Unless they are playing the Bears. 40 years of watching the Packers has created respect and affection for them, not the hate most have around here. The NFC title game (which I witnessed in person, as I have so many Bears/Packers games) did hurt.
Still, the national Packers love is way over the top. Yesterday they were talking 16-0!!! The media develops these narratives and then runs them into the ground, and the Packers narrative is that they won despite all those injuries, so they are now SOOOOOO much better with all those guys back. It sounds sensible enough, the Packers are arguably the best team in football, but they also had a hell of a time winning close games for most of last season, and do not seem to do so well against tough defenses (probably symptoms of the same thing), with and without all the injured players. And then there is this difficulty staying hungry after winning the Super Bowl. It all adds up to some real challenges, even though the talent is impressive.
Not saying the Packers are not great, do not have as much chance of winning it all as anyone, or that they are not a gas to watch. Just that it is way too early to anoint them champions, as the national media seems to want to do. And while they are clearly the best team in the NFC Central, all three other teams have defenses that can and will take special pleasure in kicking the crap out of them 6 times this year. The Packers may win all 6 games, but there will be real pain involved.
Go Bears, go Packers and go Lions (even I cannot root for the Vikings). Count me among those who expect Cutler to have a great year, too. Not getting much respect, but it would not surprise me if the NFC Central is among the best divisions in the league since they play the AFC West, which is the worst, and the NFC South, which is a very favorable match up - soft defense, warm weather teams have not fared well against the division.
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