I've worked in a public library for the past 8 years.
A family friend introduced me to the passion of Packers football when she came over to watch the Packers play the Cowboys in the 1995 NFC Championship Game. I remember watching her live and die with every play, surprised to see such emotion in an adult. She joined us again to cheer for Pittsburgh in Super Bowl XXX. I was 8 years old at the time, and don't recall seeing any other football games before those. My dad was more interested in the NBA, so we'd have the Finals on when Jordan seemed to win every year. This woman, Mary, was a mother of two younger boys and was so fired up about the Packers and Brett Favre and Reggie White and Mike Holmgren and the HORRIBLE stinking Cowboys that I was hooked. Even though they lost in 1995, and the damn Cowboys won, I was hooked on those Green Bay Packers.
Of course, we all know what happend the following season. I don't think I watched every regular season game, especially not the Eagles game, but I have vivid memories of staying up late to watch that 49ers Monday NIght game that Craig Hentrich won in OT. We had to go to a friend's house to watch the Rams game because we didn't have cable. The playoff run was magical, and Super Bowl XXXI was so very special, though I couldn't quite appreciate how rare it was to get to that mountain top. We all know what happened the following year, but let's just say Super Bowl XXXII was the most crushing Packers defeat I've experienced.
I've watched every Packers playoff game since, including Super Bowl XLV while living in the Republic of Georgia for a year. Because of the time difference, I had to stay up in the middle of the night to stream the game on my laptop, only for a winter storm to cause a power outage in the 4th quarter. I didn't know if the Packers had won until the next morning!
I've certainly lived a charmed Packers fan-life, but I'm trying to savor these good times as best I can, avoiding the Entitled Town mentality, while we're blessed to watch back-to-back, first ballot Hall of Fame QBs wow us every weekend.
On today's episode, Andy looks at historical trades over the past 20 years that could tell us what options Gutey has to trade up and down the draft board through the first two days of the draft.