The Packer Pundit

For Brian Wrobel, playing for the Green Bay Packers beats working construction. A year ago, after being cut by the Seattle Seahawks early in training camp, Wrobel returned to La Crosse and got a job with Poellinger Construction. Then, in January, he got a much better offer. He signed with the Packers. "I think every kid who grows up in Wisconsin dreams about playing for the Packers," Wrobel said. "I'm living the dream and loving it." Wrobel's story is a warm and fuzzy one. (Edit: No Comment) He's a small-town Wisconsin kid who played at an NCAA Division II college and is getting the chance to play for the team he grew up rooting for. "It's great," Wrobel said. "I feel like everybody is rooting for me. I had more than 30 people come here for Family Night to watch me play." Wrobel's story is hardly guaranteed a happy ending. He is the No. 4 quarterback for a team that will keep only three. It doesn't help that the three players ahead of him on the depth chart include a future Hall of Famer (Brett Favre), a first-round draft pick (Aaron Rodgers) and a player taken in the fifth round of this year's draft (Ingle Martin). Favre and Rodgers are locks to make the team, which means Wrobel's best chance is to beat out Martin. MORE>>

The Green Bay Packers have depth at defensive line. He shrugs; so what? But he hasn't got much of a shot to make the Packers' roster. He shakes his head; what's new? Dave Tollefson stands in a real Packers uniform, and it sure suits him better than the orange Home Depot apron he used to wear. And these training-camp practices beat 12-hour days under the California sun driving nails into two by fours when he was a carpenter. Playing behind Aaron Kampman, with all its uncertainty, still beats being broke, wondering if he should enlist in the military and fight in Iraq, or finish school and somehow scrape up enough cash to pay off loans and buy a decent engagement ring for his girlfriend. There's a reason the 6-foot-4, 255 pound right end has a permanent grin these days. "These guys kind of look at me funny because I know so much about the NFL, I've been such a huge fan,'' Tollefson said. "They're also like, 'Why you always smiling?' Hey, if this is coming to work, man, I'll come to work every day.'' Tollefson was the last of general manager Ted Thompson's 12 draft choices in April, a seventh-round compensatory pickup. He's 25, having missed three seasons of football because of injury, and his own passive aggressiveness. He's athletic and has good size, but if he wants to make this team he needs to work on his hand technique to shake blockers and rush the quarterback. But he's here, and that's a start.

At Ygnacio Valley High in Concord, Calif., he was a two-time all-city linebacker and tight end. He went on to Los Medanos Community College in Pittsburg, Calif. where he played in 1999 and 2000. But he'd been playing with an injured right shoulder for a few years and decided it needed correcting. After surgery he got an offer from Fresno State to walk on at defensive end. Back in the weight room, however, Tollefson separated the shoulder. It needed surgery again. "I didn't know how to handle the situation, so I ignored it. I didn't return their calls,'' Tollefson said. "I was totally embarrassed, I didn't know if I wanted to go there hurt, I was losing weight. I just really had no idea how to handle it, so I totally mishandled it.'' Fresno State dropped him. Out of options, Tollefson took a job at The Home Depot and spent one year out of football. Then he started working for his cousin at a construction company as an apprentice in carpentry. MORE>>

(Edit: Why the heck are we paying guys to scout colleges? Just send them to construction sites. Maybe if the football gig doesn't work out for Tollefson... he can be the next Joe Millionaire.)