Green Bay Rocks!

Last weekend was a special NFL weekend for me as I took a roadie to Green Bay to check out the Lambeau field. It was a great trip. Lambeau was as good as hyped. It has it's outside and atrium re-modelled and looking new, but the core of Lambeau looks incredibly simple, charming, old and historic. The stadium has very few luxury boxes and press boxes and stuff, but the rest of the stadium is all bench. It's like a low-end college football stadium. No seats, no cushions and no cup holders. It's just a metal bench and seat numbers for 60000 people. The crowds at Lambeau were great as well. Fans filled the stadium up well before the game started and thats unusual in places like California. The folks show up hours before the game and tail-gate to heart's content. The people are so nice and the whole mid-western hospitality thing is no fabrication. Even 20 year old drunk guys treat their fellow fans with respect and decency.

The game was just the best game we could have picked. San Diego and LT was in town and the finish was one of the best in recent Lambeau history. Favre got the ball with 2:16 to go in the game and trailing by 4. We were all getting ready for a 2 minute drill, but Favre scored the game winner even before the 2 minute warning! He hit Greg Jennings on a short slant which he took to the house. The crowd went nuts and we knew Philip Rivers was not ready for a 2-minute drive, at least not yet. The crowd went nuts again when Nick Barnett intercepted Rivers to put the game away. Incredible game and an unforgettable experience at Lambeau. Great stadium, incredible history, nice people and my only request is, people in Wisconsin should drink a little less :-)

The other striking part of the trip to me was how Brett Favre absolutely owns Wisconsin. I mean I knew he was popular and the best thing going in the Packers roster, but did not realize how much the fan-base loves him. Of course you take him out of this team, the offense is utter garbage. I should have seen at least 30000 people wearing his number 4 jersey, It's like the entire town of Green Bay is wearing his jersey. I have personally never seen anything like this. After visiting Green Bay, I can't believe there has been rumors about him playing in another town. I don't even know how that'll work. I think it'll look as ugly as Marino would have looked if he signed with the Vikings at the end of his career. Favre belongs to Wisconsin and I don't know what those fans will do if he signs with someone else. Speaking of Marino, Favre tied his TD record in this game and that was a bitter-sweet moment for me because I was happy to be part of this historic game, but I am also a big Marino fan.

All in all, I would say go checkout Green Bay if you have a chance.