There are football teams and then there are the Green Bay Packers. There are football stadiums, then there’s Lambeau Field. In the history of American football, there is no place as important as Lambeau Field. It’s the ultimate American football experience!
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History of the game
The legendary Ice Bowl was played at Lambeau Field and has gone down in history as the coldest National Football League (NFL) Championship game in history. It was December 31, 1967, and the temperature at game time was -13℉ with a wind chill of -48℉. In fact, 4 out of the 10 coldest football games in history were hosted at Lambeau Field.
My Lambeau experience
On one day that my wife and I went to see the Packers play the Oakland Raiders, it was about 3℉ with a wind chill of don’t breathe or you’ll die.
That didn’t stop the Cheeseheads. The stadium was packed!
The first thing you’ll notice about Lambeau Field is that there’s no roof. Our friends to the west, the Minnesota Vikings, have been playing under a dome for years and years. Of course, the Packers have won 4 Super Bowls. The Vikings, um, haven’t.
Connection? You decide.
Lambeau Field is painted a distinctive green. Unlike a lot of stadiums, Lambeau is right in the middle of an in-town retail district.
Even before you get to the stadium for the ultimate American football experience, there’s something else you notice – it’s surrounded on all sides by people. In fact, there are homes right across the street.
The Packers are in the smallest market of any professional team in any sport. The city of Green Bay has only about 100,000 people.
So… welcome home. No other professional team’s hometown will greet you as warmly as Green Bay.
The tailgate
Other people tailgate, I assume, but in Green Bay, it’s a religious event. There are thousands of people who will park and won’t even go into the stadium.
There are parking lots for stores, shops and even in people’s front yards where you can park and tailgate. As you walk to the stadium, through what are otherwise very quiet residential neighborhoods, entrepreneurs will offer you water, coffee, and brats.
Oh, brats. Not bratwurst. Brats. Br-ah-ts. These are one of the two official foods of the State of Wisconsin, along with cheese. In fact, they even manage to put cheese into the brats. If you go to Green Bay and don’t eat brats, you’ve missed something. Vegetarians need not apply.
Although….one January when God had decided to send Canadian cold to Green Bay, my wife, myself and some friends decided to give away vegan brats to the tailgaters. The brats were donated by the Tofurky Company.
It was a Chicago Bears game. Da Bears were in town, along with some of their most intrepid fans. They loved the brats and some even took coupons to get some. So, vege-heads, there is hope for you!!!
The fans
There are teams that have fans that have a reputation for being just plain mean (I’m looking at you, Philly), but that’s never the case in Green Bay.
They might shake their heads that you’re a Bears fans or that you’re wearing that (very masculine) purple and yellow, but they’ll still offer you a brat. They might hand you a beer, even if it’s just to keep you around long enough to teach you the errors of your ways.
Fans in Green Bay are simply good people. This is family to them, so they act like they’re in their own living room. In a state the size of Wisconsin, in a city the size of Green Bay, they kind of are.
One of the reasons that the Packers are so personal for Cheeseheads is that it’s the Cheeseheads that own them. You can buy stock (when someone dies) in the team. They are the only publicly-owned professional team in the country and maybe the world.
Final thoughts
So the next time you call yourself an NFL fan, consider, have you been to Lambeau Field? Have you touched the feet of the statues of Vince Lombardi and Curly Lambeau?
Have you tasted an ice cold Miller on a day so cold that your skin hurts (and you’re sitting 200 feet up in the Wisconsin sky)? No. Your football fan credentials may be called into question, my friend.
But what about the Packers?
I don’t really need to tell you about the Packers themselves. You can watch the team every week.
Here’s what I will say: When you win the Big Game, when your team is the winner of the whole tamale, what’s the name on the trophy? What’s it called again? I can’t hear you. Oh, yeah, the Lombardi Trophy. ‘Nuf said.
See you on the frozen tundra!
Have you been to an NFL game and had your American football experience?
