State of conflict
Wisconsin sons face off
By TOM SILVERSTEIN
tsilverstein@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 18, 2008
East Rutherford, N.J. - Mark Tauscher and Rich Seubert grew up 10 miles apart in central Wisconsin, but for how often their paths crossed during grade school and high school, they might as well have been raised 100 miles apart.
Wisconsinite and Giant Rich Seubert, grew up 10 miles from the Packers' Mark Tauscher.
Yes, in small-town Wisconsin, everyone knows everyone else, and the fact their fathers coached grade school basketball, occasionally against one another and a couple of times with their sons opposing each other on the court, certainly makes for a good story.
Yet it would be a stretch to say their meeting Sunday at Lambeau Field - Tauscher as a right tackle for the Green Bay Packers and Seubert (pronounced SIGH-bert) as a left guard for the New York Giants - is a reunion.
It is, rather, a case of paralleled perseverance and small-town work ethic being rewarded on one of the biggest stages anyone could imagine. It is Auburndale (Tauscher) and Rozellville (Seubert), combined population less than 1,000, being represented at the NFC Championship Game.
"It's two good, hard-working kids," said Dennis Tauscher, Mark's father. "Both he and Mark are similar in that they're small-town kids who don't get a lot of fanfare. Mark was a late-round pick and Rich was a free agent. Both worked their way up the ladder.
"They come from small-town farming communities with strong work ethics."
Mark Tauscher has lived the dream so many state kids have. He played football at the University of Wisconsin, played in the Rose Bowl and was drafted by the Packers. He is in his eighth season with Green Bay and is closer to getting to a Super Bowl than at any time in his career.
It didn't come easy, though. Two years older than Seubert, he had to walk on at Wisconsin, and only a chance meeting with his offensive line coach at the Kentucky Derby, of all places, resulted in him coming back for one more season as a graduate student and getting a chance to showcase himself to the pros.
As a seventh-round pick, he was given little chance of making the team, but became a starter early in his rookie season and has remained one since, his only setback a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in 2002. Not even that could set him back, however, and he enters Sunday with the gargantuan task of having to block Giants end Michael Strahan in the biggest game of his career.
"As an offensive lineman, you want to be not seen," Tauscher said recently. "You don't want to hear your name called. I pride myself on trying to be consistent, trying to be the same player every week, and that's what I'm going to be looking for. I just want to go out and execute to the best of my abilities."
This weekend, Tauscher has the luxury of having 70,000 fans in his corner.
Seubert, he'll have about 50 or 60. That's how many tickets he was able to scrounge up from his teammates, so that his parents and various family members and friends can drive the hour and a half or so to Green Bay for the game.
If there's anyone who can handle coming into Lambeau Field in a uniform other than a Packers one, it's the gritty Seubert. After finishing high school at Marshfield Columbus, he didn't get the call from Wisconsin, so he went to Western Illinois.
When he was done there, he went undrafted in 2001 and had to sign a free-agent deal with the Giants. Like Tauscher, he proved himself right away, although he didn't become a starter until 2002. In '03, he suffered a fractured lower leg that forced him to miss the second half of the season, plus all of 2004.
In '05 and '06, he was a backup, but when David Diehl was moved to left tackle this season, Seubert was inserted at left guard and started every game. He has become the pride of southern Marathon County and given the area a reason to cheer on the Giants.
"I know he's pretty excited," said his father, Tom Seubert, who is owner and chef at the popular Buck-a-Neer Supper Club in Stratford, Wis. "We are, too. We'll be there in Lambeau. It's right in our back yard, so we're going to be there."
Rich has only one demand from those who get his tickets, and that's that they wear Giants apparel to the game. He grew up following the Packers and attended some games, but this is not a trip down memory lane or a pilgrimage he's making; he's here to beat the Packers. And he knows his family is behind him.
"Family is a lot thicker than where you live," Seubert said. "This opportunity only comes around once in awhile. They're behind me and they support the Giants. I went to Lambeau, and you get the shivers going in there. This will be my first time playing there, so it's going to be interesting."
Tom Seubert has decorated one of the walls in his restaurant with Giants memorabilia and he regularly hears from townspeople and friends about how proud they are of his son. But he also knows that on each Sunday, the television sets at the bar have to be tuned into the Packers' game.
So he goes into the kitchen and watches the Giants game by himself. He good-naturedly gets ribbed about his allegiances, but after 36 years as the restaurant's chef and host to 300 or 400 people on Fridays and Saturdays, he's cut some slack.
On Sunday, Seubert plans on keeping the restaurant open, even though he will be attending the game. His sister-in-law has offered to take over while he's gone so he can see if his next trip is to Glendale, Ariz., for Super Bowl XLII.
As for Rich's rivalry with Tauscher, well, there really isn't one. Seubert was part of the Marshfield Columbus basketball team that broke Auburndale's 67-game home winning streak, but that happened after Tauscher had graduated. The two think they played against one another in basketball, but neither really remembers it. Same with football.
After the game, they may seek one another out and shake hands. They've done it before, so it wouldn't be anything new. One of them will be celebrating and the other will be conciliatory. Both have plenty to be proud of.
"That's the thing I want to say," Dennis Tauscher said. "Someone's got to win and someone has to lose. But they're a very nice family and we have a lot of respect for them. This is about two kids who really worked hard to get where they are. That's the important thing."
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