To Understand How Good These Packers Are Today...

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I hope all fans 35 and under have the opportunity to read Bob McGinn's "Packers Insider" column today(10/16). Basically, the Packers are among the top two winningest franchises since 1991, when Ron Wolf was hired. There is a generation of fans who never new the time post-Lombardi to Ron Wolf.
Bob takes Lindy Infante's last season and displays some of the "highlights".
I remember watching the 1961 championship game on TV. It gives you an idea of my age. There was a time when I thought, like all of you under 35, that the Packers never lost and when they did, it was a mistake. There was a time when the Packers were the laughingstock of the league. I was at a Packers pre-season game at Lambeau against Denver in the Bart Starr coaching era when the fans(me included) started cheering for the Broncos due to the really inept play by the Packers. You can't imagine it today, but it happened.
Because of copyright, I can't post the story Bob wrote(he's been around the Packers since the '70's.), but if you don't have an Insider membership, it's worth it.
 

FrankRizzo

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McGinn is pretty good. Not great, but good. Solid.

Anyway, I'm a bit older, and went to middle/junior high, and high school, and elementary, in an era when the Packers were horrible! They were the LA Clippers. The Cleveland Browns.

In Minnesota no less, so those Purple bandwagoners would tease me as an elementary and high school kid! That's why I hate the Viking so much.... well that and the fact that I went to 5 Packer games at the Vikings in the 1990's when we were good, even our Super Bowl Title season of 1996, and Favre lost EVERY SINGLE ONE of those 5. That's why I hate Favre, lol.

But really, we are very very lucky right now, and I think everyone needs to appreciate and cherish this. To go from one super good QB (from 1994-1998), and now a potentially great QB, we're very lucky.

Thank you Ted Thompson. Fruitty or not, he's a special GM to have. And get this: the longer he stays as our GM, the longer until that #4 jersey is retired. The longer the better IMO. Keep that guy away.
 

TJV

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As a fellow old-timer who was a young Packers fan when Lombardi arrived in Green Bay, I not only appreciate the historical perspective McGinn provides, I lived it. Because of Lombardi’s historic success, I became addicted to the Packers and was as dedicated a Packers fan through the “dark ages” from Lombardi’s departure to Ron Wolf’s arrival as I am today. Here’s a revealing sentence from McGinn’s piece: “In the 24-year span from Bengtson to Infante, the Packers won 42.3% of their games, posting five winning seasons and making the playoffs twice.” Packers fans went from watching Lombardi’s Packers win five titles in seven years to two playoff appearances in 24 years. Devine’s Packers lost to the Redskins in the ’72 playoffs and the Packers scored their only playoff win of that period in the ’84 season so they were 1-2 in the playoffs during that time. During that horrible span the Packers had as many winning seasons in 24 years as Lombardi’s Packers had titles in his nine years. That’s how bad it was. Just as was the case in the decade plus pre-Lombardi, the Packers were a laughingstock. NFL coaches threatened players with being traded to Green Bay. McGinn ends his article by imploring Packers fans to appreciate the team we will witness today. I’ve attempted the same thing on this forum: For many Packers fans, these are your ‘good old days’.

What is most remarkable to me is for as great as Wolf, Holmgren, and Favre were in the 1990s, there is every reason to believe their achievements will be exceeded by Thompson, McCarthy, and Rodgers. And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the man who made it all possible: Bob Harlan. Bob certainly made mistakes but his monumental decision to change the structure of the organization so one “football man” would be in charge led to the hiring of Ron Wolf. And Harlan’s return to that formula with the hiring of Ted Thompson as VP/GM continued this renaissance. I can hardly believe my luck in being able to witness this after seeing the Lombardi Packers.

BTW, I disagree with FrankRizzo: In my opinion Bob McGinn is not just solid. He is one of the few great writers covering individual NFL teams. I remember when he began covering the Packers: What stuck out to me about his writing was his objectivity. He’s been doing an annual column in which he uses a color-code rating system to evaluate the quality of the Packers’ roster vs. the division for quite a while. He gets the input of personnel people from around the league to get their perspective on the Packers’ talent. I love that kind of reporting but I think that attempt at objective reporting rubbed some Packers fans the wrong way. He has league-wide sources who trust him and he is extremely well respected in his field. The fact he uses unnamed sources also annoys some Packers fans, but not me. I appreciate being able to read those opinions which would not be said publically. No opposing GM or personnel man would give his honest opinion of the Packers' talent if he knew his name would be tied to it. I've been reading McGinn so long I trust him to relate those opinions. In the current information age that may not seem so important, but there was a time when newspapers were by far the number one source of information on the Packers and news generally. Another facet of McGinn’s reporting I really appreciated early on was his coverage of, and emphasis on line play. And now, his rating and analysis of each game is must reading for me. His experience and connections within the organization and outside it bring a great perspective to the season. No, I’m not related to him and have never met him. It’s my unsolicited opinion that having access to all McGinn writes is worth the price of subscription to those who can afford it.
 

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