The scoreboard said we lost our playoff game today… but I walked off that field proud of my son and my team.
This season, my son played up with the fourth graders even though he’s only in third grade. From day one, he never used that as an excuse. He just showed up… every single time. Not one missed practice. Not one late arrival. Every drill, every rep, every huddle… he gave his full effort.
He earned his spot as a starter on offense and defense. He returned kicks and he did everything we asked and more, without ever complaining. He worked hard, listened, and played with heart every single game. That’s not something you can coach… that’s just who he is.
As his coach, I saw the growth. As his dad, I saw the love for the game and for his teammates in his eyes everytime I looked at him.
The quiet confidence that comes from knowing you’ve earned it, that is not part of his game yet… so I’ll say it for him…
He belonged here this year… and he earned every second of it. When the season ended, even in that tough loss, I realized something: stats and scores don’t define a player — character does
I have enjoyed coaching both my boys throughout all sports during their athletic journey, but there is something special about coaching football. Ollie and I seem to do very well together as player and coach and this is now our third year in a row together in flag. Our town’s flag team has developed into a HUGE success and I have very much enjoyed helping a good friend grow the program through clinics, travel games and this year’s town tournaments.
Oliver has something very special when it comes to football; you can learn the plays and develop with good practice habits and with experiences comes better understanding, but the vision he possesses on the field is very advanced for his age and time playing. (Yes I know he’s seven and yes I know it’s just flag football, but it’s there and it’s very noticeable).
Throughout this blog you’ll read about “The Boop”. For referebcw when he was younger he couldn’t say “juke” (a move by a player running the ball where the runner cuts back hard and fast and makes the defender miss while then quickly cuts back up the field). Oliver, who couldn’t pronounce juke, would mistakenly call the move a “Boop” and so the “Ollie Boop” was born! Now if we can just harness ALL that OTHER energy he might just run through a brick wall!
Season Running Summary:
W: Black 6 – Green 14 (1-0)
What a way to start the G2/3 season! The “Ollie Boop” was back in action! A win and a score for Ollie! Guilford Green was awesome today! Love coaching this little animal!
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W: White 0 – Green 18 (2-0)
Another W For team GREEN. The boys pitched a shutout 18-0! Great group of kids! Oliver had the BOOP working today and almost took one to the house!
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W: Grey 12 – Green 24 (3-0)
The Packers dominated at Lambeau Field and Team Green dominated back in Guilford even without The Boop . The Packers moved to 1-1 and G-Green moved to 3-0!
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W: Black 6 – Green 12 (4-0)
Today was a very, very close game that was highlighted by tremendous defense and a team effort. We played almost the entire team at quarterback, passed the ball for big gains and pulled flags like our lives depended on it.
Oliver followed his blockers down the field and looked good as a receiver too. We look very good right now, highlighted by a bunch of boys who really like playing football and more importantly we have really grown into a team. I love watching them cheer for each other and celebrate each success together!
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W: Green – White (5-0)
“The Whistle Game”
A hard fought win for team Green today against a VERY good team White. Both teams played great defense, but when it came down to it, our defensive line (Ollie, Connor and Jakey) was just reeking havoc in the backfield making it almost impossible for team White to even get plays off! A few backfield tackles for Ollie highlighted by a Barry Sanders like run for a massive first down late in the second half iced the game for us and secured our fifth win in a row!
A little “Boop” here and a little “Boop” there!
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L: Grey 24 – Green 13 (5-1)
The Wishbone Offense
Tough loss for Team Green today, but when you fall down, it’s about how fast you can get back up. Oliver had a boop for the ages… and threw a huge block to get his BFF in the end-zone, but in the end it’s about running the marathon, not a sprint and these boys have what it takes to bounce back.
We’ve seen them be the front runners for over a month… now everyone is going to have to deal with a team with a chip on its shoulder! (PS it’s also flag football, so they just had ice cream after the game and everyone was fine).
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W: Green 18 – White 6 (7-1)
I don’t care what the score is, Team White is a juggernaut. And other than a handful of big plays, they shut down our offense all game. You would think green and white would be a shootout… But not today. Today was two defenses battling back and forth that brought back memories of Reggie, White and Lawrence Taylor!!!
Oliver broke lose on the second play of the game for a massive run that set up the first touch down of the game and again later in the second half took us from our own goal line on a third and incredibly long to a first down on our opponents goal line, leading to another score. If it wasn’t for a phantom flag that fluttered off his waste after Booping ankles all over the field, he would have scored a touchdown late in the last few minutes to further put the game away.
Let’s go Green! Today’s win locked up the NUMBER ONE SEED in the playoffs!!!
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W: Green 18 – Gray 6 (8-1)
Another big game for Ollie and Team Green! Avenging our only loss only the season! 8-1 and on to the playoffs!!!
Coach Joe needed to head to another venue for some scouting for our playoff matchups (just kidding he had to go to his niece’s confirmation). I took on head coaching duties and did him proud. We played hard and kept Gray scoreless until the last minute of the game. Ollie looked good again running the ball and used his cut back skills to boop his way to the down the field!
On to the playoffs next week!
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PLAYOFFS: Round One
W: Green – Black (9-1)
Game One of the Playoffs was against a VERY, VERY GOOD BLACK TEAM! While we beat them them each time in the regular season they had a very well coached team who developed tremendously through the season (that is exactly the purpose of this program)! We fought hard and came away with a win. Everyone on the team contributed in this game and Oliver had two HUGE runs to get us first downs, one on fourth down and another on third and a million yards! His teammates stepped up for him and blocked hard!
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PLAYOFFS: CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
W: Green 18 – White 13 (10-1)
The game of the year, heck the game of the century took place in the Championship Game… as it should! The two teams with the best record head to head for all the marbles, the Lombardi DeMayo Trophy, the Championship!
Team White simply outclassed and outplayed us in the first half and at one point we were down 13-0. Oliver and his team did everything they could to keep the game from getting away from us. They played great defense and only allowed two scores on two broken plays (I will take the blame for the second touchdown, sending our corner on an all out blitz allowing their QB to slip outside for a long score).
Nick, Matt and Jackson fire up their little brothers at half time. Some say their speech saved our season!
Heads were hanging at half time as the team had only trailed in one game all year. Enter the G5 Tackle Team Older Brothers. They gave a rousing “Any Given Sunday” speech and inspired Team Green to come out like a freight train! The defensive line stayed stout and did not give up a point in the second quarter (more impressively, Oliver did not jump offsides once!) Oliver gobbled up flags in the back field and continued to force Team White into punts. A newly installed Wishbone Motion Fullback Dive Right on the goal line to “The Pepperbush Beast” C.DeMayo put us up one point.
With less than two minutes remaining up by one point and on a fourth and a million yards to go, Coach DeMayo called on The Boop. It was now or never, it was like calling in Mariano Rivera for a six out save in the eight inning, like bringing in Reggie Miller for a game winner against the Knicks with Spike Lee starting him down. We needed a first down to put the game away and we needed The Boop… when you need The Boop… you get The Boop! Oliver took the hand off from the backfield broke a pair of ankles and outran four defenders to take the ball almost to the house. A first down and four fresh downs to put the game away!
After a QB Keeper put us up 5, Team White came storming back with less than a minute to go to cross mid field, two sacks by Oliver on consecutive plays put them in a desperate situation, but with one last play remaining, Team White took a hand off towards the left corner of the goal line, but it was Team Green’s defense standing on the field at the 1/2 yard line holding a RED FLAG high above their head with 0:00 remaining on the clock. In the voice of John Sterling, “Ball Game Over, Championship Game Over… TEAM GREEN WINS… TEEEEEEEAMMMMMMMMMMMMM GREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEENNNNN WINS!”
What a season, what a team, what a program. I hated watching the boys on Team White lose, but it is with great sadness and desire to come back stronger, that creates players who are inspired to come back for more. It wasn’t just the winning and losing, it was the team work, the friendships, the skill development AND the winning and losing. That’s how you build a program… Watch out surrounding towns, because the G2/3 kids moving up to tackle next year are going to be more than ready for you!
There are trips you plan, and then there are trips that have been living in you for years even before you ever pack a bag.
This one felt like the latter.
I had been to Lambeau Field before—twice, actually. Once with Stephanie which resulted in me catching Jordy Nelson in Lambeau Leap and once for a -19* playoff win, so I knew what it looked like, what it felt like, how it somehow manages to feel both massive and intimate at the same time. But I had never been there like this. Never with both of my boys. Never with the four of us together. Never as three Packers owners standing side by side, carrying a tradition we’ve talked about endlessly at home into the place where it actually lives.
After landing in Miwaukee on a quiet Friday night, we started the long drive across Wisconsin, the kind of drive where conversation fades in and out and everyone is half-tired but too excited to really sleep. Green Bay doesn’t announce itself loudly. There’s no sudden skyline, no dramatic entrance. Instead, it sneaks up on you. And then, in the distance, you see it—a small glow against the dark sky. Easy to miss if you didn’t know what you were looking for.
But we knew.
That tiny illuminated speck grew with every mile. Slowly at first. Then unmistakably. Until finally, there it was—Lambeau Field, rising out of a sleepy town like a cathedral, glowing against the night as if it had always been there and always would be. I’ve seen it before, but seeing it through the windshield with my family beside me made it land differently. Heavier. Fuller.
We couldn’t go to bed, not even after a long flight and a three hour drive… That night we found ourselves right inside Lambeau for some food and a walk around the atrium where so many of my football memories live. It wasn’t the focus of the trip, but it added to the feeling that this place isn’t just about Sundays. It’s about moments. Shared ones.
Inside the stadium, everything felt amplified. We took the tour. We walked the halls. Later in the trip we would step onto the field and stand beneath the goalposts, trying to fully process the fact that we were standing where legends stood. In the Hall of Fame, the Lombardi Trophies gleamed behind glass, and for a moment the boys were quiet. Not because they were bored—but because they were registering something bigger than themselves.
Meeting former players throughout the weekend felt like touching history. Dan Majkowski. Brady Poppinga. James Lofton. Jerry Kramer—a Hall of Famer whose name still carries weight the second it’s spoken. Watching him talk to Jax about how to avoid a block and footwork and then allowing him, as the oldest, (because according to Jerry, “the oldest has the most responsibility”), to wear his Super Bowl Ring had me covered in goosebumps. Watching my boys meet them, shake their hands, listen to their stories, felt like watching football generations overlap in real time.
And then there was Oliver, standing with Super Bowl champion Ryan Grant, getting a lesson in running back technique. No crowd. No pressure. Just a former Packer passing down knowledge to a kid who dreams in green and gold. That’s the kind of moment you don’t fully understand while it’s happening—but you know it will matter forever.
Game day came fast.
We spent the morning in Titletown, the boys running around with that restless energy only kids can have when something big is coming. We tossed a football back and forth, the boys throwing passes to Steph (who believe it or not throws a pretty tight spiral) while Lambeau towered over us in the background. That image—casual, unscripted, perfect—might be my favorite memory of the whole trip. No tickets scanned. No crowd noise yet. Just us, a football, and the stadium looming quietly behind it all.
Tailgating together felt like something we had been rehearsing for years. Food, laughter, green and gold everywhere. Conversations with strangers that didn’t feel like strangers at all because when you’re there, wearing those colors, you’re already connected. The boys took it all in, wide-eyed, absorbing not just the spectacle but the sense of belonging.
The game itself had its own unexpected twist. With Jordan Love injured, Malik Willis stepped in and did what Packers quarterbacks have always been asked to do—win. Watching him guide the team to a win felt symbolic, especially with my boys beside me… waiving the Yellow G Flag in support. Football, like life, doesn’t always go according to plan. But preparation, belief, and opportunity still matter. The end of the game came down to a defensive stop on fourth down to put the game away and just like that the four of us cheered like it was a Super Bowl win.
As we walked out of Lambeau that day, tired and happy and still buzzing from a HUGE WIN, I realized something simple but important. I’ve written a lot about the Packers. I’ve watched them for decades. I’ve passed that love down intentionally, sometimes obsessively. But this trip wasn’t about teaching my kids why the Packers matter.
It was about watching them feel it.
Seeing the place. Standing on the field. Meeting the players. Throwing a football in the shadow of Lambeau. Driving toward a glowing stadium on a quiet Wisconsin night and knowing exactly where we were headed… to the place where the Lombardi Trophy was born…. and while it might visit other cities… the Lombardi Trophy will always call Titletown home.
Titletown
This wasn’t just my third trip to Green Bay.
It was our first—together.
And somehow, that made Lambeau feel brand new again.
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BTW… we are now all currently on the 44 year waitlist for Season Rickeys at Lambeau:
Go Pack Go!!!
The Owner Trio
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…PS When you can try to get in a Lambeau Leap… you do it!
Hopefully this is just the first of his many Lambeau Leaps
Steelers vs Chiefs… and Antonio Brown is back on punt returns… Someone explain to me why you would have the best wide receiver in all of football returning punts at all, let alone when you’re winning by 22 points?!!! Who’s calling the plays… a two year old!!?!
So I’m sitting here watching my 13th straight hour of football and I’m wondering if jax will want to play… I did… and I loved it. But that before all this concussion stuff.
Back in the day as long as you could walk straight you went back in the game and to be honest I’m pretty sure I talked my way back into a few games w/ out being able to walk straight after a few hard hits. I see so many parents opting out of signing their kids up for football… and towns now have flag football for young kids. (I think you have to be 10 to play in pads.)
I’m all for whatever sports this little guy wants to play. I’d love to have him play football… but if he wants to stick to coaching… I guess I’d be ok with that too.
As I sit here drinking my Luke warm coffee in my sleeveless packers tshirt, the pure delight like that of a kid on Christmas morning… For the greatest day of the year has finally arrived… It’s opening day… It’s GAME DAY… It’s the Packers first football game of the season today.
Yet I can’t quite connect with my feelings. There’s something I can’t quite put my finger on… I should be Marching Parade around the house happy… In my Aaron Rodgers jersey doing push- ups on the back porch happy… Yelling “Go Pack Go” for all of the neighborhood to hear happy!!! But I just can’t get in the mood for some reason…
As I sit here writing and thinking and reflecting Jackson is chanting “FroFro” as the DVD ends… AGAIN. Because of that I have to go restart Frozen for the 7,853rd time today. Hang on… That’s it… Is that the reason it doesn’t feel like football yet? Because I’m watching an animated Disney movie on repeat?
There has to be some sort of connection here. There’s no way my son… The son of a Green Bay Packers Owner, the same kid who knows no letters EXCEPT the letter “G”… Would choose Frozen over the NFL’s opening day. The Packers opening game.
Wait a minute… Frozen… GREEN BAY? Frozen TUNDRA…? THE FROZEN TUNDRA OF GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN… THE HOME OF THE GREEN BAY PACKERS!
… That’s it… This kid is a genius! Hit play on that DVD kid it’s time for some football!
Sorry Sons: Chronicles of a New Dad 