Green Bay 45, Arizona 51 (OT)

tragedy

I admit I only knew the outlines of the story. I knew that Aaron Kampman, a Packer whose number 74 hangs in my closet, is one of four NFL players to play at and graduate from a tiny high school in Parkersburg, a tiny Iowa town-- remarkable in itself. I knew of the monstrous tornado that devastated Parkersburg in 2008, and I had read stories of coach Ed Thomas, and his role in putting that town back together.

But until today, when Ed Thomas was shot in the head, in front of players, in his team's weight room, I'd never heard too many of Ed Thomas's words. My loss.

Ed Thomas, in his own words, compiled by Mike Hlas of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

I’ve always said my job is not to prepare our kids to be college athletes. My job is to make football a learning experience, and there are so many things they can learn from being a part of our team that will help them be successful later in life as a father, member of a church, or member of the community. There are so many intangibles we can teach that they can take with them.

I don’t have captains anymore—I went to a system of senior leaders. Around the end of February, I go over our senior leadership program with all of the next year’s senior football players and ask if they want to be involved. For seven weeks, I teach a morning leadership class to those who do. They are then responsible for the other players—whether it’s behavior, succeeding in the classroom, or working in the weightroom, they provide leadership for our program. I decided to teach leadership because I think it’s something that isn’t present in kids as often as it used to be. We have to show kids how to be leaders today.

I talk about leaders setting an example, the responsibility of being a leader, and the idea of being a servant and a giver. I talk about standing up to do what is right when nobody else will, and letting other players know when they’re doing something wrong. I also explain the importance of being a role model—that leaders have to set the tone for other players to follow. I talk about the respect that they have to gain with other young people. I tell them that everyone might not always like you, but you should act in such a way that they respect you.

Ethics is doing what’s right. It’s following the rules, and teaching football the way it ought to be played. Ethics is teaching young people about sportsmanship and how to conduct themselves in a first-class fashion regardless of whether they win or lose. I tell our kids that we’re going to go out and play hard, and we want to win as much as anybody. But when the game is over, we’re going to line up, shake hands, and be gentlemen, knowing that we did the very best we could. To me, that’s all part of ethics.

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!

Podolak shuns Hawkeyes, chooses retirement over treatment

Legendary Iowa football radio broadcaster Ed Podolak has resigned after 27 years of Hawkeye coverage. The university apparently demanded he seek treatment after photos of a drunken Eddy in Tampa for the Outback Bowl surfaced on the Internets. The following is an exceptional column by my friend and fantasy football combatant.

Eddie's choice: Iowa football loses something
By Mike Hlas
Gazette sports columnist

The University of Iowa made a hard choice. So did Ed Podolak.

As a result, Hawkeyes football is losing something significant. It didn’t have to come down this way. But Podolak apparently is unwilling to change his ways and is walking away from something he loved with all his being, being part of Iowa football.

That’s a choice to which he’s fully entitled, just as the university was entitled to ask him to change the way he represented himself and the school while out in public.

Presumably under direction in this matter by Athletic Director Gary Barta, Podolak was urged to seek alcohol treatment and then be welcomed back to the Iowa football radio booth this fall for a 28th consecutive year as an analyst.

Podolak took the other option, to retire from broadcasting at age 61. It truly is something he had already been considering, by the way.

While Hawkeye football will always remain a focal point in so many Iowans’ lives, it’s immediately less than what it was two weeks ago.

You’re talking about a broadcaster who not only was able to make a chaotic game more understandable to untrained eyes like mine and probably yours.

More importantly, it was someone who did it with charisma, humor, presence, and above all, passion.

The next person who sits in the Kinnick Stadium press box chair next to Gary Dolphin might become really good. But he won’t be an icon.

All that said, Barta and his school were backed into a corner by Podolak’s behavior. Embarrassing Internet photos of an inebriated Podolak in Tampa pushed this along, but probably weren’t the origin of the ultimatum. There are too many stories out there, with less tolerance for them today in certain circles than there in days gone by.

More than a few Iowa football players have had alcohol-related incidents the last couple of years, and the university is plagued by the drinking culture of students in Iowa City.

So when a primary spokesman for Iowa football is shown to be impaired by drinking by photos on the Internet and the photos spread to Web sites hither and yon, it doesn’t play well in the university.

Nor should it. Even if it again magnifies the hypocrisy of the school and its athletic department.

The Hawkeye Huddle in downtown Tampa that was attended by thousands of Iowa fans on Dec. 30? An eyewitness said there were at least 30 beer-dispensers there. The venue was criticized by those fans three years earlier for not having enough beer. The “mistake” wasn’t made again.

As was critically noted in this section earlier this month, a beer company is a sponsor on Hawkeye radio broadcasts.

And wouldn’t it be interesting to see what effect it would have on attendance at Iowa football games if a total ban on alcohol was strictly enforced in university-owned parking lots on Game Day?

Willingly smack-dab in the middle of it all has been Podolak, a living mascot for Iowa fans.

He is the entirely approachable former Iowa football great and NFL standout. He’s the guy who always perfectly captured Hawkeye followers’ joy or frustration, then would celebrate or commiserate with them afterward at tailgates and taverns.

Frankly, he got rip-roaring drunk in public on several occasions. I’ve seen it a few times over the years. Countless camp-followers of the Hawkeyes have seen it more. It was in the public domain, whether the university wanted to ignore it or not.

Someone else can throw the stones at Podolak and get all holier-than-thou. My media brothers and sisters and I have been in a couple of those hotel bars at the same times he was present.

I’ve never run around with Podolak, but I would have loved to have spent hours listening to his stories, things that stretch beyond his vast football experiences. He’s been a real estate developer in Aspen, Costa Rica, and now northern California. He is friends with the Eagles — the band, not the football team.

Legend has it that Jimmy Buffett’s song “We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About,” was written for his close friend Podolak.

When author Hunter S. Thompson died, I phoned Podolak for what I hoped would be on interview about his friendship with his Aspen neighbor. To my eternal disappointment, he didn’t want to do it.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve had a small role on Hawkeye football broadcasts the last three years at the end of games. I’ve talked about what just unfolded on the field after play-by-play man Gary Dolphin read an intro promoting The Gazette and Gazetteonline.com.

Some of the best validation I’ve ever felt was whenever Podolak nodded in agreement with something I said.

All that said, I’m in no way pooh-poohing Podolak’s alcohol-related actions. He is an adult who has made his own choices and continues to make them. He has also had a lot of people in black-and-gold who have given him this different kind of validation: Drink, Eddie, drink.

When he was arrested for public intoxication and interference with official acts after falling asleep on the lawn of the University of Iowa’s Pentacrest in 1997, there didn’t appear to be a blip in Podolak’s broadcasting duties.

He pleaded guilty to the charges, and was sentenced to 50 hours of community service and a $50 fine. He didn’t look back, and neither did the university.

Who has been the biggest enabler over the years since when Podolak would slur his words at a Hawkeye rally? That very university. But no more.

Not to worry, though. You’ll still be able to tote your 12-packs down Melrose Avenue on the way to your tailgates.

Go Hawks!

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.

Until the game is won

My favorite overused football joke is -- "Why doesn't Iowa have a professional football team? Because Minnesota would want one too."

My favorite Iowa football memory is the 10-7 twilight win over Michigan in 1985.

That's really beside the point when it comes to this.

According to published reports I have no reason to question...

Iowa Fans Busted Having Sex in Metrodome Bathroom
Onlookers cheer and laugh to cheating lovers in bathroom stall

MINNEAPOLIS -- Two Iowa football fans were caught having sex in a bathroom stall at the Metrodome during Saturday’s Minnesota-Iowa game.

According to a police report, a Metrodome security officer saw two people having sex in a handicapped stall after noticing two sets of feet with underwear dropped to the ground.

Wait for it.

A group of 15 onlookers were gawking at the scene by the time officers broke the couple up and wrote them misdemeanor citations.

Wait for it.

The woman, 38, was turned over to her husband. The man, 26, was turned over to his girlfriend.

Oh, and Iowa won 55-0!

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?!

The bitter end

While my blogmate was dancing in the dark at a Bruce Springsteen concert, I was drafting a fantasy football juggernaut. Meanwhile, my former college professor was decomposing in an Iowa City park. She wins this Saturday night, but I'll gladly take the silver.

Type rest of the post here

Procrastination

Goodness I have lots to do. With school about to start, at home and at work, and football season on the horizon, I should be fired up and ready to go. But I'm not. Well, I'm fired up, but my readiness is questionable.

I don't mean to make excuses, but the flood changed everything. I wasn't even a victim, but we're all affected. These are desperate times. I take no solace in the misery of others, but I'm obviously not alone.

I don't remember most of my college professors, but one of the few that I do has had a rougher summer than most. Allegations of gropes for grades recently became public and the downward spiral began.

He's currently missing with a high powered rifle. His request for a handgun was denied by the sheriff, but apparently no permit is required for a long gun. Go figure.

God save us.

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.

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.

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.