The week ramps up a day early when the biggest game of the season to date is moved to Saturday afternoon. The 13-3, top seeded Green Bay Packers welcome the 6th seeded and now 11-6 Los Angeles Rams to Lambeau Field for the first of four Divisional Round playoff games in the NFL’s expanded post-season.
Both teams got back on the practice field today to start preparing for the 3:35 PM CST kickoff Saturday afternoon and there were plenty of notes from off the field to cover.
We’ll start with a quick sellout. The Packers put 6000 tickets up for sale at 10:00 AM as they’ll welcome the biggest crowd of the year for the playoff game. Only season ticket holders who opted in were eligible to purchase pods of 2, 4 or 6 seats for the game. The online sale, which prohibits any ticket re-sales, hit the target number in less than a couple of hours. The fans will be joined by invited team employees, medical professionals and first responders who attended the final two regular season games which could bring the attendance to between 7000 and 8000 fans. Last year’s divisional playoff game against Seattle packed in 78, 998 fans into the stadium.
It’ll be a buddy movie Saturday. Matt LaFleur and Sean McVay cut their coaching teeth together with the Washington Redskins, they became fast friends and the association continued after McVay, at just 30 years of age, became the Head Coach of the Los Angeles Rams. LaFleur went with him as his offensive coordinator. After a one year dash to Tennessee to call plays for Mike Vrabel, LaFleur was hired by the Packers. In their combined six years as Head Coaches, they have combined for one Super Bowl appearance, two NFC championship game appearances and five playoff berths. Both talked Tuesday about how close they are, LaFleur said McVay is like a brother, “but the gloves will come off Saturday.”
Another Offensive Tackle insurance policy was taken out by the Packers. Jared Veldheer has re-signed with Green Bay. After getting released by New England in early 2019, Veldheer retired. General Manager Brian Gutekunst coaxed him out of it last November and after starter Bryan Bulaga was sent into the concussion protocol, Veldheer started the regular season finale against Detroit. Bulaga came down ill the night before the Seattle playoff game and on a moment’s notice, Veldheer had to start again and held the Seahawks defensive end Jadaveon Clowney without a pressure. The Packers said thanks for the help and Veldheer stayed out of football again until the Indianapolis Colts called just before their playoff push, adding the 31 year old to their practice squad. When starter Anthony Costanzo suffered an ankle injury, Veldheer was a game day call-up and started at left tackle in the Colts’ Wild Card game in Buffalo last Saturday. The season ended for Indianapolis but the Packers were in the market. David Bakhtiari was done for the year with a torn ACL and Rick Wagner has been battling sore knees. Because of the NFL’s expanded practice squad rules over the pandemic, Veldheer was free for the taking. He never did get formally signed to the 53 man roster and now if he plays this weekend, he’ll be the first ever to play for two different teams in the same post-season. To make room for Veldheer, the Packers placed rookie guard Simon Stepaniak on injured reserve.
The week’s first injury report came out Tuesday afternoon and the Pack had only one player who did not participate. Defensive tackle Kingsley Keke is still under the concussion protocol. Those listed as limited were Kevin King (achilles), Alan Lazard (core/wrist), Marcedes Lewis (knee), Za’Darius Smith (ankle/thumb), Equanimeous St. Brown (knee/ankle) and Rick Wagner (knee). The Rams conducted only a walk-through but All Pro defensive tackle Aaron Donald did not participate. He suffered a rib injury in Seattle but McVay expects him to play. Offensive lineman David Edwards (ankle), wide receiver Cooper Kupp (knee), linebacker Terrell Wilson (ankle) and quarterback John Wolford (neck) were also held out. Quarterback Jared Goff was a full participant as his surgically repaired thumb continues to heal but McVay still hasn’t indicated if it will be Goff, or Wolford will start against the Packers.
Finally, the answer is? Aaron Rodgers couldn’t resist when his favorite game show came up on his weekly podcast visit with Pat McAfee. Rodgers revealed he will be a guest host on Jeopardy once the season is over. Rodgers won as a contestant five years ago and he talked about how special that moment was getting to meet one of his TV idols in the late Alex Trbek. On his weekly zoom session with local reporters, Aaron said it felt like being part of a family by getting to know Alex, how much a part of Americana he had become and how religiously he watched the game show every night at 6 over his 16 years living in Green Bay. So consider this category – NFL and Super Bowl MVP’s – the answer – This February, he’ll join Kurt Warner from 1999 as the only player named regular season MVP to win a Super Bowl and be named the game’s Most Valuable Player. Who is Aaron Rodgers?
