Some images from Lambeau Field - January 20. For those of you who don't know, I grew up about 40 miles from the Shrine of Professional Football. In 1965, my mother put us on the waiting list for Packer season tickets ... in 1990, we got to the top of the list. Today, that list is over 70,000 names (not tickets) long. At current rates, the guy at the end of the list has a 1,000 year wait.
I flew up on Saturday to Milwaukee and drove up to the Green Bay area. Hotels, flights and car rentals in Green Bay weren't available ... there were a lot of folks on my flight (from Denver) on their way to the game.
As reported, it was cold ... about 0 at kickoff with -23 windchill. I was dressed like Nanook of the North ... two pairs wool socks (with toe warmer) in insulated hunting boots. Thermal long-johns, jeans and sweat pants; two undershirts, a fleece lined demin shirt and down jacket, thinsulate gloves with hand warmers, and two caps.
Seems I could handle cold better when I was younger ... I went to the 1996 (Jan 97) NFC Title in 3 degree weather and was really warm by the end of the game. But they must not make warm weather stuff like they used to ...
Lambeau has been renovated in the last five years, with more seats and new concorses (and lots of restrooms). At halftime, I headed over to the Atrium area (enclosed and heated) to warm up for a few minutes.
Anyway, back to the pregame. I went to the game with an attorney friend and his son, my sister, and two other attorney friends of my friend.
Here's most of us at a pregame tailgate party across the street from Lambeau. I'm the second from the left (my sister is wearing the orange outfit). If you grabbed a beer, it turned into slush pretty quick. I was amazed to see a guy hawking ice to the other tailgate parties before the game. The tailgate party next to this one was enclosed with heaters ... and a TV with the Patriots-Chargers game playing
Here I am, holding a thermometer. It's 2 degrees (approx. 330 pm)
After we left the first tailgate party, we went to a second party. This one was on the Lambeau grounds. Most of the tailgate parties are on the east and south sides of Lambeau, but this one was in the northwest corner, about 50 yards from the entrance.
Let's just say that most mere mortals aren't allowed to tailgate in this area, but this tailgater was a local Circuit Court Judge, Donald Zuidmulder, who also happens to be a member of the Packers Board of Directors (the 45-member board that manages the team).
During the previous week, one of my friend's attorney pals appeared in the Judge's court and was invited to stop by the tailgate party on Sunday. The judge also mentioned that a special guest was coming to his tailgate party, but he couldn't tell who he was for security reasons.
So, we get to the tailgate party about 415 or so and a few minutes later, I notice a couple security guys looking at the judge's tent. A middle aged gentleman and his son (about 8-10 years old) come in and the Judge welcomes his friend. My friend goes to the security guy and says, "Pardon me for being stupid, but who is that guy?"
The security guy tells him, "That's John Roberts, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court." (He's the guy in the red parka; Judge Zuidmueller is in the Packers parka). My attorney friends act like he's some sort of rock star (I guess to attorneys he would be). I didn't get a chance to meet him personally, but I can tell folks that I partied with the Chief Justice at the Packer game.
Reminds me of the time I slept with Miss Texas ... nah, I won't tell that story today.
The remaining pictures are from our seats in Section 133. If you saw the game, we're near the tunnel where the Packers take the field. We are on the visitors side of the field, but Lambeau really doesn't have many bad seats.
The line of folks in yellow jackets from the tunnel is a fan honor guard. It is a special honor to be selected to stand there to welcome the Packers on the field.
My attorney friend told me a story for that game. He got an e-mail from another attorney telling how his dad who had been a season ticket holder for years had just been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and that Sunday's game would probably be the last game his father would attend. In fact, his doctors wanted him to start chemo on Thursday, but dad insisted that he was going to the Packer game and he wouldn't be able to start until Monday.
My friend knows the legal counsel for the Packers (Green Bay IS a small town) and told him the story. The Packers attorney said he thought he could do something but wasn't sure, since the NFL runs a lot of the playoff game events. A few hours later, he calls my friend and tells him that he and his father would be invited to stand in the fan honor guard and get sideline passes for the NFC Championship Game.
The guy tells my friend that he was going to suprise his dad when they got to the game and then tell him they were going down to the field.
Back to the cold ... fans are pretty well packed into the stands -- let's just say that the guy who marked the numbers on the benches didn't plan for too many wide-loads, if you know what I mean. With everyone well padded, you were always close to your neighbor. The joke was that if somebody left then there was a cold air pocket and it got cold.
As for the game, well, you all saw it. The Packers were pretty flat, and never got the ground game going -- lots of third and longs. Farve had good protection, but the feeling we had was that the Giants did a great job of protecting the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.
The FG try at the end of regulation had the fans holding their breath, but once we saw the snap was high, we knew it was no good. And when the Packers won the toss for the overtime, just about 72,000 folks in Lambeau were planning their Super Bowl trips or parties.
Once the Giants got the interception, we all knew that there was no chance that the Giants would miss a third field goal in a row. And we were back at my friend's house on the other side of Green Bay by 10 pm.
And I was in a motel room in Milwaukee by 2 am, following lots of traffic going down I-43, catching a noon flight back to Texas ... with snow falling in Milwaukee.
John
