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| Photo courtesy Packers.com. |
It’s all so different now, isn’t it? And so different so quickly.
It happened while you were screaming and laughing and hugging and high-fiving and kissing and crying and thanking the heavens above. It flashed through time and space the moment Aaron Rodgers took that improbable Super Bowl-clinching knee. It cemented itself in scoreboard simplicity.
And with that, we crossed into a new Packers era. Please check your grievances at the door. They’re no longer necessary and as welcome as a Cutler in Chicago.
Yes, peace has finally come to Packers Nation. A raucous peace, to be sure, when celebrated amid Water Street block parties and triumphant Green Bay parades. But it is peace just the same.
Because the Packers have returned Mr. Lombardi’s trophy to Mr. Lambeau’s field. They did so undeterred by injuries, undaunted by critics and unfazed by whatever twists the football fates could fashion.
And in the process, they laid all plausible tensions to rest.
What concerns could possibly remain about this franchise? That they didn’t order enough crow for all the naysayers to eat? That they can’t build new trophy cases fast enough? That there’s nowhere to go but down?
Well, whatever worries you can dream up, they’re the best kind to have. Because they’re worries of excess and success. They’re a most tropical refuge after three seasons of sailing through the perfect football storm.
The Favre drama, so vitriolic and divisive in its prime, seems so petty when viewed in a silver trophy’s reflection. The Aaron Rodgers doubts, once so pervasive and persuasive, are now mere fodder for the QB’s pinpoint sarcasm.
Coach Mike McCarthy, whom so many hoped would leave the station along with his now-famous train, won a Super Bowl by running the ball a scant 13 times. And general manager Ted Thompson, by fitting so many square pegs into a roster pummeled by roundhouses, proved that doing it his way was the right way.
Put it all together and you get a one-way ticket out of the tumultuous past. During the Super Bowl broadcast, Favre’s name was mentioned as often as mine, which is to say not at all.
This doesn’t mean No. 4 is forgotten, nor should he be. The divorce may have been ugly, but the marriage was precious, and both are now part of the Packers’ legacy. Favre had his era, as did Mike Holmgren and Reggie White and Leroy Butler. As did Starr and Hornung and Hutson before them. And they will all be remembered fondly in the history books.
But books are made to be closed. You only live in the past when it’s superior to the present, and when you can win but one crown at a time, nothing is better than where the Packers are today.
These are men who have earned their own ink in their own book, and it’s still an open one. Rodgers and Greg Jennings. Donald Driver and Jordy Nelson. Charles Woodson and Nick Collins. Tramon Williams and Clay Matthews. Chad Clifton and Bryan Bulaga. Howard Green and Frank Zombo and Tim Masthay. And on and on. All champions who deserve every ray of this spotlight.
Moreover, fans deserve to savor this victory for the sweet treat it is. And yes, it’s a treat delivered with possibilities that are almost as tantalizing.
Because if the Packers can win in a season that saw so much go wrong, how good can they be when everything goes right? How many more times can they repeat their magnificent feat?
A tempting path to wander down, no doubt, but resist the urge for now. For just as there’s no longer a need to live in the past, there’s not yet a need to look to the future.
The present should be plenty for now.
Enjoy the peace in our time.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter, where I tweet as howiemag. And tune in every Tuesday morning at 6:30 when I join Doug Russell and Mike Wickett on SportsRadio 1250 AM for Tuesdays with Howie.
