Now in the last post I alluded to something about the Locker Room and you can see the efforts of that here (click on the image below).

Before heading down to Fan Fest I got in contact with the Packers fan club and asked if they would be interested in having me create a Photosynth of the locker room.  Fan Fest is the only time of the year the public is allowed to walk through the locker room and they have it all cleaned up and staged for the public.  I was happy to hear that the web/PR team was interested and lucky enough to get into the locker room alone (but escorted) to take photos before they put up the barriers to guide the tours.  I was in there for about 2 hours and took almost 300 photos to create the synth.

While in there I got to talk to Red Batty, a fellow Canadian, and the Packers Equipment Manager.  It was the hard work of him and his team that got the locker room cleaned and staged for the tour and got it done early so I could get in there and take the photos.  It was also a lot of fun to meet a few of the players as they finished their workouts and got ready to attend Fan Fest themselves and even got to see Coach McCarthy walk in, say hello before getting on his way.

It turned out pretty good and now I can walk through the locker room any time.  Give it a shot and find your favourite players jersey!  Or download the Windows 7 theme I created with my favourite players!

I am just heading home after my first Packers Fan Fest.  These have been going on since 2005 but this is the first one I have attended.  It was a fun weekend and I had fun meeting with Packers players, staff and fans.  A few people from the Packers fan club got together on Friday morning for a tailgate.  It was cold and blowing but about 20 people showed up including Packers president Mark Murphy.

It was great that he came out there, I only wish we hadn’t eaten all the brats already :)  Later on that night the event got started and the highlight was a meet and greet with all the coaches.  The new Defensive Coordinator, Dom Capers, was a popular guy and I got to chat with him for a few minutes, had him autograph my coaches hat and wish him luck in the upcoming season.

Really nice guy, as were the rest of the coaches.  I got to talk a bit with Winston Moss, the Assistant Head Coach and Linebackers Coach but the highlight was chatting with Tom Clements, the Quarterbacks Coach.  He was the QB for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 1984 when they won the Grey Cup.  Talking to him about the Bombers and his time in the CFL was cool, I think I was the only one who wasn’t asking about Favre or Rodgers.  I also got to meet Head Coach Mike McCarthy and wish him luck.  Naturally he was swamped but I got to say hi before getting around and meeting the rest of the coaches.

Throughout the weekend was sessions where you could meet players.  I was lucky enough to get tickets (they were randomly given) to meet Wide Receivers Greg Jennings and James Jones, as well as Daryn College (with the tattoo sleeve below) and Tony Moll from the O-Line (I have a story about those two guys), Linebacker Brandon Chillar,  Long Snapper Brett Goode (who now occupies Brett Favre’s old locker) and Nose Tackle Ryan Pickett.

There were also Packers legends like Jerry Kramer, Donny Anderson, Paul Coffman and Willie Davis telling stories from the Lombardi years.  During the weekend coaches were putting on seminars on offence, defense, special teams etc…  These session were quite interesting as they went over plays with training camp film as well as game film.

Another highlight was meeting and chatting with a fellow Canadian on the staff, Equipment Manager “Red” Batty.  He started out with the Montreal Alouettes and has a Grey Cup ring as well as a Super Bowl ring.  We got to chat for a while and then I took part in his session on NFL equipment.

This is the only time of the year that the public is allowed into the locker room and I’ll have more on that later.  For now here are a few photos from the locker room tour.