Week 13 TV Map

Rest easy tonight, Packers fans... everyone can watch the game tomorrow on CBS. Providing you can get the CBS signal. We will be at the game, leaving bright and early at 8:00 a.m. for the drive North. Photos from the game will come early next week.
UPDATE: Sorry, Atlanta residents, you won’t see the Packers’ game. Should’ve thought about that before you moved there.
(Map courtesy of 506 Sports)

1964 Sportsman of the Year

We’re going to focus on the NFL on a broader scale today, rather than just on the Packers. In January 1964, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle was named Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsman of the Year.” This is the feature article on him and the NFL at that time. We did choose to not include the article on the Chicago Bears’ championship victory over the New York Giants for the ’63 title. If you want to read that, then go on over to the Bearsville, U.S.A. site.

We included this L&M cigarettes advertisement along with our coverage, because it sure looks to us like that’s Green Bay’s FB Jim Taylor in the main picture.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jordy Goes National

Be sure to pick up your copy of the latest Sports Illustrated this week — featuring Packers’ WR Jordy Nelson on the cover. You’re welcome.

A Couple of Things from ’63

We’re going back to December 1963 (almost 51 years ago) for this installment of Packerville, U.S.A. This issue of Sports Illustrated has a couple of things that we found interesting. But first, on the cover, we see former Packers QB Tobin Rote (1950-56), playing that position in San Diego. He would stay in the league through 1966.

The cover story, which begins here, was proposing this wacky idea that the American Football League — in its fourth season — and the more established National Football League should meet in a championship game, to determine the best pro football team (and league). Well, we all know that this idea never came to fruition, and that these two leagues have operated independently ever since, never playing each other head-to-head.

This article is about the Green Bay Packers, and how after back-to-back championships in ’61 and ’62, the team was showing some cracks in their ability to make it three-in-a-row in ’63. 

Lastly, here are some ads from that year to give us a feel for life 51 years ago. Above, nothing goes with alcohol like 7-Up.

Hot Dr. Pepper? Did this idea last? Anyone?

No iPhones in those days. 

Pan Am! 

Check out the size of that trunk in the Galaxie 500. 

Hertz was the big rental company in those days. Even Santa used them.

It’s That Time of Year...

The invoices for Packers Playoff tickets arrived in the e-inbox yesterday, right on schedule for teams who will likely be playing in the NFL postseason. Yet to be determined is whether or not Green Bay will indeed have any home playoff games. Of well, we weren’t going to do anything with that extra cash we had lying around anyway.

Vikings Coming Up...

We must apologize yet again for the lack of activity here in Packerville, U.S.A. Work has continued with 14+ hour days for weeks, leaving little time for anything else but sleeping and eating. Fortunately, we were still able to get away to the Eagles game last weekend. This Sunday, Green Bay heads over to Minneapolis to take on the Minnesota Vikings — outdoors for the first time since 1981. Above, QB Fran Tarkenton gets sacked for a 20-yard loss by DE Bob Barber. LB Fred Carr (No. 53) is also there to make sure the QB didn’t get away.

Here are a few shots of the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington, Minn. that the Vikings shared with baseball‘s Minnesota Twins. Above, much like Milwaukee‘s County Stadium, the field ran along the first base line.

A nice photo from the kind of day that one would imagine when thinking of a late season football game in Minneapolis.

1970’s Packers-Vikings action at The Met. 

A 1980’s image of the closed, abandoned, and decaying Met Stadium. The Mall of America stands on that location now. 

At least the Vikings will not have to deal with this anymore when they move into their new stadium. 

TCF Bank Stadium, where the University of Minnesota football team plays, is the home of the Vikings through 2015. It is where the game will be played this Sunday. Outside.

Week 11 TV Map UPDATE

There have been a few TV markets added for Sunday’s Green Bay-Philadelphia game on FOX at 3:25 p.m. We’ll wave from the North end zone... see if you can spot us. We’ll be the ones wearing Packers gear.

Map courtesy of 506 Sports

Packers vs. Bears

Before we head North again tomorrow night, we thought we’d post some photos of last Sunday night’s game against the Chicago Bears. We got to town mid-afternoon on Saturday, and made the obligatory stop at the Packers Pro Shop.

A couple of shots of Lambeau Field as the November sun goes down. 

Oh, by the way, lunch was at Kroll’s West, right across Ridge Road from the stadium. A Green Bay supper club classic.

Nice billboard in the Lambeau Field Atrium. 

Coach Vince Lombardi’s house on Sunday morning. We think we saw him grabbing the newspaper on the front porch. 

Sunday night, here was our view walking to Lambeau from the West. 

We saw former Packers’ QB Don Majkowski on the sideline before the game. When we said, “The Majik Man,” he gave us a nod and a wink. 

November is “Salute to Service” month in the NFL, and there were some troops in attendance, as guests of the Packers.  

The Lambeau concourse before the game. 

 Your view as you walk into the “bowl” through one of the entrance tunnels.

WR Randall Cobb warming up before going into the locker room to get his equipment on. 

The “big show” comes to Lambeau.

Packers Radio Network play-by-play announcer Wayne Larrivee on the pre-game sideline. 

Defensive Coordinator Dom Capers talks with a member of the Bears’ staff. 

RB DuJuan Harris was out catching some kicks. 

Players come out for pre-game warm-ups. 

Team huddle. 

QB Aaron Rodgers jogs to the sideline. 

“The Man.” 

The NBC “Sunday Night Football” crew broadcasts from the Bears’ sideline. 

A couple of the NBC cameramen making sure their equipment works. 

Rodgers at work with the offense. 

A fake hand-off to RB Eddie Lacy. 

The “Packerville, U.S.A.” view. 

Always nice to see a lot of this graphic on the scoreboard. 

Cobb waits for a Chicago punt. 

Three V.I.P.’s (Very Important Packers) after another Green Bay touchdown. 

Is anybody else happy that Jay Cutler is not our QB? 

Packers fans had a lot to keep them in a great mood all night. 

 Rodgers moves out of the pocket before getting a pass off.

S Morgan Burnett gets a sack of Cutler. If he didn’t get him, LB Clay Matthews most likely would have. 

Head Coach Mike McCarthy on the Packers’ sideline. 

There was a fair number of Bears fans there, but they had nothing to cheer about all night.

Cobb lined up for the snap. 

QB Matt Flynn played most of the second half. 

Flynn hands off to Harris. 

Flynn back to throw. 

One of the greatest final scores... ever. 

Somebody has a lot of work to do on Monday...