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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Green Bay: The Mecca of the NFL

Last month I had my first chance to visit Green Bay, Wisconsin as I took in a Saints-Packers game at Lambeau Field on an ideal fall afternoon. Getting tickets to go inside was more of a challenge than my father or I had anticipated.
We got lucky. We ONLY paid $300 for the pair.
While it seemed like a steep price, the experience that would follow was one that will never be forgotton. There is a reason people call Green Bay "titletown" and I don't believe it has anything to do with their four Super Bowl trophies.
As a Colts fan from Chicago it pains me to say it, but going to Green Bay is "THE" football experience. I've only been to six NFL stadiums, but it is tough to imagine an atmosphere better than that.
All day long it's a party. Cars are parked in front of homes for more than a mile away from the largest stadium in a small town. Everyone is grilling, having pre-game parties and dressed in Green and Gold.
With the smell of brats in the air, it is the closest anyone can come to a "college atmosphere" at an NFL game.
As we made our way to our seats, we could not find one section of the stadium that was empty. All the bleachers and seats were filled to capacity, and when we finally reached the seats, we quickly found out that moving was not an option.
The fans?
Respectful and knowledgeable. People came dressed in suspenders and everyone was there to have a good time.
And to make things even better, the Packers (including former Colts center Jeff Saturday) topped the hated New Orleans Saints 28-27 in a nail biter.

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

This week in History: Tylenol Murders

It was 30 years ago this week that the entire nation lost its innocence. It was in the wake of the Tylenol Murders, a string of seven deaths in the Chicagoland area. All seven victims had taken a Tylenol capsule between Sept. 29 and Oct. 1, 1982 - and died shortly after to potassium cyanide poisoning.
The crime spree, which involved an individual taking Tylenol from the counters and returning it, after tampering and inserting potassium cyanide to five stores in Chicago, has never been solved. James Lewis, an extortionist spent 13 years in prison for the extortion of the crime - but was found to not have actually been responsible for the murders.
The crime spree did spawn several "copycat" killings, most notable in 1986 in Seattle where a woman attempted to cover up her husband's murder by doing the same thing with Excedrin, killing another woman in the process.
The Tylenol case, while handled perfectly by parent company Johnson & Johnson., is the primary reason why tamper-proof packaging exists today.