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One of the advertising promotions we have going on now is the JCPenney Van Heusen Fan's Choice. It's a poll on the players (and others) who are eligible for the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2010. While it has no impact on the actual selection, I've voted to make sure the former Green Bay Packers nominated at least make it into the top 10 in the fan's choice.

WR Sterling Sharpe. Obviously he's a Packers legend, but he should be considered. His career stats aren't the biggest, since his career was cut short, but he was an All Pro in 5 of his 7 NFL seasons. 

FS LeRoy Butler. Similar to Sharpe, he was an All Pro in 4 of his first 9 NFL seasons, but the injury bug didn't strike him down until a couple years later. A member of the 1990s All Decade Team. 

GM Ron Wolf. C'mon all you Ted Thompson haters. Vote a real Packers GM into the hall! Full disclosure; I'm not a Ted Thompson hater, but I'd say anything to goad more people into voting for Wolf. Only Curly Lambeau and Vince Lombardi did more to build the team, and both of them are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

I was sent a free advance copy of the new book, That First Season, How Vince Lombardi Took The Worst Team in the NFL and Set it on the Path to Glory. I really enjoyed the book, in large part because I'm a history buff and I still have a lot to learn about the Green Bay Packers history. It's the story of the Packers 1959 season, the Packers' first season under Vince Lombardi. The team went from 1-10-1 in 1958, to the playoffs in 1960, and won the NFL Championship in 1961. The book is being released on October 15th, but I was sent an advance copy a while back and wrote about it here and here. 

The focal point of the book is Lombardi, and many players are mentioned. But much of the book is devoted to telling the story of two bench players who were miserable professional football players, Paul Hornung and Bart Starr, and how Lombardi helped set them on their way to the Hall of Fame. 

I've never thought of him this way, but the book also tells about how Vince Lombardi was a talented offensive coordinator, who was hired away from the NY Giants. He was an offensive mastermind! And think about how well coached the 1958 Giants must have been; with Lombardi as the offensive coordinator and Tom Landry as their defensive coordinator. Here's a classic picture of the two coaches.

If you're in the area, the author, John Eisenberg, is doing a promotional tour for his book. He'll be at Boswell's Books in Milwaukee on October 15, 7pm. Next Chapter Bookshop in Mequon on October 16, 7pm. Barnes & Noble in Green Bay on October 17, 7pm. Borders in Madison on October 19, 7pm. And, since he's an Baltimore guy, at the Barnes & Noble near Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore on October 28, 7pm.

There's no getting around it. As soon as the clock hit zero on the Monday night game between Dallas and Carolina, everyone in the NFL turned their attention to this week's showdown between Green Bay and Minnesota. Some of us have already been looking forward to this matchup, including several members of this site.

Is it because the two teams are (3-0) and (2-1)?  Is it because Adrian Peterson, Greg Jennings, Jared Allen, or Charles Woodson gets another chance to shine on national television? Is it because the result of this game will help shape the outcome of what may turn out to be the toughest division in the NFL?

Of course not. It's all about Brett Favre. He's squaring off against the franchise that took a chance on him in 1992, his former coaches, his former teammates, Ted Thompson, and the entirety of Packer Nation. To quote Ron Burgundy, it's "kind of a big deal."

For every fan rooting for or against Favre on October 5th, there is a theory as to why Brett flirted with retirement in 2005, 2006, and 2007, finally decided to retire, discussed unretirement, stayed retired, then unretired, then played for the Jets, then retired, then come thisclose to unretirement, then stay retired, and finally, unretired.

Some say it's because he wants a shot at another championship, and Minnesota is the team best-equipped to get him there. Others say it's because he's really not content to stay on the farm in Mississippi; he needs to play to keep himself occupied. Others still claim that the reason is revenge; revenge against Ted Thompson, revenge against Mike McCarthy, revenge against Aaron Rodgers, and revenge against the fan base that turned on him. A small (but vocal) minority cling to the notion that Favre "just loves the game so much" that he can't bring himself to walk away.

Each of these theories has some truth to it. Yes, Favre loves the game. Yes, Minnesota is a strong team that needed a quarterback. Yes, he still gets bored on the farm when he knows he could still play. And yes, he wants to stick it to the Green Bay Packers for denying him what he wanted: his old job back.

I subscribe to a different theory, and it takes us back to Christmas of 2003. Remember this?

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There was no Wednesday practice for the Green Bay Packers. The next preseason game is at Lambeau on Saturday against the Buffalo Bills. The schedule has been pretty kind to the Packers so far. They've been able to spend all of training camp in Green Bay, and don't have to travel away until the August 28th game at Arizona.

I was reading my advance copy of That First Season by John Eisenberg and he wrote about the awful preseason schedule that the Packers had during Vince Lombardi's first season as the head coach back in 1959. From page 120:

"The Packers' remaining five exhibition games would all be played either on the road or at a neutral site, in San Francisco; Portland, Oregon; Bangor, Maine; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Minneapolis, Minnesota...

The schedule afforded the Packers just a few days at home in the month before their regular-season opener on September 27, but it wasn't unusual for NFL teams to barnstorm through the exhibition season...

The NFL's owners sent their team on barnstorming trips before the season in hopes of attracting new fans in out-of-the-way places and cities without franchises."

I was contacted by Robert Tuchman who has a new book titled The 100 Sporting Events You Must See Live. He sent an excerpt from his book because a trip to Lambeau Field makes it in his top 100. Although the tips might be obvious to Packer fans, and it's written towards a target audience that might not be familar with Lambeau Field, I always like being reminded how great it is see football in Green Bay:

Unlike the Super Bowl, where Tuchman recommends sitting at midfield, at Lambeau Field, you should try to sit in one of the lower rows in the end zone.  Only here will you experience the famed "Lambeau Leap":  the player carrying the ball will vault himself in the "Cheesehead" faithful, who will join in the celebration with hugs and spilled beer.  
 
One of the best way to get up close to players and coaches is to check out the Vince Lombardi Steakhouse in the Radisson Paper Valley Hotel in Appleton on Saturday before the Sunday game.  Former players and Lombardi family members have been known to eat there the night before the game.  IT is also the favorite hotel for visiting teams.  
 
If you are coming to Lambeau from afar, Tuchman has some travel tips.  Take a stadium tour or visit the Hall of Fame right inside the Packer Atrium at Lambeau Field. Also, while outside watching the game in winter, make sure you dress extremely warm.  And do not forget to watch out for flying snowballs!

I was sent an advance copy of That First Season by John Eisenberg. I'm halfway through and it's a pretty good book. I'm a history nut in general, but I've got a lot to learn about the Green Bay Packers' history. The book is well timed since 2009 is the 50th anniversary of Vince Lombardi's first season in Green Bay. And last week was the 50th anniversary of the start of Packers' first training camp under Lombardi.

Scooter McLean was the head coach in 1958 and the players had it easy during his training camp compared to what Lombardi had in store for them. From That First Season:

"Three laps around the goalposts!"

Shouting those words on July 24, 1959, at 10 A.M., Lombardi opened training camp. Thirty-nine players dressed in gray shorts and white T-Shirts started running across the Packers' practice field next to City Stadium. The morning was overcast and hot. Lombardi wore long khaki pants, a white T-shirt, and a dark green baseball cap. His mood was buoyant, his booming voice richocheting across the field. After a decade under Earl Blaik and Jim Lee Howell, he finally had his own team. (p. 83).

Then after the first morning practice was over:

The players were hollow-eyed as they trudged up the hill to the locker room and boarded two yellow buses for the ride back to St. Norbert. Scooter's workouts hadn't been nearly as crisp, organized, or demanding. Back at St. Norbert they spilled out of the buses, went to their rooms, and flopped on their beds, exhausted. (p. 87).

Mike Tanier over at Football Outsiders recently asked me for some football memories for his Thanksgiving article:

In the early 1980s, Brandon Benson of the Packers Web site Acme Packing Company loved Thanksgiving as much as any football-obsessed preteen carnivore. But as a Packers fan, he has few good football memories about the holiday. "I became a football fan at age 10, in 1980, back when the Packers' annual trip to the Silverdome involved a good beating by the Lions," he told me. "So if the Packers did play on Thanksgiving, they went to Detroit and it was usually an ugly loss. I doubt Eddie Murray ever missed a field goal against the Packers."

Back then, the Lions were pretty good, but the Packers were mired in the epic drought that lasted from Bart Starr to Brett Favre. Benson said the tables didn't really turn until a 1993 Wild Card game. "Since then, I've been usually expecting a win against Detroit, such as the win last in Detroit last Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving games involving the Packers have become a much more welcomed experience."

This year, I'm only going to be allowed to watch football on Thanksgiving if the toddlers are taking a nap. Otherwise, it's all Wall E and Curious George on the TV in my household. But I'm not sure I want to watch either of these games. Watching Detroit play under any circumstances is an endurance test. I'm not a fan of the Cowboys, obviously, so that game doesn't hold a lot of interest either. Especially since Seattle should be easy pickings. What do you think?

When I read that former Packer CB Bob Jeter had died, I admit I wasn't familiar with him. He played on the great Lombardi teams of the 1960s. He was a star player in 1966 and 1967 when the Packers won the first two Super Bowls. He had a great career as a cornerback for the Packers, but as you can see from his career stats, his career got off to a slow start. He was a college running back from Iowa, went to the CFL for two years, and then came back to play for the Packers. "Speed made Jeter a decent receiver and a tremendous cornerback."

From John Maxymuk's book, Packers by the Numbers:

"Vince Lombardi made the same mistake with Jeter that he did earlier with another Big Ten halfback who he didn't think fit the Packers' running style-Herb Adderley. He tried to make wide receivers out of both of them...Bob Jeter, though, spent two seasons as a reserve receiver before finally being shifted to cornerback...In the next two years he would team with Adderley to shut down the top receivers of many teams...Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith would say of Jeter that, "In the past, left cornerback Herb Adderley was so good that the opponents picked on Jeter. But now they can't. Jeter has more speed than Adderley and is better at moving up on the end run."