Some news and notes:

The pre-season has begun for the Green Bay Packers and they lost to the Cleveland Browns in the first exhibition game. Does it mean anything?

The talk out of Green Bay has been exceptional with players, fans, coaches and the media all talking about how good this team could be. When you look at this team on paper there do not appear to be many weaknesses.

But of course, you don't play the games on paper and of course you can't judge a lot by the first exhibition game. But you can be sure that the coaches make judgments based on the first exhibition game and there were obviously a couple of areas of concern.

Nothing seems more perplexing than the continuing inability of the team to generate much of a pass rush. Sure, Clay Mathews sat out, but this was not a contending team the Packers were playing.

In a game where passing is the overwhelming tool of offenses, the ability to put pressure on the passer is an absolute requirement for any team with Super Bowl dreams.

From one TE to another: The dust-up between Green Bay Packers tight ends last week raised an issue that has long been of interest in Milwaukee -- just what kind of attitude do we want out of our athletes.

The story started with Jermichael Finley, the supremely talented tight end who looks like he is on the verge of becoming maybe the best tight end in the league.

In conversation with reporters Finley talked about what an outstanding season he was going to have and how the Packers were headed to the Super Bowl. It wasn't exactly outlandish talk but it was more than you usually hear from a Packer.

Well Mark Chmura, who has a talk radio show with Craig Karmazin, ripped Finley for talking about the Super Bowl.

"(Finley) is a great player, but he is a moron," said Chmura, who went on to offer some advice to the third-year tight end.

"First thing I'd do, I'd say, 'Shut your mouth. Shut up. Shut up. You're dumb,'" Chmura said on the air. "You're a heck of a player but ... be quiet!"

The comments found their way back to Finley.

"Obviously he's got some hate for me and I don't know why," Finley told reporters this week. "I ain't done nothing to him. I think I'm a good guy. I thought he was. I looked over his little accident he had so what can get worse than that?"

Chmura was acquitted in a sexual assault trial close to 10 years ago.

The exchange raised the issue of what kind of athletes do we want in Wisconsin. Do we like the chest thumpers who toss the gauntlet on the field of play or do we like the modest, humble men of silence? Think Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch.

Most of the heroes in Wisconsin have been the strong silent type -- Bart Starr, Robin Yount, Marques Johnson -- and my guess is that Chmura's advice might be something that Finley would be wise to listen to.

Is anyone paying attention: Isn't it sad that here we are, almost to September and there is virtually no discussion of the Milwaukee Brewers?

This is the time, when the season is on the rocks of disaster, that we should all be paying attention and participating in the debate about what ought to happen. Do we need people fired? What kind of changes must there be? What do we do about Prince Fielder?

Now is the time when it's easy to give up but the time when giving up ought not to be an option.

Replace your divots: I was watching the PGA Championship Sunday and late in the afternoon the names on the leaderboard were Martin Kaymer, Bubba Watson, Rory McIlroy, Zach Johnson and Steve Elkington. Does any sport need big names to hold your interest more than golf?