BwD Nation speaks

On the eve of the Super Bowl, we wanted to turn things over to faithful reader, valued commenter and life-long Packer fan, Road Dawg.

Having annoyed Dean about the omission of providing some cyber-ink to Green Bay after the couple of pre-super bowl posts featuring Roethlisberger and Pittsburgh, he was kind enough to give me some cyber-time for my team.

I became a Packer fan in my pre-teens subsequent to reading Instant Replay by right guard and Hall of Famer, Jerry Kramer. As I coached my younger brother’s flag football team a few years later, he may have recognized the style: Lots of calisthenics and the Power-sweep.

As we head into the game with the largest crowd to ever attend a Super Bowl since Super Bowl XIV, I noted the rise in the popularity of the game since the first Super Bowl. Watching the footage in the HBO film, Lombardi, the Coliseum was sparsely populated. It was the Green Bay dynasty that led the charge with nine championships prior to the game with the rich history of small town football, Curly Lambeau and $500.00 for equipment by the Indian Packing Company 48 years prior to Super Bowl I.

As Mike McCarthy enters the game overcoming a time this season where fifteen players were on injured reserve, he can hold his head high in the shadow of Lombardi and Holgren. Aaron Rogers does not need to step out of the shadow of disgraced Brett Favre; he stands in the greatness of Bart Starr’s humble and exceptional career.

I was a big fan of Favre but I enjoy the modest demeanor of Rogers who is leading his team to a Super Bowl the same year Brett embarrassed himself on and off the field. Now that I am sooooo over Brett Who, it’s hard not to take delight in this.

Even as a fan, I didn’t know the “G” logo created in 1961 by equipment manager George Braisher stands for “greatness” and not Green Bay. How fitting they have returned to the battlefield of the Super Bowl gridiron.

When you think of the Green Bay Packers, think about the beginning of pro football, steadfast and stalwart fans, the Ice Bowl where the referees could not blow their whistles because they stuck to their lips, and a coach battling a league and nation in the 60’s to support a black player’s rights.