The oldest National Football League franchise in continuous operation under the same name and in the same location is the Green Bay Packers, founded in 1919 and joining the American Professional Football Association, forerunner to the NFL, in 1921.
Green Bay, Wisconsin is the smallest city to host an NFL team, but Packer fans are among the league’s most loyal. The waiting list for Packer season tickets is the NFL’s longest…..more than 100,000 applicants…..about a 30 year wait. The Packers are the only publicly owned franchise in the NFL, with over 360,000 stockholders, more than three times the population of Green Bay.
So it was an extraordinary occasion when I met this fall, during travels in Wisconsin, a Green Bay Packer backer who has stopped watching NFL games because some of the league’s players refuse to stand during the pre-game playing of the National Anthem. I wondered why it didn’t bother this fan more that many NFL players act like idiots once the game starts.
Their sack dances are childish; their end zone prances are ridiculous. As is strutting and pointing after catching a pass or making a tackle. It is not a compliment to the owners, coaches, athletes or officials that NFL players behave repeatedly in ways that would earn a high school player an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty if it occurred just once.
It’s as if the older the player or the more money he is paid, the less mature he may act.
JER
ALL OVER THE MAP 