JR Manning

So said River City, Iowa’s Mayor Shinn in Meredeth Wilson’s The Music Man. How right he was, because you never know when your phraseology will come back to bite you in your butt.

State Senator Alberta Darling has served in the Senate since 1992 and has been re-elected three times. (She won a seat in the Assembly in a special election in March, 1990, and won the seat the regular Election that Fall.) Her Senate seat comes up again this Fall, and her seat has been targeted by the Democrats, a risky proposition in a very conservative district. Senator Darling is a cancer survivor, she exercises regularly and promotes fitness.

Her opponent, Sheldon Wasserman, started a rather smarmy campaign a few weeks ago, a whispering campaign claiming that Senator Darling was ill and too sickly to serve the rigors of the state Senate.

Besides being despicable, the whispering campaign is just untrue.

Yesterday, at the US Bank Championship, several celebrity events were held prior to the start of the golf tournament today. Amongst other events was a golf ball driving contest.

Sheldon Wasserman drove the ball 135 yards.

Alberta Darling drove the ball 153 yards.

Oops.

For the first time in 10 years, the NFC Championship game is returning to Titletown, USA - Green Bay, Wisconsin. The Green Bay Packers are playing in their 4th NFC Championship game since Brett Favre took over the quarterback duties. So far, they’ve lost in Dallas and won twice at home. This fourth attempt will be against Eli Manning and the New York Giants.

It’s not the first time the Giants have come to Wisconsin for the Championship game, and hardly the first time they’ve played Green Bay for the title. Of course, the last time these two teams met in the final game, it was for the NFL Championship, and that was in New York, a game held in Yankee Stadium in 1962. (Green Bay won the game, 16-7 in a hard fought battle.) There is a long history between the Giants and the Packers, this is simply a renewal of a long rivalry between the two organizations.

The Green Bay Packers were NFL Champions in 1929, 1930 and 1931. It was the first time a team won three consecutive NFL titles, and the last time until, well, we’re getting ahead of ourselves. In those years, there was no championship game, the champion was the team with the best record at the end of the year.

The NFL divided the league into two divisions and began playing a championship game in 1933. The Packers next played for a championship in 1936. In the fourth NFL Championship game held, the Packers defeated the Boston Redskins 21-6 in a game held in New York City. The owner of the Redskins, George Preston Marshall, claimed that Boston did not support the team, so he held the game in New York.

The Packers next played in the Championship game in 1938, against the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds. Although Green Bay outgained the Giants, the score came out 23-17 in favor of the New Yorkers.

Revenge came in the form of the 1939 Championship game when the Packers hosted the New York Giants at State Fair Park in West Allis. Yes, the game was held at State Fair Park, in terrible weather with wind gusts estimated up to 35 miles per hour. Green Bay had 3 passes intercepted in that game, but they also picked off 6 Giant passes that day. The score was only 7-0 at the half, but Green Bay scored 20 points in the second half while shutting out the visiting New Yorkers. Final score, 27-0 and the Green Bay Packers had their 5th NFL Title.

The Packers next played in the NFL Championship game in 1944 and won the game 14-7. The victims? The New York Giants, and the game was held in New York.

The Lambeau era was coming to an end, and the Green Bay Packers were about to enter a sixteen year dry spell.

The Lombardi era began in 1959, when Vince Lombardi came to Green Bay as the head coach. He had formerly been an assistant coach for the New York Giants.

The first appearance for Lombardi’s Packers in the NFL Championship game was in 1960, against the Philadelphia Eagles. Norm van Brocklin and Tommy McDonald were the stars of the game as the Eagles defeated the Packers 17-13. (The Eagles would also win one of the only games the Packers lost in the 1996 Championship year, and we won’t even mention 4th and 26.)

Green Bay returned to the Championship game in 1961, when City Stadium hosted the game in Green Bay on December 31, 1961. The Packers won 27-0. Oh, they beat the New York Giants.

The Lombardi Packers returned to the NFL Championship game on December 30, 1962, to Yankee Stadium to play the New York Giants, again. Green Bay won that game, too, 16-7.

That was the last time the Packers played the Giants for the NFL Championship, although Lombardi’s Packers played in 3 more NFL Championship games in 1965, 1966 and 1967 beating the Browns, the Cowboys and Cowboys in those games. The Packers went on to play in the first two AFL-NFL World Championship games. 2 years later, those games would be renamed Superbowl I and Superbowl II. It is worth noting that the 1967 Championship game was held on December 31, 1967 when the temperature was -13° with wind chills in the neighborhood of -48° and the game became known popularly as “The Ice Bowl.”

The Packers then went into a 29 year drought and did not return to Championship status until 1995 when the Cowboys beat the Packers for the NFC Championship in 1995. The Packers came back to win the NFC Championship in 1996 and Superbowl XXXI in 1997.

The Packers also won the NFC Championship in 1997 but lost Superbowl XXXII in 1998.

So this Sunday, the Packers return to the Championship game against one of their old Championship rivals, the New York Giants. It’s going to be cold, some are saying the second coming of The Ice Bowl, with the predicted temperature at kickoff to be 1°.

We are not going out on a limb and making any predictions, because there are far too many things that can go wrong in a game like this one. That said, if history means anything at all, well, the Giants won one of those games, too.

Rivalries

Everyone wants to believe that their team has the greatest rivalry with some other team, and there are some good ones out there in the NFL. The rivalries between the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins are of legend, as is the rivalry between the Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants. Often they are based on proximity, like the Chicago Bears and Green Bay Packers or the Minnesota Vikings and Green Bay Packers or even the intense rivalry between the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos.

There is no doubt, however, that the fiercest, most nasty and oldest rivalry in the NFL is between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears. Today’s players don’t seem to recognize the rivalry as much as the fans do. The outright nastiness between fans of these two teams is the stuff of legend, but the history of the two franchises is the real evidence that these two teams don’t like one another very much.

The Packers own the most NFL Championships with 9 outright NFL Titles and 3 Superbowl Titles making a total of 12 NFL Titles. The Chicago Bears have 8 outright NFL Titles and one Superbowl Title for a total of 9.

Legend has it that prior to a regular season face-off between the rivals, there was a knock on the Packer locker room door as Vince Lombardi was giving his final pregame talk. An aide interrupted him to say, “Coach Halas is at the door!” White as a ghost, Lombardi went to the door, figuring that some tragedy must be interrupting the kick-off. Sure enough, there was George Halas at the door. “What is it, George? What’s wrong?” Lombardi asked with concern in his voice. “Vince,” the legendary owner-coach of the Bears said, “I just wanted to let you know that we’re gonna kick your ass!”

Such is the stuff rivalries are made of. (Green Bay did win that game.)

The Green Bay Packers, incidentally, are the only team to win three consecutive NFL titles. They did it twice, 1929-1931 and 1965-1967. Given today’s rules and free agency, it is a feat that will likely never be matched again.

Will the NFL Title return to Titletown for the 13th time? We’ll know pretty soon, but it won’t even be a possibility if Green Bay does not defeat the New York Giants on Sunday. If history is any indicator at all, well, the Packers have defeated the New York Giants 4 of 5 opportunities to do so in a championship game. This is the 6th opportunity. Will Green Bay make it 5 of 6?

We won’t know until about 9:00 PM on Sunday.

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.