Green Bay: Welcome to Philly!

In a recent Sports Illustrated poll, 277 NFL players ranked Philly fans the fourth most knowledgeable in the league — and ranked Green Bay fans first. It seems only fair to point out that Green Bay has exactly ONE freaking major league sport to concentrate on, as compared to our four, and also is the smallest market in the NFL (“by far,” Wikipedia adds, a little snootily). It also seems only fair to point out that our team is named after a majestic raptor, the king of the skies, and their team is named after a highly unpleasant blue-collar job memorialized by the utterly unreadable Upton Sinclair. Speaking of names, “Green Bay” is sort of a misnomer; when a trading post was established where the current city stands in 1634, the original French settlers called it “La Baie des Puants,” which means “The Bay That Stinks.” (We’re just translating here, though “Poo-ahnts! Poo-ahnts!” would make a lovely catcall for Sunday’s big game.)

There’s a branch of the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay, and it has 16 Division 1 varsity men’s and women’s teams. It doesn’t, however, have a football team, thanks to legendary former Packers coach Vince Lombardi, who advised the school against hosting one so residents wouldn’t get confused and could instead focus on accumulating ever more knowledge about their NFL team, in order to show us up.

Well, here are two bits of knowledge that Packers fans might want to remember on Sunday: 1) 4th and 26. And 2) “Bang the Drum All Day,” the song you play at Lambeau Field whenever you score a touchdown, is by Philly’s own Todd Rundgren. We look forward to not hearing it once this game.