Surviving Sunday: Packers News, Notes and Links for the Football Deprived

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Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football
Surviving Sundays with no Packers Football

The Packers 2014 schedule was released on Wednesday and it contains five night games. If the Packers have another successful season, odds are another night game or two could happen due to flex scheduling.

Night games are a good thing in my situation. My son is going to turn 1 year old in early October, so I’ll have to watch Packers games with one eye while making sure my boy isn’t putting his fingers in a light socket or trying to open the front door and run out into the middle of an intersection.

Night games mean my son should be sleeping before kickoff. So that gives me five games where I shouldn’t have to worry about him tumbling down the stairs or eating the dog’s food while I yell at my TV about Mike McCarthy calling a John Kuhn fullback dive on an important 4th and 1.

Five night games also might not be a bad thing for the Packers. After the Thursday night season opener, Green Bay gets a 10-day mini bye to savor a victory over the defending Super Bowl champs. Then again, if the Packers lose, it means a week-and-a-half of doom and gloom from the more worrisome sector of the fanbase.

The schedule is fun to talk about now for a couple of reasons: 1) There’s literally nothing else in the NFL world to talk about; and 2) we can begin making plans around Packers games. Throwback Weekend is set for Oct. 18-19 when the Packers play Carolina. Speculation has started about when and if the Packers might retire Brett Favre’s number (Thursday night against the Vikings? Sunday night against the Bears?). Now is the time to try and wriggle out of boring weekend family functions that might interfere with watching the Packers.

But ultimately, while schedule-talk is a fun time filler as we go nuts waiting for the NFL draft that seems like it will never get here, it’s meaningless. We already knew the Packers’ opponents. Does it matter all that much when they play them? It does for our personal plans, but that’s about it.

I can remember talking last April and May (and June, and July and August) about how difficult the Packers 2013 schedule was. You had Washington and RGIII in week two, at the defending Super Bowl champion Ravens in week five, at the always-tough-to-beat Giants in week 10, the perennial contending Falcons in week 13 and the Steelers in week 16.

None of these teams ended up being very good (and neither did the NFC North) and the Packers schedule wasn’t as difficult as many of us feared.

We’ll see what this year brings, and if I can manage to watch the games without my son sneaking away with my iPhone and throwing it in the toilet. Meantime, if my boy decides he wants to stick his finger into a light socket tomorrow, I might join him and see if it helps the draft get here any faster.

Packers news, notes and links

  • For more on the Packers schedule, check out this post from our friends at Acme Packing Company. While you’re there, be sure to click around and check out Acme’s draft coverage. It covers all of the angles that need covering from this Packers fan’s perspective.
  • Every draft season we feature some looks at some not-so-obvious prospects for the Packers. Here is a post on some under-the-radar defensive line prospects.
  • Make sure you’re following Jersey Al’s NFL mock draft picks for the Packers at Drafttek.com.
  • The ‘Ol Bag of Donuts podcast is back! No Huddle Radio and From the Benches also cranked out quality Packers podcasts this week.
  • Remember how I said worrying about the schedule in April doesn’t make any sense? I still believe that, but it doesn’t mean we can’t have fun and make way-too-early predictions about the Packers record like John Rehor does here.
  • Colleen takes down “Al Davis” in this post at Pocket Doppler.
  • Many people think Ohio St. LB Ryan Shazier could end up being drafted by the Packers. LombardiAve.com has a Shazier profile that is worth your time.
  • Why stop at four days? I think the NFL draft should run throughout the entire season. Every night at 8 p.m., a new team makes a selection.

Non-Packers Links and Other Nonsense

I’ve been complaining for the last month about the NFL draft getting pushed back to May and how this is one of the more boring Packers offseasons in recent memory.

Thankfully, Out of the Park Baseball 15 (OOTP) was released on Monday. For those of you unfamiliar with OOTP, it’s the best video game you will ever play. Seriously, it’s that good. I could go into a long description of what the game is, but that’s all you really need to know — it’s the best video game you will ever play.

Go check out the website if you want more details. You’ll find out that it’s a baseball management sim, that you use your brain instead of your thumbs to play it, and that it’s amazing.

With annual sports game releases on the big consoles, you often get the same old game every year with updated rosters and maybe a few minor tweaks here and there to fill up the description space on the back of the box. Not with OOTP.

Every year the developers of OOTP make legitimate improvements to the previous version, and OOTP 15 is no exception. The level of immersion in OOTP was already amazing (sometimes even overwhelming). This year the immersion level is dialed up another notch with seven international leagues featuring real rosters, the ability to retire numbers of your franchise greats, more league options and an improved computer manager.

And the best part of OOTP? The entire game is customizable. You can play it however you want.

Want to create a league filled with teams that only play in Wisconsin cities? You can do it. Want to take over in 1901 and play out the entire history of baseball to see how your league ends up compared to real life? It’s easy. Want to make yourself general manager of the Brewers and see if you can win a couple of World Series rings? You can replace Doug Melvin with yourself in just a couple of mouse clicks.

OOTP 15 also adds 3D ballparks and a revamped interface that makes navigating this monstrosity of a game simple.

I could go on and on about the hours of enjoyment I get out playing OOTP every year. I could even bore you with the details of my current franchise, where after seven years of play my Minnesota Twins have yet to make the world series. But I won’t.

Instead of reading this, take what precious time you have and spend it playing OOTP 15. Believe me, it’s worth your time and $39.99. I would’t be writing about it on a blog about Packers football if it wasn’t.

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Adam Czech is a a freelance sports reporter living in the Twin Cities and a proud supporter of American corn farmers. When not working, Adam is usually writing about, thinking about or worrying about the Packers. Follow Adam on Twitter. Twitter .

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25 thoughts on “Surviving Sunday: Packers News, Notes and Links for the Football Deprived

  1. This just in…..Ted Thompson still sucks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that

    1. Wow, that’s such an articulate and thought-provoking opinion. How long did you contemplate that batch of wisdom?….

      1. Just a second or two…..about the same time it took you to look up articulate. Fancy word for a sheep following the herd.

    2. Jealous much? Speilman can’t carry Thompson’s jock as a GM! When was the last time the ViQueens won w/o a Packers castoff?

        1. Spielmans wears/uses tampons. He should be a GM in the WFL (Women’s Football League). Probably couldn’t win there either tho.

          Go back to your ViQueens blog Troll!

          1. Oooh…..that’s a good one! Just because Ted doesn’t date anyone who would need a tampon doesn’t make him a bad GM

            1. Thompson is an excellent GM! Spielman can’t find a QB to compliment AP. Now AP is almost 30 yrs old, maybe one good year left. Wasted a Great RB career in Minn, by NEVER finding a competent QB. Ponder? Are you F’in kidding? Trade a high pick to get Freeman and gave him a ridiculous contract. Cassell is a joke.

              Your ViQueens can’t win squat. Take Packer rejects to try to win. Go away Troll.

              1. •Named NFL Executive of the Year in 2008 and 2011 by Sporting News in a vote of his peers.

                I would say that speaks to his excellence!

  2. If your boy put your iPhone in the toilet you might end up with an otherwise very peaceful afternoon!

  3. Doesn’t matter day or night they are still looking at a 500 season if they don’t find a defense. So are I see the same lame personal on defense with the addition of one Chicago reject. Same coaches, same non covering safety’s, same linebackers like hawk tackling from behind. Same terrible play calling and same has been defensive coaches. If this team is going to beat anyone besides the poor central division opponents they are going to have to shake up the so called defense starting with the coaching staff.

  4. Thompson an excellent GM? No, you must be f*cking kidding. Your boys finish last in the North without Rodgers…that was proven last year. By the way, no fan of Spielmab when it comes to qb’s. Ponder a joke! However, if he gets his head out of his ass and actually finds someone that doesn’t totally suck, the rest of the team is better than the Pack. And it’s all on Teddy. They sucked for 8 weeks and he does zip. You will learn the hard way. They better average 35 with that D! Hawk and Jones and Raji….yeah he’s an excellent GM all right.

    1. When Flynn came in for the last 1 and 1/2 qtr against your viqueens he won enough to comeback from a 16 pt deficit. I guess he’s good enough to beat the viqueens! Even Flynn is a better QB than the shitstorm you have for a QB situation!

    2. Nice trolling. Getting every one fired up.
      The Vikings are a one trick pony right now, but unlike the Packers, the Vikings arent winning even when their best player is on the field.

      You should get a Packers cap. You are already hanging out on the site, and it feels awesome to cheer on a winning team.

    1. Named NFL Executive of the Year in 2008 and 2011 by Sporting News in a vote of his peers. GM of the ’10 SB Champs!

      What’s spielman ever done?

  5. Bob Dylan – Aside from the excellent points made by Stroh, TT’s team has the best record in the NFL since 2009. How does that make him a bad GM? Also, since 2010 other NFL teams have been hiring away the members of his staff, every year. That is another sign and a compliment to him for the staff that he has put together over the years. AS for Spielman and the Vikings I’m not sure why they come up, they haven’t been in the league for years. Are we expecting them to return anytime soon? However, we appreciate that they scrimmage with us 2X a year, the practice gets us ready for our NFL schedule. Go Pack Go! Thanks, Since ’61

  6. Simple answer to how the winning record was achieved. In spite of doing virtually nothing of note with high draft picks and literally nothing in free agency, the Pack has the highway rated qb in NFL history. When that HOF er is removed from the equation, as he was last year, TT’s deficiencies are exposed. Can’t say your team is championship caliber if one player goes down and all of a sudden, hello you’re 3-13. That’s being optimistic by the way!

    1. And who was it that drafted that highest rated QB in NFL history? And I might add when he didn’t have a need to do so!

      Yeah, that’s right Ted Thompson! He took Rodgers even tho he had a HOF QB still playing at a very high level.

      Meanwhile your viqueens passed on that HIGHEST rated QB 2x, yeah TWICE, so that could reach for Troy Williamson and Erasmus James! LMFAO

      Some GM’s get it (Thompson) and some don’t get it (any Viqueens GM)!

      Put that in you pipe and smoke it!

  7. There u go with the queen thing again. Going to make Ted very self conscious. By the way, ever hear the blind squirrel theory? You can count his hits on one hand. Rodgers and Mathews and a few ok guys over the course of how many drafts, high draft picks and FA opportunities? Your girlfriend’s about to have the world and the rest of the division pass his stagnant ass by.

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