When I got the issue of Sports Illustrated showing Bart Starr diving over the goal line against the Cowboys to win the Ice Bowl, I cut out the pictures and pinned them to my bedroom bulletin board. Nearly 39 years later, I wonder what that magazine would be worth if I had popped it intact into a plastic bag rather than cutting it up. Ack! Anyway, the point is the Packers have been my favorite team since the days of Lombardi.

But I consider myself a realist, not a zealot. After the results of recent seasons and last night's pre-season 48-17 debacle in Cincinnati, I think the Packers will be awful this year. Brett Favre has been a great player for many years, but it's time to blow up the team and start over.

What would Lombardi do?

As a gunslinger on a good team, Favre won a Super Bowl, but he's the wrong quarterback for the current team. As a gunslinger on a bad team, he threw 29 interceptions last year. Favre and Packer fans need to clear their heads of the delusion that another Super Bowl is just around the corner. If Favre still wants to play, he needs to go elsewhere. The Packers need to start rebuilding.

Favre and the Packers should have worked together on a trade to Baltimore or Miami in the off season. But those teams ended up with veterans from elsewhere and those opportunities were lost. Unfortunately, about the only good team now that would benefit from acquiring a starting quarterback is the Bears, and that trade would be politically impossible.

After Favre eventually retires, he will return to Lambeau Field and participate in his well-deserved Ring of Honor ceremony. But last March he should have moved on. He didn't, and I think it will be a bleak season with no groundwork laid for the future. Ack, indeed.