Inbox: It’ll take a surge

I nominate Vic Ketchman as the honorary II team captain today.

Works for me. I’ll reminisce about Vic for a little while here and then proceed to other topics down the way.

Ben from Harrisonburg, VA

Good morning Wes/Mike. After 20 years, “Ask Vic” has come to an end. “Ask Vic” changed me from a casual observer of packers.com to a daily visitor, and I’ve enjoyed simultaneously reading Vic’s retirement column and seeing II take off in all its wonderful weirdness. As a guy who grew up in the ’90s, I’ve learned so much from Vic about football’s rich history. I’m wondering what influence he’s had on your professional life, besides the daily tedium of having to answer questions from knuckleheads.

That’s a lot of ground to cover, but I’ll try to touch on a few things. For one, he taught me to write tighter, more succinct copy, which has become an essential tool in our online, short-attention-span world. He also emphasized never taking your focus off the big picture. Always pay attention to what really matters. The minutiae can be fun and educational, but don’t get lost in it. Last but not least, make the two main goals to inform and entertain, and learn how to balance them. I hope those lessons have continued to manifest themselves in my work over the years.

I haven’t kept up with Vic’s column much since he left packers.com, but I hear he’s finally retiring, and I wanted to acknowledge him one more time. I always appreciated his blunt and honest writing, but I think Vic’s greatest contribution to my appreciation of football is proper perspective. Green Bay fans have experienced stellar highs and chasmic lows the last 100 years, but the memories are what make us rich, and I loved Vic for hammering home that point.

Vic Ketchman wrote his last entry of “Ask Vic.” I began reading the Packers website after Vic was hired with the team. I still remember the first video Vic and Mike did together. I still remember coming across this column (under its original nomenclature) and falling in love with the community, the friendly banter, and learning more about the beautiful game of football. Thank you for taking the reins and continuing this column. Could you please share a favorite Vic story? We will miss you Vic!

I did share one in my mid-week chat that you’ll want to read, but I’ll provide another. His routine for a game was to leave the press box at the start of (or during) the fourth quarter and have me take his live blog to the finish line while he’d get set up in the interview room, so he could write a quick bulletin with the final score and stats when the game ended and be ready for the press conferences. In 2014, we were in Buffalo and about 10 minutes after he left the press box, I got a simple text: “There’s no TV.” He couldn’t watch the end of the game, which had never happened to him before, and I knew it meant I had to write the bulletin before I came down to the locker room. The most memorable part was our department manager at the time, Joan, took a picture of him sitting on the mini-stage next to the podium in the interview room, all by his lonesome, just staring at the floor. He looked so depressed. A man without a purpose. He loved football, loved what he did, and it had been taken away momentarily. For all his sarcasm and snark, that picture captured a piece of his humanity.

Well, it looks like Vic is throwing in the (terrible) towel. He gave us all a great perspective on the game. We will miss the legend that he is and after 50 years I hope he can enjoy a great retirement. Thank you, Mike and Wes, for continuing his legacy here in GB for us loyal fans.

So many of you sent wonderful, heartfelt words and there unfortunately isn’t room to publish them all. But I had to include this Terrible Towel reference. Nicely done. OK, moving on.

What is the Inbox schedule this weekend? No Inbox on Saturday, since it’s game day? Inbox for rants and raves on Sunday? Or delaying that till Monday? Thanks, and Merry Christmas.

Wes will have a column Saturday morning, albeit likely a shorter version, in advance of the game. There will be no column Sunday, so all of our postgame stories will have to suffice. Then I’ll write II for Monday morning like usual.