By Mark Concannon
FOXSportsWisconsin.com
February 4, 2011
There have been 44 Super Bowls and if you do some rough mathematical calculations, factoring in roster sizes and contestants who competed in the championship battle more than once, about 7500 different players have taken part in the big game.
But millions of us have played in the Super Bowl. In our minds. In our dreams. As kids, pretending that the tree in Mr. Evans yard was the back of the end zone at the Orange Bowl or that the fire hydrant at the corner was the goal line at the Superdome. We have thrown the winning touchdown pass. Made an incredible catch as time expired. We have been Super Bowl heroes. Mentally. And so have many of the 2010 Green Bay Packers.
"I've played this game in my head probably a million times," said Packers wide receiver James Jones. "When you grow up as a kid you make the game winning shot when you're playing basketball and you catch the game winning catch when you're playing football, every time."
"It's something you dream about, something you work on," said wide receiver Jordy Nelson, who remembers a play-by-play soundtrack that ran in his head. "4th quarter, 4th down, time running down, blah, blah, blah. " And Nelson would hear the imaginary announcer describe his heroic efforts. "Making some diving catch out of the back of the end zone. Hopefully it happens again (on Sunday)."
Green Bay placekicker Mason Crosby remembers his personal soundtrack. "In your mind, you're like 'last second, for the big game,' and you go in and just make it," Crosby said." I've done that a million times. It would be awesome if it comes to life."
Crosby has been visualizing that successful scenario much more recently than childhood.
"I'd say even last week it seemed like occasionally I'd be doing that so you can never lose those dreams of when you were a child."
When they were playing as kids, many Packers imagined themselves as their football heroes at that time.
"A little mixture of Barry Sanders and Walter Payton," said running back Brandon Jackson.
"Back then I was like Haywood Jeffires, guys we were watching," said Donald Driver. When you watch those guys growing up, Haywood Jeffires would do the slide and then his whole body would shake. And I ended up getting crooks in my neck."
Driver said he considered paying homage to his boyhood hero if he scored Sunday.
"I have rehearsed the Haywood Jeffires but I don't know if I want to do it. I might go and pop something. I don't want to pop anything."
"I was predominately Jerry Rice," said wide receiver Greg Jennings who said he greatly admired the man regarded as the best wide receiver in NFL history but then joked, "I'm gonna break all his records next year."
"I would always pretend to be Deion Sanders," said tight end Tom Crabtree.
Some of the Packers dreams of glory were true out of body experiences.
"I promise you when I was a kid I didn't plan on being 300 pounds," said guard Daryn Colledge. "I was throwing touchdowns and I was catching 'em and that dream went away slowly as the food got put on."
But those championship dreams don't stop after the game-winning play is over.
"I've seen myself holding the Lombardi Trophy, the confetti hitting my head and everything," Jones said.
"I did a couple of TV promos at the stadium and they had the confetti falling down," said Jennings. "It felt great then. I wondered what it would feel like on Sunday. We're definitely shooting for that confetti to fall on us and smile instead of having our head down wishing it was not falling at all."
"I'm going to Disneyland!" Jackson said. "Over and over again, I rehearsed that, " said Jackson, who said he's been dreaming of this moment since he was nine years old playing in his backyard in Horn Lake, Mississippi. "What you dream and what you believe in, just keep the faith and it will come true."
"I think every kid dreams this opportunity," Colledge said. "Growing up watching football, you want that opportunity. This is the pinnacle of our career. This is our Mount Everest. You never know if you're gonna be back here so I think everybody is trying to relish this."
"This is a dream come true to be able to compete on this stage," Jennings said. "The spotlight is on you. This is why you play the game to get the opportunity to hoist that trophy."
The Packers have visualized scenes of triumph since they were young lads and are hoping those imaginary scenarios play out in real life on Sunday.
"It's been played over and over," Crosby said. "If it comes true, hopefully it looks the same as it did in my mind all these years. That last kick that I have dreamed about, if it comes down to it, you gotta be ready to drill it home."
