The Lass Word: Adjusting to the Underdog Role

I know it’s foolish to watch those national sports shows for insights on the Green Bay Packers.  These talking heads know less about our team than you and I do.  They read a couple of internet articles, mostly written by the beat writers, and then go on the air with a bunch of hot takes that are uninformed at best, artificially contrived at worst. 

But it’s a long offseason, and when I need my pro football fix, I find myself watching them anyway.  And that’s been a painful experience this particular offseason.  With Aaron Rodgers gone, the national commentators have pretty much given the Packers up for dead.  Many are predicting a last place finish in the NFC North.  Meanwhile they are drooling all over themselves hyping the Jets and Rodgers. 

I get it.  I worked in that business for 43 years.  They are trying to generate ratings.  New York is the largest TV market.  Aaron Rodgers is a controversial superstar.  It’s a TV producer’s dream.  Call it the Dallas Cowboys syndrome.  Or the L.A. Lakers syndrome.  Teams that get talked about no matter how well or how badly they are doing.  Now they have an actual reason to exhort the Jets, so it’s coming non-stop.  It doesn’t help that every network anchor and analyst seems to have been a lifelong Jets fan. 

But here at the grass roots level, I am sensing a renewed excitement and anticipation amongst Packer fans.  A kind of electricity I haven’t seen in several years.  It’s an infectious sort of optimism.  Such exhilaration would seem to be counter-intuitive, considering all the uncertainty and youth of this team.  Yet, I believe I understand where it’s coming from. 

I feel it too.  In a weird way, it’s like this tremendous weight has been lifted off our shoulders.  This weight of expectation.  For so many years we’ve had these Hall of Fame quarterbacks.  They’ve brought us incredible highlights and thrilling victories.  But they’ve also brought high standards.  The highest standards.  Standards nearly impossible to live up to.  How many years have we heard, even from the ranks of our own,  comments such as “thirty years of elite quarterbacks, but only two Super Bowls.”   “What a tremendous waste of talent”.  “Management didn’t give them enough weapons.”  “Packers choked in the playoffs again.” “They won’t go all in.” 

We felt we had to win the Super Bowl every year.  Anything less is a failed season.  We have these great quarterbacks.  Why can’t we win championships?  Losses became more devastating.  The self-induced pressure could sometimes suck the joy out of being a fan. 

But now, Rodgers is gone, and with him the mandatory expectations.  For the first time in perhaps thirty years, we are approaching a season in which nobody, I mean nobody, not even us if we are honest, expects Green Bay to win the Super Bowl.  Maybe we don’t even expect to make the playoffs.  Maybe we don’t even expect to have a winning season.  And therein lies the beauty.  We don’t really expect anything! 

Not to be confused with hope.  We all hope for a great season.  But let’s be honest.  Few of us will be shocked if the Packers aren’t very good this year.  We’re hoping for the best, but fully aware the worst is a realistic possibility, and we’re prepared for it.  This year, every win will be a pleasant surprise.  Even if we don’t win, playing the good teams, like the Chiefs, tough and competitive will be a moral victory.  “We’re close” we will say.  “We’re getting better.  The future is bright!”  How long since we’ve really been able to say that? 

What all this really means is that, for the first time in forever, we find ourselves as underdogs.  And I don’t know about you, but I kind of like it.  The Packers open the season in Chicago against the Bears.  DraftKing Sportsbook has Green Bay as a 2.5 point underdog.  The Packers have only been underdogs to Chicago four times since 2007.  I love it.  No pressure.  Just a bunch of fired up young players with nothing to lose, eager to show the world what they can do against the franchise’s arch rivals.  This will be so much fun.  If Rodgers was still here, my attitude would be completely different.  I would expect a convincing victory, and anything less would be soul crushing. 

Know what?  The players feel the same way.  They are going to relish this new role.  Take for example these comments from Aaron Jones last week:   “I’m loving it, you know?  I’m used to being an underdog or being slept on, personally, so it’s a position I love to be in.  Nobody sees you coming at all.  Everybody’s relaxed.  They’re not thinking about you and don’t think you’re capable of it.  When you prove people wrong, it’s one of the best feelings in the world, and that’s what we’re going to do this year, prove a lot of people wrong. 

We’re not really worried about anybody’s opinion.  We know what’s going to be written out there, where they’re going to pick us to finish, but we go to battle every day.  We trust those guys in that locker room.  The scoreboard will tell the rest at the end of the day.” 

So there you have it my fellow Packer fans.  Don’t let the national disrespect get to you.  It’s going to be a fun season.  For the players, and for us.