Man. Being a die-hard fan is tough. All of us Yankees fans can attest to that. But boy did my Packers (and I can say MY Packers since I’m a shareholder) build me up last Saturday night to break me down just minutes later!
Aaron Rodgers had another unbelievable Hail Mary completion to tie the game as time expired to little known, but athletic as hell, Jeff Janis to cause us Pack fans to jump and scream with excitement. But just minutes later a terrible blown coverage by the Packers defense as overtime began caused us to be brought back down to reality. The reality being, the season is now over.
I grew up a huge Yankees fan and a huge Packers fan thanks to the influence of my Dad. Both these two organizations have won Championships during my lifetime which not all fans can say. The Yankees won the World Series in 1996 and the Packers won the Super Bowl in February, just three short months later. That was about as good as it gets for me!
While the organizations couldn’t be farther apart in some aspects, Green Bay being the smallest market, while New York is one of the largest, this year they had some similarities.
Both teams battled injuries, with the Yankees having countless guys spend time on the DL and the Packers having several guys on IR, including star wide out Jordy Nelson, and actually finished their Divisional Round loss with the what was essentially their fifth, sixth and seventh receivers the only healthy bodies. The Yankees saw Greg Bird step up down the stretch and the Packers saw Jeff Janis, as mentioned above, step up in the loss to the Cardinals.
Both teams got hot early in the year with the Yankees in first place in July and the Packers starting their season 6-0, then both teams cooled off big time, although both were able to clinch one of the two Wild Card births in their respective conferences.
While rooting for teams that have been successful over the past 20 years, as both these two clubs have, they can also cause me to lose hair, and that is one thing I can absolutely not afford to lose. My upper forehead seems to be growing by the day!
I will always Bleed Yankee Blue, and will bleed Green and Gold ‘til I’m dead and cold. I will always root for my teams, whether they’re good or not. I will attempt again, IF we ever have any more children, to convince my wife to let me name the kid after a Packers or Yankees player. I tried for Erin for our daughter, after Aaron Rodgers, but lost that battle before it even began.
So with the Packers building me up then tearing me down on last Saturday, it’s now time to mentally prepare for another season of Yankees baseball. Pitchers and Catchers report just one month from Monday on February 18th!
For the last time this season, I’ll give the Packer faithful a Go Pack Go and for the first time I’ll give the Yankees faithful a Go Yanks!
To baseball season we go!
--Dan Lucia
BYB Senior Writer
Twitter: @DManLucia
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