Oh, it could have. At times, it probably should have. And for most teams, well, it unquestionably would have.

Injuries mounting at an (almost) comedic rate. Disappointing losses to teams they should have crushed. The weight of colossal expectations. Yeah – they were all there.

And that was [...]]]> None of it mattered to the 2010 Green Bay Packers.

Oh, it could have. At times, it probably should have. And for most teams, well, it unquestionably would have.

Injuries mounting at an (almost) comedic rate. Disappointing losses to teams they should have crushed. The weight of colossal expectations. Yeah – they were all there.

And that was before the calendar turned to January.

Adversity was the name of the game for this team. The road less traveled? How about the road you don’t travel on unless you’re insane?

But that was the road this team would have to take, due mainly to a regular season full of obstacles, ones that seemed destined to alter a season that’d begun with so much hope. That hope never fully pulled up its stakes and left town, mind you. No, it just moved into the background to make way for something else, something much more important.

Heart.

The heart the 2010 Packers earned – it’s never just handed to you, of course – served them well, even when everyone was ready with shovels and epitaphs at hand. And it was even more handy when every game they played could be their last.

When they were told they’d have no choice but to head on the highway and win…and win…and win some more just to get to North Texas, well, they leaned heavily on gameplanning and talent. But they relied on heart. The difference is subtle, but oh so important.

See, heart is what gets you by when you have to defeat the top three seeds in your conference in their own buildings. Heart is what allows you to dig deep and come up with a key first down or a crucial game-ending stop. There were other teams that had just as much talent, just as much intelligence as these Packers. But they didn’t have the heart.

No – not even close.

And when they got to North Texas, they knew what they had, even if others wanted to put their money on the team with the experience.

They knew what they had when key players were heading down that long ramp into the lockerroom, seemingly after every other play. They never lost sight of it because they couldn’t. By this point, it was long within them.

Someone else would just have to make a play. So what? Did that really matter now? Someone else always had to.

And someone else did. A whole hosts of “someone else” stepped up on a February evening in North Texas. And the result was that beautiful, heavenly confetti shower we’d spent 13 years wondering if we’d ever see again.

We saw it because it just didn’t matter to the 2010 Green Bay Packers. Not because they didn’t care, but because when you have heart, nothing else really matters.

And when they come blasting out of the tunnel on a warm September evening to an announcement that they are now the 13-time world champion Green Bay Packers, we’ll once again be reminded that the heart is the most important thing. If you have that, the rest really does just fall wonderfully into place.

-Chris Lempesis

–AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! THE PACKERS ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!

–With that out of the [...]]]> We’ll have much more on this tomorrow — the Packers’ 13th world championship hasn’t sunk in yet for me, as it probably hasn’t for most of you — but in the meantime, here are some quick thoughts on the 31-25 Super Bowl win over the Steelers:

–AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! THE PACKERS ARE WORLD CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!!

–With that out of the way, think for a second about everything this team overcame: 15 players on IR, two must-win games against playoff hopefuls to get in the playoffs, three road playoff games against the three highest seeds in the NFC and a Super Bowl matchup with a team that had won two in the last six years. In the end, isn’t it almost fitting that they had to win it without Woodson and Driver? In the end, there’s almost nothing else that could have been thrown at this team. They dealt with it all, and they conquered. Couldn’t be prouder to be a fan of this team.

–It’s probably because of recency bias, but at the moment, this is sweeter than ‘96. This team was expected to win it all, until it was ravaged with injuries. To overcome everything they did, and to win it in Jerry World — against the Steelers, with Favre watching at home — well, it just doesn’t get much better.

–Aaron Rodgers: What can you say? To win a Super Bowl MVP, with a three-touchdown, interception-free day, and to put together two drives with the game hanging in the balance…quite simply, it’s something Brett Favre never was asked to do in 1996, and couldn’t do in the Super Bowl in 1997. He’s the same age as Favre was when he won his championship, and unlike Favre, Rodgers isn’t playing with an aging defense. Holy cow.

–I don’t think too many of us would have faulted Ted Thompson if he’d taken the Lombardi Trophy, grabbed the microphone from Terry Bradshaw and yelled, ‘Does anybody have any questions about that Favre trade now?’ But he didn’t do it, and I don’t think he ever will. Thompson will get plenty of accolades for building this team, and he deserves all of them. This team was built in his image, and after weathering every test it could have possibly faced, it proved Thompson as one of the game’s best GMs.

–Lastly: You cheer for a team that dealt with more injuries than any squad in the league, and never complained about them. You cheer for a team that spotted its archrival a Hall of Fame QB, and still won a Super Bowl before said rival. You cheer for a team that’s poised to be the dominant team in the NFC for a long time, and you cheer for a team that proved, once again, there’s value in conducting business with class and professionalism.

And you cheer for a team that has a NFL-record 13 world championships.

Enjoy it, Packers Nation. We did it, and it couldn’t be any sweeter.

–Gene Bosling

I think it’s safe to assume that every Pack fan has their vacation request approved for Monday, right? Win or lose, I do not want to be at work bright and early the day after the Superbowl. I have a few game day traditions and one of them might leave me feeling slightly [...]]]> The Big Game.

I think it’s safe to assume that every Pack fan has their vacation request approved for Monday, right? Win or lose, I do not want to be at work bright and early the day after the Superbowl. I have a few game day traditions and one of them might leave me feeling slightly fuzzy the next morning.

What about you, fellow fans, do you have traditions? Do you always watch the game at the same place or wear the same shirt? I have one thing I always do. Before every game my aunt D and I send each other a “Go Pack Go” text. It’s just a nice little reminder that even though we aren’t watching the game in the same state, we are still watching the game together.

As far as the Superbowl goes, I always watch with the same group of friends at the same house. We make food that somehow relates to one of the teams. Last year we had a crawfish boil. This year, we’re frying cheese curds. Beyond that, I’m not too superstitious. I don’t have a pair of lucky underwear, I don’t touch my nose ten times before kickoff (I hope you don’t either, that’s just weird), I don’t pray to St. Vince or wish upon a star. Nothing I do could change the outcome of the game.

But, this IS the Superbowl. If there is something I could do to ensure victory, believe me, I’d try it. So tell me…what are your traditions? Are you superstitious? Is there something you’ve done for every win that I should try? Maybe if enough of us touch our noses ten times it’ll work. Whatever your traditions or superstitions I hope you enjoy the game. Win or lose, we made it to the end.

Of course, winning would be way more fun.

-Lady Lambeau

All fair [...]]]> It seems like everyone is breaking down X’s and O’s (or the weather forecast for an INDOOR game) this week. And rightfully so since this is the biggest sporting event of the year.  Who will block Raji? Can Clifton and Bulaga slow down Harrison?  Who will win in the battle of the defensive minds?

All fair and important questions, but as it should Sunday’s game will come down to two players:  Ben Roethlisberger and Aaron Rodgers.

Both players are similar, but also have their differences. Roethlisberger has more size, but Rodgers has more speed. Roethlisberger is tougher to bring down, but Rodgers throws a prettier pass. Roethlisberger has excelled in key moments  and Rodgers, well we just don’t know yet.

That is the biggest difference when looking at these two quarterbacks. I can already hear the jackyls coming out to roast me right now for calling out Rodgers during Super Bowl week. Just put away your pitchforks and tridents right now because I am not calling out Rodgers. We just don’t know yet, as this is the last part of his game he needs to show.

There is no debate that Roethlisberger has had more opportunities to prove himself in clutch situations than Rodgers. The key thing is that while he has had more opportunities, he hasn’t squandered many them. Everyone knows all the times it took Peyton Manning to finally break through and win in the clutch.

Besides his two Super Bowls, Roethlisberger is a pretty remarkable 10-2 in the playoffs.  How he has won some of those games tell the story though.  In his first career playoff game in 2004, he led Pittsburgh to a late comeback win in OT over the Jets, throwing a key 4th quarter touchdown. In 2007, he brought back the Steelers from an 18-point deficit in the 4th quarter against the Jaguars by throwing two touchdowns passes, only to lose by a late FG. And we all know his heroics at the end of Super Bowl XLIII against Arizona.

Looking at this year, Roethlisberger went back to his bag of tricks against the Ravens. Trailing 21-7 at halftime, he countered with two third-quarter touchdowns and a couple key throws late in the fourth quarter on the game-winning drive. Then against the Jets, he made his best throw of the game to Antonio Brown to give Pittsburgh the go-ahead first down to clinch the game while holding a New York comeback.

Now the knock against Roethlisberger against the Jets, as well as other games I’m sure, is that he let the opposition back in the game after building an early lead. Some has to do with the defense, but it is also up to the offense to put a team away.

The same criticism can also be directed towards Rodgers. Last year he led Green Bay back after being down early and went shot for shot with Warner. This time around he has had the luxury of playing with a lead for almost the entire playoffs. However, both the Eagles and the Bears found ways to get back into the game after the offense went stagnant late.

Defense played a part in those games and some of it had to do with playcalling. But this is Rodgers’ team and even with a lead he still needs to make clutch throws to ice the game. This is not saying he hasn’t been clutch or questioning the team’s ability to win close games because they have proven more than enough in the past six weeks. However, while not on the level as likes of Starr, Montana or Brady, the man standing on the opposite sideline Sunday has proven he can make those throws in the most important of games.

Sunday will be the ultimate proving ground, the best opportunity Rodgers will ever have. He is so close to greatness, he just may have steal a little ice from Roethlisberger to cement it.

-Adam Somers

From the desk (or couch) of: Chris Lempesis

Dear Mike,

Hey man – how’s it going? Silly question, I know. You must be on top of the world right now (or, at least, 60 minutes away from it).

Anyways, I’m writing you today to tell you I’m sorry. That’s right – your old buddy Chris is choking down [...]]]> To: Michael John McCarthy

From the desk (or couch) of: Chris Lempesis

Dear Mike,

Hey man – how’s it going? Silly question, I know. You must be on top of the world right now (or, at least, 60 minutes away from it).

Anyways, I’m writing you today to tell you I’m sorry. That’s right – your old buddy Chris is choking down a heapin’ helpin’ of crow.

In case you aren’t familiar with our odd little corner of the Interweb, I’ll fill you in. See, I’m the idiot who wrote, after your team’s loss to the Detroit Lions in December, that you should be “relieved of your duties at season’s end.” I felt then that you had peaked as a head coach, that you’d never be the guy to get this team – and, okay, this diehard fanbase of ours – to the promised land. You seemed capable of pulling things together for stretches, but never long enough to really get us there.

Or so I thought then. Man, how stupid was I, huh?

In my defense, you hadn’t done so up to that point. And, with a battered, bruised roster that had just turned in its most disheartening performance of your tenure, the 2010 season – one that began with “Super Bowl or Die” dreams – seemed destined for all-time worst season status for yours truly. Actually, after your loss at New England the next week, I wrote that this season had been the most disappointing of my lifetime as a fan.

Again, I was wrong. I should have given you the benefit of the doubt…or at least waited until the season was officially over to make such a ridiculous statement.  Others, including our own Adam Somers, felt like that was the smart approach. I didn’t. I was completely overreactionary (a sign of the times, I suppose) and wanted your head on a platter. 

You’d been pretty good at dodging bullets in the past – you move well for a big guy, kudos – but I never, in my wildest dreams, could have imagined you’d do what you’ve done over the past six weeks. But you’ve done it, sir – you’ve really done it.

You’ve gotten this team, this ragtag collection of stars and castoffs, to rally together as one. They never wavered in their belief that they could be the best, that they could get to where they are now. Of course, you’ve had some help in all this – tell Dom I said hi and thanks for everything – but, really, a lot of the credit must go to you. Your confident, steadfast approach was absolutely the right approach to take, even if things were as bleak as they’d ever been in your time as head coach of this team.

A lot of us doubted you. But the 53 men in that lockerroom never did. They bought what you sold. In the end, that’s all that matters, I’ve learned.

In turn, you’ve made me a believer in you, Mike. Okay, so sometimes you still drive me nuts – coaching not to lose instead of coaching to win late in two of your team’s three postseason games this year, for example – but all in all, I’m a believer in the “Book of Mike,” so to speak.

Lord help me – I’ve seen the light!

If I had any advice, though, for this next game, it’d be this: Your best moments have come when you’ve been aggressive, when you’ve really gone for it. Don’t forget that next Sunday. As I wrote after the Super Bowl last year, “in the biggest games of your life, you turn it loose.” That worked for the last NFC team in this game. Something tells me it will work for you, too. 

But, really, this letter isn’t about that. If you check us out at all over the next week, you’ll find no shortages of us telling you what your team needs to do to win.

For right now, I just wanted to say, again, that I’m sorry. You’re much smarter than I ever gave you credit for. Keep doing what you’re doing, Mike. It’s working great.

And, oh yeah – go get us that trophy. It belongs in Green Bay. Bring it home.

Sincerely,

Chris Lempesis

All of us who have watched the Packers this year know how close this team was to being, say, 13-3 or 14-2. They got themselves flagged out of the first Chicago game. They lost to the Redskins after Mason Crosby’s field goal went off the [...]]]> That’s the question posed by a Wall Street Journal story today.

All of us who have watched the Packers this year know how close this team was to being, say, 13-3 or 14-2. They got themselves flagged out of the first Chicago game. They lost to the Redskins after Mason Crosby’s field goal went off the uprights, and lost to the Dolphins in part because of a bizarre penalty on Robert Francois. They could have beat the Falcons if not for Erik Wilhelm’s penalty or Aaron Rodgers’ fumble, and Greg Jennings’ dropped touchdown turned into a back-breaking interception against the Lions. And, of course, there were a number of plays that could have helped them beat the Patriots, not the least of which was the interception Charles Woodson dropped.

Drops, doinks and dumb mistakes alone cost the Packers just about every game they lost this season. Plenty of other things could have happened, of course, but if a half-dozen plays had gone differently, this team could have been the No. 1 seed without a problem. In fact, it’s not impossible they could have been undefeated.

Their point differential is the second-best in football, and since the Giants game, they’ve been winning with few mistakes — or in a few cases, winning in spite of those mistakes. It’s hard to say if this is the best six-loss team in history, but at the very least, it should be clear the Packers are much better than their 10-6 record should indicate.

Now just imagine if they hadn’t lost a dozen players to injury.

–Gene Bosling

They had given up 51 points to the Arizona Cardinals two weeks earlier, absorbing yet another numbing playoff loss, and were swimming in questions about how they’d possibly be able to put together a good enough defense to get them deep into [...]]]> Think back, for a moment, to where the Packers were a year ago today.

They had given up 51 points to the Arizona Cardinals two weeks earlier, absorbing yet another numbing playoff loss, and were swimming in questions about how they’d possibly be able to put together a good enough defense to get them deep into the playoffs.

Meanwhile, the Minnesota Vikings were mere hours away from playing in the NFC Championship Game, 60 minutes from riding Brett Favre, the Packers’ former quarterback, into the Super Bowl for the first time in 33 years.

Now, imagine on that night, you get a Dickensian visitor, a ghost of playoffs future, who tells you the following things:

–The Vikings will not go to the Super Bowl, in large part because of a back-breaking interception from Favre in the game’s final seconds.

–The Packers will enter the season with lofty (and well-publicized) Super Bowl aspirations. They will sign no one of note, and they will be affected in 2010, in quantity and quality, by more injuries than any team in the NFL.

–In spite of all those injuries, and in spite of an 8-6 record heading into two must-win games to close the season, they will claim the NFC’s final playoff spot, beat a team (the Philadelphia Eagles) and a quarterback (Michael Vick) that has terrorized them for years and topple the NFC’s No. 1 seed on the road.

–And finally, they will meet the Chicago Bears in the NFC Championship Game, knocking Jay Cutler out of the game and hanging on for their first Super Bowl berth in 13 years, almost solely on the strength of the defense that had been so porous a year earlier.

How many lines from that ghost would you have believed? Any of them?

What a ride this has been.

To use the phrase “roller coaster” to describe what’s happened to the Packers in the last 12 months is an insult to what they’ve overcome. If this was a roller coaster, it would have featured such violent turns and sharp swings that safety concerns and lawsuits would have followed mere weeks after its opening. Many fans (including me) were ready to bury them after a 7-3 loss to the Detroit Lions. Some of us (including me) were questioning coach Mike McCarthy’s future with the team after a last-minute meltdown against the New England Patriots. And a few of us (Chris and me) were questioning whether to go to the Dec. 26 game against the Giants, knowing there wasn’t much shot of a deep playoff run this year.

And now, here we are, celebrating the team’s fifth Super Bowl berth. I can’t believe any of it.

I’ve watched the Packers go to two Super Bowls in my lifetime. The first Packers team that did it (the 1996 squad) was such a dominant force, so certain of its place in line after a loss in the NFC Championship Game the year before, that a march to a world championship felt inevitable. Go back and look at the scores of those games. It’s easy to forget just what a juggernaut that team was. Those of us in our younger years may never see a Packers team that good again.

The next Packers team to go to the Super Bowl, the 1997 squad, survived against bad teams for the first two months of the season before going on a businesslike, if not predestined, run to Super Bowl XXXII. That team was on top, and trying to stay there. The whole thing felt joyless, and the loss to the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl certainly finished the year that way.

What a lightning bolt, then, this team has been. These Packers entered the season with as large of a collection of impact players as any team in the NFL. But they were young, and thin in spots, very much a product of their time in a parity-ridden NFL. And the names went down, one after another — Ryan Grant, Nick Barnett, Morgan Burnett, Jermichael Finley, Brandon Chillar, Mike Neal, Mark Tauscher — as the Packers’ resolve and depth were stretched further and further.

There was no preordained march to the Super Bowl this year. No, this was an inconsistent, frustrating, maddening season that somehow led to the most exhilarating playoff run any of us have ever seen.

We have never watched a Packers team like this one.

So what’s to be made of it? Well, credit must be given, first of all, where it’s due. And after I spent the final weeks of the season saying McCarthy needed to coach over his head, to prove he could take a team deeper into the playoffs than his talent suggested he should, he’s outdone himself and taken his sixth-seeded Packers all the way to the Super Bowl, where many thought they’d end up in August, but not in November. So, to Mike Mac: Well done. My hat is off to you. And whatever nits I might pick (playcalling chief among them), I’m done doubting you.

Next on the list is Ted Thompson, whose batting average this season is as close to 1.000 as any general manager I’ve seen. People were ready to vilify Thompson for trading Favre and refusing to accede to his demands. But Thompson bugged me long before that — namely, since 2007, when he’d drafted Justin Harrell, then come short of delivering Favre the weapons he needed to win in the last years of his career. He was playing for the future, I thought, when he had everything in front of him in the present. But in reality, he was about two or three years in front of everyone else. Could the Packers have gone to the Super Bowl after 2007? Yes. Should they have? Yes. But time proved what Thompson probably already knew: The Packers weren’t going to win a title with Favre. So Thompson went ahead, building the team he thought he needed to win, and took the ‘07 run as a bonus. He bugged us because he didn’t do what made sense for the Packers in the short-term, and he didn’t shed much light on his plans for the team. But you don’t want a GM who feeds the rumor mill. You want a steady hand who’s going to build a championship team. And Thompson has done it. As McCarthy said a few minutes ago in his press conference, Thompson is why the future looks so great for the Packers.

And lastly — though I’m cutting this short for brevity’s sake and because there’s plenty of time to analyze the rest of the season before Feb. 6 — we come to Aaron Rodgers. The Packers cast their lot with Rodgers in 2008, effectively splitting the fanbase in one of the most controversial decisions in team history. And under a blinding media spotlight that has often treated Rodgers harshly simply because of who he replaced, he has made few missteps. He is more athletic than Favre, makes far fewer suspect decisions (Brian Urlacher’s interception yesterday notwithstanding), and throws a cleaner deep ball. He’s replaced a Hall of Fame quarterback and gotten his team back to the Super Bowl quicker than any Hall of Fame successor in history, even sooner than Steve Young did it in San Francisco. He’s one game from putting himself on the short list of the best QBs in the game, if he’s not there already, and from permanently separating his legacy from Favre’s.

These three were always going to fly or fail together. They cast their fortunes together in 2008, and weathered heaps of scrutiny in 2009. And now they end the 2010 season in the Super Bowl.

What a ride it’s been. We’ve never seen anything like it. And we might not again.

So, in conclusion, Packers Nation, I’m going to make a proposition: Don’t rush past this moment. Resist the Twitter-fueled temptation to start breaking down the Super Bowl matchup. Hold off on worrying about how the Packers will stop James Harrison and Troy Polamalu, or what they’ll do to slow down Ben Roethlisberger.

Take a few days to enjoy this, to look back on how far this team has come. Because it’s damn remarkable.

In fact, it’s one of the great moments we’ll experience as Packers fans. Ever.

–Gene Bosling

I can not stop smiling.

Laughter emits from my body every three seconds, for no reason whatsoever.

And, frankly, I’m not sure if anything I write in this space is going to make much sense.

But, really, how could it make any sense? It’s unbelievable.

We did it. We did it. [...]]]> I can’t lie – my hands are still shaking.

I can not stop smiling.

Laughter emits from my body every three seconds, for no reason whatsoever.

And, frankly, I’m not sure if anything I write in this space is going to make much sense.

But, really, how could it make any sense? It’s unbelievable.

We did it. We did it. Good God almighty, we did it.

The Green Bay Packers are going to the Super Bowl.

Let me say that one more time, with feeling: THE GREEN BAY PACKERS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL!!!

It’s unreal, isn’t it? Well, isn’t it?!

This team – this ragtag group of stars and players no one had ever heard of before – pulled together to get it done. Facing win-or-go-home scenarios for literally five straight weeks, the Packers never blinked. They never gave in. They battled. And battled. AND BATTLED.

The end result was a gritty, gutty 21-14 win over the Chicago Bears. A win that, like the Packers’ season, hung in the balance more than a few times. But, as has been the case most of the season – and ALL of the last five weeks – this Green Bay bunch just found a way to get the damn thing done.

Sam Shields. B.J. Raji. Greg Jennings. Tim Masthay. Does any foursome better personify the 2010 Packers? Two guys who you expected to be great. Two guys you’d never heard of a year ago. But it works. The dang thing just works.

They’ve come together as one. This team is united. They will win. They will fight.

If we wondered if it was ever going to happen – if you were still scarred from 2008 and slightly afraid to push all the chips to the center of the table, as a result – well, be afraid no more. This team is for real.

And we’re headed to Dallas now. Oh Lord, help us all – the cheeseheads are headed to Dallas.

It’s going to be two weeks of speculation. Two weeks of waiting. And analyzing. Okay, overanalyzing. But, let’s have fun with it.

We’ve waited 13 years – 13 LONG years – to get back to this moment. There have been more than a few kicks to the teeth in that time. I was a sophomore in high school the last time this happened. I didn’t understand how hard it was. I didn’t appreciate it.

Now I do. I know what this means. I know how hard it is. As a result, I’m ready. I’m excited.

We sit 60 minutes away from being world freakin’ champions. Mike – you’ve nailed 12 of the 16 quarters. Go get the last four.

I have no idea who we’re going to play. Honestly, I don’t care. I believe in this team. I believe. And if you don’t, well, your loss.

Whew. Again, I don’t know how much sense that all makes to you. Really, it doesn’t make that much sense to me, either. But, I’m cool with that.

Okay, I can hear Adam and the fellas repeatedly saying, “We’re going to the Super Bowl!” That sounds fun. I think I’ll go join them now.

Soak this all in everyone. It doesn’t happen often. GO PACK GO!

(And, oh yeah, share your thoughts below. Let’s rejoice together!)

-Chris Lempesis