It's Game Day

My Packers Tailgate.  dwm photo

It's time.

Every fall since 1919 the Green Bay Packers got together to play football.

The 98th edition gets started this afternoon.

It is exciting.  The long wait is over.  There will be professional football every weekend from now until February 4.

Since before I can even remember, the Packers have been my team.

My parents said there was something about the fuzzy black and white pictures of Packer football that calmed their colicky kid every Sunday afternoon.  They started watching too.

Jerry Kramer, Gale Gillingham, Forrest Gregg, Bob Skoronski, and Ken Bowman kept Bart Starr upright so he could hand off to Elijah Pitts or throw downfield to Carroll Dale.  Ray Nitschke was "Mean on Sunday" as the leader of a tough Green and Gold defense.  A fan was born.  ("Mean on Sunday" was the name of Nitschke's autobiography, he signed it for me when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade and he gave me a bear hug.)

By the time I could actually keep track of the team and the players, the Packers had fallen off the mountain.  The 1972 team was the first group I really remember.  John Brockington was the big back running downhill behind McArthur Lane.  Scott Hunter threw the ball and Jim Carter took the place of #66 at middle linebacker.  They won the division that year then faded from the scene (there was a playoff appearance under Coach Starr in 1982 and the Instant Replay game with the Majik Man in 1989) until 1992.

Go Pack, Go!  (dwm photo)

Gunslinger Brett Favre and the group assembled by Ron Wolf and coached by Mike Holmgren finally did put the title back in Titletown.  It's amazing to realize that Green Bay has been a contender ever since.

Jerry Kramer's "Instant Replay" diary of the 1967 Packers took me inside the locker room.  It gave me a feel for the men who played the game.  I'm thrilled he has another chance to make the Pro Football Hall of Fame at the end of this season.

Whether from my couch, recliner, or a seat in Lambeau Field I hang on every play, throw, tackle, and kick.  It means everything and it means nothing all at once.

The afternoon when Favre and Reggie White beat Carolina in Green Bay to reach Super Bowl XXXI was one of the happiest moments of my life.  A highlight in a lifetime following the team's climb back to the top.

I've not been to many games in person.  Four, I think, when they played a couple games each season in Milwaukee.  Two regular and a couple preseason games in Green Bay.  Two Packer games in the Minneapolis Metrodome and a preseason game in Lucas Oil Stadium against the Colts.

I can't think of the last regular season game I've missed on TV.

Sunday, Monday, Thursday, Saturday, or Sunday night if the Packers are on - I'm there.  Go Pack!