July 7, 2013 /
Adam Czech
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Adam - ALLGBP.com, Adam Czech, Packers, Surviving Sunday
Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football
Do you ever wonder if the marketing machines behind professional sports franchises make fans stupid? Or are professional sports fans already stupid, and the marketing machines give fans exactly what they’re asking for?
I was thinking about this while covering the Yankees beating the Twins (yet again) earlier this week at Target Field. Between almost every pitch, the Twins blasted some type of music over the stadium sound system or tried to entice a chant out of fans by playing some other type of sound effect. During every between-inning break, something silly like kiss-cam or a dance-off party played on the stadium video board.
It’s like the Twins didn’t think their fans had the mental capacity or attention span to pay money to attend a baseball game and actually, you know, watch the baseball game. Part of the beauty of baseball is the downtime between pitches and breaks between innings. You can follow and enjoy baseball while still chatting with friends or explaining the game to your 10-year-old son or daughter.
It’s hard to do any of that with yet another T-shirt toss (shiny objects!) going on or a song (wow, noise!) playing that tries to coax the audience into participating in some sort of generic sing-a-long.
I’m picking on the Twins, but the Packers haven’t been much better in this area the last couple of seasons. I haven’t been going to Packers games for very long, but even from when I first started (2007) to now, I’ve noticed a drastic change.
During the playoff win over the Vikings last season, I don’t think 10 seconds went by without the Lambeau PA announcer screaming at fans to get loud, or some type of gimmicky chant/song was played over the sound system to entice people to do…something, I guess.
It shouldn’t be this way. There are plenty of sports fans who are fans of the actual sport and the game being played on the field…right? Or am I naive and out of touch? Do the fans who attend today’s sporting events — even Packers fans — need all of these silly bells and whistles that have nothing to do with the actual game to keep them entertained?
A little bit of nonsense is fine. Go ahead and play the Go Pack Go! sound effect often. Sing “Roll out the Barrell” before the fourth quarter. I’m not trying to say that the stadium sound system should remain totally silent at all times.
But don’t beat it into the ground and cheapen the entire experience. Garbage like the G-Force pregame ritual, Seven Nation Army intro and the piped in sounds of old heavy metal songs to try to rile up the crowd between plays need to be removed from Lambeau.
That kind of stuff is acceptable at a minor league baseball park or Arena Football game, but not at the greatest sports venue on planet Earth.
For some reason, the Packers gameday brass thinks stuff like this enhances the gameday experience. It doesn’t. It drags it down. It makes it annoying. It’s distracting.
Packers fans have had the good fortune to watch one of the best teams in football for the last 20 seasons. Don’t distract us from the quality of what’s happening on the field on gameday by treating us like idiots with everything that’s happening off of it.
Packers News, Notes and Links
- Just like the Super Bowl season in 2010, several Packers are playing for a new contract this season. Will the desire to get paid coax big seasons out of guys like B.J. Raji, Sam Shields, Jermichael Finley and Evan Dietrich-Smith? I don’t know if I subscribe to the “contract year” theory — the theory that players play better when they aren’t signed for the following season — but I don’t think it hurts for certain guys to have a little extra motivation, either.
- Acme Packing Company asks which team do you hate losing to the most? For me, it’s the Bears. Whenever the Packers lose to the Bears, it’s usually a ragged and ugly game filled with a bunch of penalties and fluky plays. When the final score is displayed, I always wonder how in the hell the Packers just lost to that horsebleep team. I’m guessing the Vikings will be at the top of a lot of people’s lists. Yes, I’m pissed when the Packers lose to the Vikings as well — mainly because Vikings’ fans have the collective IQ of an empty Mountain Dew bottle full of dead mosquitoes — but sometimes when you lose to players like Adrian Peterson, Randy Moss or angry old-man Brett Favre, you just tip your hat and try to get the next one.
- Jacob Westendorf at Packerstalk.com asks if the Packers can afford to have Randall Cobb as their primary returner. Sure they can, if he’s head and shoulders above the next guy in line for the job. In a perfect world, Cobb would not be the primary return guy, but unfortunately, the world is not perfect. We’ll see if anyone steps up to take the job in training camp.
- Brian Carriveau opines about the lack of depth at safety for the Packers. I agree with everything Brian says. But if I had a quarter for every time I was worried about guys I’ve never heard of being able to step in and play for the Packers if called upon, I’d have a stack of quarters piled higher than the new south end zone addition at Lambeau Field. Worrying is what fans like me do. Making sure the Packers have good, quality young players that add depth to the roster is what proven GMs like Ted Thompson do.
- If you’re as sick of the offseason as I am, be sure to check out this handy offseason survival guide from Dan over at Packerpedia.com. My personal favorite is No. 9.
Non-Packers Links and Other Nonsense
- This long piece about how to win in Washington is a great read if you’re a media nerd like me.
- Profanity is getting smarter? Obviously, the author of this piece has never attended an NFL football game (or sat next to me on my couch while watching the Packers).
- I guess typewriters are becoming cool again. Ok…..
- RIP Matt Bourne (aka the real Doink the Clown).
July 4, 2013 /
Adam Czech
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Adam - ALLGBP.com, Adam Czech, Packers
Tramon Williams on the ground with an injured shoulder is something Packers fans do not want to see in 2013.
Injuries suck. Injuries suck worse when they occur to players who suit up for the Green Bay Packers.
What makes injuries even more sucky is that the serious ones linger into the following season, or lead to once-good players getting released (hello, Desmond Bishop).
The Packers have had a bunch of players go down with serious injuries since 2010. Many of those players are gone, many are still around and are still feeling the effects of those injuries today.
Which Packers could be battling lingering injuries in 2013? Unfortunately, too many:
Tramon Williams
After a Super-Bowl run where Williams elevated himself to near the top of the list in the “Who’s the best CB in the NFL?” debate, he jammed his shoulder early in 2011 and hasn’t been the same since. He hasn’t been bad, just not as good as we thought he’d be after the Super Bowl win. Williams talked openly about the nerve damage in his shoulder bothering him in 2011 and it’s unclear if it still dogged him in 2012. Nerve damage doesn’t sound like much fun, or an injury that automatically heals itself. The fact that Williams recently turned 30 probably doesn’t help his shoulder much, either.
Davon House
Speaking of shoulders, Davon House also had problems with his. After playing much of last season in a shoulder harness, House had surgery in the offseason and now says he feels better than ever. Unfortunately that’s what every player coming back from an injury says. You never know what’s going to happen when surgery is involved, though.
Alex Green
It’s not easy returning from a torn ACL. It takes most players two seasons to get back to where they were pre-injury. Every now and then, a guy will go Adrian Peterson and come back even stronger than he was before. Alex Green was not as good as Adrian Peterson before he hurt his knee in 2011 and he defintiely wasn’t Adrian Peterson his first season back in 2012. Will the knee still bother him in 2013? If it does, he might not make the team. It’ll probably come down to how comfortable the Packers are with James Starks’ always-nagging injuries and how they feel about Green’s knee.
Andrew Quarless
Speaking of bad knees, Quarless completely wrecked his in 2011. It was so bad that he missed all of last season. The Packers need a tight end who can block and help their new running backs. Can Quarless and his rebuilt knee be that tight end?
James Starks
Name a part of the human anatomy and it’s probably bothering Starks. His entire body is a nagging injury.
Nick Perry
I haven’t heard anything that indicates Perry’s wrist injury that cut short his 2012 season could linger into 2013, but who knows for sure. I kind of liked what I saw from Perry when he was healthy. He looked lost at times and didn’t have much diversity in his pass-rushing moves, but he was a rookie playing a new position. What did you expect? He’s got the raw talent to be a stout complement to Clay Matthews. Hopefully the injury doesn’t hold him back.
Derek Sherrod
Sherrod’s leg snapped in half. That’s more than just a nagging injury, that’s a quality of life concern. Nobody seems to have any idea if Sherrod will ever return and be a contributing player. If he doesn’t, hopefully his leg is fully healed and he’s able to at least live a normal, pain free, life.
Eddie Lacy
The rookie from Alabama fell to the Packers late in the second round of the draft because of his injury history. One of those injuries required toe fusion surgery — toe fusion surgery! — that just sounded ridiculously painful and not good. At least Lacy played through most of his injuries. Will that mean anything in the NFL, where the level of play is multiplied and even minor injuries can seriously impact a player’s performance? I’d rather not find out and keep Lacy injury-free.
July 3, 2013 /
Adam Czech
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Adam - ALLGBP.com, Adam Czech, Packers
Is Packers LB Sam Barrington the latest draft steal for GM Ted Thompson?
NFL analyst and NFL Films senior producer Greg Cosell had high praise for Packers seventh-round draft pick Sam Barrington on Tuesday.
Speaking with with Doug Farrar of Yahoo Sports on the Shutdown Corner podcast, Cosell called the 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker from South Florida an “athletic kid,” whose “athletic ability was a second- or third-round pick.”
“I think this kid has a chance, and certainly to stick on special teams because of his athleticism,” the highly respected Cosell said. “But I thought he was far more athletic than a lot of linebackers I watched and I was surprised he was not talked about.”
Cosell also said he did some additional research on Barrington and found out that he may have dropped in the draft because of issues diagnosing plays and learning on defense, but that’s impossible to know for sure.
Barrington was also arrested four times at South Florida — all for driving with a revoked or suspended license. Getting arrested four times generally doesn’t help one’s draft stock, either.
Barrington’s numbers improved every season at South Florida, culminating with 80 tackles, two forced fumbles and 3.5 sacks in 11 games as a senior.
His 40-yard-dash time at the NFL combine was a ho-hum 4.89 seconds, but improved to 4.69 seconds on South Florida’s pro day.
After Packers GM Ted Thompson picked Barrington, he called him a “good value.” That’s about as boastful as you’ll hear the tight-lipped Thompson get about a pick he’s made.
The Packers have had success with seventh-round draft picks in the past. Is Barrington the latest steal for Thompson?
“I was really surprised that he was not drafted until the seventh round,” Cosell said. “The more I watched him the more I liked his game. I wouldn’t call him explosive, but he was athletic with really good movement. I always defer to film as opposed to 40 times, and I thought he played as an athlete.”
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