Day 1 Draft Reaction..

Day #2 of the NFL Draft is set to begin in a short while. The Packers first day draft is being evaluated with a lot of question marks. The Packers have 6 picks today. They have a 4th rounder (112th overall), a 5th round pick(157), and a pair of 6th (191 & 193) and 7th round picks (228 & 243).

First Round Pick: DE: Justin Harrell: Never been healthy
2nd Round Pick: RB: Brandon Jackson: Never been a full-time starter
3rd Round Pick: WR: James Jones: His 40 time was 4.6
3rd Round Pick: S: Aaron Rouse: Called an "underachiever"

Randy Moss won't be a Packer. Pending passing a physcial, he'll be going to New England for a 4th round pick. I can't believe the Pack couldn't pony up their 112th pick in the fourth round or a 3rd rounder for Moss....I think Randy Moss is a better player than James Jones..Green Bay's 3rd round selection at WR.

Three Wisconsin Badgers may get selected today. Quarterback John Stocco is expected to be taken in the 6th or 7th round. Linebacker Mark Zalewski and safety Rod Rogers could be drafted late, but most likely will be a free agent.

Manitowoc native Doug Free could be drafted at any time today. The former Northern Illinois tackle was projected to go be selected anywhere from the 2nd to the 4th round.

Another Name Stealer!!

Back in February I wrote about a dude who had the name Wade Bates, who I found on-line and was a little upset that somene else would dare try and use the name of a er...legend...like me. I tried to contact THAT Wade Bates and petition him to consider changing it!

(Yes, me and a few co-workers have no life as we search the Internet for things like this in our spare time!)

Well, low and behold, I did the old "Google-Image" search this morning on my name and found out there is yet ANOTHER Wade Bates...this one out in the Pacific Northwest who is in the building business. I think I'll have to get the old copywright lawyers on the line!

Hey at least that Wade Bates has a billboard, so that maybe puts him in higher stature than me! There was a time when the "powers that be" put me on a billboard at the old railroad crossing by G&L on Johnson Street in Fondy. Waiting for a train is painful enough, but having to stare at my mug must have made it worse.....thanks to the overpass..that billboard came down…

That got me thinking...what would happen if two or all three of the Wade Bates' ended up in the same room. Would it world end as Doc Brown told Marty McFly in Back to the Future might happen if he met up with himself in 1955? I don't want that hanging over me, so lets hope it doesn't happen.

...Back to the topic at hand...I've now found visual facts of two other Wade Bates in the good old USA....If your name is Wade Bates...and you're not me! Drop me an email wade@kfiz.com and maybe we can thumb wrestle or play Rock, Paper, Scissors for the official rights to the name.

The Right Guy Got The Job

The Fond du Lac School District got it right. Adam Zakos was offered and accepted the head boys basketball coaching position on Thursday after being interviewed on Wednesday night as the only internal candidate to apply for the job. Zakos was named interim-head coach last summer when Dick Diener retired after a historic run on the Cardinal bench. Many people, including myself, felt Zakos should have been named the permanent replacement immediately. Shortly after Coach Diener retired the district said they wanted to wait to name a full-time successor until after the season. As it turns out, they didn’t need to do that extensive search because the best man for the job was already in place. The Cards went just 6-15 this season but there were many positives that came out of the 2006-07 that the overall record doesn’t show. I won’t go over those again, because I’ve documented them in other blogs, my co-worker Bob Hoffmaster has pointed them out on KFIZ and both Jon Casper and Doug Whitely did a nice job breaking the thing down in The Reporter.

I can tell you this, in a town like Fond du Lac where people are passionate about their sports; rumors were flying about who would be named the full-time coach after the season concluded. Even though I felt Zakos was the right guy, the rumors were out there that other candidates were in line. You probably heard them in the barber chair, at other sporting events or via the Internet…Coach (fill in the blank) was contacted by (insert administrator here) and promised the job. After hearing this stuff from so many different directions, you start to wonder if there was some validity to them despite denials by all involved.. When it was all said and done, the rumors proved to be just that…rumors .

Again, I’d like to congratulate Coach Zakos on getting the “interim” ripped off the front of his job title. I’m happy for Adam, the Fondy basketball program, the school district, and the city of Fond du Lac because he and his team will represent us all well. He’s a good guy and the right guy for the job.

RIP Bob Clark

Film director Bob Clark was killed in a car accident on April 4th. You may not know who Bob Clark is but he made two of my all-time favorite films. "Porky's" and "A Christmas Story." It's amazing to me that a guy can make films that are so different in genre and have them both find their place in movie lore.

Porky's could have been the first of what I'll call the "teen-romp" movies that featured high school kids getting into all sorts of trouble in various situations. It was pretty crude and raw humor. The success of Porky's and it's two sequals saw many other movies similar to it pop up in the 1980s. It's not an Oscar winner by any means, but it's a movie that you will probably sit back an enjoy if you take it for what it is.

On the other hand, A Christmas Story was a box office flop, but became a cult hit when it was released on video and may be the greatest Christmas movie released since the great ones of the 1950s and 1960s. It seems everyone knows the storie of Ralphie and his quest to get the Red Rider BB gun, even though he could "shoot his eye out." You gotta love the tongue on the light pole seen, among others. TNT now airs it for 24 hours straight every Christmas.

Besides those two films, Clark really didn't do much and was all over the board when it comes to projects he did. He made some pretty bad films such as Rhinestone starring Sylvestor Stallone and Dolly Parton, Black Christmas. The Karate Dog, and Baby Geniuses.

Another movie that got horrible reviews that he did, but I seem to like is Turk 182. It was a movie made in 1985 starrinng Timothy Hutton, Robert Urich, and Kim Cattrall. I think the reason I like that one so much is that it seemed like it was always on HBO when I stayed home sick from school as a kid.

Bob Clark may not be considered one of the Hollywood greats, but he did leave a mark.

Packers 2007 Preseason Schedule Set

Saturday, August 11th - at Pittsburgh - 6:30pm - State TV

Saturday, August 18th - Seattle (Gold pkg) - 7pm - State TV - Shrine

Thursday, August 23rd - Jacksonville - 7pm - FOX - Bishop's Charities

Thursday, August 30th - @ Tennessee - 7pm - State TV