Speed, strength, and the inability to register pain immediately. Reggie Williams, when asked his greatest strengths as a football player
A long awaited Sunday has arrived. The Green Bay Packers play in the Super Bowl today. Now I know that many of you could truly give a crap about that, but this is the big time at my house.
As many of you know, my parents moved to Green Bay 30 some years ago. I drove my kids up north every summer to stay for a few weeks and most often we hit the summer training camp for the Packers. We'd spend hours at Lambeau Field, watching the players.
During Packer Camp, the players walk with the kids, ride their bikes, and sign endless autographs. Bleachers are set up beside the outdoor practice field and rarely a seat opens. Lots of standing and through the years we watched the likes of Brett Favre, Aaron Rodgers, Reggie White, Sterling Sharpe, Robert Brooks, Gilbert Brown, James Lofton, Ty Detmer, William Henderson, and a mass of other men that took the time to thrill my young boys.
I remember many a moment where a very large player would reach over the crowd of adults or older kids to take up my young son's football to pen his name. I remember when Robert Brooks was engulfed in a sea of supporters shouting his name for an autograph. My oldest, Jacob, said, "Mr. Brooks, may I have your autograph?" The player stopped and reached back and signed Jacob's Wheaties box.
Perhaps one of the most memorable signings occured with a 5 year old Jordan, now 22. After Ty Detmer handed him back his autograph book, Jordan burst into tears. My mom and I gathered around him, worried as to the problem. "They're all writing in cursive," Jordan cried.
Downstairs at the lake house, youngest son Ian put together a collection of Packer memorabilia. Jerseys, newspaper clippings my mom sent him. The signed footballs and helmets. When he lived at home, each weekend he'd put the Packer banner next to the team they played that week. If it wasn't going well, he'd put the other team's banner into a closet and shut the door.
Today, we have a big pot of beer brats cooking.
Expecting a crowd of 10. Jacob's searching Austin for cheese curds. We've got potato chips and French Onion dip. Potato skins. Bob and I are deciding which jersey we'll pull off the wall to support the team.
Two things will be missing in this quest for Super Bowl greatness - Jordan and Ian. Jordan's up in Montana attending a job fair and that Ian boy, the creator of our basement decorum, is at the University of Alabama. Doesn't seem right that he can't be here with us today, but we plan to Skype him in for a little bit of time. Frequent calls to my mom in Green Bay and my brother, Jordan, in Sheboygan will have the phone lines rattling.
You are hereby welcomed to The Texas Green Bay Hall of Fame.
(We have no idea how that speed sign got there.)
(We have no idea how that speed sign got there.)
To all you Steeler fans out there, Sorry. Just gotta believe about the Pack. Come join us in the Texas Packer Hall of Fame.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday everybody.
Have a wonderful game day today, Julie!!! We will!!! And we're Green Bay Packer fans too :)
ReplyDeleteGo Pack!!!!
Go Packers! I'd rather see them win than the Steelers, myself, as many of my family members are in Wisconsin. My father was a Packer-Backer for many, many years. I remember delivering him the newspaper from Vince Lombardi (or was it that Ray Nietsche (sp!) guy?) when I was but five years old. It'll be a great day! I love sharing in vicariously with your excitement.
ReplyDeleteYou had me at beer brats....love the speed sign!
ReplyDeleteTo tell you the truth, I didn't even know who was playing this game. You can probably tell I'm just not a football fan. But after seeing and reading about the fun your family has, and has had, all these years...I'm rooting for the Packers!
ReplyDeleteGo Packers......and what are beer brats? They do look good....Hugs
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those people who couldn't care less about football, but your enthusiasm is contagious! I'll be rooting for the Packers, in your honor. And those beer brats looked delicious! Yum, yum!
ReplyDeleteFor all you Packer fans it was an exciting game...and they WON! For those of us who were rooting for the Steelers'''sigh!! They lost!! Sniff!
ReplyDeleteWTG Packers!!!
Hugs
SueAnn
Way to go, Packers.
ReplyDeleteNow, onto the halftime show. The boys were complaining last year about the seniors who were chosen to perform for the past few years. Hubs counter with, “At least they sing and don’t use machines.”
This year they watched a few minutes of the Halftime, declared it horrible and went to the other room.
We rest our case.
Girl, y'all did it up RIGHT! :)
ReplyDeleteThe brats look delicious. We're not into football so my husband and I went to a nice reataurant and enjoyed time without too many people around. Hope you enjoyed.
ReplyDeleteWe went to a friend's house for superbowl Sunday. My 13 year old son's history teacher told them they could write who they thought would win the SB on the bottom of their tests last Friday,and if they predicted correctly, they would get 10 extra points!
ReplyDeleteMy son, not really into football, just picked the Steelers. So, for him, we sat and rooted for the Steelers the whole time....yuk. They lost.
But, my husband and I lived in Chicago for 7 years (go Bears!) and spent many a lovely weekend traveling the back roads and small towns of Wisconsin, so secretly, we felt like we should be rooting for the Packers. Well, anyway, Hooray for the Packers.
Hopefully, my son aced his test without the 10 points! *grin*
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. It was a great game and a great team that won. Here in Green Bay, fireworks went off all over the city and kept on for hours. People went downtown in droves until there were hundreds down there all happy and hugging perfect strangers. When the team came home yesterday, tho the buses just had a short route, thousands were on the sidelines taking pictures and hoping for a view of their heroes. Funniest part was that several of the players were taking pictures back of the huge crowds. Today there is the big official rally at the stadium at $5 a pop. There are over a 1000 shareholders and we all feel as if they are our team in reality as well as in name. Makes the winters up here bearable.
ReplyDeleteTHEY WON!!! I bet your post helped a little!
ReplyDeleteI hope your day was as wonderful as the writing in this piece. I'm not a football fan at all, but you made me want to watch the game.
ReplyDeleteThe speed sign is so funny! And I loved the cursive story.
I appreciate the tradition ,
ReplyDeleteand the fact that my son came home from the game in one piece. He won the Bud Plane trip to go... can you imagine!!!
As Canadian's we don't get into all of this nearly as much, but still.
I'm not a sports fans, so thankfully got to just sit and enjoy the commercials during the Super Bowl.
ReplyDeleteMy father has been a "Packer Backer" for about 90 years. He just turned 91, and was thrilled to make it long enough to see another Super Bowl win for The Pack.
Wonderful blog! Keep blogging!
ReplyDeleteSo glad the Pack won - now you can have fun collecting all the Super Bowl memorabilia to add to your basement shrine.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to a true fan. The Packers are one of the top notch franchises in professional sports. And man did them brats look good.
ReplyDeleteJust arrived at your site. Think your post definitely was the bit of inspiration the Pack needed.
ReplyDeleteI wrote a couple of posts pre- and post-game, but none as comprehensive as yours. Those beer brats looked just yummie!
That was such a fun weekend. Thank you for inviting me. Packers RULE! :-)
ReplyDeleteMike and I were talking about how exciting this must have been for the Anderson family! Congrats you loyal Pack fans! You have served them well!
ReplyDelete