By Adam Roberts – 5/19/2021

In the 2010 NFL postseason, the Green Bay Packers hit their stride late in the season, notably winning three straight road playoff games before defeating Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XLV. On the defensive side of the ball, Green Bay was one of the best in the league that year, as championship teams usually are, and they were led both numbers-wise and leadership-wise by both Charles Woodson and Al Harris. While Harris left the team for Miami during the season, he had a number of great years in Green Bay, and Woodson of course was one of the most vocal leaders on the team that season.

Both players will be enshrined forever for their accomplishments later this year.

The 2021 Packer Hall of Fame Induction Banquet will feature Harris and Woodson as the newest inductees into the HOF. Also being honored is Bud Selig as the Bob Harlan Leadership Award recipient and the late Zeke Bratkowski as the Bart and Cherry Starr Recognition Award recipient. The event will be held August 28th to make up for the 2020 event being pushed back for COVID reasons.

By Adam Roberts – 5/19/2021

The state of Wisconsin has had its premiere football schools over the course of time. Names that come to mind include Jerry Sinz’s program at Edgar, Joe LaBuda’s Menomonie Mustangs, Bob Hyland at St. Mary’s Springs, perennial state contender Stratford, and the Papermakers of Kimberly who didn’t lose a single game between November 2nd 2012 and August 18th, 2018. Looking over the river, you obviously have to throw in Coach Freuchte’s Caledonia Warriors as well. But we also can’t leave out Bangor, who under Rick Muellenberg have won two state championships in 2015 and 2017 and seemingly always find a way to flirt with 60 points a game.

But the winds of change are always blowing, and it seems those winds are blowing through the Bangor community today.

WXOW’s Scott Emerich reported yesterday that Muellenberg has submitted his resignation from the head coaching position along with his assistant Kevin Kravik. That means that the 2021 fall season will be the first without Rick in some sort of leadership position for the Cardinals in 20 years.

In addition to the two state titles, Rick’s Cardinals have also compiled a 166.55 record during that time.

Congratulations to both Rick and Kevin on building a dominant football culture at Bangor! The next person up has some big shoes to fill.

By Adam Roberts – 5/18/2021

Brewers’ pitcher Corbin Burnes recently missed some time due to a COVID situation, and while it was certainly unfortunate to lose maybe the best pitcher in baseball at the moment, at least the Brewers avoided a case like with the Yankees. Nine members of that organization tested positive for the virus after receiving their vaccine series.

While that may seem concerning, one medical expert notes that this shows that the vaccines are actually doing their job. Infectious disease specialist Dr. Charles Lerner says they all show few symptoms, and also says it’s highly unlikely that the players gave it to each other. Studies, he says, show people who get vaccinated don’t share as much of the virus in their bodily fluids.

“It turns out that they do multiple tests on their players” Lerner said in an interview for Metro News. “and one had trivial symptoms and the others were all asymptomatic. If you do get the infection and are asymptomatic, you shed very little virus…[it’s] very hard to infect other people.”

Lerner says the Yankees situation shows why more people need to get vaccinated.

“When you’re immunized, the likelihood of your having severe disease is markedly reduced to almost nothing”.

You can set up a vaccine appointment in your neighborhood at dhs.wisconsin.gov/covid-19.

By Adam Roberts – 5/17/2021

It’s the story that we already know will dominate the rest of the month of May in this state until the Bucks either advance to June playoff basketball or falter in the first round. And everyone wants to get their two cents in, from the little guys like myself all the way up to the top names close to the situation. We’ve also heard from big football names not immediately involved in the decision-making process.

One of those names was on ESPN La Crosse 105.5 earlier today as part of The Wendy’s Big Show.

Former Packer general manager Ron Wolf, the architect of one of the biggest deals in league history acquiring Reggie White and by extension leading Green Bay to two Super Bowl appearances, was speaking on Rodgers and other top league quarterbacks trying to leverage for better deals. In Wolf’s mind, it’s a “kids these days” sort of situation.

The full Wolf quote, tweeted earlier today by Big Show executive producer Dan Plocher, reads thus:

“There is a huge change, and it started with Russell Wilson, then went to (DeShaun) Watson, and now it went to (Aaron) Rodgers. It appears that today’s quarterbacks want to be more than quarterbacks. In my time, they were hired to play the position of quarterback. That’s what they are being paid to do. These guys, they want to pick the coach, pick the players, it’s an interesting dilemma. All three of these guys have signed long-term contracts, and they are under contract. I’m sure at that time there wasn’t anyone holding a gun to their head saying that you have to sign. Now, they’re not happy. They’re not happy with the team they signed a contract with…We’ve got a lot of divas playing in the league right now… The thing that I fail to understand is, all these guys that are doing this (Watson, Rodgers, Wilson) have long-term deals. I can’t believe the game has changed that remarkably.”

We’ve heard this take before, and will likely hear it again before this situation is resolved one way or another. A reminder that nothing will in all likelihood be decided until after June 1st, and while the court of opinion seems to be slightly swaying towards a resolution between the two parties being reached, anything could happen.

By Adam Roberts – 5/14/2021

I know we probably don’t probably have a TON of Timberwolves fans in the area, but I know we do cross over into southeast Minnesota, and if there’s a big enough story involving the Vikings or Twins I certainly make a point of noting it. I feel this is probably one of those kind of stories that necessitates a note.

Former MLB star Alex Rodriguez is set to become an NBA owner. On Friday, the Timberwolves and Minnesota Lynx announced Glen Taylor has reached an agreement with Rodriguez and tech mogul Marc Lore on the sale and future ownership of the teams. ESPN reported Thursday that the transaction is for one-and-a-half billion dollars, and Rodriguez and Lore will be 50-50 partners. The deal will officially close after approval from the NBA.

The deal had been reported on a while ago, but now it is set to become official. It will be important to follow the language of ownership over the first few months of their tenure, given the relocation rumors that have started to pop up around the franchise in recent years.