The Green Bay Packers will play the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving, and the marketing possibilities are unlimited.
For example, the Packers could take a page from the White House book of photo ops, where on every Thanksgiving one random turkey is “pardoned” by the chief executive and allowed to go free and live out the rest of his natural turkey life.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers could, in that same spirit of the holiday, “pardon” a defensive back and not throw in his direction all game. It could mean the Packers leading by only three touchdowns at half instead of four or five, but the mercy angle would play big, with the holiday and all. Icing on the cake for one of their two guaranteed victories every year.
Thanksgiving got a little more eventful for Packers fans with the announcement of the Nov. 26 game, which will be played at Lambeau Field. A win over Chicago is always well met, maybe even a little more so on a holiday, and a win is a lock because for at least the last 20 years the Bears have shown an uncanny knack for losing to the Packers. From the time Brett Favre became a starter and throughout the current reign of Aaron Rodgers, the Packers have owned the Bears.
Athletes and coaches today are media-savvy enough to stick to cliche replies, and avoid remarks that could generate controversy or provide motivation for an opponent. You will never hear any of the Packers players or coaching staff say on the record that they’re going to beat the Bears twice, for obvious reasons, even if they know it’s true.
You rarely hear a pro athlete or coach talk of winning the next two or three, either, because that violates one of the guidelines of sportspeak. That’s not taking them one at a time. Not taking them one at a time suggests less than total focus on the upcoming game, a failure in preparation.
You might hear it occasionally when it’s a series, as with Jason Kidd’s remark after the Milwaukee Bucks’ second straight loss in their best-of-seven series with the Chicago Bulls.
Kidd said, correctly, that the Bucks needed to “hold serve” to keep alive their chances of winning the series. He meant that the Bucks would have to win their next two games at home — to hold serve, as it were, winning the games they’re supposed to — lest they go the way that teams falling behind in short series have gone. No team has ever won an NBA playoff series after trailing three games to none, and fewer than one out of five has ever come back from a 3-1 deficit to win.
He could have stressed the importance of a Game 3 win, but he kept it simple and spoke plain truth. They need to win both games at home to have a shot at overcoming the Bulls. In a playoff series, there is no looking past a team to the next opponent, because the next opponent is the same team.
There is another compelling reason to enjoy the NFL draft next weekend and anticipate the upcoming football season: The Milwaukee Brewers are already out of the race in the National League Central Division.
Not mathematically out of it. One hundred forty-seven games is plenty to erase an eight-game deficit. They are historically out of it. No team has ever recovered from a 2-13 start to make the playoffs.
Maybe the Brewers will be the first. Maybe you can’t count them out yet. Never say never, because you never know.
Most often, though, you have a pretty good idea.
Categories
