The closest thing the NFL has to Bedford Falls, N.Y. — the idyllic town made famous in Frank Capra's "It's A Wonderful Life" — might be Green Bay, Wis., where the quarterbacking pursuits of Brett Favre and Aaron Rodgers over the past quarter-century have ushered the football hamlet into a quarter-century of unprecedented prosperity.
Favre's wizardry brought the Packers back from the brink of obscurity, delivered the team's first championship in 29 years in 1997 and helped pave the way for the taxpayer-funded $295 million expansion of Lambeau Field in 2003.
Rodgers, his immediate successor, delivered another Lombardi Trophy in 2011, followed shortly thereafter by a two-phase expansion that modernized player facilities, added two new scoreboards and pushed Lambeau's capacity to 81,441 — the fifth-largest stadium in the NFL. The Packers used the financial windfall from their on-field success to redevelop the area west of the stadium; the first phase of the "Titletown District" includes a high-end hotel, brewery and sports medicine clinic.
Since the events of Oct. 15, though, Green Bay has felt more like Pottersville for Packers fans than Bedford Falls.
There might not be a play that's changed the course of the NFC playoff picture more than the first-quarter hit Vikings linebacker Anthony Barr administered to Rodgers on Oct. 15 at U.S. Bank Stadium. The play, on which Rodgers put his right hand out to brace his fall as Barr drove him to the turf, left the quarterback with a broken collarbone, forced him to injured reserve and initiated a stretch of five Green Bay losses in six games.
The Packers walked into U.S. Bank Stadium in October with a 4-1 record and the No. 2 spot in the NFC. The Vikings' victory that day was the second of an eight-game winning streak; they've clinched the NFC North at 11-3, and are currently in possession of the No. 2 spot in the conference.
The meeting between the two teams at Lambeau Field on Saturday night will be the Packers' first home game since Dec. 28, 2008, to be played after they had been eliminated from playoff contention. The only one of the Packers' 37 draft picks on the 2017 roster who was with the team at that time? Rodgers.
"Every week, there's a state-of-the-union-type address to the team," Packers coach Mike McCarthy said. "You tell them exactly where we are as a team, the things we need to focus on from the prior game and the plan for the next contest. It's clearly addressed in the first team meeting. It's disappointing. It's a standard that's unacceptable here. But we're playing for something different Saturday night, and I expect our team to go out there and win the game."