Inbox: Roger for the win…forever

11. How did you become a Packers fan?

Cindy from De Soto, KS

I never knew a time when I did not root for the Pack. Heck my family and I were watching Pack games before Vince even came to GB! I even rooted for them when I lived in Dallas!

Yotam from New Zealand

In the early '90s, my family and I were on a sabbatical year in Dayton, OH. My father showed me football and taught me the rules. In those years, he followed the Packers and I was told this is the way. My father is now in his '80s and cannot see but he still enjoys me telling him tales of the Packers' latest exploits. As for me, I moved through U.S., Israel, Canada and now finally New Zealand, but the Packers are the common thread all these years.

Al from Waupaca, WI

For me, becoming a Packers fan was a process. I grew up with a father that believed you were either a "doer" or a "watcher." Unless the weather was awful outside, we were doers. Then I joined the military and was sent to South Korea where the base commander made sure all Packers games were shown live (1 a.m. because the Packers always played at noon). I got sucked in during the Cardiac Pack years. Then in my second year of college, it was Brett Favre and third year Reggie White. Now I am both!

Dave from Wheaton, IL

I became a Packer fan very young. I always wanted to play football, and my dad had a friend who was a reserve lineman with the Bears. He lived in Marina City and wanted to stay a Bear his whole career. He was traded but kept that apartment. He not only taught me to play on the line, particularly left guard, but also taught me to hate George Halas. I was 7 or 8 years old before my mother made my dad stop bringing me there. But hating George Halas made becoming a Packers fan a logical, happy decision.

Paul from South Yorkshire, UK

I am a Packers fan purely by chance! We didn't have regular TV coverage of the NFL in the UK until 1982. The featured game on the very first broadcast was the Packers vs. Rams, and a friend and I decided to support one of those teams for the rest of the season. I chose the Packers because it was a great sounding name and the uniform matched a pair of green and yellow trainers I owned at the time. Nearly 44 years later, the trainers have sadly gone but I'm still here and still cheering the Pack.

Joe from Liberty Township, OH

Growing up in Indiana, basketball was king. My dad never watched football, but my brother-in-law wanted to watch the NFL Championship Game, so we turned on the TV. To watch the Ice Bowl. Not sure why, but I rooted for the Packers and was glued to the TV for that final drive, and then Bart Starr's sneak. Thirteen-year-old me was forever a Packers fan, reliving the Lombardi years through books and suffering through the '70s and '80s, and loving the past 30-plus years.

Richard from Canton, GA

The year was 1982, I was a teen in the UK. The newly launched Channel 4 there had an hour-long highlight show about the NFL. The first week I watched, I saw Lynn Dickey lead a huge comeback against the Rams. Pulled out a couple of books and learned about the uniqueness of the team, and that, as they say, was that. I have two shares, one for each of my kids, who both are fans of the team now.

Mike from Granite Bay, CA

I grew up a Raiders fan (Lamonica, Stabler and Plunkett). When they moved to LA, I needed to change teams at 12 years old. My uncle, M. Starr, introduced me to a team coached by "Cousin Bart" that was owned by the city so they could not move. Sold. I have done zero research to support or refute his claim. Now I am a Packers owner and never looked back.

Basil from Nags Head, NC

When I was just a kid starting to watch football, GB was the team, of course. Also, with my conservative, Virginia State trooper dad, you had to root for the NFL vs. the flashy, rebellious AFL. I was all-in on the NFL and Green Bay and have been my whole life. My wife became a fan, and our son (now 29) was born a fan!

Terri from Williams, AZ

I grew up in Wisconsin, so I was always aware of the Packers. My dad occasionally got tickets to games at County Stadium. I remember sitting in the bleachers for a Bears game. The back and forth between Bears and Packers fans was quite hilarious but not in a mean way. I was hooked. The colors, the excitement! Even when living overseas (my husband was in the Army), I kept up as well as I could. But now being a fan is a job I take seriously. I never miss an Insider Inbox.

Mike from Winchester, TN

I became a Packers fan back on Jan. 14, 1968. I grew up in Oakland, CA, and our entire clan were hard core Raiders fans. We attended many games in the early '60s at Frank Youell field. The morning of Super Bowl II, my dad went and bought our first color TV. At the end of the game, I said: "I kinda like those Packers and their coach." Boy did I catch hell! Still Packers crazy after all these years!

Taurean from Portage, MI

This may sound crazy, but I became a Green Bay Packers fan after they lost to the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XXXII in 1998. I am still mad at John Elway. I know people have told me to get over it but that still fuels me to be a Packers fan to this day. After that loss, I learned more about the Packers' culture, the history and how passionate the fans are and how much they love this team and how much the Packers love us. I will never get over that.

Reed from Kansas City, MO

I was born in 1968, so the Pack was bad most of my young life. Combine that with the fact that we moved from Wisconsin when I was 10, and I flirted with a few other teams in my youth (We all do dumb things when we're young). My dad's fandom never wavered, so we watched the Pack whenever they were on. One of the games I watched with him was Packers vs. Bears in 1989. Don Majkowski threw the TD to Sterling Sharpe, and we beat the Bears, upheld by instant replay, and my journey to diehard began.

Todd from Eagle, ID

My first job as a teen in Wisconsin was working for a place called "The Left Guard Steakhouse" in Brookfield – owned by Fuzzy Thurston (of course, the "Left Guard"), Max McGee and some others. I was hooked. Fast forward 25 years or so and I'm opening my restaurant in the little town of Eagle, Idaho. I get the privilege to serve and meet a fellow town resident and possibly the nicest man on the planet, Mr. Jerry Kramer – the "Right Guard" of the very same team. I have indeed had a "guarded" career.

Scott from Noblesville, IN

As a 68-year-old, I honestly cannot remember NOT being a Packer fan. My absolute earliest memory IN LIFE is, as a 4-year-old, hearing my father lecture my older brother who was just starting to play sports (and were both already Packers fans) about how great Jim Taylor was and how mean and dirty Sam Huff was, during what I now realize was the 1962 NFL Championship Game at Yankee Stadium. I knew nothing about football at all but knew I would always root for the Green Bay Packers to win!

Jim from Rancho Cucamonga, CA

It was 1993. I had a coworker who was an Eagles fan. He came to work one day and said you better be watching the Packers this fall. I laughed. He told me about the Reggie White move and said, "You watch." I did and have been a fan ever since.

Steve from Greenbrier, TN

My first memory of watching a football game was the Ice Bowl with my dad at one of his friend's house. As a 6-year-old, I was captivated by the cold and the battle between the two teams. We all know the final outcome. Santa Claus also brought me a Green Bay Packers football outfit, and my brother got the Atlanta Falcons. The helmet remains with me to this day and is now a lamp stand on my dresser. I wonder how different my life would be if the Cowboys had won.

Jim from Micco, FL

I became a Packers fan in 1958 because the Milwaukee Journal used to publish stories and color photos of the Packers on Mondays after the Sunday game. The color photos were great and unusual, because back then everything photo-wise was black and white. I started a Packers scrapbook and began watching the games on TV and was hooked.

Phil from Frederick, MD

It was 1954-55. I was 15/16 living in a small Mississippi town. We would get an NFL game on TV on Sunday, but it seemed like it was always the very worst teams (probably a money issue). Anyway, I saw a lot of Packer games. They were awful in those days. I began to root for them. Fast forward to 1957 and Lombardi has arrived and I joined the Navy and was sent to Great Lakes where I was able to see a game at Milwaukee. A longtime fan and owner through thin and thick.

Phil from Marietta, GA

I grew up in St. Paul. I have four brothers and a dad who were all big football fans. I'm old enough that the whole family rooted for GB because the Vikings did not exist yet. When Minnesota began playing in 1961, my dad got season tickets and asked each son which game he wanted to attend. I picked GB every year. Everyone in the family but me switched loyalty to Minnesota. Wearing Green and Gold in the Twin Cities and enduring the range of hostility made me a diehard fan - probably deeper than if I'd lived in WI.

Kerry from Lakewood Ranch, FL

I became a Packers fan as a youngster growing up at Eglin AFB in the Florida panhandle. There were no regional teams in the area in the 1950s and since we were in the Central Time Zone we would get a lot of Packers and Bears games on TV. So, I grew up a Packers and Bears fan because that's who I saw play the most. I finally went over to the right side because I loved watching Paul Hornung and Jim Taylor pound the rock.

Rod from Ephrata, PA

In the late 1950s, I received some football cards from a cousin. One was Ron Kramer and another Dick Deschaine (I need to ask Cliff about him sometime). Anyway, I never had heard of Green Bay. I had to look it up in an encyclopedia. Seemed (strange) that there was such a small city that had a pro team.

Bob from Covington, KY

I'm a lifelong Cincinnati area resident and was a Bengals fan from their creation in 1970 until Mike Brown ruined them in the '90s. About that time, I met my lady friend, who was a Janesville native and a lifelong Packers fan. She always said her first boyfriend was Bart Starr. When I gave up on Bengals' management, it was an easy transition to the Pack. I was attracted to the community ownership and culture as much or more than the success. I've been Green and Gold ever since.

Al from Tulsa, OK

Although my high school, Sheboygan Central (later South), played both Green Bay East and West in Fox River Valley football, I only became more aware of the Packers after the hiring of coach Vince Lombardi. The first game I remember was their 1960 loss to Philadelphia in the televised championship game, and the heartbreak when Jim Taylor was tackled on the 9-yard line by linebacker Chuck Bednarik as time expired. Coach said he lost the game by not kicking field goals on fourth-and-short.

John from Portland, OR

My father (who died when I was 13) raised me to be a Packers fan, but what is interesting is how he became one. He was Catholic and therefore a Notre Dame fan, and he was also of Mediterranean descent. In the late 1950s, the Packers drafted Paul Hornung, and shortly thereafter signed an ethnic Catholic to be their new coach. That's when my dad decided he would start following the Packers. I am now 66 years old, and my own son (named for my dad) is just as big a fan.

Vince from Green Bay, WI

I was born in Wisconsin AND named after a certain coaching icon. To cheer for another team would be blasphemy.

Carl from Dewitt, MI

My fandom came from my grandparents. They loved Vincent Lombardi. My grandfather was a train engineer and went from Grand Rapids, MI, to Milwaukee. They stopped at Green Bay often and passed the fandom to me.

John from Hamilton, NY

In the early '60s, my family went to my Aunt Mildred's house almost every Sunday. She was a football fan, so I got to see games at her house, and began to understand the game. At that time, the Packers were the best team, so I adopted them as my team. I stayed loyal through the bad years and am now an owner.

Tim from Poplar Grove, IL

Growing up in Appleton, being a Packer fan was a birthright. On Sundays, our dad sat in his favorite chair in front of our black-and-white TV console and me, my mom, seven brothers and two sisters huddled around the TV. If we were too loud or disruptive, my dad would tell us to quiet down, or we would have to watch the TV through the living room window from outside. Bart Starr, Jim Taylor and Ray Nitschke were our favorites. Our first color TV arrived just in time for the Packer season in 1967!

Jeff from Sioux Falls, SD

I became a Packers fan when I was 5 years old in 1959. I fell in love with their nickname. I still love it. I had an ear drum problem which made it difficult for me to hear. I thought the Packers were actually called the "Smackers," at least that is what my hearing told me. I was thinking what a cool name to have for a football team – the Green Bay Smackers! My heart was broken and tears flowed for days when my father told me that the team's name was actually the Packers.

Doug from Salem, OR

Way back in time, when I was a young boy in Oregon, my dad brought home a kids-sized Packers uniform and helmet. Why a Packers uniform in Oregon? I am not sure, but that was the beginning. Of course, having them win the first two Super Bowls cemented my fandom, and nothing has changed that through all these years. Finally in 2017, I was able to make my first trip to Lambeau. That trip and every one since have just added to my love of the Packers.

Richard from Livermore, CA

I became a Packers fan because of my older brother. As a 6-year-old, I knew little about football, but he got me to watch the 1960 NFL title game loss to the Eagles, and I was hooked. From then on, every autumn weekend we watched "NFL Countdown to Kickoff" on Saturday afternoon, the game on Sunday, and then "The Vince Lombardi Show" and "Jerry Kramer Show" during the week to relive the victories. I couldn't stop watching because they almost never lost!

Hank from La Luz, NM

In October 1993, I started dating a girl whose whole family was Dallas Cowboy fans. I knew very little about the NFL and one Sunday I was informed that I needed to have an NFL team if I wanted to fit in. I looked at the TV just in time to see some guy wearing a 4 on his jersey launch a rocket ball and promptly stated, "There, that team." They all laughed, but she married me anyway.

Mark from Canada

My best memory involving the Packers is why I am the Packers fan I am. The year was 1966 and I was 4 years old learning about NFL football via the radio. My dad was (and still is) addicted to the Packers! Spending the time with him during a game meant everything, even though I was never really sure what was going on. Then I woke up the morning of Jan. 1, 1967. My dad had spent New Year's Eve setting up our first TV! The first show on that TV? Packers 34, Dallas 27. Memories make us rich!

Jana from Duluth, MN

I have been a Packers fan since 2009 when I met my now-husband, Ray. Ray is a lifelong Packers fan born and raised in Superior, WI. I joke that he didn't include a requirement for my Packers fandom in our wedding vows, but he thought about it. We got married on Jan. 28, 2011, and the Packers won the Super Bowl nine days later. It was our favorite wedding gift! Ray won the season-ticket lottery in 2009 after being on the list since 1985. We enjoy our trips to Lambeau every year! Go Pack Go!

Chris from Sioux Falls, SD

My dad was born on a ranch in 1921, and he became intrigued with the Packers as a young man playing high school football during the Packers championship years in the late 1930s. At age 3 in 1960, I was vaguely aware of the Packers as my dad watched their games, but I didn't really pay attention as I didn't understand the game. All that began to change on Aug. 5, 1961, when at age 4, my dad took my sisters and me to see the first game played by the Minnesota Vikings against the Dallas Cowboys in our hometown of Sioux Falls. It was the first time I had seen a live football game. I remember my dad explaining the game to me and seeing a guy wearing No. 10 run around to escape the Cowboys which I thought was normal (it wasn't…Fran Tarkenton scrambled a lot). However, I did not become either a Vikings fan or a Cowboys fan. In fact, I still despise both teams. I became a Packers fan because I had seen a game, became interested in football, and started watching Packers games with my dad during the 1961 season when the Packers won their first of five championships under Vince Lombardi. I was hooked. I was a Packers fan for life. In closing, my dad, my oldest son and I attended Super Bowl 45 together in 2011. It was a memorable day for us. My dad passed away one month shy of his 98th birthday in 2019. When I was writing this, it struck me for the first time that my dad was alive through all 13 of the Packers' championships!

12. Who is your 2026 Insider Inbox MVP?

Doug from Woodington, OH

For the 2026 Insider Inbox MVP, my choice (for what it's worth) is Doug from Neenah, WI. His year-round consistency and thought-provoking questions set him apart. At bare minimum, give the man the MVD award!

We salute you, Doug, and appreciate having you part of the Inbox family. You are our MVD and your time is coming. I can feel it.

Caleb from Knoxville, TN

For 2026 Insider Inbox MVP, I would like to posthumously put forth Roger from McGrath, Alaska. Faithful reader/poster, loyal Packers fan, taken from this world too soon by cancer. We can't bring him back, but we can ensure that his name never dies in our community. It's only right – Roger for the win. (Editor's note: Roger for the win…forever).

Josh from Nicaragua

In memoriam, Roger from McGrath, AK. ATMR (WCBW), he is the most quoted submitter in II history. RIP Insider Inbox HOFer and 2026 MVP!

Luke from Port Alsworth, AK

For me it has to be Roger from McGrath. With his passing and Rod's, Roger's and my behind-the-scenes emails and Packer banter, he sure is missed. (I actually got to meet Rod face-to-face in Anchorage on my way through. He wouldn't tell you, but he is one of the original finishers of the first Iditarod and runs a kiosk in the summer in Anchorage to promote the sport of which he is a great ambassador and has become a friend, which all started with II.)

That's awesome, Luke. I appreciate you sharing that. In my mind, there was only one choice for Inbox MVP this year and it's our late friend Roger from McGrath. I wish I could have shaken his hand and thanked him for all the keen insights and kind words over the years. Hopefully someday. Once again, I want to extend my deepest condolences to Roger's family and his friends here in Inbox. I must say this was probably my favorite Outsider Inbox to date. Many wonderful stories and recollections. Thank you again to everyone who participated. Mike will be back tomorrow to bring Inbox back to its usual format. Have a great week, folks.

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