The Green Bay Packers have brought the Vince Lombardi Trophy home.
Time to cue up a song that gave me chills the first time I heard it at a football game. On Christmas Eve 1995, my brother and I were at Lambeau Field, watching the Packers.
That day, the Packers were clinging to a five-point lead late in the fourth quarter. Their opponent was driving for what seemed would be the winning score. With 16 seconds left, on fourth-and-goal, the quarterback stepped back, found a receiver wide open in the left corner of the end zone and fired it his way.
Yancey Thigpen made it a merry Christmas in Green Bay. He dropped a sure touchdown pass, and the Packers clinched the NFC Central Division title. After the game, they cued up Queen’s “We Are The Champions” at Lambeau Field.
Wow. Chills, because the Packers had not won a title of any kind in 23 years. I vividly remember that play and the sheer joy that followed.
That day, the Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers.
On Sunday night, the Packers defeated the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV. It has been only a 14-year drought this time, but it is no less sweet.
“We Are The Champions,” Darnel Alexander, David Booker and Tracy Harris, from “(Eugene Robinson Presents) Titletown,” 1997. It’s out of print.
In 1997, after Green Bay’s victory in Super Bowl XXXI, Packers safety Eugene Robinson produced this eclectic urban/soul/R&B EP. This cut features three performers from Seattle, where Robinson played before coming to Green Bay.
Hope you dig this slow, smooth cover as much as I do.
AM, Then FM 
I vividly remember that game too. I was on the air at the radio station, but the only TV in the place was in the newsroom, so I kept running out of the studio to watch. Didn’t Jim McMahon get into the game for the first time with the Packers that day? I seem to remember reporting to my listeners that the Earth was about to come off its axis because McMahon, the ex-Bear, was in the game. I also remember somebody (a co-worker maybe, or somebody on TV later) saying something about the ghost of Lombardi tipping the ball out of Thigpen’s hands.
Thanks for the tune. Get some sleep.
Oooh, I was at that game too! I was seated in the second row right behind the Steelers and was watching the assistant coaches come up and clap Bill Cowher on the back, celebrating even before they snapped the ball. Good game. I think I had tears when they played the Queen.
Love your blog.