Best Packer Blog:

Railbird Central

Best Packer Pro Media Source:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Packer Fan Web Design Excellence 2008:

Packer Palace

Best Packer Fan Web Video Clip:

Packers Draft Day Freakout

Greatest Cheesehead 2008:

The Once In A Lifetime Fan

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• Titletown Winners To Be Announced Today!

You’ve met the nominees. You’ve visited their sites. You’ve watched their clips. And today, you find out the winners of the first annual Cheesehead TV Titletown Awards. Check back here at (approximately) 1PM EST to see who the winners are!

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• And the Titletown Goes To…

Green Bay Packer fans don’t know how lucky they are when it comes to the people who cover their favorite team. No. Seriously. It always astounds me when I hear or read someone rip on any one of our three nominees. Having lived in Chicago, Winston-Salem, and New York, and having been subjected to what passes for ‘professional’ coverage of an NFL team in those cities, I can tell you that the guys and gals working the Packer beat at the following papers are second to none.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Even with the retirement of Cliff Christl, and despite it’s long distance from the city of the team it covers, this Milwaukee outfit brings the goods. With Christl gone, Bob McGinn is now the Grand Pooh-bah beat guy, and there is simply no one better in the country. Does he make mistakes? Of course. (Who could forget his massive op-ed on why the Packers should give up a first round pick for Drew Henson, which, by the way, has mysteriously disappeared from the internet ) But the man is still one of the the two or three best beat guys in the nation. (And having said that, we officially apologize for this post)

Newcomer Greg Bedard did yeoman’s work in his first year covering the Pack, especially on the Blog and interacting with fans. His regular “Monday With Mikey’s Men” feature, where he asks a handful of questions to assistant coaches posted by readers of the blog, is a perfect example of how the Journal Sentinel is taking steps to bring the fans closer to the game. Not to mention the chance it gives bloggers to have some semblance of access, illusionary though it may be. The rest of the staff is excellent, especially Tom Silverstein, who’s work is often overshadowed by McGinn, but is on par with anything the lead writer puts out.

Their website as a whole is wonderful, complete with very short podcasts and even some video interviews with various staff members, though these are usually just parroted from their articles, and not very entertaining. (I know, I know, it’s news, but I just read it - why do I want to see someone speak it now?) But overall, the interactive element is excellent and getting better.

Green Bay Press Gazette (Gannett)

The place where it all started, the Press Gazette, owned by Gannett Newspapers, benefits online from a pool of resources at both the Green Bay and Appleton papers. Mike Vandermause has taken over the lead commentary role after the mysterious firing of Chris Havel. (What happened there, really? It was really handled poorly on the Gazette’s end, and they owe their readership a real explanation) Vandermause’s writing is thorough, if a bit bland. And he rarely scoops anything, which is shocking for the Sports Editor of the hometown paper that covers the Green Bay Packers.

The rest of the staff is strong, though both Corey and I have noted a distinct sloppiness when it comes to ‘the small stuff’, as it were. It doesn’t ever hold back the quality of a writer’s piece but it is annoying when, as a fan, I can spot statistical errors or small facts that are incorrect. These people are paid professionals. They have editors. What excuse do they have?

Overall, their website, Packersnews.com is a great place for all sorts of Packer info, both as it relates to the game on the field and to auxiliary stuff around the town of Green Bay. The Out Of Bounds blog is a particular joy, as it humanizes the people and the game to a degree you don’t get anywhere else (that we’ve found). The one thing that detracts from the experience is the rather infantile rantings that sometimes show up at the bottom of stories in the ‘Comments’ section of any given piece (although, kudos to the paper for trying to keep things interactive). Overall, the site and staff are first rate.

Wisconsin State Journal

Two words: Jason Wilde.

He is the reason to read the State Journal’s coverage. (Heck, he IS the coverage) Every article is spot on in factual accuracy, and always captures the tenor of the times in Packerland. It would behoove the editors to give Mr. Wilde a raise, because he is a one man band and he never misses a story or an angle. He’s currently at the Scouting Combine, covering it himself for the State Journal. Just stellar stuff.

The website leaves something to be desired, and it seems they have very limited web-readership, as there are rarely any ‘comments’ left, and there are few, true ‘interactive’ elements. But as stated above, Wilde is a joy to read, and the reason to seek out the Wisconsin State Journal.

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• Who is the Greatest Cheesehead 2008?

Pioneers, the web 2.0 crowd, Packer fans on the internet. What a combination.

Mix those up and you have our nominees. They all combine a focused structure and a creative design to deliver relevant information to your fan experience.

Basically- they are badasses.

And the nominees are:

Packer Palace
It all started with the animations. 11 years worth of animation later ( yes ELEVEN) Packer Palace is so much more. Someone should start a blog about the animations, I mean really. Start with Rockwood Lodge then add some amazing team logos, custom packer wallpapers, great links, rabid fan base; Packer Palace delivers on it’s title. It’s also smart, funny and never takes itself too seriously. For us, it’s everything you want in a fan website. Beer Kid and Beer Scout have set the bar for creativity, consistency and the general pioneer spirit required to succeed and thrive as The Packer Palace.

Packer Forum
Forums and message boards are the superhighways of fan communication in the worldwide web of the Green Bay Packers. In fact the early message boards were the roots of building the web of the Pack. So it’s only fitting that The Titletown’s shine their spotlight on one of the best forums about The Packers. For us, what makes a good forum is good dialogue and a willingness to allow people to say things you don’t really approve of or condone. Mix in a youthful irreverance and a design that just feels right, just enough kitsch, just enough brawn and a lively, timely cadre of members and Packer Forum lives up to it’s name.

Packernet

Another pioneer, this time in the podcast domain. One of our favorite radio shows about the Packers is Sportsline on WDUZ Green Bay hosted by Chris Havel, Johnny Gray and Harry Sydney. Packernet.com always had either the mp3 (or RealPlayer file back in the day) the day after for download. The greatest Tuesday’s of the year are after Packer wins, waking up and listening to the podcast. As a Packer Transplant it makes you feel like you’re home. It’s kind of like the feeling you get when you are with your family during Christmas morning and you just got the fire started in the fireplace. toasty.

There is one other site knocking on the door for the distinction of Excellent Site Design. Quickly climbing the ladder is Packer Addict with a host of sites in it’s wake in need of a serious upgrade in design and in some cases restructure. Congrats to our nominees and here’s to a whole new year of Packer fans designing and coding websites.

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• Best Blog Nominees: A Closer Look

Greatest Cheesehead 2008. Man that has a nice ring to it.

The nominees are:

Packer Bikini Girls

photo above: (from left) Jen, Liz and Ashley

Who are the Bikini Girls? (Girls- you need a website to link to)

Ok - I know it’s redundant. Start with a host of Packer bloggers writing about them, from opening contact, being wanted by Maxim, and then telling Maxim where to put it. Add a plethora of media outlets including mainstream media blogs, Larry McCarren’s Locker Room Show, radio and TV and these girls are officially a Packer Media Frenzy. (btw- Girls- I hope this guy is paying you licensing for using your pic to sell e-harmony) They are a true Packer phenomena and one that at least one of us at Cheesehead TV would like to see consistently maintained as a tradition.

They have been doing this for 6 years because they love the Pack. But the powderkeg wasn’t lit until the NFC Championship Game where they continued the trend at the coldest game the majority of people in that stadium (Corey, included) had ever attended in their lives.

From that point it’s been non-stop Packer Bikini Girls. And thank goodness…I am so sick of hearing about nothing news like how many blogs can say they are not talking about Corey Williams.
The other thing that’s great about the girls is that their whole operation is a family affair and all done with love for the Greatest Team in the History of the Earth. What started as “Let’s see if we can get on TV” has become a fad. We hope it doesn’t go away. Here’s hoping for a new Packer tradition in the spirit of the Lambeau Leap.

Door County Gulf Coast Relief

When I first saw the HBO “Inside the NFL” segment about these guys (which unfortunately is not on itunes) I thought the whole charity over the bye week in Mississippi a cool thing to do. But when you read the real story of what this group led by Pete D’Amico did (20 rebuilding trips in 26 months for starters) you really see it’s not about a condensed 4 minute snapshot all the time. Sometimes what’s behind the staging and storyline is a real story about one group of people helping another group of people all the time, not just during a frivolous bye-week.

The video (below) has some edits of the Inside The NFL piece. We salute you Door County Relief Fund. This is per the article at Packersnews.com “For information on how to make a tax deductible donation, or to volunteer, contact D’Amico at (920) 421-1466.”

Wayne Scullino & Family

Once in a Lifetime Fan

From Packer Implant to Packer Transplant. Wayne Scullino made his dream happen. Bold, even bolder when you think about the season he choose to be huge part of. By now you know the story: 30 year old Australian Telephone Salesman quits job, sells house, moves wife and 2 kids to sunny Green Bay, Wisconsin so he can follow the Greatest Team in the History of the Earth. (there’s a theme here people) We see him as a first. A pioneer. He didn’t just make his dream happen, he made it happen with Web 2.0 skillz. He turned his dream; to follow the Pack like any other Brown County Cheesehead, into a blog: onceinalifetimefan.com, a video podcast (see below), a host of media (links here) from Radio to Television to Print to HBO and a book in the works. When you add the frequency of NFC Championships the Green Bay Packers have been in most of our lifetimes, it really focuses how special this experience was. Here’s my question: What happens when he or his wife get a TV or Radio deal to work in the US? Twiceinalifetimefan.com Here’s hoping Wayne & Family decide to come back to watch the Pack go 19-0 this year.

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• Packer Transplants Podcast

Now that the inaugural Titletown Award nominees are all the rage of the Packer-related internet…(um, yeah…) we’ll be taking the next few days shining a spotlight on the nominees themselves, letting you know a bit more about each of them and why they caught our eye here at Cheesehead TV.

Best Packer Blog 2008

What we were looking for:

A blog that adds value to the Packer Fan experience through compelling and straight forward writing and a good ability to package and analyze Packer news frequently and consistently.
And now, the nominees for Best Packer Blog 2008.

Packer Palace

Underneath the animation and the wonderful creative design lies the treasure room for The Packer Palace. It is the essence of a good blog, dialogue through collaboration. Palace guardians Beer Kid & Beer Scout are an important pulse of Packer fans on the web if for no other reason than they have been around performing at a very high level longer than anyone else. Unless you call PackerChatters early message board a blog. That’s what we thought. It’s not just longevity that keeps it great. If you’re gonna make fun of other people, making fun of yourself is the gift that keeps on giving. These guys have learned it well.

Packergeeks

Packergeeks came out of nowhere this year. They quickly established a voice with this post:

“Welcome to packergeeks.com. Our mission is simple: We want to run the Green Bay Packers. This website will allow us to compile in public a long record of our decision-making for the hiring board when Ted Thompson retires. And along the way if people find our views compelling, infuriating or just interesting, that’s great too.”

What Steve and Andy lack in design or general web coding skills- they more than make up for in sheer writing goodness. Their opinion and analysis on Spygate as well as humorous posts about Random Idiocy are so insightful and funny, they make us forget the blog battles of the past.

Railbird Central

Ok. So we were skeptical at first, we must admit. we missed the first couple seasons of Railbird Central. We missed out. Brian Carriveau’s blog paints unique perspective especially during training camp. It is the new tool for the Packer Transplant when your training camp fix cannot be served by Packers.com alone. What separates Railbird from other blogs is their deliciously close proximity to Lambeau and their commitment to field reporting. A good all around blog design complements their style and with a few minor design tweaks they could be well on their way to Web Design Excellence for a 2009 Titletown.

Brats & Beer

To us the title of this blog is as direct and honest as a Packer Fan could be.

What more, besides 50 yd line tickets, do we want? Brats & Beer delivers the blog equivalent by never forgetting that during a loss, pictures of cute women are always a welcome distraction. He always keeps his finger on the Packer Nation pulse. BratsNBeerGuy keeps the highs and lows at a moderate temperature while maintaining a comedic undercurrent. Reached by telephone, BratsNBeerGuy said he learned of the nomination while eating bratwurst and watching his DVD of the Green Bay Packers 1996 championship season, which has been on continuous loop ever since the Packers lost the NFC Championship game in January. “I’ve just been so depressed since the team lost in the playoffs, I haven’t been able to do anything else. Maybe now with this nomination, I can find the strength to get through the off-season.”

There you have it. The nominees. There were many up for consideration. Up and comers and definite contenders include Acme Packing Company, Green Bay, Booze and Broads , and PackersGab, to name a few. I believe that the Meat Packers Union blog is a great read and would be a contender if he wrote with more frequency.

Good luck to all the nominees. And to those that asked: Yes, bribery goes a long way in determining the winners.

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• Who is the Greatest Cheesehead 2008?

…the First Annual Titletown Awards.

Basically, when we started this website, we were extremely naive about how much work it would be, how much people would come to expect of us, and surprisingly, how much quality competition we would have. In fact, we were so impressed with the competition, that we decided we’d start an annual tradition here at Cheesehead TV, henceforth known as - The Titletowns.

There are, at least in the inaugural year, five categories.

They are as follows, with nominees included:

Best Packer Blog 2008

There are literally hundreds of blogs dedicated to the Green Bay Packers maintained by fans of the team. They range from the serious to the absurd. This years nominees were the cream of the crop for the 07-08 Season.

Packer Geeks

Railbird Central

Brats and Beer

Packer Palace

Best Packer Pro Media Source 2008

Bloggers, bless them, are an emotional lot. We depend on the cool levelheadedness of the best paid professionals covering any professional sports team anywhere. And Rob Demovsky. (We kid, Rob!)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Green Bay Press Gazette

Wisconsin State Journal

Packer Fan Web Design Excellence 2008

It’s one thing to grab a free Blogger or Wordpress account and start yaking away about the Pack. It’s quite another to put some thought and effort into the presentation of your Packer site, and to come up with your own unique graphics and layout (Obviously, this award is close to Corey’s heart… )

Packer Forum

Packer Palace

Packernet

Best Packer Fan Web Video Clip

God bless You Tube. It allows us to share all sorts of Packer moments with fans all over the world, from how we react to a first round draft pick to stumbling upon the fact that you happen to be staying in the same hotel as the team. Here were our three favorite clips from the 07-08 Season:

Packers Draft Day Freak Out

Seattle Swallows Sign

Fan Stays in same hotel as team in Minnesota

Greatest Cheesehead 2008

It astounds and amazes us year after year what people will do in the name of love for the Pack. 2007 saw some amazing testimonials to the way the greatest team on Earth takes over peoples lives and urges them to act in ways they could never have imagined. And to take their shirts off in the cold. The nominees are:

Packer Bikini Girls - If you don’t know of the phenomena called Packer BikiniGirls sweeping Cheesehead Land here is a taste. This is an interview from WTMJ for a recap. Good video interview as well.

Once in a Lifetime Fan - pretty amazing.

Door County Gulf Coast Relief Fund (group of fans who headed down to Mississippi on the bye week to help rebuild houses) Here is the Green Bay Press Gazette story about the group.

And there you have it, the nominees for the first ever Cheesehead TV Titletown Awards. Winners will receive a framed certificate of recognition, a Cheesehead TV ceramic mug, toy football and refrigerator magnet, plus a copy of our Packer Remix 2008 on a custom designed CD. Winners will be announced Wednesday, February 27th at 1PM, so check back often between then and now for a more thorough look at all the people behind the blogs, videos and fans of the Green Bay Packers that make up our 2008 nominees. Good luck to them all!

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• Who is the Greatest Cheesehead 2008?