Hail to the land of cheese. Your Green Bay Packers are the Super Bowl XLV champions and how they earned it. Despite leaping out to an early lead, the Packers had to fend off an aggressive Pittsburgh Steelers who closed within a field goal looking poised to do what they do so well closing the deal in the final moments of the game as their chief rivals like the Baltimore Ravens know all too well. Aaron Rodgers led a powerful offensive attack while the Green Bay defense kept the big bad boy quarterback Ben Rothlisberger largely under control. The result, a 31-25 victory their first Super Bowl trophy since a young Brett Favre led the Cheese over the New England Patriots in XXXI. Add this two their victories in the first two Super Bowls, the legendary franchise owned by the residents of Green Bay themselves now only have the San Francisco 49ers, Dallas Cowboys, and Pittsburgh Steelers with more Super Bowl wins.
While fans might now look ahead to the 2011 season, labor/management issues loom in the near future where owners are poised to lock out their players if they don’t take an imposed settlement which could include an 18 game season and reduced compensation. While football fans might feel like they can’t get enough football, the 16 game season works beautifully. With 32 teams and 16 games a week, each team faces its division rivals at home and away, plays another conference division, and one division in the other conference. The final two games are against teams equal in standings in the other two divisions within a team’s conference putting first place teams against first place teams and so on through last place. The season starts right after Labor Day and lasts generally until around New Years, seventeen weeks with a bye.
Certainly, a pay scale which will cut down the outrageous salaries awarded high draft picks makes sense. Players who’ve never played a down should not become instant multi-millionaires. Issues regarding players’ health and safety must be addressed. Furthermore, though not in the bargaining union, owners and players must accept responsibility for retired players who received few benefits many of whom have serious medical issues.
Reports say owners have a nice war chest to endure losing part of next season. Let’s hope that never comes to pass. Get to work and solve the issues. These are great days for the NFL. Greed and shallow mindedness should not be allowed to destroy such a good thing.
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