This might be the last simple place left in the NFL. A place where fans navigate tiny roads and pass signs for $10 parking on people’s front lawns, and they can walk to a stadium that doesn’t look like the Emirates Palace. And when they do visit they can find an RV in the middle of the parking lot where a Hall of Fame quarterback tailgates just like them – every game-day morning.
Les Carpenter on Buffalo and the Buffalo Bills. (via washingtonpoststyle)
I must disagree with this author’s take. I don’t think Green Bay has gone “corporate” - just because we have remodeled our stadium does not mean that we have lost that tradition and nostalgia. Green Bay is, and always will be, a football town. That city lives and breathes the Green Bay Packers. This is a place where after every practice, players (from the scout team all the way up to Aaron Rodgers) ride local kids’ bikes from the practice field to the locker room. Where people will go up to Clay Matthews in the grocery store to give him pointers for next week’s game. Practically the entire state of Wisconsin becomes a ghost town when the Packers are on TV.
True, they do receive more recognition and attention then the Bills. But they are one of the smallest market team in professional sports, the only community-owned team and yet they still have more league championships than any other NFL team.
Clearly I take my football seriously.
