Zero2Cool
18 years ago

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


UserPostedImage
Rockmolder
16 years ago
Wow, this really looks familiar.

I'm being horribly bored at school, just browsing around some old posts, and this one seems to apply for this season aswell.

If you read this though, you'd think last year was indeed a fluke, as we're still waiting for alot of the young guys to step up and get this team back to greatness... and I couldn't agree more with the irritation of a team losing all these close games.

Hope just sinks to your shoes after losing 6 of these close ones in one season.
Greg C.
14 years ago
I remember that the Packers won that game. Darryn Colledge got thrown into the deep end of the pool at left tackle, because Clifton was hurt, and he got lit up by Jason Taylor early. Charles Woodson had a pick-six.
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wpr
  • wpr
  • Preferred Member
14 years ago
6 of the 15 players listed are gone. A few more could leave this year.

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.


UserPostedImage
Fan Shout
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : Jaire played in just 34 of a possible 68 games since the start of the 2021 season
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : reported, but not expected to practice
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : Jenkins has REPORTED for mandatory camp
Zero2Cool (9-Jun) : I really thought he'd play for Packers.
buckeyepackfan (9-Jun) : Packers releasing Jaire Alexander.
Mucky Tundra (8-Jun) : (Context: he wants his defense to create turnovers)
Mucky Tundra (8-Jun) : Giants DC Shane Bowen tells players to “be a damn pirate."
dfosterf (6-Jun) : Semper fi !
Cheesey (6-Jun) : This is why I have so much respect for those that have gone through battles
Cheesey (6-Jun) : I can't even imagine what that would have been like
wpr (6-Jun) : "Come on, you sons of bitches. Do you want to live forever?"
wpr (6-Jun) : Facing a line of machine guns 2 time medal of Honor recipient, First Sergeant Dan Daly told his men,
wpr (6-Jun) : Another detachment went into the Belleau Wood.
wpr (6-Jun) : On the 6th the Marines took Hill 142 but suffered terrible losses.
wpr (6-Jun) : It’s time to remember dfoster’s Marine brothers in Belleau Wood. The battle went on from June 1-26. Nearly 10,000 casualties.
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : Nick Collins and Morgan Burnett have signed with the PACK
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : he won't be wearing #12, maybe he will wear number two
packerfanoutwest (6-Jun) : He will fail this season, should have retired
Mucky Tundra (5-Jun) : Thus the cycle of Hall of Fame Packer QBs going to the Jets and then the Vikings is broken
bboystyle (5-Jun) : Rodgers to steelers on 1 year contract
Zero2Cool (5-Jun) : It's the cycle of civilizations. Get lazier, lazier, softer, softer and vanish.
Martha Careful (5-Jun) : great point. every aspect of society, including art, culture and sports has degraded.
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Green Bay sweep meant something to society about stopping pure excellence. We have the tush push now
dfosterf (4-Jun) : We old Martha.
Martha Careful (4-Jun) : *front four
Martha Careful (4-Jun) : Re frout four, I wish we had some Green "People Eaters" or a fearsome foursome
dfosterf (4-Jun) : *directions*
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Just don't ask him for driving direct
dfosterf (4-Jun) : Jim Marshall was an all-time great DE for the Purple People Eaters. Didn't like him. That's a compliment. RIP
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : ooppppss
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : “Kenny Clark played all of last season hurt by the way and got surgery to fix it in January”
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : @ByRyanWood How much did the injury affect him last fall? “A lot.”
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : @ByRyanWood Kenny Clark said he had foot surgery in January. Injured his foot in opener against Eagles and played through it all year.
Zero2Cool (3-Jun) : Golden is wearing guardian cap again. I bet he plays with it on too.
Mucky Tundra (3-Jun) : All the stuff I'm reading from Lions fans are pointing at his toe; he more or less has permanent turf toe in one of his big toes
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Kenny played through it, and a shame he gets little credit for that, imo
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Big men. I hope it's not the undoing of Kenny Clark
dfosterf (3-Jun) : Probably his toe. Pretty much a great center. Toe injuries are brutal to bigen
Mucky Tundra (2-Jun) : Lions All-Pro C Frank Ragnow retires
wpr (30-May) : It's all good.
beast (30-May) : Yeah, and I enjoyed your comments and just attempted to add to it. Sorry if I did it incorrectly.
wpr (30-May) : Beast I never said Henderson was the salt of the earth. Nor even that he was correct. Just quoting the guy.
Zero2Cool (29-May) : What did you do??
Zero2Cool (29-May) : Whoa
beast (29-May) : OMG the website is now all white, even some white on white text
beast (29-May) : Henderson, who admits to taking cocaine during the Super Bowl against the Steelers, might dislike Bradshaw as he lost two Superbowls to him
wpr (28-May) : Hollywood Henderson said Bradshaw “is so dumb, he couldn't spell 'cat' if you spotted him the C and an A.”
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : Cooper stock=BUY BUY BUY
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : Also notes he’s playing with more confidence.
Mucky Tundra (28-May) : @AndyHermanNFL MLF says there was a time last year where Cooper was at 220 pounds. Now he’s at 240 and still flying around.
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