SPORTS LINE
The Green Bay Packers.
The team engaged in a wild back-and-forth nail-biting game with the Detroit Lions on “Thursday Night Football” but ultimately fell short of the NFC’s best team. The Lions won 34-31 on a field goal as time expired and clinched a playoff berth for the second straight season. The Packers (9-4) were a tough opponent, but the Lions (12-1) found a way to get the win. The Packers recovered from a slow start to take the lead in the second half on two occasions but couldn’t stop Jared Goff and the NFL’s top-scoring offense. The Lions had plenty of defensive injuries coming into the game. They compensated for that by putting a lot of extra pressure on Love. The Packers scored 24 second-half points on three touchdowns as the offense came to life. However, the Packers defense had no answer for Goff, who too often picked apart the Packers’ equally depleted defense while nearly every gamble paid off for Lions head coach Dan Campbell, all the way to the closing seconds as Detroit converted its fourth fourth-down of the game to set up the game-winning field goal.
The Lions were tied 31-31 with just a few minutes left and a depleted defense that was having a hard time getting a stop. And Detroit did what a championship team should do: It made all the plays it had to and got a much-needed win. It was a game of the year candidate, with each team taking turns making huge plays. The Lions just made a few more plays when it had to. Goff shook off a bad interception, which has been rare for him this season, to make some big plays in the second half, including several on a game-winning drive in the final minutes. The Packers NFC North title chances are all but over with four games to go in the season and now behind the Lions by three games, though they remain squarely in the playoff picture.
Milwaukee Brewers.
Brewers fans are in for some changes at American Family Field, with millions of dollars of tourism tax dollars going to upgrades. State lawmakers approved a plan with a near-half-billion-dollar price tag to repair the stadium over the next three decades. The Milwaukee Brewers’ home, American Family Field, is slated to undergo $8.45 million in improvements in 2025, including new seats, repaved portions of the parking lot, and more. Perhaps the most exciting upgrade to the stadium is the $1.45 million replacement of all the Loge level seating. The stadium’s low-level seats will be replaced, with the cast iron stanchions and seat number tags being replaced. The plastic seat backs and bottoms will be reused to the extent possible. However, the replacements will not increase seating capacity.
The stadium is also planning to replace the east portion of the Uecker lot, perform required maintenance and repairs on its signature retractable roof, and replace an 800-ton water-cooled chiller. Also included for 2025 is more than $100,000 in repairs, including $2,000 toward the stadium’s “Teamwork” statue, which was unveiled in July and honors three ironworkers who were killed during the construction of the stadium. The district is also embarking on upgrading the thousand or so wayfaring signs through the stadium, starting by determining exactly how many signs there are and then paying $300,000 to design new ones. The signs, which are original to the building, will be updated to current standards and codes. Unfortunately, this project will not be completed before next season. Plans to winterize the stadium to hold events during the colder months have also been floated, though there are no updates about that project at this time.
