Game Day!!! Whooooooooooooooooo!!!!

Game day has finally arrived. The day I have been waiting for a week. Here is why. The NFL does a lot of stupid things. Banning local cameras from the sideline, fining guys for wearing socks wrong, not allowing goofy celebrations, ignoring their vetrans in their final years, basically stupid stuff. BUT they do a lot of things right. This is why I love the NFL. Game day at Lambeau Field is amazing. The game wasn't until around 5:30pm but the stadium was jumping by 9am. I remember a sign outside of Krolls when I lived there. It said, "Game Day - Restaraunt Open 10am Bar Open 8am" That is what I am talking about.

The Tailgate at a NFL game is insane. I am sure about 10 percent of the people that were at the stadium did not even have a ticket. People just come out to be a part of the atmosphere. A lot of them dress up and spend more time taking pics with people than doing anything else. Like the Packer Elvis. Elvis lives and he is for sure a Packer fan. He certainly would not be a Giant fan. Sponge Bob Cheesehead was there as well as St. Vincent Lombardi. Who took time to pose with me. The guys who dressed up as the actual Frozen Tundra had a lesson to teach us all. Just read what is on their tundra. "I am the Frozen Tundra" The more I thought about it the more I agreed with them. I am, as a diehard Packer Fan, the Frozen Tundra. Marty said it also, all of us there at the game, ARE The Frozen Tundra. That sure is deep.

Every year I hear about a CFL marketing guy from Edmonton or Regina going down to Green Bay to study the game day operations of the Packers and how they could use some of the things that the Packers do on game day to make the CFL experience a bit more exciting. BUT, every year nothing changes and the game day experience at the CFL is show up and go to the game like you are going to a movie. I will give the Riders credit, they do have a decent atmosphere, but tailgating would bring it up a notch. Too bad the city is afraid to let the fans have fun. In Edmonton they always said that they did not want people walking through the neighborhoods drinking and pissing on lawns. Well the neighborhood that Commonfilth stadium is in, you can see that on every day of the week. Anyway the point I am getting at is that this is why the NFL is so great. Sure the game and the players have a bit to do with it, but with out the game day experience this would just be another football game.

Nordic Man and I headed to pick up Marty and go to the stadium. Marty actually spent some time outside last night to get used to the weather and his clothing set up just so we would not give him shit. After we picked up the So Cal loser we headed to the Holy Land. Lambeau Field was jumping. Oh did I mention it was cold. Here is how cold it was. Look at the icicles in the picture. The wind was blowing so they froze sideways. When have you ever seen that? Not too often do you see water freeze sideways.

First thing on the agenda was to find a Bratwurst. Krolls West had the hook up, and man was that a good Brat. Marty took the time to record the quest for the Brat on his camera and I will have that posted here as soon as I can get it into the computer. After the Brat was found we made a lap around the stadium before we went in. I had my picture taken with some NY fans. I also yelled like the drunk fan at a camera for Best Damn sports show. Like I have had about a billion times in my own camera. Payback is a bitch I guess.

Here is where I got a bit mad. Why is that fans from other teams in the league feel they need to deface cheeseheads? Can't they come up with something original to make fun of the Pack? I know it is hard to make fun of the Pack but this is just lazy. Buy a cheesehead and paint it blue. Write Blue Cheese on the side. Lazy, lazy, lazy. They should confiscate that shit at the door. You don't come into our house and deface a statewide symbol of the Packers. Just don't do it.

We managed to get some members of the University of Wisconsin band to play a bit of On Wisconsin for us, Nordic Man had lots of people shake his hand because he was wearing his turn out gear from the Gillet Fire Department, and we took lots of pics and video. Got this great one by the statue of Vince.

After Marty's hand was frozen we made our way into the Lambeau Field Atrium. Which kinda sucked. Since it was soooo cold, for the record it was 6 below, all the non regulars took to hanging inside the atrium. Lots of them just were camped out on the floor. Literally laying on the floor watching the Cheatriot game. I managed to get another Brat whilst Marty and Nordic Man stood in line for a beer. Wouldn't you know it the tap went dry right when Marty got to it.

Not to worry, the Leinie Lodge was right inside the stadium. That is where we holed up until it was time to go inside and yell at Eli that he sucks. The beer taps at the Leinie Lodge had these little alcohol burners beside them to keep them from freezing. Get this they had to keep the beer WARM! Awesome.

Oh, I almost forgot, we managed to smuggle some hooch into the game. Just for your future info the cops check under the arms, around the waist and lower back. NOT the boots. Just stick a few of those airline bottles in your boot and you are good to go. Not that we are condoning smuggling illegal booze into an NFL stadium. Oh, yeah, we are. We of course did all our smuggling right in the shadow of the Vince Lombardi statue. I am sure he would have condoned our activities. Or fined us. One or the other. Probably fined us.

After we found our seats, which kicked ass, we commenced our NFC Champion experience. I must admit the Man Tears were frequent and frozen at the start of this game. The anthem had me going but the fly by put me over the top. When that dude turned the after burners and rumbled the whole stadium it was over. Then the game started and we were all business.

Since I have been back I managed to watch the game on the PVR. I will tell you, the Packers looked better on the TV than they did at the stadium. Besides that 90 yard bomb to Driver we were all a bit upset with the play. The Packer D just did not seem to come to play and the offense was a bit offensive. Play calling was terrible. Okay don't get me off on a rant, I will save that for later.

More importantly, the beer was freezing. Not so much in the bottles but if you bought a glass of beer it would be frozen before you got back to your seat. I purchased a few Cokes for our rum and the instant they opened the bottle it turned to slush. The beer in the bottle is less likely to freeze but if you don't drink it fast enough it freezes at the top and you can't get the beer out. That was kinda depressing. Marty managed to video tape some of the proceedings inside the stadium and we did a podcast at half time. CLICK HERE to listen to the Podcast or just go and use the link at the top of the page. I will get the video up as soon as I can.

I will tell you that when the Giants kicker lined up for his last second field goal in regulation that I invoked the spirit of Vince Lombardi and asked him if he could do anything for us. Well come to find out, he did. He reached down and swatted that ball out of the air and stopped it from going in. He also got us the coint toss for OT. But that is where the luck ran out. He could not help Number 4 in overtime. He also could not help out MM with his shitty play calling.

Well, now it is time to explain why I thing the Pack lost this game. Well first off I will blame Sports Illustrated for putting them on their cover. Why? Put the damn Patriots on the cover, screw the Patriots. They should know better than anyone that putting the Pack on the cover is death. Screw SI.

Second, the coach, in his infinite wisdom decided that he was going to keep the team inside all week for practice. WHAT? Even Marty knew he had to go outside and practice his cold weather survival. Inside all week? You fricking live in the cold, get your ass outside and play. The Giants spent the week outside. Jerks. The boys just all looked cold and did not want to be there.

Third, and I have already gone over this, the play calling. Mike McCarthy just did not have an answer for anything the Giants did. Third and ten and he throws a quick out pass to the sideline? Wha? He needs to concentrate more on the game plan and less on his contract extension. Yeah, I said it.

Either way, I was asked if I would trade my weekend for a Packer win? Well, that is a tough question to answer. You all know I love the Pack. I made sure that McKenna, when she was born, that within her first hour she had the official Green and Gold touque on her head. The nurse at one point told me to "relax I will get it on her head soon." I am a die hard, I want that team to win every year. I think Number 4 is the greatest to ever play the game. Some have even gone as far to say that I have a bit of a man crush on Favre. Which I have decided that Man Crushes are just as legit as Man Tears. Don't even try to debate me on this. I love the Pack. BUT would I trade my weekend for a win? Man, I had a good time. Trade for a win? I don't think I can answer that. Really, and what kind of question is that? Leave me alone.

I had a great time with Marty, Nordic Man, Hauser, Preacher, and 72 thousand of my closest Packer friends. I don't think I would have missed this for the world. So I guess I answered the question so leave me alone. GET BACK TO WORK!!!