It's billed as "Packers Family Night" but in reality it's one practice for Training Camp out of X number of practices for Training Camp. Still, we know that thousands of fans show up over the pre-season and visit all their respective teams in the NFL so they can just watch them practice. You can wonder why people will show up to a practice just to watch their team run around the field for something that is meaningless, at least meaningless for the fan, it's serious business for the players and coaches, but don't people have better things to do?

The Packers scrimmage, sold out in 24 hours to over 62,000 fans, that's a lot of people with nothing better to do. What is it really all about?

For me and my girlfriend, it started Friday afternoon when we made the drive from Milwaukee to Brillion, a quiet town 30 miles south of Green Bay. Brillion has a 9 hole golf course and that was our afternoon. It was one of those days where it really didn't matter what you did, the sky was virtually free of clouds, the temperature was comfortable, in short, the day was nothing short of glorious. It was the kind of day where there should be a law making it mandatory to skip work. It doesn't matter what you do, just do it outside.

I finished the course with a score of one under. I found one ball and lost two, so that puts me one under, correct? Like I said, it didn't matter what you did on a day like this...!

My parents are retired out this way so after we completed our butchering of the greens we met up with them and we had a fish fry. Some of their friends joined us which rounded out the day.

Family, friends, Wisconsin skies and fish fries. I feel a loose theme developing here...

My girlfriend used to live in Green Bay and sill goes to a hairdresser there so the plan was to go to a 9:30 hair appointment, do some shopping, and then meet up with some of her family late afternoon and the group would head to Lambeau Field for Packers Family Night.

I wasn't sure what I was going to do while GF was getting her hair done, but the cemetery where Curly Lambeau was buried was literally just up the street so I went over there for having nothing better to do.

When I arrived I found that someone had placed a small Packers flag next to the headstone and left a note that read:

"Dear Robert, Happy birthday! Thanks for visiting my grave last season. I hope you can attend another game soon. Best wishes, Curly."

The revelation that Curly Lambeau was speaking to Packer fans from beyond the grave was astounding, yet it was somewhat disappointing that his chosen subject for communication was not me. I would have to accept that the Football God chose a Packer fan more worthy than I to receive his best wishes. Still, I was wondering who Robert was and why Curly Lambeau wished to reach out to him beyond the grave.

I ended up meandering through downtown Green Bay and stopped at the Glory Years pub, the location of the Packers old offices which included Vince Lombardi's office as well. The establishment was closed but in my desire to move slowly and kill time, I noticed that the building had received a number of upgrades over the years. Vince would probably have to look twice before recognizing the structure from what it used to be. The property is now part of a hotel complex and in the parking lot it was obvious that one or two vehicles were here just for the scrimmage. People came from out of town and are actually spending money on hotels and such just for a scrimmage?

The afternoon is spent shopping with GF. Everywhere we went we saw people going about their business but dressed in game mode, they also killing time and waiting for Lambeau Field to open up.

The day was mostly overcast, the sky threatening break and let the sun out, but the clouds were only teasing. It was probably just as well, the direct sun may have made things just a little too warm. The sky and clouds pretty much duked it out the entire day. Eventually it was time to meet up with everyone and we all made our way over to Lambeau Field. My experience from past scrimmages, it seems that many of the people coming in are not the "regulars" who go to games. Virtually all of the traffic is on Oneida and Lombardi. The side streets and indirect routes are clear and we zip right on over. We unload Grandma and Grandpa and their wheelchairs, park the cars, and we settle in for an evening of "Family Night."

GF has a friend who still lives in Green Bay; she and her family meet up with us inside Lambeau Field so the total of our group was 15 people. It was obvious that many other families were in groups like this, they all talking, laughing, and having a good time in general.

The scrimmage was to start at 7:30 but pre-scrimmage activities began at 6:00. The Oneida Nation had dancers and there were other events and promotions. What surprised me is how full Lambeau Field was starting after 6:00. A regular season game might find 300 people sitting in the stands an hour and a half before everything got underway. During this time various Packers would come in and out of the tunnel and the crowd would roar. It didn't take much to get the wave going and multiple beach balls were inflated and being batted around in the stands.

When the scrimmage started people went back and forth between watching the plays and socializing with their group. The PA system would be belting out various tunes and fans would be standing on their seats and dancing. Lambeau Field, as they say, "was rockin'!"

After the scrimmage they had a lottery for fans to win jerseys that the players had worn. The announcer would say "Section X!" and everyone in the section would stand up in cheer and then the announcer continued with "Row Y!" and then you'd hear a big "Aww!" from those in the section who were positive that this was their day. Someone in my section and just a tad over from me won one and the people around applauded. It wasn't anyone from our group, but that's the way it is for things like this; someone else is supposed to win, not you.

The evening was of course finished off with fireworks and another Packer Family Night was history.

We took a while leaving because of Grandma and Grandpa being in wheelchairs but it seemed that the traffic wasn't bad for getting out. It dawned on me that it had to be because there weren't that many cars congesting the area as there usually is during a game. I think it's because people were able to come to this event in groups and could share vehicles. Instead of two people coming in two cars like you would during a game you had four people arriving in one car.

I thought about that Sunday morning as my girlfriend and I headed back to Milwaukee. I thought I was going to write about how great Packer fans were, selling out the stadium the way they did, just for a scrimmage, but there was a deeper revelation here. In the back of my mind is a retort I've heard many times from non-Packer fans, the reason why people latch onto the Packers is because there is nothing else to do in Green Bay.

You see, I've always had a problem with that myth. Every weekend the region is overflowing with people from Chicago because this is a resort area. It's a place people want to go to. Green Bay is a destination, not a place to avoid. The Bear fans are here at their weekend cabins or dropping money every weekend in a Door County art gallery.

If Chicago is such a hap'nin' place then why is Chicago tripping over itself to be here and own a piece of it? The argument that Packer fans are Packer fans because there's nothing else to do here, therefore, isn't true.

Then it hit me.

All evening long during the scrimmage they were playing those tunes and making people tap their toes and shake their arms and bob their heads, one of those tunes was the song from a popular cartoon called "Spongebob Squarepants." When the song is played you're supposed to shout during the appropriate moments and you could here all those kids yelling "SPONGE! BOB! SQUARE! PANTS!" The volume was enough to tell you that Lambeau Field was full of kids.

During a regular season game people usually come in couples or foursomes. The Club seats and luxury boxes, though a minority, still make up a significant number of seats in the stadium. The people who use these seats aren't kids. Even the common bowl seats, you don't see too many kids. The price of football and the ticket scalping business in general makes it too serious to throw money on kids for something they aren't necessarily going to appreciate.

That doesn't make kids any less of a football fan than anyone else but the means for going to a game is limited to a lucky few. That's just the way it is. Kids don't have the money to do this.

However, here, tonight, it was Packers Family Night. It was not the Packers Scrimmage Game, It was FAMILY Night. Even if you have Season Tickets, families have to negotiate who and when someone gets to go to a game; you can't go as a group. It's just not the same. It's a fact throughout the NFL, even for teams that don't sell out, the cost makes it prohibitive for a family to go to a game together.

But with the Packers, families and friends do have the opportunity to share the Lambeau Experience together.

Sure, other teams have special events such as this but they come no where close to the level and scope as what the Packers have achieved.

And it's simply because the Packers are doing the right things for their fans. That's what separates the Green Bay Packers from the rest of the NFL. They're just doing the right things for their fans, whenever they can.

Is it no wonder then that the Packers have fans like Packer fans? Where else in all of sports, not just the NFL, can a family do something like this? Where else, in a world of player contracts, stadium deals, raw business in general, can kids get close to their heroes, experience the excitement for themselves, the way they can with the Packers?

There's nothing to do in Green Bay except to be a Packer fan? Maybe Packer fans are what they are because in Green Bay you have football that's being done right. Just look at all those Illinois license plates heading south every Sunday afternoon; they're here, every weekend, looking for something because they can't find in Chicago.