Heartbroken in Wisconsin

I am a Green Bay Packers fan. I have been ever since I was old enough to know that a football is shaped funny. I have a cheesehead, Bart Starr and Brett Favre action figures, a Favre jersey (that I don't know what to do with nowadays), a Green Bay model helmet, a Green Bay cushball. I even have a framed field pass from a 1963 game between the Packers and the Vikings. I am a Green Bay Packers fan.

When I saw that the tour was coming to Appleton, Wisconsin I started getting excited. Appleton is less than half-an-hour from Lambeau Field, the home of the Packers. We were coming to Appleton on Monday October 5, the Packers were playing the Vikings on Monday Night Football, and we didn't have a show that night. I am excited.

First problem: they were playing in Minnesota. Okay, I can rent a car. Tickets would be expensive but worth it. Second problem: It's approximately a five-hour drive to Minneapolis. Okay, sometimes you have to sacrifice personal comfort. Third problem: It's also a five-hour drive back to Appleton and we have a 9:30 show the next morning. Now it gets problematic.

So, I give up on actually attending the game but I figure the next best thing would be to go to a sports bar in Appleton to watch the game with home-grown Packer fans. I do so. And the first quarter was fun. Everybody cheers when the Packers do something good and moans when the Vikings do something good. (There was remarkably little resentment of the fact that Favre now plays for the Vikings but I did see one Green Bay jersey with Favre's #4 with the name "Favre" replaced by "Judas".)

But this is where things get ugly. By "things" I mean the way the Packers played. Aaron Rodgers, who I think is a terrific quarterback, got sacked EIGHT times. Favre picked apart the Packer defense like a surgeon carves a turkey. (No metaphor-mixing here. I mean that just the way I wrote it.) The Packers limped to within 7 points until the end when those of us who stayed at the bar til the end of the game were mercifully put out of our misery when the final onside kick failed.

Bottom line is I come all the way practically to the Packers door step and not only don't get to see them play but don't even get to see them win. It hurt.

The Packers have a shot at getting their revenge when the Vikings come to Lambeau to play on November 1. However, we'll be in performance at the Columbia Center for the Performing Arts in Longview, Washington that day.

I'll try to keep up with the score on my laptop in the dressing room. I am a Green Bay Packers fan.