Two years after he co-founded the Packers with Curly Lambeau, George Calhoun began writing a piece called The Dope Sheet, which served as the official press release and game program from 1921-24.
Honoring Calhoun, the first publicity director, the Packers are running this weekly feature as their release, which is being made available to fans exclusively on Packers.com.
A complete edition of the Dope Sheet will be available each week during the season in PDF format, located in the Packers.com Game Centers.
Here are some highlights from the Week 17 Dope Sheet:
THIS WEEK'S NOTABLE STORYLINES:
-The Packers, 4-1 in regular-season finales under Mike Sherman, close the 2005 campaign.
-Another frequent opponent of late, the Seahawks make their fourth trip to Green Bay in three seasons (counting preseason and postseason). The clubs met at Lambeau Field in the 2003 regular season and playoffs, and the 2004 preseason.
-Ted Thompson, who has strong ties to both organizations and built the nucleus of Seattle's roster through the 2000-04 drafts, faces his former club for the first time as Packers general manager.
-Favre meets his former coach, Mike Holmgren.
-Green Bay plays its second franchise game on Jan. 1. The Packers defeated the Dallas Cowboys at the Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1967, to win the '66 NFL championship.
TELEVISION: FOX Sports, concluding its 12th season as an NFL network television partner, will air the contest to a regional audience. Play-by-play man Curt Menefee joins color commentator JC Pearson. Producer PT Navarro teams up with director Rich Dewey in the truck.
-The contest also is available to DIRECTV(r) subscribers on Channel 713.
PACKERS RADIO: Milwaukee's WTMJ (620 AM), airing Green Bay games since 1929, heads up the 62-station Packers Radio Network, with versatile Wayne Larrivee (play-by-play) and two-time Packers Pro Bowler Larry McCarren (color). Spanning five states, the network covers 50 markets in the upper Midwest. The broadcast also is available to NFL Field Pass subscribers on packers.com.
-NFL Sirius Radio subscribers all over the world also can catch the Packers network broadcast on Channel 117.
THE DOPE ON THIS WEEK'S OPPONENT:
Packers vs. Seattle Seahawks:
All-time regular season: 5-4-0
All-time postseason: 1-0
All-time, Wisconsin: 5-3-0; 6-3-0 incl. playoffs; 3-1-0 at Lambeau Field (4-1-0 incl. playoffs)
Last meeting (only postseason game): Jan. 4, 2004, Lambeau Field; Packers won, 33-27 (OT)
Last meeting, regular season: Oct. 5, 2003, Lambeau Field; Packers won, 35-13
Streaks: Packers have won two straight, including playoffs, and three of last four
COACHES CAPSULES
Mike Sherman: 58-43-0, .574, sixth NFL season, sixth with Packers
Mike Holmgren: 147-93-0, .613, 14th NFL season, seventh with Seahawks
Head to Head: Sherman leads, 2-0 (incl. playoffs)
vs. Opponent: Sherman 2-0 vs. Seahawks; Holmgren 1-2 vs. Packers
MIKE SHERMAN...Is in his sixth year as the Packers' 13th head coach.
-This season, will not go to the playoffs for the first time since 2000. The string of four playoff appearances had been second to Philadelphia among the NFL's longest active streaks. Indianapolis now assumes that post, with a fourth straight trip in 2005.
-Is no stranger to adversity, having overcome several hurdles each of the past three seasons to win a trio of NFC North titles.
-Since the 1993 collective bargaining agreement, teams have made nearly 90 coaching changes and only Sherman's tenure produced winning records in each of its first five seasons.
-Over their first five regular seasons as an NFL coach, since 1970 only Chuck Knox, George Seifert, Joe Gibbs and Mike Ditka produced better records than Sherman (53-27, .663).
-In 2004, his team became only the ninth in NFL history to reach the playoffs after a 1-4 start.
-Led the Packers to three straight division titles and four consecutive playoff appearances.
-Is 6-1 against teams in the Super Bowl the previous season.
MIKE HOLMGREN...Became the team's sixth head coach, Jan. 8, 1999.
-Has led Seattle to the NFC's homefield advantage and its second straight NFC West title. In 2004, the team won its first NFC West crown and third-ever division title.
-Under Holmgren's tutelage in 2003, the Seahawks posted their first double-digit victory total since 1986. In his first season, 1999, Holmgren guided the Seahawks to their first postseason
-The Packers' head coach from 1992-98, he won at least one game in five consecutive postseasons (1993-97), and joined John Madden (1973-77) as the only coaches in league history to accomplish that feat.
-In 19 NFL seasons (1999-2005), Holmgren's teams have a 210-110-1 record, posted double-digit win totals 12 times, made thepostseason 15 times, won three SuperBowls (XXIII, XXIV, and XXXI), and reached another (XXXII).
-A quarterback at Southern California (1966-69), he was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the eighth round of the 1970 NFL Draft. He served as an assistant coach at San Francisco State (1981) and Brigham Young (1982-85), before joining the 49ers as an assistant under Bill Walsh.
THE PACKERS-SEAHAWKS SERIES: These teams have met just 10 times, including their 2003 playoff, since Seattle entered the National Football League in 1976. With that postseason win, Green Bay holds a 6-4-0 advantage.
-Other than the fact that they simply haven't played very often, which is beginning to change with Seattle's shift to the NFC in 2002, most differences stop there.
-Much of the the Seahawks' front office, their coaching staff and even their starting quarterback either inaugurated their NFL careers or built their reputations with a stop at 1265 Lombardi Avenue.
-The movement west, beginning with Mike Holmgren in 1999, has reversed itself in recent years, as Packers GM Ted Thompson, Head Coach Mike Sherman and personnel men John Dorsey and John Schneider have returned to Green Bay after stops in Seattle.
-The teams met just eight times from 1976-2002. But they played twice in 2003 and including Sunday and next season (at Seattle), will have played at least four games over a four-year stretch from 2003-06. After Sunday, the teams will have played nine of their 11 meetings in Wisconsin.
NOTABLE CONNECTIONS: Packers GM Ted Thompson, the architect of the five Seattle drafts, spent five seasons (2000-04) as the Seahawks' vice president of football operations...Head Coach Mike Sherman was Mike Holmgren's offensive coordinator in 1999, the year Holmgren left for Seattle after seven seasons (1992-98) at the helm of the Packers...Mike Reinfeldt, the Seahawks' vice president of football administration, served eight seasons (1991-98) as an instrumental member of Bob Harlan's Packers administration, helping among other things to bring Ron Wolf to Green Bay...Both Seahawks coordinators, Gil Haskell (1992-97) and Ray Rhodes (1992-93, 1999), coached previously in Green Bay; Rhodes (1999) was the 12th head coach in Packers history...Seahawks assistants Nolan Cromwell (1992-98), Jim Lind (1992-98), John Marshall (1980-82) and Gary Reynolds (1996-98) also coached in Green Bay...Ron Wolf selected Matt Hasselbeck in the sixth round of the 1998 draft; the quarterback spent his first three seasons in Green Bay, including his rookie campaign on the Packers' practice squad...Seattle vice president Lance Lopes worked in the Packers' front office from 1993-2000...Seahawks head athletic trainer Sam Ramsden worked six seasons in the Packers training room...Packers scouting director John Dorsey (1999) and personnel analyst to general manager John Schneider (2000) spent time in the Seahawks' front office.
LAST MEETING (AP): Jan. 4, 2004, Lambeau Field; Packers won in overtime, 33-27 (2003 NFC Wild Card Playoff):
-Al Harris returned an interception 52 yards for an overtime touchdown to lift the Packers past the Seahawks 33-27 in a first-round NFC playoff game. Harris scored the first defensive TD to win an overtime playoff in NFL history.
-Seattle tied it with 51 seconds remaining on Shaun Alexander's third 1-yard TD run. Then Packers kicker Ryan Longwell was short on a 47-yard field goal attempt as regulation time expired. Seattle won the coin toss, and Hasselbeck told the official, "We want the ball, and we're going to score." The Seahawks got the ball, but punted. After Seattle got the ball back, it was Harris, a six-year veteran in his first season with the Packers, who scored on the game's only turnover.
-Brett Favre, as usual, thrived in the cold. He set an NFL record by throwing for a TD in a 14th straight playoff game and rallied the Packers to a 27-20 lead. Then Hasselbeck, once Favre's backup in Green Bay, guided a 67-yard drive to tie it.
-Early on, the Seahawks - who had lost at Green Bay the previous October - shut down Ahman Green, who rushed for 1,883 yards in the regular season. But he came on late, particularly on short-yardage plays. After falling behind 20-13, Green Bay covered 60 yards in 12 plays. Green converted a fourth-and-1 from the 3 before surging into the end zone to tie it with 10:01 left.
