Packing it in.

The Minnesota Vikings started the free agency period with a flurry this weekend, including the signing of Green Bay Packers kicker Ryan Longwell.

If you ask the reaction of any Packers fans most of them will immediately tell you that Longwell “wasn’t that good anyways”, or something along those lines.

When the Vikings signed former Packer Darren Sharper last year, many of my friends and relatives who are Packer backers scoffed at that acquisition saying Sharper was well past his prime. Yeah, all Sharper did last season with the Vikings was tie a career high with nine interceptions and gain a berth in the Pro Bowl.

There is no doubt that the Green Bay Packers are one of the most storied franchises in all of pro sports. Their twelve championships are more than any other team in NFL history. However, their fans are some of the most insufferable and delusional devotees you’ll ever find attached to a sports team. In their mind, no football player worth his salt would ever have the audacity to leave Green Bay. So if a player gets cut (Sharper), he’s past his prime. If a player leaves voluntarily via free agency (Longwell), he lost his edge and wasn’t going to be re-signed anyways. Or if a player commits blasphemy and says “I really have no interest in playing for Green Bay again” (Javon Walker), he had better watch out for his dog.

It’s a new era in the NFL, Packer fans. Players don’t really care about Green Bay as much as they do Greenbacks.