New York has the Chrysler Building and Empire State Building.
Washington, D.C. has the Capital and the White House.
Chicago has the Sears Tower and the Hanc0ck Building.
St. Louis has the Arch.
Kansas City has Union Station.
Milwaukee is going to get the Fonz in Bronze.
You’ve gotta be kidding me - a statue to honor a fictional character that hasn’t been on television (except in reruns) in over 30 years. A fictional character who is as representative of life in Milwaukee as mountain climbing is representative of oceanography.
Not to mention, a character who rode a Triumph motorcycle in the home of Harley-Davidson.
Excuse me while I go puke in my beer bucket.
There are a number of high profile missing persons cases that we hear about on a daily basis. For some reason, certain missing persons attract the attention of the national media but the majority do not. For every Stacy Peterson, there are hundreds of cases of missing persons that you never hear about.
They deserve the same attention. The families of all these missing persons deserve the same attention. What someone is, or was, makes no difference. Every one of these missing persons is a daughter, a son, a mother, a father, a cousin and a friend. Those left behind have holes in their lives that need to be filled.
You might have information about any one of these persons and the smallest detail, even seemingly insignificant, might be the key to bringing someone home.
I am still missing Paige Birgfeld. You may be missing someone, too.
A new website has been launched for people like us - those left behind by the missing. It’s called Help Find The Missing. The driving force behind the site is known as Grande - he is the technocriminologist that has uncovered uncountable details about missing persons cases. His efforts brought Texas Equasearch in to locate Naomi Arnette, and those efforts brought down Robert Arnette, who is sitting in jail, charged with the murder of Naomi Arnette.
Grande also uncovered so many details in the Paige Birgfeld case.
Please, visit the Help Find The Missing site and visit often. You might be able to help bring someone home.
It has been said that a good landing is one where you walk away from the airplane and a great landing is one where you can use the airplane again. So it is with football games, a good ending is one where your team ends with better statistics than the other team but a great game is where your team ends with more points than the other team.
On that basis, the Thanksgiving game in Detroit was a good game for both teams but it was a great game for the Packers.
The first quarter had an auspicious start that was more reminiscent of the 1962 game than I cared to see. On the Packers’ first play from scrimmage, after the Lions had kicked a field goal, Brett Favre tripped and fumbled a handoff. The Lions recovered in deep Packers territory but the defense stiffened and the Lions had to settle for a field goal.
In fact, the Lions pretty much dominated the first quarter, not even allowing Green Bay a first down but as the clock was winding down, the pendulum of momentum was swinging toward the Packers. Everyone could see it and feel it, and by halftime, the outcome looked pretty certain for Green Bay.
In the fourth quarter, you could feel that the Packers had let up on the gas and were starting to coast. The Lions took advantage of it and scored twice in the quarter. A field goal by Mason Crosby with 1:44 remaining drove the last nail into the Lions’ thanksgiving coffin. It was their fourth straight loss on Thanksgiving Day.
Mason Crosby was 3-3 in field goals and kicked two field goals in the 4th quarter to seal the deal for Green Bay.
It wasn’t pretty, but a great game is when you end with more points than your opponent.
One more note: The Packers’ are now 10-1. Their best starts in history, to this point in the season, were 1929 when they were 10-0-1 and in 1962 when they were 10-1 after the Thanksgiving Day game in Detroit. Both in 1929 and in 1962, they went on to win the NFL Championship and in 1962, they sustained no other losses.
The question remains from the previous post: Will history repeat itself?
Legend has it that the first Thanksgiving was held in Plimouth, Massachusetts (they spelled it “Plimouth” back then) with a huge feast, just before the Lions played the Packers in Detroit. Of course, everyone knows that isn’t true, because the first NFL Thanksgiving game was when the Akron Pros beat the Canton Bulldogs in 1920.
The first Lions game was against the Chicago Bears, in 1934, after the Portsmouth, Ohio Spartons relocated to Detroit. The Bears won, on their way to winning the Western Division. (The Lions came back to win the NFL title in 1936, the first of four NFL titles in 1952. 1953 and 1957. They haven’t sniffed a championship since they traded Bobby Layne. Legend has it that as he left for Pittsburgh, Layne said, “Detroit won’t win again for 50 years.”)
This week will be the 68th time the Lions have played the Thanksgiving Day game, the only years missed were during World War II. The Packers have been the guest of the Lions 17 times and the Packers have a dismal 5-11-1 record for this game.
The worst defeat of all was in 1962. Vince Lombardi’s Packers were invincible, compiling a 10-0 record going in but leaving 10-1. Lombardi hated the Thanksgiving Day game, he said it was because of the short week. Everyone else thought it was because the Lions, no matter how crummy of a team they have, always rise up for their special occasion. The league listened to Lombardi and began to rotate other teams into Detroit for the National audience. It is only in the last few years that the rivalry has been recast.
Bart Starr was sacked 11 times that awful Thanksgiving Day.
Dallas started to horn in on the T-day action in 1966, and the Packers have been a victim in Dallas, too.
Personally, I hate seeing the Packers in the Thanksgiving Day games. I’d rather be enjoying the holiday with my family and feeling more confident about the Packers playing the following Sunday.
This year could be a repeat of the 1962 game. The Packers are going into Detroit with a conference leading 9-1 record. This year, the Lions actually have a respectable team, for the first time in many seasons. They are coming off a disappointing loss, and having been keeping pace with Green Bay all season, they suddenly find themselves three games back of the lead with a chance to narrow the gap this Thursday.
For weeks, I’ve been watching this Green Bay team thinking, they’re not good enough to be 5-1. They’re not good enough to be 6-1. Now they’ve proven they’re good enough to be 9-1 although they still don’t have the respect of the national media. The usual suspects have anointed Dallas as the cream of the NFC crop, although at 9-1, the Packers have the identical record.
The Packers play the Cowboys, in Dallas, on Thursday the 29th and many eyes are already looking at that game to decide which team is truly the elite of the NFC. Until they play, no one really knows.
But the Packers have this little problem in the way - it’s called Ford Field and it’s in downtown Detroit. And there’s the little matter of a pretty good, and pretty desperate, football team that eagerly awaits the chance to knock off their long time nemesis. This is what is referred to as a trap game - a team can get trapped if it looks beyond the current opponent to the following week. (Michigan got trapped by Wisconsin this year, looking beyond the Badgers to Ohio State.)
I’ve got a bad feeling about this game - I always do.
Despite the eerie coincidences (like the teams being lead by two of the greatest quarterbacks to ever play the game) there is one difference between this game and the 1962 game. The Packers let one get away this year. It only takes one play, and the one play where the defense let down allowed the Bears to score a last minute touchdown to steal a game away from the Packers. The Bears own the only blemish on the Packers record this year. Unlike ‘62, however, there is no pressure to remain undefeated.
The Packers may just have the best defense in the league, at least, in the NFC. They have an up and coming offense including a collection of young, but excellent, receivers. In fact, the Packers are the second youngest team in the league, the average age being skewed by that old man playing quarterback like a 22 year old this season.
The point of their youth is this, the Packers have proven themselves to be a very good team. With each play, in each game, the young players move closer to being cagey veterans. They are learning how to win. They could suddenly go from being a good team to being a great team, and with their youth, they could suddenly become a great team.
If they win on Thanksgiving Day in Detroit, and if they win in Dallas a week later, they may well cross that very fine line between good and great.
I predict a victory on Thanksgiving Day, but it will be a hard fought battle and may even require a last minute field goal - or another Brett Favre rainbow bomb to do it again. The Packers cannot be looking past the Lions, though, or they will be eating crow instead of turkey.