My husband, a native Wisconsinite, and yours truly, a Packer fan for sixteen years, are geared up and ready to hit our nearby Packer bar along with several hundred of our fellow fans in support of the Green and Gold.
Being a Packer fan in Seattle is odd, and downright unpleasant when the two teams meet. Last season, we spent a big chunk of change to see the Pack play the Hawks here in Seattle, only to find that Hawks fans were a bunch of misogynistic jerks (at least the ones in my section were). But we had our revenge: we left with 7:00 left in the fourth and it took us twenty minutes to get home. The poor dumb Hawks fans who stayed ended up stuck for hours in one of our weenie but famous Seattle snowstorms. HA HA HA!
I love Wisconsin. The first time I was there, I felt like I'd gone home. Madison is a liberal's paradise, and the landscape is beautiful and endless. The state has so much going for it: cheese, beer, the Packers, Door County, Russ Feingold...I mean, the list is damned near endless. I love Seattle, too, but there's just something special about the Dairy State.
The Packers are symbolic (at least in MY mind) of liberalism at its best. The team is NOT owned by some rich megalomanic or a consortium of several of them, but instead by the fans.
Today the Packers are currently the only non-profit, community owned major league professional sports team in the United States.
They also do a kick ass business selling Packer gear and accessories. In fact, the pro shop at Lambeau sells more stuff than the Yankees do all over the country (that factoid I learned on the Lambeau Field tour).
Oh, and then there's THIS:
Based on the original "Articles of Incorporation for the (then) Green Bay Football Corporation" put into place in 1923, if the Packers franchise was sold, after the payment of all expenses, any remaining money would go to the Sullivan Post of the American Legion in order to build "a proper soldier's memorial." This stipulation was enacted to ensure the club remained in Green Bay and that there could never be any financial enhancement for the shareholders. At the November 1997 annual meeting, shareholders voted to change the beneficiary from the Sullivan-Wallen Post to the Green Bay Packers Foundation, which makes donations to many charities and institutions throughout Wisconsin.
So if you're watching the game today on Fox (eeeuuuwww....I threw up in my mouth a little) and they show a bunch of whacked out Cheeseheads partying in Seattle, look for the lady with the cheesehead and Packer tattoos on her face. Auntie will be thinking of you, too.