Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Packers Unscripted from
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I am Mike Spoffer, joint as always
Speaker 1: by my trusted colleague Weston Hodkuitz. We're coming to you
Speaker 1: here from our studios at lambeau Field, West. A few
Speaker 1: things to get to from over the past weekend. We
Speaker 1: might as well start with Family Night. Um. The annual
Speaker 1: tradition was back after the one year hiatus from Family
Speaker 1: a Night a year ago, and the traditional rain on
Speaker 1: Family Night was also back. You can't have Family Night
Speaker 1: at lambeau Field without a thunderstorm, right. You think you're
Speaker 1: gonna have a nice night. You want some fireworks, you
Speaker 1: want all that stuff Mother Natures like, hold my umbrella.
Speaker 1: It was incredible. And then the thing that was great
Speaker 1: about it is there's been years where you see the radar,
Speaker 1: you know what's coming, and it's trying to get the
Speaker 1: thing in this particular one beginning to end rain the
Speaker 1: entire time. But you know, I enjoyed it, and I
Speaker 1: was down on the field because there was a little
Speaker 1: bit of a mix up and figuring out when practice
Speaker 1: was gonna end. Win. Media need to be in the
Speaker 1: auditorium if they were going to do fireworks or not.
Speaker 1: So I was actually on the field for like a
Speaker 1: good forty minutes at the end of the game, and
Speaker 1: that I decided to stay dry. But go ahead, you've
Speaker 1: you've you ended up being a lot better off than
Speaker 1: I was. But that was the first time I've been
Speaker 1: on the field during a live action lambeau Field activity
Speaker 1: since bart Star returned for Brett Farves Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: or his number retirement in two thousand fifteen. I believe
Speaker 1: it was. So it was a cool festivity to be
Speaker 1: a part of and just feeling the energy from the crowd.
Speaker 1: Yes they were wet, Yes it was a little humid,
Speaker 1: but you could just tell how excited people were to
Speaker 1: have to be back in lambeau Field and also the
Speaker 1: players being able to kind of feed off that energy. Mike,
Speaker 1: how many times last season when you and I were
Speaker 1: sitting in our quarantine suite because we were in the
Speaker 1: tier group that was tested every day, did you and
Speaker 1: I say to each other like, this just doesn't feel
Speaker 1: the same as an empty stadium, and that that feeling
Speaker 1: was back to normal with thirty four thousand people or
Speaker 1: whatever it was in in the bowl. Yeah, just shy
Speaker 1: of thirty five thousand braved that weather, and I give
Speaker 1: him a lot of credit for for sticking it out.
Speaker 1: And we'll be looking forward to an even larger crowd
Speaker 1: here as things ramp up for the first preseason game
Speaker 1: this weekend, and then of course not too far down
Speaker 1: the road will be an absolutely packed house when the
Speaker 1: regular season arrives. But what were your observations from Family night.
Speaker 1: Obviously it wasn't the cleanest practice in the world because
Speaker 1: of the conditions. Um, you know, guys had to fight
Speaker 1: through some things there. I thought, on balance, the defense
Speaker 1: probably got the better of things overall, both with the
Speaker 1: with regard to the first and the second units. But
Speaker 1: what stood out to you, and as they should when
Speaker 1: it was raining the way it was raining from beginning end,
Speaker 1: and especially that last thirty minutes where it was almost
Speaker 1: kind of monsoon type conditions, Maybe not necessarily from the
Speaker 1: Downpourt perspective, but just how wet the field was. I
Speaker 1: felt like there were three things that stood out to me. One,
Speaker 1: Aaron Rodgers is just on a different planet when it
Speaker 1: terms of throwing a football. We saw him in practice.
Speaker 1: I tweeted out, I got like likes out of it,
Speaker 1: really improving my social credibility. Uh with him throwing making
Speaker 1: the bucket shot in practice on Thursday, Well, there they
Speaker 1: go out. I think it was from the forty line,
Speaker 1: forty yard line wherever. That was, same exact deal and
Speaker 1: Rogers drains two of them. Yeah, back to back, no
Speaker 1: less back. I mean, the guy is whatever you want
Speaker 1: to say. And I think the question was asked. I'm
Speaker 1: forgetting if it was to Al Lazar or who talked
Speaker 1: about it. But you know, if there was ever a
Speaker 1: guy that doesn't need an offseason program, it's Aaron Rodgers.
Speaker 1: He jumped right back on the pony and he's been
Speaker 1: doing great. The other two things, just to quickly touch on,
Speaker 1: I think kabion Ento has added himself into this cornerback equation.
Speaker 1: He was being able to get some reps. They're seeing
Speaker 1: some first team reps in the dime, got a couple
Speaker 1: of past deflections and then you know, I'd be this
Speaker 1: if we didn't talk about the fact that, you know,
Speaker 1: you look at how this offense is structured right now,
Speaker 1: the litany of different packages that Green Bay was able
Speaker 1: to roll with now that the scheme was vanilla, and
Speaker 1: you know they're not they're not showing any big secrets
Speaker 1: out to thirty four thousand people, But you gotta feel
Speaker 1: for how deep they could go at receiver, tight end
Speaker 1: running back, depending on what personnel groupings they want to
Speaker 1: go with on the field. Yeah, I share your enthusiasm
Speaker 1: for Rogers and watching him in that net what it
Speaker 1: was called the bucket drill, the raised hoop with the
Speaker 1: net thing, he kind of got warmed up. He dropped
Speaker 1: in a couple from like ten fifteen yards out and
Speaker 1: then when they moved back to more of the full distance,
Speaker 1: tossing to the to the back corner of the end zone,
Speaker 1: he drops in back to back once. But also hats
Speaker 1: off to Kurt Banker, number three quarterback, he dropped one
Speaker 1: in from that long distance as well, which is the
Speaker 1: first guy we've seen. I guess I can't say for
Speaker 1: sure going back, you know, it's been it felt like
Speaker 1: it had been a while since we've seen a backup
Speaker 1: quarterback from that distance drop one in. Maybe Brett Hunley
Speaker 1: did at once, but but but I'm not But I'm
Speaker 1: not even a couple of times during camp. It's not
Speaker 1: like they do it every day. So yeah, I just
Speaker 1: wanted to give a shout out to Banker there because
Speaker 1: that was pretty impressive with all the fans and they
Speaker 1: got a kick out of it as well. Um and yeah,
Speaker 1: absolutely kaban Ento took a step forward in you know,
Speaker 1: a very crowded defensive backfield in terms of how this
Speaker 1: is going to shake out for roster spots, practice, squad
Speaker 1: spots and whatnot. I thought he could have he really
Speaker 1: could have made a big statement because they at the
Speaker 1: end of practice they did they did a live tackling
Speaker 1: period for the first time in camp with all the
Speaker 1: younger guys and on an end around too wide receiver
Speaker 1: DeAndre Tompkins, if I'm getting that name correctly, Ento had
Speaker 1: a clear shot to make the tackle. Would have been
Speaker 1: a very minimal game. He missed the tackle and it
Speaker 1: kind of ruptured into a big play, and after the
Speaker 1: night he had had a couple of past breakups. I
Speaker 1: thought he really could have made a statement making that
Speaker 1: tackle there. Now, first live tackling period of practice. Not
Speaker 1: going to indict a guy for for when that happens,
Speaker 1: especially once wet, you know, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: There was there were some things working against him there,
Speaker 1: but but he's definitely a guy to watch moving forward
Speaker 1: here as we. As we head towards preseason game number one,
Speaker 1: Matt la Fleur said that there are going to be
Speaker 1: there's there will be a group of select veterans who
Speaker 1: are not going to suit up on Saturday night in
Speaker 1: the preseason opener. This is very much what's including you.
Speaker 1: I think you get a veteran nights off too. Oh well,
Speaker 1: that that's that's nice. You're gonna you're gonna handle all
Speaker 1: the coverage of the game. I get to prove yourself,
Speaker 1: all right. I appreciate the sentiment there, but um, it's
Speaker 1: going to be a night Saturday Night for the young
Speaker 1: guys and for these competitions for the roster spots whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it, the last ten twelve spots
Speaker 1: on the fifty three man roster, and with regard to
Speaker 1: the the expanded practice squad, that stuff's gonna start to
Speaker 1: sort itself fout on Saturday night. In these preseason games,
Speaker 1: when the action is live, the tackling is real. Um,
Speaker 1: you're going against somebody, going against another team where you
Speaker 1: don't know exactly what they're going to do. The plays
Speaker 1: aren't all scripted in advance like they are a lot
Speaker 1: of times in practice. So um, there'll be a lot
Speaker 1: to watch her coming up on Saturday. Absolutely, And and
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, there's so many storylines that
Speaker 1: we've into that the fact that this will be the
Speaker 1: first time Jordan's love is playing in a game. I
Speaker 1: mean what I know, it doesn't count wins and losses,
Speaker 1: but neither did the Senior Bowl and that's the last
Speaker 1: game he played in and that was twenty months ago.
Speaker 1: Now at this point, like some of these guys, you
Speaker 1: think about those running backs, Mike Kylan Hill, what could
Speaker 1: Kylan Hill do for his you know, candidacy for that
Speaker 1: number three job if he takes a kickoff return back
Speaker 1: for a touchdown? What could Patrick Taylor do for you know,
Speaker 1: getting himself back on the map if he breaks one
Speaker 1: in the team, you know, in out of the backfield
Speaker 1: and in one of those periods. There are so many
Speaker 1: guys in so much competition at these different spots that
Speaker 1: I feel like this preseason especially, are only being three games,
Speaker 1: steaks are at all time high for a lot of
Speaker 1: these guys trying to make an impression on this coaching
Speaker 1: staff and personnel department. Yeah. Absolutely, Well, on our next
Speaker 1: show later this week, we'll get into more of the
Speaker 1: specifics of what to watch in that first preseason game.
Speaker 1: But I need to take care of a little bit
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Speaker 1: gonna have to start bringing food in here for our
Speaker 1: shoots because that's just gonna make me hungry. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: This is not a part of the attery, but I
Speaker 1: actually had one of those shakes. Have you ever had
Speaker 1: a Cousin shake at all? I have not. That's one
Speaker 1: thing I have not had from there now. Yeah, because
Speaker 1: I never really thought about that before, but one day
Speaker 1: I'm walking into Cousins. This was down in Appleton off
Speaker 1: Northland Avenue. It was with my friend Scott Vincy. We're
Speaker 1: doing some shopping, was during my vacation and we both
Speaker 1: wanted to grab us up. So we went to the
Speaker 1: Cousins and I was like, you know what, I always
Speaker 1: get the diet coke or a bottle of water or
Speaker 1: something like that. I'm getting the chocolate shake this time.
Speaker 1: And it was delightful. So he hopped into Cousins. You
Speaker 1: tell him Hods Sanchia. They'll hook you up with a
Speaker 1: nice chocolate shake. And wonder who Hod was. Now I'm
Speaker 1: now I'm even hungrier. But um, but I do another
Speaker 1: thing from the weekend. I do want to get to though.
Speaker 1: The Pro Football Hall of Fame inductions in Canton, Ohio.
Speaker 1: First off, congratulations, it was overdue and unfortunately a couple
Speaker 1: of years after he passed away, but congratulations to Bobby
Speaker 1: Dill and his family. UM star defensive back for the
Speaker 1: Green Bay Packers in the nineteen fifties. Played from nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty two to fifty nine. His final season was Vince
Speaker 1: Lombardies for first. He still holds the Packers all time
Speaker 1: record for career interceptions with fifty two. UM a big
Speaker 1: time player in an otherwise rather forgettable decade of Green
Speaker 1: Bay Packers football. And he was part of the centennial
Speaker 1: class of for the Hall of Fame. But then the
Speaker 1: official induction ceremonies were postponed a year because of the pandemic.
Speaker 1: But congratulations to Bobby Dylan and his family. I was
Speaker 1: so happy to see that. You saw the photos of
Speaker 1: his family down in cant and you can tell how
Speaker 1: much this meant to him. I'm sure they would have
Speaker 1: loved it happened, you know, when Bobby was still with us.
Speaker 1: But you know, the thing about Bobby Dylan that I
Speaker 1: love about his story so much is one obviously we
Speaker 1: hear that you know only you know, having cited one eye. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: had a had a glass eye due to an accident
Speaker 1: from I think when he was ten years old or
Speaker 1: something like that. And uh and yeah, played played his
Speaker 1: entire entire football career with a glass eye. And you know,
Speaker 1: Pete Orty will tell me there's no such thing as irony,
Speaker 1: but I think that's a really interesting dynamic. You know,
Speaker 1: a guy that had one line of vision there was
Speaker 1: able to intercept as many passes as he do as
Speaker 1: being a ball hawk on that side of things, and
Speaker 1: then the other thing I liked to about his story
Speaker 1: is that this was the very end of the era
Speaker 1: where he almost had to recruit guys to play. You
Speaker 1: had to convince them to want to play football because
Speaker 1: the money wasn't great at that time. And I'm really
Speaker 1: so thrilled for Bobby Dylan in addition obviously be in
Speaker 1: the Hall of Fame, but the fact that he decided
Speaker 1: to come back for that last season, if you know
Speaker 1: anything about his story, Vince Lombardi had to do some
Speaker 1: real recruiting to be able to get him back for
Speaker 1: that last season he did. He got to kind of
Speaker 1: taste the beginning of the turnaround there in Green Bay.
Speaker 1: It was the only winning team. The only team he
Speaker 1: played on with a winning record was Vince Lombardi's first season,
Speaker 1: which turned out to be his last. And and Bobby
Speaker 1: Dilon three times during the nineteen fifties had nine interceptions
Speaker 1: in a season, and that's in a twelve game season, folks,
Speaker 1: nine picks in a twelve games season. He did it
Speaker 1: three times for the Green Bay pack and unfortunately, Packers
Speaker 1: ended up giving the ball back quite a few times
Speaker 1: during the fifties. But be Dylan a much deserved honor,
Speaker 1: and we talked about it a lot. We don't have
Speaker 1: to get into it. We want to talk about the
Speaker 1: next guy. But the centennial class. That's the reason why
Speaker 1: it was brought back. Not not this thing about bringing
Speaker 1: in like everybody else that didn't get in over the
Speaker 1: last twenty five years. It should have been about those
Speaker 1: guys in the pre sixty the pre Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: era that didn't get their due. Bobby Dylan was definitely
Speaker 1: one of those gentlemen. Yeah, absolutely, Well, the headliner from
Speaker 1: this past weekend was none under than Charles Woodson. And interestingly,
Speaker 1: when you go in as one of three first ballot
Speaker 1: Hall of Famers along with Peyton Manning and Calvin Johnson,
Speaker 1: the guy giving the final speech closing the show on
Speaker 1: Sunday night from Canton, Ohio, the only one who wasn't
Speaker 1: on a time limit and he went ten minutes where
Speaker 1: everybody else was limited to six minutes, was Charles Woodson.
Speaker 1: If you haven't seen the speech, it's posted in its
Speaker 1: entirety on packers dot Com. Also wrote a story kind
Speaker 1: of recapping it. Just um. Obviously we all know about
Speaker 1: his career and everything, but you saw a little bit
Speaker 1: of Charles Woodson, the man up there in front of
Speaker 1: that large crowd at Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium.
Speaker 1: Within just you know, a minute or two of him
Speaker 1: starting to talk about his mother, Georgia, who was his
Speaker 1: presenter for for the Hall of Fame induction, he started
Speaker 1: to get emotional and his speech was emotional from from
Speaker 1: start to finish. The way I summed it up was
Speaker 1: this was there the two things that meant the most
Speaker 1: and that means the most in Charles Woodson's life, football
Speaker 1: and family converged in that speech in Canton, Ohio on
Speaker 1: Sunday night. Um. The night was a tribute to him
Speaker 1: and his first ballot induction, but he made that speech
Speaker 1: attribute to his to his family, to his mother, to
Speaker 1: his brother, to his sister, another close friend that he
Speaker 1: calls a brother by another mother, and then his own
Speaker 1: wife and two sons who were who were in the
Speaker 1: stands there. Um just um, really really moving moment to
Speaker 1: uh to see and hear what he had to say,
Speaker 1: and UH and you know, I couldn't be couldn't feel
Speaker 1: more privileged to have covered his seven years as a
Speaker 1: Green Bay packer. You got all seven years. I only
Speaker 1: got two thousand twelve full time and then also you know,
Speaker 1: smattering of interviews during his time in Oakland. What I
Speaker 1: love the most about Charles Woodson is from a pure
Speaker 1: biological genetic standpoint, probably one of the most gifted guys
Speaker 1: to ever play the game of football. Just really is
Speaker 1: and means has arguably the most decorated career of anybody,
Speaker 1: with the Super Bowl victory, any athlete when you look
Speaker 1: at high school, college, pros, everything, he did it all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: mr mr Ohio coming out of Fremont, Ohio, Mr Football
Speaker 1: in Ohio. Won a Heisman Trophy at Michigan, first primarily
Speaker 1: defensive player to ever win the Heisman Trophy, and then
Speaker 1: wins a National Championship at Michigan, and then wins a
Speaker 1: Super Bowl and as a first ballot Hall of Famer
Speaker 1: a defensive player is a year of All Pro Pro Bowls.
Speaker 1: All that I mean, the accolades from this man's life
Speaker 1: as a teenager up until now just off the charts.
Speaker 1: But what I love the most about Charles Woodson and
Speaker 1: why I enjoyed covering him for that one season, the
Speaker 1: only seven games I got to cover him full time
Speaker 1: other than being in the locker room in ten and
Speaker 1: eleven to get quotes. He and I wrote about the
Speaker 1: inbox he put the professional and professional football. The way
Speaker 1: he carried himself, the way he spoke, the way he dressed.
Speaker 1: There was, like I like to say it. I was
Speaker 1: trying to kind of find a way to say this
Speaker 1: the right way. But he sort of reminds me of
Speaker 1: like Rick Flair with pro wrestling, where Flair was a
Speaker 1: pro wrestler, but he also was a showman. He also
Speaker 1: would go and you know, promote the brand. He would be.
Speaker 1: He was a good speaker. He could go on television shows.
Speaker 1: That was Charles Woodson the National Football League at the time.
Speaker 1: Charles Woodson finally hung it up after thirty seven seasons
Speaker 1: or whatever it was. He enhanced the shield he and
Speaker 1: has those three letters, and this is exactly the Pro
Speaker 1: Football Hall of Fame was built for men like Charles Woodson. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The thing, the thing that I'll remember the most. You know,
Speaker 1: I've I've been This is my sixteen season now with
Speaker 1: Packers dot Com. I also covered some of the Packers
Speaker 1: glory seasons in the nineties um on a on a
Speaker 1: backup secondary basis during my newspaper days. I have never
Speaker 1: seen in person or covered a defensive player with the
Speaker 1: instincts and anticipation of Charles Woodson. And yes, he started
Speaker 1: his career as athletically gifted beyond all get out, but
Speaker 1: he'd already been in the NFL for eight years by
Speaker 1: the time he came to Green Bay, and it was
Speaker 1: by then, you know, yeah, you start to lose a
Speaker 1: half a step or whatever by the time you get
Speaker 1: to fifteen sixteen years, he end up having an eighteen
Speaker 1: year career. You've lost a whole step. But why were
Speaker 1: why did those why were those thinks always on display?
Speaker 1: It's because he studied film like nobody else, and he
Speaker 1: he knew from his film study what the other team
Speaker 1: was going to be doing. It was like he just
Speaker 1: he always he always had that knowledge before he walked
Speaker 1: out onto the field and the plays that he was
Speaker 1: able to make. The way the way he just anticipated
Speaker 1: and jumped plays and jumped routes and everything, I've never
Speaker 1: I've never seen I've just never seen anything like it.
Speaker 1: He was such a he he was such a joy
Speaker 1: to watch and as you said, a true professional in
Speaker 1: the way, in the way he dealt with the media,
Speaker 1: in the way he was a leader in the locker room.
Speaker 1: We all know about the speech after the NFC Championship game,
Speaker 1: and then the speech at halftime of the Super Bowl
Speaker 1: when he when he broke his college boy. Now that
Speaker 1: one's not on video anywhere, but you know, he was
Speaker 1: so overcome with emotion and not being able to finish
Speaker 1: that game and to try to win that championship that
Speaker 1: he couldn't even finish talking um. But the message got
Speaker 1: across to his teammates and and there was sort of
Speaker 1: just no way they were going to lose that game
Speaker 1: down in Dallas at night. And the reason his message
Speaker 1: really resonated balance he was the same guy. He didn't
Speaker 1: deviate high or low either way, every single time he
Speaker 1: was in the locker room, every single time he dealt
Speaker 1: with the media, every single interview you watch at Charles Woodson,
Speaker 1: same exact human being. And I think that's why people
Speaker 1: respected him, on top of the fact of his athletic gifts. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: hats off to hats off to Charles. I'm sure it
Speaker 1: was a great weekend for UH, for him and his
Speaker 1: UH and his family and and UH. And he closed
Speaker 1: the show with a great ten minutes there up on
Speaker 1: stage at Tom Benson Stadium. But with that, we're going
Speaker 1: to call it a wrap on this edition of Packers
Speaker 1: on Script. If you should have, follow all of our
Speaker 1: coverage with the Packers and training camp as it continues
Speaker 1: here on Packers dot com for West, I'm Mike. Thank
Speaker 1: you for tuning in, everybody, See you next time.