Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to WFHRs! Play, my cars!
Hope y'all are having a good one out there. Thanks so much for joining us here.
Wednesday afternoon show we got James with you and of course Michael Colmer,
sitting in front. How you doing buddy? Good to see you man. Thanks for being here,
appreciate it. We're going to have some fun today. We're going to take some of your calls,
hit us in the numbers. 715-44-2600. We hope you can make the time. Call us, join us with your sports
takes and feelings. For those that don't know, keeping a sports take-in too long can be bad for your
health. It can be. You got to let that out. You got to go ahead and let people know what you're
thinking, what you're feeling. We want to hear from you. Go ahead and hit us up. I want to say a big
thank you to Quality Plus for taking family and natural foods, sponsoring the hour. It's a fun
to be with you guys here on a Wednesday afternoon. Michael and I are going to get into some local
schedule in our sports we got coming up for you in the next couple of weeks. If you don't mind,
I want to rewind to kick things off right away, Michael. You had a long one the other day.
Yeah, that season opening double header, rapid softball in Stoke-Claire North. Baby-O-Baby,
that was a fun one. I felt bad, you know, good old pro, the chief and chief officer here at WFHRWRI,
Chuck Generow. He was running the board for that one and I know if you had things, probably
other things you probably wanted to do, then sit for six hours for softball. But that first one,
not, not goes what, seven innings is regulation. 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, almost 13 innings in
Rapids gets that win. First game was over about three hours and then 20 minute break and then
Rapids goes and wins it in seven innings in the second one to sweep the double header. But
man, that was, that was something. It's a heck of a way to kick off the season. It was a great work
by you guys. Glad your voice held up well. I think it did at least. I just got hungry and by the
end of that first game, like, there better be a bathroom around here. That's the other part of it.
Man, nice work by both of you guys and a big appreciation to you Chuck. Bringing that coverage
to us, of course, our sponsors and all of you guys out there for listening. It was a great game,
great hearing. Certainly, I'm a little biased as a Lincoln alum. I'll admit that. But I did enjoy
the game. And I got to say something else too. And I didn't get a chance to talk to anybody about
this. But I know that my dad was feeling it not just with hearing you guys, but also hearing
some baseball on the radio just feels good to hear a baseball on the radio again. We are looking
forward to that bringing you some high school coverage. We'll talk more about that in a bit. And
of course, Raptor baseball right here at WFHR where it belongs. Looking forward to that season
kicking off. And then, of course, I guess the other I'd be wrong if I didn't mention it.
Lincoln High School does have a new football coach today. They announced that the Mike Crenz
is the head coach. He had been jumping around for quite a while, according to the press release
from Lincoln High School. It seemed to me first thing this morning. That's awesome. That's
awesome to hear. And certainly, I don't know this man. I'm not going to pretend to know who this
is or anything, but I'll be honest, hearing that he's in Lincoln and alum immediately gives me
some positive vibes. I think that's good. So I guess from what I know of him, assistant coach at
WASA West for 10 years, Steven's point for nine years and most recently an assistant football coach
at UWSP for two. He was the interim head coach at Steve at SPASH during the 21-22 football season.
He has spent the last eight years working in special education department at SPASH,
and he'll be joining the WRPS staff next school year. I guess that year, he wants seven and four,
lost, and I think the first round of the playoffs, by a point I think to Chi-Hi. So he knows how to win.
I'm not sure. I don't know anything about what type of offense or defense he likes to run.
But what I do know is he should be competitive. It's going to be different if he doesn't run an
option. It's going to be really weird to see Rapids not running an option offense for the first
time since before Kenny Beagle, which is weird for me to say that because that's all I know.
Our generations. That's all we've known. I mean, I can follow wishbone, broken bone,
fluxbone, offense, triple option. So much easier than I can follow a wing tee. I have no
idea where the heck the ball is going in a wing tee. And that's how I went like when Coach
Gilbert and Becker and Coach Baker and Acusa, when they're running that wing tee or whatever
variations of it, I don't know where the ball is. I can't figure out that. Mr. Action,
the counters, the whatever. I can't figure it out, especially when these kids get some chemistry
and they get it really down. Like when Becker played, I don't know where the stupid ball is.
And that's one thing that I'm going to have to get used to is maybe not knowing where the ball is
I like it. So I like that he's got the reps. I like that he has a link in a lumbia. That always
not only gives you points with the fan base, but recruiting wise or just in the general of
uh, you know, what what uh, okay, so what motivates a human being and what brings what's makes a
human being bring out the best in them and everything. And there's certain things that just do more
for some people it's the money, for some people it's security and having a long contract,
and other people it's a number of factors, but one of the main things that we see
especially in coaching is a guy getting a coach at his alma mater. No, I'm not sure if you
want to link and I'm sorry. Oh, I don't know. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
I know we coach the West of the Special but I will say that is an interesting angle on coaching
when it gets to do that. But but regardless whether he's a Lincoln Lumber or not or a
assumption, I don't care where he went to. He's just moving down the river. He's got a nice resume
there and somebody that seems to me hungry seems seems motivated to do so that right away.
That was where I was going to land on it was motivation, you know, that that seems like a great
thing to be coming in. Let's try to get him on the air talk to him a little bit. Hold that a big
grin. It gets to know him a little bit as well as gets to know what what's up. What he might be
doing offensively defensively, you know, coaching staff, all those things. And I would I really do
want to get to know and talk with our high school coaches more, especially in football and basketball
and not to favor those sports, but only because of the NIL and landscape and so many of these things
that are going on nowadays. And I'm curious to know we talked about this a little bit last week
with some other coaches and everything. And in a Monday, Randy and I were talking a little bit
a lot with it. It's something that whether you want to talk about it or not, it's going to come
up. And I'm curious to know, you know, how these coaches are dealing with it. I have no feelings
on it one way or the other. I'm not at all here to, you know, pound the desk for one thing or
another. My thing is mostly just curiosity and information and wondering, well, how are you handling
this? How are you taking, you know, because the other part of this is asking these questions is
the art of journalism and finding out so that everybody knows and so that nothing too mischievous
is going on. So I mean, there's that too and not not to say that there would be especially at this
level, but you never know. You know, you don't know unless you ask, you know, those are the legit
questions. The definition of my dating life. I don't know unless you ask, unless you try.
What's worse thing they're going to tell you? No, call the police. Yeah, spray with me. I don't know.
Even though I got a good friend of mine who was out for a late night run once and you just jogging
and scared a lady and she got maced just it wasn't it was anything malicious. It was just he's
he scared her. Yeah. And that was that was a fun. He still gets a lot of little jokes about that.
I can't imagine that. And you know, that's one of those ones. He can't really blame anybody,
but you just got to kind of take the loss. Just take the loss up with a great great information.
Thank you so much for bringing that to us. And again, we'll follow up on that one and see where
that leads. A couple of things I did one of the other things I wanted to touch on and where I
really wanted one of the things I wanted to get to before we end the first segment here.
Coastal Carolina is the first FBS team to offer free game concessions. And part of this is
it's Coastal Carolina. And you know, they're looking to be certainly bring people over there and
make sure that they want to watch these games and what's going to bring fans of the stadium and
some of that. But it's also something that apparently has been a thing in other stadiums.
Just not really covered very much. And I don't know. It's it's a feast for free. It's kind of the
mantra that they're using with it. And I don't mind it at all. But I just I don't know if you
know what you're getting, you know, yourself it too. Yeah, that's I'm a little I'm a little
concerned about. I mean, this is asking this is Homer Simpson going in all you eat can buffet.
It's just and like knocking them out of business like that business isn't around anymore. Oh,
no, no, no, this is this is the old 96er. Oh, yes, yes. Oh, yeah, that's one of this.
The only thing left on there's crystal and fat. Yeah. Yeah. All right, it's not a bad idea. I'm
always interested in marketing ideas and and how people are trying to reinvent the wheel and how
people are trying to get people to come to these games as we're getting more and more attached to
not only our phones and our laptops and everything, but our TVs again, cables making a bit of a push.
Streaming services are getting so many more of these games and MLB just talking about that with
some of their contracts being announced recently. All this is leading somewhere I promise because
what I wanted to get to was the so Major League Baseball's had a rash of big signings. One of them
just happening right before we went on the air. Kendall Marta, DA backs second basement. Okay,
very good player. Just signed a $116 million dollar extension through 2031.
Earlier this morning, while Seth and I were talking in the middle of it, Jackson Merle,
a great rookie for San Diego signed an eight-nine-year deal. I got that I got that on my phone this
morning when I woke up. You know, last year, Jackson Cheerio, I think almost before he even really
had a real game or anything like that, signs an extension and everything. We're seeing this
a rash of this, a lot of this. And I don't not saying that there's any like call for alarm,
but I will say that owners don't usually do things like this for the players benefit or the fans
benefit. So I do wonder what's coming around the pipeline or do players know something that we don't.
I know that there has been, you know, Seth has mentioned before that, you know, 2026 or 2027,
I think he said that's when, you know, we may see a strike. He's not the only one I've heard say
that I've heard Buster only say something along those lines as well. So I don't know if that is
happening. I've heard a little bit about that too. You know, it also could be, hey, I just want to
lock up these young talents. And oftentimes, like we especially, we see in football, if I could
sign you to a bigger deal, maybe I got some more wiggle room in the salary cap. It's obviously not
not a problem in baseball, but all these owners, there may not be a salary cap in baseball,
but different owners definitely have a cap. Different owners definitely like, I'm not spending
any more than this. I eat Milwaukee. Well, in that case, that's kind of a dunce cap. Yeah,
yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. Yes. Oh, well said. Well said. Well, let's play. So I don't know,
that's just something I'm keeping my eye on with these contracts. And if it leads somewhere,
and if a year from now, a month from now, we're like, oh, that's why all these big deals are going
on something like that. And as long as we're talking baseball, do we, as a sports show, do we have
to talk about the torpedo bats? Is that like mandatory? Or has everybody talked at the death by
now? You know, I'll tell you, I'll tell you what I mean, I make a no-secure hide my legions and
in baseball. And you know, I got kind of tired in a group chat with some of my friends. First off,
they were extremely upset that they just, they be Milwaukee just got pummeled so bad by the Bronx
Bombers. They lived up to their name. Okay, they did 15 home runs and three games. Good night,
Irene. That's the end of that. But sitting there and saying, those are really little bats. They're
cheating. The Yankees are cheating. You know what? They were MLB approved. And the way that the way
I understand the history of those torpedo bats, it just will happen to be a Yankee, a former,
a former Yankees assistant coach, who happens to be a physics, a genius. Yes, he's like an MIT genius.
So you, you can literally do anything within the parameters that MLB has set up. And he used it.
And if now it's not, and I know there's some other players in the league that are going to it.
And if it puts more wood in the area of the bat, that's a sweet spot for that individual player
and granted it's different for every player with reach and height and wing span and arm span,
everything like that, muscular structure. Because that's different too, like a fingerprint.
I don't see what the problem is. If you're, if I hate the expression, if you're not cheating,
you're not trying. But if you're, if you can manipulate the rules to, to work it that way. And
it's still legal, which it is, I can't, in good conscience, they shouldn't be allowed to do it.
It's like the push, for example, a perfect, perfect segue. I think that's perfect. And a great
and a great comparison, I think. You hit it on the head for me, especially with the oldest sport,
the oldest, you know, professional sport. And, and not the, the tagline for baseball,
but the underlying for baseball is if you ain't cheating, you ain't trying or what have you.
As old as somebody has been throwing a baseball, somebody's been putting some spit on it.
Like there's, there's always, and it's not as if the Astros were the first ones to cheat,
or the Chicago white socks, or any of these things. With, with this, it's, like, to me,
it's a pick your battles kind of thing so much. Like if they're going up there, were cricket
packets, you know, bands, it might be a little bit different. But this was, if they're walking up
there, they're approved. So, to me, and on the other side of this, Giancarlo Stanton said,
it hurt him. Like he's not using him because he got injured using it. So there's going to be
that too. Elie De La Cruz, I thought, put this really good, especially for a young player.
It's, it's, it doesn't matter how good the bad is if the guy doesn't have the eye.
It's the old argument about steroid users and everything. Like Mark McGuire said,
it maybe got me bigger, but you know what? It didn't help me see the ball any better. And,
and I mean, even when he was off the juice, he was still crushing the ball. Nothing, nothing
can replace the eye. Right. Nothing can replace being able to pick, be able to pick that,
met that half a second decision and when to hit that ball, all those things. Half a
seconds too slowly. You're right. You're right. So I, I mean, it's, it's a, like a fool's argument
to me to, to complain about these not being fair or not. If MLB allowed them, then they're fair.
And my question only would be more, my mark, my bigger question with this is, why is this a
story we're only finding out after the brewers get whooped? Like, why, where was the journalism?
Where was the reporting on this? These bats stand out. These bats are not small. Like,
and it's not, I mean, I'm not even putting all this on the reporters. It's more of like them
taking so much reporting away from baseball, more and more away from baseball. And, and like,
good reporters out there would cover something like this in spring training. We didn't hear about
this in spring training. Well, everyone's too busy, both free agency and, and possible trades and
maybe relocation of programs. It's not an expansion. They're, they're more worried about that than
that actual thing you will see every stinking day of the season. All the hoopla on this, I feel like
we could have gotten through already before opening day. Yes. And we should have. I, I think that in
a lot of this, that's being covered right now, even today, I'm seeing stories about it. Yeah.
It's, it's them trying to almost cover their, their bases here. It's really like, oh, we
should have been calling this a whole time, but let's just do overdo it now. And that way it'll
be all, it'll even out. They should have been covering this. We should have known about this
already. And, you know, I, if I am a, a manager, if I am a front office, I'm having everyone
of my players try one of these bats if they want to. If they don't, that's fine. You know,
going back to Roy Hobbs and everything, I mean, players have their special bat. They have that
special connection with the bat. If they want to give this a try and see if they can start a new
relationship, I'm all right with that. If they're good with what they're doing, I'm fine with
that too. This game is way too mental, but way too mental to, to go throwing things out there
or anything like that. I, I, I don't know why we're so, we have to be so quick to, to just bash
something where I'm more interested in the, you know, the questions of why is, why aren't more
people using it? What is the longevity of this? Because if it, one thing, if you know anything
about baseball, we've all seen great, great rookie pitchers. And, and none of us remember their names
because they got found out. They got, you know, the next time it's like a, yes, oh, good example.
When the, the scouts got out there, the next time they saw them, the next game or whatever,
that stuff wasn't working. I think good pitchers, I think pitchers are smart enough. They're
going to figure out things around this maybe, maybe. Um, so that's baseball, one on one. They've
been doing this and it's sports. It's like, like, sign stealing. It just doesn't seem like that.
It seems like, also low hanging fruit. Like, well, what's the easiest answer to the Yankees
doing this? Instead of the, you know, even including some friends of mine and everything that are
brewer fans, it's getting mad at the Yankees. Why don't you get mad at the front office of the
Milwaukee Brewers? Why don't you get mad at them not having enough arms in the bullpen?
Yeah. Why don't you have enough, like, okay, injuries happen. Everybody knows they're going to
happen. That's why you got a farm system. Yeah. How's that farm system looking? Yeah. Well,
couldn't you have somebody ready for this? This is a smart, this is a smart management team. This
is a team that I think has proven better than for the doubt that they make good decisions.
They don't win titles for nothing. Division titles. Right. Um, show it, show it to us. Yeah,
don't go blame in the bats when it's the arms. The Yankees weren't doing this to every single
team, you know, or weren't going to go do this to every single team. They're going to do this to
bat arms. They're not going to do this as a Wheeler. They're not going to do this to certain
pitchers. Right. It's like, it's like kind of the expression. You don't slaughter your hogs.
So watch the fox come in and steal your chickens. Right. You go after the fox. So don't be mad at the
Yankees for using something that is legal. Be mad at maybe the scouting developing the technical,
the equipment aspect of it, the management aspect of your team, and be mad at that. I will take
any chance to to dive on the Yankees. I have no problem with that. No problem. But only when it's
only when it really works, when it fits. I don't like beating up on a guy. It's already on the ground.
I'm not going to do that. They didn't do anything wrong here. I'll save for what they do. Like
when they're crying about the dodge, you're spending too much money. That's fun. I want to send
a shout out to the Milwaukee Bucks and the shooting performance they had last night. Greatest
single game field goal percentage since 1998 here. I thought you're just going to say you're
going to shout out to actually want a game. Yeah, that too. That too. You know, I mean, that is
pretty much where I go with this. I was wondering, but at this point in the season, when your number
two, when your Robin is out and you're not exactly in one, two in position in the, you got Alfred
there instead of Robin. Right. Right. You got things a little shaky. And with the front office,
Yanis, all of these things, aging superstar, all of these factors, it would not shock me to see
Milwaukee be Philly and phone it in or be New Orleans and put their stars on IR or something like
that. Instead, I give Doc Rivers credit. I give that coaching staff and those players credit for
going out there and hustling and working and and trying. That's, that's all you can ask of a
player. And they're showing it in the last couple of games where even if a win, even in a loss,
they're playing well that those percentages are there. The rebounding is not where you need it to
be, especially with they got bodies. They got, they got trees on that team. They got guys that
rebound, including one of the greatest, you know, two way players we've seen in a very long time
in the deer, the literal deer that is, you know, masquerading as a human being in Yanis,
Tacupo. That's a deer. That's a deer right there. That's a human deer. And no way you can convince
me a human being can take two steps and get to the rim. I don't know how he does that. That's from
the motivational. That's yeah. As long as I'm talking about it though and and the story of Yanis,
Santa Tacupo, I do think this is going to be an interesting off season because I, I'm curious
where people land on this one. And I think there's a sweet spot here with Yanis where, you know,
most fans plenty of kids got his jersey. A lot of people love him. Nobody was naming their dog Yanis.
Nobody was naming their first born Yanis like Brett or Aaron or something like that. So the
attachment to him is not what it is with some legends of Wisconsin. Right. That said, the man
brought a title to the city, to the state and is by hands down one of the greater athletes,
any of us has seen over a long enough stretch where I think it's fair to say he's probably walking
into the hall. He should get a speech ready. Better be. And one of the funnest athletes to watch.
And you know, I know that there's been some rumblings here and there or whatever. Pretty good guy.
We haven't was the complaints. Where's the, you know, controversies or anything like that. I know,
you know, wanted to get players here and some of them. That's business. That's business. That's
different. I don't know. It's going to be interesting to see where fans fall on. Hey, we want him
even in his 40s or no, let's take what we can get. Let's go ahead and just go ahead and get some
draft picks or, you know, Chris Middleton back. I don't know. I'm curious where fans will fall on
that one. It's like that with any fan favorite. Yeah. Brett Farr, when he was going to be leaving,
going to the Jets and everything else. Let's get what we, no, we keep him. He's the reason why we
are where we're at now. No, let's get what we can for him. Same with Aaron Rogers. How about we
go another one? Gold Schmidt and St. Louis. Well, he's doing all right with the Yankees. St. Louis
isn't doing too bad to start the first six games of the season. Ardenado. Well, they can't move
him, but he's playing well for him. Yeah. So, so it's just you have that in every group. No,
we should, we should get rid of him and get something good for him. No, we need to keep him until he's
in the casket and we're bearing them. Right. Come on. You know, yeah, it's such a debate. It is. It is.
I, uh, I, I will say, um, you know, AA comes up AA run. Um, I, at first I thought he was holding
this long for, to sign a deal in part, obviously, for the attention. Let's put that aside. We all
know how much I don't know how much it is the attention. Yes. Thank you. Because the other part of
this was, well, he's also whether we like to admit this or not, he's a smart man. He is a smart
human being. I call him a genius or, you know, or anything like that. And way too many times in
his life, he thinks he's the smartest person in the room. And that's even if he's right, he's wrong.
Yeah. He's wrong in the way his direction, his approach, talking down to people, all of that. Uh,
he, his, his people skills need, he needs to go back to college. Yeah. He could use, he's always
need to help with that. Uh, now it was charming when he was winning and he's telling you to RELX and
all that. It's charming. Then when he's talking to you like that, but it's not as charming when he's
talking to, you know, tinfoil hats and stuff. The thing about him doing this, I thought was smart
and strategic. And well, I'm not going to be Kirk Cousins. I'm not going to sign a big deal. And
then in the draft, they just go and draft my replacement. And I'm sitting here looking over my
shoulder the next two years. Um, I don't mind. I don't, I don't have any issue with him on that
strategy. If that's what he was doing. But I'm starting to wonder more and more if it's just him
dragging this out until he does finally retire. And he can start a podcast. And when he does,
there are two names he could possibly go with that I think are the only names he can go with.
Where it's the relax podcast and he spells it out. He leans into that or the a a rod podcast.
And it just gets keen and Michael key to, you know, do the pod with him or something like that
leads into it that way. But this will all end with a podcast. I promise you that I guarantee that.
I need what I need to do is copyright however many ways you can use the a a Ron. So like he has to
pay me for it. I need to do that too. Just like I'm pretty sure I coined the term. And I love
Eddie Lacey, but I think I coined the term cheeseburger Eddie. And that's coming from a big guy
making a comment about another guy being a big guy. And that's, I don't know how many people I hear.
Hey Mike, weren't you guys started calling cheeseburg? Yes, I did. So, so that yeah, so many missed
opportunities in my life. That's one of them. That is what I'm going to have to. Yeah, I'm with you.
That one, man. Speaking of Packers running backs or former ones. That is AJ Dylan signed with
Philly. It looks like good for him. And I didn't know if we got to really chance to mention that's
one to throw the doubt there as long as we were talking a little Packers there. Hate seeing him go,
but you know, he's a great guy. I don't know, you know, good player, but even better person.
As a quality person, he is and what he did for Green Bay, Brown County, Door County everywhere
around there. Ah, stinks to see him go, but he's got to do a trade for him. This is a business.
This is his field of work. He's got to do a trade for him. I am not putting him on this level
talent-wise or certainly collegiate-wise or anything like that, but I'm hoping for a bit of a
Rodane situation for him where his second team or his second act, you know, he's 26. This
second, it's next three, four seasons or whatever he has until possible retirement are pretty
good ones for him. I think that way too many people just look at the end game, the career stats
of Ron Dane and don't understand. He had many, many moments in the NFL that were very good.
Thanksgiving game against Dallas, what are you saying Houston, if I heard who was it Denver?
No, it was Denver. Okay. Way back. He did play for Houston. He did. Yeah, maybe it was Houston now.
I remember him so much as a giant too, but that's man, that's a good game. I remember watching
that on my grandma's grandpa's when it was during deer season and we had, I think we had gotten
a deer or two deer, whatever it was. And I remember that game being on there and Ron Dane went and
just ran all over Jerry's boys and boy, that was fun to watch. I never got to be in the same room
as Barry Sanders, but being around Ron Dane and seeing like that to me is what I would imagine.
I mean, almost too humble. Almost too, if a person can be, that man is almost too humble in a way,
just like similar to Barry Sanders and some of that. It was a lot of fun to watch. Michael and I
will be back with more playmakers brought to you by quality plus printing and family natural foods
here at WFHR. Welcome back everybody. Playmakers here at WFHR, Michael and James hanging out with you.
Thank you so much for joining us. Hit us in the numbers. 715-424-2600. Call up and join the
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have those keywords for you at 711-1 and 4 did that off the top of my head. Had to make sure I had
that right. We'll have a keyword for you to text to us in those hours. Be listening for that
tomorrow. God, I'm going to do it all over again tomorrow and Friday. We'll wrap it up on Friday.
Michael, a couple other directions to go. Wanted to touch on with some of the things going on in
the NFL that I thought were interesting and just a couple of things coming out of the owner's
meetings. You touched on the touch push a little bit earlier. That has been tabled. So the
twist has been tabled. We'll see where that goes. I had to say it. I had to.
I remember I'm a dad. I can get away with corny jokes. As long as you're a dad, you get a job.
I don't know if that actually counts. That's a real thing. And I guess I must have kids somewhere.
The NFL is implementing Hawkeye System 2 measure first downs. They will still have the chain
gang out there. But it feels almost a little bit for show and I'm fine with that. I'm fine with
that because the chain gang gives you a measurement. They're still going to the eye. And the eye
kind of is going to give you the overall. If the eye gives you one answer and the chain gang
gives you another, the chances are they're going with the eye. I wish they would not call it the
Hawkeye and call it the Ranger or whatever. That's perfect. It's all set up for them. Yeah.
And the down markers could look like Chuck Norris. Yes. No. No. And the failure. Mr. Mark there.
He's right. He's right. Mr. Mark there. Plus Seattle Seahawks are going to certainly take this
over. Look at it. Oh, yeah. That look good. Actually, I don't have any issues with this one.
I mean, they're going to have six, eight K cameras for optimal tracking on the ball's position.
This gives you less wiggle room for human air. So I don't have a problem with it. I do think I
did see some people making some arguments that this is, well, they should, you know, this is the
same thing in baseball or what have you two very different sports. And I'm not saying it wouldn't
be good in baseball just that I don't like that. I don't like this simple thing that we do all the time
where we try to make and I do it sometimes too, to be honest, where we try to, well, this sport
and this sport apples and orange. Yeah. We've talked about this with, you know, front office of
the rafters. We talked about it with coach, you know, Paul with the River Kings. We even dealt with
this in town for a while. I don't think any more. I think a most big fan, most fans of these teams
understand this. But there's a difference of the players that are playing for the rafters and
kids that are playing for the River Kings. And notice the terminology I use there. The rafters,
these guys are ready to go. They are waiting for that opportunity to get to AA AAA or something
like that and hit that major league diamond. The River Kings kids are still really building this.
And they're still working on their craft so much. And not at all saying that they're not
incredibly skilled players. You've seen them. They're great. But they are maybe a step before
where your rafter players are. Yeah. Rafter players are full college students. And that's what they
are. I'm hoping to make it big into the minor system, whether it's AA, AA, AAA, whatever it is,
because some of them will start in AA. Right. They're that good. I think Bryson stopped. Yep.
I think he just went right to AAA. It seems pretty much. But then you have the River Kings
who are essentially some of them are still attending high school. Yeah. And this is their step before
going to college. And is it usually a D3 college? Yeah. But there's some D2. And there's on a very
rare occasion on some of them D1, but some go internationally to play pro right away. You just
never know. Yeah. Another big announcement from the NFL that they are basically taking over
Christmas. It is now the NFL presents Christmas day to you. And I'm not talking about them having
three games on Christmas day. I mean, that they are literally taking over Christmas. It is now officially
NFL Christmas. I mean, they're just going to own this day, basically, taking away from the NBA
and the NHL. Santa Claus will no longer be playing by, you know, Santa Claus anymore. Chris
Cringle will not be Santa Claus anymore. It will now be Roger Cadel. That was who is going to be
that is weird. And this is just a, I'm just reporting on this everybody. I read that earlier today
and I was like, at first, I caught my attention. So I'm like, okay, who's playing those days?
Yeah. Because we're about a month away from the release. And that's usually when they start
trickling out the international games. Yeah. Right through here and now. Because I even remember
middle April was right before the draft was when they started to announce those. And
or they didn't even have the schedule come out right when I'm sitting in a stupid turkey blind.
And I'm supposed to be hunting turkeys, but I'm looking at my phone trying to figure out
what's going on here. So, man, I think it's cool, but at the same time, don't make it so you only
can have it streaming or whatever it is. That, I'm still very anti that. Yeah. Here's the thing.
You know, I get it almost at any other day and almost any other holiday. Yeah.
But Thanksgiving and Christmas, when you know you've got the families already home.
Yes. You don't necessarily have to fight for their eyeballs. I know the NBA has basketball on
and they've usually, for me, the NBA was always about Christmas. Day was always about the NBA.
Yep. Um, since I was like, yeah. East Coast to West Coast all day long. Man, I loved it. Now,
you know, football doing this, I get it. I'm not even going to bark about that part of it already
thing. I am going to bark about the streaming part of it though. I am going to bark about that.
They know darn well that not their core listeners, their core watchers that got them where they are.
Most of them have not gone over to streaming. Let alone Netflix, which is one of the warns in
the streaming game that most people are running away from. Yeah. They are doing bad numbers right now.
They're telling a lot of people one thing, but their subscription numbers and the word on the
street and most of the reporting is telling you a completely other thing. Uh, so that's part of
the reason why you're seeing these haymakers from Netflix right now with comedy specials,
then buying a bunch of anime and kids shows. Um, the, you're going to see other sporting things
like this. I'm not 100% that we're going to get to this and there's going to be a strong Netflix
there for you. Um, that's how these streaming services are going right now. They could be gone
tomorrow. Some of these companies Netflix, not necessarily. No, but, um, they are on that, um,
they are playing with money that they don't actually have. They're shifting and moving things around
and spending like they have it, but they don't have it. This is something that millionaires do
all the time, but the chickens are coming home to roost more and more for these guys. Uh, I don't
know where that ends for them. The, the whole thing about the NFL taking over Christmas day and
all this fine, do it, but don't tell, uh, tell me that you care about families. Don't, don't tell
me that you care about people or anything like that because if you really did, be like, you know,
what? We're, we care about families so much. We're not going to have football on Christmas day.
We want you to talk to your loved ones. You know, Uncle Edu, you haven't seen it forever.
We want you to talk to him like they, we don't want, we don't need you on your phone. We don't
need you. You know, we got you any, every single day of the year, literally, even when there
aren't even games being played, we have you. We're going to give you Christmas day. Like,
similar to when there was that brash of businesses that were like, uh, we're, we're giving our
employees Christmas day off. Look at how great we are. Or Thanksgiving day. Please pat us on the
back. Look how wonderful we are that we're actually being human. Um, but I will say, I will say
this much to counter your point that, uh, sports do bring families together. Oh, that's true. That,
that, that, that, if you get a house full of bears fans, or I think you call that a denful
of bears fans, um, or a, or a cage full of lions fans or a sad, yeah, or that's it. It's that
too. No matter what your team is, if your entire family cheers for one singular, stinking team,
you're going to get together and you're going to watch it. And I like my family when my family
was still good-sized. And, uh, we were all there. Uh, it didn't work. My grandpa was a bears fan.
Everyone else's packer fan. And that just wouldn't end well. You know who the problem can have
playing on Christmas. Yeah. Or between Green Bay, Minnesota or Detroit. And I, okay. So it all works
there. But I know what you're saying. But you get my, you get the point that just brings the
families together. And that's, and that's one thing that I think they're banking on. Some of my
favorite memories involve sports in my family. Certainly. Um, I, what, what, I think more so I'm,
I'm getting at is the streaming part of it. Yeah. And most families that are sitting there,
what are you watching TV? Not the laptop. You're not pulling the laptop out and everybody's
surrounding the laptop to go ahead and watch these games. You know, you might cable my friends.
Yeah. That part comes in handy too. But here we are again with, uh, to me, the older audience
not doing that. And, and they're sitting there on cable looking for these games. Uh, that to me
doesn't take care of your core fan. Right. If you are good at business, you don't have to take
just the biggest paycheck. And that's, but the NFL has done for like 20 years. They've been on
top for a long time. And they still, well, the high is better. No. The highest bidder is not
always the right decision. We tell players that all the time. And we see smart players make that
decision all the time. Hey, I could have taken more money here, but I went here because I have a
better chance to win. Yeah. Uh, yeah. I mean, JJ Watts, one of those, uh, I think it wasn't the
money or was it wanting to win? You can't say JJ Watts didn't want to win, but he didn't really put
himself in positions on or into organizations that were you going to win? Let's be honest to
your buddy. The Arizona thing is a tough one for me. You see one of these tough. Yes. That was
when he signed the extension of miles in there, one thing, but it's exactly. Yeah. You want the
money or do you want him? Well, he says he wants to win a title. Then why are you staying in Cleveland?
And that there's no way, exactly. There's no way I'm going to try to say I know what's in
Miles Garrett's head or heart at the same time. You can't tell me you want to win. And then you
signed an extension in Cleveland where you know you're not going to win. Like that doesn't make it
easy. That's not logical. One guy I'd say was trying to win, and I don't care for the guy,
Dominic and Sue. Yeah. He bounced around trying to win a title. Actually, pretty smart career for him.
Yeah. Well, you know, not a pretty good job of maneuvering and doing that and everything.
Did he never did win a title, though? Did he? I think you did. He was on a team. No, you're right.
He was. He wasn't a star or anything like that, but he was on that. He was that leader of his
career. Wasn't L.A. Yeah. I think you're right. Because I mean, he started. He started in Detroit,
right? That's right. It was. And he had to go through. He had to go through his career as early
records or early contracts. But then he got through and he eventually won at least one, right?
I'm almost positive was L.A. Because I seem to remember Aaron Donald and Dominic and Sue
come together. That's insane. We will take a quick time out in a couple of minutes here.
Before that, though, I just kind of getting a wrapping a bow on this and everything with the NFL
and streaming. I feel like you could have done this right. And it's not, you know, it's not just
MLB, not just the NFL, because MLB, NBA, NHL, they're all doing this too. You know, you can,
you can split the atom on this one. You can keep the cable contracts and stream those out or
or stream certain games out or certain things. I really feel like you, there's such a better way
of making this transition happen and it didn't have to all be a revolved around money. I understand
that that's, you know, adult, that's being an adult, that's business 101 and all those things.
But I can make an argument, I think, in a good one, that what you give up in money,
you make up for in PR and you can't put a price on good PR. What do you got? Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay. It was Tampa Bay. It was Tampa Bay. He played for the Rams in 18 when they should have
arguably with with against Cheat and Tom Brady. But then he joined Cheat and Tom Brady in Tampa
and they won it. Levante David and some of that, that's a good defense. That was a very good
defense. Yeah. Wanted to get to one other thing here. It was, as long as we're talking NFL and a
report that came out recently about the most NFL stars picked the most overrated and underrated
quarterbacks. I find this both interesting and meaningless at the same time because it is,
it is, it has been pulled that they pulled a hundred NFL players anonymously, of course,
and asked them to rank quarterbacks in several categories. And we're going to go through those
for a second here. Now, this is an old, this is from two seasons ago. This is from a little bit
ago. So keep that in mind. But it is a little interesting because, well, no, no, I'm sorry,
it's not. It's from last year. It's from last year. Okay. Because I saw Tom Brady's name pop up,
but that was just them talking about previous list. Yeah. I apologize. So the top three QBs in this
order packed my homes, Lamar Jackson, Joe Burrell. I'm surprised that Josh Schellen wasn't there,
but I'm shocked by that. All right. I'm a, I'm a burrow guy like Joe Burrell, but I'm a little
shocked by that. I thought that was a little surprising. Regardless, I, I got a joke about that.
I'll say for off. Okay. Good. Very well. We look forward to it. Rookie who will have the most
successful career. So last season, they thought Caleb Williams, Jay Daniels, Jay Jay McCarthy,
obviously, Jay Daniels by far the way, having a much better rookie career than any quarterback
out there. But I, I, I, the Jay Jay McCarthy thing and I'll blame them for that. Right. I will say,
it's, it's always more fascinating than me, the guys who we didn't see coming and how nobody
saw Bo Nick's necessarily not saying that nobody had Bo Nick's being a good quarterback, but being
such a reliable quarterback. How good he was. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, I, I'm looking forward to seeing his
development. I'm looking forward to seeing whatever happens with him. Michael Panic's another one.
This older, this new thing we have in our older rookie and, and seeing the 24, 25 year old
rookie and how they play, I'm kind of curious to see how that plays out and what kind of careers
they can have. That's going to be interesting. Most overrated, Josh Allen, Jalen Hertz to a tongue of
a loa. How Josh Allen can be overrated is, is when a man can fall down and get you half a first
down, I don't know how that's overrated. My, my question is where's Dak Prescott? Yeah. That's a good
question because I, I almost feel like you could have named this list the Dak Prescott most overrated
and brought to you by. I don't hate Dak Prescott. I don't either. I don't either. But I do think that,
you know, his mount, for the amount of time they spend on the Cowboys, it's pretty hard to make
the argument that, you know, he isn't overrated, especially as he won a Super Bowl. I mean, you know,
that, that, that, yeah, here we go. Here's the, I had to throw that one. I'm actually done. But,
but where's the wins? Where's the wins? Yeah. Yeah. Most underrated Brock Pertie and Matthew Stafford
tied for this honor. Um, I, I, Matthew Stafford's another one of these fascinating quarterbacks where
some people have him overrated, some people have him underrated. Can he just be a great quarterback?
Yeah. And, and maybe he's not a legend, but he's also not a slump. No. Um, maybe we didn't give
him enough credit over here, but we gave him too much over here. Where do you, where do you put
Kirk cousins? Boy. Um, with numbers, but there was a massive log jam behind as Kirk Cousins, Jared
Gough and Jordan Love and Bryce Young all got in there under the underrated label. So, um,
they do think of Kirk Cousins as underrated. It's so hard to tell because what he's saying about
the injury last year. Yeah. And, and him coming off of an injury. But I never was a believer in
Kirk Cousins. Again, not, not on the level of Stafford, but a similar thing of good quarterback.
And if that's all you got, it's not so bad to go into a gun fight with that guy. But if you could
do better, you can go ahead and do better if you can do better. Yeah, especially for the
amount of money that guy made because I believe what to play off wins. And, and that man has made
over like 300 million dollars in his career. Like, nobody has fleeced the NFL like Kirk Cousins.
There are very few athletes in NFL history that have pulled a better hustle, a Ocean's 11 hustle
job. If we find out at the end of this, Kirk Cousins does an interview and he's like, man,
I never really even cared about it to do this. I was just out there to make some money.
The 30 for 30 about him when that comes out. Yeah. You like that?
Yeah. That's what it's called. That's yeah. You're a role in that, man.
Real quick to wrap this up. Biggest trash talkers went to Josh Allen. Baker Mayfield and Aaron
Rogers. Oh, Baker Mayfield for sure. Yeah. Yeah. I actually was a little surprised that it wasn't
just Baker Mayfield. Yeah. And that's not a shot at him. That's just kind of that's who he is.
That's how he's always been like him. Hate him. That's the way he is. I especially if you
ever once in your life wore that ugly burnt orange in white. This isn't going to be the most
popular thing to some people out there. But honestly, one of my favorite NFL stories of the last
10, 15 years has been Baker Mayfield. And seeing his the arc of his life, his career, his maturity
while also not really changing who he is, it's very difficult to do that as a person. We all know
that because most of us are in our middle age, or not middle age, but we're over 25. Yeah.
And if you're over 25, you know exactly what I mean by that of be wanting to be that maybe
rebellious spirit, that person that you are, but at the same time, I've got great, I've got
grace coming in here, man. I got the skunk stripe right down my beard, man. I don't know how do
I, you know, how do I balance being myself enough feeling like I've sold myself out? I'm not talking
about selling out to other people just to yourself. Yeah. Baker Mayfield seems to have done that very
well bet on himself. And like the success he has had in Tampa Bay, whatever they win is one
word stability. Yeah. See, given him that he had, he had the makings of Johnny football written
all over him. But he has been able to achieve the success that Johnny football never. Oh, yeah.
Dead. And that's not a knock on Johnny because they both have had their issues. Yeah. But Baker
maybe hasn't had as bad of issues, but he's been able to rise above that and find that stability.
And he's I feel like Johnny Menzel, the where the people how they were so tired of that. Yeah.
That led it, that led into Baker Mayfield on, you know, unjustly to a point very unjustly,
very unjustly. Two human deans that are very different. They are very different. They both went to
Southern universities. Okay. That doesn't that's it. That's end of like comparison. There's maybe
some other ones there. And sure, I'm sure. But as far as like athlete wise, I never understood that
and I never understood how Cleveland could go out of their way to draft the kid, stand by him,
stand by him, stand by him. And then the one second that they have a chance to move on from him.
And I'm in before that to Sean Watts or before that trade, they were talking about it the season
beforehand, talking about trying to get Watson and all these things. And you got a guy there,
just give him some stability. Like you said, and you see what happens when you let him have Cleveland
did not let the stability happen for Baker or Manzel. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I Cleveland left them
down in that that front office, not that fan base. I'm not talking about that fan base. I care
for, but that that front office gets what they deserve. They get what they deserve. We'll take a time
out. We'll come back and wrap up Playmakers. Welcome back everybody. Playmakers here at WFHR.
Chicken wire gets me every time, man. I love this song. Gotta let those keys get in there.
Michael and James here for five more minutes wrap up the show for the day. Big thank you to
quality post printing and family natural foods for sponsoring this hour. We appreciate them.
I have been very good, Michael. I haven't taken every minute of this show every day of April to
talk about the NFL draft. But I'm warning you all, I'm going to be, we're going to be talking a
lot more draft going forward here. And one of the big things, of course, draft needs. That's one
of the top things that comes up. Something that I heard from me in a kind of the other day. And I
wholeheartedly admit she's my favorite person to hear talk football. She's intelligent. She is
passionate and she is also just weird sometimes. And that's what she's grown on me. At first,
I wasn't just her style. Oh, yeah. But that's when you're kind of new on a job. Sometimes you're
just not great at it. The more comfortable she's gotten with it, I feel like the more she just
has gotten like she takes a breath. And she just kind of just talks about this info when you hear
the real geek fan of the game. So she said something the other day that just really stood out to me.
She's like, if I could just start to Brian Coot and Coots, get crazy. Just do it for once. Just
once. Get crazy. Go ahead and move up in the draft. Grab one of these big ends. Grab one of those
top wide receivers or something like that. And I couldn't agree with her more. Now I'm saying that
as a sports fan and as somebody who would like to see this in our division, I admit that I'm not
a packer fan. So packer fans are going to have a different take on this possibly. But as somebody
who just loves good storylines, and honestly, would like to see them do something that they haven't
done before really, because they have moved up in the draft, but we're talking like one or two
spots. Yeah, nothing, nothing earth shaking. I'd love to see them crack the top 15. I'd like to
see them do something like that. My only catch with what she's saying is, I don't know that that
player's available at those spots outside of moving into the top eight. And then we're talking about
way, I mean, outside of getting yourself the sweet deal of the century, I don't know that you
can make the argument that it's worth it for any of these players in this draft. And I'm going
when you get out of the top five, even maybe. Now, if you need to the running back, sure, then
moving up for a guy, one of these two guys, I'm certain I could see it. But as far as the ends go,
after Abdul Carter, it's so many question marks. After Travis Hunter, there's so many question marks.
And if we're being honest, as much as the Mel Kuiper and some of these guys who I respect,
love these guys. They got some injury problems that make me a little bit, I don't know if I want
to move up for them. If they fall to me, if I'm picking second or third and they fall to me,
quote unquote, fall to me, oh, sure, I'm taking them. Yeah. If I'm Cleveland or New York,
and I can't get cam order something, I'd be going to be very happy taking Abdul Carter or Travis Hunter.
But moving up for one of these guys, I don't know if I can make that argument in my clubhouse.
So then we're saying, well, then you just stand pat and hey, if there's an opportunity to move up
a spot or two, you do what the Packers have done in the past and move up. And what they have them
picking is Jaden Higgins, a wide receiver out of Iowa State 64 to 15, had a nice college career,
had a nice season, or had a nice pro game and everything. So so did I almost art.
Yeah, I don't, and I shouldn't compare the two, two different players, but you get my point.
Oh, yeah, absolutely get your point, man, because my, the status quo and kind of just doing
enough just to get by, I don't know that that does you any good. I don't must rather see a grab
alignment. I almost had defense or offense and just kind of add you can't have enough of the
either of those positions. I'd almost rather see that than just taking a swing at the next Christian
Watson. Yeah, you know, I don't know that that's worth that. I can make an argument, taking a swing
on defense more than you can on offense. I like the me call Harding signing, Hardman signing.
I don't think that that means you don't grab a receiver. I just don't know if you use your first pick.
I almost rather see you trade back in that regard. If you're going to go with a receiver,
depends on who's there and who's not. And if you can get a good ransom or not Kings or Anson,
but a good, a good positive thing for you moving late. Go ahead. And I want to crash the NFL draft.
I really do. I want to crash. I want to do a playmaker from there. I want to do so many
dark things with this thing. It's too, it's too close. It's too, it's right around the court.
But I will say I do. It might not be our last chance. Green Bay does a good job with this.
This is, they're not going to be able to have a Super Bowl. So this is the next best thing I think.
And I could see it being brought back here again every other year. Yeah. Michael, Michael,
thank you very much for hanging out. See you buddy. Have a great night everybody.
