Sunday, February 12, 2012

Odds and Ends in Packerville

We’re continuing to look at all aspects and angles of the long-range future of what we do here at Packerville, U.S.A. We’re also continuing to post things as they come up at least once a week, sometimes more since the Packers were eliminated by the eventual champions, the New York Giants. One thing we are doing consistently in the offseason is posting bits of news to our Twitter feed (seen at right).

Speaking of Twitter, we’ve been posting the daily “This Date in Packers History” updates from the Packers Hall of Fame. Curiously, they completely overlooked the 20th anniversary of the trade for QB Brett Favre on February 10, 1992. We’ll not venture down a conspiracy rabbit hole and just chalk it up to an honest oversight. We here in Packerville have made peace with the entire Favre retirement-trade-revenge saga — ever since the Packers won Super Bowl XLV one year ago. We cannot (nor should all Packer fans) overlook the contributions and accomplishments that he made to the team, the entire organization, the city, and the Packers legacy. Lambeau Field, as it exists today in its renovated state, would in all likelihood never have happened without the success the Wolf-Holmgren-Favre era. We will, when the time seems right — and if we’ve not hung up our mouse by then — feature more memories and visual material from the Brett Favre era than you would ever imagine could exist in one collection.

When Favre was traded to Green Bay that February twenty years ago now, he was “the man” as far as Ron Wolf and Mike Holmgren were concerned, but the media and fans were hardly aware of who he was, let alone what lay ahead. In this photo (above) from the 1992 Green Bay Packers Yearbook, Favre is shown in spring workouts in the indoor practice facility which preceded the Don Hutson Center. He wore the obligatory tape on his helmet that all rookies and new players had with his name written in Sharpie for the coaches and other players to know who he was. The number “4” meant nothing to anyone then. At that time, Don Majkowski was the incumbent QB, along with other roster mates Mike Tomczak and Ty Detmer.

Also of interest in that 1992 yearbook is this photo of new General Manager Ron Wolf watching his team practice on the then-unnamed Oneida Street practice field with his young son Eliot. That same scrawny little kid is now likely going to head the Packers’ pro personnel department. He learned from one of the best, and learned on the inside.

Lastly, if you’re a Packers’ season ticket holder, you received (or will shortly receive) your 2012 invoice. We got ours today, and as we reported via our Twitter feed, the prices are going up $3 per ticket for our seat location. Is it too early to start thinking about the 2012 football season? Apparently not.