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The sound isn’t going anywhere

Packers Everywhere pep rally (Chicago)

Packers fans 21 years and older are invited to bring the spirit of Green Bay to Chicago a day early with a free Packers Everywhere Pep Rally. Packers President/CEO Mark Murphy will take part in the pre gameday excitement by greeting fans and participating in a Q and A custom mlb jerseys session with Wayne Larrivee, the radio voice of the Packers. Packers alumni Mark Chmura and Don Beebe will also be at the rally to socialize with fans, sign autographs and discuss their thoughts on the next day’s game against the Bears. Vic will resume writing his daily column on Monday, July 9.

Logan from De Pere, WI

Could everybody please calm down? I am 15! I can take a bit of sarcasm! Anyway, Mike, I am not a defensive lineman so don’t worry. I am just a small cross country runner.

Nothing “small” about being a cross country runner if you’re out training in this heat wave. I’m going to try to brave the heat and walk the new Packers Heritage Trail today for a story I told Vic I’d do while he was gone. I’m going to load up my cargo shorts with as many bottles of water that will fit, and I’ll just be strolling.

Steve from Ramsgate, England

Hi Mike. How is the stadium expansion going? Does it make Lambeau look even more intimidating? I hope it will trap the noise in and create havoc for opposing offenses.

Every time I walk into the stadium bowl and look toward the south end nfl jersey size chart zone, I’m blown away by the size and scope of the addition. When there was first talk of a “wall of sound,” I didn’t quite get it in regards to an outdoor stadium. I get it now. That sound isn’t going anywhere. The new video boards are no less impressive, too. You can see both of them,discount nhl jerseys, especially the one towering above the south joakim noah nba jerseys jersey end zone, from a long ways away, including from the highway I take across the river to come to work every day. I just hope once the season starts that drivers don’t start causing a bunch of accidents because they’re trying to watch the game on the big screens. I say that only half tongue in cheek.

Rob from Tampa, FL

Just to piggyback on the Barry Sanders ‘97 discussion and how it compares to other backs’ great seasons, in the first two games of 1997 Sanders had only mustered 53 yards. That means he had a 2,000 yard season (exactly) in only 14 games. To me that is the clincher.

I had forgotten that about Sanders’ 1997 season, but as soon as I read your note it rang a bell. Yeah, that’s probably the clincher.

Mark from Reno, NV

Mike,nfl throwback jerseys 131, I sent this question to Vic but never saw anything on it. I thought it was solid so I thought I would try again. How does Belichick win NFL “Coach of the Year” the same year Green Bay won the Super Bowl, but last year Harbaugh wins that award the same year Coach McCarthy takes the Packers to a 15 1 regular season? Regardless of how poorly our defense played last year,nhl hockey jerseys 678, a 15 1 record following a Super Bowl win and he gets snubbed both years? I don’t get it. I know Harbaugh took the same roster from the previous year to the NFC Championship game, but the postseason is not considered for the COY award. I am not understanding something.

Don’t lose any sleep over this. The postseason doesn’t count in COY voting (that’s a debate for another day), and it wasn’t considered for Harbaugh. Voters thought that McCarthy leading a Super Bowl champion to 15 1 was not as impressive as Harbaugh taking a 6 10 team to 13 3 and a division title as a first year head coach who had no offseason with his players to implement his systems because of kobe bryant jersey the lockout. With all due respect to kevin love jersey Coach McCarthy who I believe performed a coaching job for the ages in 2010 when the regular season and postseason are looked at in total had I been forced to cast a single unbiased vote in 2011, mine would have gone to Harbaugh,discount nhl jerseys, too.

Shilo from Fallbrook, CA

Hey Mike, I have a spot for Favre in your Mount Rushmore analogy. I still remember Mount Crazy Horse from my trip to South Dakota in 1988. It was bigger than Rushmore, and it stood on its own. I think it fits what you were looking for with Favre, and I sincerely mean only the most complimentary interpretation of Mount Crazy Horse in regards to Favre.

I’ll buy that. I don’t know if I’d consider Favre “bigger” than those on Mount Rushmore, but you grasp cheap authentic nfl jerseys the concept I was driving at. Back in those first couple of years, Mike Holmgren probably called him something like “Crazy Horse” a few times.

Mike from Littleton, CO

How much better would a practice squad player like Tori Gurley or one of the others have to be in order to replace a proven vet like Donald Driver?

We’ll find out, won’t we? But I honestly don’t think Driver is competing for his roster spot this summer. That’s just my opinion. If you look karl malone jersey at GM Ted Thompson’s history with proven veterans like Driver, he has often released them in the offseason if they’re not in the team’s plans so they have time to latch onto another team if there’s interest out there. He does that rather than wait until the end of training camp, when it’s harder for a long time veteran to find a job with another team. So, reworking Driver’s contract and having him finish OTAs and minicamp here after his dancing triumph tells me that, barring injury, Driver will be on the 53 man roster. Again, that’s just my opinion.

Justin from cheap nfl jerseys china Grand Rapids, MI

Randall Cobb no doubt has the makings to be a big threat in Green Bay for many years. Do you see him developing into more of a Jennings 2.0 or Driver 2.0?

I agree Cobb could really be something special, but I want to see the full description of Cobb 1.0 first. We haven’t yet.

Chris from Wausau, WI

Mike, you mentioned players being “exposed to waivers” in one of your responses concerning keeping 11 WR/TE. What does that mean really? I’m a bit confused about the difference between a player being cut vs. waived and how waivers work.

The only difference is how many years of service the released player has accrued. Any player with less than four years of service is subject to the waiver wire when released, and during the season, teams have 24 hours to make a claim on an available player (the time period is longer in the offseason). Waiver claims, which require the new team to assume the terms of the player’s current contract, are awarded based on the standings from the previous season, so the team with the worst record the prior year gets priority on waiver claims. About a month into the season, I believe, the waiver priority order is re set to reflect the current year’s standings. If no one makes a claim,discount nhl jerseys, the player’s contract is terminated and he is a free agent. Any player who has accrued four years of service or more the amount needed to qualify for unrestricted free agency is not subject to waivers and can sign with any team upon being released. The only exception is if this player is released during the season and after the trading deadline. Then kyrie irving jersey he, too, is subject to waivers for 24 hours. I know that’s a lot to digest, but I hope it helps.

Shane from Brodhead, WI

Now will the Packers celebrate the 100th twice? When the team was formed and when it joined the NFL because they are two years apart?

Leafs could blow it all up following latest collapse

Collapse: The Movie has been created by the Maple Leafs over the final half of March, a full length feature film that would have even the most ardent Leaf anthony davis jersey fan believing this club is either cursed or eternally inept in a way only a Chicago Cub fan would understand.

Eight consecutive defeats in regulation, including a clumsy 4 2 loss to short handed Detroit on Saturday night, have destroyed an otherwise promising season in exactly the same way last spring historic third period collapse against the Boston Bruins turned the Leafs from plucky, never say die underdogs with a promising future into predictable screw ups one more time.

Instead, it now appears they had an even more spectacular pratfall in mind; the franchise worst losing streak in almost 30 years at the most critical juncture of the 2013 14 NHL season.

Earlier this month,russell westbrook jersey 226, when the Leafs won two of three in California in very tough circumstances,nfl throwback jerseys 694,nba christmas jerseys, they looked to be a safe playoff bet. Last Sunday, when they lost their fifth straight in New Jersey, it was at least possible to nfl jerseys speculate that simply missing a playoff spot might not produce massive change in the Leaf organization.

Team president Tim Leiweke,nba christmas jerseys, having seen positive change with Toronto FC and the Raptors in a short period of time, is unlikely to look at the smoking crater created by this eight game Leaf collapse and suggest slow and steady is the correct approach.

That said, what other options custom mlb jerseys does Leiweke actually have?

Really, the most radical course of action the Leafs could take now would be to decide their core Dion Phaneuf, Phil Kessel, Joffrey Lupul, James nba christmas jerseys van Riemsdyk, Jonathan Bernier isn good enough and isn going to be, and strip this thing down to the wood.

Which would guarantee at least another five years of Oiler like losing.

Hard to see anyone would advocate that.

The worst scenario would be for the Leafs to do what they almost always do abandon young players not yet fully formed for short term band aid solutions deron williams jersey they live to regret.

Really, you can change some of the faces, but the process if the Leafs are ever to become a quality team remains the same. This is the challenge of building a winning team in the salary cap era when you can simply spend your way out of trouble.

Teams well, most of them have to be incredibly patient and endure terrible growing pains, very difficult in a city like Toronto where the scrutiny is so intense, the last Cup was won in 1967 and where few seem to look around and understand how long it takes the build a winner.

These folks see the St. Louis Blues as the powerhouse they are now without any understanding of the awful disappointments and painful setbacks endured before they reached their current lofty status.

On Saturday night,nba christmas jerseys, the Leafs appeared to be in a relatively stable position to end their losing streak against the Red Wings early in the second period, owning a 1 0 lead on a goal by Cody Franson with a chance to possibly pad that lead with a power play opportunity.

Instead, wholesale nfl jerseys Kessel made an impossible to handle pass in the direction of Jake Gardiner high in the Detroit zone, and the puck squirted out to centre ice. Detroit centre Darren Helm, one of the fastest skaters in nfl throwback jerseys nfl jersey size chart the nhl jersey history league, easily created some separation and sped off on a breakaway. Bernier made the save, but after Gardiner recovered mlb custom jerseys the puck, Helm poked it off his stick to teammate Joakim Andersson, who gave it back to Helm for an easy goal.

Then the roof fell in again and soon it was 3 1 for the visitors.

A terrific effort by Morgan Rielly late in the second teased Leaf Nation a little more. Dragged down to the ice, Rielly swiped the puck towards Lupul at the front of the net, and Lupul deposited the puck behind Jimmy Howard to make things interesting heading into the third.

But Helm got another breakaway in the third and drained that as the Leafs once more unloaded their six shooters into their own feet.

Now only six games remain, and getting some noteworthy measure of success out of those games is probably the only way Carlyle can save his job.

The success of MLSE basketball wing in a season in which it was initially thought to be headed for a last place finish just makes it worse for the Leafs, both internally and for those who watch this hockey club find new ways to fail year after year.