Sports Fandom May Be Dumb, but I Still Love the Packers and Hate the Vikings

Sports fandom is dumb. There, I said it.

“Stupid to be a sports fan?  What are you talking about?” I can hear some of you say. Sports, after all, is a unifying force among people of disparate backgrounds, a source of excitement, camaraderie and thrilling memories. 

All of the above is true. But why I should be the least bit interested in a team comprised of members I’ve never met, who didn’t grow up in my hometown or anywhere near it and who probably don’t live in my home state in the off-season is a question for the ages. The only thing the Green Bay Packers players and I have in common is the fact that they play in Wisconsin, and I happened to grow up in Wisconsin, even though I haven’t lived there since 1993. If the Packers’ new starting quarter back, Jordan Love, had been drafted by the Cleveland Browns, I wouldn’t care one iota for him. If the Vikings had drafted him, I’d have an unsensible hatred for the man. But because the team I follow happened to spend a controversial first-round draft pick on him back in 2020, I am hoping and praying that he can return the Packers to their rightful place as Super Bowl Champions, maybe not this year, but in time.

At least my unexplainable allegiance to the team is something positive. I get a kick out of rapid fans painting their faces green and gold, tailgating for hours before and – sometimes – hours after a game, and purchasing stock in the ownership of a team that grants them absolutely no rights. I love that stuff! As I write this, I’m glancing above my computer where I showcase rotating Sports Illustrated covers of Packers history, currently one from 1966 and one from 1967, and when I get tired of these covers, I’ll replace them with covers from 1997 and 2011, when my favorite team did the unthinkable and won not one, but two Super Bowls in my lifetime. Prior to 1997, when my twin daughters were still in the womb, the Packers hadn’t won a Super Bowl since I had been in the womb in 1968!

So yes, my fandom may be ridiculous, but at least it’s fun.

It’s the flipside that’s a little unnerving. As illogical as it is for me to find enjoyment in the Packers’ victories, it’s even more ridiculous – and I take no pride in admitting this – that some of my favorite sports moments involve losses of the Minnesota Vikings. Fortunately for me, there has been no shortage of humiliating defeats for this hapless franchise. They’ve provided twisted haters like me with countless collapses that must have led some fans from the north to reconsider their allegiance. It’s been a rough ride for the Vikings. But why should it be that I loathe a team so much that I resort to watching videos of their worst defeats? What is this sick schadenfreude I and so many other sports fans willingly take part in?

It’s silly. It defies all logic. It goes against the good sense I espouse to possess. 

But here’s the reality. When the Packers lose their last game of the season, whether it’s in the regular season or it knocks them out of the playoffs, I invariably watch the following videos, two of which are gloriously called by a very emotional Paul Allen:

1)    Gary Anderson’s missed field goal in the NFC Championship against the Falcons on January 17, 1999.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52ahDuQPdsw

2)    The Vikings last-second loss to the Cardinals on December 28, 2003, a defeat that knocked them out of the playoffs.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNwv4GUD8aA

3)    My absolute favorite, Brett Favre doing what Brett Favre does, throwing a pick against the Saints in the NFC Championship on January 27, 2010.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UUeqvquXZI

Wonderful, wonderful moments. I know. I’m ashamed. But at least I can take solace in the fact that my hatred is shared by many other equally sick Packers fans. WISCOSPORTSWEEKLY – God bless him – posted this lovely top-10 worst Vikings defeats on YouTube just seven months ago, reminding me of some of the moments I’d forgotten about and making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

 And upon reading the video’s accompanying comments from people who have a likeminded and unexplainable revelry for the pain and suffering of others, I feel like for better or for worse, these are my people.

 Go Packers!

(and please note that I’ve documented the heartache sometimes associated with being a Packers fan, as I’m sure Vikings fans will be happy to highlight)

Where would you Time Travel?

When it comes to thought-provoking discussion topics, one of the most intriguing has got to be: “If you could go back in time, where would you go?”  I asked a friend of mine this question recently and he said, “I’ve never thought about it.”  I find this mind-boggling, as I’ve spent days of my life contemplating just the rules of such an endeavor, never mind the actual answer to the question.  There are so many variables to consider:

• How long can I travel back in time?  An hour?  A day?  A year?

• Do I get to choose when to come back, or is the duration predetermined?

• Can I stay if I choose to?

• Am I going merely as an observer, or do I get to interact with my environment?

• Will my actions change history?

• If I do interact with my environment, will I know the language of the people I meet?  Will I arrive with the proper clothing and currency?  Will I have access to basic toiletries and lodging?

• Can I go back as myself and relive an event from my own life?  If so, do I go with my 53-year-old brain and understanding of the world, or do I go back to the person I was at that time?

• Once I arrive, am I bound to the travel restrictions of that time?  For instance, can I visit multiple places with the snap of a finger, or would I have to walk or ride in a bus, boat or carriage?

• Can I die, be harmed or put in prison while I’m away?

It can get complicated quickly, and each answer to the above questions will radically change the central answer to the central question.

When I asked a few of my Christian friends, they didn’t need to think twice: witness Jesus’s resurrection.  Fair enough.  Another friend of mine thought that seeing her grandparents as young adults would make for a good trip.  I like that one a lot.  Some of my music-centric friends thought about attending one of the seminal concerts by their favorite bands.  One friend thought about witnessing the JFK assassination and paying particular attention to the grassy knoll to see if there’s any truth to the conspiracy theories.

For me, I’ll make the following assumptions:  I will not interact with my environment in a meaningful way, but I can make small talk, order food at a restaurant, etc..  I can observe people, places and events, I can eat food, and I can be visible if I choose to be or an invisible observer when appropriate.  I am not subject to injury, death or imprisonment.  I can travel via the methods appropriate for the time period.  I can sleep in some other dimension, as opposed to living along in a dingy motel somewhere.  Money is no object.  I can not change history.  I can stay for up to a month.

Given these assumptions, I would consider time-traveling to Milwaukee on September 23, 1957 and staying for at least three weeks.  I have the following in mind:

I’ll first attend County Stadium to witness the Milwaukee Braves game on Monday night, September 23, and watch Hank Aaron hit a game-winning, league-clinching, two-run homer in the bottom of the 11th inning and celebrate with over 40,000 other fans in attendance.  A few weeks later, I will attend games 4 and 5 of the World Series and watch the Braves beat the Yankees, and I’ll stick around in Milwaukee to watch/listen/cheer/celebrate with my fellow fans on October 9th and 10th while the Braves beat the Yankees in the Bronx.  I could try to travel to New York to see the games, but I think it might actually be more fun in Milwaukee.

Since there’s a lot of time to kill in between these two events, I’ve got some ideas. I’d like to take a bus to Memphis, Tennessee, and on September 27th see The Biggest Show of Stars, including Fats Domino, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and the Crickets, The Drifters, The Everly Brothers, Frankie Lymon and Paul Anka.  Not too shabby.  And two days earlier, on September 25th, I can see Elvis Presley at the Eagle’s Nest, also in Memphis!  Even better, the weather in Memphis that week looks to be in the mid-70s to the low-80s, so I’d try to take a boat tour, eat some good southern food and get a flavor for the area.

If possible, I’d then like to quickly travel up to Green Bay for their 21-17 victory over the Bears at the inaugural game at New City Stadium (now Lambeau Field).  I’ll be there with 31,000 other fans, and future president Richard M. Nixon (and current - at the time - Vice President) will dedicate the stadium at half-time.

During the following week I’ll go back to Milwaukee and visit both sets of my grandparents.  I knew my maternal grandparents, Elmer and Louise, quite well as a young adult, but I’d love to see them again, hear them laugh, watch them cook a meal, play cards, sing in the choir, etc.  I’d even take a few bus rides with my grandfather at the helm as a city driver.  What a hoot that would be.  And then I can go just a short drive away to my paternal grandparents, Edwin and Mildred, who I didn’t know nearly as well in my lifetime, and get a fuller picture of who they were.

I would also kick around the land where I grew up in Menominee Falls and Brookfield.  None of the homes I lived in will be there yet, but I’d still like to see how things looked prior subdivisions being developed.

During my downtime, I’ll watch current movies in theaters.  It’s hard to know exactly what films will be played during this three-week period, but they might include Jailhouse Rock, Sweet Smell of Success and A Face in the Crowd.  Maybe a few older films will be playing around town as well. And I’m sure there will be local concerts worth seeing. I’d also like to attend a Reform Judaism service somewhere in Milwaukee or northern suburbs and see what the services consisted of back then, and I’d like to visit Capitol Drive Lutheran Church where I’ll attend Sunday School a few decades later.

That sounds like a pretty good three-week time-travel vacation.  If the parameters were to change, so would my answer.  What if I can only go back for one hour?  What if I can change history?  What if I can snap my fingers and change locations?  What if I can interact with my environment with absolutely no worry about changing history? 

Oh, the possibilities are endless.  Sorta like this blog entry!

Where and when would you like to go?

A Devil's Baseball Bargain

I’ve proposed the following scenario to a few Milwaukee Brewers fans, but you could just as easily apply it to fans of the Seattle Mariners or Texas Rangers, the Jacksonville Jaguars, Denver Nuggets or Buffalo Sabres, or any other sports team without a championship. 

A person or entity of some kind approaches you, and – knowing your lifetime loyalty to the Milwaukee Brewers (or some other ill-fated sports team) – says, “I can guarantee that the Brewers will win a World Series sometime in the next five years, but here’s the deal: your team will spend the subsequent twenty years in last place.”

You don’t know how or why, but you know this person is telling the truth.  Do you take the bargain?

I’ve offered this question to a couple of friends of mine and have been dumbfounded that each of them quickly and unequivocally said no; they’d rather have a fun, competitive team for many years than to hit the pinnacle for one year and spend two decades in the cellar.

Me?  I would take the deal in a heartbeat.

I wouldn’t have when I was fourteen years-old and the Brewers had just lost the World Series in seven games to the St. Louis Cardinals.  After all, they’d surely be back a year later to avenge their disappointing loss, right?  Right???

Nearly forty years later, I realize just how fleeting successes are, and how you can root for a team – even good teams – and never make it to the finish line.  Think the Utah Jazz, the Tampa Rays or the Buffalo Bills.  Or how about the Atlanta Falcons, who let the Super Bowl slip away when it was in the bag?  Brutal stuff.  Tell me a Falcon fan wouldn’t change the outcome of that game for twenty years in the doldrums.

The Packers have won two more Super Bowls than I ever expected them to win when I was following them through the awful 70s and 80s.  But now?  It’s all icing, baby.  They’ve done it.  Twice in my lifetime!  If they spend the next decade in last place, hey, that’s okay.

The Milwaukee Bucks just won their first championship since I was three years old.  I was thrilled.  I traveled up to Milwaukee and hung out with my sister and brother-in-law, walked amongst Bucks fans of all genders, races and sizes, and I loved it.  But I couldn’t express unadulterated jubilation, because I didn’t earn it.  I don’t think much of pro basketball as a sport, and while I was very happy for the city of Milwaukee, the fans who’ve slogged through season after hapless season and the players who seem genuinely grateful for having won a championship in a small-market city, I couldn’t revel in the victory as much as the next guy.  After all, the Bucks game I attended earlier this year was my first NBA game in twenty years.

But I’ve earned my heartache with the Milwaukee Brewers, and I will have earned the euphoria should they ever manage to win a World Series.  They’ve come close to getting there – in 2011 and 2018 – and those were fun rides to be sure, but they were not the finish line.  I want what true Bucks fans got last week.  I want it all.  I want to be in the stands when the Brewers complete a World Series victory.

I’d be willing to spend a lot of awful seasons for that Golden Moment.  Hell, I’ve lived through enough awful seasons without that golden moment.  What’s a few more?