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Are Green Bay Fans the N.F.L.ג€™s Classiest? from the NY Times wrote: The phone rang well after midnight in the Sports department. It was January 2008, and the Giants had beaten the Packers in overtime in the N.F.C. championship game.

A Packers fan was on the line, calling from a bar, after having had a few.

But he wasnג€™t angry. He was calling to congratulate the Giants and Giants fans. He said the Giants had won fair and square, had won the line of scrimmage, and on behalf of friends at the bar and of Packers fans, he wanted to wish the team well.

(He made a joke about not being so kind if the Vikings had beaten the Packers.)

Nothing like that phone call had happened in my time in our office and hasnג€™t happened since.

But it was in keeping with the spirit of that week. Packers fans had been writing to The Fifth Down praising the Giants. Yes, some of that good will could have been explained by the Giantsג€™ upset victory at top-seeded Dallas the week before. The outcome had meant a home playoff game for Green Bay and a boost for the local economy. But the outreach in hospitality continued through the week and into game day:

A Wisconsin resident wrote in to suggest some travel tips for Giants fans.

I havenג€™t noticed GB in any of the NY Times travel sections recently, so this seemed like a good place to make some recommendations to out-of-town Giants fans. The places on Oneida Street will just be your run-of-the-mill chain restaurants, the sports bars on Holmgren are mostly indistinguishable from any other places around the country. Brett Favreג€™s steakhouse is worth a peek, but try and get to downtown Green Bay to see some of the more traditional places. Alג€™s Hamburgers, the Stein, the South End Pub, St. Brendanג€™s Inn, and the Bull and Bear in the Bellin building are all worthy stops all within a block of one another. In Allouez, the Lorelei on Webster has great German food and the Union Hotel in East DePere has a bar and restaurant that looks unchanged from 100 years ago. For those in town on Friday, there are well over 100 bars and restaurants that serve a traditional Wisconsin fish fry for around $10 or less. Cabs are cheap and parking is plentiful and free.

A Giants fan later wrote a blog post for the Fifth Down about his spontaneous decision to travel to Green Bay with his daughter:

The people of Green Bay were absolutely the finest. They were very welcoming. They spoke with us and wanted to know from where we came. There was a degree of respect for two fans who were here for the simple reason of our football team.

The day was cold. Very cold. We were prepared with our gear. Packer fans to the left and right of us offered heat packs and told us where to go to escape the cold for a break. We stood shoulder to shoulder with them and never took a break.

Extra point In 2008, the University of Cambridge released a study in which Wisconsin was determined to be one of Americaג€™s friendliest states. The study was based on data from 619,000 Americans who completed online questions over six years. Wisconsin was near the top in two of five categories: second in extroversion and fifth in agreeableness. (New Jerseyans were stressed out). Iג€™ve never been to Wisconsin, so help me out: Is Wisconsin as nice as it seems?

blastmaster wrote:Catch the ball.

Green Bay - Somewhere between the turnovers and the awful pass defense and the dropped balls and the boos that deservedly rained down on the Green Bay Packers as they sought halftime refuge, the mind drifted back to the idyllic and possibility-filled summer of 2011.

This was going to be the calendar year when our little ol' state ruled the sporting world. The Brewers were going to the World Series. The Badgers were going to win it all. And the Packers were surely going to repeat as Super Bowl champions.

Is it just me, or did it feel like a nuclear winter of reality blew in Sunday?

But, hey, at least we've got Miss America.

As a counter to outright cynicism and a measure of relief to this brutal Monday morning hangover, you'll take 11 victories from Wisconsin, even if it could have been so much more in the wake of another Rose Bowl loss. As a pragmatist, you understand the Badgers probably will never have the speed to win a national championship.

You'll take the NLCS because you get that not even the '97 Braves pitching staff could have stopped the Cardinals, along with, of course, the understanding that market size will likely always mean that the Brewers will be one or two players short.

But this 37-20 loss to the New York Giants?

What we're trying to digest now is the harsh truth that a team that won 15 times during the regular season could not win even one stinkin' playoff game. At home. And look Cleveland Browns kind of bad in the process.

The Brewers and the Badgers, OK, there is some level of acceptance. But this stunning end to the Packers' season? Sorry, there is no consolation whatsoever, no spinning it into a get-'em-next-year tale, not under any circumstances.

The outright beating from the Giants rendered a 15-1 season an outright failure. There is no other way to say it, no other way to consider it. Given the gravity of the situation, it might have been the worst performance of the Mike McCarthy era, shutouts by the Bears and losses to a winless Tampa Bay included.

And now you're telling me against the chill of such expectations that all we have to look forward to between now and spring training is the hope that the Bucks can keep it to 20 or fewer on the road?

That was the thought as Giants fans, much like Cheesers pretty much anywhere on the road, celebrated behind the New York bench while Lambeau Field cleared out like the lakefront when Elton John showed up for the Harley-Davidson 100-year bash.

"We did not play to our identity," McCarthy said.

A game before the NFC championship would not be the time to go to the dance dressed as the Vikings. But truth be told, the Green Bay defense did play to its true nature. It was horrendous. Clay Matthews and A.J. Hawk? Hair today, gone Sunday. But that's way too convenient a shot. No one on that side of the ball showed up, not even Charles Woodson, who, as usual, told it like it was.

"Anything that you've seen through the regular season happened to us today," Woodson said. "Missed tackles, assignments, not getting to the quarterback."

As much as you wanted to believe that the NFL's worst defense could make it happen when it mattered, there was no changing those spots.

And that silly 37-yard alley-oop to Hakeem Nicks with no time left on the halftime clock? Again, the Packers picked the wrong time to go all Bucky vs. the states of Michigan and Ohio with their, um, prevent defense.

With no rush, bumper-car tackling and little resistance toward Eli Manning, the defense was its usual self. Except this time, there would be no Aaron Rodgers to cover its mistakes.

Rodgers was so bad for once that his witty insurance commercials should be recalled. For a guy who is likely going to be the NFL MVP, missing open receivers, taking a fourth-down sack and putting forth a quarterback rating equal to the January highs in Phoenix was like taking a trip back to his early years against the rampaging New York defense.

But it wasn't just the quarterback. How many more passes does Jermichael Finley have to drop before an otherwise tremendous athlete is deemed unreliable? Is that your franchise tag? Really?

Give it to Rodgers, though, for speaking the truth about a failed season. This is the Green Bay Packers. Unlike their in-state cousins, it's the whole thing or bust.

"(Like) after the 2009 season when we lost to Arizona, it sucks," Rodgers said. "This team, this organization, this fan base expects championships. We had a championship-caliber regular season and didn't play well (Sunday)."

And that is the cold, hard reality.

an-also wrote:stuff

Dunnnnleavy wrote: enlighten me about franchise tagging Matt Flynn and trading him for picks...what's there to lose in doing this? Sounds like what happened with Matt Cassel.

capable_keL wrote:some great packer footage here

http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-pro-bowl/ ... hot_topics