What Every Packers Fan Living In America Needs To Know

The Green Bay Packers will hope to gain inspiration from James Brown's hit single 'Living In America' as they look to make the playoffs. The song, taken from the soundtrack to Rocky IV, reached number four in 1985, but the Packers hope they can go the distance in the NFL this season. 

Funk and soul legend Brown performed the iconic song prior to Apollo Creed's exhibition bout with Ivan Drago at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. In the middle of the song, Brown lists a number of US cities, all of which have teams playing in the NFL. So, what are the chances of one team playing a team from all the cities in one season? 

Well, the Packers are on course to do that this season. Now that the regular season has been completed, Green Bay's 17-9 win over the Chicago Bears meant they locked up the NFC's number seven seed. A trip to Dallas on Sunday awaits Matt LeFleur's team. 

So which cities does James Brown mention in his song and when did/will the Packers play those teams? 

New Orleans

After opening the 2023 season with back-to-back road games, the Packers returned home to Lambeau Field to face the New Orleans Saints. It proved to be a winning home opener in front of their fans, but only after a remarkable fourth-quarter comeback. 

The Saints led 17-0 with 11 minutes of the game remaining. Anders Carlson's field goal from 38 yards reduced the deficit to 14 points. Jordan Love then took the Packers on his back, and his one-yard run gave Green Bay genuine hope of pulling off a comeback win, especially when a successful two-point conversion cut the Saints lead to 17-11.

On Green Bay's next drive, Love connected with wide receiver Romeo Doubs for an eight-yard touchdown to level the scores, leaving Carlson to kick the game-winning extra point with fewer than three minutes to play.

Detroit

The Packers and the Detroit Lions are NFC North rivals, and therefore the two sides meet each other twice a season. The Packers and Lions have completed their series for the season, but a third meeting could happen in the playoffs if their cards fall a certain way. 

In the first meeting in Green Bay, the Packers opened the scoring with an Anders Carlson field goal from 34 yards. The Lions responded with 27 unanswered points to leave the Packers with a mountain to climb. The game finished in a 34-20 loss for Green Bay. 

The Packers got their revenge in the Motor City on Thanksgiving Thursday, winning 29-22 thanks to three touchdown passes from Jordan Love.

Dallas

The Packers were not scheduled to face the Dallas Cowboys this season, not in the regular season anyway. However, the two sides will meet in the first round of the playoffs this weekend, which would tick all nine cities for the Packers. 

The Packers began their season with a win over their NFC North rivals the Chicago Bears, and they ended it in the same manner. The number seven seed was locked in after a 17-9 win at Lambeau Field. If the Packers are to advance to the Divisional Round, they are going to have to do something nobody has done this season, and that's beat the Cowboys in Dallas.

Pittsburgh

Going into their Week 10 road game against the Pittsburgh Steelers the story was all about how the Steelers were outgained by every opponent they had faced this season. They were 5-3 before their clash with the Packers, and improved their record to 6-3 despite the Packers outgaining the Steelers in total net yards. 

Matt LeFleur's Packers trailed 23-19 with less than a minute to play. They had the ball on Pittsburgh's 16-yard line when Jordan Love was picked off by Damontae Kazee to end the game. 

It was Love's second interception of the game, in which the Packers were one from five in the red zone. Defensively, Green Bay struggled to stop the ground game of the Steelers, who rushed for a total of 205 yards.

New York

The Packers travelled to the New York Giants in Week 14 looking to record their fourth win in a row. Green Bay opened the scoring on a 16-yard pass from Jordan Love to Jayden Reed in the first quarter.

However, they trailed 21-13 at the end of the third quarter, but an Anders Carlson field goal from 48 yards and Malik Heath's six-yard pass from Love gave the Packers their second lead of the game with just 93 seconds left to play.

All their defense had to do was stop Tommy DeVito and the Giants offense to improve their record to 7-6, but the visitors drove 57 yards in eight plays to set up Randy Bullock's game-winning field goal from 37 yards as time expired.

Kansas City

The Kansas City Chiefs' trip to Green Bay evoked memories of Super Bowl I, which the Packers won 35-10, the first of back-to-back titles Vince Lombardi's team won. Once again, the Packers opened the scoring thanks to Ben Sims' one-yard pass from Jordan Love. 

This time, they stayed in front on the scoreboard the entire game and restricted Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes to just 210 passing yards. Mahomes had the chance to drive the Chiefs down field in the final stages to force overtime, but the Packers defense stood firm. A couple of non-calls for pass interference in the closing stages helped Green Bay beat the pre-season Super Bowl favourites 27-19.

Atlanta

After beating the Chicago Bears in their season opener at Soldier Field, hopes were high that Green Bay could get off to a 2-0 start. A trip to the Atlanta Falcons shouldn't have been too much of a stumbling block, and for the majority of the game, things went the way of the Packers, who led 24-12 at the end of the third quarter.

But the Falcons scored 13 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to secure a dramatic 25-24 comeback win in Atlanta thanks to Younghoe Koo's 25-yard field goal with 57 seconds left to play. 

The Packers (224) finished the game with almost half the number of total net yards the Falcons (446) had, and Green Bay had 31 fewer offensive plays. 

Chicago

There's nothing better than starting a season with a win on the road against a divisional opponent, and that's exactly what the Packers did to beat the Chicago Bears 38-20. 

Former Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers taunted Bears fans in recent years that he owned them given his success against them, and Chicago fans were left wondering if that ownership had been transferred to Love, who threw for 245 yards and three touchdowns, two of which landed in the hands of Romeo Doubs. 

Green Bay went into their final regular season game at home to the Bears knowing a win would see them secure a place in the playoffs.  After another solid game from Jordan Love, who threw for 316 yards and two touchdowns, the Packers will go up against Mike McCarthy, who led the Packers to victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XLV in Dallas. 

Los Angeles

The final city named by James Brown is Los Angeles, which is home to two NFL franchises. This season, the schedule has worked out in a way in which Green Bay played both the Rams and Chargers. Not only did they play both LA teams, they won both games.

In Week 9, the Packers dominated the Los Angeles Rams after Aaron Jones opened the scoring with a three-yard touchdown run. 

In their next road game two weeks later, Green Bay's defense stood firm to deny the Los Angeles Chargers in the final moments in a game the Packers won 23-20.

A Happy Ending?

The Packers will hope the song brings them better luck than it did for Apollo Creed in Rocky IV. Spoiler alert: Creed died during his fight with Drago. The Packers, who are 7-4 against teams from those cities so far this season, have set their sights on making the playoffs this season. 

A date with destiny in Dallas awaits them this weekend in the Wild Card weekend.