In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Packers had their first preseason game this past weekend, and Lucas and Oates have a lot of thoughts. But no questions about the Packers’ Number One WR, or LaFleur might vomit. He says he’s sick of that question, and there’s little question why. One of the few issues Aaron Rodgers had when he was still with the Packers was that he focused too much on Davante Adams and not enough on anyone else.

Instead, the Packers have several “top” guys, which helps in a lot of ways, Oates says. First, you aren’t paying any one of them quite as much as you would a Number One guy. But it also opens up the offense when the defense doesn’t know where you’re going to pass to.

Moving away from the receivers though, Oates was pretty impressed with their new defensive line. They're talented and explosive, which is not something they’ve seen quite as much in recent years. The Packers old defense wasn’t playing to their players strengths, but if they stay as they looked on Saturday, that might not be the case this season. It might not be fancy and exotic, but it will be aggressive.

Moving away from football, Team USA won the gold in basketball, thanks in no small part to Steph Curry. It was another great moment for him, in a career of great moments. Steph’s changed basketball, Lucas says, and probably won’t be the same for a long time. Also on Team USA, and not to be discounted, is Jrue Holiday. If you look at the paper, Jrue probably wouldn’t be considered a hall of famer. But if you look at the court, and the results? There’s no question, and this gold medal just cements that fact.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates spend a little bit of time having old man flashbacks before tackling a big question everyone watching the beginning of the NFL season: what’s going on with these new kickoff rules?

They’ll be tested out for a one-year basis, but they are very confusing. Onside kicks are only allowed in the fourth quarter, and only if the team is trailing, and they have to be declared first? Touchbacks can be at the 20, 30, or 40 yard line? Sure, keeping the kickoff is a good thing, it should stick around! But this is confusing.

There’s only one way to really know how they will turn out - watching a game. Still, the Packers were one of only a few teams to vote against the rule change. The first team to really figure out how to make the new rules work to their advantage might still be able to make some real big plays.

Speaking of Packers games, they play their first preseason game this Saturday, and Love will be on the field. Probably not for the full game, but Oates says it’s a good thing. The Packers are a young team this year, and Love is still a young quarterback. Getting some snaps in before the regular season could help them in the long run.

The Packers first regular season game this year? Against Philly, and playing in Brazil. Lucas doesn’t like it, and neither does Oates. Lucas doesn’t like it because it’s not fair to the fans. It’s the opening game of the season, and very few hometown fans will probably be able to attend. Oates doesn’t like it because it’s not fair to the players. Any time any team plays overseas, it’s going to take more than a week for them to recover.

Finally, the Memorial Shell at UW Madison is coming down, and Oates has a lot of memories playing pickup basketball there, going back decades. He’s played against everyone from football coaches to a cavalcade of players, to even a former Wisconsin governor…

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates pick up on last week’s conversation on Jordan Love. After some speculation on his contract, Love is walking away with $55 million a season. Is that a big bag? Yes, but it’s still friendly to the team, thanks to slightly lower guaranteed money.

While the deal was inevitable, Oates says, the Packers at least have some protection in case Love doesn’t turn out to be as good as he was the last 10 games of last season. The Packers weren’t getting out of this cheap, not without Love, and Oates says that this is a decent deal, and everyone can come out happy.

That means that Love joins the $50 million + club, which means that now we have to ask: which $50 million + quarterback is going to play in the super bowl this next year?

Meanwhile, the MLB trade deadline has come and gone. There was some concern that Yellich could see his replacement come through after his latest injury. But the Brewers have bigger fish to fry, namely their starting pitchers. The Brewers need someone with length, Oates says, considering how much of their bench has been on the DL this year.

Finally, the Badgers have started practice in Platteville. It’s no use to try and decide if they’ll be a great team or not this year, Lucas says. At least not in this heat.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, beer is going to be sold this season at Camp Randall. About time says Lucas and Oates! Not that they ever drank on the job, the press rooms were mostly dry. But in all seriousness, it’s more surprising that it took this long for Camp Randall to sell beer. After UW Madison tested the waters at the Kohl Center last year with their beer experiment, where the results were money money and more money, it’s no surprise that Camp Randall is next in line.

The Badgers are now the 16th football team in the Big 10 to sell beer at football games, leaving just two teams NOT selling beer at football games. “That’s how it goes in college sports,” Oates says. “Once someone finds a revenue stream, they all have to have that revenue stream.” Can Camp Randall handle the new beer sales though? Try walking up and down those stairs four or five times each game, not to mention the bathrooms. Will people buy beer at Badger football games? Sure, but not like they do at the Kohl Center. Not at Kohl Center prices, at the very least.

Sticking with the Big 10, they held their first big football media day on Tuesday, and Luke Fickell took some media training and spoke about not much of anything for about 13 minutes. If you talk about nothing for that long, nobody will ask you questions. Why doesn’t Fickell want to answer questions, though? Nobody is going to really go after him, there hasn’t been any games yet!

Moving to the NFL, Jordan Love wasn’t at practice again on Tuesday. Not until he signs a contract, he says. While he needs to get to practice sooner rather than later, it’s not too much of an issue unless he’s still not at practice next week. Oates remembers just how Rodger or even Farve would be treated for missing a practice. Love is being a businessman, let him be a businessman.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas does something he hasn’t done in a while: watch soccer. He’s been enjoying the games so far, but he does still have two complaints.

How does anyone know how much time is left in the game, and why do these players keep flopping?

When he wasn’t watching soccer, he was watching the Home Run Derby, but he ran into the issue, namely the worst rendition of the national anthem he’s ever heard. Ingrid Andress might have some MLB connections, but she still had a worse national anthem than Roseanne Barr and Fergie.

But even sticking with the Home Run Derby itself, Lucas and Oates agree: it’s too boring and gimmicky. There’s no big stars, with Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani nowhere to be found, and nobody can understand the rules. Sure, the Home Run Derby was fun back in the 90s, but today? No thanks. At least the All Star Game is still fun, says Oates.

If the Home Run Derby doesn’t get Oates excited, Gary Trent Jr certainly will. After being signed by the Bucks, there isn’t much for Oates to complain about. He’s a great player, a great athlete, and exactly what the Bucks need right now.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, Lucas and Oates congratulate Giannis on not just playing for the Greek National Team in the Olympics, but carrying their flag. While he may be known as the Greek Freak in Milwaukee, he faced adversity in his home country growing up as a Nigerian immigrant. But his devotion to Greece is something to respect.

Sticking with Giannis, are the Bucks falling into the background? Lucas and Oates agree that yes, they are. To start, Giannis doesn’t have the right players surrounding him,and he isn’t getting that. Oates says that, if you look at the teams that did well in the playoffs, they are all young and athletic. That is not the Bucks, at least not this season. But as long as Giannis is on the team, Oates says that they’ll still be a fun team to watch, and still have a chance at a ring. Lucas, though, is not quite as sold on that notion.

Sticking with basketball, how does this year’s USA National Team compare to the Dream Team? They don’t, Lucas and Oates say. Because with the Dream Team, they were accused of making a mockery of the competition. But then the rest of the world learned from them, and just look at how many foreign players are in the NBA today compared to the 90s?

Finally, Braun vs Yelich? Oates says that Yelich in 2018/2019 was one of the best in the world. But compared to the career of Ryan Braun, the answer is clear. Even if his reputation in Milwaukee is a little sullied at this point.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Oates is away, which means it’s the perfect time for Lucas to bring in his old friend Bill Brophy, former sports editor with the Wisconsin State Journal, to talk about the state of Brewers baseball. While it’s been a while since he’s worked for the State Journal, Brophy has been working with Badger Hockey, high school, and even heading south for MLB Spring Training. While it’s been a while since he’s covered sports for the Journal, he’s still as sharp as ever on the state of Wisconsin sports.

While covering spring training, Brophy spent most of his time working with the Cubs. That doesn’t mean he could see just how bad they’d be playing at this point in the season. The problem, Brophy says, is that they have all complimentary players and no stars. Pair that with a weak bullpen, that’s how a team can end up 11 games behind the Brewers.

Speaking of the Brewers, they continue to dominate the league. While they’re pretty likely to see the playoffs, Brophy says, they’ve been working their bullpen hard. On Monday night, the team utilized their 15th starting pitcher. Even Brophy hasn’t heard of these guys, and he covered them in spring training!

Lucas then moves to pick Brophy’s brain to get his take on everything from the changing nature of baseball and college athletics, to Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge, to his memories of Willie Mays.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

In this week's episode of The Wisconsin Sportscast, the Green Bay Packers have a new President: Ed Policy. Lucas doesn’t know too much about him, and Oates knows him more from his old man Carmen Policy. What we do know: Ed Policy is a legal guy and has been with the Packers for over a decade.

Now with Mark Murphy out, and not knowing a whole lot about Policy, that means we have one question: What will be the legacy of Mark Murphy? While the Packers haven’t been a “mom-and-pop” operation for a while, he helped turn them into a mega-corporation, says Oates. Just look at Titletown. Teams make money from more than just football these days, for better or worse.

But on the field, Oates says that his changes to the management style had a negative impact on the team. “Historically in Green Bay, when football has been left to football people, the team has done really well,” Oates says. Murphy? Not a football guy. What does that mean for Policy, another legal guy? Only the future can tell us that.

Then, the Florida Panthers beat out the Oilers to win the Stanley Cup. A seven game series that’s frantic and fun? What more can you ask for? But Lucas wants to know: what happened to MVP’s coming from the winning team? Doesn’t matter, says Oates, even if he wanted to see the Canadians win the cup.

Willie Mays has passed away, as another one of sports greats has left us. But Lucas and Oates agree, at least they got to watch him play. Some people will try and argue that others are better, but those arguments come from people who never even saw them play, says Oates.

The Wisconsin Sportscast with Lucas & Oates is a Cap Times podcast produced by Nate Wegehaupt. Find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.