Packer Party

A sad end to a fun party, as the Green Bay Packers led for most of the game, and even pulled back to take the match into extra time, known in American Football terminology as 'overtime'. Makes me wonder if the players get time and a half for the extra 15 minutes! Unfortunately the final score was 28-22 to the Seattle Seahawks, who scored a touchdown in the sudden death overtime. It was a pretty good match for the first American Football match I'd watched, and I certainly understand it better than I did before. I was very comforted by the confusion about rules from the folk who I thought understood it, but it seems they change regularly.

This motley crew is diehard fans, and foreign guests wearing borrowed shirts, otherwise known as all those at the party in Packer shirts. Our hosts in Platteville are Packer shareholders, which sounds very impressive, but they are not by any means alone. The Green Bay Packers is the only community owned nonprofit professional sports team in any major league in the US, and they release share issues from time to time when they need to do up their stadium. I have to say that system really appeals to me, having seen the kind of messes that commercially owned sports teams have got into in the UK, though sadly they will remain the only one, as the league they play in now has a rule that you can't have more than about 30 owners, the Packers were in before that was introduced, so they're okay, and have a pretty impressive record over the years. I also like the fact they are effectively a small town team, as the other teams all come from much larger cities.

One more nice piece of news which I've not put on blip yet - we have an official 'going home date' for Callum, if everything goes to plan he will be heading home on February 11th! We are praying not just for good health, but also good weather, it would be horrible if the boat didn't sail that day!