RealGM

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/st ... one/081121

Love him or hate him, I thought this was a good article by Bill Simmons. Basically writes about how all of the new state of the art stadiums are killing home field advantages and how going to a game isn't what it used to be. He mainly uses Gillette Stadium as his basis, as he is a known Boston fanatic, and I got the impression that Lambeau was kind of an exception as it still has a passionate college atmosphere. But I thought it was a good read and how the true fans are being forced to the upper deck and/or just losing interest in going to the game.

Watching games from the upper deck of most football stadiums is ridiculous.

Best thing about Lambeau: No bad seats in the house

And the most expensive seats (club and box) are the worst. I love it.

zmanishere11 wrote:Best thing about Lambeau: No bad seats in the house

For sure. Just being outside in the cold in that atmosphere is utopia to me. There's no place I'd rather be.

aaprigs311 wrote:

zmanishere11 wrote:Best thing about Lambeau: No bad seats in the house

For sure. Just being outside in the cold in that atmosphere is utopia to me. There's no place I'd rather be.

This was the first strong sign to me that i'm now getting old. I've been going to 1-2 Packer games a year for a long time and always loved it, regardless of the weather. Well, bout three four years ago i was at a game and the weather forecast called for it to be partly cloudy and about 55 degrees, so i dressed for that weather, a hooded sweatshirt.

The forecast ended up being wrong and instead it was in the 40's, windy, and light rain. The wind was blowing the rain/mist in my face and i along with my buddy were absolutely miserable. We both just wanted to leave and watch the rest of the game at a bar, but didn't do so. Next game we attended it was colder than expected and windy, but the reasonably warm sun was out. My bad luck had our seats right by the scoreboard which blocked the sun, the other 65,000 fans had sun on them. Again i was unhappy. The last straw was freezing at another game and just couldn't get into it like years past, even after getting hammered. I now have a rule, i will only attend games in September or October and i have been invited to other later in the year games, i passed and watched it on TV instead.

That's why when i watched Favre look so miserable in the cold vs the Giants, i knew there was no turning back for him in regards to cold weather. I'm a little younger than Favre, but once you lose that tolerance for the cold, it only gets worse as each year goes by.

Yes, I've been noticing I am generally turning into a puss as well, El Dude--I'm about the same age as you.

When I'm out playing football or something, which I do still do in an annual game and so forth, I used to pride myself as a displaced Wisconsiner playing with as little clothing as possible in "cold" non-Wisconsin weather.

No longer. Now I'll wear a knit hat if its like 55...

In fairness El Dude, though, those rainy high 30's low 40's are the absolute worst. My dad made me leave with a quarter to go during the 96 GB/SF playoff game--I wanted to stay but I seriously thought the old man might bite it if we stayed.

The great thing about Lambeau though--at least youre packed in. Being in the upper deck in some of these new stadiums with the wind is worse.

Ha, I was thinking something similar this weekend. I'm 27. Every year I go home to my dad's place to hunt with him, my brother, a cousin and my uncles. These are ex-college football players, tough guys and the highlight of their year is hunting weekend with the guys. Me, I'm not much of a hunter. I go home to see family, drink and listen to stories. I'll make a token appearance in the woods at 5:30 in the morning but if I don't see anything in the first two hours I'm back in the house.

Saturday morning it was about 10 degrees with a bit of a wind, far from the coldest winter I can remember on opening day. By 9:00 am I was back in the house, mostly out of boredom. But around 9:20 a steady run of the old guys came back and in years past this would never have happened. One of my uncles looked like he had just came in from -20 degree weather. When the rest of the old guys came in they all talked about how cold it was. I went back out there a couple times. My stand was at the tree line; I was getting the worst of it, but I thought the weather was as mild as I could remember it.

These were the same guys that were drunkenly yelling at me when I had the audacity to suggest that Favre might not be able to handle playing up to form in cold weather at his age. That it may have been a reason Thompson and McCarthy moved to Rodgers. It was a classic RealGM debate except the opposition was eight feet from you, 220 lbs a piece, holding guns and liquor.

DrugBust wrote:It was a classic RealGM debate except the opposition was eight feet from you, 220 lbs a piece, holding guns and liquor.

Great line, DB

MikeIsGood wrote:

DrugBust wrote:It was a classic RealGM debate except the opposition was eight feet from you, 220 lbs a piece, holding guns and liquor.

Great line, DB

Yeah, that's classic--made me spit out my coffee this morning laughing. "Maybe you're right uncle, maybe Brett really is Jesus Christ--why don't you stop waving the shotgun around, now while we talk"

I liked "I'll make a token appearance in the woods" alot too.

Haha that last line was indeed classic DB.

Gotta love a Favre debate that gets heated,I remember the first one I witnessed was right after the 1992 season between my brother in law Keith and this guy who owned a sports card shop,I thought they where going to come to blows.

My brother in law and I went around to all the card shops that day because he wanted to get a bunch of Favre rookies,he thought Favre was going to be great.Anway the guy at one praticular card shop wasnt realy a big fan Favre and said he was a fluke and wouldnt have that great of a carrer.Next thing I know they are yelling at each other and arguing and whatnot it was actually pretty funny.

I remember my first Favre debate although it wasnt all that heated,8th grade middle of the 1992 season a guy in my gym class was saying Ty Detmer would be better than Favre if he was given the chance to play which I and a couple others disagreed with.

Haha the good old days.

Jollay wrote:Yes, I've been noticing I am generally turning into a puss as well, El Dude--I'm about the same age as you.

When I'm out playing football or something, which I do still do in an annual game and so forth, I used to pride myself as a displaced Wisconsiner playing with as little clothing as possible in "cold" non-Wisconsin weather.

No longer. Now I'll wear a knit hat if its like 55...

In fairness El Dude, though, those rainy high 30's low 40's are the absolute worst. My dad made me leave with a quarter to go during the 96 GB/SF playoff game--I wanted to stay but I seriously thought the old man might bite it if we stayed.

The great thing about Lambeau though--at least youre packed in. Being in the upper deck in some of these new stadiums with the wind is worse.

Man, that game with the windy light rain/mist was beyond miserable. I went with my best friend, my uncle, and my moms husband and my uncle paid for my ticket. Me and my buddy were trashed, but that did nothing to stop how cold i was. I "watched" half of the game with my head completely inside my hooded sweatshirt and just only my eyeballs out from under it. I badly wanted to leave at halftime and watch the game at a bar, but didn't want to complain like a big pussy to my uncle who bought my 75-100 dollar ticket. To make matters worse, i think it was during Shermans last season and whoever the Packers played that day, i know they lost.

Next game i attend, the damn scoreboard blocks the sun that the other 90 percent of the crowd had on them to make the chilly/windy day not as chilly because i felt the fairly warm sun when i was on the concourse. I spent the whole three hours at the game swearing at the scoreboard for blocking the sun and vowing to never ever sit in that area of the stadium again. I swear, if we would have sat one measly section over, we'd have been in the sun also. I was so jealous of everyone in that section that me and my friend seriously thought about going over there and offering people money to switch seats with us.

In my early 20's, i worked for awhile on a dock loading trailers in freezing weather, never fazed me in the slightest. It could be 10-15 degrees only and i'd work 8-10 hours in only a thick sweatshirt. If i had that job now, i'd need to wear a sweatshirt under a parka with a face covering hat on. Man i hating living in Wisconsin now. If my daughter didn't live here, i'd be gone and living in California again.

Jollay wrote:

MikeIsGood wrote:

DrugBust wrote:It was a classic RealGM debate except the opposition was eight feet from you, 220 lbs a piece, holding guns and liquor.

Great line, DB

Yeah, that's classic--made me spit out my coffee this morning laughing. "Maybe you're right uncle, maybe Brett really is Jesus Christ--why don't you stop waving the shotgun around, now while we talk"

I liked "I'll make a token appearance in the woods" alot too.

Out at the bars after the Giants game last post-season, my friend and I did not say anything bad about Favre, only that we were happy about how well he had played but wouldn't mind if he chose this year to hang it up because he had broken our hearts all too many times in the playoffs. The random guy we were talking to proceeded to pull a knife on him and tell him to take back what he said about Favre.

CV this is why I don't hold your opinions personal. If I were subjected to what I believe you guys are in Wisconsin but I am not, I could understand your opinions ALOT better. Displaced from Wisconsin I dont have to deal with what u do.

Rodgers still is not the problem, although I might have still have as GM taken one more season with Favre as a shot with. Aaron Rodgers made two throws across his body tonight I am still amazed with; I am thrilled to have him as my QB.

However, TT still deserves criticism, IMO. I mean, what acquisition of the Jets has worked out bad???? When Spitz got blasted for the sack? C'Mon......!!!!!!!!!!!

DB's whole thing remind me of Caddyshack...."Gunga guloonga," he said....if you follow me...."So I was caddying for Brett, and do you know what he said....as DB's relative waves the shotgun....

I'm wasted if it isnt obvious....

Jollay wrote:CV this is why I don't hold your opinions personal. If I were subjected to what I believe you guys are in Wisconsin but I am not, I could understand your opinions ALOT better. Displaced from Wisconsin I dont have to deal with what u do.

Rodgers still is not the problem, although I might have still have as GM taken one more season with Favre as a shot with. Aaron Rodgers made two throws across his body tonight I am still amazed with; I am thrilled to have him as my QB.

However, TT still deserves criticism, IMO. I mean, what acquisition of the Jets has worked out bad???? When Spitz got blasted for the sack? C'Mon......!!!!!!!!!!!

DB's whole thing remind me of Caddyshack...."Gunga guloonga," he said....if you follow me...."So I was caddying for Brett, and do you know what he said....as DB's relative waves the shotgun....

I'm wasted if it isnt obvious....

Nearly everyone i know is a Packer fan, from friends to relatives. While some were very pissed at first over the team picking Rodgers over Favre, for the most part, they all except one got over it once Rodgers did well early on. I'm sure there are some fans that are still very bitter over it, but i sense they are much more the minority than the majority. The deep deep anger so many had has lessened from at least i can see.

With Rodgers not playing very well though vs the Vikings/Titans and now tonight against the Saints, along with Favre playing extremely well the last three weeks on an 8-3 Jets team, odds are the whole Favre/Rodgers debate will be rekindled in the media, especially talk radio. That said, even if the Packers might possibly be a game or two better this year if Favre was playing here, most fans with any football knowledge can see that the defensive front seven and especially the defensive line deep struggles have hurt the Packers most compared to last season.

I have one cousin though who was irate at letting Favre go and has stayed pissed about it, i gave up trying to talk him off the ledge over this. He hates Thompson and said before the season that we'd miss the playoffs. After Rodgers having 3 shaky games the last 4 weeks and Brett playing stellar football the last three weeks, i'm sure i'll be hearing plenty about it in a few days on Thanksgiving.