2011… Gone too soon
Friday 27th January 2012
at 01:32pm
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So I heard a story about James Jones. At least I believe it was James Jones; I must say at the time, I was too shell-shocked to pay all of the attention that I should have been. Anyway, it was about his parents wanting to come to Lambeau Field to watch him play and them deciding that the divisional playoff game was a good time to do it. In his wisdom, James told them to stay at home and enjoy the game in the comfort of their living room, then, once they were past the Giants and Green Bay was preparing to host the NFC Championship game, he would arrange all that was needed for them to visit and watch them win their way into the Super Bowl.
Of course, as “I’m Rachel Nichols, (insert head nod) ESPN” reported, that trip to Lambeau never happened.
(Fan photo credit: Todd Rosenberg/NFL. Reason for choosing a fan photo? I couldn’t bring myself to relive the loss of posting a player pic.)
On a much smaller scale, that’s how my divisional game panned out too. Kick off was 830am Monday here and I had a meeting between 9 and 11. I had the opportunity to take the day off and watch it, but I’d already made plans to take the following Monday off so I could watch the Championship game instead. From there, our trip to Indy was planned, so too another two weeks off work and we were set. No need to watch a game that we were going to win without fail. Right?
Though I had limited time to follow the game whilst I was busy, we did take a quick break not long before 1030 and, with a quick glance at my phone, my stomach sank. We were losing. Not running up the score the way that I thought we would be.
Just after 11 we finished our meeting and, as is usually the case on Monday mornings such as these, we all went downstairs for a coffee before we jumped back into our day. On this Monday though I diverted to the training room, found the first television I could, flicked it to channel OneHD and watched the last 4 minutes in absolute disbelief.
Honestly, it was absolute disbelief.
Throughout those last few minutes I saw all of the highlights that I needed to. Or, low-lights as is the case when you’re watching through green and gold coloured glasses. The miscues, dropped passes and wrong routes were horrendous. And the defense, well........... I was mortified. We were the best team in the league, our quarterback was the best in the league this year and we went 15 and 1 through the regular season. But all of that meant nothing as we left our worst performance of the year till the game where it counted more than any.
It took me a few days to finally come to terms with the fact that we were no longer in the hunt to repeat. Which sounds funny ‘cause I think, for most people at least, there never was an actual “hunt”. We were going to repeat, it was as simple that.
Even Kelly and the boys were shattered. We’d made plans to visit Lego land in LA on our arrival in the US. We were heading to Virgina to see our dear friends who moved their not long ago from Green Bay, and then we were heading to Green Bay for a week, via Indy for the game of course. Seeing our friends, the snow and traveling again the way that we did in 2007 was such an exciting prospect for us all. It’s a shame that our 2007 memories were shot, the same way they were shot all those years ago. By the same team no less, at the same venue, under much the same expectations.
It’s funny how so many people had so many different things riding on this single game of football. Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with people making their plans for the big game too. Until after the game of course, where commiserations for the game were in play more so than phone calls to the local travel agent or ticket broker.
As I look back after a week or so I can say that in the scheme of things, research has shown me that it’s tough to win the Super Bowl, let alone back to back. And I did researched it, if only for them purpose of making myself feel a little better. High expectations are tough to deal with too. Of course, the higher they are, the harder they fall.
As i think about what might have been though, I remind myself of what has already happened. Last year, as a football fan at least, was easily the best year of my life. The last five years in fact, with everything that we have done, has more been than any single person could wish for.
In hindsight, despite the shock, or absolute disbelief as I put it, I know that I have very little to be upset about. And for everything that I do have, I am grateful.
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