Green Bay Update
by Jeff Ash, jeffash@netnet.net
Sunday, November 26, 2000
"Green Bay update, Sunday 11/26"
Greetings from Green Bay, where it is raining lightly, washing away our
snow. The neighbors are putting up their Christmas decorations, as usual
finding a graceful way to make our old white picket fence a little more
presentable by hanging garland and bows on it.
-- The Packers (5-6) play the Panthers (4-7) at 8 p.m. Monday at Ericsson
Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. It'll be televised nationally on ABC, with Al
Michaels, Dan Fouts and Dennis Miller on the call. It'll also be aired
nationally on CBS Radio with Howard David, Matt Millen and Boomer Esiason.
It'll also be on the Packer Radio Network, with Wayne Larrivee and Larry
McCarren on the call. This radio coverage is available for free on the
Internet, with the game broadcasts offered via the Packers' web site
(http://www.packers.com) and 3 hours each of pregame and postgame
programming offered via WTMJ radio in Milwaukee (http://www.wtmj.com or
620wtmj.com).
Here's the early weather forecast from Keith, our longtime Update
meteorologist in Norman, Okla.: Clearing skies and cool. Kickoff
temperature in the upper 40s after a high in the mid-50s. West wind at 10
mph. For updates, check Keith's web site
(http://www.galstar.com/~kbrews/packwx).
Keith worried in last week's putrid poetry that QB Brett Favre wouldn't
start against the Colts. He shouldn't have. So ...
Whatever pain the opponent afflicts,
One should know better, he who predicts;
As Brett can't stay down,
And, yes, somehow he found,
A way to open number one-thirty-six.
-- Indeed, Favre had one of his best games as the Packers went up 17-0 in
the 1st half, then hung on beat the Colts 26-24 a week ago at Lambeau Field.
Career highs for RB Ahman Green (153 yards rushing), WR Bill Schroeder (8
catches) and KR Allen Rossum (92-yard kickoff return for TD). It snowed
lightly during the game, adding to the 3 inches we got over a 36-hour
period. That was the 1st measurable snowfall during a game since the Snow
Bowl against the Buccaneers on Dec. 1, 1985, when almost a foot of snow fell
and kept the crowd down to 19,856.
News and notes, looking ahead to the Panthers game
-- Look for Antuan Edwards to start at LCB in place of Mike McKenzie and Tod
McBride. McKenzie's sprained left knee is better, but he had to sit out
Friday's practice. McBride sustained a hip pointer against the Colts and
didn't practice until Saturday. Even so, look for McKenzie and McBride to
play in the nickel and dime defenses. If injuries continue to be a problem,
look for the willing but undersized Rossum to continue to pitch in. A quote
from special teams coach Frank Novak, on Rossum, who's also being used
sparingly as a decoy on offense: "He's probably the lounge act downtown,
too. I wouldn't doubt that."
-- Likewise, look for Cletidus Hunt to start at DE in place of Vonnie
Holliday, who's playing only on passing downs as he works his way back from
a badly sprained ankle.
-- Strong-side LB Na'il Diggs hoped to return Monday night, but will miss
another week with a badly sprained left ankle. K.D. Williams again will
start for him. The Packers like Williams' intense approach to special teams
and his light-hearted demeanor in the locker room. He's one of the few guys
who can get coach Mike Sherman to laugh during practices.
-- WR Corey Bradford is still out with a sprained patellar tendon in his
right knee.
-- RT Earl Dotson has started doing agility drills in the hopes of being
ready to play next month. The Packers would like to have Dotson play yet
this season because they want to assess whether he's worth keeping for next
season. However, they're reluctant to mess with the offensive line, which
has played well in the last month.
-- Doesn't look as if RB Dorsey Levens will be back this season. LB Brian
Williams continue to be hopeful that he can return this season if
antibiotics take care of the abscess in his right knee.
-- The Packers don't think rookie S Gary Berry should continue playing after
injuring his neck against the Bears on Oct. 1. He had a similar injury while
at Ohio State in September 1999. Berry is getting other opinions in the
hopes of playing again.
-- TE Tyrone Davis continues to play with a painful rotator cuff tear in his
right shoulder. He wears a harness to support it, but has trouble lifting
his arms over his head. He'll have surgery after the season.
-- Because Davis is limited, and because it's time, rookie TE Bubba Franks
has become the starter. A quote from Sherman, on Franks: "I really believe
that Bubba Franks has made a big jump. Now, he still has a ways to go, but I
see it at practice. ... I see a sense of urgency in Bubba Franks and a want
to succeed. I see him getting better, trying to make plays, making blocks.
He's improved a lot as a blocker."
-- Given the Monday night game, Sherman gave the players Monday and Tuesday
off after the Colts game. LG Ross Verba, who sustained a mild concussion
during the game, didn't remember being told that. He was the only player to
show up at noon Monday, when the Packers usually have a team meeting.
-- Panthers DE Reggie White was on the media conference call on Wednesday
and shared this: "I'm not going to sit here and lie to you. I miss it there
immensely. The aura around Lambeau and the people there. It's something that
you can't get out of your blood, and it's still in my blood." Even so, he
added: "I know that once we line up, all of the relationships and the
friendships are going to be blanked out until that game is over. (Then) I'll
get a chance to talk to Verbs and Brett and LeRoy and (Darren) Sharper and
all of the guys I played with."
-- White likely will go against rookie RT Mark Tauscher for most of the
game. DT Santana Dotson advised Tauscher to keep quiet, as he usually is
anyway: "You don't want to wake up a sleeping giant. Big Dog's going to have
enough emotion going, so you don't want to get him any more aggravated."
-- Did you know: White has 197.5 career sacks, but has never sacked Favre.
They faced each other only once, in 1992, when the Packers beat the Eagles
27-24 at Milwaukee County Stadium. A quote from Favre: "He didn't have a
sack in that game, but after the game he claimed that we wet the field down
so he couldn't get good traction. He just didn't know how elusive I really
was. I'm one of the few he hasn't sacked, so I better be elusive this Monday
night. Tauscher better be elusive too."
-- Lest you grow nostalgic about ex-Packers, remember that White is 38.
Panthers FS Eugene Robinson is 37. Panthers CB Doug Evans is 30.
-- Times are changing. Consider this, from Chris Havel of the Green Bay
Press-Gazette: The Packers have 6 rookies or 1st-year players starting or
playing major roles this season: Diggs, Franks, Tauscher, LT Chad Clifton, P
Josh Bidwell and NT Steve Warren. By comparison, in the last 5 years, the
Packers have had only 6 such players: McKenzie in 1999, Holliday in 1998,
Verba and K Ryan Longwell in 1997 and CB Craig Newsome and Antonio Freeman,
then a kick and punt returner, in 1995.
-- The rookies keep falling for the free turkey prank. Every year, the
Packers set them up, convincing them they get a free turkey at a local
grocery store on the day before Thanksgiving. The store is in on the gag,
and the Packers capture the rookies' reactions on video when they're told
they have to pay for the turkeys. This year, Diggs, Warren, Clifton,
Tauscher, DE Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, WR Charles Lee, S Chris Akins, WR Kenny
Coutain and director of football administration Bruce Warwick fell for it.
The good news is that the turkeys are donated to a local food pantry. A
quote from Warren: "I can appreciate a good joke, that's all in fun. They
set it up real nice. There's a lot of good actors in this locker room,
because nobody gave it away."
-- SS LeRoy Butler has become the Packers' career leader in games played by
a DB. He's been in 167 games, passing Willie Wood. After that, it's Mark
Lee with 157 and Mark Murphy with 146. Butler has started 102 consecutive
games, 2nd only to Favre's 136 among active Packers. Butler has missed only
4 games in his career (suspended for 1 game in 1992 and out with pneumonia
for 3 games in 1994).
-- Green's HB option pass against the Colts was the 1st by a Packers RB
since Paul Ott Carruth threw 2 in 1988.
-- The Packers likely will play a 3rd preseason game at Lambeau Field next
year, with the tickets offered to the public by late winter or early spring.
The Packers were to have played the Dolphins at Camp Randall Stadium in
Madison, but University of Wisconsin athletics director Pat Richter asked
whether the game could be moved to Green Bay because a 3-year, $100 million
renovation project will be starting at Camp Randall. The switch will be
official as soon as the Dolphins sign off on it. UW may be asked to return
the favor in 2002, when the Packers will have to play their 1st 2 preseason
games on the road because of the Lambeau Field renovation. The Packers again
will play just 4 preseason games next year.
-- As expected given their $10 million overrun on next year's salary cap,
the Packers and Favre have started talks on redoing his contract to reduce
his $6.3 million salary for 2001. His deal has 3 years left, averaging $5.8
million a year. They are looking at a huge lifetime contract, with Favre
getting a signing bonus of $15 million to $20 million in exchange for low,
cap-friendly annual salaries.
-- Someone wrote us at the paper, asking for all of the Packers' training
camp sites. Thought I'd share the list, compiled largely from a story done
earlier this year by Cliff Christl of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:
1921-34 -- Green Bay; 1935 -- Rhinelander (players stayed at Pinewood Lodge,
a resort, and practiced at the bowl in front of the high school); 1936-46 --
Green Bay; 1947-49 -- Rockwood Lodge near Dyckesville, northeast of Green
Bay (now the site of Bay Shore Park on Wisconsin 57); 1950 -- Green Bay;
1951-53 -- Grand Rapids, Minn.; 1954-56 -- Stevens Point State College;
1957-date -- Green Bay.
-- The 10 finalists for the Packer Fan Hall of Fame have been named. To
learn more about them and cast a vote, go to packers.com
-- The Packers also are offering free, Web-based e-mail with a @GBPackers
address. To learn more, go to packers.com
As always, your questions and comments are welcome at the new address:
jeffash@new.rr.com
In the viewer mail, a delightful flood of responses to last week's little
mysteries.
-- As for the defense's celebrations after good plays, with the players
puting their hands to the sides of their helmets, extending their fingers
upward and stalking around in a crouched position ... all together now ...
it's a shark in a feeding frenzy.
Can't say everyone is thrilled with this celebration. A sampling of the
comments: "Personally, I think it's stupid."... "This shark feeding thing
looks like it was a planned celebration that a losing team shouldn't worry
about doing." ... "It looks to be a variation of the 'Shark Dance' that
Jamie Foxx does in the movie 'Any Given Sunday.'" ... "Yeah, I think it's
stupid, too." ... "Pretty lame ... and a little embarrassing to the fans, at
least to me." ... "I would have to agree with the local radio personalities
that I have seen more creative celebrations in the NFL." ... "Who'd have
guessed?"
Thanks to Jeff, Mark, Wes, Bob G., Ryan, Paul R., John L., Scott, Matthew,
Jim, Tony, Jimbo, John B., Paul I., Renee, Bob S., Bob F., Dan, Jason, Mike,
Ally and Chris -- most of you from the Milwaukee area, where this was
discussed on the radio -- for your help.
-- As for the glitter in the Packers' helmets, others have noticed. From
Jimbo in Oregon: "Kinda looks like the glossyness of their gold pants have
been rubbed off on the helmets. I think it looks 'retro 2000s.'" ... From
Ally: "My mom and I noticed very early in the season. They look pretty
awesome when they catch the light just right." ... From Tom in Milwaukee:
"Here's my theory, although I have no idea if it has any validity: Several
years ago, Ron Wolf wanted to change the Packers' uniforms. Wolf wanted to
make Packer gold less yellow and more gold (like Notre Dame or the 49ers,
for example). Anyway, obviously it never happened. Perhaps this is a
renewed attempt to make the yellow more metallic-looking. Just a theory."
-- As for the multicolored ribbons worn recently by the Fox broadcasters,
Scott came up with this: "The multi-colored pins on the Fox reporters are
for autism. This was in Sports Illustrated. I think one of the executive
producers has an autistic child and the Fox guys were doing it to help the
cause."
Adventures with Evan, who again is dictating in the hopes of getting on the
computer: "I had Thanksgiving, I had turkey, I had Sierra Mist. My cousins
came to visit. Jake and Beau. We played bowling. We played. In school, we
are learning the five senses. Touch is my favorite sense." Do you have
anything to say to all my friends who read this? "Hello." ... Evan so loves
school that he's at a bit of a loss when it's not in session. So we filled
the gaps by having his cousins over on Thanksgiving, then his friend Ethan
over on Friday, then one of his favorite babysitters, Hanna, on Saturday
night. Evan and his cousin Beau got out the big box and packing material
from our new computer, grabbed a piece of Evan's toy kitchen and started
shredding the Styrofoam. It looked like it had snowed in the basement. Took
longer to make the mess than clean it up, though, and Evan was fascinated by
the Shop-Vac. ... Evan was one of the ushers for the children's moments at
church this morning. The pastor's topic was truth. He said: "Brett Favre is
the best quarterback in football. Am I telling the truth?" Some kids said
yes, but most said no, much to the amusement of all. Count Evan among those
who said yes. ... Now that we have a faster computer and modem, Evan is
discovering the games on the Cartoon Network, PBS and Nickelodeon sites.
We've set him up with his own browser for this. Of course, the new computer
is in a place where we can keep an eye on him.
This week's soundtrack: Time to dig into the holiday CDs again. I've been a
collector of mostly rock and swing Christmas tunes ever since being wowed,
at age 13, by the Jackson 5's version of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town."
This time out, we have "Merry Axemas, Vols. 1 and 2," rock guitar
instrumentals; "Have Yourself A Tractors Christmas" and "Roomful of
Christmas" by Roomful of Blues.
This week's sources: Green Bay Press-Gazette (http://www.packersnews.com or
greenbaypressgazette.com), Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(http://www.jsonline.com/packer/news/) and Packers (http://www.packers.com)
web pages. Check the Packers' current roster at
packers.com
-- If you wish to show your appreciation for these Packers updates,
volunteer or make a donation to the charity of your choice. 'Tis the season
for that, you know.
Thanks as always to Janet for saving the papers and to Scott for providing
the mail service and the web space on South End Zone.
Thanks, Jeff
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