GREEN BAY PACKERS 2021: GAME #5
Vs. Bengals; Sunday, October 10, Noon Packer (Central) Time (10 am Pacific)
Unfortunately, I will miss next week’s matchup. Still, I will post stuff here, before and after the game. First up is the prediction of the final score, made Sunday, 10/3:
Packers 26-23
Now, as sort of a segue or follow-on from last week’s explanation of how I, a native northern Californian, became a Packers fan:
My theory is that you choose a sports team to follow, or be a fan of, based not on logic or convenience, but the same way you (hopefully) choose a spouse: with your heart.
Let me explain:
If I were to choose a team based on logic, the 49ers would be the one to select, because:
1) They are close to home, thus their games are easier to watch—they are more often televised (the away games, anyway); and as for home games, the proximity factor is a draw to see them play in person.
2) A large minority of people in the area are 49ers fans, so I would have lots of “company”
So it would make perfect sense for me to be a 49ers fan.
But it would also be logical for me to be a fan of the Porkopolis (Cincinnati) Bengals. Why?
1) Because I am an animal lover, especially of cats, especially of big cats; and of the big cats the Bengal Tiger is—for me at least—the crème de la crème. What is more sleek and beautiful than a Bengal Tiger?
2) Cincinnati was a safe zone (relatively) for blacks during slavery, due to Ohio being a free State, and just across the Ohio River from Kentucky.
Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, had lived in Cincinnati, and that is where she became an abolitionist.
3) Stowe’s subsequent neighbor in Hartford, Connecticut, Mark Twain—of Americans I haven’t met, he’s my favorite—, also lived in Cincinnati, a few years after the Stowes returned to the East.
4) Cincinnati is a German town, and I love German culture (the food, the music, the architecture).
5) Last but certainly not least, my son Kelvin was a Bengals fan. I had hoped he would become a Packers fan, but I should have embraced his choice, rather than being disappointed by it. He actually was following in my footsteps by choosing a team of his own, regardless of what his father preferred (as I had done myself, as my father, also a native northern Californian—as his father was—is a 49ers fan). The Bengals were a good choice for Kelvin to make, after all.
So it would have been easy for me to become a Bengals fan.
But still, although it would be a logical choice for me, I am not, and cannot be, a Bengals fan. It’s out of my hands. Because it’s not a matter of the hands, it’s a matter of the unknowable heart.
Yes, I submit that the team you become a fan of is not a matter of logic. It’s not a head thing, it’s a heart thing. And can you “fall in love” with just anyone based on logic? That’s not how it happens, is it? To do so, in fact, seems somewhat conniving and cold-hearted to me. “I will fall in love with Juliette because she’s rich” or “I will fall in love with Meg because she’s beautiful” or “I will fall in love with Pollyanna because she’s so happy all the time” or “I will fall in love with Marie because she bakes such wonderful pies” or … you get my point. In a way, you can’t really help who you fall in love with, and it’s not a cold-hearted calculation you make with your brain when you fall in love, it “just happens,” so to speak; it occurs organically. You can’t help it. When you’re twitterpated, you’re twitterpated.
And I have, from the start of my interest in sports at the age of 12, preferred the Packers (and the Bucks in basketball, and—now embarrassingly—the Orioles in baseball). I’m twitterpated with the Green and Gold—their history, their uniqueness.
Enough of that.
Injuries are really piling up for the Packers. Bakhtiari, Z. Smith, Jaire Alexander the Great, Elgton “Rocket Man” Jenkins, Krys Barnes, MVS. The good news is they are still 3-1, so that bodes well for the future (when else would it bode well for, come to think of it?). The replacements have gotten/are getting valuable experience, and when the starters come back, they should be “fresh.” The jury is out on whether “Z” will be back at all, though, and even JAG’s status is up in the air.
The next stretch could be pretty brutal, with all these injuries and four of the next five games being on the road.
On the positive side, think of the cats who are not injured (knock on cheese): Rodgers, Adams, Jones, Dillon, the entire O-line other than Bakh and Rocket Man, Cobb, Lazard, Tonyan, Clark, P. Smith, Campbell, Gary, Amos, Savage, Crosby, Bojorquez, et al! Matt LeFleur isn’t even injured this year!
So: the positive outweighs the negative. Next men up, and onward—to infinity and …. we’ll see.
Wednesday, 10/6
Rumors have it that the Boston Cheaters are about to release Stephen Gilmore. With Alexander the Great indefinitely sidelined … the question is: can the Packers cough up enough moolah?
12:39 Pacific
OK, so they signed a cat named Rasul Douglas at CB. Gilmore is probably headed elsewhere (which was probably already the case, but even more so now).
If the new cat does anything splashy, I will call him Razzle Dazzle.
Thursday, 10/7
I will just post these two images without further comment:
On the same day (today, Thursday, 10/7, this was printed:
4:47 Pacific
The Packers got Jaylon Smith from the Cowboys. If Z comes back in time, we might see the Smith “Triplets” (P, Z, and J) on the field at the same time.
…back with more (about the game) on Monday or Tuesday…