The Green Bay Packers have spent far longer than is acceptable in the shadow of the typically lowly Detroit Lions. It’s time for the natural order to be reestablished.

That’s my storyline for this weekend. On paper, these are two talented football teams that have had some hard-fought battles in recent years mostly go Detroit’s way. The Lions are one of a couple teams that have put a pretty low ceiling on the Packers’ potential achievement the last couple years. If Green Bay is going to take the next step this year for a deep playoff or Super Bowl push, they’re going to need to establish a higher ranking in the pecking order of the NFC North, and that means defeating Detroit.

They’d be hard-pressed to find a better opportunity than the one in front of them this weekend. Consider:

• The game is at home, and homefield advantage means a lot in a typically sloppy week one
• The Lions are playing their first game after losing both coordinators in the offseason to head coaching gigs, while the Packers are returning almost their entire staff. Ostensibly, it will take Detroit longer to figure out “who they are” this year with new key coaches, whereas the Packers should ideally be able to hit the ground running.
• Jared Goff is playing his first game without Sean McVay or Ben Johnson; what might that mean?
• The Lions are coming in weighed down by the blessing and curse of high expectations; the Packers are just entering a championship window and are the young, plucky upstarts

This game has a high potential for drama, which is almost certainly why it was picked for Fox’s 3:25 p.m. slot. And while you typically want to avoid placing too much importance on any game played in September (or even October), it’s hard to imagine a bigger matchup for the Packers to start the year.

Now, even if the Packers do come out and defeat or even stomp the Lions this weekend, that of course does not necessarily mean they’re going all the way. But it’s hard not to think it would be a pretty massive statement. The Packers last year could not beat top tier teams. In beating Detroit, they’d be doing that right off the bat, which could help set the tone for the rest of the season that follows. 

Here’s to opening weekend. Football is back.

Wisconsin Beer of the Week

My wife and I had an early 10th anniversary celebration with a weekend in Door County recently, and it was great to finally get there for the first time. We did a lot of fun things while we were there, including visiting a number of breweries.

Door County has several breweries I’m familiar with, but it was the one I wasn’t previously familiar with that impressed me the most. It was Peach Barn Brewing, which has a delightful location in Sister Bay with a perfect outdoor area and a smartly decorated rustic barn sort of interior feel.

The beer was, like, really good. The other breweries in Door County that we went to all have distribution in the Milwaukee area (One Barrel, Door County Brewing, Hacienda) but this one easily beat the rest of them in quality (and trust me, I sampled broadly). 

There were a number of beers that I enjoyed, but the one I’m going to feature today is their O’Henry Wit. This is your standard wheat beer–a light, easy sipper at 5 percent, perfect for a summer day. It features orange peel, coriander, and (appropriately) just a hint of peach. I do love a good wheat beer in the summer, and this one hit absolutely perfectly. 

We sampled a number of their beers, from your standard wheat ales, lagers, English milds and pale ales to your fruited sours and even a seltzer. I very much enjoyed everything I tried, and the location was really great. If you like beer and you’re heading up to Door County any time soon, this tops the list of breweries for me. I’m hoping some of their beer starts to make it down to the Milwaukee area.

What can we expect from Micah Parsons in 2025?

This is my first column since the Packers signed Micah Parsons exactly one week ago today. I was driving out to a friend’s place for a fantasy draft when he called me up and asked if I’d heard the news. I thought he was pulling my chain; I’d seen the rumors swirling on the internet, but never really paid them any attention. I just figured it was way too good to be true.

I was stunned. I turned on local sports radio here in Milwaukee, and they had Jason Wilde on talking about the signing. It was almost impossible to believe. There’s not really any trade in Packers history that compares to the magnitude of this one–at minimum a top 3 defensive player in the league being traded in his prime at just 26 years old to the Packers? The closest comparisons for the Packers are free agent signings, and the closest comparison for sports I can think of in recent years is the Luka Doncic trade.

So the question, then, has to become how much we can expect out of Parsons this year.

Parsons is returning from some reported back problems, and will also probably have to be worked into the mix gradually as he learns the defense; I’d expect to see him primarily in pass rush situations to start out before he gets integrated more into the team’s more complex packages.

That being said, the Packers also didn’t go out and get him to be a situational player at most. They got him to be a difference maker. They certainly knew about Parsons’ back issues before trading for him, so the fact that they gave him the contract they did indicates they don’t see long-term concern in his health. 

Parsons is the kind of player you get to make an immediate impact. It would be a disappointment if he did not make that sort of impact in 2025. 

It’ll also be fascinating to see how he opens up opportunities for other pass rushers like Lukas Van Ness or Rashan Gary. Both players struggled in pass rush last year, but with Parsons sucking up attention, it could be a big deal for their ability to succeed alongside him. That in itself is another reason to grab a player of Parsons’ caliber–it puts everyone around him into a better position.

Early reports indicated the Packers would have Parsons on a “pitch count” against Detroit as he eases back in from no real training camp and from his nagging injury. But I’d be surprised if it takes much longer than a week to ramp him up into a much more consistently prominent role.

Random predictions for the 2025 season

Here are just a few random Packers-related predictions I have for the 2025 season:

• The Packers will defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers, preventing Aaron Rodgers from becoming the latest quarterback to beat all 32 teams before he retires at the end of the season
• The Packers will reach the NFC Championship game
• The Packers will win the division on a tiebreaker with Detroit
• Micah Parsons will continue his streak of at least 12 sacks per season
• Jordan Morgan will be a starter on the offensive line by the end of the regular season
• Rashan Gary will have better numbers than he did in his Pro Bowl year a year ago, but will not make the Pro Bowl
• Matthew Golden will lead the team in receptions

Around the NFC North

As always, it’s time to go around the NFC North. 

• The CHICAGO BEARS get a big test of their own in the first week of the season as they host the Vikings on Monday Night. There’s been a lot of talk about the big strides this Bears team will take this year, especially after some promising preseason action (if you believe in that sort of thing). A surprise win over Minnesota would crank up the hype-o-meter to levels not seen since… well, September of last year, I guess. While Ben Johnson’s offenses in Detroit tended to have success against Brian Flores’s tough Minnesota defense, this is a new team with new personnel, so it will be fascinating to see how these teams stack up.

• The DETROIT LIONS enter the season wearing the NFC North crown and shouldering the burden of high expectations for the year to come. They’ve had the Packers’ number in recent years, but the combination of those high expectations, the loss of their coordinators, and the Packers’ thirst to prove themselves could be too much to overcome on the road in week one. Jared Goff’s performance in particular is going to be a major subject of analysis in the media. An off day could “prove” (in the eyes of some) that he was carried by Ben Johnson. 

• The MINNESOTA VIKINGS’ prognosis all offseason and preseason has been pretty simple: they’ll go as far as JJ McCarthy can carry them. Exactly how far that is remains to be seen. This is an incredibly talented football team with a giant question mark at quarterback. It’s time for some of those questions to start being answered.

Mr. Backes’s “This or That”

The school year is off and running, and so my weekly “this or that” collection returns! Every day I put a different “this or that” poll up on my whiteboard and have students leave tallies throughout the day. I then compile this information and post it here for laughs.

Students just arrived into the building on Tuesday, so I don’t have as many as usual to report this week, but keep watching this space for much more throughout the year!

• Saja Boys defeated Huntrix (KPop Demon Hunters – if you know, you know)
• Lucky Charms defeated Fruit Loops
• Brewers defeated Bucks (this one has had different results on several occasions)

My summer reading list!

Summer is the only time of year I consistently get to read for fun–being an English teacher during the school year means a lot of time taken up by reading student work instead of books. I packed in 22 books from the time school closed until Labor Day. Here’s the full list in the order I read them, then my five favorites:

• Martyr! By Kaveh Akbar
• Borne by Jeff VanderMeer
• The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
• Wandering Stars by Tommy Orange
• Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
• Desert Places by Blake Crouch
• Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
• The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
• The Push by Ashley Audrain
• The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine by Rashid Khalidi
• The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
• When Pride Still Mattered by David Maraniss
• Forward: Stories of Tomorrow by various sci fi authors
• The God of the Woods by Liz Moore
• Severance by Ling Ma
• We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
• The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
• Nightfall by Isaac Asimov
• The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
• The Overstory by Richard Powers
• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt

Of these, ones that stand out:

Borne was delightfully weird sci fi by the author of Annihilation/the Southern Reach trilogy. I went into it completely blind because I loved those books, and this was every bit as fun and wacky. Good stuff.

The Anxious Generation was a must-read for anyone with children, who works with children, or who is interested in how smart phones and social media have affected the development of today’s children. It’s a pretty horrifying portrayal of what has happened to Gen Z socially/mentally/emotionally as a result of growing up with constant unfettered access to tech at their fingertips.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore was a really good mystery that ended up being far more complex and multilayered than I’d expected when I read the synopsis. Pretty unique and a real page-turner that went fast despite its length.

Severance was a unique twist on post-apocalyptic stuff about a pandemic that essentially ends the world as we know it–oddly written a year or two before the COVID-19 pandemic. It combines that sort of sci fi/thriller element with political commentary on the state of capitalism in America.

And of course, When Pride Still Mattered was an absolutely outstanding biography of Vince Lombardi. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend. I can’t believe it took me this long to read it.

Week 1 NFL Picks

Okay, we’re back in action with our picks!

As I mentioned at the start of the article, this feels like a prime opportunity for the Packers to make a statement against a tough divisional rival that has had their number. Week one is always a bit of a crapshoot, but the fact that it’s a divisional game adds some meaning that isn’t always there this early in the season. The Packers have the talent to overtake the Lions in a neutral environment, but playing at home and having the benefit of consistency (the Lions had turnover on their coaching staff) is a big deal in the first week of the season.

Packers win by a touchdown. We’ll say 27-20.

As for the full slate of games…

Eagles def. Cowboys

Chargers def. Chiefs

Dolphins def. Colts

Steelers def. Jets

Panthers def. Jaguars

Cardinals def. Saints

Commanders def. Giants

Falcons def. Bucs

Bengals def. Browns

Patriots def. Raiders

49ers def. Seahawks

Broncos def. Titans

Packers def. Lions

Rams def. Texans

Bills def. Ravens

Vikings def. Bears