Packers 2009

There was once a day when I reserved a Green Bay hotel room for every home game once the schedule came out. I just wanted to ensure lodging for the one game I would eventually attend.

Perhaps it's a sign of the post-Favre times that I barely took notice when the schedule came out today. Or, more likely, it's a sign of my enthusiasm that my son will reach the top of the season ticket waiting list in his late 50s, which will be the new 30s by then. That I'll require a handicapped seat is actually a plus!

More immediately, I'm sure tempted by the Bishop's Charity Game on Aug. 22 when Freddy Jackson and the Buffalo Bills visit Lambeau Field. Though, damn, I've seen enough real games that preseason football doesn't much appeal to me, Freddy is likely to see a lot of action as he looks to be the Bills' starter at running back for (at least) the first three real games.

Then again, I saw the Coe College product excel in a real game last season in Kansas City. Buffalo returns to Kansas City in mid-December, but it's the same day the Packers play in Chicago. Granted, I wasn't in Kansas City, but I didn't have any luck the last time I tried following the Packers in Missouri.

As for the Pack, they open at home against the Bears. Jay Cutler cuts his NFC Norris teeth at Lambeau Field. It's a nationally televised Sunday night game, which I'll be content to view from my couch in high-def.

Then it's Bengals (no), Lions (NO!), Vikings (hmm), Cowboys (HMM!, but nationally televised, so, no), 49ers (ho-hum), Ravens (Monday Night Football!), and Seattle (no more). Maybe I'll reconsider my pre-season opposition.

The road schedule offers two national telecasts. A Monday nighter at the (former) Dome of Doom in Minnesota and Thanksgiving in Detroit. (Guess I should host this year.)

Road games within reach include St. Louis in late September and Chicago in mid-December.

But, wait. The "regular" season ends Jan. 3 at Arizona. Bet it's a lot warmer there then it will be here.

First Petty and now Springsteen, it's like I'm picking

One of the stars in this video will play in Sunday's big game. The one who plays football will not. Bring on halftime already!

Over

It's finished, done, kaput.

Football, that is.

After 17 weeks if NFL tedium, 10 weeks of college football malaise, and one rainy Friday Night Lights, it's over.

Sure, the Hawks play on New Year's Day, but I've long since stopped caring. All the teams that matter to me -- Packers, Kohawks, Warriors -- are done.

I hear it's 48 days until pitchers and catchers report.

Another one bites the dust

As the clock winds down on another title-less fantasy football season, I may as well blog about it.

Sixteen years of futility! My own son, though younger than the league itself, is now a member and mocks me with his team name. Meanwhile, two other teams who have never won play for the title next week. They've waited three and two years respectively. One of them doesn't even live in this winter wonderland.

I really thought this was going to be the year. I had a high-scoring team and don't make rash moves. I'm the third winingest team all-time. The contenders are #14 and #15.

As fantasies go, this one hasn't gone as planned.

habit

It's a football Sunday ritual, the quick switch over to CBS to see if Andy Rooney has stopped yammering yet: that's the signal that The Amazing Race is finally about to begin. If the clock is still ticking or there's anything on the screen but that annoying old man, it's back to football, straightaway. Except for tonight, when we happened upon Barack Obama sitting down with Steve Kroft; instead of flipping away, the girl and I waited to see what he had to say, and I marveled a little, again, that we're finally going to have a new president and that, of all people, it's him.

It's been a long, long time since the sight of anyone presidential inspired anything in me but a spike in my blood pressure or a dash in the opposite direction. The notion of listening on purpose? Unthinkable. The result was just too painful. Now this man talks, and I stop to listen, and mostly, I feel better: a new habit, Change number one. This new behavior is going to take some getting used to--I'm kind of a rut girl--but this time I think I can manage.

How sweet it is!

My fantasy football team is 4-0 and on a serious scoring binge with no signs of stopping. My Dodgers have all-but crushed the souls of Cubs fans and are poised to win their first playoff series since magical 1988. And someone I know, who is only the best against-all-odds story in the NFL, scored his first NFL touchdown Sunday for the Buffalo Bills as they rolled over the hapless St. Louis Hams. I wish someone would post his 22-yard run to paydirt on YouTube. For now, this will have to do.

The more things change...

Oh, sure. That wasn't #4 out there. But #12 looked good in his starting debut.

In fact, I'm quite impressed how Aaron Rodgers has handled the whole Brett Favre matter. At any moment in the past few weeks, months, years, he could easily have slipped. Done something stupid. Said the wrong thing. It happens all the time.

Not this time, though. Rodgers coolly took the Packers' reigns and performed well, well enough for the win, which is all that ever matters.

His touchdown pass was Favre-esque.
His mobility was not (and that's a good thing).
His "Lambeau Leap" was fun, but troubling (you have to be able to put your butt on the railing).
His read-on-the-fly-touchdown-pass-called-back-by-penalty to Donald Driver was beautiful, and telling.

This guy is ready. Most importantly, he's not alone.

Again one of if not the youngest team in the league -- losing a 38-year-old quarterback will have that effect -- this is a team again. Everyone has a job. It's not on one guy.

I'm encouraged. Welcome back football season!

The fifth season: football

My love for baseball is well documented, but nothing compares to football. In the span of a Thursday-to-Monday weekend, I will have witnessed two games live and one (plus) on TV of my favorite teams. So far, "we're" 0-2.

The 3rd-ranked Warriors lost to 5th-ranked Iowa City High 27-23 Thursday night. The Kohawks lost 21-6 to Augustana Saturday night. The Packers host the Vikings Monday night in the first game of the post-Favre era.

Meanwhile, the Warrior baseball team crushed the Iowa Bandits 15-4 this afternoon in fall baseball. Not that I didn't care, but this has to be the least amount of NFL football I've watched on any single weekend since 1972.

Oh, and Iowa beat Florida International (though they'd prefer to be called FIU) 42-0.

And how about those Rams?!

Diva Favre

Now I'm not a hater -- never will be. But this is too darn funny not to share.

From my couch

For once, I'm not going to let the media influence my view of the post-Favre era in Green Bay. Other than the ESPN talking heads -- and does Tony Kornheiser really get paid for that? -- here's my assessment of the first game since 1992 started by someone other than #4.

I'm enthused.

I'll put my Packer fan credentials on the line with anyone, but maybe, just maybe, Ted Thompson knows what he's doing.

Aaron Rodgers is no Brett Favre. No one is. But he looked more than capable in his quarter of action tonight against the Cincinnati Bengals. More importantly, the surrounding cast performed.

No longer, so it seems, will the quarterback have to carry this team. Instead I sense a camaraderie that has been missing far too long. I was not surprised to see Donald Driver running hard and breaking tackles. But when James Jones ran into the end zone without his helmet, it was symbolic.

This is not your father's Packer team, anymore. And maybe that's ok.

Mr. Rodgers' Neighborhood

Let's see how this goes.

In other pointless football news

Oh, sure, the Olympics are on TV, but so, finally, is football. At least football of a sort-- in my neck of the woods, the Hams are at the Titans tonight, or at least most of them are. Steven Jackson, freak of nature running back for the St. Louis franchise, is holding out. Despite being under contract, he hasn't attended one day of training camp, and now has missed the first pre-season game. I don't care either and won't belabor the details, but, hold on, here's the good part: at the same time he's a no-show, Jackson's appearing in a public service announcement for the beleaguered city schools--encouraging kids to attend. "In order to get in the game, you have to be there," Jackson urges. He is not, for the record, a college graduate.

Done is done

Sick of this story? Oh, God, yes. As some commenter put it, "Scientists have just reported discovering a lost tribe in the Amazon basin. They had absolutely no knowledge of television, cars, planes, space travel etc and only rudimentary knowledge of the Brett Farve fiasco." So, is there much of a media presence in New York?

Meanwhile, there are football games Sunday! And Thanksgiving week, long after we will have again trekked up to Lambeau, the Jets play the Titans about six hours South of here--close as they get this season. Bought tickets last night, just to see it with our own eyes.

Not happily ever after

I wish I was talented enough to express my views on this sordid affair. How things got so bad, so fast defies logic. One minute they're shipping his locker to Kiln, MS, next minute they're not. One minute he's on the active roster, next minute he's not.

At this point, it appears Brett's playing days in Green Bay are over. Hard as it is to imagine, I was a Packer fan before you and I'll be a Packer fan after. But I wish you well, my friend I've never met.

How it couldn't work defies logic. But I'm forever a fan of the Green Bay Packers and Brett Lorenzo Favre.

Back from the future

On Monday, the Green Bay Packers will apparently step back from their foray into an Aaron Rodgers led future and welcome Brett Favre back to training camp, where they're now saying he will compete for the starting job. Hallefreakinlujah!

I've been in Favre's corner all along, even when I've questioned his tactics and motives. His retirement press conference was convincing, but I have little doubt he'll win back his starting job -- and the streak goes on.

I know the Packers were put in a bad spot, but I have serious concerns about how they've handled the situation. At first they said they'd welcome him back as a backup and at last they indicated willingness to trade him to the rival Vikings, whom they had earlier filed tampering charges against. As difficult as it was to fathom anyone but #4 under center for the Packers, it was doubling disturbing to imagine #4 under center in Minnesota, or Chicago, or anywhere.

As they say, all's well that ends well. But I think there's some major fences in need of mending. You got what you wanted, Brett, and I couldn't be happier. But your reputation took a hit in the process. Time to show the world that the future is now in the NFL.

Favre UnRetirement Story Generator

Select at random from each category, insert into sentence, post in no particular order, repeat in endless loop:

People
Sources
Family friends and/or hangers-on
Bus Cook/Ted Thompson/Mike McCarthy/Roger Goodall
Formerly and/or currently beloved future Hall of Fame QB Brett Favre
Aaron Rogers/Brian Bohm
Cheeseheads
Greta Van Susterern/ESPN/The Media

Actions
retired, "moved-on", stalled, fumbled, mishandled, reported, claimed, threatened, disrupted, ignored, reversed, bribed, texted, bullshitted, cried, made a huge mistake, refused, trade, release, win, lose, squander, having a stroke.

Essential Nouns
pissing contest, testosterone, shenanigans, stupid people, training camp, circus, soap opera, nightmare, career, opportunity, 2008 season, clipboard, agony, paid non-playing role, Minnesota Vikings.

Modifiers
tearfully, reportedly, allegedly, clueless, egomaniacal,injury-prone, unproven, old, smug, ruined, heartrending, ill-advised, endless, tiresome, self-serving, head-exploding

A year off

These are the words that stick in my head. Sure I cried while watching the retirement press conference live in my office. I so wished it wasn't so. But it was clearly over, this Brett Favre magic carpet ride.

Somehow, though, after all hell broke loose, the only comment I can remember is Deanna's. Clearly uncomfortable about sharing the stage with her husband, she said the annual celebrity softball fundraiser was off. They were going to do nothing for a year.

Some nothing it turned out to be.

My Packers, on the verge of a Super Bowl, are in turmoil or will soon be once Brett reports for camp. My allegiance is conflicted and I can't even decide who to hate. On the plus side, my son talks to me more than ever now.

He remains optimistic that this will end the right way. I, conversely, am starting to come to grips with the notion that Brett Favre will wear a different uniform. After he takes a year off, of course.

thinking and rethinking

"I thought he retired." On the surface, a straightforward question, but I'm not explaining now. I brush the on-looker aside and gesture for my mother to continue.

"You say now he's reporting for camp?"

"That's what I read on the internet this morning." And I'm halfway through my follow-up question when I laugh at how pointless it is. As if even any of the main stupid people--and I'm counting quarterback, coach, agent, GM--whoever--has any idea how these shenanigans will end. Bad or worse, salvaged or not. It's all just some shade of ruined compared to what it should have been.

And yet I read the headlines and columns, watch the videos, and page through far too many comments on ESPN and PackersNews. As if there are any opinions that actually matter, anything to know before it happens, as if I really want anything but to be able to enjoy some football. I haven't wasted this much time on bad soap opera since Bo and Hope got married the summer I turned sixteen.

Knowing that, trying to save my sanity, I head to the main website, save the schedule to my desktop, look forward to the coming days of, I hope, sit down, shut up and play. And then I wander through the Pro Shop, look at the stuff I already have and what I might want to buy. I see this shirt that I never got because I couldn't decide if it was too girlie--though at least it isn't cancer pink--and I ponder it again. Thanks 4 the memories? Up through March, absolutely and always. Here lately, not so much.

Talk about your mixed messages

Brett Lohan, nee Favre, finally spoke today through Faux News' Gretta Van Susteren, an Appleton native and Packer shareholder. The situation seems only to continue to deteriorate beyond repair. I found one quote most telling.

"You're telling me playing there is not an option, but playing elsewhere, we just can't - we're trying to protect your legacy," Favre said. "Well, thank you. I appreciate that. But apparently now, they're trying to protect my legacy by bringing me back and having me be a backup. Boy, that is really good."

Instead of whining about being put in a bad position, Ted Thompson better get his head out of ass and fix this pronto. I've been a Packer fan for twice as long as Favre has been in the NFL. I don't know what I'll do if I have to choose between the two.

And if you think I'm pissed off, check out Favre's friendly reporter at the Sun Herald.

Off my chest

I've long subscribed to the philosophy that whatever doesn't kill me, makes me stronger. I don't think it applies to the current Packer drama, unless it does in fact kill me, making everything moot.

I mean, come on already.

Yes, Brett Favre is behaving like a diva, again.

But, also yes, he's the greatest Packer of all time.

As far as I'm concerned, he can dictate game times. The suggestion that he returns as Aaron Rodgers' backup is laughable. Mr. Rodgers would look good in purple. It's not like he'd be the first Favre backup to move on -- see Matt Hasselbeck, Mark Brunell, Aaron Brooks, etc.

What's the big deal?

Maybe, just maybe, the quarterback of the future isn't Rodgers but Brian Brohm. The quarterback of the present is Brett Favre damnit!