Well, if you are going to do Lambeau Field, you should do it right. It all sounded like a great idea back in early fall when plans were made. Waking up on game-day to a blizzard, 6-9 inches of snow expected, 30 mph winds and low 20 degrees made me think I was crazy. However, I learned that 20 articles of clothing is enough to keep me warm throughout most of the game. The only thing that really got cold were my toes. We got lucky because the wind was blowing in the other direction and was not really a factor. The snow however never really stopped. When you are there, it did not seem as bad as it appeared on TV, but gradually the field went from brown to white by the end of the game. Because the field it heated, you can no longer call it the frozen tundra, but field was kind of a nasty looking brown. The one thing I will recommend is that if you go to a game at Lambeau in this kind of weather, a seat cushion is a must. The aluminum benches are extremely cold and suck the heat right out of you....just ask the guys attending with me. My Steeler seat came in handy. Attending the game with me was my cousin Brian Apel, his college roommate and his brother. All of us are Steeler fans, and like most games, Steeler fans travel well and there were plenty of terrible towels waiving. Packer fans are some of the nicest fans I have encountered; as well as the most football-intelligent. They treated us with mutual respect and were never really mean-spirited toward us at all.
Our seats were in the lower half of the upper deck, in the end-zone facing the scoreboard. The view was very good, particularly since a good portion of the scoring happened right in front of us all day long.This was a very important game for both teams who are fighting for their playoff lives. In all honesty, I figured the Steelers would be eliminated by kickoff, but each of the teams they needed to lose in the early games did; thus keeping them in the hunt for a little longer.
The Packers were hit pretty hard by injuries in this game. Not only was Rogers still out from his shoulder injury (a whole separate story / controversy in and of itself), but they lost RB Lacy and LB Matthews durng the game. At half-time the Packers led 14-10, but the Steelers surged to a 10 point lead by the end of 3rd quarter thanks to 3 TDs, including an interception return.
The Steelers had a chance to break it wide-open in the 3rd quarter when they blocked a FG, but in the scramble, they were penalized for batting it out of bounds. I still think the refs got this call wrong and they took forever to figure it out.
In the 4th quarter, the Packers roared back to tie the game at 31-31. The crowd was alive with excitement and Steeler fans were nervous as a loss would ensure them a losing season. With 3 minutes to go, the Packers started at their own 8-yard line with a chance to make a game-winning drive; however, Troy Polamalu forced a fumble deep in Packers' territory to give the Steelers a chance to seal the win. On 4th down, the Steelers were about to kick the go-ahead FG, but a penalty on the Packers gave them an automatic 1st down. A few plays later the Steelers scored a TD, but it left the Packers a lot of time.
As for the venue itself, it is Lambeau Field....a must for any real football fan. It's history allows you to overlook things like overly crowded concourses, extremely long restroom lines and a very small scoreboard. I tend to like more modern venues, but recent improvements and pure nostalgia allow me to rank it near the top of my favorites.....it is the Fenway park of football.
This concludes the 4th year of my quest to hit all 122 professional team venues. 37 completed and nearly $4,000 raised for cancer research. Please visit my fundraising page. I encourage you to donate. http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/christopher-apel/christopherapel
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