Terry
08-10-2006, 12:20 PM
(With thanks to JC at the wire for finding this.)
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/packers/2006-08-09-family-night-feature_x.htm
Football in Green Bay: 'It's phenomenal'
Posted 8/9/2006 6:51 PM ET
By Jim Corbett, USA TODAY
GREEN BAY, Wis.  Rookie linebacker A.J. Hawk pulled into Lambeau Field's parking lot at 6:30 CT the morning of July 19, thinking he'd have the place to himself as he looked to get in a quick workout.
Hawk was stunned to see thousands of Packers backers tailgating and tossing footballs around hours before the team's annual shareholders meeting that morning.
That's when the fifth overall pick in the April draft realized just how special pro football is in Green Bay.
The Packers' Saturday night version of the movie Friday Night Lights only cemented Hawk's first impression. Second-year quarterback Aaron Rodgers compares the Packers' annual intrasquad scrimmage, called Family Night, to a cross between a big-time college spring football game and "a Jimmy Buffett concert." Much more than a glorified practice game, it's a cultural phenomenon unique to the NFL that attracted a record 62,701 green-and-gold faithful. All that's missing is the bonfire.
Though Hawk performed before big crowds at Ohio State, where 100,000-plus Buckeyes fans pack "The Horseshoe," Hawk and his younger teammates were awed by their Lambeau initiation.
"The tradition here is unbelievable," Hawk says. "That's what's great about Green Bay. It's a sellout for a scrimmage. That doesn't happen anywhere else in the NFL. We're so embraced by Packers fans. And they all stayed right to the end. It's phenomenal."
It's as if someone from the local chamber of commerce threw the switch on Lambeau mystique. The retro, brick shrine off Lombardi Avenue and Oneida Street came alive after six months of hibernation, the night sky lit up for miles.
Nostalgia and hope swirled in the midsummer air, thick as tailgate smoke. Families drove from all across Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana to grill their brats and cheer the return of their hero, Brett Favre. It doesn't matter that the Packers finished 4-12 last season, their first losing record during Favre's 14 years in Green Bay.
"I really believe that we're going to be better than people think we will be," Favre says, and the Pack's Saturday night lights might have illuminated some of his reasons for hope.
A night that begins with Favre throwing rockets to his receivers is capped by fireworks.
"It's a special place, and I'm honored to be coaching here," first-year coach Mike McCarthy says after an Aug. 3 night practice. "The Green Bay Packers' history is second to none.
"I remember, when I was quarterbacks coach here in 1999, I came jogging out of the locker room and I walked out of the tunnel with Brett Favre and I said, 'Can you believe this? There's 70,000 people, and we're doing pat-and-go drills and the fans are doing 'The Wave.' I was just blown away.
"It was my first Lambeau experience, and I'll never forget that as long as I live. With that in mind, when we do the introductions, I'll have my assistant coaches along with the players at their positions run out of the tunnel together. It's something they'll always remember.
"There's nothing like this scrimmage in sports."
In other cities, there might be other professional sports teams to watch play more meaningful games, the Yankees or Mets for instance in New York, where fans sometimes sell or give away their tickets rather than watch a preseason look-in on the Giants or Jets. Not in Green Bay, where fans are literally invested in their team.
"Any team that has 30,000 Packers shareholders, you know you're going to have a lot of people here seeing how you're progressing," says John Dorsey, the Packers director of college scouting. "From my perspective, it gives us a chance to see these young guys in a game-time situation, Saturday night lights.
"The uniqueness of this event is you have 62,000 people providing a live-game atmosphere, the energy level picks up and you see how guys respond to that.
"From a fans' perspective, it's (Packers chairman) Mr. (Bob) Harlan's way of showing respect to the fans with $8 tickets with parking lot proceeds all donated to (local and state) charities."
It is a rare chance for some fans to see the Packers firsthand, considering the long waiting list for season tickets.
Consider the remarkable case of Nancy and Chuck Cook, a couple in their late 60s who just learned that, after 47 years, their 1959 request for Packers season tickets was recently granted. Waiting 47 years for Social Security benefits is one thing. But for Packers tickets? It's the reward of a lifetime.
"We started going to Packers games in our 20s when Fuzzy Thurston, Bart Starr and Carroll Dale were here," Cook says.
Chuck's son, Steve, says Steve's son, Logan, 13, has bypassed the middleman and asked his grandparents that, when they pass away, they need to bequeath the tickets to Logan and brother Connar, 10, skipping a generation so they don't have to wait so long.
Farther down the parking lot, V.J. Scully and his wife, Leeanne, daughter Kylee, 15, and sons Jaden, 6, and Tyler, 4, are throwing a football before grilling burgers.
Tyler wears a forest-green jersey bearing a number that seems to be everywhere. So who's your favorite player, Tyler?
"Favre!" he says decisively.
Tyler's dad thought it would be cool for the kids to get a glimpse of the future Hall of Famer. "My husband was intent on making sure our kids saw Brett Favre play here before he retires," Leeanne says.
Scully has already put his kids on the Packers' season-ticket list.
What's the fuss over there?
There's a flock of folks huddled around a saintly looking fellow dressed in a green high-priest's miter that bears the beaming likeness of Vince Lombardi. Dressed in a flowing green robe with gold trim, he holds a staff crowned by a Packers cheesehead.
Who is this guy with a replica of the Lombardi Trophy as his ring?
It's "Saint Vince," aka John O'Neill, a 54-year-old, bearded, retired state worker who started dressing this way in 1997 in New Orleans before the Packers beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.
O'Neill was inducted into the Pro Football Fan Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 2000.
"I was trying to represent the spirit of Vince Lombardi coming back with his Packers for another Super Bowl, and it's grown in popularity ever since," O'Neill says.
Saint Vince poses for pictures with Darren and April Guindon, holding 3½-month-old son Vincent and 5-year-old Brett.
"Say 'Cheeseheads,' " O'Neill says before the picture is snapped.
The Guindons will send this to family and friends as the family Christmas card, as they did last year with a shot of Brett posing with Saint Vince.
Inside the spacious Lambeau atrium, Todd Harris, 32, watches as his three young boys whack each other with inflatable thunder sticks, which are free to everyone. The kids have painted faces, and they're having a ball. Unfortunately, their sister Brianne doesn't care much for getting bopped by their thunder sticks.
Things sure are different here. There is that same communal obsession with winning. It's just that people seem more good-natured about it, more forgiving, less demanding about it.
"You hear stories about how some NFL teams' fans don't really embrace their players all that much," Hawk says. "College football fans are more forgiving than NFL fans. Green Bay fans seem to have a short memory, too."
"As bad as we were last year, the fans still treat us with respect," center Scott Wells says. "They treat Family Night like a regular game. People come out to have a really good time and to party.
"It's their first chance to see what this team is going to be like."
Says receiver Donald Driver: "I remember that first time I walked out of the tunnel for this game in 1999. Coming from Alcorn State, a small school in Mississippi, I never expected 70,000 people for a scrimmage. It's exciting for our young guys.
"The fans want to see if the old faces still have it and if the new guys have it, too."
Driver showed he still has it, elevating above double coverage to pull down Favre's 42-yard rocket. The highlight play of the scrimmage set up Favre's quick slant-in touchdown pass to Driver a few plays later.
Green Bay is dotted by leafy neighborhoods and 1960s ranch-style homes, where the past is ever-present. Yesteryear mixes with the hopeful sense that "This can be our year."
Favre expressed just that sentiment July 31 in his first and only news conference of training camp.
"I really feel like this, as far as talent is concerned, is the most talented team that I've been a part of as a whole, but the most unproven, inexperienced team that I've ever played on," Favre said. "So if we can somehow put it together, there's a lot of talent out there."
A 4-12 season and a career-worst 29 interceptions is not how Favre wants to go out. The Packers were eighth in total defense last season, but they were 18th in total offense and lost eight games by seven points or less.
Before he decided to return for a 16th season, Favre spoke with former quarterback Don Majkowski, the Packers starter he replaced 241 consecutive starts ago, including the playoffs. "Brett Favre loves being Brett Favre," Majkowski says. "I'm friends with Brett, and I know how much he loves playing football and what it's meant to him to have success with the Green Bay Packers.
"But the thing he's most proud of more than winning a Super Bowl or his three league MVPs is his consecutive-starts streak, knowing his teammates and coaches can count on him week in and week out.
"To play at such a high level for so long, I know deep down he believes he's capable of still playing at that high level. He took the blunt of the blame last year. With the disastrous number of injuries that hit them, it wouldn't matter who would have quarterbacked, playing behind a non-existent line with almost no running game."
Inspiring Favre's optimism are such young talents as Hawk and second-round draft selection Greg Jennings, a polished and fearless route runner out of Western Michigan reminiscent of Baltimore Ravens veteran Derrick Mason.
McCarthy is implementing the user-friendly zone-blocking scheme he learned from Atlanta Falcons guru Alex Gibbs. He hopes it will keep Favre from having to do too much, help young guards Daryn Colledge and Jason Spitz better use their athleticism and help running backs Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport in their returns from injuries.
Colledge is a 6-4, 299-pound second-round pick who played left tackle at Boise State, and Spitz is a 6-4, 313-pound third-round pick from Louisville. McCarthy says both were drafted because of their athleticism, an asset that will help them more easily transition to the zone-blocking scheme favored by the Denver Broncos and Falcons.
Charles Woodson was signed during the offseason to solidify a secondary that includes Al Harris and safeties Marquand Manuel and Nick Collins. Defensive end Aaron Kampman is underrated.
Favre threw accurately without an interception in the scrimmage, a sign he's finding his rhythm after a five-interception outing in his first training camp practice.
McCarthy wants Favre to play within the system with more caution and less reckless abandon. If that happens, the passing game will be more about 4- and 5-yard completions supplemented by a run game to set up downfield shots.
"I'm coaching Brett just like I've coached every quarterback I've ever been around," says McCarthy, who was with the Kansas City Chiefs with Joe Montana and Rich Gannon. "Just make smart decisions, don't push the envelope too much, which is Brett's personality. Let the game come to you."
As it did to more than 62,000 green-and-gold clad fans who came out to see why Favre has been talking up this team.
"It's really the kickoff to a new beginning," Dorsey says. "What better place to play a scrimmage than Lambeau?"
It's a bigger deal to fans, players and coaches than anyone in any other NFL city can imagine. Even bigger than the Wisconsin State Fair, right, John?
"It's bigger than Brat Fest in Sheboygan this weekend," Dorsey laughs.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/packers/2006-08-09-family-night-feature_x.htm
Football in Green Bay: 'It's phenomenal'
Posted 8/9/2006 6:51 PM ET
By Jim Corbett, USA TODAY
GREEN BAY, Wis.  Rookie linebacker A.J. Hawk pulled into Lambeau Field's parking lot at 6:30 CT the morning of July 19, thinking he'd have the place to himself as he looked to get in a quick workout.
Hawk was stunned to see thousands of Packers backers tailgating and tossing footballs around hours before the team's annual shareholders meeting that morning.
That's when the fifth overall pick in the April draft realized just how special pro football is in Green Bay.
The Packers' Saturday night version of the movie Friday Night Lights only cemented Hawk's first impression. Second-year quarterback Aaron Rodgers compares the Packers' annual intrasquad scrimmage, called Family Night, to a cross between a big-time college spring football game and "a Jimmy Buffett concert." Much more than a glorified practice game, it's a cultural phenomenon unique to the NFL that attracted a record 62,701 green-and-gold faithful. All that's missing is the bonfire.
Though Hawk performed before big crowds at Ohio State, where 100,000-plus Buckeyes fans pack "The Horseshoe," Hawk and his younger teammates were awed by their Lambeau initiation.
"The tradition here is unbelievable," Hawk says. "That's what's great about Green Bay. It's a sellout for a scrimmage. That doesn't happen anywhere else in the NFL. We're so embraced by Packers fans. And they all stayed right to the end. It's phenomenal."
It's as if someone from the local chamber of commerce threw the switch on Lambeau mystique. The retro, brick shrine off Lombardi Avenue and Oneida Street came alive after six months of hibernation, the night sky lit up for miles.
Nostalgia and hope swirled in the midsummer air, thick as tailgate smoke. Families drove from all across Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana to grill their brats and cheer the return of their hero, Brett Favre. It doesn't matter that the Packers finished 4-12 last season, their first losing record during Favre's 14 years in Green Bay.
"I really believe that we're going to be better than people think we will be," Favre says, and the Pack's Saturday night lights might have illuminated some of his reasons for hope.
A night that begins with Favre throwing rockets to his receivers is capped by fireworks.
"It's a special place, and I'm honored to be coaching here," first-year coach Mike McCarthy says after an Aug. 3 night practice. "The Green Bay Packers' history is second to none.
"I remember, when I was quarterbacks coach here in 1999, I came jogging out of the locker room and I walked out of the tunnel with Brett Favre and I said, 'Can you believe this? There's 70,000 people, and we're doing pat-and-go drills and the fans are doing 'The Wave.' I was just blown away.
"It was my first Lambeau experience, and I'll never forget that as long as I live. With that in mind, when we do the introductions, I'll have my assistant coaches along with the players at their positions run out of the tunnel together. It's something they'll always remember.
"There's nothing like this scrimmage in sports."
In other cities, there might be other professional sports teams to watch play more meaningful games, the Yankees or Mets for instance in New York, where fans sometimes sell or give away their tickets rather than watch a preseason look-in on the Giants or Jets. Not in Green Bay, where fans are literally invested in their team.
"Any team that has 30,000 Packers shareholders, you know you're going to have a lot of people here seeing how you're progressing," says John Dorsey, the Packers director of college scouting. "From my perspective, it gives us a chance to see these young guys in a game-time situation, Saturday night lights.
"The uniqueness of this event is you have 62,000 people providing a live-game atmosphere, the energy level picks up and you see how guys respond to that.
"From a fans' perspective, it's (Packers chairman) Mr. (Bob) Harlan's way of showing respect to the fans with $8 tickets with parking lot proceeds all donated to (local and state) charities."
It is a rare chance for some fans to see the Packers firsthand, considering the long waiting list for season tickets.
Consider the remarkable case of Nancy and Chuck Cook, a couple in their late 60s who just learned that, after 47 years, their 1959 request for Packers season tickets was recently granted. Waiting 47 years for Social Security benefits is one thing. But for Packers tickets? It's the reward of a lifetime.
"We started going to Packers games in our 20s when Fuzzy Thurston, Bart Starr and Carroll Dale were here," Cook says.
Chuck's son, Steve, says Steve's son, Logan, 13, has bypassed the middleman and asked his grandparents that, when they pass away, they need to bequeath the tickets to Logan and brother Connar, 10, skipping a generation so they don't have to wait so long.
Farther down the parking lot, V.J. Scully and his wife, Leeanne, daughter Kylee, 15, and sons Jaden, 6, and Tyler, 4, are throwing a football before grilling burgers.
Tyler wears a forest-green jersey bearing a number that seems to be everywhere. So who's your favorite player, Tyler?
"Favre!" he says decisively.
Tyler's dad thought it would be cool for the kids to get a glimpse of the future Hall of Famer. "My husband was intent on making sure our kids saw Brett Favre play here before he retires," Leeanne says.
Scully has already put his kids on the Packers' season-ticket list.
What's the fuss over there?
There's a flock of folks huddled around a saintly looking fellow dressed in a green high-priest's miter that bears the beaming likeness of Vince Lombardi. Dressed in a flowing green robe with gold trim, he holds a staff crowned by a Packers cheesehead.
Who is this guy with a replica of the Lombardi Trophy as his ring?
It's "Saint Vince," aka John O'Neill, a 54-year-old, bearded, retired state worker who started dressing this way in 1997 in New Orleans before the Packers beat the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XXXI.
O'Neill was inducted into the Pro Football Fan Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 2000.
"I was trying to represent the spirit of Vince Lombardi coming back with his Packers for another Super Bowl, and it's grown in popularity ever since," O'Neill says.
Saint Vince poses for pictures with Darren and April Guindon, holding 3½-month-old son Vincent and 5-year-old Brett.
"Say 'Cheeseheads,' " O'Neill says before the picture is snapped.
The Guindons will send this to family and friends as the family Christmas card, as they did last year with a shot of Brett posing with Saint Vince.
Inside the spacious Lambeau atrium, Todd Harris, 32, watches as his three young boys whack each other with inflatable thunder sticks, which are free to everyone. The kids have painted faces, and they're having a ball. Unfortunately, their sister Brianne doesn't care much for getting bopped by their thunder sticks.
Things sure are different here. There is that same communal obsession with winning. It's just that people seem more good-natured about it, more forgiving, less demanding about it.
"You hear stories about how some NFL teams' fans don't really embrace their players all that much," Hawk says. "College football fans are more forgiving than NFL fans. Green Bay fans seem to have a short memory, too."
"As bad as we were last year, the fans still treat us with respect," center Scott Wells says. "They treat Family Night like a regular game. People come out to have a really good time and to party.
"It's their first chance to see what this team is going to be like."
Says receiver Donald Driver: "I remember that first time I walked out of the tunnel for this game in 1999. Coming from Alcorn State, a small school in Mississippi, I never expected 70,000 people for a scrimmage. It's exciting for our young guys.
"The fans want to see if the old faces still have it and if the new guys have it, too."
Driver showed he still has it, elevating above double coverage to pull down Favre's 42-yard rocket. The highlight play of the scrimmage set up Favre's quick slant-in touchdown pass to Driver a few plays later.
Green Bay is dotted by leafy neighborhoods and 1960s ranch-style homes, where the past is ever-present. Yesteryear mixes with the hopeful sense that "This can be our year."
Favre expressed just that sentiment July 31 in his first and only news conference of training camp.
"I really feel like this, as far as talent is concerned, is the most talented team that I've been a part of as a whole, but the most unproven, inexperienced team that I've ever played on," Favre said. "So if we can somehow put it together, there's a lot of talent out there."
A 4-12 season and a career-worst 29 interceptions is not how Favre wants to go out. The Packers were eighth in total defense last season, but they were 18th in total offense and lost eight games by seven points or less.
Before he decided to return for a 16th season, Favre spoke with former quarterback Don Majkowski, the Packers starter he replaced 241 consecutive starts ago, including the playoffs. "Brett Favre loves being Brett Favre," Majkowski says. "I'm friends with Brett, and I know how much he loves playing football and what it's meant to him to have success with the Green Bay Packers.
"But the thing he's most proud of more than winning a Super Bowl or his three league MVPs is his consecutive-starts streak, knowing his teammates and coaches can count on him week in and week out.
"To play at such a high level for so long, I know deep down he believes he's capable of still playing at that high level. He took the blunt of the blame last year. With the disastrous number of injuries that hit them, it wouldn't matter who would have quarterbacked, playing behind a non-existent line with almost no running game."
Inspiring Favre's optimism are such young talents as Hawk and second-round draft selection Greg Jennings, a polished and fearless route runner out of Western Michigan reminiscent of Baltimore Ravens veteran Derrick Mason.
McCarthy is implementing the user-friendly zone-blocking scheme he learned from Atlanta Falcons guru Alex Gibbs. He hopes it will keep Favre from having to do too much, help young guards Daryn Colledge and Jason Spitz better use their athleticism and help running backs Ahman Green and Najeh Davenport in their returns from injuries.
Colledge is a 6-4, 299-pound second-round pick who played left tackle at Boise State, and Spitz is a 6-4, 313-pound third-round pick from Louisville. McCarthy says both were drafted because of their athleticism, an asset that will help them more easily transition to the zone-blocking scheme favored by the Denver Broncos and Falcons.
Charles Woodson was signed during the offseason to solidify a secondary that includes Al Harris and safeties Marquand Manuel and Nick Collins. Defensive end Aaron Kampman is underrated.
Favre threw accurately without an interception in the scrimmage, a sign he's finding his rhythm after a five-interception outing in his first training camp practice.
McCarthy wants Favre to play within the system with more caution and less reckless abandon. If that happens, the passing game will be more about 4- and 5-yard completions supplemented by a run game to set up downfield shots.
"I'm coaching Brett just like I've coached every quarterback I've ever been around," says McCarthy, who was with the Kansas City Chiefs with Joe Montana and Rich Gannon. "Just make smart decisions, don't push the envelope too much, which is Brett's personality. Let the game come to you."
As it did to more than 62,000 green-and-gold clad fans who came out to see why Favre has been talking up this team.
"It's really the kickoff to a new beginning," Dorsey says. "What better place to play a scrimmage than Lambeau?"
It's a bigger deal to fans, players and coaches than anyone in any other NFL city can imagine. Even bigger than the Wisconsin State Fair, right, John?
"It's bigger than Brat Fest in Sheboygan this weekend," Dorsey laughs.