Cheese Curds, 6/9: Position changes, hard counts, and stumping the historian

Fridays during the NFL offseason are typically slow news days, and with most teams around the league wrapping up with their OTAs, today should be no exception. That’s certainly the case for the Green Bay Packers, who are preparing for next week’s mandatory minicamp before heading off for their summer break.

As a result, today’s batch of Cheese Curds finds a bunch of random news items in the feed. One of the more intriguing items involves the origin of the name for football’s most well-known celebration, and even the team’s historian can’t seem to track down where the term first appeared.

Meanwhile, we’ll take a look at Tariq Carpenter’s bizarre first year of professional football, Jordan Love working on his hard count, the Minnesota Vikings getting rid of another longtime star player, and much more.

For Packers' Tariq Carpenter, Position Change Is ‘Like Learning Portuguese’ - Sports Illustrated
The fact that the Packers tried playing Carpenter at safety to start his career was a bit of a surprise after they drafted the 235-pound Georgia Tech product. After a "small trial" at outside linebacker, Carpenter is now -- finally -- working as an inside linebacker, and it's going to take some getting used to.

Hard count an ’emphasis’ for Packers QB Jordan Love at end of OTAs | Packers Wire
During the open OTA practice this week, Love's work with the hard count was excellent, and he certainly seems to have picked up some of Aaron Rodgers' effectiveness in that area.

Who coined the term “Lambeau Leap”? | Packers.com
It's a rare day when you can stump the Packers' official historian. We know that LeRoy Butler took the first leap and that Robert Brooks popularized the celebration, but the term itself has a much murkier origin.

2023 NFL preseason: NFL Network to carry 23 live games | NFL.com
One of the Packers' games, their opener against the Bengals in Cincinnati on August 11th, will be among the contests broadcast live nationwide.

Vikings plan to release RB Dalvin Cook, source says - ESPN
It's still not yet official, but expect Cook's name to pop up on the league's transaction wire on Friday afternoon, with the Miami Dolphins among the teams reportedly interested in signing him when he becomes a free agent.

Toronto warns residents not to touch raccoons amid increase of reported bites | CBC News
Apparently reported raccoon incidents have more than doubled in 2023 compared to the average over the past few years. This doesn't seem like something that needs to be said, but leave the wild animals alone!