photo from Packers.com

Wednesday, WR Donald Driver’s career officially came to an end with the Green Bay Packers. He spent the last 14 seasons with the Packers, and yesterday they had a celebration at Lambeau Field filled with fans where Donald then made the official announcement of his retirement.

During the ceremony, Donald also promised his fans that he would never wear another uniform. He said,

“I promise you all I will never wear another uniform. Today we make that official. I have to keep my loyalty to you.”

Then Driver went on to say, according to nfl.com,

“Even though I feel that I can still play the game, God has made the answer clear to me, the time is now. I have to retire a Green Bay Packer. I’ve always said I never wanted to wear another uniform, but always the green and gold.”

If a player ever had so much love and respect for his team and fans, it was Donald. The governor of Green Bay even declared yesterday as “Donald Driver Day”!

Donald will be missed very much on the field, but never forgotten!

Lambeau Leap!
Photo from greenbaypressgazette.com

There’s nothing quite like the historic rivalry between the Green Bay Packers and the Chicago Bears…especially when the Packers have a big win! You could see the tension between the two teams all night…you can’t really ask for much better football than that.

photo from bearsgab.com

To be perfectly honest, I though this game would be a batttle of the offenses. I know Green Bay had a rough start last weekend, but I though they would come in and their offense would be perfect. Little did I know that this game would be completely centered around the defenses.

The number of sacks in the game was ridiculous (Jay Cutler sacked 7 times, Aaron Rodgers sacked 5 times ), and there was large amount of turnovers as well. Ahh, I love a great defensive game! And just for clarification, Clay Matthews is a complete and total stud. 3.5 of the sacks on Cutler belonged to him. He’s the MVP of tonight’s game in my book.

And as for Jay Cutler, well…..Cutler tonight =Literal bear down

But…the most impressive play of the entire game was the first touchdown by Green Bay. Tim Masthay faked the field goal and passed to Tom Crabtree 27 yards for the TD. Donald Driver caught a 26 yard pass from Rodgers for the only other Green Bay TD of the game, followed by a Lambeau Leap.

Green Bay takes the game with a final score of 23-10.

This was such an important win for the Pack, being the only team without a win in the division after last week. They certainly have much to celebrate as they prepare for the Seattle Seahawks next week on MNF.

So Packers fans, if you found yourself panicking after last weeks game, no need to worry. The Pack is back!

photo from thepigskinreport.com

I know, there has been a lot of focus on Donald Driver around Green Bay lately, especially after being named the latest winner of Dancing With The Stars. But now that all of that is over, there is much more to focus on with Donald…his return to the football field.

After being in LA for the last three months, yesterday was Donald’s first time back on the field as he joined his fellow teammates with OTAs.

According to the Packers website, Donald had this to say about his return and the rest of his career.

“I’m a Packer for life, and that’s all that matters to me. I’m going to continue to play football, I’m going to embrace every moment of it, and when I’m all said and done, I know one day I’ll be in the Packers Hall of Fame, and that will be something special. “

Knowing that his career in Green Bay cannot last forever, those are awesome words to hear from Donald!

photo from starpulse.com

If you haven’t heard already, Packers WR Donald Driver has been participating in the ABC reality TV show “Dancing with the Stars” and has now advanced to the finals with partner Peta Murgatroyd.

It is now down to Donald and Peta, Katherine Jenkins and Mark Ballas, and William Levy and Cheryl Burke.

Although I do not personally watch the show, I hope Donald and Peta do well and win it all!

The only thing that I don’t like about it is the fact that next week the Packers will start practices and mini-camps. If Donald is still competing on the show, will this interfere with practice?

With his future in Green Bay in question to begin with, this just adds to the drama.

According to Jason Wilde, ESPNWisconsin Senior NFL writer,

“Donald Driver has reached the Dancing With the Stars finals – and will likely miss the Packers’ first OTA practice as a result. The veteran wide receiver was in jeopardy until the closing minutes of Tuesday night’s results show, but in the end, it was entertainment reporter Maria Menounos who was sent home. Driver, who is entering his 14th NFL season, will compete for the mirror ball trophy next Monday night. The Packers have the first of their 10 OTAs that morning in Green Bay.”

The Packers have yet to make any huge trades for players during free agency, with the exception of trading Matt Flynn to Seahawks, but still have plenty of things going on to keep them busy.

This week it was said that Green Bay was one of the teams to possibly look at trading for Tim Tebow, which of course put them in the spotlight for a bit, but then he ended up being traded to the New York Jets.  Of course, I’m somewhat biased because I’ve been a fan of Tebow since his Gator days, but I must say he pulls off the green and yellow pretty well if you ask me!

Not too bad right?!
But on to other news…

The construction of Lambeau Field is going very smoothy and running right on schedule. According to Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy:

“We’ve been really pleased. It’s going along very well.”

When talking about the new video board that will be placed in north endzone, Murphy said

“The first things that’s going to hit fans is the size of it. I think it’s really going to provide a dramatic improvement in the gameday experience for our fans.”

With the mild winter we’ve had this year, the plans to move forward with the expansion is right on schedule.

Also,  Dancing With The Stars premiered it’s latest season last Monday with our very own Donald Driver! He and his partner, Peta Murgatroyd, did the cha cha, and while recieving a score of only 21, fans were thrilled at his performance, and actually booed his score thinking it would be higher.

So now, even though it’s the offseason, clearly we can see that the players and staff have a lot of great and fun things to going on to stay busy until the next season starts!

Today the news was released that Green Bay Wide Reciever Donald Driver will be on “Dancing With The Stars” this upcoming season. His dance partner for the show will be Peta Murgatroyd.

In addition to being on the show, Driver joined the Twitter world today. Many of his fellow teammates were showing him lots of love on their own personal Twitter accounts.

He tweeted earlier today that he had a great time meeting Peta and the other cast members, and also posted a couple of pictures.

We wish all the luck in the world to Driver with his dancing endeavor, and you can catch the new season beginning Monday, March 19th at 7 p.m. CT.

Four-time Pro-Bowler Donald Driver is the all time leading receiver for the Packers, and has been with Green Bay for the last 13 seasons. His versatility on the field makes him one of the best receivers to ever play with the Pack.

It has been rumored that Driver may retire after the 2011-2012 season, but Driver had other thoughts. According to him, he wants to remain in Green Bay and continue playing. Driver turns 32 next month, and thinks he still has a few good years left in him.

With rookie WR Randall Cobb on the roster, and undrafted rookie receivers Tori Gurley and Diondre Borel on the practice squad, Driver knows there are many others playing and fighting to play his position.

Photo from www.usatoday.com

“You don’t want to leave, I’ve spent my whole career here, but like I said, I don’t make any decisions. If they decide not to bring me back, then I’m okay with that. I feel like I’ve done everything here in Green Bay,” said Driver.

Driver goes on to say, “It’s up to the organization to make that decision. I hope they keep me. If not, I had a great career here. I love them, and that will never change.”

Donald, we don’t want you to leave either.

Whether he plays for Green Bay next year or not is uncertain, but no matter what he will always be a part of the Packer family.