Sweet(s) Talk…

Another Green Bay Packers season has come and gone, with them losing on the road in the NFC Championship game for the third time in the last six seasons. You all know the story, new head coach in Mount Pleasant native Matt LaFleur after Mike McCarthy was disgracefully fired in early December, prior to the end of last season. Next, the Packers added some very productive free agent pieces to the defensive side of the football. They went along very nicely with the great draft picks general manager Brian Gutekunst made on the very same side of the ball. A glaringly obvious need for the team, based off of past personnel decisions.

Future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers spent the season seemingly happier than the last two seasons, even saying so on many occasions, while potentially having a couple of good years left in him. All of that is well and good, and a 13-3 regular season with a NFC North Division championship and a home playoff win was great, too. But there are still some small clouds lingering after the big cloud (Ted Thompson) and the organization “parted ways.” You know, those pesky type small type clouds that hang around until the sky clears after a storm.

The lingering small clouds are some of, not all, but some of the homegrown players left over from the stale and unproductive end of the Ted Thompson era. Players like Davante Adams, David Bahktiari, Aaron Jones aren’t examples of the pesky type small clouds — they’re good football players. So as not to ramble on about this topic, I’ll put it to rest for now by saying: Matt LaFleur and Brian Gutekunst will increase their odds of winning a Super Bowl once the players, coaches and personnel are 95% or more, all their own people.

Try to be patient fellow Packers fans, in the meantime, let’s hope Rodgers’ arrogance isn’t contagious inside the building, like the flu bug was in the teams’ locker room for the month of December. …

As I was talking with Kingsford Flivvers girls JV basketball coach Jon Lorenzoni after his team’s victory over Marquette on Jan. 10, he was slightly out of breath, very red in the face and covered with perspiration. I asked him, “Jonny, you look like you played in the game yourself?” He replied, “I was just very into the end of the game Sweets, and I am excited that we won! That, and I have to stop wearing these sweater vests! Look at me, I’m sweating all over your notebook!” I’ll take caution next time, Jon, keep wearing your sweater vests. …

The next week or so, as most of America will prepare for the upcoming Super Bowl, I can’t help but wonder something. What are casual viewers of the big game going to do when Tom Brady isn’t winning again, let alone the Patriots not playing in the game like we’re all used to? I wonder what the ratings will be like, maybe better, or maybe worse.

But here’s something that I don’t wonder about the Super Bowl. That Hall of Fame General Manager Ron Wolf will be proud as can be, that yet another person on his coaching tree found added success and achieved getting to another Super Bowl in Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid. Wolf brought Andy Reid to Green Bay in 1992, where he remained on the team’s offensive coaching staff until being hired as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999.

Goes to show that Reid obviously payed attention to what was happening around him while he was around greatness in Wolf and potential Hall of Fame head coach Mike Holmgren. Good job, Andy, for not wasting your opportunity and getting back to the big stage yet again. …

On Tuesday, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, announced the 2020 inductees in to the Hall which will take place on July 26. The two players that received enough votes for enshrinement this year were Canadian-born infielder Larry Walker, and iconic NY Yankees shortstop and Michigan native Derek Jeter. As Larry Walker was being interviewed on MLB Network, he was asked by Bob Costas how he feels about being inducted with Jeter. Walker cleverly said “Derek (Jeter) and I getting inducted together is like an old 45 record. Jeter is “A” side of the record, with the song that everyone remembers on it, I am the “B” side of the record.” …

Two special ladies in my life have birthdays coming up. My mother Marianne (Lardenoit) McCarthy turns 67 today, while my beautiful wife of nearly six years April Lynn Kelly, formerly of Hermansville, turns (I am not going to say her age) on Jan. 29. I’d have to say, that the two of them should have direct tickets to heaven from dealing with me … probably the understatement of the decade … and we’re less than 30 days into it. Happy Birthday Mom! Happy Birthday Honey! …