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Pigskin Paul analyzes the 2012 NFL Draft Class of the Detroit Lions, Chicago Bears and the Minnesota Vikings.

LIONS

The LIONS made the Play-Offs with 10-Wins and but for a few less injuries, and a bit more talent at certain positions they might have been able to make a solid run at a Super Bowl appearance. Lots of teams could say the same thing, but those other teams weren’t setting a League record for futility by going 0-16 but a few years ago. The team has truly come a long way since the FORD family parted ways with MATT MILLEN, and turned most of the personnel matters, including the DRAFT, over to MARTIN MAYHEW. The 2011 DRAFT didn’t even yield much immediate help because of serious injuries to NICK FAIRLEY & MIKEL LESHOURE.  Read more... (3046 words + 1 image, estimated 12:11 mins reading time)

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Aaron Rodgers at Packers Family Night

Back for it’s twelfth year, the Packers’ Family Night festivities will take place on Friday, August 3rd, 2012. The festivities will include fun-filled activities for the kids,  the Packers intra-squad scrimmage, jersey give-aways and a fireworks show.

If the evening is anything like other recent Family Nights, rain may also be on the program. To that point, Packers president mark Murphy quipped, “We are guaranteeing good weather this year.”

Tickets will cost $10 and will go on sale at 9:00AM on June 25th. They can be purchased through Ticketmaster or in person at the Packers’ ticket office.  There is no ticket limit on purchases and special plans for groups of 50 or more are also available.

The festivities begin at 5:30PM, followed by practice drills at 6:30, the intra-squad scrimmage at 7:30 and finally the fireworks show to close out the evening.

For those unable to attend, the evening will be televised statewide by WLUK-TV FOX 11.

Full details can be found at Packers.com.

Follow @JerseyAlGBP You can follow Jersey Al on Facebook and Twitter .

#82914 on the Packers Season Ticket Waiting List.  Read more... (234 words + 1 image, estimated 56 secs reading time)

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Kris with Tom Crabtree

Tom Crabtree stood on stage and told all of us he hoped never to see us again.

No, the Green Bay Packers tight end didn’t go all “Jay Cutler emo” on us.  What he meant was that he didn’t want to see us at the 2013 Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Walk to Cure Diabetes because he wanted a cure to be found by then and therefore nullifying the need for a walk.   People in attendance, including yours truly, applauded.

That’s why we were there. We weren’t there to talk football (although I sheepishly admit I asked a few football questions), we were there to spend time together and hear stories of people’s heroic battles against Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) of which there obviously is no known cure.

This cause means a great deal to Crabtree personally.  His wife Chelsea was diagnosed with T1D when she was four years old. He lives the disease every single day of his life, and so do many others.  More than 80 people are diagnosed with T1 each day and more than 3 million Americans currently have the disease.  Read more... (1012 words + 1 image, estimated 4:03 mins reading time)

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Packers GM Ted Thompson targeted by radical fans?

The first two days of the 2012 NFL Draft have quickly unfolded and Packers’ GM Ted Thompson has fulfilled the wishes of most Packers fans by going defense, defense, defense. In press conferences at lambeau Field, Mr. Thompson has insisted these weren’t “need” picks, but I think we all know the truth (nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more).

The similarities to the 2009 draft, with the trading up and the focus on defense and apparently, need, early on  reminded me of a fun little piece I wrote after that draft. I think it pretty much works again, so here it is, as originally written:

In an amazing development, the NFL has just revealed that a sleeper cell of radical Packer fans successfully pulled off a plot to kidnap Packers GM Ted Thompson before the NFL draft and replace him with a look-alike puppet.

Thompson was found this morning, bruised but otherwise unharmed, in a dumpster outside of a Holiday Inn in nearby Appleton, Wisconsin. Thompson had been drugged and woke up confused in the dumpster. His calls for help attracted the attention of hotel guests, who helped him out of the dumpster and untied him.  Read more... (450 words + 1 image, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

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2012 NFL Draft

In last week’s Bridesmaids piece we went over how the cream of the draft is talked about way too much and we peeked just a bit into the crust of the matter with the late rounder’s and UDFA’s.

Today, lets look at the meat and potatoes of the draft, those 3^rd though 6^th rounder’s.  This is where teams are built; you just have to look at Packer players like Sitton, Lang, Jones, Bishop, Starks and more to see what these players do for a team.

Some of these prospects come out and play right away and even start. But most take a little time to become full time starters.  These players show how good a coaching staff really is.  The best coaching staffs see what these players can do and put them in a position to make plays, all the while teaching them the finer points of the team’s systems and techniques. When a player has to earn his playing time and/or fight to keep it, you get the best out of them.

In this area of the draft system, compatibility and the value from that has more to do with where a player is picked in these rounds then anything else.  One GM’s trash is another GM’s treasure.  Read more... (1806 words + 1 image, estimated 7:13 mins reading time)

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"Last Day At Lambeau" premiered on April 18 at the 2012 Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison, WI

It’s been nearly four years, but the memories came rushing back like they were yesterday.

That sums up what was going through my head while viewing “Last Day At Lambeau” at the Wisconsin Film Festival on April 18 at Monona Terrace in Madison. It’s a film I honestly have been looking forward to seeing since the first teaser hit the internet months ago.

To give a brief synopsis of the film, it documents the fall of Brett Favre through the eyes of a Packer fan. Director Michael Neelsen grew up in Wisconsin and was raised a Packer fan and idolized Favre like so many Wisconsin youth at the time. It’s this same personal attachment to Favre that the director had that makes the film so powerful.

The film truly had it all. At the beginning, brief highlights of Favre’s time as a Packer are shown and then the film delves right into Favre’s final game at Lambeau as a member of the Packers—the 2008 NFC Championship Game against the New York Giants.  Read more... (2200 words + 1 image, estimated 8:48 mins reading time)

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From the end of the NFL season and through the draft we see the big name prospects dominating coverage.  Getting those top picks right or wrong impact teams for years.

Everyone wants the next Clay Matthews or the next Aaron Rodgers. Fans want to see that kind of player fall into place.

To be honest, by the time the draft comes around I have had enough of   those players.

You can only guess so many times where those top 20 or so players are going to go and it just gets boring.  So I am going to peek at the bottom of the draft instead.

When you review the rosters top to bottom in the NFL, starters, backups, practice squads there are hundreds of undrafted players. Last year 61 new undrafted players made NFL rosters.

Every year teams sign ten to fifteen UDFA’s in feeding frenzy that takes place the minute the draft ends to try get the best of the rest.

The Packers at this time have twenty seven UDFA’s on their roster, with eight of them starting games last year.  Read more... (1053 words + 1 image, estimated 4:13 mins reading time)

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