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Packers saga to be featured on NFL Network

NFL Network will feature the Packers on America’s Game: 2010 Green Bay Packers, on Wednesday, Sept. 7, and NFL Films Senior Producer Dave Douglas promised Packers fans the show will reveal a new piece of information about the team’s Super Bowl run.

“McCarthy needed to find something to get them over the hump. He found a unique way, which you’ll see in the show, to get them over the hump. No team had ever done it before. It’s unique and it worked,” Douglas said, referring to Packers Head Coach Mike McCarthy.

The show focuses on three personalities: McCarthy, defefnsive back Charles Woodson and quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

“Mike is the first interview we did. These are lengthy interviews. It’s not one of those 20-minute interviews in which we lob softballs at you. With Mike it was over two hours,” Douglas said. “His first job was to clean the bathroom at his dad’s bar and he said some of the older guys didn’t have the best aim.”

The show details McCarthy’s ascent from a volunteer assistant at Pitt, when he worked the graveyard shift at a toll booth on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. “Here’s a guy who was fired by the team he would later lead to the Super Bowl title,” Douglas said in tracing McCarthy’s career from his native Pittsburgh through Green Bay and back to Green Bay.

“Even the most veteran, loyal Packers season-ticket holder will learn something they didn’t know,” Douglas said.

“The most intriguing thing I found out about Charles Woodson was his honesty about his career in Oakland, and being on the outs in Oakland and not having many teams interested in him. He had a big fight with his (Packers) position coach on the field. He and Mike went toe to toe about it. They didn’t hit it off well in the beginning, but their respect for one another now is incredible.”

It’s revealed in the show that Woodson was born with severely clubbed feet and he had to be carried around the house.

“He doesn’t want to come to Green Bay, but he does, and he’s 2009 player of the year and now he’s the co-leader of the team. The guy that has the man-crush on Woodson is Aaron,” Douglas said.

Much of the interview with Rodgers, the MVP of Super Bowl XLV, focuses on the stormy years as Brett Favre’s backup.

“The thing I learned about Aaron Rodgers is how much I love the guy. He was very honest about the first year with Brett Favre and how difficult and stressful it was. I didn’t know there was that much turmoil there,” Douglas said.

This is the third America’s Game Douglas has produced. He had previously produced shows on the 1985 Bears and 2000 Ravens.

“The 1985 Bears are arguably the greatest cast of characters with character ever. When you look at the 2010 Packers, their back stories are amazing: Mike McCarthy’s Sharpee, Aaron Rodgers’ belt celebration. The Packers are unique in their own right,” Douglas said.