| Fantasy Football | 18 Nov 2008 1:00 AM |
| My Trip to Favre, um... Far Away Green Bay by Mark Strausberg | Comment (0) |
As some of you know, I went on a road trip to see Lambeau Field this weekend. Just a few random thoughts....
Brett Favre's steakhouse had that amazing "oaky" smell that great steakhouses have. But the outdoor tailgate party? Like Favre, highly overrated. The screwdrivers and Bloody Marys were good (I just can't drink beer at 9:30 in the morning), but they had the worst brats I had all weekend (and trust me, I had quite a few), and the rest of the food at the restaurant's tailgate was marginal at best.
Speaking of Favre, I found lots of varied opinions amongst the locals. Some still love him and are rooting for the Jets. Others could care less what he does. But should the Packers play the Jets in the Superbowl, every single fan I talked to will be rooting against number four.
I heard that new Pink song, but I think that might be the only song from the last decade I remember hearing between both the stadium and three different bars I visited. I think the most recent song I heard at the stadium was House of Pain's Jump Around. I'm not sure the people in Green Bay are aware that a bunch of new music has been released since 1992. On second thought, this might not be such a bad thing.
Between the fried cheese curds and the brats (which both get a big thumbs up by the way), I don't think I ever left a city craving a salad more.
It is probably because Mark Tauscher was born in Wisconsin and went to the University of Wisconsin, but you gotta love it when an offensive lineman gets one of the biggest ovations during player introductions.
I could care less about autographs but I do enjoy meeting past players and ended up meeting Gilbert Brown on Saturday night. I asked him what he thought about Matt Forte and his response was "WHO?" I can't reprint what he said the Packers would do to him but let's just say he thought the Packers would contain him.
And the stat line might show how much the Pack were keying on Forte (with the Bears passing game being totally shut down), but he was still eluding tacklers on every play. The kid definitely showed me something.
On the flip side, Ryan Grant looked even more impressive than his stat line. As I told the Grant owner in my league, "Bench him for the rest of the season. He went nowhere when five guys were tackling him and barely managed to get four yards with three guys hanging on him". Seriously, he refused to go down. If you can somehow buy low on Grant, do it.
I already mentioned the impotent Bears passing game. But the Packer fans expected it. One told me beforehand, "Oh, we love Rex Grossman here. He's a good Christian--he's constantly giving things to the Packers and we appreciate all he does to help make us happy."
If you've been to an Eagles game for example, you know how rude fans can be to opposing team fans. But every city has its obnoxious fans and most of the time, I've seen home fans just ignore their more belligerent brethren and possibly roll their eyes. Packer fans were actually apologizing to Bears fans for some of their fans.
And that behavior was typical of the people of Green Bay whom could not have been nicer. And it was sad, because if you want to see the effects of a recession, go to a small town in this country and you'll see the impact much more than you do in a big city. Multiple residents thanked us for visiting and supporting the local economy. I could retell some stories I heard, but I'm really not hear to bring you down. Let's just say the Packers are one of the best things for the city of Green Bay.
People knew we were out of town because my traveling companions were a Ravens and a Redskin fan respectively and both proudly wore their team. We heard plenty of good natured jokes ("Hey, you guys made a wrong turn at Alba-koik-eee!), but I think some fans really could not understand why we were there. I guess when your stadium is the Vatican of football stadiums, the thought of traveling elsewhere to see a stadium probably just seemed unthinkable.
And it was a religious experience. My fellow M.O.T.s might understand that I did in fact say the Shechianu blessing upon entering. We entered the stadium and bowed our head in reverence. And as we took the stadium tour the next day, I actually kneeled down and felt the grass, like someone feeling the sand of the holy land. Was in the Lombardi exhibit at the Packer Hall of Fame and actually got chills.
I've wanted to go to Green Bay since I first heard John Facenda's legendary "the Frozen Tundra of Lambeau field..." many, many years ago. I always knew that someday I would go and unlike most things you wait a lifetime for, it actually lived up to the expectations.
