GoPackGo226

This is something I have felt for a while, and the events of this past weekend give me cause to rant on this a bit.  Let me get this started, I understand not all overtime and tiebreaking procedures are perfect.  In the NFL for example, the kicking team isn't even guaranteed a shot with the ball.  In the NHL, penalty shots are an effective way to end a game, but very anticlimactic if you ask me, same in soccer.  Baseball and basketball seem to have their overtime procedures down pat.  Boxing, way back in the day just went on and on until someone hit the canvas, even if they needed 97 rounds to do so, today they go to the cards and I think the controversies with those has effectively killed the sport.  In Golf, there is no universal overtime on the PGA Tour.  Some tournaments have a sudden death in which they go to a predetermined hole and first player with a better score on a hole wins.  The PGA Championship uses a 4 hole playoff format in which each player gets 4 holes and the lowest cumulative score wins.  However today, in the US Open they will play an entire 18 holes.  This very well COULD be over for all intents and purposes 4-5 holes into the match, and it very well could be a barnburner, however this format is very anticlimactic in my opinion.  I believe that whatever format you choose to use, the only prerequisite should be that you should be able to crown the champ on Sunday

I was listening to some sports talk show here in Chicago yesterday.  The host, who is a baseball guy and old enough to remember people like Aaron, Mays, Clemente, Banks and others from that generation claimed that at the beginning of his career that Griffey was bar-none the greatest baseball player he had ever seen, and it got me thinking who would be better from those I have seen play.  I couldn't come up with a name.  Some will point to Griffey's highest HR totals coincide with the height of the steroid era from 1996 to 1999, but if you look at his age, those were and should have been his prime years and I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and partially due to that he is not a jackwad as a person, but also due to serious allegations never surfacing about Griffey in regards to steroids.  Personally I don't think a list of the to 25 players of all time is complete without him on that list and I would like to ask of you what you think of him as a player, as a person, and what he means to the game.

For me, I think it is a damn shame that his legacy will be grouped with McGwire, Bonds, Sosa and Palmeiro.  I think those names diminish the meaning of 600 HRs.  Griffey has earned every right to be alongside Aaron, Ruth and Mays in my estimation, those others have not.  While the vast majority of the population will not be able to separate the two, I would at least hope that lifelong baseball fans would be able to tell and note the difference.

This is the status for injured Packers for OTAs.

Not cleared to participate in OTA's: Justin Harrell, Johnny Jolly, Will Blackmon

Not cleared to participate, but are being evaluated week to week and hope to gain clearance to participate: Daniel Muir, Colin Cole, Abdul Hodge, John Kuhn, Cameron Stephenson and Troy Humphrey.

Will miss first couple OTA's but should participate: Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila

Have full clearance to participate: Noah Herron, DeShawn Wynn, Ryan Powdrell,  Junius Coston and Tyrone Culver.

Everyone else did not have injury concerns and unless is granted permission to not attend from the team and coaching staff, they should be there.

The Packers had their Rookie Camp this weekend.  This is for rookies to get some practice time in front of their new coaches, to get indoctrinated into the Packer Way, and learn about the storied tradition of this franchise.  They will learn about names like Lombardi, Starr, Favre, Hutson, and Lambeau.  They will learn what it means to be a Packer and what a priviledge it is to play for the most storied franchise in the NFL.  Some of the standouts from Packers Rookie camp this past weekend were people like Patrick Lee, Breno Giacomini and obviously Brian Brohm.  Matt Flynn was good as well.  Obvioulsy this is just competition against fellow rookies, so it is really difficult to gain a good assessment until the minicamps or training camp itself.  However, Ted Thompson has struck gold in the past two drafts and his 2005 one wasn't bad either.

Lee is coming in hoping to win the nickle corner job.  Woodson and Harris have a solid stranglehold on the 1 and 2 corners.  Lee, hopefully is the long term replacement for one of them.  He like to play bump and run which fits into the mold of the Packers as Harris and Woodson both like to employ that strategy.  I was excited about this pick on Opening Day and all indications so far are that this was a quality pick at the end of round 2.

Breno Giacomini, was tried at both the left and right tackle positions and looked at home at both spots.  This is valuable because he can come off the bench and play multiple positions, which increases our versatility there and we likely will have to find an extra body to cut somewhere on the field as we will probably field 6WRs vs 5 from last season.  Versatility by the backups on the O-line will quite possibly help make that decision easier.

Both Brian Brohm and Matt Flynn got their first taste of the Packer playbook and looked to have no real problems picking it up.  They will both take their playbooks home and further study it and get even more familiar before June minicamp.