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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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That's Packers great Reggie White wrestling Steve McMichael in WCW.

This is chapter 1 in a series examining the history of the NFL, the Green Bay Packers and professional wrestling. The introduction to the series can be read here.

In 1986, Vince McMahon, Jr. was in the middle of transforming the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) from a regional promotion in the northeast to a national powerhouse that would eventually wipe out every other wrestling territory in the United States. McMahon used his deep pockets to lure away top wrestlers like Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper from rival promotions. He also used his marketing and promotional skills to develop many of his wrestlers into larger than life characters with mainstream appeal.

But McMahon was not satisfied with running a successful wrestling promotion. He wanted to create an entertainment empire that happened to involve wrestling. He wanted the WWF to be viewed on the same level as a major movie studio that produced blockbuster films, or a record label with bands that released No. 1 hits.

To achieve this, McMahon knew he needed more than top-level wrestling talent. He needed something that could make wrestling “cool,” something that would appeal to a younger generation and people who normally did not pay attention to wrestling.

The Rock ‘n Wrestling connection was born.

Wrestling Becomes Cool
McMahon partnered with MTV in the mid-80s to reach the younger and hipper audience he was targeting. He also brought in rock singers and celebrities like Cyndi Lauper to broaden the WWF’s brand beyond the scope of traditional professional wrestling.  Read more... (1682 words + 1 image, estimated 6:44 mins reading time)

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I hope Aaron Rodgers keeps the title belt celebration for a while.

Like most Packers fans, I have a list of favorite Packers moments that will remain etched in the green and gold portion of my brain forever. The list includes the Packers Super Bowl titles in 1996 and 2020, my first game at Lambeau and watching the Packers win the NFC title live and in-person in Chicago.

The full bank of memories are too numerous to list here, but there is one particular memory that is probably unique to my brain and my brain only: I remember the first time I noticed Aaron Rodgers do the championship belt.

(Editor’s Note:  Today begins a very different and interesting series by Adam Czech, a self-professed professional wrestling geek and Packers fanatic. For the next month of Sundays, we’ll be having a “Sunday Storytime” with new installments of this series. Even if you’re not that into wrestling, I think you’ll find plenty of interesting Packers stories that you will enjoy (I know I have).  So, as the Monty Pythoners’ used to say, “And now for something completely different…)

It was 2008 and my wife and I were watching the Packers play the Titans on a snowy TV in a friend’s basement in Madison. Rodgers scrambled for a first down, dashed out of bounds, let the ball fall to the ground, then gave a quick title belt before jogging back to the huddle. I kept asking myself if I really saw what I thought I just saw. Did the quarterback of my favorite football team just pretend that he was the WWF world heavyweight champion?  Read more... (1187 words + 1 image, estimated 4:45 mins reading time)

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