FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART 32

(Alabamian you know why)

SUBLIME

Right Tackle Mark Tauscher and place kicker Ryan Longwell are the newest members of the Packers Hall of Fame.

You Must Listen to Aaron Rodgers

After the Packers were routed by the Falcons in the NFC championship game the "Man Who Must Be Listened To" Aaron Rodgers said this, "I don't think we need to rebuild. We need to reload We've just got to make sure we're going all-in every year to win. And I think we can take a big step this offseason."

Reading the lines were easy. Rodgers was saying it was time to bring in the final pieces of the puzzle since his time was drawing down, which is something I've been saying since before the Super Bowl. General Manager Ted Thompson built a playoff team that has made the playoffs for eight seasons in a row, but he absolutely refuses to build a Super Bowl team.

"Hail Rodgers"

I took last week off because I was busy at work and I really didn't know what to think about the Packers after dismantling the Lions in the 6h must-win in as many weeks. I felt the Lions were only downslide even though the Packers had failed to win the same game last year at Lambeau Field against the Vikings with the North title on the line.

That failure stuck in my mind heading into the game against the Giants as did the other two times Eli Manning faced the Packers at Lambeau in the playoffs and beat Brett Favre the first time and Aaron Rodgers the second.

However, this is a different Packers team facing an older and not better Eli with Aaron Rodgers at the top of his game and the Aaron Rodgers who was mired in a slump when he faced the Vikings last year.

Gridiron DONALD TRUMP Out For The Season

Last year Jordy Nelson went down in the second preseason game and almost immediately Aaron Rodgers among others began a campaign trying to get the preseason cancelled because Nelson was lost for the season in a game that didn't mean anything.

 

What they didn't take into account was Jordy didn't get hurt by being hit during the game, but just by landing on his leg funny. That injury could have happened at training camp or getting out of bed or just running during a normal day's activities. However, that didn't stop those who have an agenda spouting off about topics while using false facts (sound familiar Trump supporters?) to back it up.

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART DEZOITO

(Dezoito is Portuguese for 18 in tribute to the Rio Olympics because Portuguese  is the official language of Brazil)

EXTREMELY SUBLIME

 

Favre On Top of the World

Boy, how times flies. It's been six years since Brett Favre retired for the third and last time. Last night he was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

 

Six Degrees of Separation Packers Style

Mike Holmgren's 1992 Coaching Staff
including Jon Gruden (top) and Andy Reid (4 down on the stairs)

Coaching Carousel  

The NFL coaching carousel began October 5 when the Dolphins fired their head coach and ended with a total of 7 head coaches losing their jobs and another 8 surviving to coach another season.

1. Miami Dolphins

Joe Philbin

The Dolphins fired former Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin after a 1-3 start.

Interim head coach Dan Carpenter (5-7) was not retained and the only man who has been able survive Jay Cutler with his reputation intact (I think if he had stayed another season the Cutler Curse would have got him too) Bears offensive coordinator Adam Gase has been hired to take over the Dolphins.

The End of an Era

Sunday marks the end of an era, the Peyton Manning era. I know this has nothing to do with the Packers, but just as we were lucky to have witnessed the career of Brett Favre up close and personal we are also lucky to have been alive while Manning was in his prime. Love him or hate him or somewhere in between Manning is one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time hands down.

Peyton Manning on the Sidelines and Nearing the End

Sunday when the Broncos play the Chargers for the first time since Manning was a freshman at Tennessee in 1994 he will be active for a game and not be behind center on the first play snapping his starting streak at 334 games including post-season games.

Please Say It Isn't So

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FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART TI

A Magic Moment

BURSTING THE TOP OFF THE SUBLIME SCALE

Taking His Rightful Place Amongst The Immortals

Thursday night was the epitome of the highest highs and the lowest lows, but on a sublime scale of 0 to 10—with 0 representing zero sublimity and 10 representing metaphysical sublimity—halftime in a totally ridiculous football game was 1000.

With metaphysical certitude the three greatest Packers quarterbacks will never be in the same house again and for an extremely fragile Bart Starr to make the trip and come out onto the his Field of Glory on a cold, rainy evening to honor Brett Favre was one for the ages.

Post-Game Analysis: The Big Picture

My first impression of the Packers-Patriots pre-season game was same old, same old. A big deal was made of Coach Mike McCarthy not calling the offensive plays and it was evident because for the first time since he became head coach we got to see his face during a game instead of just his eyes and the hat as he hid behind the play sheet to make sure no one could read his lips as he called the plays.

 

Mike McCarthy and his Beard

I never understood why he was so worried about it because without reading his lips I predicted almost every play he called in the second halves of game for the past five or six years, at least. It was no mystery to anyone with half a brain (Rush Limbaugh) that the Packer offense would go into slumber mode and would be punting more often than make first downs and adding to their advantage.

 

It seems McCarthy got used to having his lower face covered and decided to grow a beard to obscure his mouth. Maybe the refs won't notice and ignore him when he calls for a replay. Oops, I forgot. He asked for a replay and won on a first-down or fourth-down issue. Let's hope that doesn't fall back to the same old, some old, and he wins more than he loses or throws the red flag on the strangest of calls.

 

However, I regress on an old, but satisfying rant, so let's get back to Tom Clements and his inaugural play calling duties. The first drive was a great example of the acorn not falling far from the tree. Like has been the situation over the past two seasons the Packer offense bogs down in the red zone. My thoughts on the problem has been the lack of a play-making tight end is, at least, part of the problem, but the major problem being uninspired play calling.

 

Brett Favre had Mark Chmura and Bubba Franks as prime end zone targets and Aaron Rodgers had the much maligned Jermichael Finley, but Andrew Quarless and Richard Rodgers are no Chmura, Franks and Finley (to steal a phrase from former Vice Presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen). Quarless and Rodgers haven't progressed as much as I would like him to.

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART TROIS

THE SUBLIME:



Brett Favre About to be Introduced to Lambeau Field

I spent July 18 at the Shrine (which is what I call Lambeau Field) attending the number retiring ceremony and Packer Hall of Fame Induction of a certain Mr. Brett Lorenzo Favre and on many levels it was a perfect day.

I loved Brett Favre during his 16 years as the face of the Packers. He brought us back from the Wilderness Years and gave us something to be proud of almost every Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and Saturday of those 16 years.

He was the target of the mean barbs by Chicago Bears fans at the drop of the hat at the bar I watch the games at and I would defend him, not that it was hard to do since the Bears suck most of the time and had at one count 22 quarterbacks during Favre's record starting streak.

I am also a realist and would cringe when the Packers would play the Cowboys or the Lions on Thanksgiving since Favre had a habit of not seeing linebackers in the mid-zone and get picked off at times.

You took the good and the bad with Favre and while he had at the time the record for touchdown passes - since supplanted by a pretender named Peyton Manning and if look in the archives I explain why I call him that - and still holds the record for interceptions. Ironically, his first pass as a Packer was to himself for a loss and his last was an interception in overtime to the Giants. An ignominious start and finish to be sure. In between he was about as good as it gets and I consider me lucky to have lived during his time.

FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS, PART ZWEI

FROM THE SUBLIME

 

If any of you are keeping score 10 posts ago in the first edition of "From the Sublime to the Ridiculous" I was talking about Mr. and Mrs. Sean McEvoy from North Carolina who had purchased a genuine Vince Lombardi artifact - his West Point sweater - from a local Goodwill shop for $0.58. At the time if was estimated the value at auction (I love Antiques Roadshow) would be around $20,000.

 

As Paul Harvey used to say, "and now for the rest of the story". The sweater was donated to the Goodwill by Ann Wannamaker, the widow of Bill Wannamaker, a fellow coach at West Point with Lombardi.

 

The McEvoys put the sweater up for auction at Heritage Auction in Dallas and the winning bid was $36,000 and after a 19.5% buyer's premium is tacked on the total came to $43,020. Add kudos to the auction house for donating their share of the transaction to Goodwill like Mrs. Wannamaker had requested.

 

THROUGH THE INTERESTING

 

Packers left offensive tackle David Bakhtiari introduced a game to the locker room that has turned into an addiction. Most of the offensive line and many others spend long nights at "The Shrine" or at Bakhtiari's house playing the board game "Settlers of Catan". I guess there's not much to do at night in Green Bay, although I have heard from a very reliable source there are some very friendly strippers near to Lambeau Field. But since James Lofton's unfortunate liaison back in the day I guess you won't be seeing any current Packer players inside or in doorways near a strip club. So game on, guys.

Peyton Manning

An interesting scenario seems to be forming along the corridor between Mile High Stadium and Soldier Field.
 

Over the weekend quarterback Peyton Manning was reported to have told John Elway that he was healthy and willing to return to the Broncos for another season.

(US Presswire)

 It wasn't a surprise to me. I said all along that Manning was going to return whether or not he was on one leg and possessed half a throwing arm. Manning is all about "me" and that means records and he wants to retire the holder of every passing record, which would mean breaking all of Brett Favre's records.

 

He broke Favre's record for touchdown passes this past season (530 to 508) and will break the yardage record (needing 2,148 yards and he will do that easily in the first eight games) next season. So reason one to return.

 

Now I will digress for a rant. There are two people that gripe my butt as far as breaking records. No. 1 A pretender like A. J. Hawk breaking a truly great outside linebacker John Anderson's Packer record for tackles. More on that later. No. 2 Peyton Manning break the touchdown passes record.

Brett Favre, The Man, The Myth, The Legend, The Gunslinger

The long nightmare of Brett Favre's mouth seems to have finally come to a close. Don't get me wrong. I love the man, the myth, the legend, the gunslinger, the greatest Packers quarterback (by statistical analysis), the face of the Packers, the man who brought the team out of the Wilderness Years and made Green Bay relevant again.

 

I watch the games in my town in what is now known as a Bears bar. This makes watching the games a Maalox event because Bears fans are absolutely the worst people (even worse than Seahawks fans only because they have been at it longer) to watch games with in general and to be a Packerbacker in the same room with them. They go out of their way to hurl insults at us when we just want to watch the game and don't make comments about them (unless provoked, since I have been known to make comments back, but only if hurled at first).

 

Anyway the excellence that is Favre (interceptions withstanding) seemed to have really got under their fur. Anti-Favre comments are the majority of their insults, but since he left they seem to have settled on just insults in general.

 

But I digress again. A little more historical context. I'm not a fan of Ted Thompson (the list of many reasons will be another rant) and I felt (seems I'm in the minority on this one) he wasted Favre's last years, especially the 2007 season when we lost to the Giants in overtime at Lambeau.