Bart Winkler, The Bart Winkler Show Host

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There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. Bart, how you been my friend? I've been good, Galby. It's been too long since the tones of Eddie J. Lemberger have come across on the radio, so thank you not just from me, but from the entire audience to hear that glorious song that was really an anthem during the Bucs championship run, and we all appreciate it so much. Well, I'm trying to bring back a little confidence because I think the Bucs are going to be in the NBA finals this year. I thought they should have been in it last year if it wasn't for Middleton. I think they're going back this year.

I feel good about the Bucs. Yeah, they lost to the Celtics. Middleton got hurt. Celtics had the opportunity then to go to the finals. They did come up short. I think the Celtics, as you saw the other night, if you want to put a lot on to one game, they look like they're prime.

They look good. The Nets tonight are letting Zion do whatever he wants, so they're going to be a problem again. They're going to be their own problem. They're not going to be a problem in the East.

The Sixers will be a good test tomorrow. We'll see what that is, but yeah, I really do like the Bucs. They've brought back everybody, which is weird. There's one new draft pick, but they brought back everybody.

Guys that you're like, oh, he was just here for four months. No, Serge Ibaka might be part of the rotation. Oh, Giorgio was so bad in the playoffs. No, he's like one of the faces of the franchise, so outside of Giannis, Drew Middleton, and Bobby Portis, of course, and all these guys, everybody's back, and they think that continuity is going to give them an edge. Giannis Antetokounmpo is just such a likable superstar. I don't know if there's a player right now that I like more in sports than Giannis. Not only the way he plays on the court, but the way that he handles himself while talking to the media.

He's just such a likable guy. Well, that's why, too, I think that Bucs fans need to take note of who they have on their team, and not just as a player, but as a person. The Bucs franchise, okay, they won 500 years ago like a bunch of teams did, hadn't been relevant for so long. They luck into this draft pick, however you want to look at it, and he becomes the face of the franchise. When the going got tough for that team a couple of years ago, in the bubble, they got bounced, things were a mess, and it could have been very bad. When the going got tough, Giannis doubled down, tripled down, says this is where I am, this is where I'm going to win a championship, signs the extension, wins the very next year.

It is remarkable just to have this kind of player, but again, when you have that kind of player and that kind of person, what a blessing that is. I gotta take a look at the schedule after football season, Bart Winkler, but I think we're due for another Zach Gelb trip to Milwaukee, where we'll go to a Bucs game together, I'll treat you to dinner at Carnivore, 4th base, and we'll have a grand old time. I think we're due for another trip for me coming to Milwaukee. You are so beloved in Milwaukee that you probably have more hookups here already than I do.

My whole life around here. But I gotta bring you now with me everywhere. You took me to 4th base, and 4th base was awesome and we had a great time, but now we gotta go to the Bucs game, we gotta get Bart Winkler's name on the menu at Carnivore, because that was one of the best meals I've ever had. Yeah, you go places in Milwaukee, you, your name's all over the place, I go in there like, we'll charge this guy double, he won't know.

But that's on brand for the Bart Winkler brand. You're like a regular guy, bring the lunch pail to work, and that's what you are. You don't try to be anyone too big. You don't want to be a pain in the ass like me. No, I try to, my philosophy in being an employee, Zach, has always been do your best, respect the rest of the people on your team, never try to show anyone up. I'm kind of like the anti-Aaron Rodgers.

Bart Winkler here with us. Man, I thought that there would be some struggles with the Packers, I still thought they would be a lock though to win 10-11 games, when you lose Adams you knew there would be some adjustment. With that being said though, these last two weeks have been brutal. Yeah, so you lose to the Giants in London, which I mean, I think the Giants are playing well, I still believe in Daniel Jones for some reason, I've always liked him.

But you can go to London and lose to New York, especially Saquon's third for a while, and then the Jets come here. I mean, when you're looking at the Packers schedule, and you're looking at the wins and losses about it, you're like, oh, noon Sunday, Jets, Lambeau, nobody had that as a loss when they were doing their schedule. And I always wonder, and it is something that needs to be talked about because it does affect the team, but I always wonder how much does a person's personality affect who he is on the court? Because sometimes when we bring up, like you just talked about Giannis, okay, Giannis is beloved, but he's a hard worker, he's always saying the right things in press conferences, and he's a great guy, but you see that on the floor.

You ask Giannis, he still thinks his best part of his game is passing, and that's what he wants to excel at the most, because he likes getting everybody else involved as much as, I mean, he's a two-time MVP, so dominant, he still wants to get the ball to others. With the Packers, you've got a quarterback that, I don't know what he's trying to do, I think he gets up to the podium, just says stream of consciousness, waits for the media to interpret it, and then goes from there. I don't think this guy's got any idea how they're going to win even 10 games this year. You've got Matt Leflore, who, this is the first time he lost back-to-back games, but Matt Leflore, his teams, any time they get thrown the first punch at him, they crumble, they fall apart. Robert Salah was his best man. Robert Salah, after the game, said, I mean, we knew that we would get him to quit if they just, you know, if they faced adversity.

I mean, your best friend's saying that to you. So I don't know what those personalities blended together are going to mean, but it's just, outside of that, it's been everything. The offensive line's terrible, the defense is so good on paper, but they are not a cohesive unit. The special teams we thought was good, now they're getting block kicks on them all the time.

Really a disappointment, and I fear that what we've seen the last two weeks is going to be more than norm for the rest of the season. They've got a big game against Tyler Heinecke and the commanders. So that's the only good news, but then, once again, I think you'd rather have Carson Wentz be playing for that team, and you don't even get Wentz now.

No, I mean, Bailey Zappi, who is good now, I guess, he almost beat them. The Packers probably should have lost that game, too. They're 3-3, but they're a very hollow 3-3. Like, Rogers said this week, he says, oh, these teams are 3-3. I think the Rams, the Niners, the Buccaneers. I think if you're one of these other teams, because a lot of people in Green Bay and Milwaukee are saying, oh, well the Packers were 4-4 the year they won the Super Bowl in 2010.

So we're trying to find some commonality, like, hey, this can work out. That 4-4 team, they were losing games that they should have won, and they could still look in the locker room and say we're better than this. You look at the Niners, you look at the Rams this year, you look at especially the Buccaneers. Like, they're gonna look around and be like, yeah, we're 3-3, but we're loaded on both sides of the ball. We're 3-3, but we're gonna be fine. The Packers, I don't know that they have that same confidence.

Well, that's the thing, Bart. I don't know what they've done well yet, and through the first six games, they haven't even played one complete game. Like, I can't give them praise for being the Bears 27-10. Rogers said it last year, he owns the Bears. And everything is bad.

It's not just Rogers or anything I've mentioned, there's 15 more things that are bad. The offensive line has been atrocious. They have to be the worst offensive line in the league outside of Denver, but I think Denver's trying to get Russell Wilson killed so the offensive line is letting them walk through. The running backs, AJ Dillon's supposed to be this great power running back.

He runs like he's in quicksand. Aaron Jones has been a running back that if any other team had him, he would be a top five back year in and year out. But for whatever the reason, Mike McCarthy then and Matt LaFleur now, they treat him like he's made of glass. They play him like, he had four touches in the first half last week. He needs to be the focal point of this offense.

Instead, they forget about him like he sat too far down the bench and he didn't realize that he was in the game. And really the biggest problem too, Bart Winkler, is for years, even if they got off to a slow start, you knew they were going to win this division with Minnesota being 5-1. I don't see how they win this division right now.

Minnesota has a nice edge. They've beaten the Packers already. There was a game where they played a couple weeks ago against the Bears. I mean, the Bears would have gone to 3-2. I think Minnesota would have fallen to 3-2. It was week five and I was already like desperately rooting for the Bears to beat Minnesota in week five.

And we normally don't do that in the NFC North because no matter how bad they are, Minnesota paper champions a lot. They got a good roster, but they never can put it together. Well, the Packers are giving them the opportunity and I think with the new head coach, Kirk's playing better. I mean, I love their offensive weapons. Defense is playing more enthused.

It's going to be hard to catch them, much less anybody else atop the NFC. The other thing is too, I don't know how much Rodgers loves football anymore. I know he just signed the new contract, but how many more years do you think he's going to play if you take a guess? Well, and that's the thing. That's why I go back to how much does that off the field stuff affect beyond the field stuff.

And I think it's more than we're willing to admit or more than we feel comfortable talking about. If Rodgers retires at the end of the year, it's actually going to cost the Packers more against the cap. There's a lot of Packer fans already this week that are talking about, man, we should have traded them when we could have. I mean, we should have made that deal with Denver. We would have got all those picks.

This is not the way that it's supposed to end. But that was coming off a guy winning back to back MVPs. They couldn't have traded him to Denver.

So I don't understand. And this is like, this is a terrible look. Rodgers had a down year, down enough where they thought, let's draft the quarterback. And like, we're not going to kick Rodgers out, but we need to think about our future. And he responded with that with two MVP seasons. Then the off season where he gets a massive extension that all but guarantees he's going to be here forever without putting the Packers in cap hell like we've never seen, like a new level of torture. Then he's playing like this.

It's a very, very bad look. Who misses who more? Rodgers missing Adams or Adams missing Rodgers?

I think Devontae, Devontae looks to me like somebody that took a new job and instantly regrets it. But Rodgers, Rodgers might miss Devontae more because Devontae was so good. Devontae was such an escape goat for him. Some of these, some of these plays that you're seeing, Rodgers is throwing the ball deep.

I think against the Giants, he threw it six times deep and it wasn't close at all. But Devontae is so good that even if he didn't get to it, he's drawn a pass interference. Devontae, Devontae was so good at that and he is so good at that. And that's a part of the game that we never like focus on or see because we're, you know, we're into the stats and fantasy and all that. But these guys that can create the pass interference penalty, especially with it being a spot foul are so important and Devontae can do that.

And Rodgers, Rodgers who banked on the free play for years, I think he banked on those PI calls for years from Devontae. So he might miss them more. Before we let you run, you know how much I love you. And when I was on your show all the time, there was such a great community that you had and that you had built. Now you're doing a daily podcast. Just tell everyone how they can find the daily podcast of the Bart Winkler show now. Well, I've, you know, been in radio my whole life. And so I always hated when people said this, but I'm going to say it, Zach, wherever you get your podcast, you can find the Bart Winkler show. It's just Wisconsin sports fans. I crank it out every day.

Talk about things every day. We got our NFL picks tomorrow with your boy, Ryan Horvat. Oh, I love Horvat.

Oh, we got it all covered. You know, Horvat's doing a weekly with me now on Sundays and I on football. My God, Horvat's the most like requested man in radio, but I don't think anyone pays him any extra.

Well, let's be clear. I did not request him. He was put on the show, but I was more than fine with that.

You know me. Oh, is he on time for you at least? Yes, he is on time. There was actually one week we forgot he was coming on and we were we were 20 minutes late, but he's been dynamite like his picks. Because sometimes you're always skeptical of these guys that say they're betting experts, but he has lived up to the betting expert claim. His picks have been phenomenal. Every time Ryan Horvat is booked on my podcast, he gives me a time and I sit down to record and then he's got a lot of dentist appointments this month.

The guy is always on the move. Well, anyway, I love catching up with you. I'd be more than happy, obviously, to come on the podcast. I just need the invitation. So that's basically me begging for an invitation on the podcast and we'll be sure to get you on more often.

I think I need to wait a little bit, but you could come on after that. You got it. The Bart Winkler Show, my favorite podcast out of all the podcasts that are there these days.

Yeah. Bart, love you. We'll talk to you soon, OK? Thanks, Zach. How's your mental health?

I'm listening with Billie Eilish. I feel like I spent a lot of time thinking about happiness and how it's just like it fluctuates. And everyone thinks if you're one thing, you're going to be that forever and you're never going to be anything else. And it's really not true. Like happiness is temporary, but also so is like misery and things just like morph and change. It just doesn't stay. It goes up and goes down and things change.

And that's how life works. Explore more at I'm listening dot org. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app, your trusted local radio stations, coverage of your favorite teams, live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams, pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later. There's a lot to listen to. So get started and download the free Odyssey app today.