Nick Barnett after the loss to Tampa Bay: “Dissapointed!!! That's all I can say!!! But regardless how hard we will be beat up by media we will continue to work as hard as we must”
Samichlaus, after reading Nick’s tweet: “@NickBarnett Stop blaming the media, and stop talking about "working harder". The team gets outworked every week, and that means you. Do it.”
Nick Barnet “replies” to Samichlaus:
This was how it came to pass that Ol’ Samichlaus got Packers linebacker Nick Barnett’s attention. If you’re reading this then you probably have read my two previous posts about Nick’s twitter habits. I found it interesting that the young man was so sensitive, and such an approval seeker. He recently set up a poll on his website asking fans to name the most negative of all the Packers beat writers. Every week, after another brutal Packers loss, Nick likes to talk about working harder and doing what we’ve got to do, but after the loss to Tampa, Nick took it to a new level, calling out the media in the tweet mentioned above.
As a fan that roots for the team and spends his hard earned dollars supporting the team, I’d had enough, and let my frustrations vent out. My reply to @NickBarnett was no more and no less. I’m frustrated watching teams outwork the Packers every week, only to hear from their emotional and defensive leader that the team just needs to work harder. What in God’s name were you doing the week before? Regardless, Twitter has provided a level of casual access to players that fans have never had before and I took advantage of the technology.
So Nick Barnett has blocked me from receiving his tweets. I’m actually quite flattered. As I tweeted last night “it’s the first thing Nick’s blocked all season”.
He’s still tweeting and I can still read them. He tweeted this on Tuesday: “Good morning to all my great packer fans and to all the haters as well still have lots of love for you guys!!” I guess that was meant for me. The least he could have said was “and to all the haters that I’ve blocked from twitter because after having half the NFL up my ass during our pathetic performances, all I can handle up my ass these days is sunshine bullshit” but there is a 140 character limit on Twitter. In fact, here are the kinds of posts Nick receives on his Twitter page:
volcanicflower: @NickBarnett Good morning to you! Best of luck to you and the team on Sunday. Win or lose, I will always be a Packer fan.
jcl3202: @nickbarnett good morning to you as well!
tclansman: @NickBarnett good morning, good luck against the cowboys this week!!!! :) hope you have a big game
smoothnovelist: @NickBarnett Good morning sir. have a blessed day.
That last one’s my favorite. Nick is making several million dollars this year. Every day for him is blessed. Oh, and if Nick is truly Christian then he should forgive me. You know, turn the other cheek?
Well, as the kids of today like to say “it’s all good”. More than anything I think its way cool that I got under Nick’s skin. That’s more than I can say for his head coach or his defensive coordinator. And since this is Sports Blog Steves and I’m one of the Steves I can say whatever I want here. So to Nick Barnett and my beloved Packers: I am not a hater. I love the Packers and if you knew me then you’d know by every measurement you can imagine, my love for the Packers is off the charts. I rooted for the Packers when I was growing up in New York City in the 1970s, and I rooted for them through the awful 1980s. I was there at Super Bowl 31 when they beat New England. I’ve dragged my beautiful wife from the relative warmth of Virginia to Green Bay twice. So don’t you dare call me a hater.
In fact it’s the other way around: You have failed me. And by you I mean the Packers team and organization
You go out week after week and put on a lackluster performance. You are beaten by Minnesota and you are beaten by Tampa Bay. You do not protect your quarterback. You do not pressure the opponent’s quarterback. Your running backs are old and or slow: none of them could gain 100 yards against the 30th ranked rushing defense in the league. You are out hustled and out worked every week. Your head coach is clearly overmatched. He does not grasp the concept of rhythm and consistency in offense. His play calling is suspect, and he appears to have no ability to motivate. Your defensive coordinator has not gained the trust of his players. They have lost faith in the system and openly criticize him in the press. Your special teams play borders on laughable. You are the butt of every “short bus special“ joke out there. You have two playmakers on the team, Donald Driver and Charles Woodson: both are nearing the end of their storied careers. You have done nothing to attract free agents or veteran leadership, and have alienated the top talent in the league by your inept handling of one of the greatest players in franchise history. You are consistently the youngest team in the league, and your lack of discipline during games is indicative of it. Your quarterback often time is clueless and indecisive, but that stems from the lack of game plan or vision from your head coach. And to top it all off, your emotional leader is tweeting about the negative press after a loss to an 0-7 team. Excuse me, a 1–7 team.
Next year, God willing, Mike and Ted’s excellent adventure will be over. Maybe Jon Gruden will be coaching, or maybe Bill Cowher. Hell I’d even take Mike Holmgren back in a heartbeat, but that big pear shaped jackass Mike Sherman can stay wherever the hell he is. The bottom line is long after Nick Barnett retires and Mike McCarthy is tending bar in Pittsburgh, I will be a Packers fan, rooting for my team and wearing the $200.00 jersey my wife purchased for me from the Packers pro shop. You know the one she had made with my name on it? It’s the official game day jersey the players wear. The flag that flew over Lambeau field on my 40th birthday (another gift from my wife) will be in its case in my living room, right next to its certificate of authenticity. My Brett Favre autographed helmet (yet another gift from my wife) will still be on our bookshelf, right by my two most prized possessions: the footballs my wife stood out in the rain and cold at Lambeau field and had the players and coaches autograph as they left practice in 2005 and 2006. She got Aaron Rodgers and Greg Jennings, and Donald Lee and William Henderson who lives here in Richmond. And she got tons more.
And if the Packers turn this season around, beat Dallas this weekend, and make an unbelievable run for the playoffs, I’ll celebrate as I've never celebrated before. But I'm not here to pump sunshine up your ass idiot, that's what I pay you to do.
In case there was any doubt about how die-hard a fan Samichlaus is, let me share a little story.. Back when he lived up north and we worked together, he invited me over his house to watch a Packers game... I think they were playing the Jets, and I even think it was pre-season, but there I was. There was Packers stuff everywhere. Have you seen any of the NFL catalogs where they have everything you can imagine with team logos on it? Yeah, that was his house: a Packers crock pot, a Packers cheese slicer, Packers jerseys and banners all around. The highlight was the bathroom though. Not only was there one of those Packers trash cans and other bathroom items in yellow and green, but the prize: hung on the wall in a frame was a letter. It was from the Packers indicating that he had been officially added to the waiting list for Packers season tickets. I don't remember the exact number in line, but it was well into the tens of thousands.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, he's not a hater.
Thank you St. Ides! I'd forgotten about that. As of 2009 I am #37,053 on the waiting list. I happen to keep that yearly letter in my home office now.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite bathroom feature was that big picture of Reggie White that faced the toilet. You might not remember it, because if you didn't take a dump you might have missed him. There was nothing quite like dumping out and having the "Minister of Defense" watching over you.
When I moved from Carmel to Shrub Oak, my cousin came to visit one day. After taking his first piss of the evening he remarked "I'm so glad you did your bathroom in Packer again!" Only between men could such a conversation occur...
Next week I'll work harder. Let's think about that statement and dissect it a bit. I'll work harder. So, it is safe to say that I have the capacity to work harder if I can claim that I will do so next week. Implicit in the statement then is an admission that I was not working to my full capacity this week. I don't know about you, but if you paid me $181,250 a week, I would sure be hustling my butt up and down that field, and working at my full capacity. I will work harder next week. That means that I have some control over the process. I can regulate my degree of work. I will work harder next week. There it is folks. The true translation is," I tried to get by with just enough this week, but it wasn't enough to get it done. Maybe next week I'll be better able to predict the minimum work it will take to get by." Can you imagine Ray Nitschke on a Saturday afternoon trying to figure out how much effort it would take to just get by on Sunday? For 181 karge, I expect more, and yes, I'm one of those 111,967 who have a stock certificate on our walls.
ReplyDeleteWhen they issued the stock back in 1995 (?) Ol' Samichlaus was so broke that I didn't have the $200.00 to make the purchase. It's one of the reasons I decided to clean up my life and really pursue a career in IT. Whatever money I made I drank away. After that, I decided to make more money than I could possibly drink...
ReplyDeleteThat last post was not from our usual anonymous, but from a dear dear friend who lives in Florida. It's time I write the story of how I got to see the 1996 - 1997 Super Bowl...