Green Bay Packers: 10 Moments Fans Will Never Get Over

When people ask me for my views on faith, I tell them that culturally I am Jewish, but my religion is the Green Bay Packers.

As a Jew, I gather every spring with my family for the Passover Seder and observe a sacred tradition: We remind ourselves that we were once slaves in Egypt. Thus, we should appreciate what we have.

I believe that it is time for us as Packer fans to conduct a similar exercise in humility. 

Life is good for Cheeseheads right now. This year's team won the most regular-season games in franchise history, is coming off a Super Bowl Championship, has the best record in the NFL and is led by Aaron Rodgers, who is the favorite to win the MVP.

But watching our beloved team has not always been so easy. In order to appreciate the greatness we have witnessed this season, we must remind ourselves of the tough times.

Here are the top 10 moments that Green Bay Packer fans will never be able to shake.

10. Randy Moss Moons Crowd in Home Playoff Loss to Vikings

Beating a team three times in a season is an extremely difficult task. It is more difficult when that team is a hated rival, and even more difficult when Randy Moss plays for that team.

Green Bay beat Minnesota by a score of 34-31 both times the teams played during the regular season. The Packers earned the third seed in the NFC and the Vikings sneaked into the last playoff spot at 8-8.

In a horrible twist of fate, the two teams met for the third time in the 2004-05 season, and for the second time in three weeks.

A loss in any form would have been hard to swallow, but the game was never even close. The Vikings cruised to a 31-17 victory.

But that was not enough for Randy Moss, who was public enemy No. 1 in Green Bay at the time. Moss had four catches for 70 yards and two touchdowns in the game. 

Early in the fourth quarter, Moss caught his second touchdown of the game and then pretended to pull down his pants and moon the crowd at Lambeau Field. 

He was the most hated player on the most hated team, and he did a crude touchdown dance that sealed a playoff defeat at Lambeau.

And we have nine more terrible moments to go.

9. Steve Young Hits Terell Owens to Beat Packers in NFC Wild Card Game

With the 49ers finally returning to the playoffs in 2011-12, football fans can get nostalgic over the classic San Francisco-Green Bay playoff battles of the '90s. 

No Packers/Niners game was more dramatic than the 1998-99 NFC Wild Card Game.

Green Bay was looking to make its third consecutive trip to the Super Bowl, while the 49ers just really wanted to beat the Packers, who had knocked them out of the playoffs in the previous three seasons. San Francisco had the fourth seed in the NFC and the Packers finished fifth.

The Packers led by four points with 1:53 remaining in the game, and Steve Young needed to drive his team 76 yards down the field to win the game.

The drive seemed to end abruptly when Jerry Rice clearly fumbled the ball, but the referees called him down. This play would go on to be one of the reasons the NFL instituted its current replay policy the following season.

With eight seconds to go in the game, Steve Young threw a pinpoint pass between five Green Bay defenders to Terrell Owens in the end zone to win the game 30-27, leaving Packer fans with nothing but  "what if" scenarios and elevated blood pressure.  

8. Michael Vick and the Falcons Hand the Pack Its First Playoff Loss at Lambeau

Heading into Wild Card Weekend in 2003, the Packers were 11-0 in playoff games at Lambeau Field.

Green Bay went 12-4 during the regular season, won the NFC North and earned the third seed in the NFC. The upstart Falcons climbed into the sixth seed behind 22-year-old quarterback Michael Vick.

Both the Packers and their fans were supremely confident heading into the game, but everything quickly fell apart.

The Falcons scored first, then blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown to double their lead. Green Bay was missing Ahman Green, its leading rusher, and Terry Glenn, its leading receiver, and was inept on offense. 

The Falcons breezed to a 27-7 win and forever tarnished the Lambeau legacy.

7. Brett Favre Throws Overtime Interception in 2007 NFC Championship Game

Fans of Brett Favre knew that his last pass as a Packer would either be a touchdown or an interception. Unfortunately, it was an interception, and it cost Green Bay a trip to the Super Bowl.

After going 4-12 in 2005 and 4-8 in the first 12 games of the 2006 season, Favre turned things around and racked off four straight wins to finish the season 8-8. 

Then in 2007, Favre led a resurgent Packer team to a 13-3 record and the second seed in the NFC. 

The Packers crushed the Seahawks in the Divisional Round and only needed to beat the Giants, who were the fifth seed, to end Favre's 11-year Super Bowl drought. 

After 60 minutes, the game was tied at 20 and headed into overtime. 

Favre did as always in important overtime games: He took a shot down the field. 

But Packer fans watched in horror as nobody in green was anywhere near the ball. The pass landed directly into Corey Webster's hands, and the turnover led to the game-winning field goal for the Giants.

Cheeseheads can at least take solace in knowing that the Packers would likely have been blown out by the Patriots in the Super Bowl. 

6. Paul Hornung Is Suspended for Gambling on NFL Games

Paul Hornung was nicknamed "The Golden Boy" for not only playing hard on the field, but for playing even harder off the field. 

1960-1962 was an incredible string of seasons for Hornung. He set the NFL record for most points in a season in 1960, won the MVP award in 1961 and the Packers were NFL champions in both 1961 and 1962.

But going into the 1963 season, Green Bay fans had a bomb dropped on them.

Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced that Hornung and Detroit Lions defensive tackle Alex Karras (better known to some as Mongo in Blazing Saddles) would be indefinitely suspended for gambling on NFL games.

Hornung would reportedly bet up $500 on a single game, and his lavish spending often placed him in circles with people that Rozelle considered undesirable characters.

Hornung sat out the entire season, but behind the curtain, Vince Lombardi relentlessly lobbied Rozelle to let Hornung back into football.

Rozelle caved, and both Hornung and Karras returned to their teams in 1964.

The ending to the story is bittersweet, as Hornung reformed his ways out of loyalty to Lombardi, but sustained a neck injury and was never the same player for rest of his career. 

5. 4th-and-26

Mention the words "4th-and-26" to a Green Bay Packer fan and you will induce a face reminiscent of someone smelling rotten cheese.

The play has become so infamous that it has its own Wikipedia page.

Packer fans were in high spirits after an epic overtime win against Seattle in the Wild Card Round the previous week. Former Brett Favre backup Matt Hasselbeck proclaimed that he wanted the ball and was going to score after winning the coin toss. He then promptly threw the game-winning touchdown pass to Green Bay cornerback Al Harris.

In the Divisional Round, the Packers traveled to Philly and jumped out to an early 14-0 lead in the first quarter. The Eagles climbed back into the game and with 2:22 seconds remaining, they had the ball on their own 20-yard line and were down by three points.

A series of mistakes left the Eagles facing fourth down with the first-down marker 26 yards away. There was 1:12 seconds left on the clock, and they were out of timeouts. What happened next is the most painful moment in Packer history to many fans in the younger generations.

Donavon McNabb hit an inexplicably wide-open Freddie Mitchell over the middle for a gain of 27 yards. The Eagles would go on to tie the game at the end of regulation and force overtime.

In extra time, Favre did as Favre does and threw an interception. Philadelphia kicked another field goal and knocked Green Bay out of the playoffs, cementing "4th-and-26" in football folklore. 

4. Vince Lombardi Leaves Green Bay to Coach Redskins

“Gentlemen, we will chase perfection, and we will chase it relentlessly, knowing all the while we can never attain it. But along the way, we shall catch excellence.” 

Excellence will forever be Vince Lombardi's legacy. No single person has ever meant more to a sports franchise than Lombardi meant to the Packers. He validated everything that came before him in Green Bay and paved the way for everything that would come after. 

Lombardi's Packers owned the 1960s and won five championships in the decade.

An aging Lombardi stepped down as head coach after winning two straight Super Bowls and took the general manager position.

In the next season, however, Lombardi shocked Green Bay fans when he left the franchise he had brought back to relevance. 

The Washington Redskins offered him part ownership of the franchise and the head coaching position and were able to pull Lombardi away.

The Packers plunged into three decades of darkness after Lombardi left, and Green Bay fans were shocked and saddened once again when their beloved coach died of colon cancer in 1970. 

Despite his one season in Washington, Lombardi will always be a Packer.

3. Packers Take Tony Mandarich with the Second Pick in the 1989 Draft

Prior to the 1989 NFL draft, Sports Illustrated fell in love with Tony Mandarich, an offensive tackle out of Michigan State.

They labeled him "The Incredible Bulk" and touted him as "the best offensive line prospect ever," and the Packers bought in and took him with the second overall pick in the draft.

Mandarich was fortunate enough to have played before the media started becoming suspicious of steroid use in sports, and few people were skeptical about the legitimacy of Mandarich's talents.

The lineman's boisterous personality only fueled the media frenzy surrounding him, and added to the setup for one of the biggest draft busts in sports history.

Mandarich played three seasons with the Packers, saw little playing time and was frequently at odds with the management and coaching staff.

Plenty of high draft picks never pan out, but Mandarich is so high on this list because of factors completely outside of his control.

The next three teams to pick in the draft were Detroit, Kansas City and Atlanta. The Lions picked Barry Sanders, the Chiefs took Derrick Thomas and the Falcons were left with a defensive back out of Florida State named Deion. 

By drafting Mandarich, Green Bay missed out on three Hall of Famers, two of which are arguably the best players ever to play their respective positions. This essentially sealed general manager Tom Braatz's fate, and he followed Mandarich out the door in 1991.

Luckily for Packer fans, Ron Wolf brought back a winning culture in Green Bay, but Packer fans will always be left with the question, "What if Brett Favre could have handed the ball off to Barry Sanders?"

2. Green Bay Loses to Denver in Super Bowl XXXII

The Green Bay Packers have a 4-1 record in Super Bowls. Regardless of how many more championships the franchise wins, it will never be able to get rid of that one loss. 

Coming off a Super Bowl victory the previous year, the Packers finished the 1997-98 season with a 13-3 record and the second seed in the playoffs. They proceeded to march through the NFC and set up a showdown with an aging John Elway and the Denver Broncos. 

Nearly everyone expected Green Bay to repeat as champions, but Elway and running back Terrell Davis had other plans.

The Packers were unable to stop Davis, even though he was suffering from a migraine headache throughout part of the game.

With the score at 31-24, Brett Favre attempted one last drive, but came up empty. 

Favre would never return to the Super Bowl, and the Packers would not play for the Lombardi Trophy for another 14 years.

As a fan, watching your team lose in the championship game stings like nothing else. No Packer fan who watched that Super Bowl will ever forget it.

1. Brett Favre Beats Green Bay 38-26 at Lambeau Field

Following the 2007 season, Brett Favre decided that he had thrown his final pass in the NFL. However, his decision turned out to be not-so-final, and his wavering led to a messy divorce with the Packers.

Green Bay traded the future Hall of Famer to the New York Jets and included a clause in the deal that would force the Jets to forfeit multiple first-round picks to the Packers if they traded him to the Vikings. 

The Packers made it clear how much they feared a Favre-led Minnesota team, and those fears soon turned into reality.

Favre retired from football again after his forgettable season with the Jets, and returned to the NFL as a Viking.

The three-time MVP immediately showed why the Packers did not want him in purple, and Minnesota quickly established themselves as an NFC powerhouse. 

The Packers first faced the reality of playing against Favre in Minnesota, and the old gunslinger threw three touchdowns and led the Vikings to a 30-23 victory.

Four weeks later, Green Bay fans were forced to witness the most surreal image in team history: Brett Favre running out of the tunnel at Lambeau Field in a Vikings uniform.

Those who rooted for Favre during his career simultaneously rooted against Minnesota. For many people, seeing Favre in a purple uniform simply did not compute and led to many fans wearing a hideous hybrid Viking/Packer Favre jersey. 

The NFL's greatest passer showed that he still had plenty left in the tank, throwing four touchdowns to earn his 90th win at Lambeau Field, his lone victory in Green Bay donning a non-Packer uniform.

Packer fans have endured some tough times, but nothing will ever be worse than seeing Brett Favre beat the Packers at Lambeau Field.