Packers Season 100 Starts NOW
New faces appeared as Joe Philbin returns to run the offence, Mike Pettine takes Caper’s place and a guy named Brian Gutekunst (I just call him Gute) takes over for Ted.
A big change for our club as Chief’s closed their doors. Like a foot on an anthill, Kraig Pringle & Neil Petersen (aka Lewis & Clark) scurried forth, willing to sacrifice the lives and livers in a quest to find us a new home. When the dust of the expedition settled, the Hall of Fame Sports Grill emerged as our best choice. Besides, it seems only fitting as the Packers start their 100th season of football that we should meet at a place call Hall of Fame (this is what happens when the Starr’s align). In honor of their diligent work, I had a bridge named after them at a place halfway between us and Lambeau Field. Here are pictures of the dedicated bridge. It is a toll bridge in Louisville that doesn’t have any toll booths; why can’t the southern connector be like that?
Another change is I am just starting to realize is not all photos from Packers.com can be easily copied. I will do my best to work my way through it to bring you the photos you’ve learned to love. 10% smarter than technology as a friend of my likes to say.
They say preseason’s cheap (okay, I made that up), it’s time for the chosen 53 to show us they deserve to be on a team that has played 100 years of football!
I don’t know about the rest of you but I’m ready to
BLEEDS GREEN MY FRIENDS!
(Packer John)
Just Sayin’
There have been many changes at 1265 Lombardi Ave. since we last gathered. I think a large percentage of Packer fans have wanted to see Ted Thompson eased out the door for a long time. And when it finally happened, many of those same fans were griping (on some boards I peruse) that Brian Gutekunst was just a puppet of Thompson. And while I don’t think Thompson would have released Jordy Nelson, does any Packer fan think he would have brought in ANY of the free agents that Gutekunst signed? (Past history says NO!!). I also believe that Gutekunst had a serious sit-down with McCarthy and “suggested” that he make some staff changes, something like . . . . FIRE DOM CAPERS ! ! And I also would not be surprised if McCarthy is on somewhat of a hot seat this year. Since winning the Super Bowl, the team had grown stagnant.
I saw another article recently that suggested that the Packers should be slightly embarrassed that they have only 2 Super Bowl wins over the past 25 years, despite having 2 back-to-back Hall Of Fame QBs in Favre & Rodgers. The writer didn’t take into account the fact that Ted Thompson was the GM. There should be an asterisk denoting TT was GM during those years. Then everyone would understand. Thompson never tried to assemble a championship roster. All he wanted to do was see how many undrafted free agents he could have on the active roster each season.
OK, as the season starts, Jeff Janis . . . . oh wait, nevermind. As the season starts, #83, Marquez Valdez-Scantling, is looking like the real deal. I think my “Jeff Janis” guy this year is going to be Jake Kumerow. He
I think our defense has a chance to be greatly improved this season. Gutekunst has already increased the talent on that side of the ball. And add in a new DC, well, I have hope for better results than we saw over the last few years. In preseason (if that counts), the young CBs look like the real deal.
There are 27 players that were on the Packers roster at some point last year that are no longer on the team. Over half . . . . W-O-W ! !
Rodgers will always have the Packers in playoff contention as long as he is playing. I am not holding out for a Super Bowl appearance, but this could be one exciting season for the 100th year for the Green Bay Packers!!!
Just Sayin’
(Jimmy Smith)
GPB Hall Of Fame Report
Here are some numbers for you: this is the clubs 12th year, the newsletters 11th, the Packers 100th season and our first game at our new home, Hall of Fame Sports Grill.
Here are some other numbers for you to know 1) the address of HoF is 531 Wade Hampton Blvd 2) club members can expect a 10% discount on food and drinks (Specials excluded from further discounts) 3) the Trivia winners will receive a $15 from HoF on a future visit.
This is a smaller bar than Chief’s, but much better TV’s including two of the front deck and two on the back deck. Along with their great menu (some names may make you cringe) they have added two new Packer items to the menu, The Lombardi (Brat w/ krout) and Cheese Heads (fried cheese sticks). There is still the pools available but prizes will change just a bit. We will be giving away some bigger prizes starting with a Packer bag chair this Sunday.
We hope to see you this Sunday night for at least the first half to get in on the pools, prizes and Trivia and oh yeah, Great Fun Fellowship and of course everyone will
BLEED GREEN MY FRIENDS!
(JW)
(P.S. I don’t want you to worry, I didn’t fire Marge 328. She will be back next week)
Packer’s vs. Duh bears
Hello again my friends! This is Bill Schwerski of the Superfans coming to you from Ditka’s Sausage Emporium and House of Meat in beautiful Cicero, IL. Once again, I’d like to thank you all who sent letters to my brother Bob who is recovering from his 5th heart attack and wish him a speedy recovery. We especially want to thank Ellen G. of Naperville for her plate of assorted sausages!
Today we are going to talk about opening night on Sunday where the McCaskey family has still not seen the light and re-hired a Head Coach known as Iron Mike Ditka to be head coach of a team known as Duh Bears! (All together) “Duh Bears!”
Okay Bill! Now go away, we have important matters to discuss! First off, Aaron Rodgers is back! He’s also the richest player in the NFL! The man finally got paid! And Will Cain, not withstanding, I don’t think paying the man his money diminishes our chances one iota. The Packers are just that good with managing salary! Aaron hasn’t played much in the preseason, which I think is a disservice to him. Sure, we don’t want to see him get hit and injuries do happen during preseason, but game speed is going to be the order of the day Sunday night, luckily Aaron has a quick release and Davante Adams, Randall Cobb and Geronimo Allison who have all caught passes from Aaron during live games. Jimmy Graham caught passes from Aaron during preseason so they have had some game speed interaction.
Aaron will probably need that quick release a little more than in weeks past as the Bears sold the farm to buy a bell cow on defense. Khalil Mack comes from the Raiders for the first round pick in 2019, 2020, third round pick 2019, and a 6th rounder in 2020. Duh Bears have just 4 draft picks next year! I checked and last time we played the Raiders, Mack did have one sack on Aaron, but we do have tape on him and we know what he likes to do so hopefully the O-line is up for the task.
Our Defense is looking strong under first year DC Mike Pettine, Jaire Alexander and Josh Jackson were our first 2 draft picks; strong cornerbacks with quickness, speed (not the same thing), and instinctiveness to get to the ball. Alexander should form a dynamic bookend with last year’s pick Kevin King and hopefully S Josh Jones is also ready to make that second-year leap.
Let’s get back to our erstwhile Quarterback for a moment. He wasn’t really happy during the offseason. The quarterback’s coach Alex Van Pelt was fired. Aaron apparently had a good relationship with him, but see here’s the thing: He’s the quarterbacks coach, not The Quarterback’s Coach. There’s 2 other quarterbacks when Aaron goes down. Brett Hundley had 2 wins in 7 starts. He had basically all the same players that Aaron has, and he could only eke out 2 wins. Apparently Van Pelt wasn’t that great of a coach, Aaron was just that good!
This offseason also saw the departure of Jordy Nelson. The Packers made a token offer to him that according to reports was insulting. They pointed to his lack of production after the injury to Aaron and his being “injury-prone”. I think that term is a cop out used by our team too much. They said Josh Sitton was “injury-prone” and the man started every game the previous season! Jordy had a torn ACL (and I think MCL) the previous season and was just catching his stride. He didn’t have the breakaway speed to do that double move anymore, but he was still a red zone threat catching 6 touchdowns in 6 games. Time will tell if Jimmy Graham can fill the spot. Early reports are that he can. He is as old as Jordy, but he comes with a lower price tag as a tight end and not a wide receiver, even though he has receiver speed.
Mitchell Trubisky is in his second year and is looking to improve. Last year he had 7 TDs, 7 Ints, and was sacked 31 times. Also the Bears lost to the Packers last year to QB…Brett Hundley. Hundley other win was against the winless Cleveland Browns, but he also proved that Upon Further Review…The BEARS STILL SUCK!!
Aaron and the boys are 12-2 against Duh Bears and the line has the Packers by 8. Confidence is high that the Packers still have the Bears number. Especially when Number 12 is in the huddle!
(Ken Hill)
