The road to recovery

It is quiet at work. Eerily quiet. Quite the opposite of what everyone expected this Monday to be like. People are down. Mopey. Just trying to stay busy. Except for the old lady in the cafeteria. She is a Bears fan and having a good time.

My friends now understand how I felt last week. When football season comes to a screeching halt, it is difficult to digest. You expect a couple more weeks. Hey, it is Eli Manning. He can't beat you. That is what I thought about with the Cowboys game too.

So here is the prescription for Packer fans to deal with their loss.
Monday:

1. Don't turn on ESPN. In fact, you may want to put that parental lock on the channel. You know the game is a big story. You don't want to run into the lowlights on Sportscenter, PTI, or Around the Horn. It will only re-open the wound.
2. Don't look at the paper. You may want to pick up the Journal only to put it into the recycling bin.
3. Don't watch the local news. Sure it may be a relief that they won't spend the first 10 minutes talking about some idiot who moved from Australia for a sports team, but they will say what a disappointing end to the season it was. Again, you don't want to open the wound. Go to TBS and watch Seinfeld or that Raymond show. Either one of them is always on TBS.
4. Finally, don't read any sports blogs in the morning. I am sure the guys at the Wisconsin Sports Bar have committed hari kari by now so there won't be much to read. I don't believe the any local paper has a blog dedicated to the Packer like the great job being done by the Dallas Morning News. Come afternoon, go read some reactions and commiserate with your brethren. Remember it was a good year.
5. Curse yourself for taking the day off. If you were at work, you might have stuff to do to keep your mind off the game.
6. Put on a Packers sweatshirt. Though they lost, that shirt will still put a smile on your face and instill a sense of pride. Nothing wrong with being fans of the 3rd best team in the NFC.

Tuesday

1. Read the paper. Go online and get a feel for what the talking heads are saying. Now is the time to be with family. Share the pain and let the healing take full effect.
2. Figure out what the hell they did wrong. Favre was Favre in the end. He fell apart as McCarthy did. They couldn't figure out how to move the ball or stop the Giants in the second half.
3. Fell free to bark at the bandwagoners. You know who they are. The lady in the brand new pink Favre jersey thinking she is Jessica Simpson. The person who called around on Friday asking stores when they were getting the championship shirts in on Monday. The people that flocked to the bar last week but stayed home this week. You are allowed to vent that last bit of frustration out on them.
4. And don't beleive anyone that says the Packers would have been better off going to Dallas. They would not have beaten the Cowboys. Don't fool yourself. Al Harris would have been trashed by Terrell Owens as badly as Plaxico Burress did. Anyone who thinks they would have won in Dallas because the weather would have been better is a total idiot.
5. Put some money on the Pats in the Super Bowl.

By Wednesday, you should feel back to normal. Life goes on without football. Beside, you are too tired to think about it anymore because of all the snow you have been shoveling.