Rocky Bleier was one of the honorary captain for the Steelers yesterday along with Franco Harris. Most if not all ND people know his story. But here's a nice article to update everybody else. Rocky
well...........as far as the SUPER BOWL goes...I speak for Krebsie and myself...22 DAYS TO PITCHERS AND CATCHERS!!!!
I didn't see the Packer - Bears game but did catch most of the Steelers and Jets game. Just when I thought it was all over the Jets made a great comeback only to allow that last completed pass and not get their last chance. I agree this should be a pretty good game. Gator Bill
The nice thing about NFL football is that these are 2 small market teams that excell because of top management. As opposed to say that team in Michigan that hired a blowhard football analyst who put together the worst team in league history and kept his job for 6 long years. The wealth of the owner or the size of the TV market seems to have no impact on a teams success. I hope the new collective bargaining agreement doesn't screw things up.
I agree gipper and might add that one of the reasons I don't follow baseball much, other than my fantasy league, is that their system allows the big market teams to dominate the game.
Anne has defected & has become a part of Packernation. She rarely used to watch football but has turned into a zealot screaming at the TV during games, reading the sports page first thing in the morning, etc. I think the only thing she now needs to do to obtain full Packer citizenship is drive regularly with a blood alcohol level above legal limits. I will follow them and even have purchased some Packer gear to blend in with the natives but the Lions remain my first love which I guess demonstrates how some folks can never overcome a horrible childhood. There has to be an affinity between ND fans and the Packers given that Curly Lambeau played for ND, persuaded one of the 4H, Crowley, to attend ND with Crowley later becoming Lombardi's college coach at Fordham with Frank Leahy as one of Crowley's assistants.
My first pro football "favorite team" was the Packers, mainly because they had Paul Hornung. And at that young age I thought surely the 7 blocks of Granite must have been ND guys and blocked for the Four Horsement..so I liked Lombardi as well! I'm a little confused about one thing though. Are the cheesehead hats a Packer thing or a UW thing or both?
They may be small market teams, but I read (somewhere) that they are amongst league leaders in terms of fan interest (TV viewers) and merchandise sales. Winning does wonders, no?
Well my daughter Meg is in Dallas. She works for Gatorade during Super Bowl week. Last year she ushered a number of players from airport to the Gatorade hydration testing. She met some top pro players like Revis and also some college seniors like Tim Tebow. Of all my kids, Meg is the least interested in sports. It figures that she is the only one to have gone to the Super Bowl. She was at the Colts-Bears game in Miami. As to first loves, I used to follow the Giants when I was very young but when the AFL started, I began following the Titans and even went to a game at the Polo Grounds. When they moved to Shea, the Titans became the Jets and I really enjoyed the Nameth years. Super Bowl III made me a lot of money. Instead of taking points I bet folks even up but got 3 and 4 to one odds. Now I join friends and family rooting for the Lie-downs. Like Cub fans we spend every year thinking that this may be our time. The Lions are the team of the future.....and always will be.
Terry, Supposedly, the 'cheeseheads" thing started with the Brewers fans in response to taunting from White Sox fans when the Brewers were in the AL. The fad was soon adopted by UW and Packer fans. Stu, Packer fans in the state are true diehards, win or lose. There really is no offseason for the Packers in Wisconsin. They dominate the newspaper coverage and sports talk radio 12 months a year, win or lose. After the season is over, speculation over whom they will draft is the big news; once the draft is done, the news shifts to draft analysis and possible roster changes; that ends at pre-season when the talk shifts to training camp and the games itself until season's end. Then, the cycle repeats itself. Describing Wisconsinites as Packer fans does not do them justice. The Packers are a cult adopted by all regardles of sex, age, political affiliation, etc. I have been informed that it has been that way since Lombardi. When after Lombardi left for Washington, they were bad for nearly thirty years but the zealots stayed zealots. Right now, the estimated wait to obatin season tickets for new applicants is several hundred years. With the Super Bowl, the Packers are the lead story in the local media. Minor matters such as Egypt turning into an Islamic state, our exploding national debt, and exploding gas prices are shunted off to Section 2 of the papers, beneath the latest gossip about Farve's or his siblings most recent scandal.
I don't really have a rooting interest, but I think I'll go with the back. Hopefully it'll be an interesting game. PJ in Jersey