The Wisconsin Sports Rant

Only this fucking pathetic debacle of a football team could have possibly lost the game the way the Packers lost tonight.  I forsee a loss to the Detroit Lions next week, and deservedly so.  To you Packers, you are truly one of the most pathetic sports teams I have ever had the displeasure to watch.  Even worse than the 4-12 2005 team, you are the epitome of horrendousness.  You should all take your salaries and donate them to charity because not one of you deserves to be paid a fucking penny.  If Mike McCarthy is employed within 100 miles of Green Bay next season I may consider stop watching football altogether.  Ever heard the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”?  Well get this Mike…your unbelievable lack of ability to craft any semblance of offense in the second half and Bob “Why the FUCK do I have a job” Sanders’ defensive strategy of “fold when it counts” was displayed AGAIN!  And to no one’s surprise at all, you lost…AGAIN!  And, did both Aaron Rodgers AND Mason Crosby take lessons on how NOT to play late in the 4th quarter?  Mason might have even taken the follow up class on choking!  I don’t understand how you have not one, but TWO kicks blocked tonight.  Crosby has PERSONALLY cost the team 2 games this year (maybe three…)  The Packers have truly polluted my life over the last 5 months, and I cannot wait to be released from the hell that these heartless losers have created.  Absolutely disgusting, inexcusable, and gut wrenching.  This team will long be remembered as a complete waste; one that found losses where no other team possibly could.  And in a finale that would be a prefect fairy tale ending to this season of garbage, the Packers should lose like this next week:

Up 26-20 with the ball and 45 seconds left, Aaron Rodgers attempts to kneel on the ball, but drops the snap…picks it up…tries to throw it away…gets it picked off, and the Lions score the game tying touchdown.  On the ensuing extra point, the Packers block the kick, but the Lions recover and run it in for a 2 point conversion for their first win of the season.

Yeah…that would be about right.

As if I needed to add to my comments from last week, I think that there are a few more things that are worth stating.  Today added more credence as to why I believe the coaching staff should go.  The team regressed both from last year to this one, as well as during the season itself.  The fact that they have lost the same way week after week without making any corrections at all speaks volumes about how inept this staff is.  Take today’s loss to Jacksonville.  If there was one play that makes a perfect example, it was the 4th and 1 handoff to the fullback.  Once again, it simply didn’t get the job done.  I don’t understand what it is about that play the McCarthy finds so appealing.  It never works, yet he continues to keep it in his playbook.  As for the big picture, the formula for the game was simple, and the same as it has been over the last two months.  Packers play a close game.  When they have an opportunity to pull away with a TD, even in the red zone, their drive stalls (mostly because of the poor play calling or a lack of preparation), and they only come away with 3 if anything at all.  They have to then hope that the defense can hold the opponent one last time.  But as has been proven all year long, that kind of faith is clearly misplaced.  This defense has absolutely no heart when it counts, and simply cannot do their job.  Thus, the opponent drives the length of the field, late in the game, and comes away with the winning score.  The formula then differs only in whether or not the Packer offense has one last chance for Rodgers to throw a game ending interception.  It has been a complete failure of a season; one that started out with the poor handling of the Favre situation, and ends with the poor handling of the team itself.  I am not sure the results justify that those in charge deserve to keep their jobs.  Even if they do, they should be on the hottest of seats next year.  Anything less than a return to the playoffs should automatically end in their removal (Thompson on down).  As for the final two useless games, I predict losses in both, with the grand finale resulting in the Lions getting that elusive 1st win of the season.  It really would be a fitting end.  Then again, this team is incapable of fitting ends (see: 2007 NFC Championship Game).  When do pitchers and catchers report?

It’s been a long time, and I have been too busy and too uninterested to post for the last few months, but today seemed like as good a day as any to make an appearance. It is with the final nail in the Packers coffin that I write this. Ted Thompson is a moron. Mike McCarthy is an idiot. Bob Sanders is a joke. This brain trust has taken a 13-3 team, and destroyed it. Brett Favre will be (and should be) having a big laugh tonight when he looks at the standings and sees that the Packers are done. Rodgers may be an ok player, but the results have spoken for themselves. From NFC Championship to non-winning season. Ted, Mike and Sanders all need to go before they do any further damage. Great job guys!

It’s late.  I am tired.  I can’t pull myself away from the TV because I keep hoping this horror I am seeing on ESPN is all terribly wrong.  But, I fear that in the morning, nothing will be different.  So now the Packers truly begin life after Favre, for better or worse (actually, just for worse).  You know from my previous post my feelings on the football side of this decision (it is just plain wrong), but now I can also reflect on my thoughts on the non-football side.  In short, the Packers made a franchise-damaging decision.  They managed to alienate their star who sells more jerseys and garners (or garnerED) more positive attention for the team than any other player.  Brett was reason alone for the Packers to receive 4-5 nationally televised games a season.  So business-wise, this was a mistake.

Next, this situation has injured the franchise’s relationship with its fans.  I cannot speak for all of them out there, but personally, it has really hurt the fan in me to watch this unfold as it has.  It has tempered my excitement for the upcoming season a great deal, which should never be the case when your team returns most of its players from a highly successful 14-4 season.  I should be looking forward to this 2008 season with great anticipation, but right now, I am just not interested.  I am numb to the whole thing.  It took a few weeks to digest Brett’s “retirement” in March, but once I did, I was ready to watch the Packers in 2008 with Aaron Rodgers.  I was (and really still am) optimistic that Rodgers can be an excellent NFL QB.  But right now I just don’t care.  It is also extremely frustrating to see a proud franchise treat the best player in their history this way.  Now don’t get me wrong, I think Brett handled this situation poorly as well, and really came off as kind of a baby at the end when he couldn’t put things behind him, but even that is subject to interpretation, and which side you believe is telling the truth.

In retrospect, I am baffled as to how this all happened.  This saga really started in March, but publicly, Favre made known his desire to play at the end of June.  That should have been plenty of time for Favre to reaclimate himself to the team.  How do the Packers simply shut him out and never really give him the opportunity to play for them again?  I simply don’t understand, and maybe never will.  What I will close with tonight is this:  Ted Thompson may build a Super Bowl champion, and Mike McCarthy may coach it, and I will definitely be happy if that happens.  But these two men will forever be the guys responsible for getting rid of Brett Favre.  They didn’t speak for the fans.  They likely didn’t speak for the board of directors, or the shareholders.  They spoke for their arrogant, selfish, egotistical selves.  When all is said and done, these guys got what they wanted.  The Packers are certainly THEIR team now, and not Favre’s or anyone else’s.  I can’t imagine this ever happening with Bob Harlan still the CEO, or Ron Wolf, Mike Holmgren, or even Mike Sherman still being associated with management of the franchise.  No, this debacle is squarely these two guys’ responsibility.

And despite what may or may not occur during their tenures, I will NEVER respect what they have done here today.

Are we all not forgetting perhaps the most pertinent piece of information in this outlandish Brett Favre mess?  Should Favre play, he is subject to the most feared curse that can befall a professional athlete.  No, the Sports Illustrated Cover Curse comes in second to this.  At the top of that list is the EA Sports Cover Curse.  You all should know it well.  A large number of those who appear on the cover of one of their annual sports games have gone on to incur serious injury or some other event that ended their seasons prematurely.  Such examples include Shaun Alexander, Michael Vick, and Gilbert Arenas.  Should Favre end up playing, the question may not only be for which team, but more importantly, for how long.

I have no opionions, comments, or other thoughts to post right now. I only want to say thanks Brett, for the amazing career.

Don’t lie. You felt a bit queasy. That little Packer voice in your head was saying “Oh no, not again”. Visions of the losses to Atlanta and Minnesota in the 2002 and 2004 playoffs, respectively, flashed in your head. Perhaps you were even feeling the bitter wind of the debacle in Chicago just a few weeks ago. 14-0. Less than 5 minutes into Saturday’s NFC Divisional playoff against the Seattle Seahawks, the thought of where the NFC Championship game would be played was pretty far out of my mind. In fact, that game wasn’t even on the radar. Instead, that Wisconsin sports pessimism starting infiltrating my head. Would we blow yet another playoff opportunity? The only thing keeping me calm (other than my kids playing on the floor), was the fact that there was so much time left in the game, and neither our offense nor defense had really had a chance to show anything yet (other than that Ryan Grant could, in fact, fumble). Instead of the game turning into a gut wrenching disaster, the Packers basically said “Because you were so good to us in the 90’s, Coach Holmgren, here’s 14 points. Now just try to stop us.”. From that point forward, the game was a 42-6 laugher. If you read this blog, you saw this game, so I don’t need to do a recap. Suffice it to say, this was one of the top 5 Packer games I have ever seen. A snowy downpour. An absolute barrage of offense. A shut down performance on defense. A key, vintage Favre improvisational play. And of course, a huge win. These are the ingredients of an amazing game in Lambeau Field.

Then of course, there was the shock after Sunday’s Cowboys-Giants game, that the NFC Championship would, in fact, be played on this very same field that just hosted said amazing game. There is a part of me (and probably many other Packer fans) that wanted to have a shot at the Cowboys on the way to the Super Bowl. Then there is the bigger part of me that wants to see the Packers hoist the NFC Championship trophy on their home turf. It is interesting to note that in 1996, when the Packers finally captured their first Lombardi Trophy in 29 years, they didn’t get a second shot at their nemesis either, as the Carolina Panthers took them out in the Divisional round. But do we really care now? Of course not. The Packers won the Super Bowl, and it doesn’t matter who they had to beat to accomplish that. The same can be said this year. The Giants are no cakewalk. They are playing some great football right now. However, I would argue that the Packers are playing better football right now. No football team will win a lot of games spotting the opponent 14 points at the outset, so the Packers need to make sure they get off to a better start against the Giants. Still, after watching the performance of this team, it makes you believe they have enough skill and acumen to overcome just about anything. Come Sunday, we will see if that includes the New York Giants.

I will be the first to admit it. It seems I have erred in my previous chastising of Ted Thompson as the Green Bay Packers General Manager. I called him out on letting our top guards, Rivera and Wahle, go a couple of years back. I was frustrated with the draft picks focusing on what seemed to be the wrong areas for improvement. I was especially disappointed about losing Moss to the Patriots (this still may come back to haunt us, but we have a pretty good set of receivers). A 13-3 record shows the proof is in the pudding. There aren’t too many people criticizing these moves now. The one wild card that Thompson got lucky with is that he didn’t chase Favre away with all the moves he made. If Favre had retired thinking that the team was rebuilding (which he was probably close to doing a couple of years ago), I might be writing a different post right now. But Favre stayed, the young talent is developing, and the Packers are poised to make a real Super Bowl run. So for that, Ted Thompson, I commend you for making us doubters happily look stupid.

My thoughts for this post came out of this excellent article on ESPN.com today. Take a read if you haven’t all ready.

The 2005-esque performance put on by the Green Bay Packers on Sunday was absolutely disgusting. In fact, here are the other adjectives I toyed with for that last sentence before settling on disgusting: putrid, horrid, pathetic, ridiculous, laughable, heinous, egregious, foul, awful, terrible, horrible, outrageous, hideous. I don’t care if you are 12-2 or 2-12, that kind of sloppy play is inexcusable, especially for a team still playing for home-field advantage in the playoffs. It was completely embarrassing. If this were a high school team, they would be running wind sprints for three hours a day all week. What a tremendous disgrace that game was!

Here are some of my observations:
1) Anyone who planned to vote for Mike McCarthy for coach of the year ought to rethink that selection. No team should ever show up as ill-prepared and demonstrate as poor execution as was displayed Sunday. It was an abomination of Green Bay Packers football. A coach of the year performance is incompatible with that type of game from your team. On the same note, the strategy of keeping the ball away from Devin Hester is a very sound one. It just shouldn’t be done by having your punts blocked or fumbled; which leads into point number two:

2) Jon Ryan should be hung from a flagpole all week. If you get paid 6 figures to kick a football, and that’s your sole responsibility, you absolutely cannot have a game like Ryan did, regardless of the weather.

3) What the hell has happened to this defense? They didn’t have a great game against St. Louis last week either. Allowing a 5-9 opponent’s 3rd string QB to have a game like that is just wrong. In addition, they can’t stop a second string RB on that offense from having a 100 yard game? Gross.

4) I am going to be Captain Obvious here, but when Favre gets behind, the potential for putridity is huge. I can’t give the guy a hard time with the season he’s having, but DAMN. That’s all that needs to be said.

5) It really looked like the Packers would avoid a let-down game like this one. They had been winning methodically. Boy did they prove that not to be the case. This was beyond a simple let-down. Before Sunday’s debacle, I didn’t even entertain the the thought of the Packers not playing in at least the NFC Championship game. Now, I can see a one-and-done scenario as a distinct possibility, which would also be subject to any of the aforementioned adjectives.

The bottome line here is that this game better serve as a wake-up call for this team. Whatever caused this outcome needs to be identified and corrected immediately so we don’t have to endure yet another ugly ending to a promising season.

Just when you think there isn’t anything more to be said about Brett Favre, this comes along.  If I am less of a man because the tears streamed down my face while reading it, so be it. 

 Congrats, Brett.  And thanks for everything.

-Mighty Gosling