The Green Bay Packers are 2011 Super Bowl champions defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25 in Dallas, Texas. The feeling in the postgame media sessions was what you thought it would be -- pure joy. Several Packers noted how special this was for a guy like WR Donald Driver.
Driver, 36, celebrated a birthday on Wednesday and four days later celebrated a Super Bowl title.
The game didn't go as he planned when he left with an injury in the second quarter. "I couldn't jump on it anymore and [the doctor] told me I was done even though I felt like I could still go. He said no good. Sometimes you have to follow what the doctor says."
Despite exiting the game, he was still able to make himself useful. Several Packers said Driver gave a speech at halftime after he learned he wouldn't be able to return and that was part of their motivation to go into the second half and maintain their lead.
"The crazy part is those guys came in there and saw my eyes, they told me, "We can cry because you're crying right now." So I told them to go out and there and win it all."
Jennings jokingly said Driver has been in Green Bay "for what seems like 45 years" -- it's actually since 1999 -- and that it felt special to get a victory for him.
Like Driver, CB Charles Woodson was hurt and didn't return in the second half. "It's been an unbelievable journey for this team all season long. All season long we had to fight through a lot of things and today was no different. Driver goes down. I go down. Just like all season, somebody stepped in and they stepped up."
Woodson said he talked to the young players before they went back out for the second half. "I told the guys, before they went back out, they understand how much I wanted it. I was pretty emotional so I didn't get a whole lot out, but just to tell them to get it done and they did."
It's fitting that, in a year where the dominating story line was the number of injuries in Green Bay, the Packers came out in the second half without two of their biggest stars and go on to win the game, and the Super Bowl.