Super Bowl XLV Champions: Heroes Born of Hardship February 11, 2011

SUPERBOWL XLV CHAMPIONS: HEROES BORN OF HARDSHIP

I won’t deny it. I was thrilled when the Packers won Super Bowl XLV! If you had been a guest in our home on Sunday evening, you could have witnessed the celebration. I screamed and hollered for joy like every other cheesehead across the country. In fact, I was wearing a cheesehead!

I do not love sports. I do not love football. But I do love the Green Bay Packers organization, and I am deeply impressed by the perserverance and character of this year’s team. If there is still such a thing as a hero in today’s culture, the 2010 Green Bay Packers team is full of them. If anyone needs an example of a few good men—on or off the field—they can be found by taking a look at the Super Bowl XLV Championship winners.

Start anywhere on the list you wish, from the players to the coaches to the front office. You’ll find men who have endured hardship and overcome tremendous obstacles to reach their destination. Look a little closer, and you’ll find that these same men have turned right around and used their rough road to success as a platform to help others.

According to Mike Lopresti, columnist for USA Today, wide receiver  James Jones grew up in homeless shelters, and wide receiver Donald Driver lived out of a U-Haul van as a youth, even doing a bit of drug dealing to make some money. Lopresti credits both of these men for using their own personal experience as a motivation to help improve the lives of homeless kids. “I was put in this position for a reason.” Jones told Lopresti.

Driver, who admits that he was an accomplished car thief by eighth grade, is quoted in Packer Report as saying “Everybody goes through different obstacles in their life . . . I look back now and it makes me a better husband and makes me a better father. That gives me that opportunity to be able to tell my kids the things I did, so that when they get older, they won’t make the same mistakes.”

Closer to the top of the organization, Coach Mike McCarthy is no stranger to adversity. He had to deal with an unprecedented seventeen players on injured reserve this year—fifteen of them by the end of December alone. But his ‘never say die’ attitude and his emphasis on accountability on and off the field  didn’t waver, and he never used his team’s injuries as an excuse for a loss or a poor performance.

Perhaps this was because perserverance has been a way of life for McCarthy. Years before he became a head coach in the NFL, he made ends meet by working nights as a toll-booth attendant on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. “That doesn’t quite add up,” he told Lopresti, “but that was my plan and path.”

When Packer’s team chaplain, Father Jim Baraniak, was interviewed by columnist Bill Huber of the Packer Report,  he said, “McCarthy is both  loved by his players and they’re also in awe of him. They respect him, trust me. He has a very decent hold on these guys and he uses it for good . . . yeah, he wants these guys to perform on the field, there’s no doubt about it. But he wants them to be good, decent, upright men in the community—good dads, good husbands, faithful, loyal.”

McCarthy puts his money where his mouth is. This past fall, he and his wife, Jessica partnered with the Packers organization to donate $100,000 to the Seven Loaves Project, a locally-based organization which supports in villagers in Rwanda, Africa by teaching them bread-baking and small business skills. “To be able to support a member of our community who is doing very meaningful and needed work in a disadvantaged part of the world is a priviledge for us,” McCarthy says.

Even GM Ted Thompson has to be credited for his tenacity in the face of impossible odds. I daresay that there were few Packer fans who did not question his decision to move on without three-time MVP Brett Favre at the start of the 2008 season. Over the last three seasons, I have seen more than a dozen t-shirts and hats being worn in and around Lambeau Field which bore obscene comments about Thompson. In spite of the opposition, Thompson continued to work to build a roster for Green Bay that had depth and staying power­—both of which turned out to be key factors making it to the Super Bowl as starter after starter succumbed to injury this year.

But the guys who won my deepest respect during the 2010-2011 season were quarterback Aaron Rodgers and wide receiver Greg Jennings. Everyone knows how their stories came into focus in front of the world on Sunday night: Rodgers became Super Bowl MVP by completing 24 of 39 passes for 304 yards. Jennings caught four of those passes during the game—two of them for touchdowns. But not everyone realizes the struggle behind their stories or the good that has come from the hardship they faced.

Greg Jennings  worked hard to maintain a positive attitude throughout the season in spite of setbacks early on, when the ball never seemed to come his way. “He talked [to reporters] at length about not getting the ball, but he did it all with a smile, never putting pressure on Aaron Rodgers or the coaches by selfishly demanding more opportunities,” states Bill Huber, publisher of Packer Report. “I pray a lot, even  now,” Jennings is quoted as saying. “It’s staying the course and making sure that I don’t allow myself to get frustrated . . . When you’re not able to put out more, it can be frustrating but you have to perservere through. It’s all about the relationship I had with God.”

Jennings is from Kalamazoo. This past summer, the Greg Jennings Foundation donated $85,000 to sponsor a Habitat for Humanity build here in town. And throughout the season, he and his wife, Nicole, sponsored “Touchdowns for Hope,”a program which donates $1,000 to the House of Hope organization every time Jennings crosses into the end-zone for a touchdown. (By the way, Driver and Rodgers have helped with matching touchdown contributions as well.) “Anytime you’re in a position and put on a platform like this, it’s always best to give than to receive,” says Jennings.

Aaron Rodgers’ path to Super Bowl success was also one of patient endurance. In the 2005 NFL draft, Rodgers was expected to be one of the top ten picks. But to everyone’s surprise, he was passed over until the Green Bay Packers chose him at twenty-fourth. Even after signing with the Packers, Rodgers sat on the bench while Brett Favre played out three more seasons. When Favre officially retired from the Packer franchise, Rodgers was ready. He was, in his own words, “Waiting for an opportunity and prepared to make the most of it.”

But standing between Rodgers and his golden opportunity was one more obstacle. At the start of the 2008 season, Favre decided to come back. In spite of the fact that the Green Bay coaching staff and players had been moving forward with a game plan that included him as quarterback, Rodgers had to face the fact that he would be sidelined again if Favre returned to play for the team.

To the surprise of the watching public, the controversy surrounding Favre’s return became Rodger’s finest hour. He made a deliberate effort to not use the intense media attention to promote his case or criticize Favre.  Rodgers handled interview after interview with grace and dignity, while never failing to express confidence in the leadership of the Packer organization. And he endured the added scrutiny on the practice field with poise and confidence, as well. Rodgers’ behavior during this difficult time proved the strength of character this eager twenty-four year old possessed.  Brett or no Brett,  suddenly Green Bay fans were looking at Number 12 with a new level of respect.

The respect carried over to the football field. Rodgers emerged as a leader who, in the eyes of his teamates, could be trusted, and over the the course of the next three seasons as the starting quarterback for the green and gold, he was proclaimed by coaches and sports media as one of the top players in the league. By the time post-season play rolled around this year, Aaron Rodgers was viewed as the guiding force behind a team that had the potential to win the Super Bowl.

It is no surprise, then, that while earning a reputation as one of the elite quarterbacks of the NFL, Aaron Rodgers has kept his feet firmly anchored  to solid ground.  In a May, 2010 interview at Milwaukee’s Riverside Theatre, Matt Tevsh of Packer Report says that Rodgers “told the gathering that the Bible is one of his favorite books, that he always makes sure to call his grandparents on the way to games at Lambeau Field, and that staying true to his roots as a role model is important to him.” And during the media day interviews for Super Bowl XLV, he told Art Stricklin of Baptist Press—and the whole world—“We all have a platform, we all have a message in our lives. I just try to follow Jesus’ example, leading by example.”

During the weeks leading up to the big game, the internet was buzzing with examples of how Rodgers has done just that. Using his high profile as a vehicle for doing good, he goes out of his way to help others. Perhaps the most circulated internet story was the one of Rodgers’ fundraising efforts for the Midwest Athletes Against Childhood Cancer organization, where the quarterback went out of his way to personalize his autograph on a ball he signed for the parents of a young girl who died in 2002 after battling cancer for thirteen years.  The autograph read, “To Cheri  the angel. Save me a spot. Aaron Rodgers. 12.”

Another internet story tells about a Christmas event for 100 underpriviledged kids funded by entirely by Rodgers, complete with soda, pizza, free bowling and a visit with fifteen Packer players. After the party, each of the kids received $100 and were accompanied by the players to Shopko to do some Christmas shopping.  According to Packer Report’s Tevsh, “ . . .when the [Packer organization] received requests to interview Rodgers about the party . . . Rogers declined, choosing to keep the event and its details a private matter for those involved in it.”

I love the Green Bay Packers organization, I love the coach, and I love the players. I will be cheering as loudly as everyone else when they receive the many well-deserved accolades that come with winning the Super Bowl. But when you see me flashing a “number one” sign, it won’t be just because these men are superb athletes. It will be because these men have a long history of being heroes—both on and off the field—by tackling real-life obstacles with perserverance, and by using their success to make a difference in the lives of others. That’s what makes them number one in my book!

Information compiled by Lois Helland, with thanks to the following sources: Mike Lopresti of USA Today, Art Stricklin of the Baptist Press, Matt Tevsh and Bill Huber of the Packer Report, and Dave Helland, the ultimate life-long Packer backer.

 

 

 

 

 

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