The 24 hours before and during the Packers’ Super Bowl win over the Pittsburgh Steelers weave a God-spun thread of presence, often reflecting St. Paul’s letters
Story and photography by Jay Sorgi | For On Mission
In one sense, the Green Bay Packers’ run in winning Super Bowl XLV on February 6, 2011, in Arlington, Texas, ended in a private team prayer with Catholic team chaplain Fr. Jim Baraniak in a victorious locker room.
The Packers’ 24 hours of victory, however, also started with an impromptu prayer of a much different type, the kind that brings the peace God desires us to feel when reminding us he’s here.
The Saturday night before Super Bowl Sunday brought the Packers to a ballroom inside the Omni Las Colinas in Irving, a 20-minute drive from the site of the Super Bowl.
Numerous recollections of the hours before kickoff have revealed how Catholics like Coach Mike McCarthy and fellow people of faith gathered around a piano that night before a team meeting.
Defensive lineman C.J. Wilson showcased his piano-playing talents, relatively unknown to his teammates at the time, in a spontaneous Gospel music jam session within a short time of their Mass with Fr. Baraniak.
Players and coaches alike have shared numerous stories of how the joy of an unexpected moment of connection to God and each other calmed the waters of sailing unknown super seas. None of these Packers had played in a Super Bowl before with Green Bay, and they were facing a two-time Super Bowl veteran in the Pittsburgh Steelers.
But these Packers were not deterred, and their ultimate football victory reflected countless faith-filled themes in their surprising run.
A plethora of biblical and saintly themes thread throughout salvation history, reminding us of the lowly becoming the greatest, certainly including the Savior being born in a manger underneath the cover of a stable.
The Packers were the lowliest in the NFL playoffs that year, barely qualifying with the sixth seed, the lowest possible at the time, having to win three playoff games on the road just to get to Arlington.
Yet everything they needed to be the best in football — and more importantly to God, the best of themselves, was within them.
Aaron Rodgers was reaching his prime as a quarterback. They had arguably the deepest receiving corps in Super Bowl history. They gave up the second-fewest points of any NFL team that year.
They had many parts. And they had “one,” as defensive back and co-captain Charles Woodson called his team to become after their 21-14 win in the NFC Championship Game against Chicago.
In his letters, St. Paul called the Corinthian and Roman communities to each play their part in being a part of one body in Christ. Individual members had different functions, but all within the unified mission of Christ.
So it was with the captain, one whose Sunday evening became stuck in a harness with a broken collarbone in the Super Bowl’s second quarter.
Others in the body of the Packers had to compensate for the loss of the future Hall of Famer. Rodgers, the receivers and the remaining defenders had to follow the advice reflecting that which St. Paul gave to the Galatians, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal 6:2)”
Woodson tearfully pleaded to his teammates at halftime to shoulder the burden that his broken shoulder could not bear.
The offense shouldered the burden. Rodgers faced the NFL’s stingiest defense and offered one of the most clutch performances in recent Super Bowl history. He lasered and rainbowed 304 yards’ worth of passes, including three touchdown throws, on a total of 24 completions, many of the critically clutch, no-margin-for-error perfect variety, while the offense didn’t commit a turnover.
The defense shouldered the burden. Safety Nick Collins got on the scoreboard with an interception return for a touchdown, and the defense overall forced three turnovers.
The last forced turnover came when linebacker Clay Matthews encountered his Isaiah “Here I am, send me” moment (Is 6:8).
Linebackers coach Kevin Greene, himself a veteran of Super Bowls past, took Matthews aside at the start of the fourth quarter and pleaded for him to step up as a defensive leader during a critical juncture of the game, as Pittsburgh was down 21-17 and driving toward a potential go-ahead touchdown.
“It is time,” Greene said.
Matthews immediately took his defensive teammates and bore the burden of being their leader on the very first play of the final stanza. He directed them to guard against an anticipated running play and forced the fumble, which gave the Packers the ball.
Rodgers and the offense subsequently drove to score the points they needed to eventually lock up victory in a 31-25 pressure-cooker, a refiner’s fire that turned the Packers from gold to Lombardi Trophy sterling silver.
More than 15,000 days before Super Bowl XLV, Lombardi exhorted his 1967 Packers with more words from St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians: “Do you not know that the runners in the stadium all run in the race, but only one wins the prize? Run so as to win (1 Cor 9:24).”
The 2010 Packers ran the race by carrying each other’s burdens, the lowly overcoming great odds, being many parts within one body running a unified race, and playing near-perfect football to win the franchise’s 13th NFL championship.
And they showcased how God works while winning it, just hours after singing Gospel tunes around a piano.