Drew Olson of OnMilwaukee.com, Co-host of The D-List, and no doubt fine overall gentleman, has taken umbrage with all the Super Bowl talk coming from the Packers locker room:

The only way I think it's right for players to do that is if they're trying to repeat -- or three-peat -- as champions. I mean, really.... why give other teams, fans and writers any ammunition? What if the Packers lose the opening game on a last-second play? The Super Bowl talk during training camp will get thrown back in their faces and they could end up back-pedaling from their own embarrassing comments.

It's time for McCarthy -- or maybe a team leader like Aaron Rodgers or Charles Woodson -- to tell the boys to stick a sock in it. If you are asked about the Super Bowl, say that is always the goal in Green Bay and that's why you're working hard, but you have lots of work to do and play in a tough division and, the good Lord willing...

The excellent use of Bull Durham aside...

I get where Drew is coming from. The last three Packers teams that had legit shots at the Super Bowl - 2003, 2007, and 2009 - did not start the year out talking about the Super Bowl. In 2003 and 2007, the Packers were still searching for their identities. Last year, after their hot preseason start, the media and the fans were the ones ready to send them to the Super Bowl. (You'll remember that Corey and I were the ones tempering the enthusiasm)

This year is different.

This is the first of many years that the Packers have every right to be openly talking Super Bowl. This team has been building toward this moment - and by "moment" I don't mean the 2010 season. I mean the window of opportunity that this team has open over the next two or three years.

And as far as Charles Woodson tempering enthusiasm...ahem:

Now, again, is the season a "failure" if the Packers don't reach the Super Bowl? Hardly. But I have no problem with a team that is confident, ready to take the next step and unafraid to talk it up...in August. I mean, when are guys allowed to talk about the Super Bowl if not training camp? Good god. All this "offending the sports gods" stuff is beyond silly. This is the one time of year that even the Lions can talk Super Bowl if they want. And as for the whole "bulletin board material" angle - I just don't see it. Teams are focused on surviving two-a-days. They are not obsessively checking out quotes coming from each and every camp of each and every opponent they face in 2010. Believe me, they have plenty of motivation to beat the Packers without putting up clips from the dog days of summer on the bulletin board.

My hunch is that we'll see things quiet down once the preseason starts anyway, especially if the Packers look good. Last season when the Packers went 4-0 3-1 in the preseason and were anointed Super Bowl favorites heading into Week One...well, we all remember how that turned out. I think McCarthy remembers as well and will start clamping down on the public Super Bowl talk once the preseason games begin. And even if he doesn't, that's not going to be the difference in the Packers winning or losing games - their play on the field is.