*All athletes have that one game, that one contest, that ranks as the most unforgettable of their lives. It can be memorable because of a personal or team achievement, a dramatic finish, a sentimental moment, or a number of any other factors.
Continuing a series begun last summer, Packers.com caught up with the members of the 2008 draft class to ask them about the game they'll never forget. It could be a game at any level of competition that took place at any time. They're all hoping their new NFL careers will give them new memories and new games to cherish, but for now, these rank at the top.*
Defensive end Jeremy Thompson's selection of his most memorable football game points to how Thompson is not only a true team player, but a throwback, down-'n'-dirty type at that.
For one, Thompson was credited with just one assisted tackle in the entire contest, so his name barely registered a blip on the statistical report. Second, not a single touchdown was scored in the game, which was played in a steady December rain.
The game? It was the 2006 Atlantic Coast Conference championship, and Thompson's Wake Forest Demon Deacons were gunning for their first league title in 36 years. Wake was taking on Georgia Tech in Jacksonville, Fla., on a very foggy, rainy Saturday.
"It was great football weather, a light mist," Thompson said, likely understating the conditions that soaked the field. "It seemed like the game was surreal."
It certainly was a defensive struggle. Neither team was able to compile 300 yards of offense, and the score was just 3-3 heading into the fourth quarter.
Wake's defense had come up with a key stop to keep the game tied when Georgia Tech quarterback Reggie Ball was stuffed on a quarterback sneak from the Wake 13-yard line late in the third quarter.
"It was big play after big play on the defensive side of the ball," Thompson said. "It was stop after stop, both sides. It was exciting as a defense. They threw everything at us and we just stuffed them on it."
Tech did take a 6-3 lead early in the fourth quarter. But the Wake defense came up with a big play as Riley Swanson intercepted Ball, who was held to just 9-of-29 passing, on one of his many deep attempts. Receiver Calvin Johnson, the eventual first-round draft choice of the Detroit Lions, got his hands on the pass but tipped it and Swanson intercepted.
The turnover fired up the Demon Deacons, who proceeded to put together back-to-back field goal drives, taking a 9-6 lead with 2:55 left. After a three-and-out by the Wake defense, the offense ran the last 2:02 off the clock to send the program to the Orange Bowl, its biggest bowl game since the 1946 Gator Bowl.
{sportsad300}"It was like the start of the turnaround of the program," said Thompson, who was a junior that season. "We were a perennial losing team, and it ignited all of our fans and the team had so much enthusiasm for the game and so much optimism.
"We thought we could do anything. We thought we could go out there and win the game, and the fans thought the same thing. It was just awesome to see the whole school get behind us and the team jell like that."
Unfortunately, the momentum didn't carry over to the bowl game a month later. Thompson and Wake Forest lost to Louisville and future Green Bay teammates and fellow 2008 draft picks Brian Brohm and Breno Giacomini by a score of 24-13.
But just being a part of the first Wake Forest team to go to a Bowl Championship Series game meant a lot to Thompson. In that ACC title game, feeling the way his team's defense got stronger and stronger each time they huddled up - pushing and shoving, yelling and screaming, jumping and dancing to fire each other up, according to The Associated Press written account of the game - is what Thompson calls "the happiest experience" of his football career.
"We were all as one," he said.
