Earlham Echo

August 15, 2023

I’m not a Green Bay Packers fan by birth—but it’s pretty close. My family moved to Milwaukee in 1964 when I was 1-year-old. That was just past the halfway point of the Lombardi era, which I don’t remember at all. My first memory of watching the team is about 1969-ish, when the team was already on a downward slide to oblivion that lasted more than two decades.

Starting in 1970, we moved around to different NFL cities—Buffalo, Philadelphia, near St. Louis—but I stayed true to the Packers. Had one of the teams from those cities been somewhat decent during my time there, perhaps I would have strayed. But they never caught my interest. I also discovered NFL Films in those years, and the grainy highlights of the Lombardi teams, accompanied by the dramatic music and the booming voice of John Facenda, hooked me for life.

The running joke my dad had with me during Green Bay’s dark times was that before every season, he’d tell me that if the Packers made it to the Super Bowl, he would take me. As a naive youngster, that joke went right over my head. After each annual declaration, even as bad as the team was, I’d get excited, look up where the Super Bowl was going to be, and start thinking of a million reasons why they could actually make it. My older brother and sisters would shake their heads at me and say, “You know they’re not going to the Super Bowl, right?” But I was undeterred. Even after I moved out of the house, my dad and I would talk before the season and review the terms of the pact—but at that point I understood that it was just for fun.

Things changed in the early ‘90s. The Packers got good—and they landed in the Super Bowl in 1996. The night they won the NFC title game, my dad called and he said, “Well, we’re going. I always said we would.” I appreciated the offer, but when he initially made the proclamation, Super Bowl tickets were 15 bucks. By 1996, a ticket would have been over $1,000 on the secondary market. I didn’t have a couple of grand laying around at that time—and I wasn’t going to make him pay that much. He insisted for a while, but I eventually talked him out of it.

The Packers won the Super Bowl that year, won another one in 2010, and have generally been one of the top teams in the league and a lot of fun to watch for the past 30 years. It’s been a good run for a fan.

So what’s in store for the Packers and the rest of the teams in the NFL this season? Hard to say. But this year I’ve decided to make a few fearless—completely unbiased—NFL prognostications.

1. Let’s just start with the biggie—the Packers are going to win the Super Bowl. I know a lot of pundits are thinking there is no way we’ll be as good without Aaron Rodgers, but I, for one, am thankful to be rid of that drama queen. Was it entertaining to watch him in green and gold all those years? Absolutely. But the endless stories in the off season about his oddball girlfriends, the retreats to find himself, and ‘will he or won’t he retire’ were nauseating. New York seems like a good place for that guy. New QB Jordan Love is untested, but that’s okay. The Packers have good running backs and a great line—so they might run the ball more than Coach Caskey and the Earlham Cardinals this season.
2. The Vikings. Kirk Cousins seems like a really nice guy. That’s admirable—and he’s kind of the polar opposite of Aaron Rodgers. But this prediction seems too easy: in a big, primetime game late in the season, he’ll throw multiple passes to the wrong team—and it’s yet another year without a title for the Vikings.
3. The Bears. There’s a song we sing around our house, by the legendary Happy Schnapps Combo from Manitowoc, WI, called “The Bears Still Suck.” The song applies again this season.
4. The Lions. There’s a lot of positive buzz about this team this season and I don’t get it. This is the Lions. For longer than most people reading this have been alive, the Lions have not won a playoff game. They won’t win one this year, either.
5. The Eagles. Last year was a fluke.
6. The Cowboys. America’s team? They might not even be the best team in Texas this season.
7. The 49ers. I watched Brock Purdy mess up enough Iowa State games to know he was probably a mirage last season. This team has no chance.
8. The NFC South. Nobody cares about any of these teams. They stink.
9. Everybody else in the NFC—no chance.
10. The Chiefs. They’re just lucky—and they’ve had more guys arrested in the last few years than the prison team in The Longest Yard. If they can keep their guys out of jail, I guess they’ll be all right. Super Bowl I rematch, anyone? We all know who won that game.
11. The Bills. Overrated.
12. The Bengals. Overrated.
13. AFC South. (See NFC South.)
14. Everybody else in the AFC – no chance.

Since I’ve already made the prediction about the Packers, I’m going go ahead and to say this to my family: when they go to the Super Bowl, we go, too. (Applicable to the 2023 season only.)