A picture of Ray Nitschke hangs in my Dad's office, signed to him because of his avid proof that he is one of the biggest Packer fans Ray ever met. Ray played his entire career as a Packer, and my Dad, who he met in New York in the mid 90s, was able to name every teammate Ray had on the championship teams in the 60s. The signature says, "To my friend Dan, once a Packer Backer, always a Packer Backer. Ray Nitschke." Ray died a few years later in 1998.
Although sports is not the deepest of topics to discuss, it is definitely a passion of mine and many New Yorkers. I love hockey and am a HUGE New York Ranger fan. I love the Yankees. But when I am asked about whether I am a Giant or Jet fan, I have to answer, "neither". I root for the Jets and sometimes the Giants, but I am a true Packer Backer all the way.
I was a fan since I can remember football. Many New Yorkers ask how this is possible. In 1995 I was accused of frontrunning (and again last year when they won their second Superbowl in 15 years). But the reality is pretty easy to explain.
I have met MANY Packer fans across America, but New York seems to hold a big chunk of the Packer fans outside of Green Bay. I attribute this personally to my Gram-pa and generally to his generation of Irish New Yorkers.
Back then, The Notre Dame Fighting Irish was a huge deal for Irish people in America. That team was the closest thing they had to victory in life, what with the poverty in New York City and all. Vince Lombardi was keen on how good the players from Notre Dame were, so he drafted them all knowing he could win with them professionally (he said "Winning is not everything; it is the only thing" and "If you're early, you're on time. If you're on time, you're late. If you're late, don't show up.").
So when the Fighting Irish players mostly moved onto Green Bay, my Gram-pa and a lot of the other Irish New Yorkers instantly became fans of the Packers. This was handed down from 2 generations now, and I am proud to be a fan of God's team and America's team, the Green Bay Packers (2 titles the Dallas Cowboys have tried to steal).
So when I think of Reggie White, Aaron Rodgers, Bart Starr, and of course Brett Favre, I get nostalgic in linking it with family heritage. But I recently read a great article in Business Week on my 7-0 team and I need to quote it here because it really explains why the Packers are such a heroic franchise. Here it is for your reading enjoyment:
"The Green Bay Packers are a historical, cultural, and geographical anomaly, a publicly traded corporation in a league that doesn’t allow them, an immensely profitable company whose shareholders are forbidden by the corporate bylaws to receive a penny of that profit, a franchise that has flourished despite being in the smallest market in the NFL—with a population of 102,000, it would be small for a Triple A baseball franchise. Of all the original NFL franchises—located in places like Muncie, Ind., Rochester, N.Y., Massillon and Canton, Ohio, and Rock Island, Ill.—Green Bay is the only small-town team still in existence. The Packers have managed not merely to survive but to become the NFL’s dominant organization, named by ESPN (DIS) in 2011 as the best franchise in all of sports.
The Packers have sold out 295 consecutive home games, and there are 80,000 names on the waiting list for season tickets. Everywhere you look in Green Bay there is Go Pack signage—at the obvious places, like Brett Favre’s Steakhouse just off Holmgren Way, and the less obvious, like the Pho #1 Noodle & Grill on Oneida Street. Green Bay residents consider it a point of pride to buy their own bodyweight annually in Packers paraphernalia. The Packers led the NFL in apparel sales last year—the top two selling jerseys in the league were Packers Aaron Rodgers and Clay Matthews—making $27 million just through the pro shop inside Lambeau Field and the site Packers.com. All that swag, and those endless sellouts, made the Packers the 11th-highest-revenue team in the NFL in 2011, with total income of over $280 million, despite the fact that it plays in by far the smallest of the league’s 32 cities. (Ironically, this success means that Green Bay pays into the NFL reserve fund set up to redistribute revenue from larger market teams to smaller market teams.)"
[You can read the rest of the article here: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/the-green-bay-packers-have-the-best-owners-in-football-10202011.html]
Once a Packer Backer, always a Packer Backer.
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