Green Bay Packers Football Team

He was blind. He was scared. He closed his eyes and prayed. "Please, when I open these again, let there be light. . . ." Terrell Davis sat quietly on the Denver Bronco bench, the world exploding around him, but dark, all of it dark. Somebody strapped an oxygen mask to his face. Somebody else grabbed his hand. He thought, this is crazy. This isn't happening. Who goes blind at the Super Bowl? It was the second quarter.

Last of four breakdowns on the first round of the NFL playoffs: This time for keeps The Cardinals clearly thought they had nothing to gain by winning their Week 17 finale against Green Bay, so they rested some key players. Afterward, Arizona Coach Ken Whisenhunt seemed agitated that the Packers kept their foot on the gas in the second half of a 33-7 pounding. "They had their plan," Whisenhunt said. "I guess they felt good about what they were doing." In August, Green Bay's starters built a 38-10 halftime lead against the Cardinals in an exhibition game.

On Brett Favre Pass, a legacy catches hell. It is a dead end street, but a sports bar there is a thoroughfare of debate. What's he doing? Where was he doing it? Who called whom? Why Brett why? On Brett Favre Pass, some folks are wishing he had thrown his last. "I just wish he had stayed retired," said Ron Enke, manager of Champion's sports bar, located a Hail Mary away from Green Bay's Lambeau Field.

The Baltimore Ravens want to be where the Green Bay Packers already are -- and not just near the top of the NFL's defensive rankings. Whereas the Packers (7-4) have the edge for a wild-card spot, things aren't as clear for Baltimore (6-5), which began the weekend tied with Jacksonville, Denver and Pittsburgh for one of the AFC's two berths. A lot can change with five games to play, of course, but the urgency of the moment is not lost on the Ravens, who haven't recorded consecutive wins since Week 3. "Our goal right now is just to win the game, no matter what it looks like, or what goes on in between, the first quarter, the fourth quarter," Baltimore receiver Mark Clayton told reporters last week.

The large stand-up plaque outside the Green Bay Packers Hall of Fame stands in the shadow of a giant, generic pass receiver who could be Don Hutson, ever reaching to round off his NFL record at an even 100 touchdown catches. The plaque reads: "The Green Bay Packers, an institution and a legend, are unique . . . " That they are, but as the 1987 season gets under way with Sunday's game against the Raiders, one of the Packers isn't really an institution.

In the small brown frame house a mile from Lambeau Field, a long week is finally ending for Chuck Mathys. On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers are playing for the NFC championship, and he will be there. He will happily climb 30 rows to his seat and joyfully spend four hours in ghastly weather. Unlike last week. When--for a playoff game played in pouring rain and near-freezing temperatures--he was one of three announced no-shows. Three out of 60,790 tickets sold.

Packer linebacker Brian Noble, once aSouthern California beach-goer, has become a working-class hero in a blue-collar town. The former All-Southern Section standout, who attended Anaheim High School, has proved time and again that he is a team leader and one of the club's most popular players. In the second game of the 1990 season, against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field, Noble, his teammates and fans were staring at the prospect of reliving a nightmare.

The toughest quarterback in the NFL sadly admitted Tuesday that he has not done it alone. Brett Favre of the Green Bay Packers said he will enter an unnamed facility for the treatment of an addiction to painkillers. Favre, the league's most valuable player last season, said he will remain in the facility, "for as long as it takes to get better." "This is kind of a difficult time . . . because . . .

In all, 132 players and coaches will run onto the field today for Super Bowl XXXI. That means 132 men who will spend four hours today creating memories they will remember for a lifetime. But no two players or coaches are exactly alike. Some had to overcome obstacles off the field that made anything they have encountered on the field seem mild in comparison. Some are lucky simply to be alive, let alone play in a Super Bowl.

Tradition went head-to-head with pocketbooks Thursday as Green Bay season-ticket holders struggled with a surcharge to help pay for renovations at Lambeau Field. The Packers expect to raise $92.5 million through one-time seat fees once details for the payments are finalized. Currently, fans with three-game packages will pay $600 a ticket. Fans with seven-game packages will pay $1,400 a ticket.

Green Bay (6-4) at Detroit (2-8) Time: 9:30 a.m. Television: Channel 11. Line: Packers by 11. Over/Under: 47.5. Story line: The Lions were without their two best players -- quarterback Matthew Stafford and receiver Calvin Johnson -- when the Packers beat them, 26-0, in Week 6. That might be the case again today, as Stafford is nursing a sprained left shoulder, and Johnson is battling hand and knee injuries. Green Bay has dominated this series lately, winning 16 of 18, and Packers Coach Mike McCarthy has never lost to the Lions.

It all looked so familiar, and yet so strange. Brett Favre walking off the grass at Lambeau Field, fists raised in victory, photographers encircling him like a massive amoeba. And then there were the boos, raining down from the upper reaches of this stadium he knows so well. Catcalls from Packers fans who once thought he could do no wrong. "It was about what I expected, I guess," the Minnesota quarterback said Sunday after throwing four touchdown passes to lead the Vikings to a 38-26 victory.

For thousands of Green Bay Packers fans in this waterfront town, Brett Favre has never been closer to their homes. Or further from their hearts. Just across the St. Croix River, half an hour by car, is downtown Minneapolis and the Metrodome, Favre's new home stadium. The decision by the 39-year-old star quarterback last week to come out of retirement and sign with the Minnesota Vikings was the final straw for millions of Packers fans. It left Hudson -- a picturesque community of about 50,000 that's 250 miles from Green Bay but only 18 from St. Paul, Minn.

On Brett Favre Pass, a legacy catches hell. It is a dead end street, but a sports bar there is a thoroughfare of debate. What's he doing? Where was he doing it? Who called whom? Why Brett why? On Brett Favre Pass, some folks are wishing he had thrown his last. "I just wish he had stayed retired," said Ron Enke, manager of Champion's sports bar, located a Hail Mary away from Green Bay's Lambeau Field.

SAN FRANCISCO -- It was so clear back then, in April 2005, when quarterbacks Alex Smith and Aaron Rodgers were selected in the NFL draft. There was nothing murky that day about who won and who lost. Smith was taken No. 1 overall by the San Francisco 49ers, and Rodgers -- once thought to be in the running for the top pick -- languished for almost five hours before Green Bay took him 24th. The cash disparity told the story. Smith's contract guaranteed him $24.

Still grasping the reality of what he is -- the newest member of the New York Jets -- Brett Favre focused Thursday on what he says he isn't. "I'm not a traitor, I never will be," he said, less than 24 hours after his falling out with the Green Bay Packers led to a trade. "It's a business, that's how it works." And for the Packers, it was a smart business move.

For a quarterback once touted as California's Heisman Trophy candidate, Aaron Rodgers has sure gotten a lot of Heisman stiff-arms over the years. He got one in high school, when he failed to garner a Division I scholarship offer. He got one in junior college, when Cal noticed him only when scouting one of his teammates. And he got one in last spring's NFL draft, when San Francisco passed on him at No. 1 and he had to wait around for more than four hours before Green Bay selected him 24th.

The crumpled sugar packets are piled as high as the snow outside. Sitting in his favorite diner, Mike Blindauer fingers the lapel of his faded jacket and ponders the question. How do the Green Bay Packers survive in a world of Dallas Cowboys? How does a team from a quiet northern outpost of 96,000 compete in an arena of giant cities, bank accounts and egos?

Throughout his career in Green Bay, Brett Favre was known for his last-minute comebacks. Somehow, this wasn't what the Packers had in mind. Favre, who retired in March, has been reinstated and will be added to Green Bay's roster today. The latest indication is the Packers will make him Aaron Rodgers' backup for the moment with the intent of putting the starting job up for grabs.

The Green Bay Packers were determined not to let the Brett Favre fiasco become a distraction to their young team. So much for their good intentions. Not only has the situation become a circus, but a traveling one. Instead of dealing from a position of strength, the Packers buckled. Three days into training camp, team President Mark Murphy flew to Mississippi to plead with the unretiring quarterback not to show up to practice. Murphy even offered Favre at least $20 million to hang it up for good.