The last 30 years of the Green Bay Packers have not been easy, so why should it get easy now?
To return to glory, the Team of the 1960s may have to beat the Team of the ’80s and the Team of the ’90s back-to-back. If they survive the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys, that will only get them into the Super Bowl, where the Team of the ’70s, the Pittsburgh Steelers, may lurk.
The Cowboys may not be able to survive the challenge to themselves, but that’s another story.
The Packers survived the toughest schedule in the NFL, based on last year’s records, to earn home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs. They also beat the AFC’s top team, Denver, on the way. So facing the 49ers and Cowboys is the way it should end.
To be the best, you need to beat the best, especially if you have no choice. While coach Mike Holmgren and his staff would just as soon be preparing for the Ravens or Jets, the 49ers and Cowboys offer the test of true champions.
This would be like the Bulls having to beat the Lakers with Magic and the Celtics with Bird in consecutive series to ascend to the throne.
The 49ers no longer are the dominant team of the ’80s, but they have Jerry Rice and Steve Young and a great defense and immense pride.
The Cowboys are no longer the team they were last year–or maybe last week at their current rate of attrition–but they still have Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith and more Pro Bowl players than any other NFL team.
Would it surprise anybody with any sense if either the 49ers or the Cowboys beat the Packers in Lambeau Field? The Packers might be favored, but would a loss to either be considered an upset? Not in this post-dominant age.
If the Cowboys lose Sunday in Carolina, it would not ruin the Packers’ season, assuming the 49ers haven’t already ruined it. The Packers wouldn’t mind avoiding their playoff nemesis altogether on their way to a Super Bowl. It wouldn’t tarnish the achievement one bit because the Packers have no control over it.
Yet beating both the 49ers and Cowboys would stamp the Packers as a truly great team. To some, especially hard-line Packers faithful, the Cowboys are a must on this quest for perfect credibility. After getting knocked out of the last three playoffs by the Cowboys, a season without payback would be a season missing something.
No matter what, the Packers have a hard road, even at home. That’s because they have one other team they must beat–their own legendary Team of the ’60s.
More Top Picks Best Whirlpool Washing Machines
Overcoming the 49ers and Cowboys is one thing; escaping their own shadow is another. Nothing motivates the Packers more than distancing themselves from their own past.
This is a touchy subject. Brett Favre, whose name sounds too much like Bart Starr, once alluded to it. In so many words, he said with all due respect to the great history of the Lombardi years, the current Packers are sick of it. Only a few of them were even born when the Packers last won a Super Bowl. To them, the subject might as well be the Crimean War.
They also know there is only one way to shove the subject further into the archives. They have to write their own chapter of history.
New history by definition is harder to write. The Holmgren Packers, for example, have won four playoff games in the last three years and have nothing but frustration to show for it. By the time the Lombardi Packers had won four playoff games under a simpler postseason format, they had won three of their five world championships.
So this is the task before these Packers, no easy one indeed. Will it prove too daunting for a team with less experience than either the 49ers or Cowboys?
“We like playing these big games, especially to have them at home,” tight end Mark Chmura said. “We like putting pressure on each other. One thing Mike (Holmgren) said this week is when you get to big games, individually you try to do too much. We have to go out, do what we’re called upon to do, fill your role, and have confidence in the guy right next to you.
“We have one goal in sight, and we have a long way to go. It all starts this weekend.”