Mark Tauscher Doesn’t Blink Anymore

Mark Tauscher has a really cool story. He went from a walk-on at Wisconsin and a Green Bay Packers seventh-round draft pick, to an 11-year NFL career and earning his way into the Packers Hall of Fame.

But wait, there’s more. Tauscher continues his successful run as a sports radio host at 94.5 ESPN Milwaukee. He has teamed up with co-host, Jason Wilde, for six and a half years. In addition to his 9:00 AM-Noon show, Tauscher broadcasts home Wisconsin football games and does a daily morning hit on WTMJ.

Farming was a big part of Tauscher’s childhood. He talks about how doing chores and having a strong work ethic has helped him in life and broadcasting. Tauscher also talks about his funniest Packers teammate, and the former teammate he used to crush on the tennis court. As a former offensive lineman, Tauscher describes his surprising love for all racket sports.

Speaking of surprising, Tauscher explains his rendition of an Eminem rap song. Spoiler alert: he might not be mistaken for Slim Shady 2.0, but it’s the effort that counts. Enjoy!

Brian Noe: How did you initially get into broadcasting?

Mark Tauscher: It’s interesting because growing up in Wisconsin and playing at Wisconsin, I was always a backup. I didn’t do a bunch of media. Even when it was my fifth year at Wisconsin, I played, I still didn’t do a bunch of media. But then when Green Bay drafted me in the seventh round, I started doing more and more.

My dad, after he retired from being a farmer, he got into more media stuff. One of the moments that kind of got me into that, I didn’t think a ton about how it mattered what I sound like, but I got done doing one of my first interviews as a draft pick. I went home a couple of weeks later and my dad had kind of went through and said ‘Hey, some of this stuff, you need to work at this’. I was saying umm a lot, and just a lot of those filler things that you shouldn’t say when you’re doing media stuff.

Then I started getting better. I started doing more stuff. I would do a weekly hit on the Packers season in Wausau, Wisconsin. Then I started doing more stuff like Murphy in the Morning, which is a popular morning show up in Green Bay. Then I started doing some TV stuff. I just kind of naturally got a lot of opportunities I think because obviously I was a Green Bay Packer, but also that I lived in the state. I got more and more comfortable.

Then as my career was winding down, I got some opportunities from some different radio stations to see if this was something that I enjoyed doing, and fortunately I did.

BN: Were you both a Wisconsin and a Packers fan growing up?

MT: Yeah, I was really a Packers fan. When we were on the farm, it was listening on WTMJ to Jim Irwin and Max McGee. When we’d be doing chores, we’d have the Packer game on. We’d go out and get the neighbors, we played football and we’d kind of recreate stuff. The Packers weren’t very good when we were on the farm, but that was always a staple. It was noon, you get back from church, and we were going to listen or watch the Packers game and then go about our day. We’d center stuff around that. I was a huge Packer fan.

As far as the Badgers, not really. But as Barry Alvarez got in, and obviously once they got to the Rose Bowl and played in the game over in Tokyo, that was really when my interest piqued in understanding that this was someplace that people would want to go. That’s when I started following Wisconsin. I think it would’ve been the ‘92 season, ‘93 Rose Bowl. That’s the year that I really started getting into it.

BN: You hear about a lot of Wisconsin football players, how they’ve got that farm strength. Listening to you talk about farming and chores, is there anything related to your childhood and working on a farm that has helped your broadcasting career?

MT: You know, I think for me, getting that foundation and having to work was, as my dad used to always say, cows don’t care about vacations and days off, you have to work every day. One of the things I noticed when I went out to the NFL Broadcast Boot Camp right after I got done playing was, you had a lot on your schedule, but it was easy and it was fun. I think that’s where it was just get me more. I would be willing to take on more and more opportunities.

One of the things that I left with from that boot camp from all of the guys, whether it was Kurt Menefee, or James Brown, or whoever was out there, they always said if you really want to do this, get reps. I don’t care if it’s high school football. I think that was the thing that really set with me; if this is something I want to do, you have to go work just like you’re doing chores on a farm or training to play an NFL season.

It’s obviously a lot easier physically, but I think that mindset from farming allowed me to take that on as a football player, and now as a broadcaster because I think I have that foundation of let’s get to work.

BN: How are you feeling physically after all the wear and tear from 11 years in the NFL?

MT: As you get older, especially when you live in the cold like Wisconsin, there’s stuff that flares up. You knew when you’re playing, you’re going to pay a price. You just hope that that price is more oh, my knee is stiff and arthritic, which mine is, or my shoulder doesn’t feel quite as good as maybe I wished it did.

But as long as I can stay of sound, mind and body, for the most part I feel pretty good. There’s limitations to some things that I can do, but as far as physically for what I went through with a couple of ACLs and a shoulder and everything else, I feel pretty fortunate at 45 to be where I’m at.

BN: What areas do you think you’ve grown the most as a sports radio host?

MT: I think being able to just speak freely. I think when you first get into it — for me at least it was — it’s hard to criticize guys I’ve played a ton of football with. I’m never going to criticize the person, unless you know who that person is, it’s more about just criticizing the player.

I think I’ve gotten a lot better and more comfortable with speaking openly, not being a jerk about it, but just saying exactly what I think, and understanding that that sometimes isn’t going to be viewed upon in a positive way with some certain people. You just hope everybody understands. I feel a lot more comfortable doing that.

I feel more comfortable just being — this sound crazy — just being silly and trying to get outside of the comfort zone. Whether it’s singing or doing a jingle or trying different things and not being afraid to say, you know what, that sucked. I’d rather have something that was completely terrible than something that’s not interesting, or is just blah. I’d rather go on the far end of it and say, you know what, I tried to do an Eminem rap, and maybe some people thought it was god-awful. I felt great after I got done doing it.

BN: [Laughs] Was there a certain Eminem song that you did a rendition of?

MT: Yeah, we did it when the Packers were playing the Lions. The Packers were really struggling. “Lose Yourself” was the song that I went to. I don’t think I would’ve been confident enough in my radio career to do that when I first got into it, and now I didn’t even blink. I was like let’s knock it out, let’s do it.

BN: How would you describe the way listeners and Packer fans react when you are critical?

MT: Well, this is really the first year — other than playoff games, obviously — that you had to really be critical. Especially in the Matt LeFleur era, things have been so good that you didn’t need to really do that. I think Packer fans are very realistic as far as where their team is. There’s almost a little bit of looking around the corner because we haven’t gotten to the ultimate prize over this last decade.

Packer fans are loyal. They’re the best fans out there because they are loyal. But I don’t think there’s any preconceived notions that we’re always going to win every game and everything else. They’re very critical, but then you kind of move on, just like you did when you’re a player, you move on quickly to what’s next.

It really emphasized to me that week-to-week business that the NFL is. Doing this job, you really see the ebbs and flows of emotions from fans. One week, we’re Super Bowl champs, we’re the best team out there. Then you have a bad performance and everybody kind of is like, well, we stink. I actually thoroughly enjoy being that calming voice of saying, this is how the NFL works, it’s not easy to win.

That’s kind of where I feel like I fit into that landscape of being realistic, understanding where the team’s at, and still having that optimism that I have because I always believe in Aaron Rodgers, that he’s going to find a way. It’s finally coming around. It’s taken a lot longer this season than normal, but it is finally starting to come back around.

BN: Especially as a former player of that organization, how surprising is it to you that the Packers are just scratching for a playoff spot right now?

MT: Very surprising, because I think losing Davante [Adams], we all kind of thought that there was going to be a little bit of a drop off. I don’t think anybody anticipated the amount of struggles that the offense was going to have until Christian Watson emerged as that guy. But really it’s the other side of it, and that’s the defensive side of the football.

I was really surprised with how inconsistent that side of the football has been. That’s a big reason. You can look at both sides of it, but I did not think that you’d have a team struggle to score as much as we did early in the season and then struggle as much defensively. But it does feel like things are turning around and hopefully it’s not too late.

BN: There was an episode of the Pardon My Take podcast where Big Cat told Aaron Rodgers that the highlight of the NFL year for him was listening to your show after the Packers lost in the playoffs. What do you remember most about that show?

MT: Well, I think for me, I was shocked because we’re a home team, got the one seed, had a bye, everything was in place for Green Bay to get back to a Super Bowl. Then when that didn’t happen, fans were distraught. I was texting with Big Cat a little bit after that. I think where he really enjoyed it was the amount of just outrageous ideas that Packer fans had. The thing that I think really got him, and what I remember most about taking calls that night, was put a dome over Lambeau, they can’t win in the cold anymore with Aaron Rodgers.

It was the idea that we needed monster changes because we lost this game. He loved the fact listening to Packer fans talk like we had not won anything in quite a while. I think he enjoyed that piece of it. For me, I’m just gonna sit back and let fans vent how they feel because it was a painful night for Packer Nation.

BN: I like that it says racket sport enthusiast on your Twitter bio. I have to know the background of that, what’s that about?

MT: I love playing tennis and as I’ve gotten older, I’ve moved on to pickleball. I love badminton; I really do love all racket sports. A lot of times you kind of enhance your bio a little bit, put more stuff in, that is 100% legit. I play pickleball three or four days a week. Tennis, I just played. I used to whoop up on Ahmad Green. I would say when I was playing, I was probably the best tennis player on the team.

As a lineman, I know a lot of people don’t play tennis, but I’ve whooped Ahmad Green. Whoever I would play, I would beat. Now, I just was down to visit an old teammate. I’m not going to say his name, but he beat me, so I may have to tinker with my bio a little bit. But I still love playing tennis. I still love trying to play pickleball. Any racket sport, if it’s available, I’ll pick it up and go play.

BN: Of your ex-teammates, who was really, really good at a non-football sport?

MT: Ooo, that’s a really good question. Chad Clifton is a really good horseshoe pitcher. He was good at pitching horseshoes, and I don’t know if that’s just because he was from the South or whatever the case may be, but that was something that I always was amazed by. Korey Hall, one of our old fullbacks, was a fantastic billiards player. He was convinced that he could have been a professional billiards player back when he played. I don’t know if that’s still the case, but those are two that kind of pop out in my head.

BN: I like what you were saying about bringing the fun, bringing the goofy and the zany to a sports radio show. Is there any room for that when you’re doing a Wisconsin game? Can you find a little bit of fun while you’re being mostly serious?

MT: Oh, absolutely. I know our fans come to us to hear about the Badgers and what news is going on. I respect that, but I thoroughly enjoy the other side of it as much if not more. From a broadcasting standpoint, doing a game you obviously have to get the formations and all that stuff, but one of the things I love about working with Matt Lepay is he loves having fun.

Whether it’s making fun of how old Mike Lucas is, or Matt Lepay gets this big lifetime contract, we’ll get after him a little bit, anytime you can just try and infuse something personal and something fun while you’re not taking away from what your job actually is, I always try to do it. It’s funny, people will say I want you to talk about this, this and this.

Well, a lot of times you see from an engagement standpoint, it’s that other stuff that people almost always remember more, and the stuff that I think they enjoy participating in because it’s almost more relative to their life.

BN: While you’re talking about finding the fun in broadcasting, who was the funniest teammate that you had with the Packers?

MT: Oh, man, I’d say it’s always a lineman. I don’t know if anybody will tell you differently. I would say Marco Rivera was really funny. Korey Hall is another guy that I think is incredibly funny, but I’m gonna go with Chad Clifton, man. I don’t know if there’s anybody that makes me laugh more than what Chad does.

BN: Would Chad Clifton make you laugh while he was crushing people in horseshoes?

MT: Chad Clifton makes me laugh at pretty much anything he does. He doesn’t even try to be funny, and he’s funny.

BN: When you look back at your football career and also your broadcasting career, with as many opportunities and achievements that you’ve had, what’s at the top of the list where you say, man, that was the number one moment of my career?

MT: I think from a football standpoint, just getting that first start at Lambeau Field is probably something because I didn’t ever think that was going to be possible. And when that was able to happen, I had my family and friends there. Then getting inducted into the Packer Hall of Fame was a huge deal for me and for my family.

From a broadcasting standpoint, man, we’ve been so fortunate whether it’s to have our quarterbacks that I played with jump on air with us. We’ve had Cindy Crawford jump on. It’s been really fun to be able to sit down and do stuff that’s more outside of football with some of those cats that I’ve really enjoyed from a broadcasting standpoint.

BN: When you look at the future of your broadcasting career, what are some things that you would like to accomplish as you look forward over the next five years?

MT: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think about that a lot, and especially with the new year here. Yeah, I think when I got into it, I was always hoping to just make sure I was having fun. But I think you always want to look at what is out there from a national perspective and you’re always kind of looking at that. I’ve done some stuff with ESPN on a national standpoint, whether it’s filling in for Ian Fitzsimmons or Freddie Coleman. I don’t know where that would take me other than do I want to do more game day stuff. I think the answer to that is yes.

I want to do more stuff that involves being at the stadium, doing it and feeling that energy. You’re never going to replace playing, but being at the stadium and being there doing it on site, that’s the closest thing you can get in this industry.