Over the weekend, Charles Woodson was formally inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility, officially taking his place among the greatest to ever play the game.

It’s always special to see a Packer get inducted into the Hall of Fame, but there was something particularly enjoyable about seeing Woodson get the honor.

Woodson has a firm place in my Mount Rushmore of all-time favorite Packers, for a wide range of reasons; his versatility, his swagger, his off-field personality. 

But perhaps most of all is the fact that Woodson came to Green Bay begrudgingly in 2006, with no real other offers on the table, only to end up loving the town and the team.

Woodson was a rare free agent pickup by the late Ted Thompson, a guy that immediately made a mammoth impact:

After a month-long recruiting session, we signed Charles Woodson as a free agent in 2006. I'll never forget his first practice.
He was instantly our best tackler, our best DB, our best returner, our best athlete, our best leader, our best player.
Truly elite player and person.

— Andrew Brandt (@AndrewBrandt) August 9, 2021

I’m not sure even the most optimistic supporters and staff members of the Packers could have seen what was to come from Woodson in his time in Green Bay. While Woodson arrived as a big name and one-time star whose luster had started to dull, in Green Bay he saw a career rebirth and all of his best years of football, which ultimately made him a Hall of Famer and arguably the greatest defensive back of all time.

Some facts about Charles Woodson’s NFL career:

His average season in OAK:

2.8 INTs, 0.88 Sacks, 6.33 Passes Defended, 1.87 FFs, 2.8 TFL, 0.31 TDs/Season

His average season in GB:

6.08 INTs, 1.84 Sacks, 16 Passes Defended, 2.4 FFs, 4.64 TFL, 1.6 TDs/Season

...but there’s more

— PackersHistory.com (@PackersHistory1) August 8, 2021

Be sure to read the entire thread above.

Ultimately, history will remember Woodson as a Packer, and this wouldn’t even be a particularly controversial statement if he’d retired with the team. But it was his years as a Packer that turned Woodson into a legend. He was a machine, racking up gaudy numbers and performing all over the field, while also delivering some moments that will be a part of Packer legend forever.

The one I’ll always come back to will be his post-NFC Championship speech in the locker room, which he ended with a now-immortal quote:

“If the President don’t wanna come watch us in the Super Bowl, then guess what--we’ll go see him!

Woodson only played seven years in the green and gold, but he will forever have an indelible place in Packers history. The effect he had on this team and the respect he had from his contemporaries in the locker room has been unmatched by any other player in my adulthood watching the Packers.

How ‘bout that family night?

Meanwhile, bringing the focus back to current Packers…

The annual Family Night scrimmage returned this weekend for the first time since 2019, and it was sure a sight for sore eyes. Seeing all those fans packed into Lambeau Field, for a PRACTICE, in a downpour, was really special and made me realize how much I’d taken having fans in the stands for granted for so many years.

Now, you always want to be careful about making any judgments of the team or players based on practice, even in a more formal scrimmage setting provided by family night. But it was great to see Jordan Love chucking the ball around the field, including a couple really nice balls with a higher degree of difficulty. We’re a long way from being certain what the Packers have in him, but one thing is clear: the man can throw.

The defense seemed to get the better of the offense for much of the evening, which isn’t surprising. Offenses tend to take longer than defenses to get back into the flow of things in a new season, and the inclement weather of the evening would have made matters difficult, particularly in the passing game.

Devin Funchess had a good practice, which is important for someone competing for one of the bubble roster positions at wide receiver.

But most importantly, the Packers came away from the evening without any injuries. That’s huge.

Wisconsin Beer of the Week

If you followed this column last year, you know just how much I love my Milwaukee nanobreweries, and 1840 Brewing Company is easily my favorite of those. It’s been great over the last few months to be able to get back out to their tap room, which re-opened to the public in May. Great beer on tap just hits different, as great as their stuff is out of a bottle!

The brewery recently had its fourth anniversary, and as part of its celebrations, it released four brand new beers, one of which is this beautiful beer you see above. It’s called Summer Mike, and boy oh boy is it a great summer beverage.

This ale is fermented in stainless with lime, mango, guava, pineapple and papaya. That may sound like a lot of fruit, but this isn’t a beer that has an overly fruity flavor. If anything, it serves more to accentuate the flavors that are produced from the barrel aging process that followed fermentation.

After fermentation, the beer was aged in “pink” Tequila barrels, those being tequila barrels that had previously been used for red wine. 

So the flavor here is boozy. You get a sour, hard flavor that comes with the aging process and a lot of tequila taste, but it’s cut and softened a bit by the presence of the fruit. It has a very margarita-like taste to it; the lime shows up more than any of the other fruit flavors.

Every time I write about any kind of beer that includes fruit in the brewing process there are inevitably folks who complain about it not being “real beer.” But this beer is a masterclass in modern brewing and a delicious summer treat. At eight percent it’s not one you’re going to drink all day long, but if you’re out on a patio in the evenings, it hits perfectly, especially when paired with some chips and salsa.

It’s on tap now at 1840’s tap room in Bay View. If you’re in the Milwaukee area, head over and check it out.

Next week I’ll have something that’s a bit more up the beer purists’ alley!

Let’s not forget Bobby Dillon

We already discussed Charles Woodson’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but we should be sure to dedicate some space to Bobby Dillon as well. 

Now, I should admit that I was ignorant to Dillon’s greatness before it was announced he would be inducted into the Hall of Fame. I knew he was the team’s all-time interception leader, but I know a lot of random trivia about the team without knowing much about the players. 

Dillon’s time with the Packers predates the football consciousness of the vast majority of the people likely to be reading this article, so chances are you also were not well-versed in his greatness.

Dillon played for the team in the 1950s, which is a dark decade for the Packers falling between Curly Lambeau’s departure and the arrival of Vince Lombardi. He overlapped with Lombardi for just one season, in fact, his career in Green Bay ending before the team’s legendary run took off. That year, the 1959 season, was the only winning season he experienced in Green Bay.

Dillon tallied 52 interceptions over those eight seasons, and in three separate seasons (1953, 1955 and 1957) intercepted nine passes.

Dillon also played with a glass eye for his entire career after he lost an eye in an accident as a child.

The man earned a lot of praise from other Hall of Famers and Packer legends, including VInce Lombardi and Ron Wolf. It was a long overdue induction, and it is unfortunate that Dillon died just two years before getting to see himself enshrined in Canton. But it is better late than never, and it’s great to see a man who could easily have become a forgotten Packer get some time in the spotlight this weekend, more than sixty years after his playing career ended. 

It’s electric!

Earlier today I tweeted the following:

science experiment: Did anyone else have an electric football set as a kid? And if so how old are you?

— Tim Backes (@timbackes) August 9, 2021

This post got a larger response than expected. And I have to say, I was quite surprised that nearly a third of the 300-plus respondents (at the time of this writing) said they have never heard of electric football before.

Commenters on this site tend to be older than the folks who interact with our content on Twitter, but for the uninitiated among you, electric football was a game that featured a metal electric “field” and plastic football players on little adjustable bases. When you’d turn on the electricity, the field would vibrate (with a loud, unforgettable buzzing noise) and the players would move forward… if you were lucky. Oftentimes they’d just spin in circles, the source of much frustration for seven-year-old Tim.

You would set the players up in formations and designate a runner of the football, or attempt a “pass” by throwing the little miniature foam football at your intended receiver while the players were moving. Passing was so difficult that usually we just ended up running the football and creating some wild bunch formations.

My field was given to me as a child as a birthday present a few months after Super Bowl XIX, in which the San Francisco 49ers eviscerated the San Diego Chargers with six touchdown passes by Steve Young. The set came with the figures of the two Super Bowl teams. 

But my dad was an electric football aficionado in the 1960s, and still had all of his old players, some of which he hand-painted. I’ve still got all of the sets from the other NFL teams that existed at the time.

I would usually start off by trying to simulate an actual football game, but eventually I’d get bored with that and start making mini-games with the players. I’d do a lot of races, for example, and try to see which players I could get to “run” the straightest and fastest. I also enjoyed a Red Rover-style of game in which I’d line up the players on opposite sides of the field and just let them ram into each other.

So anyway, electric football certainly could be frustrating, but it was a staple of my childhood and my early years as a football fan. 

In my responses, I was certainly among the younger of the folks who had electric football growing up--most of the others who responded were in their 40s and 50s, and those in their 30s (like myself) seemed to either have older siblings who were into it or were introduced to it by their father.

I’d like to see continued responses on this, so if you were an electric football player at any point, be sure to leave a comment saying so, because I was surprised at just how many people didn’t know anything about it!

Mason Crosby: a model of consistency

Mason Crosby has played in every single Packer game since 2007. Heading into year 15 of his career, he seems to only be getting better with age. He made every single field goal he attempted last season, and still has outstanding range for deep kicks. There aren’t many kickers you’d take over him in the league at the moment.

In his media availability Monday afternoon, Crosby said he would enjoy having the opportunity to play into his 40s, but can’t think that far ahead. His current contract expires after the 2022 season, after which the Packers will have to assess Crosby’s skills and weigh those against his age and potential cost.

If Crosby continues to play at the level of the last couple years, one would think he’s got a very high chance of getting yet another contract in Green Bay. Kickers can play for a long time, and as we’ve seen in Chicago and Minnesota over recent years, the last thing you want is to be in a situation in which you do not have kicking consistency. 

Crosby has come a long way since his troubles of the early 2010s. He’s a lock to be inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame someday, and whenever he leaves Green Bay, he will do so as a long-time fan favorite. 

State Fair is upon us once again!

I was hoping today would be my day to get out to the Wisconsin State Fair, but alas, we’re beset with rain and thunderstorms all day long, which would have made it less than desirable to haul out my three year old and my eleven month olds to the fairgrounds in West Allis. 

But I do hope to get out sometime this week. I’m a big fan of the State Fair. I enjoy the animals, but of course, the real attraction is the food.

There’s the Milwaukee Bucks milk stand (which I heard a rumor isn’t happening this year?!?!?!), which is always a hoot. The massive variety of fried foods (the fried Brandy Old Fashioned the other year is one I’ll always remember), the exotic meats, the dairy products, the everything-you-could-possibly-think-of-on-a-stick. The kitschiness of it all is just fantastic. 

Looking forward to finally getting out there this week and experiencing it again. The last time we took our oldest he was still too young to really enjoy it, but I think he’d get a big kick out of it all this year, especially the animals.

It’s Texans week

For the first time in nearly two years, the Packers will play a preseason game this weekend, meaning we’re finally going to get to see Jordan Love in his very first live game action. So while it may be “just” preseason, it’s a pretty big deal.

But there are plenty of other players that I’m interested in seeing. We essentially have two draft classes worth of players that haven’t really had a chance to hit the field yet.

Of last year’s rookies, very few saw significant playing time, but more are expected to be key contributors in 2021. We know what the Packers have in AJ Dillon and have at least had a chance to see Kamal Martin, but players like Love, Josiah Deguara, Jon Runyan and Vernon Scott haven’t had nearly the same opportunities to showcase themselves yet.

Meanwhile, this year’s draft class will be put on display for the first time. What can rookie Eric Stokes do against competition that isn’t literally the best QB-WR tandem in the game? How involved will Amari Rodgers be in the Packers’ offense? Will TJ Slaton push bodies around with impunity?

There are a whole lot of questions about the underside of the roster, and preseason is where we see some of those things start to play out. I, for one, can’t wait.

Go Pack.