We’ve finally reached the playoffs. 

This entire season has really just been a prelude to the one part of the year that actually matters for the Packers this season. If there was ever an all-in year for Green Bay, this was it. They got creative with the cap to bring the whole group back, they made offseason and midseason additions to flesh out the team, and they made sure they got Aaron Rodgers in the fold and even gave in to some of his wishes regarding how the team was composed.

The only thing that has ever mattered for the Packers this season was getting to and winning the Super Bowl. Anything short of that is a failure for this year’s team.

I’m not even someone who typically believes in that. After all, there’s only one team that can be the champion every year. Failure to win a championship does not necessarily mean the season itself was a failure. Sure, I can see why players or coaches might feel that way, but as a fan? You can’t expect your team to win a championship every year. I’ve gotten quite a bit of enjoyment out of my life as a Packer fan, regardless of the number of championships.

But this year is different. This could be the last shot with Aaron Rodgers. Even if Rodgers stays in Green Bay next year, much of the team’s core will likely be gone due to cap purposes. 

The Packers have had two consecutive losses in the NFC Championship. A third would be absolutely devastating.

It could have been argued last year that the Packers were the best team in the league and should have won the Super Bowl. The loss of David Bakhtiari made that path difficult, but it still shouldn’t have been an excuse.

This year, there are absolutely no excuses. The team is getting a bunch of its crucial players back heading into the playoffs and is healthy and ready to go. They are and have been the best team in football and once again have homefield advantage.

This year, anything short of a trip to the Super Bowl is a crushing failure.

Give the team credit for getting this far. They came into this season all knowing that this was quite possibly the last, best opportunity to get a championship. That’s a lot of pressure for a team to put on itself. But despite that, they won 13 games for an unprecedented third year in a row, got a second consecutive #1 seed, and once again have the likely league MVP. 

But that’s just the business part of this season. None of that really matters at this point. This era of the Green Bay Packers has achieved all of that already. It’s time for bigger things.

That’s why I’m both more excited and more nervous than I’ve been for postseason football in a LONG time. It feels like greatness is just around the corner. This really feels like it’s finally the Packers’ time. Everything is falling in place exactly as it needs to for the Packers to “make a run,” as Aaron Rodgers said on the Pat McAfee show the other day.

All that’s left for them is to actually do it.

Wisconsin Beer of the Week

I’ve been so busy the last week that I haven’t once had time to sit down and enjoy a beverage outside of the Packer game. It’s been wild! 

So for this week I’m doing a minor throwback to about five weeks ago, when I was in Green Bay for the game against the Bears. My friend Matt and I arrived to town early and explored around the stadium, and our first stop was Hinterland Brewery right across from the stadium in the Titletown District.

It was my first stop to the brewery and the district in general, and I enjoyed a couple Hinterland beers right in view of the one and only Mark Murphy sledding hill.

This particular beer pictured was its Blueberry Wheat beer. It wasn’t a particularly noteworthy beer–the blueberry didn’t come through very strongly, which I think is probably actually a good thing for a wheat beer. There was a faint fruitiness and sweetness in the aftertaste, but nothing at all overpowering or obvious about it. Certainly nowhere near the level of fruit you’d find in a lot of fruited sours. 

In general, Hinterland’s stuff is just sort of passable to me. However, the food we had there before the game was quite good. There are a few of the company’s flagships that are pretty solid standards and idea for tailgating purposes when you’re just hangin’ out and not worried about drinking anything particularly fancy. 

Not my favorite, but also certainly drinkable and one I’d happily imbibe if someone handed it to me. And I gotta say, it looked great in a photo with the Titletown District in the background.

An update on the NFC North firings

As you know by now, both Chicago and Minnesota cleared house this week. The Bears fired general manager Ryan Pace and head coach Matt Nagy, and the Vikings fired general manager Rick Spielman (with the team since 2006) and head coach Mike Zimmer. 

These firings were quite expected. Nagy has generally been awful despite taking the Bears to the playoffs twice in his tenure. His offense has been perpetually anemic and it often looked like he was purposefully setting Justin Fields up to fail this year.

Zimmer seemed to resent being a head coach this season, and specifically seemed to harbor great resentment for several of his players, particularly Kirk Cousins. He was very clearly over the whole COVID situation, especially with the players of his who refused to get vaccinated, and his relationships with the team had been reportedly souring. Respected linebacker Erik Kendricks went so far as to say he hoped the next coach didn’t have to rule by fear–an indictment of the kind of culture Zimmer had in place in his final years.

Both teams are casting a wide net in their searches. The Bears have already even requested interviews for Eliot Wolf for the team’s GM job and Nathaniel Hackett for head coach.

The Bears are making the unfortunate (or fortunate, for Packers fans) mistake of working with Bill Polian as their primary advisor in the search for the next general manager. Polian has been out of football for well over a decade, is nearly 80 years old and has been very, very wrong in just about all of his recent personnel statements (he was one of the foremost Lamar Jackson should be a running back guys). 

Polian is a legend and a deserving Hall of Famer, but no franchise that’s actually interested in winning would bring him in as a consultant at this point for such a crucial, franchise-steering decision.

The entire press conference held by George McCaskey was a gift to Packer fans, as it seemed pretty clear McCaskey was way over his head in this decision making process. The Bears will likely continue to be a joke for the foreseeable future. We love to see it.

The Vikings… who really knows what’s going to happen there? A lot depends on who they end up bringing in for general manager. 

There are going to be a lot of coaches that get interviewed in this cycle. Far more qualified candidates than openings. Former Miami coach Brian Flores will probably attract a lot of attention. Hackett has been a popular name among league circles. Former Eagles coach Doug Pederson will get plenty of interviews as a Super Bowl winner, and there will be other familiar names that get brought up, including Eric Bieniemy, Josh McDaniels and Dan Quinn. Other candidates to watch include Todd Bowles, Byron Leftwich, Brain Daboll and Leslie Frazier.

It will be fascinating to watch how all of this plays out. I’ll be particularly interested to see the coaching philosophy each of these teams try to go for. Zimmer was very old school and defensive in nature. Will the team try to completely switch it up and go for someone young and dynamic with an offensive background?

Nagy was heralded as an offensive mastermind, but could never piece together an effective offense in Chicago. Will the team try to stick with offense or will it embrace the franchise’s longstanding tradition of hard-nosed, grind-it-out football with someone like a Bowles or a Quinn or a Frazier?

At this point, your guess as to how all this shakes out is as good as mine.

Does your town have a “Suicide Hill?”

So in the town in which I live (and grew up) we have a large hill located near Lake Michigan lovingly referred to as “Suicide Hill.” Every year it’s the biggest attraction for sledders in our town. Mostly kids in middle and high school who want to hit the steep parts in the evenings after dark, but there are also smaller sections ideal for younger kids during the day time.

There are very clear “NO SLEDDING” signs placed around the area, which is on city property, but no one ever listens to them. The police will drive by every now and then, but really only to check that people are being safe. It’s pretty much understood that people are going to sled, regardless of what the signs say.

I was telling someone about Suicide Hill the other day, and it turned out their town also had a large hill they called Suicide Hill. And when I was in college, I remember at least several other folks mentioning they had hills in their area named Suicide Hill.

So is this a pretty ubiquitous midwest thing, or have I just had a lot of crazy coincidences in running into other people with basically the same story?

As some background, the reason this particular hill is known as Suicide HIll is not because it’s particularly steep (it does have some steep parts), but rather because there is a fence along the bottom, a good distance away from the bottom of the slope but still close enough that you could easily run into it if the conditions are right and the snow is packed and slick enough. The fence separates the hill and grassy area from the city’s water treatment plant.

There also used to be a section of trees and brush located at the bottom of the hill. However, that has long since been cleared away. The only hazard remaining at this point is the fence.

I spent many winter afternoons and nights on that hill growing up. My friends and I would do all kinds of stupid things, including building ramps out of snow to go off in our sleds and snow tubes, playing games of “chicken” with the fence, and attempting to plow each other over as we walked back up the hill. We’d link arms and go down the hill in a big line, or form a long train of sleds and go down single file. 

There was one time when I was probably around eight or nine years old that I went over there with a friend of mine who lived a couple blocks away, and we dragged a massive refrigerator box with us. This was during the summer, and we thought it would be hilarious to roll down the hill inside the box. 

Spoiler alert: did not end up being hilarious. We emerged heavily bruised from flying all over the box, and my friend’s little brother (who rode down with us) ended up vomiting. 

Anyway, I’m looking forward to having the opportunity to take my oldest son over to the less-steep section some winter afternoon for his first sledding experience sometime this year. Gotta pass on the traditions!

The absurdity of made-up stories

I don’t want to give too much space to the hilarious absurdity that was the Boomer Esiason report that Aaron Rodgers would consider boycotting the Super Bowl over COVID protocols, but we all can admit that was one of the most obvious made-up stories of all time, right?

There is absolutely no chance Rodgers would EVER consider sitting out a Super Bowl for any reason. The fact that Esiason thought that story had enough merit to put on the air means he knows nothing about Rodgers, or is just extremely desperate for attention.

Esiason has never come across as a drama-seeker before, so this really surprised me. But what a weird, CLEARLY fabricated story to just throw out there as something legitimate.

The predictions

So there’s no Packer game today, but I still have plenty of other predictions for how this weekend’s action will go. Let’s see how I do.

RAIDERS AT BENGALS: Saturday Afternoon

I love the adversity the Raiders have overcome this season to get to this point. But they feel awfully overmatched against a Bengals team that is capable of exploding against any given team. These two teams have two of the longest playoff victory droughts in football right now, so it’ll be great to see either of them get a victory, and I think the Bengals finally snap the longest streak in the league and move on to the next round.

PATRIOTS AT BILLS: Saturday Evening

These two teams haven’t really played a normal game yet this season. The Patriots beat the Bills in crazy weather conditions while throwing only three passes, then the Bills beat the brakes off the Pats at home. Here we are once again in Buffalo and the Bills have a chance to knock their hated rival out of the playoffs, which would be the sweetest rivalry win this team has had in quite a while. But I have a gut feeling about the Patriots in this one. They’re less talented but better coached and have the ability to slow down this Bills offense. I think they pull off arguably the upset of the weekend. 

EAGLES AT BUCCANEERS: Sunday at Noon

I do think the Eagles pose a bit more of a threat to the Bucs than most people are giving them credit for, but ultimately this isn’t going to be the team that knocks Tampa out of the playoffs. It just feels like we’re destined for a Tampa/Green Bay rematch, and that can’t happen without a TB win this weekend.

49ERS AT COWBOYS: Sunday Afternoon

My other upset pick of the weekend. The 49ers are entering the playoffs arguably hotter than any other team in the league. They’re clicking on both offense and defense at the moment and are a threat to anyone they play. Mike McCarthy has done a pretty good job with this Dallas team but it’s been five years since he last coached a team to the playoffs and if there’s anything the man does well it’s knock the Cowboys out of contention. Give me the 49ers to move on and travel to Green Bay.

STEELERS AT CHIEFS: Sunday Night

I really wish this wasn’t the Sunday NIght contest. Would have loved to get home from a day at the theatre and watch Niners/Cowboys instead. But alas, we’re stuck with the worst game of the weekend. The Steelers are the “just happy to be here” team and will be swiftly eliminated with little drama, unless the Chiefs utterly implode.

CARDINALS AT RAMS: Monday night

I really hate the addition of Monday night playoff games. There should be no short weeks in playoff football. At least, no shorter than necessary. Anyway, the Rams have won nine of their last 10 against the Cardinals, and Sean McVay really has this team’s number. The Cardinals have lost six of their last 10 and enter the playoffs with little momentum and are not really frightening anyone at this point. Give me Los Angeles to move on.

Enjoy postseason football folks, it’s the most wonderful time of the year!