By Chris Havel
There is a reason it takes two words to reference one area.
The locker room is a double-edged sword that cuts in whatever direction the players allow it. Seniority doesn't rule. Neither do ability, stability or credibility.
Majority rules.
It is why the NFL has winners and losers, champions and chumps. It may be the No. 1 reason if not a close second to coaching why some teams succeed and some fail.
When the regular season ends and the Packers and Bears shake hands and jog off Soldier Field, will Green Bay be a team on the rise? Will it be a team to get excited about? Will it be reasonable to think 2007 playoffs?
Or won't it?
In 15 seasons worth of locker rooms, I have seen the awe-inspiring and the awful. I have seen teamwork at its finest, friends at their best and men taking pride in their profession. I have seen envy, indifference and intolerance.
Which way is it going to fall for the Packers?
The early indications arrive today at noon when the Packers play the Dolphins at Miami's Dolphin Stadium. Coach Mike McCarthy's team is coming off a bye week. It should be fairly obvious whether the time off was well spent or misspent.
The Dolphins aren't very good right now. Neither are the Packers. Not now. Green Bay has played just well enough to get fans especially irate when it loses. Better to spend Sundays at the bedside of a doomed team, rather than "that damned team!"
The Packers, at 1-4, have a favorable schedule ahead of them and enough positives to build on behind them. This season doesn't have to be listed as a "rebuilding" casualty. Sorry, but I missed the "Season Under Construction" sign at Lambeau Field.
Ted Thompson, the Packers' general manager, wants to win. He prefers to do it by drafting, developing and directing talented young players. The players need to take it from there and finish the job.
To be fair, Thompson has succeeded in drafting a lot of promising, productive and potentially special players. The influx is so rapid it has almost gone unnoticed.
A.J. Hawk, Nick Collins, Brady Poppinga, Abdul Hodge, Corey Williams, Michael Montgomery and Will Blackmon need to impose their collective will.
Greg Jennings, Daryn Colledge, Jason Spitz, Tony Moll, Scott Wells and Noah Herron need to follow Aaron Rodgers' lead: Watch and learn from Brett Favre Rodgers so he can be ready to take over; the rest so they can be ready to follow.
Together, the Packers' youngest and brightest players have an opportunity to take the team's future into their hands. They can control their destiny, to a great degree, if they trust in Thompson and McCarthy, and if they want it bad enough.
It isn't going to happen by showing up, practicing hard, studying a bit and going home. Not a chance. It is more than doing your job. It is doing it together. Football is a young man's game, and the quicker the Packers' young players realize it and accept the consequences of daring to be great, they'll be just another team that doesn't quite cut it.
Majority rules.
Chris Havel can be reached by voice mail at (920) 431-8586 or by e-mail at chavel@greenbay.gannett.com