Early look at the Detroit Lions 2017 opponents: Green Bay Packers
By Ash Thompson
The Lions have had some trouble clearing a hurdle in recent years. That hurdle is Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers. Twice in three years, the Packers have been the only team between the Lions and a division title. Will 2017 be different?
The Green Bay Packers history is well known to anyone that follows football. The echoes of the Vince Lombardi era defined football for generations. The Lombardi coaching tree extends throughout the league, putting roots into nearly every franchise in the league.
More recently, of course, the Packers have had a disturbingly consistent run of success. Since 1992 the Packers have had only two losing seasons. They have won the division 12 times in that period. They have beaten the Lions in the playoffs twice, and they have won Super Bowls with two different quarterbacks.
Their identity as the team that plays in “the frozen tundra of Lambeau Field” and being the only team that is a publicly owned entity makes them the default for new fans looking to support an underdog franchise. The fact that they just keep winning makes them one of the default franchises for fair weather fans as well.
Everyone knows a Packers fan that has never been to Green Bay, will never go to Green Bay, but loves to trumpet from rooftops when the team wins a game that the fan in question did not even watch. At least where I live, an area where we are remote enough from any NFL franchise that we get to just pick one we like, there is a large contingent of that kind of Packers fan. The Packers share a color scheme with my local CFL team, the Edmonton Eskimos. Those fans are cheering for similarly colored laundry.
Apart from my personal distaste for the local Packers fans, there are plenty of reasons for Lions fans everywhere to hate the Packers. The two playoff losses were in the nineties, but they still sting for those of us who are old enough to remember. Then there is the string of 24 straight losses in Lambeau field that ended in 2015. Add the hail Mary that should never have happened, and even newer Lions fans have more than enough reasons for bitter resentment toward the division rival.
2017 offers a clean slate to Lions fans. The two teams play in weeks nine and 17. The Lions get their home game to end the year, lessening the Lambeau advantage significantly. A lot can happen between now and then, but here is a look at the 2017 Green Bay Packers.