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Packers CB Tramon Williams

Coming off a memorable postseason in 2010, Packers cornerback Tramon Williams suffered a serious shoulder injury in the first game of 2011 that still hasn’t fully healed.

A year earlier, in the Packers’ run to Super Bowl XLV, Williams emerged as one of the top cover corners in football.

That season, Williams started all 16 games for the first time in his career. He intercepted a career-high six passes in the regular season and picked off another three balls in the playoffs.

At that point, ProFootballFocus ranked Williams No. 7 among the 69 cornerbacks that played at least 50 percent of their team’s snaps. This past season, Williams came in at No. 43 among 71 players at the position.

The shoulder injury has certainly played a part in Williams’ performance the past two seasons.

“I had some tears in my shoulder and I had nerve damage in my shoulder, and it was tough,” Williams told 107.5 The Fan in March. “I only missed one game because of it, but it should have been one of those things to where I should have sat down for quite a few games. But at the same time, I haven’t been hurt at any point in my career … Everyone goes through adversity at some point in their career — that was one of my points, and I got through it.”  Read more... (879 words + 1 image, estimated 3:31 mins reading time)

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers made his acting debut on NBC’s The Office on Thursday. It was, well, not very good.

Rodgers picked a bad show to make his TV debut. The first couple seasons of The Office were excellent (if you’re one of those people who insists on telling anyone within earshot how much better the British version of the show is than the American version, go away. Nobody cares. You’re not cooler than everybody else in the room like you think you are.). Unfortunately, the show has been steadily declining since its promising start and has fallen off a creative cliff since Steve Carell left.

Thursday’s episode couldn’t even be saved by a cameo from the former MVP.

But Rodgers’ appearance on the program got me thinking: What current or past TV show or movie would you put Rodgers in if you had such power?

I’d cast him as Stan Gable, the lead jock/villain/bully on Revenge of the Nerds. It’s not the most glamorous role, but I think it fits Rogers perfectly.

Gable was a jock, obviously a good match for Rodgers, the star quarterback. Gable also had a tinge of cockiness too him, ditto for Rodgers. I don’t see Rodgers being mean-spirited like Gable, but that’s why they call it acting. I’m sure Rodgers has the chops to play the role of a**hole in a comedy, if needed.  Read more... (856 words + 1 image, estimated 3:25 mins reading time)

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

With NFL draft now behind us, I’ve found myself asking one question about the Packers over the last week: Do the players Ted Thompson selected make the Packers a more physical team?

The answer I come up with is…maybe?  Read more... (961 words + 1 image, estimated 3:51 mins reading time)

• First-round pick Datone Jones is 6-foot-4, 280 pounds. When you see him play, you think long and lean instead of tough and mean. But a player’s height and weight doesn’t tell you much about how physical they’ll play. I’m sure Jones will add some weight. If he doesn’t, sometimes smaller guys play with such an attitude that they might as well be 320 pounds of brute force.
• The first thing that comes to mind when I watch Eddie Lacy run is physical. You can automatically place Mr. Lacy in the immediately-makes-the-Packers-more-physical category. The catch with Lacy is his health. One of his big toes is fused on, he’s got screws in his hand, he can barely bench press because of an old pectoral injury and he’s had hamstring issues. It’s hard to help your team be more physical while riding an exercise bike on the sideline. Let’s hope Lacy is able to use his aggression on the field instead of in the team’s rehab facility.
• J.C. Tretter and David Bakhtiari are two offensive linemen that were not projected to be drafted because of their physicality. The Packers like drafting athletic college tackles who can play multiple positions in the NFL, and that’s what Tretter and Bakhitiari are. I suppose they could develop into maulers, but neither one makes me think they’ll immediately make the Packers more physical.

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

Remember the moment from Super Bowl XLV when Packers assistant coach Kevin Greene looked Clay Matthews in the eyes and told him that “it is time!”

It’s one of the more memorable moments from that Super Bowl victory and something Packers fans won’t forget any time soon.

NFL history is filled with instances when coaches say something memorable or inspiring to players during a key portion of a big game. The emotion and intensity of the moment makes for compelling drama that even the best Hollywood actors could never replicate.

You don’t hear about similar moments involving general managers. In fact, thinking about someone going up to a general manager in his office, looking into his eyes, and telling him “it is time!” sounds downright silly.

Even so, I think it would be perfectly reasonable for someone to do that to Ted Thompson this week.

Not literally, of course. That would just be weird and could lead to an arrest. Without getting right in his face, this week is the perfect week to get the message to Thompson that “it is time!”

Now is the time for Thompson to put himself in the history books as one of the best general managers of all time. He’s already got a Super Bowl. He’s already highly respected. He’s already guided the Packers franchise through the Brett Favre-to-Aaron Rodgers transition. He’s already had a great career and has plenty to be proud of.  Read more... (1039 words + 1 image, estimated 4:09 mins reading time)

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

Instead of a long intro this week, I’m going to save my bloviating for the non-Packers links and other nonsense section and get right to the Packers news of the week.

I’ll be back next week with a strong opinion on something related to the Packers or the NFL. For now, we’ll just catch up on Packers news and talk about a baseball text simulation game that everybody should own.

Packers News, Notes and Links  Read more... (1137 words + 1 image, estimated 4:33 mins reading time)

• Center Evan Dietrich-Smith signed his one-year restricted free-agent contract tender this week. I’m surprised no other team offered him more money to lure him away from the Packers. I’m also happy that Dietrich-Smith will be back. Should we be worried that no other team bothered to offer him more than the $1.323 million he got from the Packers? 
• Jermichael Finley was on KFAN in Minneapolis this week with Vikings play-by-play broadcaster Paul Allen. The interview is painfully bad, but if you want to know what Finley had to say, read this summary from Jason Wilde’s ESPN Milwaukee blog. Finley says he wants to play like Tony Gonzalez. In other news, I want to write like Shakespeare.

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

I love Packers general manager Ted Thompson. Even if he was terrible at his job, which thankfully he isn’t, I would still love him.

While a bunch of other teams are out signing free agents that most NFL fans recognize and know, Thompson signs Loyce Means, a cornerback who most recently played in the Canadian Football League. A couple weeks ago, Thompson signed an Italian kicker named Giorgio Tevecchio.

While fans of the 49ers get to embrace Nnamdi Asomugha, Packers fans take to Google to try and figure out who in the hell Loyce Means is.

While Vikings and Dolphins fans get excited about signing Greg Jennings and Mike Wallace, respectively, Packers fans are left trying to figure out who (or what) a Giorgio Tevecchio is.

Sometimes I wonder if Thompson signs these unknown guys just so he can see how crazy it might drive some Packers fans. I know that’s not the case, but it’d be funny if it was.

I think by now a lot of Packers fans get Thompson. Not all of fans, but a lot. They might not agree with his strategies, but they at least get him.

That’s progress, right?

Or am I wrong?

Do the fans who didn’t get Thompson from the beginning still not get him now?

Whether you get him or not, do you find it as amusing as I do when he signs one of these unknown guys while the rest of the league signs marquee names?  Read more... (575 words + 1 image, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

As I was observing the buzz created this week by the U.S. Supreme Court hearings on gay marriage, I couldn’t help but think about former Packers great Reggie White.

Most Packers fan who are old enough probably remember this speech by White in front of the Wisconsin state legislature in March of 1998. White was scheduled to talk about some of his community service work. Instead the Minister of Defense went off about the sins of homosexuality and how being gay is a “decision.”

White also appeared in a few newspaper ads run by Christian organizations wearing his Packers jersey and promoting his opposition to homosexuality.

Can you imagine if White did these things in 2013 instead of 1998? Twitter would spontaneously combust. The comments section at the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel would turn into even more of a cesspool than it already is. Collin Cowherd, Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless would reach new levels of intolerable. Activist organizations would storm Lambeau Field.

White’s legacy would probably be damaged beyond repair.

Or would it?

I freely admit that I always think of White the former Packer. The image of White burned into my brain is this one, Super-Bowl trophy held high, a sense of accomplishment on his face.

I never think of this image of White, the one of White in a suit and tie, condemning homosexuality and making other disparaging remarks.  Read more... (1021 words + 1 image, estimated 4:05 mins reading time)

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