Hello Jaguars Fans,

I'm a Packers fan that comments over at Acme Packing Company. I have an ethical dilemma that I think you guys could answer.

The Packers are given 150 Super Bowl Rings to distribute to whomever they please. Would you guys be alright with Aaron Kampman accepting a Super Bowl ring from a team he was under contract with for no part of the 2010 season? Perhaps, more importantly, would Wayne Weaver, Gene Smith, and Jack Del Rio be alright with him accepting a Super Bowl Ring while with another team?

I'm not sure if the Indianapolis Colts and the Arizona Cardinals set a precedent when the Colts sent Edgerrin James a Super Bowl ring, but it's the only occurrence of this I've heard of. So, obviously there, all parties involved were okay with it, but i'm curious to here what you guys think.

I so rarely make fanposts, but this is something I was thinking about recently and since it's our bye, why not bring it up. Back in the 2002 season, when the NFL added the Houston Texans and realigned to eight four team divisions from six five/six team divisions it was weird at first. We wouldn't be playing the Tampa Bay Buccaneer's twice a year anymore unless we met in the playoffs. Also, it became easier to win the division as the division winners grew from three to four, but the number of wild cards dropped from three to two. I assume most of you have gotten pretty used to the changes, but can still vividly remember the days of the old NFC Central. I want your opinion on some things after the jump.

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I'm sure most of you have read what Cullen Jenkins had to say after Sunday's game in which the defense gave up four passing touchdowns to Brett Favre and the Vikings. And I'm sure some of you have also read what ESPN.com NFC North Blogger Kevin Seifert makes of the situation. This defense is in trouble, right? Just look at the three games played against legit NFL Offenses, doesn't look that much different than last year, does it? Maybe we're just kidding ourselves that this can be a playoff team, specifically one that can hold a good NFL offense in check. Maybe this defense just isn't going to get it done. 

Geez, but then look at the rankings. Our defense is in the top ten in both scoring and total defense. And so what if we only shut out Detroit. I mean Pittsburgh gave up twenty points to Detroit.

But now of all times, is when we could actually stand to listen to some advice of two brothers from Minnesota of all places. For those of you who saw the Coen Brothers' newest movie 'A Serious Man', perhaps you remember this quote on the screen just as the film started.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you."

-Rashi

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From now until training camp there won't be much breaking news if you even consider all the crap we hear from Kiln, Mississippi as news. So I thought it would be a fun thing to just look back on fairly recent, but not too recent seasons for the Packers and reminisce about them. 2001 seems to fit within that criteria, and it was a very good year for the Packers, so why not start with it. 

For me, number one, the 2001 season sort of ushered in the second phase of Brett Favre's career with the team. After having average years both competitively and statistically in 1999 and 2000, Favre and the entire team showed marked improvement in 2001. He was far enough away from his substance abuse days that he managed to have an MVP calibur year. 

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Hello everybody. I'm a Packers fan and post regularly over at Acme Packing Company. This may sound like a strange request but this is a question that has been vexing my football-centric mind for years. How did the 2002 Cleveland Browns make the NFL playoffs?

I don't remember there being any pro bowlers from that team. 'Course, thats such an unscientific way of gauging roster talent. But I think about the starting lineup of that team and I find average players at best littering the roster. I understand Kelly Holcomb took over Tim Couch and played very well that season, but the guys he had to throw to were no names as well. I mean Quincy Morgan, Kevin Johnson, Dennis Northcutt? Thats not a playoff calibur receiving corps in my mind.

And what about the defense? I can't think of one difference maker on that defense. I mean Kenard Lang wasn't bad, and while Gerard Warren wasn't terrible he never came close to living up to his potential.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this has to be one of the least talented teams to make the playoffs. By no means am I knocking, in fact I found it quite easy to route for that squad. All I want are some answers.

And yes, if you want my opinion on Favre, or how the Packers went 6-10 last year, I'll be more than happy to give it to you.

Just letting everyone at Camdenchat know that we not only have the fifty millionth fan, we're also having one of our own star in an Orioles commercial. At least I think it's going to be an Orioles commercial.

I got the call on monday that I was chosen to star in this spot where I tell my story of going to an Orioles game last year. (It was the giant comeback against the Tigers where Luke hit a walk-off/the Orioles Magic DVD giveaway game) They contacted me because of a comment I made on this very blog about going to that game. 

When I went to the studios on Falls Road, I was lucky enough to meet another Camden Chatter, Brotz 13 there, and we preceded to talk alotta football while dressed in our Orioles gear.

I don't really have an idea of how many Orioles spots MASN is running like this though I do know there will be a National's version, too. I'm not completely sure if this is a TV ad, though they told me to condense my story to within thirty seconds at the audition, so I'm assuming so. I even told them, that while I knew the checks they got had Peter Angelos' name on them, i still think he's a godawful owner.

Not much else to report on. So, if you see a husky jewfroed man talking about the Orioles during games, thats probably me.

Not the most talented division in football, but easily my favorite one to follow. I'll write comments under positional races that are close.

Offense

QB: Aaron Rodgers, Green Bay Packers

FB: Jason McKie, Chicago Bears

Don't know much about McKie, but if he's helped Matt Forte to such a good rookie year, he must be pretty good.

RB: Adrian Peterson, Minnesota Vikings

LT: Bryant McKinnie, Minnesota Vikings

Chad Clifton hasn't run blocked well enough, or for that matter pass blocked well enough against elite rusher to be called the best Left Tackle in the NFC North.

LG: Steve Hutchinson, Minnesota Vikings

C: Olin Kreutz, Chicago Bears

Scott Wells isn't that far off from Olin Kreutz.

RG: Roberto Garza, Chicago Bears

I'll confess my ignorance. I probably should study up on my Black and Blue right guards.

RT: Mark Tauscher, Green Bay Packers

Because no one else has stepped up.

TE: Desmond Clark, Chicago Bears

Would have better stats if half those passes weren't going to former Orioles closer Greg Olsen.

WR: Greg Jennings, Green Bay Packers

WR: Calvin Johnson, Detroit Lions

Defense

DE's: Jared Allen, Minnesota Vikings, and Aaron Kampman, Green Bay Packers

Allen is the better rusher, Kampman's more complete. Alex Brown, Chicago Bears, isn't that far off.  In a preview of things to come, Cullen Jenkins could have gotten a spot here had he stayed healthy, because he was playing almost as well as his brother.

DT's: Kevin Williams, Minnesota Vikings and Pat Williams, Minnesota Vikings

Tommie Harris, Chicago Bears, is utterly disappointing. 

WLB: Lance Briggs, Chicago Bears

MLB: Brian Urlacher, Chicago Bears

I hate doing this. This is BS, but I had no choice. EJ Henderson was far and away playing the best football, but he's out for the year. Nick Barnett was dissapointing like Urlacher and now he's out for the year. Paris Lenon isn't that bad, but he's still a Lion. I can't give it to AJ Hawk for just one game, can I?

SLB: Chad Greenway, Minnesota Vikings

For how he played against the Packers and Buccaneers the last two weeks. Brandon Chillar would have gotten more consideration had he started more so far this year.

CB's: Charles Woodson, Green Bay Packers and Antoine Winfield, Minnesota Vikings 

Al Harris has been absolutely lockdown, since coming back from the spleen injury but Winfield's been great this year.

FS: Nick Collins, Green Bay Packers

SS: Darren Sharper, Minnesota Vikings

Special Teams

P: Chris Kluwe, Minnesota Vikings

K: Mason Crosby, Green Bay Packers

PR: Will Blackmon, Green Bay Packers

What can I say, Devin Hester? Blackmon's just been better. I can't just automatically hand it to you.

KR: Devin Hester, Chicago Bears

Actually, I can just hand it to you.

Final Numbers

Packers: 8

Bears: 7

Vikings: 10

Lions; 1

Needless to say, Packers and Bears fans love Brad Childress.

I'm obviously a Packer fan, but I'm not a Wisconsinite. I'm from the DC suburbs of Maryland. But the Packers aren't the only thing I love from Wisconsin, though. Heres a growing list of people, places, or things I love about Wisconsin.

Michael Feldman-Has a public radio show alot like Garrison Keillor, but seperates himself because 1. from Wisconsin as opposed to Minnesota, therefore better, 2. funnier than Garrison Keillor with a helluva lot less effort at it and 3. he's Jewish, and he's from Wisconsin. How awesome is that?

The accents-With one side of my family from Michigan and the other from  Illinois, I'm pretty familiar with how people from Wisconsin talk, but that does nothing to diminish my love for it. GOW BEADGERS!

Senator Feingold-Opposes the Patriot Act, wants universal health care. Sounds like a beast to me. Plus, he's Jewish and from Wisconsin. How awesome is that?

Bob Uecker-This one needs no explanation.

Usingers-Simply the best Bratwurst. God, I could look at those catalogs all day.

Caron Butler-Far and away my favorite Wizard of all time.

Any other suggestions?

Us Washington Capital's fans desperately need a blog on the SB Nation. We have plenty of good bloggers in the blogosphere, so it won't be much trouble finding a good one. What about Japer's Rink? I've been forced to meet my Hockey commenting fix on 'Die by the Blade', but I can't just talk Jason Pominville, Ryan Miller and Derek Roy all day. I need a Washington Capitals blog, please.

It's pretty obvious at this point the Atlanta Falcons are going through a major youth movement. They drafted a couple of pretty good rookies this year that will get plenty of time to play this year for them: LT Sam Baker and MLB Curtis Lofton. I watched and took notes of a preseason game they had with the Tennessee Titans earlier this year, and these were some of my observations.

#50 MLB Curtis Lofton: I liked watching this guy play at Oklahoma. He's short and is very comparable to a London Fletcher or for Falcon's fans a Jessie Tuggle. I remember reading Michael Lombardi not liking the fact the Falcons drafted him in the second round seeing as he was only a two-down player, and he indeed does come out on passing downs. While he quickly identifies plays and really explodes to the line of scrimmage with a good motor, he can get lost in the muck as well. He allowed himself to be cut blocked on a couple of plays and could have identified them better. If the Falcon's consider him that big a linchpin to their defense, they need to put a two gap system in front of him with two big D-Tackles so he can be allowed to move around unencumbered.

#72 LT Sam Baker: He went up against Kyle Vanden Bosch, one of the toughest match-ups for a rookie LT in the league right now. The Falcons called alot of three step drops during the game which allowed the quick Sam Baker to cut Vanden Bosch on a number of plays, and this unsurprisingly got Kyle Vanden Bosch pretty angry. Eventually Vanden Bosch was getting into scrums at the end of every play, obviously frustrated about not being able to get in the face of the rookie QB Matt Ryan and thats how I knew Sam Baker was doing a really good job. When Vanden Bosch beat him inside, he got help from the left guard. They didn't get burned by it because I don't think Albert Haynesworth was playing that  night, so Matt Ryan was still allowed to step up into the pocket. If we still had Cullen Jnekins playing tackle on passing downs we could burn them when they do this, but we don't and they may just get away with it. The Falcons will also line up a Tight End on Kampman's side and have the Tight End chip Kampman. Sam Baker probably could have finished off blocks better on the second level, but it was still a pretty impressive performance as he had almost completely taken a very good player out of the game.

#20 CB Chris Houston: The Falcons left Chris Houston out on an island for most of the game, however he will gamble. He jumped a post corner route and the receiver was able to get behind him. However, we may not get a chance to do this if we can't stop the Falcons when they....

Line up DE's John Abraham and Jamaal Anderson on the the same side. This worked pretty well in the game and all of us know just how explosive a player John Abraham can be and so far has been this year. There has been some communication problems on the O-LIne so far for us this year, this is the game we really should start to get this stuff down. Oh yeah, and Grady Jackson makes his triumphant return to Lambeau.

Bottom Line: Even though, we have alot of guys out, this is a very winnable game upcoming against the Falcons.

I was happy to see KGB was not ultimately cut because that means the coaches think he could be healthy enough to play this season. Also glad to see Charlie Peprah was not cut, because I wouldn't be comfortable with carrying just three safeties on the active roster. With Rob Davis, we really didn't know what we had until he's gone. We are going to need to sign a new snapper. Any other thoughts?

Did anybody else read about the four linebacker look with Nick Barnett, AJ Hawk, Brady Poppinga and Brandon Chillar they were experimenting with in mini camp. I'm pretty excited to see if this goes anywhere. With a four linebacker look the potential is greater for tough to pick up zone blitz schemes, as well as being harder for the offense to identify which linebacker might blitz if any of them. This seems to be a good way to salvage Brady Poppinga's stay with us as he and Nick Barnett are both exceptional blitzers. What about seeing KGB stay up and play a hybrid position to disguise where his rush will come from.

I also have to believe that Bob Sanders is also trying to compensate for some of the lost interior pass rush that went with Corey Williams' trade to Cleveland. Everyone must admit that while our defense was pretty highly ranked last year in a lot of categories, it underachieved just a tad, so I'd like to see Bob Sanders tinkering with some things this training camp.

Oh and topic number two concerning the defense: Who will Aaron Rouse subplant first at one of the starting safety positions: Nick Collins or Atari Bigby?

I haven't posted much here, and I've posted mostly on Camden Chat, the SB Nation blog for the Baltimore Orioles. You can probably expect more stuff from me, that will usually center on the Packers defensive side of the ball. I'm kind of obsessed with Football defense.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/baseball/mlb/06/17/bc.bbn.mets.randolphfir.ap/index.html?eref=T1

I guess the Mets just fired Willie Randolph. What is sort of head scratching is not why he was fired, but the fact that the only other guy on the coaching staff who was really qualified to be the interim manager is practically a clone of Willie Randolph in former White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel. This story is going to be all over ESPN so make sure to get fill of it on Camden Chat and not on the Worldwide leader.

Its pretty hard not to get excited about Adam after reading this. I won't give away too much here, because it was such a damn pleasure to read and everyone should take a look. My only gripe is that why haven't we been hearing about this clubhouse stuff from Roch.

Here's the article
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring2008/columns/story?columnist=crasnick_jerry&id=3302059

I just figured we needed something to talk about the series finale of the best show of all time. If you haven't seen the finale, gotten to season five, or even started watching the show but plan on it, then you should not read this diary. This is for anybody who wants to talk about the series and the finale.

How can this possibly be a bad thing to have some guys grow some facial hair, Trembley? Does eveyone on the team feel unified because they can look over and see the guy next to him is clean shaven just like him, or maybe, just maybe that would bond guys together to have a bunch of guys with beards and remind them that they are all in this together and they all share a common goal. Sure, doesn't work in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, does it?

This first video just follows around Wild Bill Hagy as he goes from his job to Memorial Stadium.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVoSYXQ1EEM
This one is hilarious. This is a feature about the Bugler at Memorial stadium who learned to Bugle in Vietnam, where he probably saw some unbelievably horrible images, and now he's basically Slingblade. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAO0BNOSy7M
This doesn't have to do anything with the Orioles. Just a feature on the WWF in the early 1980's at the Capital Centre. Featuring an interview with a Kayfabe Hulk Hogan who weighed 320 lbs. at the time. God, I love Vince's product. Also intervied is Gorilla Monsoon. Will You Stop! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0opU_wz0j34&feature=user

My choice for the best sports studio host is either Karl Ravech or Ron Maclean of Hockey Night in Canada. It's too bad Karl Ravech was barely on BBTN last season and we had to watch assholes like Scott Reiss host the show. Ernie Johnson is good too on TNT, but Charles just slows down the pace of that show so much and his comments are never that insightful. As far as the worst, noone comes to mind besides Chris Berman.

I really like the Dodgers this year. Their starting rotation is neck and neck with the Padres and slightly worse than the Diamondbacks, all provided they stay healthy, but the back end of their bullpen maybe the best in Baseball. Jonathan Broxton is lights out as their setup guy and Takashi Saito could be the best closer in the National League. The Diamondbacks added Dan Haren but they led Baseball in luck last year and that is going to run out, even with all those young position players being one year wiser about the big leagues. The best player in the entire division is Matt Holliday, and with the middle of Colorado's order, it's tough to ignore them in the division, but I just love the Dodger's pitching too much. Can't wait to watch Hiroki Kuroda.

For my money, the best live album is probably the Talking Heads' "Stop Making Sense" with a close second to the Who with 'Live at Leeds'. 'Stop Making Sense' has been in my car for the last two weeks and has been the only thing in the last three months to pull me away from listening to A.C. Newman/The New Pornographers.

I have always wondered who the National League equivalent of the Orioles would be. My conclusion: The Cinncinati Reds. Both play in cities with a ton of Baseball history; Cinncinati being home to the first professional Baseball club, the Cinncinati Red Stockings and Baltimore being the birthplace of Babe Ruth as well as home to John McGraw's Orioles. Both are cities with both northern and southern identities. Both have icons that are hometown heroes, Pete Rose and Cal Ripken Jr., both had dynastic clubs throughout the 70's. Both are struggling to live up to their past glory.

It's already incredible through the first episode. Season four was the best television I had ever seen, as was season three before that, season two before that, and season one before that. Slim Charles is the tightest. I don't want to be shut out on the comments. If I can't talk about the Wire here, where can I talk about it?