Lombardi Trophy Visits the Kohl Center

The Lombardi Trophy was at the Kohl Center prior to the Badger men's hoops game versus Penn State. Packers President Mark Murphy brought the trophy to center court about midway in the first half. He was joined there by a fleet, tough wide receiver - Al Toon (was it just me or was that a bit of an odd choice? Whatever.)

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Toon was one of the earliest recognized casualty of football-induced concussions. Read this 1992 article by Dave Anderson in the NYT about Toon's concussions.

Super Papers

Here are a some of today's front pages from around the world. You can see them all on the Newseum's website.

We Win!

In case you missed the news, we won Super Bowl #45. It was in the paper.

[And when I say "we", I mean the Packers. In the time-honored tradition of sports fans everywhere, when the team we cheer wins, then "they" join "us" to become "we". When they lose, then they stay "they".] 

The Super Bowl outcome garners somewhat more subdued coverage in Pittsburgh. "Game? What game? Did the Steelers play??" The Post-Gazette, however, features proper amounts of despair.

It may seem harsh to pick on Steeler fans now, but this is hilarious. And it turns out that Stiller fans talk funnier than Packers fans. Pittsburghese is so messed up it has become a subject of academia.

Yinz guys give dem Stillers fans a hard time but it's all a bunch of jumbo. We're jest like any other football fans.


"Jumbo" is what "Stillers" fans call bologna, and it's a staple food in Pittsburgh, served on white bread purchased from the Giant Iggle, maybe with mayonnaise if they're feeling fancy. They love that shit -- and it's why they're not like other football fans.

Survey Says: Really Close Call

The same computers that were shouting "The Packers will beat the Bears" suddenly have mouths full of oatmeal. The computers give the Packers a very slight edge.

The Sagarin Ratings on USA Today give the Steelers a 0.15 point edge. But, using PURE POINTS (also known as PREDICTOR, BALLANTINE, RHEINGOLD, WHITE OWL) and which Sagarin says "is the best single PREDICTOR of future games", the Packers get a 1.8 point edge.

Accuscore on ESPN cranked through over 10,000 simulations. The Packers win 50%, the Steelers win 49%, and apparently the roof caves in from snow and ice the rest of the time. 

The Octo that called the World Cup expired in extra time.

The wise guys in Vegas require the giving of 3-points if you want to endorse the Packers with money.

Watch the game, try to enjoy it by remembering that it is, in fact, a game (not, however, just a game - let's not get carried away with perspective), and it's a game that you are not playing in nor will anything you do change the outcome of the game.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ezee123/1025724498/
By Anoop Negi

You could ask this Red Oracle, but she's probably not that up on the NFL.

Is the Oracle of Delphi free? What? Its spiritual fire was extinguished when Apollo worship went the way of the 5 and Dime? That's just swell.

Canadians Trying to Horn in on Super Bowl

So now Canadians, who typically distance themselves from anything having to do with the US, are trying to glom onto the Super Bowl. Just shows how big the Super Bowl is, eh?

Read the list of Canadian connections to this year's Super Bowl. It includes this amazing factoid:

• The Black Eyed Peas will perform at half-time of Sunday’s Super Bowl game in Dallas. The group also performed at halftime of the 2005 Grey Cup in Vancouver

So a band that once played in Canada is playing at the Super Bowl? That's it? They're not even from Canada?

Another highlight:

• The Packers equipment manager Gordon (Red) Batty is from Canada.

An item not on the list: Brett Kiesel's beard qualifies him for Canadian citizenship. The beard will be subject to a thorough search at the border. It is also rumored he hides a 12th player in his beard at key points in the game (a small player, like an extra DB).

What else might he be hiding in there?

Packers Newest Fan

The Packers Newest Fan - Chief Walter Ostrenga

Vince Lombardi

From NFL.com's feature on Vince Lombardi.

Where's the Dirt? On the Roads?

In Wisconsin, you will hear debates about relative merits of applying salt or sand to the roads during the winter. In Texas, according to Emmitt Smith anyway, they also use dirt.

"So Dallas is prepared for everything. Matter of fact, we have equipment already on the ground in case we get snow and ice all at the same time. So the equipment is already there and ready to rock and roll. Just to go and put the dirt on the roads, the salt on the roads just to de-ice everything."


-- ESPN's Emmitt Smith, explaining the intricacies of taking ice off the roads in advance of Super Bowl XLV in Dallas.


 

Exhale

Wow, the Packers didn't make it that exciting just for us fans. Give the Bears credit for fightng back (although the Packers left a bunch of points out there). 



Green Bay Packers cornerback Sam Shields (37) intercepts a pass in the final two minutes of the 4th quarter to seal a win by the Packers during the NFC Championship game between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears, Sunday, January 23, 2011 at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Photo by Rick Wood. RWOOD@JOURNALSENTINEL.COM



Last Word - err, Picture

Have no fear, Da Bears Still Suck, but this photo is pretty funny.




Look, the Packer kid won't let the Bears fans sit with him!



Pregame Ritual and a Prediction

Ite Sarcina Ite!

- Chant first heard at the Roman coliseum meaning "Go Pack Go!"

OK, this is important; don't screw it up. Gather your green-and-gold votive candles (3 minimum). Put on your St. Vincent cappa magna and matching episcopal mitre (don't get carried away and put on your fanon - that's only for the pope so save it for Super Bowl Sunday).

Now, incant the following:

Minutus cantorum,
minutus balorum,
minutus carborata descendum pantorum.*


Eamus, O Viridis Sinus!

Got it? OK, now put all that junk in the closet and forget about it because the Packers won't need any help today to beat the Bears.

Of course, the Packers might lose - after all, this is the National Football League (Why do sports announcers almost always say the league's full name? Do they think we might forget what we're watching?). But all signs point to a Green Bay victory. The Bears have home field advantage and Devin Hester and Julius Peppers. Not enough.

According to Brian Burke of Advanced NFL Stats, the Packers have a 64% probability of winning (for Bears fans out there, that leaves the Bears with just a 36% chance of winning and that's bad). Read Burke's post on the NYT Fifth Down blog. He explains how he calculates game probabilties here.

 Using the Bodine theorem of gazintas,
Albert Einstein proves Pack will win.

Jeff Sagarin's NFL Ratings on the USA Today make the Packers a two-point favorite even after taking the Bears home-field edge into account. Using a statistical method called Pure Points, Sagarin shows a five point Packers advantage. Sagarin considers Pure Points to be the best predictor of future games (as opposed to purely evaluating what teams have done up to this point).

The wise guys in Las Vegas and Atlantic City made the Packers a three-point favorite. The people who set the initial betting line are the least sentimental people on the planet.

Enough with the numbers. In today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel their outstanding NFL analyst Bob McGinn breaks down the Packers. (You can only read this analysis online if you pay for the Packer Insider.) Most NFL observers reckon that the "vast majority games are won and lost by...star players." McGinn gets NFL scouts and personnel executives to rank players. As one of them put it, "Probably 80% of the guys on teams are similar...it's the other 20% that decide games. Simply put, the Packers have more stars than the Bears. Moreover, they have studs at key positions.

The Packers have a far superior offense and a slightly better defense than the Bears. The Bears have much better and very dangerous special teams. Yes, the Bears won the division this year by one game, but the Packers suffered one of the worst injury years in league history. The 'next man' repeatedly stepped up and did the job and now many of the original starters have gotten healthy.

The weather at Soldier Field appears to be cooperating to allow for a fair contest. Cold, but not crazy cold with moderate winds around 9 mph.

The Bears will need a couple really big plays to win. Julius Peppers could blow things up and cause a fumble or INT. Devin Hester, the Bears best weapon, can change the game with one return for a TD or several times with field position changing returns.

The teams familiarity with each other closes the gap a little. To belabor the obvious the Packers are playing at an extremely high level. But because of that familiarity, I'd prefer any other opponent (except at Pittsburgh), But then we wouldn't be having this much fun!

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NFL Outsiders analysis reaches the same conclusions and provides a seriously in-depth bunch of stuff.

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*A little song, a little dance, a little seltzer down your pants. Let's go, Green Bay!

Step right up & get your ready-made more or less accurate Latin translations.

Want to make your own? Try this handy-dandy Latin-to-English translator.

Wisconsin - Closed for Business

Contrary to what our governor says Wisconsin is closed for business - just for today the day of the Black-and-Blue Super Bowl.

Beginning at 2:30 PM, all sales of anything will cease, well except at bars, they have a sack-religious exemption.

Don't buy any crap today. Materialism is bad for the soul. Remember what the great trasncendentalist
Henry David Thoreau said, "It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly."

(BTW, does anyone read Thoreau anymore?)

You can do it. It's just one da- What?! Gotta run, we are low on Little Debbie's Oatmeal Cream Pies and totally out of beer nuts.

Go Pack Go.

UnEqual Time

In the interest of fair play here is some Bear-related crap that is not entirely, 100% awful .

This is the Bears fight song - Beardown - get it? It is only about 94.3% awful.

http://www.bearshistory.com/multimedia/beardown.wma

Here are some Bears players and coaches who didn't totally suck - some of them were actually a little above average.

Gayle Sayers. Very low amount of sucking, except for the major injury. That sucked.




Gayle Sayers at Kansas University




Gayle Sayers Card



Hall of Famers for the Decatur Staleys, Chicago Staleys, and Da Bears:

Doug Atkins (1955-1966)

George Blanda (1949, 1950-58). Not bad..

Dick Butkus (1965-1973) A great radio announcer.

George Connor (1948-1955)

Mike Ditka (1961-1966) Name is vaguely familiar.

John (Paddy) Driscoll (1926-1929)

Jim Finks (1974-1982)

Dan Fortmann (1936-1943)

Bill George (1952-1965)

Harold (Red) Grange (1925, 1929-1934) Truly great. A fellow alum of the University of Illinois. The Galloping Ghost.

Papa Bear



Grumpy Bear



George Halas (1920-1983)

Crikey! They stuffed him!

Dan Hampton (1979-1990) Who?

Ed Healey (1922-1927)

Bill Hewitt (1932-1936)

Stan Jones (1954-1965)

Sid Luckman (1939-1950) First in a very, very, (very, very) short line of decent Chicago QBs.

William Roy (Link) Lyman (1926-1928, 1930-1931, 1933-1934)

George McAfee (1940-1941, 1945-1950)

George Musso (1933-1944)

Bronko Nagurski



Here's Bronko playing catch with a baby!

  Bronko Nagurski (1930-1937, 1943) He was tough and great, so Halas ran him off! Six years later he came back and helped win a championship.

Not very sweet. Mr. Suhey objects to having his drawers pulled down.

Walter Payton (1975-1987) OK, I have to play this one straight. Great player, great person.

I remember Payton running over tacklers more often than jumping over them.

Gale Sayers (1965-1971)

Mike Singletary (1981-1992) Remember when he was he supposed to be the thinking man's middle linebacker? And then he became the insane person's football coach.

Joe Stydahar (1936-1942, 1945-46)

George Trafton (1920-1921, 1923-1932)

Clyde (Bulldog) Turner (1940-1952)

One pass away.

NFL Theme Song

In case you are getting antsy for the game, at least you cn listen to the NFL theme song.

Packer Fans = Smart, Good-Looking

Leonardo Da Vinci - The First Packer Fan?

OK, here is a "joke" from a -shudder - Vikings fan website:

Q: Did you here about the Packer fan that died at a pie eating contest?


A: The cow kicked him in the head!

This is an outrage- stop making fun of our cows!

Not to mention, well-connected.

Well, heck, no, not with the pope in the stands, fer cryin' out loud.

OK, these guys are creepy. But, as long as they're on our side, what the hey!

For any Bears fans, this is a photo of long-time Packer Backer Albert Einstein.

Did I mention smart? Packer fans are the smartest, in fact, according to NFL players.
 
OK, the end. I prmoise to post something nice about the Bears tomorrow....if I can find anything. Oh, oh, oh - Gayle Sayers was pretty good. The Fridge was really big. Ditka is a big a-....Sweat is starting to bead up on my forehead; I'll try again later.

Bears: Small, Common, Primitive

Abe Gibron

In depth research by the entire MononaDoug staff has revealed thatUrsus americanus, the black bear, is the smallest and most common bear in America. The species is also considered to be primitive. That’s the Bears for you, small, ordinary, and primitive.

Jay Cutler doing game prep with TE Greg Olsen.

Not sure what Lovie is up to.