Packers’ Loyal fans come to Practice
In what is the NFL’s worst kept secret, the Green Bay Packers have some of the most dedicated and loyal fans in all of professional sports.
This is be due to the fact that the Packers are more than a team, but a community. No other team allows it’s fans to own stock in the team and no other team is in a market like Green Bay. The Packers are almost like a religion.
With Lambeau Field as the community’s cathedral and Mike McCarthy, over 66,000 Packers fans went to church on Sunday night when the Packers held their annual Family Night.
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Having that many people show up to a practice is nothing short of amazing. Lambeau Field holds a capacity of 80,735 people and the official tally for Sunday’s practice 66,397 people. That would make the stadium 82 percent full – unless my math is wrong and for that, I’m sorry.
Let me take a moment to invoke the powers of Allen Iverson. “We talking about practice. Not the game, practice!” Being from the west, I know of a lot of college football stadiums that don’t hold 66,000 people and more than that showed up to the Packers’ family night practice. Rookie linebacker Blake Martinez had the same feeling.
“Oh, it was unbelievable,” Martinez explained, via ESPN . “I remember going back to my Stanford practices. We’d probably have, our open practices, maybe 10 to 30 people out there. And to come out and walk out and have [66,000], it was unbelievable. I don’t think I’ve ever had that many at an actual game. So it was a great feeling, and it was fun to get out there and get that atmosphere under my belt.”
For the fans, it was more than just a practice and they made it feel like a game. Hours before the practice began, fans reportedly gathered outside the stadium for some tailgating fun. McCarthy felt that the atmosphere really helped his team have a great practice.
“What an incredible practice environment, if you even want to dare to call it that,” McCarthy said. “So a great night of work. Gives us a chance to get into a game-like atmosphere, introduce all of our pre-game warm-ups and drills and so forth through our rookie, first-year players. So excellent work tonight.”
Fans purchased tickets for $10 a piece and the event was sold out. After the practice, the stadium put on a firework show. Not a bad way to get ready for the 2016 season.
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