New WIAA Rules Edition

Good afternoon, Wisconsin. Welcome to W.I.R.I.'s Playmaker's.

Michael and James here with you. I should say, oh, let me get that right. Our sports director

here at the studios, Michael Comer and James. With you, everybody, hope you're having a good

one out there. Feel free to join us. Conversation is yours to have you had. Hit us in the numbers.

715-424-2600. We're wide open. Hit us in the numbers. We'd love to hear from you, everybody.

Want to start off the show thinking our great friends at Quality Plus printing and family

and natural foods, sponsoring this hour, giving us a chance to hang out with y'all and get your sports

takes and feelings out of your system. Don't leave them in there, man. Get them out. Get them out. Let us know.

Michael and I are going to be talking about a couple of things this morning or this afternoon.

W-I-A-A made some rule changes I want to get into with you, Michael.

And I also want to talk a little bit about the NFL draft. I haven't gotten to talk to you about that

since it is all completed. We're going to get your takes on every single one of those picks

because God, I do. I love the draft and I want to talk about it with you.

Certainly want to talk about anything you guys want to talk about out there.

In case there's anybody new to the show, this is how it works.

Michael and I come in here with a game plan and then you guys come in and change it.

You guys go ahead and decide what we talk about it.

Michael and I want to talk football, but you want to talk soccer. We will talk soccer.

What are you going to talk about, man? Call up and join the conversation and let us know.

We've got a couple of good stories of the show, too. I want to get to Michael.

But I want to, I have to, I'm compelled to start in one place.

The moving out of a champion that doesn't happen that often.

Now, in Wisconsin, you guys are fortunate.

You guys have had this a handful of times going back to Karim.

But even before that, if you look at Farven Rogers, you look at letting go of legends,

letting them move on, some of these things.

I think Wisconsinites are quite, I wouldn't say spoiled, but they've had a pretty good run with this, considering the market,

the size of this market and any one of these teams we're talking about and everything.

I think all that's fair to say.

And obviously talking about what every single talking head is talking about right now when it comes to basketball

and focusing on the idea that Yannis said to Kupo has played his last game in Milwaukee as a buck.

And he's going to be moving on.

Before we get to that, I want to talk about the end of that game and the knuckleheadedness that is apparent.

And in my opinion, just speaking for myself, for those that did not know,

Bucks lose the game in a horrible fashion that you're going to be feeling no matter how many championships you win from here out,

if you're Yannis or anybody on that team, if you're anywhere, if you care about this game at all, which they do.

I have no doubt in it all that any single one of those players on the Milwaukee Bucks don't care about basketball.

They're not out there just for a paycheck, especially some of these guys in the end of the bench.

When it comes to the way that that game ended, you've got Anarchy on the court as you do after any game series.

And Tyrese Halliburton's father comes onto the court, walks past Yannis, then takes good 10 feet in front of him, sees Yannis,

and then decides to confront Yannis.

Tyrese, I don't know how aged, I didn't look it up, but I believe he's in his late 50s, 60s somewhere around there.

That sounds about right.

And then challenges Yannis and to Kupo.

And obviously this is a fool's act of any person in their prime with a man of this size and this strength and all of that.

But be that as it may, and think about this.

Yannis said to Kupo right there, clock is done.

What is going through his mind? Who knows?

But at least you got to think, seasons over, my career over here in Milwaukee might be over, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

And then you got this guy in your face.

This grown man in your face, acting more like a child than the children, all the kids in the arena put together.

Confronts Yannis.

And Yannis somehow has the control not to push this guy and send him back to Milwaukee.

You know, meet him there and take care of it in the in house.

It's a fool's move.

It's a dumb move.

And I'm going to say something incredibly unpopular right now.

And I don't care.

Had Yannis pushed him, I'd have taken Yannis's side.

You lose the senior card when you start acting like a young man.

That's a grown man right there.

He knows better than that.

And don't tell me, as I have talked to plenty of people in this age range about this, that when you're in that age,

you don't understand some of the what is given to you, the grace that is given to you.

I have a former boxer that I live with.

My father knows this better than most.

And when as soon as he said hit a certain age, his hands were retired.

Because at 60 some years old, my father could still knock out most human beings with one or two punches.

But he understands that most people, especially a younger man, who's going to be acting a fool,

is going to look at him and underestimate him.

Or come into this and think that he has to give him grace, which no doubt Tyleys Halliburton's father knew.

And there is no way he thought for a second Yannis would do anything.

I don't believe for a second.

How tough are you when you know that the guy has in handcuffs?

How tough are you really being?

And you're not acting like a grown man.

Tyleys Halliburton is disappointing to me in some ways as the way he has handled certain things.

I don't think you fight hate with hate.

I don't like a lot of the way he does certain stuff.

But I also like his game a lot.

And I feel like this, like anytime and the stuff we talked about before,

and Coach Paul and I were talking about on Monday, when parents get involved with their kids in the wrong way.

Yeah.

There's so many good stories of father and son or mother and how many kids have scored a game?

I mean the griffies and stuff like that.

How many stories have we heard about it?

How many times have you heard a guy scoring a game when he touched out?

And the first person he thinks is mom.

You know?

I mean, there's a million good stories out there.

But these ones, man, they get under my skin.

I know this because my father is the person that every movie I ever went to.

He would yell at the screen and talk to the screen.

Jimmy, we're at ET.

He's like, Jimmy, you tell me if you ever see something like that.

But when it came to sports, he shuts up.

He shuts up.

He lets his kids play the game.

Yeah, he's got thoughts and feelings.

He tells him to us in private.

He doesn't act before in public.

If I was Tyrie's Halibur and I'd be embarrassed by that.

I wouldn't want my father acting like that.

Well, there's a few things with that.

I mean, in my 20 years around the high school game, I have seen so many dads and moms, to an extent,

living through their kids' success or making excuses why the kid isn't successful.

And it's everybody's fault except for Billy or Susie.

Okay, that's not this case.

What this case is, however, a guy who thinks because of the success of his son.

He's right on the coat tail's success of his son.

And he thinks he's above everything because, oh, well, my son's Halibur.

Oh, my goodness.

I can do anything.

Now, what I will say, and I'm tiptoeing it very carefully because I don't want to be misconstrued.

One way or the other is that is what I see in the basketball culture.

Oh, yeah.

It has nothing to do with race or anything like that.

Getting that out of the question right away for anyone who's, wait a minute.

No, it is a basketball culture problem.

You start seeing a trickle down which will come to the next talking point about the WIA and everything there.

But, and this was set up perfectly that maybe Halibur from his days in Oshkosh North.

They said, hey, we're listening to playmakers.

We've got to do this.

He's a good local kid.

That's right.

So my point is there's so many people that talk nowadays and don't expect there to be any repercussions.

The keyboard warriors.

And this was one where, you know, John Halibur.

Now, I want to hear his side of it too because you got it.

You have to hear both sides.

But that was unprovoked.

What in the heck is he doing going on the court after?

That's the luckiest man alive right now.

That's the luckiest man alive right now.

Maybe the luckiest too.

I was going to go up that one.

But, you know, I would tell him to his face several things.

I won't say it on the air.

But you're writing, you're writing on the coattails of your son because Lamar Ball.

Now Lamar had a professional career.

Don't get me wrong.

But what was it?

Yeah.

And now, unfortunately, what really are his son's careers?

Well, other than about the same as his.

And I'm not calling them failures because there's somewhere I'll never be.

Well, and that one, not to say that the balls didn't take advantage of that.

But it all felt like at more times than not those guys, those two boys, the brothers, were uncomfortable.

I thought so too much of that stuff.

Not saying they're growing men still.

But I see your point.

And I think you're bringing up great points when it comes to basketball.

And I think one of the biggest things that holds basketball back on every level,

whether we're talking economically or we're talking just the evolution of the game or anything else.

It's something that has always hurt basketball.

Going back to when I was a little kid playing on Tim Hardaway's court.

And you couldn't spit on the court.

You couldn't be disrespectful.

But man, the trash talk that would happen.

And the fights that would happen immediately after that because of that trash talking.

The rumble or the punching in the palace there in Detroit a few years ago.

I think that was Ron our test.

I mean, why don't they do it?

I mean, they ought to be really classy like hockey players and do it during the game.

Yeah, that's happening more and more unfortunately too.

But the sport by point, every sport has a little of this.

I think no sport though, is it more blatantly obvious?

Or maybe it's just more talked about and then basketball.

But I hear your point about it.

I want to get into, and I want to spend too much time on him.

Right.

My disappointment in this is also that we're not able to talk more about Wisconsinite and Tyler Rees Halliburton.

Really coming of age and really showing that he wants to do something here, man.

I mean, it's kind of cool to see that.

The way he took that ball right down the lane and just laid it up perfectly with less than 10 seconds ago to get the W.

That was, that's what leaders do.

And now unfortunately, do I think, do I think he's going to win a title with Indianapolis?

No.

No, no.

No, no.

No, I'm not, I'm not discounting him and saying that because he beat the box because I don't care.

But I mean, I care of course, but I don't care.

The thing is he's going to have to go somewhere else.

And would that be what I think would be cool?

And I'd have to double check my yearbooks here.

Wouldn't it be kind of neat to see him if they could afford it reunite with Sam Hauser and Boston?

Oh, yeah.

Because I know they had some clashes in high school.

That would be cool.

So that would be really cool if they could work together instead of against each other.

But the thing is, Indy's going to do what Indy does.

They're going to more than likely get beat by the calves because that's who they got up next.

But every, that shot, I think that was over Janus too.

Yeah.

That shot over arguably one of the, from one of the best up and coming players, Tyrese Albertan,

over currently one of the best players in the world in Janus.

That's what we should be talking about today.

Yeah.

Because that was big time.

That was huge.

That was the moment.

Yes.

And let your kid have the moment saying that staying the stands act like a father.

Stay in the stands and let your kid have that moment.

Right.

And you know what?

I will say, I give Janus a lot of credit for not cleaning house.

I probably would have started too.

You don't do stuff like that.

Yeah.

And I mean having restraint when everybody was coming to defend the situation.

But then of course he had the best comeback of them all.

Yeah.

I've got a ring.

Yeah.

I don't know when you're going to get one.

And speaking of that, now getting to the WA in a moment.

But I'm going to give it some names to you in the audience.

Quentin Buckner.

Bob Daninger.

You've got Marquis Johnson or, let me see here, who, Sydney Monkreif.

I want to make sure to mention that.

Marquis Johnson.

Glenn Robinson.

Vin Baker to another level.

Yeah.

Then you can make an argument.

If somebody wanted to tell me the greatest basketball player of all time was Oscar Robinson,

I wouldn't fight with him.

The man averaged a triple double.

And of course my favorite basketball player of all time, cream of dual jibbar.

All Milwaukee Buck Legends.

And it's not a stretch to put Janus into the cupo into that group.

Especially since he did bring a title.

But if he is gone, I have just one, to me, you got two years left on his contract.

So no matter what barking he does, if he does, which he hasn't even done yet.

I love how everybody's just assuming that's going to happen.

I'm not saying it might not.

And if you're betting Vegas odds, I could see why you would bet that.

But let the man, I mean, breathe and then let's see what happens here.

He's given you nothing to show that he's a fame chaser or something like that.

Right.

He's done everything to show his loyalty to the city of Milwaukee.

He's gone out of his way too.

I give him a little bit of benefit of the doubt.

Don't kick him out the room so fast.

But if you're going to kick him out of the room and I am the bucks for an office,

don't even come to me unless you got a top three pick.

Yep.

I don't care about players.

I don't care about money or anything like that.

I want a top three pick.

I don't want anything.

I don't know.

Not a fourth.

Not a fifth.

Top three.

You're telling me, okay, well Janus was in a top three pick or so and so was in a top three pick.

I don't care.

I know the NBA.

I've watched this sport for 48 years.

And very rarely do you get your Jimmy Butler's or Janus' or guys who are not taking

in the top three top five picks.

If you're the Milwaukee bucks, you're not bringing in a big free agent.

Those days are gone if Janus is gone.

You're not going to be able to land Drew Holiday.

You're not going to be able to land some of these guys.

No.

And that's all those guys.

Those are B stars.

Nothing against them.

No.

Love those players.

You don't want to champion them without them.

No.

But we're not even talking about the Kevin Durant's already think.

Don't even think about that.

You ain't bringing them into Milwaukee without a Janus.

So the only way you get a Janus is by drafting them.

I want a top three pick.

If I don't, I got two years to sit on this.

I got two years to sit on this.

They didn't trade Otani.

And that guy's living and still keeping his job.

You're telling me that if I sit with Janus for a year, two years?

Because I don't have to make a move right now.

I go way to year.

You know, unless you're coming to the table with a top three pick,

save your time.

Because the only, if I am interested in keeping my franchise afloat,

if I'm interested in keeping people coming to these games,

I need a face.

I need a name.

I need something other than the Buck logo.

That's sports.

Yeah.

And you know, with with with that, he is the equivalent

of what you were saying is you're and when you're doing youth sports,

your best varsity player is probably not your best 12 year old kid

on this team.

Your best varsity player has a sense.

Your best varsity player as a senior is might be the worst kid

on that freshman team right now.

And that yeah, was he a top three pick?

You want a top three pick for a guy who wasn't a top three pick?

Okay.

We want a top three pick for a guy who proved to grow into what

should have been a top three pick.

Your draft is hedging bets.

A draft is a crap shoot.

You don't know what the future is going to hold.

And the Bucks definitely they're scouting and not even

with trail cameras.

That's good.

That's good.

But what you did there is your talent valuations came through huge.

And now you have arguably one of if not the best basketball players

in the world on your team.

And unfortunately, everyone's kind of sandbagging his saying he's gone.

Maybe he's not.

Maybe he says, what can I do Tom Brady?

And what can I and he's already done it?

But what can I do to help you bring more guys here to help me?

Yeah.

Yeah.

I don't think it's written in the sand for sure that he's gone any more than any Kevin Durant

or anybody like that.

It is either our free agent or not or you know, got a year or two left in the contract

or the idea of every superstar is unhappy.

Dame Lillard stayed in Portland for 11 years, man.

I mean, the guy there are guys like that like Yannis and they want to stick around.

You brought this up before and it is a perfect segue.

So we have to take it, of course, the Wisconsin Intergalactic Scholastic Athletic Association.

Intergalactic.

I kind of like it to galactic.

And that's a that's a beastie boys thing pop it in my head.

They are now requiring ejected spectators at high school sporting events

to take a free online sportsmanship course to return to attending events.

The decision passed by WIA member schools at the 25 annual meeting

aims to address unruly fan behavior.

The course is offering by offered by the National Federation of State High School Associations.

There is a little bit more breakdown to this but Michael, your first feelings about this one.

We haven't really gotten to talk about it.

I want to hear a little more clarification on it and I'm not disagreeing with it being done

that you got to take the course and whatever because you got to take courses

after you screw up for a lot of things in this world.

So I can see that but I want to know the parameters because for an example,

you could be critical and say that was a bad call.

Okay.

Does that warranting being kicked out?

No.

I don't think so.

But there are some and I've seen it.

I know Randy has seen it.

We've talked about very similar subjects that thankfully like at Lincoln High School

or assumption we're way in the law in the corner that no one can really hear

anything we have to say and that's fine.

And we're we're both pretty.

Well, that's not what we saw but we'll go with it.

You know, we're a ways away from the game but okay.

You know, we don't tear it down.

We don't tear it apart.

That what if it's a more court side situation where we have to set up or I set up

or he sets up whatever and we'll say now the column floor is a travel.

That's we're going to have to go with.

I don't necessarily agree with it but that's where we're going with.

You get a thin skinned official and oh he's out.

He's questioning me.

That's a hypothetical.

Now, I didn't say a thing wrong.

Randy didn't say a thing wrong.

I was just saying hey, I don't know if that's really what I would have called but whatever.

And you're throwing out.

So now what?

I mean, I've got a job to do.

Randy's got a job to do.

We've got to do that online thing and waste some of our time.

Yeah.

When the only thing I'm seeing in the actual paperwork from the WA and you can find

the complete article.

Right.

It's Civic Media.

It's a nice reporting by our team over there.

I don't see anything other than I'm saying Eject.

Spectators ejected.

So I see it specifically about spectators and the what can get you ejected.

I'm not seeing.

So I think that that's certainly that's probably going to be a case by case thing.

I think I think one of the because even when I agree with something the way my brain works,

it can't help but see holes or something like that.

Right.

I can't stand it sometimes but to take your, you know, what you're talking about there,

Michael, I always worry about gray areas with things like this with new rules, new laws,

anything like that.

Right.

They'll just like their NIL too, which is I know is another thing we're talking about.

Yeah.

So this, I will say that this rule, the amendment takes effect at the end of May with the publication

of the WA Bulletin, which we're kind of referencing here to a little bit.

I think that the one thing, I don't think you're going to get anybody that disagrees necessarily

with this.

I think it's more so questioning how this, how this evolves and what this turns into because

we're going to have this situation happen.

It's not as if this will deter anybody.

This is just going to, now once people start being punished with it, maybe it will.

Yeah.

But the rule itself, it's not as if the 10 commandment stopped anybody from doing anything.

Right.

It just told us what you were just supposed to do.

We should probably not do this.

You should definitely not be doing this.

I shouldn't have to tell you not to do this, but in case you need me to write it down, I literally

wrote it down.

You know, it's literally this.

We shouldn't need people, we shouldn't need a rule to say that fans can't yell at referees

or any of this.

Right.

In a perfect world, we wouldn't need this, but we got it.

And with that, like most laws, most rules, any of that, there's a lot that has to be seen

to see where this goes.

And if this is good or like a lot of other things, it just needs some tweaking, and it'll

be okay.

Oh, I'm sure it will.

I, I don't know what else, I think one other side of this too.

And I think about this all the time when people bark about, especially when it comes to politics,

but recently with the NFL draft, and a lot of people that I look up to in sports and

I enjoy listening to hate the NFL draft.

And my question is always, well, what is your answer without it?

Yeah.

I mean, without the NFL draft, okay, you want to get rid of it fine.

But what's the solution after that?

Make them all free agents.

So the cowboy sign, everybody, what do you, what do you want to do here?

It come, come to the argument with, not just a bark, but with the solution is all I'm

saying.

They got it.

They're trying here.

They're trying to come up with something.

They're trying to do something.

We're losing more and more people who want to volunteer and be referees all the time.

Yeah.

We're losing more and more, I think of the integrity of sports all the time.

It was never about wins and losses.

It was never about building, you know, building up a franchise and stuff or winning championships

or anything like that.

Sports didn't start that way.

That's not where sports began and it's not what it should be about.

It's part of it.

And it's part of what makes us insane about it.

Absolutely.

And I will obviously be very guilty of that myself as a sports fan and as a homer and

all those things.

But at the end of everything, especially when it comes to the high school level, it's got

to be about the kids in the game, anything outside of that and you are messing up what

is going on here.

Whether we're talking about fans acting a fool or we're talking about NIL stuff, Michael.

Yeah.

There's just so much gray area that's got to be ironed out and the thing with this, with

the being critical and being of officials, being thrown out of games and the sportsmanship

thing.

That's the gray area.

One thing I will say with the NIL that the WIA just did, they've outlined that pretty

darn well and to what can be and what cannot be that I don't like the NIL.

I think it is ruined college sports.

I think it is ruined college football just like the college football playoff is ruined

the bowl season.

The transfer portal is ruined it.

I'm not a fan of it.

They need to fix it.

All of it and they've taken their steps.

Now the WIA from what I've read on the NIL version of the high school thing is there

cannot be any references to the school, cannot be wearing school logos, school name, even

school colors from what I understand, even though that's kind of tough.

But it could be generic, just put on, hey, we're going to give you a hundred bucks because

we're going to use your mug on this poster for wrestling.

The old sports games and the old video games when they couldn't have the rights to the

NFL or like baseball or something so it was like the Acme Joe's or something that they

would just made up teams.

That's what these kids are going to be wearing, it's something like that.

It's something like that.

I mean, I'm sure there's going to be things that come up, but when isn't there?

Taking this from the Wisconsin Public Radio, a big shout out to them, love their reporting

their work.

The WIA voted on April 25th to approve a rule allowing high school student athletes to

participate in name, image and likeness, NIL deals, vote was voted 293 to 108.

This means that Wisconsin High School athletes can now earn money from endorsements and other

NIL opportunities, but they cannot use the school uniform or logos in advertising.

This takes effect in May as well.

This is actually the WIA, and I don't say this all the time, but this is them, I think,

not necessarily getting ahead of something, but keeping up, instead of getting run over

by a topic or being 20 years late on something or whatever, like the NCAA is right now.

The WIA sees this and is trying to do something very similar to what I was saying before.

It's not just better than nothing, it's not bad.

It's not a bad deal, it's not a bad idea, and this is going to happen no matter what.

Again, the Genie is out of the bottle, there's no getting it back in there.

I think because I come on the other side of things sometimes with NIL and Transreportal

and stuff, it may get lost in the shuffle.

I'm not a fan of them either, I'm just a fan of players finally getting some due and

some power because they deserve it, because for the dawn of sports and professional sports,

I mean, athletes have been taken advantage of, you can give me every single story you want

about this and this and this and this and this great owner or this great owner, blah,

nine times out of 10, the owners don't care about the fans and don't care about you.

They care about finishing in the black.

If you think differently, I have a bridge to sell you in San Francisco that's really nice

and I think you're going to like it this time of year.

It's a fools game to believe that, to believe that these owners care about you.

They wouldn't look twice at you.

They're not, that's not their business.

They didn't get to where they are, caring about people, actually.

But James, here's where I argue, I'm an owner and I care about you.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, see that's true.

That is true.

Maybe there's one franchise we can say a little bit differently about, actually there

is.

There is one right in state and that's just being fair.

When it comes to them doing something, I appreciate that.

I appreciate that they're not trying to put their heads in the sand or any of that.

I also think that looking at silver linings here, I think that one thing that you can

do, you can take advantage of this, like I believe they should be doing in college

more and hey, boy, you just got a cool deal.

You're rep in this business over here, we're rep in this local car dealership.

You got a little money there.

I got this class for you.

You're not getting that check until you pass this class.

You ain't getting a paycheck until you pass this class, this financing class, this class

on money and how to handle it and how to use it and how to work it.

Here is another learning.

But not longer it.

No, not longer it, no, no.

Another opportunity to again, what this is about, helping these young adults, these young

kids become great adults.

Here's another opportunity we can take where you can't, you can't get rid of NIL, but

maybe we can use it as a learning tool, as a opportunity here.

The argument against NIL oftentimes is scholarships and how expensive those are, how much money

it costs to get an education.

I ain't fighting against that.

I will say there's another opportunity where, hey, you got this scholarship that's worth

this amount of money.

You know what, that equals in everyday work and how, what you would have, if you didn't

spend it on a scholarship, what you would spend it on is it a grown adult or any of these

things.

I'm just, I get tired of seeing all these talking heads on all these sports networks,

blaming kids left and right for things that the adult in the room should have had something

to say.

Not taking any accountability away from these kids, these adults, the 17, 18 year olds,

which unfortunately, you got to look at them that way nowadays.

They shouldn't be that way, but you got to look at it that way.

But so quick to blame the kid, so quick to blame the young person in the room, when there's

20 adults in there and nobody spoke up, they got, this person's got parents or guardians

or somebody like that.

You know, there's got to be something that blame very seldom falls on one person.

In this situation, it's one of them.

It's very similar to the Shoulder Sander situation where I, like a lot of other people, saw

that situation on its surface and immediately thought of a couple of things that I don't

think it turned out to be.

Two things can be true at once.

You can be very, very, very excited about a new job while also nervous because you've

never been in this building before and you haven't worked with these co-workers or anything

like that.

For sure.

We all know that there's a plenty of other examples in life for this.

The Shoulder Sander situation with him not getting drafted where, you know, they had him

for one, I'm more curious about the separation between mock drafts, the people doing those

and the powers that be that actually have the knowledge.

That's much more of an interesting conversation.

The people that scout these players, the people that do these things, they did not, they

had him in one mindset and a fellow or a sentiment another.

If you're Mel Kiper, you're more focused on this kid on the field, you're not really

paying as much attention to the kid off the field.

If you're an NFL owner, you've seen Shoulder Sander's your whole life.

This kid has nothing that you haven't seen before.

I'm sorry.

I'm not talking about his personality, I'm talking about him as an athlete.

His size, his 40, his stats and college.

You've seen it.

We've seen it.

We've seen it.

But off the field, you start wondering about that and those are where questions come

up obviously.

Now, there's a million, almost every single player in the NFL has an attitude, almost every

single player in the NFL is cocky, is confident, all those things.

I don't believe that that is going to keep an NFL owner from, well, you know, all I need

is a quarterback, but I'm not going to pick him because of this.

I don't think it was that.

I think that it's a matter of two things being true at the same time.

This kid slipped farther than anybody would have expected.

And he also might not be as talented as we thought.

He might not be as good as he not.

Now, here's the cool thing.

He's going to have a chance to prove us all wrong if that's the case.

Well, it's going to be tough when you got 18 guys in a quarterback room.

That's true.

But looking at the 18 guys in that room, he's right, he wouldn't be too afraid of you

all, especially him.

Right.

Sure, he's not afraid.

Maybe Dylan Gabriel a little bit, but you're not afraid of Joe Flacco is getting ready

to collect AARP.

You're not, you're not, Dishon Watson is a cowardly punk, nobody should be afraid of.

And it's not, even if he does end up starting with a game, he's not going to last more than

two quarters or two games for that matter.

The guy couldn't even handle the off season without tearing something or whatever.

He's got one job.

He can't even stay healthy then.

It's getting thinner and thinner.

But you're right.

You're right.

It's no guarantee or anything like that.

Especially when they draft in the third round of rookie quarterbacks.

Right.

And you know, that's one thing that we can found.

We can circle it right back to the first topic with Halberton.

Now, I'm not calling, I am not calling Dion Sanders a John Halberton at all.

I am not doing that.

But the writing's on the wall to an extent.

How much are you going to be having neon Dion in your ear as management and coaching,

saying, hey, you're not playing my boy right now.

Do you think Dion would have the smart stuff?

This isn't my job.

This is their job.

I was in the business.

I know.

But, you know, Daddy knows best.

Here's what I'll say.

I think that he's going to be busy coaching Colorado.

I think he's going to be busy recruiting, which is a 24, 7, 3, 6, 5, 8, your job.

And I do think that even if they wanted to say something, Dion Sanders, nobody is more

business savvy in the NFL in football, arguably, than Dion Sanders.

And he knows how to play the game.

He knows how to play the room.

And he knows that if he calls up Stefansky and Cleveland, that Stefansky is going to talk

to this coach and talk to this coach and talk to this owner.

And it's going to spread.

And who's given Dion an NFL coaching job, head coaching job, if he's a malcontent?

That's the thing that he's been trying to pull back from two degree.

You notice he's been doing a lot more of the cowboy thing, a lot more of the country

thing and stuff, Dion, all the sun wearing a cowboy hat and all that.

Primetime wasn't doing that.

Dion's trying to lean into something here.

He's, again, he is a marketing genius.

He has been doing this for years.

There's a reason he's been doing these things.

It's all to get the NFL head coaching job.

And I don't think he's going to do it for those reasons.

But I will 100% agree with you that just the threat of it could be enough for an NFL owner

or an NFL head coach.

Don't want the headache.

Yeah.

Just even the idea of it, which there's no getting around that there's a possibility you

can have.

It's like I don't know if LeBron James has younger, younger sons.

I don't know his family.

I don't really care either.

But the thing is, when he finally hangs up the shoes, is he going to be one of those

two barking a little bit?

I don't know.

I hope not.

And I'm not trying to make these guys out to be horrible fathers or anything, because I

don't believe they are.

But it's the ego, the personality is just so huge that, well, look at me.

I've got all these rings, which they both have, except for John Hilbert, but that's

on the point.

But all these rings, all these accomplishments, Hall of Famers, First Belt, Certified,

I don't care when it happens.

It's going to happen.

There's a lot of clout that goes with that.

And there's a lot of ears that are going to listen and probably should listen.

So that's why I am waiting to see how this one plays out, because I do think that that

will play, that's playing something into what the Sanders situation is, and possible

with LeBron James.

We'll come back with stories of the show.

We'll get into the Green Bay Packers draft class talking that with Michael and more, talking

with you.

Call up, join the conversation.

Everybody said one, five, four, two, four, twenty, six hundred, we'll be back with more

family and natural foods, quality post printing, W-I-I-I-I-S, playmakers.

Welcome back to Playmakers, everybody.

We are proudly here, thanks to our friends at Quality Post Printing and Family and Natural

Foods.

Michael and James hanging out with you.

Call up and join the conversation.

We're wide open.

Hit us in the numbers.

Seven, one, five, four, two, four, twenty, six hundred.

We missed your calls.

Call up and join us, playmakers.

We speak sport.

A couple of quick things I want to get in before we go diving into the NFL draft.

Michael, I want to remind everybody that our great friends over at the Wisconsin Rapids

Elk Slodge, number 693, got Bingo tonight.

Doors open at five.

Bingo kicks off at 630.

Go ahead and head on over there.

Have a great time and support those that support this community like our great friends

at the Elk Slodge.

And another reminder that we will be here on Friday with another additional playmakers

get you ready for the weekend from four to five.

Get those sports takes and feelings to us, everybody.

Leaving them inside is just bad for your health.

It's bad.

I wanted to touch on the Packers draft class with you Michael, you know, real quickly

first off a big tip of the hat to everybody involved with that draft.

Successfully done great job by everybody.

When they do get this done with this round robin kind of of going around all these NFL

cities, I have no doubt my mind will be back in one of the first cities they will take

it back to.

Well done.

Like just well done by the state and by especially the city of Greenback.

I think five to ten year rotations are going to send this internationally eventually.

You know that as well.

I don't like it either.

I just heard a collective groan and sound like a blind plane from everybody that's listening

that heard that.

I mean, I don't have any inside information more than anybody else, but you know it's

going to happen.

Yeah.

But my sister went to I unfortunately was not able to go last last Thursday the first day

of the draft.

Some others.

So there's a few more important things in my life going on right then.

So are we we put her to rest I should say, but either way just navigating that and taking

care of everything.

So I unfortunately didn't get to go, but there will be a next time and I'm pretty darn

and just like when deaf leopard closes one of the concerts, we'll see you next time

and there will be a next time.

So when they come back to the to Greenback for the draft, unreal.

My sister went, she said it was an amazing experience or so many opportunities to win

things, do things.

She got down on the field kick field goals.

Oh my God.

That's I've never been on the track.

I have my own field.

So that that's what ever by someone over at us, she does some good have to feed her next

time this year.

But you know, I'll tell you what, I've got friends that have gone to Kansas City,

in Vegas, Detroit, they're going to Pittsburgh next year, they're in Green Bay.

They said green.

They were like, yeah, some of us are pack of fans, some are Viking fans, Eagles fans,

nine are fans, whatever, Bears fans.

They said it was a collective Green Bay did a better than everybody else.

Now they had the second, they tied for the second most number of people in a draft with

with Nashville, which when you have so many people come into your city, now granted,

you can say which one because it's a smaller populated town in Green Bay.

But when you have 600 times that come through, you did something right.

You can never have enough bathrooms or something like that, so I don't want to hear any complaining

about that.

I mean, it's not soldiers field, we're just one big bathroom, sorry, but I'll tell you

what, they're going to come back and the talking heads, all of sports media, whether it's

Fox, ESPN, NBC, CBS, HBO, whatever, they, they're like Midwest nice as a thing, Wisconsin

nice as a thing, and Green Bay nice.

And they're like, people come here and they're like, well, this is just a big party.

And I mean, Wisconsin arguably outdrinks every other state in the Union on a weekend.

Green Bay as a city out, out drank everybody else in the world on that for even on one

day.

Right wrong.

And it's just a fact.

Oh, yeah.

But man, the performance that they did boy, Roger Gidell, you're going to have a hard time

not giving Green Bay another crack.

Yeah.

First off, condolences to you in yours.

And thank you for sharing that.

I want to say right away too, 100% agree with everything you said.

Yeah, it's not enough though to be the party city or to everybody to have a good time.

They got to also be like, man, they were nice, man, they were good people there.

And what we talk about around here, when we talk about the watersky show, the World's

Biggest Watersky Show and everything.

And hey, you got people coming here from out of town, you got people coming here from

all over.

Kill them with kindness, treat them nice, make sure that they want to come back.

That's economy.

That's money.

When you see, when you see out of towners, see dollar signs.

That is what you should be seeing.

I have never understood anything other than that.

The really cool thing was when they had the international one.

I remember going when I lived in town and in the area, going to Johnny's bar for when

the international thing.

And now I'm not talking to the state one.

It was the international one and everybody was business at that, whereas the state one

is just a big drunken party for the most part, not all of it.

But anyways, people went there and I met Canadians, the Australians and the Australians.

That was a fun one.

Yeah, they talk about the people here, they in Wisconsin, they can drink, the Canadians

are sitting there and the Australians are down playing, oh, look what we can do.

And the Canadians voice every reason, as they usually are, sat there and said, don't

try it.

Don't try it.

We live next to these guys.

But it was just so neat that people you get to meet and I got to meet people from

every team that was here except the Chinese team because they were pretty much just locked

up in their hotel.

And that's pretty locked in in most sports, yeah, and that's also just the government

situation too.

But I'll tell you what, it was really neat to see that and then the compliments saying

everybody here was so nice, so professional, so welcoming, so warmhearted and just kind

hearted, softhearted.

They loved it.

They want to come back just to hang out.

Packers have a couple of undrafted free agents who will also touch on and a part of

our story.

The show is a guy that they're given a chance to.

But I want to get into the actual, you know, players drafted.

You and I talked a little bit about Matthew Golden already.

Obviously a nice pick and a great fan pick no matter what.

But just a nice pick and a nice addition on that team, speeder, a guy who is going to

go get it.

He's a guy that goes for jump balls, doesn't just need the ball to fall into his hands perfectly.

And a nice addition to that team.

Yeah, you want to take a look at it.

The first three picks, the two ride receivers, one from TCU, one from Texas, they both got

speed to kill.

They both got hands, they, I mean, they, I mean, they got good hands, speed to kill.

They know what they're doing.

They got leap.

I like it.

And then of course, the O'Liaman from, I believe that was North Carolina.

North Carolina.

Yeah.

I have to email them.

They're number two pick number 54 overall.

Anytime you're grabbing a line in that early, I like it.

That's a man of a man.

Yeah.

And the one that they got from Clemson, I want to say late, he, the number of games that

he started and just the stats that they spit out there, those are good picks.

I wanted to talk a little bit about Savian Williams, number three, third round pick, number

87 overall, wide receiver at a TCU, Michael's talking about there.

This kid is a Cordell Patterson bit.

I think, I think also Debo Samuel, because he's either three down receiver, he can block,

he can do it all.

In some ways, I like him more than Golden for this offense.

In some ways, Golden's going to get you some touchdowns, he's going to do what he's

to throw it over the top.

And I think, you know, he's got some things that Christian Watson didn't have.

And I don't want to say anything negative about him necessarily, just this is just the facts.

But the Savian Williams is kind of a complete wide receiver.

And he's got not only all of that going for him, but he's one, again, one of those three

down receivers, just like we used to talk about with running backs.

When you stay on the field, all three downs, can you block, can you catch, can you run,

all of that.

This kid does it all.

I mean, he's a Swiss Army knife.

And the way Matt Laflore likes to call an offense where it almost doesn't matter what

position you're playing outside a quarterback, you're going to be doing a little bit of this

a little bit of that.

You can run jet sweeps, you can run and rounds, you can do anything.

And those two receivers have the speed, they have their outrunning ability, they have

the hands that you send them on goals, you got two guys that can probably do something

pretty important.

Baron Soral, edge out of Texas, came in in the fourth round and then in the fifth round

Colin Oliver, edge out of Oklahoma state.

Then you had in the sixth round, 190th pick Warren Brunson, defensive tackle out of Georgia,

just looking at these three all interior defensive linemen.

You're not going to hear a lot of arguments from people anytime you grab a lineman or a guard

or a lineman on offense or defense that's usually never a bad thing to do unless your team

has some abundance of them, which very few NFL teams have.

I think the biggest complaint I've seen, whether it's from fans or quarter court experts,

is well where are the corners, why didn't they grab more corners, there's such a need

for corners.

I want to say real quickly, you guys cover this draft better than anybody.

You know why they didn't draft corners.

They're draft and first off, usually the best player available.

If you've got a sixth round grade on a corner and you're in the third round or the fourth

round or the fifth round, you're not grabbing that corner.

It seems ridiculous to me.

I don't disagree with this statements on either side, but I also like, hey, what are you

going to do?

All the guys who wanted to off the board, you got to fill some holes here and you still

got holes on offensive line and defensive line, so why not fill those if you can't grab

the sixth round corner or something.

Some of these picks earlier on, there were good corners available and then I would have

said, well, maybe you would have been better off grabbing a corner than here, but it wasn't

a deep draft for corner backs either.

No, but I think there's also something to be said that's not being said, Chia, you're

might not be going.

Oh, that's, that was going to end on that.

Yeah, I'm sorry to jump.

I'm sorry to jump.

No, that's fine.

That's fine.

We were thinking about the same thing.

But it said that both sides aren't really saying much and it's, I saw a clip of Chia

you're talking about being a little more professional and he gave you the inflection and a, you

know, kind of a wink with it and I laughed, but it's, man, if he wants to stay and they

can iron things out, you don't need, I mean, it's always a nice to have when they'll give

me wrong, but you don't need to do that shopping.

You are, you're probably one force turnover and one fourth down conversion from possibly

getting over that NFC title game hump because I, I guess I'm a packer fan, but I do think

Green Bay has the firepower offensively and I think they have the guts defensively,

the fortitude to stop teams and we saw that last year.

Look at the safeties.

A lot of people are really quiet now, but the linebackers.

It was the down lineman.

I think they are pretty well both with, we'll see what the pass rush does, Van Ness and

Geary got to kind of get back to form, but these new guys, they're new, they're going

to disrupt because you don't have a lot of film on them and then offensively, man, they're

filling up bodies with what they need to do.

My, my issue with Jay-El Exander since college has never been about his talent, very talented.

It's not even necessarily about him not being able to stay healthy, whether it's college

or the pros because that's something that oftentimes is out of people's hands.

It is the guy who, his team is down by two touchdowns and he's doing a swashbuckling

move, not going to, not going down a first down pass.

Like just what are you doing?

Like and this is, this is him in year three.

This isn't a young man.

This isn't somebody who just came into the NFL.

That's a guy where it's all about him.

Yeah.

And that is the opposite of everything I've ever seen in the packer locker room.

I mean, since I was a little kid, you can talk about some of the egos that have been

in that locker room from James Lofton to Brett Favre or anything like that.

And we've heard some horror stories, we've heard some stories, but I never heard of

a guy like that who is that kind of disruptive to where they're kicking them out, they're

not letting them play in games because of how disruptive he is.

He's messing up, how do you mess up a coin toss?

Who messes up a coin toss?

Honestly, if he never played another NFL down because of strictly because of that, I'd

be perfectly fine with it.

I'd be like, well, you know what?

He's a very talented young man.

Everybody deserves second chances, but he messed up a coin toss.

Okay, yeah.

Okay, you just don't do.

How do you do that?

I mean, what kind of, what are you in your brain tells you?

That's a good idea.

That's not a good decision maker to me.

That's not somebody who I want.

When I need maybe the most important position on defense that nobody talks about being the

most important position on defense is your island corner, your corner that can stand

on an island.

You'll leave a silence.

Yes.

Yes.

Everybody knows we need corners, but they don't talk about the type of corner you need nowadays

in this NFL.

Michael Robinson was a corner picked by the Packers.

They did this with their Pittsburgh pick and numbers in the seventh round, 237.

A guy who was not necessarily on anybody's board.

He was not even in the top 100, or top 60 corners out there or anything like that.

But then if you look at his stats and you see, yeah, Valentine played nearly 700 snaps

as a rookie last year.

Our Carrington Valentine for the Packers.

So it's not like they can't take a kid off the court or off the field and put him in

the real live action.

And they're not afraid to do it.

They're not afraid to put these guys in these positions.

I mean, I don't, again, I understand if people have issues with the pick, I don't know

what better talent there was out there when you're talking about coaches are grabbing

for scheme.

They're Sanders.

Yeah.

Right.

Oh, I'd have loved to see that.

And well, we got John Williams to talk about in these undrafted picks.

We'll get to them when we come back after our final time out of this Wednesday edition

of Playmakers.

Welcome back, everybody.

Playmakers here at WIRI.

Michael and James here to take your sports, takes in feelings, call up, and join the

conversation 715-424-2600.

We're talking about the Packers draft class and I just, real quickly, so I want to get

your grade.

I want to get what you think of the class as a whole.

Real quick, adding to the conversation, the undrafted picks that the Packers have made,

back Amar Johnson and Jillian White, both running backs, Jillian Fleming, wide receiver,

Brad Banks, Tackle, offensive lineman, J.J. Lippie, deep offensive lineman, Azir Stackhouse,

who should be given an NFL contract just for that name, Limebecker, Jameson, Dumas,

Johnson, and Tyrone Harrington at Corner, and a DB, Jonathan Baldwin.

To be honest, not a lot of names that I noticed from college and I watch a lot of college

football.

I'm interested to see what that Dumas Johnson, I want to see what he does, and if he makes

the team, if he makes it, becomes a star, because then we got to get in a recording studio

here in Dumas, Johnson.

Yes.

Absolutely.

It looks like the type of linebacker that'll fit real good with Edger and Cooper, 61238.

He played it Kentucky last year, but he was a Georgia product, he transferred.

Our story of the show is involving the Green Bay Packers and the NFL draft, and that

alone is a great story of the show, but it gets better because a northeastern Wisconsin

was a willing host for the event, of course, and the Packers have decided to bring in a

local for the camp.

UW lacrosse wide receiver, Jake Stutter, has been invited to try out at the Packers Rookie

Mini Camp.

I always think it's a cool story when these things happen.

And don't look lightly at it.

I mean, there are at least 10 examples I'd think of off the top of my head of guys who

did this and got a good 5, 10-year career maybe out of it.

So that's a great paycheck.

We'll see what happens for that kid.

Excited for him.

So Michael, all of these picks put together right in front of you, what is your take from

the draft?