This team is solid

IPBprez

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Posted from PACKERSNEWS PREMIUM
Posted Oct. 01, 2005
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Mike Sherman

This team is solid, like a bridge

After analyzing a video of Carolina’s red-zone offense and defense on Wednesday night, I shut off my monitor and swung my chair around and looked out my office window onto Lombardi Avenue.

Not much traffic on this rainy evening, with the exception of an occasional car traveling east or westbound in front of Lambeau Field.

As I looked up off the street onto the skyline of west Green Bay, I couldn’t help but notice sets of lights moving in an irregular pattern through the sky near the mouth of the bay. The lights would trail off, only to have another set take its place.

It was an overcast night and difficult to see far in the darkness, yet these lights kept moving over the tree line and then disappearing, only to be replaced by another set of lights. It was somewhat disconcerting because I had never seen this phenomenon before.

Austin Straubel Airport was not in that vicinity, and these lights were too low to be airplanes. They were moving, so I knew they weren’t from any of the industrial towers in the area. I was stumped. After a short time, I realized that they were cars traveling over the Leo Frigo Bridge.

I couldn’t see the bridge because it was a dark and overcast night, but I knew it was in that vicinity. These were the headlights of cars passing from one side of the bridge to the other — even though an optical illusion might have suggested something else.

I also knew that when I came back to work in the morning, when the first daybreak hit, I’d see that bridge. It’s a bridge I’ve crossed many times, and even though I didn’t see it through the rain and darkness of the night, I trusted it was there.

When I look at our team, there have been some disconcerting and unexplainable events this season, as well. Much as I saw those unusual lights jetting across the tree tops, I see the unusual situation we are in this season.

But just as I trusted those lights were coming from traffic over a bridge I couldn’t see, so, too, do I trust the Green Bay Packers football team will resume its identity as a winning team — even though being winless causes great concern for our players, coaches and fans.

I’ve traveled over the Leo Frigo Bridge many times on my way to Door County, to go fishing, or to go on vacation with my family. I do not think twice while crossing it that it will get me safely to the other side. The foundation of that bridge is solid — built of steel, concrete footings and wire. It has a great history of transporting people from one side of Green Bay to the other.

This team also has a solid foundation. We have a group of men with great character and determination. We, much like that bridge, have a great history. I do not hesitate to think that we will win as we have in the past. I trust in that. I believe in that.

I know these can be difficult times. But these also are times of great challenge. My experience always has been that adversity can unite or divide. It can make you stronger or weaker. It creates an opportunity to show great or little character. It clearly separates the selfless from the selfish.

Just as those steel beams support the integrity of the bridge, so do the leaders of this football team support the integrity of this team.

As disconcerting as seeing those lights initially were to me, so, too, has this season been disconcerting.

But just as as I knew when I left the office that night that the sun would rise and we’d see the Leo Frigo Bridge and that would answer the question of the lights, so, too, will the sun eventually shine on this football team and show what its true character is and answer the question of this season.

Hopefully, when that time comes, we all will be pleased by what we see. I am counting on that.

Mike Sherman is the coach of the Green Bay Packers. His column appears in Packers Preview each week.


======================================

RAH RAH RAH ! ! ! Opnions, people!
 

P@ck66

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This guy's a friggin' MORON..!

"This team is solid, like my head..now let me tell ya' why this team is like a tree..."
M. Sherman.
 

PackerChick

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P@ck66 said:
This guy's a friggin' MORON..!

"This team is solid, like my head..now let me tell ya' why this team is like a tree..."
M. Sherman.

Even the picture looks like it. Looks like Alfred E Newman of Mad magazine fame. What me Worry?
 

showgirl

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kind of sounds like a sunday sermon....starts out with an analogy and tries to tie in a point later. sherman seems to be a good person and is definitely ensconsed in packer tradition. flowery prose doesn't win football games, however. the team just needs to start winning again, that's the cure for all ailments.
 

Raider Pride

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Thank you for sharing this with me IBprez.

I hope Mike reads this forum

An open letter to Mike Sherman.

Dear Mike:

First of all... How often do you look out the window Mike? Is that the first time you looked out the window at night? Perhaps you should be working more nights the Packers are 0-3.

Dang, I am in a corporate apartment and I do not even live in Providence Rhode Island. I look out my window during the day. There is the I-95 off in the distance. There is the Holiday Inn right accross the road during the day.

If I get back late at night and look off into the rain and dark I do not wonder what those lights are moving from right to left. It does not take a whole lot of mental prudence to deduct that the lights I see going left to right, might just be traffic on the I-95.

If I get back late at night I am not going to look off into the dark rain and wonder why there are the words "Holiday Inn" writen accross the sky in green neon. I would not think; "It was somewhat disconcerting because I had never seen this phenomenon before."

I will not call 911 and report a damn U.F.O.

With all due respect Mr. Mike Sherman.... If this is an example of your motivational pre-game speaches as Head Coach well dude... You need to be a coordinatator.... Not in the NFL of course but a cooridnator at a Star Trek convention.

This might explain why the team is coming out flat every game after your pre-game speach. Perhaps the Packers run out on the field thinking like I am right now after reading your verbage... "Dang... what the heck was that about?"

Mike... Get real. Did you really write: "Hopefully, when that time comes, we all will be pleased by what we see. I am counting on that."

HOPEFULLY? HOPEFULLY? Did you write the word HOPEFULLY?

Vince might have said "WE WILL" or "WE ARE"

Mike, I know you know your X's and O's... I know you know your football, but it is the foot in football that is killing you. Keep your foot out of your mouth.. and leave the speaking and writing to someone else.

Sincerely,

RP
 

ArizonaPackerFan

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I'd be curious to read the responses from fans if a coach or GM from any team would come out and say:

"We're a bad team. We'll probably lose more games this year than we'll win. Don't count on us winning the division this year. So fans shouldn't get their hopes up."

:)
 

rabidgopher04

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Raider Pride said:
Thank you for sharing this with me IBprez.

I hope Mike reads this forum

An open letter to Mike Sherman.

Dear Mike:

First of all... How often do you look out the window Mike? Is that the first time you looked out the window at night? Perhaps you should be working more nights the Packers are 0-3.

Dang, I am in a corporate apartment and I do not even live in Providence Rhode Island. I look out my window during the day. There is the I-95 off in the distance. There is the Holiday Inn right accross the road during the day.

If I get back late at night and look off into the rain and dark I do not wonder what those lights are moving from right to left. It does not take a whole lot of mental prudence to deduct that the lights I see going left to right, might just be traffic on the I-95.

If I get back late at night I am not going to look off into the dark rain and wonder why there are the words "Holiday Inn" writen accross the sky in green neon. I would not think; "It was somewhat disconcerting because I had never seen this phenomenon before."

I will not call 911 and report a damn U.F.O.

With all due respect Mr. Mike Sherman.... If this is an example of your motivational pre-game speaches as Head Coach well dude... You need to be a coordinatator.... Not in the NFL of course but a cooridnator at a Star Trek convention.

This might explain why the team is coming out flat every game after your pre-game speach. Perhaps the Packers run out on the field thinking like I am right now after reading your verbage... "Dang... what the heck was that about?"

Mike... Get real. Did you really write: "Hopefully, when that time comes, we all will be pleased by what we see. I am counting on that."

HOPEFULLY? HOPEFULLY? Did you write the word HOPEFULLY?

Vince might have said "WE WILL" or "WE ARE"

Mike, I know you know your X's and O's... I know you know your football, but it is the foot in football that is killing you. Keep your foot out of your mouth.. and leave the speaking and writing to someone else.

Sincerely,

RP

Wow, you really need to shut the f*** up and get over it.
 
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IPBprez

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While RG didn't take too kindly to RP's response - I would offer that RP actually points out, or draws attention to.... one specific (glaring?) item in this write up....

He does not.. (I repeat) ..not, ..bring into this discussion any type of commentary on the men under his command. He is intensely corporate and speaks as if he's in front of a room FULL of mandatory meeting personnel. IOW's - if requested to showup and not exactly "required" to show up --- would they? Good question!

While I totally understand that even in the Corporation I work at - it's takes a Team -- where I work, only the Board of Directors ever get a consistent upward flow of bonuses - while everyone else is put on hold due to expeditures... Yet, we are all notified of some rah-rah meeting which has (pretty much) "required" attendance. It's always a very bland event - we don't hear exciting things about the background stuff - only the superficial... Hard to get ramped up about being a winning team when nothing but the superficial is being discussed and no input from me "is actually required" on the level of ideas playing field. I like my job - I actually enjoy the work I do and (wow) get paid for it, too!

So - since you now get the feel of where I work and how that atmosphere "can" be... Does anyone see any similarity? ....RG? RP has a point - I wouldn't have phrased it quite like he has... but that's just me, and we all have a way of saying whatever...

Sherman is a Leader in many ways - it's his tactical that throws me off center. He doesn't have a Charlie Weiss type in the OC Chair and as long as he lets personal friendships invade his Coporate agenda - he never will. And that means for the entire career in the NFL while being a Head Coach, it just won't ever happen. Oh, I respect his loyalty - but you simply need to understand when it's time to fish or cut bait. Right now, Sherman's tacitical with regards to playing the game reminds me of the commercial where the vehicles are dragging something behind themselves, like the car with the "destroyer's anchor"...

If I were in the same department as Mike Sherman, I would probably like him straight off, as a person in general.... but I have doubts as to whether I would follow him - it'd be more like, "Hey Mike, how about we make sure to include......." And, if he didn't give my input credence, well... I guess I'd be offering my resume somewhere else the very next day... until I found some place where my input would be accepted and valued...

Point being, ladies & gents -- Brett Favre's input is not being taken literally.
For that matter - I don't think any of the other 'blue collar' types are getting much voice time, either.... and now that Slowik is no longer around - the Offense is naked to the critique.... and this year, the Defense is suddenly better than the Sherman/Rossley (Batman/Robin?) Team..... it just ain't happenin'....

Favre's input is needed and his voice should be allowed to be an active part - not just a coal shoveler standing in a corporate meeting where only the stock holders (not us in this description) are important and no one else counts....

BUT, I WOULD ALSO OFFER THAT.... Brett needs to return to basic fundamentals and knock off the severity (rising count) of his INT ratio... He got his body back in shape, now it's time for his football head to get some exercise - not just go through the motions and hope it all works out - this year, he'll have to actually study for that win before it happens.... or, it may never show up. Once Brett shows some of that football intelligence (Wonderlic, anyone? Which I totally hate, btw) - I think the rest of the Team will follow suit - this is where Brett can lead by example (ala Reggie Miller) and yet not have to step up on the locker room bench and shout "one more for the gipper" stuff.... RIGHT NOW, HE's NOT GETTING THAT PART DONE!

So - what's Sherman gonna do about that? This issue (with Brett) is a Coaching issue... not a Player's issue only that can (or would) succeed without the Coach - where is he on this? Certainly something NOT discussed in this article....

Ask yourselves - Is Sherman talking about running a Company, or a Team... as if he's one part of it.. a player and not a controller! THAT, I think, would be where the Players would step up and give that extra ounce of Packer Power!
 

packedhouse01

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Instead of writing columns Mike Sherman should be looking at the players on his roster that he drafted and try and figure out where he went wrong. The single biggest reason for the demise of this team is Mike Sherman and his lack of leadership. He has drafted poorly, coached his team poorly and couldn't motivate a fly to get out of the way of the fly swatter. This is a team in dire straights because it's head coach built it to be that way. If Mike Sherman is going to write, I'd like to read what he has to say about each of those players he drafted, what he thought they would do, and why they haven't gotten better.
 

PackerTraxx

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ArizonaPackerFan said:
I'd be curious to read the responses from fans if a coach or GM from any team would come out and say:

"We're a bad team. We'll probably lose more games this year than we'll win. Don't count on us winning the division this year. So fans shouldn't get their hopes up."

:)

This reminded me of the John McKay answer when a writer,after a particually bad game, asked "What he thought about the execution of his team". McKay's answer was "I'm all for it".

Anyway, Sherman's words mean nothing without results.
 

HatestheEagles084

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i saw the title of the article "this team is solid" i was thinking, hmm, one of our posters or an esteemed journalist points out the positives from the packer season thus far

i open the thread, see mike sherman's mugshot, all credibility goes bye bye
 

LambeauLeaper

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I saw the headline, saw Shermans mug, started reading about him watching the Panthers tapes and thought Sherman was going to say, "Hey, this Panthers team is solid, don't be surprised if we lose".
 

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