First of all, thanks for checking back and reading again. I hereby solemnly swear to be a little be more diligent about updating this page. I know all of you are waiting on pins and needles (where does that expression come from anyway?) to hear what I have to say on all my favorite subjects...so here we go again!
There is certainly much to discuss...the economy, the stock market, the Presidential election, the quotidian craziness that is bilateral relationships with the likes of Iran, North Korea and Zimbabwe, the annual back and forth about when (IF!) white shoes are actually appropriate and so on. But, above the muck and mire, one grandiose topic looms...Green Bay Packer football. (Ready for the deep dive, arr-ya-now?)
I happened to be back "home" in Packer Country when ESPN broke the "Favre wants un-retire" story. I was struck by the non-stop media coverage of the news, but that was probably just my slightly-disconnected, spent too much time outside of the land of cheese and beer side coming out. This is, after all, the part of the world where local news media offer separate tabs for "sports news" and "Packers news" on their websites. I shouldn't have been surprised. National media talked about the Favre comeback quite a bit, of course local media-in a market where rumors of New Year's Eve helium shortages have warranted front page coverage-would discuss his potential return even more.
I was also surprised by the deep sense of entitlement that everyone - from TV news anchors, to newspaper columnists, to sports radio call-in show hosts, to cashiers at the grocery store, to my tablemates at the wedding reception that took me back to the heartland in the first place - felt about their opinion on the matter. No one could stop dissecting the possibilities because everybody felt that their point of view was necessary. It occurred to me that there are no drops in the bucket of public opinion when it comes to the Green Bay Packers. There is only the dogmatic belief of each and every Packer fan (myself included) that, if only they could catch the appropriate ear, their Monday Morning Quarterbacking would produce an endless string of Super Bowl Championships. There is no consensus about the Green Bay Packers, there is simply every fan's own mental "what I would do as Coach/GM" exercise. (Note to the reader, the lack of consensus does not extend to Packer opponents. Spend two minutes within an 8 block radius of Lambeau Field on game day and you will inevitably learn that EVERY person in the stadium agrees that "The Bears Still Suck" and is willing repeatedly affirm this fact via chant, no matter who that week's opponent might be.)
This is the remarkable, out of this world appeal of Green Bay Packer football. It is not THE team, or even OUR team, it is MY team. Fans own the Packers (for real, actually, but that is a topic for another day) the way they owned their intra-mural badminton team in college or their first little league team. It is a part of them in a way nothing else in professional sports can compete with. (I should know, I live in Boston. The Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics have NOTHING on the Packers. Tune in next time for my thoughts on that.)
In short (or not so short, as this polemic is shaping up to be), the deeply personal nature of every fan's relationship to THEIR Green Bay Packers is why the whole Favre fiasco promises to be so devastating. It appears increasingly likely that Favre and the Packers front office will not be able to come to an amiable parting. This is not Shaq going to Miami, Montana going to Kansas City, or Wade Boggs going the the Yankees. This is your super-star high school quarterback moving to another district in the middle of the night during the summer before your senior year. (Yes, the metaphor breaks down when you consider that no high school quarterback in his...or maybe someday her...right mind would stick around after having to repeat a grade 17 times, but roll with it. I think you catch the point.) There is a unshakable feeling of impending doom; you wonder if parking lot tailgates and pep rallys can ever be the same. It makes the bittersweet moment of Favre's anticipated retirement so suddenly off-putting that you fear the bitter might soon overwhelm all of the sweet. Number 4 gave MY team a whole lot of sweet. It is frightening to think how bitter the next few months might turn out to be.
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