I am extremely pleased to hear that Brett Favre is looking past this season and thinking seriously about returning next year. The regular season of this year ws outlandish -- even Brett couldn't believe that these "kids" kept winning! But the real truth is this version of the Pack is the youngest team in the league.
for any of us to expect them to get all the way to -- and then win the Superbowl -- is pretty fantastical. If they stumble in the playoffs (hopefully not against Holmgren), I, for one, am not going to be getting down on the team. Most of the pundits gave them a 50% ratio win to loss for a season record this year. So it's great neews to know that we will have the good fortune to continue to watch in amazement this true American sports hero do his thing for at lest one more year.
Much has been accomplished and Brett sees that the only way this team has to go is UP! Go Pack!
Today I just finished Edward Gruver's great biography about Ray Nitschke, probablay the best remembered Green Bay Packer of all time.
It is a great read and I recommend it highly for any Packer fan.
Having lost both his parents at a very yooung age, ray started life out with a tremendous chip on his shoulder. His life was saved by several people, principally his wife Jackie, and his college coach and of course, coach Vince Lombardi, who almost fired him very early on in his career.
I don't remember if I have told this story before but I got a chance to "share the bill" with Ray as after dinner speakers twice a couple of years before his untimely death at age 61.
Both times it was for Lapham-Hickey steel out of Appleton, Wisconsin. The first year, I arrive, walk into the country club, and there stands this hulking, bald-headed man that I instantly recognize as Ray Nitschke. I go over and shake hands (my hand disappears into his huge mitt), and I explain that I am doing about a half an hour of comedy right after lunch.
He agrees that his talk should follow mine as his talk will b e much more of a insprational type presentation.
After my show, I stood back to listen to Ray. I will always remember that at one point one of the Lapham-Hickey employees glanced down at his watch and Ray, with those intense eyes of his, stared a hole right through him as he said: "YOU GOTTA BE SOME WHERE?"
I almost felt sorry for the guy.The next summer, I am asked to return and do another show for Lapham-Hickey at the same place, the Butte Des Morte Golf Course.
This time as I pull into the parking spot, another car pulls in right next to me. We both stand up outside our vehicles and it's Ray Nitschke!
Ray glares at me and says: "YOU AGAIN!
As we walk in together he tells me that he's not following me this year.
Whatever you say Mr. Nitschke. Whatever you say.
Now, after reading his biography, I am kicking myself for not getting his autograph as he was well known for always obliging people who asked for his autograph.
In the closing chapetr of the book, the author says:
Dave Robinson said that as great a player that Nitschke was, he was a even better person. To Ray Scott, Nitchke's real talent - brightening the lives of everyone around him - was evident once his playing career ended. When Willie Davis thinks of his old teammate, he thinks of the special bond between them, a bond that surpassed all racial barriers, a bond strong enough to link a white man from urban Chicago with a black man from rural Arkansas.
"Everyone talks about the love those old Lombardi teams had," Davis said, "well, I can tell you, I loved Ray Nitschke. I loved the man."
At his passing, the governor said: "to live in the hearts of those left behind is not to die. Ray certainly lives in the hearts of
millions of people in Wisconsin and across America."
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