Over the last several months I was quick to state how no football would be fine with me. That if it means things return to normal faster without a year of football, so be it. Then the social justice kneeling not kneeling two anthems stuff was brought back up and that (along with not thinking football would happen) made me just wanna tune out and find other things to do. I don't think the announcers were obnoxious about the pregame stuff. At least, I didn't much notice it. I deliberately didn't start watching the game until after kickoff. And during the Packers game, I started to feel "alive" for lack of a better word. I felt like a little spark was triggered. Maybe it was football? Maybe it was Packers winning? Maybe it was Vikings losing? Maybe it was chatting with you folks in the chat? I don't know. I just know ... I liked how it felt and looking forward to another Sunday!

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I actively stayed away all off season because I just couldn't put energy into discussing football during all these bat shit crazy times. I also went through a second bout of colon cancer this year, surgery got everything removed and healthier than ever. Outside of that I just started a new work contract, been dating a new lady for a few months, and my kids are badass little humans. Felt really awesome though to be back in chat, throwing up my outdated ascii shot glasses, and enjoying football with the PH crew. Felt "normal" again. Prost! Go Pack Go!

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Sorry to hear you had cancer issues Tezzy but glad things are working out for you.

I can't watch the live game but was able to watch the replay on game pass. No pregame stuff. No anthems national or otherwise so the drama was much less. i don't know what FOX did on the live feed.

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A GREAT thread!
In all honesty, last week I didn’t even realize that yesterday was the start of the season. I actually came here and checked out the Packer schedule, and was like, “geez! It’s this Sunday”.
The whole National Anthem and now black anthem.....what’s next?
Chinese American anthem? Latino American anthem? They will have to start the games an hour early to fit in all the anthems if they want to be “politically correct”.
Tezzy, sorry to hear about your cancer, but glad they got it out of you!

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Welcome to the club....your felling are normal and justified. When your country is being ripped apart, it puts sports in its appropriate priority, which is to be a diversion and at the same time, the ultimate meritocracy of achievement and teamwork. When is ceases to be that, many of lose interest.

But don't for moment feel guilt about your lack of enthusiasm, it was merited. Nevertheless, you can be enthusiastic about sports AND feel disgusted at being preached to by people who have no idea what they are talking about, or what is in your heart.

To many just want to go with the flow and are afraid to enter political discourse. “Timid men...prefer the calm of despotism to the boisterous sea of liberty, " said James Madison. Also “It behooves every man who values liberty of conscience for himself, to resist invasions of it in the case others.” Thomas Jefferson

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So very glad you've pulled through it. It's stuff like this that makes me feel like such a selfish prick about not enjoying my own life to the fullest. I have absolutely nothing to bitch about, yet I feel like eeyore stuck in dense fog.

Congrats on the new work contract and the new lady. Hopefully both of them work out and you can bring her to Tampa Bay to watch the Packers win another Super Bowl at the end of this season! 😁

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It wasn’t as much in the game, but the commercials and the pregame show was ridiculous.
I should have been more clear.

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I missed the pregame (I normally do, seems like I usually miss kickoff too), and there were commercials?

Maybe I'm just better at ignoring advertising, they've said that's become a human defense mechanism, on average resulting in shorter attention spans.

But brains can't hold all information, so lots need to be dumped, shorter attention spans helps dump the advertisement bombardment that we get now days.

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I am in the same boat as others. Started watching about 5 minutes in the 1st quarter trying to avoid the bullshit. I did not want to see players ai like shit on the country while glorifying a bunch of alleged rapist and thiefs. I was ready to sign off the moment I heard any lecturing and was happy to have watched a great game. I heard today that the Packers did not come out until after the anthem. Some were bothered by this but I am fine with that. No one should be forced to participate if they are not in uniform. It should be for those that want to participate in my opinion.

Let's see if the games can stay political free. No kneeling and no MAGA hats is fine by me.

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The Vikings had George Floyd’s family there.
Floyd.....who tried to pass a counterfeit $20. Then fought with the cops, resisting arrest.
As I have said, the cop was wrong to have his knee on him after they finally got him under control, and the cop will pay for it.
But to make him out to be an innocent saint....remember he spent 5 years in prison for home invasion robbery, holding the home owners at gun point.
Yet they honor him like he was some humanitarian.
Had at any point he decided to cooperate with the police, he’d be alive today.
Why don’t these sports teams bring in the families of police officers that have been murderd trying to protect us? How about the black ex-officer that was murdered while trying to protect his friend’s business from the rioting looters? Not a damn word about him. I haven’t seen any team bringing in his family in to see a game, to honor him. Doesn’t his black life matter? He actually was a good man. Not a criminal resisting arrest. Where were the “BLM” people protesting HIS murder?
That’s what really bugs me. Honoring criminals and vilifying good people.
Not honoring real heroes.
If they did, I wouldn’t be so negative about all this.
Criminals resisting arrest that end up severely injured or killed end up that way because of their own actions.
The rapist (Jacob Blake) in Kenosha, had he given himself up when the police caught up with him, he wouldn’t have been injured. He caused the cop to have to use deadly force to stop him from hurting the cops or some innocent bystanders.
Yet when it’s talked about on the news or on line, they don’t tell that whole story. They make it sound like some awful racist cops gunned down some innocent black man who was minding his own business.
Jacob Blake was a criminal that didn’t give a damn about his victim, and wasn’t going to let the cops stop him.
That’s what ticks me off.
It isn’t racism to try to stop criminals from getting away. If a white man resisted arrest, they would be treated the same. Cops that are trying to arrest someone, don’t give a damn what color of skin the person has. They are trying to get someone under control and guarantee that they get to go home to their loved ones at the end of their shift. To get a bad guy off the streets. That’s their JOB.
So let’s call it like it is, not the “politically correct” B. S. That they are trying to push.

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