*In his 10th NFL season and fifth with the Packers, cornerback Al Harris received a long-awaited Pro Bowl invitation this year. He had been a Pro Bowl alternate each of the past three seasons, but had never made the trip to Hawaii.
But Harris is there this year, joined by teammates Donald Driver, Chad Clifton and Aaron Kampman (quarterback Brett Favre declined), along with the entire Green Bay coaching staff. The NFC squad takes on the AFC on Sunday. Kickoff is slated for 3:30 p.m. CT on FOX.
Harris will be chronicling parts of his trip in this online diary for Packers.com. Here is the first installment: *
I haven't had a chance to do too much out here yet after traveling all day Monday. I left from my home in Florida, and I ended up on a flight with Darren Sharper, Peyton Manning and Reggie Wayne, so that was pretty cool. I talked to those guys a little bit, and we talked about the Super Bowl briefly. It was a good game.
We had team meetings Monday night, and I got to meet some guys I didn't know. We had to sign about 300 footballs, everybody did, and after that I just went and laid down. I was pretty tired from flying all day.
We had our first practice on Tuesday, and all of our coaches are here, so I felt pretty much at home. It's good to work with different players. You know a lot of guys, but you don't know them personally. You only know them professionally. So it's different playing with them and being on the same field with them.
Practice was pretty laid-back. We're running our defense, basically, but you can't bump-and-run. You have to play off. But it was crisp. The tempo was good, for the most part. It was a good practice. I got to talk to our other guys - Drive, Cliff and Kamp - a little bit, and after practice I had lunch with 'Flea' (athletic trainer Bryan Engel) and Nate (Weir).
My wife and two boys get out here on Wednesday, and Atari Bigby is coming too. Once they're here, I'm going to get out and tour around, probably go to Pearl Harbor. I'll probably go surfing too. I just want to spend some time with my kids, let them enjoy the experience with me, playing in this game.
