8 Days to Camp
On Friday Belling was asking his audience which professional sports team in Wisconsin will be the next to win a championship.My gut instinct was to say the Brewers, but then I reconsidered. Even as bad as things are now in Packerland, ...I gotta say the Packers are the most likely to win it next.
My reasoning:
The Bucks
They are actually the team most likely to leave, so they have that going against them. Plus Senator Kohl has been running the team on the cheap again after rolling the dice with George Karl and getting within 1 inch of the finals (literally one extra inch on Glenn Robinson's jumper and we were headed to LA). He's got a cheap inexperienced coach and a cheap inexperienced GM who is also in over his head. They don't really have any stars, and the team is going nowhere until a change in coach, GM, and/or owner. The scary thing is a change in owner could mean a move out of town. But even with all those changes, we'll need to spend a king's ransom to get over the hump.
The Brewers
With a new stadium, new owner and a lot of young talent, they would seem to be in a great position to push for a championship. But they have a lot to prove as of yet, and Mark Attanosio will need to spend more freely than he has so far. When he bought the team he was committed to running it in a prudent and frugal manner, making it clear that he was not going to simply pour money into the team to buy a winner. Unless he changes his mind, the Brewers will need a LOT of luck to get where they need to go.
The Packers
The Packers probably have more problems than any of the other teams, but they also have the shortest hill to climb. The NFL is parity crazy, so there's no economic reason why the Packers can't compete with the big markets.
In 2003 they were inches away from an NFC championship game in Carolina, but 7 close plays went against them, a fluke stumble, 4 bad marks by the refs, and two bad calls by Sherman. Any one of those things go the other way and the Packers are dancing out of Philly.
So, they've been close as recently as 3 years ago, ..of course Favre will be here only one more year, the GM is out of his depth, has a flawed philosophy about managing a franchise, and stupidly passed on an opportunity to make a run at it with Brett. His moronic desire to rebuild from scratch is not only outdated by a decade, but it has also cost the Packers two bad seasons and a third on the way. And there is little hope for the near future.
BUT, like I said, it's a short hill to climb. If they get lucky and draft a new QB (Rodgers isn't the answer, but I'll give him another shot this pre-season), get some good receivers, some good running backs, a good defensive line, ....shit, ...so basically they need to improve at EVERY position on the field and in the front office. But if they do, they have a chance. If they win their division, win a couple of playoff games, ...anything can happen.
Unfortunately, I think it's going to take a purging. Here's my hope, ...McCarthy bombs. Thompson goes down in flames, and the new Packer president, whatshisname, gets Charlie Weiss to leave Notre Dame and the Glory Days are back.
I know it's a dream, but let me have it.
It's all we got.
<< Home