Comedy of Errors

The heads are turning, tongues are waging, and the chatter about who has to go has gotten even stronger due to yet another listless performance by the Green Bay Packers. I don't think a comedy writer could have written a script for a movie about how funny the Packers play. They have gone from exasperating to watch, to now being comedic due to their accumulation of errors. The Packers are now tied in their division with the Chicago Bears at 3-4 through a season that is now about 40% completed. 

Brian "Gaff" Gutekunst

After their performance against the NY Jets, I suspect most fans felt the team could not go any lower. Well, it did. It got to the point you just had to laugh at how bad they are. It did not take long to get over my exasperation with the team, about the same amount of time it took for the defense to collapse. Amari Rodgers muffed a punt that was recovered by Washington, on which they scored a field goal. If it had been a quarter later, the Green Bay defense would have given up a TD, but overall the defense plays fairly well in the first quarter. Usually, they drop off in the second half, but this past Sunday, it started in the second quarter. 

A defense composed of high draft picks is not doing its job. It may be the coordinator, the GM who selects, or a combination. Does Brian, Gaff Gutekunst try to outdo his poor draft selections every year? It is also on a team president who has failed in management of the overall football operations. Mismanagement Murphy is more interested in the Titletown District, than in the football core business of the team. 

Mis-management Murphy

The one player people on social media like to blame is the punt returner, Amari Rodgers. He muffed yet another punt reception, leading to a Washington recovery, off which the Commanders eventually scored three points. Many point to that play as the turning point of momentum in the game. The QB play could be better, there have been missed long throws, but there are no good receivers. One GB receiver had a pass interference call picked up because the ball was so overthrown it was uncatchable. In the fourth quarter Aaron Jones, a RB, had a great grab to score a TD. Lucky it was Jones, because the Packers did not have a wide receiver at that point of the game who could have made that catch. Mr. Doubs, a fourth round selection of the GM this year, did not have a reception, seemingly desirous of dropping what came his way. One really has to question who picks up this lack of talent? Last week I pointed out some inconsistencies between the Packer players and schemes, here is another one that points to Mismanagement Murphy: they selected a pass heavy coach in Matt LaFailure, but then they do not provide playmakers at the wide receiver position. The mismanagement of the team over the past several years has now manifested itself in a move to be below mediocrity.

Yet, it is interesting to note that the LA Rams, last year's Super Bowl Champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and San Francisco 49ers all have losing records. All three head coaches worked together. Perhaps defenses, other than Joe Barry's, have figured out how to attack this offense. It is even worse when you have a coach and assistants, as do the Packers, that really don't know how to make in-game adjustments. Although, the Jets have LaFleur's brother as offensive coordinator, and they did quite well against the Packers. As Steven A on ESPN iterated on Monday, October 24, Matt LaFleur keeps making the same mistakes, game after game after game. Meaning, LaFleur fails to grasp what is wrong and when you cannot figure out what is wrong with your coaching, you have no way to correct it.  

Matt LaFailure

What we now see is a team that has gone below mediocrity. As one NFL coach indicated last week, name was withheld, they are just terrible team--in all three phases. For thirty years we Packer fans have seen a team that was generally pretty good. A few good players made the difference, but now we see one or two good players cannot make less than mediocre team a good team. For those young fans, they now know what it was like watching the Packers in the 1970's and 1980's. As for me, the Packers have gone from exasperating to watch, to being a comedy of errors. Although, when the face the Bills this Sunday part of me hopes the NFL had a mercy rule, as in high school.

Packer Demise

For the past two weeks, the Green Bay Packers, were far more distant in play from the 1960's Packers than they are in years. I think there are a number of reasons for the demise of the Packers. However, in my opinion, part of the Packer miscues has to do with the lack of roster building due to the lack of coordination between the skills of the players selected and the schemes used. The total disconnect is a failure of the president of the organization who, in my opinion, should have been fired a long time ago. As mentioned in other posts, Mark Murphy is more interested in the Titletown District, not to mention that he has forgotten what gave the name to Titletown. Other than the University of Notre Dame, is there any other football team that adheres so much to past tradition to try and keep itself relative today? The demise of the team gets to a simple construct--roster building.

Jet player Sauce Gardner coopts a Cheese head
after the Packers humiliating defeat to the Jets at 
storied Lambeau Field

Let's begin with the offense. The offense has seen little in terms of number one draft picks, in the past several drafts, but the one time they did so the person, Jordan Love, has so far turned out to be a bust. The current old man at QB, since that pick, won two MVP awards, and a large contract. Of note, the Packers, since selecting Rodgers in 2015 have had 18 first round draft picks, three, including Jordan Love (with another wasted pick), were on offense, leaving 15 first round picks on defense. This is why the defense was supposed to shine this year. Like the offense it still suffers from misalignment of talent with scheme. The failures of the Packer organization were clear against the Jets. They spent so much money on a QB, they forgot about the offensive line. Their receiving corps is a mess, against the Jets they may have had more drops than catches. If there is a way NOT to build a football team, I think the Packers are it. The Packer's have two decent backs, but against good D-lines their offensive line failed. Either they never learned or they forgot to pick up stunts by the D-line, with the Jets now showing other teams how to pressure Green Bay.  The failure of the whole Packer organization can be summed up in one play. I can think of no better example. A wide open Christian Watson dropped his first sure TD pass, which would have been 75 yards. Since that easily catchable ball was dropped, long passes, over twenty yards in the air, have been almost non-existent for the team. The catch set the state for the dismal play we see after five more games. This is also a perfect metaphor for the way Brian Gutekunst drafts players--in other words, he (and Mark Murphy) dropped the ball, too. With a four time MVP at QB, one would think the organization would have enhanced their receiving corps over the years. Last year the Packers select some guy tall guy with the dropsies from a college in North Dakota as its top offensive pick, the 34th pick (round two) this past draft. That is the guy who dropped the 75 TD pass against the Vikings. You can tell Gutekunst learned from Ted Thompson, they both excelled at wasting high draft picks.

Running backs can be important in Green Bay weather, but the game, in part due to rule changes, has become the pass league. I should not fault the Packers, I guess I used their model, but based on a suggestion from a friend, to select running backs with my first two picks in my first ever fantasy league. One probably should have been a wide receiver. From what my friend said, I figured running backs must score better in the overall fantasy scheme than a wide receiver. I don't know, nor do I care to know the algorithm for the Yahoo Fantasy League. I trusted my friend's advice.

Brian Gutekunst, Packer GM

In my Fantasy league, I had a player injured and had to make some roster moves. I followed the scouting reports provided by Yahoo and of course my players sucked. So much for playing by the statistics. When you rely on certain stats and money ball, or mathematical procedures to select players, you miss the human aspect, and I think that is what happens with the Packers. Brian Gutekunst is not a Vince Lombardi. He learned under the Ted Thompson draft failure method of building a team--which was a fantasy expectation given their coaching staff makeup. 

Fantasy is what a lot of Packer fans have in mind for this season. While the team sits at 3 and 3, only key injuries on two of their opponent teams kept them from 1-4. Think of the New England Patriots who were down to their 3rd string QB, and Tampa Bay was missing their top receivers. Yet, both teams were in the game. They were in the game to the end thanks to a Packer offense that seems to not be able to make adjustments, or likes to coast on their laurels, and a defense that is just plain easy to beat. The defense falls apart in the second half. Regardless of the new scheme put in place for for the Jets, the defense failed, yet again, in the second half. Different team, different scheme, same result. 

Mark Murphy, Packer President

Misalignment also occurs on defense.  Their two first round picks this year went to a undersized linebacker, and a defensive tackle. Neither have made a good impact. When Dom Capers was the Packer D coordinator he ran a fairly complex scheme, in which they asked young players to master, not realizing it would take some time for the young defenders to comprehend the scheme. There were players drafted and dropped for not being able to handle the complexities of the scheme that, as one writer noted, became good players some where else--Casey Hayward and Micah Hyde. 

The Packer defensive numbers, up to the Jets game, were actually pretty good, but factor in a game against the hapless Bears, and the stats could be a different story. The Packers are terrible against the run, and that is probably due to the defense playing light weight defensive lineman, they lack a man the capabilities of the Gilbert "The Gravedigger" Brown upfront. Their one-gap system places importance on the linebackers, but the large contract receiving D'Vonte Campbell has been a no-show in his play this year. And the rookie may well turn out to be another unsuccessful draft choice. The first round pick linebacker goes for the edge and fails to fill the hole up the middle, which allowed the Jets to score. The Packers select corners that are better at man-to-man coverage, but play zone, leaving them the worst in the league in yards against crossing routes. Matt LaFleur in hiring Joe Barry apparently did not realize what defense he would play, or did not realize the capabilities of his players. Why does that not surprise me? Joe Barry failed at his other D coordinator posts, why did Matt LaFailure select him? I think it is because La Failure did not wish to be upstaged by the D-coordinator, like what occurred with Fangio in Chicago, Buddy Ryan years earlier, to name two examples. A less than middling, one can say failed, d-coordinator would never upstage Matt LaFleur. 

Matt LaFleur

The coming Packers schedule have them playing three away games in a row. The announcers referred to the Jet victory as a signature win at Lambeau. Like many, the announcers were thinking of the old Packers. I mean, how could any one looking at the Packer play this year think they are a formidable team? From the Jets game to the end of the season, I had picked the Packers to go 6-6, I was wrong, they lost to the Jets. The thing is Mark Murphy does not care as along as the seats are filled. LaFailure will, as is his wont, blame himself, but the blame goes all the way to the top of the organization. Quite frankly, LaFailure's shtick of blaming himself for bad coaching is getting old. That old mantra, "I need to be better prepared, we need to execute better." When I ask, will that start to happen? He hasn't and he should be fired faster than you can say Paul Chryst. The Packers were, I heard, two touchdown favorites over the Giants in London. The last time they lost to a team when they were favored by that much was to Arizona, in the year Mike McCarthy was fired during the season. The whole team looks worse than the 2018 Packers--they play without heart, like it is owed to them, and more importantly they lack toughness--mental and physical. They just got plain beat up on the line of scrimmage.

The Packer organization and team have showed how quickly a team can turn to mediocrity. ESPN orders the NFL teams every week. The Packers fell from 8th to 14th after week 6. Their take on the Packers:

Oh, if there were only one thing. On offense, the Packers have the lowest six-game point total in any six games of Aaron Rodgers' career. Even without Davante Adams, this was not the expectation because of guys like Aaron Jonesand AJ Dillon. The defense, loaded with first-round picks and high-priced free agents that had everyone projecting them as a top-tier defense, still can't stop the run. And even the special teams that looked vastly improved reverted Sunday and had both a field goal and a punt blocked. That's how an overwhelming division favorite can recede to mediocrity so quickly. -- Rob Demovsky On ESPN

I don't think Matt Lafou has the answers, and neither do the clueless Mark Murphy and Brian Gutekunst who share a great deal of the blame. The Packers played so poorly on Sunday it became comical. I was laughing at how bad a team they are. Some say they now know how a Bear fan feels, but with the Bears there are few expectations, the Packers hyped themselves up to have many expectations, and they have failed so far--thus Packer fans are in a worse predicament than Bear fans. 

The way the Packers are playing, and being coached
I think this guy, Lafou, is the head coach
Both he and LaFleur are clueless

We Packer fans are like farmers. Farmers always think the following year will be better--better weather, good crop prices, lower fuel costs. Packer fans are always waiting for another championship. Yet, that next year for farmers and Packer fans never materializes. Packer fans have seen failure after failure. To say that the Packer organization has squandered opportunity with two good QB's over the past thirty years is a massive understatement. Matt LaFleur and the Packer organization are no Vince Lombardi. Vince Lombardi lost just one playoff game out of ten played. LaFleur is 2-3. The way the Packers are playing, I don't think we can expect a playoff game this year. The organization needs to be on the same page and they are not. It is time for regime change from the top down. It could also be that Aaron Rodgers, who is paid way too much, either took to much ayahuasca, or he needs more. The Packer demise has been predicted in this blog post before.

Source: https://zonecoverage.com/2022/packers/the-sum-of-roster-building-errors-left-the-packers-with-an-underwhelming-team/

Ageism

On Saturday, October 1, 2022 the Wisconsin Badger football team faced off against the Fighting Illini of the University of Illinois. The game did not go well for the Badgers and they ended up losing 34 to 10. The prior week, Wisconsin lost to THE Ohio State University, (for some reason the emphasize THE, like is there is another university named Ohio State University, or they have a big inferiority complex) 52 to 21. October 2 would mark the end of Paul Chryst's tenure as head football coach for his alma mater, the University of Wisconsin. Two main things, in my mind played a part, ageism and money.

Wisconsin Badger fans were livid after the OSU loss, and gained steam after the Illinois loss. After the Ohio State game, McIntosh made the following statement:

The expectation of our program has evolved. That is clear. There have been varying degrees of tough times. But clearly, we all heard that there is a lot of urgency in making sure we push through and get better. Right now, the focus has to be on our season. That is the only thing that is within our control to focus on. That is not a new approach and that has been an approach that has served us well over the course of time.

This had a man named David Hookstad writing, after the OSU game, for some obscure sports web page, question what planet McIntosh was living on. A week later McIntosh would fire head coach Paul Chryst and install Jim Leonhard as the interim head coach. Badger fans were very happy, ecstatic, like they were in December 2014 when Chryst was hired to replace Gary Anderson. Chryst was the local boy made good, a QB guru of which everyone was pleased as punch. That is until the team does not perform the way they want, then they turned on him faster than a congressional candidate changes positions on an issue.

Jim Leonhard

Leonhard is considered an upcoming coach, a football Wunderkind, who played football at Wisconsin as a walk-on and became an All-American. Leonhard is 39 years old, compared to 56 years for Paul Chryst. A couple years ago Leonhard could have had the Packer defensive coordinator position, but turned it down to stay at Wisconsin. I see this as key to what has now occurred, and which I will touch on later in greater detail. Earlier this season, Nebraska fired Scott Frost, age 47, a former Cornhusker QB, who had success coaching Florida Atlantic. There were two main names on the Nebraska list, at least according to the talking heads, for head coach, Jim Leonhard and Lance Leipold, a Jefferson, WI native formerly at UW-Whitewater, and currently at Kansas.

McIntosh (age 45) has not been very upfront about why he fired Paul Chryst and that is major shortcoming as the whole issue lacks transparency, particularly for a man who has given his heart and soul to Wisconsin. In an article in the "Wisconsin State Journal" on Thursday, Oct 13, McIntosh noted he would not say what caused him to fire Chryst, but he went in to the 10:00 am Sunday meeting with no intent to fire him, but at noon, during the meeting made that decision. It is not like Chryst lacked success: he was twice Big Ten Coach of the Year, and three times Big Ten West Champions. He was fired after winning 72 percent of his games, and over 70% in the Big Ten. His Bowl record was 78.8%, or 7 and 2. By comparison, Barry Alvarez had a won under 62% of his games, and was 9-4 in bowl games. Yet, Alvarez retired from football to be the UW's Athletic Director, a position he recently retired from and turned the reigns over to McIntosh. An interesting note, Chryst was on the panel to select the AD. Also, since 2015 Kirk Ferentz of Iowa and Chryst had almost identical win-loss records in Big Ten play, with Chryst having one win more, and one loss less than Ferentz. 

The game of college football has changed in just the last two years, with athletes now able to make money off of Name Image and Likeness. Large payouts to fired coaches are not uncommon. Until he was fired Chryst was the highest paid public employee in the State of Wisconsin. The University did not blink in providing him a payout of about $11 million dollars. Less than what he was owed (reports say it would have been $16 million), but the UW gave up the contract clause that money owed him be deducted if he were to get a job at D1 college or professional. Instead, of installment payments over several years, they will now make a one-time payment, in or before Feb 2023. In addition, neither can say a bad thing about the other, which may be why McIntosh failed to provide reasons for the firing, after only providing meaningless platitudes about Coach Chryst. It is probably this clause as to why McIntosh denied that he got mad and heated during that Sunday meeting with Chryst. 

Jim Leonhard

The firing also affects the culture that is preached to a team. As Pat Ford writing in SI.com wrote on 2 Oct: "The in-season firings also make a mockery of what programs preach about commitment and togetherness during the hard winter workouts, the spring practices, the demands that players stay on campus together through the summer. Commitment and togetherness are disposable if the season starts badly. The transfer portal beckons, and the coaches are sent packing." The Badgers, like other teams, preach about them being a football family. Case in point, senior cornerback Jay Shaw was quoted extensively in the Tuesday, 11 Oct 2022, "Wisconsin State Journal" which is relevant to this particular point, and I quote:

'Here we're very family oriented' Shaw said Monday. 'We like to keep things in-house, we love the brotherhood, we love Wisconsin. We take pride in 'You wore the W.' The power shift was from Coach (Paul) Chryst who used to play here to another coach who used to play here.  So I told them to understand that yeah, even though it's a business, you've got to understand it's Wisconsin, it's a brotherhood we love our people, we're going to take care of each other. So understand it's a shift, but it's still a family shift.' 

 Apparently, at Wisconsin, one can cut out the head of the family early in the season at will, and as long as they are replaced with another Wisconsin product all is hunky dory. I suspect Shaw was given talking points by the UW athletics PR department. I wonder what Paul Chryst thinks of the family mentality now?  All this talk of a football family, is quite frankly, BS. It is about the money not about the family. If it was about family, the UW Athletic Dept. could learn something from Vito Corleone, and Frank Barone. Of course, the firing is to give a trial run to Leonhard, and get a ahead start on the coaching search, since besides the transfer portal, the December signing period also plays a roll. 

Lance Leipold, Jefferson, WI native

Sure, the Badger program is on somewhat difficult times right now, but the man they made interim head coach, and is the heir apparent, Jim Leonhard, had defenses that gave up 86 points over two games! Chryst, people said, had offenses that became stale, he could not recruit anymore, the old QB guru had lost his touch. Pellini at Nebraska had about the same record as Chryst when he was fired in favor of Scott Frost. This whole situation reeks of ageism, getting rid of an older coach in favor of an up and coming Wunderkind, Jimmy Leonhard. Was there a tacit agreement between The UW Athletic Director less than two years ago when he turned down the Green Bay d-coordinator position, that Leonhard would be the guy if Chryst was nudged out? Was Leonhard a poser, hoping to get Chryst fired and himself hired? Maybe Leonhard, from NW WI, is a closet Viking fan, and did not like the idea of coaching for his in-state pro football team.? He was offered the d-coordinator at the pro level and turned it down (now the Packers are stuck with another incompetent at the position). His defenses certainly did not perform well against OSU, Illinois, or even Washington State. Look at the stats for the OSU game. OSU was up on WI by 24 points at the end of the first half, and by 21 to 0 at the end of the first quarter. How does that happen to a defensive mastermind? Did he know the case was lost the minute OSU scored and from thereon became a poser? The loss to Illinois made firing Paul Chryst easier. I see three main reasons why Chryst was fired. First, the UW did not wish to lose Leonhard to Nebraska, and wanted to see how he could do as an interim head coach. Badger fans will be excited that the old Badgers are back after beating poor 1-4, now 1-5 Northwestern on October 8 by 35 points. On Facebook fans were raving about offensive coordinator Bobby Ingram's game plan. The coordinator brought in by Chryst before the start of the season. I am not sure why Ingram's game plans against Illinois and OSU were insufficient, but now is all of a sudden great. Of course, the fan base felt that the Badgers were back after the Badgers beat New Mexico State 66-7 on 17 Sept, what was to be a warm up game for OSU the following Saturday. The UW has a way of playing many lightweight opponents for non-conference games, although being in the Big Ten West it is not like their schedule has many power houses, either. 

Second, I think it was money. I am sure some large donors, probably some who helped provide perks to UW coaches, wanted him gone. Money in college athletics speaks, and it speaks the most when your football coach is the highest paid position in state employ.  Unfortunately, money rules major sports like football. Arguments are made that, at D1 programs, football and basketball fund all other college athletics.   Third, I also think Alvarez was consulted by McIntosh, perhaps he even called McIntosh and suggested him dumping Paul Chryst. I think Alvarez decided to throw Paul Chryst under the bus. After all, many see the football program as being built by Alvarez. McIntosh says he called ALvarez later in the afternoon to let him know of the firing of Chryst before word leaked out. Of course, that will be the mantra, as McIntosh would not want to be seen as being led by Alvarez. Yet, with all this, I think it was ageism. Some commented that the game has passed Paul Chryst by, and he is not a man to lead a major program in an age of extended money with the whole Name, Image, and Likeness issue. In the end, however, I think it was ageism and money second, the desire for a younger man to come in and take control. Face it, D1 athletes are coddled, big time. I recall talking to a parent of a D1 tennis player who had everything done for them. When that person was out on their own, after graduating, the father said hic child did not even know how to call and make a hotel reservation. If tennis players are coddled so much, I cannot fathom what it is like in D1 football and basketball where the prima donna players really shine. 

Brett Beilema

Paul Chryst, in my opinion, did not deserve to fired much less at that point in the season. He was given an annual contract extension earlier this year, or late last year. Five college D1 head football coaches have been fired during so far this season. Chryst was the most successful of the five. The talking heads and the Badger fans are happy now, but as we know they can turn quick. If Paul Chryst was not safe, he the man heralded in 2014 as the one to bring back success after the Gary Anderson years, I doubt few D1 college coaches are safe. Pat Forde had this comment about the role of money in the sport of football: "As for where the sport as a whole is heading? Deeper into the shark tank."

Andrew receiving Scholar-Athlete Award 
from a brother of Paul Chryst

I had the opportunity to meet Paul Chryst's brothers and his mother during a banquet when our son Andrew was selected to the All-Scholar-Athlete football team, so perhaps I am a little biased. The banquet was right before the 2011 WI Badger spring football game. If memory serves me right, Paul briefly stopped up, he was an assistant coach at the tie, but I did not meet him.  Andrew and the other members were introduced at half time of the spring game. 

Andrew being recognized at 50 Yard line
at Camp Randall Stadium

An October Trip

This past weekend my spouse and I went to visit our son and daughter-in-law in the Twin Cities area. It was a short, but nice visit. This post will tell of a few happenings in our trip to the land of 10,000 lakes. 

The question arises since Wisconsin has 15,000 lakes, and Minnesota has just under 12,000, we have more lakes. The problem is the WIDNR and Minnesota use different criteria, so in the end, perhaps MN has more lakes. Wisconsin may have fewer lakes, but perhaps it has more lakes per square mile since WI has 65,498 sq mi of area compared to MN 86,943. 

1 of 12,000 MN lakes

This Wisconsin Minnesota rivalry is quite strong in some cultural aspects. Gophers-Badgers; Packers-Vikings. While visiting this past weekend, I read the local Star-Tribune, and one article noted how Minnesota was rated number 3 for happiness, and of course the writer pointed out that Wisconsin was 21st. If they can outdo Wisconsin, Minnesota apparently revels in pointing that out. Then there was the message board on I-94 we saw on the way out of Minnesota as we were approaching the green pastures of Wisconsin. The changing message board read: "River, 7 minutes." Of course, the sign meant the St Croix River which is the dividing line between WI and MN. Why did it not say State border--7 minutes? Or, perhaps even Hudson, WI--7 minutes? As my wife commented, "What is the big deal of knowing when you cross the river?" Is it a point of no return as one enters Wisconsin? Apparently, it is a big deal for those in Minnesota. 

Cedar Lake, Minneapolis

There was road construction in Minnesota on part of I-94, but I did not pay sufficient attention if the construction ended before the river. There was also road construction further east on I-94 in Wisconsin. Sometimes I think the WIDOT is like my wife, they have make work projects, repaving what looks like totally good pavement to the traveler eye. There is this meme that sometimes shows up on Facebook, it has a photo of an old Roman stone road in good condition, and then one with a typical American potholed road. The caption says something to the effect that "Romans built this road 3,000 years ago...", and with the photo of the US road,  "...and then the engineers showed up." Perhaps, engineers like it that way, it keeps them gainfully employed. I noticed on I-90 near Roberts, WI a section of pavement reconstructed a year or two ago that is already developing potholes. Our road building technique still uses concrete--which was developed by the Romans. Roman roads may not have taken the punishment ours do, but still, we are a few thousand years later, one would have thought our road building would have advanced. For some reason, they are building a second set of lanes by Black River Falls and area between Osseo and Eau Claire. I suspect they are getting ready for a traffic shift for, of course, road construction yet again. They just had construction a few years ago and this year by Black River Falls, so it is probably another make work project. 

View across Highway from T Wirth Parkway Trail

On the way to Minneapolis on Friday we got stuck in a long traffic jam on I-94 where it was down to one lane. The backup, occurred while we were in a construction zone. We got off, not knowing the exit marked the end of the road work, but per GPS, we were only partially through the backup. We figured a crash had occurred ahead, and on the way home figured it was west, and out of the construction zone. GPS is nice, we used it to find the length of the back up, and my navigator, directed me to the onramp just beyond the backup. She did a a super job. This was on top of her normal job as the wife app when I drive. I must have done a pretty good job of driving, because the wife app seldom activated, even when we were in the heavy traffic in downtown Minneapolis. The main activation was, do you know you are doing 62 mph in a 55 mph zone, or the speed limit here is only 55.

Maybe MN wins an award for this burr

On the way home, the wife app checked GPS on her phone to find an ever increasing back up at Poynette, which we maneuvered around by taking Hwy 33 to Portage and then US 51 south to where it meets the interstate by the north side of Madison. WIDOT, had construction in a segment along US 51, which of course is par for the course by not only having construction on the interstate, but also having construction on a logical route to avoid the interstate backup. Apparently, the road building administrators at WIDOT fail to think of such things. 

Luce Line Bike trail

Transportation engineers of course can work on other elements, like rail and bike and pedestrian ways. When I worked as a planner, I had created a concept of what is known as the Heritage Circle Route for Fitchburg, WI. That was in the year 2000. Using old rail rights of way, the E-Way to the north, and along County M to the south, it would go near most of the designated Fitchburg local and National Register historic sites, hence the name I provided to the route. Two legs are complete, the third, I was told was not possible because some rail person said we could not use the rail right-of-way unless we were a good distance, I can't recall the number, from the line and fenced. Well, in the Twin Cities area, I biked on the Luce Line, which for is in a rail right-of-way for a good part of its length. Guess what, there is no fence, and it is probably less than thirty feet at certain points. I think WI Southern and the State Railroad commission simply wanted to make sure it did not happen. Kudos to Minnesota for getting that to work. The Heritage Circle route is mentioned and more fully described in the City's Bike and Pedestrian Plan, which you can read about here (see image 50). The eastern challenge is due to the railroad mandate of distance and fence. The Luce Line trail is 63 miles itself. Wisconsin, however, is home to the nation's first rail to trail project, the 32.5 mile Elroy-Sparta Trail opened about 1965, well before the Minnesota millennials were born. We did, however, see our fair share of OWLS (Old Women wearing Lycra, coined by my wife), and MAMLS (Middle-Aged Males wearing Lycra, coined by a presenter of bicycle planning at a national planning conference) and older men. 

OWL ahead on the Luce Line trail

The Twin Cities has many nice bike paths. The Luce Line route took us to the Theodore Wirth Parkway and a well done route within the parkway. The 740 acre Theodore Wirth Park, is the largest park in the Minneapolis regional park system. That number includes 83 acres of water. At times, as we biked the trail, I wondered if I was in northern WI or in Minneapolis, the nature present was so nice along the trail. There was one thing that made me know I was in Minnesota. They understood public space. On some of the lakes in Minneapolis, streets or public ways surround the lakes, and houses are off the shoreline. Here in Wisconsin, use Madison as an example, much of the lake fronts are almost fully developed as private property. No linear parkways along lakeshores as in Minnesota. The Minneapolis linear parks may not be very wide the whole length, but at least the lake can be viewed by the public as they drive, walk or bike. One could say the lake shore development is representative of the tragedy of the commons.

Luce Line trail. Multipurpose right-of-way
with rail, trail and power lines

We are all subject to what is common. When packing for our trip this week we understood the weather forecast, but prepared for worse weather than the forecast. Being campers we tend to pack for weather worse than expected. Saturday was forecast as sunny with a high near 75, while it began partly cloudy it turned mostly cloudy with a high in the 60's. Pack long pants, shorts, long shirt, and bike clothes, and a polar fleece. Land Girl was wondering if she could wear capris then decided it was no longer capri season. I said wear what the weather dictates. Her response was, "You're a guy." Apparently, being male means you can pay less attention to the commonalities and societal expectations. I just wanted to take clothes in which I would be comfortable, Goldilocks clothes--not too hot, not too cold. I ended up wearing shorts the whole trip. I suppose in Minnesota, other than biking OWLS, most women just simply wear flannel.

Fall colors along T Wirth Trail

In Minnesota they seem enamored with Wisconsin, in terms of disliking the state.  One example, in the first Viking game of the season the coach talked about how he did not want any green in the stands. Second, n the old TV Show "How I Met Your Mother" Marshall was from Minnesota and once stated that elbows off the table are the only thing that separates them from Wisconsin. I think the character Marshall had other comments dissing WI as well. His comments relate to that Minnesota Nice thing, but the more I hear about it from Wisconsinites who lived or live their, the more it is a passive-aggressive action. Don't fake nice, either be nice or be the other way, but faking nice is just plain bad. Funny, thing is here in southcentral WI I seldom hear comparisons to Minnesota. Most complaints in Wisconsin are about the neighboring state to our south, our Friendly Illinois Brethren (FIBs). Perhaps Paul Chryst wasn't fired because the football program was going in the wrong direction, maybe it was because he lost to Illinois, those FIBs, in Madison. A loss to Iowa may have been excusable, but Illinois?  Iowa has such a seemingly level existence that no one makes much fun of Iowa, or its residents. Although there is the acronym, I Owe the World an Apology (IOWA). Perhaps Nebraskans make fun of Iowans. It is just hard to make fun of Iowa when they owe the world an apology. Unless you are a football team, you don't something when they are down. 

Civil War Iron Brigade Historical Marker
at Mauston wayside

State rivalry will always be with us. During the Civil War regiments were raised by state, which reinforced the idea of These United States. In any event, rivalry or not, I certainly saw enough Minnesota license plats on the drive to and from Minnesota to realize there are some cross cultural currents. Minnesota may wish to avoid saying, Wisconsin-7 Minutes, but their River-7 Minutes sign would let any educated person know what that means.