ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ) — The Green Bay Packers opened up their first day of training camp on Wednesday, and it was the first time fans were included since 2019.
You could almost hear the sigh of relief when the Packers rookies took off from Lambeau towards the Don Hudson Center. After the pandemic stricken 2020 season, Packers fans are back with their team.
“It means a lot,” said Kelley Logan, who made the drive up from Louisville, Kentucky. “Just coming up here, seeing all my friends, and seeing all the players, you know, training camp! Just doing this every year, it just feels great.”
“It feels amazing, 2020 was hard on a lot of us,” said Bobby Anderson. “The Packers organization did a great job of keeping everything together, so everything is great.”
It’s still not all normal, the tradition of Packers taking children’s bikes to practice was gone this year due to COVID, but that didn’t stop Mike Smith from driving up with his wife and young son from Aurora, Illinois. He hoped a Packers player would sign his son’s Cheesehead.
“Well this one we’re hoping I know, with the COVID restrictions, they may not be able to sign, but we left [the Cheesehead] here on the fence,” Smith said. “We will step back if they want to come through and sign this Cheesehead. That would be cool.”
Fans couldn’t get quite as close as usual, either. It didn’t stop fans from flying and driving out from across the country to see the Packers suit up in person–a sign that normalcy is finally returning to Northeast Wisconsin.
Click here for the entire Packers training camp schedule.
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