Fans Rejoice As Packers Capture Super Bowl
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) -- After 13 years of frustration, Packers fans raised their arms to the night sky Sunday and howled in victory as Green Bay won the Super Bowl.
Fans at Titletown Brewery in Green Bay literally shook the building as the game ended Sunday with the Packers beating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31-25. Some fans threw a roll of paper towels and one ripped the sleeves off 37-year-old Carey Sucko's shirt, revealing her biceps. It was all right; she had said they could if the Packers won.
Sucko's sister, 34-year-old Toby Sucko, said watching the game was like having a heart attack and an ulcer at the same time.
Alison Struve, 28, of DePere, said she cried as the Packers knelt away the final seconds.
"I was so nervous the entire came and I couldn't enjoy it. When I knew they were going to win, it was like a release. I'm just so blindly happy," she said. "Just to be surrounded by so many people who care about this team. . . . It's more than a game. It seems bigger than that."
Moments after the game ended, people flooded into the streets and blared their car horns. Some people leaped out of their cars and danced in the streets, whooping and shouting.
In the downtown bar district, a crowd gathered in the street. Women sat on men's shoulders. The entire crowd thrust their fists into the air and shouted "Go Pack Go!"
The entire state of Wisconsin has been bursting with anticipation since the Packers defeated their archrival, the Chicago Bears, two weeks ago to earn their first berth in the title game since 1998. But here in the Packers' hometown, a blue-collar, industrial city of about 100,000 people slogging through another bleak northern winter, the excitement approached frenzy-like levels.
On Sunday, Packer banners hung from almost every other front door. A giant sign on the roof of St. Vincent Hospital proclaimed the facility loves the Packers. People used green-and-gold spray paint to decorate snow drifts with "Go Pack Go!" Everyone on the streets was decked out in Packer gear.
After the game, Stephanie Griep, 18, ran through the crowded streets in her Packers bra and no top, carrying a team flag.
"The Packers won, so I got to do everything. Go big or go home. They won, so I got to go big," she said.
Others in the crowd held up a cardboard replica of the Lombardi Trophy as people snapped photos with their cell phones.
Kim Smith, 39 and her fiancDe, Kris Nielsen, 30, both of Seymour, stood on the sidewalk and drank it all in. They said they met at a Packers game at Lambeau Field.
"Super excited," Kim Smith said. "Just out of control. So nerve-wracking. We cried and we screamed. It was great."
The entire state of Wisconsin has been bursting with anticipation since the Packers defeated their archrival, the Chicago Bears, two weeks ago to earn their first berth in the title game since 1998. But here in the Packers' hometown, a blue-collar, industrial city of about 100,000 people slogging through another bleak northern winter, the excitement approached frenzy-like levels.
On Sunday, Packer banners hung from almost every other front door. A giant sign on the roof of St. Vincent Hospital proclaimed the facility loves the Packers. People used green-and-gold spray paint to decorate snow drifts with "Go Pack Go!" Everyone on the streets was decked out in Packer gear.
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