Green Bay Packers, ERs and NFL Blackout/Obamacare mandates

Green Bay Packers, ERs and NFL Blackout/Obamacare mandates

Will Roger Goodell be dressed in George Constanza-Gortex, squeezed into a nose-bleed seat above Lambeau’s frozen tundra tonight making sure the lucky ones not among the 72,928 don’t have to endure politically correct sitcoms while the rest of America enjoys the last NFL wild card game from the comfort of their heated living rooms? Didn’t think so.

We just hope that no blackout-preventer gets frostbite thinking they signed up for the mandatory Obamacare on Healthcare.gov and gets denied coverage for an emergency room visit during or after the game.

But with fond memories of the greatest Atlanta Falcons playoff victory of all-time, when Michael Vick out-dueled Brett Farve 27-7 while snow fell in Green Bay, Wisconsin; and some native-Badger-state-musings on what (we hope) turns out to be a  Packers victory over the San Francisco 49ers tomorrow evening, From the Land of Beer, Cheese, & Beer, followed by video:

So the Packers finally sold out their Lambeau Field game for Wild Card Weekend.

Thank God. I am so tired of hearing media say “What?! Packers fans aren’t selling out Lambeau? And here we thought Green Bay Packers fans the best fans in the league!!” Reference this comment from the Business Insider’s Jay Yarow: The Green Bay Packers are struggling to sell out their playoff game. As are the Bengals and Colts. The only team that didn’t have this problem? The Eagles. Philadelphia fans are the best sports fans in the country. They actually go and support the team. So, next time you hear some crap about them being jerks, or bad fans, remember the good people of Green Bay don’t even want to watch their team.

Screw you, media, and you in particular, Jay Yarow.

We’re fans, but we’re not dumbasses. And, Roger Goodell and the NFL, I’m not so sure I can’t say the same to you and your strong-arming tactics.

As I write this post I am in a perfect position to attend the game on Sunday. I live in Milwaukee, but I’m “up north” for the weekend and have to drive through Green Bay on Sunday. My mom lives one mile from Lambeau and would welcome me before and after the game, but let’s break things down here:

  1. A playoff game is not an inexpensive proposition. I logged into Ticketmaster to look at the price of a pair of tickets, I was at $231 and change before Ticketmaster added their fees. And if you’ve ever purchased a ticket through Ticketmaster, you know these fees are not insignificant.
  2. Sunday night. Look, NFL, you like to market how Green Bay is the “smallest market in the NFL.” We know what you’re selling … and we like it. But don’t kid yourself, this is just as much Appleton’s, Madison’s, Wausau’s, and, most importantly, metropolitan Milwaukee’s team. Short notice arrangement of travel plans for fans in these cities is just not possible. Maybe it would be if we were granted a Saturday game or the Sunday early game, but we’ve got the last game of the weekend. Not exactly the easiest game for us to make arrangements to attend yet still get home at an hour reasonable for work on Monday morning.
  3. It’s gonna be cold … REALLY COLD. Again, NFL, I love the whole “Frozen Tundra” marketing scheme, but the forecast cold is serious business (schools are already cancelled throughout the state on Monday morning). I’ve gone to games down to zero degrees, but a high of zero frankly frightens me. I just don’t have clothing that will allow me to sit in a stadium at 10 below for three and a half hours. I recall going to games at Lambeau as a youth. I had chopper mitts, ski mask, snowmobile boots and snowmobile suit … I could handle temps down to zero for an hour or so, but sub-zero temps? No. I don’t have the gear and it would cost me just as much as a pair of tickets to procure these duds.
  4. Are you sure you needed to sell 72,928 seats?! A quick Google search tells me that that is Lambeau’s capacity. I bet that’s the capacity for those sporting t-shirts and shorts in early September, not those garbed like Nanook of the North for a January 5th playoff game. Those that attend are going to be wrapped thickly in wool, cotton and blaze orange. It will have an affect on the seating capacity of a row. I don’t know what the total number would be, but at least one seat should be eliminated per section/row to allow for bundled Packers patrons. That’s likely to shave a thousand or more off the seating capacity right there. (Didn’t think of that, did you? Trust me, it’s real … it’s going to require more than those 16″ per butt that you normally allow.)

See more here and

Tough peeps here (who knew cheese had such a warming effect on heads?)…

Mike DeVine

“One man with courage makes a majority.” – Andrew Jackson

Mike DeVine

Mike DeVine

Mike DeVine is a former op-ed columnist at the Charlotte Observer and legal editor of The (Decatur) Champion (legal organ of DeKalb County, Georgia). He is currently with the Ruf Law Firm in Atlanta Metro and conservative voice of the Atlanta Times News.

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