Ecstasy of Green & Gold: Aaron Rodgers and the World Champion Packers

Well I was not exactly right.

Last Friday I predicted the Packers to win 30-24, I guess 31-25 is going to have to do.

But I did predict a Pick Six Over Texas, never mind that it wound up being Nick Collins and not Tramon Williams.

I’m just glad that my overly ambitious Christmas wish has somehow come true, which was six consecutive Green Bay victories. And it’s also good to see that not ALL of EA Sports/989 Sports prognostications come to pass.

I never thought I was asking for that much.

Also just winning for once in the Dallas area was nice, never mind that the previous horrors occurred at the Cowboys old place that’s since been leveled.

Just don’t call Green Bay ‘Title Town” anymore. This wonderful franchise became much, much more long ago. It’s more like ‘Title State” or actually ‘Title Nation” as the support for one of the NFL’s charter entries long ago surpassed the mere borders of Wisconsin.

You can argue which of Green Bay’s Championship teams is the best, whether it was any one of the five Lombardi-led title teams, the Holmgren/Favre/Reggie White bunch that won Super Bowl 31. Myself I kind of like this particular edition that got the job done seemingly against all odds.

Many predicted back in August that the Packers were very capable of going the distance in 2010, as long as injuries did not get in the way.

But injuries did rear their ugly head, and much more than the normal attrition every pro football team goes through over the course of the season.

Ryan Grant, then Mark Tauscher, Morgan Burnett, Nick Barnett, Jermichael Finley, Brad Jones, Brandon Chillar, Brady Poppinga. At one point it was wondered how Dom Capers would be able to patch together any type of linebacking corps.

But then came the reinforcements. Frank Zombo (undrafted), James Starks (rookie sixth round pick), Desmond Bishop (2007 sixth round pick), Howard Green (picked up off the waiver wire and contributed in 9-0 win over Jets very next week), Charlie Peprah (FA pick-up this year) – the list goes on.

And then there is Collins. I had a when GM Ted Thompson used the 51st overall pick to select the then-unknown defensive back out of Bethune-Cookman in the 2005 Draft. After all, every one of the five or six draft magazines I had in my hands at the time had him listed as a fringe prospect at best.

Sure…you still want Mel Kiper or Todd McShay to do your draft instead of Thompson??

And not to mention all the armchair GM’s who wanted TT to pull the trigger on Marshawn Lynch after the Week 1 Grant injury. Except for one exhilarating run in a first-round playoff game, Lynch didn’t exactly light the world on fire at his eventual locale in Seattle.

It was not like Starks was that much of a downgrade in the post-season, averaging 3.8 yards per carry and getting 52 yards in 11 carries against the most feared run defense in the NFL – granted RB is still an area where Green Bay can use an upgrade.

The adversity did not even stop in the Big Game, with both Donald Driver and Charles Woodson going down before halftime. The sickbay unit even extended to the fan base. Milwaukee area resident Robert Cook, one of the four fans featured in an ad campaign this year for never missing a Super Bowl, was hospitalized and missed the game. I did not like the karma, and the absences of veteran leaders such as Woodson and Driver goes far beyond the stat sheet.

Never did a 21-3 lead seem so precarious.

Ben Roethlisberger exploited the loss of Woodson and Sam Shields for a late second quarter touchdown. Then Rashard Mendenhall and Ike Redman ran the ball straight down the Packers’ throats on the first drive of the second half to close the gap to 21-17.

Super Bowl XLV seemed to be unraveling by the seams for the Packers, especially as James Jones and Jordy Nelson were letting Aaron Rodgers down with cases of the dropsies.

But as was the case on several occasions over the past several weeks, this team weathered the storm, even against another of the NFL’s most decorated franchises, which was gunning for its third title in six years.

The turning point came with the huge fumble forced on Mendenhall by Clay Matthews (The REAL Defensive Player of the Year, should had been no debate there). Then, unrattled, Aaron Rodgers makes the big plays, culminating in Greg Jennings’ second TD catch of the night.

As expected, the Steelers did not go away, Mike Wallace finally broke off his big play, and the ensuing 2-pt conversion made it 28-25.

Even after a time consuming drive featuring two crucial first-down receptions by Jennings and James Jones, it was still very much nervous time after a Mason Crosby FG extended the lead to six points.

The script was still way too much like the team’s regular season meeting in 2009, and visions of another Roethlisberger last-second game-winning drive and dramatic one-point victory was very much real.

That, of course, did not occur. As was the case in earlier Packers playoff games, the opponent’s last gasp fell short – the arm triangle submission chokehold had finally been applied, and the Packers had won the belt.

Now for the ramifications.

Aaron Rodgers, like Bart Starr and his most recent predecessor, officially has his Packers legend cemented. AR could retire right now and that championship remains. Incidentally, Starr, Favre, and Rodgers all won their first championships at age 27.

But with Finley and the other talent surrounding him and possible upgrades, Rodgers has a chance to truly become one of the all-time NFL greats with multiple championships. How would you like to be his agent when his contract expires a few years down the road?

And then there’s Thompson, who has handled things very similarly to the blueprint followed in Pittsburgh over the years. He has continued to find numerous hidden gems, not only in the later rounds of drafts but also on the free agent market – and quickly rebuilt the franchise after a 4-12 season in 2005 and a 4-8 start in a rebuilding year that followed, before landing in the NFC title game just one year later before, then encountering more bumps during the transition from Favre to Rodgers.

If you like a managerial group that keeps swinging for the fences for big names, I can gladly direct you towards Dan Snyder and the Washington Redskins – their strategies in recent years have lead them straight to the cellar of the NFC East.

With still the second youngest team in the league, the FOX studio crew threw out the dreaded ‘D’ word during the post-game. You can define ‘dynasty’ any way you want, but no NFL team has ever won more than two consecutive championships in the Super Bowl era. The Packers obviously should be able to remain in the mix for the next several years. During that time it will be interesting to see how long Mike McCarthy chooses to stay around. I got a feeling it will be a bit longer than Mike Holmgren. And MM was a hire by Thompson that was questioned when it was made, with sexier names supposedly available at the time.

Of course, true football fans just want to see ANYONE win a championship next year. There will be plenty to come on the labor front over the next several weeks, and not surprisingly Aaron Rodgers will be playing a huge role as a player rep. I’m being optimistic that things will be worked out, and that the Packers will open defense of their Super Bowl title at Lambeau Field on Thursday, September 8, 2011. But don’t hold your breath on a new CBA being hammered out until around 11:59; that’s how labor deals tend to go.

The argument will go on regarding which franchise truly has the most bling: the Steelers’ six Super Bowl-era titles or the Packers’ 13 overall. But I remember the statement by a then-frustrated GM Ron Wolf after Green Bay’s Super Bowl 32 loss when he referred to his team as a ‘fart in the wind’.

Considering how the Packers have stayed competitive since, that wind is about as strong as the Midwest Blizzard this past week.

And there was never a doubt yesterday…

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