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Must be 18 plus to use Gemini live. Good morning, everybody. My name is Bart Winkler. Welcome to Into the Winklerverse.
And the Winklerverse is expansive today as I am just checking in over the holidays via the county road system that makes up the state of Wisconsin with a laptop on my my waist in my crotch. It's growing in me up a little bit, but there's been so much going on and I do want to express some thoughts and I have a podcast. And so I'm going to I'm going to do that.
The setup is not great because I you know, I've just I forgot a piece that would have made it easier to podcast while driving. Hopefully I don't get a P W I. So first and foremost. I'm headed to Minnesota. Watch the Packers take on the Vikings. It's a weird situation where you want them to win. Obviously you want them to win. I'm going to want them to win more when I'm in that building because we go to these road games and you know, we're like, why are we doing this? I mean, the sitting in it with a bunch of people at Lambeau that are passive about their favorite alleged team is one thing sitting in these other stadiums. I mean, you realize how much our crowds have gone to shit over the years, but also they are rabid. You know, when opposing teams come to Lambeau, they write articles that get published in the local paper about how pleasant the Green Bay hospitality was when these other teams see us walk up with our cheese heads and our satin jackets. They like want to cheer us to death. They want to cheer so loud that we die is the best way that I can put it. So it'll be a good game. I would hope if they win, you know, I'm trying to think now with us pretty much being, yeah, we're locked into a wild card. I just want whatever outcome gets us a game where we don't have to play on Monday night of the wild card round because I would be working that night and I don't want to do that. I'm not going to take off for it. I should be there. So I don't I don't want to I don't want to be working during that.
And it seems like that is what I'm going to be doing. Looks like no Jair Alexander again. Not a surprise. I saw my boy Grant mixing it up with my not boy Shneidman online. And then I saw a lot of people rush to defend Shneidman.
When all great. So Grant Grant's trying to ask after a report that Jair is out, like, can we get a little more about why he's out and the reporters say, well, I already asked. And then people are like accusing Grant of needing Jair's full medical history and rallying for the beat reporters. So one thing that I've noticed with Packer fans is that and I talk about this on the Infinity Sports Network show the other day, the worst thing you can do is comply in advance. And we do that a lot in sports where our teams, our owners ask, they don't even have to ask us to fanboy for them. We stick up for the owners so many times. It's their greatest tool is our stupidity. So I think we do that with the Packers where Packers are always right.
We love the Packers. But if there's anybody that's daring to ask about even things we want to know, like why, what is Jair's deal? We're just to the point where we don't expect him to play.
And then he's practicing a little bit. Like, just what's his deal? You know, I don't think it's wrong for us to want to know a little bit more than what we know. So, OK, we see the top of the iceberg. We'd like to know what's underneath. We'd like to know the rest of the story.
And that's all Grant was saying. And then Schneiderman's like, well, I asked I asked the floor on my podcast. OK, but these guys never I don't I don't know how many Packers beat writers are comfortable with or even understand the concept of asking a follow up question. And then when you see any of those guys get question now, not only do we fanboy for the organization, we fanboy for their beat reporters, because in essence, they become like.
I think this happens in other places, too, just talking to a bunch of these guys around the country. But I think the beat reporter becomes an extension of the team, whether they like it or not. And sometimes beat reporters do play into that.
And I think this particular one does. And sometimes they try not to and they still get caught up with it. Like there's a completely different view of the persona around a around a Pete Doherty or a Tom Silverstein as there is a Matt Schneiderman. OK, some guys are there to do their actual job of covering the team and putting it in print.
And then the now necessary other channels of media and some guys are trying are doing that with the effort of. You know, we want I want a little more for myself, which I don't know that I can be the one to criticize that since I have a show with my name on it. But I'm not I'm not a beat writer. I'm trying to be an entertainer. I'm trying to be more popular. And so sometimes with beat writers, should that be the goal? If you're if you're assigned on a beat, should you also try to be a beat celebrity? You know, I and some guys.
Some guys don't want to and some guys actively try. And again, it's it's, you know, I don't know. You think about these days where beat writers would cover the team and put their name on the byline. And that would be it.
But now the world we live in, I mean, I'm fucking podcasting with a laptop on my waist while driving up and down the interstate. So I'm trying to crank out content as well. At what point when I talk about these guys, do I become hypocritical? I do think there's a difference in there is. But I don't know that I'm necessarily the one to be able to point that out.
If somebody else can try to point that out, that would be good. But I don't know. I just you know, there's a Jair component to all this, which so quickly we get away from where it becomes into like, how is Matt Schneiderman covering the team? And all of a sudden that's a story. I don't know.
Maybe I'm maybe I'm maybe I didn't see as much as I should have. I don't you guys won't believe this, but I don't check the Internet as much as I once used to. So, yeah. If big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation, they said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous two year contracts, they said, what the fuck are you talking about?
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Twenty five percent off. I live in a family where the in-laws are Bears fans. And I am trying to sympathize with them. But I think they think it's coming off as like like I'm doing a bit. Or I don't really.
I'm not sincere, but I am sincere. I watch Caleb in the worst NFL game of all fucking time. I mean, it's got to be wondered. And we'll see about these Saturday games. It's got to be wondered.
Have we diluted this product? I mean, it's I text a few people throughout the year like, is this good? I don't know if it's good without the gambling and without the you know, the fantasy and all this kind of stuff. Is the product good? And, you know, I my five year old seems to be enjoying it, but he also doesn't sit down and watch a full game. I just kind of tell him to come in when a team scores so you can see the numbers move. I don't know that my fans a fan of or my son's a fan of football as much as he is a fan of numbers changing.
But the product, I don't know. But more eyeballs are on it than ever. More eyeballs are on it than ever. So this game on Thursday between the Bears and Seahawks, I wanted the Bears to win, dude. I don't want them to have to try to break a streak against us, although on what planet are they going to with how bad they've been looking? And so Caleb's going to get a lot of the blame. You know, maybe runs around too much back there. I don't know. I don't my take on the Bears is that we are so far past you being able to watch a quarterback who plays for the Bears and then properly analyze him.
I don't think you can. The curve is so fucked up at this point that there's no way to properly analyze a Bears quarterback. It's a disaster. The organization sets these guys up to fail.
They set them up to fail. And so I'm a Caleb Williams truther in the same way that I was a Justin Fields truther. I thought Justin Fields was going to be good.
Now, could he have had a chance? I mean, if Patrick Mahomes goes to the Bears, he's not good. And it's not that he had to go to the Chiefs. Just anywhere, not the Bears. You think Tom Brady has this career if he's a Chicago Bear? There's no chance.
The organization is so broken. And chance of sell the team like the McCaskys are never going to sell. Go to the Bears website for like the team staff.
Go to their website. There's at least I know there's double digit McCaskys that are on it in terms of front office guys. Even guys with like new generational names that you can tell are 22 years old that got jobs in the ticket office or whatever. And if I owned a team, I'd do that, too. Oh, yeah. My whole family can have a job here in this operation. But I don't I don't I don't see I don't see what would ever motivate them to sell. Even with the immense amount of money that are being, you know, how much the bear if the Bears actually were for sale, the amount of money they could go for.
I just don't see that happening. So I think Bears fans are kind of screwed. Just like the Jets. The Jets are the same way. They're not selling over there.
You know, what he's in charge, his brothers in charge. They're not selling the New York Jets. So when you have an owner, that's what's hard. That's what's so great about being a packer owner. I think people are ripping on us for it less and less when they see how shitty everybody else is. And I think it's I think that's to our credit, too.
I think we've done a good job of beating it into people that being an owner fucking rules. But these other teams like. The Jets are a mess. And when are they ever going to be good?
The Bears are a mess. And when are they ever going to be good? When do you lose hope as a fan? You don't give up on your team, but when do you lose hope as a fan that is just not going to turn around? My God, I have no idea.
And I don't know. I think Caleb Williams, but by the time he gets on another team, if he does, or by the time somebody comes in there that's capable, maybe he'll be too far broken. This guy was my QB one, folks.
He was. I thought the Bears had to take him now. My QB two is Pennix. Everybody's playing well, though. I mean, Ponex is playing well. Drake May they're satisfied with. McCarthy will get his chance at some point.
Jaden Daniels, maybe the best of the bunch. He's playing so well that they're never going to like they're not changing their name again. They are the commanders now forever, which is fine. I don't can't be changing the team name all the time. Washington football team.
Man, that was funny. So, yeah, I think the Bears are broken. I think the NFL might sort of be broken.
The Netflix stuff was the Netflix stuff pissed me off because I saw a report. I was wondering, why are all these people on it? Why is like all these why is Greg Olsen there? Well, why is why is RG three there?
Why is Kay Adams there? Why are all these people volunteering to work on Christmas? Oh, man, I got to find a way to get in with Netflix and I got to do it pronto. Because they paid that basically.
They paid about seventy five to one hundred twenty five thousand to each person for one day. They've got fuck you money so Netflix can do whatever they want. And it felt the part that I don't I don't get mad for them.
I got jealous. But the part that made me mad was when they had Beyonce came and did the halftime show. It's late, but she did the halftime show and she's got to deal with Netflix. I'm sure she kicked in some more money anyway, but she did the halftime show and she was at least there. God only knows how much they paid Mariah Carey to basically just do an updated video of her song.
Once I saw that, it felt very live golf ish. I was like, oh, OK. I mean, the way the world is turning, there's going to be there's going to be like five corporations with all the money. They'll pay people to do whatever they want. We'll all say yes because it's an insane amount of money. And we're going to have a live golfification of society.
That's Bart's social economical update of the day. And those games were those games were bad, too. Also games that were bad. The college games.
Oh, I can't wait to I can't wait to get back on the national airwaves to talk about those. You can't have your announcers crying about the games being bad. You can't have Kirk Herb Street all of a sudden become the de facto SCC champion. That bothers me.
You're a big time guy. Bud should be Ohio State. He's so true to his Ohio State roots.
His son's going to Michigan. All right. That should be a bigger story, I think. Maybe not. But we got to we got to get past the point where it's got to be entertaining or it's bad.
No. The BCS games used to be bad. College football games with four teams used to be bad. There's a handful of good college football teams, but there's only like three that are really good. And so we wanted a bigger playoffs.
So you got to play it out. If Oregon plays Notre Dame or. I mean, that's not going to be a blowout. We're going to get good games. We're going to get good games in this next round.
Can't justify a team because they lost a fucking Kentucky, Lane Kiffin. I'm I'm swearing a little more because I'm on the road. That's where I swear the most. On the road.
Also, when I'm with my son, which is a problem. This year, Santa's bringing the power of Energizer into his workshop. Whoa. The Energizer Bunny's got so much power. He's powered up all the toys. I think that means we're done for the year.
I love this bunny. He's the hardest working helper the North Pole has ever seen. And he wants all your gifts to have the power of the number one longest lasting double A battery.
So this holiday season, stock up on Santa's and the elves favorite battery energizer ultimate lithium. Bucks lost the other night. I don't know what these guys are sick of. That seems kind of weird. I got a voicemail from. Vincent in Anaheim.
Vincent in Anaheim with the old voicemail. And this is a good one. I want to play this for you now.
Got to make sure my Bluetooth is off. Got a real good operation we're running here. All right.
You're not going to be able to hear that for shit. Here's what here's what he said via the Google Translate. Sorry, Vincent. I'm on the road. Hey, I'm going to read it exactly as it says from Google Translate. Hey, what's up, Bart? It's Vincent and Anaheim. I wanted to say Happy New Year.
It is the twenty third. So Merry Christmas. Happy Kwanzaa is all. Celebrate that, babe.
I want to say what's up. I did get your jacuzzi. I think he meant koozie. I sent him a Dan Shanie koozie. I got a nice holiday message from Dan Shanie. Dan Shanie is my insurance guy. Dan Shanie says I want to sponsor your podcast. I go, OK. And then and then he sponsored my podcast. I'm like, well, lo and behold, I think you might have a good product here, Dan.
Well, yeah, I think you do, too. So he listens to the show and I go to him for insurance. So check him out.
Name drop me. So I sent him I sent Vincent a package. I haven't opened the package yet because I have a hoarding problem. Sometimes I'll get packages and not open them up. If you're getting things and keeping all of it, that's hoarding.
If you're getting packages, knowing what's in them and not opening them, that's a new level. That's that's like that's that's insane. We got to talk, Vincent. I still listen to the podcast. Yeah, you fucking better. I might change up my philosophy. I'm going to listen to your newest ones first and then go back to the old ones.
If you're still doing the national show, I am. Now it now it's too fucked up to read. Go pack. Go.
Don't forget. Go Giants. San Francisco Giants. Go Angels.
The Raptors. All right. Vincent, sorry. Well, maybe maybe you got a little more love via the.
Via the reading. I'm approaching Rosendale, so I'm a little scared out of my boots. Although maybe if they see that I have a computer hoisted on my dashboard, they'll think I'm a cop. And not and not do anything to me. That would be that would be a better experience for all. All right. Because of that, I will probably say goodbye on my quick little drive episode here. Hope everybody did have a good holiday. Hanukkah is still going on. Christmas in the rearview. I'll be back New Year's Day on infinity to be doing Gelb show and then back at the nighttime.
The second talk about some college games, which should be good. But yeah, I had a nice time. God got a present that I asked for. Got a present that I asked for a zoo membership.
My parents said, what do you guys want for the family? I said, how about a membership to the zoo? And they said, OK. Then my mom got me a membership to the zoo and in the car, she said, hey, son, we wanted to do something a little different this year and we're focusing on experiences instead of just material gifts.
Hope that's OK. Enjoy the zoo. Love, Mom. First of all, I fucking asked for the zoo membership. Second of all, the last two years, you've gotten us a Discovery World and a Betty Brin.
You've been giving us memberships for years. Man. What's what's what's mom? That's that's hoarding levels of packages.
Insane. Every time my mom sends me a package, there's always like some random bullshit in there that I had when I was in fifth grade. And they've moved like two times.
I don't know how this stuff keeps going with the move to move. Hey, Bart, here's here's a present for your son for Christmas. Inside the present is also your report cards from junior high. All right. That's kind of fucked up. Love you, Mom.
My brother in law got me the two things I asked for came with the biggest because I got where I normally sit to do the podcast. There's like a sump pump. There's all. And I had a nail fall down there from my that board behind me at a nail fall down when I was rearranging signs. And I couldn't get it. The only way I could get it is to lay on the floor and try to extend my hand. And I needed a grabber. You know, those things you grab your reach like Homer had one when he was 900 pounds. And so I wanted one and I asked for one. And then my brother in law had me for the exchange and he was so nervous to get me one because he couldn't believe that I actually wanted it.
That was what I asked for. He went to Wal-Mart. He couldn't find it. He asked somebody. They said, OK, it's over here.
It was in like I mean, I know the sections not called old people, but it was in that section. And he was kind of stunned that I wanted it. He was nervous to see me open it. And I opened it.
And there's not a thing I've been down for the rest of the time at my in-laws. That grabber has already gotten its use. It is an elite gift. I did ask for it.
So, you know, that's that. But if you need like a white elephant gift or if you need if you need something. The grabber. The grabber is a great gift. I will say you can reach over on the shelf, get your happy place. Get it in there, put it in, put it back. I don't know.
I just think the grabber is a great gift. So go pack, go. I hope this weekend is a good one. Hope that I stay off the Internet and don't say something stupid at two in the morning or the way I've been going 1030 at night. Got to make some resolutions, I think, in the new year.
As always, thanks for stopping into the Winklerverse. And are those lights for me?
