We are at that point of the NFL offseason where the news is as slow as a three legged sloth. But the NFL is a year-round business and its fans’ appetites never seem to slow.
It’s times like these that you find yourself searching the internet for anything and everything related to your team. You linger on YouTube in mid July watching classic plays and memorable moments to get your fix as you wait out the weeks before the start of the preseason.
As I fed my obsession this past weekend I came across an incredible piece of information that I cant believe missed. Adam Thielen was almost a Green Bay Packer??!! Yes that Adam Thielen, one of the league’s best stories and one of the faces of the Green and Gold’s rival the Minnesota Vikings. He. Could. Have. Been. A. Packer. For a franchise who seems to have spent the last decade debating the weapons put around their now disgruntled Hall of Fame quarterback this is even more interesting than your normal what-if story.
According to a 2013 Star Tribune Theilen interview the Packers were one of only two teams who approached him after a regional combine in Dallas and intimated their interest in drafting him. The Packers had multiple seventh round picks and were in need of developmental wide receiver talent. Although Adam held out hope, the Packers chose to draft two different wide receivers in the 7th round, Kevin Dorsey and Charles Johnson, and the rest was history. Theilen signed a contract with the Vikings and went on to become one of the league’s best wide receivers and coolest stories. That’s like being in line at a gas station with your enemy to buy Powerball tickets. You buy two and he buys one. You get paper cuts and he wins the jackpot.
The what-if’s are made even stronger as fans of both teams learned of Thielen and Rogers friendship via Rodgers saying “Adam [Thielen] has become a good buddy over the years.” after a golf course picture went viral on social media this past week.
Thielen followed that up with an appearance on Pat McAfee where he weighed in on the situation.
“I think he’s feeling pretty good. You know he’s been doing the Yoga thing or whatever he does and I think it’s got him in a pretty good mindset. I saw it on the golf course. Hopefully, he’s not playing this year, just for [the Vikings] sake. But I’m sure he’ll be out there slinging that thing around. You never know.”
You learn something new about your team every day and the fact that I missed this nugget shocks me. Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to head back to trolling through Twitter to try to find any real indication of Aaron Rodgers plans.
