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  With collection boxes and trash bags strewn about as the Packers cleaned out their lockers on Monday, the suddenness of the ending to what had been a magical season was the toughest thing to process.
“No doubt about it,” cornerback The 37-20 defeat to the New York Giants in the NFC divisional playoffs on Sunday at Lambeau Field was just the Packers’ second loss in their last 23 games, and their first loss at home in 15 months. It’s no consolation, but the Packers aren’t alone in seeing a dominant regular season end at this stage. Their 15 regular-season wins are the most ever for a divisional-round loser, but they’re the fourth No. 1 seed in the NFC in the last five years to go down in their first playoff game. The Packers, of course, were the spoiler and not the victim a year ago in knocking out Atlanta. The Giants have been on both ends, too, the spoiler twice and the victim once in that time. A trio of 14-2 teams in recent years also lost in the divisional round – the 2010 Patriots, 2006 Chargers and 2005 Colts. They’re reminders that the regular season only means so much. The Packers know in time they’ll be able to look back on 2011 with some sense of accomplishment, but that time wasn’t Monday.
“It’s unfortunate, disappointing, stunning, anything you want to call it,” cornerback “It’s not empty. There’s a sense of confidence that we went 15-1. That’s not good enough for this organization. We understand that. We have to take it for what it is. We went 15-1 and finished up short. That’s all you can say.” The Packers could also say they learned first hand how difficult it is to repeat as Super Bowl champions in this era. Through the first 33 Super Bowls, beginning with the Lombardi Packers there were six back-to-back champions, with Pittsburgh accomplishing the feat twice. In the last dozen years, there has been just one, New England (2003-04).
“It’s a proven fact that it’s very hard,” receiver They won’t get a chance with this same group of players, either, as roster turnover is constant in the NFL.
Bush is among a list of free agents that also includes backup quarterback
“It’s sad because you’ve got friendships and you don’t know who will be around next year,” running back
Bouncing back from Sunday’s surprisingly sloppy, turnover-filled performance won’t be easy, though, not without another game to play next week. Tackle “It’s going to be hard. I’ll be screaming at the TV, knowing we should have been there, just like every other player in the locker room will,” Bush said. “That’s part of it. You’re an athlete, that’s your mentality, you want to be out there, and you feel like you should be out there.” Instead, here the Packers were on Monday, dropping cleats into boxes and slinging trash bags of possessions over their shoulders to haul to their cars. Just like that, 15-1, and done. “You did something the franchise hasn’t done in years, but the sad part is we didn’t do what we wanted to do,” Driver said. “Eighteen-and-one would have sounded so much better. That would mean we’re Super Bowl champs, and we repeated once again. “Now, we have to dwell on it for a long time.”
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By Tom Silverstein / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
GREEN BAY, Wis. -- There is no substantive way to measure it, but if the Green Bay Packers aren’t having one of the quietest 8-0 seasons in the modern media age, they’re darn close to it. As the only undefeated team left in the NFL and home to a quarterback playing with unprecedented statistical excellence, you would expect the Packers to be living behind boarded-up windows to stave off a tsunami of attention. But on Thursday afternoon, it was the regular local media crew, plus or minus a few, and just one representative from a national magazine. No bloggers, no NFL columnists, no national television or cable reporters, just the locals collecting their material before the Packers’ "Monday Night Football" game against the Minnesota Vikings. Ask any player in the locker room and he’ll tell you 8-0 hasn’t affected his life one bit. "It hasn’t been any different," said tight end Jermichael Finley, an emerging star. "I don’t think we’re getting the love we should but at the same time I don’t think anyone in this building cares. We’re just focusing on being the No. 1 in rings." To be fair, there have been representatives from national outlets at some of the Packers’ games this season and quarterback Aaron Rodgers was on the cover of Sports Illustrated with his receiving corps last week. But it isn’t as if reporters are crawling over each other to get the story on Rodgers, the first quarterback in NFL history to post a 110-plus passer rating in the first eight games of a season. Rodgers is performing so well that his league-leading passer rating of 129.1 is 28.5 points higher than the second guy on the list, New Orleans’ Drew Brees. When Brees got off to this kind of start in 2009, reporters flocked to New Orleans to cover the resurgence of the Saints. But that also doubled as a post-Hurricane Katrina storyline. The Packers are defending Super Bowl champions, but they don’t live in that realm anywhere but on the field. There, opponents are charged and determined to add a green and gold pelt to their wall But away from the field, they live in peace and tranquility far away and well-insulated from media hubs. "We like it that way," receiver Greg Jennings said. "We like kind of being under the radar. We’re a small city, small-town team. We just go to work with our lunch pails every week. "We’re not trying to be seen on every TV show and sports show out there because we’re 8-0. " According to public relations director Jason Wahlers, who left the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to join the Packers in August, there has been nothing unmanageable about the attention the team has received. He was on the public relations staff of the 2002 Super Bowl-winning Buccaneers team, which featured a football rock star in head coach Jon Gruden, controversial defensive tackle Warren Sapp and quote-a-minute receiver Keyshawn Johnson. And it was all heightened by the fact the Buccaneers had never been to a Super Bowl. According to Wahlers, no more media have requested credentials for the Packers-Vikings game than other Lambeau Field Monday night games. It’s not a marquee matchup because the Vikings are 2-6, but it does feature the third start of Vikings rookie quarterback Christian Ponder. As for the first eight weeks of the season, Wahlers said: "We’ve seen a steady and consistent number of national media requests this season. I’ve been told it’s comparable to last season."
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New York, NY —
As lawyers for the NFL and the players met into the night on Tuesday in New York, it appeared as if the league's lockout was entering its final stages.
The NFL Network reports the committee will present the proposal to the 32 player representatives. They will vote whether or not to recommend the proposal to the Brady plaintiffs.
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By Mark Maske, The Washington PostThe NFL and its locked-out players are making a negotiating push that appears to be aimed at trying to complete a deal on a new labor agreement by early July. Neither side has commented on the specifics of the talks publicly, but people on both sides of the dispute said this week that a concerted attempt is underway to reach a compromise in coming weeks that would ensure an uninterrupted training camp, preseason and regular season. The tone of the negotiations is greatly improved, both sides said, and while the talks still could break down, there is guarded optimism that a deal can be reached in late June or early July, according to people who are not involved in the talks but have knowledge of them. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the deliberations. Negotiators for the two sides met this week in New York after several days of talks last week in Chicago. On Wednesday, the NFL and NFL Players Association issued a joint statement that “they continue to be engaged in confidential discussions” with their mediator, Chief Magistrate Judge Arthur J. Boylan of the federal court in Minnesota, and that “discussions are expected to continue.” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a conference call Wednesday with Tampa Bay Buccaneers season ticket holders that “both sides are working hard to reach an agreement” and that the ongoing talks are “a positive step for everybody.” Goodell, according to an NFL spokesman, repeated that the league intends to play a full 2011 season. “I believe both sides want to find solutions,” he said. “I’m hopeful we’re going to be successful.” Goodell was joined by five owners — the New York Giants’ John Mara, the Kansas City Chiefs’ Clark Hunt, the New England Patriots’ Robert Kraft, the Carolina Panthers’ Jerry Richardson and the San Diego Chargers’ Dean Spanos — at this week’s talks. Players Kevin Mawae, Jeff Saturday, Mike Vrabel, Tony Richardson and Domonique Foxworth joined DeMaurice Smith, the executive director of the dissolved players’ union. “At the end of the day, there is too much at stake to miss a season,” said sports law expert Gary Roberts, dean of the law school at Indiana University. “There is enough revenue. . . . The parties can work out a deal that can make both sides, while not gleeful, at least satisfied. That’s why I’m confident a deal will get done at some point.” The players have been locked out by NFL owners since March 12 in a standoff that centers primarily on how to divide the more than $9 billion in annual revenue generated by pro football. One person who did not participate in the talks but has knowledge of them said the willingness to complete a deal has increased and, because of that, the negotiating differences between the two sides can be overcome. Others said the timing is right and the proper people now are involved in the discussions. One person said the benefits of recently excluding lawyers from the talks may be overstated. But others said that development has helped reduce the level of acrimony. Also, they said, the courtroom phase of the dispute has largely played itself out, with the NFL achieving some victories in a federal appellate court, which has indicated that the league is likely to prevail in its bid to keep the lockout in place. Mainly, people in the sport said, both sides are realizing that time is running short, with many players unsigned for the upcoming season and the normal opening of training camps less than two months away. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay said last month that a deal would have to be reached by about July 4 to allow time for a free agent signing period before a full training camp, preseason and regular season. Teams have been prohibited from signing free agents and trading players during the lockout. Most teams normally open training camps by early August. A later deal could mean an abbreviated free agency period and a truncated training camp and preseason, with the regular season starting on time. But others view early July as a deadline of sorts, believing that if there isn’t a deal by then, it could indicate differences so great that the start of the regular season is in peril. Roberts said he doesn’t share that opinion. He said a deal is most likely in August, after a ruling by the appeals court on the legality of the lockout. But he said that “both sides could hedge their bets” by completing a deal sooner, before the appellate court moves the negotiating leverage one way or the other. “It’s all driven on both sides by the internal politics,” Roberts said Wednesday. “Both sides [initially] staked out rather rigid positions. As we get closer and closer to missing football games, I think the voices of reason will win out over the extremist voices and there will be a deal done.” Strong sentiment remains that if the NFL and players can settle the central financial issue, the other elements of a deal would fall into place. Before talks collapsed on March 11, the two sides were trying to agree on an annual salary cap figure for the NFL’s 32 teams. The two sides were about $10 million apart on that issue, or about $320 million league-wide for the first year of a collective bargaining agreement. But to resolve the core economic issue, the league and players also would have to agree to a split of any future revenue that exceeds projections, a highly divisive issue during the March talks. In addition, any deal would have to address the NFL’s desire to avoid ongoing court oversight of the sport’s labor situation and the league’s proposal to blood test players for human growth hormone. The two sides also would have to find a mutually agreeable rookie pay system. The talks have buoyed hopes for a deal. Agent Drew Rosenhaus wrote last week on Twitter: “It is nice to see the optimism back regarding a new CBA! Great [to] see both sides negotiating again — things are heading in the right direction.”
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Written by Dave CampbellMINNEAPOLIS — The NFL’s lockout stays, a federal appeals court ruled Monday. That means the league likely won’t get back to business until June, maybe longer. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the lockout can remain intact until a full appeal is heard on whether it is legal. That hearing is scheduled June 3 in St. Louis, and it is before the same panel that issued this 2-1 decision. The appellate court said it thought the NFL has proven it “likely will suffer some degree of irreparable harm without a stay.” It also cast doubt on the conclusions of U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson, who ruled April 25 the lockout should be lifted — only to have the 8th Circuit panel put her decision on hold four days later. “The league has made a strong showing that it is likely to succeed on the merits,” the majority wrote. The decision came on the same day NFL owners and players resumed court-ordered mediation behind closed doors for eight hours. It was the fifth day of talks in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Arthur Boylan, but the first since April 20. Neither side would elaborate on the discussions, but they planned to return Tuesday. “I think there’s still time to (reach an agreement) and still have great competitive football that you all expect,” Commissioner Roger Goodell told Buffalo Bills season ticket holders. “But time is running short. It’s time to get back to the table and get those issues resolved.”’ NFLPA president Kevin Mawae told The Associated Press he was disappointed with the decision. “The ruling in granting the stay of the injunction means that the NFL owners can continue to not let football be played,” he said. The appellate court said it would make its decision quickly, a “circumstance that should minimize harm to the players during the offseason and allow the case to be resolved well before the scheduled beginning of the 2011 season.” With training camps just two months away and the first preseason game set for Aug. 8, there is restlessness around the league to go with the uncertainty. READ MORE>>>
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