Look alike?

Add comment January 18th, 2008

A Rhinelander TV station aired this story on Lac du Flambeau, Wis., teacher Greg Ziebart who looks like No. 4. I kinda see it. Sort of. (Can’t get a direct link to the video to work. So, go here, and click on “Favre Look Alike.”)

(Text version.)

Ready for Sunday (grrr)

5 comments January 18th, 2008

Yeah. It’s a little creepy, but this is what you get when you fool around during a photo shoot. The photographer is bound to capture something embarrassing. This is me practicing my best fierce face. Not really working for me.

Register Star photog Alan Leon spent about 30 minutes with Thomas Bona and me to get the perfect shot for a promo in Sunday’s newspaper. Thomas (or T-Bone as we like to call him in the newsroom) challenged me to a blog off.

Thomas, a native New Yorker and Giants fan, will battle me, a lifelong cheesehead who has a not-so-secret crush on No. 4, on this blog during the Giants-Packers game.

If the Giants win, I have to buy Thomas cheese — the really good stuff from Wisconsin. If the Packers win (or should I say when the Pack wins), Thomas will have some pastrami shipped from New York. Yummy. I can already taste it.

Sweet sisters

Add comment January 18th, 2008

It’s gotta be a sign when you have a bunch of sisters hooting and hollering for ya. Here’s a little more on those Franciscan sisters in Manitowoc, Wis. (These are friends of Sister Sean Marie Tobin. You know, the sister who ribbed Matt Hasselbeck at the coin toss Saturday.)

Throw me a frozen one

Add comment January 18th, 2008

No surprise here, really. This week, the Packers have practiced with frozen footballs. (Turns out some of the players didn’t know the balls had been taken from the freezer. They just figured the footballs had been outside awhile.)

I can just imagine how much fun those must be to catch.

Clooney loves Brett, too

Add comment January 18th, 2008

George Clooney is a Brett fan. Though he also played it safe when asked who he was rooting for Sunday.

OK, OK, maybe I have a little something against the Packers

2 comments January 18th, 2008

This morning I was mocked by coworkers for my kind words about the Packers. One said, “You’re from New York, be an obnoxious New Yorker!”

Fine. Here are the top 5 reasons New York is better than Green Bay:

5. You can get good Wisconsin cheese in New York. You can get good *anything* in New York. You can’t get good New York pastrami in Wisconsin (or Rockford, for that matter).
4. The Packers talk about all their championships, but they’ve only won 1 in the last 25 years. The Giants have won 2.
3. 27 Hall of Famers have played on the Giants. Only 26 have played on the Packers (Note: It’s closer than I originally thought. But the point remains, New York is where  you go to become famous).
2. Vince Lombardi, as great as he was, could only get a coordinator job in New York. He had to go to Green Bay to get a head coaching gig.
1. I mean, seriously, what else has come from Green Bay?

Have fun, everybody

Packer fans lucky

Add comment January 18th, 2008

Packer fans may be the luckiest fans in the NFL (or at least the luckiest this side of New England). Go to a game in Chicago and, for years, the stands would be dominated by fans wearing jerseys of players who (thankfully) were no longer Bears. McNown. Salaam. Enis. Fans would run out and buy jerseys of the latest savior as soon as he was drafted, only to see him flop ignominiously. Packer fans, on the other hand, have been able to proudly wear No. 4 for almost two decades. Before that, Reggie White jerseys were a popular — and safe — bet. Now, when Chicago finally has a jersey-worthy player in Brian Urlacher, he turns sullen and stops talking. Favre, on the other hand, seems happier and more playful than ever. And that’s why Packer fans are so lucky. As a former Viking fan, I used to end ever season, no matter how promising at one point, white-knuckled mad. A feeling Bears fans are also familiar with. Although anyone who wants to scream over Lovie Smith or Gary Crowton or even John Shoop, I say at least you never had Mike Tice.

Now, all I care about are the Twins and Illini basketball. It’s sad having no one to cheer for in the NFL. Even worse than getting riled up. The Packers, though, get not only a surprise season for the ages, but the comfort blanket of watching Brett Favre. Packer fans keep telling me, this year and last year and the year before that, that as long as Brett Favre keeps coming back, they are happy no matter what happens. Imagine that, an angst proof team to root for. And one that may give its fans a surprise Super Bowl gift, followed by another season from Favre. Again, no sports teams fans have been this lucky since Michael Jordan retired from the Bulls.

Favre not the greatest

2 comments January 18th, 2008

Brett Favre is the most important player to the NFL since Red Grange and Sammy Baugh first made the league popular a zillion years ago. In an era when the police dockets are full of Cincinnati Bengals and Tank Johnson has more guns than tackles, Favre is an icon for the league. Throwing snowballs after a playoff touchdown pass reinforces that this is still a kid’s game and makes the NFL look cool, hip and fun.

That said, Brett Favre will never be the greatest player in NFL history. That’s the exclusive province of Jim Brown. Favre isn’t even the greatest Packer. That is clearly Don Hutson, who rivals Jerry Rice and Joe Montana for the honor of second-greatest ever. I once thought — and even wrote — that Favre was the best quarterback. He flat-out carried the Packers for four or five years. The year before they won the Super Bowl, the Packers almost beat the Cowboys even though they couldn’t run a lick and Emmitt Smith ran up and down the field on them. Favre, single-handedly, had the Packers ahead until late in the fourth quarter. And the next year, when they won the Super Bowl, the pass blocking made it look like a fire drill every time Favre went back to pass early in the season. Yet teams couldn’t drag Favre down. He kept scrambling and throwing on the run and leading Green Bay to victory. Then, halfway through the season — just like this year — the offensive line jelled and began both pass blocking and run blocking with aplomb.

Again, that said, for all of Favre’s greatness and importance, he’s had too many mediocre seasons to be considered the best ever. The last seven or eight seasons before this year were simply not all-time great quality. Favre is one of the five best quarterbacks ever, in there with John Elway, Johnny Unitas and Otto Graham, but he has not been as consistently great as Joe Montana and no one can match Jim Brown.

Favre-o-meter

Add comment January 18th, 2008

There’s a cool database on jsonline.com. Want to learn more about every touchdown pass Favre’s ever thrown? This is your database.

Following a dream

Add comment January 18th, 2008

What a cool story. This Australian guy quit his job and sold everything to move his family to the U.S. to follow the Packers for a season.

Wayne Scullino calls himself the once-in-a-lifetime fan. Read his blog. Or watch his YouTube video … (Warning: Some salty language.)