Wisconsin News and Sports
The Milwaukee Brewers announced on Tuesday, several changes to policies for fans attending games at American Family Field this summer.
With the team moving toward 100% capacity in late June, effective June 1, vaccinated fans will no longer be required to wear face masks while attending Brewers games at American Family Field. It is recommended that fans who are not vaccinated continue to wear masks at this time. [Read more…]
Jordan Love
Not only has quarterback Aaron Rodgers failed to report for the start of the Green Bay Packers voluntary organized team activities (OTAs), but the first workout open to reporters on Tuesday saw the team’s top five veteran receivers skip out as well.
Davante Adams, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Allen Lazard, Equanimeous St. Brown and Devin Funchess were all missing. In all, 10 of the 89 players on the roster weren’t on the field for practice. In addition to Rodgers and the receivers, Jaire Alexander, David Bakhtiari, Ka’dar Hollman and Stanford Samuels were no-shows. Josiah Deguara, Kevin King and Blake Bortles were present but either didn’t participate or were very limited.
Did the wide receivers fail to show up as a move of solidarity in support of Rodgers? Coach Matt LaFleur said he recently talked with all five and didn’t feel it was a coordinated effort. But missing all five certainly seems fishy. [Read more…]
Aaron Rodgers
The Green Bay Packers started the third phase of their offseason program, organized team activities and quarterback Aaron Rodgers, as expected, was a no-show on Monday.
Rodgers is one of nearly two dozen Packers players that have offseason workout bonuses built into their contracts. Rodgers has officially missed enough time to make him ineligible for the bonus.
Rodgers and the Packers are at a reported standstill as to whether or not he wants to play for the Packers any longer. He has spent all 16 years of his NFL career in Green Bay to this point. [Read more…]
In a rare mid-May trade of significance the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday acquired shortstop Willy Adames and relief pitcher Trevor Richards from the Tampa Bay Rays. Milwaukee sent relievers J. P. Feyereisen and Drew Rasmussen to Tampa Bay in return.
Adames is considered a good defender and should be an immediate upgrade over Luis Urias, who has struggled defensively at the position. Adames is hitting .197 with 5 Homeruns for the Rays. Richards has pitched to a 4.50 ERA over 12 innings with 16 strikeouts.
Feyereisen was a big part of the Brewers late inning relief this season, helping set up for Devin Williams and Josh Hader. Manager Craig Counsell and GM David Stearns said Urias will still play, and take on the part of the “super” utility role around the infield.
Neither Adames nor Richards were with the team Friday night in Cincinnati, and it’s not known if either will be available for Saturday’s game.
Alex Cejka, Darren Clarke and Jesper Parnevik, winners of PGA TOUR Champions titles and tournaments across the globe, are coming to Madison for the 2021 American Family Insurance Championship in June.
The championship is also adding a fourth hometown player, as Mario Tiziani will make his debut on PGA TOUR Champions under an invitational sponsor’s exemption. Tiziani, two-time winner on the Canadian Tour, joins his brother-in-law and tournament player-host Steve Stricker, Jerry Kelly and Andy North.
Alex Cejka has already claimed a major title, winning the Regions Tradition in a playoff with Stricker after getting into the field as an alternate. [Read more…]
Former Milwaukee Bucks legend Bob Dandridge was elected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame on Sunday. Enshrinement ceremonies are scheduled for Sept. 11 in Springfield, Mass.
The 73-year-old Dandridge was elected by the veterans committee after playing 13 seasons in the NBA, nine of which came with the Bucks.
The Bucks drafted Dandridge out of Norfolk State in the fourth round in 1969. He was named to the NBA’s all-rookie team in his first year, averaging 13.2 points a game.
Dandridge played a big role in the Bucks winning the NBA title in 1970-71, averaging 18.4 points and 8 rebounds a game while shooting 50.9% from the field. He averaged better than 20 points a game in the NBA Finals against Baltimore.
Dandridge averaged 18.5 points in his 13-year career, which also included four seasons with the Washington Bullets.
Also in the 2021 class is Toni Kukoc who won three NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and played his final four seasons from 2002-06 with the Bucks.
Kurt Benkert signs contract
The Green Bay Packers added veteran quarterback Blake Bortles to their roster last week, then signed rookie free agent Kurt Benkert to a contract after he went through the team’s two-day rookie minicamp over the weekend.
Benkert spent the 2018 and 2020 seasons on the Atlanta Falcons practice squad and 2019 on injured reserve. The Falcons released him in February.
Benkert competed with Chad Kelly during the rookie minicamp before the Packers offered him a contract.
Jordan Love is expected to take part in this week’s rookie development program but wasn’t eligible to participate in the rookie minicamp over the weekend. By rule, he can join the rookies this week because he played less than 25% of the snaps as a rookie.
Phase 2 of the teams offseason program starts Monday with organized team activities (OTA’s) starting May 24. Veteran quarterback Aaron Rodgers isn’t expected to report for the voluntary program and to date, nobody’s sure if he’ll be on hand for the team’s mandatory minicamp in early June.
The Milwaukee Brewers had just announced an increase in capacity at American Family Field from 25% to 50% for this Saturday’s game against the Atlanta Braves. Just two days later, the team announced that the stadium will be back to full capacity by Friday, June 25.
The Brewers are expected to announce single-game tickets on Friday morning, along with the promotional schedule for the rest of the season.
Effective immediately, partial-season and full-season ticket packages as well as group ticket packages are available.
The Milwaukee Bucks announced the signing of guard Elijah Bryant on Thursday.
The 6’5 Bryant spent the last two seasons with Maccabi Tel Aviv in Israel where he appeared in 100 games across Israeli Super League and EuroLeague action. This season, Bryant averaged 10.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game with Maccabi Tel Aviv while shooting 47.7% from the field.
The 26-year-old Bryant went undrafted in the 2018 NBA Draft out of BYU after averaging 18.2 points, 6.3 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game in his junior season with the Cougars. The Georgia native then played with the Philadelphia 76ers Summer League team in 2018 before appearing in four games with the Bucks Summer League team in 2019 where he averaged 14.3 points in 23.3 minutes per game.
The Green Bay Packers are expected to sign veteran quarterback Blake Bortles to a one-year contract. The deal was first reported by ESPN’s Adam Shefter on Wednesday.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said on draft weekend that the Packers would be looking to add a veteran quarterback and possibly another rookie quarterback to fill out the roster at the position. Heading into this week, the Packers had just two quarterbacks on their roster with Aaron Rodgers and 2020 first-round pick Jordan Love.
Bortles was the third pick in the 2014 NFL draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Packers offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett was the quarterbacks coach and eventually the offensive coordinator for Bortles from 2015 to 2018. They reached the AFC Championship Game after the 2017 season.
Bortles last played in 2019 with the Los Angeles Rams and spent time with the Rams and Broncos as a backup last season.
In 73 career starts, Bortles has a 24-49 record with 103 touchdowns and 75 interceptions.
To date, Aaron Rodgers hasn’t participated in the Packers offseason program. They’ll start OTA’s on May 24 with the team’s mandatory minicamp scheduled for June 8-10.