FOOTBALL SEASON AND THE PACKERS

It's time for the 93rd season of the National Football League (NFL)!  The regular season of professional football starts on Wednesday, September 5th with the Dallas Cowboys playing against the New York Giants.  More importantly, the Green Bay Packers season opener is scheduled for Sunday, September 9th against the San Francisco 49ers!

The NFL was formed by eleven teams in 1920 and was originally called the American Professional Football Association.  The league changed its name to the National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of 32 teams from across the United States. The league is divided evenly into two conferences: the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC).  Each conference has four divisions that have four teams, for a total of 16 teams in each conference.  The conferences are broken down as follows:

AFC North:                   AFC East:                             AFC South:                      AFC West:
Baltimore Ravens           Buffalo Bills                          Houston Texans                Denver Broncos
Cincinnati Bengals         Miami Dolphins                     Indianapolis Colts             Kansas City Chiefs
Cleveland Browns          New England Patriots            Jacksonville Jaguars         Oakland Raiders
Pittsburgh Steelers          New York Jets                       Tennessee Titans              San Diego Chargers

NFC North:                   NFC East:                             NFC South:                       NFC West:
Green Bay Packers         Dallas Cowboys                    Atlanta Falcons                   Arizona Cardinals
Chicago Bears                New York Giants                  Carolina Panthers                St. Louis Rams
Minnesota Vikings         Philadelphia Eagles              New Orleans Saints             San Francisco 49ers
Detroit Lions                  Washington Redskins           Tampa Bay Buccaneers       Seattle Seahawks


Since this is Wisconsin, the rest of this entry will discuss the Green Bay Packers.

In 1919, a group of young athletes, called together by Curly Lambeau and George Calhoun, gathered in the editorial room of the old Green Bay Press-Gazette building and organized a football team.  As the Indian Packing Company provided jerseys and permitted the use of its athletic field for practice, the club was initially tied to the company, and the name "Packers" was born.

The Packers have been around since the beginning of the NFL and have a very strong history.  Most notably, the Packers won the first two Super Bowls in 1966 and 1967.  The Super Bowl trophy is even named after one of their coaches: Vince Lombardi.  These two championships, combined with the Packers' NFL championships in 1961, 1962, and 1965 amount to the most successful stretch in NFL History: five championships in seven years.  In recent years, the Packers won Super Bowl XLV, and along the way obtained their record 13th NFL Championship win.

For more information on the history of the Green Bay Packers, check out this website:
http://www.packers.com/history/birth-of-a-team-and-a-legend.html

The majority of the books listed here will pertain to the Green Bay Packers; however, I do have a few general works on football listed as well.

Fiction:
Football Double Threat by Matt Christopher
Football Hero by Tim Green
Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Food, Girls, and Other Things I Can't Have by Allen Zadoff
Million Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica
Payback Time by Carl Lipsyte
Bleachers by John Grisham

Nonfiction:
A Football Cookbook by Sarah Schuette
Football Made Simple: A Spectator's Guide by Dave Ominsky and P.J. Harari
Aaron Rodgers and the Green Bay Packers: Super Bowl XLV by Michael Sandler
Green Bay Packers: Trials, Triumphs, and Traditions by William Povletich
The History of the Green Bay Packers by John Nichols
Green Bay Packers: Legends in Green and Gold by William Povletich
Before They Were the Packers: Green Bay's Town Team Days by Denis Gullickson and Carl Hanson
Packers by the Numbers by John Maxymuck
Bart Starr: When Leadership Mattered by David Claerbaut
Magnificent Seven: The Championship Games That Built the Lombardi Dynasty by Bud Lea
Vince Lombardi by Greg Roensch
Favre by Brett Favre
Brett Favre by Stew Thornley
Nitschke by Edward Gruver
Cold Wars: 40 Years of Packer-Viking Rivalry by Todd Mishler
Rising Stars, NFL by Joe Layden

Movies:
The Blind Side
Remember the Titans
The Game Plan
Leatherheads
The Longest Yard
Rudy
Friday Night Lights



Picture from http://espn.go.com/nfl/