A good Read from NFP
NFC Championship Memories
As we prepare to watch the conference championship games on Sunday a true football fans delight before the seemingly endless bye week and stream of inane media preceding the Super Bowl I think back to a year ago when I was with the Packers.
We had raced past the Seahawks in the divisional round in the midst of a snowstorm and surprisingly mild mid-January temperatures. With the snow falling, the game out of hand and a trip the NFC championship game assured, I went down to the sideline, something I did only a couple times in nine years since its no place for front office personnel to celebrate. The scene was one I will always remember: snow coming down in thick flakes, the game won, players and coaches hugging and squeezing the breath out of me and, of course, players asking about their contracts Corey Williams wondering about his and Donald Driver asking about a bonus he missed.
As we settled in that night and watched the Steelers lose to the Jaguars, we all expected to be making a trip to Dallas the next week. We felt certain the Cowboys would beat the Giants, who were coming off an emotional game against the Patriots to end the season and had beaten Tampa in a road game. It would be our second trip to Dallas in two months, having lost there at the end of November in a game in which Brett Favre was hurt. We tentatively arranged our itinerary for Dallas.
Not so fast. The Giants beat the Cowboys, and as fate would have it, they were coming to Green Bay for the NFC championship. We were excited, but we knew two things: the Giants were on a roll, and the forecast for the game was subzero temperatures. Not subzero including wind chill; subzero before factoring in wind chill! Once this was known, it became one of the huge storylines of the game, and rightfully so.
On game day, the weather was beyond bone-chilling. I thought our game a few weeks earlier in Chicago was the coldest I had ever experienced. Not any longer. This set a new standard for frigid. Yes, I was lucky to be in a private box for the game, but I did have to be on the field for a while before it started.
I had the privilege of hosting a couple of interesting guests that day. Richard Lovett is the president of CAA, the mega-firm that represents the elite in entertainment and sports. He is a good friend and a diehard Packers fan from Milwaukee. Richard and his friends were there, bundled in multiple layers to fight the cold.
A client of CAA who is also a huge Packers fan was also there. Comedian Rob Schneider of SNL and Adam Sandler-movie fame also braved the cold and rooted for his Packers.
The most interesting guest whom I was fortunate to host that day was the Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts, Jr. Justice Roberts and his group, including his seven-year-old son, were accompanied by U.S. Marshals, who made his visit seamless, as they were amazingly inconspicuous and virtually invisible. I gave Justice Roberts and his group a tour and talk before the game and introduced him to a couple of players, hoping that, even if they did not know who he was, they would not say anything inappropriate.
Then, of course, there was the game. The Giants continued their roll and we were fortunate to take it to overtime. Lawrence Tynes missed two field goals that would have won the game for the Giants in regulation; on the second attempt, I packed up my belongings and was ready to head down from the box to start the off-season. Miraculously, he missed again and there were hugs all around. The upsurge in optimism continued when we won the toss to start with the ball in overtime.
As we know, the Giants won soon after. The deflation after Corey Websters interception is hard to describe, with a hushed crowd sensing the end. Now we could only hope for a hat trick from Tynes, but we knew it was unlikely. Tynes trotted on the field, and for the first and only time in my years of watching football, I couldnt look. I kept my head in my hands and just listened. Silence.
While a trip to the Super Bowl in Arizona was so close, it was not to be. One thing that everyone who works in the NFL learns to appreciate is how fleeting the chances are to capture the ultimate prize. We were very close in 2004 in Philadelphia, and we were closer last year at Lambeau. Those chances are so few, so rare and so important to savor and seize. They may never happen again.
The Giants continued their run. Thats what the post-season appears to be about now, getting hot at the right time (see Eagles, Philadelphia) and upset the Patriots in a dramatic Super Bowl. I left the Packers the following week and watched the Super Bowl broadcast in Spanish in Mexico (Pase a Tyree; muy bueno!).
Enjoy the games. Ill have my memories from a year ago. Although bitter cold and with a disappointing finish, it was an experience to remember.
""People Will Probably Never Remember What You Said, And May Never Remember What You Did. However, People Will Always Remember How You Made Them Feel."