Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show!!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: “Would you rather” is a game for punks… …Coach got a little perturbed during the bye week when, on occasion, he heard this thoughtless question murmured: “Who would you rather have the Packers face in the playoffs?” Like statistics, that is a forum for losers. The best team in the NFL should be able to beat any other team, right? So BRING IT ON! My question is “Who else can we play to prove we’re the best team in the NFL?” Let’s start with “the most DANGEROUS team in the playoffs” … ooooooo … so scary, those 49ers. “You don’t wanna face those guys.” Really? I do. And when we’re done with them, we’ll take apart whoever is next. That’s what Champions do (not whatever it was that the Lions head coach said after the meaningless Week 18 game). Do you think Vince Lombardi’s players worried about having to play Dallas, or do you think they cherished the opportunity to beat them and prove that the Packers were worthy of being called “Champions”? We’re down to the final 8 teams now … this is big boy football. Everybody is good and if you’re not on your “A” game, you might get beat. But if you’re worried about who you have to play, then you shouldn’t be in the playoffs competing for a championship in the first place. If we show up at the coin toss with our chin straps buckled tight to our helmets, we’ll be just fine. …at least, in Coach’s humble opinion. Create A Seam Here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme The 2021 Regular Season is in the Bank Let’s review the key accomplishments: 1. #12 did not break a clavicle against Detroit (Bears 2013 – Vikings 2017 – Lions 2021?) 2. We finished 13-3 8 – 0 @ Lambeau (more below) 5 – 3 on the road 3. We went 0-4 in the Pre-Season – but we don’t care about the Pre-Season 4. We had middle-of-the-road stats… But, but … … we are #1 in turnover margin at home (#3 overall) … and we have committed the fewest penalties of any team (home and away) We spilled a lot of electrons this year explaining how the 13-3 Packers have done a tremendous job of overcoming a ton of injuries, although the injuries did hamper Offensive and Defensive performance and we finished in the Top-Third in most statistical categories. That effort, however, does not explain how we got the #1 Seed in the NFL Lombardi Trophy Tournament. What does explain it is not beating ourselves with penalties and turn-overs and that is how we will continue to win in the Playoffs. Since last week was a Pre-Season game, we’ll skip that and look in the archives and take a quick peak at the ‘96 Divisional Round against the Niners. The Packers were on the rise in ’96. After beating the Niners in an upset in the ’95 Playoffs at Candlestick Park … we had the better record during the 1996 Season and were the #1 Seed. The weather had been typical for a WI Winter until just a few days before the game when it got very warm (‘40’s) … and just like this week, the fans were nervous about it being too warm, eroding our cold-weather-advantage. That fear only grew as light rain fell on game day instead of the desired snowstorm. The field was a complete mess that day! A problem? Hell no, it was perfect, perfect real-man-real-football weather. Edgar Bennett (#34) sealed his reputation as a “Mudder” (thank you, John Madden) that day with 80 yards rushing and 2 TDs on 17 carries. The Packers dominated in every phase of the game --- time of possession (34 min), turnovers (+4) and yards. As great as Favre and Edgar were, the star of the game was Desmond Howard! He returned the first punt of the game for 71 yards and a TD and the rout was on! (Coach was in the SE EZ and saw the blocking on the punt return open-up a path like Moses parting the Red Sea.) Legend has it that Maurice Drayton was on vacation that day. Click on this link to see Desmond’s TD Punt Return. The TD was great … but Dez went in too fast and landed low … the judges only gave him a 6.5 on the Lambeau Leap. The rain and mud were fantastic, but the field was destroyed! In a landscaping miracle not seen since Carl Spackler was minding Bushwood, the Grounds crew at Lambeau re-sodded the middle 2/3rd’s of Lambeau … in the middle of January! Or course, that created a buncha “leftovers” … which the Packers marketing department quickly turned into a sales opportunity! Coach jumped on that and bought a dozen boxes! As you already know, the Pack went on to win Super Bowl XXXI, cementing 1996 as one of the best years in Packers’ history. However … the 90’s were not all sunshine and lolly pops. You probably have read that the Packers and Niners are 4-4 against each other in the Playoffs (Pack 2-1 @ Lambeau, 2-3 in SF). After the Pack had three consecutive playoff wins over the Niners, in the 1998 Playoffs we were back at the Stick in the Wild Card Round. We were winning 27-23 until we got jobbed by the Ref’s on the Niners last drive. Early in the drive Jerry Rice fumbled but was ruled down by contact (this was during the “no replay” drought, so no chance to challenge the obvious fumble). A few plays later we had a defensive breakdown and Steve Young hit Terrell Owens on a deep pass down the middle … and we lost 30-27. Another heart breaker… The moral of the story? Kill the Niners early on Saturday Night and don’t let the Zebras decide the outcome! WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Frustrated Dak Prescott Tries To Draw Foul By Planting Gun On Defender DALLAS—Having none of it, referees officiating the Cowboys loss to San Francisco on Sunday failed to call a penalty on 49ers defensive tackle Charles Omenihu at a crucial point in the 4th quarter after Dallas quarterback Dak Prescott apparently planted a Glock 9mm pistol on the defender. With only 18 seconds left, the Cowboys QB sealed the fate of America’s Team by running with the ball in the middle of the field until time expired, and then haplessly tried to negotiate getting an additional offensive play claiming a personal foul was committed by Omenihu. According to the NFL rulebook, defensive players are not allowed to brandish firearms on the field during a game, and violating this rule would have resulted in a 15-yard penalty and an automatic 1st down. Moreover, the game cannot end on a defensive penalty, so Prescott and the Cowboys would have been given another shot at the end zone. As the referees left the field, Dallas fans pelted them with rocks and garbage. Dak Prescott was disappointed when learning of fans throwing bottles at Cowboys players, but when he was told they were aiming at the refs, Dak responded: “Credit to them.” At press time, Prescott also announced he will be boycotting the Walter Payton Man of the Year award presented on the eve of the Super Bowl, which recognizes an NFL player for outstanding community service activities off the field The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Just for fun, Coach decided to Google (the verb) Chicago Bears headlines from this year’s gridiron campaign. What follows, in no particular order, are actual headlines. Enjoy…
You’re welcome. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground BU – Postseason Thursday was Bralen Allen’s 18th birthday. You will never have to hear ‘he’s only 17’ again. With some gaps to fill on next season’s roster, the Badgers have been pursuing receivers and cornerbacks on the transfer portal. Inspired by our lack of talent at receiver vs. Arizona State, the Badgers earned a commitment from 6’-3” UCLA wide receiver Keontez Lewis. Paul Chryst is already salivating at Lewis’ potential for gap-filling downfield run-blocking with the graduation of Jack Dunn. Twenty-four hours earlier, Bucky landed UCLA cornerback Jay Shaw. Congratulations NCAA Champion Georgia Bulldogs! Maybe next year for the Crimson Tide. We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game Packer Nation is pretty smart! A poll placed last week showed that youse has a purty good idea of what’s going on out there … you predicted the Niners, and we got the Niners! All-time the Packers have a slight lead in the series and the average score is almost tied at 21.5 to 21.2 In the playoffs the records are even closer, we are 4-4 against the Niners. During the Favre era we went 4-1: ’95 Win ’96 Win ’97 Win ’98 Loss ’02 Win Unfortunately, we are 0-3 during the Rodgers Era (come on, Law Of Averages!): Let’s not get too hung up on this … or the fact that Rodgers has had several choke moments in the playoffs against the 49ers in the Playoffs (just look at his 95.5 passer rating vs. his career rate of 104.5) … we gonna focus on the positive! First: The Packers are 24-12 all time vs. the Forty-Whiners at Lambeau and have won by an average score of 23-19. Second: Let’s compare the 6-3 Road Niner’s with the 8-0 Home Packers: The Packers have 5th best Home Offense vs. the Niner’s 12th best Road Offense (almost 6-point Packers’ advantage)! The Packers have the 2nd Best Home Defense, allowing 16.8 pts/game …vs. the Niner’s at 21.1 on the Road. Net/net the Packers have a 10.0 Point Differential advantage. Throw in 2 or 3 points for Home Field and the Pack should win by 12 points. Mid-week the betting line favored the Pack by 6, reflecting Rodger’s 0-3 record. Third: We have beaten them the last two times we played … which were both at Corduroy Stadium. Fourth: Garoppolo is still their QB. ‘Nuf said. Jimmy G is a “nice” QB … he will probably be in the League for another decade and make a ton of money as a capable backup … but he ain't gonna do squat to win the game. Fifth: San Francisco is worried about the cold. On last week Thursday’s Get Up (seriously … that’s the name of the show), host Dianna Russini revealed that Bills QB Josh Allen doesn’t like playing in the cold due to poor circulation. ESPN talking head and former Ravens and Jets linebacker Bart “Can’t wait!” Scott offered some performance enhancing advice on how to battle the cold ... Viagra. NFL sources have revealed that the 49ers organization has ordered several cases of Viagra and Cialis to prepare for this weekend’s game at Lambeau. Unconfirmed reports from the SF Bay area suggest that the 49ers are working on a new “third leg” silent count. ESPN’s Rob Dipshitsky travelled to the Uranian haven this week to assess the reaction of 49’er fans to the Viagra-Plan. Coach doesn’t care how much sildenafil they ingest, in a tribute to Joe Brown … we are gonna beat the tar out of ‘em. There’s gonna be a lot of this, a lot of that and you’re gonna hear all week about their Front-7 and the Niners running game, blah, blah, blah, blah. (Coach is ready to pop a Zofran because if he hears another question regarding how the Packers can't stop the talented Deebo Samuel, he is going to puke.) Coach doesn’t care, we have a great Offense that now has Cobb, Bakhtiari and Myers back from injury. We have a great Defense (at home) that now has J. Alexander, Z. Smith, and W. Merciless back from injury. We’re gonna limit them to less than 90-yards rushing, we’re gonna pound them with AJ Dillion and A Jones … and #17 will have over 100-yards receiving. The D will hold the Niner’s to the historical 17 points at Lambeau and Rodgers will break his skunk-streak… Packers: 31 40-Whiners: 17 JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them As Coach reflects on the great Packers DB play this year (with few notable exceptions), it is also important to not forget and heed the past – particularly the late 70’s when the Packers struggled … REALLY struggled. …Mightily. Few Packers struggled more than perennial WR chaser Estus “Asbestos” Hood, affectionately referred to by deer hunters as Special Golden Estus, and nicknamed “TOAST” (as in frequently burned) by his teammates. In Coach’s high school, if you were playing DB and got torched by a receiver, we called you Estus – and this was long after Hood retired. Back in the day, Monday Night Football was the big game of the week and the Packers were rarely good enough to make an appearance on that venue. However, there are many memories of Howard Cosell’s half time narration of the previous day’s highlights. Inevitably, there would be a kickoff return for a touchdown, or a goal line stand to seal a victory, and always a flashy 80-yard bomb down the sideline to a galloping wide out. When the Packers made that highlight reel, you’d see an opposing receiver prance into the end zone, followed 3 seconds later by good ole Estus. About Hood, Cosell quipped, “Estus has an uncanny instinct for sensing when not to make the move, when not to make the cut. He can be killed with a head fake, killed with the swiftness of his opponents, and the ability to be going the wrong direction at any single second. He is also faked out with any variation of speed.” The Packers’ 3rd round draft choice from Illinois State (Normal, IL) in 1977, Estus Hood went on to log 11 INT’s and one pick-six over his career. Passes-defended data are a little sketchy, but Coach’s steel-trap mind recalls that TD’s given up far exceeded this figure. Honestly, it is shocking Estus Hood continually made the Packers roster for 7 straight years, and played in every game. Mike McCarthy would definitely check the availability box for Estus, but accountability … notsomuch. Even though he made Kevin King look like Deion Sanders, Hood was never cut. He was actually voted "Worst Packer of All Time" by those who were cursed to have witnessed his play. Estus Hood kindly credits his father, Clay, for his longevity and fortitude to not give up despite being the worst athlete on the field each and every week.
Fast forwarding to 2022, with the successful drafting of quick-study Eric Stokes and acquisition of snubbed probowler Rasul Douglas, which has relegated the aforementioned Kevin King to kickoff coverage duties and Gatorade bottles replenishment, we salute you Estus Hood for helping us remember how good we have it today!
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Welcome back to The Coach Clarahanson Show!!! In Coach’s Humble Opinion: you play, to play the game... Much ado has be debated as to whether or not the starters should be rested in Week 18 because home field advantage is already wrapped. “Poppycock!” I say. It’s not a question of injury risk. Sure, guys could get hurt, and if they aren’t 90+% I wouldn’t play them. …especially if they play defense (you know, having to initiate contact and all that). Recall Bakhtiari tore his ACL in practice last year. Not a game. Not a game. We’re talking about practice. Right, Alan? Can’t risk Rodgers breaking his clavicle or spraining his knee during a sack? Fine … he can chuck the ball out of bounds or intentionally ground it, and then we punt it. Who cares? He wants to play, let him play. And the same goes for Adams, and, and, and, …. I think they should play for 2 main reasons (and, no, not for the integrity of the game … see also, replacement ref’s, Thursday night matchups, playing on soccer fields in England, but I digress…):
Create A seam here – X’s & O’s about the game or a scheme Coach doesn’t care if Frank Mannion (a supposedly famous film producer that Coach never heard of), Charles Manson or Sean Mannion lined-up at QB for the Queens … we killed them … … Coach doesn’t care if we got off to another slow start … we killed them … … and we clinched home field advantage in the NFC post-season tournament … … whadda week of accomplishments! Aina? 1. Matt LaFleur is now the winningest Coach in NFL history, winning 39 Regular Season Games in his first 3 Seasons* (And no “*” needed for a 17 Game Season.) 2. Erin Rodgers so vexed the Bears Fan Base that Herb Arkush self-immolates In one of the most comical episodes in the 101 years of the rivalry … Associated Press MVP Voter and long-time Bears Fan, Bears announcer, commentator and pundit, Herb Arkush, revealed Monday what everyone knows: Voting for MVP is exactly the same process as voting for Prom Queen. No surprise, Herb’s girlfriend is the ugly-one-that-looks-like-a-Bear-and-has-no-chance-of-being-queen … soes, whatsat Herb did? He says he’s going to “show the world” by not voting for the pretty and popular girl, Erin Rogers. After a complete shit storm dropped on Herb for exposing the sausage making process of determining an MVP, he “apologized” … So, in case you haven’t heard, I’ve spent the better part of the last 24 hours laughing at a pretty nasty mess. This was very clever on my part and completely entertaining. Some think that I made a terrible mistake, but I don’t. It was completely my intent. There is no one else that can take credit, and I am here to take credit. I own this and I couldn’t be happier. I expect some clarity on exactly what people think I should be apologizing for might be relevant and welcome… There was more, but Coach fell asleep while reading it. Aside from Coach’s shock at the barely grammatical “apology” from a supposed “journalist” … Coach observes that Herb’s rant just goes to further prove that the Arlington Heights Staleys, much like Kazakhstan, are a failed organization. While Coach is heartened that: … Erin Rodgers is pissed off (and therefore will play extremely well to prove Herb wrong) … - and – … that the Packers fan base is P.O.’d and is fueling the rivalry fires … … Coach doesn’t really care. Wanna stoke the rivalry? Bring out Charles Martin as an Honorary Captain for Opening Coin Toss at the next Staley’s game. 3. We set up a 2nd NFC Central Coach for firing this year (Zimmer and Nagy) and eliminated the Minneapolis ViQueens from the Super Bowl Tournament. We denied the Queens the chance to get to 0.500, something they have not been above in more than 700 days. Zimmer has not yet been officially fired, but after he is, Coach will be campaigning for him to Coach Defense and Special Teams for us next year. All- ‘n-all, a pretty damn good week for the Pack! Ah, yes, we did, by the way, also play a football game. You know we won … but what can we take away as we get ready for the 2021 End-of-Season NFL Tournament? Offense Coach could easily spend the whole blog here, there were several tremendous plays that convince Coach we have the best, most creative, Offense going into the Post-Season. Through the course of 2021, Aaron Jones and AJ Dillion lined up together for 18 snaps. On Sunday night they lined up together on 7-snaps and they averaged over 7 yard/play on those snaps! MLF just handed opposing Defenses a lot to prep for. Aaron Jones looks like he is coming back from his MCL strain. AJ had 76 rushing yards with an average of 9.5 yards/carry and he looked damn good doing it. That complemented AJ Dillion who had two TD’s and 63 yards rushing and overall, we averaged 5.4 yards/carry. Not to be outdone, the Erin-to-Davante connection continues to amaze. Adams had one TD and 136 yards on 11 receptions, several times demonstrating the technique developed by Chris Carter of the Vikings in the 90’s: “don’t look, don’t show your hands” until the ball arrives. (Note: Adams doesn’t have the Jumbotron at Field level to help him “cheat on the DB” as Carter did at the Humpty-Dump-I.) Oh, BTW, the O-Line gave up zero sacks … not the least of which because Erin is getting the ball out of his hands in record time. Naturally all was not perfect. 2020 3rd Rnd pick, “Brick-hands-Josie-Deguara” demonstrated one of the major reasons we have started so slowly in the first Qtr. all year. This pass could not have been much better located, but Josie decided he would leave an opening for mid-Season-addition at TE, Tyler Davis to shine in the Post-Season (more in the Spartans section further below). Signs of life on Special Teams? For the 2nd week in a row, ST were “OK”. As Coach said last week: “On the robust data set of one game, let’s call them “not a liability”, and cross your fingers that they can continue.” Let’s call it two-weeks-in-a-row now. Hang onto your hats kids, Mason Crosby has not missed an Extra Point in 11 games and is 48-49 on XP’s for the year. Even more exciting, he is 6 for 6 on 3-pointers over the last four games. What a weird year for him on FG’s: GM 1-4 100% 6-6 GM 5-12 57% 12-21 GM 13-16 100% 6-6 The Pack have obviously worked on the kicking unit, and they also have obviously worked on making Crosby “less sensitive to shitty holds”. Granted Borky bobbled the hold at first (and he shanked a punt), but he was just off the Covid list and playing in his coldest-ever game, but he did recover on the hold. Maybe even more importantly, Crosby held up a bit to give him time. In other news... HALLELUIAH! WE ACTUALLY RETURNED A FRICKING PUNT! Once again proving that Gutey should be GM-of-the-Year, he signed a guy off the couch who can actually return punts with confidence and contribute to The Team! Why it took this long Coach doesn’t know but give Gutey credit that he is actively trying to improve the roster every day. Run Defense Improves Ok, so Charley Manson was at QB and Thielen is hurt, I don’t recall the Packers getting any love-or-asterisks when Rodgers was hurt, so Coach is not giving them any slack either. No matter, Queens running back Derwood Cook was supposed to run all over us, again. An aside here for a moment … let’s give the Queens some credit for entertainment value. They did have the Irrelevant Reception! It was probably the coolest play Coach has ever seen an opponent have at Lambeau. Not sure what it looked like on TV, but in the stands it was incredible to watch it unfold ... seemingly in slow motion. Awesome. Safety Adrian Amos drilled the receiver, the tipped ball went to center Garret Bradbury who had a fingertip catch and rumbled 21-yards for the Queens 2nd longest play. Comically he pointed for a 1st down when they were down 30-3 … but give the guy credit … he had 53 catches for 918 yards and 12 TD’s when he was in HS. Ok, back to Derwood, overall, we held him to the 2nd worst day of his 55-game career! (He had 13-yards on 9 carries, his worst game was when the Staleys held him to 12-yards on 9 carries in 2018.) Overall, they were pathetic rushing the ball … … and we had our best Defensive game of the year against the rush (chart below). But how did the run D improve Coach? Very simple Jimmy, people “stayed home” and “did their jobs” … (insert any/all Coaching clichés here) Kenny Clark has been a stud all-year and it’s obvious now that he has recovered from his earlier injury. There is no team in the NFL that’s going to move him around. Coach has been harping on outside-contain all year. What’s important here is that Gary stays on the outside-shoulder of the pulling guard so Cook won’t/can’t bounce outside. Once Cook commits to the hole, Gary sheds the block and makes the tackle…an outstanding play. Preston Smith has played the run fairly well this year, until the last few weeks where he reverted back to his old bad habits of chasing the QB and not containing the outside. In Coach’s favorite play of the game, P Smith plays his role perfectly stays where he should be and tackles Derwood for a 5-yard TFL. Perfect D? No … but damn good … good enough to take to the Playoffs. WTF – Coach’s take on football news that’s messed up Lions Fan Displays Supernatural Ability To Determine Every Draft Pick A Bust NOVI, MI—Stunning friends and family with his inexplicable ability to divine the future, local Lions fan Barry Porter once again displayed his supernatural ability this year to determine every draft pick would be a bust with his prediction for offensive tackle Penei Sewell. “Within minutes, he was saying, ‘This is [Laken] Tomlinson all over again,’ and telling us Sewell is going nowhere and he’s gonna wash out of the league before his first contract is up,” said friend Devin Nelson, who marveled that Porter seemingly fell into a trance state as he finished his sixth beer and began peering through the fabric of time itself. “Going back 20 years and he’s basically never been wrong. I don’t know what kind of special connection he was born with that he can tell a Lions draft pick is going to suck. It’s both a gift and a curse, I guess. He sees the future, but knows he is destined to suffer forever.” At press time, Porter had once again been vindicated after Sewell stumbled and allowed a sack of quarterback Tim Boyle on the sixth snap of the game against the Seahawks, who the Lions lost to 51-29. The Bears Still Suck – Coach has proof Nagy Provides Bears Players With Printouts Of Inspiring Halftime Speech CHICAGO—As the Chicago Bears entered the locker room Sunday following the first half of their game against the New York Giants, head coach Matt Nagy reportedly provided every player with a three-page printout of an inspiring halftime speech. “Everyone, please step forward and take one,” Nagy told players as he handed out copies of a 1,400-word, single-spaced motivational locker-room address, titled “Halftime Speech 01/02/22,” which had various words and phrases bolded or underlined for emphasis. “You have approximately 12 minutes to read it before the third quarter starts. You may begin.” After he made sure that everyone on the team had a copy, Nagy stood quietly at the front of the locker room while the entire team read in complete silence. Team sources confirmed first round draft pick Justen Field was denied his request for a tutor when he looked up and noticed that most others had already completed reading the document. Udder Stuff – Commentary from the Badger Underground Whiskey Prevails 20-13 in Las Vegas Bowl This bowl game was actually the perfect microcosm of the season. Everything that happened was something we had seen all year ... a bunch of guys sit out and we have no idea what's wrong with any of them, but the guys who replace them fill in admirably; the defense is great, but is susceptible to big plays; the offense is inconsistent, but does just enough; Braelon Allen is our reliable stud; Mertz is generally fine with one glaring mistake; Chryst makes some head-scratching decisions. Offensively, we were off to the races until Mertz threw the ball behind Pryor over the middle for a pick. That was about the point that it dawned upon Herm Edwards that all he needed to do defensively was swarm to Braelon Allen and dare Mertz and the passing game to beat ASU. As he has done too often, Paul Chryst went conservative offensively and left it up to the defense to win the game. 9 wins against a top 10 schedule isn’t terrible, but three of our four losses were in games where we self-destructed after leading in the third quarter. We won’t have offensive line coach Joe Rudolph to kick around anymore, following his lateral move to Virginia Tech. We hope Paul Chryst will take this opportunity to bring in more creative minds for OL coach, QB coach and play-calling. For an offensive line that consistently produced mid-round NFL picks, the dropoff over the last few years has been noticeable. After indicating that they would pass on the NFL draft, Leo Chenal, John Chenal and Faion Hicks flip-flopped and declared that they would be entering draft. We’re Gonna Kick Your @$$ – predictions for the upcoming game “Perfect eyebrows Le Fleur” said this week … “the message to our team is that we’re going to Detroit to win a football game”. Damn right Coach. While there is talk of Rodgers and Adams playing, no doubt they will exit soon after Adams picks-up the 23-yards he needs to break Jordy’s “most-yards-in-a-season” Packers Franchise Record. I hope going to Detroit to win a football game means LF and Rodgers will remember: 2013 – Bears 1st Game– broken clavicle 2017- Vikings 1st Game – broken clavicle 2021- Detroit 1st Game – no injury 2021 – Detroit 2nd game – injured by splinters from bench Coach thinks we can all agree that the Portsmouth Spartans are the best 2-13-1 Team in the entire NFL, and we need to take them seriously!!! (OK, that’s the message LF had to try to sell to the locker room as they fall down laughing). After all, they have a tremendous heritage of almost doing well. And, they have one of the finest facilities in the NFL. And they made the Playoffs and won the whole darn thing in 1957 (parenthetical note, both Lambeau Field and Coach, Sr. got their starts in that very fine year). And now they have a Coach who has “set the tone”. Although Campbell is recognized for having his team “play hard” … the Season is taking his toll on him. With the No. 1 Seed locked up, it’s questionable who will play and for how long, but let’s look at the Stats anyway! Based on Season-To-Date stats, the Packers have a total advantage of 14.7 points/game. Give the Spartans a couple/tree points for being in the Ford Pinto Dome and the Packer advantage is 12 or 13 points. But who’s playing QB? It looks like Jared Goff will be activated for the game, but if not then it would be Packers 2020 QB2 (Boyle) vs. Packers 2021 QB2 (Love). Wouldn’t that be tasty? Well, maybe it's not Dallas Cowboys with McCarthy at Lambeau with LaFleur for the right to go to the Super Bowl, but a succulent appetizer nonetheless. Naturally Vegas has taken that into account the Love vs. Boyle matchup and the Line is now between 2.5 and 3.5. Who knows who’s gonna play, who’s gonna be held out and who’s gonna have Covid? Coach doesn’t know, Coach doesn’t care … but keep an eye out for the Packers to use the new Secret Weapon: Tyler Davis. ...for Love and Tuna, it doesn’t matter if we only line up with the Practice Squad, we’re gonna knock the chocolate pudding out of the Spartans. Look for the score to be along the lines of the Packers historical average of a 21-18 win. Packers: 21 Spartans: 17 JB – Packers you forgot about, but stories you’ll remember about them As we approach the possibility of Aaron Rodgers playing his final regular season game in a Packers uniform, Coach got to wondering “Who was the starting quarterback in the first Packers game?” It’s something we all should know, right? Well, then why don’t we? While he was an elusive man and quite an enigma, Adolf E. Kliebhan has a special place in Packer lore. Yes, he was the first starting QB for the Packers in the NFL. He did not last the whole game and never played again, being replaced in the 3rd quarter by none other than Curly Lambeau. Curly got the credit for pulling out the win over the Minneapolis Marines even though he did not start due to injury. The Minneapolis Marines joined the league in 1921, but folded after a 0-6 finish in 1924. They reorganized as the Minneapolis Red Jackets for the 1929 and '30 seasons, but folded again. The Twin Cities went without professional football for more than 30 years until the Vikings started in 1961 (if we’re being generous, calling them “professional”). After 50 years (or 100 years), they still have never won a championship. In fact, they didn’t even make the playoffs this year. Green Bay owns the Twin Cities, and Detroit, just like Chicago. But I digress… The first mention of Kliebhan was his attending an early practice held in downtown Green Bay on Aug. 10, 1921, which attracted roughly 400 fans (we now call them “rail birds”). That was almost two weeks before the Packers were even admitted to the APFA (renamed NFL soon after). Also, before that first league game on Oct. 23, the Packers played four non-league opponents and Adolph appeared as a sub in the first three against the Chicago Boosters, Rockford Olympics, and the Chicago Cornell-Hamburgs. In those games, he played quarterback, fullback, and right halfback. Not too shabby! After his cup of coffee in Green Bay, Kliebhan left for Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan with little-known 3rd string Scrum Blocker and volunteer towel boy Jerald Soswalla to bootleg liquor down to Superior by boat. Recall that the USA was mired in a government-controlled prohibition stranglehold, so a fella could make a bigger buck bootlegging booze than being a Back playing ball. To shield his escapades and whereabouts from the law, Kliebhan made sure to cover any tracks he may have left behind, be them photos or football scouting reports or whatever, and went off the 1920’s technology grid. No one has officially seen or heard of him since, and there’s no official record of him existing before that. Pretty cool. On the other hand, the much less gifted and, by all accounts, mildly retarded Soswalla ended up in a Canadian jail for exposing himself to the animals at the Saskatoon Forestry Farm Park & Zoo. His sentence was extended for "uncommon indecency" by the judge during his hearing. He died from a gunshot wound to the back that was administered by a Canadian Mounty as Soswalla tried to escape the prison walls in 1926.
Anyways, today, 100 years later, we salute you, Adolph Kliebhan, the first quarterback to start for the Packers in the NFL. Then again, maybe not. |
Author"Coach" is the insightful collective brain and funny bone of a few legendary Packer fans who provide everything you need to know (and what Packers beat writers often plagiarize) about the Green & Gold, plus a weekly guest appearance by The Badger Underground. Archives
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