Finding Purple Light – A Life Long Packers Fan Comes to the “Dark Side”
Roger Dier
|
When Brett Favre broke bad with the Green Bay Packers, our new Wisconsin correspondent followed Favre to the Vikings. He decided to stay.
By Roger Dier, Wisconsin correspondent for Purpleptsd.com and Vikingsterritory.com.
“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies but not the madness of people.”
―Isaac Newton
I used to tell anyone who would listen, “Once you become a Packers fan, you can never be anything else.”
That’s what I used to say.
From the moment I grew into Packers fandom during my sprouting years in Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay, I was true blue, make that true green and gold. Like thousands of other Green Bay fans, I became acquainted with suffering after Lombardi left Green Bay early in 1969 for Washington, D.C.
When Lombardi left Green Bay for Washington, a fog of bitterness settled over Green Bay. Lombardi jumped his contract, the locals believed, for an ownership stake in the Washington franchise. Plus, their Lombardi was now Washington’s general manager and head coach. Though the locals honored Lombardi by naming a major Green Bay artery after him in 1968, there existed serious talk of changing Lombardi Avenue back to Highland Avenue after Lombardi left.
Years later, historian David Mariness tapped out a story in the Jan. 7, 2016 edition of The Washington Post which captures Green Bay’s jilted feeling. “’It is true that our hero has treated us rather shabbily in the end,’” a columnist wrote in the Wisconsin State Journal. “’Vince Lombardi has gone off, without asking us about it, and made himself a deal in a foreign land to the east. He has cast us aside, and rather roughly at that.’” It was the same sense of betrayal that would wash over Packers fans again decades later when their beloved quarterback, Brett Favre, left them for Minnesota …”
Given what Vince had done for Green Bay, I thought at the time that Green Bay’s bitterness over Lombardi’s leaving was at the least unbecoming and at the most just pitiful, public bile spit out by noisy ingrates who thought the sun rose and set on the Packers. Didn’t Green Bay fans remember what it was like the year before Lombardi saved their franchise? The Packers were 1-10-1 for crissakes.
Who knows? After Lombardi left Green Bay, maybe all those suddenly anti-Lombardi Packers fans knew the dark ages were returning.
For 24 years after Vince left Green Bay, the Packers fumbled along making bad trades (two No. 1s, two No. 2s and a third-round pick for 34-year-old Rams quarterback John Hadl), bad drafts (selecting offensive tackle Tony Manderich No. 2 overall in the 1989 draft and passing over Barry Sanders, Deion Sanders and Derrick Thomas), and a queue of bad head coaches: inconsistent Phil Bengston, NFL coaching greenhorns Dan Devine and Bart Starr, disinterested Forrest Gregg, and unlucky Lindy Infante.
The Vikings owned the Packers for long stretches during those 24 years. Minnesota went 15-4-1 against Green Bay in the 1970s, including seven wins in a row. While the Packers owned the Vikings in the 1960s because they had two guys who knew what they were doing in Lombardi and Bart Starr, the Vikings dominated Green Bay because they had two guys who knew their craft in Bud Grant and Fran Tarkenton.
Desperate management hired all of those post-Lombardi coaches. When Ron Wolf took over football operations late in 1991, he fired Infante, hired Mike Holmgren, and a few weeks later traded a first-round pick in the 1992 draft for a quarterback who had been taken in the second round of the 1991 draft. I was in the newsroom of the Mankato Free Press when I read the AP bulletin announcing that trade. I had to read it twice. A first this year for a second-rounder last year? WTF? Another head-shaking blunder, I thought. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
The quarterback Wolf traded for, however, was Brett Favre, and as soon as Favre arrived in Green Bay, the franchise began its resurrection. Between Lombardi and Favre, the Packers went 146-201-9: three winning seasons in 24 years. During Favre’s 16 years taking snaps for Green Bay, the Packers had one losing season and went 161-95 in regular season games. Oh yeah, I almost forgot: Favre gave Green Bay a Super Bowl win and another Super Bowl appearance. My three kids called Favre “God.”
When Favre and the Packers parted ways on Aug. 7, 2008, the Packers put out a press release implying the Favre quit the team and wanted to be traded. Green Bay sent him to the Jets for a conditional fourth round pick. A poison pill in the contract emerged later: If the Jets dealt Favre to the Vikings, the Jets would have to surrender three, No. 1 picks to the Packers.
The year before Favre came to New York, the Jets went 4-12. In Favre’s only year in New York, the Jets went 9-7. Yep, Brett carried the sweet stink of football success everywhere he played. I rooted for Favre and the Jets in 2008 and I really didn’t care much what happened to the Packers. When they shed Favre, the Packers, the whole lot of them, seemed petty and small. I was embarrassed by them and for them, but I don’t know why: The Packers didn’t seem to have any shame in their shame.
My final conversion began on the day the Vikings signed Favre during the 2009 training camp. On Sept. 27, 2009, I drove across Wisconsin, Minnesota and South Dakota listening to the Vikings’ critical game against San Francisco. Both teams were 2-0. Hours later I jumped up and down in front of a hotel room television set in Sioux Falls, S.D. watching Favre and Greg Lewis beat the 49ers with four seconds left in regulation.
In the Vikings’ 38-26 victory in Green Bay on Nov. 1, 2009, Favre threw 4 TDs for 244 yards. In two games against the Packers in 2009, Favre threw for 575 yards, 7 TDs with no interceptions.
The next week at the Metrodome, Favre and his Vikings beat the Packers; fist-pumping Favre relished every moment, amplifying the bad feeling between Favre and his former team. There was crackling anticipation when Favre and the Vikings returned to Lambeau Field on Nov. 1, 2009. When Favre, the one player responsible for restoring the Green Bay Packers to some semblance of glory, stepped out of the Lambeau Field tunnel before the game, the entire stadium of Packers fans, toting the company line, assaulted him with vicious booing. The hateful display of invectiveness blasted Brett with surprising heat.
At home in Oshkosh watching Favre trot on the field, I had an epiphany: My God, they are booing God. I couldn’t believe my ears. I said to Michelina, my wife, “That’s it for me and Green Bay.” That was the moment the light snapped on, when I decided to divorce myself from the Green Bay Packers and their ungrateful fans. I have not regretted my decision. And if the Minnesota Vikings were good enough for Brett Favre, and if the Vikings were my Dad’s favorite team—God rest his beautiful soul—the Vikings would forever be good enough for me.
Extra Points: In the NFL’s draft in April, I would not be surprised to see the Vikings use their first two draft choices on linemen, either both on offense or defense or one on each side of the ball. It shouldn’t shock us if the Vikings use most of their draft choices on the defensive players: For all of Minnesota’s regular-season success on defense last year, in their last six quarters of playoff football, the Vikings were outscored 62-19 and surrendered 665 yards. Yikes.
Bygones be Bygones Dept.: The Packers inducted Favre into the team’s Hall of Fame on July 18, 2015; Green Bay fans bought 67,000 tickets in 90 minutes to see Favre walk out onto Lambeau Field on the day of his induction. The team also retired Favre’s number in 2015.
Flashback: Here are highlights of Minnesota’s winning drive against San Francisco in Week 3 of the 2009 season:
Roger Dier
About Roger Dier: Born in International Falls, Roger spent a combined seven years of his life in Int’l Falls and 20 years in New Ulm, Minnesota. In March 1993, Roger graduated from what was then Mankato State University with a degree in English—he majored in journalism and creative writing. He later earned a Master’s in education from UW-Green Bay. Roger wrote for three newspapers in Minnesota and filled in for Associated Press reporters during Vikings training camps early in the Denny Green era. Once upon a time, he was a stringer for Ray Nitschke’s Packer Report and the Green Bay Press-Gazette. He spent decades playing and coaching hockey in Minnesota and Wisconsin. A devoted listener of the Purpleptsd.com podcast, he is happy to be a part of Joe Johnson and Joe Oberle’s litter of writers. Roger has written two books—Scarlet Ice and Green & Gold Memories: Growing up in Vince Lombardi’s Green Bay. He is writing an online history of the Green Bay Bobcats semi-pro hockey team on his website, dierstraits.com. Roger and Michelina live in Oshkosh, Wis., and spoil the crap out of their 10-year old black lab, Vince Lombardi “Vinny” Dier.
Photo Credits
Brett Favre photos courtesy Courtney Dier
Feature photo courtesy Roger Dier