Just Step Back From the Ledge, Green Bay Packers Fans...

In an attempt to add some needed perspective to the fallout and panic following the Packers-Vikings game that I’m seeing and hearing among Packer fans , here are ten ideas or thoughts to consider (in no particular order).

1. It's a just one game, folks.  Each week, 32 teams work their butts off to do everything they can to win.  Game time comes, they play the plays, and one team wins, while the other one loses.  No villains, no conspiracies, no scapegoats.  Sometimes, the other guy is just better and carries the day. 

Every day, we all do the same in our chosen fields and deal with the losses that inevitably come.  Why should it be any different for a pro football team?  As Norm on Cheers so eloquently said, "It's a dog eat dog world our there, and today I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear."  So it was for the Pack Monday night.  There'll be other games.

2. The Old Man still has some game, eh?  Looking past all the vitriol, rhetoric and as to the who's, how's, why's and what's of the fate of No. 4, he can still get it done.  I am no Tony Kornheiser fan, but he got it right when, during the Monday Night tribute a few years ago, he stated that "the reason we watch Favre is that he moves the meter."  As true now as it was then.

3. After the game, I said to my wife, "I'm exhausted and I didn't even play a single down."  Made me think back to all the games over the years where Favre made you hold your breath, never knowing what the result would be, hoping for something miraculous, and oft-times being rewarded, sometimes being crushed, but always invested. 

How can anyone forget all the juice that guy brought to the Packers?  Let's make sure that when he comes home in November, we get past the petty vindictiveness that's been all too prevalent lately and give the old boy the warm welcome home he deserves.  I don’t think anyone has the clairvoyance necessary to tell today whether the course chosen was the right one—only time will tell whether Packer management go it right. 

So, instead of shaking your fist at the sky and screaming at the wind, let everyone do their thing and let the chips fall where they may.  I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen a functioning “wayback machine” since I watched Mr. Peabody.  What’s done is done, so let’s remember and celebrate what we had, not whine about what we don’t.

4. I grew up with Lombardi's Packers and like any Packer fan at the time, I got horribly spoiled as a result.  Winning was guaranteed.  Then, as the Packers went through the '70s and '80s, it was tough times indeed for any true Packer Backer, but the light finally came.  The one thing that I learned during that time is that enjoyment is found where we look for it. 

Recall the snow game on Monday Night in Denver (absolute schoolyard joy) and the 49-48 shootout with the Redskins also on Monday Night?  Those teams weren't very good, but it was still fun to watch. 

Same with the game we just saw. Clay Matthews strip, Jermichael Finley’s and Jordy Nelson’s catch and run for scores, Crosby’s two perfect onside kick attempts.  All worth enjoying.  It’s kind of like going to your kid's little league game and instead of enjoying just watching them play and celebrating what they did right, you spend the whole drive home ragging them for not going five-for-five with two homers, and not striking out the side in the bottom of the inning.  We all know parents like that—let's not act like one!

5. The problems the Packers face are real, vexing and not easily fixed due to their scope and scale.  But will calling for TT or MM's job suddenly improve a tackle's footwork?  A running back's vision?  A safety's coverage decision?  No, no and no.  So, let the coaches coach, the executives execute and the players play. 

At the end of the season, assess the results of all of those stakeholders and make coldly rationale, intelligent and dispassionate decisions based upon the body of work over the course of the season.  Acknowledge successes, be accountable for failures, and take the reward/consequence actions necessary to address both.  That formula works pretty well in almost every aspect of life.  Perhaps Mark Murphy will read this.

6. I don't know about you, but I've had several jobs over the course of my life.   Some changes were my choice, some changes we someone else’s.  But in every instance, I wanted to get another job and do it better.  And in one instance I even went to work for a competitor. 

So when I think about a particular NFL quarterback, let's see.  He has a marketable skill for which he is paid extremely well.  He has a limited window of opportunity to capitalize on those skills.  He is imbued by the Constitution with the right to free choice, which includes changing his mind.  So what's the big deal?   If I got the same relative offer he got, I'd be all over it like (insert favorite metaphor here). 

7.  All domed stadiums should be blown up, demolished, burnt down, destroyed, immolated, razed, or otherwise reduced to rubble, then the site scraped clean and marked forever as unholy ground.  Curt Flood had the right idea when he said, "If a cow can't eat it, I ain't playing on it."

8.  Now, some specific observations.  Knowing what you don't know is the only blessing that accrues with age, but since this is a venue where I can trot out my opinion, here goes:

• Nick Barnett and Brady Poppinga are both liabilities.  Too many way-downfield stops and bad angles.  I dream of a LB lineup of Matthews, Chillar, Thompson and Bishop.  Athletes all.
• Al Harris is generally good for two to four good "torchings" per game.  Bites on too many jukes by the opposing QB.
• Aaron Kampman is a DE, not an OLB.  He has for years performed as well against the rush as the pass.  Admit the mistake, Mike and Dom, and hybrid his role.
• ZBS works, but it's predicated on precise, timed movements and techniques.  Last time I looked, the guy who was the teacher of the scheme is long gone.  It'd be like me trying to teach someone to play guitar like SRV.
• Ryan Grant was overpaid.  Anyone know what Tyrell Sutton is up to these days?
• MM needs a creativity transfusion.  I kept thinking, heading into the game, get imaginative on the first play-call of the opening drive.  Go play-action to Grant, have Jennings run a double-move go to catch Winfield peeking in the backfield (he would have), then toss it over the top to an uncovered No. 85, Pack score a quick six and the crowd is stunned!  Nope, not with this guy.  Run Grant into the middle of the pile for one whole yard.

9.  I noticed two images of Favre from the game that stood out.  The first was a shot of him with the widest grin on his face that I'd seen in a long time.  It was good to see him happy, because God knows, whether of his own making or someone else’s, the guy's had to endure his fair share of heartbreak and crap over the years.  The second was a sideline shot where he has this look of utter focus, concentration and steely-eyed determination and I had to ask myself, where was that look in the NFC Championship game in 2007?   Me thinks it proves that the one thing that finally beat him was mother nature.

10.  With apologies to Dennis Miller, that's just my opinion.  I could be wrong.