It’s not every day a kid who graduated from Nicolet High School spends an afternoon drinking underneath cherry blossoms in Tokyo, wanders into a karaoke bar and meets a Japanese guy in a Brett Favre jersey with whom he doesn’t share a language but does share a love of the Green Bay Packers – sparking a trans-Pacific friendship that’s now produced multiple international trips to Lambeau Field, a meetup with Titletown royalty and a feature-length documentary receiving a statewide release from Marcus Theatres. But that’s what happened in 2017 to Ty Morse.
The documentary, No Packers, No Life, debuted at the Wisconsin Film Festival in Madison on April 6, where it caught the attention of Sean Hanish and Paul Jaconi-Biery, the producers of the Just a Bit Outside documentary remembering the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers. Through Jaconi-Biery’s and Hanish’s Cannonball Productions, No Packers, No Life is now getting a statewide release through Marcus Theatres.
at Marcus Majestic Cinema in Waukesha to be attended by Antonio Freeman, Ahman Green and George Koonce
Special screening with Q&A: 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 16 at Marcus North Shore Cinema in Mequon
Tickets for both special events can be found here. Thereafter, see No Packers, No Life at Marcus Theatres across the state. The theatrical run is scheduled for at least Oct. 17-23.
The story begins when Morse, an entrepreneur, was in Japan on a business trip in the spring of 2017. He and some friends/business partners were taking part in the Japanese tradition of hanami (花見), which literally means “flower viewing” and traditionally includes simply enjoying the blossoming of flowers – particularly the two-week-long cherry blooms that Nippon is famous for. Nowadays, hanami usually involves a bit of day drinking. Morse was taking part.
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After a few hours, the group walked to one of Tokyo’s many karaoke bars; Japan has at least 8,000 of them. In this one was a local wearing a No. 4 Packers jersey. Morse did a double take. Who is this guy? Nobody in Japan cares about American football, do they?
Morse couldn’t help himself. He leaned over and whispered, “Go Pack go.” The man spun around, surprised, and whispered back: “Go Pack go.” In a moment, the two men were shouting “Go Pack go!” at each other. Morse doesn’t speak much Japanese, and the man – Cheppo – didn’t know much English, so the two spent the next 15 minutes just naming Packers at each other. “Ahman Green!” “Antonio Freeman!” And so on.
In time, more locals showed up wearing different Packers jerseys, adding to Morse’s confusion. The Wisconsinite soon learned that he had stumbled into a meeting of the Japanese Packers Cheering Team, a group of Tokyoites with a shared love of the Green and Gold, of whom Cheppo was a founding member. The group had rented a room at the karaoke bar to rewatch one of the best games from the prior season, an annual tradition that doesn’t require staying up until the middle of the night or rising in the early morn to watch the Packers play live.
You know when you’re channel-surfing at 3 a.m., you’re always surprised what’s on TV? That’s exactly what happened to Cheppo. He was up late one night in the ’90s, and the NHK public broadcasting station was airing an NFL game – probably a live broadcast, considering the 14-hour time difference. Cheppo was immediately engrossed in this foreign sport. Online, he found a blogger who discovered the same niche interest and was following the NFL, reporting on it in Japanese, helping folks like Cheppo learn about the game first played in New Jersey in 1869.
No Packers, No Life includes cellphone video of Cheppo’s and Morse’s first meeting, and follows the 20-plus members of the Japanese Packers Cheering Team on their first and subsequent visits to Titletown.
“We thought it was going to be a small group at first. It ended up being almost 30,” Morse remembers of the first trip, laughing. The Cheering Team has attracted the attention of the franchise itself. One moment captured in the movie is Cheppo and company meeting the Packers’ all-time scoring leader, Mason Crosby, on the grass of Lambeau Field.
“The story of the movie,” Morse says, “is humans connecting over something, which is cool.” Human connection. Of the simple meeting of Cheppo and the Cheering Team at a karaoke bar in 2017, Morse recalls, “It was so random. It was so powerful…
“There’s a Wisconsin element to this. Wisconsinites are welcoming and opening and nice,” Morse continues. “Humans can connect on anything, no matter the cultures, no matter how far away.”
No Packers, No Life is directed by Craig Benzine, a first for the Madison-area native whose claims to fame include the WheezyWaiter YouTube channel and fronting the rock band Driftless Pony Club.
