Pedal Power: Tradition Gets Packers to Training Camp

The Green Bay Packers' bike-riding tradition, which dates to at least 1958, is going strong.

Author:
Bill Huber
Publish date:
Jul 26, 2023 10:23 PM EDT

In this story:

GREEN BAY, Wis. – During his 15-year run as the Green Bay Packers’ starting quarterback, Aaron Rodgers didn’t ride a kid’s bike to a training camp practice.

At the start of his fourth training camp with the team, Jordan Love pedaled his way to his first practice as Rodgers’ successor on Wednesday. He’ll do it again before Thursday’s practice, too, though some other lucky kid will get to walk alongside the starting quarterback.

“I like to mix it up, you know what I’m saying?” Love said after practice. “I like to go out there and just kind of get a feel for who’s there, who’s cheering the loudest, who has a jersey, things like that. Who has a bigger bike sometimes. But I like to mix it up.”

Safety Darnell Savage, a first-round pick in 2019, is a bike-ride veteran, as well. The tradition, which dates to at least 1958, is one he doesn’t take for granted.

“That was here long before I got here and it’ll be here forever,” he said. “It’s easy to appreciate stuff like that. I made a joke when I first got here and I saw how many people came here … I was like, ‘Do these people work? Everybody’s at practice.’ It’s a blessing, honestly.”

While Love and Savage have pedaled their way from Lambeau Field to Ray Nitschke Field numerous times over the years, Wednesday was the first time for the Packers’ rookies.

“It was incredible,” kicker Anders Carlson said. “I didn't know where to go at first. Took a few wrong turns, but we made our way there and made our way back, so that's what counts.”

Even coach Matt LaFleur pedaled to practice.

“It’s exciting,” he said of Day 1. “I mean, what a great place. We’ve got so much great tradition here, from our guys riding the bikes over with the kids. It’s our first chance to get together as a football team and go out there and practice and try to develop our habits, our standards and really our expectations for what the 2023 season is going to be all about.”

Running back Aaron Jones rode a bike to practice, then signed autographs right up until the 10:30 a.m. start time. At one point, a security guard walked up to Jones to point out that he was running out of time to get inside the Don Hutson Center for warmups. Jones started running to practice, only to stop to sign a few more autographs.

Wednesday was a big day for Love, the next of numerous mileposts along the way to him starting at the Chicago Bears in 46 days.

“Getting back on the bikes was pretty fun,” he said, “but when you run out of that tunnel after warmups, you just feel the energy of all the fans cheering you on, it’s always fun.”

While Rodgers took over in 2008 amid the Brett Favre firestorm, Love has felt, well, mostly love in taking over for Rodgers.

“I didn’t really hear anything,” he said. “I was kind of locked in, blocked it out. I saw J-Reed (Jayden Reed) was running down the sideline at the beginning pumping the fans up, so that’s always fun. But it was good. It was a great turnout.

“I know Sean (Clifford) made a comment to me early, he was like, ‘Man, there’s a lot of fans out here.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, welcome to Green Bay. They come out for all the practices just like that.’ I think it was awesome to see everybody out there today.”

Packers Ride Bikes to Training Camp Practice

From Jordan Love to Matt LaFleur, check out this series of photos of the Green Bay Packers riding bikes to the first practice of training camp on Wednesday.<br>