team, very proud of the season that they had. I understand that it didn't go
the way that we wanted it to. Nobody understands that or is taking that more seriously than that
coaching staff in those players. And with that being said, man, I would not want to be another team
in that division next year. Saw how motivated they were coming out of last year going at going from
Nadis and not winning at all. How do you think they're going to be this year coming into the next
season after this before? Yeah. Yeah. That I guarantee you I put my name on this. That coaching staff
right now is building for next year and scouting and looking at what they could do to make this team
better and not only win our division, but get to the Nadis and win it all. I wouldn't bet against them.
Follow your Kings as they build hockey up and down the river and river kings hockey.com
you should follow them on social media. It's a great way to keep up to date with all the things
they're doing throughout the off season. We'll be talking to coach again real soon. I'm sure.
Well, of course, be talking rafters as well. Looking forward to that as the rafters opening day is
just getting closer and closer. Was past winter, was past winter field the other day and it was one of
the nicer days this last week, but did see a bunch of the guys in the outfield in uniform. Just toss
them all around laughing, having fun, getting used to the surroundings. Feels good. Feels good. Yeah,
it's exciting. Let's take our final time out of the week. It's all right. We can make it to the
end of the game without them. We'll come back and we'll have some more fun and we're able to do
this thanks to our friends over at Quality Plus Printing and Family Natural Food Sponsoring Playmakers.
Welcome back everybody. Playmakers here at WFHR, locally grown radio. Thanks so much for joining us.
Appreciate the calls today and the messages. And of course a big thank you to Quality Plus
Printing Family Natural Foods for sponsoring this hour, giving us a chance three times a week to
hang out with y'all. We will be doing that again next week. Looking forward to it. And of course we'll
be continuing to follow your Wisconsin Badgers as they continue on in the tournament. Take it on
BYU tomorrow afternoon. Our pregame will kick off at 5.30 for that one. You can catch it right here
on the radio at WFHR, 975FM1320AM. Now I say that because you cannot get it on the app.
CBS and the NCA have rules about this so we cannot stream it, cannot have it on there,
but you can get it at old school. Yep, pull out that radio if you don't already have it out
and go ahead and listen that way. Especially so you can keep up with the important information.
Like the fact that I am right now third in the standings of the civic media,
March Madness pool. I know how much you guys care about that information. No, you don't care.
Why do we do this as talking heads and tell people how our brackets are doing? You guys don't care.
Is that just me? All of them? Anybody out of S.P.E.E.R. Fox? That's what they're doing right now.
I did want to mention two stats of the show. I don't want to thank
not only Nate Gelanick, Assistant Director of Brand Communications with UW Athletics in Wisconsin,
but also Pam for forwarding this to me. Wisconsin had five players score in double digits
for the fifth time this season against Montana and the first time since doing so at Purdue on February
15th. This is interesting for a lot of reasons, but mainly the badgers are five and oh this
season when doing that. When five players get into double digits. Not only is that great team
defense showing its way through and great team play. A lot of assists in that game,
let a look at it for opening shots for other guys. But it's also noteworthy because that's where
you you're seeing not only a big distribution of the ball, but you're seeing anybody can get
hot at any moment. So we're going to go with the hot hand even if it's five guys.
That bodes well for Wisconsin going up against an offensive minded team in BYU.
I got a pretty interesting stat and a little more positive than my other stat of the show because
this one feels mean. I'm going to be honest with everybody. But I do have an overall point and I
want to make it very clear. I have nothing against Joey Gallo. I don't know I don't know anything about
Joey Gallo really and that's really odd of me to say about any player in any sport. But
Joey Gallo recently was cut basically by the Chicago White Sox and has announced that he's kind
of giving up the bat and going to pitching at 30 31 years old I believe that he's going to start
he's going to try to be an MLB starting pitcher or or relief pitcher wherever they can fit him.
So by all rights it looks like Joey Gallo will probably remain out of MLB if he does get back in
it will be as a pitcher. And what is his career batting average? Joey Gallo's career batting average
and if you know anything about Joey Gallo you know that he is a bit of a strikeout guy.
His career batting average is 194 194. And Joey Gallo's hit some nice hits
he's got a good home run he's got 208 career home runs not shabby at all. And I maintain that when
I was a kid I don't think Joey Gallo would have made it out of AAA. I really feel like if you really
want baseball to be better you know getting rid of the shift pitch clocks all that stuff is great.
I don't think I don't know the baseball is ever going to really bounce of B what it could be
with this many teams because there just isn't that many great players to fill all these teams.
I that that's probably not a popular opinion I don't expect people to really like that feeling but
it's the truth. There's too many teams and they're talking about expanding even more.
You got guys making millions of dollars that can't even bat over 200. That's just insane to me.
It's throwing away money and they kind of have to they kind of you know I wonder if there will be
a shift no pun intended in this and hey the guys that are just swinging for the fences every
at bat they're not making it to the big game. I wonder if that'll happen. Another note
baseball wise the Milwaukee Brewers are settling this shortstop situation they're moving joy or
tease the third base permanently. It's an interesting move we'll see how that benefits.
Bryce Tarrang is moving is going to be a second so be interested to see how Pat Murphy looks at
that and shuffles that around throughout the season. Tarrang is of course one of the league's best
second baseman and one NL platinum glove last season so you definitely want to keep him there
and Ortiz is an up and comeer a nice piece for them really nice piece for them especially
defensively. See how that goes. Next week I want to get into with Seth and the guys. This
interesting article I came across about drafting the World Series favorites. Who do you think is
the favorites to win the World Series? I'm going to give you a three four bets to take and we'll
see how that develops throughout the season. Pretty sure everybody is going to pick the Dodgers
and that's pretty understandable. Big thank you to all of our guests this week or co-hosts and
especially all you callers out there and all your feedback whether you call in or you just
give me feedback off air greatly appreciate it you guys make this show move and of course a big
thank you to quality press printing and family natural foods by local sport local and have a great
week and everybody. This is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 AM W24 ADE Wisconsin Rapids and always
streaming on the Civic Media app.