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Tom Crabtree’s green mohawk, as posted on Twitter, after getting over 10,000 followers in April 2011.

“He is notable for the large number of tattoos on his arms.”

This is about all the personal information you’ll get when you look up Tom Crabtree on Wikipedia. He’s the tattooed tight end wearing #83 for the Green Bay Packers, and he was born November 4, 1985, in Columbus, Ohio. An undrafted free agent from Miami University, he made his debut with the Packers in his second year, performing mostly as a blocking tight end, yet also managing to accumulate 4 receptions for 61 yards and a touchdown.

These are the cold, hard facts anyone can find out.

But the “plugged-in” cheeseheads know the real @TCrabtree83 as the most fan-friendly Packer to embrace the Age of Social Media.

Just this past week, Crabtree made an impromptu phone call to Bill Johnson and Jason Wilde on their “Green and Gold Today” talk show (which has been suffering from lockout depression). He appeared as a special guest on the latest episode of Cheeshead Radio, co-hosted by our own “Jersey” Al Bracco. And at 8:00 p.m. CDT on June 8th, he will be hosting a live Book Club discussion on CheeseheadTV to discuss Annie Jacobsen’s newest release, “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base.”  Read more... (769 words + 1 image, estimated 3:05 mins reading time)

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Weekly Green Bay Packers News from Twitter and other Sources by Al Bracco and Jayme Joers (As heard on Cheesehead Radio 5/25/11 ).

To listen to the Tom Crabtree interview, follow one of the links at the end of this post. His interview is just after the news, around the 11 minute mark.

Packer News 5/18/11 – 5/25/11

Al: Well, there is just soooo much Packers news, I don’t even know where to start. OK, that’s not really true, is it? Thanks to the owners’ lockout, the Packers training facilities must be eerily quiet. No sounds of weights clanging, coaches blowing whistles or fans pleadings for autograph. I’m sure the people of Green Bay, players, coaches and team employees are all a bit confused trying to figure out what to do in the absence of normal football activities.

Jayme:    Speaking of confusion, there was a bit of confusion this week over whether the Packers had cut the salaries of their assistant coaches. In Sunday’s Boston Globe, former Packers writer Greg Bedard wrote that according to the NFL Coaches Association (NFLCA), the Packers had cut their salaries by 20-25%. But then, in a Tuesday Globe article, Bedard wrote that the Director of the NFLCA had called to retract his statements as inaccurate and apologized to Bedard’s readers and to the Packers.  Read more... (996 words + 1 image, estimated 3:59 mins reading time)

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Weekly Green Bay Packers News from Twitter and other Sources by Al Bracco and Holly Phelps. (As heard on Cheesehead Radio 3/31/11 )

Al: Well, the last time we got together here, it was Thursday March 10. As we know now, the next day would bring the de-certification of the NFL Players union and a lockout by the owners. Much frustration was expressed by fans, and the two sides commenced with the expected posturing. Press releases, letters, emails, and tweets were exchanged, all trying to convince fans who was right and who was wrong. Of course, to most fans, it didn’t matter, they were ALL wrong for letting this happen.

Holly:     And speaking of wrong, how about that Johnny Jolly. After being suspended from the NFL for a year — but avoiding jail time — one might have expected Jolly to keep his nose clean and put his life on the right path. Instead, Jolly returned to his old haunts and old friends and, once, again got caught up in the seedy underbelly of the world of drugs. This time Jolly can expect little latitude from the Texas judicial system.  He’s already been denied bond by a judge in Houston, and will await his next court appearance from a cozy 10×10 cell.  Read more... (863 words + 1 image, estimated 3:27 mins reading time)

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Weekly Green Bay Packers News from Twitter and other Sources by Al Bracco and Holly Phelps. (As heard on Cheesehead Radio 2/3/11 )

Al: Welcome to Super Bowl week. It was really hard finding some Packers related items this week this week, but we’ll do our best. First thing I want to do is give you all a reading assignment for after the show. That’s right, Professor Bracco is giving you some homework. A nice byproduct of the Packers making the Super Bowl is that now the best sportswriters on the National level turn their attention onto the Packers. There were some fabulous articles this week from Mike Freeman at CBSSports.com and three writers from ESPN, Gene Wojciechowski, Patrick Hruby and Wright Thompson. Look up the Packers coverage on these sites and find these articles. You will be reminded why it’s so special to be a Packers fan.

Holly: And special is certainly how the Packers players felt on Tuesday’s media day, surrounded by throngs of photographers and reporters hanging on their every word. And along with all of that, of course, there were the reporters in costumes, the ridiculous questions, and the silly requests, like the female reporter who asked to feel Clay Matthews’ hair.  Read more... (815 words + 1 image, estimated 3:16 mins reading time)

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Weekly Green Bay Packers News from Twitter and other Sources by Al Bracco and Jayme Joers. (As heard on Cheesehead Radio 1/27/11 )

Al: Well, what can I say. After 13 long years, the Packers are back in the Super Bowl. Having survived a season racked with injuries and in jeopardy of not making the playoffs at all, the Packers found themselves winning 5 straight elimination games to propel themselves into the big game. The sweetest part, of course, was beating the Bears in their home for the NFC Championship.

Jayme: And the week that followed could easily be called controversy gate. We had Cutler-gate, Concussion-gate and Photo-gate. The Bears Jay Cutler was criticized by some former and current NFL players for supposedly tanking on his team. Bears fans vilified him, with some taking to burning his jersey. Never mind that this was a huge rush to judgement and Cutler really did have a serious injury.  Read more... (848 words + 1 image, estimated 3:24 mins reading time)

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Weekly Green Bay Packers News from Twitter and other Sources by Al Bracco and Holly Phelps. (As heard on Cheesehead Radio 1/20/11 )

Al: There was a big to-do in CheeseheadNation this week about a scathing article Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk wrote about Aaron Rodgers. Accusing Rodgers of being a cad for not signing an autograph at the Green Bay airport, Florio got quite wholier than thou, lecturing Rodgers in his hack job piece on how Aaron needs to remember who pays his salary. Florio, of course, played up the “snubbed cancer patient” angle, essentially calling Rodgers a heel for not signing.

Holly: Soon after the initial hubub, the fan involved, Jan Cavanaugh, who is admittedly a serial autograph seeker and one that Rodgers signed for just the previous week, was aghast at the way Rodgers was being portrayed. She was not happy about it, and neither were the legions of fans on twitter who bombarded Florio with angry expressions of what they thought of him.  Surprisingly, the previously defiant Florio later did a complete turn-around and wrote a long, supposedly sincere apology to Aaron Rodgers and Jan Cavanaugh.  Read more... (834 words + 1 image, estimated 3:20 mins reading time)

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Weekly Green Bay Packers News from Twitter and other Sources by Al Bracco and Jayme Joers. (As heard on Cheesehead Radio 1/13/11 )

Packer News 1/7/11 – 1/13/11

Al: Well it’s certainly good to be in week 2 of the playoffs and still talking about the Packers next opponent. After a typical “keep the other team in it” performance by the Packers (a special thank you to James Jones for that), the Packers defense came up with a game ending interception for the second week in a row.

Jayme: This time it was Tramon Williams with the game’s dagger, as he smothered an ill-advised Michael Vick pass in the end zone and fell to the ground. Tramon sprang up and ran on the field, skipping and jumping like a schoolboy at recess. Williams, however,  didn’t realize he hadn’t been downed and the play was still live. Luckily, Nick Collins and Charlie Peprah corralled him to and got him on the ground before something really bad happened.  Read more... (1047 words + 1 image, estimated 4:11 mins reading time)

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