Alright so, I took some time off, because I'm lazy and I was busy moving to Milwaukee, getting and losing jobs and figuring out how to pay for my own life. So, here's what we're going to do. We're going to write a few blogs here during what is probably sports' lamest month (no football, no baseball, the NBA is boring and college basketball hasn't really gotten started yet), get my feet under me, and then we'll really get started. Hopefully I can get myself motivated enough to keep doing this on the regular. More readers would probably help, but there you go.
The good news is, I haven't really missed much. I mean, what really happened in sports, and specifically Wisconsin sports, since I last really sat down to write? Okay sure, the Badgers went to the Rose Bowl, UW-Whitewater won the Stagg Bowl again, the Brewers dealt for a pair of aces, and the Packers won Super Bowl XLV. But, I mean other than that, what happened, really?
We'll deal with the Brewers in the coming weeks as we get into spring training. For now, lets take a look at our Super Bowl champions, as Wisconsin ends its 13-year drought without a major championship (with apologies to my UW-W Warhawks, ah, nobody else cares). Where do we stand with the Pack looking forward?
What we have is a Super Bowl champion that won 6 weeks in a row to get into and then win the playoffs with a staggering 15 players on season-ending IR. And of those, not just second-stringers and role players. No, these were studs, major pieces of the Packers' pre-season plans: Ryan Grant, JerMichael Finley, Nick Barnett, Mark Tauscher, Morgan Burnett, Mike Neal, Brandon Chillar. So how did they do it? Let me spell it out for those of you who are obnoxiously still bitter over the way Brett Favre left: TED THOMPSON. Ted Thompson, Ted Thompson, Ted Thompson. And he did it his way, by building through the draft, acquiring as many drafts picks as possible, and not making big splashes in the free agent pool. His two exceptions to those rules (signing Charles Woodson to a free agent contract, trading up to draft Clay Matthews III in the first round) were back-to-back NFL Defensive Players of the Year. He built depth, assuring that even as more and more stars fell, the next guy in was ready to fill his shoes.
No where was this depth more apparent than in the second half of the Super Bowl. Charles Woodson and Donald Driver both hobbled off into the locker room shortly before halftime, ne'er to return. Two huge cogs of the Packers' game plan, as well as the emotional leaders of team. So what happened? WR #4 Jordy Nelson finished the game with 9 receptions and over 140 yards, and perennial-goat-turned-special-teams-revelation Jarrett Bush picked Big Ben off and then sealed the victory by helping in coverage on the Steelers final play.
And then of course there's the NFL's new golden boy, Aaron Rodgers. With the Packer faithful hoping that he could be a poor man's Steve Young, we may have stumbled upon a Joe Montana. With the current record holder in all-time quarterback rating at the helm, and with all 15 of those injured players set to return in 2011, we could be seeing the beginnings of the NFL's team of the decade.
