Welcome to 2025 training camp, Green Bay Packers fans. We’ve survived the dead zone and can truly start ramping up for the season ahead.

Training camp is a special time of year – for starters, it’s fairly brief, so you have to make the most of it as a fan. Additionally, it’s also the best way to get up close and personal with your team – and you don’t even have to buy a ticket. In a way, attending a public Packers practice is sort of like getting to sit in on your favorite band’s rehearsals before they go on tour.

The sounds of the horn, which indicate a drill switch, are iconic, and you get to watch your favorite players goof off between sessions (yes, it’s true, Jamaal Williams was always dancing). And in that live setting, one-on-ones can be as fascinating as the all-11 sessions. Plus, you get to watch the process of preparing for the season in real time.

And if you find a spot in the grandstand at Ray Nitschke Field (get there early or you’ll be standing in line), or even in the row of bleachers along Armed Forces Drive, you never know who you might end up sitting next to. Fans come from all over to attend practice sessions. (A few years ago, my fiancée and I sat behind Jeff Janis’ wife and baby daughter.)

And hey, when practice is over and you’ve been sitting in the sun for two hours, you can make the short walk to Stadium View Bar – or one of the many other nearby watering holes – to cool off, have a Spotted Cow and nosh on some cheese curds.

Honestly, there are probably too many things to count, but here’s a shortlist of what makes training camp such an enjoyable lead-up to each season:

• Alternate uniform reveals. This year, even if you don’t like the faux leather helmet, we all know those dark blue jerseys are going to be flying out of the Pro Shop.
• Training Camp Cliches like “I’m in the best shape of my life,” “He’s really turning heads” and “I’m working to get better every day.” (Bonus points when a coach says his position group is  “Buying into the system.”)
• Giant dudes riding little pink bikes. 
• Faces in Packers uniforms you will assuredly never see again once the season starts. Well, unless you watch a lot of USFL. 
• Complimentary cardboard hand fans with players’ faces on them to keep you cool during those late morning practices under a blazing sun. 
• Green Bay hospitality.
• Free football, even if it isn’t necessarily full speed or full contact. It’s free. Free football.
• Kroll's West butter burgers.
• Being able to walk into Lambeau Field at your leisure and, obviously, spending all your money in the Pro Shop.
• Rooting for underdogs, who are unlikely to ever see meaningful snaps in a regular season game – we’ll call this the Kurt Benkert Effect.
• Fried lake fish in pretty much any place around town with a menu.
• Kids and adults alike having fun.
• Speculating on which undrafted free agent will make the 53-man roster this year.
• If you attend a preseason game, the Lambeau Field bratwurst may be the greatest meat-based creation in the history of mankind.
• Reclamation projects. Brian Gutekunst always seems to pluck some veteran off another team’s practice squad or the back end of their roster and Packers coaches find a good use for them. Think Allen Lazard, Rasul Douglas, Malik Willis and Devondre Campbell as prime examples. Former New York Giant Isaiah Simmons flashed during his first training camp session in green and gold. Is he this year’s version? Or will Mecole Hardman crack the squad and offer meaningful snaps on special teams and offense? (This also cues another training camp cliche that sometimes a player needs “a change of scenery.”)
• Kwik Trip.

You get the picture. There are so, so many things to love about Packers training camp season, so I’ll stop there. See you in August at the Pro Shop.