Go You Packers!
I’m a football fan who was born in Wisconsin. I grew up where the Steelers, then Bears, then Rams (well, once), then Niners play their games but in the back of my mind I was a Packer fan. The story of Lambeau, Lombardi, Starr, Neitzche, McGee, and the rest was known to me and I always cringed when people made fun of the hapless Pack. I didn’t watch a lot of football as a result. The one-two-punch of Football videogaming (it was Real Talk Joe Montana for Genesis if you must know) and the Forty-Niners winning the Superbowl while I was in SF and in college made me a fan again. Moving to Wisconsin in 1995 – just as White, Holmgren and Favre were getting started – made the Packers my obsession. Madden, year-after-year made me a fan of the game itself.
We had that spectacular run. After 30 years of lameness the Packers blew the Patriots out and won Favre’s first Superbowl – then they were en route to #2 in a row when Elway’s destiny came and kicked them in the face. (Not to take anything away from Elway, he’s magnificent, but “destiny” that year was actually named Terrell Davis).
I figured it would end and we’d go back to lameness for a few decades. Instead the Pack has had exactly one losing season since and made the Playoffs a handful of times.
Nobody expected this year. What a phenomenal team. What a QuarterBack Brett Favre is. The guy is two years older and twenty years younger than me. Good luck tonight Brett. You have to beat these Giants. Why? Because it’s time to beat down the Patriots in the Superbowl again!
January 19th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Hehe … good luck to the Pack tomorrow – and to my hometown Pats! And let’s hope for a great Super Bowl to follow, either showing that Favre is one of the best QB’s ever … or that the Pats are the undisputed best team in football history 😀
January 20th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
Well, one half of the possible rematch is made …
January 20th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
… and there goes the hopes for a rematch. Sorry, GamerDad!
January 21st, 2008 at 9:48 am
Considering I had zero expectations for the season… I’m okay about it. Just wish the Packer D and Offense had played better. That was not a fun game to watch for me at all. Just frustrating. Stupid penalties and our complete lack of a running game and pass rush… ugh.
January 21st, 2008 at 10:32 am
My kids decided to split – once supported ‘the place where GamerDad lives’ and the other ‘the state where we’ll probably move’ …
The first half looked great – Favre was dominating, getting plenty of time, and the Giants were having trouble moving the ball. The second half was like a Henny Youngman joke – take this game, please!
January 21st, 2008 at 2:20 pm
My heart goes out to all the Packer fans. As someone who grew up close the GB, I struggled through last night’s game. I hoped for more than a few big plays and lucky breaks. But they were out played. While my anger has finally subsided, thanks to a few games playing as the Pack in Madden… I can finally hold a conversation about the game.
Like you GamerDad, I had no expectations for the season either. It was a great season, too bad it had to end. But for general football fans, it was a good game to watch. Lots of close calls and nail biting moments.
And now onto next season… and maybe a few more games of blowing out the Giants in Madden.
Research Quest
January 21st, 2008 at 5:20 pm
The cold is a big deal too. I used to be able to handle 10 degrees just fine, but now that I’m in my late 30’s… not so much. And I’ll beg to differ with Mike that the Pack had a good first half. They had a few good PLAYS but that wasn’t the team I was expecting to see – at all.
I console myself with the knowledge of who the Giants beat getting there and that we destroyed them in Week 2.
I’m now rooting for the Giants to knock out the Patriots. No offense to ’em, I was a HUGE fan when they beat the hated Rams, when they beat the Titans, etc., but I’m done with their dominance for now. I hate dynasties.
Can’t wait for Madden ’09! The Pack will finally be rated high again. It’s been a few years since Madden was nice to them.
January 21st, 2008 at 11:01 pm
Yeah, one of the big issues I have with NFL branded console games is that they try to balance out the teams according to the previous year.
There should be a “switch” where every team is leveled in ability, but perhaps have different specialties…. probably best only in pick-up-and-go mode….
Sure, you could do it by hand by building your own team, but where’s the fun in that…. in fact the same formula could be applied in vs matchups where both teams could be auto-leveled before the game is played.
Probably comes from my enjoyment of the game and the teams involved and not really caring much about the individual players… (other than they’re part of my team…)
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:48 am
Good idea. Another way to handle it would be to lock up former players and teams and make them available, at least in multiplayer, at all times. I’m a Packer fan. Why can’t I play as the 1996 team? the 1968 team? I know Browns fans wouldn’t mind playing in the Jim Brown era.
Anyway, that way you have team loyalty and some legitimate “who would win” feelings.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:37 pm
From the GamerDad forums …
I think this is somewhat flawed reasoning since there are countless examples of excellent players who have underperformed in certain situations, gotten traded and then really taken off
My point wasn’t that they would ‘die off’, but really – where is there to go. Look at it this way: they are already a ‘dynasty’, Brady is Hall of Fame bound, they are in the upper echelon of NFL teams ever … and that is just ‘already’.
If they win the Super Bowl, it will tough to argue against calling them ‘best team ever’. So now add best team ever to the dynasty thing … perhaps making them ‘most powerful dynasty ever’.
Really, what is left but the attempt to repeat perfection … something that will almost inevitably fail … so it is by that standard that I say ‘it is all downhill if they win’.
Of course … I still see that as a mighty big ‘IF’.