Live from the Civic Media World Headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin, it's the Todd Alba Show.
And now, pursuing truth wherever it may lead, here's your host, Todd Alba.
Across
Wisconsin on the Civic Media Radio Network.
and streaming worldwide on the Civic Media app.
Good afternoon, everybody.
I'm Tom Albaugh along with the fantastic Mr. Aaron Zommerz on the board.
It is six past the hour of 12 noon on this TGI Friday edition of the Albaugh show of March 7th, 2025.
It is a great day to be a Wisconsinite.
Mr. Zommerz, welcome in.
We are here at the World Headquarters in downtown Madison where it looks like a snow globe.
It's beautiful out right there now.
How about that?
Well, you want to take a look at the street cam out there?
If I can figure it out.
There we go.
For those watching on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, on the old stream there, things are a little frozen.
Zommer space is right now frozen on this.
Oh, there we go.
There we go.
Look at that.
Beautiful out there.
Delivery truck right in front of the Overture Center.
Cars going by.
Lots of people in town today for the state hockey tournament.
Among them are very own Chad Holmes.
Great broadcaster from WXE or Wausau as the girls team is in town for that.
And so all kinds of great things going on.
We will talk about that a little bit later in terms of state high school sports with our guests at the bottom of the hour.
As we do every other Friday, Mr. Brady Ewing, three-time Big Ten champion with Wisconsin Badgers and also three years in the NFL as a fullback.
We'll talk a little bit about high school sports.
State tournament time of the year.
Also, the draft coming up.
Brady went through some of that.
We'll talk about preparations for the draft.
And also, but a couple of great stories this week on Wisconsin Men's Basketball.
Former player, now assistant coach, Greg Stiemusma, had a very, very honest article there, a column that he wrote on mental health.
And going through that as an athlete and how he is helping current Badgers get through things like that.
And also Max Klesman, one of the current players on the Wisconsin Badgers.
A great story via the Big Ten Network.
Again, partly on his mental health, why he kind of stepped away and just traveled for a while.
to get his mind kind of around himself, not just the game, but around his own health and mental health, and Brady and I will discuss that, and much more can be up to the bottom of the hour.
Hour two, what's worse today, a subject that I know a lot about, being late or being early.
We'll discuss that.
As Amherst is in with a board game of the week, and our old friend Scott Klug, one of my four bosses, is in as a political orphan these days, talking a little bit about voting.
And maybe what the legislature of Madison should do to get their act in gear.
So he will let's a new, a new thing we're going to start doing every Friday.
Kluge has a two minute commentary and his take, Kluge's take.
So we'll have that in hour number two as well.
So big show today, Zabers.
Are you ready?
Are you set?
Let's go.
All right.
Very good.
Let's do that.
Glad to have you along here on our Friday.
We have a guest in studio today, which we are always very happy to do.
His name is Tim Gordon.
He is with Building Unity Wisconsin.
Says moving forward, moving Wisconsin, forward together a great, great pro-democracy organization.
Tim, good afternoon and welcome into the studio.
Hey Todd, thanks for having me.
Well, it's a pleasure.
I know this kind of got late.
I appreciate your flexibility and you rode down in the in the little bit of the snow here on your bike.
It looks like coming in and it looks like frosty the snowmen.
We appreciate you getting here.
Thank you so much.
It's really great to be here.
So tell us a little bit about yourself, Tim.
Are you from the Madison area?
And then tell us a little bit about building Unity across Wisconsin.
Sure.
Well, I myself moved here to go to school back when I was about 20 years old and fell in love with the city and have pretty much stayed ever since.
So yeah, I've raised some kids here and worked in the Madison schools for a while as a teacher, left for a short bit to pursue a short term stint as a dairy farmer that didn't last.
Yeah, where we're at.
Well, out near Blue Mounds, I was farming goats or raising goats for milk.
Yeah.
Wow.
You've done it all then.
I've done a few things.
I've also been a nurse and that was my last career in Madison.
Well, I should say my last career until I decided to...
take up my last career, which is to be a social justice activist.
That's amazing.
So if I may ask, where did you grow up at?
Where are you from?
Milwaukee area most of the time.
Oh, okay, I was here from Wisconsin
guy.
But I think it's so fascinating because there was a time in this country where, you know, people either went to school or they didn't, and then they had a career for 30 years and got a gold watch and retired and that's it.
But I think your journey is indicative of so many people in Wisconsin where
We do something for a while and we move on.
We do something else for a while.
And it's a, it's a great state.
I think that offers people an opportunity to explore those things.
Yeah, I agree.
Yeah.
And you know, University of Wisconsin alum.
Yes.
All right.
See, we got badgers everywhere.
I love that.
It's fantastic.
So, so talk to us a little bit, Tim, about this, as you said, you're kind of your, maybe who knows what your final journey is going to be, but at least the current journey that you're on with building unity.
How did you get involved?
Well,
Building Unity is kind of something that I reached out to some friends, like our friend in common, Charlie Upoff and others, saying with the awareness that the progressive movement was really divided.
There's just a ton of different groups all pursuing their own little niche and some of them pursuing the same niche in different ways.
And it just seemed to me that we needed to get united as a people's front for peace, sustainability.
democracy and all forms of social justice.
And so that's what we're trying to do.
I love this because, you know, as we've navigated the last month and a half or so, it's fast and furious to understate it dramatically.
But we get calls from listeners, folks all the time that say, well, what can I do about it?
I feel helpless.
I don't turn it into the news because it's overwhelming.
And to me, here's something, here's a group of people getting together and saying, well, let's do something about this.
Let's connect with one another beyond our screens and then with our phones and let's connect in real life.
So I think that's great is, was there an impetus for this?
Was there a particular group that, or how did you all meet the founders of this
organization?
Well, mostly I just reached out to folks.
Once I had the idea, I reached out to people and said, let's get together.
And then we started meeting in somebody's living room.
And before you know it, we had, you know, Charlie loved the idea.
Charlie is very much a unity builder.
And he really made a big difference because what he did is in 2019, as we were preparing for the 2020 elections, which of course were
big deal for all of us.
And I want to just say at the start, we're a nonpartisan project.
We work with a lot of 501c3s, and so we don't endorse any party or candidates, but we do endorse issues.
Like you said, the issues that fall under peace, justice, sustainability, or democracy.
So anyways, Charlie took his own money, purchased a old 34-foot motorhome, and over the years, we've been painting it and putting banners on it.
showing up around the state for all kinds of causes, from gun rights, or I should say, rational gun laws, gun reform, immigrant rights to the climate crisis that we're in, reproductive freedom, everything.
We want to build a movement in this vehicle.
The Unity Mobile is what we've been taking these tours around the state, and we're preparing to launch one tomorrow on Women's Day.
I think this is great because I'm a big favor of mobiles, whether it's the Weedermobile, of course, Oscar Myers and quite as Wisconsin as it used to be, but I'm still a fan of the Weedermobile.
You know, LL Bean has the Boopmobile they go around.
The Culver's has a vehicle.
So I think these are great because it's a moving billboard and it offers people some visibility of your organization.
And what I love about it is that something we're very fond on this show
is going out into communities.
And we did a tour, I just wrote a column about it that's coming out today, I think, on civic media.
We went to over 25 different cities, villages, and towns across Wisconsin last year.
And now you're about to go on one of these tours.
Tell us what, again, what the tour is called and where it's kicking off tomorrow, please.
Sure.
The tour is called the March to Election Day Tour.
And anyone who's really paying attention, and maybe some of us that
that aren't realized that the April 1st election is going to be very big for the Supreme Court.
A lot hangs in the balance.
We've finally gotten fair maps in Wisconsin.
There's a little bit of a reprieve on reproductive freedom in Wisconsin.
And I think if we don't make sure we turn out the vote, those things could be gone very quickly.
So this election is real important.
We're also...
wanting to get organized because we see that at the federal level our democracy is crumbling and oligarchy has taken a real stronghold in America and we think it's time for workers and all people working people but people from all walks of life to come together in unity and really strengthen our democracy get involved
I love the fact that officially it's a nonpartisan organization, the 501C3.
I mean, I was Republican for a long time until I left the party in 2011.
And I think there's a lot of folks who, well, my former boss is this commentary on hour two.
He calls himself a political orphan these days.
My other former boss, Dale Schultz, former state senator, I mean, you know, I think he feels a little political orphan these days.
And so I think groups like this that can say, look, we don't care whether you're a current or former Republican or a current Democrat, or you consider yourself a progressive, whatever it is, democracy should be something I think, Tim, that we should all be concerned about.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
What's happening now is really many are calling it fascism.
And I'm not sure they're not right.
It's really frightening what's happening in our country and I think it's time for us, we the people, to make sure that we're bringing our humanity to our political work and there's just no reason for all the cruelty that's happening.
Just cutting thousands of jobs that are going to cost lives is unconscionable.
Yeah, we're talking to Tim Gordon from Building Unity Wisconsin here in our studio.
So happy to have him along.
Kick it off for this big tour tomorrow here in Madison across the state.
You can find out all the information by going to buildingunitywisconsin.org.
Building Unity Wisconsin spelled out.
O-dot-o-r-g, Mr. Zommers, as he always does.
Great at it.
You will put all this in our show notes so you can see it directly from them.
We have about a minute and a half here before the first break.
We'll come back and finish this up.
But again, tell folks where the kickoff event is tomorrow and what the focus is on this tour.
Thank you, Todd.
So we're kicking off tomorrow from the state capitol, the state street corner outside a Ho-Chunk woman led and organized.
Women's Day celebration is happening starting at 10 a.m.
It'll go till 12 30 at that time some Ho-Chunk drummers and singers will play a traveling song to send the Unity Mobile on its way.
That's right.
And one of our first stops will be Viroqua.
We'll be moving on to La Crosse.
And then we're visiting the Ho-Chunk in their community up in Black River Falls the next day still celebrating Women's Day weekend.
Why we chose Women's Day?
We feel that equity for all people
including women is something we need in this country very badly.
Yeah, certainly timely as
they say
these days to do that.
And I love the fact that you are starting in Madison, the capital, but you're going to some of these war rural areas of the state where oftentimes we don't have these thoughtful discussions.
And I think it's great.
We're going to come back, talk more about this tour with Tim Corden from Building the Unity Wisconsin and Brady Ewing after the bottom of the hour on football and also mental health and basketball.
So it's a well-rounded show today.
I'm glad you're along with us on the snowy front.
It's the All Bulls show on the Civic Media Brady Network.
Having fun doing it.
Welcome back to the title of all show on the Civic Media Ready Network 21 now past the hour of 12 noon on this Friday, March 7th, 2025.
Zomers on the board.
Glad to have you along with us here on a Friday snow coming down.
It doesn't look like a whole heck of a lot.
Most of the accumulation will be along the Wisconsin Illinois border.
So it says our meteorology team.
So, but be careful out there.
If you're driving on the highways and byways, could get some slickery roads, but we should have a warm up by the weekend.
maybe temperatures into the fifties in some part of the state.
So be aware of that.
Right now we have a coming up after the bottom of the hour, Brady Ewing, former Wisconsin Badger football player, spent three years in the NFL.
Gonna spend some time talking about mental health today, a couple of great stories from Wisconsin Badger basketball.
Some of those things that we don't always think about when it comes to our athletes, whether it be a high school, college or the NFL.
But right now we're pleased to be joined by Tim.
Corden if Todd could read his writing.
I think I got it wrong at least till once the last time but Tim I apologize for that Tim is the from the building unity, Wisconsin organization And they are kicking off a statewide bus tour tomorrow here in Madison You can learn all about the itinerary and more about their great organization by going to building unity Wisconsin dot org that's building unity, Wisconsin spelled out
and it's a great tour.
Again, Tim, I apologize.
You would think because I was a big James Corden fan when he was the host of the Late Late Show.
Any relation, you know?
No.
Oh, okay.
Spelt
differently.
But great to have you along.
And thanks for taking the time to be in studio here today.
One of the, on watching this on YouTube right now, we have Tim who says, love seeing Tim and the building unity bus at different union strikes I've attended.
and hashtag solidarity.
You have a fan, look at that.
Hey, thanks, Tim.
I appreciate you being here.
So tell folks a little bit again, because, well, I'm gonna let you go first.
You're the guest.
As you've traveled around Wisconsin or held these before, what issues do you hear mostly?
Is there a through line that people, regardless of partisan affiliation, political affiliation,
What's the through line that you found that Wisconsinites are most concerned about?
I would say there are two main ones.
One is that people want a fair shake for their work.
As working people, we're tired of seeing the wages of the elites, the owning class go up and up and up and up and up astronomical figures.
working people are not keeping up with the economy inflation and so I think that's a big thing people are finding it's harder to get by and they're having to work two jobs you know and and you know both both members of the family working two jobs or one job you know one it's just really hard for people to get by the other thing is our environment anybody who's paying attention realizes that
We are in a environmental emergency, and it's getting worse and worse every year.
And if we want to leave our children any kind of livable planet, we've got a lot of work to do, and we need to do it quickly.
So those are the two I would say.
The other thing is, we see that there's always money for war.
There's always money to send billions off.
And we know that weapons industries profit greatly from all of that.
But how is that helping America?
It doesn't seem to be helping America at all.
It seems that more than not, we are making enemies around the globe while we promote wars that just level people.
So we're very much about promoting peace and bringing that money home to meet the human needs.
Good education, good infrastructure.
We need to transition to a livable green economy.
And all of that could be paid for with just a couple of weeks of what we spend on war in this world.
We did a show last Earth Day just north of town here at Governor Nelson State Park.
We had the late Governor and US Senator's daughter, Tia Nelson on.
And I think it's a good reminder that these issues of conservation are, you know, at one time this state, they were bipartisan, you know?
She made the point that her late father, Governor and Senator Gaylord Nelson worked with Republicans to create Earth Day.
and to do these projects.
Warren Knowles, a Republican, former Republican governor, was very pro-conservation and helped with a lot of things there.
And you even look at somebody like former Governor Tommy Thompson, an ardent Republican, worked with my former boss Dale Schultz, a Republican in the state assembly at the time, and Spencer Black,
from Madison in the State Assembly, a very liberal and proud Democrat to create the Lower Wisconsin Riverway that is now celebrating its 35th anniversary.
And I think if we take a moment to step back at history, some of our greatest accomplishments when it comes to the environment and conservation of the state have been bipartisan.
And we've allowed kind of modern day politics to skew that.
But it shouldn't be because it doesn't matter our political affiliation I think we all enjoy a state park or going fishing or hiking or hunting or camping
Absolutely.
Yeah, who doesn't love nature who doesn't love seeing the the wildlife in Wisconsin and getting out and hiking in the woods or hunting or fishing or whatever it is You love to do in the woods It's very important and that's our that's we are we are so dependent on our environment being alive and clean
Is it any wonder that more and more people are dying of cancer, you know, in these days?
And I think the answer is really working to clean up our environment and to protect it with everything we've got.
And we know that at the rate things are going, there's not going to be a livable planet for our kids.
About two minutes left.
The time-wise goal is to quickly, Tim, but talk to us a little bit about, once again, remind folks where this tour is kicking off tomorrow and then this focus on the April 1st election, please.
Yeah, so we're kicking off from the state capital, the state street steps, Ho-Chunk and woman-led celebration of Earth Day.
There'll be Ho-Chunk drummers and singers and dancers.
There'll be many good speakers.
And we're kicking off around the state to really sound the alarm that this Supreme Court election on April 1st is critical.
A lot of our human rights, our environmental protections, all kinds of things are on the block.
Fair maps.
We've enjoyed having some fair maps and having more of a democracy in this last election.
And if we want that to continue, we really need to make sure that the Supreme Court has people on it that are...
in favor with democracy and human rights.
And again, this tour is going to be going all across the state places, like Green Bay, Appleton, Madison, Sheboygan, Mequon, Kenosha, Racine, Milwaukee, Beloit back.
I mean, it's all
over the state.
Yeah.
And one thing I want to point out is we're trying, and we're going to at least visit, but we're trying to arrange for meetings with all 12 of the sovereign indigenous nations in Wisconsin.
So it's really an international tour.
That's fantastic.
That's great.
And you can find out more by going to Building Wisconsin.
Building Unity.
I'm sure.
Thank you.
Building Unity Wisconsin.
Building Unity Wisconsin dot o r g. Tim Corden.
Thank you very much for being here.
We appreciate you and appreciate all your work.
Safe travels around the state.
Thanks so much, Todd.
Our pleasure.
Stay with us.
Come on back.
Brady Ewing is next.
Talk about Badger Sports, the NFL and mental health.
Maybe a little snowshoeing as well.
I don't know.
We'll figure something.
Come on back.
Brady is next.
This is Todd Albault's show at the Civic Media Ready
Network.
Welcome back to the Tunnelball Show on the Civic Media Ready Network.
On this TGI Friday edition, March 7th, it is 34 minutes past the hour of 12 noon.
We bring on now our favorite 34 in all the world.
We share a hometown of Richland Center.
We spent three years.
Not when he spent four years with Wisconsin Badgers, won three Big Ten championships, went to three Rose Bowls, was the captain of the team his senior year after starting as a walk-on, then spent three years in the NFL with Atlanta and Jacksonville respectively.
Not only is he a great dad and husband, he's a fantastic deer hunter as well, as evidenced by the mounts on his wall behind him.
The one and the only Brady Ewing joins us from the old hometown in R.C.
in the drift list.
Brady, how the heck are you?
doing awesome.
Yeah, maybe you'll get some people to jump on the live feed and check out the deer in the background.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
It's fantastic.
Yeah.
Join us in the live stream on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, on the Civic Media page, on Facebook, also the All Ball Show page, whichever you want to do.
And yeah, how many mounts do you have?
Is this in your, is this like, what part of the house is this in?
Yeah, this is my
little man cave office area so fantastic my wife Rachel voted on the the dark color in here which I think works well with the with the mounts I got four mounts back there and a European here and then a few others in my in the hunting room and
My
granddad Alba was a big hunter back on the farm and their house wasn't all that big.
So he had mounts like in the living room, in the dining room, in the utility room.
They were everywhere.
My grandma had no sale for it.
And then we went out, we took a family trip with the grandkids out to South Dakota and he brought back.
a quote unquote mount of a jackalope, which of course is a jackrabbit with fake cordons put on it.
And he put that right up next to the deer.
I thought that was hilarious.
That's great.
Yeah, mine haven't ventured out to the living room yet.
So that's an ongoing conversations, but I'm happy to have him in here.
And I like, like taking a peek at him when I'm on conference calls for work and other things.
Some of those things.
It's
fantastic.
It's fantastic.
Well, Brady, lost to get to this week.
We always appreciate you taking the time.
state tournament time.
We were showing earlier the sidewalks here in downtown Madison are busier than normal on a Friday.
Lots of high school kids in town.
State high school hockey is this weekend.
Our own Chad Holmes from WXCO and others.
There's the street.
Not quite as many people right now, but
that some teams walking up and down, you can, it's great cause you can tell they're dressed in their team warmups or whatever.
And they're excited to be here from all over the state.
Chad Holmes from WXCO and in Wausau that other girls team is here.
He's down here broadcasting that, but I don't think it matters whether it's a, you know, we had last week, we had a state high school wrestling tournament, Madison.
This week we got hockey.
We got boys basketball coming up and then a little bit later in the spring, you have state.
a solo ensemble for band and choir.
I just think it's great when these high school kids get to take that trip to Madison and showcase it.
It's a learning experience.
It is.
I mean, it's a great culmination on the season.
Obviously the ones that made it down to Madison for the state tournament, you know, they're trying to win it all and trying to make memories with their teams and for their communities.
So I think that's really cool.
And I can speak.
I never had the chance to play in a state.
tournament or anything, but we had the chance to play down at UW at Camp Randall against Platteville, a part of a series they used to do where high school teams would come in and play at Camp Randall.
And I can remember the excitement before the season started and that week leading up to that game, just looking forward to playing on the field that the Badgers played on and other Big Ten teams.
And just a great memory that's etched in my brain.
Yeah, that's a cool experience for those kids.
And I know my sister had a chance to experience that when she was in high school with the original center basketball team playing at state a few times.
And yeah, just great memories for
them.
Did you always kind of know in the back of your head when you, in your high school football career, did you just say, I want to go to Wisconsin no matter what?
Because you could have gone to a D3 or D2 school and started right away.
You chose to be a walk on to go to Wisconsin that first year.
Yeah, I I did I grew up in the state I always rooted for the Badgers and so we were going on different recruiting visits throughout the Big 10 and Trying to you know, see if I could get scholarship offers and things like that I did have one from a division one school from University of North Dakota to play linebacker and then some division two and division three opportunities but in my heart I knew I wanted to be a Badger and as we've been texted here the last couple weeks and we see stories about
are others that are Badgers currently like Klesman and Gilmore.
You know, I feel like my story parallels theirs a little bit and the fact that I wanted to be a Badger and you've somewhat become the heartbeat of your team from a passion standpoint and a culture standpoint.
And just, yeah, so to go in and be a walk-on and then earn a scholarship and be a contributor to that, something that's way bigger than me that represents the state.
And I think a lot of people in the state are passionate about it was super
Super fulfilling, rewarding.
Yeah, it really is.
You brought up Carter Gilmore.
And I think, Zomers, we have a little bit of a clip here.
This is a story, I believe, the Big 10 Network put out a profile piece on Carter Gilmore.
As you said, Brady, Wisconsin guy who walked on, we're not going to play all of it.
You can find it online in socials.
But I want to give folks just a taste of the start of this profile by the Big 10 Network on Wisconsin men's basketball player Carter Gilmore.
Carter.
is one of those guys that was born to be a badger.
My dad played for Bull Ryan over at Platteville.
It was quite an experience playing with Bull.
In 1991, we won a national championship.
He really preached the fundamentals, how to work hard, play defense, and that's what I try to teach Carter.
That was my dream from the beginning to be a Wisconsin Badger one day.
I didn't care if I was a walk-on or not.
I just came in the first day with so much joy.
I think that ultimately led Coach Guard to that next summer offering me a scholarship.
He would do whatever it took to help this team be successful.
That's the bottom line.
It didn't matter.
We'll cut it off there.
That's a great guard at the very end there saying that it didn't matter took whatever it took to help the team.
I thought it was so well done, Brady.
You and your brother, Brandon and I were kind of texting about it.
Just need your thoughts on Carter Gilmore as a player and a guy.
You cut out there as a way.
Just your knee jerk thoughts as Carter Gilmore is just a player and a guy.
Got it.
Yeah, I mean, I'll be honest.
I watched that piece and I got goosebumps and emotional through that along with some of the other stuff that I think we're going to chat about today.
And I wasn't super high on him.
And he talks more in that video about his progression as a player.
Like he wanted to be a badger.
He has the history with his dad and Bo Ryan.
When he first came in, I don't think performed to his expectations or to people's expectations around him.
He talks through some of the.
the challenges that came with that and the way that he was able to go reset his mindset and now has led into a senior year where he's, I believe senior year, where he's been just having a tremendous run, especially here at the back half of the season.
So early in his career, to be honest, I wasn't super high on him, but to see the way he's progressed and now learn more about his story and the way that I didn't know about his dad and his history with Bo.
But you can see those flashes and what he brings to the team.
You can tell he's a heartbeat guy, that guy's rally around, that want to be around.
And he's been doing a great job shooting some threes, doing the dirty work, getting rebounds.
And so just really cool to see more and more people open up about the challenges they have, whether that's mental or physical challenges and the process they've taken to try to
getting a better headspace and embrace who they are and the, you know, know that they have intrinsic value beyond just, you know, what they're putting out on the court or the football field, whatever it may be.
You mentioned, you know, he gets very, he's very open in this, in this piece of the Big Ten Network.
It gets emotional talking about it that, you know, after that first season, you know, that they offer him, he's a walker, they offer him a scholarship card does.
And then he doesn't really perform up to expectations.
And again, this seems to be a recurring theme now in today's world on social media, people just start saying nasty things to him.
And after a game, he's looking at this and he just gets dejected and it really affects him.
And he ends up taking during kind of the off season, if you will, and goes on this trip with a few friends across Europe to get away from it and to reevaluate himself and to take care of his mental health.
And I want to just kind of bring in this other story.
We're going to put links to this on the website today.
Greg Steemswell came out with a piece, former Wisconsin Badger player, now one of the assistant coaches under Greg Gard at basketball, who had to take a season, I believe, away from basketball and talks about the fact that, you know, the former trainer, Henry, jeez, I can't say his last name.
Yes.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Henry Guerrero Perez.
Did you, did you know him?
I mean, I know he worked primarily at basketball, but I mean, this is, he literally saved Greg's team as it was life.
Yeah.
And I've had, yeah, he just gave me goosebumps there again, but I had a chance to, to meet and get to know Henry a little bit during the recruiting process in basketball when I was getting recruited by Greg and Bo and it doesn't surprise me.
I can remember going on the facility.
Whoop, he had a little, it's the old, it's the snowstorm there, the snowstorm of the internet there, cut out for a second, but we'll re-establish that connections with Brady Ewing here in just a couple of seconds.
Let's see, are you back Brady?
Sorry.
I'm
back,
sorry about that.
The snowstorm cut out for a second, but the last thing we heard was that you got to know Henry Prez just a little bit on the recruiting trail when Coach Ryan was recruiting you along with Garb, but go ahead.
Yeah, sorry about those technical difficulties, but yeah, had a chance to get to meet him, get to know him a little bit and
I got that sense right away.
He just pulled me aside, asked me, you know, how I was doing and so genuine, you know, you just get that sense when people are genuinely curious and interested in how they can help and support you.
And so I felt that right away.
And I think for me, reading that article, obviously love Steamsma's, you know, forthcoming and just his vulnerability to share that story first and foremost.
But I think it's a great reminder for us all that
what you never know what somebody's going through.
I think it's easy to look at people that are on this pedestal of sport or whatever they're doing, even in any working career.
And people are always, you never know what they're going through, whether that's as a family, as an individual, and you never know when you can be Henry to somebody.
Being genuinely curious on how people are doing.
And I think we all have that sense when we know somebody's not doing well and we ask the question, sometimes we,
take their no I'm good as you know for what it's worth but I think pushing forward asking more questions and just having the sense to know that when somebody's not doing well and how you can support them sometimes that's just being there side by side with them and I think Henry and Greg did just that story did a tremendous job orchestrating that and hopefully inspiring others to do the same.
A Gilmore, his story talks about just needing time with friends away from basketball to kind of refocus and come back.
He said, joyful.
He said, I came back to be, to be a joyful player and focused on the joy of it.
And that's really helped him turn his game around.
And, and Steemsma, you know, he'd had a bad day.
And here's the trainer for men's basketball, Henry Perez showing up at 3am to knock on the door.
And Perez just like, you seem like in a rough day.
And at first Steemsma was like, you know, I'm not, I'm fine.
But Perez, to your point, Brady,
knew that he pushed through that and he stayed with them till the sun came up to like 6 30 in the morning.
And that was the impetus for steam is going to go and get counseling and do a confront his parents and coach Ryan not confront, but to say, look, I've neglected my studies because of my mental health.
I'm not going to be academically eligible in the spring and I need help.
Yeah.
And that takes a lot of courage.
I haven't been in that exact situation, but to go to people when you care about sports so much,
And to go to those people that kind of hold that in their hands per se, whether that's your head coach, your position coach, that takes a lot of vulnerability that they won't hold things like that against you.
You know, you always want to portray this image of, you know, in sport, you know, toughness and, you know, I got it all together, but it's okay.
It's a great reminder that it's okay to not be okay.
And everybody's human.
Everybody has challenges they deal with and people genuinely.
want to help and support.
You just have to vocalize it and ask for it at times and be vulnerable with that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Our reminder when we talk about things like this, if you or someone that you love or know needs to talk with someone, if you feel that you need help, it is only a phone call or text away.
Simply pick up your phone and dial 988.
nine, eight, eight.
There is someone standing by seven days a week, 24 hours a day to talk with you and look at folks like Carter Gilmore.
Look at folks like Greg Steemswell, who Brady said, it seems like they always have it together, but none of us really do.
I don't think all the time and we all need
help
sometimes.
Come on back.
We'll be helped out with the
Brady
viewing being above our guest after this on the Todd Allball Show on Civic Media.
Looking at me saying, Todd really does need to lose some weight.
That means how he plays this.
So I jump around the only exercise I get in my broadcast day.
Appreciate that, Somers.
Nine before the hour of two o'clock coming up at the top of the hour.
CBS ABC News followed by a check of weather.
Our great sports reporter, Mike Clemens, along with sports.
And then hour number two, what's worse coming up?
Having to do with time.
people who are always early or people who are always late.
Brady Ewing, three-time Big Ten champion with Wisconsin Badger Football three years on the NFL joins us every other Friday.
Brady, what do you think?
People who are always early or people who are always late?
I'm going with people who are always late, but there's, there's such a fine line for being too early.
And we were talking about it during the break a little bit and Brett Villamo was big when I was at Wisconsin on being early.
and typically he would start meetings if we were slated to start at 1 p.m.
he would start it at 1255 you know so you knew there was the five minute window but then later in my career it started getting to the point where you didn't know when he was going to start so early in my career it was five minutes typically on the nose early and then later in my career it was like 15 20 minutes early
So you never really knew what the, you know, the calendar would say one PM, but they might start to meeting at 1240.
So it just kept you on your toes, which I, I struggle with because then they would get punished.
I never got into the trouble with it, but, you know, they would give people, you know, quote unquote punishment for being late when they were actually 15 minutes earlier than the time that was on the schedule.
That's too early.
That's pretty extreme.
That's too early.
But by the way,
your former teammate, uh, James White going to Illinois now to help out the badge or to help out the ally and I and be a
crazy.
Yeah.
I'm happy for James.
And I know that he's been doing some stuff with NIU and Thomas hammock to, uh, Northern Illinois and to see him able to get into that space.
James is just an awesome guy, you know, has his own podcast and, uh, you know, played obviously a long time with some great football minds.
So he'll no doubt he'll bring.
a ton to that team and and Billima keeps building out guys that have, you know, Wisconsin history or that he's coached with a long time.
It'll be interesting to see what Illinois continues to do in the future.
They've been they've been getting better and better and better every year.
I think they're going to be a thorn in Wisconsin's side.
We'll save that to another day.
Quickly, Brady.
Wisconsin Badgers got a big win against the evil Golden Gophers.
I should say that, but against the Golden Gophers of Minnesota this week on Wednesday.
And poor Jack Janicki.
I mean, here's another kid from Minnesota that was a
I could have gone other places, decided to walk on at Wisconsin, is pay in his own way.
You gotta know there's some NIL money in his future real soon.
But coming off the bench, I think he scored six or eight points, eight seconds left, and the kid gets pushed to the floor and chips part of his tooth off.
I mean, Lewis has a tooth.
Oh,
man.
That's brutal.
I mean, yeah, we texted a little bit about this.
My brother's dealt with that from playing basketball as well.
You know, yeah, maybe this could be a good NIL opportunity for him to work with like some dental place or some
Dr. Rob Bradley a first choice dental he was voted the number one cosmetic dentist in Madison I said get over to him Let's make it happen.
Let's make it happen.
Let's bring Jack some money
That's unfortunate, you know the picture I saw he had a smile on his face
and
obviously got the win but man, that's
That's brutal.
Hopefully you got those fixed up and can be ready to go for tomorrow.
I like Wisconsin.
He said you're going to go tomorrow.
I like Wisconsin's chances to wrap up the season with a win, assuming you do as well.
Yeah, I think, I think, especially at home, I mean, big Penn States, I think on a two game losing streak at the kind of the bottom of the big 10.
You never know in the big 10 because it's such a tough conference and who's going to show up.
But I think it's senior day as well.
So.
I think the team will be inspired to come out and compete, especially with some of the challenges they've had the last three, four games.
I think we'll keep them motivated and hopefully hit their stride and take
care of business.
10 with like, I don't know, six minutes to go.
And then Tom Izzo blew a gasket and they kind of got it.
Michigan State wins last night over, over the evil friends of Iowa.
And they clinched the big 10 out right now.
So the final game against Michigan really doesn't mean anything.
Quickly, Brady, looking ahead to the big 10 tournament and NCAA.
How do you like the Badgers chances?
I like their chances.
I'm, you know, assuming that we can hit the ground run in here and then in the big 10 tournament, I feel like
We've had some challenges at the right time and continue to gain momentum and win games.
So I like their chances.
In the tournament, it usually comes up to matchups, especially in the NCAA tournament, just making sure you can get one-on-one matchups with guys and they're hot on specific days.
And I think with the depth of talent that we have and how we kind of rotate and who's been producing, and then hopefully with Klesmit coming back tomorrow, I feel like he is a little bit of a heartbeat that we've been missing the last couple of games.
I think all of the stars are aligning for them to make a next run.
Yeah, I look like
As for sure, a three seed at this point, maybe, maybe an outside chance of a two if they go deep in the Big Ten tournament for the NCAAs.
That's important because Pfizer for Milwaukee hosts one of the first round games.
It looks like Wisconsin could be playing in Milwaukee.
We all know the power of that to advancing to the sweet sweet 16.
Quickly, Brady, I've lifted you all of about a minute and a half year or less than that pro day.
The NFL draft coming up here in Green Bay soon pro day.
Did you ever participate in pro day, Brady?
I did.
Yeah.
I didn't do all of the events.
I mostly, I tried to do everything at the combine when I had a chance to be there.
And so I used pro day more as a chance to work directly with coaches on drills or skills that they wanted to see.
And then Russell was looking for like a running back to catch passes out of the backfield.
So I took part in that.
And yeah, it was a great experience.
I don't, I don't know if I've,
I've shared it before.
Go ahead.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, he wrestled us, he was on fire that day.
Russell Wilson, yeah.
Doug Peterson was there and had a chance to go grab lunch with those guys afterwards.
So really cool experience and kind of
laying the foundation.
With 20 seconds, he drops on, oh, I had dinner with Doug Peterson and Russell Wilson.
If that's not a tease for the next segment for the next time, I don't know what is.
Well done, Brady Ewing.
Thank you very much.
We appreciate you, my friend.
We'll see you around the neighborhood.
Take care, Brady Ewing.
Thank you.
Our pleasure.
What worse is next?
Come on back.
Don't be late.
