Good afternoon, everybody. Welcome into the Winkler Verse. I am Bart Winkler. Paul Emmett, Grandpills, joining us on our weekly. This is Winkler Verse episode seven fifty four.
We are spinning our way to seven seven seven. I'm going to get details set up about a live broadcast at Potawatomi as they are helping us count up to seven seven seven. I do intend to be there this week to make my five hundred dollar bet on the Bucks to go over.
Something that has been influenced heavily by the fact that there's nobody. What happens if you have a media day and you have no media? Tyler Hero gets asked about the Avengers Doomsday. Who was that? That guy has been there before.
I don't know who he is, but I recognize the voice. He asked some weird ass question like three years ago. He's, it was like, hey, if you and your girl, it was just the worst. And everyone looked at him like, what are you doing? I don't know who he is.
I actually considered going to media day. But you couldn't come up with questions that good. I know. Also, I had to go to the dentist.
So if I don't know how bad it was previously, but my teeth are less yellow and plaquey than they've been in the entire run of the Winkler verse. Out of boy, so I feel good about finally being. This like your first? Is this like your first dental appointment in years? Nine years.
It's my second decade-long stretch of no dentist. What's wrong with you? I'm I'm I'm on a run like that right now. I'm not proud of it, but oh no, it's ultimately fine. Go in there, say I suck.
This is going to be a bloodbath. I'm sorry for you, and they will really. In 45 minutes, they did nine years of dental work on me. Like it hurt. They numbed it.
It hurt a little bit when she was prying up top. But they show me the before and after. Like my teeth look like the bottom of a lake after an oil spill in the back, and now they're like beautiful. I mean, comparatively, so I don't feel bad. I spent I spent all.
I mean, how much time did I save not maintaining my teeth? But it did eight years, nine years of wear and tear damage. But it was an hour, and I just had a boo boo a few times. I was like, "Oh, that hurts!" A few times. Yeah, but will you get gum disease as a result?
I did say the word gingivitis in my wedding speech when I was thanking everybody. I did. I did say that word. I do want to before we get rolling here, Paul Emig, with us for about half the episode. Grant Bills, we're going to talk some badgers towards the end.
I wanted to remind you as the month is coming to an end, but it is getting darker sooner, and it is already getting. It was getting darker now in daylight savings. It's very important. This message, I don't want it to just evaporate. Do be careful on the roads with the bikes.
You should have the light on. You should have the helmet on. There's obviously bike safety, but just because you're in the car doesn't mean you can hit whoever you want. Your lights need to be on too. You need to be on the lookout.
Go a little slower. I know in Milwaukee that's impossible. Maybe don't. Blast through every yellow light, which I'm guilty of. I love driving Milwaukee and then going to Appleton for a weekend, because I just—it's like I'm—I'm so out of place the way I drive on those roads.
People slow down at green lights because they have it like timed when it turns yellow on College Avenue. It's ridiculous. The other thing I wanted to mention is I have been a hypocrite once again. I've told you guys repeatedly that the Packers Bears rivalry should take no. No more than twenty-one days of the year, you get a week each time they play, and then seven other fun days with draft or whatever.
I've been very just a piece of shit towards the Bears, not Chicago. I love Chicago. I'll reiterate, but towards the Bears, I just don't like that they keep acting like everything is happening to them for the first time. The Packers Bears game in Week Five got moved to noon. And I will continue to talk about the Bears because these mother effers.
I am trying not to swear. YouTube's been on my a, but they keep talking about how we've ruined the Packers. We broke you, and now you are mad that a rivalry game got moved from three twenty five to noon. That's your doing. If if you didn't ruin us, if Ben Johnson would have just shook Matt LeFleur's hand, this game would be played in the late afternoon on fall.
Instead, it's at noon.
So that's your fault. You reap what you sow, Bears fans. Paul, I love the noon. I'm great with the move.
Well, I don't like it because then I'm doing a post game during the red zone. Oh, selfishly, I can see why that would suck for you. Yeah. Yeah, and I I don't even like doing post games to begin with, but it's the only way I make any money on this thing. Can I?
Can I also just say I feel like if Caleb and Micah are healthy, this this game would be a three. I feel like this been overblown a little bit. The the backers suck right now. I'm not saying they don't, but if Caleb and Micah and like I I don't know backup quarterbacks get flexed, well then someone goes, someone goes, hey, don't you think Bart that. It's actually better that it's at noon because they're gonna get more of an audience than they would because now they're not splitting with Niners Seahawks.
A, we don't need to dissect everything that's ever happened in this world. B, no. If it was the premier game, it would the noon game. Whatever. If that's your logic, they'd be.
Come on, get out of here. All right, what do you got for us? Pi. I was going to ask if you want to start Brewers or Packers. I hope we can get to both in our time together, but let's do Packers because we're right there.
Here we go. The Packers are not a very good team. We were going to do the Packers later, but we moved them back because they're so. All right. The Packers are not a very good team, but considering they will face backup QBs the next two games, followed by two teams in Dallas and Detroit who have both looked very average so far, and then the Panthers at Lambeau on a short week.
So beyond the stinkiness of the Packers, Green Bay will enter Week Nine with no worse than a four and four record. Mm hmm, or mm hmm. You're gonna have to give me the schedule. We got Tampa, we got Chicago, Tampa, Chicago, Dallas, Detroit, Carolina. On a short week in Green Bay, and we're one and two, one and two.
So you have to go three and two at worst in that five game stretch. You're gonna face. An undrafted rookie quarterback. You're going to face either Bajent or Case Keenum, depending on how things unravel between now and then. You're going to, I mean, Detroit is meh, Dallas is meh, Carolina, who knows?
But that's a short week. That's a Thursday night game in Green Bay, so typically you should certainly, I mean, I know the Packers proved that wrong against Atlanta last week. A Thursday night home game should be an advantage for the home team. The Packers are no worse at at going into Week Nine, no worse than a 500 team. Four and four.
Currently, one and two. Or Grant, you can go first because I have to change my background and I want to fix something. It's bugging me that these are uneven. That's fine. On the Dan Shaney YouTube stream, Paul.
So. You and I'm weirdly optimistic about what the Packers can accomplish, but I must, in this particular question, say mm mm.
Okay. Because you listed some opponents there, and you're like, well, these should be get right games. No, not even. Yeah, I mean, just yeah. Go ahead.
I know you didn't say that, but that's kind of the theory, right? Like these should be winnable games. The problem is, is when you cheer for a bad team, and it seems as though the Packers are bad. You look at an opponent and say, oh, that's a get right game. They look at you.
And think it's a get right game. This is what we've run into the last couple years with the Badgers. Yeah, as you look at, you know Rutgers or whoever, and you're like, ah, that's a win. No, that's that's what they think when they see the W on this. Yeah, and the quarterbacks, like who have they lost to?
Carson once and Michael Penix, and they almost lost to Geno Smith. Like, sure, the quarterbacks could get worse, and the opponents could. Get easier, but not by much. You know, and plus the quarterbacks haven't been the the player, the person to beat him. Like Kirk Carson Wentz didn't have to do that much at all.
Yeah, you know, it's mostly this Packers offense that's absolutely incapable of doing anything.
So, so what is Paul?
So you got to put your money on their post week eight record. What is it going into week nine? With what record?
So, man, I'm not good at math, but you said they have to go at least three and two. I feel like I'll predict them to go two and three.
So not leagues worse, but I don't know that this feels like a team that's ever going to get to a point where it's like ah, and here they here they go.
So that now now we're on a roll.
So that would mean though that would mean, and I'm not saying you're wrong. That would mean they're on pace for a six or seven win season. Does that sound right? Yes.
Well done. If if you can assign the math to my take. I was told there. I was told there'd be no math today.
So if I, but if I told you this is a six or seven win team that you've seen so far through three games, you would that. Yeah. Okay. I'm sorry. What we've seen through three games is a four or five win team.
They will. They will get better than that. Um. I. I.
I don't want people to overlook Jalen Daniels. From the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, he's the exact kind of quarterback that will kill us. But and I don't want people to overlook Case Keenum or Tyson Beighton. Like I've I've seen the discussion that you know maybe Ben Johnson's better off with a guy he can rein in. He's they are they have Matt Lafleur talking about yeah Malik Willis yeah.
So I really don't. Want to overlook anybody because we are the we are the bad team here. We're the team that's no good. We're not like worst team in the league situation, but we're not good. We are definitely a bottom third team at this point.
We are just bringing in the most desperation of desperation moves on the offensive line, which is better than nothing. And that's as far as I can go. Good take. It it is better than nothing. That doesn't mean it's good.
I don't have a I don't have a bandaid to bandage my wounds. I will just wrap a shirt around it or something, a sock. I where there's better alternatives to that analogy. A. And also, I just we're not good.
And now I'm thinking to myself, self, well, don't we want to be a nine-win team, a ten-win team? And I got to be honest with you. If we're not, there's only two outcomes I care about here. Actually, there's only one, and it's Super Bowl. All I want this team to do.
They've been. They've. I know you can't win the Super Bowl every year, but this is the eighth year. Think back to when Lafleur was hired. We were sort of sold that this team would not be like this in year eight.
If you can successfully, how people ever wanted to find that. But if you can go from Rogers to a quarterback who you're going to deem good enough to start and extend.
So you tell me eight years ago we're going to move on from Rogers. It won't be a Hall of Famer, but we'll be we'll extend him and and he's capable and whatever. And Lafleur still here. I'm thinking a Super Bowl is definitely in play. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
So I am not going to bring the gold pulsed in just because the pat. No, no, no, no, no. And fans are too often willing to do that. I don't understand why. I never will.
I never will. Well, that's that's where the goalpost was last year and the year before. Like, what's sad is the best case scenario—they turn it around. They're winning the same amount of games and no better position than they've been the last years. Which now fans want.
Where most fans are not even Super Bowls not even on their radar.
Now we're already pushing it to next year. Yeah. After we. That's why we were so. Happy after we lost to the Bears because we knew that next year is going to be the year, and now we're already gone.
So next year, so I'm not, I am not, I don't care if they make the playoffs and lose. I would rather just not make the playoffs.
Well, you're going to have a chance. You're not though because we're not winning three games with this bonehead. We're just not. We're just not. So.
I want to see them get better. I'm still rooting for them to win. I'm actually rooting a lot more aggressively for them to win than I would think if I'm somebody who hates Lafleur and want him gone. Like I am tense in these fourth quarters, and I know it's not for the whole season, but right now, yeah, you know, I'm going to get more of an audience when they lose this earlier in the season. But over the next couple of weeks, like baseball's on my TV right this second.
I think the Phillies win this series because of how bad they were. I also do like the Cubs. I like the Yankees, and I like the. I think I like the White Sox, but I don't know. Save it for save it for weekly picks with Horvat.
Okay, and I won't tell you the score of this game, Paul. Thank you. But I will tell you it's in the fourth inning. No. Yeah.
Unbelievable! I will tell you that. Thanks a lot. And I will tell you, Mauricio Dubon is playing outfield. Do I know how my Do I know how my brain works?
Yes.
You say it's the fourth inning. I know how long. I know what time the game started. That means it's a low scoring game. What's the score?
I mean, minimal runs have been scored. I promise you that because you wouldn't be in the fourth inning an hour in if it was if it was elongated. What's the score? One zero.
Somebody. That's one one. There you go. All right. So the answer to your question is, I think they're going to go two and three over the next five.
So, so you guys agree there'll be three and five at the break, Bart. If you you get a million dollars if you're right, nothing if you're wrong. That's our old adage, right? What? How many wins does this Packers team win this year?
Nine.
So Grant is giving a very funny face. Say more, Grant.
Well. I just don't. I just think they're going to be very packery about it. And Jacobs comes back, and we win a game we shouldn't, and then we win three in a row somewhere in there. And it's like, oh, how were they ever bad?
And then we lose a stupid game, and it just. I know this is starting bad, but this is not that different from most seasons we've witnessed with Love and Lafleur.
So I don't think it will end that different. It seems worse. And maybe it is. I think the Packers overall, and I know Parsons has not come back yet. They are a markedly worse team than they were in recent years.
I just think that some stupid way they'll win their nine games, and we'll play in Seattle Week One in the playoffs, and we'll lose forty to nineteen. I I don't think they're markedly worse. I think their offensive line is. Markedly worse, beyond measure. Yeah, which which will sink their season.
I think. Quite possibly the worst they've ever had since the days of the Racine Tornadoes, and that has been compounded by the fact that Josh Jacobs' misdemeanor battery to his girlfriend. Like that's that's it. Allegedly. No, he he.
No, that's what Bart was. He was pointing at you to say that. That's what Bart was doing. Yeah, it's not a let. No, what's the what's the word I'm thinking of?
What's the legal term? Paul, um, plead no. Didn't he plead no contest to that? That's not alleged anymore. That's just whatever.
That's that's the difference. They're a little thinner at wide receiver. Actually, they're the exact same because Jaden Reed is always hurt, so that's nothing new. But their offensive line is a car wreck, and they have no running back. That's the difference.
So you're putting them.
So Bart's going nine wins. Grant is going six or. Ah, it's seven. I guess if I had to guess, I would say seven. Not that, not that my opinion means anything, but this looks like a seven-win team at best, right there.
Is this is this an eleven to twelve win team?
So here's my this. I didn't have an mm for this, but okay, fine. I can I can do it. I'm a pro. Off the cuff, Paul.
Hold on. Yeah, yeah. Of course. This is an eleven-win team. If Brian do a big improv here on the Dan Chaney YouTube stream, a little double eye.
If Brian Gutekunst could draft offensive linemen like Ted Thompson, this would be an 11 win team. No, if instead of these interior linemen that you have, instead you have Sitten and Lang and Lindsley, or you know, like the different that I think the biggest difference between, I think the the downfall as it looks right now. Is that Gudikin's has been shit at drafting offensive linemen? He's been bad.
Sorry, sorry, YouTube Tim. Um, that that Ted Thompson was so good at, like all of those guys were mid-round picks. I think Sitten was fourth round, Lang was fourth round, Bakhtiari was fourth round, Lindsley was fourth. I mean, I think they were all fourth or fifth round. Lindsley might have been fifth.
Like, if you if you keep having mediocre guys. In those mid rounds, especially on offensive line, Bart. You said you hate watching interior play, but if you started a franchise tomorrow, you would just exclusively put resources into the offensive and defensive line. And yeah, Gudikins just is not getting that right, and it's it. I think it's what will ultimately sink their season, whether it's seven wins or nine wins.
Um, they're not an eleven win team. They'd be an eleven win team if Jacobs. Wasn't wherever he is because the Packers, for the most part, when they've Parsons was healthy, if Kraft hadn't signed his contract because now he's clearly not motivated and booze hurt his feelings, if Love was protected and we have a different coach and if we had a defensive coordinator that was in at least year two, the thing that's that's a recipe. Who was the so during the Sitten Lang Bakhtiari Belaga. You know, just all the guys that we've mentioned.
If who was like a good running back during that spree? We had like Eddie Lacy had one great season. He wasn't the same after his one great season. Other than that, you had Cedric Benson coming in. You had, I mean, who am I?
Time Montgomery, Time Montgomery transitioning from wide receiver to running back. Jonathan Franklin, like having to get some run. Like it was never. Oh, because the running backs are good. No, it's because they had a bunch of bullies and dogs up front in the interior offensive line, in particular, like.
Yeah, I I also just this is just interesting to me. Maybe it's not to you. I find it interesting that the one place you're kind of allowed to be slightly racist and everyone is okay with it is in describing the O line. Like everyone can say, like I miss and Italians. Yeah, I miss I miss when we had real boys on the O line, and it's just a picture of all the white guys, and everyone's like, hell yeah.
It's like, oh, okay, all right.
So that's the you can say that one out loud. All right. Um. They were better though.
Well, if you had white cornerbacks, you'd be like, "Our defense sucks." That's true. That's true. That's a good point. Brewers transition. Transitioning here.
Little segue. Speaking of racism, the Milwaukee Brewers. Can I tell you, Brewers thought? Why don't you say your question? But I have a thought.
Maybe I'll maybe I'll ask. Maybe I'll ask. Maybe his question will provoke your thought. Paul is pretty good at that. I tested this one.
I know you guys love to know when I test this one. I haven't been testing them recently. I tested. Oh, I just noticed Paul and Grant are in different spots too. Oh, okay.
Here's here's the question. It sucks that the Brewers may have to repeat last year's playoff path by potentially facing the Cubs and then the Dodgers. Mm-hmm. Or mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Definitively mm-hmm. My friend group said, "Mm mm," and I don't understand how that's possible. I don't want to play the Cubs, and this is an old Winkler take back from 2018 when he was just as aggressively pulling for the Rockies as I've ever seen anybody pull for anyone. And his whole argument was, "Well, now we can just talk about the pitching, and now we can." Now I want to talk about lineups. I don't want to do.
I don't want to do that. Like I remember this very clearly, and I agree. Like it's, it's. I want to talk about the rivalry, right? Yeah, I want to talk about the matchups.
I mean, I could, I could take or leave the matchups. I just, honestly, what it is is, it's a nightmare scenario for your franchise to win 103 games and then to have you know your season snatched away by the rivals who you beat all year long. And that's by the way what the Packers almost did to the Bears last year until they effed it up. Especially because we beat the Cubs last year, but if the Cubs beat us this year, last year doesn't count. And they already took last year away from us because we had an L flag and then lost the next four games and scored like three.
Well, that's the other part. Even if you do get through Chicago again, which would be wonderful, and then if you get like four zero or four one again by the Dodgers, like did I say Cubs earlier? I do think the Padres are going to win. I mean, again, it's in San Diego this time. It's not even about which team.
I think they've been they've been fighting that glass ceiling for a decade. To be clear, my take isn't even that it's the Cubs or the Padres are a better matchup, or like, oh, they're clearly a better team. You'd rather face the lesser team, but it's just too. It's not fun. It'll like it'll be fun if they win, like it was last year.
But the amount of Like watching a three plus hour baseball game, and then for potentially five times in the same week. If anyone has like their fingernails left after that, they have better habits than I.
Well, I saw a take that the playoffs are not fun. They're not designed to be fun. No, they are excruciating. Baseball playoffs. Yes.
Yes.
Agree. Agree. They are. They are horrific. But you just have to.
You have to embrace that. You just have to strap in, and maybe you're happy at the end, but you're probably not. But the way that baseballs, it's just it's just so crazy to me that you take this 162 game sport, yes, and you know it's October. October, some of these teams could be done by October. October's Thursday, yeah.
You'd be done by them. It's like, what do we even? What do we play all that for? Just to go.
Somewhere and play twice and lose, so it is excruciating. And then, of course, we'll be in a five game set for sure, at least seven as it goes on. I'm not, yeah, I don't like it. I don't like it. I'm kind of looking past the DS.
I think a lot of Brewers fans are.
Okay, I think because again, when the Packers game got moved, moved. In week five, that would be a day where the Brewers could play. In game two, I think of the CS.
So people are already thinking that. I'm just, I'm somebody who is very convinced the Milwaukee Brewers just just because of that they can't win a World Series. Because Milwaukee Brewers, it's just never going to happen. I see, it's never going to happen.
Well, does that take does that take the stress off of watching it then? Because you can just enjoy it. After all, you do know what their ceiling is, at least according to you.
Well, I'm prefacing with that.
Sorry, go ahead, continue. Because it's hard to deny that not only does this year feel different, and maybe it ends the same, but there's a different feel. We're going into the playoffs, I think, with good vibes for the first time in a while. That is, that seems true. It feels right.
Also, I was reading the ESPN article of playoff predictions. We're not just like the favorite; we're the overwhelming favorite. Wow! I saw the Brewers win the World Series. It was like twenty-five people, Brewers, eleven Dodgers, seven Yankees, and then four scatter.
Or whatever. I don't like. I don't like that. I saw that the picture that accompanied that article was a picture of the Brewers, so I didn't click on it because I don't want to. Yeah, we're the favorite.
We we feel like the favorite. We're the best team with the best pitcher. If you didn't know what teams, like if you strip the team names and you just looked at the raw data, and it didn't say Milwaukee Brewers or Los Angeles Dodgers, yes, the Brewers should be the favorite. But the two concerns are still they can't hit home runs when they need to, and who's pitching Game Three? Sure.
Like, who is back end of the rotation? Who is pitching Game Three? I don't know. I mean, what would you hypothesize? I was was Harrison good enough last start to get it.
Grant said Henderson. He's got the Logan pick. Is that right, Logie?
Well, yeah.
Well, but it's not really the spirit of the question. I would pitch Henderson Game Three and then do some fuck, some some some nonsense in Game Three. It's fine. No, it's fine. We can't get to the playoffs and do nonsense, though, right?
Well, they're gonna have to. Unless you just want to straight up start Dustin May, which I don't, that's Sean Markham all over again. Good reference. Unfortunately, if we're gonna pitch like, uh, like a player opener, I just want to like if we're gonna pitch your Reba or something, I I would say go three innings, see what happens. That's what I do.
Just let him roll. Yeah, yeah. Do do the one thing he hasn't done all year. That seems. Yeah, I think I think now in the playoffs is not the time to do bullpen games, which you're used to.
Now is the time to make your bullpen your starters. Not now is the time. They got they got a whole week and a half to stretch out. Paul, come on. Yeah, you won 103 games.
Deviate entirely.
Okay. Hall. DL Hall. DL Heasley.
Okay. You guys continue. I will talk to you soon. All right, Paul. Bye, friends.
Thanks, buddy. All right, Grant. It's just you and me. Let's not screw this up.
Okay. So, what do you got to say? You want to talk about the Badgers' win? I saw you tweet about it. I saw you tweet the highlight.
Let me tell you about that Badger game first. I need to remind you. About my friends at HappyPlaceHemp.com, and I wish I had a good visual to share for you. As a matter of fact, I do. Look at Doctor J.
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So thank you, Doctor J. Thank you to the guys at Happy Place Hemp for continuing to provide you guys that code twenty five percent off each and every order. Isn't that quite the haul? That's a that's a haul. Like that's what I set up when I go there and take a picture of like here's the things you could buy.
This guy just got it sent to his house, and you'll see a discreet box, so no one's gonna be looking at your porch saying, "I got to steal that one." Okay, so very good there with our boys from Happy Place Hemp. Also want to thank Carl's Place as they are the continuing sponsor of. You can also send in your voicemails four zero two nine one five. B A R T. Um, the Badger game was Saturday.
Saturday, oh Saturday, went golfing, and I didn't do bad. My, my bad. Yeah, yeah. I shot a two under par. My par is sixty, though.
So I shot a fifty-eight on nine. Nice. I you. I hit balls in the air and they went forward. That is so new for me, so I'm very excited about that.
And I look to get back out there. But I got home, and I think I took a nap. Yeah, I was beat. I took a nap, and I started to fall asleep with my phone on in my bed on Peacock, and I thought I just listened through osmosis or whatever. I woke up.
They were down. What was it, seventeen nothing at one point? They were maybe down ten nothing or something. I am like, okay, that's fine. I'll still monitor the situation.
Um, we were downstairs at like five thirty six, and t here is a few things the family will watch together. The Traitors is one of them. The show on NBC. Love the show. Are you watching the new season?
But I I like the show. It's very good. The round they don't have celebrities this time. They just have normal people.
Well, that's the thing. Is I looked at a lot of the cast members. I'm like, normally I'm there for the survivor players, and there just there was one. I think Q is on, right? Oh yeah, I don't know him though.
He but the next the next one they announced my boy Craig Conover from Southern Charm, whose shirt I'm wearing actually. This is sewing down self. Um, he's in it. Casey Wilson's in it. She was on SNL for a year and is big into housewives and stuff.
My wife like pays for her podcast, like 120 bucks a year. Your wife is like what a great person to watch the traders with, because she watches all of those shows. They're pulling people from, yeah.
So like you, yeah.
Well, not Love Island. There was a lot of Love Island last time. I can't do Love Island. But you learn, you whatever. It's a great show.
So we were watching that, and I'm on my phone, and I'm watching the Badgers come back, and I see this play to Harris, and I like fall out of my. I fell out of the couch. I was like trying to show my kid. I was just like, I couldn't believe it. And I'll say this in the moment because this could fade away if they lose this weekend.
Okay, whatever. But like, it just. I don't know the last time this late in the season. There's they've been like, hey, maybe something okay can happen. It just, I'm not thinking.
You know, I don't know what I'm thinking. I'm just thinking. I'm just interested in a way I haven't been at the end of September in a long time, and that was just a very cathartic win in the season. It coming at Penn State, the way that it ended, just everything about it. It was just, it was, it was just a great win for the Badgers, and they have never been my top team.
You know, they've never been. They've probably been my fourth out of the. You know, they've never. But I, I do, I do like them, and I do, I do like when they're good, and it's just. It was just fun.
It was it was fun, and I'm looking forward to this weekend. It's just the Badgers being irrelevant really is a big time suck in the state. It's just it's a missing hole in the state of Wisconsin. Yeah, especially growing up the way I did, where the Packers were always good this time of the year, the Badgers were always good this time of year. This Brewers thing is new, but that's been a decade—the golden era of Brewers baseball.
Actually, you might there might be two different eras now, and now this is the golden era. The Council era that we thought was golden set up this golden era. It's just good. It's just it's very good. I just felt pure joy, not even Badger related, but like.
Actual joy about something I had nothing to do with. It just felt good, Grant. Maybe it helped that you didn't immediately have to do a post game show or like because you're you're a fan of the Badgers. You follow them, but I don't know that you are relying on them the way that you are with the Pack. I almost did one.
Yeah, but we were still we had we had to finish Traders.
Well, of course, and the roundtable is the best part at the end. Yeah, this is a question for you. Are you a faithful or are you a traitor? Alan Cummings oversells it a little bit, but it's all part. I would want to be a faithful.
Yeah, the game's a lot easier if you are a faithful. Interesting. I thought about it.
Okay, go ahead.
Well, no, it's just it's we don't delay all the time. You said this late in the season. It's September twenty ninth. I know. Um.
And you're right. You know what I mean? Like, I know this is as far as we've gotten into a season with Luke Fickle, and thought, oh, we might have a season here. They might do something. You know how tired I've been getting of like being two and one, and week four, looking at the bowl projections, and we're not on there.
Yeah. Well, I thought they'd be two and two, and I thought the Michigan State game would kind of be the deciding point in their season. Like, what? What are you going to do coming out of the Penn State loss to start that next portion of your schedule? And now they're three and one, and I am thinking, oh well.
Like, you should show up like Camp Randall on Saturday morning should be as as fired up as it's been in the honestly in the entire Luke Fickle era, which is kind of crazy. But there hasn't been there hasn't been a lot to cheer about, especially this late in the year. Like you said, so can I already tell you what I'm pre-mad about? Please.
So one, this whole shtick of taking pictures of the students section, I feel like that was that's over.
Okay, I feel like we're past that. I feel like that was like a pre-COVID thing. It just has nothing to do with the students, in my opinion. They they. They take forever to get them in there.
Yeah. Okay. I have a hard time making it the kids' deal.
So here's what's going to happen. Badgers are going to beat Michigan State. It's at home. Correct. Eleven thirty kick.
Yeah, I don't like it. It's at home. The students, whatever. They're going to win. We're going to storm the field.
You're Matt. Why? Why? Okay, people are going to be mad. Oh, that the students, after yelling at them for a decade to show up, are going to storm the field.
I am as pro-field and court storming as it gets. It's not my fault that Kyle Filipowski needed to run into a kid and fake an injury. Good one.
Okay, it's not my fault that that happened. I am. You have to remember, like. We we the people that are mad about court storming are people that watch every game at their house. The students are there for three or four years.
They're never going to get this opportunity again. If they see one person go on the field, I'm following. I'll mention Don Wachlis from the college sports shows. He was out in Arizona for a game once because his daughter either went there or was visiting. And they won, and then people stormed the court or the field.
And Don sent me a picture; he's on the field. Because why? It's why not? You have a once in a lifetime. Just like the Michigan got to win, and Gelb always that Gelb always throws up this picture when he stormed the court or field.
You have a lot of people there that are just doing it for; they're not. They're not fifty-year fans of North Carolina basketball and don't remember the days of you know the nineteen eighties when Dean Smith would never allow this. They're seventeen years old and hammered. They're storming the field. Get over it.
That's my take. I would agree. It's not some statement on the health of the program or success of the program. Just running out onto the field. It's a statement on the sobriety of the fans at the time and the magnitude of the moment that they are witnessing.
I wish they would all be hammered. I don't know how you stay hammered through a five-hour. Do you ever go? When was last time you went to a college football game? D one college football game.
I went to a Badger game. It's been years. I think it was before my kid was born. But yeah, you got to sneak stuff in. I hate it, and you can buy booze there, but it'll take a whole quarter.
Um, it's like five hours long. Half times like an hour. Media timeouts every other play, and the media timeouts are like four minutes. I get it. Sucks.
I don't like going. College football is tough to go to, and it shouldn't be. No, I like it better on TV. I like it a lot better on TV. I hate it on TV too.
It takes too long. I like going to bars. Yeah, I'll say this: I am enjoying college more than NFL this season, with nothing to do with Packers and and Badgers.
Okay, because the NFL, I really. For whatever reason, I don't think it's fantasy because I'm in nine leagues, and I'm not, I'm not a fantasy guy who like watches every play and says I have that guy, I have that guy. I'll check my scores throughout the day, but I don't really look at anything until the end of the day.
Okay. Because I'm in so many leagues, I don't want to be like, well, that injury helps me there and hurts me. That like that's so stupid and a waste of time. Bryce Harper, home run, foul. For those of you, who did I do that for?
You could be the only person. I would. I would be the only person. Plus, I'm streaming in my basement. I'm on like two minute delay.
But I like when the NFL's going on and there's like five games at once. It's too much for me. But when college is going on and there's five games at once, I like that. And I don't know what the difference is. It has to be fantasy, but it's not.
Like, look, if you're missing Illinois, Michigan State. That's fine. If you're missing Seahawks, Niners, or Patriots, Jags, that's a good example.
So Patriots, Jags played at noon last week, right? That that was like the third or fourth option for CBS. It's a very small television market, but those are two quarterbacks, two teams. There's a lot of storylines there.
So again, if I miss Illinois, Rutgers, whatever, it's on. And I give me an update. I'm interested. But if I'm watching the NFL and I I don't see a lick and I only see updates of Patriots, Jags, like damn, I I really want to watch that game, but I I can't. I I feel like the opportunity cost feels worse in the NFL than probably in college.
I am so upset with people that are like, oh, red zone's the worst way to watch a game. But all the there's eight games on at the same time. What are you supposed to do? And then the playoffs for baseball started, and people are like, "Oh, these games start during the day." Well, now you get to watch every game. Yeah.
Oh, I'm at work. Bull, loney. You're at work. Nobody's at work in 2026. No one's at work.
Well, but you're not at like people are able to see a TV. It's not like you're in the coal mines and you don't know what's going on in the outside world for 12 hours. Everybody's office now that I walk by has four monitors, and one's a stand, one's a vertical one. It's like you can't dedicate half of one of the. What do you?
What the hell do you need those for? By the way, I walk by offices. I'm like, what? What are you doing in there? What do you need?
You need all of those. Um. There's one other.
Okay, one quick aside. This Liberty Bibbity commercial just came on. Miss, it's amazing that that insurance company has fired that many attempts at a mascot and missed. I mean, just every single one of them is a brick. I like scrolled one day, saw your tweet for like three seconds two weeks ago, and it is it is.
You want to talk about rent free? That tweet lives in my head because every time I see this Bibbity, I can't stop thinking about you. What did I? What was it exactly? Like, what do you just said?
Like, oh, another mascot. They all suck. The emu sucks. The the the guy who says all the lines. They all stink.
Every single one of them. And now Jason Benetti's doing a commercial with the Liberty Bibbity. It's sad, man. Although you know what, I'll take that over another gambling or prize picks or cat. You know what I mean?
Like it's an ethical insurance commercial with a mascot. It's it's yeah, it's better than what we get nowadays. Yeah, I don't want to be too hard on you know businesses trying to make a buck. Obviously, we're somebody that likes to promote and and share the good word about different things. I do want to remind people too.
I talked about the happy place hemp, but there is something else. If you haven't tried this, this is as good as it gets these days. It is the liquid death peanut butter cup, Mister Beast Feastables flavor.
So ten calories, no caffeine. What is this? Look at that. I I feel like if you want a peanut butter cup flavored beverage, that that Venn diagram does not cross over with it.
Well, but I don't want to drink all my calories today. Drop a peanut butter cup in a glass of water, like we used to do. Um, so excited about college. Excited about red zone. There was one other thing I wanted to bring up to you, and I've recalled it.
How was Octoberfest? I saw you got on Fox twenty five forty eight, and boy, did you guys do a good job there!
So, our morning show host Ebo, who's been in the Winklerverse, yeah, this is his third or fourth year of coming to Lacrosse, and he he pulls a crowd, man. Like it's cool because he's locally, he's in Madison. Like I'm out in Madison too, but my show was based in Lacrosse for like. Three or four years before I came to Madison, so this year I like I told Ebo I was like, "Hey, after your show on Friday, like you don't need to stay all day. I'm just I'm just pitching him.
I'm like, just give me three hours. Just give me just give me three hours. I will get you a wristband to the grounds, and we can go to the tapping the golden cake. And that was really cool. That's a that's a cool thing.
You he hadn't done that. He never he'd never been to the fest grounds.
So we walked around and we got the big steins, you know. And the the problem with the steins is you. I drink them like it's one beer. Yeah. Oh, I'm going to go get one beer and I'm drinking it like it's one beer.
But the problem is those big steins fit like three cans of beer in them.
So I had like six cans of beer, and then we went over and did a segment on Bill's show, and we just sounded look, you know. Like we had had six beers, so that was very fun. Took him to Dells for a bloody. We must have just missed the the political tour. I saw David Crowley was doing some photo ops, and that's his first name, right?
David Crowley was doing some photo ops in Dells. No, his first name is Data Center Dave. Yeah, okay. Um, so that was fun. Got on Fox twenty five forty eight.
Um, yeah. Did you? Uh, you just went the one day. I haven't been back to Oktoberfest in a long time.
So last year I did the full weekend, like I crashed on a buddy's couch Thursday and Friday night, and then went to the Maple Leaf Parade on Saturday. I took Ebo. We gathered up a bunch of listeners from the Thursday night show, and we watched the game at Snuffy's on Thursday night. Yeah, it's fun.
Well, the Barrel is the place. I thought we'd end up at the Barrel, but that place gets so full for Packers games.
So like the overflow comes over to. Snuffy.
So that's where we were. That was fun. Got off the beaten path a little bit off a third street. I don't quite get why Oktoberfest is in September, but well, it's the last full weekend of September. I can never go to another thing labeled Oktoberfest again.
Like there was a beer hall here that has one. It's not Appleton has one, which is not the same. Appletons, they just—it's like Fondulex started this event called Fondue Fest, which is clever. It is, and there's a big bowl of fondue, and really they just take Main Street, and they put up tents and shops, and there's live music. That's a street festival.
Yeah. Octoberfest. There's a grounds for it. North side and south side. There are specific areas that are underutilized throughout the year, so that they can have this event.
Things, things that you drive by the rest of the year, and someone out of town goes, "Oh, what's that?" And they're like, "Oh, that's the massive area downtown that goes unused except for two and a half days in September." Excellent real estate. By the river, yep. By downtown, it is just a. It is it is not. I mean, it gets used for like Irish Fest and some other things, but sure, same as Summerfest, but less used.
Yeah, less used.
So I imagine how imagine the Summerfest grounds if we were to tear down 794. Though, oh my God, how much better, dude! I'm saying. They were showing aerial shots of Monday Night Raw, and there was one with 794, and it looked really bad. And I got to say this about Monday Night Raw: in regard to going to a place, Raw is interesting, but the microphones are really tough to hear from the people in the stadium, and also you don't hear the announcers, so it's very jarring.
When you go to a football game or baseball game, you're you it's just jarring to watch wrestling without the announcers. More so than in the other sports. Interesting. Okay, I'm good here. Unless you want to watch my Channel Eight story from Oktoberfest two years ago.
How long is it? Two minutes. I can I can I I would like to see it. Yes, yes, you can. Here's my story on tapping the golden keg in 2007.
I wonder what my time cut off would have been. Like if you had said three and a half minutes, I said, I actually know. I wonder where the time cut off would have been. Go ahead, sorry. It's thirty-seven minutes.
Ooh, where Fest Two Thousand Seven kicked off this morning. It all started with the opening day parade and the tapping of the golden keg. NewsChannel Eight's Bart Wenzler joins us now live from the fest grounds. Oh my goodness, Bart! It looks like a lot of people are out there festing already.
The party's it's continuing and it's amazing. Right now, though, we're yes, Lisa. Kind of on a dinner break. Judy's here next to me, enjoying some Swedish meatballs. They look pretty good.
I would say I might be getting those soon. Anyway, the great thing about Octoberfest is that it's a festival that everyone can enjoy. Great setup. Are we ready to start festing? Mayor John's rude.
Remember him? The answer is an overwhelming ja vol, as the Germans would say, because no matter what the reason, everyone is glad to be back at Oktoberfest. Here with my grandkids, thought we'd come down and take in the parade. You see so many people down here that you don't see every day of the year. It's kind of like a reunion.
One of the more familiar sights of Oktoberfest is the blue shirts. A group of people. Do you see them? No. They stopped coming.
I don't know. Oh, the blue shirts are people who have been coming to Oktoberfest for almost forty years. We got a group of friends here that we. This is when we get to come see them. You know, we see a few of them here and there out through the rest of the year, but this is the one time we have to all come together and hang out.
Now we first found this couple last year for their first time to Oktoberfest, and guys, well, I just had to come back.
Well, we we just had such a great time last year that you know we we decided to come back, and we like lacrosse a lot. We've been on the road for a month, out west, camping and hiking, and this is our grand finale.
Now, some of the reasons for enjoying the fest are a little more unusual. You can bring steins. Like if you go to the Brewers game, they won't let you bring a stein in there. But you can bring a stein to the So that's kind of nice. Yes, no matter what the reason, everyone is ready to start festing.
Now you see how fun, how much fun everyone's been having all day, and that fun still continuing throughout the night. Buns are seven dollars if you come on down here. And also at the Lacrosse Center right now is the Festmaster's Ball, where they're announcing the new Festmaster, and we'll have those results. We'll meet you to him tonight at ten. All right, thanks very much, Bart Winkler, live.
Don't you like how 2007 looks like 1977? Yes.
I like that. That was twenty years ago.
Well, that made me sad.
Now I want to go back. I was just so I was so pleased with my experience, but now that you threw that in my face, now I'm sad that it's over. Come back next year, maybe. What what's coming up on the show today, Grant?
Well, I'm going to talk about the Bears game and how that did not go as I was hoping it would. Um, I just I haven't been on your show in a while. I'm just remembering. I don't have time tonight. You want to do later this week?
No. Oh, later this week? Maybe. Yeah, not. Yeah.
Wicket's got a new show on in Des Moines, and I text him twice to congratulate him, and neither time it went through.
So either he changed his number or he blocked mine. I'm wondering what happened there, Mikey boy. Mikey boy. All right, you be good. You as well.
Thanks for listening, Paul. Yeah, thanks for listening, Paul. Hey, Paul. Suck my balls. Thanks for stabbing into the Winkler verse.
