As I sit here watching Super Bowl 42 between the Patriots and the Giants in my basement, taking in the hours of pregame programming and hype today. I got to thinking about what this Sunday, could have been if the Packers had been able to get the job done in the NFC Title Game. The pregame features on Eli Manning, Michael Strahan, and Tom Coughlin would have been replaced with stories on Favre, Driver, and McCarthy.....
Here's what the day could have been for Packer fans...
8am: Wake up on Super Sunday and start getting things ready for th big night.
9am: Head to church and hear your pastor/reverend or bishop read countless prayers for the Packers in the requested prayer time, etc...
10:15am: Head to the store to pick up your final items for your Super Bowl Party. All of the checkers at your local store would have been in Packer jerseys...Favre, Driver, Hawk, maybe even a few #92 for old time sake.
11am: Return home and and get your house together for your Super Bowl Party and pop in your tape of Super Bowl XXXI to get you in the mood and take you up to the network pregame show on FOX.
2pm: The FOX Pregame show begins and you know what's coming....a four hour Brett Favre love-fest with all of the New England featured mixed in. The first hour would be all the touchy feely stories to make us all feel good.
2:05pm: A story on Favre returning to the Super Bowl after 10 years.
2:25pm: Its Donald Drivers turn in the spotlight. We hear the story of how Driver came from nothing in Houston to be the man he is today. Living in the rental truck and breaking through to play college football, waiting his turn to get a chance to play and become the All-Pro receiver and family man he is today. The first tears of Super Sunday would come here.
2:35pm: Ryan Searest interviews Samuel L. Jackson wearing a cheesehead.
2:55pm: It's time to bring in the old timers. Fox does a feature on the Ice Bowl I and the Ice Bowl 2. You have comments from Bart Starr and Brett Favre comparing how each lead their team to victory. Starr tells the story of the QB sneak to beat Dallas, while Favre describes how he called the winning touchdown pass to Greg Jennings in overtime to beat the Giants. Both say how they were sol cold they couldn't actually speak in the huddle.
3:20pm: A reshash of Super Bowl XXXI. Desmond Howard, Mike Holmgren and LeRoy Butler are joined by Drew Bledsoe, Bill Parcells and running back Curtis Martin to talk about the Packers win.
3:45pm: Jimmy Johnson sits down with Packers coach Mike McCarthy and sheds light on his role in bringing the Packers back to the promise land. They talk about his time as a toll-booth worker early in his coaching career to his first run of coaching Favre as quarterbacks coach under Ray Rhodes, to his return to Green Bay as an unknown commodity before the 2006 season.
4pm. Here's Pam Oliver's time to talk with #4: A story on Brett Favre and his wife Deanna, and the Favre family in Mississippi. You'll get shots of Big Irv, The Broke Spoke, and Favre riding the lawn mower in the offseason...Of course the talk of retirement comes up as well
4:20pm: Feature on Koren Robinson and his battle back from prison and off the field problems.
4:40pm. One more go around with Favre before kickoff. Terry Bradshaw interviews Brett Favre and Tom Brady together as they compare and contrast their styles and jokingly ask he other interview questions.
4:55pm: The Fox Studio Team makes their picks:
Curt picks the Pats: 35-21, Howie takes New England 28-24, Jimmy says New England 38-35 and Terry takes the Packers 42-41.
5:05pm Packers and Pats take the field, you get the starting lineups, the coin toss, other pregame stuff and finally the game starts.
5:31pm: The Packers win the toss and receiver. Favre over-throws Jennings on the first play by 15 yards, but then settles down to lead Green Bay on a nice drive, capped off by a 5 yard Donald Lee TD reception. Green Bay leads 7-0.
After a Patriot drive stalls Green Bay gets the ball back and Favre has the Pack rolling. Mason Crosby bangs home a 41 yard field goal and Green Bay is up 10-0 just halfway through the first quarter.
Tom Brady then takes over and leads the Pats on a long drive that is capped by a Kevin Faulk 12 yard TD run early in the 2nd quarter to cut the Packer lead to 10-7.
The Packers and Pats then trade punts before the games first mistake is made. Favre gets picked by Asante Samuel at the Packers 35 and Tom Brady turns that into a quick score when he finds Randy Moss up the right sideline for a touchdown on the first play of the drive, giving the Patriots the 14-10 lead. And that's how they go into the halftime locker room.
After Tom Petty rocks the house, New Engalnd comes out and goes on a 12 play, 81 yard drive to start the half. Tom Brady scores on a quarterback sneak on 2nd and goal from the one, as New Engalnd opens up the 21-10 lead.
The Packers go three and out on their next possession and New England is on the verge of busting the game open, but Tom Brady gets hit from behind by KGB and fumble. AJ Hawk recovers the fumble and the Packer get it at Patriots 49.
Ryan Grant breaks a run up the middle down to the New Englad 25. Favre hits Driver down to the 8 and then Grant finishes the drive off with the TD run to make it 21-17.
Tom Brady then leads New England on a drive that lasts into the 4th quarter and puts 3 more points on the board to give the Patriots the 24-17 lead with 12 minutes left.
After Tramon Williams returns the Patriots kickoff to the 40 yard line, Green Bay is able to move the chains a few tim and Mason Crosby drills a 52-yard field goal to make it 24-20 with 7 minutes left.
Tom Brady comes back on the field with hopes of salting away the 4th quarter clock and winning yet another Super Bowl. New Engalnd is able to chew the clock down to the three minute mark and they get in position for a 38 yard field goal. Stephen Gostkowski clanks off the upright and the Packer have new life with 2:50 left and trailing 24-20.
A draw to Grant gains five. A pass over the middle should have been picked off by Teddy Bruschi but he has it slip through his hands. On 3rd down, Favre gets 15 yards on a completion to Driver and we hit the two minute warning. After two incompletions, Favre hits Driver again on third down, up the left sideline that takes the ball inside the 17 with 1:25 left in the game. A pass to Grant in the flat goest for 6 yards to the 11. A 2nd down pass into the end zone is just out of the reach of Jennings. On third down Ruvell Martin, can't hang on to a pass at the goal line and it's fourth down with :58 left. On fourth down, Favre is flushed to his left, avoids a sack by Junior Seau and finds Donald Driver for the touchdown with :45 seconds left. The extra point makes it 27-24 Pack.
On the kickoff, New Engalnd gets stuffed inside the 15 yard line so it looks like the Lombardi Trophy will be coming back to Titletown! But Brady goes to work. 10 yards to Welker, 15 to Watson, 22 yards to Moss and the Patriots are threatening at the Packers 38 with :20 seconds left. On first down, Moss gets behind Nick Collins, but Brady over-shoots him so its 2nd down with :13 seconds left. On 2nd down, Brady looks for a receiver, but throws it away after being rushed by KGB. It's 3rd down with :07 left. The Patriots have one last chance. Brady throws it into the end zone where its knocked down by Al Harris and the Packers have won Super Bowl XLII 27-24 over New England !
Brett Favre is your MVP and the Lombardi Trophy returns to Green Bay!
OK.....that's what could have happend.....what might have been....we can always dream. Now back to the easy chair to watch the rest of New England and New York!
