Following Jolly’s Outside The Lines piece yesterday, he was in court this afternoon to learn his legal fate.
According the AP, after his third arrest in three years, Jolly has been sentenced to 6 years in prison and will be eligible for parole after 14 months.
As I said in my first piece, despite anyone’s deepest desire to help Jolly, his time in Green Bay was most definitely done. It is now hard to imagine that he will ever step foot on any professional football field, seeing that the soonest he could re-enter the league would be when he is at least 30 years old and after having been away from the game for five years.
Since his piece aired yesterday, I’ve witnessed many different discussions regarding addiction, recovery and drug abuse. I don’t know Jolly’s history, him personally nor really the depths of his troubles. But I can say after watching his piece that he now does seem to be taking the responsibility for his actions. Now he must pay the consequences. One can only hope that this time will help him continue on the path to sobriety, so that when he does re-enter society he will become of functioning and healthy member of it.
The Jolly situation along with some comments by Aaron Rodgers has brought about an interesting discussion on the NFL’s role in regards to players facing drug addictions and problems. What, if any, role should the NFL play? I spent some time last night in reflection on it. I firmly believe that it is up to the addict to want help, but I think there is a place for an NFL rehab program for suspended players or players that have failed drug tests.
What is your reaction to the Jolly sentence and addiction in the NFL? You can email Jayme at Jayme@brentfavre.com or find her on twitter @jaymelee1. Also make sure to listen to her rant on CheeseheadRadio on Thursday nights and at CheeseheadTV’s Eat More Cheese.
With the recent struggles of the Packers defense, especially the defensive line, many have been talking about the absence of Cullen Jenkins and the decreased production of Clay Matthews. And while most of us sat and attempted to analyze what was missing, one name was definitely missing from that discussion.
Johnny Jolly.
Somewhere in between 113 tackles and multiple arrests, Jolly has went from a name that we wondered about, to a name that we didn’t want to hear, to a name we forgot.
It was the tale of success, troubled childhood, continuing to associate with the wrong people, too much free time and ultimately a Tale of Addiction.
After his last arrest, I think we all wrote him off. He is troubled. He is not Packer People.
Then news today that he will be featured in tomorrow’s Outside the Lines segment during we he says, “codeine was my only friend.”
I for one am interested to see the piece. I believe that people can change and have been hoping and praying for his own sake, that Jolly would come around. I don’t think he’ll ever again be Packer People. That ship has sailed. I’m not sure if he’ll ever be welcomed back to the NFL, but either way, I hope that this was and is rock bottom for him and that whatever is next for him it does not involve Purple Drank.
Today the NFL announced its fine on packers linebacker A.J. Hawk. For flipping the bird to his own sideline as a joke, Hawk will have to pay $10,000 to the National Football League.
AP
Hawk is not the only Packers player with lighter pockets. Both Clay Matthews and Tramon Williams wore the wrong colored shoes on Sunday and owe the NFL $5,000 each.
Really, NFL?
First off, I’m not offended by the middle finger. But I’m not offended by a lot of things. I don’t think its low class nor hurtful to really anyone. You don’t want to do it, don’t do it. You don’t want your kids to do it, tell them and teach them not to. But I realize that not everyone agrees with me there. To some, the middle finger is equivalent to swearing in a church. And since football is family television – I mean, what with all the violence, and scanticly clad cheerleaders and drinking – Hawk should have kept his fingers in line. I wasn’t surprised by the fine, but 10K? Come on, man!
Who was Hawk harming? If it’s about not subjecting impressionable young ones to the finger, then perhaps Cutler should have been fined for his F-bomb directed at Mike Martz. In both cases, the offensive gesture/words were directed at the person’s own team, said in the heat of a game, and after Rex Ryan on HBO’s Hard Knocks generally understood to be the culture of football. Both actions were caught on tape, when most likely the player did not realize they would be. Should both be more aware? Sure. Should they be more level headed? Well, that’s hard for Cutler, but for A.J., yes. But I’m going on record as saying that 10K is a tad much for one finger.
So while Cutler is swearing up a storm and Hawk is practicing saying he’s number one with a different finger, Clay Matthews and Tramon Williams are supposedly also opening their pocket books for wearing “inappropriate colored shoes.” (Let me know when you’re done laughing and we’ll continue….) When I think of inappropriate clothing, mostly I picture the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, but maybe that’s just me.
So here’s what we learned this weekend: four yellow shoes = one middle finger. Yet swearing audibly to your coach on T.V. and two grown coaches slapping each other on the back and acting like fools = full pockets. Got it.
So later today, slap your coworker, quietly call them a name or chase after them and bump them when they might have been rude. That’s cool. But please above all else, make sure your shoes match your clothes!
I remember a joke my dad told me once. Back in the Sherman days, everyone, sometimes rightfully so, was a critic. Sherman said once, “I know a lot of you think you could be coach and have some great ideas. If any of you can figure out how to get them down to me on the sideline during a game, I’ll read it.” My dad suggested taping the idea to a brick; it would surely get there then.
We all do it. Last week Packers fans were questioning why Grant was getting the ball at all. To the mid-game during the Bears game when people were wondering why Starks kept coming in. We all are coaches. We love the team, we watch “film” so we have expert knowledge on how to run the team.
But this season, Packers fans coaching wisdom and desire to scream it from the roof tops (or as my dad used to say, on a brick) has been surpassed by that of the Denver Broncos.
We all know the story. The perpetual next best thing, Tim Tebow is essentially the third string quarterback (or now wide receiver – its hard to keep up) for the Broncos. During the off season the Broncos’ front office – which includes the man who broke my heart, John Elway – made it no secret, they were open to trading starting quarterback Kyle Orton. For reasons only understood to John Madden, Orton remains in Denver. So throughout training camp and the preseason the coaches worked out all three of their QBs (let’s not forget the stellar arm of Brady Quinn also walks their sideline). It became clear to coaches, pundits and most people with eyes, that Orton was the starter. It also became clear that Quinn and Tebow probably suck equally – I mean, there’s a pretty good chance the golden boy is actually number three. Yet for some reason these Denver fans don’t seem to get the message.
They missed the message so much so that a group of fans got together to try to rent out some billboards to get their pro-Tebow message across. I will applaud them that its bigger than my father’s brick idea, but I’m guessing a lot more expensive and equally ineffective. I don’t know if they actually got the billboard – mostly because the whole thing seems insanity to me. But I do know that if you YouTube Tim Tebow Song, you get a handful of pro-Tebow tunes.
So there you have it, this week we are playing a team where the fans desperately want their team to start their third string quarterback. I spent last week joking about what a cry baby Cutler is. But as far as I know, he’s never done this:
I don’t know a lot about Denver’s team, except that they have a lot of injuries at wide receiver, but if we can’t beat a team this confused, I don’t know what I will do.
I like Bears week. I like talking smack and laughing at Cutler and going toe to toe with another die hard fan base.
Last year for the first week of Bears week, I spent my days searching for Bears jokes. And while hysterical, there’s only so many times you can laugh at:
Q. What’s the difference between the Chicago Bears & a dollar bill?
A. You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.
So this year, I took a different approach. I figured I’d try my hand at messing with some Jay Cutler photographs. Had I know it was this easy, I would have been doing this for years. Any simple google search of “Jay+Cutler+funny” or “Jay+Cutler+Sad” or “Jay+Cutler+Ground” will produce enough images to occupy a person for at least a week.
Now, I’m not a photoshop genius. Heck, I don’t even have photoshop on this computer. But I am, if I do say so myself, occassionally funny.
Here’s some of my favorites:
If you’d like to see my whole collection, which I will continue to update as people send me more and as I find and create more visit my photobucket album.
Hope this inspires you all to create some of your own anti-Bears magic. It really does brighten a day and make the week go quicker. Can’t wait till Sunday when the Packers remind the Bears which team won last year’s Super Bowl and which team watched it for home.
Have your own Bears jokes or pictures to share? You can email Jayme at Jayme@brentfavre.com or find her on twitter @jaymelee1. Also make sure to listen to her rant on CheeseheadRadio on Thursday nights and at CheeseheadTV’s Eat More Cheese.
Anyone who was a Packers fan during the 1990s should have an innate dislike for Skip Bayless. All those years, all those losses to the Cowboys and then all those articles by Bayless. But if for some reason you missed his pro-Cowboy, anti-Packers rhetoric from those days, I submit to you. Skip Bayless, perhaps the only person who doesn’t want to forget Brent. :)
It is now officially over. The Players and the Owners have agreed to a CBA. We still have to wait for re-certification but the end is upon us.
Now we can begin what most surely will be a very complicated couple of weeks. Players can start voluntary workouts at team facilities tomorrow. Free Agent signings will begin at varying times this week. Our Green Bay Packers will start training camp on Friday. Its going to be a busy week.
I don’t know about you, but these last couple of weeks have been nerve racking. Of course they’d get it figured out; I never doubted that. It felt like we stood frozen on the word close for nearly two weeks. Speculation, guesses, twitter fights from Kluwe’s “#douchebags” to Vonnie Holliday’s use of the word bamboozled. It was nearly too much to handle.
I went into hiding over the offseason/no-season/lockout. There was nothing “real” to talk about. Football didn’t exist. So today feels great; like being reborn. Football is back. And now the Packers can focus on getting back on the field and ready to repeat. So tonight, I’ll be celebrating; hope you will be as well.
I found this video this morning during my daily search for new Packers videos. I had a very interesting reaction to the video, so I thought it appropriate to share.
First off, I really like this song and LOVED it when it was used in a very awesome YouTube video about the Lombardi Trophy coming home. Therefore, any other use of the song is going to pale in comparison.
Second, now that we’ve (the Packers) won, I have found my anger toward Brent waning. So as opposed to last year, or even earlier this season, when I now watch clips of the younger, less douchey Favre, I am nostalgic. Not that I want him to be my quarterback or that I ever want to see him on the sideline of a Packers game. But the gut rot that I used to experience whenever I saw a play from the Favre era is definitely lessening.
And so, I started playing the what if game. What if Favre had never un-retired? What if those tears in his press conference really were the last we heard of him, and then it was all Rodgers? I know that I flocked to being a Rodgers fan, not just because he was my quarterback (said like T.O.) but also because I wanted him to prove Mr. TurboDouche wrong. What if Favre wasn’t playing for the Jets that first year? Would I, would you, have stuck it out with Rodgers? I wonder how that different pressure would have affected Rodgers and the team. Would there have been a game this year, last year, next year in which Favre’s number is retired? Would he come to Packers games? All these questions and different scenarios float in my head.
But he didn’t stay retired. He didn’t stick with the Packers. And he didn’t stick with us. But what does that do for those memories? At first I couldn’t watch anything Favre related, even that pose from Super Bowl XXXI, without the hatred rising within me. But now that this all seems to be in the past, now that the Packers have clearly moved on, and are clearly better for having done so. And now that Favre’s body seems to have finally caught up with him, what’s the appropriate way to watch videos like this? Is it wrong to smile at those memories? Or should we still play the “it didn’t happen, Rodgers is the greatest” game for a little while longer? Should there be more of these videos out there, planning out the eventual reconciliation between sexter and the Packers?
I know most of my post lately have been dealing with this “issue” and I’m sure there’s people out there who just don’t care about Favre and his relationship to the Packers. But from a practical side, I can’t imagine that there won’t be a time when this will eventually will all be resolved and better. And from an emotional side, I can’t pretend I don’t have reactions to this situation and videos like this one. And seeing how we’re two days away from the NFL basically not existing, the past might actually be all we have for a little while.
In our post Super Bowl haze, it seems almost silly to talk about the ol’ Grandpa quarterback we used to have. Rodgers is great, the Packers are Super Bow Champs! Fist pump! YES! But in the post-Super Bowl glow, and for some of us – myself included – the post-Super Bowl football-less blues, an old story keeps rumbling below the surface.
Much like herpes, Brett Favre is always there. You can treat it, get the bumps to go away, but you are powerless as to when they’ll/he’ll come back. (okay, maybe not the most beautiful of analogies, but this is the sexter we’re talking about).
Now as a Packers fan and no longer a Favre fan, I do not make frequent trips to his official website. Apparently not a lot of other people do either. Yesterday, the Bleacher Report quoted that “sometime recently” a noticeable change was made to the lay out of the site. Back when the Favre consecutive game record ended, I visited the site to see all the new memorabilia they were trying to sell, and I do recall the site being decked out full purple. If you visit the site now, it’s not hard to notice the change.
Do you notice a difference?
After the Packers Super Bowl win, and after Favre’s demise in Minnesota, there were rumblings of him wanting to reach out to the Packers, calling Rodgers, cheering for the Packers, etc. But there it is, directly in our faces. The man is officially putting Green Bay back to his number one.
Now I’m not giving out any cookies for this move. Of course he’s reworking the website. Do you want people to remember you as Favre on the ground or Favre the kid who won a Super Bowl?
But it is also clear, no matter how much some of us would wish the man would go away, let us celebrate this victory and maybe we’ll deal with him in a couple of years, that just isn’t going to happen. Like it or not, its news when he changes the layout to his website. If there’s football next year, and IF he doesn’t play, and he comes out in support of the Packers, that will be news. It’s all news. For that reason alone, I almost wish to accept this olive branch. Take the story out of his hands, and own it once again.
Last Sunday I found myself surrounded with 100+ fans in a tent outside Vernon’s in Addison, Texas.
Vernon’s is YouTube famous, and the largest Packers bar in Dallas. Do a YouTube search for Vernon’s + Packers + Texas or anything of the like, and you’ll see what I’m talking about. People from all around the DFW area flock there every week for game day. I arrived shortly before 1 p.m. and was told there was no way I’d get inside; there were literally fire marshals standing on the sidewalk waiting to bust the place for breaking fire code. Overheard other fans saying they arrived around ten in the morning and the inside bar was already filled up.
So I headed to the outside tent, complete with two big projection screens, many beer stations, brats and eggs, and filled with Packers faithful.
Upon entering the outdoor area not only did we notice that Dave Robinson was there signing autographs but we also spotted WTMJ’s Mike Jacobs. So amped for the game, basically just a pile of nerves; I wasn’t completely prepared for what happened next.
Standing there with Brian Carriveau, a fellow Packers fan spotted Brian’s media passes and wanted to come show of this awesome shirt he was wearing and alert the media to a new trend.
The fan was wearing the We’ll Never Forget You Brent Favre shirt.
“Check this shirt out! Isn’t it great? Brent!! (laughter) Who’s that guy?”
I sat there and smiled and nodded along. It is a great shirt. And this kid was so proud of it and proud of himself for sharing it with us. Didn’t want to burst his bubble and tell him that yes, I was already familiar with the shirt and the blog.
It was one of those moments when I am reminded of one of the core things I love about Packers fans. No matter where you go, people are generally sharing the same experience. There are so many things to tell about the game, like how I was freezing cold but it was still the best day of my life. But for now here’s a cheers to brentfavre.com, the hilarity of the joke and Packers fans everywhere. We’re number one!
