Afternoon Wisconsin, welcome to a Friday edition of WFHR's Playmakers.
Let's have some fun, everybody.
We get an hour to hang out with you.
Let's make the most of it.
We are wide open.
Hit us in the numbers, 715-424-2600, call up and join the conversation.
Solo show on this Friday, your host James behind the mic.
Thanks a lot for joining us, everybody.
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I want to hear from you, everybody.
We got plenty to talk about.
I'm going to go across the dial here, looking at NCAA March Madness, Women's Side Men's
Side.
Want to talk some final four with you all.
Certainly wanted to get into some of the John Morant situation, Brewers.
We got to talk some rafters.
The NFL draft is right around the corner.
What do you want to talk about?
You know, spin the wheel.
There's plenty to get into today that I'd love to be able to talk with you about.
So feel free to join the conversation.
It's, you know, you left it up to me and put it in the point guard's hands here.
I want to start with history, where I usually like to start.
And honestly, kind of our stats of the show.
You heard our friend, Mike Clemens talking about this a little bit.
Bucks win last night, 126, 113 over the Philadelphia 76ers.
Yannis said to the couple, begin the first player in NBA history to have 35 points, 17
rebounds in a career high, 20 assists as the Bucks beat Philly.
And this has kind of gone under the radar a little bit.
I'm certainly here in Wisconsin being covered.
I'm sure that's sports center and that touched on it a little bit.
But I imagine that, you know, I don't, I don't really watch sports center ESPN much
anymore.
I watch PTI.
I don't say I catch that and I do try to catch a little bit of around the horn since
it's wrapping up.
But honestly, I don't, I don't get a lot of it.
I don't have cable.
So I, I don't watch a lot of that.
So I'm, I'm just speculating.
But I do know after watching 20 some years of ESPN, the way that much, not much has changed
over there.
They follow storylines and I'm sure they're talking about LeBron or the Cowboys or something
like that.
So this story is interesting to me.
One, the 20 assists.
That's really noteworthy, not only because it's a career high, but because it's 20 assists.
And that's insane for any player, let alone a forward.
That doesn't happen very often.
In this triple double, unlike many you'll ever see.
And it's noteworthy because Yannis and Tadacupo is an athlete like we may not see.
The Victor Webb and Yamos, the seven two freakish athletes with not only that, but dexterity
and agility and hands like a point guard.
That's a lot of the wave that we're going to see coming up here.
Yannis really was different than that in the sense of his stretching of the court and
turning basketball into almost a half court game often times when he was playing offense
or defense.
I'm not trying to talk about him in the past tense or anything, but the season's not
looking like it's going to go the way that the Milwaukee Bucks wanted to with Dame
Lillard still hurting, although Doc Rivers recently said he'd like to see him back.
There's a tough decision that's going to be made in the off season, and Michael and
I touch on this the other day.
I want to appreciate an athlete like this while he's here in Milwaukee.
Now, I personally would love to see him finish his career in Milwaukee.
I don't think he needs to go anywhere.
But if you're looking at this on the business side of things and he is closer to the end
of his run than the beginning, and you have gotten so much from him for a franchise
that doesn't go into every season with finals expectations, certainly the last two seasons
and less couple of seasons.
There's been some hope for that, but I don't think that anybody is, you know, let's just
be honest.
People aren't as focused or as locked into the Milwaukee Bucks as they are the brewers
little on the Packers or the Badgers.
So the expectations are not going to be what they usually are.
You have one of the greatest athletes in the game of basketball in the world, literally
in the world that spent the beginning and his career here.
He's going to go into the NBA Hall of Fame and he's going to go in as a Milwaukee Buck.
I just think it's noteworthy and I don't want to just roll over these days and these moments
with these guys that are just incredible.
I want to appreciate Christian Yelich as much as we can for every game he has, every
three, four game he has, where he goes three for four or something like that, I want to
appreciate those things.
And it's just an incredible thing and I still don't know many athletes I've ever seen
with basically two steps could get to the rim, like a Yannis good, it can and it's just
a fun to watch, a nice victory for them.
Want to go local for a second and shout out of voice you might hear in the background.
So it's testing something during the pregame here.
I've got the, for those that have never been in the building, where are you coming stop
by any time you want to check out the studios, please feel free as long as we're open, you
know, you might want to wait under that.
Our WIRI studios, one of five five where you hear a lot of our high school sports, river
kings, it's literally right across the hall.
And here at WFHR we have a little bit more of a view.
We got a little, we got a window out here and stuff.
I have Michael Comer across the hall there, not of course literally across the hall because
he is here in Rapids, but over covering, actually, you know, yeah, he's in A, he's in Rapids,
assumption is hosting Adam's friendship in a double header right now.
Mike and our sole of this station, Chuck Genaro, running that game for you right now, I've
got it turned up to where hopefully it won't be any distractions.
But if there's a big play, you might be able to hear Michael, and I thought that might
be fun.
I thought audio wise, that might be kind of fun.
If you are checking out that game and not listening to this, you're not hearing what I'm saying
right now, so you're not going to hear me say I appreciate you listening to Michael
in that game.
But I hope it's going well, last I heard five, two, assumption was down, but had just
had a home run, I believe.
So I'll try to keep track of that over here for you, let you know how it's going.
And again, a big thank you to Chuck and Michael.
You heard us talking about this on the morning show, you heard us talking about it a little
bit.
I believe I'm Monday and during our team meeting, our head of sports at here at Civic
Media, Jimmy Costco was touching on this.
The WIA knows how to spell civic media better than maybe some of us employees because they're
very familiar with us because literally nobody is covering high school sports as much
as us.
We have a company that backs its word and by supporting local and covering local.
And we try to prove that with not only our high school coverage, but of course, political
coverage like you heard this this week by the Civic Media team is shout out to Melissa
Kay and the great work she was doing.
Our newsletter, which you can catch at WFHR.com, sign up for it right now.
So we want to continue to do this and as great as Civic is to us and we've got some amazing
announcers and board operators, it really comes down to you guys out there, our sponsors.
We greatly appreciate the sponsors helping us get these kids, these athletes out there
giving them their the moment and helping them shine and helping them give them a format
to do that with.
Like WFHR has done for a very long time.
That game is going on currently right now, over on 105.5.
So check it out if you like, but I didn't mean anyone to hang out here and give me a call.
That'd be cool too.
Love to talk to you.
715-424-2600.
Just a touch of two away on the Civic Media app.
We will have more high school baseball for you coming up on Monday, 520 start time, assumption
hosting Nekusa, Mike and Seth going to tag team that one for you.
I will be running playmakers over here and I will be bugging Seth every chance I get to
find scores and all that.
And am I alone in this one?
So preseason football does this a little bit to us where at least the first game of preseason,
we're kind of glued to it, we kind of care, especially the Hall of Fame game.
It's not because we think that anything major is going to happen.
We just miss football.
I don't know if I was always like this or if I was like this when I was a kid, but there
were some years there where I wasn't as locked into baseball as I was when I was a kid.
In the last two years, I couldn't necessarily tell you exactly why, but I've just fallen
back in love with baseball.
And so if we're talking high school, we're talking rafters, we're talking MLB, I don't
scores.
I don't just want to know the score, I want to know the count.
I want to know who's hot, how's it going?
I can't get enough of it.
As much as I'm locked into basketball and I'm really excited about the NHL playoffs
and watching OV and Ovechkin break a record that growing up, I never thought anybody would
break.
And Alex Ovechkin is just what, three goals away from tying Wayne Gretzky's all-time
goals record.
So there's a lot of great things going on, but man, this baseball has got my attention
right now.
And Yannis sent it to Cooper, that was a heck of a game by him.
And again, the stat of the show, 20, Yannis assists, 20 assists, a career high for him.
So let's keep talking B-Bull because it is a ball night as far as I'm concerned.
You got the ladies final four going on.
Women's final four happening.
Texas and South Carolina are going to be facing off at six on ESPN.
And Yukon and UCLA will be playing after that.
All chalk, Texas and South Carolina are the number ones.
Yukon number two, but nobody looks at them as number two.
UCLA is the overall number one.
And just to tell you how people see Yukon, I believe all these sportsbooks have Yukon
as a heavy favorite over UCLA.
Now if you're not that locked in, you know, women's college basketball, I get it.
All right.
You know, I'm going to tell you you're missing out, but that's cool.
I'm not going to judge you on it or anything like that.
What I want to do is maybe talk to you a little bit about it, because there are some exciting
basketball that is going to happen tonight.
I have no idea who's going to win none.
I am not going to do the hot take thing.
I am not ESPN.
I am not some of the other voices in this state.
I am not going to say, I know this blah, blah, blah.
I have no idea.
I know I'm going to watch.
I know I'm going to be locked into it as much as I can with the work I got to do tonight
and everything.
But still, I'm going to be locked in, because Pagebeckers is only getting better as
a athlete, and it seems like she is, I don't think it's not, it doesn't seem like it.
She's been doing this long enough.
She is this.
I think Pagebeckers game four or five of the regular season, you're going to get a good
game.
You're going to get a great athlete in these moments in playoff situations.
That is where she shines, and she just plays her best basketball and going up against
number one team in the country, and UCLA, who have a player that, you know, I think people
locked in might hear about, but most people don't know Lauren Betts, who is the number
51 center out of Colorado for UCLA, who is just only averaging almost a triple double
by herself, or at least a double double by herself, and just a heck of an athlete out
there.
I think she, I think she's a junior, she might be a senior, but I'm pretty sure she's
a junior, so I think she's got another year left.
But when she gets to the WMBA, then you're definitely going to know who she is.
You're a really fun player, really a lot of fun to watch, and they're going to be putting
her on Pagebeckers, I think, at times.
It's just going to be a really exciting game, and I don't mean any insult to Texas.
I believe Texas was number one at some point in the season.
They're a really strong team.
Please nobody tell Dawn Staley that I wasn't, I went all this time without talking about
South Carolina, and I, I wouldn't say I'm afraid of that woman, but, but intimidated,
maybe a little, maybe a little, she's, she's a force, she's awesome.
And South Carolina is not to be messed with, but I, I think that you might see the game
of the tournament tonight with Yukon and UCLA, and I didn't say the women's tournament.
I mean the tournament, because as fun as some of this chalk has been on the men's side,
and as great as Cooper Flag is, and I really like watching Cooper Flag.
That Duke team, it kills me to admit, they got some fun players on that team, and they're
fun team to watch at times.
They play some great defense.
They're a hard hustle team.
They play on both sides of the court, and you got to like that.
I don't think anybody's been playing better basketball than on the women's side, more cohesive,
more team basketball, better basketball, more exciting.
And Yukon, UCLA, again, I'll respect to South Carolina.
But those two teams, to me, have been the two hottest teams in the two most solid put
together teams.
Now this is all, you know, saying all this with, of course, I think the best player in
college basketball last season was not Cooper Flag.
It was Judy Watkins, and she's not in the tournament anymore.
So it might be different with her in this conversation, but that being said, only Yukon
or USC was going to move on anyway.
So I think it had been cool to see USC and UCLA face up again one more time at this point
in the final four.
But Yukon, I don't know if much is going to stop pagebeckers right now.
It's hard for me to bet against UCLA.
I am not, it was not a lumbar or anything like that, but I spent a lot of time on that
campus and got to take some classes there and I felt just really, you know, loved it
over there.
It's great.
Great people treated me great.
But I have a hard time betting against it.
In fact, if I had to put money on it, there's no way I could bet against Yukon right now.
And I'm not saying that because of Geno or IMA or the history of that team, I'm saying
that because of pagebeckers.
In the same reason, I think a lot of people are picking Duke right now to win the whole
thing on the men's side and Cooper Flag.
How good he's playing.
What do you got?
What do you want to see?
Are you going to watch?
715-424-2600 watch.
Call up and join the conversation.
Love to hear from you and know what you're thinking.
Look at the men's side real quick before we get to the games.
First time in history, this has happened.
More history to talk about.
Bruce Pearl and Rick Patino are sharing the AP Coach of the Year honors.
Their success this season led to the first tie in the 58-year history of the Associated
Presses Men College Basketball Coach of the Year award.
I find it, I think it's actually more interesting, not that they tied, but that it's the first
time that's ever happened.
But a lot of great coaches in College Basketball history, so I thought that was quite interesting.
Patino is the first from St. John's to be named AP Coach of the Year in the 6th in the
Biggest History, Marquette Shocka Smart, won the award two years ago.
And you knew I was going to shout out Shocka Smart, I had to.
These are awesome.
A lot of good coaching, a lot went on.
I agree with this decision in both of these guys winning.
I think it's pretty cool.
Bruce Pearl, you know, he's had some stuff off the court.
But I think it's just one of those great coaches in basketball and really in college.
And if he walked into this room right now, I probably, you know, give him 20 laps around
the building.
And Rick Patino, Rick Patino is the definition of stuff off the court.
But if you focus and you lock in on the coach, Rick Patino, they talk about having an unsuccessful
MBA career.
There's no denying, you know, how that went.
But he did leave with one of the greatest lines from an MBA coach ever.
One that we quote all the time, Robert Parish, he walked through that door, folks.
And one of the unarguably, one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time.
And I admire these guys that have stuck around.
I admire these guys that are keeping at it.
And they're not taking the easy way out.
Because I, I, I'm probably alone on an island.
In fact, I'm almost positive I am.
But Nick Sabin or, you know, Roy Williams, even, or some of these other guys, and Roy is
maybe not a fair one because he was kind of the first one to go.
But I will say Bennett over in Virginia, some of these guys that went out and all they
do is seem to win and complain about players this and players that and transfer portal
this and NIL that.
And it's really, it'd be funny if it wasn't so lame and sad.
If, um, if they, I would have so much more respect for the hypocrisy of it.
If before any of this or even afterwards, they said, and yeah, it's, it's really bad
that coaches do it too.
Because long before transfer portals or NIL or any of this, any coach in college sports,
if they wanted to leave, they left.
They got three years left on their contract.
There's a $50 million buyout gone.
They just told the kids, they just told the incoming recruits that they're not going
anywhere gone.
And we just accept it.
We just take it.
Well, that's what a coach does.
He went for a better opportunity and of course he's going to do that.
But these kids can't do that.
These kids can't get paid.
Forgive me.
But when's the last time you went to a game to see a coach, please call up, tell me 715-424-2600.
When you're watching these games, do you watch the coach mainly and the players a little
bit here and there when the camera goes to them, is that how you, do you have coach
cam?
I'm not taking anything away from coaching.
But like a lot of coaches like to say, know your role, you're the coach.
You got an important job to do.
You get paid big bucks to do it.
Why is it these grown men who are, some of them retired, are acting more like children
and sounding more like little kids than the 18-19-year-olds that they were coaching?
Again, you want to complain about this stuff.
That's fine.
For one, give me an answer how you're going to fix it and off the board is get rid of it
all because you're never putting the genie back in the bottle.
And two, do me a big favor and include the coaches in this conversation and that coaches
should not be allowed to do this.
And the coaches shouldn't be able to just walk off in the middle of the night.
Have the same anger at least for coaches doing it, like the puts that's in Villanova now,
who I don't even take the time to know his name because he's another coach.
I'm not saying he's a good bad coach, just he's another dime, a dozen coach who lie
to his staff and lying and complained and is gone now.
But nobody's whining about that, nobody's yelling about that.
Instead they're just focused on whatever team they follow and the next kid that's going
to leave or something along those lines.
You want to get angry about it, give me answers, give me solutions and include the coaches
in this conversation because otherwise, to me and again, I know I'm in a low-end and
silent in this one, but I don't look at Nick Sabin's legacy the same.
I don't look at Bennett's, not Bo and Wisconsin, but Bennett and Virginia's legacy the same.
I look at them as guys who took their ball and went home.
I look at them as people who couldn't hack it in the real game now, in the modern game.
And that's to me a knock on their legacy because Rick Patino at, I believe, 154 is still
out here doing it everybody and when it coached the year with St. John's, I mean, you know,
if you got issues, all right, tell me how you're going to fix them and be a grown adult
about it and quit pointing the finger at these kids.
Now it's your job to help guide them and help make them make better decisions.
And if they're not, I put that more on you than them.
I want to talk to 18-year-old Nick Sabin and find out what he would have done in these
situations and how angry he would have been if his coach just up and left and that
he did that, but he did do that in Miami.
So I don't know.
I don't look at these guys the same.
And I enjoy them on college game day and some of these things and I laugh at their jokes.
But in the back of my mind, there's a sum that don't sit right and don't feel right.
And I think that it's more important to, it's so easy to want to take your ball and go
home.
Everybody's been there.
Politically, we've been there back and forth over the last eight years with some, you know,
this side saying, I'm going to go off to this country and this side, I'm going to go
off to this country.
Anybody can do that.
Anybody can leave when things get harder than they'll go your way.
What do you do when your back is against the wall and you've got to adapt?
You've got to improv.
That's not only to me where we get a chance to shine as human beings and I think you
have your greatest moments.
I mean, there are highlight reels and sports history up and down there, you know, that
are filled with that.
But also as human beings, that's when we find out what we're made of.
And to shy away from those moments, I feel like you're kind of showing what you're made
of.
I want to thank Pam Hilke who's made of nothing but greatness.
Appreciate you, Pam.
Pam used to hand it over to the score to me.
Charles Trail at 5'4 right now after six innings.
We're going to add sports to your resume there, Pam.
It's already there.
What am I talking about?
You've been doing this long enough.
We are going to take a quick time out.
We'll come back.
One again, do a little baseball, the John Morant situation and even talk some NFL draft
with you.
But if you're going to go a different direction, we can, I don't know if I need to remind
you all.
You guys produce this show.
We'll talk about what you want to talk about.
Give us a call when we come back, 715-424-2600.
Just a touch or two away in the civic media app, and when we back more playmakers brought
to you probably by quality plus printing and family natural foods.
Welcome back, everybody.
Friday night edition of Playmakers, your host James behind the mic, phone lines are
right open.
Hit us in the numbers.
715-424-2600.
Call up and join the conversation.
Love to hang out with you.
Big thank you to everybody out there listening.
Got some great messages during the break there.
We appreciate you.
As I told them in text, you can always bring your thoughts to the radio waves here.
The audience would love to hear your feedback and not just be talking about it.
Love to hear from you.
Peer pressure.
That's what I'm going with everybody.
Yeah.
That's what I'm doing right there.
Love to hear from you.
715-424-2600.
And a big thank you to everybody out there listening.
I'm going to rip the bandaid off because I don't really want to talk about this, but
I feel like we have to.
In part because we're a sports show.
In part because of the narrative and a lot of what I'm hearing about this and parts
of it that I don't think are being covered enough.
Catching people up that have not been following along, John Morant is a young, incredibly gifted
athlete for the Memphis Grizzlies.
There's a really fun story coming out of college, came out of a small university.
Not necessarily the biggest athlete made a lot of fun in March Madness at this time of
year and really built on that to going into the NBA Combine and just shooting up draft
boards to where people were debating about Zion Williams and him.
And now, you know, looks a little interesting and narrative.
I guess you could pick your poison as far as those two go.
Morant got in trouble again because he showed off imaginary guns and the NBA gave him a
real fine.
He was warned about this and he's gotten in trouble with this before on and off the court.
He famously got in trouble, believe two years ago when he was caught brandishing a gun on
social media.
And I say brandishing because he wasn't really holding it.
I don't know what he was doing with it.
He was holding it with like two fingers, the handle and kind of holding it up and just
like I guess flaunting it, you could say.
So my, yeah, this is a knucklehead move and there's everybody in the world is saying that
and Stephen A Smith is warning them and all that.
I like to use a Southern voice when I impersonate Stephen A Smith because I can't do a good
Stephen A, so I just do a South Park version, I do a horrible version.
And this is a knucklehead move and everybody's saying that and nobody's going to think
it differently.
Nobody's defending him or anything like that.
And I'm hearing that.
There's a pretty big consensus on this.
And there's a lot about, you know, culture that could be talked about with this one, you
know, on many different levels.
But there's two things one, number one.
Has anybody in human history ever made, you know, doing the finger guns thing cool?
Like when is that that that's never been a cool thing?
So like doing something like winning a game on a three pointer and doing a gun gesture.
It seems pretty darn lame and uncreative.
And that's obviously not the biggest and most important part of this.
But I bring it up because of the the childishness of his actions and of doing this.
And now, to be honest with you, how tired I get of fake tough guys.
And this is an all over thing.
This is not just in basketball.
This is not just a isn't a white or black thing.
This is all over the board.
As everybody grows up with around some type of ground culture where I'm from, it's very
different than out here in, you know, more in states like this where there's hunting
and some of that.
I'm not going to emancipate that to you all, you know what I'm talking about.
I will say that where I'm from, there's much more a different culture of it.
And if you've never had a gun actually pointed at you, I don't believe you know what you're
talking about.
I don't think you can understand it.
And it's not me trying to talk down to anybody that is not me at all trying to say, you know,
I know better than some just because I have experienced that.
I'm saying it because I've experienced that.
And I see people do this kind of stuff and all they show me is that they haven't and
they don't respect that what they have.
Not only I'm not even just talking about the firearm, I mean life.
Because if you have and if you understand it, you're not taking it lightly.
And it's not a an accessory.
It's not something to build your personality around or attach your personality to.
It's an inanimate object that is only should only be used in when necessary break glass
in case of necessary.
There's plenty of people that have them is hobbies and all these things.
I ain't talking about that.
I'm talking about what this all leads to with him doing this and this wannabe defiance
and wannabe rebellion of somebody who is a fake tough guy.
I've done my homework on this one and I don't know John Morant, but I know his story
I've read up on it and nothing in his story leads to doing these things and making it work
for his storyline or who he is.
It seems like a guy who's trying to come across tougher than he is.
And that's how finger guns usually do come across.
Although I am being corrected by one of our callers here, John Travolta and Olivia Newton
John and Grease with finger guns, they made a call, okay, fair, fair point.
I forgot about that one.
I'm gonna be honest, I forgot about that.
My hair, I woke really hot on my hair.
I have a limited fake John Travolta I do.
That's a good one.
That's a good reference.
I, this stuff, it hurts basketball and narratives and for anybody out there that cannot
wait to point the finger at a man that looks like this and say, look, look, he's doing it again.
Look, they're doing it again.
Blah, blah, blah.
It just, it hurts all of the above and there's no positive to this.
Okay, put aside the fact that Travolta and Olivia made it cool or what have you or even
if you and your own personal life feel like you've done it and it's cool.
Nobody's ever done this and it's been like received great or successfully.
And nobody does this.
That doesn't need the attention because I tell you, one of my favorite players, Dame Lillard,
will point to his wrist like it's a watch, like it's day in time.
He's a trash talk.
I'm not saying he's, you know, some saint or something like that.
But go back and there's a highlight reel.
There's plenty of highlight reels of his game winners and he's got a lot of them.
And almost every single one of them, you see him just mug faced, just mug face getting
crowded by his teammates because that's a man who is confident in his own skin.
That is not a fake tough guy.
This is a man who has actually experienced something, been through some stuff and appreciates
what he's gotten this world and is not willing to throw away $75,000 for finger guns.
It's I, I'm disappointed because I was a limit.
I was a John Marant guy and I was a fan of his, but I could care less of what he
accomplishes and what he does.
I'm done.
I'm just done.
I'm not, I'm not saying we need to give up on the young man.
He couldn't play in the NBA or anything like that.
I mean, me as a person that looks forward to seeing him play.
I'm not really, I'm not feeling the limit anymore and I just doesn't interest me.
And part because, you know, sports, these actions are not that different than what we ask
of an athlete on the court.
Make good decisions.
You have to make a split second decision no matter what the sport we're talking about
no matter what the position.
At some point in the game, you're going to have to make a split second decision.
What are you going to do?
And I feel like we see plenty of times where how people act in life or how they're going
to act on the field of the court or what have you.
And this isn't a guy I would trust in my franchise.
I don't trust him with the basketball.
He could do some wild things with it, some amazing things with it.
And he is a young man who deserves a chance to grow and learn from his mistakes.
But he's going to do it without a lot of fans.
He's going to, he's lost some people because this feels, we, we, we, the thing that I don't
understand about the, the one to be rebel out there is for one, those of us that are
rebellious can't help it.
And we don't get to pick and choose when we are.
We always feel this way to a point where we even fight with our own selves sometimes.
But when you are something, you don't have to act like you're something.
You just do it.
And I get really tired of some of these people that seem to just throw away these opportunities
or not appreciate the opportunities they have.
I wish them well.
I hope, I hope he turns it around.
I think he's going to be doing it in Memphis, maybe.
And I don't know how long he'll be doing it in the NBA.
Don't know how long Trey Hendrickson is going to be in Cincinnati.
There are some heavy rumors going around right now that one of the leading teams to be
able to pick up Trey Hendrickson is the Green Bay Packers.
There's a number of different things being talked about and GM Bryan Goudon coost as being
as quiet as he always is.
He's got a great poker face.
I would not want to play poker with him.
It's interesting to think of what might develop here as we're bleeding up to the draft.
I will say, they don't need to do anything necessarily, I would say.
But I think that with the quiet off season that they have had when you, so many packer
fans have wanted, you know, a loud one, how good would it feel to go into the NFL draft
or during the NFL draft to have something happen?
The Green Bay Packers are one of the main, you know, storylines and they're not just
hosting this thing.
I think that would be pretty cool.
We'll see what happens with it.
I know I'm following along with it and seeing any of the storylines coming up.
While I was doing that, I came across some of the others regarding the NFL draft and
there's a lot of talk about Shudder Sanders and where he's going to go.
And I have no idea.
But Deon Sanders seems to think he does because Deon, you know, that's Deon.
The thing about Deon that he gets to skate with and man, more, I'm jealous because Deon
Sanders recently came out and he had an interview and he was wearing decked out in Colorado
Buffalo gear and their colors, which are black and gold.
And he's wrapping up the interview and as he was walking away, he comes back for a second
and then states, I got to end with this.
I like these colors though.
Don't you like these colors and gave his, you know, Deon, Pribetime smile.
And when he did that, a lot of people thought that he was talking about the idea of the New
Orleans Saints who also have those colors, possibly moving up or just sitting pat and
landing Shudder Sanders.
And there's, I mean, again, credit to Deon.
He didn't actually say anything.
So if the Saints don't draft his kid, it's not like he loses anything.
But if the Saints draft his kid, man, just, you know, the way that he plays the media,
the way that he plays this game, you teach a master class on it.
As far as the NFL draft goes, you're all excited, who's excited?
We're so close.
We're just a couple of weeks away.
I think that some of you out there are going to care and some of you aren't, but I think
a lot of people might not be thinking too much of this.
And I want to talk directly to the people who could care less.
Because yeah, awda, and yes, this is going to be coming across a little biased.
Since I, I mean, since I've lived in the state of Wisconsin, I have been watching the NFL
draft.
I've watched every single draft.
I've watched every single round.
I'm insane about the NFL draft.
And I'm not using that as like a verb to, you know, be funny or anything like that.
I'm literally insane about the NFL draft.
I've owned this.
If there was a medication for it, I would take it.
I'm excited.
It's a couple hours away from me.
For the first time, I've never been closer to it in my life.
May never be closer to it.
So to those that care out there, I'm certainly coming into this a little biased, but I think
I can get you to care.
Because the revenue that this could create for this state is sorely needed.
You have heard for the last two winters us and every outlet there is talking about how
much our north woods are north.
The north of the state has been affected by the lack of snow.
Hits to our ag industry left and right for different various reasons.
There's plenty of other things we could talk about.
The lack of, you know, activity, summer, winter activities and people attending them
wanted to be a part of them and then the attendance dropping in some of these things, etc, etc.
This is a money maker.
The NFL wants to host their second biggest event and it is their second biggest event.
Both by eyeballs and watchers and viewers and scholarship money and by importance.
It's the second biggest event on the NFL calendar.
It's as big as opening day.
It's as big as the first day of the opening kickoff of the NFL season.
It's just as big and just as important.
You are made and you are made or broke by this thing.
It is reality TV at its finest if you ask me and the only reality TV I watch.
And it's in your hosting it in this state and the dollars that are made from this impact
the entire state, not just Green Bay, certainly it's going to be impacted more in certain
places.
They're going to make more for those that revenue created impacts this entire state.
And there is a lot of talk behind the scenes and especially at the list in a fellow owners
meeting that hey, we're just going to be honest.
There was always a carrot in front of Lambo but Green Bay is never hosting a Super Bowl.
That's never happening.
They're never putting a dome on Lambo and rightfully so they never should and anybody that thinks
that I believe might have to leave the state.
But with that and with the size and all the logistics you guys already know.
They just can't host a Super Bowl but an NFL draft.
You do this right.
People come here, they enjoy themselves.
Maybe they come, they want to stay.
Maybe they come and they talk about it and and rave about it.
And if it's done right, they can keep coming back here.
Maybe not every year but every other year or something along those lines get in a regular
rotation.
Eventually they're going to go to every spot they want to go to and they're going to
start come back to certain places and they're only going to go back to places it worked.
And if it works here, that is a commerce and an economy that you want to tap into.
Any chance you have to tap into the NFL and safe and some of that money from them, do
it.
I'm not saying legally obviously, I mean here they just get it.
Get that money.
Get what you can from them.
That's the golden goose right now.
So even if you don't care about the NFL draft, you happen to run into somebody.
Hi, yes, I'm trying to find this place.
I'm just here.
I wanted to be a part of the NFL draft.
You treat them good.
You treat that person good.
No different than here in Wisconsin Rapids when people come to visit for the Wattoski
show tournament.
You treat them good.
You want that person to come back.
You can talk all you want about people from out of state or a fib this or whatever you
want with your friends.
But when you're face to face with them, they'd be treating them right.
You want them to come back.
Need that money in this state.
Need that economy in this state.
And if you think you don't, if you think you can live without it, good luck.
Good luck, man.
Zane, nobody.
No state survives without it.
Let alone one that is being affected and has been hurt by the things that I talked about
before and I didn't even bring up the pandemic.
Trying to recover from that.
This draft coming to this state at this time should not only be attended, they should
break records and attendance and make it so good that they can't help but bring it back
here because that's a commerce that ain't going anywhere.
We may not be able to predict how much snow we're going to get next year, but you know
the NFL is going to be there.
You know, football is going to be there.
So I say if you can attend, attend, you run into people out there who are part of the
draft treat them good and enjoy it.
Have fun.
They don't get to have this kind of thing very often.
We will take our final time out of the week, but that's all right.
I think we can make it to the end of the game without them, right?
Every coach has thought that and it went perfectly fine.
I'm sure there's nothing to go wrong.
We'll be back with more Playbackers coming up, brought to you by Quadipus Printing and
Family Natural Foods here at WFHR.
Welcome back, everybody.
Playmakers here at WFHR.
Hope you're having a great Friday night out there.
Thanks so much for hanging out with us.
We can still got some time left on the clock, put a couple shots up before we go, pad
those stats.
715-424-2600.
Hit us in the numbers.
Give us a call.
I'd love to hear from you.
Shout out to Michael Comer and Chuck Genaro, doing a nice job with the double header today.
Catching you up a little bit.
The first game is over, Adam's friendship 1-5-4 over Assumption.
Assumption made a good comeback in that one from, I could hear.
Great coverage by the gang.
Game 2 coming up.
Ernie Banks special.
Let's play two.
A fun way for a Friday night to go.
Encourage you to catch that game over on 105-5Wi, all right?
I'll be over there at 7 on Monday, 7 a.m.
Kick off the sunrise show.
Meet you over there, everybody.
Day as well.
We will have more sports on the radio dial for you over there at 105-5Wi.
520, our opening pitch, our pregame will kick off for Assumption hosting on Nukusa.
Mike and Seth are going to have that one for you.
That'll be a good game.
We'll be doing playmakers that Monday.
We'll try to keep you up to date on how that game is going.
Why don't you take a look at some baseball and talk a little ball with you?
Other ball.
Not that small.
Brewers with a nice win last night and even nicer to see Nester Cortez have a good
bounce back game.
Showing you what he has to offer to this team going forward and a guy who has something
to prove.
You get those opening days out of the way and the sky's a limit for this team if they
can just play some consistent good baseball.
It's way too early to be making predictions or to be throwing your head up in the air
and saying the season's over or anything like that.
They're three and four.
I think that you've got some exciting players that are just starting to get the swing
of things and warm up a little bit.
They get a little healthier as well.
He got Brandon Woodruff who he comes back even 70% of himself and that's a great starting
pitcher to have in your roster there.
Of course, Tess can give you games like he did yesterday.
I don't know.
They got as much of good a chance as anybody because I know that everybody is focused on
the Dodgers.
The Dodgers by the way.
The last time people are going to react to hearing the name Dodger like they did COVID
some years ago.
They're going to talk about this team so much.
We haven't even gotten a month into the season as much Dodger talk as there is.
As a side note, I don't know if anybody noticed but San Diego is also undefeated and I think
they're having their greatest start ever.
This is a side note.
They're pretty solid team too.
Over all the other talk of some of the other issues going on I think in baseball with the
torpedo bats and some of this.
It's too early to really get too head over heels about anything but I think that you saw
some stuff last night that you could really get excited about.
Starting tonight and actually just coming up here in about an hour I believe is opening
pitch for the brewers and Cincinnati Reds.
It just had it up here.
Brewers who they got going tonight.
Oh come on, you know my computer, my computer is messing with me.
It just wants to keep put up the white socks and that's not what I'm looking for man.
Not the brewers are playing the night.
Oh yeah, here we go.
I apologize everybody.
Tyler Alexander lefty 540 ERA on the season.
No wins, no losses.
He'll be taking the mound.
Nick Martinez, 0-1-1, 6 ERA for him for the Cincinnati Reds.
Good to see the Reds in town just if anything for their manager, I'm fan of his and two
great managers with Tito and Pat, you know, go ahead to head here.
I want to hear those conversations.
I want to hear what they're talking about.
That's got to be good.
We've enjoyed talking with you all week long.
Local radio matters, local sports matter.
And we appreciate you all helping us make sure that everybody knows that.
Have yourself a great weekend.
We'll meet you back here on Monday.
We'll do it all over again.
Our week next week will be here Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
We're not able to do this without you out there without Pam did an amazing scheduling.
She does our co-hosts and of course our sponsors big thank you to quality plus printing and family
natural foods.
Have a great weekend everybody.
This is locally grown radio WFHR 1320 AM W24 ADE Wisconsin Rapids and always streaming
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