Welcome to Cheesehead Origins, an offseason series geared toward showcasing Packer fans with interesting fandom origin stories! CheeseheadTV is devoted to Packer fans worldwide, and we want to hear (and share) your stories.
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Sam Holman is the youngest of the folks I’ve interviewed for this piece so far, and a relative newcomer to Packers Twitter. In fact, compared to many of you reading this article, he’s newer to the Packer fandom in general.
So how did he go from only slightly paying attention to Packers before the “Run the Table” stretch to now being a superfan, a writer for Wisconsin Sports Heroics and someone who is becoming a big part of the online conversation regarding the Packers?
We’ll get there.
Sam is a junior at Eastern Washington University, with family from all over the place. His dad grew up in Oregon, and his mother is from Vancouver. The family moved to Louisville when he was two, and to Spokane in 2017.
“Obviously, geography wasn’t the reason behind my Packers fandom,” said Sam. “Neither of my parents (and as far as I know, none of my family members) have lived in Wisconsin. I really got my Packers fandom from my dad. He grew up in the middle of Oregon, so he didn’t really have an NFL allegiance. He gravitated toward the Packers during the 90s–he’s always enjoyed good defense, so he loved Reggie White.”
Sam himself grew up a Packer fan, but wasn’t a particularly avid football watcher. He doesn’t really have a memory of watching Super Bowl XLV. It wasn’t until the move ot Spokane that his fandom “came into its own,” as he says.
“I was in my late teens at the time and becoming more independent from my parents,” Sam said. “I think one way that manifested was a newfound passion for the Packers. I had always considered myself a Packer fan, but I really started following them avidly around the end of the 2016 season and the beginning of the 2017.”
Sam was captivated by the end of the Run the Table stretch and the miraculous victory in Dallas. The next couple seasons were, of course, rough, but Sam’s love for the Packers continued to grow.
In 2019, Sam made his first and only (so far) pilgrimage out to Green Bay to attend the game against the Bears that December.
“That was an amazing experience,” Sam said. “I flew to Green Bay over the weekend and got a motel room within walking distance of Lambeau. I left lateFriday night and got to Green Bay in the middle of Saturday, having gotten next to no sleep. I still powered through and managed to get a Lambeau Field tour. I got to tailgate the next morning and hang out with Aaron Nagler at a CHTV Tailgate Party. I met a bunch of other awesome people, drank my first Spotted Cow and got to experience an amazing stadium.”
It was after the 2020 season when Sam started to turn his attention toward studying, and potentially writing about, the game. He had started to invest more time into watching film of draft prospects. After purchasing Bobby Peters’ guide to the Packers offense in early 2021, he became even more fascinated learning about football scheme.
This developing interest naturally led to him writing more about the sport. As he continued to accrue knowledge, he just started getting his writing out there.
“I joined Twitter and started putting out scouting threads on some of the defensive linemen in the 202 draft,” he said. “As the season approached, I decided to start up a football blog (www.reactandattack.blogspot.com). That was a great learning experience in how to convey my thoughts on football in an understandable format. There were also quite a few people who, early on, provided some amazing feedback and encouragement.”
In late 2021, Sam connected with Wisconsin Sports Heroics about writing, and since then has enjoyed significant creative freedom and an ability to practice his writing and get it out to a broader audience.
Meanwhile, Sam continues to be an avid consumer of other Packers content online, specifically mentioning Ws Hodkiewicz, Mike Spofford and Larry McCarren of Packers.com, the Cheesehead TV crew, Andy Herman and the Pack-a-Day group, Jacob Westendorf and the Game On Wisconsin team, and a large list of other people on Twitter and across the blogosphere, far too large of a list for me to include here, but needless to say, there are a lot of folks he reads and for whom he is grateful for helping him develop his writing and find a foothold on Packers Twitter.
Though he may be relatively green as a Packer fan, he’s quickly developed a strong understanding of the game and is as passionate as they come. When I asked what it is about the Packers that is so appealing to him, it was a combination of the current energy and culture brought by Matt LaFleur and the longstanding history of the team.
“I’ve enjoyed learning about history in a wider sense for a while (that’s what my major is in), and there are few NFL teams that have as much history as the Packers,” he said. “As I’ve connected with other fans over social media, I’ve come to appreciate the community of Packer fans and how they (usually) support and engage with one another.”
Be sure to follow Sam on twitter at @Sam_DHollman and check out his work at Wisconsin Sports Heroics.
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Thank you to Sam for being willing to take part and for providing thorough answers to my questions!
Next week’s feature is a familiar face to our CHTV audience, and I’m always looking for more folks to profile. Reach out to me on Twitter @timbackes with anyone whose origin story you would like to hear!
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Tim Backes is a lifelong Packer fan and a contributor to CheeseheadTV. Follow him on Twitter @timbackes for his Packer takes, random musings and Untappd beer check-ins.