Acme Packing Company
A post on Reddit sent me down a rabbit hole from which I can’t return
Today is December 20th, 2024. On this day in 1997, the Packers played the Buffalo Bills in Green Bay. It was 21-0 at the end of the first half and the team’s two biggest stars in Brett Favre and Reggie White got benched to get some rest for the playoffs. But this isn’t the game that I’m writing about. In fact, it took me two hours to find that out.
Let me back up.
Earlier today, the top post on the Green Bay Packers subreddit was a video containing the famous Brett Favre mic’d up moment of “You know what, Andy? I love you, man.”
However, this version contained way more context than I’ve ever seen before. Andy mentions he’s about to get chewed out and then head coach Mike Holmgren does indeed berate him over a screen call. Mike then says, “It’s first and f***in fifteen, let’s go!” before storming off.
Casually, one of the commenters asked if anyone could find the play. They mentioned it looked like a Bills player walked by about 8 seconds in. Someone replied with Dec 20th, 1997 because of Don Beebe being a Packer vs the Bills.
Well, I’m eternally online and currently procrastinating about something with my day job, so I went on the hunt. I found a video of the full broadcast and scrubbed it until I got to a 1st and 15. Rookie Ross Verba jumped at Favre’s hard count and the broadcast mentions that Bruce Smith would make anyone jump.
But wait...they also said it’s “31 degrees at kickoff, although the windchill’s 25.”
In the “I love you, man” clip, everyone is in short sleeves. This COULDN’T be the game. So I ran to the Acme Packing Company Slack chat to see if anyone else who makes content for this website felt like ignoring their day jobs on a Friday the week before Christmas.
I posted a blurry screenshot of the opposing player walking by, knowing that this would be the Bat Signal for Jon Meerdink. Jon is APC’s go-to guy for things like TV Numbers and helmet brands.
Jon believes it’s still a Packers v Bills game in 1997 but that it’s preseason week 4. It explains the white jersey, but not the home jerseys along with the weird-looking stadium. That’s when I learned about the AMERICAN BOWL. It turns out, that’s just the name for the international preseason games the NFL used to do before 2005. A noteworthy American Bowl game would be the time Terrell Davis, full of hotdogs, made a tackle on a kickoff that secured his roster spot with the Denver Broncos.
This American Bowl was played in Canada. Not seeing the normal yellow fencing of Lambeau in the background makes sense!
But...again...we were wrong. Jon found a broadcast of the game and noted that there was no red railing to be seen anywhere. I watched much of the...
