Surviving Sunday: Packers News, Notes and Links for the Football Deprived
Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football
Profootballtalk.com asked fans to vote on their Packers Mt. Rushmore this week and it created some interesting debate on Twitter and talk radio.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the concept, the Packers Mt. Rushmore needs to consist of four people. It can be players, coaches, executives or whomever that you feel is one of the four most important people in Packers history.
This is a tough one. If there was an actual Packers Mt. Rushmore, it would need to go on the side of a very large mountain because four people is much too small.
As much as I love guys like Ron Wolf and Bob Harlan and acknowledge that the Packers might not be around without folks like them, I don’t know if I can put executives on a Mt. Rushmore. Isn’t putting executives on a Packers Mt. Rushmore kind of like putting Abe Lincoln’s chief of staff on the actual Mt. Rushmore instead of Abe Lincoln himself?
I’m also not sure coaches belong on a Mt. Rushmore. But that means leaving off Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau, which is just asinine.
If I knew that people wouldn’t burn down my house for leaving Lombardi and Lambeau off, I’d probably put Don Hutson, Bart Starr, Reggie White and Brett Favre on my Packers Mt. Rushmore. When the people arrived with torches and pitchforks to take care of me after leaving off Lombardi and Lambeau, I’d remove Hutson and White for the two legendary coaches.
Football will always be about the players to me. You absolutely have to have a good front office and coaching staff to make everything work, and I’ll say it again that the Packers are not the Packers without the executives and coaches I’ve already mentioned (along with many others).
But in the end, you have to wear a jersey and helmet instead of as suit and tie to make my Packers Mt. Rushmore.
Let us know who makes your Packers Mt. Rushmore in the comments section.
(And don’t yell at me too much for leaving Lombardi and Lambeau off my pre-torches and pitchforks Packers Mt. Rushmore.)
Packers News, Notes and Links
- Jason Wilde reported this week that the Packers will release LB Desmond Bishop. Of course, this irked a lot of Packers fans who remember Bishop as the team’s best defensive player in 2011, before he blew up his hamstring in the 2012 preseason. It’s not like Ted Thompson and Mike McCarthy get together each day and talk about what really good player they can cut today. There’s a reason Bishop’s likely gone, and it’s because the Super Bowl-winning coaching staff and general manager think he won’t be nearly as effective as he was pre-injury. Time will tell, but cutting players approaching 30 and coming off injuries rarely backfires for the Packers.
- McCarthy is happy with the new crop of young players so far. That’s saying a lot since the Packers have had some impressive young groups of players over the years. It looks like the talent is there with this year’s group, now they need to not get struck down by the Packers’ horrible luck with injuries.
- As we did this week, Acme Packing Company took a look at the Packers ILB depth.
- Over at PocketDoppler, Kelly (one of the Out of the Pocket Podcast hosts at Packers Talk Radio Network), defines forgiveness as applicable to Brett Favre.
- Brian Carriveau at CheeseheadTV isn’t buying Desmond Bishop being released for financial reasons…
- Piggy-backing on the Packers Mt. Rushmore concept, which Packers number would you retire? I would retire William Afflis’s No. 62. Why? Because in addition to playing for the Packers, Afflis went on to become Dick the Bruiser, a famous pro wrestler.
- Packerstalk.com knocked it out of the park again this week. Here’s an interview with rookie RB Jonathan Franklin conducted by the ALLGBP.com crew and here’s John Rehor writing about the latest Brett Favre developments.
Non-Packers Links and Other Nonsense
- Jerry Seinfield’s web series “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” is back and Sarah Silverman was the first guest on the new season. Excellent stuff.
- I’d like to hear what the racially insensitive uncle would say about all them damn tattoos and earrings on pro sports players these days.
- This book about people (sounds like a lot of hippies) hijacking planes in the 60s and 70s sounds awesome.
6 Comments On “Surviving Sunday: Packers News, Notes and Links for the Football Deprived”
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How about a “Player Rushmore” and an “Administrative Rushmore” since it’s made-up anyway? Favre, Starr, Hutson, Nitschke and Curly, Vince, RW, Holmgren for me. Sheesh, even then it’s not easy.
You’re right about 4 figures being entirely too few to represent the Packers. But, if pressed to do so, I believe you have to recognize Lambeau and Lombardi.
After that, I have to give Starr the nod over ‘4’ based on number of championships and his continuing and lasting ambassadorship to the franchise. It’s tough for me to leave Reggie White off that ‘mountain’ and, if he had played his entire career in Green Bay, I’d feel compelled to include him. As it is, I think Hutson has to be the 4th. What he did at the time was unparalleled and changed the game forever.
If you’re leaving coaches off the Mt. Rushmore, I’m with Adam’s four guys. But in my opinion, coaches and executives should be included.
My Packers Rushmore: Lambeau, Lombardi, Hutson, Starr. Those four ahead of guys like Favre, Harlan, Wolf and White.
I actually discussed this with a couple Lambeau tour guides earlier this week. Interesting conversation.
I couldn’t agree more. Your Mt Rushmore is perfect. Favre doesn’t belong ahead of Starr, Hutson revolutionized the game in a real way, not imaginary like Cow thinks Kaepernick has. Lambeau and Lombardi could be on the NFL Mt Rushmore, much less the Packers.
NFL Mount Rushmore
Halas, Lombardi, Hunt, Rozelle.
Hard to distill to four, and the Mara family and the Rooney family were hard to leave off, but I think this hits it.
It also would be hard to leave off Paul Brown, who coached the Browns from 1946 thru 1963, and then co-founded and coached the Bengals. He was the man who quietly integrated the NFL and who had a huge role in the evolution and modernization of football.