Football and Me

I am fascinated with football. I don't watch American Idol, Cake Boss, The Bachelor, even missed the Golden Globes, but during the fall and well into winter, there is usually a football game on my TV. I watch the NFL Network, ESPN and pregame shows. I read Packers.com and packersnews.com. While I can pay attention to all of football, clearly the biggest part of my football heart belongs to the Green Bay Packers.
I think it started when I was about 12 or 13. I remember Sunday afternoons sitting in the room we called the "den" of our family home watching Bart Starr, Ray Nitschke, Paul Hornung, Vince Lombardi, et. al. on our black and white TV. While we watched, I remember my dad explaining how you had four chances to make 10 yards, but if you didn't make in 3, you usually had to kick the ball to the other team. He taught me that you got 6 points for a touchdown and then an opportunity to get another point by kicking it through the uprights. He very patiently taught me the rules of football. After the Packers were victorious once again, he would change the channel to another game and I would ask him who we were for in that game. He always told me we didn't care. He also taught me that "The Bears, oh the Bears they play dirty." To this day, I think the Bears play dirty, but I don't think the Packers have ever made a dirty play in the history of the franchise. Packer football during my high school years in the early 70's was very different. Gone were all the greats and also the wins. My dad would hold his newspaper in front of his face like he wasn't really watching, but down came the paper quickly when something didn't go right. But by then Packer football had become a part of my DNA and so I suffered through the 70's and 80's and then Brett Favre made Packer football exciting again, then down again and earlier this year, Aaron Rodgers joined Bart Starr and Brett Favre in leading the Packers to another Super Bowl win.
Now we really days away from beginning another season and to say hopes are high for the Packers doesn't begin to describe the Packer Fever raging through Packer fans. So let the games begin and GO PACK GO!