Optimum Sports : GreenBayPackers

Showing posts with label GreenBayPackers. Show all posts

Tuesday, 1 March 2016

Bart Starr Hazing Caused Lifelong Injury

Bart Starr’s wife Cherry has revealed that the Hall of Fame quarterback’s severe back problems stemmed from a hazing incident at college.

The injury plagued the quarterback during his career – and into his retirement – but had previously been attributed to an injury in practice during a punting exercise. But Cherry said her husband was beaten during an initiation Alabama’s varsity lettermen.

“He was hospitalized at one point in traction,” Cherry told AL.com. “That was in the days when they were initiated into the A-Club, and they had severe beatings and paddling. From all the members of the A-Club, they lined up with a big paddle with holes drilled in it, and it actually injured his back.”

One of Starr’s college team-mates, tight end Nick Germanos, agreed with Cherry’s version of events. Starr, who is now 82, has never spoken about the incident in public. “It was hell,” Germanos said. “Lord have mercy, it was a rough initiation.”

The injury was bad enough to affect Starr’s college career and the Crimson Tide went 0-10 the season after the beating. “His back was never right after that,” Cherry said. “It was horrible. It was not a football injury. It was an injury sustained from hazing. His whole back all the way up to his rib cage looked like a piece of raw meat. The bruising went all the way up his back. It was red and black and awful looking. It was so brutal.”

Starr was still considered enough of a talent to be drafted with the 200th overall pick in the 1956 draft and went on to lead the Green Bay Packers to victory in the first two Super Bowls. However, Cherry said her husband still had to play in pain throughout his career. “He was in so much pain constantly,” she said. “They nearly tried anything.”

Starr is now in declining health, leaving Cherry to tell his story. She did say that he gained some relief from his injury in the 1980s after a doctor discovered a crack in his vertebrae and recommended surgery.

Sunday, 17 January 2016

Cardinals Escape Packers in Overtime

Larry Fitzgerald’s brief but brilliant overtime heroics trumped another Aaron Rodgers Hail Mary and the Arizona Cardinals escaped with a 26-20 victory over the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night to advance to the NFC championship.

Fitzgerald turned a short pass into a 75-yard gain on the first play of overtime to set up his five-yard shovel pass reception for the winning score as the crowd chanted “Larry, Larry.”

The Cardinals (14-3), the No2 seed in the NFC West, plays the winner of Sunday’s Seattle-Carolina game for the title.

It can’t be as crazy as this one, which unfolded on the same field where the Cardinals beat the Packers in overtime 51-45 in a wildcard game in the 2009 season and where Arizona routed Green Bay 38-8 three weeks ago.

Rodgers, in a play reminiscent of his final-play heave against Detroit this season, took the snap with five seconds to go in regulation, scrambled around and heaved it 41 yards to the end zone.

Jeff Janis, a 6ft 3in receiver pressed into extended duty because Green Bay’s top two receivers were hurt, outjumped defenders Patrick Peterson and Rashad Johnson and clutched the ball to his chest as he fell to the turf in the silence of University of Phoenix Stadium.

Arizona won the overtime coin toss — after the referees declared the first toss hadn’t flipped — and on the first play, no one was covering Fitzgerald, who caught and ran through defenders to the five-yard line.

A strange play had given Arizona a 20-13 lead with 3:44 to play in the fourth quarter. Damarious Randall, who moments earlier had made a key interception in the end zone, deflected a pass intended for Fitzgerald inside the five-yard line and the ball sailed into the end zone into the hands of Michael Floyd for a nine-yard TD catch. Floyd also had an eight-yard touchdown catch in the first quarter.

The Packers (11-7) took the kickoff but went nowhere and turned the ball over on downs, setting up Chandler Catanzaro’s 38-yard field goal that put Arizona up 20-13.

With 55 seconds to go in the fourth quarter, Green Bay were pushed back into a fourth-and-20 situation at their four-yard line when Rodgers scrambled and threw 60 yards to Janis at the 36. A penalty pushed it back to the 41 and Rodgers threw incomplete before getting off his last, great completion.

Janis, who caught seven passes for 145 yards after having just two receptions all year, was hurt on his big catch and was helped out of the end zone.

Monday, 11 January 2016

Green Bay Overcome Washington

Aaron Rodgers did a jig after his first touchdown pass. Later, he was smiling and nodding and thrusting both arms overhead. And why not? He has a lot more fun when his offense is balanced — and the Green Bay Packers score seemingly at will.

Spurred by a hurry-up, and strong running, the wildcard Packers got going after a rough start Sunday, with Rodgers throwing for a pair of touchdowns while Eddie Lacy and James Starks each rushed for a score, and Green Bay beat the NFC East champion Washington 35-18 to reach the divisional round.

Rodgers opened one for eight, and the Packers’ first four drives ended this way: punt, safety, punt, punt. They had all of 11 yards after one quarter.

But trailing 11-0 early in the second quarter, two-time NFL MVP Rodgers and the Packers suddenly began to show the sort of ability to gain yards in chunks and put points on the board they had been missing while losing six of their final 10 games and letting the NFC North title slip away.

Green Bay (11-6) will play at the No2 seed Arizona Cardinals on Saturday night. In the other NFC game next weekend, the No1 seed Carolina Panthers will host the wildcard Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

With the Packers and Seahawks joining the AFC’s Pittsburgh Steelers and Kansas City Chiefs, it’s the first time road teams went 4-0 in the wildcard round under the current NFL playoff format, which started in 1990.

Washington (9-8) had won four games in a row, but their season ended without a single victory over a team that finished with a winning record.

Rodgers finished 21 for 36 for 210 yards and no interceptions. Washington QB Kirk Cousins, making his first career playoff start after a breakthrough season, was 29 for 46 for 329 yards. He threw for one touchdown, lost one fumble and was sacked six times.

Here is how effective Green Bay was against a Washington defense that had developed a bend-but-don’t-break-reputation: The Packers scored on five consecutive possessions in one stretch, with four touchdowns and a field goal. Green Bay compiled their highest point total since a season-high 38 in week three.

Rodgers connected with Randall Cobb and Davante Adams in the endzone en route to a 17-11 half-time lead. In the second half, Starks scored from four yards out, and Lacy from two, as the Packers ran the ball on 13 of 15 snaps. After gaining 17 yards on nine carries in the first half, Green Bay finished with more than 140 yards rushing.

Washington looked like the better team in the early going. The game was barely four minutes old when Washington led 2-0 on its first postseason safety since 1984 — rookie linebacker Preston Smith got to Rodgers for his sixth sack in the past four games.

Washington then went ahead 5-0 on Dustin Hopkins’ 25-yard field goal, but the lead could have been larger. DeSean Jackson caught a pass from Cousins and initially was ruled to have scored, but the points came off when it was ruled that the ball never crossed the goalline. Later, Cousins connected with tight end Jordan Reed for a 24-yard score and, after a missed extra-point attempt, it was 11-0.

That was when Rodgers, the MVP of the 2011 Super Bowl, turned things around. Rodgers looked a lot more like himself in the second quarter, going five for six for 68 yards on a drive that ended with a 12-yard TD pass to Cobb, drawing Green Bay within 11-7. And Rodgers pulled out all his usual tricks, twice going with a quick snap that generated a too-many-men penalty on Washington’s defense. Later in that quarter, Cousins was strip-sacked by Mike Neal, who also recovered the fumble, which the Packers turned into a 43-yard field goal to trim their deficit to 11-10.

And Rodgers added his second scoring toss of the quarter with 28 seconds left, a 10-yarder to Adams that gave the Packers a 17-11 half-time lead. Rodgers danced around after that touchdown, and threw some fist pumps, too, feeling good about his offense for the first time in a while.

Monday, 4 January 2016

Vikings Send Green Bay Packing

The Minnesota Vikings won the NFC North by holding on for a 20-13 win Sunday night over the Green Bay Packers.

Adrian Peterson ran for a touchdown, cornerback Captain Munnerlyn returned a fumble 55 yards for a score, and Minnesota (11-5) claimed its first division title since 2009.

The Vikings will host the Seattle Seahawks for a wild card playoff game next weekend. The Packers (10-6) will travel to Washington after watching their four-year reign atop the NFC North end.

The upstart Vikings survived despite a shaky finish in hostile territory. The defense knocked away a desperation pass in the end zone from Aaron Rodgers on fourth down as time expired.

Packers kicker Mason Crosby forced a fumble on Cordarrelle Patterson’s potentially field-flipping 70-yard kickoff return with 5:21 left. But the Packers’ next drive ended with Rodgers being intercepted in the end zone by Xavier Rhodes.

Friday, 4 December 2015

Rodgers Give Green Bay Win

Aaron Rodgers threw a 61-yard touchdown pass to Richard Rodgers with no time left to give the Green Bay Packers a 27-23 victory over the Detroit Lions on Thursday.

The Packers got the untimed down after Detroit defensive end Devin Taylor was called for grabbing Aaron Rodgers’ facemask on a tackle on what would’ve been the last play.

The Packers (8-4) had lost four of five. The Lions (4-8) had won three straight and blew a chance to sweep the season series for the first time since 1991.

Matthew Stafford connected with Calvin Johnson on his second touchdown pass of the first quarter to help Detroit build a 20-point lead that it couldn’t keep.

Aaron Rodgers scored on a 17-yard run with 3:04 left, pulling the Packers within two points.

Stafford connected with TJ Jones to convert a third-and-12 from the Detroit 18 after Green Bay called its final timeout with 2:54 to go. The Lions needed one more first down to seal the victory, but Green Bay forced them to punt and got the ball back on the 21 with 23 seconds left.

Following two incompletions, including one in which Detroit appeared to get away with pass interference, Aaron Rodgers threw a pass to James Jones and the ball was lateraled twice, leaving the quarterback with the ball and no one behind him to pitch to keep the play alive.

But Taylor grabbed Aaron Rodgers’ facemask, giving the Packers another play.

Aaron Rodgers scrambled long enough to give his receivers time to sprint to the end zone and got to the outside. The quarterback threw the ball, perhaps as high and far as he could, and his tight end found a way to get to it in front of a slew of players from both teams and leaped for the catch.

Aaron Rodgers finished 24 of 36 for 289 yards with two touchdowns.

Stafford was 23 of 35 for 220 yards and two scores.

Detroit went ahead 17-0 after its first three drives and capped the opening possession of the third quarter with a field goal to go ahead 20-0.

Friday, 27 November 2015

Bears Upset Packers Favre Day

The Green Bay Packers honoured Brett Favre on Thursday, but Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears’ defense ruined the celebration. Cutler, who was 1-11 against the Packers as Chicago’s quarterback, led the Bears to a big upset of the first-place Packers, 17-13 at rainy Lambeau Field.

At halftime, the Packers unveiled Favre’s name beneath the north end-zone scoreboard alongside the other five players whose numbers were retired. Hall of Fame quarterback Bart Starr, who has battled severe health issues, also appeared to a thunderous ovation.

However, for the first time in 13 games against the Packers as the Bears’ quarterback, Cutler did not throw an interception. Chicago’s defense, on the other hand, had two takeaways, and they were both huge. The first set up a first-half touchdown. The second came with 3:19 remaining in the game.

With the Packers trailing 17-13 and having reached midfield, Rodgers fired a slant to Davante Adams. The wide receiver, however, was knocked off his route by safety Chris Prosinski, and cornerback Tracy Porter grabbed the interception.

Green Bay (7-4) got one more chance, taking over at their 20-yard line with 2:45 remaining. Running back James Starks gained 18 yards on a screen and ran for seven more to get the ball to the Green Bay 49 at the two-minute warning.

Rodgers then hit Randall Cobb on a crossing route, with the wide receiver breaking cornerback Bryce Callahan’s tackle and taking it 32 yards to the 19. On third-and-7, Rodgers connected with Adams for eight yards, setting up first-and-goal at the eight.

Two throwaways made it third-and-goal with 36 seconds to play. As he was being hauled down, Rodgers threw into the corner of the end zone to receiver James Jones, but Porter knocked the ball away. That set up the all-or-nothing fourth down.

Rodgers bought time by moving to his left and fired to Adams against tight coverage from Callahan. The ball hit off Adams’ hand and fell incomplete.

Cutler was 19-for-31 for 200 yards and one touchdown for Chicago (5-6), which won for the third time in four games. Wide receiver Alshon Jeffery caught seven passes for 90 yards.

Green Bay running back Eddie Lacy had 105 rushing yards, his second consecutive 100-yard game. Rodgers finished 22-for-43 for 202 yards with one touchdown pass and one interception.